Weekend of the Baños

The day started off bright and early. I woke up and talked to Nicole at 6:30am. We were both drones, but it was nice to do before my trip on Saturday. I ended up finally being ready to go 5 minutes before I had to be at the school (7:30am), so instead of walking and being 25 minutes late, I called a taxi -- it is only $1.00...I got to school and we took off. Thank God I got to sleep for 1.5 hours during the drive or else I would have been dead. We arrived at this gorgeous rustic ranch way up in the mountains; imagine looking out from the doors and you see the "Corazon Volcano" looming over you with squares of farmland spanning all the way up its steeping slope with all different shades of green. You cock your head to the left and see one hill, then scan it to the right and come to realize you're in a valley of farm land with cattle, horses, turkeys, goats, and llamas scattered all about. This place is majestic and gave me an instant appreciation for all the agriculture majors at U of I. I never understood why they would want to stay on a farm, but now I do. It made me want to own a horse plantation when I'm older; I'll pass on the other animals.

We started out the day with a fantastic breakfast consisting of home made yogurt, fresh steaming bread with ahí, fruit, and some of the best soothing hot chocolate I've had in my life! I had about 3 cups. I forgot to mention my first impression of our guide/owner of the ranch -- Chitty. This man defined what "the most interesting man in the world" would look like. He was about 5'9," 30 years old with a short full, but trimmed beard. He glided through the glass doors and said ¡Bien Venidas! with a poncho draped across his shoulders and Chuck Noris's cow boy hat on.

After breakfast, we went outside and did a small tour. As soon as Chitty (the most interesting man in the world) started showing us around the ranch, one of the girls in our group, who was wearing those hiking sandals that are thick rubber on the bottom but only have Velcro straps on top, plopped her foot in some camouflage cow dung! The crevices of her toes were filled with a smooth vomit green left-overs of a cow's meal....Soon after that hilarious ordeal, we found our way to the rodeo ring that was "in the works." There, we participated in relay potato sack races and tug of war. The highlight of this section for me though was that they brought the cows in and we helped vaccinate them! As you can see in the video, I actually roped a cow around the neck like a real cow boy (well, maybe not exactly like them) and they injected it. It was so much fun! I want to do that for my birthday: grab some eat/drink, go to a farm, rope some cattle, horse around (pun intended), then barn dance at night!... It would be the best day/night ever.

Next, we walked up the side of the valley to where we started to set up our fire for our mid-afternoon snack (Choclo -- corn). While the other people who worked on the ranch were preparing everything, we all went for a guided walk around the property through the forrest and tall grass fields to see the donkeys, llamas, and alpacas. The whole time 1 out of 3 of their golden retrievers followed us around (Names: Like-oh, Brandon, and I forget the other one's name -- Brandon followed us around and Like-oh was the cute puppy that tramped around with the horses which seemed like they would stampede over him every time, but never did).

Chitty and his brother had 40 acres of land at about $20,000 per acre. It was plush prime land that included, hills, valleys, dirt plots, high grass fields, forests, and more. Within all this land, we moved from a leisurely stroll into a down hill run, and getting dirty/wet all the way through. OH, AND they had electric fence everywhere you turned to keep all the animals in. It's a great idea except for the fact that when giving tours and having to duck and dip around this wire to get around, it will probably lead to problems... I got shocked twice! And when I say shocked, I mean I know how a taser can take down a 300 pound man as if he were a new born child. My heart was hit by a freight train twice.  I did it on purpose the first time to see what it would feel like, but the second time was completely unexpected. After about an hour out and about, we finished up the tour and were ready to get back to eat our Chocle (corn). Too soon after, we headed inside for lunch where we ate different sausages, potatoes with cheese and butter, and some fresh juice.

Later, we went outside and we did a mix of activities. When we fed the goats, I wasn't able to milk it because the mama goat was saving its milk for its child -- what a greedy mom! To provide for her child before me?! Who's ever heard of such a thing? Besides that disappointment, the best part of the afternoon was when I bare back rode a horse! We ran a little bit, then it started to rodeo buck so I punched it in the head (joke about the punching), and I was able to stay on until he calmed down.

