Los Cedros: Adventures Post-Program

Wow, I'm worse at posting when I do have reliable internet than when I only have sporadic access and power cuts. Oh well!

Elizabeth and I were originally going to spend our last days in Ecuador, after the end of the program, hanging around Quito, but we noticed Los Cedros about halfway through the term in a guide book. It claimed to have over 700 nocturnal moths, hundreds of orchids, and spider monkeys. This won us over almost instantaneously.

Although we had conversed via email with Jose, the owner of the reserve, but getting to the reserve was still quite an adventure. We managed to find the correct bus station and the bus to Chontal, but they didn't tell us that the bus doesn't actually stop there. Thankfully, we noticed the town's name on a building before we completely missed it. (The town is only a block long, so it would be quite easy to miss.)

We were earlier than our guides were expecting, so we went into a small restaurant and ordered breakfast while all of the children peered through the windows and studied us. Once we finished eating, we asked our hostess about the reserve and where we should meet our guide. She didn't have any idea, but just while we were mentioning that the guide would probably have mules, a guy on a mule rode past the window with two more mules behind. Perfect timing! The children hailed him for us, and thus we met Danielo for the first time.

After Danielo had wandered around the town for a bit, the three of us started the 4-hour journey to Los Cedros. Elizabeth and I rode mules, while Danielo walked and the third mule carried our packs. This was rather amusing, since both Elizabeth and I have limited riding experience, the majority of which was from our childhoods.


Still, we managed to reach Los Cedros safely and were stunned by the views. We even had an excellent view of a guan perched in a tree when we were almost to the camp.

The rooms were marvelous, and we could actually drink the water for once! They kept their streams clean enough that you could drink directly from them and pumped that water to the camp. I couldn't imagine streams that clean anywhere.


Anyways, we only had a couple of days there but we spent them hiking around. The birds were beautiful. At breakfast, we'd see cuckoos (which really do sound just like the clock) and once a toucan barbet (look it up-it's gorgeous). We also saw three species of guans, tons of hummingbirds including a sickle-billed and one whose tail was 3-times the length of its body, a nightjar, swallow-tailed kites and a couple of species of toucans. They were all incredible. We also heard howler monkeys but they never came into view. The orchids were also amazing and numerous, although we were told that the best blooms will be next month. There were fun fruits, too, including one which we got to stamp our shirts with, as the clear liquid stains once it dries.

The most exciting part was towards the end of our hike the first day. We were rounding a turn in the path when Fausto, another of our guides, stopped and pointed up. There was a baby Andean spectacled bear in a tree! Elizabeth and I couldn't believe it. We had convinced ourselves that we were leaving Ecuador without seeing any wild bears. While we watched, the mother followed the baby up the tree so that we had excellent views of two bears only 20 meters away. I was awed by our luck, though unfortunately none of the photos came out very well.


All in all, I was quite pleased with the end of my term in Ecuador.

By the Numbers

I arrived back home in South Carolina 43 hours ago after:

• 89 days (on a 90 day visa)
• 2 field camps
  
• 5 classes
• 74 identified observed bird species (and who knows how many unidentified)
• 5 National Parks
• 3755 photos
  
• 1 sighting of the Southern Cross
  
• 5 Book Club Books
  
• 3 Big Blue breakdowns
• 2 Andean Spectacled Bears

I realize that I still haven't mentioned my final adventures, so although I have returned to the states, there are a couple of posts yet to come.

Quito

Elizabeth and I arrived at our hostel in Quito early afternoon on Saturday. We're in the part called Gringolandia, so again we had a bit of culture shock at the number of gringos and amount of English around us. Anyways, after settling in a bit (including buying maracuya ice cream), we met up with my sister, Sarah, and her friend Johannah, who lives in Quito. Elizabeth and I had a grocery list from the reserve we were leaving for on Sunday, so all four of us headed to Supermaxi to pick up some food.

Afterwards, we stopped by a cafe and got cheesecake. It was amazingly rich and delicious and not quite the type of dessert I expect in Ecuador.

We continued onto the historic center where two of Johannah's friends were giving a concert at 6:00pm. The group consisted of an accordian and a cello, which was a fun combination. I must say that I have missed concerts and plays this term, so it was great to hear excellent music.

Afterwards, we all called it a night, as it was Sarah's first day in Quito, so she needed to rest and acclimate to the altitude, and Elizabeth and I were catching a bus at 6:00am. Although we only spent a few hours in Quito, it was rather fun and wonderful to spend it with Sarah and Johannah.

¡Que Afortunado!

On our way home from going out for dinner on our last night in Cuenca, we noticed that the sky was rather clear and that the light pollution wasn't as bad as usual due to the drought blackouts. And we finally saw the Southern Cross. What a perfect way to end the term.

Podocarpus National Park

This week I visited my 9th Ecuadorian national park. I think that I'm doing pretty well for this being only my second time in the country.

On Monday, we took the bus to Zamora, a small but beautiful riverside town in southern Ecuador. Then, the next day, we hiked through the lowlands of Podocarpus. It was interesting to see cloud forest at only 900 m (which now seems incredibly low). We heard tons of birds, but sadly, they were all out of view, so I didn't get to add more species to my Ecuador checklist. However, we did see leafcutter ants! Although they're incredibly common in rainforest, they don't do well at high altitudes, so we hadn't seen any all term. After the hike, we cooled off by playing in the river, which was quite cold and fun.

