I'm in Ecuador!

I am currently writing from Santo Domingo, which is about 45 minutes from La Hesperia. I arrived in the area on Thursday, after spending Wednesday night in Quito. I had a slight mishap getting here, though. The bus to La Hesperia didn't stop at the right place, so I had to run up to the front and bang on the door and get them to let me off a few kilometers down the road in the middle of nowhere. I was flustered and forgot to say something about getting my bags from under the bus and they drove off as soon as I stepped off. Juan Pablo, who runs La Hesperia, made some calls and was able to get my bags left at the Santo Domingo bus station and I'll get them on my way back this afternoon. Luckily, I had my passport and money and camera and ipod on the bus with me, but I'm very smelly from wearing the same clothes since Thursday.

There's not too much to say about La Hesperia yet because I arrived Thursday afternoon and everyone has a long weekend, so there was no work yesterday. What I do know is that it is very green. At 6am yesterday we hiked up to the highest point on the reserve, which has an amazing view of surrounding mountians. I was, of course, the absolute slowest person on the hike, but I made it up without much trouble and it was beautiful! I took pictures, but I forgot to bring the camera, so I can't put them up yet. There are nine other volunteers right now, but a bunch are leaving soon. They are all about my age or younger, and are mostly American. Apparently it changes a lot from month to month. I'm rooming with a girl named Emma who is a junior at Colby and is here doing an indepent project on birds. She has already pointed some humming birds and interesting bird nests that I never would have noticed on my own.

Thanks to everyone who has already emailed me. I'm not sure how often I'll be able to respond to individual emails, but it is great to hear from you!