Atahualpa First Impressions

We arrived in Atahualpa about 5 days ago and met up with our host families- I underestimated how amazing that experience really is.  Sitting in Quito comparing host brothers, sisters, etc. seemed very odd and wrong somehow, to compare families, but now after settling in I really love where I am.  I have five brothers and two sisters, so a huge family, but only one brother lives in the house full time- his name is David.  So everyone else lives elsewhere and works- some in Quito that come to Atahualpa on Sundays, but the others live farther away and don't visit as often.  It's pretty crazy how everyone thinks I am freakishly tall here- and it is because I kind of am.  The ceilings in the house are very short- especially doorways, so I have to duck so as not to hit my head every time.  I have already hit my head multiple times-- but everyone in the family is relatively short, especially the parents. So I am very tall relative to everyone around me.  The house is not really a house, but a connection of rooms- kitchen, bedrooms, and bathrooms with a shower.  Lucky for me, a bucket shower but with hot water.  The bucket shower felt a bit awkward, but really isn't all that different from a regular shower.  So pretty small house setup, but cozy-- everyone knows each other, there is a balcony overlooking the town area, and everything feels quaint.  My spanish has improved tremendously- especially my comfort with speaking with my family.  I was playing bananagrams in spanish and struggled a bit, but after switching over to english I kept thinking of spanish words to play, so I struggled even more.  Thinking in spanish is pretty neat- hard to switch back and forth between languages though.

The town is very remote- about a 2 hour bus ride to Quito, and direct access to a lot of mountains nearby. When we go out for work projects, we see farmers on sloped mountainsides, cows, horses, chickens, a slew of farm life.  My host mom always says "tranquilo", which means calm, and I get the impression that life here is calm but very trying.  When I woke up for a 6 am run I was not alone in the least- many other farmers were walking for milk or other farm duties/necessities here.  Gladys, one of the main figures in the local government, says that many people need to walk miles for milk, and that the milk economy is not very efficient.  Being in so remote a place involves a lot of walking, especially because farm life is so busy.  Yet, contrary to my assumption of food in Ecuador, I have eaten a ton.  Some meals I have not been able to finish because of the sheer mass of food.  A lot of soups, rice, empanadas, tea, chicken, and some beef too.  One of the most different customs here with food is the eating of guinea pigs.  My family here thought it strange that we did not eat our pet guinea pig, Star, because on the roof of the house, they take care of 20-30 guinea pigs for selling and eating.  But to my knowledge, I have not yet eaten any guinea pig- though I hear it is a treat.  The amount of fruit here is amazing too- my mother makes a lot of juices, including melon, tomato, pineapple, and mandarin.  Really sweet too.

Much like Quito, many of the material goods here are extremely cheap.  Instead of a one or two dollar ice cream, most ice creams here are 30 cents.  Tissues were only 75 cents, but buying select goods like sunscreen cost 13-15 dollars!  The other day I saw a car with toilet paper on the dashboard- here they place toilet paper only in the trash.  Apparently, even an item like an X-Box or Playstation amounts to 1,000 dollars, whereas in the US they are only about 200.  So it depends on what kind of items to purchase.  The first few days everyone went crazy on the ice cream because of the novelty of it being so cheap- we've tapered off a bit, but the ice cream craze still continues.

Our work project here revolves/focuses around the study of the environment and natural resources.  Our main focus for all of our trail work and other projects to come is ecotourism for Atahualpa.  We have had two days of work thus far- one digging paths for water to travel down the side of a road, and today working on widening a path to waterfalls in the mountains.  The road we worked on led to the Fuya Fuya- one of the highest mountains here.  The road was incredibly bumpy- so we dug ditches for water runoff on the side of the road while using that dirt to fill ditches in the middle of the road.  It was a bit of a fragile situation- we were worried that rain could wash away all of our work and make the road even worse.  We don't know yet because we haven't returned, but it has rained a lot.  Very gray in the afternoons- we arrived on a bluebird day, but have had pretty steady gray, cloudy afternoons.  We are a little lower here than in Quito, but not much, so the clouds are very close.  Every night so far I've looked out from the balcony and thought that we were in a cloud.  We actually might be.  The other day of work, for today, was clearing a path to the waterfalls.  A bit sketchy of a path to get there, but we widened it a bit.  At some parts the path drops off to cliffs, more or less, and we had to cross a waterfall at one point to get to another.  So a bit scary at times.  We saw three waterfalls, the biggest of which was about 20-30 meters tall, so maybe a little less than 100 feet.  Really big- the water crashing down looked like the spray from a Coast Guard helicopter hovering above the ocean.  Really gorgeous- we'll get to work near them more in the future.  I can't help but think about what ecotourism will mean for Atahualpa- I keep thinking that the more ecotourism they attract, the less culturally beautiful Atahualpa will become.  More stores, more urbanization and other such forces might attract more visitors, but at what cost to Atahualpa's remoteness and unique culture?  I am sure I will learn more about these questions as I continue to live and explore here.

Weekends are completely different from weekdays- weekdays it is a ghost town, little commotion or people on the street.  But on weekends, families reunite, kids run in the street, and soccer games continue all day in the stadium.  There is also a pool here!  A dollar for admission, but very new- barely a week or two since we arrived.  But soccer is HUGE here- a lot of different towns have their own teams, and they play every weekend.  I was watching a game where there were two red cards and almost a fight.  Really intense- ecua-volley is another sport here, similar to volleyball but played with a soccer ball and a much higher net.  I had a cold this weekend so I couldn't play much unfortunately, only watching.

Other little tid bits- seems that everything is very family oriented here.  The first night I showed maybe ten or so photos of family and friends, and then they showed me about three albums worth of pictures.  Lot of family value, and very friendly too.  Everyone says hi to each other as they pass in the street, and the vibe is calm, but focused and serious too.  Music resonates a lot here too- instead of ipods, the people I've met have songs on their phones instead, and have showed me some of their American songs, mainly electronic.  There is only one clock in the house that I have seen, and time is regarded as a guideline but not a necessity.  Sort of reading time with nature, or time in relation to meals.  All the food is fresh and local too- meats, fruits, vegetables everything.  Very different from the supermarkets of the US, where we don't always know where the food is coming from.  Although the food is not perfect- I was eating some toasted corn and ended up finding a needle in the little bag.  Very scary to see that I almost ate a nail.  But otherwise no problems with food- I can't drink tap water, eat vegetables cold, or fruits with the skin on them, but otherwise all the food agrees with me.

No mosquitoes either, which I love.  Mountains all around, thin air, lot of readings and deep thoughts.  I think I am beginning to understand that this gap year is very different from my average vacation.