Living With The Wild Boys…

July 20

A busy day

It rained from yesterday afternoon straight through till morning. More importantly, it also rained up in the mountains, so the water level of the river rose dramatically. Throughout our travels on the river, we saw loads of wood debris floating downstream including fully grown trees. The temperature also dropped considerably after the rain, making it the coldest day the Me to We country director has experienced in the four years he has been here in the Amazon. Which means some of us wore long sleeves for part of the day.

Our first activity today was visiting our adopted village, Los Rios. It is one of Free the Children’s newest partnerships. They have one new classroom and are in the midst of setting up the water system. They are eager to build more classrooms, so we think Zev made a great choice for his Bar Mitzvah project. There is a lot to be done here. It was quite amazing to see the new classroom compared to the old classrooms that are still in use. As expected, every class wants to be in the “new” classroom. We didn’t get to meet any of the students as it is summer vacation. We did however meet the “inspector” of the school. She said there are 54 families in the school – 110 students and 13 teachers.

Next stop was Bellavista to return to work. We wasted no time getting down to business. One crew was continuing the job of cutting, bending, and tying the rebar. Another group was given the job of manually mixing, carrying and pouring cement for the support pillars. The third group continued the job of filling and then hauling bags of sand and gravel the 440m from the top of the river bank to the build site. It was a shorter day, but we got quite a bit accomplished.

After lunch we took a short boat ride across the river to Miguel and Maria Vargas’ farm. He originally came from the Highlands of Ecuador to visit his sister when he was only 19 years old. At that time, the government was interested in settling people in the Amazon to strengthen its claim to the area, due to a conflict with Peru. He bought a farm, but it was 2 km away from the Napo River. It had fresh water but was difficult to get produce to market. He would have to get up at 2am to start transporting produce 2 km to the river, where he would wait for the transport (canoe) to come. Sometimes, the canoe would already be full from other farmers, so he would have to wait until the next day. It was quite difficult. He went to back to the Highlands to find a bride and brought Maria back to his farm in the Amazon. Their family grew, and as the family got older, it brought new challenges. The closest school was almost 3km away, so it was often difficult to get them to school everyday.

Finally, after six years, they decided the challenges were too great and decided to move back to the Highlands. Miguel’s sister talked them out of it. There was another farm for sale right on the river. It was also closer to the school. They sold their farm and bought the new land and started all over again. It solved many of their problems, and through hard work they established the new farm and were happy. There was one big problem still, as they no longer had access to fresh water. When one of their daughters was only 13 years old, she got very sick from the river water and died from her illness. This devastated the family. Miguel and some of his neighbours were inspired to go to Quito to demand access to clean water for the community. The authorities were very sympathetic and promised to send someone out to asses the situation and get them clean water. They went home and waited a week, two weeks, a month, and no one came. A couple of years later, they went again to Quito to ask for help. Again, there were promises made without any actual response.

In the meantime, the farm had been supplying produce to a lodge across the river. Then that lodge was purchased by Free the Children in 2012. Staff of the Minga Lodge visited the farm to introduce themselves and inquire about continuing to supply them with produce. They discussed his challenges in farming the area, and asked what they could do to help. He told them of the lack of access to clean water. Although there were no funds available yet, they offered to bring groups of tourists to tour his farm. A year later, they had funds for the first water project, however they needed the project to be close to the clinic and the school across the river, next to the lodge. He would have to travel a bit to get to the water source, but at least they would have clean water. Another year later, they initiated the second water project, and now he has access to clean water on his own property. He wife no longer had to carry 80 litres of water from the river to their home daily, and his family would no longer be risking their lives drinking the river water.

Senor Varga continues to have a nice partnership with Free the Children. He still gives tours to groups and sells fruits to the Minga Lodge. We were very inspired by his story and his beautiful spirit. We especially enjoyed spending time with his six year old grandson John who was so sweet. At one point during Miguel’s talk, John sat down beside Aubrey and happened to make a noise of pain. He seemed to be favouring a torn finger nail. Aubrey took out his pocket knife and used the nail cutters to trim the offending nail to John’s satisfaction, which led to the silent request for a full manicure, thus provided.

