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.

Cuenca to Bahia Ecuador

Fellow expat Gary Scott has an intriguing article about investing in the excellent beach area known as Bahia, just north of huge port town of Manta.

Unfortunately, AFAIK right now Bahia is pretty much the farthest beach area to reach in Ecuador from Cuenca. It should be soon remedied when neighboring Manta gets improved airport connections…. but untill then, it takes two flights from Cuenca to Manta and the peak travel time (aka weekend flights) cannot really be considered “connecting” flights in that you have to stay overnight in Guayaquil or Quito. A drive to Bahia by private car is about 7-10 hours depending on roads and traffic, add a few hours if going by bus. For fellow North Carolinians, its analogous to driving to The Outer Banks from Asheville along HWY 64 in 1960.

That being said, Bahia ROCKS! Its clean, calm and picture perfect. Its the first coastal city that is more or less “environmentally aware” with hosts of sustainable horticulture, agriculture, and other ecolodge / projects going on in that region. Across the bay in neighboring and burgeoning Canoa, the surf and sun is right for a tranquil getaway that’s hip with the backpackers and surfer crowd. Its much more downtempo than Montañita to the south.

I hope the purported growth of Manta doesn’t pollute the environment in the Bahia de Caraquez …. but its almost inevitable.

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.