Canoa, and other issues

I would first like to address an adequate complaint of this blog: that it appears like I have been on a four week vacation and I am not really getting around to doing any real service. Well, from the looks of the pictures in the blog, that is a just take. But what have I have not been bloging about is the 8 hours a day, everyday, of studying and working on my spanish. I figured you would never come back and read the blog, because the studying is the antithesis of exciting. Instead I chose to focus on exciting weekend trips. And while the Spanish has not progressed quite as fast as I would I have liked, learning a new language is hard. The spanish training was a necessary precursor to trying to get any work here, volunteer or not, and now I have reached a level where I feel comfortable enough to try and get some work. I start work this upcoming Monday at El centro de Muchacho Trabajador , or The Center for the Working Boy. There I will be helping kids who have to work polishing shoes or selling gum just to make money to eat and live. I will be helping them to read spanish, do math and other basic skills.

*Most of the blog material comes from trips I have taken over the weekend and not from working life during the week*

Now that that has been said, I´ll give you my usual two cents about interesting goings on in Ecuador. For the past few days I took a break with Stewart to check out the coast of Ecuador before he had to go home. Yes, the studying down here was not quite as intense as in Quito, so shoot me, but it is the last weekend I am going to leave Quito for the next five weeks. We stayed in a small hostel in Canoa, Ecuador right on the beach for 5 bucks a night and soaked up beach culture for a few days.

The town of Canoa from the air (see below)

The beach of Canoa at sunset

The town was really small, but had a relatively large population of gringos who had all said to hell with life in the states and lived in Canoa year round. The first guy we met while were down there was a guy named Greg from London, Kentucky. He was in the furniture manufacturing business up until 4 or 5 years ago, when he saw it was headed for China. He tenured his resignation, and moved his small paragliding school he had started (in Huntsville, AL) down to Canoa, Ecudaor. After marrying a Columbian, and buying a hotel he was set.

The local occupation: fishing boats are just left on the shore because the property isn´t quite as valuable as that in the states

So the other evening I am sitting around the hostel, when a group of students studying down here from Washington state pull out a couple of guitars and mandolins. Fortunately for me they were all in bluegrass band back home, and had an extra guitar. For 3 to 4 hours we sat around and entertained Greg and others with traditional bluegrass songs by Old Crow Medicine show and others. Greg was so thrilled, having not heard live bluegrass, and being from Kentucky, that he took us all up paragliding for free the next day.

Paragliding over the pacific ocean

Its a lot cheaper that flying small planes and a lot less noisy!

The next gringo we met down there was on Saturday as Stewart and I were again struck trying to find the Auburn game. This time it was actually on CBS, which we could have gotten on cable in Quito, but of course they don´t have cable in Canoa, just direct TV. Greg tells us that if there is one guy here who would have it, it would be a guy named Tripp who runs the ¨yacht club¨ in neighboring Bahia de Caraquez. At first we were surprised that there was a yacht club in Ecuador, but after a 20 minute bus ride, 10 minute ferry, and short walk, we found the Puerto Amistad Yacht Club http://www.puertoamistadecuador.com/.

Boat Ride to Bahia de Caraquez, there is a reason that everyone has to wear lifejackets...

The reason Greg recommended this place to us was that Tripp was actually from Dothan, ALABAMA. He went to Auburn and was in the telecommunications industry until 5 years ago when he too handed in his two week notice, bought a boat and headed south. He met and married a Columbian, and started this yacht club here in Bahia about 3 years ago.

You too could leave Alabama and start a yacht club!

Or just quit your job and buy a boat!

A few points on Ecuadorian culture I want to get off my chest:

-With gas prices at an all time high in the US I can´t help but bring up the huge discrepancy with Ecuador where a gallon of gas might cost 1.20 and diesel around a buck a gallon. The government clearly subsidizes the gas here either directly, or simply not getting the going rate and selling it to their own country at pennies on dollar. This is something that each and every Ecuadorian can see, and has a daily impact on the cost of their lives. This in turn keeps the costs of buses and taxis down, cars are relatively cheap to operate, and affects the bottom line of every business. No one sees where the government money COULD be going if they simply charged the going rate, and allowed the market to sort it out, and then spent their money on areas where the market will never help:

-Infrastructure down here pales in comparison to everything that you know in the states. I took a 10 hour bus ride from the coast to Quito the other day and we used dirt roads practically the entire route. When you were actually on asphalt, you got sick as the driver swerved from one side of the road to the other to avoid potholes the size of small cars.

-While at the beach, you can´t drink the water just like everywhere here, but on top of harboring disease, the water was actually SALTY. Apparently they have a hard time finding fresh water so they will just give you diluted saltwater...

-Tripp (alabama yacht club owner) says that he pays 250 dollars a month for an internet connection based off of speeds he was getting 12 years ago in the states.

-Electricity is expensive everywhere, particularly because the electricity companies don´t do anything (don´t care) about the fact 70% of the people in Canoa get their electricity by just trying off to a power line next to their house (no meter). As a result of the overtaxed system, the power will go off for18 hours stretches. The meter men say it is not their job to get those people in trouble because they simply check the meters that do exist.

-Education, while in upper level universities is somewhat cheaper here, has problems elsewhere. It takes the children going to school in Canoa 6 or 7 years to finish 3 to 4 years of school, because the school board will simply run out of money and teachers quit.

-The dutch guy, Frans, who ran our hostel (http://www.hostalcocoloco.com/) says he was on the street last week talking to a fisherman about why he wasn´t fishing on what was a great fishing day. This fisherman who is just living from catch to catch in a wooden shack with his family said, ¨I went out yesterday and have enough money to eat today, so there is no need to go out today.¨ Now I am supportive of the live for today lifestyle, but when you have a family to feed as well, and you might get sick next week, I think that he is missing the bigger picture. This is problem indicative of many attitudes here: a lack of planning.

-There is not a city in Ecuador that doesn´t have a building on every block consisting of a concrete form finished to about the second story and then rebar continuing on up to a possibly unfinished roof. The building might be anywhere from a year to ten years old. Ask anyone what happened and they will tell you that so and so got a lot of money one day, had a big idea, and started building this building without the funds to finish it. Now they are losing capital, stuck with an unfinished building, and have no way to finish the project. It almost a culturally accepeted practice to not have a long range plan or any planning in general for that matter.

On a nicer note, you can get shrimp as big as lobsters there for 5 dollars a pound. Stewart fixed this fisherman´s ear the other day and the guy gave him 2 actual lobsters for breakfast!

I´m also planning on putting up some more pictures from Mindo later this week so check those out. Hope all is well stateside.

-MHS