Sunny Weekends

It’s incredible that when the sun comes out in Cuenca, everyone is happier and more activities are done. Also when the sun comes out, it reminds me of what I’m going to miss so much about this beautiful place. This past week I took on two extra tutorials, making my days busier and yet more enjoyable. My first tutorial in the morning was a 76-year-old man, learning English for the first time since high school. I have had almost two weeks of classes with him, and although it’s slow going, he’s a joy to work with. My other tutorial, that only lasted three days, was with a young man from the coast brushing up on his English. Doing tutorials reminds me of what I love about teaching English, the one-on-one time, and reaffirms my future choice to be a speech pathologist. And after a busy and full week, I had an even fuller and more enjoyable weekend. It started out well on Thursday night, when I had plans to go out for a bite to eat with two of my conversation class students. What I thought was going to be the three of us (speaking in English) turned into a large group, speaking quick and funny Spanish. We were myself, my two students, one of their friends, their friends’ parents, and a new Argentinean friend that was passing through Cuenca for a month. Not at all what I was expecting, yet wonderful. Friday morning I met with my 76-year-old tutorial, and afterwards met up with some friends for a Friday adventure: a trip to Turi. Turi is the lookout point of Cuenca, and although I’ve already been a couple of times, we went this time for the view as well as the Vega Studio, and the giant swing. Let me explain… So up at Turi is the studio and gallery of a famous potter from Cuenca, something that I have been dying to see. And even further up the viewpoint, there is a small “adventure park”, complete with a small “zipline”, a big slide, and a giant swing. The giant swing is pulled back by the operator, and for just $1, you can sit in the swing and be launched over a small cliff, an adrenaline rush for sure. Kelsey, Maggie, Kyle, Jeff, and myself took first a bus and then a taxi up to Turi, enjoyed the view, went up to the swing, and then stopped at Vega’s studio on our way down. It was a perfect and beautiful morning for Turi. After the Vega studio we taxied down, and I joined Maggie and Kyle for lunch while Kelsey got a traditional “cleansing”, which is supposed to rid one of the bad spirits in their lives. This cleansing consists mostly of getting beaten by herbs, getting water spit on you, and having an egg rolled on your body, which, when cracked open, tells you the state of your spirit. Very interesting. After lunch I went home and did some planning for my class, and then went to my second CEDEI dance class. I don’t know if my bachata and meringue abilities are getting better, but it was fun. After class, Laura, Molly and I went for ice cream, and I headed back home to shower and relax for the night, ended by a movie with the roomies.

         Saturday I started with conversation club again, going to another coffee shop with my group. They’re a great group of students, and I’m very thankful to have this kind of a class; no grading, no attendance, just relational conversation. After conversation class I came home and had lunch, graded papers, and took my laundry to Doris. By 2:30pm Annie, Kelsey and myself were leaving to meet some friends at Parque Paraíso for a game of Ultimate Frisbee. I hadn’t played Ultimate Frisbee since high school, and although I had forgotten most of the rules, realized it’s easy to pick up. We were about 20, mostly CEDEI teachers, and had an exhausting yet fun afternoon of running around in the sun, and getting competitive here and there. After Frisbee I went home, showered, and met up with some friends for a bit. I was exhausted from the long weekend, and when my friends saw me yawning, they suggested I take a little nap before going out for the night. Good idea. I came home, napped, and started my Saturday night. The roomies plus our friend Jessa hung out for a bit at the house, and then we headed out for a night of drinks and dancing. My Saturday night finally ended around 3am, meaning Sunday was spent sleeping, eating, or watching movies; the perfect Sunday to end such a full and fun weekend.               

Bad Luck

         This week was the week of bad mojo for Sucre House. It started Tuesday evening, when we returned home and realized two computers, a camera, iPod, money, and credit cards had been stolen from our house. The police were called, and it was a long night of tears, fear, and having almost 10 police officers in our house, asking the same questions over and over again. Although we don’t know exactly what happened, we have a hunch. The older dueños (landlords) of our house had come that Monday to stay in the adjacent apartment and take care of matters in Cuenca. Well, multiple times on Monday and Tuesday we would come home to our front door open, because they were either next door at the internet café or running an errand. Also, in the morning on Tuesday some man looking for a gringa (but not one of us) was let in by the dueña twice, thinking it was one of us he was looking for. The first time he was let in I told her nobody in the house knew him, which then baffles me why she let him in a second time. Well, in the afternoon while we were all in class (except Annie, who was probably upstairs), someone most likely entered through the open front door and made a quick grab of the valuables he could see in the rooms downstairs; we assume it was the same guy, who had had a chance to scope out the place when he was let in TWICE. Lucky for those of us that live upstairs, he didn’t have time to make it up there. Unluckily for Kelsey and Amanda, though, he swiped thousands of dollars worth of stuff. We were all upset, both by the robbery and because our space had been violated; we were very mad at the dueña, to say the least. After that the week continued as normal, but with an air of sadness lingering in the house. Our friend Clara tried to cheer the girls up by bringing us a puppy and a cake; I think for the moment, it definitely worked. By the weekend we had moved past the robbery, and were trying to enjoy Cuenca again and not be upset at what had happened there. Well, Saturday morning our friend John gave a free self-defense course to all the teachers at CEDEI, because it’s always good to have knowledge of self-defense when living in another country. And Saturday afternoon was incredible; I went on a long run with my friend Janet, and then met up with other friends by the river, sitting in the sun, eating food, and enjoying life. After the sun went down, we headed home, and got ready for our night. I am friends with an owner of a club here in Cuenca, meaning free entrance for my friends and me whenever. So Saturday night we had plans to head over to this club. We had some friends over beforehand, and then throughout the night I bothered the bouncer to get close to 20 people into the club. Everyone was having a good time, and my roommates and I stayed until closing time. I was going to wait to get a ride home with my friend, and then decided I didn’t want to bug him more, so the roommates and I started heading home. First I bought a nice piece of street corn, and then we waved down a taxi. Once in the taxi we asked how much to our house, and after quoting a high price, we decided no thank you, we’ll find another cab, and jumped out. We had walked less than a block from that cab, off of the main street just a bit, when all of a sudden I heard a commotion behind me. Someone was trying to steal my friend Kat’s purse, and had pulled her onto the ground in his attempt to get the purse. Kelsey had her mace on hand, and started pepper spraying the guy. Well, 30-seconds of chaos happened after that, with Kat grabbing the mace and spraying more, and Kelsey and Annie both ending up with mace in their eyes. I grabbed Kesley, who couldn’t see, and started yelling every Spanish curse word I knew at the guys. As we walked away from the situation, some guys continued to follow us, who may have been trying to help, but were essentially just freaking us out more. I ended up punching one in the chest who got too close. After the incident we found another cab, hailed it down and climbed in, a frightened and crying mess. The cab driver was certainly freaked out by our behavior, although we can only assume he saw some of what had happened. It was a terrifying night, and following the robbery so closely, made us feel very unsafe in Cuenca. Now, a couple of weeks later, we can all say, “things happen sometimes”, and have learned from these incidents to be more careful. Still, Sucre House has filed its quota of bad karma, and we looking forward to more months of amazing times from Cuenca.   

