Travel and Live in Ecuador

Is open pit mining going to benefit Ecuador?

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 20:38:16 -0400

On 5 March 2012 Rafael Correa signed a contract with Ecuacorriente S.A. to begin the Mirador mining project. The Chinese consortium aims to extract 4700m pounds of copper along with a bit of gold and silver. That means a lot of copper for the world and lots of money for Ecuacorriente and the Ecuadorian government who claim the state will receive $4.4 billion and are proudly declaring what a good deal they´ve got.

This is Ecuador´s first open pit mining project and has caused quite a lot of controversy and debate. A principal reason is that the location is in a range of hills covered in primary forest in the south-east of Ecuador. According to El Universo, (1 April 2012) 54,000 tonnes of rocks will be extracted every day in order to get 572 tonnes of copper. Another reason is that the government is declaring that there is an amazing plan to avoid any (negative) impact on the local community and environment (http://www.ambiente.gob.ec/?q=node/3522 retrieved 6 May 14:42). The Chinese don´t exactly have a reputation for letting people, worker´s rights or the environment come between them and some precious rocks. And the Ecuadorian Environment Ministry don´t have a good record for protecting the environment.

On the other hand it is clear that the project is going to create revenue and jobs as well as some remedial benefits for local people. When Correa was elected he tore up pretty much all existing mining concessions in order to conduct a review and negotiate better agreements (better for the Ecuadorian state). He accuses opponents of being infantile ecologists and argues that the country needs to exploit some of its mineral wealth.

He´s got a good point. The problem is that it has all been said before, by presidents, multinationals, the military, the World Bank, the IMF, foreign consultants etc. and yet none of it has ever worked out quite as planned. If you can´t trust the officials who are supposed to be regulating the mining activity and you can’t trust the ones who are supposed to be spending the revenues for the benefit of the country, it is hard to have confidence that the benefits will ever outweigh the costs.

Information on the project available from the government ministry websites :

http://www.mrnnr.gob.ec

http://www.ambiente.gob.ec

Ecuacorriente´s site looks like someone´s first attempt at web design. http://www.ecuacorriente.com/

Trees & Bears vs. Copper & Gold

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 17:37:56 -0400

Ecuador has been experiencing deforestation at a frightening rate for a number of decades now. There are various reasons: settlement, needs of the timber industry, agriculture and mining are the main ones. The case of the Intag region in Imbabura province is quite typical based on accounts I have read; companies want exploit the natural resources, some sections of the community are in favour, others firmly against it. In this case it is reserves of copper and gold which are attracting foreign companies and members of the Ecuadorian government who either see potential for personal or national gain (who knows which?).

I´ve been reading stuff about these issues since I got to Ecuador. It seems like the mainstream media couldn´t have given a xxxx until they started to see an opportunity for some anti-Correa articles. My main source is a website called upsidedownworld.org It has a pretty strong left wing bias but has interesting perspectives on many Latin American issues. You can search for DECOIN which is the name of the organization set up to try and protect the current balance of cloud forest and small scale settlement. Alternatively just go straight to the website decoin.org/

Another organization which is active in Intag is Rainforest Rescue who have used donations to buy some of the forest. Here is a link to a recent article ( I appropriated the picture).

I can´t say I´m an expert on copper and how much a mine is going to help the world and the community but when mining companies have to resort to the practices previously reported in the Intag you know that they are really only interested in their shareholders and what they can get away with on their behalf. And one day maybe we will invent an alternative superior “political” system which avoids the need for people to be politicians and by nature corrupted by ambition/greed. Until then I´m on the side of the trees and bears (who have already got enough problems with the locals) in this case.

(Photo credit : Wallpapers-hq.ru/bankoboev.ru)

Beach road

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 11:52:00 -0400

Beach road:

I find it hard to believe that anyone could really consider building a highway on the beach. Admittedly the hills make it near impossible to find another southerly route out of Bahía for a fast, wide road. The villages along the way could certainly do with smartening up but banging a highway down the promenade is hardly going to achieve that.

This arcticle is from January so I´m going to look for something more technical to better understand this plan.

Global-migration-and-the-need-for-introspection

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 11:29:00 -0400

Global-migration-and-the-need-for-introspection:

I read this article and found it pretty interesting so I´m reblogging it.

