While studying abroad here in Ecuador, there are many things I could choose to fear. Some examples include, the car-repairmen I pass everyday on my way to the bus who consistently yell things like “¡Mamacita!” and whistle, the three buses I take to school (usually filled about three times over capacity), the biggest earthquake in recorded history (according to my Vulcanología professor) that could strike at any second, an eruption from one of the dozens of volcanoes throughout the country, or possibly developing any number of diseases such as dengue fever, malaria or just getting sick with dysentery. Of all these things, however, there is nothing that I fear more than my shower. It’s important to note that the water for the showers in Ecuador is generally heated by gas and my gas tank happens to be right where I can see it in the shower; the only thing separating it from me being a thin glass door. This wouldn’t be too scary if I didn’t have to light it with a match every morning, smell the gas and watch the flame rise and fall while I bathe, but unfortunately this is what I must sacrifice to maintain an acceptable level of hygiene. The good news is that I’ve gotten used to it over the past few weeks and if I happen to die in a massive explosion, well at least it’s a unique way to go!
Moving on, I took an amazing trip to Otavalo on Saturday with Julie and Angela. We decided, kind of at the last minute, to go for the day in order to do a little shopping because there was supposed to be a festival and other students from Oregon had gone the day before to spend the night. Otavalo is in the Sierra about two hours north of Quito and is extremely well known for having one of the best markets in all of Ecuador. On the bus, Angela met an old man from Otavalo who introduced us to his entire family once we arrived. His daughter, Tatiana, showed us around the city all day and helped us with bargaining etc… The market was so massive and so full of wonderful clothing, jewelry and other crafts that I was pretty overwhelmed at first from wanting to buy everything! In the end I left with an alpaca sweater, alpaca socks an alpaca scarf and about five necklaces made from seeds of the Oriente. The highlight of Otavalo, however, turned out to be a surprise encounter with a particular person who also decided to go shopping on Saturday. Shortly after arriving in the city, we noticed that everyone was flocking to a certain area, so we walked over just in time to see Rafael Correa (President of Ecuador) strolling through the crowd with some friends and a very large security team. After struggling to get a good picture, he turned to Julie, Angela and me, and said, “Hola Chicas”. It was, needless to say, a pretty cool experience for us three newcomers to Ecuador.
On Sunday I woke up expecting to just do homework all day, but when I wandered into the kitchen I found Maritza fully dressed and telling me that we were going out for breakfast in ten minutes! After scrambling to get ready, we met up with her sister, Lucia, and family and then went to an indoor market somewhere in the Quito. There, I anticipated we’d be having something along the lines of coffee and bread, so you can imagine my surprise when a big bowl of soup consisting of potatoes, cilantro and the lining of a cow’s stomach/intestines (not exactly sure which) was placed in front of me. I tried one bite of the meat, but it was a little much for me at nine in the morning. My family was nice about it though, and Maritza promptly moved me over to another booth where I downed a tall glass of green juice that had a raw egg blended in. So far, Sunday has been my only somewhat strange food experience, but it was funny more than anything else. Later in the day, Maritza’s mom (AKA the sweetest woman alive) came in from Guayaquil to stay with us and we chatted for a while, only to be interrupted once by a minor earthquake. All in all, it’s been a pretty eventful couple of days I’d say! The photos I posted include the picture of me in the paper from last Monday, Rafael Correa, Angela, Julie and me in Otavalo and the view out my window including Cotopaxi. ¡Hasta Pronto! ¡Una linda día mis amigos!
No comments:
Post a Comment