Last Minute Reflection

Ten Things I'll Miss About Ecuador
10. Cheap transportation
9. Snack stores where you can buy a single roll of crackers or cookies instead of having to buy in bulk
8. Pirated DVDs
7. Empanadas, fresh avocados, fresh fruits, bread stores on every corner
6. Spanish pop music
5. The commonness of walking places. It's not that far away...why get in your car and drive there?
4. The nature.
3. Hearing Spanish everyday. It's such a beautiful language
2. The SOCCER ATMOSPHERE
1. The people. The guy on the street corner who sells mani dulce. The guards at my apartment complex. the woman at the sandwich shop by school which I frequented at least twice a week. My fellow BCAers: Alex, Amy, Vince, Kandi, January, Keita, Shun, Sophie, Lily, Julie, Joi, Kaitlin, Hannah, Ashley, Wesley, and Rachele. Daniel and Martha, BCA Program Directors. Volunteer people and the soccer boys: Galo, Andres, Camila, Chespie, Charlie, Suco, Messi, Jazmani, Miguel, Nathan, Paul, Morocho, David, etc. Friends from the U: Ana, Beth, Hannah, David, Stefano, Sebastian, Daniel, Paz, Claudia, Hector, Mika. My church community here. My extended family: Grandma, Martin, Susana, Samuel, Gabriel, Monica, Ignacio, Nicolas. And last but not least, my host family: Sol and Sebas and Bibi.
"Because I knew you....I have been changed for good."

Ten Things I Miss About the States
10. Safe and free drinking water
9. My cell phone
8. Not getting hit on by creepy old men on the streets
7. Dairy Queen, Sonic, Chinese food, real milk, cereal, pie, poppyseed bread, etc.
6. Tv Shows in English
5. Uncrowded streets and driving a car
4. Understanding everything
3. Fresh air
2. Throwing my toilet paper in the toilet
1. The people. My friends, my family, my dog.

This isn't goodbye, Quito, it's until later.

Que Dios les bendiga.

This is Lizzie, signing off.
Chao, chicos.

BCA Study Abroad Spring 2011.

Cuenca: Not for tourists

Not going to talk much about this one because it wasn't that exciting. And it's so close to me coming home that I'm lacking the patience to do anything for a long period of time.

Ashley and I left from the bus stop near La Mariscal on Tuesday night at 10:00. Arrived in Cuenca, a mountain town south of Quito, at about 7:40 in the morning. Grabbed breakfast at a bread shop and found the other bus station that would take us to the Incan ruins in Cañar. They were actually pretty cool. Their temple of the sun is the only oval-shaped Incan temple in the entire South American continent. Our tour guide spoke English during the tour because we had some annoying old American tourists who would ask him questions and talk really loudly and slowly. And they would stupidly use big words. So annoying. I think he liked Ashley and I, though, because we talked to him in Spanish.
Temple of the Sun:

Got back to Cuenca around 3 in the afternoon. Checked into a hostel, The Cafecito, and found the main square of town. Pretty architecture. Not much to do.
The Church of the Immaculate Conception:

Some bank:

We wandered/sat around until we ate supper. Got the vibe that Cuenca is a pretty classy city. There were high-dollar clothes stores on every corner and furniture stores every other store. Went to bed literally at 8:30. Woke up on Thursday morning at 10. Ate breakfast at the hostel and then started our day. We went to the Museo del Banco Central AKA Museo Pumapungo. There was art and recreations of the different ethnic tribes in Ecuador. Very interesting. And free. There was also a park out back that we walked around in and randomly stumbled upon a little birdie zoo. Highlight.

We finished up there around 2, found a snack, and then headed to the Panama hat museum which wasn't that in-depth. So we were done there in like half an hour. Then we tried some other museums, but they were all either closed or too small. Wasted time until supper and then got to the bus station by 6:45 even though the bus didn't leave until 10. Passed the time playing MASH, hangman, pictionary, and iTunes charades. Got back to Quito Friday morning at 7:00. 

End of school stuff

We came back from Spring Break and had one more week of legit classes before finals week. But since a lot of my classes had gringos in them who want to travel, I had all but one of my finals this first week in May. it was a busy week to say the least.

Monday, May 2: Botany Lab Final. Easier than the midterm, but still hard. Tons of homework.

Tuesday, May 3: Prep for finals in my classes. Had another late night soccer game. Except this time it wasn't as late. We played at 9:00 in Tumbaco. Us volunteers/friends of Insport were playing the older Insport kids, the one's I don't volunteer with. The game was commemorating Insport becoming a legal soccer club. This was their first "official" game. Against us. Galo had shirts made in honor of the event for our team to wear as a jersey. We ended up winning 4-3, and it was a good game. Got home. Tons of homework.

Wednesday, May 4: Found out that my plant collecting botany project was due today at 6 instead of Thursday like I thought it was. Our professor is such a great communicator. So I spent from noon until 6 finishing that up. We were supposed to have 20 plants each, but I only had 12. Oh well. Botany can go jump off a bridge. Tons of homework.

