Wednesday, November 10, 2010
First Days of ISP
I got to Tena (in the Oriente or Amazon jungle) Saturday evening after a five and a half hour bus ride. I'm living in a neighborhood called Aeropuerto 2 because it runs along one side of the landing strip, although as far as I can tell the landing strip is never used except by the people for exercising along. I'm working in the free government health clinic here, run by the Ministerio de Salud Publica. Most of the patients are women and children, although there have been a few men. Its heart-wrenching how small some of the children are, they'll be nine years old and look like they're 5 because they just don't have enough nutrients in their diet. Everyone here is short compared to me, but the women and children that come to the clinic tend to be those who have the least, since it's completely free to come. Gripe, which technically means flu but is often used to describe a cold is the most common illness. I've also seen a couple cases of pink eye, a couple infections, and planificacion (family planning) since they give out free condoms, birth control, and also some kind of contraceptive shot. Today, there was a fifteen day old baby who had bronchotis, was vomiting, and had mottled skin. Mostly I'm writing down names (very hard to do in Spanish and get the spelling completely right, although it helps that a lot of the last names, and they all have two last names, are the same), birthdates, ages, weighing them on the scale, taking temperatures of the children (which we do under the armpit), taking blood pressures of the adults (using a blood pressure cuff and a stethescope), and measuring the circurmfrance of the head for children under 2. Sometimes Fernanda, the doctor, has me listen to people's stomachs or chests or backs using the stethescope, but I usually can't tell exactly what she wants me to here. I also hand Fernanda the medicines she asks for, and today I gave a woman a shot.
La Costa
Mid October (I know I'm a little slow)
After flying into Guayquil (45 minutes from Quito by plane), we took a bus to the Malecon, a newly reconstructed area along the Guayas river that was once a very seedy part of town but has been reclaimed and turned into a river-side walkway, with a world class museum at one end. The Guays river is huge and flows into the ocean shortly after Guayaquil. The really cool part is that at high tide, the river actually flows backwards for some large number of miles. After lunch (fried fish, and the ever present rice) we went to the museum to look at the collection of ancient ceramics. The museum was technically closed because there was a book fair scheduled for the next day and they were setting up, but because our directors have great contacts, we got a private one hour tour.
After the museum, we went to the parque centenario. This park was the original home of a large group of iguanas, so instead of removing them, they built the park around them. In every single tree there were literally about 20 iguanas, along with many more on the ground and the statues. After dinner, we climbed up to the old lighthouse (444 stairs that wind up a hill) which had a great view out over the river and the city.
The next morning, we first went to the Parque Historico, a huge park with several different exhibits. First we wandered through old Guayaquil architecture, which had been relocated into the park. The wealthy houses were incredibly nice. The houses for the workers were very small, and made entirely out of bamboo and raised up so that they could catch whatever breeze may have existed. We also walked through an exhibit of Ecuadorian animals that have been rescued. The exhibit started out with a mangrove forest (mangroves look SO cool) and then moved on to the various ecosystems in Ecuador. Finally, we started driving north up the coast to get dropped off at our different villages.
Michelle and I stayed in Olon, a village of about 800 adults (no one seemed to know the number of kids). The house we lived in was right off the main road (Ruta del Sol or Ruta del Spondylus), and every time a bus went by, the house shook. The house was made of cinderblocks, a few walls were semi painted. The roof was sheet metal, and in most places didn't meet the walls. Emma, the woman we stayed with has 7 children, but only the youngest, a 20 year old named Carla still lived at home. A couple of her children and grandchildren also still live in the town, so there were always other people around. They make a living by renting out a couple rooms during tourist season (December through February, the tourists go hang out in Montañita, the nearby surfing/gringo/drinking town and return only to sleep) and selling bead bracelets and crochet work. Since we were supposed to be participating in their lives as much as possible, one night I tried to crochet with Emma, and even though I can normally crochet pretty well, it was impossible. She used the thinnest hook I have ever seen, along with the thinnest yarn. I also couldn't figure out how to copy her stiches, because she didn't really know how to explain it and she was doing it left handed. Laura probably would have had much better luck.
Every day we walked around town talking to people so that we would have information to write in our work journals. The biggest source of employment is in construction. Although Olon is still a sleeply place, it is becoming more and more touristy, and there are also a lot of construction jobs in Montañita. A few men fish, and there are also a lot of small business. One man and a team of five or six women make balsa wood boxes to hold chocolates and panama hats for export to other countries. Another family makes flipflops to sell in Guayaquil. One person cuts out the foot part, another cuts slits and threads the straps, a third fits the straps using a wooden foot and then glues them down, and then another person attaches the sole. A pair can be made in about four minutes. Another shop made very detailed, beautiful products out of bamboo (tables, chairs, bunk beds, mini whales, napkin holders, etc.).
Olon has a combination of paved and dirt streets. Downtown is bout for square blocks and then it runs into the ocean on one side, a river on another, the main road along the coast on the third, and the soccer field on the fourth. The entire time we were there, gargua (the lightest, finest drizzle you can possibly imagine; we could always feel the drops but it took about an hour of being outside for anything to actually become wet) fell continuously from the sky, and one time it rained hard, turning the streets into mud holes. About a twenty minute walk out of town, a Catholic sanctuary perches on a cliff. It was one of 10 "gifts" built throughout Ecuador for the 2000th birthday of the Virgin Maria, and has an incredible view out over the ocean. Inside there is a chapel with a statue of the virgin that is said to have cried human blood in 1990, so people often go there to pray for miracles.
After four nights in Olon, we caught a bus to Las Tuñas to meet our academic directors at a hostal there. That afternoon (Monday), as long as the next day were free time. Tuesday morning, Taylor and I went for a long walk on the beach. In one direction we walked about 45 minutes to a large cliff and discovered a cave that went at least 30 feet back (that's were we turned around because it became impossible to go forward and stay dry). When we got back to where we'd started, we went for a 35 minute run out the other way. The tide was way far out and there was a semi-soft layer of sand that was perfect to run on. In the afternoon, most of us played in the ocean for a couple of hours. There were three sets of breakers, and four of us body surfed in the second one which had about 6 foot waves. Wednesday morning, we had a two hour bus ride to Manta, and then a 40 minute flight back to Quito.
After flying into Guayquil (45 minutes from Quito by plane), we took a bus to the Malecon, a newly reconstructed area along the Guayas river that was once a very seedy part of town but has been reclaimed and turned into a river-side walkway, with a world class museum at one end. The Guays river is huge and flows into the ocean shortly after Guayaquil. The really cool part is that at high tide, the river actually flows backwards for some large number of miles. After lunch (fried fish, and the ever present rice) we went to the museum to look at the collection of ancient ceramics. The museum was technically closed because there was a book fair scheduled for the next day and they were setting up, but because our directors have great contacts, we got a private one hour tour.
After the museum, we went to the parque centenario. This park was the original home of a large group of iguanas, so instead of removing them, they built the park around them. In every single tree there were literally about 20 iguanas, along with many more on the ground and the statues. After dinner, we climbed up to the old lighthouse (444 stairs that wind up a hill) which had a great view out over the river and the city.
