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
Hello! I know it's been a long time since you wrote this, but my daughter and I recently visited the exact same areas you mention in this post! We traveled there on a teacher sponsored trip for spring break. We even visited the Yunguilla community and school! This was a Spanish immersion trip for my daughter and fellow students. They brought school supplies for the children and interacted with them. We also visited another indigenous community school in Tena. In addition, we went rafting, zip lining in Banos, as well as cultural and nature visits. It was an extraordinary experience!
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