Roses, roses, and more roses

One of the things that you'll notice when you travel around Ecuador is that there are rose farms...everywhere. The greenhouses dot almost all of the mountains and because of their pervasiveness, roses are extremely cheap here.

On Friday I went with my Agroecology class two different rose farms, one conventional and one organic. Our entire class fit in one car equipped with a snorkel! Okay so the class is only 6 people, but the snorkel part is true. Anyway, the first farm used pesticides, but also used some sustainable tactics. One thing they did was put covers on all of the roses to preserve their color and protect them from the sun.

Blue covers to protect the roses

They also take the stems without buds and bend them towards the ground. This way all of the sun's energy is directed toward the stalks with roses. We also got to see the packaging process. After being cut, the roses are sent out in 3-10 days. After they are selected and packaged, they go into a refrigerator for up to four days.

So. many. greenhouses.

The selection process

Brr! It's cold in hurr! Inside the fridge

After stopping for breakfast, we went to the next farm, which is completely organic. We learned about and saw so many organic processes...it was an environmental scientist's dream. The farm doesn't use any pesticides and instead uses bioplaguicides and biofertilizers. They had hundreds of large containers of the natural pesticides and contained ingredients like garlic, chamomile, yeast, burnt bones, cow waste, and rice casing.

Some of the buckets of extracts and biofertilizers

Yummm...fermenting extract

Other than natural chemicals, they also use physical methods to stop bugs. They use large banners of white sticky paper that bugs stick to, and then die.

Sticky banner that catches bugs

Even in the final packaging process, the farm doesn't use an chemicals to remove any final bugs. Instead they uses citric solutions before they sort the roses.

My mom would be in heaven

The rainbow of packaged roses

Although that was a pretty nerdy blog post, I redeemed myself that night by going out. I went with a big group of my friends to La Ronda, a narrow street in the historic district that has a plethora of bars playing live music. While we were there, we tried the delicious Canelazo drink. Just kidding...although the idea of hot sugar cane alcohol flavored with natural fruits sounds quite rico, it was disgusting. After choking down the thick drink, we finished the night out at the Foch (also known as Gringolandia) with some more of our famous dancing. All I can say is that if you're on the dance floor, look out.