Ecuawindow to Ecuador: Big Heaping Update!

Well, I´ve had myself some pretty crazy travelling times since you heard from me last, with the photos to prove it, and as I find myself in Quito where the internet flows like the salmon of Capistrano, I figure it´s time to dump out as much as I can tell in one sitting. First off I´d like to give a shout-out to my beautiful and intelligent girlfriend who just completed all of the paperwork in Spanish for me to get a volunteer visa and stay another 8 months... I wouldn´t be here if not for her, and I wouldn´t be staying if not for her efforts. Awwwwwww sappy.

Anyhoo, dry your eyes and pull up a chair: we took off... what, like two weeks ago? on a trip to the 'Oriente', which is the local name for the Amazon rainforest, to meet up with a bunch of Peace Corps kids that had organized a rafting competition in El Chaco for Halloween.

We priced out the hassle and money it´d cost to make it to El Chaco, and found that for the four of us -- Andrea, Jason, Monica and I -- it´d be better just to rent a car for $40 a day, so that´s what we did... FREEDOM! Andrea buzzed it out to El Chaco with a quickness, and we started making plans for all sorts of other places we could hit on the way home.

This is our team, Los Topos Mojados, which was supposed to mean 'The Wet Beavers', but we just found out that we effed up the translation and we were actually 'The Wet Moles', which isn´t quite as funny of a double entendre.

Andrea chilling next to our beer which is also chilling.

The travelling team minus Yours Truly, with Jason doing the Pumpkin Party Patrol dance.

The Wet Moles before losing pitifully. Note Monica´s sick airtime.

Yes, the right side of our boat was a bit of a week spot. Back right, Garrett, fell out within 30 seconds of starting, and front right, Wes, decided to take many strokes off. There was little Andrea could do to salvage the situation...

Sadly, the Wet Moles were terrible at rafting, but our spirits remained high.

We had two nights in El Chaco, the second night being a big Halloween party organized by the rafting guides, and we showed up in orange ponchos we´d found back in Pedernales (used for shrimp pond workers in the rainy season) and a vision of being the Pumpkin Party Patrol. With liberal use of black sharpy, our dream became reality, and we spent the night wandering around El Chaco drinking orange and vodka, then partying and showing the PC kids how to do our recently invented Pumpkin Party Patrol dance. Very technical stuff.

On Sunday, as we were not invited to take part in the second and third heats of the rafting competition, we climbed in our compact chariot, picked up a kid that needed to get back to his site in the Amazon, and headed for Tena, which is the jumping off point for Amazonian expeditions. I can´t remember the names of all the places we stopped at, hopefully Andrea can clear that up, so let these pictures speak for themselves: