Nick and I returned to Quito together the night before he caught the plane home. I caught a ride to another part of Ecuador (the central highlands) where the plan was to do volunteer work teaching music for the next two months for a non profit. You know what they say about "the best laid plans ..." It was not to be, and extraneous circumstances (irrelevant to the topic of this blog) led me back to Cotacachi.
Thankfully my Spanish is good enough that I had little trouble finding a private driver (all it really took was the cash!) for the 5 hour drive north. It turned out that the ride was one of the best opportunities I had during my entire stay to learn more about the country. Angel, the taxi driver whom I had approached, asked if it was okay if his wife came along. Sure! It meant that poor Angel wouldn't have to make the drive back all alone. He and Faviola talked with me the entire time and told me all about their beautiful little town as well as some interesting facts about Ecuador.
That long drive with Angel and Faviola passed quickly thanks to them, their patience with my Spanish and incessant questions, and their incredible unsolicited willingness to be my guides. As we pulled off the Pan-American Highway on the little road that leads to Cotacachi, I was very sad to have to say goodbye to them. What a blessing to have met them.
Their small town where I had intended to stay is at the foot of an active volcano called Tungurahua. Faviola and Angel were among t
he thousands who were evacuated in '99 for several months and defied a curfew in order to return when the volcano did NOT blow as predicted. Like many others, he lost his livelihood then, but he was fortunate as his brother helped him make the payments on their home and his taxi. The old volcano has been spewing ever since then, but the town's residents and many tourists go about their business as usual. It was a bit disconcerting for me to see the road littered with steaming lava rocks and full of so many detours (because of those rocks) that it added a good 45 minutes to the drive to get in and out of there.
Despite the threat, Banos is one of Ecuador's most popular tourist attractions with thousands of Europeans and North Americans flocking there to go hiking, canyoning, bathe in the hot springs (courtesy of the volcano
). Of course, the word 'banos' means baths or springs in Spanish. Because Banos is situated quite literally in a canyon at the foot of this volcano, its elevation is only about 5500 feet, but getting there requires driving up and over a range with remarkable vistas, albeit some of them littered with the aforementioned la
va. Tourists, mostly young backpackers, flock there in droves to experience the rapids on the river that winds through the canyon. Sadly, four of them had died on that river just two weeks prior to my visit.
Angel took my pic as we left the town.
During that long drive I learned that Ecuador is a guild country - each little town has a craft or product that supplies all the others via barter or purchase ... in the old days of course, goods were transported on the backs of horses and burros and there was much more bartering than cash transfer. Now goods are trucked from place to place or quite literally hand-delivered by the very efficient bus system that connects all points within the country. The towns surrounding Banos include a "jeans town" where every major label jean-maker in the world commissions blue jeans with their own private label. And high on my list was the "ice cream town"; it would have been more correct to call it the dairy town, but helado, which means ice cream in Spanish, is much more appealing.
Other guild towns that I became more familiar with later on produce straw mats, shoes, hats, and Cotacachi itself is the "cuero" capitol, one of the best places in the entire world to buy custom leather products. Generally speaking, each town has an institute which teaches the crafts specific to their area, but the people from the smaller villages that surround the towns do not always have the opportunity to study the crafts - and thus effort is being made to make certain they do not lose this ancestral identity. (Much more on this later.)
I also learned that Ecuadorians are far more aware than Americans of growing their food without pesticides as well as without the 'help' of Monsanto. Whereas only a small percentage of North American activists try desperately to educate their fellow citizens about the dangers of GMOs, Monsanto's Roundup, and the unsustainability of pesticides and herbicides that ultimately render soil completely lifeless, Ecuadorians are adamant that Monsanto will not get a foothold in their country. Ecuador's current president, Rafael Correa, an American educated economist, is in complete agreement. This and Correa's unwillingness to play games with the IMF and the military industrial complex is what has made him unpopular with the American government/press/media (which are the same for all practical purposes) and very appealing to people like me who are extremely distressed at the lies being told the public about our food supply when it comes to the reality behind GMOs (as well as the lies about quite a few other things -- but we won't go there).
Unfortunately, Ecuador is a rose-growing country as well, and sometime in the last 30 years, a large group of Israelis came in and bought up rose production facilities in various parts of the
country. These enterprises use pesticides heavily and have been asked politely to stop according to Angel and Faviola, but they continue to defy the requests. Pesticide residue has now been found in neighboring avocado groves as well as in the ubiquitous backyard corn plots, angering the population as well as the government. It's unclear how or when they can be stopped. This was all verified by several other folks I met later in the trip, both Spanish and English speakers. (I'm always a bit unsure if I totally understand the Spanish, so I make it a point to check out the accuracy of my translations if it's a topic that is of importance to me.)
