Buena Gente y Nuevos Amigos

Ok so I got a little behind again. Last weekend was a lot of fun. We headed to Riobamba on Friday morning, which is about 4 hours away. There were five of us from the program, plus two Ecuadorian students. Adriana, one of the Ecuadorian girls who is the student that one of my friends tutors in English, was nice enough to invite us to stay in her home. She is originally from Riobamba, so she usually goes back to spend the weekend with her family. They were all extremely nice and very welcoming. When we first got there we stopped into a restaurant for lunch. The place looked pretty upscale, so we were all hoping it wouldn’t be too expensive, since we usually try to stick to a pretty frugal budget. It turns out they have a pre-set daily menu, so you don’t have any choice in meals. They brought us the little slips of paper displaying what they would be serving us, which turned out to be an amazing four-course meal for $3.50, including some kind of bruschetta type appetizer, soup, a fish dish, and chocolate cake. Although we spent so much time marveling over the quality and quantity of the meal for the price, it turns out that we didn’t even have to pay. We soon came to realize that our Ecuadorian hosts were insisting on covering our food for the weekend—extremely unnecessary, but so kind of them. We proceeded to drop off our bags at her house, then walk around the city for a bit. We went to El Museo de Concepción, which is apparently contains one of the best collections of religious art in Ecuador. They have a really intense security system, which requires ID, a photograph, and fingerprint scanning, because some really valuable things were stolen a few years ago. Overall the museum was pretty interesting, with a wide variety of pieces. We hung out in the city for a bit longer, then headed back to the house to relax a bit. We played some card games—we taught them a game and they taught us one. There’s this game called “cuarenta” (forty) that’s native to Quito. I had played it once before with my host siblings, but it’s incredibly weird and confusing, but fun once you start to figure it out. For dinner our hosts served us humitas and chimbolitos, which are typical Ecuadorian foods. They’re both cooked wrapped in leaves and they’re with what I think is a corn-based mixture. Overall it was a good day.

Museum:

Plaza in Riobamba:

On Saturday we woke up early hoping to head over to Chimborazo, Ecuador’s tallest mountain, and because of the equatorial curve it’s the highest point from the center of the earth. Unfortunately it was really cloudy, so we decided to wait and see if it cleared up a bit. In the mean time, we headed over to this big Saturday market with our Adriana’s mom. There is a huge produce section, which is quite overwhelming. We bought a few fruits to try (I’ve realized that I’ve barely tried any of Ecuador’s many fruits in whole fruit form, only in juice). Then we headed over to the animal section of the market. After passing the sea of people and cows, the mom took us back to where they hold that have been selected for food. We saw a guy slaughter a pig with a knife, then proceed to hose the blood down the drain, hook the pig, hang it, blow torch it, and send it into the next room to be skinned and sliced in half. Although it was a slightly disturbing experience, it was definitely interesting and I had to remind myself that the whole process is still probably a lot more humane than factory farming in the US. If we had wandered through the market on our own, we never would have seen what we did, so it was nice to have a guide! Afterwards we decided to head to Chimborazo, even though it was still a bit cloudy. Adriana had a doctor’s appointment, so her brother was nice enough to go with us, which was great because it’s complicated to get there without a car. Their two little cousins came along, and they were absolutely adorable. You can drive up to the second refuge, which is what we did. We passed some wild llamas on the way! From there, we made the easy half hour trek to the third refuge, which is right at the base of the rocky, snowy ascent. Unfortunately you need a guide, special gear, and ice-climbing experience to summit, but being at the third refuge was pretty cool. The clouds would occasionally shift so that we could see the peak, which was just one of the incredible sights that can’t quite be captured on film. It has gotten quite late by the time we got back, so instead of heading back to the house for lunch we ate out, and they again insisted on paying for our food. We headed back to the house to rest for a while, then we went out for a light dinner and some delicious ice cream.

Market (I spared you the bloody pig pictures):

Chimborazo:

At the refuge

Our new friends!

