Cotopaxi

Here I am in front of Cotopaxi, one of the tallest volcanoes in the world. Its peak is at 5897 meters. You can't see to the very top because it was foggy the day we went, and the icy top of the mountain kind of blends into the clouds. Just use your imagination...
You can kind of see that next to the ice the ground is rather red. It reminded me of the iron ore mines in northern Minnesota. I asked our pickup truck driver, Patricio, why it was red. He said something about how a glacier had been there but then it melted and left lava deposits or something. I didn't quite understand it all--my geology vocabulary in Spanish is not that great. But the red makes the volcano look pretty awesome.

The volcano is located in Parque Nacional Cotopaxi, and four of my friends and I hired a pickup truck to take us around the park. One of the first places we stopped was a little museum. Not too exciting until I saw this:



















YES!!! A stick-your-head-in-it-thing. I'm so glad they have these in Ecuador, and I hope this is just a taste of what is to come.

From the museum we went to a "lake". I was excited about seeing a lake at such a high altitude, but it turns out it is not much more than a really big puddle. It looks really shallow. That's it behind me. Behind the lake, the dark mountain in the back is Volcan Rumiñahi. It looks pretty menacing. My friends and I called it "Mordor" like the evil town from Lord of the Rings.











Next we parked at a place on the mountain and 3 of us walked up to the refuge. It's a place where people can sleep after climbing up the mountain or before they decide to tackle the icy parts above the refuge. It was VERY hard to climb to it. It looks close, but it isn't, and of course it is all uphill. At 4,800 meters your body is not getting very much oxygen, so we had to walk very slowly and take lots of breaks because we were breathing very heavily. It took us about 40 minutes to get there. Here we are, exhausted at the top.















We had some warm drinks and looked around. I took this picture:










CONTEST: The first person to correctly identify why I took this picture (the more specific the better) will receive a postcard.

I also saw this sign up at the top and had to take a picture. It says DANGER: Avalanche zone. I'm holding a volcanic rock because I thought it was cool.











After we rested up we went back down. Of course, the descent only took about 15 minutes or so, and we weren't breathing very hard. We left the park and took a bus home. It was a pretty exhausting trip, but really fun!

Almost One Month!!!!

Yes, it's true. I've been in Ecuador for almost a month. How does that saying go? Time flies when you're in a foreign country? So true. Hehehe. I don't really have many new pictures, but I will update a little and put in some older photos. I started classes last Monday the 18th. I'm taking two classes at PUCE (Pontificia Universidad Catolica. They are Antropologia Social del Ecuador (Social Anthropology of Ecuador), and Lenguaje: Teoria y Practica (Language: Theory and Practice). The latter is a pretty technical course focusing a lot on spelling and punctuation and such. It will be very helpful. I'm the only gringa in the Language class and there is one other white girl in the Anthropology class. I can understand the professors pretty well, although Pato, my Anthropology seems to use a lot of slang. But he is pretty amusing.

I'm also taking 3 classes with IES. They are: Artes Populares de los Andes (Popular Art in the Andes), Diversidad Ambiental del Ecuador (Environmental Diversity of Ecuador), and Literatura (Literature). They should be pretty interesting. I went on a field trip with the art class already, which was fun. I'm very excited to learn more about Ecuador's environment. It is one of the most environmentally diverse places in the world, and it is only the size of Colorado!!

I'm sure you want to look at some pictures now, so here they are:











Remember Banos? Here is our Chiva. We took the tour of the waterfalls in this. Notice there are no doors. We rode in that little basket on the top for a while too. It was slightly terrifying but totally worth it!
When we returned to the Government Palace, I went for back for a better picture with the guard, (just for you, Jan!) Here I am almost poking the serious Ecuadorian guard.




















Last Friday we had a cocktail party with all of the international students at PUCE. It was a blast. The people who know how to salsa salsa-ed (?) and the rest of us just danced. People danced with their host moms and brothers and with the IES staff members. It was super amusing. They played music in Spanish and also some U.S. classics like Greased Lightning and YMCA. Here I am with my friend Caitlin at the shindig:

Weekend Excursion

Buenos dias! This weekend I went on a trip to a town called Banos. (Like Banyos, but I can't get the tilde on here.) Banos means bathroom in Spanish, so here is my bano in Banos. (We stayed in a hostal):













I know you can't see it that well, but it was pretty nice. The hostal had excellent breakfast and a great view of a waterfall in town. On Friday we took a tour on a chiva. A chiva is a traditional bus here that usually plays music and is kind of like a party bus. Ours wasn't too party-ish, but it was still really fun. It took us to see a bunch of waterfalls. They were amazing. Here I am in front of the waterfall where we got to walk down and get a closer look. It was very misty there.




















We also went in this little metal basket thing from one mountain to another about 100m or so above the river. You can kind of see it in this picture. It is the red thing on the cable.








On Saturday I went rafting with my friend. Here we are in all our gear. It was super fun!




















The rapids weren't too scary, but they were thrilling enough. The place we rafted through was at the very edge of the jungle. It was really cool to see all the tropical vegetation. I also saw a Kingfisher and a bunch of pretty butterflies. I think it was a preview of what is to come when we go to the jungle on a field trip. It was pretty exciting. The whole are was just beautiful!

