Ecuador is incredibly beautiful. We spent a night at 9000 feet at the Reserva de la Vida Silvestre Pasochoa, in an extinct volcano valley. It is one of the last stands of humid Andean Forests in Ecuador. There are over 100 varieties of birds, and with a great illustrated book, we were able to see several of them, Mirlo Grande, bright yellow Flycathers, Reinita, Crestinegra, Mirlo Grande, Candelita Anteojos, and the pale legged Hornero. There are 150 varieties of hummingbirds in the Americas (they aren´t in other continents) and 125 of them are in Ecuador. Judy Lumb who is travelling with me in Ecuador, published a book on the birds of Belize and has really enjoyed all the birds we are seeing. The picture of the man is Luis, whose grandfather started the Reserve. Although the government gave them protected status, Luis and his dad run it on the park entrance fees.

We couldn´t walk to Santo Domingo because (more…)

There are periods in our lives that seem more real than others, either becuase of trauma or big lessons or great emotions of some kind. I was 21 when I went to Colombia with a round trip ticket and $100 to my name. Two of my friends from International House at UC Berkeley said I could stay with their families, and I did end up living with the Lopez Rico family, a very liberal family. Nixon was president, and they would blame me for what he was doing. I was so frustrated to not be able to say I didn´t agree with all that he was doing, that I actually was fluent in about 3 months. I haven´t seen them for 25 years, and so it was wonderful to see Carlos and wife Margaret, Paco, Clara and Elizabeth Lopez.

They are from a slice of my life that was very important in my developing a different kind of world view-especially that (more…)

Well, the best laid plans…

We were going to ship the car from Panama to Ecuador, but it wasn’t feasible. It was going to go to four countries or there might be direct service starting sometime in the next three months. Not wanting to try to find my car in four different countries, the board agreed that we should ship to Cartagena, Colombia. I won’t be walking in Colombia because of security reasons, but will drive across it.
It was pretty hairy dealing with the port in Colon. I was the only woman out of about 40 people. After 3 hours, I finally told them I had (more…)

Panama City is called the Dubai of Central America, and with good reason. There are only 450,000 inhabitants, but there are several dozen sky scrapers here. There are also terrible slum areas, where it is not advised to walk. In fact, it is not advised to walk anywhere in the port town of Colon on the Carribean. Many people who live there worked for the canal, and their families get by on retirement checks they got from the Canal Authority, but there are no more jobs. There are mansions behind gated communities of Arabs and Chinese in shipping, who break larger shipments down at the canal to send to northern South America. It is such a stark contrast between wealthy and poor.

There was a presidential election here, and Martinelli won. He owns a chain of supermarkets. Someone leaked he had suffered from depression, and his response was to say we are all a little bit crazy. So there were bumper stickers saying “somos locos”. Very folkloric.

Panama has lush vegetation almost everywhere but in the Azuero Penninsula, which is dry tropical forest. We stayed at the Canopy Towers hotel, which is the old radar station for the canal. The dining room is on the third floor, at about the top of the tree level, and we could sit and watch (more…)

Quedamos en un hotel ecologicol cerca el canal de Panama. El numero de pajaros era increible! Esto es una lista de los pajaros y animales que vimos.

We stayed at an ecolodge near Gamboa, Panama. The number of birds we saw was incredible! Here is a list of the birds and animals we saw.

Birds of Canopy Towers Panama April 10, 2009 near Panama

Tropical Kingbird Tirano Tropical
Mangrove Swallow Golondrina Manglatera
Yellow bellied Seedeater Semillero de vientre Amarillo
Black bellied Whistling Duck Pato silvador aliblanco
House Wren Soterey Casero
Rufescent Tiger Heron Garza Tigre rufa
Bluegrey Tanager Tangara Azulejo
White Egret Garza Blanca
Smooth billed Annie Garapatero Picolizo
Green Heron Garza Verde
Rusty Margined Flycatcher Mosquero Alicastano
Social Flycatcher Mosquero Social
Thick Billed Seedfinch Pico Grueso ?
Yellow Crowned Euphonia Eufonia corona Amarilla
Orange Chinned Parakeet Periquito Alirufo
Variable Seedeater Semillero Variable
Gray Headed Chacalaca Chachalaca de Cabeza Gris
Masked Tytira Tytira Enmascarada
Ruddy Breasted Seedeater Semillero de pecho Rufo
Black Striped Sparrow Gorillon listado
Common Toady Flycatcher Espatulita comun
Wattled Jacana Jacana ?
Greater Annie Garapatero Mayor
Barred Antshrike Tucans
Copibaris

Costa Rica is one of the most advanced countries in environmental
terms. 95% of their electricity comes from renewable sources, 70% from
water and the rest from geothermal and wind. This year the dry season
wasn’t so bad, so it may be 100%. There are five countries in the
world which have a goal of carbon neutrality, and Costa Rica is the
only one outside of Europe or Asia. One quarter of the country is
parks or protected areas. They have doubled forests in some of the
areas, and have an office of Peace with Nature in the Presidential
offices.

In San Jose we went to a speech by Presidente Tamare Vazquez Rosas of
Uruguay, whom I talked to briefly about the walk. He said they would
be happy to see me in Uruguay. I talked to the Quaker meeting here,
which included Gabriela Urbina, artist and singer who took me to her
exhibit at the national museum. Francisco Cordero took me to talk
with various national legislators and I attended the inauguration of
the Legislative office on Women’s Rights. I also talked with (more…)

12/03/2009 | Notimex.-Mexico

Starting next Monday in
the historic center of the city a new mode of transport will be circulating, replace
traditional bicitaxis for a month of testing.The
ciclotaxi uses an electric motor with pedal assistance which are
powered by four batteries and a hybrid drive system.

