We said good bye to the main group last night and now we are on our post trip with Evelyn, Rick, Ingrid, and me. We are heading to the middle part of Ecuador which is in the Andies surrounded by several volcanos . Chimborazo is the highest volcanoes 21,000 ft that is dormant and the 2nd one is cotopaxi which is 19,000 feet but is active so it is closed to climbers.
Our first stop was a mansion , La Cienega,that was built of Volcanic stone over 400 years ago in 1695 which included land that was hundreds or more hectors. A Spanish solder was the first in 1541. Now the land is all divided into 15 hectors. This mansion was owned by the rich but now is run as a hotel. We toured the grounds and rooms then stopped for a cup of hot chocolate and cheese empanadas that you put sugar on top! The chocolate was exactly that; melted chocolate with a little milk. I have never had anything like it.
Next stop was the rose farm called Rosesuccess.com This farm had 9 workers Most of the roses come to the US . This small farm produces 23,000 roses a day but for a holiday will double they produce to 60,000 if needed. A new bush that has been grafted takes up to 4 months to grow a new rose. Russia likes their roses to be atleast 6 feet long and the rose open more. The steps are many. First the rose is picked and sterilized then brought into the place where the rose is measured for the length of the stem and the size of the rose. They are then slated onto racks for packaging. A worker has to sort 500 roses in a hour /4000 a day. Another has to bunch them and has to do 22 bunches and hour. After they get packaged they go into refigerateewe. Then shipped. They have to leave the building with in 4 day of being picked. To die the roses the stem gets 3 cuts and put the rose into three different trays. Before that the rose doesn’t get water for 2 days and the die for 2 days. The country produced 21000tons in two months of roses.
Our next stop was to se Manuel who is a tribe member. He had us sit down and paint a picture of the volcanoes. Then he painted llamas on all of ours. He also raised Guinea pigs to eat. I counted 22 of them.we tasted fruits from his farm.
Lunch was a mixture of many Ecuadorian foods. Celso’s wife joined us
Our last stop was to visit the ice man. Juan goes up to the volcano to the glacier and cuts ice to bring back down to sell. This is becoming a lost art an he will probably be the last. His father in law is famous for doing this until he broke his leg and had to stop. It takes 4 hours to climb up with his two donkeys. He cuts the ice and breaks it up into 4 blocks. He then takes grass and wraps the ice and ties it with rope he made. Each donkey takes 2 chunks which weigh 65 lbs each. Tre trip down takes about 3 hours. Juan does this on Thursdays and Fridays. He makes $5 on each block of ice. If he has to buy a new donkey it would cost him $150. The rest of the days, he farms.
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