Maggie's Adventures in Ecuador: What a week!

Hello, everyone!

I´m currently in Quito for the day, so it´s time to update the blog! This past week has been full of adventures and new experiences, so I´ve brought along my journal to help me remeber it all for this entry.

Sunday: Had a great breakfast at the Magic Bean Cafe in Quito--strawberry pancakes and fresh squeezed orange juice! Took a taxi to the bus terminal in Quito, where I caught a bus to Calacali. Luckily I had told some of the people on the bus where I needed to get off, because I would have just continued on to who knows where without their help! The bus dropped me off basically on the side of a random road, but once I made it into the town, I asked where I could find a truck to take me to Yunguilla in the first restaurant I found. This well-groomed, legitimate looking man offered to take me himself, and so that´s how I got to Yunguilla! He stayed around while we asked where I should go/what I should do with my big suitcase and then didn´t even charge me for the ride! Galindo, one of the main tourist guides in the community took me to my host family´s house via moto (not quite a motorcyle, but a motorbike). Don´t worry, Mom and Dad, he´s a pretty good driver! I´m living in a house with an older couple (they´re actually my parents´ age, but look like they´re much older) and their 11 year old granddaughter, Amanda. Angelita (the grandmother) and Diogenes (the grandfather) are super nice and welcomed me instantly. I have my own room, but the house is definitely MUCH different than what I´m used to. There´s no heat (it gets SUPER cold here at night because of the altitude—probably in the 40s), no running water aside from 6:30-8am and you have to handwash your clothes (more about that adventure later). We watched some Ecuadorian volleyball, which is much different than in the US because there are only 3 people per team, the net is much higher and you can basically carry the ball, and then had dinner. The journey had worn me out, so I was in bed early!

Monday: After a brief meeting with the director of the community today, we washed tents the kids had used the previous weekend on an environmental education camping trip. We went to our respective homes for lunch, then came back to finish washing and go to the orchid growing area to water the plants. The work day here ends around 4pm. We had soup for dinner and then I challenged them to a game of cuarenta, the popular Ecuadorian card game I learned how to play last time I was in Ecuador. I´m currently tied 1-1 with Galindo, so we´ll see how that ends up!

Tuesday: I´m slowly learning that Ecuadorians run on a different time system. It´s kind of similar to Bryn Mawr time, but more like 15-30 minuts instead of 10. I met the two British volunteers, Brendan and Will, who have been here for the past 4 months teaching English to the schoolkids, and they came with us to work on cleaning a trail. We used machetes to cut down branches and shovels to make the path wider, but it wasn´t until we were on the way back that I realized we had been walking downhilll the entire time and now had to walk all the way back up to go back to Yunguilla. We´re at about 3,000-3,500 meters, so about 9,842-11,482 feet, which makes breathing pretty difficult! Had a great hot blackberry drink with dinner and then went to bed early so I could wake up to take shower when there would be water the next morning!

Wednesday: I enjoyed a nice hot shower this morning and then went to Tahuallullo (the community owned piece of land where most tourists stay/most of the community projects are based). We worked on clearning the areas around trees that had been planted recently on a mountain (or so it felt like walking up to the top). We returned home for lunch and then in the afternoon worked some more before it started raining and we had to stop. At night I went to a workshop about identifying threats to the biodiversity of the community as they´re trying to make it a reserve for conservation and sustainable uses. Very interesting to learn about the land and the community dynamics!

Thursday: Today I worked to help terrace and plant a hillside with potatoes at someone´s house in the morning, and to make bags of soil for plants at the nursery at Tahuallullo in the afternoon. When I got back to the house, Amanda tried to show me how to hand wash clothes, which of course was kind of a disaster. I got pretty frustrated about how labor intensive it was and how much water it was using, and then got even more frustrated when I could only wash half of my clothes because there wasn´t anymore clean water. I´m sure the clothes are going to take forever to dry, too, so I´ve been looking for laundromats in nearby towns so that I can avoid the whole washing clothes by hand thing in the future.

Friday: We traveled in the back of a pick-up truck today to finish cleaning the rest of the trail we started on Tuesday. While we were working, some of the locals heard a toucan, but we unfortunately weren´t able to see it. We were done rather early, so in the afternoon we played volleyball and soccer. There was a going away party for the British volunteers tonight, so we went to that and then came back to go to bed.

Today! Saturday: Traveled with Brendan and Will to Quito and enjoyed a nice lunch of pizza (I´m a little tired of soup—fun fact: I was once a member of a Facebook group called ¨Soup is not a real meal¨, so this whole soup at almost every meal thing is not really my favorite). I was able to call my parents and Fawaz and am now in an Internet café in La Mariscal, right down the street from the hotel where I stayed on Saturday night. I hope to make it back to Yunguilla for dinner, so we´ll see how that journey goes!

Overall, things have been going pretty well. I haven´t gotten really sick, although I´m scared about getting a stomach bug which is apparently going around (the two British volunteers got sick this past week for the first time in the 4 months they´ve been here). As I said, the house is a lot different than what I´m used to, but it´s all ok because Yunguilla is absolutely the most beautiful place there is. Green mountains are everywhere and we´re literally in the clouds! Everything is pretty laid back and everyone is very friendly. I probably won´t travel until the weekend after next (I´m hoping to go to the thermal baths in Papallacta for an early birthday treat), but maybe I´ll be able to access the Internet in the community office, we´ll see. Hope everyone is doing well! Xoxo