There are four major groups of indigenous people in Ecuador who still practice traditions and customs dating back to when the Incan people ruled the land. As of last weekend, I have visited all four. The Cañari people, who used to reside at/near Ingapirca, the site of the oldest Incan ruins in Ecaudor, were the only group who lived in harmony with the Incas instead of under their rule. Nowadays, the site of Ingapirca is a tourist destination. Though not as large or, in my opinion, great, as Machu Picchu in Peru, a sizable part of the Temple of the Sun is still standing at Ingapirca. This temple was constructed so that on solstices, the sun would shine directly through the door at a certain time during the day. I don’t know how the people who planned the construction of this site knew which way the door openings should face, seeing as I can barely figure out North, East, South and West without a compass, but it really is incredible. The architecture of Ingapirca is similar to that of Machu Picchu — stones carved together to fit exactly. Machu Picchu’s architecture is smoother because the Incas were there for a longer amount of time than they were in this particular valley, but there are still a lot of similarities between the two sites. The Salasaca people, who continue their traditions and customs in the northern part of Ecuador, are known for their textiles. I visited Salasaca for part of a day to learn about the textiles and some of the dancing there. Though I didn’t have a lot of time to experience the culture in this particular area, I was able to try some of the food, visit a workshop to learn how to make tapestries and shawls, and to dance with some of the people. The Otavalos, who are also located near Quito in the northern part of Ecuador, were the first group of indigenous people that my study abroad group visited. In this day and age, Otavalo is known for its Saturday Market, in which a solid 10 blocks are filled with vendors selling their wares. Unfortunately I didn’t make it there on a Saturday, but on other days the market is still very sizable. Goods range from textiles, such as blankets and jungle pants, to leather (belts and some bags), artwork (a lot of painted pieces…paint mixed from different plants and foods, or so the man who tried to sell me a very large painting of a flower, said), and traditional clothes, which includes a lot of beaded items. The town of Otavalo, in the center of which is this market, is a touristy town and most of the indigenous people actually live in the mountains around the center. The final group of indigenous people I have visited while studying abroad in Ecuador this semester are the Saraguros. This was my trip last weekend — to Saraguro, a town about four hours away from Cuenca. The town itself appears pretty modern — buildings with electricity, pharmacies with pills instead of just natural medicines, and small stores that sold foods as similar as oreos and as unique as a few things I don’t even know how to describe. However, the biggest difference that I noticed when we went here (besides the “frigid” temperatures in the mid-40s for which none of us were properly dressed) was the prevalence of indigenous dress. Many people, even in indigenous communities (that I remember), wear jeans and could blend into a crowd in Cuenca. Or at the very least, children weren’t in traditional dress. However, even the children in Saraguro were wearing traditional clothes. For females, this includes a black skirt, a blouse, a shawl that goes over one shoulder and under the other, several different necklaces (all with some sort of significance, of course) and often a few wrap-type-things around their waist where the skirt meets the blouse (always tucked in). As I learned in Otavalo a couple months ago, the different wraps are meant to protect any babies (if a woman is pregnant) and just her reproductive health in general. Visiting these people, and living in Ecuador in general, has shown me how well culture can be preserved. In primary and secondary school, I learned about different indigenous groups but at this point, I feel like I know more about the history and culture of a country I have been in for a few months than I do about my own country. Obviously, with about a decade of American History under my belt, I do know a lot about my own country's history...at least since the Revolutionary War era. However, living abroad in a country that has thousands of years of rich culture and history that is still visible today in close-to-original form has made me realize how little I know of my own home, and is an experience that I recommend for everyone.
