Paz en Paraiso

HI everyone! Heather here. sorry it's been so long! porto lopez was amAzingingly peaceful. picture a postcard and put my sunscorched body in the middle with a uge grin on my face, or with a mouth wide open and snoring. that was me for the 5 days we visited the coast. WUNDERbar. as if that weren't relaxing enough, we have relocated to a different, but equally relazing, paradise. surrounded by sharp peaks rising from plush green valleys, i understand why the place is filled with ex-pats. i'm currently trying to locate a could-be ex-pat friend of mine from KY. she's only 23 but has been travelling around Ec for a few months and can't seem to stay away from Vilcabamba. I understand why after less than a full day here. I've already seen several advertisements for workshops that focus on re-connecting with mother earth. very much my bag, baby. i've been responding to the ever-incoming inquiry: de donde eres? (where are you from?) with ny new favorite phrase: la patcha mamba (mother earth!) It makes most smile and they usually let up after that, settling with the idea that we are all from a number of places, and only a single mother at the same time. this is my way of thinking anyhow.
the sun really got to me on the beach. my legs are super duper bumpy itchy and i have a sun rash type deal up and down the outside of each leg. also, my midriff looks like a bad camoflouge job; part pink, part white, part brown. BUT at least i can move around comfortably. for a few days it was miserable trying to walk, sleep, carry ANYthing especially a backpack, etc. Like that barratone poet suggested in the graduation song: ALWAYS WEAR SUN SCREEN. even if it makes you look like a purple people eater, which it does....
so, all healed and rested up, for the most part, we're chillin at the cheapest 'resort' in the world. we were very much looking forward to a peacful nights sleep, but were woken up at 7am by construction workers within 15ft of our window. i have never been a morning person, and i don't think that's going to change as i can't seem to get to sleep at night, so i have to settle for sleeping mininmally. ugh. regardless, breakfast was incredible and put in such a good mood i was able to run to town on a full belly with a full backpack...supertasty crepes with fresh watermelon rolled up inside, multi grain bread with butter and (tamarind?) jelly, banana-orange smoothie juice, caffeine. ham too, which i don't like much but wrapped up in napkin for a snack on our hike; i've found that buying a loaf of bread, and scrounging up something to put betweens slices, is the best way to ensure i don't starve, nor have to shell out a dollar here, three dollars there for snacks on the go. we were planning on heading out to a waterfall you can splash around in, but the light rain last night was apparently heavy enough to create a problematic amount of mud, so we have resigned to a shorter (4-5 hour) hike that shares the same name of our hostal - Itzhchuayluma. It is the original name of this area, and means 'two hills' in Quichua, the most recent indigenous language of Ecuador.
Love to all, hopes this quenches your thirst. again, sorry for my lack of reporting. it's just so darn peaceful here, and you all know i'm not the best at keeping in touch, which has no bearing whatsoever on how much I LOVE AND MISS YOU AND THINK OF YOU AND WISH YOU WERE HERE TO SHARE THESE MOST MARVELOUS OF EXPERIENCES!!!! More photos coming soon. check outmy facebook page for photos, i take a BUNCH: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/profile.php?id=539547622&ref=profile Paz y amor de Ecuador! <3 Heather Pax
PS. Congratulations to Andrea and Jeff Paige. May God bless your union. We are all so happy for you two to have found eachother.

On the Road

We finally feel like backpackers now. Enough spending long periods of time in places, we are now jetsetting. However, upon arrival in Vilcabamba today, we might be trapped once again. We left Puerto Lopez for Guayaquil expecting to spend the night and then pick up a bus to Cuenca but we decided to go right on through that night. Then we had planned on spending a second day in Cuenca seeing the sights since yesterday it was a ghost town due to the final day of Carnaval. This morning, plans changed once again when we were woken up at six in the morning by the hostal owner in Cuenca. She snaps on the lights and then before we know it, she is trying to fit a bed from our dorm room out of the door. She is so intent on getting this bed out of the room that she is moving Heather´s bed (with her in it, freshly woken up) as she tries to get more leverage. Apparently, it was more important that these people that just walked into the hostal looking for a room have an extra bed than us be allowed to finish our night´s sleep. A little put out by the situation, but not angry or resentful, we decide to just pack up our stuff and catch an early bus to Vilcabamba via Loja.

