Orchids

Our official full day 1 at Intag, Sunday, was filled with a bunch of exciting things. Our group was split into two groups: Bromeliads and Orchids, two major types of epiphytes found in the Cloud Forest. The Bromeliads went on a nature hike in the morning guided by Roberto, a funny and amazing indigenous person that lives in the Cloud Forest, while the Orchids - my group - did a nature drawing and painting class led by Sandy. The class was really cool and calming. We sat in the roundhouse, which has no walls but has a fence made of bamboo and reminds me of Bali in "Eat Pray Love," and drew without looking at our papers and learned how to paint with water colors. It was so relaxing and perfect. We had to draw using different line qualities and without looking down at our papers and without lifting our pencils off the papers. It was difficult, but really fun to draw other people because they turned out like complete crap, but once we sort of fixed it, they actually sort of looked like what they should.

After lunch, Lisa, Dan, Chris, Laura, and I went down to the river right next to our reserve. Halfway down our hike, it started to rain.. and I didn't really bring anything waterproof, so I just wore my North Face HAHAHA. I was wet. But it was really fun. The river was really big and there were a lot of rapids. Monté just laid in the water again. LOL Then we had a major Ecuadorian history lesson - 600 years of history in three hours.. It was pretty intense, but really interesting, especially because I literally just took an entire class on Latin American history last semester. Except, I forgot everything I had learned, so I wasn't able to answer any questions Mary Ellen (our "professor") asked.. which made me feel stupid, but deep down inside, I knew I knew the answers. Hehe :)

I also forgot to mention that there's no electricity, so when it gets dark, it really gets dark. I loved it. It was kind of scary because there was literally no lights except candlesticks and flashlights, which only get you so far, especially when I wanted to use the bathroom, which was not flushable either. The latrines were actually very interesting and environmental. Instead of using water, they use a composting latrine, which is when you dig a huge hole in the ground, put a toilet seat on top of it, and then every time you do your business, you scoop a little bit of dirt into the hole. When the super deep hole fills up, they cover it up and then dig another hole next to it. By the next year, the soil will have fertilized really well and they can use it to fertilize their garden/trees. Gross, but really interestingly cool!

After dinner and everything, we all just chilled in the hammocks and talked in candlelight. It was pretty amazing. The directors also set up a white sheet to look like a screen and put up a light right next to it to attract moths. It was super disgusting because there were hundreds of different colored/shaped moths on  both sides of the sheet, but it was also really cool because I've never seen such a wide variety. And so was our first day withdrawn from "civilization."