Mindo!

Am getting ready to head over to the bus station to head back to Yunguilla from Mindo. What a great town this is! Yesterday after posting I had pizza and a pineapple batido (milk and the juice from a pineapple) for dinner and then headed back to the hostal. The two guys working at the hostal were outside playing guitar, so I hung out with them and we went out dancing later in the evening. Latin guys are a bit crazy, but we had a good time!

At the butterfly house with banana on my finger to attract the butterflies!

This morning I had breakfast at the hostal and then went to the butterfly garden about 3km away from the "downtown". I took a taxi there, but walked on the way back, and now my legs are covered in bug bites because I´m wearing shorts! The altitude here is only 1,200m, so it was warm all day yesterday (including at night) and actually quite hot today! The lights went out when I was using the Internet at another cafe, and the Copa America final between Uruguay and Paraguay is currently on, so I´m not sure what people are going to do! I had a chicken sandwhich and fried plaintains for lunch with maracuya (some type of fruit I hadn´t tried yet) juice. Time to head back to Yunguilla now--hasta luego!

 Beautiful butterfly!

 Incredible brownie and chocolate ice cream after yesterday´s chocolate tour!

Mindo´s main park--I think it´s going to rain later this afternoon based on the clouds in the distance!

Well, well, well...

Unfortunate news to report: My camera was stolen last Sunday afternoon while I was on the Metrobus in Quito. I had it in my pocket because I had been walking around a park taking pictures (after seeing Harry Potter, which was subtitled, not dubbed!) and someone took it without me noticing, then exited the bus. When I looked down to find it gone, I yelled that I had been robbed, and someone said they thought it had been a man wearing a red shirt, but with the Metrobus, the doors don´t open until you´re at a stop, so I had to wait another 5 minutes to get off the bus and call the police, which meant the man had easily gotten away when he had exited the bus at the previous stop. I was on my way back to Yunguilla after a nice trip to Papallacta (more about that later), but I then had to go to the police station to file my report, so I didn´t get back to the community until 8:30pm. I´m most upset about losing my pictures, but at least he didn´t rob my money/credit card or use force/violence. I bought trip insurance, so they´ll hopefully be reimbursing me for the new camera I bought yesterday in Quito. It´s the newest version of the Canon Powershot and so far it´s working great! (+ it wasn´t as expensive as I was led to believe cameras in Ecuador were)

Papallacta was great--the town is at about 3,300m, so I expected it to be rather chilly, but the sun was shining when I got there! I went to the thermal baths at the nice hotel in town, where I met an older Ecuadorian man who is currently living in Colorado after having attended Georgetown and an university in Germany. He was once an economist for the oil and gas industry, but is now working in insurance, and I believe has something to do with State Farm. I had great trout for dinner as I watched one of the Copa America futbol games at my hostel. The hostel also had its own pools, so I enjoyed those in the morning before heading back to Quito.

Aside from the robbery, Quito was lovely. I got to see Harry Potter (which was great, in my opinion) and walk around this massive park filled with families, soccer games and paddleboats! On Monday the entire community went on a tour to Tabacundo and Cayambe to learn about cuy production (guinea pigs--which I still haven´t tried) and rose cultivation (this is where your Valentine´s Day roses in the USA come from!). We also stopped to try bizcochos (dry, salty, buttery breadsticks), which were great! There was a high school aged volunteer from Quito staying here in the community on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, so it was nice not to be the only volunteer for a bit! On Friday I went with Diogenes to his finca to check on the 10 bulls he has there. The walk was an hour and 45 minutes long (a lot of which was uphill), but the view when we got there was GORGEOUS. I´ll definitely be going back with my new camera. If I was a bull, that is where I would want to graze! You´re surrounded by mountains and can see the Pinchincha volcano in the distance!

I´m currently in Mindo, which is about an hour or so away from Yunguilla. It´s also cloudforest, but a lot warmer than Yunguilla! I met 2 Germans on the bus, so I went with them to find a hostel and then we just got back from a tour of the chocolate production facility in town. Best chocolate brownie and ice cream I´ve had! A lot of the world´s cacao is grown in Ecuador and it was really interesting to learn about how my favorite food is made! I´m probably going to visit a butterfly farm tomorrow and then maybe go on a birdwalk. This is one of the most famous towns for birdwatching, so I brought my binoculars!

Can´t believe I only have 3 more weeks in Ecuador--next weekend I believe I´m going to the beach, so that´ll be nice! I´ll try to post some pictures of Mindo tomorrow before heading back to Yunguilla. Not sure what I´m up to this week, but I believe I´m heading back to the Spanish man´s finca so that I can re-take pictures there. Hope everyone is doing well and beating the heat--you know it´s hot when the US heat wave makes the news in Ecuador! xoxo

Where to begin...

