UFC: Ultimate Forest Champion

On Monday, my group went on a nature hike for 3 hours. This wasn't a normal hike though - it was pretty much a tour/getting to know the true forest. Our guide, Roberto, was amazing. He knows everything about every single plant/animal/waterfall/pile of mud in the forest. There were so many things I saw for the first time that I can't even write it all down. But I took a bunch of pictures so that everyone can look at it and admire nature with me. :) I think the three coolest things, though, were: 1. the waterfall 2. dragon's blood and 3. invisible leaf! I shall explain in a little bit. Monté and Dobby, the two dogs, followed us again; they are seriously the most amazing dogs ever because they know the forest as well as Roberto does. I dropped my camera lens cap somewhere in the forest and had to retrace my steps quite far back along the path. As I was looking for it, Dobby came to get me because he knew I obviously didn't know the forest well, and I just followed him back to where the group was. I actually didn't end up finding the cap :( BUT Roberto was super amazing and had found it because he went further back than I did. He's seriously super ultimate forest champion, man.

Anyway, about the three coolest things during the hike... First of all. We got to bathe in a waterfall - a WATERFALL!! It was so cool and so freezing cold. Even though there was a shower back at the "camp," we didn't want to bathe there because it would be so much more amazing to take one under the waterfall. The water felt great after an hour and half of hiking/climbing up rocks/bouldering, but it was still super freezing. As soon as I went into the water, I thought I was going to hyperventilate because I just couldn't take deep breaths. The water from the falls comes from the top of the mountain where it's really cold - I don't think there's snow on top of that mountain so obviously it's not melted snow, but if there is snow, then it's probably that. Either way, it was a great experience!

The second coolest thing was on our way back down the mountain when Roberto showed us a tree that looked like any other tree. Then he took his machete and made a slight nick in the bark, not even a centimeter deep. We all wondered what he was doing, when he suddenly ran the tip of the machete across the palm of his hand, and had produced blood! We sort of knew what it was because the other group told us, but if they hadn't, I would have freaked out because it seemed like he just gashed his palm with this machete! He later explained that the tree is called the Dragon's Blood tree because its sap  is red and looks like blood. It's known as dragon's blood because of its medicinal uses; if you take a drop of the "blood" and rub it all over your skin, it turns into a white cream that is a good repellant and sunblock. Also if you mix a tiny bit with water and drink it, it's supposed to help with stomach aches and cramps and other bodily injuries.

The third, but definitely not the last, thing that was new and interesting was a "leaf" he had picked up. It wasn't actually a real leaf, but an imprint of one, which made it look as though it was invisible since only the outline showed. I've never seen anything like it. And I thought it'd be fragile, because it looked like it would break any minute, but it's not like it would break as soon as you lifted it up.

After the hike and lunch, an indigenous woman from the neighboring community of Junin (I think), came to speak about her work with the owners of the Intag reservation. She was one of the leaders of this one organization, whose name I forgot, that is working to protect the Intag area from North American and European mining industries that are encouraging the Ecuadorian government to exploit the land so they can extract petroleum and other minerals. It was really inspiring to see this young woman who looked like she was in her 20's working so hard to protect the land and the beauty of the place. Something she said made me reexamine my and our North American society's perspective on wealth. It was something like, "We may not have many things, but we have a rich social community," obviously in Spanish.

But what she said got me thinking about how mostly everyone in the United States views wealth in the form of money or material - superficial things that can change drastically within a day. However, the people in Intag (and I'm sure many other communities outside the major influence of modern technology) don't view wealth in this manner. It doesn't matter how many pairs of shoes you have, or how much your house costs, or how expensive your car is. What matters is how involved you are in your society and in your neighbors' lives. The people here are friendly and intellectual; they think about things I've never thought about in ways I would never be able to imagine. They challenged me to reexamine my values in life, what I want, and what I need to be truly happy.

