An Expedition of a Lifetime

   

Look close! Can you find the students?

    We have arrived in Piñan, a community located amid valleys of the “Paramo”, or highlands. It is day 12 of our expedition, the mid-point, and it has been incredible to see the difference between this expedition and our first one back in New England. The food, the culture, and the scenery are very distinct. Also, the addition of our two-team members has made life full of flavor. For example, nightly meetings are now often spoken in Spanish. Those who came into the group only knowing how to say “Hola, ” can now be heard forming complete, mostly coherent sentences.

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Malena and Colton, enjoyed a well deserved rest

    The scenery continues to amaze us as we travel through the villages

    Our two new members, Jonathon and Cristian, are from Ecuador, but were raised in completely different ways from one another. Jonathon is 19 and is from San Clemente, the highland community where we had our homestays in the beginning of our expedition. He has shown to be soft spoken and simultaneously extremely driven.  We were lucky to be able to meet his family, both immediate and extended during our visit. We learned about how skilled his grandfather is in the craft of woodworking. It has been so wonderful and special to be able to connect with Jonathon even more after learning and experiencing his home. Christian lives in Santa Rosa, a valley that is much lower in altitude than San Clemente and thus warmer. When Cristian explains his home to me, a smile spreads across his face, as he tells me about the beauty and diversity of the animals, as well as the peaceful feeling of being in his community in the “Cloud Forest”. Cristian has a light and cheery spirit, which is appreciated by all who surround him. They are both great athletes, which was even more apparent when in our first few weeks we were adjusting to the altitude.  The eleven American students are trying to be proactive in our communication with them. Alessio has definitely been the most successful, due to his fluency in Spanish, but the rest of us have also been stepping up to the challenge. Our group has noticed that when we are feeling really tired after a long day; we begin to think in basic Spanish, which can be quite comical. In general, the whole group has grown into and embraced the chaos of expedition and we are learning to coexist peacefully more and more as the days roll by.

Cristian, enjoying another great day of biking

    Jonathon- excited to share his home with the group

    The last blog post ended with us at the “Casa del Cerro”, the mountain hut. The next morning, we rose at 3:00 AM to begin a 7-hour hike to the summit of Mount Imbabura. It was incredible leaving the house in the dark and later watching the sunrise over the mountains, glowing pink, purple and yellow. We all stopped in amazement to watch the day begin. On we continued for hours at a steep vertical climb. After seemingly endless walking up the tall grassy mountainside, we buckled ourselves into climbing harnesses and continued up an even steeper grade.  We all finally summited, exhausted from the climb. We completed the climb with absolute optimism, even Colton who sometimes experiences a fear of heights.  After we hiked down, the rest of the day was relaxing. We found ourselves exhausted and triumphant, and cozied up about the mountain hut, grateful to finally rest.

    At the summit!

  

Triumphant!

    The next morning we continued on our way, and headed down to say our final good-bye to San Clemente, and with that- we headed off pedaling into the day. We began by going down a huge hill, breaks squeaking from all directions as we plummeted hundreds of meters. The biking that day was wonderful as we passed through many small villages. We have found that our group favors riding through forests and less populated areas but on the other hand, it is such a great cultural experience to be in the towns as well. When we ride through villages, children lean out of their buses to yell “Hello!” at the passing gringos. At the end of the day, we finally arrived at our camp outside the town of Cotocachi at an early hour, and we topped the day off with a much appreciated ice cream stop.  Our camp was located at a pristine theater (with real toilets!). We set up the tarp and fell asleep that evening quite quickly.

    The sun rose the next morning for the beautiful day of Emma´s birthday; our singing voices waking her to greet the day. Marcea had the great idea to get breakfast in town. So off we went to eat a plate loaded with huevos, pan, queso, arroz, café y carne. You could say that as a result, we were then carrying a few extra pounds! After breakfast we pushed off, hoping to climb 600 meters that day with our goal being the famous hot springs, tucked into the hills. This 20 kilometer day had sounded like a breeze compared to our other 50 to 60 kilometer days of the past, but it was definitely one of our hardest days. The route was hard to navigate because of all of the rough single track we had chosen to take. Traversing around, down, through and up huge valleys tired us all out. We soon had to take out our headlamps and continue on, carrying our bikes down narrow waterfall paths and over closed fences. Tashi held us together by leading us in a group song when our spirits were especially low, and our chorus of perseverance echoed around the surrounding valleys.  We paired up in twos, riding now in the dark, the hills seeming to be more abundant. The sign for the hot springs appeared and Marcea told us we had two more kilometers to go- straight up the whole way. With that goal in mind, we pushed ourselves to the finish, the hot springs, a warm dinner, and our tents set up waiting for us when we arrived. The warmth of the meal warmed our spirits, and we all piled into bed as this biking leg of the expedition had come to an end.

