Back to Reality

Life in the US. So different from my life in Ecuador. And though I would be amiss to say that I didn’t love my time in Ecuador, there are definitely two things that have made my transition back to the USA easier. Cooking and the “buzz of summer”.

The night I got back to the USA I went to Whole Foods and made myself a simple tomato sauce to eat with brown rice pasta and sautéed broccoli. I immediately dove into cooking magazines at my friend’s house and then went to the library to take a peek at some cookbooks. Now that I’m home in Virginia Beach, I’ve cooked for my parents every day. I just love being in the kitchen and surrounded by colorful foods. For father’s day I made blueberry oat scones for breakfast. Dinner was a combination of corvina and shrimp with a guava glaze; grilled squash, corn and onions; and a fresh greens salad with cherry tomatoes and snow peas. We topped it off with ginger peach crisp for dessert.

Great Falls National Park

Now to the “summer buzz.” First off, it’s fabulous to have longer days. In Ecuador, the sun rises around 6:00 am and sets around 6:30 pm. In Virginia Beach, we currently have light until about 8:30. People also seem much happier and more outgoing during the summer months. Personally, I’m always more apt to go out late during the summer. In DC, where a spent my first week back in the US, there are always summer festivities to attend. I went with two coworkers to Jazz in the Park, held every Friday on the National Mall. I also met up with friends from my former book club. They hosted a picnic at Great Fall National Park. Of course, a variety of produce is coming into season as well. I plan to visit one of my favorite farms, Larriland, next time I visit the DC area.

Amon (my former roommate) and me

Now that I’m living near the beach with my parents, visiting the ocean is a must. Growing up, I never took advantage of the beach, but this week I went for a walk on the boardwalk with my parents and visited the annual art show at the beachfront. Another highlight of the week was going out on a boat with a few friends and then cooking tuna and veggies on the BBQ. Can’t wait to see what the rest of the summer has in store.

As you can tell, I didn’t undergo too much culture shock this time. After a few international trips, you realize the aspects of American (USA) culture that cause the reverse culture shock. Now I just acknowledge those things, shake my head and move on. That’s not to say that I just set aside the mentality and emotions I had in Ecuador. No, I hope, in fact, that many of those will stay with me.

Rock we all climbed at Great Falls..soooo much fun!

I am still digesting all the ways that Ecuador has changed me or impressed upon me. I don’t feel like I’m a different person, but hopefully a person with a more relaxed personality. When I became stressed about getting to an appointment on time my second day in DC, it dawned on me that anxiety was rarely part of my life in Ecuador. Time constraints help people get things done, but they can also be stressful.

In Ecuador, I had a handful of outfits for different climates and only one casual skirt. Living this way actually gave me an appreciation for simplicity. I didn’t really get tired of wearing the same clothes over and over (though it was nice because everyone else felt the same way). Now that I’m home, I almost feel claustrophobic in my own room. Over the years I’ve accumulated so much stuff. Time to clean the place out. On the other hand, I am currently in a stage where I enjoy dressing up-not just throwing on jeans and a t-shirt, but perhaps a skirt and collared dress shirt instead. Not sure this mentality will follow me to grad school. We’ll see.

So, my summer is flexible. I have a high school friend coming to visit in July, and I will definitely return to DC at some point. Given the job market and the fact that I’ll only be in town about two months, I decided to forgo job searching. Instead, I’ll try to do small jobs for my neighbors. This summer is the time to complete a few long-term projects, enhance my cooking abilities, stay healthy, and relish my time with family and friends. It may be the last summer I have free from work. Better make the most of it!

Un Pedazo del Paraiso

Imagine peace and tranquility. A breeze flowing through your hair. Lush green tropical forests. Comfortable chairs, the kind you can sleep in with ease. Mini splashes of water hitting your face as you travel across a wide river. That´s what awaited me six days ago when I embarked on my rainforest adventure to Napo Wildlife Center in the Yasuni National Park.

I knew almost nothing about Napo before my trip began. My mom found the location because, quite honestly, I was too lazy to research a good place to visit. I knew Napo had a strong reputation as far as rainforest excursions go, so I just went along with my mom´s suggestion. Suffice it to say I was more than pleased with the whole experience.

Napo Wildlife Center

A little history of Napo Wildlife Center...It was started in 2003 as a joint venture between the Arangu people and an independent nonprofit called EcoEcuador. After a few years working together to get the Center up and running, in 2007 the nonprofit turned the business completely over to the Anangu community. In minimal time, Napo Wildlife Center has surely made a name for itself as a quality lodge offering amazing excursions (I can attest to this) in pristine rainforest. Napo is constantly written up in magazines and newspapers around the world.

At Napo, each group of tourists has a local guide and a naturalist guide. This pairing truly provides a wholistic experience. The locals are well experienced in finding the animals and explaining medicinal plants, wereas the naturalists are educated about the environment, speak English and know the names of all the local fauna. Our guides were Miguel and Freddie. They formed a great team and were so professional and friendly. My mom and I were joined by 6 tourists from Holland for the first few days, but on our last full day, we had a private excusion.

The lodge is situated on the Anangu Lake and has 12 private cabañas. All the day trips start early, to follow the rhythm of the rainforest. We awoke between 4:30 and 6:00 every day, but we were always in bed by 10:00 (of course that was by choice). In the afternoons, we had a few hours to walk around the lodge, relax in a hammock or sleep. There are a few excursions everyone must take as tourists to Napo Wildlife Center: the lookout tower, which is situated 42 meters high above most of the canopy in a Kapok tree and the claylicks, where parrots and parakeets come to eat the mineral rich clay. We did both of those along with some walks around the Yasuni National Park and a few canoe rides through various creeks. The interesting thing about rainforests (and sometimes the most disappointing aspect) is that you can go down the same creek twice and see different wildlife. However, you can also go to an area that is known internationally for a specific animal and never see that species (in our case it was the claylicks...we think a hawk made the birds fearful of coming down).

