El Ultimo Guerrero Cayambi

The rest of the site visit . . . I met Victor, the project director. 26 years old. Ingeniero Agropecuario interested in organic ag. also, we tied Paraguay 1:1. That makes it very difficult to go to the World Cup. Still possible I think, but I don´t really keep up with these things. Otherwise. . . I planted some potatoes with the host family and got my forearms sunburned. The father was impressed with my back and knee resilience, so I offered to show him joint mobility exercises. That will have to wait till I get back in May. . .

So back in Cayambe, we had training Friday, and more Spanish class Saturday morning, which I was not happy about. But fortunately our new facilitator is as cool as our last one, and she had our class in town. While we were walking around chatting spanish, we ran in to the 3000 year old shaman/cacique I mentioned a few posts back. His name is Pablo.

Pablo told us he would take us to his secret pools Sunday morning. He told us if we paid $50 for an old horse or a calf or something he would sacrifice it to the condors which would then fly down and consume it while we watched/took pictures. Cool, but we don´t really have that kind of money.

Anyway, so the next day me and two of the facilitators take the bus to the middle of the world monument near Cayambe (there seem to be many such monuments along the equator), where we met Pablo. He took us down a path and showed us where he would sacrifice livestock if we had it. The condors need room to take off, which is more difficult on a full belly. He pointed out a condor flying above the mountain as well. ´These are the last flights of the condor we are witnessing.¨he said. He´s probably right I guess. There are some 200 condors in Ecuador, he knows of 6 in this area.

So we checked out a little cave and then he took us down to the pools. The water comes from springs which filter through poumice stone. or some sort of stone which came from volcanic eruptions. it´s white and they call it cascajo and it is used as a soil amendment.

so the water comes out tasting fresh and he said in the morning it is carbonated. Pablo claims to be a geologist and I am inclined to believe him. He told us to get under a water fall, which would clean us and strengthen our lungs. Felt good enough. Then we got in this pool that he said his granpa constructed. The algae is a natural soap, he said. He also said the water would be good for us, but one of the facilitators had a slight allergic reaction. ´That´s not allergies, that´s your body rejecting all the synthetic things you eat and wear.´ ok.

so he´s got this scar on his back which he pointed out to me and said it´s from a spear. From the last indigenous war back when he was 18. Why did you fight? I ask. *shrug*

but on the bright side, he says he has worked on management plans for reserves before. Those of most of the indigenous reserves in Ecuador he says. Awesome, so I put him in contact with my counterpart Carlos, and we will see how that goes.

El Ultimo Guerrero Cayambi is his e-mail signature, by the way. It means the last Cayambi warrior.

Not sure if writing an entire blog entry on this dude is appropriate. Well, its on the guy and his pools. and the progress of the management plan. anyway, i thought it was interesting. I´ll probably take some other trainees back to those pools this week.