Check out the view!

This is my morning view during breakfast... (if I choose to eat inside rather than out!): the valley of Quito and "Pichincha" mountain.

Casa Bambu, the hostel, is my "Quito residence" now. That is.... whenever I actually am in Quito! Right now I am in Santo Domingo de Los Colorados again, but I will soon return to the capital city.

Here is the patio/balcony view, where you can view the city from a covered table or hammock:-)!

Mail from Ecuador: Faster by barrel!

Here's a quick funny story:

Many Galapagos tours stop by the "Post Office Bay" on Floreana Island. The "post office" consists of a barrel on a stick in the volcanic rocky shore of one of the islands. The barrel was originally placed during the early 1800s by a sailor from a whaling ship, so that sea-faring travelers could leave correspondence in the barrel, and remove for delivery any correspondence left in the barrel addressed to their destination city. The mail would be delivered by hand.

We visited the barrel on Christmas when I was in the Galapagos- here is a pic of the barrel (on a stick with a pitched roof), our guide, Jon, and some of the other passengers from my "cruise"-- the German girls, Veronica and Eva, on far right, then moving left- the Swiss guy, Marcel, Jon, and my Swedish roommate, Marie. The barrel and acommpanying signs have been "decorated" by visitors over years...
Today the tradition of leaving mail and hand-delivering other people's mail continues! I left a card for my family in Albuquerque, but didn't find any mail to retrieve for the state of New Mexico. I wondered how long it would be before my family would receive my note~!

I have sent various things from Ecuador back to the states (actually just postcards and letters), and the fastest the letter has ever arrived was 2 weeks. The slowest letter delivery took over 2 months!!~!

My family received the letter I left in the barrel within, drum roll please......: approximately 15 days~! Too bad their aren't barrels posted all over the country, I wouldn't have to pay postage, AND things would travel faster!

Tosagua: the "Heart of Manabi"

One of three places Habitat for Humanity builds in Ecuador is the town of "Tosagua", named for its annual flooding, in the coastal-plain, and agricultural center of the province of "Manabi."

It is nick-named the "Heart of Manabi" because it is not only located in the center of the province, the people also assured our volunteers that the residents of Manabi have the biggest, and most open hearts~!

In late November the new Global Village Coordinator, Daniel, and I, supported a Global village team to work on two houses in Tosagua. I was quite excited to visit and construct in Manabi for a week and a half, not only because it was a new region of Ecuador to explore, but also because the interim Habitat Director is from the province, and he never misses an opportunity to talk it up: the "rich" food, the climate, the people, and the lifestyle!

So-- I was excited to eat the best ceviche and fruits, experience the richest weather, meet the "most macho" men and "most beautiful" women, and experience the laid-back and friendly way of life. I must say that I was not disappointed!

Here's two kids swimming in the river, they really wanted their pictures taken as I walked over a bridge nearby. Each afternoon, many Tosagua residents would enjoy a river dip. The river was also a common place to see people washing clothes.

The only let-down was the brown and dry landscape...away from the river basin. Manabi is a very agricultural province, but the rainy season starts now, in January! When the rainy season starts, everything turns green in a matter of weeks.

Here's a photo of a typical Manabi house: raised on stilts, made of flattened bamboo, and with a tin roof. This one is in fairly good shape. The typical lifespan of a bamboo house is 6-8 years, after which families often start "patching" with whatever materials are available. Many Habitat families are replacing dilapidated bamboo house, which have been used well beyond their lifespan (see future Guayaquil entry for an example), with concrete houses (the one pictured above, however, is in good shape).

The town's people were all extremely welcoming, and the kids were quite curious about the group of foreigners. However we were not the first of our kind- Habitat has built approximately 40 houses in the town and groups of volunteers , from both Ecuador (mostly Quito) and other countries have frequently visited as volunteers.

Several of the families living in finished Habitat homes invited us into their homes, upon initial site of us, because they were so proud of their living quarters and wanted to show the volunteers what they would be building that week. Here is the entrance first house that Habitat built in Tosagua, one of the Global Village volunteers (Colleen), and the house owner and her sister.

I had been told that the town of Tosagua was a tranquil and mellow type of place...HA.

We happened to arrive the week during which all possible festivities seemed to be taking place:

• The "Juegos Cantonales" (province-wide games featuring primary school athletes from each "canton", similar to a county, held approximately every 15 years in Manabi)
• The town "Fiestas" (annual),
  
• The national elections (every four years),
  
• The local "Saint's Day" (annual and correlates with the town fiestas)
• and ....we celebrated the US national holiday, Thanksgiving!

Whew. It turned into a crazy week! Here's the Ferris wheel and its side-kick, set up for the town's fiestas.
Here is one of the local sports centers, painted to welcome all the young athletes and their coaches into town: "21st School Sports Games- Welcome!"
Here's the "Gusanito", "Little Worm" that ran amok every night through the dirt roads of Tosagua. He is a definite recipe for whiplash!

