lorax

Lonie - I get revese altitude sickness when I go to the beach - there's too much oxygen there! On the other hand, living at this rarified height has given me an exceptionally high red blood cell count, which helps me on extended jungle treks - it effectively triples my stamina.

SBL - We are significantly cooler than our flat lands - the Amazon Basin and the Coastal Basin regularly record temps in the mid to high 50's centigrade, exacerbated by high humidity. However, the uniqueness of the fact that the Ecuadorean Andes are situated just about on the equator makes our sunlight much stronger and ensures that we have high temps here as well. The difference for we serranos (highlanders), which robs us of the humidity at high altitudes, is the wind. It literally never stops blowing here in Ambato, and it takes the ambient moisture with it. Above about 11,500 feet, it does suddenly get quite a bit chillier - that's the nominal treeline and there's normally absolutely nothing to interfere with the wind past it. (The exceptions are in the Kiss the Sky pass on the toes of Volcan Antisana - this is a high-altitude forest, and it's cold and moist, and the Llanganates National Park, which is a bamboo forest that is considered such a dangerous place to go for its weather (it is almost permanently clouded and snows without warning) and terrain (quicksand bogs) that nobody really goes there.)

I'm sure this whole area was very different waaaaaay back when it was a Polylepis forest, but it hasn't been that way for thousands of years.