Ecuador 2006

August 20^th: Galápagos—Enchanted Isles

The Galápagos islands were originally named Las Encantadas by Spanish explorers who thought the unusual lava formations were spooky, but we think the name is applicable for how mesmerizing they are. Even now several days after leaving, we still feel under their spell—there’s something about the combination of evolution-in-action and such unique natural beauty seen first hand that is really heard to put into words. Magical and enchanting and awe-inspiring are the best we can do. We learned a lot about the word “endemic” too, and now are thinking of how this applies not just to unique island wildlife but more globally to us as a species on this planet, needing to be more conscious of how to preserve these stunning natural resources that have been millions of years in the making. The distant and close vistas in the Galapagos, of everything from craggy volcanic rock to baby blue-footed boobies, perhaps are best thought of as a reminder of how ancient this all is, how short a time we humans have been here, and of how quickly in fact evolution and extinction can happen.

We spent a week on a small cruise ship (about 20 passengers plus 18 crew) traveling 560 nautical miles around the archipelago, visiting 8 of the islands. There were two bilingual naturalist guides, so we did most of our exploring in groups of about ten people, using small inflatable boats called pangas to land on the islands. We hiked across flat arid islands, climbed across lava beds, toured tranquil mangrove bays by boat, and did a lot of snorkeling and a bit of kayaking. The islands fully lived up to their reputation for having amazingly approachable and unique wildlife. As you can see from the pictures, the animals are not afraid of people at all, so you can really get up close and personal!

Of course, being on a boat called Evolution meant that we learned a lot about Darwin and the evolution of species on the islands. Sara read The Beak of the Finch during the voyage, and thus became the resident expert to whom the naturalists turned for answers to their rhetorical questions. When Sara got the questions right, she received a pat on the back; when she got them wrong, she had to buy the guide a glass of wine at dinner. (One night she did manage to earn her own glass of wine by knowing more than the Ecuadorian passenger about the date of Ecuador’s independence, and also by knowing that 1859 is famous as the publication year of The Origin of Species). Sara also served as informal doctor on the boat, even though there were two other physicians on board– the official crew doctor, who was Ecuadorian and didn’t speak much English (although he helped Bruce get through a day of upset stomach), and one of the other passengers (a radiologist who advised Bruce that it was probably not such a good idea to have eaten three bowls of ceviche and a large plate of sushi at the Hilton Colon in Guayaquil the night before the trip).

Each night, we got a naturalist briefing for about an hour on the biology, geology and human history of the islands. All three are fascinating! We took hundreds of pictures, so only a small sampling can be shown here at low resolution. To see the rest, you’ll have to wait for our slide show.

The boat itself was comfortable, except that we all suffered at least some sea sickness during the nighttime voyages between the islands. One night in particular was challenging enough that none of us could make it to dinner, finding that lying down with eyes closed was the only way to cope (we slept a lot that night!). However, whatever weight we might have lost earlier in the Ecuador trip came right back due to the excellent and plentiful food, including lots of fish and vegetables and fruit, and special touches like fresh-squeezed juice after every excursion, and hot cinnamon-laced cocoa after the coldest snorkeling trip!

We enjoyed getting to know our fellow passengers, who came from all over North America. The daily schedule began by 7am most days, and kept us very busy with meals and panga rides and excursions, but there also time for fooling around (or snoozing on the sun deck, which Sara did a few times with the help of The Beak of the Finch). One day, some crew members were diving in off the various decks (the third deck is about 25ft off the water!) and Maggie and Daniel joined in with jumps, as shown at right. Another time, we played ‘king of the hill’ on one of the pangas – whoever was king (mainly the lead naturalist) got to push anyone else in the water as they tried to climb aboard. And then there were the funny stories the naturalists told about their previous experiences with eccentric passengers…we’re not sure if we have contributed to their store of tales for future voyagers.

The kids enjoyed the company of several young people on the trip – there were two women in college and also a high school student. Daniel was very enthusiastic about swimming every time he had the chance, including inside a grotto connected to the ocean that was pretty creepy. For that, the head guide awarded Daniel the ‘International Expeditions Young Naturalist’ medal, which came in a presentation at dinner that night!

