One of the many picturesque villages that ring Cuenca, Quingeo awaits its day of resurrection

A friend of mine shared a good way to escape the congestion of Cuenca and see the countryside. He suggested I go on a tour of small towns served by bus companies that provide public transportation for farmers anxious to get their harvest to town, and commuters headed into Cuenca for work.

The necklace of pretty hamlets that circle Cuenca provides much of the food we consume; nearly 50% of the produce sold in Cuenca is grown within a 50-mile radius of Parque Calderon. These rural communities also provide much of the city’s workforce — in fact, too much of it. All too often, these pretty little villages are disappearing, not under the weight of rumbling trucks jarring porous old bricks but from a far more sinister force. Emptiness.

San Pedro de Quingeo takes your breath away. The village square is rooted among the rocks at 9,105 ft. and looks like a movie set from an old western. The meticulously manicured central plaza is surrounded by a collection of buildings representing the full range of architectural styles that defined the once flourishing, nearly two-hundred-year-old city. Now, however, the buildings serve as a reminder of how quickly a population loss can lead to a cascade of dilapidating conditions that threaten the ability to weather the future.

As is true for many towns in Ecuador, keeping ‘the kids down on the farm’ is becoming increasingly difficult. The allure of urban living, driven by the relentless propaganda pummeling folks on social media, is significantly taking its toll. Whole villages, Quingeo, among them, are seemingly deserted even at noon — a catastrophe that is becoming all too common.

Fortunately, some government agencies are awakening to the alarming consequences of overpopulated cities and abandoned villages and are taking action to mitigate the damage. I had the good fortune to witness some of this good news while in Quingeo.

On 1 July 2018, then-President Lenin Moreno initiated the Literacy Project for Senior Adults (GAD), a program designed to combat seniors’ isolation by developing various critical education and service programs. A significant component of this project was busing seniors from the surrounding countryside into Quingeo twice a week for classes and access to social programs and activities that encourage creativity and personal interaction. When I visited, three classrooms were full-to-capacity with eager and engaged students. It was a joy to see.

One particular success is the Quingeo Literacy Program. When I visited, it had a student body of 150 participants, all over 65, studying the art forms of reading and writing. Watching them work was more than inspiring; as they practiced the alphabet, I was reminded that all learning takes dedication, hard work, and, most importantly, the ability to listen fully; it is the heartbeat of communication.

The literacy class I was visiting spent most of the afternoon celebrating a fellow student. She is graduating today. It is also her 100th birthday.

Senior classes include hygiene, painting, ceramics, and the most unfortunate but all-important study of domestic violence. Central to this instruction is the means to identify the many forms of domestic abuse and the best practices on how to combat it both at home and in the community.

I found a single restaurant that was open when I visited, and they opened it because they saw me coming, so packing lunch and picnicking in the lovely Central Park is an option that would be enjoyable as well. Although you may be wise to bring provisions, the locals will surely provide you with a warm welcome, cold drinks, easy conversation, shock, shock, and enthusiasm for being photographed —  a refreshing surprise.

Quingeo is a captivating set piece of old Ecuador. The town square is surrounded by three and four-story buildings of Colonial Architecture and classic two-story buildings of Spanish adobe with wooden pillars, tile roofs, and sagging old balconies seeming to swoon over the meticulously maintained pathways of the town’s central square.  There is significant interest in revitalizing the village, but it is a task that remains uncertain due to the unrelenting squeeze of city life. The lifeblood of any community is the youth, and these precious few are being drained away at an alarming rate and without a cure.

The time is coming when the desire for the home fire and respect for the old ways will, once again, prevail. The town will come back to life, but someday seems like a long time from now, so until a certain degree of future is secured, the wind and rain will dominate the story of San Pedro de Quingeo.

In the meantime, another building beam will crash with a great roar or creak and twist with a grey sigh. As for us? We hope there will be enough left to preserve when it is finally recognized that real help is needed to save this pretty little hamlet from extinction. This jewel does not deserve to be lost. It is enough that too many others already have, and many more will.

Quingeo is a treasure chest of history buried in the soil of neglect.

“Last scene of all,
That ends this strange, eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.” 

― William Shakespeare, As You Like It