Guapulo- The oldest barrio in Ecuador

Yesterday afternoon I went to Guapulo with Miriam, Kim, Stephanie, and Mitchelle. Guapulo is the oldest barrio in Ecuador. Unfortunately, all of the cafes and restaurants were closed when we went, but it is said to be the artsy, bohemian district of Ecuador and has a hipster influence. I didn't see any of this, so I'm just taking Lonely Planet's word for it haha.

To get to Guapulo, we had to take the bus to Orellana and walk until we reached a roundabout, where we then had to turn left onto Gonzalez Suarez until we passed Hotel Quito. After Hotel Quito is a nice little gondola with information about the barrio and a map showing where Cumbaya and the new airport are. It was a stunning view.

The climb down was incredibly weird because it's so streep, that your body feels like it's going to topple forward at any given moment, so our legs were shaking at the bottom. It was a nice walk, with tons of graffiti covering the walls, gorgeous old homes lining the winding streets, and cute Spanish-influenced restaurants and cafes, too. The people that we encountered there were a mixture of amazingly sweet and little assholes. These guys were on top of a roof shouting, "GET. THE. FUCK. OUT. OF. GUAPULO!" Then these old men were hitting on us and staring at our butts. We met an old couple who gave us directions and told us to enjoy our time in Guapulo, so that made up for all of the annoyances. We stopped to get ice cream after our long walk, then made our way to the bus stop to make it back to Quito. Who can beat a $0.50 ice cream cone? I couldn't. Stephanie's ice cream tasted like egg nog and my cone tasted like a fortune cookie, so I guess we got a little taste of home yesterday lol.

 

After we got on a bus back to Quito, it started to pour rain. We weren't exactly prepared for it either. After walking to another roundabout, we decided to rest in a bakery for a minute and ordered breads, cakes, Fanta, yogur, and tea. It still wasn't letting up, so we just had to walk in it. On our walk we saw some more amazing graffiti and at one point it was raining so hard we had to stand under a bush and wait it out haha. It was a great walk, and I had a fun time. After we got to the bus station, everyone left Miriam and I to go shopping at Quicentro by ourselves, so we went to El Espanol and got cappucinos (mine: hazelnut. hers: caramel) and talked for a while. It was spectacular. Then we went to the grocers and Miriam bought food for dinner. It was such a lovely day :).

 

 

Bomboli

Yesterday a group of us went to Bomboli to meet a couple who lives off of the grid. First we went to a waterfall that this couple protects and it was so clear and fresh. Next we went down the highway a bit and there we saw a totally dirty waterfall that is used for water for the residents of the city. It was amazing how different they were even though they were so close.

Clean waterfall protected by Oswaldo.

Contaminated waterfall

After seeing the waterfalls we went to the house of Osawaldo and Marianita. This couple has lived in their home for 23 years, which has no electricity, heat, or air conditioning. It was wonderful visiting them because they live off of what they make for the most part. The wife makes manjar (dulce de leche), mozzarella cheese, queso fresco, and marmelada (jam). They have a humongous garden with potatoes, lettuce, onions, berries, herbs etc. On their garage they have 2 litre pop bottles with plants inside of them and througout their land, there are huge tires with plants inbetween them or inside of them because the heat that the tires absorbs makes the growing process that much better. It was so lovely seeing such earth friendly people.

For our trip we started out by watching the wife make fresh mozzarella cheese. It was a quick process and it resulted in the stringy-est fresh mozzarella I've ever laid eyes on. She was passing it out to everyone and they were asking for seconds and thirds. It tasted differently from the mozzarella in the United States, obviously, but it was great nonetheless.

 Marianita making cheese.

Next we went on a 2 hour hike around their land and saw a plethora of orchids that grow there. There are 20 different types all together. There were red, dusty pink, mustard yellow and brown, orange, and other colors that we saw. Some smelled slightly sweet and some didn't have much of a scent at all. We also saw succulents (gorgeous!), lychins, different types of moss (you can eat it!), tons of different trees (one had bark as thin as tissue paper), and various other types of flowers.

