Thursday (6/14) through Saturday (6/16)

Chimborazo as seen from San Gerardo

Thursday (6/14/2012) we travelled to a pueblo San Gerardo and visited their school.  There we were received with open arms.  I asked Dr. Magdalena Herdoíza how she originally found San Gerardo and of course there is a story behind it, but the short story is that she found it through her contacts at UNESCO some 8 or 9 years ago.  San Gerardo is located in the foothills of the inactive volcano Chimborazo.


The people of San Gerardo welcomed our group with open arms.  We started with a ceremony which included speeches of gratitude for our visit and various performances from the children at the school.  They fed us a snack for dinner that was more like a meal for dinner on Thursday night, and the gave us handmade gives.  I received a scarf and earrings para me esposa (for my wife).


Friday we returned early in the morning to San Gerardo to work for a short while with the children in their classrooms, and then we conducted three different seminars for the teachers of the school and adults of the pueblo; the teaching seminar was conducted by Dr. Magdalena, health by the nursing student team, and computing by the computing student teams (San Gerardo has a computer lab with computers donated by IU Southeast).

In Riobamba (map) we stayed at the Hotel Montecarlo and on Saturday, we were up and ready to leave at 8:45 for a day at Baños de Santa Agua.  Baños is an hour or two away from Riobamba because both are in the Andes and there isn't a straight road to Baños.  Baños is on the Pastaza River which flows to the Amazon region.  This the first time that the Summer in Ecuador class has visited Baños and this was because of the insistence of four of the teachers of San Gerardo, they were our guide for the day and paid for many of the attractions.

Joe in front of el Pailon del Diablo

There we visited the el Pailon del Diablo where there is a waterfall and it is said you can see the face of the devil in a rock formation.  We climbed a trail to near the top of the waterfall where you can get under/behind the waterfall and get really refreshed by the splashing of the water as it falls to the bottom.  We also visited a thermal bath/spa which are heated by bubbles coming up from the volcano below us.