sharon officially has a teaching job here at Cotopaxi teaching 5th grade - she is such a natural - we knew it would happen, of course, but it's so good to hear the official word!

congratulations to her!

this is just a quick report - not much new has happened - just the mundane stuff of daily life (which admittedly is probably a little unique living here in quito) - the first thing to note is that we have attached 3 albums of pictures to this blog - click on the "quito pic album 2" link to the right to see them - they're mixed up but still a nice melange of life here that we couldn't include in the blog (as always - remember that you can click on the pics in the blog to enlarge)



other than that it's the teaching and the teaching - i scooped up some tadpoles (guilli - guillis [pronounced gweegie-gweegie]) from a pond in the park with a sieve taped to a broomstick - sharon was impressed - and raised four to frogs so far - i just returned them to their pond of origin - it was satisfying - how i got by this far without doing this (as a bio teacher) i'll never know - when you feed them egg whites they attack them like little sharks - thrash, thrash




i also got some fish - for an experiment - do you see how they look at me - they never stop looking at me - do you see them looking at me? do you?










and we continue on with our lives -




and we never get tired of seeing the sky, the clouds and the mountains


it seems the rainy season has returned - although it should have been here all along - i really do believe global warming has been messing the stuff up hard, yo

we have also had the opportunity to watch Aland and Pat's beautiful dog Daka - check out this hot doggie! - he has the best personality ~ calm and soothing ~ it was a treat to have him around.



spring break is coming up and we're heading to Puerto Lopez, on the West coast of Ecuador. There's an island not too far away (2 hours by boat) that's called "Poor man's Galapagos." should be pretty cool - we'll be certain to take lots of pictures

i think that's all for now - we're really looking forward to coming home and seeing everyone! - we can almost taste the trees and the grass - sounds weird, but being away i really miss the smell of outside at home

peace and joy and love - chris and sharon

Hey everyone,
I know it's been a while but I've been meaning to post a few more pictures from the jungle to show everyone some really cool stuff.




For example, monkeys. There were monkeys all over where we stayed~in fact there was a researcher there studying three of the four types of monkeys that hung around our lodge.

One morning, Chris and I were walking to the main lodge for breakfast and we kept hearing some animals making such a loud noise, and believe me, it sounded like daffy duck laughing at the top of his lungs in the middle of the jungle (loud!).

The researcher later told us that that is the sound they make when they are trying to act tough and protect their territory.

One of the highlights of the trip was also climbing up in the towers they have. One is about 100 feet high (30 meters) and there is a telescope that you can look through to see cool birds and stuff. Not an easy feat if you're afraid of heights ~ and some of the students were. While climbing the stairs you just saw the jungle all around you.

Well, my group saw a very cool harpy eagle and a toad that was a living example of co-evolution (see chris' earlier bio-post). The toad kept changing colors to match its surroundings and its under-belly was orange. When a student picked it up it changed colors to match her skin!


The harpy eagle is the largest and most powerful eagle that can be found in central and northern south america. We knew it was not something you see every day because our guide was really, really excited. Here's a picture of it taken through the telescope ~ make sure to click it to enlarge the photo. Our guide told us it eats small monkeys... and small children given the chance!!

The last day we climbed up a different tower (also 100 feet) where you were supposed to strap yourself to a harness and you could walk across little bridges to some look out points. The harness attached to a cable, which I guess was in case the bridge broke (although the guides didn't wear a harness so I think they were pretty secure). Actually there weren't enough harnesses for the guides and adults so chris went without and the students were saying, "Oh, Mr. Vegetarian doesn't need a harness!" very cute (our groups went separately so I didn't know chris went without the harness until after the fact).

On the other hand, I waited for my turn with a harness since I of course, have been warped by seeing all the brain injury and spinal cord injury patients at the hospital and couldn't relax thinking about my rehab potential after plummeting 100 feet to the ground with the nearest hospital a 5-6 hour boat ride away.
It's wonderful and really amazing to be up at the level of the canopy ~ which is the top of the trees.
This was really incredible ~ I don't have that many pictures yet because I didn't have my camera at the top but some of the students took pictures and are giving them to us.




And.. this picture is on the wall outside of our room. There was a little porch area where we would leave our rubber boots (and we were told to check your boots before you put them on for spiders, etc.) And we had seen a gecko somewhere else so chris was shining the flashlight on the wall and we saw not only a gecko but a tarantula on the wall ~ we checked the ceiling of our room with a flashlight before we went to sleep and it was clear.

Well, that's it for now but we're adding a link to a whole bunch of the photos chris has taken since we've gotten here since we just can't post that many in the blog entries.

More news and updates soon ~ hope everyone is enjoying the snow ~ it's been very sunny and warm here.

PLEASE double click on the images to see them more clearly. (by the way - posting a blog with images is a nightmare - nothing goes where you want it to go ~ although i'm probably doing something wrong)


The rainforest is a crazy place and mecca for a student of biology. Please excuse the heavy biology leanings of this post, but i just can't help it. The rainforest is amazing.

It is important to note that Sharon and I had a unique experience. We were able to visit a place unavailable to most. We went to a place called the Tiputini Biodiversity Station. As Sharon has already told you, it is seated deep in the Ecuadorian rain forest - one of the most remote places in the amazon basin. This is a place reserved primarily for researchers. Although our high school has been admitted a visit, we are the exception and the only students that have an in. It is truly in the middle of nowhere. This is a magical place. There are a great number of species yet to be identified - in fact an overwhelming number. And every time I looked at some crazy beetle or other insect, that realization screamed through my brain.

