JUNE 15 - JULY 2, 2020
shoot us a note at:
[email protected] with any questions or to join our mailing list. Scroll to the bottom of this page to apply.
An adventure filled with music, wonder, culture and colors...
Imagine a journey that weaves together song and expedition as powerful ways of connecting to culture, community and place. Over the course of eighteen days, we will explore the musical and natural landscapes of the Ecuadorian Andes by studying songs with local and indigenous teachers, and ‘bikepacking’; traveling by bike with all of our necessities strapped to the frame. The program structure will consist of one week of rehearsal and expedition preparation, followed by a 6 day bike expedition and 5 days of summer solstice celebrations and musical performances.
Although this journey will be a grand adventure, it is open to all skill levels, in regards to both singing and biking. If you're nervous about either the biking or the singing, neither will be too taxing and we'll provide lots of support with an incredible group of leaders and guides.
Our journey will take us from Palugo Farm, a small, family run permaculture farm and home to the adventure school, Nahual Expediciones, based in Pifo, Ecuador. In our time at base camp, we will study music with local teachers while learning skills for our bike journey into the mountains.
“Nahual’s main objective is to offer children, adolescents, and adults a space to experience and learn through permaculture, adventure sports, and wilderness living. It is our hope that they may take us by the hand and help us, and themselves, expand our potential as human beings. We offer programs in a space where the relationship between the participants and the environment becomes coherent enough that one can clearly experience and understand the fundamental importance of sustainability.”
Through sharing song and the challenges of expedition life, we will find the rhythms of community-living and nourish a connection to the landscape and people of Ecuador.
Participants will fly into Quito, the beautiful, rambling capital city, and be picked up for the short drive to Finca Palugo. The farm sits on a hill, the lava tongue below the once-active volcano of Pishanga, and is home to four families of teachers, adventurers, climbers and their children, who work, live, and play at Palugo. We will be staying in small cabins or platform tents, cooking our own meals in the outdoor kitchen, and participating in all aspects of farm life - growing, tending, harvesting, etc. We will rise early to begin our days with yoga or a brisk walk on the loop trail around the farm before heading to chores. Daily sessions will be divided into expedition prep time in the bodega, with tasks like organizing and repairing gear, dehydrating food or learning map and compass navigation, and rehearsal in the chozón, where we will be learning traditional Ecuadorian celebration, work, and ritual songs, both in Spanish and the Kichwa language, along with music from other parts of the world. There will also be a workshop in simple instrument building.
After a rehearsal week in Pifo, we will saddle up our bikes and head out for the second leg of our journey; a bike tour through Ecuador that will include camping, performing in churches, caves and homes, participating in home-stays, visiting the Mercado Otavalo, the largest craft market in all of South America, and marveling at the rich and varied natural landscapes across the country.
Our bike expedition will culminate in the celebrations of Inti Raymi, or the summer solstice, in the indigenous community of San Clemente. We will actively participate in the celebrations, with songs and dances learned during our rehearsal week. La Comunidad de San Clemente is a small, warm-hearted community high in the mountains of Ecuador, at the base of the mountain Taita Imbabura, above the city of Ibarra. The community upholds traditions such as mingas, or communal work parties where many hands make light work. Embroidery is also a major part of village life, where impressive garments are created and used in traditional dress. The community continues to thrive in a farm based economy, and has expanded to be innovators as eco-tourism leaders within Ecuador. They welcome guests into their homes from all over the world to impart their extensive knowledge and embrace them with kindness and hospitality. Music is a large part of these mountain cultures, contributing to lively festivals that celebrate the seasons, harvests, and important holidays.
Upon return to Finca Palugo, we will unpack and clean up from the expedition, leaving time to soak in the hot springs of Papallacta to celebrate our achievements. The program ends with a concert and fiesta at the farm as we prepare to say goodbye to Ecuador the next morning.
This program requires participants to be in good physical shape and able to endure expedition life. We will face varying weather conditions, moderately difficult terrain, back-country camping, and long days of physical activity. Participants need to be able to carry all their own gear on expedition and be open to challenge and discomfort. That being said, this program is open to participants of all levels, in regards to both biking and singing, as long as folks are open to adventure, and soul-stirring new experiences. Our guides and music teachers are seasoned and comfortable working with all skill levels. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us with any questions, comments or concerns.
We hope you join us to cycle and sing life into this rich new program.
**Note: In order to create a team for this first expedition that balances both voice parts and physical abilities, this program will not be first come, first serve. We will review applications and then send out invitations to join the program by March 1st, 2020. At that time we will bill for tuition.
Photos: Mathias Dammer and Michael Dammer
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Palugo Farm is just 40 minutes from Quito, the capital city of Ecuador, though truly is a world away - an oasis. It is an outdoor adventure and sustainability school and the first certified organic dairy farm and CSA in Ecuador. Here the residents and visitors are dedicated to living in a sustainable manner and manifest this through organic farming, ecological building and permaculture. Palugo or Casantopamba de Palugo, is an integral community with distinct activities working together to complement and nourish one with the other. They believe that it is essential to live an inter-connected existence with everything around them.
Guests will stay in a combination of rustic dorm-style cabins, or wall tents with shared composting toilets and solar showers. There is a communal kitchen and classroom area, as well as a performance space and library. There are endless trails to explore and innumerable views to find.
While on expedition, participants will be camping in various locations or staying with homestay families in small communities.
INSTRUCTORS:
TUPACK GUATEMAL was born in San Clemente, the indigenous community of the town Kichwa Karanki, and grew up in the foothills of the volcano Imbabura in the Ecuadorian Andes. He knows the landscape like the back of his hand. Tupack and his family are part of a community tourism project that began more than 17 years ago in San Clemente. He has worked for Nahual Expediciones for more than 8 years. He is a teacher, guide and assistant in various programs with different school programs through Nahual. Tupack is an ambassador of Ecuadorian culture, and a musician, author, and composer of Kichwa music. Through music, he seeks to keep the Kichwa language, rhythms and cultures alive. Tupack sees art as a fundamental space to achieve great and beautiful things.