Snorkeling was one of our favorite activities, once Sara got over nerves about the kids in open ocean water (wet suits are quite buoyant, and the panga boats stayed right near us to take us back aboard when needed). We swam with sea lions, sea turtles, and lots of colorful fish, and were lucky enough to see eagle rays and white-tipped sharks a few times. Our Northborough Spanish teacher, Senora Wilkinson, had given the kids each an underwater camera, which were fun to use. Maggie kept up with the guide on one particularly choppy snorkeling excursion, surpassing most of the adults on that swim!

All in all, this last adventure in Ecuador certainly left us with still more lifetime memories of this beautiful and truly enchanting country. Indeed, as we write this from home, 24 hours after our 13 hour day of travel to get home, we’re all feeling some of what Daniel said within 15 minutes of the much anticipated arrival (and greeting of Rudi!): “We want to go back, and do it all over again!” Home is the same, but we’re different people now, and somehow this country has captured us in ways that we will only know in the future. And, we have great guidebooks and maps to share with anyone else who wants to visit!

August 8^th: Tastes Like Chicken

Well, we finally got around to sampling one of Ecuador’s national dishes – cuy a.k.a. guinea pig. Half the people we’ve met here have told us that cuy is a ‘must try’ and the other half have said they can’t stand it. So, of course we needed to find out for ourselves. Not that we’ve seen much cuy since we’ve been here – the live guinea pigs are very skittish compared to their North American cousins (understandable given their likely fate), and there are relatively few restaurants that serve cuy since it is expensive by Ecuadorian standards (about $15 per cuy). Some of the open-air markets have roasted cuy for sale (see picture at left), but we decided to go to a restaurant instead and did some research. We passed on Casa del Cuy (House of Guinea Pig) and Tres Estrellas de Cuy (Three Star Guinea Pig) and settled on a highly recommended place in the old city. Sara and Bruce split one cuy, while the kids looked on (or in Maggie’s case, didn’t look on, and in Daniel’s case, initially didn’t look and complained about eating pets). Eventually, after some hard bargaining that resembled a unique mixture of Otavalo market haggling and “double dare ya”, Daniel took one bite of cuy in exchange for $3 from his sister, to be paid at an unspecified later date. He liked it. As it turned out, we discovered 1)cuy has a mild and very pleasant flavor, not unlike cornish game hen, 2)there is very little meat on a cuy, and 3)this was probably a once in a lifetime gastronomic experience (it is after all a bit hard to eat an animal when it’s been roasted in its entirety and then served quartered on a plate, including the head.)

August 7^th: Cuenca: Nos Encanta Por Su…

Cuenca is the setting for our last ten days of Spanish classes before we wrap up the trip with a visit to the Galapagos. We’re staying with a very nice family in the newer part of the city, about a 30 minute walk from our school in the older colonial section. Our host, Señora Janeth, has a college-age daughter at home and two older children who visit frequently and sometimes bring their young children too – Maggie and Daniel have enjoyed playing with Martín (see photo). Our house is in a small neighborhood of attached two-story houses with a wall around the whole thing that makes it quite peaceful (except for the sound of Maggie and Daniel fighting in the morning). And, Janeth is a great cook too!

Cuenca is an attractive colonial city. It’s the first city we’ve seen in Ecuador with a slogan – “Me Encanta por su…” (paisaje/historia/patrimonio/arte/gente/etc.)” The city bills itself as the cleanest in Ecuador, which certainly appears to be the case. We’ve really enjoyed walking the streets, visiting the museums and ruins, and sampling the different ice cream stores! In anticipation of sampling the national dish before our departure to Guayaquil on Friday, we’ve gotten the names of a couple of restaurants that specialize in cuy (roasted guinea pig), but haven’t tried them yet (as Maggie says: “later, much later…”). Also, Cuenca is known for its handicrafts, particularly those made of ceramics. We haven’t had time (or space in our luggage) to buy more stuff, but undoubtedly, we’ll find a way before we leave.

