Huarasinchi

This weekend I tagged along on a campout designed to give more outdoor experience to a group of Ecuadorian young adults who will run the control points of the Huarasinchi adventure race this November. The idea is to pair them with one other more experienced individual who is bi-lingual (English/Spanish).

From El Refugio we headed over through the town of San Antonio which boasts the Mitad del Mundo monument which nearly every tourist visits and then around the back side of the Pululahua Crater reserve. After passing through a very dusty mining area we parked at the home of an elderly couple and hiked up the hillside. The group I was with for the day received training in LNT (Leave No Trace), cooking with camp stoves, and how to set up a survival shelter made out of a tarp. Meanwhile those who had been through the training already were camped at the top of the hill in the middle of a corn field and several of us joined them after sending the others off to spend the night under their tarps.

The evening was quite enjoyable, spaghetti for supper, great conversation. A fair amount of stars shown through scattered clouds with a bright moon and it wasn’t all that cold. It was the first time I’ve camped in Ecuador that I didn’t have to worry about snow blowing in my tent every time I opened the door and I could put my sunscreen on in the morning without thawing it out first. This was due to the fact that we were camped at 10,000 ft. instead of 15,000 ft. Quite enjoyable actually, breathing is a lot easier.

It was interesting to hear from the participants their various reasons for wanting to be a part of the race support team. For many it is a chance to learn more of the outdoors. One young man specifically mentioned that he was there to experience God’s creation away from the Playstation, something many in Quito never do. Contrasting this was another man in his mid to late twenties who grew up in the country but now teaches at a technical high school. He brought to our attention the tremendous amount of work it takes to plant by hand the corn that surrounded us. While he said he couldn’t escape that fact he wanted to experience the outdoors “from the other side,” to enjoy it. From the responses we have a great team whose members are open to what God wants to show them. Can't wait to see what happens.

~MWL