A bittersweet despedida

Welcome home!

As I am writing this from the Charles Darwin Hostel in Quito, all of our students have arrived home safely and are probably telling their families all about our incredible trip. But just last night, we were all here together, staying up much of the night to take advantage of our last hours together as a group.

The last week of the trip was full of moments where we asked ourselves, 'could that have possibly happened just yesterday?' Our stay in Espejo de Cajas came to a special conclusion with the Inti Raymi celebration last Saturday afternoon. We donned local traditional dresses/outfits, ate an incredible amount of food prepared especially for us (sopa de cuy, chicken, papas, mote, etc), and danced for hours at every house on the main block of the community. At each house, the food and/or drink that was offered had to be finished before the revelers could move on to next house. It was awesome for our group to be an integral part of this traditional community celebration.

We took full advantage of our last days in Espejo. On Sunday, we went on a hike around the rim of a volcanic crater, Volcan Cuicocha. The inside of the crater is a giant lake and we took a boat ride around it.

Our last day in the community was filled with goodbyes and expressions of gratitude from our group to the local people who had welcomed us, and also from the Espejo community to our group for our contributions and presence. We really feel that we made some meaningful connections in Espejo, and definitely learned a lot from sharing in the rural Ecuadorian way of life for a few weeks.

After a bittersweet goodbye to our friends in Espejo, we took advantage of a day in Quito to trek to the uppermost spires of the basilica where we saw amazing colonial architecture and ate exotic flavored ice cream.

The end of our Ecuadorian adventure took place in the Amazon Rainforest. Most of the group flew into Coca and took a 6 hour longboat ride deep into the jungle. They spent three days hiking in waist-deep mud, seeing wildlife, and relaxing in hammocks. A few of us had to spend an extra day in Quito for various reasons, but we also made it to the Amazon, to a lodge on the Napo river about 300 km upstream from the rest of our group. We visited an animal rescue center where we say monkeys, toucans, and ocelots, and floated down the river in inner tubes or life jackets. Both groups were taught in the art of using blowdarts, and delicious meals were served despite the fact that our blowdart skils were not at jungle survival level!

It was bittersweet for all to see the trip come to an end and to leave behind this group that has really become a family over the past month. I am still in Quito, and it is really strange to be here without everyone- I genuinely miss you all and hope that we will stay in touch!

Last night, I read a few excerpts from my journal to a few group members, who encouraged me to share it on the blog. So I will conclude with this entry from July 16th, describing our first trip to the alpaca farm high in the mountains of Eugenio Espejo de Cajas:

"Edwin drove us up the mountain at dusk, and we saw the stars come out, and sat in the tall grass, watching the alpacas while the world below us unfolded like the milky way, shimmering in the crisp air. From those heights, the panamericana was merely a colony of ants crawling to and from Otavalo. Only Volcan Imbabura maintained its stature, a solid rock rising from the depths of Lago San Pablo. Like Edwin said, when the only sound that you can hear is the wind, and your house is just a far away speck of light, things like borders and conflict and difference seem completely trivial."

It´s been an wonderful journey, thank you all for being a part of it.

Con cariño,
Josh and Suzanna

An update in photos

Volcan Cotopaxi, Otavalo, and Inti Raymi

The days are flying by here in Ecuador!  It`s hard for all of us to believe that we only have about a week left before we return home.

This morning we have come to Otavalo, an indigenous city near our host community where there is a large and famous craft market every Saturday.  The large plaza is full of homemade stands where Otavaleños sell all sorts of local crafts, from instruments to ponchos to paintings.  Everyone was excited to come here this morning to purchase crafts for themselves and for loved ones at home.

Later today, we will be dancing the afternoon away at a celebration in our community!  All of the communities in this area are continuing to have Inti Raymi harvest fiestas, and Eugenio Espejo is hosting one (in our honor) this afternoon.  Many of us will be getting dressed in the traditional indigenous clothing.  We have been practicing a local song and dance, and we will also be bringing a traditional plate of food to share with community (including the Andean delicacy of qui, guinea pig!).

