Mindo

So, I had an awesome trip to the Amazon Rainforest but that's gonna be one loooong post so I figured I would talk about my Mindo weekend first.

EMPANADAS

Friday night a bunch of the IPSL girls (the service learning program i'm here with) went over to Hannah's house. She lives far north, which is closer to the bus station we needed to get to in the morning, and her mom was going to teach us how to make empanadas.

After cleaning my own room for an hour (it got reallll messy my host mom even asked me to please clean!) I headed over there, and her mom said she'd be back in 2 horaitos (2 hours) well, remember that this is Ecuador. I think it was more than 3 hours later she returned, and began making empanadas. It was awesome! But I definitely need to have her teach us a lot more times, and finally have her watch us do it without her doing anything because I really want to leave here knowing how to make them myself.

She mixed water and lime juice with flour, and separated the dough into little balls. Then you roll it out into a circle/oval, and put the mixture in-cheese, rice, and sometime to add color) Of course there's a lot of salt in there somewhere.

Then came the tricky part: closing the empanada. Hannah's host mom made beautiful works of art, mine came out looking like dinosaurs. You have to fold it over, and then pinch the ends together, pulling them out a bit to make sure it's all sealed because you don't want it to open up in the oil.

After it's all pulled away, you then have to do this special folding trick to give it that edge that all empanadas have. This is where I started making animals instead of Ecuadorian food. None of us could perfect it, but Susanna did find a nice spot in the corner of the kitchen away from everyone's watchful eyes, and it worked better for me over there too!

Hannah's host dad was there helping us too, encouraging us and saying "mejor!" (better)
I got teased for showing him my progress, but he enjoyed it.

We ate lots, and had delish tea too. Then it was time for bed.

Well, here's where the excitement began.

NEXT MORNING...

Hannah's house is pretty loud-I thought mine was bad, but because her bedroom is on the third floor she's pretty high up, and there's so much going on. Dogs, traffic, people, and this weird noise that sounds like a girl screaming every ten minutes. I'm not sure what it is.

Anyway, I woke up at 4:30 and stayed in the bathroom for 2 solid hours. Lovely.

After worrying a lot about whether or not I could make it through a two and a half hour bus ride, I decided that I didn't want to miss out on anything. I popped some Immodium, went to the bathroom a few more times, and headed out to grab a taxi to the bus station. Hannah lost her money, so that made for a bit of a nervous breakdown filled detour, but we arrive at the station, and found the other half of the group. Luckily, the bus wasn't leaving for another 20 minutes or so, so we had some extra time on our hands.

I still felt really sick and could barely talk without my body aching, so I just sat on a bench and waited for it to be time to go. On the bus, I sat by the window and tried to sleep, all the while being nervous I was going to need a bathroom and not be able to use one for a long time. My hands started getting itchy but I didn't notice too much because of how sick I felt. The bus stopped at one point to pay a toll, and there was a woman selling chifles outside-aka the best snack on earth. I was too sick to eat them, but my friends had been talking about them all morning since there weren't any at the bus station. Well, I bought some chifles through the window! and then found out that the bus driver waited to make sure the exchange was complete. Awesome!

We arrive in a little over 2 hours, and got off the bus. The hostal owner Claudia was waiting for us at the bus station, which by the way is only an office and an alley for the bus to park later.

Well, Claudia had a little 4x4 so some of us sat inside, and the rest held on from the outside! I would have been an adventurer, but since I wasn't sure what my body was going to do I decided to sit in the car. Well, I noticed that the itching that was spreading to my arms, legs, and back! Luckily, I never go anywhere without a mini Pharmacy, so I took some benadryl. We unpacked in the hostal, and wanted to start our day. We headed back into town to grab some food-everyone got mini pizzas and I ate some bread and gatorade. We were trying to decide who would do what first-between ziplining and horse back riding. I kind of wanted to do horses second, because I knew if I did them first my whole experience would be ruined because I would be so nervous about the zipline

for those of you who don't know, ziplining is when you travel across the jungle by a cable, with a harness. it's pretty sweet. but really nerve racking for some before you start! I don't have pictures just yet, because I didn't bring my camera with me, but some of the girls in my program got some good shots! My favorite line was called La Bestia, meaning the beast.

I did the superman, which is when someone goes behind you and you lock your legs around their body, and then fly out! it was AWESOME! but again, scary at first haha. After, since it was just me and the man I came over with, we started chatting and he loves extreme sports but has only been doing this job for a year, which is the same for a few of the other men too. it was all well put together tho because the first one was pretty tranquil, and you didn't have to do anything. As you progressed, they got faster and longer, and you could do tricks like the superman or mariposa (upside down!) and you had to keep your hand behind you on the cable for balance/to slow down near the end. I'm so glad I did it! Oh and I got cable burn on my nose on the last one.

I tried to get pics of the girls as they came in on the last one, since they did that for us. Except that I thought an Asian man was my friend Susannah. oops! here she is for real...finally!

The horses weren't as fun, though. They aren't taken care of very well, and they were tired from the other half of our group. Mine was named Corazon (heard) and my friend Hannah had one that had gas in his name, which was a good idea since he kept farting. It was funny because the first time he farted was right after Zannah had commented on how measly he looked. Also, it was raining when we went, and our group had 5 so the guide had to walk the whole time, cutting the trip a half hour short. Plus, the whole ride was on a road, so we kept having to move over so cars and taxis could pass. It was nice going uphill and being able to breathe at the same though!

At night it rained a bunch, and we stayed in, chatted, and watched The Reader. Our hostal was sweeeet. it had a tv and Claudia brought us DVDs, it had a computer but it wasn't hooked up yet, and we slept in a big dormitory so we were all in one room together! Outside was a nice balcony with hammocks that I enjoyed Sunday afternoon before we left, and sometimes birds are nearby-but since I was sick I didn't get up early to look for them.

