so I haven't written in a while...

Sorry to all who have been trying to read this blog and there has been nothing on it! :( I have been really busy and unable to write.
So i'm pretty much done with school, I just have 2 finals and my galapagos trip! My mom's visit was awesome, we went to Otavalo, the market town and went to a really beautiful restaraunt called hermosa vista in the central part of quito. it was a perfect view of the city at night with all the churches lit up and stuff!
The next day we went to a bull fight! It was sad to see the bulls die but I'm glad I went... it was a cool cultural experience. Unfortunately afterwards my mom and I got sick and were out of service for a day and a half. The cause is still unknown...
On Monday I showed my mom my school... not too exciting...
Tuesday we went to el centro and looked at a lot of churches and went up to el Panecillo which is a hill that has the virgen of Quito on top.. it was pretty cool! Then I had an exam and my mom hung out with the fam. My 2nd Galapagos exam was actually really easy compared to the first one which was really cool!! Tues. night we headed South to Banos.
Wed. we did a tour of waterfalls in Banos in a Chiva which is a party bus, but in this case, it was just a open air bus to see waterfalls. The coolest part was that Volcano Tunguragua was erupting and we could visible see the ash exploding from the top!
Wed. night we headed North to Latacunga,where we stayed the night. In the morning we went to a market in Saqsilli which i thought was overrated.. We bought some stuff though. Then we went to Laguna Quilatoa a volcanic lake which was really cool. It's this amazing color green and a steep hike down. It was cool. We took mules back up the hill; i think my mom would have died if she hiked up, plus a driver was waiting for us to take us back to a city called Zumbahua to get a bus back to Latacunga.
The rest of the time we just chilled in Quito, my favorite city! Oooo I'm really going to miss it here!!
Today I ran all over the place trying to get my visas for Brasil and Chile. I pick up my visa for Chile tomorrow and have two exams and hopefully I'll have time to get my "permission to leave the country" slip. Ojala que si!
So I leave for Galapagos on Wednesday and get back on the 22nd and the on the 23rd I come home!
I have mixed feelings about coming home. I'm REALLY excited, but at the same time I'm sad to leave... We'll see!

GOL!!!!!!!

Not long ago I just got back from a soccer game: Ecuador vs. Peru. Ecuador was not expected to do well because they have been playing pretty badly as of late, but wow, they showed us! They beat Peru 5-1 with some pretty amazing goals! It was a really good time!! VIVA ECUADOR!!!
I have a huge paper due in a week and a half but I have my presentation on it tomorrow! :( I'm not excited for that. It was nice to take a break with the soccer game though.
I'm going to be staying in Quito again this weekend to get everything done before my mom comes. YAY!

Ocupada

I´ve been crazy busy lately with all the things I have to turn in this month. Last weekend I had plans to go on an amazing hiking trip to this place called Quilatoa loop but my plans fell through and I ended up staying in Quito.
I went to this really cool Electrotango show. It´s tango music but electronic, and it´s really good! They also had two dance partners and they were amazing! It was really great. I mostly just bummed around Quito other than that and got a lot of work done.
Today I´m going on a trip to Mindo with my University. Mindo is supposed to be really great, but the trip is ridiculous and I´m actually really angry about it. Included in our tuition for the trip is $100 alloted to a trip with the University. I´ve been trying to get my money for my galapagos trip all year to put it to better use, but I couldn´t get it. I sent a bunch of emails to office of international programs here and in Wisconsin and each party is just blaming the other. Anyways, the money was älready spent and we can´t get reimbursed¨ 2 weeks ago on this trip... and this is all it includes; private transport (2 1-2 hours each way), one night in a hostel, and three meals. I´m sorry, but this does not add up to $100. If I were to go to mindo by myself and stay in a cheap hostel, it would be $20 for all of that... so with a nice hostel and private transportation, I don´t see how that would be an extra $80... anyways, I´ll stop ranting, but I´ve just been really annoyed with a few administrative things here... my galapagos class as well, but that is a different story.
So i´m going to have a positive attitude about this trip and hopefully it will end up being fun.
I don´t think i´ll ever get to go to the quilatoa loop which makes me really sad, but oh well. I´m really excited for my mom to come and later the galapagos, and to be done with school!

Vilcabamba? No, how about Montanita...

We had plans to go to Vilcabamba in southern Ecuador this weekend, but since it was the holiday, everyone wanted to leave Quito. Buses everywhere were full so we decided to go to the beach, to a town called Montanita. It was 8 hours to Guayquil where we bought indirect bus tickets to montanita, so it was 11 hours total. the line for the coast in Guayaquil was insane and everyone was pushing, but I survived the chaos. So, Montanita was 11 hours in bus one way. When we got there it was raining and my first step off of the bus was into mud. Much of the weekend was spent walking barefoot through montanita because when i wore sandals, my shoes would get stuck and i would have to carry them anyway. Despite the weather, the trip was very good. It was a very hippie/surf town and there was a lot of fun jewelry and clothes there. I bought a necklace and bracelet there. The beach was also really nice too, I love the ocean. I didn't really go swimming, just up to my butt. I wasn't in the mood to be cold all day. Montanita is a lot more expensive than other places in Ecuador. You are all probably going to think I'm crazy but I was dissapointed when the hostels were $10. We stayed in a 10 the first night and a $5 with damp beds the next night. The restaraunts were also expensive, $3 for breakfast (tea, eggs, juice, bread, fruit)--usually you can get this for $1.80-2, and dinner about $5 (usually you can find a good $3.50-4. Montanita is definitely not the place to sleep. Music is blasting at all hours, literally until 6 am and stops until 9 am. On sat. night we "went to bed" at 1:30 and woke up at 4:15 to leave town and the music was still going.
My skin is disgustingly dry by the way. It's been dry the whole time I've been here, but now it's really at it's top point. My eyes are extremely dry and my family and friends always ask if i'm sick or tired because of it. I also have had a runny nose the whole time I've been here. i think it's because of the pollution.
I finished 100 years of Solitude and it was awesome!! Now I'm going to start Cuidad y los Perros ( a time of the hero). I have a lot of projects to do this month that i really need to finish before my mom comes.

