Chimborazo

Tuesday was muy largo. The morning we spent doing interviews: Albert and I had luck; the first couple we interviewed was by far the easiest survey we've done in the Illangama watershed. The man understood everything I asked, with no reliance on the Ecuadorian INIAP workers for translation of what I was saying. Even their field was square- great success! (An added note: though we previously thought the interviews would endure something close to an hour, most are lasting no more than 20 minutes, including time to measure the fields- much easier and faster.) The rest of the interviews went fairly well; we tried out some cheese that was being made right their in the field (tasted just like milk, very filling).

A woman with her 10 month old and her mother-in-law, making cheese

I also had a rather close encounter with a snapping dog. If I haven't mentioned it before, Ecuador seems to be la landia de perros; dogs are everywhere: in the streets, roaming in packs in parks, on every farm and on top of every roof. Of course this entails predictable consequences: motorized vehicles and dogs don't match; farms where people have little to eat mean dogs eat less; some dogs are friendly, some are scary, most chase cars. I'll be a bit more than wary from now on.

This afternoon we headed to Chimborazo, the looming giant volcano overlooking Guaranda, also known as the owner of the highest summit in Ecuador, and the distinction of being the farthest distance from the center of the Earth. Its peak is a bit more than 20,500 ft (Mt. Everest is 29,000+); I made it to around 16,700 ft, and others of our group headed up to 17,000, above the snow line. The glaciers covering the summit are the water supply for the city of Guaranda and much of the Bolívar province. It was last thought to have erupted around 10,000 years ago (thus no worries about eruptions anytime soon). The Englishman Edward Whymper first reached the peak in the 1880s, after several earlier attempts in the same century. Today, it is a very popular climb.

How was my first experience mountain-climbing? Cold, and windy. Fortunately, I believe I can safely say that  I have little problems with asthma anymore: I took my time ascending and had no trouble breathing. Some of our group fared better with the altitude than others; fatigue and headaches were common complaints.

There were two cabins on the way up; the first where we parked the trucks with bathrooms and a fireplace, and the second at 5,000 meters. The second cabin was staffed with a single man boiling water for hot chocolate and potato soup; he was paid $300 a month to alternate a week of working and living there with a week off. I can only imagine how impossibly bored he must become. Nonetheless, I am glad we decided to do the hike, though we are all experiencing the fatigue physical activity at that altitude provokes.

Just beyond the first cabin was a memorial with various gravestones and memorials scattered about; some were for those who had died on Chimborazo, others were memorials of those to whom the place was special.

Wednesday it's ofd to Illangama once again, and then we shall have reached our goal of 50 or so surveys in that area. The rest of the week we are going down to the Alumbre; Victor has something or another up his sleeve for this weekend, soon to be determined.