On Wednesday, July16th, we left my host parents, Gallo and Monica, in Otovalo and took a bus to the El Angel Watershed.  We picked up Susan Poats from the NGO, Randi Randi, and she led us up to Mira in the Carchi province of Ecuador.  We stopped to pick up three conservation rangers on the way to the El Angel Reserve.  Susan talked with us about the importance of the watershed and how it provides for the entire area, not only drinking water, but also water for irrigation.  On our way to 12,000ft up on the mountion, our bus driver hit a crater and we heard a loud crunch.  Everyone knew that it was not a good sound and we proved to be right and the angle had cracked the radiator.  We hitched a ride up the mountain with some other tourists and left our driver to deal with the bus.  The landscape on the reserve is amazing…it is called the Páramo and it looks like a picture from a Dr. Seuss book.  There is a special tree called a Frijeron that absorbs water from the air in the clouds and distributes it down to the soil.  It has very whitish yellow leaves and a long palm-like trunk that can survive forest fires.  There were also lots of grasses and shrubs.  On top of the dormant volcano, there was a crater lake that had clouds floating over it.  We hiked around the reserve with our guide, Luis, and learned about the plants, animals, and the watershed.  We had lunch really late because you are not supposed to eat when you are hiking in thin air.  After lunch, we listened the the amazing story of Monica, a working single-mother in Ecuador who is trained as a conservation guide.  We rode a different bus down the mountain and proceded to look in the repair shops in the next two towns for our bus.  It was there and apparently, they had used roofing materials to fix the leaky radiator.  We made it to our hostel without an incidents except for the giant spider and cockroach in our room.  Oh well.

Yesterday, we went to the community of Mascarilla which is 100% Afro-ecuadorian.  The community has delt with a lot of struggle starting with their history as slaves on the sugar-cane haciendas.  After fleeing or being freed from slavery, they were given the hardest land to farm in Ecuador.  In the past 50 years, they became famous for their papaya crops, but 10 years ago they were practically wiped out by a plant virus.  A community group was formed to train the women in making African-masks.  A number of women became quite talented and started to sell their work across Ecuador and Canada.  They built a community center and have now started a summer camp.  We were invited to visit the kids at the summer camp.  They were very curious about us as they don´t get a lot of visitors.  We watched them play some games and then introduced ourselves.  We broke up into small groups and taught them some American games.  It got to be very hot and they started up a game of soccer.  The Afro-Ecuadorian make up the most talented players on the national teams and it is an important sport for the region.  There is still a LOT of racism in Ecuador towards the indigenous people and even more so towards the Afro-Ecuadorians.  Their talents in soccer, however, are a source of national pride.  Some women from the community, Julia and Pequita, prepared us a delicious lunch of potato soup, shank steak, yucca, and vegetables.  It was really good.  We watched a video on their efforts at community development and then watched a mask-making demonstration.  They are very fast and very talented.  I collected some folk songs from the kids and Julia gave me two CD´s of local music- Bomba!  We had the afternoon free and got to swim in the pool and take a soak in the hot tub.  It was the first hot day we have had it Ecuador.  Very nice.  We took the bus back to Quito this morning and now are preparing for our trip to the Amazon on Sunday.  I am so excited!!!!