April 11-15 Computer training in Pucara, Intag

Pucara Computer Committee

We spent one week in Pucara, a small town in a gorgeous valley in northern Ecuador. Our purpose for being in Pucara was to give a computer training for the youth of the town. Through our friend Peter´s project- www.casainteram.org - four laptop computers had been donated to this town about 5 months earlier, but they were still sitting in boxes. Our goal was to get a computer center set up in the town. The town had set up a "Computer Committee" of 7 youth and we spent 4 long days training this committee. It was a blast. A few of the guys already knew how to use computers - their areas of strength being: listening to music, playing games, and designing power points! They helped the others who were more tentative with the computer. During the training they came up with the goals of the computer center, the rules for the center, a list of materials needed to run the center, the responsibilities of the committee along with the hours of the center, and an invite to the opening. They made word, excel, publisher and power point documents of these things. Overall it was a successful week.

Team building activities on the first day

By the last day Eddy was teaching and Rich was playing with the kids

The view from the computer center. Yes, that is a volcano!

This is the lovely family that fed us for the week. Delia made some mean cheese empañadas every morning.

Too cute!

Daniella, my playmate for the week, enjoyed counting how many times she could jump up and down. 30 times!


Doña María Mercedes has one of the last adobe houses in the area and she has a garden full of lemon grass, cabuya (agave), guava, platano, and many many herbs.


Doña María was harvesting her cabuya (agave) to sell and brought some sugar cane juice for the worker. Would you like some cane juice?

Sure, why not.

This is Don Julio, the neighbor, who we shared many meals with during our week. In this photo he is making the dried cabuya (agave) into thread which will be woven into bags, hats, baskets.

Julio works for DECOIN, an organization working to stop a Canadian copper mining company from destroying the delicate and imporant environment in this area called Intag. We spent many hours talking with him about the impact of a copper mine in the area, and how the people of the area have mobilized to stop the mining from happening. This is a trend around Ecuador, the people are not happy about how mining and petroleum have been destroying their enviroment without so much as a benefit for Ecuador, all the money goes to the company. There are many protests and the people are starting to win the battle.

You can learn more about the work of Decoin and about the importance of environmental conservation at www.decoin.org

Here the cabuya is being made into a belt for Richard.

During our time in Intag we got to see the whole cabuya process. Selling natural cabuya products is a way that women´s organizations are able to generate income for community projects.

We loved Intag and hope to go back there again. For anyone visiting Ecuador we recommend a visit to this gorgeous valley which is diverse in culture and biodiversity and is also an amazing example of how people, when working together, can achieve anything.

Greetings from the Andes mountains of Ecuador!!

on a three day trek through the highlands of the Andes

on a one night camping trip near the top of Cotacachi Volcano

This could be the last time we write before we disappear into the Amazon basin in eastern Ecuador (hopefully forever, according to Rich, and hopefully not, according to Ang). We plan to spend the next month volunteering with the organization Jatun Sacha.

This is the web page for the particular project we will be working on: http://www.jatunsacha.org/ingles/estacion_tsuraku.htm

Following is a recap of our last month:

If you remember from our last blog entry, we have been working with the org CASA Interam, a NGO started by our friend, Peter.

The web link is http://www.casainteram.org/

He has projects in 5 villages here in Ecuador and is putting together a long trekking trail to link these villages. We joined him on two legs of the trip as he searched for the best route. It was a great experience to be on seldom walked trails and to meet the community members involved in ecotourism projects with Casainteram.

Here Peter is leading us in a needed break. We spent a good amount of time in the paja grass of the paramo, the high altitude grasslands.

One trek we did was from La Chimba village to Pihal village. Above are some of the the villagers from La Chimba. They are all involved in the ecotourism project and will be the guides for this trail. Benecio, in the Che Guevara hat, is a very powerful young leader. It was a pleasure getting to know him and his great work in the fight for indigenous rights. We could see the wisdom and strength of the ancients in his piercing eyes.

The hike was beautiful with amazing views of misty paramo hills and dense cloud forests clinging to steep hillsides. Unfortunately, the last leg of the trail was cut earlier that morning with a machete. This made the steep descent slippery and challenging. We made it without any broken ankles.

