What a fantasic weekend! Let me start off by saying this trip is more insane and awesome than i ever thought possible!

Alli and i left Quito for Tena at around 4:30 am to catch the 5am bus to Tena. This was noe asy task because the night before, Paul, Alli and I went to the Turtle´s Head at the Mariscal for some ice cream and beer. We didn´t leae till like 1am. And Paul had to leave for the States the next mornign as well. Anyhow, Alli and i thought we would have the bus to ourselves with our ´direct´ bus to Tena, which was about 6 hours away. Still sleepy, i woke up off and on and realized there were different people going in and out of the bus. I sat with at least 8 different people on the bus. We arrived in Tena utterly confused cause we didn´t know if our guide would pick us up. Instead we walked to the local restaurant where we eventually met up with our guide. Bags on hand, we rode ont he back of a truck to our Ecolodge called Shangrila. WOW! what a beautiful lodge. It´s nestled on a tree house whihc is on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Amazon river! Amazzing! We ended up doing a hike with our guide throught the secondary forest. It was pretty rough terrain but the lodge supplied us with boots. We saw all sorts of wild flowers and plants. Our goal for the hike was to readh the Quichua tribe located deep into the jungle. The trail was clearly unsae but our guide Roberto had his machete and whacked away the poisonous plants. We reached the tribe and were invited to their kitchen. The lady of the house shared some Indigenous drink made from fermented Yuca roots. It was grooossss; it tasted just like rotten rice vinegar. But apparently it get you high if you drink enough. I only sipped it. From there, we hiked throught he jungle again to our lodge for a magnificent dinner. WHAT A VIEW! I´ve never had a better dinner. In total, there were 6 people on the lodge, not including the family that lives there. So we had an intimate dinner with a British and Indian couple. I was so tired from all the travelling that i passed out real early.

The next day, we did some more hikinh. This time it was int he primary forest, where it is wayyyy wilder and inhospitable than the hike before. We hiked down by hanging onto unforgiving vines and roots until we made it to the jungle floor. We followed a creek where our guide told us we´d reach a cave. The hike was AWESOME! Ít´s exactly what i´s imagine it to be- wild and lush! We saw alot of cuye and armadillo tracks everywhere. Once we reached the caves, bats began appearing! Those things literally flew toards my face and hit me. It was scary if you´re afraid of bats cause they are freaky creatures. The caves were a sight, but what we didn´t know was that we had to steer our way through them! We went canyoning through the jungles, which pretty much means that you are climbing the canyon wall with only your limbs and body! We seriously had to prolpel our selves us and be like spiderman. If you seriously are not in good shape, you would die. No doubt. What made it worse was that we were climbing against a waterfall and we were amongst venomous snakes, bats, and other critters. I loved it. After a crazy crazy hike, we went back to our lodge. We had lunch and chilled in the room with a hundred hammocks! it was a sight to see and it was all ours for the taking! After our little break, why not take another one? hahaha. Our guide let us go watertubing on the Amazon river. We were assured there would be no piranahs cause the water was too cold today. SO we just rode the currents for about 3 hours! SOOOO RELAXING! Dinner consisted of drinking more cervesas and playing cards with the indian couple. But what a day!

Final day! Today, Alli and i were scheduled to go whitewater rafting along the arm of the Amazon River on the Napo. This was soooo fun! Our guide Gino was amazing! The rapids were a class 3 rapid and we did soooo many things that would be considered unsafe and totally dangerous in the states. Our boat had 3 other americans and one french and one czech dude on it. we were so fun. our guide would ram us off the boat. We even played games on the boat, which pretty much means you´re gonna get wet and knocked off the boat! We had a wicked lunch on the riverside and unfotunately all the snad fleas and mosquitos were eating all of us alive. The guides are incredibly crazy. they would steer the rafts onto dangerous current and purposely try to get the boat stuck on a rock or flip the boat over. i lvoe them dearly. Finally, they let me do some kayaking ont he river. i´ve never kayaked before and i was incredibly scared. I was knocked off only twice though and it´s something i will definitely do again! after 5 hours of rafting, we headed back to the riverside. the guides were great enought to treat us with beers after a day of rafting. Alli and i took a shower in one of the rafting family´s hotels before heading back to Quito for more hospital work. I love the jungle!

