Saturday 4 Feb 2012 - Santo Domingo

Anya, Ian and Deanna went off to Otavalo for a hike Saturday and then may be making their way to Quito for the afternoon/evening but I elected to stay in the area and see the nearest large town/city, Santo Domingo, despite it not being favoured (for sightseeing, that is), in the guide book. I only needed to get some batteries, food supplies, use the Internet and hoped to find a lavenderia since clothes hadn't yet dried. I also wanted to sort out my Spanish notes, and other things this weekend.

Santo Domingo de Los Colorados is so-named because there used to be some indigenous people, the Tschalia, who had bowl haircuts, coloured red with achiote dye (and which is also used in vegetable oil for cooking), but it's very rare to see any of them in town now.

After a scanty breakfast - no "food service" at the weekends! - I made my way down the slope and was lucky enough to come across the jeep who offered me a lift down (would have preferred to be lucky enough to get it on the return trip, but shouldn't complain!) and across the road for the bus stop. My, but it was harder to get to Santo Domingo than to Quito (though I didn't see many buses going to Quito), as nearly all the five buses that passed in about 30 - 40 minutes wouldn't stop. There was a family also waiting at the bus stop so I asked the woman if they were on their way to Santo Domingo and the man replied yes, and that the buses were very full - which was why they weren't stopping. I sort-off figured that but it was nice to get the confirmation, and that I wasn't trying to stop the wrong buses, although, there is only one other main destination on this road.

Anyway, managed to get onto the sixth bus who barely stopped for us to get on - can only be thankful that there are speed bumps (yes, really) on this busy motorway for them to slow down for.

I managed to get a seat though a few others had to stand for the hour-long trip to Sto. Domingo. (Ecuadorians are really polite: quite a few of men have let me have an empty seat on various journeys and stood up themselves). Once there, I managed to get my mobile phone topped up in the terminal, which had a number of ticket booths to all sorts of destination, including Lago Agrio, where the jungle trip that Anya and I will start from (which entails an 8 hour overnight bus trip from Quito!). Meant to ask about a return ticket back but didn't want to be tied down to a particular departure time, if possible - don't know if that's how it would work though.

Santo Domingo has one main street (no street sign, though!) with the market being the most noteworthy thing: indoors and outdoors. The indoors market had grocery stalls, dry goods, and butchers selling whole chickens (which were hanging up) as well as internal organs: hearts, stomach/intestine, etc, of other animals. The outdoors market seemed to consist of mostly stalls selling clothes, shoes (flip flops and sandals of all types), and loads of barbers/hairdressers - an inordinate amount, it seemed to me, but quite a few had clients, so maybe not…There were also a fair few farmacias and natural health shops too. No lavenderias, though! I don't think they wash clothes here, just buy new ones to replace the dirty ones! Surprisingly, also, there weren't that many internet cafes, although there were one or two, in the town centre - there were more near the bus terminal, than in the centre. I, at least, managed to get what I needed, which was chiefly to top up the mobile, use the internet, buy a few food items, and some more "Caladryl Clear," which has become my best friend and bedside companion for all those itchy bites that I daily acquire! It's so good, it's even worth considering bringing a bottle back, although as it takes a few days for the bites to dry up and become bearable, I'll probably still be using have the remnants of a bottle on return journey anyway!

Getting more than a bite of lunch was difficult too, there were small little tucked-away places that I didn't particularly want to venture into (no visible menu: likely to be set lunches, almuerzos) and I ended up grabbing a coconut sweet pastry-like bread (lovely, should have bought more than one!), a choc ice and a packet of maize crisps. I did better at the bus terminal where I got some chicken (quite salty, Ecuadorians really like salt on their food - it's pretty consistent across the board), fries, a bit of cabbage and a drink for $2.

Getting back was even more difficult - I got turned away from about three or four booths when asking for a ticket back! I finally found one that would issue a turnstile ticket ($0.20), which I handed to the security guard and the guy from behind the ticket booth kindly showed me which bus (luckily about to leave) to get on. The conductor, however, asked me for a ticket but since the only one I'd been issued with, hadn't been returned by the turnstile operator, I just shrugged and gestured, not knowing how to explain. He also introduced me to this guy in camouflage gear: first of all, I thought he was reporting me for not paying (!) but then I realised that wasn´t it. I think he was trying to get the guy to help me find my destination but I just timed the journey and got up after an hour and asked for La Hesperie and 58 km for my stop. I also recognised the large tunnel where they´re building the hydroplant nearby, so I managed to get off at the right stop: got to be a successful trip!

