Wednesday 7 March 2012

This morning was a glorious morning, which all of us (Bo, Anya, Eva, Oliver - Alex´s German friend over for 2 weeks - Gabriel and I) spent clearing the bamboo plantation, past the first campsite so that we could make space to plant more bamboo.

Although I have an occasional twinge in my right elbow, I was able to machete trees up to the diameter of my upper arms (don´t laugh, it´s not that puny!, maybe about 2 and half inches in diameter). I don´t tackle larger as I feel uneasy about it, but not because I couldn´t attempt it but wonder if/feel that maybe they should be left alone and not cut down.

One large tree which was cut down, started to bleed copious amounts of sap and could be seen to have be basically a large tube.

As it hadn´t rained for the last few days, I was starting to worry that it would rain heavily in the afternoon through the evening, causing landslides and closing the road to Quito. Consequently, I spoke to Alexandra and made the decision to go to Quito a day early and avoid any potential road blockage problems and started to pack after lunch.

After about an hour-and-a-half planting bamboo in the tree nursery and weeding the baby trees, I then set off for Quito.