Oyacachi, Papallacta, Cotopaxi

or...

A week in the field and I smell terrible

I am behind by a week on my daily reports, which means a lot has been happening...Last Monday I arrived fresh from south Quito in the office of Central Equatoriana de Servicios Agricolas (CESA) and about 30 minutes later a shorter stout man burst through the door and gave me a kiss on the cheek. This is Oscar Rojas, highly skilled Spanish speaking hydrologist, my partner in field work for the project.

We spent the first part of the day attending meetings with funders and developement money pots of sorts. Then we got on busses for North Quito, then to Papallacta then into a the lovely red Toyota truck for Oyacachi. In Papallacta we joined with Estalin who works in animal husbandry (the sweetest man you could ever meet) and Enite who works in microcredit and social relations/components of the projects. We arrived early Tuesday in beautiful Oyacachi after visiting the meteorological station ("met" station) near the continental devide, and the irrigation canal which is a 8km tunnel through the continental devide supplying a limited ammount of water to Cangahua.


The Paramo is soooooo cold! I don't care what kind of NorthFace, Marmot, HellyHansen you are wearing...it is F#@$*&! COLD !!!

In Oyacachi I spent my time walking around getting to know the place and people, there also happened to be a visit from USAid folks while I was there...they have a new credit cooperative, a artisan woodworking shop, three queserias (cheese making), trucha production (fresh water trout ponds), grazing lands for cattle, and a river flowing through the cuenca/watershed. I also include poverty in that list. But this is only my first understanding after one trip, and I am an outsider....a caucasian with medium grade Spanish, a good thing for you to keep in mind.

After two days in Oyacachi we were out of gas so we re-crossed the continental devide and drove to the drier country, Cangahua then Cayambe. We looped back around and spent the night in Papallacta where CESA also has a developement project.

Then Friday traveled to the province of Cotopaxi to download data from another meteorological station where I met this intelligent young man, Juanito(below). Above in the first picture you see all of us together Oscar, Stalin, Don Juan and Juanito.

I write this post from Saquisili/Latacunga in Cotopaxi, a city in another province in Ecuador (Google it!). Today I go into the field with CESA's Daniela Cruz, somewhere in the La Costa region. I was planning on relaxing and sleeping, but going to the coast is also nice since I already have the Sierra and Amazonia under my belt.... (ha! that is a little cocky...there is a lot I don't know!)

Well my platano frito (fried plantain or "chifles") is cold and so am I, and the church bells are already ringing. Even at 730 on a Saturday evening, a sort of reminder as you put on your best shoes, polish them and prepare to drink and revel in the chilly Andean night.

The heart of Quito sur

You really can't underestimate Latin America. It doesn't look like what we in fully developed countries are most comfortable with. When you look...you see concrete cinderblock houses , rebar sticking out of every roof... waiting erect for the next level that seems to never come, unfriendly broken glass topped walls, garbage, dogs, and beautiful children everywhere.

Latin America is proof that sanitary lives are not necessarily the most fun. For example, I have had diarrhea for te past three days which gives no signs of stopping...but I have also had more fun and been more hungover than ever before in my life.

We went out dancing last Friday in El Pintado which is a sector in far south Quito. It was named for a group of indigenous peoples who used Achote, a beautiful red seed berry in their hair. I was the only gringo the whole night long...which has it's ups and downs. We drank some really new liquor with fruit served almost hot, oh yeah, along with tequila. So much dancing! Really fun, then the next morning we were ALL hung over, so what did we do? Go buy Pilsner brand bear, sit in the front yard under the powerlines and drink it on ice. Jhonny's brother Diego taught me how to dance Bachata in the dirt road in front of the house. A really nice kid. Along with a nap that was the entire Saturday. By Sunday we had almost all recovered (your favorite gringita was still a bit blaaaah) and we washed our clothes by hand in the back yard.

Here is a little trip to Lloa with the family to buy milk and cheese...

The sun has set, the frogs are out and my spot here, on a board and a brick on the bare earth (also ready for construction) is now a bit cold. Tomorrow I go to the field site for the first time with Oscar Rojas and other than having entirely too little clothing for the cold mountains I am ready. Next post will have picturs of my field site.....

Central Quito, Mindo and Quito Sur

"Pescado Fresco!" I hear it from the street below as I prepare for the day.

The absolute best thing about Quito so far is fruit shops! In the morning trucks from the coastal region arrive full of bananas onions papya grapefruit and a bunch of other fresh foods I have no idea what they are. I look forward to going where the trucks come from! I really recommend staying with a family when you are trying to learn a language (if you have the money... ). It's been two nights and every morning is different. You learn when you ask questions as well. This morning we talked of the infilling that has occurred in the Quito valley. Great amounts of earth have been put into small streams and depressions and then houses built on top. the side effect to this is of course a heightened ground water table, increased damages during earthquakes due to unconsolidated fill foundations, and lower flows leaving the city as groundwaters are pumped for other purposes.