Sorry it´s been so long since I´ve updated the blog. Last weekend I stayed in Yunguilla. We went to Calacli on Saturday night for the coronation of the city´s "queen", which was basically a big party in the sporting complex that involved lots of music and dancing and went until 3am (we got there at 8pm). We didn´t get home until 4am, and lots of people had brought their young kids with them. Guess there isn´t the same concept of hiring a babysitter here if you want to go out!

 Diogenes, Angelita and Klever (their son who comes to eat at the house, but lives/works at the gate of the community as a guard) 

 A cake from the bakery I worked at last Friday

 Another shot of the community, this time from the school (instead of from the community finca, which is off in the distance)

 Yesterday at the environmental education presentation (unfortunately my camera´s battery died after the opening remarks)

 Cheese that I helped make! A woman and her children make cheese 3 times a week using milk from various community members and the products are sold in the community store.

This week I was able to start working with Yunguilla´s environmental education program. We organized a presentation in which the kids put on a play about the community´s history and environmental problems--I got to play the role of the American neighbor who wanted to illegally buy orchids and exotic animals, haha.

Last Friday, I also got to go into San Antonio and Quito with a couple from the community to work at the bakeries they make cakes for, so that was fun! We also went to the supermarket at the end of the day so I could buy turkey, which I miss dearly (Mom, if you´re wondering what I want to eat the first night I´m home, turkey and stuffing is the answer!). Unfortunately the turkey deli meat I ended up buying was quite flavorless, and I´m not even sure it was turkey because it was labeled "jamon de pavo", or "ham of turkey". The guy at the counter couldn´t really tell me whether it came from a bird or a pig, haha.

We didn´t really celebrate my birthday, but this weekend I´m going to Papallacta, a town with hot springs heated by a nearby volcano, so I´m looking forward to that adventure as an opportunity to celebrate. I´ve been having stomach problems this past week, so hopefully this might help me feel better (although Papallacta is probably going to be colder than Yunguilla because it´s at 3,300m). I´m currently in Quito, where´s it 11 degrees C, or 50 something F. I left Yunguilla at 5:30am this morning--the stars were still out (gorgeous!) and I got to watch the sun rise as I approached Quito by bus. When I got off one of the buses this morning, I had a great view of the snow covered volcano (which I believe is Cotopaxi) in the distance, however unfortunately pulling out my camera on the bus/in the middle of the street wasn´t looking like the best thing to do at the time.
I´ll be spending the night in Papallacta tonight at a hostel, then going back to Yunguilla tomorrow afternoon via a shopping mall in Quito where I hope to see Harry Potter. Fingers crossed that they don´t dub it in Spanish--I want to hear the British accents!

I could go on and on--every day here is an adventure. Almost all of my habits have been reversed: I´ve become accustomed to riding in the back of trucks and on the back of Galindo´s motorbike, which I obviously don´t do in the United States. I also wake up at 6:30am and am normally asleep by 10pm. I shower about every 3 days because there´s only running water in the morning, and this past week, the water heater thing has been broken, so it´s been an ice cold shower--ahhh! The family I´m staying with (Diogenes and Angelita) are super nice, and Diogenes told me last night that I was welcome to stay with them for the last 4 weeks I´m here if the coordinator lets me (normally they move volunteers to a new house every 4 weeks). He also might think I´m a bit crazy because last week I swear I heard rats running around in the ceiling above my room, but when he went up with a ladder to check, he didn´t find anything, but oh well! I plan to travel the next couple of weekends, so I´m looking forward to those adventures as well.

Hope everyone is doing well! A special belated birthday to my Mom :) I was able to send her an e-mail on Tuesday, but just barely--the community was without electricity from about 11am on Tuesday to 10:30am on Wednesday! As I said, it´s always an adventure! xoxo

Pictures from the Spanish man{s property

The gorgeous house!

Ostriches!

 Horses (he had more than 30!)

 Pretty flower

Monkies!

Parrot

The house

Pictures!

My apologies for not using apostrophes, this laptop is impossible to figure out. Here are some pictures! I{ll try to post about the rich Spanish man{s farm, as well. Not really sure what I{m supposed to be doing this morning, but I{m not complaining about getting to sit in the office and use the Internet (although it is rather slow...)

A photo of me at the Mitad del Mundo yesterday (even though it{s not the real equator)

Just for you, Dad...a view of Yunguilla this morning on my way to Tahuallullo (the community owned land-finca). The houses are kind of spread out after this main cluster. My house isn{t really visible in this picture, but it{s towards the upper right corner.

While I hated waking up at 6am on Sunday morning after going to bed at 1am, this view from the house made it worthwhile! In the distance you can see the Volcano Cotacachi (it{s been inactive for a while, I believe)

Two singers at the fiesta in Calacali on Saturday night. One of them has lived in Chicago for the past 14 years!

