Our time in Otavalo has come to an end, and we are both a bit sad to be moving on. We felt at home in Otavalo, and found a family in the Mojandita community that we hope to go see again. In our last two days we did two things we’d been talking about since we arrived: we climbed Mount Fuya Fuya, a towering volcano that soars up to 14,000 feet, and we volunteered at the local medical clinic, making a video that they can use to raise donations. Our second installment of the Laura Cam documenting our hike up Fuya Fuya is embedded here, and you can see more about the clinic below.

The Mojandita Clinic was founded in the mid-nineties based on community need, and pure willpower. The people who live in the nearby village (in the hills just south of Otavalo) raised money, with the help of the Casa Mojanda founders, to build it, and it’s by donations and community support alone that the clinic still functions. Doctors donate medicine which is given to low-income residents when they come for treatment, travelers who’ve passed through donate money to keep the clinic staff paid. The clinic serves a community of about 600 residents with a doctor and a dentist who each travel here for two days a week, and a “pharmacy” meagerly stocked with donated meds. They do what they can with what they have, which is to say: a lot, and very little.

The aging sign, on the road from Otavalo.

The clinic’s exterior, and some of the view.

Dr. Sonia Garcia labels a bottle of pills.

An elderly Indigenous couple leaves after receiving free care.

Here’s where we were:
(Mount Fuya Fuya)