Patul: a remote Andean village

Last weekend we had our biggest adventure yet. We traveled to the tiny village of Patul, one of the few remaining isolated villages in the Andes. It takes 5-6 hours to hike there, and the path is so difficult that it is used as a prayer path. It is a really old way that has been used for perhaps thousands of years. We started at a place along the road in Cajas at 3200m, hiked up to 4200m then back down to 3700m where we were greeted warmly by a local family. They had no idea we were coming because there is no phone service in the village, and they just got electricity a few years ago. Their isolation has helped keep the traditions of the Andean indigenous people alive, and it is rare that they receive visitors from other places.

We began the trip by shopping for groceries, and were surprised by the items that our friend Amanda chose. When we go on backpacking trips, we usually buy food that is light, easily packable, and rich in calories. Instead, we bought things to make sandwiches, a bag of rice, cans of beans, peas, and corn, coffee, tea, cookies, 2 liters of drinkable yogurt, raisins and chocolate. We were unable to purchase the correct type of fuel for our camp stove (it had to be ordered from Quito, and didn’t arrive until after we left for the trip), so I had no idea how we were going to prepare the food. Then we had to pack. There was a chance there would be horses going back to Patul that we could hire for $5/ horse to carry our things, but it was likely that we were going to have to carry everything ourselves. We needed to pack warm clothes, rain jackets and pants, sleeping bags and pads, tents, field supplies, and all the food. Wow were our bags heavy! I could barely lift mine to put it on, and Brad’s seemed twice as heavy! When we got to the start of the trail, we were not lucky enough to find horses waiting.

After a hard day of walking, complete with several necessary breaks for food and rest, we arrived at Patul—sort of. When we got there, the fog was so heavy that we couldn’t find the house where Ernesto knows the family. Instead, we sat and watched the fog until it lifted to reveal first a beautiful mountain ridge, then a lake, and finally the village. What a welcome! Then we were able to find the house, a small adobe dwelling complete with a thatch roof, the typical style of the Andean people. Dona Maximina and her son-in-law Don Reynaldo greeted us with smiles, and we apologized for showing up unannounced (remember, there is no phone service). They invited us in for tea, and we were eventually treated to a meal prepared in a traditional Andean kitchen. There was a fire pit in the ground which she cooked over, guinea pigs in one corner, a few shelves, a pot of water on the dirt floor for washing the dishes, and more smoke than Brad or I could stand to inhale. The entire inside of the kitchen was covered in a black gloss from the smoke. However, we enjoyed tea prepared from orange leaves and a big dinner of rice and beans. It turns out that in return for the inconvenience of taking care of us, Ernesto usually brings enough food to feed everyone. Dona Maximina prepared our food for dinner, and added some of her own, too. After dinner, she invited us to sleep in a room with 2 beds (probably the beds for her sons). The beds were wooden frames with a few blankets and sheep skins instead of mattresses. We put our sleeping pads and bags on top, and it was nice to not be sleeping in a tent on the ground. However, our friend Ernesto is quite tall and people from the village are quite short. His legs hung over the edge of the bed almost to his knees! He had to sleep on a diagonal, and although our bed was slightly longer, Brad also had to scrunch his legs to fit. On the day we were scheduled to leave, she made us rice with eggs from creole chickens, a soup of cabbage and her own home-made cheese, coffee with milk from her cows, and a shot of cane alcohol to “give us energy for the trip home.” The food was delicious, but the cane alcohol was stronger than we could handle! Overall, I was amazed by the generosity of our host family and how willing they were to share so much of their home and their food with us. It made carrying the heavy food all worthwhile, so that we had something to share in return.

We spent a full day doing field work around the village. The frogs I am looking for in this area, called Atelopus nanay or the black harlequin frog or locally “sapo negro,” live in the upland habitat adjacent to the streams. The village is near a lake which is the confluence of three separate streams. If you stand near the lake, you can see the 3 waterfalls that cascade down into a wetland which flows into the lake. From the lake, the river Patul flows to the coast. During the day we were guided by Eduardo, the 7 yr. old son of Dona Maximina. He showed us the places where he has found the frogs and where his much older brother –in-law has found the frogs. He was so full of energy as we hiked all day through the mountains, and then would occasionally lay down in the grass for a quick rest. He helped me catch tadpoles of another species in the wetlands, and although I gave him a net, he was more successful with his bare hands! By the end of the day, we were all exhausted, and Eduardo fell asleep in the kitchen while we were waiting for dinner.

The first day at Patul (Sunday) was mostly reconnaissance work. Ernesto showed us all of the places where Atelopus has been found, and we didn’t have much extra time to actually look for the frogs. Monday we had a huge breakfast then worked for a couple of hours by the river closest to the house. Although I really wasn’t expecting to have luck, Ernesto found one male individual of Atelopus nanay! We were all so excited, and after the data was collected we had an extensive photo session. We kept looking, but without success. We began walking home at noon, and on the way stopped to look for several other species of frogs. With these other species, we had some luck. The genus is Pristimantis, and there are many species that live in Ecuador. They are unique because they breed on land instead of in wetlands or streams like most amphibians. They lay their eggs under a rock or among damp moss, and we happened to find some eggs. We could actually watch the embryos moving in the clear eggs, which was a pretty amazing experience!

All in all, the research trip was a success. We got back to the road just after dark and my field notebook contains data from 1 Atelopus nanay, 2 Pristimantis of a potentially new species, Gastrotheca tadpoles from two different pools, 9 Pristimantis philipi, 1 clutch of 25 Pristimantis eggs, and a whole list of sites to return to for both Atelopus nanay and Gastrotheca tadpoles.

We had skipped lunch on the trip home, and had only a handful of raisins and half a chocolate bar. After warm showers, we met up with Ernesto’s wife Amanda (she had been sick the previous week and wasn’t feeling strong enough to make the trip) to share our stories from the weekend over dinner. We went to a really nice parrilladas- style steak house, and the four of us managed to consume a large amount of beef, potatoes, salad, and juice. That night we went to bed exhausted but completely content.