2 hours away, but worlds apart

Highlights of this past weekend: the Ricardo Arjona concert on Friday night and a trip to Yunguilla yesterday!

Friday evening was the Ricardo Arjona concert. My friends told me I could get there around 6:30pm and that they would already have a spot in line (our tickets were for the soccer field, so it was essential to get into the stadium as soon as possible to get good spots), but at 5pm I got a frantic phone call telling me to hurry up and get there because the doors were about to open! I left my apartment in a rush (and without dinner) to hail a taxi to take me to the stadium, however I really shouldn’t have… we ended up waiting in the most enormous and unorganized line ever for more than 2 hours until we finally entered the stadium at 8pm. The opening act (whose name I forget – he wasn’t very memorable) started at 8:30pm, and then from the time he was done until Ricardo Arjona took the stage at 9:30pm, we got a mini-John Mayer concert because they played most of his Continuum CD. I was, of course, the only person singing along. I was also the tallest person standing on the field for the concert, which was actually great because I had the best view of the stage even though we were pretty far away. Everyone in the group I went with kept on joking that I should give them updates throughout the concert, as they had to rely on the megatrons to see what was going on! One benefit of being tall in a relatively short country! 

View of Cumbaya on an early morning walk through the park behind the apartment

Ricardo Arjona was amazing! His voice was great live, the stage was elaborate and the band was absolutely incredible! I didn’t know many of the songs, but still enjoyed myself and can now say that I’ve attended a concert in one of the world’s highest in altitude major stadiums! We went out to La Mariscal (touristy district) afterwards, so that was fun, although after more than 8 hours of standing, I was glad to arrive back at the apartment and sleep-in the next day.

View of the snow-capped Cotopaxi volcano on the walk through Parque Metropolitano

I didn’t feel like cooking on Saturday evening, so I embarked on mission to order a pizza to be delivered to the apartment. The Papa John’s number didn’t work, so I ended up with a Domino’s cheese pizza and a chocolate lava cake. The pizza didn’t taste exactly like it does in the US, but it wasn’t bad and it actually arrived at my apartment! 

Mission successful!

On Sunday morning, I traveled to Yunguilla, the community where I lived last summer. From my apartment, I took a taxi to the northern-most bus station, where I caught a bus to Calacalí, the closest town to Yunguilla. As we were passing through San Antonio (the town where the Middle of the World monument is located), the family I stayed with last summer boarded my bus! They didn’t know I was coming back to visit, so they were surprised, and when we got to Calacalí, I was able to get a ride with them to Yunguilla in their son’s dry cleaning van. 

Sundays are soccer and volleyball (Ecua-volley – 3 people per team, a much higher net and carrying is basically allowed) days in Yunguilla. Most all of the community (and the family members/friends from Quito) come to the soccer field/volleyball courts by the communal house and basically hang out there all day. I had a good time catching up with people I hadn’t seen since last summer, and then went on an expedition to a lookout point. We sat in the bed of my friend’s cousin’s pick-up truck and drove a while to try to find a good lookout point. Unfortunately, it was too cloudy to see much, but that didn’t stop us from having a couple of adventures along the way! We drove past my friend’s family’s piece of land and he noticed that there were cows grazing there that weren’t theirs. He and two of his cousins then went to corral the cows and get them off of their land (someone must have deliberately opened the gate and let them in to graze, thinking that we wouldn’t stop by, because there wasn’t another way they could’ve gotten in there) – there were 9 of them in total! His other cousins and I had a good time watching the production from nearby. While we were watching, we got to see dozens of green parrots fly around us overhead. They were moving from tree to tree as a big group and making lots of noise while they were doing it! Apparently it was unusual to see so many of them at one time, so I lucked out!

Corralling the cows

This is an awful picture because it was so cloudy (the don't call it the cloud forest for nothing!), but that's a green parrot sitting on the top of the tree

On the way back to Yunguilla, we stopped at someone’s farm to see if they had any chickens we could buy. The first family didn’t have any, but after waiting for the daughter of the second family to run and fetch her mom, we ended up with 3 live hens (no guinea pigs, although they were raising them there). They didn’t kill them there, but rather put them all in a white sack to ride in the back of the truck with us. I swore we were going to hit a bump in the road and they were all going to slide over onto my lap, but fortunately, they didn’t!