While we were there, in addition to telling us his story, Senor Vargas showed us around the farm, and we helped him and his family pick coffee beans. Every 100 pound bag, which takes one person a day to harvest, sells for ten dollars. The buyer roasts and shells the beans and sells a bag for thirty-five dollars. He also demonstrated how he harvests “hearts of palm”. Each palmito tree grows for a year before it is quickly hacked down with a machete to harvest the tender shoots inside the trunk. We all sampled some fresh hearts of palm immediately after felling the tree. We watched him take down three of these trees, one for us to eat, and two to fill an order for Minga Lodge. He sells them for $3 each. The most interesting and most profitable part of this process is how the trunk actually nets about fifty dollars from the sale of grubs used for respiratory illnesses. The palm leaves rest on the fallen and machete-notched trunk to attract a beetle. The larvae eat the more firm and inedible part of the heart of palm and grow to large grubs over time.

We ended the tour by sampling several of his fruits, mostly citrus and papaya. There was one interesting fruit that was not edible, but used for face painting. Sandra painted Zev with a powder from inside the hairy seed pod. It apparently stains whatever fabric it touches and will not come off easily. He was warned not to use the fluffy towels provided at Minga Lodge for fear of permanently staining them with red.

We returned for dinner and then went out for a night hike. The adults went with our guide Miguel, and the kids went with Sandra and Kristin. We saw a couple of snakes, two tarantulas, a Cayman, and several katydids by flashlight. The kids saw a tarantula and an eel and did cool activities like using birds of paradise flower shells to make themselves look like toucans. A great time was had by all.

Tomorrow after lunch we will be visiting a local shaman.
Water pillar once education solid and engaged

July 19

This morning, in the rain (welcome to the rain forest), we began in earnest our work in the Bellavista community. Shortly after resuming our duties at the job site, involving rebar and rocks, we were informed of an opportunity for the adults to participate in a Minga. Joined by the community mingera and mingero, we headed back to the river to empty a canoe filled with dirt. Using a wheelbarrow, we had to bring the dirt out of the canoe and up a small hill. While several of the local women used baskets with straps across their foreheads to carry the dirt, we also formed an assembly line to move bags of dirt up the hill. The process was smooth but dirty in the rain.

Afterwards, we discovered the dirt pile next needed to be moved the 300 metres to the job site. So we all joined in, using the wheelbarrows, bags and baskets. Before the job was completed, as we were about to fill a wheelbarrow, the women indicated they preferred we brought the wheelbarrow back down the hill to the canoe. Another canoe had arrived filled with dirt. This time, we were so efficient with the wheelbarrows that the women stopped loading up separate baskets and stuck to helping guide the wheelbarrow to the top of the hill. We got the job done as we were leaving for lunch, everyone sandy, wet, and dirty.

It was wonderful to see us working seamlessly with the community minga members. Where we might have been merely in the way, clearly we were helpful. Hasty manyana. We return tomorrow.

After everyone cleaned up, the sun appeared and we missed the rain.

We visited the cocoa plantation of Senor Fabian. In place of secondary forest, he has planted 18000 grafted for cocoa trees (similar to the technique with apples, the trees stay shorter and produce more fruit close to the ground) on his farm. We learned how he takes the seed to tree to beans, sold within Ecuador and mostly to France. Unable to keep up with the demand with his own fields, he also buys fruit from local farmers at fifty cents USD per pound. He also buys the dried seeds at a dollar per pound. Once the seeds are fermented in large boxes over five days to remove the acidity and much of the bitterness, he is able to sell the beans for three Euros per pound. The government actually regulates the sales to ensure the quality remains high. It seems there also may be a new interest in making best in the world chocolate locally in Ecuador, such as in Mindo.

Miguel bought two pounds of the beans and roasted them over an open fire. We shelled them and ground them, extruding the chocolate paste. From dry beans to moist paste as the cocoa oil is released. It was remarkably bitter still. After adding some milk and sugar, we got a spoonful and tried adding various ingredients, such as vanilla, wine, cinnamon, chilli sauce, or more commonly sugar or honey. The flavour was strong and the bitterness was still tough to conceal. Maybe making chocolate is not so easy. We enjoyed the sunset and a rainbow as it began to rain again.

Koren had a highlight learning some Spanish songs from Sandra and Miguel, initially hearing some songs with simultaneous translations on the canoe and then later after supper working out some chords on a resident guitar.
Aubrey spoke after dinner with the young doctor responsible for the recently started health care pillar in the region (she and the new clinic started two months ago). She is excited about the prospects of bringing health care directly to many of the local and isolated communities in a sustainable manner.