As a general rule, the architecture of Ecuador doesn't do it for me -- not anything like Mexico's brilliant hacienda-style adobes, curved doorways and colorful facades. But occasionally we would drive past a spectacular church or come upon a particularly picture-perfect view of one of the two dormant volcanos that overlook Cotacachi (Mt. Cotacachi and Mt. Imbabura), and Angel would stop and let me take it all in. At one point, Faviola motioned for him to stop, and she jumped out unexpectedly and ran to a roadside stand. Angel simply told me, "comida" so I knew she was hungry. But bless her little heart, she wanted me to try cho-chos, the traditional bean (something like a fava) which is marinated in vinegar and onion and sprinkled with salt. It was delicious, and I read later that the protein content is unsurpassed.
he thousands who were evacuated in '99 for several months and defied a curfew in order to return when the volcano did NOT blow as predicted. Like many others, he lost his livelihood then, but he was fortunate as his brother helped him make the payments on their home and his taxi. The old volcano has been spewing ever since then, but the town's residents and many tourists go about their business as usual. It was a bit disconcerting for me to see the road littered with steaming lava rocks and full of so many detours (because of those rocks) that it added a good 45 minutes to the drive to get in and out of there.Despite the threat, Banos is one of Ecuador's most popular tourist attractions with thousands of Europeans and North Americans flocking there to go hiking, canyoning, bathe in the hot springs (courtesy of the volcano
). Of course, the word 'banos' means baths or springs in Spanish. Because Banos is situated quite literally in a canyon at the foot of this volcano, its elevation is only about 5500 feet, but getting there requires driving up and over a range with remarkable vistas, albeit some of them littered with the aforementioned la
va. Tourists, mostly young backpackers, flock there in droves to experience the rapids on the river that winds through the canyon. Sadly, four of them had died on that river just two weeks prior to my visit.Angel took my pic as we left the town.
During that long drive I learned that Ecuador is a guild country - each little town has a craft or product that supplies all the others via barter or purchase ... in the old days of course, goods were transported on the backs of horses and burros and there was much more bartering than cash transfer. Now goods are trucked from place to place or quite literally hand-delivered by the very efficient bus system that connects all points within the country. The towns surrounding Banos include a "jeans town" where every major label jean-maker in the world commissions blue jeans with their own private label. And high on my list was the "ice cream town"; it would have been more correct to call it the dairy town, but helado, which means ice cream in Spanish, is much more appealing.
Other guild towns that I became more familiar with later on produce straw mats, shoes, hats, and Cotacachi itself is the "cuero" capitol, one of the best places in the entire world to buy custom leather products. Generally speaking, each town has an institute which teaches the crafts specific to their area, but the people from the smaller villages that surround the towns do not always have the opportunity to study the crafts - and thus effort is being made to make certain they do not lose this ancestral identity. (Much more on this later.)
I also learned that Ecuadorians are far more aware than Americans of growing their food without pesticides as well as without the 'help' of Monsanto. Whereas only a small percentage of North American activists try desperately to educate their fellow citizens about the dangers of GMOs, Monsanto's Roundup, and the unsustainability of pesticides and herbicides that ultimately render soil completely lifeless, Ecuadorians are adamant that Monsanto will not get a foothold in their country. Ecuador's current president, Rafael Correa, an American educated economist, is in complete agreement. This and Correa's unwillingness to play games with the IMF and the military industrial complex is what has made him unpopular with the American government/press/media (which are the same for all practical purposes) and very appealing to people like me who are extremely distressed at the lies being told the public about our food supply when it comes to the reality behind GMOs (as well as the lies about quite a few other things -- but we won't go there).
Unfortunately, Ecuador is a rose-growing country as well, and sometime in the last 30 years, a large group of Israelis came in and bought up rose production facilities in various parts of the
country. These enterprises use pesticides heavily and have been asked politely to stop according to Angel and Faviola, but they continue to defy the requests. Pesticide residue has now been found in neighboring avocado groves as well as in the ubiquitous backyard corn plots, angering the population as well as the government. It's unclear how or when they can be stopped. This was all verified by several other folks I met later in the trip, both Spanish and English speakers. (I'm always a bit unsure if I totally understand the Spanish, so I make it a point to check out the accuracy of my translations if it's a topic that is of importance to me.)When I expressed an interest in building materials, Angel waited for the moment when he knew we would come upon a mining operation, nothing like I would have previously ever referred to as 'mining.' He stopped the car at the foot of a rocky outcrop and pointed upwards to a most unusual looking rock formation that appeared to be g
rowing like a do-nut! He explained that the center of that particular rock contains a mineral that, when ground to powder, is mixed with mud to make the indigenous adobe bricks. He drove a bit further, stopped the car at an empty construction site, got out and picked up an adobe brick and pointed to the on-site mineral extraction pit (which was nothing more than a good spot to smash up the rock and mix it with mud). I know not all of Ecuador's buildings are made with this material, but I took heart in learning about this local and sustainable approach to shelter. (As an aside, anyone in the building trades may find it interesting to note that those who build with concrete often send laborers to the coast to get truckloads of beach sand for their concrete mix. Oooooops, not good! The salt content of the sand weakens the concrete, and building contractors that cut costs in this way are often long gone when the concrete starts to crumble!)
rowing like a do-nut! He explained that the center of that particular rock contains a mineral that, when ground to powder, is mixed with mud to make the indigenous adobe bricks. He drove a bit further, stopped the car at an empty construction site, got out and picked up an adobe brick and pointed to the on-site mineral extraction pit (which was nothing more than a good spot to smash up the rock and mix it with mud). I know not all of Ecuador's buildings are made with this material, but I took heart in learning about this local and sustainable approach to shelter. (As an aside, anyone in the building trades may find it interesting to note that those who build with concrete often send laborers to the coast to get truckloads of beach sand for their concrete mix. Oooooops, not good! The salt content of the sand weakens the concrete, and building contractors that cut costs in this way are often long gone when the concrete starts to crumble!)That long drive with Angel and Faviola passed quickly thanks to them, their patience with my Spanish and incessant questions, and their incredible unsolicited willingness to be my guides. As we pulled off the Pan-American Highway on the little road that leads to Cotacachi, I was very sad to have to say goodbye to them. What a blessing to have met them.
