Bananas!

Last trip to Tiink (this time)

Save the Frogs!

Tungurahua!

more Puerto Lopez

and more Puerto Lopez!

A vacation to Puerto Lopez

We wanted to go to the Galapagos, but didn’t have the money. We wanted to visit Peru, but didn’t have the time. We settled on 5 days in Puerto Lopez, and couldn’t have made a better decision. We enjoyed the beach, the wildlife (not the wild LIFE), some delicious coastal food, and a general feeling of relaxation. We had originally planned to do another week of work before taking our vacation, but decided that we may as well get away while we anticipated that everything would be closed Easter weekend. We left Friday morning, and had a rather uneventful drive (although navigating our way through Guayaquil presented some difficulties) and arrived on the coast mid-afternoon. We were anxious to get to the beach, so we didn’t stop for lunch; however, we did make a quick stop at a roadside stand marked “coco helado.” We thought we were stopping for coconut ice cream, and Brad waited in the car while I made the purchase. Wasn’t I surprised when they pulled out two entire coconuts from the fridge, chopped off the tops, and stuck a straw into it. I carefully balanced the two coconuts, and passed one to Brad through the window before getting in the car to continue our trip! We sipped our coconut water and continued on to Puerto Lopez.
We arrived, checked into the hostel (it wasn’t where we wanted to stay, and it wasn’t much to look at), parked the car, then headed over for lunch. I think half of Ecuador had the same idea we did, and came to the coast. Although it was 3:30, we waited almost an hour to be served lunch. Then we went for a stroll down the beach, enjoyed a beautiful sunset, and sipped freshly made juices on the beach. Puerto Lopez has the right set up. There are plenty of hostels just across the street from the beach, plenty of restaurants and tour companies along the street, and juice bars with hammocks and beach chairs and music right on the beach. We turned in early that night with anticipation of our scheduled tour for the next day.
We woke up early on Saturday, found a nice little restaurant to have breakfast, and packed up our things for our tour. We were scheduled to go to Isla de la Plata that day, and the tour company had come at 8:00 to confirm our reservation and collect our money. We waited, and waited and waited. By 9:45 we were fairly certain we had been scammed. However, the guy who ran our hostel was amazingly friendly and helpful, and went to scout out the situation. He found the lady who ran the tour company with which we had made a reservation, and although her boat had already left, she walked us down the beach and made arrangements with a different company. Seems in typical coastal style, they had simply forgot to collect us from the hotel. Well, it turned out for the better because in about 10 minutes we had passed the boat we were supposed to be on. We had a beautiful day for the tour, and when we arrived at the island they gave us a snack and explained the island to us. Isla de la Plata is named for two reasons, two large ships filled with stolen gold are sunk off the coast and it is famous for the spondylus shells which were formerly used for trading. We hiked around the island for a couple of hours, during which we got to see blue footed boobies and magnificent red frigate birds. Our guide told us about some of the nuisance introduced species, such as cats and rats, that have been really detrimental to the native island fauna.
After our land tour, we went back to the boat for lunch and some snorkeling. Unfortunately, the day of our tour was one of the 3-4 days/ month when the snorkeling wasn’t good. The water had been stirred up by the wind. However, our guide threw some pieces of watermelon over the side and we were still able to observe some of the fish. Brad and I braved the conditions and snorkeled for a bit, but soon decided it was more fun to enjoy the swimming then to be frustrated by the snorkeling conditions. Our boat then took us back to the mainland, we found a nice spot on the beach, and drank passion fruit juice while we watched the sun set.
We had printed out the Easter Sunday readings before leaving for vacation, and decided to visit what is known as one of Ecuador’s most beautiful continental beaches for the holiday. The beach, Playa de los Frailes, is a part of Machalilla National Park. The park service charges $2 entry fee, but also keeps the beach clean and protected. We found a nice and comfortable spot, generously applied our sunscreen, and laid down on the warm beach to relax. We did the readings, then headed into the water for a swim. The bay which isolates the beach is absolutely gorgeous, the sand is soft, and the water was the perfect temperature. After our swim, Brad reminded us that it was time to reapply the sunscreen, and we also decided to rent a beach umbrella. Well, something went horribly wrong. Despite our precautions with sunscreen and the umbrella, our skin just kept getting redder and redder. We had planned to do a short hike to a viewpoint and to a black sand beach, but instead we needed to get out of the sun. As soon as we got back to town we started applying lotions, but the damage was done and we were miserable.
The next day, we moved from our standard not-so-nice hostel to another place down the beach, Hosteria Mandala. The address says “extreme north” but it is about a 10-15 minute walk from the hubbub of downtown Puerto Lopez. No loud music or beachside juice bars, but the hotel has set up covered cabanas on the beach complete with hammocks. It was the perfect way to spend a day out of the sun (since even my eyes seemed to be sunburned!). We read our books on the beach. We lounged in the hosteria’s nice dining area. I took a nap in our private cabin in the cool and leafy garden.
However, by Tuesday we were getting restless but knew we needed to avoid the sun. We visited another place run by Machalilla National Park, a community called Agua Blanca. Here, we learned about some of the ancient cultures that lived here and the evolution of pottery found at the archeological site. We walked through the coastal dry forest, and our guide pointed out useful plants such as a cactus with edible fruits called “tuna,” a tree with a sap that can be applied topically called “sangre de drago,” another tree that produces an oil that is a topical remedy and essential oil called “palo santo,” and another tree that only has leaves for 3-4 months each year and whose flowers are used to stuff mattresses and pillows called “ceibo.” He told us that it hadn’t rained for about 5 years, and that the plants were really resilient to the conditions but that the people had a pump system to get the water.
After walking the trails, we stopped at a natural hot spring. The pools smelled slightly of sulfur, and our guide invited us to go for a swim and be healed by the water. He also gave us each a cup of mud which he said two families in the community are responsible for getting each day as a part of the cultural tourism and community work. We didn’t know the pool was a part of the tour so we missed out on the swim, but we did coat ourselves with the mud and when we rinsed it off our skin felt nice. Who knows, maybe it was good for the sunburn! We spent the afternoon swaying in the ocean breeze in the hammocks in our beachside cabana, and enjoying the beautiful scenery.
Wednesday was the last day of our vacation, although we weren’t ready to leave. We spent one last morning on the beach, then began making our way back to Cuenca. We stopped in another beach town called Montanita, which is known as a “hippie” place, and we were glad we had decided on Puerto Lopez instead for our vacation. We continued our drive, made it through Guayaquil without too much difficulty, and found our way back to Cuenca in time to pick up some empanadas for dinner. Although I’d rather be at the beach, our little apartment in Cuenca feels like our home in Ecuador.

