Day 26: Pauma and Bellavista

Monday, September 15, 2008

First off I'd like to say happy birthday to my sister Jenn! She is the big 3-0 today, entering a new decade and hopefully having a great time doing so.

Yesterday I went to lunch at Mango Tree in the afternoon, called and talked to my Mom and Jenn for a while, went to SuperMaxi to do some errands, and bummed at the hotel. My group got most of our paper done that is due on Wednesday, so I'm feeling pretty good about that.

Today was another early day, with breakfast at 6:15am and the bus departing at 7am. After about an hour and a half of driving, we arrived at El Pauma cloud forest. El Pauma is an ecotourism site on the highway, and consists of an orchid garden, botanical garden, water falls and hiking trails, a small restaurant, and some cottages to stay at. We walked around, looking at all the orchids and brameliads. The area is very humid, and has a damp coolness about it. Epiphytes grow on everything, which is traditional of a cloud forest. After the orchids, we walked up a little trail to a waterfall. The waterfall was very pretty, with crystal clear water. Andrea, my teacher, brought a strainer and small plastic container so that we could look for water bugs. She specializes in freshwater tropical ecology, mainly looking at the life of streams. We saw stoneflies, caddisflies, some other weird larvae, and coleoptera (water beetles). Then it was back to the bus.

From Pauma, we took the worlds windiest road ever up the side of a mountain in complete jungle forest to reach Bellavista. Bellavista is also an ecotourism site, slightly larger than Pauma. (Ok, actually a lot larger, like 2000 hectares). It has lots of trails, bikes, horses, places to stay (for really expensive), a restaurant, and some great views. The entire group went on a short hike that was mostly uphill. We were definitely feeling the burn in our legs by the time we were done with the hike because we had climbed the two tallest mountains in Ecuador just a couple days before. The hike took about an hour in total, then we had half an hour to kill before lunch. Most of it was spent observing the hundreds of hummingbirds that swarmed the feeders. I have never seen so many hummingbirds at once, nor have I seen so many different species! Some hovered right in front of my face, others wizzed past my head so close I could feel the wind from their wings in my hair. I sat there with a (pardon the slang) shit-eating-grin on my face for a good 30 minutes. I know my mom would have died to see all the hummingbirds, and at such a close range.

We ate lunch in a bungalo constructed from bamboo: soup, fish, rice, and a small salad. It was absolutely delicious! I love the trout here. Dessert was also the best I have had since I got here - it was rasberry/strawberry mouse and every spoonful of it was to die for. To top off one of the best meals ever, we got a nice cup of coffee. Several of us wanted to ride horses around, but it was a little too late and the horses were very cranky. Instead, we just chilled, took pictures, explored the buildings, watched more hummingbirds, and waited for a few people who rented bikes to get back. Around 3pm we headed out, this time heading down the turniest road ever. At the fishing place we stopped to pick up Stephanie D and Forrest, who had gone fishing there. They got 5 rainbow trout that were keepers, and I don't think I've seen Stephanie smile that much the entire time we have been here.

Back on the bus Franklin, our bus driver, had us hook up our ipod to the bus so we could listen to American music. It was a pretty uneventful ride; I ended up sleeping a lot of the way because I had a headache, earache, and cough. Now that I am back at the hotel and have had some dinner I am feeling better. I just hope this earache goes away before flying on Saturday!

In just a bit I am going to La Mariscal to have a salsa dance lesson from Johnathon, Annie's boy. I am super pumped for that, especially since Mateo has gone back to the U.S. and I don't have a personal teacher anymore. Here's hoping I don't make a fool of myself!