SOPHYA RAMÍREZ is a Colombian singer/songwriter living in Ecuador, a place where she has collaborated with a diverse set of musicians with whom she has been able to experiment in the creation of unique musical compositions. These collaborations have been fusions of stories, Latin American rhythms, and colors of harmonies influenced by her jazz studies at the Berklee School of Music at The University of San Francisco de Quito, in Quito, Ecuador. She started singing under the direction of Luz Helena Peñarada in the choir Comfenalco Santander, in her city of Bucaramanga, Colombia. With this choir she traveled to Spain, China, Perú, México and others, obtaining national and international recognition. After she moved to Quito with a scholarship to the Berklee School of Music at The University of San Francisco de Quito, she has focused her career on her songwriting skills. Her songs have highlighted her in the international arena as a composer of original and cheerful ideas, a musician committed to the values of good living and the union of traditions through the soul. The medicine of her music seeks to remind the listener of the essence of existence, creating harmonious environments of joy, peace and consciousness. She has shared the stage with Marta Gomez in Quito, Jesus Hidalgo at a grassroots music festival in New York, and in 2017, she participated as a guest at the Yogi Tunes Stage at Beloved Festival.
TIKKO FREILICH began singing with Village Harmony, a world music organization that travels to countries with rich musical cultures across the globe, at the age of 12. At 15, she filmed and edited an hour long documentary showcasing Village Harmony for their 25th anniversary, and has since grown in her role within the organization, traveling to South Africa, Cuba, The Republic of Georgia and Corsica as the videographer, as well as interning on a teen camp session. Tikko has taught music to friends, family, students and acquaintances for many years in many contexts. She loves encouraging harmony singing and creating spaces where everyone can comfortably add their voice. Tikko has continuously pursued outdoor adventures, and, in 2017, she spent 4 months in Ecuador, attending a semester program through Nahual Expediciones. Students traveled 800 miles by bike, foot and boat through mountains, rivers, glaciers, rock faces and valleys. She was in awe of the adventure school she attended, and with the majestic, complex beauty and cultural richness that Ecuador has to offer. She wanted to find a way to combine her love for music and outdoor expeditionary life, as well as Nahual in Ecuador and the philosophy of Village Harmony in the States, in a context other than solely being a student and guest. This program was born out of that vision.
CLAYTON CLEMETSON, raised in New England, is a teacher of folk music, singing, dancing, and he leads outdoor trips with alternative education programs. He graduated from Marlboro College with a degree in holistic education, and a portion of his research explored singing as an embodied experience and the use of song in education and community. A singer with Village Harmony since his early teens, Clayton has interned with Village Harmony and taught with Northern Harmony. He first explored Ecuador during a formative semester program with Kroka Expeditions in 2011. This Ecuador singing and cycling project grew out of a combined love of music and the expedition lifestyle, and the power of each in building connections to people and place. Currently he works for a gap year program at the High Desert Center in Colorado, leading backpacking trips as well as singing, and podcasting workshops.
GIDEON CREVOSHAY is a musician from the hills of the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. He uses the human voice to explore the countless dimensions of sound, language, and improvisation. Gideon studies traditional and ancient forms of singing from around the world, including the US, Caucasus, and Mediterranean, finding inspiration in the wisdom contained within these traditions and how they can inform present ideas of music-making and community. He performs, records, and tours extensively with many projects including Tenores de Aterúe, OKAPIS, Mosaïc, Sempervirens, Starry Mountain Singers, Cambridge Revels, Briars of North America, and Meredith Monk. Gideon is a member of the international music collective Found Sound Nation and has facilitated its international music festival, OneBeat, since its inception in 2012, having also co-led projects in Turkey, Russia, and the Balkans. He has facilitated for Making Tracks in the UK, and is a co-founder of The Interlude music retreat. He teaches polyphonic singing throughout the US and abroad, both independently and with the world music organization Village Harmony. Gideon is also a composer and is co-scoring, along with Christopher Marianetti and Chris Botta, an immersive and contemplative film installation to be shown in the Brooklyn Navy Yards in 2020.
MARCEA MACINNIS (BA, Marlboro College)is a native Vermonter. Growing up immersed in nature, she developed an understanding of the beauty, forms, and cycles of the living Earth. While traveling, she developed her expression through crafts, music, and art. Marcea moved to Ecuador in 2006. She lives with her partner Thomas Dammer and their two daughters Nina and Naya in their hand built wood and adobe house at Palugo Farm. She has worked at Kroka Expeditions since 2005, teaching students the beauty of nature through leaves, flowers, and roots, both as a teacher during the summer and for the Ecuador Semester. In addition to teaching, Marcea runs a medicinal herb and balm company called Yuyos.
MARCELA RESTREPO, who is also based in Palugo Farm, is Colombian born but has lived in Ecuador for more than 25 years. She has been working with Kroka Expeditions for eight years as a lead teacher both for the Ecuador Semester and school and summer programs. Before this, she was based in New Zealand, where she worked with a small, experimental theatre company. She has been part of several projects in ecological reserves and communities in Ecuador involved in both restoration and alternative agriculture. She has a diploma in Waldorf education from Taruna College in New Zealand. Marcela is currently immersed in many farm projects, runs an artisanal cheese and yogurt industry as well goes on wonderful expeditions with husband Michael and sons Koru and Antu.
send us a note: [email protected]
Program cost is $2175: airfare not included, financial aid available. All bikes and bikepacking gear provided. Ages 16 and up.
