Quito! (January 2010)

Mural downtown

Saludos,
So….almost a week in quito……
As some of you know, things got off to a bit of a slow start!
As in 2 days slow……
There was a problem with my visa and upon arrival at the airport in eugene at 4:30 in the morning, after staying up all night, frantically trying to get organized, they told me that they would not let me on the plane!!!!
In what amounted to an hour of forced diplomacy, I got things sorted out to leave 2 days later (somehow magically avoiding a change ticket fee of $250)
So instead of leaving on the 10th, I left (again at 4:30am) the morning of the 12th, making my last day in Eugene a palindrome (01/11/10) perhaps in more ways than one……
Honestly, I was not quite ready to leave!!!


Lantana camara

Quito is…..well, it is south America!!!
Passion fruit, mangos, avocadoes. Cherimoyas, papayas, pineapple…..bananas, prickly pear fruits, nonis (which I have admittedly only smelled not tasted), guavas.
All those cool Andean tubers that are used like, but not related to the potato…….piles of herbs in el mercado…..


Mercado de artanisias

80 degrees and sunny, but a little too so….
this is supposed to be the rainy season, but the best they’ve got is lightning over Pichincha (the local volcano)……
nice to be a tourist, but worrisome otherwise
there is not enough water to fill the hydodams, so there are rolling blackouts across the city every day…….
just don’t plan on getting much business done between 4 and 6!!! (at least in my neighborhood, times may vary in other disticts)
una corte de energia is one thing, but…….
Most of the staple crops eaten and served are from the last harvest, and there is some concern about the future…….water = food, water = life…….

In other news……
chatting with local friends about politics and the economy, things are not looking so good for biodiversity……..
The ‘lefty’ president has done a bunch of great stuff for the poor, but it is mostly all funded by oil money……..word on the street is that this year they are going to start seriously exporting out of Parque Nacional Yasuni (http://www.google.com/hostednews/epa/article/ALeqM5ihFdfE7gdXQ2kIGdEEGu3PwjNqpw)
……in the western amazon basin and arguably one of the most biodiverse regions in the world!!!
If you get a chance to check out this film http://www.crudethemovie.com/ it might be worthwhile (although likely depressing), it think it is coming to the bijou in the near future…….

Sticky issues, like the spilled crude oil coating the rivers……..
Hard to tell people that they cannot have schools and medical clinics……but at what cost……
Seems like water smay become the resource of most concern sooner than later as the rain stops and the Andean glaciers melt….!!!
Me, trying to rationalize the fuel to fly down here, by remembering that we are supporting conservation efforts through our work……hhhmmmm……


View from my roof

Well, didn’t mean for this to be a downer…….
In the meantime quito is still a big city that knows how to party!!!
Been getting plenty of exercise on the dance floor……
Which at 11,000 ft, doesn’t take much to feel breathless!!!!

Que mas?
Well, it seems that the process of getting a research permit, that we thought was underway, was…..not so much……
This week has been a bit of a scramble to get all of the pieces together in a hurry so that we at least have the process started when we head to the field…….
Negotiating government red tape has been pushing the bounds of my rusty Spanish, but it all seems to be coming together…..
Connected with a woman at a local ngo (http://www.jatunsacha.org/) who has been super helpful with all of this………….

I am actually going to stay behind in quito an extra day to finish sorting all of this out, while the others head to los cedros (http://www.reservaloscedros.org/en/)
I have been noticing how much less frustrating this all is in Spanish….
Dealing with this kind of run-around in english would likely drive me up the wall, but somehow the challenge of sorting it all out in another language makes it an interesting puzzle!

Well, perhaps enough for now……
Culture, food, politics, it all adds up!


Graffiti

Next missive will likely find me mesmerized by orchids, with mushrooms growing out of my hair……
Looking forward to the mule ride….lol

Abrazos a todos
tobias

View from town