WOAH the last two week….. incredible/insane. First the Amazon Watch rainforest Delegation and then…
the LAST judicial inspections in the Chevron case . . . I’m going to post an article ….but in short it was pretty much 6 hours of testimony and long speeches and demonstrations and sample taking ALL at an oil station IN THE JUNGLE – in the HEAT with the judge present and everything OH and all in spanish. pretty ridiculous. Would never happen in the US. They don’t get very much face time with the judge, so both sides took advantage of this chance – although the Chevron lawyer no joke talked slower than molasses 75% of each day.
But, everyone working on the case here is very excited this part is over, and are still saying that we expect a verdict this year!! For reals, more to come… but for now… photos and videos:
Donald (Toxi-tour extroidinarire), Emergildo (Cofan leader), and Antoine(photo crazy) - smelling yucky oil swamp.
Hi there!
In the middle of the first Amazon Watch delegation to Ecuador! Pretty sweet… helped plan the first part – a Toxi-Tour seeing the gross contamination and meeting lots of people who are affected and also those working to bring clean-up and medical help to the area. Photos above… don’t have much time because leaving in a few minutes to go to a beautiful jungle lodge and then to see Yasuni National Park which we are fighting to keep the government from drilling for oil in!
Okay well that is it for now… so many stories to tell about who I’ve met and the people I am getting to know. But for now, I’ll be “unplugged” until Saturday! Hasta luego, abrazos!
Kayla xoxo
Emergildo - Cofan leader and Kevin - my boss!
gas flare and me - really didn't know if I should smile so then I started laughing oops?!?!
Sorry its been foreverrrr… maybe once per week was a lot or maybe I just need to be a little more concise and just write about the most important things/people. So here’s my first attempt at brevity.
…new room/house… love it. job… overwhelming. Amazon trip… no words …trying to find them. crazy Americans… losing spanish, need latina friends. Carnival….got all foamy and danced with 80 year olds.
YAY! and thats it folks…
OKAY fine, elaboration…
See, the other stuff was easy to write about, because it wasn’t that significant more fun… because yes, I am here to WORK and LEARN, not just to travel around and meet crazy people/places. So, here’s the hard part… describing life here in a way that does it justice.
This email focusing on the trip to Lago Agrio – where we saw exactly what I am working to fix/stop/save…. El Oriente
The Oriente (the Amazon)… I have to say I really wish I didn´t post that newspaper article, because honestly after the experience we had there, I could basically write my own personal account that is just as powerful… so I’m going to try. (though as you know, I have major issues with brevity…sorry!)
My Travel Buddy, Nick
I have to start with a quick description of Nick – the Australian intern who was working with the lawyers of the ChevronTexaco case. Since we (Amazon Watch) share an office with the lawyers and the Ecuadorian organization El Frente de la Defensa de la Amazona (yeah long name), I ended up sitting at a big table across from quiet, soft-spoken, but terribly intelligent and sweet Nick. So we became friendly after a few days, since he was the only other person around my age and speaking English. Honestly, if he wasn’t there, I would have had a pretty shitty and confusing first 3 weeks, so thanks Nick!!!!
Nick had been promised a chance to go to the Oriente to monitor some inspections that Chevron is insisting on doing for the Trial more, but they didn’t set a date so finally he just decided he was going to go his last week. As I said before, I had nothing to do and since he was going to be doing a ¨Toxic Tour¨I thought it would be really helpful to see firsthand why I was here, even though I´d heard all the stories. So very last minute planning ensued, and we were off!
The only photo of us in the jungle
We were set to take an 8:45 bus ride, met at the station and somehow ended up with the front seat with was SO CLUTCH because it meant I could straighten my legs and sit like the letter L the whole 8 hours! I know, sounds silly, but with my dumb knee caps that start throbbing after 10 minutes bent it was really the best thing that could have happened. Nick and I chatted for a while, he really is very interesting, he asks a lot of questions and is a great listener, but its a bit harder to get him to talk but I think I got the hang of it. He is studying law and philosophy, and in Aussie its different there isn´t law school but they are soon switching to a more American style system. He lives in the city of Melbourne where it is hot summer right now! He actually lived in Boston till he was twoish because his dad is a doctor and worked for a UN organization. He also lived in Switzerland for a bunch of years. He came to Ecuador on a global internship program with his school and actually was hooked up with the case I´m working on because his good family friend is the main US lawyer working on the case (Steven Donziger, more on him later).
