In the Jungle the Mighty Jungle - Amazonia y Banos

We went to Yachana Lodge in the Upper Amazon beginning April 27th a Friday. The word Yachana in Quichua means learning.  They educate people about the rainforest and maintain a high school there where they also have interns at the lodge that study tourism. We got there later on Friday and it was really nice out and of course really hot so we got to float down the Napo River ( a big tributary to the Amazon!) Then we went on a short hike up to a gorgeous viewpoint of the Napo! 

 Then on Saturday we went to a Curandero! (Medicine man) Similar to a Shaman but the Curandero doesn't heal things as serious as the Shaman. Basically the Curandero gave us positive energy and took a big bunch of leaves and waved them around us and batted them on us was smoking the strongest cig ever and blew it at us. Then he would take the bad energy he collected from us with the leaves and blow it out the window. Then after he blew it out the window he did about another 5 minutes while whistling and stopped smoking for a while. Some people said they felt bad cuz he had to smoke a lot cuz we are a big group, but I actually think he was enjoying it. Then we got to try the cig that he was smoking, and I don't have a lot to compare it to but other regular smokers said it was super strong!! (only just tried it mom and dad don't worry)

Then we got to learn how to hunt! We had a little target of a chicken and our guide Robert showed us how to spit a dart out of this long tube thing, and man we are actually good hunters!!  A lot of us hit the target on one try, including me!! Then we walked to this huge tree called cebol that had a mato palo growing on it (a tree that kills others by suffocating them) And my friend Jess got a walking stick made out of bamboo!
(Target practice to the right)
We also went further down the river to watch a women collect gold. Its so sad because a whole day (6 am to 6 pm) sifting through sand looking for gold she got about 1 gram of gold which is only worth maybe $2. We also got to go and play soccer with students from the local high school! I suck at contact sports but our gringo team needed another player so I volunteered. And man playing in the Amazon especially is so tough with all the heat! We lost 2-1 but we had a ton of fun and the students had a lot of fun too! Then we tried teaching them songs in English like itsy bitsy spider and got to play with the pet monkey of the community!  That night I went on the night hike and we got to see some pretty cool stuff!! I'm not a super big fan of spiders, but if they are in their natural habitat they are ok with me, if they don't crawl on me. So we saw a poisonous dart frog and some water snakes and a bunch of huge insects and spiders!
Don't remember what day exactly, but we had cooking lessons. We got to cook grubs (they were HUGE) and two people got to try them raw. Donte and Andy were the brave souls that ate them when they were still alive and still squirming. Robert told them to bite the head off first before they bite you- GROSS! Leslie and I got to prepare the rest of them to cook.  First we had to kill them buy squishing the heads which was also pretty gross and was hard to do cuz some of them didn't want to die. Then we had to skewer them, at which time while we skewered one he was still alive. Then we had to rip the back part of them open so they don't explode when we cook them, the fighter yet still alive. But surprisingly everyone tried them and they kind of tasted like bacon!
Sunday we got to go to primary rainforest and saw this huge tree that can't have anything grow on it (like mato palo) because it sheds its bark a lot. So its really slippery and Andy and Seichi tried climing up it! We also saw a toilet paper plant, if you ever get lost in the Rain Forest, a mango tree that we all tried, and a tatoo fruit that if you cut it and place it against clothes it stains it permanently and looks super cool. Also Robert made  basket out of palm leaves and gave it to me!!

After leaving Yachana we also went to a cave where you swam half the time and then could walk and saw a lot of bats and really cool rock formations. Then we went rafting down the Napo River! What a crazy time it was a level 3 river but felt more like a 4. Our guide was so much fun when it was a calm part of the river he would push us out so we could swim. Then two of the rafts were near eachother so the guide from the other raft came over and the two guys went to pull me back in, but they said "Everyone watch this is how you save people" and took me out of one side, dragged me across the raft and threw me in the other side! They were so funny! We also played Titanic on our raft and we all sat on one side and tipped the boat up and then someone climbed up to the top to even it out. Sarah also fell out A LOT!!

