Biking and Insane Soccer Matches

So I officially have one week left here on my program—even saying that doesn’t make sense. But in some strange turn of events, I’ve ended up with multiple 10 page papers (in Spanish, mind you), and final exams and other fun stuff. Since when did any of us study abroad to actually study. Well, cant complain too much—I’ve had 3 awesome experiences the last few weekends, which I’m gonna share…right…about….NOW.

First experience: biking down a mountain—Cotopaxi to be exact.

I had heard from one of my friends here that she had biked down a mountain called Cotopaxi, about an hour south of Quito. She told me about a tour company that took you up to where the snow started on the mountain (I guess biking through snow wasn’t an option), and then you biked about 10km back down. Bikes? Mountains? Lunch included?? I was hooked. So I contacted the company (I kid you not, it was called “The Biking Dutchman”), and we showed up at 7AM where the tour company told us to meet them. It was essentially catered to gringos, but, ya know, sometimes you just have to swallow your pride, accept that you’re a gringo and go do something gringo-y for the sake of a great experience. After 2 girls unfortunately got robbed of nearly everything they had, walking to the tour company (at 7AM! What thieves wanna wake up that early?? Unfortunately, April was a tough month for our group—multiple robberies), and we waited around to be told what to do, we finally got piled into a van, and set off, Cotopaxi-bound.

We pulled into the park and started our drive, snaking up to the parking lot that bordered the hike up to the refuge, and then up to the mountain. After stopping to get some pictures of the mountain (they knew what we came for), and plowing through some questionable road blocks of small rivers that were casually in the way, we finally made it up to where we would be starting our decent down on bikes.

Instantly it was much colder, and my Tufts hoodie that’s proved so faithful over the past 4 months was struggling to get the job done. Nevertheless we started our treacherous 10km bike ride down the mountain, poco a poco. It was surprisingly harder than you would think. A couple kids flipped over their handle bars, or just fell over. My hands were pretty blistered by the end. But all in all, it was a pretty awesome experience biking down Cotopaxi. We enjoyed a nice lunch as the rain came along—after which biking lost its appeal and we hopped into the van to head back to Quito.

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Second experience: the absolute insanity that is a soccer game in South America.

This was on my bucket list to do before leaving Ecuador and it was one of the most incredible experiences I got to have while here. One of my friends here Ivan bought us tickets and we headed to the stadium in the north of the city one fine Sunday morning. The matchup was a big one: La Liga (Quito) vs. Barcelona (Guayaquil). Barcelona had never beaten La Liga in their own stadium so this was a big matchup.

Instantly upon approaching and entering the stadium I could tell this wasn’t gonna be no tame regional soccer match. The stadium was roaring with activity—with people flooding in from all sides, a loud band playing on the first level, and people settling into their seats. Initially, we were going to sit on the second level, with the families. But the temptation of sitting in the roudier section—down on the field-level section—was just too tempting.

This turned out to be a solid choice, because as the game started, we got to experience some of the insanity that is a soccer game in Ecuador. Aside from the jumping crazy fans, some shirtless, there were men with fire-extinguisher type contraptions that periodically shot out white spray/foam over the crowd, while other guys ran with a giant banner (what proved to be a huge Liga flag) that covered the entire fan section. We were right in the action—with close seats to see header goals and slide-tackles. Screaming fans expressed their disappointment over the eventual tie, but nevertheless, it was quite the experience. At the end, all the fans of the Liga were let out first, before the Barcelona fans. When I asked my friend, he said it was to avoid conflict outside the stadium. Good thing the riot police were there to keep us all safe.

Third experience: biking through blocked off city streets on Ciclopaseo.

Ever Sunday a good portion of Quito is blocked off so that Quitenans and gringos alike can bike through the city. This is exactly what me and two of my friends did one Sunday morning, after a few months of seeing all these bikers taking over the mean streets of Quito. Though it started raining at first, it cleared up, and we rode for about 2 hours through the city, down into the historical center of the city, observed an outdoor concert in a plaza, and biked up more than enough hills. We turned around once we started getting further into the South of the city, and luckily no bikes broke. T’was quite the enjoyable day!

Well that’s it for now. Only a post or more left in this blog…. L

-          Doug

3 Bros and a Crater

Buenos dias a todos!

