Feb. 26 - 29 - Mindo Volunteer Project

Today, after delaying my start for 2 weeks for more Spanish classes, someone being too sick to take me to Alto Choco and landslides closing Alto Choco, I headed off to Mindo to work at a biological station. After a tearful goodbye to Susy (whom I will see again in a few weeks) I headed off to a Metrobus station to meet up with the man who will take me to my project. I must say I am quite saddened to be leaving Quito. I have grown fond of the city and only a few days ago realized that Metrobus, Trole and Ecovia are three different bus routs, not three different Spanish words for bus.

After meeting my escort we headed off to a secondary bus terminal for the two hour drive to Mindo. On the way to the bus terminal I grilled my escort on what my project entailed, to no avail. This surprised me since he is the coordinator of both the Mindo and Alto Choco projects. Rodrigo bought me a ticket at the bus station and sent me on my way to Mindo alone to meet Claudia at the other end.

The drive to Mindo is one of the most scenic roads in the world. As I left from a bus terminal at the northern end of the city, it took no time at all before I was in the countryside. Mindo is located about 1,600m below Quito (still 1,250m above sea level) so the road drops off quickly, and thus the climate changes just as rapidly from the Serra to the cloud forest, for which Mindo is famous. Clinging onto cliffs, the bus drove around hill after hill of lush green tropical forests that seem to breed clouds. It's a magical drive that makes you want to become one with nature.

As I arrived in Mindo and got off the bus I was struck by the humidity and pleasant smell of the fresh sweet tropical air. After a few minutes of waiting, I began to realize that Claudia was not going to be meeting me at the bus stop as I was informed. It wasn't until someone asked me who I was looking for that I figured out how small a town Mindo actually is. This man gave me the directions I needed to get to the hostel Claudia ran. As I walked down the dirt and mud soaked road to El Rocio I started to wonder if I was actually going to meet the correct Claudia. NO problem, it ws the right person.

She welcomed me with open arms and told me to make myself at home while we waited for our ride to the project. She also introduced the two other volunteers, Cian and Ash. Not long after meeting them did we find out that we were not going to be heading up to our project today as the tractor which was to provide us with a lift was broken and thus we couldn't make it to the biological station. Instead we were going to help Rose with whatever tasks she needs help with (Cian and Ash helped her weed her garden yesterday).

I changed into work clothes and we headed out into the town of Mindo to find Rose to give her a hand. After waiting at the community centre where she works for half an hour we went to her house to see if she was there, only to find out that she wasn't working today or tomorrow (I'm starting to wonder if Ecuador really wants me to do any volunteer work). While heading back to the hostel we bumped into Luis (project director) who told us about the tractor and informed us over lunch that we would be heading up to the project tomorrow. He also suggested that we spend the rest of the day relaxing around Mindo.

We took him up on his offer and decided to head off to the Mindo Canopy Adventure, a series of 13 zip-lines that gave you a close look at the cloud forest around Mindo. After an hour hike uphill through the heavy humidity we reached the zip-lines and were joined by a British family who were going to be with us through our adventure. I must say, this had to be some of the most fun I have had in my life. These zip-lines ranged from 20m to 400m in length and some of them went over ravines about 80-100m deep. You even reached speeds of up to 60km/h flying through the trees (luckily they had padding at the end because I couldn't stop on one of them and smashed into the tree). It was absolutely amazing. The guides even found ways to make it more interesting as you went along including bouncing the wire you are flying on, attaching the zip-line to your back so you could fly like superman, and the most nerve-racking of all - flying upside down with your feet in the air and your head below. All in all it was a crazy afternoon that wiped us out so we relaxed for the evening playing cards in the hostel.

On Wednesday we finally were able to make our way to the volunteer project, and my home for the next three days. After breakfast (including instant coffee made with milk instead of water....the only way to make it taste good) we loaded our gear into the pickup truck that was going to take us to our project.

Now to say that this road was in poor condition would be an understatement. It was covered with landslides, potholes and mud sinkholes in which the truck would get stuck from time to time. It was the condition of the road that made this trip so much fun, especially since there was no room in the cab for me, so I had to sit on all the bags.

