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Published: September 7th 2007
So Montezuma´s Revenge has hit me. I was sick the week of the kid´s camp then I got better. However, the last couple of days I have not felt that great. I am supposed to go to a peer support training session in Ibarra this weekend and I have yet to make the decision on whether to go or not. My gut feeling - pun intended - is to not go, however, the Peace Corps nurses will be there so I am assuming that they will take excellent care of me.
So, this week has seen more of the same craziness. Matt and Heather came into town last Friday to spend a long weekend with Sue and I. Their trip to Puyo was slightly delayed due to a landslide near Baños. They had to get out of the bus and hike 5 kilometers to avoid the problems. They made it to Puyo in the afternoon - their timing was perfect, I was just finishing with my camp responsibilities and was walking home when I received their call. I grabbed a cab and met them at the bus station.
That night we walked into town and grabbed some pizza for dinner. Heather had a nasty cold from their failed attempt at reaching the summit of Volcán Cotopaxi. Apparently they had to turn back after 4 hours due to a heavy snow storm. I admire their sense of adventure, but climbing mountains in snow and sub zero temperatures is not my cup of tea. Speaking of tea, that was Heather´s drink of choice most of the weekend - her other drink of choice was Orange Fanta. I personally watched her down a one liter bottle all by herself.
On Saturday, Susan had to play in a basketball game. As she was getting ready for the game, I took Matt and Heather into town to go to the bank and to show them Puyo. Well, that lasted all of about an hour (Puyo is not that big). We then went to watch Susan´s game. I had to leave early, because I had a presentation to give with my counterpart. My presentation was supposed to be at 1:00pm. Like usual, we gave the presentation right on time - 5:00pm. Nothing like waiting around for 4 hours. The event was being sponsored by some environmental group from Quito. The theme was water conservation and water quality in Ecuador. They had three famous Ecuadorian musicians playing songs about the environment and a nationally known comedian did a skit. Anyhow, we presented and right when we got done, Sue, Matt and Heather showed up - excellent timing on their part.
Sue was nursing an elbow injury from her basketball game. Apparently, she was knocked down and skidded on her arm - tearing a bit of flesh as she went. It was an honorable battle wound.
So Saturday, late afternoon, we took a short hike along the trail by Río Puyo. We did a little birding, however, the light was fading and we were getting hungry. We went to one of the bars by the river that serves dump truck ceviche (chochos, tostados, chifles, aji, and tuna). We all shared a plate and had beers - Heather had Fanta. We returned to the apartment and played a few games of Euchre. Matt and I lost - no surprise there - Matt hadn´t played in a long time and I am still wondering if he really knew the rules. It was all fun though so who cares?
Sunday we got up early and went birding by the river for an hour or so. We ran into Chris Canady - the American who runs the ethnobotanical park in town. He is also an avid birder. We set up a time for him to go birding with Matt and Heather and to give them a tour of the park. On our way back into town we stopped to watch the parade celebrating the end of tourism season (I didn´t know we had a tourism season here - but I am guessing that this is more like an end of summer/school break celebration). It was a good parade and most of the indigenous groups were represented. Heather snapped a bunch of photos to document the experience. After that, we went to the Sunday market and purchased a heap of veggies and fruits.
We returned to the apartment and had brunch and took short naps. In the afternoon, we visited the Orchid Park. Again, we had an excellent time there - the park is beautiful and well work the $4 entry fee.
That night, I made burritos. We feasted and then spent the rest of the evening chatting. We all decided to go to bed early, since we were going birding again in the morning and since Sue and I were also going to go to work.
We met up with Chris at 7:00am and gradually made our way to the park. By the time we got there, it was time for Sue and I to leave for work. We left Matt and Heather in good hands with Chris. He gave them a 5 hour birding hike/tour of the park. They seemed to enjoy it. I met back up with them at 12:00 to see the artificial wetlands project that Chris worked on to do wastewater treatment. The project was done at one of the local hotels and it is really cool. The idea is to try to do more of the same around Puyo to help address its lack of wastewater treatment. Heather and Matt (both with wetland experience) gave the project a thumbs up.
After the wetlands, we had lunch with Sue and then she took them to the Waorani store. Matt and Heather stocked up on artesenia - apparently, they even had to go to the bank to get more cash for their purchases.
That afternoon I had to go to a meeting in Tarqui with Bolivar. This was a meeting for all the paneleros (brown sugar makers) in the area. CODEAMA is planning on working with the Paneleros to develop more environmentally friendly production practices. Anyhow, this meeting was interesting to say the least. I thought I was there to observe and meet people. Bolivar was asked to speak about the current problems in production, like burning tires as the fuel source. He then turned to me and said that I would elaborate on why burning tires was bad. I was totally unprepared and caught off guard - so, I did what any self-respecting teacher would do - I pulled stuff out of my ___ . I talked about how the smoke was toxic, caused cancer and respiratory illness, that the ash residue could not be used as fertilizer and that it pollutes the air, soil, and water. They bought it!!! Which is good, because it was true.
So in this meeting - with about 30 people - they discussed whether they should form a coop/formal organization. Before deciding on this, the topic switched to what the organization would be called. This was a heated debate, however, a name was chosen, then a few people said that they hadn´t decided on whether to even form an organization so the debate turned back to that. Finally, after an hour of discussion, most of it pointless, they had their organization and a name. They now needed leadership. This was the best part. Instead of nominating people or nominating yourself. A person would just stand up and say something like - I think John would be a good president - then he/she would clap causing others to clap and presto….John is president whether he wanted to be or not. The same process was done for all 7 positions.
I finally got home from the meeting - an hour later than expected - so again, right on time. Heather, Matt, Sue and I went to El Jardin for dinner. Unfortunately, just as Heather was starting to feel better, Matt was dealing with his own sickness issues. Neither of them could eat much of their meals - how disappointing. Sue and I enjoyed our meals though.
Tuesday morning, we got up with aspirations to go to Baños, rent bikes, and ride the road from Baños to Puyo. The weather was fantastic - when we got to Baños it was cold and rainy. We stopped in town to have brunch and decide our plan of action. Now it was Sue´s turn to join the ranks of the sick. After no debate, we decided to take a bus to the first waterfall and ride the cable car across. When we got there, the weather was fantastic so we decided to do some hiking and ended up hiking to the next waterfall in the series and riding a different cable car back across the gorge. We then walked to the town of Río Verde and saw the waterfalls there. At the end of the day, we were exhausted, but content. We hopped on a bus and headed back to Puyo.
Matt and Heather spent the evening packing their things and then we went to bed.
The next morning we saw the two of them off. They were headed to Quito and then to the Galapagos.
This week at work, I have been working feverishly to complete my 3-month work report for Peace Corps, prepare my portfolio for a presentation at our reconnect meeting which is next week, and to get far enough ahead on the Kid´s pages that I will not have to think about them while I am back in the States. So far, so good. Katie and I completed 3 week´s worth of pages, my portfolio is done, and my work report is completed. All I really have to do now is tie up some loose ends (and loose stools) before I head back to the U.S.
Well, that´s the news from Río Puyo where everything is a little different.
Peace,
Jeremy
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Hannah
non-member comment
Sounds like Susan is ready to start playing rugby with all her bruising and diving.