Orchids

The husband is an ecologist and he did an experiment where he planted 3 trees in the same area 2 minutes apart and by different trees that have different amounts of "friendly-ness" to that type of tree, and even though they were grown in the same area, fed the same food, etc. they grew at different rates. They reminded me of the Sprint bars because the one grown first was tiniest at about one foot tall, the second was about 4 feet tall, and the last was the tallest and about 6 or so feet all.

After our hike we stopped in the middle of a trail, closed our eyes, and listened to what we could hear. I literally just heard the rain pattering on our umbrellas, jackets, the dirt, and on the gargantuan leaves that surrounded us. It was relaxing and so uncommon to only hear nature. I'm so used to hearing cars, airplanes, people talking, etc that when I only hear the sounds that our world makes, it seems strange. That's one of the reasons why I adore the Galapagos and Bomboli, it's so much more quiet and the air is pure and fresh. Even in Fort Wayne or Manchester, it's hard to have a solid minute of quiet.

Finally, we had a late lunch of marinated chicken, a salad of greens, cabbage, carrots and a homemade vinigarette, a baked casserole of carrot, zucchini, and parmesan cheese, and a dessert of a crepe filled with the manjar and topped with the chocolate. She also gave us pitchers of fresh mint tea that came from her garden. It was such an amazing lunch and to make it even more enjoyable, we were sitting right next to a huge, crackling fire that warmed up our rain-soaked bodies. After our meal we bought manjar, chocolate, marmelada, and cheese and hopefully helped them the best we could. Wherever we go we meet the sweetest, most though-provoking people ever and it always makes me more excited for the next trip.

Los Galapagos

Long time, no blog!

A few weeks ago I went to the Galapagos Islands and had 6 of the best days of my life! We flew from Quito to the islands, and when we landed I could not even believe my eyes. The water was the clearest teal I've ever seen in my life. It was stunning! We went to Isla Santa Cruz and stayed in an awesome hostal with ships all over the place and my room was a little bungalow that you had to take a spiral staircase to get to. The first day in the Galapagos we went cliff diving and it was utterly terrifying! Puenting I could do any day, any time because it feels safe having 2 harnesses on your body, but with cliff diving you are literally throwing yourself into a narrow crevice between two cliffs. Two people almost hit rocks, so I had a reason to be scared haha. But of course, I can't tell myself no, so I went off of the tallest peak first just to get it over with. It was one of the most liberating feelings ever, and I went off of the shorter one, too. After cliff diving we went to the ocean to practice snorkeling, where we saw sea snakes, puffer fish, and other types of fish too.

The astonishingly teal water!

Me cliff diving!

 

The second day in the Galapagos we took a boat to Isla Isabela where we stayed the rest of our trip. We went to the beach and had beers and danced all night long and it was just an incredibly chill day. We had one restaurant that made all of our meals while we were there and the food was delicious and fresh. One day we had grilled tuna that was caught that day and another day they grilled whole lobsters for us. I was in seafood heaven.

 

The second day on Isabela my group and I went on the half snorkeling, half land day. We went snorkeling in an area that was gorgeous beyond words. There were sting rays below us, schools of fish, sand dollars, star fish, and we even got to swim with sea turtles! That was probably my favorite day because it felt so surreal. I always felt out of place in the Galapagos because there was so much utter beauty around me. After snorkeling we went to El Jardin de Iguanas, a little island made of "AA lava", which is just lava with lycans on it that hurts immensely when you walk on it. There were probably thousands of iguanas on that island, and they were so large! We walked to one area where the tide had trapped in white tipped reef sharks and sea turtles in a little cove, and it was so majestic watching them swim together.

