ASU Abroad: Andes & Amazon Field School in Ecuador

Highlights:My highlight of the trip academically was the sense of accomplishment I felt. As an undergrad that was doing research in a town in the Amazon jungle, it was something that was a rare experience. Rare, indeed but also difficult and challenging. It took a lot of patience and focus to conduct interviews in a foreign language and then interpret and write up all the data. Overall just traveling throughout the eastern region of Ecuador was simply amazing. I experienced the jungle, the large cities, and the Andes....it was so incredible. I'll never forget what it felt like to hike at 13,000 feet, to ride up the Napo river in monkey boats to "Monkey Town," or what the food and dancing was like in Quito.

Morning: At the field school in Ecuador, a typically morning consisted of waking up around 8am and then walking to the dinning room for breakfast. That room was large hardwood floor space that was covered with a thatched roof. All of the students would help the cooks out and we would set up the tables for breakfast and bring up the food from the kitchen downstairs. Following breakfast would be one of our classes. We would meet in a smaller thatched roof area overlooking the Napo river, it was so scenic.

Afternoon: Afternoons were consumed with class and discussions. In between all that we would have lunch and a small break. During the break one had enough time for a quick swim in the river (I always tried to do that it was so delightful), a nap, or to catch up on journaling.

Evening: As the classes progressed so did our responsibilities. The later afternoons/evenings were consumed with conducting interviews with community members about our research interests. Then following the interviews we would have to do a full write up of everything we learned, witnessed, experiences, or anything interesting. This took a considerable amount of time. Dinner would be served and before and after the meal students would be endlessly writing or typing the progressions of the day.