Galápagos!

Never in my life have I had so many issues with time as I did during my week in the Galápagos. Because the islands are an hour behind the mainland, there were at least five mornings in which we woke up, got dressed and were ready to go an hour earlier or later than we were supposed to and it was hilarious. The best example was on the island, Isabela, when Quena, Averina, Michelle and I discovered our error while standing in the middle of a very dark and deserted road at 5:30 AM with all of our luggage and feeling completely disoriented. Despite these minor setbacks, Galápagos was hands down my most incredible trip thus far. We arrived in Santa Cruz on December 1st and returned the 8th, so there was plenty of time to explore the islands, see amazing wildlife and to soak up the “10+ EXTREME UV Rays” (according to the weather channel) that were beating down upon us.

We spent the first day of our trip on Santa Cruz, which is the most populous island of the Galápagos. There, we visited a tortoise reserve and took the rest of the day to shop around the port. My friend Katy and I were completely obsessed with the “I love booby” t-shirts with pictures of these adorable birds called boobies that look kind of like ducks, but have bright blue feet! Santa Cruz was fun, but the weather wasn’t great, so we were all excited when it was time to move to the next island. On Sunday morning we took a three-hour ride to Isabela on the most miserable boat I´ve ever experienced. Everyone got sick because there were horrible fumes pouring into the boat, but the transition to a new place was wonderful. The roads on Isabela were all covered with coral white sand and the sun was just setting over the water upon our arrival. The cherry on the cake was getting a beachfront cabin with kitchen, living room and hot water! 

One of the main attractions on Isabela is a volcano called Sierra Negra, which is home to the second biggest crater in the world. In order to get there, we had to take horses for the first hour and then hike an additional 45 minutes through various forms of cacti and fairly new lava flows. The scenery was beautiful and I loved the hike, but HATED the horse ride. It probably wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t accidentally been placed with the “advanced” group, which galloped the entire way! By the time we finally dismounted, I was terrified, exhausted and in pain from the metal trinkets on the saddle that had been digging into my thighs. Also, my face was caked in dirt after only ten minutes of riding due to the stampede in front of me. At least it was an experience and I must say that I formed somewhat of a bond with my horse, “Flaco” by the end.

Tuesday on Isabela was much more relaxing and definitely my best day of the trip (maybe one of the best days of my life)! After breakfast, we paid $8 each to take a small boat to an island nearby where there were TONS of animals and a great spot to swim as well. We saw iguanas, seals (including the angry “alpha-male”), boobies, other birds, turtles and sharks all in one place! The rest of the day was spent lying on the beach by our cabin and then indulging in a delicious $3 meal and ice cream to top it all off. Although it was a fabulous day and evening, we were all a little sad because our boat back to Santa Cruz (the same evil boat that took us to Isabela) was leaving really early in the morning so we could snorkel on Thursday.

Snorkeling, similar to horseback riding, was another one of those bittersweet experiences for me. Although it was phenomenal in some respects, i.e. being on a beautiful boat, seeing our first penguins and a huge stingray leaping out of the water, there were some downsides as well. Namely, my wetsuit was too big so it filled up with water and I was actually freezing the entire time and couldn’t really enjoy anything that I was seeing. It got so bad that my lips were turning bright blue (the color of my suit) and my right calf started cramping whenever I attempted to move my flipper. Needless to say, after Thursday I was over the snorkeling scene and was not looking forward to a second day of it on Friday for an extra 70 bucks. Instead, Katy and I ditched the group to chill on the famous “Tortuga Bay” beach with our Pingüino ice cream bars. It was the perfect way to end our vacation and we couldn’t help but feel a little validated in our decision when everyone else got back and told us about how the “best snorkeling spot in the world” (according to our professor), turned out to be a complete dud with nothing to see and currents so strong that some of them were pushed into the jagged rocks and forced to move to a different location.

Even though the trip was magnificent and glorious and all that other good stuff, I was ready to get back to Quito by Sunday. This is such an exciting time in my study abroad experience because I’ll be completely done with school after Tuesday and will have the entire month of December free to figure out where I’m going to live spring semester, to travel around with family (who are coming on the 18th!), and to get ready for my internship with CARE international that starts in January! It’s also a sad time, and I know that I’m going to completely break down one of these days in the near future, because pretty much all of my friends were only staying one semester and are heading back to the States in the next couple of weeks. Thus the first chapter ends and another is soon to begin. I’m looking forward see how it all will work out! ¡Hasta Pronto!

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!

Cotopaxi Trip

After nearly two months of staring at the beautiful Cotopaxi from my bedroom window, I finally got the chance to travel there with my class last weekend! Admittedly, I didn’t have the best attitude at first after getting home at 2:00 AM from a night out with my host sister, knowing that I would have to climb a mountain at 6:00 AM; but after sleeping on the bus and waking up in the most spectacular place on earth, my mood improved rapidly. Cotopaxi is one of the most active volcanoes in Ecuador, which is saying something because there are MANY active volcanoes in this country. It also has the potential to do quite a lot of damage if and when it decides to erupt. Just being there was absolutely incredible, but the hour hike we took to a glacier was definitely the highlight for me.