Recently I went to Mindo for a weekend. It is a small Eco-touristy place where you can watch butterflies and hummingbirds all day long. Slept at TiaMely's Hostal and took nice long walks everyday, Unfortunately also got more mosquito bites than I have ever had in my life. Here is also a mule carrying irrigation/water tubing. I see a good amount of that here. Usage of animal and human power in rural pueblos.

This is Jonny and me, we worked painting the hostal for our rent.

Now I am staying with his family in South Quito...like an hour bus ride from the center. Quito is huge. Something I didn't realize walking around with my LonelyPlanet map in the center. Don't just be a tourist...do it yourself. You wont be sorry.

On my first morning we had a cow tongue and stomach with plantain and rice. I am not sure...but I think Jhonny's mom Gloria was testing me....hmmmm. It was a kind of difficult brekkie for someone wo prefers vegetarian. But in Latin America it is still a little hard to eat vegetarian.... so I choose to compromise.

Quito

Holy Smokes....

So yeah Quito, Wow.
I got in really late last night and for the first time in my life I took a Taxi alone. The folks at Quito customs are so much nicer than in the US, you still answer a lot of invasive questions about why your are in Ecuador on paper, and you are still concerned about what they will do to you when you come face to face with the person in the uniform.

"It's your first itme in Ecuador?" asks the young man with regetone comming from his computer as he smiles at me...........

"Yes."

Slept the first night in Quito Antiguo (old town). A beautiful place filled with TONS of churches. Apparently it was extremely difficult to convert the indigenous people of the Ecuadorian Andes...so the Spanish went absolutely bezerk building churches to convince in the power of god. Old Town Quito was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1997. Now I am writing this from a room with a view of the mountains, I am staying with a family for ~15USD a night including all meals. Working on my Espanol...The family is amazing and they are interested in my thesis. We danced to Shakira after dinner!

Quito is fantastic. They are in the middle of a long valley between two mountain ranges, a colorful buzzing strip between lush expanses of reen. Of course it is completely Catholic here. This is the virgin of Panacea, and the Basacilla.

Above right is the monument to Bolivar. I dont follow any religion (Atheist) but I respect the cultures that are influenced by religion.

One thing that surprised me for sure was seeing men and especially women and children dressed in traditional hats and ponchos selling chickle and candy on the streets...I guess in my romantic mind that didn't happen. It rained on my first day here. I know that it could alleviate water scarcity, but part of the hydrological side of this thesis is also to measure the dry season base flow...And I can see that becomming kind of subjective if it is always raining during the dry season!

Another thing I noticed that disturbed me was on the bus, as we drove passed Parque Almejeda at noon, I saw irrigation with misters! I am not a big fan of efficiency theory but that is almost like not irrigating at all...you are giving almost all the water directly to evaporation, especially at noon on a sunny Sunday. Here is news from a drinking water "crisis" in a neighboring province.

So for now if you cant tell...everything is great.

Definately a little light on the thesis work...It looks more like a holiday than work...But that is the plan, do language in the mornings and thesis contacts in the aternoon...
Really looking forward to going out dancing! More on that soon...

Finishing the proposal

man!

i am so ready to be done with this proposal. it's been a long time!

me, trying to organize my ideas....

my name is Emily and i am a second year student at Wageningen University..... sooooooo close to leaving for my thesis in Ecuador. i study a hybrid specialization between two departments....irrigation and water engineering (IWE) and hydrology and water quality (HWM).....but why?

i came to Wageningen University thinking that I would do the full program with Hydrology and Water Quality, most of my background is in hard science and it looked like the perfect program for me. but by about the 4th period i realized that i wanted more direct social application in my work....i wanted to be in the field and spending less time on theory. i did a Google search and found Rutgerd Boelens and Jaime Hoogesteger had projects going in Ecuador and I just went over to talk to them. they encouraged me to combine my quantitative hydrological knowledge with a thesis in the irrigation department. i discovered that if you are willing to put in the time to coordinate people, departments and your writing, they recognize it and will respect your ideas and choices. if you want it you can do it. here below this is Roel Dijksma from hydrology and water quality and Jaime from IWE. they seem to even like each other....

here's my Bolivian buddy Franz. he lives in Amsterdam and attends courses at both universities, WU and UA.

we just got back from the International land and water management practical in Álora Spain. it was a great trip, driving around in the coutryside interviewing farmers, water users and governmental officials..... definately improves your Espanol.

our research objective was "to understand the difference between formal rights (laws) and active rights(on the ground)" we wanted to contribute to maintaining small scale farming in the Guadalhorce basin by looking into rights as tools and multiple resource use of water. We found that farmers can actually use the laws or pieces of them to protect themselves and that having multiple sources of water, i.e. groundwater, surface water, irrigation system water, rainwater harvesting and springs is also a form of insurance for small scale farming.

here is our group interviewing a farmer at a communally managed well in Al Botijon....Wolf behind the camera (Germany) Allen (Uganda) Franz (Bolivia) Francisco a farmer in Spain, and Me (USA)

ok now back to writing. Hope the next post is from Ecuador....or at least the airport in Eindoven ; )