Our next adventure was Banos which means bathroom in Spanish because there are a lot of waterfalls and hotsprings and rivers. We wanted to go canyoning down the waterfalls, only 25 bucks for 5 waterfalls! But man was it scarier than I thought. When you are at the top of one you just have to stand there and lean backwards to start propelling down. Of course being afraid of heights was hard, but I am so glad I did it and faced my fears. The picture I have here is of a 70 footer, the biggest one, and super steep! Probably the scariest part for me was when we had to kind of zip line down one. We started propelling but it was too steep to go all the way down, so we hooked on to another line that went to the bottom and then had to let go, and go backwards down it. My friends all made fun of me after because letting go was so hard for me and I looked horrified. Finally I did it and it wasn't that bad, I just didn't wanna go backwards. So the last one was kind of like a slide and we rode down on our butts which of course was super fun also!! And there were parts that you had to stand up and go to the next slide and there were big pools of water, and you were connected to the rope the guide was holding and he pulled a couple of my friends back into the pools of water, so funny!  When we got back to the office they gave us tea and bread because we were freezing!!

So we also rode a Chiva to the top of the volcano because it is still active and sometimes fun things happen at the top of volcanoes. Our music was kind of lamo and nothing happened with the volcano, and we found out that he charged us double cuz were gringos, but my friend Jess was having none of that and yelled at him and we got our moneys back. But overall we still had fun and danced a lot and at least got to say we went to the top of that volcano. Turungaua, I can't spell.

My last order of business was to try cui, guinea pig. It is a delicacy here and thought of as magical. Medicine men will also use it during curing ceremonies. They are really expensive to eat so we all just shared and had a little bit, but man I actually liked it. Again, (dad you're going to laugh) tasted like chicken. Roticery chicken atually we compared it to. So now I can say I have eaten Conejo (rabbit) cui and larva. Mom, I'll bring some home so you can try! Oh and how could I forget a guy Sarah met one day asked her to be his girlfriend, the boys here fall fast (for those of you who read my Galapagos blog, a guy wanted to marry me) One thing I won't miss about Ecuador, or will I miss making fun of it with my girlfriends?? Ok chow for now!!

Rio Muchacho y Puerto Lopez

We left for Rio Muchacho last Saurday (31st) I think at 5 am. The ride to Canoa (right outside Rio Muchacho) is about 7 hours so we got into Canoa at about noon, and had about 3 hours at the beach before we took the trucks up to Rio Muchacho.  So I definitely took advantage of my beach time, because a guy was surfing and asked if my friend and I wanted to try. Well I had never surfed before so I told him this, but he said it was just for fun and didn't matter. Well I fell down A LOT!! But it was so much fun! Apparently this guy teaches surfing lessons, and I asked him how much it was going to cost and he said it was for free because we were just practicing.  He even took me on the beach and drew out a surfboard in the sand so I could practice the proper technique of how to stand up.  Well within an hour I stood up (for a descent amount of time might I add) about 5 times!!! It was so amazing, it almost felt like flying! But on water haha.

So we took a truck up to Rio Muchacho which is an organic farm where in the wet season they produce about 90% of what they use on the farm. It was a lot nicer than what I was expecting and very green and lush everywhere. Also the toilets are compost so after you go you put some sawdust on it and then when the hole where the toilet is fills up all the way they move the toilet and can plant a tree or something where the toilet used to be. (they wouldn't plant anything like crops there because human poop is bad since we have such a bad diet, but they use cui poop- guinea pig- for fertilizer) and other animal poop of course too but guinea pig is the best apparently. Also they need someone to clean this poop, so for chores in the morning 2 of the 3 days I got to clean the pig stalls! 

