Art and Harry Potter

14 de julio

Today we had another of our Thursday activities. The first one was that boring trip to Central Historical, last week was salsa lesson, and this week was to see this painter guy’s, Guarasamin, work. His art is super inspiring and exactly what I needed today. I especially loved his use of color. It’s hard to see exactly how talented he is unless you see his painting in real life.

            Life has been pretty stressful this past week for multiple reasons that I don’t think are appropriate to put up on a blog. But one that I can talk about is how hard school has gotten all the sudden. I just received a 66% on my last Spanish test. If you know me, then you know anything less than a B+ is absolutely unacceptable. At first school wasn’t so bad, but then we started moving so fast and I did horrible on that test. I feel so overwhelmed now. We’re trying to cram a 9 week coarse into 5 weeks. A language class? Crazy talk. I study on average probably 2-3hours every night. I have never studied that much for a class in my entire life. I have never tried so hard and done so bad. Hopefully I pulled off a C on my test that I took today. Wow. Did you hear that? I hope I get a C. That’s how hard school is for me at the moment. So sad. Funny thing is that I feel totally comfortable speaking Spanish. I can comprehend most people too, which is nice. At least I’ll be good at conversational Spanish when I return to the States.

            On a brighter note, I met a girl at the climbing gym today named Andra who is basically me in a year or two. She went to school for English and then moved to Argentina to teach ESL. Apparently there weren’t any jobs down there so now she’s in Quito because she landed a job here. It was awesome talking to her. Maybe everything happens for a reason? If Jordan and I were still together than this winter I would be moving to California with him while he went to school. Maybe now I have a hook up for an ESL job down here. I feel like I have the whole world open to me now. What to do after college? Grad school? Peace Core? ESL in South America?

15 de julio

Today began with our culture class. Andean Culture sounds like it would make for a really good class, but unfortunately some of the girls in the program had various reasons why they thought they needed to complaint to the authorities about the class and the teacher. Now she give us a lot of busy work for homework. I love the material-loathe going to the class. But on a brighter note, after class I argued with Mario (one of the teachers at our school who I will have for Spanish 250 in a few weeks) about a grade from that horrible previous test. Apparently I argued well and got 5 extra points! That grade went from a 66% to 71%. I couldn’t be more happy.

            Later we all piled onto a bus and headed over to the final Harry Potter movie. Words cannot even express how sad I am. There are no longer any books or movies to look forward to. I don’t know how to handle these feelings inside of me. Harry Potter has been such a key part of my life since 2^nd grade. I feel a little empty and am not sure what to look forward to now. I owe my major and love of reading to that book series. Without Harry Potter I would never have learned that books could be fun. If I had more time down here I would totally read the series over again. Who knew a book series could contain so much power and evoke so much emotion. I mean Jade bawled, like full on tears, at the end of the movie because it was the final Harry Potter everything. My life as I have known it for the past 22 years is over.

Catch up and Baños

Okay so I’m about to do a quick catch up of about three blogs because I’m way behind. The person that I was stealing internet from at home decided to get a password so I’ve only been able to access the internet at my school and bringing my computer on the bus isn’t always preferable. Luckily I’ve been keeping a travel journal with all my ticket stubs, receipts, and Polaroid pictures so you guys will still get my raw emotions and first reactions.

Our Hotel

Where we eat breakfast

Breakfast!

Without further adieu:

8 de julio-10 de julio Baños

So Brooke, Tucker, and I all decided to take the free weekend and travel to Baños. We left Friday around 5pm ish and arrived by bus around 10pm ish. That was 2 hours longer than it was supposed to take. Apparently it took so long because the driver kept stopping to pick up locals as if we were a public transit system that costs 25cents in the city. At one point we had the middle isle filled with people, and this was a regular tour bus mind you. So weird how the bus culture is in this country. Anyway, we got to the hostel safely and decided for an early morning hot spring sunrise experience.