Amazingly, it seems the adopt a village model by Free the Children, with the principles of community engagement, involvement, and personal investment, seems much the same as the principles of cognitive behavioural therapy that have become so essential to the practice of family medicine recently. They are exciting and effective for the same reasons, involving person- and community-centred decisions that are bound to have an impact by teaching and working toward independence, rather than externally solving problems and creating dependence.

July 18
Minga lodge and Bellavista

Our routine for the rest of the week is a wonderful breakfast, including some familiar and local foods, then a motorized canoe ride to the community of Bella Vista for a few hours of construction, a return to the Minga Lodge for lunch, an afternoon activity, and then some time to relax and enjoy the sunset and the view before 6:30 dinner.

Breakfast today included tasty cooked and then smashed plantains (Teva mistook them for scrambled eggs) with a yoghurt sauce.

After breakfast, we were treated to a casual historical discussion (from one of the staff at the lodge who made relevant history very interesting) regarding the hacienda system in Ecuador. We learned about the forced taxes paid by the indigenous people to the Spanish and then eventually the forced labour indentured over time in order to avoid retribution by the land-, justice-, and church-controlling Spanish. The information was essential to our understanding of the context of the relationship of Free the Children with the local rainforest communities. We need to treat community members as people and not subjects for photographs. We need to get to know them, while helping with buildings projects. We will not provide any handouts. We need to be part of the solution, building relationships, and leaving the people with skills to continue further projects on their own in the future. At the end of the day, he specifically commented how meaningful our questions and engagement had been for him as well.

Bellavista is a tiny village upstream from Minga Lodge. A Minga is actually a local custom whereby local leaders will call together villagers to complete a community project. Free the Children has committed to their five pillars in adopting a village, and education is the first pillar completed always. But most important is community involvement and engagement in each project. So, the community must provide ten percent of the building supplies for the project and thus value the project.

Our role will be working on the library and computer room for the school. Five classrooms have already been completed and were in use this past school year. Working with the government, twelve teachers are here for the 120 students. The washrooms for the school are almost ready and will be ready for the next school year.

Although today our time at work was a brief introduction, we each did various jobs to cut, bend, or tie in place rebar for the foundation. Others moved rocks into position. It was certainly hot, even doing finesse work. Everyone is excited to get back to work tomorrow, especially now that we have started to get a feel for some of our tasks.

After lunch and a short break (to dry out or cool off), we hiked into the rainforest with Miguel as our guide. The kids all went with Sandra, following close behind. As we climbed to the top of the hill behind the lodge to a magnificent vista over the river, we listened to Miguel share his words of wisdom about the land and politics, the rainforest and the world. He is enthusiastic and engaging and a ton of fun. One very thin tall tree, smothered by a few different vines and elephant leaf plants, was an excellent example of symbiotic relationships. It highlighted the concept of love, sharing and understanding, where a plant operates for the greater good even in a relationship which would certainly eventually lead to self-destruction. If we all hold these three principles true, the world will be a great place for everyone.

We also learned about primary and secondary forest from Miguel. The primary forest is undisturbed and should stay that way. Secondary forest is naturally or unnaturally disturbed. The area we hiked was a coffee plantation until twenty years ago. The farmers were given land from the haciendas, but they were required to produce from the land. Once proven and deeds granted, the farmers farmed smaller sections of the forest plots, allowing the forest to regenerate. To us, the land was clearly forest, without evidence of the coffee farming, as twenty years was enough time for plenty of seeding from the primary forest. As well, some plants only grow in basic soil and convert the soil to a more neutral medium for the regrowth of the forest. After about eighty years, it can be considered primary forest again.

The trick is to sustainably use the secondary forest to allow more oxygenation of our world. Unlike in Brazil, where the forest is being clear cut to grow corn for profitable biofuels and thus ironically releasing fifty percent of the world’s carbon dioxide.

One amazing plant was the walking palm. The soil is only about 15 cm deep, above clay, gravel, and then millions of years of old limestone. Some of the palm have appendage-like roots that actually migrate over a few years towards light and away from cliffs.

Sandra engaged all of the kids in an art project based on their observations from the hike. The result was an art installation for dinner. She is also a wealth of knowledge and fun, even initiating a cake for Miguel’s birthday, and almost getting it in his face as he took the traditional first bite (not first cut).

Everyone is getting to know one another, the seven kids are all having fun, and we hope there will be a lot of impact on everyone from this experience. Certainly the tradition of everyone discussing a highlight of the day is a beautiful way of gauging day by day impact on each person. Some most enjoyed the boat ride and spending time with family, but we found it hard to pick between the historical talk, the volunteering, and the hike.

