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Anna Warrington writes

...about her experience while volunteering in Ecuador.

7 April 2005
Seven days to go and I can hardly believe that in a week I will be in a plane somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean a couple of hours away from Ecuador. A most odd thought! Little by little it is beginning to feel more real, and occasionally I find myself imagining what it might be like to be living on the reserve. I can't wait to go and find out!
From the point of view of practicalities (which have dominated my brain for the last 6 weeks) most of the organising is done: vaccinations injected, insurance bought and a few Spanish words learned (not as much as I would have hoped). Now all I have to buy are a few pairs of socks, sunscreen and insect repellent! No doubt there's something I will only remember at the last minute. Well, I will keep you posted with my progress. The next time I write I should be in Ecuador. Roll on the 14th!

15 April 2005
¡Hola mes chicos!
I have finally arrived in Quito after an almost never-ending plane ride and am now soaking up the Ecuador sun amongst some of the most beautiful mountains I have ever seen. The Andes tower over the city and dwarf even the big tower blocks that have sprung up everywhere in the valley. The city is busy and the streets are bustling, the roads are full of cars, buses and taxis all beeping their horns, and intrepid people zipping in between the traffic on little motorcycles without helmets. It's great. My hotel is lovely and is simple and clean. I wish I spoke more Spanish, but I've managed so far.
This afternoon I've got my orientation session and then tomorrow, all being well, I'll head off to La Hesperia reserve. For those of you with maps, its in the Andes somewhere between Quito and Santo Domingos de los Colorades.
Keep your fingers crossed that I get the right bus tomorrow!
¡Hasta luego! And love to all...

22 April 2005
Hola!
I'm having a great time here in Ecuador. La Hesperia is really beautiful, with mountains rising very steeply from the valley and Rio Pilaton below. The mountains in the reserve are covered in rainforest and the volunteer house is perched in amongst the trees on the way up to the main house. It's great for looking at wildlife! The other volunteers are really nice. Most of them are English, so in an odd way it home from home. There are 13 of us at the moment, with 8 of us from the UK, 2 Americans, 1 Swiss, 1 Dutch and an Aussie.
As far as wildlife goes, I have seen two different species of tarantulas so far (one in the bathroom!), and a little snake when I was working in the vegetable garden on Tuesday afternoon. Three species of hummingbirds come and sip nectar from a bush in front of our house, which is truly amazing, and there are several different sorts of toucans, but I haven't managed to catch sight of them yet. The other birds are really brightly coloured, with little gold and blue birds called tanagers everywhere. I couldn't even begin to tell you about the number of different butterflies and insects there are, just imagine Wildlife on One, and that's what it's like - the forest is alive.
As far as work goes, I've mostly been planting trees and have spent a couple of afternoons looking after some local kids from a bilingual school in Quito (I tried some French out on them and they mostly seemed to understand...). They are visiting the reserve to learn about nature and seem to be enjoying themselves. I've also been planting peanut seeds, weeding the tree nursery and generally getting back to nature and remembering how much hard work it is! We had a football match with the locals on Thursday and we won 3-0, which apparently hasn't happened in four months, so next week's match will be exciting! I have a long weekend off this weekend and so I'm going north to Otavalo tomorrow to see the market and some lakes up there in the Northern Highlands with some other volunteers.
Oh, and BTW, there has been a revolution in Ecuador while I have been off planting trees. It seems Ecuador has a new President and no supreme court. The Vice President has taken over until they decide what happens next. There doesn't seem to be much evidence of revolution on the streets here, everything seems to be business as usual.
I'd better head off for now, but I will continue to keep you up to date.
Love to all!

6 May 2005
Hello people,
I have abandoned the Spanish greeting as I am getting embarrassed by my lack of Spanish when I venture out from the reserve and have to speak to lovely (for the most part) Ecuadorians, and I wish I could converse with them... But other than that, things are going pretty well. I am still at La Hesperia, planting trees and looking after the vegetable and meditation gardens, and generally getting a bit of a builders tan! I am hoping to do a community project with the nurse at the local medical clinic on health education for children, but I don't know when that will start.
The dry season is almost here so the weather is drier and hotter, and there have been less mosquitoes over the last couple of days, which is good. Unfortunately before the mosquitoes diminished they created some uber-strain which bit my legs and arms and have left me very itchy, so I am very much looking forward to the dry season proper!
During the last 10 days I have seen even more amazing wildlife, including a toucan (black with a yellow beak), another species of hummingbird and lots of amazing butterflies and insects. I have no idea what they are called. I sometimes wish I had listened more in biology...
Also, one of the new volunteers saw a troupe of monkeys on the road up to the volunteer house, and now we are all jealous. Some of us have been here 7 weeks and haven't seen them. I hope I get to see them before I go.
Last week we had another sighting of the tarantula at the volunteer house, and this time I managed to get a good photo, so hopefully I will put together a few piccies of the reserve and upload them when I remember to bring the right memory card with me to civilisation!
At the moment I am in the town of Riobamba, about 200km south of Quito in a place they call the "Avenue of the Volcanoes" because it is lined with (mostly extinct) volcanoes on all sides. It is really beautiful, and Riobamba itself is a pretty place with colonial squares and a few really nice churches. I wish I was able to spend a bit more time here and check it out. Today myself and another volunteer climbed a bit of volcano Chimborazo, the peak of which is the highest point from the centre of the earth. It was a really amazing experience, and even though the clouds were over the peak most of the time we still saw amazing landscapes all around us. The highest slopes were like being on the moon!
Tomorrow we are heading off on the steam railway to the Devil's Nose, one of the most remarkable feats of railways ingenuity in the world. The train climbs over 1000 feet of sheer Andes mountain rock and descends the ´Devils Nose´, ending up in a place called Alausi, from which we are going to head off to Ecuador's third city, Cuenca for the rest of the weekend, and then back to work on Sunday.
BTW There is no evidence of trouble in Ecuador at the moment, so if you are thinking of coming but worried about the recent political upheaval, I would say that it seems fine to me, so do come, the Ecuadorian people are looking forward to making you feel very welcome!

