After my first meeting which was also the day of my arrival, Jose took me to los piscinas termales, which are swimming pools fed with natural hot water. However I didn't go for swim but rather to meet Freddy Garcia (I think) one of the promoters, not sure why they are called promoters, there's two of them and I am still to meet the other one. From what I understood they are local farmers who help implement sustainable farming in the area, which is mostly growing coffee and bananas, and unsustainable being intense farming of crops or the rearing of cattle (anything which involves chopping loads of trees and rain forest). I suppose unsustainable farming all depends in the area you are, for instance Intag is full of rivers and watersheds so farming which would need abundant water would not necessarily be seen as unsustainable, whereas it would be in some areas of Australia or Africa. I think unsustainable needs a new definition, because anything can be sustained to some degrees, I think unfriendly farming sounds in some ways more appropriate, as it does not fit with its given environment; please leave a comment bellow on this point. Anyway let's come back to the pools. So I met Freddy (another person with a very American name, though I have to say they don't really have the choice if they didn't incorporate new ones everyone would be called Pedro, Jose or Carlos), he took me on the back of his motorbike to has been my home for the last 11 days. My sister complains that my parent's home is remote, well Joséphine I found worst. However it is beautiful, a little farm on the other side of the main river (Rio Intag, see picture), instead of writing a description which is a real pain and I am not George Orwell I'll Just film it and upload the video on YouTube (it's funny how Microsoft word does spell checks on words like Google and YouTube, and if you forget the capital letters it will make sure to remind you, but still it spots Apuela which is a town that has existed for probably the last 500 years as a mistake).
So how has it been these last 11 days sleeping and living in a wooden cabin? Well the first night was hell, I could hear all the bugs in my room, I had an ant nest in the bed believe it or not, and ants here "ne rigolent pas" (French for don't mess around) they are huge, and to be honest it was a bug nightmare, they have some serious creatures here, you thought you knew what a dragon fly was well I'll have to get a picture of the local dragon fly and they do look like a dragon. Trying to fall asleep in total darkness with creatures taking your face and all its orifices as motorways is not fun. I might be here to help on an environmental project but I quickly jumped on the bus to Otavalo and did the entire bus ride to buy an armament of bug killing sprays. I only used them one night as I couldn't believe my eyes in the morning, my balcony looked likes D-day, a mountain of insects, most of them only mosiz and nasty flies but there were a couple of really nice butterflies and moths, I quickly felt guilty for my actions. Haven't used the spray since, but god I do cover myself in repellent which doesn't seem to have any affect. When the family sees my bits every morning they can't hold themselves from repeating that they don't get bitten. They say that the insects here don't know me... RIGHT, well or they are a bunch of crazy animal lovers or they don't want to admit that they never use soap. Might stop washing myself for a bit and see if it works, just can't stand the smell of a dirty bed. So I am now used to the insects and it seems that the more I get used to them the harder they bite, every bite actually drips blood now, well I suppose they've learnt to know me now (bastards).
Having a shower is harder than it sounds, especially when there is no heating (no need in the Ecuador) and the water coming out of the shower head comes from the river. I had gotten used to the cold shower prior to making my way to Intag as most of the showers in Ecuador only have cold as an option. My usual plan was to stand right under the shower head and then turning the tap on full blast (and scream for a minute), that was a lot easier than slowly making your way inside the water. Well that was a bad plan here, the water comes directly from the river or a spring somewhere higher which would make more sense and the canalisation get filled with sediment, which means that on my first shower I used my cunning plan and, yes, got the worst shower in history, I got out of there black and covered in mud. Not knowing if more of that natural crap would pour over my head I decided to go for the easy option and jump in the river. However, I did realise now that it is necessary to leave the water (or mud) flow a couple of minutes before jumping in. Apart from the revolting insects and the muddy showers things are not too bad. There's a couple of other things which are a bit of a pain, such as: 1- can't leave the light on at night in my cabin for too long or the insects make their way in through the gaps in the wall 2- I have to wash my cloth by hand and they never end up smelling or looking clean (I'm hopeless) 3- the people here seem to eat the same thing every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner 4-there is no signal and need to walk 7 km to reach the world 5- all my cloth smell of turd as the cloth line is right over horse shit 6- I need a beer and I bought the only 2 they had in town.
On the good side now. I might finally be able to stop smoking, most of Ecuadorians hate cigarettes (don't know how they feel about the green stuff) and they look at me with disgust every time I light one, I'm actually enjoying walking to work and have given up waiting for the bus every morning which seems to come whenever the driver feels like. My Spanish has improved dramatically, indeed on my arrival I couldn't put two words together and I am almost making sense when I speak today (my Spanish teacher would be proud if he hadn't expelled me from school). The coffee here is amazing and the family lodging me (not for free) grows and processes their own, and god I never want to touch instant coffee ever again.
I have hopelessly been trying to cache a fish in the Rio Intag but with no success, I won't give up and it gives me something to do before the sun comes down (ran out of books, and my Spanish isn't good enough to start reading anything else than children's books). I am now in absolute darkness... wow and the electricity is back, well that's what I call on time (not). They have those flying light bugs not sure what they are called in English (lucioles in French) they are amazing, not like the wormy ones in Europe, these light up when they feel like and you can just see them flashing randomly in the darkness, it's quiet pretty. God, I am going o have to stop writing now I'm being covered in bugs attracted by the light of my netbook, going to get eaten alive. That's not bad just wrote 1300 in less than an hour, well I wish it took me that long to write essays for uni.
Good night
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