El Paramo

Better late than never huh. So last Friday and Saturday we had two day trips. Friday we went to Cayambe Cocoa which is a Paramo ecosystem it is higher elevation I think we were over 14,000 feet we took the bus up though so there wasn't too much huffing and puffing. Cayambe Cocoa had some really cool plants many were adapted to retain water, or had adaptations to keep them selves from freezing. Some of these adaptations include: fuzzy or furry leaves, gel stuff that works at antifreeze, and then cush plants keep all of their dead leaves inside of them for warmth. We didn't see any cool animals here but this is the llama region and I guess andean tapirs which I also sadly missed :(.

At both of the sites we did a project to compare the diversity between a non human impacted paramo ecosystem to a human impacted paramo ecosystem. We calculated alpha diversity and we created morphospecies. Which just means we got to create fun names for species that we didn't know but kind of looked like the species. My group was all girls (most groups were there are nine girls and three boys in my group), we had a plant named "Princess" and she had very nice flowery looking leaves and was very delicate, reeses peanut butter cup wrapper, lucky (clover), Cuzin it (a type of grass that is really long). In case you were wondering there was in fact more diversity in the non human impact area and had taller plants.

On Saturday we went to Antisana which was pretty much all fields. We did see some lava rock mining because a while ago Antisana burst at the seams and lava flew out of the side. Antisana also had a lot more birds . We saw a black faced Ibis which is critically endangered! We ate lunch by Lake Mica which provides all of the water for Quito. Sometimes durng the day here the lights are shut down because there isn't enough water in the dam to power the city so at certain peridos of the day the lights shut off for a few hours.

Tonight I'm heading to Otavalo so I can get up early go to the animal market and then after buy some Alpaca wear of course and then next week I'm headed to the coast! Howler monkeys here I come!!!

El Pahuma

female masked trogan

Cloud forest!

It is a boy!

This past weekend I had the pleasure of visiting El Pahuma, an Orchid Reserve one hour from Quito. El Pahua is a smallish fragment of land and Ceiba (the program which my study abroad is through) backed a family into keeping the land. Usually people sell or exploit the land by Ceiba backed the Lima family into conserving the forest.

El Pahuma is in a Montane Cloud forest it looks like a forest straight of Jurassic park. Even in one of our biology books it said you probably expect a dino to walk out at any time. I arrived Friday around 10 to the reserve and we walked around the Jardin for a little bit learned a lot about plants and caught some lizards. Learning about plants often includes smelling them for an example the family Peperacae smells like......PEPPER or at least has a spicy smell to it. For many familys of plants smelling can aid in identifying the species. We also walked up to one of the waterfalls. After browsing around a bit we had lunch at the Lima family owned restaraunt. and I ate TROUT...I dont' even like trout but it was pretty good, it didn't have a fish flavor Hooray!! After lunch we made the long hike up to the guardaria del oso (bear cave, really it is just a cabin. no bears were sited on my trip). The hike was exhuasting because it was very steep. It was very beautiful though because literally everthing is covered in green. Plants called epiphytes cover all of the trees. The rest of friday we spent kicking around the cabin, ate dinner and had a night hike. There were tons of really cool walking sticks, I found three within probably three hours. If i had been here for my bug collection I would probably only have taken me one day to collect all 75 species.

On Saturday we woke up at 6 am to do a little bit of bird wtching. I didn't really have to much luck because it is hard to get used to bins (short for binoculars). Then we ate breakfast, packed a lunch and did some more hiking. This hike took about two and half hours to reach or destination but there was a lot of stopping, passing back plants and shells etc. for learning purposes. Once we made it farther up the montain we started hiking through an old Inca trail. This was super cool because it was tunnels of vegetation to walk under. We also had a scavenger hunt on the way back down to find htings we learned about. My team did not win, but we found everything except for one thing a type of frut/flower we had learned about for the family Clusiacae. which has oppostie leaves, the leaves come out in different planes. the leaves are also kind of waxyish. sooo now you know the kind of things I'm learning. Saturday night we had Espegetti for dinner ( the put in E in front of words that start with S....for instance my family calls me Estefi). Later a member of the Lima family came and talked to us about the difficulties and process of conservation of private land. We also had a type of drink called canalazo which is cinamon (when something ends in lazo it means it and cana is cinamon) and also a type of fruit called narnajiia and a bit of liquor. idk what though. It was pretty tastey and it is served warm. AFter that we went on a night hike. I saw my first frog...in ecuador. I don't remember the name, but it is a type of frog that doesnt' lay tadpoles.

