A burning mountain and its helpers.

I'm very tired. I just came back from driving around "comuneros", the indigenous that live in the communities around Mt. Cotacachi. The national reservation "Cotacachi-Cayapas" has caught fire, and over 500 of the communities around are helping.

It started out on Monday. This picture is from walking to my Tang Soo Do class. It's already a lot of smoke, but the true extend was visible in the evening.

And it just got worse from there. On Tuesday, the alert was out, and local organizations started organizing quickly. As did I, rounding up some donations to convert them into high energy food and hydrating beverages to send up there. But even though many did the same, the fire started spreading. Too much wind, too dry.

This was 6am on Tuesday. The line of fire is still visible, even though it's already bright outside.

In this one, you can see the clouds on the right fading into smoke on the left. The fire is visible right next to the palm tree, on the right.

Here's one zoomed on the fire. It has not only eaten its way down the hill, but you can see the reflection of the flames on the other side of the ridge, too.

Can't really enjoy the sunset when the ecological reserve, where most of our high quality tab water comes from, is under such a threat.

Same evening, different angle.

This one was at 3am. It kept eating. People started gathering at 4am, and the first trucks went soon after that, full of people and supplies. I went to the next town to buy some tools that the fire fighters requested, simple hacking tools to remove organic matter and dig trenches quickly. All based on donations. It's great to see how the community comes together.

Later in the day, I was asked if I could help driving people back. The picture above is on the way to Cuicocha, all smoke and haze around Mama Cotacachi, as the mountain is called. What was meant to be some back-and-forth, turned out to be some adventurous round-trip. First to Cuicocha. Then to the community San Pedro. There I was asked if I could "quickly" take some food and supplies to a gathering point above El Cercado. I only have a 4x2, I said. No problem, it doesn't need a 4x4. Well, it did need one, and it wasn't quick at all. A hell of a ride, they had to push the truck once, and we barely made it.

The comuneros are some tough beasts. Up at 4am, working all day, and still cracking jokes on their way back at 6pm. They're the ones that really care, who throw everything into saving what is sacred for them. But when they rebel, it's tear gas and sharp bullets. "Where are the helicopters now?" they ask. "Why can they drop tear gas, but not water?" (Mainly because of the winds and because they're not designed to fight fire, only humans.)

The views are beautiful up there. Sad and beautiful.

Mt. Imbabura started burning, too, you can see it in the middle on the right edge, just below the cloud. There's another fire on a hill close to Otavalo, around the middle of the picture. It's that time of the year.

To illustrate the toughness - If you zoom into the picture above, next to the tree above the right side of the cabin of the truck in the front, you can see two light dots. That's the community of El Cercado coming down from where they battling the fire. They organized on their own. Walked 2h to the fire. Fought the fire for 10h. Walked 2h back. With only hope that it would make a difference.

It got very dark on my way back, and the roads were crap. This one is actually one of the nicer ones. I'm glad that my car made it through. It looks like crap now, and Danny just had it cleaned. Well, that's what it is. I can clean it again.

When the fire is over.

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All pictures are taken by myself with a Motorola Edge 60 Pro and I reserve the copyright - but you're welcome to ask if you'd like to use one of the pics!