A Day in the Life

Again, I know its been forever and a half since I've written. Its ridiculous how fast time is passing here, I cannot believe that we only have one month left! Most of the time I have no idea what day it is or what time it is...which is so different from the way I live back home. Its the first time I haven't been forced to plan every part of my day down to the second, the first time I've actually been able to get a decent amount of sleep every night, and probably the first spring that I haven't gotten seriously ill. Those are the things I'm not looking forward to about going home...but I've learned a lot about living (and taking chances) here, so hopefully I'll be able to take that back with me. 


So to kind of make up for lost time, I'll just describe what an average day is for me here. My host family makes breakfast for me promptly at 7 am whenever I have breakfast at home. I normally have bread, some type of fruit, juice and coffee...occasionally having something more traditional like patacones (fried plantains with cheese) or empanadas. I go to volunteer at INFA (the daycare facility on the island) at 7:30 and play with the 4-6 year olds for an hour. These kids are sooo incredibly adorable. While they were a bit wary of me at first (understandably...I am taller than most people on the island, pale, and have blue eyes with light hair), it didn't take them long to completely open up to me. They think its hilarious that most of the time I have no idea what they are saying and they love it when I try to dance. They also love making me draw pictures of animals for them (mostly sea lions, iguanas, and turtles...definitely different than what most kids draw in the US). Also, apparently people down here don't give kids piggy-back rides! One of the kids once wrapped his arms around my neck while I was kneeling down... and I assumed that he wanted a piggy-back ride. When I stood up I was surprised at how he reacted...  I've honestly never seen a little kid so excited in my life! Haha, it was great...until every kid in the daycare started demanding piggy-back rides 24/7. After that I securely became part of their club. There is a group of girls at the daycare that are like best friends and always make jewelry for each other...one day they came in with a pair of bear earrings for me :) best surprise ever. Its wonderful to see how happy they get when they see me. It makes me sad to see them chase after me to the gate on the side of the building when I leave, shouting out their goodbyes. 

After volunteering, I come to school at 8:30 am. On days when we do not have breakfast with our families, we eat breakfast at the school. Then I have class from 9 to 12, and after we go out to lunch somewhere in town...our favorites are Tongo Reef and Mi Grande. Tongo reef has these amazing jugos for only $1.50 and Mi Grande has these awesome combo meals for $3 (and the man who runs it is REALLY tall and always so excited to see us, which we love). Then sometimes I take a nap in the afternoon in a hammock at my host family's house or head back to school to do work. During the afternoons the sun is unbearably strong, so we usually avoid going swimming until after 2, because honestly the second you get out of the water you are sweating again. So during the late afternoons we go to the beach (Playa Man) outside of our school and swim/read/journal/nap/listen to music/play soccer or frisbee/drink beer/hula hoop/talk until sunset. Sunset is my favorite time of day. I've never lived anywhere close to an ocean let alone in a place where the sun sets over one at exactly 6:15 every day. They are always beautiful...full of colors and gorgeous clouds. This time of day is also when the sea lions venture out from the water to check out the humans on the beach. One of them (featured below) spotted me and two of my friends on the beach and literally booked it towards us the second we looked over at her. My friend Taylor and I kinda jumped up when we got way closer than we had expected, which made our sea lion stop and stare right back at us. Eventually the sea lion just started sniffing at my sandals and the beer we had been drinking before plopping down on the sand right in front of us. I love how curious they are! Its so sad to think that you have to travel so far to find wild animals that aren't afraid of humans...and its even sadder to see people abuse the trusting relationship the sea lions have with us. 

Playa Man at sunset during carneval! I got attacked with paint by a 12 year old boy on this beach. 

After sunset I go home to have dinner with my host family around 6:30...then either chill out with people at our school, watch movies, or go out to one of the bars/discotecas in the town for dancing. I've learned so much salsa, merengue, and (most recently) bachata...I'm still not very good, but definitely improving. Its fun to just get spun around the dance floor, and to actually have guys that enjoy dancing...because I feel like most guys in the U.S. really despise it. Its also a great way to practice my Spanish, which has also been improving! I go through phases where I'm really confident and other phases where its a total struggle...but I always get by (using sign language if necessary). A lot of the guys here are a bit creepy though, so its definitely important to stay away from the American stereotypes that come from just being friendly with people. Different cultures have different rules and we have definitely learned how to avoid that sort of miscommunication. 

We also have gone on some pretty fun adventures during class...one of which was the rip current story that I already wrote about. Another trip we went on was to this place called Kicker Rock (or Leon Dormido as they call it here). It is this collapsed volcano that turned into a small islet off the coast of San Cristobal. In the middle of this rock formation there is a crevice that goes maybe 40 feet down into the water...just deep enough for you to be able to see the bottom on a day with clear water, and also deep enough for sharks to be chilling there. Normally, there are a ton of hammerheads there, but I guess we got there too late in the day and the other tour groups scared them off (so lame)...but we did get to see Galapagos Sharks (2 of them) and a white-tipped shark in addition to sea lions, eagle rays, and a couple of sea turtles. It was so amazing to see those animals swimming through such deep water...they literally look like they are flying because all you can see is the deep blue of the ocean and the shifting rays of light as they enter the water. At one point a sea lion was playing really close to me and my friend Darlene...and we were just kinda floating there watching it until it swam over towards us and literally put its face next to ours for a few seconds before spinning off through the water again. I totally love those guys. The sharks are the coolest animals to watch in the water though...the way they move is so rhythmic and smooth...and they move so fast when they need to also, its incredible. 

