South American Blunders

Last weekend I rented a bike and rode out to a little farm along a river in the jungle near Canoa (the beach town where I can be found most weekends). The bike was a piece of shit with a seat that felt like steel but I made it there. The bike ride along the road was beautiful and green and eventually I reached the turn off for the farm. After a short ways on a bumpy dirt road I came to a fork that directed cars and bikes to the left and foot traffic to the right (both paths leading to the farm). I decided to take the foot path and had the most ridiculous, fun time riding up and down this narrow, wild path. I forged rivers with my bike over my head and splashed through them if I thought they were shallow enough and I had enough speed. I finally arrived and had lunch on a big, flat rock in the little river and then headed back. All in all a good day.
On Tuesday we rented a little boat and motored our way upriver to a mangrove. We got pretty boozy and decided to swim once we stopped near one of the unusual little mangroves. The tops of the trees were all that was visible of it and the air above it was thick with birds of all different shapes and sizes. We swam up to the mangrove with no idea of how many different kinds of snakes and piranahs were likely to take us under. Once we reached the mangrove we swam onto about 10 feet of really wet mud and had to sort of army crawl above it in order to advance. We got to the heart of the mangrove and just layed back in the mud/years of bird feces and watched all the birds swoop and dive above us, doing whatever it is that birds do. It was a memorable experience and we eventually crawled back out, unscathed.
Last night I tried fire dancing and oh what an awesome success. I don´t have a single burn on my body and got some really cool pictures with the 2.5 tricks that I can do comfortably.
Pictures aren´t working too well on this, follow the facebook link below-
http://lclark.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2019843&l=101fb&id=31600841

I am now learning to both surf and fire dance ("poi"). Both are frustrating and painful but I´m determined to figure them out. I bought my surfboard on Friday, I´m essentially renting a really quality (but small and therefore hard to learn on) board and bag for $50 for a month. I went yesterday with my new board and not only couldn´t stand up even once but got stung by so many god damn jelly fish that my body is criss crossed with welts. The blue bastards nonchalantly (sp?) float up to you and then, if you happen to graze against them, wrap their horrible pain inducing tentacles around your flesh and just hang there, stinging you, until you desperately tear it off.
As for the poi. Gabriel is teaching myself and 2 other Planet Drum volunteers to fire dance on the beach. For some reason the tennis balls in nylon stockings that we use to practice have mistaken my testacles for tennis rackets and, each time I practice, have a crippling match at my expense. I can usually go for about 1-2 minutes before the tennis balls strike each other and one of them ricochets up into my crotch at high speeds, leaving me on the ground in the fetal position. Then I get up and do it again. Unlike surfing however, I am starting to get better at this and can reasonably hope that within a few weeks I´d be ready to use fire. Sorry madre.

In my last entry I mentioned having my sandals stolen while I slept in a tent on the beach. My tent bag and stakes were also stolen in that incident but I found them on Friday. As I was getting off the standing room only bus in Canoa, an old man got on with my ´Kelty Teton 2´ bag strapped to his backpack. As we awkwardly maneuvered past eachother in the aisle of the bus we discussed the possibility of me getting it back:
Me-That´s my bag.
Prick-Yup.
Me-Can I have it back?
Prick-Nope.

And with that I stepped off the bus with nothing but impotent bitterness to show for myself. If I find him in the streets of Canoa I intend to follow him and steal it back. Oh he will get his comeupins.
Last point of interest-I´m planning to leave from here to the Andes on Dec. 1st with, hopefully, a couple of the volunteers from here. We´re going to do a 4-6 day hike from the Andes down into the jungle. It should be epic and amazing.
Hope everyone had a happy halloween, ciao.

I stood on my surfboard. Not on the land but while being pushed to shore by a huge wave. That´s right, after what seemed like hours of being thrown around by the waves like a rag doll and fighting to get back out behind them, I not only caught one but I stood up for all of three seconds. I am now a surfer and will buy a cheap, used board from "Freddy" tomorrow, which I´ll be able to sell back in a month.

In other news the volunteer work is still going well. I´m beginning to know the sites and understand a little more fluidly what needs to be done and when. One of the new volunteers, Marcus, is a very funny/friendly British chap that may travel to Baños with me, which is good because I prefer to travel with someone.

Got into a strange, drunken debate with a group of young anarchists Friday night.
Got my sandals stolen off the beach, bought new ones, awoke to find that the new ones had been taken too (or blew away...we were camping on the beach).
I still cannot salsa to save my life.
Things are good, Ecuador is still beautiful, and the rainy season is just beginning.