The villagers from Pihal were waiting for us at the bottom. They had prepared a feast in light of the historic moment of the beginning of this trail. Their hope is that more groups of ecotourists will arrive to their village. They, along with the other communities that Pete works with, are developing small ecotourism projects in hopes of gaining some income. Pete is doing great work to help them in this project!

After that hike we stayed in another of the towns that Pete is working in, Peribuela. We stayed for 10 days and during that time we collected information for the book we wrote, printed and made 70 copies of. Hopefully the PDF file will be on the internet soon. We will let you know!



Above is the cover. It is a small book about the forest and community of Peribuela. It was a wonderful experience learning about this unique place. We learned a lot about the rare high altitude forest that the community has decided to protect. We studied the animals, medicinal plants, orchids, trees, and birds.

We also learned about their history and struggles to gain land and freedom from the Spanish hacienda system, where the indigenous people of Ecuador worked for centuries as slaves for the Spanish landowners. Now they have some land, but the haciendas still have the best, most fertile land in the valleys.


This is our wonderful guide, Don Jeronimo. We spent most of every day with him. Here he is holding the rare arrayan aromatico from deep in the forest. The tea from this leaf is incredible: a mix between bay and lemon.

What a suprise (and a treat) to eat fresh wild blueberries in Ecuador. Unfortunately, we were a few weeks early for the peak of the harvest.

While in Peribuela Richard had a memorable debut as a beekeeper. His pants were too short and he suffered many stings that gave him quite an allergic reaction. Luckily, Don Jeronimo's wife 'cleansed him of his fear' by rubbing egg and leaves on his body.

Here Dona Lola is ¨healing¨ Ang with a warm fire and fresh tortillas that were more like pancakes.

During our time in Peribuela we went on some great hikes. Above is a photo of an incedible and powerful waterfall that we hiked for hours to find. The altitude is over 10,000 feet. What a brisk refreshing shower (for Ang) and bath (for Rich)!


We also climbled up to the paramo above the village and spent a cold night under the mountain. The temp dropped below freezing after dinner.

We had a nice warm blanket!

When our research was done, Peter joined us for another uncharted leg of the loop hike. It turned out to be a three day trek up and over the paramo and between two mountains and down to a lower valley.

The neighbor girls from Peribuela helped carry our bags. Well, they posed for a funny photo before we left.

During our hike it rained for over twelve hours, luckily most of that time we were in our leaky tent.

We had to cross several rivers that had swelled with the rain. The water burned our legs it was so cold!

We were happy to arrive in the quaint village of Piñan the next day. This village is located on the land of an old hacienda owner, who is kicking them off the land. It is a fascinating story that gives perspective to the struggle of the indigenous people of the area. Even though the area is part of an Ecological reserve established by the Ecuadorian government, this rich landowner still grazes hundreds of cattle throughout the land that once was his. Supposedly, he was paid for this land, but he still keeps his cows on it.


The people of Piñan will be moving their village only 15 minutes away. They have received help to buy the building materials, and they don´t seem to mind the move. The saddest part is that their traditional mud houses will be replaced by cement block, which is much colder, and much less pleasing to the eyes. This village scene will soon be lost. There aren´t many scenes like this left in Ecuador.

The walk down from the village was the most beautiful as we descended the paramo, with views of distant snow capped valleys, into the dense cloud forests.

After we arrived in the warmer tropical valley, and spent the next couple days soaking our sore muscles in a wonderful thermal pool! We ate delicious trout next to the river where they came from.

After a frustrating few days of finding a "publisher" for our book (a good printer and copy machine), we took a vacation from our volunteering and visited some other mountain communities.

The scenery was spectacular...

and the people just as interesting and beautiful.

We took a famous train ride through the mountains, including some narrow canyons and steep terrain. The main attraction is a section that goes under a mountain area called the Nose of the Devil.

adventures...

1. visiting an art gallery in a community that started the famous Ecuadorian Tigua Art
2. playing with llamas
3. hiking around a crater lake
4. the May pole dance

Once again, we hope you enjoy!

Off into the great unknown yet again!

Yep, that´s right. We are going to stay in a community for the next two weeks to do a little volunteer work. We are going to collect information about the rare high altitude Andean forest that this community is protecting. The plan is to write a small booklet in English about the forest for student, volunteer, and tour groups who will visit the community and forest.

Should be fun!