It’s time for another update from the Equator. It’s crazy to me that it’s already the month of May! Here’s to the 22 days I still have left in Quito… Wahoo! One of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in my life happened when we took a trip two weekends ago…

I set off from Quito on a Friday night with two of my good friends, Wes and Miguel, bound for a site that is growing in popularity for tourists here in Ecuador: Quilotoa Crater. We caught a bus from a bus station in the south of Quito Friday night, bound for the city of Latacunga. Luckily, I ended up sitting next to a very nice Ecuadorian from Latacunga, who’s a lawyer in Quito during the week, and she was able to give us hostel recommendations once we arrived to Latacunga in the dead of night. Her recommendation was the “Bronx Hotel” (I’m not kidding), so we hopped in a cab, heading for the Bronx.

Our humble abode.

It was a modest little establishment. The woman behind the reception desk must have forgotten the price of a triple room (or, maybe, she was trying to rip us off cause we’re foreigners…something tells me it was the latter of the two), because she initially said $30 for the 3 of us total. Then, her co-worker came up, scolding her saying “Why did you say $30? $25. It’s $25 trust me”. Paying about $8 per person was still more than we wanted to pay, but it was already nighttime and the thought of wandering back out into the dark, abandoned streets of Latacunga, with our bags, looking for a hostel wasn’t exactly the most appealing thought in the world.

And so the Bronx it was! We spent the night bumming around the lackluster ‘city’ of Latacunga; being rebellious and hopping fences to enter into a park after hours to look at a statue—you know, the usual. We called it a night around 10:30, and heading back to our surprisingly nice and clean room at the Bronx.

View of Cotopaxi walking to the bus station in the morning.

It was up early that next morning, as we packed up, said our sorrowful good-byes to the Bronx Hotel, and began walking, with the sun rising over our heads, to the Latacunga bus station. We had a beautiful view of Cotopaxi mountain off in the distance (see next blog post for more on Cotopaxi). We enjoyed a nice Ecuadorian breakfast that consisted of the essentials—rice, meat and juice, and then boarded our bus bound for Zumbahua—the town closest to the crater.

View from the bus

I was expecting a typical, boring 2 hour bus ride (being from Ohio, the landscape usually doesn’t wow you that much), but I couldn’t have been more wrong. The bus wound, up and up and up, further into the foothills of the Andes, passing

Market in town

through rolling green valleys, rural farms; driving along sheer drop offs that concerned me a little bit—especially since there were no guard rails. We knew we were really ‘out there’ when we looked around the full bus and it was all indigenous Ecuadorians—and us 3 Gringos. Nevertheless we finally did arrive in Zumbahua, a small dirt road town, nestled in the midst of these rolling, green hills and valleys. Instantly, of course, a man approached us (do we really stick out that badly?) talking about his truck, going to the crater, did we need a ride, etc.

We took him up on his offer to transport us out to the crater, hopped into the back of the open-air pickup truck, and were off! After entering the park (we only had to buy two tickets—our truck driver convinced the park staff that Miguel was Ecuadorian (his real name is Michael and he’s from LA), and we pulled up over the crest of the hill.

Miguel enjoying our truck lift to the crater

What we saw was quite possibly one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

Quilotoa crater in all its glory.

Beginning our hike around the crater

A massive 2 mile wide, 820 ft deep crater with an aqua blue lake in the middle met our eyes. The enormity of it was amazing. There were about 5 peaks with a steep ridge that went around the edge of the lake, with sharp drop off cliffs down to the water. We took a few pictures and then set off.

Wes, myself, and Miguel–enjoyin the crater life

We had decided to do the 5 hour hike around the edge of the crater—which was both a good and very challenging decision. The hike started off very easy as we set off around 10AM. Beautiful blue, sunny skies—we just couldn’t get enough of the view that was off to our left. Things started to get harder as we approached the first peak. Though there was a set path, Quilotoa is still an up-and-coming tourist destination, so we really didn’t see a single person. A few times we had to hope some fences, and even pass through a herd of sheep (at which time we were nearly attacked by 5 sheep dogs who thought we were trying to attack the flock or something. Luckily Miguel was in the back, so he got to deal with their rabid barking and snarling at us).

Rest break

We scaled the first peaks, taking way too many photos, and eventually got to a part where the path began down the side of the crater. Luckily for us, it started to rain, and within minutes, with every bush we brushed against, we were completely soaked.

Found a cool rock. Took pictures on it.

Nevertheless we pressed onwards with snacks of chifles and peanuts guiding us forward, until (out of breath, and not sure if I could stand to see one more vertical path), we reached the sign that pointed us back to the main lodge/meeting point.

Finally!

The rest of the day was spent recuperating, eating lunch, hitching another pickup truck back to town, catching another bus back to Latacunga, and then catching ANOTHER bus back to Quito. It was quite the weekend trip—and being out in the rolling hills of the Andes made me start thinking about wanting to spend more time in the wilderness, maybe on a trip after college graduation. But we’ll see!