Immediately after her talk, 5 women from Intag came to talk to us about their movement, Mujeres y el Medio Ambiente, which means Women and the Environment. This group of 35 women also work to protect Intag from oil companies that want to relocate the people and deforest the Cloud Forest just to set up extracting/mining facilities. However, they don't do the traditional protesting; rather, they raise awareness by selling artesanal goods such as bags, belts, bracelets, coasters, etc all handmade from this special type of fiber that comes from the agave plant. After a long process of smoothing out the fibers, they dye it different colors so they can use it to knit, crochet, or embroider their products. It was a really cool process to learn about because it showed how much time goes into making one little bag or a belt. Each item comes with a tag that displays their logo, some information about their movement, and the name of the woman who made that specific item. It was really inspiring - I wish I could explain more about them, but this post is getting too long. If you want more information about them, let me know and I can definitely tell you more about their cause!

After looking through their hundreds of products, I bought a belt for myself, a purse for my sister, and a set of coasters for my host family. I wish I could have bought one of each thing, but I didn't have enough money or patience to look through all their goods. :) Then came dinner and more chill time. Lisa, Laura W., and I went to bed earlier because we wanted to pack and were super exhausted from the hike. Before we went to bed, though, we talked for a long time about a bunch of stuff - really profound stuff hehe. It's been a long time since any of us have had such conversations because when the group is together, we mostly talk about plans or what we've been doing or other light and funny things. So it was good to get our minds rolling about controversial issues and such. It was a good night!

Orchids

Our official full day 1 at Intag, Sunday, was filled with a bunch of exciting things. Our group was split into two groups: Bromeliads and Orchids, two major types of epiphytes found in the Cloud Forest. The Bromeliads went on a nature hike in the morning guided by Roberto, a funny and amazing indigenous person that lives in the Cloud Forest, while the Orchids - my group - did a nature drawing and painting class led by Sandy. The class was really cool and calming. We sat in the roundhouse, which has no walls but has a fence made of bamboo and reminds me of Bali in "Eat Pray Love," and drew without looking at our papers and learned how to paint with water colors. It was so relaxing and perfect. We had to draw using different line qualities and without looking down at our papers and without lifting our pencils off the papers. It was difficult, but really fun to draw other people because they turned out like complete crap, but once we sort of fixed it, they actually sort of looked like what they should.

After lunch, Lisa, Dan, Chris, Laura, and I went down to the river right next to our reserve. Halfway down our hike, it started to rain.. and I didn't really bring anything waterproof, so I just wore my North Face HAHAHA. I was wet. But it was really fun. The river was really big and there were a lot of rapids. Monté just laid in the water again. LOL Then we had a major Ecuadorian history lesson - 600 years of history in three hours.. It was pretty intense, but really interesting, especially because I literally just took an entire class on Latin American history last semester. Except, I forgot everything I had learned, so I wasn't able to answer any questions Mary Ellen (our "professor") asked.. which made me feel stupid, but deep down inside, I knew I knew the answers. Hehe :)

I also forgot to mention that there's no electricity, so when it gets dark, it really gets dark. I loved it. It was kind of scary because there was literally no lights except candlesticks and flashlights, which only get you so far, especially when I wanted to use the bathroom, which was not flushable either. The latrines were actually very interesting and environmental. Instead of using water, they use a composting latrine, which is when you dig a huge hole in the ground, put a toilet seat on top of it, and then every time you do your business, you scoop a little bit of dirt into the hole. When the super deep hole fills up, they cover it up and then dig another hole next to it. By the next year, the soil will have fertilized really well and they can use it to fertilize their garden/trees. Gross, but really interestingly cool!

After dinner and everything, we all just chilled in the hammocks and talked in candlelight. It was pretty amazing. The directors also set up a white sheet to look like a screen and put up a light right next to it to attract moths. It was super disgusting because there were hundreds of different colored/shaped moths on  both sides of the sheet, but it was also really cool because I've never seen such a wide variety. And so was our first day withdrawn from "civilization."

