Today we woke up and went down to breakfast. Today was a fancy breakfast, they served us a fruit plate that had watermelon, cantaloupe, pineapple, cereal, yogurt, and kiwi that was cut really cool. They then asked us if we wanted a scrambled egg or an omelet and then served us that as well. This was by far the best breakfast we have had so far. After breakfast we started out on our long ride to Zamora. The ride was a very long and windy ride with lots of bumps. It was a very scary ride because we were riding down a mountain the whole time, and there were people passing us on the road when we were going around bends. On our way we drove through the flat part of Ecuador, which has lots of cattle. The grass that is there is actually an introduced grass species called, cucouyou which makes the milk creamier and better.
Along the way we stopped for lunch in a city called Loja. The city has rivers running through the city and is the first city to start recycling in Ecuador. Loja uses wind power as well has hydropower to produce energy. The hydropower that is produced generates enough energy for the whole city and some of Zamora. We actually saw a recently built dam as we were driving. We stopped for lunch at a little food court that had different options like Chinese, Italian, burgers, and some snacks. Most of us just got fried rice or some nachos. After lunch we got back on the bus and headed back on our long bus ride.
When we were almost to the Lodge we stopped and saw a waterfall that was right on the outskirts of the Amazon Rainforest which was so amazing to see! Then we headed to the lodge. We all got checked in and headed to our lodge, which were very unique. They look like log cabins almost and there is not much electricity in them because the lodge is run solely by the people who own it. We went downstairs to eat dinner and where we were eating was covered by outside and has so many different hummingbird feeders so there is just hummingbird’s flying around all the time. We took a short hike up one of the trails at the lodge to see the gray tinamou. Some of us stayed for a while and then headed back down because everyone with the nice cameras would get all the good pictures. After our hike we had a little bit of time for us to do what we wanted before dinner. We ate dinner at the restaurant at the lodge and watched the hummingbirds a little more. After dinner we were all pretty drained, so we headed to bed.
Extra Research
Hydropower Ecuador used to be highly dependent on fossil fuels. Ecuador made the decision to use Hydropower. This has allowed them to save millions of USD from not importing fossil fuels. The National Plan for Good Living 2009-2013 started Ecuador to the construction of eight hydropower projects. https://www.hydropower.org/country-profiles/ecuador