Trinidad and Tobago...

Since I keep forgetting to update this blog I think it is probably safe to assume that most people have given up on checking it… No worries. I’ll still post from time to time and maybe someone will enjoy it.

The big news is that I have moved to Trinidad and am now working on an offshore drilling platform (what everyone imagined I meant all the times I said I was working on an oil rig in Ecuador but were then surprised to learn I was on land and we still called it a rig). Before I tell you about my first week in Trinidad though, I should share a little about my Trip to Europe.

I spent 2.5 weeks in Europe at the end of June / Beginning of July. A big thanks to Fish and Spence for their hospitality in hosting me and guiding my sorry @$$ around Germany. I flew from Quito to Bogotá, Colombia, to Paris, France, to Frankfurt, Germany. En route I had a 9 hour layover in Bogota. I definitely want to get to Bogota for a weekend sometime as I had a blast with friends there watching the Ecuador/England world cup game and only got the smallest taste of what the city has to offer.

Germany was awesome (or “wicked” if you are from Boston, or “Dope” if you are from NJ). I stayed the first week with my buddy Fisher in Karlsruhe and we took trips to visit Freiberg, Baden-Baden, and some castle ruins in the area. We also managed to play some Settlers of Catan and Corassonne (or something like that). Really good board games. Partied a bit, watched some world cup games, joined in the celebrations when Germany won, and had an all around excellent time. Fish and I then took the train to Amsterdam where we met up with my friend Spencer and a group of guys that Spence and I were friends with at MIT. It was really cool that it worked out that we were all there at the same time. It turns out that none of us had bothered to confirm that we were going to meet them so they were surprised when they found us at the Hostel, kind of cool. Spent a couple haze, I mean, days, in Amsterdam. Spencer and I then headed to Cologne, Fish headed to Dallas, and the MIT guys headed to Scotland.

I spent my last week with Spence. We watched world cup games in Cologne (we didn’t actually attend any matches, but were with large crowds of boisterous fans), then spent a couple days in Aachen, where Spence was living and working for the last year, and then went with some of Spencer’s friends to Berlin for a long weekend and the World Cup final. Berlin was awesome. We rented an apartment and had a group of 7 of us staying there. Spence’s friends were a great group of guys from his work/school from all over the world. There were a couple Germans in the group, but also an Iranian, Indian from Malaysia, and an El Salvadorian. Berlin is a cool city that is also a striking reminder of the chasm between eastern and western levels of development. The government has spent tons of money modernizing the former East Berlin, but it is obvious which parts have received that renovation and which parts have not.

Finally I caught the train from Aachen to Frankfurt to catch my flight back to Ecuador. The train ride was awesome. I took a scenic route that followed the Rhein river for most of the trip. It was well worth the extra time. I’m convinced that a person could have a nice one or two week vacation just exploring the towns and castles along the Rhein.

Ok, so, once I returned to Quito I had almost 2 weeks of vacation time just hanging out in Quito enjoying some time with friends there before I made the move to Trinidad. A big thank you to all my friends in Quito (and now Peru, Lafayette – Louisiana, Venezuela, etc.). We will meet again, either in Houston or somewhere else in the future. I won’t miss the jungle, but I will definitely miss the friends.

On Monday, July 31^st I flew from Quito to Miami to Port of Spain, Trinidad. I am living in a staff house in San Fernando, Trinidad. Unfortunately, San Fernando is purely industrial, but the weather is always warm and sunny, and the Island is small enough that with a car a person can get anywhere in less than 2 hours and there are definitely some nice beaches, etc. to explore. Unfortunately I don’t have a car and since I will only be here for 8 months, it is hard to justify one. So, the plan is to rent a car for 4 or 5 days sometime when I have days off and do some exploring.

Trinidad is a small island that essentially “broke off” of Venezuela and continues to be very close to Venezuela. The island is very tropical and has a mountain range along the northern coastline and rolling hills across much of the rest of the island. I haven’t taken any pics yet, but I will, I promise. The capital is Port of Spain. Port of Spain has some very nice malls, restaurants, bars, clubs, but from what I’ve seen doesn’t really have a “downtown” in the traditional western world city sense. No sky scrapers, etc. The entire population of Trinidad and Tobago (Tobago is a much smaller Island that is supposed to be a tropical paradise with great scuba diving, beaches and rainforest) is only 1.5 million. Port of Spain is the place to go for city life though and I look forward to checking it out sometime with friends. I’ve driven through some of the suburbs there as I had my offshore safety course near port of Spain. It is 60 km from San Fernando to Port of Spain.

The population is divided almost 50/50 between black islander and Indian (from India). The food seems to be a fusion of Indian and Caribbean, although what I’ve had I would describe as more Indian. It is good! :) The people are very friendly and greet each other very warmly even if they are strangers. I’m still getting used to the Accent and I find myself asking people to repeat themselves almost every time they first start speaking to me. For some reason I find the girls easier to understand, but maybe I am just more attentive to females… :P

So, I arrived late on Monday night. Tuesday I went to the office but there weren’t many people there because it was a holiday. I am staying in a room in the staff house which is split into an upstairs apartment and downstairs. My room is in the upstairs apartment. The apartment is nice enough… Tile, cable TV, ice machine, but if you look closely it is falling apart a bit and the cabinets and bathrooms and stuff could definitely use some work. All in all it should be very ok for my time here. The good news is that the mall is only 2 blocks away. There don’t seem to be any big stores in the mall, unlike in the US and Quito, just lots of little ones. There is a food court with a Subway and KFC, and there is a grocery, and next to the mall there is a TGI Fridays, Pizza Hut, and Long John Silver’s. Thank goodness the mall is so close so I can walk to all those places. If it weren’t I would almost certainly have to buy a car even if I only got to use it a couple days a month.

