Me (with hair!) in the indigenous community of Arenal in 2007

This means 100% of the financial contribution that volunteers pay will go to the organization or community where they volunteer (a radical concept, isn’t it?) Ecuador Eco Volunteer will no longer process volunteer applications or receive any financial benefit from being the largest website of its kind in the country.

After building this project from the ground up for the last few years Ecuador Eco Volunteer has finally grown and matured to the point where it can work without me or any other middle man – it’s time to let her walk on her own.

This is my gift to Ecuador, the country that has given me so much back in return :)

Jake Ling

Why Ecuador Eco Volunteer is Changing Course

It has been no secret to the volunteers we have received that Ecuador Eco Volunteer has been racked with internal problems recently – in an effort to bring a little transparency to these problems I attempted to describe what was happening and what we were doing to resolve the problems in the post Ecuador Eco Volunteer Problems

Unfortunately it became clear to me (with special thanks to the very honest feedback from Rick Jordan and Yohsuke Amano) that this little volunteer organization had become a victim of its own success – as we grew we began to operate in the same financially oriented way as many other large Voluntourism Companies – the bottom line became more important than impact on the ground.

We became the very thing I used to criticize on this blog and elsewhere mere years ago.

I have spent the last few years using my background in IT and Search Engine Optimization to launch this website from obscurity to the number one ranking site for various keyword phrases such as “volunteer ecuador” on Google. Consequently Ecuador Eco Volunteer receives 100′s of hits and several emails per day from idealistic and good natured souls from around the world who wish to volunteer in this beautiful country.

But the problems with too much tourism and volunteers are manifold:
- If too many volunteers are packed into a program the division of work becomes less and less until the program is nothing more than an exotic babysitting gig for herds of bored backpackers.
- Communities come to have an unhealthy dependence on the economic incentives of hosting volunteers. The damage this causes deserves an entire post on its own.
- NGO’s begin to place innovation second place to cash, they become lazy.

transparency note: The volunteer fees have always been divided so that 69% of the payment went to the NGO or community and 31% to the office and staff to keep this social enterprise sustainable.

In the past I received $30 from the $50 administration fee from every volunteer and worked as a mountain guide and web designer on the side to increment my income. Since January however i’ve had to refund volunteers who had paid for the disastrous Galapagos program that I setup (and shutdown soon later) out of my own pocket.

The years I have spent on this project has not earned me a fraction of what i’d earn in Australia as an SEO tech – but the ride has enriched my life in ways that i’ll never be able to put a pricetag on and i’m forever grateful for that.

The former programs in the Animal Rescue Center and Indigenous Communities are still available on another website although I am no longer involved. These are great programs and many of the problems mentioned above should be resolved because their new site will not receive as many visitors as the original.

I just hope the current administrators continue to update the transparency graphs without my constant encouragement and treat the volunteers with the respect they deserve – which means actually listening to them when they say something is wrong and learning from mistakes. Other than that I wish them the very best of luck.

Designed by Volunteers for Volunteers

The heading above was the slogan I originally coined for Ecuador Eco Volunteer and to make it more than just a marketing catch-cry I implemented a Volunteer Surveys System with the help of Jennifer Kim. Unfortunately it was very difficult to take on any of these suggestions because of the competing visions in management.

Once the process of making money for a Volunteer Organization has been refined and systemized the organization becomes rigid with its ability to change and scale its impact.

Creating change on the ground however is never linear and requires constant measurement, experimentation, and fine tuning, as well as an open dialog with stakeholder communities coupled with their direct involvement in the change process.

Now ecuadorecovolunteer.org no longer needs to worry about its financial bottom line to stay sustainable its programs can be chosen in terms of impact.

And to make Ecuador Eco Volunteer the first crowdsourced volunteer organization on the continent and true to its catch-cry of “Designed By Volunteers For Volunteers” I need your help to find the best programs in the country to work with.

If you recommend a special cause, project, or volunteer organization in Ecuador then check out the Suggest a Program page for more details.

Welcome the Omaere Ethnobotanical Park in Puyo

The first volunteer program chosen in terms of impact instead of financial viability is a very special conservation and environmental awareness project that works hand in hand with indigenous Achuar communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

Volunteers will be hosted in the Omaere Ethnobotanical Park in Puyo.

