Ode to the Paramo

Paramo is one of the most interesting biological environments I have ever encountered.

On any given day as we approach Oyacachi from Papallacta, we pass all nuances of Paramo. These are the Andes, high mountains of young, solid, bed rock. These valleys were once filled with glacial ice.

Glaciers are huge ice bodies that accumulate from the snow and below is an example of glacial striations these are the scratch marks the glaciers(and the rocks they are carrying) leave in the underlying solid mountain. Just like finger nails in playdough.

This scarred solid surface is underlying most of the paramo we see today, but as you can imagine it is pretty difficult to live as a plant on a frozen desert of bare rock. This means that it took a hell of a long time to accumulate the one to two meters of organic material that supports the Paramo.

As you drive by road cuts the brown meter of organics passes in rainbows with a knobby grass topping...in the end you really have to respect this vegitation since it took so damn long to grow in this environment. It is cold with short intense days of harsh UV radiation at the equator of the globe, while the atmosphere is thin and offers little oxygen and an excess of water, in Amazonia where we work.
If I were a plant, I wouldn't want to live here.

Here are some benados (deer) and the mountain Cayambe, the name sake of the park I work in, Cayambe Coca.

But being in the strongest UV radiation in the world along with the thiness of the atmosphere definately has drawbacks. In example for someone of my shade of pasty its a full time job trying not to burn. Just sitting in the truck... cold, with my sun hat and all my two sweaters and two pairs of pants, this itchy hot sizzling sensation on my skin is amazing considering the fact that it is so foggy humid I can't see more than five meters outside the window.

As we drove out of Oyacachi this past Thursday I wrote in my field book "I need a god damn bonnet! why didn't I just go to equatorial Africa? at least it's f-ing warm."

But it's worth it, because it is beautiful, and it is natural and should be here. The people are intelligent and inspirational. To be honest, off the record and independent of the thesis, I dont buy this whole health of Quito argument....I live there....Just try drinking the water without boiling it.

Tell me how your are doing after a glass of that.