So thats all for right now, my next post will be about our spring break trip around the islands...which was definitely the best part of this entire study abroad experience in my opinion. Hopefully it won't take me another month to get to that...haha. 

Tiputini: My real-life version of Amazon Trail

So I know everyone remembers those incredibly fun computer "trail" games of the 1990s. My sisters and I practically grew up playing Yukon Trail, Oregon Trail, and Amazon Trail. I loved playing them because I felt like I was really floating down the Amazon River or panning for gold in Alaska. After going to the Amazon, I've realized that the Amazon Trail video game totally formed my entire view of Amazon. Although its been my dream to go to the Amazon since my elementary school did a presentation on it when I was like seven, I kept thinking about the scary Amazonian animals like barracudas, piranhas, boa constrictors and pumas that are in that game. Even while I was stepping onto the canoe that would take us down the Napo River, one of the largest rivers in the Ecuadorian Amazon, I couldn’t help shake the feeling that somehow a huge piranha would jump out of the water and bite me in the face, which would force me to take a chance with the jungle herbs that I happened to pick up at the last trading post.



But really, that canoe trip was one of the most unreal experiences I've had in Ecuador. It blew my mind to think of how much life was teeming in the forest beyond the bank of the river...or even within the river itself. The river itself was actually pretty murky...not from pollution but because it has a ton of inorganic material from erosion of the forest floor. The trees along the river were so dense that they often looked like they were falling in. One type of tree literally grows sideways out of a bank over the river. It developed roots on the bottom part of its trunk to take up water from the river. I loved sitting and listening to the sound of the forest as well. You could hear thousands of birds, bugs, and monkeys (especially howler monkeys) all within a mile of our camp. Ecosystems like this one are incredible not just because they have lots of cool plants and animals though. They are amazing (to me at least...) because they are made up of so many different parts that are seamlessly woven together.

The first experiment we performed while we were there was with (and I know this is disgusting) some dog poop that our professor brought with him from Quito. We were all totally grossed out by the smell at first (and for good reason), and a lot of us were confused about what he was expecting us to see when we put it down on the forest floor. The group I was with divided it up in two spots about 5 meters from each other...one in the sunlight and the other in the shade. We took observations every ten minutes for about an hour...and came up with some crazy results. Within seconds of putting this stuff on the floor, tons of insects started flocking to it. There were dung beetles with incredibly colorful metallic exoskeletons and gigantic flying ants that were fighting for a piece of the stuff. By the end of our observations, the poop was completely gone in both sections. Once we collaborated our data, we found that there were seven species of bugs at the sunlit section and seven completely different species of bugs at the other section. Within 5 meters of each other! I don't think I've seen fourteen different species of insects in all of Chicago let alone within 5 square meters. Things like that just blow my mind about the rainforest. I wish that everyone in the world could come down for just a day and physically see what it is we are destroying. The section of rainforest I was in is one of the most biodiverse in the world. Its part of a very famous national park in Ecuador called Yasuni National Park. Recently, there has been a great deal of press because Ecuador (i.e. Rafael Correa)  is trying to protect it from oil interests while continuing to sell it to oil companies. He's quite a sly politician...I should probably write an entire post about how crazy he is.

(This is a crazy bird that we saw while we were canoeing in this small lagoon in the forest. You can't see its wings right now, but they have small hooks so the birds can grab onto branches. Evolutionarily, they are closely related to a particular prehistoric reptile with a similar adaptation) 

Whenever our group went out into the forest, we were required to have one of the National Park guides with us. The guides were some of the most incredible people I have ever met. Like ever. One of the guides was an indigenous man named Meyer, and he was the guide with us during the dung experiment. His knowledge of the rainforest was astounding...it made me feel self-concious about my vision, because he (like a 65 year old man) could see a pointed arrow frog in the underbrush from like 3 meters away, while I tripped over tree roots for half the hike. Once, he looked at a grasshopper on a large leaf about a meter away and knew not only its age and sex, but also where it made its home. I was also honored when he made these beautiful bracelets for me and my friend Daniela from palm tree threads located nearby. It was amazing to even watch him work on them! His hands moved so quickly and he was done within a few minutes. Seeing how much he loved the forests and all the stories it has within it was so refreshing. He had a story or legend to go along with almost everything we passed throughout our hike. We saw community spiders (who team up to make gigantic webs), ants that tasted like lemon, and these gigantic army ants that can take down almost any predator that messes with them. All of these things were particularly startling for me, considering I've lived most of my life in a place where often my closest interaction with nature is seeing a flock of pigeons battling for a scrap of bread in a parking lot.

