Chugchilán and The Black Sheep Inn

                             

Twenty three years ago, I came to know a young American couple a few years into building their dream -- The Black Sheep Inn, aka La Oveja Negra -- one of Ecuador's very first ecolodges.  In the mid 1990s, backpackers Michelle and Andrés stumbled across the tiny Andean village of Chugchilán, fell in love with the breathtaking views and kind people, and purchased land offered to them by the Ecuadorian family who took them in. The next thing they knew, they were creating something novel and amazing.

I met Michelle and Andrés five years into their endeavor, after a fellow Peace Corps volunteer stayed at the Inn and caught wind that, as part of their vision for community engagement and responsible ecotourism, they were looking for someone to do family planning education in town. Birth control and sex education were right up my alley! 

Michelle and Andrés and I made a sweet deal all those years ago: I would come up the Andes every few months to Chugchilán to do sex and family planning education in the schools and the community. In exchange, they would provide me with free lodging, delicious home-cooked vegetarian food, and the best hot showers in Ecuador.

As the crow flies, Chugchilán is just 25 miles from La Josefina, but said crow has to fly straight down the Andes mountains from the high páramo at 3200 meters (10,000 ft), through the dense cloud forest and into the tropical transition zone, at 500 meters (1500 ft). Unfortunately, buses cannot fly, and the old trade routes that connect the regions were (and still are) mostly narrow muddy donkey trails. 

Back in 2000, the 106 kilometer bus journey between Chugchilán and La Josefina was windy, long and bumpy--  six or seven hours on mostly unpaved, unreliable roads -- but the opportunity to work in a new community, particularly an indigenous Quichua one, was too enticing to pass up. It is interesting to note that almost all of the mestizo families who now inhabit La Josefina originated in the mountains in and around Chugchilán. They literally came down the Andes in search of land and opportunity, most in the 1940s and 50s. Today, the two "distant" villages still share a surprising number of surnames. 

I enjoyed my intermittent work in Chugchilán and came to develop relationships with the youth in town, as well as with the young indigenous women who cooked in the Black Sheep Inn kitchen. I also quite enjoyed the occasional dinner company of the gringo backpackers from all over the world, and I very much appreciated Michelle and Andrés' vision and mission.

Paul and I last saw Michelle and Andrés in 2006 during a trip we took to Ecuador with Paul's parents; Paul's dad, John, had also been an early Peace Corps volunteer -- coincidentally in Ecuador --  in the 1960s and had never returned. It was special for us to return to Ecuador with John and Paul's mom, Jackie. What I remember very clearly from that adventure were my in-laws' gleeful smiles and giggles as we bumped long in the (very) uncomfortable chicken bus to get to Chugchilán. 

I have maintained intermittent contact with them in the ensuing years, but on subsequent trips, Michelle and Andrés were either unavailable, or our time was too limited to make the long trek. They now live half the year on a pond in rural Massachusetts and the other half at the beautiful home they built in Chugchilán. For the last ten years, they have leased The Black Sheep Inn to a local Ecuadorian man, Edmundo, who was born and raised in Chugchilán.

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The bus journey between La Josefina and Chugchilán is a bit more tolerable these days; the roads are mostly paved (though there are still detours due to heavy rains and bridge malfunctions), and while Google optimistically estimates 2 hours and 15 minutes by car, our bus travel time was over four hours. In the days leading up to our visit, I became increasingly excited to show the kids a place that was near and dear to my heart, and I scrolled through internet pictures with them beforehand to get them extra excited. 

                         

When we finally did arrive on a cool and sunny Saturday afternoon, we were not disappointed.

One of the Black Sheep Inn's most famous features are their dry composting toilets -- now over 25 years old and still functioning beautifully. Each free-standing composting toilet features a small garden, watered by the sink greywater, a big box of dried pine and eucalyptus wood shavings, and the prettiest picture windows overlooking the Andes mountains. The toilets are lovely; they do not stink. And they are just as comfortable as your bathroom at home without using a drop of water. It is almost worth the long trip just to use the bathroom! 