Our school is working out well – we each have our own teacher for 4hrs per day of classes. The kids have moved from the present tense to the past and future tenses, while Sara and Bruce continue to practice (Bruce wants to say “struggle mightily with”) the subjunctive in all its forms. The school has also arranged several excursions for us – yesterday, we visited a town that is actually located inside the crater of an extinct volcano, and is famous for its baths (the town is called Baños). We went to a hotel where you can watch the hot water come out of the ground and flow into a swimming pool – the kids (and Sara) spent about two hours in the water and came out looking like prunes. We also visited some market towns in the region and, of course, bought more stuff. But the most interesting trip was to a national park called El Cajas, which is about an hour west of Cuenca up in the mountains. It is mostly paramo, but has small groves of twisted trees that make you feel like you’re in the Wizard of Oz as you walk through them. El Cajas also has hundreds of pristine lakes and rugged terrain. The altitude makes it very cold, as you can see in the accompanying photo.

August 1^st: Avenida de las Nubes

We spent two days traveling by car from Quito to Cuenca (about 400km south of Quito in the southern highlands part of Ecuador). Our first day started with sunshine and some brief good views of the highest volcanoes near Quito, many of which were still snow-capped after the rain of the previous week (which was snow at the high elevations). Unfortunately by the time we were an hour south of Quito (in what is usually called Avenida de los Volcanes), near the first high volcano, Cotopaxi (5000m), clouds had rolled in to cover the peak. Just south of there we took a side trip to a well-known volcanic crater lake called Quilotoa. This side trip was much longer than we had anticipated (2 hours each way on winding mountain roads!) but did include getting to see more isolated Andean farming country, complete with herds of sheep in the road (with local indigenes in brightly colored ponchos and dark sombreros herding them). The countryside is steeply-farmed in patchwork fields, all the way to the peaks of all the ridges (thanks to deforestation), and at this time of year quite dry and thus mostly tan and brown, with some greener areas. The pueblos are tiny, distantly-spaced, and poor, with many homes literally of mud-and-straw adobe with straw roofs. Near the crater lake, the tourism industry has some effect with several tiny restaurants and hotels, and market stalls selling all kinds of “artesania” merchandise from all over the country. The lake itself is stunning, moon-like in how steep the sides of the crater are, with the water a deep turquoise that can’t quite be captured in words. We still haven’t quite figured out if it was worth the 4 hours of dizzying driving, however…

We arrived just at dusk in Riobamba at a hosteria just outside that city known for its proximity to Ecuador’s highest peak, Chimborazo. Although the peak was completely fogged in when we drove right past it, we were able later to get a few glimpses from the back window of the van at sunset of the majestic snow-capped peak in the evening light. We opted not to stop and take photos, figuring we could do that the next day. We enjoyed our hosteria’s other guests, a Dutch bicycling group led by a friendly multi-lingual Dutch ex-patriate from Quito (who wants to send his teen daughter to Harvard!). The hosteria put on a outdoor music and dance show for us all in front of a small bonfire—Sara got to dance around the fire with the local dancers, but our camera battery was dead. We sampled here our next variety of hot caneloza before a light supper and bedtime…Tuesday morning we awoke to clouds and rain. Chimborazo could not have been more “socked in” (can’t figure out how to say that in Spanish), so we headed south through the rest of that province and into Canar province, again on windier roads and in more isolated countryside with many views of traditional farms and farmers. After 4 hours, we arrived in just a misty rain with some sun peaking through in Ingapirca, a small pueblo now famous for the country’s best preserved Canari and Incan ruins. We were thrilled to understand the Spanish tour guide completely there—the Incan sun worship history was especially interesting, as the main temple there was built to illuminate in various patterns corresponding to the equinoxes and solstices. We enjoyed a typical lunch in a pleasant hosteria nearby, and then headed on to Cuenca at last, arriving at our new family’s home at twilight.

