Tragedia en Lumbisí

On Monday, Elizabeth, Zack, and I were hanging out in Quito for a bit after classes (around 5pm or so). I got a text from Kelsey (who lives in Lumbisí next-door to Zack) saying something to the effect of “Hey I know you work with the kids in Lumbisí a lot and wanted to let you know that today 7 or 8 children died in the river.” I immediately began to freak out, even thinking that it could have been the class that I was supposed to be volunteering at that day that had gone down to the river. Zack called Kelsey right away to get more information, and she said that a bunch of kids had gone down to the river to fish or play or something, and there was some sort of dam or something that broke and the kids drowned and there was a rescue effort going on and of course crowds of worried neighbors. She wasn’t sure of the names of any of the kids that had been down there or whether it was for a class or just on their own or anything. She said she’d thought she heard the name Jeimy (pronounced “Jamie”) – but she wasn’t sure.

The three of us left right away for Lumbisí, Elizabeth came along for moral support despite that she’d never been to Lumbisí and this may not have been the best first experience there. When we got to Lumbisí after what seemed like the longest 45-minute bus ride ever, there was a huge crowd outside of the Casa Social in the main park along with a few ambulances and police cars and such. We found Zack's family pretty quickly and asked them what happened, and they confirmed more or less what Kelsey had said, but that at the moment there were 5 dead, 4 saved, and 1 still missing. They were not all from my class, instead they were mostly from 6th grade and had gone to the river on their own after classes, around 1:30, to try to catch fish to sell at their school. Kelsey’s sister, Grace/Estefa (either name) is in 6th grade and thus knows/knew a lot of them. We asked them if they knew any names and they weren’t sure either, they did think that at least one might’ve been from the street leading to Zack and Kelsey's houses. We decided to head in the direction of Zack's house, whilst looking for other people we knew to see if they knew any more and just for the sake of talking to people. After a bit we ended up at my house and decided to go next door to Kelsey’s to be with Estefa. She and her 12-year-old brother Alex were home, their dad was still working and their mom was up in the park. They were watching TV, as they knew that in the next hour or so the story was going to air on no less that 3 news channels. Estefa was pretty messed up, though not totally gone (not in an injured sense, in a sadness/grief sense), and managed a few laughs to the Simpson’s, which was on before the news. She knew more specific names and confirmed that Jeimy, the girl I know from volunteering, was one of the ones that died. The pain in her face as she told us the names was heartbreaking.

Eventually the news did show the incident, but there wasn’t much of anything that we hadn’t already known, except that one of the first women that made it down to help (there were 2 kids that ran up to town to get help when the others were caught in the water) was the mother of a girl named Blanca, and she had managed to save three children but couldn’t make it to Blanca, who could only wave goodbye to her mother. She later drowned. The report showed Blanca{s mother attempting to talk to the reporter, but barely being able to get any words out, so bothersome and horrible to watch. Evidently, a few of the bodies were found down the river as far as Tumbaco, which for those of you who don’t know (most), is a good 5-plus miles. When the names of the deceased and the missing girl showed up on the screen, Estefa buried her head in the pillows and of course the rest of us couldn’t quite hold everything back.

We thought that the funeral was going to be Tuesday, but they wanted to wait until the girl who was missing was found, which didn't happen until Wednesday.

They held the funeral on Wednesday at noon for the 5 children: Alex Shuquitarco, Blanca Guamán, Edison Pujota, Jéssica Herrera, and Jeimy Tusa. All were 10 and 11 years old. I attended with my coordinator, Maria Teresa, who helped organize the volunteer work that we do in Lumbisí, and she also comes by the after-school program when she can. To see all the parents sitting in a row in front of five little caskets was devastating. I stood with a girl from the Oratorio (volunteering), Shelley, who I think is the same age as the children who died, for a while, and also with Estefa.

We walked up to the cemetery and I just heard screams and cries from the families. The sister of Jessica was crying "Mi ñoña! mi ñoñaaa!" (my sister! my sister!) and her and the mother of Jessica fainted. I was confused and just sad for a while because I didn't know which way to go to for Jeimy, I had brought flowers for her. Her coffin was put in a niche and closed off with bricks, but I managed to give my flowers along with many others before it was closed. Her mother also fainted in front of me, so I gave the family the water I had and broke down crying.

Seconds after that happened, a reporter nearby got a phone call, and as he went running away he said "Encontraron la otra chica!" (They found the other girl!) All the children went running out of the cemetery to find out anything they could about the missing girl, Mayra Cerón. For some reason, as I left the cemetery, there was a rumor floating around that they had found her alive, but it turned out that they found her under some sand or rocks on the bottom of the river, already there for 2 days.