July 17

After a satisfying breakfast at the buffet, we began our full day trip by van to the Amazon, leaving at about 8:45. It was amazing to climb up to 4400 m at the highest point, with full views of some of the surrounding volcanos including the snow covered peak of Cotopaxi. Our driver stopped so we could take the requisite photos, and pointed out the smoke coming out of the top. It is recently active over the past fifteen months but hasn’t erupted in about 300 years

Then we slowly descended first to the cloud forest and gradually into the Amazon rainforest.
It was really interesting noticing the change in both vegetation and climate as we continued our journey. In the Quito area it is quite dry, and somewhat temperate, the cloud forest was still a bit cool, and as we got closer to the Amazon, the humidity rose. We opted not to use the air conditioning in the van, so we could open the windows. A few hours into our journey, we starting feeling cool drips of water on our heads. This was from the condensation forming on the ceiling of the van from the air conditioning.

We stopped for a very early lunch, as we made much better time than expected. We ate at Kopal Pizzeria in a town called Baese. It is owned by a Dutch ex-pat, and had truly delicious thin crust pizza and salads.

We travelled some of the time on beautifully paved roads, and other times on dirt roads full of puddles and holes. Our driver expertly navigated all of the obstacles. We arrived in excellent time to the shores of the Napo river, where we boarded a long canoe (including seats and a canopy overhead) with an outboard motor. After a beautiful 20 minute ride, we arrived around 4pm at Minga Lodge – a slice of paradise in the rainforest. We were welcomed with a snack of plantain chips with salsa and cool Guayusa Tea served in handmade ceramic cups. Women in the village wake up at 2am to start brewing the caffeinated tea so it can be served before work, to give the family energy and focus for the day.

We watched the sunset from a deck high above the Napa River, looking out over the Amazon and the sacred mountains in the distance, while we got to know some of the others in our group. We also met a hilarious photographer named Tony who is on assignment here. He will be hanging out with our group for part of our time here as well.

We had a wonderful dinner, some great conversations, and got to encounter the resident parrot named Yolanda. The boys were captivated by 3 large hairy spiders crawling on the rafters of the dining area, just a sample of some of the many creatures we will discover while we are here.

While unpacking, we heard a large crash on our roof, caused by a seed pod falling from the giant Ficus trees above our cabin. It sounds like a gunshot or a door slamming. And when they fall onto the ground, it sounds like an animal scurrying about. We hope that not too many fall in the night, or at least that no one wakes scared from the noises.

As expected, it is extremely humid. We will have to adjust to being wet the entire week we are here. Sitting in our room, surrounded by the orchestral sounds of the rainforest, we feel surprisingly at home, and are looking forward to travelling to our first community in the morning. We will be working on a build site for a computer lab/library project in a community about 45 minutes upstream.

July 16

We were not in a rush to do anything today. Everyone has a little bit of travel fatigue setting in. Today’s plan is just to get to our hotel, where we will meet up with our Me to We facilitators, and have a down day.

The home where we have been staying in Quito is owned by a lovely couple. The husband is a retired paediatrician and the wife has a hair salon in the building. Zev and I decided to tame our “fros” before heading into the Amazon. Ten dollars later, we both have extremely short hair and are both happy with our results. In addition to his office and her salon, their home has room for their two-storey apartment, an upstairs apartment for each of their two sons (although one lives ten months of the year in Miami), and the last apartment they rent out ever since their daughter married and moved out. Maria, and son-in-law Fredy, have been our tour guides for all three of our Quito-based trips. Our kids have had fun playing with the six grandchildren staying here. While Aubrey and Koren were packing up, the kids went to the neighbourhood park to play soccer. And the paediatrician reviewed Teva’s numerous pock marks and agreed they were bites.

Finally it was time to leave. We took our 6 small backpacks and walked about 15 minutes to the bus terminal, where after a bit of wandering around and asking different people directions, we found the bus going our way. Riding the bus was an experience. First, you always pay when you get off, not when you get on. There is one person whose job is to jump off the bus right before the stop, announce all the places they are going, punch in some type of time card at a nearby store or kiosk, and take money from people as they get off, providing change when needed.

Sometimes when we stopped, 2 or 3 people would hop onto the bus, trying to sell refreshments like chips, dried plantains, fresh fruit, beverages, and newspapers. Once, a man came on the bus, possibly to solicit money. Our Spanish is very rough, but it seemed he was sermonizing, something about having the love of God in your heart and pleading for money.

