As a first-gen, non-traditional college student, I had never thought that I would have the opportunity to study abroad. I was lucky to have the Global Scholars program and the Office of Connected Learning help me explore scholarships and assured me that my financial aid will open my accessibility to any study abroad program. There were many interesting programs listed, but I chose the ‘Global Engagements through Geotechnologies in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands’ program with Dr. Santiago Lopez and Rebecca Beard. I chose this program because I had never been anywhere in South America before and I mean, what would be a better way to learn in-depth about a country than studying abroad? At first I was unsure about the program because I told myself, “Okay this is so cool, but how does this relate to my Health Studies major?” Well later during our first pre-departure orientation, Dr. Lopez informed us that even though we are working with GIS equipment and programs, we are looking at the information through an interdisciplinary lens. Interdisciplinary meaning that data can represent many different aspects like how land use for agriculture or livestock affects the health of the communities who live in the area, or even how the presence of human infrastructures affect the natural biodiversity. I was mostly interested in the health aspect of people, but I also cared about environmental issues, so I was quite excited to learn more. Honestly, I was also anxious about traveling to a new place for three whole weeks with people who I didn’t know (yet), and I was nervous that I wouldn’t make any friends on this trip. But I proved to past me that I was brave and that people do like me for who I am.
This Study Abroad program wasn’t your typical ‘stay in one place, show up to class, and roam freely’, type of program. This study abroad experience was unique in a sense that we would travel to different regions of Ecuador, participate in our planned activities, and stay in different hotels and haciendas. So to say, our “class” was literally outside. In the first half of the first week there, we focused on the Incan history looking at well crafted artifacts that represent life, fertility, and death, and we also looked at ancient pyramids in Cochasqui where the llamas roamed freely and happily. The next half of the week, we helped the community of Paquiestancia and Cariacu collect data using GIS equipment to determine if there is any infrastructure that might negatively impact the quality of water from the paramos. Assisting with ‘El Plan de Vida,’ we connected with the local community members who were excited to work along with us; this was only the first week, but I could already tell that Ecuadorians are one of the most hospitable people I have ever met. It was kind of shocking to pass by people as they would greet us with “¡Hola!” or “¡Buen día!” with a smile on their faces because I was so used to people in the Seattle area keeping to themselves like I didn’t exist in the same space. When we went to a local farm in Paquiestancia, we saw locally grown roses (which are all the roses you buy in your local supermarkets btw) and fresh produce; the ladies that own the farm were very generous because they gave us beautiful roses and had us try fruits and vegetables straight from the plant.
At this point, it was normal to see horses, cows, sheep, goats, and other farm animals roaming the streets, but the real stars of the show were all the friendly neighborhood dogs! It was honestly quite amazing that almost all of the neighborhood dogs were well behaved, I wish that they could all be in good loving homes. The next few days after Paquiestancia, we stopped by the town of Otavalo where they had one of the biggest and unique open-air markets that I have ever seen. We also saw a demonstration of turning wool into yarn and then dyeing wool from natural ingredients such as achiote seeds and cochineal beetles by a talented artisan who creates beautiful textiles. Then, we went to the community of Zuleta to see Andean condors in a conservation site that was in a hacienda within a huge chunk of land. The condors were HUGE, we might as well call them pterodactyls. We also visited Casa Museo Carangue to learn more about traditional practices of the indigenous Quichua culture, such as adobe brick-making, learning embroidery, and eating traditional cuisine. The owner of this museum, Amable, told us that he created this museum because he had a dream, a premonition you can say, that someone told him to make his four-generation family home into a museum to educate children and visitors about the indigenous Quichua culture. I feel like I learned a lot from visiting these local communities but at the same time not enough because there is so much more we haven’t experienced.
