Can I Call It Land of A Thousand Hills After Rwanda?

On our way to Cañar Province.

Ecuador if a fascinating country; mountainous with a handful interesting sights. It's topography and landscape have reminded me my home country Rwanda.
On the last two weeks of a Neotropical Agroecology class, driving places to place was spectacular. We’ve made several stops just to enjoy the view and took many pictures as we drove around. Armando who was our driver in a very nice red van, can tell the story much better, because he knows how many times he had to clean the windows of his car due to nose and finger prints we were living on it as we were contemplating and taking pictures of landscapes. It was interesting to see how the landscapes change from place to places. Here are some of the most impressive sights that we were able to capture on camera. This is simply a viewing experience. Please enjoy!

Cloud Forest as we were driving to Intag.

Macy Hagler, contemplating the landscape as we were driving to Cañar Province.

Janel and I playing Batman.

Julianne a.k.a The National Geography (NG).

On our way to Ingapirca.

However, as we were driving our excitement were not only hills and landscape or counting dogs which were not on a leash (which is something we have done until to the point of we lost count!); we have also made a couple of stops and pose in quinoa fields.

AgroCOUGology group posing in Quinoa fields on ou way to Cañar Province.

Talking about driving, driving in Ecuador is not for the faint of heart. While the roads we took were well maintained and nice the speed limit was often respected, plenty of drivers ignore some basic rules of the road such as slowing down and forming lines along blind, mountainous hairpin curves lined. When stuck behind a slow-moving truck on such a stretch, it is not uncommon for the car behind you to attempt to pass. As that car speeds up, the driver in the vehicle behind it will often decide to pass both you and the other car. Then a third car will inevitably race ahead. It was interesting!

As reflection on the last two weeks, this Neotropical Agroecology class was a transformational trip; exploring the complex agroecological systems of the cloud forest and altiplano ecosystems of Ecuador and working hand in hand with Cañaris indigenous group farmer association of seed and grain producers was a great experience.

Meeting with Cañaris indigenous group and planting barley and quinoa varieties.

It was also a great experience to learn about land degradation and its recovery. The Cangahua soil, which is soil with cemented subsurface horizon which may extend to a depth of more that 150Cm. This soil is slow permeable to water and it does not permit the penetration of roots.

AgroCOUGology group on Cangahua soil in Illalò.

Stephen Sherwood a co-founder of EkoRural; an organic farmer and food activist based in Ecuador as well as a lecturer and research fellow with the Communication and Innovation Group at Wageningen University, shared with us all the recovering process of this soil and we have also had EkoRural urban/rural interface discussion. And John Danne walked us through agrosilvopastoral farm on Cangahua soil.

Llamas in Illalò at John Danne's farm.

In closing, I'm grateful for good friends the #AgroCOUGology group for their great sense of humor and for making this trip fun and memorable. I feel so privileged to have got this opportunity to learn a diverse set of participatory research methodologies. I'm also thankful to WSU CTLL (Center for Transformational Leadership and Learning), CAHNRS and International Program for offering this opportunity.

AgroCOUGology group on the top of Cuicocha Crater lake in Cotacachi.

By Cedric Habiyaremye