Back to the bus ride . . though its a developing country and we were on the way to a tiny, run-down oil town, yes they indeed did have a movie on the bus!! Ha okay actually, calling it a movie may not be quite the right word. It was called ¨Justice in the Streets,¨and let me tell you, the name does not do justice to the extremely ancient, cheesy, yet, trying to be serious drama. I´ll just say it involved guys on motorbikes doing coke and killing half a family and then the dad going out ¨to the streets¨ to revenge the heinous crimes. I had to stop watching or I would have ruined it for everyone else by hysterically laughing for 2 hours straight.
Okay real, attempted-profesh, over-descriptive story time…rough start but its unedited and will have to do for now…
As we drove out of the bustling city of Quito and quickly reached the part of the route that we were told was worth the 8 hour trek, it was difficult to peel my forehead from the thin-glass window. The endless shades of greens and distant blue clouds captivated me into the moment as I slowly fell deeper into the realization that I was really going to the Amazon. The Amazon? El Oriente? The rain forest? Whatever the name, it was a place that seemed so foreign, yet we were just driving onward, in the massive bus that was so out of place in this beautifully natural scene. My friend Nick beside me had closed his eyes for a while, but I had to knudge him awake when suddenly we were turning slowly about 10 feets distance from a plunging, gorgeous waterfall. Completely unreal.
About halfway to our destination, my face still glued to the glass staring out at the landscape, I noticed that a large, rusty tube had entered the picture and was following the same path we were down the windy road towards the middle of the jungle. I turned to Nick and asked, ¨Hey, do you think that is the oil pipeline?¨ We weren’t sure.
View from bus - Beautiful sky, rainforest, tree, oh and....
What a dumb question it was. There are two pipelines that run the 300 miles from the Oriente to the coast, and we soon were well aware that beside the road was one of them. From then on, it was almost impossible to keep myself from following the pipe´s path, as it sometimes ducked under the road, switched sides, and appeared and disappeared. Even more ironic was the fact that the few times there were metal guard rails beside the bus (something I have come to truly appreciate, ahemmmm, after the infamous roadtrip to Clemson), it was merely to protect the pipeline when it was dangerously close to the road.
LOVE guardrails!!
We finally arrived in Lago Agrio, which literally means ¨sour lake,¨ by no mistake – it was named by the oil workers of Texaco in the 1960s after Sour Lake, Texas. Stepping off the bus, the eerie atmosphere is something very difficult to describe. But I can say that it was immediately clear why our coworkers said to stay off the streets at night. We walked down the main road trying to find our hotel, feeling extremely uneasy and stared at. After walking back and forth and asking a few people, we finally stumbled upon Hotel D´Marrio – the cheapest beds in town (alhtough at 15$, it was the most I had paid in Ecaudor). The rooms were very well-equipped, however, with private bathrooms, air conditioning and TV. We ate dinner in the restaurant attached to the hotel (I had a slimey chicken crepe, the first of 4 icky meals in the hotel) and prepared ourselves for the next days adventure.
This was actually the same day that news came of the devastating fires in Australia, which were happening in the same state that Nick is from. Thankfully, he lives in Melbourne and doesn´t have any friends or family in Victoria, but it was still a lot to take in especially since we were so far away in such a strange place where no one would be able to contact us. Needless to say, he was pretty quiet the rest of the night and we went to bed early.
Day 2 in th.e jungle – we didn´t really know how things were going to work out but somehow Pablo Fajardo, the main Ecuadorian lawyer who is always interviewed and pictured in the press and also won the Goldman environmental prize and the CNN Hero award, showed up at our hotel at 8 to meet us. So we had desayuno (breakfast) with him and chatted a bit, thought it was difficult in Spanish but we managed. He is over-the-top warm, welcoming, and seriously friendly despite the countless years he has put into this endless legal battle.
