Oh Otavalo

Oh what a great trip I had to Otavalo this past weekend! I left on Friday morning with three friends and we were quickly (literally) herded onto the bus for the short two hour trip from Quito to Otavalo, home of Ecuador's famous artisan market.

Upon arriving to Otavalo, settling into the hostel, and enjoying an Almuerzo (lunch) consisting of our favorite staple, rice and ahi (the most amazing sauce), we headed to Lago San Pablo - the province's largest lake. The lake was beautiful and was a dark blue, outlined by marsh and then mountains on almost every side. As there weren't any trails around the lake, we decided to rent paddle boats to get a better view of the lake and the surroundings.


After our trip to the lake, we continued to celebrate my friend Tyler's 20th birthday with...well...lots of eating! We found cake at one of the many panaderias/pastelerias (bread/cake store)...digested...ate dinner at a traditional Ecuadorian restaurant...and ate bread and drank coffee at a cafe where Tyler was serenaded by a musician that came into the cafe!

We were up early on Saturday morning for breakfast at our hostel and had walked the two blocks to the Plaza de los Ponchos (site of the artisan market) by 8am. The market was overwhelming with rows and rows of tables of handcrafted clothes, jewelry, ceramics, knick-knacks, and unidentified objects in every color and size imaginable. We soon got the hang of bartering and proceeded to try to strike deals with the artisans...how about 5 for $5?

 After we had sufficiently bought enough jewlery, alpaca sweaters (for some), otavaleno pants, and talked to many artisans, we decided to venture to the alleged Animal Market. However, in route we passed the most vendors I had ever seen that were selling their goods in the streets (as opposed to paying for space in the Plaza). We saw just about everything imaginable being sold: worms to heal your ailments, hats, fruits, vegetables, grains, handmade items similar to what we had seen in the Plaza, DVDs...it was very neat that we happened to come across this part of the market because we were clearly among the very traditional indigenous people that lived in Otavalo. In fact, for the majority of the walk to the Animal Market amongst all of these people selling their goods, we were the only Gringos (non-Ecuadorians). I don't think I had ever been so conscious of my skin color, blonde hair, and height  amongst the short stature, dark hair and dark skinned Otavalenos. I couldn't believe that the entire (20 minute) walk to the Animal Market consisted of people selling their goods on almost every inch of road; it was truly a sight to see. And it didn't get any less interesting when we arrived at the Animal Market (which was slowing down as it was late in the morning). We saw pigs (several held by a leash), 3 day old chicks (we each held one for a minute!), cages of guinea pigs (occasionally interspersed with a few rabbits or a kitten or two), puppies, kittens (very cramped in cages, unfortunately), chickens held upside down by their feet or in the arms of a man or woman, a llama, and cows. Each market experience was incredible, I could have watched for hours! We concluded our trip with a visit to a (delicious!) pie shop before heading back to Quito on Saturday afternoon.

On Sunday I attended church at the English Fellowship Church, just a two minute walk from my apartment. I found it interesting that while the service was entirely in English, the men/elders that collected offering said "Gracias" - it was clear that the church's body was a mix of cultures and nationalities. While I plan to attend mass with my host family at some point (over 90% of Ecuador is Catholic!), I am glad that I have been able to find a church that is very close geographically and that is similar to what I am accustomed.

 For the rest of the day, I enjoyed a beautiful sunny day in Parque Carolina with my friend Tyler. It was incredible to see how crowded the park was with people being active in different ways on almost every inch of the park! People were playing soccer, basketball, volleyball (Ecuas play 3 v 3 we learned), paddleboating in the little pond, participating in a HUGE (100+ person Zumba/dance class), playing cards on tables under a pavillion, running/biking/walking, sharing a picnic, roller blading, kids playing on the awesome play airplane and jumping on the trampolines...it was such a fun place to people watch and we ended up talking to a few people as well. I absolutely love this park (except for a large dead rat that we came across) and will be sure to go back whenever I have time on the weekends in Quito!

I hope you are well - please update me on your adventures!

Adventure to Mindo

This weekend, five friends and I ventured to a small town two hours northwest of Quito called Mindo. Mindo is a tiny yet beautiful town heavily dependent on tourism. And sure enough, tourism is what the town does well. We were extremely impressed with every aspect of Mindo from our fantastic hostel to zip lining to tubing to taxi drivers (who drove us in small trucks) to small carts that carried us over the forest to hike down to waterfalls to a small chocolate making facility. I wish I could tell you what my favorite part of the weekend but I really can’t because it was all incredible!

I think pictures will describe my weekend the best so here are some of my favorites…

 Here is the hostel where we stayed, La Casa de Cecilia. *Note: I had my first experience sleeping under a mosquito net which we decided somewhat made us feel like princesses...and they seemed effective, I left with only one bug bite for the weekend which I decided was pretty good given the number of bugs that I saw!

Ziplining was quite an adventure and as it was raining toward the end of the experience, we went even faster than normal! It was amazing to fly over the cloud forest and after 12 cables we decided that it would absolutely be worth doing it again someday!

Tubing was made possible by two incredibly talented guides who worked the entire trip (about 15 minutes down the river) to make sure we were going in the right direction, avoiding trees and rocks, and overall staying in the tubes anytime we flew through the air. The river level was extremely high and was very fast (and COLD) which made for continued bursts of adrenaline and screams but it was definitely worth the experience.

We hiked to two waterfalls (I don't think I've ever hiked through so much mud before!) and given the amount of water spraying from the larger one I did not take out my camera so here is the smaller one. The hikes were beautiful and it was incredible to see new plants and to hear birds the entire way!

