Fuya Fuya

I spent another fabulous week at Alto Choco. There were a total of 6 of us - Nikki from Australia, Ben from Scotland, Clara from Sweden and Julie from California - with me and Ramiro. Nikki and Ben are studying Spanish as well so we really got to practice which is great. I do find that it is hard to practice Spanish when there are a lot of english speakers aroun. We do tend to revert to English. I hope to spend more time with just Spanish speaking people and not so many travelers to increase my skills.

I am glad I came back to Alto Choco. I have been practicing being the assistant -leading the volunteers in activities, coordinating activities etc. Ramiro offered me a job!! I would get paid a little bit of money and my expenses would be covered so I am thinking about it starting maybe in April or May. He said I could travel to different reserves - there is one in the Amazon and one on the Galapogas Islands..... so we will see. But I feel really lucky for this opportunity and it will definately help with the finances later on :-)

First I will go to Patagonia. It is really quite far from Ecuador - at least 3 days of straight bus travel (I will be taking at least a week). Flying is out of the question because of the cost. It actually is cheaper to fly, with a round trip ticket, to Europe or the States than it is to travel within the countries of SA. But I cannot miss out on this opportunity to see all the glaciers and be closer to the tip of SA!!

This weekend the 6 of us met up with a group of about 20 international students from Quito. We camped for the weekend at Laguna Mojanda which is about 30 minutes outside of Otavalo. Krysi, Dennis and I with my friend Maurice went there and hiked around the lake. This time, we camped around the lake and then summited Fuya Fuya which is about 4800 meters high. We had a clear morning for the hike with quite a bit of wind but it was great. We even had sights of Quito.















My tent is now an international tent :-) It has traveled far and wide with me for 15 years and I am excited for it to be used in several more countries. Although in the future when I travel again on other adventures, I do not think I will carry it. I only brought it along on this trip for my volunteer experience in Patagonia where it is required. So I am extra excited to put it to use in these great Andes mountains and as many times as possible!!