Tiink kids in Cuenca!

Lawson vacation part 2

Lawson vacation

Wampukrum at El Tiink

A visit with the Shuar

After waiting for quite a long while, we finally got word from German that we could go to El Tiink, the little Shuar village in the rainforest. Chelsea had hoped to get down there within a few weeks of our arrival in Ecuador, but the illness that swept through the whole community made that impossible. I had also been hoping to continue the public health and primary care work that we started back in November. Oh well, better late than never of course.

Tiink is no more than 150 miles from Cuenca, but the state of the road makes the trip into a 6 hour endeavor. After the initial hour and 20 minutes, the road changes from a nice, smooth highway to rocks and dirt carved out of the side of the mountain. Even with our SUV and all terrain tires, it’s a really bumpy ride. The scenery, however, is pretty incredible. The road climbs high up into the cold paramo just before reaching the eastern slopes of the Andes. The view is usually obscured by thick fog, but we have gotten a bit of a glimpse down the road as it drops about 7,000 feet in elevation. Continuing down the road as it enters the cloud forest, the mountainsides are dotted with waterfalls (some of which are probably 2,000 feet high). Chelsea also noticed orchids in bloom along the road, so we stopped to take a few pictures.

We met German, our local field technician and host, in the town of Gualaquiza. We hadn’t stopped for lunch in order to be somewhat punctual, so he recommended that we try the restaurant inside the bus station. The soup was way too salty and my beef was sketchy, but Chelsea’s chicken was quite tasty. We also thought it would be prudent not to drink the Kool-Aid-like juice due to concerns over the cleanliness of the water. German then helped us buy some chicken for meals in El Tiink. We had a fun time getting change when we used a $5 bill for $1.50 worth of chicken, walking around the corner to a few different places until we found a store that was stocked with a bit of cash. Then we hopped in the car for the 45 minute drive to the bridge that leads to the village. Surprisingly, this road is about 50 times better than the supposed highway connecting Gualaquiza to the biggest city in the southern half of the country. We left our car with a family that knows German, and then we prepared to carry our two large backpacks, two small backpacks, and three shopping bags of health care supplies and food up to Tiink. It’s about a 30 minute uphill walk, so we were planning for a slightly uncomfortable experience. German told us not to worry, though, because his kids would come down from the village to help us. We weren’t really sure how they would know when to show up, but, sure enough, they came walking across the bridge within five minutes.

