Ecuador Pictures

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Ecuador Adventure I

Trogan - San Isrido near Yanayaku Research Station

For the last two weeks I have had the amazing experience of visiting the beautiful country of Ecuador and with the help of a couple of incredible guides, see over 400 species of birds. The trogons, toucans, and hoatzin are fantastic, but you simply can't imagine the diversity of hummingbirds, tanagers, and many other birds endimic to this remarkable place.

We (BYU Business School Dean Ned Hill, Robert Parsons of Maryland and his son Daniel and myself) hired renowned bird guide Rudy Gelis to show us birds in all of the primary habitat. Starting in Quito which sits in the saddle between the east and west spines of the Andes mountains, we climbed up to about 14,000 feet and then eventually descended to the Amazon basin. Along the way we stayed at "Lodges", which were specifically set up for wildlife exploration. Most of them are associated with one or more research stations where students and scientists live and work on a variety of projects. While Ecuador has greater bird diversity than virtually any other place in the world on a per sqare mile basis, I was surprised to learn that most of them have not been studied at all. Rudy was constantly noting the location of nests, leks and other locations to come back and study.

I was shooting these pictures with my new Nikon D700. Most of the time I was using an 80 - 400 VR lens. For birds I usually use A-priority. I set the f-stop one up from full open, in this case at 5.6, and tried not to use any flash at all. Sometimes under the jungle canopy it was a bit dark, but we still got a lot of good shots. If I had wanted to carry a tripod and a larger lens around, it would have been possible to get a lot more of what we saw on film, but much of the time we were trudging along on very muddy, sometimes swampy trails, often for several hours, and I just didn't want to lug it. The 400 mm is hard to hand hold, but with the VR it worked out ok. The D700 allows you to shoot up to 6400 ISO without significant degradation, which was a big help!

Here we are (from left to right, Ned Hill, Rudy Gelis, Carlos (our native Kichua guide in the Amazon basin at Sani lodge), me, Daniel and Robert Parsons. We are in an oil town on the Napo river, just after a 3 hour motorized canoe trip back upriver from the lodge. These oil towns dot the banks of the Amazon and it tributaries, and are evidence of the real battle that continues between progress and protection. The towns have the feel of a true frontier enviornment. In this case the flight to Quito was only 40 minutes, whereas the trip by road had taken about 6 hours! The oil companies are mostly owned by big multinationals of course and the local labor works very cheap. For young men like Carlos, the increased interest in eco-experience is a real blessing as it provides an alternative to working in the oil fields.

This is an example of the beautiful Tanagers that are found throughout the country. We saw more than 50 species of them (remember Ecuador is about the size of Colorado, and there are only a half dozen or so tanager species in the entire US!) Here an enterprising local hung banana's in a tree with the idea that folks like me would stop by and buy a soda or something. Except that no one knew that tanagers would eat banana's! In the meantime, it ended up attracting a newly discovered species of tanager (not this one) which all of the guides are really excited about.

All told, this was a very full experience, one which I intend to do a few more posts on in the next few weeks. It certainly left me pensive about the poverty of our brothers and sisters in many places in the world which are so rich with natural beauty and life.

I Love This Counrty

I am not much of a photographer, but I feel even less comfortable as a writer. Nevertheless, I feel a need to attempt to record some of my feelings at seeing the speeches of still Senator John McCain, and President Elect Barak Obama tonight. I have been a loyal Republican all of my voting life, but I feel nothing but hope as I come away from this election.

The campaigns were tough. Obama was brilliant. His organization was incredible and deserved to win by virtue of it's breath and depth if nothing else. But, as I saw the tears in the eyes of my black brothers and sisters in the crowd in Chicago, I too felt the emotion of living in a place where as unlikely a candidate as Barak could become president, and am proud to be an American. I am glad that a little black boy or girl can believe in doing whatever they want. I am glad that my Muslim brothers and sisters can believe in a place where there is no reason to despair the opportunity to be whatever they want to be!

It does not matter who we voted for in this election, we are lucky to have the opportunity to see true democracy in action. I agree with John McCain's observation that we should be proud to live in a country where the process works. We have a person born poor, who worked hard, got an education, got involved and got elected. This is just not a likely story in virtually anywhere else in the world.

I believe in the destiny of the US. I also believe that Barak Obama will be helped in facing the challenges that we have as a country. 2 wars, economic distress, many without good health care, etc, etc. I for one will pray for him.

This is written mostly for my children, who have the world in front of them. I am positive about the future. I love this county, and I am proud to be an American. Love, Dad

New Baby Felix

Another landmark week with the birth of Felix VietHam Huynh, 8 lbs. 4 oz., born Thursday, October 30 at about 8:30 a.m. to Choung Huynh and Liyan Xiao. He looks a lot like his brother Victor, and is very healthy.


This was the second c-section delivery for mom Liyan, and she was really tired after almost 6 weeks of bed! She was really glad to have Felix here at last.



He wasn't staying awake much, but seemed pretty happy even when he was asleep.



All toes and fingers intact!


He doesn't seem to mind a snuggle with Grandma.


And even puts up with Grandpa!


Grandma doesn't trust Grandpa yet with the details.