That is the beauty of being a free traveler. When life hands you lemons, take the lemons and get on an earlier bus with them and move on with your life. We ended up having a great day of travel due to the fact that we got an early start and made it into Vilcabamba with enough time to have dinner and take a night walk into town. Speaking of Vilcabamba, it is paradise. This is like our second vacation in two weeks...one month into our big vacation. It is almost like a resort with flowered pathways, hammocks, a pool, massage services, dining room, and tours. Still we are only paying nine dollars a night with breakfast included in the price. This is what I was referring to when I said we might be stuck again. But we must make it to Peru. I´m betting on Peru by a week´s end.

Needless to say, the days just keep getting better and better. All that is lacking right now is a good night´s sleep, considering we have been travelling lately when we should have been sleeping. We are missing everyone at home and wish you could all be with us right now. We are lucky to be here and hope all is well with all of you back in the states.

Get ready, we will be publishing an ¨Ecuador TOP TEN Conclusions or Lessons learned, if you will¨ in the near future. We are coming up with the final list as we speak. We plan to do this for every country we visit and also a top 20 for the entire trip at the end.

Please, if you read this blog become a ¨follower¨. The list shows up on the right hand side of the blog. We want to know who all reads so we can email those who might not have received the link. Also, I echo Hallye..Comment!! we love the comments and let us know what you would like to hear more of. We can definitely write more about certain topics that you find more interesting. We are here to please you, our audience.

Lots of love, Katie.

No more beach

1. Sorry we are not updating the blog as much. Now that we are moving around more (and we do not have free internet) it is a little more difficult. But we are trying.

2. PLEASE comment on our posts. We love hearing from home. We also love to know who is reading the blog and what you think about our adventures.

3. What we have been up to (I will try not to repeat anything that Katie said and hopefully I will not leave anything out!):

We spent Saturday at a beautiful set of quiet beaches called Los Frailes (part of Machalilla National Park). They were located about twenty minutes for Puerto Lopez. The water was clear, the sand was soft and it was not crowded at all. We walked down the beaches to take a look at the monsterous rocks that make up the points of each beach. It was beautiful and realaxing. We took some wonderful photos and will post them in the near future. I hope that one day I can return to this place.

We took a bus there and a ´moto taxi´ back. The moto taxi is a motorbike that has a little carriage attached to it for passengers. They are all over Puerto Lopez and we think that ours had a flat tire. When we got back to Puerto Lopez we began to witness the transformation of the city into a carnaval town. Crowds of people began to pour into the city. The beach was covered with people. On Sunday, we tried to avoid the crowds by walking to the very end of the beach were it was not as crowded. It was nice at this spot, but we were ready to get the heck out of the beachtown. There was an unbelievable amount of mud, tons of people and every restaurant jacked their prices up. We figured out the next bus did not leave until four o clock the following day so we hung out in town trying to avoid have eggs chucked at us or water dumped on us (all part of the carnaval so we just laughed it off). On our last day in Puerto Lopez (monday) we enjoyed batidos on the beach and a wonderful almuerzo from our favorite little eating spot. We had fresh shrimp soup (packed with veggies and potatos), panfried fish (also fresh), rice and salad.

Random Sidenote: DISCLAIMER: we are not pedophiles for befriending all these adorable Latin American children... We were lucky enough to make friends with an eight year old boy named Hugo during the carnaval festivities. We played monopoly with him and his sister, he quizzed us on our spanish and he told us that we sounded like Tarzan when we talked (?!).


So, overall Puerto Lopez was wonderful...but we were ready to leave. We wanted to go to Ambato for the fruit and flower festival. However, our hostal owner showed us a newspaper that had pictures of the highway to Ambato destroyed by mudslides. So, we had a change of plans. We could have either taken the bus back to Quito (which did not sound good since we just came from there) or to Guayaquil (which we heard was not that great). We opted for Guayaquil and figured we could catch another bus the next day to Cuenca. We took the bus to Guayaquil and when we arrived at the bus terminal at about eight thirty last night and decided we did not want to stay in Guayaquil for the night... so we grabbed another bus to Cuenca. We arrived here in Cuenca at two thirty in the morning today. The first hostal that we went to had a room for us and we woke up this morning to a beautiful view from the hostal´s kitchen.


Today we have lazily wandered the city. It is super quiet except for the occasional truck of kids to drive by with water balloons (it is the last day of Carnaval). It feels like we are in a battle and I am suspicious of anyone, or anything that comes by us because there is a good chance they will have some sort of carnaval weapon. We stumbled upon a Panama Hat Museum (because they are made in Ecuador, not Panama), a small flower market, a beautiful plaza and the Tomebamba river which runs through the city. Once again I find myself saying how much I love this place even though I say it everytime we arrive somewhere new. We will probably move on from Cuenca fairly quickly and will try to update the blog when we arrive at our next destination.

