*****

Lindsey and Breanna were here last week. I had an action packed agenda ready for them. They flew in late Saturday night, and Sunday morning bright and early we were already off to Mitad del Mundo and Mindo! Which was a bit of an adventure, as I was not really sure how to get us there initially. Per the usual though, all it took was a bit of asking around and we found a series of buses to get us where we needed to go.
Upon arrival at Mitad del Mundo, we did a quick tour of the monument – which, geography lesson, doesn’t actually sit on the true Equator. So after our quick tour we walked a few hundred yards down the street and found the real Equator. While there we got to take part in several thrilling experiments, to the effect of: watching water swirl in different directions down a sink when moved from north of the Equator line to south of the Equator line, and balancing an egg on the head of the nail (for which we all received Certificates of Achievement).

Lindsey becoming one with the egg on the equator

Upon arrival at Mindo, we found lodging at a very quaint little hostal named Dragonfly Inn, and after dropping off our bags we were promptly off to go ziplining! We drove part way up the mountain, percariously perched on a bench in the back of truck (note: Lindsey adores riding in the backs of trucks). And then after a very quick series of events which involved us handing over some money, getting harnessed up and handed some helmets – we found ourselves standing on the edge of a wooden platform, getting clipped to a cable line and flying out a thousand feet above the cloud forest. It was both terrifying and exhilirating. After the first few cables, we all relaxed and we trying different poses, doing ‘The Superman’ and ‘The Mariposa’…. which involved hanging upside down from the cable basically.

The following morning, after a scrumptious breakfast at the hostal we visited the Mariposario (the butterfly farm)! We were able to watch new butterflies hatching from their cocoons, and even feed the bigger butterflies pieces of banana off of our fingers! Breanna discovered a hidden talent as a ‘Butterfly Whisperer’ (as exhibited in previously posted video) and was able to woo the biggest and most outlandish of the butterflies, but by the time we left we all had made friends with some butterflies and were able to carry them around on our fingers for a little while.

Loved those butterflies

That afternoon we caught a bus Otavalo. Otavalo’s main attraction is a huge open market in the Plaza de Ponchos. We got to wander around all the different stalls and make some purchases. Lindsey and I bought some small paintings on sheep skin, from a lovely women named Juanita. Breanna bought a small wooden hand flute for Yuri. Lindsey made us take a lengthy walking tour of the town in order to take approximately 200 photographs of doors, and the basilica in town. We had some lunch, and were off on another bus back to Quito. Back in Quito, we spent the afternoon touring the gallery and grounds of Ecuadors renowned artist: Guayasamin. We all bought some prints of his work!

Juanita from Otavalo was sweet

We spent the night in Tumbaco, re-packed our back packs and in the morning we climbed the clock tower of the Basilica de voto Nacional with Tia Patti and Diane. The top of the tower offers a stunning view of Quito.

We climbed that, Lindsey almost fainted.

 After this adventure, we were on yet another bus to Banos! After checking into our hostal we got on a ‘party bus’ and headed up the mountain for a night time tour! We got some free canelazo, which is a delicious hot cider drink with a sugar cane liquor in it, and were able to take in a beautiful view of Banos all lite up at night. The following day we rented bikes and took a long riding tour of all the waterfalls in the area, stopping along the way to eat some granadillas and take some pictures. The last and largest waterfall on the tour is the Pailon del Diablo and Bre and Lindsey were able to crawl through a small cave/hole in order to get up and behind the waterfall! We got back in town, we scarfed down some lunch, took a quick nap and then went out for a Pilsner to celebrate an excellent day! 

You would think I had never ridden a bike before, I was so pleased with myself

The next morning we signed up to go canyoning. I had done this before, on my last trip to Banos with friend Dan, but Bre and Lindsey were new to this adventure. They did an excellent job and had lots of fun.
After canyoning, sadly, we had to take a bus back to Quito because the girls were leaving very early the next morning.
 
It was a very bus week, full of buses and travel and adventure sporting. There were lots of laughs, and good times had by all.

Ecuador really suited Lindsey

****

I also find it hilarious that Lindsey added this note at the end of the email:  “OK. i would have….been quirkier in my retelling of the week….but….it seemed like it would get WAY too lengthy if i started adding in a bunch of weird notes/details. I also was unsure of what perspective you wished this to be written from. So i wrote it, as if i was you. (the assignment was VERY unclear.)
I hope you like the voice i gave you.”

Yesterday was my last day at the school.  I made sure I got a photo with each of the classes I taught and looking at the pictures it amazes me how much I know about each one of those 140 kids.  I definitely know everyone’s name, I know how good they are at English, I know which ones like to eat their colored pencils and I know a lot of their parents.  A school is a fantastic way to feel connected to a community.  I already put these photos on Facebook, but I know people like my mother would prefer to look at them here (and I’m not hip to flickr).