12 de abril

This weekend was Cuenca Foundation weekend, not to be confused with the bigger and better Cuenca Days that occur in November. Although none of the Cuencanos seemed to excited about it, us Gringas were just happy to a) have a day off, and b) have a chance to do some more Ecuador shopping. Thursday evening, what started out as a quiet night quickly transformed into a dance party at our house, a trip to a local club, and my friends enjoying a dance party in the street on one of the main streets of Cuenca. The next day, despite the fact that it has been colder and wetter recently here in Cuenca, we were greeted by a beautiful, sunny day. The roommates and I spent our day walking around vendor booths, eating lots of food, and taking in the sunshine. Friday evening Kelsey and I relaxed by making pad thai and watching the Godfather, a very necessary relaxing night due to the classes we had to teach the next morning. On Saturdays this cycle I am teaching a conversation class, which is a club intended for students to solely practice their listening and speaking. No attendance, no grades. This Saturday we had a fun class, practicing role-plays of situations of confrontation. After class, Annie, Kelsey and I ventured out of the Centro, to Good Affinity (an amazing vegetarian restaurant), La Cooperativa (a store filed with beautiful produce), and Supermaxi (the American-style grocery store). Although it doesn’t sound like much, we were exhausted after this little journey. Saturday evening I went to hang out with some friends, ate dinner, and then got ready to go to the club again. Saturday night passed with lots of dancing, fun, and friends. Sunday morning we all slept in, and had a relaxing day. I went back down to the markets for some final souvenir purchases, and came home and made my first-ever eggplant parmesan. It was delicious. From there I went on a little vuelta with a friend (essentially just driving around, without much of a destination), and came home later to watch Godfather 2 with my roommates. Great end to a great weekend.  

Baños de Ambato and the Ecuadorian Jungle

Baños de Ambato and the Ecuadorian Jungle: Best. Vacation. Ever. Our cycle was coming to a close, and Kelsey and I chose to go to Baños de Ambato, an adventure hub in the middle of Ecuador, and the jungle for our break, crossing off two highly desired places from our list. We left early Sunday morning after going out Saturday night for our friend’s birthday, making it a long and chuchaqui (the Quechua word for “hungover”) bus ride. We arrived in Baños later in the evening on Sunday, and did the traditional wander to find our hostel, the address of which we didn’t bother to write down. Luckily, Baños is a small town, and we found it after only minimal effort. That evening we went out for dinner and ice cream, and bought some ingredients for our meals for the rest of the week. We knew our friend and fellow teacher, Mike, was in Baños with his brother, and decided to send them a text about our plans to ride bikes the following day. With a good stroke of coincidence, Mike texted us back that morning, saying, “Yeah, we were planning to go bike riding too. Let’s go”. We met up with him and his brother, rented our bikes ($8 for the day, not bad), and set out on the “Ruta de Cascadas”, waterfall route. Although neither Kelsey nor I are particularly competent on bikes, the 17 km that we rode that day was 75% downhill, with only a few challenging up hills. We biked for close to 3 or 4 hours, and stopped many times along the way to hike up and down the ravine to see various waterfalls. The first fall we stopped at included a fast, and possibly dangerous, tarabita (cable car) ride across the ravine. Each waterfall was beautiful and worth the effort, one including Lord of the Rings looking stairs winding out of the mountainside. After biking and hiking for so long, we were more than excited to round the bend towards Machay, a small town, and see the truck Mike had hired to take the bikes back to Baños. Kelsey and I caught a ride in the truck, while Mike and his brother continued on to the town of Puyo, about another hour and a half away from where we were. After returning to Baños, Kelsey and I decided it was best to just keep going, and headed out to the natural hot springs Baños is famous for. Every time I’ve been to “natural hot springs” in Latin America there nothing natural, except maybe the water, about them; this was no exception. Feeling more like we were at a public pool than a relaxing hot springs, we climbed into the giant pools filled with hot water, sporting our mandatory bathing caps (a.k.a. plastic shower caps). Despite the children splashing and weird men trying to talk to us, it was exactly what our tired muscles needed, and we were more than happy to be there. After returning from the hot springs and taking showers, it was dinner and movie time, with one short trip into the town to get our pre-movie ice cream. Tuesday morning started early as well, with our 9am canyoning and canopy appointment. We went first to canyoning (repelling down waterfalls), sporting wet suits, harnesses, and safety helmets. We drove about 10 minutes outside of the city, and hiked about 5 minutes up to our first waterfall. Although they weren’t tall waterfalls, the experience of climbing backwards down slippery wet rocks was still a bit nerve wrecking. Luckily our group was only Kelsey, myself, our guide, and an Uruguayan, so if we fell there weren’t many people to laugh at us. We repelled down two waterfalls, and slide down a third on our backs. When it came to the fourth and final waterfall, we were definitely not expecting what was ahead of us. We had to repel a bit down to a cliff edge, where we would be attached to only a rope on our harness, and told to fall backwards 35 meters. Both Kelsey and I were terrified, and I asked the guide over and over again, “tell me what’s going to happen before it happens”. He only partially obliged, telling me to count to three and throw my arms out, letting go of the rope. 1… 2… 3… AHHHH!! What a rush. After our freefalls, we hiked back up to the top and our guide, and were greeted by a hot, soothing cup of tea, both good for the nerves and for the fact that we were cold and wet. After returning to Baños with our group, Kels and I hopped over to our hotel to change and eat lunch, and went back to the main square, where a truck was waiting to take up to canopy (zip line). I have done zip lining before and at first wasn’t extremely thrilled about the chance to do it again. But I am so glad we decided to do this canopy tour. It included six zip lines, the final one which was 550 meters long. On all the zip lines we could do a normal, seated position, a “bat” pose (upside down) or a “superman” pose (flying through the air). Kels and I were the only customers there, and got to chat, walk around, and zip line with our two guides. It was incredible. After our adrenaline filled day, Kels and I came back for a nap, dinner, and some relaxation time. The plan was to leave early for the jungle the next morning, and knowing that our friend Alice was coming to our hostel around 2am to join us, we decided it was best to get as much sleep before 2am as we could. Right on schedule, Alice called me at 1:30am, saying her taxi driver was lost and needing directions. After some fumbling with directions, I found them and was back asleep by 2:30am.