My two favorite excursions were the canopy lookout tower and the last walk we took on the Tiputini trail. Though we only saw a few animals on the trail, the forest was supreme, and we had to tackle mud the whole way (which brightened the sense of adventure). Throughout our stay at Napo, we saw black caimans, snakes, monkeys, a red brocket deer, lizards, frogs, and loads of birds. The community recently started a camera project that photographs animals around the area via heat sensors. While we were unable to see cats, tapirs or pecaries in the forest, one night we did watch a slideshow of the photos taken by the cameras. That was pretty neat. The data taken by the cameras will enable scientists to study the animal populations more easily and provide obvious reasons for keeping this primary forest intact.

We (sadly) departed from the rainforest yesterday. Our time there wasn´t enough, but then again, I don´t know if I´d ever be ready to leave. I could have spent a few days there just reading in a hammock and listening to the birds. Plus, there are always more things to see...like the river otter.

Tomorrow we are departing South America, thus concluding my four months of Ecuador Explorin, thus completing my dream. I´ll be sure to follow up with one more entry in the next week or so. Now to pack and then to bed for a few hours before my 3:30 taxi ride to the airport.

Cheers to Everyone!

Becky

Bus, Walk, Bus, Walk and Some Airplane Action Too!

The title basically describes what I´ve done the past week and a half but without the beautiful scenary attached. No seriously, if the bus rides didn´t offer gorgeous views through a slew of diverse environments, I would have gone stir crazy. Just to give you an idea, the bus ride from Quito to Cuenca takes between 10 and 12 hours (no we didn´t go straight through). However, the wonderful airplane trip I took last night from Cuenca to Quito took all of 35 minutes! Oh the luxury of air travel (minus the pollution footprint I added to the planet)!

View of Cuenca from Banco Central Museum

Okay, so I digressed a bit. Back to business. Traveling with my mom has been quite fun. Of course we get on one another´s nerves occasionally. Over the months, I´ve become more chill about time, whereas my mom hasn´t had a chance to get into the no-rush travel mentality. Sometimes we bicker about safety and security too, but that´s to be expected. My mom´s been really flexible about what sites and cities we visit. She mainly wanted to have a chance to relax. And, while we´ve done that a bit (bus rides and a few massages), I´m afraid I´ve forced her to walk a fair distance in every city. If it wasn´t a nature walk in Vilcabamba or Baños it was a city walk through Riobamba or Cuenca. Many days we walked at least 3 hours and sometimes up to 8. After all the physical activity invoved in my 3 months of volunteering, it´s so hard to sleep-in and relax for an entire day.

On the most recent leg of the ¨Mom and Daughter Livin´Life to the Fullest Trip¨we journeyed to Baños, Riobamba, Cuenca and Vilcabamba. We both agree that Vilcabamaba and Cuenca top the list.

Coffee

In Vilcabamba we stayed at Izhcayluma, a hostal owned by two Germans. It sits 2 km up a hill outside of the main plaza, which makes for a wideswept view of the area. The food (always important) was feast-like every meal and perhaps more importantly, not salty! My mom loved the fresh-baked grain bread (hard to find in Ecuador) and German dishes while I stuck with inventive fresh and filling salads. Oh, I can´t skip over the pizza...the best I´ve had in Ecuador! Cheese that tasted more like mozzarella than queso fresco and what I believe was homemade crust. Vilcabamba has numerous walks and though my mom didn´t want to take a chance at some of the most difficult trails, we still got in a fair amount of fun exercise (the only kind worth doing!).

Vilcabamba

Going to Cuenca was like a step back in time but with more tourists than I remember. The city itself still has the good colonial feel that I loved back in 2004 when I studied at CEDEI. It was fun trying to find the churches, the parks, the restaurants and the grocery store from memory. I did well with everything except, believe it or not, our lunchtime hotspot, Moliendo Cafe. The mixto sans carne (veggies, chicken, beans and cheese on a Columbian corn tortilla) still hits the spot, and I had a sweet but not too sweet mora juice to go with it.

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Cuenca

Pots and Pans, Anyone?

Truly one of the best memories I will keep from my entire time in Ecaudor is the two days we spent with my Cuencan host family. When I told them that I was returning to Cuenca, they immediately offered their home as a place to stay. I was a bit nervous to accept because I knew it would mean constant translating between my mom and my host family. Since I haven´t used nearly as much Spanish here as I´d hoped, I knew my host mom, especially, would notice the downturn in my ability to communicate. However, per the usual, everything turned out better than expected (great how life normally works that way!). My host sister, Tati, took us to Cuenca´s Baños, to Turi (a great spot to view the sprawling city) and to get Cuecna´s famous peanut butter ice cream. One day we also went to Cajas National Park. The park is situated about an hour from Cuenca but much higher. It boasts over 200 lakes, according to Diego, my host dad. The rest of the time, mom and I spent touring the markets, chatting with my host family, or relaxing at the house. What a lovely way to end this part of our trip.

Diego, Clara and Me in Cajas

Ranger Station Lake, Cajas (I don´t know the real name!)

