Hi from Banos! I am so glad to be here. We found a really nice hotel here for 25$ a night... kind of expensive compared to what we have been paying but it is so nice for a change. I am looking forward to some decent food and a comfortable bed. Right now I am in front of a window overlooking a magnificent waterfall. Amazing!
We will be here for a while, as we cannot work tomorrow due to the election. For safety reasons we decided that road travel was a bad idea so we are taking a day off to enjoy Banos.
All for now!
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
Hiding under long sleeves in malarious La Mana
Hi everyone,
It´s our last night in La Mana, and I´m ready to go.
We had a great day in Latacunga first, a small town in the mountains, where we inquired with about 15 directionally-challenged ice cream men before finding a place that would sell us dry ice. We bought a block for 25 bucks and had a great night in town during a festival. Basically, during the festival, they get a bunch of pigs, cuy, chickens and rabbits, cook them, and make giant statues out of skewered cooked animals and liquor bottles, then carry these around town as part of a parade. As disgusting as that was, it was very interesting, and there was dancing in the streets!
From Latacunga we drove across the Andes for 2 hours before descending into the valley where we are studying, depositing traps along the way. We are staying at a small hacienda outside of La Mana, and are the only guests around. There is nothing to do at the place at night other than to hunt the giant venomless snakes or watch poorly pirated movies inside the main lodge with the couple´s little girl. We are getting a lot of larval Anopheles here... this place has a problem with malaria. We figured out that someone dammed the river upstream and here there are rock pools in the empty stream where Anopheles breed in huge numbers. I´m a bit freaked out about getting malaria or dengue as we are getting a lot of bites, despite our best efforts.
Interestingly, we had one of our traps removed by the police. The woman who we had left it with was apparently senile, and although we explained what the trap does, she called the police and told them that it was a bomb. We had to explain quite a bit to get our trap back! After that, the whole town did not trust us and sneered at us when we drive by. If you get the chance, don´t go to Tingo.
The technical problems with our traps are continuing. Despite the dry ice, the batteries are dying before we can get back to the traps... either a problem with the charger or the battery. We are trying to charge them for longer to see if it makes a difference. It is so frustrating....
Anyway, tomorrow we are getting up early and driving a long way, all the way to Baños. I am really looking forward to getting there, as the food here is terrible... we are eating crackers and tuna, since that is all that they sell in many grocery stores! I need to eat good strong meals to stomach my malarone and anti-parasite medication. Baños has some great restaurants with international food... I can´t wait.
Baños, here we come! When we arrive, the next day is the big vote on the new constitution. For safety, we are not going to be on the road working that day. Instead, we´ll have a nice Sunday in Baños to walk around town and rest! I´ll be sure to download some pictures then!
It´s our last night in La Mana, and I´m ready to go.
We had a great day in Latacunga first, a small town in the mountains, where we inquired with about 15 directionally-challenged ice cream men before finding a place that would sell us dry ice. We bought a block for 25 bucks and had a great night in town during a festival. Basically, during the festival, they get a bunch of pigs, cuy, chickens and rabbits, cook them, and make giant statues out of skewered cooked animals and liquor bottles, then carry these around town as part of a parade. As disgusting as that was, it was very interesting, and there was dancing in the streets!
From Latacunga we drove across the Andes for 2 hours before descending into the valley where we are studying, depositing traps along the way. We are staying at a small hacienda outside of La Mana, and are the only guests around. There is nothing to do at the place at night other than to hunt the giant venomless snakes or watch poorly pirated movies inside the main lodge with the couple´s little girl. We are getting a lot of larval Anopheles here... this place has a problem with malaria. We figured out that someone dammed the river upstream and here there are rock pools in the empty stream where Anopheles breed in huge numbers. I´m a bit freaked out about getting malaria or dengue as we are getting a lot of bites, despite our best efforts.
