LA COSTA

Well, I made it to the coast! Another fieldtrip with my Volcanology class, and another weekend of wild things! We left on Friday afternoon, much later than we had first expected but that’s okay. We stopped at KFC for dinner, and I was afraid to eat a lot of it. I always bring peanut butter sandwiches with me and plenty of snacks, but I figured I could rock some chicken-and the cookie it came with! Surprisingly though it had the nicest bathrooms I’ve seen yet!

I fell asleep for a bit, and woke up when we stopped the bus because some boys who had bought alcohol at the last stop really needed to pee, which by the way traveled under the bus and down the other side of the road. I had to go too, but when we asked how much further it was only 20 minutes! We finally turned onto a different road, and all of a sudden the ocean was right next to me! Luckily I was on the side of the water, and literally the water was no more than 30 feet away from me! Even though it was dark and I couldn’t see the horizon, it was so wonderful to hear see and smell the ocean. We haphazardly chose rooms, and went to bed. Since I had mistakenly chosen the bus without Theo on the way there, we realized we had no idea what time we were meeting, so we went back to talk to him. I still couldn’t decide if I wanted to go with the group, or just chill on the beach all day and try paragliding. Or sailing, now I’m confused because they call it something different here. I didn’t have to go with the class because I already did all my reports, but I ended up going with them because we always do cool stuff with Theo and I didn’t want to miss out.

We got up and ate breakfast, and then headed out to do whatever was on Theo’s agenda. First stop: look at oceanic crust that’s on land! I wish I could explain it all, but I’m in the process of figuring it all out. I do know that I now have my very own piece of gypsum that I took right out of the wall. While we were there the wall was constantly crumbling, which was pretty wild. On the way back to the bus, I heard shewolf playing and took a mini video just to make sure I remembered to tell people like Rachael about it.

It was so hot, and the ride to the next stop was long, so a lot of people fell asleep. My professor started to take pictures of all the sleeping people, and luckily I woke up with the sound of his phone taking it as he got the person in front of me. The view was gorgeous, looking at farms, houses, people, and plants. No matter where I go in Ecuador I am happy looking out the window and not saying one word the whole time I’m in the bus.

We stopped at an office, explaining a bunch of stuff that I couldn’t hear. It was so hot but they had trays of delicious sweets and bottled water for all of us. We then headed a bit further into the property in the bus, to see some really cool turquoise rocks. It was also more oceanic crust on the land, and a TV crew was there to film Theo talking about it all. We also saw bright turquoise in the rock as well. I feel really stupid because I can never remember what everything is!

After, we went to see the sites where they blow up rocks to sell for construction. They drill holes in the rocks, then fill it with gunpowder and some sort of dynomite. They did a little example for us with two rocks. I took a video, but we waited so long that I stopped the video to start another one, and of course that’s when the first one went off. I gave up for the second one because it was more like the rock just broke into pieces, nothing flew into the air.

We headed to the next stop, seeing random animals in what could have been a parking lot but was just dirty and flat, and then I saw trees that I think were real but look like the fake trees they have to “disguise” towers somewhere on the East Coast that my dad really likes a lot.

Anyway, our next stop was the beach!!! And it was paradise. We were hungry, but Theo said no we’re going to the beach first. We didn’t realize that there was a guided tour happening, but I walked ahead with Theo and talked to him a lot which was nice. The sand was hot and really hard to walk in-more than normal. We stopped near the rocks, and he pointed to around the bend, and said we were headed to the cave. So-we started a bit of rock climbing along a rounded rock wall, over water. A few of us got over there, and I was so grateful I decided to wear the shoes I did because they’re thin and similar to rock climbing shoes, but also airy so they could go in the water no problem.

Anyway, we started heading towards the cave when a few people had made it over and Theo realized a lot of people wouldn’t be able to climb around the wall. He got to a part where the rock stopped, and to continue you had to get over a crevasse that was kind of big. Not huge, but in those circumstances dangerous. Theo said it was too dangerous to continue, not just because of that but also because of the waves crashing into the rocks below us. To get to the cave we would have to walk through that water, and there’s no way people would make it there and back without getting hurt. Maybe if the tide was lower, and maybe if there wasn’t a tsunami warning that we didn’t even know about! More on that later.

Two guys climbed up way higher, and I was going too but wasn’t sure if I’d be able to get down, so decided to head back. It was a little unnerving, but an Ecuadorian classmate helped me down at times, and I was back near the curved rock wall. It was either climb back to shore, or jump in and swim back. I was really scared that I would fall off the rock into the water unexpectedly, and since theo said we could jump in if we wanted to, I chose that. It took a while, however, because you had to wait for the wave to come in and then make sure no others were close behind otherwise it would be dangerous. While waiting, however, I sat down and held on tight because the waves would come up and crash over us every once in a while, almost taking me back down with them.

I finally jumped in with another Ecuadorian girl, and we swam back. Then I ran on shore, farther from the rock and closer to the rest of the class, and had a blast! I got taken under the tidal waves a few times, complete with a bloody and scratched back, but it was totally worth it. I also somehow got a serious blister on my toe, probably from trekking thru the sand with shoes earlier, but oh well.

