Vamos a la Mitad del Mundo

A view from our cabaña

Our first weekend, we had a class retreat in San Miguel de Los Bancos, an absolutely gorgeous area near Mindo. We stayed at an ecolodge called El Encanto that was too beautiful to believe and fed us such amazing fresh food! It’s in the middle of an incredible cloud forest that we hiked through and down to a river with some pools and a waterfall to swim in. The cabañas were absolutely gorgeous—they made all the paint there and built all of the structures in methods native to the area and local materials. We all made friends with Fernando, who was our guide and always around for our activities. It was great to have someone explaining all the plants and problems with deforestation and what they at the hostería are trying to do to help the forest around them.



We also got to hear from another man, a bioenergetic engineer, who gave a really interesting talk at la Mitad del Mundo (yes, the middle of the earth). We talked about our own energetic fields and how there is a reciprocal relationship between these fields, our surroundings, and our well-being…super interesting. We took the classic “look I’m straddling the equator!” pictures and balanced eggs on nails (you can do that on the equator because the only force is gravity…qué chévere).

“Choque cultural” #1: They always insist on helping women do things. I don’t say this because they think I can’t do anything, it was difficult letting go of my own stubbornness and accepting help from Fernando while climbing up into the pools (I’ve definitely earned the nickname “Monkey”). Most of us girls are having some difficulty with adjusting to cultural realities like this here, but that’s all part of the experience.

All in all, it was an incredible weekend. We all bonded a lot and had a really great time, complete with some awesome discussions about the election in the U.S. and the referendum for the new constitution here (I’ll write separately about that closer to the date). I’m here with 28 phenomenals individuals, and it’s going to be sad saying goodbye to 22 of them in December when they leave. We all had a hard time leaving El Encanto because even though we are all in the same building every day, it’s really not going match our cloud forest adventures.

MSID Fall 2008!