At one point someone started talking to us from downstairs and it was so strange...it was a woman who works at the hostal, asking if we wanted to go to a frog concert. so confusing. When we asked what she meant, she just said frogs, a concert-didn't really answer the question right? What made it worse was that while Susannah was trying to talk to her, the rest of us were just laughing hysterically. Finally Susannah went downstairs to try to figure it out, and the woman gave her a cell phone and said wait for Claudia to call it.
Apparently, it's a walk around a lake with a sip of wine. but it costs like 4 dollars and it was raining. no thanks! although it probably would have been cool...

Over the course of the weekend, I basically only ate Ritz crackers and drank gatorade.

So, we hung out in the hostal while it rained all around us, watched a movie, and went to sleep. I woke up nice and early again with an angry stomach, so instead of sitting on the porch watching the birds I sat in the bathroom, but luckily fell back asleep for a bit after that. We went down to eat breakfast, and there was delishhhh yogurt and fruit, but I was afraid to eat it so I just watched everyone else enjoy it. After that came eggs and bread with jam, and then I had some tea. Some people had hot milk with cocoa and sugar which seems to be pretty popular around here. 

we wanted to go to the waterfalls, but weren't sure if we could handle trekking around in the mud after all the rain. Claudia said we wouldn't want to trudge around, but some man that I think is her husband was like you're in the cloud forest of course it always rains! you have to go it's beautiful.

Look what I found...a gypsy hotel!

We decided to rock the waterfalls-who cares if it’s muddy? We came to Mindo to see cool stuff and go on adventures! Claudia called us a Truck for a taxi, and we first headed to town aka one main street to go to the bus station aka bus office to buy tickets home. We were some serious lucky ducks because they had the exact number of tickets we needed left on the 2pm bus back to Quito!

We continued on our way to the waterfalls-with a dog literally sprinting up in front of the car the whole way! The road is pretty narrow, curvy, and uphill and even though we’re still in pretty high alitude this dog meant business. He made us nervous sometimes because we were scared the driver might not see him, but nothing happened.

To get to the waterfalls, we had to ride across the forest in a cable car. Now, I don’t just mean any cable car. I mean one that moves as you’re getting on and off it, has 2 benches on either side, but fits 5 people so someone has to stand, goes really really fast, and one of the workers rode on the outside of it, his feet under the bench, holding on to the top. It was really amazing but really scary, speeding way over the trees like that. If we hadn’t ziplined the day before I probably would have shit my pants.

We got to the other side, and the man told us our options-one way you could see a bunch of waterfalls in a shorter amount of time, and the other way you could see one waterfall but it was a long walk. We opted for the more for less, since we were short on time. The walk itself was an interesting adventure. While we waited for the cable car to return with our friends, we saw a monkey tail swaying in the trees! Even though we didn’t see the whole body, it was still really cool seeing a monkey in the jungle, instead of in a zoo.

We slipped and slid all over the place, and I was really happy that I had my hiking-ish boots with me. It really came in handy to be dressed in my quick drying clothes too because it was hot and the trees were still wet with rain. Needless to say I’m glad that my family took me shopping for jungle gear before I came!

We kept doing downhill, which always makes me nervous about returning uphill. At times it was pretty steep, and at other times the drop off to the side was a little nerve wracking. We found our first small waterfall, and then found some more-and needed to cross over very scary looking bridges. We were starting to run out of time, but after one bridge we saw that if we crossed back over and walked a bit, we could get to a bigger waterfall. We obviously did this, but that bridge was even longer and it swayed much much more! It was beautiful, and if we had more time I would have loved to find the rest of the falls, and swim in the water-it would have been so nice to rinse off all that sweat from scrambling around on the paths!

We headed back in much less time than I thought it would take, but that’s okay because it’s always good to have extra time, especially since we had already bought our bus tickets home. The day before, girls had ziplined and were promised they would be back in time for their bus, and they got back to the office at the time their bus was leaving. Awesome.

We headed back towards town, and had to choose which Butterfly conservatory we wanted to go to-apparently there’s a bigger one on the way back, closer to the falls, but then it’s farther away from town. There’s one right in town that we could walk back to the hostal from, but it’s smaller. Some of us wanted to go to the bigger one, so we stopped there, and then everyone decided to just stay together-I’m so glad I wasn’t the only one who wanted the bigger place. I love butterflies and it’s no fun when you go to a tiny, hot, stuffy room.

I don’t know if everyone else enjoyed it as much as me but I loved it! A butterfly landed on me, of course J and we saw all of the caterpillars lined up in rows and suck to the wooden rows with pins. My camera was being nice to me for almost the whole time we were there so I got some good close ups.

On the way back, some girls walked to the hostal but I was exhausted and still wasn’t feeling well so the rest of us took the taxi back. It was a bumpy ride, but we had fun riding in the back of the pickup. We packed up, and hung out on the porch in hammocks waiting for the other girls. It was a nice, relaxing break before the bus ride home.

Breaking into Waterfalls and a little Tungurahua Action

So, after my night of the Chiva ride and DiscoTech, we woke up at 5am to head to a spot for waterfalls. This part wasn't mandatory for the class, but if you went you could write another report, and of course get to see more amazing things!

We took a pretty quick ride in the dark, and stumbled off the bus. It was really dark, and we proceeded to walk into a heavily wooded area. It was a pathway, but a pathway under and inside a forest, with rocks and steps and tree roots which made it interesting, and mostly downhill. And in Ecuador, all I think about when going downhill is what it will be like when I'm going uphill.

Well, after a long walk-I don't know it had to be at least 10 minutes booking it through the darkness, we climbed some stairs, and there was a house/lodge sort of thing built into the mountainy area, and a bridge.

It was still pretty dark, but I couldn't help but notice this sign that made me nervous.

Especially since they had this one, and then another one in Spanish just to make it extra clear for everyone. I was in the first group to get on the bridge, but it was so dark that those pictures aren't so great. I did go on again at the end though, but I was getting even more nervous because he was letting more people on than the 5! Oh well, we're all okay now. 