Here is the link to our friend Peter´s website and the community we will be staying in. This is one of his projects and he is helping us do this work.

http://www.casainteram.org/peribuela.html

We are going to stay with this lovely older couple and learn from the man on the right, Geronimo. We visited them last week and really enjoyed them and the forest.

Tune in next time to see how we did!

By the way, BBC news is doing a story about Mae Sot, the town where we used to live in Thailand.

Here is the link to that story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6397243.stm

Are we back in Thailand with the Karen... or in Ecuador with the Kichwa?

ECUADOR

We are in Ecuador and back on the trail with renewed energy. Our difficulties and lessons learned in Central America opened us up to welcome the opportunities that life presents us day by day. For both of us it is the first time to visit South America, and we are eager and open for the adventures ahead. Here´s the story of our last week...

The day before we left Costa Rica we made a one-night reservation for a guesthouse in Quito, Ecuador. That was the extent of our planning for this new leg of the trip - we didn´t even buy a travel guide. However, we were waiting for an email from our friend Peter who does development work in Cotacachi, Ecuador. We were hoping to do volunteer work. Upon our arrival in Quito we still had not heard back from him and so had a wide-open itinerary.

On Feb 15th we flew from Costa Rica to Ecuador. In the airport, during our layover in Panama, we replaced our stolen camera. That felt good! Although not so much financially...

After checking in at our hostal, we took a little walk to find a bite to eat and to get aquainted with the old city of Quito. One block from our hostal we passed a little shop with a sign advertising a leaf tea from the Amazon that we had never heard of. We stopped to try it. The owner was very friendly and we began to converse about many things. Turns out that she is a very motivated leader of an indigenous organization in the Amazon and that she is in Quito to get her law degree so that she can stop oil companies from exploiting the area where she lives. We got along swimmingly, and the next thing you know Ines invited us to visit her village with her, as she was going home for the weekend. Synergy: just like that we had a plan.

The next day we took the bus from the cold high altitude capital city and down into the Amazon basin. Ines put us up in her house. That first night we got in on a traditional dance competition. The next morning, after collecting some random food from the land around us, we had a hearty soup for breakfast. Throughout the 5 days we stayed with Ines we ate almost entirely off the land. Here is her father enjoying yucca and a glass of chicha de chonta. The drink is a beer made from the nut of a local palm tree. The taste takes a little getting used to. Our first night, that was all we had for dinner.

After our breakfast we took off to hike up into the forest to the family farm of 40 acres where Ines grew up. We were going to spend the night in a small shelter that still remains. Her father left the land 22 years ago when his wife died, and now forest has returned to the land that used to be pasture. He recently gave the land to Ines because she is his only child interested in taking care of it. She is now teaching her son and her neices and nephews to value the land, but this is proving to be more than difficult as the lure of television and coca cola is unbelievably strong. She finally convinced her 13 year old son, Oscar, and her neice and nephew to come along for the excursion. They were reluctant to come, but at the end of the trip admitted that they had learned something from living in the forest for a night.

It was a beautiful hike and we collected mushrooms as we walked through the forest. We didn´t bring any food, as we planned to eat natural food from the land. We survived on fungus, plaintains, heart of palm, snails, and leaves for tea. It was delicious! Unfortunately, the old kitchen house had collapsed since the last visit, but of course a makeshift fire wasn`t tough to make. We hiked down to the stream to collect water for cooking and bathing.

Here is the house where the 6 of us slept. There were some holes in the roof, but we managed to avoid getting wet, even though it rained (complete with thunder and lightening) almost all night.

The next morning we had to head back to town. We stopped at this beautiful river to bathe. Little did we know that it would be our last bath for several days due to a water shortage in the town where we stayed. This is the upper Amazon basin, where the rivers come sparkling out of the Andes. The water is crisp and clean, and the many rocks make beautiful rapids and waterfalls.

We spent the next day with Ines´s aunt at her farm where she has yucca, bananas, cacao, and many other delicious fruits. It felt like a big cooperative farm as a number of people were helping her take care of it. While there we tried some more new plants and fruits and had a good time meeting the family. Here, Ines and I are shelling the wild cacao to get the seeds ready for roasting. They taste like popcorn when roasted.

We felt like we were right at home on this farm. It was so similar to Karen farms and Karen people, except for the cacao. Here the aunt is looking for bananas to harvest.