And in the end, Grandma is ultimately the Queen of the snuggle!



Anybody else jealous of little Felix? Stay tuned, they just seem to keep coming.

Sunday at Gma's

Today was a typical Sunday at Grandma Wrights house in Cedar Hills, Utah. We started out by going to church. It was fun to meet her ward, and have so many people comment on how much they cared about her being there. She has some great friends in the ward.

Paula and Marilyn posed outside her home after church. The flowers are beautiful. Marilyn planted the huge mum's just three years ago august!

Next on the agenda was dinner. Roast, salad, potatoes, veggies and rolls. Classic and yummy. The guests of honor were Corpse Bride and Groom, Alicia and Tucker, fresh from their runner up win at the costume party (no they didn't get the $150 first prize, that went to the couple who showed up in black face as Barak and Michelle Obama, apparently quite well).

Entertainment was provided by Cannon, the firstborn of Ashley and Jarom Becar and the first grandchild of Steve and Heather Stewart, Heather being the 5th born of Marilyn and Darwin. This kid has a great personality. No identity crisis going on in this 18 month old little man's life!


Next it was time to take some group pictures. We wanted to the get the Stewart sibilings, but Whitney is in Virginia at Southern Virginia University in Buena Vista. Through the miracle of Skype, we got them all together. From left to right, Hailey, Megan, Tori, Whitney, Ashley and Brady.


Next it time to herd the cats outside and see if we could get a group picture. Grandma decided she needed a seat and had plenty of help to get one.

The first picture went pretty well, but things soon spun out of control.

Paula started it, but Steve soon joined in.

We finally had to stop and start over to get the unruly crowd under control.


In the end, we got a decent picture of a pretty good crew. From left to right, Jarom, Ashley and Cannon Becar, Tori and Heather Stewart, Rich and Alicia Vial, Marilyn Wright, Tucker Beasley (Alicia's friend), Paula Vial, Brady and Megan Stewart, Aric Wright, Hailey Stewart, Jaron Wright, and Steve Stewart. Fun for all of us. Roving reporter Rich Vial signing off.

The Corpse Bride?

Ok, so we left Scholls at 4 this morning for the funeral of an old friend from Grants Pass, Linda Olson. By later the afternoon however things turned a little wierd as we had the opportunity to see the transformation of Alicia and Tucker. What do I mean? Well, this is a long post but stay tuned, it is worth it!

Apparently, Alicia had decided that she and Tucker would go to a costume party as Corpse Bride, so the first thing she did was talk Grandma Wright out of her 56 year old wedding dress! No seriously, it is the real McKoy! Actually Alicia looked pretty good in it I thought, but wait it gets better.

Of course, Tucker too needed a little work to play the dead Groom, but we had no idea what was about to occur!

First a black Wig! Actually not a bad look I think!

Within minutes however, the eyes showed up and we all began to get scared. Anyone who knows Alicia knows about the eyes, but this particular combination was quite something!


Then things started to go just wrong! Notice the computer screen in the background being used to model this travesty!


Before we knew what was happening, the transformation was complete, and none of us will ever be the same. It is the Corpse Bride!

The Groom, he looks dashing I think. Deserving of a beautiful bride!

And upon seeing him, she seems to be perking up a bit too!

Soon, they are planning the Corpse Wedding, obviously very excited!

Well, at least she is. He on the other hand appears to be getting cold feet or something.

He may be a bit worried about the effects of a kiss from a corpse!


But in the end, they find that bliss is entirely possible when two are united in their attempt to win the $150 prize at the costume party!

Stay tuned! The result will be posted in the near future. For the Corpse News, it's Grandpa Vial signing off!

Rainbow Fall

I feel like I am writing about nothing except Rainbow lately, but even if no one reads it, it is fun to record this stuff for someday. Right now the air is crisp, and I think every day about how I hope we can live this house like we planned. Outside! The views, the feeling, the colors the sounds, the birds, and just the space itself is magic. I love having this experience with Paula, and can't wait to be there with her.


As the leaves begin to fall, it looks like the landscape has been in forever. Hard to believe that it has only been a few days since we got it completed. After taking the picture from the road, I went up to the main floor balcony and took the picture below out to the east. This time of the year, the black raspberry canes are really beautiful.

The view to the east is incredible. If you look closely, you can see Mt. Hood about in the middle just above the berry vines. Click on the picture and you should be able to see it very well.

Out back, the view of the house from out on the river also shows the beauty of the fall colors as how well the house fits into the surrounding foliage.

As the leaves fall on the back lawn, and on the water below, it really feels calm. With all the evergreens, it will stay very private, but the view out across the river and beyond will get more and more open.
As the sun comes around lower and lower, the reflections in the windows, and especially these entry door glasses gets very interesting. We are hearing more and more from people who think that this is some kind of a county building, especially since it sits next to the park. We haven't had even one incident of thievery or vandalism since we started the project, and we are thinking that this may have something to do with the doors.


After seeing this shadow coming in from a reflection off a car in the parking lot of the park two days in a row, I couldn't resist the picture. Once again, it is the lower angle of the sun that makes this happen. This is showing on the wall off to your right after you enter the doors.