QueenPuya

Hola todos,

Wow, where to begin. The end of Ecuador was insane, and so I had really no time to write to summarize. First, it really was a wonderful country and was able to do exactly what I came to do...I collected all but a few of the species of Puya, made friends, saw the country, got to think a lot, etc. Well, at the end I gave all my clothes to a laundry lady the weekend before I left, so wouldn´t stink on the plane or when I met my husband, and she closed before I could get back from the markets (a monster hail storm impeded my taxi). So, sin ropa, I had to return to the US. The worst, though, was at the airport when they confiscated my DNA samples...ie, the only thing I really care about. I didn´t have permits, as I have discussed bfore, and I got busted . But nothing bad happened, they were so gracious and Edwin was able to get them for me. So they are in Quito, waiting perhaps to return with my fern cohort in due time. I had a truly wonderful time hangin out with Michael and Hilary and wish them all the best in Ecuador, thank them for all their help. I love having colleagues!!

After the drama (several hours of it, all in Spanish), at the Quito airport, I was all too happy to make it back to Baltimore, husband, family and fun. I was overjoyed to see Matt, and it was great to see siblings in law Buck and Lisa, with Giti and Simon, in their element. Oh, and it was great to see Leslie too...and Padfoot. All that was missing was Cole. Baltimore is a great city and I was more and more impressed with every block we walked. I am so glad that Matt and I ¨invested´so much time in watching Homicide-Life on the Streets...we had SO much fun seeing places where they filmed the show. Thanksgiving was great....amazing food (with lamb as the centerpiece), wine, board games and bonding. Oh and ENglish! It was too soon to return to the southern hemisphere, but I know we´lll be back.

Matt and I had a little drama in Miami when I lost our boarding passes for awhile, but luckily all worked out and we were plugged into our individual TV screens for the 9 hour journey to BA. I slept a lot, but Matt didn´t. We went to La Plata, home of dear friends Jorge and Liliana, and their extra beloved daughter Victoria. Seriously, people here are nuts about their kids, and these two people really take it to the next level. We had two lovely days in tree lined La Plata..they fed us way too much and gave us way too much Malbec, and we spent our days touring the very cool and historic La Plata natural history museum. They had a very impressive collection of Pleistocene giant mammals..huge armadillos and sloths, the likes of which I had never seen. Thanks to Jurassic Parsk and the like, we forget about the equally scary and crazy giant mammal and bird age. Indeed the alrgest bird ever, the Thunder Bird, floated on the updrafts brought by storms above the Pampas at the same period..before going extinct. Cool.....

Matt, Diego and I flew to Cordoba early this morning. Diego is a great companion for us, a bit on the quiet side, but has great English and fun sense of humor. I would now like to offer all praise and love possible to Matt, the hero of the day. So at the last minute it was revealed both that Diego doesn´t drive and Argentina doesn´t rent automatics....leading Matt to take the wheel of our midsize Chevy car in the middle of midday traffic in the second largest city in Argentina, praying that he remembered how to drive manual. He did, enough to get us out of Cordoba with minimal cursing. OUt in the country, as Lonely Planet promised, driving was a dream and we flew through over 400 miles of Chaco....dry, short forest, with giant cacti and many exotic birds. Green parrots make cylindrical nests out of sticks and big, stripy hawks hunt the random goat or small rodent. Truly a big, beautful land....it was great to be away from the hordes of people in Ecuador and to be out in the giant countryside. I can´t wait to head up the slopes tomorrow.

I am quite happy here....it is great to have Matt here, in fact, I think it would have been quite hard without him for many reasons. The people are extraordinary, too (though I refuse to compare too much with Ecuador or Bolivia). I must admit, it is nice to be int eh midst of Europeans again....we certainly get stared at less...though we certainly dón´t know how to dress properly. More later, but more now we should get to bed!!! All this wine makes me tired and happy! North, north, north....back to the Tropic o Capricorn.

Love,
Rachel

# posted by Rachel Jabaily @ 5:42 PM