Ecuador Trip

2010-06-24T15:01:00.001-06:00

So we are back safely. The traveling was pretty pain free. Everyone is glad to be home and with their own families again. Pictures of the trip will soon be posted.

2010-06-23T08:47:00.002-06:00

Hola! Yesterday we took a bus from Saraguro to Cuenca early in the morning. The three hour bus ride got us to Cuenca at about 11:00 which left us with plenty of time to explore the city more. We went downtown to the center and some of us purchased different soccer jerseys from countries in South America in the spirit of the Fifa World Cup which we have all been following closely! While looking for jerseys we did not find a single jersey for the Ecuadorian team (apparently they aren't that good!) After exploring Cuenca we made our way to the airport for a short flight back to Quito. The 45 minute flight was appreciated to the 12 hour travel we experienced in the beginning as we made our way down south the first week! We stayed at Andrew Chritton's house and enjoyed some pizza before we went to bed. Today we plan to to take a tram to see the volcano and then do some last minute shopping downtown before we head back to Montana tonight leaving at 11:30. We will be getting back to Missoula around 12:30 in the afternoon Thursday!

Ashley Holmes

Last Day

2010-06-21T11:54:00.002-06:00

Today is the last day that we have in Saraguro. The festival has been pretty interesting. The final celebration is tonight at midnight. All of us are having a pretty good time. The school put on a going away ceremony for us.

Quilitoa to Saraguro

2010-06-19T13:46:00.001-06:00

Sooo, this is Tucker. We are all sorry for the lack of updates. After Mindo we headed to a small mountain town called quilatoa, it was right about 12,000 feet. the story of how we got there on the other hand is the interesting part. we rushed from mindo at about 630 am and rode a bus back to quito where we caught another 2 or 3 busses. We woke up on the bus in a small town where we grabed another bus on the run.... and here comes the fun part. we get on the bus and there is standing room only, chickens on the ground and old men drinking some sort of hard liquer. As we drive we find out its about a 3 hour ride standing with the smell or rotting fruit chickens and alcohol. about an hour and a half into the drive zach faints and falls on a nice man, we picked him up and got him lots of water and the man who he fell on gave him his seat. when we arived at quilitoa we all took nice deep breaths of fresh cold mountain air. the trip was worth the drive, and one of the only places ive ever seen that competes with the beauty of our valley. After a night in that beautiful place we grabbed 2 trucks and headed back down to baños. we all enjoyed nice hot showers and a relaxing soak in the baños baths. the next day we rented bikes and decended down a mountain pass that i like to call the waterfall highway. we hiked and biked all day very enjoyable. when we returned to baños that evening we caught another bus and headed the 2 hours to riobamba and got a hostel for the night. 5am we where on the road again for the 6 hour ride to cuenca.... another interesting bus trip. our bus blew a tire about 2 hours in, we all had a chance to stretch while they changed it, the later down the road the bus ran into more severe trouble with major clanking and banging..... so we change busses and finish our ride. cuenca was beautiful, and clean unlike most of the country we had seen... oh and locke connor and i fopund an amazing place where we had a 3 course meal for 4 dollars.... esta muy bien. the next day 5 am we jumped another bus and headed to our final destination. saraguro is alot like seeley just very very 3rd world. We went to the school where the kids got a kick out of how big we are especially me. every time i would stand or go through a door they laughed. We had an interesting cultural experience with native dances and music, o and we sang and showed them some swing danceing. later that night we moved into our new homes, i was lucky to have my home as it is a more modern(gas stove and refrigerator) the things we take for granted are the things we all miss the most. the next day we headed out on a hike, maddy had spent the night puking and having her amazing ¨grandmother¨ take care of her. on the hike things got bad, maddy and stone stayed down and the rest of us headed up, when we got to the falls connor ashley and i all got extremely sick and started the decent down. that night the four of us got a hostal to keep our illness contained. the rest of the group continued on the hike up and over mountains and back to their comunitys. up to date now... yesterday the opening ceremonys for inti rami took place, a ritual dance ceremony to the sun followed by food and more dance. we are looking forward to the rest of the festival including motocross. well im off for more fun, all of us are feeling a little homesick and are ready to see you all when we get home......i apologize for all misspellings and grammar errors

11th of June. Mindo.

