Black Sheep Inn

The donkey is braying in the cool night air, the calico cat is fluffed up on the picnic table, the fat spider is spinning a web around the hapless beetle, and I have just shoveled a load of sawdust into Van der Ryn's composting toilet. I am staying at the Black SHeep Inn ecolodge at elevation 10,500ft. Not only does the toilet not smell bad, it in fact smells like flowers and has a view of dramatic peaks and the plateau below that rivels the three tier bunk house where I am lodged. The toilet room is also a greenhouse with pretty little flowers and vines growing all around. The water from the sink doesn't go down a sewage line, but instead empties directly into the garden and irrigates it. A ;erfect little system to infuse the toilet room with the eau de flor.

Spent today hiking from Laguna Quilatoa, a mesmerizing blue green lake inside a volcanic crater, back to the Black SHeep Inn. It was a beautiful hike with lupines laying a royal purple carpet all the length of the trail. For dinner a gourmet vegetarian meal of ministrone soup, cole slaw, and corn bread was served. Now it is 9:15pm and I am off to bed.

Past and Present-First Hospital and Staff and new clinic

Last days

July 20, 2008

It has just stopped raining after another 12 hour stretch. The rain forest is not short on rain.

Had pinchos last night, a local Friday night delicacy. Basically a type of shish kabab marinated meat on a stick complete with greasy fries and seasoned Choclo. Choclo is a type of pale yellow latin corn that has bigger, softer kernels than American corn and is quite tasty. After that headed to Becky’s for movie night from her arsenal of literally 200 movie DVD’s. Not much else to do in Shell on a Friday night.

So it stands that I am down to my last week in this strange rain forest land. Home to the biggest and strangest insects I have ever seen. I have seen spiders the size of my hand, fluffy tarantulas that are actually quite cute, and a odd sort of flat spider that inhabited the corner of my door. Rhinocerous beetles with pokey black horns who always seem to be belly up clawing the air with their insect feet, florescent green bees, walking sticks of various hues, grass-hoppers in the shape of large green leafs, and butterflies in brilliant blues or painted with huge owl eyes.

Some places you are drawn to and they call you back with an almost tangible force. For me these are the mountains and high places of the world. This rain forest holds mystery and intrigue and curiosities of every sort, but it is not where I am drawn, but where I have labored for a while.

So many lives have been touched by this small service I have offered, and in return my heart has been molded as well. Esteban learned to walk in Makuma and Angelita sat up for the first time in months. Juan Eras travels two hours once a week for therapy on his knee and Zoila Herminia Perez wet my arms with her tears when I left. Daniela, our new therapist now has a job in the town of her family, where no work existed before. The hospital now has a physical therapy department and new clinic, a service they had been waiting over eight years to put in place. The lives of certain disabled orphans at the Casa de Fe, “House of Faith”, have also been touched through the work of Dr. Sue Curfman, my previous anatomy professor who felt led to come to Ecuador for a week to provide physical therapy.

“Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God” 2 Corinthians 3:5
It has started to rain again.

Patient Patients

Casa de Fe

Climbing up Basilica Spires and Pinchincha volcano

Old town and Basilica with animal gargoyles

Old Town Quito and Honey Pot door

7/1/08

The sign read, “Look carefully because the goods will only pass once.” It was placed at the top of a small dark brown revolving door in a wall at the Monasterio del Carmen Alto. The Rough Guide Lilli had brought suggested rapping on the door to request goods from the Carmelite nuns. As the nuns were living in complete isolation, they passed objects to customers around a lazy Susan type revolving door, so they wouldn’t be seen.
The sign didn’t give any hints as to what one could actually purchase or how one was to go about the transaction. The guide book listed honey, herbs, and wine as possible choices for consumption.
I thought it was best to get on with it and rapped three times on the small door in the wall resting at about chest height. We waited a few minutes and nothing happened, so I knocked again. This time I heard a muffled young voice ask me something in Spanish that I couldn’t quite understand. I figured I should have the appearance of knowing what I was doing.
I leaned forward and spoke into the brown paint, ”Puedo ver su miel?” “Can I see your honey?” This has to be one of the single most odd things I have ever done. There I was standing in the foyer of a nunnery asking someone I couldn’t see for honey. The lady uttered something in reply and then the door began to move.
Believe it or not, out popped a rather large jar of honey.
“Do you have anything smaller?”, I asked.
“No”, was the answer from beyond.
“How much is it?”
“4.50”, was the reply.
“Do you have any herbs?”, I asked next. I think she asked me what kind of herbs, so I asked her if she had anything for chicken as I couldn’t think what else to ask about herbs from a lady behind a revolving door.
Nothing else came around from Netherland and I didn’t feel right asking a Nun for wine. She wanted to know what else we might like. I told her we didn’t know what she had. The lady at this point seemed a bit bemused and I got the impression that I was somehow entertaining her. In the end she indicated that the shop outside had samples of the wares for sale. As we didn’t want the large jar of honey I thanked her and the honey disappeared around the corner of the moving door.
That was certainly a strange experience and one I am quite sure will not be repeated in the near future.

Galapagos good-byes

06/29/08

There are no less than 5 sea lions looking at me as I float submerged in the small lagoon off Isabella Island. We have come to see the Islas Tintereras or Shark Islands, where the black tip reef sharks rest in channels among the black lava islands. Unfortunately the sharks were off laying eggs elsewhere, but we could still see the abundance of other marine life. Baby iguanas scattered like rats along the lava path as we walked by. There were sea lions resting on the sandy beaches and larger marine iguanas swimming nearby. As the blue footed boobies and great frigate birds soared over- head, the little Galapagos penguins waddled about and bobbed up and down in the surf. The sun set in brilliant pinks and oranges over the flamingo lagoon as ducks left light trails in the water. As this day set on the majesty of the sea, so our last night in the Galapagos stretched to it’s end.

Iguana tracks