Since it was still only about 7am, the lodge was closed, and the other side of the bridge was locked up. We wanted to get closer to the higher waterfall, but to get there you had to go through the doors of the lodge. Well, that's no obstacle for my professor. It's times like these I wish my brother Thomas could be with me, because I feel like I'm living a life through his eyes when I do crazy things with Theo.

First one girl climbed up this steep hill through trees, then I followed and took a picture of the next person:

Well, after that Theo realized we would destory all the vegetation there if all 40 of us went up, so he asked if someone could break the lock on the door (he would pay the owner). Since that couldn't happen, people started climbing over the door. Which is a lot harder than it sounds-it's in the middle of a staircase, and if you fall, you fall a lot. Plus, the door was really high and the space above it was less than 2 feet. 

Well, it was so worth the fight for those of us who made it happen. There were multiple platforms, and I loved it. I didn't realize until after that one pathway lead to behind the falls, because you had to crawl through it. I thought it only went kind of close to the falls and didn't think it was worth it. But since I've been behind Niagara falls I told myself that it was okay that I didn't crawl through the tunnel to go behind these falls. Anyway, the view was gorgeous, they were so powerful, and I took a picture and some videos-one of them shoots back to the bridge we were on before. Too bad I don't have a little fairy to fly over to the bridge and take my picture at the falls from there!

Well, we still hadn't found a better way out than in, and I really wasn't looking forward to being hoisted up and down over that door frame. I was determined to find a different way out, and I did. over this barbed wire fence.

Now, this probably doesn't look all that bad. let me remind you-it's barbed wire. It was on a hill, so there was danger on either side, and on the side i needed to get to, were stone steps. awesome. The fence of barbed wire rope went almost up to my shoulders, so I couldn't just hop on over. I decided I could walk up it like a ladder, and hopefully walk back down. I got up, and got over with a lot of balance, but then i was kind of stuck. I was facing the way I was headed, and so I couldn't keep walking down or my pants would get stuck. I couldn't just jump, because it was hilly and full of hurtful stairs. Luckily 2 girls were coming, so I yelled AYUDAME (help me) and put my hands on their shoulders to jump down. I was pretty proud of myself, for figuring out a way almost by myself. and headed back up the path.

Well, if you recall, we went downhill to get there, which meant a fun walk up in the altitude to return to the bus. It was a lil rough, but so gorgeous. Someone with us pointed out the Amazon way in the distance, and there were inspirational wooden signs hanging up throughout the walk-pics on my picasa sight. We also saw a stretcher along the way, which made me a littttle nervous. It was just lying on top of some vegetation and looked a little beat up.

It was definitely worth it to wake up so early to see all of that, and of course to break into the lodge!!

TUNGURAHUA

So, we also paid a visit to Tungurahua, an active volcano in Banos. When I was googling info to finish my report for class, I stumbled upon an article written by my professor (which seems to happen a lot, he's a pretty famous guy). Check it out!

Even if you don't want to read it, at least look at the pictures towards the middle-there's two of the same location, before and after a big eruption. The whole area where we were sitting and learning used to be a community, and now it's rocks and dirt. The big wooden birds were also affected, as you can see in those pictures. 

An indigenous man who lives nearby and another scientist spoke to us about the site, but it was hard to hear and understand everything. The people of Banos don't like to evacuate, because when they are told to and listen, nothing happens. But, when something does happen they often don't have anywhere to go. These people live on the side of an active volcano, but where will the go? For a short time, maybe they could find a place but what's the point if there might not even be a need to leave. For a long time, there's no way they can move-they have land, animals, and a family and cannot afford to leave. Instead, they live in danger every day of their lives. 

There are lots of problems with the evacuations. I don't want to give a full report here, but I will tell you one thing that happened that's pretty interesting. There are power lines right by where we were sitting, and at the last big eruption, these power lines were affected by the lava from Tungurahua. Since the evacuation messages are sent by these power lines, no one found out that they needed to leave! Isn't that crazy?

Another cool thing that happened: while we were sitting there Tungurahua made sure we knew that it is still active! It rumbled, and spit smoke a bunch of times. I tried to get a pic of me and the smoke, but idk people here just ain't so fly with the camera skills. Here's one of the better shots. Yes, it's cloudy but check out the serious dark gray spot.

Just another fun note, I took this picture when we were on our way there: Ecuador's version of an alleyway. Slightly better view than New York City, eh?

Quick Visit to Baños

We spent the night in Baños, in probably the nicest hostal I have stayed in so far. The view was of a little park, and of course gorgeous mountains. There was fun art on the walls, and lots of space to spread out all my wet clothes. You can check out pictures on picasa.

We tooled around for a bit, and saw some guinea pig roasting on a pit in the street. Although I would like to try it while i'm here, I certainly would rather have it in an upscale restaurant and pay extra, than eat it off the street.

Since we were on our own for dinner, I was nervous about where to eat. Luckily I brought my trusty Lonely Planet (i swear a lot of americans just don't think about bringing a guide book to a foreign land...weird). We found a delishhhh place called "casa hood" that was pretty americanized, with the menu in dual languages. I had fajitas, but it only came with one fajita thing but all the insides were so good i ate it like a salad anyway. I also stocked up on postcards bc they only cost $25! I thought it was funny that the bathrooms had a beautifully painted sign, especially because the name of the town is the same name for bathroom.

Well, I know it's only a bathroom but it had some funny stuff in there. There was a notepad to write comments about the restaurant, with a box to put them in. The rod to hold the towel was what's that thing called-essentially it's a horse on a stick and you can ride it when you're little? And the handle of the door was a banana. So I obviously, shamelessly took pictures-go on the website to check em out, I already have too many pics in my blogs!

We roamed about, found a market, and I bought some awesome bracelets where this woman would etch a name into the stone. I love it! I probably should spend less money, but nahhh I don't think I will. I want to have stuff to keep for the rest of my life! So I'm gonna spend away, I worked hard to make it here!

We kept checking out the town, and window shopping, and we saw wayyyyy high up in the air a lit up cross. It was weird because it had to be on top of a mountain, but it seemed as if it was literally right above the next street. We didn't know what it was, but thought it was interesting...