Wednesday to Friday I was in offshore safety/survival training. That was really cool. The training is a mixture of classroom theoretical and practical exercises, including firefighting, escape and evacuation, rig abandonment, and helicopter crash simulations. If you’ve seen the movie “An officer and a Gentleman” it was sort of like that, where they strap us into a helicopter fuselage that crashes into a pool of water and flips upside down. You have to un-strap the harness and swim out the nearest emergency exit (window). They had divers in the pool, etc. Anyway, it sounds scarier than it was. You build up to the “rollover” exercise in a number of steps so when the time came we were pretty comfortable with being strapped in under water and staying calm to get out. Anyway, it was interesting training to say the least.

Then, on Saturday I headed to the rig. I am writing this sitting on an oil rig that is floating in 500 ft. of water several miles off the north west coast of Trinidad. I’ll write about what an offshore oil rig is like in my next post. I hope to get some pictures but that may be tricky since cameras are pretty carefully controlled because the flash could be a potential ignition source. The helicopter ride out was pretty cool although the landing on the little platform hanging off the side of the rig was a little nerve wracking since from my seat all I could see was water and the derrick (steel tower on all drill rigs) shooting up past us.

Cheers,
Nate

And just like that, my time is done...

If you remember in my last post i said there was a "Slight" chance i would be transferred out of Ecuador... I didn't actually think it would happen, and if it were to happen, I thought there would be some discussion. Wrong on both accounts. :)

I have just been notified that I am being transferred out of Ecuador to Trinidad as soon as my visa is ready. I'm not certain how long that will take, but my understanding is that Trinidad has very friendly relations with the US and so i don't expect it to take more than a few days.

I am currently on the rig, but I don't have to be here. It was actually my idea that I come here because we have a new trainee who is my mentee and it is his first time on a rig and so I vollunteered to come along and work nights with him until he is more comfortable. I expect to stay on the rig for a few more days and then head back to Quito to begin the visa process and prepare for my move.

So, what are my thoughts/feelings. Well, they are mixed. On the one hand, I have heard good things about Trinidad as a location to work for SLB. The tools they run are supposed to be better technology than what I have been exposed to here in Ecuador and the weather/beaches are caribean. So, even if Tobago is supposed to have the nicer beaches, any beaches at all would be welcomed. I have also had some concerns about some of the changes here in Ecuador of late. Asside from the decrease in activity which has led to my transfer, and the nationalization of the assets of Occidental Oil Co.'s interests in Ecuador, there are some other, internal things that have raised my and some of my colleagues eyebrows in terms of a "change in the wind" among the managers and a change in the atmosphere/moral at work in the office here. I won't lie and I won't sugar coat it, I have not been very happy with the way the operations of my company are run in Ecuador throughout, but I did always get along with my manager and most of the other folks in the office.

Anyway, back on topic, I am a little sorry to be leaving Ecuador, primarily for 2 reasons. One, I feel i was just getting settled in here. The first 7 months I was here were a very difficult transition and emotionally very challenging. Since I've returned from my 3 months of training in Houston, I have really felt like I established myself in Quito. I've started to have a good group of friends, my norwegian friend just moved into the staffhouse I've been living in Last week. We bought a new TV about 4 days ago (yeah, bit of a shame there, oh well, we got a good price and since we split it, i'm not out that much money). We were even considering buying a cheap car so we could start to explore the areas around Quito more. The second regret I have is that while I still intend to study my spanish lessons, I know that it is unlikely i will become conversant in Spanish. English is the official language of Trinidad. I had hoped that if I were relocated it would be to either another Spanish speaking country or an English speaking one because i didn't want to have to start the language learning process over, so English is fine, but I hate to miss the chance to gain more spanish.

Anyway, we will see what happens. I hope that Trinidad turns out well.

I will miss Ecuador and I hope to have the chance to make a few more memories here before I leave. And the friends I will have forever, as well as a familiarity with the country that makes it very easy to visit again.

Bugs and snakes and parasites... OH MY!

Yes my friends, I am back in the Jungle and I am actually really enjoying it. It has its moments to be sure, but for the most part it has been a good initial 10 days back in the jungle on the rig.

You may remember from my previous posts that I was working nights. Well, this job I am working days. I am not technically the lead engineer, but i worked it out with my colleaguee that I could work days and practice being cell manager whith him here in case there were problems I didn't know how to address. It was a good experience and I find that i like working during the day. The weather has been really nice. Even though we are on the equator and so don' t (my current lattitude is S 0.17327) really have seasons, they do have varying weather patterns throughout the year that mimic our seasons to a point. For example, the first 2 months I was in the jungle it didn't rain very often and it was HOT, like houston in August hot, and humid. But this time of year it rains everyday for at least a while, for instance, it is POURING right now, after having been a beautiful first half of the day.

Unfortunately the rain doesn't really reduce the humidity, so you are just left with steam after it stops, but it does keep the temperature down, and some of the days, Saturday for instance, are just gorgeous until it rains. Partly cloudy, nice breeze, if only there were a lake or stream nearby that wasn't teaming with anacondas and pirana, and parasites, it would have been a lovely day for a swim. :)

Let's see, what else is new... I had a bunch of friends in Quito over for a dinner two nights before I left to come to the jungle. It is unusual for more than 3 of us field engineers to be in the city at the same time since we are always on different rigs and so have different days off, but there was a 5 day stretch when almost all of us that are friends, a group of about 8, were in Quito. It was too good an opportunity to pass up so I cooked a big dinner (thanks to chris for his mom's awesome spaghetti sauce recipe) and we drank wine, ate cheese and bread, hung out and then had a nice dinner. It was a big hit and everyone agreed we should do it again. Now the only question is what should I cook next time... Ideas?

