Reporte de Carina Sjoberg-Hawke una estudiante inglesa de Historia en Atillo

La casa de los voluntarios y turistas

Los Saskines; restaurant, home, mountains and eco-route

Durante un mes yo vivía y trabajaba en un restaurante se llama Los Saskines. Toma su nombre de las montañas que domina en el fondo, que son en parte de los páramos en la comunidad de Atillo (h.3000m sobre el nivel del mar).

The landscape is somewhat like the highlands of Scotland and near The Lakes of Atillo, a tourist attraction and local haven for tranquillity and fishing, reminiscent of Norway. The lakes and the rest of the moor are surrounded by mountains leading off in one direction to Macas (c.1500m above sea level) in the Oriente – the warm jungle parts of Ecuador - and in the other Guamote or Riobamba - cities of the Andes, South of Quito.

Los páramos is a life-giving environment: there is a very special biodiversity here and the water here is also very important; running down mountains and hills to provide fresh, clean water to the communities and even to the rest of Ecuador. The pàramos not only provides livelihood for the people and large farm animals but also for the tiny organisms that reside there. The latter help decompose fallen leaves and maintain the structure of the land. This rich eco-system contains unique flora, fauna, and also not to forget the animals of the air.

The flora and fauna change dramatically from one side of the lakes to the other. There is a clear border between Sierra and Orient. The side which has a bumpy, twisty road cut through the mountains leading to Macas is much greener and denser. Here the wind is cool but due to the humid temperature from below rising up and meeting the cool air in Atillo, the mountains and valleys are both surrounded and filled with low cloud/mist.

The restaurant is run by a lady called Dora Paña, or Doris. She is still young, only thirty years old, but has been running the business for seven years. Her mother, Delia, and her father, Alberto, help out as well as tending to the cattle, and Dora has two employees, Maria and Nancy. Los Saskines is not just a restaurant. There is also a shop, which sells all manner of convenient items, and tourist accommodation.

She said originally she wanted to go and study to be a teacher, but due to lack of money this wasn’t possible, so she opted instead for a tourism course in Riobamba, the closest big city, and then opened the restaurant. This was in fact a step up from the shop which her mother had run for many years.

The place has changed a lot over the years. She told me to begin with, there were only a shop and one small room where the customers dined. Cooking was done the old-fashioned way: pots over wood-fires. Slowly over the years as money was made, she was able to extend, build a proper kitchen and even build a hut on the hill above for tourist accommodation (6-bed dorm). It really is a very quaint place – simple yet efficient with regular customers thanks to two bus companies that use the road on which the restaurant lies. If passengers don’t get off here for a break, then at least the bus drivers will sometimes come in for breakfast, lunch and/or dinner. Other customers tend to be truck drivers, or, at weekends, especially if the weather is nice, Ecuadorian tourists, and even sometimes foreigners!

Business has been better though. Up until last year, Dora said that business was so busy that sometimes they didn’t have time to eat themselves. However, this has changed. Why? Because of a new road between Guamote (the local market town Thursdays) and Macas. It gets used more by the regular everyday traffic as it is a better road. But Dora is optimistic that business will pick up again soon, for two reasons: one - the road on which Los Saskines is on is being improved (though slowly I would like to point out); and two - eco-tourism.

Dora’s emphasis on eco-tourism is important to her business and to the páramos; they complement each other. Dora makes the páramos a focus inside her restaurant; the walls have many posters advertising los pàramos, its importance for the people there and the country as a whole, and also Parque Nacional Sangay – the closest national park, with pictures of flora, fauna and wildlife found in both places. Through Ecotrackers and advertising of her own (Los Saskines has its own poster-come-calendar) she is hoping for more customers. And personally I would recommend it: it is a lovely place to come to escape the city, to relax, get out into nature, breathe some fresher air, go walking etc. They also offer a lot of activities too: walks to the lakes, fishing, horse-riding, treks into the mountains, etc.

The páramos clearly have a lot to offer the eco-tourist or city-escaper, but for it to be welcoming it needs to be maintained and cared for.

