From the logbook...Crazy man

Imagine, we had to wait for the weather to improve yesterday before we could launch on our flights. Finally, just after lunch I took off and set a course for what would be my first of 5 stops. There wasn't a whole lot that was unusual about my flight yesterday. The weather was really good in the afternoon, which was great. I could basically "point and shoot," no instrument clearances, no sector specific altitudes, nothing. At last, the weather had broke good enough that you could see for miles across the vast carpet of green Amazon jungle.

Although most of my flight was pretty "normal," I did have a passenger unlike any I had ever had. A few people came by the hangar wanting to know if they could send "grandpa" back to his home village. The man appeared very old, and I assumed they wanted him to be in the homeland as he awaited his death. This isn't what made him an unusual passenger. The fact that he was losing his mind is what made him unique. Despite his old age, there were three young men with him to help control him. I told them I wasn't going to fly him home, he was "to crazy and uncontrollable." They said, " no problem capi, we will just tie up his hands and his feet and then tie them together." I thought to myself that that sounds kind of like the chickens I haul out, except I put them in the belly pod, and don't have to worry about them. After I saw that we could safely tie him up, AND another passenger volunteered to sit next to him and help, I finally consented to hauling him home. As we wheeled him out to the airplane on the stretcher, it became apparent to me how badly this guy stunk. When we lifted him off the stretcher to put him into the airplane, I also realized what else senile people are capable of. He had urinated all over himself and the stretcher, and soon thereafter in his airplane seat.

For being old and senile, the man was VERY strong. It took three of us to fold him into his seat, and I put his seat belt on VERY tight. Because of the technical nature of the airstrip where he was going, I had to drop some weight at another airstrip first before going to Kaiptach. That said, the next hour before I was able to lose some weight at the village of Mashient by dropping off two ladies and their cargo, and then fly to Kaiptach seemed very long. The smell of the poor old man perpetrated the cabin the whole flight. Did I also mention that he was hollering at the top of his lungs the whole time?! I know the two ladies that were sitting in front of him were glad to get off first in Mashient.

After finally getting the poor old guy out of the airplane in Kaiptach, again with the help of three young guys, I went about cleaning up more bodily fluids and we were soon airborne for the remainder of my flight. Because of our late start to the flying day, I made my last landing of the day in Shell shortly before the sun was going behind the Andes. A trip to the bathroom to wash my hands, and then getting my paperwork done, I was soon home to enjoy the last weekend of 2007 with my family.

From the logbook...

Once again, today I spent a lot of my flight time in the clouds. Luckily, Shell was always open, but not much else. Because of the bad weather in the jungle, I only made two stops before coming home. I took a nurse to a village called Makuma to spend a week there, and then carried on to Achuentza to take home a Bible translator. All told, I was in the clouds for about 75% of my 2 hour flight today.


Achuentza is notorious for being nasty. After all the rain we have had, today was no exception. You can tell that the grass is a little long, and the strip was covered in water. Airspeed control is critical on approach as you don't want to fly any farther down the airstrip than needed in order to land and get on the brakes right away.

Buffet Line

This afternoon as I was leaving work I came across a piece of banana that I had kicked out of the hangar in the morning. Evidently the ants had found it on the ramp, and were out in full force to cut it up and haul it away. If you click on the picture, you will see workers, soldiers, and "managers."(note head sizes for "ranks") I read once that if you weighed all the people on the earth, and all the ants on the earth, they would weigh the same. After living in the jungle and seeing how different species of ants there are, and how many within that species, it isn't that hard to believe.

The Butterbee

A few weeks ago we were eating lunch at one of the local "restaurants" and ended up seeing some of our co-workers there doing the same thing. One of their kids spotted a moth under the pop machine. As I walked over to get a closer look I came across this most peculiar moth. When I asked the kids what it was, our friends daughter replied that is was a "butterbee." Made sense to me.

From the logbook...I'll be home for Christmas!

Yesterday, Christmas Eve, we were still "open for business" at the hangar. Our flight schedule was very light, although two flights did come along, one of which I did.

(It wasn't until early afternoon that I left on a flight with only 3 stops. Although I didn't have many stops, my first landing was an hour away from Shell. The weather was threatening the whole time of my flight, yet very operable. As I made my first landing at Shiona I realized that they must have had a LOT of rain prior to my arrival. When I touched down and applied brakes, it was so slippery that is was almost as if we sped up. After splashing though a few big mud puddles we finally came to a stop. After unloading my passengers and their cargo (he was a teacher) we were off to our second stop some 20 minutes away to the village of Alto Corrientes (ACR).

