jesinecuador
Jessica Watts Joined: February 3rd 2005
Logged in: December 30th 2011
Logged in: December 30th 2011
Back in the states I am currently between jobs and between cities. I've been in DC for the past for years and plan to move to Austin on my return.
Travel Blog Posts
My first cast
My new assignment t the Sanctuario was coming along swimmingingly through the first week until Monday night (4/19) when I decided to bike into town after dinner because I needed to make a call and the phone line at the Sanctuario was dead. I hadn't used the bicycle there before and, evidentky, the breaks hadn't been properly reattached when someone fixed the tire the day before. I started down the hill toward town and noticed the lack of working breaks in seconds....fell within a minute. I'm not sure if the breaks finally kicked in and that threw me off, or if I just hit a pothole or patch of gravel. I got up and realized something was very wrong with my arm, but figured I'd probably just dislocated my shoulder, which would be easy enough to ... read more
Sanctuario Santa Maria del Fiat
I left Quito in a hurry on Tuesday night to beat a bus strike and get Mariana back to Quito by Friday. We had to leave a lot faster than I expected and I forgot a few things in the rush....my guitar, my aloe, my guidebook. I barely caught the night bus to Puerto Lopez, followed by a another bus to the Sanctuario Santa Maria Del Fiat, which is where I'll be living for the next two months. The Sanctuario sits on a cliff above the pacific ocean (in sight of Montañita) and provides a school, home or both for 800 children. The yougest they have now is 5 weeks old, and was found abondoned in the street on the day he was born. Because he's so young, finding him a home is easy (14 families ... read more
Me in the Porter's Village
My Inca trail experience started on the afternoon of the 6th at the offices of Wayki Trek, where we had our pre-hike group meeting to go over the logisitcs of the trip (not a very necessary task, since we'd all been over them individually) and to meet the group. The other hikers at the meeting were Liz and Lee, a couple from Yorkshire who've been travelling about South America for a couple months, and Kim, a med student from San Diego whose about 3 months away from becoming a full-fledged doctor. The two members of our party not in attendance were Len, a computer consultant from Vancouver (who grew up on a dairy farm in Alberta) and our guide, Amerigo. Len hadn't known about the meeting, and Amerigo hadn't arrived back in Cusco from a meeting ... read more
Inca cemetary in Pisaq
I arrived in Cusco at 7 am on Saturday morning from Lima, and my cab from the airport came complete with a tour agent who recommended a hostel with private bath for about $6 a night. It doesn´t have any windows, but the price is great and the guy who runs it is very friendly without being overly attentive, so I´m pretty happy with it. After I checked in, the innkeeper went to make me mate de coca (a tea made with coca leaves that helps prevent altitude sickness) and the tour agent sat me down to plan out my week. It was about 7:30 in the morning, and I´d been up since four, so I was in no mood to argue with her. I let her give me a plan and her agency´s prices, and ... read more
My goodbye sign (Estefania is not happy)
I missed the first day of my last week at the orphanage because of the Cotopaxi trip, but when I came in on Tuesday, I had the whole day to teach and new school supplies to get the kids interested in learning (thanks Nana). They spent the whole morning filling out sheet after sheet copying their letters - which is impressive considering it would normally take all morning to coax them into filling out one page. I think the colored pencils and cartoons on the bottom of each page really helped. On Wendnesday, I decided to head out for an early movie (Closer) before we went to pick up Molly, the girl who´s taking my place at the orphanage. She´s taking a year off before college, and spent the fall caring for children who live in ... read more
El Panecillo
Classes at the orphanage were cancelled last week for the Semana Santa (Holy Week) but I still went in Monday - Wednesday to help with the few children who were still there (most spend the night at another location that doesn´t have a school). On Wedenesday, I brought Johanna with me and we spent the day playing Go Fish, helping with math homework, and picking up food donated to the orphanage. On Thursday, I took the day off and Gabby, Julia´s spanish teacher, took us to El Panecillo, a vantage point to the whole city, topped by a statue of the Virgen de Quito (a symbol that combines both Incan sun worship and the Catholicism of the modern city). We were also able to go to the bottom of a well dating back to the spanish ... read more
Alli and Sébas at their party
Alli left Quito for the Galapagos on Wednesday, so the first part of last week was mostly goodbye festivities. On Monday, we went out for Chinese food, then Sébas and Jorge took us on a night tour of Quito by car, which showed me how much more I want to explore by daylight. On Tuesday, we had a goodbye party for Alli / birthday party for Sébas at Jorge's apartment which lasted until morning (resulting in the first day that Julia or I have skipped school this entire trip). Alli left early Wednesay morning and we slept in......by evening we were feeling like ouirselves again and managed to meet Paul (from the Hostel Valhalla) and a friend of his for a couple hours since he was visiting Quito for the night. On Thursday afternoon, I decided ... read more
At the Hostel Valhalla with Paul
Friday afternon, Julia, Alli and I each packed a backpack and caught a bus to the Hostal Valhalla (www.hostelvalhalla.com), which is owned by the couple who run the climbing agency we chose for Cotopaxi, Moggely Tours....he´s Morgan (or Mog) and she´s Ely. Morgan's Swedish, and the hostel has a viking theme - all the rooms are named after norse gods. Ours was Oden. We brought a brochure with us to show the bus driver, since we needed him to pull over and drop us off at mile marker 19 on the Panamerican Highway, south of Machachi. He couldn´t understand me or figure out the map (which made its rounds among other passengers trying to help), but pulled over when I told him to and there we were, standing at the side of the Panamerican highway across ... read more
Me on the Equator
It´s been a really full week, so I´ll try to stick to the highlights. First off, I have a new housemate, Julia, who is 18 and from Boston (like Alli). And I´ve started guitar lessons with a musician friend of Marianna´s. My second lesson is in three hours and I haven´t practiced at all, so I´m off to a bad start. I´ve also found a new home away from home: the South American Explorers clubhouse. It´s in between work and school and has a great resource center, weekly presentations, and a lending library. On Thursday, Alli, Julia and I went to a presentation on hiking and climbing in Ecuador before we went dancing. The slides made me want to spend the summer backpacking, but we´ll see. Have to see how I do climbing Cotopaxi first. Saturday ... read more
Group Birthday Photo
Tuesday was my roommate Alli´s 19th birthday and Marianna planned a surprise party in a local dico. The six of us (Me, Alli, Chrissy, Javier, Jose and Sebastian) danced to salsa, merengue, and reggaeton for hours. Reggaeton is definitely my favorite for dancing. The next night, Alli and I were ready for something more relaxing, so we went to the movies at the Cinemark multiplex. There are a bunch of restaraunts in with the movie theater, so we grabbed sushi before the show ( a welcome treat). At the theater, we decided split one of the combos (cokes, popcorn, candy, etc.) but our order got lost in translation and they started making us five number 5 combos instead of just one, so ten sodas. five popcorns and ten candy bars for the two of us. I ... read more
