Saturday, May 26, 2007

Carrie´s visit and more wildlife from La Perla

Katie took this picture of the bizarre rhino car that drives around Puyo. I think it is pretty awesome, but I have no idea why the owner decided to convert his car into a rhino.
This is one of the many stickers that decorate the rhino car. Did you know that rhinos are a farmer's best friend?

Carrie and I in front of the Puyo River.
This statue depicts the 7 indigenous groups in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
The ethnobotany park had a couple replicas of traditional indigenous houses. This is the Huaorani house.
Carrie, Katie and I spotted this cool caterpillar while we were walking along the Puyo river.
Dr. Hamilton and his research team visited Ecuador again this month and spent about 5 days at La Perla. I helped out part of the time. Here´s a picture of Ross, a college student from North Carolina, posing with a walking stick insect on his head. Dr. Hamilton is standing with his head lamp shining in the bottom left corner of the photo.
These pictures are mixed up with pictures from my friend Carrie´s recent visit. We went to Puyo in the Amazon to see my friend Katie. This monkey tail fern is from the Omaere Ethnobotany Park (Omaere is a Huaorani word meaning “Jungle”) in Puyo.
This beautiful snake was found on the side of one of the access roads in La Perla. I think the common name is whipsnake, and the scientific name is Chironius carinatus. She was very calm and had beautiful coloration, but I wasn´t able to get a good picture of that.
Here´s me holding the whipsnake. Carrie already made fun of the way I´m posing in this photo. I didn´t mean to look so goofy! Oh well, I´m sure Sasha and maybe some other people will also make fun of me. Such is my lot in life.
Katie and Carrie overlooking the Puyo River, I think. I´m having problems with my laptop, so I wasn´t able to upload more of my pictures from our trip. But Carrie took a bunch of pictures, so I will add a link to her photo album as soon as she posts her pictures.
This was my first attempt to put a strange creature on my face. The walking stick insect wasn´t really interested in crawling on my face, just on top of my head, probably in an attempt to escape. He was so ticklish! Probably not as gross or daring as a whipscorpion, tarantula, or snail.

I posted 13 other photos in a shutterfly album of animals from La Perla and our Puyo trip:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=9BZuGjRo2ZKE&notag=1

posted by Unknown @ Saturday, May 26, 2007 0 comments

Traveling letter

Pierre´s dad, Dennis, sent me an Easter card at the end of March from southern California. But it took over 6 weeks to get to Ecuador. I couldn´t figure out why until I looked at the envelope and saw the stamp below, which says "Missent to Bangkok, Thailand". It´s probably not really easy to see, but in the photo above, you can see two stamps. One reads April 8, 2007, Santo Domingo. The stamp on the right says May 7, 2007, Quito. So, I think the card actually got to Santo Domingo, where my post office box is located, and then it was sent to Bangkok and returned to Quito in early April. The card spent about a month traveling to and from Bangkok.

Why was it sent to Bangkok? I have no idea. As you can see on the envelope, it clearly says Ecuador, South America. This card traveled to 3 continents! So if you´re wondering if I received the letter or package you sent me months ago, rest assured that it is probably on its way to Asia, or maybe some other country, and will soon return to Ecuador.

posted by Unknown @ Saturday, May 26, 2007 0 comments

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Cindy´s Cinco de Mayo performance


Just wanted to share pictures of Cindy´s dance performance from last weekend. Doesn´t she look awesome? The top photo with her skirt swirling around is pretty cool, but I also love Cindy as a cowgirl! Contact her booking agent for a performance at your next event =)

posted by Unknown @ Thursday, May 10, 2007 0 comments

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Falling rabbits

Nathan, Julia, Julia´s friend Patti and I recently visited Machu Picchu. To see more pictures from that trip, go to: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=9BZuGjRo2ZG0&notag=1

The most interesting part of our trip happened when we were walking around the nearby town, Aguas Calientes, and a rabbit almost fell on my head! Somehow he got out of his pen on the second or third story above an alleyway.

Here´s a picture of the alleyway and Julia demonstrating how we reacted to the falling rabbit. You can see the white plastic cover things above the alleyway in this picture and the photo above it. Pretty long way for a rabbit to fall!
We were walking along, and then I started to feel and hear dirt and rocks falling. I heard scrambling overhead and ran to find cover under another awning. Then the rabbit fell, but he was unharmed, and looking to run some more. Somebody caught him, but I had a lot of dirt, and maybe rabbit poo in my hair! Ah, every day brings another unexpected adventure.
I recently found out that there is a Harvard Club and a University of Michigan Alumni Association here in Ecuador. I already joined the Harvard Club, and maybe I can watch Michigan football games with the alumni group. Hopefully I´ll be able to meet other people working in development or diplomacy and can learn about their projects and experiences here in Ecuador. I feel like I´m only learning about Peace Corps here, but I should learn more about other organizations, like USAID and maybe some nonprofit organizations. Time to broaden my horizons!

posted by Unknown @ Sunday, May 06, 2007 0 comments