Tag: Ecuador

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Misc.

Mt. Chimborazo: All the Rage on the Interweb

Ecuador's Mt. Chimborazo [not my image]

According to the trend watchers over at BuzzFeed, Ecuador’s Mt. Chimborazo is currently all the rage in the blogosphere. That’s because the Andean peak is technically the tallest mountain in the world due to the fact that it sits on the equator’s bulge. (That’s when you measure distance from the center of the earth, not elevation in terms of sea level, mind you; a little hill in the Himalayas that starts with an “e” and ends with “t” still holds the most famous title.) Wikipedia has all the counterintuitive deets:

So, despite being 2,581 m (8,568 ft) lower in elevation above sea level, it is 6,384.4 km (3,968 mi) from the Earth’s center, 2.1 km farther than the summit of Everest.

Got it?

Okay, okay, so maybe Chimborazito wins on a technicality, but I’m just happy to see my beloved Ecuador in the news for something other than its chronic political instability.

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Misc.

Ecuador’s Defense Minister Dies in Helicopter Crash

CNN/Reuters:

Ecuador’s first female defense minister was killed on Wednesday after only nine days in office in a mid-air collision of two helicopters, government and military officials said.

The accident in the Andean nation further rocks the leftist government of President Rafael Correa, who has clashed with Congress over his executive powers and prompted street protests since taking office along with his ministers on January 15.

Minister Guadalupe Larriva, a former teacher and senior official of a socialist political party supporting Correa, died in the crash in a Pacific coastal province east of Quito, presidential spokeswoman Monica Chuji said.

Correa wanted Larriva, one of only a few civilians to lead Ecuador’s 176-year-old military, to control an institution that has played a part in the ouster of three presidents in the last decade by publicly withdrawing its support as street protests erupted.

Larriva, one of the most popular members of the Cabinet, had promised to strengthen presidential control of military ranks, improve salaries for the armed forces and make the promotions system more transparent.

U.S. firemen stationed at an air base at the port city of Manta rushed to the scene of the crash, a U.S. Embassy spokesman said.

(Emphasis mine.)

Note: In his presidential campaign, Correa vowed not to renew the US’s lease on the facility, which is set to expire in 2009.

Related: More on Ecuador’s new president.

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Misc.

Eating Guinea Pigs in the Andes — and America

Chancho en la Chimenea

Guinea pigs: they’re not from Guinea and they’re not pigs.

Discuss.

But seriously:

The CSM’s Chip Mitchell:

Guinea pig: It’s what’s for dinner in Peru – and the US: Farmers in Peru boost their income by exporting guinea pigs to immigrants in the US.

I tried this special dish on a couple of occasions when I lived in Ecuador — the Spanish word is cuy (pronounced coo-ee). Doesn’t taste like chicken. Tough. A bit oily. But maybe my own particular issue was that as I munched on those tiny drumsticks I couldn’t help but picture Betty, my late, great, beloved pet, whose lustrous coat I used to groom lovingly with an old toothbrush when I was but six years old….

Previously: Ecuadorian Soup in The New Yorker.

For what it’s worth, in the photo above, that’s not, in fact, cuy I was cooking with my Ecuador friends Mike F. and Angelica last year…

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Misc.

Google Quechua

Thanks to Google Quechua, Indigenous people in the Andes can now search the Web in their native tongue.

Economist:

Estimates of the prevalence of Quechua vary widely. In Peru, there are thought to be 3m to 4.5m speakers, with others in Bolivia and Ecuador. The language has long been in slow decline, chiefly because the children of migrants to the cities rarely speak it. But it is now getting a lot more attention.

In recent months, Google has launched a version of its search engine in Quechua while Microsoft unveiled Quechua translations of Windows and Office. Demetrio Túpac Yupanqui, who last year translated “Don Quijote” into Quechua, recalls that a nationalist military government in the 1960s ordered that the language be taught in all public schools. It didn’t happen, because of lack of money to train teachers. By law its official use—and bilingual education—is now limited to highland areas where it is predominant.

After spending a year in Ecuador, I can tell you this: I know precisely two words of Quechua, both of which have made their way into everyday Ecuadorian parlance (at least in the sierra): 1) “chuchaqi” (which means hungover), and 2) “cha-chai” (which means cold).

Related oldie-but-goodie: Ecuadorian slang.

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Misc.

Thomas Swick on Cuenca, Ecuador

View from my patio, Cuenca, Ecuador

Thomas Swick has an exceptional travel story about Cuenca, Ecuador in Sunday’s South Florida Sun-Sentinel. As many of you know, I lived in Cuenca for a year and I can tell you this: Swick nailed that story. He captures the essence of the city in a remarkable way: the colorful characters, the bohemian feel, and the languor that pervades life there.

