Jan 28--Dos Mangas & Return to Guayaquil

Saturday, January 28, 2006

What a day! It is 5:30 pm and I am writing this from the Palace Hotel in Guayaquil.

Awoke this am at 4 with Susan whose fever was at high pitch. Carlos and Evelyng spent most of yesterday with Isadora at the hospital, and if Susan has the same malady, it is some mosquito-borne illness that “starts with ’C’ but is not malaria. [Looking back I am pretty sure it  may have been the Chikungunya virus. I had a nasty bout of it on my way to the Galapagos at the end of the Expedition.It is characterized by fever, joint pain and malaise.] Isadora was given a shot and some medication. Susan has not been seen by a doctor, preferring to go to her own doctor in the States. 

I went up to the lodge for some ice for her, but found everyone asleep and the kitchen area locked.  At 6 o’clock, with the help of Ricardo translating (poor chap has to translate Spanish into Portuguese and then into English for me) I managed to make myself understood and returned to Susan with a large pitcher of ice water, a bowl of ice cubes, a glass, and a straw. The latter two items are not needed as Susan is drinking from her Camelbak. I filled her Camelbak, the bladder of which she placed on her forehead (a new use for it that I will remember). Then I showered and dressed for breakfast. Susan claims to feel a little better and thinks her fever broke this morning at 4 when she awoke.

This is the day that we return to Guayaquil. Before that, however, we have been scheduled to visit the artisans of Dos Mangas, the third little village within the Reserve that is anxious to become a part of the Reserve’s conservation plan and the Earthwatch experience.

After a fantastic breakfast of rolls, marmalade, scrambled eggs, juice and coffee on the patio, we pack our bags and stash them in the office so that they can be loaded into our little mini-bus back to Guayaquil and ready for our return trip when we get back from Dos Mangas. Directly thereafter, we begin our jaunt, cramming ourselves into a little beat-up fish pickup with two 6-inch-wide benches facing each other in the back. Susan, who is still ill, and Marlene, who is still having trouble with her poor feet and legs, stay behind to nurse each other as much as possible. If they had gone, we wouldn’t all have fit in the pickup. Our knees touch and our heads are only a fraction of an inch from the metal camper-like canopy. We all take pix of this circus act, but. . .

Soon we are on narrow dirt roads and navigating across potholes, rivers, and “sleeping policemen” in the villages we pass through. We painfully climb out of the back of the truck an hour later at the Dos Mangas center for the Loma Alta Ecological Reserve (LAER). This village looks more prosperous than Loma Alta and El Suspiro. It’s main street is roughly paved. It has a restaurant (though the average eye would never recognize it as such), and it has several rough touristy “artisan” outlets. A LAER Naturalist comes out to greet us and we all troop into the one-room center and sign the visitor’s register. The naturalist (whose name I have forgotten) then  takes us on a tour.

After signing in and looking at the photos in the Conservation Center, we walk a couple of buildings down the street and  through a gate to the back of a house where they are preparing the paja toquilla leaves for making panama hats. Ooops, we interrupt someone’s toilet. After apologies, the naturalist introduces us to the person who prepares the fibers and we are treated to explanations of each step in the process, which I’ve outlined below. 

The photo below shows some Toquilla Palms (Palmata carludovica). Only the unopened central leaf shoots are used. First the shoots are split in finer leaves using a metal point. The outer leaves that are too hard, are separated out and later used to roof houses. The cut shoots, or cogillos, are bundled up and brought to weavers to be opened and deveined, loosening individual leaflets.

In Dos Mangas  the leaflets are boiled for up to 30 minutes. After boiling, the fibers are bleached with sulfur inside a wooden box or an oil drum. After bleaching, the fibers are hung to dry, usually under the house to protect them from damage by direct sunlight. The leaves have to be shaken regularly to prevent them from sticking together.

