“To control your cow, give it a bigger pasture.” – Roshi Suzuki. It appears the Peace Corps heads this advice, as they culminated tw
o months of training in the cozy communities of Cayambe with a nearly two-week voyage around Ecuador. I spent the trip with the rest of the Cuenca and Loja area Aggies: Brian, Cael, Jamie (Jaime), Jennifer, Matthew (Mateo), Michael (Miguel), and Tony, as well as three PC staffers. The trip began with another charming eighteen hour voyage from Cayambe to my site near the Peruvian border.
o months of training in the cozy communities of Cayambe with a nearly two-week voyage around Ecuador. I spent the trip with the rest of the Cuenca and Loja area Aggies: Brian, Cael, Jamie (Jaime), Jennifer, Matthew (Mateo), Michael (Miguel), and Tony, as well as three PC staffers. The trip began with another charming eighteen hour voyage from Cayambe to my site near the Peruvian border.The Centro hosted the lot of us for five days and gave us sessions on everything from cuyes (gunea pigs) to coffee. The most noteworthy of the many sessions were desparacitando (de-paraciting) goats and vaccinating piglets. I actually caught goats by the horns while my compatriots stuck a squirt-gunesque device into their mouths to administer the anti-parasite liquid. It was cool!
The piglets were more of a personal accomplishment, as I have assiduously avoid
ed swine barns for the past 20+ years following a terrifying encounter at the Lenawee County Fair, but the animals were little pains in the neck and it was not ‘cool’. I don’t remember what we vaccinated them against, but the shot was only a subcutaneous one (on par with a flu shot), so it can’t possibly have hurt much. The piglets, however, screamed bloody murder and required two people to hold their legs still and mouths together while a third injected the vaccine. One of the piglets got so panicky that it started pooping and Cael now holds the unhappy distinction of being the first to be pooped on during the trip (although now that I think about it, a cow pooped on Joe and the Cangahua facilitator, Javier, during a one-night trip to a town called Nono).
ed swine barns for the past 20+ years following a terrifying encounter at the Lenawee County Fair, but the animals were little pains in the neck and it was not ‘cool’. I don’t remember what we vaccinated them against, but the shot was only a subcutaneous one (on par with a flu shot), so it can’t possibly have hurt much. The piglets, however, screamed bloody murder and required two people to hold their legs still and mouths together while a third injected the vaccine. One of the piglets got so panicky that it started pooping and Cael now holds the unhappy distinction of being the first to be pooped on during the trip (although now that I think about it, a cow pooped on Joe and the Cangahua facilitator, Javier, during a one-night trip to a town called Nono).We also had interesting sessions on abonos organicos, or organic fertilizers, where we saw worm beds, fed dozens of tomato plants through a shredder to make bocashi, a fermented compost, and stirred estiercol (manure) for a very long time to prepare bioles, natural direct-to-plant application fertilizers and pesticides.
After playing in poo for a long while, we cleaned up and went to a session on 
processing primary products into items that sell better. To illustrate this, be made dulce de mani, a snack-food of peanuts boiled with lots of sugar and a little water, then stirred for nearly an hour while the sugar liquefies, solidifies, and eventually sticks to the peanuts. Stirring the peanuts over an intense flame left me sweatier than I ever remember being, but the dulce de mani was worth it. I hope to try my hand making mantequilla de mani, or peanut butter, while I’m here.
processing primary products into items that sell better. To illustrate this, be made dulce de mani, a snack-food of peanuts boiled with lots of sugar and a little water, then stirred for nearly an hour while the sugar liquefies, solidifies, and eventually sticks to the peanuts. Stirring the peanuts over an intense flame left me sweatier than I ever remember being, but the dulce de mani was worth it. I hope to try my hand making mantequilla de mani, or peanut butter, while I’m here.After five long and informative days at my hot, humid site, everyone was ready for a respite, and it came in the form of three nights at the Rendez-Vous Hostel in Vilcabamba. Vilcabamba is a hippie-tourist hot spot just south of Ciudad de Loja and it’s known for its food, hiking, and long-lived population. I think the food was the best part, though my $5.00 manicure, given while I sipped a Cuba Libre (rum and Coke), was highly enjoyable. If any of you make it down here to visit, you should definitely check out the town, and you won’t have to twist my arm hard to get me to accompany you :).
Each morning in Vilcabamba, following a deliciously French-influenced breakfast at the hostal, we set off for a small community near Vilcabamba where
two PCVs are stationed. One works in coffee and cuy production, and the other with a women’s group that processes coffee and produces recycled paper products. At the women’s group’s headquarters, after an initial presentation on making recycled paper and processing coffee, Jennifer and I pulled-out the girl card and secured spots making recycled paper picture frames and bookmarks for the afternoon. You can see my handiwork to the right. It was a genuinely fun afternoon.
two PCVs are stationed. One works in coffee and cuy production, and the other with a women’s group that processes coffee and produces recycled paper products. At the women’s group’s headquarters, after an initial presentation on making recycled paper and processing coffee, Jennifer and I pulled-out the girl card and secured spots making recycled paper picture frames and bookmarks for the afternoon. You can see my handiwork to the right. It was a genuinely fun afternoon.In the evening of the same day, we hired a truck to drive us a few kilometers south of Vilcabamba to a small resort called Izhcayluma. It’s owned by Germans, and I enjoyed the best Bavarian Stroganoff and Spaetzle of my life. Now I’m wishing I’d brought my spaetzle maker, but somehow, it didn’t make the packing list.
After Vilcabamba came a six-hour bus ride up to Cuenca, a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for its plentiful and well-preserved colonial architecture. We had no technical training in this city, stopping only to wander around the city and break-up the trip back north. Cuenca celebrates Halloween/Dia de los Difuntos (Day of the Dead, for those of you familiar with the Mexican Version) with gusto and I hope to get there this fall for the festivities.
Our final stop was in a small town about an hour south of Quito and fantastically close to Volcán Cotopaxi. This volcano, visible from Quito on clear days, is nicely cone shaped and topped with 
a Nevado, or snow cap that fades into the mountain’s ridges and valleys. We travelled on the Pan-American Highway and got great views of the volcano from the road, then discovered more views of the mountain over a ridge behind the hostel building. The Northern/Central Sierra Aggies joined us here, and we enjoyed an evening of Cuarenta, an Ecuadorian card game, and Pilsner, an Ecuadorian beer, before a morning lesson on building simple A-frame levels and greenhouses. The trip ended when everyone piled into pick-up truck cabs and beds for the final hour trip into Quito, for swear-in week. The stories from that will have to wait for another post.
a Nevado, or snow cap that fades into the mountain’s ridges and valleys. We travelled on the Pan-American Highway and got great views of the volcano from the road, then discovered more views of the mountain over a ridge behind the hostel building. The Northern/Central Sierra Aggies joined us here, and we enjoyed an evening of Cuarenta, an Ecuadorian card game, and Pilsner, an Ecuadorian beer, before a morning lesson on building simple A-frame levels and greenhouses. The trip ended when everyone piled into pick-up truck cabs and beds for the final hour trip into Quito, for swear-in week. The stories from that will have to wait for another post.Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, and let me know what you’re still curious about.
Chao chao,
Alli
Alli
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