Virgins and Vampires

Hoooooooola! I have some random pictures, so I'm going to post them in this random post. Hope you can keep up with the randomness. Enjoy.














This is a fruit. It is called a granadilla I think. It is super weird but awesome. You eat that weird greyish goo on the right. The seeds are in there, and some other goop. Once you get past the fact that it looks really odd, its very tasty. Yum. I ate a lot of them in the amazon.




















Here I am in front of the Virgen del panecillo. It's a statue of a virgen. It's on a hill in the south of Quito, and you can see it from pretty far away. The statue is pretty random, but it's kind of cool.















This is me on a grumpy day. I just woke up this way. Felt a little ill. But I'm better now.
Okay, no. This picture is from Halloween. I was Morticia from the Addams family. I was going to be an Ecuadorian soccer player, but my friend's host family decided I should be something more elaborate. So this is what I ended up as. It was pretty fun.















I know I've told some of you about how there are vendors who sell stuff on buses here. I decided it would be fun to buy everything they offered on the bus for one day. This is what I ended up with: Three packs of assorted candies, a notecard with looney toons on it, cookies, and chifles (chips made from plantains.) There were a couple things I didn't get: a newspaper and some other food that was really large and would get crushed in my backpack. It was kind of a fun experiment. Anyway, that's about enough randomness for now. Have a great weekend!!

Riobamba

Hello! How is everyone doing? Getting excited for Thanksgiving? I know it's been a while since I posted. And it's been a while since I actually went on this trip, but better late than never, right? I went to Riobamba, a city south of Quito. From there you can take a train through the mountains on what is supposed to be one of the most beautiful routes in Ecuador. I went with my friend, Chris, and we had a few difficulties in the trip, but it ended up being successful.

Since it is "winter" right now in Ecuador, they don't use the usual train, but instead this weird bus/train. There weren't any tickets left from Riobamba, so we took a train/bus down what is supposed to be the most interesting part of the ride. It's pictured above: the "nariz del diablo" (nose of the devil). It's an impressive land formation, and the tracks going down it zig-zag, so you go backward and then forward. There's sometimes when you look down and cant see the path, only the drop off.















To make it more interesting, you can sit on top of the train. This is actually a picture of people getting off the train, but you can see people on the top. It was quite a process to actually get to sit on the top, so we were pretty excited when we finally got up there.































Another attraction of this train is that it de-rails often. We made it almost the whole trip with no problems, but at the very end we slid off the track a little. You can't really see it very well in this picture, but I promise it happened. We had to walk back to the station. Overall, the trip was quite an adventure. We spent a lot of hours sitting down in various forms of transportation. It was a good time.

La Amazonia

Hello!

I know it's been a while since I've posted, but here's a quick overview of the Amazon. We went to a place called Tiputini, where they do a lot of research and such. It took a long time to get there. We had to go on two motorized canoes. Here I am on one.
















We finally got there, and it was pretty neat. It's very beautiful. Everything is so green! I was surprised by the temperature. It wasn't nearly as hot as I thought it would be. The trees provide a lot of shade, so that keeps the temp down. It was extremely humid though. You hardly had to move before you were dripping with sweat.















We saw monkeys, huge spiders, frogs, strange insects, and birds. It was neat. There were a lot of large trees. Here I am being a "mujer de la selva" (woman of the jungle) hiding bein














I didn't think I would swim because there is a lot of scary stuff in the water. Piranhas live there, and anacondas, and a whole ton of parasites and stuff. But I did it. The water in the river Tiputini is very cloudy. It looks brown, and you can't see more than a foot down. That's kind of good because then I couldn't see what weird creatures were swimming below me. But it's also a little scary. I just tried not to touch the bottom. Here I am swimming. I think that's me on the left. It was a nice trip, if a little short.

Quilotoa

Buenos dias!!! This weekend some of my friends and I went on a little excursion to a lake. I thought, we have thousands of lakes in Minnesota; this won't be anything new. But with the mountains and everything, it was really spectacular. The town and lake are called Quilotoa. It was a kind of torquoise color. The lake is in a volcanic crater, so no water comes in or out.

The day we got there we walked down into the crater a little, and then we took horses back up. They were actually more like mules. They crater is at about 3.800 meters above sea level, so walking around gets pretty strenuous.
