There is a desire to do so, but I also see a lack of care – although more appropriately possibly a lack of education. For example, there is lot of advertising, talk and conservation activity for National Parks, and preserving the land and nature of los páramos as it is, and not allowing modern life to destroy this. On the other hand, you see the countryside littered with rubbish, and drivers coming in for food at the restaurant and leaving their engines on the whole time while they’re eating.

Way out here, away from the cities, you can understand the difficulties of dealing with the rubbish. I´m told that not all the rubbish gets thrown over the side but a lot does (a designated area near whatever building, which often later gets burned – including plastics), and then of course before time has a chance to deal with it, the wind blows it across the land. And not everything will decompose; the tiny organisms of the pàramos do not like plastic!

Daily activities and others at Los Saskines

• Cooking
• Serving food (weekends very busy)
• Milking the cows (milk goes to the dairy farmer who turns it into cheese which is then sold in Guayaquil)
• Washing up
• Preparing food
• Fishing (either from the stream, or pond in front! – the fish served in the restaurant is bought from the local fishery)
• Washing
• Taking care of the many animals
• Often colleting twigs-wood for t fire
• Tidying
• Cleaning
• Collecting grass for the guinea pigs (which are either sold or eaten as specialities of the area)
• Collecting the fish from the fish farm
• Getting the milk ready for the dairy man
• Thinking up ways to improve things
• Chopping down trees to clear way for tractor to prepare land for cattle
• Good doesn’t go to waste – taken to the pigs!
• On a rainy day, once food is prepared and only customers are awaited, there is little to do; reading, re-doing the tassels on poncho, make wool from sheep into wool to knit with, etc
• And when the electricity goes off (not too often thankfully) life seems a little dull because can’t use the stereo!

I asked Dora if she had plans for the future of Los Saskines should she be able to afford it. She said she would like to have more living space for tourists and also another restaurant/eating area, so that one would be for the regular lunches, etc, and the other would be for special dishes, i.e. typical dishes of the area, more expensive; attracting two lots of clientele.

This sounds lovely and not at all capitalistic, representative of life generally in this area – might have something to do with the fact they all have very little money, and that life is all about working to live. For example, the restaurant is open from the early hours to nine or ten in the evening, seven days a week. I asked when they go on holiday, something we often do in Europe, and I was told one day, every fifteen days. And what do they do? The two girls who work there usually visit their families; Dora will probably take a day in a neighbouring town/city and/or visit a family member not living in los pàramos.

Atillo, Zuñac and Macas

Atillo, 3100m
There are about 640 people in the community of Atillo. It is a community that has always been, if not always officially recognised, for centuries, even before the Incas. But there originally there were no natives; the ancestors were actually from Colombia, or some from the Orient or Coast.

Over 200 years ago there were two lots of indigenous peoples living in the surrounding areas, Pruhes and Shuars. Then came the Colombians, who settled in the area which is now Atillo. The Spaniards followed. With each new nation over the years a mix of nations naturally occurred. The Spaniards brought with them horses and eventually roads; trading became commonplace, but distances were of course still very remote. Until the arrival of automobiles, riding horses to Riobamba, for example, took two days or more. And even after the arrival automobiles, this would still be the case as the roads were not always passable by vehicles.

For many decades there was a fight for freedom from Spanish landlords of the farms. In 1933 Atillo residents got their right to own their own land and cattle. This was a first in the whole of Ecuador.

Links between Atillo and Macas in the east have always been strong with or without a road. The relationships between Atillo and the closer areas to the west on the other hand have never been so strong.

This no doubt has a lot to do with family, language and education: a lot of relatives of those in Atillo reside in Macas; a lot of the closer areas still speak kichwa (castellano too though) whereas the residents of Atillo do not, haven’t done for at least eighty years (eg. Dora’s parents know just enough, but not a lot, of Kichwa, to converse with those beyond Atillo); and there has been a school in Atillo for eighty years teaching in Castellano only.

Atillo, and no doubt many villages, towns, cities, in Ecuador, is very conservative. I have learned for example that to jut have a boyfriend at the age of thirty could be unwelcome if you’re not going to marry. Having kid out of wedlock VERY frowned upon. Perhaps not unlike society in England and other European countries a few decades ago. But I get the impression that things are changing, even in the small remote places. Education perhaps has a lot to do with it and knowledge of the outside world so much more available.

