Protecting the watershed

24 January

We have spent the last few days in the mountains at Stuart White’s hacienda. Stuart is an American geographer who is married to an Ecuadorian woman. He has lived in Ecuador for 30 years. I met him when I came here with the university two years ago. It is a four hour drive to the east from Cuenca. We made the trip with Steve, a British ex-pat who is friends with Stuart. Stuart followed in his own truck. We stopped in a small village along the bumpy road and bought some bread and cheese and beers. We sat on a stone wall across from the tienda and drank beers and talked about the work Stuart is doing.

Stuart’s property contains cloud forest, paramo and lots of wooded land he is trying to protect from destruction. He is working toward an eco-tourist project sometime in the future. His main goal is to protect the watershed and the highland forests. There are plenty of opportunities for work here but you have to pay quite a lot to volunteer.

There are several other volunteers working and living at Stuart’s – two British girls who are hilarious – Kate and Sally. Allyson from Ohio University (who later became my friend and housemate), Tyler from Canada, Jessie from somewhere down south, Dan and Carrie from the Boston area. They are living in the clouds here, almost. A steady stream of clouds cuts the immediate view in half. There are alpaca everywhere, with their curious little noses and funny faces – like intelligent sheep.

We have camped for the past three days, which was great since we had a very effective rain fly and it rained a lot. Our time here has been peaceful – or tranquilo as they in Spanish. We hiked up to the paramo today where Allyson showed me what Stuart thinks is a Canari (pre-Inca) trail about one foot wide running along the top of a ridge. She also showed me what is thought to be a Canari ceremonial site, a wooded hill jutting up sharply and flattened off at the top. Lots of archaeology could be done here, though these projects would probably be hindered by lack of access and lack of money. Regardless, I feel drawn in a different, unknown and as yet unarticulated direction.