Next, we headed to Loja and the highlands of Podocarpus. (It's a large park!) This hike was more similar to the area around our base camps, although it included primary forest in addition to secondary. Also, it was not as steep for most of the climb, making the hike much easier.

That night, we headed to Vilcabamba, a tourist town where the locals are known to live for quite a long time. This time we stayed at a tourist resort, which was quite odd. All the visitors were white and speaking English. All of us had slight culture shock at that. We were so used to any spoken English being directed at us and didn't know how to handle so much of it. Or how to ask for rooms in English, or order food in English.... Ummmm... going back to the states will be odd.

Still, the resort was nice, and we got some bird watching in the next morning before heading back to Cuenca.

Then, this morning we cleaned the house and worked on packing, but I have a bit more left. It's strange to realize that we're flying out of Cuenca in the morning. Then, Alex and Tim are heading back to the states, while Elizabeth and I spend some time around Quito before leaving just before our visas expire.

Almost there....

Done. Done. Done. In the past few days, I've taken three exams, written three final papers, given a powerpoint presentation and finished up a creative project (building a globo). It is so nice not to have to worry about any of those any more.

However, this is not to say that my program is done. We intentionally finished our classes a week early so that we could have one more vacation. Yeah, this is our third vacation in a 12 week program.

Anyways, we're now just outside of Podocarpus National Park where we'll be enjoying our last few days school-free. It seems a bit odd that the time has flown so quickly, though we've also done a lot, so it is believeable. I still feel like there is so much left to see in Ecuador, so maybe I'll just have to return.

Adios Field Camps

Sadly, yesterday was our last day in the field. I still can’t believe that I might not see paramo again, or that was my last time climbing through the moss jungle.

Anyways, this trip to the field, we split our time between Rumi Loma and La Libertad. It was odd to see Rumi Loma after the burn. Although the fire had ended two weeks before, the cabin that had burned was still smoldering, and clearly nothing was salvageable. I’m grateful for the trails through camp. They seem to have been what stopped the fire. There was one place where the fire had gotten to within a foot of another cabin. It is miraculous that it didn’t go up in flames as well. (FYI the photo of the burned lizard really is black and white.)

After relaxing at Rumi Loma, on Friday we hiked from Rumi Loma down to La Libertad. The hike was only about four hours, and it ended up taking Jesse the same amount of time to drive Big Blue down. The hike was fun because we started playing mind games for the first time this term. None of them knew the “53 bicycles” one, so that took awhile. Also on the hike, we found a cacique nest and could hear chicks inside of it! An adult kept flying back and forth, probably feeding them.

This was definitely the week that we started playing games. Besides mind games, we began playing telephone pictionary and mafia in the evenings. We ended up with some crazy things with telephone pictionary. I mean, it’s hard not to when the first sentence is “I’m so rich, I use mahogany toothpicks.”

On Saturday, Catherine came up to camp for our last class. She also brought Josue, our vegetation expert for the transects, and surprisingly Hannah. Hannah was a RRCS student two years ago. Additionally, she’s a Carl who happened to be in my problem-solving group for E&A. (So I’m pretty sure there are more Carls in Ecuador than SC. So far, I’ve run into a peace corp member, another Carl on study abroad, and Hannah, and I have plans to see two more. Seriously, I haven’t seen that many Carls in SC, despite having two others in my immediate family.) It was hilarious hearing her stories and seeing similarities between different RR semesters.

On Sunday and Monday, we took Josue out to our two plots and went over the transects with him. Monday especially was a lot of work. The hike just to get to the moss jungle plot is fairly significant, and then we had to make both of the transects, one of which had a 30 foot drop in the middle. It is still such an odd feeling to be supported just by branches and vines so far above the ground.

Now, I have just under two weeks left in the program. Hopefully, they’ll go smoothly.

Mora-Manzana Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving, we headed up to Rumi Loma, since that’s where we have an oven. It was a marvelous day, and we split up cooking dinner. Coral made a green bean casserole. Then, Elizabeth made mashed potatoes with a mushroom gravy. Alex was put in charge of stuffing. Tim and Jesse worked together to make macaroni and cheese. (I must admit that I was sad that it was creamy mac-and-cheese. In my opinion, that’s just blasphemy.) Then, I was in charge of baking a pie. Since we lacked both pumpkin and pecans, I decided that apple was the best option. However, that seemed a bit boring so I added in mora (blackberries).

Mora-Manzana Pie

3 cups sliced apple

2 cups blackberries

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

2 Tbsp. flour

½ cup sugar

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg

2 Tbsp. browned butter

First, prepare your choice of crust. Then, mix all of the ingredients except for the butter. Layer the mixture into the crust. Next, pour the butter over the pie. Finally, lay the top crust on top. (I suggest lattice.) Then, bake until done, and eat.

The Highest I've Ever Been

(altitude wise, that is)

As long as we were in Riobamba, we had to visit Chimbarazo, a dormant volcano whose peak is at 6,310 m. In fact, Ecuadorians like to claim that it is even taller than Mt. Everest because if you measure from the center of the Earth, the bulge around the equator makes it about 2 km taller than Everest.

Anyways, on Friday afternoon we took a bus to the first base camp at 4,800 m. On the ride up, we saw wild vicuna!