Thursday, May 5: Advanced Spanish Final. Intermediate Spanish Final. Then we had our BCA final dinner at Papallacta, which is about an hour south of Cumbaya (where the universidad is located) up in the Andes mountains. I had a dinner of veggies, chicken, mora juice, bread, locro (potato soup with avacado), and cake.  Delicious. Then we all changed into our bathing suits and hung out in the natural hot baths. It felt soooo good, but sometimes it got kind of hot, so we would take a dip in the polar bear bath and then jump back in the hot baths. It was a really nice, relaxing last activity for BCA. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I didn't have any homework!
Joi, Rachele (creeping), Lily, Wesley, Me:

Friday, May 6: Final improv presentation. I won't explain a lot except for that it was a ton of fun, there were a lot of BCA people who came to watch which was really cool, and I'm going to miss my improv classmates a lot. One thing we did for this presentation was prepare a rant. A little informal speech about something we're passionate about. We all had to perform in class, but we could decide if we wanted to perform at this final presentation or not. I originally said no, but when I got such positive feedback from the class, I had to do it. My topic was the death penalty. I think I'm so passionate about this topic because I can't see the other side. I'm pretty good at seeing the pros and cons or the arguments for either side for most topics, but with the death penalty I just can't fathom why anyone would be for it. So here's what I wrote. It won't be the same because you can't hear the inflection in my voice and whatnot, but without a doubt I had the most emotion and passion than anyone else in my class. Oh, and it's in English because I don’t feel like I get my point across in Spanish. I’ve been thinking and arguing and formulating my thoughts in English my whole life. It’s just not possible to express myself in Spanish the same way I can in English. The ebb and flow of the words, the way I make my points; it all means more to me in English. It feels more natural, it gets me worked up. And that's what the rant is all about.

So here it is:

"Picture this. You’re a parent. You love your child. You would do anything to protect your child. But unbelievable tragedy strikes and your child is murdered. What comes next is only normal for a person in your situation. Grief, rage, confusion, emptiness, denial. The pain envelopes you in the same way fog envelopes a city. It reaches into every corner and crevice of your being. It bores straight through your heart, leaving a void that nothing can possibly fill. The only thing that might mend that hole even in the slightest is justice. Watching the murderer meet the same end to which he or she sentenced your child. The death penalty. There’s some comfort in knowing that the murderer will never again be able to take away the precious gift of life.

Let’s reflect. You’re upset. That’s understandable, but does killing the killer solve anything? You may expect to feel closure with the death of the killer, but nothing is going to bring back your child and nothing is going to answer the questions why me? Why my child? And think about it, how hypocritical is the death penalty? Why do we kill people for killing people to show that killing people is wrong? You wouldn’t hit your child to show them that hitting people is wrong. Let’s also take into account that with the death penalty, it’s not just one person deciding to kill another human being. It’s several people coming to a conclusion that someone else deserves to die. How freaking messed up does that sound? THAT right there is the most premeditated of murders. Is that even justice or is that abuse of power? No human being should have to power to decide who DESERVES to live and who DESERVES to die. That’s the right of God. And it’s when we start playing God that we get into trouble.

Every human has the right to life. You have the right to life, you have the right to life, as do you, and you, and you, and ME, and WE, as fellow humans don’t have the right to take THAT right away. The death penalty is hypocritical, barbaric, and unjust. Open your eyes! It’s not a solution, it’s a problem."

Bought bus tickets to go to Cuenca with Ashley. Made another stop by the DVD store (it's an addiction). Watched a movie. Went to bed.

Saturday, May 7: Wesley, Ashley, and I met at the North Station at 8:45 to head to the south terminal to go to Cotopaxi, a large snow-capped volcano visible from the valleys near Quito. We get on the trolley and by the time we get to the south terminal we are squished closer than sardines. Seriously. We're standing there and we're not even swaying as the bus moves. That's how packed we are. We get into the terminal and we see that the second story where you buy bus tickets is packed and we're like "What is everyone doing?" Then a kind gentleman explains to us that because it's a voting day (a 10 question consulta popular) everyone is going home to vote. In Ecuador, voting is mandatory at the age of 18. Now, in the states, if we knew we had to vote on a SATURDAY, we would all be going home on FRIDAY. Not here. So we ditch the Cotopaxi idea, head back to Quito, and eat lunch at Quicentro (the mall). Later that night we went to a Mexican restaurant in La Mariscal to celebrate the birthdays that aren't during this semester. Fun times.

Sunday, May 8: Mother's day. Went to Liga game with Ashley and Joi at noon. Last Liga game! : (  We won 2-1 and both goals were scored on the side we were on.

Made it to Quicentro by 3:00 to meet my mom, brother, and mom's cousin, Clau. We ate at Crepes and Waffles, which is a company that sells the most delicious ice creams. I had a chicken, cheese, and broccoli crepe, and we split two large ice cream bowl things. To die for.

