Oriente, here we come

Busque en la paz, la tierra, el agua, la claridad para vivir
mientras la selva viene por ti a compartir

These are the closing lines in a song that we listened to in class today; our academic directors thought that a bunch of ecology students would appreciate the lyrics. The rough translations is:

Look for clarity to live in peace, in the earth and in the water
while the forest comes for you, to share.

Essentially what it means, or at least what I got out of it is to look for clarity in nature, in peace, in the earth because the forest is coming for you. You were born and made up of pieces of the earth, but someday, you are going to have to go back into those pieces and return to nature. That is why clarity and peace can be found in the water and in the earth, it is where we are from and where we are going, our past and our future, therefore it only makes sense that it is apart of our present.

Nothing new to report here. Two nights ago, my dad gave me a cup of coffee, as a non-coffee drinker I was not prepared for the night of sleeplessness that ensued. I have been recovering ever since. I think I am still healthy- which could change at any moment- there have been a high number of students who have gotten a stomach bacteria, parasite or amoeba, and one student who had two of the three. Only time will tell. Tomorrow we head up to another paramo, this one is even higher than the last about 4200 meters (14000 feet). It is expected to snow. Snow on the Equator still blows my mind.

Thermal Springs and Subthermal Weather.

We just returned from our Paramo excursion: I have scratched glasses, a gash on my foot-likely to scar-virtually no energy and some fabulous pictures. I couldn't be happier. Allow me to explain.

We left El Expermiento early, a little after 7am, drove two hours, virtually straight up to the northern Paramo of Quito (Paramo is a term that means high grassland, essentially) Our first stop was our highest, 14000 feet (that's about half way up Mount Everest, to put it in perspective and about 13100 feet higher than St. Paul), or about three miles above sea level. It was about 3 degrees Centigrade when we got off the bus and raining horizontally due to the extreme winds. It's incredible that anything can survive in that terrain, at night it drops below freezing on a consistent basis and during the day it can snow, sleet, rain, as well as damaging UV rays from the sun. Anyway, our first stop was freezing cold, muddy and there was a visiblity of no more than 50 feet. Visibilty was so low because we were literally inside of a cloud. After a short biology lesson on the kinds of plants and animals that can survive in these strange conditions we rode half an hour further north, to a lower, warmer, tamer part of the paramo. For those of you who have seen Lord of the Rings, Fangorn Forest, or possibly Dagooba from Star Wars, are the only ways I can describe this alien terrain. Trees are oddly tall and round for the altitude and therefore covered in moss and lichens. Every tree looks to be twice or three times a thick as it actually it due to the heavy coat of epiphites that surround it. Along, because the solid in this paramo was especially rich, the trees do not need deep tap roots, but due to the extreme wind, they are constantly being blown over. But they do not die, a new truck or branch simply starts to grow from the old tree, this process happens about every 10 years for every tree and the result is spectacular. A labyrinth of branches, roots, trucks and vines is formed and creates a real world Fangorn Forest. It is simply incredible, an atmosphere unlike anything I have ever seen before. After 20 minutes of climbing through this mess (you can walk directly on the branches of the fallen trees as kind of a Dr. Suess like maze of walking paths) at 14000 feet we were all exhausted and covered in mud. The moss is also misleading on what is solid ground and what is a net of moss over a hole filled with mud. Needless to say, we were filthy. We got back on our bus and started to head back to Quito, when Sylvia and Xavier told us that we were making another stop: The natural hot springs of Papallacto. These springs were formed due to the Naussea tectonic plate crashing into the South American plate and pushing red hot magma up along with mineral water from deep aquifers. When these reached the surface a volcano and the hot springs were formed simultaneously. What's even cooler, is that they have altered the flow of the springs in to a series of pools which get progressively cooler as they move down the volcano. Also due to glacial runoff an ice cold river runs literally less than a foot from the highest of these pools. After spending an hour or so in the springs, a few of us had the great idea to jump in the river (about 35 degrees F) and then into the springs (about 103 F). As we were running back from the river, fighting off the shock and blindness of the stinging cold I fell and I fell hard, scratching not only my foot, but also my glasses. I then crawled into the nearest spring and attempted to make a smooth recovery, but by then the damage to my body and dignity had been done. The water was just the right temperature, and just as we were getting uncomfortably warm, it started to sprinkle icy water, balancing our temperature perfectly.

Being in the water is not easy on your body and after 2 hours of relaxing people got thirsty, so I walked around the outside of the pool with a gallon jug of water while my classmates and professors tilted their heads back like baby chicks while I poured. We were all enjoying our first real downtime as a group, when my professor Sylvia made an awkward, but hilarious, sex joke about how this place was an excellent romantic getaway, especially if you want to get someone acclimated to the altitude overnight, then she winked and swam away. All in all a great day.

I'm not sure what is in store for the next few days, but after Sunday, I will be out of contact until the following Monday. We leave for the Oriente (the Amazona) Monday at 4 in the morning. I will try to be in contact for the weekend, but who knows what will happen next.

One final note, in addition to learning Spanish, we are slowing picking up bits and pieces of Qui'chua, the language shared by many indigenous people throughout Latin America. My favorite so far is Pachamama- Mother Earth, (Pacha-Earth, Mama-Mother). The language is very difficult to understand/read/learn because it is a loose language (not sure if that is the correct term) but it has no pronouns, instead it combines words and always places the the verb as the last word of the phrase. And all I have to say about that is Ay'yaiyai. The influence of Quichua can make some Ecuadorians very difficult to understand. For example, the correct pronunciation of a double L in castellano is like that of a Y sound, so that 'llave' is pronounce Yaabay. But those who speak Quichua pronounce double L's like a CH sound so llave becomes Chabay. Its a little frustrating.

Also some cool Ecuadorian Spanish: Chebre-Awesome. Como amenicaste? Literally how did you dawn? Asked when you wake up. And finally Siga no mas! Which when translated doesn't make sense (GO, no more) but is used all the time, by everyone as a filler between sentences and as a way to say GO right ahead or continue.

Las palabras siguentes son para mi practica y mas o menos dicen las mismas cosas de arriba
(The following words are for my practice and are the same as above, more or less)

Bajamos El Expermiento a las seis de la manana y manejamos dos horas a fuera y arriba del Quito al Paramo se llama Papallacto. Nuestra primera destinacion fue a cuatro mil doscientos metros arriba del mar. No entiendo como es posible para algunos animales y plantar vivir en una clima como eso. En la manana usualmente hay hielo en el suelo, y cuanto la tarde viene, hay sol intenso, peligroso y dandioso. Despues de una clase sobre los animales silvestres y plantas adaptadas, fuimos a un lugar bastante bajo, caliente y menos viento. Para uds quien han visto El Senor de los Anillos, la unica manera que puedo discribir este lugar es como El Bosque Fangornado o posiblemento como Dagooba en las guerras de las estrellas. Bueno, habia ramas enredadas, arboles llenados con musgos, lichens, y otras epifites. Un arbol puede ver si fuera como un metro en diametro pero en realidad solo es una mitad del metro en diametro. Depues del nuestra visita al Bosque Fangornado, fuimos al los banos naturales calientes. Nos quedamos alli por tres horas antes de regresamos al Quito, pero no antes de me cai en las escalderas entre el rio frio y las picinas calientes. En conjunto, era un dia fantasico y muy divertido, tambien una pausa nesecitada en el medio de una semana llena y atrejada. Voy a tratar de commincarles hasta lunes, antes de bajamos al Oriente, pero mi internet es de poco confinaza. Bueno les quiero mucho, y les extrano mucho tambien. Chao y hasta luego.