            Around 5:30 am we were dressed in our bathing suits and ready to the find the legendary hot springs. Well apparently Tucker’s guide book sucks--or he didn’t know how to read a map—and we wandered around Banos in the wee hours for a good 45 minutes before a local in a white pick-up truck noticed that we obviously had no idea where we were going. He asked us if we needed a ride/taxi. We graciously accepted the stranger’s offer. He drove us to the hot springs and we paid him $1. There is absolutely no way we would have found that place on our own. Unfortunately the hot springs came no where near my expectations. Firstly, they cost $3 a person (the guide book said they were $1.50), they made my buy a shower cap (which I understand, but I was still a little peeved), and thirdly they were basically like a naturally heated public pool. Like they were cemented in and there were TONS of other people there. It wasn’t the naturalistic experience I was hoping for. Totally not worth the effort and funds out into getting there. But hey, it was an adventure and Brooke and I ended up seeing that ‘taxi driver’ later again that next day.

            Following the disappointing hot springs experience we ate an early breakfast at an adorable little French place. I love breakfast here in Ecuador. It normally consists of fresh juice, coffee or tea, fruit, bread, and maybe an egg something or another. It’s a light perfect way to start the day. After eating we had a break in the rain (which by the way it pretty much rained the entire time we were in Baños) so we all decided to go bike riding because other people had previously said it was neat. Lies. The bikes sucked, the biking road was actually the only car shared entrance into Baños (which we got a lot of honks because we were taking up their space and being slow), and they told us that it was all down hill. There were totally some points where we were going only up hill. Brook wasn’t really feeling the bike ride and was kinda sick. We told Tucker to go on and that we’d figure out how to get back. Well apparently we were supposed to take a bus, bike and all. One that that I haven’t really mentioned is that places down here really hate big bills, and by big bills I mean they consider $5 big bills. Well Brooke and I only had $20s and the bus probably would have cost around $1. Fat chance that we were going to be able to take a bus back. (Yes, they actually refuse your money here)Well long story short people in Baños are much nicer than people in Quito. We ended up talking a nice family into letting us chill in the back of their pick-up truck on their way back into the town. Luckily for us they were going to see Rio Verde, which was where we were biking to, anyway. So we got to cop out of the manual labor and see the sights anyway. Score. The family loved us. They thought we were totally hilarious. They kept wanting Brooke and I to be in their family pictures. Kinda awkward, but hey we’ll do it if you give us a ride back.

            The next day Brooke and I signed up to go canyoning. What is that you say? Well it’s like extreme repelling down waterfalls. I know, repelling sounds really lame-but everything in Ecuador is pretty extreme. We got really lucky and had a really awesome guide. He reminded my a lot of my friends from the red. He’s nuts, but completely safe and you trust him upon meeting him. We didn’t know this at the time, but apparently he also owned the company. He’s a really good guy. He got really upset at another guide that arrived right as we were leaving for bringing 8 people and only 1 guide. That’s how you know he’s legit. Also, the taxi driver in the white pick-up truck from the previous day was our driver to the canoyning location. We got a kick out of that. Small town.

            Anyway, canoyning was really fun. We got a full vegetation tour as we hiked up the mountainside to reach the cascadas (waterfalls). He pointed out all the plants and fruits that were editable and made us taste them. At first we were hesitant because we’ve been told since we signed up for this trip that we’d probably get sick from the food. Knock on wood I haven’t yet and still haven’t eating the random plants. The actual annoying was fun. It was neat to use all the equipment that I’m used to using. Made me feel at home to be using Black Diamond and Petzl. The cascadas were beautiful and it was fun to be able to be part of the raging water rather than just looking at it from a distance from a trail. I like things that are tangible. All in all Baños was a really fun time and it was nice to be able to get out of the hustle and bustle of Quito and the girl fest. Not to mention Jordan and I had just broken up. A nice relaxing weekend was the escape I needed.