From the first camp hiked up to the main base camp and refuge at 5,000 m, where there was snow on the ground. There were a number of people (including Ecuadorians, Germans, French, Welsh, Americans, and Bolivians) at the refuge that night, but most of them were leaving at 10 pm in order to climb to the summit and reach it about sunrise. We were no where as intense (or skilled in climbing, much of the route is technical). Nonetheless, we were able to go for a bit of a hike that afternoon, probably up to about 5,300 m. We returned to the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen. The clouds were below us, so it looked like we were in a plane, and the colors were just amazing.

The next morning, we took the Whymper hike up to 5,400 m. It was rather steep and a bit difficult to climb with the snow being hard, so it’s a good thing that Stu didn’t tell us until afterwards that people have died on that exact hike. Also, according to October’s National Geographic, if you exceed 4,500m, you will probably die. (Of course, that is probably referring to traveling straight from sea level.) Nonetheless, we reached our goal, the ridge at 17,716 ft above sea level. By far the highest I’ve ever been and quite possibly the highest I will ever hike.

Camelid Conference

Yesterday, we returned from the World Camelid Congress in Riobamba. Yes, it was indeed an international conference. We realized this when the student price per person was $50, an outrageous amount for Ecuador. Plus, speakers came from Ecuador, the United States, Morocco, Sri Lanka, Italy, Argentina, and more.

In case you are not certain, camelids include llamas, alpacas, and their relatives. The conference included judging of both llamas and alpacas and also had some vicunas on display. Vicunas are quite rare and exist almost solely in the wild, but their wool is one of the most prized in the world. There were also talks and workshops. I went to one of Stu’s talks about alpacas and conservation, as well as a couple of workshops on natural dying and tanning.

As far as the judging went, I only watched one full round, but Stu had two alpacas competing in it. Ramiro and Raoul were in charge of the alpacas, and it was fun to see them dressed up. In fact, we didn’t even recognize Ramiro at first. Happily, Stu won both first and second place in that category. We cheered pretty excitedly!

There was tons of food and artesian shops, too. I tried llama meat, which is fairly tough but also rather tasty. And of course, I couldn’t pass up an ice cream cone for 25 cents. (Mora (i.e. blackberry) is definitely my favorite flavor.) I also bought some alpaca wool scarves, which are amazingly warm, though also decently expensive.

I must admit that I'm rather amused that I even attended the world camelid congress.

(Also, just for reference, the top picture is an alpaca, while the lower one is a llama.)

Crashing Through the Forest

We just returned from another week at La Libertad.

This week was a bit more intensive as far as working on Elizabeth and Tim’s transect project. On Tuesday, we hiked to Plot A, which was made last term and did two mammal sign transects with Don Jose, a local of Colipato, the closest town. We found bear sign, agouti holes, deer sign, and what may have been tapir tracks, but he wasn’t certain.

We then had to make another quadrant. However, our new location was at the top of a steep trail, which rises 600m. We hiked up on Thursday and split into two groups. Coral, Alex, and I went one direction, attempting to make a 100-m side. This part was actually kind of fun. The vegetation was quite mossy, and many times, you were standing on branches and moss 10 feet above the ground, hoping that it would support your wait. We became pretty good at climbing around in such a matrix. Also, two Glowing Puffleg Hummingbirds came within a couple of meters of us and flitted around for a minute. That was awesome!

During lunch, it began to rain. This was good because all of Ecuador is very dry right now, and the dam which provides both water and electricity to Cuenca is at a 20 year low. However, Coral and I then had to make another side through denser vegetation of ferns which were laden with rain. Soon, our legs were soaked. Also, the cloud cover greatly reduced the visibility, so that we could barely see in front of us. Then, after 40 m, our side ran off a cliff. We had already climbed down things which we weren’t entirely certain of how we would climb back up, but we were not about to try climbing down a cliff, especially with bad visibility, so we ended up cold, wet, tired, and without a complete side. And of course, a hike back down to camp was left.

We then returned on Friday. I was so tired from the day before. In fact, all of us were. So although we got some more work down, the quadrant is still not complete. Oh well.

In other news from the week, we heard that half of Rumi Loma burned down. As I mentioned earlier, it has been quite dry. Thus, when Rumi Loma sparked, it continued to burn for three days. Amazingly enough, only one of our cabins burned down, and the kitchen is fine, too. Our plan is still to return to Rumi Loma and see the damage ourselves.

Cajas National Park (in which we take epic photos)

Yeah, that’s a picture of me sitting on a rock on the edge of a cliff above an amazing landscape. It was pretty epic.

Anyways, we’ve been looking forward to Cajas National Park for quite awhile, especially since our visit to the coast when our bus drove through Cajas.

As far as background, Cajas is just outside of Cuenca and has quite high elevations. For example, the starting point for our hike was 4,154 m above sea level. That’s roughly 13,700 ft. The environment is paramo, but much of it falls into the category of superparamo, which unlike Rumi Loma is not dominated by grass. In fact, much of the hike was quite rocky, and some of it even involved walking across fairly narrow ridges. Additionally, a number of the rocky slopes were quite steep, as in only 10 degrees from vertical.

Anyways, Cajas is just beautiful, and I loved seeing the superparamo and be able to compare it to the paramo which I know. Plus, we hiked up to the second highest peak in Cajas: 4,410m (14,500 ft). I’m just glad that I didn’t get altitude sickness up there (especially considering that I had been at sea level only 5 days before). At the peak, we took tons of photos. It was just amazing.

