Category Archives: Food

Week 2 in the High Andes

Antisana, Art Project, Birds, Food, , , , , , , , , ,

Not a whole lot has changed weather-wise up in the páramo. It’s still darn cold (got snowed on again) and getting around is a little muddy.

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Just another frosty morning at the base of Antisana.
The car got a bit dirty, but it apparently loves it.
The car got a bit dirty, but it apparently loves it.

However, I did manage to take a sweet photo of an Ecuadorian hillstar at an altitude of 4320 meters (that’s about 2.7 miles, for the metric challenged).

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I mentioned how these guys survive frigid nights in a past post. Turns out the hemoglobin in their blood is specially adapted for thin air as well by being more efficient at capturing oxygen (Source). But was is a hummingbird to eat at these elevations? Blueberries! Or rather, nectar from Disterigma flowers, a South American genus of blueberry.

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Also managed to find three life birds in a day, including this gorgeous Aplomado falcon.

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These guys are found as far south as Argentina and as far north as the southern tip of Texas. However, the road to see them there in Texas is terrible, as my mother can attest.

It also happens to be the season of catsos in the páramo. What are catsos? Catso is the Kichwa word for “beetle.” What does one do with a catso? You toast it with garlic and corn!

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While definitely counter to the general notion in the US that bugs aren’t food, catsos have a nice crunchy texture and don’t really have much flavor, other than that of what they are cooked with. In other words, they’re not bad.

Oh, I mentioned ibis decoys last week. Well guess what? They’re done!

The beginning of two ibises.
The beginning of two ibises.

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And done!
And done!

We have yet to officially field test them, but for now they are handsome steeds.

Yeehaw!
Yeehaw!

It may be a while (2-3 weeks) before the next post, as this next week is my last full week of data collection and then I have some writing to do. After that, I’m off to present my paper to the study abroad group in some as-of-yet undisclosed location. Until next time!

The Start of the Program

Food, Quito, , ,

Well, I had a day to explore the botanical gardens, but right now my program, SIT Ecuador: Comparative Ecology and Conservation, has a officially started. I can’t say I’m complaining, though: I get to basically go birdwatching (and listening) as an assignment, and tomorrow we’re off to Yanacocha Forest Reserve, a.k.a. a place with so many hummingbirds I might faint from excitement.

A little bit about this program: we get to travel all over (Amazon, Galapagos, cloud forest, mountains), and our classes (Spanish, ecology, conservation, and research methods) all blend together. They are taught both in the field and at a place called the Experiment in Intercultural Living (EIL). Here’s some great views of Quito from the top story of the  EIL.

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That white mountain you see in the second picture is the volcano Cotopaxi, which is actually not covered in snow but in glaciers. I get to visit it (but not climb it, that requires training, a guide, and ice axes) at some point, and there’s supposed to be Andean condors there. For the unfamiliar, Andean condors are gigantic mountain-dwelling vultures, weighing a whopping 33 pounds and having wingspans of 10 feet. I hope to get a photo to share eventually, but for now here’s National Geographic’s pictures and info.

I’ve been starting to dive into the local fruit, having had batido de guanabana (soursop smoothie), various juices, and this grandilla.

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In English you would call this a yellow passionfruit. The inside is fully of juicy seeds that are very sweet and almost bubble gum-tasting; the hard portion of the seed providing a nice, light crunch. It tastes nothing like the purple passionfruit juice you get in the US, which I’m honestly not very fond of.

Well, that was a brief post, but believe it or not I have work to do to plan out my ornithology project. I’ll put up another post on Yanacocha within the next few days.