Craft Fairs

Dear mom, thanks for somehow instilling a sixth sense in me to find craft fairs no matter where I am. Fortunate for you, the one I found today doesn't have candles, so there's room for international expansion!

So here's the deal: in the park across the street and down a block from my house, every weekend there is this huge craft fair/artesian market where mostly indigenous people sell handmade paintings and very touristy things like jewelry, knitted alpaca things, souvenirs, etc. It's actually a really cool park and a great setting for something like this. The booths and painting displays are set up along the perimeter and main circle of the park, and inside the circle of green tents there are tons of jungle gyms, people selling fruit and ice cream, kids on bikes, people playing soccer in the grass. It's really chévere.

This is a picture of the painting displays set up along the side of the street. One of the hundreds of vendors selling pretty similar paintings.

A view of the "inner vendors" and their green tents under the awnings. It's rude to take pictures of people and their stuff, so this is poor quality because I managed to sneak a peek with my camera. Oops!

Some guy watches his kid go on the zipline in the jungle gym area. Cute.

El Centro Historico

Quito is a big city, but the original part of the city is called "El Centro Historico" and it has hundreds (yes, hundreds) of churches in the area, so it's very pretty and very old, colonial, has cool architecture, etc. Well, today I went to the Plaza Grande and toured a few museums and churches, because there's a huge festival going on and museum and art gallery tours are free. Live drum lines, music, dances, general fun-ness. It was very cool, and only a 5 minute bus ride south of my house!

This is the view of one of the churches/museums and the winged statue of Quito in the background. It's a landmark around town, and very pretty at night.

This is the big gothic church at the top of the hill that you can see from basically anywhere in the city. It is HUGE and really pretty.

The Plaza Grande, well part of it. It's a very pretty plaza that is the center of the Centro Historico.

Well, that's all I have for now. Have a good weekend!

Mi Casa and the Government?

So, my house is located across the street from the main political/governmental buildings. The financial building, Congress, and other main branches of the Ecuadorian government are all situated next to the Casa de la Cultura, so it seems like there is always something going on on the other side of the street.

Every weekend in the park that is right here there is an artisanal fair where people from all over the country come to sell their paintings and other works of art.

Almost every weekend there has been some sort of big concert in the Casa de la Cultura, and we can hear it from our front terrace, so sometimes we sit outside and listen as a family. It's cute.

But on days like today, there are HUGE protests that clog the street in front of my house as literally thousands of people march from who knows where in order to change something about society. According to my mamí, I'm not allowed to go near the other side of the street on those days because if something were to happen and I were to end up in jail for being a protestor, I would be in a world of trouble. So I don't go near it, although I do want to get a picture one of these days. Some pretty huge governmental actions are supposed to happen in the next month, so I'm sure I can sneak a picture sometime soon.

Baños

This weekend we went to a town called Baños for a couple of nights. The town is famous for its hot springs, which are said to have healing powers. The town is located in this valley next to a volcano (the town has been destroyed 3 times since 1700), and has really pretty scenery. It's a very touristy town, but really cool at the same time.

This is the church in the main square.

One of the main streets. It almost looks European!

An artisanal market.

My friend Noah playing a game of chess with a stranger on the street.

On Saturday morning we hiked up the mountain to a little café and this was the view. Hello Baños!

Saturday afternoon we visited 3 huge waterfalls. This was my favorite.

Apart from hiking and waterfalls, we visited the hot springs, ate really cheap but delicious food, visited a town called Runtun, and hung out in town quite a bit. Super fun, super relaxed, and very different from anything in the USA.

I hope you had a great weekend too!

Colombia-Ecuador Relations

This is a quick post with no pictures. Sorry.

Today we went to the immigration office to get a government-official ID stating that we are students here for a semester. It was really interesting, for me at least, to notice how many Colombian people were trying to obtain some sort of visa or citizenship in Ecuador in order to escape the drug conflicts, etc. happening in Colombia. Because so many Colombians are fleeing the country and crossing the boarder into Ecuador, the immigration office has been seeing an exponential increase in Colombian immigrants. There is also a huge refugee concentration in some parts of the city. It's no wonder that this is happening, I had just never really thought about it before today. I mean, we hear in the US that Colombia is one of the main sources for drugs like cocaine, but they never really talk about how the drug cartels are affecting the people living in Colombia. I don't really know where I'm going with this, I just wanted to throw it out there.

Anyways, food for thought.

We are off to Baños this weekend, so I should have tons of pictures later!

El Carmen

I apologize for the incoherency of this post; I'm exhausted.

There are some days when my brain just can't think in Spanish, and Friday was one of those days. At one point during the day, my host mom asked if I had anything planned for Saturday, and I said no, because in reality I was up for things like shopping or touring the city some more during the day. Well, around 6 o'clock that night she told me to pack my mochilla because we were going to go to her mother's house and we might go tonight or tomorrow morning, we weren't sure. So, at 9 o'clock we all piled into the car for a 4 hour drive down to the coastal region of El Carmen. Big misunderstanding on my part at some point. Picture this: steep mountain roads with perilous drop offs, dangerous curves, and the thickest fog you've ever seen, while my dad was driving at least 70 mph. It was terrifying. At 1 am we arrived at abuelita's house; she lives on a farm with chickens, ducks, cows, cats, dogs, and plantain trees by the millions:

On Saturday we woke up and went to the beach, which I was told would be a short drive away. An hour and a half later we reached the ocean. There was the weirdest juxtaposition of rich, beach front stores and poverty-stricken shacks on the other side of the street. Also, the sand was black, and when I asked Sophia (6) why she thought it was that color, she said "it's because the sun is so hot here that it burns the land to a crisp and gives us black sand!". Duh, how could I have not known.

