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Monday Morning

It's Monday and I'm dragging. Add to that the fact that I've been fighting a modem install for a couple hours now, and it's not a good start to the week. But, things can always get better! I didn't get a ride in over the weekend due to lots of rain, so I'm really looking forward to a ride this afternoon.

Planes

The MAF pilots here are always waiting for the weather to clear. They've got a saying about it, and I'm not sure I'll get it right, but here goes. "If it rains before 07:00, you'll be flying by 11:00. If it rains after 07:00, you won't be flying today." Now of course, that doesn't hold true. The weather in the Oriente is utterly unpredictable. A weatherman is not needed here, that's for sure. At any rate, Fred and Bruce were flying by 10:00 AM, and that was WITH an early morning rain that started around 4:00 AM. Here Bruce and the Helio Courier that belongs to our neighbor, Aereo Regional, wait for clearance to depart. They're waiting for the Ecuadorian Air Force Twin Otter to take off. I did a quick search on the web for that link to the Helio Courier site, and was amazed to discover that the Aereo Regional Helio is for sale! None of the guys in the hangar knew that, but I found it on the web. Small world. At any rate, I love watching the Helio take off and land. What a great plane!

Critters

Taylor and I have been in Shell by ourselves since Wednesday morning. Dustin's field trip to Quito has been this week. Each year the students in grades 5-8 go to Quito for some research at the Alliance Academy library and some fun in the city. Ellyn decided to go along at the last minute so she could visit the dentist. She had a filling fall out the other week, and it was one the dentist had just repaired the day before it fell out! Also, she went up so she could take Dustin in for an orthodontia consultation. It looks like he'll be getting braces. That will mean monthly trips to Quito for a while. But, he's at the right age, and the price is right. Dental work is generally more affordable here than in the US, and many dentists have trained in the US. But, that's not why I started this post. So Taylor and I are home alone last night, and playing Battleship when he jumped up on the couch and yelled, "Tarantula!" I was sitting on the floor, and turned around. Sure enough, there was a tarantula on the floor by the closet door. Just what we needed! So I grabbed a jar and put the spider in it. We'll use it to scare Ellyn this weekend, and we're plotting what would be the best way to do that. Then, later in the evening, I heard the dog outside barking. I decided to go out and see what see was up to, and found her barking at a foot-long coral snake. She loves to grab bugs and moths and play with them, but she wasn't quite sure what to make of this wiggle little snake. Actually this was the second time this week I had found her outside with a coral snake. So I got another jar and put the snake it it. We won't scare Ellyn with this one, but I captured it anyway. This is a venomous snake, but the mouth is so small, and the teeth are in the back of the mouth, so it's not very likely to get a bite from this little guy. Here's a photo of the critters.

Damaged Goods

We didn't have any thunderstorms yesterday afternoon or during the night. So far, none today either. Maybe we're over that hurdle for now. At any rate, here's a list of all the things that were damaged by lightning in the past month:

1 surger protector power (personal)
2 modems (personal)

1 network interface card (Makuma)
1 server - needed new network interface card, power supply, motherboard (Makuma)
1 HF radio (Makuma)

1 modem (Nate Saint School)

4 hubs (HCJB hospital Shell)
1 port of a 16-port hub (HCJB hospital Shell)
1 print server (HCJB hospital Shell)
1 UPS (HCJB hospital Shell)

Blue Sky

I had the feeling of being in Oakhurst as I awoke this morning. I looked out the window and saw only sunny blue sky. That doesn't happen very often here in Shell. When I took the dog outside, I saw that there were a few clouds in the sky, but not many. Sangay and El Altar were both out of the clouds, something we haven't seen much of lately. Later, as we met for our morning briefing and prayer in the hangar, I snapped this photo of Sangay. Of course, the clouds have rolled in, and the view is gone.