After half an hour of holding on for dear life we finally reached the end of the road for the truck (about 8km from Mindo). From there we started our hike into the project, which was only supposed to take 40 minutes. Since the tractor was broken it became necessary to carry our own gear. I figured that since I had carried a heavier bag though the streets of Europe for a longer period of time and I had been in the high altitude of Quito for so long, I had tons of blood in my system, and this would be a cakewalk. Well it wasn't. Walking uphill in mud with 80% humidity and a 40lb backpack on at 1,600m is actually as hard as you would think. It only took five minutes before we were dead tired. We took a break about 40 minutes into the hike at the entrance to the Rio Brava Ecological Station.

From the top of the hill where we rested, we were blessed with a fabulous view over the valley which housed the station. It was a rich, fertile valley of untouched cloud forest and a waterfall only a three minute walk away from the house.

Once we arrived at the station (which could only be reached by a precarious bridge over the Rio Bravo....actually the safest bridge at the project) we had a chance to rest for a few hours while Soña (project director) worked on lunch. We took this time to head towards the waterfall close by to potentially go for a swim, only to find out that the force of the water was too strong to stand underneath and too cold in which to swim. We probably should have expected this since it is mountain water.

After a most delicious lunch we started working on a project for Soña who was looking for some work for us to do until Luis (the other project coordinator) arrived tomorrow, he knew more about what needed to happen around the reserve. I had some issues with this as I had come down to Ecuador to do volunteer conservation work and from what I could tell building this garden wasn't going to be the kind of conservation work I came to Ecuador to perform. The purpose of this garden was to provide Soña with the flower garden she had always wanted, something to help brighten up the property. I wouldn't have minded at all if we were doing this to build a garden to grow endangered plants that would be later transplanted back into nature, but instead it was a landscaping job so her property would look nicer.

We didn't work on it very long as it started to rain and Soña didn't want us to work in the rain. So Cian, Ashlean and I spent the next four hours playing cards until dinner. That evening we ate in Soña's place and I tried to get some more information about what we would be doing at the project and what our tasks would be, ... again learning nothing.

Thursday brought some different tasks for us. We had a late breakfast. We were still waiting for Luis to come up with the tractor and our food for the week. Once he arrived we had to go over to the tractor to give him a hand with carrying everything to the house. There had been a landslide that prevented the tractor from making it the entire way to the station. After that was finished we went back to working on the garden while Luis had breakfast and got ready for a day of work.

When he was ready Luis asked some of us to head to the top of the waterfall to help him unclog the water pipes so that we could have running water (we were living off of rain water at this point for flushing the toilets, washing in a bucket and cooking). The hike up the mountain was incredible, possibly a little dangerous as we were hanging off the cliff while the waterfall was gushing past us. I have to admit I was quite conscious of whatever animals might be lurking behind or under the branches I was grabbing for support. After awhile you just blocked it all out as there was probably more of a danger if you didn't hold on than if you did grab something you weren't expecting.

Once we got to the top, we had to take apart the water pipes to clean them out so the water could start flowing through them again. It was kind of fun working in the basin of a 20 foot waterfall at the edge of the next waterfall which dropped about 50 feet. As we descended the hill back to the house we checked the pipes at various points to make sure the water was flowing and there was no more sand blocking the pipes. Because of all the sand (which you notice while brushing your teeth) and high water pressure the waterfall provides, the taps in the kitchen don't shut off. It's kind of interesting when you are trying to preserve water around the country to find taps that cannot be shut off.

The rest of the day was spent building the garden which proved difficult toward the end, as we started running out of dirt to fill the last couple of terraces. After working on that a few hours we stopped for dinner and to get cleaned up (which consisted of a shower from a bucket of hot water heated over the fire.....I don't think I have dunked my head in a bucket of water to wash my hair since I was a kid on the boat .... and then I had another set of hands to help pour the water over my head) and spent the rest of the evening playing cards.

By this time I had decided this project was not the right one for me and had determined that I would be heading back to Quito on Friday to talk to the foundation about changing projects. In the morning we decided that today's work would be around the second waterfall. This meant I would have a chance to see it before I left. The walk to the waterfall was along a very well maintained path with a few muddy spots and one sketchy bridge. The walk was completely worth the effort. At the end of the path was an incredibly beautiful waterfall about 150 feet high that fell into a pool where volunteers come to swim in the summer. On the way back we stopped a few times to fill some of the mud puddles with rocks.

Following this I left for the town of Mindo to catch my 2:00pm bus (the second and last one of the day to Quito). After saying my goodbyes I started my hike out of the forest towards Mindo. This time I was to be picked up about a half hour down the road by a pickup truck that would take me to the town, so I didn't have to do the entire 3 hour walk out. The only problem was that the truck didn't show up so I kept walking for about an hour and a half before I managed to find some birdwatchers who had hired a pickup truck for the day. After stealing the pickup truck and driver from the bird watchers (he was going to return to pick them up later in the day) I arrived in Mindo with enough time to give the foundation in Quito a call about my situation before getting on the bus.

