Leaving yanayacu

This place feels like a rainy coastal maine to me, except only rainy.  So maybe Sitting here with my ever-present nescafe, I can and see the endless fighting of the hummingbirds,  the pattering rain coming down, the cool humidity hanging in the air...  I am looking out over very raw land which I have been able to explore in miniature.  It's been utterly fascinating.   I have been so charmed and awed by this place that I have to stop myself from just blathering about it to the people by me.

"Hey!  Look at the hummingbirds!   They're fighting!   ...or flying in little groups!   ...or at the feeders! ..."

"Yes, we know...  we're here.  We've seen your little videos where you get right in their faces, etc...  thanks. "

As i write this, a hummingbird buzzes my morning coffee, attracted to the neon-pink mug, it tears in and out aggressively like a bike gangster in miniature.

My wife asked me yesterday (via email) what I thought about the week and what I had learned.  In short, a lot.  I have been having a bit of a hard time articulating it even to myself.  

I have been reminded,  very intensely,  of my love of nature and the outdoors.   I have indulged in a constant sense of geeky fascination for nature.   This has been really helped by Tom and Andrea here, whose own unconstrained,  rampant love of nature and this place is infectious.

I just saw a medium sized bird scoop up a meandering moth 3 feet away and then light on a branch to finish its meal.

I have begun to think that understanding diversity is a far more interesting question than climate change.   How does nature react?  A big driving idea for the project here is understanding how climate change affects relationships between the caterpillars and their host plants.   Yanayacu is in a unique position:  the temperature here is one of the most consistent jn the world, apparently.   The diversity here is massive,  making it an ideal spot to explore some of these relationships, which, well, might just be disturbed by a bunch of ants coming along and eating the whole experiment,  as can happen in the lowlands.   New animals are discovered here all the time.

I have been impressed to hell by some of my fellow travelers,  as Mary Jo and Guy, aged 70+, have not only kept up, but often led the way, both in difficult hikes and in ideas and creativity.   I may have met another one of my possible futures, I hope.

I feel the need for a shower, but no desire to do anything about it.  We're in open air and then the bus (which has windows) to the locally luxurious Hotel Quito,  where hot showers, a heated pool and a Jacuzzi await.