And now, an Ecuadorian Update!

Hi all! It's me, your favorite Ecuadorian traveler (I hope). I've got a few pieces of news for everyone. First off, today (Sunday) I went to a soccer game with my two Ecuadorian brothers. This was a game between two competing teams from Quito. One is La Liga (the one we were cheering for), and the other was Deportivo de Quito, a team that hasn't won a championship in 40 years. The game was a lot of fun and it was a pretty important game to boot. Lots of people showed up. Liga recently won a the South American championship, it's the first time an Ecuadorian team has ever won it. Everyone is pretty excited about it, in fact my brothers got a picture taken next to the trophy. Today, unfortunately, many of the really good Liga players were recovering from various injuries and weren't playing. The players who were playing weren't playing very well and Liga ended up losing 0-2. That's too bad. Oh well, it was fun to watch anyway!

What else has been going on around here? Well as of 12 days ago (October 14^th), my host family has grown by 1. Yes, that's right, my host sister, Christina, had a baby! It's very exciting, and we're all very excited to see it whenever we can, though I don't know how her 4 year old daughter now feels about having to share the attention. Today was Christina's birthday, so we had a big lunch at my house and I got to take a picture of the baby. Here he is!

Tidbit: While walking down the streets of Quito, it's not uncommon to find someone sitting on the sidewalk with a cardboard box out in front of them, turned on it's side, and covered with a bunch of little goodies that you can buy, like gum, chocolate, lollipops, and of course cigarettes. In Quito (and all of Ecuador I presume) they do a much better job of advertising the dangers of smoking. What is there in the States? A little box in the corner of the cigarette pack that tells you that the surgeon general declares that smoking may do some damage? Well the packs of cigarettes here couldn't be any more obvious. Just have a look at these pictures I took of a box I found on the street (and yes, all brands have this warning):

(Translation: Smoking Causes Cancer and Smoking Kills)

From some of my smoking friends, I hear that you can buy a cigarette from these box people for a mere 20 cents, and that buying a ten-pack is like $1.50 or $1.80, although on the side of this box that I have it says the recommended price is 90 cents. Interesting, huh?

Adventures in the Paramo

Hello everyone, sorry to keep you waiting so long for my next entry. I had a big adventure that went through the 10th, 11^th, and 12^th and then after I got back, I was so busy that I even got over a week behind in my own person journal. But don't worry, I'm in good health and still having a blast!

So there's a type of ecosystem that we've been learning about in 2 or 3 of our classes called the “paramo”, they described it to us as kind of a tundra-like environment but instead of being high in latitude, it's high in altitude. It's a relatively cold environment that sees more temperature change throughout the day than it does throughout the year. In a single day it can go from 0 to 

22 degrees Celsius, so the life there has to be adapted to extreme and rapid temperature 

fluctuation. The plant life is mostly made up of grasses and shrubs.

Friday

On the 10 of October, we embarked on our journey to the paramo. Meeting bright and early, we piled onto the charter bus that would take us there. This field trip was only for kids in the ecology program, so instead of there being the full 27 of us, there were 11, so we had some space to stretch out on the bus, which was quite nice, because especially in the beginning all we wanted to do was sleep and listen to music.

The first place we went was to Otavalo, where we had gone with the whole program about a month earlier. Here we picked up Cesar Cotocachi, who was our guide last time too. With him, we went 

to a lake that was going through a restoration project. We got in a little boat and drove around the lake while Cesar told us about the lake and the restoration project. I appeared to be paying 

close attention, but the truth was I was all the way in the back of the boat and the motor was 

quite loud. It was a really nice boat ride, we were at the base of the great big mountain that we had seen last time we were in Otavalo. I still don't know what that mountain's called. 

After the boat ride, we went to a nearby restaurant that was part of a hostel that was right 

on the lake, literally. There were windows in the floor so we could see the water below. Lunch 

was yummy, and afterward Cesar, deciding we needed to walk off the lunch, lead us on a hike up a bit of a mountain. The view from the top was breath taking, but we had already lost our breath on the way up there. We could see other mountains, villages, and lakes. It was also a good place to get a view of the really big mountain that I mentioned before. The air was nice and crisp, and the weather was perfect.