The volunteer administrator is Chris Canaday, a world leader in his field who I interviewed about water sanitation and improved human waste disposal on my new blog.

There are more special programs in the pipeline so stay tuned.

For a little perspective on how far we’ve come check out the reviews for 2010 and 2011.

As most of you who read this blog know the amazing Jennifer Kim has returned to the US and until her replacement Sam Bale from Switzerland arrives on January 3rd its been hard to cope with all the workload.

Until then we thank you for your patience and promise we’ll be working our asses off to resolve some of these issues. Below is a list of some of these problems and the ways we are going to try and resolve them.

The Tyranny of Distance

Ecuador is a small country which makes it easier than most to traverse from its Coast to Amazonian border. While some of our volunteer programs are easy to check on regularly, revise, and improve other more remote programs are almost impossible to keep an eye on.

This means we have to have trust that the community or group of people we work with on the other side of the country are acting in the best of faith and living up to their obligations. Unfortunately this is not always the case and our trust in the past has been misplaced and we are forced to close the program.

An example of one of the volunteer programs we have closed this year is the Marine Life Rescue Center. After scouting out programs on the coast we discovered a great little community based organization that rescued sea-life before rehabilitating and releasing them. It seemed like our amazing Animal Rescue Center but on the coast.

We explained to them what Ecuador Eco Volunteer is all about, how we can send volunteers that will help provide manpower and much needed funds to the organization.

They showed us where the volunteers can stay, the fridge and kitchen, and the tasks they will be required to do, and made many more promises. It seemed like the perfect partnership until a few months later we find out that the volunteers are doing very little, the sea-life wasn’t being released, and they had even removed the fridge!

Right now there is another program that because of the tyranny of distance is suffering the same fate. We have refunded everyone who has booked this program in 2013 and unless the program is able to be salvaged fast it will be cut.

Volunteer Program Lifecycle

Earlier this year we had to stop sending volunteers to the NGO that ran the Coastline Conservation program because of complaints that there was nothing to do and that the organizers didn’t seem interested in anything but the money.

This was hard for us to understand why a volunteer program that previously had such RAVE REVIEWS had turned to shit.

We sent Jeniffer on a 12 hour bus journey to Muisne to find out what was happening and see if the volunteer program could be salvaged and returned to its former glory. The new management took in all of her ideas, said how they were going to lift their game, and we sent more volunteers and they didn’t even pick them up at the station or have living quarters arranged for them.

We then closed this Coastline Conservation Program which was quite unfortunate because it was a great program supporting an incredibly vulnerable ecosystem. Fortunately Jennifer found another great program on the coast on Isla Corazon

How We Are Resolving These Problems

Once Sam arrives and the administration workload can be more evenly distributed we will have time to tackle these problems head on. Sam and I will be visiting many of the volunteer programs and forming a plan of attack to improve

Managing Volunteer Expectations

We are working on making the description of every volunteer program as accurate as possible to ensure volunteers know what they should expect. At times this is hard because I will write a description that I believe is accurate from my perspective but from others its not.

In the Animal Rescue Center for example there was a percentage of volunteers that believed they would be with the animals 100% of the time, even though this is inhibitive of their rehabilitation. To resolve this I sat down and talked with Lucero who runs the center and she helped me write this post: Animal Rescue Center Volunteer Expectations.

Increasing Volunteer Support

There are a number of ways we are working on increasing our Volunteer Support to make volunteers feel they have a safety net under them in case anything happens. In the new year when Sams here he will have a work phone topped up with credit to answer and resolve any problems volunteers may have.

Also, for those of you who have signed up in the last month and onwards you will be receiving an 18 page “ECUADOR ORIENTATION PACK” full of detailed and specific travel and health advice to prepare you for your adventure in Ecuador. I worked on this booklet for months and none of the information in it has been copied from the Lonely Planet or Internet, its all my personal advice after backpacking South America for 5 years. I hope you enjoy it.

Volunteer Surveys

Via the Anonymous Volunteer Surveys we are able to gauge exactly what you think of the program and how it should be improved (if you answer it, that is!)

We send out a load of Volunteer Surveys to all of the volunteers that have finished their program every three months. It asks questions like: a) Was the description of the volunteer program accurate, b) what didn’t you like about the program, c) what do you recommend to improve the program, and a tonne of other questions.

By helping us answer this survey you will be helping us enormously in improving our volunteer programs and the change we are able to facilitate, with your help, in Ecuador.