July 31^st: Pichincha

We left Quito this morning after a memorable week of classes and excursions. Our streak of good fortune ended as far as typical tourist health issues go—see Maggie’s web page for the gory details, but let’s just summarize by saying that we had a quiet recovery day on Thursday, with Sara and Maggie able to go to morning classes and find the long-sought cheeseburger while Bruce and Daniel stayed home to sleep (Sara needed to catch up later after her long night at Daniel’s side!). All our teachers (all of them mothers) had lots of suggestions for cures for the boys’ ills—oregano tea was the most interesting one, and seemed to help after Sara’s teacher insisted on calling Sr. Arnoldo to give him personal instructions on how to make it for Daniel and Bruce.

By Friday we were able to do the tourist thing and go to the actual equator that Ecuador is named for—aka La Mitad del Mundo. Well, interestingly, the big fancy monument where all the tourist cafes and shops are is actually misplaced by about 200m, so we went to the REAL equator and had fun trying experiments with eggs and the flow of water. Bruce is skeptical about it all, but it was fun anyway….

Our real adventure of the week began Saturday with our weekend trip to a hacienda in the mountains southwest of Quito, near Rucu (“old” in Quechua, the indigenous language) Pichincha. We drove up with our guide Juan Carlos and had two great if sore days of horseback riding from his family’s hacienda that overlooks Quito (aptly named Bellavista). We were stunned that we could be so close to such a huge city and yet feel so far away, with much clearer air and quiet, breathtaking mountain vistas. Saturday was cloudy enough to keep us from seeing as much of the volcanoes as we’d hoped to, but we nevertheless enjoyed the ride up to near the peak of Rucu Pichincha. The view there is quite wild and craggy, up on the paramo with grasses and rabbits and stillness. We tried to see the condors that are nesting there, but no such luck. We just beat a thunderstorm back to the hacienda, where we warmed up with HUGE plates of grilled meat for lunch, and then a roaring fire and canelazo, an apple and berry flavored hot alcoholic drink. After a couple of those, we were feeling less pain from the day’s riding! We woke up stiff and sore on Sunday, though, and were greeted with crystal clear views of Cayambe, Cotopaxi, and many other volcanoes on the eastern side of the Quito valleys from north to south, many with fresh snow cover from the last few days’ weather. We headed out for a slightly easier ride on Sunday into a beautiful valley west of Quito, where amidst the lush countryside were many of the typical tiny and rundown cement block farmers’ homes, reminding us once again that 75 percent of this country’s people live in poverty. We eventually arrived in a small village called Lloa, where we rested and had lunch at a hosteria (fresh trout!) before heading back. We could see snow-capped Guagua (“Baby”) Pichincha, which our hostess told us had erupted as recently as 1997, causing her village and all her cows to be evacuated, but all the ash blew towards Quito! (Several people have told us that the ash is such a good fertilizer that it was all trucked to the banana plantations on the coast and helped create a bumper crop that year).

Our horse ”skills” which were initially marginal at best improved somewhat thanks to the patient instruction we received from Sr. Juan, although the various sore spots today suggest that we have a long way to go to keep from bouncing quite so much (or hanging on for dear life when the horse starts to gallop!). All in all, a very memorable excursion! We may even try some riding back at home (loratidine prevented any of Sara’s allergies from flaring up).

Today we bid goodbye to Sr. Arnoldo and Sra. Bessie and the other students at our apartment in Quito and headed out on our two-day drive to Cuenca, where we’ll be until our departure for Guayaquil and the Galapagos on August 11. Hard to believe we’ll be home in less than 3 weeks!

