English Commentaries On Ecuadorian Affairs

It may be an 'hypocritic' article but set dots on the i's.   Jeff of Lives of Wander
 says he's found that small town of Vilcabamba is being invaded by  gringos because locals have no much control of what they want and what they need.  In a very interesting post he calls to answer the question of how to find the right balance  on his statement: No beautiful town should be kept from visitors enjoying it, but no beautiful town should be overrun and destroyed by visitors.  He's an experienced traveler and he knows what' writing.

"...this leaves the town quite a paradox. On the one hand, it is still a beautiful place and a very comfortable place to stay and enjoy. We found it very relaxing (and, even though we had spent the last few days relaxing, another few days was no trouble!). On the other hand, we couldn’t help thinking that this naive, small town had been taken over. The houses just outside of town were enormous, multi-storied, walled complexes complete with swimming pools. The ex-pats ate at the foreign owned restaurants (which admittedly, were very tasty) and seemed to run in their own social circles. They sat around the park with blackberrys and iphones."

As far as we are concerned we still think Vilcabamba should be kept the same way it always was.  If tourist want to come, they are very welcome, but can affect locals making them change that of life the live.  Vilcabambans had live there per centuries and they will continue to survive even when ex-pats stay to live and foreigners bring new customs.

What do you think being either a traveler or an Ecuadorian?

In Ecuador, the pace of glacier melt threatens hydroelectric power plants and water systems that rely on water from the glaciers. With the help of the World Bank, local researchers are launching new efforts to track the decline and urge residents to preserve crucial water supplies, particularly in Quito, the Ecuador's capital.

Technicians want to know how much precipitation is added to the glacier, and how much rain water and melted ice flow down into the the Ecuadorean capital's water supply. Maintaining a balance is crucial to Quito's future. EMAAP (Pichincha's Municipal Water and Sewerage Company) employees are taking measurements every five minutes.

"The glacier is a huge reservoir of water that supplies us every year. We have a lot of monitoring activity to make sure it never runs out," Diego Paredes, the  EMAAP's employee, said.

Head over for the complete report written by  Brian Wagner 

There are a little more than 300 people in the world with the condition Laron dwarfism, a third of whom live in remote villages in Ecuador’s southern Loja province (Zapotillo, Macará, Celica)

Dr Jaime Guevara-Aguirre, a hormone expert from the Ecuadorian Institute of Endocrinology, who has been studying Laron dwarfism for more than ten years, said: ‘We’ve discovered that people with Laron simply don’t get cancer.

‘Cancer can be detected in their relatives of a normal size, but never in my patients – not one single case.

‘Every experiment has demonstrated that high levels of IGF1 are associated with cancer, but these patients have low levels of IGF1 and an absence of the disease.’

According to Dr Guevara-Aguirre, finding a way to reduce levels of IGF1 could mean finding a way to prevent cancer from developing. ‘Medically, this is very, very exciting,’ he said.

"One, man's way may be as good as another, but we all like our own best"

You and I are so important and the others thin they are.

The following is a cross-post from the german blog, Neulich im Coffeeshop.

Vilcabamba is a place in the Ecuadorian province of Loja. It is 1,600 above sea level, with year-round mild, springlike climate and the temperature range from 18 to 28 ° C. From October to May it is a rainy season, from June to September dry season. The most pleasant time to travel is from September to January.

The term Vilcabamba comes from the Quechua, which means "Sacred Valley" (vilca = "holy" bamba = "Valley").

Vilcabamba is known mainly for its long-dwellers, they call it the "Valley of the Hundred Years". The reason for this is controversial, scientists led the high reached age and the high level of vitality to the negative ions of air cargo, the evening caused by electrical storms, to the perfect Vilcabamban mineral water, the healthy climate all year round, balanced diet and the constant movement of its people.

The coffee from this valley is mild and pleasant but alive and in its taste. Since the cultivation of coffee in Vilcabamba is  primarily a manual work and "family matter", each year only small quantities of this coffee produced.

For more details visit the online store: CoffeeShop

Erik just started a page to register the chronologies of his travel to Ecuador. He's getting in touch with Never Land Farm people and launched a very original idea. Get organic coffee by July 3th by mail. You just need a PayPal account and you are all set.

The money collected will be used to buy clothes, toys, and solar lights. These items are going to help families in the Loja province of Ecuador, specifically a town called Tumianuma ( near Vilcabamba)

So, if this is something you feel like helping out with and getting an awesome item in return, he's put a paypal button  here. The cost is $13.50/lb ppd and will be shipping Priority Mail between July 3 and 5. Feel free to post comments if you have any questions you have for Erik!

Please, pread it out!

It's being a while since we don't write a word in this blog but today we felt motivated to share with you a post from The Universe, an ecuadorean newspaper where Bernard Fougéres, writes about a beutiful small city in the ecuadorean southern.  Carlos Jumbo is our alibi, and we've traslated a paragraph for your beneplacit:

Loja shelters inside a carton of mountains. Anyone who does not know it, feels Ecuador  only the half. I enjoyed myself as a child taking photos on the Jipiro's Recreational Park  (the dictionary rebuffed the 'recreational' word). At the City's  Gate Museum , drawings by Manuel Serrano  fascinated me  by the way he  changes animal image into humans and viceversa, creating beings from other dimensions with the instinctive cruelty of Stornaiolo, the contrasts of light and shade that Rembrandt loved. I've got my lunch  in Quo Vadis, Latin question answered in the same language when I had to affix my signature in the visitors' book: "Quo vadis? Semper usque ad felicitatem sweet est quia desipere in loco "(" Where do I go? Always towards happiness because it is sweet fool around in the right place "). Since then,  I remembered the film Quo Vadis?, Created in 1951, with Robert Taylor, Deborah Kerr, Peter Ustinov. I've got to try a entire bottle of  Beronia, romantic wine from La Rioja. In Vilcabamba I triped over in the same  way Fidel Castro did it, not for being drunk  but for being clumsy since birth

Next time you choose Ecuador for a trip, I strongly suggest to head down south and ask for Loja and Vilcabamba.

Show us what makes you want to get out of bed in the morning.

Well, the smell of a hot coffee.  Or who knows the warmth of a beautiful female company. May be the news about the lucky number of the lottery...

As for now, I think it will be worth to wake up early a good phone call telling they want me for a job interview..!!

Have each of you a Happy New Year!