         Wednesday morning our tour group came to our hostel right at 8:30am, and we climbed into the van for a jungle tour we really knew little about. Besides our group of Kelsey, Alice and myself, we were joined by Francois, a young man from France, and Luis, our tour guide. We started at an animal reserve just outside of Puyo, looking at all of the interesting animals the jungle has to offer. Although we were not deep into the “primary” jungle, the animal and plant variety in our “secondary” jungle was still incredible and like nothing we had seen before. From there we drove further in to “Hola Vida”, a place to stay and the jumping off point for our waterfall hikes. After a hearty lunch served to us by the nice people at Hola Vida, we set off on our first hike, which in retrospect we had no way of preparing for. We hiked the whole time in tall, rubber boots, which were more than necessary when we found ourselves in calf-high mud pits. We hiked for about three hours, getting our faces painted, eating bugs and leaves, climbing up and down mud slips, and, of course, seeing waterfalls. The first falls we went to, our guide and his friends had actually discovered just months before. It required us to leave our stuff behind and wade through the river to get to a hidden waterfall. It was stunning, and the most impressive part was that we were all alone, and we knew not many people before us had even seen this waterfall. After the first waterfall we packed back up, and hiked on to our second waterfall. By the time we found our second waterfall, we were muddy, wet, faces painted red, and wearing glasses and hats made out of vines. We emerged from the jungle and… Found another tour group at the waterfall, with pristine, untouched rubber boots. Here we were, emerging from the jungle after having “gone native” (as we called it), and we were greeted by a tour group that had obviously taken the less rugged trail to the waterfall; we were pleased with how we had gotten there, but it was still really funny. After swimming for a bit, we packed up our stuff again, and returned to Hola Vida via the civilized pathway, complete with rocks lining the trail. We jumped in the back of a pick-up at Hola Vida, and bumbled down the road to Cabañas Indichuris, our jungle bungalows for the next two nights. The grounds consisted of a large compound of different bungalows, an eating building, and an incredible view of the Pastaza River. After climbing up into our bungalows, the first two things we noticed were: the mosquito nets on our beds, followed by the fact that they weren’t joking when they said we would need a flashlight: there was no electricity in our bungalow. We all showered off the days mud and sweat, relaxed in the hammocks strewn about the grounds, and then wandered over to the main eating area for dinner. Rut, the daughter of the owner (the owner who happens to be a shaman also), was our cook for the three days, and man can Rut cook. She made us an incredible pasta dish the first night, delicious eggs, plantain mash, and fruit for breakfast, interesting lunches, and on the last day she made all the others fish, which she had caught herself from the Pastaza River, and cooked in bananas leaves. I had no idea I was going to eat so well in the jungle, and I was very excited about it. The next morning we got up early for our next hike, a five-hour hike to another waterfall. Again, we took the path less traveled, learning about and eating various plants along the way. Our guide was incredibly knowledgeable, and every time Alice would ask, “how did you know that?!”, he would just say, “Cause I’m the guide”. He definitely knew his stuff. Our third and final waterfall, although just as difficult to get to, was the most beautiful waterfall of the trip. We again had to swim/wade to get to it, and it was a beautiful cascade tucked away in nature. We hung out at this waterfall for a while, swimming, getting mud facials and massages from our guide (like I said, best guide ever), and jumping off of a tall tree located in the middle. It was perfect. We returned from our hike tired, and yet so relaxed from the beautiful site we had just taken in. From there it was time for a canoe ride, a peaceful float down the Puyo River (the less strong of the two rivers in the Pastaza region). If we weren’t calm before, the canoe ride definitely lulled us into a peaceful state. We sat quietly and watched the beautiful scenery pass us by as another man steered the boat. After the canoe ride, it was again time to shower and relax in a hammock, looking at the beautiful Pastaza River. We enjoyed a couple of beers first in our hammocks, and then sitting along the river shore, watched the sunset. Our guide had told us the next day wouldn’t be a strenuous hike, and that if we wanted to have a few more beers it wouldn’t be a problem… What he meant though, was that he was ready to party that night. After dinner, we turned off the lights in the eating area, turned up the music, and let things get weird. We ended up taking multiple shots of what we called “jungle juice”, which was actually a sugar cane liquor made with various jungle herbs mixed in. We got some salsa lessons from our guide and his friends, and ended the night quite tired and happy. We slept the next morning until about 9am, had a good hangover breakfast, and got ready for our final hike of the trip. Again, we traveled by a path that wasn’t a path at all. Our final destination was a popular lookout point near our bungalows, and instead of taking the road that lead right up to the lookout, we bushwhacked through the jungle. Our guide decided what direction we needed to go, and macheted his way there. It was awesome. After the hike through the jungle, we emerged at civilization again, and climbed up the well-maintained stairs to the viewpoint. We spent I don’t even know how long there, laying in hammocks and taking in the incredible view in front of us. After hiking back down to our bungalows and enjoying our last lunch made by Rut, we packed up and headed back towards Baños. On our way back we stopped at an indigenous Quechua community, which was a community of people that had their schools and homes in a small compound area, teaching their children in Quechua to maintain the culture. We did some shopping and playing with a blow dart gun, and then piled back into our van. We arrived in Baños around 5:30pm, just in time to say goodbye to our group and hop over to a sweet hippie restaurant for a last dinner in Baños. After dinner we practically ran to the bus station, getting on the first moving bus we could find heading toward Ambato. After the hour-long bus ride, we were a little lost and disoriented in Ambato, and hung around a little too long on the bus. After we were the last people left of the bus, I kindly asked our driver where the buses to Cuenca were, and they drove us back around to the section of the highway that serves as a bus station. So far everything had worked out well for us, and we experience our first stroke of bad luck trying to get home. Because it was Good Friday, all of the buses were booked up. We arrived at the office around 8pm, and were told the next available bus didn’t leave until 11pm. Great. Luckily the people in the bus station were really nice, offering us free sodas, and there were chairs available for us to read and sleep in. The three hours passed surprisingly quickly, and by 11pm we were getting loaded on our bus to Cuenca. The ride to Cuenca, about 5 hours, didn’t pass so wonderfully quickly, complete with stomach problems, the beginning of a cold, and one point when we were stopped by the police, unloaded, and then loaded back on the bus. By the time we arrived in Cuenca around 4:30am, I had never been so excited to see Cuenca before. Kelsey and I jumped in a cab, gave them our address, and sped home. Despite the fact that both Kelsey, Alice and I had colds and stomach problems after returning from our trip, it was hands down one of the best vacations I have been on, and completely “vale la pena” for everything.

