Sunday, October 13th
In a small
valley near Angla, the bustling chaos of repacking fills the air in our
camp. We’ve been on expedition since
Wednesday, October 9th, and the rhythms of travel are already well established. It hasn’t all been fun and easy, but our
spirits are high and we’ve learned a lot.
Our journey
began with a long bus ride north from Palugo to San Clemente, a village settled
by indigenous Ecuadorians committed to staying on their land and continuing
their traditional lifestyle. In this place,
we witnessed the beauty of people who overcame hardship and worked together as
a community to withstand the pressures of urban flight.
 |
The group listening to Alberto as he discusses
San Clement's agricultural calendar |
During the
agricultural revolution of the 1960’s, the people of San Clemente were gifted
their land by the government. When times were hard and the people could barely
survive on the mountainous terrain, a few families decided to join forces to figure
out a way to stay on the land. They
started hosting travelers in their homes, selling beautiful embroidered art, trading
for food within the community, and generally learning to live in the modern
global economy without losing their identity or forsaking their homeland. Today, San Clemente has a population of 765,
and the community is strong. As Alberto,
Roberto’s father and one the of the founders of the community told us, there
are always challenges, but San Clemente continues to grow and change as each
generation brings its own set of ideals into the community.
After our
restful stay in San Clemente, we set off on a three-day “group solo.” During this time, we managed everything
ourselves, having only scheduled radio contact with our teachers twice
daily. In the first short stretch of the
backpacking expedition, we stayed together as a full group, hiking up from
Alberto’s house to Roberto’s family’s soon-to-be-mountain lodge (currently
under construction), where we spent the night. We managed to set up camp, cook,
clean, and purify water (via boiling) successfully.
 |
| ...and off they go! |
The next
day we split into two groups and set out on different routes. One group hiked over Cubilche, a relatively
small (3,800 meters) mountain, while the other group hiked a neighboring
ridge. These smaller groups were formed
to increase efficiency but also to give us the opportunity to learn about our
supporting Big Job. Everyone supports
another member of the group with their Big Job in addition to holding their own
responsibilities. The objective is to share the knowledge amongst the group and
to get more work accomplished. For
example, Fire Manager is my supporting big job, so I help Robin with whatever fire
related tasks he needs help with. On the
group solo, we were split up according to our Big Jobs. I was in charge of
getting fires started and keeping track of all the fire related supplies, in
addition to my primary Big Job of being the Scribe - working on the blog and keeping
the weather journal. Robin, in his
supporting role, took on the tasks of the Scribe as well as being the Fire
Manager. The following accounts are
written by myself (Sonya) and Robin.
Mountain Group (Tadeo, Quinn, Jackie,
Asha, Chris, Nacho (Spencer), and Sonya):
Our adventure started out on a rough
spot. We wasted an hour or so going the
wrong way and had to turn around. When
we got back, Nacho needed to rest due to his stomach isues, so we waited two
hours while he slept. By the time Nacho
was ready to go, it was already 12:30, and we were still in view of the
previous night’s camp. Under these
conditions, we didn’t have time to get to our designated camp for the night, so
we decided to aim for the pine forest instead.
It was an exciting hike up the side
of Imbabura (the large mountain overlooking us), down a long, steep trail into
a canyon that required a machete and basic rock climbing skills to navigate up
out of the canyon and around the side of two ridges. We made excellent time and set up a pretty
awesome camp in the pine forest. For
dinner, we managed (with some difficulty, for the wood was wet) to light a fire
and fry potatoes in butter. The only
real issue with our camp was that there was no water source. This meant we couldn’t cook with water or
wash any of the pots, so it left us with
a good deal of work for the next day.
We rose at 6 am the following morning
- an hour later than our alarm! Yet, we managed to eat breakfast and break camp
in 35 minutes, so we were out of camp by 6:35.
We didn’t really know where we were going, and a lot of the trip was bushwhacking,
but with much determination and a little luck, we made it to the pond on top of
Cubilche by 9:15 am. Here we spent an
hour squeezing water through our Katadyn filters, eating a large snack, and
cleaning the dishes from the night before.
When we had enough clean water, we headed down the mountain to the tiny
village of Urcsha (three houses) - where we had arranged to meet our teachers. Though we ended up doing even more bushwhacking
than before, we did eventually make it to Urcsha, thanks largely to Tadeo’s
navigating and Spanish skills. Hacking
our way through the woods and making good time through the fields made the last
part of our expedition fun, and we finished on a happy note.
Ridge Group (Jack, Isaiah, Julia,
Sosanna, Angus, Yarrow, and Robin):
As the group started out on Saturday
morning, we knew we would have difficulties during the day as we had to carry
firewood and water to our campsite as well as two of our members were not
feeling well. Soon after leaving, we
arrived at a ravine that we decided to cross in the hopes of saving some time. What we didn’t know was that this was the first
of six ravines we would cross during the day, including one that would take an
hour to cross. After we climbed out of
the first ravine, we ate a large snack and rested a bit before continuing on to
the next ravine. From there, we traversed
through a valley that contained the small town of Las Abras.
At this point, we were travelling
slowly, as some of our group members weren’t feeling well. Knowing that we needed
to carry water up the ridge to our campsite, we stopped at several houses to
ask for water before finding a place to refill.
The moment we finished filling our water bottles and bladders, it
started to downpour. We knew we had to at least gain the ridge before making
camp for the night and fortunately, it was still early in the day. Our packs were heavy as we were all carrying
water and the hiking was slow. At the base of the ridge we decided to stop and
eat a late lunch. While we ate, a pack
of dogs moved in and sat in a circle around us, eyeing our sausage and cheese.
After lunch we were all happy to see
that the weather was clearing up and we continued our march. After an hour or so, fog rolled in and soon,
we were unable to find our location on the map due to lack of visibility. We decided it was safest to halt our progress
due to our concern about getting lost, so we set up camp in a cow field knowing
we were on someone else’s land as well as being an hour or so from our intended
destination,
We
decided to break camp early the next day, but before we left in the morning,
the landowner came by to say hello and shake everyone’s hand. Due to our early departure, we ate breakfast
later at the top of the ridge. After
breakfast, we began our descent through the pine forest into the valley. We finished our solo at exactly noon and our
spirits were high as we strolled into the hay barn in Urcsha to greet Mathias
and Nicole.
Being on
solo was a gift. Though our leaders were
somewhat close by to support us if something drastic happened, they gave us all
the responsibility of expedition living.
We were told where we had to be in two days and given suggestions for
campsites and routes, but everything was really in our hands. It was our decision whether we wanted to get
up early, or change the route, or eat the peanut butter for breakfast. In this, we were granted an enormous amount
of trust and we developed autonomy as a group.
In leaving us alone, our teachers taught us more about expedition living
and communication than they ever could have through lecture. It was a beautiful process, this empowerment
and growth of our group as we learn to function on our own. The lessons we
learned during the group solo will serve us well as we set out on our bikes for
the next leg of the trip!
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