Short Strips

Some bad news was just confirmed today. The pilots got a message late last week that airs shorter than 500 meters would be considered unusable. But the news was vague, and we didn't know when that would go into effect, or how long the affected communities had so lengthen their airs. Today one of our pilots in Sucua, Darryl, received word that effective immediately airs shorter than 500 meters could not be used. This is not good news, as we land at many s that are under 500 meters, and even some that are under 400 meters. Yes, they are dangerous s, but our planes are STOL (short takeoff and landing) equipped and our pilots are thoroughly trained for these kinds of airs. To me this is frustrating, and I think probably political in nature. The people hurt by this? The indians who will suffer next time there is a medical emergency and we can't fly in with our planes to take them out.

In The Hangar

The weather was poor this morning. Bruce attempted to complete is flight schedule, with Steve tagging along. Steve is flying the right seat now and then to start getting a feel for the area. He'll start his on-field training soon, now that the Chief Pilot is back from a 2-week trip to Mexico. Steve has also had to spend the past two months getting his house finished and ready to live in. Bruce made his first stop, but then ran into bad weather and had to return. Dan, who elected to wait in Shell, had a hard time not saying 'I told you so'. Later in the afternoon both Bruce and Dan got their flights done.

Mike and Dave both flew down from Quito. Dave had flown up at 3:30 PM on Monday afternoon with a patient transfer, and spent the night. Mike flew the shuttle flight down, and waited all day while John worked on HC-BZE, the Quito plane. In the end, John couldn't resolve the problem and Mike flew home in a different plane.

Curtis spent the day putting his toolbox together and getting organized. He's a new maintanence specialist and his shipment arrived on Saturday. He and his wife, Rachel, are living in temporary MAF housing while they look for a permanent place to live. They also just announced that Rachel is pregnant. That was a surprise to them.

The prop has been pulled of HC-BXB, and now we wait for a new engine, or a decision on whether we can rebuild the engine. That's the plane that was involved in the prop strike ten days ago. Oscar and Mateo put a new nose fork on another of the planes, and this will allow the 8.5" tires to be run on HC-BQV. The idea is to increase the tire size up front to keep the nose from sinking into soft spots on the runway, and to keep the prop farther away from the ground. The new configuration changes the way the plane flies, and also affects takeoff and landing distances. But, if it can save a few $35,000 engines, then it should be worthwhile. Dan really hates the way the plane flies with the modification.

Grenade Attack on British Consulate

A grenade was thrown at the British consulate in Guayaquil on Monday. Most likely a protest against the war in Iraq. There were some demonstrations in Quito last week. I'm not sure of all the details, but I did hear that one of the issues the protestors were concerned about was that the US would pass the cost of the war on to Ecuador.

US Military Presence in Ecuador

No, they aren't fighting terrorism. It's drug traffickers they're after. And some say that drug trafficking finances terrorism. Ecuador is allowing the US to fly spy planes out of the military base in Manta. The flights are used to gather intelligence in the war against drug trafficking in Ecuador, Peru, and Columbia. Many Ecuadorians don't like the idea of the US having a presence in their country as they feel it's stepping on their sovereignty. But the current president, Lucio GutiÈrrez, has promised to cooperate with the US in this regard.

Makuma Server--One More Time

I think I said a week or so ago that the Makuma server was working. But it's been an uphill battle since then I had everything brought back in, server and radio system. At that point we decided the radio had been damaged also. Once we sent the server out with a new radio, it took a bit more time to get things straightened out, and now it's working. That is such a relief, and now I can concentrate on other things again. That is good news. However, the thunderstorms continue in the Oriente, and I hope and pray we don't lose any more equipment. I know Lois in Makuma is glad to be in regular communication again, as she has a son-in-law in the US military who is over in the Middle East. One problem they are still fighting out in Makuma is one of electricity. The hydroelectric plant isn't working 24 hours a day, so some days they only connect for e-mail three or four times a day. But that certainly is better than nothing!

I'm Back!

I managed to lock myself out of my weblog this weekend. I won't bother to tell you exactly how that happend, but it did. I finally figured out how to get back in just this afternoon. Nothing like being locked out of your own house!

Shell Afternoon

I woke up and went outside to see the snow-capped peaks of El Altar. It's been months since we had clear weather in the morning like that. At 8 AM Steve, who does our accounting, said that we'd have afternoon thunderstorms again. With the sun causing heat buildup in the morning, it was the perfect ingredient for a thunderstorm. And that's what we have right now. It's passing to the south, but still, I've unplugged my phone lines and e-mail server.

