Intro to Ecuador

Well, I guess I should start off with my experience at the border. I tried to write this story twice, but its kind of complicated. A cab driver tried to rip me off at Peruvian customs and I wasn´t having it that day. I´m very glad my Spanish was up to speed for this exchange. He said it would be 5 soles initially and then it somehow changed to 25 once we were at customs. He thought that he was going to take me all the way to the border, but I only wanted his services up until customs because I could find a mototaxi for cheaper. We yelled at each other for a while and then he called a police officer over. We told our sides of the story and the police officer said I should pay him 10, but I had just exchanged my last 20 sol note for American dollars and only had 5. The police officer said fine, pay him the 5. So I did and the cab driver was furious. He called me a yanqui and a ladron and said that I couldn´t just come in his country and do whatever I wanted. I think he was just mad because his trick didn´t work on me so I smiled and left in my mototaxi.

Ecuador is vastly different from Ecuador. Since Dollarization in 2000 (their currency is the American dollar), people have been able to get credit lines, the government has been able to spend more, and it has completely changed the country over the last 10 years. It amounts to lots of personal cars, better infastructure, but also increased work hours to pay off debt and in smaller towns, many of the beautiful handmade crafts Ecuador in known for just aren´t worth the time anymore. A woman can´t spend a week making a hand-woven poncho when time is money. I have heard mixed reactions about it from Ecuadorians I´ve talked to.

Since I have been in Ecuador, I spent 5 days in Vilcabamba, which is a little mountain town that has sadly been overrun by American ex-pats. The culture has been destroyed, but the scenery is amazing. I was trying to set up a WWOOF farm, but in the mean time was just staying at a sleepy little hostel where I met a really interesting Greek woman who worked there. She was in her 40s I think and had been kind of traveling the world for who knows how many years. She saw that I was reading an Osho book which a friend in Piura gave me and recommended some other reading. I happened to be there at the same time as one of her friends who had spent the last 40 years translating ancient scriptures that were found in 1945 by two farmers in Egypt from Coptic to English. His web site is metalogs.org and its really interesting. He´s quite a fascinating guy. I am reading his translations of these lost texts off and on and they can be pretty eye-opening.

After Vilcabamba, with no successful WWOOF set up yet I went to Cuenca which didn´t leave much of a lasting impression. I was only there for a couple days, but wasn´t in the mood for a city and persued a farm that ended up being another failure. I left that farm ready to give up on WWOOF and went to Guayaquil to explore other options.

I ended up loving Guayaquil. Some people have told me that it used to be the armpit of Ecuador, but I thought it was great. Since the 90s they have made huge steps in beautify the city and it has tons of public art, mainly symbols Ecuadorian nationalism, a great malecón (riverwalk), and beautiful public parks that I would spend my days reading and writing in. One park in the middle of downtown is full of giant iguanas. Its amazing, they´re up in the trees, right by my feet, and sometimes theres a kid pulling on one´s tail. I even got to see a couple of Iguana fights. I stayed in Guayaquil for about a week and set up yet another WWOOF farm.

This one is great and where I am staying for the next few weeks. I have been here for a week already. Its outside of beautiful Baños Ecuador. The woman who owns it is Canadian, but has lived here for about 15 years. There is a mandarin and lemon grove which I have been working in, a vegetable garden, and tons of herbs for all kinds of interesting teas. The work has not been too grueling, but we´ll see how it goes in the next few weeks. I work from about 7 30 - 3 30 five days a week and have the rest of my time to explore surrounding areas or just read, write, and think in the beautiful garden. I have a book on permaculture and the other volunteer has 14 great books that I´m digging into as well. I feel excellent at this farm so it should be a nice month where I don´t have to be constantly moving.