Ecuador

I was also able to visit other counterparts during my recent stay in Ecuador. I dropped in on Nelson Torres. Torres learned the craft of raising pigs with some help from Peace Corps volunteers and then became a source of information for multiple generations of volunteers thereafter, including me. I learned everything I know about pigs from Nelson.

It was tremendous to see how his business had grown and hear of his big plans for the future.

I also was able to get some fantastic photos of his family.

One of the other joys of the trip was catching up with work partners from counterpart organizations. Those include Alberto Tamayo who continues to work with the Fundacion Pastaza.

At the time, they worked in reforestation and sustainable agriculture in the highlands around Ambato, largely to protect the hydroelectric dams. They now work on paramo conservation for water quality protection in the same region, with work with agriculture communities to protect drinking water and irrigation sources.

Alberto lives in Patate and his family runs a restaurant and hotel called La Casta. The back road to Patate from Pillaro is now paved and you can get there in 30 minutes in what would have been a multi-year trip.

I got some great photos of the family and Patate.

It was great to be able to catch up with them and to hear about their work and how the family is trying make their ecotourism venture work.

We had a chance to visit the refuge at Cotopaxi. Since the volcano erupted a year ago or so, you can’t yet climb above to the top, as I did nearly 20 years ago. Nonetheless, the refuge and volcano remains as stunning as ever. The glaciers have retreated though.

We stayed at a place nearby called the Secret Garden which is a popular place for backpackers. We were able to ride down by bike from the parking lot above the refuge to Secret Garden, which sits at the base of Passochoa.

We took back roads to get to the hostel which remained as cobble stone, but the main roads from Quito to Ambato are now toll roads that bypass a lot of the towns along the way. The route is fast, though heavily patrolled to deter speeding. The country has invested quite a lot in improved infrastructure, and you can tell. (Even some of the country roads like between Pillaro and Patate are now paved with lots of road signs to tell you where to go).

My good friend Mark Thurber has lived in Ecuador more than 20 years. He is the author of Climbing and Hiking in Ecuador. He works on environmental impact assessments to try to limit the damage from large infrastructure projects.

In the process, he came upon a fantastic cloud forest near Vulcan Reventador that he and his colleagues bought to conserve as a reserve for wildlife. It’s called Reserva Alto Coca. It’s just in the shadow of the volcano which you can hear rumble in the distance and see plumes from on a clear day.

We had an opportunity to visit this rugged site, accessible by muddy trail four hours above the road as you head out to the Oriente. There are cabins out there now with cold running water and serviced by a cook and support staff. It was an amazing trip. The photos below hardly do it justice.

We saw pictures in the camera trips of jaguars on the trails before and after we hiked up it. We also saw scratches on the trees from spectacled bears as well as tapir tracks. We’ve blogged about it before, but now, I’ve gotten a chance to see it up close and personal. You should too. It’s tough but you can find out more from Mark if you are up for adventure hiking through Trip Adviser.

I got to spend some time with the host family that housed me during my years of service (97-99). The picture above is from the site of the house where I lived. It’s subsequently been torn down and replaced with a more modern house with running water. At the time, I had electricity but dirt floors on the ground floor, a compost toilet, and one outside tap in a cinder block house. The view is the same thought. The children of my host family live there now with their kids. The son works in construction all around the country so agriculture is less central to their lives now than it was when I lived there.

Some of the other kids have also moved, one working in the nearby town as a taxi driver, another for the oil companies in the Oriente, and a third who is married and lives in another city.

I was able to visit with a number of people I worked with at my site. They showed me how the trees we planted almost 20 years had grown up. We also talked about an irrigation project we fought for was finally realized more than a decade after I left. We talked about friends we knew had died.

They talked about what they were up to now. Changes in the town, paved roads, bus service, cell phone service, and how many people had moved out of agriculture with many of their kids looking for other professions. I tried to honor them by capturing some photos with a lens that does great portraits. Here are some photos from that visit.

