Afternoon of Day 3

This afternoon, after a delicious lunch, we returned to the Andean dry forest to being the reforestation portion of our trip. 

Sandra, one of the women who worked on the land, explained the differences between the black soil, a rich dark soil, and a dry white soil. These two soils were mixed to create the perfect soil in which to grow baby trees. This soil, she explained, is then put into small black plastic bags with a seed and the trees are allowed to sprout. After that, volunteers, like us, come in and help plant them.

Holes had already been dug in the ground, so each student picked up between three and five bags with sprouted trees and we walked along one of the trails to plant the trees. First we simply set the trees, still in the bags, next to the holes. When we were all out of trees, we split into two groups and walked back along the trail in different directions to put the trees in the holes.

This process was very different from what I expected: first the hole is dug out a little more, then the bag is placed, seam up, next to the hole. The seam has to be torn all the way down. We had to cup all the soil in our hands, careful not to lose any of the nutrient-rich soil. We then transported the baby tree the short distance to the hole and placed it in. After sweeping some of the regular soil into the whole—enough to cover the roots—we punched it down—taking out, as Ms. Maggio joked, our annoyance about having to do this. We had to be really careful not to level out the land around the trees with the trail so that water could pool there and run into the hole.

To start this process, we walked back to the main part of the land to collect giant bottles of water: most had handles, but as some of the students can attest, others did not and were prone to spilling all over their shirts. We hiked back up the trail to water the baby trees, pouring enough water to make the perfect mud soup. When this long and hot process was over, we walked back down and got on the bus.

Word and card games broke out, breaking the barriers between grades and bonding all the students. The bus took us to Otavalo and along the way we saw the only place on the equator where there is snow: a suuuuuuuper tall volcano Cotapoxi.

After arriving at Otavalo, we checked into the hotel and ate dinner in the hotel restaurant. After a flan dessert, indigenous Otavalin women came out and preformed traditional dances. Wearing the Otavalin garb of a wide, black skirt, white, embroidered blouses, and wrapped, colorful belts, the women represented the portion of indigenous people still holding onto their roots.

During the third dance, the women began pulling up students (and Ms. Maggio) to dance with them, which was a lot of fun.

After the dance performance was over, every one began separating, mostly into card games until it was time for quiet time.