Reserva Ecológia Antisana

Yesterday we visited another páramo portected area, this one in Antisana National Park. Antisama is a volace and one of the most technical climbs in all of Ecuador. While on our way up to the páramo we had some fantastic views of Volcán Cotopaxi. We´ve had great luck with weather thus far and it was awesome to see the snowy peak coming through the clouds.

On our way up we also stopped again for sugar coated cheese empanadas. ¡Que rico! Anyway, Reserva Ecológia Antidsana became a park in 1993 and a lot of activities in the boundaries prior to its protection were grandfathered in and continue. So there is a large volcanic rock mine right outside the park boundaries, livestock graze all over the place and much of the park land is held privately. So it´s an interesting mix of land uses. While driving up to our destination I couldn´t help but compare the park to the national parks I´ve seen in Kenya and those I have visited in the United States. National parks are quite the curiosity. I can easily see the conservationist perspective, that we need to protect natural areas for the ecological services they provide, but excluding people and not allowing resource use gets complicated quickly. People need to eat and though one could argue that the livestock pressure placed on parks in all three continenets is maybe not a necessity (there are other protein sources with less ecological impact) it´s unlikely that any society will ever be ready to give up livestock as a source of livelihood. So where do you draw the lines? If a protected area doesn´t protect an entire watershed is it even worth it? Aren´t national park boundaries just arbitrary lines drawn by people who think they know best? Is it fair to choose ecological needs over human needs even though they are so closely intertwined? If you can answer these questions, please let me know because they are complicated and conservation can step on a alot of toes, that´s for sure.

Driving through the lower reaches of the park there is evidence of human activity everywhere, but that´s basically the name of the game in much of the Andes. They have been inhabited for so long there is no real evidence for what the original landscapes looked like. There are large areas dominated by only a couple of grass species that were fenced and pastured. Call me crazy, but despite the fact that I know lots of natural vegetation has been pushed out to make that landscape, when I look at a pastoral landscape (thanks in part to Bill Cronon and growing up in Wisconsin) I still see beauty. The pin straight fence lines, the tree lined windbreaks and property lines, the texture of a potato field or terraced plot of corn is pleasing to my eyes. It´s not that I necessarily admire or relish in humankind´s ability to control and manipulate nature, but I have to respect the fact that without agriculture, modern or not, my way of life would be drastically different. Agriculture altered life way back in its infancy and it continues to alter life today. So when I see an old farmer chugging along on his tractor, whether it´s here in Ecuador or back in Wisconsin, I can´t help but smile. (and at times be gratefuly it´s not me)

Continuing on up the Andes, we stopped for lunch along Laguna Mika, a huge reservoir, recharged by glacial waters, that supplies a large proportion of Quito´s drinking water. While eating, someone spotted a huge Andean condor flying on the other side of the lade. Andean Condors have an eight foot wingspan! Needless to say, they are huge birds! We watched the Condors for awhile, finished lunch, and then traveled down to 4100 m to conduct another biodiversity activity. After our groups finished their data collection we headed home to Quito. This time it was early enough that taxis were not needed.

Following another beautiful day in the páramo, eight of us (Me, Colleen, Christa, Karl, Dana, Liz, Jean and Steph) went to La Boca del Lobo in La Mariscal for dinner. It was a really funky and colorful restaurant with good food and great mojitos! Following dinner we hit up Bungalow 6 for dnacing. If there´s evern a need to prove that La Mariscal deserves the nickname, Gringolandía, Bungalow 6 is it. The place crawled with gringoes and the vast majority of the music was probably also being played at clubs and bars across the United States at the same time. It was still a fun place to be and a good place to dance.

Tomorrow marks the frst day of our last full-time schedule. I´m going to attempt again to get my censo...we´ll see how that goes.