Working with the guayusa farmers

Hi friends and family!

Recently, I have been working a lot with the guayusa farmers organization. Here is an update on what I have been up to with the in the last few months.

We have been working with a facilitator, Wain Collen, to help the farmers develop their statutes, internal regulation and communication plan, and help them with budgeting their use of the social premium fund (a fund that the business pays into for each purchase of guayusa that is meant to be used the benefit of the farmers).

In September the group had elections of representatives to the farmers' organization and they requested that a representative of Runa be present at the meetings in order to explain Fair Trade and the social premium fund.  It was very interesting to go to the communities to talk to the farmers and also witness their election process.

Listening to a presentation in the community of Atacapi.

Women filling in their secret ballots to elect their representative in San Rafael (the woman second from the right won the election). 

The presentation of the new representatives and their alternates in Nukanchicausay and Cotundo (below).

Although from my pictures it may seem that there is a significant number of representatives who are women, this is actually not the case.  There are 20 representatives and four are women - many women were elected as alternates. Kichwa women have many responsibilities in the home and often do not speak Spanish as well as the men (most indigenous people in Napo province who live in communities speak Kichwa as their first language).  This makes traveling to the town of Archidona for meetings and interacting with Fundación Runa (with mostly Spanish-speaking staff) seem very difficult.  The good thing is, as the geographic zonal cooperatives take form, all farmers will have more opportunity to participate as  the meetings will be in their zones and will be held in Kichwa.

In October I took a group of the farmers on a trip to visit a cooperative called Jambi Kiwa that produces medicinal plants in the mountain city of Riobamba.  The organization was started by an inspiring indigenous woman named Rosa Guaman and is 90% women.  They have grown little by little over 25 years and now export their organic and Fair Trade certified medicinal teas and other products to North America and Europe.

Rosa is in the middle in the hat in the photo below:

 

The Runa farmers also went on a tour of some of the small farms, which are very different from their larger, warmer jungle farms, and exchanged information and ideas with the Jambi Kiwa farmers.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Love,
Aliana

Birthday Weekend in Alausí

Dear Friends and Family,

I am still trying to catch you all up on the adventures that I've had in the last few months here in Ecuador; I must share my birthday trip to Alausí with you!  I decided that at 29 instead of a birthday party I wanted a quiet weekend in the mountains with Xavi.... Nevertheless I had a wonderful surprise cake at a party in Quito the weekend before my birthday.  The tradition here is that you get cake in your face.

My housemates and girlfriends also made me dinner and decorated with balloons and candles the night before I left for Alausí.

The next morning Xavi and I were off to the small Andean town of Alausí to take the train to the Naríz del Diablo (Devil's Nose). We stayed in a beautiful guest house called Hostería La Quinta, which was formerly the owner's family's house but was converted to accommodate the tourists that visit the quaint town.

The view from the Hostería is gorgeous mountains all around.

There is a big statute of Saint Peter on a hill in the town of Alausí.

Here is the view of the town from the hill: 

At the turn of the 20th century there was a train system from Guayuquil on the coast, to Quito in the mountains. After neglect and natural disasters in the second half of the century many sections of it were rendered useless.  In the last few years, President Correa declared it a national cultural patrimony and has dedicated funds to the repair of the railway as a tourist attraction.

The portion that we rode was from Alausí to the Devil's Nose Sisambe station.  It includes a section of the track that is built as a switchback or railway zigzag.  The trip is very steep; it goes from 7697 ft to 6102 ft. Therefore, it needs this mechanism that takes the train in a zigzag pattern using short pieces of rail and switches to move the train back and forth down the very steep part of the mountain instead of going straight down.
 
These old trains pictured below brought hundreds of tourists at a time out to see Naríz del Diablo.  Passengers were allowed to ride on top of the train.

We rode the new trains (I have to get a picture from Xavi to put here!) that are luxury in comparison. They have comfortable compartments and a tour guide that speaks several languages; however passengers cannot ride on the top of the trains anymore.

Here is the Devil's Nose itself:

And some other beautiful views in the area.

The station where the tourists arrive to see the Devil's Nose is close to two indigenous communities who work in the small museum, gift stands, and cafeteria at the station in return for a percentage of each ticket. It is an impressive tourist operation that is very well run. I highly recommend it!

Love,
Aliana 

Visit to Santiago, Chile

Hello friends and family!

It has been almost two months since my last blog post! I must catch you all up on the wonderful things that have been happening in my life since June. I'll start with my trip to Santiago to visit my mom, who was living and teaching in Chile as a Fulbright Scholar.

I was in Chile for five days and my mom was an excellent guide, I saw so many wonderful sights in a short period of time.

Chile is known for its wine and my mom and I love wine, so we visited the Cousiño Macul winery which is accessible by the metro system in Santiago. It was founded in 1870 by Matías Cousiño and is still run by the same family, six generations later.

Here I am with the founder:

Mom and I in the old bottling room.

Here are mom and the tour guide in the cellar where the wine used to be stored. Now this storage area is just used for show.

Another highlight of the trip was our visit to the Pablo Neruda house in Santiago called "La Chascona". While he was married to his first wife, he had a mistress who lived in this house that he bought for her. He eventually left his wife and married his mistress and they were together until he passed away. Besides his creativity in poetry, he was an artful home decorator and displayed many of his collections from his world travels. We were also told that he loved to entertain guests at dinner parties and so his dining room and bar were lively and fun. We were not able to take photos while inside the house, but here is the website if you would like to see photos.

