Day 2: Monday May 8th
For our first site visit of the trip we headed to Jet Fresh Flowers in Latacunga at 7:00 which was a rose farm. We were greeted with the d biggest ducks I had ever seen screaming at us, the cutest dogs and cats, chickens, and the most welcoming people. First Juanita, the manager, took us into her office and gave us an introduction to the farm and the company. We were able to learn more about the flower industry, their customers, and competitors.
We walked through the green houses which seemed never ending. There was countless roses of multitudes of colors and shades. Some had short stems while others were taller than me. It was beautiful to walk through several of the greenhouses which was huge. It was weird that this was considered a small rose farm, I could not even imagine what a large one would look like.
All of the varieties of roses had unique names including Miss Piggy, Matcha, Hot Explorer, and __. Juanita said her roses can have up to 40 petals on them. I enjoyed I never realized how much detail goes into deciding which rose is best catered for which customer, occasion, and market. Some roses petals almost immedietly burst once they are cut off the stems which would not be good for long distance. Many of the roses had no smells, while others had strong aromas.
Then we saw how the roses were cut, tied, measured, and packaged for shipping. Juanita explained how Jet Fresh was unique by placing their roses in this pouch of liquid to preserve the flowers and maintain their shelf life. The packaging room were freezing cold to keep the flowers alive.
I also really appreciated how much Jet Fresh does for their employees and cares for them. They had laundry facilities for their workers laundries so they did not have to spend their weekends doing it. They also funded birth control for the workers and their daughters so they would not have to spend for that. Also they have a clinic for the workers’ dogs and care for them as well. Additionally, a doctor comes in every 2 weeks to check the health of their workers since they work with strong chemicals. America could never!
They even prepared a surprise for us. There was a new technology which stamped logos, QR codes, and other things on the flowers. They put the University of Pittsburgh logo on yellow roses for us, it was so cute!
After our tour, they put out an entire Ecuadorian fruit spread for us. It was so kind! I had never seen or heard of most of these fruits before in my life. I took the chance to try each one, and I am glad I did. They were absolutely delicious and I loved each one. My favorite were the golden berries which tasted like a tropical fruit smoothie. They also had homemade cheese wrapped in leaves, and shots of fruit juice. They also gifted us with the cutest shirts to commemorate this trip forever.
On our way out, we walked past a llama! This was my first time ever seeing one and I was so happy. After taking some photos we got back on the bus for our next stop.
Our next stop was the Inca Ruins at The Mignon Plaza. My favorite part of the day. At the hotel, we were able to see Inca construction and their architecture. We also saw how the Spanish tried to imitate the Inca construction once they took over, but they were not even able to replicate it even though they had better technology and resources. From the plaza you could see the Cotopaxi volcano. The hotel ahd the cutest puppy, Maxi, and dog Lady Gaga who were loving the attention we were giving them. We also tried a nice hot Ecuadorian drink made from sugarcane juice. The owner’s great grandfather and brother were previous presidents of Ecuador.
Just when we thought the tour was over, they had a surprise for us. We were handed baskets of carrots, and out came a big heard of llamas. We got to feed and pet all of the llamas. I had never been so up close to one or even seen one before today. They were so cute, a little smelly, but friendly. We were all overjoyed by the llamas, as we were so thankful earlier just to even see one but now we got to feed them.
Our last stop before returning to the hotel for dinner was a chocolate factory called Bios Chocolate. We were given a tasting of the most delicious chocolate including a mango one I purchased for my dad who would love it. We also tried freeze dried cacao, which is the fruit that chocolate is made out of. In his office, he had real life shrunken human heads. I still cannot believe that they were real, and one of them still had hair on them. Then we took a tour of the chocolate factory wearing the most fashionable hairnets. He showed us every machine, and how they helped to maintain the quality of the chocolate. There was a chocolate drip machine for us to dip our breads in, but then we started drinking the chocolate straight from the tap.
After that we helped to make chocolate nuggets by placing the filling in the molds. They also told us every chocolate nugget we wrapped, we were allowed to take home. I wrapped as many as I could and bought some chocolate for myself and family.
After a long day of site visits, we headed back to the hotel for dinner. Unfortunately the dinner was beef which I cannot eat. So Anna, Riya, and Olivia and I went to a nearby restaurant afterwards. I ate chicken wings and fries, so Ecuadorian! It was funny that we ordered a hamburger and they went outside to go buy the buns. It was pretty good, even though the food took over an hour to come out. They had karaoke but we were not sure if they had Taylor Swift. This was our last night in Quito, and it was very memorable.
