Long week with lots of activity!

Wow, didn't realize it had been over a week and a half since my last update. I got really into my books (The Friday Night Knitting Club, T is for Trespass) and used all my free time reading those. They were both really good! The latter was my first Sue Grafton book. I highly recommend it if you like mysteries.

So, last Thursday (9/20) I went up to the condors and had a typical day up there. The condors got plastic balls as enrichment that day, which most of them ignored. In the afternoon Ruco went batshit crazy for his, trying to grab it in his beak, and running around the front of his cage playing with it. The other condors spent the day flying into the side of their cages, which we think was because they predicted a storm was coming. It started raining in the last hour that we were there (which kind of sucked, because many of the condors retreated to their nests, so I was sitting in the rain looking at an empty cage), and on our walk back there was lightening and thunder! It was amazing because the thunder echoed through the entire canyon. We fed the rabbits when we got back and were sad to see that the mother who had a surprise baby the day before had 4 in total, but they all died. After that I milked Marquesa with Marco (I was so much better my second day), and then just relaxed that evening.

Friday was a normal day at the condors, but on the walk back we ran into a guy who said he could hear a bear! We stood around for a good 20 minutes (getting eaten alive by mosquitoes), listening to the bear lumbering around in the plants on the side of a mountain, but we couldn't see him at all. Finally he popped out and wandered around a bit. He was super cute, and was the first (and only, to date) Andean Bear I've seen. That night Daniel made Quinoa soup, my absolute favorite soup that I've had while staying here. He knew it was my favorite and ended up giving me the rest of the pot to take home... YES!! I also convinced him to give me the recipe, so I can theoretically make it on my own.

Saturday wasn't very eventful - Savannah and I cleaned and fed the rabbits (one of the big males got out and Savannah chased him around for 30 minutes), watched the condors, saw llamas screaming and chasing each other, met a biologist (Elisa) who showed up that day to spend a week working with us, ate dinner, and I spent the evening working on job apps for when I'm back home (did you read that, Mom and Dad??).

Sunday was more eventful, but mostly in a frustrating way. Steph and I went to the condors and trained Elisa in recording ethograms. In the afternoon, 4 tourists showed up, and they are typically supposed to wait behind the caution-taped area for us to walk down and talk to them. One guy just barged on up and told us he was putting a camera in one of the cages (huh??). Only after I asked who he was did he introduce himself as the veterinarian. I asked if he could wait 30 minutes until I finished the ethogram I was working on, and he said no, and then hopped the fence and walked over to the cage. Overall it was just a confusing and frustrating encounter, but it got sorted out in the end. Later that afternoon I managed to make some calls on Skype (yay!), so that's definitely an option of communication. That evening Savannah helped Daniel cook gnocchi, and we all watched Dexter in the guest TV room.

Monday was my and Savannah's day off. We decided to take an actual trip and go to Cayambe for the day! Cayambe is located just north of Quito, and is famous for bizcochos (which are buttery little rectangular biscuit things) and a solar clock, which is a giant sundial located exactly on the equator. We woke up at 5:30am to catch a bus to Ibarra at 6:45. Unfortunately, we got into Ibarra just minutes after the only bus to Cayambe left, so we had to hang around for another hour and a half. We went to a little bakery and bought different breads and pastries to try out (despite going to a city famous for bizcochos!), and then finally got on our bus around 9:30 and got to Cayambe just before 11 (by 11am I had already taken a nap... wtf). It wasn't until after we got back that Sarah informed us there was a bus that went straight from Zuleta to Cayambe. *face palm*

When we got off the bus, we looked around and realized we had no idea where anything was, and neither of us brought a map or our guide books. (In our defense, we were up at 5:30...) We wandered around a bit and pretty quickly ended up at the tourist office where we grabbed some maps and were informed that it was another 15 minutes by car to get to the solar clock. We were kind of tired of transportation by that time, so we opted to skip it and just wander the immediate area (Savannah had already been to the equator, and I plan to go later). The tourist office guy told us we could start with the museum just next door, which we did, and were not at all convinced it was a museum. There was nothing on display and no informational signs, but there was a little library, a meeting room, a terrace, and other random areas. We were very confused, but we stayed inside to cool off (it's like 30 degrees hotter in the sun than in the shade). Eventually we wandered back to the street and starting poking our heads in cute little shops. I really liked Cayambe because it wasn't a very big tourist destination, and many of the women still wear tradtitional clothing. It was a very calm and beautiful town.