The units will be operated by bicitaxi drivers who will be
trained (more…)

We got into Costa Rica without too much trouble at the border. This
last week there haven’t been any classes because of Easter break, but
we have been to some beautiful places. We camped at Palo Verde
National Park, where we saw Pavones, large birds of the turkey family
that are black with crests. We also saw Coatis, howler monkeys, deer,
egrits, caracaras, and several other birds. It is a dry tropical
forest, which is very different than others we have seen.

We are now in Monte Verde, where there is a community of Quakers that
came in the 50’s after the men were jailed for refusing to sign up for
the draft. They have dairy farms, a school, a cheese factory, a
library, etc. One of the early Quakers, Wilford Guindon, helped to
start the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. We saw a fox, coati’s,
howler monkeys, capuchin monkeys, Quetzal birds, purple (more…)

Well, Nicaragua has been interesting. The north is dry tropical
forest, and the south has tropical forest that gets lots of rain half
of the year. Managua is an interesting city. There was a terrible
earthquake in the 70’s, and there are several blocks in the downtown
area that are vacant–nothing has been rebuilt. It seems odd to have a
major city with several miles of houses, and very little in terms of
high rise buildings. In fact, most of the houses in Managua are only
one story high, and several are of tin siding or rough cut lumber.

We also stayed in Ciudad Sandino. It is on what used to be a farm
owned by the dictator Samosa. Originally it was populated by refugees
from the civil war. Then by refugees from hurricane Mitch. there are
several thousand people, 80% of whom are unemployed or under employed.
We stayed at Jubilee House, which has a clinic, an organic cotton
cooperative and gin, organic coffee, and microfinancing for small
farmers. They pay 5% interest, and haven’t failed to pay even when the
hurricane wiped out several of their members.

Walking across Managua, we were told by one man and then a police man
that the neighborhood around the public university was unsafe to walk,
so (more…)

more pics in the photo gallery

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Caminata por la Tierra copatrocinó una conferencia de 4 días llamado Foro de tecnología apropiada para la Buena Vida en Oaxaca con la Universidad de la Tierra marzo 19-22. Fue el primer foro de este tipo, y las registraciones eran pocos. Jueves esperábamos tener 40 personas para las visitas a los lugares haciendo buen trabajo, pero se presentaron 140! En la conferencia el jueves, hablé acerca de las medidas que debemos tomar para un futuro sostenible, cómo nuestra tierra es un regalo única, y por qué creo que Oaxaca está más avanzado que en cualquier lugar en Mexico o en los EE.UU.. El discurso que di se publicarán próximamente.

El sábado y el domingo había mas de 3000 personas en la feria. Tuvimos un camión de biodiesel, 2 colectores solares parabólicos, una estufa de alta eficiencia de combustión de madera, sistemas para capturar lluvias, alimentos orgánicos, muebles de material reciclado, y una casa fue construida de tierra apisonada. Habian bicimotores para licuadores, computadores y bombas de agua. Los excusadores eran sanitarios secos que separan la orina de los excrementos, para utilizar como abono y compost, eliminando la necesidad de sistemas de tratamiento de agua. Los productos para la venta a precios eran razonablemente para Mexico. Los talleres incluyeron la medicina alternativa, Tai Chi, acciones legislativo y judicial para prohibir la entrada del maíz genét icamente modificado a Mexico, la acción comunitaria y el activismo, y yo hice un curso práctico sobre ejercicios de Joanna Macy de su libro, ¨Volviendo a la Vida, incluido el Consejo de todos los seres .

Eduardo Torres, director del CAMPO que construyó la casa, dijo que habló con su hija acerca de mí alegando Oaxaca es el líder en términos de vivir en armonía con la tierra, y él estaba empezando a pensar que es cierto. Dr. Gustavo Estave, fundador de la Universidad de la Tierra, y yo estamos muy contentos con tanto cómo pasó. Le sugirí que lo hiciera de nuevo en 2 años, y él dijo cada 6 meses. ¡Mejor! Es obvio que los Oaxaqueños estan muy interesados en el medio ambiente y como vivir para conservarlo.

——-ENGLISH—-
Walk With Earth cosponsored a 4 day conference called Appropriate Technology for Good Living in Oaxaca with Universidad de la Tierra March 19-22. It was the first of its kind, and we had a slow start on registration. Thursday we hoped for 40 people for site visits to places doing good work, but 140 showed up! We had several hundred come to speeches in the evenings. I spoke about what steps we need to take for a sustainable future, how unique our earth is, and why I think Oaxaca is more advanced than anywhere in Mexico or the US. The speech I gave will be posted next.

On Saturday and Sunday we had more than 3000 people at the street f air. We had a biodiesel truck, 2 parabolic solar collectors, highly efficient wood burning stoves, rain cachement systems, organic food, furniture from recycled material, and a rammed earth house was built. There were electric generators run by bicycle for liquifiers, TV´s and water pumps. The porta potties were ¨dry toilets¨ which separate urine from excrement, to use as fertilizer and compost, eliminating the need for water treatment systems. The items for sale were priced reasonably for Mexico.

The workshops included alternative medicine, Tai Chi, legislative and judicial action to ban genetically modified corn, community actions and activism, and I did a workshop on Joanna Macy´s exercises from her book, ¨Reconnecting to Life¨ including the Council of All Beings.

Eduardo Torres, director of CAMPO that built the house, said he talked with his daughter about me claiming Oaxaca is the leader in terms of living in harmony with the earth, and he was beginning to think it was true. Dr. Gustavo Estave, founder of the Universidad de la Tierra, and I are both pretty content with how it went. I suggested he do it again in 2 years, and he said every 6 months! More power to him. It´s obvious the Oaxaqueños are interested in the environment, and how to live so that it can be preserved.

Rolene