When the fibers are dry, the weaver, or tejador, begins with 8 or 12 strands of straw. The straw is woven into a disc called a rosetta. It forms the center top of the hat's crown. Most tejadors bend over a stand while working to ensure an even weave. A rushed job will result in larger weave toward the edge of the brim, which reduces the value of a hat. Once the hat is complete, the edges will be finished and the work will be carefully pounded to soften the hat without weakening the straw.

For a hat of standard quality, a weaver needs about 8 hours, for fine Montecristi Quality, up to several weeks, using only the finest fibers. The hats are graded for color and tightness of weave and sell from $100 to $800 dollars.

Next we visit a tagua nut craft shop. In 1996, PAN (People Allied for Nature) an organization founded by Dusti Becker, our original PI, opened a tagua jewelry workshop in El Suspiro to provide an alternate source of income to villagers who agreed to stop hunting and to cease slash and burn agriculture in the newly created Loma Alta Ecological Reserve. Dos Mangas later also was encouraged to and did join PAN.  

Susan has instructed me to buy some things for her. She says she intended to spend about $20. We’ve all been encouraged to buy things in this village to support their craft and ecological efforts. I buy several necklaces, bracelets, and earrings, most costing only $2 apiece. The shop does not have the $4 tagua nut figurines that I have seen on Dusti’s PAN website, so I plan on ordering some from the Net when I get home. I love the things made from these nuts, though this shop is carving trendy things into some of its jewelry such as surfers, marijuana leaves, peace signs, and the like. I think they would do far better to be carving the birds and animals of the Reserve. There are many little pipes, obviously for smoking marijuana, also, so I assume that  it is a legal pastime in this area.

Here’s what the website says about tagua artistry: “Tagua, also known as vegetable ivory, is an endosperm seed of the palm, family Phytelephantoideae that grows in tropical rainforests. In coastal Ecuador, tagua comes from the Phytelephas aequatorialis palm tree, which grows to 30 feet in height. The generic name, derived from the Greek words phyton (plant) and elephas (elephant) literally means elephant plant.

“The female palms bear clusters of large brown, burr-like fruits the size of grapefruits or melons. Each fruit contains four or more large seeds usable as raw material for handcrafts. After falling to the ground, those nuts not eaten by such forest animals as pacas and agoutis are gathered by the villagers of Loma Alta Ecological Reserve. They are dried and become extremely hard and similar in color and texture to elephant ivory.

“LAER artisans today craft beautiful earrings, bracelets, animal figurines, and carved and polished nuts from this renewable resource that grows in their fog forest, providing them with an alternate source of income and an alternative to deforestation.”

After visiting the tagua craft shop, we go next door to a shop that is selling baskets and colorful paintings of birds and animals done by the children and teachers of the local school. The paintings are

Drawing of the fog forest by an El Suspiro 6th grader

primitively interesting but much too large for my luggage. The baskets and basketry bags are pretty, and I buy one for Susan and buy myself a pair of banana seed earrings and Lucy a necklace of banana seeds and pearl beads. We then walk the length of the street to another shop off the street atop a little hill. Here all of the craftswomen have gathered to sell their baskets and woven wares. They are dressed in their finest clothes and are distinctly modern and proud. Their artistry and the money they receive from it is obviously empowering. I buy several mats and another basket bag with a tagua nut closure. Donna wants the handle lengthened on a bag she buys, and the women set to work, promising to bring the bag to her at our lunch stop.

We eat lunch at the town restaurant, which seems to be someone’s house with two plastic tables outside in a little railed area. Each table has four or five  plastic chairs and is covered with a plastic lace tablecloth. Pigs, chickens, children, mules, motorbikes, bicycles, and the curious pass by on the street, kicking up dust.

As with the people of El Suspiro who fed us, these people have been engaged and will be paid by Earthwatch. Earlier as we are walking to the shop on the hill, we passed a woman cooking our meal outside on a grill—several pigs and dogs underfoot looking for food scraps. She did a superb job because we are served a good soup followed by wonderful grilled fish and rice. We each enjoy a beer, fetched for us from a cooler inside by a little boy. The only problem with the meal are the flies. They are thick and bothersome. We have to cover our food and drinks and stuff a napkin into the tops of our beer bottles to keep the flies off. Eventually the same urchin who brought us the beer, lugs out a tall electric fan. It does little to keep the flies at bay but does stir up the air a little and provides some relief from the ever present heat.  

