Onward to Cuenca

As mentioned in my post yesterday, the 9th of October is a national holiday ("dia festivo" in Español).  But, since the day falls in the middle of the week, they will move the celebrations to the weekend so everyone gets a 3-day holiday.  All that to say, if Antonio had not told us it was a holiday, we would never have noticed (and yes, part of that is because we're tourists so the places we visit most likely wouldn't be closed anyway).

We began our day with a tour of a large, local market called Mercado Sauces IX.  I didn't notice any other tourists, and the variety of items for sale was extensive.  Anything from fresh plants and flowers to fruits, veggies, raw meats (pork, fish, chicken, beef, etc.), cleaning products, and even toilet paper.  I was able to help Gita and her sister Urmilla purchase a few things with my limited Spanish, and then we were off to the bus for our next stop.,

A main event on today's itinerary was our tour of a cacao farm.  The farm we visited was part of Unocace, a non-profit agricultural cooperative.  Unocace is made up of about 1900 families that raise organic cacao.  The farm we visited had only 5 acres and 4 full-time employees, but seasonal employees are needed during harvest since all of the cultivation is done by hand, no machines at all!

The flowers of the cacao plant (which grow the seed pod) are incredibly fragile, so they plant banana trees around the farm to provide the cacao plant protection from too much wind, rain, or sun.  Even with those measures, only maybe 6% of the flowers will survive and create a seed pod.  Thankfully the tree blossoms almost year-round, but they have two main seasons when they can harvest.  If you're into chocolate, or biology, or both, here's a good spot to learn a bit more: www.thechocolatejournalist.com.
Despite the tropical climate, I was surprised to learn their biggest pest is squirrels!  They like to eat the seeds out of the pod, but since the squirrels are a protected species they can only trap and relocate them.  Only about 20% of the cacao in the world is premium cacao AND organic, so this farm is in a niche market.  Ecuador, overall, is the world's third largest producer of cacao beans (Ivory Coast and Ghana hold the top two spots, although the plants are not native to Africa).  This cooperative exports to exclusively to Switzerland, France, Canada, and the U.S.

Our plans for the rest of the day were changed by an attempted robbery of an armoured car along the highway we were on as we headed for Cuenca.  Unfortunately, one person died during the robbery and there are not a lot of alternate routes through the Andes.  Although our detour doubled our time on the bus, the day was beautiful and the drive through the mountains was lovely.  You could spot the local, indigenous people (in their customary fedoras and colorful clothing) out in the fields and mountain sides.  On the Cuenca side of the Andes there were lots of milk cows, and the towns of El Tambo and Cañar are known for milk production.

We made it to Oro Verde (our hotel) around 6:30pm, and Antonio offered to take anyone who was interested on a walk through the Old Town of Cuenca.  Deb and I (the young ones on the tour), took him up on the offer to see the buildings all lit up.  Now, if you've followed any of the news surrounding Ecuador these days you might be wondering about the power outages.  Well, the power outages are due to the current drought the country is experiencing.  About 10-15 years ago Ecuador decided to go "green" so they borrowed money from China (yes, everyone's doing it) to build hydroelectric dams.  At the time, no one really expected such an extended drought, but it had been over 50 days without rain in the regions where the dams are located, so to deal with the energy crisis they have scheduled outages.  The large businesses, and especially the large businesses catering to tourists, all have generators so they can continue to operate rather seamlessly.  

The flags in this alley are due to the holiday (Guayaquil flag)

This beautiful pink tree is an Arupo tree,
famous for its unique blossoming,
which occurs only once a year.

There were some areas that were dark (no streetlights), and we could hear generators running in some spots, but Antonio noted that there were a lot less people than his last time here at night (pre-blackouts).  There some beautiful views, as many of the buildings had their lights on, and although it was quite brisk out, the views and walking were better than an evening in my hotel room.