Intag

Upon returning from the cloud forest, I've now experienced culture shock within culture shock. I didn't even realize it was possible....

First of all, the cloud forest was absolutely amazing. We stayed at a small farm called la Florida in the area of Intag. La Florida is owned by a couple from the US who discovered this completely gorgeous piece of land, bought it as a protected forest, farm beautiful organic food and shade-grown coffee, and live a completely idealistic life. We arrived Saturday afternoon after a five hour bus ride and one hour walk to a delicious lunch and adorable little cabins waiting for us. The rest of the weekend was spent swimming in waterfalls, hiking, playing games, doing art, and learning all about local social movement mobilizing women and local people to earn proper wages and fight against the horrors of the mining industry. Learning about the mining industry was by far the most intense part of the experience... I won't go into the crazy details (mostly because it's getting dark, and I want to walk home while it's still light out), but these companies commit the most disgusting atrocities in terms of the environment and human rights violations. Look here http://decoin.org/ for more info (although I imagine they probably leave out all the death threats and corrupt government officials in their telling)

Yesterday we left Intag after breakfast, stopped briefly in Otavalo to buy pie, an old man alpaca sweater and some earrings, and was picked up by my host sister. I was absolutely dirty and exhausted, but she thought we should all go hang out with six of her well dressed, extremely made up, upper-middle class friends in a giant, gorgeous house. Huge shock after enjoying dirty Ecuadorian summer camp in the cloud forest all weekend... It is nice to be back to a family, though, even if they are crazy. We all just realized that we only really have 9 more days in Los Chillos before we head off to the rainforest and then the next homestay in Quito. This is going so fast! I need to appreciate it while I still can...