Today, Sunday, we took a bus to a nearby town, Rio Verde, and we hiked to another waterfall, el Pailon del Diablo (something like Devil's Shoot I think). You could get really close to this one, and we were even able to go right behind it as it was falling in front of us. That was pretty neat. But in order to get to that point, we had to crawl up this little tunnel-ish thing. It felt very Indiana Jones.



















Here I am behind the waterfall. I'm on the right.




















We also went across a bridge to get a better view of the falls. Heres what the sign for the bridge said:













And people didn't follow the rules! There were like 10 or 12 people crossing at once! Luckily we made it, but it was a little scary.

But I don't want you to leave scared, so here is something happy to think about. Banos is known
for its taffy, known as milcocha. It is very chewy, and they make it by throwing it around this little wooden post in the wall. They make it all over town and sell it for a dollar a package. Yum! Here is a picture:

Tour with PUCE

With the international students attending PUCE we went on a tour of Quito and other nearby places. First we went to el centro again. I got an actual tour of the Government Palace, which was interesting.

Next we went to the Mitad del Mundo (middle of the world. aka, the EQUATOR!!). That was fun. Here I am, one foot in the Southern hemisphere, and one in the Northern Hemisphere. Kind of cool.



















These guys were at the Mitad del Mundo as well. I have no idea who they are, but the middle one reminded me of home. :-)








Then we went to this beautiful house outside of Quito. I guess it is property of the university. We had a delicious lunch. Then I took some pictures. It was very pretty. This is me in front of the fountain. I didn't want to take another one of me just smiling, so my friends told me to try to look like a flower so that I would blend in. Bet you can't spot me!




















I saw this one and thought of something right away. Feed me Seymour....(couldn't resist)









And here's just a shot of the grounds and a pretty flower. It was absolutely gorgeous!

El fin de semana (The weekend)

Quito weather has been very nice until yesterday. Yesterday it was kind of cloudy, and today it was also cloudy. It rained for a little while today. Other than that it has been perfect here! On Friday I went with my group on el Teleferico. It is this thing that takes you to the top of one of the mountains and allows for great views of the city. You can hike to the top of other mountains if you are ambitious. The altitude got to me a bit when I got to the top, and I was breathing pretty hard. But it is beautiful! Here I am at the top. (Thanks for the hat Frazees!) The dark and farthest back mountain is the volcano Pichincha, which exploded several years ago and covered Quito with a lot of ash.












Quito, besides being the capital of Ecuador, is also the capital of the province, Pichincha, named after the mountain. We took in a lot of views of the city from up here. Quito is so large, sprawling a significant distance north to south. We were able to spot the building where our center is. That was fun. We did a little exploring. CAUTION: If you are a parent, this might be disturbing. Hehehe.















Okay, so you probably can't see it that well, but that green sign on the wooden post says "Prohibido el paso" (you're not supposed to go there). But we lifted up the barbed wire fence and squeezed through for a great view of Quito. The guy going through in this picture is one of the IES staff members. :-)

On Saturday we went to the Old Town or "el centro". There was a celebration and lots of museums were free because the independence of Quito was Sunday. There were many people there, and it was very interesting and very crowded. I saw a beautiful church and some other historic places. We saw the place where the president works. Here is one of the guards:




















I don't know if they are supposed to be serious all the time or anything, but I didn't want to take any chances. I left them alone.

That's about it. All is well here still. Just one more thing. This is for you dad! I saw it at this cafe, Vista Hermosa:

Small Update

Hello! I thought I would post a few more pictures. For anyone who lives/has lived in the mountains, this is probably not that exciting, but it is fun and new for me! Here is a picture taken from my window looking west:










And here is one to the east:










Here is my room:











Things are going well here. We've had an orientation this week, learning about safety, health, culture, etc. Tomorrow we are going on the Teleferico which will take us up a mountain and give us great views of the city. Saturday there is a big celebration in the Old Town because Quito's independence day is Sunday.

I've learned a little about the government here. They just finished writing their 21st constitution. The next step is for the people to vote on it. Right now there are debates about whether it is a good idea or not. It seems like the president wants to distribute Ecuador's wealth more evenly. I'm not exactly sure how. It is mandatory for people 18-65 to vote. You can't even cash a check unless you have the card that proves you voted! Also, the current president, Rafael Correa, used to be a professor for IES (the program I am studying with here!)

Something else interesting: My bus stop is Jipijapa. That is pronounced hippie-HAH-pa. I think it is pretty much the coolest bus stop name ever! It takes me about 20 minutes or so to get to school--not too bad.

First Day

Here I am, in Quito!!! Mountains and city behind me. (It was a little windy. And kind of chilly.)











Here I am at the top of a church, Santo Domingo. The view is beautiful!!!!































A view of the patio at Santo Domingo. Ok, can't do too much more right now. My connection's pretty unreliable. I am doing well. Trying to get used to local customs and such. I do want to say that for anybody who is interested, I have seen THREE Pizza Huts so far.