Our conversation drifts to Ecuadorian food. Carlos and Evelyn tell us of the fondness of more northern Ecuadorians for roast guinea pig. Aww! Carlos tells us that he was all set to try this delicacy but it was served, whole and he just could not eat it. Having seen for myself, via the two photos below from the Web, I think I would have a hard time of it also. Why don’t they remove the head and feet at least?

Donna’s beach bag has not arrived by the time we have finished lunch, so the fan boy is sent down the street to the shop. Shortly after, he and a couple of the craftswomen return with the bag, its handle expertly lengthened.

After lunch we stroll to the Dos Mangas Catholic Church, the largest and most imposing structure in the town. I am really bummed that my photos of the church were lost because I took a photo of the  cross on its steeple . . . adorned with several black vultures! I also took some photos inside the airy, high roofed, cinderblock structure of its ancient stone altar, which looked as though it had originally been a sacrificial altar, and of the Good Shepherd statue in all of its finery.

Legend has it that this small statue (maybe 4 inches) of the shepherd flanked by two sheep, was found on the beach 50 years ago and is responsible for the name of the church (which name is in my lost photos!). Miraculously, the statue is growing larger each year! It is enshrined on an elaborate flower bedecked cart to the right of the altar and rests on a lace and satin covered pedestal. Our guide treats it with much awe and reverence.

After our church tour, we say goodbye to our guide, pile back into the fish truck, and bump back to the Eco Lodge. Our Guayaquil van is waiting for us, already loaded with our luggage. I have just enough time to go to the b.r. and grab my laundry from Susan before we cram ourselves into the van and take off for Guayaquil. We are on a strict timetable. Ricardo must be at the airport at 3:30 pm latest. He is going to extend his vacation with a week in Machu Picchu. We get him there half an hour early.

Palace Hotel

It is 4:00 pm and the Palace Hotel is a lovely thing to see. We all retreat to our rooms, first having laid plans to meet in the lobby at 8 pm for dinner. Susan tells us of a folk music festival at 7, but none of us feel we will be ready to go again that early. Marlene wants to buy some long, baggy pants to cover her legs, and others have errands they want to run and things they would like to buy.

At 8, we gather in the lobby. Susan is still feeling too ill to participate, plus she admits that she would like to enter her final data into the computer, so we bid her goodbye. Donna will not go with us either. She has decided to try for an impromptu tour of the Galapagos and must catch a standby flight to Baltra. So it is Chas & Dawn, Erica, Cathy, Marlene (in her new pants) and I who go to a restaurant named “Nuestros” (“Ours” in English) recommended to Marlene and reserved at the front desk.

We take a taxi, which takes us 15 minutes north of town to what seems like an upscale area.  I have a shrimp Caesar salad ($8.50), the first greens I’ve had in two weeks. It is very good. Chas and Dawn and I split a bottle of red wine. Dawn has the best dish, enormous prawns, four on her plate ($17). (If these prices seem reasonable, remember that one must add a 22% tax plus tip). Marlene cannot stay for dessert. She leaves early because her legs are really hurting. We say our final good-byes and have the waiter call a cab, then Marlene (and Erica for company) is gone. The four of us who are left have dessert and coffee and relax. I have “ apple pie.” It is good but more like an apple tart. 

Cathy and I say good-bye to Chas and Dawn at the Palace. They are staying in a nearby Best Western. We two plan to meet at 7 am tomorrow morning for breakfast with Susan. Susan and Cathy are on the same flight home.

Hard to think that our Earthwatch Expedition is over . . . Now I must catch my breath, sort my gear, have a day of rest, and then head for a 10-day visit to the Galapagos Islands.