Interestingly, we had one of our traps removed by the police. The woman who we had left it with was apparently senile, and although we explained what the trap does, she called the police and told them that it was a bomb. We had to explain quite a bit to get our trap back! After that, the whole town did not trust us and sneered at us when we drive by. If you get the chance, don´t go to Tingo.
The technical problems with our traps are continuing. Despite the dry ice, the batteries are dying before we can get back to the traps... either a problem with the charger or the battery. We are trying to charge them for longer to see if it makes a difference. It is so frustrating....
Anyway, tomorrow we are getting up early and driving a long way, all the way to Baños. I am really looking forward to getting there, as the food here is terrible... we are eating crackers and tuna, since that is all that they sell in many grocery stores! I need to eat good strong meals to stomach my malarone and anti-parasite medication. Baños has some great restaurants with international food... I can´t wait.
Baños, here we come! When we arrive, the next day is the big vote on the new constitution. For safety, we are not going to be on the road working that day. Instead, we´ll have a nice Sunday in Baños to walk around town and rest! I´ll be sure to download some pictures then!
Monday, September 22, 2008
Tired and discouraged
It´s been a very rough couple of days, and I haven´t much felt like updating. From Baeza, Julio and I went to Tena, and stayed in the ever beautiful Shangri-La jungle lodge. As great as that was, we barely got any mosquitoes due to rain and then equipment failure. It was very depressing. On the long drive back to Quito, we decided to get some little coolers and look for dry ice, in order to improve our trap catches, as carbon dioxide attracts mosquitoes. I felt kind of depressed and frustrated with the whole thing, and really just needed a day off of work to step back and take in what needed to be done.
When we got back to Quito... more terrible news. Santy got denied his visa to visit Canada next May... which affects our long term plans. I realize that there are many sucker women who bring Ecuadorian men to Canada through sham marriages, but it seems utterly unconstitutional to deny a visit to other couples on that basis... the few that are real relationships. What it means is that it might be many years before Santy is able to visit me in Canada. I honestly feel like the government is patronizingly accusing me of being a stupid woman. Immigration Canada is a nightmare with no way to contact anyone with questions or comments. They are not responsible to anyone, it seems. The whole thing reminds me a little of the department of homeland security. It is terrifying that they control our borders this way... and more than a little shameful.
I took a day off on Saturday to collect my thoughts, and spent the day with Santy. He had to give a city tour in the evening, and I got the chance to tag along. Sunday, I was hit with a bit of a stomach illness. Even so, we went out for a nice breakfast of pancakes - something plain - and spent a nice day together organizing my field equipment and fixing traps. This morning we had planned to leave to go south, but the plans fell through as my stomach had gotten worse. We have some suspicions that it is a parasite infection, so I´m sending a stool sample to a lab tomorrow to check.
I´m not feeling too bad anymore so we are going to leave tomorrow. I changed my mind completely about Peru and now we are going to spend those 2 weeks more in Ecuador. I need to collect many more specimens in different locations if I hope to put together a good distribution map for different Anopheles species in Ecuador. I hope we can get some dry ice.
All for now, wish me luck tomorrow!
When we got back to Quito... more terrible news. Santy got denied his visa to visit Canada next May... which affects our long term plans. I realize that there are many sucker women who bring Ecuadorian men to Canada through sham marriages, but it seems utterly unconstitutional to deny a visit to other couples on that basis... the few that are real relationships. What it means is that it might be many years before Santy is able to visit me in Canada. I honestly feel like the government is patronizingly accusing me of being a stupid woman. Immigration Canada is a nightmare with no way to contact anyone with questions or comments. They are not responsible to anyone, it seems. The whole thing reminds me a little of the department of homeland security. It is terrifying that they control our borders this way... and more than a little shameful.
I took a day off on Saturday to collect my thoughts, and spent the day with Santy. He had to give a city tour in the evening, and I got the chance to tag along. Sunday, I was hit with a bit of a stomach illness. Even so, we went out for a nice breakfast of pancakes - something plain - and spent a nice day together organizing my field equipment and fixing traps. This morning we had planned to leave to go south, but the plans fell through as my stomach had gotten worse. We have some suspicions that it is a parasite infection, so I´m sending a stool sample to a lab tomorrow to check.
