Have you visited the area around the main cities of the Central Sierra lately? If you haven’t, take a look around. It’s totally worth it. In recent weeks I had to go to Guaranda and I was surprised.

There are several reasons for this. The first is the potential that the region has. Urban areas, for example, have practically all basic services. Finding accommodation is easy. The prices are affordable and, in general, there are pleasant places. We cannot complain about the gastronomy; There is no shortage of typical dishes, not even something lighter, if you don’t want to overdo it.

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The roads connecting them are generally in good condition. People are the same as they have always been: friendly, smiling and willing to help if someone asks for directions.

The landscape that surrounds them is not negligible either. There is the Cotopaxi, which when it emits vapors or ash resembles an old smoker, one of those who enjoy every smoke they take. Green fields, and sometimes ochre, whose tones are no more than the types of crops that exist, can be seen in the distance, for every rise that follows the road. You can also see cows, horses, llamas, vicuñas and alpacas that seem to be used to being photographed.

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If the day or night is clear, the view of Tungurahua and Chimborazo is spectacular. We were lucky that the night we crossed El Arenal to get to Guaranda there were no clouds and we got a gift that made us stop the car we were traveling in. To our left, the perfect silhouette of that snowy massif, so high, so cold, crowned with stars and the rising moon. It was one of those nights that can no longer be seen in cities and that we who are old enough to enjoy in our childhood and youth in Quito or Guayaquil or any city that is huge now.

To the right, towards the east, the sky would light up from time to time. They were rays that turned the light on and off and told us that there must be a storm on the other side.

Cities such as Latacunga, Ambato, Riobamba and Guaranda, apart from their typical difficulties, some related to air pollution, urban disorder or aerial wiring, which causes those huge noodles between pillars and pillars, among other things, should not be an obstacle for some of them or their surroundings become, for example, a route to reach magical cities, of which there can be dozens.

What Ecuador has to offer is so much. And people are so excited. It is so motivating to talk to them and tell them about the efforts they put into creating cultural spaces, creating jobs… so that life can go on and show its beautiful surroundings.

These are the stories we must tell, because they are not all bad or bad news. We must not forget this country, amidst the maelstrom of violence and national politics. This is the country we have to bet on today more than ever. (OR)