I hope all is well at home still. We miss everyone. Hallye

Carnaval

So I forgot to add something to yesterday´s post. I know I mentioned Carnaval but I guess I did not adequately explain what goes on here in Puerto Lopez. Well, the tradition is to soak unexpecting passersby with water. So every night there are little boys hiding behind bushes with buckets of water and water guns waiting to soak anyone who happens along the sidewalk. Last night, it was raining outside but that didn´t stop the little boys from standing by with their buckets. We were leaving a restaurant after dinner and walking back to the hostal. I noticed one boy call over to his buddy to alert him that three gringas were walking his way. I caught the kid in the act of being an accomplice to a soaking and he looked at me coyly and insisted that we continue on our path. Hallye jumped out into the street and attempted to make a run for it but three boys attacked her, one jumping on her and hitting her on the head while the other two got her with the buckets. I waited in the shelter of a food stand and watched with enjoyment. Then I thought I would try to be sneaky and make a run for it while they were preoccupied with Hallye but one kid was fast enough to make it to the water puddle and fill it up just in time to get me in the back with muddy water.

Tomorrow we are heading back to the highlands for the fruit and flower festival in Ambato. Then we will go to Cuenca, Vilcabamba, and then make our way to Peru.
Katie

Beach Bums

We apologize for it having been a week since our last post. I has been a whirlwind of events lately and we are just now finding time to access the internet. If you don´t know already from email, right now we are in Puerto Lopez. It is a tiny fishing town about halfway down the coast of Euador and situated minutes away from the expansive Parque Nacional Machalilla. Since arriving at 8:30 in the morning on Wednesday off an overnight bus ride from Quito, we have been soaking in the sun and doing a bit of exploring. Yesterday we visited Agua Blanca, a tiny pueblo in the National Park which is inhabited by an exclusive group of people who´s ancestors have lived there since Inca time. The villiage is protected by the government from people attemtping to buy the land and the people of the villiage are self-sustaining. They import and export nothing. Their purpose is to maintain and protect an archeological site that was begun by its own people centuries ago. We rented bikes and rode down the beach from Puerto Lopez along the highway to Agua Blanca. Once we arrived, we were given a guide who showed us around the museum and eventually led us to a sulfur lake. The water was runoff from the mountains and contained something like 70 percent sulfer. And yes, it smelled like rotten eggs. But we jumped in without hesitation once we were told it was good for the skin, as was coating ourselves in the sulfur mud, which we also did. We have pictures and will gladly post those as soon as we can find a fast connection, they are quite comical. After the laguna, we rode our bikes back to Puerto Lopez. On the way back, we could not help ourselves from riding onto the sand, ditching our bikes on the beach, and heading to the water. Ecuador´s beaches are very under-appreciated. It is beautiful here, and relatively low on tourists. Few people think of beaches when they think of Ecuador, and for us, we are loving the fact that we are just chilling in and underrated fishing villiage right now. It is a big change from the high paced life in the city. There is a man that owns a little tienda right next to our hostal and he sits outside of his shop ALL DAY LONG. I don´t think I have ever seen him move from his plastic patio chair, and every time we pass by, he offers a ¨buenos dias¨ and a slow smile. We appreciate this change of pace from the fast paced atmosphere in Quito where not even the busses stop completely to let passengers on and off. I have jumped on and off of a moving bus a number of times.

Some of you may be wondering why we picked up and left all of the sudden from Quito. We were raving about Quito and it probably seemed like we would stay there forever. Well, all it took was a french couple and a Kiwi to get us up and moving again. In our last few days in Quito, we made friends with a young couple from France who had traveled to Cuba and had lived for a year in Ireland. There was also a guy our age staying in our hostal from New Zealand who had been all over the continent and was preparing to go to Cuba as well. Listening to these people tell their stories of travelling made us realize that there is so much left for us to see. While we do love Quito, we had to move on, not to to mention the fact that it was raining and cold the last few days in the city. After the beach, where they are currently celebrating Carnaval, we will likely head back to the mountains to Ambato where there is a fruit and flower festival during the rest of February and then south to Cuenca. We will visit a town called Vilcabamba before going to the border and crossing over into Peru.