We stayed in the same house with Ines´s sister, Sonia. She is a lovely woman and a precious new baby. Look at the lovely gringa too!

Our last day we visited the local shaman, a cousin of Ines. She has been curing since she was 11. Healing is definitely in her family! She invited us to do a traditional cleansing, which included a nice bath in an herbal tea. Later we drank the same tea to cleanse the insides of our body. It was a powerful and important experience for us. Jeanette was happy to hear about Rich´s interest in medicinal plants and traditional healing and joked that he could be her assistant!

That day we finally received an email from our friend Peter. What perfect timing! If we would have heard from him earlier we would have missed this very personal and special Amazon experience. Now we have good friends in the Amazon and we have been invited to live and work there with them. We have a feeling that we will be back to that area again.... but who knows when.

We think of all of you often and we love hearing from you. Click the link below to leave us a word or a song.

stories from January 20th to February 15th

After our difficulties in Eastern Nicaragua we decided to take it easy for about 10 days - the first 5 days were a no-brainer, as our guts were recovering physically. We used the anti-parasite tonic that we had made with Doña Irma in Guatemala (see our second blog). Finally, our stomach pains ceased, and we were able to venture out of Grenada. We camped for 5 days on Ometepe Island at an organic farm run by an Italian father and son. The company of the other guests there was entertaining and interesting. While on the island we went on a 20 km bike ride to a waterfall. We hiked a black sand beach between the two volcanos. And we climbed a volcano with a mysterious lagoon at the top! We felt strong and refreshed after those days.

We would love to show you photos from this time, but all of our Nicaragua photos were stolen, along with our camera, Rich´s journal, and other valuables. ARRRRRGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But luckily no passports or money were lost. The story is that we crossed the border into Costa Rica and got on a bus to take us to San Jose. About an hour from the capital city four guys pounced on our day pack. We knew it was happening, as we had been forewarned by many travelers about the petty theivery in CR, but we could do nothing to stop it from happening. Let it go, let it go...

COSTA RICA

Mom and Dad showed up at the airport the next day, Feb 1st. It was so fun to see them in Costa Rica. This was the second time we had all been in CR together as they had come to visit me in 98 when I was studying here for a semester.

We had a great week of exploring, talking, driving, eating delicious food (nachos!), swimming at sunset, and loving each other. The first night we stayed in a treehouse close to Volcan Arenal, and then at a house in a neighborhood in Quepos, and then at Bella Vista, a small cabin close to Dominical with a stunning view of the Pacific. We did some hiking at Manuel Antonio National Park and also at Hacienda Baru. We went horse back riding (Rich´s first time) through old growth rainforest and teak tree farm. During our travels we saw loads of monkeys, dozens of lizards, at least 10 morpho butterflies, 5 sloths, 2 toucans, 2 dolphins, and an anteater, among other wildlife. We saw the sunset every night, making each day a signature day.

At a viewpoint in Manuel Antonio:

Yummy lobster at one of the best seafood restaurants on the Pacific - a belated Christmas dinner.

The main reason that Frank and Rosemary came to visit Costa Rica (besides us!) is because the church that Frank pastors, Woodbury Baptish Church, has a sister church relationship with a church in La Guacima, a town outside of San Jose. The last four days of their time in Costa Rica we joined Bob and Cindy Klatt, a superb couple from Woodbury, for a time of sharing with the sister church. We stayed with the Pastor, Xinia, and her family, Johnny, Priscilla, and Abraham. They were tremendous hosts. The church had prepared some excellent times of sharing. Everyone had a great time together and when we left there were strong bonds of friendship that had been formed, despite the language barriers and the cultural differences. This was an enriching time for Rich and I as well, and we consider ourselves blessed to have been part of this cultural exchange.

The lovely Pastor and her family treated us to a visit at the local butterfly garden.

We were also lucky enough to have gotten to know the Baptist missionaries, Ruth Mooney, and Mylinda and Gary Baits, who have been living in Costa Rica for years. They are very special people who have a good understanding of how to work cross-culturally in community and we learned a lot from them. After we said goodbye to Mom and Dad, we took the Baits´ up on the invitation to stay at their house for a few nights until we left for Ecuador. We thouroughly enjoyed our stay. Their kids, Jaime and Micah, were a blast and we had some good laughs. It was a healing and refreshing time due to the good company, the good food, and good mattress.

South America, here we come!