Work has been good. I actually like this job most of the time. I'm not thrilled with not having a life, but the work itself and the time on the rig is really ok most of the time. The stressful times are when something goes wrong or I need to do something and I'm not sure how. So, the more time I am on the rig, the better it gets because the more I know and the more confident I am in dealing with whatever problems arise. This job is our most basic service, but as my first time as the day time engineer I still learned a lot. Also, in a truly unusual set of circumstances, the oil company decided not to use Directional Drillers for the last half of the well, so it was just my colleague and I, no DDs... Normally we are a team of 4... now we are 2... and, just because the DD's aren't here doesn't mean that we don't still have to provide a bunch of information that is normally their responsibility. Fortunately my partner is cross-training to become a DD and so was able to show me some things and handle most of the detailed work, but we still had to track drilling parameters and make trajectory projections, etc. It was pretty cool. My favorite part was having an excuse to spend more time on the rig floor. I definitely intend to make that a normal part of my routine, to go often to the rig floor. We are supposed to do it pretty frequently anyway, but normally, if things are going well or we can talk to the driller, we can make it so we only have to go 1 or 2 times a shift.

The guys on the rig floor, the roughnecks as they are called in the oil industry, are all really nice and respectful and friendly. They also like to tease the gringo, which is fine by me. I HAVE TO LEARN MORE SPANISH! :)

In other news, I attended my first South American Football (soccer) game and it was awesome. I love going to sporting events anyway, but this was way cool. I took a bunch of pictures, but as those of you who get my links to my photo albums probably know by now, my camera died tragically a little after half time. I'll be able to get the pictures off of it, i just haven't had the chance yet. I had my friend take the rest of the pics from the game, but i really miss having my camera already. I'm going to try to get it fixed in Quito, but I am not holding my breath and I almost think it isn't worth it since it might work, but not as well as before, and it is really important to me to be able to keep taking good pics. So, I will probably buy a new camera and have the next colleague who goes to Houston bring it back for me.

That is about all really. We have technically finished drilling the current well but have about 12 more hours of work to do, and most of that back breaking, as we have to do a full "rig down" where we take down all our equipment and cables and pack up the logging unit (portable office) to get everything ready to be shipped to the next location. Luckily we don't have to do full rig ups and rig downs every job because we normally drill several wells at the same location, but this was a one time deal. Oh well, hopefully after this I'll get a few days in Quito.

Oh yeah, I've made some new friends in Quito. I met a couple of the girls from Human Resources that are young and fun (and hot) and we went out one night and are planning to do something this weekend if i'm in town. Cool.

I'll put this question out there: there is a small chance I will have to transfer out of Ecuador in the next few months as politically the climate for oil producers is turning sour, so many of the foriegn oil companies are thinking of pulling out of here... If i were to transfer, where would you vote I go... The easiest locations to get to would probably be: Columbia, Russia and former Russian States, Angola (shitty, not going there if I can help it)... after that, it is not as certain, but I think the North Sea (Aberdeen, Scotland), Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico, and some other places might be possibilities.

I'm really not sure at the moment. If it comes to pass I will ask for a list of places to pick from (something that people don't normally get but that I think i might be able to since my situation is a bit unique as having 5 years with the company and only 10 months or so left in the field).

I hope you are all well.

Cheers,
Nate

I'm still here...

Well, friends and family, I’m going to be perfectly honest… I’ve started to reconsider this whole blog thing. I think my adventures are going to be spaced out enough now that I won’t have fun things to post and share often enough to keep it interesting.

I like the photo albums with captions better I think. Maybe I’ll just periodically add a blog post if there is something “blog worthy” that isn’t captured completely in the captions of the pics.

I will update you a bit on the last 3.5 months of my life so you know why I have been so quiet… As most of you know, I got to go home, unexpectedly, for Christmas. It is a bit funny that the reason I got to go home for Christmas is because my managers messed up and sent me to a rig that was less than one mile from Columbia, putting me at an unacceptably high risk for kidnapping… I know what you are thinking – “what the hell is funny about that…” Well, I don’t know, but I didn’t know enough to be scared at the time and it did lead me to purchase a T-shirt that says “big people are harder to kidnap.”

Anyway, I flew home on Dec. 18 and flew back to Ecuador on Dec. 28. It was awesome to be home and spend Christmas with Mom and Larry and Bry and Rose… When I got back to Ecuador I was able to take a trip to Guyaquil and the southern beaches of Ecuador with my friend Gunnar. Unfortunately we had to rush place to place, but it was still a cool trip. I then went to a rig for a about a week before flying to the US on Jan. 13. I had a week of vacation to see friends in Houston and visit Mom and Larry at their place in Florida and then I started a 9 week training school in Houston. It was great living in Houston with so many friends there. We gorged ourselves for 2 months on the amazing food available in Houston. I finished school on March 24, flew home for a quick visit to Lawrenceburg (mom flew up from florida for the weekend and a friend came from MIT) to shop for a years worth of clothes and to enjoy some R&R at home. I had meetings in Houston Monday and Tuesday and then flew back to Ecuador on Wednesday, March 29.

I am in the office in Quito now and should have a few more days in Quito before I go to the rig, we’ll see.

Anyway, that’s what I’ve been up to. As a teaser, I am planning a trip to Europe this summer for a couple weeks with friends, then in October I’ll be headed to Australia for my brother’s wedding. It looks like my travel plans for south America may get pushed back to February 2007… It looks like I will probably work until the end of January and then travel for all of February before moving back to Houston for my next job in the product center starting March 2007. That isn’t set in concrete yet, but it is looking probable.

Cheers.

Annual Festival of Quito

I know it has been almost 2 months since I last posted anything on the blog and so I understand if no one is actually checking this thing anymore. I do plan to continue to update the blog, but I only plan to do so when I do something fun, exciting, Latin, or generally worthwhile

That being said, I have just had 3 weeks of wonderful cultural experiences and parties. I was unexpectedly on days off for 3 full weeks in Quito. Unfortunately the nature of this job means that I only found out a few days at a time that I still had more time off, and so I was not able to take a trip home or anywhere else for that matter. At one point I did find out that I had 8 to 10 days off (the last 10 days I was off), but as I will describe in detail, this corresponded with the height of QuitoFest (Festivo De Quito) which meant that the whole city was going crazy with parties, a good time to stay put.