We had an amazing stay here at this small hut on the Napo River, a tributary to the Amazon. Our guide Pepe was highly knowledgeable and knew the area quite well. The food was quite tasty and seemed to hit the spot every night after a day full of activities. I would definitely recommend this lodge to anyone looking for lodging in the Amazon region.

After dinner during our time at the research station, Jatun Sacha we would peacefully sit on the hammocks as the sun went down and have the same conversation night after night. ´What are we going to do tonight?´ It was always the same welcome reply.....´go to the bar´.

It´s always quite fortunate to be situated 5 minutes staggering distance from the closest watering hole when you´re in the jungle for weeks on end. Although our bar had no name...(that we knew of)...it was run by the family of the village president, Don Gabriel. The bar is closely guarded by a rather beligerent dog - but shining your torch directly in his eyes usually backs him down.

If you like variety in your drinks...look no further. El Bar de Gabriel serves the very best Pilsener, Crystal Limon and Rum. The crystal limon has to be recommended, being one of the few drinks that can get you from sober to comatose for under $5. It´s a good atmosphere and the family play an interesting mix of The Police, Salsa and our old favourite...the German version of the song, ´Moscow´. When this comes on, it has become almost religious ceremony for the whole bar to stand up, join in a circle and make can-can like movements while individuals take it in turns to astound everyone else with their dancing prowess in the middle.

There is plenty of salsa opportunity too as many of the locals are more than keen to show you their moves. There is even a glitter ball and atmospheric red lighting. If you get the opportunity, dance with one of the bosque guards from the research station called,´El Gato´ - it´s an experience not to be missed.

The bar will also oblige if you wish to see live football matches and if you are really lucky...you may see the famed boa constrictor that lives in the roof or a tarantula passing through for a quick one before the nightly hunt.

Aaaaaah here is a journal entry dedicated to the current bane of my life. INSECTS (of the biting kind). I don´t think I need to say much on this matter as the picture pretty much speaks for itself....... (and they got worse than this believe me) I LIVE IN CONSTANT ITCHINESS (oh poor poor me :-)   katie.

One of the more interesting activities that we took part in at Jatun Sacha was the bosque (forest) walks. This involved walking through the rainforest pretty much all day, which can be hard work but is totally AWESOME. There are 4 bosque guards, whose responsibilities include looking out for signs of troublemakers, unblocking the rivers, keeping the paths clear and so on and so forth. Most of them have an incredible knowledge of things relating to their environment. The legendary Él Gato, for example, can spot tiny brown frogs in the soil. Gabriel, who I was lucky enough to caminar with, knew tons about the plants and their medicinal uses, and claims to be able to cure anything, including cancer. Milton apparently can recognise 400 of the 560 species of birds flying around. Being out in the jungle all day is a totally fantastic experience, my highlight being eating lunch served off a leaf by a little stream while Gabriel played the harmonica (he´s never had any lessons you know). Good.

"La cocina" was possibly the hardest-going activity, not in terms of physical energy but the amount of time that was spent doing it.  You had to get up at 5am in order to bein the kitchen by 5.30. you´d then work straight through until 1pm, with breaks for eating breakfast and lunch. Most of this time was spent washing up (particularly the blender which eemed to be used thousands of times a day) and peeling potatoes. A lot went into peeling and chopping, including a chopped index finger and a peeled pinky.. Evidently enough, the work got more difficult the more people were staying, so we were not thrilled when a group of 20 American tourists turned up for a weekend making the total number of diners 53. We got told to "hacer wash" plenty of times over those few days..

The day was broken up by a trip to the Granja Orgánica with the compost bin, to aid Pedro's miraculous compost system, and a little further along the route a trip to the chicken house to feed and water the little dears. Also the tedium of the kitchen was broken up by endless repeats of Queen and the Beach Boys, and the prescense of Darwin, otherwise known as "kitchen boy". His cheeky grin and bad-boy reggaeton dancing kept the mood in the kitchen lively! So it wasn't all bad. In fact, if you wanted to avoid a hard day's macheting, "cocina" was just the ticket. Just not on a Sunday. While everyone is swinging in hammocks and making necklaces, it is not the greatest of fun to be making breakfast (which no-one is out of bed to eat) and completely washing down the dining room with dubious chemicals.