Tena and whitewater rafting

Last weekend was a blast! On Friday about 7 of us left for Tena which is about6 hours away in the Oriente. Even the bus ride was nice! They say that Ecuador has every climate of the world except 4... I definitely saw like 6 of them on the busride. On Friday night we just relaxed for the most part- we stayed in a $5 hostal. Saturday morning we woke up at 8 am and had breakfast ($1.80 for eggs, bread, cheese, coffee, and juice) and headed to Riverpeople Rafting. We headed out and while they were getting the rafts ready we dove into this beautiful pool of water under a waterfall and then climbed up the mini-waterfall. It was very nice and the perfect temperature. We rafted level 3 rapids which were really fun for my first time rafting. The 2nd rapid we hit we surfed, which means the raft gets stuck in like a whirlpool sort of and you can't get out. I definitely thought I was going to get sucked in or something, but we all jumped out the top of the raft. Then later, my friend Becca and I fell out at a different rapid. It was a lot of fun though and there were a lot of pools to just jump out and sit in. We also swam one of the rapids which was fun although I swallowed a lot of water.
We had lunch in the middle of the river on a beach which was nice... the whole day was about 9 am-4 on the river, for $50!! It was great. The only bad thing was that all the insect repellent we put on got washed off by the water so we all got tons of bug bites and I've been itching ever since! After we got back and showered and everything we were going to go to dinner but there was a huge storm and lightning hit pretty close to our hostal and all the power went off. I was really surprised by how fast they fixed it though- within 30 min, and then we ran through the rain to a really good restaraunt called Tortuga. We were going to go out dancing that night but it turned out we had no energy again.
The next morning we went to a place called monkey island. We hiked a little on the trails they had there and sat by the river a little which was relaxing. Then we went to this little hostal there to look at the view and all these monkeys started appearing all around us! It was really cool and they were very close to us! The people who worked there also brought out a boa constricter and I held it which was absolutely insane! It was really heavy and a little scary but I'm glad I did it!
This week at school was pretty relaxed, we don't have school on Friday so I'm leaving tonight with two other girls to go to Vilcabamba in the south of Ecuador where everyone apparently lives til they are past 100 years old. We were going to fly but it's $155 round trip, so instead we are going to take the 12-15 hour bus ride to Loja and then another 2 hour bus to Vilcabamba.

Cotopaxi y Tunguragua

COTOPAXI!


On Wednesday was the soccer game Ecuador vs. Brazil. It was embarrassing. Apparently the Ecuador selection is awful this year... we lost 5-0 which is unheard of, even against a great team like Brazil.
I had a couple tests this week and they went really well. I now have a break from school for a while as far as tests and presentations go... although I do have to start reading 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which is hard enough in english and I have to read it in Spanish!
So this weekend was great! On Saturday morning at 6 am we left for Cotopaxi which was AMAZING!!! It's a glacier covered mountain which they say is one of the most beautiful volcanoes in the world. It is an active volcano and is the second dangerous in Ecuador. It's not like spitting ash or anything, but it is overdue for an eruption and when it does erupt, at any moment, it will be absolutely devastating for the country. As my awesome professor Theo says, "it is dangerous to forget the past" and that's what much of the ecuadorians have done. They build in risk/danger zones of the volcano which will all get destroyed when it erupts. This is what will happen. Cotopaxi will erupt and cover the entire country plus much of Colombia with ash. This ash will cause major economic problems... no internet, electricity, phones, planes, etc. Then the hot material, gas, and rocks (piroclastic material) coming out of the volcano will melt the glacier causing 3 huge crazy hot mud/rock flows throughout the country destroying a few cities and many bridges/damns/electricity places as well as killing people. But enough with this stuff that will someday (hopefully a long time from now) happen.
So we got to the park and a lot of it was flat ground... absolutely flat. this was from the la har (piroclastic flow). We then drove the bus a bit up to the volcano and parked. Our profe Theo directed our class to run down this giant hill of rocks to see old lava flows and stuff. It was really fun, but then the hike up was pretty hard because all the rocks were really loose.



The above is my class practically falling down this hill of piroclastic material. And my awesome profe Theo being himself!
It wasn't too cold, which was nice. We hiked up to the refuge at about the midpoint of the volcano where the snow begins, which was a little rough.. I definitely took at least 3 breaks on the way up.

The walk to the refuge is the picture above

We took a break at the refuge for some hot chocolate which was really good and we continued up the volcano for about 25 min. until we got to the glacier.
My pictures don't capture it at all but it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life. The clouds were moving a lot so we didn't see everything for very long but it was wonderful! There were also some really cool snow foxes running around up there. The landscape below was also beautiful, but again we couldn't see very well because of cloudcover. Cotopaxi was amazing and I'd love to climb to the top if I had time, but I don't!!!


