A recent visit from another of my favorite volunteers was accompanied by the pleasant surprise of a passing gringo. I had to show them the Zaruman Southern hospitality by getting them addicted to tigrillo, taking them into mines, up hills, through spiderwebby ridgetops, and around the windy mystical streets of the centro histórico. There was also of course a fair amount of boxed wine and local Ecuadorian beer, rooftop cardcames, and the wonderful rooftop ranchera ride to Ortega followed by an introduction to the wild waters and trails of the cascada there (pictured above). Despite almost losing one of them to a slip down a steep and muddy trail, we made it there and back with flying colors, and got plenty of good existential talks under our belts. You guys rock, and thanks for sharing Zaruma with me!

Scoping out the inverted view on top of of of the water talks at the H2O treatment plant in Zaruma.

A winged, if not feathered, friend I found in the parque central near the tourism office. No camera tricks. It was HUGE!

Two days ago we were visited by a group of Swedish visitors, doctors on a monthlong tour of Ecuador as part of a Rotary Club project. My counterparts and I gave them packets of promotional materials like magazines, pamphlets, DVDs, and the postcards with my photos on them as a thank you guesture for the honor of hosting them. The team leader had worked in Africa and saw truly destitute people in her work there... even though my own situation in Ecuador is quite the different experience, she still made a point to tell me that she felt I was doing good work here. Maybe so, or maybe I'm just making friends and acting as a mini-ambassador of the United States, but to get comments like that do make one think about how much impact is really being made. Time ticks on...