I cannot believe that over three months have past since I arrived in Ecuador! Tomorrow night I will be returning to the United States after an adventurous and intriguing three months in the beautiful country of Ecuador. I have learned so much about the people, the politics, the land, and the language here, but I have become more confused about how time passes. At times, like my first week or two here, the time crawls along. Then there are some weeks that fly by so fast that you can barely remember the days that made them up.
The past ten days have certainly flown by, but I have great memories and photos to remember them by. On the 13th, my parents and Garett arrived in the airport here in Quito around midnight. After waiting for hours in the airport for their arrival, I was quite excited when they showed up...they spotted me right away in the crowd of those awaiting the arrival of their guests. Although not the only gringo in the bunch, I was jumping the highest and waving the most. I smothered each of them in hugs...and thus began our adventure.
For seven days we traveled Ecuador. With the help of a member of my sponsor Rotary Club here in Quito (a German man who owns a travel agency), I selected a route and hired a guide to show us as much of the country as would be possible in 7 days without killing ourselves. The Galapagos was out of our budget and would not fit into our time frame and since SC has plenty of beaches of its own, I opted for a combination of city, mountains, and jungle. We stayed one night in Quito, and then bright and early met our guide...Edisson, or fast Edy as we jokingly called him, and head out.
Our first stop was the beautiful Papallacta fresh water thermal pools about an hour and half outside of Quito. The resort where we had reservations had 16 of its own pools, full of either cold water flowing from the mountains or hot water heated by the surrounding volcanoes. On clear days, like the following morning, you can see amazing views of the Antisana Volcanoe. Unfortunately, Garett and I had only a short time to soak in the pools before Edy had to bring us back to Quito because I had to be there the following morning to extend my Visa and avoiding paying a large fine. Bad news...we didn't get to hang out int he pools as long as we wanted. Good news...we got back in time to watch the Ecuador soccer game...a qualifier for the World Cup. More bad news...Ecuador lost. Good news...we had fun anyway.
From Papallacta, we had a 3 hour ride to a jungle border town called Misahualli. There, we visited a small town park full of tiny monkeys. After a quick stop, we headed about 30 minutes further into the jungle to our resort called Cotococha. There, we had our own cabins over looking a river and surrounded by tropical plants...luckily with hot showers, but without electricity. We spent two nights in the jungle lodge. On our second day, we took a long canoe ride, stopping again to visit the monkey park and then a little further down the river to an animal refuge. Here, volunteers work to rehabilitate injured or domesticated wild animals, and if they can, re-release them into the wild. Many of the animals were once captured and kept as pets and then abandoned, captured, or turned in but were unable to survive in the wild. We saw various types of monkeys, a jungle cat, toucans, parrots, the smallest monkey in the world, and the largest rodent in the world (the capybara). After an interesting tour there, we continued down the river a bit for a picnic lunch and chance to swim. After lunch, we traveled back up the river and visited an indigenous community. We were given a demonstration of how the indigenous women form and decorated ceramic pots using all natural materials, including minerals for paint. We also witnessed, and tried out our aim, at shooting a small dart waited down with a small piece of cotton through a long narrow tube. The instrument is a weapon used by indigenous cultures to hunt prey, or back in the day---enemies. The type of the dart or needle is rubbed on the back of a poisonous frog to give the weapon extra potency. Our target...a balsa wood parrot. I missed.
After a fun night in the jungle getting to know our fellow travelers from Australia, India, and the Netherlands, we headed out the next morning. Our first stop was the Paillon del Diable, or the Devils Caldron...an impressive waterfall on the route from the jungle to my favorite little town of Banos. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to do a hike or rent go carts, but I was at least hoping that my parents and Garett would give cuy, or roasted guinea pig, a try since it would be the best opportunity to do so along our trip (the best cuy comes from another city called Ambato). Unfortunately, they wimped out when they saw the poor little guys roasting away on sticks, with their little paws and teeth still clearly visible.
From Banos, we headed to the foot of Ecuador's largest mountain, Chimborazo. Once an active volcanoe, today it is snow-capped and quiet. To climb it, you need to be an expert with all the requirred picks and snow gear and required days of training and acclimitization. Instead, we checked into the Hacienda we were staying in and then had a nice dinner and went to bed. The next morning, we went for an easy hike through the surrounding farmland, learning about the plants, indigenous culture, and the mountains of Ecuador. We learned north of Chimborazo, there are no mountains taller and then if you measured from the center of the Earth to the top of Chimborazo, it would be the tallest mountain on the planet, due to the bulge of the Earth at the Equador (the Earth is not a perfect circle). From there, we had a long car ride to Cuenca, the cute colonial town in the south of the country.
