Christmas Travelling (Part 1)

Decemebr 9th started with the end of my Fall semester. I presented my presentation on my visit to my placement in the Amazon, and then at 4:30pm, my friend Sarah and I boarded a plane to the town of Loja in the south of Ecuador.

I had been looking forward to that moment for at least a month prior and it was a fantastic experience. The thrill of a extremely stressful and challenging semester finally behind you is irreplaceable, and all that was in front of us were white fluffy clouds and the tops of volcanoes as we passed them from our lofty aerial seats. The plane ride in itself was like a glorious finale, one with incredible views of the cloud-shrouded Andes. Completely breath-taking! 

Not sure if this is Volcan Cotopaxi or Chimborazo.

We arrived in Loja, which was pretty uneventful and the next day we moved on to Vilcabamba. Vilcabamba is known for the longevity of its inhabitants, which most live to around 100 and some as high as 120 or 135. It is often called Valley of Longevity for this reason. Some people attribute this to the simplicity of their lifestyle, the mineral contents of the drinking water, the fruit, roots and herbs that have high levels of anti-oxidants, or the climate, which is warm with very little variability. Whatever the case, it was a very peaceful and relaxing place to be for the 2 and a half days that we were there. There was also a huge population of aging hippies and tourists, and because of this there were many funky restaurants and spas.

Th central square.

Garden in our hotel.

On the second day we were there, we went on a 6-hour horseback ride into Nacional Parque Podocarpus, which has a large diversity of plants, birds, and animals, much like the rest of Ecuador. This horseback ride was the first time I had been on a horse in a very long time, but my years of horseback riding lessons definitely came back. We even cantered a few times and last time I tried that, I fell off and was almost trampeled. However, the lessons I learned from that experience were definitely engrained in my head which made this ride very enjoyable.
The ride took us high above the Vilcabamba valley down into another little valley where two rivers merged. The vegetation changed dramatically throught the ride at our lunch stopping point, it looked similar to the Amazon.

Sarah riding ahead.

The view back into the Vilcabamba valley

River crossing

Beside the river where we ate lunch

After a lunch we headed back the way we had come, and also stopped at a waterfall, which is rumoured to take off 3 years of your life if you fully submerge yourself in it. It was glacier-cold so I didn't do it. I am also already mistaken for being younger than I am so I don't need the age decrease either...

Anyways, after an amazing day, I paid the price and was sore EVERYWHERE for a week afterwards, but especially my thighs. In an attempt to remedy this, Sarah and I went for a massage the next morning before we headed to Cuenca, the third largest city in Ecuador and their historic old town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We spent a few relaxing days there and on one of the last days, we headed out on a tour to Parque Nacional Cajas, a National Park that protects a threatened area called the páramo. This area is known as the tundra zone in the Andes and plays an incredibly important role as the beginning of the watersheds. In these areas, it is almost always raining or foggy and they have vegetation that acts as a sponge to soak up the water that falls here. This park is one of the few páramo areas that are protected. This one happens to be protected because of its size, the endemic species of plants and animals that are found here, and because it is the source of two major rivers that run through Cuenca. It also plays a historical significance because the area used to be a trade route for the Cañari people, and later the Incas (making up part of the Inca Trail). We also got to hike by some llamas, alpacas, and their hybrid, the huarizo. That happened to be the highlight for me becuase of my obsession with llamas. 

The first section we visited on the edge of the park, where we hiked around the lake.

Sarah and I

Llamas, Alpacas, and their hybrid, the Huarizo

LLAMA

The second area we visited, in the middle of the park (altitude: 4167m above sea level).

We went for a 2 hour hike in this section of the park. It was beautiful but we were drenched within 5 minutes.

There were many, many lagoons (made by glaciers) and polylepis trees on their banks

Drenched but having a blast!

In a fairytale polylepis forest.

The amount of water in this area was insane. It was like stepping on a sponge.

This was by far my favourite day so far. I could stay there forever, apart from being drenched and cold. Choosing pictures were also extremely difficult given how phenomenally beautiful the landscape was.

A few days later and after much travelling, we ended up in Salinas de Guaranda, a beautiful Andean town high in paramo, that is an excellent example of rural community development. It was an extremely poor community in the 1970s with thatched room huts, and now it is a thriving community that produces high quality cheese, chocolate, honey, salami, wool and reed products. We tried the chocolate, which was superb, and I bought a wool bag and toque among other things. The town also has high education and health rates, and the people were probably the friendliest I have met in all of Ecuador. There was much pride in the successes of their community and their products are sold throughout the country.

