Each trip to Bahia de Caraquez starts with ideas about what will happen that become transformed in profound ways before the visit is over. Two mutations in plans have occurred so far this time. Our revegetation project has morphed into a proposed city park, and what began as a tentative outline for an overall ecological city plan has become an action document. Vicente Leon of […]

Bahia de Caraquez is a small city but its regional importance magnifies its size. How small depends on the particular perspective that a question might require. How many people? Twelve thousand or three times that depending on who is answering and why the number is important. (World Watch Institute uses 25,000 population as the standard for defining a city, so Bahia qualifies at the high […]

September has been overcast nearly every day since we arrived nearly two weeks ago. Some locals have taken to wearing sweaters and jackets and making mock shivers when the say ‘Esta frio (It’s cold)!” But most continue to wear T-shirts as Judy and I do who feel that it’s pretty reasonable weather for San Franciscans. It reminds me of the opposite sweating and immobilized reaction […]

I. Introduction — The need and purpose of a plan to create an ecological city. A) Need 1. Ecological City Declaration 2. Understanding, coordination and participation with all ecological endeavors a. Projects and activities — government and private b. Public participation — consult and assist in developing various activities and projects. Public information — government, schools, media, visitors, etc. B) Purpose 1. Guide activities toward […]

Bahia de Caraquez has already lost its earthquake-struck look. Some prominent buildings of several stories that retained cracks and holes where cement was lost in 1998 have been patched or otherwise restored, and the absence of those particularly eye-gouging open wounds has an uplifting effect.. The people have a similar forward looking attitude. It’s an accepted fact that the economy is pathetically unstable, and in […]

Bahía de Caráquez, Ecuador The political demonstrations a month ago as part of a peaceful roar which caused the president’s resignation in what eventually only amounted to a palace revolution in Quito finally erupted in Bahía de Caráquez. Whether ironically or with perfect poetic timing, it was on St Valentine’s Day.  With Flor-Maria at the wheel and Patricio as company, we drove out of town […]

Bahía de Caráquez, Ecuador There isn’t a way for me to know from experience how it would feel to have been born somewhere near the equator and later move to the northern temperate zone. But it is powerfully clear how the equator feels to someone who comes from nearly half-way to the north pole. Especially after working outdoors at comparatively heavy labor to plant paja […]

(“I hope so!” A common Spanish expression obviously derived at the time of the Moorish occupation from Arabic, “As Allah will have it.”)  Leonidas Plaza—Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador The morning of Revegetation Day I began with a round of sweeping up crickets, the mound only slightly smaller than the day before. There’s a barrel of rain water on the roof-patio (a typical Ecuadorean amenity even […]

Leonidas Plaza This may be completely to the side of everything else that is going on with the eco-city process in Bahía de Caráquez, or it may be part of the core. I’m too personally involved to know. It has to do with the close-to-the-bone experience of occupying Planet Drum’s new office/apartment in Leonidas Plaza.  Although a first and last month’s rent was paid along […]

Bahía de Caráquez, Ecuador The rainy season seems to have begun in earnest. A light sprinkle two days ago may have been the actual starting point, and last night’s downpour that continues into the morning appears to remove any question about an end to the annual coastal drought. The revegetation of Maria Auxiliadora barrio can get underway soon now that the soil is damp and […]