Diverse Ecuador

ECUADOR | Sunday, 13 January 2013 | Views [317] | View Smaller Image

Fig 2. The deadly road from Macara to Guayaquil as seen from a public bus, winded and burrowed through the Andean mountains, or Sierra. Looking at my GPS it revealed an altitude of 2800 meters above sea level. Up here the air is much thinner and refreshingly chilly. Many roads wind through the mountain range from town to town, few cars are seen as most people prefer to put their trust in a coach driver who travels at such high speeds with split second judgment that it would suggest they either know the road like the back of their hand, or as indicated by the vast amount of religious paraphernalia on their dashboards, have faith in something greater to guide them.

Fig 1. 7 am, on the Ecuadorian side of the Peru/Ecuador border. What initially came to mind when I heard the harsh crack.. crack… crack-crack-crack was fireworks being set-off, as earlier I had seen some children playing in the street, I then realised it was the sound of AK47's ricocheting though the foliage in the jungle to my left. Shortly after, soldiers dressed in camouflage and balaclavas appeared out of the dense thicket, yelling and carrying two men and what looked to be large plastic containers. They were all hurried into a utility vehicle that sped off as quickly as it had screeched up. I was later told that these masked individuals were government forces that had captured Peruvian diesel smugglers; many of which drown each year trying to swim containers of diesel across the nearby river border. This was to be the beginning of my 6-month stay in one of the most diverse and touching countries I have seen, WELCOME TO ECUADOR!

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Fig 3. On the Ecuadorian coast lies the small fishing village of Puerto Lopez, where beaches are lined with small wooden fishing boats resting on logs while magnificent frigate birds are ever circling for an easy meal. I watched this larger vessel haul in a net for over 45 minutes, at one stage the two young deckhands struggle to release a Green Sea Turtle from their nets indiscriminate meshing.

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Diverse Ecuador

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