El Bosque Nuboso

Only one more adventure left in the Ecuador chronicles.  The day before we returned home, we traveled to the Bellavista Cloud Forest Reserve.  Those of you that know me, know I was traumatized by the selva from the Peru trip last year, so I was a bit apprehensive about the cloud forest.  I learned last year that the idea of trekking through the Amazonian rainforest was much more appealing in theory than it was in practice – at least for me.

Don’t get me wrong, it was beautiful and fascinating, BUT…

It was super-hot all the time, and there wasn’t any power most of time.  The power went on from 5:30 to 9:30 in the evening which got us a slow rotating fan in the room too high up to give a real breeze and 1 dim light bulb.  No hot showers and it was probably a good thing I could not really see much in the bathroom.  Glad I went, but I never want to go again.  This girl enjoys nature, but at the end of the day I want a hot shower, cool beverage, and to sleep without the spiders…

 

Anyway, the point is that I was a bit apprehensive about going to the cloud forest.  It was similar but yet different.  Maybe because we only spent the day?  Who knows, but that I would do again.  In Spanish Bosque Nuboso is how you say cloud forest.  It sounds pretty in both languages.

It was a 2 hour drive from Quito to Bellavista.  We left early, around 6:30 am and had breakfast when we arrived at the reserve.  It was a tasty breakfast of fruit with yogurt and homemade granola.  This was followed by a plate of eggs as well.  Karen procured a bag of granola for our hike.  I do believe she bogarted it though!  A hearty breakfast for those of us headed out to trek through the cloud forest was appreciated.

We met our guide, who briefed us about the hike.  We would need our rain coats, a walking stick, and some wellies (rubber boots).  We then had to decide which hike we wanted to go on – the easy one, the medium one, or the hard one.  There was much debate, the hard one had the best scenery, but we were not sure if we were up to the challenge.  I thought we settled on the medium difficulty trek and geared up.  The cloud forest was phenomenal!

We started our journey, learning about the flora and fauna that characterized the area as we went. I soon discovered why we needed the wellies….A good portion of the trek required us to walk in a stream.  Okay, I can dig it.  No problem.   That was until we reached the first waterfall.  Oh yes, we are climbing it.  No worries, our guide says.  There is a ladder and a rope to help us. Ha!  See for yourself.  Still a bit scary for us city slickers.  Oh, and there are 2 more along the way to our final destination.  And no chickening out, this is a one-way trip, we are not going to return the way we came through.

I did it though, so did the rest of the gang.  We were proud of ourselves.  Although the first one was the most difficult in terms of height, the other 2 only had a rope, no ladder, to help us.  Our final destination was a beautiful waterfall.  Gracias, that we don’t have to climb that one too!  When we were not either traversing the stream or climbing the waterfalls we were climbing up and down the terrain in mud.

It was very worth it in the end though.  What an experience.  The way back was less eventful, lots of mud and uneven terrain, not too scary though.  When we arrived back, I joked that thank goodness that was only the medium trek.  Our guide then says, oh no, that was the difficult one, it is the only way to get to the waterfall.  I don’t think that any of realized before we left that we were going for the hard trek.  I think we would have chickened out and said no.  But in the end we were all glad that we did do it.

I learned that day not to underestimate my own abilities.  And not to talk myself out of being able to do things that I had not tried before.  If there were an option to not climb those waterfalls, I would have said I couldn’t do it.  But  I did, and I can.  I great experience and a great life lesson that day.

Cotopaxi: Visite el anillo de fuego del Pacífico

The last weekend we spent in Ecuador was full of adventure.  On Sabado, we visited Cotopaxi, a 1500 year old volcano located 17 mi south of Quito.  Cotopaxi has one of the few equatorial glaciers in the world. The mountain is clearly visible on the skyline from Quito. It is part of the chain of volcanoes around the Pacific plate known as the Pacific Ring of Fire. Cotopaxi is the second highest peak in the country, reaching a height of 19,347 ft.  It is the second most popular destination in Ecuador, after the Galapagos Islands.

Cotopaxi National Park was created in 1975 as a protected area for the volcanoes and lakes within it.  An impressive array of animals live within the 34,000-hectare park such as condors, pumas, spectacled bears, Andean foxes, orange-headed caracaras (a specie of endemic to the region), llamas, frogs, paramo, humming birds and many others.  This park also has an important collection of lakes and mountain peaks. One the most outstanding of these is Limpiopungo Lake, which reflects in its waters majestic Rumiñahui 4,757 metres high; Santo Domingo Lake, surrounded by walls on Incan stone, the ruins of pucarás (Incan forts) and other stone platforms which are thought to have been built by Pre-Colombian shepherds.

