Saturday, October 28, 2006
Chicken Feet Stew
Hello everyone,
I´m quite glad to be out of Quito and out into the wide, wide, Puya filled world. So, yesterday we took a bus to El Angel. We took a cab first to the bus station and had to navigate past tons of ticket vendors, looking for the one that goes to El Angel. I stand out, obviously, and everyone was yelling at me to go to Otavalo, which is the big indigenous craft town (I think we are going tomorrow). Got on our bus, which is actually pretty nice and headed north. I was entertained by Jean Claude Van Damm movies dubbed into Spanish...yuck. At least it wasn´t Ecaudorian pop music. Sorry to say, but their music here goes pretty low on my list of things that I like (Id give anything to hear El Condor Pasa played by panpipes). North of Quito is quite dry and desert like, but then we headed a bit higher, where there are massive rose farms (all under greenhouses) and sugar cane plantations. This is the one of two areas in Ecuador in which many people are of African ancestry. Five hours later we were in El Angel, and it was cute, cute, cute. We ran into someone who ran a hosteria for eight bucks a night, and so we were checked in and I was able to rid of my ridiculous backpack quite quickly. We made our way to the plaza, where all the local high schoolers were having a dance festival...each class was assigned the dance of a region of Ecuador (or a few other random parts of the world, including part of Bolivia, Mexico and Middle East!). It was quite cute and I got lots of good pictures. Had a great dinner of the locally famous fried pork chunks, potatoes, and popcorn (think like big, crunchy Cornnuts). You put this mild chili sauce on it and it is quite good! Everyone stared at me pretty much everywhere I go...I´m quite a bit taller and poorer dressed and I´m about the only gringo around most times. We found an old friend of Edwin´s in El Angel and had a nice evening in his house. He has two sons and the baby, Kenneth (!), was terrified of me. I felt kind of bad, but its hard not to be large and white. We shared some Ecuadorian wine, which is without a doubt the nastiest drink I´ve ever had. Its made of strawberries, but kind of tastes like plastic and medicine. (Once again, the Lonely Planet was dead on). But the family was very pleasant and I am now to the point where I register pretty much every phrase of Spanish, if it isn´t too fast, so I was able to sort of keep up. I have to explain to Edwin that sometimes I don´t even try and just let my mind wander in English, so he shouldn´t feel bad trying to keep me abreast of every conversation.
Woke up and had a giant breakfast of chicken with this cilantro salsa and eggs and the best juice ever. We hired a cab driver, Mario, to drive us the several kilometers up, up, up to El Angel paramo reserve. It was tremendous! Alll the heavy agriculture and deforestation gave way to meados of giant silver sunflower Espeletias and Puya hamata, in full bloom! This is the biggest Puya in Ecuador and I was quite dwarfed beneath it. I truly feel terribile for cutting one down, but that is what botanists do :( It was much more sad to see the areas of the paramo that had been burned by the local people, who think it brings the rain (Have they been talking to Malagasy people, Maggie?). Even though it is protected, they don´t seem to care. It kills all the Puyas, too :( I just loved the views from 12,000 plus feet elevation, and this lovely mist came in and made things just a bit on the cool side, which was quite a relief for me. Ecuador is way hotter than I had anticipated. i feel kind of stupid for hauling about my giant coat, but maybe it will come in handy. We hiked all around , looking for this supposed other species, and at one point I fell into a hole up to my armpits...don´t worry, we have a picture and I´m fine. I took tons of pictures of lovely plants and made an Onagraceae specimen for Ken. Came back down and found a second species in this ridiculous canyon right by town. I climbed pretty much on all fours up and up and up to get to this plant (which didn´´t even have nice flowers to reward me), but en route found another nice bromeliad in bloom. It was a very successful first day in the field and I feel very good about things. And there were no sketchy Colombians to spirit me away. There were very cute street dogs, though. I found cous cous...
We bussed back to Ibarra, the biggest town north of Quito, and it is kind of crappy and its famous ice cream parlour is closed for the night, so I don´t really know what to do. ´We had a nice chicken foot stew for lunch (just close your eyes and keep on eating...at least itkind of had vegetables in it!), so I´m kind of full but really would like some ice cream....ah, calcium and fruit. Honestly, everyone says Americans have such a bad diet, but in all of my travels around the world, i´ve found ample cheap sugary snacks, fried everything, and meat three times a day. Here, its fried bananas and pork, coca cola or fanta and pretty soon I´ll get to try the elusive cuye, or guinea pig on a stick.
Tomorrow we are going with another random guy with a truck to Buenos Aires...no, not Argentina yet! A small town that doesn´t even exist on one map, and doesn´t have a road to it on another...on the search for Puya hirtzii. Then back to Quito...I´m totally going to wash my clothes. We are staying in a pretty nice hotel tonight, and I look so gross, with my dirty zippy pants, layers of fleece and giant camera strapped about me. I´m pretty tired of people trying out their one phrase of English on me or laughing at me. Edwin and this lady at a restaurant said it is because I´m so pretty, like Britney Spears, but I´m hardly convinced. No worried, though! Things are great and it is quite the country. I can´t wait to see more of it (and get out of boring Ibarra). Off to find anything with the ¨tomato tree¨flavor...its just like heaven.
