What a month it has been. I survived living in the middle of nowhere for a few weeks; I survived a couple of killer illnesses; and I survived countless annoying encounters with creepy men who wanted to marry. Needless to say, it wasn’t exactly my favorite month in Ecuador so far, but it certainly was interesting.
For my Independent Study Project, I traveled out to a pueblito (emphasis on the “ito”) called Santa Rosa. To get there, you take a bus from Quito for 3 hours; then you take a ranchera (usually sitting on the roof or hanging off the back) on a dirt road for 3 hours; then you hike up a mountain for 2 more hours. It’s in the Choco, a tropical rainforest on the other side of the Andes from the Amazon. It’s always warm (usually quite hot) and rains everyday like clockwork. The area is beautiful: rolling hills covered in lush rainforest. So in that sense, Santa Rosa was wonderful.
On the other hand, the entire town – a two hour hike from one end to the other – was only home to about 15 families. I lived on a cacao farm about a half hour hike from the “town center” which consisted of a chapel, a few houses, and a “store” that didn’t even sell water. Living truly in the middle of nowhere can get quite lonely; there’s just nothing to do and no one to talk to.
Not everything about it was bad. I actually enjoyed living without electricity – reading and writing by candlelight is actually quite calming. I didn’t mind having to bathe in the Chalpi River at first, but after a while the novelty did wear off, and I missed even my cold Quito showers. And I didn’t mind using the hole in the ground outside as a bathroom, until of course the chickens began to use it as a fortress from which to launch attacks on me in the middle of the night.
For the project, we interviewed just about everyone who lives in Santa Rosa (which turns out not to be that great of a feat) about their perceptions and opinions about mining. After about a week, we decided to add an economic portion to the project, and began doing interviews about the economics of agriculture. We also collected water samples in various places which were tested for heavy metals back in Quito.
We also traveled to Corazon, a “nearby” town where there is an active underground gold mine. We tried to talk to the people there about their lives and their opinions of the mine, but just about everyone we encountered was wary of talking about it and no one allowed us to use a recorder there. But we were lucky enough to get a tour of the gold mine. We were even able to walk around through the tunnels underground and toured the processing facility. We also saw the water “treatment” area, where the waste water is mixed with HCL and hydrogen peroxide and then “cleaned by the sun and the air.” We were able to sneak a water sample from one of the treatment pools, which turned out to contain a 16,000% higher concentration of lead than legally allowed in the U.S. by the EPA. This is the water that then gets pumped to a nearby river as well as the town for drinking water. MmmMmm, delicious.
During the couple of weeks I spent in Santa Rosa, I had several interesting conversations with my homestay father about mining. I was told the day I was sent to live with him that he was one of the few pro-mining people in the community. Ana, my work partner, lived with his brother who was also pro-mining. Over the next couple of weeks, I was amazed by how interested he was at everything I told him about mining. He had no idea that mining happens anywhere but in Ecuador and he had no idea was living in the middle of a mining concession that’s open to exploration for the next 28 years. I never actively tried to change his mind – I knew that wasn’t my place. But the more we talked, the more anti-mining he became. On one of my last days there, he asked me how to fight a company if/when they came to mine in the area. If nothing else comes of our work or our project in Santa Rosa, at least I know I had an impact on one person.
By the end of our project, we realized what an opportunity the town has to benefit from its agriculture. Almost everyone there grows cacao (chocolate beans), but no one gets a fair price for it. When we arrived, both ends of the road were out and it was impossible to transport anything anywhere but by hand. The State actually fixed the bridge on one side the day before we left, but still only one family in the whole town owns a truck to transport goods to Quito. Most carry it on their backs or on mules 2 hours to take a ranchera to Pedro Vicente Maldonado where they sell it at 72% of the world price.
The people of Santa Rosa are poor, but their lives are rich. They grow most of the food they eat on their own farms, and they spend their days outside in a beautiful landscape and climate. Their wellbeing depends on the quality of their environment, not the price of their goods. However, if a mining company were to approach them with a handful of cash to sell their farm, some would do it. In fact a few months ago, it almost happened. Gold was found in the Chalpi River and the closest farmer agreed to sell his land to the company. But other farmers in the surrounding area said no. A rift occurred in the community. Some wanted to protect their land, their health and their way of life. Others looked at the $40,000 offer, thought of the $2,000 they originally paid for the farm, and saw it as a good deal.
