Monday, October 30, 2006
Perdidos En Tokyo
Hello everyone,
I´m back at my friendly neighborhood internet cafe in Quito after a quite successful first round of collecting...5 out of 30 species attained. Yesterday was quite adventurous. We took a bus to a random checkpoint and got off, using our GPS to tell us that a Puya was nearby. We went into the little restaurant that was there and I showed my Puya book to a bunch of friendly Afro-Ecuadorians (yes, they had slaves here too...for sugarcane back in the day). They knew exactly where it was and so we jumped in a car with them and headed up sort of a road for aways and then we spied the plant high up over this ravine. Puya just love the edges of cliffs (and I don´t). So then Edwin, Jose our guide and me climped straight up...scrambled, rather...through this crazy grassy mountainside. Thank God for the strength of dried out grasses...I used them like a ladder to pull myself and all my field supplies up the cliffside. We found the beautiful Puya hirtzii in full bloom, with big green flowers, admired and photographed it, then hacked it down (this plant is one that clumps, so we didn´t kill it). I enjoyed seeing three sympatric species of Lantana, a nice patch of Croton, and a little patch of banana trees on our walk back to the restaurant. True to their word, the people there had not stolen my backpack and so we chilled for awhile, eating more chicken part soup and drinking that great Latin American Coca-Cola in glass bottles before another bus came. We spent the night in Cotacachi, which is kind of touristy and famous for leather. I can´t really fathom my filthy self in a nice tailored leather jacket or with a cute purse, so I really wasn´t tempted. I would have settled for a hot shower, but none was to be found for eight dollars a night. After eating more chicken, we retired and I got to watch Independence Day and part of Lost in Translation (or Perdidos en Tokyo) in Spanish. I slept pretty soundly (as I do most nights down here), but I was awoken several times by the stinky smell of South American toilet water. I can´t really describe it, but it is so distinctive and is definitly one of my least favorite things. In the morning we wandered around in search of food, but I was actually glad that no real restaurants were open so we had to settle for bread, yogurt and Tampico instead of more chicken. Jumped in another random truck and headed to Cotacachi reserve. It was so beautiful...there was a big lake surrounded by forest, but we couldn´t really get a proper view because it was so misty. I could have enjoyed the silence and intermittent bird calls, but our driver was listening to this irritation morning show on the radio at full blast as we hiked around above the lake. Found another beautiful plant in full bloom, Puya asplundii, with green blue flowers and lots of fuzzy white hair. We hiked to this crazy place to get one plant with just a single flower left, but of course as we were leaving we saw one right by the road with hundreds of flowers an arm´s length away. Ah well....we collected it too! Took several buses back to Quito, and I got to watch John Q in Spanish. I swear, I´ve seen more movies here in the past week than in a year in the US. The people they hire to voice-over in Spanish have the corniest sounding voices...especially the kids. I treated Edwin to a very expensive (ie, almost the same cost as a night at the Med in Madison) dinner at an Italian place, run by a real life, rude Italian. He can insult my country, but you´d think he´d at least know how to make a proper pesto! Oh well, beats chicken and they were playing calming classical music. Tomorrow we are going to collect by the equator monument. Cheesy pictures to follow, I promise!
Love to everyone,
Rachel
I´m back at my friendly neighborhood internet cafe in Quito after a quite successful first round of collecting...5 out of 30 species attained. Yesterday was quite adventurous. We took a bus to a random checkpoint and got off, using our GPS to tell us that a Puya was nearby. We went into the little restaurant that was there and I showed my Puya book to a bunch of friendly Afro-Ecuadorians (yes, they had slaves here too...for sugarcane back in the day). They knew exactly where it was and so we jumped in a car with them and headed up sort of a road for aways and then we spied the plant high up over this ravine. Puya just love the edges of cliffs (and I don´t). So then Edwin, Jose our guide and me climped straight up...scrambled, rather...through this crazy grassy mountainside. Thank God for the strength of dried out grasses...I used them like a ladder to pull myself and all my field supplies up the cliffside. We found the beautiful Puya hirtzii in full bloom, with big green flowers, admired and photographed it, then hacked it down (this plant is one that clumps, so we didn´t kill it). I enjoyed seeing three sympatric species of Lantana, a nice patch of Croton, and a little patch of banana trees on our walk back to the restaurant. True to their word, the people there had not stolen my backpack and so we chilled for awhile, eating more chicken part soup and drinking that great Latin American Coca-Cola in glass bottles before another bus came. We spent the night in Cotacachi, which is kind of touristy and famous for leather. I can´t really fathom my filthy self in a nice tailored leather jacket or with a cute purse, so I really wasn´t tempted. I would have settled for a hot shower, but none was to be found for eight dollars a night. After eating more chicken, we retired and I got to watch Independence Day and part of Lost in Translation (or Perdidos en Tokyo) in Spanish. I slept pretty soundly (as I do most nights down here), but I was awoken several times by the stinky smell of South American toilet water. I can´t really describe it, but it is so distinctive and is definitly one of my least favorite things. In the morning we wandered around in search of food, but I was actually glad that no real restaurants were open so we had to settle for bread, yogurt and Tampico instead of more chicken. Jumped in another random truck and headed to Cotacachi reserve. It was so beautiful...there was a big lake surrounded by forest, but we couldn´t really get a proper view because it was so misty. I could have enjoyed the silence and intermittent bird calls, but our driver was listening to this irritation morning show on the radio at full blast as we hiked around above the lake. Found another beautiful plant in full bloom, Puya asplundii, with green blue flowers and lots of fuzzy white hair. We hiked to this crazy place to get one plant with just a single flower left, but of course as we were leaving we saw one right by the road with hundreds of flowers an arm´s length away. Ah well....we collected it too! Took several buses back to Quito, and I got to watch John Q in Spanish. I swear, I´ve seen more movies here in the past week than in a year in the US. The people they hire to voice-over in Spanish have the corniest sounding voices...especially the kids. I treated Edwin to a very expensive (ie, almost the same cost as a night at the Med in Madison) dinner at an Italian place, run by a real life, rude Italian. He can insult my country, but you´d think he´d at least know how to make a proper pesto! Oh well, beats chicken and they were playing calming classical music. Tomorrow we are going to collect by the equator monument. Cheesy pictures to follow, I promise!
Love to everyone,
Rachel
# posted by Rachel Jabaily @ 3:41 PM 
