It’s been quite a while since I’ve written anything, which is quite misleading because I have been out and about trying to experience as much of Ecuador as I can. Among some of the more interesting things that have happened include…
Coastal visit number 1: a large group of us went to the coast for our first “big break from school.” We left a on a Thursday for an 8 hour bus ride to the coast. The first day we spent as should at least one beach day be spent… Lazy. We drank “agua de coco” (which is a wonderful drink of coconut milk) and drinking in the sun; everyone in the group but me got burnt because the sun is so strong—thank you Mom genes!
The second day at the beach, we were able to enjoy other elements and began our day early and took a guided tour of various aspects of the coastal culture… We took a tour through endangered Mangrove forests, learned how the shrimp business is slowly eradicating much of what is so important to the coastal towns, learned how to cast fishing nets, and walked along more than 2 miles of beach. At the end of the day, we ended up in a small coastal town Mompiche, which I will write more about later.
Camping in Laguna Quilotoa and Zumbahua. For another weekend in which we wanted to get out of Quito, we herded ourselves (Jessica, Travis, Matt with Mustache, and I) a couple of hours south to Zumbahua, a small town nestled in the mountains of Ecuador. We arrived in the cover of night and took refuge from the freezing cold in a small little hostal right across the street from the local morning Saturday market. On Saturday the noise of pigs and chickens awoke us early and from our window, we could see stands of different things all catering to las indigenas that came from neighboring towns and the mountains for this market. Although the market didn’t have anything I (personally) wanted, it was still amazing to see a market function such as this one did. Las Indigenas came from all over for this market on Saturday and Sunday buying all their materials for the week here. Fruit, vegetables, meat, and clothes were all for sale. I had two boiled eggs and corn for breakfast, totaling $.75. An amazing thing about this pueblito to me was that among a population of 12,000+ inhabitants the nearest ATM was 1 ½ hours away! I arrived with $20 in my pocket and was “stuck” counting pennies because I had been sure there would be an ATM! (How American I am, I forget!)
We took a short truck ride to Laguna Quilatoa and it was incredibly beautiful there! It took about 45 minutes to hike down into the blown out volcanic crater that now houses an extremely acidic lake. It was gorgeous although extremely cold due to its elevation of 12,000 ft!
Coastal Visit Number 2: for the second large break from school, I received the opportunity to visit the beach. I went to Mompiche, the small coastal town in which we had spent our last day during the last coastal visit. It’s a small fishing village beginning to cater towards more and more tourists. The town has a population of about 500 with the majority of them being fishermen. It’s amazingly tranquil there, without a worry in the world. We drove (so nice and such a different experience to travel by car than bus! *on a side note, we saw one of the buses traveling to the coast and it had a poor lamb on top of the bus for the 8 hour ride!) We spent 3 nights in total at the coast this time and it was definitely relaxing, my only complaint arising from the number of bug bites I received. The first night there, I went skinny dipping around 11pm and after a few minutes in the extremely warm water (!) I noticed glowing whenever I moved. The phenomenon of glowing plankton graced me with its presence that night… it was one of the most amazing and beautiful things I have ever experienced! Every movement I made was accompanied by a bright green glow—made it a little hard to be “naked in secret though!” Rest of the beach time was spent sleeping on the sand, swimming in water, and eating delicious seafood.
Baños: went on a weekend trip with some friends from the other exchange student programs at Pontífica Universidad del Ecuador. A small trip away from Quito, Baños is a small town nestled in the Andes about 3 hours southeast. Although we only spent 2 full days there, we managed to get in biking through the Andes mountains (on a route known as La Ruta de Las Cascadas—the route of the waterfalls) and we also “fit in” canyoning (repelling down waterfalls!). It was an amazing trip, relaxing and adventurous at the same time with beautiful scenery in all parts.
Now that I’ve taken the initiative to document some of my adventures, I hope to keep this up, if for nothing less than to keep up with Austin (my 13 year old nephew) who is putting me to shame with all his blog entries!
