A couple more pictures from Guayllabamba, and Roses

Here are Flor and her brother Vicente on the terrace of Vicente's house. Flor is always really happy when we are in Ecuador.

Here are some flowers that Vicente and his wife, Dina, had arranged in front of their door when we visited them.

Flowers are relatively inexpensive in Ecuador. There is a large flower industry, centered around Cayambe, north of Quito, which exports flowers to the United States and elsewhere. The vast majority of roses sold in the United States come from Ecuador or Colombia. Flowers which are not of export quality are sold in Ecuador at a lesser price. This is true of other products that are produced in Ecuador for export, like bananas and shrimp--you can find seconds in the local markets.

When Flor and I got married, I bought her two dozen long-stemmed roses every week. No, I was not a big spender. Two dozen long-stemmed roses only cost a dollar back then! You can probably find long-stemmed roses in Ecuador for around that price still, if you look around.

There has been controversy around Ecuador's flower industry. There is heavy use of pesticides and little protection for workers and the environment. The roses grow 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, under lights. The greenhouses are lit up like large light bulbs. You can see them at night flying in to Quito, or on the ground if you are driving around. Some people claim that the lights disturb wildlife nearby, including nesting birds.

The flower industry in Ecuador has been able to flourish in part due to the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA), which allows Ecuadorian roses to enter the U.S. duty free. The idea is to encourage the flower industry as an alternative to possible illicit activity. Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, and Bolivia are beneficiaries of the ATPA. U.S. flower producers do not like the ATPA, which has all but ended the domestic rose industry. The ATPA went into effect in 1991, expired in 2011, and then was renewed until 2013. It appears that people in the area where the rose growing is centered, Cayambe, very much want the ATPA to continue, despite the environmental problems. At least that is what I read in El Comercio, the Quito newspaper.

Several times I have been startled in Ecuador to see rose petals strewn about the floors of churches during ceremonies, in quantities that seem extravagant, so that you are walking among rose petals as you would walk among leaves in autumn. But the economy of flowers in Ecuador is different than it is in the United States. Even people of limited means can afford to carpet the floor of a church with rose petals on special occasions.