I´m Moving!

But before I get to that info on my last 2 weeks in my pueblo...

I have been working in the mountains in a ´vivero´. After a 40 minute walk into the mountains (luckily not so much up as in) there is essentially a garden of various types of plants and trees being grown for reforestation. It´s beautiful and always filled with butterflies (and unfortunately mosquitoes). It´s basically a one-man show and I follow Marseal around and do as he says. Some days we are filling small bags with dirt for planting seeds. Other longer days :) we are shoveling dirt and sand and wheelbarrowing them into huge piles for later use. It´s humid and sweaty and bug-infested but he´s an interesting guy and the area is beautiful.

We finished the houses before I left for the jungle and I have been told that the families are moving in this week so I need to go check and see today or tomorrow. It would be fun to see them all moved in.

Ok so back to the move. As I have been traveling here and there around Ecuador I have been to a town called Baños several times and have really enjoyed my time there. The pics of the waterfalls, jumping off of bridges and rafting are all from there. Anna-lee and I became friendly with a lot of the guys that work as guides so that´s fun. There are also great restaurants and fun bars with lots of locals and tourists passing through. It´s pretty small and walkable and just overall my favorite place so far in Ecuador.

So I decided it might be time to leave my sleepy pueblo and try out Baños for a while. I was most nervous about telling my family as I thought they might take it personally that I wanted to move. Turns out they were totally cool about it - so cool that I´m a little suspicious that they want to be rid of me!! Next issue was to find out if my program has projects there to work on. Turns out that is a no but there are projects mostly working with children in places such as orphanages in a town a 40 minute busride away which isn´t so bad. So I have decided to take the plunge and if I can´t find fulfilling work in Baños I´ll commute..what the heck. Since my program doesn´t really exist in Baños I´ll likely rent a small apartment for a whopping $60 a month including water, electricity, everything. A few guys I know live in the apartments so they can show me the ropes and hopefully teach me to cook something in the communal kitchen :) Yes, miracles do happen.

So Sunday 11-18, I am heading off on a new adventure to hopefully survive on my own in Ecuador. Stay tuned...