Once back in Quito I stopped by the foundation to see what other projects they had for me that I could do over the next week. There was one deep in the Amazon Jungle, one on the edge of the jungle, and another on the coast working with fisherman. I decided that the coast sounded fun because if worse comes to worse, I could buy a bottle of rum and relax on the coast (I'm a little jaded about volunteer projects right now, but it would turn out volunteering on the coast would be the best time of my life).

Description - Conservation work in Intag

Over the next two weeks I'm going to be working at my first volunteer project, conservation work at the Alto Chocó reserve. I thought I would provide a description of the project so you can better understand what I will be doing.

Alto Chocó is located in Intag, about four hours north of Quito in Ecuador. This region has been designated one of the most important endangered areas for biodiversity. The reserve is located on the slopes of the mountains in the cloud forest, at an altitude between 1,000 and 2,950 meters.

Alto Chocó's main purpose is reforestation to try and recover about 225 acres of cloud forest. To help supplement this reforestation work, my tasks, along with tree planting, will include growing tree seedlings, maintaining the botanical garden (with hopes of transplanting the over 60 species of orchids back into the woods), developing worm compost, maintaining the infrastructure of the reserve and gathering native tree seeds to germinate.

A secondary purpose of the project is researching the Spectacled Bear. Once or twice a week, I will go for hikes in the woods to look for signs of the bears in hopes of better understanding them so that eventually we can help bring their population back. These bears are small in comparison to Canadian bears. They would be around the size of a baby black bear. To aid with the research, one of the tasks is to plant corn plantations to feed the wild bears in hopes of increasing the opportunity for more research.

The most interesting part of my project is going to be my living conditions. I will be living at a remote research station that's a 20 minute walk from the road and a 30km bus ride from the nearest medical facility (it also doesn't have any electricity). The hardest part of all of this is that I met with the project coordinator on Friday and he told me that at this time there are no other volunteers or researchers. It will be just me and a guide/supervisor who I will be working with .... and as far as I can tell, he goes home at night.

So needless to say this project has the beginnings of a great horror movie ...... Dave heads into the Ecuadorian Cloudforest .... all that was found of him was his camera ..... this is what happened .... (in blogs everywhere March 1, 2008)

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!It turns out that after I had written this entire description, things have changed. There has been a lot of rain in Intag which has caused landslides. Thus my project in Intag has been closed. As such I'm heading to Mindo for a different conservation project. I have no idea what I'm going to do there and all I know of Mindo is that it's west of Quito and has lots of butterflies. That's all. Good thing I did all that research on Intag over the past three months .... and a really good thing I didn't go to Intag on Saturday as planned!!

Feb. 25 - Another exciting night at the opera

Tonight I opted to join Anna at the opera as she wasn't able to join us on Saturday night. So yet again I donned my best travelling clothes (which include hiking boots since they look nicer than my running shoes) and head to the "almost black tie" opera.

Even though I had seen the Opera before, it didn't disappoint this time. My "date" might have been Anna, but my interest was on tonight's special guest, President of Ecuador Rafael Correa. This surprise guest helped explain why the tiny square outside the theatre had 25 police officers and the bomb squad. It also explained why this guy watching the opera across from me was dressed in full riot gear holding a submachine gun.

The excitement didn't end there. Between scenes a man stepped in front of me and threw two handfuls of pamphlets out into the crowd then left the building. We were all stunned by this, even more so when during the next scene, nine secret service agents swarmed onto our balcony. This posed a slight problem for me. First off I had seen the opera before and found this "police action" more interesting than the play. Second, when people looked to see who threw the pamphlets (we assume against the president) they saw me since the man ran off quickly. So needless to say every time I glanced over (which was more often than an innocent person should) the secret service agents were looking back at me. It could have just been my ego, but I was fairly certain I was the prime suspect for throwing the pamphlets, or they were wondering what I was doing in zip off pants and a rain coat at a black tie affair. (I spent most of that act trying to figure out how to find the number for the Canadian embassy. I figured if I was actually arrested I woudl only have one phone call, so this was a very good use of my time). The police left as soon as they saw me struggling to answer an old man's question about what happened (in Spanish of course). Either that or they had to go protect the president during intermission.