View of Salinas from our hotel, which was owned and run by the community.

Sarah and I then parted ways, she went to Quito to meet her parents who were flying in to visit her for two weeks, and I went to Baños, a tiny touristy town which is considered the gateway between the Andes and the Amazon, and on the slopes of an active volcano, Volcan Tunguraghua, which was erupting when I was there. I spent most of my time relaxing and eating excellent food, also what Baños is know for. The highlights were reading on my porch, getting a massage, going white-water rafting down the Rio Pastaza into the Amazon, and going out for delicious sushi in a new restaurant owned by a Canadian man (best sushi I have had in Ecuador so far).

Christmas lights in the central square in Baños

After a week in Baños, I headed back to Quito to spend Christmas there. I spent Christmas Eve with Sarah's family and we went out for a delicious and fancy dinner in Old Town, and I spent Christmas Day Skypeing and talking on the phone to most of my family. On Boxing Day I Skyped with the Christensen-side of my family during their Christmas festivities. Thanks to the miracle that is Skype, I was able to see and talk to almost all of my family even though I am a continent away, and thousands of kilometres. Even though I was and am very homesick, I am very grateful for all the love and support I have in my life.

Rainbow from the porch of my hotel in Baños

Now I am off on a night bus tonight (December 27) to spend a week on the coast, in Puerto Lopez... :)

Challenges

Some of your hardest days are when you learn the most.

I learned this lesson the week (November 30 - December 6) I spent in the Amazon to check out my community development placement for next semester. I lived in the Pueblo Kichwa de Rukullakta (PKR), in the community of Rukullakta, the largest of 17 communities under the organization of PKR. I will be working with them and researching how a community resists oil development, and I will be putting together a report on viable alternatives to oil development. PKR is utilizing organic, free-trade coffee production, and tourism (including the tourism of student volunteers like myself).

The week was confusing and difficult. This included:
- Living in a cement house with a tin room that leaked when it rained (every day)
- Eating rice and chicken everyday (it gets old after 1 day let alone 7 days or 3 months...)
- My Spanish wasn't great and people speak in a mixture of Spanish and Kichwa, the latter of which I know nothing
- Not having any idea what I was doing there. This stemmed from the fact that I a) didn't understand about half of the Spanish spoken to me and b) I came in with the idea that I wouldn't be imposing with what I wanted to do in the community and let them decide what I wanted to do. Now this would have worked great for a less organized community, but this community seems like a well-oiled machine and so they took it to mean that I didn't know what I wanted to do. Based on this, they planned my week to just be about learning about the community and what they are trying to achieve (showing the government that they can sustainably develop without oil production). Although this was fine and constructive, I really had to work hard to try and figure out what my role was going to be when I returned in January.
- Being Canadian. This has never, ever been a problem before, but because the government-hired oil company that they are resisting is Canadian, I met some hesitation as well as some outright opposition to my presence in the community. Most people were welcoming but a few members of the community definitely felt this way, even though it was conveyed in Spanish-Kichwa. I now know what it's like to be a travelling American...

I hit a definite low the day before I went home, where I felt so utterly useless and like a burden that I just started to cry. After that point, the day got better and I finally solidified what I was going to do for three months. It was almost like I had to hit rock bottom before things showed themselves to me... That day I learned the most. That day, December 5, was the day I learned that living in a community is never easy (not that I really thought it would be) and that you need to really be clear about what you hope to achieve. People are not going to tell you what to do, you have to figure it out for yourself. Now, whether this was their plan initially or not, it was an effective but difficult learning scheme that made me really question everything I had been taught in the semester I was just finishing. (There will be another post on my thoughts on community development soon, or in many posts in the next few months, because the questioning is always there.)

Regardless, I made a few friends, one of which is a student from France volunteering in the tourism section of the organization for 6 months. I also got to participate in the making of a traditional meal, play Ecuavolley (3-on-3 volleyball), and help in one of the steps of coffee making. The area that PKR is located in is phenomenally beautiful and diverse. I hope to scratch the surface on the Amazonian Kichwa culture and learn a lot about the strength of people.

The next three months (starting January 9th) will definitely be the hardest three months so far in my life, but they will probably be worth it in the amount I will learn and experience.

My room, also the best in the house

The two youngest kids in the house, out of 3, Wiñay (7) and Ichak (6).

Wrapping tilapia, fiddleheads, and palm hearts together in a palm leaf for grilling.

The view from the front door of my house just before a torrential rainstorm hits.