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.

Hola Amigos!

Hey everyone! So I just stumbled through creating this blogger account (for some reason the spanish infiltrated my computer as well?). Its been probably the craziest 24 hours of my life, but now I finally have a few seconds to take it all in. It turns out I really do know as little Spanish as I thought, haha. Its easier to understand what people are saying than to make sentences of my own...but I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually. They explained some of the local customs today, and the explained that people here greet everyone when they walk into a room. Instead of waiting for individual introductions, you are just supposed to let everyone know who you are. See, I would love to have that in the United States because I think so many awkward social moments could be remedied by blanket introductions, but its a bit nerve-wrecking when I know such little Spanish!

Today I had my first orientation at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito! It is such a gorgeous campus, I can't get over it. The buildings are painted bright colors and there are flowers blooming everywhere. The weather was absolutely perfect all day...partially cloudy and 65 degrees with a small breeze. The storm clouds started rolling in over the mountains at about 5:30, but it was almost more beautiful than the perfect weather :) It was wonderful to smell rain again after so many months of cold!

I still cannot believe I am finally here after almost a year of planning. Its weird to think that the rain thats coming down on the roof of my host madre's house is Ecuadorian rain...or that when I turn on the radio its Spanish songs and voices. Its all still so strange, but I'm sure that I will get the hang of it eventually.

Anyway, thanks for reading! I'll keep you updated on all of my stories :)