Viva Cuenca

The celebration of Cuenca days was quite fun, though we also missed a fair amount, since we had two papers to write.

Anyways, the first highlight was the craft markets. There were artesians from Cuenca as well as Argentina, Peru, Colombia and Spain. I loved just looking at everything that they had. There were just so many that I discovered new things every day.

Monday afternoon we went to the burro race having no idea what to expect. It ended up being a huge deal with tons of people completely circling the track. We were right on the corner and Coral was worried that the donkeys might be going too fast to make the turn and run into us. She needn't have worried. The donkeys weren't going that fast, and it turned out that they weren't the main highlight. Instead, their riders were wearing all sorts of costumes: clown, priest, drag. It was hilarious to watch, especially when we weren't expecting it!

Another highlight had to be the fireworks on Monday night. We had been warned that they were a bit extreme, but we thought it had been hyped up... until we saw them. First, there were the globos, which are similar to the tissue paper hot air balloons that I made in 6th grade, except that they used actually flames to carry them into the sky until they were almost indistinguishable from the stars. Then, there was the vaca loca, which was probably the highlight of the evening. It's a paper mache cow with fireworks attached. One guy runs around carrying the vaca loca over his head once it's lit. Basically, he runs at the crowd while shooting fireworks are shooting of it. We definitely got charged as streams of sparks were exploding from the horns. Of course, after this is a sort of tower that is also covered in fireworks, but most of these are attached to pinwheels so that they are going off in crazy directions, though of course, always towards the crowd. There was a lot of crouching and huddling in fear.

Tuesday was the actually holiday, and I went to one parade of dancers. It was nice to watch the traditional dances, and the girls' skirts were marvelous for spinning!

Oh yeah, there was lots of food for Cuenca days, most of it fried. I finally tried cuy (guinea pig). It was okay, but nothing that I would seek out.

Basically, Cuenca days were a great time to wander about town, find new places, and have fun experiences! Though I'll probably be fine if I never have fireworks shooting directly at me again.

Isla de la Plata

Thursday was the highlight of our trip to the coast. We visited Isla de la Plata aka the Poor Man’s Galapagos. It shares a number of species with the Galapagos, though it is much closer to the mainland. In fact, the island’s history is much different. It broke off from the mainland tens of thousands of years ago, while the Galapagos are volcanic in origin. This creates much different evolutionary history of plants and animals on each.

On our hike across the island (we took the escalera path), we first came across blue-footed boobies! It was so cool to see them in the wild again. We learned that the blueness of their feet corresponds to their age. The older ones have bluer feet because they’ve eaten more sardines.

Next, we saw Nazga (or masked) boobies. It was interesting to see them so close to blue-footed boobies. Also, while we were watching them, a tropic bird flew overhead. The tropic bird has a long distinctive tail and is so beautiful.

Frigatebirds were next. Sadly, only a couple of males had their guller sacks inflated. Nevertheless, it was amazing to have hundreds of frigates flying over my head.

Then, we saw red-footed boobies. Yes, three species of boobies in one day on one island! It was incredible. There even were some babies which looked like giant white puff balls in the nest.

We thought we were done and had seen a lot, but then on the way back to the shore, we saw three quite small hummingbirds, the smallest hummingbirds on earth! That was a great way to end our hike.

When we returned to the boat, we traveled a bit down the coast of the island and then got to snorkel. We saw a number of beautiful colorful fish, including a parrot fish. Also, there was some alive puff coral and a starfish. However, the water was decently chilly, so we didn’t stay in for too long.

Agua Blanca

And so we return to stories from the coast...

On our Wednesday at the coast, we visited Agua Blanca, a small community within the National Park. Its name comes from the fact that the river dried up during an El Nino one year, so there is now just sand in the riverbed. Our guide, Eddie, lived there and took us on a hike through the dry forest into lower elevation cloud forest.

The hike started at 6:45am in Agua Blanca, which is completely surrounded by dry forest. It was odd to see such a different ecosystem, since where we spend our time receives so much rain. Also, it was now the dry season, so all of the leaves had fallen from the trees, though I had trouble picturing them with leaves, since the ground was like the desert. One species of tree, the ceiba has evolved to have chlorophyll in its trunk, so that it can still photosynthesize during the dry season. It was rather awesome to see these giant green tree trunks.

There were also tons of birds. Every time we saw one, we’d stop and look through our binoculars and then identify it with Eddie’s book. It was great!

The transition from dry to cloud forest was incredible. One minute, everything is brown and dry, and then, the ground is muddy and the plants are green. We saw a number of tagua trees. Tagua, also known as vegetable ivory, is used for all sorts of crafts in Ecuador, so we were already familiar with it from artesian markets.

The most exciting part was at the top of the mountain, we heard howler monkeys! We hiked down in a new direction for a bit, but sadly didn’t see them, though we did hear them once more. After hiking for a bit, Eddie suddenly stopped me and pointed straight up. There was a howler on the branch directly above me! Actually, there were a total of three howlers: a male and two females. We watched them for half an hour before deciding that we really need to continue on with our hike.