So on Sunday in the morning we learned how to make coffee. Which I wish I liked coffee cuz apparently this coffee was really good (of course it was hand made) but also it just smelled really delicious.  I tried it obviously because we made it, but just gave my cup to someone else, but it was a really fun process!! We cooked the beans first then ground them up and then boiled the powder with water. After drinking our coffee we walked around and checked out the farm and went on a hike to the HUGE tree. Its called matopalo literally kill sticks, and it wraps around other trees until it kills them off and then it just keeps growing.  So its branches are all tangles and twisted which makes for a really good climbing tree! So we climbed it of course.  Then we got to make chocolate that night! Kind of the same process as the coffee with roasting the cocoa and then grinding it with the sugar we cut up and boiling it at the end.  It took awhile but the good thing was the sugar was really yummy so we basically ate half of it while we were cutting it up haha.

Monday we went horse back riding. I had the most stubborn horse ever, but it was still really fun.  Before we went we packed up our lunches for the day in the leaves of a palm tree! So my horse had to be in front (the diva, even tho it was male) and then it wanted to go super slow, and would get angry at the other horses when they tried to pass him.  Too funny! So we were riding along minding our own business and I felt like I got stung by the biggest bee EVER!!! Well apparently there are poisonous caterpillars here and when my horse was trying to eat something out of the tree the caterpillar must have landed on my shoulder from the tree. Well that thing stinkin hurt my whole shoulder was red and I let go of the reigns of my horse so he was running around and everyone was so confused, but it makes for a good story.  Also, I learned: don't touch the fuzzy caterpillars in Ecuador. So we also had a chance to go see these howler monkeys up in the forest so we went on the craziest hike and Oscar our guide was basically sprinting up the mountain and we were all sweating so bad and we missed the monkeys, but we got a good workout and then got to go swim in the waterfall haha.

Tuesday we left Rio Muchacho which was sad because the people there were so nice and the food was amazing, but we headed off for Puerto Lopez. It took us 4 different buses and 5 hours from Canoa but we finally made it and were greeted by our guide Klara, who is basically my 2nd Ecua mom and my 3rd mom (Real mom- you are still the best, don't worry) but Klara just set up all the trips and meals for us and went with us everywhere and when Amber got an eye infection she even bought her eye drop stuff. So on Wednesday we went to la Isla de la Plata, which is also known as Poor Man's Galapagos, which really isn't poor it's just similar to the Galapagos because of some of the species of plants and animals there.  We went for a hike and saw some blue-footed boobies and some really cool cliffs and plants, and then we went snorkeling after! At night in Pto. Lopez since it was during the week not a lot was going on but some of the bars were pretty cool.  They were right on the beach and had hammocks and cool lights and it was nice to get a Pilsner or pina colada and just chill.

The next day we went to Agua Blanca which is an archeological site where the Manteno people live. (last culture before the Spanish conquist) So we went on a hike and saw some burial sites and went on a nature walk and saw termite hives, owls, and really cool birds. Then we went to the sulfur lagoon which is apparently cleansing and I dove in of course, I will not pass up an opportunity to swim! And then the guide came around with a thing of mud that we could put on ourselves to make our skin smooth. The other girls put it on there legs, but I decided to go all out and lather up! It was actually really refreshing! Then we went to los Frailes which is a really pretty beach and we didn't have a lot of time there but we went to the viewpoint and you could see for miles! Also the waves there were huge and they basically knocked you over.

Friday, our last day we went to las Tunas, another REALLY pretty beach. We had a cabana to ourselves and even got served lunch out under it.  I had a strawberry batido (smoothie) and it was soooo delicious! We just bummed out at the beach until about 4 and caught some rays.  We also went to a really pretty viewpoint that overlooks all of Pto Lopez, and it was really cool to see all the boats and everything from so high up.  For our last night we had an amazing dinner of this chicken with like salsa stuff on top with really great veggies! We walked around at the beach one last time and the Klara went to the bus stop with us to head back to Quito. Our bus left about 8 pm and got into Quito around 5 am, overnight buses aren't the best for sleeping, but they showed two movies on this one! Anyways, I hope I can go back and visit Klara again, it was really hard saying bye to her, I think she started tearing up when we gave her the card we wrote for her.  I am really gonna miss the sun, sand and most of all the hammocks! But it was a great Semana Santa!

Mindo fue muy Lindo!

