Of Alpacas and Other Matters: A Witnessing Trip to the Desert Below Santa Isabel

After our Friday witnessing trip to the lush green hills above Santa Isabel, it was off to the desert on Sunday.

(This is actually going in the other direction – towards Cuenca. It’s pretty dramatic, though)

I assumed, being desert, that it might be unpleasantly warm, but fortunately it was not. We left Santa Isabel and drove for 30 to 45 minutes then turned off the main road onto a dirt road into the territory we’d been assigned.

All around us were uninviting, barren, dry, corrugated hills, with not a house, a person or an animal in sight. We wondered why anyone would choose to live here – although in Ecuador, many people inherit land, or live where their parents and grandparents have always lived.

Apparently, there are people out here somewhere …

After we had driven further, we could see in the distance signs of life in the form of a village a long way off, and greenery where there were trees and some crops under irrigation. It’s amazing what a difference water can make – it causes the deserts to blossom!

In the distance were signs of civilization …

Amazing what a difference irrigation makes … (These photos were taken looking in the other direction from the village)

After we’d been driving for a while longer, we were surprised and puzzled to see a woman and her two young children walking along the rough dirt road towards us. We couldn’t work out where she had come from, as there were no houses, cars, etc. We assumed she had come from a house or village further on and was walking to the main road, probably to catch a bus. The people out here are pretty tough!

Then, around another corner, was a surprising sight, rather reminiscent of a moon landing.

One of the brothers in our vehicle got out and went over to talk to the man working there. It turned out he was testing to find water.

Sitting down, just to the right of the black tent is our brother, talking to the man working there.

It’s the end of the dry season, and the locals were desperately in need of rain in order to be able to give water to their livestock

More driving, and so far, no signs of habitation; although in the distance in the hills we did see some wild horses. There are no fences in this area, so the horses go where they please.

We drove on, and the village in the distance became closer. But before we got there, we spotted a couple of houses off the main road, so we abandoned the car and went on foot to investigate. We wondered if perhaps that’s where the woman with the small children lived?

Exploring by foot

There was a little house, but just in front of it was a newly concreted playing field, complete with electric lighting and ditches (for drainage? for pipes?). How bizarre! This house was a fair way out of the village, in the middle of nowhere. But in reality, the whole place is in the middle of nowhere!

a lonely playing field

The little house, with playing field to the left

We often go in threes, if there is an odd one out

Back in the car and we drive along a little bit, until we stopped to talk to a man working in his corn field.

Irrigated corn, in an otherwise very dry area

The man came over to the fence to talk to our brother (on the right)

As we drove on, we heard a voice from a loudspeaker, “helado, helado, helado” (“ice cream, ice cream, ice cream”), and around the corner comes an ice-cream van! We thought that was rather amusing – ice cream, in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the desert!! So, naturally, we availed ourselves of the opportunity.

On the front of the van it says “Helados” and “Isabelita”. People here commonly name their trucks, vans, work vehicles.

In our little witnessing group we had a special pioneer family. Well, the mum and dad are special pioneers, and their 12 year old son auxiliary pioneers in the afternoons when he finishes school. (Here, the students go to school either early in the mornings or in the afternoons and finish around 6 or 7 pm.)

Here are the special pioneer mum and her son, eating their icecreams

I worked with the sister, and she was very supportive of my rather inadequate Spanish. She spoke very slowly and along with gestures etc, we got on like a house on fire, and had a few laughs along the way.

… and there goes the helado man, back to civilization …

By this time, we had walked and driven along the road into the little village, stopping at the houses along the way. Unfortunately, we didn’t find many people at home – Sunday is market day in Santa Isabel, and we thought probably a lot of people from the village had gone to market.

The village was an oasis compared to the dry hills all around. It was still dry and dusty, but because there were some trees and tropical plants, etc, it was definitely an improvement.

There’s the village; the photo is a bit blurry, unfortunately

This is part of the village, from the other side. The big blue roof is a covered basketball court!

Village church, with covered basketball court to the left

The village cemetery – rather colourful

At the last house we called at, a lady invited us to sit under her veranda, and we chatted for a while and she accepted some magazines. (Well, I didn’t contribute to the “chatting” as it was all in rather fast Spanish, which was rather beyond me. )

Then it was goodbye to the desert, and back to Santa Isabel.