All in all kitchen duty can be fun and games. Really. Just not on a Sunday.

We have now spent 4 weeks volunteering in the Amazon Rainforest, living and working in a camp called Jatun Sacha (meaning "Big Wood" in the Quichua language). Now we are all fully accustomed to freezing cold showers, inescapale humidity (nothing dries, EVER), large and scary insects, countless mosquito bites, endless plates of rice and wielding machetes around. Our work in the jungle was divided into different categories - CCPA (Centro de Conservación de Plantas Amazónicas), Granja Orgánica (the organic farm), Bosque (long walks in the rainforest accompanying the forest guardians), Kitchen duty, going to a local community and working at local schools. The daily programme would involve getting up at 6am for breakfast at 6.30 (getting up at 5am if you were on kictchen duty), working from 7.30 till 11.30, lunch from 12pm, work again from 1.30 till 3.30 and dinner at 6pm. For the evening the choice was usually to go to the bar or not to go to the bar.

Within our 4 weeks there we were entitled to 8 days off, and so decided to take a few "trips out". On Sundays the days was fairly easy going; a woman was employed to teach us how to make jewellery out of seeds, so the day was fairly relaxing (unless, once again, you were on kitchen duty).

We stayed in wooden cabins with limited furnishings (otherwise known as big adult wendy houses..), i.e. 2 beds, a table and some shelves.. On first impression these seemed a bit grim but we soon found that we did only use them for sleeping. Most of our relaxation time was spent fighting over the hammocks. Torches were necessary to navigate in between the buildings as there wasn't much lighting, and what there was tended to cut out quite frequently.  All in all the accomodation was pretty simple, and I think that the prescence of a river-side beach nearby and broadband Internet in the office were the saving graces for some people...

Granja Organica, or the Organic Farm, is one of 5 activities for volunteers at Jatun Sacha to get involved in. Set in tranquil surroundings about a 10 minute walk from the main site, Granja Organica´s purpose is to experiment ways to improve production of vegetables and plants in poor soil areas and to produce natural pesticides and fertilisers with a view to passing on gained knowledge to the local communitites.

Perhaps here, more than the other areas of Jatun Sacha, the immediate results of a day´s work can be seen. Managed by Pedro, volunteers undertake a variety of tasks from moving worms from one compost stand to another, building a base for a shelter for the plants from the weather and adding a plastic roof the next day, sewing nets to protect the seedlings from insects or returning to the roof that blew off because it wasn´t deemed necessary at the beginning to tie it down! Occasionally the initative had to be taken over Pedro who is quite happy, although probably unaware he is doing this, to allow the volunteers to stand and watch while he does most of the work.

One way some volunteers tried to fill their spare time while they were supposed to working was by tasting the small, round and red vegetables that look like peppers. However for all those brave enough to sink their teeth into one of these innocent looking vegetables they soon realised the error of their way when the rather hot chilli left them gulping countless mouthfuls of water!

What is the square root of 86345? Perhaps an 11-year old from Miyuna can tell you. That problem was written on the board of an intermediate school we visited one Saturday after we worked in Miyuna’s botanical garden. Knowing what I know now about Ecuadorian education in the jungle, I would be extremely pleasantly surprised if a student of any age could do that problem. Any level of education is not compulsory in Ecuador; from what I can tell, attendance is contingent upon the parents’ financial situation. As a result, the schooling system, at least around Jatun Sacha, is nowhere near as rigid as it is in the countries we come from. There was no need for sick notes, recess varied in length, and I never saw homework being turned in or assigned. This laissez-faire attitude was definitely perpetuated by the teachers. While they were both nice people, they let us have free reign of their classes, didn’t say a word as we taught, and sometimes left the room for the entire class period. I felt quite stressed during these disappearing acts!

On the flipside, the students were the sweetest bunch of children I’ve ever encountered. Every morning we were greeted with their irresistible smiles and a chipper “Buenos Dias”, and sometimes “Good Morning”, when we entered the classroom at 8am. Once when we were playing a complicated version of Tag, I fell on my face and the children rushed to my side, wiping sand off my clothes. This was all well and good, but my impression remained that succeeding in school was solely up to the individual. We were thrown into the deep end, but this is what made teaching the most difficult assignment as well as the most rewarding for me.