The next morning, we first went to the Parque Historico, a huge park with several different exhibits. First we wandered through old Guayaquil architecture, which had been relocated into the park. The wealthy houses were incredibly nice. The houses for the workers were very small, and made entirely out of bamboo and raised up so that they could catch whatever breeze may have existed. We also walked through an exhibit of Ecuadorian animals that have been rescued. The exhibit started out with a mangrove forest (mangroves look SO cool) and then moved on to the various ecosystems in Ecuador. Finally, we started driving north up the coast to get dropped off at our different villages.
Michelle and I stayed in Olon, a village of about 800 adults (no one seemed to know the number of kids). The house we lived in was right off the main road (Ruta del Sol or Ruta del Spondylus), and every time a bus went by, the house shook. The house was made of cinderblocks, a few walls were semi painted. The roof was sheet metal, and in most places didn't meet the walls. Emma, the woman we stayed with has 7 children, but only the youngest, a 20 year old named Carla still lived at home. A couple of her children and grandchildren also still live in the town, so there were always other people around. They make a living by renting out a couple rooms during tourist season (December through February, the tourists go hang out in Montañita, the nearby surfing/gringo/drinking town and return only to sleep) and selling bead bracelets and crochet work. Since we were supposed to be participating in their lives as much as possible, one night I tried to crochet with Emma, and even though I can normally crochet pretty well, it was impossible. She used the thinnest hook I have ever seen, along with the thinnest yarn. I also couldn't figure out how to copy her stiches, because she didn't really know how to explain it and she was doing it left handed. Laura probably would have had much better luck.
Every day we walked around town talking to people so that we would have information to write in our work journals. The biggest source of employment is in construction. Although Olon is still a sleeply place, it is becoming more and more touristy, and there are also a lot of construction jobs in Montañita. A few men fish, and there are also a lot of small business. One man and a team of five or six women make balsa wood boxes to hold chocolates and panama hats for export to other countries. Another family makes flipflops to sell in Guayaquil. One person cuts out the foot part, another cuts slits and threads the straps, a third fits the straps using a wooden foot and then glues them down, and then another person attaches the sole. A pair can be made in about four minutes. Another shop made very detailed, beautiful products out of bamboo (tables, chairs, bunk beds, mini whales, napkin holders, etc.).
Olon has a combination of paved and dirt streets. Downtown is bout for square blocks and then it runs into the ocean on one side, a river on another, the main road along the coast on the third, and the soccer field on the fourth. The entire time we were there, gargua (the lightest, finest drizzle you can possibly imagine; we could always feel the drops but it took about an hour of being outside for anything to actually become wet) fell continuously from the sky, and one time it rained hard, turning the streets into mud holes. About a twenty minute walk out of town, a Catholic sanctuary perches on a cliff. It was one of 10 "gifts" built throughout Ecuador for the 2000th birthday of the Virgin Maria, and has an incredible view out over the ocean. Inside there is a chapel with a statue of the virgin that is said to have cried human blood in 1990, so people often go there to pray for miracles.
After four nights in Olon, we caught a bus to Las Tuñas to meet our academic directors at a hostal there. That afternoon (Monday), as long as the next day were free time. Tuesday morning, Taylor and I went for a long walk on the beach. In one direction we walked about 45 minutes to a large cliff and discovered a cave that went at least 30 feet back (that's were we turned around because it became impossible to go forward and stay dry). When we got back to where we'd started, we went for a 35 minute run out the other way. The tide was way far out and there was a semi-soft layer of sand that was perfect to run on. In the afternoon, most of us played in the ocean for a couple of hours. There were three sets of breakers, and four of us body surfed in the second one which had about 6 foot waves. Wednesday morning, we had a two hour bus ride to Manta, and then a 40 minute flight back to Quito.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Pictures from the Rainforest
 |
| On the way |
 |
| Papallacta hot springs |
 |
| In the clouds. |
 |
| One of the cabins |
 |
| The main building where we ate. |
 |
| Arajuno River/Swimming area |
 |
| Mona, a red howler monkey |
 |
| Playing with the kids |
 |
| Most of the group on the hike. |
 |
| At AmaZOOnica |
 |
| These wild pig-like things travel in pack of at least 50 and can easily eat humans. |
 |
| These monkeys have really large, sharp teeth and can also kill humans. |
 |
| The Napo river, one of the major tributaries of the Amazon. |
 |
| Hiking around the part that was too shallow. |
 |
| Poison-dart frog |
 |
| Orange-ringed coral snake, one of the most venemous in the world. |
 |
| Miguel with a ripe cacao. Mona really wants it. |
A post about the coast coming soon.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Rain Forest
On Monday morning, we left for the rain forest at 9am. After a two hour drive, we stopped for a bathroom break on the side of the road with an amazing view of Ecuador's third or fourth (I don't remember) tallest mountain. The top was completely snow covered, and the air where we were was pretty cold since we were at 4000 meters (13,200 feet). Apparently seeing this mountain is very rare, usually it's completely obscured by clouds, and people who come to see it often stay a week without getting a single glimpse.
Thirty minutes later, we stopped at Papallacta to swim in what one of our academic directors considers the best hot springs in Ecuador. There were about five hot pools, each with varying temperatures of water, going from unbearably hot to warm but tolerable. There were also a number of freezing cold pools to jump into when you got too hot. From the hot springs we could see tons of mountains surrounding us, and the water was very clear and didn't smell like sulfur. After a picnic lunch, we kept driving, heading down out of the mountains into the Oriente. For about 45 minutes, the clouds were so thick that I could barely see the car right in front of us out of the bus windshield, and could see absolutely nothing out the side windows, so we crept along very slowly. All the roads here are incredibly windy and not all that smooth, so the pace is slow anyway, but that portion extended the driving time by about half an hour.
Three hours later, we took a quick break in Tena, the last big town on the route, then kept driving for another hour. We crossed the Napo river, which is one of the major tributaries of the Amazon, then kept going until we reached the Arajuno, the river we stayed on. The Napo is an agua blanca river, meaning it has lots of sediments because it begins in the mountains, while the Arajuno is a agua negra river because it begins in the Oriente and therefore doesn't have as much sediment. They both looked the same to me, with brown, murky water. After crossing the Arajuno on a bridge, we got off the bus and took a motorized canoe for five minutes to reach the lodge where we stayed. These motorized canoes are huge. They seat about 14 people each, and every time you get in and out, you have to turn the 2 person seat sideways so that everyone else can get by. In order to drive one, you need a licence, just like with a car, and in this area, the motorized canoes really do serve as cars and the rivers as highways.
After arriving at the Arajuno Jungle Lodge, run by Tom who is originally from Nebraska, we had a little bit of time to drop off our stuff (we stayed in simple cabins with bunk beds and full bathrooms) and meet Mona. Mona is a two or three year old red howler monkey who lives at the lodge. It was really incredible the way she would swing up and down buildings, scale trees and then leap down, and most of all, stealthily steal food from the table. Sometimes, Mona would just climb into your lab, or wrap her hand around your finger, and she was always interested in whatever was going on, accompanying us on hikes, roaming around during lectures, and being a very cute distraction.