After that we went back to Isabela and got mountain bikes, then we biked to a sea turtle breeding center. They protect the baby sea turtles and try to release them when they become old enough. We learned about how there are 5 different types of sea turtles since there are 5 types of volcanos in the Galapagos. After that we biked to a man-made quarry that now houses a type of krill that attracts Greater Flamingos from Central America. They were a bright shade of pink that blew my mind. I learned that when they're pregnant they produce milk in their stomachs and regurgitate it to their babies and that they sleep on one leg because when they sleep, only one part of their brain shuts off so that they can be alerted if a predator comes close! Next, we biked around the entire town and saw huge black lava fields. It was so interesting to see vast amounts of lava surrounding you!

Swimming with the sea turtle :).

Biking around the lava fields.

 

The next day we went on the all water day, which was not the funnest day of my life for the sole reason that it was raining the entire time and we had a 2.5 hour boat ride in it. We boated to an island made up of lava tunnels, which were too gorgeous for words. It's the only place in the Galapagos with these tunnels. We snorkeled for 40 minutes, and swam with more sea turtles and got to see sea turtles mating under water! It was so crazy to see that up close and personal. We saw more white tipped reef sharks and star fish and schools of fish, too. Next we went to Tortuga Island, which is just shaped sort of like a turtle lol. We saw red chested Friggits, Nasca Boobies, iguanas, seals, and lava birds. It was so pretty and besides the rain, it was an incredibly relaxing boat ride. After the trip, 14 of us pushed the 3 beds in Emily's room together and we had a "cuddle puddle" where we just cuddled and slept together. It warmed us right up! We also did this after the hiking day like the little cuties we are :P. That night we went to the beach and I danced with this guy who was seriously the best teacher ever. He was so nice and talked with me the entire time. Everyone else was having a blast dancing and Brian and Louisa kept doing the Dirty Dancing lift hahaha. These nights on the beach were so fun and entertaining. I definitely miss every second of the dancing, drinking, and talking.

 

On our last day of activities, we did the 6 hour hike up Volcan Chico. We got on a chiva and drove for a little over an hour to our starting point, and it was so lovely out. Sun was shining and when we got to the starting point we could see all over the island, which is rare apparently becuase it's usually foggy. We got our boots on and started the hike up the mountain and had a hell of a time. It was muddy and rainy in most parts, but it was so cooling and it made the hours fly by. My group of people that I went with on all 3 trips is so close and we have a great bond usually, but the hike let us talk a lot and share stories of our lives back home. It was so nice to learn about my friends more. We stopped at one point and looked out at the the volcanic crator and oh my goodness was it amazing. It was so vast and looked like we were on another planet. It took all of our breaths away. There was no sign of life, and that made me feel small somehow. This world is too glorious and has things like volcanic eruptions that destroy things, yet make even better things happen. I would hike another 6 hours to see that again.

At the end of the volcanic hike were more crators and huge rocks that were orange, red, yellow, gray, and black. The colors were bright and deep and intense. I couldn't even explain them to you if you asked me. There was hardly any plant life around and it just made me feel so refreshed knowing I was in such an empty place.

 

At Volcan Chico

That night we went to the beach for the last time and let's just say it was quite entertaining, interesting, and ridiculous. I will never forget how crazy everyone got. I still cannot believe I was lucky enough to go to the Galapagos when a huge amount of Ecuadorians have not even had the opportunity to go themselves.

 

Concierto de Prince Royce, Centro Historico y Sur de Quito,

This weekend was incredibly busy, but so much fun! On Friday I went to the Prince Royce concert with Angela, Erin, Stephanie, and Sharita. On the way there a man in all denim was telling Angela she was beautiful and asked her for her name and he kept staring at me and yelling "Un momento!". When the bus doors opened we all grabbed hands and tried to get out as soon as possible, but the guy had his body up against mine and he was mumbling words and it was creepy as hell. Finally we got away and ran to find a taxi lol. When we got to the concert they were patting people down and I realized I had my Swiss Army knife on my keychain so I stuck it in the underside of my boob in my bra, and luckily they only patted the sides of my chest and the middle of my bra haha. I would've one sad panda if I had my Swiss Army knife thrown away!