July 24^th: Manabí Province

After Rio Muchacho, we spent a couple of days in Manabi province. Our first stop was Canoa, which is known for its wide sandy beach, fresh seafood, and vibrant nightlife. We all enjoyed the

warm ocean water and breaking waves which were good for body surfing. The kids stayed in the water for several hours and it was tough to get them out at the end. Daniel got a bunch of sand in his bathing suit and then lost the suit to a wave while he was trying to get the sand out. There was an exciting 15 minute period when Daniel had to use the waves for cover while Sara fetched a replacement pair of shorts. After this episode, we walked down the beach and watched the local fishermen launching their boats through the surf. It’s a tightly orchestrated process in which the boat is rolled on logs to the water’s edge and then dragged in deep enough to start the engine between breakers and drive the boat head-on into the waves. If the motor doesn’t start right away, the boat gets turned broadside by the waves and gets washed up on the beach (something we saw more than once!). We tried out a couple of the restaurants and enjoyed the fare, particularly the shrimp dishes. As we were heading back to our hotel for bedtime on Saturday, hordes of locals and foreigners were coming out for a night of partying. The bars are close together, and each ones blasts loud latin music into the main street.

On Sunday, we drove from Canoa to the airport in Manta with stops in Portoviejo to investigate a local handicraft made from tagua (a part of some kind of tree that we were never able to quite figure out), and Montecristi, home of the Panama Hat. That’s right – Panama hats come from Ecuador (the story goes that the first people to bring these hats to the U.S. in the 19^th century were a bit confused about where they had procured their headgear). We visited a shop, really just the hat maker’s house, that makes ‘superfino’ hats and they showed us a video that described the process. It’s incredibly labor-intensive and non-technological – essentially growing and hand-separating tiny fibers from a palm plant, and then weaving them tightly and skilfully into a hat. The end result is both attractive and utilitarian in that it can be rolled-up to fit in a small box for storage. A superfino supposedly can be rolled small enough to fit in a pocket. We didn’t buy any superfinos, but we had fun trying on the different styles and pretending we were 1930’s gangsters.

We flew back to Quito Sunday night and on Monday did a day-trip to Pedro Vicente Moldanado, which is on the western slope of the Andes (near Maquipucuna, but at a lower altitude). Sara visited the hospital there (she has connections through work) and learned about the challenges of practicing family medicine in such a remote location. She identified some opportunities for future engagement, which opens the door for a return trip. Bruce and the kids spent the day at a small resort near the town and enjoyed the pool and trails through the forest. Apparently the climate and natural attractions in Pedro Vicente are well suited for resorts, because there are several in the area. The one we visited has mostly Ecuadorian guests and offers bird/butterfly watching, horseback riding, fishing, and rafting on a small river. Maggie and Daniel particularly liked the waterfall over the swimming pool.

Next we start a week of classes in Quito and then it’s on to Cuenca for two weeks before we visit the Galapagos. We were going to spend a week in Baños, but the continuing erruptions of a nearby volcano pursuaded us to skip that and add a week to Cuenca.

July 21st: La libertad es la excreta

We have spent this week delightfully away from the modern world in a rustic cabin at an organic farm called Rio Muchacho. For those of you who can read Spanish, some of this will be a repeat of our Spanish page. This farm is 8km by a dirt road off the “main” road near the beach pueblo of Canoa, about 25km north of the bay noted in our last entry. It’s a working farm that also invites international volunteers to come live and work for anywhere from 1 to 8 weeks AND runs a program for tourists like us to take Spanish classes part time and do various other activities such as horseback riding, hiking, crafts with local natural materials, farm tours, making our own chocolate fondue starting with the raw cocoa beans, etc. The kids have loved watching the guinea pigs, baby pigs, chickens, horses, cows, etc., although I think their favorite animal has been the slightly beat-up-looking farm dog Perla. Bruce and I have really enjoyed learning about organic farming and being in such a peaceful place (although the roosters here are even more out of circadian rhythm, crowing at 2 am or 4am). We are especially impressed by the local environmentally oriented grade school started by the farm’s owners, Dario (an Ecuadorian man whose quote is above) and Nicola (a New Zealander who’s been away this week). On our tour of that school earlier this week, Dario talked eloquently about how the local families are often “enslaved” by the vicious cycle of borrowing money to buy the chemicals needed for traditional farming of weakened hybrid seeds—Rio Muchacho and its work in the community aims to help the local people find “freedom in compost” and make the switch to organic farming, as well as reforesting and other environmental projects. They have several innovative programs in the school to gently teach these concepts, and slowly the local community is starting to change. I keep thinking of Margaret Mead’s oft-quoted saying about how one person is all that is needed to make a change, and that makes what Rio Muchacho is doing that much more impressive…There are several U.S. college students here volunteering this week (one of whom plays Dead/Dylan/Johnny Cash on guitar – we weren’t expecting those tunes from a 20-something year old!), as well as a few Brits and a couple of Austrians and a very nice older (i.e. our age) New Zealander who herself owns an organic farm and has taught us a lot (did you know that the gestation period of pigs is 3 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days?). We’ve enjoyed our teachers too, and are getting a bit better in conversational Spanish although the coastal accent is a bit different! We eat the organic, vegetarian meals outdoors, as a group buffet-style, using ceramic bowls and cups/spoons carved from the husk of a fruit from a local tree called mate…Saturday we head to Canoa to have some beach time (and get connected to the internet for the first time in a week!) and hopefully find a place to do some laundry before our journey back to Quito on Sunday. The volunteers have given us some suggestions of where to eat and hang out in Canoa, although their ideas include the night life there which isn’t really what our family needs (unless we can find a cheeseburger)!