Saturday afternoon we headed to Banos and stayed in a hostel for $5, which was really nice, but I didn't sleep very well :( BUT somehow I'm still really awake and I haven't slept yet. We had to "wake up" at 6 am today to go see Tunguragua volcano stuff. A destroyed little community by a la har last year. That was a little sad. We also talked to this really beautiful indigenous man who lost a lot in a la har that destroyed his community. It was super interesting and he had one of the most beautiful faces I have ever seen. We had some talks with Banos officials and then people who have lived there and and whenever an emergency happens, the people never get the money. There is a lot of gov. corruption there and it was really awful. Tunguragua is an active volcano too and spits out ash almost every day. It's not really that dangerous in general except for the mud flows that happen once in a while. Banos was beautiful as usual! I feel like I'm running out of things to do! By the way, I'm not going to Colombia anymore because plane tickets are too expensive.
Miss you all!
Also, Ecuador, especially Latacunga, has creeeepy garbage cans! They are all over!

Guayaquil y Riobamba

On Thursday night at 10 pm Anna and I left from Quito to Guayaquil on a bus that lasted about 8 hours. Before that we attended an ecuadorian friend´s birthday party at his house. The bus ride wasn´t too bad but the climate in the bus kept changing. I could not get comfortable. It was either really hot or really cold and we used our towels to warm ourselves. Also, apparently every bus ride it is mandatory to show a really violent movie... you see, every single bus ride we´ve had with a movie, it´s been extremely violent...and in two of them has been the same random blond muscle man actor. To say the least, I generally sleep during these movies...
So we got to guayaquil and got a hotel room for $17 total with a giant bed and a small bed. Then we wandered around guayaquil. We went to Simón Bolivar park where there are tons of iguanas and turtles wandering around. The iguanas are also in the trees and every few minutes they pee or poo like buckets! Sorry to be gross, but I nearly got shat on and so did a lot of other passerbys.
There is a really nice boardwalk along the river called Malecón 2000... it´s really fancy. Then there are a bunch of little market areas scattered around with generally the same touristy items. It was pretty warm in Guayaquil.. skirt and tshirt weather. A lot of people say Guayaquil is dangerous but i felt really safe. If you walk to the end of Malecón there is this little town on a hill called Peñas that is super cute! All of the houses are painted different colors and it´s just the nicest town I´ve ever seen. A lot of artists live there and there are about 500 stairs leading up to this lighthouse at the top of the hill and they are all numbered... it was a great view at the top as well!
So it turns out Guayaquil is not very vegetarian friendly. Lonely planet named some veg restaurants but were very innacurate. One no longer existed and the other did not serve veg food! We ended up going to an expensive restaraunt which had a salad for me. Expensive means $7. haha.
Guayaquil was great but only for a day and a half I think...
So originally we were planning to go to the beach on Saturday but we heard there was a strike or something so we decided to go to Riobamba, which is in between Quito and Guayaquil.. this way we didn't have such an awful long bus ride on Sunday!
Riobamba was very cute and simple. We stayed in a great hostal called Hostal Oasis. The rooms were really cute, the owners were sweet, there was a garden, and they had a cute little dog Lila, and they drove us to the bus station on Sunday for free!
In Riobamba we went to the market on Saturday which was mostly food. There were many indigenous women walking around their pigs to sell. I think we were two of the few gringos in Riobamba that day. The market was nice, then we got lunch at a vegetarian place which was good. I contemplated in getting my hair cut because there was a barber shop literally every other store front, but I decided against it because I was cold and I didn't want to get my hair wet. so instead I got my nails done for $1.50. Afterwards we went to a pizzeria to watch the ecuador vs. venezuela soccer game which was heartbreaking!!! We dominated the game but venezuela got a super lucky goal and ended up winning 1-0. We watched a movie in our hotel and went to bed. It wasn't the most action packed weekend, but I had fun and I didn't spend much money!
I really want to return to Riobamba sometime soon to go hiking because I've heard it's great hiking and also I want to go on this famous train called Nariz del Diablo, but it's about 7 hours long so we didn't really have time before.
I have two more exams on Tuesday and then I'm done for a while!!
Next weekend I'm going to Cotopaxi and Tunguragua (volcanoes) for my volcanology class. Then the next weekend I'm going to skip class and go to this thing called the Quilatoa Loop for 4 days.. It's amazing hiking and it should be great and not much money again! Unless I buy a lot at the market ofcourse!
Also, it didn't rain today in Quito which was really nice because I still haven't bought an umbrella!
Hasta Luego!

