2-8-09
February 4th and 5th we had the routine of: breakfast, collecting data, lunch, lecture, dinner, and relax. The first day we took data about tree and vine density in near the river bed verse the hilltop and compared data. The second day we collected insects from the primary forest, secondary forest, and pasture and compared the abundance each order of insect. Along with this routine, every morning and night cicadas started to rub their legs together and make an almost defining sound. Also, during the insect collection we came to find that they were also very stupid. They seem to fly around completely aimlessly until running into something they could sit on, sitting for a short time then starting to fly aimlessly again, very odd. Another sound that we were always awaken to was howler monkeys, these are much cuter than cicadas and definitely more coordinated, mainly since they have thumbs and awesome tails that act like a fifth hand most of the time. During one lecture we were startled by the loudest howler we had heard yet, soon we were able to see it out of the window of our house, at which time lecture was forced to take a break while we went to go watch the monkeys. Another run in with monkeys happened when Dave and John went to stay in a recently built tree house for the night. When they arrived they were greeted by a capuchin monkey. These monkeys are much more rare to see because they are heavily hunted for the pet trade and therefore very afraid of humans. Along with lots of monkey and cicadas, we were also bombarded with bananas. I never realized how many ways you can eat a banana and that is it appropriate to eat at every meal. Granted they have a much larger variety of bananas in Ecuador than Wisconsin, but still after this trip I with I will be set on potassium for a very long time. Another thing we ate a lot of was yogurt, but not just any yogurt, Yogur Don Lalo. Lalo Loor is the owner of the reserve and makes most of his money from dairy farming and making dairy related products, and let me tell you this is seriously the best yogurt I have ever had. Between the animals and the food my stay at Lalo Loor was definitely interesting and exciting.
On Friday the 6th, our last day at Lalo Loor, we switched it up did volunteer work around the reserve. This consisted of everything from gardening to trail maintenance to cleaning to house. Finally after working hard all morning we headed off to the beach for our free weekend. The beach was about a 30 minute bus ride away and was called Punta Pierta, or black point. We got there set up or tents and went for a swim. We were told the riptide would go south so most of us entered in the northern side of the beach expected to get pushed southward. Unfortunately the riptide was going north and there was a large cliff with jagged rocks underneath it to the north. I was trying to catch some waves and body surf but found myself spending all my energy trying to swim away from the rock. At one point I was stuck in same spot for quite awhile because I wold swim away from the rocks then a wave would come and push me toward them then I would swim away and another wave would come, etc. Finally I got back to shore; not very satisfied with my first swim since it was mainly spent trying to avoid rocks. soon about 5 students came onto the beach all scratched up, I soon found out that they had gotten stuck on the rocks and had no choice but to go around the point and walked back on the street to our side of the beach. Jane and Nicole, who I have become closest with on the trip so far, were 2 of the students that got stuck on the rocks. Upon there return they were kind of shaken up and we went p to the restraint to have a beer and decompress. After dinner out professors, Joe and Cath, invited some of their friends to a party on the beach. The party consisted of a camp fire some volunteers from neighboring towns and some local boys. There was meringue music but no dancing and I was brought back to middle school when the girls and the boys were separated at dances. However, this time is was the boys who wanted to dance and the girls who were too shy. Eventually we started to mingle and it ended up being a pretty fun night.
The next day we had off to do anything we wanted. A couple people went off on a horse ride while most of us stayed at the beach to relax. My day consisted of swimming and playing testy ball on the beach. Testy ball is a very hard game to explain, but it involves throwing a string with a ball attached to each side into a ladder like structure to gain points. Nicole and I won, obviously. After a lazy day on the beach we all slowly started to realize that despite reapplying sunscreen throughout the day, most of us were very badly burnt, myself included. At dinner we passed around a aloe plant and tried not to think about the horrible pain we were in. After dinner we gathered on the beach where those with musical talent entertained the rest of us until we all scattered off to our respected tents.