The concert itself was really fun, but I felt sad for Prince Royce because the theatre was pretty empty in the expensive sections lol. The open floor section wasn't even halfway full, but Prince Royce put on an amazing show, so I guess the quantity doesn't matter. He had a woman dance on stage with him and he kissed her and gave her a rose, then he threw out a ton of other roses out to the crowd. He was just such a good artist to see live! Ahhg!

On Saturday half of the BCA group and I went on a night tour through Centro Historico. We got a theatrical tour through a church and through a home that was owned by a very prominant and religious woman. Our prompt was: What symbols do you think apply to Quito and the people of Quito? What symbols apply to your cultural background? Personally I think religious things such as paintings of Mary and Jesus are the biggest symbols. Every house I've been in has at least one, especially in the bedrooms. Also, every taxi and bus has something religious on the mirrors or windows. I said that symbols from my cultural background have to be the carvings that my grandpa has made his entire life. Ever since I can remember I've had Native American carvings, drums, clothing, and music in my life.

After the tour Zach, Elizabeth, Erin, Keith, Lily, and I went to a little restaurant called Happy Mondays on la calle La Ronda. Keith and I shared a pizza with ham and cheese and I had a cervesa while he got red wine like the classy man he is lmao. Everyone else got burgers and tacos. It was such a cute place with retro posters of movies like Attack of the 50 Foot Woman and Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. I love just going out with parts of the group and sharing stories. I'm going to miss everyone so much.

On Sunday we left bright and early for Sur de Quito! Sur de Quito has become a city in the last 50 years essentially. 50 years ago it was all fields and crops except for a small town called La Magdelina. The buildings are poorly made and most are unfinished. The city is not as colorful as the north side of Quito because the aesthetics are not as important, but that's slowly changing with time. It was amazing that this huge chunk of land was inhabited in such a short amount of time. I couldn't even wrap my head around it.

In Sur de Quito we went to an interactive workshop to meet some teenagers from the area. To break the ice we did humilitating games like putting pens between our nose and upper lip and making other people grab it out of your upperlip with theirs. Then we had to stand in a line with our legs wide and the first person would have an empty bottle and ask the next person a question about them, after asking the question they would run to the back, crawl through our legs, and pass the bottle to the next person. My knees are BLACK AND BLUE lol. They were all so nice and I met a girl named Mely in a small group. We exchanged gift baskets that we made at the end of the session with notes about how pleased we were to meet one another, etc. During our workshop Daniel divided the room into four parts (agree, strongly agree, disagree, strongly disagree) and he would throw out questions like "Do you believe in God?" or "Do you like your president?" and we would go to one of the corners. It was interesting to see the differences in people's views. And we got to learn about one another's views in a non-threatening way, which was awesome.

After the games and basket exchange we got lunch and went to the park where the group played rato y gato (cat and mouse) y pato, pato, gonzo (duck, duck, goose). It was a really fun time :).

Yet again, I'm so thankful I chose to study abroad because BCA is blessing me in so many ways.

Fotografias de Otavalo y Riobamba

Mi familia afitriona y yo en Riobamba! Tia Miriam, Tio Mauricio, mis primos Jose, Juan Carlos, y Sebastian, mi mama Vilma, y mi hermana Vanessa.

Katie and I in our natural habitat.

Watching a man who has made his own yarn for 73 years teach un joven how to make yarn, too :). Otavalo was so awesome!

A family playing music for us! Those Guayasamin prints behind them are REAL and have notes to the man from Guayasamin on them. I am so envious lol. Their music was a pleasure to listen to.

Kiyoko and I after hiking the cascada :). Gosh, I adore how happy we look.

We're on the middle of the world!!

