Tungurahua Tea Room

Now that I´ve been gone from the Tunguahua tea room, it seems like time to reflect on my experience there. I am writing from Tongachigue, Ecuador, about an hour and a half from my new farm which is just outside of Tongorachí.

My month in Baños turned out pretty well. I was thinking it would be a bit more of a permaculture project that I was working on, but because the owner wasn´t sure how long she would be continuing the volunteer program, she didn´t want to really add anything on to what already existed in her garden. The tasks ended up being more along the lines of weeding and taking care of the vegetable garden. My boss, Mario, a lot of fun to work with and also cooked excellent lunches when it was his turn. It was a nice laid-back work atmosphere, and I made some friends that I hope to stay in touch with for a long time.

One of the people I met there was a man named Carlos. He is originally from San Antonio de Ibarra in northern Ecuador. It is a town famous for being the home of thousands of artists who work in all different mediums of art. Carlos is a wood sculptor whose parents are both indigenous Ecuadorians and much of his sculpture has a Native Ecuadorian flare to it. He happened to be at the farm working on a project for Carol, the owner of Tungurahua Tea Room. They had been friends for years and he had done numerous pieces in her house including a beautiful carving for her kitchen table and about 20 wooden statues of goddesses from cultures around the world which are hung from the outside of her house. Carlos was one of the more interesting people I´ve met on this trip so far and our conversations ranged from Ecuadorian politics, his numerous ideas for inventions for how the world was going to cope with the post-petroleum era, to who knows what. Talking with him was one of the best things I could do to improve my Spanish because we touched on such a wide variety of vocabulary. He also headed up a group that kept a large hydroelectric company from destroying El Pailo del Diablo, a beautiful waterfall a bit outside of Baños. This campaign resulted in threats on his life, but eventually he and a few other dedicated people were able to save this beautiful place. He left after my second week at the Tea Room, but we would meet up later.

Another friend was Jared, another American who graduated from college in 2009 too. If you are keeping up with the blog, he is the guy with 14 books. It was nice to have someone else my age to hang out with. We became pretty good friends quickly and ended up taking a couple weekend trips together and might meet up again in another country...who konws.

Our first trip was to Puyopungo, a tiny village in the Amazon jungle. We both thought it was going to be more of a town, but when we got there, we saw that it was no more than a few wooden houses and a dirt soccer field. It did have a bunch of Cabañas for us to stay in though. The hiking around the village was beautiful and we ended up skipping out on a day of work to stay a night longer.

Being in the Amazon made me think about how interconnected each aspect of nature is and how disconnected we seem to be from it. Observing the animal and plant interactions there is like watching evolution occur right before your eyes. Each tree stump, hole in the ground, or even a piece of bread you leave out (not even out, we left bread in a plastic bag hanging in the kitchen and it was a colony of ants the next morning) overnight is just teeming with life. The Amazon is nature at hyperspeed and as a person, although you see the beauty, you also feel like a bit of an invader.

After Puyopungo, it was my last week in the Tea Room. Four new volunteers came in the middle of the week and it got a bit crowded after I had grown accustomed to just Jared and me living there so I was happy to be on my way. That weekend Jarend and I went to visit Carlos in San Antonio de Ibarra. It turned out to be this awesome little town full of life and art. From there, Carlos took us to:
1. Otavalo Market, a must-see spot in Ecuador. This famous outdoor public market was kind of disappointing because it attracts so many tourists that its kind of killed the charm I´m sure it used to have. It was lot of booths repeating the same types of crafts, but it did have amazing food. I ate blood sausage and a plate of intestine looking things that was excellent.
2. Cotacachi, a little town known for its amazing leather work. There was shop after shop of beautiful handmade leather crafts: bags, coats, chairs, whatever you can think of they had it in leatherñ
3. Pimampiro, another little town, but still a place based almost solely on agriculture. I ate the be melcocha of my life there. Melcocha is like Ecuadorian salt water taffy, but its made from panela. Panela is basically cooked sugar cane (the real Sugar in the Raw). This melcocha was amazing because it was filled with peanuts and ended up tasting like a totally natural Snickers bar and its packaged in a dried banana leaf. I bought about a kilo and it was gone within 2 days. Pimampiro also has a market one day a year where no money is exchanged, just bartering. Too bad its in April.
Ibarra, the capital city in Ibarra province and home to the best ice cream I´ve ever had and one of the worst cover bands I´ve ever seen.

After San Antonio, I bid farewell to Jared who was returning to the Tea Room and Carlos and head off to Quito. Quito was beautiful and I spent a couple days hanging out with another friend I had met earlier in Ecuador and taking pictures.

All-in-all, a good September. Now I live an hour and a half away from internet and without electricity or running water in Tongorachí. Its awesome! I have been there for about a week and I´ll give a better description when I leave this new farm in about 3 weeks.