So much for keeping up with the blog. (Click over to Flickr for some photos)

I skipped a day of blogging in Quito, didn't realize there wasn't internet at Pululahua, then wasn't able to get on at Sachatamia due to weak wireless signal and frequent power outages. Our guide told us that two days ago 80% of the entire country experienced a blackout from a lightning storm. And we all thought the power was out because of roadwork.

Here's a quick update on what's been going on so far. I regret that it won't be super detailed, but I have written 31 pages of travel journal for class and I'm a little pooped out from all that.

12 January 2009 Monday
Our first full day in Ecuador! Much to everyone's dismay, we were not allowed to take cameras or bags out with us since Quito just isn't that safe. We found out that there was no romantically pretty "old city" nor a proper tour. Instead, we met up with Dr. Cliff Kyle, who used to teach at UD and now works at a Catholic University here in Quito. We had to take a bus to get there - one that runs only north and south. Fifteen of us first tried to enter through the exit of the bus station, then had to change paper money into 15 quarters for our individual fees. When a bus came, we all stepped aside to let people off, leaving only enough time for Becca and Dr. Shriver to board before the doors closed. Dr. Shriver looked horrified as the bus drove off without the rest of the group. Luckily our TA Sarah was with us and rounded us up for the next bus... This time we didn't hesitate and all got on fine. We then rode seven stops standing and squished between each other and a bunch of Ecuadorians. Our first adventure!
Dr. Kyle took us around what he called a safe and touristy area, but it didn't look like what I would call a nice part of town. Not that it was terrible, just a mish mosh of things I wasn't expecting. There are some new or well-kept buildings, but they are peppered in between older, weathered ones and bordered by crumbling sidewalks. (Our guide Pablo says there are no restrictions for what to build where, so there are no specific districts and often no division between rich and poor neighborhoods) This was also the place where I first saw the Ecuadorian substitute for barbed wire: glass shards stuck in a thin layer of concrete. As a consolation prize, there are plants everywhere and they're always in flower because the climate is so stable here.
We went to lunch at a nice open air cafe in a little square and had our first of what would be become many beautiful, delicious meals. From that point on, everyone knew that we were definitely not roughing it on this trip. Dr. Kyle took us back to his university and proudly presented the herbarium (a collection of dried plant specimens, not the greenhouse I was expecting) and the entomological collection. He pulled out drawer after drawer of some pretty awesome insects, bringing out at least 3 or 4 more after he'd decided it was the last one.
Most of us had dinner back at the hotel, then took advantage of the pool and hot tub for some quality group bonding time.

I see I do not have the capacity to be brief... I'll do my best to finish updating about this week before we leave tomorrow morning.

13 January 2009 Tuesday
Woke up early for breakfast at the hotel, then piled on the bus and headed for Pululahua (say: poo-loo-LAH-wah). We drove through Quito a bit and got to see more of the city. When I spotted a single goat tethered on a corner, I knew it was time to take photos. I snapped about 100 pictures out of the bus window and you can see them here! They are not the greatest, but you can get an idea of what South America looks like.
We arrived earlier than expected to the El Crater hotel, so we dropped our bags off and went on what Pablo called a "short hike" that was actually a 6 mile hike down Pululahua volcano, around the agricultural zone in the crater, and back up the mountain. Downhill took a while because everyone was overwhelmed by taking pictures of the gorgeous scenery. The crater was very interesting - about 300 people live and farm there, but it doesn't look like anyone's around. The houses are small and pieced together out of concrete walls and sheets of metal. We did see a bunch of people passing us on the mountain trail, going up on horseback or on foot like the incline was no big deal. The way back up was intense. I had to stop to catch my breath every 20 paces because of the incline, the altitude, and my lack of exercise as of late. I was passed by, among others, an old woman wearing loafers.
Returning to El Crater was very nice. A hot shower and hot food were just what our tired muscles needed. And thus began our string of three course meals. After dinner, I attempted to nap but couldn't sleep very well because it was so cold. We had our first class discussion, then went back to the restaurant for dinner (surprise surprise). The altitude and tough hike was taking a toll on me, so I went to bed right afterwards.

