Return from Otavalo

I have a blog entry from earlier this week to type up, but I just got back from a weekend out of Quito and I am too tired to go home, up the hill and then back down to get it, so I´ll be back-blogging later.

Anyway, first, at the request of my mother, I want to share a disclaimer that Hookah is not an elicist drug, it is flavored tobaco. I haven´t heard good things about the jails in Ecuador, so I won´t be partaking in any illegal activites, just in case anyone was wondering.

Well the past week went by rather quickly, and our full 9 to 5 days of class at USFQ in Cumbaya are over. In fact, we only have 7 more days of class on campus, spaced out between next week and April. So needless to say it´s going to be a great rest of the semester!!

I can´t believe I have been here one month already, in retrospect it has passed really quickly. There were days that dragged on, for sure, but now is the time when time will really start to fly. Tomorrow morning we leave for the coast, we´ll be staying at Ceiba´s other reserve site, in the tropical dry forest. Next weekend we´ll be camping on the beach!!

Before I get too far off track, though, here are my thoughts from our last full week of class at USFQ. We talked a lot this past week about community conservation, a subject I spent the whole semester discussing in Kenya. There and now I still feel like sometimes the entire idea is an elitist movement and that traveling half-way across the globe to learn about the subject is hypocrtical and ridiculous. As much as I love environmental studies and all that it encompasses, I can´t help but feel like I am being elitist when I come down here and talk for hours and hours about all the ways ¨they¨ are ruining the environment. What about all the carbon spewing out my ass when I flew down here? What about the giant turismo bus we haul ourselves around in? What about the fact that the United States spends billions of dollars on environmentally exhausting wars? Or that the United States spends less of its GDP on conservation then it can actually afford? We talk about how to involve communities in conservation because the highly biodiverse areas down here need protecting for a variety of reasons, including the ecosystem services they provide such as climate regulation, water filtration, flood control and more. Meanwhile I know back home there are plenty of areas provide these same services yet they continue to be polluted and abused. Not to mention the historical track record between the government of the United States and native people isn´t exactly one that makes us experts in involving local communites in supposed progress. Conservation, though it sets out to be protection of resources for all living organisms, quickly becomes complicated. These complications are always on my mind.

Enough ranting and raving, let me tell you about this weekend. Last Wednesday I made reservations at a hostal in a town called Otavalo. Otavalo is about two hours north of Quito, right off the Panamerican Highway. I asked around the group to see who would be interested in going with me and in the end 12 of the 13 of us left Quito Friday afternoon destined for Otavalo. After some bus delays, missing our first stop, and a little bit of walking we got to our hostal around 6:00 PM Friday. It was a cute little place, with hammocks and a cobblestone courtyard. In the middle was a huge avacado tree, loaded with fruit! Delish!

Friday night, after dark (!) we strolled around Otavalo looking for a restaurant. The first one I thought sounded good, after reading about it in Lonely Planet, was not where to be found. So we stopped into another one because there was live Andean Highland music! There we found good Ecuadorian food and heard some great tunes as well. After dinner the whole group went to a Hookah bar and chilled out for a couple of hours. It was really fun and there was some great group bonding.

Saturday morning we got up pretty early, had a delicious fresh fruit breakfast and went downtown Otavalo for the Saturday artesian market. The market is mostly in the main plaza, everyday, but on Saturdays it spills into the surrounding streets. You can buy almost any artisian craft you desire. There are alpaca sweaters, hats, mittens, gloves, blankets, table cloths, stuffed animals made of alpaca, wool sweaters, llama sweaters, silver jewelry, leather goods, musical instruments, bags and purses, and so much more. There´s also tons of street food vendors, though my host family strongly advised not to eat it. It was fun and at times overwhelming to be in the market, but I got to practice my bargaining skills.

After we tired of the market, or ran out of money, we had pie at this tiny little pie shop on the square. It was pretty good pie, but I couldn´t figure ot what fruit it was, peach maybe? Post pie some of our group hopped a bus back to Quito, but me and four others decided to stay in Otavalo Saturday night as well.

We filled Saturday afternoon up with looking for a supposed magical tree that would be identifiable on sight. Sadly we never found the tree, but we did get some good overlooks of Otavalo. The city is surrounded by rolling/mountainous farmland and is beautifully green and productive, relatively speaking. Saturday night we feasted on fruits and bread from the market before sitting around chatting and turning in early after a satisfying day.

This morning we got up early, had another delicious breakfast and then caught a bus back to Quito. Now I am thoroughly exhasuted and in need of a shower, but to save myself an extra hike up the steep hill home, I thought I would type this up first.

My next type will be next weekend at the earliest. So until then, Tenga un dia bueno!