Sunday once again I got up at six for a little bit of birding. I missed the first toucan which of course was prettier and easier to see the colors (bins are very hard to get used to and when everthing is green it is hard to spot things) however I did see a toucan later (no pics, but i promise I'm not lying). After breakfast we made the hike down and on the way down we go tto play in a waterfall!!!!!!!! It was FREEZING brrr. or as they say in the indigenous ecuadorian language aychichi. I have no pics of the waterfall playing because my camera battery was dead by that point. I hadn't charged it before I left. At the restaraunt for lunch we had some type of pork and potatos.

Nothing else too exciting has happened. Tonight I had llapingachos for dinner which is cheesy mashed potatos. Those are on the top of my list for favorite ingredients and once I have more free time my host mom is going to teach me hw ot make them along with cheese empanadas which are suprisingly good with sugar as well. My spanish is continuing to improve. I had my first exam on Monday which I thought was hard, but we will see how things go.

This weekend I have two day trips both into the paramo area again about an hour from Quito this time I'm going East. And on friday we get to go into thermal springs! Can't Wait!!! I will try and upload pictures on here later, but I was just trying and it failed. Internet is a wee bit slow for uploading pictures here.

love you all!

First Week + a couple days

This is a view from walking back from my friend's house. Very pretty it is cool seeing all of the houses and buildings go up the side of the Mt.

pretty pretty Orchid

My host Mom, Mariana and I in Old Quito.

I safely made it to Ecuador and on Saturday the second my host family picked me up from the hostel and took me to their house. Everything is going very well, and everyone in my family is very nice. They have two daughters but one is married and no longer lives at home and the other left just a few days after I arrived to study in the United States. On Monday the 4 I had orientation, Tuesday I went and finished all my visa doings and Wednesday I finally started classes. I have two classes Biology for three hours and Spanish for three hours. Soo nothing too interesting there.

This past weekend on Friday we all went out for dinner at a Mexican restaruant and then did a lit bit of dancing. The taxi ride only cost three dollars! Que barato! (how cheap!) Saturday I went to the Jardin Botanico in Parque Carolina (botanical garden), then to Crepes and Waffles (which was delicious!), and then I went to one of the artesian markets. I am now a proud owner of a lovely green alpaca sweater, blue heat and gloves with alpaca on them, and a purple scarf. Total spent: $20. I will be returning hopefully soon to buy another alpaca sweater and some hammocks! I took a few pictures at the Botanical garden but my lense and/or the lighting was weird so they weren't very clear. I have since then cleaned my lense so hopefully this weekend when I go to Pahuma I'll have better luck! (El Pahuma is an Orchid Reserve!)

On Sunday I went to the el campo (farm) of my host family's conseguros (inlaws). I held some baby lamb, and let a baby cow eat my hand. :D Everyone there spoke Spanish of course and I had a difficult time conversing because when they talk together it is very very very fast. Other than that though my spanish has improved I think and I'm finding it easier to speak even if there are thousands of errors. \

Also the bus rides here are CRAZY. It costs .25 to ride, but they drive very very fast up and down very very windy roads. A lot of times in the afternoon I don't have room to sit down either so I stand which is super hard! but no worries it is very safe! haha

also one of the pictures is at the Botanical garden and there was a puppy dog school going on!

Safe Travels

hello! I made it safely to Quito, I was picked up and brought to a hostel and spent the night here. My host family should be picking me up around five tonight they are currently at the beach. It is very sunny and warm :D