Here is to an amazing 2013!

The reason we have decided to work with this hostel in Quito is because we think its important to support and promote Ecuadors indigenous people.

This is not only true with our many volunteer programs but also for our ecotourism trips which help secure an alternative source of income for indigenous families and communities.

Kingdom Kichwa Guesthouse

Kingdom Kichwa Guesthouse will give you a taste of that authentic Kichwa Hospitality in the middle of Quitos Mariscal or “Gringolandia” – the cities nightlife and restaurant district.

The features and services offered at Kingdom Kichwa House include:
- friendly welcoming atmosphere
- fully equipped kitchen
- beer garden out back
- chillout area with fireplace
- comfortable beds
- super fast wifi
- hot showers

The hostel is also located close to the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores making it the perfect place if you are extending your tourist visa.

I am living in the hostel at the moment which means I can give newly arrived volunteers a detailed heads up about their upcoming volunteer experience with us.

If you have contacted us over a year ago before Jennifers time at Ecuador Eco Volunteer then you would have noticed how much less organized than we are now.

In short, Jennifer revolutionized our little organization by implementing systems to keep track of everything, modernized our ancient book keeping system and calender, scouted out new programs around Ecuador and finally helped us to implement Volunteer Surveys that we will be using to bring a professional level of quality control into our programs.

In the US Jennifer previously worked in the Social Sector, on jobs that included being a councillor for pregnant and parenting teenage mums who were victims of domestic violence. She also worked as a midwifes assistant for women who have no network amongst family or friends and supervised at a transitional employment program for people who been recently discharged from incarceration.

With all that experience working on challenging jobs that help make the world a better place we were extremely grateful to have her here in Ecuador. She goes back home to the states next week and we are going to miss her!

Please be patient with us during this transition period for Ecuador Eco Volunteer – Wladys wife has given birth to a boy and until Sam from Switzerland comes to replace Jennifer in January we might not be as quick to answer emails as before.

But fortunately I have just moved to Quito which means I will be able to meet most of the Volunteers personally as soon as they touch down in Ecuador.

See-ya soon!
Jake

Here you can check out the routes as well as the Train Timetable and Prices

It has taken years and billions of dollars to renovate the old train tracks designed at the turn of the 19th century for steam engines.

Unfortunately being able to ride on the roof of the train, one of the biggest drawcards for tourists, is no longer possible with the new modern carriages. The reason may be due to why the Nariz del Diablo train closed down in the first place: the deaths of two Japanese tourists whose heads were accidentally severed when some thoughtless dumbass installed a cable over the train tracks.

The interesting thing about the inauguration was that the governor of Chimborazo Province gave the speech instead of the mayor of Riobamba, Juan Salazar, who is widely perceived as corrupt. This sparked a rumour that Juan Salazar is “quemado” or “burnt” and other politicians now consider it to be a liability to associate with him as well as the belief he may be removed from power soon.

This is fantastic news for the people of Riobamba who believe the mayor has plundered the city for too long, and it gives kudos to the innovative social media campaign against him called Caos en Riobamba Sr. Salazar.

Well check out this extremely rare bioluminescent race of cockroaches that look like they come from one of the reactors of Chernobyl. Dubbed the Lucihormetica luckae, the only known specimen of the species was collected in 1939 in the Andean Forest surrounding the Tungarahua Volcano, which was unfortunately damaged during a volcanic eruption in December 2010. Another is unlikely to be found.

What other rare and amazing plants and animals are yet to be discovered in Ecuadors lush and prehistoric ecosystems?

Want to try your luck to find another one of these insanely cool looking critters? Here are some directions and photos for an independent day hike to the Tungarahua Volcano.

A night on Puñay

Last weekend I was able to go along on a 2 day trek as an assistant guide. The journey took us to the top of an ancient pyramid constructed in the shape of a giant macaw and has only recently been discovered. It’s known as the “Lost Pyramid of Puñay” and at 3,300m, even though it’s only a 2 or 3 hour hike, can be difficult if you aren’t acclimatized.

We took a couple from England and a girl from Germany on a 2 hour bus ride south where were picked up by a truck that took us to the base of the mountain/pyramid. I wasn’t expecting the temperature to be so warm, I rolled up my pants and was down to a T-shirt, yet was still sweating before we even began the ascent. We left the camping equipment at the base to be packed on a donkey that would carry it to the top, and we began to slowly make our way up the steep and narrow trail.