Then the three of them went to see a movie I had already seen so I headed home to call my real mom and study for my Botany final.

Monday, May 9: Botany final. It was hard. I struggled. And it's hard to BS in Spanish, but I saw a lot of other people were struggling as well so that made me feel better. Finished some improv homework and then ran errands with Ashley and Wesley. Then I did my BCA presentation where we come up with some creative project to reflect on our time here. Yep. Call me a follower, but I made a CD like Greg did. After presenting, though, Daniel (our program director) said that only two of our songs were the same. (Dare you to guess, Greg. Haha) Yep. It was a fun presentation. Lots of laughing and dancing on my part. Haha. Entertaining. For me at least.

Cuenca on Tuesday night. Home by next Monday. Doesn't feel real!

Lizzie


 

Yachana, Amazon

Sorry this has been so late in coming. The first week in May was a busy one. 

Wednesday, April 27

We meet at the Rio Coca station at 8 AM where our BCA bus is waiting for us. It´s raining. Quito is just getting us ready for the RAIN forest. In total the trip takes us about 7 hours. We make a couple bathroom stops on the way. Also, we have to drive UP before we can drive DOWN to get to the Oriente, which is what they call the selva AKA rain forest. So...we happened to encounter snow. Crazy! 
Proof:

We get to this small river port and we all climb out of the bus and load our things onto the canoe taxi. If we weren´t aware of this before, it has now become obvious that the rain forest is beyond humid. It´s ridiculously humid. So the canoe taxi (with a motor, no we didn´t have to row) takes us about a 5 minute ride upriver and we land on the other bank. We´re staying in Yachana lodge, and they have people waiting for us there on the steps telling us to leave everything in the canoe, they´ll bring it all up to the lodge. What service. So we walk for about 3 minutes from the dock to the lodge. And we are in awe THE WHOLE TIME. There are plants unlike anything I have ever seen before. Shapes, colors, sizes. 
My Fav:

The symbol of Yachana lodge:

Then we get to the lodge and it´s practically the most beautiful thing we have ever seen. We thought we were pampered in the Galaps. HA! Little did we know...It looks out over the Napo River, the dining hall, bar, and relaxing area are open decks covered by nice thatched roofs. We show up and they hand us hot towels, a glass of lemonade, and crackers. Speechless. Completely and utterly speechless. We choose room assignments. Wesley, Ashley, Rachele, and I are in the 4 person room. Jeepers...talk about accommodations. I don´t know if you all remember the Rio Muchacho post, but this is the complete opposite. The cabin is enclosed so bugs are limited. Ceiling fan (although the power is only on from 6 PM to 10 PM). Comfortable beds. Our towels are creatively folded on our beds. We have a personal bathroom in our cabin. It´s spacious. Holy cow.
 
We put our stuff down and put on our jungle clothes. We have a little time to relax, so we sit there talking. Then there´s a commotion outside and we head back to the main building area where we can clearly see the erupting ash cloud from a volcano. What a site. We put on our favorite rubber boots (sarcasm) and then head up to a look out point near the lodge. We get up there and the sun is strong as heck but the view is incredible. 

The ash cloud is on the left side of the screen. It's blue. 

We stand around taking pictures and listening to our guide, Robert, tell us about the river and the surrounding communities. We can already tell he is going to be less annoying than our guide, William, from the Galaps. When the sun starts to go down we head back for supper. Supper is buffet style and it´s delicious. We finish up and even though it´s only 7:45, we decide to head to bed because we´re exhausted. Stay up talking for a little bit before we fall asleep. 

Thursday, April 28

Breakfast at 6:30. Seems to be the time of day when the bugs are most active. They were all over us (not stinging ones, just annoying ones). They were attracted by the butter, jelly, coffee, juice, etc. We had to become creative, so we either put our napkins over those things, ate/drank fast, or stored the condiments on another table. It helped. Then it was back on with the boots and across the river we went. We started out with a double-decker chiva ride to do some bird watching. Because we went kind of later in the morning we didn´t see much, and what we did see was far away. We were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a small black monkey. That would turn out to be the only monkey we saw. The thing is with people moving into the rain forest and the whole search for oil, animals have had to move further and further into the forest. Yachana isn´t in a heavily populated area, but it´s not extremely deep in the forest. After about an hour on the chiva, we got out and hiked for about 3 more hours through the forest. Robert, showed us various plants, trees, insects, and small animals. He was very knowledgeable about everything. Turns our he grew up in Yachana and went the the Yachana High School. And he's only 20, which blew all of our minds because for one, he looks older than 20, and two, he ACTS older than 20. Haha. Anyway, we get back to the lodge and eat a well-deserved lunch. Then it´s off with the boots and on with the suits. We took a canoe taxi upstream and stopped on a sand island. Then we put our life jackets on diaper style and proceeded to float down the river for 45 minutes until we got back to the lodge. The current was crazy fast! If you just look at the river while you´re in it, it looks like a lazy river, but take one look at the shore, and you realize you are bookin´ it. Try to swim against the current and you make no headway...still moving down stream at a lightning pace. So much fun. Got back to the lodge, shower, supper, bed. 