Ecuador, week 2

So unfortunately I´m not able to include pictures with this blog entry...apparently Internet places with decent computers are closed on Sundays, so this one that I´m at near the Mitad del Mundo (Center of the World) is the best I can get. I was in Calacali, the town nearest to Yunguilla, last night to partake in their 439th anniversary celebration. There was live music, dancing and pyrotechnic displays that I know for sure would have been banned in the United States (they were literally setting off fireworks in the middle of the crowd). It was fun to experience the local culture, but I was definitely the tallest person there/stood out and blocked the view of everyone behind me! Fun fact: A lot of people from Calacali migrate to Chicago. Why Chicago,  have no idea! I went back there today after very little sleep to help Yunguilla set up their stand at the agro-artisanal fair. I stayed there for a bit, ate a deliciously cheap lunch of chicken, rice, potatoes and a cheese empanada ($2.30) and explored the town before taking the bus to Mitad del Mundo. While the touristic city (you have to pay to get in) isn´t the site of the real equator, I figured I couldn´t travel all this way and not visit it. I got to see a miniature version of Quito, attend a planetarium show (more about stars later), watch dance performances, eat ice cream and call home and Fawaz. After this entry, I´ll be heading back to Calacali to hopefully get a ride home with the Yunguilla folks. I´m getting quite used to riding in the backs of trucks along very bumpy dirt roads through the mountains! A correction on my previous post: Yunguilla is actually not as high up as Quito. I think it might be around 2,700m? Nonetheless, it´s high up, and in the afternoons, I literally walk home through the clouds. Pretty crazy!

This past week there was finally a clear night, so I got to see the stars! I was walking out to the bathroom to brush my teeth and my jaw literally dropped. I could see the stars so clearly, it was incredible. I tried taking a picture, but it didn´t turn out, so I´ll try again next time and mess around with the camera settings a bit.

While the stars are beautiful, the insects are certainly not. I´ve developed a bit of a reputation for hating them, mainly because I walk around my room each night before going to sleep with a shoe to get rid of the intruders. Let me tell you, some of them are rather scary! I also have several bug bites from working outside during the days--some of them are so small you can´t feel them and by the time you notice them, they´ve already bit you. Grrr.

One of the highlights of this past week was working with some Yunguillans on a rich Spanish man´s property about 20 minutes away from the community. He lives with his wife in Quito during the week, but on the weekends, he comes here to his gorgeous house, 30+ horses, 2 monkies, 2 peacocks, 3 ostriches, several parrots and lots of birds (including a turkey I really wanted to steal and eat--the stores here don´t sell turkey and I miss it dearly!). The property was truly incredible and I can´t wait to post pictures. The number of horses seemed a bit excessive to me, but the man has money and this is his way of spending it!

The food has been pretty good so far. Angelita is learning what I like and what I don´t like, i.e. with rice milk. I now only get served tea in the evenings. The juices are all fresh and soooo delicious. My favorite so far has been pinneapple, although blackberry and tomato de arbol (tree tomato) are quite tasty as well.

I´m still getting used to the perpetual tardiness. I´m usually always sitting around for at least 15 minutes in the morning before everyone actually arrives for work. I should probably learn just to show up 15 minutes later, but I don´t want to miss something important, so the adjustment process continues!

It´s been kind of odd to be so disconnected from technology, and during my first week, I got laughed at (and laughed at myself) for thinking that the cows mooing in the distance was somebody´s phone vibrating on a table. In my defense, there was a cell phone on a table nearby! Almost everyone here has cell phones, and I suppose I could have brought mine and used it, but I´m fine with calling home on the weekends, so it´s all working out. There´s supposedly wi-fi at the school, so maybe I´ll be able to borrow someone´s laptop and go there later this week.

Let´s see...what else...I´ve developed an addiction to an Ecuadorian (I think) telenovela (soap opera) called ¨Pero Amor¨. It´s set in Miami, but all the characters speak Spanish. It´s on Monday-Friday from 7-8pm, so it´s become a nightly affair to watch that with Diogenes and Angelita after dinner. We then normally watch the news, which is almost even more depressing than in the United States. The difference is that they don´t censor their images, so it´s not uncommon to see bodies and blood. The news anchors are also very un-optmistic and have no problem expressing their sentiments on the robbery, bus accident, etc, which makes watching it a very interesting experience.



I think that´s all for now. There´s a little girl in this Internet place singing the SpongeBob Squarepants theme song in Spanish (Bob Esponja) and I need to get back to Calacali to see if I can get a ride back with the Yunguillan crowd. Sorry for the lack of pictures--hopefully I´ll be able to get some up in the next week or two! Xoxo