Our first stop was ice cream and it was soooo good and dirt cheap. Later Savannah bought a traditional Ecuadorian hat and a flash drive. One thing I noticed while walking through Cayambe was that all of the female mannequins were totally stacked. Like one time I turned around quickly and was concerned I was going to lose an eye. Savannah said that they are pretty common in South America for some reason. We wandered a bit more and then decided it was time for bizcochos, so we made our way back to the main street where there were like 5 stores in a row that sold them. Somehow we walked down psycho dog street, because all of a sudden a huge dog appeared on a terrace above us, barking like mad. That was unfortunate because there were 3 more on the ground that seemed alright, until that big dog started barking of course. Then all of these other dogs ran over, baring their teeth and barking like crazy. We got the hell out of there and ended up back on the main street, just as it started sprinkling. The bizcocho place we went into was wall-to-wall bizcochos. Seriously. They were covering the walls, the front window, the shelves, and there were more baking in the back (I wish I took a picture!). There had to be a few thousand of them in this one shop, and somehow they are popular enough that there are at least half a dozen shops within just a block that have the same amount. To be fair, if I was by myself, I probably would've eaten 50 of them on the spot, gotten sick, and then eaten 20 more. They are really freaking delicious.

After the bizcochos we decided to start the journey home. We asked the woman at the store where to catch a bus to Ibarra, and she gestured across the street to the side walk. I still can't get used to the idea of just hopping on/off a bus wherever you want to. We saw about a dozen buses pass, none indicating that they were going to Ibarra. Eventually we gave up and jumped on one going to Otavalo so that we could change buses and go to Ibarra. It probably only added 5 minutes to our journey. It was also lucky that we jumped on where we did (aka not at the bus stop) because we managed to get seats, and then just down the road at the bus stop about 50 more passengers got on, so it was super crowded. Fortunately when we got to Ibarra we didn't have to wait long for a bus to Zuleta, so we finally got home around 4 or so. It was a very travel-filled day, but it was fun for my first official outing.

Tuesday I had a normal condor day with Savannah and Elisa. Daniel stopped by in the afternoon, which is when I got the Quinoa soup recipe. That was also when we told him and Sarah of our outing to Cayambe, and Sarah explained the more direct route to us (they had a good laugh).

Wednesday morning we all (me, Savannah, Stephanie, Elisa, Sarah, and Daniel) went horseback riding! There were no tourists around that day, so we all go to go on a ride up to the condors (to drop off Stephanie and Elisa), and then around the valley. It was slightly unfortunate because my right stirrup was crooked, so it was twisting my ankle (my good ankle) inward. It wasn't so bad at first, but eventually when we started trotting around, I had to periodically take my foot out to give my ankle a break. However, that meant it was a lot harder to take my weight off the seat, so I had to alternate between hurting my butt and hurting my ankle. While we were riding, one of the guys from the hotel rode by on a pony, which looked absolutely hilarious. The pony is really crazy, but they want to ride him more and calm him down so that children can possibly ride him. After that I had a normal Minga day and did some data entry.

One of these things is not like the other...

Thursday morning we went on a tour of the cheese factory! We got to see rooms and rooms of cheeses in different stages of cheeseifying. I also found out that some of the cheese they make here at Zuleta is exported to California! If you see cheese with a black label saying "Don Galo", that's from here! After the tour I had another condor day with Stephanie and Elisa.

 

Friday I was supposed to go to the condors, but I stayed at home so Ximena could teach me how to identify Andean bears from camera trap photos. Since the others are leaving tomorrow but I'm staying until Friday, I have time to do some bear identification and teach the next researcher how to do it. Friday night the others spent a lot of time doing their data entry while I started writing sections of our report.

