I started to work in the "centro ecologico Zanjarajuno" east of Puyo 2 weeks ago and enjoyed it a lot. During the first week we ´ve been rebuilding paths (while the monkeys passed in the trees above us), which meant cleaning up the old path, carrying bags of gravel up and building boundaries by choping pieces of wood with a machete to stop the gravel from being washed away by heavy rain.  Rain around noon told us that it´s lunchtime, and helped us to get rid of at least a bit of the dirt. We also fed the animals, lots of monkeys, a weasel, different parrots and turtles, aligators, a guanda ( looked like a huge rat), and - last but not least- a tapir ( the guy of the center was very concerned about that one,as it might be hunted and eaten by someone, so he went looking for it all the time ). Lot´s of funny scenes come into my mind when thinking of the animals....one of the monkeys picked up a glove, put it over his little hand and waved at us through the window.... once he managed to get into the house,he stole an egg and jumped up and down in amazement before he crashed the egg on the table....... a cheeky parrot jumped at our table and made us laugh, and as he was imitating us in a perfect way, we had to laugh even harder...a "cusumbo" visited us at night now and then to have a banana and a sip of water out of the toilett......other scenes are for others to tell......we fell asleep in company of cockroaches and mice to the sounds of the jungle and woke up to the sounds of monkeys banging at our roof. I spend the weekend in nearby Banos, a nice town surrounded by mountains. The road between Puyo and Banos is quite scenic, lots of waterfalls to have a look at and lush green vegetation. This week we did some reforestation - planted little plants along a path all the way down to a river ( the ecuadorians where singing all the time as loud as they could) and went for a refreshing swim in the river at noon, marveling at beautiful huge blue butterflies flying along the shore. One night after sunset we went out with 2 biologists in heavy rain and thunder to check on the population of a frog called "Atelopus spumarius" at a certain stretch of jungle, getting all muddy while making our way through the dark; also spotting other frogs, insects, moths, grashoppers and crickets and returning  home somewhen after midnight.