This past weekend a couple of us in the group went to Mindo, and it was probably the most adventure I've had packed into a short weekend! We left early Saturday and got there about 10, first thing on the list: buy bus tickets back for Sunday since its over a 2 hr bus ride and who wants to stand for that? We checked in to our hostel and bought tickets to go to the canopy! (ziplining- 10 lines for 10 bucks!) We went to the main road to catch a taxi (ride in the back of a truck) up to the canopy. Our driver was suuuuper crazy and wanted to show us gringos a good time so he was swerving all over the road.  Also we gave eachother points if we dodged branches in cool ways like Matrix-style. Once we were at the ziplining place we got our gear on and were ready to go.  We had a brief 5 minute safety talk, which would have lasted 2 hrs in the states, and we were climbing up the ladder for our first zipline.  These are the coolest ziplines ever, and on some of them we could do fun things like upside down or superman.  The picture to the right is "Mariposa" (Butterfly) style. The guide has to help hold your line, but it is so crazy going upside down and not holding on! I was really scared but it was cool to see the canopy from a different point of view! We even had gloves to hold the line for balance on the lines that were super fast because you would sway back and forth if you didn't hold on.

Next we rode our truck back down to go "tubing" as my sisters here had called it before we left for Mindo. I picture tubing is one tire or tube per person and you float down the river. Wrong. It was a bunch of tires tied together with ropes and we rafted down the craziest river with the most rocks ever. Our guide had to keep getting in the water to turn/push our raft so we didn't hit huge rocks, and when we hit them then our raft dropped suddenly into the water and we all flew around all over the place.  Jessica fell into the middle of one of the tires, and our guide was like a spider monkey and in .05 seconds he was there to save her. Basically, a lot of screaming and laughing for the whole ride.

Next we decided to let the four people who weren't staying the night choose what do to since their bus was leaving soon and we had the whole next day for activities.  It was between the chocolate tour or riding quads, well of course we were going to ride quads. Only problem, not many people had drivers licenses (who knew one place would actually ask for documentation in Ecuador) and the quads were semi-automatic. The guide spoke English very well and was explaining to me that it was just like driving a car (no cars are automatic here) so he didn't realize I only knew how to drive automatic cars, so this was no help. After our crash test course around the block, I sort of figured out after he kept repeating in a Spanish accent, "Neutral, one, two, tree." Oh yea I'm good to go, ha! So us 8 got on 4 quads and were off, in the pouring rain all of a sudden.  We were covered head to toe in mud, probably Sarah and I were worse because I just tried to stay in a straight line and not mess up so we hit every mud puddle. Good news is I didn't tip the quad or break it, I think. A couple times the guide rode his motorcycle up by me and told me to switch to a different gear, but this is expected of girl gringo drivers. Overall, learned that I should probably stick to automatic cars, and not too bad getting muddy since its bound to happen on any excursion here. After the other four left to go back to Quito, us four girls (Leslie, Ashely, Sarah & I) decided it was a great idea to take a nice hot shower! Group shower style of course since we had our bathing suits on already from rafting, and no one wanted to wait to shower fourth after being all muddy and wet and cold. Next on the agenda was the frog concert (concierto de ranas). We had no idea what to expect but it was 3 bucks and sounded pretty cool. So we got lost on the way there of course because directions here consist of "oh yea its right over there" (point finger) but when we were walking down one of the wrong roads a cute little black lab puppy ran out towards us so I began to pet it of course, and it started rolling around on my feet. I was very tempted to bring it with us! Finally when we found the frog concert we were greeted with a shot glass size glass of wine. Complementary. Very nice. We learned about the different frogs and toads we would be seeing and other cool insects (I guess spiders are cool to some people) and then we all took off for the walk. We saw different species of really tiny cool looking frogs and the place where the frog concert was at had different cabins and a lake in the middle, and was really cool all lit up at night. Probably the coolest thing was seeing dead logs that had micro bacteria inside so when all the lights were off it glowed in the dark! After the frog concert we were hungry for some pizza (best pineapple pizza is in Ecuador) and a couple of us got some beer (Pilsner the best of course!) Then it was time to hit the hay, in our mosquito net covered beds since our hostel walls didn't go all the way up to the ceiling.