An hour later, Sophia got stung by a jellyfish and we promptly departed the vicinity. It was a little terrifying. She's fine, but in order to calm her down we bought ice cream and went swimming in a very nice pool near by:

When we returned to the house, I met most of the family (I lost count at 24 new faces and just smiled and nodded all day long). I'm also pretty sure the chicken we ate for dinner was alive and well that morning; I'm almost considering becoming vegetarian...

Hola gatitos!

And this morning we woke up, I saved a baby duck from getting stuck behind the water heater, sat in the hammock for a while, and then we went out into the jungle. We picked limes, plantains, bananas (yuck), and mandarins right off the trees. It was really cool. Apparently the family grows plantains and exports them to places like the USA and Canada, so look out for those Ecuadorian stickers on the plantains, they might have come from my family!

So that was my weekend! No shopping or touring the city, just family family family. It was fun, but really intimidating and exhausting.

Just a Regular Day

So classes officially started yesterday and I've managed to fall into a schedule of sorts. This means that my days aren't as interesting as those during orientation week, but they're still pretty fun.

This is the back entrance of the main University where I will be taking my classes. I will be taking my fourth class at the grad school that is 20 minutes away. That class doesn't start until October, though. It's a 10 minute walk to the University from my house, so that's really convenient. I don't have to take a bus or taxi, unless it's dark outside and unsafe to walk home.

This is one of the main hallways at the University. It's an open hallway and the windows overlook the quad where kids are always playing soccer and practicing cheerleading or something.

One more thing I've noticed about my stay in the city thus far is the pollution. The air is so contaminated that some days (like today), my eyes are burning by the end of the day because the pollution is so bad. It can't be good. With all the exhaust fumes from the cars and the seemingly never-ending cigarette smoke that lingers over the entire city, it's no wonder that my eyes are always red and itchy. I need to get eye drops...

Nanegalito

So on Friday morning we woke up super early and drove to a place in the northwest called Nanegalito. It was definitely more jungle-y and Amazon-like, but it was still considered the highlands and part of the Andes. But, to be honest, we were actually in the jungle. Big spiders, bugs, and tons of mosquitos. Yuck. But it was really fun.

These are pictures of the big butterflies in the Butterfly Garden, a place we visited to see some natural "mariposas" of Ecuador.

After the butterflies, we tubed down the river that was right there. There were six tubes tied together and each group had a guide, who would matrix-walk up a wall of rock to steer the group of us, and a few times we thought someone was going to get thrown off. I hate to say it, but it was more fun than tubing in the Poudre. When we were done, our director brought out beers and everyone chilled in the river drinking. It was pretty funny.

The place we stayed was kind of like a 5-star tourist resort/compound thing. There were 6 little cabañas each with a few bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen. This picture is the view of the mountains (keep in mind that it was SUPER foggy so you can't see all of the range) from the main casita's terrace. It was really pretty.

This is a picture of our cabaña and 4 of the 5 girls that stayed in it.

On Saturday we woke up and hiked upstream in another river nearby to a little waterfall/slide thing. It was very Indiana Jones. I didn't bring my camera because let me tell you, I fell into the water a few times and my camera would have been ruined. But, after the river, we went to a museum about the Yumbo tribe (I told you about them in the post with the volcano and the Mitad Del Mundo). In the area there were orange trees like this one. We didn't try any, but they looked delicious!

This is a picture of a typical casa in the country. They have some sort of store on the bottom part and then living quarters above. Actually, this one is pretty well-kept. They aren't all this pretty.

We start classes on Tuesday, so I will keep you updated later!

All We Do Is Eat..........

I honestly think I eat 100 pounds of food a day. But today was especially a large amount of delicious comida. For lunch, we had a few hours (4) to eat, and so a group of us went to eat at this restaurant called "Verde Esmereldas". The lady who owns the place is a host mom to one of the girls in the group. The mom is from Esmereldas, which is on the coast and is known for its delicious seafood. The restaurant itself is really pretty, and very upscale by Ecuador standards. I will have to get pictures sometime, because it was beautiful. And since we have connections there, we got a free round of Ecuadorian beers and fried bananas (which I did not eat because I HATE bananas... that's rough). So, we got there around noon and sat outside on the patio eating appetizers and chatting until 1:30, when we started the 12-course meal. It was crazy. I've never eaten so much in my life. We ate empanadas, fried plantains (which I'm also not a fan of), and Ecuadorian French Fries for appetizers; ceviche, soup, some sort of fish, a bunch of different rices, and a curry with shrimp for the main course; and gelato, cake, and a cookie for dessert. They also made their own passionfruit juice, orange juice, and a special juice with some fruit that is found on the coast that I can never remember the name of. So. Full. There's a picture floating around somewhere of the destruction, but of course I forgot my camera. But, the crazy thing is that for 11 people, we each paid around $17 for this meal.

This is a picture of the "standard fruit" that we always have at the house. There are pineapples and those silly fruits that I don't know outside in the cupboard. We eat more fruit than vegetable here, which is interesting but makes sense.

Tonight is movie night, according to my mamá. She's taking an english class at the university so she can refresh her memory and become a teacher again after a 10 year hiatus. Therefore, the movie tonight has to be in english. Hallelujah. My brain hurts from all the spanish. And tomorrow we are going to a small village in the lowlands called "Nanegalito" for the weekend. Don't worry, I won't forget my camera. Just cross your fingers that I don't get bitten by a malaria-infected mosquito. Caio, caio!