    When we awoke the next morning we said good-bye to our bikes and hello to our big trekking backpacks. The morning started a little late, but we finally got on our way up a steep mountain, first taking the wrong path, bushwhacking to find the new one, and finally having to go back down half of the mountain to get to the correct one. All we could see once we got onto the ridge were waves of golden grass, moving like the ocean in the wind. We followed a small footpath for hours, winding around and around across mountains. Then the sun began to set and we quickly pulled out our headlamps, continuing to follow the small trails. Having found no water sources throughout the day, our teachers went off ahead to hunt for one, and we continued walking in a line in the darkness.  We followed the glow of their headlamps, which seemed like stars against the dark sky. Upon finding a source of water, we quickly set up camp and were kindly told to eat dinner in our tents. The evening ended with a set of glowing tents, lit by headlamps and our group eating a well-deserved dinner, exhausted and happy.

Each day brings new and exciting challenges!

A beautiful spot to camp

    The next day we started out early, as we wanted to avoid arriving to camp in the darkness.  The day was again filled with the glorious sea of golden straw. The teachers left us alone at points, allowing us to participate in a group solo to reach a particular meeting spot. We walked high up along the ridge, feeling that the day was the perfect temperatura, the Ecuadorian sun not too hot, the breeze not too strong. We finally saw the meeting place several hundreds of meters below and we all considered what to do next. We slipped over the edge and scooted our way down, slipping and sliding down the golden waves. After the slope we found a wonderful campsite alongside a flowing clear river. We were able to bathe and wash off our grimy bodies from the past few days. The mountain stream was a wonderful place to wash away the layers of dirt. We fell asleep, feeling light and clean, with the noise of the gargling river singing us a lullaby.

High along the ridge

    The teachers had warned us that we would be spending the next day alone as a group. It was only a five-kilometer hike that day, so we left camp at around 8:30, leaving no trace behind. The walk was a beautiful and direct one into the little village of Piñan. Piñan is a community of about 200 people. We ate our peanut butter and jelly wraps in a field, spending an hour lounging around before officially entering the village. It was nice to spend time together as a group without the teachers. It forms a deeper connection between the group, learning how to more actively communicate in both languages.

    It was super nice to have a rest afternoon as well as a lazy morning to shower, relax, and regroup in the lodge of Piñan. We all sat around a big window, which looked out over the village, taking note of their mud huts and thatched roofs. Michael gave us a history lesson on the village, telling us that it was customary to be taken care of in Piñan. It is what is expected for them culturally. Because they live simply, people from the “outside world” constantly desire to help by giving donation. This reality has both its pros and cons, he explained to us. We ate an abundance of food during our short layover, basking in relaxation. We left that next afternoon waving goodbye to the kids and the adults, and we hiked off through the village. We made our way to a nearby lake, about four kilometers away. It was an easy day for us. Tanner, Alessio, and Colton wandered off once we arrived at the lake. They had brought some fishing supplies and were keen on trying it out.  Sadly they were not able to catch any fish, only one dead one, but their spirits were still high when they came back to camp. The fog slowly set in as the night came on. We all piled into one tent, all 13 of us reading together our group book, Ines of my Soul.

What a place to set up camp!

    The next morning we awoke early for the long day ahead of us. We would be descending 1500 meters from the highlands, into the great cloud forest. The path was a steep down hill and we had to learn to move with the mud because it had rained. Marcea, Alessio and Tashi were at the front of the pack. They looked at each other and began to sprint down the muddy path, with fully loaded backpacks. They would sprint for 5 minutes and then wait for the rest of the group to come slowly sliding down. The transition from the long golden grass to the green mossy forest was in such a short time that it was almost incomprehensible. We crossed beautiful streams, our rainboots keeping our feet dry. We eventually came to a road we walked for awhile, collecting fruit from bushes along the roadside. Our group got a little split up, and before long we saw Aidan and Olympia in the back of a local truck and we followed suit, piling in, hitching a ride to our new destination. We were to stay with a wonderful couple living on the mountainside where will be learning how to make our own baskets. The next few days will be rest days, learning new skills and taking time to reflect on our expedition thus far.

I spy a happy traveler!


Making our way into the lush lowlands

  
Our next blog will come after we return to Palugo, and have spent some time working and learning on the farm, as well as preparing for our final expedition in the mountains. We hope that you are enjoying reading about our journey, and we can't wait to hear from you via snail mail, as our journey continues!

Your scribe,
-Rosy