I´m not feeling too bad anymore so we are going to leave tomorrow. I changed my mind completely about Peru and now we are going to spend those 2 weeks more in Ecuador. I need to collect many more specimens in different locations if I hope to put together a good distribution map for different Anopheles species in Ecuador. I hope we can get some dry ice.
All for now, wish me luck tomorrow!
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Rained out
Well here we are in Baeza, the land of flat, open, wet, PERFECT looking breeding grounds for mosquitoes... but alas, it is pouring rain and no end is in sight. Yesterday, we drove up over a high altitude mountain pass, across interesting yellowish paramo landscape and fog and then down into a cloud forest fringed with an unbelievable density of beautiful waterfalls. We are staying in Baeza, which is a smallish town en route to the jungle. We tried to get out there to sample the multitude of ponds for me, and streams for Julio, but it has not stopped raining, and mosquitoes hide in the rain. Anyway, we eventually gave up and headed back to the somewhat sketchy hotel to have a delicious lunch of soup and hot chocolate... just what is required after freezing in the rain!
I don´t think the rain will let up today. The plan is to have an easy night - a nice meal, a beer and some cheesy soap opera goodness, and then head to the jungle tomorrow. It´s raining there too - that is where Santy is right now - but let´s keep our fingers crossed. At least it will be warm there!
I don´t think the rain will let up today. The plan is to have an easy night - a nice meal, a beer and some cheesy soap opera goodness, and then head to the jungle tomorrow. It´s raining there too - that is where Santy is right now - but let´s keep our fingers crossed. At least it will be warm there!
Monday, September 15, 2008
Major update is required!
Hi everyone,
I´m so sorry about my lack of updates. We have been staying in extremely remote areas and, although I was back in Quito earlier, I couldn´t find the time to write in this.
Since the last update, we headed to Bellavista Cloud forest Reserve and stayed at the remote research station there. The place was rather unused by researchers and was annoyingly far into the bush. There was also - surprise - no electricity, so we had to make do with candles and gas stoves. This was an interesting experience with outdoor toilets and poisonous snakes. Santy came up to stay with us and work with us for three days during this. We all worked rather well together, driving around the area and setting up traps. I did finally manage to get some mosquitoes, so I was rather happy. However, when one has to sort them at night by candlelight, it is rather difficult to see what they are! The cloud forest was amazingly beautiful and we were woken up one morning by a loud toucan!
After four days in the bush, we returned a day early to Quito for rest and recuperation. Julio wanted to have a day to visit the museum collection here in Quito of mantids. Santy and I spent a nice day running errands and going on dates. We went to a lovely restaurant overlooking the city on Panecillo hill for dinner, and ordered great food and wine! It was so welcome after toughing it out in Bellavista with cold showers for a few days.
After our day in Quito, we were ready to leave again. This time, we headed out along a similar but more southerly transect. We stayed in La Hesperia Biological Reserve. The name is misleading because it is basically a hacienda that brings in international volunteers who PAY to work on the farm. While I liked the owners, it did seem rather fishy to me. Many of the volunteers were ill with unusual tropical diseases. One had contracted a very nasty reaction to the pollen from one of the local trees, making his face puff up horribly and skin break out into boils and blisters. The locals believe that this is a reaction of the forest to people cutting it down, sort of a revenge. Julio and I found many mosquitoes in sites along the road from Santo Domingo de Los Colorados - a pit, by the way - to Aloag.
In that particular valley, there is a major hydroelectric project under way to dam two rivers for electricity. The locals are running the project and are concerned about the common possibility of mosquito-borne diseases increasing. This happens because damming causes a massive increase in standing water. Anyway, the managers suggested that we put in a proposal to monitor the situation during the building of the dams and afterward too! It is a unique chance to study the changes caused before and after the building of dams. They also said that financial assistance will be possible. I´m pretty excited about getting into this, as it will be a fascinating side project, and will probably really help the community.
