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Nothing like two hours sleep, a plane ride and three hours on a bad dirt road to start the day! I'm making it sound worse than it is...it was a beautiful drive!

 Our plane arrived in Cuenca at 7:30 a.m. and we were soon on the road to Saraguro with our guide Marcella and driver Gustavo. It's a two to three hour drive to Saraguro, the district where we would meet Don Alberto Taxo in his small village of Membrilla. The more I see of the countryside in Ecuador the more I am struck by its beauty and diversity. The landscape and vegetation change so quickly as you climb higher in the mountains where the land becomes dry and the population sparse. After climbing to 13,000 feet we began to descend toward the town of Saraguro, and made our way along the very bumpy, winding road to Membrilla.



Membrilla is a small village of around one hundred families set on the slopes of high mountains of Saraguro. As we drove through the village we passed people working in the fields, sitting on front steps listening to music and women washing clothes by the roadside. The indigenous Quicha people of this area all wear black, mourning the death of Atahualpa, the Incan king who was killed by Francisco Pizarro five hundred years ago. The women wear long skirts and the men short pants cut off below the knee. It was quiet and peaceful here and the pace felt even slower than in Agua Longo, the village of Maria Juana. We pulled up in front of a simple house with a young boy covered in mud rinsing himself with a bucket of water in the front garden. 



Our guide went in to announce our arrival and returned to tell us that Don Alberto was out with his young daughter but would be back soon. We were invited in and offered some jugo de naranjilla (juice of a local fruit) and directed to a couple of small rooms where we could rest. An hour or so later, refreshed from our journey, we emerged to find Don Alberto Taxo and his young daughter walking down the steps towards us. Don Alberto is a striking figure, handsome with long hair and a white beard and a look of deep peace and contentment on his face. He welcomed us to his home and invited us to come and have some lunch that his wife had prepared for us. Don Alberto and his family are vegetarian, which is very rare here, and they grow the majority of the food they eat themselves. His wife had prepared a delicious lunch of traditional soup, potatoes, cheese, corn and bread, all of which were delicious. As we ate we talked to Don Alberto about the project and why we had come to interview him. Don listened intently occasionally nodding and asking a question or clarification. He said he found our project very interesting and that he was very happy to participate and share with us, and we found a nice spot in the field next to his house and set up for the interview.

Don Alberto has five children of his own, and many other adopted, who by this time were all checking out the cameras and running around making mischief. After a while they settled down and gathered around Denise, Marcella (our guide and translator) and me to watch their father. Don Alberto began by explaining to us his role as a shaman was to be of service to those in need and carry on the traditions and wisdom of his ancestors. He said that now his ancestors were asking him to help fulfill a five hundred year old prophecy of the eagle and the condor. Don Alberto explained that the Eagle is the symbol for North America and the technological powers and skills it has mastered and that the condor is the symbol of South America and the understanding and respect it has for Pachamama (mother earth). At this time in the history of humanity the eagle and the condor must unite and share the knowledge that each society and culture has in order for the world to survive. He stressed repeatedly that neither culture is superior to the other -- the relationship is one of mutual need. Don Alberto also stressed that as a result of the way the earth was being treated, Pachamama was angry and was going to react until humanity understands that they cannot continue to treat her as something separate. When I asked what was this reaction was going to be, Don Alberto said that the reaction has already begun, with the many natural disasters that the planet has experienced in the last few years. He warned that these disasters were just a taste of what was to come. He went on to say that humanity has been chasing the wrong dream for so long that it has forgotten why it is here, and that major changes were needed force it to wake up from the dream of consumerism and greed. When I inquired further about what these changes would be Don Alberto responded by saying that the centers of power would be destroyed so that a new set of systems could emerge that were no longer dominated by the greed that has contaminated the planet. With all his children running around the field and his two-year-old daughter in his arms (she had climbed into his lap half way through the interview) I asked him what his hopes and fears were for his children during this time of transition. With a smile he responded how grateful he was that his children would be able to witness such a great transformation and perhaps live in a different kind of world that had a new dream, a dream of oneness.



After the interview, Don Alberto walked with us around his home in the fields and up the winding roads through the village. We were walking and talking and filming him as he stopped to say hello to neighbors in this quiet mountain town. As we approached the village school we heard people shouting at us, 'Invaders, invaders!' and looking into the schoolyard, we saw a group of men (Don Alberto later told us they were the school teachers) drinking beer and shouting at us to stop filming. The schoolyard was next to the village center and it wasn't long before a crowd had gathered around us (Don Alberto, Denise, Marcella, and myself) telling us to go away and stop stealing their culture. Initially Marcella responded to the group of men gathered around us explaining that we were here with Don Alberto and we were not stealing their culture and were not filming anyone beside him. They did not believe this and before long things started to get out of hand, at which point Don Alberto stepped in and explained to the village men why we were here and that we were his guests here to film him and not anyone else in the village. The village men were furious that he had not consulted the community leaders about bringing outsiders into their community, saying that all outsiders bring is trouble, they take and take and take and then they come back and offer aid and assistance, but only on their terms. For five hundred years we have suffered at the hands of the white man and his ways, they said, why should we trust these people, they will only steal and harm us like everyone before them. Don Alberto listened to the men, responding to each of their concerns and issues in turn, for forty minutes. I think it was important for us to witness how much resentment and anger is still present among the indigenous people of Ecuador (and elsewhere around the world) for the way they have been treated these past five centuries. I can understand why these wounds are so deep and raw. They had no reason to believe we would be any different from the other foreign people and 'projects' that had come before us.

Don Alberto was obviously saddened by this exchange and as we walked back he said, 'The wounds are so deep. It is so hard for them to let go and move on, but we have to move on or else nothing will change.' 

We spent the next few hours with Don Alberto and his family as they shared food, stories, music and good company with us.

It was after 8 p.m. when we left for drive back to Cuenca. It was a long and bumpy ride back and we were happy to see our beds when we arrived.





 We had to be up early in the morning to film a mass at the main cathedral in Cuenca and an interview with the former Archbishop Alberto Luna

, a much beloved church figure who became controversial among the Catholic community for advocating rights for the poor.