Cuenca has many beautiful old churches, cobblestone roads, and interesting Spanish style architecture. In 1999, it was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site (Quito also has this title). It is also home to some of Ecuador's only Inca ruins, although they are just small remants of a few walls, and only two hours from the largest Inca ruins in the country (called Ingapirca), and a short distance from the Caja Nacional Park. There, we toured the city, visited the churches, witnessed the difference in the indigenous cultures (the women here dress completely different then the indigenous women in the rest of the country), and observed Inca artifacts in a small museum near our hotel. After two nights there, we took a short flight back to Quito.
In Quito, we visited my school and the historic center of the city. We picked a good day to visit the school because that day, they were preparing a delicious drink called colada morada. It is a drink prepared for the Day of the Dead, the 2nd of November, when the people visit the graves of deceased loved ones. They believe that on this day, the spirits of the dead can best return to visit so they bring the beverage, a bread called Guaguas (Babies in Quichua) de Pan, and sometimes the favorite dish of the dead person to eat in the cementaries. We got to try the bread and delicious drink (a hot drink made from slowly cooking pineapples and other tropical fruits then adding them to a slow cooked blackberry and sugar mixture). It was great. We tried to take a gondolah ride up to hike the mountains around the city and check out the views but it was closed for maintenance. Instead we visited the old city and the central plaza. We had lunch then a relaxing afternoon (naps for the men, shopping for the women) before having dinner with my host family.
After watching Liga, my favorite soccer team, play and tie in an important game, we got a few hours of sleep before my parents and Garett head to leave the hotel (at 4 am) to head the airport. They should be arriving in Charlotte any minute now! As for me, I had lunch with friends one last time today and tomorrow night, I myself will head to the airport to catch my 11:30 pm flight. By 9:30 am Friday morning, I will be back stateside. Amazing how the time flies!
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Saturday, October 3, 2009
The Middle of the World
Who says you cannot be in two places at the same time?So as the title of my blog suggests...Ecuador is located in the Middle of the World! or at least it claims this title. This is becuase it is in Ecuador, and only Ecuador, that the 0 longitude line passes through the Ecuador on solid land...in the Galapagos Islands! Many years ago....when French expeditioners were measuring the equador and creating maps, building obersvatories to observe the heavens, and so on, they decided that of the South American and other countries located on the equator, Ecuador´s geography (mainly its impressive mountains) made it the best location to do their studies. Their original estimate of the center of the world is off by about 240 meters where they constructed a monument. In the correct location, today you can visit a museum with interesting facts about indigenous Ecuadorian culture, strange facts about the effects of Ecuador´s geographic location, and interesting experiments. Here is a link to my facebook picture album with descriptions of the museum and its experimens...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2371832&id=12603504&l=b1ec10b47f
Enjoy!
Thieves...guess my luck ran out
So usually I feel I have good news and interewsting experiences to tell you...today my post is not quite as cheerful. Well lets be optimists and see what good we can find in what happened today!
So like any city, Quito can be dangerous at times. I always try to be cautious and safe...never walk through scary looking parks or even safe looking parks at night or alone, stay away from dangerous parts of the city, never go out alone at night, I always keep my back pack in front of me in buses, and never carry large amounts of money or valuables. I knew that Quito could be dangerous, but my first month or two here...little happened except for the few times on long buse rides someone I know or spoke with was robbed, but in a manner that they did not realize until afterwards and not in a dangerous manner. Then, about two weeks ago, two new students arrived. These girls were walking through one of the most dangerous parks in the city, which is technically closed for renovations, and we robbed by some young guys using broken bottles. They lost a camera, about 30 bucks and almost a wallet, but some other nice people who witnessed the whole event chased down the thieves and retreived the wallet. Welcome to Quito, right? But I said we were going to be optimists....the good part of the story. One of the girls, Laura was wearing a necklace that was not expensive but was given to her by her grandmother. She tried to explain that it was not expensive but it meant a lot to her. The thieves ripped it off anyway...but when she got home and layed in her bed for a while crying, she was reminded once again that God exists. She got up from the bed and the charm from the necklace fell out of her hair! What luck!