Saturday (yesterday) was a day off for me, so Sarah and I had a whole day of adventure. We started by going back to Cayambe (the proper way). We caught a bus around 7:45 and got into Cayambe around 9 (compare this to our first trip where we left at 6:45 and got there just before 11). We went back to the tourist office to get a map for the researcher house, and then we went to the most famous bakery called Bizcochos San Pedro. There was a nice outdoor patio (and indoor seating) where we ate fresh bizcochos, drank delicious hot chocolate, and watched them making more bizcochos. It was really nice! We bought a couple more bags for the road. Then we caught a bus up to Otavalo (I showed her our awesome spot down the road from the bus station that ensured us a seat on the bus) around 10:30 (we STILL weren't in Cayambe by that time on my previous trip).

Otavalo is famous for it's market, where people sell lots of artwork, jewelry, sweaters, ponchos, hand-crafted toys, and other awesome and colorful things. The market fills an entire square, and the biggest market day is Saturday, when it spills out into the surrounding streets. There is also an early morning animal market where you can get pigs, sheep, cows, chickens, dogs, etc. I resisted and did not go to buy a piglet. Since Saturday is supposed to be the biggest day of the week, it's also typically filled with more tourists and more thieves (pick-pocketers bus in from Colombia for Saturdays in Otavalo). However, the place was almost empty when we went (apparently September and October are slow months for the market) which was great for us because we had the benefit of all the stands being open, but we didn't have to deal with crowds of people. It also gave Sarah a chance to talk to some of the people (whereas typically they'd be so busy making sales or making sure their stuff doesn't get stolen), which inevitably got us cheaper prices. I bought a really awesome painted picture (I liked a larger one better, but it was more expensive and harder to transport), a necklace and bracelet, and an alpaca sweatshirt (FINALLY!!). The sweatshirt was a pain because I tried on at least a dozen of them before finding one that fit just right (even ones that were theoretically the same size fit differently, so I just needed to be persistant) and was the color I wanted. But I have it now! That trip was good because I think I'll be going back to Otavalo at some point, so now I have a better idea of prices (and what they have there) so I can be quicker about things next time.

We ate lunch at some dinky little restaurant. Two orders of spit-roasted chicken and fries and a pitcher of lemonade all for $5. Before leaving we went to a pie shop and got two slices of mora (black raspberry) pie for the bus ride home. Holy crap... that was some of the best pie I've ever had. We also picked up some ice cream popsicles (mine was mora flavored!) to have with the pie, and to give to her friend who has a newspaper stand by the buses and was guarding our fresh bizcochos. Then we took a bus to Ibarra, on which I thought I would take a nap. Two minutes later a guy with a guitar got on and started serenading the bus (loudly). Apparently this is just as common as the people who get on to sell snacks. Needless to say, I didn't get my nap.

When we got to Ibarra, we ventured out to find Chef Daniel's pasteleria (cake shop). When we got there, the woman at the counter said he had just left minutes before, so she called him to get him back. She told him the shop was swamped with customers, so he sprinted 3 blocks and showed up red and sweaty. At least he didn't need to worry about serving a ton of customers! We bought a slice of coffee cake, mora (do you sense a theme here?) cheesecake, and two cinamon rolls, and he ended up giving us a slice of flan, apple cake with mora sauce on top, and a bag of cookies. This was a very healthy day for us. After his shop we went looking for more toys for the condors, and then gave up and caught a bus back to Zuleta. There was a full moon that night, so we didn't even need our flashlights because the entire path was lit up. It was beautiful! We got in just when dinner was starting, but we were completely stuffed, so we just ate bread and soup and saved the main dish to have as lunch today! That evening Savannah, Stephanie and I did another few hours of data entry and report-writing.

Today is another day off for me, and after yesterday I definitely just hung around and was lazy. Sarah and I ate our cinamon rolls for breakfast and they were so good! I'm half tempted to call Daniel and tell him to bring more when he comes back to Zuleta this evening. This week I don't expect too much excitement - the October researcher is showing up tomorrow, so I get to show her how to feed/clean the rabbits, get firewood, record ethograms, and do all the basic stuff we've been doing for the past month. The rest of the week will be spent going up to the condors with her, and then I should be heading back to Quito on Friday. It will be nice to start the next part of my travels in South America, but it's so damn nice here that I don't want to leave! The people are amazing, everyone knows everyone else, the accomodations are really nice, the food is fantastic... it's amazing here! I will definitely miss it.