And Yet Again

I was just heading over to the hospital about 3 PM to replace a bad modem--likely toasted in last night's lightning--when it started to thunder and lightning once again. By the time I was done and heading home, it was really pouring, and I could only drive about 20 mph as the rain was blowing right at me. When I got home I remembered the plastic covering the windows and ran right in without putting up my umbrella. I was soaked after ten steps and ran in the house to find most plastic coverings holding up fine. I went around with tape reinforcing things, but with the exception of Dustin's room, things were good. His window is so far below the second floor eve that the rain easily hits the window with just a moderate amount of wind. And, since the plastic was taped on the inside wall, water was able to enter. I pulled up the throw rug, put down some towells, and cut my losses there. During that time, Ellyn ran home from school. She had been teaching a photography class to the seventh and eighth graders. She was drenched since she didn't have an umbrella, but she didn't know I was home, and knew we only had plastic for windows. At that point I ran over to the hangar and shut down my servers and other computers, as well as unplugging the HF antenna and phone lines. We lost power before it was all over, and had one lightning strike within a tenth of a mile. I don't know how much more of this I can take. It wouldn't be so bad, but I really dread loosing something to lightning because it's so hard to replace here.

Wild Ride

I was looking for some things that came in on a flight yesterday when I happened to see this puppy. When I grabbed my camera and got closer, he started to bark at me, and was very upset. Then, I heard a second dog barking and realized there was another dog in the gunny sack! I'm sure they were not too happy about taking a ride in the pod of the plane. They were headed out to a new home in the jungle.

Around the House

The window project is coming along. All the cement work is done and we're waiting for it to dry. I've asked the window people to come install the remaining nine windows on Saturday morning. Right now the window openings are covered with plastic, and we have lots of little flying things in the house. Fortunately they aren't of the biting variety. I'll be glad when this project is over, but it will be worth it.

I mentioned lightning in the previous post. We had much more last night at 2:30 AM, and I ended up running over to the hangar in pouring rain to turn off a couple computers and unplug some things. Better to be safe than sorry. It woke Taylor up, and he ended up in bed with us.

Thursday in Shell

It's the middle of the morning, and I feel like I really haven't done that much today. My day yesterday didn't come together until the end of the afternoon, so there is still hope.

Yesterday I came in and turned on some computers I had turned off on Tuesday evening. This seems to be the season for lightning storms, and we had a big on Tuesday about 7 PM. I ran over from the house and turned off all the servers, unplugged phone lines, and the HF antenna. Wednesday morning when I came in, my test server wouldn't start. Bruce and I spent some time looking at it, and after about an hour, came to the conclusion that the power supply was bad. Not sure how that happened, whether it was related to the storm, or just the fact that it was a year-old-made-in-China power supply. At any rate, later in the afternoon I decided that instead of trying to order one from Quito, I'd see what I could find in Puyo. I've never been to Puyo to purchase computer components before, but I know several people in Shell who have. I didn't have anything to lose, so gave it a try. Sure enough, they had the power supply I needed. It wasn't a very big place, but I saw one or two other items I might buy from them in the future. In fact, I may head down there today to buy some USB/PS2 riser cards for three of my computers. They are older cases, and without these cards, I can only use serial mice. I'm looking forward to being able to use USB optical mice on all our computers in the hangar. By 5 PM, I had the new power supply installed and the PC was up and running again.

Yesterday I was also able to get the Makuma server to work--but this time in Shell. By 5 PM I had the Codan radio, modem, and power supply from Makuma, as well as the server. Things were still not working properly, so it seemed best to me get everything back here to Shell so we could check it all. The only thing we wouldn't be able to check from here is the antenna, but we could send a tester out. When I test the server here, it connects to our Shell server via a modem, with a special cable between the two modems. That cable represents the radios at either end fo the connection, and allows the to modems to transfer data. When I set the server up that way, mail transferred, so I immediately suspected the radio or antenna. This morning Bruce confirmed that the sensitivity on the radion was off. Way off. So we'll be sending in a spare radio. The first flight of the day left, and with it the server. They only had room for 40 pounds, and the server weighs 20. The radio unit weighs 39 pounds, and I hope to get that on a second flight today. Whew! I'm starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel!

