All Good Things Must Come to an End...

Today was my last day at Jatun Sacha. And I cannot believe it. I got back from the four day tour late Monday night, absolutely exhausted, but somehow happy to be back to the familiar heat and bugs and humidity of the station. Tuesday, I continued work in the educational garden that Claire and I had been working on the past few weeks. We did some hoeing and raking and removed a giant tree stump from the middle of the garden. That night, after dinner, we all went to the bar--aka. the gazebo in the middle of the jungle with the two old pool tables and beer. We played some pool and some Cuarenta (an awesome Ecuadorean card game). After a bit, Ricarda and I decided to leave, since we were both exhausted. However, the walk home was not as quiet or uneventful as normal.

She and I had just walked about fifty yards from the bar, quickly being surrounded by darkness and following the narrow, steep path down to the road as usual, when we heard footsteps ahead of us. Unmistakable, heavy footsteps, coming toward us. We both froze, unsure what to do.

"It´s probably nothing," I said.
"What if it´s a chancho?" Ricarda responded.
"It´s probably not, it´s probably a cow or something."
"But what if it´s a chancho?"
"Well, gimme a stick."

So I found said stick and hurled it towards where the footsteps had been coming from, in the brush down the hill. Silence. Ricarda remained frozen, staring into the darkness. I, however, was tired and just wanted to get home.

"See, it´s nothing. Let´s go."

So I passed her and started walking off down the hill, Ricarda following a few steps behind, when we suddenly heard the steps and the rustling again in the brush at the bottom of the hill. We both froze again.

"It´s probably nothing. It´s probably a cow, right?"

However, I turned around as I was speaking only to see Ricarda, running faster than I have ever seen her run, disappearing up the hill back towards the bar. Suddenly, I found myself alone in the dark with the heavy footsteps shuffling along behind me, so I saw no other choice but to take off as well. We both arrived breathless at the bar, where everyone turned, curious to know why we had returned and why we were so out of breath. Immediately, I started laughing as I described in Spanish how I had found myself alone in the dark, Ricarda running away like she had bloodhounds on her heels.

The owner of the bar laughed as well and assured us, "Oh, no! That´s just the donkey, tied up down the hill!" Ricarda and I both laughed at ourselves and left a second time. And sure enough, at the bottom of the hill was a donkey, tied up in the bushes. (I hope I did not hit it with the stick!)

ANYWAY, Wednesday was spent digging a trench, essentially, all day. I was tasked with digging the pathway that would go through the educational garden and I started it easy enough. However, soon the soil grew really compact and hard. So for four hours continuously, I dug my trench. Eventually, someone else finished with their task and asked me if I needed help. However, at that point, I was nearly through, so declined--I had started the path and I wanted to finish it. And finally, I did--after four hours of digging. My back and arms were terribly sore the next day and, of all things, the heels of my hands hurt the most, probably from the continual impact of thrusting the shovel into the rock solid dirt. But it was worth it--the garden (and the path) look spectacular. In the afternoon, after lunch, I macheted a bunch of mora with some of the other volunteers.

As we were finishing up, a taxi arrived with four new volunteers, at least two of whom did not (hmmm, how do I say this politely?) really look like the outdoorsy type at all. But then, I could be wrong. As they walked by and waved at us all standing on the hillside, we waved back wearily and Claire piped up, "Welcome to paradise!" which made us all burst into laughter.

Wednesday night was my last night at Jatun Sacha, so we went to the bar again to play some pool and Cuarenta. And as we walked down the lonely road back to the station later, I made sure to look up at the stars one more time. That´s one of the things I will really miss--the stars. We are literally in the middle of nowhere, so I have never seen the stars look brighter or more beautiful.

Today, I helped in the kitchen to make lunch in the morning and then departed. Even though it was sad to leave--I really kind of wish I could spend my last two weeks working in Jatun Sacha rather than going back to Quito, actually--I think it will really hit me on Sunday, when I have to say goodbye to everyone I have met here.

I know that some day, I would LOVE to come back to Jatun Sacha and actually maybe stay a little longer than three weeks. If not this particular station, than one of Jatun Sacha´s other biological stations across Ecuador. One day...

It is going to be immensely hard to leave all the people I have met, especially because we come from different continents and are oceans apart and who knows if and when we will see each other again. But I am still grateful for their friendship and for the time that I got to spend at Jatun Sacha with them.

Until next time, ciao!

-Alex