2013-03-27
Time grows short here in Los Bancos. With two weeks left I start to think back: “How exactly have a spent these past seven months, that it all went by so quickly?” Well, my routine made weeks fly by. Teaching English classes, giving environmental and recycling presentations, painting, building, traveling to and from communities…that was...
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2013-02-13
Day 163 in Ecuador 02/08/2013 Living in Los Bancos gives one a glimpse of the overwhelming power of nature. Simply step fifty meters off the main street into the wilderness. Twisted ridged trunks rise on all sides like the pillars of an ancient atrium. From the thick, pulpy layers of decay covering the earth vegetation...
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2013-01-28
The next time he rolls by in his big, loud, clanky truck, thank the garbage worker. If there is one bit of advice I can give you as a result of my experience here in Ecuador that would be it. You don’t need to sound overly sincere, certainly not sarcastic, just say a simple “thank...
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2013-01-28
Development: noun. The process of developing or being developed. A specific state of growth or advancement. Being so general, the formal definition of the word “development” is open to many interpretations, and can be applied to an array of situations. Animals develop biologically, countries develop economically, plans, plots, and people also all develop. The definition...
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2013-01-04
Day 98 in Ecuador 12/05/2012 Every so often the sun breaks the neutral gloom of the cloud forest haze. The perpetual fog is suddenly chased off, rays of yellow sunlight at its heels, and one feels as if under a hole carved in the clouds. To all sides, miles away, the huge, fluffy, floating beasts...
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2012-12-07
Having spent two months in Los Bancos, I have come to a time of analysis and reflection. This experience has thrown so many new and unexpected situations at me daily, that only until recently have I felt qualified to categorize events, reflect on similar aspects, and make certain comparisons. To bring life to these reflections...
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2012-12-04
Many are wondering: “What does Aidan do in Ecuador on a daily basis? We’ve read his ingenious bog posts and seen his jaw droppingly spectacular photos on facebook, but who is the man behind the myth?” Wonder no more, for included in this blog post is a riveting chronicle of a day in the life...
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2012-11-14
Halloween isn’t well recognized in Los Bancos. On the thirty-first, my house boasted a jack-o-lantern in spooky solitude, and not one child could be found roaming the barrio in search of tricks or treats. Luckily, the festive spirit that I instinctively accumulated through October found another outlet two days later. The holiday is called Dia de Los Difuntos, or Day...
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2012-11-05
The days leading up to my departure from Northampton, Massachusetts, then the week in Palo Alto, California, finally the month in Quito, Ecuador, each was connected to the other by a lengthening string of preoccupations about my six month stay in rural Ecuador. What might it be like living with no running water? Without showers?...
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2012-10-16
Today is my first Ecuadorian Holiday. Wednesday was 192 years since the independence of the coastal city of Guayaquil, but we get work off on the following Friday to make a long weekend. For the past 24 hours there’s been a rare abundance of traffic through Los Bancos as Quiteños head through the cloud forest to...
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2012-10-04
One of the first differences to hit me between the U.S. and Ecuador was food prices. In the U.S. it is, nearly without exception, cheaper to buy dinner at a MacDonald’s or Taco Bell than to head out and buy fresh ingredients for a homemade meal. Here in Quito however, a small salad from MacDonald’s costs...
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2012-09-26
Ok I let me get you up to date on the past few weeks of my life in Ecuador. Many of the unknowns I spoke about in my previous post are now knowns, and yet there’s still much I’m excited to figure out and experience. Here’s the low down. Last Sunday I returned from a week-long stay in...
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2012-08-03
I keep imagining that my upcoming trip to Ecuador will resemble my only other experience in a developing country, my time in Nepal, 2010. I know full well it won’t. Yeah, Ecuadorian and Nepali cuisine share certain staples, like rice and potatoes, and I’ll probably be a couple conspicuous heads taller than my hosts in...
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