This morning, mom and I woke early and headed to Old Town where we toured some churches, museums and visited some shops. It was a great day to (guess what??) walk some more. I´m exhausted, but now it´s time to go pack for the next adventure. Tomorrow we will rise with the sun and hit the airport one more time to start our stint in the rainforest. Our journey to the Amazon starts with a plane ride, then continues with a 2 hour bus ride, a motor boat ride and ends with a canoe ride. My mom read somewhere that our lodge doesn´t have road access at all (pretty cool!). I´m thrilled to see what´s in store the next five days! Hopefully animal sightings, tropical food, night hikes, and a little ethnobotony too.

I am thoroughly enjoying my Nikon camera, so I got a little picture happy this time around. Unfortunately, I just realized I deleted about 50 photos from my camera without saving them! Grrr.

Until next time...

Becky

Becky and Jen´s Amazing Adventures!

Jen had a whirlwind tour of Ecuador for sure. Most days we were on a bus for at least a few hours. Thankfully, the scenary is nice and varied on the bus routes. Jen left yesterday morning and my mom arrived at 7pm last night. It´s about time to start another round of bus trips, but before I accumulate more stories, a blog update is necessary. So, here it goes. Just the highlights from each day...

May 10th: Jen arrived!

May 11th: Still feeling ill from eating bad food (see previous entry), so Jen toured Old Town Quito with a hostal-mate, Stacy.

May 12th: Ready or not, the show had to go on...off to Baños. If you read the blog often, it seems like every chance I have, I go to Baños. Guess what, mom and I are heading there tomorrow as well. In the afternoon, we were pampered at a spa. Jen had a pedicure for $10 and I had a reflexology foot massage for $12. It is so easy to get addicted to this type of relaxation!

May 13th: We woke up with the sun and headed to the heated mineral baths. At that time of the day, the baths were mostly populated by elderly Ecuadorians. They believe bathing in the water from the volcano is cleansing and provides healing. I´m not so sure about that, but I do know waking up early to the sight of a waterfall and mountains somehow makes me feel more alive and free.

May 14th: Now in Puyo, Jen and I visited Parque Omaere. It was founded 15 years ago by Chris, an ornithologist from the United States and his wife, a Shuar from Ecuador. At the time the region was mainly cow farms, but today the park is lush and filled with ethnobotanical plants. We got to see the vanilla orchid, the cinnamon tree, plants used for dyes, hallucinigenic flowers, the palm used for Panama hats, the sangre de drago tree and many more. When you slice the trunk of the sangre de drago, a red sap trickles out. It looks exactly like blood. However, when you rub the sap between your fingers it turns to a white foam-like substance that can be used on bug bites, scars or cuts. It definitely stopped my itchy mosquito bite from bothering me.

May 15th: Rafting capital of Ecuador-Tena! The first hightlight I must mention is the hotel-Casa del Abuelo. For $12 a night we had super comfortable beds, cable tv, hot water, Internet and air conditioning. It was like heaven.

The second and more important highlight is the rafting trip we took with Rios Ecuador. Our guide, Gino, is part of Ecuador´s national rafting team, so we felt really safe. Plus, he was personable, funny and professional. We had two other women in our raft who were visiting from Washington state. The river is a 3+ on the rafting scale, perfect for my first rafting experience. Everyone fell out at least once in the rapids and we played silly games when the water only had a small current. The scenary was breathtaking too.

May 16th: In the morning, we went to Parque Amazonico, an island in Tena that has some small foot paths and animals. After seeing the poor conditions the animals live in at the park, I was so grateful for the hardwork we put forth to make the habitats entertaining for the animals at Santa Martha. I think Jen´s favorite part of the park was seeing a marmoset in the wild.

We also walked through Tena´s first ever chocolate festival. The aim of the festival was to educate the local people about the production and cultivation of quality chocolate. The sun was sooo hot that we didn´t stay long.

We took the bus 5 hours back to Quito that afternoon

May 17th: Another bus, this time from Quito to Otavalo. Time for shopping, and that´s all I´ll say about this day.

May 18th: Visited the colorful produce market, more shopping at the tourist market and then another bus ride to Laguna Cuicocha. The lake was formed by the Volcano Cotacachi, which last errupted 3,000 years ago. It has sparkling blue water and two islands that are separated by a small channel. It´s possible to walk around the lake in 5 hours going high over the surrounding mountains, but Jen and I opted instead to take a boat trip around the lake. Got to see the same scene by being lazy. Plus I love boat rides!


May 19th: Jen´s last day, which meant we were forced to head back to Quito. Walk-a-thon is the word of the day, and I stupidly wore flip flops. Don´t ask me why, but Jen had a craving for cheese (not queso fresco!) and McDonald´s french fries. This was coming from a girl who eats like me, meaning no fast food. Oh well, we walked to a mall to cure Jen´s craving, then about 45 minutes straight up hill to Capilla del Hombre (a Guayasamin art museum), back to the Mariscal district to our hostal, then to the tourist market and finally to dinner. The museum was obviously the best part of the day. I visited it in 2004 when I studied abroad, but I think I appreciated it more this time around. There´s a great quote in the museum that says: ¨ I cried because I didn´t have shoes until I saw a boy who didn´t have feet.¨ Upon first glance, Guayasamin´s art can seem morbid, but the majority of his work was designed to portray the plight of indigenous people in various areas of the world.

May 20th: Jen dragged herself from bed at 4am to catch her flight back home.

Alright, I suppose my mom is tired of waiting for me to finish with the computer. Off to tour some more of Quito.

Hasta Luego amigos!

