"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: Tu dijiste este "Mundo Medio"? No estamos viviendo en Lord of the Rings... Did you just call this "Middle Earth"? We're not living in Lord of the Rings!
Yeah, Ecuador's lucky it doesn't actually call it "Middle Earth"; that was just the person who was explaining it. It's really called "Mitad del Mundo"... Middle of the Earth. Much better.
I'm still in Quito. I slept last night in Marlena's aunt's laundry room. That may normally sound odd, but that's more luxurious than I'm used to here. The laundry room had a bed, full bathroom, window, and the usual laundry machines. I told her I was happy sleeping on the couch or floor even, but she still made the bed for me anyway.
Today we went to the Middle of the Earth park a bit north of Quito. It was very touristy, but good to see once. It was full of craft carts, food stands, and random museums (Insect museum, planetarium, ...). We didn't imagine that they could be better than our Smithsonians backhome, so we stuck to the equatorial line, literally.
In other exciting news, I saw my first real-live Indians in months now! Naturally, I didn't say a word to them. But I definitely called it out from 50yards away ("Indians!").
"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: Feliz accion de Gracias... Happy Thanksgiving!
I arrived in Quito last night to see Cristina, Julie, Pete, and Kenny, Marlena's cousins from Springfield, who are here in Ecuador visiting family. Thankfully, they wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving as much as I did. Not only did they want to celebrate it, they wanted to share the experience with their family. So Cristina decided we were going to cook for her 30ish family members at her uncle's place. Luckily, thanks to my experience at home and at The Garden Kitchen (www.gardenkitchen.com), this just seemed normal. [That's $5 for the reference Unlce B!).
So after breakfast we went shopping at this crucial grocery store and began preparing dinner. (Everyone should have woken up much earlier to begin).
We had a few mishaps during our cooking adventure. I guess that's not really a surprise, seeing as how we didn't plan our meal very thoroughly... or really at all for that matter. Salt in the ice cream instead of sugar? I thought that only happened in the movies!
Yeah, we had to throw that batch of ice cream out. But dinner turned out pretty well. We pretty much just went to the supermarket and bought everything we could find that was Thanksgiving-like... or at least good. (No pumpkin was found whatsoever, horrible!). We had a few random dishes, but it was her family's first Thanksgiving dinner, so they didn't know any better, ha. Mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, creamed corn, chicken, pork roast, bread, and greek salad. Yeah, no idea about the salad! But it was definitely the best dish. I stuck to eating it with bread and the mashed potatoes.
That's right, no turkey either. They usually only eat that for Christmas. But their uncle was nice and prepared chicken outside in his new grill. I didn't try it, but I imagine it was pretty sweet.
Oh! Lets not forget dessert. As usual, it was best parts food-wise. Cristina made a yam, marshmallow, and apple dish. And all of us helped put together strawberry ice cream(with sugar this time). If that wasn't enough, (it wouldn't have been; this was Thanksgiving!) we bought an apple pie and a chocolate cake to complete dessert.
It was nice to be in Quito with friends from back home, but the best part was definitely talking to many of you back home. I probably won't make next years either, but who knows... anything is possible.
Side note: Apparently we can now grant write and try to actually accomplish projects... game on for when i get back!
"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: De quien fuera este idea?... Whose idea was this again?
That was definitely the reoccuring theme throughout all of last week. (But not in a bad way).
It's been 3 months now as a volunteer, so everyone from my training class met in Quito for our "Reconnect".
Reconnect, being a time for volunteers to present their future work plans for the upcoming year, and the office to give more workshops. Definitely their first mistake. Another week of training? No thank you. Everyone definitely winged his/her presentation. They were all pretty good though!
It definitely reminded me of college; lots of information that we already knew. Unfortunately, this time I didn't have Willy sitting next to me to wake me up!
I did, however, have ridiculous skits to keep me entertained. The best ones were by this guy, Mitch, pretending to be macho. (Is "macho" an adjective in English even?)