The next morning at about 5am it started pouring rain, the last thing you want went you have to pack up your tent in less than 3 hours. A half hour before we had to be all packed up the rain stopped and we folded up our soaked tents went to breakfast. After eating we got into the bus and started to drive up the hill to the main road. Soon we realized this was not going to be as easy as it sounded. The rain had made the dirt road to muddy to drive up without getting stuck. So, we all got out and started to rebuild the road with gravel and dead palm leaves. Then about 5 people pushed the back off the bus and eventually we got up the driveway. We got back on the bus and realized on of the students, Carl, was “asleep” on the bus the whole time and avoided all the hard labor. On the ride back I looked at the date on my watch and realized it was February 8th, and that the 1 month count down to my 21st birthday was well underway. In the states I am sure that February 6th, the one month mark to me being able to legally drink, would have been a pretty important day but here I didn’t even realize. Finally, after 7 uncomfortable hours on the bus we back in cold Quito.
We have the next 2 days off then we go to school at USFQ for 2 days before heading to Tiputini in the Amazon. We will be in the Amazon from February 13 to March 1, and internet will not be available, so please don’t worry that there are no blog posts for the next couple weeks. If anything horrible happens to me I am sure my parents will be notified ASAP, so if you do here any news before I get back it is probably not a good sign. Also, new pictures have been added to http://brittinecuador.shutterfly.com/
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Lalo Loor Biological Station
2-3-09
Today is the official one month mark in my trip. We got into the dry forest near the coast of Ecuador yesterday and are staying in a reserve that Ceiba helped form called Lalo Loor. The dry forest is a lot like the temperate forest in that most trees seasonally lose their leaves and in many ways it resembles a temperate forest. The first day we got in late afternoon and settled in. Once it got dark most people went on a night hike, but I like to know my surroundings a little better before venturing into the darkness, so I stayed back with a few others. Unfortunately, our house was soon invaded by very large ants. The first one was spotted by Rita, who is currently trying to get over her fear of insects. She came running out of her room proclaiming there was an ant the size of a shoe near her clothes. I went in to investigate, and while the ant was larger than any I had ever seen before, about 1 inch in length, and had biting mouth parts that did not look friendly, it was definitely not the size of any adult’s shoe. We showed the ant to our professor who had come back from the hike to get a flashlight and binoculars to get a better look at a snake in a tree. She did not know what kind it was, which did not make us feel any better. More and more ants began to appear and soon we felt surrounded. Then one of the local employs came in and picked one up without hesitation and asked for our hand to put it in, we were still ot convinced they were safe. We asked him if they were poisonous and he said no, but would not tell us if the bit or not. Finally we got used to them and tried to go on with our business without too much worry. Eventually the rest of the group came back and also noticed the ants. By this time we were not impressed by them anymore and the night slowly wound down. Today I was woke up at 5:30 to the sounds of exotic birds and howler monkeys. At about 6 some of us went to find the monkeys that sounded very close. We found them in a tree about 100 meters from out house. They were just shilling in the tree having their daily breakfast of leaves. After watching them for about 30 minutes we headed back for breakfast. At 7:30 we left for our day hike, which was scheduled to return around 2:30. These hikes are usually fairly easy because we stop a lot to take notes about flora and fauna, but the day was hot and we were all wearing long pants and rubber boots. This is typically attire in order to avoid scratches as well as ants and snakes from climbing up your legs. Other than this being very hot, mosquitoes know no boundaries and apparently have a special taste for my hinny. Needless to say I was kind of miserable on the hike. I do not especially like hot weather, I would much rather be in the mountains. But, one thing that the mountains do not have that I do enjoy is monkeys, and we saw about 3 groups on our hike, which made up for being physically uncomfortable. We arrived back at camp around 1m, much earlier than expected, and being the other groups. We were all very hot and dirty and we aching to go to the beach. Jamie Rose asked our teacher if we could, to which we were all expected to be denied, but amazingly she said yes. She told us which beach to go to and said it was about a 45 minute walk. So we changed and started on our way. Once we got to the main road the sun got really intense and we decided walking way much less efficient than hitch hiking. Luckily the next vehicle to drive by was a bus full of people. All the seats were taken but the lets s stand in the back with the food for free. We didn’t know exactly where our destination was, so we got let off a little past it, but we still definitely saved lots of time and energy. We got to the beach and immediately went in the water. it was perfectly refreshing and warm. We stayed there for about an hour and enjoyed every moment. I think I enjoyed it a little too much though… I got caught up in the freeness of the beach and did a celebratory cartwheel. Unfortunately forgetting that I had just taken of my cast one week before and my wrist was definitely not ready for that kind of action, lesson learned. We hitched a ride back to Lalo Loor in what smelled like an empty fish truck. When we got back to the rest the group greeted us with scorns and snide remarks. They were not very excited that they were not able to go to the beach as well, and very bitter. After a short lecture we ate dinner and spent the rest of the night playing some camp fire games, although we didn’t actually have a camp fire.
