A Local Experience

When we decided to come to Ecuador, we realized that the number one thing to do here was explore the natural beauty of this country. While Nolan and I have never been two people to avoid an outdoor adventure, we were also usually not ones to seek them out. However, in preparation for our arrival, we each bought our first pairs of hiking boats and decided that we were going to become hikers.

If you read our first blog post about our move to Ecuador, you would know that we summited our highest peak ever in our first few weeks: we hiked up to 15,000 ft to summit Rucu Pinchincha. After that, we were both hooked on these mega hikes. The next weekend we went camping with some new friends next to a beautiful lake and summited Fuya Fuya. And the weekend after that we took on an 8 mile hike called Integral where we summited 4 peaks, including the first one, Rucu. Our new found friends had made us all out hikers and Nolan and I had gained quite a reputation for ourselves for always saying yes to new things. So, when one of our friends threw out the idea of an even bigger adventure, we couldn’t say no. But, this one could use some backstory.

When we first arrived in Quito, we met our fellow new teacher and friend Maya. Maya is the same age as us, and even though she is new to our school, she is not new to Ecuador. A few years ago in college, Maya had lived in Quito for two months, and then for the next two months lived in a local village with a family teaching English at a small school. Here she learned how to speak Spanish and learned so many interesting things about local Ecuadorian life. Her host family lived at the bottom of another mountain called Imbabura. She had an amazing experience living this life, and on her return to Ecuador for part two, she decided she wanted to share it with her new and adventurous coworkers (us!).

When Maya told us about this opportunity, we knew we had to jump on it. Of course, we were excited at the idea of summiting yet another amazing peak, but most of all, I was excited to get a sneak peak into local life. I had also lived with a host family while I studied abroad in France, and it was such an immersive experience into French culture. I knew I wanted this little taste of Ecuadorian culture. And, on top of all of that, we assembled an amazing group of some of our new friends to share the experience with.

So, on a Friday after school, we headed to the bus station and took a bus to the city of Ibarra. (Side note: we have been taking buses non stop since arriving here. A bus to basically anywhere costs $2.50 and leaves within five minutes of buying your ticket. They can sometimes get a little bit overcrowded with people hopping on along the route, and there is almost always a very loud Spanish movie playing over the speakers, but they get you to where you need to go.) When we arrived in Ibarra, we grabbed two taxis to take us to the local family's house. We arrived after it was already dark, and although I was very excited, I was also extremely nervous.

Maya had clearly let us know that this family spoke no English, so I was diving head first into purely Spanish conversations. While I was slowly becoming more confident by taking weekly Spanish classes and listening to Spanish in school meetings, I felt nowhere near conversational. 5 out of the 8 members of our group are basically fluent in Spanish, so I knew I would have some others to rely on, but still. I felt far outside of my comfort zone in this aspect.

Upon entering the house, I was immediately impressed with the architecture. Maya told us that her host dad, Guido, is a woodworker, and he had built the entire house himself. The carvings of the staircase, every bed, and all of the furniture was beautiful. You could clearly see the talent

and craft of the maker. Guido, his wife Maria Estela, and their daughter Christie greeted us at the door with the warmest smiles and open arms. Especially at the beginning, I was so nervous to say anything, even a simple “Buenas noches” or “mucho gusto.” But, I felt very grateful for Nolan and the other Spanish speakers who handled our greetings and thanks for opening their home

to us.

We got settled in our rooms and headed downstairs for dinner. Maria Estela had prepared a feast for our welcome. We had soup, vegetables, rice, chicken, and dessert. Everything was served in courses in their small kitchen. Up until this point, I did not have too much experience with Ecuadorian food, and this was such an amazing introduction. After dinner, we decided to go to sleep early, as we were told that our wake up call would be at 4:45 for our 5:30 departure up the mountain.

Nolan and I were sharing a room with Maya, and as we were about to fall asleep, she sat up quickly saying, “Oh no, I forgot to tell everyone about the rooster!” Well, we were glad she told us because as she noted, the rooster cawed every hour for basically the entire night. Our dreams of a good sleep before our hike did not quite go as planned, but we were still excited for our hike the next morning.

We awoke to the smells of Maria Estela preparing another amazing meal. We had fresh bread, eggs, fruit, and my favorite part of the weekend, fresh milk from the cow she had milked the day before that she had boiled and strained, and then served with hot chocolate powder. It was unbelievable. She had also prepared all of the necessary materials for bagged lunch for us to bring up the mountain.

Guido and Maya’s host brother Alexis were going to be our guides for our day up on the mountain. Although they are not official guides, they have hiked this mountain countless times and have lots of experience on the trail. When we were ready with all of our gear, we hopped in a truck that would take us 30 minutes up to the start of the trail. I absolutely love these truck rides. We all piled into the bed of the truck and started the bumpy, curvy ascent up the mountain. As we continued higher and higher, the views became more magical by the second.