I think it is difficult if you ant to get out. You rely on your family for food, room, etc, but if you decide you to live your own life, with or without someone else and you no money and your parents would be angry with you, may never speak to you again, it is very difficult to rebel.

But rebel would seem to be the answer if change is what you want in a community like Atillo. You’d have to accept that you’d be looked down upon, perhaps not talk to family for years and have a long, difficult toil ahead.

Question is who is right or which life is better? Or even should we be allowed what we want? It is not for me to say or judge, although I think it is and always should be the individual’s choice and decision.

Zuñac, 2400m
This is a small catholic parish with no indigenous people. Seventy years ago the population of the original Zuñac (200-300 metres further up), descendents of yet again Colombians, came down to Sambicentre, which is now the centre of Zuñac. Today there are forty-six families, approximately 200 people. They all mostly work with agriculture, and mostly for themselves. They rarely sell anything they make, though if they do, they go to Macas.

The road, tunnel and bridge on which it lies was welcomed when constructed, because, as many residents told me, made 6 days to Riobamba 3 hours instead! The other road recently added between Guamote and Macas has been a mixed fortune; less business for the local restaurant for example, but less traffic disturbing the peace and environment. The tunnel though is not finished; rumour has it that the government would prefer to spend money on the coast. Apparently it will continue in February.

The restaurant owner is from Riobamba. He says there is nothing to do in Zuñac and misses Riobamba. I also met the Tenure Secretary, the President of the parish (who preferred I talk to others in the community) and an old guy who was supposed to know a lot about the history of the parish, but actually didn’t have much to say or at least wouldn’t expand on much. The language barrier of course made it difficult.

It is a modern parish – has a telephone centre, something that Atillo doesn’t have, and a new church - tucked between jungle and sierra often surrounded by mist, that welcomes new innovations, facilitators (the road and tunnel etc) but it also continues the old ways strongly; community spirit, agriculture for themselves, faith (rest on Sundays!)

I didn’t learn much about the history; the people didn’t seem to want to talk about the past or at least assume “history” is only the past fifty-odd years, where as I’m interested in centuries back.

Macas, 1500m
The road to Macas is a dangerous one, or at least, not straight-forward! It is unfinished, full of pot holes, mud and stones, trees/twigs in the way following lots of rain, and during the time I visited, landslides caused more problems.

When there is a landslide either the road is impassable or vehicles get stuck. In either case, the drivers get out and deal with it, change buses on either side of the landslide or pick up stones and form an adequate pass. Sometimes this is still a problem through, as even though smaller vehicles may get by no problem, the big buses can and do get stuck, so the drivers and passengers get out and “dig it out” of the situation!

Once passed the very high ground, the chances of landslides are less, but the road is still at times a bumpy ride and there are other problems with or without much rain, like waterfalls, which at times cross the roads, so always extra careful driving.

As you head down the air becomes heavier, warmer, more humid passing very green vegetation, jungle-like.

When in Macas it’s a totally different arena to the páramos, a city, surrounded by jungle vegetation, hills of such, and the view of the river from the church and/or radio station is very tropical. The difference between the sierra and the oriente feel very defined.

The city itself is very clean; notices everywhere next to bins saying help keep Macas clean. The weekends are pretty quiet, a lot of places closed. It seems to be a very relaxed kind of town, perhaps because of the heat – lots of sun always comes with a laid back attitude!

Un mes en los Andes es una experiencia relajante y tranquila. He aprendido mucho de la gente de Los Saskines y Atillo. Esa gente hace trabajos duros con poco tiempo para relajar, pero se parece que les gusta trabajar porque muchas veces las chicas se reín tontamente!

Durante el mes allí trabajaba también en una escuela tres días por semana; enseñaba inglés durante una hora y media a trece niños. Los niños pensaba que estaba llena de alegría. Un mes no es mucho para aprender inglés, pero los niños aprendía de todas maneras como se dicen "hello, how are you?"!!

Me alegro de que tuve la oportunidad para llegar a conocer la familia Paña. Son ahora mis amigos preciosos.