Blogs from Ibarra, North, Ecuador, South America

Day 52 New mask added to Christer’s collection and Ecuador Distance driven today: 141 miles / 227 km Cumulative distance driven: 9,455 miles / 15,216 km Today’s trip: Pasto, Colombia to Ibarra, Ecuador International border crossings: 1 Today both of us slept in after the long ride yesterday. After breakfast, Zoe decided to stay at the hotel for a few hours and start writing drafts for her college applications. These are due during in the fall, and what better time to start writing the essays than during this trip. Christer took a taxi to one of the big market places in Pasto, hoping to find a good artisan mask for his ever growing collection back in Seattle. Buying a wooden mask from Pasto in Colombia has long been on the PanAmerican highway to-do list, and Christer ... read more

This is how we crossed the Colombian/Ecuador border from Ipiales to Ibarra. 1. Catch a collectivo to the border at Rumichaca. Collectivos leave from the Ipiales bus terminal on the left lane of the terminal. When we arrived one was nearly full so we didn't have to wait at all. It left at 9:50am and cost COP$1,500, pay the conductor on the minibus when he comes around. We drove to the border through Ipiales town going past parque Santander and the military base. We arrived at the border at 10:05am. 2. At the border the collectivo drove straight past Colombian migration and over the bridge to the Ecuadorian migration. The police then boarded the bus and checked some people's bags. We got off the bus and had to walk back over the bridge to Colombian migration ... read more

A few of the other volunteers brought extra medical supplies and toys for children to donate, so today marked a work/sightseeing trip. Mariana, Lucho, four other volunteers and I set off first to Otavalo to visit Paige who was working at a day care there. We arrived a few hours later at a small village, bumping and bouncing as we drove slowly up the rocky road to the school. About 40 kids between the ages of one and five greeted us with smiling faces and muddy hands. They flocked around us as we were shown the various school rooms and art projects that littered the tables. As we went back outside to a slight drizzle they couldn´t be happier to have pictures taken of them, waving enthusiastically to the camera and jumping in the mud and ... read more

Before heading to Pusir for the last day we stopped at an open air market in Ibarra. A few of the people went to get office supplies while Dwayne, Danny, Fernando, Paul and I went for some electrical fixtures. This stop was unlike previous stops because we had the chance to all pile out of the bus and explore for about 45 minutes. Dwayne needed some film for his camera so Fernando took us over to a nearby electronics shop. I managed to catch my first glance of the news in almost a week and I saw images of Russians running around with gas masks on and bombs falling from planes. I just figured we were missing the apocalypse but didn't really care because I was too preoccupied with being in Ecuador. Once we got the ... read more

Our second day in Pusir was quite eventful, to say the least. We had made our usual round in Ibarra, picking up some wood for the nursery and water for the day. About 30 minutes outside of Ibarra white smoke began billowing up from underneath the bus as we were climbing a hill on the Pan American highway. Paul pulled off to the side of the road and Fernando said it might be a good idea if we all got out while they diagnosed the problem. As we unloaded our belongings Fernando and Paul crawled under the bus. Keep in mind we are on the side of the Pan American Highway and huge semi trucks and buses are roaring past in both directions. As we are all standing along side the road a police truck pulls ... read more