14 January 2009 Wednesday
Deb and I woke up to find that it was still cold, our windows were still foggy, and all of our clothes were still damp. We had breakfast at the restaurant, then loaded onto the bus and headed for the Mindo Valley. We stopped at El Pahuma Orchid Reserve, which is something like 170 hectares of cloud forest set aside as a spectacled bear habitat. Pablo that they are not aggressive animals, but when provoked will not hesitate to *smacking motion*... they will not hold back. Regrettably, our thundering herd of 15 (okay, we're not THAT bad) did not see anything as big as a bear. Except maybe some ginormous leaves. We hiked uphill for about an hour and a half trying to reach a waterfall near the top of mountain, but had to turn back at 11:30 so we could make it to Sachatamia in time for lunch. If I had to pick a word of the day, it would be "slippery." We walked back down in a line, warning the people behind of particularly muddy spots. A few of us took some spills, but nothing too serious.
We bussed to Sachatamia, a cloud forest reserve with lodge and cabanas for guests. All of the buildings have signs asking you not to enter with shoes (it's always rainy and muddy), so of course I felt at home. More hummingbirds than I've ever seen were buzzing about the front of the lodge eating from feeders. It was pretty magical. Some people had rooms upstairs in the main house, while the rest of us walked a little ways to private cabanas. I spent the afternoon preparing for discussion, went to discussion, then went down to dinner. On the way back to the cabin, Steph and I decided to go for a walk with Adam, Jon, and Becca instead of turning in. We were out for over an hour with flashlights and headlamps, prowling for the kind of nightlife you can only find in the rain forest. It was raining, but the trees kept us from getting too soaked. We found a bunch of huge katydid-looking insects, weevils, walking sticks, anoles, tiny frogs, and the coolest bug I've ever seen with its babies all in a line behind it on a tree. I will post the picture when I upload it to Flickr.

15 January 2009 Thursday
Woke up once again to damp air and damp clothes. The cloud forest is rainy almost all the time and nothing ever really dries. After breakfast, Ashley organized a zipline hike in the forest behind the lodge. Two Sachatamia guides took us on a hike with a rope swing and two ziplines (harnessed!) over big open canopies. Running off of a ledge was definitely frightening, but the feeling of gliding above the trees was wonderful and actually quite peaceful. I came in fast on my first landing and instead of touching down lightly, I slid into home, colliding with the people who were trying to snap a picture of me. Oddly enough, the hardest part of the hike didn't involve any forest or mud - it was the uphill trail back up to the lodge area at the very end. It felt like Palulahua all over again... though I did feel better with each hike we went on.
I showered before lunch, but all for naught because it was raining and we took yet another hike after eating. We all piled into two pickup trucks, including 6 or 7 people in the sheltered and bench-equipped truck beds, to ride to the Mindo Cloudforest Foundation. There was room in the trucks' cabs, but the last of us opted to sit in back for the experience. And it WAS an experience. Bumpy, slightly rainy, uncomfortable, and at times terrifying. Our drivers barreled down two-lane roads, passed and were passed in the other lane, and made an inexplicable stop on a curve.
MCF is a bird reserve and budding (no pun intended) shade tree coffee farm on reclaimed cattle pasture. The director (I think) of the foundation, Brian, took us on another of those "walks" in the rain to where the coffee was planted - a pretty tough hike just to get to the crops. Maybe there was a short cut he wasn't telling us about... The coffee plants are only about 2 years old and not ready to be harvested, but we did get to pick a few red berries. Brian showed us how to pop the white coffee beans out of the fruits and how to eat the red skin part. It was sweet, but had the same leafy kind of taste as pomegranate. There was another scary ride back to the lodge and as if Mary's earlier wish ("I hope the lights go out!") had come true, the power went out. The Sachatamia staff fired up the generator and were wonderful about keeping us happy and well-fed despite the outage. After dinner, a flashlighted card game turned into a long conversation about ghosts, which naturally turned to contemplation about the meaning of life. When Steph and I returned to our cabin (only next door to the one we had been in), we were pretty freaked out. The power had returned by then, but just as we were going to bed, there was a flashing light on our ceiling that shouldn't have been there. Fearing ghosts, we turned the lights on and talked ourselves to sleep. The power went out again before our eyes closed, though.

