Adios Field Camps

Sadly, yesterday was our last day in the field. I still can’t believe that I might not see paramo again, or that was my last time climbing through the moss jungle.

Anyways, this trip to the field, we split our time between Rumi Loma and La Libertad. It was odd to see Rumi Loma after the burn. Although the fire had ended two weeks before, the cabin that had burned was still smoldering, and clearly nothing was salvageable. I’m grateful for the trails through camp. They seem to have been what stopped the fire. There was one place where the fire had gotten to within a foot of another cabin. It is miraculous that it didn’t go up in flames as well. (FYI the photo of the burned lizard really is black and white.)

After relaxing at Rumi Loma, on Friday we hiked from Rumi Loma down to La Libertad. The hike was only about four hours, and it ended up taking Jesse the same amount of time to drive Big Blue down. The hike was fun because we started playing mind games for the first time this term. None of them knew the “53 bicycles” one, so that took awhile. Also on the hike, we found a cacique nest and could hear chicks inside of it! An adult kept flying back and forth, probably feeding them.

This was definitely the week that we started playing games. Besides mind games, we began playing telephone pictionary and mafia in the evenings. We ended up with some crazy things with telephone pictionary. I mean, it’s hard not to when the first sentence is “I’m so rich, I use mahogany toothpicks.”

On Saturday, Catherine came up to camp for our last class. She also brought Josue, our vegetation expert for the transects, and surprisingly Hannah. Hannah was a RRCS student two years ago. Additionally, she’s a Carl who happened to be in my problem-solving group for E&A. (So I’m pretty sure there are more Carls in Ecuador than SC. So far, I’ve run into a peace corp member, another Carl on study abroad, and Hannah, and I have plans to see two more. Seriously, I haven’t seen that many Carls in SC, despite having two others in my immediate family.) It was hilarious hearing her stories and seeing similarities between different RR semesters.

On Sunday and Monday, we took Josue out to our two plots and went over the transects with him. Monday especially was a lot of work. The hike just to get to the moss jungle plot is fairly significant, and then we had to make both of the transects, one of which had a 30 foot drop in the middle. It is still such an odd feeling to be supported just by branches and vines so far above the ground.

Now, I have just under two weeks left in the program. Hopefully, they’ll go smoothly.