It was sad leaving our hostal that we had grown to love. We made a dinner the night before leaving. We had settled on spaghetti and I undertook the cooking duties. I had a recipe for a spaghetti sauce that I had working in my head and upon arrival at the grocery store, I was reminded that tomato sauce does not exist in Ecuador. Soooooo I had to create a spaghetti sauce with ketchup and achiote paste. It was an interesting mix indeed but turned out pretty good. Hallye put together some buttered oregano spiced bread and we had a feast.

Must be going. Will write again very soon.
Katie

Victory is ours!!!

So we did it. Hallye and I killed the spider that was terrorizing her for the past week. We walked into our room today and I saw the creature next to my pack. I said ¨there´s the (expletive) spider!¨Then I offered my shoe to Hallye to let her have the last word with her mortal enemy but she gracefully declined and said the finder should be the killer. Actually she screamed and said ¨NOOOOO YOU DO IT¨. I bravely took matters into my own hands and approached the massive beast with determination. Actually, I walked up really hesitantly and barely made contact because I didn´t want to get too close to it for fear it would be one of those crazy jumping spiders. But Luckily my sturdy trail runner closed the deal and the thing shriveled up on the floor. Then we called upstairs to our Haitian friend Willy to come down and pick it up to throw it away. He entered the room and I pointed to the dead body. Willy walked over to where I pointed but didn´t do anything. He turned around and said ¨I don´t see anything¨. I had to go over and point right to it. ¨Oh..¨he said in his very broken english. ¨From de way you scream I tink it is big spider¨. Luckily, now Hallye can sleep in peace.

Bye the way...in two weeks we are planning our trip to the Amazon. I hear there is some pretty interesting wildlife there, including but not limited to: monkeys, ants, anacondas, beetles, snakes, and some really huge, hairy, nasty killer spiders.
-Katie

Maestra for LIFE

I always new the teaching world was where I would end up. Not even a month in Quito and I am already a physical education teacher twice a week and a Spanish teacher when needed. Yesterday Mauricio asked if I would serve as the hostal´s Spanish teacher, giving classes to any guest that requests them and pays 5 dollars an hour. Heather also might be doing the same. He mentioned that she might have a student in the next few days. So, no need to worry now Dad. Not only am I only spending about 13 dollars a day, but I am making 5 for every hour that I teach Spanish. Three hours teaching a day and I am MAKING money by traveling around South America. For all of you who are feeling the effects of the sinking economy in the states, just know that you too could just come on down here to the sunny sights of South America and travel the continent for ¨free¨! Now I know that it is just not that easy but I just felt like I should put that out there for anyone who might be considering a vacation. It would be worth it in every sense of the word.

Yesterday as you read from Heather´s post, we went to the markets at Otavalo. I guess I saw some cash flow coming at me as I was wandering around the stalls because I spent everything I had on me save my bus fare back to Quito. Upon leaving Otavalo, however, I had no regrets on spending three days worth of money on market goods. This might surprise many of you who know me as a frugal pennie pincher, but I left with some really good buys. I bought a hammock for 15$, two bracelets for 2$, a leather woven belt for 7.50$, a woven llama decoration for 4$, four magnets for 3$, a hand woven purse for 9$, and a homeade slice of pineapple pie for a buck. You might be thinking why the heck did I buy a hammock, but let me tell you: there is a hammock on our hostal terrace and more than once I have fallen asleep in it reading a book and gazing at the basilica and the mountains in the distance. It is a must have for whatever home I happen to find for myself next.

This post is not meant to be an example of me tooting my own horn, but I do have some more good news that I want to share with everyone who I do not have the pleasure of keeping in such close contact as I do my immediate family. As most of you know, before I left for Ecuador I finished applying to Latin American Studies programs for graduate school. Much to my excitement, earlier in the week I received my first response from the schools to which I applied. University of Illinois notified me that they are nominating me for a foreign lanuage fellowship to study either Quechua or Portuguese. I chose to write about Portuguese because I thought it would give me a better chance to work from the United States in whatever career I end up. In order to be in the competition to receive one of nine of these fellowships, I had to write an additional essay making a case for why one of these languages is important for research. I contacted Dr. Bocketti to ask exactly what this means as far as being actually accepted to the school and he said that most likely they would like to accept me but are looking for a way to finance my education. The fellowship would take care of tuition and also provide me with 1300 dollars a month as a living stipend. I am not sure when I will find out about this fellowship but I am hopeful to hear from the other universities to which I applied.

