We are in Puerto Lopez now, a costal town about an hour north of Montanita. We were under the impression that it would be sort of a big town, but have discovered that we were wrong and it has only a few streets and one ATM - which has caused us much trouble. When we first arrived here yesterday afternoon - with only $4 left in our pockets after paying for two nights at a hotel - we went to the only ATM in town to withdrawl some more money. When the card didn't...

Our trip is going better. We are in Montanita now, a little surfer town on the coast of Ecuador that caters a bit more to foreigners (some people here actually speak English). We are really close to the Equator so it's really hot and the sun feels very intense. Despite wearing a lot of sunscreen Beth and I both managed to burn a little today, so we'll have to be more careful. It´s great to finally escape the rain and finally be able to wear shorts and sa...

Beth and I are done with our "trips" now, and have only been more and more disappointed each day with this volunteer agency. The first day was spent at a big market, which was nice other than the fact that we had to ride 2.5 hrs there in a truck cab with the agency family which consisted of two adults, a 9 year old, and a 1 year old baby crammed into the cab while the sick baby coughed, snotted and cried the entire time. All I could think of was how b...

After six nights in the very rainy rain forest, Beth and I are back in the less rainy city of Quito.We have concluded that the organization we are working for (Eco-Volunteer UP, which seems to be comprised only of a woman and her husband) is mostly a scamming agency.Although they seem genuine and are very friendly, the $504 dollars each we paid for 10 days of "rain forest conservation" and four days of trips to different places in Ecuador seems to be go...

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 Q...