Becky

The Good, the Ugly and the Bad

Wow, looking back at my journal, so much has happened this past week! It was a weekend for volunteer departures at Rio Muchacho. In total, seven volunteers, me included, left the farm. I can only imagine what life will be like on the farm come monday morning when just six people are left to do all the work! Still, I bet it won't be long until more people come. Sometimes even tourists would stay a few extra days to volunteer. Guess that's the sign of a good organization.

Last week, I had the best morning routine, kitchen duty. Basically this was the first time since volunteering at Santa Martha Animal Rescue Center that I was able to get my hands in the kitchen. For those of you who know me well, you must understand how much I miss cooking. Granted, I wasn't really cooking during the morning routine, but I still had lots of fun. Every morning at 6, I'd head over to the kitchen to cut up loads of fruit for the day's fruit salad. The contents varied daily, but just imagine any combination of banana, passion fruit, watermelon, pineapple, papaya, and mame' and your mouth should surely water. I'm definitely going to miss the tropical fruit breakfasts topped with homemade granola.


Probably the best day of the week was Wednesday. Following breakfast we had a minga/work party. The only other minga that occurred during my time at Rio involved carrying very heavy logs from a tree that had been cut from the garden. Since I'd been watching the local workers sawing at another tree in the garden, I suspected the worst again. While the minga did involve taking parts of the tree from the garden, the volunteers only had to carry off the branches. The locals, bless them, did all the heavy work. And, better yet, at 10.30 I was asked to go help prepare lunch. My tasks for lunch included preparing the huge bowl of limeade and the salad.

During lunch that day, my friend Kat mentioned that we wouldn't have to work in the afternoon. For a split second, I was totally confused and then I remembered it was cultural day! The volunteers who had been on the farm for a month or more went on a "secret" excursion. Dario, the farm's owner, took us to a hidden beach. I felt very lucky because one of the volunteers has been at the farm since November and was just going to the beach for the first time with us. The beach is about 50 minutes from Rio Muchacho by car. Once we arrived at the waterfront, we walked another 30 minutes on the sand to get to the good swimming spot. The beach is covered with plantlife and drift wood. It reminded me of walking along the waterfront in Monterey, CA. Even though the Canoa beach is nearby, there are no longer remnants of drift wood or plant life...probably because tourism has changed the lay of the land.


So, after spending Friday night and Saturday in Canoa, it was time to head back to Quito once more. I left on the overnight bus. The ugly part of this entry is that an hour into the bus ride I started to feel sick. The nausea had consequences, which to say the least made the trip extremely uncomfortable. Thank goodness there were two open seats in the front of the bus that I quickly took for myself. I arrived at a hostel at 5.30 in the morning and was basically an invalid for the whole day. I dragged myself from my room for about an hour to take my laundry to be serviced, wish my mom a Happy Mother's Day and buy some Gatorade and saltines. Thankfully, I'm feeling more like myself today, which is a good thing because...last night my friend Jen flew into Quito!

Jen has talked about visiting me in Ecuador since last year, but it wasn't until a few weeks ago that she found an amazing plane ticket and decided to take the plunge. We have a rough idea of places we want to visit over the next ten days, but knowing us, the plans will change. Today we are going to chill in Quito so Jen can get acclimated and I can get my laundry back. Tomorrow, I'm guessing we'll take a bus to Tena, but then again, we could decide to go north to Ibarra or more south to Banos.

So, for the next month I'll be traveling exclusively. The day Jen leaves, my mom flies in to travel for a few weeks. It's kind of strange to think that my three months of volunteering have come to pass. It surely doesn't feel like I've been here for that long. Rio Muchacho was my favorite location to work, though each place was meaningful to me in different ways.

Oh, I forgot to mention the bad part of the entry. If I had to recall something that was bad about last week it was probably finding eight ticks on me in just over an hour. I was working in the Sai Baba meditation garden at Rio in an area that was obviously tick haven. From what I can tell, I got all the ticks off of me before they started to feast on my blood. Definitely a good thing since I have a tick phobia.

Hasta Luego...

Becky

A New Friend

Guess who?

We have a new friend at the farm. Last Sunday, Sam, Christina and I decided to take the 1 1/2 hour walk from the main road back to the farm. Seems kind of silly because it only costs $1 more to take the truck from Canoa to the farm, but I was excited about taking time to enjoy the scenary too. About 30 minutes into our journey, a dog decided to join our trek. She obviously came from someone´s property, but nonetheless, she is skin and bones. I actually didn´t want to look at her during the walk because her situation is so desperate physically. Despite the fact that we didn´t feed the dog, she gleefully bounded along beside us all the way back to Rio Muchacho. The dogs who live at Rio came running towards our new friend when we arrived. Since she literally had no chance of defending herself by physical means, she just rolled over and let the dogs sniff her.

To make a long story short, it seems our friend is here to stay. During dinner one night we actually named her, Luna. The owner of the farm, Dario, believes the lunar phases influence the growth, production and decomposition of plants and other natural matter. Since Luna is white, the name seemed like a good fit. Everyone loves her and she adores people. We all want her to stay, but we´ll just have to wait and see.

After only four sessions of work this week (three mornings and an afternoon), I just about died. Okay, not really. But I was beyond exhausted. There was an area located near the cuy (guinea pig) compost that wasn´t being utilized as of last week. Dario came up with the brillant idea of putting the land to use for humans and cuys alike by creating a mini huerta (vegetable garden). Rio has a cuy tractor, which basically means a movable cuy house that sits on the ground. Diaro decided we´d dig out one large bed to grow lettuces for the cuys. Once the crops are ready to eat, the cuy house can be moved on top of the veggies for easy access. The cuy excrements will in turn fertilize the ground. The other main part of the huerta will be composed of smaller beds for growing kitchen food-corn, beans, watermelon, squash etc. The area is already home to a citrus tree and two cashew trees, which will obviously stay. A few papaya trees will be planted as well.