Our hostal was super basic. We met some Italians staying there. Also, there was a monkey, Juanito. He obviously does not belong in the mountains, but he was really cute.




















On Sunday we walked all the way around the crater. At such a high altitude, it was pretty tricky. We had to take many breaks. It took about 4 hours to go around. It was absolutely beautiful.

Mindo

Hello again. As promised, here are some Mindo pictures. They are a little out of chronological order, but I'm sure you will understand. This is the waterfall we repelled down. It's on private property, and the guys who own it are super nice. We didn't repel down the whole thing, just from where there's that sort of ledge in the middle-ish. It was about 40 meters. Here I am with my friends beforehand. Surprisingly, I wasn't really that nervous. But some of the others were. So we decided to put on some war paint (aka mud) before we climbed the rest of the way up.















Here I am going down the waterfall. It wasn't too hard. I slipped a couple of times, but I didn't get hurt or anything. The view was amazing. The waterfall is beautiful. You can kind of see the bottom there. I think that little white blob is my friend Caitlin.




















We went horseback riding too. That was pretty fun. The whole area is breathtaking. Mindo is in the cloud forest. I'm not exactly sure what qualifies something as a cloud forest, but there were definitely a lot of clouds there. And trees. We saw a toucan on the ride. At the end, we stopped at a guy's house where he had a bunch of hummingbird feeders up. I saw so many hummingbirds--probably 6 or 7 species at least. They are so cute and amazing! It was really cool.




















Sunday morning we woke up early and went birdwatching with a guide. That was amazing as well. We saw four species of toucans, a quetzal, some parrots, and various other birds. About 500 species of birds have been spotted in Mindo alone. It's a hotspot for birds. Absolutely incredible.

Another super fun activity we did was zip-lining. We went on a cable from one place above the rainforest canopy to another. I wasn't really nervous about this either. From the cable to the trees is a long way down, but it was a beautiful view. Here I am on one of the cables. It's probably a little hard to judge distances in this picture, but the cables ranged from 125 meters long to 500 meters long.





















Another thing you could do while zip-lining were a couple different poses with the help of a guide. This one is called superman. Look ma, no hands!! It was great for seeing the forest below, because I was looking down the whole time. This part was particularly cloudy, but I still had a good view of all the vegetation. It was incredible!!!















Needless to say, it was a pretty action-packed weekend. I definitely enjoyed it. Hope you are doing well. Cuidate!

GALAPAGOS!!

Hola! How are you? I know this post is a little overdue, but it's getting to be midterm time, and I suddenly have homework and stuff. We did a lot in the Galapagos, so this is going to be a very brief summary. I have lots more pictures, so if you want to see them, give me a ring when I get back. This is the view from San Cristobal, the island we landed on. The water was super pretty.

There are many lobos marinos (Sea Lions) on San Cristobal. They aren't very afraid of humans, and they are pretty much everywhere. Here is one.



















After San Cristobal we went snorkeling near Isla Floreana. I'd never been before, so it was pretty cool to see all the fish. The sea lions would swim right by us. They were probably only a foot away at times. I got stung by something, probably a jellyfish, but it didn't hurt too much. And it definitely didn't ruin the rest of the snorkeling. The water was pretty chilly because right now it is the cold/dry season on the islands.















We went to eat on Floreana, and the marine iguanas were just hanging around, sunning themselves. Here we are with one of them.



















Next we went to Isabela, another island that is very gorgeous. The island itself is shaped almost exactly like a seahorse. Kind of cool. I thought this sign was funny. It says "Iguana Crossing, Reduce Speed." There I am, pretending to be an iguana.















We also went to visit a crater on Isabela. Sierra Negra, the crater, is the second largest in the world, with a diameter of about 8 miles. Pretty much everyone got burnt this day, but it was worth it. It was pretty sweet.















The islands are relatively young, and there is volcanic activity on the newer ones. They were formed like the Hawaii chain, as the earth moved over a hotspot that is under the ocean. This means theres some other cool formations, such as a tunnel that used to be where the lava flowed. We walked through it, which was pretty neat, but there were some tight spots, such as here, where you had to crawl. At the end of the tunnel we saw an owl.















