Quilotoa and Study Abroad Assignment

A couple weeks ago, I went with my friends Megan and Stephanie to a lagoon in a crater in a volcano called Quilotoa. To get there we took the bus to Latacunga, and then took another bus to a tiny little town called Zumbahua. From Zumbahua, we hired a ride to take us the rest of the way to Quilotoa. This ride was a fun experience as there were four of us squeezed into the front of a truck (somebody got to sit on somebody's lap each way), for a very bumpy ride, in the rain, with no windshield wipers. We got to the Lagoon safe and sound though, and then started a little walk down a very muddy trail to get a view of the lagoon. The trail was actually very long, but we did not go the whole way. Just to a nice view point, or, what would have been a nice view point if you had been able to see anything through the very dense fog. We decided to hang out at our view point for a little while, eat some fruit, take some pictures, and during this time, the fog started to clear. So then we legitimately took pictures as the view continued to improve. It was rather cold though, so after awhile we headed back up the trail and went to a little café where we had soup and tea, and then got back in our crazy truck to go back to Zumbahua. It had stopped raining while we were at the lagoon, but it was raining again when we arrived in Zumbahua. We then got to spend an hour in the rain waiting for a bus to come through that was going back to Latacunga. When we finally got on that bus, there weren't enough seats, so I got to stand the whole time. With the buses in Ecuador when traveling outside of the city, the way the prices generally work is that it costs $1 an hour. The man collecting money on the bus told us that it was going to be $1.25. We were okay with this, but then the people around me started telling me that it was actually only $1 and he was trying to rip us off. So we questioned him, at which point he told us flat out, foreigners pay more.
We got back to Latacunga, and then got another bus back to Quito. On the way into Quito we passed by the trolebus station and Megan and Stephanie both got off there, and I kept going to Terminal Terrestre to get a cab. At Terminal Terrestre, there are lots of cab drivers there waiting for the people to get off buses, but they always want to rip you off. Especially because they know you don't really have another option, especially at night, as it's not the safest part of Quito. I had spent more money than I had planned during the day and only had $3 left. So I got off the bus and a guy asked me right away if I needed a cab, so I told him I needed to go to Mariana de Jesus and asked him how much that would cost (you can barter for prices when leaving Terminal Terrestre as they don't use the meters then). He told me $4, and I told him I had $3, and we went back and forth for awhile. He told me $4 was a fair price (which it's not), and even got his other taxi driver friends to tell me that $4 was a fair price. But we did eventually settle on $3, and walked over to his cab. Which turned out to be an unmarked car. Although not my smartest decision, and not something I would do again, although it worked out fine this time, I got in. He turned out to be a nice guy and we talked on the way home, mostly about Ecuador and places I've been. He's from Riobamba. He also told me how difficult it is for Ecuadorians to get Visas to go to the US, but he really wants to go. He asked me how I like the food here, and I said I loved it, and he said that there are a lot of really good meats here, at which point I told him I was vegetarian, which he found hilarious.
All in all, it was a good day, and a good adventure.
As part of being abroad, I have some questions to think about and answer in terms of life in Ecuador, so I am going to try to answer those now.
One of the things I did for my assignment was talk to the nanny who works in my house, Mirella. Mirella is 23, has 3 kids, and is a single mother. She lives at my house Monday through Friday, and the whole time I've been here, I've been feeling sorry for her because she only gets to see her kids on the weekends. I recently found out though that her kids live in Cuenca with their grandmother and the rest of her family. This means that she does not get to see them most weekends as Cuenca is an 11-13 hour bus ride, or a plane ride away, and she does not have the money to go see them more than once every month or two. She stays here though because she has a job, and in that particular sector of jobs, it is hard to find work, and harder to find work with decent pay. Ecuador has a machismo culture, which translates to families as well. Men are not required to help in the situations of single mother, or a family that gets divorced. The kids are the mother's responsibility, no questions asked, and the father has no obligations either in the legal sense, or what is culturally acceptable. Mirella told me that once she asked the father for help, but he said no, and in such a rude and mocking way that she will never ask him again. This is a part of her life that is determined by culture.
Mirella is one of 13 kids, and she is the only one who does not live in Cuenca. In Ecuador, families tend to stay close, even once they have married and have families, or have moved out of the house. My host brother Fausto lives with his wife and child in an apartment that is attached to my house, and my 28 year old sister still lives at home. This is VERY normal. So Mirella really branched out by going to Cuenca, and she does miss her family, especially her kids, terribly. She plans to never leave Ecuador as that would be far, too far, away from her family and she can't imagine living her life like that. This is both culture, and her own personality. My host sister on the other hand, has broken the cultural norms in that she is very independent. She loves her family very much of course, but also loves to travel and has traveled all over Europe, and various other places as well. When I got here she was in Argentina where she was living for 6 months. She was there for work, but it was not a great sacrifice to her. She is also looking for an apartment to move into, which makes my host mom very sad as she is "only" 28.
The other thing I'm going to address is perceptions of the US in Ecuador. First let it be said that no Ecuadorian likes George Bush and there was A LOT of excitement here when Obama won the election. In general though, the US is seen as a place of opportunity for Ecuadorians. For instance, my taxi driver who desperately wants to go to America, and asked me, half joking, if there was anyway I could take him back with me. Gringas in Ecuador attract a lot of attention, and part of the time, especially with the more serious people who hit you up as you walk down the street, you know that the reason is a chance at America. It's the Green Card effect. Another reason though, that gringas draw a lot of attention, is from the people who believe stereotypes about American girls, such as that they are all easy, and all rich, either of which could result well for the guys calling out to them. There is an overall perception that Americans are rich, which you find in situations such as bartering, when the prices start WAY too high. It's kind of a shock to a lot of people that I work, let alone that I work more than one job, when I'm at home, because they don't think of Americans as having to work that much. And I for sure, am not rich. The most common question that I hear though when people here I am from the US, whether it be from my family, a street vendor, a security guard, etc. is, "Have you been to/are you from Florida/Miami or New York?" These are the places that most Ecuadorians have been if they have been able to get to the states, or they know somebody there, or their cousin has a friend there, or they once worked with a guy who's brother had a friend who went there. I have met one man who went to Oregon though. These are the general perceptions about America, life in America, and people from America.
I will be posting another blog in the near future about my AMAZING trip to the rainforest, and then, in less than a month, I'll be home!