Cuy tractor and bed for cuy food

I won´t bore you with all the details of each sweaty back-breaking day, but here´s a taste. By far the hardest part is forming the beds. It takes such a long time and is physically arduous. Here´s what´s required: Hoe the bed areas, add compost, hoe again to mix compost with soil, hoe out pathways and add soil to beds, break up clumps of soil/compost with shovel, form raised beds and rake to even out the surface. Despite the toiling work, I´m glad to be a part of this project because I am truly helping to create something that will have lasting impact. Plus, there are very positive aspects to it as well. I get to talk a lot with one of the local workers, Edgar, in Spanish. The cold showers feel so worthwhile after work. And I´m learning about new tools as well. On Tuesday, we cut young bamboo branches at a certain angle so they could be used as stakes for the mesh fence that surrounds the huerta.

Preparing beds for planting

In other news...this week I worked with the chickens before breakfast. This rotation is super easy compared to horses and pigs. The main duties are picking food from the garden for the day´s volunteer meals, feeding the chickens, and cleaning the chicken house. This week we deep- cleaned the chicken house, which meant shoveling out the clumps of poop that had accumulated over time (not sure how long). The house gets raked a few times each week, but every so often a shovel and some muscles are needed to renew the place. Honestly, the first time I walked into the house and saw Edgar working, I thought he was romoving rocks not poop.

Kat turning our compost

The course ended yesterday. I have so many handouts to keep me busy and lots of notes to help me this summer when, hopefully, my best intentions of gardening come to fruition. This coming week will be my first without the restful breaks of class. Cross my fingers I´ll have enough energy to sustain me through the week. Speaking of sustaining (or sustenance)...I´m going to sign off now, so I can grab some lunch and chocolate at the market.

Cheers!

Becky

Beaching It

One should never be stressed on the weekends, especially when the weekend involves a beach. However the lack of time to use the Internet definitely drives gets to me just a bit. Luckily once I´m back out hearing the waves and drinking fresh juice, life is smooth again. Anyway, enough rambling about the Internet; I better spend my time writing a quick entry before breakfast.

Canoa is home on the weekends. It´s so relaxing and peaceful-especially this weekend. Starting Friday, alcohol has been banned to keep people from getting drunk before going to the poles. Today is a major election day. Surprisingly enough, the bars are actually closed, stores are not selling any booze and restaurants are also pretty much following the order. Tourists are here this weekend, but everyone is taking it easy.

Just so I can put up a photo or two, last weekend I went with a few friends to Isla de la Corazon. The island is well-known in the area for it´s mangroves and bird population. I think it has one of the largest frigate bird colonies in the world. We took a motor boat to the island, then took a canoe through a mangrove tunnel. We saw lots of frigate birds, herons and red crabs. Later in the tour, we walked along a raised pathway through the mangroves and up to a lookout point. Our guide, Francisco has worked hard to make Isla de la Corzon known as a tourist destination, partially as a way to save the mangroves. He is a very personable guy and completely self-taught. We ended the morning with a juicy snack of fresh pineapple slices and bananas. So tasty!

Sporting the Sexy Life Jacket

Mangrove Tunnel

Short story from this weekend. Yesterday afternoon I finally found time to hit the beach (the morning was filled with breakfast-which takes a while here, a trip to Bahia to stock up on snacks and mola, and the Internet). I was happily reading on a towel, soaking up the suns rays when suddenly I was overcome with salt water. I grabbed what I could of my stuff and ran for dry ground. The whole situation was so weird. With the crash of one wave, the tide briefly rose 25-30 feet. My friends, who were sitting under a cabaña in front of me were even worse off. Thankfully, my camera was in a ziploc. My clothes, towel and leather flip flops and daypack were a sandy mess (I pulled 3 handfuls of sand out of my daypack later on). The most unsettling part of the whole scenario for me was the fact that I was reading a friend´s book that is actually on loan to him from a professor. It survived, but I might be paying for new book in the future. Andres on the other hand, may have lost the use of his cell phone. And his beloved Panama had was ruined.

Dinner at Cafe Flor

Farm life is still a blast. This week as part of my course I transplanted basil, built a hot compost, made a small double-digging plant bed, and learned about various compost methods, ways to created plant bed and natural fertilizers. Every morning this week I was on pig duty. The poo is not the most inviting way to start the day, but I do love waking up to cute piglets. During the hours that did not involve animals or the course, I weeded beds, painted a cart and put soil into bags which will be used to grow seedlings. During the cultural afternoon I made my own mate bowl. It´s such a unique souvenir to take home, but it was definitely hard work. So the bowl doesn´t rot, I had to make sure every last bit of the flesh was extracted. Then I sanded the inside of the bowl and created a personal design on the outside.

Last night´s sunset

Okay...gotta run to breakfast. Hope there aren´t too many spelling or grammar errors. I also added a few pictures to last week.

Becky

This is the Life!

It´s kind of surreal being here in this moment. I´m at home in my mind, but really so far away. As I start this blog (in a notebook) it´s 8:30 on Sunday morning. I´m sitting on the sand, surrounded by small fishing boats and listening to the waves crash in front of me. I love being at the beach again, and when the cloud cover melts away, it is more beautiful than Virginia Beach (where my parents reside). I´m soaking up my last few hours of weekend relaxation in Canoa, a toursity, but quite sleepy town 10 km outside of Rio Muchacho farm.

Rio Muchacho has proved to be an amazing experience so far. The owners, Dario and Nikola, are very dedicated and truly know about farming sustainably.