Another thing I noticed while walking through the forest was how lethal most things in the forest really are. There were strangling vines (that choke the trees they grow on), gigantic, poisonous spiders (just look up a picture of the Banana Spider, we ran into that one) , bullet ants (they are named that way because their bite literally feels like a bullet), and large cats (pumas and jaguars) that can tear their prey to pieces. Even the harmless looking lemon ants eliminated trees that competed with "their" trees by secreting this crazy acid into the soil. There have been millennia of natural pressures placed on these plants and animals that forced them to become excellent competitors. These conditions reinforce the idea that every decomposing leaf, every drop of water, every pile of dung is a precious resource that is worth fighting for. The plants and animals that waste these resources end up losing in the evolutionary battle. I really wonder how our society came to forget that we are also part of this interconnected cycle. Dung, which is seen as such an incredibly precious resource here, is seen as a dangerous waste that we want to keep as far away from us as possible. The resources we are abusing right now are intrinsically tied to our own survival as a species.

Anywho, back to some more specifics about the trip. There were several particularly cool things that we did during out time in Tiputini that I want to cover. The first of which is the night hike that we went on with our professors through the forest. The second is the awesome hike where I saw a tapir and had my eardrums blasted out by a howler monkey. The third is when a herd of like 23 woolly monkeys descended on this one tree by our campsite. The forth is our flotada down the Tiputini River. And finally, the caiman watching nighttime canoe trip. I'll most likely break this up into another blog as well, because I'm tired of people making fun of me for being so behind...

The night hike was so ridiculously cool. I was absolutely terrified at first because I know that there are so many scary animals that come out to play during the nighttime. Actually, just a few seconds after we started walking, my friend Julia yelled and swiped something off my back really quickly...and I'm glad she did because it was a bullet ant. These things have such a potent venom that the most effective way to save yourself from a bite is to have someone give you an electric shock. So obviously I was a bit wary of the situation from the get go. It was so amazing to walk around there at night though. The darkness is so thick that without a flashlight I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. The trees are all so close together that its impossible for much starlight or moonlight to get in. There was so much noise though! The bugs and birds were almost deafening because we were trying to be as silent as possible. We saw so many amazing bugs during that night hike though. I thought that I would be super freaked out about the spiders here because I've had some serious arachnophobia issues for most of my life...but these things were so big that I didn't even think of them as spiders anymore. Most of the ones we saw were about the size of my face, super hairy, and had really vivid warning colors (which I paid attention to...). Once we saw one literally come out of this cave it had burrowed into the ground just to check us out. We saw scorpions, lizards with incredible camouflage skills, snakes, and (my favorite) a butterfly with spots that looked like owl eyes.

Super cool hidden lizard! 

Ok, so I think I'm going to finish this blog post for now...but I will definitely continue with the rest of my stories in my next blog! 

Number One GAIAS Accomplishment: Learning to Survive Rip Currents

         I know that I still need to finish my epic blog post about the Amazon Rainforest and Tiputini, but this really crazy story happened to me last week and I knew I needed to share it. I want to tell this story not just to help myself kind of accept what happened, but to also let people know what to do if they get into a situation similar to this one. It was terrifying...but also something I'm proud of accomplishing. 

        




So it was the second day of our third GAIAS module…a class called Natural Resource Management and Communities. We were all really excited because this professor seemed so much cooler than the professor we had for our previous module. He decided that we should use our class time to go snorkeling at this place called La Loberia, which is this gorgeous, sandy beach with a tide pool area that’s perfect for snorkeling. When we all put our stuff down at the beach, our professor pointed out a line of boulders at the mouth of the tidal pool. He made sure we knew that going out past that pile of rocks was dangerous because the tide got very strong past that point. The water was so crystal clear and cool I had no trouble at all jumping in with my snorkel gear. There were so many beautiful fish hovering around the algae covered rocks…I loved seeing them float up and down with each wave. I went to catch up with the group that was swimming farther out because it looked like they had found something interesting. I figured that by staying close to our trusty professor I would avoid being tossed out past the line of rocks.

Wrong. Very wrong.

            The other group had found this enormous school of fish…like I’m talking thousands of these gorgeous, big fish with black stripes on their sides. I started to notice that these fish were moving back and forth about 5 feet with each new wave that came in. Suddenly, I heard some panicked yelling above water so I pulled my head up and whipped off my snorkel mask. As I was treading water and looking towards the shore, I saw my professor screaming the sentence that I never wanted to hear him yell, “We are too far out!!! WE NEED TO GET BACK TO SHORE!” As he was saying this I realized how dangerous this situation was. It was as if my time in the Galapagos was just the beginning of a super dramatic horror movie, and this was the part where the scary music came in and there’s a lot of close-ups on the main character’s panic-stricken face.

