A few new pics for yall. I was attending an event with one of my counterparts the other day, a launching of an environmental education initiative with the aim of helping to protect long term the health of the watershed of the Rio Jubones...more info than you needed I guess.... and anyweays while we had a great time organizing the new materials and eating with the teachers and students of a small school up in the mountains, one of the most interesting parts of the day was this beetle. This sucker was HISSING at me! Strong too...

Happy birthday to me. Here was the post dinner gang at my counterpart´s place on the night of my (and her husband´s) birthday last month! Age of Aquarius, woo HOO!

Paco? PACO? Is that YOU???? Having a wild barnyard style time chasing venado babies at the Hosteria El Jardin in Zaruma the other day, while getting ready to drive to Guanazan with the Agriculture APCD to finalize some details for the new volunteer I helped the municipality ask for up there.

And here is a shot from that drive up into the hills of tthe southern Ecuadorian Andes. That´s Cerro Chivaturco poking out of the clouds there. The summit is a bit more than 8,000 feet high, and I once had the super opportunity to camp on the top. This place is magical.

And finally, here's a shot of a pup guarding the view of CErro Paltacalo in Guanazán, where the new volunteer will be going, about a four hour ranchera ride from here in Zaruma. There are pre-conquest ruins atop that crag in the background, and I hear there are thermal springs only a half hour walk from the town center. It might be remote, but it should be a really cool site! Speaking of new volunteers, I got to greet (read: scare the crud out of) the new incoming group of aspirantes (trainees) at the Quito airport last night. Very hard to believe that it was almost exactly one year ago that I was in their shoes. Time flies when you´re having _ _ _. (Wink.)