Donald arrived soon after – he is one of the other 3 people that work for the Ecuadorian non-profit indigenous organization I mentioned before, El Frente. He was going to be taking us on our ¨Toxi-Tour.¨
When we arrived in Lago, one of the strange things we noticed was the taxis and that many were trucks or off-roading type vehicles. We soon learned why as we hopped in an öff-roading,¨yellow taxi with Donald and a driver on our way to the outskirts of Lago Agrio. The road was rocky, bumpy, and harsh. Yet, we were still passing huts, houses, and shacks along the way.
We arrived to a lake and the driver parked the car on the banks. We got out and were able really see the beauty of the forest around us. Apparently, we were waiting for a barge to cross the river and take us and the car across, but we passed the time throwing rocks at gas line that crossed the river high above us. Obviously my throws came nowhere near and i nearly pulled a shoulder muscle trying (it was REALLY high!), but Donald was able to hit it a few times in a row, pretty impressive.
Donald - who brought us on the Toxic Tour - throwing rocks at gas line
It took him well over 25 throws to actually hit it once, and I couldn´t help comparing his endurance, patience and consistency to the struggle for justice he has stayed loyal to over the last 15 years. (ok corny, but really I promise its written on his face)
The barge was finally fixed and ready to transport us across the river. Another truck pulled up next to us to get on the barge and it had barrels in its back, with the marking of Texaco on them. This was a surprising and strange sight, because Texaco has actually been out of Ecaudor for 20 years. But it was not the last time we would see the remainders of Texaco´s damage left behind.
After driving another couple hours, we reached a clearing and got out of the truck again. There wasn´t quite a path, and Donald (our “guide”) used a machete to smack away the brush that was in the way as we slowly went down towards a small swamp. Halfway, we stopped and Donald pointed upwards from where we had come and asked if we noticed anything. There sticking right out of the side of the hill was half a rusty old pipe about a foot in diameter, impossible to blend in once pointed out.
look closely!
Looking down the hill directly under it, it was clear what had once been spewing out of it.
A the swamp below, it looked like a normal forest, but Donald took a big stick and swished around in it for a minute, then pulled out the stick and asked us to smell the residue. It was if he had stuck the stick in a pool of gas. Disgusting. (see photos)
Donald and Nick
the "soil"
But this was only the beginning. Our next stop, we only walked down a few meters when Donald pointed to our left and said, ¨Mira.¨ (look… see photo) In Spanish, they call the the pits where oil companies (Texaco) dump their waste ¨piscinas,¨ meaning pools. Well that is exactly what this massive land looked like – a pool of dirty, thick, black oil.
this is real.
In terms that I most relate to, it was almost like an enormous vat of shiny brownie batter with some leaves and twigs thrown in the mix. (see photo).Except the smell of the 30-year old oil was enough to keep me from feasting or even getting too close… Check out this video its quick:
Really didn’t think things could get worse, until Shushufundi 38.
Manuel Ignacio Salinas, was so proud to repeat his name when I asked him. The aged man who barely stood above 5 feet could not have stood prouder nor spoken with more passion. about the lovely pool behind his house………….
As we stepped about 10 feet from his house and approached the indescribable scene in front of us, the thousands of hows, whys, whos became so scrambled in my brain that it was impossible to form sentences. Thankfully, Senor Salinas passionately told story after story about how it was discovered and the suffering it has brought him and his family.
He bought the house 25 years ago, before he knew what exactly what was lying beneath the surface in his backyard. Soon after purchasing, he started clearing some land to make room to grow coffee and fruits. That is when they discovered the pool of what they assumed was just a swamp, but obviously unsuitable land to grow on. So they proceeded to plant coffee trees around it.
Soon after, his family began to find bodies of dogs, cats, cows and other animals in the waste pit. Realizing this was more than just a nasty swamp, they knew their well-water could not be safe to drink either. The family became very poor, without any resources to grow their own food nor drink their own well water. Senor Salinas recanted that “for a while, we had nothing, ni agua.” This is supposed to be a funny expression that my host grandmother would say to me if I refused a meal, “No quieres nada, ni agua?” However, in this instant, its double meaning was hard to laugh at.
Manuel Ignacio Salinas in front of Shushufundi 38
As we were talking, or should I say as Senor Salinas talked and I listened and took in the surroundings with a dropped-jaw, his pure-white dog scurried around our feet. It then scurried a little too far and hopped right into the pool of contaminated water. There was nothing we could do – except scream for it to come back… which it did, however, with its coat now completely black.
