On Tuesday, October 7th, Carpe Diem´s INTI students bumped along the stunning cliffs of the Western slope of the Andes towards the small Intag Region village of Pucara, one of our final destinations in Ecuador. This region of Ecuador is home to the cloud forest habitat, one of the top 10 most biodiverse ecosystems in the World. Over the next few days we got to know the land pretty well as we aided our local contact, Peter, in a reforestation effort on abandoned farm land. 750 to-be-trees and many bottles of water later, we stumbled up the mountainside covered in sweat, blood, and tears (half joking), but with pride in our physical labor accomplishment. This brief glance at the intensity of physical labor required of us gave insight into an average day of work for an Ecuadorian farmer. We also observed and participated in a number of traditional practices including: processing sugar cane to panela, harvesting coffee beans, weaving with Kabuya fiber, gathering medicinal herbal remedies from the forest, and many more daily household tasks of a rustic lifestyle.
During our downtime, we explored the beauty of the people and surroundings by: cheering on locals in their weekly soccer competitions, playing pickup soccer games of our own in the pouring rain, relaxing in the natural hot springs nearby, flying through a gorge on the longest and highest zipline in South America, and hiking through the exotic terrain.