Look on the dark side

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 23:54:00 -0500

I came back to Ecuador resolved to be more positive about things ( or at least to be positive about the positive things). SO it probably wasn’t a good idea to start reading Galápagos by Kurt Vonnegut and watch the film Mejor No Hablar (de Ciertas Cosas) in the first week. Both are laden with dark humour, cynicism and some pretty accurate observations about how screwed up people are (generally).

Mejor No Hablar is set in Portoviejo. If you don’t know this town, it’s a sweltering and fairly nondescript place on the central coastal plain with an interesting local film scene. It’s always cool to see a film from Ecuador make it to the cinema because you know it will have been a struggle. The running footage of Manabi roadsides near the end made me feel quite nostalgic. This was probably Portoviejo’s blockbuster but I’m sure the budget was still tight and I got the impression that, apart from a smashed guitar, the money was used meticulously to create something memorable.

The story goes that two brothers, have a decent upbringing, stable family, a bit of money, but they just want to get wasted and rebel. That’s it really: class rebellion. Lots of funny scenes with sharp dialogue, especially from the younger brother who is bordering on schizophrenic and only feels happy playing guitar and smoking joints down to the stub. Pedro is older and spends the whole movie in the same T-shirt, apart from when he’s having sex or working in the bank which he jacks in half way through. He’s meant to be more responsible and it’s strange how he makes us relate to that, even though nothing he does is responsible.

This isn’t just a movie for stoners (though it might help to be one in terms of empathizing). It’s more about the struggle to do something that means something to someone. The film is really well shot and captures the drabness, desperation, joy and energy that the two main characters are supposed to be experiencing. By the end they both achieve something, though there’s nothing to leave you feeling satisfied. That’s the dark cynical heart that I could relate to.

It took me a little bit longer to read Galápagos. The story is pretty simple but there was plenty to reflect on. A group of people have gathered in Guayaquil in 1986 for the cruise of the century to the Galápagos Islands. Unfortunately it all goes wrong for most of the people that are planning to be on board and the rest of humanity. The story is narrated from a million years in the future which gives Vonnegut the freedom to jump backwards and forwards in time. One result was that although he makes some interesting points and the writing was entertaining, I felt that I knew the whole story and the message long before the end and getting to the last page felt like a matter of routine.

The story doesn’t really have that much to do with Ecuador. It was kind of interesting because I live in Guayaquil but in reality the place names could have been invented.

The central idea that Vonnegut is exploring is whether our brains just make life too complicated for us with our need to be entertained and stimulated and to meddle with the rhythm of life. It’s something I often reflect on in relation to promoting tourism: why do some of us think we have the need and right to travel and invade other societies, demanding instantaneous stimulation from people who usually have neither invited us nor have much comprehension of why we are in their region? If we all just had to look for food maybe there wouldn’t be people like Pedro and Luis. It’s confusing, in fact for me life’s pretty confusing but I’m still glad I have the brain power to contemplate it and be able to do more than hunt, reproduce and survive.

Update

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 18:29:33 -0500

It’s been a long time since I updated this blog, mainly because I went back to the UK for 6 weeks. Plus I’m doing a Master’s degree. As a result there wasn’t much travelling or living in Ecuador. I’ve been back during February which is all about getting to the beach. As car ownership increases the journey back on a Sunday night gets longer and more stressful. Cities should have a plan whereby people enjoy their weekend on different days. Mondays are the way forward for me.

We went to Punta Carnero for carnival and stayed in a sweltering little house in a private community owned by one of Maria Fernanda’s cousins. Nice to have a place to stay but the whole community was totally claustrophobic – it’s not only the tiny houses but the way they are built on the pavement so people have to sit on their kerb at night. In the afternoons the swimming pool was like the scene out of Caddyshack which was actually fun. Punta Carnero has a nice beach but when the tide comes in the waves get pretty immense – too much for a bodyboarding 5 year old or even 33 year old. Still it was fine all through the morning. What it is really lacking is some infrastructure behind the beach. We saw one restaurant which was basically a shack and totally overwhelmed. Some other entrepeneurs were serving lunch to people under their parasols, carried from their house. Now that more and more people have the means to leave Guayaquil ALL the beaches are getting crowded. So if I’m going to sit with 100s of people I’d at least like to find a toilet and a place to sit down and eat. At least in Ecuador you can always guarantee someone will be on hand with cold beers and coconuts, whatever beach you go to.