Ecuador is not always fun . . .

I wrote the story about the backpack getting stolen where Kayla and I were in the mall. Well, last night we got robbed again. We were at a birthday party at ACLAS and we left at about 7:30, Kayla and I, and another girl from our group named Hilde. We had just left ACLAS and were no more than 50 feet from the building still when a couple of guys in the street pulled guns on us and demanded our bags. We gave them to them of course, and then they drove away, and we ran back to ACLAS and called the police. We were able to give them the license plate number and description of the car, but they were not hopeful about anything coming of it. I would have to say that this was my least favorite Ecuador experience.

Saraguro y Cuenca

About a week and a half ago, we went to a city in the south of Ecuador called Cuenca for an ACLAS sponsored trip. We flew to Cuenca on Friday morning and from there went to a town called Saraguro. Saraguro is a town with an indigenous population, what interestingly enough, I had just read about in my Andean Anthropology class. On our first afternoon in Saraguro, we went on a Chiva ride to see the population of Gera (another indigenous population). A chiva is kind of like an open bus. There are bench seats and no walls so that you can see everything as you go on your ride, and you can also ride on top. The ride through Gera was beautiful. Lots of mountains and scenery. At one point we drove a school and all the kids ran after us, and followed us all the way to the end of the road we were on, which was a good distance from where they started. Once they had caught up to us though and we were stopped they were very shy. We were told that the indigenous children tend to be very shy of gringos and cameras. They were very cute kids. We went to see a little museum that was near where we stopped as well as the Gera church. At the museum, another girl in my group named Kailey, and I made friends with a few of the little girls that had followed us. Although they don't want to have their pictures taken, they are very curious about digital cameras and were enthralled with looking at the pictures that Kailey and I had taken. After this we went to the home of our guide where we drank a traditional beverage that I have no idea how to spell the name of. It is fermented cactus juice made from the plant Penko Mexico, and we learned how to toast by saying "ishkandi ishkandi".
On our second day in Saraguro we made the climb to see "Banos de los Incas" which are the Incan baths. The climb was hard and muddy, and the added altitude caused a challenge but the view from the top was incredible. At the top, we were also able to take part in traditional healing/cleansing ritual, which was very interesting. After the ritual, we walked over to see the actual baths, which consist of waterfalls and pools, and then we made our way back down the trail. At the bottom of the trail we went to a house where there is a family who hand weaves purses, blankets, hats, etc. And after spending some time there, we went to another community where we had a traditional lunch including trigo, mote, and cuy (wheat, corn, and guinea pig). After lunch we made the 3.5 hour bus ride back to Cuenca where we would stay for the rest of the weekend.
We got to Cuenca when it was already dark and went out for dinner and ice cream. That weekend was a holiday in Cuenca so there were lots of street performers out and about and we got to watch a really cool performance by a few guys that spun fire, juggled fired, juggled other things, and were really fun to watch. We even took a pitcture with them because they were so cool.
On Sunday we went to El Cajas Parque Nacional, which is famous for the hundreds of lagoons that can be found there. We went an about a three hour hike there, which was beautiful, and then went back to Cuenca for a city tour. Cuenca, like Quito, is an international heritage site, and has beautiful historic buildings, especially in the Historical District. Once again, we had the evening free and I went out with my friends. First we got colada morada and guaguas de pan, which are the traditional drink and food for Dia de Difuntos, which is like Dia de los Muertos. Colada Morada is delicious. One of my new favorite drinks, but it is really only made at the time of year, so I am not likely to get to have it again. We made it in my house also, and it was very good. It has about a dozen different kinds of fruit in it and spices, and can be had hot or cold, although I prefer hot. On Sunday night it rained so there weren't performers out in the streets again, which was disappointing. We did make a friend named Rueben though. He was a street vendor by the ice cream place we went to, and he made my friend Stacey and I presents.
On Monday, our last day, we headed out to Canar, which is home to Incan ruins. On our way there, we stopped in Biblian where there is a cathedral in a mountain and we went to see that. The ruins in Canar were beautiful, and amazing to see. In the afternoon, back in Cuenca, we went to a Panama hat factory, where we tried on many many hats, and learned a little about the hat making process. From there, we went to the airport, and said good-bye to Cuenca.
Cuenca was a beautiful city, and I liked it more than I like Quito. If I were to live in Ecuador one day, it might be in Cuenca.

