Well, I had a day to explore the botanical gardens, but right now my program, SIT Ecuador: Comparative Ecology and Conservation, has a officially started. I can’t say I’m complaining, though: I get to basically go birdwatching (and listening) as an assignment, and tomorrow we’re off to Yanacocha Forest Reserve, a.k.a. a place with so many hummingbirds I might faint from excitement.
A little bit about this program: we get to travel all over (Amazon, Galapagos, cloud forest, mountains), and our classes (Spanish, ecology, conservation, and research methods) all blend together. They are taught both in the field and at a place called the Experiment in Intercultural Living (EIL). Here’s some great views of Quito from the top story of the EIL.
That white mountain you see in the second picture is the volcano Cotopaxi, which is actually not covered in snow but in glaciers. I get to visit it (but not climb it, that requires training, a guide, and ice axes) at some point, and there’s supposed to be Andean condors there. For the unfamiliar, Andean condors are gigantic mountain-dwelling vultures, weighing a whopping 33 pounds and having wingspans of 10 feet. I hope to get a photo to share eventually, but for now here’s National Geographic’s pictures and info.
I’ve been starting to dive into the local fruit, having had batido de guanabana (soursop smoothie), various juices, and this grandilla.
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In English you would call this a yellow passionfruit. The inside is fully of juicy seeds that are very sweet and almost bubble gum-tasting; the hard portion of the seed providing a nice, light crunch. It tastes nothing like the purple passionfruit juice you get in the US, which I’m honestly not very fond of.
Well, that was a brief post, but believe it or not I have work to do to plan out my ornithology project. I’ll put up another post on Yanacocha within the next few days.
An Iowan on the Equator 