Ecuador strives to keep the dollar circulating

Within the past month, a lot has been going on here in Ecuador. President Correa has imposed a new tax levy on a large number of imports in order to develop and stir interest in buying local goods, and to vaccinate the country against the effects of the downturned global economy. This move will doubtless affect a major sector of the middle and upper class who build their businesses around selling imported goods in Ecuador.

Ecuador’s “Historic Victory” Gives Explicit Rights to Nature

The exit polls of the September 28th election showed a wide margin of support for approval of the new Ecuadorian constitution, in what President Rafael Correa claimed as an “historic victory”.  There are indeed a handful of interesting chapters of the constitution that not only reform Ecuadorian’s state institutions and personal rights, but also rights for nature to run its course.  There are clauses for State supported programs to deter human exploitation of non-renewable resources, destruction of ecosystems, and giving explicit rights to nature for an “integral restoration”.  It also states that any person can demand to any governmental agency that these rights be upheld, and may be arbitrated in a court of law.

Montañita, Ecuador

We arrived in Montañita on Wednesday just after sunset, the ride was incredible along the coast. the bus drove through little pueblos on the side of the road and everyone was cooking dinner and the smell was great! It was my first sunset over the Pacific Ocean and it was excellent.

We met up with my buddy Jim in town and he set us up with a room in the Hotel where he worked as a cook. This pueblo has a definite Bohemian feel to it, lots of truly earthy people, artisans, musicians, etc. This town is at the foot of where the mountainous country begins and the scenery was great. The hotel had a guitar and I got a good dose of jamming in while I was there. I met an eccentric Rastafarian named David, an artisan from Colombia who was very friendly and explained a lot to be about the Rasta. The town is a surf town but the surf wasn’t up very much while we were there so I didn’t rent a board. Maybe further up the coast we can find more waves. The first night there I didn’t sleep well because of cocks crowing, dogs howling, pigeons landing on the roof, donkeys ´hee-hawing´, hammers and saws pounding away. By the third night we got used to it and it became a refreshing change from the trains planes and automobile horns that i heard constantly at my place in Raleigh.