The combination of the elevation and the heat began taking effect on one of the hikers and she needed to rest frequently, but still pushed on and conquered Puñay like a champ. On the way up, there are great views of the surrounding hillsides as we passed through varied vegetation, including; thick grass, bamboo, bushes, wildflowers, and pointy aloe-type plants.

At one point I looked up to see Mike running back down the trail towards me looking quite concerned. We were on some narrow switchbacks and it turns out that 2 donkeys were running down the trail towards us. We somewhat frantically scrambled up the hill into the bushes to get out of their way since they weren’t about to slow down.

As we rounded the summit of the pyramid we could see that there were already a few tents set up and a small group of guys hanging out, some from Ireland and some from Ecuador. We laid out in the sun and rested while we waited for the donkey to arrive.

Once it did, we prepared a spaghetti dinner which took our entire group to protect it from the group of hungry dogs that had come to beg and take any opportunity to snatch our food.

Shortly after, there was a magnificent sunset that turned the sea of clouds below us into all shades of yellow, orange, and red. Once the sun disappeared, the temperature dropped dramatically and we were all layering up and scooting closer to the smoky fire that the other group had started up.

The sky above was completely clear and littered with thousands of stars, all so bright that it was hard to pick out constellations. We saw numerous satellites making their way across the sky in their orbital paths and could distinctly see the hazy streak of the Milky Way galaxy. Looking down the hill we could see the lights of various small towns below.

The fire was made of dry grass and a few small pieces of wood. Around it, people were playing instruments and singing. A local was mixing up some San Pedro cactus mixture to share with us. It’s named after Saint Peter since he is known for holding the keys to heaven and the cactus supposedly gives people a sense of experiencing heaven through an altered, psychoactive state of mind. The amount of the bitter concoction that we had, less than a shot, wasn’t enough to have any effect, but still cool to try the sacred drink that’s used by Shaman throughout the Andes.

It was getting colder and my sleeping bag was calling me from the tent as my eyes were burning from the smoke of the fire, so I decided to call it a night. The next morning we were up around 8 for breakfast, and then started packing the gear in our packs since there would be no donkey assisting us for the descent. I ended up carrying all of my own gear as well as 2 tents and the groups’ food for the rest of the day. The 2 hour hike down was killer on the legs but well worth it for a chance to get out of Riobamba for a bit and see some great views from the top of the “Lost Pyramid of Puñay”.

This percentage is even higher than Rafael Correas approval rate itself that fluctuates in the high 70% range which seemingly means this is a non-partisan issue in Ecuador.

I did however overhear in a restaurant in the city of Coca one policeman say to another, “you see Correa has given asylum to that terrorist.”

This reaction may be explained by the conflict of between the police and the president when Rafael Correa was kidnapped by police after he took away their work benefits.

Ecuadors position is much stronger now that it has received the backing of South Americas 12 nation union which condemned the threat against its embassy. The OAS which meets on August 24th should have a similar position.

I have noticed the western mainstream media outlets have already begun to paint Rafael Correa in a bad light. Some of the hit-jobs have come from surprising places like www.foreignpolicy.com which normally has pretty balanced and informative political analysis but resorts to ad hominem smears whenever it comes to Julian Assange.

 
The best place to stay informed on the situation about Freedom of Expression in Ecuador and around the world is the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) which has been monitoring the situation in Ecuador before Julian Assange stepped into their London Embassy.

This recent article on IFEX about Correa withdraws government advertising from private media demonstrates the complexity between Freedom of Expression and letting Ecuadors incredibly powerful and corrupt oligarchs smear anyone who doesnt agree with their interests.

“From now on you will no longer place official advertising on the mercantilist media, because there is no reason why we, with the money of all Ecuadorians, should benefit businesses that belong to six families in this country” - Rafael Correa

If you havent seen it already then you should check out the interview on The World Tomorrow where Assange and Correa met for the first time. In it Rafael Correa explains his opinion on Ecuadors oligarchy that owns the banks and press in the country.

I do think Rafael Correa has played the current stand off with Great Britain very smart. By letting his own foreign minister Ricardo Patino make much of the international limelight for his speeches when granting Assange asylum and calling for the meetings in OAS and USAN. This has made it much harder for the mainstream media to draw comparisons between Correa and Chavez who has surrounded himself with the cult of personality of a soi-disant Bolivarian revolutionary.