Rain

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 19:26:00 -0500

Just got back home after walking home in the pouring rain. After a long day at work and two injections in my butt it was the perfect way to recharge – every misstep into a deep puddle and passing car that sprayed me just released more adrenaline. When it rains like this then I can forget about the humidity and the dust until tomorrow.

On Sunday Barcelona won the Ecuadorian championship 2012....

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 07:55:00 -0500

On Sunday Barcelona won the Ecuadorian championship 2012. totally deserved - by the end they were playing relaly good football and managed to beat all the big teams in Quito and Emelec (who finished second) 5-0 at home in what was effctively the title decider. The stadium was totally packed on the final day and looked really impressive - at last I understood why people who had grown up watching Libertadores games in the 90s with that type of atmosphere had spent the last 15 years suffering and hoping. Hopefully they can go on and do well in the Libertadores next year.

http://www.hinchaamarillo.com/noticias-barcelona/item/marea-amarilla-en-la-9-de-octubre.html

ass-uming: Volcán Chimborazo (Ecuador) by zug55 on Flickr.

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 09:21:37 -0500

ass-uming:

Volcán Chimborazo (Ecuador) by zug55 on Flickr.

discrepancies: falling in love with the Andes by M00k on...

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 09:16:59 -0500

discrepancies:

falling in love with the Andes by M00k on Flickr.

Sin Otoño, Sin Primavera

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 13:44:00 -0500

A few weeks ago we went to see this film, made by a Guayaquileño and set in Guayaquil. I don’t think it had been out very long but the cinema was almost empty; a bit disappointing for a Saturday night. There were a group of teenagers who seemed totally bored apart from when a couple got naked on screen. The people in front were more excited by the shots of Guayaquil and tried to snap each urban panorama on their Blackberries. Fortunately they finally got tired and just watched the film.

I have to admit that even I was quite excited by seeing nondescript shots of road junctions or street corners around the city which I recognized. New Yorkers are probably really blasé about that stuff but for the rest of us I think it’s pretty cool.

I’d like to say the film was really cool but on reflection I feel it was a bit disjointed. The plot involves a range of characters whose lives all cross slightly as they live out their stories. I found some of the stories interesting but others didn’t seem to go anywhere.

There were some great scenes, a lot of funny parts, cool music (if you like punky Spanish rock) and I definitely related to the overall vibe of feeling dissatisfied with middle class life and wanting to take a different path. I liked the way that the views and actions of characters of different ages inter-connected. I just wish there had been a bit more definition in some of the stories.

There is quite an interesting if small film-making scene in Ecuador which definitely deserves support. It seemed so much more relevant to see a film with people using a local dialect instead of dubbed Spanish accents on an irrelevant Hollywood movie, so I hope it was just a quiet night and lots more people did go to see it.

Pampas de Guasmo

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 09:08:09 -0400

When I am not asleep on the bus that takes me to work I usually look out of the window and imagine what lies at the end of the narrow side roads leading into the countryside. In the mornings a mass of schoolkids appear to board the bus and after 1pm they return. At the turning for Pampas de Guasmo a group of men wait with motorbikes to ferry people home. A long straight road stretches far into the distance, lines by banana palms and trees. Nevertheless I always see that some kids have to start walking and I always wanted to know how far they actually have to go. So yesterday as I was driving home I took a detour and headed down the road.

Pampas de Guasmo turned out to be not so much a place as just a cluster of houses. The road forked in different directions, narrowed and wound past little homesteads. I saw tobacco leaves drying in the sun, cacao trees, coffee beans laid out on mats at the front of houses. It was all sleepy and rural, almost idyllic until I remembered the walk that the kids had just to get to a poor local school and that come winter they will probably all be underwater.

Yesterday at 4pm the light was incredible. The sun was incredibly bright and there wasn´t a single cloud in the sky. It was the sort of light that makes everything look exciting and glamorous – from tobacco leaves to road signs, to political slogans painted on random walls and even the grimy chaos of Duran. I was listening to The Orwells and the combination of the two made me feel really happy driving along. That happiness continued even when I got stuck in a long queue passing the bus station. I tried to content myself looking across the Guayas river (blue for once) to the apartment buildings of Entre Ríos. However little by little the stress of watching drivers in front of me encroaching within a millimetre on both sides trying to gain … Actually I don´t know whether they think they gain time or prestige or both or none. Maybe they just do it without thinking. There was a taxi which started off behind me in the queue and ended up behind me in the queue but during the intervening 20 minutes he had crept past me at least 3 times before trying another stupid move and getting repelled by a bus or a truck.

