Friday the 28th at 9.05 pm I finally landed in Quito. After a long wait between gum chewing Americans at the customs, Kartik and Sarah were already waiting for me at the exit. With them was José Luis Pavón, the brother in law of Ulises, a really funny, always smiling guy, who is our baby-sit for the time we’re here. He literally has to follow our every move and take us anywhere we ask him to. Poor guy!!
That night we spent in Quito, going for dinner and a dance, and slowly getting a glimpse of Ecuadorian culture. Or cultures, rather, because out here there are three different kinds of people; Indigenous. Black and Mestizo’s; the descendants of the Spanish. It will come as no surprise that the Mestizo’s run the country and the Black population is the poorest. Therefore, you can imagine that helping the Black villages of the Chota valley is much needed.
Saturday morning we drove off to the Chota valley, while passing all sorts of interesting places along the way. A viewing point over a beautiful lake, rose plantations, little villages, an indigenous market in Otowalo (where we immediately adapted to the local way of dressing by buying hats and shawls), a leather producing village and a sports clothing producing village. All these productive villages are indigenous villages, very much worth a visit to get some ideas.
We had lunch at a food market in Ibarra which served t us by the oldest lady we’d ever seen. Sitting on a wooden bench between the locals we felt we were really getting into that Ecuadorian groove! We drove on to our destination: Oasis Hosteleria! The lovely hotel we are spending our days and taking trips to the villages in the valley from. With swimming pool and slides, this hotel is a local attraction for Ecuadorian tourists. Unfortunately the weather is not hot enough to give us an excuse to lounge at the pool. All the better for our productivity level…
After settling into our rooms we immediately wanted to go explore the valley. Our guide / driver José is from one of the villages here himself, and as a result he knows almost all of the people we encounter, and half of them are relatives of his. The perfect person to have with you when you need to meet the right people! Obviously, he knew exactly which village to go to that evening, because there was a village festival going on in Ambuqui. A castle full of fireworks that go off under the guidance of the fanfare music was a new kind of celebration to us, but to the villagers we as foreigners were even more special! I lost count of how many new friends we made that night!
Even though this village is mostly inhabited by Mestizo’s, a lot of people from the region attend these festivals, so we were introduced to a lot of interesting people and made a couple of plans for the rest of the week. For example, we met José’s cousin Bayron, who is in a committee for the advancement of agriculture ánd in a committee for tourism. In Piquiucho most of the inhabitants are struggling farmers who can use some help to secure a steady income. So hopefully we can get some ideas on how to crack that nut this Tuesday when we visit Bayron.
Other people and organisations we found out are active here are the foundation of Augustín Delgado, another football player from the region, which is concerned with sports, and a committee that tries to increase the export of beans nationally and internationally. For political reasons the government imports beans from other countries, even though there are enough beans being produced locally. The result is that the bean price goes down. This group is trying to change that, but how we will be told next Tuesday too. Furthermore, there is another foundation for agriculture and there are women’s dancing groups.
So that first night we got a pretty good idea of which initiatives are present around here. Most of them are located in the village of Chota, the first village in the valley coming from Quito. As we were told, most people in the valley live of their lands and have little education. They do not produce a lot of artisans or handicrafts like the indigenous people. Health care is minimal and water supply is reserved only for the lucky villages. In other words, a lot has to be done still!!
That night we spent in Quito, going for dinner and a dance, and slowly getting a glimpse of Ecuadorian culture. Or cultures, rather, because out here there are three different kinds of people; Indigenous. Black and Mestizo’s; the descendants of the Spanish. It will come as no surprise that the Mestizo’s run the country and the Black population is the poorest. Therefore, you can imagine that helping the Black villages of the Chota valley is much needed.
Saturday morning we drove off to the Chota valley, while passing all sorts of interesting places along the way. A viewing point over a beautiful lake, rose plantations, little villages, an indigenous market in Otowalo (where we immediately adapted to the local way of dressing by buying hats and shawls), a leather producing village and a sports clothing producing village. All these productive villages are indigenous villages, very much worth a visit to get some ideas.
We had lunch at a food market in Ibarra which served t us by the oldest lady we’d ever seen. Sitting on a wooden bench between the locals we felt we were really getting into that Ecuadorian groove! We drove on to our destination: Oasis Hosteleria! The lovely hotel we are spending our days and taking trips to the villages in the valley from. With swimming pool and slides, this hotel is a local attraction for Ecuadorian tourists. Unfortunately the weather is not hot enough to give us an excuse to lounge at the pool. All the better for our productivity level…
After settling into our rooms we immediately wanted to go explore the valley. Our guide / driver José is from one of the villages here himself, and as a result he knows almost all of the people we encounter, and half of them are relatives of his. The perfect person to have with you when you need to meet the right people! Obviously, he knew exactly which village to go to that evening, because there was a village festival going on in Ambuqui. A castle full of fireworks that go off under the guidance of the fanfare music was a new kind of celebration to us, but to the villagers we as foreigners were even more special! I lost count of how many new friends we made that night!
Even though this village is mostly inhabited by Mestizo’s, a lot of people from the region attend these festivals, so we were introduced to a lot of interesting people and made a couple of plans for the rest of the week. For example, we met José’s cousin Bayron, who is in a committee for the advancement of agriculture ánd in a committee for tourism. In Piquiucho most of the inhabitants are struggling farmers who can use some help to secure a steady income. So hopefully we can get some ideas on how to crack that nut this Tuesday when we visit Bayron.
Other people and organisations we found out are active here are the foundation of Augustín Delgado, another football player from the region, which is concerned with sports, and a committee that tries to increase the export of beans nationally and internationally. For political reasons the government imports beans from other countries, even though there are enough beans being produced locally. The result is that the bean price goes down. This group is trying to change that, but how we will be told next Tuesday too. Furthermore, there is another foundation for agriculture and there are women’s dancing groups.
So that first night we got a pretty good idea of which initiatives are present around here. Most of them are located in the village of Chota, the first village in the valley coming from Quito. As we were told, most people in the valley live of their lands and have little education. They do not produce a lot of artisans or handicrafts like the indigenous people. Health care is minimal and water supply is reserved only for the lucky villages. In other words, a lot has to be done still!!
