What is south of Quito?

I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but stick with it - there are lots of pictures!

My friend Malaika arrived nearly a month ago, and after spending only a couple days adjusting to the altitude, came with me on a visit to the little CSA in La Merced. We arrived in the late morning after a harrowing adventure (full of circles and closed roads) through Quito's sprawling expanses. We were immediately put to work helping B

en (of the couple that was taking care of the farm while the owners were in Holland) use an "A" Frame to find level and hand hoe beds on contour in their new upper field. It was hard work, but nice to be in the dirt again. Kristy (the other half of the couple) came back midway through that process, and after lunch we worked with her doing some weeding and bed-maintenance in the lower vegetable gardens. (Malaika weeding below)

The cow woke us up early, and we got up and dressed to find it a beautiful sunny day. Out the window of the house we were staying in, we had a gorgeous view of Cotopaxi, and the air was cool and clear - a nice break from the almost visibly grey air of the city.

Below: Malaika (on the left) and Kristy (on the right) getting ready for the morning.

We weeded again most of the morning, enjoying the time in the sun and the cute baby plants. The lower vegetable gardens are semi-terraced on a slope, and as you can vaguely see in the picture below where I'm weeding, they are using drip-lines for irrigation here. At this time, the rains still were only coming hesitantly, and water was becoming scarce. The farm has several different water collection set-ups (including water tanks made of tires cemented together in a cylinder and a giant swimming-pool-esque collection hole,) is on a slope, and located right on the edge of a ravine with an all-year-round stream at the bottom, so it is generally a little better off than others. Other cool things of note on this farm are the heavily producing bee hives, composting toilets, and grandmother named Carmencita who is both a wealth of knowledge and hilarious.

Below: I just wanted to include this picture of a pig cave. This is the home of the mother of Fernando (one of the workers on the CSA), and along with this awesome space she's created to give her pig shade, she is also farming on an incredible slope and cultivating some of the fastest-growing corn I've seen here.
Below: this is a picture of the central square of La Merced. It is a one stoplight town, but every town here - almost no matter the size - has a central square and an impressive little church.
After our adventure to the farm in La Merced, Malaika and I went looking for another one in a place called Palugo. Though we weren't successful that time, we did end up on a road to some wonderful hot springs in Papallacta, and caught some beautiful views on the way (below).

And, on the way home to Quito, saw the mountain one last time. Since then the rainy season has asserted itself a little more heavily and clouds hang full and low most of the time, blocking my treasured mountain views.
Back home in Quito, Malaika, my brother Caleb, and I went out to the Iñaquito market to go vegetable shopping. We bought the weeks worth for less than ten dollars, and carried heavy bags home, only squishing one avocado on a large bunch of bananas.
Aaron arrived soon after and after a long sleep was ready for adventure as well. He, Malaika, and I packed backpacks, snacks, a tent, and an ipod, borrowed my grandparent's little blue car, and took off heading south.

Though the skies were grey, the ground was turning greener and we were fortunate to see some really spectacular valleys and lush farmland.
Though our maps were poor, and our guide from several years before, we found our way from town to town, admiring old architecture...
narrow cobblestoned busy streets...

interesting and creative nativity scenes...

...and the incredible strength of friendliness of the people.

In between towns and cities we found ourselves driving through incredible and diverse landscapes, from deep red soil to acacia trees to sugar cane and palm trees. Though our car was thankful for the smooth roads, the harsh slices into the surroundings to create them were sad to see. Erosion and loss of property are only two of the many problems caused by the maintenance of such nice roads.

We drove south nearly all the way to Peru and then turned up and west to follow the Ruta del Sol (Route of the Sun) up the coast and eventually eastward and home to Quito. We stayed the night in the beach city of Salinas, enjoying the refreshing salt water and sand, but not so much the high rises. Fortunately, we have been traveling in the off season, so there were fairly few tourists and plenty of places to stay - though most not in our price range.
Below: I wanted to include a photo of just one of the many alternative types of transportation one can find on the beach. Beach towns often have one road (I guess in the States we call them "boardwalks?") and here you can often find everything from bicycle-powered rickshaws, to motorcycle-powered baby taxis, to small pedal-powered cars like these.
Though the roads were not as nice on the way up, the views of the ocean and the quickly and often changing landscapes made it my favorite part of the trip. Our poor car at this point was beginning to express its distress though, so we opted to make our way home as quickly as possible.

Our biggest problem turned out to be our tire, though thankfully we only lost one, we really lost it. The tire-guys we later went to were impressed, turns out it's not easy to take the tread off your tire quite like we did, while also managing to keep it full of air.

In between beach views, scrub lands, marshes, and banana plantations, there were what are called "dry forests" including some really amazing green trees with buttressed roots of impressive heights and widths. Outside the jungle, I haven't seen anything like them here.

Unfortunately, we also saw expanses of incredibly dry land. Though in Quito the rainy season may be making an appearance, it seems as though a lot of the country has not been so lucky.