Of course, we also visited the giant tortoises. They can weigh up to 500 pounds and live for about 150-175 years. Something I found interesting is that they only lay 4-6 eggs twice a year in their nests. That is much less than sea turtles lay. Like I said, there's much more, but these are some highlights.



















Galapagos was definitely cool, but a little different than I expected. Our professor reminded us that Galapagos is important not for the number of different species that live there, but for the amazing number of species that live ONLY there, that can't be found anywhere else in the world. The island has never been connected to the continent, so any species found there had to arrive there in some fashion--swimming, flying, blowing in the wind, attached to floating debris on the water. In order to survive of course there had to be two of them. And over time they evolved to be completely unique from any other organisms. Pretty fascinating. But, anyway, enough with the science lesson. Hope you enjoy the pics!!

Coming soon: The cloud forest; adventures in Mindo.

Cuenca

This past weekend I went with two of my friends to a city in Southern Ecuador, Cuenca. It was pretty fun--we got to take a plane and everything. Cuenca is the third largest city in the country with 400.000 people. It has a well-preserved colonial part of town with many nice churches. Here is a street in Cuenca. You can kind of see the two blue domes on the left. Those are the trademark of Cuenca.




















Cuenca was nice because it was kind of low-key compared to Quito. Much more relaxed. We walked around and looked at all the churches and streets and everything. And we had some delicious milkshakes! Cuenca was made even better by the fact that it is where I found my second stick-your-head-in-it thing. Success!!!




















This is me as a Chola Cuencana. That is the name of an indigenous group that lives in and around Cuenca. This is their traditional dress. We found this at a place that sells Panama Hats. Panama hats are actually from Ecuador. They are called sombreros de paja toquilla. They are associated with Panama because when people were working on the Panama Canal they wore the hats, but they originally come from Ecuador. The hats come in various quality levels, depending on how fine the weave is.
Almost better than a stick-your-head-in-it thing is getting to dress up. There was a place where we got to dress up like the Chola Cuencana. The guy laughed at us because we don't look like them--we are way too white. But all that dressing up gets pretty exhausting.















In the actual city of Cuenca they have some ruins leftover from the Incas. These were more impressive than Rumicucho. And attached to the ruins was a park with llamas and a variety of exotic birds. There was also a museum there which had some shrunken heads on display. Pretty cool. Here are the ruins.















About two hours from Cuenca is another site where there are really good ruins. The place is called Ingapirca. We got a tour of the place, and it's quite fascinating. Here is a picture of the temple of the sun. The Incas worshipped the sun, Inti. You can't see it that well in this picture, but the stones are almost exactly the same height. The Incas didn't use cement, they just made the stones the same height and stacked them on top of each other.















From Cuenca we went to Loja, another town about 5 hours south of Cuenca by bus. They don't like emos there. (This says "No more emos").














We saw other things about emos around town. It was kind of weird. They were definitely very pro si on the consitution though. And in case you were wondering, the constitution passed with about 70% yes. Since this past weekend was the weekend they voted, the "ley seca" (dry law) was in place. Liquor stores and bars closed, and no restaurants served alchohol. It was pretty quiet in town on Friday and Saturday since the clubs were all closed.

Also in Loja we went to the zoo. It was interesting. You could get really close to the animals. Here's the giraffe.




















One of the main reasons we went to Loja was to try some cuy, a delicacy here. Cuy is guinea pig. We each got a half cuy. It came with potatoes and salad. I liked it. It's just a lot of work.















It was a successful trip. We definitely got to see a lot.

On another note, last night I was at a cafe in town, and on the tv was an ad for visiting Colombia. There were beautiful pictures of the country and all of that like a regular tourism commercial thing. At the end there was a sort of slogan, and it translates to: The only risk is that you will want to stay. I found that quite humorous. Anyway, I will leave you with that. Have a wonderful day!!

Otavalo

This weekend I went with the international students from PUCE on a trip to Otavalo, a town north of Quito that is famous for its artisan market. The indigenous community that lives in the area (Otavalenos) makes all sorts of crafts and then sells them at the market. You have to bargain with them for the best price, which can be tedious or fun, depending on your mood.

