Camping, volcanos and slugs

Last week Sylvie was back in Talacos because she had loved it so much the first time. This time it was her and Remi (a French volunteer who arrived two weeks ago and left today) and the 20 year old Armando (another of the guides). Lucky them, they spotted a bear in one of the corn fields this time (they do exist)!

While the others were in Talacos, Claire and Stacey went camping in the village of Cazapamba (two hours walking up the road from our village). Luckily we managed to hitch a ride in one of the camionetas (trucks) which was ferrying about 20 people there to sell their produce. While standing and clinging on to the back of the truck very close to everyone Claire and I (Stacey) both got vague marriage proposals from a man who said he was single and needed two wives. I said we only had two weeks left here and he said two weeks was ok. All in Spanish of course. It was all in good fun and everyone was having a laugh with us.

At Cazapamba we stayed in tents in the back yard of one of the guides with the project, Samuel. Samuel is incredibly tall, at least six foot (the tallest Ecuadorian anyone has ever seen, we tower over most people here) and he has a huge Grenadilla plantation at his house. Grenadillas (grenadines?) are fruit here that grow on a vine. They have a hard shell that you crack open and they have lots of sweet fleshy pips inside, similar to a passionfruit except they are bigger and orange.

We camped in Samuel's back yard for two nights, the tent was reasonable except the zips were broken and both mornings we woke to find a few fat slugs in our tent. The second morning I found one crawling across the neck of my sleeping bag and lucky claire woke to a cold slimy slug crawling across her eyelid! Our mission while here was to try to catch a bear in one of the three foot-traps that had been set, and to listen out for Frida on the radio. Frida is one of the collared bears who roams around the valleys and maiz fields of Cazapamba.

Samuel has a quad bike which he rides around everywhere on. He told us he only walks when he has to, even if its just down the road. He manages to dwarf the quad bike with his long lanky legs. It must have been a funny site, Samuel driving with Claire and I perched precariously on the back, clinging on for dear life while holding machetes and bumping over the mud paths towards the maiz fields, with his big dog Lucas running along side and barking.

Both days Samuel had us traipsing around all over the valleys, through the thick forest, under vines, getting our arms torn up from thorns and branches while he hacked away at plants with his machete to try and clear a path for us. All while trying to find clues of recent bear activity. We came across a tree with lots of scratches and markings from the bears, and recently eaten corn husks. The bears seem to always be a step ahead of us and probably smell us coming a mile off. Samuel's dog Lucas who came with us got all excited at one point and ran off through the forest, following the scent of bear. He probably scared it off too but he´s such a big lovely dog we couldn't leave him behind. He accompanied Claire and I everywhere we went and sat with us patiently for hours while we looked out over the valleys with our binoculars, searching for a glimpse of a bear.

We use the radio to tune into the signals of the collared bears and we are able to tell roughly where they are and if they are close. From this the project has managed to learn the size of the home ranges of the bears. The collared bear Frida also has a cub with her so we were hoping to catch a glimpse of her, if possible retrap her to take blood, hair, and milk samples. We never managed to catch Frida or any others so I never found out about what milking a bear would involve...

The other exciting thing has been the erupting volcano in the town of Baños. We were in Baños just a month ago and sitting beside the volcano in the hot springs. From where we are in Pucara, at least three hours away we can hear it rumbling every half hour or so. Last night the sky was orange over on the horizon towards Baños. We are pretty cut off so have no idea how bad it is but I saw a pic on the net before and read they were evacuating people. Hopefully its stopped by a week because we are heading back to Quito, which is closer to the volcano.

Stacey