16 January 2009 Friday
Friday morning I spent catching up on journal entries (also playing pool in the main house) and missing out on a sunny morning. After lunch, we took another terrifying truck ride, this time to the Mariposario (Butterfly garden) just outside of Mindo. This one involved using the other lane to pass a cow in the road, an Ecuadorian truck driver who did NOT observe safe following distance to scare us, and our driver taking the truck through standing water... also to scare us. I don't think any of us would have traded that experience for the comfort of the cab.
The Mariposario dazzled right off the bat with huge caterpillars in aquariums and an impressive cabinet of pupae (pronounced POOP-ah by the woman who showed us in), including freshly metamorphosed butterflies drying their wings. We went into a small garden with 10 or 12 species of butterfly fluttering about and drinking nectar from flowers. We could even pick them up with a little chunk of watermelon on our fingers for them to eat. I wasn't having much luck until the end when I secured one and it wouldn't leave my finger. Then a particularly friendly Blue Morpho decided that I smelled awfully tasty and kept landing on me. It wasn't interested in watermelon, but was very happy to extend its wet little proboscis onto my wrist and lap up the sweat from under my watch. I had to coax it very slowly into the hands of an older British lady when we realized that the rest of our group had left the garden a long time ago.
We scrapped our plans to go into the town of Mindo, as we'd passed through on the way in and didn't want to unleash a crowd of sweaty kids from the backs of two pickups. Instead we took another ride back to Sachatamia and had dinner there, where the power was out yet again. It was on and off all night, dashing hopes of checking out the hot tub and also being able to see clearly. I had given the staff a bagful of my laundry the day before and by some miracle, it had been washed and dried at some point when the power was actually on. This was especially wonderful because I'd run out of pants to wear and shorts were getting a bit cold.

17 January 2009 Saturday
Attempted to wake up early and go searching for Howler monkeys, but 4 am is awfully early when you've been up late writing journal entries by flashlight. Steph and I woke up at 7:30 instead, repacked, and went to breakfast. Pablo and our driver, Claudio arrived after breakfast and we loaded the bus to head back to the Dann Cartlon in Quito. I fell asleep for most of the ride, then we stopped at Inti-nan Solar Museum, the site of the GPS-defined equator. We saw some replicas of indigenous peoples' houses (and one hundreds of years old original) and did some sweet gravity experiments. Our guide kept asking us to move to the northern hemisphere, now step over to the southern hemisphere please. It never gets old. Afterward it was back to the bus and back to the Dann Carlton. Some people had great intentions of going out to eat, but caved to room service as we didn't have lunch and everyone was tired. Bethany, Katy, and I had dinner at the hotel restaurant and I've been blogging ever since.

Tomorrow we are leaving the hotel at 6:30 to catch a plane to the Galapagos Islands. We will be on a cruise for 8 days and seven nights, snorkeling, island hopping, and getting to know each other reeeeeeally well. I won't have internet, but I'll keep track of what happens and of course document every frigate bird we see. Expect me back Sunday at the earliest, when we'll be on Santa Cruz island and hopefully hooked into the ol' intertubes. Don't forget to check out Deb's blog for a more concise and entertaining account of our adventures. Link's on the right.

Take care up there in the cold. I will be baking under equatorial sun and swimming with the fishes (in the best way possible).

P.S. I love comments!
P.P.S. Never fear about the glasses! We had some rough times (lens falling out 5 or 6 times during hikes, lens falling out after night hike and disappearing for 20 minutes in in a bed of green in the rainy dark), but we are friends again. I taped the sucker into the frames with pieces of Band-Aid cut with my Swiss Army knife's scissors. I look pretty stylish. People keep telling me that they don't even notice the tape. I'm not sure I believe them. Anyways, everything is alright. Now I have something to do when I get home, right?