Ecuador: The End of the Trip

Fruit at the Otavalo Market

Our last day of our Ecuador tour included excursions to three different locations outside of the capital city of Quito.

Rose Plantation

We drove to Cayambe and visited Art Roses, a rose plantation where we learned about Ecuador's role as one of the world’s major rose cultivators.

One of many plantations in Cayambe

The crop

Although roses are not native to Ecuador, the environment is perfect for cultivation.

Roses are now the country’s third main export, after oil and bananas. 

Ecuadorian roses are known to have long stems and stay fresh for weeks.

After visiting the cacao plantation in Guayaquil, I had a vision of the rose plantation: huge fields with rows and rows of bushes covered in brightly colored flowers – a lot like rose gardens I had visited in New Zealand and Canada.

Becca in New Zealand, 2005

But, this was a commercial farm ... 

The crop

... with the roses growing in very narrow rows inside big white tents ... 

Very commercial

The whole town of Cayambe is filled with plantations, with rows and rows of these tents dotting the hills.

Rose tents; Photo: The Globe and Mail

The roses are grown like grapes for wine, with specific colors in specific places. The manager explained to us that the plantations do not do any hybridizing or color development – they leave that to scientists and companies that can properly patent the colors they develop. But, the growers are very careful about maintaining the integrity of each different shade.

A lecture in the tent before touring the processing plant

Once picked, the rose stems are stripped and the long-stemmed roses are sorted by size and color …

Hand stripping and sorting

Then, a worker carefully packs them – usually in boxes of a dozen – in a manner to protect the petals as much as possible ...

Delicate and fast

Most of the work is by hand, although there is some mechanization ...

Moving along

The packed roses go into a refrigerated room, where they are held until the middle of the night, when they are shipped out in refrigerated trucks.

Waiting to ship

Ecuador’s biggest customers are the U.S. – mainly Costco – for medium-quality flowers and Russia for high-quality flowers.

Roses in the Dann Carleton

As we left the plantation, we drove down a road lined on both sides with stall after stall selling flowers to tourists and locals. I suspect this is where all the flowers not fresh enough to withstand the trip to a foreign market go.

Roadside stand

As we were leaving, someone pointed out that Ecuador’s products seem designed for lovers and/or apologetic husbands: chocolate and roses!

Ecuadorian rose and chocolate; Photo; Etsy

Otavalo Market

Our next stop was a little bit farther north in Otavalo, where we visited a huge market famous for Ecuadorian handicrafts, as well as other goods that locals buy, like clothes and shoes. Some people love this (Jenny said it was one of her favorite parts of the trip), but I don’t particularly care for big, crowded markets. And, with my cold, I wasn’t feelin’ walking around in the sun.

At the market

Wilson then announced as a special treat, we would stay an hour longer than originally planned. Ugh.

Scott, who had originally not wanted to miss the market, but was still feeling poorly, asked Wilson to take him to bar or coffee shop to wait. I should have gone, but they disappeared before I had a chance to ask. Kathy, Fran and I shopped at a jewelry stall and then walked some of the aisles.

Pretty enamel and precious mineral jewels

The indigenous people of Otavalo are known for weaving textiles, which is the genesis of the market. 

Local textiles

Wares; Upper right: Scott Stevens

Now, locals sell textiles, jewelry, musical instruments, dreamcatchers, leather goods, fake shrunken heads, indigenous costumes, hand-painted trays, purses, clothing, spices, food and yarn. 

As the market has become a tourist attraction, many of the goods are mass-produced in nearby factories and sold at the market by middlemen. 

Still, we saw many local people. Otavaleña women traditionally wear distinctive white embroidered blouses, with flared lace sleeves, and black or dark over skirts, with cream or white under skirts. They wear their long hair tied back. 

It seemed more locals than tourists

They usually have many strings of gold beads around their necks, with the number of strands and thickness of beads representing their age and wisdom, and matching tightly wound long strings of coral beads around each wrist. 

Local clothing

Men wear white trousers, and dark blue ponchos and often also have long braided hair. You often see people in fedora-type hats and they often carry bundles wrapped in bright shawls on their backs.

I wanted pictures of pretty fruits and the like and managed to get a few before I just lost my desire to be there. 