We found out that the cause of the rush of water was that some Electric company that controls the flow of the water upriver let the gates open to clear the river of garbage. Usually, in the past, there had been an alarm. This water swept away the children, and 6 of them drowned. The company is denying any responsibility. They know that the families in Lumbisí have no money for lawyers, the families even had to borrow money from friends and family to pay for the coffins. Welcome to Ecuador.

Rest in peace, niños.

http://www.elcomercio.com/noticiaEC.asp?id_noticia=271962&id_seccion=4

Yes, I felt disrespectful taking pictures, but I want people who weren't there to understand what happened.

They held the funeral outside of the church because the whole town was there and wouldn't be able to fit inside.

Procession to the cemetery- This is Jeimy's 'grave'-

Semana Santa 2 - Of Utter Misery

So, Elizabeth and I arrived in Alausi on our bus from Loja.... at 3:00 am. We didn't want to walk around at all, so we found a hotel right where the bus dropped us off which was actually really nice. I called some friends on the bus that was coming to get us for the field trip and they said they were a few hours away. They ended up being a little late getting to the town, at about 6:30 am, so we got 3 or so hours of good sleep (in beds, as opposed to buses).

In the morning, I realized that I had left my hiking boots on the rack above our seats on the bus that took us to Alausi from Loja... (sorry mom, they're gone forever) I had flip flops... but that was NOT going to help me hike part of the Inca trail for our field trip. So after we met with the group and had breakfast, I went with my professor to go buy some shoes. I only had the money Zack had given us, and we still needed some for food. Unfortunately, I didn't know that it would have served me well to have rubber boots, which about half of the group had, so I bought gym shoes, which were twice as expensive. :(

We set off to a small town called Achupallas, and at some point our bus stopped and said that we would have to take trucks to go further along because the roads couldnt support the big bus we were in. Some Ecuadorian men packed our stuff onto a truck... which looked a little shady because they put our bags on a tarp-like roof supported by one pole, hanging over all of us sitting in the truck bed. It was about an hour ride in a pretty darn uncomfortable position... but it wasn't raining or too cold... so we were alright.

When we got to Achupallas we thought there were going to be mules there waiting to carry our stuff... but we waited... and waited... and finally about 2 and a half hours later the mules came so we could start our looooong hike. My shoes got muddy in the first hour for sure... so it wasn't too great, and I was really regretting my purchase. It was also raining a bit, but we went through a cool mountain pass and saw a river down below. We got to a big open area and set up camp for the night... it was already getting cooold.

That night we used the last of my iPod battery and had a sing-along in our tent :) That kept us warm for a while, and some hilarious ecuadorian guys came and joined in for a little while... but then Elizabeth and I kicked everyone out and got some sleep. Also, we ate our food, tuna and crackers... which was eaten many, many more times, because that's basically all we bought... mmm survival food :P The other girls on the trip were so nice though, so they gave us some snacks and peanut butter later when we were running out of food.

Anyways, we started the next morning and hiked FOR-EV-ER. I'm not the best hiker, and I wasn't the worst in our big group (about 25) either, so for a good 2 or 3 hours I was basically hiking alone in between the fast group and the slow group. The trail was easy to follow for most of that part of the day, and I also passed the mules once, then they passed me, then I passed them again, then they passed me again. This whole time it was baaad weather... rainy and cold. I'm pretty sure I was the most miserable I had ever been in my entire life. Especially since hiking alone for a few hours messes with your head...

I caught up to the first group in the early afternoon where we all stopped for a lunch break. This was also the part where our guide (Ecuadorian guy that was hired who knows the trail) said that the trail gets hard to follow, so we all have to stay together. When the slower group caught up with us, we began to hike across the top of a bunch of mountains. I was a little confused, because our professor (Canada lady, who i talked about in a previous post here) had gone ahead with a few students, even though the guide who knew the trail was behind in the group with us. Hiking across the mountains, we were pelted by horizontal rain and high winds from the side, FUN. At one point, the guide stopped and said something to the effect of "this is the highest point on the trail.... here is where the Inca blahblahblahblah...." After about 2 sentences, a few of us in the front just yelled "Siga! Por favor!" (Keep going!) because we weren't about to stand in the freezing rain and listen to a lecture when we could walk faster and get off the god-forsaken mountain. He was very understanding, and we kept walking.

Eventually we went down the mountains and came to a river with a big open area. There we found our professor and some students, but when we all joined up they realized that someone was missing. A boy from Riobamba, Adrian, had gone off in front with our professor, and she had gone ahead of him and thought that he went back to find us. He was all alone, and he (as we learned later) had fallen down some sort of small cliff and passed out.

