MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! I hope everyones was great:) We had a fun yet lonely and very different christmas down here. Err... Im trying to stay postitive but its SO hard. So anyhow, we put Mary on the plane christmas eve(NO!) and then went to bed, we woke up in the morning to find are homemade stockings filled with tofee, candy canes, candels, chocolate and toothbrushes. We lounged around the pool for a couple of hours and then got bus tickets(for peru!) and headed to the mall. We ate at TGIF and that was really good! Then we went back to the hotel watched a movie and then lit our candels and said what christmas means to us. We also gave money to the beggers on the street(in christmas spirit). We played with sparklers for awhile and then went to bed. It was really fun and mom and dad were great. They tried to make it as close to home as possible... but it just is not the same without snow,christmas tree and familly.
Now we are in Peru!! We crossed the border smoothly and now are in Chiclayo which is a ruin town. I think we will see those tommarow. We have a night bus tommarow to Lima tommarow were we will see the dunns!! Then on new years we fly to Cuzco( it was the hour and a half flight or a thirty hour bus ride!). I will write later because we want to see the sites now!
Vienna

blue footed booby - poor man´s galapagos

Treava & Friends - Ayampe, Ecuador

CHIVA "CLASSIC" BUS in BANOS

Banos

We are in a beautiful small village called Banos. Last night we went and spent 3 hours soaking in the hotsprings and dipping in the fresh cool water. Today Noelle, Vienna, Mary and I went on a 4 hour horseback ride. It was breathtaking and bun Burning. I am really looking forward to the hotsprings tonight. These horses could gallop like no others and wow is it a challengle for a person like me who is a tad bit scared. We road high up into the mountains and got to see some spectacular flora and fuana. They seem to grow everything in this valley so we saw lots of farmers working. Then came the even scarier part when we had to ride down the mountain on narrow trails on cliffs. What a sigh of relief I breathed when we arrrived at flat groung. Yet not for long . Up we went to La siete Cascada A (huge waterfall) where my bottom got a short break for a breath taking swim in the freezing cold water. Then of course the girls wanted to gallop the whole way home. I have to admit that by the end I think I was getting the hang of it. The town never looked so good and flat ground was incrediably refreshing for me. I goota go for the hot spring.

Noelles View of The Amazon

Day 1: As we started our journey from Quito to the Amazon I was so scared of the Amazon. I thought it was impossible to come out ALIVE. But then when we got there the breath-taking views, the animals, the native guide walking around with only a T-shirt and shorts and bare feet, the many different uses for all the plants and the river, it changed it all. On the first night we went on a night walk! I have to addmit that was pretty scary! Mary, Vienna, Treava and I clung to each other and mom. But it was amazing all the different insects we found! Spiders, roaches, crickets, beattles and even a HUGE ladybug!

Day 2: In the morning we went on a really nice hike through the forest. We learned that if you get lost all you have to do is find this one type of tree and hit it as hard as you can! The noise is sooo loud that someone will come and fish you out of the jungle. In the afternoon of that day we took a refreshing swim in the river!

Day 3: brutal awakning of 5:30 am! The early wake up call was definatly worth it! We got to go out and see the pink dolphins that only live in fresh water! They were amazing, they would swim in groups coming up only once in a while for some air. I found it really interesting that this type of dolphin can hold it´s breath underwater for up to 7 min! That it a LONG time! After breakfast we went on a boat ride to go on another hike. The amazing thing about this hike was that we had one of the Native Quechua go with us! He knew 100 different medicional uses for plants in the jungle! Half way through we heard some monkey and he destictivly knew what kind they were so we set off running! If you ever try running in the jungle it is a stumbling hot mess! When we finaly reached the spot where the monkeys were we looked up and caught a glimps of them and then watched the branches swing back and forth. He then made us a broom, using palm frans as the broom part, a stick for the handle and chicken guts (this amazing vine that you can you use like string) he made us a broom! It even had duel uses, a walking stick too! We were starving by the time we arrived and the lunch site. So we ate and then took the most exilarating anfd refreshing swim one could ever want after a walk through the jungle. After our swim we took a cold boat ride through the jungle to one of the Native Villages. There we got to hold a nocternal monkey ( so cute ) and pet a wild native picarie (pig)! After our animal visitings we went and baught (fully products of the jungle) neclaces and braclets made out of a plam rope and natural beads and Pirana teeth! Then it was back to the camp and HIT the sack!