Otherwise we are in great health and doing very well. I think I am finally used to the food here. I was irritated because one of our traps was stolen in Tandapi. I was cursing the town on the way out, and just afterwards, there was a miraculous blackout! Aha! Proof that I have God-like powers!!
We are heading toward the Amazon side today. Wish us luck!
I´m so sorry about my lack of updates. We have been staying in extremely remote areas and, although I was back in Quito earlier, I couldn´t find the time to write in this.
Since the last update, we headed to Bellavista Cloud forest Reserve and stayed at the remote research station there. The place was rather unused by researchers and was annoyingly far into the bush. There was also - surprise - no electricity, so we had to make do with candles and gas stoves. This was an interesting experience with outdoor toilets and poisonous snakes. Santy came up to stay with us and work with us for three days during this. We all worked rather well together, driving around the area and setting up traps. I did finally manage to get some mosquitoes, so I was rather happy. However, when one has to sort them at night by candlelight, it is rather difficult to see what they are! The cloud forest was amazingly beautiful and we were woken up one morning by a loud toucan!
After four days in the bush, we returned a day early to Quito for rest and recuperation. Julio wanted to have a day to visit the museum collection here in Quito of mantids. Santy and I spent a nice day running errands and going on dates. We went to a lovely restaurant overlooking the city on Panecillo hill for dinner, and ordered great food and wine! It was so welcome after toughing it out in Bellavista with cold showers for a few days.
After our day in Quito, we were ready to leave again. This time, we headed out along a similar but more southerly transect. We stayed in La Hesperia Biological Reserve. The name is misleading because it is basically a hacienda that brings in international volunteers who PAY to work on the farm. While I liked the owners, it did seem rather fishy to me. Many of the volunteers were ill with unusual tropical diseases. One had contracted a very nasty reaction to the pollen from one of the local trees, making his face puff up horribly and skin break out into boils and blisters. The locals believe that this is a reaction of the forest to people cutting it down, sort of a revenge. Julio and I found many mosquitoes in sites along the road from Santo Domingo de Los Colorados - a pit, by the way - to Aloag.
In that particular valley, there is a major hydroelectric project under way to dam two rivers for electricity. The locals are running the project and are concerned about the common possibility of mosquito-borne diseases increasing. This happens because damming causes a massive increase in standing water. Anyway, the managers suggested that we put in a proposal to monitor the situation during the building of the dams and afterward too! It is a unique chance to study the changes caused before and after the building of dams. They also said that financial assistance will be possible. I´m pretty excited about getting into this, as it will be a fascinating side project, and will probably really help the community.
Otherwise we are in great health and doing very well. I think I am finally used to the food here. I was irritated because one of our traps was stolen in Tandapi. I was cursing the town on the way out, and just afterwards, there was a miraculous blackout! Aha! Proof that I have God-like powers!!
We are heading toward the Amazon side today. Wish us luck!
Friday, September 5, 2008
Back from the Colombian border
Hello everyone!
Well I´m back from the first of several collecting trips in the country. As part of my study, I wanted to sample a large variety of habitats just to see what is there. We started the work with a transect in the north of Ecuador between Ibarra and north to a town called Lita. The problem was, the majority of this route passed through semì-desert... very poor habitat for mosquitoes. I barely got any specimens.
The scenery was magnificent though, with gigantic mountains and canyons and small dry prickly shrubs that tore our skin. Towards Lita, there was a lot more agriculture and it was a bit wetter. Along the route are several police road blocks looking for cocaine smugglers. We didn´t have any problems, since we had all the necessary paperwork with us. As well, it was landslide city! There was one landslide in particular that repeatedly stopped us for an hour each way in and out of Lita. It was undergoing constant sliding, with many fist-sized rocks constantly tumbling down across the road. We crossed this quickly when the route was clear! I took a lot of good photos of this but I left my camera cord in Canada... so I will need to get a new one before I upload them.