I was having trouble remembering what all I did, so I put together a timeline for the three weeks off… I have included it here because I thought it was funny that it took so much effort (I stared blankly at my computer screen for almost an hour trying to remember the days and order of things) and because it provides a good outline of the events I have to talk about. J

After my last stint on the rig, I headed back to Quito on the Friday before Thanksgiving.

November

Fri 18 Travel from the rig to Quito.

Sat 19 Hung out with Alberto, Didi, Karla, Fernando, Andrea

Sun 20 No idea, but I think there may have been some NFL watching

Mon 21 Monday Night Football – Colts Dominant!

Tues 22

Wed 23 (not sure what I did these three days, but I think it was mostly relaxing)

Thurs 24

Fri 25 Hmmm… I don’t remember what I did, but I think it involved a bar…

Sat 26 Lunch w/ Karla, Argentine Tango/Electronica concert, Soul, Blues

Sun 27 Bull Fight w/Luis – Erika / Gabby

Mon 28 Went to work… hehe… was there almost 6 hours… exhausting…

Tues 29 Flamenco Show w/Erika/Byron

Wed 30 Concert at Blues w/ Byron

December

Thurs 1 Lorena’s going away…

Fri 2 Chiva, Ramon Antigua

Sat 3 Mexican Restaurant… Too drunk on tequila

Sun 4 Cell phone gone, went to Lunch with luis/Alberto, chilled a home…

Mon 5 Relaxing day, Dinner at Tony Roma’s and trip to see Harry Potter 4

Tues 6 My Birthday!!! DVD shopping, Dinner Mea Culpa

Wed 7 Guayabamba w/ Anabela

Thurs 8 Relaxing night at home

Fri 9 Off to a Rig… different rig than before… we’ll see how it goes.

It was just luck that I got so much time off - it is very rare to get more than a week off without taking vacation time. And it was just a lucky coincidence that my three weeks off coincided with the annual Festival of Quito, a marathon of parties, street concerts, and celebration leading up to my birthday, December 6^th. Dec. 6 also happens to be the day Quito was founded, but that is a secondary reason for the festivities… :)

My roommate Alberto, another field engineer, suffered a serious back injury (herniated disk) about 10 days before I got back to Quito and so was laid up in the apartment when I got back. Over the three weeks I was there he showed significant improvement but still has to walk slowly and has occasional soreness or numbness of his legs. He is 28… the good news is that he is expected to make a full recovery and will not need surgery, but it certainly drives home the need to use caution (and proper lifting technique) in this job. He was lifting the same tool I am currently running from the ground, where we assemble it, to the catwalk where it is raised by a crane to the rig floor… Anyway, he is doing much better but will never work on rigs again as he is moving to an office position.

Anyway, all I wanted to say was that my roommate was around the entire time I was in Quito which is unusual, but that he wasn’t quite as wild a partier as normal because of his back injury. I did meet several of his friends and got to know him much better. I spent my first Saturday back from the rig hanging out with his friends Didi, Karla, Andrea, and Fernando… They are a very fun group of Ecuadorians that all speak English. Didi is finishing her university studies and plans to apply to Architecture graduate schools in the US and Europe. Karla works as a tax and legal consultant for Ernst and Young…

I took it pretty easy the first week back. I moved to a new apartment about a month and a half ago but just managed to move into the room that is “mine” this last trip. For those of you who don’t know, this signified the first time I had truly unpacked into a proper bedroom since I arrived in Ecuador in July. The first apartment I was in had too many people and I didn’t have a bedroom, just a bed in a small room with no door or furniture (other than the bed). My new apartment is great. It is very big and all three of us have our own bedrooms and bathrooms. We are starting to make it feel more like a home, even going as far as to buy a home theater surround sound stereo. It feels very good to have a place that is mine.

On Saturday, November 26, I went to a concert at Theatro Bolivar in the old city of Quito with my roommate, his girlfriend Christina, Didi and Karla… The concert was a fusion of Argentinean Tango and Electronica music.. Imagine driving club style base lines and music that forms a base that a piano, accordion, violin, standup bass, etc. play over top of to create a truly unique sound. It was actually really cool. Plus the theater was huge and had suffered a fire or something and they are just starting to renovate it so there were lots of exposed columns and concrete and the balcony was mostly a ruin… it really added to the whole experience to have the theater feel like a giant ruin… unfortunately I forgot my camera that night… sorry… The good news is that I remembered my camera the other times I went to the old city and so I have some fun pics of other theaters and buildings down there all lit up at night. While I really enjoyed the instrumentation and they were very good, I sort of felt like all the songs started to sound the same after a while. They only played one that had any vocals. Anyway, it was an interesting experience and truly unique to Latin America…

After the concert we went to a bar called Blues that has become one of my favorite bars in the city. They normally play rock and metal music but on this night they were playing club “house” music. The band from the concert was there partying (not performing) which gave it a neat “after party feel.” That was it for Saturday night…

I slept until 11:40 am on Sunday… that was when my manager called and told me to hurry and get down to the Bull Fighting Arena to go to the bull fights with him… Now, only a few days before I had expressed a general objection to bull fighting as a sport. I could have decided not to go but I thought that 1) I should witness it before deciding to condemn the “sport” and 2) that it is a well known part of Spanish and Latin culture, and so too good a cultural opportunity to pass up.