Riobamba and Cotopaxi

Many more adventures have been happening in Ecuador. Here are the adventures of Riobamba and Cotopaxi:

Riobamba:

It started on Saturday morning getting to Terminal Terrestre to catch the bus
to Riobamba.  I went with Stephanie, from Willamette, our friend Victoria,
and her friends Laura and Emily.  Stephanie and I met on the trole so we
were together, which was good, and we were going to meet the other three
at the terminal.  We got a call from Victoria though that she was going to
be late, so we were not going to be able to leave as early as we had
planned.  Stephanie and I took the trole to La Marin, which is in south
Quito, and somewhere around there you can catch an Ecovia to the terminal,
but we weren't sure exactly where that was, and we had extra time, so we
decided to just walk to the terminal.  In retrospect, this was not the
smartest idea as the south, and especially near Terminal Terrestre, is not
a safe area for gringos especially to be walking in, but we made it there
unscathed.  Then we waited for Victoria and her friends and we finally
left at 9:45.  Then it is a 3.5 hour bus ride to Riobamba, which is
directly south of Quito.  We got to Riobamba and went for lunch, then went
to find the place where we could buy our train tickets for the next day.
We wanted to take the train to see Nariz del Diablo.  You can sit on the
top of the train for this, so it's pretty cool.  We bought our tickets,
and then paid another dollar to reserve a spot on the roof and to rent
cushions to sit on.  Then we went to find a hostel to stay at.  We ended
up finding a nice place called Hotel Whymper that was $10 a night, but we
bartered it down to $8.  The next thing we were planning to do was go to a
town just about five miles away from Riobamba called Guano.  I mostly
wanted to go because it was called Guano.  There is somewhere in Riobamba
that you can catch the bus to Guano, but we weren't sure where that was,
so we went and asked the guy working at the hotel where it was, and his
mother was there, so she offered to drive us.  She was a very nice woman.
So we took the bus to Guano and looked around a little bit and then headed
back to Riobamba.  Riobamba has a big fruit market on Saturdays so when we
got back, we went to the fruit market to buy food for the next day.  Then
we tried to find our way back to our hotel, which we did, eventually.
Then we went to dinner, and came back to call it an early night because we
had to be at the train at 6 the next morning.  All in all, Saturday was a
good day.
Saturday night is when it turned bad.  I woke up for the first time at
about 11:30 and my stomach kind of hurt, and there was a kareoke bar
somewhere near us that was very loud, and I was not pleased with either.
But I fell back asleep after awhile.  But I kept waking up off and on, and
at about 2 I woke up and couldn't fall back asleep.  The kareoke was still
going and my stomach was still feeling bad.  I finally got up to go to the
bathroom, and decided maybe I didn't feel as bad as I thought and tried to
go back to sleep again, and finally did at about 3.  At four, I woke up
again and decided maybe I really did feel that bad and ran to the
bathroom.  At about 4:30, I started throwing up.  I was very annoyed as I
was supposed to be getting on a train in an hour and a half.  I stayed in
the bathroom until 5:15 or so and then laid in my bed until 5:30 when it
was time to get up.  I decided to still go on the train anyway - at that
point, why not.  So I took immodium, and off we went.  We got to the train
at six to get our seats on the roof.  By seats, I mean there's a roof, and
you sit on it on your cushion.  There aren't actual seats.  It's pretty
funny.  The train actually pulls out at 7, and by this time I was feeling
a little less horrible, so that was good.  The first stop on the train was
at a little town called Guamote three hours later.  I felt very bad again
by this time, and had to go pay 20 cents to use the bathroom so I could be
sick and throw up some more.  We got about 20 minutes in Guamote before we
got back on the train.  So I took more immodium and just laid down as much
as I could on the train, and tried to keep still.  I finally decided to
take some Pepto Bismol, drink just a little bit of water, and then I
bought Sprite from one of the vendors who walks around on top of the train
selling snacks.  These things helped some.  I still mostly was just trying
to lay down and relax though.  This is how I got my face sunburned.
Sleeping on the train.  Face includes eyelids.  I sunburned my eyelids.
When I woke up a couple hours later though, I felt more better again.  The
reason I woke up though was because the train derailed.  It took some
