Huayrapungo

While working with the Tandana Foundation (Beau here), one of the communities we visited was Huayrapungo. It took about 1.5 hours from Otavalo in truck, and it was quite high, I´m guessing around 10,000 ft. Here is a photo looking back towards Cotacachi volcano. Also some of the houses that are more typical the farther out we go from Otavalo.













Here is a picture of some of the kids from the local school, lining up to take anti-parasite pills. In many of these communities without adequate water sanitation and where the hygiene and food treatment isn´t spectacular, we assume that nearly everyone has parasites of one kind or another.















Here you can see the kids scaling the windows to get a peek at what is happening inside...















And here is what they are all checking out. The local dentist that accompanied us on our trips to the communities was stationed inside this classroom. Whereas it is possible (but infeasible in most cases) for people to see the doctor, it is very rare to see the dentist. Needless to say, a lot of teeth were pulled from kids where the teeth were too ruined to save with a filling.