Our last hurrah in Mindo was to tour "Mindo Lindo", a preservation project which is essentially one man's backyard! He gave us a tour of the forest area which was considerably different than other places we had visited in Mindo. Different plants, beautiful flowers, "Ecuadorian bamboo", and at the end of the tour we sat on his porch sipping tea (lemongrass from his garden) and watched about 30 beautiful hummingbirds in the bushes and feeders he had set up. It was truly amazing to see how they interacted with each other.

One thing that we realized we should have done earlier was to buy a return bus ticket for Sunday. We learned this after the hostel owner inquired what time we were leaving and to our dismay, all of the seats on the buses for the day had been filled! However, being the wonderful hostess that she was, she organized for an employee of the hostel to borrow a van (buceta) so eleven of us (we met others staying at the hostel who also made our same mistake) split the price for being driven back to Quito. Overall, I don’t think it could have been a better first weekend adventure!

As for what’s been happening back in Quito…I’ve been enjoying classes and the University (yesterday there was a huge Chinese New Year celebration in which students could listen to live bands, watch live performances, and eat cake…and drink wine?!) I have also been getting used to the longer bus rides home as I’ve noticed a pattern of rain beginning as soon as my last class finishes (5:25pm) in which everyone decides to take the buses. This makes for a lot of patience…and pushing! I’ve realized that the only way to get on some buses is to follow the crowd to push your way on. As much as I don’t enjoy pushing people I do enjoy getting home at a decent hour so I’ve assimilated to the ways of public bus etiquette. But as always, I thoroughly enjoy people watching on the bus: a woman curling her eyelashes with a spoon, a boy pushing trash out of the crack of the bus doors, a little three(?) year old girl pushing her younger brother around but the two laughing nevertheless, the vendors that come onto the bus at any opportunity to sell their cherries or chips or candy, and how people react in the midst of a small accident which inhibited our bus’ passing (in which a grown passenger called the driver “four eyes”). Yes, you can see everything on the buses here! 

Hope you are well and I hope to write before so much time goes by again!

I Love Public Transportation (Among Other Things)!

Seriously, I’m not kidding, I really do love public transportation here in Ecuador. Buses go anywhere and everywhere around Quito and the country in general. In Quito, a bus ride typically costs $0.25 which is quite a bargain. What’s more is that in using public transportation, I hear and see so much more than if I were driven by my host mother or a taxi. I am able to eavesdrop (discretely of course) on conversations to improve my Spanish listening skills and listen to fun Latina music while travelling among almost all Ecuadorians going to work and school.

One of my favorite parts of school is the ride down the mountain into the valley of Cumbayá where my university is located (just outside of Quito). It takes almost an hour in total and takes three buses but the commute is absolutely worth it because of what I can see along the way. Every day on the ride to school I see beautiful mountains and valleys and it looks different every day depending on the light and the clouds. One day this week I could see the snow covered volcano, Cotopaxi in the distance (I plan to head there someday this semester!). The University of San Fransisco de Quito (USFQ) has a beautiful campus and very excited, knowledgeable professors. I feel like I am at a resort and not at school when I am on campus. There are beautiful views of the mountains and very impressive architecture. The weather is also beautiful and is almost always sunny in Cumbayá. It has been quite rainy in Quito but rains much less frequently where the university is located. I think it’s pretty safe to say that with such a warm November/December in Chapel Hill, I think I pretty much skipped winter this year!

Here are the classes that I will be taking this semester (if nothing changes): Anthropology of the Andes, Ecology & Conservation of the Galapagos Islands, Advanced Conversation, Introduction to Painting, and Social Problems in Ecuador

I was surprised to see that I have two American or, “Gringo” professors this semester. “Gringo” is a term used here to refer to non-Ecuadorians like myself.  Unfortunately there are several more “gringos” than Ecuadorian students in my classes. However, I’m sure I will be able to meet Ecuadorians in other ways outside of class and at the least I will have plenty of travel buddies. I’m looking forward to planning weekend trips around the country and I am very pleased to not have classes on Friday so I will have lots of time to travel.

This past week I spent several hours at the “Department of Foreigners” registering my VISA and applying for a CENSO (a card that will say that I am a resident of Ecuador for now). Given that they just changed the process a couple of weeks ago, I ended up spending three hours there one morning and it reminded me a lot of the DMV in Chapel Hill -long lines, some impatience, and a lack of employees! However, it had to be done and in a couple of weeks I should receive my CENSO.

Today, a couple of friends and I ventured to “La Mitad del Mundo”, also known as the center of the world, also known as the Equator! This is a very touristy site located about an hour outside of Quito, accessible by bus as well (like everything)! We enjoyed taking cheesy pictures on the painted equator line but to our dismay, we remembered hearing that down the road from this site is another museum with the “real” equator. Apparently, the equator line was mismeasured so several years ago and a new museum was built claiming to contain the “real” equator line. Given that we had already spent money to see the fake equator line, we decided against paying more to see the real equator line. My favorite parts of the trip were actually the traditional dancing that we saw as we ate lunch and llamas that were on the loose in the park! I was fascinated by the five llamas walking around the park that were in search of greener pastures. As it seemed they had escaped their usual abode. We ate lunch on the top floor porch of a café and from our table were able to see traditional dancing in the plaza, close to the Mitad del Mundo monument. There were several different dances and were all beautiful. Several had to do with cultural aspects of life such as the harvest, a wedding ceremony, and hunting. Overall, it’s pretty neat to say that I was (at least almost) at 0’0”.

 

Espero que todo le pase bien! Hope all is well!