             While we were looking at fish a few minutes ago, we were oblivious to how strong the current that had pushed us toward the school of fish. Every wave that came hurtling towards us picked us up about 6 feet in the air as it passed. Some of the waves crested and broke right on our heads, dragging us under the water. One of these waves crashed down on me so hard that I flipped over at least three times underwater. I was so dizzy and exhausted that I couldn’t remember which way was up. I floated to the surface just in time for another wave to pick me up and drag me under again. Each time I tried to swim towards the shore, I would feel pull of the next wave dragging me back out again. One of the girls in the program had bought a boogie board along with her for snorkeling, and two other girls who were caught further out from me were holding onto it for dear life. One boy in my program had an asthma attack after about 10 minutes of struggling against the waves, and was fighting as hard as he could to stay above the waves. It was the worst feeling in the world to see how hard we all were swimming and to not see any progress at all. I’ve never felt so helpless in my life.

            Looking back on it, I suppose it was a real lesson in control. Like sometimes there really is nothing you can do to physically change the situation you are in, but you can work within the situation to make your life a bit easier. Calming down, for one thing, was the most important thing for us all to do in this situation. Luckily, one boy in my group was experienced with rip currents, and he tried to show us how to swim parallel to the shore to escape the worst of its pull. It was way too difficult for me to understand while we were out in the middle of those big waves, however. He eventually just swam to a part of the shore that had a ton of huge black boulders and was waving directions at us. Once I saw that he had made it to shore, I finally was able to calm down and follow his directions. Up until that point though, I honestly thought I wasn’t going to make it. I was loosing so much of my strength so quickly and the whole situation seemed so futile that I didn’t think I would be able to make it to shore. As I finally began to make progress toward the shore, I started calling out directions to my friends in the waves as well. That’s the point when I saw one of my girl friends floating on her back in the water, not even trying to swim (or, as she would like to say, "gave up on life"). I started freaking out again, calling her name to see if she was conscious. Finally we saw a surfer come up and pull her onto his surfboard, making sure she was all right.

            As we got really close to shore, the situation became a bit scary again. The entire shore was encircled with gigantic boulders. The black rocks were especially intimidating for someone who was being tossed around in the ocean for the last 40 minutes like a rag doll. As I was swimming, I watched the waves before me crash up onto the rocks at was seemed like a solid 15-20 miles per hour, sending spray up about 4 feet in the air. I was so scared of getting caught in a wave at the wrong time and slamming into the rocks. Then I thought to myself, “I would much rather die on those rocks than drown in the ocean,” so I kept booking it towards the shore. Luckily, the wave that brought me to a place I could stand wasn’t that strong, and I was able to clamber around the rocks to get into a good position to face the next wave. I was with my friend Taylor at this point, and when we both saw the next wave crashing toward us, she yelled,” DUCK!” We both plunged our heads underwater, gripping the rocks for dear life as the wave threatened to dislodge us. After it past, we finally scrambled up to the top of the rocks where the rest of our class was waiting for us.

            After this experience, I really wonder how I am going to live in the future. My favorite English teacher in high school always used to call moments like these “falling beam moments” (from the book The Maltese Falcon). These are the moments in life when people are forced to see everything in a drastically different light than they had before. For the hour that I was fighting against those waves, I was forced to prioritize my energies in ways I never thought I would have to. I had to accept the fact that I could not do anything to save my friends. I had to accept that the only person I could really save was myself, and that I almost wasn’t able to do that. I had to accept that there was no easy solution for my situation, and I had to resign myself to using every ounce of strength I had to survive. Seeing my problem (the waves) as an adversary, however, was a bad idea. If I had not fought so hard against the current, I would have kept my strength way longer. I feel like this has always been my survival strategy with the problems in my life. I demonize my problems and turn them into something I have to fight against rather than just accept them as being a part of my life. Honestly, after an experience like this, I really should take everything else in my life with a grain of salt. I know I get frustrated here all the time because of the asshole guys that creep on me and my friends, but honestly 1) I’m living in the Galapagos Islands and 2) I’m ALIVE in general. While I was in that water, I finally realized what it felt like to be completely mortal. I knew that my skin, bones, and intellect were the only resources I had to keep me alive. So many young people have never been in situations like that, and they don’t realize how much they have to loose. While I certainly don’t advocate forcing people to have these experiences, I am glad that I have been through something like this. And I do always enjoy having new stories to tell :) 

Camping in Cotopaxi

So I know its been like a month since my last entry...the last course module I had (Political Ecology) was super time consuming, so I haven't had much time to sit down and write out everything thats happened so far. I've actually been living in the Galapagos for three weeks now! I'm writing this entry from the second floor of the GAIAS building on San Cristobal, where I can see Blue-Footed Boobies and gigantic Frigate Birds circling over the crystal clear, blue water in the bay that borders our town. Even though I'm sweating like crazy and recovering from a terrible sunburn right now, I see things like a baby sea lion rolling around in the waves as they crash into the shore and I'm reminded of how lucky we all are to be here. I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing that.

