Wednesday was one of those days I´ll never forget.
After visiting some fellow Peace Corps volunteers in a small Shuar Indigenous village, I traveled on to the Amazonian town of Gualaquiza, province of Morona-Santiago. I planned to attend a cultural folkloric dance exposition on invitation from friends in my village.
I had heard that the President of Ecuador, Lucio Gutierrez, would also be in Gualaquiza that day, but never did I expect the following to occur.
Upon arrival to Gualaquiza, I went straight to the town´s coliseum to see if I could listen to the President give his speech. Unfortunately, just as I arrived, the President was ending his speech. Fortunately, as luck would have it, I happened to be standing at the door where the President would be exiting. I also happened to be standing right next to the soldiers that would be guarding the President´s exit out to his car.
I could have easily entered the coliseum. People were walking in and out at their leisure. Anybody could go in and see and listen to the President.
After about 15 minutes, generals and politicians began to exit. People began to crowd around the exit and I held my ground in front. Pretty soon, a contingent of security guards came rushing out, followed by the President and his cronies. He began shaking hands with people. Eventually, he made his way towards me. I whipped out my camera and began taking pictures of him and the Shuar Indian who walked beside him in traditional garb. Before I knew it, the President walked straight up to me, smiled and held out his hand. I shook it warmly, told him I am a Peace Corps volunteer, he smiled and then moved on.
After meeting the President, I stayed on for the folkloric dance festival. My friends from my village participated.
We headed back to the village at about 1:00 A.M., arriving at 4:00 A.M. I woke up at 6:30 A.M. for the next adventure -- hiking through a dense rainforest in search of seeds.
On Thursday, I went from politics to nature by delving deeper than I have ever into the rainforest. My mission was to collect seeds from a variety of trees for a tree nursery project.
Accompanied by a local villager, and his son, we walked one hour out of the village and proceeded to walk up a mountain into the jungle. The vegetation was incredibly dense and the terrain was steep and trecherous. We had to use our machetes to chop our way through. Often times we slipped and fell, but trudged on. Some of the trees we saw were tremendous, with massive Amazonian trunks and roots. I saw insects I have never before seen, and I heard and saw some of the strangest birds. One bird, whistled and then let out a sound similar to a hammer banging up against a piece of metal.
After hiking up the mountainous rainforest for 2 hours, we reached the summit. From the top, we sould see vast tracts of virgin rainforest all around, as well as a nearby Saraguro Indigenous village. I also observed large pieces of deforested land, and even heard a chainsaw.
After a while, we headed back down another side of the mountain, having to chop our way through the forest once again, slipping and sliding on the way down.
I was completely exhausted from the journey, but it was well worth the effort. And I collected some interested seeds, including the Tagua nut, which is used in the making of Amazonian jewelry.
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