:(
Telling this story back at my office, I was told the dog would probably not live very much longer.
As the case that the Ecuadorian indigenous groups are taking against Texaco gained more attention with the uncovering of more and more obvious pollution, finally Senor Salinas was able to get some attention to his home.
Video – Senor Salinas telling us about what has been happening:
People tried to get him to move, but who would buy his land? Its worthless. And Texaco would not pay to remediate the area nor relocate the family. Their appaling backyard, which they could neither sell nor leave, finally brought President Correa to see the damage, Salinas described the occasion with more than sadness in his eyes. He said, “the President put his hand on my shoulder and asked, what can I do?” But the truth is, not much. And he has yet to do much.
Donald and Salinas and la piscina de petroleo
Fortunatley, El Frente has helped the family purchase a large tank they can use in which the rainwater goes through a filtering process. Of course, this doesn’t change the fact that there is a oil pool behind their house. And, needless to say, the smell in the area was overpowering. I could not imagine staying near the pool for an hour, nevermind a lifetime.
The face of Manuel Ignacio Salinas as he described the experience is the main image I will take away from the experience. Not the incriminating pools of pollultion, nor the site of a recently “remidiated” pool that we visited after, nor the flaming gas burners plopped right in the middle of the rainforest, with birds circling its hot emissions.
"remediated" oil pit
another nasty open air waste pit
After the Toxic Tour
The 2 hour ride back to our hotel in Lago Agrio was more than somber, and almuerzo (late lunch) at the hotel with our guide Donald and the driver as well. We could barely put our thoughts into words in English, and minimizing them into questions in Spanish didn’t seem plausable either. So I ate quietly, trying to piece together how I would ever retell this burdening experience. I don’t want to get too technical (unless requests are made for more info…) but I think its important to note that it isn’t as if Texaco dumped straight petroleum into the rain forest. We saw a number of “water of formation” station wells also.
"water of formation" pump
When oil is extracted from the Earth, it takes a great deal of water to do this, which in the process becomes contaminated with some of the most dangerous known chemicals, including benzene, toluene, and Policyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs). It needs to be deposited somewhere, and Texaco chose to do so in the Amazon rather than the accepted pracitice of drilling it deep into the earth.
Switching gears – to tourists visiting la selva (the jungle)Realizing it was important (and of course would be enjoyable) to see both sides of the spectrum – Nick and I got a last minute deal to go to the Cuyabeno National Park with a tour agency called Samoaa. We actually just thought it would be a lodge in the middle of the jungle that we could hang out at. But actually, it was a whole regimented trip with activities at most moments and huge delicious amounts of food included.It was pretty much what I now understand to be your semi-typical jungle tour.
We drove 2 hours from Lago Agrio in a bus where our hilariously weird Spanish guide spoke to all of us in English, pointing out certain sights along the way. Then arriving at the entrance to the park, they had brought along “bag lunches,” which were actually in tupperwares (yay recycling!). Then it started to POUR, so we waited and waited, then finally piled into small motorized canoes, thick rubber panchos in hand, ready for the next downpour, which came about an hour into our 2.5 hour canoe ride down the river to the Samona Lodge/Camp.
Check out photos of this place – it was basically like being at summer camp, but way prettier and more serene!
Samona Lodge
The dock where we left the boat connected to a large, almost boardwalk type construction, where all the huts were connected by the circular dock that we remained on… it was as if there were water or lava under us! There was a kitchen/eating area on one end and also a huge hut of hammocks in the middle! Really neat place with no electricity!
OOH and PS there was a tarantula bigger than my hand that lived in the roof under OUR cabin… I named him Snuggles and tried not to think of him as I crawled into bed…
Snuggles my roommate in the jungle!
So we did the normal jungle tour stuff – night trek to check out bugs (huge spiders!!), day trek to see more flora y fauna and trying to find animals. I found that every outing had a main goal of seeing some bird or animal – which I wasn’t really too concerned with.. I just loved being around all the beautiful trees and tranquilo atmosphere.
took lots of shots of sweet creepy trees for you Matthew!
Although, it was easy to get caught up in the excitement of, “YEAH lets catch some piranhas and find a caiman (alligator)!!”