The place we stayed was super nice. It was a little community of cabins around San Pablo, a lake in Otavalo. It was gorgeous. Here I am at lunch with my yummy dessert in the restaurant. The restaurant is practically in the lake, so it made for a really nice view.



















Here's a man holding a rooster.



















The hotel had some pretty sweet amenities. There was a fireplace in our room, which we made use of. And in the back yard, a sweet tire swing/zip line contraption where you could zoom from one side to the other in a tire on a cable. Here I am with a little girl after having gone for a ride.












Don't worry, we let her have a turn too. We even helped her. It was pretty sweet. There was also mini golf, so we took advantage of that. It was definitely one of the hardest courses I've played, rivaled only by that one in northern Minnesota with the huge mosquito and such. This one didn't have grass, just cement. And there were many water obstacles. And, of course, for one of the holes there was a little cage with various fowl. Right in the middle of the hole.












On Sunday we went to a waterfall, Peguche. It was pretty.




















After the waterfall we went back to the cabins for lunch. The food at the restaurant was amazing. They served excellent juice, and the main dishes were very tasty. Apparently other people enjoy it too, because the president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, was there. With the vote for the constitution only a week away, he must be relaxing a bit before the last big push to vote si. How nice of him to pose for a picture with us. Here I am with my buddy Raf.












(I know I'm not looking at the camera. There were too many pictures being taken at once. Oops)
We got back around 5:00, and then we went out for sushi to celebrate a birthday. It was a very enjoyable weekend!!

Ruins

Hello! Hope everyone is well. Thanks for the birthday wishes. I had a nice birthday. My friends surprised me with a cake and trick candles and everything. It was really sweet!! I played cards with my friends at night, and that was fun too.

I know I haven't updated in a while, but here goes. On Saturday we went to see some ruins. The place is called Rumicucho. The adventure was probably more of a story than the ruins themselves, but it was pretty fun. Here is a pic of the ruins. It's the snakey wall thing on the mountain.











Here I am at the top of some ancient steps. I'm trying to look like some powerful ancient ruler or something. Can't you just imagine it?



















There were some pretty amazing views. Here is my friend on the edge of the hill.











In other news, I almost got to meet the president of Ecuador. He was in the building where I was having class, talking to some director of the school or something. We waited for a while to see if he would come out to his car, but we didn't see him. Some of my friends got to meet him and take pictures and talk to him and such. Hopefully he'll come around again.

That's about it for now. Que te vaya bien! (Hope all goes well with you!)

Because you were probably wondering...

Como va? September treating you well? I don't have any major events to report, but I thought I would post some random pictures of things around Quito. First of all, here is my sweet bus stop, Jipijapa:




















And I'm sure you wanted to know what Ecuador license plates look like. So here it is:








Pretty dull, I know. But it does the job.

So every day, except maybe Sunday, people are learning to drive. Driving here is a little crazy. They use their horns a lot. I haven't seen a car/truck/bus with automatic transmission yet. There's a driving school very near the IES center, so if you look out the window at the right time, you can see all the student drivers lining up to go for their lesson. I tried to capture it on the camera, but it's a little tricky to see. The first two blue ones in the line and at least the majority of the white cars are with the driving school. I thought it was kind of funny.




















The fruit here is amazing. I've tried lots of fruits I didn't even know existed. There is also lots of wonderful fruit juices. One of my favorite new juices is that of the Tree Tomato (Tomate del arbol). Here is a picture of the fruit (with a Sacajawea dollar coin FOR SCALE!!)












Speaking of those dollar coins...
If you were wondering where they all went since we don't really use them, I have the answer. They are all here in Ecuador. They use them a lot. Kind of weird, but I'm glad they are being put to use.
The name that nobody came up with for the picture from last post is culpeo. It is the Spanish term for an Andean fox. Good eye to all those who saw it though!

Finally, a little preview. On Saturday I went to a futbol game. Ecuador versus Bolivia. It was really fun! And we won! I'm hoping to maybe have some pictures from the game, but for now, I just have a picture of the stadium. Or about 1/3 of the stadium. It's the blue, yellow and red thing. It's within walking distance of my house, which is very convenient. Hope to have more later, but that's it for now. Chao!