Tuesday morning after breakfast we took the motorized canoes to a Kichwa village about 15 minutes away to participate in a minga. Kichwa is the language of the Incas, and the main language used by the Indigenous people of Ecuador, since the Incas conquered Ecuador about 20 years before the Spanish arrived. A minga is kind of like a community service project. Members of a community hold mingas so that work projects around the village get done. The one we particiapted in was for a new tree farm the community is developing. We mixed dirt, picking out rocks and other things, and then adding sand, and also filled hundreds of little plastic bags with the mixture so that they could be used to start seeds. After the minga, we joined a second grade class for a quick Kichwa language lesson. None of us learned very much Kichwa because all of the kids were running around the classroom, distracting us, asking questions, etc. Then we had about half an hour to play with the kids, so we had a soccer game, played duck duck goose, and then it dissovled into us spinning them around and giving them piggy back rides. It was about 90 degrees, and we were out in the full sun for most of the time. We had lunch at the community, and they served us a common local kind of fish, steamed but not at all fileted, so we picked the meet straight off the skeleton. There were also a number of other local vegetables, and instead of plates, the food was served on large leaves. Then we looked at the community's artisan crafts, mostly bracelets, necklaces, and a couple of belts. Everything was made entirely from products in the rainforest, including the thread.
After lunch we returned to the lodge, and had about an hour free to go swimming in the river. Although anacondas and electric eels live upstream, we were assured that they are not a problem where we were because the current moved fast enough, and that sting rays are very rare. The piranhas, although present, are vegetarian, unless they detect a significant quantity of blood. And we were warned very clearly not to pee in the river, because there is a very small fish that is attracted by urine, and will swim up your urinary tract, and then it´s barbs will prevent it from coming out except surgically. The only problem I had was from a motorized canoe that came very close to running me over. With Faba, one of our academic directors, and a couple other kids, I had swum across the river to a large sandy beach on the other side. This isn´t the easiest thing to do, because the current is pretty strong. Coming back across by myself, I was about halfway over when a motorized canoe came around a bend. It looked to me like it was pointing toward the bank I had come from, so I kept going. When it was about 30 feet away, however, it became very clear that not only was it headed right towards me, it either hadn´t seen me, despite other people shouting from the bank, or didn´t care. I sprinted hard and managed to get out of the way, but in the future I was very wary of canoes when swimming.
After our break, we had a lecture on Shamanic practices from Don Gabriel. The main idea is that a shaman acquires special powers by consuming certain substances, and then must adhere to a strict diet for about a week in order to retain those powers. The shamans here use a special halucinogen, ayawaska, which is a combination of two different substances, a neurotransmitter as well a a certain kind of inhibitor, in order to detect illness and harness their powers.
A four story wooden tower stands next to the building where we ate meals. The top contains solar panels which power all of the lodge´s electricity, as well as an area for people to observe the rainforest canopy. After dinner, since there were no clouds, a bunch of us climbed up the tower to look at the stars, which were absolutely incredible. Since Ecuador is on the equator, half the sky has the stars of the northern hemisphere, and the other half has the stars of the southern hemisphere, although I couldn´t find a single constellation I recognized anywhere.
Wednesday, we began the day with a long hike through the rain forest, guided by a man named Octavio. He showed us a number of different kinds of trees and vines, as well as insects, and we tasted a number of different plants. A couple were toxic and had to be spit out instead of swallowed, many were bitter. My favorite was the actual cinnamin plant. We also got to see a poison dart frog up close. For an hour during the hike, we were left completely by ourselves to sit, look around, and think. It was nice to get away from people, and in the quiet, I saw and heard (the wings are LOUD) a hummingbird, about fifteen different kinds of butterflies, and a number of insects. There are these tiny sweat bees that don´t bite but buzz around you incesently whenever you stop moving. It was amazing to hear how loud a single leaf falling from the canopy can be. It was about 95 degrees that day, and we all returned from the hike sweaty and absolutely disgusting.
After the hike and lunch, we took the motorized canoes for about 45 minutes to Amazoonica, a rehabilitation center for amazonian wildlife on the Napo river. We saw all kinds of monkeys and birds, capiberas, wild pigs that roam in herds and will eat people alive, as well as turtles, and a small caiman. On the way back to the logde, we had to take a different river route then the one we took there, because the water level was so low, and at one point, we had to get out and walk for 15 minutes before it was deep enough for the canoes to be weighted down again.
After dinner, we went on a night hike guided by a man named Miguel, who had studied in the midwest of the United States, and so anytime he spoke in English, he had a very strong midwestern accent. We walked around the main grounds of the lodge, looking at bugs on trees, under leaves, and on the ground. The way the leafcutter ants work was particularly amazing. There were paths at least five feet wide of hundreds of millions of these ants carrying pieces of leaves four or five times their size. What's really incredible is that the ants don't actually eat these leaves. Instead, they chew them up and then grow mushrooms on them, which is what they actually eat. Afterwards four of us went on a little longer loop through the jungle. About five minutes in, I heard Kyle, who was walking behind me, shout SNAKE, and turned around to see a snake slither away from a few inches near my foot. The snake was about three feet long, and black and white, with bright orange rings. We all snapped pictures while making sure to stay a good distance away. Miguel said it looked like a coral snake, but he couldn't be sure until we got back to the lodge and he could make sure it wasn't just an imitation using a snake book. It did turn out to be a coral snake--an orange-ringed coral snake to be exact--which is one of the most dangerous snakes in the world. We also saw a huge frog, and Lia and I got to hold it for awhile on our hands. Its feet were sticky and it tickled a little bit.
Thursday we began with another hike/lecture, although this time it wasn´t nearly as intense, which was good because like every other day, it was sunny and over 95 degrees. In my experience, the rain forest isn`t very well named. We looked at cacao plants. Ripe, the cacao is a large yellow casing that contains about a hundred seeds covered in slimy white goo. We put the seeds in our mouths, and the goo was very sweet, although once the goo is gone, the part that becomes chocolate is very bitter. We were also shown giant bamboo, and paja toquilla, which is used for roofing, and in Panama hats (which actually come from Ecuador). After the lecture, we did a work project at the lodge, hauling up bags of sand from the river beach to mix with dirt and then spread in the garden beds. Then we had another chance to swim in the river before lunch.
After lunch, we had a ceramics lecture from Tom´s wife, a native Kichwa. She told us about the tradition of pottery in the Kichwa culture. They make very intricate bowls and figurines, but the wheel is never used. We played around with clay for awhile, then got to paint small bowls that had already been made. She created a kiln by putting all the pieces on the ground, laying a piece of metal a couple of inches above them, and then building up a five foot fire using bamboo. When we took the pieces out of the fire, they had to be rubbed down with this product from a local tree that acts as a glaze.
Early early friday morning, it rained for the first time on our whole trip. It poured for about four hours, but had largly stopped by the time we got up, although the sky was still cloud and it wasn´t nearly as hot. After breakfast, we had a five minute canoe ride back to the bus, and drove back to Quito.
Pictures to come soon.
Thirty minutes later, we stopped at Papallacta to swim in what one of our academic directors considers the best hot springs in Ecuador. There were about five hot pools, each with varying temperatures of water, going from unbearably hot to warm but tolerable. There were also a number of freezing cold pools to jump into when you got too hot. From the hot springs we could see tons of mountains surrounding us, and the water was very clear and didn't smell like sulfur. After a picnic lunch, we kept driving, heading down out of the mountains into the Oriente. For about 45 minutes, the clouds were so thick that I could barely see the car right in front of us out of the bus windshield, and could see absolutely nothing out the side windows, so we crept along very slowly. All the roads here are incredibly windy and not all that smooth, so the pace is slow anyway, but that portion extended the driving time by about half an hour.
