It's still cold....

This video shows some of the typical weather and patterns in Oyacachi valley...Cold it is.
August 25th and the dead of winter. I write this from my room in Oyachachi, and that is the problem...you have to get up every seven to ten minutes to wave your arms and beat your legs. Two pairs of pants, three shirts, one sweater, one had an a full face gora, but the events are so vivid I have to write. So we'll see how clear this post ends up being....

I have been living in Oyacachi alone for the past three days. I am not very impressed with myself, three days and already a little crazy... I understand why the folks at CESA only stay for a maximum of 2 nights, even though they are being payed. But other than everything ocurring at half speed due to the comatose cold-effect, everything is good. I say its the cold... although I sometimes get scared that I have forfeited many brain cells because of all the trash burning fumes, smokey cookhouses and the lax attitude towards smoking in public places here inn Ecuador. But like I said earlier...Latin America is proff that sanitary lives are not necessarily the most fun.

Basically been gathering data....But that sentence is deceptively simple. For example, see above. Oscar left for several weeks with the keys to the station...so I had no way to get in. The irony is it's so damn cold that we wear pasamontanas which are buglar hoods, yeah you understand. But the picture was taken by Eouvany the Park Ranger who helped me install the well. Therefore we'll call this legal...

It is genuinely an up hill strugle. It is kind of hard to admit but even now I am struggling to get all the equiptment together and at the site atthe same time...alonng with all of the social obligations and difficulties of getting a reular field partner (or any field partner for that matter) for the stream gauging...discharge....which is really important for my research (hi Roel if you are reading : S ). Basically no Ecuatorian that I know wants to spend this much time in Oyacachi [because...1) it's so damn cold 2) no cell service 3) no internet 4) very little variety and availability of food(trucha or trucha, y manana lo mismo)], and everyone who lives in Oyacachi has a overtime job already. But I get what I get...its just not safe to do it alone.

So yeah, the process of getting data...get ready. It is about a 600m vertical from my bed to were I collect my data and make my measurments. That differential occurs over about 8km. Out of the four data days I have so far, I have walked to the control station two of them; still gruesome. Here is the stolen google image taken with my camera. Its Burly...I walk from the right to the left...North is up.

Nice ! things just got a lot warmer psycologically. My landlord just put on techno and offered calientarte. That means going out back to the smaller seperate kitchen house (cookhouse). So as I head out the door I find friends. We are six people out in the street, three casually speaking to us from the window in the second level. They are two brothers and their cousin. Here in the street, the aprentice veterinarian of the community is telling me very audibly that every girl or woman that walks by is his novia. Now to the cookhouse.....to calientartme con amigos and probably eat some really good food. What luck for me eh?

As a last note here is some of the propoganda that EMAAP-Q has going in Quito...more on this later. The significance to this is that this is the only drinkable water in Quito...that which comes from bottles. EMAAP-Q only supplies undrinkable water....Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.....