Ride and Switch

1966 Bus-Train passengers taking a lunch break and the view traveling on top

 

 

 

Reading my 1966 description of the train ride from Guayaquil to Quito, I fear the image of the ugly American may come to mind. The reality, which I remember well, presents a different picture. 

We were soon to be (we hoped) official Peace Corps Volunteers. On this train ride our minds were on more than the beautiful scenery passing by the windows. We were experiencing the anticipation and fear of a soon-to-be new period in our lives. Culminating all the difficulties of the recent months and the struggle navigating a different culture speaking another language, within the coming days we were to be "knighted" Volunteers or sent on our way to a future elsewhere. In the context, letting our hair down and enjoying a short-lived jubilant experience on a June day seems excusable.

Ferrocarril Transandino

Ecuador's rail system was started by President Gabriel García Moreno in 1861. It was devised to connect the Pacific coast with the Andean highlands. 

The push into the Andes was made under President Eloy Alfaro who planned to link Quito in the highlands to Guayaquil on the coast of Ecuador. For advice, Alfaro turned to Col. William Findlay Shunk, a well-known North American engineer. 

Modern tourist Crucero Train
on today's railroad

The Guayaquil and Quito railroad line was built between 1897 and 1908. The line reached Quito amidst celebration that lasted for days. Its completion shortened the often lengthy trip from Quito to Guayaquil to two days. Alfaro realized his dream of connecting the two most important parts of Ecuador.

The railway was severely damaged by heavy rainfall in 1997 and 1998 as well as from general neglect. In 2008 the president Rafael Correa named the railroad a "national cultural patrimony" and indicated that it would be restored. The government of Ecuador started to rehabilitate the railway and service was restored between Guayaquil and Quito by 2013.

The Switch

 

Our group trained to work with credit cooperatives in Ecuador. We completed initial training at Camp Crozier in the mountains of Puerto Rico. That training period is described in the first post. It lasted from March 4, 1966 to April 29, 1966. 

 

The final five weeks of training occurred in-country in Ecuador. This second period was split between two localities; (1) our prospective work site in Ecuador and (2) a final 10 days in Quito.  If we succeeded, in Quito we would be officially enrolled as Peace Corps Volunteers. 

 

It was during these last 10 days that I experienced the 'switch'. At some point I learned that I would be serving as a Volunteer working out of Quito, not Guayaquil. 

 

The main reason, although probably not the only one, for this significant change was mentioned in my June 15, 1966 letter home.  Two volunteer trainees who were expected to work in Quito had dropped out of the program and left the country. I was chosen by the Peace Corps Ecuador administrators to partially fill this gap.    

We 22 remaining volunteers were a significant reduction from the 30 candidates that arrived for training at Camp Crozier in March 1966. As I recall, at least one of those who left ended up in Vietnam. A number of the others were able to find a place in postgraduate studies. I contacted some of them about attending our first reunion in 2009, but none responded. 

 

Robert Kennedy was one of my heroes. The letter was dated prior to my official enrollment in the Peace Corps in June 1966. Robert was one of the two US Senators representing New York in the United States Senate. He was the brother of John Kennedy who started the Peace Corps after being elected President of the USA in 1960. In 1968 Robert was assassinated after winning the Presidential Primary in California, almost exactly two years after writing this letter.

 

 

 

Host Family

 

Host family daughters, friends and a PCV.
Note all the women are wearing high heels

When our final selection and area assignment was still uncertain, the Peace Corps put us into temporary quarters. I don't recall the experience of other prospective Volunteers, but another member of our group and myself were placed in the home of well-off local residents. 

 

This host family was my first multi-day experience with an Ecuadorian family. As I mention in the last paragraph of my June 15, 1966 letter home, the stay was a pleasant experience. 

I moved out of these quarters after finding a flat to share with a fellow Volunteer in another Quito neighborhood.