el cacao? el cacao es el árbol del futuro!

I have returned from my brief adventures! After exploring la parte colonial on my own, I met up with a friend and we met up with a friend of a friend of hers and went to Museo Guayasamín, basically Ecuador’s favorite artist, ever. Definitely the beloved Ecuadorian son. He’s an incredible painter, and we got a free guided tour which helped to put his paintings into historical perspectives. He was well-connected, BFFs with Pablo Neruda, Salvador Allende, and various other leftist political figures in Latin America. His paintings really revere women (his mom was the only one to support his artistic leanings), and act as powerful homages to victims of human rights abuses. I checked out a feria in the Parque Ejido on Saturday, it was pretty sweet, though I’ve seen my share of ferias since BsAs. I also revisted the parte vieja with a friend, and we did the obligatory church and plaza tour again. This time I saw an Ecuadorian kid in this lovely, ornate church who was dressed up in a Barney costume. We walked alllll down Quito (it’s a long and narrow city) to the Parque de la Carolina and watched some futbol there. It’s a huge park- kids were going for pony rides, there’s a green house, and there’s room for about half of the city to join a futbol team and get some practice. I was exhausted from walking all over, so we took the trole ($.25) back.

Monday was the beginning of my rural adventures with Azalia, a Spanish teacher and general community knowledge holder. We took the bus from Quito (6:30am!) to Santo Domingo de los Colorados, stayed on the bus, and finally got off about 7.5 hours later in Esmeraldas, along the coast. We visited Benjamin, a volunteer in the local hospital, and I got to see the hospital. I’m sure everyone who has ever had the opportunity to visit a hospital in a developing country goes through similar phases of initial disbelief, shock, and then extreme appreciation of privilege, but I was truly struck. To say that they lacked resources says nothing. To say that it was filthy says nothing. To say that there was a general aura of desperation, depression and a lack of hope doesn’t even begin to explain the situation. Growing up seeing bright, warm waiting rooms and well-equipped patient rooms, it was initially incomprehensible that they could even call this a hospital. In talking to the volunteer, he said that there was just a lack of intuition in the doctors there, and he himself was just a med student. The lack of resources, he said, conditioned the idea that few patients would survive, and few doctors have the will to push for survival, and even fewer think to be creative (McGuyver-ish) in their practice. Thankfully, we were rewarded with delicious batidos (fresh fruit blended with milk…rico) afterwards, and I was able to get past my initial shock. We also visited the beach, which was kind of like a NW beach in that there was driftwood everywhere, and in that it wasn’t particularly warm.

Tuesday was my favorite day. We took a bus to Caimito, a pueblito of 15 families, and I met George, an Ecuadorian biologist, and his wife and 4-year-old son. George is obsessive about soil- he’s constantly raking his fingers through the dirt and picking out things to compost or seeds to plant, but he’s also extremely intelligent, and definitely the local genius. After seeing his house (he has a solar powered oven, refrigerator, compost toilet, collects all of his water in rain gutters, and grows most of his food in his yard), I hopped on the bike of his motorbike and we drove a bit further into the central part of Caimito. There I met another Yanapuma volunteer, a Peace Corps volunteer, and a kid who is doing a foreign work study thing. I talked to George for a bit about cacao, talked to the PC volunteer about troubles/problems (from a gringa perspective) in the community, and spent the afternoon relaxing in a hammock, meeting community members. The volunteer house where I stayed was made by George (claro que si) out of bamboo canes, and had a lot of open space. Bats hung out there too, and playfully flew around at night. I opted not to sleep in a hammock (back issues? I wasn’t sure), and slept under a mosquito net on a mat. There are no words for how cool the house was. I went to a local community meeting at the school house (17 kids, ages 4-16 all in one classroom taught by one teacher), and talked a bit with Raul, a viejito of 50 something years who is really interested in cacao, and was going to Galeritas, another tiny pueblo, the next day to meet with an Ecuadorian agronomist who specializes in cacao. Unfortunately, I had to get up at 6:30 to catch the 7:00am ranchera (open truck bed, essentially, without windows or doors). The best part was that I went with Rob (work study kid) and we sat on top of the ranchera (basically, sitting on a wooden plank on the top of a pickup truck) and Raul climbed up and chatted with us about cacao. It’s pretty humid and warm on the coast, but the wind whipping your hair and your face makes it all worthwhile. Life on the coast is beautiful- very tranquilo, very genuine, friendly people. I really would like to go back, though I know Azalia would like my help in Bua, and I’ll probably go there soon to check it out. After taking the ranchera to Atacames, Azalia and I sat on another bus until about 6:00pm, when we walked back to my new hostel and chatted with Noemi, my French friend.

Last night we went out to a salsa bar with half of the population of France there (seriously, the French have taken over our hostel!) and I ended up chatting with their Ecuadorian friends because I couldn’t understand the French (somehow the words fromage, je’ m’appelle Michelle and merci beaucoup don’t comprise enough for a conversation) which was better anyway because I like Ecuadorians. This morning at breakfast I met a Chilean (que bakán!) who is makes documentaries about indigenous peoples, and ended up bringing him to Yanapuma. He’s still chatting with some of the employees, so I guess that’s a good sign.

I’ve become quite nit picky with details of my doings and less general with observations, but I’ll try to include more later. Much love to all, and may your weather be improving (as ours is currently doing!)

M