Three hours later, we took a quick break in Tena, the last big town on the route, then kept driving for another hour. We crossed the Napo river, which is one of the major tributaries of the Amazon, then kept going until we reached the Arajuno, the river we stayed on. The Napo is an agua blanca river, meaning it has lots of sediments because it begins in the mountains, while the Arajuno is a agua negra river because it begins in the Oriente and therefore doesn't have as much sediment. They both looked the same to me, with brown, murky water. After crossing the Arajuno on a bridge, we got off the bus and took a motorized canoe for five minutes to reach the lodge where we stayed. These motorized canoes are huge. They seat about 14 people each, and every time you get in and out, you have to turn the 2 person seat sideways so that everyone else can get by. In order to drive one, you need a licence, just like with a car, and in this area, the motorized canoes really do serve as cars and the rivers as highways.
After arriving at the Arajuno Jungle Lodge, run by Tom who is originally from Nebraska, we had a little bit of time to drop off our stuff (we stayed in simple cabins with bunk beds and full bathrooms) and meet Mona. Mona is a two or three year old red howler monkey who lives at the lodge. It was really incredible the way she would swing up and down buildings, scale trees and then leap down, and most of all, stealthily steal food from the table. Sometimes, Mona would just climb into your lab, or wrap her hand around your finger, and she was always interested in whatever was going on, accompanying us on hikes, roaming around during lectures, and being a very cute distraction.
Tuesday morning after breakfast we took the motorized canoes to a Kichwa village about 15 minutes away to participate in a minga. Kichwa is the language of the Incas, and the main language used by the Indigenous people of Ecuador, since the Incas conquered Ecuador about 20 years before the Spanish arrived. A minga is kind of like a community service project. Members of a community hold mingas so that work projects around the village get done. The one we particiapted in was for a new tree farm the community is developing. We mixed dirt, picking out rocks and other things, and then adding sand, and also filled hundreds of little plastic bags with the mixture so that they could be used to start seeds. After the minga, we joined a second grade class for a quick Kichwa language lesson. None of us learned very much Kichwa because all of the kids were running around the classroom, distracting us, asking questions, etc. Then we had about half an hour to play with the kids, so we had a soccer game, played duck duck goose, and then it dissovled into us spinning them around and giving them piggy back rides. It was about 90 degrees, and we were out in the full sun for most of the time. We had lunch at the community, and they served us a common local kind of fish, steamed but not at all fileted, so we picked the meet straight off the skeleton. There were also a number of other local vegetables, and instead of plates, the food was served on large leaves. Then we looked at the community's artisan crafts, mostly bracelets, necklaces, and a couple of belts. Everything was made entirely from products in the rainforest, including the thread.
After lunch we returned to the lodge, and had about an hour free to go swimming in the river. Although anacondas and electric eels live upstream, we were assured that they are not a problem where we were because the current moved fast enough, and that sting rays are very rare. The piranhas, although present, are vegetarian, unless they detect a significant quantity of blood. And we were warned very clearly not to pee in the river, because there is a very small fish that is attracted by urine, and will swim up your urinary tract, and then it´s barbs will prevent it from coming out except surgically. The only problem I had was from a motorized canoe that came very close to running me over. With Faba, one of our academic directors, and a couple other kids, I had swum across the river to a large sandy beach on the other side. This isn´t the easiest thing to do, because the current is pretty strong. Coming back across by myself, I was about halfway over when a motorized canoe came around a bend. It looked to me like it was pointing toward the bank I had come from, so I kept going. When it was about 30 feet away, however, it became very clear that not only was it headed right towards me, it either hadn´t seen me, despite other people shouting from the bank, or didn´t care. I sprinted hard and managed to get out of the way, but in the future I was very wary of canoes when swimming.
After our break, we had a lecture on Shamanic practices from Don Gabriel. The main idea is that a shaman acquires special powers by consuming certain substances, and then must adhere to a strict diet for about a week in order to retain those powers. The shamans here use a special halucinogen, ayawaska, which is a combination of two different substances, a neurotransmitter as well a a certain kind of inhibitor, in order to detect illness and harness their powers.
A four story wooden tower stands next to the building where we ate meals. The top contains solar panels which power all of the lodge´s electricity, as well as an area for people to observe the rainforest canopy. After dinner, since there were no clouds, a bunch of us climbed up the tower to look at the stars, which were absolutely incredible. Since Ecuador is on the equator, half the sky has the stars of the northern hemisphere, and the other half has the stars of the southern hemisphere, although I couldn´t find a single constellation I recognized anywhere.
Wednesday, we began the day with a long hike through the rain forest, guided by a man named Octavio. He showed us a number of different kinds of trees and vines, as well as insects, and we tasted a number of different plants. A couple were toxic and had to be spit out instead of swallowed, many were bitter. My favorite was the actual cinnamin plant. We also got to see a poison dart frog up close. For an hour during the hike, we were left completely by ourselves to sit, look around, and think. It was nice to get away from people, and in the quiet, I saw and heard (the wings are LOUD) a hummingbird, about fifteen different kinds of butterflies, and a number of insects. There are these tiny sweat bees that don´t bite but buzz around you incesently whenever you stop moving. It was amazing to hear how loud a single leaf falling from the canopy can be. It was about 95 degrees that day, and we all returned from the hike sweaty and absolutely disgusting.
After the hike and lunch, we took the motorized canoes for about 45 minutes to Amazoonica, a rehabilitation center for amazonian wildlife on the Napo river. We saw all kinds of monkeys and birds, capiberas, wild pigs that roam in herds and will eat people alive, as well as turtles, and a small caiman. On the way back to the logde, we had to take a different river route then the one we took there, because the water level was so low, and at one point, we had to get out and walk for 15 minutes before it was deep enough for the canoes to be weighted down again.
After dinner, we went on a night hike guided by a man named Miguel, who had studied in the midwest of the United States, and so anytime he spoke in English, he had a very strong midwestern accent. We walked around the main grounds of the lodge, looking at bugs on trees, under leaves, and on the ground. The way the leafcutter ants work was particularly amazing. There were paths at least five feet wide of hundreds of millions of these ants carrying pieces of leaves four or five times their size. What's really incredible is that the ants don't actually eat these leaves. Instead, they chew them up and then grow mushrooms on them, which is what they actually eat. Afterwards four of us went on a little longer loop through the jungle. About five minutes in, I heard Kyle, who was walking behind me, shout SNAKE, and turned around to see a snake slither away from a few inches near my foot. The snake was about three feet long, and black and white, with bright orange rings. We all snapped pictures while making sure to stay a good distance away. Miguel said it looked like a coral snake, but he couldn't be sure until we got back to the lodge and he could make sure it wasn't just an imitation using a snake book. It did turn out to be a coral snake--an orange-ringed coral snake to be exact--which is one of the most dangerous snakes in the world. We also saw a huge frog, and Lia and I got to hold it for awhile on our hands. Its feet were sticky and it tickled a little bit.
