So, I’m going to visit a member of my family in the valley of Yunguilla, and to make it a little more interesting, I’m going to do an analysis: to what extent can a trip be ecological or not
Here we go
- COORDINATES
Starting from Cuenca Ecuador I traveled 72 km on the way to Machala in the southwestern part of the country. Yunguilla is a valley located approximately between 1200 and 1400 meters above sea level in the Andes. Even though it is a pretty hot environment mostly because it is on the equator and also because it is a valley as you get there you can feel an atmosphere that looks a lot like a desert but with abundant tropical vegetation which is a common landscape in this megadiverse country:
- PROVISIONS
As soon as I got here I bought some food and provisions. I believe cooking is a way to be more sustainable because it makes you more conscious about the products you buy and where they come from
Of course someday I’m going to get myself a ceviche or roasted chicken here but I will not post that because it would be a bit out of context. Still if I manage to cook more than 50 percent of the meals I eat here I will consider that a win.
Where I go I know there are lots of fruit trees but not many sources of carbs or protein. Little by little I will try to figure out where I can get those from local people.
For now this is what I have got:
These are the groceries that an average Ecuadorian would get in order to survive a few days.
Tell me in the comments what is the least sustainable product on this list and why it is the tuna
sorry to all the permaculture practitioners reading this and thinking about how much this affects the coast where it is produced but really if I get drunk sunburned or bitten by an animal and cannot cook this is the protein that will help me survive the day.
The eggs and the coffee are local. I do not know about the tomatoes and onions but they are the base of Ecuadorian cooking. You can mix them with cilantro and lime for a salad or cook them with chicken for a seco or with basil for a pomodoro sauce. So I will always get those in my groceries.
As for carbs since it is my first day here I bought bread and noodles. But I know that in this area there is a lot of yuca so I will try to buy some. I will also look for local potatoes.
- THE GARBAGE
People usually complain about the grocery bag. I usually recycle it by using it as a trash bag knowing that not all of this will go to compost.
I usually separate my garbage into
compost
things for dogs or local animals
the rest which goes in the grocery bag
In this place and in most rural areas where people go for tourism in Ecuador garbage management is not very effective so it is important to do it yourself.
- TIMING
A local worker told me and now that I have been here for a few days I can see why that people wake up really early to take advantage of the morning. The sun burns your skin as early as 10 AM maybe earlier and it stays intense until about 4 20 PM. So to align myself with the circadian rhythms of this zone I had to make myself a new schedule.
And this is basically how I start my trip in this very abundant and beautiful landscape one of the best areas in Ecuador.
In the next posts I will show you some of the local treasures I find as I travel through this landscape; like these one for example:
Leave a Reply