Now for my story...since I no longer have internet in my house, I left my house early today to get to school and use internet here. My house is located in what I would call a safe area..perhaps a slightly wealthier area near a private high school (maybe this is why it was targeted). Well after a discussion of robbery in Quito, I left my house. I walked out the front down and out of the gate and locked the gate behind me. No more than a minute or 30 feet later, two men passed by me on a motorcycle and stopped on the corner. One got off the moto and stepped onto the sidewlak where i was walking. When the motorcycle that dropped him off did not leave but instead made a half circle and turned around, I knew it would be a bad idea to try and wlak by this man. Hoping I was wrong and observing what the motorcycle was doing, I stopped walking and put my keys in my bookbag to waste time, hoping that the man would continue walking down the hill in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, that was not my luck. The men bent down to tie his shoe and I stopped, put my keys in my backpack. He stood up and look directly aqt me and I knew I was in trouble. I tried to take a few steps back to my house and he practically ran at me, lifting his shirt to show me a large knife tucked into his belt. Before I knew it, I was backed up against a wall with this man yelling that I give him all of my things. The worst part of all of it was the look of rage on this mans face. His eyes were bright red and angry. Unlike most thieves here who are often teenageers or young adults, or of African descent, I would guess he is about 30 to 35 years old. I immediately dropped all of my things, my jacket, cell phone, and bookbag. Then, he noticed the earphones I had on which were hooked to my iPod which was hooked on to my belt...the cord running between my two layers of shirts I was wearing. He demanded the iPod. It took me a while to take out the head phones and removethe ipod and retrieve the cord from the layers of my clothes...the whole time the thief was becomming more and more nervous and agitated and yelling at me to hurry up hurry up (apurate, mas rapido, apurate)..he even showed me his knife a second or maybe third time. I finally gave it to him, then he reached to the ground and picked nup my cellphone, which was in three pieces, and then grabbed my book bag. And here comes the good part of the story...at the same time, out of no where, a young guy about my age or a bit younger grabbed the other strap of my bookbag and started yelling at the thief. By this time the motorcycle was right next to us and the thief was anxious to leave. He finally gave up on the backpack and took off. I started to cry of course and then gave this kid who had helped me a huge hug (I kinda think he thought I was crazy). He cursed a bit about the thief and I quickly ran home to my host mother, dropped my stuff, hugged her and cried some more. The cops showed up and I told them what happened and left for school...
At school today, we did, for a second time, my favorite activity...the gondolah ride to a mountain type and great views of the city. For the first half of the day I was angry and sad and kept thinking....if I would have done, this would not have happened, if I wouldnt have left early, or I should have said this or yelled or done this. But I realize now that I cannot change anything and that I really did have great luck. If I had not had my iPod or if it had not had been tucked in to my shirt as it was, I would have lost my North Face backpack my girlfirends bought for me, along the the $20, my Visa Card, mycamera, and the two movies I borrowed from a teacher. I am grateful to the boy who helped me...and I realized that in this incident I witnessed an example of both the worst type of person and the best...the one who robbed me and the one that put himself at risk to help me. My teachers, each of whom have been robbed before, felt sorry for me and told me their stories. My professor for the week was proud of me...I used complex sentence structures to explain that I was feeling angry becuase I should have done something and that if I would have done so so and then so so would not have happened. He said also that there are two signs that you are learning a language well...first, when you dream in the language....and second when you react in stressful sitauations such as this in another language. I was able to use the command form to tell the thief to take my iPod (toma, toma) and that there was nothing important in my backpack when he was playing tug of war with it with my hero (no hay nada en la mochila, no hay nada). I dont claim to be an optimist 100% of the time..but th is is my effort to see the best in a bad situation....I also hope that bad things like this can only happen to a person once, but I am going to knock on wood before I leave school to make sure I am not jinxing myself. The good news is that I am safe and sound and that I still have my b ack pack and most of my things....
So like any city, Quito can be dangerous at times. I always try to be cautious and safe...never walk through scary looking parks or even safe looking parks at night or alone, stay away from dangerous parts of the city, never go out alone at night, I always keep my back pack in front of me in buses, and never carry large amounts of money or valuables. I knew that Quito could be dangerous, but my first month or two here...little happened except for the few times on long buse rides someone I know or spoke with was robbed, but in a manner that they did not realize until afterwards and not in a dangerous manner. Then, about two weeks ago, two new students arrived. These girls were walking through one of the most dangerous parks in the city, which is technically closed for renovations, and we robbed by some young guys using broken bottles. They lost a camera, about 30 bucks and almost a wallet, but some other nice people who witnessed the whole event chased down the thieves and retreived the wallet. Welcome to Quito, right? But I said we were going to be optimists....the good part of the story. One of the girls, Laura was wearing a necklace that was not expensive but was given to her by her grandmother. She tried to explain that it was not expensive but it meant a lot to her. The thieves ripped it off anyway...but when she got home and layed in her bed for a while crying, she was reminded once again that God exists. She got up from the bed and the charm from the necklace fell out of her hair! What luck!
