Week 2: Classes, Culture & El Paramo

On Classes
We started classes this past week at the university. We typically have class Monday thru Friday with ecology from 9-12 and Spanish from 2:30 to 5:30. On our lunch break, we usually spend about half an hour getting food and the remaining two hours studying and working on group projects at what we have named "Flat Bascom," a turf courtyard near the back of the university. If we have some extra time, we will make our way over to the sand volleyball court that overlooks the valley. Most days, we get to the university at 8:30 to finalize presentations or other assignments. I usually leave my house at 7:45am and get back around 6:30 pm, right around sunset. The days are long and busy and our professors have no problem making us work. When I get home I usually shower, work on homework, eat dinner with my host family at 8:30, do some more homework, and then go to bed. 
My ecology professors are named Joe and Cath. They started Ceiba back when they were in grad school at Madison and have been working on conservation efforts in Ecuador ever since. They have been running this study abroad program for the last twelve years. They are without a doubt the most passionate and genuine professors I've ever had. When we are traveling, they bring altitude tea, candy (to help with blood sugar and elevation), extra water, and food because they realize that we are college students and don't take care of ourselves. When we are in the field, they are like kids in a candy shop. All of the sudden one of them will yell stop to the buss driver, run out of the bus, pick up a plant, and run back into the bus with it to show us a new species or certain type of characteristic they told us about in class. So far we have been learning about general biodiversity and what type of abiotic factors influence biodiversity distribution, as well as tropical bird and plant species. 
During any free time we have in the evenings, we play volleyball or roam around Cumbaya. In true Wisconsin fashion, me and a few other students have found a brewery nearby that has a pool table, large benga games, good music, and a patio. We spend some of our less busy nights there. 

On Culture
Ecuador isn't that different from the US. They have cars and highways and electricity and WiFi (to a certain extent). But what they don't have are white people. I'm not in the majority here anymore and there are certain luxuries I didn't realize I had in the US that are not present here–safety being the most noticeable. Cumbaya is relatively safe. It has a crime metric similar to US cities of the same size. The most common crime is petty theft and the most common victims are white people. In one of our first days or orientation we were told all of these scams and rouses people would try to use on us to steal from us. They taught us how to prevent people from pickpocketing and what ares to avoid at night. Luckily I haven't been a victim yet. 
Being a minority has changed my perspective and also made me much more sympathetic towards women in the US. I never feel white safe when I am on the street. Street lights are no longer a source of light pollution but are now a safe haven on the street. Trees are now places people can hide and the source of long shadows that make the street feel less safe. Crowded busses are places where people can brush past you, stick their hand in your pocket and take your phone without you even thinking twice. Every person on the street isn't an extra set of eyes that could deter crime but instead a possible thief. When I walk down the street, sometimes I can feel people watching me. People will turn their heads as you walk by. I can hear people mutter "gringo" (a slang, possibly offensive, term for foreigner) as I sit on the bus. When you're a white male in the US, theres not that much going against you. But when you're a while male in Ecuador, the odds aren't in your favor. 

The Paramo
We had our first field experience this past Friday and Saturday in a type of environment call a Paramo. They are located mainly in the tropics–but don't let that fool you. They are not warm. At all. Located at over 10,000 feet on mountains, they are cold, wet, and very windy. When we were there, the temps were in the mid 30's. We wore rubber boots, pants, jackets, rain gear, hat and gloves. The clouds were low so visibility was not very good and it was constantly rain/misting while we were there. However, they can change from these conditions to 90 degrees and sunny in less than an hour. 
They can range from short grass or shrub lands to more developed forests, depending on the altitude. The environment is considered highly hostile for a few reasons. One is the large temperature range they experience and the high variability in the temperature. At so high up, they also have little atmosphere to block UV radiation so plants have adaptions to not absorb harmful levels of UV radiation but still absorb sunlight to photosynthesize. Even though it was cloudy and cold, many of us still got sunburned because of this.  While the ground is generally water saturated, the air gets very dry so plants have various methods of preventing excess water loss through evaporation. While we were there we did plant surveys and groudcover mapping to look at how grazing impacts the environments. We actually went to two different paramos. Cyambe-coca has been protected for quite a while and has had very little grazing pressure while Antisana has only recently banned grazing 6 years ago. Paramo soil has a water capacity of about 12 times that of normal soil so they tend to form lakes high up in the mountains. A lake in Antisan is used to supply water for Quito. With all of the grazing natural vegetation was replaces and soil was compacted. 

Up next
I booked a flight to Patagonia for spring break. This weekend we are going on a two day trip to Cotopaxi and Qulitoa. On Monday we leave for the northern coast for a week.