Anyway, we ran into some Ecuadorians who said they rented a chiva, which is the Ecua version of a party bus.

They make some that are just open truck like cars with lots of rows of seats-like what you ride in Disney world or other places to and from parks or parking lots. Well, we got one that had a dance floor in the back. We listened to American and Spanish jams the whole ride, and at the top we would have had a gorgeous view of the town had it been daytime.

Ok so remember that cross way in the distance? That's where the Chiva took us! It was so cool to have the mystery solved and be that high up! I enjoyed a canalazo-delish drink that you get after rides that might make you "chilly" here, and chatted with some Ecuadorians! One girl, Melisa, was asking me about my service so it was nice to talk about that with her. We took a bunch of pictures, but it was so misty and cloudy-oh well. We also did a little dancing in the parking lot before heading back on the crazy road.

The Chiva dropped us off outside a DiscoTech-it is as it sounds, only a lot sweatier. Admission was free because of our Chiva ride, so even though we wanted to wake up early the next day to see waterfalls, you only live once! We headed in, and danced with some girls from the class. It was SO HOT and SO CROWDED. I mean dances/parties are hot, and Ecuador is hot but the two together made me feel like I was in a swimming pool. It was fun, and of course the first song we heard as we ran in was "tonight's gonna be a good night" which is almost always playing somewhere here.

We left and headed back, actually running into a bunch of other people who had left at the same time we had! Luckyyyy. While some wanted to dance/drink the night away, the girls in my hostal room wanted to head back and sleep, so we did.

I'll explain my awesome morning/afternoon in a separate blog, I think it makes more sense to just talk about the town of Baños all at once...

The next day of this weekend we had some time after we returned, and before we had to catch the bus. We walked around a bit, enjoying the little parks in the town. I found some more post cards, took pictures of some cool stuff. I found a restaurant named after me! Which is interesting because not a lot of places/things/people spell it the way I do

Closer to the bus station, there were lines and lines of shops that all sold the same stuff: a plant to chew, some snacks and treats, and LOTS OF TAFFY. also known as Melcocha. We bought the taffy from the first picture, but I think it's crazy that there were literally 20 stores that looked exactly the same (second picture)

They were stretching it while we were there! so of course i tasted some delish, warm taffy and it was delightful. I was going to save it forever, but someone said this kind loses its flavor in 2 weeks :( It definitely was NOT as good a week or so after, especially because it wasn't fresh off the maker's work station.

I found this picture, and I just like it a lot.

This is where Ecuador gets its power from-the Hydroelectricity in Baños. look to the left-the water was so dirty it reminded me of the Willy Wonka's Chocolate River.

Well, Baños was lovely-very small town, oh you know how some towns have decorations in the street for Christmas or parades or what not? like hanging over the street from the lights? well, Baños has giant pictures of Jesus and huge Rosary Beads.

Cotopaxi

so we watched some awesome movies in the bus, as always. I’m really getting to appreciate how much I love Sandra Bullock, I keep watching movies with her and she’s seriously such a great actress! We arrive at the entrance of the Cotopaxi Park, and it’s about an hour ride to a spot with a wall where we stopped to look, of course, at some rocks. I really felt like I was in the middle of nowhere, it was wild. Almost like some sort of weird desert at times, because every once in a while there was nothing on either side of you, and then it would just drop off and you couldn’t see anything else. We continued up for a while longer until it was realllll cloudy.

We arrived at our destination: a parking lot, 4500 meters, and ya know, there’s just some wolves frolicking about, playing around some other parked cars.

We had about 2 and a half to three hours I think to reach the glacier, but you could barely see 20 feet in front of you. 

I started up, not promising myself to stay with any groups because I wasn’t sure how I would do going up. Not only is it hiking up a steep hill, it’s in some pretty crazy conditions. 

The ground is at times really rocky, at other times really soft dirt that steals your feet away from you. Not to mention the altitude. Needless to say, I was working at a snail’s pace. I would take 20 steps, then count 15 seconds for a break, then continue with 20 steps. I eventually got to 40 and even 50 steps sometimes! Crazyyy I know!

You really couldn’t see that much, and at one point I found myself on this sort of natural bridge, where we were kind of on a mini hill and if you walked too close to the side you’d probably fall about 15 feet. This part was level, and then it continued uphill of course. Some people were jogging then taking a break, but you’re really not supposed to do that. I liked my tortoise pace, and although I didn’t get there first by any means, I did get rewarded in the end…

We had been traveling for a long time, and I really didn’t know if I would make it. Luckily I ate lots of chocolate before I even left the bus, because sugar/chocolate helps with the altitude, so I wasn’t sick or anything. I only sat down once, and took an extra bite of chocolate just in case. I didn’t want to sit around and then later regret not making it to the glacier. I had come this far, and it was the day of the Penguin Plunge in Vermont! I couldn’t just sit on the side of Cotopaxi and eat chocolate all day!

We made it to a Refuge, and I thought to myself…uh oh, why is there a place to rest here? How much longer could there be?!?!?! So I took a bathroom break and a breather, and continued from this stop at 4800 meters. The “path” here was getting smaller. Before it was like walking up a big hill at least 30 feet wide, and right before the refuge it was more like 5, and at times 3, but now I was walking right behind people. You could go on other routes, but it got rocky and it’s always easier to follow someone else, watching where they slip and get good footholds. 

We also started seeing little rivers, coming down from much higher. They were tiny but so fun to see! It started getting a little chilly, but even tho I packed so many layers I didn’t want to wear any of them! It also started misting a big.

Well, it was getting really hard to see any sort of path, and I had no idea where I was going. Luckily I ran into the other professor that comes with us on the trips, and so I didn’t feel so bad that we were starting to run into the time where we should head back. But I really wanted to see the glacier!! We ran into some other students from the class, who said they made it. Some of them said it was really close, others say oh it’s a half hour. I didn’t know whom to believe. You also have to remember that 5 minutes downhill can be 20 minutes uphill in these conditions. The professor wanted to get there just as much as I did, so we kept on truckin! When we got closer, some Ecuadorians steered us in the right direction which was really helpful bc we had to head way over to the right to find the glacier. It got scarier and scarier, and a bit colder, but obviously worth it! We reached the glacier and I was so excited that I forgot it was ice and wiped out. A few scratches but not bad. Of course my first pic is me in my PENGUIN PLUNGE t shirt, obviously. 

