sunrises, landscapes, and sunsets on the ecuator

The final post in a short series of photos from Ecuador. The original intentions was to leave them without captions, and let the photos stand alone, but the people, including me, hate caption-less photos.

So here is a miscellaneous smattering of scenery shots from Ecuador in 2010.

Near the end (the top) of the Guamote-Macas road - we started in the jungle and drove to the high mountains.

A Puya, a giant bromeliad, in the paramo near our field camp, called Rumi Loma.

J takes in the afternoon sun.

At the end of my very first trip up to Rumi Loma, a fence lit by the headlights. 

Sunsets at Rumi Loma were always something.

The Valley at the base of El Altar, a volcano outside of Rio Bamba.  

Sunrise.  I began to drag myself out of bed for it, drinking coffee during it.  It was a level of virtuousness that I may never achieve again.

This photo, and the next, are at either end of the panorama that comes third.

N watches the arrival of a thunderstorm.

The alpacas being hearded back into the corral (to protect them from pumas during the night) at La Libertad.

More of La Libertad, looking over at the village of Colepato.

A private vacation, I went to Cuyabeno at the end of the second program.  This is pirana fishing (see the raw meet on the gunwale at right?).  We didn't get any.  

In Cuyabeno, swimming with the piranas.

Also Cuyabeno.  This little grove of palms is extremely well-photographed, and is a classic postcard from Ecuador.

Flying back into Quito on Christmas Day.

people on the ecuator

This post is the 2nd in a short series of photos from Ecuador. These are pictures of people - again, in no particular order, and without captions.  Generally speaking, the white people are my students.

At a soccer game.

These are fun.  They're disposable mini-hot air balloons made out of crepe paper with a waxed paper burner.  In very gentle wind (wind tends to set them on fire) they go very, very high.  

Checking the teeth on a llama.

B shows pictures on her phone to some local kids.

S and B try a shot of Zhumir and cinnamon at a party celebrating connection of internet and phone service at this small village.

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A bullfight at the same party above.  No bulls were harmed - these people are much too poor to injure their livestock for fun.

The students and J pose down in the mountains above Rio Bamba.

B takes it in on the Guamote-Macas Road.  

An alpaca killed by a puma.

M reads in the kitchen at our field camp in Rumi Loma.  I discovered the potential of this photo purely by accident, showing another person the ins-and-outs of low-light photography.

On the coast.

Sunday in Colepato.

My "host-brother" builds a fire in the shack that I spent one day helping to put the roof on.  In his hand is a plastic bag, a way of starting a fire that works really well, and that I didn't know about.

My "host dad" Don Segundo.  This is not their house, but rather an outside shack where they do some of the cooking.

Segundo's daughter, Fannie, and granddaughter.

The whole family.  The kid in front, in the black-striped shirt, was referred to not-quite lovingly by J and myself as "the feral child".

This young girl is from Amazonas.  Can you see the difference in her facial structure from the people from the mountains?

animals and plants on the ecuator

I took so many photos in Ecuador that the idea of putting them on the blog was pretty overwhelming.  

But I've been wanting to update the blog, and haven't felt inspired with any worthy content.  So here is a smattering of aesthetically pleasing photos of flowers, plants and a few animals from my two semesters in Ecuador in 2010.  I'll follow-up with some more photos of different subjects.  I chose them just for being pretty pictures.  They're in haphazard order and, breaking my own rule, don't have captions, so they can't tell a story. Have a browse.