The next day we went to the waterfalls for a couple hours since there is a really nice hike out to them and then about 5 or 6 pretty close to each other. The gondola style thing that went out to the waterfalls was super long, high, and fast. All ingredients for something scary.  We were all worried hiking out to the falls since it was all downhill that we would be tired on the uphill way back. We were right, I even took my shoes off and waded out into one of them to cool off, which was really refreshing! Also since we are out in nature and all some of the waterfalls lead right over paths. I was really nervous getting around one of them because the rocks were very uneven and the water was flowing right over the path. But we survived of course, we are getting used to the rugged terrain here.

After the waterfalls we decided to go on the chocolate tour that we heard about to learn how to make chocolate and to sample of course! It actually was pretty cool learning about how to make chocolate and the fermentation process, they even make chocolate beer there! We also got to tour outside and see the different plants they use to help sweeten the chocolate, the sugar leaves (or grass maybe?) and the lemon grass that they learned could help in the process. Tasting was the best part. Cocoa is actually disgusting by itself.  He gave us each a little sample without sugar and it was so bitter. Then we got to mix the sugar in and it actually tasted like chocolate.  They even make barbeque sauce from some of the chocolate (super good!!) After lunch and of course some icecream we walked around a bit more then needed to pack up and get ready to go. Overall, really cool weekend and I forgot we even saw a wild Toucan when we were walking back from the waterfalls so we could get cell service to call a taxi. Also there were humming birds everywhere and a ton by our hostel! On the bus ride back it was neat to see the clouds under us and live stock on the super steep hills.  Not sure how they do it, it seems like if they took one step they would fall.  Also, a man on the bus had a rooster and I'm pretty sure someone had a box/bag full of chicks because they were chirping the whole ride back.  Oh the things you will see in Ecuador! :)

Las Islas Galapagos

Sorry I haven't posted in forever, but this will be a good one.  So the Galapagos is my favorite place in the world (even tho I haven't been to many places yet) the islands are so beautiful and there are so many cool plants and animals; I want to live there! Our first day we spent at Santa Cruz (also the next morning). We all tried on our snorkeling gear and headed to las grietas (cliffs) where there was water inbetween them and we practiced our snorkeling. We also had the chance to jump off the cliffs into the water, which of course seems easy since I went bungee jumping, right? Well, it was WAYYYY scarier because I wasn't attached to a rope and jumping into water, I closed my eyes the whole time and got a huge bruise on my pompous after. But worth it of course.  The next day we went to go see the Galapagos- what the famous giant tortoises are called and we explored the lava tubes. (how the islands were created) We broke BCA history by seeing two Galapagos mating, which only occurs 3 times a year, we are pretty lucky! Then we took a 2 hr boat ride to Isabella where we spent the rest of our 6 days.

I don't think I've seen more cool animals in my life besides the zoo (which doesn't count).  Sea lions are as plentiful as squirrels in Michigan (and PA too) they will come right up and play with you when you're in the water! There were iguanas everywhere, the one part of the island we were on you couldn't take a step without stepping on one.  PENGUINS!! The second smallest species of penguins in the world, they are so darn cute too! When we went snorkeling we saw a bunch of sea turtles and there were always blue-footed boobies on the rocks! (note the blue feet on the boobie to the left)

We went snorkeling to 4 different places and on the way to one Sarah and I got to ride on the front of our boat and soak up the rays.  On the way to snorkeling we rode around Isla Tortuga which has really cool rock formations and a ton of sea lions, iguanas, and other cool birds. We also got to go to the turtle breading site and see the giant tortoises when they are babies, which is still pretty huge! (very important to the islands because that is the only place where they are found) Then we went to the lake where the flamingos are: something I learned: flamingos are white when they are young and get the pink coloring when they get older. The same day we went to the wall of tears which was a prison on the island.  The best place for a prison is the Galapagos because the prisoners can't escape, or if they did they wouldn't get far.  The guards at the prison made the prisoners make a wall of bricks as punishment.  We hiked up near it and then up into the boonies of the Galapagos, there were some stretches of the hike that I thought I was going to fall off down the mountain. But the view was beautiful!!

