Wednesday, June 29, 2011

El Fin

We've made it (almost)! We've been in Ecuador since May 22nd, with only one robbing incident and one seriously ill from food. I'd say that's pretty successful. Things I'm ready to go home to: Virginia summer, sweet corn, not eating in a restaurant, berries, my own bed....nonetheless I am a bit sad to have to say goodbye to my temporary home here. 


He's gotten so big!
This morning Jessica, Trevor, Robert, and I headed to the Alumbre watershed to present a little bit of our results and attempt to educate some about conservation practices. While we don't have many conclusive results yet (Albert, Katie, and Lauren are still finishing up the report), one thing was clear from the beginning: most farmers don't know what conservation practices are, and if they are actually using any of the practices, they don't know the name for them.

For those interested, we talked about strip cropping, deviation ditches, minimum tillage, live barriers, rotations, and planting on the contour. The attendance was good, somewhere around 20 adults + children, gathered in the local schoolhouse. Just before the presentation began, the electricity cut off. The solution: send someone out to jiggle the wire; it worked, but I wasn't convinced that our information was worth risking someone's life over...
The presentation lasted about 20 minutes; the most controversial part was a table we displayed with some pricing data from last year. Unfortunately this year prices are quite low; Moazir mentioned that this is partly due to a large surplus on the market after high prices last year. It is evident that there are concerned farmers in the community, but they are plagued with a lack of access to information, as INIAP functions as the only sort of extension service, and they are primarily focused on research, not extension activities. Pesticide use was also a hot topic, with lots of questions about the possibility of a class to teach proper application techniques and which products are useful for which diseases.  A common complaint beyond technicalities was the general loss of workers to the cities; as in the US, the youth have lost interest in agriculture and are fleeing to the cities to work in construction.
The kids are always a big fan of our cameras- I got swamped every time I pulled it out

I felt a bit nostalgic on the way back to Guaranda, ensuring that I took pictures of things I hadn't bothered to before. One of these included the dump for the town of Chillanes: essentially the town's dump trucks unload over the side of the mountain, and the trash is later burned. Of course all the run-off reaches the river below. An unfortunate part of the developing world: lack of environmental laws. Moazir and I also talked this morning about the large amount of deforestation taking place. Within his lifetime (35 years or so), mountainsides have gone from being covered in forest to stripped bare for cultivation. The Agricultural Ministry supposedly has a project for re-forestation, but mainly consists of giving seeds to communities with no technical advice about proper planting.




On a brighter side, here's one of women of San Pablo who make delicious tortillas out of corn and wheat. We had to stop for one last taste.

Tomorrow morning we leave for Quito to buy some last minute gifts (and in my case demolish some more mango and coconut ice cream), and we'll be flying home on Friday. While I may write another entry or two here, I want to express a thank you again to those who have been reading. I've had readers from every continent (minus Antarctica), including most of Western Europe, the majority of South America, and an oddball from Kuwait. This blog, in its short lifetime, has reached nearly 1000 pageviews (though admittedly most are probably from my parents!) I've been encouraged to write as often as I can, and in doing so I feel I've better processed the daily happenings of this journey and my general understanding of this country. I thank you all for that. More pictures from our travels will be added to my flickr account in the coming days and weeks upon my return to Blacksburg and high speed internet. Until the next, muchas gracias.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Día de Descanso

Saturday found us traveling south to Balzapamba, a little subtropical town two hours south of Guaranda with the sole attraction of a waterpark. For the entry price of $3, one could bounce between two slides, a wave pool (though the wave pool and slides alternated: when the wave pool was on, they couldn't run the pumps for the water to the top of the slides, and vice versa), a hot tub, and a steam room. The time wearing a bathing suit and soaking up the sun was unimaginably wonderful, though some of us soaked up more sun than others. (Note: sunscreen at the equator-always necessary.) Besides the vitamin-D synthesizing, the slides were a lot of fun, until Robert and I managed to run into a poor unsuspecting girl at the bottom at top speed, submerging her all the way to the bottom. I also witnessed a classic "child at the bottom of the slide, can't swim" scenario; I got halfway across the pool to her before the lifeguard and bystanders got her out. Pictures of the fun will be featured as soon as I swipe them from my colleagues.

