NHESP 2010 - Update 4

Boston, MA - on the way to the airport

Dear Readers,

Shelter for overnight solo

After the parent weekend, much needed to be done. First we finished our solo. Each one of us built a shelter and a fire, and we spent the night on our own.
Then with one and a half days to go before our trip, we finished academics, washed clothes, packed, wrote thank you cards, and thoroughly cleaned up camp. The night before we left, we had a delicious goodbye dinner at Lynne and Misha’s, and that was it. Goodbye, Marlow.
As we approached Quito International Airport after the three-hour and forty-five minute plane ride from Miami, my fingers were tensely crossed. I wasn’t sure of American Airline’s crash statistics, but I was convinced I could summon a good omen on this leviathan of the skies. I can’t say I’m a man of God, but at that moment I prayed.
Michael, who is from Ecuador, pointed out Cotopaxi, the 5,897m (19,340 ft) mountain we will attempt to climb as the culminating event of our journey. The mountain was center stage, being showered by the full moon’s white luminescence. It is hard to believe but the colossal mountain easily towered over the gray clouds.
I think everyone of us was quite thrilled to get off the plane; when we set foot on the tarmac, the energy was flowing. We thought, we are no longer preparing, no longer dreaming; now we were here. Welcome to Ecuador!
A bus was positioned next to the plane to pick up all the passengers and bring them to customs. Now I want to really stress the timing of this next event. When I say ‘the second’ I mean the actual second. So the second we “Wild Cherry Sunrise Dolphins,” excluding Carina and Marcela and adding Lisl, stepped foot into Quito’s customs area, all Ecuadorian eyes were on us. No longer were Connor, Pedro, Iyla, Gabe, and myself segregated and coined the “gringitos” due to our lack of Spanish. But every single one of us became a full-fledged “gringo.”
We waited in line for a bit, putting to use some of the Spanish lessons from the yurt, while each one of us smuggled an Orchard Hill apple or two. We proceeded into the next phase, picking up our twenty bags of luggage, each fifty pounds. Under the mass pile of baggage Dylan had accidentally snagged a woman’s bag who wasn’t in our group, which caused a bit of a scene. We successfully brought all our stuff through security. They were either overwhelmed by our gringo power or fed up with what looked like to them, too much unnecessary stuff for a less than three-month stay, so we didn’t encounter any holdups.
I was the first one out of security and without truly knowing who the man who was waving at me was, I returned the gesture. He looked like who I thought he must be, the infamous Mathias. But this couldn’t be Mathias, the man I heard numerous tales about who had, a few months back, plummeted down a 120 foot, dry waterfall and shattered almost every bone in his body. This man was standing tall with his partner, Nicole, looking like any other dude. It was beautiful to see the brothers reunite. Michael had left seeing his brother, Mathias, in an awful state, confined to a bed. But now Mathias, literally defying all odds, was prancing around with only an insignificant limp.

Class with Thomas

We crammed our hefty luggage into Mathias’s truck and our sluggish, odorous bodies into another bus and set off. The bus was dead silent since we all were fixated on the lit city of Quito. Stray dogs, graffiti, and young people filled the dark city. We soon were on the main highway called Avenida Simon Bolivar, named after the man who liberated Ecuador from Spain alongside San Martin, an Argentinean. I found it amazing that an Ecuadorian graffiti artist “MtM” had covered buildings, along the entire stretch of the road, which ran many miles. Heading southeast, we reached the neighboring city of Cumbaya. Michael told us that when he was young, the city used to be farmland adorned with cows. Now Cumbaya is quickly developing and even has a McDonald’s.

At Palugo

After a forty-five minute ride, on the outskirts of Pifo, we came to Palugo farm. This is the home of Michael and Mathias’ family, the Dammer’s. Just beyond the Palugo gate, we were dropped off with our gear. We trekked in the dark, for about fifteen minutes. By now you could really feel the drastic change in altitude; the heavy feeling in our chests disabled us from walking fast. We reached El Chozon, where we were greeted by the new members of our pack, Tupac and Shiram. Exciting vibes were flowing as we all introduced ourselves. With two more wolves, we made up a pack of 15. Approaching 21 hours on the move, we called it a night. 
The next morning, as we climbed out of our dwellings, we became briefly fossilized by the magnificence. Surrounding Palugo stand eight rocky mountains. To the north of Palugo stands Cayambe; to the northwest towers Pinchincha; to the southwest stand Atacazo, Corazon, Singcholagua, and Iliniza; directly to the south towers Cotopaxi; and to the southeast stands Pasochoa. Three of the eight mountains today have snow, but forty years ago, all the peaks were snow-covered. The view of the landscape is magnificent. I’m telling you, Palugo is the epitome of beauty. Green-tailed trainbearers, turkey vultures, brown Swiss cows, rabbits, guinea pigs, dogs, lizards, and alpaca are common around the 200 acre farm.

Knife making

Over the past three days, we’ve been working on hand-made knives with Michael’s other brother, Thomas. Our first step was to choose the material we wanted to work with for our handles, either white-tailed deer antler or burl. While most of us jumped to using antler; Gabe, Hannah, and Tupac decided to use the hardy burl. The second step was to cut the length of your handle using a hand-saw. To make an antler handle, you boil your cut piece for up to twenty-minutes.During the boiling you start to construct your sheath by cutting a preferably a flat piece of wood in half, and tracing the length of your knife on each piece of the wood, making a mirror image. Then when the antler is boiled the carbon blade can be pounded into it with a mallet. After that is complete, which might take a while, the next step is to carefully carve out your traced blade in the wood in a size appropriate for your knife and then glue it together to dry. After a day of drying, you start carving away at your sheath making it any shape you want. Finally, you wrap your wooden sheath in leather and weave it together. But we haven’t gotten to that part yet.

The group has a lot to accomplish between now and next Tuesday, when we start our month-long expedition into San Clemente, to visit Tupac’s community. Over this next week, we will study geology and permaculture with Michael, and Spanish and literature with Marcela. This coming Wednesday, we will ascend Pasachoa, a mountain south of Palugo, to prepare for Cotopaxi and Antisana. You will hear from me next as we prepare to embark on our expedition through the indigenous communities, jungles, and rivers. Hasta Luego.

Meeting the llamas

Environmental tips:
When you order a pina colada, don’t ask for a straw.
Hand wash your clothes.

Spanish with Julia:
Espina-thorn
Carcel-jail
Pastanas-eye lashes
Cosechar-to harvest
Esfero-pen
Buho-owl

Post Scriptum: Letters will take longer to arrive, friends and family! – Gabe

La vista es muy hermosa con las montanas a nuestro alrededor. Que Rico!