Tech Trip Post

August 8 2009, Saturday

So I just got back from my technical trip today which was a trip that included a couple of different locations in the Guayas and Santa Elena Providence (really we just went through Guayaquil in Guayas for a day and the rest was in the Santa Elena region). The point of this trip was to get a better technical feel for the type of work that we will be doing over the next two years by seeing some of the Peace Corps current projects in these areas and giving Charlas (educational talks) to certain groups along the way. Really though…it was kind of like a vacation time for my group with a lot of ocean and beach! Don’t get me wrong here folks, we definitely worked as well.

We left for our trip last Sunday night and we went through Quito, like you always do to get anywhere in this country really…either Quito or Guayaquil you go to for transportation more or less…so we got to eat dinner in a nice modern mall in Quito where I had Pizza Hut with a side salad. Good stuff let me tell you. Then we got on to our six hour or so overnight bus to Guayaquil where we got in at around four a.m. Now for those of you who do not really know Guayaquil…if you are a foreigner, you do not go out when there is no sunlight; it is just pretty much a rule of thumb there unless for some reason you have an urge to get robbed. So we stayed at the one bus terminal in Guayaquil until the sun came up around six a.m. This was just the one bus terminal, not the main one where we were going to eat breakfast with some of the current PVCs there. So once the sun came up, off we went to the three story bus terminal of Guayaquil where we all ate breakfast together.

Next was another bus to La Libertad in Santa Elena which took about 2 hours give or take (so we settled from travel Monday about at lunch time). La Libertad is a town on the coast line and can be a little touristy as well I believe. This town is the site of one of the girls in our group so we got to meet her counterpart and see the school and what not where she will be working. However, we actually stayed at a hostel right on the coast in a town called Salinas; La Libertad isn’t right on the coast line as it is a little in land but it was only like a five minute bus ride out. Anyways, Salinas was beach number one and we stayed at that hostel for Monday and Tuesday night. Monday was just a travel day and a day on the beach front in Salinas. On Tuesday morning we went to the school of the PCV which I thought was pretty nice (this site has had a few PCVs in the past…I think this might be the last one there…so a lot is already set up for them) and listened to presentations and then gave a charla as well of our own to the kids. Tuesday afternoon after lunch we went to a women’s group meeting and gave a charla there and then went to visit a medical center facility as well that they have. Now with our down time we were forced to eat sea food (which was a little overpriced because of the tourism factor) and relax on the beach.

For Wednesday we left beach number one of Salinas and went to visit a town about an hour and a half or so further north on the coast line (this bus ride was full of amazing views as it was all along the coast the whole way) named Palmer. Now this is also a site of one of our PCVs and it has also seen its share of PCVs over the years; I think both the girl at La Libertad and Palmer have a pretty good chance of closing these sites. In Palmer, the past PCVs there have helped organize a big youth group called “Neo Juventud”. Over the years this group has accomplished a lot such as a gym, a computer/Internet café, and an actual bakery that is completely run by the Youth. All in all it was pretty impressive, and of course, right on a beach front (the PCVs house is literally on the beach…her back yard is the beach). And Palmer was not a tourist town at all so that was a nice change too. We were just there for the day though, and then we drove to Manglaralto for Wednesday and Thursday night (we left there Friday afternoon).

Manglaralto is nearby one of the towns that we are prohibited to visit during service as well which I thought was interesting. The town is called Montanita and is about a twenty minute walk along the beach north from Manglaralto. The reason it is prohibited for us is because Montanita is a really touristy town and there is a lot of theft there with foreigners…and since we are technically the government’s responsibility while we are working here, there are certain sites we cannot go to for security reasons; we can drive through them, but we cannot visit them. Anyways, I just thought that was kind of interesting because you could literally see Montanita from Manglaralto…and really, the beaches in both towns are the same beach and just as nice, just that Manglaralto is safer for us and there is a current agriculture volunteer there working.