ACR isn't my favorite airstrip. The approach is usually plagued with wind from all directions, and the strip is one of the shortest ones we use and VERY slippery when wet. Pleasantly, to my surprise, the approach yesterday was very stable and the airstrip was very dry and braking was good.

After taking care of business in ACR (dropping off a snake bite patient) we made our way to Mauramu (MSR) to pick up a patient. Upon landing the patient slowly made his way to the airplane. He didn't look very good, and according to the nurse's sheet that I was handed, he was vomiting blood and urinating black. I'm not a doctor, but it didn't sound good.

Once I was airborn from MSR, I set a course for Shell and contacted the approach controller. She told me that they had had heavy rain while I was gone in the jungle, and it looked like they were going to be in for more. I also called our flight follower in the hangar on our HF radio and he confirmed the same thing. At this point I was still 30 minutes out from Shell and was evaluating all the options I had before me. I had put on extra gas before leaving Shell anticipating bad weather, the jungle was very operable still, and even if Shell did shut down, I could probably wait it out flying in circles somewhere while the rain passed.

At my check point of 20 miles out from Shell the approach controller confirmed that the rain had indeed arrived over Shell and it was "muy fuerte" or very heavy. At that point, I was already on the instrument approach mostly in the clouds. I elected to continue with the approach since I had so many options, although it was likely that Shell would be "below minimums" when I would be arriving in just 10 more minutes.

Ten miles out from Shell the approach really starts and you can start making your descents as you approach the airport. Visibility was very poor and I was flying through heavy rain, just like they said. At the missed approach point (the point on the approach when you have to decide by what you can or cannot see out the window that you can continue and safely land, or you must go around and execute the missed approach) things were still very minimal but all of a sudden there were the numbers "30" on the end of the runway. I quickly dumped in all remaining flaps and made a landing in Shell.

Needless to say, I was glad to be on the ground, and Rebecca was really relieved to get a phone call from me. With the heavy rain, she was sure that I would still be in the jungle, and may even have to spend the night away from home. Most days aren't as trying as yesterday. A typical day doesn't usually involve slip-sliding your way around the jungle on the nasty airstrips, and then an instrument approach down to minimums to get back to home base, but, occasionally you do have a day where you "earn your pay." For that reason, we do a LOT of training and practice for the days when we have to pull out all the stops.

Shortly after coming home, we were all gathered in the home of some friends, enjoying an awesome Christmas Eve turkey dinner. It was even better because I didn't have any lunch and I was starving!

From the logbook...a first!

After waiting for the weather to cooperate (I say that a lot here in Shell huh?) we were finally able to launch on some flights. It was around 1:30 when I finally took off for my first of 7 stops.

First, I went to a village about 35 minutes from Shell to return a teacher and his cargo. From there I flew 8 minutes to Conambo to drop off some more passengers that started with me in Shell. I left Conambo empty and flew 6 minutes to Alto Corrientes. I don't have a lot of experience in "Alto" and I also don't like it. The approach is always hard work, the strip is REALLY short, and if it is wet it is doubly hard. Luckily, all the hard work payed off and I landed and put on a lady and her 3.5 kids (she had one in the hopper also).

After taking off from Alto Corrientes I flew for 12 minutes to Bufeo to pick up another person that was returning to Shell. He works for a large ministry called Ecuador para Cristo. He was there doing a lot of "contract" work for Compassion International. It just so happens that another one of our pilots was in Bufeo picking people up the same time I was there. So, I let him take off first so I could get some pictures. Below is Alas 12 taking off with my airplane, Alas 14, seen in the background.

From Bufeo I took off and set a course for Chumbi, some 45 miles away, and now over 80 from Shell. Shortly after taking off I was advised of a patient in Mashient that fell out of a tree. So, I re-tuned the special black box (GPS) and made a bee line for Mashient. After flying 20 minutes we were on the ground loading up a 10 year old girl with obvious fractures, and her sister that was accompanying her.

Finally, for the woman and her 3.5 kids, we were off to the village of Chumbi. I flew 5 more minutes to Chumbi to finally drop her off. After helping them all out of the airplane I made a startling discovery. One of my sick sacks was used! Not only was it used, but most of its contents never made it inside. One of the poor little girls lost her lunch, and I found it all over my airplane floor and her chair. In my over 7 years of flying, I have NEVER had anyone puke on me...until today. I guess every dog has his day, and I finally joined the ranks of most pilots saying they have had a passenger puke while they were flying. Of course, the poor little girl didn't puke becuase of my poor flying skills and my lack of finesse, it was all due to global warming and lots of thermal convection...I hope.