Monday 6 Feb 2012

Volunteered to make some dulce el leche, which is an Ecuadorian version of a condensed milk paste, made of caramelised sugar and milk. Anya made it last time and spent three hours stirring the sugar and the subsequent milk solution until it became a brown paste. However, Anya didn't have to collect the milk fresh from the cows in the stables, and the pails were pretty heavy! I had to collect the two pails of milk and then had to stir the sugar over a hot stove until it caramelised. It's quite hard stirring about 4 kilograms of sugar with a fairly small spoon in a massive pot until it caramelises. Also a bit disheartening stirring the nearly full pot of milk and sugar for three and a half hours with hardly any milk evaporating, despite turning up the heat three or four times! As we were expecting some schoolchildren from Tuesday to Thursday, they must have decided to do double the previous quantity. I was beginning to wonder if I'd be able to get lunch or be expected to carry on through it!

However, they released me just in time for good behaviour - I mean lunch - and I then spent the afternoon getting some soil for the tree nursery (which involved digging up some soil under some leaves nearby), whilst Michael finished off the dulce el leche! Chris had to take the soil in the wheelbarrow to the tree nursery planting area as I got stalled halfway up the soil mud path back and I was starting to veer erratically side to side, spilling some of the precious cargo!

Tuesday 7 Feb 2012

Weeded the vegetable paths (with a machete, the ubiquitous tool) until the schoolkids arrived: I had volunteered to help escort them up from the bottom. I actually found it more tiring walking up slowly than if I'd walked normally. I felt a bit sorry for a few of the young girls (I think they were about 9 years old) who struggled up that steep path - I entirely sympathised, remembering my first time up! Managed to get a lift from the jeep to the bottom (for luggage pickup) and saw Anya coming back up from her mula run. Her face when she saw Michael and me in the jeep was a picture! She gave us the finger...!

The afternoon was spent weeding the tree nursery, during which I noticed that I was developing a faint (dehydration) headache: guess I should have drunk some water on the walk back up the path with the kids.

Wed 8 Feb 2012

Did the mula milk run today: you take the mule down the steep reserve path to give to the milkman, including a note on how much milk was brought down and then chivvying the mula back up the path.

I didn't realise, however, that I had to first catch him (I had absurd, humorous visions of lassoing him down, cowboy-style) and bring him to the stables to be loaded up! I had to go back for rope (having opened the "gate": a length of electrified wire) and ended up letting out both the donkey and the horse! I managed to get the mule tied up and whilst trying to chase the donkey back in, the horse came out and I had to leave them both out and let the appropriate people know. (Wonder I get that job again!) There's a deadline to be met: the milk needs to be at the bottom to meet the milkman for 10 o'clock. You have to be very strict with the mula or it dawdles and tries to feed at the side, so a big stick is stored nearby and has to be employed! However, I do feel for both the mula and donkey, and also feel a bit of a brute, whilst smacking him on the behind - it feels like it should be an art, judging how hard to smack him: hard enough for him to mind you, not too hard for feeling sorry for him and also in case he retaliates by bucking behind!)

You have to hand a note to the milkman which tells him how much milk was brought down (41 litres, and 52 the previous day), and then escort the mula back up the hill. I was asked all sorts of things by the two locals who unload the mula whilst waiting for the milkman, including to write my name, etc, in a book for the local schoolkids: such as my name, how old I am, what country, whether it was mountainous like La Hesperia, to draw a flag, or the country, what sort of music I was listening to (had my mp3 player on for the trip down), etc..

Thursday 9 Feb 2012

The morning's task was to clear a path in the garden (by macheting plants down) and then digging holes 3 metres apart (15 holes) and putting a tangarea plant near each dug hole so that the schoolkids could plant a tree each, plus any teachers that also wanted to take part. The other team dug holes for cocoa trees in another part of the reserve, close to the guesthouse, for the rest of the schoolkids.