A beautiful day in Quito

Yesterday I felt homesick for the first time which was no fun! But I feel a lot better now! Today was really nice, I decided to explore downtown Quito more. Anna and I took the trolle bus to the colonial center and walked around a bit. I had read in my lonely planet book about a really bazaar church called Santa Catalina de Siena...there are 23 nuns that live there but they are only allowed to talk to one another for 1 hour per day. They also make natural lotions and wine and remedies for illnesses and you can buy them in the front of the church from this rotating door that keeps the nuns hidden. The artwork in the church was also weird.. lonely planet made it seem even weirder than it was too! There were some pretty standard paintings of jesus and the virgin mary... and there were also life size dolls of god knows which saint? There were also strange nativity scenes made out of really random things (i.e. the birds in the scene were bigger than the minature people. It was pretty hillarious and we also got to go to the top of the tower to see a pretty nice view of the city. Not as nice as the basillica, but pretty good. It was a dollar to get in, which was worth it.
We also went to la iglesia de la compa~nia de jesus which is made almost entirely of gold which could probably help the insane amount of poor people in ecuador (over 60% fall below the poverty line). The church was beautiful with lots of cool barroca stile paintings.
I also bought my first shirt in Ecuador, it was $10 and it's for going out... i only brought one relatively fancy shirt so i thought i should get another. I also bought two cute pairs of earrings today in a market: 2/$2.
After el centro we went to parque de elijido (Elijido Park) where at the beginning of the 19th century a president was burned alive... but we did not go to the park to see any horrible things like that, we went because every weekend there is a mini art fair. Paintings line a few blocks on one side of the block and they are just gorgeous. I'm probably going to buy at least 3 paintings to go back with me because they are just beautiful!
From there we walked to la mariscal to get a late lunch. We went to a place called mongo which is a mongolian barbeque, kind of like flat top. It was really good, but way too much food. You get soup or salad, garlic bread, a drink, and all you can eat vegetarian buffet stirfry (create your own) for $4. I love how cheap it is here!! I'm still full and it's been 6 hours since I ate!
Afterwards, we went to Anna's house to watch the last episode ever of Sex and the City, she bought the season for $8. By the way, I don't know if I've already said, but Dvd's here are about $1-2 and they are good quality. I also met Anna's abuelta who is a great example of the loving culture in Ecuador. We greeted eachother by kissing one another on the cheek and she said, how precious you are! nice to meet you. And then i asked if i could get a drink of water and she said, "of course, my love" I LOVE THE PEOPLE HERE! Even strangers will be so kind and warm to you, "my dear, my love..ect" Last week my host family got in a big fight...it was my family vs. my brother esteban because he is seperated from his wife and hasn't seen his kid for a long time and he's been really upset about it lately and they wanted him to make more of an effort... anyways it's really complicated but even when they were arguing it was sooo sweet! they just wanted to support him and help him any way possible and the argument ended and he went for a walk and when he returned they all said sorry to eachother and that they want to be there for eachother no matter what and that they loved eachother and all this stuff and it was just so beautiful... it's cheesy, but i almost started crying because it was so cute!
I also planned some trips today and ahh, i feel like i don't have enough time in ecuador!!! We are going to Guayaquil on the coast next weekend for 3 days - there is a festival there this weekend for the Guayaquil independence day. The next weekend I'm going to two volcanoes, Tungurahgua and Cotopaxi, for Volcanology. The next weekend I think we are going to this place called Vilcabamba in the south where everyone lives for a really long time! It's really calm and beautful there with lots of places to hike and good massages! The next weekend is another long weekend to Cuenca where there will be festivals for All Saint's Day.. and there are 3 more places I for sure want to go, plus at the end of November (don't worry mom, before you come) I might be going to Bogota, Colombia for a free U2 concert and to travel ofcourse as well!
I'm so excited and I love it here so much! All I can think about is how I'm goign to have all these amazing stories to tell my grandchildren or something. To say casually, "yeah... I saw Bono from U2 in Colombia for a free concert and in the same year went to Rio de Janiero for Carnaval" AHHH this is absolutely crazy! I'm so lucky to be able to do this! Sorry about the rant...
So tomorrow, I may be going to a town near cotopaxi for my host-siblings' other grandma's bday. There will be more Cuye (guinea pig) apparently!
Also, I have 2 tests and a presentation next week. The presentation is literally this: "Why the native terrestral mammals of the galapagos are endangered or threatened. The case of the rat of Santiago Island." Believe it or not, but it's really hard to find information about this rat! Well wish me luck!

ahhh, it's already october

Okay, this week has been very busy
On Friday was my host sister's birthday so her husband's, Juan Carlos, family came over for tea and desserts. It was a good time.
On Saturday I woke up at 5:30 Am to embark on another volcanology trip. We went to Cuicocha which is like a crater lake. It was pretty beautiful.

The above is Anna, Sam, and I. Then we went out on a boat to go around the domes that had formed over time within the crater. Apparently the water is too acidic so no fish or animals can really survive in there.
After Cuicocha we stopped on the side of the road a few times to see fault and fold lines in the mountains. Our final stop was the volcano Pululagua pretty close to Quito. We had bad luck again and it was too foggy to see anything! bummer. It was a really long day and we didn't get back until about 630pm.
Sunday I pretty much just did homework all day long.
This week has been pretty uneventful. I have a lot of exams and presentations coming up that I just don't feel like doing... but I will, don't worry!
Hasta luego!

Abuelita's 91st birthday!

Yesterday was pretty busy. When I got back home from classes there was a party at my house for my grandma's birthday! There were a ton of relatives here, plus my sister and her husband who will now be living here! I really like them.
Unfortunately I missed the mariachi band that came, but it was still pretty fun. People were here until about 8:30 pm. We had coffee and cake at about 7 pm and my brother Esteban brought cuye (guinea pig) for my grandma. She really likes it!

The above is cuye, teeth and all.

Mucho que hacer!

