My nephew Joe is taking an international studies course in Ecuador. Here’s his latest message.From: Joe
Sent: Wednesday, October 15 2003
Subject: 2 months and Yanacocha
Well hello friends!
I have reached the 2 month mark. That’s correct, Ecuador has been my home for over 8 weeks. I’m sure you all are astounded that I’ve been out of your lives for so long.
So, last weekend. Our ornithology prof (from now on known as The Bird Man) decided that we should go to a cloud forest reserve called Yanacocha. This reserve is only about 45 minutes away, but it’s 45 minutes up the side of a mountain. So, when we arrive we can basically stare down at the clouds below us. The actual park was b-e-a-utiful.
Hummingbirds were all over the place and there were leaves the size of people. However, it’s majestic qualities slowly faded away during our 7 HOURS of bird watching. That’s right, we got there at 7h30 and returned at 15h00 or so. It was insane. This of course was after a night of staying out till 3h00 dancing my little heart out.
This next weekend we are headed to another cloud forest reserve called Guajalito. This is for our ecology class. I have a good feeling about this trip. We get to do cuadrents, woohoo!! For those non-ecology students out there, a cuadrent is a big-arse square that we make in the jungle, then we count numbers of species and the quantity of each species. It can take HOURS, especially when you are at the equator with about 5 billion species. Anyway, I’ll leave you folks to your business.
Have a wonderful week!
love always,
Joe
PS I would like to thank Errin for her postcard from Italy/Spain!
Sent: Wednesday, October 15 2003
Subject: 2 months and Yanacocha
Well hello friends!
I have reached the 2 month mark. That’s correct, Ecuador has been my home for over 8 weeks. I’m sure you all are astounded that I’ve been out of your lives for so long.
So, last weekend. Our ornithology prof (from now on known as The Bird Man) decided that we should go to a cloud forest reserve called Yanacocha. This reserve is only about 45 minutes away, but it’s 45 minutes up the side of a mountain. So, when we arrive we can basically stare down at the clouds below us. The actual park was b-e-a-utiful.
Hummingbirds were all over the place and there were leaves the size of people. However, it’s majestic qualities slowly faded away during our 7 HOURS of bird watching. That’s right, we got there at 7h30 and returned at 15h00 or so. It was insane. This of course was after a night of staying out till 3h00 dancing my little heart out.
This next weekend we are headed to another cloud forest reserve called Guajalito. This is for our ecology class. I have a good feeling about this trip. We get to do cuadrents, woohoo!! For those non-ecology students out there, a cuadrent is a big-arse square that we make in the jungle, then we count numbers of species and the quantity of each species. It can take HOURS, especially when you are at the equator with about 5 billion species. Anyway, I’ll leave you folks to your business.
Have a wonderful week!
love always,
Joe
PS I would like to thank Errin for her postcard from Italy/Spain!