And then, the trusty founder’s society sweatshirt-just for you Dustin!

We headed back down, and once I got to the refuge I was by myself, only because the girls behind me were staying at the glacier and i didn't want to get left behind, and also because the professor I was with was taking too long and walking too slow. I started running down to make up for lost time, and oh my goodness was that interesting. I made a video of it, that I'll eventually put there. It was so wild though because at that part the ground is so soft that it went to my ankles, so I had to lift my feet up out of the ground to keep going!

I caught up with a bunch of people from my class and we made it back to the bus. I peeled off my clothes and started to get cozy, only to get summoned off the bus. I figured it was just to chat about what we did and find out what was happening next, so I only had on a long sleeve shirt and a notebook. Well, we had another adventure of course-always be prepared with Theo. He walked us over to the side of the parking lot,and then kept doing at the top of a very steep part. I'm not sure if it was a caldera or not, but it was realllllll steep, and so misty/cloudy we couldn't see anything. It was misting, but I couldn't go back to get anything so I just listened....apparently we were going to run down this hill. Now I don't just mean any hill. I'm no good at degrees but it was STEEP. like if you laid on it you'd almost be standing up. So Theo told us to run, and since I didn't bring my camera I couldn't film everyone scurrying down the hill. Oh well. He should have told me to be at the ready!

Anyway, we had to run down in zig zags, because if you tried to go in a straight line you'd tumble, and if you tried to go slowly you'd fall. It was very scary but also awesome at the same time. This time the dirt went up to my calves, almost my knees at some points! I didn't have time to slow down at the bottom so I fell and cut my thumbs, they're still healing a bit even though that was about 3 weeks ago from the time I'm writing this blog. 

We then stood in the rain for about 20 minutes, listening to Theo talk about volcanic rocks and whatnot. I wasn't sure if we were going to walk somewhere to meet the bus, because there was no way we could possibly walk up that hill that we just ran down! Well, low and behold of course we had to walk back up it. Or climb, really. I slipped a lot and took a lot of breaks, but what a view at the top. Since it had rained, the clouds moved out and we could see where we had just been and it was GORGEOUS. i'm still trying to find someone who has a picture of it but oh my goodness it was so beautiful I hope I never forget it.

Unfortunately since it was so rainy that weekend we didn't have a great view of the snowcaps, aka we couldn't see them at all. but wow that view after I wheezed my way back to the parking lot was definitely worth the trouble. 

YOGA!

ok so i've been slacking, but that just means there are so many fun stories to come! i've been taking notes in word documents so don't worry i won't forget to blog about all the fun i'm having....but here's the first section from ohhh 2 weeks ago.

2 Fridays ago: service was tough, I napped with the pillow on my head, woke up 2 hours later, (which is a miracle!) I had wanted to check out Carolina park- a place booming with life on the weekends. My host mom said that no one goes there on the weekdays, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to check it out and at least it would be a good spot for a jog. But since I actually napped it was too late to go to the park so instead I went to yoga.  A while back I remembered highlighting a yoga place that sounded cool, and even tho it was kind of far away I wanted to go on an adventure, and it needed to be something indoors since it was already after 4.

I wanted to take the bus but I thought that would take too long, but it was coming up to rush hour so that didn’t matter too much. Taxi metro gypped me which is the meter for the car-he reset it so he could charge me a little more but it wasn’t a lot so whatever. Then came the act of finding the place. I asked around, but Quito changed its addresses a while back so I had the old address-thanks lonely planet haha. I asked lots of people, and tried to call the place but the number didn’t work. It took me a half hour to find it, lots of ppl were super sweet with directions-I went back to buy Gatorade from one woman who was really sweet and took her time explaining it to me. I also ran into a woman who I asked for help once when I was asking someone else and she couldn’t fathom how I hadn’t found it yet.  I went upstairs, nervous about awkwardly entering a yoga class right in the middle but it hadn’t even started yet! Since I was in the best place in Quito to get robbed, I was a little uneasy leaving my flashy Nike sneakers in the hallway but nothing ever happened.

The instructor was a really nice man, but again, awkward-was I about to start an hour long Krishna yoga class with a stranger? But, as luck would have it, a cute, semi-older couple joined us and we were on our way. The usual stretching, with some sweating but I didn’t notice as much bc I always sweat here now. He took the time to teach me and make sure I understood what he was saying, there was a cool Hindu accordian thing and we chanted the Krishna words. I definitely wanna go back, even though it took an hour there and an hour home but it was so worth it. I took the bus back like a rebel, (because it was dark) and packed for Saturday.

next: Cotopaxi...

Scholarship Letter

Ok so I had to write up some info for SMC's publicist and for the lovely man that is funding a scholarship for me to monetarily help out my service! I figured I'd share it...

Hello All

I wanted to talk a little bit about my service, as I think I have had enough experience to finally be able to describe it.

I am volunteering a short 5 minute walk from my host family’s house in Quito, Ecuador at Fundación Integrar, a program for children with disabilities.  This program is in the first floor of a house, with the bedrooms and living room converted into classrooms, a physical therapy room, an office, and a playroom.

There are kids of all ages, from 5 to 46, some with Cerebral Palsy, some with Down Syndrome, and some with other challenges. The kids pay a fee monthly, but this fee changes depending on the family’s financial status. I am in the process of learning more about the social aspects of this foundation, but I have had meetings and conversations with some of the other women who work there full time about the physical and mental needs of the children.

I volunteer 3 days a week because of my academic schedule. Mondays from 8-10 am I help in the classroom with the older kids. Last week we painted doorknob decorations, and then we walked to a nearby park and played basketball.

