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!!!!