South American Blunders

I have not updated this in a while and I´m sorry for that. A lot has happened worth writing about so I´m going to break this down into 2 parts, starting from when I left Planet Drum and the coast.
On the night of December 3rdish I left for Quito with Marcus, Darlene, and Micaela. The Brit, the Belgium, and the German, all fellow volunteers. We got into the Quito terminal at around 5am and, while standing in a circle around our bags and discussing how to get to the hostal, I had my small backpack stolen. It was an amazingly stealthy grab and the bastard immediately vanished into the crowd. I lost my phone, MG´s camera, Ipod, all toiletries including malaria pills, my book, and my wallet. Unfortunately, Marcus had foolishly trusted me with his money belt which included almost $200 and his passport. We filed a police report and that´s all there is to be said about that, I luckily had my credit card and passport in my big backpack.

We enjoyed Lima for 2 days. All the necessary gear, maps, and food were rented or purchased and a sufficient amount of drunken dancing was indulged in (my moves have gotten sharp, let me tell you). We took a bus on Monday night to the little town of Riobamba and the next morning got up at dawn to take a bus high up into the Andes.
Around 8am we asked the bus driver to let us off on the side of the road, in the middle of beautiful nowhere. The seven of us got off and shouldered our heavy packs and started down this little mountain road. There was Micaela and her boy friend Stefan from Deutchland, Lillian and her partner Michelle from the States, Darlene from Belgium, Marcus from England, and me. The Sound of Music scenery was wonderful and we stopped for lunch along a small stream where we had the opportunity to play with 2 curious llamas and throw a Frisbee. Giddiness. We passed through a couple little hilltop communities (by little I mean a few huts and a church) where everyone went far out of the way to ask us what we were doing. The 2 cars that we saw both passed us, stopped, and backed up to ask us what the hell we were doing up there. Apparently we were an unusual sight. At one point an Andean woman in a top hat lost her llama and Marcus and I immediately dropped our packs and helped corral the beast amid laughter and shouting.

That night we camped between 2 crystal clear mountain lakes and made a fire from dead trees that we had to rip from the ground. The stars were spectacular, different from the ones that you Northerners are seeing right now. Before bed, with a little natural help, we laid back and started drawing ridiculous constellations. I made a martini glass and a disco dancer and was quite pleased with them.
The next day we continued down the same road and began to quickly drop altitude. There were waterfalls every 20 minutes and the environment changed dramatically. That day we were supposed to get off of the road and onto a little trail that would follow the river and see us fighting pits of mud and climbing up steep banks but, since the road was completed, the trail has become overgrown and no longer exists.

That night we camped by the river and decided that, rather than continuing to walk along the road, beautiful as it may be, we would flag down a bus and take it to our final destination, Macas. All we knew was that Macas was known as the ´gateway to the jungle´ and was very near the volcano Sangay. So, we concluded that we´d be able to just continue our trek into the jungle. That night I actually got out my star book and Marcus and I managed to figure out a whole 4 constellations that I´ve probably already forgotten.

The next day, we caught the bus into Macas and were told by the office of the national park that there was no way we could go into the jungle. There was only one trail and getting to it would be impossible without a guide and there were no guides available for a few days. Just as we were being hit with this news Cherubia, the tall, proud, pony tailed native guide walked in and saved the day. He explained that he was an expert on the local flora and fauna and training to be a shaman. He was part of the Shuar tribe that used to shrink heads and was now almost completely wiped off the face of the Earth. He said he would take us to his house on the fringe of the jungle where we could stay for the night and, in the morning, he would guide us to the border of the national park from where we could find the trail. He couldn´t guide us any farther because he had to leave for a conference in another city but assured us that from there we´d be fine.
An hour later we were flying down the road in the back of his sister´s pick up truck, moving deeper and deeper into beautiful jungle territory and away from the city.

That´s it, that´s all you get right now but within the next 24 hours I´ll write the rest, it gets pretty exciting.
I´m in Lima, Peru, sick as can be with some unpleasant little bacteria in the guts. Oh South America.