This morning we got up early and ate breakfast. We left the hotel at 8am to start our drive to the mangroves, the Andes, and Cuenca. This morning I was really happy to leave Guayaquil! I found myself ready to explore more of Ecuador! Our first stop of the day other than gas stations and mango markets was the mangrove. We picked up our guide of the mangroves and we saw a two-toed sloth and it’s baby. Then we drove to the mangrove and saw a lot of howler monkeys. Immediately when we got off the bus we were swarmed with mosquitoes. Thank goodness we had our bug nets! The boat ride of the mangroves was beautiful. We saw a lot of birds and some of the group saw eyes of a crocodile! Then we got back on the bus after our boat ride and drove to the trail. Again we got off the bus and we were swarmed with mosquitoes we walked around for a few minutes to see more howler monkeys and to see the garlic tree that prevents mosquito bites. While walking we saw a group of howler monkeys. Diego warned us not to walk directly under the male howler monkeys because they will pee on you. After the mangrove we went on the bus to go to a shrimp farm. Diego said that the shrimp farmers have to wait 5 weeks to harvest the shrimp. The shrimp farmers have automatic feeders to feed the shrimp that go off every 20 minutes. On the shrimp farms they have a watch tower to guard the shrimp from thieves. Shrimp farmers hold on to their shrimp harvest if the market is low until the demand increases. This shrimp farm that we were at harvests 5,000 pounds per hectare and their farm was 4 hectares. After the shrimp farm we drove to the Andes.
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We hiked around for about 2 hours at Cajas. At first it was weird walking around because we were at such a high elevation (13,000 feet) but then my head got used to it. Cajas is always humid and provides the water for Cuenca. 60% of the plants found at Cajas are used for medical purposes and are mostly put in teas. Castilleja phisifolia is a medicinal plant that regulates periods. Cajas has its own endemic species such as Tipo which is used to cure headaches and the Andean Tulip in which humming birds pollinate. Cajas was so beautiful it was well worth the hike.
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