Wednesdays everyone piles into an “escolar” or school bus, which is more like a school van. We drive about 35 minutes to Cumbaya, and ride horses as a method of therapy for the kids, called Hippo therapy. Sometimes, I walk alongside the kids and make sure they don’t fall if they are a slightly unstable alone, and other times I ride the horse behind the kids.  I especially enjoy this, because I talk to the kids, sing to them, and try to get them acclimated by moving their arms around. Most of the kids are unable to speak, but sometimes they make noises and it is so fulfilling to hear them get excited.

Fridays I spend the whole day at the center.  Last week one of the teachers was sick, so I helped with the youngest group. We “sang” songs together, presented ourselves with name, age, family, location of house, what we like to do etc, and colored. Most of these activities are a little too advanced for the children, so I am going to try to implement new ideas from my experience with kids with disabilities in New York and Vermont. I worked in BOCES, a school in New York two summers ago and learned a lot about educating and working with children with disabilities.  I am also a student leader of Best Buddies at SMC. I hope my experience will be able to help the other teachers.

With the scholarship, I hope to purchase things for the foundation. I am weary of handing the money over because one of the other volunteers says the secretary is always complaining about needing more money, but she (the volunteer) never knows where it all goes.  I mentioned that I wanted to buy toilet paper, soap, and wet wipes, but my boss said those are the responsibility of the families each year. The house is lacking in these necessities, however, so I might buy some when I have the money anyway.

One of the volunteers and I were talking about the lack of healthy food in the diets of the children, so we might do cooking classes or sponsor snack time with our own fruits and vegetables sometimes.

I want to buy a new walker for a young man named Javier, but apparently my boss is talking to the government right now to get a walker for him and a new wheelchair for another student. If this takes too long, however, I may also purchase one on my own. I already have multiple addresses for medical supply stores.

My boss mentioned that they need a new radio to play songs so the kids can dance, so I definitely will help with that. They also would like more computer programs and toys with lights and sounds to stimulate the children who cannot speak. I also hope to throw out and replace numerous toys and puzzles, as well as arts and crafts supplies. A lot of these things are dirty, old, and missing parts.

Part of the scholarship will aide in my transportation.  Since I have class on Wednesdays, I take a taxi from the horse therapy to school. I am lucky it is so close to my University, otherwise I would not be able to assist with this fun and enriching activity. I will also use some money to purchase a sweat suit that all the kids, teachers, and volunteers wear at the foundation, which will allow me to look and feel a part of the community.

I have enclosed a few pictures of me riding a horse with Alexander in my SMC M.O.V.E. t shirt as well as a picture of some of the students singing and dancing together in the playroom.

Thank you so much for this opportunity. I wasn’t sure exactly what to say in this email so if you have questions please ask! I would love to share as much about my experience as I can.

Sincerely,

Katherine Hackett

Chillin in Quito

This weekend we chilled in Quito. One girl in our program, had to do something with her volunteer program so we promised not to go to Mindo. Since we also didn’t really have any ideas for other trips that weren’t off the charts awesome, we figured we could find things to do right in our own backyard, so to speak.

Friday I got out of service early, returning home around 2 for lunch with my host mom. I could have and should have wondered around the many museums just a 10 minute bus ride down the road, but I was exhausted from the kids. I worked with the younger ones, all under 10 with the other volunteer. I have experience with kids who have disabilities, but this is a whole new world. It was hard coming into something I already have done, because I came in with plenty of expectations, whether I like it or not. I was upset with myself for being somewhat shocked that my boss, Irma, knows a lot about the scientific aspects of the disabilities, and that the physical therapist spoke about Cerebral Palsy for an hour with me last week. After spending a day working with the little ones however, I really started to appreciate the people I worked with in New York

I completely understand that you can’t do everything, and you have to draw the line somewhere or you’ll burn out in a week. But when one girl didn’t want to put beads from one bowl to another, I could tell she is not disciplined very often. She got mad, tried to escape out of her seat, fall asleep, and cry multiple times, but this is what I had been expecting of my days since I learned I would be volunteering at this foundation! 

I know part of the problem is because I am so new to everything, that I am noticing different things.  The only kids I have seen that receive physical therapy are 2 little girls with severely advanced Cerebral Palsy. Side note- it’s so sad because both of these girls were born without any physical disabilities and all of a sudden they stopped laughing and squirming around. One of them got a terrible fever, the max your body can take, which lasted for 8 days! That fried her insides, and now she can’t hold herself up. The other girl got the infection from a cat.

If two of the kids received PT, however, I am sure that within months they would be able to walk by themselves. They are already pretty strong, they just need some guidance with their muscles. One little girl always has her knuckles bent, as if she’s a gorilla. They aren’t stiff, so I always try to open her hands and she doesn’t mind it, she just doesn’t know that’s what you’re supposed to do. It just frustrates me that she doesn't work on this formally with  anyone.

Well I don’t just want to complain about it, I just had a really hard Friday. Wednesdays though are my favorite! We take a bus to a house with lots of horses hiding in the backyard! Since I have class at 11:30 and have to take a taxi to my university, I always get to go first, and this past Wednesday I rode with 2 different kids-PS, it’s bareback! Just a towel between me and the horse, and I seriously have almost fallen a few times. 

The first time I got up, the man who was going to lead the horse for us put his hands out, and I thought he wanted my foot. Instead, he grabbed my bent knee and counted to 3. I barely had time to think, no actually I had absolutely no time to think and jumped up, andddd almost fell off the other side! But it’s fun, and I move the kids’ arms around, sing to them, or try to get them to talk to me depending on if they can talk or not. Last week Alan all of a sudden burst out “yo vivo en mi casa” I live in my house. Probably because we try to get them to introduce themselves at school all the time, and we ask where do you live? Looking for the address, but my house is pretty good too sometimes. Also, my service has a penguin welcome mat!