The plane that left with the server also had on board Lois Holmes, who uses the HF radion system there in Makuma. She's really going to be happy to have e-mail again. She has a son-in-law who is over in the middle east, and now that we are at war, she really wants to be able to stay in touch.

In addition, Dan and Brian are headed out to Cumay to pick up HC-BXB which has been stuck out there since last Friday after a prop strike while taxiing. Brian is a second year student from Moody's aviation program, and his training to be a mechanic. He's taking some time off from school, and working for us here in Shell for three months. They had to put a replacement prop in the plane, and since it doesn't really fit, they took off one of the back doors and let part of the prop stick out. Then they took off. And promptly landed again--they had forgotten the keys to the plane they were to bring back! Good thing they remembered so soon!

Planes

I was taking some photos with Bruce for a radio fund raising project last week. While I was at it, I took this photo of the hangar. There was just one plane in the hangar. Two of the planes in Shell were out flying that day. There was one in Sucua, and for most of last week, two planes in Quito. Normally there is just one plane based in Sucua. At the moment, we only have five planes which are operational. Last Friday HC-BXB was involved in an incident while taxiing. The pilot was turning around at the end of the runway when the nose gear sunk into a soft spot. It was enough the cause the prop to strike the ground. The prop was damaged, and the plane is still in Cumay until we get approval from the Civil Aviation Department to move it.

I'm Still Kicking

I've been quiet, but I'm still here. I think the last thing I wrote was about the Makuma radio e-mail server connecting. Well, it's been connecting, but mail has not been transferring properly. That's been a big disappointment. I think the problem is probably a bad modem or power supply out in Makuma. More casualties from the lightning strike. There were two planes that were in Makuma today, but no way to get any replacement items to them. The first plane was full, and the second plane didn't know they were going to Makuma when they left Shell. I'll try again tomorrow. Fortunately Makuma is a location we fly to a lot. With three missionary families there, that's one reason. The other reason is that we have a huge tank of av gas there so that when planes are out for a long day, they don't have to return all the way to Shell to re-fuel. The tank is actually the wing tank from a C-130 that was involved in an accident in Makuma years ago.

Makuma Connection

The Makuma server called in at 6:02 PM, right on time!!

Makuma Server

I just talked to Lois on the radio. She's happy--she's in the e-mail again. The new network card made it out to Makuma, was installed, and works. She downloaded 68 messages from the server. Now we wait to see if the regular 6 PM connection goes off as scheduled.

Monkeys

I just came back from my spanish lesson. We have a big window in the dining room with a great view of the 'jungle' behind our house. There are many tall trees (one fewer after the big storm the other week) and a steep hill that goes down to a stream. Every once in a while we see a small group of 4 or 5 monkeys in the trees behind the house. Today the were jumping and climbing through several trees, eating fruit. I tried to take a few photos, but it didn't work out too well through the screen. They look like squirrel monkeys, but not quite, so I'm still trying to figure out just what they are.

Weather and Network Cards

The Makuma HF radio e-mail server is out in Makuma, but not fully functional. It exchanges mail with Shell, but the network card seems to be bad. And that is bad, since the two users out there connect to the server via the local area network. I tested the network card when the server was here earlier this week. But, I didn't test it fully, as my initial tests show it was good. I think that lightening did a little more damage than I first thought. I have a new network card to send out to them (thank you David Christiansen) and there should be a flight today--if the weather will cooperate. It started raining hard around 4 AM, and the weather is still zero-zero here in Shell. I'd really like to see that netork card get to Makuma today. The two families out there have been without e-mail for over two weeks now.

Exports and Deficits

Ecuador's oil exports for January 2003 totaled $186.29 million. That's a 79% increase from January 2002. Ecuador exported 6.67 million barrels in January 2003, and that was down 6% from January 2002. What does that tell you about the price of oil? Oil is Ecuador's largest export. Ecuador is the world's largest exporter of bananas. Another major export is shrimp. Shrimp exporters reported an increase in sales from last January, and are expecting a 30% increase in sales this year.