Day 4: Our finnal full day in the jungle had actualy arrived. I never thought I would say this but I wish we would have had longer. In the morning we went and paddled up stream and then fished for Piranas. The bad thing was that I had gotten sick. My head spun and my neck hurt like no other! In other words i didn´t fish! I watched everyone fish and then all of the sudden Vienna got one! Wether it was her CRAZY tecnieque of throwing her pole in the water or just her persiestence, it payed off! From what we were told it was a baby but if it bit, it would hurt like I dont know what! We fished for a while longer and Olmeado (a native guide) caught a huge one but when holding it one of the other tourist dropped it in the water... AHHHHHH! We went back for lunch and took our last swim in the Amazon. After swimming I felt even worse and didn´t have the energy to go on the hike that the group would be going so it was decided that Vienna, Mary, Mom, Treava and I would stay and rest and then meet them at the bird watching tower! The bird tower was tall REALLY tall (78 feet tall)! The jungle canopy was amazing. We took the long climb down and then got to watch Daniel ( a native guide) make a backpack all out of natural products of the rain forest. From here I remember nothing! My fever got high and I was in bed untill we left the next day! The Amazon was an absolutley amazing experince!
Noelle

Amazon and Quito

Hey!
We just returned from the Amazon rainforest!! It was an amazing excpirience. Mom and Mary could have stayed for a month but I personaly miss conection with the outside world!
We saw lots of animals including... Doilphins, Parahnas(I caught one!), Aligators, Spiders,Ants,Birds,Monkeys and lots more! Thank godness no snakes! We will head to Peru to meet The Dunns(YAH!) in about ten days. I am very excited to see them but sad that mary is leaving!
Today we went to a soccer game in estadio olympico de Quito,Ecuador!! It was very fun! The first half it was tied intill the very end when Cueñca( Second best team in Ecuador to different Quito team) scored. After that Quito went downhill and Cueñca scored 2 more. Then after that we went to old town to show Mary. We went to a museum where we saw lots of nativety seens, that was really cool. The churches are beautiful but I was not able to enjoy them much cause of altitude sickness and stomach ache. Then we returned to the hotel and had a delicous dinner of taco salad and now im on the internet(oviously)! We head to baños(baths) tommarow and that should be very nice, there are suposed to be tons of very nice hot springs so even though mary wants hot weather I want cold for the hot springs.
I will write soon,
Vienna

The Amazon

We just returned from 5 days and 4 nights in the Amazing Amazon rainforest. It was so beautiful, peaceful, full of life, death and more. Where to begin. We started our journey by a 7 hour bus ride to a small town La Csacade, outside of Lago Agrio ( named after Sour Laké, Texas by the oil workers who live and frequent there.)
La Cascade was a beautiful village with friendly people. We played at the park on Zip lines and Noelle and Mary played soccer with the local boys. The next morning we woke at 5:30 to take a trip to the second longest foot suspension bridge in Ecuador. We arrived just in time to watch a bus being loaded to a small barge to be transported across the river. Some boards slipped on the barge and wow what a mess. While Chris, Noelle, Vienna and Mary crossed the bridge Treava and I took pictures and watched the bus. When we left 1 1/2 hour later the bus was still stuck. I am always so impressed by the patience of the people here who just sat and enjoyed the river bank while they waited for their bus. We returned to our hostal ate a quick breakfast and were off to catch a bus to Lago argrio.
The bus arrived and was full so we got our first fantastic Chiva bus ride into the jungle. It is an open air bus and when it´s full you sit on top. So up the 6 of us gringos climbed and held on for dear life. After a while our fears subsided and we enjoyed the spectator view until.... we had to stop at a military stop point. Ecuadors first largest income producer is oil and all of it is coming from the amazon. They guard it like the liquid gold it is but have standards so low environmentally to control the production it is scary. We saw the pipeline that runs from the rainforest to the coast running alongside the road. A car wreck would have produced a large spill. In many of places the pipeline was supported by pallets or other makeshift stands. Pools of oil were not uncommon to see along the pipeline. Anyhow we all had to climb down go through a check point have our bags rifled through and our passport numbers recorded. A half an hour later we climbed back a board and were off to enjoy the beautiful ride occassionally mared by oil production.
I liked what Treava said as we climbed aboard the Chiva bus "You know mom lots of things here in Ecuador are scary at first when we go to do them but just after 1 minute they are lots of fun."
I´ll continue tomarrow as I need to get the kids to bed. Love ya lisa

This is Mary

Hi everyone, when I got here, it was so cool, and kind of scary!! There are so many different beliefs and its such a different culture. This is the first time I have been to another continent. The Schmiiter-Schriers are really tan already and so good at spanish- I´m jealous! We´re having a lot of fun. We´re going to the Amazon and I´m really excited about that, but I better go; we have a 8 hour bus drive today to Lake.... I forget the name. Adios!