Above is a good example of coevolution - albeit a well know one (although i never thought i would see this in person). This is a leaf mantid - a product of extreme pressure and selection. Its back looks just like a leaf.

Nutrients are recycled like mad in the rain forest – mostly by the fungi – it’s for this reason that when people slash the forests to farm, they are wildly unsuccessful – unlike temperate deciduous forests, there is no nutrient store in the ground – there is no humus. The nutrients in a rain forest rarely go below 5 cm into the soil – it’s all just recycled and turned into a new plant or animal too fast.

The diversity and specialization in the rainforest has yet to be adequately explained. Competition forces species into crazy and unique niches and relationships, but the patterns

(mainly geographic isolation / separation of populations of the same species) that typically lead to the creation of new species are rare. This katydid (or whatever it is) has a fungus growing on it. Although this fungus is undoubtedly parasitic to some degree, the benefits outweigh the gains. More often than not, when this little bugger is attacked by a bird, the bird gets a big beak full of fungus. The fungal organism continues to thrive on the hind parts of the insect and the insect is spared. In the rain forest there is a fine line between mutualistic symbiosis and parasitism.

Conga ants are really scary. If you get bitten by one it’s straight to the hospital for you. I was watching this leaf filled with caterpillars.

I returned a day later to find a conga ant ready to make a meal of these guys. Caterpillars are big bags of nutrients. Conga ants are unique in that they tend to work alone, but of course for the colony. I watched this play out for a while and this ant never went out to find comrades. But he certainly took home quite a booty. The orange “horns” that you see coming out of the caterpillars’ heads put out quite an odor. I could smell the strong odor and it was brutal. I don’t think you can see it in the pictures, but the ant after every mini battle had to retreat and clean himself. His front 2 legs were sticky with orange toxins. The specializations, fierce competition and billions of years of evolution have lead to the development of a huge number of complex chemicals. In plants, these are referred to as secondary compounds. These are the molecules that some
pharmaceutical companies are looking to for cures to many diseases.

Eventually he took two of the caterpillars down. He handily cho

pped one into pieces and took the head back to the colony.

Hello.
We took 13 high school students deep into the Amazon jungle.... and came out of it all pretty well. No one got sick, bitten by some crazy ant (and there are a lot of crazy ants!) or bug or drowned in the river during a storm.

It was really amazing~ so crazy to be in the jungle ~the real jungle. Chris would be reading about the rain forest in a book 'Tropical Nature' and we'd see the very things he was reading about.
Anyway, it's Sunday night so I 'll just post a few preview pictures and we'll post more about the trip very soon.

Did I mention how we got there? We flew to Coca ( a short, 30 minute flight) then took a boat for 2 hours down the Napo River

and then took a bus (Chiva) through the Repsol oil company's land for 1 and 1/2 hours

to the Tiputini River and another boat ride for about 2 1/2 hours to the research station.

The accommodations were pretty rustic since it's designed for researchers, not tourists. No hot water and electricity for only a few hours each day. and everything seemed very moist because of all the rain.

Each day we would split the students into two groups and chris and I would each take a group with a guide and head out for our adventures.

We'll post more very soon but wanted to let you know we made it back safely and loved the jungle.

And now.... more pictures from our hikes and stay at the Black Sheep Inn..... (click to enlarge)
A friendly chicken


Our morning view...



A farmhouse along the hike


A llama grazing



Directions in the fog


Chris was, of course, taking lots of pictures of plants and flowers

Now we're really close to the cheese factory... It's just beyond this big puddle.






And one last picture with some cool clouds.

Hello everyone,
It's Friday night and Chris is painting and I'm looking through pictures thinking, "We really need to post some of these." So, even though they're from our christmas break I think they're worth posting.
We started the evening at the lower school principal's house. There's a tradition of having what they call TGIF's at various people's houses. Which is basically a Friday happy hour party. They have the most amazing view of Quito from their roof and their living room.

So here's some pictures starting with chris in his classroom on the day we took susan and tom to see our school.

And then we have me in my classroom on the same day....
And here's me one morning when chris was at work and I was heading out on some errands.



I also felt like this picture of us was a great one to post because it's very early (after a late night of bridge playing) and we're trying to get a taxi to the bus station to head out on our multi-legged journey to the Black Sheep Inn. You might notice that Tom is carrying (very carefully ~ unlike Susan and I's bananas in our bags) a papaya. He carried it around for a while and ate it in Latacunga before we changed buses.


And there are lots more pictures from the Black Sheep Inn and our hikes there that are worth sharing so hang in there and I'll try to figure it out. I wish I could do captions, but oh well. Here's a picture susan took of me doing the laundry out back... isn't the developing world fun?

Actually I kind of like doing laundry out back and hanging it up on the line. It gets a little tricky in the rainy season though.
We're on the top and fourth floor of our building. Here's a picture of Chris having a conversation with someone on the third floor ( out the window of course).

Here's a picture of Tom drinking sake ~ we went out for sushi in Qutio ~ I know it may sound weird but it was delicious!!