With 5 days left in Manglaralto, Marshall and I have been reminiscing over the past 10 weeks wondering where the time went! 

Trinity: My time? Well, over the past two weeks it went mostly to transcriptions with some walks on the beach in between.  I've been listening and relistening to so many interview tapes that I almost went crazy these past two weeks. But thankfully, I just finished and just in time to present all my findings tomorrow to the directors of the program.  We also spent some good last hours in Dos Mangas with our favorite people we've met this summer.  The Salinas family (pictured below) are incredibly generous and welcoming, and we spent many hours touring their farm and trying to catch the rogue guinea pigs (which they finally found).

Trin and the Salinas Fam

Although 'cuy' is a delicacy in much of Ecuador, the Salinas family doesn't plan on eating their beloved pet.

 Marsh: For the past few weeks, I've been kept pretty busy with work for Applerouth, which I'm very thankful about.  Trinity's colleague, Kennedy, brought his family here for the last two weeks of our stay, and we've had a fun time teaching them Ultimate frisbee, taking walks around town, and being the recipients of mountains of oranges, cheese, and fish.  Besides the recent earthquake that woke us up at midnight (I would have slept through it if Trin hadn't woken me up), life continues its usual slow, contemplative pace.  Now, we're making our final rounds of our favorite restaurants and visiting friends we've made, letting them know that we're hoping to return next summer and that we're thankful for their friendship.

Hi Everyone!

         Trinity and I have a few highlights of the past few weeks.

One farm ("finka") we visited was owned by a family of a father and his 3 sons.  We visited for lunch and requested fish.  Little did we know that they would dive into their tilapia pond and catch their own!

This is the much coveted cocoa fruit.  The white stuff in the middle is a sweet fruit surrounding the cocoa seed.  The seed is purple and after it's been fermented and roasted, it's dark chocolate!

This is a stevia plant.  You may have seen a new sugar replacer in the grocery aisles.  It's made from this plant.  The leaves taste just like splenda; you just add a few to your drink and enjoy!

The organic farm has an ostrich named Don Carlos.  When he eats from your hand, he strikes your palm at about  50 miles an hour, thus my surprised face.

Trinity and I visited an island called Isla de la Plata off the coast about 45 minutes. The island is named either for the silver (plata) that Sir Francis Drake left somewhere on the island or for the bioluminescence of a special plant on the island).  The island is a safe haven for all kinds of birds including blue footed boobies!

Another inhabitant of Isla de la Plata is a bird that blows up a red sack on its throat to attract a mate.  I'm glad I didn't have to resort to such techniques to attract my spouse!

Here's Trin gracefully alighting upon the surface of the water.

Quito is a beautiful colonial city with tons of monuments and cathedrals.

Also, Trinity and I ordered coca tea at a restaurant last night, and we have to say, we’re hooked!  Coca (not to be confused with its illegal refined counterpart) is a green leaf that apparently helps with acclimatizing to altitudes.  It has a very mild flavor similar to green tea, but with no bitterness or tannins.  We’re trying to figure out how we can bring some into the states without getting sniffed out by a security dog.

Trin and I have entered into our 8th week living south of the Equator, and it’s amazing how quickly the time has passed!  Trin’s program has started picking up and she spent all of last week interviewing various people from the community she’s working with.  Now she has the laborious work of transcribing each of the 15-25 minute dialogues that she recorded.  She interviewed an elementary school teacher at her school, and you can hear children screaming in the background while the woman is trying to explain how climate change has affected the lives of her and her students.  It’s very challenging for her!  Right now, we are in Quito for a week while Trin visits the headquarters of The Nature Conservancy in Ecuador.  We flew in yesterday, and I was amazed at how winded I felt at the top of the stairs of our hostel!  Quito is at an elevation of about 9,000 feet, so it’s going to take us a few days to get used to the heights after having lived at sea level for several months.  Quito is very similar in architecture to Cuenca, with many brightly painted facades and balconies filled with colorful flowers.  Thanks for reading and enjoying!

Greetings everyone,
     This past weekend, we celebrated Trinity's birthday!  My beautiful wife turned 28, and we had a great time spreading the celebration over a couple of days.  We went on an eco-tour of a community nearby called Dos Mangas (nope, sorry, not "Two Mangoes," which would be really cool.  The town is right next to two rivers.)  While there, we rode 2 horses named Perdido (because he was lost for 3 months in the mountains) and Bernabe (Barnabas).  Both of our horses could have been about 2 feet taller, but they got the job done.

Trinity was flying up the hills on her valiant steed!

The "bosque seco," or the dry forest

The stalk of this plant is the beginning of the famous Panama hat!