The ridge line of Quilotoa.

That’s all for now!

¡Cuídense!

-     Doug

Los Galápagos Part 2 – Floreana, Sleeping Lion Island, and San Cristóbal

Once again, we arose early in the morning to begin our journey from Isabela Island to San Cristóbal . That morning at breakfast, in anticipation of the upcoming 2 hour boat ride, I made sure to pop an anti-motion sickness pill. There was no way I was going to have a repeat of the other day.

Arrival at Floreana Island

After breakfast we boarded the boats, and set off for San Cristobal—but first with a pit stop in Floreana. Luckily, I passed out for the entire boat ride. When I woke up we were pulling into Floreana. Floreana is an incredible island in the Galapagos because of how uninhabited the island is—by people that is. Only around 100 people live on the entire island, which is covered in green vegetation, and inhabited by gigantic turtles, finches, and iguanas.

Who was waiting for us when we arrived

We boarded a small bus, but they told us that 4 people could sit on the top if they wanted. Naturally I scrambled up there

Erica! excited to be on top of the truck. And excited cause it's her birthday!

with a couple others. The drive was absolutely incredible, and from the top of the truck/bus thing you could see out over the island. Eventually we arrived at the end of the road (not

View from the top of the truck

kidding—there’s just one road that goes across the island). We split up into our two groups and began our hikes to different parts of the island where we were. We got to see a number of bright yellow finches, hiked up to these rock formations where some of the first settlers on the island lived and, finally, like always, ended by going to observe some giant turtles sit around. But, luckily for us (maybe not), we got to watch 1 massive old male turtle make some moves on another massive female. It was a little strange. A little uncomfortable. And very memorable, I guess you could say.

View of Floreana Island

After watching the act of romance (our guide was super excited and insisted on taking pictures of us and the massive

Yeah, this happened...

mating turtles), we trekked back across the island in our bus, back to the coast and into the boat! We had about 30 minutes to snorkel in a bay nearby. But what was awesome about this time, was that we got to see marine turtles underwater and swim with them. I got to follow one for about 15 minutes, just gliding through the water.

After snorkeling, we enjoyed some nice packed sandwiches back on the boat as we headed to San Cristobal—the final island on our Galapagos tour. San Cristobal is one of the main islands in the Galapagos. The main street in its town is covered with sea lions, stretched out, some of the babies feeding off the mothers, and others just chillin’. They smell so bad though. I mean real bad. When we got to San Cristobal, we checked into our hostel, explored the town, and had a group dinner in the town that night. We also watched a spectacular sunset over the harbor.

Let sleeping sea lions lay...but really, they're aggressive.

The next day was our last big day in the Galapagos. We started off heading to a small bay to “hacer snorkeling” (go snorkeling, again! Yay). Cool spotting was swimming with a sting ray for a little while. Directly afterwards we were off again to a small island called Sleeping Lion. On the way to Sleeping Lion, we saw a group of dolphins jumping out of the water about 200 yards to our left. Our boat captain headed out there, and as we were going, dolphins began to race alongside the front of our boat, jumping out of the water on both sides. This was the first time I had ever seen dolphins in the wild so needless to say, I was pretty stoked.

Dolphins swimming alongside our boat!

Right after we pulled up to Sleeping Lion—undoubtedly the coolest island I have ever seen in my life. We didn’t even go on the island, and it wasn’t even that large. But it had these sheer rock walls that ran straight down into the water that were absolutely incredible.

Sleeping Lion Island

The water was royal blue, and as the current washed against the rocks, you could see the red coral just below the surface

Perspective.

against the rock wall. Once again, we were jumping into the water, all 25 of us, to snorkel through a small channel that was formed between two rock cliffs. The coral was all different shades of reds, yellows, and oranges, with brightly colored fish swimming all around. What was coolest was that the rock wall went straight down hundreds and hundreds of meters down to the ocean floor. It was like looking into an abyss. What was also awesome was that we could see sharks (not harmful, or so they told us) swimming along the ocean bed down below. Undoubtedly this was one of the coolest experiences I’ve had.

The rest of the day was lunch at a beach, and finally back to San Cristobal for our last night. The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful. The next morning (Monday), we went to a large crater in the middle of the island with a lake in it. We had to take a set of stairs to get to the top of this crater and from there you could see out over the whole island of San Cristobal. It was really peaceful and quiet, and in our two groups, we did a short hike around the crater.

At the crater

That very day we headed back to the airport, boarded our plane, and it was back to Quito. It seemed as soon as the trip had begun it was over. Quito greeted us with rain and cold weather. But, in some odd way, I was really glad to be back in this city. It’s become like home to me.