We spent this past week working at different projects in the community, including painting a large and colorful sign advertising the village cheese production.  We also had many other experiences, such as climbing into the paramo to visit community alpacas, having `limpias` from a traditional Yachak (shaman), playing music and singing with local musicians, and making empanadas for dinner.

Last weekend, we stayed at a lovely hacienda high in the mountains close to Volcan Cotopaxi, a glacier-covered volcano.  Unfortunately, we had a few upset stomachs as well - but it luckily passed relatively quickly!  Those of us who stayed healthy were able to climb high up to the glacier snow-line.  We definitely felt the altitude, but it was quite amazing to be up there.

We are leaving our community on Monday.  We will spend a day in Quito before flying into Coca, a city in the Amazon, from which we will travel to a lodge in the Amazon for a few days.  Though our stay here is almost over, I`m sure many more adventures are still in store for us.

Saludos from Ecuador!

Suzanna and Josh

Greetings from Otavalo!

Life on the trip has been extremely full! Everyone has become very comfortable with each other, and we are starting to really feel like a family. Our village, Eugenio Espejo de Cajas, is also starting to feel like home. We have put a lot of work into the community, and are starting to make connections with lots of the locals.

Our arrival here coincided with the most important festival of the year in the Andean highlands, Inti Raymi, which is Quechua for 'the festival of the sun'. It celebrates the harvest season, most importantly the harvest of many distinct types of corn and maize, which is the staple food of this part of the Americas. In our indigenous village, people practice subsistence agriculture to survive, so there is much wisdom in giving thanks to the sun for providing the energy to grow all of food that we eat.

We had the opportunity to attend two festivals last week, the first in Cayambe, which was a colorful affair of parading dancers in vibrant costumes, musicians, and vendors selling all kinds of street food, such as sugar cane juice, llapingachus (tortillas de papa- fried potato pancakes, very different that latkes), mote (a steamed, white, large kerneled corn), and various other foods made with corn, like a special cornbread and accompanying soup prepared only once per year for this fiesta. We joined in the dancing and were welcomed by both our village´s representatives at the festival as well as many other groups of dancers and musicians. We also encountered some of the issues that can arise when traveling and trying to integrate into a different culture (such as feeling uncomfortable at times). In a meeting later that day with our main contact here in Espejo, Edwin, our students worked through this and ended the day with a much more profound understanding of both the local culture, and how to shift our own attitudes and perceptions to match the intentions of the local people.

The next afternoon, we were invited to a very local festival by a friend that we made at the Museo Inti Ñan, which sits directly on the line of the equator and which we had visited en route from Quito to Espejo. The museum itself was fascinating, with many demonstrations of the tricks that gravity plays at the equator, as well as displays of Ecuadorian folkways. In one part of the museum, a costumed dancer named Campo Elias led our group in a traditional circle dance and then invited us to his villiage´s Inti Raymi celebration, which was a bit more old fashioned and traditional than the celebration in Cayambe. So off we went, and our friend first took us to a hilltop where Ecuadorian indigenous kings who died fighting the Incas in the 1400´s are buried, and taught us a bit of local history. Then we proceeded to the fiesta, which was held on the town soccer field. The celebration consisted mostly of groups of dancers, costumed much differently than those in Cayambe, dancing around in large circles to a steady heartbeat rhythym. Of course, we also sampled the festival food which included empanadas de platano, fried bread pockets with banana inside.

The week in Espejo we have worked hard on several projects, building a store to sell local, fresh cheese that is made in town, and a second construction project building a community kitchen for the town. In addition, we have been doing trail maintainance (as locals do, using machetes) along a path leading to a hut perched on a mountain above town. From the hut, there is an incredible view out over an entire valley between volcanic ridges. Students have also started teaching English classes to local kids and adults, as well as playing with the local children in a daycare center and through sports. Students are now beginning to work on independent projects, which some of which include learning about traditional local medicine with a Yachak (Quechua for wise man), learning about local weaving traditions, milking cows, and working in the small cheese factory.