Once I saw the woman and her 3.5 kids off from the airplane with all their cargo an one less lunch (remember, it was left all over the seat and floor) I set my final course for Shell. Thirty minutes later I was on the ground in Shell, cleaning up puke. We are not only just pilots and mechanics...we are nurses, doctors, cleaners, disinfectioners (that is a word!), puke cleaners, bodily fluid wipers, and blown up chicha bottle cleaners (another story). Yep, I earned my sleep today. It's always weird to think after days like today when I come home so tired, that I didn't even do anything until 1:30pm.

From the logbook...Christmas tidings

Today I was back in the saddle after 2 weeks of not flying. It was a good time, and the purpose was a little different as well. I flew a Finish family to the communities of Cumai (CUM) and Karink (KAR). This guy used to fly for MAF in Shell, but then felt led of the Lord to do more evangelical work amongst the indigenous people of the Ecuadorian jungle. He and his wife are currently living in Quito, but spend many weeks at a time in Cumai building a house so they can live there permanently. It is always a pleasure to fly this family, as their hearts and their sense of humor are both as big as the jungle they serve in. Today they flew into these two communities to offer the kids some Christmas presents, little sacks of cookies and candy.

Here they can be seen carrying the boxes of Xmas goodies and being trailed by a bunch of expectant children.

This is a shot from the second village we went to called Karink. I took this photo from their new 3 story high water tower. The village was really proud of it and anxious to show it off.

It's Official

After much prayer, searching of Scripture, and talking, Rebecca and I have decided to make the move to Oaxaca, Mexico to help with the program there. This is a HUGE change for us! We are still finalizing a LOT of details, but we will probably be heading north some time in March. We would appreciate your prayers for us and with us as we have an untold amount of decisions to make and work to do as the departure date nears.

Back Home

After a long trip home due to being diverted to the Ecuadorian coast due to bad weather in Quito, and then being stopped in the middle of the road for almost two hours on the bus due to a bed race (yeah, you read that right), I finally made it home yesterday in the late afternoon. I finally feel like I am coming up for air after what was a very informative week in Oaxaca, Mexico.I was able to visit downtown Oaxaca as well as a number of other places. The history of the area is very old, with many of the buildings in the plaza dating back to the 1500's. The above picture of one of the popular Catholic Churches to get married in. Supposedly every two hours they are have a wedding inside.

I was able to go on three flights while in Oaxaca. The flying is totally different from what I am used to here in Ecuador. This airstrip shown above has an average of 18% slope and a huge mountain on the other end. That said, flying a very stabilized approach is key to getting the airplane on the ground where you want it.

Ya Llegé

For those of you who have read Becca's blog, you will know that I arrived in Oaxaca, Mexico this past Friday. I have been busy getting the dime tour and going to some Xmas parties and things. Maybe later I will post a pic or two. Just so everyone knows, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, I am just busy.

La Cuidad de Panamá

I have arrived in Panama City, Panama. I will be off to Mexico City, Mexico in about an hour. I realized after landing that this is my third time to Panama in the last few years. I also realized that this is my first time to this international airport. I have come to and left from Panama different ways in each of my three times here.

My first time was with Becca and Brooklyn (pre-Madison). We drove from Costa Rica. We're glad we did it, but we would never do it again. The drive was way too long with a toddler.

The second time was on my ferry flight bringing Alas 14 from Kansas down to Ecuador. We were only here overnight and we landed at a smaller airport near downtown and near the Panama Canal. It used to be the American military base when we had a larger presence here.

And now, here I arrive like "most" people would in a commercial airliner at an international airport. The one thing I am reminded of is how awesome the country of Panama is! I think it must be because of it's American influence perhaps. It is VERY clean, things look organized and built with purpose, and overall there is just a sense of order. You tend to forget that feeling I guess after living in some pretty bizarre circumstances over the years. For those of you who would ever think about visiting Central America, Panama would definitely receive a high recommendation from me.

North to Mexico

After a busy week and no Internet, I am finally catching up on all things that pertain to my digital life. I am sitting in the Quito Airport right now waiting for my first of 3 flights that will get me to Oaxaca, Mexico. As time and connectivity permit, I will try and post some things about my scouting trip to Mexico. If I am not able to, then of course, when I get back I will post some info...and of course pictures. Thanks for your prayers with us as we try and make a wise decision in this matter...

Been flying lately?