The town of Tosagua was very, very welcoming to the Global Village group, and I think every resident knew we had arrived within the first afternoon of our time there!

This group made friends with everyone, from store owners, to the salsa dancing 9 year old neighbor, to the town's firemen, to a band practicing down the street, gaggles of children and some local politicians. Actually... our "chofer" (van driver in this case) was also a town councilman:-)- Here's one of his election signs, he is the one in the middle.


The town was small and we were able to walk everywhere: from our hotel to the work site, from the habitat office to any store, from the "cabinas" (phone booths) to the open-air market... to the ice cream store...etc. However, don't try to use the Internet there: there are much better things to do with you time than count the number of times you loose your connection!

Race to the Middle of the Earth!...and shrunken heads?

On November 16th, Steph (see "Repelling Down Waterfalls" entry) and I ran the "Quito Media Maraton al Mitad del Mundo"-- Quito´s Half Marathon to the Middle of the Earth--as a team. So we each ran a 10.5K.





Here we are before the race posing in front of all the military high-school students who "assisted" in the setting up of the event by creating barricades, such as the one behind us in these pics.

I thought maybe they would run the race as well,... but they did not.

The "Middle of the Earth" is the site where the equator was first measured to exist in the early 1700s by Charles Marie de La Condamine. A representative of the French Academy of Sciences, Charles Perrier, confirmed the result in the late 1800s. There is a huge monument and some museums locatedat the "Ciudad del Mitad del Mundo", the "City of the Middle of the Earth" where our race finish line was located.

The site is located 18 miles north of the center of Quito, however we started 13 some odd miles away.

We ran the race as a relay-team, so each of us actually only ran one fourth of a marathon, about a 10.5K. Despite the high altitude of the run, starting at over 9 thousand feet, almost the entire distance was downhill, and we didn´t have any problems. It was fun to run to the Spanish cheers of "Si se puede!".... " You can do it!"

I got a lot of support just for being a female running the race "Viva las Mujeres" yelled one woman! (Long live women! ... or Go women! would be the translation for that one). There was a defined difference between the percentage of females running this race and the ratios I am used to in the United States.

Above, Steph and I pose in front of the huge monument that has been built to commemorate the "Mitad del Mundo" site. The line I am straddling was the line calculated in the 1700s and 1800s.

In modern times, the equator has been measured with GPS to be located about 150 meters away from the monument and original site! A private museum has been created commemorating the newly measure equator. We visited this museum as well, as we had heard it had lots of fun and interactive activities....

Here is the second "equator line" we visited that day!

The first thing that we witnessed at the "new equator" was water (with a floating leaf for the full effect) draining through a basin clockwise on one side of equator, counter-clockwise on the other, and straight down the hole on the equator. Our guide may have had to help a little, but it was still pretty convincing.

Next we were told that another proof of the equator´s presence was the power of the Earth´s two polar axis pulling in either direction which could diminish a persons strength at the equator. To witness these equivalent and weakening powers, our guide took volunteers and had them first put their clasped fists above their heads on one side of the equator while she pulled down on their arms. Then she did the same thing on the equator line. She did the same thing on and off the equator line by trying to separate a volunteer´s thumbs. The volunteers all seemed to feel a difference, including Steph (above), however she wasn´t sure if the guide had pulled harder on the equator line than off the equator line. (also, wouldn´t the volunteers generally have less strength the second time regardless?, just a thought.) Anyway, we tried it again later and I am not sure I could feel a difference.

The museum has a demonstration about balancing an egg which is supposed to show again the equalizing forces of the north and south poles at the equator.
I can´t speak in support, against this one, although our guide was able to balance the egg... I could not, and I am not sure I could WITH polar equalizing forces!

Other cool things in the outdoor museum were several precise solar clocks which worked quite accurately, and a cultural museum showing traditional practices of some of Ecuador´s native tribes. We even got toshoot darts out of a bamboo rod, a method for hunting monkeys, and view a real shrunken head (below)! A tribe called the "Shwar", who still live in the Ecuadorian jungle, used to practice head shrinking on their captured enemies, and other ill-fated persons. They now only practice the techniques on monkey skulls to retain their traditional methods. The methods include removing all skull bones except the bridge of the nose, and boiling the head for an extended period. This particular head was of a "bastard child."

Fiestas de Quito: Chiva!

Every year the city of Quito celebrates its founding through the "Fiestas de Quito". These fiestas last from the 24th of November until the 6th of December!

Ecuadorians from other parts of the country join their Quiteño brethren and visit the city during this time, and visitors from all over the world partake as well. Typical festivities include bull fighting, parties in the streets, at least one day of vacation from school or work for the actual anniversary date (December 6th, if not several days), Chivas (I will soon explain this concept!), concerts, local music, and general celebrations. I happened to be out of town for the majority of the Fiestas (I was in both Tosagua and Santo Domingo with Global Village teams), however I did get to try out one of the traditions.....