Aventuras Buenas

So although I still have four months left in Ecuador, I am already fearing my goodbye, and trying to cross more things off of my Ecuador/Cuenca to-do list. Two weekends ago, Maggie, Jess, and I embarked on an adventure to Giron, a nearby town with a boast of beautiful waterfalls. We were hoping for a nice hike and some pretty views, although it turned into a much more… saturating hike than we were expecting. Getting on a bus was the first step of the adventure; it was election Sunday in Ecuador, meaning things were not as they normally had been. Luckily, after a minor panic of not being allowed on a bus and hearing people complaining about waiting for two hours, we chased (unnecessarily) after a bus on it’s way to Giron. Success. Once in Giron, the weather was a little gray, but nothing that worried outdoorsy chicas like ourselves. We grabbed a truck (their cabs) up to the waterfall spot, and after checking in, set out for the “hike” to waterfall number one. Well, after walking for 15 minutes, we found it. It was beautiful, but not enough for our adventurous souls. We climbed around a little, looking for a path to the other two waterfalls, and got soaked by the mist spraying off the fall. We made a friend, an older man from Spain, and all trekked back down a little disappointed, wanting more. The man in charge of the park told us he did not recommend our going to the second and third waterfall because of the low fog. We nodded yes, we understand, and asked, out of curiosity for next time, where the other waterfall hike started… and sneakily headed off in that direction. What followed was about a three-hour hike up, down, and over, through fog, fields, trees, and of course, pouring down rain. After the second waterfall we continued to the third, which included a little river crossing and a lot of uphill. The up, down, and all around was well worth it once we reached the two waterfalls, and especially the last, which included an entire cliff face engulfed in cascading falls. By late afternoon, when we were heading down back down to Giron, we were soaked, cold, tired, and hungry, but successful and happy nonetheless. After the uncomfortable hour-long bus ride, I took an excessively long hot shower, put on extra layers, and ate a big bowl of soup. The perfect end to the day of adventure.   