time, but they fixed it, and we started going again.  And then the train
derailed again.  And then it took more time to fix it.  During this time,
Victoria, Laura and Emily got off the train to stretch a little bit and
were interviewed by the people there from ABC Nightly News, or whatever
their night program is called.  We thought this was funny.  They fixed the
train, we went a little ways, it derailed again, we waited, and then we
finally left for good.  And stayed on the track.  Shortly after that, we
pulled into a town called Asauli where more people got on the train, and
then began the final part of our journey to Nariz del Diablo.  This part
is very very pretty and I was glad I was feeling well enough to sit up and
enjoy it.  The first few hours of the trip had been very very cold, but
now it was hot.  We went down into a canyon to see Nariz del Diablo, which
was very beautiful.  We stopped for some amount of time at the end of the
trail so people could get out and see and I went back to sleep, and then
ended up sleeping most of the way back to Asauli.  We got off the train at
Asauli, and then we had to catch a bus to Riobamba to we could catch a bus
to Quito.  We were about 20 minutes, by bus, from Riobamba when the bus
stopped with a traffic problem.  We figured there had been an accident
ahead and that it must have been pretty bad as neither side of traffic
could get through.  After sitting there for about 20 minutes the bus
driver told us to all get off the bus and walk, so we did.  It turns out
that accident that had happend was with another bus, and it had flipped
over.  This is a difference between America and Ecuador - we walked
through the crash site.  Through the broken glass and paint that had
smeared on the road when the bus skid on it's side, close enough to touch
the bus.  Everyone did.  So we walked for awhile until we were able to
catch another bus into Riobamba that took us to the terminal there, and we
bought tickets for the 6:30 bus which was the next one to leave.  We had
been hoping to leave Riobamba at about 3:30 to get back to Quito at about
7, but that is not how the day worked.  Finally, we got on a bus and went
home.  I got to my house at about 10:15, talked to my family a little and
then collapsed in bed.

Cotopaxi:

I went to Cotopaxi a few weekends ago.  I ended up not being able to go all
the way up to the base camp because it was too expensive, because you have
to hire a driver to take you there, and the people I was with did not have
enough money though.  It was still very fun though.  I went with
Stephanie, Stacey, Aimee and Kayla.  When we got there, we got off the bus
at the park entrance, and then there is a little information station right
there.  They do tours, and they try to make it look like they're actually
associated with the park, but they're not.  They told us that cold talk us
to the refuge for $20 a person to which we said heck no.  So then they
offered ten, which I could have done, but other people couldn't.  Then
they told us that there was no way for us to really get anywhere if we
didn't go with them, and we said, well, we'll try our best anyway, and we
started walking.  We had walked for about a mile or so when we met another
guy who takes people there and we convinced him to take us to a lagoon and
back for $25 (total) roundtrip (la ida y la vuelta).  He was a really good
choice of people to go with and very nice.  We were with him for about
three hours, which is pretty legit for $25, and although he didn't have to
do anything but drive us, he told us helpful things, and acted like a tour
guide, and even took us to a museum.  He also took our picture for us, and
offered us some of his potato chips.  Very nice man.  His name was Alonso.
The drive was really pretty, and the lagoon was pretty.  It was all
pretty.  There were quite a few clouds so we didn't always have a great
view of Cotopaxi, but we did have a nice one at times.  We also saw other
pretty mountains so that was cool too.  Then we came home and went on the
most exciting trole ride any of us had been on yet.  Somebody stole a
cellphone, and the lady realized her cellphone was stolen, so she started
yelling, and she though she knew who had done it so she was yelling at
them to give back her cell phone, it was a new phone, etc.  And then
everybody started yelling.  And then everybody in the whole trole was
yelling, so the trole driver stopped, and the transit police got on.  Then
the transit police took the lady and the guy she said took her phone off
and it was crazy.  And people were pounding on the doors and stuff, and
when we stopped it wasn't at an actual trole stop, so it was weird.  Very
exciting.

