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Stephen Burgess writes

...about his experiences while volunteering in Ecuador.

7 July 2005
Well, I arrived yesterday, and so did my luggage, fortunately. I was met at the airport and taken to the Posada del Maple, a B&B in the Mariscal area of Quito. My initial impressions of Quito have been pretty favourable, at least from what I have seen of it. The pollution is not as bad as I expected, and I have not as yet had any problems with the altitude.

I went to bed at about 6pm yesterday, fairly jet-lagged. The room is fine, and the breakfast was OK too. This morning I went shopping, and managed to find some rubber boots in my size. I then went around the Museo del Banco Central, which despite its name, contains collections of ceramics and gold from some of the earliest Ecuadorian civilisations, as well as some more contemporary art. The museum was very well looked-after; the main surprise was that I was the only person there, save for about 100 security guards. (Well, I always did look dodgy.)

After that I had lunch in the Parque El Ejido. In terms of the weather it could easily be England in summer - and it's also not too hot. I had my meeting with the volunteer coordinator this afternoon, and everything seems very well organised - I will be travelling out to La Hesperia by bus first thing tomorrow morning. Fortunately I don't have to go to the Terminal Terrestre either; I can pick up the bus quite nearby in La Mariscal.

9 July 2005
I travelled out to La Hesperia on Thursday. The bus journey was frustrating but I got there eventually. There was then a mega-climb in the midday heat up to the hacienda itself. Fortunately I met some people in a jeep on the way up who offered to relieve me of my luggage; they also told me about London being bombed, which was a bit of a shock at the time.

A couple of hours after getting to the reserve we started on a perimeter hike, which went round the whole of the reserve. There was a fair bit of climbing and some thick jungle, but I got around most of it fine. We camped at the top overnight and got back yesterday afternoon, and I've been lounging around since then. Food is pretty good, and for various exceptional (apparently) reasons, I haven't had to do any work yet - this will change on Monday.

This morning I've come into Santo Domingo de los Colorados to do some shopping and use the internet. It is a bit of a dump, to be perfectly honest about it, not like La Hesperia. However it's good to be able to see some more of Ecuador and to use some of the services here.

15 July 2005
After getting back from Santo Domingo last weekend I had a fairly relaxed weekend, while some of the other volunteers were off travelling. Those who were still there gave Juan Pablo and Alexandra a hand with some American ecotourists - one which they certainly needed. As well as leaving traditional indigenous body-paint practically everywhere in the reserve, they ruined our football match with the local Ecuadorian community on Monday by generally trying to break everybody's legs. Worst of all, they ate all the food on Sunday evening. (Which reminds me that one of the other volunteers here has an even bigger appetite than me - I'm ashamed to say.)

The volunteers are fantastic - I've been made to feel very welcome, and the vast majority are from England or English-speaking countries, so I've been able to save my Spanish for emergency situations. It's not always clear to me what some of the work's being done for, but no doubt there is a broader reason.

On Monday my main contribution was to help make some soil by collecting cow stuff from around the reserve - good hard physical labour, which I'm not really up to, but am getting more used to. On Tuesday and Thursday I was working on the new volunteer house - they're building a new one so that more volunteers can be housed in future, and it's looking very impressive at the moment. I also did some work hacking away at the secondary forest to allow space for some saplings to grow.

On Wednesday we had the fun task of digging a trench across the farm to enable us to empty a year's supply of waste. This was also hard work, but in my enthusiasm I also managed to uproot a rare species of tree that some idiot had planted about two inches from where I was standing in the trench. Hence my net contribution to the global environment is currently negative. Let's hope I can improve this over the next few weeks - I imagine as I get more used to the routine tasks, I'll be able to do them more productively.

Two of the great things about La Hesperia (other than the food) are the range of activities organised for volunteers, and the amount of time off allowed. This week we've had talks from the reserve staff about Ecuadorian food and the plants of the medicinal garden, and we had a pretty competitive football match against the Ecuadorians on Wednesday (I'm even less good at charging around at high altitude). We also have Friday off every other week, so I've used this long weekend to come to Riobamba, the "Sultan of the Andes" (or sultana of the Andes, as the Spanish translation says), with five of the other volunteers.

We arrived Thursday evening after a five hour bus journey, but the hotel we've booked is very agreeable, and pretty cheap, by British standards (most things in Ecuador are ridiculously cheap). When I arrived last night, starving as usual, I managed to get an enormous soup, an omelette and vegetables and a dessert for the equivalent of about 3 GBP - and I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a meal as much as that! We rose early this morning to do the train ride to Alausi and Sibambe over the Nariz del Diablo - the "Devil's Nose". It was a fantastic ride. You sit on the roof with a cushion, and get to ride in the open air through wild paramo and mountain passes. At the end the line drops about 800m (I think) by winding its way down the mountainside in a series of crazy curves, which I hope my photos will be able to bring out. It's a bit of a haunt for foreign tourists - I met lots of new people this morning, including another Arsenal fan who happened to be sitting next to me. We got the bus back from Alausi to save a bit of time - it was a very long train ride. I'm planning to see some of Riobamba tomorrow, and then to get the bus back to La Hesperia. My impressions of Riobamba so far have been pretty favourable, in general.

Apologies to those of you expecting postcards - I managed to track some down today, so you're now only waiting for the breakdown of the combined inefficiency of me and the Ecuadorian postal system.

No plans for next weekend as yet, but will probably be less adventurous as we actually have to work on Friday.

23 July 2005
I'm currently in Papyanet in Quito, catching up on the Ashes and other news while getting some food. This week of work has been good. Yesterday I got to harvest and process some coffee - and to drink some of a similar sample at the end of the day. I spent most of today painting the new volunteer house, which was not ideal as Ecuadorian paint seems to start off as water and then suddenly turn to glue however much you stir it.

The main downside of the week was getting ill on Wednesday - it will serve me right for having about ten helpings of pizza at dinner. I took it easy Wednesday and have had no more trouble. I didn't miss any work - just a wet hike and a non-event of a football match (incidentally the tourists this week beat us on Monday, which was pretty embarrassing).

Most of the rest of the work this week has involved treecare - which basically involves hacking at undergrowth with a machete, and is quite fun. Lots of volunteers have left this week, so it's a bit quieter and there's also more work to do.

I have been assigned two "long-term" projects this week. One involves designing some stairs for the new volunteer house (because obviously mathematicians have practical skills); bizarrely these have not been designed, even though the rooms above are practically built. The other involves planting a garden - should be OK.

Must go to eat - may write more later in the weekend.

30 July 2005
I've spent most of this week's work digging holes for new trees in the secondary forest and painting the volunteer house. The second job is more annoying than the first because muggins, being one of only two men left in the volunteer group, gets to paint all the overhead bits and none of the walls, thus getting lots of paint on arms and face and not much on the ceilings and beams. The treecare work is more fun though.

I've also now finished my plans for the stairs for the new volunteer house - Juan Pablo was quite keen to put my so-called mathematical skills into action. He hasn't commented on the final plans yet, but I'm confident that they'll work.

We lost to the Ecuadorians at football on Wednesday. Our volunteer contingent is a bit depleted at the moment - there are only eight of us as I write, whereas there were seventeen when I arrived. We're getting a lot more this week. Most of the volunteers are very agreeable; however one of the new arrivals is intensely irritating. Hence I have come away for a weekend on my own, to get a bit of a break (this will probably be the only time I do this while I'm away, I expect).

I've come to Baños in the central Sierra. I spent the afternoon looking at the town, and I plan to do a trip to view Tungurahua tonight. Tomorrow I intend to go hiking and to try the hot springs. Should be a good break.

My time at La Hesperia is passing fast, but I'm enjoying pretty much all of it, and will look forward to some more machete-work when I get back on Sunday.