This past weekend, to continue adventuring in the Cuenca area, Emily and I set out Saturday afternoon to Gualaceo. The goal of our trip was to find a specific style of scarves, which we had heard were sold in Gualeceo. We decided to start the adventure off right by chasing down a bus to get to the Terminal Terreste, and from there found a bus that would take us to Gualeceo. Once in Gualeceo we wandered and looked, but found nothing more than lots and lots of shoes (which Gualeceo is famous for). We asked around for the scarves, and were told they were sold in Chordeleg, another town just 15 minutes up the hill from Gualeceo. Emily and I looked at each other and said “why not”, and caught a bus up the hill. Chordeleg, an even smaller town than little Gualeceo, is famous for its jewelry. So we enjoyed looking at jewelry store after jewelry store, as well as a little, free museum, but found the scarves not (except on display in the museum). Plan C. We had seen some of the scarves on our way into Gualeceo, and knew it was actually just a bit outside of Gualeceo that they technically made the scarves. So back on the bus and down the hill we went, and jumped on another bus headed towards Cuenca. We sat in the front row, and dutifully kept our eyes peeled for the place along the road where we had seen them. We had a vague idea of where it was, and what the town was called, but it was a bit of a shot in the dark. Finally we saw it, screamed “parada!” at the bus driver, and jumped off. As we walked into the store hot, sweaty and tired, we realized there was no one there… We used the bathroom, wandered in and out for a bit, and then finally, like an angel, the shopkeeper came in. Emily picked out a scarf for herself and for her mom, and I found one for myself. Although it was a lot of work to find a scarf, it was well worth the journey. Now, whenever I wear that scarf, I’m going to remember just exactly how I got it. After a tired bus ride home, we jumped in a cab and headed home to get ready for something entirely different: prom. One of our fellow teacher’s girlfriends was throwing him a prom themed birthday party, and we were all more than excited to have the chance to get dressed up and made up. As you can imagine, in a house of seven girls, there was a lot of “hey, are you going to wear those shoes, or can I?” and “how does this look?” It was so fun, and although we get dressed up and go out a lot, this was more reminiscent of classic high school days. At prom (held at the apartment of other fellow teachers) they had music for dancing, and a nice photo area set up to take those memorable prom photos (who came up with some of those poses anyway?). It was an awesome night of pretty looks, dancing, and a lot of pictures. Well done, Clara, Adam, Janet and John. Well done.

Crucita Carnaval Vacay

Well I must say, life on the beach is pretty sweet. Two weekends ago it was Carnaval across South America, and as a result we got a couple days off from school. First, I should start by describing what Carnaval is like in Ecuador. Carnaval is all about play, which includes dumping buckets of water on people, spraying them with spray guns and spray foam, and throwing water balloons. Although the city of Cuenca has cracked down on Carnaval play over the past few years, it was still visible everywhere you walked in the city, personally instilling in me a sense of fear and paranoia. Fortunately, because I’m either a) lucky, b) an unknown gringa, or c) because the city has tightened the rules about Carnaval, I mostly got to enjoy watching the children spray and dump buckets of water on each other, and was only “Carnavaled” twice via a squirt gun and a little bit of foam.

So as I said, we received two days off from school for Carnaval, and planned to take full advantage of this time off. Traditionally, the beach is the destination for Carnaval, so we decided to follow with tradition. I had dragged my feet for too long about making reservations and plans, and found myself a week before Carnaval with nothing. Luckily, a group of new teachers had plans to head to the coast, and let me tag along with their reservations. We left Thursday night at 11pm, after giving all of our midterms and finals. Our first bus to Guayaquil was a harmless 4 hour ride, and once in Guayquil we were able to buy a bus ticket to Puertoviejo that was leaving just minutes after we got to the ticket counter. 3 hours later, we rolled into Puertoviejo, and groggily asked for a bus to Crucita, our final destination. This ride was a quick hour, and dropped us off right in front of our hotel for the weekend. We were staying in a house about 20 minutes outside of the town of Crucita, a house with a pool, located on the beach, and which had a few hotel rooms built above where the family lived. Although we were skeptical at first (isolated is a good word for where we were staying), it turned out to be a really great decision. We immediate put on swimsuits, and went for a walk on the beach. I cut out early, trying to nap on the sand, and then deciding to just head back to the room for a more comfortable nap. I fell asleep in my swimming suit, and woke up to Maggie’s friend Jess and three of her friends walking into the room. We came as a group of five from Cuenca, all CEDEI teachers (Maggie, Emily, Giulia, Kyle, and myself), and were met by four others that were working on an organic farm together (Jess, Ruby, Bridger, and Mattie). After the weird wake up, I put on some clothes and we went for a walk down the street to the only restaurant in our vicinity. Although everything on the menu was seafood, I said, “I’m a vegetarian. I don’t eat fish. Here’s a list of things I can eat. What do you say?”, and they made me a plate with an egg, rice, and plantains! Not the best meal I’ve ever had, but I was pleased to be eating something. After “linner” we relaxed back at the house, ending our evening with a bonfire on the beach.

The next morning we got up, had a nice breakfast at our hotel, and decided it was time to see the town. We all piled on a bus heading for Crucita, paying our 35-cent fare. In town there were way more people than we had seen so far, making us believe that maybe Carnaval would be happening in Crucita. We walked around, walked on the beach, ate some lunch, and then tried desperately to find enough “grocery stores” (or small tiendas) to piece together enough food to make meals. Crucita is a tiny town, and on our first day there we spotted no other foreigners besides ourselves. Back at the hotel, we all ran out to the beach and enjoyed a long afternoon of wave jumping. After showering off the day’s sand, we went back to our same restaurant for dinner, this time asking for them to add salad to my meal (poco a poco I was trying to create something tasty). After dinner we had another bonfire on the beach, which was made extremely special by the purchase of s’mores materials, something none of us had had in a while. After the bonfire a few of us wandered down the beach, checking out the tents and cabanas that were being set up for Carnaval festivities. It was almost eerie, because a few houses down was a beautiful private “resort” with a pool, a dance floor, bright lights, cabanas set up everywhere, and loud music blasting 24/7. It would have been awesome, but the one thing it was missing was people… They had the party ready, but nobody was there to enjoy it. After exploring the empty party, we went back to the hotel with plans to play pool for the night. Luckily, our night took an interesting turn for the better. Maggie and Jess had left earlier with our hotel “security guard” (who was not watching the house…) looking for the party. They came back a half an hour later saying they had found a huge party happening outside of a church a few minutes away, and that we should all join. Kyle, Emily, Jess, Maggie, and I jumped on the backs of a few motorcycles, and off we were to experience Crucita Carnaval style. There were hundreds and hundreds of people outside of this church, which had a giant “bar” (a bunch of crates) of Pilsener and Pilsener Light beer, as well as babies and small children around. The dancing was incredible, and we got down for a little bit before our dancing space was interrupted by a parade of “Miss Crucita Carnaval” girls, girls that looked about 13 parading in their bathing suits. It was interesting… After the Miss Crucita parade we danced for a bit longer, and called it a night around 2 or 3am when people were still arriving at the party. We got a sketchy motorcycle ride home with one driver and three passengers, walking the last bit home because we either broke the motorcycle with our weight, or because it ran out of gas.