So when we were all together they sent the ecuadorian guide backwards on the trail on a horse. We had all stopped walking (obviously) and were freeeezing at this point... so we huddled like penguins and waited for our professor and one of the teaching assistants on the trip to go check out some little huts that were on the side of the mountain to see if we could stay in them.

P.S. At this point, we were supposed to have been camping at Ingapirca... which was still about 2 days away... Time estimates = WRONG

The profe and TA signaled for us to come up because the little houses were abandoned... so we could stay somewhere "warm" for the night. We all packed into a little hut that was clearly meant for animals, and organizated ourselves on top of hay and rocks, and some people started to make a fire in another one of the huts that was more open so smoke could get out. We all changed out of our wet, wet, clothes, and tried to arrange ourselves in our sleeping bags in the small barn so that we could all be close together for warmth, but still comfortable... which never really happened...
At this point, the guide still hadn't come back from trying to find the missing kid, so right when it was getting dark, they sent out one of the TA's and a mule-leading guide to go try to find a cell phone signal to call the military or someone to search for the boy, and to call his parents in Riobamba.

As we were drifting in and out of sleep, at about 1:00 am there was yelling and scrambling for flashlights... the 2 people who had gone to try to find a cell phone signal had found Adrian! He had to walk back though, because it wasn't the guide on the horse that found him. He had been missing for something like 12 hours, and I didn't see, but my friends said he was clearly hypothermic and looked just horrible. He had only had a jacket, and no hat or gloves, plus he had passed out earlier and then woke up not to know where he was or which way to go. There was lots of scrambling for food and water to give him, and they started up the fire again to get him warm.

The next morning, we set out with promises of reaching a town later in the day. It was a long, even more muddy hike, where I had to pause many times to make decisions about where to jump so that I wouldn't fall in water or mud... but EVENTUALLY we made it to San Jose de Colebrillas at about 1 or 2 in the afternoon. From there, we rode in the back of a truck in the rain for about an hour, and my friend Kelsey and I were also buried under bags and tents... so we didn't get too wet. We arrived in Tambo and were able to catch a bus to Cuenca, where we would stay the night.

We got to our hotel in Cuenca and it was absolutely amazing. Elizabeth and I were so relieved to see the polar opposite of where we had slept the previous night... a King size bed, enough storage space for a family of 5, a gorgeous bathroom with HOT water (somewhat intermittent, but only because everyone was trying to use it at the same time), and two balconies. After one of the hotel workers showed us into the room... we just started to crack up in sheer amazement.

That night, we had obviously run out of food, and we both had no way of getting money (Elizabeth's debit card had expired by the way, whereas mine was stolen... both were in the mail on their way to Ecuador at the time) So we would have to find a fancy restaurant that would accept credit cards. Lonely Planet pointed us in the right direction, as always, to Cafe Eucalyptus. We had a HUGE dinner, after half-starving half-surviving-on-tuna for the past 2 and a half days, with smoked trout salad, Pad Thai, pork and pineapple skewers, and quesadillas, followed by a banana's foster for my dessert, and a chocolate cake for Elizabeth. We watched a live salsa band there for a while and then headed back for an amazing night's sleep.

We woke up the next morning and got the breakfast included with our hotel (sweet!) and then went off to run some Cuenca errands before we had to meet at noon to go to Ingapirca (Incan ruins). The errands consisted of finding a famous panama hat store (sidenote: Panama hats are from Cuenca, Ecuador, not Panama... don't ask me why they call them that... no idea) and getting to internet. At the panama hat store we got Elizabeth's uncle a hat, and got one for Zack, as he hadn't had time to get one when we were in Cuenca before. I also managed to leave my (really Liz Girten's) Lonely Planet somewhere in the store :( and now it's gone forever... unless I go back to Cuenca and they happen to have kept it... Then we found internet, went back for lunch with our group, and went off in a bus to Ingapirca.

Again, time estimates were quite off and we got to Ingapirca right when it was closing. Luckily, our professor convinced them to stay open for one more hour, and we got a sweet tour of some amazing ruins. This was definitely a good way to end a crazy, mostly terrible, trip. We were there right at sunset, and there were so many cool pictures that I took with the sun shining on the monuments/walls/etc.

After making a list of all the quichua words we could remember, we rode in the back of a truck (on a beautiful night, not raining) to Tambo, and had dinner in a little restaurant while we waited for a bus back to Quito. We arrived home in Quito on Sunday morning at about 6:00 am. And so ends my Semana Santa vacation!!!