A few pictures from the day:


We travel in style

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Día del Campo

Wednesday morning we headed out with the INIAP employees to a field day jointly hosted between the Ag Department of the Universidad de Bolívar and INIAP. Having attended a field day or two at home in Virginia, I was interested to see how the format would differ.


As it turns out, there wasn't much difference. There were four stations: a little bit of history about the green revolution in Ecuador, information about a new INIAP product to fight a disease in corn, production cost information on corn, and a couple of test plots from a student finishing her thesis on INIAP varieties of corn and fertilization. Some of the crowd listened to every word, most did not, which seems like a similar problem at home. Unfortunately, for many it's just plain boring; the INIAP employees even commented on the repetitiveness and lack of interest among themselves.


What was different? Firstly, many more students attended (though I have a slight suspicion it may have been mandatory for those studying agriculture...), so the crowd was a more diverse mix between professionals, farmers, and students, with about 200 people total. Secondly, there was a lot of music happening during the in-between periods to keep people entertained. Thirdly, to keep time and the groups moving between the stations, they used fireworks! Hint, hint, VA Cooperative Extension, this might liven up some of your field days.  It was pretty effective: heard by all groups at all stations, no-one dawdled too badly.

The day finished up with a variety of speeches and a presentation of research books to our group (which I have a feeling will be read from cover to cover). An interesting addition was the president of the university giving the introductory speech of the day: I'm not sure I could ever imagine Dr. Steger coming to a field day and doing such a thing, but it was important that the president was there yesterday, I think. Following all activities was the highlight of the day for most: lunch. They were proudly serving an INIAP variety of sweet corn in addition to fried pig parts and a sweet drink made partly from quinoa. Maybe not my favorite lunch, but you take what you get sometimes.

Time is running short and tempers are beginning to run high, in addition to two rainy days here in Guaranda; summer at home is looking better and better every minute. Wish us luck for the final push to get our work done!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Out of the Field, Into the Office

Last day of interviews in the Alumbre! We went easy on ourselves today, getting the minimum and rolling out to have lunch. I'll be grateful to not make the 1.5 hour trip everyday down there, though I haven't made it the whole ride yet without falling asleep, so I can't complain that much.

A few highlights from interviews in the Alumbre:
These rapscallions thought it was a great idea to steal Trevor and Lauren's 50 m tape measure and PULL IT ALL OUT



Now comes the hard part: data analysis. Suffice it to say, seven people equals seven different interpretations of data; three groups equals three different rates of work, and 90 interviews equals nearly as many different units of measurements of inputs. We managed to wiggle out of doing a presentation on our work here at the universidad due to a conflict with a large potato conference (yes!), but we still have a presentation to USAID in Quito as well as a comprehensive report to produce.

Spanglish spreadsheet
Meanwhile, Albert and I managed to finish our data entry early this afternoon and headed to downtown Guaranda for a few errands. First stop, a store selling more chocolate from Salinas; I realized I had bought enough for family and friends, but there was no way it was making it home unless I too had some to delight in, so I ameliorated that problem. Next, I headed to a hair salon that Rosita had pointed out to me as a decent place to get a hair cut, just down from our most frequented spot in Guaranda, Tía (the grocery store). There were several people seemingly waiting in line when I went into the salon, but as soon as the chair emptied the woman gestured me up; I'm not sure if it was because of my gringo-ness, or because the others were there simply as a social occasion. Nonetheless, I managed to describe the deadness of the ends of my hair and my need to rid myself of them, and it worked! I didn't have my glasses on the whole time, so I had little clue whether she was doing what I wanted until the end. Great success, especially for $2.50.

We then headed to Siete Santos, a coffee shop just off the central plaza that we have decided would demolish all business of all coffee shops in Blacksburg should it decide to relocate. Upon entry, there is an atrium of sorts with full grown trees and plants as well as a surrounding balcony on the upper level. The walls are full of carved masks and coconuts and various paintings, with tables in the atrium as well as further back, giving a choice of either a jungle-effect atmosphere, or if you are feeling more moody, the cave-like space may be your place. Regardless of where you sit, the coffee is delicious, certainly the best I've had here. An added bonus with the espresso: a piece of Salinas-made chocolate. When I remember to take my camera, I shall try to photograph a bit of it, though the atmosphere I'm sure will escape all tricks of light and lens. 

