Wednesday, November 15, 2006
My First Volcano
Greetings,
Yesterday was quite a big day, but ultimately a lot of fun. Juan and Edwin arrived at the herbarium and we drove the rental car through the entire breadth of insane market day Quito. It took about an hour to rid ourselves of the city, and then we were in the countryside, barreling towards Cotapaxi National Park. Too bad that it was overcast and cloudy, so I never got the startling view of the volcano in all its snowcapped glory. I really only saw one volcano without clouds covering it, but I´ve forgotten its name momentarily. At the entrance to the park, we saw Puya retrorsa, with big, billowy green flowers. I was quite smitten and it was a good way to start the day. We entered the park with little fanfare (they readily accepted my sort of permits, and the fact that Edwin is writing a book about the park smoothed things over as well) and headed up to the museum. Got to seem some creepily bad taxadermy of the various short deer and little weasel things that live on the paramo here, and an Andean condor in desperate need of more wing feathers. A peace corp volunteer had identified the plants of the park as best she could, and had even planted a little botanical garden at the entrance, but Edwin right off the bat found about 5 things wrong with it. He´ll have lots of work to do when he is here for a month writing the book! Great plants, though.
We found the fuzziest Puya of all....Puya clava herculis (Hercules´club) in the grassy paramos before the volcano. Even the spines of its leaves were fuzzy! I just had to give it a kiss.... Not too long, because its flowers were swarming with mites! I´ve seen this before...I wonder if they are involved in pollination at all? We headed up the volcano, because Edwin told me there was a glacier there. I think he was mistaken and mistranslated, but at around 4600m, we did find snow. All vegetation was gone and we were driving on dusty, red volcanic soil. It was the first time Edwin and Juan had seen snow, which I think is kind of special and well worth the extra hour. We saw several Jeeps full of European mountaineers at the top, bravely donning their ice picks and cramp ons for the miserable assent to the top in blinding, freezing snow. I´m hard core, but not like that and was glad to descend back to the paramo. I think that is the first active volcano I have stood on...parents, please correct me if there is some childhood memory I have forgotten.
It was starting to rain (it has been doing that an aweful lot lately and I´m constantly cold), but we had one more species to collect. We descended down the western side of the cordillera, towards the beach (though six hours away...), and it was instantly much more tropical. We spied the plant through the driving rain again on the steep slope of a roadcut, and had to clamber up, using bamboo and a random Lamiaceae (may have been Lepechinia, but no flowers!) as a ladder, in the freezing cold. Luckily it was in full flower and for the first time they were pink, not blue or green! Puya tillii is pollinated by bats, and the flowers emitted a nice perfume on the car ride home.
Let me take a moment to applaud the drivers of Ecuador. Down here, there really are very few cops on the roads and people take matters in to their own hands. Passing on blind curves, going as fast as possible, stopping in mid traffic, braking at the last minute....my first time in South America I was absolutely terrified all the time in cars and buses, but now I´m pretty used to it and just marvel at the fluidity of transportation. It is tight, efficient, and under control. There seems to be minimal road rage, and it seems that most of the people on the road are real professionals and know what they are doing. (Incidentally, way fewer people have vehicles, and if they do there is a good change it is their livelihood...Oh, and I´ve barely seen any woman drivers. Not that that means anything). Thank you all for getting me about. I would NEVER drive down here!
Today I went with Edwin to this little town north of Quito that specializes in making decorations out of bread dough. I bought a ton, as they were just so cute and economical. Now for a moment, let me be sentimental. Eight years ago, when we were my brother´s age (weird), my husband went on a school trip to Ecuador. He went to many of the places I did, including Cotapaxi and the bread dough town, and many places I didn´t, including (very regrettably, but wasn´t remotely feasible...the Galapagos Islands). Granted, he bought his girlfriend at the time a nice sweater (but lets not even go there...she was pretty crazy), and he brought me back several dough ornaments....a little boy in a poncho that broke at some point in college, and a spotted donkey with a wreath around its neck that I think is somewhere in Madison now. Those were back in the ¨courting years¨when we first were falling in love and I am thinking back now to a much younger Matt here in Ecuador, shopping for something special for me, and to a much younger me, so delighted to receive festive dough. I miss you, baby.
Ok, on that note, some pictures! Tomorrow is the last Puya hunt....beneath TeleferiQo (see way previous entry) I saw a flowering Puya, which I think is the last on our list....and hasn´t been recorded there since 1888! We have to take the tram to the top and hike ALL the way down! Going out with a bang....
A special shout out to Michael Sundue of New York Botanical Garden, who is beginning his own Ecuadorian collecting adventure, searching for the elusive and beautiful Fern. See you Friday!