Friday, April 29

Breakfast at 7. Then it´s canoe taxi back across the river to visit a curandero. He´s a healer, but more medicinal than a shaman. He lives in this wooden house sitting on stilts that are a story high. We go inside and he performs a cleansing ritual on whoever wants to participate. Cleansing of bad spirits. He shakes bundle of leaves tied together and blows a lot of smoke from his joint of unknown substance. It was very interesting. 

Then we moved down into his yard and had a competition. First, blow gun. The goal was to hit the target (a wooden parrot on a stick) in the eye. The gun is literally a meter and a half long. None of us have ever had any experience. We each get 3 tries. I´m the first one to hit the eye. That was my first shot. Second shot? Same spot, but I didn´t have quite the velocity to split the dart, so it didn´t stick. Third shot? heart. After everyone had gone, four of us moved on to round 2. Two of us had hit the eye. The other two had hit the heart. We each got 2 chances. I hit the heart dead on and was crowned blow gun champion. 

Robert gave me a crown he had made out of peeled fibers from a plant stalk. My new weapon of choice? You guessed it. The it was the javelin throwing competition. We had to throw the javelin and knock over a tree stump. I hit the thing dead on. Something I learned that day: I might be adopted from the Amazon. On our way back to the lodge, we stopped to look at an enormously big tree. All 19 of us, holding hands, could barely fit around the trunk. 


Got back to the lodge and had a cooking lesson. We seasoned fish, ate roasted white chocolate beans (which aren't used to make white chocolate. completely different things), and ate roasted gusanos (grubby worms; like the squishy juicy one that Simba eats in the Lion King). Lily was the only one brave enough to eat her's alive. Bleh. They kind of tasted like bacon, but left a very weird aftertaste. 
Me and my gusano:

Then it was time to eat lunch with the senior class from the nearby high school called Colegio Yachana. The high school and the lodge are interconnected. During vacations and such, the students can work at the lodge and practice their English. They go to school for three weeks straight (including weekends) and then they get a week off. We were at Yachana during their week off. After lunch Daniel facilitated some improvisation games that we played with the kids. We played hug tag to break the ice and then we followed that up with Sí, Whoosh, Imagenes del duelo, and Completar el imagen (I'm not going to take the time to explain everything). After about an hour of games we split into smaller groups with Yachana and BCA kids in each group. from there, we walked and talked our way to the high school which is about a 15 minute walk away, got a tour of the place, and then helped out with a few chores. When we were done working, it was time to play. Soccer. We headed down to the field which had grass, unlike most of the fields in Quito that are just dirt, but the grass was patchy and made things very bumpy. It was very interesting because some kids played in cleats, others in Ecuashoes, and others barefoot. 
The gang:

When the game ended, some of us stayed and threw frisbees around until it we had to head back because it was getting dark. I could have stayed longer. These kids are incredible and each of them have their own story. Then it was supper, a small informational talk that went into more detail about the high school, and then bed.


Saturday, April 30


Some of us (6 of us) met at the lobby at 6 to go on an early morning bird watching chiva ride. We saw a lot more birds this time, but had to cut the excursion short because it started to pour...for the first time since we arrived in the RAIN forest. Ironic. Got back, ate breakfast, headed back out to the high school to hang out with the kids one last time, then packed up our bags and taxied back across the river, boarded the bus, and drove for about 4 hours. We stopped at a place where we could go caving. The cave entrance was located in this pool/park area. It was still raining and we were going to get wet in the cave anyway, so us crazy gringos, in our street clothes, decide to go down the water slide. Hahaha. Super fun. Then it was off to the cave where we were given one headlamp per two people. Ashley and I got stuck with a dud. You seriously had to be within two feet of the ground for it to do any good. We managed though. On our way through the cave, we got to jump into a deeper part from a rock extension that was about 2 meters high. We also got to dunk ourselves in three consecutive holes that were 6 meters, 4 meters, and 2 meters. Took about an hour total. We came out soaking wet and muddy as heck, but it was well worth it. We changed and then it was another 30 minutes to Tena, a large jungle city. We got settled in the hostel and then headed out for pizza and ice cream. Got back to the hostel and had girl talk until I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore. 