When we returned, we got to swim in a sulfur pool. It was fun and relaxing to be in the water. We were told that the water had healing properties and would be great for our hair. (Actually, all of our hair was awful and didn’t get better until we returned to Cuenca and could shampoo it. It felt like it was turning into dreadlocks. We could pull it straight out and it would stay!) Also, we were instructed to take mud from the bottom of the pool, rub it all over our skin and sit out. It was rather hilarious being covered in mud. Such a spa day!

Trick or Treat

Halloween coincides with Viva Cuenca here. Like Guayaquil and Quito, Cuenca’s independence day (November 3) is a national holiday. Of course, since we are in Cuenca, the celebrations start early, and this weekend, they’re in full swing.

In the afternoon, Jesse, Elizabeth, and I explored some of the craft markets. Artisans come from all over, not just Ecuador, but also Colombia, Argentina and even Spain. So far, I haven’t had to go to the bank to get more money, but after these expansive, I think I may have to visit the bank soon. My most exciting purchase: forks! I’ve had my eye out for an interesting fork since arriving, of course, but had yet to find any worth even inquiring about price. However, at one of the more expensive markets, a glass worker had some beautiful beaded pickle forks. There was no way that I could turn them down.

That evening, Jesse, Elizabeth, Alex and I joined our neighbor Ana Luisa in going to a performance at Cuenca’s cemetery. The performance used monologues, dance and music at various stops throughout the cemetery to tell the story of a poet who committed suicide in Cuenca. Each of us carried a lit candle, and the moon was nearly full, so it was rather perfect for Halloween.

When we returned home, we had originally planned to dressing up, but then decided that it was too late. Plus, most of the fun was in planning the costumes, rather than wearing them. (I was going to be a Shining Sunbeam. One of my favorite hummingbirds in Ecuador, where there are more than 150 species of hummers.) We still had our trick-or-treating fest with each person given out some sort of sweet. I made truffles as my gift. Then, Elizabeth gave out granadillas (a type of passionfruit) with jack-o-lantern faces drawn on them. Coral had bought popcorn balls, and Jesse got wawa-pan, a type of bread specific to this time of year and decorated by children. It was a lot of sugar! We also carved a pineapple, and drew a face on a melon, which looked like a pumpkin. When we bought the melon, we thought it was a pumpkin. It looked just like one! Funnily enough, the first time we tried to by squash, it ended up being a 6-inch wide cucumber! Who knew that squash or cucumber (sort of like cheese or font) would end up being a game for us?

La Costa

This week, we took a vacation for our midterm break (as of today, we’re halfway through) and headed for the coast. We spent the time in Puerto Lopez, a fishing village directly next to Machalilla National Park.

We spent Tuesday relaxing on the beach and exploring the town. It was interesting to watch the fishermen bring in their catch, and all of the frigatebirds and pelicans swooping down on them.

I also found two live sanddollars! I’ve always loved sanddollars, partially because I remember my dad telling me stories of going to the beach with his family, and his father would find sanddollars with his feet and then have them swim down to get them. There were also some pufferfish washed up on the shore. The town also had a number of stray dogs which would follow you along the beach. That was a bit odd.

On Wednesday, we visited Agua Blanca, and on Thursday, we went to Isla de la Plata. Both deserve full descriptions, so I’ll try to get a post about each one up soon.

Yesterday, we hiked out to Los Frailes, a secluded beach in the national park. The hike provided some excellent views (including one of the continental plate), and it was nice to swim for a bit. Also, one of the beaches along the way had black sand. (It sort of reminded me of the bottles of blue sand you get on Neopets…)

Although the water was nice, the waves weren’t very good, so there was no way I could catch one, and I didn’t have anyone to play The President with. At least, I built a drip castle.

After Los Frailes, we caught a bus back to Guayaquil and then Cuenca, getting back home about 12:30am, so we all slept in. Now, we’re celebrating Halloween and Cuenca days.

Frogs, Frogs, Frogs

What a weekend! It started on Thursday afternoon, when Alejandro, a student in Quito and an amphibian expert, arrived in Cuenca. He might be only 18, but in the last year, he found a frog that had last been seen in 1995, and thus, believed to be extinct. He is highly knowledgeable about the frogs around Rumi Loma and La Libertad. So on Thursday afternoon we went to his talk on amphibians and reptiles at la Universidad del Azuay. The lecture was in Spanish, so I followed some but not all of it.

On Friday, we (our group and Alejandro) left for La Libertad. We had no troubles with Big Blue! Of course, he had just gotten out of the shop Thursday afternoon, so we should be able to assume that he’s fine…

After getting to La Libertad and unpacking, Alejandro told us some about the frogs that we could expect in the area, and we headed out around 4:00. The first frogs we found were large tadpoles in a few pools in the middle of the cow pasture. Alejandro identified them as Gastrotheca pseustes, or San Lucas marsupial frogs. Not all frogs in Ecuador produce tadpoles; some give birth to miniature adult frogs, so that limited the possibilities a bit. After a bit more searching, Coral found the mother! Alejandro said that it was quite possibly the only female Gastrotheca within a kilometer.

After dark, we hiked along and through the stream looking for more frogs. We found a fair number of Pristimantis orestes and Pristimantis pycnodermis. One interesting thing about the Pristimantis genus is that its common name in Spanish translates as rubber frog, but due to a misspelling some time ago, it is called a robber frog in English. Rubber makes a lot more sense.