Whew.

Semana Santa 1 - Of Amazing Experiences

Alllllrighty! This was what my spring break was like... and there were about 10 days of it so it may be long... and I'm splitting it into 2 very distinct halves...

Thursday (April 9th): First day of break! I got my new Censo that had been stolen from me along with my debit card and $90 (oh yeah, i never told that story... basically when my brother, dad, and I were going to the Brazil vs. Ecuador game a long time ago to buy tickets, someone slashed my bag on the bus (Ecovía) and took a little black change purse with all that stuff in it). So later that night we all went to my friend Elizabeth's to hang out. This is the 4 of us who are going on a trip for the first half of break: Me, Elizabeth, Pierce, and Zack.

Good Friday: We made a sweet breakfast of pancakes and piña eggs - an invention of Pierce's - and then we went off to Terminal Terrestre to catch a bus to Cuenca. At first we thought the only one left at 5pm and we would have to sit there for the whole afternoon, but we went to some other companies and found one that left at 1pm. We arrived in Cuenca pretty late, and we had picked out a hostel, but the taxi driver told us it was dangerous, so we had him take us to a nicer (and more expensive...oh well) one.

Saturday (Sábado de la Gloria...aparentemente): We did a bit of wandering around Cuenca, and it's just BEAUTIFUL! We said we even like it a little better than Quito. Much cleaner, calmer, and just a simple, quaint, city. All of us stocked up on food for the next 2 days, which we would be spending at Parque Nacional Cajas. Pierce also bought some materials for fishing, everything but the pole, because he didn't want to hike around with that.

At noon we left for the park, which was just about an hour bus ride away, which took a little longer because of construction.When we got there it was not-so-gorgeous weather, so the ranger guy suggested we stay in the Refugio (refuge/ranger station) that night. We agreed, and left most of our stuff there whle we went out hiking for the afternoon.

The views were gorgeous, we went up and down some hills and by some lakes.
On the way back, Pierce thought it appropriate to claim an island. It was really shallow water and the island was close to the shore of the lake, so he waded through the cold water to get to it. Pierce was also wearing all khaki that day (and a few other days later in the week) so he ran around claiming the island in the name of 'Khaki Man!' Eventually he invited us to his island, and we reluctantly walked through the water to get to it... but it was well worth it :)

That night, we used the kitchen at the refugio to make pasta with lentils, and some popcorn. We also danced around the kitchen (thanks to my handy-dandy portable iHome, again) and probably kept the ranger-guy awake, but hopefully not too late. Pierce also read us all the bible stories about Easter... with intermittent pop quizzes :) It was a lot of fun.

EASTER Sunday!: On Easter morning, me, Zack, and Elizabeth slept in while Pierce went out to the lake next to the refugio to try to catch some trout. He came in to wake us up at 10:30 or so with no success. Oh well, I guess we'll have to go eat at the restaurant for lunch... no fishies to cook. The weather was no better, but after lunch we set out to another part of the park on the other side of the highway, planning on camping the night and then leaving the park a different way the next day. Oh, also, that morning I woke up to find my camera broken :( I can still take pictures but the screen broke so I can't see anything. I think I either had dropped it or it froze at night (it was reeeaaally cold). Anyways, we hiked for a while, but while we were walking down a muddy slope I fell a little and thought I heard a crack in my ankle. I totally freaked out, as did everyone else, but I turned out to be just fine, it was just a little twist. At one point we came up over a hill and saw the most gorgeous view ever... the park is SO big!

Then we kept hiking and got fairly confused as to which lakes were which on the map, and if we were even on a trail at all. The paramo (ecological area that the park is in) consists of a lot of lakes, little streams, no trees, bushy plants, and lots of mud. Some of the streams are actually underground and they have these little green plants growing over them, that you can sometimes step on and sometimes not... Well, it was hard to tell where the trails were because 1. there were no signs and 2. the little streams were easy to walk along, and there were lots of them, so any of them could have been trails.

We did know which direction we were going, and we knew which way the highway was, so we went that way. But, the way we went led us to a big ridge of mountains that we would have to get over to get to the highway, and possibly to some cabins that we saw on the map. Pierce went up first (being the daring, experienced hiker that he is) to find a way for us to go. It was getting a little late, and we saw Pierce go over the mountains in a way that looked super-scary, so we were planning on camping up in one of the only flat areas we could find, which was already windy and cold.

If you look closely, you can see Pierce up there:
Luckily, from way up on the mountain Pierce found us another way that was safer to come up, and he said that from the top of the mountain he could see a bunch of cabins and the highway on the other side. With that motivation... the rest of us climbed up the mountain... which was quite strenuous, but worth it. When we got to the top, the sun was just starting to go down... but luckily we could see the cabins, so we got to them before dark.

