Educational Ecuador and the Amazing Amazon!

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Hello from Ecuador,

We have spent 2 weeks in Ecuador and will be leaving for Peru in 2 days. We have had a lovely time even though it has been a flying visit.

Our Ecuador trip started in Otavalo where we stayed for 5 days. During our time there we visited a traditional craft market which spreads along the streets of Otavalo for the whole of Saturday! We bought some weavings, a hand made blanket and a knitted lama wool bonnet for our baby niece. They were all made by local indigenous people who travel to Otavalo from surrounding villages for the market on Saturday. It was fantastic to see everyone dressed in traditional clothing. The men wore black ponchos and hats and the women wore white embroided blouses, a black skirt, brightly coloured woven belts and a head scarf. Most women carried bundles of food or sleeping babies on their backs, wrapped in a sheet and tied on.

During our time in Otavalo, we enrolled in a Spanish school and had lessons for 2 days. Our tutor was called Juan and he lived in Otavalo. Although we did not have very long, Juan taught us some much needed verbs and how these are altered depending on who you are talking about. Although we are still not very good at Spanish, we are understading more words when people are talking to us.

We also visited a lake that has formed in a volcano crater and a bird sanctuary. The birds in the sanctuary have been handed in through injury and are rehabilitated. Those that are well enough, get released and those that are not well enough for the wild stay in the park. They began 7 years ago with 2 birds and now they have over 80 birds! Most are birds of prey. They have 2 Condors there which are very big birds that can grow to have a wing span of 11 feet! We went for a little boat trip on the lake. We were told that there are over 400 species of plants and birds living in the lake area.

From Otavalo we travelled to Quito, the capital city or Ecuador. Whilst we were in Quito we climbed an extinct volcano called Rucu Pincichu. It is 4696 meters tall. This means that it is taller than ANY mountain in Europe. To get to the top you get a cable car from Quito to Cruz Loma (4100m) and then if you want to reach Rucu Pincichu you then climb the last 596 meters. It was very difficult because of the altitude and it made walking difficult. Near the top we were having to take lots of breaks as our heads were going dizzy. The weather also changes as you climb higher, when we started the walk it was hot and sunny and I was wearing a summer top, by the time we reached the top it was cold and cloudy! I had to put on my thermal top, gloves and hat! It felt such a good achievement to reach the top.

Whilst we were staying in Quito we met a lady called Mari who had lived in the Sani Isla Community in the Amazon. This community live on a piece of land that borders some of the Rio (River) Napo. The land gets its name 'Sani' due to the type of plants that grow here. Mari told us about a place called Sani Lodge that ran trips for tourists to see the wildlife in the Amazon but where you also spend some time with the local community. We decided we would really like to do this so, we headed to Coca and then deep into the Amazon to Sani Lodge. It was an incredible experience that I will never forget. We met lots of really lovely people who made out experience even better.

Reuben and I had 2 guides, a native guide called Humberto who could imitate bird calls perfectly and knew all about the plants and animals around us, the healing powers of plants, the ways in which they were used in the community for hair conditioner or nail varnish etc. He had so much knowledge it was incredible. We also had an English speaking Biologist called Jessie. She was able to translate all of Humbertos information for us. We saw 43 different species of birds, 5 Morpho butterflies, lots of turtles, 2 different species of Caimens (Melanosuchus Niger and Paleosochus Trigonatus), 4 different species of monkeys (Squirrel, White fronted Capuchin, Night Owl and Titi), piranhas, a tarantula, a scorpion, lots of centipedes, millipedes, 2 rain frogs and much more. I saw 4 different parrots (Blue headed, Yellow crowned, Orange winged Amazon and Mealy Amazon) and 3 different Tucans (Lettreed Aracari, Many Banded Aracari and a White Throated Toucan) in my 5 days there. It was incredible. We travelled everywhere in a dug out canoe.

We spent a day in the community, visiting the primary and secondary schools and all the other areas in the centre community. There are 120 children in the 2 schools. They travel from all across the Sani Area which is over 21,562 hacteres. Some children have to travel by boat everyday. The primary school has 5 classes and the secondary has 2. The main difference with the way the children are taught is that they are not kept in year groups, for example if you are 7 years old it does not automatically mean you would go into Year 2. Instead they have ‘grades’. In a grade you have to be able to do certain work and once you can do that you move to the next ‘grade’. This meant that in grade 2 we saw children of 5, 6, 7 and 8 years all in one class. In Grade 4 there was 8, 9, 10, 11 and 14 and in Grade 7 people of 14, 15, 16, 18, 20 and 23!!! Another reason for seeing such old children in school is that when they were children, they were not allowed to go to school, their parents kept them home to work on the land, so they started school much later and therefore stay in school until they are much older. The 23 year old only started school when he as 22 years old! The school day starts at 8.00am and ends at 1.30pm so the children don’t stay in school for lunch but they get a drink at 11am.

Whilst we were in the community we were also cooked a yummy meal by some of the women. Banana leaves were laid on the floor like a table cloth. The meal consisted of banana plantain, cocoa beans, fish and yukka wrapped in a leaf for cooking and marinated cucumber. For a drink we were given Chicha, a mixture of fermented fruits. All the cooking is done on an open fire so it had a real smoky, BBQ flavor. We had to sit on the floor and eat with our hands which is how they traditionally eat. I didn't´t think the drink tasted that nice but the food was yummy.

Then we also were allowed to visit Orlando’s house, which as you will see is a traditional house made from wood and on stilts. The kitchen was outside (as all the kitchens are seperate from the main living quarters) and consisted of an open fire pit. There was no where to wash up and their ws no bathroom. When I asked about this I was told that people would wash their dishes and themelves twice a day. If people were lucky enough to have a water butt to collect rain water, they would wash near their house, otherwise they washed in the lagoon or river, where ever their nearest water supply was! They had a few plants and chicken around to provide their meat and vegetables. The toilet was outside – it wasn’t a toilet just a place to go to the toilet and then all the bugs decompose of the waste. It is a truly self sufficient place. This is because it has to be, there are no shops to pop to so all vegetables and friut is grown in their gardens and any meat (predominantly chikens) they have running free ready for when they need them. They obviously catch their fish from the river. It was great to see.

Ecuador has been a fantastic place to visit. In many ways it has seemed more traditional, people dressed in traditional clothing and expecially at Sani it was very much back to nature. However, the one thing I did notice is there was a lot more rubbish here then in Colombia. Locals will think nothing of throwing empty plastic water bottles onto the street and on 2 seperate occasions we saw ladies dropping whole bags of rubbish from their house windows into the street.

Hope you have enjoyed learning about Ecuador. I'll write from Peru.

Take care, Miss T

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