Ecuador is a country with 22 provinces and each one quite different from the other. And everyone here is so excited to show you their country. Nathalie (my boss) had generously offered to take me to the coast on the weekend to show me a different aspect from the highlands and to get a sense of what their various projects are on the ground. I hope to go to one of coastal cities, Guayaquil, next week to see some of the field work. She was excited to have me head to the coast on the weekend as that truly would show me and have me immerse more into the culture of Ecuador.
About 2 weekends ago, we had the opportunity to head to the coast. On a 16 hour trek to the province of Manabi I saw the many faces of Ecuador. It was explained to me by my co worker Andrea that as you drive through the country you can touch the window and feel the temperature change depending on the landscape and climate you are in. We started off going through the highlands and mountains where the it was very cold and windy. As we started to drive across the mountains we suddenly felt a gust of humidity fill the car and as i peered out the window i noticed a compeletely diferent picture – more tropical and rainsforesty, in fact we were driving through the lórienete.
The main thing i noticed on the drive was the amount of very rural and poor areas there were. There were an incredible amount of stalls along the sides of the mountains with ecuadorians selling anything they can. What strikes me thougth is the number of very very young children that act like adults even that are manning these stalls on their own. Andrea tells me that this is in fact somethign quite common where many of these children are sent out by their parents to work and make money and they take the money with them. As part of e-ducate and Nathalie´s consulting she has worked with the government to help set up social programs to alleviate some of these distresses.
However, with all that i do see in terms of despair Ecuador has carved out a great and growing story – eco tourism. It is inspiring to see how a country as small as Ecuador has truned their strength in nature into a successful enterprise that benefits the people of the country. That sounds confusing so let me explain….Cris, who we live with, runs a tourism company and she organzies trips to all parts of Ecuador. One of the most important things to her is that whenever she puts up her guests in a lodge, hotel or any other form of accomodation it is eco friendly and run or benefits the community that inhabit that area. And there is no shortage of these places. When we ended up in the coast we stayed at a tremendous lodge called al Andaluz. This place was run on solar energy and was made completely out of bamboo and natural products. All the food served in the restaurants was made in an organic farm in the neighbouring city. The owner of the lodge employes Ecuadorians from neighbouring towns in all aspects of running the lodge and tours to the coast. When i spoke to the waitress, she mentioned that she was from Puerto Rico (a near by city in Ecuador) and that she loved working in the lodge. Her experience was beyond being a waitress and was to learn more about eco tourism and hopefully move up with in the lodge in her experience.
There are many of these lodges and amazon retreats that are run by local community members or tribes and end up generating income for their people while still perserving their culture.
In this aspect Ecuador is a true success story. This week at work i hope to finalize my second draft of my project on social inclusion and immigration. We will be merging it into a larger framework. Hopefully i´ll have the chance to explore soem of the other projects the organization works on but it has consumed me reading up and understanding all the policy implications for social inclusion.
Till next time….
Tags: Travel
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