On Sunday night, I took an overnight bus ride from Quito to Bahia. I arrived in the wee hours of Monday morning and took a tricycle taxi to Guacamayo Tours. I basically camped out on the sidewalk for a few hours until the tour company opened. Throughout the morning, other volunteers filtered into Guacamayo as well. By 2 pm, when we left for Rio Muchacho, there were five of us in total. Our journey started with a boat taxi from Bahia to San Vicente. Once on the other side of the water, we found a Rio Muchacho truck and jumped on board in the back. Nikola had warned us that these trucks seem to be able to hold ridiculous amounts of people and stuff. She was right! There were 12 people (at least), water jugs, hiking backpacks, boots, and bags of fruits and veggies spilling out the sides. I never thought for a moment everything would make it to Rio Muchacho (the community). For the next hour, we revelled in the beauty of the ocean and surrounding vegetation. I wanted to pinch myself...this place is far removed from the Ecuador I´ve lived in for the past two months.

Andres and Me on our way to Rio Muchacho

Rio Muchacho (the farm) is located next to Rio Muchacho (the river). However, right now, the river looks more like a creek. The rainy season is supposed to last until the end of April, but in reality, there haven´t been strong storms since February. And yes, the crops are suffering. Just to give you a taste of what we have at the farm...the garden is filled with peanuts, turmeric, ginger, papaya, bananas, sesame seeds, pineapples, lettuce, sugar cane and peppers (the spicy kinds of course). I´m sure there are other crops, but my mind is in vacation mode right now. Not all are producing fruits right now. In fact, we just planted the lettuce this week.

The accomodations are basic but surely nice. It kind of looks like we are living in a tropical paradise...wooden houses with thatched roofs amidst palm trees and other flora. I live with three students, all of whom are studying some form of science for a semester in Ecuador. The entire farm uses composting toilettes. Kind of neat and they really don´t smell badly...at least so far. Kind of odd because on the farm the toilette paper goes in the toilette, whereas elsewhere the toilette paper has to be put in a trash can.

Compost Toilette

All the meals at Rio Muchacho are vegetarian except for eggs and the occasional tuna or sardines from a can. As much as I like vegetarian food, I haven´t had much of an appetite this week (to be explained later). As other blogs have disclosed, breakfast is the best meal. We always have fruit salad with granola and some sort of other carbohydrate...pan de yucca, polenta cakes, polenta with egg or (so I´ve heard) french toast. Lunch and dinner always consist of rice with salad and a protien (often in the form of nuts or nut paste). Soup and juice is served at lunch too. We eat out of bowls and drink from cups made from the Mate fruit. Our ¨spoons¨are made from the fruit as well.

My initial inclination is to say that Rio Muchacho will probably be my favorite volunteer experience in Ecuador (when talking about the work/education). I do, however, miss my friends from La Hesperia. I actually speak a decent amount of Spanish on the farm, which is a nice change. I´ve also started a part-time farming course, taught by Nikola. She is a wealth of information about all kinds of farming. The course runs 4 hours a day for 3 weeks.

Every week, the morning job rotates. We start the day at 6:15 am. This week I worked with 4 other volunteers to cut a high-growing form of grass (they call it pasto here), sugar cane and corn, which we then shredded for the hourses and cows. We also had to clean out the droppings and old food from the stalls. Oh, I think it should be mentioned...all the animals at Rio Muchacho are used for their excrement (in various compost systems). Baby pigs are sold in the community, but we don´t eat the animals. After breakfast, at 8:30, I take the farming course. Those not in the course, head to the garden to work in agriculture. Following lunch, the people taking the course head to agriculture jobs, while the other volunteers often work on special projects near the main house (painting, sanding, building, working at the local school).

Guinea Pig Compost System

Okay, I think that´s enough for the first week. However, there is one update from the last blog. After dealing with the ¨suicide plant¨rash for over a week, only to watch it expand to other areas of my body, I decided to see a doctor on Easter. The rash, as it turns out, was not caused by a plant but rather by some abnoxious bacteria. The doctor thinks it entered my system through a cut. I am currently on meds four times a day. The downside of the med is that it takes away my appetite. However, for the most part, the rash started to go away immediately. The only issue is that as the bacteria rash seems to be subsiding, another one (or two) are making their presence known. I´m guessing the one on my hand is some form of poison ivy, but I´m not sure about the one on my forearm and legs. I´m definitely frustrated with all this itching and much to my dismay, there really aren´t many doctor options around here.

Hasta Luego,

Becky

Randomness

Time to add a little randomness to this Blog´s life. Yesterday, I packed up again and headed to Quito. My second month in Ecuador has come to a close, which means a quick descanso (break) before heading to my last volunteer stint in Canoa. Now seems like a good time to follow up on other blog entries and post my extraneous thoughts about La Hesperia. So, here it goes...

Showers...
Last week Raul, an electrician from Spain, showed up at the steps of the volunteer house. Next thing I know, the showers switched from freezing to usually warm. My last shower was a joke...warm turned freezing, but I´d rather have that any day to the initial shock endured by jumping into what feels like a melting glacier.

Bug Bites...
I quickly realized that the bug bites were going to take over not only my waking hours but also my precious sleep. As much as I despise using Deet everyday (even after showers) and wearing long sleeves and pants (or occasionally, the all-too-stylish capris with long socks and flip flops) in warm weather, there was no choice. The bugs won this war. The weekend I went to Baños was a welcome break from itching, but the mother-load of the itching wars was still to come (see below).

