Casual Weekend Adventures: scaling cliffs, surviving tsunami warnings, feeling earthquakes

Ok, I now have two weekends to catch up on…

Last Sunday I went on another hiking trip with the Club de Andinismo. We went to Fuya Fuya (about 14,060 feet), which is near Otavalo. We had a huge group—about 27! I was told this was a low-level hike, so I figured it would be fine compared to the last hike I did (which was low/medium). The route was pretty short, but it was steep the whole way. A couple other IES girls were there too and it was their first trip with the club. I think the two of them were about to turn around in the first 10 minutes! I kept assuring them it would get better and that I couldn’t breathe for a while at the beginning of my last hike. It did get better, but it was definitely a workout. We stopped practically every two minutes to take a breather! We got to the peak in just over an hour, so we all decided to climb up another peak that was close by. That one, however, involved some definite rock climbing. It was really cool, though. On both of the hikes I’ve surprised myself with the confidence I have in doing things that makes other people afraid. I feel like that’s not always the case with me…Anyway, overall it was awesome. Unfortunately it was really cloudy up top, but I can only imagine how incredible the view would be on a clear day!

This past week was really busy with lots of work, but I made it! I was thrilled to find out that I could go to the beach with a bunch of other students over the weekend (I almost couldn’t go because we’re planning a week-long trip to Loja with my family and thought we might be leaving, but it didn’t work out for this week). Anyway, we took an 11pm bus on Thursday, which worked out pretty well. It was a really safe company, decently comfortable, and I actually got some sleep. The ride was about 7.5 hours and the bus took us to Bahia de Caraquez. We had a short way down to the bay, where we took a quick canoe ride across the water. We hopped on another bus for about a half hour and arrived at our hostel around 7:45am. We had specifically chosen a hostel with a kitchen to save some money, so we kicked off our trip by making some delicious banana pancakes. Actually Philip made them—all three of our chefs on the trip were male. Impressed? I was. We then headed to the beach (about 10 steps away) for the day. It was slightly overcast on Friday, which meant the temperature was just right. Any time the sun came out it got pretty hot. The water was absolutely perfect—cool enough to be refreshing, but not cold at all. I would have stayed in all day if it weren’t for the decently strong waves. A couple of the guys rented surfboards and I really wanted to give it a try. Unfortunately by the time they were free, the other student who knows what he’s doing had gone down to the other end of the beach and wasn’t there to help me out. I took it into the water, but didn’t have much success because I wasn’t quite sure what I was doing. Later that afternoon I walked all way down the one of the beach, where the sand ends and some rocky cliffs begin. It was really beautiful and quiet. After that I hung out on the beach a little longer, since the sun wasn’t as strong and it was perfect. Then we got cleaned up and Eric made a delicious spaghetti dinner. We headed down the street to check out the nightlife, which apparently doesn’t heat up until Saturdays. All along the beach there are a ton of little shacks with drinks, milkshakes, juices, etc. Most of them have hammocks, so we hung out for a while then headed home, as we were all still a bit tired from the bus ride the night before.

On Saturday we got up and a few of us attempted to find the organic market that, according to my guidebook, happens every Saturday. Unfortunately we couldn’t find it, but we came across this great bread shop with freshly made bread with different fillings. I got one with chocolate and another with creme. They were delicious, and still warm! When we got back, everyone was talking about the earthquake in Chile and the tsunami watch that had been issued for the coast of Ecuador. After initially receiving word from the embassy that the watch was between 12:00 and 1:30, we talked to the program director and determined that the timetable had shifted and that most of the danger had already passed earlier in the morning. The director made the call that we could stay, and the locals didn’t even seem to bat an eye. Despite the fact that fishermen still went out their boats, we decided to play it safe and not spend much time in the water. I was a little bummed because I didn’t get to really try surfing and I also found out that there was a place that rented skimboards. The day before the tide had been perfect for skimboarding and all I wanted to do was relive my obsession from summers in Maine. Unfortunately I missed my opportunity. We still had a fun day hanging out, though, and I had some pizza and an amazing banana milkshake for lunch. (I have to say, I’ve been very impressed by the pizza I’ve eaten in Ecuador so far). It was for the better that we kept out of the sun because, despite reapplication of sun block, we all got sunburned the day before. We were all really excited to go out for dinner that night, as we had been told that the food on the coast is incredible. I had a rice and shrimp dish, which was good, but I wasn’t quite as impressed as I was hoping I might be. We walked around town for a bit, then hung out for the rest of the night. One of the other guys had made a delicious dessert consisting of tortilla layers and chocolate, nutella, and peanut butter, so we snacked on that for a while. It was SO good. We wanted to stay up late so that we’d be tired for the bus ride the next day, but we only made it until about 1am. At 2am I woke up with another stomach thing, which is weird because we all pretty much the same things. I couldn’t stand the thought of having to travel home in my condition, but luckily I was pretty much better by 6am. Needless to say, I ended up being the only one who stayed up late—all night, in fact. Because I was awake, I was one of only two of us to feel a slight tremor at 5:30am. It was really quick, but I finally learned today that there was a 5.3 earthquake in Portoviejo, Ecuador. I guess it might have been an aftershock, but I’m not sure. It was a little scary, but pretty cool at the same time. At 6:15 we headed to the bus and began our journey home. The bus ride went pretty quickly and I was able to sleep for a bit. The entire bus stopped for lunch, which was pretty cool, and I was back home by 4:30.

