Moving on from the Bear House

Achem...so we can just pretend that it hasn´t been 6 months since my last post and that I´ve been really good at keeping everyone up to date, right? Well, to say the least internet was just a bit challenging for those 7 months in Pucara as I wasn´t alway able to hike the hour each way to neighboring Apuela just for a computer. Since the last update I´ve had 5 more groups of volunteers, lots of fun tracking the bears and even 3 bear sighting! In May my friend Mason came to visit and volunteer for 3 weeks, a welcome face from home and we finished off the month with a great night out Salsa dancing.

June my mom came to visit for 10 days and I had a great time throwing her right into the mix. One day to get used to the altitude, the next we were sloshing our way through the rainforest, climbing hands and feet up dirt walls only to slide on our bums back down the other side. It was really great and she was a wonderful sport. Did some natural hot pools, headed t o Mindo for incredible bird watching, then finished off the visit with the City life of Quito. Took her dancing as well and, well, she was popular with the gents :D

July was my last month with Volunteers and we mangaged to fit in everything I had been wanting to get done for 7 months, they were a great group. We spray painted all the rubber boots that had been donated by past volunteers with the Bear Project logo then hiked into the VERY rural and poor pueblo of Azavi to drop it all off along with some medical supplies. We did tie-die with a natural berry called Chanci, but you have to remember to add 5 leaves of the Doah tree to make sure the color stays. So cool! Then we went Whitewater rafting, Ziplining, and celebrating the Parroquia (county) of Apuela´s anual festival. Oh, and packing up the house to head out. Crazy month that was really all over the place.

August I was living back in Quito. We closed up the Bear House, said good bye to the final group of volunteers, and boom, back to city life! Luckily, with the Bear Project we are never short of things to do :D

The Quito Zoo became my home for the next two weeks in August as I worked as a marketing intern. This entailed massive amounts of transations (aka translating the entire zoo to create an English guide for visitors, of which there was none before), taking photos for the website (check out Quitozoo.org to see a bunch of them!), and running a small backpacker survey to see why foreigners don´t come to the zoo (most of them haven´t heard of it…). It was a great 2 weeks with a very welcoming and friendly zoo staff making me feel right at home. And of course, I could see Andean Bears EVERY DAY!!! Their names are Pablo and Suro and they are very adorable chaps.

Now my time has switched back to all Andean Bears all the time. I´m staying with Andrés Laguna, a younger Ecuadorian biologist who works with the Project and am helping him with his Rural Environmental Education workshops. We had our first one yesterday and we are focusing on the Cow-Bear conflict (where the Bears having lost a lot of their hábitat to farming are unfortunately starting to muncho on a few of the local cows). Andrés has selected 5 communities that are especially being hit by this cow killing bear and we are conducting 3 rounds of workshops in each one. I did my first one with him yesterday and we had a great time! A little slide show, a small worksheet, then finger painting bear faces and running around with the bear masks playing games. That´s what I get to do in the mornings. Then Andrés takes over in the afternoon for the adults and does a separate slide show aimed at teaching them about the bears and the ¨Five easy steps to help prevent a Bear from attacking your cows¨. Sorted. Problem solved, right? I am really hopefull for the Project because we´ve had a lot of interest, questions, and good turn outs (considering a few of the communities are composed of only 10 families, it doesn´t take much to get a good turnout :D ).

I´ve got one more week with Andrés doing workshops as well as getting another trip up to Yanahurco to visit our rehabilitation Andean Bear, Bubu. We are all crossing our fingers and paws that we can get him released for good this next month. He is ready to be a wild bear and we are ready to set him free…just needing a helicopter to do that (if anyone has any extra ones, do send it down to Ecuador won´t you? Thanks!). So that´s our only hold up on that end, but hopefully he will be a free bear soon!!!

To sum up the future, well, I´ve got about 1.5 months left in South America. I´ll be leaving Ecuador and sadly the Bear Project the end of September to go travel in Peru and Bolivia for a quite speedy 3 week trip. Then landing back in the good US of A October 19th. Man time flies. Who knows if I´ll get another post up before then, but I will try. Thanks to anyone who still reads this despite the inconsistencies. Hope all my family and friends are doing well and I´m excited to catch up when I get back. Home for the Holidays!!! Xoxo Kerry

Ps Promotional stint…if anyone wants an INCREDIBLE Andean Bear Calendar, our Project has put one together after an International Photo competition we ran. It´s 2012 and stunning. Available on Zazzle soon! Hehe. Had to do it :D Love you all!

http://www.zazzle.com/andean_bear_bubu