Afterwards, I cleared (macheting) plants in the banana tree plantation, as well as cutting down any dead or weak banana trees, though I was a bit hesitant regarding judging what was weak or not; dead was easy. Doing the various activities, I a hairy, orange caterpillar, a yellow and black bird and a spider with an egg sac.

Travelled to Quito in the evening - left before dinner as apparently from today, the President is not allowing buses to stop at night time to pick people up, to prevent robberies. In fact, on the return trip back from Santo Domingo, noticing that there was a machete and a baseball hat stored next in the windscreen shelf near the door! Whilst it´s great to have improved security, it's also a bit awkward if you're hoping to catch a bus to Quito and you want to have dinner at the reserve and still be in good time to try and hail down a bus before 7:30 pm (when it gets dark), assuming there are enough empty buses passing to Quito.

It was a bit nerve-wracking getting the Trolebus back in the dark, when I hadn´t done it before and not knowing the exact way back from whatever stop I needed. Got off somewhere close by and then managed to get a taxi back but at 8:30 or 9:30 pm, when you´ve been warned not to travel at night and with a lack of taxis, it was slightly unnerving, but it was OK in the end.

Friday 10 Feb 2012

Walked to the Parque Carolina and to the Botanic Garden there: not easy to find as it was not signposted within the park. Whilst the Botanic Garden was nice, I was disappointed with the orchid greenhouse which suffered from a lack of labelling and enough orchids actually in flower. However, I managed to get some photos of the orchids and I saw some sort of greenish heron-type bird by the small pond.

Had dinner with 10 people at the hostel, at a local Ecuadorian place: rice, choice of lentils or beans, carne or pollo for $2.75 or with pescado for $3. I had the pescado with a juice (jugo).

Sat 11 Feb 2012 - Otavalo and other places

Monika, house mother, took me and two new volunteers to places to Otavalo and nearby. We sent to Calderon where we watched a lady make various figures out of bread dough, which are then baked, decorated and painted: nativity scenes, turtles, etc. We also went to a bizcocho factory (buttery biscuits), where a group of men and women made these pastries by hand which are then baked in a traditional wood oven. We had some with their freshly made dulce el leche, which was much nicer than the stuff we've made at the reserve: I've being converted, but only for the right type of dulce el leche; I bought a tub for $1.20.

We drove through the Cayambe region: the largest producer of roses (grown under cover), of which a major importer is the UK. We stopped at Guiyalamba (not sure of the spelling), where we bought a fruit called chilemoya, a green-skinned slightly flattened fruit with white flesh surrounding large seeds, and which tastes of banana and pear. It supposedly has anti-cancer properties, according to Monika, and can't be bought in Quito. We also stopped at a roadside place where you can buy panama hats cheaper than would be found at Otavalo. The price depends on the quality: $10 for a 10 hour hat (poorest quality), a medium quality for $25 (2 weeks) and a higher quality hat for $50 (2 months), as cheaper than at Otavalo. I ended up buying a medium quality one, and got an extra woven tie with it together with the normal black band.

We visited Lago San Pedro for the view of the lake where we could also take a picture of an indigenous person with a llama then it was onwards to Otavalo for an hour's shopping (not enough time, will probably go my last day in Quito, otherwise to mini-Otavalo in Quito). At the Hosteria Puerto Lago, Lago San Pedro, we got a lakeside table where we had a massive lunch (mine was a pescado a la Meunnier) and I shared a delicious strawberry and blackberry cheesecake, with side bit of watermelon and pineapple.

After lunch, we had the choice of going to a place specialising in leather or seeing an indigena man making musical instruments (pan pipes,) as well as giving a demonstration of various instruments on sale: Bolivian pan pipes, bamboo pipes filled with seeds, various flute-like and other wind instruments. It was interesting but also a bit embarrassing as none of us volunteers bought anything (well, really, if I didn´t have enough room to bring a moquisto net and enough clothes, am I going to have enough for a musical instrument, I ask you!)

