fried shrimp, baked shrimp, boiled shrimp...

Well we went to that volcano and here's the scoop. Three thousand years ago this volcano imploded and all the snow that was on it at the time created a lake. Now it's a tourist spot where you can take a boat or kayak in the crater of the volcano. We went out on a boat and learned a bit. Seeing the cool sulfur bubbling in the crayon blue water was a bit unsettling as we stopped to listen to our monotone guide give us information about why the rocks are yellow and how the three mountainous islands in the middle of the lake are actually lava mounds. It was interesting and erie. We got out of the boat and started out on a 4 hour hike around the rim of the volcano. Beautiful!Early into the hike I was shaken by a few people's warnings of armed bandits robbing tourist so I stopped about an hour in. I sat on a bench where I had a beautiful decending view into the crater. I have had enough close calls on this trip and I didn't feel like walking down a volcano shoeless as supposedly 4 French tourist were forced to. Mateo went on a bit further with a few travel buddies and I sat there for a little over an hour eating fruit and watching the clouds roll up and down the crater. It was really serene until I heard what sounded like horses galloping over rocks. It was Mateo getting a good workout. He came flying past me in his flip flops looking very energetic.

We were travelling with a couple from New York and they went on and made the hike. Four hours later they returned to us very wet, freezing cold and saying it was the most horrible experience of their lives. They didn't get robbed though.

This morning we parted from our friends and headed back below the equator. We had been waiting a few days to decide our direction. It was between a medicinal forest with an Ecuadorian shaman or an organic shrimp farm on an island in the gulf of Guayaquil. Even though I don't swim very well Mateo and I will board a shrimp boat at 7 o'clock in the morning for a two hour ride to Isla Puna. If you want to check out our whereabouts go to www.biocentinela.com.

There will be no internet when we get there so it may be a while before you here from us. That seems to be the way of the simple life...

Ciao
Joronda

more new photos!!!

salaam

6 new photo albums have been uploaded! for the best experience, view the slideshow of each album.

enjoy!

salaam
mateo

Walking on Clouds

Thanks you all for your suggestions and sympathy regarding our chicken head situation. I should just let you know that the following day we sat down to chicken feet soup and although equally alarming it was quite tasty...

For the last couple of weeks we have been living in a cloud forest picking coffee, planting pineapples and waking up at 6 am to extremely loud cumbia music. The cloud forest situation is both weird and amazing. We can sit in the kitchen and watch the clouds drift through the glassless window and out the back door. Sometimes we can´t see anything past the house as we head out to the fields through moist grass with our Ecuadorian made rubber boots on and tools over our shoulders. The work is really strenuous and my hands literally have callouses on top of callouses.

We would have communicated earlier but getting to internet is 50 miles away. It´s a four hour bus ride through what looks like scenes in Jurassic Park or a ride at Universal Studios. Cascading water rushes off the side of the mountain and like pouring rain pounds the roof and windows of one side of the bus. The leaves are so large they look prehistoric and farmers stand up straight to stare at the bus as it squeaks past their mountain side "campos".

Today we made the journey into town and the trip turned into an adventure. Everyday it rains and the roads get soft and difficult to navigate. Our bus slid into a ditch and got wedged into a mud trench pressed against the mountain. No problem though because that´s why the bus has passengers. The assistant conductor crawled under the bus and attached a rope somewhere and everyone grabbed a piece and pulled. Never mind the fact that Mateo was wearing flip flops, he just kicked them to the side of the road, turned his unbiforcated travel garmet into waders and pulled with the crew. The pulling, turned into trench digging and this went on for 2 hours. When the bus finally did get out we all had to run up the road as fast as we could before the bus ran us over. We couldn´t expect the bus to stop for any slackers because it might get stuck again. Oh yeah I left out one part. Once the bus was out of the ditch I was looking for Mateo and found him way up in a tree with the assistant conductor trying to knock the tree down because it had been growing there for years but was now a problem. With no knocking down sort of tools they used the only thing they could, shear weight...and well, I couldn´t really get a snapshot of the little asst. conductors body flying into the shoeless Mateo and two guys I couldn´t even see from the road jumping out of the jungle vines but I will not forget the sight anytime soon. What a team effort!

So at the end of the race, everyone climbed back on the bus at the top of the hill and we road into town like it was just a regular bus ride. Now we´re in Otavalo planning on getting some good rest tonight before we go hike a volcano tomorrow...

Joronda