The next morning we were all feeling the night before, and decided to have a lazy day filled with beach walking, pool lying, and ocean swimming. The highlight of the day would definitely have to be the unique “ice cream sandwich” we all ate. Although we originally thought we were staying outside of the party, by Sunday the party came to us; our beach was filled with people enjoying the sun with their families. There were also food carts abundant, and plenty of ice cream for the hot day. The ice cream sandwich that we chose was literally two scoops of ice cream placed in an opened roll. It was delicious, and something I may have to repeat again. Also, Sunday was both Jess and Mattie’s birthday, so to celebrate we decided to have a nice, homemade dinner. We didn’t have access to a kitchen, but were allowed to cook on the barbecue outside. Improvising quite a bit, we made amazing lentil burgers, with a side of seasoned potatoes and fried plantains. After dinner Maggie brought out the ice cream cake she had miraculously brought back from town, and we enjoyed happy and full bellies. Again, we made ourselves an awesome bonfire on the beach to cap off our day.

Monday was our last full day in Crucita, and we decided to enjoy it fully. After a morning by the pool, Kyle, Maggie and I headed into town to go paragliding. Because it was still Carnaval, the buses weren’t running as frequently as normal, meaning we found ourselves happily riding into town on a motorcycle converted into a small trolley of sorts. Although it was 65-cents more than the bus ride, the open view was totally worth it. In town we headed straight for the paragliding location, and were told to wait a bit until the wind picked up. Once the wind was sufficient, the wife of the instructor, and co-hostel owner, drove us up the hill to the jump off point. We found our friend, Luis, and quickly paid and got ourselves strapped into parachutes. Luckily it was a tandem ride, so all we had to do was sit back and enjoy the view. We took off, and glided back and forth over the cliff and out to the beach, getting ourselves pretty high about the ground. We floated for about 10 minutes, and landed safely back down where we started. It was an exhilarating experience, and such a cool place in which to do it. We shared a beer and some chips up top, and walked ourselves down the hill, back to the town. In town we made some grocery runs, and found another converted motorcycle to take us back home. At that point only Kyle, Maggie, Jess and myself were left, and we planned to make the most of it. We enjoyed more time in the pool, and that evening we had our last bonfire on the beach. For dinner all we had left were cans of black beans, so we made the most of it by filling them up with spices and some onions, and setting them in the fire to cook. Although I’ve never eaten a whole can of black beans in one sitting before, I must say it was quite good. It was the perfect end to a perfect vacation.

On Tuesday our morning started early at 5am, when we attempted to catch a bus out of Crucita. Unfortunately, the buses were still on Carnaval time, and didn’t come until closer to 6am, leaving us a in small panic as to whether we’d be able to leave Crucita or not. The bus ride to Puertoviejo took an hour again, and from there we quickly caught our bus to Guayaquil. The ride to Guayquil unfortunately took an hour longer than on the way there, but that also meant more sleeping time for me. Once in Guayaquil we found the Cuenca counter, and bought our bus tickets for 40 minutes later, actually thankful for the little break to eat and go to the bathroom. We had been warned over and over again that trying to get a bus home from the beach during Carnaval would be impossible, but all the warnings seemed untrue after our flawless travel experience. The bus ride to Cuenca was another short four hours (somehow not a long time on a bus to me anymore). Once back in Cuenca, we were greeted again by the rain we had had a break from for four days. Although it is nice to be back home, I definitely still miss that warm weather and even more carefree life. It was a great trip. 

Christmas & Travel with Mom and Dad

Dec 21 Well we returned home to Cuenca on Friday, happy as can be. We
quickly unpacked, ate, and settled back into Cuenca life. We went out
that night for a quick drink, even though we were still going on
plane/bus naps and a 3:30am wake up call. We met up with Kat’s family,
who would be in town through Christmas. We didn’t last long at the bar, but it was wonderful to be back home and back in our nice little comfort zone.

Dec 22 So up until this point, Kels and I had been sharing a bedroom.
This worked out well for the first three months, but about halfway
through November we decided maybe it was time we had our own space. So
I started the move upstairs, enlisting Fredy’s help to bring up the
mattress and sweep the room. So far its only a bed and a
nightstand, but I’m crossing my fingers that by the time I come back my
landlady will be moving in a dresser for me. The rest of Saturday was spent
relaxing, and by evening we were getting ready for Kat’s big birthday
bash. A group of her friends, as well as some of our friends, her family, and even our roommate Annie, came over to our house for drinks and chitchat. By 11pm her parents retired home, and we all headed out to Dos 2, our frequented dance club. We danced the night away, even drinking champagne and fishbowl drinks in celebration of her birthday, and grabbed some food before heading home after closing Dos 2 at 2am. Not a bad night.

Dec 23 Almost Christmas time! Sunday we hung out during the day, and
by 7pm I was heading out for a bit of an adventure; one of my English
students had invited me to her house that evening for a Christmas
dinner. I met her husband outside of CEDEI, looking for a man in a car
and was surprised to be met by a man on a motorcycle. Um, okay. I
feared for my life most of the ride, sitting on the back without a
helmet, but it was a great adrenaline rush. And once at her house I
greeted my student, and instantly found myself at home in the kid
room. I spent most of the night hanging out with the kids, dancing
with them and having them ask me how to say anything they could think
of in English. I had missed kids so much, and kids that speak
Spanish...  I was so happy. By 9pm we had dinner, which for me was
soup and a heaping plate of rice, salad, and a tamale. The tamale
alone would have been enough for dinner, and I had to stretch my
stomach to fit in even half of the rice and salad. It was a delicious
meal, and Latin hospitality will never cease to amaze me. By 11pm I
was falling asleep in my chair and decided it was time to head home,
which my student and her uncle graciously drove me home. What a fun
night and great cultural experience.