We also found seven red-eyes! Red eyes were only recently discovered and have yet to described by science, so they are simply Pristimantis sp. 2. Their eyes are metallic red. So cool!

We also found a frog that Alejandro had never seen before. He knows that it is a Pristimantis and has a guess on the species, but if he is correct, it has never been found in our area before.

On the way back, we spotted an Andean Potoo. Potoos are rare birds, so it was cool to see him, even if we couldn’t see all that well.

We didn’t get back until 11:45, which is rather late when you consider that most of us had consistently been going to bed at 10:00. However, the time flew.

The next morning, we measured (mass and length) and described the coloration of each of the frogs that we had captured the night before. It was interesting to see the female and male pynodermis next to each other because the female is literally 20 times larger. The following picture really does show two adults frogs of the same species. They're just different genders.

We weren’t leaving until 4:00 again, so we had a bit of free time in the afternoon, during which Elizabeth started teaching us some basic standing on each other tricks. We started with airplane, like when you’re a little kid and balance on your stomach on someone else’s feet. The difference was I remember using hands then, and we didn’t now. Then, we did airplane with the balancing person upside down. Next, we moved onto something called cathedral. It is basically a two person handstand, but a picture describes it best:

That night we went out and found more frogs, including a Pristimantis riveti, which was hard to capture because we was on nachran over the river, about 2 meters up, which is really high for a frog. However, Coral and Alejandro amazingly were able to get it. We also found a nest of baby Pristimantis orestes.

Basically, this weekend revolved around frogs and was a ton of fun. I can actually identify some of them now!

"The Pristine Myth"

When we think of the Americas before European exploration and colonization, we picture vast forests, wide winding rivers, and animals roaming. When we think of preserving the remnants of these ecosystems, we feel that the best thing to do is to remove human presence and allow it to return to a natural state..

In learning about paramo this term, we have talked a lot about how they may have formed. Paramo is found above the tree line in Ecuador, from 2,800 m to more than 4,000 m. However, a number of scientists believe that trees in Ecuador could survive up to 4,100 m. If this is true, forest should be the dominant vegetation up until that point.

This leaves an interesting question as to why paramos even exist. One of the main theories corresponds to paramo plants’ unique adaptation to fire. Bunch grass is usually 60-70% dead material, so it easily catches and spreads fire. However, it grows back after fire because it keeps shoots underground. Some, including Stu, propose that hunter gathers burned these areas regularly over time to keep the forest at bay, and

Humans do shape environments. Even the Amazon rainforest has corn dated to 6,000 years ago. Maize is indigenous to Mexico! In the article “The Pristine Myth: The Landscape of the Americas in 1492,” William M. Denevan argues that North America was more “pristine” in 1750 than 1492. There were huge numbers of Native Americans, and some had started agriculture. They did have a significant impact on our environment. The wilderness view perpetuated through the Hudson River School is not an accurate image, and conservation of ecosystems must consider how human impact shaped that area originally.

A First Glance at La Libertad

La Libertad is the lower of the two field camps, though 2917m is still quite high. (Rumi Loma is about 3450m above sea level.) It has a number of differences from Rumi Loma. First, you can drive much closer to it, so there is not nearly as far to carry supplies. Yay! Second is the lack of building. Our kitchen was actually a sturdy tent with foot high grass as the floor. However, there were actually a number of choices for sleeping, which did include a couple indoors. Choice number one, which Alex choose, was to sleep in bunk beds in a room that shared a wall with Ramiero’s family. Ramiero works for Stu and has 5 kids, so they’re capable of making quite a bit of noise. Choice number two, chosen by Jesse and Coral, was to set up tents by the kitchen. The one problem with this is that there have been problems with ants eating the tents in the past. Choice number three, chosen by Elizabeth, Tim, and me, was to set up tents inside a shed/museum nearby. This way we didn’t have to worry about ants, but could still sleep in our tents. Tim and I used our own tents (well, actually mine belongs to my sister. Thanks, Sarah!), and Elizabeth used one that belongs to Round River. The third difference was that we had electricity. And fourth, the only rain was misting and it was rare!

One common experience between the two camps was Big Blue breaking down. Again, we weren’t too far away when the accelerator stopped working, but unfortunately, Stu wasn’t with us this time. So Coral asked a lady in a house nearby if there was cell phone reception anywhere, while the rest of us prepared to hike the essentials in. Coral and I ended up walking 20 minutes back down the road in order to call Stu and Catherine. Thankfully, we were able to make a connection and found out that Patricio, the guy who had fixed Big Blue before, was at La Libertad that day. Thus, he’d have to pass us on his way out and could at very least drive some of our stuff in. Coral and I went back and told the others. We decided to start hiking, just because we had no idea how long Patricio would be. Plus, Patricio didn’t even know we were there. So we finished repacking, locked up Big Blue, and started hiking. We hadn’t even gone 100 m when Patricio came along! Then, he looked at Big Blue and fixed the problem within 10 minutes!

Of course a whole week would be a lot to describe in such detail, so here are my highlights:

Orchids: We had seen some wild orchids in bloom at Rumi Loma, but there were tons in the cloud forest surrounding La Libertad. Most of them were smaller than the showy ones sold in the US, but they were absolutely amazing, and we became skilled at picking them out.