El grupo Craven con Diego y Diego menor

We hiked to the way station which is 2/3 the way up the volcano.  Visitors are able to hike all the way to the peak, but it requires camping along the way.  Our shorter hike to the way station actually took a while, because we were at altitude.  I run a 5k several times per week, so I think I’m in pretty decent shape, athletic-wise.  So it was humbling to walk a few short steps and then have to stop and rest while breathing heavy.  I think it took about 2 hours for us to make the hike up from the car park, which was higher than the base of the volcano itself.  Of those of us who embarked on the journey, only 3 of us made it to our destination. Once we got there, was it worth it.  The view was spectacular.

Kayla Y yo en el pico

Diego, our fearless leader from the Academia, treated us to a hot chocolate from the coffee shop there as a reward for making to our destination and I shared a tasty passion fruit infused chocolate bar I purchased at the MegaMaxi the day before.

We spent some time enjoying Cotopaxi and the spectacular view of the region around it before we headed down to meet the rest of our party.  Going down was much faster than up, it only took ~ 25 minutes!  It was like sand surfing… part sliding part walking.  We just dug our heals in and part walked, part slid down the mountain.

After our hike up the mountain we stopped at a beautiful hacienda for lunch.  The food was tasty and the rest very welcome.  We had worked up a big appetite climbing Cotopaxi and expended a lot of energy.

Los Niños de San José Obrero-Comité

As part of our study abroad experience I like to plan service learning activity.  While in Ecuador we spent the better part of week interacting with students in an afterschool program.  Each afternoon we traveled by bus to an area of Quito called  San José Obrero-Comité to visit their afterschool program called Ñeque y más Ñeque.  The name can be translated in English to “strength and more strength.”

In Ecuador children go to school from 7 am to 1 pm and are provided breakfast at their school.  The program runs from 1 pm to 5 pm and is an effort to keep the children in this barrio of the streets.  San José Obrero-Comité is depressed area – families are poor and the barrio has a high crime rate and drug problem.  The afterschool program was started to give children a place to go afterschool other than the streets.  Here children are fed lunch, able to get tutoring help with their schoolwork, and are taught values – to respect their elders and themselves, to always tell the truth, etc.  They also have fun playing games and working on craft projects.

 

We spent several days with the program.  On our first visit we were given a tour of the barrio, to see firsthand the problems.  When we arrived the children were not there so we met them at the end of our tour.  As we came around the corner to return to the school the children did so as well from another direction.  It was amazing, they ran over to us, hugging us, asking us our names, where we were from, and climbing all over us.  It is almost indescribable, they welcomed us, strangers really, unconditionally.  That afternoon the director spoke with us about the mission of the program, why it was started, and what they did there.  The students introduced themselves to us as well, telling us about their families, what they did in the program, the things they were learning.  The children asked us questions about ourselves and our families, the US in general.  We ended our first visit playing games with them.  They taught us to sing songs in Spanish.

 

 

Our second day we worked on a craft project with the children.  We made heart shaped felt items with marker, scissors and a glue gun.  I was adopted immediately the first day by a young girl named Kiberly, she presented me with her craft as a gift when it was completed.  It was very lovely.  Afterwards, we spent the rest of the afternoon teaching the children American games such as Simon says and red light – green light.

 

On our last day with the children we went to the park.  Several of the French volunteers completing a summer long service project at the program had been raising funds to take the children to Parque de la Carolina to ride on the paddle boats. They were still in need of funds, when we arrived, so the students and I agreed to donate some of the money we raised selling BBQ to take with us on the trip to Ecuador.  It was a fun day at the park.  Each volunteer, including our gang, took 3 students out in a paddle boat.  We paddled around the lake area for about an hour.  Afterwards the children had a snack – cupcakes and juice.  We spent the rest of the time at the park playing in the grass with the children.

Just before leaving, the children presented the volunteers with medals of gratitude for spending time with them.  We hugged them all, and then they piled onto their bus and left us.

They arrived that first day on the street in the barrio like a whirlwind, and just as fast that afternoon the park they were gone. I still miss them – especially Kiberly.  It was a wonderful experience.

El Centro Histórico de Quito

How time flies when one is busy.  It has been almost a month since our last installment of the Ecuador Chronicles.  Sunday afternoon eating pastry in the park was fun, but one cannot sit in the grass and eat sweets forever.  On Monday morning, Diego, Director of the Academia, gave us a walking tour of the historic center of Quito.  While walking around, Diego gave us a brief history of Quito.