Sunday, May 1

Got ready, ate breakfast, and headed out to the Napo River to do some rafting. Never been before in my life. I was in a group with Ashley, Wesley, Rachele, Lily, Vince, and Matt (the volunteer doctor from Yachana). Our guide was super cool. He looked intimidating, but was a lot of fun. We practiced commands, rowing together, and our raft cheer. Then it was off! The water was freezing, but it was cloudy so the sun wasn't burning us. At one point our guide said we could get out and swim, so Matt and I immediately jumped out. During this calm point, one of the rafts was empty all except for Shun. It's hard to get into the raft without help, so Daniel shouted to Shun "Help us in, Shun!" Shun proceeded to look around and then jump in the water. Haha. During another calm point our guide went up to Lily and acted really interested in her shoes. Once he had both of them in his hand, it was just a matter of a small push and she was out the raft. Haha. I was laughing then, but 5 minutes later I stupidly fell victim to the same joke. Hahahahahaha. I still laughed, though. Later we played a game called "la flor" (the flower). We all stood on the rim of the raft, held hands and leaned in when the flor closed and leaned out when the flor opened. When we were leaning out, our guide let go of our hands and ran through the middle of the raft pushing people out. I managed to fall in instead of out. Another time, Vince was in the river and Matt and our guide were helping him in. Instead of pulling him up and letting go, they pulled him up and pushed him over the other side of the raft. haha. We also took turns riding on the front of the raft. Let me tell you, it's like riding a greased pig. No joke. About 2 hours in we stopped on this little rocky beach and walked back into a crevice that was like a mini-ecosystem. Absolutely incredible. It looked like something from a Disney ride. Like Pirates of the Caribbean. Our guides painted our faces with rock paint. Then it was off again. That was where I fell out on accident after we hit a bump. The one and only time. I was proud. We made one more stop at a waterfall where we tried to wash off the rock paint, but we basically just smeared it around until it looked like we had all just fake tanned. At the very end our guide us told us we were going to do one more trick - stop the raft at a 90 degree angle. He made us all come to the back of the raft and told us we couldn't move or we would tip over. He grabbed a rope tied to the front, pulled the front up, and then pulled us all the way over until we flipped. Hahaha. Don't know why we fell for that one. We changed and then the rafting people gave us lunch. Quite an adventure. Made it back to Quito by 8. 


More to come.


Lizzie

Spring Break Kick-Off 2011: Puerto Lopez

Yeah. Ecuador is weird. Our Spring Break is at the end of April. Crazy. Last day of classes was Wednesday, April 20. We couldn't find a straight-shot bus ticket to Puerto Lopez, so Ashley and I left Quito at 11:15 PM on Wednesday on a bus to Guayaquil with Rachele, who was going to Guayaquil to meet a girl she's been sponsoring for 6 years. The bus was actually incredibly comfortable except for the fact that Ashley and I were in seats 3 and 4 which are like right in front of the door that separates the driver from the passengers, so there was a lot of traffic. Also, around 3 in the morning some jerk asked the driver to turn on the AC. Really?! Quite unnecessary. We arrived in hot and humid Guayaquil around 8:15 in the morning where we parted ways with Rachele. Ashley and I bought tickets to Puerto Lopez and waited around until the bus left at 9:40. This second bus was definitely not as nice as the overnight bus. No AC so we were riding windows open. Guess where we were sitting? Again. Seats 3 and 4. It was hot as heck on the bus and they were playing some mariachi video with a wannabe half-dressed Shakira dancer. Entertaining. We finally caught a glimpse of the ocean and thought we were almost there, but we had to wind around the coast for another hour before we finally arrived in Puerto Lopez around 2 in the afternoon. This is Thursday the 21st by now. Found our hostel, Villa Colombia, and moved into a 3-person room with a girl from Poland. Put the swimsuits on and headed for the beach which is about 3 blocks away. Puerto Lopez is a fishing town so there were boats everywhere and the water smelled a little fishy, but it was a beach and not rainy Quito! Seriously. It has rained every day in April in Quito. Ashley and I hung out on the beach for awhile, headed back to the hostel to clean up, and then headed around town looking for a place to eat. We stopped at this one restaurant and we were about halfway through looking through the menu when the waiter told us that they didn't have any chicken or beef because it's Easter and the markets don't sell it. Yeah right. We left and found a restaurant that DID serve chicken. Sat on the beach to watch the sunset when Rachele called and said she was headed to Puerto Lopez. Her original plans were to go to Manta, but she decided she wanted to hang out with us, so we were pretty excited. She got in around 10 PM. We headed back to the hostel and switched into a 4 person room for the three of us. She told us all about her visit with the little girl she's been sponsoring. So cool. Then it was off to bed.

Friday morning we woke up and had breakfast at the hostel. Then we got our beach bags ready and took a "taxi" to Los Frailes, a beach about 15 minutes away from Puerto Lopez. I say "taxis" because they aren't cars. They look like this:

So we took that to Los Frailes which is an absolutely gorgeous beach. Almost Galapagos worthy. And since we got there at like 10:30, there weren't many people there at all.

