Chronicles of the Wayward Moot

WELCOME TO THE MOOT, oh world-wanderers and word-whisperers. After two years of Peace Corps. After 2,200 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail. What. Comes. Next?

2 May 2006


OOOOOOOOOKAY you people out there in interweb-land. I HOPE you´re HAAAAAAAAPPY. To upload these two sets of photos took an hour and twenty minutes of sitting here watching the computer and making sure noone came in here to screw with the phone connection or tool with the power in the office. Ten photos. An HOUR AND TWENTY MINUTES. Sheeeeesh. Okay, so I'd better just give some captions and submit them before some freak accident happens and I lose them... The photo above was taken above Quito at what I guess is around 11,000 feet of altitude. To get there you take a gondola thingy called the TeleferiQo. It's really touristy but well worth the four dollars I spent, plus if you`re really in the mood the base of the cable has a big complex with arcades and a little roller coaster and restaurants and one of those Sky Swing things. Those three jokers with me are some of the cream of the crop from Insomnibus 95. One of them, the girl in the white, is the volunteer in the site closest to mine, and she's still about 2.5 hours away on a supposedly bad road. One of these days we're going to meet up and check out each other's sites. She's got a really rural site with a hike to a nice waterfall that the community is trying to develop into a tourist attraction. My site, well, you've heard a bit about my site already.

Another "When Gravity Goes Awry" photo. This also from up on the volcano called Pichincha reachable by the TeleferiQo in Quito.



One of my favorite other volunteers in a thoughtful moment up on the cliffside. It was cold and she hadn't really brought proper warm clothing, so we wrapped her up in a hammock she'd bought earlier that day to try and stave off the frigidity.

I have a tendency to do this any time there's something interesting in the background. I also have a tendency to forget to tuck in my shirt. If you suggest that I try to remember next time I might have a tendency to sock you in your smarty pants face.

Okay, back down to the south of Ecuador, to my little piece of heaven. Yesterday I took a bit of a tour of the area to the East and North of my site ... riding on the roof of a crowded camp transport-truck locally called a Chiva or Ranchera. It's the only way to go out here man, ducking under low hanging power lines, dodging eye-poking branches, spitting bugs out from between your teeth, yep ... nothing like it. Well I guess it's KIND of like riding on a ten foot tall motorcycle being driven by someone else, but with about twenty more people. Anyways, to address this photo: That dark and prominent forested knob off in the distant center of the photograph is somewhat of a local favorite. At least they have a picture of it in the tourism office. ...you can take a ranchera up to a spot kind of close to it....and you can hike an hour or so from the end of that road....up to the top...to the very precipitous and well-endowed with panoramic views for miles and miles and miles top.....and from what I've been told, you can go CAMPING on the top. And guess what. I can't wait to go try it out for myself. And you kids out there in computerland should come down here and go with me. This is Mountainjedi, signing off. Man slow internet is a pain.

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