This past weekend, we traveled to the cloudforest of Mindo. The 2000 meter drop in altitude and significantly warmer climate (as well as the hot showers!) were a welcome respite. In Mindo, we did a series of ziplines over the lush, green canopy. We also hiked to and swam in a waterfall, and hiked back triumphantly in the warm rain and visited a butterfly sanctuary where some students had beautiful butterflies eating off of their fingers. Students also learned about chocolate from an organic cacao farmer, and we even made our own chocolate fondue by hand, from scratch! We began by toasting cacao beans, shelling them, grinding them into powder, and cooking then with water and panela, which is pure sugar cooked down to brown granular goodness. Needless to say, it was delicious! En route from Mindo to Espejo, we caught a brilliant view of Cotopaxi in the sunset, which is where our adventures will take us next weekend. . .

All is well here in Espejo de Cajas. We are adjusting well to local life, digging into the projects, improving our Spanish, meeting the locals, enjoying the scenery, and trying new foods. One student summed up his experience in the following haiku:

I like the food here.
It is Ecuadorian.
There are potatoes.

Indeed!

Until next time,
Josh and Suzanna

Life in Espejo de Cajas

*This blog is written by student, Rachael Wilkin.

Hey Guys!

Our Ecuadorian life has been amazing so far! The landscape here is absolutely beautiful. We arrived in Espejo de Cajas on Sunday and were welcomed by our community, who all were extremely warm and accepting of us into their culture. Since the beginning of the trip, we have gone on tours through Quito, visited the equator line, and celebrated side by side with Ecuadorians during a giant fiesta! We had so much fun dancing in circles with our community and walking in the parade with other villages. The whole experience was íncreible!

Today we are going to start our projects, which consist of constructing a tienda (store) to sell cheese, clearing a trail to a faraway hut, teaching English to children, painting a sign, helping make cheese in our village cheese kitchen, and helping prepare meals with the cocineras (cooks).

Adios!

Saludos from Quito!

Hello all!

Our trip has gotten off to a fantastic start. Everyone arrived to the Miami airport safe and sound, and just in time to catch our flight to Quito. When we arrived, Suzanna was waiting for us at the airport in Quito with our driver Jimmy, who took us directly to the Hostal Charles Darwin. The group slept well the first night and, with the exception of a few minor headaches, everyone is adjusting well to Quito's 3000 meters of altitude!

Our first day began with a lovely breakfast, including fabulous freshly squeezed juices that Ecuador is famous for. We then headed to Parque Ichimbia in Quito, where we received a fascinating tour from Mauricio, who explained to us a bit about la cosmovision andina, the worldview of andean indigenous peoples. We also had the opportunity to learn about some native local flora and fauna, the uses of specific plants, and to play on a playground with a few Ecuadorian kids.

Later at the park, we met in the cultural center for an orientation and talked about what to expect for the month ahead, cultural differences, building a positive group dynamic, etc. After a lunch with a spectacular view of Quito, we went to the Panecillo, which is a famous lookout point with an enormous statue of an angel.

We then proceeded to the historical center of the city (Quito's old city, which is also a World Heritage Site) where we had a dinner of typical Ecuadorian foods, such as humitas (steamed corn tamales), empanadas, and several delectable juices, of which mora (blackberry) and guayábana were the group's favorites. Next, we toured the old city guided by a costumed actress playing the character of a widow dressed in all black from 1909 (la viuda negra)-- it was an amazing performance! We finished the night with biscochos and hot chocolate and another lovely view of a classic plaza illuminated in the night.

Tomorrow we will head north on the Panamericana (the Pan American highway) to our village, Eugenio Espejo de Cajas. Everyone is anxious to get to our village! On the way, we 'll make a stop at la mitad del mundo, a monument which marks the actual line of the equator. We are also planning a lunch in the nearby city of Cayambe, which is celebrating its late june fiestas of Inti Raymi and San Pedro.

The group has become fast friends, and we are all having a blast-- the past few days have been a great introduction to each other and to Ecuador. Bye for now!

-Josh and Suzanna

The group has arrived

We've received word from the leaders that the group has arrived in Quito. They will travel to their village, Espejo de Cajas, on Sunday.