Moving2Ecuador

Mingui, the patriarch of the local Huaorani family, offered to take us out on his boat for the day ( and charged double the usual price). He took Eric and the group of scientists out for the afternoon, so he had a very lucrative day. There was a community of indigenous people near the station for years, but some time ago there was a disagreement amongst the members of the community, and the town was burnt to the ground. Everyone except Mingui's family left to settle elsewhere. Mingui has been very helpful with the research station and gets along well with Pablo, the director of the station, and has scared everyone away except for his family, which turns out to be a good thing for the scientists. Cruz Caspi It was his son Bolivar who took us out our first day here, and the resemblance between Mingui and Bolivar is obvious. Mingui is a small and wiry man in his 40s or 50s. He showed up in a long dugout canoe with an outboard motor. He asked Pablo for fuel for his boat. We learned ve...

Our plan today was to watch the sunrise from the observation tower, so we ate breakfast at 5 and were off by 5:30. It was dark and a bit spooky as we sloshed through the mud on the trail. Pablo, the manager of Yasuni, drove the van to the trailhead and accompanied us. Each of us wore hardhats, harnesses and gloves. The ascent is a little unsettling because it is a simple metal ladder, which goes straight up to the sky. We had the choice to attach ourselves to the ladder with the harness, but that was complicated (to hook in with a carabiner for a few rungs, then disconnect and rehook a few rungs higher etc), so we climbed directly up. There are two platforms to rest on, which I used each time, because despite feeling reasonably calm mentally, my legs were shaking uncontrollably all the way up. I was convinced that the whole tower was shaking along with my legs, and as I felt it sway, I was sure I would make it crumble and fall. Once at the top, I sat down in the middle of the platform ...

I did not know that frogs can sing. This evening the sounds of the cicadas are drowned out by the croaking of frogs, which somehow sound like birdsongs or perhaps like ducksongs. The cicadas have drifted into the background while the frogs are loud and insistent. Perhaps they are here tonight because of the incredible downpour we had last night. Sometime in the early hours, thunder and lightning woke us up from our sleep, and blasted our part of the jungle and brought rain which lasted until about 11 AM. Unfortunately that meant that animals were hiding and did not show themselves to us, so our hikes through the jungle both in the morning and the evening were uneventful. It is evident that we are far more observant and appreciative of the plants and animals we see here than anywhere else. At home, I do not stop at each plant and bird and animal I encounter and comment on its species and habits. We walked with ' Bolivar', our young Houarani guide, who spoke some Spanish and no ...