I’m going back to writing entries on my computer, putting them on my jumpdrive, and posting them when I can get to internet.
I decided to spend the next week and a half in a little town to make a documentary on their micro-credit organization (cooperativa), so I’m staying here in Principal, close to Sigsig and about an hour and a half from Cuenca. It’s really small and gorgeous, right under an inactive volcano called Fasayñan. It actually has a hostel since there are some awesome hiking trails around, so I’m staying in the hostel – it’s called Hostal Anabel. I was looking at some hiking info and they look amazing, some are to mountain lakes and to the top of the volcano, I’m definitely going to try and do as many as I can. Some are overnight hikes, so I can only do those if I can borrow a tent and sleeping bag, and I have to hire a guide or it’s not allowed. The hostel is empty besides me, which is perfect for me for now, and it will be fun if some other guests come. Evidently there’s been an American Peace Corps volunteer living here for the past two years, so I’m going to try to find her soon.
When I first decided to move from Cuenca I was really excited since it seemed like such a good idea for my project and the place is incredibly beautiful but then yesterday I was kind of depressed about it. Cuenca is amazing and it’s a lot of fun to be with the other students from my group working there. There are five of us in Cuenca, so we met up almost every day. Three of them are living in an amazing colonial mansion hostel for $10 a night, with indoor and outdoor courtyards and wireless and a kitchen, right in the colonial center, called Hostal Macondo. I’m going to live there with them for the last week while I’m editing the documentary and writing, which I’m very very excited about.
Anyway, once I got here last night I got pretty excited again, but it’s still kind of hard to imagine how this will work. I went to the cooperative this morning at 8:00, like I thought I was supposed to, but they told me this woman I’m meant to talk to wasn’t there yet so I should come back at 11:00. I’m still a little confused whether they’ve ever had a foreigner working with them before - I’ve heard they have a while ago, a European student collecting information for a thesis. And I’m worried about becoming a nuisance rather than any help, so I’m going to be very careful about that. I hope I can start filming soon, but I want to make sure everybody’s cool with it first.
By the way, I can’t find my camera battery charger so no pictures for a while. I’m pretty sure I just left it in my Quito room somehow, but that was pretty stupid. So I bought a $22 Kodak automatic camera with film!!!!! I was going to just get a few disposables but this will be cheaper overall and I’ve always liked film more, even though I know digital makes a lot more sense. I hope it works all right, we’ll see. I can develop them in Cuenca and scan them when I get home.
Also, I don’t get cell-phone reception here, which tells you how remote this is since everywhere in Ecuador has cell-phone reception since everyone has cell-phones. I think there is a phone booth place that I can call from. I’m pretty sure there are no internet cafes here, but I can take a bus to the nearest town (about 45 minutes) every once in a while. The church here has a loudspeaker on it, and it seems like they communicate with the town with it, so who needs cell-phones or internet?
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