This is what I was looking for

It was partially my cold, partially my dislike of gratuitous shopping and partially because a dog lunged out from a stall and tried to bite me (fortunately my long pants prevented his teeth from breaking the skin), but I was done. So, I suggested we check out the grocery store where we were supposed to meet Wilson when shopping time was up. 

The results

The store was virtually empty and air-conditioned. 

We walked the aisles and bought bottled water. Plus, I bought a boxed lime cake mix. The package was pretty crushed by the time I got home. But, the cake that I made with it (supplemented with extra lime peel and lime frosting) was delicious.

We then found Scott and waited until all the others – those who like to shop and who bought all kinds of stuff – were finished. And, then we left.

Don at the market; Photo: Jenny Owen

Hacienda Molinas

Next, we returned to Cayambe to one of the oldest haciendas of Ecuador, San Juan Molino, where we had a late lunch.

The old Hacienda

Owned by the same family for generations, the former Jesuit wheat farm houses a restaurant, hotel and chapel. It also has a still-working mill, where various grains have been processed since the 1800s.

The old mill

The walls are heavily decorated and graced with paintings, many of them religious in content. Jenny thought some were originals by rather well-known Ecuadorian artists.

Ecuadorian art

It is a beautiful, colorful building.

The dining room

The rooms are filled with rugged furniture and every corner has interesting historical items.

Family heirlooms

When we arrived, they served us some tea (which you could choose to supplement with a local liquor) and the Cayambe specialty, bizcocha. 

The name is really just the Spanish word for cookie, but these are unique. They are made of yeast dough and twice-baked, making them rather dry and crumbly. Because they are served with both savory and sweet accompaniments, they are not sweet at all. 

To me, they just sucked all the moisture from my mouth. Not my favorite. 

A toast

The lunch started with a quinoa soup, which I ate because I thought I was hungry. By the time the yummy-looking chicken arrived, I no longer had an appetite. I didn’t feel sick; I just couldn’t eat – even when they served some beautiful baked figs for dessert. 

Lunch

So, perhaps my negative view of the bizcocha was more about my cold than the cookie. I was rapidly losing my sense of taste.

Scott left briefly to go to the restroom and returned to tell me that he had seen Hummingbirds outside, so I immediately took my camera and started looking. I never found any. This trip did NOT deliver on Hummingbirds.

After lunch, we had a brief tour. In addition to touring the building …

Charming!

We saw the chapel …

The crosses are from each family's member's first communion

… the garden …

They grow their own vegetables

… and the guinea pig/rabbit cages in the back …

These are not pets!

The grounds – even without Hummingbirds – are gorgeous.

It reminded me a bit of Tuscany

And, the staff was delightful

The waitresses and the cat; both have roles

Back at the hotel, we had one more event: a lovely farewell dinner. 

A nice dinner

I had hardly eaten, but, at this point had completely lost my appetite. So, I enjoyed the company of my traveling companions and spent the rest of the night feeling not at all well.

Fortunately (buoyed by my bag of medications), I felt good enough to travel the next day. But, I was losing steam. There is nothing worse than being sick on vacation. Scott had been suffering since Galapagos and I had been off since the flight to Coca. 

Heading back to the states

We didn’t have the same malady, but we were a pretty miserable pair. And, it was going to get worse.

A Wasted Stopover in Florida

As I mentioned earlier, a change in flights was going to stall us in Miami, so we took advantage of it and added a few days. Unable to book one of Clyde Butcher’s gorgeous little cabins, we opted to stay, instead, at the Miccosukee Seminole Casino right on the edge of the Everglades

The goal

The plan was that Scott would do the Clyde Butcher Swamp Walk and I would go birding. Then, maybe we would go to Key West.

Welp, by the time we arrived, my cough was constant, I was more tired than I had ever been in my life and I had no sense of smell or taste. 

I was certain I had COVID, but my test said no (and subsequent Google research indicated that the smell/taste loss did not occur the way it does with COVID). Still I felt crappy.

And, although Scott had rallied a bit, he was still experiencing digestive issues (I will leave it at that). 

When he work up the next morning unable to move his neck, we decided to scrap out plans and find an emergency room.

We ended up at Baptist Hospital in Wellington, Florida, where Scott spent six hours being tested and treated. The verdict was probably parasites and completely unrelated multiple issues with his neck (bone spurs and so forth). Fortunately, he wasn't dying. Just miserable.