The bag of hens

After a delicious dinner of llapingachos (my favorite!), I spent the night at a friend’s house, where I was reminded that the roosters in Yunguilla don’t realize they’re only supposed to cock-a-doodle-doo at dawn. These roosters like to make noise at 3am! Watching the national news in the morning, we were saddened to learn about the passing of Lonesome George, the giant tortoise that lived on the Galapagos Islands and was the last of his species. He was estimated to be more than 100 years old and served a conservation icon since he was found in 1972. Rest in peace, Lonesome George.

My view when I woke up this morning!

I’m now back in Quito, marveling at what a difference a 2 hour drive can make. Quito is a great city and Yunguilla is an incredible community, but they certainly can seem like worlds apart sometimes! This week I’ll be traveling to the FLACSO library once again and hopefully arranging meetings with some professors there whose names I was given by a Bryn Mawr alum. I’m hoping to get a lot of work done this week and next so that I can devote myself to being my parents’ tour guide when they come to visit July 11-20^th! I’m looking forward to showing them Quito and taking them to visit Yunguilla, which, as I was reminded this weekend, is truly one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Thanks for reading! My e-mail is mzelonis3@gmail.com if you have any questions! -Maggie

A sliver of the moon over Quito on an exceptionally clear night this past week

Cantaloupe, humitas (a traditional pre-Hispanic dish of corn and hominy dough with cheese) and coffee -- the perfect afternoon meal!

When it rains, it pours!

After 9 days of being in Ecuador, it finally rained! This rain comes, of course, with a story. On Saturday afternoon, I decided to venture over to this place I’d happen to come across on Google Maps called “Mr. Bagel”. I’m a huge bagel person, and had read pretty good things about this place online, so I decided to give it a shot! Unfortunately, when I arrived, they had a grand total of 5 bagels left in the place, so I settled for a toasted poppy seed bagel with cream cheese and blackberry juice. The bagel and juice were good, and I got to read the Miami Herald while I was eating, so that was nice! There’s also a book exchange there, so I’ll have to remember that next time I go.

And now for the rain… So after eating, I walked over to the huge park nearby (Parque Carolina), where I found a group of people congregated around a basketball court. Apparently the local sporting goods store was sponsoring some kind of competition, so I hung around and watched that for a while. Definitely the first time this trip that I’ve seen Ecuadorians (both guys and girls) that are my height, and even a few guys who were taller than me! I knew it was particularly cloudy when I left the apartment earlier in the afternoon, but I convinced myself that it had been cloudy the day before and hadn’t rained, so therefore it wasn’t going to rain today (and that I didn’t need to bring a jacket or an umbrella with me). Wrong. It started sprinkling just as the basketball competition was ending, but by the time I crossed the street, it was a full-blown downpour. I went into a mini-supermarket for a little bit, but slowly realized that the rain wasn’t going to stop anytime soon. I waited outside under a little awning, and when I finally saw an empty taxi (it’s hard to tell here if they’re unoccupied or not because they don’t have light-up signs on the top of the car), I sprinted to catch it and have it take me back to the apartment. It rained (complete with thunder and lightning) for most of the afternoon, so I got to read and take a nap. The rain eventually died down, but it definitely ruined my plans of walking around the park and taking pictures during the day.

There were clouds when I woke up on Sunday morning as well, so as I was heading out to the bakery to buy bread and milk, I decided to take my jacket and umbrella with me. It only sprinkled as I was walking to/from the bakery, but when I got back, there was another storm! It’s pretty cool to be able to watch the lightning come down from the clouds when you’re kind of at cloud-level, but unfortunately when I woke up from my nap, there was no electricity. My first thought was that I wasn’t going to be able to call my Dad via Skype to wish him a happy Father’s Day! I then also started to briefly panic about all of the food in my refrigerator and that there wasn’t going to be hot water (or any water). My one consolation was that the stove is gas powered, so at least I’d be able to make coffee! (the important things) Thankfully the electricity came back after about an hour or so, and I was able to call home and take a hot shower! Right after taking the hot shower, however, the electricity cut out yet again. I started to make dinner by flashlight, but then the lights came back on, so all was well and I didn’t have to spend the evening reading by flashlight!