After Cotopaxi, our group of nearly 80 students hopped on buses to escape the hail that had begun to fall and made our way south to Baños where we spent the night. Katie, another Madison, Wisconsin girl (of course), was my roommate. After settling in, a bunch of us went out for dinner at a restaurant owned by Oregonians called “Casa Hood” before dancing in our favorite Baños bar. The place has a dead stuffed bird hanging from the ceiling and plays the best mix of Hip-Hop and Reggaeton around! On Sunday, we mostly discussed the threat of the volcano Tungurahua to the city of Baños and the damage it’s caused in the past. The picture below represents one of the most moving moments during my time here. While our professor, Theo, was showing us the damage caused by a recent volcanic mudslide (lahar), an old man from Baños stopped along the road to tell us about how it had destroyed several crops and many homes. Later, Theo explained that while living in Baños permanently is extremely dangerous because of the constant volcanic activity, the people there refuse to leave because the tourist industry is too strong and it’s been their home for centuries. The old man wandered off and only paused for a few seconds while staring over the tremendous landscape; a place of both unimaginable beauty and pain. That’s all I have for today. As mentioned in the last entry, I haven’t been sleeping much of late, and need to build up energy for my jungle rafting trip this coming Saturday. ¡Caio! 

P.S. Shout out to Tyler (TT), who I hear is finally home from his world travels! I hope you’re doing well in Eugene and that you can still visit me at some point!

Wandering around Guayaquil (and Ecuador in general)

I am officially sick of bread! I don’t know how it happened (didn´t even know that it was possible), but I woke up this morning and immediately decided that just one more empanada, croissant or baguette would surely be the end of me. My carbohydrate intake in general has been pretty excessive of late. Therefore, my new goal is to limit myself to only one galleta grande (huge cookie) next week, instead of the usual four or five! Regarding my weekend: while it didn’t turn out exactly as planned, we (Julie and I) at least got an adventure out of it, and definitely covered an impressive distance considering the short amount of time we had for the trip. On Thursday, we departed from Quito at around 10:30 PM and attempted (with great difficulty) to sleep during the eight-hour bus ride to Guayaquil, the largest city in Ecuador, which is near the coast.We spent forever trying to find a comfortable position that would also enable us to take full advantage of the beach towels we were using as blankets. Fortunately, it eventually worked out and we got barely enough rest to carry us through the next day. At 6:30 AM, we arrived in Guayaquil, checked into a hotel downtown, and spent the rest of the day walking around the city, taking pictures and searching for suitable places to eat that also had a vegetarian option because Julie is a vegetarian (like the majority of my closest friends so it seems). We forgot (of course) that because it was a holiday, almost everything was closed during the day. Despite this minor setback, the walk was beautiful. We first ventured to Parque Bolívar to observe the many turtles that swim in the ponds and the many (MANY) iguanas that apparently find great enjoyment in relieving themselves onto the heads of unsuspecting tourists from their refuge in the trees above. Our next stop was the Malecón, a newly revived boardwalk, known for its monuments, painters, music and restaurants. The thing that we found most exciting, however, was the promotion of recycling (as shown below)!

I’ll admit that we received a few strange looks from locals when taking pictures of trash bins, but it was absolutely worth it (our friends in Quito wouldn’t have believed it otherwise). My favorite part of Guayaquil was a neighborhood called Las Peñas, where I took the majority of my photos.

From a distance, it looks like the hills of San Francisco, but the community itself is exceptionally old with some 500 stairs leading to a tremendous view of the city. Unfortunately, after all the walking (from roughly 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM), we were too tired to enjoy the celebrations that night; and after an early dinner on the Malecón, we called it a night at only 9:00 PM. Saturday was a little strange because although we’d been planning to go to the coast, the news of protests and strikes along the road there prompted us to head four hours in the other direction to a town called Riobamba in the highlands. We chose this destination for two reasons in particular: first, it's much closer to Quito (which meant less driving the following day); and second, we love the way Riobamba sounds when said fast by conductors who try to get us to go there every weekend. It was nice to switch from a bustling city to una ciudad más tranquilo. We wandered through the Saturday market, got a $1.50 manicure down the street from our amazing hostel, Oasis, and later sat down at a pizzeria to watch the soccer game between Venezuela and Ecuador, which Ecuador sadly lost. Overall, the weekend was really fun, but I always love coming home to Quito and sleeping in my own bed (not that I’ve slept a lot in the past few days). Today I had two midterms for Social Problems in Ecuador and Volcanology and tomorrow I have to go to school early again to work on a group project. Hopefully I’ll make it home in time to steal a few hours of sleep before my Salsa dancing lesson with Pao at 8:00! ¡Hasta lluego!