Dinner was at Moazir's house tonight: rabbit! Delicious, and wonderful to pet a dog for once. 

I'll leave you with a few photos that haven't made a debut here yet, but are favorites from the 1500 I've taken thus far...
Just down the street from the hostel in Quito

Playing basketball in El Parque Carolina, Quito


Famous gallo of the youtube video, looking less fearsome here
An interesting interview of an Ecuadorian student at VT by John Boyer, professor of geography at VT about the Ecuadorian government: http://plaidavenger.com/international-interviews/all/ 

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Quilotoa

Saturday found Albert and I arising at 6 am to head with Luis and Rosita (INIAP employees) and her daughter Gabby to a lagoon-filled crater south and a bit west of Quito. The journey was long (we spent about 10 hours in the car yesterday) - the road was filled with lots of construction obstacles and a variety of parades celebrating San Pedro's Day, but as they say in Spanish vale la pena. 




The path down to the lagoon took about 30 minutes and was rather sandy and steep; the hike back up took around an hour. There was an option of riding a horse down and back: judging by some of those I passed going down, they were banking on the horse option back up.


The crater was filled with water after an eruption some 800 years ago; the water's blue color is caused by dissolved minerals and is pretty salty. Rosita, Gabby, and I decided to bite on the boat ride they were offering, $2 for half an hour. What I didn't know until after we'd gotten into the boat was that

 a. we had to paddle it ourselves with the guide
 b. Rosita and Gabby had not the faintest idea about paddling a boat
 c. They had no idea how to swim either

Needless to say, we didn't get very far. It was still cool to see the crater from the lagoon though.




A couple of snapshots from the various parades we managed to run into:

Along the trip, we stopped in Salceda, also known as the ice cream town. We drove up to the curb, the lady came out and got our orders, and we were on our way with the most delicious ice cream on a stick I've ever had. If anyone can tell me where coconut ice cream is available in the US, please email me asap, or else I'm going to have serious withdrawals upon my return home.

We stopped at a typical restaurant in Ambato; I had sopa de gallina (essentially chicken soup with a large piece of chicken with potatoes) and an avocado the size of a small child's head- each quarter was the size of a normal avocado. Needless to say, assistance was appreciated in its consumption.

The day was capped off by a cultural enlightenment in the form of our group attendance to what, in Robert's words, was hill-billy of the year awards. It was in the Guarandian suburb (think not of cookie cutter houses and stripmalls, but of colorful concrete block houses and a town square of it's own) of Guanujo, at the town theatre. We arrived late, but just in time to see three girls of about  15 parade out on stage to show off their version of the ballgown entry in American pageants: most indigenous dress. Each performed a little scene of a traditional farm activity and a little dance; the later winner demonstrated proper milking technique complete with fake moving cow.  Before the crowning of Miss Guanujo, there were various performances of traditional dance and the awarding of El Chagra, a man lauded to demonstrate loyalty to land and tradition. This awarding process took somewhere close to an hour, consisting of him donning various ceremonial pieces of dress, a biography read aloud by his adoring wife, and a 30 minute acceptance speech naming endless friends and family members (some of whom he couldn't seem to actually remember their names...) The  audience tolerated this show only by consumption  of pajaro azul, the local liquor. After ten hours of car riding, my final summation of the evening was, "interesting cultural experience, preferably not repeated."

Sunday was gloomy; we rode up to Salinas, a small town 20 km away with cooperatives for making cheese and chocolate. The factories were closed, but we cleaned out the chocolate shop anyway. We have two more days of interviews in the Alumbre, and then we'll be consolidating data and writing our reports and presentations for the rest of the week. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for my camera; yesterday I slid down the path with my camera in my hand, and it didn't particularly enjoy the journey down. It came back to life a little while later, let's just hope it makes it another two weeks....