Wild mommy and baby llama

Another view of the mountain

Ice cream

Sunday morning we headed into the city for a little more sightseeing. Unfortunately I woke up feeling a little sick, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as the other times. We saw some churches and tried ceviche de chochos, which is typical of Riobamba. Ceviche is like a tomato-based soup, but very thin. It has onions and tomatoes in it and a kind of limey flavor. They have all different kinds, but chochos are type of corn. They also put cuero (pig’s skin) in it. I ate a piece before I knew what it was—not terrible, but interesting texture. We ate around it when we came across one with little hairs sticking out of it. We walked around a bit more, then met up with Adriana’s parents, who took us to the lookout of the city. Then we headed over to another market, where we tried another traditional dish of Riomamba: hornado. Basically they put an entire pig in the oven, and have it sitting out just like that so slice and serve. It might off-putting to some, but it’s really good. We headed back to get our backs and took an early afternoon bus back to Quito. It was really a great trip, with great people, and new experiences!

This past week was supposed to be a little busy with schoolwork, as I had to finish reading a book in time for an exam, prepare a presentation, and write an essay. But every time I have slightly more work than can be accomplished stress-free, something always seems to get moved. I finished the book in time, but we ended up not having the exam, and the essay got moved. So overall it was a good week. I was supposed to have a field trip to the zoo on Saturday, but that also got moved. I decided to stay in Quito anyway, since I’ve been gone the past four weekends. On Thursday night I went to a Deportivo Quito soccer game, which was a lot of fun. The stadium wasn’t that full since it was a Thursday, but we one 1-0, which was pretty exciting. Afterwards I finally tried Shawarma for the first time, which everyone on the program is obsessed with. It’s actually a Middle Eastern thing, and I think it’s kind of the equivalent of falafel in the US, except it’s made with chicken. It’s basically a chicken wrap with really good flavor.

Sporting our $5 jerseys at the game

On Friday I took a day trip with two other girls to Papallacta, which is a spot in the mountains with natural hot springs. It’s about two hours away and perfect for a day trip. Although it was a bit cool and rainy, we found that that actually enhances the experience of the hot springs. We had a nice relaxing day, and headed back to Quito in time for dinner. My host mom’s sister and brother-in-law are finally visiting from the US, so we’ve been having leisurely two-hour dinners with lots of interesting conversation.

Papallacta

Everyone decided to make Saturday a homework day, so I hung out and tried to be productive. I headed out late afternoon to meet up with some friends who decided to check out a concert against Machismo. I discovered a new band that’s pretty good called L.E.G.O.! I headed back home briefly, then went out again to meet up with some people at a restaurant, where there was supposedly another type of concert going on. It was described as poetry put to Latin music and hip-hop, and it turned out to be pretty cool. One of our friends has a couple friends from school who are traveling around Ecuador, so they met up with us and were really nice. Unfortunately I’m starting to get a sinus thing or something, so I wasn’t feeling that great.

Today (Sunday) I spent some time with my host family. We had a large breakfast around 10 and then got ready to go. We didn’t really have any specific plans when we left, so we ended up going to eat lunch around 12:30. Sometimes the eating here really confuses me. Some people barely eat anything between lunch and bed, even though I think most people would be hungry. But then it’s also normal to eat a large breakfast and have lunch two hours later? I don’t get it. Nonetheless, I had a light shrimp ceviche, which was really good. Afterwards we went to the Botanical Gardens, which is in the park right by the IES office. I hadn’t gone there yet because I’m going to visit with my class, but it was still beautiful. We drove around to do a couple other errands, then headed home. Tonight I plan on getting some homework done.

Botanical Gardens:

Sad news: There have been three casualties so far – my brown sweater that I wear all the time (dropped it while walking somewhere), my deck of playing cards (left them in Riobamba), and my one and only bikini that I’ve had for about five years that had a twisty tie holding the back together (apparently I left it somewhere…not quite sure).

