MUCHO!

What a crazy month/months in Ecuador (apologies for not writing in FOREVER) and what an insane amount to catch up on! I’ll just jump right in with getting back from Galápagos and only having about a week to say goodbye to a bunch of my close friends who were either leaving Ecuador permanently to go back to their schools, or just heading home for the holidays. It was all a little overwhelming emotionally because on top of getting together with people for the last time and celebrating the end of the semester, I was also getting ready for the arrival of my parents and “planning” their trip. 

Also, with my parents coming in on the 18th of December, I only had three or four days to find a furnished apartment in a good location! Luckily, my Ecuadorian friend Pablo helped Sam (my roommate) and me for an entire day until we found the perfect place that was also within our price range. It worked out great because when my family arrived the following Tuesday, they had a private place to stay that was close to my host family’s apartment. It was also helpful because I was able to move in gradually throughout their stay instead of moving everything over at once in humongous suitcases. 

Planning the trip for my family was an absolute failure from the start. After growing so accustomed to figuring out where I was going to travel the day I left and hopping on the first bus that passed by, my scheduling abilities had diminished to nothing. I hadn’t considered the fact that my parents were only going to be in Ecuador for two weeks and probably wouldn’t want to spend 100 hours on buses during that time. Therefore, after spending the first couple days of their visit being stressed and arguing about where to go and how to get there, we eventually decided on Same as our first destination. About eight hours from Quito by bus, Same is a beautiful little village on the northern coast of Ecuador. Although we only spent a couple days there soaking up the sun and relaxing in hammocks, it was a great way to start the trip and actually made it feel like we were on vacation.

My parents had planned in advance to stay in a colonial city called Cuenca for Christmas Eve and Christmas, so after getting back from the coast we took an immediate flight south to Cuenca, and it turned out to be the best decision we could have made. Ecuador is a dominantly Catholic country and Cuenca is known as being the most Catholic city in Ecuador so Christmas there was crazy amazing. There were lights strung across every main street, fireworks, beautiful churches and a seven-hour parade on Christmas Eve, which I enjoyed for roughly three hours. After that, I was mainly shocked and amused at my mother’s ability to maintain her enthusiasm as she forced me to the window of our hotel over and over to watch yet another horse or roasted pig pass by.

From Cuenca, we returned briefly to Quito before departing again to Baños. I must admit that going there put me a little on edge when considering that the huge Volcano that sits above the town, Tungurahua, was active and spewing ash and lava on a regular basis. Aside from that minor disturbance, we enjoyed our stay amongst the tremendous scenery, and Fekerte and I managed to find time for some massages and facials while our parents hiked up about five huge hills to get a view of the volcano that was perpetually covered by dense clouds. From Baños, we went from Quito to Otavalo and spent a few precious hours in the market searching for paintings, jewelry, hats, scarves and whatever else we could find. Skipping back to Quito, we spent an afternoon at Mitad del Mundo ("middle of the world"), which my dad had been obsessing about the whole trip. We also got together with our old neighbors, Christine, Larry, Robin and Ben Fong. Ben and his wife Paty live near Quito. We had quite an adventure with the four of us crammed into the back of their VW beetle, which broke down en route to lunch. We were especially excited for a New Year's eve party with my host family and were NOT DISAPPOINTED. For example, some of the New Year's traditions in Ecuador include burning effigies in the streets and jumping over them, men cross-dressing and begging for money from passing cars, beautiful music all over the place and absolutely no laws or regulations regarding fireworks. My host family prepared a delicious meal and we sang and danced the New Year's eve away with glee.

The day after my family left was really weird because none of my friends were in Quito and I was completely lonely and felt trapped, in my first apartment ever. I spent the entire day chilling around and not being able to find an excuse to leave the house. Finally, I worked up the energy to do some grocery shopping (even though my refrigerator wasn’t working at that point). Unfortunately, I was followed around the store by an employee who was determined to either become my boyfriend, get my number or find out when I’d be coming back to get some more food. Needless to say, I wasn’t too enthused about going back for a while and had to spend some extra money on eating out. 

When Sam returned from his holiday trip to Oregon it was really nice to have another person in the house to talk to and cook with and just to have there, so I didn’t feel so paranoid from being alone. Once other friends started to get back into town everything really began to fall in place and I was ready to just settle down and start my internship. 

Speaking of which, my first couple days at CARE International were a little scary to say the least. Everyone was extremely friendly and encouraging, but I just didn’t see how I would be able to fit in, what I would be doing, or if I would even be of any help. I’m sure that everyone feels like that when starting an internship, but knowing that didn’t help ease my doubts. Now I'm more settled in and I’m really interested in what we're doing. I’m working in the democracy branch at CARE and our current project involves improving transparency between the municipality and the public. It’s a very worthwhile project because Ecuador has huge problems with corruption and making budgetary reports available to the public is essential in order to promote community involvement in political issues. So far my work has consisted primarily of doing whatever small things need to be done and keeping things around the office organized, but I’m hoping that with some time I’ll be able to do some planning of events and get out into the field.

I’ve really noticed a shift between this semester and the last, and it’s been wonderful. I am just starting to feel really at home in Quito and comfortable with my surroundings. Although there are still places where I really want to travel (i.e. Vilcabamba, Peru, Colombia), I’m feeling less of an urge to leave Quito. Instead, I have fun just hanging out with friends in our apartments, going out to dinner, discovering new bars or just reading a book. Everything is much more relaxed and I LOVE not having homework on the weekends. Five more months remain, but I’m scared that it will fly by way too fast. ¡Hasta Pronto Amigos! I’ll try to get back into a posting weekly routine!