Latin America, Travel

I Felt Like Indiana Jones – Semester in Ecuador Part 1

I was infected by the travel bug as a junior in college on a study abroad program to Ecuador.  The adventure pushed me completely out of my comfort zone and caused me to challenge how and what I thought about the world.  I grew up somewhat spoiled as an only child enjoying comforts that most twenty-ones year olds didn’t know.  Below are exerts from the journal I kept as my conventions were challenged and upturned.  For the most part, these entries are raw and un-edited.  That is on purpose, I think they show the purity of the transformation I went through.  The adventure took place during one of the most challenging times in Ecuador’s history as the country emerged from near civil war the year prior and sat on the brink of bankruptcy.  The new government sought monetary support from the IMF and the World Bank.  The citizens were revolting against the consequences of these actions – one of them being the dollarization of the Ecuadorian currency.  

The timing of this first post comes with great coincidence given this weekend’s explosion of Tungurahua, one of Ecuador’s many active volcanoes.  As we were driving from Quito to Cuenca, our home for the semester, we had the opportunity the witness the might and awe of the volcano first-hand. 

Tungurahua Exploding in 2000

Tungurahua Exploding in 2000

April 10, 2000

Patate, Ecuador

As I am writing, I can hear Tungurahua erupting.  We are staying at a hacienda maybe fifteen miles away.  It sounds like thunder.  Jenn says that in the town of Baños, which is right below Tungurahua, it is extremely loud.  You can actually hear the rocks shooting out and hitting the surface.  The sound we hear is a consistent rumbling.  Earlier, we actually saw some lava flowing out of it.

The volcano is currently on orange alert.  This means that it may explode in weeks to months.  The next level is red alert, which means it may explode at any time.  It is monitored very well, and we are out of its range.  The government has evacuated Baños but people still go there against orders.  We were to originally stay there instead of at this hacienda in Patate.

Some of our plans for the rest of this first week have been altered.  Many of the indigenous citizens are striking and blocking the roads.  Cuenca (where we are headed) has been completely sealed off by the road blocks.  They are revolting against the dollarization of the economy.  Our drive through Ecuador has been cancelled and we will now go back to Quito and fly to Cuenca on Wednesday.  That is unless the strikes end, but no one knows how long they will go on.

The drive through the country today was amazing.  The terrain was awesome to see.  The mountains and volcanoes were majestic.  The people were also an experience to see.  The extreme poverty was saddening and everywhere, every village and town we drove through.  Many homes stood without windows or plumbing.

The actual tours we took today were a bit on the boring side compared to life seen through the bus window or in the villages we stopped.  Luckily the tours only lasted two hours each.  We visited a former working hacienda and a rose plantation.

I really enjoy the group for the most part.  We had a great evening together getting to know each other over rum and games at the hotel bar.  Nobody rubs me wrong which is amazing for me.  I am not that easy to get along with.  I know this about myself.

With today’s events, I am anxious to see how the trip turns out.

An Ecuadorian Taxi

An Ecuadorian Taxi

April 11, 2000

Patate, Ecuador

Each day I seem to be doing more and more things that shock the hell out of me.  Things that I would never imagine doing.  Today was no exception.

That day started out with a trip to a monitoring sight for Tungurahua.  It wasn’t too eventful, but I learned a lot about the volcano (details too boring to add in a journal).  We ate an interesting fruit where we sucked out the gelatinous insides and spat out the seeds.  The seeds, we were warned, would give us a terrible stomach ache.

After the monitoring station, we went back to the hacienda and prepared for a hike into the Andes to see a waterfall.  I’m no hiker so my stomach was filled with butterflies.  The adventure was incredible though.  We left from Patate and rode in the back of pick-up trucks (Ecuadorian taxis) for a half an hour to the trail.  The road was very narrow and steep and made of mud and stones.  The trek was quite scary.

After we were dropped off it was all uphill from there, literally.  The journey was an hour and a half hike up the Andes to the waterfall.  This is probably a part of the trip I should have opted out on.  With my low vision and poor balance, it was very difficult to climb the mountain.  I fell three times on my way up.  Two were simple slips in the mud but the third could have been fatal.

The path we were walking on was dug into the ledge of the mountain.  Some grass grew right on the edge.  I stepped in a spot of grass that I thought was land.  It turned out to be a break in the path.  My left leg completely fell off the ledge, and I landed on my right knee.  Luckily, I threw my weight to the right and didn’t go over the ledge.  After that experience, I thought I was going to die on that hike.

A Long Way Down - Hiking in the Andes

A Long Way Down – Hiking in the Andes

I made it though and the view was breathtaking.  The landscape was like a dream with the waterfall in the distance.  Some people in our group climbed closer, but I didn’t want to test my luck any more.  Brad helped me back down the hill by reading out the terrain to me.

The hike was also very helpful to see the Andean way of life.  Many houses were off the trail with no roads leading to them other than the dirt footway we were on.  I saw many highlanders walking up the path to check on cattle that were left grazing in random patches along the mountainside.

After the hike we got into the beds of more pickup trucks and drove for 45 minutes through rain and fog to a look-out point for Tungurahua and Baños.  The road was even steeper and narrower than the previous.  At points, it was straight mud.  Unfortunately the clouds were too heavy at the lookout and we only got a small glimpse of the volcano.  We couldn’t see Baños at all.  The problem was that we were actually in the clouds.  At this point, we were only 3 miles from the active volcano.  Another thing to note is that we sampled some Ecuadorian moonshine tonight from the family living next to the lookout point.  Very potent.

The rest of our drive to Cuenca has been cancelled due to the strikes.  It seems as if they make no real difference and cause nothing but problems for the rest of the citizens.  As I understand it, the protests are not going to change anything.  Ecuador needs money from the IMF and the World Bank.  The only way they will loan the money is if Ecuador no longer has control of their currency.  Hence the dollarization.  Without the loan, the country will fall into even more economic ruin.

I really started to get kind of homesick tonight even among all the excitement.  I wondered what my parents were doing.  I started to think how far away from them I was.  It scared me.