The one thing that was unforuntate was the rain – I know its the rainforest – but it was supposed to be the dry season! And they said it was sunny up until we arrived – bummer because we went on a special canoe ride to see the sunrise in this huge lagoon. . . definitely didn’t get a glimpse of it… next time! Our guide, Lenny, ws great to talk to, I made him talk to me in Spanish. But he was a hilariously weird nature dude as well, and the sounds he made to the birds were just ridiculous.
Photos of all of this speak much louder, so check them all out. Got shots of all the cool stuff we saw such as an alligator, snake, piranhas, birds, tarantuals, frogs, sloth, oh and all the amazing trees!
Lenny searching for a snake!
Piranha! look at them teeth!
One last crazy thing about the trip – Nick ran into a friend from Austrailia at the lodge!!?! If we were playing the dollar game, he should have won a thousand, because seriously this place was beyond remote. And whats more, there are tons of different jungle tours, agencies, and places you can go in Ecuador. Yet he happened to run into a friend from across the world? Whack!
Video -Driving away in motorized canoe:
Okay I’m going stop for now, even though I’ve said nothing about my new Quito life. This is just way too long. Here’s what to come, perhaps I’ll blog post and you can check that out there.
Roomies/Amigas/os! Regina, Jasper, Marion, Kristin, David, BU kids, Pamela the Great!
More on the job and Adventuras! The BIG trial again ChevronTexaco and how its playing out, the role of everyone here, other random cool stuff (Daryll Hannah and Sting?), Spanish troubles, Carnival, Ambato, exploring Quito
I promised an email per week and already I’m behind, yikes! Its a lot easier and more interesting to be writing this in real time rather than in retrospect as well.. so I’m going to try VERY hard to be a little more prompt. Which will be very hard now that I am diving head first into this job that I am now realizing is completely ridiculous ….more on that …
on the job and Quito…..Amazon Watch
**–Unfortunately although I have LOTS to say about Quito, it has been a hectic week of working, moving, planning, learning tonsss and making friends…. and very spur of the moment, I’m going to the Amazon tomorrow!?! for how long, doing what, details details… nope don’t know those. The quick low-down is there is another intern from Australia who is leaving soon and wanted to go and needed someone to go with, and so I had not much going on this week since my boss isn’t around… so we are going to do a “toxic tour!” and possibly some other exploring…
Don’t have time to write much so I’m going to cheat and paste a really brief, interesting article that will explain the background of what I’m doing here, and I will fill in the rest next week. Read Read read it please it will be better than my usual blabbing promise
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Ecuador keeps up oil cleanup fight against Chevron
by Chris Kraul, Los Angeles Times November 17th, 2008
Reporting from Coca, Ecuador — Abel Garrido has just struck oil and he’s not happy about it.
Using a tree branch, the weathered farmer probed the edge of a pond that his cattle use for drinking water and soon turned up the smelly black sludge that he says has killed much of his livestock and sickened his family.
“I’ve lost 30 cows,” Garrido said. “I cut them open and their insides are black.”
Paying the medical bills to treat his three children for skin cancer has cost him his meager savings.
“Here’s the cause,” Garrido said, contemplating the dark slime gleaming on the end of the branch.
The contamination at Garrido’s farm and hundreds of others in a Rhode Island-sized area here in the Ecuadorean Amazon is the basis of a controversial, long-running civil lawsuit in which a verdict is expected early next year.
On one side are 30,000 mostly peasant farmers like Garrido who say they are living a health and ecological nightmare caused by careless oil drilling and production methods that contaminated their drinking water and spoiled their lush jungle environment.
On the other side is defendant Chevron, the San Ramon, Calif.-based parent company which in 2001 acquired Texaco, which produced oil here from 1972 to 1990, and which the lawsuit claims polluted a vast swath of the Amazon. Chevron says Texaco cleaned up its share of the spills with three years of remediation work and that the Ecuadorean government absolved it of all future responsibility in 1998.
The oil giant blames Petroecuador for any ongoing spills and for not following through on its share of the cleanup. Texaco was 37.5% partner in the oil field venture, and Petroecuador owned the rest.
The Ecuadorean plaintiffs claim that Chevron never adequately cleaned up hundreds of oil catch basins and spills of drilling muds that continue to contaminate the groundwater. They claim the settlement with the government doesn’t preclude individuals successfully suing the oil giant.