The Intag Cloud Forest

On Saturday, our group went on our first of three major excursions - to the Intag Cloud Forest in the Imbabura province of Ecuador. At first we all wondered why a place would be called the "cloud forest." Were we going to stand on clouds? No, obviously not. Hehe so we were all confused. As it turns out, it's a rainforest-esque-not-really-a-rainforest-forest. The Intag is a large forest where it rains almost every single afternoon for hours on end so it's really humid. Because it's very hot and humid in the forest, the trees exude moisture, and because there are so many trees, it looks like the clouds are descending from the sky into the forest. In reality, the trees are creating the clouds. Isn't that a rainforest? Yes, still beats me why they don't just call it a rainforest. But it's a pretty cool phenomenon and it looks really cool when you actually see the "clouds" forming as you walk through the forest. I tried to take a picture, but I couldn't... It just looked super foggy.

So. We left around 8:30 in the morning on Saturday, and drove for 5 hours in total including a bathroom break 30 minutes south of the pueblo of Otavalo (a major tourist place, which I will talk about later). This place had AMAZING biscozchos (biscottes) and cheese that they make daily. As soon as you walk into the panadería (bakery), it smells so delicious and awesome, like freshly baked bread and butter. It was 10 for a dollar, so naturally I got 10. The cheese is also really milky and stringy - hard to break apart with your hands, and so chewy once you bite it off. The hot chocolate there is also to die for - not too sugary, but just the right amount of cocoa. It's so hard to explain such deliciousness because my words would never do justice.

After about 30 minutes, off we went to Intag. As we neared the beginning of our hike to our destination (since cars can't go through the mountain), it began to rain, and we got to see the "clouds" begin to form. The view off the edge of the mountain as we curved around it on the bus was amazing. I could see tens of mountains  with bits of "cloud" here and there - it was gorgeous. When the bus stopped, we all put on our hardy rain boots and raincoats/ponchos and hiked up the mountain in the rain. It felt so great walking in the rain through the forest - a once in a lifetime experience. Of course, we're going to the Amazon Rainforest in three weeks, so it won't be our last time, but it was still so great.

After about an hour's hike, we arrived at our site, and went straight to lunch. I won't even go into describing all the meals we had here because it was that great, and I definitely would not be able to write everything we had and how great it was. I'll just say that it was the best vegetarian 4 days of my life, and that if I could have this food forever, I might even consider becoming a vegan. Most of their food/fruits were home-grown or brought in from other farmers with the same agricultural ethics they had. The coffee is also shade-grown in their garden, which means that they don't need to use any fertilizers or insecticides because the shade creates a natural environment for insects that eat harmful insects, and the leaves that fall provide healthy soil.

I forgot to mention the owners of La Florida, the part of Intag Cloud Forest we stayed at - Carlos and Sandy - two of the most amazingly talented people on this planet. They are a couple, who are actually splitting up now.. but they own the land together and fight for the environmental rights of the forest that are being threatened by American/Ecuadorian petroleum companies such as Texaco Chevron. It's really great what they do for the forest and nature in general. They've fought off various private companies that are trying to deforest a lot of the area so that they can create mining sites with the help of nearby indigenous communities. So, their main goal is to keep growing their movement to fight off the government who is currently trying to relocate a bunch of indigenous people in Intag so they can mine and make money. Stupid. Carlos is a farmer/businessman/activist/photographer and Sandy is an artist/writer/cook/architect/activist, and the two of them make everyone else seem like they're not doing anything with their lives hehe. But they are very nice, caring people who have inspired me in so many ways.

Anyway, after lunch and becoming situated in our respective hut cabins, a bunch of us decided to go for a hike up to the waterfall that was supposed to be close to where we were staying. It was so pretty! And I don't think I've seen a waterfall (besides Niagra, which is insane). It wasn't that big, but it was nice and like the wilderness hehehe. Carlos's dog, Monté (a super cute, big Golden Retriever) always comes along on any hike that anyone goes on, and knows the way to pretty much every single place in the forest, and this time was no different. He pretty much led the way to the waterfall, and enjoyed every single moment of it. He would just sit or lay under the fall or in the river and look super pleased. He was so adorable.