Home sweet home. Quito.

Well folks, that concludes the Galapagos update.

That’s all for now!

-  Doug

(Thanks again to Sarah Landers for some of the pics. Esp the one of Quito. Give me your camera)

Los Galápagos Parte 1 – Here’s to New Friends! (aka Un Pingüino)

Hola amigos, familiares, damas y caballeros!

I’m starting to wrap up my time here in Ecuador, which is absolutely mind blowing. I’ve only got about a month left here, so I’m trying to aprovecharme as much as possible. So now it’s time to do a serious blog update on the amazing 5 days I had the opportunity to spend in the Galapagos Islands…

Los Galapagos--off the Ecuadorian coast.

For those who don’t know, the Galapagos are a chain of islands about 600 miles west of the coast of Ecuador. They are known for having crazy amounts of biodiversity (see penguins who live on the equator and blue footed boobies—perhaps the greatest name for a bird of all time—dolphins, sea lions, iguanas etc). These are also the islands where Charles Darwin first came in the 1800’s, observed the different types of species of finches that inhabit these islands, and crafted his theory of Evolution. Though population has risen drastically in recent years, they’re still relatively uninhabited.

Since this was one of the 2 big trips from our program (the other being the Amazon), pretty much everyone went. This meant that we were in a lovely group of about 25 gringos, with two staff members from our program, Gladys and Eduardo—who are pretty much our Ecuadorian caretakers.

We departed early morning from the airport in Quito on Thursday, April 5^th. After a stopover in the southern port city of Guayaquil, we headed out over the Pacific bound west for the Galapagos. Flying into these islands is a very cool and surreal experience. We finally touched down and, of course, instantly it was so much hotter than good old 10,000ft-in-altitude Quito. After much stubbornness, I had finally caved in and bought a $15 bottle of sun block (the cheapest I could find! They must know gringos will buy it), as I was determined not to burn on this trip.

We all left from the “airport” (a small open-air building with a tin roof), and piled onto a bus. We had landed on Baltra Island (just north off the coast of Santa Cruz), and had to bus to the other side of the island and catch a ferry across a small channel to Santa Cruz.

The main Islands of the Galapagos. We landed in Baltra then to Santa Cruz, Isabela, Floreana and San Cristobal.

We then set off across the sparsely populated island of Santa Cruz, passing through what seemed like endless vegetation, until we arrived at our first stop: two giant craters. Called Los Gemelos (‘the twins’), they were formed by some process of volcanic activity, land sinking, and other fun stuff (I should know this better, but eh…).

Los Gamelos craters

Cuevas!

We walked around the two massive craters, and then headed off to the next adventure for the day: exploring underground caves that were formed by lava flow. These caves were seemingly perfectly formed, and we hiked for about 25 minutes through them, until emerging back out into the bright sunlight.

And then, it was back to the bus! Onward faithful Gringos! Next stop was a preservation site for gigantic turtles. They’re the largest in the world, and only exist in the Galapagos. We were pretty excited at first to see these massive creatures—little did we know that we would be seeing WAY too many turtles over the next 4 days. After you sit and stare at a massive turtle eating grass, you’ve pretty much seen everything—until they mate (but we’ll get to that later). We took the customary Gringo in the massive turtle shell photo, and were on our way.

Niko and I, owning the turtle shell.

First massive turtle! And first of many pointing pictures...

We spent the rest of our time on Santa Cruz in the main port town, where lots of fisherman come back with their catch from the day, while giant pelicans try to pick up scraps. We went swimming at a small unremarkable beach, walked around the 1 street town, got ice cream, and called it a night at the hostel where we were staying. Wanna see a group of college students go to bed early? Plan a trip where they have to be awake at 6AM every morning—that’ll do it.

Port at Santa Cruz

Lonesome George--being lonely.

The next day we were up early to go observe more giant turtles. Most notably was seeing Lonesome George, the last of his species on Earth. Sad day, I know. I guess I would just lie around all day too if there was no hope and I was 100 years old. Yeah, you read correctly, as of 2012 he’s about 100 years old.

After returning to the hostel, I made the poor choice (you’ll see why soon) to have double servings at the buffet breakfast. We then set off to the port for our 2 hour boat ride to Isabela. Now, I didn’t

The dreadful 2 hour boat ride.

think that I was prone to sea sickness—the thought hadn’t even crossed my mind. After all I only had gotten sea sick once in my life on a sailboat in Myrtle Beach. But apparently I do get sea sick—I get real sea sick. Needless to say, I saw every part of that double serving buffet breakfast again. But at least I wasn’t alone—my friend Brittany and I did shifts sitting next to the side of the boat. Yay Galapagos!