There were 26 aboriginal cultures that inhabited Ecuador during its prehistory.  Quito was inhabited as far back as 8 thousand years ago by the Caras culture who were living around a central lagoon in Quito area.  The whole territory was called Quitu at the time.  Cacao, corn, and spondelus shell were used as currency by the various indigenous populations.  Later, the Inca from Bolivia and Peru spread into Quito and colonized the area either by friendly agreements with local communities or through warfare.  The Inca then established Quito as the northern (2^nd capital) of the their empire.

The Inca were in Ecuador only 30-40 years when the Spanish conquistadors arrived, conquered, and settled the region.  The Spanish named it San Francisco de Quito.  During the 1830’s the country became the Democratic Republic of Ecuador.  Between 1999-2005 the population of Ecuador declined due to emigration.  800 thousand people left in less than 4 years, going to Spain (80%), Holland, and Italy mostly.  The economies of these countries were still developing and they needed cheap manual labor.  This attracted Ecuadorians, who did not need a visa to enter these countries, until the laws changed in 2005.

In Ecuador during this time the economy was in decline and banks were closing.  In 2000 Ecuador decided to switch their currency to the US dollar in an effort to revive the economy.  This was risky, because they would no longer have the ability to control currency, but it paid off.  The economy in Ecuador is stable and growing.  Ecuador brings dollars into the country through tourism and exporting goods and services.  Ecuador needs to be productive and efficient to keep the economy healthy.  Main sources of income are petroleum, bananas (#1 producer in the world),  shrimp, roses, tourism, cacao, and coffee.

 

  

There were some spectacular sights to see as we walked the historic center of the city.  Quito has 80 blocks of Colonial history and was designated as a World UNESCO heritage site.

• Iglesia & monastery de San Augustin (1580)
• Basilica
• Iglesia de San Francisco (1535)
• Independence Square
• Presidential Palace
• National Bank of Ecuador (former)

 

Nuestros Día Libre en Quito

 

After spending a few days touring the region north of Quito we had a rare day without an agenda.  We all meet at the Academia and decided we would walk around a bit and explore Quito on our own.  Just go wherever the wind took us.

   

As we wandered, we stumbled upon a group Zumba class in the park.  Naturally, we had to join in for a song or two…

   

We then decided we should take a taxi to the Teleferiqo, a cable care that took people most of the way up the Pichincha volcano.  Many people then biked the trails to the top the volcano.  The view of Quito was spectacular

After our morning ride up the mountain we returned and had lunch in a local restaurant.  I had empanadas – a corn and cheese empanada and a green plantain empanada.  Mmmmmm…

Following our lunch we went to the local bakery we discovered a block from the Academia to procure desert.  (We spent the rest of the time we were in Quito haunting the bakery)

We made our sweet selections and then made our way to Parque de la Carolina for a desert picnic.  We spent the rest of the afternoon lounging in the park watching the residents of Quito enjoy Sunday afternoon. It was a nice way to end our day of adventure.

Craven CC in the Spotlight

Craven CC was featured on North Carolina Now this week.  Each of the 58 NC Community Colleges have been highlighted on this series.

The Colleges many wonderful and unique programs are featured, and the one of most interest to Gypsy followers is our Study Abroad program.

Watch Craven Community College on PBS. See more from North Carolina Now.

Shopping, Shopping, Shopping!

 

The last stop on our tour of the communities north of Quito was Otovalo.  Otovalo is known for its large open-air indigenous handicraft market.

Tourists (like us) shop there for these items, but also the locals shop there for fresh fruits, vegetables, and spices.

               

We spent the day bargaining for treasures to take home to our families and friends, a few for ourselves too.

Afterwards we visited the home of an indigenous man, Antonio Quinotoa, for lunch.  Antonio is the godson of the Academia president, Diego, who led our weekend trip north of Quito.  Antonio prepared us a traditional meal in an earth oven.

We had quinoa soup, roasted chicken with potatoes, corn on the cob, and vegetables and even tried some cuy.  Desert was a tomate de arbol baked in a sweet syrup.

While eating lunch we were treated to live Andean music and several of us danced with the children.

Papa Imbabura

Our next stop as we explored northern Ecuador was Mira Largo in the Imbabura province.  We hiked around the San Pablo lake, a volcanic caldera of the Imbabura stratovolcano.

Imbabura is 4,609-meter-high mountain located in the southern ring of fire, in northern Ecuador.  Although it has not erupted for at least 14,000 years, it is not thought to be entirely extinct.  As the dominant geographic feature of the area, Imbabura is of significant importance to the local culture, which involves a spiritual relationship with the land. The mountain is sometimes personified locally as Taita Imbabura, or “Papa” Imbabura. In fact, Imbabura is considered the sacred protector of the region.