The other museum that we went to was the Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos (Museum of Memory and Human Rights). In a sensitive and moving way, it tells the story of the dictatorship of Agusto Pinochet and the human rights abuses that many suffered under his rule. If you are ever in Santiago I highly recommend it.

For lunch one day we went to the Mercado Central Fish Market.

On the Sunday we went to visit my friend, Carolina, a native of Santiago who I met while she was visiting Ecuador (she was featured here in Jungle Postcards back in March).  We had a fantastic lunch with her two sisters and her mom.

On my last day in Chile my mom took me to the Cerro Santa Lucía where the city of Santiago was founded by Pedro de Valdivia in 1541.

It was such a lovely trip! Thanks Moom for a fun trip to a new city!

I hope everyone is doing well. I'll post about my other adventures soon :)

Love,
Aliana

Afternoon in Papallacta

Papallacta is a town in the Andes mountains between Quito and Tena known for its natural hot springs.  It has an altitude of 3300 meters or 10,800 feet, so it is cold and sometimes even snows there.

Xavier and I had been planning to go for awhile and we finally went for a day trip a few weeks ago. We took a couple of buses from his house in Quito to Papallacta, which took about an hour and a half. We had planned to go for a hike as well, but it is winter in Papallacta now and so it rained the whole time we were there. 

We spent the afternoon lounging around in the different thermal pools, all with gorgeous views of the mountains.

The plants in this region, at this altitude are so different from the jungle.

We hope to go back when the rainy season is over to do a hike and go camping by one of the many lagoons in the area.

If any of you come to visit me in Ecuador, we will go to Papallacta - it is amazing!

Love,
Aliana

Running in Archidona

In March, Cass and I starting running after work in Archidona. We are NOT runners, but we were convinced by our athletic boyfriends and friends to exercise. At first we resisted and complained, but after the first couple of runs, we began to really enjoy it.  We sometimes go by ourselves, with interns, friends, coworkers or our boyfriends, but we always bring Penelope with us.

We run behind the office and cross the river on a wooden foot bridge.

The trail that we run is slightly hilly and filled with pebbles and rocks and the occasional pothole. We have to be careful!

We cross a small bridge over this stream.

The views of the mountains and the clouds are spectacular and make running in this area worth it.

We estimate it is around a 3 mile run, although recently we've been trying to run further. Upon our return, Cass often jumps into the river to cool down and swim around a bit.

There is talk of a group of us running a 10k in Quito (in the high altitude!) in August... we'll see if we can work up to it!

Have a great weekend, all!
Love,
Aliana

Quito Hike: Teleférico to Centro Historico

On Sunday, April 29th I went for a hike with Xavier, Eliot and Kate (a Runa intern) from the top of the Teleférico (cable car/tram) to the Old Town of Quito. It was a long walk, but thankfully it was all downhill...

First we went up the teleférico and we could see all of Quito below us.

Then I saw a woman at the top with llamas and pochos and a sign advertizing 50 cents per person to take a picture. I had to take one with the llama in a poncho and a hat; it so cheesy, but how great is this!?

We walked down towards the city, occasionally cutting through cow pastures.

This was a relaxed hike, so we stopped to rest and chat. Eliot explained the vegetation to us as we descended in elevation.

We stopped to enjoy the sun when it came out.

 
The guys rolled down a hill... and got very dizzy!

All in all it was about a 3 hour downhill walk, which was a great was to spend a Sunday. :)

Love,
Aliana

Cotopaxi

Dear Family and Friends,

This past weekend seven of us camped on a farm near Cotopaxi, a snow capped volcano in the Andes that reaches over 19,000 feet. This is a picture I took at about 6:30am before the clouds came in and covered the volcano.

We had access to a small cabin with a bathroom, a kitchen, and a small living area to hang out in. 


We camped inside a large barn/green house, so it was drier and warmer than outside.






Our hike on Saturday was spectacular.  Here are Bonnie, Robin, Carolyn (with a dog that followed us the whole way on our hike), Eliot and I when we arrived at the southern refuge lodge.

Bonnie, Eliot, Robin, Xavi and I went off on the hike:

The plants in the mountains are so different from the jungle.

 

 Here are are Eliot and Xavi with some brown alpacas (or are they llamas?) on our hike:

And we saw one white fluffy alpaca:

We hiked from the refuge  on the southern face of Cotopaxi at about 13,000 feet up to about 15,700 feet. Here are pictures of  Bonnie and I and Xavi and I on the hike (no, he didn't carry me the whole way, haha...).

It was hard to breath at the top! Plus, at the end of our hike there was a hail storm and the ground was covered in white. Here is Xavi hiking up the last bit:

Here is our view of the peak of Cotopaxi from the top of our hike:

 

We were VERY cold at the top, so we were trying to warm up...

At the end of our hike we relaxed at the lodge and dried our cold, wet clothes. Andy (in the green shirt) and Carolyn stayed behind and relaxed in the lodge while we hiked.

 

 It was a great experience and lots of fun. I'm looking forward to the next hiking trip!

Love, 

Aliana