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.