Thursday we began with another hike/lecture, although this time it wasn´t nearly as intense, which was good because like every other day, it was sunny and over 95 degrees. In my experience, the rain forest isn`t very well named. We looked at cacao plants. Ripe, the cacao is a large yellow casing that contains about a hundred seeds covered in slimy white goo. We put the seeds in our mouths, and the goo was very sweet, although once the goo is gone, the part that becomes chocolate is very bitter. We were also shown giant bamboo, and paja toquilla, which is used for roofing, and in Panama hats (which actually come from Ecuador). After the lecture, we did a work project at the lodge, hauling up bags of sand from the river beach to mix with dirt and then spread in the garden beds. Then we had another chance to swim in the river before lunch.
After lunch, we had a ceramics lecture from Tom´s wife, a native Kichwa. She told us about the tradition of pottery in the Kichwa culture. They make very intricate bowls and figurines, but the wheel is never used. We played around with clay for awhile, then got to paint small bowls that had already been made. She created a kiln by putting all the pieces on the ground, laying a piece of metal a couple of inches above them, and then building up a five foot fire using bamboo. When we took the pieces out of the fire, they had to be rubbed down with this product from a local tree that acts as a glaze.
Early early friday morning, it rained for the first time on our whole trip. It poured for about four hours, but had largly stopped by the time we got up, although the sky was still cloud and it wasn´t nearly as hot. After breakfast, we had a five minute canoe ride back to the bus, and drove back to Quito.
Pictures to come soon.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Attempted Coup
Attempted coup in Quito this morning led by various sectors of the police and military. I'm fine. Classes ended early today and have been suspended tomorrow. We're all supposed to stay with our host families. Our academic directors are hopeful that we'll still be able to go to the rainforest on Monday, although right now all interprovince travel has been shut down.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
A few pictures from Los Chillos and the Cloud Forest
 |
| Soccer stadium right before the awards presentation. |
One day, all the Spanish classes took field trips around Sangolqui, the central town of the Valle de los Chillos:
 |
| 7 of 10 girls on the program in front of the monumento al sed (monument to thirst) |
 |
| Monumento al colibri (monument to humming birds) |
 |
| My Spanish class at the monumento al choclo (monument to corn) |
 |
| Avocados! |
And on to the Intag Cloud Forest:
 |
| The women's residence in the Cloud Forest |
 |
| Cuicocha, a huge crater lake we passed about an hour before reaching Intag |
 |
| Leonore and Fabian, our amazing directors |
 |
| The whole group in Intag |
 |
| Waterfall number 1 |
Monday, September 27, 2010
Cloud Forest Excursion (and soccer)
1) Futbol! The Monday before last (two weeks ago) I went to a soccer game (my first professional sports game ever!) in Quito with Lia and her host brother. Although it was a relatively unimportant game, it was crazy. Liga, one of Quito's teams, had just won the Recopa South America, and although I'm not sure exactly what that is, it's a very big deal, and the trophy was presented before the game. They erected a small awards podium on the field, along with a giant blowup Pilsner bottle, which is one of the local beers, and a couple of other blowup things. Then they hauled a small section of wooden scaffolding onto the field. After presenting the trophy, fireworks went off from somewhere, and the crowd, which had already been pretty loud, went wild. Then the wooden scaffolding exploded into flames, forming Liga's logo. Once the game started, the stadium calmed down a little, but not much. Whole sections of the crowd were on their feet stamping and cheering for the entire 90 minutes of play. And this wasn't even an important game. Throughout the night, woman and children wandered through the crowd calling "cervesas, caramelos, chicles, etc," and occasionally blocking my view.
2) Cloud Forest Excursion
AMAZING. Cloud forest is the name for the elevation at which clouds tend to condense, creating a very very humid environment. The Ecuadorian cloud forests are some of the most diverse places on earth, although the diversity isn't always visible because much of it is in the form of insects, amphibians, and plants. We left Los Chillos for Intag last saturday at 8am, and five hours later (three hours on the panamerican highway and another two on an unpaved, windy road) we arrived at Santa Rosa, a very small town. All of our gear got loaded onto four horses, and then we walked for an hour to reach La Florida, the place where we stayed. After a lunch of guacamole, beans, rice, enchiladas, coffee, juice, and a lot more that I can't remember (this place is a working farm, so all of the produce is fresh, and they also produce all of their own coffee; I ate way too much at every meal), we waddled off to look around. Thirty minutes later, we decided to hike to the two waterfalls that had been mentioned, so we all put on our plastic boots (essentially very cheap rainboots) and clomped along the path through the mud. The first waterfall was about ten minutes away, and although not that impressive as a waterfall, was amazing for the diversity of plant life that surrounded it. A couple of us wadded in the small pool at the bottom and stood underneath it. The second waterfall was another twenty minutes away, and even smaller than the first one. At this waterfall, we weren't supposed to talk above a whisper, becuase a species of bird, the Andean cock of the rock (I'm sure there is a more scientific name, but no one ever told us it) resides very near here, and noise scares them off. The male cocks of the rock are bright red, and make a very loud call to attract their mates. These birds are in danger of extinction, and some bird watchers will apparently hike for miles to catch a glimpse of one. Although I didn't see one the first afternoon, we definitely heard one, and I saw several while hiking the last morning. The second waterfall was better for swimming, and a bunch of us jumped in before returning for our 5:30pm lecture.
The lecture was given by Carlos, one of the farm's owners, and he mostly talked about his constant struggle against mining. In the early 90s, a Japanese mining company discovered copper in a nearby area of the cloud forest, and drew up plans to build an open pit copper mine. The project would have partially destroyed the territory of over 40 endangered species, and required four different towns to relocate, not to mention the pollution that it would have introduced into the rivers, which is where all the people and animals get their water. After rallying nearby communities, Carlos successfully prevented the mine from being constructed and the Japanese company left. A few years later, a Canadian company drew up new plans to mine the region. Again, the communities were able to stop the project, although the prinicipal organizers of the protests all got several death threats. Now, the Ecuadorian government itself wants to open and operate the mine, and Carlos is less optimistic about their chances of resisiting.
On Sunday, our group was split in two. Seven of us went on a three hour hike while the other seven stayed behind to learn to draw. I went on the hike. Roberto, a man who has lived in the Intag cloud forest for his whole life, and one of the major organizers behind the anti-mining movement was our guide. We stopped frequently for him to identify various plants and tell us about their medicinal qualities. The area we were in contains more species of humming birds then the entire United States combined, and also more species of orchids then exist in the U.S., although only a couple of them were in bloom. In addition, there were long, thin vines hanging from the leaves above, and many plants with leaves as big as me. Roberto walked ahead of us the whole way, constantly clearing the path of vines and fallen trees with his machete. Because the cloud forest is a mountaineous, rocky region, trees only have a couple of inches of dirt in which to send down their roots, which means that any tree that grows to be too big falls over, and fallen trees were everywhere. Many species of plants have adapted to grow around another species and use them as an anchor and source of nutrients, instead of sending down their own roots. Moss also blanketed a lot of the trees. We came to a small waterfall, scaled the rock face next to it, and came to another approximately 50ft waterfall. Chris and I went swimming, but nobody else wanted to get wet. Then we began a 20 minute upward climb, to reach old growth trees, before descending back to La Florida.