Ecuador held presidential elections last weekend, and it looks like the left-wing candidate Lenin Moreno holds a lead but may not have exceeded the 40% threshold (and 10% difference with his nearest rival) to avoid a run-off. This from Reuters:

Ecuador’s leftist government candidate Lenin Moreno looked set for victory on Monday in a presidential election, but slow results meant it may take days to know if he will face a runoff with former banker Guillermo Lasso.

As results trickled in from Ecuador’s Andes, jungle, and Pacific coast, Moreno, a disabled former vice president, was just short of the 40 percent of votes and a 10 percentage-point difference over his nearest rival to win outright.

The favourite is Lenín Moreno, a former vice-president under Correa who is standing for the ruling Alianza País coalition, but very different in style and politics from the outgoing president. As his first name suggests, Moreno is from a leftwing family, but he has a reputation for inclusiveness openness and humourthat earned him approval ratings above 90% when he quit the vice-presidency in 2013 to take up a United Nations post as special envoy on disability. If he wins, he would be the first paraplegic head of state, having used a wheelchair since he was shot in a robbery.

Voting is obligatory for the 12.8 million people eligible to cast a ballot in this country, which covers an area bigger than the United Kingdom and ranges from Amazon jungle and Andean mountains to the Pacific coast and the Galápagos Islands….

Correa leaves power with ratings around 40% – impressively high in a country where no previous leader in a century had lasted more than five years….

Most Ecuadorians are far better off than when he took power in 2007, poverty and inequality have gone down and infrastructure, schools and hospitals have been impressively upgraded….

But 10 years in power and a downturn in global oil prices have taken their toll.

Ecuador’s economy shrank by more than 2% last year and the IMF forecasts a similar decline in 2017. Many voters are weary of authoritarian leadership. Indigenous groups and environmentalists accuse the government of putting Chinese oil and mining interests above local people and protected areas in the Yasuni national park and among the Shuar territories near the southern border with Peru. The middle class complain of high taxes, excessive bureaucracy, clampdowns on NGOs and attacks on the media.

As you know, a major 7.8 earthquake struck Ecuador two days ago, the strongest in Ecuador since 1979. Several hundreds have died and thousands are homeless. We have been posting information on our Facebook page for those wanting to get regular news and where to donate.

Many friends in Sierra have reported they are safe by checking online through Facebook. All Peace Corps volunteers have reported that they are safe.

All Peace Corps Ecuador Volunteers are safe & accounted for. Staff in Ecuador are in close contact w/ Volunteers regarding safety & security

— Peace Corps (@PeaceCorps) April 17, 2016

Epicenter was on the coast with major damage in cities like Pedernales, Porto Viejo, Muisne where there has long been a history of volunteers. Several hundred people have died, including friends of RPCVs and volunteers. Volunteers are mobilizing to get resources to the coast for rescue and relief operations, though it sounds like some areas are dicey in terms of security, as there is some desperation in towns for re-supply.

Here are photos of the damage, with people sleeping outside for fear of aftershocks. This photoset from Manabi is heartbreaking and includes aerial photos of the damage.

How You Can Help

Current Peace Corps volunteers have expressed an interest in helping and many of them who live along the coast are mobilizing funds to try to help. In general, it’s hard since unless you are trained in disaster response, it’s difficult to be useful, especially since outsiders converging on an area may themselves need food, water and shelter that are in short supply. It sounds like some coastal based volunteers, current and former, are working with local foundations and law enforcement to try to provide assistance. Others are channeling money to them. Money is probably better than donated goods.

Here are three sources that came up that are known to us personally or through the Peace Corps network. At bottom, we provide links to more well-known charitable organizations. We’ll try to update as we have more information.

Ouida Chichester who has worked with Friends of Ecuador in the past in Pedernales with a foundation for people with disabilities has a donation site and is working to mobilize funding.  …

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