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Hola de Ecuador! Well where do I begin? I am writing all
of you from our new lodge in Palugo, Ecuador. It is night
and dinner is being cooked right outside the door. The lodge
is very open and my candle is flickering in the breeze that
is floating through. This week has been very busy with the
preparations for coming here. We used the first few days of
the week to pack and finish our academics. But we managed
to find time to slaughter our dear rooster, Jose. It was a
very interesting experience. The most amazing moment was watching
Jose as he let go after struggling for a few moments. It was
an amazing thing to experience an animal leaving this world
and giving his life to fulfill our needs. We made a delicious
soup and ate Jose for our final feast in VT. Thank you Jose.
Our Journey to Ecuador was smooth. When we arrived at the
Boston airport, we managed to charm the check-in people to
let us bring some extra boxes. The flight was fun and we all
enjoyed sleeping, watching movies, drinking coffee and soda
and eating “gourmet” airplane food. Our arrival
in Quito was spectacular. It was about eleven at night and
the moon was full and very bright. As we descended we could
see the lights of the towns and cities. Already from the airplane,
I could see the layout of the towns was far less organized
than the towns and cities we passed over in the USA. During
our descent we also saw some beautiful snowy mountains, and
our first glimpse of Cotopaxi, which was intimidating, huge
and snowy.
After a smooth passage through customs we met Michael and
Thomas’s parents, Michael’s girlfriend, Marcela,
and Thomas who had flown a day earlier than us. The ride up
to the farm in Palugo was a lot of fun. Eric, Ari, and I rode
in the back of a pick-up truck. It is really interesting how
different the buildings and landscape here are, there are
bars on all the windows and many of the walls were topped
with shards of glass. The ride to the farm seemed short and
we arrived in Palugo quickly. It was very wonderful to arrive
to our new lodge which was nicely lit and glowing with candles.
We had a nice rest and awoke to an incredible view of rolling
hills and huge mountains! We went to the milking our first
afternoon and it was really fun to learn how to make the milk
squirt out of the udder and straight into the bucket. It was
an enjoyable and busy atmosphere in the barn with all the
children of the milker’s running around and playing
happily.
Today we went into a nearby village, Pifo, to buy rubber
boots. We spent a couple hours there and bought lunch at a
stall. We had trouble finding boots big enough for Emil and
will probably end up making him a pair. It was fascinating
to see the people and observe their life styles. It was a
Sunday and the town was crowded with people buying things
and just hanging out and talking. It was exhausting to walk
back up to the farm because the sun was very hot and we are
all a bit weak because of the altitude.
Our group is now complete as we have been joined by Nadino
and Abdala, who are brothers from the Amazon jungle. They
lived in a tiny village until they were about 10 and then
they moved into a nearby city to go to school. They speak
Spanish and Kichwa and are learning English as we learn Spanish.
It is exciting to be joined by people from such a different
culture. I look forward to learning many things from them.
In this next week we will continue to get to know the farm
and work on some upcoming projects. We are hoping to build
a roof for our kitchen and a clay oven for baking. Hopefully
we will also learn how to make drums as well as making felted
vests.
How to Make Queso (cheese)
Ingredients: raw milk, Rennet, salt.
Steps:
- Begin with milk fresh from a cow (body temperature is
perfect for cheese making!) or heat raw milk to 37.5°C.
- Add Rennet or culture to the cheese and stir.
- Let sit for around 20 minutes and milk cows while you
wait
- With a long metal piece or knife cut cheese into large
2” squares vertically in bucket and then cut horizontally.
- Add a few tablespoons of salt (for a 6 liter batch) and
use glass cup to collect liquid whey forming on top of cheese
- Pour whey and curds collected in cup through a fine,
horsehair screen.
- When whey has been extracted put solid curds into the
molds and push downward with your hands to squeeze out remaining
whey.
- Let sit for 4+ hours and Enjoy!
Everyone has traveled somewhere by plane before, but have
you ever stopped to think about how much fuel is required
to get to that favorite vacation spot? At the end of each
of our flights to Ecuador, I asked the pilots how much fuel
was burned during the flights. The results were amazing. One
of the pilots explained to me that each engine on a Boeing
737-500 passenger jet burns 2000 pounds of jet fuel per hour.
After doing a bit of math and converting pounds to gallons,
I discovered that it took 7062 gallons of highly refined jet
fuel. Maybe we should have taken the bikes…
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