Miss Gladys and the Nursery class. They were hard to pose.

Miss Patty and her Pre-Basica class. Wearing crowns for Sarahi's 5th birthday (obviously).

Miss Erika and her Pre-Basica class. Again, like herding cats here to take a photo.

Miss Marlene and her Primero de Basica class. These kids were exhausting every single day.

Miss Alex and her Primero de Basica class. Crazy how tall I am.

Miss Jime, Miss Flor and their Segundo de Basica class.

Miss Carlita and her Cuarto de Basica class. Wild bunch, but really fun kids.

The teacher’s organized a little goodbye party for me at the end of the school day which was nice.  We had lunch and ice cream and they thoughtfully gave me a going away present.  I was asked to give my “testament” (I think that’s what they were calling it) which is basically supposed to be a little funny speech.  I had to write up something equivalent to a will and name what I was giving away to each teacher.  For example: “I give all my bad students to Miss Marlene.  I give all my blue pens to Miss Patti.”  I was sort of nervous about this because 1) it had to be in Spanish obviously and 2) it was supposed to be FUNNY in Spanish.  However, after much dread, the speech turned out well – people laughed and I managed to get a few sentimental notes in there.

All of my various jobs here in Ecuador gave me a great perspective of the country.  I obviously spent the most time at the school, but I also really enjoyed working with FINCA (to see a modern business setting) and the bread store (to see a local business setting).  I’m still amazed at how much I was able to do given my non-existent Spanish skills when I arrived.  Just goes to show that you can’t let language barriers keep you from trying your hand at something you really want to do.  An eagerness to help translates just as well as words.

Bre and Lindsey will be here this evening (!!!) so I need to wrap up my grades and some loose ends on projects today.  Probably won’t update again until the end of next week when we’re done with our travels.  But I’ll definitely put up a post afterward since I know Lindsey has been eagerly awaiting her debut on my blog.

A couple weeks back when I went to Baños my cell phone somehow got mixed up with Dan’s things, so we decided to meet up in Otavalo this weekend so I could retrieve my phone.  Otavalo is probably an hour north of Quito, but it took me about 3 hours to get there on the bus.  Since I was making the trip, Dan suggested I make a weekend of it and join his boss and his family to hike one of the local volcanoes (we ended up not hiking, but that was the original plan).  Dan’s boss, Peter, is super nice and has this lovely family who offered to let us stay at their house in nearby Cotocachi.  I got to meet Pete’s family (impossibly sweet daughters Nina and Camila and very nice wife Celeste) and Pete made us some great lasagna for dinner.  The night involved Nina showcasing her favorite Disney movies, a Michael Jackson dance competition, some really bad wine that Dan picked up and eventually Celeste’s friends coming over and teaching us how to dance salsa.  It was good.

Pete's backyard in Cotacachi

Making a goofy face, but I'm in love with my new "scat" (scarf/hat) so it had to be featured.

The next morning we had intended to climb Fuya Fuya, but Celeste wasn’t really feeling up for going and Dan and I probably couldn’t have done the hike without Peter.  So we scratched those plans, thanked Peter and his family for their hospitality and headed back into Otavalo for market day.

Otavalo is a town known for its huge, fantastic artisan market.  I believe the Otavaleños are known for their textile production, but you can buy just about anything in Otavalo on market day.  There is an overwhelming amount of STUFF there, so it was easy for us to spend the majority of the day just wandering around marveling at all the things crammed into that town for people to buy.  It’s also incredibly amusing to watch foreigners haggle for their artisan wares all day, so that occupied our time as well.

Market day in Otavalo

We lucked out at night and a huge outdoor concert was set up in the park for a musician originally from Otavalo called Sisay.  I’m not really sure what the genre of music was, but it reminded me of an Ecuadorian Yanni.  They played for hours and it was pretty great to just chill outside with live music and half the town of Otavalo.  Night ended up with us checking out the nightlife in town (amazingly we didn’t see any gringos.  They must have all been tired from the day of bargain shopping).

And now I’m back in Tumbaco.  I have tests to prep for the kids tomorrow and some work to finish up for The Quito Project, but nothing too stressful for my last week of work.  Diane’s son, David, is visiting right now so I might take him around Quito a little later in the week.  Vamos a ver.

The Books:  Work / volunteer stuff is winding down and exciting travel lies ahead, thus the doubling up on travel books.  I’ve been busy fantasizing about upcoming visits from Bre and Lindsey (1.5 weeks!!) and Justin (2.5 weeks!!).  I’ve also tried to consistently read a bit each night out of my aunt’s bi-lingual New Testament.  Despite the cliché of picking up the habit of reading the Bible in a missionary home, it’s actually helped me expand my vocabulary a lot.  And then of course I always need one good fiction book to keep me happy.  Ben-Hur got booted in favor of Jane Eyre.