Trin and her guide Luciano, in the "bosque de garua," or the drizzle forest (we're working on a better translation)

Me and my baby

A freshwater pool fed by small waterfalls

We never made it above 3 mph.

 

Overall, we've had a great past couple of days.  Trin has accepted that her age no longer has a perfect cube root of 3, and I've accepted that I'm better suited for a car than a horse as my primary means of transportation.

Hi everyone,

We thought we’d give an update on what church we’ve gotten involved with during our stay so far in Manglaralto.  Three weeks ago, we went on a walk to a Baptist camp that we’d passed several times on the main road.  We learned that there was an evangelical church in Manglaralto, apparently a 2 minute walk from our place.  During the week, we decided to swing by and met Ramón, who we’ve now learned is the stand-in pastor for Iglesia Galilea Manglaralto, of the Alianza denomination.  The church is small (our first visit on a Thursday evening we doubled the congregation), but on Sundays there are a couple of others who join.  Ramón is studying in Guayaquil at a biblical seminary to get his master in divinity, and the church has undergone some recent hardship, so we’re praying for more members.  Regardless, Ramón reminds us every meeting that “where two or more are gathered,” Christ is with us, a verse that has become very appropriate for Iglesia Galilea.

On another note, as we were walking along the beach this evening, we were staring out at some commercial fishing ships on the horizon and saw a pod of humpback whales breaching and splashing about on the horizon.  It was beautiful and the first time we had seen whales jumping out of the water.

Until next time,

      Marsh and Trin

Since Trin's internship was a little slow last week, we decided to go to Cuenca and Loja, two cities in the Sierra (mountainous) region of Ecuador.  Cuenca is a beautiful, colonial city known for making the famous Panama (should be 'Ecuadorian') Hats.  Here are a couple of highlights from Cuenca:

The main church in downtown Cuenca- they say the belfries are short because the domes were too heavy... a minor architectural error in our opinion

Trying on Panama Hats in Cuenca

They made this hat just for Marshall!

You can buy a little chick for 50 cents!

Beautiful fruit

Yep, for those of you who had guinea pigs as pets, here in Cuenca 'cuy' is a delicacy

Lots of 100% dark chocolate

View from a rooftop

 After Cuenca we headed 4 hours south to Loja, which is a smaller city surrounded by huge mountains.  We stayed with Trinity's director Kennedy and his family.  On Father's Day, we took a trip to the Amazons where we ate sausage and yuca and swam in this freezing cold waterfall!

We passed sooo many waterfalls going down the mountain!

Marsh and Kennedy (yup, he's named after JFK- and he named his son John Kennedy to seal the deal)

Marsh and Trin holding on for dear life... The waterfall was so cold and so strong!

Deliciously sweet sugar cane

Thankfully, Emory bought us a small fridge for our kitchen.

Dining room with hammocks

A mosquito net is a must.

View from the outside... we're in the bottom apartment.

When our water goes out, sometimes we can get water from this little hut.

Here are the long awaited photos of our place.

Hola todos!
    We wanted to share some photos of the landscape for your enjoyment.  To be sure, there are plenty of unpainted, unfinished concrete buildings and spraypainted walls, but we decided to show the more appealing aspects of Manglaralto.

This is our view to the north, towards the surfing town of Montañita.

This view looks south.  During the full moon high tide, the water was crashing on the rocks to the left.  Quite a tidal change!

The fishermen all have boats like this that they keep on the beach, above the high tide mark.  To get the boat to the water, they use wooden rollers and  slowly slide the 400 pound boat to the crashing waves.  It reminds us of how the Egyptians moved the huge blocks to build the pyramids.  Could you imagine every day having to do all this work just so you could start working?

On Sunday, Marshall and I went to Las Balsas, a small community about an hour away from where we are staying.  Although I was not prepared to address the entire community at the monthly meeting, the vice president insisted that I say a few words as the "special international visitor."  Although nervous, I spoke in front of 100ish people about the TNC project and what a great opportunity it is for the community as a whole.  Here I am addressing the crowd... I look confident, but I assure you that my heart was pumping hard :)

Hi everyone!  We´ve spent 5 days in our home for the next 3 months, and here are a few of the things we´ve learned this week:

• The sun sets every night at about 7pm over the Pacific, and it´s about as beautiful as you can imagine.  The beach has a very gentle slope, so surf travels a long way up the shore.  The result is that the pink clouds above are reflected on the beach as the men push the blue fishing boats out to sea for the evening.
• In Ecuador, everything´s either really cheap or really expensive.  We bought bananas, avocados, tomatos, carrots, green peppers, limes, canned tuna, and instant coffee at a little shop on our street from a woman named Norma, and everything cost about $3.50.  Gas costs about $1.48 per gallon (yes, that´s right, per gallon).  Other things are really expensive.  A small refrigerator costs about $300, a portable fan is about $35, and a cheap computer mouse is $25.
• We´ve been hanging out with three Argentinian brothers who are here on vacation.  Tomas, Eugenio, and Agostin are all blonde haired, blue eyed guys who walk around shirtless, yet they can communicate flawlessly with the local Ecuadorians.  Interesante no?
• Manglaralto is a small town with mostly locals.  There are a few small restaurants, a couple of shops that sell fruits and vegetables, a hardware store, and an Internet cafe.  One town over, about a $0.50 taxi ride, is Montañita, which boasts the best surfing in Ecuador.  The town is comprised mostly of tourists and is dedicated to surfing.
• Ecuador´s coast is divided into two forest regions.  There is the "bosque seco" or the dry forest.  This forest has plants and trees that need dry weather, so this season is perfect for them.  A little further up, there is the "bosque de gadua," which literally means "forest of drizzle."  This forest enjoys a light rain most of the year, and it is here where Ecuador´s coffee growers reside.

Today was the first day when Trin and I could really lay low and enjoy a nice day at the beach.  I tried surfing with a friend´s borrowed board and the result was Ocean: 1, Marshall: 0.  Trin got a much needed day off from work and was very supportive of her struggling husband.
Thanks for reading and we´ll have more to share this weekend!

A typical fishing boat and a view of the Pacific

A view downtown of Montañita, the surfing capital of Ecuador

A group of coffee growers that we visited the day after we arrived in Manglaralto.  Trinity´s organization does work supporting organic coffee growing.

Marshall begins his first surfing attempt.

Here is a pic of the team in Manglaralto.  Jaime is my direct supervisor from The Nature Conservancy, but I will mainly be working with Kennedy who is from CIIFEN (International Center for Investigation of the El Niño Phenomenon).  Everyone is super nice and very relaxed... a wonderful combination!

Leidy (secretary), me, Jaime (TNC), and Kennedy (CIIFEN)

 

Iguana Park, aptly named.

Who's that on the church roof?

Yet another childhood experience that American kids will never enjoy, sigh.

A lily among thorns.

This town is sponsored by Lily Pulitzer.

Well, we arrived safe and sound in Guayaquil!  The plane got in at midnight, and we were tucked in bed at our hostel by 1:30am.  Trinity and I spent most of today walking along the riverfront of the Guayas River, which reminded us both of the boardwalk at Myrtle Beach.  Two small hills in the distance are covered with multi-colored houses, reminiscent of some small coastal village in Italy.  The water would have been a delicious chocolate brown except for the masses of tree limbs and coconuts floating downstream.  We definitely stand out here; so far only one boy has shrunk back in terror at seeing us, and an older gentleman pointed and laughed at Marshall, saying "Oiiii! Que alto!" (wow, this guy's tall!).  Trinity learned to haggle with old taxi drivers over whether to pay $2.50 or $2 for a cab ride.  Tomorrow, we meet Trinity's supervisor, Jaime (pronounced "High-May") at 7am, who will take us to Manglaralto, to our new abode.  Overall, we like Guayaquil, but we're more excited about getting to the beach.
Our cellphone numbers are: 09-186-6416 (Marshall) and 08-885-1706 (Trinity).
We hope all is well and will post more pictures of Manglaralto!

This is my (Trinity's) first post, and I must let you all know that I am not nearly as well-written and creative as my dear husband.  But I'll do my best....

Marshall and I are making final preparations for Ecuador, and I get a new email everyday from my supervisors Jaime and Silvia.  So far, here's the news...
1. Apparently my name is strange and the people I work with will have a hard time saying it.  Having spent 2 years in Colombia (Ecuador's northern neighbor), I'm surprised that my name (pronounced TREE-NEE-TEE) is so hard to say in Ecuador since Colombians had no trouble with it.  So, I'm thinking of changing my name to Trilili to make it a bit easier...
2. Since I will be interning with The Nature Conservancy, my supervisor Jaime sent me a plan of work which says....

-          Support the development of a climate change adaptation strategy with local communities in the dry forests

-          Support in the organization and development of workshops with local communities in the dry forests

-          Support the implementation of climate change adaptation activities with local communities in the dry forests

-          Support in compilation and systematization of relevant information regarding climate change adaptation

I don't really understand what this means, but apparently I'll be doing a lot of supporting which I think I'm pretty good at...
3.  We get to Guayaquil on a holiday, so we'll be heading to a nice hotel for two days to rest and gear up for our move to Manglaralto.  It's only two days, and I don't know about Marshall, but I'm going to treat it as a second honeymoon :)

So, that's about all the news I have for today.  Four days to go until Ecuador!

Un abrazote,
Trilili