Paramo and Food!

Hey all,

Yesterday we went on a one day excursion to the Paramo, which is a mountain ecosystem characterized by cold temperatures, strong winds, and strong UV rays. We prepared ourselves for any type of weather, because our Academic Directors told us that in the past they've had everything from snow to hot sun on this excursion. When we got off the bus at our first stop to walk around and learn about some of the plants we were met with really strong wind, horizontal rain (the wind was so strong that it was blowing the rain sideways), and cold. We were all bundled up in jackets, rain coats, hats, and gloves, and it felt very reminiscent of New England! We walked around for about 20 minutes before getting back on the bus and driving to another stop where we walked through a forest that looked like it came straight out of Lord of the Rings. Everything in the forest, from the trees to the ground, was covered with a thick layer of epiphytes, lichens, and mosses. We all got really dirty from scrambling up and down the muddy path, but it was so cool to walk around in a forest that was unlike anything I had ever seen before.

When we finished our walk in the forest we got back on the bus and drove to a lake to do FIP work. FIP stands for Field Investigation Project, which is a project that we do to learn different methods of conducting field work. We're split up into 4 groups, Birds, Insects, Botany, and Environmental methods. We do field work to study something in every ecosystem that we visit, and use different methods each time. I'm in the bird group which is pretty fun because we basically get to walk around looking at birds while other groups have to climb around on rocks to count plants or catch insects or test water. After we had our FIP time we ate lunch, and then headed off to Papallacta, which is a semi-touristy place with a bunch of hot springs. Because it was a weekday there weren't a lot of people there, and it was really nice to just sit back and relax in the hot springs after a rainy and cold morning. We stayed there for about an hour and a half and then headed back to Quito.

I had plans to go to the ballet with my family last night, so when I got back to my house I showered, ate dinner, and then my dad drove my mom and I to the bus station (my sister was supposed to come too, but she fell asleep in the afternoon and didn't get any of her homework done!). We took the bus to the Teatro Central, where we met up with one of Carmita's friends and her daughter. We found seats, and then sat there talking until the show started. It turned out to be a celebration of the works of Pablo Neruda, which was pretty cool. They started off with a symphony orchestra, and then different musical acts. We kept waiting for the ballet to start, but whenever the curtains opened for the next act it would always be musicians. Eventually they announced the final act, and still no ballet! I'm not really sure what happened, whether it was a mix-up on my mom's part or the teatro's, but it was still really fun to hear all the different types of Ecuadorian and indigenous music that they played.

A lot of people have asked me how the food is here, and I keep meaning to include it in a post but haven't yet. Well, today is the day.

The food is pretty standard "latin american," which means lots of rice (with pretty much every meal, even if you're having pasta), beans, lentils, and platanos fritos. Ecuadorians also eat a lot of soup, almost every lunch includes a bowl of soup. The soups are all really good, and a lot of the ones that my comadre makes are vegetable based, which is a good because they don't eat a lot of vegetables here. Meatwise they eat chicken, beef, tuna, and ham. Ecuador is also one of the infamous places where they eat guinea pigs (called "cuy" here), and I think my family may be planning on making it for lunch on Sunday, which should be interesting. They don't eat a lot of sweets here (which is always hard when I have a sugar craving after dinner), and usually have juice as the "sweet" part of their meals.

A typical breakfast varies from family to family, with some only eating bread, and others eating eggs, cheese, bread, yogurt, or cereal. Lunch is usually soup and rice with something else, like lentils, beans, chicken, potatoes, meat, or noodles. In my family dinner is a smaller portion of what we ate for lunch, but in other families dinner is just bread and coffee. Lunch is the big family meal here, and traditionally people would get 3 hours off of work in the middle of the day to go home, eat lunch, and rest before going back to work. Now a lot of people follow a more "American" work schedule, and don't make it home for lunch (both of my parents eat lunch at work). One of the weirdest things that I've had to adjust to here is the fact that dinner is not a family meal. For us in the U.S. dinner is the time when everyone connects about their day and spends some time together before going about evening activities. Here, dinner is just another meal that you may or may not eat. Very rarely does everyone in my family eat dinner together, usually Emilia or Camilo will skip dinner or only eat something really small. There also isn't a set dinnertime in my family, so it's always hard for me when I'm sitting very hungrily in my room waiting for dinnertime and not knowing when it's going to be.

Overall I'm really enjoying the food here, and I've only had one meal where I didn't really like what was put in front of me (it was fried white fish, I wasn't a fan). I've been eating a lot of new things like tropical fruits, and even liver! (I had it when I went out for lunch one day, and it wasn't that bad.) I'm already dreading when I have to go back to school, and there won't be someone preparing delicious food that I love every day. Commons is great, but it has nothing on Ecuadorian mamas.

Hasta luego,
Caroline