That afternoon, a young woman who has worked for environmental issues in the area since she was fifteen spoke to us some more about mining issues, and then three women talked to us about the womens group they've formed. These women use cabuya, a native plant that looks kind of like a cactus, to make incredible bags, placemats, and other similar items by hand, and then sell them. A lot of the work is very good, and all the dyes are made from local plants. This isn't a full time job, they really only work in the evenings after all the housework and the cooking has been done, but it's brought about incredible changes in their lives. They talked a lot about how before they started this project, they had no way to earn money and depended on their husbands to support them and their kids. Now, they often earn more money than their husbands, which means they can make sure their kids have everything they need, and even pay for transportation to a nearby high school.
That night, Carlos and Sandy (his wife) set up a moth trap. Essentially, you hang up a white sheet and then shine a bright light on it; when you turn off the light, the mothes fly away. There were about 200 moths on the sheet (at least 100 different species), but Carlos and Sandy said that it was a really small number; if it hadn't been close to a full moon, there would have been a lot more. No one really knows why the moths are attracted to bright light, but some scientists think they might use moonlight to navigate. The moths were all different colors and shapes and sizes. Some were gold, one was pure white, a lot were mottled, some were green, one looked like a leopard print, etc.
The next day, the groups swapped activities, so I did drawing and painting with Sandy. It wasn't nearly as fun as the hike but I still enjoyed it. In the afternoon, we had a three hour Ecuadorian history lecture beginning with the 1400s when the Incas conquered the original inhabitants, and then went right on through Spanish colonization, independence, and modern history. It was fascinating, but a little overwhelming as well. Tuesday morning, five of us got up at 6:30am for a last hike. Early morning is also the best time to see the birds. After breakfast, we hiked back out to the bus. On the way back, we stopped in Otavalo, which has the biggest artisan's market in Ecuador, for two hours. Tuesday is not a big market day, so not all of the booths were set up, and it was pretty empty, but I actually think that made it nicer. We could wander around without any fear of bumping into people (apparently on the weekends it is absolutely packed) and it was nice to be able to take my time when bargaining with the shopkeepers.
We arrived back in Los Chillos at 6pm, and classes resumed Wednesday morning at 8. We now have one more week here before we switch families and move to Quito, althoguh in between families, we're spending four or five days in the Amazonian rainforest!
2) Cloud Forest Excursion
AMAZING. Cloud forest is the name for the elevation at which clouds tend to condense, creating a very very humid environment. The Ecuadorian cloud forests are some of the most diverse places on earth, although the diversity isn't always visible because much of it is in the form of insects, amphibians, and plants. We left Los Chillos for Intag last saturday at 8am, and five hours later (three hours on the panamerican highway and another two on an unpaved, windy road) we arrived at Santa Rosa, a very small town. All of our gear got loaded onto four horses, and then we walked for an hour to reach La Florida, the place where we stayed. After a lunch of guacamole, beans, rice, enchiladas, coffee, juice, and a lot more that I can't remember (this place is a working farm, so all of the produce is fresh, and they also produce all of their own coffee; I ate way too much at every meal), we waddled off to look around. Thirty minutes later, we decided to hike to the two waterfalls that had been mentioned, so we all put on our plastic boots (essentially very cheap rainboots) and clomped along the path through the mud. The first waterfall was about ten minutes away, and although not that impressive as a waterfall, was amazing for the diversity of plant life that surrounded it. A couple of us wadded in the small pool at the bottom and stood underneath it. The second waterfall was another twenty minutes away, and even smaller than the first one. At this waterfall, we weren't supposed to talk above a whisper, becuase a species of bird, the Andean cock of the rock (I'm sure there is a more scientific name, but no one ever told us it) resides very near here, and noise scares them off. The male cocks of the rock are bright red, and make a very loud call to attract their mates. These birds are in danger of extinction, and some bird watchers will apparently hike for miles to catch a glimpse of one. Although I didn't see one the first afternoon, we definitely heard one, and I saw several while hiking the last morning. The second waterfall was better for swimming, and a bunch of us jumped in before returning for our 5:30pm lecture.
The lecture was given by Carlos, one of the farm's owners, and he mostly talked about his constant struggle against mining. In the early 90s, a Japanese mining company discovered copper in a nearby area of the cloud forest, and drew up plans to build an open pit copper mine. The project would have partially destroyed the territory of over 40 endangered species, and required four different towns to relocate, not to mention the pollution that it would have introduced into the rivers, which is where all the people and animals get their water. After rallying nearby communities, Carlos successfully prevented the mine from being constructed and the Japanese company left. A few years later, a Canadian company drew up new plans to mine the region. Again, the communities were able to stop the project, although the prinicipal organizers of the protests all got several death threats. Now, the Ecuadorian government itself wants to open and operate the mine, and Carlos is less optimistic about their chances of resisiting.
On Sunday, our group was split in two. Seven of us went on a three hour hike while the other seven stayed behind to learn to draw. I went on the hike. Roberto, a man who has lived in the Intag cloud forest for his whole life, and one of the major organizers behind the anti-mining movement was our guide. We stopped frequently for him to identify various plants and tell us about their medicinal qualities. The area we were in contains more species of humming birds then the entire United States combined, and also more species of orchids then exist in the U.S., although only a couple of them were in bloom. In addition, there were long, thin vines hanging from the leaves above, and many plants with leaves as big as me. Roberto walked ahead of us the whole way, constantly clearing the path of vines and fallen trees with his machete. Because the cloud forest is a mountaineous, rocky region, trees only have a couple of inches of dirt in which to send down their roots, which means that any tree that grows to be too big falls over, and fallen trees were everywhere. Many species of plants have adapted to grow around another species and use them as an anchor and source of nutrients, instead of sending down their own roots. Moss also blanketed a lot of the trees. We came to a small waterfall, scaled the rock face next to it, and came to another approximately 50ft waterfall. Chris and I went swimming, but nobody else wanted to get wet. Then we began a 20 minute upward climb, to reach old growth trees, before descending back to La Florida.
That afternoon, a young woman who has worked for environmental issues in the area since she was fifteen spoke to us some more about mining issues, and then three women talked to us about the womens group they've formed. These women use cabuya, a native plant that looks kind of like a cactus, to make incredible bags, placemats, and other similar items by hand, and then sell them. A lot of the work is very good, and all the dyes are made from local plants. This isn't a full time job, they really only work in the evenings after all the housework and the cooking has been done, but it's brought about incredible changes in their lives. They talked a lot about how before they started this project, they had no way to earn money and depended on their husbands to support them and their kids. Now, they often earn more money than their husbands, which means they can make sure their kids have everything they need, and even pay for transportation to a nearby high school.
That night, Carlos and Sandy (his wife) set up a moth trap. Essentially, you hang up a white sheet and then shine a bright light on it; when you turn off the light, the mothes fly away. There were about 200 moths on the sheet (at least 100 different species), but Carlos and Sandy said that it was a really small number; if it hadn't been close to a full moon, there would have been a lot more. No one really knows why the moths are attracted to bright light, but some scientists think they might use moonlight to navigate. The moths were all different colors and shapes and sizes. Some were gold, one was pure white, a lot were mottled, some were green, one looked like a leopard print, etc.