The queues were because the council is constructing a complex new interchange and relaying all the existing road surface with concrete. Watching the interchange take shape has been pretty interesting but also the bane of my life as I have to pass it most afternoons. The traffic is so slow that now the guys selling bottles and snacks by the bus station are multiplying.

Gradually the whole process of being on the road in the city eroded all my good feelings and by the time I got home all I could think of was hiding in my apartment and pretending I didn´t live here.

Anyway, today is Sunday which is the one day the roads are quiet and I can go out without despising humanity (so much) for how we choose to live together.

Rodeo - montubio style

Sat, 13 Oct 2012 09:44:18 -0400

October 12 is the Dia de la Raza. This commemorates the date when Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas and historically celebrates the Hispanic influence on the continent. Many countries have sought to change the focus a bit. For example in 2011 the Ecuadorian government decided to denominate it the Día de la Interculturalidad.

It ceased to be a national holiday years ago (in preference to October 9 which marks the date Guayaquil declared independence from Spain. However this year the government moved the holiday to the Friday which happened to be October 12 so most of us had the day off anyway.

In the countryside around Guayaquil the people celebrate October 12 as the Día de los Montubios. A Montubio is a mestizo rural dweller who either owns or works on an hacienda, rides a horse, wears a wide brimmed hat, eats stew for breakfast and has probably eaten twice before you or I have even woken up. Actually I wake up at 5am but I can only stomach a bit of yoghurt before I go to work.

While the encroachment of the city and technology have undoubtedly impacted on life in the whole coastal belt, the traditions remain strong and every October 12 anyone who considers themselves montubio is determined to celebrate it, usually at a rodeo.

Yesterday we went to a rodeo at a place called la Y (literally a fork in the road) on the way to Salitre. It was scheduled to start at 11am but they go underway about 2:50 pm. That was basically because they were waiting to fill the stadium with about 3000 people which they finally did. It is chicken and egg though because if I go again I’ll get there about 2:30pm. I don’t know what the horses thought about the wait but I don’t think the people sat in the midday sun were so impressed (although being Ecuadorian they just got on with consuming beer and ice-cream and made the best of it). The only entertainment was the amorfinos blasting out of the speakers. Amorfinos are melancholy songs accompanied by acoustic guitar and part of the montubio heritage. There was only one covered area – a bit of cloth had been hoisted up on canes to protect the directivo – made up of the local hacienda owners who were organizing the rodeo. Maria Fernanda used a three pronged attack – we had a baby, I was a reporter (for this blog!) and the unspoken effect of me being the only gringo around. That got us into the shade next to all the trophies and a journalist from Hoy.

The stadium was circular and consisted of seven rickety rows constructed from planks of wood. The structure was made of metal and felt pretty stable. Beer sellers scurried around like rats under the stands filling crates and buckets to pass upwards to the thirsty throng. There was a high mark-up which I don’t resent, but I wondered how much of their profit would have been left by the end of the day and how much would have been drunk away.

The crowd was mainly families - often extended to 3 or 4 generations, using umbrellas as parasols. Generally everyone looked pretty scruffy so the organizers stood out in their crisp white shirts and pleats topped with a felt or leather hat.

When the event finally started, all the competitors rode into the arena, did a few circuits, waved to the crowd, some fell off, some horses said no, the compere droned on and the judges chose the best presented team. Then the reinas had to be judged – there were three beautiful young women who demonstrated their horsemanship and two young girls who crawled under and over their horse, doing somersaults and various other tricks. Quite impressive but it took ages to finally choose a (worthy) winner. Then they finally got down to some proper event.

It was all a bit disorganized but everyone seemed to enjoy it, except for the part when the Ministry of Agriculture put on a boring, unfunny play to try and “teach” the grown adults what to do if they had a blight of snails on their land. By then Naomi and Santino were hot and bothered and we decided to leave.

I spoke to one of the organisers, Oscar Almíbar. He explained they only put on this one rodeo during the year and it was all through private initiative. He was pretty confident that the montubio heritage remained strong and pointed out that his son was riding out with the group in the arena. The horses looked well treated and the competitors clearly knew what they were doing. Everything is a bit amateur and ad-hoc but that is part of the charm – like when the organisers started arguing that the trophy for best presented horse was too big and gold and should be substituted, despite it being a donation already engraved with the category, or when they made the riders limp slowly across the arena get their little present because the judge couldn’t be bothered to move towards them. The crowd kept eating and drinking, the band played on, and the compere used the time to promote other upcoming events.