So, back to my story. I burned daylight hours watching TV and doing a little homework. I really wanted to explore, but I was just so tired! Some of the girls were doing down to the Mariscol, aka Gringolandia or the place where all the foreigners go, but I wasn’t really in the mood to take a taxi and “go out” so to speak. Luckily, my friend Hannah wasn’t either. I asked my host mom to call a taxi for me, and I headed to Hannah’s after eating dinner at home. Her host mom was excited to see me, and for those of you from St Mike’s, she hosted Kendra Corr last spring! Hannah and I went to the store to buy pirated movies to watch, and when we came back we chatted a bit with her mom. She was so excited to get to talk to me, and I was so excited to be in the house where Kendra used to live and where I saw so many pics from! (I had been there once before, but didn’t realize it was the same place because we just met there quickly before heading out to Mitad del Mundo the first weekend)

Anyway, we went upstairs (the place is huge compared to mine!) and watched that movie with Sandra Bullock when she’s a crossword puzzle writer and stalks the gorgeous guy from The Hangover who plays a TV newsman. I don’t have internet as I write this and my memory is that of a goldfish.

After, I headed home. I could have slept over, but didn’t feel like showering/getting stuff together for Saturday before I went over. Apparently, the next day, her mom was shocked that I wasn’t there in the morning! So I know for next time I can def stay over! PS-Kendra/Hannah’s mom always has delish strawberry hard candies, and Kendra sent salt water taffy so I had some of that too! So delish!

We decided we would head to the TeleferiQo Saturday morning, and even though we only heard from one other person, Hannah and I were going, and we were going early. I’m sick of wasting time waiting for everyone and meeting way later than we planned. (Even though that ended up happening anyway, at least Hannah and I had an hour extra on the top of the mountain!)

The TeleferiQo is a sky tram, set up as if it’s a ski lift but you’re in one of those little cars, and takes you up Volcano Pichincha, at 4,100 meters or something like 12000 feet. ). Since Hannah and I got there basically when it opened, we didn’t wait at all. 

We found a little church that was built in 2008, another great musician playing Eagles and Beatles music, accompanying with his pipe music and this guy even had chimes! We looked to see if they had chocolate, but the stores with the candy bars was closed. Our taxi driver on the way there was really nice, and gave us his name and number to call him again! Don’t worry, he wasn’t creepy. Luis is a bit older, is from a private taxi company that my host mom called, and he chatted with us because he knows we needed to practice our Spanish! He also made sure we had water and jackets, and was going to stop at a candy shop so we could get chocolate before we got there! Apparently, chocolate/sugar helps with the altitude, because last weekend on my field trip with class another kid’s mom gave him a jar of sugar to bring with him! I asked my host mom why, and she said it’s a secret because she has no idea.

ps no running-it's deadly

When the rest of the girls came, (4 others ended up joining us!) We went to a higher level, and walked a bit further. 

We took some pics, but after looking at the ones I took versus the ones some other people took of me on my camera, apparently I do have some photography skills-people tend to forget to make sure the mountains and miles of city are included in the picture…oh well. I have good pics of my friends! We sat and chatted for a bit, taking in all that was around us.

Next stop: Centro Historico, to check out the Basilica. We took a bus that only had us in it directly to the Basilica, but we had some hungry people with us, so we ended up walking a ways away to get some grub first. After finding a place with empanadas and snacks, we headed back to the Basilica. The church itself was gorgeous but very empty and dark. Hannah mentioned we could climb up into the towers, so we walked around the block-but first we took a turn into an indoor cemetery! It was a little creepy, and of course I took a picture to share it with you. But i'm not sure if it is showing up or not

We found the entrance for the towers, and got a discount with our Censos! (the card that we had to get in order to be allowed to leave in May) We started climbing, and I counted the steps every step of the way. Pun intended. It took 487 to reach the top, or at least that’s how many stairs I climbed in all. Yes, I was a bit of a whimp, but so were the majority of people at one tower. For the most part, it was climbing indoor stairs, with stops along the way. My favorite was the first stop, where you were almost in the choir loft of the church, except it wasn’t because they had 2 of those near the altar and not as high. You could wander around because it was wider than the church itself, and go into little alcoves to peak at the outside side of the church. It’s hard to explain but it was cool, and we got to see how this Gothic church doesn’t have gargoyles, but birds turtles and other friendly animals on the sides. We were also really close to this gorgeous stained glass window, that is taller than one story of a building I’d say.

We went higher, where there was a café and then a gift shop. I got some postcards to send to my first round of special people-my Best Buddy Linda, my Nana, and my two nieces, because Lauren wants to bring one in for show and share! Also known as show and tell. To me anyway.

Okay, so here’s where it got scary. To get to the tower, you have to walk across a very creaky wooden pathway, kind of reminiscent of star wars a little bit. On either side were arched thingys, and just a rope on either side in case you should fall or lose your balance. I was nervous.

I realized later that we were walking directly above the church, and you know how the ceilings are arched and fancy? Yeah well the top was dirty, dusty, and scary because if you slipped you wouldn’t necessarily be able to climb back up too easily.

At the end of the pathway was a wider platform, but I didn’t like that because it was only held up by 2 by 4s at the corners. Awesome. My friends tried to say oh come over here, where it’s wider. But since I could see what they were standing on, aka basically nothing, I said no thanks. Then, there was a steep ladder, and they put wide mesh really more like a cris cross pattern of metal to catch your feet so you don’t fall through. It was really slippery and really scary, and I was thinking about having to come down before I could fathom going up. I did it, but very very slowly.

The view up there was gorgeous, with ridiculous ladders you could take down closer to the edge of the actual church or up to a higher tower. There were ladders from long ago that are legit just bent, thick wire to the top, but they also configured the same type of ladder with mesh catching. These ladders were outside tho, and if you fell off it you could potentially fall onto the slanted roof and who knows from there. I was already nervous, so I didn’t attempt this. 2 girls in our group did, and later we got to see what it looked like from the other side of the Basilica…

We headed down, me first-very very slowly, and joked with some other Americans about how courageous I was on that ladder, they were surprised I didn’t want to go up. (they made it to the top, we saw them later). We headed back across the Star Wars hallway, and I leaped to safety at the end I was so excited to be back on “solid” ground. We continued up, because we really wanted to make it to the clock and bell tower.