I took a lot of pictures of the bull fights which you will get a link to, but I want to warn you that it is a violent “sport” and even though I tried to weed out any disturbing pictures, you may not want to look at them if you are hyper sensitive to that sort of thing. Feel free to post comments on this blog condemning me or the sport or anything you want, but I don’t want irate emails or phone calls (although, if you can figure out how to call me on an oil rig in the middle of the Amazon jungle, feel free to yell at me as you will have earned the right for being so clever)… :)

So, I have a couple of observations to share with regard to bull fighting. It is first and foremost a big outdoor drinking party. It was a beautiful day. There were three stages set up around the arena with live music and a carnival going on outside. There were 6 different bull fights that day. Each bull fight consists of 5 parts. First the bull is brought out and there are matadors with the capes that get the bull to take a few passes at them. Depending on the size and how aggressive the bull is the matadors may just peak out from behind the walls to get the bull to charge over, or they may get out into the arena with the bull. At this point, the bull is definitely in charge. The second part is the most disturbing and the part the audience doesn’t like. A man rides out on a horse that is covered with pads to protect it from the bulls horns and the man has a spear and he sticks the bull with the spear 2 to 4 times between the should blades in a place intended to bleed quite a bit. This has the effect of over time weakening the bull. The third part consists of one or multiple matadors essentially playing chicken with the bull, getting it to charge and timing it just right to allow them to stick the bull with short spears that are barbed and normally decorated with colorful ribbons. The spears stick in the bull and are left in dangling colorfully. After 2 to 4 spears have been stuck in the bull the final matador comes out for the fourth part which is the part we associate with bull fighting, having the bull charge at a red cape, stepping aside at the last minute. The matador will dance with the bull in this way for anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes in what is essentially a battle for dominance. The bull is wounded and bleeding, but the matador is not further wounding it, he is staring the bull down and dancing with it. At some point trumpets play indicating that it is time for the matador to end the match and he times his pass and then kills the bull with a single sword thrust.

The audience is very respectful of the bull and boos etc. when the man on the horse is wounding the bull. I was glad the crowd was respectful and not the least bit blood thirsty. My guess is that this is a change in the last 50 years or so… Oh yeah, and one of the matadors got trampled and gored by the bull he was fighting… he was well enough to finish the fight, but that match the audience felt the bull had won.

OK, so, my feelings, now that I’ve been to a bull fight are as follows: I don’t like bull fighting. I can’t help but feel really bad for the bull. That being said, I would caution Americans of being too judgmental. It would be easy for me to claim some moral high ground and just say it is wrong to hurt an animal like that or to kill an animal for sport, but what I instead thought about was in what situations animals might be treated in a brutal manner in the US. I thought of two examples of socially accepted instances where animals are treated so in the states… 1) bow hunting… Hunting in general is less brutal because it is a quick death (although I doubt that is much consolation to all the bambis) but often times bow hunters fail to kill their prey with a single arrow and instead have to track a wounded animal for up to an hour before killing it. 2) factory farms… I have seen some very disturbing documentaries on the treatment of cows, pigs, chickens, and turkeys raised for food in the US. When you compare the lifelong torment of the animals that end up on US supermarket shelves with the 20 minute fight between a bull and a man, there is no question that the bull has the better deal. Not all beef, chicken, and pork in the US comes from Factory Farms, but an awful lot of it does, and it is really horrendous how those animals are treated their whole lives… Anyway, I try to be very careful about being too judgmental or falling into the trap of thinking Americans are “better” or something when I am faced with cultural differences, like bull fighting.

I should also say that I have met MANY Ecuadorians that hate bull fighting and think it is “wrong” (although I get the impression that in Mexico and Venezuela it is more generally enjoyed). Also, if you were wondering, the bulls are apparently treated very well while being raised and are raised and bred specifically for the bull fighting arena… Free ranged, lots of cows to mate with, etc. :)

Now that I’ve covered the right vs. wrong of bull fighting, I can tell you I had a fabulous time. Like I said, it was a big outdoor drinking party and it was a beautiful day. I bought a sombrero (apparently that is the word for cowboy hats too, not just the round floppy hats we normally think of as sombrero’s… I bought the cowboy style – I haven’t even seen one of the others here, again, a Mexican thing more than a latin thing). My manager and I, between the two of us drank 5 bottles of cheap red wine and about 8 beers… neither of us ate anything before either… needless to say, we were trashed. I didn’t even watch the last two bull fights. I was too busy getting to know all the people sitting around us.

One last thing about the bull fights. The 4^th bull fight, the matador fought the bull from Horse back. The Horses were BEAUTIFUL and amazing in how they responded instantly to the rider… they were truly show horses… they would dance in place, rear, spin, anything the rider asked of them. My friend tells me that it is a popular investment for drug lords which has made those horses prized and valued (some of them) in the hundreds of thousands of dollar range… He may have been exaggerating, but it wouldn’t surprise me if not. I got a great video of the horse and rider. Anyway, still felt bad for the bull, but I admit the matador on horse back put on a hell of a show… Oh yeah, one more last thing ;) after the matador killed the bull, when the audience was applauding they would throw their hats down to him, it was really cool, he or some of his helpers, would pick up the hats and throw them back to the person who saluted him by throwing the hat down. People in the audience were really great about making sure the hat got passed back to the owner. Anyway, kind of a neat tradition.

We were so drunk after the bull fight that we went to dinner then I walked home and drunk dialed my mom and some friends (you have to love international drunk dialing on the work cell phone – sorry about that ********) I was awake for 8 hours that day… I then slept for 14… I woke up three times with a killer headache from the cheap wine and had to drink lots of water and take some advil.

Flamenco Show

I went to a Flamenco show with Erika and Byron. Erika is my friend from Mexico that those of you who have been looking through my photo albums have seen several times and Byron is my other roommate… Alberto is the roommate that hurt his back, Byron just bought a brand new BMW (sweet ride). Anyway, the flamenco show was just ok. Again, a good cultural experience, but not something I need to do again. The live music was good, but I didn’t care for the singing, even though my friend told me that was the “style”. The singers sounded hoarse or something. I much prefer powerful, clean, impressive vocals in live performance (see Les Mis or Phantom of the Opera), but whatever. The guitar players were very good. The dancing was just ok. I’m sure they were very good at flamenco, I am just not (as it turns out) that big a fan of flamenco. It is sort of like tap dancing or Irish Folk dancing, that is to say, it is all about how fast they move their feet. The thing is, it didn’t have the flair of American Tap or the coordination of the Irish Folk (at least in the lord of the dance / riverdance versions where there are lots of people dancing together). Instead, it is one dancer at a time doing about 15 or 30 seconds of dance steps as fast as they can and then playing for applause. It is also a very mad or sad dance and so they always look severe in their facial expressions. Anyway, just ok but not worth what we paid for really good tickets.

