fine I admit it

I'm a terrible blogger.  Sorry guys!

I owe y'all at least a couple of snippets from the past few weeks since I've been ignoring any effort to document my ecuasplorations:

la vista maravillosa--stolen from a random chick's facebook.

1.) A while back I had a field trip to Parque Cayambe-Coca at Paluguillo, where I began a beautiful and camera-less journey with my Flora y Fauna del Ecuador class.  It was an incredible introduction to the "paramo" ecosystem (of mid-high altitudes in the mountainous regions), where we made a 5-hr walking loop along a landscape of rolling golden hills and strangely coral-like plants. 
One thing about Ecuadorians-- they LOVE to exaggerate the cold.  We were warned that the paramo would be chilly, but I know I made some sort of internal "pfft" noise when I saw that the native students mostly wore tall black rain boots, gloves, hats, scarves--they brought the works.  One even brought a puffy winter coat and a bankrobber-style facemask.  And still rubbed his hands to create friction.

the ocean-like plants. photo not mine

As it turns out,  BRRRRRR.  They weren't kiddin'.  The rest of the class, us gringos, were for the most part severely under-prepared for the biting wind.  Luckily I snagged an extra hat, and after the first hour we had reached a more protected environment.  From then on, it was smooth sailing and we were able to enjoy the rich gold-green-rust colors of the landscape.  I found myself humming Karma Chameleon to celebrate those hues.

The grassland-dominated area includes plants that have mostly adapted to withstand the frigid wind and low temperatures-- por ejemplo, the grasses were golden because the plant hung onto its dead parts to keep its relatively small, green, living portion warm; the short, coral-ish bushes kept a hard exterior so that its innards were many degrees warmer; nothing grew over a meter tall.  There were beautiful lagunas, where some of the cleanest, microbe-free water in the world resides.  However, Ecuador still has terrible tap water because the piping is sub-par.  Go figure. 

The landscape changed a few times as we caught different views of rock formations and lakes, but the last hour and a half was spent concentrating wildly on the mud below us as the rain pelted our jackets and created swamps on the path formerly made of dirt.

Afterward we visited the famous thermal hot springs nearby, pools heated by natural underground magic, a happy treat for sore and frozen feet.

2.) Made the obligatory trip to la Mitad del Mundo, just north of Quito.  Big monument, otherwise a bit uninteresting.  Lots of hubbub for nahtsomuch.

 But we did meet a few furry friends:

Whatever. NEXT!

3.)  I spent last weekend (Sept 22-25) at Baños, one of the touristy-est places in Ecuador.  Let's keep in mind, however, that touristy places are such for a reason.  I did this:

...before going white-water rafting, which I have no pictures of, but which was the MOST FUN EVARRRR.  We hit some class IV rapids in an exhilarating trip that left some capsized and others going ADELANTE for dear life.  Pictures were sold later on a CD, so those will pop up eventually.  It is, after all, all about the Benjamins here.

The next day we went on a hike to see Baños like this:

View from a 15-ft cross that glows at night--a seemingly divine image from the city streets

 ...that continued on for a few hours until we got here:

 ...which is a swing that hangs from our destination at la Casa del Arbol:

 ...which gives a perfect view of Volcán Tungurahua, one of the Big Ten in Ecuador:

Infamous for destroying Baños thrice-over, the volcano is still unsafe to hike up.  Makes for a bonito view of its snowcapped peak.

 ...and later in the evening relaxed in the city's namesake municipal pools.  They are filled with murky mineral water from the volcanoes (mountains?), which apparently skeeved out other exchange students that we ran into along the way enough that they avoided the baths altogether, but luckily my friends and I are immune to getting cooties from the natives so we went in and had a lovely time.  We went twice, neither time when this picture was taken.  Once in the afternoon, when all three of the shown pools were open-- the closest pool in the image was a scalding 118F and the other a bit more reasonable.  It was dark after the hike, though, so we hit up the pools when they reopened for the night, apparently a great idea that we shared with every other person in Baños.  A pool on the lower level was opened instead, and the scalding water poured there instead.  On this level, the back pool (blue) still had cold water, and the front pool had the warm water, but the big one shown was empty.  Thus about the same number of people shown in the two squished into the front pool.

At first the prospect of jumping into the sardine can of old Ecuadorian men in speedos and millions of laughing (and undoubtedly peeing) children made our exposed bodies shiver even more, but after a mutual "ehh, fuck it" expression passed between the three of us, we embraced our new sardine identities and hopped (rather, gingerly squeezed) in.  This turned out to be one of the most genuine experiences thus far-- I shared big happy smiles with the speedo-ers and our interactions between all Ecua-generations was unparalleled. 
Everyone shares a love of hot baths.  There isn't a whole lot more to happiness.

 Baños has a market for sweet-tooths (sweet-teeth?).  There were stands upon stands carrying the same sugarcane products, as seen here below.  They sold chunks of sugarcane by the gallon-sized bag, and you can just pop a piece in your mouth, bite down, suck, and spit out.  The specialty came in the form of taffy, which could be sampled walking down the street, as every store owner was seen beating a huge rope of thick goo at their door.

 I also went puenting, which is much like bungee jumping, but sans the "bung."  They connected me to a harness and pushed me off a bridge, where I dropped straight down in a FUCKWHYDIDIDOTHIS manner until I began to swing to the other side.  They let you swing like a pendulum until you stop peeing your pants, then slowly lower you to the bottom.

 All great fun.  There are tour operators everywhere, sometimes four to a single intersection, that offer the best deals on ATV rentals, biking, volcano hikes (which are basically a scam, as for the past few years there is no visible lava spewing from the top of Tungurahua), etc.  We split up and asked around for the best prices--in the battle of tour operators vs college students we really get down to the dollar.

The minor annoyance of constantly being greeted as pals ("Hola chica, quieres un masaje?" "Chicos! Biking today?") was easily trumped by the fact that the touristy food in Baños was a much-welcomed change from the usual host-family fare.  At the international restaurant we ate at (shown below), the dishes were, clockwise, Chinese, Mexican, Mediterranean, & Thai.  Pancakes for breakfast, and, oh, excuse me while I take a moment to pretend today's rice was the that same Indian dish I had for dinner the next night...

 All great fun.

This is all old news.  I just got back from the rain forest today, however my asshole camera decided to stop functioning as soon as we began our 8-hr journey from Quito last Friday.  Therefore I will wait 'til some friends upload one of their 280 photos to post again.  Tiputini Biodiversity Station is arguably the most incredible place I've been.

Sneak peek:
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/a-durable-yet-vulnerable-eden-in-amazonia/