Mega Minga Day, Surprise Birth, and Cows

Today was too cool to lump in with a week's worth of activity, so I'm writing about it now.

Two of the 10-day old rabbits out for a stroll!

Size comparison

Our board of moveable rabbit info!

I had a Minga Day while the other two girls went up to the condors. Sarah and I cleaned and fed the rabbits, and then we constructed an entire board to show which rabbits are in which cages, who their parents are, and when they were born. Unfortunately we don't have some of that info for all the rabbits because they just started recording information about them recently, but in a few months it should be totally accurate. Anyways, the information is written on recycled plastic container lids and such, so if we move rabbits when cleaning cages or what not, we can just move the lids! It's awesome, and Sarah and I are proud of it.

I also helped Sarah create a spreadsheet to track the different rabbit pairings, the size of each litter, the average number of offspring per breeder, and other information so that they can figure out if any of the rabbits just isn't producing enough offspring. Afterall, the condors get hungry!

We made a pasta lunch at the house and had stewed rubarb and leftover flan for dessert. Turns out stewed rubarb is delicious. I've also tried beets and radishes since arriving here, plus tamarillo, which is a native South American fruit (and is so delicious), and a whole bunch of other awesome foods, most of them cooked by our wonderful chef, Daniel!

After lunch I did some data entry, and then we went to feed the rabbits again. On our way over I noticed that there were a lot of guys that work at the hotel (for maintenance, reception, the garden, the stables, the milkshed, etc) running around and talking quickly. I asked Sarah what was going on, and she said they got word of a fire a ways away, so they were all going over to help control it. She said it was a true Minga Day because it wasn't even as if the fire was on Zuleta property, but the "rich" hotel pooled all available men to go help control it by cutting vegetation and creating a fire break. It's not as if they got out of work either, because they still had to finish it when they got back (afterall, cows still need milking). But they all went anyways. It was really cool.

Anyways, we went to the garden to collect broccoli and cabbage leaves for the rabbits, and then we went up to feed them. Sarah had just traded two of our rabbits for two from a friend of hers to get more genetic diversity, and they had just been put in cages the day before, but the female needed to be moved since her actual cage had been cleaned. We had already put food in the cages, so Sarah moved the new female (Osita, since a couple of the guys who work in the garden thought she looked like a bear (oso = bear)), and I went out back to empty the wheelbarrow full of shit. In the two minutes that I was gone, Osita had a baby rabbit right on one of the cabbage leaves! We wouldn't have even known until the next day if Sarah hadn't gone back to double check that the cages were locked! That poor girl had been transported via 4 buses from Quito to Zuleta the day before, put in a strange cage, picked up and moved (probably during labor), so that she ended up popping a baby out on her dinner. Fortunately Sarah was able to grab some straw to make a nest in the little rabbit house in the cage, nudge the little one inside, borrow some of the fur that the other mother pulled out to put on her babies, and cover this baby with it. That poor mother! We went back a couple hours later and she was rearranging the nest, so we thought it was good that she was at least acknowledging it. We're hoping there are more babies in the morning (apparently they typical give birth at night). If so, then we traded two rabbits for two adult rabbits and possibly a small litter!

Stephanie, the calf named after me!!

By then it was after 4, and we were supposed to meet Marco, who works in the garden and also tends to the rabbits, so that he could teach me to milk his cow! He had been out at the fire, so he was running a bit late. We met up with him eventually, and he took us out behind the vegetable garden to his older, brown cow. Let me just say that milking cows is AWESOME! I must be a natural or something, because I squeezed milk out immediately. I thought I was doing so well... and then Marco started outdoing me like three times over, and he was only using one hand. Show off. We took some of the milk over to his calf, which drank that bucket faster than college kids shotgunning beers. Seriously, I was like "where did the milk go??" And she was hopping around hoping that Marco brought more with him. Also, turns out she didnt have a name yet, so Sarah convinced Marco to name her Stephanie. YES! I have a calf named after me!!

