Puerto Lopez

¡Holas a todos!

I realize that I haven´t updated for more than a month and a million things have happened since then, but really, that is the reason I haven´t updated. Because I´ve been too busy LIVING it all to write about it all. Not only have I been lousy at updating my blog, but I´ve also disappointingly neglected my journal which I brought to Ecuador to record all my adventures and reflect on them. I´ve been doing fairly well with a photo diary though, so if you haven´t yet, you should check out my facebook albums that range from the cloud forest to Quito to the Amazon to weekend excursions. I haven´t had a chance to put up pictures from the Galapagos yet and probably won´t be able to until I return to Quito again in 4 weeks, but the rest of the albums are still pretty exciting. And even though I haven´t updated since February and it is now April 8th, I´m going to write about my time thus far in Puerto Lopez since it´s fresh in my mind and if I took the time to write about everything that´s missing from my blog, I would be here until the end of eternity. Thus, I give you Puerto Lopez.

For those of you who don´t know, I´m in Puerto Lopez for the entire month of April to do my independent research project on environmental education. Puerto Lopez is a fishing town on the central coast of Ecuador. It is still pretty rustic, but is working on developing so as to attract tourists to the prime whale-watching that happens off the coast here from June thru September. It sits in the middle of Machalilla national park which contains dry forest, wet forest, beach, island, and marine ecosytems. Because of this complex combination of ecosytems, it is vital to protect the natural environment here which means that environmental education in the elementary schools is extremely important so that the up and coming generation will understand, respect, and protect the land and sea around them. I arrived late on the evening of Saturday, April 5th after a 13.5 hour bus ride from Quito and will be leaving either April 30th or May 1st to return to Quito for the closing week of my program. Hopefully during my time here, I will get a good taste of the culture and be able to accomplish an insightful research project all the while giving back to the Puerto Lopez community as much as possible.

Thus begin my tales of Puerto Lopez...

Puerto Lopez is interesting. It has an underlying beauty that isn´t apparent at first, but the people are wonderful -- really friendly, open, and laughing all the time, unlike most of the people of Quito. The beach is beautiful and the water is the perfect temperature for swimming. The town has some charm too, but for the most part is quite dusty and litter-strewn. There are a few cute shops and restaurants, though, and the beachfront street is lined with bamboo huts selling cocktails and fresh juices (which I can´t drink for fear of more parasites... but they´re still cute). My homestay family consists of my mother, Elsa, and my 18-year old brother, Angel. Elsa is very nice and overflows with hospitality. She´s a plump women and spends her days keeping-up with housework and gardening in the extensive gardens surrounding the house in a strapless dress that doesn´t zip-up all the way in the back. Angel is nice, but can be kind of overwhelming when he gets with his friends and they´re gossiping, speaking slang, and he´s trying to act cool. His friends are pretty ridiculous and most smoke pot (although all the adults are convinced pot doesn´t exist in the town...). We went out to the beach with one of his friends on Sunday afternoon to swim, boogie-board, and lounge on the sand, then Alese (the other SIT student here) joined us to go out for the night. Sunday nights aren´t really optimal for clubbing, so we ending up hanging out on the beachfront at one of the bamboo drink huts and danced salsa with the waves crashing behind us. It was really enjoyable and one of the moments when it´s hard to believe that I´m technically in "school" right now.

My homestay house is fairly nice, but still quite rustic. The toilet rarely flushes (which is kind of annoying since I´m still having digestive issues from my parasite...), the floors are cement or creaky wood, and everything is coated with a thin layer of dust. I´m getting used to it, but the food is also the heavy Ecuadorian carb-loaded type which is made worse by the country/rustic lifestyle so that I´m not always sure it´s safe. The food in Ecuador is definitely something I´m not going to miss, since it´s usually so heavy and often greasy. There are a few specialties I´ve grown to love though, for instance many of the exotic fruits like maracuya and pitahaya, a flaky heart-shaped baked good dipped in chocolate called "oreja", meaning "ear" in Spanish, and a very traditional creamy soup called locro.

But I´ve gotten off topic, back to Puerto Lopez...
I´m covered in mosquito bites -- I counted 41 on my legs yesterday afternoon and have gotten many more since then. Mosquito repellent is useless since it´s so flippin´ hot here that I just sweat it all off within minutes, so I´m just trying not to scratch the bites and religiously taking my malaria medicine every night. The heat can be really overwhelming which is made worse by the extreme dryness, especially mid-day when it reaches about 100 degrees F. in the sun and mid-90s in the shade. Everyone takes a siesta during that time, but even my fairly airy upstairs room is sweltering, so it´s hard to be productive or even be optimistic about life during this heavy heat. I´ve been living in skirts and my jean shorts, and just bought a sarong today, so that should help. If I could, I´d spend my whole day cooling off in the ocean, but since that is not possible, I just try to make it a ritual to go down right before sunset, go for a swim, then dry off on the beach while eating a popsicle and watching the brilliant pinks and oranges of the sky as the sun sinks into the sea.