Concert

I’m sorry but I don’t know the name of the Ecuadorian rock group we saw on Wednesday night (it was actually Thursday morning since the concert started at 1:00 am – I’m telling you, this Quito Fest is 3 weeks of non-stop partying, who goes to a concert at 1:00am during the week…) but the concert was great. The group I saw was described sort of as Ecuador’s version of Pearl Jam and I was led to believe that it was really unusual for this group that is hugely popular to perform a concert in a little club (it was at Blues). Anyway, $10 and a great show and fun time. Byron and I wooed many a lady with our dance moves…

Lorena’s going away party.

A friend here from Ecuador that works for the same company I do has just been transferred to Midland, Texas. We threw here a going away party, also called the “welcome to the middle of nowhere party” or as I like to think of it the “enjoy being hit on by cowboys who’s trucks are worth more than their houses party”… whatever you call it, we had a good time. We started at Buster’s, a Scottish pub, and then 4 of us headed to a club after and had lots of fun dancing to classic American tunes…

La Chiva and Ramon Antigua

The office arranged for La Chiva… This is nuts… during Quito Fest you see all these big, open air buses driving around the city with music and partiers hanging all over them. I thought there was no way my company would get one as it isn’t that safe to mix drinking and hanging on the sides and roof of a bus driving around a major city like Quito… well, I was wrong and what a great time we had. A big group of folks from the office road around drinking on the bus and partying for about an hour and then went to a bar and kept the party going for most of the night. I was one of the only people with a camera and everyone got in the spirit of taking and posing for fun pictures… I ended up with 160 pics… I trimmed that number down to 108 to post them to the web and I may weed out some more of them, but it was a great party. You’ll see more of it in the pics if you check those out. Good times.

The next night I went to a Mexican restaurant with Erica, Daniel, and Yirccy… we were supposed to go for dinner but there was a live band and it was just a big party and we never did eat any dinner. We were drinking Sangria and having a great time when the shots started… after two shots of tequila and one shot of a black lickerish flavored liquor someone in our group decided it would be a good idea to buy an entire bottle of Tequila… Well, 3 or 4 of us finished the entire bottle in about 20 minutes and that is the last thing I remember from that night. We were having a great time dancing and hanging out, but that all ended when the Tequila started. I lost my jacket and my cell phone and I don’t remember leaving, getting in the cab or getting home and going to bed… Apparently I drunk dialed a friend in the states on my cell phone shortly before losing it (sorry about that Amanda) and apparently sounded bad enough that she was worried enough to call my mom to try to get my number and call me back and make sure I was ok.. anyway, not a good thing. The good news is that one of my friends picked up my Jacket but my phone is gone… Surprisingly I wasn’t hungover the next day, just confused about how I got home.

The next few days I took it pretty easy having done my fair share of partying for QuitoFest . Then for my birthday I bought some DVD’s and went out to a great dinner with a big group of friends, very fun…

I know this has been way too long but I want to say a few more things about the Festivo De Quito… For the entire three weeks, almost every night, there were impromptu street parties in front of all the best located liquor stores. The stores wouldn’t even let people in, they would cell booze through the metal gates over the entrance. People would just park in front and have the car stereos up loud and stand around outside drinking and partying. At a number of the liquor stores located in the coolest parts of the city the party would grow to a couple hundred people. It was NUTS.

The other interesting part of Quito fest was all the organized street parties that I guess the city would put on. They would shut down this major street that runs along the big park in the middle of the city and set up stages and have booths and food and alcohol, concerts, just a big party. The cool thing was that my apartment was one block from the heart of the party. Now, I didn’t actually go to any of them because they are reported to get out of hand from time to time and people get killed in the brawls that can break out (although I don’t think there were any incidents like that this year) but I could hear them and see them from my apartment which was fun.

OK, that does it for Quito Fest. Sorry it is so long and Sorry I haven’t had more posts. I can tell you it will probably be a long time before my next post as I will be on the rig for most of the holidays and then I head to the States on January 13 for some vacation time and then 2 months of technical school in Houston.

Oh, for those who might be interested in a South American adventure, I’m thinking of putting together a big trip for one year from now. I’m thinking I will do some travel before Christmas (after I finish my time working here), maybe do a week in the Galapagos and another week traveling around Ecuador, then go home for the Holidays and come back and travel all of January going to Machu Picchu in Peru, Patagonia in Argentina, Bogota for the ladies, the Andes in Chile, maybe a stop in Brazil… I’m not sure where all I will go and the plans are very much up in the air at the moment, but I definitely want to see a lot of South America before I leave and with a trip to Europe scheduled for next summer and possibly my brother’s wedding in October (if that is when they hold it) in Australia, I think my best opportunity will be after I’ve finished my work here before starting in my next role in Houston.

So, yeah, if you want to join me for any or all of that, I’d love to have the company. Let me know in an email and I will keep you posted.

Ok, back to work you slackers… my life isn’t that interesting anyway… :) take care and I can’t wait to hopefully see many of you while I’m in the states this Jan – March.

-Nate

Good things come to those who wait…

I apologize for taking so long between this and my last post, but I have had an eventful two weeks and so have plenty to share.

Life in Ecuador is finally coming together. I spent two weeks on the rig for my last job followed by 3.5 days off in Quito and for those 3.5 days, life couldn’t have been much better.