If anyone is wondering, cake-making with Lucia was much fun the other night. If I mistakenly am thinking that someone posted about this already, I will explain. Lucia, the hostal ¨mother¨invited us down to the family kitchen to teach us to make her special cake. We had a lot of fun making the cake and Hallye tired herself out hand mixing the butter and flour. The cake is sort of like really sweet and fluffy corn bread. When we took it out of the oven, Sergei and Mauricio had trouble moving the cake from the pan to the tray and it ended up collapsing all over the place. The bad news was that the cake was broken. The good news was that it was unsuitable to serve to the other hostel guests and we had to eat it all ourselves. Lucia promised to teach us to make her special cookies next week but unfortunately she had to leave today for the north of Ecuador because her father is very ill. It could be a while before she returns. But I must have been giving off a super excited attitude about dessert making because Mauricio exclaimed, ¨¿A ella le gusta mucho el dulce, no?¨. (She really likes sweets, doesn´t she). Yes we all know I have a sweet tooth and how lucky I am to be living in a hostal with an owner who loves to teach her guests how to make cookies and cake. GOOD thing I´m walking all over this blasted city every day.

-Katie

OH Otovalo

A small town, though bigger than we expected, with a huge market, lies northeast of Quito and forever in my heart. A wonderful daytrip providing fresh air and a bit of peace and quiet despite all that was going on around us. Most otovalenos still wear the traditional dress and are said to hold on to their culture quite closely. All who we encountered were exceptionally friendly, and very proud of their handmade crafts. There were fewer than I expected actually involved inthe process of making what they were selling as we strolled around the plaza, but were instead tactfully trailing us holding up garments of terribly soft alpaca fur, carved gourds, and wind pipes. There was an enormous amount of jewelry, most of which is made from Tagua, a type of tree/wood specific to Ecuador. It's super durable and easy to dye and carve, and so it's everywhere.
To back track a bit, just because I thought it was funny, the bus ride there seemed to take forever. (Luckily, they played Hallye's favorite movie, The Mummy.)Specifically because we were moving at a speed much slower than the rest of the traffic cruising down the panamerican highway, as the driver pumped the brakes around every itty bitty corner, and stopped several times only to let passengers off to pee on the side of the road, and/or let vendors on to sell the passengers their goods. At one point there was a line of people hollering one item after another as they passed each row of seats. The line went like this: bottles of soda/nuts, 1/2 lb. bags of grapes, phone cards, writing utencils, individual plates of chicken and salad, coconut milk (I think...plastic baggies of white liquid with a short blue straw poking out), ice cream, and finally, DVD's, pirated of course.
Back to the future, the bus ride home was quite enjoyable. They again played a movie called The Mummy, and though it did have sand monsters rising from the dead and Brendan Frasier, none of us recognized this version. The highlight, though, was the rave in the back of the bus. We pulled into Quito to the pumping beats of US techno we all couldn't help but dance to. And though none of us remembered to bring out glow sticks, the red lights that lined the ceiling were a perfect substitute and set the mood perfectly. It also helped that we were surrounded by gringos, as most were returning from Otovalo, a popular spot for travelers.
A lovely day! Hope everyone is well. Much love from the South side!
(pax)

ps/ the pic was taken on the balcony of Cafe Mosaico, at the very top of our hill. una buena vista!
hallye, katie, danielle (FR), nice chilean couple, and willy (haiti)

Vive e aprende...

Living and learning is what we're all about here in Quito. Today we found a few activities we won't be trying again any time soon.
Numero uno: no more shopping malls! On the hunt for necessities, (i.e. jeans that fit, and or a belt -- despite indulging in almuerzos and ice cream we've all lost a bit around the waist) we found only expensive and rather tacky clothes. We all splurged on high SPF sunblock, but made it out of the cramped, overpriced, imported-goods fest without losing more than a 10 spot. Oh! and Hallye got a sweet pair of shades, mos def a necessity, as we are supremely close to the sun. Many Ecuadorians walk around with a newspaper over their head, as if expecting rain...really they are shading their eyes. Sunglasses seem to be a luxury, still. Certainly none of the indigenous folks are rocking shades. Many mestizos and upper class oscuros kept them on while strolling through the mall, so I'm thinking it's more of a "hey look at me, I can afford these shiny shades" kinda thing.
Numero dos: No more traveler's checks! Poor Katie went from bank to bank, and there is one after another on the main street we were cruising, only to hear: Sorry, no can do. We'll have to make our way to a 'casa del cambio' which seem less reputable than an actual bank, and might charge a bit too much. Keep your fingers crossed that we're wrong!
Numero tres: No more postcards! Sorry folks, today was most likely the first and last round of snail mail you'll be receiving. Almost $2 per postale, which means: escargot no mo', email it is. It's much faster and your darlings abroad will be generally happier as we've not had to shell out our precious pennies, nor spend hours trying to find a post office.
Much love! Pax

