Ecuador

Right lets kick start this entry with a few Ecuadorian facts. Firstly oil profits constitute nearly half the nations budget which is why it will come as no surprise when I tell you that deforestation is Ecuador's most severe environmental problem. Unfortunately government policies allow oil exploration and encourage the clearing of land with little regard for forests, rivers and wild life. In addition to this around 95% of the forests of the western Andean slopes and lowlands have become agricultural land, most of which being banana plantations.... boo hiss to bananas! This tricky issue of environment versus economy is not exactly uncommon in South America, and like in a lot of cases, when 70% of the population live below the poverty line, it is no surprise that the environment isn't first on the government’s agenda. In the late 1990's Ecuador faced an economic crisis. This resulted in them giving up their local currency in 2000 in exchange for the dollar, much to the dislike of many of the locals. Still, all that aside, Ecuador is without doubt a diverse and beautiful country complimented by a cosmopolitan capital, and although my time was brief there, I liked it, I liked it a lot.



So after 15 long hours I finally made it to Ecuador's capital, Quito. There is something about being alone in a large city which I find quite exhilarating, perhaps its the voyeur in me, or perhaps its because it gives me the chance to recreate myself a little, either way remaining anonymous, while being surrounded by the hustle and bustle of thousands of other peoples lives, has a strange hold over me. Like many Latin American capitals, the city is based around a new town and an old town, both with their own delights. By day I explored the numerous churches and colonial buildings the old town had to offer, including The Basillica Del Voto Nacional, with its stunning stained glass windows, resembling over sized kaleidoscopes, and La Compañia de Jesus which is a rather impressive church adorned with 7 tons of gold. Inside the church you can find a selection of 16th century religious art work depicting a variety of rather unpleasant scenes including adulterers being malled to death by wild dogs, and drunks being force fed alcohol until their stomachs exploded. It was enough to give me the serious heebie geebies! I also had the slightly surreal experience of having a guided tour around a gallery that backs on to a convent in which there is a glass panel linking the two and you can observe the nuns going about their daily business at your leisure! It seems that Sister Act is a less than accurate depiction of a nun’s life, with a lot less debauchery being had by all accounts, as they are only allowed to talk to each other for 1 hour a day and are not allowed out of the convent unless facing near death! Afterwards I was able to purchase organic shampoo from one of the nuns but only through a solid wooden turn table so as to not reveal her identity, imagine that, you are only allowed to talk for one hour a day and you get stuck selling hair products to a gringo that can barely speak a word of Spanish, she really drew the short straw that day.

By night I had a very different experience of drinking in the super swanky new town with a group of Irish guys and gals I'd been fortunate enough to meet along the way. This new found friendship was brief as they left Quito the following day and I was left to discover the highs and lows of spending time in my own company. In a way I found myself in a very strange position which helped me face a stark realisation, for one of the first times in my life I felt lonely. Now I am well aware that this is a feeling I´d have difficulty enduring for very long, but for a brief couple of days it was strangely liberating. Not only did it help me appreciate how fortunate I've been throughout my life, and just how much my friends and family mean to me, but it also helped me address the way I construct my life. The thing is that when I´m at home I keep myself so absurdly busy, and fill my life with so many people that sometimes I feel like I don't have time to breath. I think I do this as a security measure, so that I never feel alone, which I'm sure we all do to an extent, filling space and time to evade emptiness. Now I'm having to make decisions without talking them through with someone and by doing so I´m learning a little more about myself in the process because even silly decisions like what I'm going to have for dinner aren't altered by other peoples opinions.

Anyway this is all highly hypocritical as all the while I'm preaching experiencing solitude a few days later I headed for a WWOOFING community where I was certain to be greeted by like minded people, so perhaps I haven't got the whole independence thing figured out quite yet. Communa De Riannon is a small organic farm an hour or so north of Quito set to a back drop of a 360 degree panorama of jagged mountain ranges with snow capped peaks, it’s breath taking. Despite its location and the lure of company and a base for a short while, I was a little suspicious when arriving at the farm as amongst the blurb re directions, the types of farming practised etc the web site states the following:

´We hope to offer people a supportive environment in which to rediscover their dreams. Many people have suffered trauma and pain. We hope to offer a place of peace and healing. We offer a free yoga session every morning and at times try to get together for meditation in the late afternoon. We recently built a sweat lodge and plan for more ceremonies and full moon celebrations.'

Now to me this had 'hippyism' written all over it, of which I am yet to be converted to. This unease around said hippies is not without substance you understand, it stems from a deep dislike for people who proclaim to be 'at one with nature', or 'want peace not war' when in reality they spend 99% of their time in a drug induced state and contribute little to the society they live in, which is why I was thrilled to find one of the most motivated, dynamic and intelligent bunch of people at Communa De Riannon that I've ever met. Here lies a bizarre combination of people who, on first impressions, each fit the stereotype of an archetypal hippie in one way or another, and yet if you get to know them properly break that mould entirely. Within minutes of arriving I was introduced to a vegan animal rights activist who went by the name of Monkey, Alphonso, a poncho wearing, handlebar moustache donning Mexican, Luna a Scottish chick with dreadlocks adorned with beads and other such treasures she´s found throughout her travels, and James a self proclaimed witch. On my first trip to the toilet one of the other volunteers emptied her moon cup down the sink in which I was washing my hands, needless to say the first 24 hours of my stay on the farm required me to readjust a few of my mainstream city based ways!



The work itself was well organised, varied and incredibly innovative, from tee-pee making to creating veggie patches with adobe walls which largely involved squelching around in a giant mud pie made up of soil, water and donkey shit! Besides work the week was filled with taking the vegetarian dogs for walks (yep all the animals are veggie on the farm... not entirely sure how fair it is on them, but they seem happy enough, although they had just managed to kill and eat 5 chickens a few days before I arrived!), juggling, guitar playing, singing, tarot card reading and learning about dumpster diving (not sure I´ll ever bring myself to do that), amongst many other flower child style activities! I even took up a raki session (apparently I have no blockages which I´m guessing can only be a good thing no matter what the context!), an afternoon of meditation, a contemporary dance class, which involved me ´getting in touch with the floor´ and a vegan workshop where it was confirmed that my love for cheese will definitely secure me a place in hell if god turns out to be a goat! I know it may seem that I am making a mockery of these people, but I can assure you that my time in their company was one of the absolute highlights of this trip for me and I had to drag myself away from their warmth and Bohemian ways. With that in mind, I left it to the very last minute to bid farewell and left myself with two days to get the Lima to meet my mum, which if you care to glimpse at a map of South America is quite a distance!