The staff on the bus were helpful, and told us which stop to get off. The ride was about an hour and 15 minutes, and it cost $2 total – for all 6 of us. Sure beats having to pay for two taxis to take us there! It could be said that one of the best things you can do to really get a sense of a place is to ride the local bus. The people watching is ideal, as one certainly gets a sense of what is normal in town. We especially enjoyed seeing the different towns we passed through on the way to our hotel stop. Because it is Saturday, we saw that some places had open air markets, selling food and clothing. We also saw people dressed up nicely, carrying bouquets of flowers, perhaps on their way to a family gathering. We even passed a wedding.

We made it safely to our hotel. It is very nice: Impeccably decorated, and the front staff presented us champagne flutes of refreshing narijilla juice blended with basil while we were checking in. We settled in, ate some of our packed sandwiches and then explored the facilities. Erez and Zev played 3 rounds of pool, while everyone else took advantage of the outdoor swimming pool, sauna, hot tub and steam room. While we were in the pool, many people dressed in fancy clothing walked by. This is when we realized the wedding reception was about to start. It was a bit awkward. The guests congregated in one area for appetizers and then, while our kids were still splashing in the pool, 120 guests walked by. We were a bit underdressed in our swimming gear.

A little while after the mass migration, a large family grouping started flooding the common area. They were swimming and singing Karaoke. Badly. Suddenly we did not feel as bad about making noise that could disturb the wedding. Aubrey stayed and finished his book in spite of the karaoke. Koren found a quieter place to hang out, amazed he could tolerate the off-key noise.

Our facilitator, Kristin, found us while we were playing pool. It turns out her family will be accompanying us on the trip as well – her parents, 21 year-old brother and 9 year-old sister. Our group has now grown to 14.

We opted to eat dinner in the hotel restaurant. It was delicious. The wedding reception was going strong next door. Suddenly, a band marched into the wedding – a snare drum, a bass drum, two trumpets and two saxophones. It was amazing. Then the band led the guests outside so they could set off some fireworks. They danced outside for awhile and then came back into the reception area. We figured that if we had brought something other than quick-dry clothes, and brushed up on our Spanish, we could have crashed the party.

Later we bumped into the third family on the trip, who are from California. They have a 9 year-old son and a 12 year-old daughter. Now we are more excited than ever to start our adventure in the Amazon. It looks like we will have a great team to work with. The itinerary looks fun-filled and fulfilling. We will be sure to keep track but won’t have access to Internet to upload our blog for the next week.

July 15

Quito

Today we decided to take the day and explore the city. In 1978, Quito was the first city to be designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. With a population over 2 million people, it is a mixture of both old and new. You can find Colonial squares and plazas, as well as modern malls. There is a recognition of the indigenous population and culture, as well as uber modern skyscrapers. The new areas, including near where we are staying, have a surprisingly large amount of glass in the buildings. And often the shapes and colours of the buildings are beyond the basics.

On our way to start our errands, the boys wanted to check out a trophy store we had walked by the previous week. It was blinding in there. There were trophies and plaques of every shape and size. Some were bigger than the kids! They also had a huge selection of tiaras in one showcase. None of us would want the job of polishing them all.

We had to find an apple friendly charger as ours is not working well. We figured our best bet was the shopping mall next to Carolina Park where we were going to catch the Quito Tourist bus. On the way, Erez spotted an apple dealer. We had to get buzzed in to shop in the store. In fact, many of the stores in that building had similar security set ups. Many small items were quite expensive, so we assume they are trying to stop shoplifting by controlling who and how many people are allowed in the store at once.

We also had to find an ATM so we ended up going into the mall anyway. It was quite an upscale mall, with many mall stores we would find at home.

After a bit of confusion based on our guide book having some details wrong (we’ll spare you the details, but it involves a walk across the huge and amazing Park Carolina and then back, returning to the intersection where we started walking from the mall) we got on Quito’s Double Decker Tour bus. For $15 you can buy a ticket that will take you to 11 spots of interest around the city in a three hour loop. You can hop on and off the bus as often as you like during the day. There is both a Spanish and English tour that is heard throughout the bus so you can learn about the city. In between sites of interest, they played well known Latin music as some of the people around us on the bus were singing and clapping along.