We spent basically all day there (until 3:30) just chilling and chatting. So incredibly relaxing. It was exactly what I needed. We played in the ocean, too. The wave pattern was very unpredictable, though. One minute we'd be splashing through these dinky little things, and the next minute there were like 5 death waves in a row that came so fast it was nearly impossible to escape. We almost died. And that's only a slight exaggeration. Headed back to the hostel. I was burnt and crispy (you would think I had learned my lesson by now), but it was a great day. This is what we look like after a day on the beach:

(Rachele, Ashley, Me)

Beautiful. Then we headed out for supper and ate at the same place Ashley and I ate the night before. That way we're guaranteed meat in our meal. Chatted on the beach as we watched the sun set. 

There was a little doggie friend that came over to get some attention. Very cute. Then she started digging a hole right behind us and got sand everywhere. Haha. Quite comical. Then we treated ourselves to ice cream and headed back to the hostel to rest up.

We woke up on Saturday and ate breakfast at the hostel. Then it was off to Los Frailes again. Since we were already burnt, we rented an umbrella. We also brought oranges to lighten our hair. It's really supposed to be lemons, and we bought these yellow fruits thinking they were lemons, but it turns out they were oranges. You rub the juice in your hair and it's supposed to attract the sunlight to give you natural highlights. The verdict is that oranges don't work as well as lemons. Back to Puerto Lopez around 4. Shower. Then we went to a restaurant a little ways further down the beach where they serve you lots of high-quality food for a low price. I had a vegetarian sandwich which consisted of tomato, avocado, and cheese on thick slices of warm wheat bread. Yummy. Ice cream again and then Ashley and I grabbed our stuff from the hostel to head back to Quito on an overnight bus. Rachele decided to stay another day for more relaxation on the beach. Left at 8:00 PM and got to Quito at 5:30 in the AM. Guess what seats we had!?!? We actually had seats 1 and 2, but they were positioned exactly where seats 3 and 4 were on the other buses. They must be the gringo seats. Maybe it was because I was burnt, I don't know, but I could not sleep on that bus. It was terrible. Horrible. Awful. Taxied home and slept until noon on Easter Sunday. I know. I didn't go to church. God understands.

Leaving for the Amazon on Wednesday the 27th. Only 6 more days of school!  

Adventures in Baños

Friday, April 15
Ashley, Hannah, and I met at the North Station in Quito at 2:30. From there we took the trolley to the end of the line at El Recreo and then headed to Quitumbre, the southest station in Quito. For being the poorer end of town, the south station is quite the building. It's like an airport. Seriously. You get there and then there are booths all over where you can get tickets to go anywhere basically. Hopped on a bus to Baños. Maybe there was a lot of traffic or something, but we didn't arrive until 9:30. We were very happy to have arrived to say the least. Caught a cab to our hostel Santa Cruz. There was a private room for two, and a dormitorio room for two (shared bathrooms). And then there was one open bed in the dormitorio room that shared the bathrooms with the open dormitorio room. But that option would have required one of us to stay in the room with three British guys. The accent might be hot, but talk about awkward. So we decided to share the dormitorio room between the three of us (cheaper than the private room for 2). Got settled and then went out to explore the town. Found a delicious ice cream place that had soft serve that almost tasted like Dairy Queen. How I've missed that. Came back and were in bed ASAP. Turns out that the British guys across the way like to party all night and then come back drunk around 2 in the morning. And don't know how loud they're talking. And use lots of curse words. I wanted to cast Harry Potter spells at them, but Ashley said that would be rude.

Saturday, April 16
Woke up around 8:30. Got ready for a day of fun and headed out to find a place to eat breakfast. Baños is a tourist town. And that is an understatement. Tourist planning companies or whatever you call them are located on every street, on every corner, by every hostel. So we chose one and saw what they had to offer. We opted to take a chiva (truck-type vehicle) tour of the waterfalls. Left at 10 in the morning and stopped at about 4 different sites.
This was the first stop:

If you look closely, you can see there are two waterfalls. The one on the left looks clean, while the one on the right looks dirty. It's not dirty. It's just the minerals in the water. Cool, cool.
At one place we took a cable car down the cliff so we could walk across a rickety bridge to get a better look at the waterfall.

Got back around 2 where we met back at the tourist company place and they took us to go canyoning. Canyoning is basically repelling down waterfalls. Superchevere. We got to this place and they gave us wet suits to put on. Being the dumb gringa I am, I put mine on backwards at first. Had to fix that. Then we hiked up to this waterfall. About 8 meters. Quite the experience. You have to completely trust the one rope that is attached to you and attached to a metal piece screwed into a rock at the top of the waterfall. But I made it alive and it was exhilarating! The next waterfall was about twice as high. The third water fall was not very high at all, but our guide had us sit on our butts and slide down while he held the rope. Kinda hurt, but fun nonetheless. The last waterfall was not what I was expecting. 50 meters high and I couldn't see over the edge. I thought it was a sheer-faced waterfall. Turns out that after about the first 5 meters it just drops off. No rocks to stand on. Nothing. You're just hanging there, suspended, and you let yourself down. Crazy. I don't have pics because I didn't want my camera to get empapada (soaking wet). You'll just have to use your imagination. Headed back to town, changed clothes, ate supper at the same place we ate breakfast. Ashley and I ordered the nachos which ended up being Doritos with a side of grated cheese, guacamole, and aji. Classy. We went back to the tourist company place to schedule a horseback riding outing for tomorrow. Earlier in the day the guy had told us $15 each, but now he was telling us $20, so we found another place where we could get it for $15. Walked around town a little. Saw them pulling taffy. Huge strands of taffy. All up and down the street. We had to try some. And it was delicious. Stopped by the ice cream store again and then it was back to the hostel after an exhausting day. 