We also hiked up Volcano Sierra Negra which is about a 6 hour hike to the top, and it rained almost the whole time we hiked up! It was a lot better than getting burned tho because all of us were so burned from snorkeling the last couple of days.  And when you get burned in the middle of the world, it really hurts, and peals for days, and weeks. The volcano was really cool tho, it is still active and we could see the steam rising out of it! We all tried to stay dry for awhile, but it was so muddy and slippery we just ended up jumping in the mud puddles!

So many other things to talk about, but the most important thing was we were there during Carnival.  Basically just a huge party on the beach, but people have spray creme stuff (kinda like silly string but foamier) and they just come up and spray you with it! Also they have paint and flour that they douse you in.  On Isabella there was a horse-riding relay race to start off the festivities.  Also there were contests at night of the best woman and man on the island and they had to walk up and down a run way model style. Other contests occurred like water balloon toss and soccer games, which a couple of my friends won and the prize was a case of Pilsner (only the best beer ever!) Also its really easy to get guys to buy drinks for you- if you are a girl of course- so we didn't spend any money on alcohol except for the first night when Sarah and I split a bottle of cana (which is like a tiny bottle) literally sugar cane, and a thing of cheap boxed wine. Did the trick.

Saving the best story for last- when I got married. Ok family, don't worry not for real, but this guy was obsessed with me.  Well at first he was obsessed with my friend Katie and he wanted me to talk to her for him, well that turned into us talking and then he went up to all of my friends (after 20 mins of us talking mind you) and he told my friends that they are all pretty but that I am beautiful and have the biggest heart in the world and blah blah blah and someone asked if he would want to marry me.. and of course he says yes. And we are all just dying laughing having a good time while this guy goes on and on about how I am the smartest woman ever and just using every trick in the book.  Well, one of the Galapegeanos (ppl from Galapagos) that had been hanging out with us the other nights said that he would perform a ceremony.  My girlfriends held their beer bottles as bouquets and the guy even bought a cheap silver ring that didn't fit me.  Then we celebrated and they bought us two more cases of beer.  (Pilsner of course!) Finally he wouldn't leave me alone that my friends had to tell him that I had a boyfriend in the states and I was drunk (which was not true) he was heartbroken.  But we all still had a great time dancing!

Overall, best 6 days of my life, making friends with sea lions, getting to beach it, staying out late partying on the beach, watching huge tortoises mating, seeing penguins, getting married, and hiking 6 hours in the pouring rain. And the best part is, the only way you can move there is if you marry a Galapageano, which I already have checked off my list.  (note: pictures don't really correspond with what they are next to)

Guayllabamba y Pasochoa

Last weekend was my first time going to Guayllabamba with my family. In Latin America, it is very common for people to assume that you know what your doing, and give you the least amount of information possible. Well in this case we went to a little house on the country that my parents are sort of re-modeling (my dad's an architect) and I worked in the garden all day with my mom. (which was amazing and so much fun, but would have been nice to know what I would be doing all day) long story short I wore a nice sweater, a scarf and my coach shoes, because I thought Guayllabamba was a place where family lived and we were going to visit. Well I was wrong haha. (luckily there was an extra pair of shoes for me to wear in the garden) Lesson learned, next excursion with my family I will be asking for a dress code.  Ecuadorians also just expect you to know all of the people that are always visiting the house or whom you are meeting for the first time. Example, my dad had a friend come with to help him lay the tile in the extra room in the house.  I had never met this man before and he sat next to me in the truck the whole ride, this wouldn't have been an issue except that he is indigenous and only speaks Quechua, which is a Spanish dialect.  It is hard enough for me to speak Spanish, so the whole way we all just laughed because this man, bless his heart, was trying so hard to tell me stories and I had no clue what he was saying. Also, it took us an extra hour to get to Guayllabamba because, you guessed it, traffic. But this time the road was not blocked by an accident but by the protestors on the highway. (protesting what, I couldn't really catch, but my dad and his friend got out of the car to see what was going on) While the men laid the tile down, we went to do work in the garden.  I helped her pull weeds and cut dead flowers but I also helped her pick the avacados, some lemons, chillis and more. They also have a 15 yr old Doberman there named Greico and we went on a walk with him.  We went to go collect other roots from flowers to bring back so my mom could add them to her garden.  It was nice to get out of the city and into some fresh air, and spend some time with the family. :)