The sunset after the storm on Sunday evening

Today (Monday), I was woken up by an earthquake! It was 4.9 in magnitude and the epicenter was about 88km south of Quito, so it wasn’t anything too drastic (no injuries or damage has been reported so far), but it definitely woke me up by shaking my bed! After breakfast, I went to watch the weekly changing of the guards in front of the Presidential Palace in Quito’s historic center. It was quite a show! Tourists and Ecuadorians alike gathered in the Plaza Grande to watch the production, which included a performance of a marching band and the singing of the national anthem. There were people standing on the top terrace of the Presidential Palace to watch the changing of the guards, which we learned later included actors Bo Derek and John Corbet (Bo Derek is an ambassador for the Yasuní-ITT Initiative to keep 800 million barrels of oil underground indefinitely in a very biodiverse section of the Ecuadorian Amazon), Argentinean singer Piero and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres. Right before the ceremony started, the Vice-President (Lenín Moreno) and President (Rafael Correa) showed up! According to the news program I watched the other night, Presidente Correa is currently enjoying an 81.5% approval rate (he’s up for re-election in February of next year). 81.5% seems extremely high to me, but the people here generally consider him to be one of Ecuador’s best Presidents (this could also be because they’ve had some not so great ones) who has really worked to bring about change for even the poorest of Ecuadorians. He earned both a Master of Science and PhD in Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and is married to Anne Malherbe, a teacher of Belgian nationality whom he met while studying at the Catholic University of Louvain in the early 1990s. 

Plaza Grande -- the Presidential Palace is the building on the right in the background with the flag

The changing of the guards

The Vice-President (left, in the wheelchair) and the President (right, clapping his hands)

The guards in their colorful uniforms

John Corbet and Bo Derek in the middle

I tried to take a tour of the Presidential Palace after the ceremony concluded, but they apparently don’t offer tours on Mondays, so I only got up to the second security checkpoint inside of the building. I’ll have to return later this summer to see the artwork and mosaics that are inside!

Me and one of the newly changed guards!

After the changing of the guards, I enjoyed exploring the Centro Cultural Metropolitano (Metropolitan Cultural Center) near the Presidential Palace. It houses a rather large library, and the terraces on the top floor offered nice views of the city. I ate lunch on my way back to the bus station at a little place that served me soup with beans, a potato and some kind of fried noodles (their alternative to soup with beef) and chicken, rice and potatoes as the second plate. The meal also came with coconut milk/water, which was delicious! Grand total = $1.75.

Inside of the Centro Cultural Metropolitano

Courtyard inside of the Centro Cultural Metropolitano

Gorgeous blue skies

While I’m enjoying my time here and the research that I’m doing, I decided this weekend that I wanted to be in Indianapolis for more than just 6 days before heading back to Bryn Mawr to start my Senior year at the end of August, so I changed my flight to leave Quito on August 8^th instead of August 21^st. This means that I’ll be here for 9 weeks instead of 11 this summer, which I think is ample time for my research. I’m looking forward to the next 7 weeks and all of the adventures yet to be had! -Maggie

Ecuadorian flag flying on top of the Presidential Palace

Cooking, libraries and a cell phone

Good evening! I’m currently back at my apartment after a great, yet exhausting, day of exploring the FLACSO (Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales) library and getting an Ecuadorian cell phone. I’ll start, however, with where I left off last time!

I stayed in on Saturday night, and while I was watching TV, heard fireworks outside. I ran to open the sliding glass door to the terrace, and sure enough, there they were – fireworks at eye level! They only lasted a minute, though, so not enough time to grab my camera.

Unfortunately on Sunday, I ventured out to find a bar where I could watch the Ecuador vs. Colombia soccer match, but since they don’t sell alcohol in Ecuador on Sundays, everything within walking distance was closed! I could’ve taken a taxi to La Mariscal, where I know there would’ve been places open to watch it, but I settled for watching it on my little TV with the actual noise from the stadium (it’s about 2 km away and there were 40,000 + people there) in the background.

On Monday afternoon, I met up with my friend Galindo from Yunguilla, and we went to buy our tickets for the Ricardo Arjona concert in Quito next Friday evening. He’s one of the most successful Latin American artists of all time, so it should be fun! Here’s the YouTube link to one of his most recent popular songs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9cCPQVPv8o

 

We came back to the apartment and I was all excited to cook chicken parmesan, one of my favorite dishes, for dinner. The friend I made in Customs, Erin, sent me an e-mail and so she and her friend came over and joined us, but unfortunately the chicken parmesan was, in my opinion, a disaster. The oven and stove here are gas-powered, which I’ve never cooked with in my life. I’d mastered the stove earlier in the week, but I had yet to attempt turning on the oven. With Galindo’s help, we got the oven lit, and I put in the chicken to cook. Apparently you can’t control the temperature with gas ovens, so the two chicken breasts took almost an hour and a half to cook! (Normal time is 30 minutes) And even then, they didn’t turn out the way they should have. I got some water boiling for pasta (this is a feat considering the altitude), and even prepared salad, which I washed with bottled water because I was feeling very vegetable deprived, but in my semi-perfectionist eyes, nothing was how it was supposed to be. We ended up making delicious mojitos, however, and Galindo and I taught Erin and Briana how to play cuarenta (a traditional Ecuadorian card game that translates to “forty” because that’s how many points you need to win), so all in all, it was a fun evening.