Otavalo

We took off on a bus (that was supposed to be a 2 1/2 hour but was actually 3 1/2 hrs) to Otavalo friday afternoon. When we got there, we were ushured off the bus and went to go find a hotel! After 1 hour of looking around and getting lost with the help of my moms WONDERFUL directions we finnaly found a nice hotel! We ate a delicous dinner of chines food and went to the main town center and listned to LIVE chrismas music! It made me miss home SOOOOOO much! We then woke up at 6:00 a.m. the next morning to go and see the animal market! At the animal market there were people streaming across the street walking their pigs, lambs, or cows on harnesses! It was amazing!!! You could look down from the hill and see millons of animals! We walked back and got lost again (guess what it was my moms WONDERFUL directions AGAIN!)

Mary got here on thursday and we are having so much fun!!!!! I will type more later! Hasta Pronto! Noelle
P.s. We are heading to the amazon for 5 day and will not have internet!

Fainting

Hi everyone, sorry I havn´t wrote for SOOO long! It was a hard week leaving the farm, everyone was soooooooooo nice and it felt much less comercial with only our family and Siff(another volunteer there). I did Guinea pigs this week and it was really interesting to see how they take care of Guinea Pigs in Latin America! I would get up and clean the cages out while I waited for Edgar (the guinea pig expert). We would then give the Gunea Pigs their alimentos (the necicary vitamens) while we watered the 4 worm beds and swiched the worms from one bed to another. I would fill up the container full of grain for the rabbit Edgar would get his macete. He would cut pasture wile Icut or picked vegggies for the rabbits and gave them their grain! (sorrry about the underlineing; I dont know what I pressed and Icant get it undone!!!!) anyways-I TRIED to use the macete but his left hand was better than my right hand!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So... that canceled that idea out. We would come back carringing pasture and then lay it in the pens! We are now here in Quito and had a horrible fright this morning! Treava fainted do to altitude and dehydration! IT WAS SOOO SCARY! At first we thought she was just sick because she was complainging about her stomach! Then we thought she was going to puke so she started running to the toilet and collapesed! My mom and dad came out scremeaning EMERGENCIA (emergency) and the lady was about to call the EMS when Treava came to her senses and said I dont want a doctor. She is sitting in the room now and doing fine-THANK GOSH-but it was VERY SCARY!!!! Miss you all, hope all is well for you,

Noelle

P.s. Vienna helped me with the part about TREAVA fainting!!!!!

Week 3 at the farm went by fast. Hillary and I finished up a project at the school on Cuantas tiempo para decompensar? How much time to Decompose. We collected garbage and nailed it to a long board and made a timeline of how long it takes. We talked about trash and litter and for how many generations they might see the plastic bottle they throw down. They were shocked to think their grandchildren would see most of their trash. They were so proud of the project that when we went to hang it they wanted it where the whole community could see it so the could teach their parents.
I got quite the shock this week when I went into the storage room for food and a big hairy creature was hanging there. It was a sloth. It was wonderful to observe it up so close and how slow they do everthing even turn their heads. At first I was scared of it but seeing the sluggishness it moved with I decided there was little to fear.
We spent a lot of the week filling fundas (Plastic bags) with compost for a reforestation project. We also planted seed, tomatoes, cucumbers and more.
The farm was offering an permaculture class for a month. That ended on Wednesday and all the westerners left. We all now love the more intimate setting with the farm hands and the more leisurely pace. We will be sad to leave yet look forward to more adventures. Love lisa

Hey!!
This week is are last week at the farm and looking back I thought I would be very excited to leave. It turns out to be not so. I am feeling mixes of excitement and sadness over leaving the farm I will miss the stability and some of the workers and kids. I am though excited to see new places and friends from AK that are coming to visit and also the Dunns from Panama. We will be heading to Otovalo and then the Amazon.The farm just keeps getting better, after most of the people left it is now just us and 2 other people.The food and much more continues to improve.
Last week I got to go on a hour and a half horse back ride to a waterfall. This was lots of fun and I get to go again next week! Yah!! I am very excited, only three months till AK!! I am getting fairly tired of being in the internet cafe so I am going to finish up. I miss you all,
Vienna

Last week at the farm!!!

This week I changed to chicken routine! We had to be up there by 5:55a.m. every morning! We would mix their feed and then Vienna and I would each take a bucket and put feed in their BAMBOO and TIRE feeders. We would then head to the garden to pick herbs and vegetables for the day! I have learned lots of new veggies like the ACHOCHA (a squash like thing) and different herbs that they use in our daily tea. For breakfast we usually have a delicious fruit salad, homemade yogurt, homemade granola, tea and some type of bread. Lunch is a soup, rice, some type of beans and a salad. Dinner is usually rice and beans! Once we are done picking veggies-we clean out the chicken pens! I am changing to Guinea Pigs this week and we will get to go on a horse back ride to a waterfall Tues. or Wed.!!!! For now I better go because I have the GRIPE (a cold). Miss you all and hope all is well in Alaska!!!! Noelle