If Garrido and other residents win, the case could set a worldwide precedent: Foreign plaintiffs have never collected for alleged offshore environmental damage caused by a U.S. company, said Ohio State University environmental economist Douglas Southgate.
Last week, U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) toured the area and, shocked by the pollution he saw, wrote a letter he said he plans to send today to President-elect Barack Obama asking that the U.S. help Ecuador with cleaning up and direct “relevant departments and agencies . . . to design a plan to help fix this awful situation.”
In an interview here, McGovern said that “legal wrangling aside, what I saw demands immediate attention. This is a humanitarian and environmental crisis.”
Transferred from a New York court in 2003, the case may be decided by a superior court judge in Lago Agrio, near Coca, within a few months, attorneys say. The verdict may not be to Chevron’s liking. In a report filed in March, a court-appointed investigator estimated that Chevron was liable for up to $8 billion in health and cleanup costs.
“Texaco used the pristine Amazon rain forest as a garbage can,” said Steven Donziger, a New York-based environmental attorney who represents the Ecuadoreans.
Chevron fired back, challenging the scientific methods of the analysis, including the connection it made between oil spills and cancer cases. Economist Southgate, who is a Chevron consultant, said the report also didn’t factor in Petroecuador’s share of responsibility for the pollution, or evidence that it has continued to contaminate since it took over all ownership and operation responsibilities from Texaco in 1992.
In April, Chevron took a public relations blow when local attorney Pablo Fajardo Mendoza and community organizer Luis Yanza won the international Goldman Environmental Prize for leading the legal battle against Chevron, a prize the oil company bitterly criticized.
In September, the Ecuadorean government indicted two of Chevron’s Ecuadorean lawyers, accusing them of falsifying scientific evidence used to show that Texaco’s remediation measures in the 1990s were effective. Chevron denied the charges.
Chevron attorneys have petitioned U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab to cancel the trade breaks Ecuador receives from the United States for its role in helping fight drug trafficking, claiming that President Rafael Correa had prejudiced the oil contamination case in public statements, limiting Chevron’s chances of getting a fair trial.
Chevron spokesman Kent Robertson said that if the company lost in Ecuador, it would appeal the verdict, possibly before a World Bank tribunal or at The Hague.
Chevron has left the door open for a negotiated settlement, but previous overtures to the Ecuadoreans have been rebuffed, he said.
Garrido, who has owned the 80-acre farm since 1981, said he didn’t know or care who is to blame; he only wants to be given money to buy a new farm somewhere else, where he can escape the sight, smell and health effects of the oil.
“When I bought the farm in 1981, the oil was here, but they told us it was good for us, that it had a lot of vitamins,” Garrido said. “That was just to fool us.”
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Pretty crazy right? Can’t wait to tell you more but now off to bed! Wish me luck… I’ll be chillin with the oil pits, pipelines, piranhas, alligators and monkeys for the next few days !
A super big Abrazo,
Kayla xoxo
*P.S….
(if you’re feeling ambitious or are interested in hearing more – read this Vanity Fair article about the lawyer who we work with who’s meeting us in the Amazon – he won the oscar/nobel prize equivalent for environmental awards and the CNN hero award for his work on this trial and his whole personal story is really incredible— Vanity Fair – Jungle Law – Pablo Fajardo)
This wasn’t always true…and when the ridiculous late-night dog-cat-rooster-brawls kept me up half the night in Otavalo, I didn’t complain even a little.Its just part of the new atmosphere I am getting used to and I’m okay with that. Just a different kind of T rolling by, right?
OKay sooo STORY!Now I’m in Quito, and in the process of room/apartment/homestay/some-form-of-comfy-living search, I came across a beautiful and cute area of the city called Guapulo… a steep hill (love hills… thanks SF!) with cobblestone streets and white stucco houses and just totally adorable and only a few little restaurants and stores to buy milk, juice, candy, etc.Perfect?? yes! AND I came across a house that rents rooms by the month… so I rang the doorbell, met the owner Nina and her husband (who also runs a travel agency out of the house).The house is absolutely gorgeous!! Its on the edge of a hill and looking out on mountains and the bottom of the little town.Really amazing views, and especially from the available room that has a private balcony!