Bad news: I’m fairly positive I’m gaining weight, but NO ONE in this country owns a scale. Hopefully I don’t have a heart attack when I get home and find out just how bad the damage is…

Amazing news: WE LEAVE FOR THE GALAPAGOS ON THURSDAY!!!!

#1 Rule for Ecua-Family Vacations: Go with the flow

So last week I managed to get sick with another stomach thing, which is starting to get a little frustrating. Luckily none of them have been that bad though. My host parents left for Loja on Wednesday, but because I had a test on Thursday I decided to get a plane ticket to fly down Friday morning. Unfortunately because I was sick I couldn’t even take the test, but I already made it up no problem. So I headed to the airport on Friday morning, although I was still pretty weak from being sick. Despite that however, I think that it was the best flight I’ve ever had. It was only 45 minutes, which I’d say is definitely worth the money compared to a 14-hour bus ride. The best part though, was that we flew right by Cotopaxi, which is Ecuador’s most famous volcano. Although I plan to travel to a location where I can at least see Cotopaxi (I’ve accepted that I don’t have the time to dedicate to preparing myself to climb it, which involves ice climbing classes), I know that seeing it from an airplane is a completely unique experience. There were no clouds obscuring our view, and we were just far enough away that we could see the entire thing perfectly, but up close. We were also just above it, so I could see inside the crater, although it was pitch black because the volcano isn’t active. Unfortunatley I sent all of my luggage and my values in the car with my host parents so that I wouldn’t have to deal with it on the plane. I wished so badly that I could have taken a picture!

I arrived at 9:30am and was greeted by my host parents, as well as my host dad’s parents. My host family lived in Loja up until about 4 years ago, and they have a lot of extended family down there. We headed back toward the city, which is about 30 minutes from the airport. They can’t actually build an airport in Loja because it’s too mountainous. They showed me around the city a bit, then we went to eat at a really nice restaurant. I was kind of bummed because I still couldn’t eat much. We said goodbye to the grandparents and continued on our way around the city. My family still owns the apartment they used to live in, but they’re currently redoing the bathrooms and preparing to sell it. Every time they visit they have a million things to take care of, which is part of why they needed to go in the first place. The rest of the afternoon my host mom needed to meet with a bunch of people and pick out bathroom tiles, so she gave me the option of staying at her niece’s house to take a nap. Although I didn’t want to waste any of my time in Loja, I decided that I needed the rest and I didn’t really feel up for all the errands. She finally came back around 5:30 and told me we needed to drive out to their cabin to drop off some materials. At this point I was pretty confused, as I thought the main point of the trip had been to go to the cabin. I knew that we had to hike there, so I was pretty sure we wouldn’t be doing that since it was already getting dark. We dropped off the stuff on the main road with a guy who I think does some work for them, then we headed back to Loja. The niece had invited us for dinner, but by the time we got there it was about 9pm. In the meantime, we had picked up all my stuff because I was apparently staying at their house, while my host parents were staying with the grandparents.

The next morning my host mom came to pick me up, and we proceeded to run some errands. I waited in the car with the 9-year-old nephew while the niece (who is probably in her late 20s) and my host mom visited a few different stores to buy bathroom sinks and toilets. The adventure ended up being longer than everyone expected, but we finally headed out toward the cabin. It had been raining all day, so we needed to kill some time anyway. We went a bit further down the main road to eat lunch and visit Vilcabamba, which is a quiet, but touristy, town. On the way there, my host mom realized that she had forgotten the keys to the cabin, so we would need to return to Loja. After lunch we stopped by my host dad’s uncle’s house (the uncle disappeared for 40 years and was living on the Columbian frontier up until last year). Then we drove back to Loja and offered a ride to two elderly people who had been at the uncle’s house (I think they’re related to my family somehow). I found out after the fact that the wife has Alzheimer’s, and she was asking me the same questions the whole way there. Although I suppose I should be flattered because she couldn’t seem to get it straight that I wasn’t Ecuadorian and hadn’t ever lived in Loja. We dropped them off, picked up the keys, and drove back out to the cabin. We parked the car and began the hike (about 45 minutes) out to the cabin. Shortly after we got there, my host parents realized they had left the keys to the main bedroom (where they lock up all the important stuff when they’re gone) in the car, so they had to hike back to get them. Although I felt bad, I couldn’t help but laugh at how crazy the day had been.

