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!