So, yeah this seemed perfect.But I definitely didn’t want to just snag the first thing I came across… so I said I would call in a few days and kept on with a bit more “room shopping.”The other options I had in mind were either full or nothing came of them (suggestions from people at work, etc etc… and maybe I also didn’t try so hard since I was still secretly in love with the Guapulo heaven).
Still, with my ever-popular, perpetually-indecisiveness still in full force, I of course had to visit the area a few more times justttt to make sure it was actually PERFECT.So somehow didn’t get around to doing this until late Sunday afternoon.Little did I realize that on Sunday afternoons/early evenings – things are almost all closed and people are not really out and about much.But this wasn’t really a problem because the area is really safe and peaceful so I just walked all the way there, and down and around the windy, pretty cobblestone street.Passed by the casa where my room was hopefully still waiting, and decided, “Yup, I want to live here!”
Hooray, a decision at last! When I got to the bottom of the street, there is a bus station at one end and, so I thought, a famous church at the other end.So I decided to venture a little bit the other way to see how far the church was.After a few minutes of not seeing much but windy road ahead and only being accompanied by a few cars passing by and animal noises, I turned back.At this point, I thought it would be smart to call my dad quick quick and tell him HOW EXCITED I was to finally have made a decision and to have a home.
So I am on the phone with him for a minute walking on the tiny sidewalk and as soon as I get to a driveway 4 dogs start barking and running towards me. (they had barked when I walked by the first time, too but not quite as much). Now, the sidewalk wasn’t very big but I was definitely on it. Because I grew up with dogs I am never intimidated by them. And I suppose I could have habitually assumed that I was not in danger, because of course there was an invisible fence blocking the large German Shepard mut from bounding towards me.Ohh wait, no, I’m in South America.No fence, no protection, no precaution taken on my part…. and BAM he goes in for my leg!!!! All I can say is THANK GOODNESS there was no car coming because as soon as I got my leg free of his gnarly teeth I flew across the street to the other side to recuperate and to try not to sound like my life was ending as my dad listened from thousands of miles away. How’d I do Dad?haha lets just say I don’t really enjoy the thought of animals of any kind right now, and would wish death-by-dog upon no one!!
Ha okay a bit dramatic, but, agh the irony???
So I finished off the evening in Guapulo extremely angered, finally got a cab back to my hostel – thinking only that this was a very sharp sign that I should NOT move to the neighborhood of the killer dog.
I told the story to my new German professor friend Paul and the hostel dude who gave me some alcohol stuff to clean the wound.. oh yeah no worries though he didn’t rip my jeans and I am pretty sure it was just a house dog defending his property… I was obviously encroaching on his beloved driveway?
Another thank goodness goes out to Paul, who was really great to talk to in my moody-miserable-disappointed state.“Why don’t you think about it a different way?” he asked…flip the SIGN? Okay, I’ll try… Maybe the dog incident just means yes you are going to have an amazing time here and love your new place BUT there will be many challenges you need to overcome.
Cheesy, yessss… but hey desperate times require cheese in all forms, and here cheese is hard to come by (literally, the cheese is awful) so I take what I can get and am using this rationalization… YUP I am here in Guapulo, where I’ve been told there are more dogs than people, perfect! I love dogs! And love being settled at last, loving the gorgeous views, the place and the people, but for now avoiding the downward path towards the merciless beast
So the first week in my homestay was a bit awkward since the family seemed to be having a lot of personal issues and it was just weird at times, and often I was only eating with one other person… So when the second Sunday came and they said a new student was coming, I was thrilled to say the least! My new housemate, Esther, is amazing! She is 29 and from Holland and just spent 4 weeks learning Spanish for the first time in Quito. She is now in Otavalo for 4 weeks volunteering in an elementary school. Her being in the house really turned things around for the better in so many ways. First of all, she is the youngest 29 year old I’ve met…she is hilarious, easy to talk to, and loves playing and teaching games – and knows a zillion!! The first night after dinner we went on the porch with Daniela and Jorge and played “el juego con elastico.” I’ll have to show you all because it hard to explain but so fun! Basically two people stand apart from each other with a large elastic wrapped around their legs and a third person jumps in and out along to a song… okay I’ll draw a picture because definitely cannot describe it well.