Chivas are open-air passenger trucks with benches and a roof which holds a band. Businesses, groups of friends, organizations, etc. rent these vehicles out (complete with band, driver, and alcohol) for a few hour Quito tour including the historic district and part of the new town. Chivas are particularly popular during the Quiteño Fiestas... However, they can be rented at other times during the year and are also found in Guayaquil (the largest Ecuadorian City). Here is a picture of the chiva on which I was a passenger... I appologise for the very bad quality (see below for a back-view)! Other signiture chiva-traditions are the plastic whistles with which all the passengers "keep time" with the band- ---ha.

The passengers are often no concentrated in the seats, but rather on the back of the truck and on top... with the band! The band plays a short selection of local "songs of the pueblo¨ ... over and over again and you can hear strains of the music during all hours of the day through parts of the city during those ten days!

During part of the city tour, the chiva stops at a park so that all the passengers can get out and dance to the music without the constraints of the truck. Here I am (above) with the band during one of their breaks. This particular band had chiva gigs for at least 8 of the 10 nights of "Fiestas."

Volcano Trip!

A couple months ago I went on an excursion to the Volcano, Tungurahua, with a group from the South American Explorers Club (see link to the right, it's a great group in which to be involved as a traveler in South America; they have "clubhouses" in several South American cities.)

This volcano is active and has erupted several times this past summer. The last time it had erupted was the week before our trip! The material being ejected from the volcano is mostly ash and rock, there is no lava. In the time since I went on this trip, the volcano has again spewed ash and rocks...

Our trip leader was Dr. Theo, a geology Professor at the Univerdidad San Francisco, one of the private universities in Quito. Dr. Theo teaches some classes in English and some in Spanish. He is also quite a character: he was born in Germany, grew up in Greece, and teaches in Quito.

He speaks at least German, Greek, Spanish and English fluently and was joking in all the languages, sometimes simultaneously in a couple, ... an indicator of his fluency levels~! To the Right is a photo of Dr. Theo with the French geologist from a French organization which monitors all volcanos in the world.


One of the interesting things about this trip was that Dr. Theo did not just focus on the geology of the volcano and the surrounding areas, he highlighted the social involvement the scientists have had with the local communities during the last few years. This interaction was mostly to educate local leaders and communities so that they would develop emergency plans, warning systems and local refuges during eruption periods.

Several community leaders spoke to the group

about the progress they had made to implement new systems and to alert the towns´ populations about potential dangers. Dr. Theo pointed out a highway stretch to our group where 7 people had died because they didn´t believe warnings that exceedingly hot material (ashes, gases...? somehow I missed this particular point), would be a danger, particularly during late night hours. He considered this a major improvement over what the numbers of dead could have been...

An interesting scene presented itself when we first arrived at the foothills of the volcano... A music video in the making! I am not sure who the signer was, but he was giving an emotional appeal to the camera in front of an ashflow...

March of Hope for Decent Housing

On Saturday, November 17th, I chased a group of hundreds of people all around Santo Domingo, Ecuador...

I was acting as photographer for a Habitat publicity and fundraising event: The First March of Hope for Decent Housing.

Jefferson Perez, (below left) the country´s first Olimpic medalist, lead the event and raised the level of awareness for Habitat´s walk, multiple-fold. Perez is a speed-walker from the city of Cuenca. Cuenca is located South of Quito, in the Andes.
The day before the walk, Daniel (a co-worker, below) and I folded event t-shirts for hours!!

The night before the event, we held a press conference in which Perez was pressed for his views on housing, politics, Ecuador as a country and athletisism in Ecuador. I was really impressed with his answers to the press and he spoke quite a bit about the country´s peoples´ responsibility to take upon themeselves a change before expected the government, and the country, to change.

For some reason, I was targeted to partake in a radio interview...twice! That was definately my first national "pubic" appearance speaking in Spanish... (but has not been the last...); I am not sure if they aired or not! First the reporter interviewed me at the press conference, then again during the walk to get some "on-site feedback."

During the walk, through the high-interest of the press: tv, radio and written, we accomplished the organization´s goal of raising awareness about themeselves, and the issues that Habitat faces.

Perez signed hundreds of shirts, posed for hundreds of pictures and took the stardom in stride. Parents came out to the streets with their kids and camaras with exclamations of "there he is!".

Because I was running around with a video camera, and my camera... a co-worker assigned two military high school students to be my "body-guards"... I think they had fun with the post and I didn´t have to worry about watching my back with the equipment. Here I am with my "guarda-espaldas."

The walk lasted at least three hours and it was REALLY hot, Habitat passed out bags of water. These are common at large events around here... and seem like a pretty smart idea:

They creat less trash and are probably less expensive too!

After the walk there were plenty of formalities, speaches, and some musical and dancing performances. Here´s a local HS dance team and a group of children performing an andinan dance. I thought the younger kids had the best rythm... they were really good!