Parakeets: Pretty much every day, we saw at least 12 golden-plumed parakeets fly overhead. Usually, they weren’t close enough to see their colors, but they are the only parrots in the area with long tails, so we could always tell them apart. Plus, by the end of the week, all of us could recognize their call. My other favorite bird that we saw was the Turquoise Jay.

Hike with Stu: On Thursday, Stu drove up from Cuenca and took us on a hike from his house (which is amazing!) back to our camp. We walked through cloud forest with orchids, some bear sign, and came up above in paramo. From there, we hiked some along the ridge, and then headed back down. By this time, clouds were settling down on top of us. It was so mystical. I wish that my photography skills could capture it, but there is no way. Along the way back, we set out our first two camera traps.

Camera Trapping: Each of us is in charge of a research project this semester, but all of us help with each project. My primary project is camera trapping in order to see large mammals, including spectacled bears and puma. The cameras are attached to motion sensors and set out in locations with previous bear sign. I’m excited about the prospects, but also a bit wary about how many photos I’ll actually get. We tested all of the cameras, and most of them require quite a bit of motion before they take the picture.

Playing Archeologist: I mentioned before, that Tim, Elizabeth and I set up our tents in a sort of museum. Basically, there are about four wall plates talking about pottery during different Cañari time periods with examples that were found in the surrounding fields. Stu told us that if we paid attention, we would find pottery shards ourselves. On Saturday, Elizabeth noticed one, and then Coral saw one directly next to it. So we paused our hike and started digging. We ended up finding five pot shards which fit together to make up almost a quarter of a pot.

Tree Climbing: On Saturday, we hiked into the cloud forest to a large Podocarpus tree, which had a ladder on the side of it. However, we couldn’t use the ladder because a) it was slippery, b) a rung was broken, and c) the ladder came up beneath the platform so that you couldn’t move from one to the other. Instead, we threaded a rope over a branch, tied it down and harnessed ourselves in. Then, we used this in conjunction with the ladder to climb up. (Alex doesn’t like heights so he stayed on the ground.) The view was beautiful, and it was nice to get a closer look at the canopy. We then figure-8ed down.

Alpacas: Stu uses his land to raise alpacas, and their fields were all around us. Stu breeds his for the best characteristics, and on Sunday, he and Ramiero picked out the best ones for competition. I ended up helping most of the morning. Mainly, I opened and closed the gate when told to, but I also caught an alpaca and held it by the ears, and put a muzzle on another alpaca. Mainly, I learned a lot about what makes a good alpaca. In competition, about 70% of the score is based on fiber. The fineness is most important, which varies by only a few microns but makes a huge difference. You also want to the fiber to have crimp with a high frequency, to be dense, to have shine, and to have indistinguishable base hairs. The rest of the judging is based on composition, so the alpacas need good teeth and eyes.

Night Sky: The first night was super clear, which made me incredibly excited. Unfortunately, we were not able to pick out the Southern Cross. Thankfully, we have some star maps at the house, so I´m going to check them out, so that I´m prepared next time we go out to the field. We did see Orion, though. I found it a bit comforting to see such a familar constellation.

Sunrise: Yesterday, all but Alex woke up at 5 am in order to watch the sunrise. At this time, the sky was completely clear and we could see a ton of stars again. We then hiked up the mountain to get a better view. As we hiked, we watched the stars begin to disappear and clouds roll in. We got to our spot by 5:30 and watched the sun come up. Since we’re near the equator, the sun rises surprisingly quickly. It was beautiful. We hiked back down around 6:15 and then made a delicious breakfast of omelets and hash browns.

Cuenca Schedule

So we`re back from the field a day early. You`ll have to wait for those stories, but here`s the description of my normal activities, which I promised:

Our schedule varies a bunch, so it is impossible to capture fully what my typical week in Cuenca is, but hopefully this will begin to give you an idea of what we’re up to in town.

First, upon arrival back in town, there is a rush to take showers and do our laundry. We do all of our laundry by hand in a basin in the courtyard. After this decently lengthy process, we hang our clothes up to dry. Thankfully, there are tons of clotheslines to fit everyone’s clothes.

Of course, food is another necessity (one that we worry more about). We have grocery shopping trips for each length in Cuenca or the field. We try to buy everything that we can, mainly fruits and vegetables, from the local markets. We have now ventured far enough to buy a chicken from one of the meat stalls, but typically, we use beans as our source of protein. So far, we have used two markets. The one that we found recently has lunch vendors on the top floor, and we’ve had a couple of delicious lunches there. A fish soup once, and potatoes the other time. Mmmmm…. Most of our bread, including rolls, baguettes and regular loaves, comes from local panderias. Then, other basics like cheese, olives, tea, peanut butter, spices, and dried fruit are bought at Cuenca’s one supermarket, SuperMaxi.

As far as preparing the food, when we’re in town we have a rotation wheel, so that we alternate between chef, sous chef, dishes, counter, and being off at dinner time. Usually everyone makes there own breakfast and lunch, but sometimes someone will make pancakes for all or fry up a couple of plantains. We also occasionally eat out for dinner. This is more likely if we’ve been out all day and haven’t had a chance to start cooking by 6:00 pm. So far, we’ve gone out for Ecuadorian, Colombian, and chifa (Chinese).

