Sierra Trip

Monday
April 7, 2008
6:00pm
La Esperanza
Our Room

We’re back in La Esperanza after two weeks of traveling around the country. So now we have pictures to share and more stories to tell. Below is a slideshow of pictures from the first week when we were in and around Puerto Quito (a small, small city 5 hours west of Quito). Enjoy and if you have questions about any of the pictures there’s more info in our last post…if you still have questions post a comment and we can answer from there!



We spent the second week, last week, traveling around the southern sierra. First we traveled to Cuenca, which we’ve already said but doesn’t hurt to say again that it took twelve hours to get there from Quito. The first day we were in Cuenca we just relaxed, walked around the pretty city, and took a bus to Sayausi (our future site). Sayausi is only 25 minutes by bus from the center of Old Town Cuenca. Needless to say, it seems like we’ll be visiting Cuenca frequently. Our site seems nice, though we didn’t get a chance to walk around because it was raining. It’s located on a super green, super big hillside with a river running behind it and in front of it. After seeing it we’re really excited about getting there.

The next two days (Monday and Tuesday) we spent in Parque Nacional Cajas. This is the park that Mike is going to be working with for the next two years. It was beautiful! There are over 200 lakes and just as many waterfalls surrounded by steep green hills. The random picture of a house looking building with trucks in front of it is the office where Mike will be working.

Wednesday we went to an alpaca farm 3 hours, by dirt 4x4 road, outside of Azogues which is an hour north of Cuenca. The farm is run by Stuart White who is the person responsible for reintroducing alpacas to Ecuador in the 1980’s, and a former Peace Corps volunteer (Columbia, 71-73). During our visit we learned a lot about the paramo and paramo management and about how awesome alpacas are!! I love alpacas! They are just about the silliest creatures in the entire world. They’re totally skittish and make the strangest noises. We got to help cut their nails, sheer them, catch them, give them vaccines, and observe a castration. It was by far the best part of our training so far.

Thursday we traveled 3 hours back to Azogues then 6 hours north to Rio Bamba, where two years ago we rode on top of a train. So that was pretty much all of Thursday.

Friday we visited a small community that produces organic quinoa and Mike practiced his Kichwa with the local mujeres. Friday night we ate amazing hamburgers at a street stand with grilled pineapple, took super hot showers with reasonable water pressure, and watched some cable TV…in English! We’re totally roughin’ it.

Saturday we returned to La Esperanza after 7 more hours on a bus, did laundry, and went to bed super early!

Sunday we went to Otavalo a ir de compras and we ate some delicious pie.

Now here we are back in La Esperanza for our last week of training here before going to Quito to swear in as official volunteers. We hope all is well back home and that everyone is enjoying spring!!



(as always, click on the image to see a larger version/more options)