Nothing special... but I love Quito

Another uneventful weekend/week gone by, but I definitely got some much-needed R & R! The majority of the time, I just chilled around the apartment, napped, worked on homework or got bread from la panadería across the street (to break from bouts of boredom). On Saturday, Julie and I did a little more exploring around the historical district, where we toured two churches and then took the trolleybus to a park nearby to view some art and check out the Saturday market there. Monday consisted of laundry, memorization of some 200 Spanish phrases and my first Salsa dancing lesson with my host-sister Paola (Pao)! I love Salsa! Pao is a great teacher and she also burned me a mix of songs so I can practice in my room. Yesterday and today have been pretty stressful because I have two midterms tomorrow and a few more next week as well. Thankfully, there’s no school on Friday because it’s Guayaquil day; so Julie and I (and possibly our other friend Quena) are heading down to Guayaquil for a little sun, and to join in on the festivities! I’m sure that’ll make for a more interesting post next week. For now, I’m off to study and later I have my second Salsa lesson with Pao. ¡Que pasa bien!

¡Lost in Quito and Fútbol Fever!

It’s 7:00 PM on Tuesday and I just walked in the door after a long day of class and confusion. Although last weekend wasn’t quite as exciting compared to Baños and Otavalo, I did travel to Laguna de Cuicocha (very similar to Crater Lake in Oregon) with my volcano class. Cuicocha is close to Otavalo, so we spent a long time on the bus, but it was worth it! The lake was absolutely beautiful! Sadly, I neglected to bring my camera on the trip because I didn’t know what Theo (the professor) had in store for us; so the picture below is of the free postcard we received upon our arrival. 

I spent the rest of the weekend writing papers and memorizing words for my conversation class. In between, however, I found the time to take a walk with Angela (to listen to all of her crazy adventures) and to buy season six of “Sex and the City” and “City of God” (the movie). DVDs here are insanely cheap. It only costs two dollars for almost any movie (well, probably pirated ones) and some of them aren’t even in the theaters yet. I also bought a mixed CD of the best reggae songs in 2007, which was only a dollar. If buying random CDs and DVDs doesn´t kill my budget, my new obsession with Ecuador soccer could definitely put my spending over the top! I went to my first fútbol game in Quito last Wednesday between Nacional and Liga (the two biggest club teams in Quito). Because I’d wanted to buy a jersey for a long time, Sam and I decided we were going to be Liga fans about an hour before the game and picked up a couple of jerseys from El Jardín (the mall near my apartment). The game itself was amazing! We (about seven of us from Oregon) got seats right by the crazy fans who were shouting curses, banging drums and throwing toilet paper on to the field. It was great fun to watch the game while eating delicious hotdogs, joining in on the chants that we didn’t understand and marveling at how close the planes overhead would come to the field as they landed at the airport nearby. Liga won 2-0 (of course) and then we stuck around for a little bit to watch the next game between Barcelona (the most hated team in Quito from Guayaquil) and some other team. It was hilarious to see Nacional and Liga fans go from screaming at each other to turning on Barcelona as the team entered the stadium. In addition to club games, there are some really exciting matches coming up later this month between Ecuador and Venezuela and Ecuador and Mexico. Hopefully I’ll be able to go, but Julie and I are thinking about heading to the coast in a couple of weeks, so we’ll see what happens. The picture of the barbed-wire fence, by the way, is the only thing separating Liga and Nacional fans.

Returning to my confusion(mentioned at the start of this blog post),Today went pretty smoothly until Sam and I tried to get back to Quito from USFQ, and got on the wrong bus. Eventually, we were dropped off in the middle of nowhere on the side of a freeway and had to find our way back to the city on two more buses that literally went just about everywhere possible in Quito before finally dropping us off somewhat close to our homes two hours later.Since I wasn’t in a hurry, it was funny more than anything, but I definitely learned my lesson! I also cheered myself up by stopping for juice at my favorite fruit-stand. It’s a little store about a half-mile from my house in which I can sit down, pick out any combination of fruits that my heart desires (today I got fresh-squeezed orange juice, blackberries and bananas) and watch as they blend it right in front of me for only 50 cents! I love it and look forward to it every day now. 

I should probably get some rest because tomorrow I've agreed to sit at 

a booth for three hours and convince Ecuadorians to study at UO. Apparently the program is in trouble because too many students leave Oregon to study at USFQ, while not enough Ecuadorians go to UO. I’ll do my best to represent Los Patos (The Ducks)! I also am going to talk with my Social Problems in Ecuador professor tomorrow about places to volunteer. The final photos are of my friends Quena, Michelle and me at the Chiva (many moons ago), and a street in the historical district (I thought I’d throw them in the mix just for fun). ¡Adiós! ¡Que te vaya bien!