The Equator

We finally made our visit to el Mitad del Mundo (on Sunday). It was everything we could have hoped for...a tourist trap. There were gift shops with hats that said ¨I visited Ecuador¨ and some very overpriced restaurants. But hey, we had to do it and for the most part we enjoyed it. The bus ride there was a little over an hour. We invited some people from our hostal. It ended up being the three of us, a New Zealand couple, a girl from Austrailia and Willie (our friend from Haiti). It was an interesting group because we all spoke fluent English except Willie. The New Zealanders did not speak Spanish. Willie speaks French and a fair amount of English but does not understand most of what you say to him. His favorite words are ´okay´ and ¨ooo lala.¨
The main piece of the Mitad del Mundo complex is a huge monument with a stone earth sitting on top. We each took pictures standing on the equator and even took some goofy pictures acting like we were holding the world. There were tons of other tourists there as well as Ecuadorians and their adorable children. We brought cheese sandwiches and Oritos (little bananas) and ate them in the shadow of the huge monument. We visited an insect house where we saw huge bugs and spiders. I (Hallye) am not fond of spiders. I am not scared of being bit, but of their legs and bodies. They creep me out. I have already had an experience with one spider here...One morning I came into our room from brushing my teeth and sitting on my bed was a spider that was probably two quarters big. That is a guess. I did not really absorb its size because I was in shock that it was on bed. I brushed it off my bed with a shirt but then could not find it. So, the past four or five days, the first thing I do when I walk into our room is scan it for spiders. Before I go to sleep, I look behind my bed. When I sleep, I am all the way under the covers with just a little hole to breathe. I feel like I am at war with this spider and will let you know who wins.
Anyways...The best part about our visit to the ¨Mitad del Mundo¨was that it does not exactly sit on the equator! Their equator is around 250 meters off. Supposedly, there is a second, newer monument that is more accurate. We decided that we were close enough and that if we come back to Ecuador they will have a third equator and we can visit that!
We returned to our hostal at dinner time and started cooking. We decided that sunday night would be a good night to make dinner at the hostal since most places shut down pretty early in Old Town. Katie informed us that she had a little recipe in mind so we let her get to work. She made a creamy, garlic alfredo sauce and mixed it with our pasta that we had purchased from the market the other day. It was delicious! We enjoyed the meal on the terrace since it was such a beautiful night.
Speaking of food...we made a visit Saturday night to ¨Los Hot Dogs de la Plaza¨ where Katie and I (Hallye) decided that a ¨superdog¨ would be a good snack. The superdog was probably about a foot long, had thousand island dressing, ketchup, mustand, mayo and crumbled potato chips. It was amazing and awful at the same time. But we decided that we received enough exercise earlier that day to enjoy the dog. That morning we went to the park with Jonathan (8 years) and Sergei (20 years). They are the hostal owner´s sons. We kicked around the soccer ball and then played an actual game (girls versus boys). It was fun and exhausting. The park´s altitude really affected our lungs. A little jog across the field wiped me out. When we returned to the hostal around two thirty, the owners invited us to eat with them downstairs in their kitchen and dining area. They cooked us rice, beans, chicken and a yummy cucumber and green pepper salad. The meal was great and it was fun to hang out with the family.