Monika told us that there are three rules for indigenous men (all of them): not to be lazy, not to lie and not to steal. The men grow their hair long and keep them braided; if they've disgraced themselves in any way, then their braids are cut off to show their shame (reminds me of a Jackie Chan and Lucy Liu movie where he had his pigtail cut off). Of course, after that, I kept an eye out to see how many indigena men had long, braided hair (not all had them braided, but in ponytails, and not everyone had long hair: there are different ethnic groups, perhaps not all have the same value system).

We rounded off the day by stopping at Peguche which has a waterfall, which is believed to have special properties. Once a year, the indigenous people come here to cleanse themselves in the water and perform a ceremony where shoes are placed in the earth to awaken it and to bring next year's harvest.

Back in Quito, I went to La Ronda with virtually everyone (more or less the same crowd from the night before) from the hostel where we wandered around and I had a hot canalazo cocktail and dined on chocolate-covered strawberries on a stick for $1 (lunch having been enormous). Delicious! Very tempting to get another, but managed to resist. On the way back, we passed the church La Campania, where there seemed to have been a wedding (this was about 9 or 10-ish): of course, it rained on the way back...

Afterwards, a few of us watched a DVD at the hostel: The Departed; it was in English but I asked for Spanish subtitles in an effort to improve my Spanish. TV and a movie: what a luxury!

Sunday 12 February 2012

Planned to walk to a nearby indigenous museum called Mindalae, which was supposed to be open on a Sunday, but which wasn't, so I took a taxi to the Vivarium, which contains a collection of snakes, and amphibians. There's a talk on snakes, and there's the opportunity to see their discarded skins, feel the fur of some wild cat, and to touch a snake. You can even get your photo taken with one. Not quite successful for me though, as I had forgotten that I´d left it on zoom (manual focus) when someone offered to take one of me with it. Encumbered with the (moving, wriggling, cue, squeal from me) snake, I wasn't able to properly adjust the settings on the camera for the guy, so I have ended up with a picture showing part of a snake and me cut off at the neck and stomach, in a pink t-shirt.

Had lunch at a nice panaderia and ice cream place, but when I left I found that I'd somehow lost my pink alpaca jumper, which I have been living in, as outerwear, both in Quito and on the reserve (especially evenings and when it rains, virtually synomous). Oh well, I´ve been lucky not to have lost or had anything stolen in Quito so far - though I have lost hand cream and a pair sunglasses that I think fell out on the plane to Quito.

Took public transport to Quitumbe bus terminal and just managed to catch the next bus back to La Hesperia (5 minutes to spare).

Monday 13 February 2012

Spent the morning (gorgeous morning!) filling more plastic bottles: the mosquitoes were horrible - got bitten in the gap between my jumper and the waistband of my leggings, and under my left eye. It's the fourth time I've been bitten on the face.

The afternoon we made a compost heap approximately 1 cubed metre, composed of 25% green material, 10% earth (dug up from nearby), 50% cow poo and more green stuff. Trouble is, it's difficult to keep it all stacked up when it's freestanding, with no sides, and no one, understandably, wanted to pat down the cow poo (which wouldn't obligingly flatten out: too dry), so we created a four-sided compost pyramid. We got a new short-term volunteer, Jo, from Canada, who helped transport the poo from the biodigester to the compost heap. Deanna managed to drop the bucket and got some splashed on her face: nice!

Tuesday 14 February 2012

Told at breakfast that we can have next Monday off and that we can get back Tuesday night as it's carnaval. Finally planted those 25 trees that Anya and I transported by donkey this morning. Hard machete work as it was very dense, with hardly any swinging space: had to crawl into a space, hack at the bottom and then clear all around. Had to pass the baton (ie, machete) on after about 15 metres and an hour´s macheteing, to Michael. Jo helped us out later as the other two teams were finished (but I think they did them closer than 5 metres distant: Jo more or less confirmed it).

In the afternoon, I made another batch of bread and then just helped Anya and Deanna finish in the vegetable garden: they´d finished making the bed, weeding it and were almost done sowing.