After not sleeping for the last 20 hours on the rig, we headed to Quito on Saturday morning of this past weekend. Upon arrival in Quito, I would normally have slept for a few hours before doing anything else, but on this occasion we wasted no time in getting the party started. My friend’s wife and baby were visiting with family in their home country of Venezuela and so he was left to fend for himself in the big city of Quito. He is the directional driller I work with most nights on the rig. Given his free pass to hang with the guys for the weekend, we set about gathering friends and began to drink.

We headed first to the home of a co-worker. While we waited for his young daughters to get ready, we played with his awesome dog (a chow) and started drank Jack Daniels on the rocks, a sure way to get the party off to a fast start and the perfect cocktail for 11am. With a group of about 6 we headed to TGI Fridays, a favorite spot with everyone in Quito, located at the big mall, Quicentro, which is a 5 minute walk from where I live. After a nice lunch and several beers we headed to drop some people off and pick other people up, having drinks at every home we stopped in. Finally, around 4:30 it was time to head to the big event for the day, a CrawFish boil hosted by one of the other service companies. That’s right, a Houston based service company had imported the idea of a crawfish boil. The crawfish lacked the usual heat you expect in Texas or Louisiana, probably as a courtesy to the South Americans who aren’t big on Spicy Foods, but these were the largest crawfish I had ever seen (Yes, I am certain they were crawfish and not small lobsters). It was quite a treat to enjoy a crawfish boil even though I’m on a different continent. The people were friendly, the drinks were flowing, the location was beautiful, the friends were many, and the times were good.

At some point in the evening, noticing that 1) no one was dancing, and 2) they had started playing some American Rock ‘n Roll from the 50’s, a young lady friend of mine and I headed to the dance floor and put on quite the swing demonstration, after which the dance floor quickly filled with merry makers and the party really got rolling. Now, I like to dance, but Latin’s take it to a new level… It isn’t so much that I don’t like to dance as much as they do as I like to do other things too… for them, night life means dancing salsa. Period, End of Story. Come with your dancing shoes on or stay at home. Bear in mind that by this point I’d been awake for 31 hours and drinking for 11 or 12…

As things began to wind down at the Crawfish boil, my group of 6 or 8 friends who had been hanging out all evening at the crawfish boil, decided to head to a club in Quito to keep the party rolling. Now, I would be lying if I said that I was enthusiastic about this non-stop partying… mostly I was giving in to peer pressure. I must have said my good-byes and informed everyone of my intention to head home 10 different times that night and I know I fell asleep a couple times at the crawfish boil and at least 1 time at the bar, but I did make it to the 36 hour mark before calling it a night.

The next day, waking up at the shockingly early hour of 10am (after partying until 3am) I met up with two of the friends from the night before and we headed to a Golf course 30 minutes outside of Quito. We didn’t go to play, but to meet up with friends/co-workers playing in an Oilfield Tournament for lunch. I did manage to go golfing at the same golf course on Tuesday and had a ball. Anyway, so Lunch at the golf course on Sunday, hanging out with friends and co-workers. The drive from the city to the golf course was kind of cool through the mountains.

After finishing up at the golf course, we picked up the lady friend that I did the swing dancing with, and three of us headed to the Center of the World monument. This is the monument, plaza, mini-theme park that marks the Equator where it passes through (near) Quito. It had been one of the tourist destinations at the top of my list of things to see in Quito, so I was very excited to check it out.

Before going to the Monument we first drove to a HUGE dormant volcanic crater that now holds a village and farms… it is HUGE… like 5000 m across. And the rim is several hundred feet high and there aren’t any real roads in or out, so the people who live there primarily ride horses and donkeys in and out. Unfortunately it was very cloudy so we couldn’t see much, but you did get a feel for the enormity of the crater and there were some crafts stalls set up with neat trinkets to look at. Oh yeah, and I got a pic of a Donkey as requested by a friend who had done a mission in Ecuador…

Then we headed to the Center of the World Monument. It is a big square tower with a globe on top (see my latest photo album). There are shops and a museum and a plaza with live music and dancing all around the monument. The area is a popular weekend destination for people in Quito. Apparently around noon there is quite the dance demonstration but we didn’t get there until late afternoon and so there were just 40 or so people dancing (did I mention that dancing is big here?).

Sunday night, after getting back from the Center of the World Monument and taking a much needed nap, I headed to dinner with the same 3 friends I’d been hanging out with all weekend. We went for Sushi at a Japanese/Thai restaurant. I love sushi.

It was really nice to have a group to hang out with, but sometimes I prefer hanging out with my Latin friends one on one as they speak Spanish when they are in a group. People here think I’m quiet most of the time, but I just don’t have the Spanish to participate and it really takes a great deal of active listening/concentration for me to follow a conversation in Spanish. I’m glad that I am getting better at understanding, but I’m a long way from joining the chat in Spanish.

Monday was a work day in the office. There is always a fair bit of paperwork to finish up after each well and I am still getting all my administrative items taken care of that are required to live/work in Ecuador. One consequence of only spending like 10 days in my first 3 months in Quito is that when I am there on a work day, there are usually tasks I need to address with Personnel. Monday night I headed to my usual Massage and Sushi dinner at the Swiss Hotel.

Tuesday morning I went golfing with two of the Directional Drillers I work with. I really like everyone I work with and it is a good thing since we are in such close quarters on the rig. I was using borrowed clubs for the golf and the first few holes were really painful. Struggling with ones golf game is bad enough, but doing it with friends the first time you are invited to golf with them is torture. Luckily I got adjusted to the clubs ok and had a run of good holes and even chipped in for par from 25 yards out, something I hadn’t done before (chipping in from 25 yards out, I’d had pars before, if not a great many of them… :).

The course was beautiful and having a knowledgeable caddy (who even spoke English) was a trip. It was the first time I’ve played with a caddy and it was really something. They find your ball for you, clean it on the green, give you yardage, make club selection suggestions, read the greens for your puts, etc. etc. There are only like 3 golf courses in the Quito area and they are all Private, but you can play them 1 or 2 times a month as a non member. The greens fee was $25 and the caddy was $10 with tip. A great day of golf for only $35 dollars, not too bad. I did manage to get a pretty good sunburn on my arms, but even that felt good because I am normally such a vampire working nights and wearing coveralls all the time.