Jatun Sacha volunteers normally teach at two schools in the area, but we mostly taught at a school that Greenforce participants had taught at before. Prior to teaching at that school – whose name none of us remember so I’ll just call it Escuela del Bar because it was across from the bar – Kate and I accompanied Matthias, a Danish volunteer, to Chichico Rumi, an elementary school located a 45-minute walk from Jatun Sacha. Chaotic is how I would describe our first day there. Third, fourth and fifth graders share one room; each class faces a different wall. Without volunteers, the 30 or so students would have to share one teacher. Needless to say, they aren’t used to being quiet and attentive, although we were given a spiky, leafy weed with which to flog misbehavers. We never used it so it was difficult to keep everyone’s attention, not that it looked like corporal punishment helped much from the bedlam emanating from the teacher’s end of the classroom.

The three of us taught the fifth graders math and English. Matthias had prepared a short exam for them, which tested their arithmetic skills. Ability levels varied greatly and the only way to help them was to give each individual attention. I explained division to Alejandra, a girl who later identified herself as a troublemaker. I drew a circle, split it into four pieces, and asked her how many groups of two are in four. She didn’t know so I outlined the two semi-circles, and explained that that’s how I got 2 for 4/2. I worked out a few other problems with her and she appeared to understand the concept, until I had her do the problem Matthias put on the board, 388/31. When she whipped out her ruler and started drawing a 388-piece pie, I knew I’d failed. I told her that solving the problem with the pie method would be impossible and tried to point her in the right direction. Unfortunately she lost all interest and started drawing a card for Matthias. I couldn’t get her to stop so I moved onto another boy, Frankie, who was probably the smartest kid in class. For him, I wrote 4/2=? and 2x?=4, and he got the connection between multiplication and division right away. I couldn’t see why the concept of division was so difficult to grasp until I started teaching at Escuela del Bar.

At this school, I taught the third, fourth and fifth graders, while Kate and Katie took the sixth graders and kindergartners. I had to teach division to the fourth and fifth graders, and it soon became clear that only a handful of them had their multiplication tables memorized. For some of those who didn’t have them memorized, I’m not even sure if they knew how to solve multiplication problems. I stressed to these students that division would be impossible if they didn’t know how to multiply and I told them to copy the tables and I’d give them a test the next day. Unfortunately the prospect of further mathematical knowledge meant little to them as most of them needed my help to finish the test. I don’t think reviewing class materials after school is a common practice here, which is too bad because I know that all of the students have the ability to do well in school; they just need a nudge in the right direction.

This hampered their retention of English as well, although they were all more engaged during English class than in math. Some days they were on fire with their comprehension of English; it felt great to see them all standing up, touching their heads when I asked them to stand up and touch their heads. Visual aids and games, especially ones that involved running, worked really well. The easiest day for us, and perhaps the most enjoyable for them, was when we taught them the words for things they could easily find around them – insect, rock, root, stick, leaf, garbage, grass, peanut, flower, fruit, sand and soil. We moved the chalkboard outside, wrote the words in English and Spanish, had them copy them down, and then sent them on a scavenger hunt for their newly learned vocabulary. First, second and third place received treats in the form of chips, cookies and lollipops, and we ended the competition with a rousing version of the Ecuadorian national anthem.

On the last day, I gave a presentation in Spanish on Hong Kong and China to the 8-11 year olds. I’m sure they didn’t understand everything, but I think they learned a bit and enjoyed writing Chinese characters. After they came back from playing outside, I saw that one student had written the first character for “Ecuador” in Chinese on the board under the four characters that I wrote. Interestingly, I think their Mandarin pronunciation is better than their English, perhaps because each character is one syllable that is said very distinctly; there’s no accent confusion as there sometimes is between North American and English inflections.

I was sad to leave the children and hope that they are all given the chance to realize their potential. It’s impossible to say how much impact we as volunteer teachers had on them, but in my egotistical mind’s eye, I see them savoring the page in their notebooks with “I am Ecuadorian” written in Chinese for years to come.