As usual, the family was very hospitable and accommodating to our needs. One thing that always makes me laugh is that after we eat a meal, they thank us for eating. Shouldn’t we be thanking them for preparing the meal, doing the dishes, and giving us a place to sleep? We do thank them, of course, but we can’t help but laugh that they are also thanking us.

German arranged for Brad to visit the schools and give the toothpaste/ toothbrushes and vitamins that your donations helped us bring to the community. With the young children we did a little demonstration, and had the entire class around the sink next to the school with mouthfuls of toothpaste! The teacher was really helpful in directing the kids where to spit and in making sure that all of them cleaned their teeth appropriately. Then she helped give a quick lesson on taking the vitamins. We gave each kid a supply for 2 months, and she instructed them to take one each day. The children took the baggies of vitamins home to their parents and as far as we know the parents, by word of mouth, got the message about one-a-day. One little girl was quite upset when she woke up the next morning to find her vitamins gone. Apparently the bugs liked the sweet taste. We replaced her vitamins, and it seems that the entire community learned to safeguard them!

Brad also ran a clinic in the evening during which the community health director offered his office. They made an announcement, and a number of people showed up to get advice on their health problems. Brad saw a tiny baby, several children, men, women, and the elderly. It was a successful clinic, and Brad was able to provide advice and/or medicine to help the people. When the health director asked about vitamins specific for pregnant women, Brad was able to provide them with a multi-vitamin but unfortunately we did not have specific vitamins to help them. This is definitely something to consider for next time.

We spent a day and a half in the field doing frog research. One of my goals was to see that German was collecting all of the data properly, the other was to take photos. We visited two different locations and found a total of 7 frogs! The wampukrum are doing quite well, and German is doing an excellent job with the data collection. He is incredibly meticulous, and I’m very glad to have his help with the project. Brad and I took turns with the camera, and are pleased with the images that we got of this beautiful frog! It is so nice to have our nice camera again!

Brad was stung by a fuzzy-looking caterpillar. It was actually quite painful, and German recognized the species and knew what to do. He sliced it open with his machete, spread the green-colored goo on Brad’s knee where it was inflamed, and asked Brad if it hurt in his groin or armpits. Brad didn’t have too much trouble, but German told us at times it hurts so bad that men can’t even walk!

While in the field, we found two males not too far from one another. These are territorial animals, and I was curious about what would happen if we put them together, so we did. We put them about 12 inches apart, and watched. One moved away immediately, and the other followed. We tried it again. This time one male fought the other. In the end, we returned them each to their respective location. How interesting!

While we stay with German and Targelia, we are also able to learn about Shuar culture. Targelia prepared a dinner for us called “allanpako” which is chopped leaves (like spinach), heart of palm, and chicken all wrapped in a big leaf a steamed over the fire. Delicious! Then German told us about his blow gun. It is made from chonta (the same plant that heart of palm is from) and is very valuable. His son is learning how to use it. They make the darts then use a poison from a combination of plants to coat the tip and a piece of “cotton” to weight the end. Now he also has a gun for hunting, which is easier to carry because the blow gun is over 2 meters long!

Froggies and Friends

Tour guides in training

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Well, it appears that the title to my last post was oddly prophetic. As many of you have certainly heard, Chelsea and I found out on Match Day that we’ll be spending the next five years in Little Rock, AR. We’ve already been told by a friend who recently spent four years in Alabama, “Congratulations on moving north to the Deep South.” Maybe the next blog will have to be called “Brad and Chelsea’s Arkansan Adventure.”