Butttt, I can't quite get into all of that right now. This entry is actually going to be about the  camping trip I went on to this volcano named Cotopaxi last month. I've done so many amazing things since I've been here...so please bear with me while I catch up!

So prior to coming to Ecuador I had never gone on a camping trip. Honestly...the closest I had come to actually camping was in some cabins with this father/daughter group called Indian Princesses when I was eight years old. I know how crazy it is that an Environmental Studies major hasn't really hung out much with nature, but for most of my life nature wasn't close at hand. I have always wanted to try camping, though. So after coming to Ecuador and realizing my group is full of super-camper types, I knew I had to try.

We had all been chatting about going to this one mountain called Cotopaxi, which is an extremely tall, active volcano a bit further south from Quito. Its in this section of Ecuador known as the Avenue of the Volcanoes...and it is incredibly gorgeous. Cotopaxi looks like the perfect image of a mountain...pyramid shaped, surrounded by rolling hills at its base, and with a snow-capped peak that glistens in the sunlight. We talked with the director of international students at USFQ about the trip and he decided to come with us to show us a place to camp. So the day after we came back from the Cloud Forest, we packed ourselves into a van and drove up into the paramos that surround Cotopaxi. It was a bit cloudy for the first day we were there, so we were bummed that Cotopaxi was completely covered...but we did get to see a herd of wild horses during our 3 hour hike to a cave we could make camp in. The paramos around Cotopaxi were just as beautiful as the other we had seen a few days before. Almost immediately after making camp, however, it started pouring down rain.

The view from our campsite (the next day)!

Our nook of the cave... (mine was the pink sleeping bag)

 After the sun went down, it got incredibly cold. Now I know many of you are struggling through the depths of winter right now and are probably thinking, "ya sure, Colleen...you are still on the equator." To that I would have to say yes, its not like 10 degrees or anything, but it was definitely hovering around freezing. Anyone who has been camping in freezing temperatures would attest to how cold that really feels when you are trying to sleep. Also, the sleeping bags we rented from this sketchy outfitter in Quito were for above like 50 degree weather. I'm sure they never would imagine a situation were a bunch of gringos would want to go camping in anything less that that. One of the sleeping bags even had dog hair in it...we tried to think of it as extra insulation.

Unfortunately, I was the only person on the trip that had altitude sickness. Really bad altitude sickness. I ended up not being able to eat anything all night...and on top of that we couldn't get the fire started because all the wood was damp. We did have a good time listening to music and telling really freaky ghost stories though. A thick fog infiltrated our cave after the rain stopped, which only made the stories more effective.

When we woke up the next morning, the Daniel (the director) was setting up repelling equipment for us to repel off the side of the cliff that overlooked our cave. While we were climbing up to the repelling spot, two gigantic, black birds started hovering overhead. Daniel started freaking out when he saw them because they were Andean Condors...one of the rarest bird species in Ecuador. If you look at the Ecuadorian crest, you will see what these guys look like. I told my host mom about seeing them when I got home and she told me that she had never seen one in her entire life! I was so jealous of how graceful they looked flying around the cliff we were climbing up...mostly because I was struggling so much. Once we got to the top, Daniel hooked up my friend Taylor to the repelling equipment (she's a super experienced climber) to show us how repelling works. I was kinda freaking out a bit when I looked over the edge and realized how badly hurt I could get if I let go of the rope. Because I probably looked like translucent with fear, Daniel made me go down next...and it ended up being one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life. It was so difficult to put all of my trust in the strength of my hands and a piece of rope that was tied up between a few gnarly paramo trees. To help me get over this fear, Daniel literally pushed me off the cliff. Halfway down the cliff, the clouds that were obscuring Cotopaxi opened up so I could see the entire mountain. After seeing that, my fear was completely gone.

So, in one weekend I had my first camping trip in a cave, my first bout with altitude sickness, and my first repelling experience! After getting back home Sunday afternoon, we all crashed with exhaustion...and to get ready for our trip to the Amazon Rainforest the next day. Yes, that will be my next entry...which I will be getting around to very soon.

Maquipucuna: The Cloud Forest

Hola everyone! Sorry for the delay in my posts...the last week and a half I've been traveling like a crazy woman. I don't have the time right now to talk about everything at once, but I've been writing down notes while running around so I don't forget anything! A week and a half ago, our class took a trip to this place called Maquipucuna, which is a cloud forest research station/ ecotourism spot on the northwestern slopes of the Andes. Now when you hear the name "cloud forest" I bet you are all thinking it looked like Avalon or something, but actually its really just a higher altitude rainforest. At the higher altitude, the clouds settle in lower over mountains, surrounding the forests in a sometimes thick mist/rain. While we were there it was absolutely gorgeous weather for the whole time. Honestly, this place looked more like somewhere to go for a honeymoon rather than a field trip for class! Everything (the walls, beds, tables, chairs) were made from bamboo harvested around the forest preserve, the food was absolutely unreal, and they made their own coffee from coffee trees in the surrounding community. The entire station is run as a cooperative by several local families, and its possible to volunteer there anytime for room and board. I definitely might think of coming back someday! Also, there were hummingbirds flying all over the place. I found out that hummingbirds are actually vicious, territorial creatures...one almost took my head off while I was sitting in the lounge outside of our rooms.

