Ecuagenera - Orchideas del Ecuador - Ecuador's Orchid Growing Business

Ecuador is known for its roses and orchids.  They export a great many flowers around the world.  We visited one orchid growing facility in Gualecero, outside of Cuenca.

At this facility, they have 1559 types of orchds growing, starting from seeds.  The process is very long, with about 50 orchids started from seed in each bottle, as shown below.  These remain in the bottles for about 2 years before being transferred to small growing cubes of about 1" square, just like the smal plastic 6-packs that we purchase our flowers and vegetable plants in, in the spring at home.

We then took a tour of the rest of the facility and below are some of the photos we took of various orchids.

This orchid is called the "ballerina".  The large yellow petal resembling a tutu.

I don't remember the name of this orchid.  But, it is beautiful.

This orchid smells just like chocolate.

This orchid is named "the dancers".

Just another to share how different and beautiful they all are.

Gualeceo

Today our last day in Cuenca, we hired a driver to take us to Gualeceo, about 45 minutes from Cuenca.  There, we visited the central market, where we ate lunch; the workshop where a wel known family weaves beautiful shawls, scarves, and other items in the IKAT way.  All of the dyes for the wool are natural, made from nuts, leaves, insects, lime, etc.  We also visited ecuagenerw, an orchid growing business where they have over 1550 tupes of orchids.

We feasted on some roast pork and a potato that is common in Ecuador which is mashed potato and cheese rolled and slightly fried.  We split a small plate for $2.50 and it was excellent.

Below is a photo of the market interior.  Think "food court" in your local mall.

Leaving the market, we visited the weavers.  Pat purchased two "infinity scarves".  We also received a demonstration of the weaving process.

Step one is preparing the wool, silk or cotton that will be woven.

The various color dyes are mixed in these clay pots.

And, the actual weaving of the shawl or scarf.

The last step, or finishing of the scarf or shawl, creating the fringe.  

Total time to complete one item ks about 4 days.

A panoramoc view of the workshop.

Below is an indigenous woman weaving the famous Panama hat, which in fact, is an Ecuadorian made hat.  She was sitting inside the town offices, in the shade.  

See our separate blog that follows for the Ecuagenera... Orchideas de Ecuador.

Cajas National Park

This morning, we took a taxi up to the Caja National Park where the topography is considered the tundra.  Upon arrival at the first ranger station, we signed in and began a two hour hike around the Toreadora Lagoon.  A bit more than half way, and a bit more than an hour into our hike, the path became a bit confusing with poor markings.  We reached a break in the trail with a sign indicating that if we wanted the pink trail, to turn right.  We knew we did not want this trail.  We moved forward a bit and found another sign indicating the green trail, a four hour hike from that point, and noted as being "difficult".  

Several folks that we have met over the past few days who have hiked in El Caja, indicated poorly marked trails and several indicated that at times they were lost.  One young woman shared with us this morning at breakfast that she had intended to complete the 3-hour pink trail with her parents two days ago, became lost and 6 hours later they emerged at the road leading to El Caja.

Given this, and with no clear markings for the Laguna Toreadora trail, we decided to turn back to our starting point.  So, while we did not succeed in hiking around the entire lagoon, we did get the full 2-hour hike in at a very high altitude, and did have a great time.  The hike was not difficult per se, but there were enough inclines and declines over rocks and wetland and creeks to make it a bit of a challenge for our level of expertise, and yet, remain enjoyable at the same time.

Upon our return to the ranger station, we explained where we went and when and why we turned around.  We were told that had we followed the green trail (4 hour hike and difficult markings) we would have come to a split in the path that we could have taken to the left and continued around the lagoon. Uh.... Better markings would have been a god idea.  But, we will know for the next time.   Great day!

Mitad del Mundo

The small museum about 200 meters from the Equator "park" is the real middle of the earth or mitad del mundo.  A really nice museum where one can learn about the equator and about the indigenous people from this part of Ecuador.  

Pat and Jim at 15,000 feet overlooking Quito.

Quito, Ecuador

Quito is the Capital of Ecuador and a very interesting city.  Very hilly in the Centro Historico, one gets a good work out just walking about.  Afternoon siestas in our room became the norm.  A nice change of pace

This is a panoramic view of Quito, a city of about 1.8 million people.  

Volcanic Activity

This is the volcanic activity that we witnessed last Friday afternoon upon arriving at Hacienda Manteles, outside of Patate, Ecuador.  This volcano erupted a week earlier with fire and lava and those who witnessed it said that it was spectacular.  This was taken from our room at the hacienda, a great eco lodge in the cloud forest.

Tungurahua Volcano

Shortly after arriving at Hacienda Manteles in the cloud forest near Ambato, Patate, and Banos, tne volcano Tungurahua popped.  No fire and lava like the fisrt week of February, but a lot of smoke.
Our stay at Hacienda Manteles was nice, though we cut it short by one day to come down to Cuenca. After hiking for about 3 hours on one of the two full days we were there, and spending another day in Banos with Fernando, the manager of the hacienda, we learmed that without our own transportation, this is a difficult place to be if younwant to explore off the mountainside.  But, our time there was terrific.  Am hoping I can learn to post some photos of our stay to this post, directly from my iPad and without downloading Picassa.

Cuenca

We've been in Cuenca since this past Monday.  Left Hacienda Manteles high in the cloud forest near Banos, Ecuador at a out 9:30 am and arrived Cuenca 5-6 hours later.  We hired a private driver for $180 which made the trip easy and comfortable.  Passing through many mountain passes in the Andes, the scenery was spectacular.

Cuenca is a city of about 425,000 people.  We arrived in the rain and were at first unsure if we would like it enough to stay the full week.  The traffic was horrible and everything seemed grey.  The following day, Tuesday, was sunny and the city changed for us.  There is traffic, too many buses that spew horrible pollution, but the richness of the Spanish colonial feel began to present itself.

With each day, we are a bit more taken in with Cuenca.  Later this week we will visit the nearby village of Banos (different from the city Banos that we left earlier in the week) where there are hot springs and steam rooms fed by the nearby volcano.  We are told that in the men's steam room you can feel and hear the rumbling of the volcano.

We will,also be visiting the Cajas National Park for an afternoon hike.  We are told to bring warm clothing and waterproof clothing.  Hmmmm.

More later.