Following the excitement of Match Day, we received our friend, Amanda, for a visit from Columbus. We were hoping to provide her with a very authentic Ecuadorian experience, but the airlines took care of getting that effort started for us. Apparently Amanda’s flight was delayed out of Chicago and then again out of Miami, causing the flight from Miami to Guayaquil to be on a different plane than was originally planned. The stellar ground crew at Miami, however, put Amanda’s bag on the original plane which ended up heading to Lima, Peru. This probably happened because she was kind enough to bring down our replacement camera, and of course we should be made to worry about the new one being lost, too. So, after only a few hours of sleep, Amanda returned to the Guayaquil airport for the short flight to Cuenca. She took the opportunity to get some rest during the flight, but then, like the rest of the passengers on board, was surprised to find the plane landing not at the Cuenca airport, but in Guayaquil. In admirably Ecuadorian style, the flight crew made no announcement explaining why they had just flown in a 30 minute circle. So the passengers sat and waited, and eventually the crew decided to say that the plane had landed to refuel. Apparently their instruments aren’t good enough to keep them from flying into the mountains when it’s cloudy and rainy. (Upon hearing this story, Fausto told us that a plane crashed into the mountain right by his house in the late 70’s. They still have one of the doors to prove it. Better safe than sorry, I suppose.) Eventually, the rain let up and the plane did arrive in Cuenca two hours late.

We left the airport, and Amanda requested quesadillas for lunch. Well, we don’t know where to get quesadillas here, so she has to settle for empanadas. Our friends at Puro Chile, our new favorite snack (or meal if we order 2-3) served up some great cheese empanadas and immediately earned Amanda’s loyalty. She insisted that she needed to eat them ATLEAST once more before she left Cuenca. After lunch, we did a walking tour of Cuenca. We went to the flower market and the fruit market, and pointed out some of the churches before Amanda decided she needed a nap.

We had planned to go to Cuenca’s best restaurant, Tiestos, for dinner but when our friend Jose informed us that Deportivo Cuenca would be playing soccer that evening we changed our plans. Amanda had picked up a $5 knock-off jersey on the street earlier in the day, and she was excited to support the local team. We enjoyed the game, even though our team didn’t win, and following the game we went to Jose’s apartment to help celebrate a birthday. We arrived there 30 min before Jose, and about an hour before any other guests but we waited patiently and enjoyed ourselves once the other guests arrived. Amanda had a bad headache, and left early. Too bad she didn’t get to enjoy her Ecuadorian Pilsner that night.

The next day we let Amanda sleep in while we did some field work. We picked her up in the afternoon, and went to Tiestos to enjoy lunch since we missed dinner the night before. Despite the rain, Brad played a game of soccer with the boys. Sundays are pretty dull here, so there wasn’t a whole lot of things to see and do.

Monday we went to an orchid garden, and unfortunately got paired up with a group of real enthusianists from Poland. The people were really nice, but their private guide kept talking over the orchid garden guide to translate the Spanish to Polish while Brad was trying to translate to English for Amanda. It just got to be too much! We did get to see some pretty flowers, and afterward we shopped for silver filigree jewelry in Chordeleg. For lunch, we shared a delicious pizza at our favorite restaurant in Gualaceo. It was a nice day, and by the time we got back to Cuenca we were all pretty tired!

Amanda’s last day in Cuenca, we took her to see the frogs at Mazan. She got to see the tadpole project, but we didn’t have any luck finding Atelopus in the field. We had a traditional Andean lunch of pork and a corn called mote, then headed on to the hot springs. We relaxed for a couple of hours, did a little more shopping, then got her to the airport just in time for her flight.

We had a nice visit, and enjoyed being tourists for a couple of days. Now we need to get back to work and catch up on things in the field!

Southern Living

Following the excitement of Carnaval, we decided to go on another field trip in search of frogs and tadpoles. This time we decided to explore along the southern border of Cajas National Park. It takes awhile to get out to the sites of interest; not because it’s a long drive, but because it’s a slow drive. After you turn off the highway running through the suburb of San Joaquin, the road to the town of Soldados (and beyond) is nicely paved . . . for about one kilometer. Just as you go past the entrance of Cuenca’s golf and tennis club, the road turns into dirt. What a coincidence. But, it must be said, the drive is absolutely beautiful.