When we went out into the trails surrounding the station, I was blown away by the shear density of the plant life. Up until this point I had never seen so many plants not only living so close to each other, but living literally on top of each other. I was put in a group that had to record the quantity and variety of epiphytes living on the trunks of large, standing trees (if you don't know what those are just check out the picture below!). There were so many of them on some of the trees that it was absolutely impossible to count. There were also these gorgeous lianas that grow on tree branches that send long root strands down until they reach the forest floor. Some of the oldest trees we saw (roughly 150 years old) had maybe 50 of these liana roots surrounding its base, creating almost a fence around it. It was so cool!

We also had this amazing guide who told us some of the indigenous tales surrounding the wildlife. One of which was the myth of the "Whistling Murder Bird." According to this tale, there was once this man who lived in this area with his wife. Everyday he would leave his wife at home while he went about hunting and doing other manly things. One day his good friend came up to him looking very concerned. He told the man that he walked past his wife's house and heard the sound of a man whistling at his wife, which suggested that she might be cheating on him. The man was so enraged that he went home and killed his wife by cutting her head off, only to realize that the whistling sound (which sounds like a cat call) was being made by a bird that was outside of his house. The bird was therefore called the Whistling Murder Bird. Our guide was so excited to tell us this story (in Spanish...and I understood it completely!) after he heard the bird call in the distance.

Another story that our guide told us was about a Spectacled Bear (a smaller bear that lives in the Andes...and is endangered) that he once saw while giving a tour. These bears feed on the fruits of this one tree that is crazy high up...maybe 70-90 feet in the air. One day he saw a bear sitting up in the top of one of these trees, snacking on some of the fruits. The bear went to reach for another fruit on a different branch, but completely misjudged the weight of his movements and came crashing down through the forest canopy onto the floor. The guide and his tour group of gringos watched as this bear, which just fell about 80 feet onto the ground, stood back up, shook off the dirt from his fall, and began walking toward the group. Obviously, they began walking back towards the station without attracting the attention of the bear, who followed them all the way back to the station (no worries though...they aren't that dangerous).

After dinner we were able to go on this awesome night hike of one of the trails. We got to ford this one pretty fast river wearing these big rubber boots, it was so much fun. While we were walking we saw bunches of cool spiders and frogs. At one point some of the girls saw some "floating eyes" that freaked everyone out because we thought it was a puma or something...but it turned out to be just a cow from a local field that we were passing by. We nicknamed the animal a pumacow in honor of the discovery. After coming back to the station everyone in our group stayed up pretty late to chat with each other (it was the first time we all got to spend time together without worrying about using public transit to get home). It was one of the first times that I was able to really geek out with all the other cool enviro-types in our group! There was a book of local frogs that we were looking through and everyone was telling stories about the different things they learned about different types of animals in other classes. Then when we all finally went to bed, we had a bit of a close encounter with one member of the local wildlife. One guy in the group named Ed pulled back the sheets of his bed before getting into it and found a snake coiled perfectly under the covers. We all started freaking out because it looked very similar to a coral snake, which is an incredibly poisonous snake. We got our professor and some of the workers to take a look at it and they couldn't tell if it was a coral or a copy-cat. We didn't find out till the next morning that it was not a coral (thank god). Still, it's definitely a good story :) Now we all check our beds throughly before going to bed.

The next day we got up early to do some bird watching (at 6:00am). I saw my first toucan on this hike! It was so beautiful...and reminded me a lot of Fruit Loops. The mountains were even more gorgeous with the rising sunlight, and the clouds were still pretty low around the forest. We could hear thousands of bird calls throughout the forest, but they were difficult to see because of how dense the trees were. Because of the dew on the trees, everything glistened like crystal when the sun hit it. After breakfast we went on potentially the most difficult hike I've ever done before. It was uphill for a good portion of the way and was mostly alongside this very steep cliff that bordered a valley with a river running through it. The trail was so rugged that we needed a guide with a machete up front to help us carve our way through the forest. At one point me and a few other people accidentally stepped on this colony of biting ants that started crawling up our bodies and had to stomp them off of our clothes before they bit us! At the end of the hike we got to go swimming in the river (which was very fast and cold) and made our way over to this gorgeous waterfall...which we all had a blast playing in. Unfortunately, after we got all wet we had to hike another 2 hours back to the station.

