Merry Christmas!

Most people out here in this part of the jungle don´t celebrate Christmas. This is because they are Quichua which if you follow their ancestory back far enough they started with the Mongols of China. The language is extremely different than spanish and few non-quichuans speak it. For Christmas eve all the volunteers who were at the reserve, that´d be seven, went into the nearest town called Tena. By bus or pickup its about an hour drive west. Catching a ride here is pretty fun. If you don´t see a bus while you are waiting you can flag down the first pickup that goes by and jump in the back. The other day when the staff and the volunteers and a few extras went to Misahualli for a little part and if you don´t count the baby someone had there were 21 of us in a truck the size of a ford ranger. 5 in the cab ant 16 in the bed of the truck. This was great until the rain started. SO the 7 of us caught a pickup to Tena and went to a little bar and then out dancing for a Christmas eve celebration. The stars out here are amazing adn because we are on the equator, to the north you see your friendly neighborhood constellations like the big dipper, corona borealus, etc, but to the south they are all new. The highway we were on is just two lanes across so the swath of starts visible through the jungle was limited but after an hour on the road I saw about 5 shooting stars. The ride to Tena was 1 dollar a person, on teh way back at 3 AM it was just 2 bucks.

Christmas breaksfast was this really tasty fried dough with cheese inside. Lunch was the standard scalding hot soup served with a plate of rice, beens, and thinly chopped cucumber. After lunch I walked down a 30 minute path to the Napo River. on teh way i learned about army ants. these succkers can latch on to your feet even if your in a dead sprint. The first encounter happened while i was standing and looking for anything of interest through the leaves, as usual i didn't see jack, but all of a sudden one of my feet was on fire. an odd sensation when you are not expecting it. i looked down and one of the little buggers was on the knuckle of my big toe whith is head jambed down at about mid jay and his little army arms pumping away. I got a good look at him to know what to watch for and the next time i saw their line in the trail i started running and trying to dodge it. this didnt work at all. one guy found the same spot as the first and then three others were on my ankle. After a stroll on the beach i got back and another volunteer and I headed to an observation tower for the sunset.
This tower is made of three 100 foot long pieces of rebar that are reinforced by 8 inch peices creating a small triangle. there are not handles so you just grab hold, say a prayer, and start climbing. wow. at about 80 feet up you break through the canopy and things aren´t so bad because you can´t see the ground any more. at the top is a disc of metal about 6 feet in diameter with the triangular spire sticking through about 4 feet for you to hold onto and a 10 inch high lip has been welded on for security. even with the guide wires this thing wobbles tremendously with any movement. I, for one sat quite still with my left hand melted to the center of the spire while the crazy swiss guy just sat on the 1/4 inch railing enjoying the veiw. it was a great view.

we are going to head back for a sunrise at some point.

Well I'm off to bed, and someone just found a trantula outside so i need to get my camera.

Merry Chirstmas!

Sam