So far this trip has been pretty amazing and I cannot wait for the next 3 and a half months! My next trips are: 2.5 weeks in Tiputini Biodiversity Station in the middle of the Amazon, then I have a week for spring break which my mom is visiting for, then we go to the coast for a week, followed by 2 weeks in the Galapagos , then finally I have a month internship in the Amazonian town of Tena (more information to come.)
Pienso que Ecuador es superchevere! (Translation: I think Ecuador is super cool.)
Today is the official one month mark in my trip. We got into the dry forest near the coast of Ecuador yesterday and are staying in a reserve that Ceiba helped form called Lalo Loor. The dry forest is a lot like the temperate forest in that most trees seasonally lose their leaves and in many ways it resembles a temperate forest. The first day we got in late afternoon and settled in. Once it got dark most people went on a night hike, but I like to know my surroundings a little better before venturing into the darkness, so I stayed back with a few others. Unfortunately, our house was soon invaded by very large ants. The first one was spotted by Rita, who is currently trying to get over her fear of insects. She came running out of her room proclaiming there was an ant the size of a shoe near her clothes. I went in to investigate, and while the ant was larger than any I had ever seen before, about 1 inch in length, and had biting mouth parts that did not look friendly, it was definitely not the size of any adult’s shoe. We showed the ant to our professor who had come back from the hike to get a flashlight and binoculars to get a better look at a snake in a tree. She did not know what kind it was, which did not make us feel any better. More and more ants began to appear and soon we felt surrounded. Then one of the local employs came in and picked one up without hesitation and asked for our hand to put it in, we were still ot convinced they were safe. We asked him if they were poisonous and he said no, but would not tell us if the bit or not. Finally we got used to them and tried to go on with our business without too much worry. Eventually the rest of the group came back and also noticed the ants. By this time we were not impressed by them anymore and the night slowly wound down. Today I was woke up at 5:30 to the sounds of exotic birds and howler monkeys. At about 6 some of us went to find the monkeys that sounded very close. We found them in a tree about 100 meters from out house. They were just shilling in the tree having their daily breakfast of leaves. After watching them for about 30 minutes we headed back for breakfast. At 7:30 we left for our day hike, which was scheduled to return around 2:30. These hikes are usually fairly easy because we stop a lot to take notes about flora and fauna, but the day was hot and we were all wearing long pants and rubber boots. This is typically attire in order to avoid scratches as well as ants and snakes from climbing up your legs. Other than this being very hot, mosquitoes know no boundaries and apparently have a special taste for my hinny. Needless to say I was kind of miserable on the hike. I do not especially like hot weather, I would much rather be in the mountains. But, one thing that the mountains do not have that I do enjoy is monkeys, and we saw about 3 groups on our hike, which made up for being physically uncomfortable. We arrived back at camp around 1m, much earlier than expected, and being the other groups. We were all very hot and dirty and we aching to go to the beach. Jamie Rose asked our teacher if we could, to which we were all expected to be denied, but amazingly she said yes. She told us which beach to go to and said it was about a 45 minute walk. So we changed and started on our way. Once we got to the main road the sun got really intense and we decided walking way much less efficient than hitch hiking. Luckily the next vehicle to drive by was a bus full of people. All the seats were taken but the lets s stand in the back with the food for free. We didn’t know exactly where our destination was, so we got let off a little past it, but we still definitely saved lots of time and energy. We got to the beach and immediately went in the water. it was perfectly refreshing and warm. We stayed there for about an hour and enjoyed every moment. I think I enjoyed it a little too much though… I got caught up in the freeness of the beach and did a celebratory cartwheel. Unfortunately forgetting that I had just taken of my cast one week before and my wrist was definitely not ready for that kind of action, lesson learned. We hitched a ride back to Lalo Loor in what smelled like an empty fish truck. When we got back to the rest the group greeted us with scorns and snide remarks. They were not very excited that they were not able to go to the beach as well, and very bitter. After a short lecture we ate dinner and spent the rest of the night playing some camp fire games, although we didn’t actually have a camp fire.