Time for an update

As it's been a very long time now since I've posted anything, I thought maybe it was time for an update. A lot has happened since August. I've been more places, and done more things, such as go to my host brother's Ecua-wedding, and of course, learned more Spanish. I have started classes, and now been in classes for awhile, at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, which is a private university that is actually a little bit outside of Quito in a town called Cumbaya. I am taking a Spanish conversation class, which is fun - it is good practice, with a good teacher, and other study abroad students from various places in the world, and also Antropología Andina (Andean Anthropology) which is a challenge, but has been going pretty well so far.

I went to Atacames, which is on the coast of Ecuador. This was a trip that everybody in my study abroad program went on for the weekend. It was a beautiful beach, although in my heart it didn't compare to Oregon. Atacames is a pretty touristy town, but we went after schools in Ecuador had started so it was not as crowded as it often is. There were little market areas in the town and lots of open air bars. Also, Atacames is where I discovered batitos, which is a beverage that is like a mix between a smoothie and a milkshake, and is amazing. And they're giant, and they only cost $1.00. I do not look forward to prices in the states once I get home because everything will seem so expensive. Overall, Atacames was a lot of fun. It was good to walk on the beach again, and play in an ocean that is not cold!

For part of my study abroad program, I am doing trabajo social (volunteer work) and I am working in Hospital de los Niños Baca Ortiz. It is a children's hospital for low-income families. I am working in the oncology ward, which is of course hard, but also very rewarding. The kids are incredible and I really enjoy spending time with them. The parents are usually there too, as many of the kids are not from Quito but came here for the hospital, and therefore their families don't have anywhere to stay here. Officially, we finish with our trabajo social at the end of November but I plan to keep working at the hospital up until it is time for me to go home.

Ecuador had an election! It was very exciting, in the times leading up to it. The election was to vote on a new constitution as the constitution had been suspended by the president, Rafael Correa. People tended to feel very strongly either Sí or No, including people within the same family. In my family, Papá Fausto, Deseña, María Isabel and Norma were all No, and Mamá Beatriz and Jaime were Sí. Fausto was undecided so everybody in the family was trying to persuade hime to vote their way. There were lots of political demonstrations in the days leading up to the election. I went to an Arkabuz concert (they are a band from Galápagos who was in Quito for the release of their first CD) at Plaza del Teatro in Centro Historico where there were demonstrations going on on the other side of the plaza. Centro Historico had lots of demonstrations as that is where many of the government buildings, including the president's house, are located. The election was on a Sunday, and Ecuador has a few rules about voting such as, it is illegal to not vote. Also, there is no drinking the weekend of the Election. That weekend is known as "La Seca", seca meaning dry. Starting Thursday, it becomes illegal to sell alcohol after 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and then it is also illegal to consume alcohol, even in the privacy of your own home until Sunday night. This includes to foreigners also. It is a very strict rule and police were out in full force to "enforce" it, although really, they were looking for bribes to not enforce it. In the end, the Sí won with some 70% of the vote.