After that he said we could help milk his other cows which were over in the pasture. Apparently Zuleta allows it's employees to keep two cows in the pasture at $20/cow/month. It's a really sweet deal because the fence around the pasture is maintained and the land is irrigated in case of really dry seasons. Marco's wife, Yolanda, works with Daniel in the kitchen, so they get to keep four cows in the pasture (with the fifth hanging out behind the vegetable garden). By the time we walked over there, Marco had already milked one of his cows, but I got to help with the other three. I think I may have hit my cow-milking peak with the first cow. These other ones were a lot harder to milk! Apparently younger ones are harder, but I gave it a shot anyways. Milking is also surprisingly tiring. Though, Marco said in 8 days I would be a pro, so I guess I need to keep at it! Good thing he milks his cows twice a day!

So today's highlights: Sarah and I created a board to show information about all the rabbits, all the men had a Minga Day to stop a fire, our new rabbit had a baby, and I milked not one, but four cows! I'd say it was a good day.

Half Done with the Condors

Another week in Zuleta! I'm more than half done with this program, which seems crazy. My last day is September 30. Though, a couple days ago Sarah had 2 of the 3 October researchers cancel because of family things, so she asked if I might be willing to stay on a couple extra days to help out. That should actually work out wonderfully, because I was going to be waiting for my dad to arrive in Quito for like 9 days, and from what I hear, there's only so much of Quito to see. Plus it's in a state of emergency right now with wildfires surrounding the city, so you know... the longer I can give them to put those out, the better.

So... I left off last weekend. Sunday was another day off for me. I decided that I would go on a hike, look for some cows to milk, and explore the town of Zuleta. What I didn't realize is that Sunday is the worst day to do this because everything is closed! I started with a 2 mile hike to the La Cocha Milkshed, which, based on signposts, I thought might do hand-milking. I got there and the place was empty (which I figured might happen). But just down the road from that was a watermill, and a bit further a waterfall! I got to the watermill sign, but all I saw was a locked gate. Damn! So I walked a bit further to find the waterfall. The map suggested that the cobblestone path would turn into a dirt path, and I would be at the waterfall fairly quickly. Thirty minutes passed and I found myself wandering on an almost non-existant trail into the foothills, sidestepping cows and trying not to draw the attention of the bulls. When I saw rainclouds moving in, I decided to give up.

Galo Plaza Lasso, ex-president of Ecuador

My original plan was to go into Zuleta and see a saddle-maker, stop by the embroidery shops, get some embroidery lessons, see some wood art, etc etc. But I decided to quit while I was ahead and just continue back to the house since everything seemed closed. I did stop in one store that looked open because I wanted to buy a sweatshirt, but they only had blouses and dresses. Apparently showing any interest means you want to buy something, because the woman was ready to give me a $140 hand-stitched dress on faith that I would return with the money. I didn't actually want the dress... it just looked nice!

Monday was my big Minga Day. The other girls had the day off, so they went into Ibarra to buy snacks. I fed the rabbits, got firewood, took out the recycling, and then spent a couple hours entering my condor observation data into the computer. The day was pretty relaxed, but the one thing that makes Monday Mingas a pain is washing all the rabbit cages (there are something like 40 rabbits in 20 cages). Fortunately a few rabbits had just been fed to the condors (hah, fortunately...), so there were empty cages which made moving the remaining rabbits around a lot easier.

One of the rabbits had babies!

Miguel, with his machete!

Tuesday was probably the highlight of my week. Savannah and I got an early ride up to the condors because Miguel, the guy who feeds the condors, was bringing them meat. That day was also Savannah's birthday, and Miguel offered to take our picture in the river. We thought we would just be walking like 2 minutes to take a picture in a really deep part or something, but we went on a decent expedition (as in, Miguel brought a machete) into the woods with no idea where we were going. Eventually we got to a "bridge" that crossed over the river, where "bridge" actually  means 3 logs with rocks shoved in the gaps. That hike was seriously incredible. There were so many wonderful views of the river and the forest, and we had our own personal guide! It didn't even matter that Miguel doesn't speak English and that our Spanish is very weak. We got around the language barrier by not using it! For instance, he picked up a stick and "walked" it up a tree trunk to indicate that there are stick bugs in the area. I love Miguel... he is so sweet and loves teaching us Kichwa, which is a language that comes from old Inca.

When we finally returned to the condors there was even more excitement - one of the wild ones, Yuracunga, landed on the ground and was out taking a stroll. He stuck around for much of the morning. Later it started drizzling, which kind of sucked, but at least the wind wasn't blowing. However, that meant the mosquitoes were out in full force.