Ahhhh... i realized today that I have way to much to do! Well, I have been procrastinating on homework, but I have a lot of planning to do for next semester as well!
I'm volunteering in the mornings on Mondays and Wednesdays at the orphanage which is great.
I have to get my Brazilian and Chilean Visas relatively soon... I also have to start figuring out what I'm doing in Peru and Chile...
Hmm..
Tonight I will have a new addition to my host family! My mother has a daughter who is married in Buenos Aires who is coming tonight and staying for about 2 months. My mother is having surgery on something and needs help around the house so she is coming. Her name is Susana Margarita and her husband is Juan Carlos.
Tomorrow is my grandmother's birthday, she will be 91 and apparently it is going to be a crazy fiesta. The tradition is pata de cerdo - pig's feet. I will be passing on that one. It is also going to be a surprise for her for Susana Margarita to be here.
This weekend are the elections for the asemblea in Ecuador.. similar to a congress. They will be creating a brand new constitution for the country---most ecuadorians who i've talked to don't think this will change anything. Anyways, 3 days surrounding the election NO ONE in Ecuador can drink any alcohol or they will be arrested. I asked my ecuadorian friend what kind of law this was and he said things have always been like this and he thought it was kind of a stupid law, but voting here is obligatory and maybe the government doesn't want the people to be drunk or hungover when they vote. It's a little strange!
Well, I'm off to work on a project!

Baños!

This weekend was so great and so awful at the same time!
My friends Erin, Anna, and I left from Quito to Baños at about 4 pm on Friday. It was about a 3 1/2 hour bus ride with some gorgeous scenery on the way! The busride was about $3.30 or something each way. Let me also explain something. The buses/driving in general in Ecuador is a little insane. You know in the U.S. when you want to pass a slow driver, you wait until you have plenty of room or a view of the road in front of you to go into the other lane and pass? That is not how it is in ecuador. As drivers are going around curves, without even looking, they will pass. Day or night. Oncoming traffic or no. I still haven't gotten used to it and I'm pretty sure I've nearly died several times. Any way...
We got settled into Baños at about 8 pm at this really lovely hotel called Casa Blanca. The woman who owns it is super cute! $9 per night with a great breakfast included! Once we got settled in we walked around Baños a little which is a very small town. We got dinner at this little italian restaraunt which was delicious! Garlic bread, fettucine alfredo, and a drink for about $4.50. It definitely hit the spot. Afterwards we went to a bar called Bassbar or something which was pretty dead. We each got a drink. It was pretty hillarious because the bartender was also a dj and played some pretty old school American music from the 80s and 90s including three will smith songs from Big Willie Style, one of my first ever cds. The strangest thing about the bar was the dead eagle hanging from the ceiling spinning in circles with one of the dance lights. At about 11:30 we decided to go to bed, we were all pretty exhausted from the bus ride.
We woke up at 7 am to eat breakfast and figure out what we should do. There ended up being a travel agency right across the street so we decided to go canyoning through them. This is the same as repelling down waterfalls... it's awesome. It was $20 for 5 waterfalls. Our guides name was Frankie. We had all the gear; wet suits, helmets, kneepads, safety harnesses, etc. For some reason I recieved a full body suit. It was the most awkward thing ever. We had a bit of a hike before the waterfalls and it was sooo hard! My suit had so much resistance in it, it was like it was pushing my legs back to being straight the whole time. But it ended up working out fine and it was sooo much fun! It wasn't scary or anything and the weather was beautiful!




At the end of the waterfalls we slid down this rock slide and off a jump into the water. It was a little confusing at first because another guide who met us at the end was like, just put your feet up and go! in spanish ofcourse, but it seemed really awkward. anyways, we all did it and ended up all wiping out into the water after the jump, but it was pretty hillarious.
After canyoning we headed back to town and Frankie showed us to a restaurant called cafe good. And like the name said, it was good. I got a stirfry thing that was delicious.
Erin had to leave on saturday so we walked her to the bus station at about 2pm. Afterwards, Anna and I walked around town for a while and I bought a scarf for $2. We went to dinner at a delicious restaraunt called Casa Hood. They had a lot of vegetarian food. Afterwards we went on a Chiva, party bus, to the Volcano Tungurhua above Baños. We went with one of the other tour guides named Javier. Once we got to the top of the mountain it was like a reunion of Chivas! About 10 of them! We recieved a brief history of the volcano and then were given hot wine and watched a fire thrower show. It was a good time. We returned to Quito and went dancing with Javier and his friend Angel. It was super hot inside and it was full of smoke. My clothes smell disgusting! But it was fun... minus Javier trying to hit on me... and Angel for Anna. But, we managed to have fun. The day in general was amazing!
We left at about 2 am to wake up at 7 the next day.
For some reason when Anna and I woke up we were already feeling lazy. We had breakfast and it was delicious, and we decided to go bike riding. We rented bikes $5 to got along a trail where you get to see a bunch of waterfalls. We only brought two dollars extra with us for the bus back. We began our bike ride which we heard was all the way down hill. We turned where there were signs and to our surprise it was a giant neverending hill! Anna fell off her bike and we couldn't stop laughing plus we were exhausted so we decided to walk the hill. We probably went up about 1 1/2 miles and passed a waterfall but the hill was not ending and we were so tired and discouraged. We decided to go back down only to realized we had turned the wrong way. We continued along the REAL trail still a little irritated and unable to fully appreciate the beauty that surround us. Our bikes were pretty old and crappy and we kept having problems with them. After a couple waterfalls we both decided we didn't need to continue the next 20 miles or whatever it was. We had read and had been told it was pretty easy to catch a bus or truck back to Baños. We tried for 15 minutes and nobody would pick us up... so we rode to the next waterfall... buses and trucks would go by, no one would pick us up.
This is anna... we were upset...
We rode some more... on and on until we got to a pretty busy waterfall area where you had to walk to the falls. We decided, why not, let's go walk to the falls. We walked a while and realized it costed money to see the falls! But we only had enough to get home! Things kept going wrong. A woman told us we could catch a truck for 1.50 but if we rode 10 more minutes we could get a bus/truck for 1 dollar at the next waterfall. We decided to be cheap. When we got there, there were no trucks nor buses and no one would pick us up! It started raining... we were miserable, but it was sort of hillarious at the same time... finally, a merciful bus driver stopped and let us onto the bus 20 minutes later. It was a gift from God. Once we got back and on to the bus back to Quito we were so tired but happy that we were on our way back to the city!
Baños is a great place and I loved it. So many things didn't go our way on the bike ride though, so it was too bad it ended on a sour note! But i had a great weekend and when i got home some extended family came over and we had cake and coffee and I really felt good about my spanish!
I have some homework to do this week and I'm going to volunteer tomorrow!

