Biol, Earthen Ovens and Gettin' Down to Business

Late July and August 2011

   Following the leave of my high school friend from home, Colin Scott, I returned back to Tena to one of the best good-weather-sprees I have seen to date in Ecuador. We had nearly 3 weeks of perfect sunny weather, not too hot, a nice breeze, that kind of best-of-a-Whidbey-Summer-weather thing goin' on. Needless to say, it was a good time to get some new projects going and feel productive. 

   One of the first things we got started on following my return to the Amazon was a big ol' batch of biol, or manure tea. How does one make manure tea you ask? In a large mesh sack mix 2 wheel barrows full of FRESH, and I do mean fresh, cow or pig manure, with a few shovels of wood ash, and whatever legumes you might have laying around (in the jungle we use leaves off an ice-cream-bean tree, or guava in Spanish. Add in a few bags of milk, or if your particular store does not carry bagged varieties a quart would do, as well as a pack of yeast and 1/2- 1 pound of cane sugar. Tie off the bag and submerse in a 50 gallon tank of water. Loosely cover for 2 weeks and strain the liquid from the barrel. Mix 1 part biol to 4 parts water and spray directly onto your plants, the difference is visible within 2-3 days! - For our particular batch of biol we found a farmer down the street that had no problem sharing the wealth. Lenin and myself, along with a handful of volunteers from the community set to work mixing and making a big batch of Biol which is now ready for use. I must say, nothing makes playing with cow poo better than an 85 degree day with 95% humidity in the Amazon!  

   Back at home, I had been craving some fresh baked goods (I didn't really mind; cookies, bread, pizza... just anything I could bake up myself), the only problem being that our only source of heat is an industrial propane burner for pots and pans. Therefore I had been kicking around the idea for a little while to build my own oven. After some research and asking around I felt I had all the information I needed and from asking my host parents if we had any clay for an Earthen Oven I was pointed to 3 different spots where they had previously harvested clay for making pots and other things, they were down behind a tree, under the bridge and my choice... on the hillside next to our house where it had slide in a rain storm the year before. I set to work building a box out of recycled lumber and filled it with the concrete rubble pile we had next to our house, topped off with some sand from another secret spot and some old recycled bricks I found behind the out building at the brick factory (all bricks sold in Tena are large and hollow like cinder-blocks and we needed solid bricks). The factory owner charged me "for a cola", about a buck-fifty, for the load of half broken and grown over bricks which were chopped and cleaned and laid for my oven floor. Next was the sand form for the interior which held the first layer of clay mixed with sand. 

   Once the first layer set up I cut out the doorway and dug out the inner sand form, then set a fire to help the form dry. A week later I built another layer for insulation of clay mixed with sawdust which acts as an amazing insulator. I had fired the first layer a few times and tried to make bread once which failed because the entire oven was giving off a lot of heat. Once the second layer was added I tried my hand once more at making bread and the outside of the oven never came above room temperature! The bread was a great success and I am looking forward to making pizza later this week! 

    (For more pictures of the building process check out my facebook!)

   Apart from these side projects, I spent most of July and August at the office working on the business plan for our eco-tourism project known as Waylla. Lenin and I spent hours and hours in the office trying to crank out the plan to be ready to present in early September. Having just graduated from college a year ago and never having written a business plan, let alone one in Spanish, I must say I am quite happy with the final project. The only key now is to make sure we stick to it and that they can write the next one on their own! 

   Sometime in early August a Peace Corps volunteer stationed in Quito called me up to say that her little sister was visiting and on her way out to Tena and asked if I would be able to show her around, to which I obliged. We were having problems with a community about 3 hours down river, Wachi Yacu, that is raising chickens for sale and need to go out to tour the farms and see how the project was going. In order to get out to this community you have to drive through a river which is only possible when the river is very dry. This week the weather was holding and so we met up with Meaghan's sister in Tena and headed out. We made it to Wachi Yacu with no problems and only light clouds overhead so we set off to tour 3 different houses that are raising chickens, the last of which is 3 km into the jungle. Just before the final house there is a point where the trail goes down a steep bank, is flat for about 40 feet, crosses a river and goes back up again. Lenin and I, following our guide, had just gotten to the bottom of the bank with our guide about 20 feet in front. The guide had been walking down the trail and saw a tail go off the trail and come back to a snake's head just to the side of his boot. He startled the snake which took off. At this point he turns around and yells, "Cuidado! La Culebra!!!", or watch out!!! the snake!!! Lenin and I were looking around dumbfounded until we both looked down to see this 4 foot, bright maroon snake coming straight up the trail at us at full speed. We both back peddled quickly, however Lenin tripped over a root ball sticking out of the ground behind his foot. I caught him and right as the snake was about 3 feet in front of us it took off into the brush, leaving the two of us out of breath and laughing nearly hysterically. Once I stopped laughing I looked back to see where our visitor had been and saw her nearly ghost white on the hill watching what had just laid out in front of her. "I have never seen a snake thaaat big or that red before"! Needless to say, the rest of our walk up was a bit on tip-toe. 

   Having reached the final house and after the customary round of Chicha, we had 5 minutes to check up on the project before it started pouring rain. Being from the PNW I am pretty used to walking home in the rain, however this was not just any Seattle-rain-2-inches-all-day kind of rain. This was more of a, had it been a shower I would have turned the pressure down, kind of rain. We nearly ran the whole 3 km back to the truck, worried about getting stuck on this side of the river if we didn't get back fast enough. Wet to the core and once again laughing hysterically, we pilled into the truck and made it back over the river without a problem and enjoyed a soggy ride home with plenty of stories to share when we arrived. 

  The second week of August Lenin and I headed to Tumbaco for a week long workshop on tourism with the Peace Corps. We spent the whole week in a fancy hotel and in meetings from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm with time to play pool in the evenings and a nightly reunion party till around 1 am. All-in-all it was a helpful workshop and most topics were over establishing a business plan which helped me double check and feel more confident with the plan we had nearly finished. The last night of the workshop a few other volunteers and I snuck out after dinner to catch the 9 pm showing of Harry Potter at the mall. I must say it was everything I wanted and more, though I am quite sad that the last 10 years of my life has come to an end.  

   After the workshop I put some final touches on the business plan and the Earthen Oven and cleaned the house in preparation for the arrival of my girlfriend, Hillarie, who landed on the 18th after nearly 7 months apart. We also celebrated the 6th birthday of my host-brother's son which even included the ritual "bite the cake", or what I would call the, let your family push your face into the cake.