When we arrived at the trailhead, Guido led us in some stretches before we started our way up the mountain. When we got up the first steep section, Guido stopped us to tell us that we needed to make an offering to Imbabura. In the native Ecuadorian culture, the mountains are sacred and there is no way to safely make it to the top without the mountain's permission. So, we stood in a circle, offered the mountain some fruit that we had brought, and asked for safe passage to the top. This moment was incredibly special and so spiritual. It was easy to tell the importance of this ritual to Guido and his son, and I was very happy to take part in such an Ecuadorian experience. After we made our offering, we started the slow climb to the top.

And let me assure you, we moved VERY slowly. This was by far the steepest mountain we had attempted to summit yet. It felt like it was straight up for at least the first two hours. We moved slowly, and took lots of breaks to drink water and eat snacks. Although it was challenging, it was also breathtakingly beautiful. We could see the entire valley, and the clouds were sitting in the

crevices of the mountains across from us in the most beautiful way. A few hours in, we found a pass that allowed us to see over into the other side of the valley. From this point on, we would be walking along the ridge to the top. It was at this moment where the hike became very intense. Once we could see over the other side of the ridge, a very strong and cold wind came over the mountain, and didn’t leave us alone for the rest of the hike. We all put on an extra few layers, and after a short lunch break, continued up. At this point, a huge cloud also came over the mountain, so we couldn’t see anything farther than maybe 100 feet away. We continued the hike up into the cold when a little dog came to join our trek. We were unsure if this dog belonged to someone else and was lost, or was a stray, but we decided that this dog was the spirit of the mountain and Nolan affectionately named him Pepe.

This section of the trail also became more technical. We started climbing over the tops of rocks and moving slowly to make sure everyone made it safely. Guido was incredibly helpful in getting us all through this section. We quickly made it to the first summit where we celebrated with

chocolate and another small meal. Guido told us that there was also a second, slightly more challenging summit, and that it was only another 30 minutes to get there. We all decided that we had already made it that far, so why not continue. This section of the trail easily became the most difficult. We were scrambling (read rock climbing) on parts of this trail that were much more difficult than anything we had ever done. Nolan also felt a few signs of altitude sickness that he pushed through. After about an hour of the “30 minutes to the next summit” we started to hear loud booms in the distance. Fearing thunder and rain while we were completely exposed and 5 hours walking to the nearest building, we all picked up the pace, wondering if it was worth it to make it to summit number 2. We eventually did make it, but only spent a short minute here before turning back, continuing to hear the booms in the distance. After about 15 minutes of the hike back, Nolan decided to ask Guido about these noises, and he told us that it was just some fireworks for a nearby party! Feeling slightly more at ease, we continued our trek down the mountain.

Once we were out of the cloud and back in the sunlight, we all started to feel much more calm and accomplished about what we had done. However, the last large sections were all extremely steep and although they had been very difficult to do uphill, they were very painful to do downhill. Even though I was one of the two people with general knee problems, everyone had horrible pain in our knees on this downhill section. It was constant pounding on our legs for the next hour, and after eight hours of hiking we were more than ready to be back in our cozy host home for the rest of the evening. As we neared the bottom, we all started to feel a grumbling in our bellies, so we let Guido know and he assured us that Maria Estela would have a snack waiting for us when we got back.

We were all ecstatic to get to the bottom and see the truck waiting for us, and after a quick and bumpy truck bed ride back down (where two local women jumped into an already full truck bed halfway through), we walked into the house to an amazing smell. Maria Estela had cooked up a local favorite. It was called trigo, and it consisted of hot, fresh milk mixed with honey and cinnamon with coarse pieces of wheat. It was so comforting and warm after our long day of hiking. After taking a dribbly shower and resting for an hour, we decided to continue our adventure in this local village.

Over our trigo, Maria Estela had told us about a woman up the road who embroiders towels and shirts for tourists to buy. So, we started walking up the hill (a tricky endeavor after such a long hike) to see what we could find. On the way, we stopped above another neighbor's house who sold fresh blackberries. Nolan has been OBSESSED with the berries here, so we shouted down how many kilograms of berries we wanted to buy, and the neighbor agreed to drop them off at the house the next morning before we left. We arrived at the house to find a dimly lit room and a woman who only spoke the local language of Quichua. Luckily, Maria Estela is also fluent in the indigenous language of Ecuador, but of course, all of us needed help with translation. She showed us a bounty of shirts, tea towels, and handkerchiefs, and we all left with an incredibly special souvenir.

On our way back we decided to pick up some beers for the successful summiters (which we bought from another neighbor's garage) and we spent the next few hours playing games and celebrating our hike. We had another amazing spread for dinner, and went to sleep early for an exciting morning ahead.