Despite all that, Ecuador posted a $138 million trade deficit in January 2003. That compares with a $148 million trade deficit in January 2002.

Emergency Flight

Dan and Dave both flew in with medical patients this afternoon. Then Dave and Mike needed to head to Quito for an emergency flight. The patient was an eight year old with heart problems. They never made it to Quito, instead they turned around and came back to Shell when the patient died. I don't know anything more than that about the situation. As I tucked my eight year old into bed tonight, my heart was heavy for the family.

Stick Bug

There's a big stick bug on the wall in the hangar. Neat.

Flights

We've got three planes leaving right now. HC-BXB is going out with Dave and Mike. They are on their way to Makuma with the Hedlunds, GMU missionaries. Along for the ride, is my Makuma HF radio e-mail server! I'm so glad it's getting back out there. I'm sure the Turners and Holmes are happier than I am though. They've been without e-mail for almost two weeks. Bruce is in HC-BMO and Dan is flying HC-BXK. Dan and Bruce didn't even come in until noon, as the weather out in the jungle wasn't good for flying. Each pilot can only work 55 hours a week, and even sitting here waiting for weather counts. So they came in late to save their hours. Now it's hurry and get some flying done this afternoon before the weather is bad again.

Flight To Taisha

For a while now Taylor has wanted to fly out into the jungle on a flight with one of our pilots. He was out to the Waorani village of Damointaro almost two years ago, but he told me he wanted to fly again when there was a chance. Yesterday about 3:30 PM the weather finally cleared. It had been cloudy and rainy to that point, and planes weren't flying out of Shell. As soon as the weather cleared, Tomas asked Bruce if he'd go to Taisha to pick up a transfer patient, and maybe make one other stop. The way it turned out, Bruce only went to Taisha and straight back, and had room for Taylor and me. It was 30 minutes to Taisha, where we picked up a teenage boy with second degree burns on his leg. After sitting on the ground for 15 minutes, we were on our way back to Shell. It was very hazy all over the jungle. They say it's a lot of smoke in the air from fires. I guess it's from clearing fields and maybe even the rainforest, and I've heard that the smoke comes from Peru and Colombia. Even though we couldn't see very far, we could see the jungle and rivers below, the trees looking like broccoli, and the rivers like giant snakes. I saw one interesting river, where the the it had changed course to form an oxbow lake. In the photo the river flows from right to left, and there is a small lake on the right side of the photo that was left after the river changed course. Taylor actually was a little bored on the way back. He was glad he could go, but I think it will be a while before he wants to do that again. What would be terribly exciting for his friends in California has become just a bit 'normal' to him.

End Of The Weekend

It's the end of another Sunday. We stayed around the house all day and had a relaxing day. Actually, we all slept in until 8:30 AM, even the dog, who sleeps under our bed. Breakfast wasn't until 10 AM, and by the time we were done with church, we didn't even feel like eating lunch. Dustin and I spend a lot of time working on his model airplane. We're making some good progress, and are almost done with the six-foot long wing. We started the fuselage today. I watched some TV with the boys in the afternoon, and then later Taylor and I went for a two-mile bike ride. I would have liked to go farther, but that was enough for him. I haven't been riding since before I was sick last week.

They didn't put any new windows in on Saturday like they said they would, but this is Ecuador, so we weren't really expect they would anyway. I know they are working on them though, because they called to ask what kind of screen we want. Maybe tomorrow. maÒana Ron did get the skylight fixed in the hangar last week. The one that blew off in the storm. Steve Dunbar and Curtis Kelley helped him with that. The tin on the roof is quite thin, so the guys work on wooden 'skis' to spread their weight. (In case you're wondering about the 'Alas de Socorro' on the hangar wall, that means 'Wings of Help' and is the name for Mission Aviation Fellowship here in Ecuador.)

Steve Dunbar is our new pilot mechanic. Only he hasn't started flying yet. He arrived back in January, and has spend the past couple months getting his house ready to live in. He had help from a couple work teams, and a lot of help from Ron. They moved in a little over a week ago. Steve is still waiting for his Ecuadorian pilot's license so he can get started flying. Curtis just arrived last Thursday. He's the new mechanic specialist for our Ecuador program.

