gail sheffield on fri 20 aug 99
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These last couple of posts are off-topic for ceramics, but will round out my
description. The rain forest half of our tour was very magical for me, and =
I
think it was a pretty incredible experience for all. You can see the lodge =
and
read about their projects at the previously mentioned website =
www.yachana.com .
But it does not do the place justice. Very beautiful setting above the Rio
Napo. It was like going to camp, at least the way camps were back in the =
40s
and 50s. Simple buildings=3B the rooms were plain with cot-like beds and a =
couple
of shelves to put stuff on, screened windows. No electricity, so lighting =
at
night with oil lamps. Good bathrooms since water is abundant, but the =
brochure
saying something like =22our guests enjoy the cool refreshing water=22 was =
akin to
when the doctor says =22this will only hurt a little bit.=22 The water is =
from a
spring and is freezing. Most learned to shower at midday, and most got used=
to
it after several days, but I never did. The biggest surprise for me was the
pleasant climate=3B almost on the Equator, at an altitude of only about 1000=
feet,
and it was so cool at night we slept under blankets. It was also pleasantly
cool morning and afternoon and hot and sticky only at midday, and even then =
not
too much. I live in southeast Louisiana where the heat and humidity are =
brutal
for 4 months, and it doesn't really cool down even at night. I can remember
life before air conditioning when you would do stuff like showering in the
middle of the night, put your sheets in the freezer for awhile, and =
otherwise
think up desperate ways to get comfortable. The other big surprise was the =
lack
of mosquitoes. There were lots of dragonflies hovering about during the =
day,
and bats swooping around at night, not to mention loads of frogs and, I =
assume,
lizards and other mosquito-eaters. It was explained to us that the ecology =
is in
balance, whereas in the towns that are in the forest areas are mosquito (and
thus malaria) havens because the government sprays once a week (probably =
with
DDT) which kills the mosquitoes, but also kills all the things which control
mosquitoes, and =22mosquitoes reproduce faster than frogs and lizards.=22
The forest held 2 major disappointments for me, personally. One is that the
primary forest of that area, which we saw on one of our hikes, is not the
triple-tier-canopy forests which allow no sunlight on the floor and so are =
open
underneath. The other was the night sounds at the lodge. I had really been
looking forward to a real cacophony of wild night sounds, including, I =
hoped,
howler monkeys. But it was just like here, lots of frogs and cricket and =
locust
types critters. Anyone who has lived in the rural Gulf South knows what I =
am
talking about. The only difference was that their tree frogs say =
=22quack,=22 which
made it sound like a duck conference outside.
This post is getting a little lengthy, so more in the next one. Does anyone
have an answer as to the cool climate we experienced? The only thing I can
think of is that maybe the rapid recycling of water, from the sky down to =
the
ground as rain, then back up through the plants and transpired and =
evaporated up
into the sky again, makes the entire forest act as a gigantic swamp cooler.
Gail Sheffield
Covington, LA
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