More on Esther… she has been awesome about telling me EVERYTHING I need to know about Quito and traveling outside of Quito as well! She also eased my nerves – reassuring me that she loves the city and that its not as scary as people say. She said if you’re smart and take taxi’s at night always, you’ll be fine… so that’s a huge relief tp hear. She wrote down suggestions for Internet cafes and restaurants, a travel agency to use for the weekend trips, and gave me my first map (and helped me decipher it as well).
My last full day in Otavalo, Esther was a super awesome friend in joining me on the hike to la cascada (the waterfall) in Peguchi – a main attraction that I had yet to see. But again, that is the awesome thing about the “tourist attractions” here in Otavalo – they are never overcrowded or overdone. It was a rarely-sunny and bright Tuesday afternoon and we leisurely made our way towards the fall, following the train tracks as the guidebook recommended. When the track ended… we looked around perplexed but then finally asked a boy and he said we were going the right way. As signs appeared, so did the wilderness, and we entered the pathway into the forest and towards the river. It was completely peaceful and serene, with just the sounds of the waterfall and rushing water in the background of our chatting.
Esther Crossing el rio!
As we walked towards a hidden lagoon, we saw a little cavern and wanted to see what was on the other side. I tried taking a photo but it was just darkness, although it seemed like it would lead to the bottom of the waterfall. When we came out from it, we noticed a couple of youngsters lurking… when we turned our back again, they actually took a photo of us with their camera phone! Just after we had been talking about always asking people to take their photo here….How rude!!! So of course I pulled out my camera and took a snapped a shot of them, HA take that! (****see photo of kids at waterfall!)
gotchaaaa!
As we continued on towards the waterfall, we saw a few more teenagers, and it became obvious that this was “the spot.” Lucky kids, their make-out point is a serene, secluded cavern looking out on a waterfall!
The waterfall was enormous, we couldn’t get very close without getting wet. The fall is actually sacred to the locals and is used for ritual cleansing baths…I was definitely ready for some cleansing, so of course I got as close as possible and soaked my entire head in the misty-spray… Refreshing… (**see photo!)
Peguche waterfall y yo
……After the waterfall, we went back to the house, had a nice meal with the family, who made me help with Estefanie´s English homework (pretty funny actually she needed to make a list of 140 sentences using “and” so Ester and I had fun making up these…. for example: “My soup is cold and I hate it.” After dinner I met Martina and Ramona for a goodbye chat/hangout . . . sad to end this chapter but ready for change, even if it is in the big bad city!!!
The first day that Ramona and spent time just exploring the town, it was a Sunday and we accidentally happened upon a small carnival! They called it the Discovery – it had those cheap, “I might die if a screw comes loose, but oh well looks fun!” type rides, a haunted house, one or two games, and the usual (for Ecuador) cheap food vendors. OH and I must mention the huge Barney imposter who was selling mini-Barney’s on a stick that you could walk… interesting. A couple of these rides, however, insist on more description and photography… for instance, one we dubbed, “the superman ride,” because it entailed several platforms were you were lying on your stomach next to one other person and being lifted into the air and then spun around and up and down.
Also, another ride for children included a very mini-merry-go-round prototype, however, the center was a cartoon duck spraying petroleum out ot the cars, planes and trains around it – now if this isn’t an extreme example of the country’s dependence on oil , I don’t know what is….
Close to the Discovery was this Park that we would probably call a playground. Except this playground was on acid. Everything was multicolor and everything was extreme. From the volcano with treacherously-jagged steps to reach the top, to the dangerously steep slide to come down from said volcano, to the spider web and doll house – no doubt one would have to pay to enter a park like this in the United States.
Which brings me to another thought about Ecuadorians on a whole that I don’t think many people realize. Almost all of those that I have met are extreme neat freaks and extremely precise. And this goes for all aspects of life. From the fact that my siblings in the house write in small, neat penmenship in grid-boxed notebooks to the fact that most people iron EVERYTHING… yup, even their sheets, towels, and underwear. I had a more than hilarious conversation about this with one of my professors, whose mom still irons all of his clothing including his under garments. When I asked “POR QUE?!?!?” (WHY) his reply was that she always insists, “you never know what will happen…” HAHA, okay, funny, but I still think its a little weird..
