Over and out before I even get all up in there.

Hey gang, yes I am still alive, no I do not have dysentery, yes I met a completely mind-blowing woman, no I will not go into too many details, yes you should come visit so I can tell you all of the not-mentioned-above-details in person, no I will not continue this contrived sentence formula.

 

So the internet in the tourism office has been out due to the quite overdue death of one of the computers in there a while back.  Hence no new pics on the blog.  They say it will be fixed this afternoon but it's almost 4pm and I don't have faith like that.

 

Some recent adventures:

 

-Getting published in Vistazo, one of Ecuador's most popular magazines. They used six of my photos in their tourism feature on my site.

 

-Seeing boobies on La Isla de la Plata, a former pirate hangout.  (Blue footed boobies ... the birds....duhh.  Get yo mind out of the gutter.)  (Oh and somehow I was recently given the new nickname Banana Pirate.  Not sure how to feel about that ... I will say that it has nothing do do with the yellow fruit.)

 

-Spending the night exposed on the Pacific Coast beach at Machalilla and not getting a lot of sleep.

 

-Watching two Ecuadorian girls suck on the feet of a truly adorable dog.  What the HELL?

 

-Watching the sun set over a multi-layered jungle foreground after visiting the most extensive petrified forest in South America, possibly all of the Americas ... for free.

 

-Going to the beach (a different one) to help greet some new trainees before they do their site visits in our southern part of the country, sippin cold beers and comparing tattoos.

 

-Going skinny dipping in a crystal clear river at another volunteer's site, set in the midst of beautiful misty jungle-covered hills, the morning after drinking beers offered by the locals.

 

-Cooking dinner on my campstove on the top of a hill above my site with a new volunteer-in-training who was visiting, again watching the sun set, this time over the mountains.

 

-Heading for the hills above a neighboring parroquia with a member of the municipal group to look for seeds of native trees to plant in the municipal tree nursery, and having lunch at her father's mountain farmhouse, accessible only by foot or mule.

 

-Starting a collection of orchids and bromeliads on my rooftop.  I only have a few little branches and stuff, but this morning I lost count of the individual plants when I got to around fifty.  Don't think I am some bastard plant killer and forest-marauder ... the weather these days is pretty windy and so I collected the plants from the middle of the dirt road as I was walking back to my site from up in the hills the other day ... the wind just blows rare orchids and shit right to the ground and you literally have to step around them every few seconds.  It was the least I could do to pick a few up and start an orchid rehabilitation clinic on my roof.  One of them has the most amazing stalk with these little yellow and orange flowers... stay tuned for a picture if the internet is ever back to normal.

 

Okay that's it for my update.  Thanks for all of your recent emails, you know who you are!

 

-Mountainjedi