Because of the budget/the office not wanting us to be near the center of the city, we stayed at a convent in the suburbs of Quito during the week. Mistake number 2. No real issues with the convent itself, but we had to be back on the convent's grounds by 9pm! Yeah, they were just asking for trouble. After we almost got eaten alive by some crazy guard dog though, I decided to listen to them and stay inside, ha. Luckily they fed us 5 times a day to make up for keeping us on lock-down (breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner). (And I only ate rice like two times all week!)
One day we decided to go to the TeleferiQo!
It's this sky tram from Europe that goes up the side of Volcan Pichincha. I only say "from Europe", because the safety instructions are only in German, Italian, French, and English.
Yeah, mistake number 3. Why would anyone go when it's raining? Oops. We will have to go if you visit. You can (supposedly) see all of Quito from the top. There are some crucial hikes and bike trails as well.
I'm back in San Isidro now, and very ready to get to work! We can write grant proposals now and actually get stuff done. (hopefully)
But first, another quick trip to Quito Thursday, perhaps?...
Happy Thanksgiving!!
"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: Digas ese el oriente? Pienso que estuvo mas avanzado de donde vivo ahora... You call that the Jungle? I'm pretty sure it was more developed than where I am now!
The past 4 days I have been in Puyo, a relatively decent sized city (supposedly) in the jungle region of Ecuador.
The only part that had a real jungle-feel was the fact that our rooms were filled with ants:
Yes, our rooms were ridiculously nice! And although Puyo wasn't quite like the jungle experience I had imagined it would be, our hostal compound did have an electric fence around it. I mean, that makes me think of Jurrasic Park, and that's totally like the jungle, right?
I didn't take many pictures of the city itself, but only because I didn't spot any jaguars or panthers in it. However, I did take pictures of the landscape on the journey through the central highlands into the jungle region!
One of the many volcanoes on the way:
As in the rest of the world, many of the developed areas are built near rivers and other bodies of water:
In case you were wondering how they cross the gorge; by a tiny cable car, naturally (no thanks!) You may have to look a bit hard to find it:
The mountains leveling out as we get closer to the transitional zone inbetween the jungle and mountainous regions:
In case you ever wondered where those little wooden crates come from, it's totally all this lady!:
Oh, I was there for a meeting because I'm part of that student government-type group. The meetings went really well, and that was productive I have felt since being in country. I'm off to San Isidro for three days, and then back on the road for a few more meetings. November will/has been horrible for work because I haven't been in my site as much as I would have liked, but that will change come December!
This flower was more jungle-like, thankfully:
"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: Feliz Noche de brujas!... Happy Halloween!
Yeah, that wasn't exactly a direct translation, but it makes the most sense! Noche de brujas is techincally Night of witches. But then again, I hope none of you are actually trying to learn Spanish by reading my blog; for the most part, I just make up words.
We celebrated Halloween (Saturday night instead of on Sunday) with all of the other volunteers and Americans at Inca Lounge, a pub by the river. The mafia group was very well organized.
But my favorite was definitely the ninjas with their plastic swords, hula-hoop weaponry(?), and ridiculous ninjitsu skills!
Sunday morning, after another healthy breakfast at the amazing cafe next door, we walked around the town one last time.
We saw the main church in town, which Cuenca is kind of known for.
On the way, Ronald decided to fight a robot. I'm sure that didn't help minimize the Ecuadorians' feelings that we foreigners are pretty strange.
Some of us in one of the many parks.
Halloween was unfortunately my last day in Cuenca, but I will be returning pretty soon, I'm sure! Where else can you find Bata in Ecuador!?!
And your flower of the day taken outside a museum we visited, which used to be a "mental-health facility" many many years ago.
"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: Perdoname, usted dijo "Te helado"!?!, ... Excuse me, did you say "Iced tea"!?!
Saturday was jam packed. We all figured we better enjoy the town as much as possible before having to return to our sites. This is the view from our hostal's roof in the morning.
We began our day with breakfast at a small little cafe next to our hostal. It was a very lucky find. They had fruit plates, pancakes, and granola with yogurt, among other things. George is a beast and ate all of the above, and then an omelette afterwards; ridiculous.