It was a very interesting ride, although somewhat downgraded by having to sit in traffic. We did hop off the bus at one location in “Old Town”. We did a thorough self-tour of one of the most impressive churches in South America, La Compania. Seven tonnes of gold are supposedly on the ceiling and on the artwork in the church. There are also countless paintings on the walls and ceilings. It has been called “Quito’s Sistine Chapel”. It was built by the wealthy Jesuit order between 1605 and 1765. It was severely damaged in the 1987 earthquake and an intense fire in 1996 but has been fully restored. We also looked through the church’s extensive collection of cultural artifacts, clothing and hats. The opulence was quite astonishing.

By the time we finished exploring the church, we had time to eat gelato, quickly explore the main Plaza and then hop back on the next bus. The next stop was El Panecillo (Little Bread Loaf) Hill. Overlooking the city there is a giant aluminum winged statue of the Virgin Mary. From the top of the hill you get a spectacular view of the city, continuous from new to old and back to new across the panorama, all nestled in the valley between two rows of volcanoes. Quito is about 50km long and only about 8km wide, limited by small hills to the east and the three large volcanoes to the west which help to define Quito. After this city exposure, we have some ideas of where to spend time when we are back in Quito for a couple of days at the end of our trip.

The bus was huge and many of the streets were narrow. It was a wonder the driver could navigate through them at all. A few times it seemed we were scratching the buildings that lined the streets. The guide kept announcing that the people on the top floor of the bus must stay in their seats, because in some parts of the city, there were very low hanging electrical wires or bridges and the bus just barely cleared them.

We ended the day back at the Carolina Park and started the 20 minute walk home. The boys were starving so we ended up stopping at a wing joint, because it was the first decent place that was open. On a Friday night why wouldn’t places be open at six? Initially we were looking at several items on the menu, until the server advised us of their four specialities, which were actually the only four things they had to serve. So we all shared wings. Otherwise, it felt just like a wing joint at home except the wings came with a convenient pair of thin disposable plastic gloves so your hands won’t get dirty. That didn’t help with the boys’ faces though! They also offered some interesting sauces like passion fruit, honey maple and a spicy red fruit sauce.

Tomorrow we will attempt to take public transit to our next hotel where we will meet up with our Me to We contact. Then, Sunday morning, we will head down to the Amazon.

July 14
Laguna Quilotoa

Jorge picked us up promptly at 845 and we set out to pick up our guides and make the 2.5 hour drive to Laguna Quilotoa. Basically, the volcano collapsed 800 hundred years ago, leaving a deep crater now filled with a beautiful lake.

The drive passed through some colourful pastoral countryside alongside the Andes, with evidence of the local Kichwa people farming the land right up the hillsides. The area is relatively cold as the elevation is above 3000 metres. The Kichwa people wear red ponchos and felt fedoras, and the women wear skirts. Their main non-farming industry is textiles. Here and Otavalo are the main Indigenous textile areas.

We explored a shop of a painter, who expects to spend over six months on his current painting, which seemed detailed and very much folk art. There were also masks and drums. We are likely to have some sort of Ecuadorian instrument in our hand luggage.

Nearby Cotopaxi is an active volcano and is one of the most popular destinations in Ecuador but is above the 4700 metre snow line and requires acclimatization and real mountain gear for the climb. It has thrice lead to the destruction and rebuilding of the large Latacunga town in the nearby valley.

Next stop was the Quilotoa hike. It was cold and windy at the top parking area at 3900 metres, so we decided to buy alpaca llama sweaters for the boys to avoid shivering and whining on the descent. After we survived the ascent, Aubrey and Koren went back to explore the artisan area more fully and the surrounding shops and completed the family sweater set.

It was hard to stop taking pictures and actually start the 1.7 km descent, as the lake-filled crater is beautiful. The shoreline water is bright green from local minerals and then quickly darkens to the depths. Given the extremely steep path, it is not surprising locals believe the Laguna is bottomless. Geologists more specifically believe it is 250 metres deep, which is pretty much the same.

We slid and resisted falling down the sandy path to our lunch spot still a bit above the lake surface. It took about thirty minutes and was surprisingly only 300 metres down. We watched as many people huffed and puffed their way back up, or sat calmly on horses to ascend.