If the people of Santa Rosa got fair prices for the crops they produce, this offer may not have been so enticing for the interested few. We proposed that they organize a cacao cooperative, with shared transportation to market and no middleman in Pedro V.M. They could even get higher than average prices by forming an organic co-op, since no one there uses fertilizer or pesticides anyway. Unfortunately we didn’t live there long enough to help them get such a cooperative off the ground; we can only hope they take our idea and run with it.
Over the last few days, our program took us to an old hacienda in the cloud forest south of Quito. We spent most of the time doing presentations about our projects. We also did a minga one day, and my group built a sandbox for a local school. We also had several sessions about re-entry into the U.S. and reverse culture shock. I didn’t realize until then how close it is already to the end of my semester in Ecuador. It’s been incredible and it went so fast. I still have a few weeks left to travel around South America (which I’m really excited about), but I’m starting to realize how much I’m going to miss Ecuador.
I have several funny stories that have accumulated over the past month, but I’ve written enough for one entry. If you want to hear about assassin chickens or marriage proposals, just ask. I’ll be back in the States soon to tell them in person!
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Solamente un otro día en Paraíso
Last time I titled my entry ¨The Best Week of My Life,¨ but I think this past week in the Galápagos takes the cake. Since we don´t get a spring break during the program, I´m considering this ¨educational excursion¨ to have been our spring break equivalent: a fully paid and planned vacation in Paradise. The archipelago was absolutely beautiful. It was hot and sunny all week long, with few clouds and no rain (even though it´s the wet season there right now). We spent most of our time outside, either hiking around the islands, snorkeling along lava reefs, or relaxing on the pristine beaches.
For the first half of the week, we lived on a boat (which was actually more like a luxury yatch) and island-hopped each day. We vistited the islands of Baltra, Santa Cruz, Rabida, Santiago, and Bartolomé. The majority of the islands in the Galápagos are uninhabited and can only be vistited if accompanied by a registered guide. These islands are all protected by the National Park System and the Charles Darwin Foundation and have been conserved surprisingly well. During our time on the boat, we also went snorkeling twice a day, each time at a different lava reef. The water was beautiful, warm and clear, and it was incredible how many exotic fish we were able to see.
For the second half of the week, we lived in a homestay in a small port town on the island of Isabela. We spent our days hiking volcanoes, snorkeling, and playing on the beach. As much fun as our time in Isabela was, it was also saddening to experience the harsh realities of life in the Galápagos. While most visitors to the archipelago are rich, retired, white tourists, the local residents live in poverty and harsh environmental conditions. My homestay mother was a guide on the island, which is the best paid job available, but even they didn´t have running water. The majority of residents are fishermen who live in one-room houses with large families. Quality of life largely depends on the availablility of freshwater, which is a rare commodity but a necessity in a location as hot and arid as the Galápagos.
I´ve found that it´s much easier to make lists than to explain everything I saw, so here´s a quick summary:
Most Interesting Things Seen Each Day
Tuesday: 3 hammerhead sharks (3m each)
Wednesday: 4 dolphins swimming alongside the boat for 30 minutes
Thursday: enormous manta ray (6m wide!)
Friday: giant tortoises mating
Saturday: 2nd largest volcanic crater in the world
Sunday: ¨Wall of Tears¨ (an old prison torture sight)
Monday: 25 white-tipped sharks
Animals I Swam With While Snorkeling
1. Spotted Eagle Ray
2. Marine Iguanas
3. Pacific Green Sea Turtles
4. Sea Lions
5. White-tipped Sharks
6. Galápagos Penguins (rarest penguin species in the world)
7. And an endless list of exotic fish...
I´d love to be able to show you how beautiful the landscape and the animals were, but it turns out my bad luck with cameras this semester has continued and worsened. On our first day in the Galápagos, I was on the boat taking a picture of a beautiful sunset over the ocean... and what happens? I dropped my camera off the side of the boat. I assume it is now resting peacefully at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
I´ve been back in Quito now for two days, while half of the program group is still in the Galápagos. Long story short, when they switched with us to stay on the boat for the second half of the week, the boat engine failed and they were stuck on an island for two days and weren´t able to see all the cool things we did. So they remained in the archipelago on a new boat for two extra days while we are stuck in Quito. It´s completely unfair if you ask me, but we´ve at least made the most of having two days without classes.