The Bay at San Vicente

Our view of the hostel from the beach

The cliffs

Our rooms

Attempt #17 at a jumping pic...never quite got one

Welcome to the Jungle

Ok, so I kind of have a lot of homework right now, but due to the handful of requests I’m going to procrastinate by catching up on this blog. Where to begin…

Last Saturday morning I woke up to the sound of my host dad calling my name from outside of my bedroom door. I opened my eyes and bolted upright; the clock read 6:36. I was supposed to leave the house at 6:30. I had stupidly set my alarm for 5:15 PM (very unlike me, right?). Luckily I had only planned to allow that much time as a precaution; I was done packing and I decided that showering wasn’t that necessary since I was going to be sweaty and gross in the Amazon anyway. Luckily my host parents offered to drive me and I still made it to IES with two minutes to spare. We hopped on the bus for a very bumpy and windy ride. I attempted to read something that I had intended to finish the night before (but we had a birthday party for my cousin and I didn’t want to bail): terrible idea. I should have known better, since trying to read in the car on normal roads makes me feel carsick. I was fine, though, no worries.

Anyway, the ride wasn’t too bad. After about four hours we arrived at our first destination: the Caves of Jumandi. Unfortunately this was an incredibly touristy location (kind of like water park and summer camp combined), but the caves are very famous. Since it was the holiday weekend of Carnaval it was especially crowded. Sporting my $4.00 plastic sandals with gold finish specifically purchased for this trip (stupidly didn’t bring my Tevas to Ecuador), I headed along a trail and into the caves with the rest of the group. The sandals proved to be quite slippery as we trudged through some water and along some rocks. Luckily I had my handy miniature flashlight to keep me steady (thanks Dad!). We hiked around for a bit and then we got to jump into a deep pool of water, which was great because we were all burning up. We were in the caves for less than an hour I’d say, but you can spend hours in there if you want to cover the entire area. We learned a little bit about the stalagmites (the rock columns connecting from the top to the bottom), which grow only one centimeter every 20 years, and about how some Spaniards hid there during the conquest. Afterwards we got to hang out for a bit and enjoy the waterslides and the pool.

the caves!

we saw a snake! actually a little kid walked over holding it...

We briefly got back on the bus and headed to our next stop: the Waterfalls of Latas. After about a 25-minute hike (I wore my sneakers this time and carried my sandals), we arrived at the waterfalls. It was so beautiful and we were really lucky to be the only group there at the time. We got to climb behind the waterfall and up the rocks a bit and jump into the water! It was so nice to hang out there. Even though we weren’t quite in the Amazon yet, I think this was one of my favorite activities.

natural toboggan!

mid-jump!

We had another short ride to our hostel in Misahualli, which is nicknamed the door to the Amazon because it’s a port for a lot of the boats that head into the jungle. We had dinner and took a walk around town, then went to bed. The next morning we got up early headed down to the river, where we loaded our luggage and ourselves into a couple of motorized canoes. We headed out onto the Napo River, the longest river in Ecuador, which in fact runs through Peru as well. The river is extremely low right now because of the lack of rain and we actually all had to get off onto the shore at one point to lighten the load so the canoes could get through a shallow patch. After about an hour and a half down the river surrounded by dense forest (minus a couple villages, hostels, and some excavators collecting dirt/rocks/water for construction—slightly unexpected) we arrived at a zoo. We saw lots of monkeys and parrots and tucans and more! Apparently the monkeys are quite adept at stealing sunglasses, cameras, wallets, etc,. which is why we didn’t bring our bags with us. After about another half hour on the canoes, we pulled over onto an empty and deserted shore. We walked down the path for about five minutes and came upon our jungle lodge. The only other people staying there was the study abroad group from Boston College.

our canoes

We had lunch, got back in the canoes, and headed down the river a bit to an indigenous Quichua village. Our guide (who was also the navigator of our canoe and an employee of the hostel) taught us about several medicinal plants and cocoa (which looks and tastes nothing like chocolate, but is yummy!). We arrived at the home of an indigenous family where we sat around the fire, learned a bit about their lifestyle, and got to eat some delicious food (trout, plátanos, yuca, oranges, and guava). Some of the other students and I were talking later on about how the visit was cool, but made us feel a bit uncomfortable. We decided it was pretty safe to assume that the family was getting paid for the visit, but it was hard to tell whether our presence was welcomed or more of a disturbance. What made it uncomfortable for me was that the guide did all the talking while the mother of the home just sat there and served us. We were all interested in learning, but we weren’t sure if the family was equally interested in sharing or if they just needed the money. However, the kids were really cute and seemed to enjoy following us around. I don’t know….just some reflections. Sometimes feeling like a tourist is really annoying.

