Back in the States

After returning from my weekend in Banos, I had one last week in Yunguilla. Two more Danish volunteers arrived, so there were four of us volunteers total working on signs for the trails. The community hosted a small going away party for me on Friday night, which was nice, and then on Saturday, there was a wedding! Since most people in the community nowadays only get civilly married, this was the first real wedding in seven years! Of course, we celebrated accordingly. While I didn't go to the ceremony at the church (I didn't want to embarrass my non-Catholic self and also didn't have anything nice to wear), the party was great! We didn't get served food (soup, huge portions of both chicken and pork, potatoes and corn) until about 9:30pm and the party went until not just the wee hours of the morning, but the actual morning itself. I went home around 5am, but when I woke up at 9am to pack and get ready to leave for Quito, the dad informed me that there were still people partying down in the communal house!

I arrived in Quito in the early afternoon that Sunday and after eating and napping for a bit in a hostal, took a taxi to the airport at 7pm for my 9pm flight. My flight was from Quito to Guayaquil, Guayaquil to Miami (overnight) and then Miami to Indianapolis. I arrived in Indy at 11:30am on Monday and was greeted by my Dad and Gabe! Even though I had hardly slept in the previous 48 hours, I focused on unpacking and getting all of my clothes washed (in a real washing machine!) upon getting home. My Mom listened to my requests and made turkey and stuffing for my first dinner--I'd missed turkey so much!

It's been quite an adjustment being back in the States. Firstly, while Zionsville is pretty, it's not the same as waking up and seeing gorgeous green mountains everyday. There's also obviously the huge contrasts in food, wealth and lifestyle + the language difference. I already miss Ecuador a lot, but I know I'll be back there eventually, whether it's next semester (I plan on taking the Spring 2012 semester off from college and traveling because I don't need the credit) or sometime in the future for a vacation. I could even see myself living there one day--the people are extremely friendly (except for the one man who stole my camera) and the landscape is the most beautiful I've ever seen (+ it's the most biodiverse country in the world!).

 Goodbye, Quito!

 My family (Angelita and Diogenes) at my going away party--smiling for pictures is apparently not an Ecuadorian thing...

 Yunguilla

 Cotopaxi volcano on the bus ride back to Quito from Banos

 I miss this view

 Full moon over the mountains on the way back to Yunguilla from San Antonio 

(I went to the doctor for my cough--I can now check "going to the doctor in another country" off my list!)

 Clouds rolling in during the afternoon

On the path from the house down to the main road

Thanks to everyone who read my blog over the past two months--I hope you've enjoyed it! I'll be posting my pictures to Facebook tomorrow, so let me know if you're not on Facebook and would like me to send you the link so you can see them! xoxo

Quito, Baños and my last week here...

Sorry it´s been 2 weeks since I´ve written--last weekend I only went to Quito for the night, so there wasn´t too much to report. I went with a friend from Yunguilla with the intention of walking around the historical center to take pictures, but when we got to Quito, they were in the midst of a full blown storm, complete with lightning and thunder! We went out to a place called Bungalow 6 that night which was really fun and then came back in the morning in the back of an x-ray van (the doctor´s daughter is writing her thesis about plants in Yunguilla and offered to take us).

This past week I worked with the kids in Yunguilla during the camp the queen from the pageant in Calacali helped sponsor. I also got to make marmelade on Friday (from chigualcan fruit--I´ll post a picture), so that was fun. There´s been a Danish volunteer in the community this past week and I believe when I head back tomorrow, another volunteer from Denmark will have arrived. 

On Friday night, I went to Quito with two friends from the community. We stopped at the bus station so I could buy my ticket for the bus to the beach in the morning, but all the tickets up until 11:45am were sold out, so I had to change my plans (after being upset for a couple of minutes--I really wanted to go to the beach and see the whales migrating off the coast). We went out that night with some more friends from Yunguilla who were in the city and then yesterday morning, I took a bus to Baños, a town about 3 hours south of Quito. 

I was really tired and wanted to sleep on the bus, but instead I got to watch Soul Plane (dubbed in Spanish) because they had the volume up so loud. What an awful movie, haha. I got to Baños around 3:30pm and found a nice, cheap hostal rather quickly, so that was nice. I walked around town in the afternoon, did some shopping and ate some llapingachos (potato patties with cheese) for dinner. I watched part of a movie back in the hostal becuase I was exhausted, and then went out for some pizza and to use the Internet--not the most exciting of nights, but it was fun to see all the people congegrated in the big square in front of the cathedral late at night. 

This morning I woke up early to go for a walk to the river. There´s a big bridge you can bungy jump off of, but I don´t think I have the guts to do it! I ate a really nice breakfast of pancakes with passion fruit honey at a hotel near the waterfall and then afterwards went to the volcanically heated pool. There were lots of people/families there for it only being 9am, but the warmest pool was nice and relaxing! 

This afternoon I walked around some more and just got done with an hour long massage (only $20--so great!). My bus back to Quito is at 3pm, so I´ll be heading over to the terminal soon. There are a ton of stands near the terminal selling sugarcane, so I´ll probably be trying that and picking up some taffy (another local specialty) to take back with me. I won´t get to Quito until about 6 or 7pm, so I´m going to stay in a hostal there and then head back to Yunguilla tomorrow morning. While I´m sad I didn´t get to go to the beach, Baños was also on my list of places to visit and it´s definitely a nice town that I would recommend/come back to on a future trip! 

This will probably be my last blog post while I´m here--my flight back to Indy leaves Quito at 9pm next Sunday evening and arrives in Indianapolis at 11:20 the next morning. I know it´s going to be a big adjustment going back and I´m definitely going to miss the people here a lot. I have about a week and a half in Indy before heading back to Bryn Mawr on the 24th, so just enough time to wash all of my clothes in an actual washing machine and organize/post pictures! Hope everyone is doing well! Xoxo

Chigualcan fruit for the marmelades

Kids at the camp

Tunguhara volcano in Baños

A "ponche suizo" in Baños--a creamy mousse type dessert whose receipe is a secret

The thermal pools in Baños

The view of the waterfall from the pool

A view of Yunguilla

Cleaning the orchids in Yunguilla

The marmelade boiling

A bull in Yunguilla