After a cheese empanada lunch, we began the ascent. Our guides thought it would take us 1.5 to 2 hours to get back to the top. The hike is extremely steep and tough footing in the sand of the path, so the prediction seemed about right. And in our defense, the elevation still makes breathing difficult with any exertion. As such, we plodded forward slow and steady. At times it was truly difficult to get one foot in front of the other. Erez, Zev, and Aubrey led the way, taking short breaks every four minutes or so to settle heart rates and rest legs. And shed clothing, all of which ended up in the pack Aubrey was carrying. We were only passed by one little girl and an old local man. Zev admittedly nearly collapsed twice, but we made it to the top in 47 minutes. Koren, Noam, and Teva took 100 steps between breaks and still only took 80 minutes to the top, perhaps spurred on by the dog following Noam most of the way up.
The drive home was uneventful but long. We arrived after dark and so dove into our leftover spaghetti. Our laundry was dry and so led to an important argument amongst two boys about socks. It seems everyone has had enough of long drives, so tomorrow we plan on spending the day doing more driving, getting on and off a tour bus of Quito…

July 13

Yaku Quinde Lodge

The boys slept in later than usual, but Koren was up at 7:30, and started the day watching scores of hummingbirds hovering around the property. They were all shapes and sizes and colours. The sheer variety was dazzling.

After a huge bowl of fresh fruit and yogurt, we ate a traditional breakfast of Bolon de Verde filled with cheese. It is a fried green plantain ball with cheese in the middle, although we hear it can also have meat inside. It was delicious!

Then it was time to start our hike. Galindo, our guide, was on loan from his nearby home community to help get this Eco lodge off the ground. Their mandate is to provide a unique ecotourism experience, while preserving the primary growth forest. They have many big plans, and the family is still building and preparing for more tourists in the future. A few young men were actively painting metal roofs and their chainsaws were audible preparing the site even during our hike. They are targeting Ecuadorian nationals in particular, with natural swimming pools, a play area for the kids, a soccer field, volleyball court and a fishing pond. As a place where Ecuadorians can venture for a weekend getaway, the income thus prevents further reduction of the forest for income. The hikes and conservation will be more focused on foreign tourists.

One of the interesting things about travelling in a country where you are not proficient in the language is that you cannot be sure if you are truly understanding the information given. But perspective always affects perception and understanding. The Eco lodge plans at the edge of the primary forest (the two lane highway was visible far down below in the valley during parts of our hike) reminded us of some of the issues of cottage country back home in Ontario.

We hiked for about two hours, marvelling at all the species of trees, plants and flowers that make up the Cloud Forest. The scenery was truly magnificent. Galindo was a wealth of knowledge. The leaves of the plants were so large. The fern trees were massive compared to home. There are many different types of Palm. We saw trees traditionally used for building, leaves impervious to water and so used for roofing (replace after five years), and fibrous leaves ideal for weaving (including bracelets Galindo made for the kids). We did manage to see a beautiful Quetzal bird at the beginning, but our boys are way too loud for us to get a glimpse of much more wildlife. Plus the path was steep and muddy and thus impossible to look anywhere but at the path while walking. A toucan also visited our breakfast area, just before we arrived, but cleared out once it heard us coming.

After we worked up quite a sweat, we cooled off in the refreshing and very cool waterfall-fed pools and river. The boys had a great time paddling an inflatable raft and two inner tubes.

We finished off our time in Mindo with a delicious lunch (traditional soup followed by rice with fish, tomato and onion salad, lentils and potatoes), and then we signed the guest book. I believe we were the international guests to sign it. We then headed back for our 2.5 hour fast and windy road ascending from 1600 metres back to the 2800 metres of Quito.

While Aubrey hand washed our laundry, Koren went with the boys and the six grandkids of the owners who live in the building to play football at a local field for almost an hour. Once back home, they started new games of football and then “volleyball” (using the two clotheslines as the net) in their tiny concrete backyard. Once they tired out and darkness started, the kids came up to our apartment and had a Mario Kart tournament on 3DS.

We ended the day with pasta and Caesar Salad at home, and then sent the kids off to bed.

Tomorrow we hike to the Laguna Quilotoa.

July 12

Now that we know our neighbourhood in Quito, it was easy finding some drinking water at the mini mercado in the morning. Last night, we visited the Hipermercado and stocked up on breakfast, so we were able to feast this morning.

We packed up again for a two day trip to the cloud forest. Along the way, we packed in a lot of adventures.

Our first stop was the mandatory tourist stop at a spot along the new satellite defined equator. Remarkably, the mathematically determined line is only 200 metres off and remains the official site. Only Erez managed to balance an egg on a nail on the equator. We learned about shadows (long and north far into the northern hemisphere, short and south in most of Ecuador, and absent at the Equinox at noon on the equator). We also learned how winds start at the equator, so hurricanes move north and go counter-clockwise, while cyclones only move south and rotate clockwise. But the toilet and bathtub drainage hemisphere theory is a myth.