Kickball comes to Ecuador

Buenas Tardes amigos y familia,
I know it might not be my turn to post on the blog..but I´m stuck inside today and have little else to do. Earlier at school the sun was very strong and I am burned on the face. Heather left to go for a run and Hallye is on the terrace enjoying the sunshine. The english teachers had the comfort of staying indoors today while this phys. ed teacher was outside for four hours straight. While I may be complaining about my sunburn, I almost have to say that is was worth the while because today was such an exciting day at school.
The famous North American childhood game of kickball made its debut at Nicholas Aguilera School in el pueblo del Armenia in the Valle de Los Chillos situated in Quito, Ecuador today. I had the pleasure of introducing this game to some 100 students today who had never heard of it and I am proud. And they loved it. I began by asking the students in each class how many of them knew the rules to baseball. Much to my dismay, only about two in each class had ever heard of baseball. So I had to start from the beginning. I explained the rules and throughout the day was remembering more and more myself as I went along. The children picked up the game quickly and were very enthusiastic about playing. Even the die-hard soccer players chose to play kickball today rather than there own beloved sport. It was truly a success and now I have more tricks up my sleeve. No longer do we have to resort to playing no-bounce basketball, which is so because the school has not one single inflated basketball and no air-compressor or pump. So now the boys who don´t like soccer and the girls have options for their 45 minutes of class time. Hallye and Heather even came to join in the fun fifth period since they only go to fourth period and I to fifth.
So yes kickball was the highlight of the day but it wasn´t the only memorable event. I have five classes and they range from second grade to seventh. I was only able to accomplish introducing a new sport to the older classes of fourth and up. I had to come up with something for second grade. The previous day I had already taught them red light, green light and by the end of the class they were somewhat bored with it. It just wouldn´t suffice today. During lunch I confided in Hallye and Heather for more ideas and one of them suggested Duck Duck Goose. Perfect. That would be second grade´s new game today. When it came time for their turn, I circled them up on the court and had them sit down. I began to begin explaining and realized that I couldn´t remember the word for duck and I did not know at all the word for goose in Spanish. Eventually, I was able to get out of them that ¨Pato¨was the word for duck. Then I asked what is larger than a duck and also swims. They replied ¨Cisne¨. I knew that cisne is the word not for goose, but instead means swan. But we had already spent so much time trying to come up with the name of the game and I was so exasperated so I just went with it. Yes. We played Duck Duck Swan. And even now that I have returned to the hostal and have looked up the word for goose in the dictionary, it is too late. The kids will always know the game as Duck Duck Swan or Pato Pato Cisne. And that is just fine with me. They loved it and we played it the whole time.

We know how it feels to have your head in the clouds...

Literally. Our heads were in the clouds when we reached the 4800 meter mark on Cotopaxi. It felt like a dream. The dream started when we were picked up the van of German tourists. Actually, it probably began when we were walking to the volocano and a little kid ran out from his school with a werewolf mask and chased us down the road. Of course, we pretended to be scared and took off running in front of him!

We were amazed by the sight of Cotopaxi when the van let us out at the foot of the volcano. The snow capped mountain was partially hidden by the clouds. Katie, Heather, three of the germans, their tour guide and myself began the hike up the sandy path. It was long and exhuasting. It zig-zagged across the volocano and everytime we reached a turn I would think that it would be the end...and it was not. It was also freezing! I wore capris, a tshirt and my fleece. At one time I thought my ears were actually falling off. Katie and I wondered about frostbite, but we brushed that idea off with the fact that the german´s tour guide would have told us if he thought we would get frostbite.
However, we made it. At 4800 meters we could touch the snow and we were surrounded by clouds. A worker told us that the snow on Cotopaxi was from November. That should tell you how chilly it was up there. We entered the climber´s lodge and had a snack that gave us energy to quickly run back down the volcano. We were greeted by the rest of the germans and we piled back into the van.
Our next stop was a beautiful hacienda that showed off Incan ruins within its structure. The hacienda is now a hotel and it costs somewhere around $350 a night to stay there. While it was beautiful and feeding the llamas was quite exciting, we decided to head back to Belmont. So we said goodbye to our new german friends and hopped on a bus back to Quito.
The next day, as if we were not exhausted enough from volcano climbing, we headed back to Nicolas Aguilera Escuela to teach. We arrived at eight fifteen. Once again, Katie taught physical education and Heather and I taught English. I felt like I accomplished more English teaching this time than our previous visit. It can be frustrating because the classes are huge and the skill levels vary so much from class to class. I taught six English classes and one time I went straight from a seventh grade class to kindergarden. Talk about an adjustment...especially since we never know which class we are going to next. But it is worth it because if we teach them anything (English, skills for a new sport) or give them motivation or inspiration to better themselves...I will be happy. And it does not hurt that they are adorable. I almost fell down in one class because they were all hugging my legs so hard.
Today (Wednesday) we went to the ´hot springs.´ It was called Cununyacu piscina. We loved being able to relax, but the high point of the outing was Jonathan. Jonathan is our hostal owner´s eight year old son who was allowed to come with us today...and miss school. He was pretty excited and so were we. Daniel, our French photographer friend from the hostal came as well. We swam and lounged around in the sun for several hours. It was an adventure and now we are all a little tired.