The Suicide Tree...
No, that´s not the real name, but that is what many locals call the tree that silently attached my skin recently. Last Saturday while enjoying a nice meal in Santo Domingo, I noticed mini bumps forming on my arms. Over a few days, those bumps became red, and turned into what appeared to be mini water blisters. An oh my, the itching sensation that followed was intense. While the bug bites could be tamed by some Caladryl, the Caladryl only worsened this itch. Cold water, as suggested by the volunteer coordinator, did the trick for a little while, but I needed something more. Thankfully, a miracle was sent in the form of a college guy from Italy named Thomas. He happened to have a rash cream that saved my sanity the last few days. Some of the bumps are going away now, along with the itch. However, the allergic reaction continues to show up in random patches. Living life in short sleeves bearing slightly puffy, purplish-red, bumpy arms among other volunteers is one thing. Doing the same in Quito where the Suicide Tree isn´t prevalent just feels a bit odd---like I have leprosy or something.

The Initial Stage

Hike Numero Dos...
On April 3rd, we embarked on my second group hike around La Hesperia. This time, to a waterfall. The adventure began with the all too exciting trek down the main hill (hint of sarcasm there), which takes about 30 minutes. After walking along the main road for a few minutes, we ducked behind a restaurant and the next thing I knew, we were among a lush, almost jungle-like forest. Crazy how much the scenery changed in a few moments. Due to the heavy rains in March, the river was flowing rapidly and much of the path was muddy. In my opinion, that made the journey more fun. We zigzaged back and forth through the river, climbed over logs and rocks, and shimmied our way over narrow paths (grabbing onto anything sturdy to keep us from falling in the river). The waterfall pounded down, but a few brave souls decided to climb the bottom half for a quick swim. In my opinion, treking back is soaking clothes didn´t make the quick dip worth it. Returning to the volunteer house from the waterfall was a crazy experience. Two words to describe it...straight up. It was almost like rock scrambling but instead of rocks, we had mud, dirt and vines to grab onto. Exhilirating, if a bit nerve-wrecking too. All in all, three hours well spent.

Coffee...the Real Thing...
One day this week I took the mule down to deliver our milk to the milk man. On the way back up the hill, I had the chance to pick a bag of coffee beans. They are taken off the trees when the skin has turned red. The old-fashioned machine below sheds the skin for us, so the beans can be dried and then roasted.


Fenologia...
Ever heard of this word...I hadn´t. Basically what we did on Fenology days was trek to various parts of the forest to observe the growth and fruits of hardwood trees. It was fairly laid back work and interesting. Along the way, we picked up seeds and seedlings to plant in the viverio/ nursery.

Lorna, Kate and Me

Mushrooms Anyone?

El Dispensario...
Even though my first week at the clinic was a bit disappointing, something about being in the medical mindset kept drawing me back. The doctor never took me under his wing, so to speak, so Nurse Nelly was really my mentor. On any given day we only saw a handful of people at the clnic, so there is till heaps of information for me to learn. However, I took advantage of every task, even if it just meant filing papers.

I started out every day sweeping the floors and cleaning a little here and there. As patients arrived, I often took their weight, height, temperature and occasionally, blood pressure. Everything at the clinic is old-fashioned...bathroom scale, measuring tape on the wall, mercury thermometers and ancient blood pressure cuff with stethascope. Nelly would really like to get some digital thermometers and blood pressure machine, but the goverment doesn´t outfit these smaller clinics with new equipment often. I watched and assited with intermuscular injections on a regular basis. And, finally, on my last day, I observed an intraveneous injection. Other than those activities, I spent my time doing basic office work, speaking Spanish and studying from my Spanish for Medical Professionals book.

I never expected it would be hard to leave on the last day. After all, I was only at the clinic for a few weeks. However, I found myself dragging out the final morning-waiting to say goodbye at the last minute. Of course I would have learned more if I´d had the opportunity to observe a doctor at a larger clinic. But something about this basic, sterile, quiet clinic will stick with me for a long time.

Nurse Nelly and Me

Cheers to La Hesperia...
The photos I have don´t really do it justice. One thing I will truly miss about La Hesperia is the scenary. Imagine waking up every day to view miles of lushly covered mountains. Sometimes I´d sit at the bench outside my room, gazing at the clouds rolling over the landscape, thinking about how lucky I was to be in the moment surrounded by such magnificence.

I found myself comparing Santa Martha to La Hesperia quite frequently. That´s good and bad I suppose. At least it means that both places had some great qualities (and some not so perfect ones too). At La Hesperia, I felt at home instantly. The group was inclusive, fun and overall, a bit more mature. The volunteers at Santa Martha seemed more hard-core and dedicated, but I think that had a lot to do with the expectations of the volunteer coordinator. I really enjoyed the variety of activities La Hesperia had to offer. I preferred the jobs that were either relaxing throughout (like making food) or were easy-going for portions of the day with hard work mixed in. For example, when planting trees, it was hard bringing the trees into the forest. However, once the planting began, the work was a bit less toiling. Same with weeding around sapplings at higher altitudes. A hard climb at the beginning, but the actual weeding wasn´t so tough. Plus, being in the middle of the forest was great! The volunteer coordinator at Santa Martha provided us with more background information about how and why we were doing certain tasks. Plus, she gave us feedback each day about our work. That was always nice. However, the laid back attitude of the coordinator at La Hesperia meant that we didn´t have to backtrack and redo our work ever at La Hesperia. I loved the group meals at La Hesperia even though sometimes we were too tired to talk much. The meals weren´t always perfect, but overall the variety and flavors were satisfying. It was hard to keep to my ideal no-wheat diet, especially when homemade bread and pizza taunted me. However, I was good about limiting it.