We typically cram a number of classes in when we’re in town. Two of our instructors, Katherine and Theresa, live in Cuenca, so it is easiest to have their classes then. Also, we’ll have a number of Con Bio and Natural History lessons, since we have a bit more time. Usually, we’ve had one or two classes every day or two, but it varies a fair amount.

Every couple of days, we either have a morning or afternoon off. Some of these are recommended reading times, in which case, I usually walk down our street to the river and sit in the park to read. Elizabeth and I have also gone into town and bought juice (yay for mora!) and bread from a panderia, and then sat there doing our reading for a couple of hours.

Sometimes, we have free time without pressing readings. Usually, we head into town, check email and spend some time on the internet checking the news, and then find a new area to explore. Elizabeth and I have spent a day wandering craft markets and trying pan de yuca at a number of restaurants.

One other pattern in my schedule is Ecuadorian middle-aged woman workout. Coral discovered this, and Elizabeth and I decided that we had to try it, too. It is in the park down the river from our house and starts at 7:00am M-F and 7:30am on the weekends and lasts an hour. Basically, the workout is a combination of aerobics and salsa set to old Latin American and US pop music (e.g. Volverte a Ver, Toxic, and Thriller). In fact, I think that it would be a great Ebony dance. It isn’t necessarily a great source of exercise, but it is hilarious and a good way to wake up. Plus, it only costs a quarter. After the workout, we stop by a vendor to buy hot aloe drink. We aren’t entirely sure what all is in it, but it includes aloe, black tea, honey and flaxseed. We looked up consuming aloe, and it is supposed to be incredibly healthy and good for the immune system, so we fill really good about waking up to exercise and drink aloe. However, we only go to the class every few days because a) we like our sleep and b) occasionally we have other morning appointments or class before 9.

Speaking of sleep, we go to bed slightly later here than in the field, but I’m still usually asleep by 10:30. I’ve realized that I really do enjoy going to bed somewhere from 10:00 to 10:30 pm and waking up between 6:45 and 7:30 am. It’s quite nice.

We also take some day long adventures as a group from Cuenca. Ingapirca is one example. Also, we will visit Cajas National Park soon.

Futbol

On Saturday, everyone in Cuenca was wearing yellow in preparation for the world cup quals between Ecuador and Uraguay. We decided that we needed to participate, too.

Elizabeth, Coral, and I bought Ecuador jerserys, and then all six of us went to a sports bar to watch the game. It was hilarious cheering every time Ecuador had a shot on goal, especially as one of the few gringos and one of the few females in the bar. Also, everyone in the streets were yelling about the game. There was almost no traffic with everyone watching TV. The game was pretty good, but Ecuador ended up losing 1-2 in the second overtime.

Afterwards, we went out to dinner at a chifa (Chinese restaurant). It was a bit hard understand the Chinese waitresses speak Spanish, but then we realized that their Spanish is still probably better than ours. Oh well! The food did taste pretty good and helped us feel better about Ecuador´s lost.

The long awaited description of our house in Cuenca...

The house is beautiful! In fact, I’ve pretty much decided that it is ideal, though larger than I’d ever need.

To begin with, there are three floors. The first opens into a very open living room/dining room area with wooden floors. It isn’t really furnished but we have a table with chairs, a bookshelf, a mattress for sitting, and four poster sized maps. The openness also lends itself to practicing handstands.

The first floor also has the bathroom and kitchen. The kitchen is decently spacious (much better than Goodhue!) with a gas stove but no oven. We also keep bottled water for drinking there. The one thing about the bathroom is that the shower is rather creepy. It´s an electric shower, but the switch to turn on the heater is inside the shower and there are wires all around. It just seems to be the perfect way to be shocked.

The second floor has Jesse and Coral’s rooms and a small outdoors balcony. (Jesse’s room has an awesome mural of dolphins.) We usually watch movies in the open area of this floor. This week, we actually watched three very different movies. (Baraka was my favorite.) This floor also overlooks the first floor, and along the staircase, there are trenches were you are supposed to plant flowers. We all agree that it would be beautiful with filled with plants.

There is only a small, skinny staircase leading to the third floor where the students live. There is one large room, which Elizabeth and I share. Since this is the attic, the ceiling slopes downward, so we both have our mattresses in corners with the ceiling barely above us. It’s cozy. We also have a window looking out over Cuenca. One of the greatest features of our room is hammock hooks! We immediately wanted a hammock and ended up buying a rainbow one in the market downtown. It really brightens up the room.

The rest of the third floor is split into two sections by our room. The guys sleep on one side, and the other has the communal bookshelf and mattresses for hanging out. This floor also looks over the other floors, and right above the staircase is a huge skylight. My favorite part of this house is how well it uses natural light. This skylight floods most of the house with light, and downstairs, a number of the walls are simply windows, so that in the day, we don’t need to turn on the lights. I love it!

The house is also right next to our landowner`s, and there is a courtyard between the two where Luna, our neighbor´s dog, lives. We also do our laundry here. We have a nice backyard which overlooks Cuenca. We´re on the side of a hill, so the view is pretty good.

Also, last night we added a tree climbing rope to the house. We needed to test it before our adventure tomorrow, so we tied it off on the third floor and then practiced climbing inside. Additionally, Elizabeth used to do web in the circus, so she taught us a couple of the basic holds. Yay for circus tricks!

I´ll try to post about my normal schedule in Cuenca next time we´re in town. (Probably about a week.)