We headed back for dinner and later that night a Shaman came to perform a spiritual cleansing ceremony. The ritual begins when the Shaman drinks a cup of sugar cane alcohol and a drink made from ayahuasca, which we learned earlier in the day can leave you bed-ridden and hallucinating for up to a month if you don’t have the power of a shaman to control it. Apparently the Shaman was still recovering from the ceremony he had performed the night before and almost didn’t make it. A couple of students got to volunteer for the spiritual cleansing. I considered raising my hand, but after the first girl went and the Shaman appeared to be hacking up some phlegm and spitting it on her head, I changed my mind.

indigenous village

We had been really lucky with the weather during the day—although perhaps we would have been slightly less drenched in sweat if it had rained a bit—but we got a pretty heavy rainstorm that night. I had my earplugs in and might not have noticed that it was raining, but I awoke to some raindrops on my shoulder. I sleepily realized that there was a hole in the roof above my top bunk, but all I could think to do at the time was move over slightly. Needless to say, within the course of about 20 minutes I was sleeping in a pool of rain, which continued to spread and soak my sheets. Because it was pitch dark and I was half-asleep I was trapped on my top bunk and attempted to stray dry and get some sleep scrunched up in one corner of the bed. Luckily I was able to laugh about it the next day and they moved my bed before it rained the following night.

The next morning we went on a three-hour hike, which was awesome. We learned about some more plants and saw some cool insects, and our guide showed us how to make natural animal traps and natural paint with rocks and water. He also made some baskets and hats out of plants. Overall it was awesome, but I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get to see more animals (the other group saw a poisonous frog!).

That afternoon we got to build our own rafts (with some pre-prepared re-used material). We were split into two groups, so it immediately turned into a competition. We set out on the river (don’t worry, our canoe guides were navigating), and the teams began trying to sabotage each other’s rafts. I must say, it was pretty amusing. We eventually all ended up in the water pushing the rafts to go faster, but it got really shallow and I jammed my toe (I thought it was broken for about 15 minutes, but it wasn’t). At that same moment, the current started to pick and we were told to get back on the rafts. A few of us couldn’t make it in time, but the water was too shallow to swim in and too rocky to walk. We attempted to casually float without hitting the bottom. We all got nervous for a minute, but the current really wasn’t a big deal and the water got deeper. We made it back to the rafts and proceeded to float along the river singing nineties hits as loud as we could. Unfortunately I was a bit preoccupied about my toe, but still had a great time. That night we were supposed to have a night hike, which would have been incredible, but it was pouring. I was really bummed about that, but instead we got to hang out and I learned some new fun games (Ninja, anyone?)

swinging on natural vines!

our jungle lodge!

The next day we had to head out early, but on the way back we stopped at a museum (which was mostly a zoo), and another actual zoo. At that point we were all a little disappointed that we had seen so many caged animals and not so many in nature, but oh well. It started to rain and we were running a little late, so had to skip our last activity. We were supposed to hike to see some petroglyphs (ancient rock carvings), which would have been pretty cool, but we were all pretty tired at that point. Overall it was a great trip! But I must say, I was happy to come back to the climate of Quito.

nocturnal monkey

Bad news: I came home and got a stomach bug. I think I ate something funny because some other students got sick too.

Good news: It wasn’t that bad and I recovered quickly!

Best news: My bug bites are mostly gone already!

Other news: 1) I’ve been doing the whole English tutor thing, which seems to be cool so far. 2) I went to see Valentine’s Day (the movie) last night – it was cute! 3) I’m going to climb another mountain tomorrow! (which means I should go to bed….)

16,784 feet later...

