Arrival at Jatun Sacha

Arrival at Jatun Sacha

Forgive me for any time that I have used the token phrase that Colgate is 'in the middle of nowhere.' It isn't. Jatun Sacha, on the other hand, is. The station is literally in the middle of the jungle and is composed of one main building, in which everyone eats and hangs out after work (in 4 hammocks which are great, even if they smell a little sweaty) along with about 10 cabins which each house 2 people. About 50 feet from the main building is the bathroom, which, thankfully, has flush toilets, and running water (albeit cold). There are no telephones, no internet, and no television. The electricity is really just used for lighting and cooking..mostly carbohydrates like potatoes, corn, yucca (a white sweet potato).

Anyway, back to the setting. There are some gravel paths that lead from one building to another, and all of the paths are surrounded by forest. I think that the forest immediately near the station is secondary, which means that it is less dense because it is forest growth that has come in after the primary rainforest was cut down. Butterflies flit around along the paths, and insects make all kinds of noises at night. In general, the bugs are sooo much larger in the rainforest than at home. The butterflies are huge, and the grasshoppers, which are also huge, are everywhere. That is one of the cooler things about being at the station. Except for when the spiders appear at nighttime! The biting insects and I were actually not really acquainted until I had been here for a week. I thought I was just lucky at first, but in the past few days the bugs have discovered I am in town and they are taking every opportunity to cash in on the 'food' I apparently have to offer.

The people are the reserve are very nice..mostly German actually, but I feel like I meet Germans everywhere so it isn't really a problem..all in all they are nice and fun. So it is mostly Spanish and German being spoken every night, even though I have pretty much found ways to avoid Spanish whenever possible. My knowledge of Italian is helpful as I suspected it would be in terms of understanding Spanish. However, when it comes time to speak back to anyone, I stumble through words that I don't know how to pronounce, and usually end up speaking Italian, hoping that someone will understand me! Forget Spanglish - I am a Spatalian speaker, haha. The people at the reserve laugh at me in a nice way...though they do occasionally say things quickly (I think) in an attempt to hide whatever they are saying from the volunteers!

I have made friends with a British girl named Vishna, who has already spent 3 months here and teaches at the local school, a guy named Thad who is from N.C. and goes to Haverford University in PA, plus a German named Willi (pronounced Villi), who mixes up w and v all of the time so that words like 'vegetables' end up sounding like 'wedge-tubbles'. Considering how easy I laugh at things, this provides nearly endless entertainment on a daily basis.

Learning How to Use a Machete in 3 minutes or less
Yup you read that correctly - machete. That is what I did on my first day of work! After my tour of the reserve, I was placed with two other, male, volunteers to clear paths that had been covered by fallen trees. Much of what the reserve does is maintain a botanical garden and organic garden in an effort to teach local communities about all of the natural resources that are here and why it's important to preserve them. 
So, on the first day, I chopped down trees with a machete and an ax. No instructions were given prior to my first attempts at swinging these objects, but I eventually figured it out. It is literally back breaking work. I think that within the first week here I lost about 5 pounds and my arms already feel like I could beat several of you in an arm wrestle, haha!

Other work that I have done so far includes organic farming, in which all of the work is done by hand because there is (you guessed it...) no electricity. I have also collected leaves to rub out the leaf fibers to make rope, and string to make 'handicrafts' like necklaces and bracelets, etc. In Ecuador, you aren't cool if you don't wear some sort of jewelry crafted on leaf fiber and seeds.

Jungle Fashion

Considering the meager amount of shampoo and condition that I brought with me here, and the lack of any serious conditioning or curling hair products, my hair is in a constant state of frizziness, which really makes me feel like a 'Chica Tarzan' as they say here. My attire consists of the junkiest shirts that I own, apart from one Banana Republic t-shirt that I brought for 'nights out'...(those nights out usually mean an hour or two with the other volunteers at the bar\hut down the street that serves beer for about 75 cents). Baggy t-shirts from various worldwide destinations are the norm, along with a pair of big rain boots, which do a wonderful job of keeping out mud, bugs, and various other things. I really am quite a sight if I do say so myself. I feel like a 12 year old at summer camp! The other day I bought some earrings made from seeds (for just a dollar!) and wore them last night to make myself feel a little more like a 22 year old girl. It's the small things at this point I guess!

On the walk back to the reserve from the 'new cabana'. Notice my attire and attractive jungle hair-do, and the machete! This walk through the jungle took about 3 hours, all with a pack on my back! This walk made me consider climbing one of the volcanoes here!...just kidding

Jugo, and other things Ecuadorian

Jugo (juice) is huge in Ecuador and is always so good! Sometimes I can't even recognize the taste of whatever juice I have because it has come from a fruit I've never seen before. My favorite so far is melon, but so far I have also had pineapple, passion fruit, in addition to the unrecognizables.

Trash is pretty interesting here too. I am on a biological reserve in Ecuador that buys powdered milk and chocolate in plastic bags, buys butter in plastic tubs, grows tree seedlings in plastic, etc. Plastic, plastic, plastic. Even though I am on a biological reserve, what happens to all of this plastic when people are finished with it? It goes into a hole in the ground, otherwise known as a landfill. I don't know about all of you, but I have never actually seen first hand where trash goes once it leaves my garbage can. Well here, I have been able to do that. Just a few hundred feet from the main area of the reserve is a big whole in the ground, about the size of a household swimming pool, and probably much deeper than that, where all of that used plastic goes. This is the first time I have seen something like this in real life, and I know that if everyone saw it in person, we would all use SO much less than we do. It was literally sad to see the a forest with butterflies and insects flying around, and right in the middle of it is a whole for garbage. Really - Think about filling up a glass of water from the tap instead of buying a water bottle, buying milk in a glass jug instead of a plastic one, bringing your own bags to the grocery store next time you go shopping...the list goes on and on.

What's up Next

I am at the Jatun Sacha reserve in the jungle until October 10, when I go back to Quito to fly to the Galapagos on Oct 12. Write me messages with new things that you are up to -- I really, really have loved the emails I have gotten so far!