Later, after coming down from the mountain and then checking into our hostel (the same one we stopped at last time we were in Otavalo called Aya Humo), we took a bus ride to our first real paramo location, which was around a dormant (most likely extinct) volcano that had filled with water and become a lake. It was extremely foggy here. We got out of the bus and walked around a little bit and it didn't take long before we completely lost sight of the bus in the fog. It was kind of chilly there, and as expected there were mostly just grasses and shrubs scattering across the land. The shapes of the landscape that were partially hidden in the dense fog made the place seem almost mystical. It began to rain a little so we turned back to the bus and 

headed back to the hostel, where we chilled until dinner time. This time I decided not to get the trout with the head and tail included and instead went for the chicken. The same kids sang and danced for us while we ate. This time I actually gave them a little donation. Before going to bed, I taught some people a fun Ecuadorian card game.

Saturday

I had taken a shower the night before and went to bed with my hair still wet, so when I woke up in the morning, I had crazy hair. I decided not to tame it before going to breakfast. We checked 

out of the hostel and headed off to our next destination, which was further up in altitude. Along the way, we stopped and got out of the bus at various locations and Cesar told us a bit about the ecosystem and the people who lived nearby. One place we stayed a bit longer than the other places. This place was on top of a high ridge. We walked across a field, past some horses and came across a truly wondrous view. I took several pictures that I plan on stitching together to form a 360 degree view. After that stop, we were driving through a very beautiful land with very beautiful weather, so three of my friends and I, who were all sitting on the same side of the bus, spent a large time with our head sticking out the window, laughing and talking and taking pictures! It was fantastic and probably something we wouldn't be able to get away with in the 

States.

Eventually we drove far enough that the weather started to change, we were now in a place that was colder and foggier. We stopped kind of in the middle of nowhere and Cesar took us on our second big hike of the trip—up a decently-sized mountain. The terrain was steep and muddy. Most of the way up we were in what I think is officially called a tropical humid cloud forest,

 meaning everything was wet and muddy. It took a little under an hour to get to the top. Near the top, we hit the tree line and the land was taken over by the grasses and shrubs of the paramo. At the high altitude it took us a little while to rest and catch our breath, but the view was something else. With clouds all around, we could see the distant silhouettes of the other mountains all around us. It was well worth the climb, we were all feeling really good once we'd gotten to the top. Plenty of pictures were taken of course. The way back down was easier on our 

muscles, though a lot more caution had to be paid to not slipping down on the mud. Several of us did slip, though, including myself. Back down at the bus, we ate a lunch that we brought with us. It included fruit juice, pb+j sandwiches, tuna, pears, bananas, chips, and cool containers of Ecuadorian snacks that involved beans and toasted corn kernels. Yum. The bus then brought us to a place called the Polilepis Lodge – Private and Protected Ecological Reserve at an altitude of 3581 meters above sea level. We got to our cabin (the boys and girls had separate cabins), it was kind of off in the woods and the bathroom smelled like black mold, so we kept the door closed and took care of business outside or in the bathroom we found in the main lodge. Apparently the girls got a really nice bathroom with a tub. Figures. We started a fire in the wood stove, because it was freezing in the cabin. After getting back from dinner that evening, the cabin was nice and toasty, I barely used my covers that night.


Sunday

In the morning after breakfast, we put on our rubber boots and a guide from the hostel took us on a tour through the ecological reserve. At the altitude of the cabins, he brought us through a forest that had many polilepis trees, which are crooked trees growing at high altitudes that have flaky, layered, papery bark. They look cool, especially with moss growing all over them. On the walk we came across several ponds and swamps. When we climbed a little bit out of the forest, we encountered a new type of plant, called a “frailejone”. These things were everywhere, and you'll have to look at the pictures to see what they look like, but apparently they're pretty 

common in paramo regions. The guide took us to a ridge. The climb up was a little steeper than the mountain from the day before, but it wasn't nearly as long of a walk. The view was extraordinary, words cannot describe it. Luckily there are pictures. We walked along the ridge to a less-steep path that would take us back to the main cabin compound. Along the ridge we saw a group of people clustered around a girl who was lying on the ground. They were crying and wrapping jackets around her. She wasn't dead, but she had passed out. This was a group of vacationers from the coast, and right now they were about 4000 meters above sea level, where there's easily less than a third of the amount of oxygen that they're used to. Some of the girl's companions had torn down an old fence to use the wood for a stretcher, but in the end, she was carried down the ridge in a blanket. On our way down, we passed several of her friends, most of who were crying or hyperventilating. Some were doing both, they did not seem to be doing well. All we could think of was how grateful we were to have had the chance to acclimate to the Quito altitude before going on this trip.

