Buenas tardes from San Clemente!

After four days of biking we are at last in this beautiful highland community staying with host families and resting after the physical challenges of the last few days.

We left Palugo only about an hour late on Friday morning and biked a flat-ish 20 kilometers to Checa where we spend the night among avocados trees. Between arriving and dinner we had time to visit a nearby Tuna (prickly pear) farm where we learned about growing cactus in such an arid landscape and wandered the jungle-like garden eating cactus and grapes.

Saturday morning bright and early we left for a long day of biking. It was our most technically challenging biking so far, as well as the farthest distance and we all met the challenges admirably. We even picked up a new friend, Ezequiel, who kept us company and laughed at our attempts at explaining things in Spanish. We didn’t quite make our goal of 54 km but instead camped just past the equator in Cayambe. The next morning we stopped right on the Equator, half of us in the northern and half in the southern hemisphere. We continued on into the north and spent the night in Zuleta and biked the last 12 km to San Clemente. San Clemente is an agricultural community up in the highlands, they have a strong connection to Madre Tierra (mother earth) and the surrounding mountains.

We arrived just in time for lunch and after quick introductions we split into groups of two and three for home-stays. Laura, Bethany and I were together with Mama Blanca. It was wonderful to share in her daily routine and lifestyle. We all helped out our families with daily chores, ate with them, and shared our stories. We came together again during the day to plant corn and beans, to embroider shirts and to dance to traditional music.

Tonight we are staying even higher up the mountain and tomorrow we will be off again to bike over the Andes… 

Hasta luego,

Mary Kate

Statistics from the trip:

Flat tires: 17

Toilets clogged: 4 (that we are admitting to)

Total distance: 95 kms

REFLECTIONS

Being around people is a very important thing but in order to be around people you need to know yourself in a way that no one else can understand you.  I personally do not know myself very well and so that is something  I need to get to know as well as getting to know people on a one-to-one manner to really know that person in-depth. Knowing myself and someone else in such a deep way is something I wish for although it may be an impossible thing to wish for.

Lara Weise

Reflection on the Prickly Pear Farm

After a fair bit of circling, we found it, an oasis of jungle hidden behind a battered steel door. We rode through the opening into a different world. Parking our bikes on a narrow road lined with coco trees and exotic plants, our enthusiastic guide showed us around his creation narrating in broken english, rapid Spanish, and universal hand motions. We walked through a thick patch of cultivated jungle, munching on Pumarosa fruit, careful to avoid the thorns. Eventually, we broke out into a field of cultivated plants. An exuberant mixture of prickly pear, black berry, cover crops and more I could not identify.

Adin

The team begins their journey

Amy sawing wood

Wicho farming

Elsbeth flying in Ecuador on Nadino's feet.

Lara summiting a hill with other semester students in her dust.

Laurel farming.

Lucas farming

Rose with a smile

Mathias, Arya, Nicole, and Amy learn to work the land with the natives.

Laura and Harrison work together to hoe the fields.

Izzy learns from a native woman about embroidery.

A native man teaches the semester about various local grains. 

The semester celebrating their journey!