But, nevertheless, we survived—barely—and made it to the island of Isabela—the largest island in the Galapagos. I have never been so happy to see dry land in my life. I also chuckled (sorta) when I found out that there had been anti-motion

Blue footed boobies!

sickness pills the whole time. I guess I need to work on my listening skills. Almost immediately we set off with our snorkeling gear in boat (I was assured we weren’t going out to the big waves), to walk around a small island that was covered in black volcanic rock, and to snorkel with sea lions. And we did just that! Both experiences were absolutely amazing. We walked for about 40 minutes entirely around this black rock island surrounded by blue waters, covered in iguanas and bright orange crabs. Afterwards, while snorkeling, we stumbled upon a family of about 5 sea lions, which were just as curious about us as we were about them. We swam with them for about 30 minutes, and then boated back to the mainland. What was so incredible was how clear and blue the water was. You could basically see straight to the bottom.

Lobos del mar (sealions) that we swam with!

The rest of our stay on Isabela consisted in seeing more turtles (yay), but, most excitingly, getting 1 foot away from a penguin. Around dusk, we were standing by the shore, and, all of a sudden, this tiny penguin popped up onto the rocks, after struggling to not seemingly drown in the water. Of course, we were obligated to take too many photos with him. After which we finally headed back to the hostel.

Our new friend

That night consisted in heading to a pizza place in the small town where we were staying. It started raining so hard that all the streets flooded (I mean basically turned into 1 foot deep rivers), that we had to wade back to the hotel. Our night activity consisted in about 15 of us playing a group game of “Signs”, and heading to bed early—once again, to be up in the morning at 6AM.

Sunset at Santa Cruz port

5 Gringos. 12 Ziplines. 1 Mindo.

Hola a todos!

This is going to be a brief post, because I have some bigger ones on the Galapagos coming soon. But thought I’d write about going to Mindo about a month ago with a group of friends. Mindo is a city about 1.5 – 2 hours north east of Quito in the middle of the rolling, forest hills that lead up to the Andes Mountains.

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We were debating staying the night there but, in the end, decided on just going for the day. Mindo is one of the highest tourist destinations in Ecuador, and they were ready for us the moment we stepped off that bus. Initially (you can always spot the Gringos from miles away I guess), a guy came up to us and offered to help us with Canopying (aka ziplining). We hopped into the back of his pickup truck and were driven up through the forest to the top where the zipling starts. We had an amazing day (along with a group of Venezuelan flight attendants and 2 pilots) doing 12 ziplines through the trees, over valleys, and through the forest for the day. We also visited a local chocolate factory, and then hitched a ride on the back of a back up truck up to the high way. This is often how traveling works here–you just figure it out as you go (and often end up in the back of pick up trucks).

It was a short, but awesome day in Mindo. (What was not so awesome was the 103.7 degree fever I got the night we got back–but that’s another story!)

Chau mis compañeros!

Doug (or Doog–that’s really how my name is pronounced here)

Reflexiones – Life in Ecuador Compared to Kenya

Hey all!

As of now I currently have about two months left here in Ecuador. I’m due to fly out on the 24^th of May. This experience, even moreso than Kenya, seems to be flying by way too quickly. It’s crazy to me that I’ve officially been in Ecuador for 78 days. As I’m sitting here in my room at my family’s apartment, typing this blog post, I’m reminded of that overwhelming morning January 5^th—the morning after I arrived. I remember looking out my window over the city of Quito, kinda freaked out at the fact that I was now living in a huge South American city for the next 5 months; kinda nervous to be living with a new family, hiding in my room so I wouldn’t have to go out and speak Spanish (which I hadn’t spoken since last May mind you).

Flash forward to March 22^nd—certain parts of the city are second nature to me now. Public buses, taking taxis, having to order food at a restaurant, or going to get a haircut, or tell a taxi driver where I’m going have all become second nature interactions. Interactions with my host family have also become incredibly less stressful (of course there’s always the occasional moment where you have NO idea what your host mom just asked you to do, but that’s part of the fun of it). I’m also (más o menos) following and participating in dinner table conversations with my mom and brothers and sister (this may seem like an easy task, but I assure you, it’s not). I feel Spanish becoming more comfortable the more I’m around it. One of the coolest examples of this is the Bible study that I go to here. It’s about half Ecuadorian, and half foreigners—but everyone’s about college aged. There’s always someone translating from Spanish to English, and English to Spanish. One of my Ecuadorian friends brings a guitar and we do some worship music in Spanish, the discussion in both languages, and usually prayer in Spanish. What’s more, there are students from all over. So far I’ve seen Bibles in Spanish, Korean, German and English.  Undoubtedly, Tuesday nights are a highlight of my week.