This weekend is a holiday so everything was closed on Friday to celebrate the Foundation of Guayaquil. On Friday, I went to Mindo, which is about 2.5 hours outside of Quito. Mindo is the cloud forest and is a very beautiful place to be. Our whole day there was an adventure. We started off on a kind of sketchy bus that everytime we went around a curbe that made the bus lean to the right, it made a really bad sound, and then an equally bad smell. When we got off the bus at Mindo, we saw that the wheel was pressing against the wheel well, especially badly when making turns, so, we were lucky we didn't have any problems that came from that and we made it there safely. Then we ate lunch, and headed out. By the time we finished lunch, it was raining. We took a cab down into Mindo, and then up to the waterfalls. To actually get to the waterfalls, you go across a canyon in a metal box connected to a cable - it's kind of like ziplining in a box. Then you must hike to the waterfalls. The hike was really beautiful, as was the ride over the canyon. It was also pouring down rain though, so by 2:30 we were thouroughly drenched, as was the trail we were walking on, so our goal was not to fall in the mud. We made it to see two of the waterfalls before we went back up the trail to catch a bus back to Quito. We had been told that the last bus to Quito left at 6:00, and we got to the bus station at about 5:15. There they told us that the last bus for the day had left at 4, so we got a ride back up to the highway to catch a bus as it drove by. We stood by the highway for about 30 minutes with no buses having gone by when one of the cabs that takes people down into Mindo offered to take people back to Quito. It was truck, so about 15 people piled into the truck, and then the back of the truck. We stood there and thought about getting in the back of the truck with them, as we had seen no sign of a bus coming. Then we noticed that the truck had a flat tire and decided to just wait it out. At about 6:15, we noticed that there was a beautiful sunset, and went to take pictures. At this point, a bus came, so we ran, sprinted, over to the bus and hopped on. Luckily, the bus was almost empty. We had been figuring that we would have to stand all the way back to Quito, but we had seats, and a karate movie. We were of course still wet and cold, which was rather uncomfortable and the 2.5 hour bus ride, but we survived. We got back to Terminal Terrestre, which is the bus station in the south and were looking for a cab. A cab is always going to be a rip off from Terminal Terrestre, and especially at night, but it's the only safe way to get out of there. Almost right away a driver came up to us and offered to take us for $6, which is 3x more than it should cost. We said now to $6, so he offered five, and we told him it would only cost $2.50 at the most if he was running the meter. To this he offered the logic of, there are four of you, so if you went in two cabs and it was $2.50 each, then it would still be $5. Knowing we weren't really going to get a better deal we decided to just do it, and started walking over to the line of cabs that were waiting. He waved us over in a different direction though, so we followed him. It turned out his cab was a truck, so three of us got to sit in the back of a truck for our cab ride home, which we really found funny more than anything, especially as we were cold and wet still. I enjoyed the view out the back of the truck though as we drove through Quito, and did finally make it home, safely.

There are many more Ecua-adventures to come, including, Cuenca, Riobamba, and the rainforest. I will try to be better about updating this come those times.

More than a month!

I have now been in Quito for more than five weeks, which I find pretty exciting. In that time I feel I have done a lot, and learned a lot. Last weekend I went to Baños with most of the group from WU for a couple days. It was beautiful there, and we had a lot of fun. Baños is a small tourist town about 3.5 hours out of Quito, that is tucked away in the mountains. We got there on Friday night and then on Saturday we did tourist things. We took a 22km bike ride to see waterfalls, which were beautiful, and the ride included riding behind and under some of the small ones. Some people in our group went white water rafting in the afternoon. I opted not to, but that meant then, that I got to go over to the natural hot springs, which were also amazing. I left early the next morning to go back to Quito and do homework, where we also celebrated my Ecuadorian sister's birthday.

This week, I finished my intensive Spanish class at ACLAS, which meant final exams, two papers, and two presentations. I'm happy it's done! On Friday afternoon, our entire group went to a town named Otavalo for the night. On our way there, we stopped in Calderón, which is famous for wood carvings. Otavalo is a town that on the weekends, has a huge open air market. There are tons of venders and everything is cheap, but you have to barter for it. We were in the market from 8 am until 12 pm, where we all spent a lot of money, but also got a lot of amazing stuff, and finished our Christmas shopping. After the market, we went to Cuicocha for lunch. Cuicocha is beautiful. It is also in the mountains, as most things are here. What makes Cuicocha special is that there is a big crater at the top, and there is a lagoon in the crater. After Cuicocha, we went to Cotacochi, which is a town famous for the things they make out of leather. Leather is not something that really intrigues me, but they did have a lot of beautiful things there. Then we headed back to Quito, making one last stop in Cayambe. Cayambe is a tiny town, that is only on the map because they make fabulous biscocho (which is like biscotti) and cheese.

Although my experience in Quito has been mostly positive, I did also have my first really negative experience this week. I was in the mall, Quicentro, with a friend one day, getting lunch in a cafe there. While I was at the counter, a guy came up to my friend and pointed out that she had something smeared on her backpack and jacket,a nd offered to help her clean up. He took her to the employee bathroom, which led me to believe he was an employee, and she left her backpack on the floor and asked me to watch it. I was standing by her backpack when the guy came back and told me that my friend wanted her bag, and picked it up. I started to tell him that I could take it to her if she needed it, but then somebody else tapped me on the shoulder, which instinctively made me turn around. When I turned back the guy and the backpack were gone, for good. It turns out this is a pretty common scam, including putting something on somebody's jacket so you can help them clean up, and having another person there to distract anybody that might be getting in the way. It was a very frustrating and upsetting experience, but it definitely taught everyone in our group to be more careful with their things, and be aware of their surroundings.

