a few new thoughts and amazing photographs from Ariana, that great Woman of the World, during her adventures in Ecuadar with the Peace Corps:

I finally saw my first venomous snake in the wild last night! I went on a hike in La Perla with my friend Trisha and the guide Placido. Trisha is my good luck charm. We saw 2 different types of venomous snakes. I only got a photo of the first one. It was an eyelash palm pit-viper, the most common pit-viper in the western lowlands. The second one was a Bothops petola. It was over a meter long! Trisha and I also got stung by a wasp, twice! So, in the past 6 months, I´ve been stung on my arm, leg, head, and shoulder 5 times. Everything is covered, I don´t need any more bee or wasp stings! Hope you enjoy the photos! This was all very exciting for me. I am going to write more about our night on my blog: http://rhiannabanana.blogspot.com/