It has been a while since I posted about something aviation related. Yes, I have been flying, but not much. Due to the holidays, a light flight schedule, and doing flight coordinating, there hasn't been a whole lot to post. I did fly on Friday, but it was just the first part of my 6 month checkup. I will hopefully finish that tomorrow. Then, this coming Tuesday thru Thursday we have a training seminar all day. After things wrap up on Thursday, I jump on a late bus to Quito so I can catch my plane to Oaxaca, Mexico early Friday morning. I feel like the week is going to fly by already.

That's a biggin'!

On Thursday one of my co-workers caught a big grasshopper and wondered if I would like a picture of it. Of course! But, I never had the time to get a picture, so I put him in an ammo can and brought him home. It wasn't until yesterday, Saturday, that I finally had a chance to take some pictures. Remembering back to my boyhood days, I thought it would be fun to "gas" him and pin him up, them everyone could get an idea of how big it was.


I stole the lid off of a cooler since it was the only thing we had that was made of styrofoam. I then made the black box and placed little tick marks every inch. As you can tell, this grasshopper is over 8 inches across, and almost 5 inches long.

Another Conversion

Yesterday, as Brooklyn and I sat out in our front yard we saw first hand something I had only seen on TV previously. You may remember this post about all the caterpillars we had in our trees a few weeks ago. Shortly thereafter they just "disappeared" but I did begin to see many of these cocoons...

I even saw this one forming a few weeks back, which was a neat process to see. Notice how it is help up by just two small silk like threads onto the side of our concrete planter. Then of course, we saw what those caterpillars turn into...

This one emerged from a different cocoon near the one in the photo above. You can still see the moisture on it's left wing as it sat on a flower drying so it could then fly away.

Once again, the attention to detail in the smallest of things, and the processes therein are an amazing thing about the creation that surrounds us, and the Creator that made them.

Dirt Conversion

I know most guys don't take a liking to flowers like I do, but I have always been in awe of how all things, especially flowers, are just converting dirt into what you see below. You could argue very easily about how anything biological is amazing due to the thousands of processes that occur to make something what it is, in this case a stamen from a hibiscus flower. Just try to wrap your head around the fact that it was once dirt. Then, you begin to realize how much more complex things like the human body are, and how God is an amazing designer and creator.

Nacho Libre

I have been waiting for a few weeks to share the following news. I wanted to make sure things developed enough so that I didn't blow smoke about nothing while pursuing a few things. A few weeks ago we had some of the upper leadership of the MAF world here in Shell to visit. During a lunch meeting with one of the guys, who is our regional manager, he asked us if we were up for a "change," meaning...moving.

The program in Oaxaca, Mexico is needing some help badly right now, and that is where we were asked to consider moving, and that is exactly what we are doing....considering it. Today, I bought tickets to visit Oaxaca (pronounced wa-ha-ca) at the end of next week to get a lot of questions answered, see the program firsthand, and see what life is like in Oaxaca.

Now, for an explanation of the title...for those of you who have seen the movie "Nacho Libre" you have seen the city of Oaxaca. While the places MAF-Mexico serves are vastly different than the city of Oaxaca, the city itself it very "typically" Mexican.

Anyway, in a few weeks, after my scouting trip December 7-13, we will make our decision to stay in Ecuador, or move to Mexico. Please join us in prayer about this as there are pro's and con's to this move, as well as staying in Ecuador.

Los Andes

It has been a crazy week to say the least. The main reason we haven't shared much about it is because our Internet has been down. Thankfully it seems to be up and running again for the time being. Over Thanksgiving, we, as an MAF staff, went on a retreat in an Andean town called Salcedo. It was a great time. Here are some of the pictures from it...

Los Ilanizas at sunset. We came out of the fog just in time to see the sun setting on these two extinct volcanoes.

On our way to Quilotoa crater (see below) we drove through numerous Quechua Indian villages. Becca and I have always loved the way the cheeks of so many Quechua's turn so rosy red due to the cold and chapping effect of the high altitude Andean wind.


Quilotoa crater is an extinct volcano that obviously blew it's top a long time ago. Like most pictures, this doesn't do it justice in terms of scale. If you look carefully on the bottom center edge (click the picture to enlarge), you will see some paddle boats the size of compact cars. The crater itself is over 2 miles across. It was a fun side trip to Quilotoa, and seeing it as well was a blessing with all the bad weather we had.

Stay tuned for more big news...

You lookin' at me...?

Last weekend we traveled up the road into the Andes and went to the Baños Zoo. All zoos we have been to outside of the USA have been drastically different from something you might see in the States, but it is still fun, especially to see Brooklyn's reaction to things.

