QUILOTOA

Leaving the big city of Quito, your group will make their way up, up, up into the Andes. The journey will take you past rolling hills with patchwork green farms. the sight of the beauty of both nature and the wind blown faces you pass may bring tears to your eyes as you breathe in with your whole body the wonder of this country side. Traveling along the windy roads laid out by the dips in the mountains, you will be undeniably in awe, until, at last, you arrive at your destination, greeted by the many local men, women and children who will approach you, welcoming their new visitors like old friends.

Quilotoa is a small Andean community located at 13,000 feet above sea level. The small town is home to a shrinking Quechuan population. Three schools in the area house the villages children and the adults spend their days working on the farms and running the popular hostels. Quilotoa is famous for it's crater lake and visitors from all across the world come to marvel at it's beauty and purchase a Tigua Painting.

In Quilotoa, you have the opportunity to step back in time. As there are no internet facilities in town and they have only one communal phone, which runs on a mobile phone card and often runs out of minutes. At night, you'll need to light a fire in your wood stove and bundle up to stay warm as you fall into dreams about what the next day has in store for you.

This is adventurous travel.

There are lots of personal excursions for you to indulge in, from horseback riding to hiking around the crater, or kayaking in the lake. At night, you might play cards while listening to a great little local Andean band or perhaps find a quite spot to read or journal about the days activities.

TAKING ACTION:

QUILOTOA COMMUNITY CENTER

Quilotoa is the first community you will travel to. The number one mission of this visit will be to help in the building of their new community center.

The Community Center will address three specific issues facing the Quilotoa community today:

1. Lack of a Community Health Center.
The community has no Doctors, Nurses, or even a First Aid Kit. The closest community with a hospital in the area is over two hours away. Volunteers in Quilotoa are already hard at work building a space for DAT to fill with donated supplies. Ecuadorian Doctors must do a service project in a community for a year after graduating and before starting their official practice. Our hope is that this facility will provide a place where these doctors will be interested in coming to volunteer.

2. Loss of Indigenous Artistic Stories and Skills.
Many young adults in the Quechuan communities are moving into larger cities to find work. They rarely return. As a result, the Quechuan language has begun dying out while Spanish replaces it. Original artistic skills pertaining to folk stories, traditional lessons, dances, mask work, and more are being lost forever.
The goal of the community arts center will be to preserve these arts and watch them grow.

3. No place for Knowledge to be shared.
This community thrives on tourism. Because of that, they have a viable interest in learning English, as well as creating a place for these people to learn skills that will enhance their growth as individuals and as a village.
We'd like to establish an English-language movie night by the end of our project.

How you can get involved:

There are two areas of the Quilotoa week that you can choose to be involved in.

1. Working at The Community Center
This area will include working under the instruction of our professional Technical Director. Depending on the time of your visit, many tasks will need to be completed. From painting to building shelving units or benches, organizing supply cabinets to installing technical equipment, there will always be something to work on.

2. Working in the Schools
This area will include assisting an Actor/Teacher to teach English and Theatre Skills to kids. Prepare to work on your Spanish and learn some Quechuan from these adorable 10-13-year-olds. You will learn new teaching techniques and theatre exercises.

WEEK ONE - ITINERARY:

QUITO
Day 1: Fly to Quito - your director/guide will meet you and your group at the airport and take you to your hotel
Day 2-3: Experience Quito, adjust to the altitude, get to know your cast, learn some more spanish, and possibly see some theatre

QUILOTOA
Day 4: Travel to Quilotoa, meet your Quilotoa hosts, learn about the needs and volunteer for a job that suits you. Don't forget to check out the Crater Lake.
Day 5-9: Work in Quilotoa, write about your experiences and really get to know your cast
Day 10: Leave Quilotoa, spend the night in Quito, reflect on your experiences thus far and email home!

For a full ITINERARY, click here.

PACKING SUGGESTIONS FOR QUILOTOA:

"It's cold in the Andes, so please prepare to wear every article of clothing you own..."- excerpt from Flight 360

- LAYERS, LAYERS, LAYERS! It will be cold, and you WON'T want to carry around 3 pounds of sweaters with you for the remainder of the trip.
- 4 long sleeved shirts which can be layered on top of the t-shirts and each other
-only 1 heavier sweater or sweatshirt. You'll be happy to have only one.
- 1 good AND packable raincoat- make sure it's not just a windbreaker and when paired with your heavy sweater or sweatshirt it will feel like a winter coat.
- 1 pair of hiking shoes which can be worn daily (rain resistant or sprayed with waterproofing spray suggested)
- 1 pair of "hardcore sandals" which can be worn with socks. After working all day, you'll want a break from shoes and here- with socks- they will feel like slippers
- 1 towel (double check! Quilotoa doesn't have them!)
- a game, a book, and a journal - There's not much to do after dinner, so if you think that you might get bored a little game, a good book, or a bit of journaling are great options for winding down before bed.

For the complete packing list, click here.

LINKS

Wikipedia - Quito : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quito
Wikipedia - Crater Lake : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quilotoa
Lonely Planet - Quilotoa Video: http://www.lonelyplanet.tv/Clip.aspx?key=07ADCC0DD970EC6B

THE NEXT STEP

Now that you've experienced a little of what Quilotoa has to offer, click here to return and choose your WEEK TWO ADVENTURE.