Today we started our ride up to the Andes mountains which is about 13,700 feet above sea level. On the beginning of our ride we passed many sugar canes fields, banana fields, as well as cacao fields. We saw the Ariba chocolate which has a special flavor that is very different from others. It is in a yellow capsule and has a more bitter taste. Right before our first stop, we stopped to use the restroom and we saw a two-toed-sloth in the tree above us!! Our first stop was at the mangroves. The mangroves were so beautiful, and we saw so many different bird species. My favorite was the Rosette Pumbio which is a pinkish colored bird that has a spoon shaped beak for catching fish. This bird is actually pink because of the fish it eats which is like the flamingo that is pink because of the shrimp. Our next stop we took a short walk to see if we could see some Howler Monkeys. We saw a few but the mosquitos there were crazy, so good thing we all bought our bug suits.
Photo taken by: Greg Fischer
Our next stop was to see the shrimp farms. As you read in blog before, shrimp farms cause deforestation to 27% of the mangroves, but it was very interesting to see how the process works. They place these baby shrimps in a pool that is about 4 hectares in size. They use a bacterium that these shrimp for development as well as, electric turbines that ventilate the lake and a programmed machine, that is powered by solar power, to feed the shrimp. They also use a guard stand so that thieves will not come in at night and steal their shrimp. The thieves will throw food in the corner of the lake, which will attract the shrimp, and then throw a net to catch them. After about 3 months each shrimp will be from fourteen to eighteen centimeters in size and ready to be harvested. When harvesting, they place a huge net over the exit tube, then open the gate and all of the shrimp with flow out into the net. The farmers will keep the shrimp until they’re in high demand. Right now, shrimp are about two to three dollars a pound depending on the size. The specific farm that we visited had five different pools that were each 4four hectares in size, with about 5,000 pounds of shrimp per hectare.
Next we started our climb up to the Andes!! It was a very long and windy ride, but after about two to three hours we finally made it!! The elevation change really was so crazy. You could tell how much our body was not adjusted to the shortness of air at higher elevations. Even just walking up a few starts we were all already out of breath. I could also feel my brain swollen in my head when I was walking. Next we started our hike in Cajas National Park. The hike was so beautiful and so unique and breathtaking. If it wasn’t for the elevations change it probably would have been a pretty simple hike. Cajas National Park consists of 237 lakes, which helps provide water for 16% of Cuenca. There are 9 endemic plants, 44 different animals, and 127 different birds. We say many different plant species on our hike at Cajas and almost all of them were used in some sort of tea or for medicinal purposes. Some of the plants we saw consisted of chuquiragua, valanan, Indian tulip, deer head, tipo, Indian Paintbrush, deer horn, donkey ear, the paper tree, and the polly lapis tree. The chuquiragua plant is a medicinal plant used for sickness that you put in tea, and when they are ready to be pollinated, they will open up, so the birds know. The deer head is an endemic plant here that is used as a medicine in tea that is said to help with diarrhea. The Indian paintbrush is used in teas and is said that if you drink it for nine to forty days, it will help women regulate their menstrual periods. The interesting part about this plant is that the leaves are red, and the flowers are green. We also walked through, what was called the enchanted or harry potter forest. In this forest there are many polly lapis trees around. The trees here do not have rings in their trunks, because the rings in trees are due to the changes in seasons, but there are no seasons here. In the park there are many lakes, and we all wondered if there were fish in there. The rainbow trout is actually an introduced species, from Canada, that is in all of the lakes. Because all of the lakes are interconnected, they are impossible to eradicate. In Yellowstone National Park by us, trout is also an invasive species that has actually displaced the endemic trout and eats their eggs.
Indian Paintbrush
After hiking Cajas National Park, we headed to the hotel and checked in and then went to Paul’s (Tait’s friend). Paul cooked burgers made us pasta salad and so much more. It was so delicious and then we all sat by the fire and asked Paul questions about why he decided to move to Cuenca, how he adjusted to living here, and any struggles that came with it. Cuenca is a very popular place for retirement, it also has the best water in South America because of the Cajas mountains. Paul had worked in real estate and was also a professor at Pen State University in Philly. When coming here he had to apply for a visa, and he decided to apply for the professional visa. He had decided to get his driver’s license here just in case he would ever need to rent a car and drive somewhere. The first way of applying for his driver’s license was to get his driving report from Florida so it could be checked. When he went to get his driving report and brought it back, they said they would not accept it because it did not cover the days, he was in the US, so they said it was invalid. So instead he had to take is driving test in Cuenca. When taking the driving test, they did not have to parallel park the way we do in the US, the only thing he said he struggled with was going into the traffic circles, because he did not use his turn signal. When selling his house, he sold basically all of his stuff and then invested his money in the Ecuadorian banks. This is because he gets a 9% interest rate on his money there, but he still does have a bank in the US. The apartment he is living in now is two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and has a deck and is only $800 a month including utilities. When coming to Cuenca he also had to think about what to do with his phone. T-Mobile actually has unlimited international data for texts, so he went with them, as well as he has a second Ecuadorian number just in case, he has to call someone. He said he had struggled with finding friends in the area that enjoyed what he did. He had joined many Facebook running groups, but all the people that are retired tend to be older than him. Another problem was what is called, Gringo pricing which is when people charge us more because we are out of the country, so they take advantage of us. He actually has started teaching English to Chinese kids at around 6 am and gets paid to do this. We had asked if he would consider going and working at a university and Cuenca and he said he doesn’t want anything to do with the university’s here. It was very interesting to learn about the different factors that go into moving/retiring out of the country.