So far this trip has been pretty amazing and I cannot wait for the next 3 and a half months! My next trips are: 2.5 weeks in Tiputini Biodiversity Station in the middle of the Amazon, then I have a week for spring break which my mom is visiting for, then we go to the coast for a week, followed by 2 weeks in the Galapagos , then finally I have a month internship in the Amazonian town of Tena (more information to come.)
Pienso que Ecuador es superchevere! (Translation: I think Ecuador is super cool.)
Monday, February 9, 2009
paramo
2-1-09
This weekend we ventured to 15,000 feet to learn about the páramo, or tropical tundra. Tundra is one of my favorite landscapes mainly because I love mountains and glaciers. On our way up the mountain we stopped at a polylepis forest. Polylepis is the only tree that can survive above the tree line in the elfin forest. The trees are short and the branches are mangled creating very nice protection from the wind and keeping the interior of the forest a few degrees warmer. These forests are thousands of years old and absolutely beautiful, it is an ecosystem that is so specifically modified to its environment and is unfortunately decreasing rapidly as people move above the tree line to raise cattle and sheep and cut it down because it is the only tree up there to use as firewood and building material. By the time we reached 15,000 feet it was very cold and foggy. Luckily we were all mostly prepared for such weather even though we were hoping for a nice sunny day. We started out by following our teachers around as they told us the names of plants and pointed out key adaptive features for surviving in such a harsh environment. After that they sent us off to collect some data then we heading down to eat lunch. After lunch it started to clear up a little but remained cold and windy. Then we all dispersed in different directions to collect data about the diversity of species on the mountain. At the end of the day we headed to a natural hot spring, something we were all especially looking forward to after the cold day in the field. The hot spring was a perfect end to the cold day. It was right next to a stream and one of the pools conveniently had easy access to a calm part of the stream. The challenge was to stay in the cold stream for 7 seconds submerged to your neck before jumping back in the hot spring. About 10 of us did it while the others watched in pain. It was pretty much like jumping in the Wisconsin snow out of a hot tub; you know that the warm water is so close and that the pain of the cold water will be short lived. We headed back to Quito all warm and sleepy. On Saturday we heading up another mountain to compare and contrast the plant life. This mountain has converted into mainly pasture, while yesterday we were in a preserved area. We did get very luck and see an Andean Condor, an endangered species, along with some other pretty cool birds. We took our data of diversity and had lunch at a lagoon nearby. The lagoon is one of the major sources for Quito’s drinking water and has a wonderful view of the adjacent Antisana Mountain. Antisana peaks at about 21,000 feet and covered by a large glacier. Luckily right around lunch the clouds cleared enough to get a spectacular view. Soon we headed back down and made plans to go the mariscal to celebrate John’s 21st birthday. A lot of us have our 21st are here and it is a little anticlimactic since the drinking age is 18 and loosely enforced. But we celebrated at a Tapas bar and I ended up meeting some people from Argentina and spent the rest of the night trying my best to understand Spanish, thankfully the Argentinean accent is fairly easy and I had 2 Spanish teachers with the same accent. Spending time with them just made me want to go to Argentina even more. Ever since I found out I got into this program I have said if I have any money by the end I am going to Argentina, unfortunately without a cell phone here I will probably never see my new Argentinean friends again even if I do go down there. The next morning I woke up with the horrible realization that I had slept in my contacts, and as I was taking them out I think I scratched my eye. So I have hspent the whole day with my eye swollen and watering profusely. And instead of going out to watch the Superbowl I am stuck at home writing this blog and making a lot of typos due to my right eye being completely blurry (thank god for spell check.)
