Since I have a really hard time using these keyboards and don´t feel like getting frustrated since I always seem to have a way of making computers crash before I can get anything sent out, I´ll post Beth´s story of our last week here in Ecuador...

¨I didn't think I'd be able to contact anyone until the 16th - but we decided (after much deliberation) to emerge from the cloud forest and come back to Quito. Here's the short story: We arrived Quito on the night of the 5th and Freddie (the husband of Maria who arranged our volunteering) gave us a ride to a hotel. My stomach wasn't feeling too hot - but we feel asleep no problem. The next morning we walked around town and I got sick in the bathroom of a sandwich place. I felt a little better - but not much. Eventually we met with Maria in her office and discussed the program. We found out that the family who are the "caretakers" of the ecolodge speak zero English - and when we told her we didn't really speak any Spanish we all agreed that would probably be a slight problem. Anyway. We set off to get supplies (such as rubber boots), tried to eat some food, and then got a ride with Freddie to the bus station and off we went to Los Tolas (the little "village" way down the road from the ecolodge).

We were told that a guy named Francisco (the father of the family of caretakers) would meet us at Los Tolas with a truck. When the bus stopped we were both half asleep and only knew to exit the bus because a guy said something in Spanish "spanish spanish spanish, Francisco". So our ears perked up and we followed him to the truck which took us down a dark, windy, wet, and rocky road. The ecolodge is about 20 minutes down a steep muddy path from the main road. So we trudged down it - slipping more than walking - guided by Francisco's flashlight. Eventually we came to the lodge, and then the dining area where we got the idea that he wanted us to sit down and eat the dinner his wife Maria had cooked. My stomach still hurt and I didn't want to eat but we didn't have a way to tell them that.

The food was basically the same at every meal (except for breakfast which was corn fritters and tea). Brothy, oily soup, that had a small variety of other ingredients like carrots, broccoli, potatoes, egg, spinach (usually only two or three different ingredients). . . . . . sides of white rice, cabbage, cucumbers, plantains, noodles (none of which were flavored with anything) . . . . . . occasionally we had chicken or overcooked beef. What we craved was to have one of the 2094203489 bananas the family was eating. The family never ate with us - we thought that was a bit strange - but we couldn't communicate anyway. Sometimes we had the pleasure of dining with Pepe the cat or Binky the little black/brown puppy.

So why did we leave early? Oh boy. Here it goes.....
We concluded that the program seemed to function as a means of income for Maria, the volunteer coordinator, and Francisco's family's, as we were in no way "saving the rainforest" and seemed to be spending most of our time reading in our cabin or hiking the 140 steps and ridiculously steep muddy path to and from meals. The altitude made climbing the sides of the mountain we were on extremely hard. We had to stop and rest every 20 steps or so. It felt like our hearts were going to explode. We simply couldn't see any logic in spending another five days reading books, twiddling our thumbs, sitting in wet clothes (it rained every day), and not eating properly for all the calories we were burning. I couldn't really eat until yesterday and yesterday Jenae started to get sick.

So here we are in Quito. We're hoping to volunteer with kids the next fews days and then go on the way overpriced trips for the next 3. We're not unhappy but we were ripped off. All we wanted to do was help preserve the forest and it just wasn't going to happen!

I'll try and keep you updated on the coming days.¨

P.S. Last night I s*** my ass off for about 6 hours and had to take 3 Immodium to get it to stop... I think I may never poop again.