An indigenous woman lived on the site in a handily constructed stone and mud hut, cool inside despite the blazing sun and impervious to earthquakes. Her 110 years are credited to her production and consumption of corn alcohol in her home. Somehow the smoke didn’t damage her lungs and instead waterproofed her home. The indigenous people of Ecuador are celebrated at the site as well. We learned about the penis fish of the Amazon in southern Ecuador (don’t pee in the water there or the urea attracts the dangerous fish) and about shrunken heads (restricted to powerful friends and enemies and requiring a special recipe). We also toured a home of one tribe. They consider anacondas in the home good luck and the one room hut sleeps twenty-four comfortably (kids of one family in one hammock and parents in another).

We next stopped at a butterfly breeding greenhouse, where we saw all four stages of butterfly life. Mostly we enjoyed walking among several different native species of butterfly and the boys basked in hosting butterflies on their hands.

After a plentiful local lunch of soup, fish and rice with lentils and potatoes, delicious juice, and strawberries with cream, we separated into two groups. Koren and Teva became learned in the ways of the cacao tree and its fruit. Apparently, we are going to experiment with chocolate balsamic vinegar at home next. The rest of us spent an hour zipping on ten different zip lines across a deep river valley of the cloud forest. It was thrilling speeding over and through the treetops high over the base of the valley. The three boys even did runs upside down as a bat, in a superman pose, and in a butterfly pose. The guides were and the boys had a lot of fun and the entire course was well prepared.

By late afternoon, we arrived at the eco lodge outside of Mindo. Yaku Quinde is a family farm encompassing primary rain forest, where the recent addition of tourism infrastructure (colourful hobbit-like dwellings, guided forest hikes and trails, waterfall swim areas, and a play area at the base of the valley for kids) will enable ongoing preservation of the Forest. We had an introductory tour before dinner outside by the fireplace.

If the kids can be quiet during our walks in the forest, we might actually see some birds. Although we did see two types of toucan in between zip lines. And hummingbirds at the feeder.

July 10

Las Tunelas

Although we could have slept in until 10, we were up just after 6. We could have snuck an activity in before our 11:15am pick up, but we sensed some travel fatigue and allowed the kids (and ourselves) to laze around for most of the morning. We ate breakfast fairly early and then read and rested for a couple of hours. Zev and Koren did manage to squeeze in a Bar Mitzvah lesson for the first time since we’ve been here. Doing the lesson on the balcony over the sound of the surf, next to the beach makes it all the more bearable for both of us.

There was a little bit of miscommunication when we arrived at the office regarding what was and wasn’t included on the tour, but we are getting used to our language barrier. We climbed into a high speed fishing boat with 7 tourists and 6 non tourists. It seems the underbooked tour meant some friends came along for the ride.

The fifty minute boat ride could have been the attraction: we got some great air with some of the wave action out in the open ocean. Even as we sped up the southern tip of the western coast of Isabela, we spied the occasional sea lion, sea tortoise, and even three massive manta rays. We had to take care to avoid striking them with the boat. Each in its way was just floating along in the ocean.

We boated through a labyrinth of lava hardened over the ocean and then eroded by wind and water until sections broke off. The result is a plethora of archways and underwater tunnels. In a different section of these calm water lava structures, we snorkelled around and saw fish, sea tortoises, white tipped sharks and a manta ray, as well as a sea horse! Teva decided the boat ride was more fun and spent the hour in the boat. He was supposed to be with the crew, but unbeknownst to us they ditched him to swim with the sharks! Aubrey forgot his contact lenses at the hotel, so we managed to wedge his folded glasses in place in his mask so he could mostly see.

On the return voyage, the older three boys were thrilled as they took turns driving the boat and avoiding rays (and capsizing the boat). Then we spent about thirty minutes at this tall but quite small lava formation at least one kilometre out to sea as the crew fished by line jigging. They caught a few of the large school of yellow fish congregating near the surface and near the rock, moving in unison and often open-mouthed at the surface.

Tonight we dined on the seven dollar special set meal at a different restaurant on the main strip and packed for our two flight travel day to get first to Santa Cruz and then to the (Ecuador) mainland by mid afternoon tomorrow.

So far we have some decent pictures (underwater and more so above ground), we have a few stories, and we have only lost (and not found) a ukulele and a water bottle. We have been falling asleep and waking to the ocean, but after tonight we will be exclusively inland.

Tomorrow the Mindo Cloud Forest…