2010-06-11T19:20:00.000-06:00

Today was a defining day of the trip. After a 2 hour nus ride North to Mindo, we all went on a zipline/hike. I can safely say without confirmation that it was one of the greatest expierences of our lives. Flying hundreds of feet over the rainforest is medicine for the soul. On the last line, it started pouring rain, which forced us to stay in the shack for a good 45 min while we waited for the weather to clear up. This proved to be yet another great experience, as we exchanged, in very broken spanglish, stories from home, showed the staff postcards, and exchanged emails. After that, we hiked back to Mindo, where we met a dog, an Argentinean jewlery selling family, a man who sold delectible stuffed potatoes with hommade salsa, and countless other people. We got back to the hostel, and after a short rest, went back out into the town to see the Mindo night life. Tuker, Conor, Zach and I had a great dinner at a small cafe, then proceded to walk the streets for a short time in search of a Salsa Dance, that still eludes us. We decided to turn back, and after a half hour of walking, a conversation with some college students, and some guava marmalade, I sit here, in an appropriately named internet cafe, dubbed "Internet". Ecuador has 8 new admirers. Bien Vida.

P.S Apologies for any bad spelling. The spellcheck is in Spanish.

--Locke

Quito Today

2010-06-10T21:37:00.002-06:00

Today we woke up at about 6;30 at the Chrittons' beautiful house in Quito to a breakfast of toast, assorted baked goods, eggs, coffee, tea and fruits. Shortly after consuming breakfast, we got on to a shuttle bus to the US Embassy, where we received a tour, a security briefing (very informative) and a briefing on the Ecuadorian political climate and what the Embassy does, along with information regarding employment with the state department. After that, we took taxis to the plaza in central Quito, where we ate a very light lunch. From there we toured the city. A 300 year old Cathedral, a museum, and countless cultural experiences. We then walked the streets for a few hours, until we found a great restaurant, and had some more light lunch. Needless to say, it was delicious. We then went to another Cathedral, which was massive. After a few more hours of walking, we found dinner; a rooftop restaurant that over looks the Quito skyline and the surrounding hills. It was a successful day. Pictures to come.

FINALLY MADE IT

2010-06-09T23:14:00.000-06:00

After a long day of travel, we finally made it to Quito. The house we are staying in tonight is beautiful. Not much else for now, but tomorrow and the next two weeks will be an experience none of us will forget.

2010-05-26T07:25:00.000-06:00

The Evolution of the Trip

2010-05-25T08:29:00.001-06:00

Last spring, when I gauged my students’ level of interest in various types of international trips, their overwhelming preference was for an experience with depth; they wanted a cultural experience that went beyond the sightseeing offered by most educational tour companies. I researched opportunities for volunteer travel in Latin America, but encountered two common impediments- high cost and a minimum age of 18.

During that period, Vicki Voeglin (my guiding partner in this endeavor) learned of a man named Bob Rainville, who has been involved in various projects in Ecuador through the International Rotary Club. He generously offered to look for possible projects for us on his upcoming trip in June. When he returned, he was very excited about a school he had visited in Saraguro, and he suggested that we pursue a cultural exchange with its students. It immediately interested me, as my wife and I lived just north of there in 2000, and have spent a little time in Saraguro. As a student in UM’s Linguistics department, I had also researched efforts the Saraguro have made to revitalize their language (Saraguro Quichua, like all Quichua/Quechua dialects, is endangered).

I looked up the school, Inka Samana, which is run by the Saraguro community, and was impressed by its global vision coupled with its attention to promoting and preserving the local culture. I contacted its director, María Gabriela Albuja, who was very enthusiastic about the idea. Vicki Voeglin, Bruce Rieman and I discussed shifting the focus of the trip from volunteering to simply creating an itinerary that would allow students from each school to interact and collaborate in various ways. Each group would learn from and about the other, and this would support the overall goal of creating greater understanding of and appreciation for other cultures. I pitched this to the students, and over 20 were interested. I was impressed, as we only have 104 students in the school.

So here we are… We’re raising money and will soon apply for various grants Our goal is to fully cover the $1400 or so that each student will need (you could help us!) 15 students have already put in fundraising hours, and our current account has about $1500. Things are falling into place… On Tuesday, Sept 22, the Missoulian publicized one of our fundraisers: a book sale ( Jim Duncan generously donated his wife Linda’s beautiful collection of contemporary fiction to us, and with the first $500 in proceeds, Seeley-Swan High School will establish a reading scholarship in her name). KECI News also aired the story and interviewed our students. After the stories ran, I received a call from a man who spent 2 years in Saraguro as a Peace Corps volunteer. His enthusiasm for the Saraguro people was inspiring, and he offered to visit our school a couple of times throughout the year and discuss Saraguro culture with the students!

Already, this is shaping up to be an incredibly rich experience for our students. My hope is for the trip to be so successful that we establish a sister-school relationship with our Saraguro counterparts…stay tuned. If you’d like more information about our trip, Saraguro, or the Inka Samana school, please peruse our various links. If you would like to donate, or if you have any fundraising ideas, please contact us!

Trace Stone