Now for my story...since I no longer have internet in my house, I left my house early today to get to school and use internet here. My house is located in what I would call a safe area..perhaps a slightly wealthier area near a private high school (maybe this is why it was targeted). Well after a discussion of robbery in Quito, I left my house. I walked out the front down and out of the gate and locked the gate behind me. No more than a minute or 30 feet later, two men passed by me on a motorcycle and stopped on the corner. One got off the moto and stepped onto the sidewlak where i was walking. When the motorcycle that dropped him off did not leave but instead made a half circle and turned around, I knew it would be a bad idea to try and wlak by this man. Hoping I was wrong and observing what the motorcycle was doing, I stopped walking and put my keys in my bookbag to waste time, hoping that the man would continue walking down the hill in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, that was not my luck. The men bent down to tie his shoe and I stopped, put my keys in my backpack. He stood up and look directly aqt me and I knew I was in trouble. I tried to take a few steps back to my house and he practically ran at me, lifting his shirt to show me a large knife tucked into his belt. Before I knew it, I was backed up against a wall with this man yelling that I give him all of my things. The worst part of all of it was the look of rage on this mans face. His eyes were bright red and angry. Unlike most thieves here who are often teenageers or young adults, or of African descent, I would guess he is about 30 to 35 years old. I immediately dropped all of my things, my jacket, cell phone, and bookbag. Then, he noticed the earphones I had on which were hooked to my iPod which was hooked on to my belt...the cord running between my two layers of shirts I was wearing. He demanded the iPod. It took me a while to take out the head phones and removethe ipod and retrieve the cord from the layers of my clothes...the whole time the thief was becomming more and more nervous and agitated and yelling at me to hurry up hurry up (apurate, mas rapido, apurate)..he even showed me his knife a second or maybe third time. I finally gave it to him, then he reached to the ground and picked nup my cellphone, which was in three pieces, and then grabbed my book bag. And here comes the good part of the story...at the same time, out of no where, a young guy about my age or a bit younger grabbed the other strap of my bookbag and started yelling at the thief. By this time the motorcycle was right next to us and the thief was anxious to leave. He finally gave up on the backpack and took off. I started to cry of course and then gave this kid who had helped me a huge hug (I kinda think he thought I was crazy). He cursed a bit about the thief and I quickly ran home to my host mother, dropped my stuff, hugged her and cried some more. The cops showed up and I told them what happened and left for school...
At school today, we did, for a second time, my favorite activity...the gondolah ride to a mountain type and great views of the city. For the first half of the day I was angry and sad and kept thinking....if I would have done, this would not have happened, if I wouldnt have left early, or I should have said this or yelled or done this. But I realize now that I cannot change anything and that I really did have great luck. If I had not had my iPod or if it had not had been tucked in to my shirt as it was, I would have lost my North Face backpack my girlfirends bought for me, along the the $20, my Visa Card, mycamera, and the two movies I borrowed from a teacher. I am grateful to the boy who helped me...and I realized that in this incident I witnessed an example of both the worst type of person and the best...the one who robbed me and the one that put himself at risk to help me. My teachers, each of whom have been robbed before, felt sorry for me and told me their stories. My professor for the week was proud of me...I used complex sentence structures to explain that I was feeling angry becuase I should have done something and that if I would have done so so and then so so would not have happened. He said also that there are two signs that you are learning a language well...first, when you dream in the language....and second when you react in stressful sitauations such as this in another language. I was able to use the command form to tell the thief to take my iPod (toma, toma) and that there was nothing important in my backpack when he was playing tug of war with it with my hero (no hay nada en la mochila, no hay nada). I dont claim to be an optimist 100% of the time..but th is is my effort to see the best in a bad situation....I also hope that bad things like this can only happen to a person once, but I am going to knock on wood before I leave school to make sure I am not jinxing myself. The good news is that I am safe and sound and that I still have my b ack pack and most of my things....
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