Update: I woke up the next morning and my eye felt 100 percent better and I edited this blog, there were some kind of funny mistsakes. Also, i posted pictures on shutterfly from the paramo. (see link below)
This weekend we ventured to 15,000 feet to learn about the páramo, or tropical tundra. Tundra is one of my favorite landscapes mainly because I love mountains and glaciers. On our way up the mountain we stopped at a polylepis forest. Polylepis is the only tree that can survive above the tree line in the elfin forest. The trees are short and the branches are mangled creating very nice protection from the wind and keeping the interior of the forest a few degrees warmer. These forests are thousands of years old and absolutely beautiful, it is an ecosystem that is so specifically modified to its environment and is unfortunately decreasing rapidly as people move above the tree line to raise cattle and sheep and cut it down because it is the only tree up there to use as firewood and building material. By the time we reached 15,000 feet it was very cold and foggy. Luckily we were all mostly prepared for such weather even though we were hoping for a nice sunny day. We started out by following our teachers around as they told us the names of plants and pointed out key adaptive features for surviving in such a harsh environment. After that they sent us off to collect some data then we heading down to eat lunch. After lunch it started to clear up a little but remained cold and windy. Then we all dispersed in different directions to collect data about the diversity of species on the mountain. At the end of the day we headed to a natural hot spring, something we were all especially looking forward to after the cold day in the field. The hot spring was a perfect end to the cold day. It was right next to a stream and one of the pools conveniently had easy access to a calm part of the stream. The challenge was to stay in the cold stream for 7 seconds submerged to your neck before jumping back in the hot spring. About 10 of us did it while the others watched in pain. It was pretty much like jumping in the Wisconsin snow out of a hot tub; you know that the warm water is so close and that the pain of the cold water will be short lived. We headed back to Quito all warm and sleepy. On Saturday we heading up another mountain to compare and contrast the plant life. This mountain has converted into mainly pasture, while yesterday we were in a preserved area. We did get very luck and see an Andean Condor, an endangered species, along with some other pretty cool birds. We took our data of diversity and had lunch at a lagoon nearby. The lagoon is one of the major sources for Quito’s drinking water and has a wonderful view of the adjacent Antisana Mountain. Antisana peaks at about 21,000 feet and covered by a large glacier. Luckily right around lunch the clouds cleared enough to get a spectacular view. Soon we headed back down and made plans to go the mariscal to celebrate John’s 21st birthday. A lot of us have our 21st are here and it is a little anticlimactic since the drinking age is 18 and loosely enforced. But we celebrated at a Tapas bar and I ended up meeting some people from Argentina and spent the rest of the night trying my best to understand Spanish, thankfully the Argentinean accent is fairly easy and I had 2 Spanish teachers with the same accent. Spending time with them just made me want to go to Argentina even more. Ever since I found out I got into this program I have said if I have any money by the end I am going to Argentina, unfortunately without a cell phone here I will probably never see my new Argentinean friends again even if I do go down there. The next morning I woke up with the horrible realization that I had slept in my contacts, and as I was taking them out I think I scratched my eye. So I have hspent the whole day with my eye swollen and watering profusely. And instead of going out to watch the Superbowl I am stuck at home writing this blog and making a lot of typos due to my right eye being completely blurry (thank god for spell check.)