Right before dinner, we had a talk from Carlos about how they started this place, and what their current work is (which I explained above). Then we had amazing dinner food and more free time. I can't really remember what we did, but I'm sure it was great. Hehe and so t'was our first night in the Cloud Forest. There actually weren't as many bugs as I thought, probably because of the rain, since by the time we left Intag, I was so sick of all the flying insects buzzing around my face. :)

My Legs are Trembling...

Okay, so I'm sorry that I haven't been updating regularly.. I've been getting caught up with school work and hanging out with the group that by the time I have time to write, I just end up falling asleep without finishing. And then I was gone from Saturday to today.. SO. I'm separating all my posts (so they're easier to read - for those who were complaining hehe) by days.

Last Tuesday (13/09/11) was a super tiring yet adventurous day!! Some people from my group and I got to climb Mount Ilaló, a super tall, expired volcano. It seemed like such a good idea when we decided to go hiking on this beautiful mountain, but 10 minutes into the hike, I wanted to die. After classes, Lisa, Sophie, Lucy, Kara, Keely, Dan, Chris, and I ate lunch together, and left for Tingo. Tingo is a small pueblito (town) near the mid-base of Ilaló where we decided to start our hike because if we had actually started from the bottom of the actual mountain, we would have had to pass through various pueblitos, and it would have taken us 5-6 hours to climb. And by the time we started walking, it was around 2:10, and the sun sets around 6, so we wanted to make it back down before it got dark.

So at the beginning of our hike, there were two paths we could take - left or right. We chose to go left, because that's the direction we thought Lisa's mom said to go towards... but it was actually towards the right. So after walking 15 minutes in the wrong direction, we turned around and started actually hiking. It was cool because we got to see a cow super close hehehe. At first, the hike wasn't very tiresome.. just a little stressful because the ground was all sandlike dirt and was really hard to walk uphill in. Soon, though, the ground became harder... and super steep. I felt like I was doing the stairmaster on level 10. And it was like that nonstop; we couldn't put it on an easier level or anything.. It was just step after step after step.

Our group kind of got separated because we all went at different paces, but I liked that better because we were able to go at our own pace rather than be forced to go faster and just really die. Lisa and I stuck together for the whole trip because we were at a very similar pace, but we still followed the people in front of us (Sophie, Kara, Lucy, Chris) who were drunk, so we probably shouldn't have blindly followed them because we got lost! Instead of going down the actual path up the mountain, we got off track and took this crazy journey up the mountain.

We had to climb up the side of a mountain; if you imagine drawing a mountain, that's how steep we climbed, and yes, we were on the surface of it, not walking through it. It was crazy hard because of the steep slope that caused our feet to slip all the time. And if we walked slow so we didn't roll down, it was harder on our muscles, so we had to somewhat keep a steady pace all the way up the mountain. As soon as we thought we saw the end, there was more - a lot more, like we were only halfway there. And somehow I kept on walking. As we neared towards the cross that's at the tippy-top of the mountain, we noticed that there was a line of trees that acted as a forest to "protect" the cross or land from visitors. If we had stayed on the path, we probably wouldn't have gotten lost or stuck in that forest, but Lisa and I got stuck between the branches, and I ended up getting a small splinter :( But it's okay because we had FINALLY MADE IT!!! It was such an accomplishment, and we were so happy that we were able to do it.

When we got to the top, we climbed the cross hehe I don't know if we were allowed to, but we did it anyway. We had some avocado and tuna with saltines that my host dad packed for us, and soon we were on our way back down the mountain. All I can say is that going down is as hard as going up, but on different aspects. Going down is harder because there are less times we can stop to rest our muscles, and also, our muscles hurt more since we're trying to stop ourselves from falling over. But we eventually made it!! From there, Lisa, Keely, and I split from the rest of the group who went to look for a place to eat because we needed to go eat dinner with our host families.

Actually,  my host family decided to go out to dinner that day because my "cousin" Maria Daniela received an honors award!! I think this means that she's at the top of her class (?) or something special of that sort. We had hamburgers, and it was DELICIOUS because 1. I was starving, and 2. we ate at "Cafe de la Vaca" which is a cute cafe with a bunch of cows decorated all around the restaurant. Then I went home and finally started my homework/fell asleep without doing much. Oops :)