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Christy Bell writes

...about her experience while volunteering in Ecuador.

I am back in Quito after 3.5 weeks in the middle of the jungle. The scenery was absolutely amazing. We went on long, full day hikes twice a week and saw so many interesting plants and animals each time. (I took a tonne of pictures!) I even saw the monkeys a few times! Here´s a bit of a correction, the monkeys are called howlers...that whooping business was a classic Christy creation. And they sure do howl, almost all the time- it´s like a cross between a dog barking and a lion roaring, but it´s always off in the distance and kind of shares the mystique of the loon call. The Bilsa biological station is a great place, I met lots of volunteers, mostly from the UK, US, Germany and Spain and the staff is super, it quickly becomes your home and you soon become a part of "the Bilsa Family".

I was lucky to be able to work on a number of projects while I was there. I did some phenology - we hike out to marked trees and look up into the canopy with binoculars to record whether the tree is in flower, giving fruit or neither. Many of the hard wood tree species that grow in the area are unique to the area and quite rare. Not much is known about the trees. The scientists are trying to figure out when these trees drop their seeds so that they can collect them and use them in the reforestation project. It is so interesting to be in a place where they are constantly discovering new species and so little is know about what exists. Sad to think that some species will probably become extinct before they are ever really discovered or understood, luckily there are places like Bilsa that are workinghard to prevent that.

I also got to spend some time in a near-by school. (8 students that walk in from a 3 hour radius!) It was really cool and to be honest, something that I think I´d like to do a lot more of. The first day I was at the school, the teacher had me dictating to the older students - absolutely hilarious given that I can´t speak Spanish! (they were very patient) and after recess (and a lively game of soccer), I was teaching long division to the younger students. I can´t wait to show you my pictures!

I also completed another project. I painted a poster on the wall in the main house at Bilsa with English to Spanish translations of common expressions and phrases that I really wished I´d known how to say when I arrived. For example "Is the water deep on this hike?" All the hikes had portions along the river, sometimes just wading, ankle deep, knee deep, waist deep, chest deep...and sometimes you had to full out swim! - backpack, clothes, rubber boots and all! (Yes, rubber boots become a true extension to your body in the rain forest. I have never seen mud like this before....everywhere...at least ankle deep, usually knee deep! But the skill of mud walking comes quickly when you have no other choice!)

And of course I worked on the reforestation projects, this included various activities, planting, weeding and of course machete-ing (yes, I mean the really big knife thing). Who knew I´d be spending my summer with a machete in hand? Sometimes it´s really quite satisfying, other times it´s just plain scary - a whole pile of gringos swinging big, sharp blades around! Sometimes we cleared land to plant more trees, sometimes we cut back the greens around planted trees so that they´d get enough light, other times I just felt like a human lawn mower!

What else can I say? The people were awesome, the food was great (I´ve eaten more rice in the last month than I usually do in an entire year, but there´s always something yummy to mix it with. Bananas are de-lish! And so far I haven´t experienced any serious "indigestion". The shower was as beautiful as you can imagine a river shower to be. I can´t wait to wash and DRY my clothes...it is SO HUMID in the jungle that nothing dries. After hanging for 3 days your clothes are still damp and the only way to dry them the rest of the way is to put them on! Evenings were spent chatting, reading, playing cards, playing the guitar (or listening, in my case) and occasionally walking 20min to the nearest town (2 houses, 1 school and a soccer field) to visit the "pub" You can buy beer, rrrum and Crystal (alcohol made from sugar cane - an Ecuadorian specialty whose smell was more than enough for me!) and my personal FAV - COOKIES from either of the 2 houses in town.

Overall my stay was awesome! Now I´m off to see a bit more of Ecuador before I fly home on Tuesday. I hope you are enjoying your summer!!!