Oh, one other hillarious thing we saw in Baños was a garbage truck with ice cream truck cirus music playing to let people know to take out the trash. And it worked!

orfanato

Today was my first real day working at the orphanage. It´s run by an American couple, but I haven´t really met them yet. It is completely staffed with Ecuadorians. The kids ages range from 0-3 years old with a few teenagers. Most of the kids have disabilities; i.e. parapalegic, down sydrome, cerebral palsy, ect.
Today I worked with the babies. By the way, the orphanage is really nice... I was put into a room with 5 babies ranging from 1 month to 1 1-2 years old. They were very cute. One girl, amelia would not stop crying unless you held her. It was a bit difficult at first because the newborn julia alicia was crying and i was trying to juggle in between the two without upsetting either too much.
The kids definitely range in temperament, some are super happy and quiet while others like Amelia are not so happy. I think I want to volunteer 2 times a week. The orphanage is not in the best neighborhood and I have to take a really random bus to get there, so I think 2 days a week will be enough. plus the kids can be a handful.
I´m excited to start this volunteering though, it will be good to have a mix of school, fun traveling, and helping out in the community.
I had two quizzes in class this week which were pretty easy because i did the readings...
Ciao!

Volcanes y lodo

Ahhh, Sunday felt like 3 days! I woke up at 2:30 am to get ready for my trek to the volcano Pinchincha. My class met near the mexican embassy at 3:30 and from there we took about 8 different SUVs to Pinchincha. I was in a car with 3 other people. It was absolutely impossible to sleep on the way up, the road was absolutely terrible! A truck in front of us got stuck 4 times and had to be pushed!
We finally got to Pinchincha at about 5 am. We had to park a little further down than the rest of the people because our car got stuck. We had to hike about 3/4 of a mile up and it was sooooo hard, for everyone! We all had to take about 6 breaks becuase of the altitude, plus it was absolutely freezing and you couldn´t see anything because it was so dark and foggy. We made it to the top and rested for about ten minutes and then hiked a bit more to an area overlooking the crater. I love our Professor Theo.. on the way up to the 2nd point he was making us spell Pinchincha...for example. ¨Give me a P! Give me an I! and so on¨ it wasn´t as hard the second time. Then we sat and Theo gave a little talk about Pinchincha and how to prevent disasters in Quito ect. Pinchincha is actually 5 volcanoes, but 4 of them are extinct.
Unfortunately, there were too many clouds/fog to see anything, when there was supposed to be a spectacular view of Colombia and the entirity of Ecuador... oh well. All we could see was about 10 feet in front of us as we sat there freezing. It was an experience though..

We left Pinchincha at about 7 and then headed back to Quito. From Quito at about 9:30 am we took a bus to Papallacta. I took the best nap ever on the bus. We made a stop near the volcano where it was raining a bit to take some rock samples. Afterwards we hopped back on the bus to go to a different site. We got to this forest area and started hiking through the woods. It was amazing. Our professor theo pretty much just created his own path. We climbed up walls of mud using only tree branches to hold on too, and down and into the river and on trees, it was insane. It was so fun... i don´t really know how to describe it. We did this for about 2 hours I´d say? there weren´t too many bugs, just a few painful prickly plants and a lot of mud. By the end of it we were all covered in mud. Thank God I bought those hiking boots! they saved my life and my feet! Here are some pictures that show some of papallacta


After the forest we hopped on the bus again to go to a waterfall. Theo decided it was too dangerous to hike to it because the current of the river was too strong and instead we took some rock samples. I was secretly glad we didn´t go because by that point I was freezing!!
At that point, we had a choice to go to the hot thermal springs or back to Quito. Of course I chose the baños termales! They were absolutely amazing! It cost $6 to get in and there were all sorts of different temperatures of pools. It was extremely relaxing. We left at 6:30 and arrived in quito at about 8:30.
By that time I was completely exhausted, so I ate a bowl of soup and went to bed.
It was an absolutely amazing day. Unfortunately I don´t have photos of Papallacta, my camera would not have survived the mudslides that occured there.
Now I actually have to do some homework. I don´t have even close to the amount of homework I had in madison but i have a couple papers due next week that I should get a start on.