So those are the highlights from this trip! I need to write again about my camping trip to Cotopaxi, my trip to the Amazon rainforest, and my trip to this other town called Banos! I'll update with more soon :)

Ecuador: The Land of Ecosystems that Look like Jurassic Park

The past couple days were crazy exciting! On Friday we went to a place called Paluguillo which is super high up in the Andes mountains. Throughout the hour and a half long bus ride there, everyone in the bus was freaking out because we got so close to the edges of the mountain. Once we got to the the entrance of the biological reserve, everyone started packing up their things. We were surprised when the bus driver instead drove another 10 minutes to get to the absolute top of this mountain. We were literally in the clouds! It was awesome, but incredibly windy and cold (especially now that we are used to nice weather, haha). Then our professor pointed to the spot that we were standing on and told us that it was a continental divide. All of the water that flowed down one side of this mountain went into the Amazon Rainforest and eventually made it to the Atlantic Ocean, while all the water on the other side went out to the Pacific. That totally blew my mind. While we were hiking on this rugged 7 mile trail through these mountains we ran into a ton of lakes, rivers, and waterfalls. It was incredible to think that the water in a lake on one side of the trail could have Amazonian anacondas and piranhas swimming in it within a couple of weeks while the other side would join us in the Galapagos! It was astounding to actually see the interconnectedness of nature instead of just reading about it in books. While many people wouldn't consider the paramo to be a particularly "productive" ecosystem because so few plants and animals are hardy enough to tolerate the temperature changes (it went from like 30 to 70 degrees within 5 hours), it provides the Amazon, the most productive ecosystem in the world, with much of its water. The water systems in Quito, however, drain tons of water from the paramo to fill the city's growing population. This adds to the declining water levels of the Amazon and the destruction of the many human, plant, and animal habitats there. Its terrible to see the same things happening here that we see in the United States. This country, in contrast to the United States, does not have the technological infrastructure to change.

It was so great to go on that hike and see all the incredible flowers and crazy looking plants (including the mucus plant...haha that was gross). The geology of the area is completely unique. There used to be tons of glaciers in the area that carved out many of the jagged peaks you can see in the pictures, but the smaller rolling hills were formed solely from many centuries of volcanic eruptions. So cool right? The last eruption of the nearest volcano was in 1999! Awesome. And next weekend we are going to the tallest active volcano in the world :) The geology geek in me is freaking out. 

After the hike was over we got to chill in some hot springs that are heated from the volcanic activity underneath the surface of the mountains. It was the best treatment for everyone's sore legs. I totally underestimated how difficult it is to hike that high up in the atmosphere, haha. 

On Sunday we took a trip 2 hours north of the city to a town called Otavalo. This is an indigenous town that is super famous for their weekend handicraft markets. The bus ride was so sweet. Where in the United States can you travel by bus for two hours and only have to pay $2? We probably could have even gone further if I wasn't so scared of Colombia. After getting off the bus in Otavalo, I felt even more out of place than I usually do in Quito. Everyone in the town was like a solid 5-6 inches shorter than me and most people wore the traditional indigenous clothing of the highlands. I read in my guidebook (Mom you should be so proud) that this clothing style is the closest modern style to the clothing worn by the Incas. I honestly had no idea that they were wearing panama hats hundreds of years before it caught on in the rest of the world! 

The market was so beautiful. There were so many stands of vendors that you literally couldn't see the streets surrounding the plaza. I loved seeing all the different colors of clothing, jewelry, tapestries (my fav!), and scarves. It was fun to practice my Spanish and haggle with the vendors! They were such good salespeople and clearly loved bargaining. I did find that I got better deals from the male salespeople, most of whom referred to me (and the other girls in my group) as "mi Reina" (my queen) or "hermosa" (beautiful). I also chatted with a group of 20 somethings who were from all over South America. It really makes me feel better to know that my Spanish is improving enough that I could understand this one girl describe how they all met up and starting making different crafts from the many cultures represented in the group (Chile, Peru, Uruguay, and Argentina). I spent literally all of the money I brought with me (like $60) within an hour of shopping! The final purchase I made was one of the panama hats, which the woman tried to sell for $17. I had to show her my wallet (which had $10 left) before she would give it to me for $10. After that I sat on this one bench in the plaza with some of my friends to just watch the everything that was happening in the market. One little indigenous boy (he couldn't have been older than 8) started jumping around the benches and giggling with a little mischievous expression that I am well acquainted with from my days coaching tee-ball. After he hopped away from us my friend Ed remarked, "Kids all over the world are exactly the same." It was so refreshing to know that children living in such different places and economic situations could play the same way. It reminded me that humans really aren't as different from each other some people like to think.  

Ok, thats it for now! We go to a cloud forest on Thursday, then Cotopaxi on the weekend, and the Amazon on Monday...so hopefully I'll be able to write Sunday night.

No me digas!