Dec 24 Christmas Eve! Which actually happens to be the bigger day down
here in Ecuador. We started the day by heading out to watch the
Paseo del Nino, the famous Christmas parade in Cuenca. Although it was
cute and cultural (so many dead cuy and pigs in children’s arms and on
the back of their horses...), if I never see another parade in Ecuador
I think I will be okay. I got a little paraded out in Guatemala. After
the parade we came back, ate lots of leftover guacamole, and started
the holiday festivities. Kelsey’s mom had sent her a kit to make rice
crispy treat snowmen, so we put on the Christmas music and made some
treats. That night we had glog (mulled wine. Annie’s parents are
English) with Annie’s and Kat’s families, enjoying being with families
on Christmas even if they weren’t our own. Mark, Emily, Kels and I,
after the families had left the orphans, went out to dinner at
Eucalyptus, myself enjoying for the first time Indian food on
Christmas eve. We returned home for some more drinking and Christmas music; apple juice cooked with rum, cinnamon and sugar. A very Christmas-y drink I would say.

Dec 25 On Christmas we got up early and met Kat’s parents for breakfast
at Mansión Alcazar, the beautiful hotel they were staying at. As Mark
said, it was the best breakfast he has had in Cuenca, and I had a nice
surprise that one of my students was our waiter. Back at home I took a
nap, and then called a taxi to take me to the airport for my flight out
to Quito to meet mom and dad. I got to the airport an hour and a half
before my flight, kind of cutting it close by American standards, apparently an excessive amount of time by Ecuadorian standards. In 5 minutes I had printed my boarding pass and passed through security, not knowing what to do with myself for an hour and 25 minutes in the waiting room. Luckily the flight from Cuenca to Quito is only 45 minutes, so after waiting in the airport for an hour and a half, I was excited to have the flight be over before I could
blink. In Quito I grabbed a taxi, and headed to the hotel to wait. My
cabbie turned out to be 19 years old, and was driving with his little
sister’s doll in the car. Interesting… We got a little lost on our way to the
hotel, but once at the hotel I checked in, left my stuff, and went wandering
looking for food. Luckily our hotel was located in the heart of historic
Quito, and everywhere I looked there was a beautiful church or a
fancy building to see. After eating I came back to the hotel to wait
for mom and dad. Their flight was a little delayed, but it was worth
the wait. It was so great to see my parents again. They set down their
stuff, and we were out looking for food again. We found a cute street
with lots of restaurants close to our hotel, and settled for a quaint
looking place. The food was good, but it turned out to be a terrible
choice; mom and dad were in bed all day the next day with food
poisoning.

Dec 26 Mom and dad woke up feeling terrible and sick. We went down for breakfast, and realized that was as far as they were going to make it out for the day. After contemplating my options, I decided to head out to the Mariscal district to see some of Quito. I took the trolley bus, and spent a lot of time wandering the streets. I had a nice lunch of eggplant parmesan in a restaurant where I was the only patron, and found a church and a museum to visit, Santa Terestia and the National Museum of Quito. Both were free, and the museum had an impressive collection of pre and post colonization art and pottery. After the museum I was beat, and headed back on the trolley just as it was beginning to rain. The rest of the evening was spent caring for mom and dad, going to grab some food, and reading. Here’s to hoping they will be better to able to actually see the city tomorrow.

Dec 27 The parents were miraculously feeling better today, we decided
to make the most of the it. We had a nice breakfast at our hotel, and
then hailed a taxi to take us to El Panecillo, an angel situated on a
hill overlooking Quito. The view was beautiful, and although I
originally had no desire to see Quito, I’m so glad we decided to stay
here a couple of days. It really is a great city. From there our
cabbie drove us to the Basilica, where we looked into the impressive
cathedral, and then climbed all the way to the top of the spires. I
love Latin American safety concerns, a.k.a. non-existent. After the
Basilica we took a cab to the main historic center, Plaza Grande,
where we started with lunch. After lunch we wandered out to the main
square, and asked about getting into the government building. The man
told us to enter from the other side, where we were greeted by a huge
line. We jumped in line, and asked someone nearby about cost or
tickets. No cost, just needed a drivers license or passport (or in my
case, cause I had neither, my CEDEI ID card). We waited close to 45
minutes, but it was well worth the wait. We entered with a group of
20, and were led around the impressive building on a guided tour. We
saw the room where the president holds meetings, and where they have
banquets. Obviously, everything was beyond beautiful. After this tour,
we popped into the church around the corner, and my parents decided to
call it a day. I went on to see La Compañia, another church, and La
Iglesia San Francisco, you guessed it, another church. I walked around
the church, and paid $2 to enter to convent and museum. I realized it
was somewhat of a mistake though, after being totally church and religious
art-ed out for the day. At least the choir room in the church was
cool and worth the visit. From there I headed home to read, nap, eat, and get ready for our adventure the next day to Mindo!