This was because of the mosquitoes...

Wednesday was just an average condor day. Though, I definitely got burned on my thumb and pointer fingers from writing all day. The true mark of a field biologist!

Thursday was another Minga Day for me. That night the four of us girls went to dinner, and we were joined by Ximena (the woman running the research) and another gentleman. Ximena bought watermelons to use for the condor enrichment the next day, so we were going to hollow them out after dinner. (We give the condors things like traffic cones, straps of leather, meat frozen in ice, etc to make them think and to give them a bit of entertainment.) Sarah thought that was the perfect time to give us her presentation on Andean Bears (she used to work for an Andean Bear organization), and the guy seemed interested so he came along too. We found out that the guy (Oswaldo), was a grandson of Galo Plaza Lasso, an ex-president of Ecuador. So there we were, carving watermelons, learning about Andean Bears, and chatting with the grandson of an ex-president. You know, typical Thursday night...

Friday was interesting. We gave the condors the meat in watermelons, and they eventually got the meat out (but I think they got kind of juicy because they spent longer than usual rubbing their faces in the grass). That afternoon some guys came to see about making the internet faster. Somehow, their presence made the wifi work on my tablet. YAY!!! The unfortunate part of the day was when I went to take a shower after dinner and saw dirt in the water. Like a lot of dirt. I could've planted flowers in our shower. Turns out it was in the bathroom and kitchen sinks as well. Fortunately we have separate drinking water, but it just meant no showers that night.

Trying to show scale here... Ruco (condor) is just slightly in the foreground.

Reina Pacha trying to eat meat in ice.

Tarishka fighting off Coya for food...

...and Tarishka asserts his dominance!

Candlelit sitting room!

Stephanie and I went to the condors the next day, and when we got back I checked with reception about getting the water fixed. The woman (Laura) said Savannah had already stopped by about the water and the electricity. Umm... what? Apparently the electricity went out earlier in the day, so we needed that fixed as well. I thought it was no big deal because it had gone out a couple times on my days off last week.  Anyways, Laura said a guy was coming by to fix both problems. He showed up an hour later and fixed the water, indicating we needed to let it run a bit to flush the remaining dirt out of the pipes. As for the electricity, he tried to explain the situation to us in Spanish. After hearing the words "electricidad" and "imposible" and then seeing him give us a handful of candles, we knew we were screwed. (It only took 2 days to finally get electricity, but it took 3 until our lights actually worked.) So Saturday night I took a shower by candlelight (which was probably good, so I couldn't tell if there was still dirt in the water!) and we just put some candles around the house. It was so quaint!

The wingspan of a condor. Those feathers are the length of my arm.

Joaquin joined us up at the condors. I'm wearing gloves to avoid burning my hand more...

Fito is huge and makes a wonderful pillow, especially because he was lying in our only patch of shade.

Sunday we went to the condors, and then we went to dinner early to enjoy some electricity. After dinner we stuck around the guest TV/computer room and watched Eclipse and Dexter (a great combination). With the guest ammenities, we're supposed to leave immediately if guests come by to use the rooms. Sunday night they couldn't have kicked us out if they tried, considering the only thing we had to go back to was a cold, dark house. We took our shoes off, brought books, journals, and data sheets with us, had the fire going, and were all sprawled out on the couches watching TV.

The cow behind our house got a friend!!

Monday was my (and Steph's) day off, and Savannah had her Minga Monday. Some guys came to work on the electricity starting around 11. They ended up rewiring the house and didn't leave until after 3, and we still didn't have working lights. We walked into the town of Zuleta to peruse the shops, but I think things are different in a small town - a lot of the shops are out of peoples' homes, so they don't necessarily wait in them all day for customers, but instead they do their own thing until a customer comes and rings the bell. As a result, the town kind of looked empty. That night we set up camp in the guest TV room again.

Today Savannah and I went up to the condors. I had another exciting day with the llamas, who wandered up to where I was and were just grazing around me. They were so close I could have touched them! Llamas are really cool, and they make funny whining noises while they eat.

 

BTW, there are a number of pictures (like some of the "bridge") that I might add later because they are on Savannah's camera. Adios!