Welcome to the Jungle

So two weekends back, when all of Ecuador had two days off for Carnaval, my program took a trip to the the eastern part of Ecuador (“La Amazonia” or “El Oriente”) to explore the Amazon rainforest. We took a short plane ride from Quito to the city of Coca, located on the Rio Napa. From there, we took a five hour boat ride to Panacocha, a small lake where we spent the next few days. We stayed in cabanas with mosquito nets and more cockroaches than I care to think about.

Our guides had all kinds of great activities planned, including hikes through the forest, canoeing, swimming, and piranha fishing. We were able to see a bunch of small monkeys, a bunch of exotic bird species, as well as a variety of fascinating bug species. The one part I didn’t enjoy was our night walk through the woods: wandering through the jungle late at night to look at spiders and grasshoppers freaked me out beyond reason, and it didn’t help that our guide’s name was “Fausto.”

I must say, the Amazon region is absolutely fascinating. It was really interesting to see some of the indigenous people who still live out there, and we got some idea of how isolated and forgotten a lot of these communities are. The sad irony is that modernity has caught up with the Amazon in one respect: the extraction of petroleum. Oil was discovered in the eastern part of Ecuador in the 1960′s, and since then it’s become a key national export (As my history professor said in class the other day,  almost any worthwhile building in Quito was either constructed during the 17th-century colonial era or the late 20th-century oil boom). We saw several large boats carrying industrial equipment down the Rio Napo, and I noticed a few sites that appeared to be petroleum extraction centers as well. It really made me feel like I was going up the Congo River on in Marlow’s steamboat in Heart of Darkness, and as a group of foreigners on tour there, I had a nagging feeling that we were contributing to a neo-colonial cultural dialogue. It’s quite a shame to think about that region being razed by Big Oil.

Perpetuating 21st century imperialism or not, here are my photos. One of them features a monkey:

We Found Lincoln in a Hopeless Place

So earlier this week, my host mother Vicky gave me some bad news: the brand new apartment that we were living in needed a whole bunch of repairs, and the building manager told her to leave the house for a few weeks as they tore up the floors and fixed the bathrooms. Needless to say, that wouldn´t be a very good environment for a host student, and so I had to move into a new home this weekend.

I´m now living in another part of the city, closer to PUCE as well as the Mariscal, the city´s chief bar-restaurant-tourist hub. My host mother´s name is Isabel, and she´s as nice as can be. Her large apartment is full of books, art, and photos of her children. There´s another woman living here named Doña Alus, who is originally from Medellin, Colombia but came to Quito to escape the drug wars there. They met through their kids, and Doña Alus lives in the house in exchange for cooking, cleaning, and washing clothes. It seems like a lovely home so far and I´m looking forward to spending the next couple months here.

Oh, a couple more things about the house. Not only do I have a killer view out the two large windows of my room, but I also have my own small balcony. And while Isabel doesn´t work, she does cook pastries and other goodies to supply local businesses.

And finally, last but certainly not least, while walking around my new neighborhood the other day, I realized it was fate that brought me there. Not only was ¨Calle Abraham Lincoln¨ about a block away, but close by was ¨Plaza Abraham Lincoln,¨ a large traffic circle featuring a Lincoln bust. I´d love to do some more research as to when this was constructed and why, but for now, I´m just happy to be here.

Feb. 14 Update: Here’s an article on the Lincoln statue, in Spanish. It was erected in 1959 as part of Quito’s revamping efforts for a large international conference. The statue was donated by a committee of Americans living in Quito. Fun fact: the Ecuadorian historian mentioned in the article as attending the re-dedication ceremony in 2009, Dr. Carlos Landázuri, is now my history professor at La Universidad Catolica.

 

Pics of the View and My New Neighbor:

Delicia, delicia, assim você me mata

Above are the words of the chorus of one of the most popular songs in Ecuador (I’m obsessed. Link here.), “Ai Se Eu Te Pego,” by Michel Teló. It’s in Portuguese, it’s a little bit dirty, but it’s ridiculously catchy and it’s been turned into a reggaeton remix by just about every DJ in Quito. But I digress.

Things are really starting to shape up here. I finally was able to track down the theater group at PUCE, and I got permission from the professor to participate with the more advanced theater group, which may mean landing a part in the spring production. We’ll see. I spent one afternoon doing some exercises with them, and it was pretty much the same stuff we pretentious theater people do in the States: “I want you to choose an animal and walk around the space as that animal…” I also participated in a few improv games, which was a bit difficult because of my Spanish skills. I found a solution, however: in a scene that was supposed to be a quiet meditation class, I chose to enter as an obnoxious gringo trying to find a salsa class.

I woke up early on Saturday morning to go to a nearby town called Zambiza to teach English to kids in the local school (A friend of a friend told me to show up at a bus stop to go teach English. So we went.). My friend Wes and I had absolutely no idea what was going on, and we ended up sort of just greeting the kids and telling them we’d be seeing them every few Saturdays. After the session, however, there were a few boys still hanging around, and we asked them if they wanted to play frisbee. I’ll say, there’s almost nothing more fun than playing Ultimate Frisbee with a bunch of fourteen-year-old Ecuadorian boys. I was totally exhausted by the end of it, but it was a blast. One of the kids brought his guitar out, and we sat playing songs in English and Spanish for like an hour. Can’t wait to go back there.

Finally, I went on another adventure with the PUCE hiking group, this time climbing to the two peaks of the volcano Pasachoa, to the south-west of Quito. I enjoyed this hike more than the hike up Pichincha a couple weeks ago, since a) it was less intense and b) there were more Ecuadorians and less gringos on the hike, which meant speaking more Spanish and getting to know more new people. I won’t say the hike was easy though, it was definitely exhausting and we had to do some clambering over bare rock. There’s something exhilarating about walking with a steep hill on your left and a steep, foggy abyss on your right. Hiking to both summits was totally worth it though, the views were absolutely killer.

Always something to do and somewhere new to explore in Quito. The first picture is me sliding down the steepest slide I have ever seen, it’s attached to an old airplane that sits in the middle of El Parque Carolina. I’m shocked that children are allowed to ride this thing. Next is Miguel, Doug and Wes being pretentious on Calle La Ronda, a cute and entertaining street in Quito’s historic center. After that, Pasachoa.