El Tambo is certainly a lovely place to visit. It is clear that the town has expanded rapidly due to the impact of remittances from abroad, and as the Pan American highway runs straight through the town, it is not exactly the quietest of places to stay; but the setting is beautiful, surrounded by mountains and the Sangay National Park, not to mention the tourist attractions of Ingapirca and the lesser known Baños de las Incas.

It was great to stay with such a lovely family; you couldn´t ask to be made more welcome. Isaura and Jose were keen to help us understand more about local Cañari culture and to talk to us about their traditional customs, costume and fiestas; they even performed some Andean music for us. With Isaura studying tourism in Cuenca, she is happy to talk about her culture, the impact of tourism on the area and the history of the landscape. For anyone wanting to discover more about Cañari and Inca culture, El Tambo certainly provides a wealth of information from the tourism students and local guides such as Rosa.

In terms of the work available to volunteers in El Tambo, there is not much to offer in terms of working with a particular sector of the community on any type of organized project; the town is far too big to support such a venture. However, Isaura and Jose are able to offer an excellent insight into everyday life. We helped out with their animals – milking cows, shearing a sheep with a pair of household scissors, feeding pigs and guinea pigs; we spent time stripping maize and carrying out daily chores such as carrying milk to the cheese factory in the town. We also managed to offer our services to the community by collecting litter from Baños de las Incas and whilst walking in the National Park. However it is difficult to see how this will make much difference in the long-term; for as long as the bins are left without lids and are emptied infrequently, there is little hope that the clean site we left behind will last for very long at all, particularly as the ruins act as a meeting place for local fiestas.

I am very glad to have gone to El Tambo and to have enjoyed so many new experiences, even if it wasn´t quite what I had envisaged before I arrived. For developing an understanding of a different cultural and spiritual way of life it is undoubtedly an ideal place to visit, and Isaura, Jose and Freddie could not be happier to welcome volunteers into their lives. Perhaps the most rewarding way we found to fill our time was by teaching English to Rosa in the evenings; this is undoubtedly a skill that she is desperately eager to practice and nurture, and I know she would be grateful to any future volunteers who could spend some time teaching her phrases she can use to further her work as a local guide of Cañari-Inca sites.

Lucy Sparks - August 2006