Last
weekend….was full of excitement, oddities, and sillyness, as life often seems
to be here. We started out Friday
at the zoo, as usual, doing our “volunteers”. We all of course arrived promptly, and then proceeded to for
about an hour (like usual), for our awesome biodiversity professor (owner of
the zoo) to show up. We were
waiting on a busy corner, and of course being a group of 8 gringos, attracted
countless stares and questions. We
first worked at the reptile, snake, iguana, amphibian, and fish zoo, filling up
tanks and feeding turtles and what not.
Then we all piled into the back of our professor’s truck to head to feed
the mammals at the bigger, newer zoo outside the city. Before continuing to the zoo, my
professor of course took us to his favorite panaderia, and we chilled in the
sun for a half hour eating pan. We
then went to a produce and meat store, and he piled avacados, apples, cabbage,
chicken feet, watermelon, corn, and such on top of us, and we continued on the
way to feed the animals. We made
colorful fruit salads for the birds, threw apples and aguacuates at the bears,
and watched Ernesto feed chicken feet to the beautiful new Puma. Oh, and of course I spent a good time
throwing bananas and peanuts at the monkeys. Lindsey fed her Galapagos turtle love, who is partially
blind and quite deformed, and requires a lot of help and time eating.
That
afternoon we went to Cajas National Park, which is a whole different world only
about a half hour away from Cuenca, and wow, wow, wow. It part of the Ecuadorian Paramo, at a
9,000-13,000 feet elevation. The
paramo is the water ecosystem, in charge of collecting and dispersing water to
the other ecosystems. This was
clear from the moment we stepped off the bus and sunk into the grass on the
climb down to the lake. We bounced
and pranced around on the delightfully squishy, mossy grass and mud. Cajas is typically pretty chilly, rainy
and foggy, and is full of lakes, mountains, and strange vegetation that has
adapted to live at its high altitudes.
It is also home to llamas and alpaca, hummingbirds, and false scorpians,
and many endemic bird species.
Sadly, it used to be teaming with frogs…and I mean truly frog-fantastic,
as in a frog every square foot.
But now many frogs in the paramo have become extinct, or are now
endangered, and we didn’t see a single frog the whole time. Ernesto, our professor at the zoo, is a
frog finatic and expert. He is
currently running a number of frog conservation projects, which we have had the
opportunity to observe a bit.
However, frogs are a species that haven’t been studied much, and
conservation projects are difficult to figure out.
We
traveled to Cajas equipped with tents, hotdogs, marshmellows, and such, ready
to camp, but Im embarrassed to say that we wimped out (especially after
bragging how we are all accustomed to the cold, and camping would be no big
deal for us). After a few hours in
the rain, fog, and cold, we weren’t really feeling the whole camping thing. So instead, we went to an old restaurant/bar
with our professor. We warmed up
with large pitchers of canalesa, which is warm zhumir (the hard liquor of
Ecuador), and cinnamon, and large stacks of fried pork and beef and dirty mote. A few of us then proceeded to camp in
my basement and watch harry potter in Spanish. Later that night, while
waiting with Julia outside for her to catch a taxi, we were joined by a very
drunk man who drove up on the curb and almost ran her down. He was soon joined by his employee who
was attempting and failing to chase his drunken self down and control him. The
next morning, my plans of sleeping in quickly disappeared by the appearance of
5-6 men surrounding my room and in my roof, banging away and reconstructing on
all sides of me at 630 AM. I think
I forgot to mention how strange the weather has been lately…tons of crazy rain,
hail, and wind-storms. Anyhow, our
house, well mostly just my room, flooded…meaning a good few cms of water on the
ground, which is pretty comical because I keep most of my stuff on my ground.
Saturday,
I spent nearly the entire day watching movies and TV with my family. Sunday, a few friends and I and my mom went to two
nearby small cities: Gualaseo and Chordeleh with my mom, who does a lot of
museum and church restoration work there. Gualaseo is a beautiful, tranquil,
small town. We were there on a
Sunday, and wondering around the parks and rivers. We were joined by a few friendly dogs on our adventure (so
unlike any of the dogs I have met in Cuenca haha). We climbed trees by the river,
and I chilled with a beautifully fluffy baby bird for a while. Climbing the trees literally puts you
over the rushing rivers due to the recent copious amounts of rain. There are small playgrounds, parks, and
gazebos lining the river, that slowly filled as Sunday church ended in the
town. Couples, families, and
children gathered to play games, have grill outs, and relax for the beautiful
day. Alexa, Katy, and I proceeded
to draw attention and make fools of ourselves, playing on the slides, swings,
balance beams, and bars….the only gringos in sight. Perhaps I haven’t mentioned…but making a fool of myself in
every way possible has become a game I really enjoy playing here…given that I
do so naturally, and I stick out regardless of if I am trying to draw attention
to myself or not. Anyway, we
continued to walk, and stop to watch sugar making in process for a while….a man
leading a horse round-and round with a grinder in the middle…about a block away
more sugar cane was being made….but at a much faster rate with a mechanical
machine…curious.
We
then stumbled upon an awesome small carnival amusement park type thing with a great
ferris wheel, merry-go-rounds, tiny boat and plane rides, a giant dragon ship,
and more…we played around the closed park for a while, joined by some local
children, and then were told that the park opens at 11:00 and all rides were a
dollar or less…you can imagine our excitement! All of the rides looked pretty old and sketchy, and felt on
the verge of breaking…however we had our mind set on returning. We wondered around for a while,
exploring a few Sunday markets, eating delicious fresh fruit as always, and
visited a lovely and lively church service. We met up with my mom, after she finished her work, and
headed back to the carnival. It
was open now, full of kids, and blasting 80’s music. We ran like little children to the ferris wheel ride, and
boarded (while it was moving), and without being asked to buckle in
anything. My mom watched with a
huge smile, giggling non-stop. This
ferris wheel was double trouble…while it spun in big circles, each cart spun in
little circles as well. The first
few rounds were awesome, and I think we were all in childish glee, and enjoying
the incredible view from the top of the city. However, a few more rounds of spinning and I wasn’t so
happy…luckily I got off in time to loose all my delicious fruit…ah back to
childhood. Katie, Alexa, and
Lindsey proceeded to ride the giant swaying dragon, where they sat unbuckled in
cages being shook around mercilessly as the ship swayed faster and faster. My mom and I watched, and danced and
sang to the 80’s music. We all
wondered together for while, and then head to the next town Chordeleh . This
town is an even smaller artesan town, known for beautiful art, woodwork,
silver, alpaca, and more. On the drives
there and back, my mom filled me in with a lot of cultural and environmental
history of the towns and the rivers and mountains surrounding the towns. My mom is some kind of combination of a
museum/church/art restorer, an anthropologist, and a historian, and seems to
have an endless depth of knowledge.
As we approached the towns, she told me about a mountain slide that
occurred about 22 years ago. It
blocked the river and caused a major flood wiping out the towns and causing a
number of deaths. She also gave me
a brief history about the Incans coming in and invading the Canari land. This weekend we head to Canar and
Ingapirca to learn more, and see the ruins.
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