The Shoes:  Ugh.  I seriously never know what shoes to wear in this country.  The weather can change so much in a single day.  Chilly in the morning (socks and tennis shoes?), hot in the middle of the day (o hmm, flip flops?) to rainy in the afternoon (shoot.  crocs?  boots?).  It’s a constant struggle for me.

The Backpack:  In the last month or so my weekend trips have really picked up.  In the past 5 weeks I’ve been to Tena, Cuenca, Guayaquil, Baños and everywhere in between.  I’ve basically just started keeping my toiletries in their little baggie in prep for the next excursion.

The Bed:  I may live in Ecuador, far away from my normal routines back home, but I still can’t stand an unmade bed.  There is nothing more comforting at the end of the day than to see my bed all fixed up and cozy and inviting.  Some things don’t change.

I guess that’s one of the drawbacks of living abroad.  You can’t just drop what you’re doing this weekend and go home to see your new family member.  People argue that it’s no different than if I lived in California and had to fly back to Michigan / Ohio.  Yet.  A plane ticket from California is a lot cheaper than a plane ticket from Ecuador.

Hopefully Baby Aiden will forgive me for missing out on the 1st two months of his life.

I've yet to see this child's eyes open (in photos at least)

Dyl, Jordyn, Michelle and Baby Aiden

First song is the “Banana Song”:

Next up, “I’m Happy”:

Driving the streets of Ecuador in a go-kart is even more fun than it sounds

I thought about trying to write up an excellent post to chronicle all the fun we had this weekend, but then Dan published a basically incredible post that encompassed everything and is fully accompanied by photos and videos.  So it seems a little silly to try to re-create that.  Here is the link to our Baños weekend in all its glory.

Just a few notes that weren’t included in his post.  First of all, I stayed at a hostal down the street from Dan and had my first experience of sharing a room blind with another traveler.  I guess this is probably normal, but I’d never done it.  To stay in a room alone would have cost me twice as much ($13!) so I agreed to stay in a room with this Israeli girl.  We never actually met since I got home too late on Friday and woke up too early on Saturday, and then the next day I had a new Israeli roommate.  And while I never actually met her either, I sort of really liked the communal feeling of everyone just willing to share rooms in the name of cheap traveling.

The weekend consisted of bar-hopping, meeting international travelers, renting a go-kart like a car, jumping off bridges (as scary as it sounds), drinking fresh juices, and viewing, playing and rappelling down beautiful waterfalls.  All while being quintessentially Ecuadorean.  Again, I can’t emphasize how futile it is for me to try to re-create Dan’s post, so really just go read that.

Traveling to and from Baños alone totally gave me more confidence in traveling around Ecuador.  I have now figured out a number of ways to travel which includes buses, informal vans, taxis, informal taxis, troles, and pseudo-hitch hiking.  I can also ask for directions remarkably well given my limited vocabulary.  I can’t wait for Bre and Lindsey to come because I feel good about us getting around.  Hopefully my new traveling instincts carry over to Peru and Chile as well for when I’m with Justin.

Anyway.  Baños was fantastic.  On my way home to Tumbaco I ran into a man who happened to be in Baños as well (and we had actually met the night before??) and he told me that the reason Baños is “so magical” is because it contains the 4 major elements of energy.  Water – tons of waterfalls and rivers; Earth – apparently everything grows well there; Air – being up in the mountains makes the air fresh and pure; Fire – it’s located directly next to a volcano.  I sort of liked that and decided to agree with him.

So for now, I’ll just post a few videos from the road trip.  It should be noted, that the three of us covered A LOT of ground.  I drew up a little map of our route below.

5 day road trip route in Ecuador

We were a funny little group.  My two “older lady” friends and me.  Diane and I were the gringas trying to be more Ecuadorean and Tere the Ecuadorean, who seemed to try to be more Chilean.  Mis viejitas were a lot of fun throughout the trip and I was happy they let me tag along.  Diane amazingly drove the whole way – asking for directions from strangers the entire time and even inviting them into the car a twice. We managed to visit Alaúsi, Cuenca, Gualaceo, Chordoleg, Guayaquil, Salinas, Montañita, Puerto Lopez and Bahía.  Along with other little places along the way I’m sure.

Anywho.  Onward with the videos.  I split it up into two montages.  I’ll eventually post on the awesomeness that was Baños this past weekend.

“but not all the people are as SPONTANEOUS as some of us.  Chao Chao.  Pack some sheets in case we end up in Atacames or in some shack along the coast.  A towel too.”

I love Diane.