Sickness struck me first. We ate at a tourist stop where a bunch of women had set-up food stalls. I thought I had ordered a potato and chicken soup, but it turned out I received some sort of seafood soup. It is never good to be eating seafood in the middle of the mountains, it just cannot be very fresh. Anyhow, with a bloating stomach Merilee and I tried to go as many miles as manageable. We made it to a small indigenous town called Guamote where we stayed the night with some firefighters. Here in Ecuador we have gone through the most indigenous towns of our trip. It is good to see people retaining old ways of life and trying to mix it with the current world. There is no lack of problems while doing this, but Ecuador's president Rafael Correa appears to be strongly pushing indigenous rights (giving rights to the land, schools taught in Quichua, etc.)
We thanked the firefighters for a comfortable bed and warm place to stay and took off. It wasn't long before Merilee was struck by some intestinal bug. I was still hurting pretty bad from my intestinal friends so we stopped into a small mountain town called Empalmira de Gonzol. We met a man named Claudio and he immediately offered up the floor of a house he was constructing as a place for me and Merilee to stay the night. These folks lived right on the ridge of a mountain with an amazing view. They had lots of cute little animals like baby chickens and dogs. His neighbor Maria, was immediately excited to have us as guests and invited us over for coffee and popcorn. She invited us to stay the next day to make bread and kill a chicken to make a cauldo. Since neither one of us were feeling great we decided to hang around the next day. We slept mostly. We also tried to starve whatever was eating us from the inside by not eating ourselves. And in the evening we made fresh homemade bread. By the way, no chickens were killed because of Merilee and I. We assured Maria that killing a chicken for two sickly people would not be a good use of a succulent bird.
It is interesting here in Ecuador because we have met several people who have family that work illegally in the USA. For a country so far away from the US, I am surprised by this. Here are some average numbers about these people; they have been away from home for more than 7 years with no hope of visiting, it costs at least $10,000 to hire the Coyotes to take you (up to $18,000 we have heard), it takes up to two months to make it to the USA, often times they end up with no work in the US too, and sadly some never make it. Several months back there was a story in the BBC about 75 immigrants (or so) heading to the USA who were intervened by a cartel in northern Mexico and forced to join. When the immigrants refused the cartel killed all of them except three who managed to escape. One of the escapees is a neighbor of a woman we met. It is a hard reality to wrap my head around; seeing travel to the USA as a good viable option to helping your family make ends meet. We do see the positive effects for some families. They have a descent house, food, and exist above subsistence. We also see the left behind people going forward with their own life here. No real good summing up here.
The photos! Claudio, Maria and family, Bread!, views form the farm, cuteness on the farm!
Video too!
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