Dec 28 Today was the first of our Mindo days! After thinking it over the night before, we decided to take a taxi to Mindo instead of the local bus. In hindsight, this was the best decision we could have made; we chose to take a taxi so we could stop at the Mitad del Mundo on our way, but I ended up being sick in the morning and would have felt awful on the windy roads, stuck on a bus. We had a nice breakfast at the hotel, and then hailed a taxi. He drove us about an hour out of the city where we saw the Mitad del Mundo, the exact latitude line 0-0-0. It was very cool. From there we continued on to Mindo, landing at our hotel, La Roulette, around 12pm. Our hotel room was actually a gypsy cabin, set apart of the others in a jungle setting, with a nice dining area around the corner. We had lunch at the hotel, and were helped by the extremely kind hotel manager in figuring out our bird tour for the next day, dinner, hiking, etc. He gave us directions on how to get to the terebita (a cable car suspended over trees), which turned out to be the only bad information he gave us all night. We began our walk around 2pm, planning on a 3-hour stroll, including a waterfall viewing and a terebita ride. Not a chance. We walked for about an hour on the road, then up a steep, steep climb through the jungle, and finally down the road again where we met a man walking to the “waterfall”. We followed him, and made the decision to take the “15 minute” hike down to the waterfall, because although we were beat, isn’t that what we started hiking for? After 30 minutes down, we didn’t get a good view of the waterfall, meaning we hiked the 30 minutes back up having failed. From there we continued down the road, only to find the terebita closed for the day. Strike out number two. All in all we hiked for four hours, and logged closed to 10 miles, while wearing rubber boots mind you. Needless to say, when we got back to the hotel, we were exhausted. We contemplated canceling our 3:30am wake up call birding tour, but realized we couldn’t give up on seeing the birds of Mindo that easily.

Dec 29 At 3:30am mom’s alarm went off, and we got up and out of bed, ready to see some birds. A man named Franklin picked us up at our hotel, and drove us the 30 minutes to the bird refuge. Our tour was with a man named Angel, who lived near a large bird refuge, and most likely had dedicated his life to birds. He knew some by name, and knew how to call them out for us to see. Although I had never been birding before, and didn’t know what to expect, it was an excellent experience. After the bird tour we had Franklin drop us off in town, where we sat down for a nice lunch. After lunch we went up the El Quetzal de Mindo, a local chocolate factory. We went on the tour, and got to see the whole process, from fruit to candy bar, and even got to mix our own chocolate flavors. It was a really fun tour. After the tour we headed down to the bus station, and jumped on our bus set for Quito. I was expecting a terrible ride, but I would have to say it’s the best bus ride I’ve been on so far in Ecuador. We went out for dinner one last time in Quito, and said our farewell to this nice city.

Dec 30 We got up early again (although not as early as the day before, thank goodness) for our Cuenca flight. All went smoothly, and within 15 minutes of the parents being in the city, we saw a parade go by. We were sitting down for lunch at one of my favorite spots, and a leftover Paseo del Niño started marching past the window. Perfect. After lunch we napped, and spend the rest of the day going to the fruit/veggie market, browsing the nearby artisan market, and seeing the central park of town.

Dec 31 We slept in (finally!), and started our day by going to the local artisan market again. From there it was time for lunch, which meant we spent close to an hour walking around town, trying to find something that was open (because it was New Years Eve). We finally settled for a very Gringo place, which actually had pretty good food. After lunch we caught the tourist double decker bus from the main square, and watched and listened as we toured around Cuenca, stopping only once at Turi, the viewpoint of Cuenca. After the tour we were feeling ambitious, and decided to head out to the airport to see if my lost bag (I have the worst lost bag karma) was there. Unfortunately, because of the holiday there was no one at the airport to help us, even if the bag had been there. Dejected, we returned home, and got ready for our night. We went out to dinner at Eucalyptus with Fredy, and then back to the house for some wine. Around 11:30pm we decided to head out and see what the town had to offer. All around the city people were getting ready for 12pm, with large piles of both paper mache and cloth dolls that are burned at midnight. Some of the dolls are just for fun, and some represent the person in your family that was bad that year, which is burned to burn away the old them and to give them a fresh start for the New Year. We checked our clocks at 12pm, and walked through the masses of people burning objects. It was incredible. One of the best and definitely most unique New Years I have ever had. After watching things burn for a while, Fredy and I headed out to a dance club, where we enjoyed free entrance and free drinks inside. Not a bad way to end the night and start the New Year.

Jan 1 The next day was pamper day, symbolically to start with new selves for the new year, and practically because nothing else was open that day. We got in a taxi (after sleeping in of course) and headed to Piedra de Agua, a spa in the town of Baños about 15 minutes away. We did the full package, which included a steam room, two types of mud baths, hot and cold soaking pools, and a steam box (which steams your body while your head sticks out of the top). By the end of the day we were smooth, tired, and so content. It was a really fun experience. The rest of the night was spent chatting with roommates that had returned from trips, and packing up.

Jan 2 This was sadly the parents last day in Cuenca, and the end to my travels. We got up early and walked along the river to the Museo Banco Central, which had a nice interactive collection of gold, silver, money, and a display of the difference between the different regions of Ecuador. Oh, and a few shrunken heads. After the museum we stepped outside to see the Pumapungo ruins, Incan ruins in Cuenca located in the backyard of the museum. From there we got lunch with Fredy, and went back to the artisan market one more time to see if any gifts caught their eye. Fredy picked us up at the house around 3pm, and we headed out with hopes of finding my bag at the airport and getting the parents safely on the bus to Guayaquil. Unfortunately, the bag office didn’t open until 5pm, giving us an hour and a half to kill, and pushing the parent’s bus later. Luckily, a Panama hat museum was located nearby, so we happily killed an hour there, learning about how Panama hats are made (which are actually Ecuadorian hats), and receiving a nice tasting of canelazo (I guess alcoholic drinks fly at an hour of the day here). From the hat factory we did a bit more shopping, and went back to the airport to, hooray!, find my bag. At 5:30pm we left the parents at the bus station, saying a quick and almost tearful goodbye. It was a wonderful trip, and I am so blessed to have parents that both encourage me to travel, and that come down and visit me when I do. Now it’s times for a couple of days to get life in order, and to start another cycle of teaching!