The bad news was that on the 4^th green we got the call that we were going to have to go the rig the next day, Wednesday, instead of Thursday or Friday as planned. That was a double whammy as I had a date scheduled for Wednesday with one of the receptionists from the spa where I get my massages (I told you it is one of my favorite treats for when I am in Quito ;) Luckily she was very understanding of my work situation and we plan to do something the next time I’m in Quito.

After golf, I headed home for another much needed nap, then went to the office for a couple hours, then moved into a new apartment. It is kind of funny to be able to move in less than an hour… Everything I have fit in my two suitcases, a backpack, and the duffel bag I use on the rig. I just had to throw everything into the bags, lug them downstairs, get a taxi, have him take me the 4 blocks to my new apartment, and voila… I am very excited about my new apartment. The apartment is HUGE. There are three of us field engineers that live there but we will almost never be in Quito at the same time, so when I am there, I have the place pretty much all to myself. Each bedroom has its own bathroom, all the rooms are ENORMOUS, a nice big kitchen, cable tv (with quite a few movie channels in English – and the playboy channel guys). Hardwoods, tile, etc. Very nice. Talk about a 100% improvement over the last apartment where I didn’t even have a bedroom or a dresser or closet…

After the move, I headed back to the Swiss Hotel to talk a bit with the girl I was supposed to go out with on Wednesday and to enjoy one last Sushi Dinner before heading back here to the rig the next morning.

So, as I said, life has certainly started to improve here in Ecuador. Getting a few days off between each well is sooo nice and should be the norm. The only bad news is that this well is going to take 3+ weeks and the next one could take more than 4… but what can you do…

For those of you I haven’t told yet, I have signed up for my technical school in Houston and it starts on January 23 and runs through late March. I hope to get to see as many of you as I can during that time and I plan to take some vacation time before starting school.

Well, we should start drilling sometime tonight. Take care and I’d love to hear from all of you.

Cheers!

If I don't make a noise, maybe no one will notice I'm on Days off...

OK, so there wasn't much chance of that working anyway, but I did get 4 days off in Quito after only 65 consecutive days of work. It felt amazing. It is funny though, as a consequence of working all the time there is a great deal of pressure and expectation among our little community of field engineers that when you are on Days Off you will party hard every night. Well, I'm just not interested in that... Don't get me wrong, I love going out with new friends and enjoying the Latin Night life, but I also like to take it easy a few days when i have the chance. Watch movies, get massages, go out for Sushi, read... all sorts of normal "Lazy Sunday" sorts of activities. So, I will tell you about my 4 days of freedom in Quito but don't be surprised when you learn I mostly did nothing... and LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT!!! :)

To travel back to Quito from the oil rig, we take the reverse trip (maybe that is so obvious as to be silly to mention, but it is not an easy trip, so it is worth starting there) we take a bus for 30 minutes through the jungle to a boat. Take the boat for 3 hours to the nearest crappy oil town with an Airport. then fly the 30 minutes to Quito. All that takes about 6 hours total (and yet, for some reason, the trip here took almost 12 hours, hmmm).

I arrived in Quito on Sept. 28 at around noon. Took a nap (after all, I had been working the night shift) and then went to the office for a few hours to work on the End of Well paperwork. That night I went to the Swiss Hotel, an international hotel that caters to business travellers from all over the world. It is expensive, but all the employees speak english and every service provided is top notch. If you only get 3 to 5 days a month in civilization, you might as well spoil yourself. I had a relaxation massage followed by a great Sushi Dinner with a few coronas. My roommate and fellow trainee friend from Norway, Gunnar, and I have made it a ritual that when either or both of us is in Quito, we eat Sushi... Lots and Lots of Sushi.

Thursday i slept in and went to the office for a few hours again, then watched movies and went for another massage and dinner at the steak house at the Swiss Hotel. I think i watched a season and a half of Soprano's in those 4 days in Quito.

Friday, more of the same, plus some random phone calls from random girls...

Saturday I went to the movies with a friend from the office. We saw two movies and watched some American College Football in the sportsbar at the complex with the movie theater. That night a group of us from the office went out to a club called Cabul. This is the same club I went to on my first night in Quito with my two managers. This time it was a fairly big group of mixed guys and girls. We had a great time. I'm working on my salsa dancing but it takes a bit of practice. Luckily i have lots of beautiful latin ladies willing to help teach this poor gringo.

Saturday afternoon I was told that I would be leaving for the well on sunday... Sunday I was waiting for 30 minutes for the driver when I called and was told that, no, i wouldn't be going to the rig until monday... Just no one thought to tell me... Communication is continually an issue. I was just as glad to have another day in Quito as 1) Quito is better than the jungle, and 2) I was a bit hungover and didn't fance the flight and 3 hour boat ride in that condition. :) The hangover combined with rain in Quito served as the perfect excuse to spend the day watching Soprano's episodes. That evening I went to apartment of the friend that I went to the movies with on Saturday, she loves movies almost as much as I do, and we watched a movie and then went out for Sushi.

OK, so I know I promised to do some Touristy sightseeing and take lots of pics and post them for everyone, but, well, i didn't. I had good intentions. I even found a tour option with a personal guide, but then i started hanging out with friends from the office and have now had offers to show me around the next time I'm in town, plus I've started to meet some girls that are from Quito that could be a good source of local knowledge for touring, so I've decided to wait until it happens naturally or I learn enough spanish to get around on my own. Sorry, you'll just have to wait a little longer. :) I can take some more pictures of jungle and post those if you want, although it all looks the same... green and forbidding.

Well, we started drilling a few hours ago and have already had lots of problems with the equipment so I should get back to work. I hope you all are well and I really think I am starting to get established here with friends and meeting girls, so that in the near future the stories will become more interesting.

cheers!