The Vivero, Northern Ecuador and the Coast

Well, hey again to everyone from Ecuador. My friends and I spent the better part of last week working in the Vivero (Spanish term for nursery center) in Union Toachi for Br. Giovanni and his Otonga Foundation. We mostly helped split young bamboo saplings and replant them in small bags of dirt. When the Bamboo matures enough, the plants are then replanted in the sourounding areas. There are several viveros in the region run by Giovanni and his group. Working in these viveros offer opportunities for locals in the area to get involved with the Otonga Foundation as well as working to reinstate native vegitation back into the surrounding areas. The people we worked with were very nice and it was an enjoyable few days. We then travelled back up into the mountains for a few days to try and visit the schools in Galapogos and Naranjito that we had missed the week before. We arrived in Galapogos on Thursday night, planning on visiting the school the next morning to take picutes for Giovanni and teach some english. But, as usual in Ecuador, our plans changed quickly. For the second Friday in a row, they did not have school (this time the teacher had taken off for Latacunga) Luckily, the town rallied together and we spent the evening taking pictures and gathering information. It was really neat how quicly word of mouth spread of our arrival and parents and neighbors rounded up all of the kids for us. We stayed the night with a very friendly man named Rodrigo Aski and his family. He works in the Vivero near Galapagos. He and his wife had 5 kids of their own and were pretty poor, yet they went out of their way to make us feel welcome in their home. It is amazing how kind and welcoming the people are here. The next day we travelled to the school in Naranjito ( a short hour walk by Ecuadorian standards) before returning to Toachi for one last night. We said good bye to our Friend Artoro (more or less the groundskeeper in the new educational visitors center Br. Giovanni built in Toachi). We then returned to Qutio and decided to visit Northern Ecuador for a few days.
The terrain in Northern Ecuador is much dryer and as a result the mountain vegitation is very different from what we had experienced in the Quito region. The area is known for the large Afro-Ecuadorian population in and around the towns of Chota, Amboqui, amd Juncal. We also visited the northern mountain town of EL Angel for the afternoon, a mere 20 miles from the Columbain border. Overall the region lacked much to see outside of the dry mountain landscape. We had a few fun conversations with some ladies we met in Juncal and Chota about the area and the Afro-Ecuadorian culture. Monday, we decided to bus back to Quito and regroup before heading to the coast.
Monday night, we ate our last meal in the mission and said goodbye to Givonni and friends. It was a little sad leaving them for the last time. I really appreciate all that he has done for us and hope to work with him again in the future. We then opted to take a direct night bus from Quito to Puerto Lopez and begin our final travels in the country along the coast. The 12 hour bus ride was not too terrible despite the blarring music played the entire time (we think to keep the bus driver awake through the night). Puerto Lopez is a small relaxed beach town on the central coast. We spent the day Tuesday relaxing on the beach and resting from the long bus ride. Today, we took a boat out to the Isla de la Plata (silver Island) part of the Machallia national park nearby. It is famous as being the ¨poor man´s Galapagos¨ as the real islands are much farther out at sea and as a result are rather expensive to travel to. We were lucky enough to see 5-6 whales upclose on our boat ride to the island. It was a really neat experience. We then arrived to the island and took a 2 hour walk around the islands path with our guide. Along the way we spotted blue footed boobies, black masked boobies, the endangered Albatross and a sea lion bathing on the beach. There were some really great views of the rocky island cliffs dropping into the ocean as well. We followed the hike with lunch and a short snorkling trip on the islands coral coast. Overall a pretty full and exciting day.
Tomorrow we plan to visit the mainland section of the park and hike to La Playa de Los Frailes, a secluded white sanded beach that is supposedly the best and most beautiful in all of Ecuador. Later this week we plan on busing further down the coast on our way to Guayquil, Ecuador´s most populated city, where Kyle will fly home and Nate and I will continue on into Peru. Should be a relaxing next week or so. I hope everything continues to go well back home. I can not wait to share my experiences with you all when I return August 11. Until then....

Paz y Amor de Ecuador.

Marco

P.S. Sorry I could not post any picutres with the post. The computer at the internet cafe is pretty slow!