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 [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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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. [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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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.) [View Full Entry]

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