Even though we came to this town for the hike, the next morning became my favorite part of the entire trip. We woke up at 6:30 for an early morning trip to Maria Estela’s cow. As we waited for everyone to be ready, we said hello to the resident pig, 5 sheep, chickens and new chicks, and guinea pigs. If you didn’t know, eating guinea pig is a local delicacy reserved mostly for special

occasions, so they kept a family of guinea pigs in the backyard just waiting for a reason to celebrate! After spending a bit of time with local pets, we began the walk over to the cow.

Now, I was expecting this cow to be close by, since Maria Estela had been coming home with fresh milk at least once a day. That morning, I was very surprised to find myself on a 15 minute hike to a nearby field where the cow was currently living. It was a beautiful walk, and we arrived to find another kind local woman who also only spoke Quichua. Maria Estela helped to translate as we got ready to milk the cow. The calf was kept very nearby, because we needed the calf to start drinking from its mom before we would be able to saca la leche. Once the calf had had a few sips, we got right to work. At first, I was proud of my work, getting a bit of milk with each pull.

I thought I was a natural! Everyone had always said this was so hard! But then, Maria Estela showed us how it was really done, getting at least 3 times as much milk with each try. I really realized that we were newbies when we had to get the calf to come over to release the milk a second time because we were so ineffective at our job. When we had enough for breakfast, we picked up the pail and headed back to the house. I took the first shift carrying the milk we had obtained, and I had even more respect for Maria Estela and the job she did. It was SO heavy that I needed to let someone else take over for the second half.

When we returned back to the house, Guido was outside starting a fire to cook some homemade tortillas. The tortillas in Ecuador are a bit different from the Mexican tortillas that we are used to, but they are equally, or even more, delicious. They are much smaller, only three or four inches across, and much thicker. A few of us spent time outside helping to form the tortillas. Then, much to my own discomfort, Maria Estela requested some help inside to make a fruit salad. Everyone but me decided to move inside because I was enjoying myself in shaping and cooking the tortillas. Of course, that left me on my own with Guido, which made me very nervous with my lack of Spanish skills.

However, I was totally wrong to be nervous. Guido is one of the best people I have talked to in Spanish in terms of speaking slowly and clearly. He has hosted non-Spanish speakers before, so he has picked up the skill of speaking in a way that is very easy to understand. He never made me feel bad for making mistakes, and if he was going to include a word that it was likely I would not know, he would immediately explain what he meant in easier words. I felt so safe talking with him, and we ended up talking for about 20 minutes, which is a longer Spanish conversation than I have ever had in this new language (outside of my Spanish classes).

When it was time to eat, we sat down to the meal we had just created: fresh, hot milk with hot

chocolate or coffee, Ecuadorian tortillas, and fruit salad. Everyone sitting at the table had contributed, and it felt like a very idyllic farm-to-table experience. As we were talking about how dreamy this meal and experience was, Maya added some context that truly made us see what this life was like.

When Maya lived with this family, she taught English at the local school to all ages. One of her lessons centered around what the students wanted to do when they grew up. With her youngest students, girls and boys alike had dreams of going to college, being a doctor, flying an airplane, all of the dreams that students around the world have. But, when she taught this lesson to students who were only a few years older, around 6th or 7th grade, all of the girls had already switched their mindset. They said they wanted to be mothers and take care of their husbands and run their family farm. While the boys were still dreaming, the girls were brought back down to the reality that was set in front of them. While my walk to collect milk had been dreamy that very morning, I couldn’t imagine if that walk became my daily routine. As a woman who has always been pushed to realize my wildest dreams, dreams that had taken me on a little tourist trip out into the countryside of Ecuador, I had to take a look at this idyllic life through a lens of privilege and knowledge. Yes, this meal wowed me and it is one that I still think about weeks later, and while it is truly rewarding to see your food come straight from the land to the dining table, it was hard for me to imagine living the life that would continue when I hopped back on my bus to Quito.

And, after our breakfast, that is exactly what we did. We packed up our bags, thanked our hosts profusely for all they had done for us that weekend, and took a cab to the bus station.

I continued thinking about the experience I had had that morning, and everything Maya had told us, for the rest of the day. At this point, I would say I am fairly well traveled. I have lived on four continents and traveled to many countries, constantly trying to push myself out of my comfort zone and experience as much as possible. And this weekend was a completely new and eye opening adventure. It changed the way I saw my food, Ecuador, and the privilege I have carried with me my entire life. Although it never really waivered, it reinvigorated my love for travel and for finding places like San Clemente and tasting what it would be like to live there. Nolan and I cannot wait to return to this amazing homestead, and continue to learn more about the beauty, the hardships, and the community that comes with living this small town Ecuadorian life.