Night Hike

Last night I was fortunate enough to be able to join these people that pay a ton of money to stay at this lodge on their night hike thanks to their wonderful guides and my new friends David and Guido. I won't get into all the details, but I just had to brag a little bit because I saw some really cool stuff! Not to mention just being in the Amazonian jungle at night listening to all the sounds etc. is a pretty cool experience! I got to see: an Amazonian horned toad (yeah I know, and I was wearing my TCU shirt too!), scorpions, tarantulas (huge and scary), the biggest grasshopper I've ever laid eyes on (they call him lobster, cause that what he looks like!), giant walking sticks and leaves, the "christmas" frog (cause he's a red and green tree frog), the "happy face" spider (cause he literally has a yellow body with black dots and lines that appear to be a happy face), tiny little frogs in their "special" position (ie:mating), and a locust in the final stages of shedding his skin! And all of these things super up close and with great explanations from the achuar guide Guido (and my student might I add), and the Ecuadorian naturalist guide David!

On a side note, the energy in my tutoring sessions has really been picking up. My students are catching on to my style and seem to be motivated to come to my classes. I only have about 10 or 12 students right now, but it's a small lodge of only about 17 or so employees, so my numbers aren't too bad! The hardest thing for a few of them is finding time in their busy schedules, in fact I had a makeshift impromtu class in the pantry room just off the dining room with three students... two of which needed to make up missed classes and one of whom just can't seem to get enough English. It was hilarious because without books, notebooks, whiteboards, etc (as no one... including me was prepared to have class) I had to think on my toes and we had an "action based class" or basically a type of simon says with three grown men in a pantry... I think you get the picture! We had a blast... with phrases like "touch you stomach," "hit your neighbor," "smile," "turn off the light," etc. What a good lesson it was, and I think if nothing for the pure humor of it, they have a chance of remembering the majority of what I taught! :)

That's all for tonight folks.
KK