The way back - May 2013

Near Lita - Caña guadua house

Near Lita - View from 2nd floor of Caña guadua house

We followed the pickup Pablo was in about 5 minutes further east on the highway to a small dirt driveway into which the pickup turned abruptly. We followed, parked and climbed out of the car. Several baby pigs squealed as they sprinted past us to their pens. We continued down the path to where we were flanked by two large enclosures: a guinea-pig farm and a chicken farm. Pablo asked the staff in the guinea-pig farm to gather two of their older guinea-pigs who were no longer very useful in breeding. 

Near Lita - Caña guadua walls
and ceiling beams

Caña Guadua - "Windows"

Meanwhile we continued over a small bridge and emerged into a clearing. In the center of the clearing was a two-story building. From the stone and cement foundation up, the house was built entirely of caña guadua, a large, wide-tubed plant in the bamboo family. Caña guadua can grow up to 25 meters long and is quite a stout building material, as we now saw before us. Caña guadua pillars hold up a caña guadua floor, serve as walls, and meet ceiling rounds of caña guadua where structural parts of the building are bolted together into a huge caña guadua clot above the second floor walls. Pablo explained that this was a center for rehabilitation -- I can only image that means for people who have served time in prison, as Pablo’s organisation also works to provide education to incarcerated folk -- and therefore everything had been built quickly, easily, and cheaply. Caña guadua satisfies all those criteria, the only lengthy part of building with it being the curing of the wood which takes about 25 days . 

Near Lita - Where the supports meet.

We explored the facility, took some pictures, then headed back to the pickup. As we passed the guinea-pig farm, a staff member came out and handed us a thick plastic mesh bag with two guinea-pig in its bottom. “These are for Ana Lucia,” Pablo said. “And what’s she going to do, keep them as pets,” I asked sarcastically, not sure that she would be happy with what came next for the guinea-pigs. “No, she’ll kill them,” Pablo answered flatly. “Are you sure? Because I’m not so sure she will be able to,” I contested. “You don’t know what Ana Lucia is capable of,” Pablo persisted, “she’ll kill them.” I

Near Lita - River-stone Foundation

pressed. “Why don’t you kill them, Pablo?” He looked away. “I could never kill a guinea-pig,” he answered sheepishly. “But you have no problem eating them?” “Jamie, I know it's not quite all logically correct… but let it be, it’s who I am.” I shrugged, and decided that I should at least know how to kill a guinea-pig so I could explain the method to whoever accepted the task. I asked the staff member who had brought the two guinea-pigs to us. “Well,” she began to explain, “there are two ways.” “What’s the easiest?” I asked. “You hold it by the back of the neck and cut right here,” she said, gesturing across the throat,

Near Lita - Caña Guadua steps

“and hold them up while they bleed out.” “And what’s the other way?” “You smash their nose into a rock and their eyes pop out.” “You have to be precise with that, don’t you?” “Yes, but if you do it correctly they die instantly.” I nodded, satisfied that I could ensure a quick death for the two unfortunate guinea-pigs. Really though I shouldn’t have been worried, as I’ve since learned that almost everyone in Ibarra knows how to kill a guinea-pig.

Our trip wouldn’t have been complete without giving a ride to a family at a small strip of restaurants all the way back to Ibarra, or running into a storm and then a landslide which covered the mountain highway with a layer of football sized rocks. By eight p.m. we had finally arrived back in Ibarra, safe and with no damage to the pickup.