In Lita, we met a nice young man who worked for the public health authority. He agreed to take us to a few up-mountain communities that had incidents of recent malaria. We went around with him in the forested communities, talking to people in their homes and dipping in the ditches and buckets around their properties. I collected some Anopheles larvae from some permanent tire tracks near a church. He was frustrated because he gave numerous community talks about covering up these water sources and filling in depressions, but nobody seemed to listen or care. Generally we were met with blank stares and distrust, although the residents were very cooperative. Two families in the area let us put up adult light traps on their land, although we didn´t catch too much.
We also visited a highland town called Salinas which sits on an alluvial valley. It used to be a marsh until they drained it several years ago for agriculture. The residents told us that the mosquitoes used to be quite bad when it was a marsh, but they had abated a lot. We didn´t manage to collect any mosquitoes from that place, despite our best efforts. However, there were many many black flies for Julio, probably the result of the fast-running irrigation canals.
I am generally doing well and I´m in good health. We are eating breakfasts in our hotels, snacking in the field, and eating a big dinner that he cooks at night. That way, we are making sure to avoid most problems. Probably our biggest nightmare is the road system in Quito. We got quite lost yesterday coming back into town. Yesterday we stopped in Otavalo for lunch and looked around the market there. It was nice to return to Otavalo on a less busy day and just be able to talk to the residents there.
Today, we are off to a cloud forest reserve. I think we will have more luck there, as the scientists at the research station tell me that there are many mosquitoes.
Ciao for now!
Well I´m back from the first of several collecting trips in the country. As part of my study, I wanted to sample a large variety of habitats just to see what is there. We started the work with a transect in the north of Ecuador between Ibarra and north to a town called Lita. The problem was, the majority of this route passed through semì-desert... very poor habitat for mosquitoes. I barely got any specimens.
The scenery was magnificent though, with gigantic mountains and canyons and small dry prickly shrubs that tore our skin. Towards Lita, there was a lot more agriculture and it was a bit wetter. Along the route are several police road blocks looking for cocaine smugglers. We didn´t have any problems, since we had all the necessary paperwork with us. As well, it was landslide city! There was one landslide in particular that repeatedly stopped us for an hour each way in and out of Lita. It was undergoing constant sliding, with many fist-sized rocks constantly tumbling down across the road. We crossed this quickly when the route was clear! I took a lot of good photos of this but I left my camera cord in Canada... so I will need to get a new one before I upload them.
In Lita, we met a nice young man who worked for the public health authority. He agreed to take us to a few up-mountain communities that had incidents of recent malaria. We went around with him in the forested communities, talking to people in their homes and dipping in the ditches and buckets around their properties. I collected some Anopheles larvae from some permanent tire tracks near a church. He was frustrated because he gave numerous community talks about covering up these water sources and filling in depressions, but nobody seemed to listen or care. Generally we were met with blank stares and distrust, although the residents were very cooperative. Two families in the area let us put up adult light traps on their land, although we didn´t catch too much.
We also visited a highland town called Salinas which sits on an alluvial valley. It used to be a marsh until they drained it several years ago for agriculture. The residents told us that the mosquitoes used to be quite bad when it was a marsh, but they had abated a lot. We didn´t manage to collect any mosquitoes from that place, despite our best efforts. However, there were many many black flies for Julio, probably the result of the fast-running irrigation canals.
I am generally doing well and I´m in good health. We are eating breakfasts in our hotels, snacking in the field, and eating a big dinner that he cooks at night. That way, we are making sure to avoid most problems. Probably our biggest nightmare is the road system in Quito. We got quite lost yesterday coming back into town. Yesterday we stopped in Otavalo for lunch and looked around the market there. It was nice to return to Otavalo on a less busy day and just be able to talk to the residents there.
Today, we are off to a cloud forest reserve. I think we will have more luck there, as the scientists at the research station tell me that there are many mosquitoes.
Ciao for now!
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