Well, it´s time for me to run (or literally, take a taxi) to the bus station. I´m going to meet my friends from La Hesperia in Otavallo for an overnight trip. Saturdays in Otavallo are market days. Too bad I have no room for souveniers right now. I´ll have to return once I´ve dumped my work clothes for good in Canoa.

Hasta Luego Friends,

Becky

Highlights of the Week

This week was good. It´s easy to find simple joys out here where my life is pretty simple all around. This week I took a shower that could almost be called hot. Granted the rest of the week the showers were icy, but that one shower pleased me to pieces. Another highlight of the week was our lunch on Thursday. The past week the food was surely less than amazing. There were even two mornings were breakfast consisted of white rolls with pineapple jam (loaded with sugar of course) and oatmeal juice. Of course, I had a hidden stash of oatmeal and apples, so my hunger was covered. However, those who didn´t have extra staples were exhausted and ready for another meal by 10am. Anyway, back to lunch. The meal started off with cream of broccoli soup (tasted more like broccoli than cream)and popcorn. Then we were served corn fritters, radish and carrot salad, and a piece of meat (honestly since I don´t eat a lot of meat, I don´t know if it was beef or pork, but nonetheless, it tasted good).

The work this week was also satisfying. On Tuesday we spent the morning making food-lemongrass tea, pizza (dough and all) and chocolate.

Joe making pizza crust

Adam pressing our cocoa beans

Wednesday I walked down the hill to volunteer at the clinic for a few hours. It´s bigger and more advanced than I expected, but nothing compared to what one would expect to visit in the US. There´s a place to sign-in and wait for the doctor, a delivery room (in the off-chance that a birth should happen), a bedroom (mainly in case the staff need to stay overnight), a storage room and a patient room that doubles as the doctor´s office. The clinic has a decent number of medications, but not a wide variety. There is a sterilizer and proper disposal containers for sharps and contaminated products, which I was actually surprised to see.

Since very few patients came on Wednesday (only the nurse is there), my morning job was to clean the delivery room. I doubt it gets used often (or at least I hope not) because it was quite dusty, and there were bug remains in the windsills and in the corners. Thankfully, I was able to clean with disinfectant instead of just water (which belive it or not, is a frequent occurance in various places I´ve visited). Later in the day, I was tasked with wrapping hundreds of tongue depressors in paper (literally the intake forms for patients). Since I didn´t finish, that task became my homework as well. On Monday, the wrapped tongue depressors will be sterilized in the paper and then are ready for the doctor to use. I´m not 100% sure why we wrap them in paper, unless that just keeps them sterile when they are put in the ¨tongue depressor¨container.

The best part of the day was when a couple came in to get complete vitamin B injections. The nurse took me through the whole process-from filling the syringes to putting a band-aid on the injection site at the end. It feels great to learn about community health! The doctor is only on-site Monday and Tuesday, so I imagine the clinic will be much busier then. Can´t wait to see what next week brings.

Okay, now to the rest of the week. I helped weed the vegetable garden, planted red cabbage and beans and planted canelo trees in a really beautiful part of the forest.

The fun continued Thursday after lunch. My friend Vivian and I caught a bus to Quito. On the way, we got stopped for a while because workers were fixing a landslide. Three vehicles in front of us was a pineapple truck. A few people from the bus got out to purchase pineapples, so Vivian followed suit. The pineapple she got was one of the biggest I´ve ever seen and it only cost one dollar! Later in the bus ride, the pineapple, which Vivian had placed in the luggage area above our heads, fell out and wacked me in the arm before falling on the floor. It cracked open a little, but luckily we had a grocery bag to stop the juice from flowing everywhere. Friday morning, we had no choice but to cut open the pineapple using our Swiss army knive in the bathroom of the hostal. The bathroom was outfitted with a genuine tile flat surface near the shower (presumably for putting clothes), but we made it our cutting area (with a towel and plastic bag under the pineapple of course). It was kind of an adventure, but was worth every minute. We ate the entire pineapple that day.

Friday after breakfast and the pineapple fun, it was finally time to get my package. The package was a birthday gift from my mom, filled with goodies-two books, a flashlight (which will come in handy, actually), walnuts, fruit leather and lots of granola bars/cliff bars. Since it weighed over 5kg, I had to go to the post in Quito to get it. That was actually a strange experience too. Here´s a play by play. Went to front desk and paid $1.50 for processing/holding purposes, went down the street to make copy of passport for the post, went to the holding area of the post with a woman so she could open the box and see the contents, went to woman´s desk so she could type up what she saw for customs purposes, went to bank window in the post to pay a minimal customs fee, went back to store to make copy of receipt from bank for customs, went back to customs area, handed over copy of receipt, took a load of papers to another window in the post, signed form saying I received my package, went to back of post office again to finally receive my package. Yipee!

After that ordeal, Vivian and I caught a bus to Baños. Lots of relaxing, hiking, good food, and biking. Still haven´t gone to one of the famous mineral baths, but oh well. Vivian even bungy jumped from a bridge yesterday morning at a stop on our bike ride. It would have been a cool experience, but we didn´t bring enough money for the two of us to go, and she was itching for the chance. We have three other friends here from La Hesperia, so we meet up with them for dinner and drinks in the evenings. As much as I like working, playing is better. Makes me look forward to the month that I have to travel at the end of the trip.

Vivian and me on the bike adventure

A taste of the scenary in Baños

Don´t you wish you could wear one of these cool helmets?

Well, that´s more than enough for this week.

Cheers-
Becky