As we finished up this portion of our trip, we hopped into our white gringo van (it would be white...) and swerved in and around roads avoiding pot holes, dogs, cows, and llamas to our next destination. For the night, we got to stay in an indigenous community! It was a very insightful experience. The whole community was in a huge valley surrounded by huge hills about the size of the Empire State Building. The hostel we stayed in was definitely the nicest building in the entire community and the amazing part about it was that they build it all by hand. They made the steps out of trees they cut down, the walls were covered with bamboo collected from the rivers, and the whole community constructed the cement foundation and wall. Every house was made out of cement because it's cheaper and better insulation. It really made me feel an appreciation for everything I have. These people are subsistence livers, just producing enough to survive. Every small plot of land had a mini garden and either a donkey, pick or cow. We walked around the community that night to get a view of it all... it just really showed me how great America has it and also how good it is where I am living in Cumbaya.

That night, we were fed their celebratory food, Cuy (ginny pig). You can see in the video the different stages of the cooking process. One of the girls in our group refused to eat them because she had pet ginny pigs all her life -- I don't blame her, I probably would have done the same thing. BUT I have never owned a ginny pig, so I tried it. Cuy is alright, but there is not a whole bunch of meat to them. It's literally a paper-thin piece of meat sandwiched in between the skin that you do not eat and the bone. I took it as a cultural experience. Even more culture then presented itself as the community's ethnic band and dancers entered our eating area and started to play their traditional music. The rest of the night we danced with the dance troop and enjoyed the music. Before going to bed, Zach (works for our program director), Kevin (lives by me in Cumbaya), and Liz (another girl in our group) had the opportunity to talk for 30 minutes with drunken indigenous teen about the word "gringo," his ability to speak English (next to none), jobs, and other random talking topics... you know the normal stuff you talk about when you're talking to someone who is drunk and their primary language isn't English or Spanish (Kechwa is their primary language). Finally, we were able to snuggle up in our beds and get to sleep for a few hours before we had to get up again.

Bright and early, we rose and had a nice breakfast. It wasn't long before we got put to work. It wasn't too much. We just had to hike down the riveen, cut some long prairie grass that was growing by the river (this green paradise looked like something out of "The Land Before Time." It was really cool). After we cut the crass, we put it on our backs and carried it all the way back up another Empire State Building tall riveen (there are two of these riveens -- one that the community is in, then one even lower where the river flows). It made me appreciate the old men and women who do this everyday. I'm not kidding, I saw 70 year old men and women both carrying 5-10 times as much as I was. I could barely see them under all the grass. They need the grass to feed to their livestock back at their homes. When we returned to the houses, we bought some souvenirs (including a sweet poncho that I'm going to wear camping) then headed to the Baños!

We arrived to an overflowing amount of sugar cane stands. Everyone was selling sugar cane, its products and anything else sweet. We all bought enough to quench our sweet tooth, then headed into a nice church, then off to get lunch. The lunch was the classiest I've had in Ecuador yet, and we spent about 2-2.5 hours there. I think I would have preferred to use that time exploring the place, but there wasn't really much I could do about that. After, we went on this cable car thing that zoomed us across a valley that had a raging river underneath it (this river eventually ran into the Amazon). It was a very exhilarating experience. Our last stop at the Baños was the zoo where we saw all different types of animals of Ecuador. My personal favorite where the parrots who talked to us, the turtles making babies, and the monkey who slapped Alexis in the face. Zoos can be EXTRA entertaining when they're not as controlled as the ones in the states! You're probably wondering why this place is called "Baños." Well, there is this "holy" waterfall that is blessed by the Virgin Mary. They say the water protects the community from the volcano when it erupts and the Virgin has performed many miracles there in history. The water from this waterfall then goes to fill pools (not exactly what you'd expect when you hear Baños -- no, not hot springs). The pools are filled with about 500 Ecuadorians and are pretty dirty by mid day when we got there, so we came to a unanimous consensus to skip the actual Baños.

Finally, I'm coming to the end of the day where we packed back into our gringo white bus and took the 2.5 hour ride home. I was exhausted and dirty from not showering this whole time, but had a huge smile on my face because it was fantastic!

Until next time, Ciao!

Michael