Building Bridges: 2009 Janet Tuttle Alumnae and Student Service Travel Trip to Ecuador
By Hannah Clay Wareham ’09
View photos of trip to Ecuador
There’s nothing like fresh lemons. Jefferson, an Ecuadorian boy hired to help us make our way through the Mindo Cloud Forest, stood on one of the canvas-covered pick-up trucks we’d been riding in and pulled green lemons from the branches above us, passing them around the group. We sucked on the lemons as the pick-up trucks bounced down the uneven dirt road leading to the Rio Bravo reserve, located on the western slopes of the Pichincha volcano in Mindo, Ecuador.
The five Mount Holyoke College alumnae, three students, two group leaders, and myself were in Ecuador for spring break on the Janet F. Tuttle ’34 Alumnae and Student Service trip. A coordinated effort between the Alumnae Association and international service trip group i-to-i, we’d been scheduled to do volunteer conservation work on the reserve.
Despite the jarring ride in the pick-ups, we were glad to be out of the bus that had taken us on the two-hour ride from Quito to Mindo. I’d listened to Radiohead to distract myself as the bus took hairpin turns on mountain roads, seemingly teetering on the edge of every curve. After the forty-five minute pick-up ride, we had an hour-long hike along a muddy path, treacherous stairs, and slippery bridges to look forward to before we reached the reserve. It was an adventure in the making.
On our first day, Luis Saltos, co-owner of the reserve with his sister Sonia, took us on a hike to visit a 90-meter waterfall on the reserve. We stood calf-deep in water and I closed my eyes to keep out the spray of the falls. After almost two days of traveling, our location was beginning to sink in.
Our goal was to complete construction of a partially-finished bridge connecting two areas of the reserve. We got to work with the help of our i-to-i translator, Martha. By the time our 8-hour workday had ended and the evening rain had begun, the bridge was finished. We’d made fifteen or twenty trips carrying gallon-sized buckets full of river stones back and forth to the bridge to form the steps to the bridge and laid cut planks to replace slippery logs as a walkway. Colita, Luis’ Spanish Doberman, provided our entertainment: she was always at our heels, stealing rocks out of the buckets and hiding them (for apparent lack of tennis balls).
Lunchtime was always the most-anticipated time of day, when we tramped in our muddy rain boots to the open-air kitchen. We learned quickly that Ecuadorians don’t mess around when it comes to lunch. Every day Sonia would prepare three courses for us, starting with a soup that received constant accolades from all who ate it. I considered asking her for the recipe for a delicious corn soup, her self-proclaimed “specialty,” before realizing that I’d never be able to recreate it in the States, and that it would never taste as good as it did when it was raining and everyone was dirty and tired—but happy—from the day’s work.
At night we’d swing on the porch hammock or stand in the middle of the yard with our arms folded and necks straining, looking at constellations (such as the Southern Cross) that aren’t visible in the Northern Hemisphere.
Sharing rooms at the reserve was like being on a constant slumber party. Even after the generator was turned off for the night, we’d giggle until the early morning hours. Putting a group of tired Mount Holyoke women together more often than not ends with friendship and a touch of hilarity.
Luis painted a sign for the newly christened Mount Holyoke Bridge, making sure it was in our school colors, and we ad-libbed a naming ceremony on our last day. We crowded around the sign for picture after picture as Colita barked at every flash. After a week of transplanting orchids, working in gardens, using giant leaves as umbrellas, and hiking further than we’d ever thought we could go, nobody wanted to leave.
I end up with seventy-two bug bites, hypothermia, and a black eye. But those were just souvenirs of a trip that otherwise left us starry-eyed and I knew I wasn’t the only one who left my heart in Rio Bravo.