I would say that one of the coolest parts of this trip was that we went to the center of the Earth! (Well, of course not the core of the planet, but at the equator.) At this moment, I was thinking how cool it was to be at the equator in Ecuador (which literally means equator in Spanish); I mean how often do people have the opportunity to be in the area where French scientists and a mapmaker went on their expedition to measure the circumference of the Earth? Another cool part of the trip was the delicious three-meals-a-day food we had. I was so astonished to find out how cheap it was to eat healthier compared to the food prices here. I still think about their fruits whenever I think back to our trip. I miss the papaya, pineapples, naranjilla, guanabana, and cacao. Whenever I saw cacao, I couldn’t help but think about The Summer I Turned Pretty when Jeremiah said, “Belly, cacao is the bean. It’s what the chocolate is made of.” I kept referencing it but my classmates didn’t know where the quote came from. Anyway, our program directors really made sure that we were fed good, each meal consisted of an appetizer, which were usually chochos or tostados that we can put in our soup (the best soups I’ve ever had btw), Ecuadorian entrees that had protein, grains and vegetables, and a small dainty dessert. One of my favorite meals had the best trout and fried plantains! I haven’t stopped thinking about the food in Ecuador since leaving the country.
I saved the ultimately coolest part of the trip for last because I still can’t believe it myself. We went to the Galápagos Islands! It felt kind of unreal because before visiting the islands, I had thought that the Galapagos was closed off to protect the vast biodiversity of unique animals and plants. It’s true for most parts of the islands, but there are also local communities living there who had to adapt to increasing infrastructure to accommodate tourism since the archipelago became a national park in 1959. The unique animals we saw were the biggest highlight. We saw sea lions, blue-footed boobies, green sea turtles, a couple humpback whales (that jumped out of the water for us!!), giant tortoises, marine iguanas, and so many more birds. I was able to update my life list on the app Merlin Bird ID like logging them as if they were pokemon; one of the rarest birds I saw, according to Merlin, was the Galapagos Dove, so now my life list is extra cool. You know how biology textbooks say that Charles Darwin was known for his work with finches? Well, he actually was focused more on the Galapagos mockingbirds since they showed more variation versus the finches that he mistook as mainland finches. We learned that when we visited the Charles Darwin Research Station in Santa Cruz. Also on that trip, I was brave enough to face my fears when we went snorkeling in the open ocean near Kicker Rock (it’s called Kicker Rock because at a certain angle, the rock looks like a boot). We were encouraged to critically think about how tourism impacts the natural biodiversity of the flora and fauna in the Galapagos Islands. My main thought was that yes, tourism is helping local communities earn living wages, however, is tourism worth it if it’s detrimental to the unique ecosystem? The solution to these problems are quite complex because on one hand, tourism could fund efforts into conservation work to restore or maintain damages, but from my perspective, I see that tourism is prioritized over preserving the fragile ecosystems and thus creating more damage than maintenance. Some of the suggestions I thought about to sort of balance out the complexities was creating more jobs that involve efforts into conservation, creating mandatory learning sessions for tourists to help with the maintenance of the islands, and having infrastructure that will encourage people to take care of the environment.
I felt lucky that my first time in South America was in Ecuador because I gained experiences that made me rethink about how the slow-paced life in Ecuador seemed more soul fulfilling versus the fast-paced life of living in a “western” capitalist country where it is easy to feel failure often and burnout. I think about how we as a country are not doing enough to preserve the ecosystems that we have here because people think that humans are the superior species rather than coexisting in harmony with the flora and fauna. It’s pretty hard to think about how working class families in our country are struggling to afford healthy food and proper healthcare while I know that families in Ecuador are able to afford to eat healthy and get free healthcare. I think about how the people we crossed paths with in Ecuador were so friendly and showed us community anywhere we went, while we experience the Seattle freeze and highly individualistic behaviors here. I am grateful for all of these experiences as they helped me grow as a person and see the different perspectives that many don’t get to see. I am also so grateful for the new friends I made who experienced this same journey; they made this trip so much more memorable. Shoutout to Kati, Gabriel, Robert, Gabe, Daniel, Hannah, Jake, and Nyah for all the good vibes and big laughs. If you are thinking about doing a study abroad program, I highly recommend you to do it! You will definitely learn a lot, not just about the course topic and the country you’ll be in, but you’ll also learn about yourself, the values you hold, and what you could do to positively impact the world. All it takes is an open mind willing to receive different perspectives.