Update: I woke up the next morning and my eye felt 100 percent better and I edited this blog, there were some kind of funny mistsakes. Also, i posted pictures on shutterfly from the paramo. (see link below)
otavalo
1-25-09
This weekend we did not have a scheduled trip so a majority of my group went to Otavalo, a small town known for its huge artisan market every Saturday (supposedly the largest market in South America.) We left Quito on Friday after school. I heard the bus ride was supposed to take anywhere from 1 to 2.5 hours, but was not surprised when it took almost 3 hours since nothing seems to run according to schedule here. We arrived in Otavalo found our hostel then went to a restaurant we read about in the travel book Lonely Planet for dinner. The main reason for going to this restaurant was we read it had hummus and we were all craving some Middle Eastern food. Unfortunately, when we tried to order our hummus platter… they were out. This seems to be a very common occurrence in Ecuador, but it is still sad when you were looking forward to something as much as we were looking forward to some hummus. But we were all starving so we found other things to order and the food was pretty good for about 2-3 dollars a plate. After dinner we meet up with some other people in our group and found out about some dicotecas nearby. By this time, 9 pm, it was rainy pretty hard but we ventured out in hopes of finding something entertaining. After getting many vague and faulty directions, another common occurrence here, we found the first bar. There was no one there. We went to the next bar, no one. We were all soaking wet so we gave up and headed home. When I got back to my hostel I realized my roommates were not home yet, and they had the key. I was with the 3 girls from the room next and they were nice enough to sit on the porch with me to wait for my key to arrive. By the time it reached about 11 we were thoroughly tired and my friend offered to share her bed with me for the night. I would have accepted, but I remember the windows to our room looked pretty sketchy and easy to break into, and as I predicted I pretty effortlessly broke into my room. My roommate ended up coming home around 1, and apologized profusely.
The next morning my friend Nicole and I woke up at 5:30am in order to go to the animal market at 6. The animal market pretty much like a farmer’s market, but with live animals. We were the only gringos (white/foreign people) there. We walked around for awhile, trying to avoid large bulls that looked like they were about to charge. Soon we got hungry and found a stand making fresh empanadas. They were 15 cents each and they were amazing. After taking lots of pictures we went back to the hostel to meet the rest of our group and head to the artisan market. The hostel owner made sure we all paid for our rooms before going to the market, a very good idea because many of s were left without money after the market. By the way, the hostel was 8 dollars a night and included a very satisfying breakfast. At the market we all had a good time bartering for the best deal and finding the coolest alpaca attire. For lunch some of us decided to try our first taste of street food and eat a wonderful meal of tilapia, potatoes, and aji. Aji is an Ecuadorian staple, it is pretty such like hot sauce and is slightly different at each restaurant or house. So far the Otavalan aji is definitely my favorite with just the right proportion of spice and onions. After our meal we went back to our hostel and sat in the courtyard enjoying the hammocks and beautiful weather. That night we planned to go to a cock fight, another thing we read about in Lonely Planet. The book said it started at 7 so we showed up about 10 minutes early to get good seats, but we couldn’t even get in. So, we wandered around the neighborhood for awhile and made friends with a stray dog to kill some time. Then at about 10 after we headed back. This time the doors were open, but we were the only ones there except for 2 other gringos. The arena was pretty gross with mushrooms growing out of the wall in the bathroom and bright green mold scattered everywhere. At about 8 the first cock and his owner arrived and we were hopeful that the show would start soon. Another hour passed and some more people came but it did not look like they had the slightest intention of starting anytime soon. At about 9:30 the chickens were all there, I don’t know exactly what was happening but outside of the arena the owners had their birds on a table in what looked like some sort of way to size then up and decided which were going to fight and who was betting on who’s cock. Finally at about 10pm, 3 hours after we arrived, the first fight started. It lasted for about 5 minutes and was a lot like boxing seeming to have multiple rounds and points given when one cock pinned another. It ended when one of the chickens was no longer able to get up. It took about 30 minutes for the next fight to start and this one was much shorter because the winning birds broke the others wing very quickly. After this fight I noticed some people we had seen earlier that day at the Animal Market. They had a large camera and were interviewing people at the market. Soon they came up to some of the kids in my group and asked them to answer some questions on camera about their experience. They agreed and after we inquired as to what it was for. It turns out they are from Spanish and are doing a documentary on Ecuador in hopes of getting it on Lonely Planet TV. Ironically the same guide book we had used to plan our trip, but also made sense that we saw them at 2 places which we read about in the book. The next fight was the worst, lasting a long time and a very uneven match. The losing chicken was bleeding a lot, at which time the owner licks the blood off and spits it out (ew). Near the end of the match the one chicken was actually running away from the other trying to escape the ring. Finally, the match was over and I had witnessed enough cock fighting to last me a very long time. I am glad I went it was an interesting cultural experience but I definitely never need to see that again.