But (as is the way with me) the fun didn't end there. As soon as the police left, the woman who Anna and I thought was with the pamphlet man started walking around asking everyone what was on all the pamphlets, acting quite ignorant about what happened. She told Anna and I she wanted to go to the police and tell them the guy who threw them was sitting behind me (it wasn't the same guy....just some poor sap who chose the wrong time to go to the bathroom and returned at an inopportune moment). She even went as far as to go to the police afterwards and provide a description to the police.

After the show, while Anna and I were waiting outside for Kat, President Correa came out of the building (his secret service agents actually had to move me to make room for him) and shook hands with some people outside, hopped in his car and left the square in a grand show of protection and motorcade of about 20 cars. All in all, Anna and I were quite pleased to have spent the evening in his presence.

Feb. 23-25 - Globalization

We didn't have much planed this weekend as I was supposed to be leaving for my volunteer project at 7am on Saturday morning. Instead we had some very lazy days around Quito that I used to prepare for my trip into the Cloud Forest.

On Saturday morning I went in search of waterproof pants and a second waterproof jacket as mine doesn't work as well as I hoped. You would think this would be quite simple as Quito is the starting point for many trips into the Amazon. It turns out that the height of Ecuadorians precludes any stores selling things in Canadian sizes. After visiting about 6 stores and trying on 20 different jackets, I came to the conclusion that I'm destined to get wet in the Cloud Forest. Luckily I managed to find waterproof pants, which will work even though they are a little short (I figure my rubber boots are high enough so it won't matter too much).

Once I determined I was going to be sufficiently dry, I met Lee for an afternoon in the Irish Pub watching rugby. It was quite the experience as I have never watched a rugby match and here I was in the middle of Quito in a bar where the only two languages being spoken at the time were English and French (it was an England vs France game). Lee spent most the afternoon teaching me the rules while I was being entertained by the Frenchmen yelling insults at the English. Needless to say the French team lost.

My cultural education and international exposure continued throughout the evening. Lee and I decided to go and support Kat by watching the Opera she had been working on for the past few weeks, La Traviata. Her roll has been slightly undefined, but she has been working basically as the director's assistant. Needless to say, Kat has been very excited about her project and every time we meet up with her she only has more exciting things to say about the opportunity. Lee and I went to the dress rehearsal.

As it was pouring rain outside, Lee and I joined a Korean tour group and were let into the theatre a little early for the show (why they thought two white 6'3" guys were part of the Korean tour group, I have no idea). Once inside we ran into one of the coordinators from the school who was there to support her roommate, a lead in the opera. It as a good thing I met her there as she informed me that no one would be at the train station on Monday to take me to my project. Instead I would be leaving on Tuesday.

Since she was busy working we didn't get a chance to meet Kat before the show (at least that's what we though, it turned out she was waiting for us in the rain outside). Overall, Lee and I were very impressed with the show, even though the director was quick to inform the audience that this was a dress rehearsal and some things might go wrong. It was also probably one of the most international experiences one could have. Here you have a British and Canadian guy going to support a German friend who helped put on an Italian opera, set in Paris, produced by Columbians, staring Koreans and Ecuadorians, located in the beautiful Theatro Sucre (modeled after a theatre in France) and translated into Spanish subtitles for the audience to follow along. Who says globalization doesn't exist?

Lee and I wanted to congratulate Kat on the great show so we headed backstage in hopes of finding her. She told us everything that was happening backstage. She couldn't contain her excitement, and who could blame her, it sounds like things are more interesting behind the scenes.

Sunday and Monday transpired without much happening. Sunday afternoon we met for our "family outing in the park" before heading out for drinks that evening. Monday I spent puttering away at a few things I wanted to get done before I headed into the woods, including arranging my next few weeks and making plans to meet a number of new friends, over the next few weeks.

Monday morning I managed to visit Anna's project again at a time when the kids weren't all stuck in class. Anna had asked the headmaster if it was alright if I came by to visit. He was excited to have people come in, and made sure to stop by a few times while I was there to see how I was enjoying myself and to welcome me to his school. It took a while for the children to warm up to me, but once they did, they figured out I was a great moving jungle gym and spent most of their break getting me to lift them up and take their picture. After what Anna had told me about these children (most are street kids and some are orphans) it was great to see them so happy and full of energy. They were exactly the same as Canadian children and it broke my heart when they tried to block the door and keep me from leaving. If I had my large backpack, I probably would have grabbed a few to take with me.