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Last Saturday, I got separated from my hiking group in the middle of El Cajas, a national park about an hour away from where I am living in Cuenca this semester. Why did I get lost? I ditched the path to climb up part of a mountain to take photos a few llamas/alpacas nearby. Was it a stupid idea? Maybe. Was it totally worth it? Absolutely! Cajas, as well as the rest of Ecuador is home to hundreds of different species of plants and animals. The biodiversity in Ecuador from the Andes to the shores of the Pacific Ocean and everything in between makes it one of the most diverse countries in the world, especially for its size. A couple weeks ago, I went to a presentation about el medio ambiente, or the environment in Ecuador given by an American who has lived and worked in Ecuador for the past 10 years. Catherine Schlogel came to talk with my spring semester study abroad group after classes one day and her lecture has inspired me to learn more about the environment, something that before now, I was barely interested in. Here is some information about the environment in Ecuador specifically, that she shared with us. Instead of breaking Ecuador into different ecosystems, Ms. Schlogel explained Ecuador in terms of ecoregions, or geographical groups made up of various ecosystems, for lack of a better explanation. The four groups in Ecuador are the "oriente" (Amazon rainforest), Sierra (Andes mountains), la costa (the coast-Pacific) and los Galapagos (the Galapagos Islands off the Pacific coast). The first, and probably the most widely known region of Ecuador, are the Galapagos Islands. These islands were formed around the same time as Hawaii, with the help of an underwater hotspot and the shifting of tectonic plates. The Galapagos are oceanic volcanic islands about 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador, and more are continually being formed because one tectonic plate is moving toward South America but the hotspot that created the rest of the islands does not move. The 13 primary islands are known primarily for their endemic species and incredibly diverse marine population. The Galapagos has a mix of cold and warm water current (Humbolt current), coming from Antarctica and Panama, respectively. This is a major cause for some of the species on the island. For example, there are penguins running around on the island. They are a lot smaller than typical penguins you would see at a Zoo in the United States, or actually in Antarctica for that matter. There are many species of bird, and gigantic turtles. The evolution of species found on the islands is independent because they are separated by water. Some species evolve quickly on one island, but might not evolve at the same rate or in the same way on a neighboring island. However, in general, the evolution of plants and animals on the island is quite rapid -- a single El Niño (weather pattern that changes the temperature of the currents in the area and can help create hurricanes and other weather issues) or wet/dry season can start to change the beak of finches on the islands. Unfortunately I was not able to visit the Galapagos Islands during my study abroad trip, but I hope to return to Ecuador to see the biodiversity and beauty of the islands someday. Moving eastward, the coast is the next ecoregion found in Ecuador. If the name didn't already give its location away, the coast is the beach and the area immediately surrounding it as you move inland. I was able to visit the coast, but for the most part I stayed on the beach because the area I was in was completely sand with not a lot of vegetation until you moved farther inland. This is partially due to the fact that I was in a touristy town, and also because I decided to take advantage of the fact that I could see the beach from my hostel... Regardless of what I saw or didn't see, the coastal areas of Ecuador are dryer in the southern part of the country than the northern part. The original coastline has also basically disappeared due to other environmental causes. Parts of the Ecuadorean coast still have mangroves, or a special tree species whose roots grow in salt water and that protect the coasts from natural disasters such as hurricanes. The coast is the warmest part of the country, though from personal experience I feel confident in saying that Guayaquil (3 hours by bus away from the part of the coast I visited) is significantly more humid. The next ecoregion is the Andes mountains, around the middle of the country. I live in Cuenca, one of the largest cities in Ecuador, which is nestled between the cordillera oriental and the cordillera occidental (two mountain chains). Cloud forests cover a significant portion of this ecoregion, and most of them are full of epiphytic plants, or plants that grow on other plants. The temperature in this area varies more than in the other ecoregions of Ecuador -- in Cuenca, it can be in the lower 50s (Fahrenheit) at night and in the 80s or higher during the day. Due to the vastness of open space in the mountains and a few other factors, there are probably thousands of unnamed species in the Andes region. Some things don't have names because scientists in the area haven't been able to classify them yet. The Andean spectacle bear, which is a small bear that looks like it is wearing glasses, is found in the cloud forests of these mountains, and is the largest carnivore in South America most likely to go extinct. The final ecoregion that Ms. Schlogel talked about was the Amazon rainforest, or the oriente. The majority of Ecuador's topography is part of this ecoregion, but only about 2 percent of the Amazon Basin is in Ecuador. The Amazon is a tropical rainforest, and the weather varies very little, mostly depending on the proximity of the area to the mountains. The soil in the majority of this ecoregion is very nutrient-poor, which causes tree roots to grow wide instead of deep, and also leads to the rapid recycling of leaves. There are a lot of animals native to this area, such as the three toed sloth, and there are two types of river in the area: white water and black/dark water. White water rivers are identified by their typically brown color- they come down from the Andes mountains and bring a lot of sediment along with them. Black/dark water rivers originate in the Amazon and have a lot of tannins in the water.
