Las Esmeraldas
My class and I went on our second field experience trip this past weekend to the Esmeraldas province of Ecuador. Due to its coastal location, it has that warm, subtropical climate that I originally thought would be all of Ecuador. It’s a beautiful area full of Afro-Ecuadorian culture, and luckily we got to spend 3 days soaking it all in. The purpose of the trip was to explore the deforestation of the mangroves through activities like hunting for shellfish, treading through dense mazes of mangroves, and some interesting chats with the locals. It was all very revealing and I learned about a very different way of life. And I must say, I really enjoyed the shellfish hunt. It was a very long and dirty process that involved shoving my entire arm down many mysterious, muddy holes during the low tide while being surrounded by bugs and mangrove roots. The community of the town we stayed in, Olmedo, were all extremely friendly and I have never seen so many curious kids running around. I swear I heard, “hola!” a thousand times.
Tags: Study Abroad