Many people have been asking me also how my experience here in Ecuador so far compares to Kenya. It’s a good question, but also a difficult one to answer. In short, I feel much more sheltered here in Quito. I live in an apartment in the richest part of Quito, in the most developed city in the country. My apartment is 5 minutes from one of the fanciest shopping malls I’ve ever been in. My house has hot water, wireless internet, consistent electricity, a nicer bathroom than mine at home, a wide collection of DVD’s, cable TV and a Nintendo Wii, kitchen appliances and electrical outlets in every room. In comparison, when I lived on the coast of Kenya, it was bucket showers, wash your clothes by hand, a small charcoal grill, and 1 electrical outlet to be shared amongst the 5 of us. In Nairobi, my house was 15 minutes from Kibera, one of the largest slums in Africa, where one of my good Kenyan friends lived. That’s not to say there weren’t highly developed parts of Kenya—indeed there were, and the wealth disparity was even more drastic. But here in Quito, it’s easy to get tricked into thinking that you’re living back in the States. There’s even a Papa John’s Pizza (“mejor ingredientes, mejor pizza”).

I’ve realized what a privilege internet access truly is. To be able to flip open a machine and have instant contact with people from home. I’ve probably skyped with my parents more than 20 times since being here; compare that to my 5 months in Kenya, during which we did not skype even once!  It is both a blessing and a curse. With internet this semester it’s been much easier to stay in touch with friends and family, apply for internships and grants, pick my Tufts classes for next fall, and just be connected to the outside world. On the other hand, there was such a beautiful simplicity in being cut off from all of that. Being part of the reality that the majority of the world’s population does not have consistent, reliable (let alone fast) internet access.

The classes here are also just more rigorous. My Rural Sociology class at the University here always has fun readings for me to do (even more fun since they’re in Spanish). Moreover, it seems every week there’s a presentation, exam, paper, Spanish grammar exercises etc. Compare this to my program in Kenya, where our homework assignments were journaling about what we experienced—in English. Unfortunately there’s more “Study” in this study abroad experience, but it also is good in a sense (I suppose).

Well that’s about all for now. I wanted to do a post just reflecting on my time so far. Today I have the day off from school because of an indigenous march on the Quito protesting new mining laws that threaten clean water access. All schools in the city have cancelled classes. If you want to read more, you can go here: http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/marching-water-life-and-dignity-indigenous-peoples-ecuador

More soon!

Chau,

Doug

March for Water, Life and Dignity of the Indigenous Peoples of Ecuador

La Amazonía en Fotografías

This is my trip to the Pañacocha part of the Amazon in Northeastern Ecuador. By plane to El Coca, and then 5 hours by boat up the Rio Napo. Spotted during the 3 days spent in the Amazon: monkeys, an Anaconda by night, large spiders, cockroaches (in our room!), beautifully colored birds, piranhas (fished for them, and then ate them for dinner!), bats, massive Lord of the Rings style trees, and much more.

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*Photo thanks to Sarah Landers. After surviving 5 months in East Africa, my camera was stolen by the airline crew while it was checked in my bag under the plane. And they weren’t liable. Lesson learned: never stop being vigilant while abroad. But an amazing trip nonetheless…

Pawkar Raymi Festival in Peguche, Ecuador

¡Saludos de Quito otra vez!

Has it been 20 days since I last updated this blog? Maybe…

Am I about to make up for it by writing a post right now? You betcha! 

Two weekends ago, I had one of the coolest weekends I had since coming to Ecuador, culturally speaking. My friend Erica told me that her Anthropology class from the University was heading up to a town called Peguche for the annual indigenous festival Pawkar Raymi. I was in the moment I heard that there would be fireworks. It was going to be a short trip—just one night staying with a family in Peguche, and the days and nights packed with festivities. There was a group of about 12 of us—half gringos, half Ecuadorian students from the University. Saturday afternoon we caught a bus north-bound for the city of Otavalo—about 20 minutes from the town of Peguche.

Central plaza in front of the Catholic church in Peguche

We piled off the bus into the outskirts of Peguche. Immediately everything was different from Quito—cleaner air, less traffic, less people, no car alarms or honking horns; just grazing cows and chirping crickets. As we wandered a little aimlessly (stopped to ask some local kids for directions), we eventually approached closer to the town center and the heart of the festival activity. We met up with the rest of the students, and the teacher/leader of the trip in the central plaza in front of the large Catholic church that was clearly the heart of the town. After splitting up into our two groups of homestays, we dropped our stuff off at the homes where we would be sleeping that night. Me and three of my friends ended up at a house about 10 minutes outside of the town, with cows chillin in the back yard and a beautiful garden.