Yesterday I went to my first professional soccer game here. It was Ecuador vs. Paraguay in an elimination game for the 2010 World Cup. The entire day, this whole city was a gigantic tailgate. Everyone in Quito was dressed in bright yellow and all of the streets were filled with crowds and Pilsener stands. The game itself was incredibly exciting - there was more energy and excitement in that stadium than at a Penn State football game. Ecuador pulled ahead 1-0 in the second half and the crowd went absolutely nuts. Unfortunately, Paraguay scored in the last 10 seconds of the game to tie it 1-1. At first, there was a stunned silence in the stadium. Then there was an outburst of outrage, effectively met by the SWAT team and military who had been lining the field the whole game. A disappointing ending to a fantastic match.
Today I hiked Volcán Pichincha, the volcano under which Quito is located. We took the Teleférico up about 2.5 km and then went on a killer hike to the top. The view the entire way up was incredible. We could see 5 other glaciated volcanoes surrounding Quito and the entire city stretched between the two mountain ranges of the Andes. The hike itself was brutal - we hadn´t yet acclimated even to the Quito alititude (9,000 ft.) after being at sea level for a week, and we hiked up to about 15,000 ft in 3 hours. On the way back down, which at the top was a vertical wall of unsolidified volcanic ash, I basically just fell and slid down the mountain (very graceful). But it was an absolutely beautiful hike.
Next weekend, I leave for Guaycuyacu (try saying that 3 times fast), a small rural town in Northwestern Ecuador to work on mining issues for a month. The town is sitting on a hefty mineral deposit and the government intends to open it up for extraction in the near future. In the next town over, across the river, a gold mine already exists. I´ll be working with another girl from my program to conduct a listening project in both towns and to do environmental impact studies in both locations. Just like in the States, it is much easier to prevent a mine from starting up than to shut down an existing one. So I plan to draw from the experiences of the community near the gold mine to raise awareness about the real impacts of mining in the target community where I´ll be living. We hope to produce some kind of pamphlet to distribute in the target town that can educate them about the ecological and social realities of mining as experienced by their neighbors, as well as a guide to the permiting process and options for community involvement. Ideally this project will have the ultimate goal of empowering the local community to stand up against the mining companies to protect their land and their way of life, rather than being directly involved in the fight myself.
The town where I will be living does not have internet access, so this will probably be my last update for about a month. If you want to see the pictures I´ve taken in Ecuador (which will likely be all the pictures I will ever take here, being that I have no camera), you can see them at my Picasa Web Album page at http://picasaweb.google.com/caroline.cress. Enjoy!
For the first half of the week, we lived on a boat (which was actually more like a luxury yatch) and island-hopped each day. We vistited the islands of Baltra, Santa Cruz, Rabida, Santiago, and Bartolomé. The majority of the islands in the Galápagos are uninhabited and can only be vistited if accompanied by a registered guide. These islands are all protected by the National Park System and the Charles Darwin Foundation and have been conserved surprisingly well. During our time on the boat, we also went snorkeling twice a day, each time at a different lava reef. The water was beautiful, warm and clear, and it was incredible how many exotic fish we were able to see.
For the second half of the week, we lived in a homestay in a small port town on the island of Isabela. We spent our days hiking volcanoes, snorkeling, and playing on the beach. As much fun as our time in Isabela was, it was also saddening to experience the harsh realities of life in the Galápagos. While most visitors to the archipelago are rich, retired, white tourists, the local residents live in poverty and harsh environmental conditions. My homestay mother was a guide on the island, which is the best paid job available, but even they didn´t have running water. The majority of residents are fishermen who live in one-room houses with large families. Quality of life largely depends on the availablility of freshwater, which is a rare commodity but a necessity in a location as hot and arid as the Galápagos.