Dillon immediately discovered the copy of the paperback book, "The Toilet Papers" by Sim Van der Ryn, which is tucked into each stall, a book that goes into great detail about how our western ideals of flushing toilets are irresponsible and unsustainable. The book was originally written in the 1970s and reprinted in the late 2000s. Dillon even folded down a few key corners for me to read on my next trip to the loo.

photo credit: https://blacksheepinn.com/ecological/conservation.php

But there is so much more at the Black Sheep Inn than the composting toilets!

The grounds are lovely. From the bunkhouse to the kitchen, every building at the Black Sheep Inn was carefully and thoughtfully designed -- I believe almost entirely by Andrés with help from local woodworkers. Since our last visit, there are several new buildings: a yoga room, an outdoor gymnasium, even a sauna and hot tub.  

My favorite, by far, is the original common area lodge, a warm and cozy oasis, still emanating the aroma of the eucalyptus with which it was built. Add in tea, hot chocolate, and banana bread on the counter, and books and games that sing to my heart.  This is the place where Paul and I got into one of the biggest arguments of our together lives, over, of all things, a Scrabble game.

Each of the rooms at the Inn has a working woodstove -- definitely needed, brrrrr (or as they say in Kichwa, ay chai chai) --  it gets cold in the Andes at night! Our family's room had both a bunk bed and a beautiful lofted bed above that, which made for plenty of room for the five of us.

On our first morning, we took a gorgeous hike, called "The Skywalk" with Michelle, Andrés, and their rambunctious puppy, Ziggy.  It was breathtaking (and not just because of the altitude)!  Brynna and Ziggy led most of the way. We hiked along a narrow ridge, dramatic cliffs on either side, while skirting potato, corn and chocho fields. Michelle and Andrés aptly dubbed it, "The Grand Canyon of Ecuador." We trekked through volcanic ash, slid down steep slopes on our bottoms, and marveled at the stunning views. 

In the afternoon, Paul, Dillon and Jonah played frisbee golf in the White Robin Course, the "highest elevation frisbee course in the world" on the Black Sheep Inn grounds. The llamas also joined in the fun, twice picking up the boys' discs, and beginning to munch happily on them. The perfect afternoon snack!

The next day, our family hiked part of the rim of Laguna Quilotoa, a beautiful volcanic crater lake said to be the deepest in Ecuador. We ate a quiet picnic lunch at a vista point, Shalala, partway around the crater rim, with a gorgeous glass and wooden viewing structure, which won second place for the 2015 Ecuadorian National Architectural Awards (we are curious about what won first place).

                        

We birdwatched, of course -- plenty of hummingbirds around the Inn, including the Shining Sunbeam and the Great Sapphirewing (we think).  I luxuriated in the hot shower (still, hands down, the best shower in Ecuador), and we feasted on the delicious veggie meals. Brynna highly recommends the quinoa soup, Dillon the shepherd's pie. 

After dinner, we chatted with tourists and played a competitive after dinner game of Set with an American mother and her young  adult son who had never played the game (Dillon crushed us all). We drew and read by the woodstove, and we ate brownies and banana bread. Dillon found a private upstairs patio to sketch and study birds from the Ecuadorian bird bible he found there, and Jonah read from to Brynna by the fire. 

We also had the chance to visit briefly with Clarita, one of the former cooks at the Inn, who now owns her own hostel just down the road. She and I are both 45. She, not surprisingly, is already a grandma. Clarita blushed as she recalled how I demonstrated  years ago how to use a condom using a banana. We laughed about how she never liked the delicious gringo food she learned to cook--  preferring soup with potatoes above all else.

It was so nice to share a couple of happy hour drinks (fixed by Andrés) and warm oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (made by Michelle), catch up with them in their cozy octagonal home about the last 15+ years, swap stories about aging parents, traveling in Ecuador, and hearing about their busy life after retirement. It is not easy to run an eco-lodge high in the Andes, and they are both very happy to be away from the day-to-day busyness of the Inn, but they remain connected and still love the community of Chugchilán, the kind people, and the beautiful landscape. They hope, some day, to sell it to the right buyer. 

Alas, after three short days, we were all a little sad to move on. . . but friends were waiting in Otavalo.