My First 10 Days in Ecuador

I decided to travel to Macas this weekend to see a little bit of the country as well as to write a little bit about what I have done so far.

I arrived in Quito late on May 20th.By the time I got to the hostel it was about 1am because the Quito airport is about an hour outside the city itself. My hostel was located in the colonial section of Quito and was really nice and clean.I went to sleep almost immediately after arriving at the hostel.

I woke up early the next day because I had to plan out how to get to the bus station to travel to Macas. I wasn´t expecting it, but one of the ladies working reception made me a fresh fruit bowl for breakfast and a glass of fresh squeezed juice which was absolutely delicious. At around 8am I took a cab to the bus station which is on the very south end of Quito. This was my first experience with Ecuadorian drivers on a busy road and let me tell you: they are insane drivers. My cabbie was passing buses on the shoulder at 100km per hour on a two lane mountain road. They have no regard for lane markers either or oncoming traffic. He passed a car with another oncoming car just barely missing us on the shoulder. The best part was as this event was occurring, the cabbie and I were casually talking about how much he enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of Quito. We made it to the bus station in one piece and I found my bus company quite easily. It took about seven and a half hours to reach Macas but I didn´t mind because we were driving through some absolutely beautiful landscapes. The bus driver also drove like a crazy person but it was mitigated somewhat by the mountain roads so the ride wasn´t too bad. I met Cesar at the bus station in Macas and we had dinner before taking a cab to Selvavida. This ride was more uncomfortable because the cabbie drove through rural dirt roads at 80km per hour and swerved every ten seconds to miss potholes. We finally made it to Selvavida at 7pm, about an hour after sunset, and walked the last 15 minutes through the jungle in the dark to the project.

My breakfast in Quito

My room in Selvavida

The house that I live in

The fire pit as well as the common house behind it

The view from my front porch looking at Rio Macuma

The project itself is constructed using traditional Shuar techniques for building in the Jungle. Cesar and his wife, Lucy, are both ethnic Shuar and are very active in the surrounding community. Cesar seems to know everyone he comes across and always speaks the them in the Shuar indigenous language.


After a day in Selvavida, Cesar decided to take myself and Julien, a french volunteer, to a very remote Shuar village for a cultural presentation. We had to take a bus to the rural outpost on the edge of the unbroken forest, then walk for three hours into the heart of the jungle. All of the jungle around Macas is primary forest, meaning that it has never been logged or significantly changed from human activity. It is some of the most dense, damp, muddy, difficult terrain that I have ever come across. Our "hike" consisted of us trudging through mud that was at least 3 inches deep separated by sporadic swamps about a foot and a half deep of murky water. We also had to cross a river, which was a challenge because it had been raining for some time before we got to it. The water was very deep and moving very quickly, so Cesar told us to take off our clothes except our underwear and boots, put them in our bags, and hold them over our heads to cross the river. Once we made it across we kept walking, so I ended up hiking for about two hours through the jungle in my underwear. I also had to meet most of the village that way, as by the time we reached the community I was covered in mud and needed to bathe before dressing again. We happened to be visiting the community on the day that they were celebrating "Dia de los Madres" or Mother´s day. They invited us inside and Cesar had to convince them that we were not surveyors for a petroleum company for them to let us stay. Once they were convinced we only wanted to visit, they gave us armadillo soup and boiled unripe bananas, a very traditional Shuar meal. Armadillo tastes a lot like pork I discovered.

The next day we hiked back to Selvavida and I have to say those two days were probably one of the most tiring things I have ever done, but it was worth it to have seen the Shuar culture and to have been welcomed by them to participate in their festival. We got back to Selvavida at 4pm, ate dinner, and went to sleep.

After that I have been mostly helping out Cesar with tasks around the project and planning my own work that I will begin in June. On Monday I will also begin teaching three classes of English at the local school in the mornings. One of the lessons that I have learned so far is that everything is more difficult in the jungle. No matter what you are doing, there is always some factor about being in the forest that makes it harder.

On May 25th the local school had a foundation festival celebrating the construction of the school. We attended and it was quite interesting. They had an art presentation done by the students that consisted of music, poetry, and dance, as well as a two soccer games.

School children dancing in ethnic dress at the foundation festival.

This past week in Macas has also been the canonization festival, with last night being the final night. Julien and I walked around the city and got a taste of the festival.There were several stages for singers as well as food vendors and beer. It was really cool to see everyone out and about with a very fun atmosphere.

Macs Cathedral lit up at night.

 

Inside the cathedral

The plaza in front of the cathedral.

This morning I took a taxi to the top of the mountain overlooking Macas and took this photo:

 My Spanish is also improving very quickly. I can usually understand about 90% of what people are saying, with the exception of when the speak Shuar, and then I can´t understand at all.

All in all I´m having a good time so far, and I´m excited to begin working at the school as well as to dive into my water filtration project once we get the materials. It´s a very different world down here, but it´s also very beautiful and vibrant. I´m excited I still have more than a month to spend here.