Hitchhiking was a huge highlight of being in the jungle. Everywhere we wanted to go, except the bar, was at least a 20-minute walk away so thumbing it soon became a way of life. There was no sweeter sound than that of an approaching truck going the way we wanted to go, no greater vista than that of two headlights on the horizon. Verdad, our spirits were often crushed by cars driving the opposite way and once by a motorcycle. The rides were not always pleasant – Katie and I rode in the back of a cargo truck with heaps of soil and sharp branches one night – but every experience enriched our love for Ecuador and its hospitable people.

My most memorable day of hitching was on May 13 when we caught four separate hitches on the way to and from the Waterfall Walk near Misahualli. First, we rode in a gigantic yellow truck. The wheel well came up to my chest so it took a bit of scrambling to get in, but it was all worth it to sit on the cushy sacks of flour being transported therein. We got off at the junction leading to Misahualli just as another truck was turning onto the road – this NEVER happens. Usually whenever we go to Misahualli, the best you can get is a hitch to the crossroads; from there it’s a half hour walk to town. We rolled into Misahualli on hitch no.2 just as it was beginning to rain. It poured the entire time we had lunch and stopped when we finished. After the Walk, we caught a ride back to Misahualli within minutes. This time we rode with chickens (dead and plucked). After a snack, we walked back to Jatun Sacha and caught the fourth and final hitch back with bananas. As Pete said, “We’ve ridden with all the food groups today.” Claro.

The hitch from Limoncocha to Coca was also memorable. The bus we were supposed to take never came so we waited for two hours on the road, amusing ourselves with whittling and Kate’s (rhetorical) questions: “If you had to kill anyone in the group, who would you kill?” Before any murderous thoughts took hold, a friendly man stopped and picked all eight of us up. The two-hour ride itself in the bed of the truck was miserable until we hit paved road. It was a hot day so those who were really suffering in the back switched out with the good Samaritans sitting in the cab at the midpoint of the journey. The driver kindly dropped us off at our hotel and even asked passersby how to get there. We wanted to pay him but he declined – guess he really liked the cookies we offered him.

Now that we’re back in the city for our final project, our days of hitchhiking are probably over. I think we’ll all remember the generosity of every Ecuadorian that picked us up, and will always look at a passing truck with fondness.

Twas my amazing brain that formulated the idea of a fancy dress party, and what a party it was, I do love a bit of costume. On the day of the party, fully loaded with all the kitty money, Kate and myself went to Tena to buy snacks, supplies, party decorations and a piñata, claro! We bought loads of ham, sausages, bread, tuna, mayonnaise, cheese, crisps, the ingredients for guacamole and two rather large bottles of Cristal Limon. Then we returned to Jatun Sacha to make all the lovely culinary delights! It was not just the Greenforcians who helped with the party, other volunteers from Jatun Sacha, namely Katrina who made ham sandwiches and Mark who opened a tin of tuna, also lent a hand. All the food was prepared by about 5 o’clock and was put in the fridge for munching later.

Katie and myself shimmied on down to the bar to blow up balloons and make the bar look ready for a fiesta. What was intended to be a quick operation was promptly interrupted by the arrival of the children of the community. The children played with the balloons then helped us tie string on the balloons, like the little monkeys they are they were climbing around the bar hanging the balloons in exceedingly exciting places!

The party started at 7.30 and everybody helped by taking a tray of food down, muchas gracias. The assortment of costumes was amazingly overwhelming, especially considering we were in the jungle with little resources. Such costumes included a geisha, bride, doctor, centurion, cowgirl, Harry Potter, native Amazonians, trees, cats, drag and much more! The effort put in was really special, I was particularly touched by Pete who decided to go as… Me! Although he did seem to like the breasts a bit too much…

The food vanished in about 10 minutes and the drinking and frolicking commenced! I hope I speak for everybody when I say I had an awesome final night in the Amazon. The children at the fiesta were al very excited about the Sponge Bob Square Pants piñata that I bought, and after suspending it from the ceiling, carefully blind folding the first child the little bugger hit it first time! Maybe he had been practicing…

The party wrapped up at about 1.30am, but Kate, Ben, Claire and Andrew stayed up all night and at 5.30 went back down to the bar to clear up! Pure stamina... respect to you guys… respect.

Love Sammie Jo x x x