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.