Excursions in Ecuador: Otavalo

So through my program we'll be going on multiple excursions-aka field trips- though various parts of Ecuador. Our first stop was Otavalo. Otavalo is a home to the Quechua people. The town has about 50,000 inhabitants and is surrounded by the peaks of Imbabura 4,630m and Cotacachi 4,995m. Both of those mountains are extremely important to the Quechua people and are main components in their folklore and culture. In our Andean culture class we were assigned two stories and one was about the love affair of the two mountains. I loved reading a little about the history of these people and then getting to experience it first hand. 

       

 

 Our first day in Otavalo we actually visited a little market called in the city of Cotacachi. Cotacachi is known for it's leather goods. The artisans are absolutely fantastic at what they do. We all had a wonderful time practicing bartering for the next day. Later that night we observed some sort of festival in the town. I love being a minority.

What? Do we stand out or something?

Our Quechua sisters

 During our 2 day stay in Otavalo we were awarded the honor of getting to stay with Quechua families instead of a hotel or hostel. Each family got 2-3 of us. That alone was one of the most enjoyable parts for me. I can't even believe that we got to stay with the people we're reading about in our class. I feel like I'm at some sort of school that is involved in hands on learning. I wish that all the culture classes I've taken brought us directly to the groups we're learning about. These families all grew or raised their own food. My group got a tour of the garden and livestock. It was pretty neat to be able to see exactly where our food was coming from. I remember Katie seeing the avocado tree and saying "Oh man, our avocado this morning was super fresh." They eat so simply. Every night we had some sort of basic soup, potatoes, green leafy veggies of some sort, and another random item-that's it. I could (sorta) identify everything I ate. There were no mystery ingredients, no preservatives, no seasoning packets, just straight up food in it's most basic form. It was nice to be reminded that we don't need condiments or spices to make things taste good.

Steph and I looking like Quechua women

Our family that we stayed with was awesome. We had two little girls who we enjoyed interacting with. Normally I have no issues understanding kids because they're Spanish is pretty basic-much like mine. However, these sneaky little girls kept throwing in Quechua words which threw me off completely. Once we finally figured out that they weren't speaking Spanish half of the time we had a much easier time understanding them through the use of hand signals and body language.

The day before we left our Quechua mom asked if we wanted to dress up in the traditional dress. Of course we said yes. After we were properly dressed the little girls took us for a walk around their little village. Talk about awkward. I totally felt like that awkward tourist who is wearing the traditional clothes trying to fit into a culture that isn't your own. But it was a great experience and I'm glad I did it.

 All day Saturday we got to shop at the open market in Otavalo. I am absolutely in love with this form of shopping. (Pretty much) Everything is handmade and completely unique. The people expect you to barter-which is awesome. Bartering was an awesome way to practice my Spanish. My group had it down to a science. I feel like we robbed Otavalo.

Lake Cuicocha

On our way back to Quito we stopped by Lake Cuicocha. Someday when I'm rich I'm going to buy this Lake from the Ecuadorian government and build my house on one of the islands.

 Some fun facts about Cuicocha:

• Its name comes from the Kichwa (Quechua) Indigenous language and signifies: "Lago del Cuye" or Guinea Pig Laguna in English. 
• It was given this name due to the shape of the largest Island located in the middle of the Laguna is full of Guinea Pigs.
• Last Eruption-12th century BC
• Elevation-3,246 m (10,650 ft)

 

Oh and did I mention that 5 of us crazy Gringas decided to jump in Lake Cuicocha? I've swam in the Merced River in Yosemite National valley that is straight up mountain water-but that doesn't even compare to how cold this water was. I mean this Lake is over 10 thousand feet above sea level and I doubt it ever reaches above 65 degrees there. It was freezing. As soon as my body hit the cold water I immediately wanted out...I swam as fast as I could to the boat but by the time I got there I was so exhausted from the swim (that was about 5ft mind you) that I couldn't get back into the boat. Have you ever tried to swim in freezing water at 10,000ft? It's not easy-you feel like your lungs are going to explode. I mean just walking up a hill was hard, swimming was way worse. All in all it was a great experience. Would I do it again? Hell yes.