The next day, the groups swapped activities, so I did drawing and painting with Sandy. It wasn't nearly as fun as the hike but I still enjoyed it. In the afternoon, we had a three hour Ecuadorian history lecture beginning with the 1400s when the Incas conquered the original inhabitants, and then went right on through Spanish colonization, independence, and modern history. It was fascinating, but a little overwhelming as well. Tuesday morning, five of us got up at 6:30am for a last hike. Early morning is also the best time to see the birds. After breakfast, we hiked back out to the bus. On the way back, we stopped in Otavalo, which has the biggest artisan's market in Ecuador, for two hours. Tuesday is not a big market day, so not all of the booths were set up, and it was pretty empty, but I actually think that made it nicer. We could wander around without any fear of bumping into people (apparently on the weekends it is absolutely packed) and it was nice to be able to take my time when bargaining with the shopkeepers.
We arrived back in Los Chillos at 6pm, and classes resumed Wednesday morning at 8. We now have one more week here before we switch families and move to Quito, althoguh in between families, we're spending four or five days in the Amazonian rainforest!
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Rancho Alegre, San Antonio Ecuador
Yes, those really are clouds.
Monument on the Equator--almost
Jeanette and I straddling the equator--according to bad European math
View from the top of Ilalo
Cross at the top of Ilalo
Valle de los Chillos from the top of Ilalo
Ilalo from my house. If you look really hard, you can see the cross.
My house
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Notes on Ecuador
1) Traffic.
Getting in a car here is about the scariest thing I do. To start with, only the front seats have seatbelts. The backseat might have the shoulder strap and be missing the buckle, have the buckle and be missing the strap, or have neither part. Cars drive very fast here. Stop signs (a red octagon with the word "para") don't actually mean stop to any true Ecuadorian. Instead, you honk your horn twice. If no one honks back, then you assume it is safe to drive right through the stop sign without slowing down. If someone does honk back, then you slow down a little, but not very much. And if you can see around the stop sign without slowing down, then you don't need to honk at all.
2) Food.
Food is amazing, and there is a LOT of it. There are more kinds of fruit and vegetables than I have ever seen in my life, including at least 5 different types of bananas, not counting plantains, and at least ten different types of corn. For breakfast I usually have a bowl of cut up fruit with yogurt and granola, or a smoothie-like drink and a grilled cheese sandwich. Recently they've also been serving me french toast. Lunch is the big meal of the day, and usually consists of two courses, a soup, and then something else with meat. My family is a little less traditional than some, which only means that we don't eat rice with every meal, only with about half of them. My family constantly asks me whether I like the food, and if I want more. One day, they asked if I liked avocados, and when I said I loved them, lunch the next day included 1 and a half avocados PER PERSON, as well as a potato soup, salad, and shrimp. How little I eat has become a joke to them, and they didn't believe me when I said I eat more then my mom and sister at home. Luckily dinner is not a huge meal because I am generally still full from lunch. We all have tea or coffee or hot chocolate (they looked at me like I was an alien one night when I said I just wanted water, so I have learned to always ask for tea when I'm full) and then a bread roll, and maybe a piece of cheese.
Today for breakfast, my host parents took me for a special treat--chancho, or ordenado. In English: pig. We drove for about ten minutes and then stopped outside a restaurant with a table/kitchen area right on the sidewalk, and then a bunch of tables for guests inside. On the table of the kitchen area were three fried pigs. I mean whole pigs, with heads and feet still attached. In making up our plates, the chef merely sliced some pig off and put it on the plate, along with potatoes, corn, and half an avocado. The fried pig skin is especially a deliacy, although one I saved for last, and then said I was full after a few bites.
3) Computer Keyboards
Are different here. I have finally figured out how to do apostrophes, parentheses, quotation marks, and question marks, but I still can't figure out the at sign. Every time I want to log on to my email, I have to find an at sign somewhere else, and then copy and paste it in. I also can't figure out how to put accents on letters, although it must be fairly easy since Spanish words need accents all the time.
4) Buses
Buses here are insane, but incredibly useful. Most of them cost between 15 and 25 cents. If it's going to be a long ride (over half an hour), it might cost up to $1.25. Though there are a few defined bus stops, they don't really mean anything. If you want to get on a bus that's passing by, you stick out your hand and wave at the driver. When you want to get off, you ask the driver to stop. The second the last person steps on or off the bus, it lurches away, which means I'm frequently lunging for the nearest handrail so I don't fall over.
Getting in a car here is about the scariest thing I do. To start with, only the front seats have seatbelts. The backseat might have the shoulder strap and be missing the buckle, have the buckle and be missing the strap, or have neither part. Cars drive very fast here. Stop signs (a red octagon with the word "para") don't actually mean stop to any true Ecuadorian. Instead, you honk your horn twice. If no one honks back, then you assume it is safe to drive right through the stop sign without slowing down. If someone does honk back, then you slow down a little, but not very much. And if you can see around the stop sign without slowing down, then you don't need to honk at all.
2) Food.
Food is amazing, and there is a LOT of it. There are more kinds of fruit and vegetables than I have ever seen in my life, including at least 5 different types of bananas, not counting plantains, and at least ten different types of corn. For breakfast I usually have a bowl of cut up fruit with yogurt and granola, or a smoothie-like drink and a grilled cheese sandwich. Recently they've also been serving me french toast. Lunch is the big meal of the day, and usually consists of two courses, a soup, and then something else with meat. My family is a little less traditional than some, which only means that we don't eat rice with every meal, only with about half of them. My family constantly asks me whether I like the food, and if I want more. One day, they asked if I liked avocados, and when I said I loved them, lunch the next day included 1 and a half avocados PER PERSON, as well as a potato soup, salad, and shrimp. How little I eat has become a joke to them, and they didn't believe me when I said I eat more then my mom and sister at home. Luckily dinner is not a huge meal because I am generally still full from lunch. We all have tea or coffee or hot chocolate (they looked at me like I was an alien one night when I said I just wanted water, so I have learned to always ask for tea when I'm full) and then a bread roll, and maybe a piece of cheese.
Today for breakfast, my host parents took me for a special treat--chancho, or ordenado. In English: pig. We drove for about ten minutes and then stopped outside a restaurant with a table/kitchen area right on the sidewalk, and then a bunch of tables for guests inside. On the table of the kitchen area were three fried pigs. I mean whole pigs, with heads and feet still attached. In making up our plates, the chef merely sliced some pig off and put it on the plate, along with potatoes, corn, and half an avocado. The fried pig skin is especially a deliacy, although one I saved for last, and then said I was full after a few bites.
3) Computer Keyboards
Are different here. I have finally figured out how to do apostrophes, parentheses, quotation marks, and question marks, but I still can't figure out the at sign. Every time I want to log on to my email, I have to find an at sign somewhere else, and then copy and paste it in. I also can't figure out how to put accents on letters, although it must be fairly easy since Spanish words need accents all the time.