Feeling a bit less miserable

The hospital and doctors were wonderful. It was the best ER experience we have ever had.

The next day, Scott felt well enough to drive to Key West.

On the bridge

He wanted to visit the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum, which displays some of the $450 million treasure Fisher recovered in the 1970s from the Spanish Galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha, which sank in 1662. 

 Scott had worked with another photographer to chronicle the treasure for a national tour back in 19XX.

Scott's photo next to the real thing; Photo: Scott Stevens

"The Atocha Motherlode" included 40 tons of gold and silver; 114,000 silver "pieces of eight," gold coins, exquisite Colombian emeralds, gold and silver artifacts and 1,000 silver ingots. 

Scott's piece of eight; Photo: Scott Stevens

And, this was only roughly half of the treasure that went down with the ship. 

The site of the wreckage of the Atocha off of Key West, called "The Bank of Spain," is still being worked on and more treasures, including gold, silver and emeralds, are slowly being recovered. 

I was so tired during the drive down, I couldn't keep my eyes open. I took almost no photos.

We did stop at a park in the Keys where we saw this fish

We had dinner with friend Amy Whitesell in Naples and then returned home. 

A nice restaurant and I couldn't taste a thing!

So much for a little fun in Florida!

It's a shame to end that way because I really did enjoy our Ecuadorian adventure.

Fun in Ecuador

Trip date: March 7 - 19, 2023

Ecuador: Back to the Andes

Back at high altitude

Our Amazonian adventure complete, we flew back to Quito from Coca. Still, I would have liked to drive, especially because I was afraid that the flight would re-clog my ears. But, even though I didn’t feel great, my ears survived.

Interestingly, on our first time in Quito, we stayed at the airport and toured the city. This time, we stayed in the city, but all our activities were NOT in town. Since the itinerary was different from what had been published, I think some things may have just shifted around.

When we landed, we did not head to town. Instead we took an opportunity to celebrate Ecuador by standing on the Equator with one foot in the Northern and one in the Southern Hemisphere (sort of). We visited the Middle of the World Monument located at a latitude 0° (ish) just north of Quito in Pichincha.

Middle of the World Monument

Monsieur de la Condamine of the Expedition

The 98-foot-tall monument, constructed between 1979 and 1982, is definitely a cut above Four Corners in Colorado/New Mexico/Utah/ Arizona. 

Made of iron and concrete and covered with cut and polished andesite stone, it commemorates the first Geodesic Mission of the French Academy of Sciences in 1736 that studied the shape of the Earth, confirming that we live on not a sphere, but an oblate spheroid. 

Earth is nearly flat at the poles and round at the sides, making is very slightly elliptical. Previously, the opposite had been believed, with scientists thinking the poles were elongated.

The placement of the Equatorial line was defined by the Geodesic Mission. Of course, it turns out (as it always does) that they were a little off – 790 feet too far south to be exact. Ruins found nearby by the Expedition were actually situated at the exact position where the Equatorial line crosses.

This monument is interesting because, even though the Equator runs 24,901 miles around the Earth, Ecuador is the only place where it crosses mountains. This seems surprising until you realize that 78.7 percent of the Equatorial line is over ocean. Still, it makes the place special.

The "Equator" line runs down the stairs

And, it was a gorgeous day, which, if you believe what you read, is a bit unusual for the normally wet Andes.

There were some clouds

We started our visit – where else – in a store. According to Wilson, most of the items for sale were made by women who were supporting their families. Still, I am not much of shopper, so … 

While there, however, we spent a fair amount of time exploring a phenomenon – which few of our group could replicate – where you are supposed to be able to balance an egg on a nail at the Equator.

Putting on a show

I looked it up and found that: “Folklore holds that eggs can only be balanced in this way at a particular time of year: the lunar new year in China, the Dragon Boat Festival in Taiwan or the vernal equinox in the U.S. 

It is also said that "eggs can be balanced on the heads of nails (at any time) at the Equator. In reality, eggs will balance anywhere at any time of year, and the practice has no connection to the gravitational force of the Moon or Sun.” 

Instead, it has to do with how well the yolk is centered and whether there are any irregularities on the shell. In fact, gravitational and electromagnetic forces are considerably weaker and steadier than the disturbances created by a nearby person's breathing and heartbeat. I was skeptical and didn’t even try it.

