



The selling points as Ecuador buffs up its tourist trade to focus on more than just Galapagos is its variety. There are more species of hummingbirds (picaflor or colibries) than anyone has ever seen anywhere else, more rare orchids, more tropical plants found no where else, even hallucinogens that look like oranges and are called uvre de vaca (cow udder). More than seventy five percent of the world’s chocolate (cacao) is produced (grown) in Ecuador and yet it’s almost impossible to buy a candy bar of pure Ecuadorian chocolate. It is all exported to Belgium, France, Switzerland, the countries that make the best chocolate in the world.
Roses - aah - the exportation of long stem hot house roses is a major industry in Ecuador. Ten million acres are covered with green houses producing the best roses in the world, exporting more than Colombia who actually grow more roses. These roses appear in our supermarkets overnight. (Cheers to FedEx). One guide explained that major buyers are the USA, Russia and Europe and each has its own specific requirements: the USA demands no thorns, big rose heads, tightly shut, 40 cm. stems and few leaves. Europeans want small rose heads, slightly opened, big, long stems, many leaves and ok on the thorns. The Russians and Ukranians, who buy four to five times more than the USA to brighten up continually freezing climates, want everything in abundance: long stems, lots of leaves, thorns, and rose heads completely opened.
A Chocolate-Fragrant OrchidEach rose ranch employs about one hundred, and eighty per cent are women, who work from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m. while kids are in school. But the ranches offer day care and many extras. These are called Floricolas. Actually women have it pretty good in Ecuador. Those at home are expected to cook for breakfast and lunch, but dinner is a left-over hodgepodge. The saying goes: breakfast fit for a prince, lunch fit for a king, and dinner fit for a pauper. Best, women are given a day off every week from household cooking and chores. It’s tradition. Men don’t cook at home or over the barbecue pit as they do in Uruguay and Argentina. Beef isn’t terrific in Ecuador. Fish is. The star of most meals is tasty cerviche, a deep bowl of tomato and onion broth filled with seafood, squid, corvina and onions, always accompanied by side bowls of popcorn and fried corn kernals. Soups of all kind are festive lead-ins to most mid-day meals, especially locros de papas (a potato, cheese and avocado soup.)
The reason Ecuador can is a haven for rose production is that, being on the equator, plants are guaranteed twelve hours a day of sunshine, varying hardly at all during the year (rose ranches are right on the equator) and this produces stems that grow straight up to the sun, although I saw only cloud and rain in my four nights there. Our own Memphis cultured garden roses, wonderfully odorous, colorful and growing in every direction, are less precise or repetitive. The Ecuadorian rosarians spend much time creating new colors and stiff thornless stems to satisfy international markets. Giant bouquets of rose heads decorate counters at the airport, restrooms, to spa pools (floating roses). Petals are sprinkled over your bed, in romantic patterns and a single red rose is often stuck in the complimentary guest robes, but sadly none have fragrances like Old English roses. If I can select a best desert on this adventure, it was the one at Le Mirage Hotel in Ecuador: tiny balls of rose sorbet lounging o n rose petals which had been sugared and quickly fried to resembled meringue. Talk about gustatory delight!
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