Eco-Ecuador
Collaboration for a Long-Term Sustainable City
Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador We hosted a dinner billed as a “celebration” for both landowners and representatives of urban communities who have participated in Planet Drum’s 2008 revegetation program. After an hour of meeting each other and waiting for the inevitable late arrivals, Clay as Field Projects Manager explained the purpose of the gathering, described Planet Drum’s history in Bahia, and invited everyone to watch […]
March 31-April 4, 2008 Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador Monday, March 31, 2008 This morning Jill, Jaime and I set out for one of the El Toro sites. They are along a river basin that slopes steeply down from the hills. In relation to other sites, they are located just before Bosque Encantado in the Fanca neighborhood, but behind it and much farther away from the […]
March 24-28, 2008 Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador Overview: Last week there were seven Planet Drum volunteers who concentrated work on one large neighborhood site. Only three volunteers remained by the beginning of this week, and by midweek only one. Regardless of fewer numbers we weeded four previously planted sites as well as the greenhouse. The work: Weeding involves locating saplings planted in the new sites and “cleaning” […]
Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador Ecuador is undergoing a political transformation of undeniably profound and long-lasting significance. As with most South American countries this is a time of widespread change and realignment for many reasons, but in Ecuador there is an additional uniquely internal factor that stands out above all others. It is rewriting the national constitution. President Rafael Correa put the issue of constitutional reform […]
March 8-21. 2008 Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador Saturday, March 8, 2008 The weather is either hot and moist or hot, moist and slightly breezy. At Jacob Santos’ B&B mornings bring fruit, fruit juice, scrambled eggs, rolls and coffee. Fresh pineapple with banana yesterday and pineapple with watermelon today. Took a walk for the first time this morning. Not too far, but a nice amount. The […]
Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador At this moment hundreds of thousands of tons of water hyacinths are floating down Ecuadorean rivers headed for the coast. Heavy rains that flooded out the shallow places where they overgrew during summer and fall have loosened stalks and leaves in long drifting lines that now artfully illustrate the river current. Occasionally there are large patches of plants that tore away […]
January 19, 2009-January 31, 2009 Summary: Light rains marked the commencement of the rainy season and we mobilized with tree planting at sites that were waiting with trails and holes already prepared. A new volunteer has joined the planting effort and more are on the way. Email is being flooded with prospective volunteers. And Clay and Jaeson paid a visit to the Planet Drum Bioregional Institute […]
January 21-25, 2008 After a relaxing weekend at our good friend Ramon’s cabin on the beach, we get back into the swing of things on Monday by continuing to plant trees at the Don Pepe revegetation site. Jaime arranged for the landowner at the La Granja site to send a truck to the greenhouse to pick up trees. The truck was loaded up with 270 […]
I presented the Mandato (See Attachment Below) prioritizing changes to make a better eco-city at the first Eco-Amigos meeting of 2008. The meeting appears to have been a bit of a rebirth. At the session we elected a Coordinator and Vice-Coordinator, Ronald and Cheo respectively. I want to add an official post for a kid to get in there as well. There’s a lot of […]
January 14-18, 2008 There is an overload of tree planting. With a strong force of volunteers, we tackled some of the biggest sites Planet Drum has ever planted. The reward of collecting seeds, germinating, seed bed work, transplanting in the greenhouse, weeding, watering, and tending to trees exploded into fruition. On Monday, the Bosque Encantado site was completed. 270 trees were successfully put in the […]