As we are now done with our classes at ACLAS, we go to the Universidad de San Francisco tomorrow for orientation, and then start classes on Wednesday. We will also soon be starting our social service job soon. I will be working in a with cancer patients in a childrens hospital for low income families, which I'm sure will be hard, but also an enriching experience. All in all, I am looking forward to what will be coming my way in the next four months.

First Full Week

Well, today marks the end of my first full week in Quito. It went pretty well. I am enjoying my classes at ACLAS (Andean Center for Latin American Studies) so far, and I am figuring out how to get around Quito a little bit. Also, I am starting to understand more of what my family is saying, so that makes me very very happy.

This week, I learned to use the bus. Depending on what time of day you use the bus, it´s not so bad. There are times though that it can only be described as an experience. There is another Willamette student living across the street, Kayla, so luckily we learned to use the bus together, and her host mom, Maria Eugenia, showed us how to do it on the first day. In the morning, it is rush hour time. We leave our houses at about 7:45, walk down a big hill, so we get to the bus ¨stop¨ at about 8. There are some actual bus stops but you can pretty much wave down any bus, and just hop on as it drives by. When we get on the bus in the morning, there are usually 100+ people on it already. This makes it very difficult to move. I have found the best way to move through the crowd is to grab the overhead bars and just pull myself through non-existent spaces, because there really is no other option. There is even a man who has the job of standing at the open bus door to make sure nobody falls out. In the afternoon though, it´s not so bad.

At ACLAS, where all of us Willamette students are studying this month taking Spanish classes, we have also started taking dance classes on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. We are learning to Salsa right now, and later on, we will learn to Merengue. We will try at least. There are 17 of us, and we are all taking the class. The problem is that there are 13 girls and only 4 boys, so it makes partnering up a little bit difficult. We are working around that issue though, and it has been a lot of fun.

On Friday, a few of us went to a part of Quito called Mariscal, or Gringolandia. Kayla, Stephanie and I went earlier than most people to take some time to walk around, and eat dinner there before the night life starts up. We enjoyed are time, although we did end up getting kind of bored between the time that we finished eating, and things really start happening for the night. Gringolandia, true to it´s name has tons of gringos, and once it gets dark, the streets are completely full of people. We did meet up with other people from our group eventually, but by that time Stephanie and I had decided that as it was our first night out, we didn´t want to make it too late, and we both headed home at about 11, which is really when things are just getting started. It was a fun night though.

Today, I went to a country-ish part of Quito with my family and Kayla to see my brother Jaime´s house. He has a house, that is not completed yet, that has horses, and an amazing view of the mountains. My family, by the way, is something like this:

Papa Fausto, Mama Beatriz (who I won´t meet until Wednesday, as she has been in Argentina with my sister), my brother Fausto, his wife, Deseña, their baby, Mariapaz, Deseña´s mother, abuelita Carmen, my brother Jaime, my sister Maria Isabel (who is in Argentina right now) and today I met two more people, my niece Maria Elena, and my nephew Juan Jose. They are all very nice people, and I am looking forward to getting to know them better of the next few months. My niece and nephew are five year old twins, and they are adorable, so I can´t wait for them to come back again. Right now though, I have to study for a quiz that I have tomorrow. Chao!

Galapagos

I just returned from an AMAZING week in Galapagos. It went something like this:

On Sunday, we boarded AeroGal, flew from Quito to Guayaquil, and then to Baltra Island. Baltra Island is a tiny island that has an airport, and a base for the Navy. From the airport, we took a bus, to a ferry, which took us across a canal to Santa Cruz island, where we got on another bus, that drove us to the other side of Santa Cruz, where we got on a panga (which is like a dinghy) which took us to our cruise ship where we were staying for the week, Coral 1. From Coral 1 we got back on the panga, and went back to shore, where we got on another bus that took us to the Charles Darwin Research Station. That is where we first got to see Giant Tortoises (Tortuga). Our naturalist guide took us through the station to see all the different places with tortugas, including the babies, and Lonesome George. There is good news for Lonesome George though! Currently, he has three eggs, that may or may not turn into little George babies. We will just have to wait and see. Instead of getting back on the bus to leave the station, we walked through the town to do some shopping and such. Then we got back on the panga, and went back to the boat, concluding our first day.