Fortune Sides With She Who Dares

¨I have faith..but not hope¨were my exact words as we were on our third or fourth mile walking into the Cotopaxi National Park. We had been walking for miles past the park entrance towards the second largest volcano in Ecuador. Time after time we had turned down offer after offer from truck drivers wanting to charge us five dollars a piece to take us up the mountain. The stingy travelers that we are, we didn´t want to pay a dime to take us the 12 or so miles that would take us to the volcano. We wanted to walk. We had resolved to walk. We might not make it all the way, we may only get a glimps of the volcano from a distance, but it would be against our poor traveler ethos to pay a guide to drive us there. However, it only took a few miles of walking up a slight incline with altitute challenging our every breath that we began to look behind us in hopes of seeing a truck that could possible take us a few miles, without charging us. We had, after all, hopped in the bed of a truck a couple miles previous to this point that didn´t mind carrying us for a while. But now we were tired and we knew we wouldn´t make it if we didn´t get a little help.

So yes I had faith, but not hope that a car would pass by. The thing is, it was a Monday that we went to see Cotopaxi and hardly a soul was there to visit with us. Not three minutes after these words left my mouth with the thin air that was inhabiting my lungs, did we hear a motor about a hundred yards behind us. We turned around and as if an angel was flying towards us, came a white bus. The bus approached and slowed down and we made sure to appear especially tired and in need of help. The driver lowered the window and he asked ¨Deutch?¨. No we don´t speak german but it would be nice if you would take us a little bit down the road. ¨Claro¨he said with a wave of his hand. So we went around to the other side of the bus and hopped in. There were exactly three seats left for us in this tour bus with eight other German tourist who happened to be on a family vacation together. Apparently the bus driver didn´t think they would mind sharing their tour bus with three American girls.
So off we were towards Cotopaxi. It was a pretty lengthy ride to the volcano and we were so lucky to have caught this german angel bus. The bus took us across the plains and up the hills towards the mountain, passing a lake and wild horses and bulls. We got to the base of the mountain and began our ascent. I will leave the details of the volcano to one of the others who would love to have a hand in this story...but I will just say that I thought I was on the surface of the moon and when I looked out into the distance I thought I was in the heavens.

So we climbed and climbed and climbed and climbed. I have never been that close to the peak of a volcano. I could see the snow and the rivulets and the waves. We made it to the climbers refuge and had a snack and a conversation about Obama with the Germans and our German-Ecuadorian bus driver and then came back down. After, we were taken to the oldest hacienda in Ecuador which is built upon Inca ruins and we fed carrots to llamas and drank traditional juices. Needless to say, this is a pretty unbelievable story. But true.

Market Day

Friends and Family, it´s time for another update. Hallye and I have just returned from the mercado central where there is more fresh produce than I have ever seen in one place in my life. Just two blocks away from our hostal is this three story ¨grocery store¨ laden with men and women selling the freshest vegetables, fruits, poultry, fish, grains, herbs, breads, pastas, baskets, flowers, legumes...the list goes on. It is also possible there to sample the most traditional ecuadorian dishes. It was packed in there today and I had to haggle with a woman who was trying to charge me 1.25$ for five apples when her sign clearly read ¨Manzanas: 5 por 1 dolar¨. She said that the sign only applied to the small apples and the large apples were more. I asked her where the small apples were then because I only saw one size of apples and her reply was that she didn´t have any small ones today. So I gave her the evil eye and walked away without giving her the extra 25 cents. Getting overcharged for being a gringa when trying to buy almost anything has been a real annoyance. Every day I ask Mauricio or Lucia how much I should have been charged for, sliced guava for example, and each time they tell me that I payed almost double what Ecuadorians pay. I might have to resort to covering my face and white skin and then asking how much something is. Then again, I´m usually arguing over about twenty five cents. You might think to yourself, ¨what´s the use in arguing over 25 cents?¨, but that small amount will get me a bus ride across Quito...and a 20 ounces of beer.

Speaking of beer, last night was our first night going out on the town. We went to the Mariscal district in New Town and Carson from Texas and his sister who lives here in Quito showed us around. A good time was had by all and we were home safe and sound by 4 in the morning.

Well, today is looking like a good day as far as weather goes so I should get outside and enjoy the scarce sunshine. It has rained the past two days and the temperature has dropped especially during these days. You can all expect pictures soon, and please please please leave comments! We love feedback. It shows us people are reading! -Katie