Robbed in the City

I feel depressed today. Not for any reason in particular. I just have this huge lump in my stomach, and I don’t feel like doing homework, reading, eating or even sleeping. I guess all of this could be partly attributed to my day yesterday. While sitting on the Trolleybus, on my way to the Quito History Museum, my wallet was robbed out of my purse. I discovered this when the man standing behind me, forced me around and shouted, “¡Estas Robando!” Unfortunately, my first reaction (instead of asking what the thief had looked like) was to jump up and chase the first person that I saw getting off the bus. Accusing a little old lady of stealing my wallet didn’t help to improve the situation. Although nothing too valuable was taken, it was just frustrating to finally feel comfortable with Ecuador, Quito and my surroundings, and then to have something like this happen. On the bright side, my trip to Quilotoa Lake was incredible.

Even the drive to get there made it all vale la pena (worth it)! Miles and miles of green, rolling hills and irrigation, transformed into deep canyons and sharp turns around them that were a little too close for comfort at times. The market at Saquisilí wasn’t amazing, but still fun. To be honest, the highlight for me was watching Mike break a bow because he stretched it out too much and then had to buy it. To get to the lake, Katie, Mike and I hiked down into the crater for about 45 minutes. We sat by the shore for a while and then trekked the hour to get back out.

The water was so astoundingly beautiful against the sharp gray cliffs and mountains in the background that I could have stood up there forever. Instead of doing the rest of the loop, as originally planned, we decided to head back to Quito on Friday night. It would have been nice to stay a few more days, but we opted to take two direct buses back to the city instead of a milk truck at three in the morning, followed by four or five additional buses to do the same thing. Waiting just one more day would have put us in that situation (though it would have been a cool adventure). Back to the present, as said before, I feel horrible. I suppose there will always be days like this and there’s no harm in having some time to just sit and think about school, family, friends or life in general. I hope you’re all doing well and getting excited for Thanksgiving this coming Thursday! An early Happy Birthday to my mom, Leslie! I LOVE YOU! ¡Hasta Lluego!

Just an update!

On Friday, my plan was to do homework all day with no interruptions or distractions. Unfortunately, after a long night of trivia in an Irish bar, dancing in the Mariscal and sleeping in too late, my plan changed rapidly. The next morning, I decided to chill in the bookstore by my house for a while, followed by an epic adventure to find all the best guacamole ingredients, and finally, movies from 6-10:00 PM. Oh! I can’t forget buying more POZO cards for my grandma. She almost won last time so there’s no doubt in my mind that this Sunday, when they draw the numbers on TV, will be her lucky day! I woke up this morning feeling rested and ready to do some serious homework ! My friend Katie and I are going to a mall with wireless so we can make progress before our trip next weekend. Katie and I and a few other people are leaving Wednesday night for the Quilotoa loop. I decided not to travel there this weekend because I had a big presentation on Thursday and too much other stuff to do . Speaking of homework, I better get started! I’ll write more next week once I’m back from hiking to the most volcanically active lake in Ecuador. Did I mention that that’s the final destination of our trip? ¡Ciao!

A Change of Plans...

On Thursday evening, Julie, Angela and I still hadn´t bought tickets to Loja (the connection city to Vilcabamba), even though our plan was to leave the bus terminal by 8:00 PM. Because we waited until the last minute and because pretty much everyone in Quito seemed to be leaving for vacations on Thursday night as well, all buses to Loja were sold out and our original plan for the weekend was dead. Even getting to the terminal turned out to be a hassle when our taxi driver didn’t want to take us all the way there. According to him, there was "too much traffic and too many dangerous people." We managed to convince him, however, on the grounds that he had a car to protect him while we were three gringas with bags carrying our few possessions. Instead of letting these minor setbacks get us down, we made a slight tweak in our schedule and decided to head for Montañita, which is a little surfing/hippie town on the coast about three hours west of Guayaquil. Our bus left at 10:00 PM from Quito, got into Guayaquil at 6:30 AM, and then we eventually took two more 1½-hour buses to arrive in a very gray, drizzly and muddy Montañita at close to 11:00 AM. Despite the weather, it was still a fantastic trip.

We spent the majority of the time listening to reggae music, lying around in hammocks, eating delicious food of all kinds, strolling along the beach, swimming in the ocean (which was surprisingly warm for this time of the year), and checking out various jewelry and clothes shops on the main road. A lot of other USFQ students happened to be there this weekend as well so it was nice to hang out in a big group and get to know each other better. The night before we left was insane. We stayed up until 1:00 AM, and then came back to a hostel with damp sheets, a toxic-smelling mosquito net, holes in the roof and crazy loud techno music from the club next door that was literally still going strong when our alarm went off at 4:15 AM, so we could catch our bus at 5:00 AM. It was necessary to leave this early, unfortunately, because it was the only direct bus to Guayaquil in the morning and we wanted to get home to Quito before nightfall. Although Saturday night was pretty uncomfortable (to say the least), it’s not going to stop me from wanting to return! I hear that the town really comes alive for New Years, when the weather is better and people come from all over Ecuador to take advantage of great waves and big celebrations. Julie and I have another trip planned for this Wed., so I’m going to be extremely busy in the next couple days if I want to make that happen. Sorry about the lack of good pictures this week! With all the rain and cold I didn’t feel like breaking out the camera too much and I didn’t think I could capture why Montañita is so amazing in such bad weather anyway. ¡Caio! 

Rafting With Weird Tan-Lines

White-water rafting in Tena was, without question, my best trip in Ecuador thus far. Located on the edge of the oriente, Tena is known for having some of the best rivers in South America and I wasn’t disappointed. I, along with six other friends from USFQ, departed by bus on Friday morning and spent the entire day Saturday rafting class III+ rapids, eating delicious guacamole with chips (something I’ve strangely been craving for weeks), and marveling at my amazing sandal-tan/burn.

Saturday night was also pretty eventful when a huge bolt of lightening struck our hotel and cut all electricity for several blocks. The next morning we went to a small monkey reserve, which was really cool, and then jumped on the five hour bus back to Quito.

Moving forward to this week, my morning was pretty strange today. First of all, I sleepwalked last night into the room of my host mom at 2:00 AM and I’m pretty sure that I freaked out both my host mom and sister quite a lot. Then, after sleeping off the embarrassment, I woke up at 7:00 AM to go to the school where Maritza works to see the kids and hang out. It turned out, however, that there wasn’t any school today and that I actually might be teaching English there three times a week! I’m a little confused about all of this right now, but we’ll see what happens. I’ve wanted to do something outside of school for a while, but I don’t know if I’m qualified to teach English or if I’m even ready to commit a lot of time to doing so. As for this coming weekend, Julie and I are probably going to make the 15-hour trip to Vilcabamba tomorrow to engage in lot of hiking and a lot of relaxing as well. Vilcabamba is a small pueblo, which is located in a place called “Valley of Longevity,” because the people there live well into their hundreds. It’s near the border of Peru and has excellent hiking, horseback excursions, bike riding and massage. I’m looking forward, once again, to getting out of the city for a few days. ¡Que pasa bien! 

Highlight of the Week: Exchanging Pozo cards (lottery tickets) for gold clip-on earrings with my grandma!

Highlights of Rafting: Being launched from the boat on the first rapid, jumping out and floating down a class III, and falling in love with our stunningly handsom Irish guide, Tim!