6 August 2005
The highlight of this week was getting to hack away at the undergrowth in the banana plantation, and to sample some of the harvests from that plantation. I spent much of the rest of the week on the volunteer house. My useless Spanish got me into trouble with Maestro on Monday - apparently he wanted us to paint a couple of panels on the second floor, not the entire rooms. (To be honest, given my Spanish skills, he should have been grateful that I managed to end up working on the right floor.) I think all was forgiven.

Having said that, as a bit of advice for any future volunteers, it is worth learning a bit of Spanish, however little. All I've done is a couple of months on my own working from a library book, and I know very little, but it gives you so much more power in the country than when you know nothing. When I was in Macedonia last year, I couldn't even read the alphabet, and felt fairly useless. At least if you can ask where the bus goes from and where to get off, you give yourself a chance of getting somewhere (even if, like me, you don't know the Spanish for "shovel" and "trowel-like thingy").

A lot of volunteers have left recently and so there's more work to go around. It's not really a problem though; to be honest we get a pretty good deal at La Hesperia - most weeks we have to work four days of six and a half hours, which is pretty reasonable. We are well looked after in other respects too.

12 August 2005
A mixed week of work this week. I've spent a lot of time clearing a new trail in the forest for planting new trees (in the wet season) - this is good fun and good exercise as it involves using a machete for three and a half hours at a time for the purposes of constructive destruction.

I've also spent a lot of time in the New Volunteer House. This has been pretty unsatisfactory. The Ecuadorian workers there seem to have a work agenda that conflicts totally with that envisaged by our volunteer coordinator. Hence we get given any jobs to keep us out of the way, however pointless (like cleaning areas that are about to be worked on in a couple of days). I've basically spent the whole week doing unnecessary cleaning - for some reason previous volunteers cleaned and painted the first floor rooms before the cement was put on to the second floor, so they all need cleaning again. I've been learning that, however great the local Ecuadorian people are, communication, management and planning are foreign concepts in this country and don't go down particularly well.

I've come to Latacunga this weekend, the aim being to see both Laguna Quilotoa, a volcanic crater lake, and Volcan Cotopaxi. Conveniently I can also be within reach of internet for four days running, and can keep up to date with the Ashes series, which is reaching a very interesting point. This weekend will probably half-bankrupt me, but I'm not going to have the chance to come back here ever again, I expect, so I might as well see these things, the like of which cannot be seen anywhere in Europe.

Football against the Ecuadorians was good this week; I scored a goal with my left foot and one with my head, although we still lost.

I only have two working days left at La Hesperia - the time has flown by. I then have a few nights in Quito before I travel home.

19 August 2005
Continuing in chronological order, my weekend in Latcunga was excellent. On Friday I took a guided tour up to Laguna Quilotoa, a volcanic crater lake at 3800m. The guides were good fun, and I got to walk down to the lake and back up again. On Saturday I took a similar tour to the north face of Cotopaxi, getting to the refuge at 4800m. I was disappointed to discover on the internet later that this is 17m lower than the highest point in Europe: had I known at the time I would have done the extra bit of climbing! The road through the Cotopaxi National Park was the worst I've ever been on, but the scenery was spectacular.

I went back to work on Monday. Most of the work this week has involved digging holes in the forest for future tree planting and looking after the nursery. We made no progress on the New Volunteer House due to a lack of tools, and did one day of coffee harvesting and processing (again).

Wednesday was my last full day at the reserve and I was given licence to go and do the waterfall hike I'd missed earlier. Basically involved scrambling up some waterfalls, which was good fun. In the afternoon we finally beat the Ecuadorians at football, and in the evening we had a fire - a good send-off after six weeks at La Hesperia.

Yesterday I got back to Quito (smoothly once JP's car had started) and went around the Old Town, which was very impressive but with more of a chavista problem than the New Town. Today I'm off to the Mitad del Mundo, if I can find the right bus, and tomorrow I'll be flying home.