Oh, you know, just modeling outside of our hostal haha.

Wearing my pantalones y sueter de alpaca <3

BCA at the cascada!

Familia es Todo

This weekend I went to Riobamba with my familia afitriona :D. It's a 3 hour drive from Quito, but I read the book that Allysa gave me for Christmas, so it flew by. When we go to my mom's sister's house I literally thought we were at a hotel. The house has 4 stories with 7 huge bedrooms all with their own full bathrooms. Everything is brand new and they have a full soccer field in the back yard and a gym in the basement. It was quite overwhelming lol. But my mom's siblings and nephews/nieces are all so sweet and were very kind to me.

That night we got cafe, tamales, sanduches, bolones de verde, and these fried yuca things filled with queso. They were pretty good, and the restaurant was so popular for being a cheap little sanduches shoppe. This old man was playing a guitar and the harmonica in the entry and parades were going down the street all night with people dressed as gorillas, satan, wolves, etc dancing down the streets. It felt like Halloween in January.

Afterwards we went back to the house and the women got tiny shot glasses of Pina Colada that we sipped on, and the men got whiskey. My mom and I hated it because it was warm hahaha. She's a woman after my own heart. We went upstairs and listend to some music together as a family, then I went to bed at 10 because I get so exhausted after meeting new people and only speaking Spanish for long periods of time has been mentally draining (in a good way). I slept until noon and woke up to my host cousin Sebastian knocking on the door (I slept in his room that night), and I was so embarrassed because my hair was a hot mess lmao. After I got dressed and brushed my teeth I went downstairs and Sebastian talked with me about sports and school for a while.

For lunch we all went to a really nice restaurant and everyone got chicken except my mom, who got Cuy (GUINEA PIG!). Yes, it still had its head and feet connected and yes, it still had its ears, teeth, and eyes in said head. I tried a bite of it (of course my mom gave me its little left arm to chew off of), and it honestly was not disgusting. It just had an unpleasant rubbery texture, which I did not enjoy. I had chicken, potatoes, a little salad, a coke, and a little thing of pineapple jello with homemade whipped cream. It was an odd combination, but whatevs lol. After lunch I got a few family photos and it was awesome, then Vanessa and I made the 3 hour journey back home.

It was an amazing weekend and I can't wait for even more memories with my familia afitirona :D.

Conocimiento Versus Sabiduría

The past two days have been SPECTACULAR. My BCA group went to Otavalo and went to Pre-Incan ruins in Cochasqui first, which just blew my mind. The temples they built were not tall because they knew they were closest to the sky already. They were built with volcanic mud, manure, and straw. After the Pre-Incans were defeated, grass grew over the structures quickly because it germinated quickly in the mud/manure/straw mixure. There were sun and moon stations where they could tell what time was best to grow crops, cut their hair, etc by shadows of the moon and sun. They were also so high in the mountains that it was a good place for communication. From Cochasqui you can see 21/34 volcanoes in Ecuador!!

There were tons of pyramids and little mounds that were used for burials. The people were put into the fetal position in jars and buried in these mounds. There is also a fertility pyramid where to this day, people visit if they are having issues with having children. Oddly (or amazingly) enough, when the llamas that live in Cochasqui are mating, they do so by this fertility pyramid!! SO COOL!
Lastly, there is a breed of owls that were said to have been only 20 in total in Ecuador, but now there are at least 30 that live in these pyramids alone. This place was definitely magical! I got to feed llamas and alpacas salt! Chieri and Daniel kept chasing the poor devils around the fields hahaha. My friends are too adorable.