4) Buses
Buses here are insane, but incredibly useful. Most of them cost between 15 and 25 cents. If it's going to be a long ride (over half an hour), it might cost up to $1.25. Though there are a few defined bus stops, they don't really mean anything. If you want to get on a bus that's passing by, you stick out your hand and wave at the driver. When you want to get off, you ask the driver to stop. The second the last person steps on or off the bus, it lurches away, which means I'm frequently lunging for the nearest handrail so I don't fall over.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
The First Week
I've been here for a week now and it's incredible. The first full day, we ate breakfast at a cafe nearby the hotel in Quito, then took a bus to San Antonio, a town about 30 minutes away, famous because the equator runs through the town. We stayed at a place called Rancho Alegre, and had classroom sessions during the day followed by some activity at night. The first night was a salsa dancing lession. I am horrible, but it was still fun. The second night we watched a movie about two women traveling around Ecuador. The third night we listened to a performance of music native to the Andes that was absolutely incredible. Each member of the band played three or four different instuments, and between each song they all switched which instrument they were on. One of the musician's girlfriend was there, and she had us get up and try to follow the dance moves she was doing, but I didn't even come close to getting it. Each afternoon, we had some time to explore the town. About a 30 minute walk from our hotel was a park and a huge monument marking the line that people used to think was the equator. The equator is actually about 200 meteres away and runs through an ancient site used by the local indigenous people (who did know it was the equator and oriented the site accordingly), but when the Europeans came and tried to measure the equator, they got it slightly wrong.
Eating is a big deal here. Every day, they served us food five times. Breakfast, followed by a snack, then lunch followed by a snack, then dinner. Everything was delicious. There's rice at every meal, along with a lot of soup and tons of different kinds of juices. My favorite juice so far is one made from blackberries. The fruit is incredible.
The fourth day (Thursday), we did what our academic directors Leonore and Fabian call a drop off. In groups of three, we were given the name of a town, and we had to figure out how to get there by bus, and then get back to the hotel we stayed in the first night in Quito. In the town, we were suppose to eat lunch, buy an ice cream, and talk to the locals about the towns history. My group went to Nanegalito, a tiny town on the edge of the cloud forest. The bus ride was the best part. The road winds constantly downward through the mountains, with a sharp drop on one or both sides of the road at all times. It was a little scary, but an incredible experience. Thursday night we went out to a club in Quito. We got a lot of looks. Apparently a group of fourteen gringos all dancing together in one club is a phenomenon.
Friday afternoon, we began our homestays. My family has four people, the two parents (Vladi and Elsita), a nineteen year old son named Felipe, and a 22 year old daughter named Ana Belen. The first night, Ana Belen took me to a friend's house with her, where another girl on my program is staying. There were tons of people there, and they built a campfire in a backyard, and we all sat around it for hours. After breakfast on Saturday, my host parents took me grocery shopping with them. The grocery store is a huge supermarket called Megamaxi, and it's located inside a shopping mall (apparently most supermarkets are). There were tons of fruits and vegetables I had never seen, and everything was so cheap compared to in the US. Then we got ice cream (they eat a TON of ice cream here, you see signs for it on every street corner, and it's incredible), and returned to the house for lunch.
Today, my host father took me on a hike up Ilalo, the volcano that towers over the town. Los Chillos, where we're staying, is a suburb of Quito about 45 minutes outside the city, but it feels completely different. Los Chillos is at about 8000 feet and the top of Ilalo is at about 9500. The path is incredibly steep, and I had to stop and rest every ten minutes or so, because it was so difficult to breathe. The views, however, were amazing. From the top, you can see all of Los Chillos, and a fair amount of Quito. I have pictures which I'll post when I have a chance to upload them from my camera. Along the entire route, random cows grazed, and there were also a number of cultivated fields, mostly growing corn. The people who own them climb the mountain once or twice a day to tend to their crops. We even saw one woman who was climbing it barefoot.
On the way down, it was so steep that the entire thing was a kind of run/walk, with a chance to slow down only every ten meters or so. The fact I fell over once, and my host father fell over twice. Every time one of us fell, he would say "es normal." After the hike, he took me to drink coconut milk (they just wack off the top and put a straw in it), and I also tried a juice made purely from cane sugar that is the sweetest thing I have ever eaten.
Classes start tomorrow morning at 8am, which is when we find out what Spanish level we're in. So far my Spanish has been better than I thought. My host family keeps saying I speak really well, since their previous student apparently was pretty awful, but I still have a long ways to go.
Eating is a big deal here. Every day, they served us food five times. Breakfast, followed by a snack, then lunch followed by a snack, then dinner. Everything was delicious. There's rice at every meal, along with a lot of soup and tons of different kinds of juices. My favorite juice so far is one made from blackberries. The fruit is incredible.
The fourth day (Thursday), we did what our academic directors Leonore and Fabian call a drop off. In groups of three, we were given the name of a town, and we had to figure out how to get there by bus, and then get back to the hotel we stayed in the first night in Quito. In the town, we were suppose to eat lunch, buy an ice cream, and talk to the locals about the towns history. My group went to Nanegalito, a tiny town on the edge of the cloud forest. The bus ride was the best part. The road winds constantly downward through the mountains, with a sharp drop on one or both sides of the road at all times. It was a little scary, but an incredible experience. Thursday night we went out to a club in Quito. We got a lot of looks. Apparently a group of fourteen gringos all dancing together in one club is a phenomenon.
Friday afternoon, we began our homestays. My family has four people, the two parents (Vladi and Elsita), a nineteen year old son named Felipe, and a 22 year old daughter named Ana Belen. The first night, Ana Belen took me to a friend's house with her, where another girl on my program is staying. There were tons of people there, and they built a campfire in a backyard, and we all sat around it for hours. After breakfast on Saturday, my host parents took me grocery shopping with them. The grocery store is a huge supermarket called Megamaxi, and it's located inside a shopping mall (apparently most supermarkets are). There were tons of fruits and vegetables I had never seen, and everything was so cheap compared to in the US. Then we got ice cream (they eat a TON of ice cream here, you see signs for it on every street corner, and it's incredible), and returned to the house for lunch.
Today, my host father took me on a hike up Ilalo, the volcano that towers over the town. Los Chillos, where we're staying, is a suburb of Quito about 45 minutes outside the city, but it feels completely different. Los Chillos is at about 8000 feet and the top of Ilalo is at about 9500. The path is incredibly steep, and I had to stop and rest every ten minutes or so, because it was so difficult to breathe. The views, however, were amazing. From the top, you can see all of Los Chillos, and a fair amount of Quito. I have pictures which I'll post when I have a chance to upload them from my camera. Along the entire route, random cows grazed, and there were also a number of cultivated fields, mostly growing corn. The people who own them climb the mountain once or twice a day to tend to their crops. We even saw one woman who was climbing it barefoot.
On the way down, it was so steep that the entire thing was a kind of run/walk, with a chance to slow down only every ten meters or so. The fact I fell over once, and my host father fell over twice. Every time one of us fell, he would say "es normal." After the hike, he took me to drink coconut milk (they just wack off the top and put a straw in it), and I also tried a juice made purely from cane sugar that is the sweetest thing I have ever eaten.
Classes start tomorrow morning at 8am, which is when we find out what Spanish level we're in. So far my Spanish has been better than I thought. My host family keeps saying I speak really well, since their previous student apparently was pretty awful, but I still have a long ways to go.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Leaving Tomorrow
My mom's been begging me for weeks to set up this blog, so here it is. No promises that I'll update very often, but I'll do my best. Today will be filled with last minute errands, and frantic packing, then tomorrow evening I'm on the plane. I'm excited and a little bit nervous.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)