1) Futbol! The Monday before last (two weeks ago) I went to a soccer game (my first professional sports game ever!) in Quito with Lia and her host brother. Although it was a relatively unimportant game, it was crazy. Liga, one of Quito's teams, had just won the Recopa South America, and although I'm not sure exactly what that is, it's a very big deal, and the trophy was presented before the game. They erected a small awards podium on the field, along with a giant blowup Pilsner bottle, which is one of the local beers, and a couple of other blowup things. Then they hauled a small section of wooden scaffolding onto the field. After presenting the trophy, fireworks went off from somewhere, and the crowd, which had already been pretty loud, went wild. Then the wooden scaffolding exploded into flames, forming Liga's logo. Once the game started, the stadium calmed down a little, but not much. Whole sections of the crowd were on their feet stamping and cheering for the entire 90 minutes of play. And this wasn't even an important game. Throughout the night, woman and children wandered through the crowd calling "cervesas, caramelos, chicles, etc," and occasionally blocking my view.
2) Cloud Forest Excursion
AMAZING. Cloud forest is the name for the elevation at which clouds tend to condense, creating a very very humid environment. The Ecuadorian cloud forests are some of the most diverse places on earth, although the diversity isn't always visible because much of it is in the form of insects, amphibians, and plants. We left Los Chillos for Intag last saturday at 8am, and five hours later (three hours on the panamerican highway and another two on an unpaved, windy road) we arrived at Santa Rosa, a very small town. All of our gear got loaded onto four horses, and then we walked for an hour to reach La Florida, the place where we stayed. After a lunch of guacamole, beans, rice, enchiladas, coffee, juice, and a lot more that I can't remember (this place is a working farm, so all of the produce is fresh, and they also produce all of their own coffee; I ate way too much at every meal), we waddled off to look around. Thirty minutes later, we decided to hike to the two waterfalls that had been mentioned, so we all put on our plastic boots (essentially very cheap rainboots) and clomped along the path through the mud. The first waterfall was about ten minutes away, and although not that impressive as a waterfall, was amazing for the diversity of plant life that surrounded it. A couple of us wadded in the small pool at the bottom and stood underneath it. The second waterfall was another twenty minutes away, and even smaller than the first one. At this waterfall, we weren't supposed to talk above a whisper, becuase a species of bird, the Andean cock of the rock (I'm sure there is a more scientific name, but no one ever told us it) resides very near here, and noise scares them off. The male cocks of the rock are bright red, and make a very loud call to attract their mates. These birds are in danger of extinction, and some bird watchers will apparently hike for miles to catch a glimpse of one. Although I didn't see one the first afternoon, we definitely heard one, and I saw several while hiking the last morning. The second waterfall was better for swimming, and a bunch of us jumped in before returning for our 5:30pm lecture.
The lecture was given by Carlos, one of the farm's owners, and he mostly talked about his constant struggle against mining. In the early 90s, a Japanese mining company discovered copper in a nearby area of the cloud forest, and drew up plans to build an open pit copper mine. The project would have partially destroyed the territory of over 40 endangered species, and required four different towns to relocate, not to mention the pollution that it would have introduced into the rivers, which is where all the people and animals get their water. After rallying nearby communities, Carlos successfully prevented the mine from being constructed and the Japanese company left. A few years later, a Canadian company drew up new plans to mine the region. Again, the communities were able to stop the project, although the prinicipal organizers of the protests all got several death threats. Now, the Ecuadorian government itself wants to open and operate the mine, and Carlos is less optimistic about their chances of resisiting.
On Sunday, our group was split in two. Seven of us went on a three hour hike while the other seven stayed behind to learn to draw. I went on the hike. Roberto, a man who has lived in the Intag cloud forest for his whole life, and one of the major organizers behind the anti-mining movement was our guide. We stopped frequently for him to identify various plants and tell us about their medicinal qualities. The area we were in contains more species of humming birds then the entire United States combined, and also more species of orchids then exist in the U.S., although only a couple of them were in bloom. In addition, there were long, thin vines hanging from the leaves above, and many plants with leaves as big as me. Roberto walked ahead of us the whole way, constantly clearing the path of vines and fallen trees with his machete. Because the cloud forest is a mountaineous, rocky region, trees only have a couple of inches of dirt in which to send down their roots, which means that any tree that grows to be too big falls over, and fallen trees were everywhere. Many species of plants have adapted to grow around another species and use them as an anchor and source of nutrients, instead of sending down their own roots. Moss also blanketed a lot of the trees. We came to a small waterfall, scaled the rock face next to it, and came to another approximately 50ft waterfall. Chris and I went swimming, but nobody else wanted to get wet. Then we began a 20 minute upward climb, to reach old growth trees, before descending back to La Florida.
That afternoon, a young woman who has worked for environmental issues in the area since she was fifteen spoke to us some more about mining issues, and then three women talked to us about the womens group they've formed. These women use cabuya, a native plant that looks kind of like a cactus, to make incredible bags, placemats, and other similar items by hand, and then sell them. A lot of the work is very good, and all the dyes are made from local plants. This isn't a full time job, they really only work in the evenings after all the housework and the cooking has been done, but it's brought about incredible changes in their lives. They talked a lot about how before they started this project, they had no way to earn money and depended on their husbands to support them and their kids. Now, they often earn more money than their husbands, which means they can make sure their kids have everything they need, and even pay for transportation to a nearby high school.
That night, Carlos and Sandy (his wife) set up a moth trap. Essentially, you hang up a white sheet and then shine a bright light on it; when you turn off the light, the mothes fly away. There were about 200 moths on the sheet (at least 100 different species), but Carlos and Sandy said that it was a really small number; if it hadn't been close to a full moon, there would have been a lot more. No one really knows why the moths are attracted to bright light, but some scientists think they might use moonlight to navigate. The moths were all different colors and shapes and sizes. Some were gold, one was pure white, a lot were mottled, some were green, one looked like a leopard print, etc.
The next day, the groups swapped activities, so I did drawing and painting with Sandy. It wasn't nearly as fun as the hike but I still enjoyed it. In the afternoon, we had a three hour Ecuadorian history lecture beginning with the 1400s when the Incas conquered the original inhabitants, and then went right on through Spanish colonization, independence, and modern history. It was fascinating, but a little overwhelming as well. Tuesday morning, five of us got up at 6:30am for a last hike. Early morning is also the best time to see the birds. After breakfast, we hiked back out to the bus. On the way back, we stopped in Otavalo, which has the biggest artisan's market in Ecuador, for two hours. Tuesday is not a big market day, so not all of the booths were set up, and it was pretty empty, but I actually think that made it nicer. We could wander around without any fear of bumping into people (apparently on the weekends it is absolutely packed) and it was nice to be able to take my time when bargaining with the shopkeepers.
We arrived back in Los Chillos at 6pm, and classes resumed Wednesday morning at 8. We now have one more week here before we switch families and move to Quito, althoguh in between families, we're spending four or five days in the Amazonian rainforest!
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