6th April- & time to leave ..
Or is it? We should have left after lunch today to head back to Quito for the next part of our adventure, however, we looked at the dates & decided we can stay an extra night! Hurray! In truth, I don't feel ready to leave this place. I wish we had booked longer, before our next adventure to Galapagos. Those dates are set though, so there's little flexibility - but tonight was meant to give me "rest time", so I am happy to sacrifice that. In truth, I have been sleeping better here than I ever do at home. Maybe it's the absolute darkness, or the soothing sounds of the jungle. Whatever it is, it feels pretty good & I'm not ready to give it up yet.
We were joined today by Charlie's partner Natalie & his 1 yr old daughter Soami. She is adorable & kept me entertained all day.
Today's work tasks were reforestation, so we cut back a lot of hedges, planted trees, saw a young tarantula spider, put posts in for young saplings & cut fodder for the sheep & goats. I spent time watching a group of monkeys & the strangest thing happened, they started to watch me back. They were obviously curious, as they approached me from both sides, getting within just a few feet of me. It was quite magical. We had lunch with Charlie & his family & we were then joined by Daniel to do some lemon picking. The heavens opened and we were all drenched, so headed back to clean out the animal sheds, give clean water to each, spread sawdust down in the sheep pen for them to get a comfy sleep on, and Graeme helped Charlie remove the living roof from the goat shed. I was sad at that, as it looked stunning. When we explained to Charlie that they are sought after & the prices of each plant in the UK he was flabbergasted. To him, it's a nuisance that destabiliszes the sheds. Each to their own I guess. We then brought the animals in & Graeme brought in the big male goat Domingo by himself. Domingo is usually too much of a handful for the volunteers to handle & can be quite aggressive ( I have called him Diablo all week as he is so stroppy), but on this occasion he was as gentle as the other goats. Mama hen & her chick have been strutting around the farm again today. It is so cute to watch. It sounds as though we did a lot today, but in actual fact it was a really slow paced day & much less physical than it has been over the last few days. Elsa left and gave us a big hug, as she is off tomorrow, so we won't see her again. Then later on Charlie & his family left too, they are such lovely people - it felt quite sad. He has a long weekend off too, so we won't see him again either. He has been great to work with, really knowledgeable about the forest- I feel like I have learned a lot. Sadly, I haven't learnt any Spanish though- it just isn't sticking in my head.
After dinner, we played cards with Emily & Danny. The only language I have learnt is the names for Dutch royalty, courtesy of the pack of playing cards a previous volunteer had left. We googled what they were as the royal cards had different letters on. In case you're wondering, king is Heer ( Heir) Queen is Vroofe & the jack is Bere. We don't have any work tasks to do tomorrow, so can have a leisurely morning before our shared taxi comes to take us to our hotel. I must admit, I am looking forward to having a hot shower. There's even a pool at the hotel. I might finally get the mud from under my finger nails!
Speak soon,
Caroline
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