Noise Pollution

This is Beasley. Beasley is one of two beagles that lives with my family in Atlanta. Beasley is a pretty good dog, but every now and then he will start barking. Being a beagle, he barks very loudly.

What does this have to do with Ecuador, you ask? I have increasingly come to realize that Ecuador is many things: beautiful, Catholic, a place to find cheap food, safe by Latin American standards, and LOUD. There are dogs in Ecuador, too, and they bark as well. However, there is a fundamental a difference in how dog owners handle their dogs in Ecuador. When Beasley gets to barking at the mailman, the UPS truck, another dog, or nothing in particular, someone in our family goes out in the front yard and takes him back inside, usually involving a short chase (which gets shorter as he grows older). People in Ecuador do not bother to corral their barking dogs. No, they'll let their dogs up onto the roof (many buildings have flat roofs) or out into their tiny yard and let the dog bark all night. They would never think about shutting up a dog that carries on, constantly, from 11pm-4am. I know this because there is a dog that barks all night at one of the buildings right outside my bedroom window. Did I mention that I am a light sleeper?

Also, people honk constantly here. In the US, or maybe particularly in the South, people don't honk much. Unless they are rude, people usually only honk when its very necessary to get someone's attention on the road. You all know this, most of you are from the South. I think people in Ecuador honk for the sake of hearing their horn. Cars will be driving along a flat, open road, free of traffic, and they wil honk. Honking is also sometimes as substitute for stopping at an blind intersection, as in "I'm coming through here and not stopping, so I hope you hear my horn." While American juveniles might get their kicks from racing their cars at high speeds on weekend nights, I think some Ecuadorians enjoy driving up and down streets honking their horns. They may actually be competing in some way, I do not know.

Also, too many people get hold of loudspeakers in this country. In Latacunga, a truck drove around a couple times a day with speakers pointed in 3 directions, dispelling some mostly incomprehensible gibberish. It reminded me of the German trucks roaming the streets of occupied Paris spewing propaganda such as "Amerika ist kaput." I'm pretty sure it must have been the local Latacungan public information minister, or the Ecuadorian communist party (if there is one).

On the note of loudspeakers, a few weeks ago, around mid morning in Quito, I heard another voice over a loud speaker. I thought at first that we must be near a mosque and that all of Quito's three dozen Muslims (the country is 98% Catholic) were being called to prayer from a minaret. I don't know any Arabic, but whatever was being said could have been in Arabic as far as I as concerned. It sure didn't seem like Spanish. Then, a few days later, I passed by the source of this cacophony. A woman rode around the neighboorhood in the back of a truck yelling into a megaphone trying to sell various fruits. It was only then that I was able to make out what seemed to be the word "naranja," ("orange") at the end of her still undecipherable. I am quite tempted to buy all this woman's entire stock of produce if she only woudn't ride around all morning shouting Spanish/Arabic into her loud speaker.

Maybe I am too easily annoyed by Ecuador's noisiness, or maybe I am just too accustomed to the quiet of home. Obviously though, I think my enjoyment of peace and quiet is very at odds with the realities of life in Latin American cities.