Back to School on the Beach of Ayampe

Ayampe — built almost entirely of bamboo and straw — rests only eight hours by bus from the capital city of Quito, Ecuador. But it’s a world away in lifestyle.

In this beach town, you wake up with the sun, work and relax and live outdoors. You order a coconut from an old man and watch his eight-year-old grandson chop it open with a machete. You eat ceviche for $3 while hearing the ocean roar. And you spend your afternoons in a hammock, awaiting sunset.

Vamos a la Playa

For our trip, we took an overnight bus from Quito to the town of Puerto Lopez, then the short ride from Puerto Lopez to Ayampe. Following our 5 a.m. arrival, we planted our backpacks in the sand and relaxed into a few hammocks for an early morning nap. Thus signaled the change in pace from city to beach.

We’ve been here for a few weeks, soaking in the sunshine and slurping down the 15-cent ice cream popsicles, which a family makes at home and sells from the kitchen window, serving up sundry flavors like coconut, avocado, mint and blackberry. When we’re not eating (and sometimes while we are), we’re at the beach spending time with locals — like Pefu the dog.

Hi, We’re MUTA

After a month of urban placemaking interventions that required long days of labor, we’d planned to take a break from work. But in the end, we stumbled our way into a truly inspiring project.

We’re lending a hand at La Escuela de Ayampe: an initiative to transform a deteriorating school into a model of public alternative education in Ecuador. Once school’s in session later this month, students will be free to explore the campus and learn by playing in the different spaces. “Homework” as we know it won’t exist; it’ll be up to the students to decide when to complete their weekly tasks. Based on their interests, they’ll also choose from a handful of community-led workshops: carpentry, surf, fishing, to name a few. One of the main goals of the school is to create a regional reference point for alternative education — an effort aided massively by the residents.

We’ve seen this in action every Sunday during mingas: workdays for neighborhood clean up, construction and other communal projects. It’s a beautiful concept — neighbors gathering together around work that needs to get done. It reminds me of something my mom used to say: “Many hands make light work.”

As for our contribution, we’re painting murals, constructing planters and coat racks, designing different play spaces around the school, and collaborating on the final touches. The students arrive later this week.

La Buena Vida

Meanwhile, we’ve relaxed into the pace of our surroundings. It took a few days, to be sure, to quell the alertness of city living. In Quito, I’m cautious, ever aware, particularly in darkened areas. Here, I comfortably sink into the sand at all hours of the day. There are late nights under the full moon, early mornings on the yoga mat, afternoons in the hammock.

I’m here for now with my friends and MUTA colleagues, Mati and Sasha. On the day that we first met with La Escuela de Ayampe’s organizer, we introduced ourselves by telling his three-year-old son about what we like to do. I like to tell stories. Mati likes to build things, Sasha likes to paint walls. As they actively carry out these vocations, I’m learning from both — about design and process, construction, color and light and darkness. The powers of observation and activation.

After several weeks here, Ayampe feels both familiar and strange. We now know its vine enclosed alleyways, yet we’re still discovering houses-turned-restaurants, like the one that sells empanadas for 50 cents each. (Big plus: It’s just down the way from the 15-cent ice cream place.)

As we wind down our work with the school, clearing way for new students and more play, more lessons, I can’t recall a time I’ve so acutely marveled at my surroundings. It’s Easter weekend, and the beach is more filled with visitors than it has been during our entire stay. Just before sundown, the beachgoers congregate around the setting orb; their silhouettes wait in the wings of Ayampe’s show.