So when we first got to Manglaralto Wednesday night we actually went inland…even though it has an amazing and my favorite beach there that we will call number three…to one of her communities that the current PCV works with. She actually works with a group of women who make Panama Hats, and purses, out of a type of tree branch that then get exported all over the world really for a crazy profit. Long story short, I bought a purse for $4 dollars that probably would have ended up getting shipped off and bought for around $80. After seeing that we went on a little nature walk around their community where we got to see all of the natural resources really that they have and use to make a profit. Their main problem is that they don’t know how to run a business and cost things out correctly and that causes a lot of problems. Then we returned back to Manglaralto for the night at our hostel which was literally a two minute walk from the ocean…and they had hammocks out front.

Thursday we went to another one of our PCVs future sites called La Entrada. The main thing that this town does is fish; as once again, it was right on the beach…this one will be beach number four. It was a really nice facility as well and we got to learn about oyster farming. We also went down to the beach front where people were busy at work. A man on a motorcycle with a crate full of fish and a bag full of crabs…all half alive I would say…people pulling in a boat out of the ocean and up onto the shore the old fashion way with logs, and my personally favorite, a man that had just finished snorkeling the shores for octopus. We help the people with the activities that we could for fun. One of our facilitators actually bought one of the freshly caught octopuses for a dollar that we ate at lunch in a mixture as well. We then went back to the facility…which did I mention…is on the coast line, for real…and gave our Charla to a group of youth about planning for your future. We ended the day with some of the best Cheese Cake I think I have ever had (I guess a four star desert chef that use to work in Guayaquil had enough there so he retired out to La Entrada where he has a desert place that everyone knows about) where I got Oreo Cheese Cake, and headed back to our beach front number three in Manglaralto to watch the sunset over the Pacific Ocean.

The last day, Friday, was spent in Manglaralto where we went across to the High School and gave our last Charla in the morning. We then visited the current PCVs garden that she is starting and were then able to spend the rest of the time relaxing on the beach (from about 11 to 3 with lunch on the beach front as well). We then got on the bus to head back to La Libertad, about two hours or so, and then had to wait in La Libertad at the mall until our bus at 8:30 that took us back to Quito…this bus was actually about ten hours though because coming to the coast we stopped in Guayaquil, this bus was just direct. Therefore, here I am back in La Chimba for Saturday night.

All in all, the trip was a really good success and a lot of fun with great sites that I will be sure to post up on Facebook, so take a look! Today was just the recovery from the bus rides really…although the one from last night was not the worst I have been on which was a plus…but at the same time, my ankles still blow up with the altitude changes. We did take some time to put on some finishing touches to a moral painting though that we are doing in the town hall area…which hopefully we will get done with one more meeting.

Now for the fun upcoming news event briefing…dun dun dun…the President of Ecuador is coming to La Chimba tomorrow. That is right people, you read that correctly. President Correa will be here in La Chimba tomorrow along with…get ready for this…the President of Bolivar and the President of Argentina I do believe. We are not really sure why…as there are many rumors going around for the possible why. I think though it is a mixture of reasons. One is that there is a native woman who passed at the start of 2009 who was a spokes women for the indigenous group here in Ecuador (comparable to our Martin Luther King we are been told in importance) and she was from here in La Chimba. Also I think it is in part of President Correa celebrating some political win. I asked my host brothers tonight, and they were just kind of like, yeah…we know he will be here tomorrow. They said it was normal and even my fourteen year old brother said he could remember other times that the President of Ecuador has come to La Chimba for some type of celebration or reason. But neither one could really tell me why he was coming tomorrow…but I think the main reason has to do with that native woman, Transito A…something…I can’t remember her last name right now!

So the funny thing is while we are in training all the PCTs cannot be in groups of more than five in a public place and throughout the entire PC we cannot attend political rallies or gatherings as we are politically neutral while we are a part of the PC. But since the five current PCTs live here in La Chimba, we got the okay to watch tomorrow…but from afar. I know that the other PCTs are bummed about this because they have been informed that they cannot come up to La Chimba at all. I have also heard that a lot of the facilitators are planning on coming up because they are Ecuadoreans and the same rules that apply to us do not apply to them. Long story short…tomorrow will be interesting and will start at 8 a.m. as we are going to sit on one of our houses roofs and try to see the helicopters fly into La Chimba at about 10,000 feet above sea level and hope that there are no riots of any type. Go La Chimba!