The road runs through the valley of the Yanuncay River, and the mountains on either side are green and gorgeous. About an hour from Cuenca, the road passes through Soldados and then climbs up to the north as it enters Cajas. Up in this region around 13,000 feet above sea level, there are several pristine lakes. Crossing the continental divide, the road then heads out of the park and descends the valley of the Angas River which runs west towards the Pacific Ocean. About two and a half hours from Cuenca, there is a lovely 350 ft waterfall right next to the road. We spent some time searching along the stream below the waterfall, but we didn’t find any frogs. Chelsea spent a good deal of time trying to figure out if we were hearing a frog or a bird calling, but the noise of the stream made that a very difficult and somewhat frustrating task.



We then spent the afternoon searching for the black harlequin toad in a different, top secret, “G-14 classified” (ask Parker for the movie I’m quoting) location. This location must remain secret because we are supposed to be getting paid for our work on this trip and others like it. If we don’t get paid, then everyone else can find out where we made our find by reading the journal that publishes Chelsea’s article. In any case, we found two tiny little juveniles that, interestingly, are more of a brown color than black. That is all I’m at liberty to say about that exciting afternoon. We returned to the waterfall and set up camp in a nice, flat spot just a little ways off the road. Our new JetBoil camp stove finally saw its first action, whipping up some Asian noodles with chili and wonderfully hot tea to help protect us from the dropping temperature. We then climbed inside our amazingly warm sleeping bags and enjoyed a reasonably comfortable night. I will note that Chelsea stole my pillow out from under my head, but she claims that I pushed her over to the cold side of the sleeping bag just before that happened.



Our camp stove was again our best friend in the morning, allowing us to enjoy warm oatmeal and more hot tea for breakfast. The sun popped over the mountains to warm us up, and we packed everything back into our car. We then set off towards the coast to look for more rivers and streams and to ask the local people if they have seen Atelopus onorei (one of the world’s most strikingly beautiful frogs). We kind of forgot that we’d be talking to some country folk, and we really couldn’t understand 90% of what a couple of them said. But a few people we talked to actually spoke Spanish words that we’ve heard before, so all was not lost. Most people told us that the “colored frogs” were farther down towards the coast, but one lady told us that you might be able to find them if you look along the streams. We had to get back to Cuenca by the end of the day, so we turned around to head back up the road.



We devoted the rest of our time in the field to searching for tadpoles of what is locally known as the “green toad.” With this project, Chelsea is trying to collect data from all over the park and its surrounding areas regarding the presence of the evil chytrid fungus. Once she processes the samples from the tadpoles, Chelsea will be able to help the park and the Amphibian Conservation Center in Mazan more accurately direct their efforts to save frogs. We think. So, we worked until the weather turned nasty on us (which invariably seems to happen in the afternoon when we’re at high elevations). We left our car under clear skies, but just a few hours later a fog had set in that was so thick we couldn’t see more than 20 meters in any direction. Ah, just another day in paramo paradise. We found the car without too much trouble, and we got back to Cuenca to find it basking in the late afternoon sunshine. At Chelsea’s insistence, we stopped to pick up some Chilean empanadas as a post-field work snack. She has had many great ideas, but few better than this one. Those things were delicious, and I assure you we’ll be returning soon.



In other news, I received the news that I have matched to an ENT program. So, I will not have to change plans and do colonoscopies or any thing like that. We’re both waiting expectantly for Thursday to find out where I will be for the next five years.

Photos for an upcoming post

Carnaval

Due to unforeseen circumstances, our trip to El Tiink in the rainforest has been cancelled. Really, “unforeseen circumstances” just means normal, everyday affairs. Apparently, everyone in the village is sick with some sort of viral illness, and our local field technician / host said that he’ll call when it’s a safe time for us to come. With that trip cancelled, we developed a plan B for the second half of our week. It actually turned out quite well. We also realized that this weekend is that crazy time of the year known as Carnaval.


Looking back over the past week, we had six encounters with green harlequin toads (Atelopus exiguus). That’s more than half the number of encounters that we had during the whole three months we spent searching in the fall. We had very good luck during February and March last year, and we’re very excited to be having similar results during this year’s rainy season. As a replacement for our rainforest trip, we designed one heck of a Friday for ourselves. Essentially, we went into Cajas and did about half of the hike to Patul in order to search for the frogs that live under rocks at more than 13,000 feet above sea level. Both times now that we’ve been in this area without an Ecuadorian companion, we’ve had to field questions from several different people about where we’re going and what we’re doing turning over rocks. Chelsea really freaked one lady out when she showed her the frog that we’re studying while we were explaining ourselves to her. All in all, we had a successful day.