The next day we slept in a little and ate breakfast at the hostel. During breakfast we there were some people sitting at the table next to us speaking English they overhead s talking about the cock fight and wanted to hear about it. Turns out one of them was originally from Wisconsin, and they all now live in Alaska, small world. After some wonderful Sarah Palin jokes we headed off to explore a lake about a 30 minutes bus ride from Otavalo. We got there and rode in the back of a pick-up truck up to the lake. This was the cheapest and obviously most fun option to get to the lake. We had about 10 people in the back of a small truck bed, clearly something that would not fly in the states. We got up to the lake and started to walk around. Me and 3 others decided to start walking around the lake, we knew that we couldn’t make it all the way around because it takes about 5 hours and we wanted to get back to Quito before dark, but we wanted to at least go as far as we cold. We got about a quarter of the way around before we had to turn back for time’s sake. The lake is in an old volcanic crater and the trail is along the mountain ridge around the lake. The view was spectacular despite some cloud obstructing our view of the Andes. Soon we headed back to Quito to get a good night sleep before class Monday.
This weekend we did not have a scheduled trip so a majority of my group went to Otavalo, a small town known for its huge artisan market every Saturday (supposedly the largest market in South America.) We left Quito on Friday after school. I heard the bus ride was supposed to take anywhere from 1 to 2.5 hours, but was not surprised when it took almost 3 hours since nothing seems to run according to schedule here. We arrived in Otavalo found our hostel then went to a restaurant we read about in the travel book Lonely Planet for dinner. The main reason for going to this restaurant was we read it had hummus and we were all craving some Middle Eastern food. Unfortunately, when we tried to order our hummus platter… they were out. This seems to be a very common occurrence in Ecuador, but it is still sad when you were looking forward to something as much as we were looking forward to some hummus. But we were all starving so we found other things to order and the food was pretty good for about 2-3 dollars a plate. After dinner we meet up with some other people in our group and found out about some dicotecas nearby. By this time, 9 pm, it was rainy pretty hard but we ventured out in hopes of finding something entertaining. After getting many vague and faulty directions, another common occurrence here, we found the first bar. There was no one there. We went to the next bar, no one. We were all soaking wet so we gave up and headed home. When I got back to my hostel I realized my roommates were not home yet, and they had the key. I was with the 3 girls from the room next and they were nice enough to sit on the porch with me to wait for my key to arrive. By the time it reached about 11 we were thoroughly tired and my friend offered to share her bed with me for the night. I would have accepted, but I remember the windows to our room looked pretty sketchy and easy to break into, and as I predicted I pretty effortlessly broke into my room. My roommate ended up coming home around 1, and apologized profusely.