For the full video of speeches outside the Ecuadorian Embassy:

The Mainstream Media (outside of Ecuador) took up the story later when Ecuadors foreign minister Ricardo Patino made known Britains threat to storm the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to take Assange by force.

This was an incredibly foolish move by Britain and has backfired into a geopolitical shitstorm that pits the US, Britain, and Sweden against a nascent Latin American / South American bloc eager to flex its muscles.

Julian Assange stated multiple times before he entered the embassy that the British government was going to extradite him to Sweden during the opening of the Olympic Games in London to ensure media coverage of the extradition would be swamped by Olympic fanfare.

In return this was shrewd politicking by Ecuador to wait for the Olympic Games to end before announcing they had accepted Assanges’ asylum request.

Because of the respect the vast majority of countries in the modern world (with the exception of Iran) have towards the Vienna Convention with regards to the protection of embassies and consuls this threat by Britain against Ecuador has rattled even former members of the conservative party like the former ambassador and human rights activist Craig Murray:

I returned to the UK today to be astonished by private confirmation from within the FCO that the UK government has indeed decided – after immense pressure from the Obama administration – to enter the Ecuadorean Embassy and seize Julian Assange.

This will be, beyond any argument, a blatant breach of the Vienna Convention of 1961, to which the UK is one of the original parties and which encodes the centuries – arguably millennia – of practice which have enabled diplomatic relations to function. The Vienna Convention is the most subscribed single international treaty in the world.
….
The government’s calculation is that, unlike Ecuador, Britain is a strong enough power to deter such intrusions. This is yet another symptom of the “might is right” principle in international relations, in the era of the neo-conservative abandonment of the idea of the rule of international law.

source:

Britain believed that Ecuador could be intimidated into rejecting the asylum request. They should have known that the president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, is not easily intimidated which I cannot say for the embarrassing cowardice of the political leaders in my own country Australia. On the contrary Rafael Correa loves a fight and the inevitable media attention that comes from it.

Britain should have known that because Ecuador is a tiny country located between two much larger regional bullies, Peru and Colombia, has meant its had to learn to punch above its weight like a small kid in a rough neighbourhood.

Threatening to storm the Ecuadorian Embassy which is the sovereign territory of Ecuador under the Vienna Convention was undoubtedly going to bring up bitter memories of Colombias illegal bombing of a FARC camp on Ecuadorian territory in 2010.

After the threat the Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino promptly called for an emergency meeting of the OAS (Organization of American States) and UNASUR (Union of South American Nations) UNASUR will vote overwhelmingly with Ecuador with the exception of of Chile and Colombia and most probably Paraguay (after its recent “soft coup”)

Argentina who are still reeling over the latest slight by Britain on the disputed Falkland Islands and Chavez who will want to drum up his us-verse-them-imperialista narrative in the middle of an election season he will most probably lose will spearhead the regional condemnation. The continents superpower and the country next in line to host the Olympics, Brazil, will take on a more tempered tone than the leftist firebrands but criticise the threat nonetheless.

Now lets watch the mainstream media use its spin machine to start slinging dirt on Rafael Correas complex stance on Freedom of Expression in Ecuador

The problem however is that plastic does not break down and decompose like other materials. If you bury that water hose in your garden you can be sure that your great great grandchildren may one day discover it in pretty good shape.

In fact plastic has become such a huge blight on our planet because it is so cheap it is easier to replace than repair which means much of the stuff ends up in landfills – or if you are in Ecuador and other places in the third world with poor waste management – in the rivers or on the sides of roads.

Now for some good news.

A fungus called Pestalotiopsis Microspora has been discovered in the Ecuadorian Amazon that eats plastic. Not only that but the fungi can also live without oxygen making it perfect for breaking down plastic at the bottom of landfills.

The only other natural way to decompose plastic has previously been to expose it to Ultra Violet Light from the sun which break down the molecules that bind petroleum based plastics in a process called photodegradation. But that decomposition process is painfully slow and no use to all that waste at the bottom of landfills.

If the team of scientists studying the fungus are able to develop it into a commercially viable product it will mean incredible advances in waste reduction and recycling!

What other amazing things are bound to be found in the Amazon before we destroy it?