Buenas Noches y Buenos Dias

Ahhh.. last night was pretty fun.. My friends Alex (ecuatorian), Anna, and I went to La Mariscal and just chatted. We went to three different bars including one called strawberry fields forever where everything is the beatles theme. It was very nice. Thismorning Anna and I headed to downtown Quito... on the trolli there we met two girls from England who were really nice and they joined us around the city. We met up with two of their friends in Plaza Grande/Plaza de Independencia and we headed towards the basillica. It was absolutely beautiful.. some interesting images, like llamas and aardvarks instead of gargoyles, and the white preists baptising the indigenous people on the walls... but all in all it was really great. A lot of beautiful stained glass. It was quite the hike to get up to the top, but the view was definitely worth it. We went up two different towers including a clock tower. I didn't like the clock tower that much because it was really new compared to the rest of the church which was gothic. I think it said the clocks were built in 1993? After the Basillica we went to lunch at a nice little place in el centro and then we walked down the oldest street in Quito! It was a great day full of surprises! Now I somehow have to get up at 3 am and be energized for a day of hiking up volcanoes!

Chiva

This week hasn´t been too eventful. I´ve had class, I obtained my censo card that is pretty much just another form of identification for me in Ecuador.. my picture for the censo card is the absolute worst picture ever! I wasn´t really ready for the photo, and before I knew it, the man had already taken it which resulted in me looking seriously ill in my photo. Oh well.
I went to a movie earlier in the week called Perfume.. it was a strange movie.. it´s based on a book and it has a generally good story, but it´s very interesting...not what I expected.
Yesterday was pretty hillarious.. I had class until 5:30 and then I met up with a few friends to go to this club called Gia. It has a really shady entrance in a side of a concrete wall. It was an american girl´s birthday so she rented a Chiva, which is a double decker party bus. When we arrived, the Chiva looked more like a dump truck with decorations on it. We all decided to go on top and the Chiva drivers provided us with ecuadorian flags, whistles, and shot glass necklaces. We drove around town for about half an hour with music blasting and a bus full of gringos and then ended back at Gia. It was pretty hillarious. I tried to capture it as best as I could with my camera, but i really didn´t do it justice.

Gia was a strange club... it was supposed to be ladies night where we drank and got in for free, but we missed it i guess. Then the guys were seperated, literally caged off from the girls until midnight... the club´s layout was pretty chic, but its not my favorite, and it was really expensive. I think the guys had to pay $12 just to get in?
Tomorrow I may be going to mindo, where there is a cloudforest, otherwise i´ll walk around the centro (downtown) all day. Then on Sunday, I´m going to two volcanoes! We leave at 3 am for Pinchinca, where you can see pretty much all of ecuador from the top... and then at 9 am we go to Papallacta, where very nearby are some thermal springs that we will enjoy after our investigations.. It should be really fun and my professor for volcanologia is absolutely hillarious.
I also bought a soccer ball today on the street so I can start practicing! yay!
Well, I miss you all and I´ll try to take more pictures and keep up with this blog!

Domingo, Aerobicos...

Today was pretty laid back.. I did aerobics in the park for an hour in the morning and then just hung out around here... did some reading. Later in the day I went with my family and Marcelo to drive around downtown Quito. I need to go back to walk around... we could only drive because abuelita (my grandmother) was with us and she can't really walk.. she's 90. We were able to take a few pictures though... Here is my host mother Susi, and my brother Esteban

I also saw the president's house... although he doesn't actually live there... and also the Plaza grande that is right in front of it... there are a lot of street artists there... it's in the colonial part of quito. I will go back soon and get more pictures


I was able to call a few of my friends at home which was really nice too.. I really miss Madison! well, tomorrow I have school again.. :( And I have to do some reading... ciao!

My amazing day

Ahhhh... What a great day!
Well first... last night we went to la Mariscal again with some friends and this time the discotech we went to was 10X more fun than the last... first we went to a bar called coffee tree and sat outside and then moved on to a discotech called Bungalow. It was very fun and the music was a lot better. We danced for about 6 hours... haha.
Thismorning, my two friends and i went to Otavalo, a small town famous for it's saturday morning market. It's about 2 1/2 hours away by bus, for $2 each way! On the way there we met a grandfather and his grandaughter and he told us he'd show us to the market and introduce us to his daughter who was 19 and a student at a different university in Quito. So when we got to the town, he introduced us to his whole family, like 7 people, and the custom in ecuador is to kiss people on the cheek when you say hello or goodbye to them, so it was a lot of that.. haha. Anyways, we said goodbye, but Tatiana, his daughter accompanied us all day! It was great! The market was huge and absolutely beautiful and it was great practice for our spanish! I bought a really cute sweater, a bracelet, and a necklace all for $15... it definitely helped to have Tatiana there to barter. I definitely want to go back to Otavalo, because they had a lot of amazing things i still want to buy.
THIS IS THE BEST PART! We were walking through the market and suddenly there was all this commotion and we were running through tents to a big crowd... what for?? The president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa was at the market standing 5 feet in front of us! He said, "hola chicas" to us!!! hahaha, it was pretty amazing! My friend anna has a picture of him, which I will obtain later to put up.

Later, our group, without the president, unfortunately... had lunch. It was really fun and we are definitely going to hang out with our new friend Tatiana again someday.
The bus ride home was quite interesting...it took a lot longer than we thought it was going too... and we really had no idea what we were doing... but we survived.. and literally the cutest baby ever was on the bus, so that was fun!
Any way, today was a great day... I'll keep you all updated!
Miss you all!

pictures...