Scott's plunder

Scott bought a couple of knit masks and I bought a cute little stuffed llama, but I think my purchase was more “I ought to buy something.”

Wilson did a brief orientation, where he pointed out what to see and gave background on the monument. 

Ecuador means Equator

We had been given box lunches on the bus, but Wilson took us to a restaurant that would allow us to eat there, even with our own lunches. Of course, some of us ordered food. I tried their locro de papas (potato cheese soup). The giant portion was OK, but not as good as the first time I tried it.

View from the upstairs restaurant

After lunch, we had time on our own to explore the monument. Scott ran off to shoot photos, so I explored a little on my own, including climbing the four flights of stairs to the top because the elevator operator wouldn’t let me take the elevator, even though we had been told that it was included with our admission. 

It has an elevator to the top

But I headed up because, more than anything, I really wanted to look out over the mountains. We had had so few chances to get a feeling for the landscape, that was important to me.

When I met up with Kathy and Fran at the top, they said that they were allowed on the elevator because they were seniors. 

Five years ago, I might have believed that I was denied because I didn’t look like a senior. But since I grew out my gray hair and aged quite a bit, I am sure that’s not the case. Just lucky, I guess.

But, despite it being over 10,000 feet elevation, the climb wasn’t difficult. I got a little winded and my cough kicked up, but it was fine.

The view from the top was lovely

Looking all around

The beauty of climbing to the top is that you get an unobstructed 360-degree view of the surrounding area. Well, unobstructed by human-made structures. There is the issue of the clouds that constantly drift across the mountains. One minute, it's sunny; the next, it's cloudy with what looks like an impending storm. Then, it's sunny again. In some ways, like Colorado.

An interesting thing about the Equator is that tree line is so high. In Colorado, it's at 11,500 feet. In Quito, it's at about 16,000 feet. You do see some snow, but many peaks are snow-free.

The monument is cool, too. Pyramidal, with each side facing a cardinal direction, it is topped by a globe 15 feet in diameter.

Everyone enjoys looking at the globe

Inside is a small museum that displays a variety of indigenous items pertaining to Ecuadorian culture: clothing, descriptions of the various ethnic group and examples of their activities.

The museum is somewhat cheesy

The grounds have displays, museums and statues. 

Sculpture of Cuban poet and Latin American independence fighter José Martí 

There’s a little train that drives around the plaza (and almost ran over us).

We didn't ride, just jumped out of the way

And, mainly, there are people posing for pictures as they “hold up” the sphere or stand with a foot in each hemisphere. Touristy, but fun.

Kathy, Don and Jenny and Fran

Cardinal directions are marked

After looking around, I joined Fran and Kathy on the less-crowded northern side of the monument.

We just sat, watched the antics of the varied group of tourists and enjoyed the slightly crisp high-altitude air and beautiful sunshine.

While there, I got some nice photos of some Eared Doves, which made up for the really poor ones I got at Plaza Grande. 

I heard and saw more Rufous-collared Sparrow, but didn't get any good photos.

You can see the "ears" here

It was touristy, but lovely. I think that was mainly because the weather was so delightful. Definitely the most beautiful of our whole trip.

And, speaking of touristy, we also got a certificate for visiting. I guess that will go in my permanent record!

Shopping

Then, we drove into town and made a stop at Galeria Latina, a high-end folk-art store. 

Now, there, I could have spent a lot of money; Photo: Indagare Travel

I love this!

There were so, so many pretty things. 

I ended up with just one small silver Flamingo.

Now, I have a bit of guilt that I wasn’t buying gifts for my children. But, then, I didn’t really see things I thought they would like and why would they want stuff from a place they didn’t visit?

Still, maybe I should have tried harder.

Then, we drove into town and checked into the beautiful Dann Carleton Hotel. 

Dann Carleton

There was no planned dinner and Wilson made some recommendations, but I was too tired to go out. Scott needed to go buy another bag to take home all the masks and so forth had had bought, so he walked down to a big mall a couple of blocks away and grabbed some dinner.

Our purchases

I ordered room service and rested. My cold was pretty bad at this point. I still wasn’t clogged up, but I had a cough and was getting so, so tired.

 

Trip date: March 7 - 19, 2023