I stuck to the french toast, strawberry shake without sugar, and porridge with apple.
After breakfast we decided to walk around town a bit. Imagine if the high school I worked in looked like this!
We ended up at a few parks, some of which had actual working fountains! That's pretty special here. I see a decent number of fountains, but none ever have water.
The best part was when we went to Turi, a church high up on a hill on the outskirts of the town. It was good to see just how big Cuenca really is.
To more important things... For those of you that have eaten with me a decent number of times, you know I'm a huge fan of iced tea. I'm not sure if it's because I'm from Virginia, or just because I'm not really into carbonated drinks (mostly because I get hiccups whenever I drink them. Yes, pretty nerdy, I know). Nonetheless, I had been deprived of it until Cuenca, land of the foreigners.
That being the case, we sat down to eat at California Kitchen, not to be confused with California Pizza Kitchen. A couple from the States moved down here a year ago and opened this restaurant/hotel; they are pretty much destroying it. The foreigners that live here are mostly from the States, Germany, and Italy, but the people of Cuenca really appreciate international food too. I thought of Willy and ate an amazing steak and cheese sandwich (with broccoli and potato salads). I'm not sure if the food was actually "amazing" or just pretty good. But after rice and plantains for three months, it doesn't even matter. I will definitely be returning soon (to Cuenca and California Kitchen).
After our late lunch, we walked around the old town a bit more.
And stopped at this museum along the river because there was an arts and crafts festival. Yes, I would like to live in the museum! There were artisans from all over Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru. The festival was pretty cool, but you know me and art...
In the evening we did go to a soccer match though! Cuenca versus Olmedo.
It was no English Premier League, but everything is as exciting as you make it! Unfortunately Cuenca lost 3-2, but we were still pretty pumped; I mean, we were in Cuenca.
Some orchids(?) from the flower market:
"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: Huy, estamos en Ecuador todavia? Espana, gracias por "le dio su cultura"... Wow, are we still in Ecuador? Spain, thank you for "spreading your culture".
I just returned from my new favorite place in Ecuador, Cuenca.
Besides the super clean street, Cuenca has tons to offer. I'm going to drop a little knowledge on you, only because I've been studying my Lonely Planet book as if I was applying to be a tour guide in Ecuador. Cuenca is the third largest city in Ecuador, and quite possibly one of the safest. The new and old parts of town are divided by the Tomebamba River, one of Cuenca's three rivers.
Okay, less boring writing and more exciting pictures! I enjoyed it so much, I probably took over a hundred pictures. Now I know that doesn't mean too much with there being digital cameras and all these day, but I meant after I deleted the blurry and ugly ones, I still had over a hundred! My favorite part was naturally the old town, a Unesco World Heritage Site:
It's filled with great food (which really just made me miss home even more):
Culture (who ever thought I would miss being able to go into Indian stores? No worries, I still didn't go in!):
Large, safe, clean parks (Volunteers Alisha, Lisa, and Jessica):
Streets that remind me of Europe (A nice break from the usual pot hole-filled dirt roads):
Spectacular churhes on every corner (I'm not sure why, but my church pictures seem to be some of my best shots):
And most importantly, real ice cream! (I only thought they had Stracciatella in Italy... It was good, but naturally not Germanos)
Really though, I shouldn't have been surprised with what I found in Cuenca on my first day. I mean, when your $9/night hostal looks like this, you know you're in for a good stay:
Flowers at one of the flower markets in town:
ps: You can even drink the tap water in Cuenca!!!
Yeah, Ecuador's lucky it doesn't actually call it "Middle Earth"; that was just the person who was explaining it. It's really called "Mitad del Mundo"... Middle of the Earth. Much better.
Today we went to the Middle of the Earth park a bit north of Quito. It was very touristy, but good to see once. It was full of craft carts, food stands, and random museums (Insect museum, planetarium, ...). We didn't imagine that they could be better than our Smithsonians backhome, so we stuck to the equatorial line, literally.
In other exciting news, I saw my first real-live Indians in months now! Naturally, I didn't say a word to them. But I definitely called it out from 50yards away ("Indians!").