After too much time, I have put some images up... don't worry more will come. The first two are pictures of my very nice school, similar to laguna beach. And the last picture is a view from the park by my house, parque de la carolina. Everywhere you go you can see mountains.
I'm not sure if I already wrote this, but I ended up not liking my communications class, so I switched to Volcanology. It's the best class ever!
The professor is hillarious and we get to take at least 5 field trips, with a lot more optional ones to different volcanoes around Ecuador!
This weekend I might be going to Otavalo, a market town about two hours away.. it's about $2 for a two hour bus ride... I also still need to see the downtown of Quito!

By the way... tourist guides say that quito is divided in between the new town and colonial town... that's not really reality.. it just makes it easier for tourists to grasp the giant city. "old town" and "new town" are only a small part of Quito.

Hmmm... what else. I've made some Ecuatorian guy friends.. one of them, Alex, gave me and some other girls a ride home from school today which was really nice because i had class until 5:30 and it gets dark by 630 because of the mountains. I'm going to hang out with them tonight, so that'll be fun...
Well, I'll take more pictures and write more tomorrow!
Ciao!

Buenas noches

Today was pretty busy. I ended up not being able to understand the professor for my com class so i dropped it and switched to volcanology... best decision ever. We take a lot of field trips with optional ones too.. to diff volcanoes around the country. The professor is very nice and very funny. The class even gets done early because we get so much work done on weekends!
When I got home I was starving because I didn't have time to eat lunch, I had classes for 6 hours straight! So my host mother had soup ready for me, and then rice, salad, potatoes, juice, tea... I love my family!
Well, i need to do homework. I promise I'll put up pictures soon!

Second week of School

This weekend was pretty exciting...
On Saturday night, two other Americans and I ran/walked in the Correo de las Iglesias, a marathon through the city of Quito. It was very fun, although my lungs were burning like crazy when I was running. I´m still not adjusted to the altitude here. There were 5,000 people participating in the marathon and A LOT of crowd support. It was pretty cool.
Afterwards, we went with my family to the movie theater and saw rush hour 3... I didn´t like it very much, but my host mother and her boyfriend did.
Sunday morning my host mom and I walked around the park and did the aerobics in the park! It was a lot of fun! There is a little hill with the instructors and music and about 200 people of all ages around the hill doing the aerobics. I definitely want to do it every weekend. Sunday afternoon we had an invitation to my host mother´s other son´s apartment. We had coffee, tea, and dessert. It was really fun, although there was a lot of talk about politics. It was my mom, her enomorado, my brother Esteban, Miguel (other brother), Miguel´s wife Maria del Lourdes, her sister, mom, and Romina, the 2 year old daughter of Miguel and Maria de Lourdes. There is a vote for a government assembly coming up which will then compile a new constitution. Most people don´t really like the idea and aren´t going to vote... there has been a lot of instability in Ecuador with the government... 11 presidents in 15 years or something like that. The president right now, Correa, actually used to be a teacher at my school Universidad San Francisco de Quito. He is a Leftist and is buddies with Chavez and the Bolivian president, which the US probably doesn´t like too much since Hugo Chavez insults president bush all the time, calling him things like The devil or a donkey... So far people seem to like Correa though, so that´s good.
My rash is pretty much gone, so that´s good news..
The food is very good... lots of it too. Soup, salad, sandwiches, rice, beans, eggs, lots of juice, bananas, we had chinese food yesterday... there is a lot of variety.
Well, I´ve got to go! Miss you all!

My Semester so far!

Ahhh... I love Ecuador so far! My family is awesome... My brother Esteban, 24 is a really nice guy. My mother, Susi, is very funny and helpful and likes to dance a lot. And my grandma is 90 years old! But she is super cute and very active!
My house is pretty amazing. All the floors are wood and on the first floor there is a dining room, living room, kitchen, 2 bathrooms and Esteban´s room and a balcony. On the second floor are 3 bathrooms and 4 bedrooms, including mine. They have a lot of cool paintings in their house, hot water (thank God!) and internet! Yay!
My university is definitely not what I expected... it´s very much like Laguna beach... Marble floors, spiral staircases, fountains, a pagoda for yoga, and a lot of very wealthy snobby ecuatorian kids. But it´s the best university in Ecuador and there are plenty of friendly people!
I like my classes so far too! I´m taking:
1. Ecology and Conservation in the Galapagos (we take a ten day trip to the galapagos at the end of the semester)
2. Rural Sociology
3. Social problems in Ecuador
4. The boom in Latinoamerica (literature class)
5. Contemporary Art and Communications (looks really cool, we get to watch a bunch of great films, i.e. high fidelity)
All of my classses are in spanish and I haven´t had a hard time comprehending anything.. so it´s great!
I did break out in an allergic reaction to something yesterday morning, so I have bumps all over my body, but I went to the doctor and I´m taking benadryl for it, so hopefully it will go away soon.
Last night I went out to La Mariscal... it´s where all the bars are. The locals call it ¨Gringolandia¨which is like foreign-white people land. All the foreigners go to the bars there. It is a really cool area. I went with 3 Ecuatorian guys and 2 other american girls to a discotech called Movida. It was fun. They listen to a lot of American music, but there is also a large range of Spanish music... pop, reggaton, etc.
So, I love it here.. i will put up pictures soon! I miss all of you at home though!!