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Chimborazo

Tuesday was muy largo. The morning we spent doing interviews: Albert and I had luck; the first couple we interviewed was by far the easiest survey we've done in the Illangama watershed. The man understood everything I asked, with no reliance on the Ecuadorian INIAP workers for translation of what I was saying. Even their field was square- great success! (An added note: though we previously thought the interviews would endure something close to an hour, most are lasting no more than 20 minutes, including time to measure the fields- much easier and faster.) The rest of the interviews went fairly well; we tried out some cheese that was being made right their in the field (tasted just like milk, very filling).
A woman with her 10 month old and her mother-in-law, making cheese
I also had a rather close encounter with a snapping dog. If I haven't mentioned it before, Ecuador seems to be la landia de perros; dogs are everywhere: in the streets, roaming in packs in parks, on every farm and on top of every roof. Of course this entails predictable consequences: motorized vehicles and dogs don't match; farms where people have little to eat mean dogs eat less; some dogs are friendly, some are scary, most chase cars. I'll be a bit more than wary from now on.

This afternoon we headed to Chimborazo, the looming giant volcano overlooking Guaranda, also known as the owner of the highest summit in Ecuador, and the distinction of being the farthest distance from the center of the Earth. Its peak is a bit more than 20,500 ft (Mt. Everest is 29,000+); I made it to around 16,700 ft, and others of our group headed up to 17,000, above the snow line. The glaciers covering the summit are the water supply for the city of Guaranda and much of the Bolívar province. It was last thought to have erupted around 10,000 years ago (thus no worries about eruptions anytime soon). The Englishman Edward Whymper first reached the peak in the 1880s, after several earlier attempts in the same century. Today, it is a very popular climb.


How was my first experience mountain-climbing? Cold, and windy. Fortunately, I believe I can safely say that  I have little problems with asthma anymore: I took my time ascending and had no trouble breathing. Some of our group fared better with the altitude than others; fatigue and headaches were common complaints.



There were two cabins on the way up; the first where we parked the trucks with bathrooms and a fireplace, and the second at 5,000 meters. The second cabin was staffed with a single man boiling water for hot chocolate and potato soup; he was paid $300 a month to alternate a week of working and living there with a week off. I can only imagine how impossibly bored he must become. Nonetheless, I am glad we decided to do the hike, though we are all experiencing the fatigue physical activity at that altitude provokes.
Just beyond the first cabin was a memorial with various gravestones and memorials scattered about; some were for those who had died on Chimborazo, others were memorials of those to whom the place was special.
Wednesday it's ofd to Illangama once again, and then we shall have reached our goal of 50 or so surveys in that area. The rest of the week we are going down to the Alumbre; Victor has something or another up his sleeve for this weekend, soon to be determined.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

La Gente

We've hit the halfway point this weekend; it's hard to believe it's been three weeks, though on the same page it's hard to believe we have three weeks left. We hit up the tourist town of Baños and spent time relaxing today, though it was rainy and while the hot springs of Baños were ok, not the most interesting.

Thus, for your reading interest, I've decided to finally publish my post on the people of Ecuador, as I've experienced them so far. For me, the people of this country bring it alive: they are friendly and smiling and concerned for their communities, and have made me feel quite comfortable here. Even though we often have to talk many of them into talking with us during our interviews, they are still generally helpful and haven't said no to a photo yet.

A few facts, per the US Census Bureau:

 I had been wondering why everywhere we went there were children, children, children. The population pyramids for Ecuador and the US explain this...
Also, here are a few indicators to demonstrate that Ecuador, while is fairly developed, is truly still a developing country. 
While some of these pictures have involved me becoming a bit of a creeper/wishing that I had a much better camera, I'm glad to have captured just a few of the 14,000,000 inhabitants. 

From Quito:
Lunching on the street
There is large disjunction in Quito between those who shine and those who have shoes to be shined



La Plaza de Independencía 
Parque Carolina; public displays of affection are far more accepted here than in the United States


This old gentleman stood politely still so that I could properly photograph him here in the market of Otavalo
Many of the vendors were similar to the old woman seen here in traditional dress
A typical street vendor; here he has set up shop to catch the Saturday crowd in the park. Ceviche is a typical Ecuadorian dish of usually raw seafood in a type of broth

This little girl was usually hanging out just around the corner from our hostal in Quito; unfortunately rarely was a parent in site
I have many more pictures of the people from and around Guaranda, to be added as soon as the internet permits!
Meanwhile for your viewing pleasure: Lauren and I battle a gallo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doEWNRGDCZs