passing by

How often I’ve closed my eyes wishing, imagining, willing for the stars to start dancing… It was a Milky Way layered night on the Pyrenees when it finally happened. Casparo was playing the guitar while some of the people in the group chatted, played or meditated. It took me by surprise when I saw that shooting star. I thought I had seen many before but I had been wrong. Perhaps this time I had the right wish to ask.  While some stars moved elliptically, Casparo began telling us the story of this land… Once upon a time there was a war between the anarchists and the fascists in Spain, they fought across the ridge from where we were staying. A family in this area took an anarchist in their home and hid him from the fascists. Their 6 year old daughter brought him food everyday. On an unfortunate day when the fascists came looking for the fugitive, while shooting him, they also shot the little girl. The anarchist didn't make it, the little girl survived; however, the wound left her

The mud held me back and the rubber boots felt awkward but necessary. We were walking behind the city of Baños, a small town that I have visited since I was a child. Whole Saturday afternoons would be spent next to the jukebox-perhaps the reason why I can sing along to old cumbias and lambadas that my mother loves- while my little sister and I would splash each other with the water in the bathtub we kept in the garden and pretended was our pool. Baños from Illuchi-Los Sauces I had been to Baños so often that I had stopped questioning what activities were available; the trek to Illuchi-Los Sauces was the first eye-opener. My students were eager to show me each plant and its properties, reed and putzos, llantén and tree tomatoes. Initially, we strolled by San Francisco bridge, a beautiful viewpoint for the Pastaza river and the cliff that separates the town from its surroundings. As we were walking uphill, we encountered a little lodge named ´Las Granadillas´ after an endemic