The incident on the ridge was not the last we saw of this group of fain travelers. After our hike, we ate lunch in the main lodge, where these people were resting in the lounge. All of a sudden, all within five minutes, there were cries of horror and three people were carried out completely unconscious, a fourth, who was very close to unconsciousness was dragged out by his buddy. People from the group were beside themselves, crying and hyperventilating like crazy, looking very uneasy. Meanwhile, we sat completely fine with the altitude, eating our lunch, trying not to pay too much attention, though at the same time, staring and wondering what would happen next.

We never did exactly find out what happened next, after lunch it was time to go, for we had a 6-hour bus ride back to Quito. We packed up our things and got on the bus and had a nice, relaxing trip back. We assume that an ambulance or two or three came and picked up the unfortunate travelers from the coast and brought them down to a lower altitude and gave them plenty of oxygen, though we can't say for sure.

Our ride back to Quito was pretty uneventful, most of us slept and listened to music. I got home, had a nice little dinner with my family and told them as best I could of our adventures.

I hope you all are doing well.
Stay tuned, and don't worry, you won't have to wait over two weeks for my next entry.
Check out the pictures!
~Joey

Mindo

So this past weekend I went with my herpetology class on a field trip to a place near-ish to Quito called Mindo. Mindo is known for being an Andean cloud forest, meaning it's a relatively dense tropical type of forest that's found at a high elevation. There's a good bit of biodiversity and lots of clouds.

On Saturday, everyone in my herpetology class woke up bright and early and we all met at a bus station in the North of Quito. The ride to Mindo takes about 2 hours, it took us slightly longer because at one point in the road we came to a complete stop for a while and had to wait. I told my friends it was because there was a moose blocking the road, but it turned out to be a tractor trailer that seemed to have lost its trailer. Along the way, the scenery was gorgeous. The road we were on wound along the side of a mountain that was covered with beautiful exotic plants, such as ginormous ferns, and bright red bromiliads. As we drove closer to Mindo, we went down in elevation and the sky became much cloudier. In some places there was pretty dense fog as well. The town of Mindo itself is a cute little place with several restaurants and hostels. Parts that we'd seen looked relatively prepared for gringos. When we got off the bus, we started walking down a dirt road in the forest. I'm not good a judging distances, but it seemed like it could have been around a mile give or take. Finally we reached our hostel, a very nice little place in the middle of the forest that had stone and wood-walled buildings with thatched roofing. Outside of the check-in building were several humming bird feeders and over 20 humming birds flying around and having drinks.

We spent the day settling in, eating lunch, and getting briefed on the field work we'd be doing that night. We were there to test a hypothesis on variations in biodiversity of frogs in different habitats. We ate dinner and night rolled around. We split into our groups and headed off to our various assigned locations. I was with two other people and our area was a field on the side of a forest that had a creek flowing through it. We spent two hours walking slowly along the edge of the creek looking for frogs in the grass, the creek, and in the foliage of the nearby forest It was raining a little bit and my nose was running, but I had my poncho and rubber boots on, so I was pretty set. My group caught about 14 frogs of different types, including a tree frog and several yellow and black poison dart frogs (they're OK to pick up as long as you wash your hands before eating or touching your face). That night, our teacher identified most of them (they guy's a genius, I'd guess he's in his mid twenties and has already published 10 papers on lizards and amphibians). The next day we gathered in the morning and he showed us preservation techniques. We returned most of the frogs to their original habitats, but he kept a few that he wanted to bring back. First he euthenized them by putting some anesthesia on them for them to absorb through their skin. While they were groggy and unable to jump away, he would put them on some leaves and take pictures of them and let us take pictures too. Then when he was sure they were dead, he would extract a part of them to preserve for future DNA study. From the bigger frog he took the liver, and from the other, smaller frogs, he took one of the muscles from a leg. Then he went on to preserve the rest of the body with a technique that makes them last longer and makes them better for physiological study but damages the DNA. It was really interesting.

Overall it was a great trip, we got to see the cool landscape and plant life of Mindo, as well as catch a bunch of frogs. I know some people who went zip-lining through the forest there, that would be a fun thing to do some time. As always there're photos to be seen. Feel free to drop me a comment. Even if I don't get around to responding to all of them, I still appreciate hearing from you.

Take care everyone!
~Joey