Despite the biodiversity and beauty of this country, there are several factors that could significantly threaten the existence of many species, particular in the Amazon ecoregion: human population change, climate change and consumer demand, to name three. The human population has increased significantly in recent years, by about half a million people per year. Climate change has affected ecosystems across the world, and if some species of trees can't spread their seeds and move north a couple hundred meters, or if humans don't move them, the species could die out. Those are both very important changes in Ecuador, but nothing is more influential or vital than the issue of consumer demand, especially when it comes to oil. There is a LOT of oil in the Amazon, and Ecuador has already sold all oil from elsewhere I'm the country to China through 2019. A few years ago, the government in Ecuador asked other governments around the world to basically pay this government not to drill for oil in the Amazon. They raised a very large sum of money, but unfortunately not enough to make up for what money the Ecuadorean government would lose by not drilling in the jungle. As of now, drilling hasn't started but there is a significant threat to the plants and animals that could be affected by this should the government decide to take action. THIS POST ALSO APPEARED ON THECOLLEGETOURIST.COM
"The Beach Photographer" -- My friend Jules snaps a photo of something while I catch her in the act. Though this photo was incredible in color, I decided on a black and white filter because it reminded me of an old National Geographic photo. Also, I am a sucker for black and white photography... Photo taken with an iPhone 4s | Kate Hiller 2014
Quick review: Since February 20, when I last blogged (sorry about the wait, by the way. I've been busy...), I took my first set of final exams for school, spent a week at the beach, and finally found high-quality hot cocoa in Cuenca. There isn't a lot to say about my vacation, so most of this post is photos... but first, here's why I don't have a Facebook album to go with my week at the Pacific Ocean.
Whenever I travel, especially abroad, my Nikon D7000 is always at my side. While I am here in Cuenca, I can't carry my camera at my side every day (mostly for safety reasons), and when I went to Montañita for spring break last week, I left it locked in a drawer in my room in Cuenca. Definitely an uncharacteristic maneuver. I was going to bring it (hello, beach photos! Gorgeousness all around!), but at the last minute I decided to step out from behind the lens and just live. Typing that out and rereading it made me realize how cheesy that sounds, but that doesn't make it any less true. I took my iPhone 4s with me to Montañita...let's be real, I need some sort of lens when I'm traveling...and it was one of the best decisions I have made in a long time. First of all, I barely used it anyway. There are about 20 photos on my Instagram account from the trip, and I'm okay with that. Secondly, I would have been absolutely paranoid about someone stealing it out of the room of my hostel, even though the room came with a safe, four different keys, and a dresser drawer that sometimes locked.
So I only used Instagram on this trip. It was definitely a different experience, since I usually have to take all photos through camera raw (I shoot in raw), but instead I could upload a few every day, wifi depending. Having the chance to take a break and live was a great experience, and there is no better place to do that than in Montañita -- it is one of the most relaxed and friendly beach towns I have ever heard of. The party scene is definitely prevalent ("cocktail alley" is exactly what it sounds like -- a line of cocktail stands leading to the beach), and everyone I met there was extremely nice. The food...well I could talk about food in Ecuador for months. Everything was fresh and inexpensive (compared to what it would cost in the US, at least). The hostel my friend and I stayed in had a communal kitchen instead of a restaurant, so we were able to buy a few groceries and cook our own food every day. We also did our fair share of purchasing empanadas, ice cream sandwiches and pizza from beach vendors, as well as having a few meals at local restaurants.
We also took the time to walk all the way down to the "point," or the thing sticking out in the water (see photo above) to take photos. Though I got soaked, fell over several times and almost broke my only pair of flip flops, I had an absolutely wonderful time. This time, my lovely friend Julianna brought her iPhone since mine doesn't always work when it is in a plastic bag, so I wasn't even worried about ruining mine. Which, granted, I wasn't actually worried about until we got there. (No worries, her phone is totally fine) Again, only via Instagram and an iPhone 4s, here are a few more photos. After all, a picture is worth 1,000 words...
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AuthorKate Hiller is a wannabe world traveler studying journalism and Spanish at Ohio University. This blog is about her experiences living abroad in Cuenca, Ecuador for a semester. (Spring 2014) Archives
May 2014
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