This weekend was of course another adventure. Some of us in the BCA group decided to go camping and rough it a bit. This was my first real experience with camping and being in tents.  In the states I have gone camping in an RV or trailer, and at a park with full electrical and plumbing hook up. So it was really fun to actually go camping in tents and be out in the wilderness.  The first part of our adventure of course is the trip there. We went camping at Pasachoa which is a national park with a dormant volcano.  We took the bus from Rio Coca to the end of the Ecovia line, but we were unsure of where our next bus was. We asked two police men for directions, and they decided it would be easier to escort us to the next bus. Before they led us there, one of the police officers said over his walkey talkey “Permission to escort gringos.” We all died laughing. Then when we got to our bus he asked my friend Sarah and I if he could get his picture with us. And then of course we had to get one with him as well. After our hour bus ride we still had further to travel on our journey. To get to the national park we had to pay someone with a truck to take us there, and we all rode in the back which was so awesome.  And of course we had to all stand up to feel the fresh air in our faces!! (what a difference from all of the pollution and smog in our lungs in Quito) When we finally got to Pasachoa we went straight to set up camp and eat our peanut butter jelly sandwich lunches. Sarah, Lydia and I were in charge of buying food for everyone.  Which was a bit difficult because we had to buy things that would keep without refrigeration, but we came up with a great menu: pb&j for lunch, some bean and veggie sort of burritos for dinner, a home-made trail mix and granola bars for snacks, and the left over bread, pb&j and bananas for breakfast on Sunday. 

After we all ate and the tents were set up we journeyed out to hike up the volcano. We thought this would be a group effort, but apparently some of the people in the group are hard core hikers and wanted to half sprint up all of the steep stairs and hills.  Those of us normal people had to stop to breathe because our lungs were dying. (I think the summit of the volcano was 1400 ft, so needless to say we stopped for a lot of breathing breaks) We were pretty hard core for awhile, (Emily, Sarah, Jessica and I- the others were going a lot faster and left us in the dust) but then our breathing breaks turned into talking breaks, and after about 3 hours of hiking we decided we were about ready to turn back.  We wanted to know how close we were to the summit, and when we asked people coming down the trail they said about two hours, and we all knew that wasn’t going to happen.  Then we heard lightning and we really decided to turn around.  The path was already really muddy and slippery, and with the added rain this is a recipe for clumsy people like me falling, a lot!! It was kind of fun though sliding down the volcano a little, but my shorts were a disaster.  On the way back I washed them off in the spring going down back to camp. It was so nice out when we got back that we decided to sun bathe a little, which lasted for a whole ten minutes until it started pouring down rain.  The rest of the group had just gotten back and we all squeezed into one of the three tents to hangout and talk about our stories from the hike.  We played some card games and all hung out until we were all so tired from the hike and the long day that we all went to our separate tents to sleep.  With the minor interruption of Jordan’s joke telling that we could hear from the other tent, which was very entertaining.  

It poured most of the night, so good thing we had our rain covers on our tents.  Bad news was that the clothes that were muddy/wet from the hike that we hung out the night before were completely soaked the next morning along with our dirty/muddy/disgusting shoes.  It was so nice out in the morning though so we all just walked around barefoot in the grass until we were brave enough to put our disastrous shoes back on.  We all ate a leisurely breakfast and packed up camp pretty slowly.  Then we had to call the guy in the truck so he could come to the park to take us back to town.  I’ll never get sick of the way the bus system works here.  Basically it doesn’t matter if your half way on/off the bus, the bus will keep moving and it’s your responsibility to make sure you don’t fall off or face plant on to the bus floor.  The bus we took back to Quito was pretty lengthy, and most of us got in the front of it, and boy did this bus driver take off fast. The only open seats were way in the back and we all were stumbling back and forth (mind you holding all of our camping gear) until we finally found our seats.  I almost forgot the best part- while we waited for the bus we all got icecream, so we were holding icecream during the whole bus charade, and I am proud to say that mine survived, although it was really close to landing in some ladies lap. Overall, it was a great camping trip!!