Alese and I are becoming closer friends, and share the sunset ritual together, but she´s doing half her research in a neighboring town so is leaving today for the next few days and will generally be splitting her time half-half between the two towns. The hostal she´s staying at is quite nice and fairly cheap, and I´m thinking of spending the last two weeks there when I really need to focus on writing my paper since there´s almost always a radio or television (or both) on at my house. That way I´d also be able to control my own food, which is something Alese is really enjoying. There´s a small outdoor kitchen at the hostal, and she buys herself fresh eggs, bread, fruits, vegetables, and rice and cooks for herself every day. I think that kind of independence would be nice, since I haven´t had it since I came to Ecuador since I´ve almost always had the program or a homestay family controlling my schedule and food intake.

As for my project, I went to the first day of school at a nearby private school yesterday with my advisor, Deirdre. The parents all come on the first day for the opening talks from the teachers, so Deirdre and I went into two of the classrooms, and she introduced me to the teachers, parents, and students. Then I briefly spoke to the classroom full of people about my project and my hopes of working with the kids. It was a little nerve-wracking since I´ve never spoken to rooms so full of native Spanish speakers before, but I actually spoke very eloquently (I think) and even was able to understand and answer a few questions from the parents. The kids are so cute too! As we were leaving, the kids and parents were milling around the courtyard and one girl walked by me and exclaimed to one of her family members excitedly "That´s the girl who spoke to my class!" (in Spanish, of course). I´m very excited to work with them further and get to know the personalities behind their cute little faces. Also in terms of my project, I´ve been doing quite a bit of reading that Deirdre gave me about previous projects on education in Puerto Lopez and on environmental education in general. I also have to keep three different kinds of project journals for my program, so that´s been taking up quite a bit of time. Oh, I almost forgot! I was television today too! Deirdre does a weekly environmentally-focused television show on the local channel, so today she took the opportunity to introduce Alese and I on TV to the local community and both of us said a few words about our project and how excited we are to be in Puerto Lopez for the next four weeks and to get to know the people and culture. This TV show was even more nerve-wracking than the classroom talks, because way more people watch TV than were in the school, but I feel like I spoke my Spanish well and got across what I wanted to say in a confident manner, so that made me proud. Now, when I walk through the streets and on the beach, I have to greet almost everyone because so many more people know who am I and what I´m doing here. As I walked down to the town from my house in the upper hills, almost every single little kid greeted me with a cheery "¡Hola!" which hasn´t happened before. Most of the kids in my neighborhood go to the school at which I spoke yesterday, so I´m pretty sure most of them saw me in their classrooms and now know who I am and greet me because of it. It´s wonderful and makes me smile. I´m going to go to another school opening next week, then hopefully really start working more closely with the kids: talking to them about the environment, their feelings about nature, how they think their lives affect the environment, and what they think of the environmental education lessons Deirdre has been teaching in the last couple years. I´ll probably also ask them to draw some of their thoughts on these themes since I´ve been told by numerous people here and believe myself, that many kids can express how they feel much better through pictures than through words. I´ll also be going on a few educational nature walks led by Deirdre with the kids in the next couple weeks to see her program in action and really discuss with the kids in a natural setting the aforementioned things and observe how they react to the lesson. I´m really looking forward to this whole project since it so closely relates to my passions for environmental education and kids, and also to my future career goals.

Okay, I should probably head back up the dusty road to my house now, since I´ve been out and about town all day. I´ll probably do some reading, eat a late lunch, then head back down to the beach in time to catch the glorious sunset. ; )

I hope everyone is well in whatever country they´re reading this from and I would love to hear from any and all of you through email, mail, or phone! I have been more homesick than I anticipated, especially lately, so any little snippet of love from the people I care about puts a smile on my face. The internet here is hard to access and pretty slow though, so if I don´t respond right away to your "snippets of love", it´s not for lack of appreciation, it´s just because I´m living in a rustic town that doesn´t have good internet. Also, for any of you that I was able to call from Quito, that practice sadly won´t be able to continue since it´s really expensive to call the U.S. from here. Sorry!

I guess that´s it for now. Hopefully you were able to understand my ramblings and hopefully I´ll get to write another update soon!

Love to all!