Goodbye Altitude!

I guess they’ve determined that we should at least do a little classic-style work while we’re, so they saved our last week on the mainland for research papers, presentations, and of course, a final (Wouldn’t it be nice if all we had to do for finals at Beloit was write a few pages about what we learned and incorporate a list of words). So, I spent the vast majority of my spare time this week reading, writing, and talking about factors affecting determination of altitudinal gradients in the tropics, and how they affect biodiversity.

On Wednesday night, my family took me to a narro, winding street in the middle of the old city called la Ronda, lined by houses 300-400 years old, inhabited by the super-rich. Directly along the street are little shops selling earrings and necklaces and food vendors, the majority of whom sell a hot, sweet drink called candelazo, made from thick naranjilla juice and a strong form of alcohol, meant to be consumed at night to keep from getting chilly.

There are some things that must be done in Quito, because if a person parcipated in said activities in the states, he/she would most likely end up in jail. Therefore, in celebration of our last day of class on the mainland, we rented a Chiva on Friday night. The chiva is an open-backed bus that looks like it should be in the circus. Little benches run along the waist-high side walls. The back consists of a few rails. Rope handles hang down everywhere. There’s a minibar at the front, from which candelazo is handed out for as long as it lasts. There are disco lights mounted on the ceiling, as well as balloons, and loudspeakers at both the front and the back. And of course, in the middle of the floor, a pole. For two hours on Friday night, the Chiva lurched through Quito as the 45 of us crammed onto the floor went through the supply of candelazo, passed around bottles of who knows what else, and danced to a mix of modern, old, english, spanish, good and really terrible music before ending up in la Mariscal (the part of town dominated by bars and dance clubs). We had wanted to rent a double-decker Chiva, but apparently they’re no longer run because people kept falling off the roof.

Saturday we hit up a soccer match between Liga, which most Ecuadorians will profess to be the best in the country, and a Peruvian team. During security, they let me keep my water bottle, with the water in it, but took away the cap so I wouldn’t be able to toss a heavy projectile at the players. However, we later discovered that the following commonly made it through security: fireworks, fire extinguishers, and thousands of rolls of paper that inevitable ended up on the field. Our general seating tickets, which were bought outside the stadium for $6, landed us in a section of benches directly behind one of the goalposts, complete with cops in riot gear who spent the match lazing against the fence, watching the action on the big screen behind the crowd, shields set aside against the wall and helmets tucked under arms. We proceeded to watch Ecuador decidedly kick Peru’s ass over the course of the game, coming out with a score of 5-0.

Also, there’s a photo album up at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50130&id=1456470082&l=8d5f5d6dde. You all should be able to access it, whether or not you’ve been lured over to the dark side.