June 3, 2011 – 9:18pm
Buenos dias, mi amigos y amigas!
I’ve made it to Intag Valley finally after a long day of traveling and unpacking. My day started bright and early with a 5:30am wake-up call. After that, I proceeded to check-out of my hotel at 6:30am and then caught a taxi at 6:45am for a 15 minute ride across town to meet up with the other volunteers. This went well enough and I got to my destination. No problemas.
From there, I met two of the other three volunteers, the volunteer coordinator and Sarah Clifford (one of the project heads). The volunteer coordinator, Kerry, is around my age and has been in Ecuador for 4 months. She’s also from the states, only on the west coast, in Northern California near the Redwoods and Half Dome. So far, seems like a pretty awesome chick. She speaks really great Spanish and is a favorite among the locals. She’s also very well-versed in traveling through Ecuador.
Sarah is the secretary of the project who I’ve spoken to many times over e-mail, but I never once expected her to be British. She speaks in an awesome accent and seems to be very fond of the Andean Bear Project. She has been in Ecuador for well-over 9 years and has been traveling the world since graduating college in England. She’s spent time in Egypt, Greece, and wherever the wind may take her. My favorite kind of woman: Independent.
The two volunteers I met were Dan and Jack, who are both conveniently located on the East Coast of the US, just like me. Dan, is 6-Year college student in Maryland. Small world, huh? He actually knows where Shippensburg is! Can you believe it? I also learned that he has traveled to Costa Rica where he worked with sea turtles and jaguars (so jealous! Haha) and he has also done work with North American Black Bears in Maryland regarded their denning behavior. So far, a very nice guy! Haven’t got his full story yet.
Jack is a London college student who actually lives in New York between semesters. Again, pretty close to home. This guy seems a little more lost in the world- scatter-brained if you will, but overall very nice. He forgot hiking boots, his iPod, and a number of other things. More on that later! He’s here in search of ideas for his dissertation. Very interesting. He’s also a vegetarian (only for a year so far, I’ve learned). He’s traveled abroad before, obviously, to London and Tunisia. Excited to hear more on that later. He seemed pretty well versed in the humanitarian effort and in global, environmental issues. Also, more on that later.
After getting everything set up at the meeting spot, we waited about an hour for the last volunteer to show. At 8:45, we couldn’t wait anymore, so we went ahead to the Quito Bus Station where we caught a very crowded, 20-minute- long bus ride through Quito to the Carcelan Bus Station. Once there, we purchased tickets for a charter bus to Otavalo. This ride was really nice. I didn’t even mind that it was two and a half hours. Each of us volunteers had two seat rows to ourselves, one for us and one for our bags. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking! We were practically traveling up through the mountains, with views of both the valleys and the peaks. Muy bonita.
When we neared Otavalo, I also got an incredible view of San Pablo Lake and Vulcan Imbabura. Not long after, we arrived in Otavalo which is home to one of the largest markets in all of Ecuador. We arrived around 12:30 in the afternoon and had to go grocery shopping and eat lunch before our bus to Intag left at 3:00pm.
During our ride to Otavalo, we received news from Sarah that the last volunteer, also named Sarah, had made it to the meet-up point and was about 45 minutes behind us. In order to kill time, Kerry decided to grocery shop and then come back to the bus station to meet up with Sarah. About a 10-minute walk away from the bus station, there is a grocery store called “Aki”. Apparently, you can get some but not all things in Intag, so we had to stock up for the month. While Kerry shopped for our supplies, she recommended we pick up anything special we needed. So, I purchased a jar of Nutella (for breakfast stuffs) and a couple extra bottles of water.
Following our grocery shopping adventure, we went back to the bus station and met up with Sarah. Sarah is a 25-year-old college graduate from Australia who has been traveling through Central America and the Northern countries in South America for about 4 months now. She still has 2 months before she plans on returning to Australia. I’m interested to hear more of her story as this month goes on.
After meeting up with Sarah, we went to an Ecuadorian Restaurant in Otavalo, where we ate the set lunch, called Almuerzos in Ecuador. It was about $2 a person and included some kind of beef stew with potatoes, peas, celery, and a bone-in spare rib (or that’s what it looked like). It has some kind of butter sauce in it, but overall was very good. Following that, we had the entrée which included a piece of lightly fried chicken (I had a chicken leg) on a bed of rice and beans, accompanied by a salad and a slice of avocado. Overall, it was also very good.
After lunch, we went to the fruit market in Otavalo to get the fruits we couldn’t get in the grocery story. We walked through the vendors, looking for apples, oranges, guava, tree tomatoes (which are not a tomato at all), papina dulces (which are a fruit that tastes like a sweet cucumber), and another fruit whose name has completely slipped my mind. It was pretty fascinating, honestly. I’m excited to try it all. We also had to hunt down a machete, which wasn’t too difficult.
We then had to return to the Grocery Store to pick up the meats and dairy products that would’ve have gone bad had we gotten them earlier. Once that was done, we went to the bus station and boarded out bus to Intag, which was the most crowded bus in the world. Just when you thought, “Oh, it’s completely full! They can’t stuff anyone else in here!”, they stuffed about 4 more in. This bus ride was about 3 hours long and was pretty terrifying, because the road looked like it belonged on IRT: Deadliest Roads, but I survived and we arrive at the Casa de los Osos (the bear house) safe and sound.
Once at the house we started unpacking and then ate dinner (quinoa soup, salad, and rice and beans). After that, we washed dishes and then continued to unpack. While unpacking we heard the most amazing thing! HOWLER MONKEYS. Here! In Intag. It was amazing. I can’t wait to hear more wildlife.
Tomorrow, we set out on our first hike. So excited.
With Love and Many Andean Bears,
Ashley
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