Blogs from Quilotoa, Centre, Ecuador, South America - page 2

Quilotoa - 11/27/2014 - Day 4 Happy Thanksgiving! Plan for today is to get to Quilotoa. We skipped breakfast and headed out to get a cab to the bus station. First cab quoted us $15, but we thought that was too much for a fairly short distance. Driver then went to $12, then $10. Bob then asked another cab and got a price of $8 right away. Guess which one we took? The driver did take a very roundabout route to avoid the traffic at 7:30am. (Gas is cheap here, $2 a gallon.) Traffic in Quito is unbelievable, wouldn't want to drive here. Took about half an hour to get to the Terminal Quitumbe. The terminal was very large and modern, looked quite new. First bus took us to Latacunga, south along the Panamericana highway. Very ... read more

Back to Travelogue -- after completing tasks in and around Malinguapamba, i decided to trek part of the Quilotoa Loop and so ditched some gear and for the first time in many years hiked lightweight with all my possetions on my back. Learned quickly that there are infinite possibilities in terms of trails because everyone walks here, also that it is, indeed, best to trek downhill and hitchhike uphill :-) My first ride was with Sacatoro Clan (I suspect Dona Josefina sent them), then more walking inoto foggy evening when local Pastor made sure i got to Hostal Llullullama in Isinlivi. After some R&R/laundry and Sunday service at local church, did some short hikes and visited famous woodworking facility now focused upon renovation of chapel. Continued trek to Sigchos where buses connect to Latacunga and Quito. ... read more

The comunities of Malinguapamba/Pucara have moved ahead with their own erosion control project in December 2012 applying lessons learned with Engineers without Borders (EWB) in October 2012 and using some 1,500-2,000 leftover plants from their vivero (plant nursery) after the EWB Minga effort. The project stabilizes most of ~ 2 km roadway between Malinguapamba and Pucara, including some incredibly steep slopes 100% and greater. Visual estimate is greater than 90% success rate, generating big smiles for Ignacio Sacotoro, my guide for the day. The slopes are truely STEEP! as in vertigo-steep! Other photos here document previous "BMPs" including drainage and good use of yucca to stabilize slopes. NOTE that i saw several other sites where the community is using vivero plantings and erosion control techniques to stabilize slopes, especially along roadways.... read more

One of my primary technical goals of this trip was to better understand the water source areas and collection techniques in the Malingua Yaku area (see Blogs 10 and 11) including source-water protection. In photos 1-4 here the protected area is clearly visible as a heavly vegetated area between the (resistant volcanic) peaks, in an otherwise well-grazed landscape. Paulino Sacatoro explained that before conservation, a farmer cultivated land and grazed animals near the intakes and drinking water had moderate quality. Photos 6-7 show a similar area. After a fire ~ 10 years ago, the entire area burned and water quality plumetted, with obvious issues in terms of sediment and health effects in Malinguapamba/Tunguiche/Pucara. Everyone in community recognized water quality problems. The community began a conservation effort including buying out the farmer working that area and working ... read more

Monitoring New Project Area with Paulino + Guantugloma Water Committee The Guantugloma community has respectfully requested help from their neighbors in Malinguapamba (MP), the Centro Educativo La Minga (CELM), Engineers Without Borders (EWB), and Rotary International (Rotary) to help them improve their water system, both potable and irrigation, following the successful examples at MP. Paulino has been guiding their effort and they have a strong committee set up, documented water rights, and the same cooperative attitude we find at MP. They also have a recent water tank project completed with funding from CELM and guidance from MP, now becoming the local experts on these systems. This may be where the re-usable tank forms now reside. Paulino and i drove up the road from Site 9/Mallingua Yaku to Guantugloma and met with thier Water Committee including Augustine ... read more