I have an open mind about the influence of positive and negative...

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 20:20:49 -0400

I have an open mind about the influence of positive and negative energy on our lives but I´m not sure about the egg cleansing technique. We did it with Naomi last week but I have to say that the Amikicina proved much more effective. Can you tell which egg was passed over her body and which came straight out the box?

Dos Mangas

Mon, 03 Sep 2012 13:14:00 -0400

This sizeable community is located 6km inland from Manglaralto. There is a road which should now be paved all the way to the village. The turning is clearly signed from the main highway on the Ruta del Sol/Spondylus.

Tourists go to Dos Mangas to organize a trip into the forest beyond. It´s an environment which is hard to imagine as you travel along the dry terrain hugging the coastline. There are two routes which can be done on foot or on horseback. They start from the Centro de Interpretación y Control at the end of the road through the village. Here you can find a bit of information about flora and fauna and organize a trip and guide on the spot. We chose to follow the waterfall route which was about 2hrs on horseback. Our guide walked so we went very slowly. I was with my son and the ground was very muddy so I guess it suited us but it would be frustrating for experienced riders.

The horses looked fairly well cared for. They didn´t have to work too hard anyway. We used saddles but there were no helmets. We followed the river, passing different crops and entered the tropical forest. The guide was quite knowledgeable and gave us information as he found bamboo, paja toquilla and tagua plants. We also saw a deer and some monkeys (or rather we heard them shouting and could just make out their forms swinging high above us.

We left the horses and walked the final steeper stretch to reach the fall, then returned to bathe in a cold natural pool. We had to go back the way we came (no round trip option). Near the information centre there are a few handicraft stalls where you can buy jewellery and other crafts made from the materials we saw in the forest.

Hang gliding on the Ecuadorian coast. It is more common to see...

Mon, 03 Sep 2012 10:56:10 -0400

Hang gliding on the Ecuadorian coast. It is more common to see people paragliding but there are a few fans of “alas deltas” as well. One of the many activities to enjoy in Ecuador.

Find out where to go paragliding here.

Photo from https://www.facebook.com/EcuadorGalapagos

The Shipwrecked Men

Mon, 03 Sep 2012 10:35:00 -0400

I just finished reading this book which is an extract from the account by Cabeza de Vaca of his experiences on the 1527 Spanish Narvaez expedition to the New World. He bascially got stranded in Florida and made it all the way over to Mexico City thanks to the kindness of many of the native tribes and an insanely strong will to survive. They were naked, surviving months on end eating prickly pears in one region and roots in another, maintaining complete faith in the Lord and even effecting a few miracles. At least that is how he tells it.

I also started re-reading some other accounts of the 16th century Spanish expeditions and what is really striking is, however much they ended up brutalising the indigenous people, their determination to live, explore and succeed was incredible. That album title “Get rich or die trying” could have been made for them. It’s hard for me to relate to that feeling when it just involves ransacking palaces and melting down gold but that only came after the suffering.

I guess if I had been Cabeza de Vaca I would have done the same. He was pretty smart but he also rode his luck, lived like the locals and didn’t give up. Only four out of six hundred survived but it wasn’t like the others jumped into a swamp - they just made bad decisions in an unforgiving environment.

It’s an interesting book because of the suffering. I’m not sure how it was edited to make the Penguin extract or how C. de Vaca edited his own experience but it made a good narrative. Here is a link to some other opinions.

Cajas National Park, Ecuador. Photo taken from Tres Cruces - the...

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 14:43:18 -0400

Cajas National Park, Ecuador. Photo taken from Tres Cruces - the highest point on the road that runs through the park and connects Cuenca and Guayaquil.

More information on Cajas National Park here.

Read about travelling the route from Guayaquil to Cuenca here.

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza - woodcarving from San Antonio de...

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 14:21:10 -0400

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza - woodcarving from San Antonio de Ibarra in the Andean province of Imbabura in the north of Ecuador. You can see a really impressive range of work just walking up the main street through the village.

http://www.travelandliveinecuador.com/northern-andes.html

A taste of the Ecuadorian Amazon

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 13:39:17 -0400

A taste of the Ecuadorian Amazon