Tomates de arbol (tree tomatoes) that I used to make juice!

On Tuesday, I went out to explore the Universidad de las Americas (University of the Americas) library. The University is a ten minute walk (downhill) from my apartment, and the building is very nice and modern! I knew before I went that they don’t specialize in social sciences, but I thought that maybe it would be a good place to get work done. Boy, was I wrong! The library was extremely loud! All of the students looked to be doing work, but they were all talking to each other in the process! There were at least two loudspeaker announcements while I was there asking people to quiet down, but of course people could barely hear them, so it didn’t make much difference. I was able to find three or four good books related to my research, so I’ll probably go back there again next week because I can’t check them out, but I might try going at a different time of day to see if there’s less noise!

A close-up shot of a tomate de arbol fruit

This afternoon, I walked to the nearest Ecovia (integrated bus system – the US should really learn a lesson from these South American systems – you pay BEFORE you get on the bus and they’re handicap accessible!) station, and kind of made a new friend along the way. This woman with an umbrella that I had seen walking out of the neighborhood caught up to me as I was waiting to cross the street, and asked if I was taking a taxi. I told her that I was walking to the bus stop, and she starts on a story about how she grabbed all of her bags in a hurry because she need to make an “urgent trip to the mall”, but had forgotten her wallet. She then asks if I can give her money for the bus. She seemed harmless, and the buses here are only 25 cents, so I said sure, and we walked the 10 minute walk down to the station together, and I paid for her bus fare to/from the mall. Not really sure how she was going to the mall without a wallet, but she was really friendly and I’m sure I’ll probably see her again because she lives in my neighborhood! Very odd, though – I feel like most people in the US would return home upon discovering that they had forgotten their wallet.

The finished product -- tomate de arbol juice!

I made it to the bus stop closest to FLACSO, and decided to stop for lunch before going to explore the library. Almuerzos (lunches) here usually consist of some kind of soup, a plato fuerte (strong dish) of chicken, beef or fish that is grilled, baked or fried, a glass of juice and a piece of fruit for dessert. Today I had some kind of fish soup, baked chicken with rice and beans, a slice of watermelon and some kind of juice (often a mystery as to what fruit it is, but it usually tastes good!).  All for $3 (no need to tip). What a deal!

After having to ask for directions several times, I made it to the library! FLACSO specializes in social sciences, so I knew I was going to be able to find a lot of good books there, and it didn’t disappoint! The library building itself is gorgeous, and compared with La Universidad de las Americas, it was quiet! I spent some time there finding books and reading and then went downstairs to the café for a really good cup of coffee. I then ventured over to the main FLACSO building, where I bought a book very relevant to my research (that I can now highlight and write notes in all that I want!) and walked through a photography exhibition. There was a student tabling for this “intercultural” group, and so I asked her what it was about, and it seems like something I might be able to get involved with that could help with my research, so that was exciting! There’s also this big political science congress going on at the university, so there were lots of people walking around and it felt all academic, which made me quite happy after being away from Bryn Mawr this past semester.

My kitchen!

I then went on my next adventure, which was procuring my American cell phone that I had dropped off on Monday at a small technical shop to be “liberated” so that I could use it with an Ecuadorian cell phone chip. Luckily, whatever the guy did worked, and so I took it to a Claro shop (an Ecuadorian cell service provider) and now officially have an Ecuadorian cell phone number! Of course I still don’t completely understand the whole prepaid thing (there’s a way to buy a big block of text messages, but then you still have to pay by the minute for calls?), but I’m learning! I also signed up for a frequent shopper card at the supermarket, so I’m feeling super Ecuadorian right now. 

The view from the kitchen into the dining/living area

Because of my oven situation, please feel free to send any easy stovetop recipes you might have my way! I fried a frozen Chilean salmon patty for dinner tonight (sandwiched between a fresh roll from the bakery down the street) and sliced up a cucumber (see, Mom, a vegetable!), but I’m very much in need of suggestions for easy to make stovetop dishes that aren’t pasta. Otherwise, things here are great and I’m excited to get into a routine of visiting libraries and doing my research. El buen vivir is in part about proposing a different development model that focuses more on people’s rights and abilities to “do” (hacer) and “be” (ser), rather than to “have” (tener), and I’m really looking forward to seeing how this somewhat radical notion is manifesting itself in Ecuadorian society.