After this we went to our hostal, which was GORGEOUS. The middle of it was open with 3 hammocks, a fire place, and beautiful plants everywhere. We dropped our stuff off and went to the biggest market in Otavalo, Plaza de Ponchos, I do believe it was called. I bought an alpaca sweater, pantalones, a dress for Caitlyn's baby girl, and a bracelet there for just $26. It felt so horrible bargaining with the sellers because I felt like they deserved the asking price most times even though I know it was mostly all mass-produced. I was talking to Daniel afterwards and told him I noticed there was a lot of poverty, but no homelessness and it's because in South America, no one would want their family to be homeless. Family is so important. It's just so amazing to me how a developing country could have an almost non-existant homeless population, when the US, an industrialized nation, has homeless people out the ass. This is the stuff that keeps me up at night.

After the market we got pizza and cervesa,then went back to the hostal and lit the fireplace outside and told ghost stories for hours. We kept screaming and I think the other people staying at the hostal wanted us dead lmao. Toya is the best story teller in the land! Period.

Today we went to the home of a man and his family who make instruments and have a family band. They played music for us and demonstrated how to make/play some instruments. I bought my aunt a flute shaped like a turtle :D. Stephanie made an amazing point that demonstrations like this can be sort of like exploitation because the girls did not seem happy while playing and sometimes we sum up things like this as being what "indiginous" is, when we may not even know what that means. Everything requires research and communication and I want to definitely ask about a culture before labeling it as anyhing such as "indiginous" or "native".

After this we hiked up a waterfall and it was seriously so fun! It was an intense, muddy hike. The views were just flawless and the sound of the falls crashing down was beautiful. After hiking down to the bottom we got in and spashed in the falls, or if you're me, you went under the falls and almost drowned from the pressure on top of your head lmao. It was incredible to just know that, holy crap, I'm in Ecuador playing in a waterfall with a ton of amazing people that I adore to death. I felt totally blessed. On the way back to the bus I fell down the stairs and lost a gauge, but those are minor details ahhaha.

Next, we went to see a man and his wife make homemade yarn. They were so precious and kind. They work so hard to make their products, I can't even explain! I bought a tapestry from them for $4, which I will cherish forever. I wanted to make sure they made it though, and that it wasn't mass-produced, because they deserve to know that people think their hard work and efforts are important. The man has been doing this for 73 years! I can't even imagine!

One of the coolest parts of the days was going to a place that rescues raptor birds, condors, owls, hawks, etc. The demonstrator had tricks for the birds and since I was in the front row, I got to have some of the birds land on the ledge in front of me or run past me! After the demonstration, I got to hold a bird with one of those leather gloves like a boss! It was really sad seeing the birds in cages, but we found out they get to fly out of their cages every day and most of them get released into the wild if the paperwork gets put in, in time. The condors are suffering from global warming because they're not getting as much water at the heights that they live in, which is endangering their livelihood :(.

After this we went back to the hostal and got lunch, then we left for a little town that mostly sells leather goods. Miguel Andres, Emily, Jazzy, and I spent 30 min eating ice cream. I ate 2 popsicles de coco and Miguel Andres ate 3. Estamos gorditos :P.

Lastly, we drove to a lake that is ON TOP OF AN ACTIVE VOLCANO! Apparently, it was a huge volano that collapsed and turned into a crator, and a lake just formed there, but the volcano is still active and because of this, there is no animal-life in the water and you can see bubbles from the sulfiric acid coming up! I also learned that this lake feeds into the waterfall we swam in earlier in the day! We took a boat around the lake for $2.75 and it was so breath-taking. There were cows on the steep mountains, which baffled me lol. It was a cold, but enjoyable boat ride :).

After our boat ride we had a reflection about knowledge vs. wisdom (conocimiento v. sabiduria) and market economies and whether they're good for Ecuador and its culture. I won't go into everything we talked about, but it was an amazing reflection that really makes me want to be more aware of myself and my surroundings. I want to give back to the people of Ecuador in the same way they give  to me.

LIFE IS GOOD. I just can't believe I'm studying, living, and growing in Ecuador. I was in a boat in a lake on top of an active volcano, dude. Like, this can't really be my life right now. Somebody pinch me...