View from our one-night homestay

After a quick but delicious dinner with our host mom and dad, we headed back into town for the start of the festival.

Bottle rocket being launched

 What quickly materialized in the central plaza was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. There was a large procession, with loud band music accompanying, into the central plaza.People quickly began to assemble a huge wooden tower, from the different parts they had carried in on the parade. After the Catholic church service, people began to congregate in hordes in front of this structure, with the live band playing on and on.

A group of people began to process/ “dance” around the structure in a circle. Finally, I realized the point of the tower—to be lit on fire. Each level had a layer of fireworks that would go off in succession as more and more of the tower’s fireworks went off.

Lighting of the tower

Also a man was running around with a wooden contraption above his head, which had fruit attached to the side. People would chase after him trying to grab the fruit. Oh yeah, and the sides of the wooden things were soaked in lighter fluid and on fire. So that was pretty interesting. They also were releasing mini hot air balloons into the air. One almost crashed into the side of the church.

Man with the flaming contraption of fruit

We stayed at the plaza dancing and enjoying the festival until it ended around 10. Afterwards we headed to some sort of bar/hang out spot close to the plaza to wrap up the night with some people we had met.

After-party in a random building

The next day started bright and early (a little too early for some of us) with a trip to la Cascada de Peguche—a waterfall about a 15 minute walk into the forest outside the town. The forest was beautiful and the waterfall (though not anything crazy big) as cool as well.

La Cascada de Peguche

Girls on their flutes

We spent the morning there, went back home for breakfast, and then headed into town for the huge parade. The parade was the final big event of our trip (we didn’t stay for the huge soccer match), and the whole town and people from surrounding towns really came out to this thing. From the drummer boys, to bands, to pipers, to women in traditional dress, to the women’s rights organization from the town, to a giant costumed person resembling the mascot from Frich’s Big Boy (it’s a mid-west thing), it was quite the exciting parade.

Parade up the main street in Peguche

Afterwards, we spent a little time at the soccer field before the game started, but had to get back sooner rather than later. From there it was another 2 hour bus ride back to the lovely Quito.

Strange costumed man

It was quite the weekend—and the Pawkar Raymi festival was well worth the travel. It’s easy to get convinced, while living in Quito (with its McDonalds, Papa John’s Pizza, and slew of American movies), that you’re still in the States. The weekend in Peguche was a good reminder that Ecuadorian culture—from the groups that still primarily speak quechua , to the festivals and traditions—is not just Western pop-culture in Spanish. There’s a crazy depth of cultural diversity here that I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of.

Flag bearer

Well, that’s it for now. Update on last weekend’s trip to the Amazon coming soon…Until next time!

Doug

Drummers in the parade

¡Vamos a La Playa!

Hola hola hola!

The Esmeraldas region of Ecuador--where Atacames is located

My currently peeling shoulders stand testament to what I did last weekend—a very last minute trip to the beach for 48 hours. And when I say last minute—I really mean it. We pretty much decided Thursday afternoon to buy tickets on an over-night bus that night to Atacames—a lively beach town on the north coast of Ecuador, in the Esmeraldas region. Some people were pretty nervous about taking an overnight bus, but after surviving some of the most unsafe buses of my life in Kenya (for example one whose back windows were covered with cardboard), I figured it would probably be okay. And, to our surprise, the bus was actually really nice! (It even had a bathroom in the back—a true luxury). And despite being awoken at 2:30am by the rowdy group of drunk Ecuadorians two rows in front of us (apparently open drinking on buses is chill here? Who knows…), the trip went very smoothly.

Sleepy and confused, we awoke at 5:30am having arrived at our destination. We boarded these motorbike taxi contraptions that were of course conveniently waiting outside the bus stop, and zipped off to tour our swanky hostel options. We toured through 2—ultimately choosing the second one, which seemed just a little less depressing. For only $5 per night, the hostel actually was pretty nice. No breakfast, and a broken TV—but salt-water showers, and 3 cockroaches were included free of charge. The cool thing was that it was located in the heart of town and only a 2 minute walk to the beach.

Miguel being artsy and taking pics from our hostel balcony

After dividing into our two rooms, we crashed into a deep nap for a few hours, and then headed to the beach in the morning. This was my first time ever seeing the Pacific Ocean—a little colder, and a little dirtier than the part of the Indian I frequented in Kenya, but still super awesome to be at the beach in Ecuador.