Sunday, April 17

Met at 9 at the new tourist company where they drove us to where the horses were at. We rented them for 2 hours. I got the big black one. We started in the town but as we headed further away, we went more and more into the countryside. It's been years since I've ridden a horse and it felt good. We stopped at a halfway point where our guia (guide) showed us these springs that are carbonated because they are connected to the thermal vents of a nearby volcano. Because the water is carbonated, it's safe to drink! Not a big fan of gas in my water, though. Then it was back on the horses and back to town. By the time we headed home, my butt was pretty sore from riding the horse. The trip back was pretty much all pain for me. I'm glad we didn't go for longer than 2 hours. Back to the hostel, pack up, check out, get on the bus, back to Quito. Remember how the trip to Baños took like 7 hours? Well, we left Baños at noon and I was back in my house by 5. Crazy. Quite an adventure. 

Here's the Baños club:

From left to right: Ashley, Hannah, ME!

Return to the Basilica, Mitad del Mundo, Partido de Liga, Quilotoa

If you remember from a previous blog post, we tried to subir (climb) the Basilica earlier, but were prevented from doing this by the strict timekeepers of the staircase. So we (me, Ashley, and Wesley) went back. April 2, 2011. Partly cloudy, but no rain. And we showed up around two so that we were guaranteed the chance to subir. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice....oh wait. You didn't fool us twice, Ecuador. So take that. There were several levels to the church towers. First was the "balcony" of the church where we could see the sanctuary and a gorgeous stained glass window at the back. 

The next level was a small balcony that looked south where we could look through a little telescope thingy and see the Panecillo. 

The next level was a souvenir store and the baños (bathrooms). Then it was up even further to a little rickety bridge that was in the "attic" of the church and took us from the south side, across the sanctuary, and over to a small tower where we had quite the 360 degree view of Quito. 

We thought our adventure was over then, but turns out that when you cross the rickety little bridge back to the south side of the church, you can climb the clock towers. There were about 5 more levels to those. No joke. By the time we got to the top, we were so high up that it was cold and chilly, but worth the view. 

Looking north: 

April 9, 2011:

Mitad del Mundo. Middle of the World. That's the name of the actual town. Again, if you remember from an earlier post, we already visited the equator with BCA, but we've been told that visiting this touristy equator site was a must. So Wesley, Ashley, and I headed for another weekend adventure. We got there and there must have been some conference tour or something because there were about 50 business men standing outside in their slacks, button-down shirts, and briefcases listening to someone talk. And what do they do when the gringas show up? Turn around and stare. Of course. So unfortunately, we had to share the park with these guys. Took pictures with the monument.

We were on our way to climb up the monument when one of the businessmen politely asked us if he could get a picture with us. We were at a tourist site, but who knew that we would BE a tourist site. Haha. Inside the monument there was a little museum dedicated to Ecuador history in general in terms of indigenous people. Can't say we looked around too much. Just went to the top and took pictures. From there, we walked around the town and checked out some of the other places Mitad del Mundo had to offer. We stopped in a bug museum where there was a bug collection mounted on the wall. So they were all dead thankfully, but it still gave me the creeps to see beetles the size of your fist with pincers longer than your pointer finger. And moths bigger than hummingbirds. And hairy tarantulas. And over half of these insects are native to Ecuador. Wonderful. I have no idea what I would do if I met one of those things in the wild. You can't kill it. I mean Wesley said you would literally need a sledgehammer to stop one of those beetles. 

From there we headed to the main square where an indigenous band was performing and dancers in native dress were doing their thing. We ate in a nearby restaurant where we sat on the balcony so we could enjoy the music. Entertaining. 

We had heard that there was this interactive museum that was a must see, so we spent the next half hour tracking that down. It wasn't within the walls of the touristy city part, so that made it tricky to find. This interactive museum is actually situated directly on the equator. The touristy town part has a line drawn for the equator, but that's a lie. Our museum guide showed us all sorts of strange occurrences that happen on the equator. Let me tell you, I had no idea how freaking cool a line can be. Seriously. First, we balanced an egg on a nail. That's right, a nail. I have a picture AND a certificate to prove it.