15 May 2005
¡Hola!
Yes, Its time again for another installment in my online journal, and I can't believe that I've been in Ecuador a month and at the reserve for four weeks. Time really has flown. Last week's trip down the Devil's Nose railway was really amazing. As we left Riobamba it was a beautiful day and Chimborazo was towering proud and snow-capped over the whole countryside. It was incredible, and I hope to post some pictures soon. The Andes around Alausi are really spectacular, huge steep peaks that plunge into river valleys, which amazingly are mostly farmed by the indigenous people. The further south you go the more prosperous Ecuador seems to become, and the centre of Cuenca was a really well preserved colonial city which seemed almost European with its palm-treed plazas and loggia walkways and pretty shops, churches and museums. Also there were some interesting Inca ruins here, of a city that was destroyed in the final fratricidal wars of the 16th century. So all in all, definitely worth a look.
As far as work at the reserve goes, I've been harvesting coffee, planting more trees and generally making myself useful around the reserve (I hope). We came across more tarantulas and seen more cool butterflies and insects. We've had a lot of new volunteers as well, so I have to try and remember about 10 new names!
So, all is going well. Got to go for now. Love to all!

28 May 2005
Hello People!
This is going to be a quick one, as I don't have a lot of time to blog, but just to let you know, I've had a really good week, getting over my cold and doing lots of cool things on the reserve.
Yesterday we went for a hike which consisted of us climbing up a river and series of waterfalls (really great fun and everyone got v wet!!). On Monday two pigs on the farm had piglets - 21 between them - and the volunteers have taken turns to stay up and look after them to make sure the mother doesn't squash them by accident! They are very sweet... I've also been teaching English to the local kids in the village school, which seems to be going well in general. As well as all that I have been working on a reforestation project in an old guava plantation, hacking space for the new trees (which we planted later) through the jungle with a machete, which is very cool. We had a class in how to use a machete before we started, so we would be safe! Next week I will start work at the local medical centre, which promises to be very interesting. I will keep you posted.
I've seen a few more cool animals this week - a brown rainforest land crab (odd I know, but they do live miles from the sea sometimes), and a big snake called a honta (don't know the English name) which was about a metre and a half long and black-grey in colour. So all in all a full week! I'm back in Quito today to do a few bits and pieces, and then I'm off back to the reserve this afternoon. I'm hoping to go to the Equator before I get the bus back, if I get time.
Anyway, must dash... but hope everyone is well. See you in 6 and a half weeks maybe.

11 June 2005
Hello Everybody!
I meant to write last week, but I was on the north coast of Ecuador (on the beaches of Atacames and Sua), and it appears that they don't have good internet access there, so no blog. We got up at 6.30 on Saturday and went beach combing and I had my first sighting of pelicans and frigate birds, and found lots of shells and sand dollars. Later I had my first swim in the Pacific Ocean, and it was really lovely, warm like bathwater!
As far as this week on the reserve goes, it's been varied as usual. The team of volunteers won the football match against the locals (a big deal here), the bat that lives in our shower had babies and the teaching and medical centre work seems to be going well. My class are finally beginning to grasp the basics of spelling in English (much harder than I had realised for a non-native), and I saw a really interesting case at the medical centre. The doctor and nurse are both really lovely, and let me help when I can. I haven't given any injections as yet, though I have doled out lots of head lice shampoo to the kids in my class. One of the most rewarding things I do is just talking to the patients (my Spanish is slowly improving) and the doctor and nurse about life in Ecuador. It is generally very humbling as everyone works very hard and often families are separated while parents work in one place and children go to school or work elsewhere. Children only have to go to school until they are twelve in Ecuador, but despite that Ecuador has a 95% literacy rate, which is pretty good.
On the wildlife front, I saw two sorts of toucan this week, one black with a yellow beak and a red rump, and the other green with a red rump. I also think I may have seen another type of hummingbird too, but I need to look it up to make sure. I've also had a few more monkey sightings, the best being on Thursday when a whole troupe of white faced Capuchin monkeys were jumping around the trees as I went down the hill to the medical centre in the morning.
At the moment I'm back in Quito, but this weekend I'm hoping to head out east towards the Amazon basin to go and sample the delights of some natural hot springs in rock pools. Apparently it's really nice, so I'm looking forward to chilling out there tomorrow. (Work is going to be such a shock to the system after this!).
Take care and love to you all.