July 16^th: Sainanda Park

After three weeks in the central highlands of Ecuador, we flew to the coast. Our ultimate destination is Rio Muchacho, but we’re spending a couple of days here in Bahia de Caraquez first. Bahia was once one of the largest ports on Ecuador’s coast, but the El Niño phenomenon in the late ‘90s filled in the bay so that today, the only boats plying the estuary are the 35ft sailboats of gringo retirees who live here full time on their boats (for cheap), and the small ferries that take you across the bay for $0.25 each way (there is no bridge). Bahia also has a few luxury apartment buildings for the rich Ecuadorians who zip in for holidays; however, El Niño also wiped away most of the beach so you can swim only at low tide. The most recent catastrophe to hit Bahia was the “white stain” that decimated the local shrimp farming industry about five years ago. Some consider this to have been a blessing, since the shrimp farmers destroyed about 95% of the mangrove forest in order to build their cameroneras.

Bahia bills itself as an “Eco City”, with an extensive recycling program (by Ecuadorian standards). There are also efforts to re-plant the mangroves and create sustainable agriculture/aquaculture as well. We took a tour of the mangroves in a small canoe and saw thousands of birds (frigates, herons, ibis, kingfishers), as well as fish jumping out of the bay. Our guide told us that before El Niño, the bay was over 100ft deep with dolphins, sharks and alligators. Not any more – they bay is now 20ft deep at high tide. Unfortunately, in spite of the Eco-City program, litter seems to be ever-present.

We stayed at a very interesting place called Sainanda Park, which is an exotic oasis on the edge of the bay. Its owner, Sr. Alfredo, is a biologist who had a thriving business breeding shrimp for the local industry until it collapsed. He created Sainanda over a 20-year period to house his laboratory and also his collection of animals, which includes sloths (doesn’t everyone have a sloth climbing their bunk bed? See picture!), peacocks, a parrot that says ‘Hola!!’, ducks, dogs, parakeets, lizards, a cow, horses, ostriches, and tropical fish. Alfredo also started a free elementary school for local poor children who would otherwise not have access to a quality education. We visited the school, and were very impressed with its physical appearance as well as the teaching. We met several American and European college students who are volunteering for the summer as teachers at the school. The students live at Sainanda too. In addition to all the above, Alfredo is building a bed-and-breakfast type operation at Sainanda, which is why we were there. In case you’re wondering about the name, it is related to Sr. Alfredo’s Indian guru, Sai Baba (whose teachings about peace and non-violence are themes for the school’s human values curriculum).

We had very good vegetarian food at Sainanda, and took a couple of excursions on the bay – one by ourselves in kayaks (to a sand bar with wonderul silky mud for mud baths!) and one to Isla Corazon to see the mangroves (described above).

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