And finally, a thrilling shot of the washer/dryer

My return to Ecuador!

In light of my return to Ecuador for the summer, I've decided to resurrect my blog "Maggie's Adventures in Ecuador"! I'm currently writing this from my apartment located in a nice neighborhood in Quito called "Jardines del Batan" (in case you want to Google Map it). I arrived in Quito on Wednesday evening and will be here until August 21st, so a little bit more than 10 weeks!

Watching the sun set from 35,000 feet on the flight from Miami to Quito on Wednesday evening

I was fortunate to receive a Hanna Holborn Gray Fellowship from Bryn Mawr College (where I'll be a Senior in the Fall) to conduct independent research here this summer. While I have yet to really dive into my research (I decided that a couple of days of getting settled in and relaxing after just finishing up at work in DC on Tuesday were in order), I will be studying the concept of "el buen vivir" (the good life/good living) that is the base of the 2008 Ecuadorian Constitution. I want to analyze both rural and urban interpretations of this concept, and particularly how they are influenced by one's proximity to the land. I'll also be looking at intersections of policy and reality, in addition to environmental justice and how this concept could be used in development models. Or at least that's the plan! I'll be engaging in participant observation both here in Quito, as well as the small, rural community about an hour and a half north of Quito where I lived last summer, Yunguilla, in addition to doing research in university libraries. 

I found my apartment through www.airbnb.com, and so far, so good! My apartment is the 6th (and top) floor of the building, and I have a full kitchen, bathroom/shower, washer/dryer and 2 bedrooms. Yes, you heard me right -- I have a guest bedroom! If you've ever thought about traveling to South America, now's your chance! I'd be happy to have you stay here! Seriously! The apartment also has a terrace, which is shared with the other residents of the building (+ the landlord's dog, Negrita, who is out there during the day -- there aren't really such things as front yards here). The views of the city are spectacular, both at night and during the day. It's truly incredible to wake up and see the mountains, the sprawling city (the population is approximately 2,697,698) and the planes flying in at eye level. The elevation is 9,350 feet (2,850 m), so we're pretty high up! Walking up the stairs to my apartment is definitely making me more tired than it should!

The view from my bedroom

La Negrita!

I've already gone on several adventures, the most picturesque of which was a journey into Quito's historical center yesterday with a new friend from the US that I made while waiting an hour and a half in customs on Wednesday night! We explored plazas and churches and ventured to the top of El Panecillo (Little Bread) hill to see the statue of la Virgen de Quito (Virgin of Quito), in addition to trying some good Ecuadorian food.

Church of Santo Domingo

La Virgen de Quito

The view from the terrace at the foot of the statue of La Virgen de Quito

La Basilica del Voto Nacional

Beautiful stained glass inside of La Basilica del Voto Nacional

Speaking of food, I just got back from my third grocery store outing (starting from scratch in an apartment is hard when you don't have a car and have to carry everything up to the 6th floor!). Milk, eggs and margarine aren't refrigerated, and imported products are ridiculously expensive (ex: Tropicana orange juice -- $11, Honey Bunches of Oats cereal -- $7). I've found most all of what I want, so now I just need to find a local fruit market so I can buy pineapple, bananas, plantains, tree tomatoes, strawberries, blackberries, etc.! There's a small bakery about a 7 minute walk away from my apartment, and the grocery store is about 15 minutes walking (and a $1 taxi ride back with all of my bags), so my location is pretty convenient!

Llapingachos (mashed potato patties with cheese) and apple soda -- the perfect afternoon snack!

Tomorrow's the big Ecuador vs. Colombia soccer game, which I hope to watch either here on my little TV with some friends from last summer, or at a nearby bar with lots of crazy Ecuadorian fans! I'm also planning my first trip up to Yunguilla for next week, so it'll be nice to see my friends there and the family I stayed with last summer. Will try to update the blog more frequently than last summer, as I actually have Internet in my apartment! Feel free to send me an e-mail or set up a Skype chat. I have unlimited calling to the US from my Skype account on my laptop, so I can also call home/cell phones all summer! Hope you enjoy the pictures and stories! -Maggie

The view from my apartment at night