There are no pineapples in Piñas

Even though my town has a reputation for its fertile soil, it doesn’t really grow a variety of vegetables here. I like to joke that you can grow anything but apples down here.

It’s just that nobody really takes advantage of these possibilities.

It is mostly banana, cocoa, corn, or fruit trees. Hence, there isn’t much demand for the vegetable seeds in the agriculture stores.

So Saturday afternoon, I got back from visiting a farm and didn’t really have any plans for the rest of the day. My friend saw me on the street and asked me if I wanted to go to Piñas, which is about two hours from here, where the stores carry a large selection of vegetable seeds.

The town is located at about 1,500 meters above sea level and is situated on a mountainside. It is at the altitude of a cloud forest, which means that nearly every day is foggy.

Also, the city is much more developed than my town. It is pretty common in Ecuador that the towns that are more in the sierra (mountains) are more developed and better organized. So Piñas, being in the transitional zone between coast and sierra, could also be described as being in the transitional zone in terms of development, as well.

It was a great change of pace.

At first, we searched for the seed store. Relying on my friends who had been there before, I just went along for the ride. Our search was fruitless. All of the seed stores were closed. Although the search could also be described as fruitful, I guess, because the seed stores are located near the produce market. Either way, disheartened, we continued with our day.

We spent the afternoon climbing the up the stairs of the hilly pueblo. The town is full of staircases, which always make for fun wandering through cities. We passed by an orchid garden that was Peace Corps volunteer’s project in 2003. Only a few of the flowers were in blossom, but it was very cool to see the impact that a Peace Corps volunteer has left behind.

Then we went to a restaurant in town that is apparently a community institution. They had really good humitas (mashed up corn in log form) and coffee (Actual coffee. I don’t really like coffee, but this was pretty good.). We stuck around to eat another humita, which turned out to be the best decision we made all day.

As we were leaving the restaurant, my friend recognized the owner of one of the seed stores. We went with him to his shop, and I had a field day.

Then, as we were leaving the seed store, I received a text message that said Michigan beat Notre Dame, and everyone was happy. (Obviously, I wore my Michigan jersey yesterday.)

Overall, a pretty outstanding trip, and I will definitely be making my way back toward Piñas.