On Monday we disembarked at Española Island. Españonla is one of the best places in Galapagos to see sea lions, Blue Footed Boobies, Nazca Boobies, marine iguana, and albatross. Also, on Española, you can find the blowhole, which creates a great picture opportunity. When we got back from Española we went swimming off the back of our boat, although I didn´t swim for long because the current was much stronger than I was in that area. Later on we went to Gardner Bay, which is on Española, and went snorkeling for the first time. They didn´t do any sort of teaching for how to snorkel, so it took me some time to figure it out, but from then on I had a great time! The snorkeling was beautiful, on the first day, my favorite thing that I saw was many different kinds of parrotfish. We were also able to walk on the beach there, which was covered by sea lions.

On Tuesday, we went to Floreana Island. Floreana is the last island in Galapagos where flamingos can be found. We did find them. Not close enough for good pictures, but close enough for us to see. We went snorkeling there also, which was where we saw our first shark - a white tipped reef shark. After lunch, we went to Champion Island, which is very close to Floreana, for deep water snorkeling. Deep water snorkeling was terrifying at first, and then amazing. And that was where we saw our first sea turtle. In the afternoon, we went back onto Floreana to go to the Floreana Post Office. The Post Office was created in the days of whaling ships. Men would leave letters for their families there, and the next person who came by was honor bound to take them back to deliver them if the address was anywhere near where they lived. The post office is still functional, although it is being used in the same way today. You can put in a postcard, and whenever a group comes through, you go through to see what the addresses are, and if you can, you take a letter to deliver in person. After we saw the post office we went snorkeling again. This time we saw dozens of sea turtles, and rays, as well as playing with sea lions in the water, all in all, making it an amazing day.

Wednesday we started off by going to North Seymour Island. This is a great place to find Frigate Birds, as there are many nesting areas there. There are a lot of nests for Blue Footed Boobies as well, and we saw many adorable baby birds. On Wednesday, some of the other people that had been on our cruise ship with us departed. While they were doing that, we went back to the beach at Baltra Island for some relaxation. In the afternoon, we went back to Santa Cruz Island to see land iguanas.

Thursday we went to Rabida Island in the morning. Rabida is the only island with a red sand beach. And we were able to go snorkeling there. In the afternoon, we went to Egas Port on Santiago Island, which has a black sand beach. There we saw adorable baby sea lions, penguins, tons of marine iguanas, and Darwin´s Toilet, which is a formation in the rocks on the coast. We also saw fur sea lions there, which is the second species of sea lion in Galapagos.

Friday we went to Fernandina Island in the morning. We saw three sea lions right away that had been born that morning and were tiny and incredibly cute. Fernandina Island is composed in large part of lava, so it was a really good chance to see two different kinds of lava. We were taking a group picture at one point when Eugenia, one of our ACLAS directors, lost her hat to the wind. It flew down into a crack in the lava. We had a rescue mission that was unsuccessful, but our guide told us he would get it when they came back the next week, so it won´t stay there forever. Afterwards, we went deep water snorkeling again and saw five sea turtles, and beautiful sea stars. In the afternoon, we went to Tagus Cove on Isabela Island. First we took a panga ride around the cove to see penguins, and then we took a hike up to the view point of Darwin Lake, which involves 170 stairs or so. Also that night on the boat, we celebrated crossing the Equator.

Saturday morning we went to Bartoleme Island in the morning. We were going up about 380 stairs to see the very famous and beautiful view of Pinnacle Rock. It was amazing, but it was a good thing we did that in the morning because the afternoon would have been too hot. When we came back down we went snorkeling where we saw a lot of beautiful fish, sea stars, rays, and a shark. We were very excited to see the shark as it was only our second one. In the afternoon, we went to Black Turtle Cove on Santa Cruz, where we rode in the pangas to see sea turtles. There were lots of them, and they were all very beautiful. We all tried to take good pictures but I´m not sure how many turned out.

Finally, there was this morning, Sunday morning. We woke up early, and disembarked at Santa Cruz again, where we took a bus to the highlands where we were able to see more tortugas on a wildlife reserve. We were all dressed for the sun still, but instead, it rained, so we made ponchos out of blue plastic trash bags. We were all looking very stylish in our trash bags, shorts, and rubber boots that we had to wear there. It was a lot of fun though. Then we boarded the plane and came home. All in all, it was an amazing week and I can´t wait to go back someday!