Aiport Traffic

The weather was great today, and the planes were busy. At one point I happened to have my camera out just as the Ecuadorian military C-130 landed.

Floating Down The River

Here's an example of why it's faster to travel by plane rather than canoe!

Water Jugs

One of the unusual things we carry in our planes are bundles of water jugs. They are saved up by missionaries in Quito who use bottled water, and then sent down to us in Shell. When we have room, we fly them out to the jungle communities. They're a very useful resource for the people out there. A good clean water container is something you and I take for granted. But these jugs are like gold to those people.

Makuma Server Operational

I have finally got the Makuma server going again. Here's a photo of the old motherboard. You can see the chip that got burned up by lightening. I started by putting a different motherboard and RAM in the machine. It started up, but gave me a 'drive failure' message. This morning I changed out the IDE cables and the floppy disk drive and it started up. Thankfully, the hard drives were still good. I still have a couple things to tweak on it, but it's working. I was able to connect using the radio modems here in the hangar, and transferred a lot of mail that was waiting. I won't send the server out to Makuma until at least next Tuesday. The two people who would like to use it are out there, but the guy who can set it up and connect it to the network just left for Quito for the weekend. He's found some more things that were affected by the lightening strike. Once is a computer used for translation and the other is the network hub.

Back On My Feet

It's Friday, and I'm at work again. I was sick the past two days, but today was feeling well enough to be at the hangar all day. Ellyn got back from Quito last night before dinner, and she was quite tired from her whirlwind overnight trip. She didn't get much sleep on top of the fact that she never sleeps very well at 10,000' ASL anyway. She went up to have a filling replaced since it fell out. On the way home again she felt like it wasn't right, got some dental floss stuck in that spot, and finally had some of the new filling come out with the dental floss. That was discouraging. It was a five hour drive each way just to get to the dentist. Now she's at home in bed, and I think she has the same stomach bug that I just got over.

Another Bridge Photo

Several of you have written to me after looking at the bridge photos I posted from our weekend trip. To a person, they all say they wouldn't have crossed those bridges. So, am I stupid or gutsy? I'll let you decide. And as you do, here's one more photo of a bridge crossing. Tay took this one with a cheap digital camera I gave him to use for the trip.

More Phone Calls

Well, it was nice and peaceful while the phone wasn't working. Now we'll get lots of calls again. Or should I say tomorrow night we'll get lots of calls again. When Ellyn is gone, the phone rings less often. Bruce and I ended up in the Nate Saint house attic, checking things out. Turns out the terminal block looked OK, but still nothing at the house. Of course the terminal block was corroded as usual. We can't figure out why it gets that way. Things do rust and corrode easily in this wet and humid environment, but under the metal roof in the attic should be a warm and dry place. On a sunny day, that attic is a very hot place! There was also one large ant on a wire. The last time I was up there, I found five or six ants crawling on it or dead and stuck to it. Not sure what attracts the ants to that particular spot. When we finally tracked it down, it turns out the phone wasn't working because I had plugged the phone line into the network port on Ellyn's computer, not the modem port. Oops!

Feels Like Monday

The last two days were holidays. It's raining outside. Started off as a windy storm, so we closed the hangar doors. We learned our lesson last Wednesday in the storm. I'm sitting here replacing the motherboard on the Makuma server. I have some old donated ones in a box in the attic, so I'm trying to use one of them. Right now I'm searching the web for a diagram of the board so I can get everything connected properly. I'm not feeling too well, and in fact, I stayed home this morning and slept. Have an upset stomach and what some people call Montezuma's Revenge. Despite eating a lot of different food here, this really has only happened to be a couple times in three years. Could be worse if I ate a hamburger at Jack In The Box!

The boys are at school, and the school has swimming class this afternoon down in Puyo. I'll bet they'll cancel because of the rain. Although you never can tell. It's raining here, but could be nice over at the pool, as it's about six miles away. That was what happened last Wednesday. We had a tree fall down, hangar doors fly open, skylight ripped off, and a half mile away--nothing.