 

We explored the cultural displays as we hiked around the lake.  Each display had different areas with indigenous stones used for a variety of ritual purposes in prehistory.

http://www.seethewild.org/456/spectacled-bear-facts.html

The area is also the habitat of the speckled bear.  The speckled bear eats the spiking looking achupalla plant.

As we were leaving Mira Lago to head to Otovalo, we met two indigenous Otovalean women.  Our fearless leader Diego offered them a ride on our bus and in exchange they sang a traditional song for us.

The song, in Quechua, spoke of Otovaleans traveling around the world selling their goods.  Then of course, they showed us their wares….

Hacienda de Compañia de Jesus

After our tour of the rose plantation we visited the Hacienda de Compañia de Jesus, which is on the plantation property. As we arrived to the house grounds we were greeted by some lovely young women in traditional dress who offered us the famous bizcocho and some jugo de mora (blackberry juice).

The area is famous for bizcocho and tasty cookie served with some fresh cheese.

The hacienda is the family home of the Rosadex owners who open the 1^st floor of the historic property to visitors, as well as the Jesuit Chapel.  The hacienda was owned 300 years ago owned by Jesuit monks.  When King Charles expelled the Jesuits from Spain and its colonies the property property became a dairy and grain farm.  The grain storehouse is now used to store roses instead.

We toured the interior of the 1st floor of the hacienda.  It was beautiful.

The chapel was very interesting.  When used for services, wealthy people sat in the front, closer to god than the commoners.

It is uphill to the alter, representing that fact that people had to work harder to reach god.

One of the most interesting features in the chapel was the statue of the Jesus de Esperanza (good hope).  Visitors make offerings to the statue.  If there is a drought, the local community will ask permission to take the statue out for a processional in an effort to alleviate the drought.

Here are some pretty photos of the store room, now full of roses 🙂

  

The Flower Trail

The next city we visited on our tour of northern Ecuador was Cayambe.  Cayambe is 1 hour north of Quito, located in the Imbabura Provence of Ecuador.  While there we toured the Rosadex rose plantation.

Ecuadorian rose plantations grow 400 different varieties in Ecuador, Rosadex concentrates on seven varieties.  Rosadex plantation has 120 km of green houses, where they grow a variety of roses.  The company sell roses in the American, Russian, & European markets.  Rosadex has 270 workers, 70% of them are female.  The company has a clinic and nursery on the plantation grounds to support their primarily female workforce.

While visiting the plantation I learned a great deal about growing roses and their importance in the Ecuadorian economy.  I was surprised to learn that roses are a main source of the Ecuadorian economy.  Ecuador’s climate is good for growing roses because there is 12 hours of sunlight year round, humidity levels are conducive for growing roses, and the highland region has extremely fertile soil.  To grow 1 hectare of roses is a $300 thousand dollar investment.  It is so costly because the process is labor intensive, all of it done by hand.

I also learned a great deal about the global rose market in general.  European consumers like small buds and long stems on their roses.  In contrast, US consumers like large buds and shorter stems.  Russian consumers like both.  Rosadex can ship roses within 15 days to the Russian market and between 24-48 hours to the US market.  This means that they can cut when the buds are more open for the US market than those shipped to the Russian market.

Growing roses requires attention to detail on many different levels.  Different varieties of roses cannot be grown in the same green house because temperature and UV filters are different for each variety.  Rosadex uses a drip irrigation system with drip pipes along the beds.  They fertilize the roses through these too.  The main fertilizers used in growing their roses are calcium and magnesium.

After our tour of the greenhouses we visited the sorting room.  Roses are cut straight across the stem to stop the blooming process.  When a florist gets them (or customer) they should be cut on a diagonal to restart the blooming process.  Roses should then re-cut on an opposite diagonal every 2 days to maximize the life of the rose.  Roses need to be kept cold or it will restart the blooming process.

After a rose is cut, it must sit in tanks with special nutrients in them for at least 4 hours.  This allows the rose to last 15 days, if this step is skipped, the rose would only last 2 days.  Once the roses have soaked, they are then classified by stem length and bud size.

 

The roses can then be bundled into bunches of 25.  Yes, that’s right 25, not 12.  These bundles are sold to wholesalers and florists who then separate them into smaller units.  Smaller, ready to sell bunches are bundled and sent to supermarkets as well.

Each bundle is bar coded – it contains all the information on those roses – who cut it, size of the rose, variety, where they are going.  Once a rose is cut it can only stay at the plantation for up to 3 days, if it remains in the facility longer it cannot be exported and will be taken to the local market instead.  In Europe 1 rose costs 3-6 Euros, in the local market you can by 2 dozen for between 1-3 dollars.