Goodbye Ecuador
Atandahua, May-June 2022
From the reflective calm of the sunny coast,
To the Israeli friend I made for two days, with whom I hiked the highest I ever hiked and went for an uneventful if not entertaining double Tinder date with in Cuenca,
To the drive north through the Andes to my new volunteering in El Terreno, Atandahua, which was so beautiful it made me teary,
To the happiest weeks of my life and my friends high, high up in Atandahua, with whom every day the slow walk up the hill to the farm was blessed by a glimpse of mighty Chimborazo, with whom every hour was marked by the experience of something wonderful (standing in the back of a camioneta truck to take the blasting air and sing cheesy songs, the sight of someone leaning out of the window walking their horse up the road), and every minute was spent in kind company and good humour (sorry that I locked that dog in the kitchen that you then thought was a murderer trying to break into the house when he tried to get out in the middle of the night, I was really drunk),
To the birthday party that they threw me,
To the community that greeted me as veci, neighbour, and shared their beautiful land with me, as well as copious cups of lethally intoxicating pajaro azul,
To the surreal parade through Guanajo for San Pedro, where our organisation championed going green (‘go gringo!’ we self-consciously and erroneously chanted amongst earnest neighbourhood communities and church groups), and where we danced and ate empanadas and drank yet more pajaro azul,
To the Danish Princess, with whom time whiled away under the rain-drummed roof and at the top of the farm, our dog Zorro resting alertly at our feet and clouds passing through the high night sky, made my stay in El Terreno so sweet,
To the best tourist town in the world, where I threw myself down all sorts of beautiful scenery and bathed like a capybara with the Ecuadorians in their thermal baths.
To the dream-filled journey down, down from the mountains back to the airport from whenst I came, and a melancholy goodbye to the country I illegally over-stayed in for six months,
Thank you.
And a small but expectant Hello to Colombia.
Recommendations
Here are some of the things I have been enjoying since I last wrote, because apparently this is what everyone else uses Substack for.
Books
I stormed through A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jessica Egan on the bus to Cuenca, and Shades of Grey by Jjasper Fforde on the bus from it.
While not a thriller Elgin’s is a page-turner thanks to the compelling natural voices of its characters and its vaulting narrative. Expect an unforced and thoughtful exploration of the effect of time as it passes through the novel’s coiled story and people. It’s much like Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton, which I am interested to see has recently been adapted for TV.
Fforde’s bread and butter fantasy presents a new dystopian future that is colourful, funny and little bit sinister. Thanks Fien for recommending it all those months ago, and I view the rest of the series with trepidation for when I next need some escapism.
I am currently reading The Secret History of Castaguana by Juan Gabriel Vásquez. A rebuke to Heart of Darkness, it’s extravagant narrative takes a son of Colombian political revolution and the Fitzcarraldo-esque jungle to a post-railway and pre-canal isthmus (one for the geography wonks), and links him to an unlikely contemporary, a young Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, later Joseph Conrad, who is up to no good in burgeoning Panama.
For more literature from my ends, and even a little more of the anglo-spano-sphere, I would highly recommend Poso Wells. Lightly refrito-ing the insouciant politics and covert heart of Ecuador’s people, Gabriela Alemán takes us from the cloying streets of Guayaquil (the cloud-down weather there really is something, and you can take that from someone who has passed through its bus station several times in a Wish.com tracksuit), under the mineral-rich ground and through to the country’s mystical volcanoes in a a weird and wonderful contemporary mystery.
Music
Aside from the working songs we composed in the fields of El Terreno, I have listened to little else but friend-of-the-podcast’s Yael Gold whose new album Visitors has sweetly flavoured my ongoing travel. Start Walking in particular has blown me away and I play it on repeat.
See Violent Sun for a similar punch and heart-feel, and Me Vieron Cruzar (translation) for more growing and travelling motivation.
A reminder that I have a playlist on Spotify for all the music I’ve been listening to for my podcast and more.
And as for the podcast itself, I have two projects in the works that I will be excited to announce once I have stopped gunning it about.
Films
In the cold Atandahua nights I have been settling in under the blankets to the work of Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman. From the abstract romp of Being John Malkovich, to the tortuous Nick Cage-led Adaptation, and the sweetly frothy but no less stylish Stranger than Fiction, you can expect mind-bending narratives from one of Hollywood’s weirdest writers.
Well that’s all for this update. I remain lovingly yours,
Lucjan