We would have spent another hour or so in our search, but we had to get back down to the park office for a meeting with Jose. We had planned on discussing the trout removal project in Mazan as well as his schedule of field trips to monitor amphibians all over the park. These are important topics to us, so we made sure to hustle our way back to the car. After a quick hike and a purposeful drive, we arrived at the park office to find it empty and locked. Chelsea gave Jose a call, and he told her that the office closed at 2 PM (our meeting was supposed to be at 3). Upon asking if he could do the meeting down in Cuenca, she was informed that, no, he was busy with other things. Given that we had a professional meeting scheduled, you would think that Jose would’ve informed us of the early office closure in advance. Nope, that’s just not the way things work here. Instead, we’ll have the meeting sometime next week once Carnaval is over. Sorry that you cut short your scientifically important research and made your hike even more grueling in order to make this meeting-that-didn’t-happen? Not mentioned (things don’t really work that way here, either).


As for Carnaval, it appears that all of Latin America has a big celebration before the start of Lent. Brazil’s festivities and parades are famous the world over, but the holiday is very big here in Ecuador as well. I haven’t been to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, but I would imagine that the party encompasses more than just Tuesday. Down here they celebrate Saturday through Tuesday, and nobody works on Monday and Tuesday except for the people who make money from the tourism (restaurants, hotels, etc.) There is a big parade of flowers in Ambato, but the main activity of Carnaval in Ecuador is simply throwing water and spraying foam on other people. Interestingly, the people who live on the coast tend to come up to the mountain cities to enjoy the traditional celebrations. The people who live in the mountains, on the other hand, take off and enjoy a long weekend on the beach.


After working at Mazan on Saturday, Chelsea and I decided to head to Yunguilla Valley, a sunny location where many Cuencanos have country houses. Although it’s only just an hour drive from Cuenca, Yunguilla is about 800 meters lower in elevation and the temperatures are usually in the 80’s. We stayed at a hotel here back in the fall, and we planned on visiting for the day to use the very nice pool. Yunguilla is a huge valley, and we enjoyed the views on our drive down. Until I realized that I forgot my swim trunks. Sitting out in the sun in jeans wouldn’t have been fun for very long, so that pretty much destroyed the swimming pool plans. Chelsea was very nice in the face of my stupidity, and we decided just to drive farther down the road towards the coast. Not too far down the road, however, the highway was closed and we had to take a detour around the construction. This was a detour unlike any the two of us had ever seen before.


Basically, we had to go uphill on a dirt road and snake our way around the hillside. The direction signs were, typically, very poor, and we were definitely not the only people who got lost. We ended up deciding just to enjoy the views and drive around for awhile. After about an hour, we ended up back on the highway and drove down towards the coast a bit more, enjoying the changing landscape as we went. Chelsea wanted to go all the way to Machala, the banana capital of the world, but I really didn’t want to go that far as it was already past noon. I was feeling less than adventurous, we turned around, and Chelsea was justified in being displeased with my wussy behavior. So we went back through the detour of all detours, although a bit more directly this time. Still, it was confusing enough for an Ecuadorian to stop and ask us for directions. The organizational abilities of this race of people are simply legendary. We stopped at a pig roast for lunch, and we finally learned how they prepare the crispy pork skin. From what we saw, they baste it in fat and then blow torch it (and repeat several times). Then they use a knife to scrape off the char, leaving the crispy skin.


On Monday we decided to get into the Carnaval action. On our way to use the internet at the zoo office, we picked up some water balloons from ladies who were selling them on the street. Just one dollar for three shopping bags full of already-filled balloons. We decided to start right away by launching a few out the car windows at people walking along the street. While amusing, this backfired on us when two boys were waiting with a bucket full of water. Seeing our window down, they hurled the water through it and got me so good that I couldn’t see through my sunglasses. With that lesson learned, we took cover in the 2nd story office and utilized the window for our attacks. Some of the balloons broke before we got the chance to throw them, but we were able to get a few people wet as they came walking along the street. Well, at least we had a little fun with the local holiday!