Flower shows and springtime in Puyo

Clearly I´ve made it far in the professional world of the Ecuadorian Amazon, the other month I was asked to judge an elementary school plant contest. Here I am in Mera with José, our volunteer from the Orchid Garden.













For several months we had also been working with a high school environmental club. As a culmination project, we had some of the kids come to a local elementary school to teach the kids about their projects, show a video, and work with the kids for a short afternoon.




One of the sights in town thats always amazing is packing the crates of naranjilla, a fruit incredibly common to the region (and consumed throughout the country), but thankfully not known well outside of Ecuador. Its an environmental mess to cultivate, and it doesn´t even taste very good.




And an orchid (Brassia) for good measure.