We headed to grab lunch, and I traveled into the tiny town with some people to find a restaurant. Luckily the one we chose was also their house, so the bathroom had a shower and I rinsed off the sand from my back and face. I was still covered in sand, and it wasn’t worth it to try to clean off.

We were getting close to the meeting time, and since everyone but me ordered ceviche (a delish dish with seafood, but between allergies and being in a random town I just ate my apple from home) I headed back to the meeting spot to make sure we weren’t left behind. A lot of people still hadn’t eaten, so we weren’t leaving anytime soon. I ended up talking a lot with Theo, learning about his life and how he met his wife and his younger years which was cool. I also got to watch a bunch of college guys play with 2 little girls and their beach ball, which was hilarious.  Although it was an awesome time on the beach and chatting with people, it kind of stunk because Theo had mentioned how much more beautiful the next stop was going to be, and we ended up not going since lunch went so long and he didn’t want to drive at night on the coast. Oh well. We had a gorgeous view, and you could see your legs when you swam it was so clear and blue!

As we left the town, I saw a cemetery, and the cemeteries here are so happy looking. They must use only fake flowers with the heat, because every stone has bright flowers. It kind of creeps me out that a lot of it is those boxes just stacked up on each other, but still it looks like a happy place, and most of the stones are a bright white instead of dark gray. As we drove back to our hostal, lots of people waved hello, which is always fun.

We got back and I watched the sunset, getting some nice thinking time just listening to the water. I wish I could have just sat by myself and napped, but I knew better than that.

I turned on my American phone to take a picture so that I could use it as a background when I’m back in the states, and found out I had pretty good service there-and received a bunch of messages about the earthquake in Chile, the tsunami warning on the pacific coast, and was I ok?!?!?! Well, I clearly had no idea about any of this. If we were in danger our professor definitely would have told us, but there was nothing we needed to do or could do, so he didn’t warn us and since we were at the beach all day it clearly wasn’t a huge issue haha.

That night when we got back I jumped in the pool instead of showering and hung out with some people for a bit, then went to dinner, did some shopping on the street, and got ice cream. Luckily the girls I was with also liked the idea of sitting on the beach, so we did that for a while and chatted. I also sat away from them for a bit to get my alone time on the water, and we headed back. They were tired but I didn’t want to go to sleep with the ocean right there, and we luckily ran into a lot more people from our class doing the same thing we were. We sat down with them, and then our professor called us over because there were even more of us a little bit further down. I keep using further/farther in this blog and I’m honestly not sure if I’m using it correctly or not. Anyway, we all sat together chatting, and I got to hang out with some new people which is always nice. A bunch of people went out to the discotech to drink and dance, but I wasn’t really hyper enough to go dancing. Instead, I went back to swim a bit at the hostal. I ended up staying there for a longgg time.

There was only one other American in the pool, my professor, and then a lot of Ecuadorians. They were drinking “agua loco” aka some sort of straight alcohol that was fire. Allie and I tried to integrate ourselves but it was hard, and most of the Ecuas I know were out dancing, but we still stayed and talked a bit with some people.

After a long while of being in the pool while the Ecuas through their friends in fully clothed or pushed people who had been swimming back in, I got out to dry off, thinking I would go to sleep soon. I ended up chatting with a bunch of people, and then Byron started to teach me salsa because there was music playing. We stayed up for a long time, and even after a lot of people went to sleep we were still talking-for some reason I could understand his Spanish really well. At first we had been speaking in English, but then switched to Spanish when we realized that was a much better idea. At about 5:20 I went to my hostal to go to sleep, and around 5:30 was the earthquake! I had been crouched down looking in my bag for something, and then got up and went to walk around the corner of the bed in the dark, so I thought that I just got really dizzy or something. But when my roommate woke up, and I heard stuff falling down upstairs, I didn’t think it was just me standing up too fast. And alas, it was a 5.3 earthquake! Crazyyy!

Some people thought their friends had been shaking their beds, and some didn’t even wake up.

The next morning we listened to Theo talk about rocks, and I went just to try to listen while others had to take notes in order to hand in a report immediately after. Then we packed up, and the girls I had eaten dinner with the night before went to find out about this parasailing business. We didn’t have much time, and when we got there they told us the wind wasn’t good enough. Oh well. We headed back and found out we had wayyy more time because of course, we’re in Ecuador and people still had to pay the hostal-which took a long time. One kid really wanted to go for one last dip in the ocean, but couldn’t convince others. We talked to our professor, and I thought about how I have no idea when I’ll be back on the coast next, so I did it. And I’m so glad I did. I love the ocean, and it was so nice to get one more good swim in!

The ride back was no where near as long as I thought it would be. We stopped at a funny rest stop, only funny because it’s so different than the US-it was cafeteria style food, and then a candy store that you had to walk across the building to the cafeteria line in order to pay for your candy. For a place that has a lot of robberies, their stores are very odd. But the food was good.

We played more music and I looked out the window much more than the movies from the other trips, and it was nice in general bc this trip felt a lot more mixed between Ecuadorians and Americans. I also hung out with Ecuadorians a lot more which was awesome too.

As we got closer we played some sweet jams, and Theo came into the back of the bus and I got a picture of it. It was also nice to take a taxi home with Heidi, who lives on my street! We only figured that out on the last field trip.

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