For dinner, we had some sweets (variations on some sort of fig-like/Turkish delight centre and chocolate or sprinkle covering as well as caramelised coconut balls) and peach wine (more like bad schnapps), courtesy of Anya who needed to go to the nearest town, Tandapi, to check her bank balance, for a Valentine's Day supper supplement/celebration. Then we listened to some music and had a more social evening than normal. With sunset at 7:30 pm, not infrequent power cuts due to heavy rain, and a lack of other entertainment, we are usually in our rooms at about 8 or 9 pm, latest, and both Anya and Deanna fall asleep about 9:30 pm, whilst I'm usually awake well past midnight, sometimes later!

Wednesday 15 February 2012

We all helped create/clear a water channel to divert rainwater from the track up to the reserve this morning. We dug trenches and tried to clear a tunnel under the track. The permanent staff also cut down some trees that posed a potential road blockage, if they came down with the rain. Got several more bites (as always!) watching them chainsaw and machete down the trees. The biggest tree cut down (and which came down spectacularly) was only 5 years old but was pretty big because of how fast things grow here.

Heard a woodpecker and saw a tarantula (?) with a red behind on the path.

We had a medicinal plants lecture in the garden from Walter, with Alex translating. I missed seeing the toucaneta (not a toucan) that he pointed out: a green bird with a yellow (?) beak. As we just made it back from the water channel creation, there wasn't any chance of getting a notebook, so I don't remember too many details apart from:

Horsetail - for menstrual pain; ruda for (?), sour cane for fever and temperature (?) and which can also be used for water (high in liquid content).

In the afternoon, Deanna and I dug up stones to put into the trailer to be taken down the track, but I have no idea what they're going to do with it. Got drenched towards the end due to some very heavy rainfall, and as we were able to finish early, I showered and changed into dry clothing, so no football for me, this Wednesday. It wasn´t somehow appealing either sitting in wet clothes until football (if it started on time) or changing into dry clothes and then back into wet work clothes for football: nuh uh, don´t think so. Didn´t want to contemplate third possibility of getting clean dry clothes wet and dirty: not enough and not chancing the weather being good to dry what´s already wet and/or needs washing (and drying!)

Thursday 16 February 2012

Mula run in the morning - 55 litres. Milkman seemed to measure properly this time: apparently he´s been cheating us by not placing his measuring stick to the bottom of the container!

Afternoon was spent sowing some more tangarea seeds and weeding in the tree nursery.

The evening saw really torrential downpours: it was so heavy, it was like being next to Niagara Falls, I kid you not! Got absolutely soaked between the gap of my rain jacket and the wellies during the 5 minute walk to the dining area; the path was a river, almost awash. Guess we made the water channel just in time!

We saw Alexandra (the owner) to see if we could reschedule our Friday morning hike as it´s carnaval (where water balloons could be part of the action or even worse, filled with urine: hmm). Everyone will be partying on the coast, but no reservations have been possible over the phone so Anya and others hoping to make it there in good time (it´s about 3 hour or something from Santo Domingo, 4 from the reserve) to try and sort something out. I´ll be meeting up with them, all things being well, Sunday through Monday and we´ll all attempt to make it back for Tuesday evening. Alexandra said that there had been landslides (again: the road is very prone to them when there´s heavy rain. Last weekend, Anya almost couldn´t get back to the reserve and even then, the bus took a completely different winding route and just about joined back up to the normal one just before the hydroplant.

Friday 17 February 2012

Left after breakfast (everyone else going to the coast today left before breakfast), for Quito: need to check emails and confirm the booking for the jungle trip. I´ve asked to change it to Friday 9 March (otherwise would have been next weekend: two short weeks might not go down well with the project). Also, it means that I can go to Ambato next weekend, where there´s a flower festival, and the Spanish school is due to go to Baños the following weekend. However, I´ve realised that it´s best if I do Baños myself and not with the school, as they get back to Quito pretty late Sunday, and I would still have to get back to La Hesperia after. Head torch would be compulsory for the steep walk up in the dark, plus the cost doesn´t include the activities anyway. The bus route to Quito was different, so there must still be trouble with the usual route. There seems an almost daily occurrence of landslides in the region, all due to the heavy rainfall.

Went back to the mini-Otavalo, looking to buy an alpaca cardigan and have bought a purple mini cape: all the alpacas are too large or too small or the wrong colour. Although, of course, one of the last stalls had one I liked the look of, but it may have been similar to another one that was too big. Oh well.