The view from the cabin was absolutely amazing. The entire trip was worth it just to sit in a hammock in the middle of the mountains in Ecuador for 5 minutes. They only built the house two years ago, and because you have to hike to it, it’s still very much lacking in furniture. There is only one bed (which I was lucky enough to sleep in), although they have some egg crate type mattress things too. I felt slightly guilty, as I spent almost all my time there reading in a hammock, while my host parents did a bunch of things to fix up and clean the cabin. The next morning we walked around a bit to put up a couple birdhouses. The property borders a national park, but unfortunately we didn’t have time to explore it at all. I now understand why my host parents had originally wanted the trip to be a week long, but it just didn’t work out. They had said we were going to go out to eat lunch because there wasn’t much food, but the next thing I knew all the bags were on the porch; apparently we weren’t coming back. I had to laugh a bit simply because I had been so unaware of any type of plan all weekend, which is not usually how I roll. But I figured it would be best to just go with the flow. We got some lunch and then we drove around the city some more, while my host mom and her sister explained lots of things. Then we went to the zoo with the nephew. We stopped back over at the grandparents’ house so I could say goodbye, then I went back to the niece’s house to spend the night.

The next morning we left at 5:15am in preparation for the 11 hour drive (luckily a car doesn’t take as long as a bus). It was really cool to get to drive through almost all of Ecuador, South to North. We were surrounded by mountains the entire drive; sometimes it really felt like we were in a painting. We drove around the city of Cuenca a bit, which is Ecuador’s third most important city after Quito and Guayaquil. The architecture is much more colonial, and in general it has a very different feel than Quito. I’m definitely planning to return for a longer visit. We passed Chimborazo, which is Ecuador’s tallest mountain, and Cotopaxi (which was nothing compared to what I saw from the airplane, although it was cloudy so we couldn’t see the peak). Overall the drive really wasn’t too bad. Although the trip was short and a little crazy, I’m definitely glad I went.

Tomorrow morning I’m heading off to Riobamba with some IES students. We’re also going with an Ecuadorian student who one of the girls has become friends with. Her parents have a house there, so we’re going to stay with them for free and practice our Spanish!

One of the several plazas in Loja

A church in Vilcabamba

The view of the cabin from the road

The cabin up close

The fireplace

The view #1

The view #2

The view #3

My host mom and her nephew

Me! (cabin in the background)

On our way home: some clouds down in the mountains

The central plaza in Cuenca

A church in Cuenca

A pretty view on our drive

Cotopaxi from the ground...can't see the snowy peak

Baños: the city, not the bathroom

This past weekend I went to Baños with a small group of students. It was my first time traveling two weekends in a row, which was a little weird, but after looking through my planner and realizing how little time I actually have left, I decided I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. We took the trole (a form of public transportation in the city) all the way to the south stop. The ride was about an hour, but it was cool to ride through parts of the city I haven’t seen. From there we had a pretty easy 3-hour bus ride to the south. We arrived and made it to our hostel (everything in Baños is walking distance), where we met the extremely friendly owners and settled into our rooms. It had started raining, so we decided to go grab some lunch at a little Mexican place. By the time we were done, it was sunny again!

For the worriers, let me preface what I’m about to say with this: I did not partake in the activity I’m about to explain. There’s this thing here in Ecuador called “puenting” (puente means bridge), which is kind of like bunging jumping, but with a non-stretchy rope. Basically you dive off the side of a bridge in a body harness until the rope is taut and then you swing underneath it. A few of my friends decided they wanted to do it, so we headed to the bridge after lunch. To no avail, they tried their hardest to get us party poopers to participate. Despite the fact that they swore to me that your stomach doesn’t drop (the feeling I hate so much and the reason I don’t ride roller coasters), I decided to stand my ground. We explored the town for a while, which was fun. It’s really touristy, but there are lots of cute markets with this well-known candy called melcocha, which is basically like taffy.