Then, we did the whole water draining thing. Northern hemisphere it spins clockwise, Southern hemisphere it spins counterclockwise. Directly on the equator? Directly down. None of this clockwise/counterclockwise crap. Straight down. Then we had to walk heel to toe on the equator with our eyes closed and our arms out to our side. Funny thing is that even though you walk heel to toe (which you would think would guide you straight), the pull from the poles makes it really difficult to achieve straightness. The last activity involved strength. Off to one side of the line we clasped our hands together and then put out arms straight out and up. Our tour guide pushed our arms down (with us resisting) with two hands. When standing on the line? She could pull our arms down with one hand. Same thing with squeezing your thumb and pointer finger together and having someone pull them apart. Strange, but very, very, very, chevere. That's where the museum tour ended and by that point it was pouring. It was quite an adventure finding a bus to take home, but we finally caught one after we were pretty much empapadas (soaking wet). 

Got back to Quito and went our separate ways, but then Wesley and I were invited to the Liga game that night by one of the soccer volunteers (Roberto), so I headed back to Wesley's house where she gave me some warm clothes (I hadn't had time to get all the way back to my house, so I was still a little wet). The game wasn't at la Casa Blanca (Liga's home stadium), but rather was at el Estadio Olympico Atahualpa, which is the home of la Sociedad Deportiva Quito, who Liga was playing that night. Inner-city match. Instead of being jostled and squished/smashed as we entered the stadium, we made a slightly different entrance. We were waiting in a long line to enter when news came that they had opened another door/gate. So we took off. Running. Found a spot just before kick off. I don't know if the stadium is bigger or if people were dissuaded from coming because it had rained earlier, but the stadium felt empty. We were in between the Deportiva fans and the Liga fans and unlike my last Liga experience, this game gave me a view of the ugly side of the people's passion for soccer. First of all, the game kinda sucked. It was a 0-0 tie and nobody played all that great. Second of all, tensions were high because it was two teams within the city. There were police everywhere.

Just before halftime a fight broke out on the Liga side of the stadium about 7 rows in front of us and across the aisle. Don't know what the argument was about, but they were punching and kicking a defenseless man on the ground before the police intervened. Then, during halftime, the Deportiva fans starting shaking a large Liga banner that they had stolen from the Liga side. It is apparently the worst of offenses to steal something of the other team's. In return, the Liga fans had somehow stolen a Deportiva banner and started waving that around, too. Of course we were caught in the middle of this yelling, cursing, middle finger fest. Things calmed down a little after halftime, but I saw another incident where a Liga fan was climbing on the fence, which was not what the police officer wanted. So he began hitting at the fence with his night stick, aiming for the hands. When the man wouldn't get off the fence, the police officer proceeded to punch the man in the face. So many distractions from the game. When the final whistle blew, we had to hang around the stadium and wait for the Deportiva fans to leave. If they would have let both sides out at the same time, there's no way the police could have controlled the chaos that would have ensued. 

Liga fans:

Andres from volunteering was at the game, too, and afterwards, he, me, and Wesley were having a discussion about a facebook post. It's too hard to explain. Anyway, we made a bet about it and had to check it on the computer, so we headed back to La Chacha. The bet was a free pizza. Wesley and I won of course, so free pizza it was. Haha. Then it was back home for the night.

April 12, 2011:

Met at Rio Coca at 7:30. Headed out to Quilotoa, a volcanic lake. The drive was at least 3 and a half hours. Stopped a couple of times for snacks/bathroom break. We also stopped at a town on our way that is known for its artistry work. Made it to Quilotoa by 12:30. Took some pictures at the top and then headed down the crater. Holy cow is that place beautiful or what. This is probably my second proudest moment in digital photography. This panoramic view is practically seamless. 

My first proudest moment? St. Louis. Summer 2010. Jumping picture timed from a distance? Can't beat that. 

Anyway, we head down the crater. It's pretty steep, and at one point for about 200 yards I'd say (although I'm horrible at estimation) we "skied" through some deep sand/dirt. Pretty fun. We had the option to request a mule beforehand to ride back up, but Wesley and I wanted to tough it out and climb. We took some pictures at the bottom and admired the view until it started hailing. That's right, hailing. Pea-sized and vicious. It finally stopped, but by then we were soaking and bruised (not really) and still had to climb up the crater. Quite the workout, especially when the hail covers the ground in some spots making it slippery as heck. But we made it. Finally. Daniel had given us all $12.50 provided by BCA that we were required to spend in the Quilotoa community, so Wes and I bought ecuapants to change into. Something dry and relatively warm. We ate lunch in a nearby community house and then it was back on the bus and back to Quito. Home around 8:30. Long, but awesome day. 

From left to right: Wesley, Hannah, Rachele, Ashley, me

Only 10 more days of classes before finals. Five days, then spring break, five more days, and then finals. Crazy, crazy. Things to look forward to: trip to Baños (a city, not the bathrooms), beach, el Amazonas, Cuenca, and whatever else I can squeeze in.

Catch you later, folks.