Otavalo, & my first two weeks!

I have been in the middle of the world, as my blog title says, for about two weeks at this point, but it feels like I know the city and people so well already! I am down here with about 20 other students with my program, all of us are great friends already.  It's nice having other people in the same situation so we can figure things out together.

I moved in with my host family two Sundays ago and I already love them! My dad is Papa Poncho (Alfonso) he is an architect and my mom is Mami Eli (Elizabeth) she owns a salon. I have two identical twin sisters Sofi and Pamela who are 26, an older brother Denisse who lives in an apartment but still visits, and a younger brother Ricky who is 7. I feel like I am already a part of the family, I love them :) So meal times are interesting here, very different than the U.S. It's almost 9 and I just had dinner. Ecuadorians eat big lunches around 2 or 3 in the afternoon, and then eat a really small dinner later between 8 or 9, they save me a big dinner (left overs from lunch) and then they drink coffee or hot chocolate and dip bread in it. 

Last weekend we went to Otavalo- a big market about two hours from Quito where we got to buy a bunch of cool stuff and learned how to bargain! On the way there we stopped at these hidden Pyramids from pre-Incan time.  They were hidden so the Incas and Mayas couldn't find them, so they are all covered in grass.  It's really sad that Ecuador is the place with the most ruins and artifacts in South America, but other countries have stolen the artifacts and have them in museums. At the end of our tour we got to feed lamas, which I'm not gonna lie was AWESOME!!

We also stopped at the equator before getting to Otavalo.  Obviously the equator goes through many different countries, but Ecuador really is the middle of the world because it has the highest altitude of all the countries the equator passes through.  Because of the mountains Ecuador has the best reference point, therefore, is the middle of the world. The next day before heading back to Quito we had a full schedule ahead of us.  We woke up bright and early and went to a man's house who makes all kinds of instruments.  It took him maybe 2 minutes to make a flute out of bamboo he carved it right in front of us! Then we went and swam in a waterfall near Otavalo, it was amazing! The hike up and around the falls was pretty scary, I'm really glad we had our guide, we were really far up, and basically rock climbing.  Next, we stopped at another market that has a lot of leather products, but we had all spent most of our money so we just walked around and got icecream.  Next, we went to a house that a couple makes their own products of wool (lana) here.  They showed us how to knead the wool and make it soft and then roll it so they could make it into long pieces of thread.  They even let a couple of us try, and boy did they make it look easy! I could barely move the two pallets they gave us to make the wool softer, let alone roll it into any shape! Some people bought some of their scarves, and we all wanted to buy hammocks since we were so fond of the ones in our hostel. 

The last stop on our trip was Lake Cotapoxi, which is a volcanic lake.  All of us were so tired, but a few of us really wanted to hike to the top to see it all.  The altitude is really hard to get adjusted to, and I still find myself breathing heavily when I walk uphill for awhile. But it was soooo worth the amazing view!!  We took almost five hours to make it back to Quito, when it should really take 2, because when we were almost home we had to turn around because a semi was flipped on the highway.  We made the best of it though and told funny stories.  I can't wait to learn more about this amazing country, but a fun fact for some crazy things I've seen so far include: sidewalks, not ONLY for walking.  I have seen motorcycles drive on them (Quito has about 2.4 million residents, traffic is crazy) people park on them, and yesterday I witnessed a small car driving on one.  Well, I think that is it for now, CHOW as they say here :) Oh an additional note, saying hello and goodbye is VERY important! You always hug and give a kiss on the cheek when you see people, its very rude to leave a room without saying goodbye. I will come back to the states hugging and kissing everyone <3 :)