Love to you all,
Rachel
I´m quite glad to be out of Quito and out into the wide, wide, Puya filled world. So, yesterday we took a bus to El Angel. We took a cab first to the bus station and had to navigate past tons of ticket vendors, looking for the one that goes to El Angel. I stand out, obviously, and everyone was yelling at me to go to Otavalo, which is the big indigenous craft town (I think we are going tomorrow). Got on our bus, which is actually pretty nice and headed north. I was entertained by Jean Claude Van Damm movies dubbed into Spanish...yuck. At least it wasn´t Ecaudorian pop music. Sorry to say, but their music here goes pretty low on my list of things that I like (Id give anything to hear El Condor Pasa played by panpipes). North of Quito is quite dry and desert like, but then we headed a bit higher, where there are massive rose farms (all under greenhouses) and sugar cane plantations. This is the one of two areas in Ecuador in which many people are of African ancestry. Five hours later we were in El Angel, and it was cute, cute, cute. We ran into someone who ran a hosteria for eight bucks a night, and so we were checked in and I was able to rid of my ridiculous backpack quite quickly. We made our way to the plaza, where all the local high schoolers were having a dance festival...each class was assigned the dance of a region of Ecuador (or a few other random parts of the world, including part of Bolivia, Mexico and Middle East!). It was quite cute and I got lots of good pictures. Had a great dinner of the locally famous fried pork chunks, potatoes, and popcorn (think like big, crunchy Cornnuts). You put this mild chili sauce on it and it is quite good! Everyone stared at me pretty much everywhere I go...I´m quite a bit taller and poorer dressed and I´m about the only gringo around most times. We found an old friend of Edwin´s in El Angel and had a nice evening in his house. He has two sons and the baby, Kenneth (!), was terrified of me. I felt kind of bad, but its hard not to be large and white. We shared some Ecuadorian wine, which is without a doubt the nastiest drink I´ve ever had. Its made of strawberries, but kind of tastes like plastic and medicine. (Once again, the Lonely Planet was dead on). But the family was very pleasant and I am now to the point where I register pretty much every phrase of Spanish, if it isn´t too fast, so I was able to sort of keep up. I have to explain to Edwin that sometimes I don´t even try and just let my mind wander in English, so he shouldn´t feel bad trying to keep me abreast of every conversation.
Woke up and had a giant breakfast of chicken with this cilantro salsa and eggs and the best juice ever. We hired a cab driver, Mario, to drive us the several kilometers up, up, up to El Angel paramo reserve. It was tremendous! Alll the heavy agriculture and deforestation gave way to meados of giant silver sunflower Espeletias and Puya hamata, in full bloom! This is the biggest Puya in Ecuador and I was quite dwarfed beneath it. I truly feel terribile for cutting one down, but that is what botanists do :( It was much more sad to see the areas of the paramo that had been burned by the local people, who think it brings the rain (Have they been talking to Malagasy people, Maggie?). Even though it is protected, they don´t seem to care. It kills all the Puyas, too :( I just loved the views from 12,000 plus feet elevation, and this lovely mist came in and made things just a bit on the cool side, which was quite a relief for me. Ecuador is way hotter than I had anticipated. i feel kind of stupid for hauling about my giant coat, but maybe it will come in handy. We hiked all around , looking for this supposed other species, and at one point I fell into a hole up to my armpits...don´t worry, we have a picture and I´m fine. I took tons of pictures of lovely plants and made an Onagraceae specimen for Ken. Came back down and found a second species in this ridiculous canyon right by town. I climbed pretty much on all fours up and up and up to get to this plant (which didn´´t even have nice flowers to reward me), but en route found another nice bromeliad in bloom. It was a very successful first day in the field and I feel very good about things. And there were no sketchy Colombians to spirit me away. There were very cute street dogs, though. I found cous cous...
We bussed back to Ibarra, the biggest town north of Quito, and it is kind of crappy and its famous ice cream parlour is closed for the night, so I don´t really know what to do. ´We had a nice chicken foot stew for lunch (just close your eyes and keep on eating...at least itkind of had vegetables in it!), so I´m kind of full but really would like some ice cream....ah, calcium and fruit. Honestly, everyone says Americans have such a bad diet, but in all of my travels around the world, i´ve found ample cheap sugary snacks, fried everything, and meat three times a day. Here, its fried bananas and pork, coca cola or fanta and pretty soon I´ll get to try the elusive cuye, or guinea pig on a stick.
Tomorrow we are going with another random guy with a truck to Buenos Aires...no, not Argentina yet! A small town that doesn´t even exist on one map, and doesn´t have a road to it on another...on the search for Puya hirtzii. Then back to Quito...I´m totally going to wash my clothes. We are staying in a pretty nice hotel tonight, and I look so gross, with my dirty zippy pants, layers of fleece and giant camera strapped about me. I´m pretty tired of people trying out their one phrase of English on me or laughing at me. Edwin and this lady at a restaurant said it is because I´m so pretty, like Britney Spears, but I´m hardly convinced. No worried, though! Things are great and it is quite the country. I can´t wait to see more of it (and get out of boring Ibarra). Off to find anything with the ¨tomato tree¨flavor...its just like heaven.
Love to you all,
Rachel
# posted by Rachel Jabaily @ 7:18 PM 