The Pacific at Atacames, Ecuador

We pretty much spent the day lounging in a tent (you could rent a chair for the day for $2), and eating delicious mangos and ice cream brought around by the billion vendors coming by every second to try to sell you something. Another highlight was that we all piled on to a giant, yellow inflatable banana, and were pulled by a motorboat. T’was quite fun, even though we flipped at every single turn.

The banana!

That night we bounced around to some of the 20 beachfront “clubs”—these things were just open air bungalows with blaring reggaeton music and flashing lights. Stranger was that they seemed to be the hot spot for families as well—new born babies and other children were all running around strangely enough. And after some of my friends had a nighttime run in with the beach police (apparently skinny dipping at public beaches is frowned upon in Ecuador; close call, but all was well in the end) we headed back exhausted for a nice sleep at our classy home, Hotel Sol de Oriente.

View from our hostel

The next day was more of the same—lots of swimming and body surfing the waves into the beach. Reading. Chilling. And after more mangos than any person should be allowed to consume, we packed up our stuff (not so sad to be saying good bye to our hostel), and caught the Saturday night bus back to Quito.

All in all, quite the successful trip! Unfortunately I must get back to some homework (unfortunately that exists this time around for this study abroad program…). But more updates to come in the near future.

Hasta luego,

Doug

Miguel y Yo--happy to be at la playa!

 

When Pichincha Starts to Feel a Little Like Everest

¡Buenas a todos! ¿Cómo les va?

This post is going to be about the epic hike/ mountain climbing we did 2 weekends ago, so excuse the fact that it’s a tad overdue.

Heading up the teleferico. Quito in the background

What would cause a group of 10 gringos to wake up at 8am on a Saturday? Only the opportunity to hike Mt. Pichincha—the volcano that looms 15,700 ft above the city of Quito. El grupo de andanismo from La Catolica (the University where I take classes) announced that they would be hiking Pichincha Saturday morning so a bunch of us showed up to eagerly begin what we thought we be a day of perhaps slightly challenging—but nevertheless doable—hiking. There were about 6 students from La Catolica on the hike, two of which had done the hike multiple times.

The beginning hills

First we boarded el teleférico—a cable car that took us up to where the trail started a little up the mountain. We began our hike over the first grass-covered hills of Pichincha. The hike wasn’t too bad at this point—a little steep at different points, but there was a hard mud-packed path that we were taking. Some people struggled with the altitude—since at the beginning stages we were at about 11,000 feet (in comparison, I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, which has an altitude of about 500ft, depending where you are) some of the students on our program had a tough time with the altitude. But all in all, 2 hours into the hike we were still going strong.

Wes and I were excited that we found snow

Things seemed to start to take a turn once we discovered a certain substance—snow. We were so excited to see snow in

Yeah...it got snowy

Ecuador! Never did I think I’d see the day! Yet, little did we know there would be a whole lot more snow in the near future. I thought we were gonna arrive at some sort of picnic area for lunch—maybe an overlook. But as we continued upwards towards the ever-approaching snow-covered slopes, we all quickly realized it was not going to be so easy.The ‘hike’ got treacherous quickly, as we found ourselves climbing snow-covered rocks, and trying not to slide down the hill. Some of us were in gym shoes; others (like myself) didn’t even have gloves. Luckily I had brought a hat last minute—but others were not so lucky.

Finally, after saying some prayers, and being genuinely afraid for my life at times, I saw the sweetest sight I have ever seen—Bienvenidos! Cumbre Rucu Pichincha. Altitud 4,696 meters (roughly 15,400 feet)—and this isn’t even the highest peak. There is one other called Guagua that is even higher!

Arrival at the summit!

We enjoyed a nice almuerzo at the top of the snow covered summit. There we a number of different people up there—a Venezualan woman who was hiking mountains across South America, a German guy who had been working in Colombia. Our group snapped one final pic before starting the even more treacherous descent down the mountain. This time, there was no path. All you could do was take it step by step and try not to slide down too much.

Foreboding journey back down

Eventually we made it back to the unfrozen part of the mountain (just after having the joy of walking down through a thundering sleet storm—the day just got better and better). The descent back to el teleférico was all the more worth it as the clouds parted and you could see into the valleys and even the city of Quito stretching out in the distance. One final treat was that we got to see some llamas on the way, chillin behind a fence.

Amazing view on return journey

Needless to say, we were all dirty, tired, and beat once we finally reached the base. But also feeling accomplished. I think our guides were a little humored that these gringos didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into. But hey, it’s Ecuador!

Clouds coming up over the side of Pichincha

Eso es todo para ahora,

Chau mis amigos!

Douglas