Peace out,
Rachel
Yesterday was quite a big day, but ultimately a lot of fun. Juan and Edwin arrived at the herbarium and we drove the rental car through the entire breadth of insane market day Quito. It took about an hour to rid ourselves of the city, and then we were in the countryside, barreling towards Cotapaxi National Park. Too bad that it was overcast and cloudy, so I never got the startling view of the volcano in all its snowcapped glory. I really only saw one volcano without clouds covering it, but I´ve forgotten its name momentarily. At the entrance to the park, we saw Puya retrorsa, with big, billowy green flowers. I was quite smitten and it was a good way to start the day. We entered the park with little fanfare (they readily accepted my sort of permits, and the fact that Edwin is writing a book about the park smoothed things over as well) and headed up to the museum. Got to seem some creepily bad taxadermy of the various short deer and little weasel things that live on the paramo here, and an Andean condor in desperate need of more wing feathers. A peace corp volunteer had identified the plants of the park as best she could, and had even planted a little botanical garden at the entrance, but Edwin right off the bat found about 5 things wrong with it. He´ll have lots of work to do when he is here for a month writing the book! Great plants, though.
We found the fuzziest Puya of all....Puya clava herculis (Hercules´club) in the grassy paramos before the volcano. Even the spines of its leaves were fuzzy! I just had to give it a kiss.... Not too long, because its flowers were swarming with mites! I´ve seen this before...I wonder if they are involved in pollination at all? We headed up the volcano, because Edwin told me there was a glacier there. I think he was mistaken and mistranslated, but at around 4600m, we did find snow. All vegetation was gone and we were driving on dusty, red volcanic soil. It was the first time Edwin and Juan had seen snow, which I think is kind of special and well worth the extra hour. We saw several Jeeps full of European mountaineers at the top, bravely donning their ice picks and cramp ons for the miserable assent to the top in blinding, freezing snow. I´m hard core, but not like that and was glad to descend back to the paramo. I think that is the first active volcano I have stood on...parents, please correct me if there is some childhood memory I have forgotten.
It was starting to rain (it has been doing that an aweful lot lately and I´m constantly cold), but we had one more species to collect. We descended down the western side of the cordillera, towards the beach (though six hours away...), and it was instantly much more tropical. We spied the plant through the driving rain again on the steep slope of a roadcut, and had to clamber up, using bamboo and a random Lamiaceae (may have been Lepechinia, but no flowers!) as a ladder, in the freezing cold. Luckily it was in full flower and for the first time they were pink, not blue or green! Puya tillii is pollinated by bats, and the flowers emitted a nice perfume on the car ride home.
Let me take a moment to applaud the drivers of Ecuador. Down here, there really are very few cops on the roads and people take matters in to their own hands. Passing on blind curves, going as fast as possible, stopping in mid traffic, braking at the last minute....my first time in South America I was absolutely terrified all the time in cars and buses, but now I´m pretty used to it and just marvel at the fluidity of transportation. It is tight, efficient, and under control. There seems to be minimal road rage, and it seems that most of the people on the road are real professionals and know what they are doing. (Incidentally, way fewer people have vehicles, and if they do there is a good change it is their livelihood...Oh, and I´ve barely seen any woman drivers. Not that that means anything). Thank you all for getting me about. I would NEVER drive down here!Today I went with Edwin to this little town north of Quito that specializes in making decorations out of bread dough. I bought a ton, as they were just so cute and economical. Now for a moment, let me be sentimental. Eight years ago, when we were my brother´s age (weird), my husband went on a school trip to Ecuador. He went to many of the places I did, including Cotapaxi and the bread dough town, and many places I didn´t, including (very regrettably, but wasn´t remotely feasible...the Galapagos Islands). Granted, he bought his girlfriend at the time a nice sweater (but lets not even go there...she was pretty crazy), and he brought me back several dough ornaments....a little boy in a poncho that broke at some point in college, and a spotted donkey with a wreath around its neck that I think is somewhere in Madison now. Those were back in the ¨courting years¨when we first were falling in love and I am thinking back now to a much younger Matt here in Ecuador, shopping for something special for me, and to a much younger me, so delighted to receive festive dough. I miss you, baby.
Ok, on that note, some pictures! Tomorrow is the last Puya hunt....beneath TeleferiQo (see way previous entry) I saw a flowering Puya, which I think is the last on our list....and hasn´t been recorded there since 1888! We have to take the tram to the top and hike ALL the way down! Going out with a bang....
A special shout out to Michael Sundue of New York Botanical Garden, who is beginning his own Ecuadorian collecting adventure, searching for the elusive and beautiful Fern. See you Friday!
Peace out,
Rachel
# posted by Rachel Jabaily @ 9:12 PM 
