Wandering Nature

How to get an Ecuadorian visa

This is a bit out-dated, from August 2010, but I forgot to post it. Here’s how you would go about getting a visa to stay more than 3 months in Ecuador…not an easy process!!

1. Get visa in Houston, which required several different tasks, like a treasure hunt. Obtain an envelope addressed to an office in Quito. All you have to do when you get there is mail the envelope. Feel relief that it’s over with.
2. According to the passport control official in the airport, you must go first to this location in Quito (an intersection) and then to another one. Why? You don’t know.
3. Forget about it and go see a museum the next morning. While falling asleep, remember suddenly that you can’t, after all, head out of Quito the next day—you must go to this intersection.
4. Reach Address #1 the next day in the early afternoon. Ask the nearest Gringo why you are there, and learn that you must “register” the visa. Ask someone in the visa office how to get in line, and learn that you should return in the morning because no more spots are being given out.
5. Return to the office at 8am, a guess because there were no posted hours. The office opens at 9. At least you are one of the first to get to the window when the office opens.
6. Tell the man at the window that you are here but not sure why. Learn that you did not, after all, have to go to this office at all. Receive another address, across town, and a list of things to bring (copies of passport, etc).
7. Take a taxi to the other office, a trip that costs more than a decent dinner (well, an Ecuadorian dinner, which isn’t that expensive), because it is off the map that you have. Realize that it should have cost you 25 cents because it is on the public transport line.
8. Talk to the helpful gentleman at the front who tells people exactly what they need to turn in, including a certain type of manila envelope.
9. Walk ten blocks each way through the ghetto, alone, to get a receipt for a $10 deposit to the government’s bank account, rather than handing someone the cash.
10. Wait in line. Finally, turn in all your originals and copies and manila envelopes. All you have to do now, you learn, is come back tomorrow to pick up your passport so they can process it overnight. Feel relief that it’s almost over.
11. Return to pick up passport. Receive a reminder to get your censo. What is that, you might ask? Walk to the next office and receive another scavenger hunt list, with two items that you must obtain from the hostel, a 20-minute journey away. Feel let down that you didn’t know this yesterday so you could have come prepared.
12. Make a trip home and back. Walk in feeling triumphant that you’re almost done. Learn that the computers that were working an hour ago are no longer in such a happy state. Nearly cry when told to come back the next day, which would be your fourth extra day in Quito longer than planned. Learn that you can try another office to receive the censo—across town.
13. Take the bus. Ask someone what street you’re on. Feel relief when he offers to walk with you, since he is going near the office. Realize once he leaves you that his route actually added about 8 blocks to your journey.
14. Finally get your censo. Wonder to yourself, “Do I really need four months in this country? If I had just mailed the envelope instead of going to the office, is there any possible way I could have gotten in trouble?”
15. Enjoy some of the most exciting and educational 4.5 months of your life!

Podcast Episode 3 - Modern Harmony with Nature: Sustainability

In this episode: Four short stories about sustainability. Katie Tackman on banana circles, Chris Canaday on urine-diverting dry toilets and solar disinfection of water, and Frederique Cebron on his family’s five-year journey to find people developing techniques for sustainable living.

**CORRECTION: Chris Canaday pointed out that normal amounts of soap are not harmful if dispersed on the soil. Definitely NO BLEACH though.**

You can download or subscribe with iTunes, or with Podomatic. Click above to stream, or use the link below to download (choose “save as” from the drop-down arrow).

The photo shows an ecological dry toilet at Sunseed, much like the model Chris talks about.

Organizations and websites mentioned in this episode:

SIT Study Abroad

Chris Canaday’s site about Ecological Dry Toilets

Ecological Sanitation Research from the Stockholm Institute

Solar Disinfection of Water

Martin Autour du Monde

Theme music: Pacifico (James Beaudreau) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Other music in this episode, in order of appearance:

like a jungle (DJ BrownBum) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Mockingbird Diet (Karl Blau) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Nature’s Cup (Learning Music) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Too Thirsty To Drink Water (Karl Blau) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

ambience: Ecuadorian Amazon

Photos and audio from November 2010, Parque Etnobotánico Omaere, in Puyo, Ecuador.

Audio notes:

All my best bird call recordings were rainy—seems like jungle birds really like to sing in the rain! The second and last clips in the audio are from Princesa, the green parrot featured in a couple of the photos, an Orange-Winged Amazon (Amazona amazonica). She lives in the reception of the park because she cannot fly. I don’t know the other bird calls.

Photo notes:

The first picture is a hornworm caterpillar (Sphingidae), parasitized, probably by a braconid wasp (thank you Jenn!).

The second shows a “walking palm” (Socratea exorrhiza). It can move a few feet horizontally throughout its life by putting out new roots in one direction or another. I learned that this is in order to grow toward the light (for example, I’ve seen a spot where three individuals started growing in the same spot and are moving away from each other), but the internets have just told me that the function of the roots are debatable and not well-understood. Anyway, it is true that people use the spiky roots as scraping tools for yucca and the like.

The third picture shows sangre de drago—click here to read the entry that goes into detail about this plant.

The other parrots besides Princesa are all macaws: blue-and-yellow (Ara ararauna), scarlet (Ara macao), and red-and-green (Ara chloropterus). The scarlet and red-and-green thought they were a couple and decided that the park reception was their territory, and oh my gosh, you do not understand how mean parrots can be! These guys terrorized the reception, and would attack unprovoked! If you ever have doubts that dinosaurs and birds share a common ancestor, spend some time watching angry parrots, and you will doubt no more.

The really gorgeous flower shown near the end is a passionflower (Passiflora). In the first picture you can see a leaf-footed bug (Coreidae), and the second shows a euglossine bee. Male euglossine bees have the wonderful and unique behavior of collecting flowers’ fragrances, probably to attract females, though this has not been proven yet. The one in the picture is a female though; males’ hind legs are swollen to collect the chemicals (thank you Doug!).

monkeys in Ecuador

I think these are white-fronted capuchins (Cebus albifrons), but please correct me if I’m wrong.

This troop lives in the plaza of Misahuallí, a small town near Tena, Ecuador. They are adorable and nefarious. They pick pockets and immediately stole a companion’s camera case (he got it back).

Photos taken Sept 29, 2010. Very unfortunately, I did not have my recorder.

ambience: Atahualpa, Ecuador

I lived for a while in this little tiny mountain town in Ecuador, north of Quito. They have some very odd cemetery topiaries, don’t you think?

The audio features some post-rain nighttime frogs, sounds of the town plaza on a busy Sunday, and the national anthem played at a soccer game.

Pictures and audio from September 2010.