The Andean Highlands
Hola padres!
Woke up early this morning and after a wonderful vegetarian breakfast, we left to tour a cheese factory. After some sampling, we drove to the beginning of the trail and hiked through the clouds and mountains for two hours before stopping for a bagged lunch. We sat, relaxed, and ate our sandwiches while overlooking hills, valleys, and villages. We hiked a bit further before getting back to black sheep inn, where we got to read, journal, listen to music and just relax.
After our break, Javier shared his knowledge with us in a class about permaculture and using the land in a sustainable way. Then we ate a delicious dinner and finally gathered in the yoga studio to end the day with our nightly tradition of rose, bud, thorn and watched a couple of videos.
Today we woke up early and set off for a community project – helping to rebuild trails through the mountain for the locals. It was tough work – using hoes and shovels we widened the path along steep hillsides. After a few hours of work, we were all beat! The ecuadorians from the community looked like they would never tire, though. After a lunch break we decided it was time to start the hour long trek back to the hotel. To our surprise, the locals told us it was much more productive than the last group that had come, and they were impressed with our hard work!
We’re all having a wonderful and enriching time here in Ecuador, and are looking forward to another great day tomorrow at quilatoa.
-written by seeds of change participants
All is well here and we finished the Quilatoa hike this morning. Now we are having a relaxing day of reading in hammocks and good conversation as the rain is on and off. Edmundo not only put on a kick @$$ fire work show for us last night but came in after dinner and gave us a thank you speech while holding back tears. It was so moving!
