Crossing the Line (0˚ Latitude that is!)

I’m sitting outside right now enjoying a slight breeze at my favorite coffee shop and nursing a blended chai latte that is arguably the best in town. It took a bit more than simply clicking my heels three times to get here, (I’ll explain later) but I am finally back in the land of AZ. And while my journey to middle earth may be over… the last few days in Ecuador were certainly memorable.

On our final Tuesday we decided to take a trip back to El Refugio. (For those of you who are paying attention… I did skip Monday. I spent the whole day in bed basically feeling like I was seasick- and suffering the side effects, if you get my drift. Not a fun feeling!) Anyway, back to Tuesday. At El Refugio we did a few interviews with the staff there- and were able to see a few parts of the camp we hadn’t seen on our first visit. This included the ‘treehouse’ which was straight out of the movie Swiss Family Robinson! While unlike the movie, there was no retractable roof. Nonetheless, the two large platforms connected by a rope bridge and supported by several ancient Eucalyptus made for an idyllic spot to spend part of our afternoon. From there we headed down back towards the main camp to the cuy ‘habitat’ I guess you could say.

Cuy, just so you know, is a delicacy in Ecuador- and because they ‘farm’ their own at the camp, they often serve them to guests. I was definitely having a tough time thinking of these little guys as dinner… especially because my sister had one as a pet when we were in grade school. She only kept it for a few months or so before it got donated to the school and became the class pet (I think that’s what happened to it? Now that I think about it, I really don’t remember… but I know we didn’t eat it!) Phil assured me that the cuy (or guinea pig, as they’re known here in the states) that they farmed were bigger and not the same as the ones we had as pets- but upon entering the cuy pen I came to the realization that these little guys were exactly the same as the class pet! I certaintly wasn’t going to eat one.

But just because I was perfectly content with not indulging in a tasty bit of guinea pig delight, didn’t mean I wasn’t up for cheering on the rest of our team who had a hankering for it! While the camp didn’t have any prepared, lucky for us on our way back we passed a small restaurant that specialized in it- I think. I’m not sure if ‘specialized’ would really be the correct word… but they did have a picture of one on the sign. And while the one on the sign was cartoonishly cute- the one that we ordered was anything but. Cooked over an open flame, the naked rodent was skewered and twirled to a goldenish crispy brown. As they presented it to us on a plate garnished with lettuce… it was hard to ignore the stray hairs, teeth, and small claws that remained on our crunchy critter. I never even for a second considered sampling the little guy, but Steph tasted it and Dave and Brad definitely got the full experience- brains and all!

From Lunch (if you can call it that) we went to the equatorial monument so Steph could see it. Although, still the equator, this was different than the equator we had already seen (this was the original version… the second one was built after GPS placed the equator in a slightly different location.) And, after snapping a few photos and doing more than enough shopping we were on our way once again!

That evening we went out with Phil and the boys. Cameras in tow we wanted to get some interviews and footage of kids who were still on the street. While we were hoping for more hardcore stuff like kids doing drugs or drinking alcohol… the streets were surprisingly void of street kids that evening. Even still we sauntered through some of the most dangerous parts of Quito in search of our subject… and surprisingly I never once felt in danger. This could be because we were being accompanied by the boys from the Casa. Former street kids themselves, they are acutely aware of everything that goes on around them and took on the role of our body guards that evening. I’m sure we stood out- being that you don’t often see groups of extremely white North Americans hanging out with slightly rough looking Ecuadorian teenagers. One woman even shouted at Steph to “be careful!” which at first I didn’t understand, until I realized what a sight we were. And, although we didn’t get the footage we set out for, we all enjoyed each others company that evening- because to us, friendship had transcended what the outside world may have viewed us as. It had transcended the barriers of race, class, language, age, culture and background- and we were all simply just friends.