I´ve found that it´s much easier to make lists than to explain everything I saw, so here´s a quick summary:
Most Interesting Things Seen Each Day
Tuesday: 3 hammerhead sharks (3m each)
Wednesday: 4 dolphins swimming alongside the boat for 30 minutes
Thursday: enormous manta ray (6m wide!)
Friday: giant tortoises mating
Saturday: 2nd largest volcanic crater in the world
Sunday: ¨Wall of Tears¨ (an old prison torture sight)
Monday: 25 white-tipped sharks
Animals I Swam With While Snorkeling
1. Spotted Eagle Ray
2. Marine Iguanas
3. Pacific Green Sea Turtles
4. Sea Lions
5. White-tipped Sharks
6. Galápagos Penguins (rarest penguin species in the world)
7. And an endless list of exotic fish...
I´d love to be able to show you how beautiful the landscape and the animals were, but it turns out my bad luck with cameras this semester has continued and worsened. On our first day in the Galápagos, I was on the boat taking a picture of a beautiful sunset over the ocean... and what happens? I dropped my camera off the side of the boat. I assume it is now resting peacefully at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
I´ve been back in Quito now for two days, while half of the program group is still in the Galápagos. Long story short, when they switched with us to stay on the boat for the second half of the week, the boat engine failed and they were stuck on an island for two days and weren´t able to see all the cool things we did. So they remained in the archipelago on a new boat for two extra days while we are stuck in Quito. It´s completely unfair if you ask me, but we´ve at least made the most of having two days without classes.
Yesterday I went to my first professional soccer game here. It was Ecuador vs. Paraguay in an elimination game for the 2010 World Cup. The entire day, this whole city was a gigantic tailgate. Everyone in Quito was dressed in bright yellow and all of the streets were filled with crowds and Pilsener stands. The game itself was incredibly exciting - there was more energy and excitement in that stadium than at a Penn State football game. Ecuador pulled ahead 1-0 in the second half and the crowd went absolutely nuts. Unfortunately, Paraguay scored in the last 10 seconds of the game to tie it 1-1. At first, there was a stunned silence in the stadium. Then there was an outburst of outrage, effectively met by the SWAT team and military who had been lining the field the whole game. A disappointing ending to a fantastic match.
Today I hiked Volcán Pichincha, the volcano under which Quito is located. We took the Teleférico up about 2.5 km and then went on a killer hike to the top. The view the entire way up was incredible. We could see 5 other glaciated volcanoes surrounding Quito and the entire city stretched between the two mountain ranges of the Andes. The hike itself was brutal - we hadn´t yet acclimated even to the Quito alititude (9,000 ft.) after being at sea level for a week, and we hiked up to about 15,000 ft in 3 hours. On the way back down, which at the top was a vertical wall of unsolidified volcanic ash, I basically just fell and slid down the mountain (very graceful). But it was an absolutely beautiful hike.
Next weekend, I leave for Guaycuyacu (try saying that 3 times fast), a small rural town in Northwestern Ecuador to work on mining issues for a month. The town is sitting on a hefty mineral deposit and the government intends to open it up for extraction in the near future. In the next town over, across the river, a gold mine already exists. I´ll be working with another girl from my program to conduct a listening project in both towns and to do environmental impact studies in both locations. Just like in the States, it is much easier to prevent a mine from starting up than to shut down an existing one. So I plan to draw from the experiences of the community near the gold mine to raise awareness about the real impacts of mining in the target community where I´ll be living. We hope to produce some kind of pamphlet to distribute in the target town that can educate them about the ecological and social realities of mining as experienced by their neighbors, as well as a guide to the permiting process and options for community involvement. Ideally this project will have the ultimate goal of empowering the local community to stand up against the mining companies to protect their land and their way of life, rather than being directly involved in the fight myself.
The town where I will be living does not have internet access, so this will probably be my last update for about a month. If you want to see the pictures I´ve taken in Ecuador (which will likely be all the pictures I will ever take here, being that I have no camera), you can see them at my Picasa Web Album page at http://picasaweb.google.com/caroline.cress. Enjoy!
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