Last week I finally added the service learning into my schedule. I went to the office at 3 on Monday to help prepare materials for the school on Tuesday. I cut up some paper, and unfortunately (or fortunately…) that was about all that needed to be done. Another volunteer (from Vermont) was in the office that morning and had pretty much finished everything. I sat and talked with the German intern for a while, and then I left early. On Tuesday I had my first day at the school. I arrived at the office at 7:30 and we took a van to Angel Isaac, which is about 10 minutes from my house. The school is kind of hard to describe. It’s completely gated and is built in sort of square shape with a concrete courtyard in the center. There are two levels of classrooms and the walkways are completely open to the courtyard. You can basically see the door to every classroom from the center. I only went in one classroom, but it was very small with a white board and about 45 desks in cramped rows. Luckily, because I was placed with one of the artists that focuses on theater, we held our class outside in the common space. We’re working with two different classes of third graders to prepare a short play. The kids seem to be really excited for our time with them, but they’re very difficult to work with. A lot of them are poor and come from abusive families, so they desperately want love and attention. Some of them consistently get into physical fights and have a very hard time listening. The Arteducarte artists are constantly talking about how poorly behaved they are and how the education system has so many problems. We’re in sort of a unique position because we only work each group of kids one period of the day once a week, but I hope to learn more about the underlying issues.

On Friday I got up early and went walking in the park with my host mom and later I met up with some other girls and we went back to the market near the university. On Saturday we finally had our first real rain storm since I’ve been here. I have to say….I’ve really enjoyed the nice weather, although I know we need the rain. I went to a museum with a few other girls in the program and we found that getting around in the rain is a lot more difficult. We had to take a few different forms of transportation to get to the museum, by which time we were pretty soaked. It took us about 45 minutes to find a taxi that wasn’t occupied (apparently everyone splurges for taxis when it rains). However, we really enjoyed the museum when we finally got there. Unfortunately our guide spoke Spanish with a very thick accent (possibly Russian or French), so it was a bit difficult to understand. The museum features the work of Oswaldo Guayasamín, who is a Quito native. His paintings are very powerful, as many of them portray the pain and suffering under the various Latin American dictatorships.

After the museum we went our separate ways for lunch. A bit later I met up with Sally (a girl in the program) to begin searching for a place to rent helmets, which we needed in order to go on a hiking trip the next day. Every store was closed, so we stopped for coffee instead. Since Ecuadorians don’t seem to drink much black tea, I had been thinking I might need to try coffee soon. We both got Moccachinos (chocolate and coffee) and I quite enjoyed it. However, later that evening (after some additional hot chocolate at dinner) I had Dietary Revelation #1: caffeine and/or chocolate do not agree with me. I really hadn’t had much chocolate or caffeine since I’d gotten to Ecuador, and I’ve had a few other instances since then that have confirmed this revelation. This is quite unfortunate, considering how delicious chocolate is and how I need black tea to survive at Colgate. But…I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Anyway, we ended up borrowing helmets from some friends and got to bed early. On Sunday we left at 6 am to meet several members of the Andinismo club for a hiking trip to the mountain Illiniza Norte: 16,784 ft. Since it was still dark, all we could do was hope that it wouldn’t be as rainy as the day before. I was especially desperate for good weather, since my synthetic hiking pants ended up in the “I don’t have room for this in my suitcase” pile and I left the house in cotton spandex, sofie shorts, and sneakers. Luckily it was a perfect day. After about an hour bus ride and another hour in the back of a “chiva” (basically a pick up truck that provides cheap transportation) we arrived at the base of the mountain. We each took turns using nature’s bathroom, and since I was last I decided to jog up the hill so as not to hold up the group. Poor decision: I was out of breath before we even started the hike. For about the first 10 minutes all I could think was “oh my god, there is no oxygen here, I’m never going to make it.” Luckily this feeling passed quickly and the hike went really well! It was a little bit challenging at times, but considering the general lack of exercise in my daily routine (minus my 10 minute walk to the university), I was quite surprised by my ability. The first part of the hike was about 2 ½ hours to the lodge. We stopped to eat our lunch and rest a bit.

The second part of the hike—about another hour and a half—was completely rock. We climbed up, up, and further up, using our hands the entire way. There was also some snow on the ground, which made certain parts a bit slippery and difficult. In general, I was pleased with the amount of traction my sneakers provided. We made it to the top, which was literally a rocky peak with not much room for the entire group. We had to climb back down some steep rocks, then we headed over to a different route with was entirely sand-like dirt, several inches thick, at a sharp decline. It was really hard to walk in at first, but then I watched everyone else and realized the technique was more like skiing. Once I got the hang of it it was kind of fun. However, I’m not sure if I’ll be bringing my formerly white sneakers (now encrusted with dirt) home with me. Overall it was an awesome day….my favorite day in Ecuador so far. I couldn’t stop smiling the whole way home. Unfortunately I got sick about an hour later. I think it was some kind of delayed sunstroke/dehydration/altitude reaction with nausea and a fever. I got over it quickly and I’m better now!

This Saturday we head off to the Amazon (Misahualli) for our first IES trip! We’ll be back Tuesday, so my next post might be a little bit delayed. It looks like we’ll be doing some pretty awesome stuff there! Cross your fingers I don’t come back one giant bug bite…

Illiniza Norte:

Flor del Andinista: national flower of Ecuador

At the peak!

dirt skiing

The Museum: