What an amazing place! The world is so big and vast and there is so much to see and experience. This year's trip took us to South America to a small country, a little bigger than Utah, called Ecuador. When Greg first brought up the idea of going there it took me a second to locate it in my head. I then said "South America right?" After we talked it over and looked it up on the internet we decided that the country is a pretty spectacular place with so much variety and
so so so much to see and do.
Like I've mentioned before, Greg went down for two weeks prior to me coming to meet him. He visited the southern parts of the country collecting water samples above, at, and below mining towns. Ecuador is where the USA was about 50-80 years ago, when we used to dump all sorts of chemicals, metals, and poisons into our waterways. Ecuador has the same problems, but it has been researched very little.
As you all know us, we enjoy taking photos. I love sharing our trips and hoping that they may encourage others to take off in the same direction and enjoy the same places, or others, as we have. We came home with too many pictures ;-) as always! Here are some to give you a taste of the country, the people, and culture. We loved our time down there and were sad to leave.
(I won't lie and tell you we weren't glad to be back, but we both felt that we could have stayed longer).
So enjoy!!! I'm posting pictures of Greg's sampling first then I'll do a few other posts on pictures of when Greg and I were both there touring around!
The City of Lights!
This is Quito the capitol city. It is beautiful and in this narrow valley in the Andes. It is settled at 9,000 ft. where as SLC is at 4,500 ft.
This is a lot of what the stores down there are like. Small and jam-packed with goods.
Our favorite bottled water!
so so so much to see and do.
Like I've mentioned before, Greg went down for two weeks prior to me coming to meet him. He visited the southern parts of the country collecting water samples above, at, and below mining towns. Ecuador is where the USA was about 50-80 years ago, when we used to dump all sorts of chemicals, metals, and poisons into our waterways. Ecuador has the same problems, but it has been researched very little.
As you all know us, we enjoy taking photos. I love sharing our trips and hoping that they may encourage others to take off in the same direction and enjoy the same places, or others, as we have. We came home with too many pictures ;-) as always! Here are some to give you a taste of the country, the people, and culture. We loved our time down there and were sad to leave.
(I won't lie and tell you we weren't glad to be back, but we both felt that we could have stayed longer).
So enjoy!!! I'm posting pictures of Greg's sampling first then I'll do a few other posts on pictures of when Greg and I were both there touring around!
The City of Lights!
This is Quito the capitol city. It is beautiful and in this narrow valley in the Andes. It is settled at 9,000 ft. where as SLC is at 4,500 ft.
This is a lot of what the stores down there are like. Small and jam-packed with goods.
Our favorite bottled water!
Interesting decorations in the town of Loja.
The country is full of amazing plants and flowers! This is a carnivorous plant that traps and eats insects.
Greg took a couple hopper flights to get to the southern part of the country. The country has many volcanoes that rise anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 ft. into the skyline. This particular volcano is 17,000 ft Volcan Sangay.
The countryside is so green and beautiful!
Sampling a pristine lake at 12,000 ft in the caldera of an extinct volcano with a team of 4 from the U of U and 12 Ecuadorians. The lake is located in a protected area, but it also happens to be next to a large gold deposit that is waiting to be mined.
The roads, for the most part, were pretty good. Although Greg did have to wait for a few hours on this particular drive while they cleared a landslide off the road. I guess they happen fairly frequently.
Beautiful waterfalls all over the place.
Mining towns
Greg went to a few different mining towns to do his sampling. This is the town of Nambija where hundreds of small scale gold mines are scattered all over the steep hillside. It was a dangerous place to be. Every few minutes you could hear the blasts from dynamite as the miners worked their tunnels. A few years ago a large landslide killed a bunch of people, and the area looked ripe for another landslide.
Miners using mercury to extract gold from gravel and sand. The mercury is burned or dumped into the rivers, and the gold is sent to the big cities.
They were in the ''cloud forest" a lot of the time, it's part of the high amazon rain forest around 7-8,000 ft. It made for some great pictures.
Dumping the waste rock onto the tailings pile. This is probably how the mines in Utah were operated 100 years ago.
The country is full of amazing plants and flowers! This is a carnivorous plant that traps and eats insects.
Greg took a couple hopper flights to get to the southern part of the country. The country has many volcanoes that rise anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 ft. into the skyline. This particular volcano is 17,000 ft Volcan Sangay.
The countryside is so green and beautiful!
Sampling a pristine lake at 12,000 ft in the caldera of an extinct volcano with a team of 4 from the U of U and 12 Ecuadorians. The lake is located in a protected area, but it also happens to be next to a large gold deposit that is waiting to be mined.
The roads, for the most part, were pretty good. Although Greg did have to wait for a few hours on this particular drive while they cleared a landslide off the road. I guess they happen fairly frequently.
Beautiful waterfalls all over the place.
Mining towns
Greg went to a few different mining towns to do his sampling. This is the town of Nambija where hundreds of small scale gold mines are scattered all over the steep hillside. It was a dangerous place to be. Every few minutes you could hear the blasts from dynamite as the miners worked their tunnels. A few years ago a large landslide killed a bunch of people, and the area looked ripe for another landslide.
Miners using mercury to extract gold from gravel and sand. The mercury is burned or dumped into the rivers, and the gold is sent to the big cities.
They were in the ''cloud forest" a lot of the time, it's part of the high amazon rain forest around 7-8,000 ft. It made for some great pictures.
Dumping the waste rock onto the tailings pile. This is probably how the mines in Utah were operated 100 years ago.
One of the mines. The hillsides were scattered with these holes in the rock. Mostly they mine gold, but also a few other metals and minerals.
Greg actually went in one, they offered to give them a tour of the mine. Nobody wanted to go in, little nervous about the structure and it collapsing on them. He said it was really cool and would never do that again ;-)
A mercury-laden stream coming out of one of the mines.
This lady, her husband, and two kids moved out to this town to start mining. After a year her husband was killed in a mine that collapsed. She still works the mine and makes about $200 dollars a month. She had a sad story but was an up beat and happy person.
Some sampling pictures!
These are containers that they just threw in a pile. They were full of a very toxic chemical called cyanide. Certain mines use cyanide instead of mercury to extract gold from the rocks. Unfortunately in developing countries like Ecuador, the government has little control over the whole process and mercury and cyanide waste are dumped into the rivers.
Certain environmental groups recognize the problem with the pollution caused by unregulated mining. The sign the lady in this mural is holding says "Help us save nature".
Their research went really well. They were able to get all the samples they needed and didn't have too many problems. He enjoyed it and enjoyed the southern part of the country.
They stayed in a town that was surrounded by banana plantations. These trees are way crazy- cool! Just kinda unique and different, I like 'em. Most of the bananas we buy at the grocery store come from this part of Ecuador.
Here are some photos he took from the airplane of the volcanoes in the Andes.
Ecuador's version of Crater Lake!
Volcan de Illiniza
This one is my favorite! It's name is Cotopaxi, it rises 19,347 ft (5,897 m) into the sky, the second tallest in the country and .... we climbed it!!! Therefore, it has a special place in my heart and because it's one of the most symmetrical and picture book perfect volcanoes in the world.
Flying into Quito!
Their research went really well. They were able to get all the samples they needed and didn't have too many problems. He enjoyed it and enjoyed the southern part of the country.
They stayed in a town that was surrounded by banana plantations. These trees are way crazy- cool! Just kinda unique and different, I like 'em. Most of the bananas we buy at the grocery store come from this part of Ecuador.
Here are some photos he took from the airplane of the volcanoes in the Andes.
Ecuador's version of Crater Lake!
Volcan de Illiniza
This one is my favorite! It's name is Cotopaxi, it rises 19,347 ft (5,897 m) into the sky, the second tallest in the country and .... we climbed it!!! Therefore, it has a special place in my heart and because it's one of the most symmetrical and picture book perfect volcanoes in the world.
Flying into Quito!
4 comments:
Mercury..that is the poison. Ben says that the cool plant you first posted is a carnivorous plant called a Pitcher Plant. It eats bees and flies. It attracts them with a nice scent, but inside there are needles that point down so they can't escape, and it disgests them. He says it is kinda gross but cool. Maybe you should take him next time! :) He is just as nutty as you two!
Only if you let Greg and I take him! Also, I just clarified that part. It was something other then mercury and I still can't remember the name!
Awesome!! Congrats on climbing Cotopaxi. Can't wait to see pics of that.
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