Top o' the mountain:

Yeah, so since my camera broke, i didn't notice that I was taking pictures with the shutter half-closed, but i think this looks cool anyways:

When we got to the cabins it had just gotten dark, so we broke out our headlamps and yelled "buenas noches!" a few times. No answer... Zack and Pierce went to check out some cabins on the other side of the little lake they were by, but nobody was there either. We all thought... hmm... this is how scary movies start...

Determined as ever, Pierce kept checking every window on the cabin that we had put our stuff by. Just when we're ready to put up the tents in the 'yard' next to a cabin, we hear "I'm in!". Pierce had gotten a small window open... just big enough for us to fit through... barely. Also, when he went into the abandoned cabin he realized the electricity worked! Which was a big surprise. We passed all our stuff in and climbed in through the window, then we made some bacon 'n' beans for dinner, and Pierce tried to start a fire. The fire however, ended up smoking up the whole cabin, because the chimney was only half-open. We all sat on the ground or by windows for a while, trying to fan out all the smoke, which worked out okay after a while. After that failed-attempt we were too scared to try again, so we lit a candle and roasted some marshmallows over it to have s'mores. Overall, probably one of my most interesting and memorable Easters ever.

Monday: We woke up and walked just a few feet to the highway, and we were waiting for a bus to take us back to Cuenca, but none came for quite a long while. So we hitched a ride in the back of a pick-up with some bananas and a stack of chairs... hah. There was the same construction on the way back, so we were sitting for a long while in a line of cars, but we eventually got back to Cuenca. We went straight to the bus terminal and caught a bus to Loja right away. It's not too far away, so we arrived in Loja in the late afternoon and wanted to get to Zamora (about 2 hours away) so we could stay there for the night and hike in Parque Nacional Podocarpus in the morning. While we were waiting for a bus in Loja we checked the internet quickly and grabbed some dinner. When we got to Zamora we found a pretty sweet hostel for just $4 a night (the one we stayed at in Cuenca was $10... super-caro! hah)

Tuesday: We woke up and took a taxi to Parque Nacional Podocarpus... and it was nice and warm out :) much different than the nights spent in Cajas.

We hiked aroudn for a while, and saw some great waterfalls. This one is 'La Poderosa':

Again, Pierce made the decision to go ahead of all of us... and we, as always, thought he was crazy at first. But then, we all finally went swimming in the huge waterfall, and it was one of the most amazing experiences ever. Pierce liked swimming so much that he went in another waterfall later in the day along with Zack.

At the end of the day, we had to leave the guys so that Elizabeth and I could meet a group for a field trip in another city about 9 hours away. We took a bus from Zamora back to Loja, and in Loja I realized that for some reason my ATM card wouldn't work at the bus terminal. I went to try 2 more ATMs but they didn't work either. This was a big problem, because Elizabeth and I needed to buy enough food for our field trip to last 2 to 3 days. Luckily, Zack loaned us some money so that we wouldn't starve, and we went off to meet our field trip in Alausi at 6 am the next day...

SORRY!

I haven't posted in FOREVER, but I honestly have had NO time, including right now...

Mike came to visit, Family came to visit, we all had an AMAZING time and I miss everyone lots :( But I'll talk about our adventures later...

For now, I'm leaving for 10 days on Spring Break!!! So much fun, here's whate we're doing (by 'we' I mean Zack, Pierce, Elizabeth and myself for the first half - until Alausi - and then I'm on a field trip with Archaeology and bringing along Elizabeth, Kristina, Stephanie, and 2 friends from Michigan State, Kelsey & Tricia)

Friday morning (4/10): leave Quito for Cuenca
stay Friday-Saturday night in Cuenca

Saturday: Parque Nacional Cajas
camp in park Saturday-Sunday

Sunday: night- leave for Loja
stay Sunday-Monday in Loja

Monday: Parque Nacional Podocarpus
camp in park Monday-Tuesday

Tuesday: night- leave for Alausi

Wednesday: Alausi, Achupallas
camp Wed-Thurs Laguna Culebrilla

Thursday: hike to Ingapirca
camp Thurs-Friday at Ingapirca

Friday: Ingapirca, Cojitambio, Cuenca
spend the night in Cuenca

Saturday: Cuenca (downtown, museums)
spend night in Cuenca

Sunday(4/19): bus back to Quito

No homework, just adventure! I hope I'll have enough room on my camera :) Now I'm off to go rent a tent... be back in 10 days!

-Caro