This past weekend, I couldn't help but sing tunes from The Sound of Music to myself while traveling through different mountains and volcanoes around Quito. The views from our various locales were amazing, from the páramo near Papallacta, to the Otavolo Indian market, to Cotocachi, Cuicachi, and Cotopaxi. Even from parts of Quito you can see for miles, and there's always a different landscape to admire.
The view from Parque Condor in Otovalo
really brought out the Von Trapp in me.
Waaaaaaay up in the páramo
Loving the sunlight on those hills
During our trip to the páramo on Friday we visited the polylepis forest, also known as the "Elfin forest." The trees there are really gnarly and have very flaky bark, and can be hundreds of years old. The polylepis forest is really moist, so we also saw a lot of interesting looking moss and lichen on the trees.
Gnarly.
Who knew moss and lichen could be so lovely?
My personal favorite, due to its resemblance to a cow
This weekend we have a three day adventure into the cloud forest of La Hesperia, where we'll do a lot of hiking and looking at plants. So far our educational trips have involved walking a few meters, talk about a plant, walk a couple more meters, talk about another plant, and so on. Our professor, Kelly, gives us a lot of good background information during lecture at the university, and I'm quickly learning a lot of different plant families. Soon we'll finish studying tropical montane ecology, and then we'll be off to the coast!
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