Around 6:30 we decided to head over for an evening dip in the hot springs.Unknowingly we first tried to get into what turned out to be their hottest pool: a stifling 138 degrees. Needless to say, we couldn’t dip our feet in for more than 3 seconds, so we headed up the medium temperature pool, which was just right. We hung out there for a while, then decided to give the hotter pool another try. It was much easier the second time, but we decided to get out after about 5 minutes of sweating profusely. We headed back to our hostel and whipped up (or rather Philip whipped up) some delicious pancakes involving berries, bananas, chocolate, etc. (Side note: it’s incredible that you can pay $6 a night to stay in such a friendly environment with clean rooms, hot water, and a kitchen available for use). That night we hung out for a while, checked out the nightlife, and went to bed in preparation for our big plans the next day.

On Saturday we got up and made some eggs and each rented a bike from the hostel for $5. We set out on “La Ruta de las Cascadas” (Highway of the Waterfalls). It’s the road that leads to the jungle, and we had been told it’s a must-do activity in Baños. The entire route is 61km, but most people only go the 18km to the Pailón del Diablo waterfall, which is what we did. This section of the route is mostly downhill and you pass about four other waterfalls. We hiked down to one of them, which was pretty cool. You have to hike to the last waterfall as well, and then you can pay $1 to climb through a rocky tunnel and go behind the waterfall. We got totally soaked, but it was really cool. Luckily since we were already wet we didn’t mind as much when it started pouring on the hike back. We stopped for lunch then headed back to Baños on a “chiva” (the main transportation for those returning with their bikes). I’m still not quite sure how the guy managed to strap so many bikes on successfully. The ride was pretty easy, but my butt is still recovering. (Maybe we should have saved the hot springs for that night?)

Once we got back, we cleaned up and rested for a bit. Then we headed out to climb the 600 hundred stairs (plus some dirt paths that aren’t included in that count) up to the altar on the mountain. We were also climbing in flip-flops, since all of our sneakers got soaked at the waterfalls. We made it to the top in time to watch the sunset (which had been our plan), then we climbed back down and headed to a nice Italian place to celebrate Philip’s birthday (a student on the program). The owner was really friendly, told us that his restaurant was our home, and gave Philip a free piece of chocolate cake! We rushed back to the hostel in time to catch the 9pm bus tour up the mountain, where you can sometimes see the glowing lava of the volcano Tungurahua if you’re lucky. We didn’t see anything, unfortunately, but there was a cool performance with some guys juggling fire. We headed back into town, where we attempted to find a place with a decent selection of karaoke in English. It didn’t quite work out, but we’re planning to go in Quito at some point. (Speaking of singing, another student and I are trying to start an a cappella group because we miss it terribly – more details to come).

The next morning we were planning to leave around 10, but decided it would be nice to stop for breakfast first. We all wanted the same thing, so trying to make things easier one girl said “tres tradicionales,” which comes with eggs, bread, juice, and coffee/tea/hot chocolate. We proceeded to tell her which hot drinks we each wanted and what kind of juice. Our juice arrived and tasted very strange, so we asked if we could get a different kind. After a very long time, we realized that everyone else who had come in after us had been served. We weren’t sure if she was mad about the juice and giving us poor service on purpose, but we finally asked about our food. Turns out she had missed that order altogether. So not only did we wait forever, but then she proceeded to charge us for the juice separately, even though we thought we had ordered it as part of the meal. Overall it was an interesting experience; our Spanish is pretty decent, so it was a little weird that there had been such a miscommunication. Anyway, the food was good and we hopped on the bus with full stomachs. The trip was easy and we were home by late afternoon!

Other news: I think I might be finally heading to Loja with my family on Friday morning. It’s not completely finalized, but looks promising.