This jaguar was a little sleepy when we first approached his cage. But, after a well placed rock (try that in the States) he promptly arose and looked at the famous "Lariat Rock Chucker" (that is another story). We also saw mountain lions, monkeys, many different sized rodents and a Galapagos Tortoise, all for $2.

From the logbook...late afternoon dash

After waiting almost all day for the weather to break, we finally got our chance around 3pm. I had a short flight with only 2 stops, so I took my time and took some pictures in Cumai and shot some video as well. Maybe in the future I will post another short video. I landed in Cumai with almost 800 pounds of school books, and then flew 2 minutes to Chapintza to drop off a school supervisor. From there it was a 20 minute flight back to Shell. I always like these short flights on a late Friday afternoon. It is an easy transition from there into the weekend.

Another oops...

Last Friday Iberia Airlines, the national airline of Spain, had an oops in Quito with one of their Airbus 340's. It is a common story. They landed way to long and way too fast, and thus went off the end of the runway where the airplane still sits until it is cut apart. Thankfully nobody was hurt. The weather conditions at the time of the accident were very marginal as well, which I am sure had something to do with the pilot's poor decision making.

Before and after

Some of you may remember this post. Well, unfortunately this pilot and plane had another mishap on Tuesday. Praise the Lord all were okay, although 2 of the 4 passengers were admitted to the hospital. They later were discharged pretty banged up, but otherwise okay. The plane crashed due to being overweight and encountering "a bad wind" on takeoff.

More snakes

Yesterday, while in the community of Makuma I had a while to wait while my doctor passenger attended to some local patients before heading to Nunkui with me. One of the missionaries that lives there in Makuma is very passionate about all things crawly, especially snakes. He was just brought the one you see below the day before by some nearby villagers. The snake was beautifully green and yellow. We took him into the nearby grass to get some pictures, where he got a little agitated (that was the plan) and puffed up and got into his defensive strike position. Unfortunately, I had my camera on black and white setting, which is undoable, thus making the brilliantly colored snake two tone. Oops!

Fluid Dynamics

Di-hydrogen oxide (water) is a weird thing. With all the water in Ecuador, there are obviously a lot of rivers and streams. Due to their rapid elevation loss over a short period of time, most of the rivers take on a very muddy appearance until they are much farther downstream, almost to the Peruvian border some 100-120 miles away. I have noticed while flying over the plethora of waterways in the jungle the interesting way some of the streams and rivers merge. While I cannot explain all the details about their merging, two bodies of water carrying different sediments etc, alters their density, thus their ability to mix easily. Therefore in the picture below two rivers basically comprised of the same elements are "repelling" each other until much farther downstream where they mix and become the same color.

Bagre anyone?

In keeping with my unexpected animal theme as of late, here is another creature found in the hangar earlier this week. This is a jungle catfish, probably in the 25-30 pound range. They get immensely bigger, as this is only a small one. It was flown out with one of our pilots as a gift to someone in the hangar.

"Kumeer dad, a big bad bug..."

That was Brooklyn's frantic exclamation after finding this lizard on the front porch. We caught it and pet it a little while before letting it go whereupon I took it's photo.

They're a stampedin'

Recently we noticed a few caterpillars in our lime tree. Now, when the sun is out and warming the tree well, a whole herd of caterpillars arrives to congregate and warm themselves. I am close to eradicating them so they don't damage my tree, but I want to wait a little longer to see what they change into, if they do so of course. With that many caterpillars in one place you should see the pile of you know what below them. It looks like a mini cow corral.

Frogger

This morning as I arrived on my bike at the hangar I almost ran over a most peculiar creature. Turns out it was just a frog, of which species I haven't a clue. So, I put him in an ammo box until I had time later to get some photos of him. Pretty interesting huh?


I did have a flight to do today, but it was canceled early on in the morning. I am on a "have your flight canceled" streak lately. I think this is number 3 in the last 4 flying days.

Misc...

• We have our Bronco up and running again. Thursday and Friday I hung around the hangar waiting for flights to happen that never came together, so I worked on the Bronco. Long story short, I determined it was the fuel injectors that weren't working properly. This is something I don't know how to fix, so off to Puyo it went. Sure enough, 3 of my 8 injectors were plugged. Now the jungle jeep roars after having all of my injectors cleaned and re-tuned!
• Our worship team seems to be getting a little better every week at church. I was playing the guitar previously, but now we have another guitar player so I am giving the bass guitar a try. It has been a lot of fun.
• While in Cusuimi last week dropping off parts for the radio install, I saw these mushrooms growing on a dead tree stump. It doesn't take long for decay to take over in the jungle environment.

La Piña

For those of you who ever wondered how pineapple is grown, this is what is looks like just before it is picked. I had a friend in language school in Costa Rica that I could not convince that pineapples grow above ground, not below. A few years ago while driving in Panama, we drove by some HUGE farms for Dole Pineapple, and it reminded me of corn rows in Kansas, except it was pineapple. I took this picture yesterday in Bufeo after dropping off the kids for church camp.

From the logbook...feast or famine

After some quick pilot changes this morning, my flying plate suddenly got really full. I hauled a little bit of everything, and made it back to Shell at 5pm, just as a thunderstorm shut the airport down.

My first leg was to take two doctors to a military base in Montalvo. Then I went to Conambo and picked up 5 kids for a church camp sponsored by Ecuador for Christ in Bufeo. After dropping off my kids in Bufeo, I headed back to Shell to get round 2. I left Shell full of cargo and a water engineer for HCJB World Radio. We went to Makuma and dropped off 650 pounds of cargo, picked up two adults and 2 kids and then fought weather to make our way south to Acheuntza to drop off the Makuma passengers, who happen to be Shuar Bible translators. From Achuentza we flew to Cusuimi where I waited for the water engineer to gather some info for a future project. It just so happens that another pilot and other MAF staff were also in Cusuimi doing an FM radio install. They had forgotten some key parts and I brought those as well. Two hours later the water engineer and I took off for Makuma again to pick up 4 more people, all missionaries for a conference they have in Quito. From Makuma we then made my last landing , number 10, and called it a day.

Our radio install crew blasting off in Cusuimi on the way to install number two. They will be in the jungle until Thursday trying to complete 6-7 village installs before they return to Shell.

Misc...

• Not a lot happening here. We have had a rash of crummy weather, so I haven't been flying. Guess we'll see what happens tomorrow.
• Hopefully this weekend I will get our Bronco back up and running. I haven't had the time I want to dedicate to it fully. Until then we will just keep getting around "de pica" or by foot.
  
• We went on our bi-monthly grocery shopping trip this past weekend. The woman below was a fruit/snack vendor at a tourist type place we stopped at for a bathroom break. I recomend the conconut covered fried peanuts, but not the bathrooms.

La vida cuesta

So here are the reasons nothing has been posted...in one word...life. Details below...

• My car. It started running rough so I thought maybe an ignition/fuel problem. I installed a new fuel filter, and built a new ignition harness and put it on. Didn't seem to make much of a change. Things were still running rough. Long story short, my fuel pump finally went out, luckily in front of my house. We towed it to the hangar and placed it on the famous ramp of shame. Some day I will have time and put my extra pump in.
  
• My Internet. You have heard that "the dog ate my homework" right? Well, my dog ate my Internet cable. We share Internet with some co-workers. The signal is beamed over to my house and received by an antenna on my roof. My dog got hold of the cable leading from the roof down to my office and made mince cable out of it. After some failed attempts, I finally got the cable repaired and we obviously have Internet again.
• My neighbors. Remember a few posts ago when I posted a picture of our neighbors that have a bar attached to their house. Well, it has been active lately...really active. And not just at night. In fact, it is worse during the day. We cannot seam to understand why someone needs their music so loud. Luckily we have had a bit of reprieve today.
  

From the logbook...

One of my stops yesterday was into a village called Pacayacu (PAC) to drop off and education supervisor. He only needed around an hour to get his things done, so on my way back to Shell after stopping in Masaramu to pick up a patient, I landed again in PAC to get the supervisor. All of the kids were there from one of the classes and the kids of PAC are always fun and willing for a picture. I handed my camera off to one of the villagers (always an interesting and funny experience) and had her take our picture.

From the logbook...snow day

Okay, I know it doesn't snow in the jungle, but it obviously rains. When it rains so hard everything is shut down, I call those days snow days, referring to the days as a child when it snowed so much you didn't have to go to school. (I miss those) Yesterday, was one of those days. So, what did I do with myself...I found all the unpainted propeller spinners in our fleet and gave them a nice polishing. Today, I took this picture in Mashient, and yes the weather was very nice.

Playtime

Recently Shell received a new jungle gym in the town plaza. Driving home last night I snapped a quick shot with Sangay Volcano looming in the distance.

From the logbook...Volleyball, jungle style

Last week after I landed in Charapacocha (CHR) the community offered to feed me lunch. I hesitantly yet graciously accepted. I sat down at the table by myself in the middle of the community hut as everyone gathered around to watch me eat. They shortly thereafter brought me a banana leaf full of freshly cooked fish, just caught from the nearby river. It was piping hot, so I couldn't eat it right away. I also realized something else was piping hot...my passengers. I forgot I had two passengers in the airplane from another airstrip, and I quickly made my way back to the plane to let them out. On my way back to the lunch table, I saw a volley ball game going on and just had to get in. Of course the community pulled up their "bleacher" seats and took part in the action. They were hootin' and a hollerin' every time I spiked the ball. After about 10-15 minutes of giving those shorties a whooping, I returned to my table to finish my fish, which was good, and several days later I am not sick. PTL!

Church life

A few weeks ago I had my camera at church and took a few shots of what things look like from the inside. I thought you all might like to see what church looks like in a third world jungle community. For those that have visited us and gone to church with us, there are some things that just...capture your attention. Most are not bad or wrong, they are just...different.

Wanted...Hot bartender.

For another picture of what the neighbors look like on my street, you will see an interesting sight, at least for an American. The house across the street from us also has an attached bar. Lately they haven't been too noisy, in fact they haven't even been open. When the doors are open though it sure makes me appreciate zoning laws in the USA. If you see the little white paper on the bar part of the building, it is a help wanted sign. If I were to translate the spirit of the sign, it would read something like," Wanted, a hot looking young girl to be our bartender." As far as I know, they don't have any takers yet.

From the logbook...tour guide

I am the on call pilot this weekend, therefore I have today off from work. Yesterday was a fun day in the cockpit as I flew to all ends of the jungle. I had two flights, the first taking patients and people back home and bringing missionaries out, and the second was a "tour."


We are often asked to fly people (usually North Americans) to various communities so they can see a glimpse of jungle life, and then fly back home the same day. Yesterday's group was large enough that we used 3 airplanes to get them all into the Waorani village of Tiweano (TIW). This is a popular destination because it is close, about a twenty minute flight, and the people are a lot of fun and very accommodating. As pilots, we end up being the middle man tour guide, acting as a translator and answering a lot of questions.

From the logbook...Road kill

A friend of mine sent this picture to me today...I don't think I will have this problem here in Ecuador. According to the aircraft registration, or tail number, this appears to have happened in Namibia, Africa.

Although, we do hit things when we land. Usually it is just the world's dumbest birds, chickens. But some of us have hit dogs, cats, etc. All of us have had close calls with cows and horses, which we hope never actually happens.

From the logbook...

Again, we had poor visibility yesterday due to Brazilian cane field smoke. Therefore I was able to log some more instrument time, and 2 approaches to get back into Shell. Visibility was never better than 3 miles.

As I was setting up for my last jungle landing of the day in Masaramu MSR I noticed an airplane on the ground and pulled off to the side of the airstrip. After landing and getting my cargo and people off, the pilot came out and told me why he was there. After looking a little closer at his airplane it became obvious. The nose wheel tire was flat. Unfortunately he found out about his flat tire when he landed in MSR. He works for another aviation business in Shell, so we were casually friends before. He told me someone was bringing him another wheel/tire, but it might be a while until they arrive. He didn't have any tools, so I offered mine to help get the process started in the repair. Five minutes later I had the wheel off and split to see why it went flat. It seems the tire itself has a deformity on the inside that rubbed a hole in the tube, and finally it all came to a head.

From the logbook...

After an almost 3 week hiatus from the cockpit, I was back flying again. It was a lot of fun to be back into the routine and taking people and their things all over God's green jungle. Part of my flying today entailed taking some medical staff from the local mission hospital to a village called San Juan. We will be picking them up in a few days, but from another community as they are going to walk through the jungle to reach it.

We have awful visibility right now due to smoke supposedly from Brazilian cane fields. They are being burned and the smoke gets blown our way thousands of miles until it hits the Andes. The visibility was never above 3 miles today everywhere I went, and I even shot the instrument approach to get back into Shell just to play it safe. The one upside of flying through such thick smoke is it isn't bumpy like clouds. The downside is, that the smoke hides the clouds, which are bumpy.
One of my stops had me in Makuma for a bit of gas, and to pick up some passengers. One of our other pilots was also there, and was taking off just as I shut the engine down.

Hiking trip

Becca and I had been scouting out a new waterfall for a while, and we found the time to go hike into it today. It was about a 40 minute drive into the Andes from our house. The hike was great, and the waterfalls were amazing! Hopefully Becca will tell of "the accident" in her blog. She writes better than I do, and will convey a little better what happened.

Me and my girls in front of the waterfall...kind of. The mist was really heavy and I couldn't find a suitable place to take a photo without Madison getting soaked. She loves riding along in the backpack, which makes hikes like these all the more enjoyable.

Here is the shot of the big waterfall. It probably has a drop of around 100-120 feet. I hope to go there again, but this time with my swimming trunks on!

Fruit Stand

Traveling anywhere in Ecuador you will see fruit stands of various sizes, with various fruits according to their season. It is always cheap, and usually the quality is good.

Got Milk?

While driving down the mountain from the hot springs we saw this man taking his milk jugs to be sold in town. You see a lot of the "old style" milk industry as you take side roads and explore little hillside villages. Despite the lush greenery seen in the picture, it is very cold in the high country. This picture was taken at around 11,000 feet, and the sun didn't come out very much. The temperature was probably around 45 degrees and very humid with a light mist. Forty-five degrees used to be balmy when we lived in Colorado, but now we are not used to the cool/cold temperatures.

Next gas 200 miles

While away on our little Andean adventure, we went to a hot springs deep within the mountains, and far from anything else. I had plenty of gas to get to the nearest gas stations, one out east into the jungle, or one west back in the Quito area, but I didn't have any "exploring" gas. So, we asked around in the little town where the hot springs is located and found out there is a woman that sells gas. She fills up her 5 gallon jugs of gas and then raises the price around 30% for a total of $2.00 a gallon. No I am not complaining, I know the price of gas for all you "poor" people that live stateside, and I know our gas prices are cheap. Hey, there are some benefits to socialist thought and government subsidies.

Hubo muchos caballos silvestres

As we drove to the back side of Cotopaxi Nat' Park, we came across a lot of wild horses. In total we probably saw about 60-70 horses comprised of around 3 separate herds. Most of them had really long mains and tails, most reaching the ground.

Back home

We made it back from our little trip yesterday afternoon, although we had to park the car a block from our house and walk with all of our stuff to the house, but that is another story and another blog. We had an incredible time, and of course we took pictures. Now that Becca and I both have cameras again, my hard drive might be getting fuller, faster. We only took around 700 pics! With that many, I obviously cannot post all the good ones, of which there are many as well. So, I will start here and from time to time keep putting a picture on.

(click the photo to see the llama grazing and the climber's refuge right below the snow line.)

One of the places we went was Cotopaxi National Park. We had a GREAT time there! Not only is the centerpiece of the park incredible (Cotopaxi Volcano) but so was all the wildlife and the landscapes. We saw wild horses, llamas, awesome birds, Inca ruins, mountain lakes and streams and ancient lava flows (pictures to follow). For the first time in a long time we experienced cold temperatures and very hard wind. Did I mention we couldn't breathe? Most of where we drove had us around 11-12,000 feet. A few years ago when we lived in Colorado this wouldn't have been a big deal, but now we lowlanders get winded doing things above 8,000 feet (only 500 feet higher than our home in Colorado). I am sure we will revisit this nation park. You can drive almost all the way to the climber's refuge, but we thought we would wait until Madison gets a little bigger, being that it lies at around 15,000 feet.

Vacation

This week I am on vacation. Although I have had days off here and there since arriving in Ecuador a year and a half ago, this is our first dedicated, "on purpose," week long vacation. Today we are just hanging around the house, but tomorrow we are off on an adventure. We will be sure to tell about it when we get back this coming weekend, with pictures of course.

Sunset

Like I have said before, living on the equator isn't very conducive to vivid sunsets. But, there were sure some beautiful colors of blue yesterday as the sun went down behind Sangay Volcano.

Lichen?

Brooklyn and I went for a quick walk through the woods yesterday near our house and saw these weird lichens. At least that is what they looked like, except they were huge like only the jungle can make things, the largest being approx. 3 square feet.

Droplets

During a light rain today I caught these water drops forming on our banana plants in our back yard.

From the logbook...

Compared to previous days, Friday was a light day on the flight schedule. I still had 4 hours of flight time and 9 landings, but thankfully the weather didn't put up much of a fight. I still spent a little time in the soup, but nothing like Thursday. Once again, I was taking teachers all over tarnation. I think we have another solid week of flying teachers. On one of the return legs to Shell I also stopped in Capahuari (CAP) to bring out a government medical team.

Usually the community helps carry things to the airplane, and this time even the kids were joining in, helping to carry some paperwork and the tent.

I snapped a quick shot just before loading all of their stuff in CAP. As usual, this medical team was glad to come out of the jungle, especially since it was Friday.