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

Día de Campo

Hi Family and Friends!

Happy Easter and Passover to all!

Last week, Runa hosted a Día de Campo or Field Day to show local communities, organizations, and government officials what we do and the advances we have made.

Just to quickly explain, Runatarpuna is the guayusa production, processing and export business here in Ecuador. Fundación Runa works on projects with indigenous communities and does research on the production of guayusa. These two entities form part of the social enterprise, Runa.

Here we are setting up the Fundación Runa tent before the Día de Campo:

Runatarpuna's General Manager, Francisco Mantilla and Fundación Runa's Executive Director, Eliot Logan-Hines gave presentations on business and research advances respectively:

The Prefecto of Napo Province, Sergio Enrique Chacón Padilla, was also in attendance, so he said a few words:

The guests then broke into groups and visited tents and processing plant where the Runatarpuna field team, factory staff, and  Fundación Runa employees and volunteers explained advances in the production and processing of Guayusa and social and environmental projects.

Volunteers, Welcome and Lindsay, explaining the mapping project and community needs assessments that they have worked on with Fundación Runa. 

Field technicians, Angel, Silverio and Elisa at their tent explaining how to take cuttings from guayusa trees and plant new plants.

Manolo, the factory manager, and a factory staff member explaining the guayusa processing.





After the guests visited all the tents, we went to Silverio's chacra or farm where he explained  how he plants guayusa with other crops, like cacao, in an agroforestry system and the pruning methods that he is experimenting with.

Finally, we came back to Runa's farm, ate lunch and watched a traditional Kichwa dance performance.

I hope you all have a wonderful day! I will post later this week about my weekend in the mountains with friends.

Love,
Aliana

Santa Rita

Hi Family and Friends!

Last week I went up to the school in the community of Santa Rita with Alexandra, Runatarpuna's project manager, and Welcome, our Global Citizen Year volunteer.

Fundación Runa did a community mapping project with Santa Rita to establish where the community boarders the Colonso Forest, a protected area of Amazon Rainforest. This map can help the community make decisions about how to use community land and how to protect the Colonso Forest. With the use of this map, we will work with the community to create buffer zones of agroforestry production by planting guayusa among their other crops. The guayusa will be a source of income to the farmers and hopefully deter them from entering the forest to cut down trees and hunt. You can read more about Fundación Runa's project to protect the Colonso Forest here.

We gave copies of the maps to the leaders of Santa Rita last month, but they requested that we make copies for the school as well, so that they may use it in their curriculum.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

Aliana

Name Tags

Some communities wanted us to identify ourselves when we are in the communities with Fundación Runa badges.  Here we are with our new badges:

Happy Wednesday, all!

Love,
Aliana 

St. Patrick's Day BBQ

Hi Family and Friends!

Last weekend my friends and I went to a barbeque at San Pedro on St. Patrick's Day.  Our friend Ester lives there, right by the river.

Kate, an intern, and I made a cake and Irish Soda Bread :)

Carolina (a friend visiting from Chile and good cook!) and Carolyn (my very fun housemate) helped prepare the food.

The fire was lit under the choza (thatch roof building) and we grilled sweet plantains, kebabs with vegetables and meat, and corn.

 Xavier and I dancing salsa at the BBQ.















Bonnie (my housemate who is a Fullbright Scholar) and Ester (our friend who hosted the BBQ).

Ester, Carolina, Aliana and Carolyn wearing our sunglasses at night :)










It was a really fun day!  More to come soon!

Love,
Aliana