More indoor stairs, and then a see-through spiral staircase-not my favorite, and this was alone was made up of 72 steps. I went up a ways, and stopped to rest my nerves where the clocks were. I’m not sure if they work. There’s a large gadget in the middle of the room, but it didn’t seem to be connected to anything at first glance. I was honestly too shaken up to check it out too much and I also really didn’t feel well-the altitude at the TeleferiQo kicked my butt that morning and I was still feeling a bit odd.

Diane and I didn’t think we wanted to go up anymore, but when our friends started ringing the bell that was way up, we couldn’t let ourselves sit down there any longer. We made it up slowly but surely, only to find out that the bell tower was one more staircase up! A flat ladder, with thin metal rungs and no safety bar around you. Great. I told myself this was nothing compared to when I worked on the roof for Habitat for Humanity with SMC’s MOVE last Spring. (pushing out of my mind the fact that I was at the top of the tower of a Basilica, at the top of a hill in Ecuador, thousands of feet higher than my normal life already). I got up there, and got a picture ringing the bell. Although I’m not even sure if I took a picture of the actual bell, but I made sure to ring it while the picture was taken so I wouldn’t be a fake just holding the cord.

You could have gone even higher, but nobody else did so I didn’t even need to pretend to feel like a coward for not going either. We started down, and I continued for sometime without stopping. Once we were back to the indoor staircase I felt 1000000 times better.

 It was fun, and I took a picture with Diane outside to document our great companionship!

After, some of us headed to the Museum del Banco because Kara needed to go for class. It has some cool stuff, but I wouldn’t really recommend it. Nothing really tickled my fancy. Although I did get beeped at a few times for getting too close to things, and asked to delete a picture after I took it! Sorry, there was no sign that you couldn’t take a picture! 

We headed home, or at least we thought we did. Looking at the map I figured I could just rock a bus down the main street, but little did we know that once we walked the 2 blocks to said main street, Avenida de Rio Amazonas, it was a one way up here because it’s the beginning of the road! And one way in the opposite direction. We walked for a while until it was 2 ways, and could catch the bus. I got home, only to find no one home.

I started writing this entry and uploaded my pics, when all of a sudden my host mom was calling me to come! Let’s go! I was bewildered. She hadn’t answered my call or text, and all of a sudden I was being summoned to go somewhere. So I changed really fast and grabbed money, assuming we were going to buy stuff for my jewelry class.

The car was full of my host mom and sister, and an old student of my host mom’s from Germany who was visiting Quito. We went to a mall so I could buy Tagua nut for my jewelry, and I’m so glad they took me not only for that errand, but now I know where a normal mall is! Most of the malls I’ve been to so far are huge and ridiculously expensive, with fancy name brand clothing stores from the US and other shops full of things I’ll never need. This mall has useful stores, a cheap clothing store downstairs, and plenty of jewelry stores-including one to buy more pure silver if I need it, and an AWESOME store full of beads of all kinds that I know I will be returning to buy lots of awesome things for me and my sisters!

After we got back, I wrote out my post cards, organized my room for the first time in a week, and helped my host mom in the kitchen with the dishes. We chatted a lot during dinner tonight which was awesome, and she helped me with some homework and directions. I’m so glad I stayed in Quito this weekend, sometimes it’s nice to just be home, and this place is finally starting to feel like home a little bit. It took a month, and believe me I still have plenty of moments, but between watching a movie at a friend’s house and running errands in a car for once instead of a bus and with my host family, things are starting to make sense.

Sunday morning I woke up to go to the Iglesia Republica, a Christian church that some of the girls in my program go to with their families. It started with about 5-8 songs, and they played the words on two big projector screens. It was interesting, to say the least. Then there was a little bit of work with the Bible, where they took out very small passages and discussed them, and finally, a guest speaker took the stage. It ended with a few more rounds of the songs, and it lasted from 8:30 until 10:15.  It’s nice to know I’m not in the minority of people who enjoy mass, whatever kind that may be.

After, Hannah and I got changed into shorts and T-shirts, because we wanted to check out the aerobics class at Carolina Park! We passed by horses, crazy winding pathways, and a cool roadway for bikes. We walked down, and followed the music to find two men in green spandex and black shirts struttin their stuff on a big platform made of dirt and rock. Awesome. We ran into Zannah and Susanna (I know, we have great names in our group!) and started laughing hysterically at ourselves attempting the moves. Too bad the mass went so late, because Hannah and I only caught the last 15 minutes. Since the other girls wanted some shade, we decided to walk a little bit to find a shady spot to watch some futbol, aka soccer.

We found a spot, and in a few minutes were asked to play. At first we only pushed Susanna and Hannah, but eventually Zannah and I joined in as well and it was pretty fun. I’m terrible, and accidentally scored a goal for the other team when I was just trying to stick my foot in the way to top the ball, but I’m glad we got into it. I wanted to check out the volleyball/basketball games, but didn’t feel like going along, and I should come back without a backpack next time so I don’t have to worry about it. I also want to check out the museums here, but with my camera for all the flowers. Some of the girls went home, but Hannah and I took the trole to another park, to check out the market!

I finally bought some presents for other people here! Everything is so nice, I’ve had serious problems thinking of other people I just want everything I buy for myself!! Anyway, park El Ejido is pretty nice, and I bargained for some sweet crazy colored pants to go with my crazy jacket, or should I say to clash with my crazy jacket. I also got handmade gloves, and ran into a silver jewelry making man whom I chatted with in Otavalo-and he remembered me before I even walked up to his table! He makes gorgeous stuff, it’s just so hard to pay more than 15 dollars at the market when everything is so cheap!

We spent at least an hour walking through the market, me trying to contain myself, and decided it was a good time to head home. This really has been an awesome weekend! And, I’m chatting with my host mom more and more!

fast update: enormous amounts of bugs in my room. so my host mom sprayed a serious cloud of raid all around my bed. and then i got into my bed and went to sleep. 

and getting a package here is a huge ordeal. ugh.