We had a party for Taylor last night. It was a surprise party, two weeks before his birthday. He'll turn 8 on the 16th. We went up to Maria's and played some games and ate pinchos. A friend of Ellyn's made a Lego cake for him. The kids all had a good time, and Taylor was pleased at being surprised.

When we got home, our phone line was dead. I'm heading over to the attic of the Nate Saint house in a minute to work on it. I'm sure there is a wire there that is corroded and has broken off of the terminal block.

Trip to Candelaria

A couple years ago I took a trip to El Altar, one of the volcanoes that we can see from Shell on a clear day. We didn't actually climb the peak, but went a point where we could see the crater. The 17,000 foot peaks rose up quite a bit higher than the point that we reached. When we came back down to the hacienda where we began our trip, the people were getting ready train some bulls for the bull ring. Even though we would have liked to, we didn't stick around for the event, but headed home. This past weekend, I returned. Joy Minoff, an MAF teacher here, asked me if I'd like to go with her and one of her students up to the hacienda for the weekend. The boys and I thought that sounded like a great idea.

We left Shell just after noon on Saturday and headed up to a little village just above BaÒos to pick up Joy and Chris. The road to our destination used to be the main route between BaÒos and Riobamba. That ended in 1999 with the eruption of Volcan Tungarahua. Huge mudslides caused by the melting snow had washed out many of the bridges along the road, rendering it impassable. By the time we drove the road in February 2001, the local people had managed to carve go-arounds through these wash-outs. Recently there have been some large storms which have washed out the road once again. We knew the road was passable, but had no idea just what to expect. I soon found out it wasn't quite the road I had hoped for. In at least ten of the gullies where the road had been washed out, bridges had been put in place. But they weren't steel and cement bridges--they were built out of logs and planks. The first one didn't look very strong to me, but after I walked it, I decided to go for it. It held, and were on our way again. There were more, and about the time I thought maybe I shouldn't have come this way, I realized that I would have to cross enough bridges again that it seemed better just to go on. Many of the bridges looked scary enough that Dustin and Taylor decided they'd rather walk across them. Needless to say, we made it across that section, and were once again driving on a paved road. Of course, I would have to decide whether we would return that way, or go home by a longer route and avoid the dangerous bridges. We arrived at the hacienda above Candelaria late in the afternoon. After a walk, we had a late dinner, spent some time visiting in front of the fireplace, and then headed to bed. At 11,000 feet, it was colder than Shell, but we slept warmly under flannel sheets and wool blankets.

We slept in and had breakfast a little after 8 AM. The day was to require a lot of patience, as we waited for the bulls. About 11 AM a handful of riders on horseback headed up the steep hill behind the hacienda to bring back the bulls. In a little more than an hour they returned with a small herd of thirty bulls and cows. The cattle rushed into a holding pen, and we waited some more. It was lunch time, and we enjoyed a large lunch with the family that owned the hacienda as well as many of their friends and relatives. They had all gathered for this special weekend. Soon after lunch it was time to play with the bulls. One by one the bulls were penned and then let into the courtyard and anyone who wanted to be a matador could try their hand at it. There were several calves in the herd, and when they were brought out, the children took their turns. Even Dustin and Taylor went out there for a few minutes. Dustin wasn't excited about it, but Taylor seemed to really enjoy himself. The people enjoyed seeing Taylor out there and gave him the matador's cape to use. At one point the calf chased Taylor, but he managed to get out of the way. Once in a while a bull would knock someone down, but there were always others there to distract the bull so that nobody was hurt. During the afternoon Dustin went for a horseback ride up the hillside behind the hacienda. When he returned Taylor went, and I walked along with him. As we climbed higher we could look down on the hacienda and the activities below.

By 4:30 PM the crowd had grown quite large, and was starting to get a little rowdy. They had been passing around the chicha, an alcoholic beverage, for a couple hours and it looked like the event would last quite a while longer. We'd watched plenty of the bulls, and had a long drive to get home, so we piled in the truck for the ride home. Instead of going the shorter way with the scary bridges, we went the longer way, through Riobamba. We drove through some absolutely beautiful country, and even thought it was an hour and a half longer, it was worth it. It was late by the time we got home, but that's OK. Today and tomorrow are holidays.