(Via.)

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Misc.

World Cup-Related Image of the Day

Deportivo Azogues (Ecuador)

This delightful image of indigenous Ecuadorian women conducting a penalty shoot-out comes from Mike F., a long-time friend of newley.com. You’ve gotta love it. Click on the photo for a bigger version.

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Misc.

Stop Me if You’ve Heard This One

152980956_d653271476_z

An Ecuadorian, an American, a Thai, another American, a Nepali, and an Israeli walk into a bar in Bangkok…

Okay, so there’s no punchline, but there should be one. Regardless, here’s a pic from a recent night on the town. The nationalities I mentioned in my setup are accurate, from left to right.

Imagine my surprise, given my long and storied history with the tiny Andean nation of Ecuador, to bump into a guy from Guayaquil who’s on vacation here — after all, Ecuador has only 13 million people, and most of them do not travel to Asia. His name is Jose. Great guy. We talked for a while about everything from Ecuadorian cuisine to his country’s chances at World Cup 2006 Germany. It’s a cliche, but hey, it’s true: small world. Very small world.

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Misc.

Bolivia, Evo Morales, and Market-Dominant Minorities

According to the NYT’s Juan Forero, coca-legalization proponent and indigenous coalition leader Evo Morales just might become the next president of Bolivia.

The election of Morales in Bolivia would represent the triumph of indigenous groups over the minority white elite ruling class — as well as the rejection of what’s viewed as American imperialism and the encroachment of globalization on poor people’s lives throughout the southern Andes.

This monumental shift, should it reach fruition, would mirror the central thesis of Amy Chua’s prescient tome “World On Fire”: that the world’s so-called “market-dominant minorities” — the wealthy whites, in the case of Bolivia — become enriched by globalization while the poor majority indigenous population becomes increasingly destitute and disenfranchised. Class tensions, in this scenario, are exacerbated; violence erupts.

The ascent of Morales in Bolivia, if it happens, may signal a sea change in Andean politics. Only time will tell; could Peru and Ecuador, which also have sizeable Indian populations, be next?

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On Being Happy — and the “Latino Bonus”

Kate Santich, writing in The Orlando Sentinel, surveys current research on what makes people happy — and discusses the so-called “Latino Bonus”:

One of the most intriguing finds to come out of the research so far is that Latin Americans consistently rank happier in life-satisfaction surveys than would otherwise be expected, given that many in the region live in poverty. In an in-depth study of 120,000 people in 82 nations, the World Values Survey found what one researcher dubbed “the Latino bonus.”

“I didn’t expect it,” says Ronald Inglehart, the survey’s director, based at the University of Michigan. “But the evidence is very consistent. And it is not true of all Hispanic countries, because Spain and Portugal are not high on the (life-satisfaction) scale.”

There are probably several factors at work, Inglehart proposes, the first being strong friendship and family ties, a universal source of satisfaction. Another is religious faith, which, interestingly, seems to boost happiness only in Latin America and the United States. In Europe, which is also predominantly Christian, it does not have the same impact.

Inglehart expects further studies of the Latino bonus, but those who have experienced it find it a powerful force.

Sister Ann Kendrick sees it daily in her community. A Roman Catholic nun, she has spent about 35 years helping the poor – mostly immigrants from Latin America – through the Office for Farmworker Ministry in Apopka.

“I’ll put five Hispanic women in my van to go to Orlando, and they can make a party along the way,” she said. “They get to laughing and telling jokes and carrying on. And there might even be some heavy discussion about something tough – like trouble in their marriage or one of their kids being in jail – but there’s a level of energy to their conversation. They generate a sense of connection that just feels good.”

(Emphasis mine.)

(Via Happiness and Public Policy.)

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Misc.

My New Article on Beating the “At-Home Blues”

Transitions Abroad has just published an article I wrote about how to readjust to life at home after living abroad.

In order to conquer what I’ve termed the “at-home blues” — feelings of restlessness encountered during extended time at home between trips — I suggest five tactics:

1. Start planning your next trip.
2. Surround yourself with international influences.
3. Seek out adventures close to home.
4. Draw on the skills that helped you adjust when you were abroad.
5. Be positive and don’t romanticize.

I was happy that long-term world travel guru Rolf Potts supplied a quote for the article.

The piece, which is posted in the Independent Travel section of the Transitions Abroad site, is my third contribution to the magazine. Earlier in the year I wrote about Teaching English in Ecuador and Taiwan. If you’re unfamiliar with Transitions Abroad, poke around their Web site or, better yet, consider subscribing to the print edition.