So this is officially the end of my first incredible week in Ecuador. We took a city tour on Saturday (with a strikingly handsome tour guide I might add...) and explored the streets of Quito's colonial Old Town. We had this incredible lunch at a famous restaurant and tried their traditional mora juice (raspberries!). After seeing all the incredible cathedrals and taking a look inside the President's Palace, we went to this one street in the Old Town called La Ronda. This street is what my guidebook calls "the most romantic slice of colonial Quito." The buildings that line the street have balconies on the second story that are covered in flowers. La Ronda is home to some amazing candle vendors and and cafes, but the resident our group loved the most was a piano player named J. Hunerto Torres. This man is the son of the most famous Ecuadorian pianist. He was so full of energy when we met him, and even though he didn't speak a word of English we could sense his incredible passion for piano. He played us two songs...one of which was an old Inca tune that described the sadness at the fall of their empire and another song that he wrote for his daughter. Honestly, its now my goal in life to find something that will make me as happy as he was.

After lunch we left Quito for the "official" Mitad del Mundo (or middle of the world). Here they showed us "proof" that water does flow the opposite direction on either side of the equator. I had a feeling they rigged the models so they would be different, but hey it might be true. We completely lucked out with the weather for that day though! It was absolutely perfect...just a few clouds and a wonderful breeze. Even though weather.com constantly says its going to rain here, it has only rained maybe 3 out of the last 7 days. And when it does rain, its at night for like 2 hours. I'm almost starting to loose track of the days! Each one feels just as perfect as the last one.

Lets see, what else have I been up to. My host mom took me to the movie theater on Sunday! I saw The Tourist (she loves Angelina Jolie) with spanish subtitles...it was confusing at parts when characters were speaking in Italian on the screen and the subtitles were in Spanish, but luckily it wasn't an immensely complicated plot. My classes began on Monday...and I have so much free time now I don't even know what to do with myself. At Denison I feel like every minute of my life is programed into meetings and classes and schoolwork and extracurriculars. I can't even imagine life without all of that stress. And now I'm officially living it! My classes go from 1-about 3:30 every afternoon. I meet up with the other students from my program for lunch at noon. After classes we either soak up the sun on campus or go get drinks at one of the local bars. I completely love the Ecuadorian beers! They are so cheap and taste great...one called Crown tastes just like Heineken and Pilsner reminds me of Corona. Another day after class we went to this incredible crepe restaurant on campus. I had this amazinggg  crepe with kiwis and strawberries and nutella. It completely changed my life.

I am also happy to report that my friends in the program appear to be enjoying all of my stories! While I know many of you may be rolling your eyes right now and thinking, "Well Colleen, they haven't been hearing these for as long as we have," I have great hope that my storytelling talents will only grow as a result of this experience. On Wednesday two of the local Ecuadorians in our program (Matteo and Paula) took us to this amazing "salsatecca" in La Mariscal district of Quito. We all climbed into Matteo's 1960s-esque Volkswagen van and drove from La Universidad to the most amazing dance club I have ever seen! The music was absolutely intoxicating...by the end of the night everyone in our group was learning to dance. Matteo and Paula are also fabulous teachers! It was incredible to think that salsa dancing is such an important part of the local culture that everyone learns it. There were some people who must have been professionals because the way they moved was unreal. I cannot wait to take that class in the Galapagos!

The food I have been eating here is also incredible. Every meal at my host family's house has a food I have never tried before. Tonight I had platano verde empanadas. Platano verde is a type of banana here...there are actually 5 different kinds of bananas in Ecuador! Only one of these vaguely resembles bananas found in the U.S. The other day I had another version of these bananas fried for dinner. It actually tasted a bit like sweet potatoes and was absolutely delicious. Another thing I love about my Ecuadorian meals is the fresh juice. I haven't had a glass of milk in the last week (because its totally gross here), but  with every meal I have either fresh tomato juice (again not like U.S. tomatoes...its really sweet!), orange juice, lemonade (from our tree outside), peach juice, mango juice, pear juice...you name it. Danielle and I just agreed to invest in a juicer for our apartment next year! It will be wonderful.

My new favorite Spanish phrase is "no me digas!" which means "you don't say!" I've noticed that a lot of the language in Ecuador is based off of reactions to other people's stories. This is obviously perfect for me because I like stories so much :)  Its become somewhat of a joke between my host mom and I because I say it whenever she says anything relatively shocking. For instance, today for desert we had roasted apples filled with homemade cinnamon apple sauce and vanilla whipped cream. When she was telling me how much work went into making it I chimed in with a "no me digas!!!" and she started laughing so hard she knocked the apple over. She then had to explain to the housekeeper (who also doesn't speak English)  that the new gringita just learned the phrase "no me digas." I think our housekeeper was very happy for me.

So tomorrow we head out to Paluguillo, which is a paramo ecosystem high up in the Andes. We will go on this awesome hike, starting out at about 4,300 meters (which translates to about 14,107 feet for you non metric folk) and ending at about 3,300 meters. today in class they gave us a preview of some of the amazing endemic species we are going to see while we are there. My favorites were definitely the "ground rosettes." These hardy flowers deal with the intense cold at the top of these mountains by having their stems underground. Stuff like this just blows my mind! Its so incredible that these little flowers have such an ingenious lifesaving mechanism built into their genetic code! I'm so excited to see all of these things. Ohhh and did I mention the hot springs at the end of the hike? Yup. Best study abroad program ever.