The next morning my friend Nicole and I woke up at 5:30am in order to go to the animal market at 6. The animal market pretty much like a farmer’s market, but with live animals. We were the only gringos (white/foreign people) there. We walked around for awhile, trying to avoid large bulls that looked like they were about to charge. Soon we got hungry and found a stand making fresh empanadas. They were 15 cents each and they were amazing. After taking lots of pictures we went back to the hostel to meet the rest of our group and head to the artisan market. The hostel owner made sure we all paid for our rooms before going to the market, a very good idea because many of s were left without money after the market. By the way, the hostel was 8 dollars a night and included a very satisfying breakfast. At the market we all had a good time bartering for the best deal and finding the coolest alpaca attire. For lunch some of us decided to try our first taste of street food and eat a wonderful meal of tilapia, potatoes, and aji. Aji is an Ecuadorian staple, it is pretty such like hot sauce and is slightly different at each restaurant or house. So far the Otavalan aji is definitely my favorite with just the right proportion of spice and onions. After our meal we went back to our hostel and sat in the courtyard enjoying the hammocks and beautiful weather. That night we planned to go to a cock fight, another thing we read about in Lonely Planet. The book said it started at 7 so we showed up about 10 minutes early to get good seats, but we couldn’t even get in. So, we wandered around the neighborhood for awhile and made friends with a stray dog to kill some time. Then at about 10 after we headed back. This time the doors were open, but we were the only ones there except for 2 other gringos. The arena was pretty gross with mushrooms growing out of the wall in the bathroom and bright green mold scattered everywhere. At about 8 the first cock and his owner arrived and we were hopeful that the show would start soon. Another hour passed and some more people came but it did not look like they had the slightest intention of starting anytime soon. At about 9:30 the chickens were all there, I don’t know exactly what was happening but outside of the arena the owners had their birds on a table in what looked like some sort of way to size then up and decided which were going to fight and who was betting on who’s cock. Finally at about 10pm, 3 hours after we arrived, the first fight started. It lasted for about 5 minutes and was a lot like boxing seeming to have multiple rounds and points given when one cock pinned another. It ended when one of the chickens was no longer able to get up. It took about 30 minutes for the next fight to start and this one was much shorter because the winning birds broke the others wing very quickly. After this fight I noticed some people we had seen earlier that day at the Animal Market. They had a large camera and were interviewing people at the market. Soon they came up to some of the kids in my group and asked them to answer some questions on camera about their experience. They agreed and after we inquired as to what it was for. It turns out they are from Spanish and are doing a documentary on Ecuador in hopes of getting it on Lonely Planet TV. Ironically the same guide book we had used to plan our trip, but also made sense that we saw them at 2 places which we read about in the book. The next fight was the worst, lasting a long time and a very uneven match. The losing chicken was bleeding a lot, at which time the owner licks the blood off and spits it out (ew). Near the end of the match the one chicken was actually running away from the other trying to escape the ring. Finally, the match was over and I had witnessed enough cock fighting to last me a very long time. I am glad I went it was an interesting cultural experience but I definitely never need to see that again.
The next day we slept in a little and ate breakfast at the hostel. During breakfast we there were some people sitting at the table next to us speaking English they overhead s talking about the cock fight and wanted to hear about it. Turns out one of them was originally from Wisconsin, and they all now live in Alaska, small world. After some wonderful Sarah Palin jokes we headed off to explore a lake about a 30 minutes bus ride from Otavalo. We got there and rode in the back of a pick-up truck up to the lake. This was the cheapest and obviously most fun option to get to the lake. We had about 10 people in the back of a small truck bed, clearly something that would not fly in the states. We got up to the lake and started to walk around. Me and 3 others decided to start walking around the lake, we knew that we couldn’t make it all the way around because it takes about 5 hours and we wanted to get back to Quito before dark, but we wanted to at least go as far as we cold. We got about a quarter of the way around before we had to turn back for time’s sake. The lake is in an old volcanic crater and the trail is along the mountain ridge around the lake. The view was spectacular despite some cloud obstructing our view of the Andes. Soon we headed back to Quito to get a good night sleep before class Monday.
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