(Sunday, July 18, Day 32)

"The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps."


Phrase of the day:
Oso Sucio no lo hace... Dirty Bear didn't make it

But Angry Bear did; got 'em!
Today was the last day of arts and crafts (score!). It was a fun class overall, but it's time to have a bit more free time on the weekends. These cards are the invitations for our family appreciation day, which now that I think about it, may actually be next Saturday... grrreat. Some of the kids had to spice class up a bit, so they made some more comical cards, Dirty Bear, for one. Besides Angry Bear, they were all removed by the facilitator. She also took out the really ugly ones. Alisha and I did ours together because she didn't like to glue and I didn't mind not having to cut. Somehow ours made it??
Otavalo... my new favorite city in Ecuador (A few of us went after A&C; it's an hour and a half away by bus). Otavalo is known for it's market, one of the most important in the Andes. They sell everything from farm animals to jewelry. I know Rajib and Bubs are thinking I only like the place because I like to shop (which I really do not like to do!), but I actually like Otavalo because it feels safe. For once in the past four weeks I don't have to look over my shoulder every minute. It's a good feeling. There are tons of tourists here, which is very nice too. The Otavalenos are know for their weavings and small crafts. This market has been here for hundreds and hundreds of years.
Pie... they have pie in Otavalo too! And I mean real pie. Normally I wouldn't be so enthusiastic about finding pie, but desserts here are super weak. This though, was a nice taste of home.
They even had chocolate mereingue(? it wasn't cream, but the chocolate part was good)... I stuck to mora con helado because she said it was the best... blackberry with ice cream.
Oh, and no worries, I totally did do some shopping! HA!

Oddly enough, on Sunday my host family wanted to take me to Otavalo, Ibarra, and Cotacachi. Road trip here we come! It was very nice to not have to ride in a bus. Plus I realized that Otavalo is really only like 45 minutes away when you don't have to stop every few minutes, so that's good to know. Ibarra is the biggest city around here... roughly 150,000 people. I wasn't really impressed, but I'll try to go again before I leave here and look around more; supposedly it is a really fun city. Cotacachi on the other hand, once again, amazing. If you remember, I went here for a day trip a few weeks ago and worked in a local garden. My host family took me to a lake on the outskirts of town.

It was really pretty, and it was really good to see clean water again. The water was actually incredibly clear because it is a volcanic crater lake. So basically gas is emitted into the lake from the volcano (Volcano Cotacachi), which disallows much life besides algae. Sadly that meant my swimming shorts in my bag (always in my bag... just in case) stayed dry.
Oh, another thing I cannot wait to do when I get home... drive over 40mph on the highway, haha.
Off to San Isidro tomorrow for my site visit. Hopefully I will get this posted before I leave, but doubtful. Hope your week/end rocks!