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Published: February 9th 2009
Yay South America! =) So yes, I'm in Ecuador. And I'm not sure how often I'll be able to do this travelblog, or how complete it'll really be considering my days are usually packed from 7 AM till about 9 PM at which point we all usually just pass out, but I'm going to try.
So, quick impressions - first of all, Ecuador is *cold*!! Well, not like New England cold, maybe, but for someplace named for its location at the equador, you'd expect at least 80's in the summer, right? Unfortunately for my packing job, however, despite being at the equador Ecuador is also really high up, and so most days range from 50's to maybe low 70's. At least the Galapagos will be warm.... Second impression is that for whatever reason, there are roosters *everywhere* in Ecuador. Yeah I'd expect them in the more rural villages and such, but even in Quito, the capital, we were kept awake our first night by some diurinally demented rooster who kept thinking that every hour was dawn. Thank goodness for earplugs.
Anyway, so yes I've been here a week. Y yo hablo espanol!! No, not really, thought tha'd be nice,
Run run!
One of the major highways we had to cross, dragging our huge suitcases behind us as we wentwouldn't it? I'm definitely learning, since we usually have about 4 hours of classes per day, and I'm actually one on one with my teacher, since Sue and Yush have taken Spanish before whereas my previous spanish experience was limited to Hola and Epanyada (sp??). I'm definitely getting better. I can make simple sentences, though I only know the present tense in anything. In general, I think Spanish is much more straight-forward than English. What you see is how you pronounce it, no extra letters anywhere. But, French is definitely the more beautiful language. Take my name for example. In French it comes out something like "on-gell-ah," wherease in Spanish it's a very ugly "an-hell-ah." Or the word for beautiful, belle in French, and guapo in Spanish. How can you have such an ugly word to mean beautiful??
Anyway, so yes. First day we were in Quito, and met up with our program director, Eugenio. Do all program directors look alike?? He reminds me of Mayak, my program director for India several years ago. Both are shorter men (though that's more of an ethnic thing) in their early to mid thirties, a little pudgy, and very nice like older
Otavalo
View from the Parke de Condors brothers/uncles. Spent the first day wandering around Quito together, visiting the old city which has the president's palace, the cathedral of San Francisco, and where you can see the Angel of Quito, this gigantic statue that more or less looms over the city on top of a hill. We also had the most wonderful fresh juice I've ever had!! Even though it's not that warm, Ecuador still has really wonderful fruits, some of which we simply don't have in the States so it's rather hard to translate. However, we went to this little roadside store (Eugenio was very wary of us doing this... he's so protective it's pretty cute) where they have all these fresh fruits that they blend for you to make a shake (don't worry, no water added). Soo... good, and of course, cost something like 40 cents. =)
Next day left for Otavalo, which is a city muchos trouristy, because it's where all the indigenous style arts and crafts are made in Ecudador. You know those colorful striped tablecloths, or ponchos, or those brightly colored paintings of indigenous southern americans? It's pretty much all made in Otavlo in the Marcado de Ponchos (litterally, the market of
ponchos). Unfortunately we only had 1 1/2 hours there to shop (obviously our professors have no idea of the possible extent female American shoppers =P ) and I had a lot of fun bargaining with my one day's worth of spanish classes. =P (Luckily all of them spoke at least some English...) We also all had a lot of fun trying to fit our purchases into our suitcases, which were already pretty stuffed. Yush actually bought 3 blankets in addition to a whole bunch of other stuff, I've got no idea how she fits it all in her hard case suitcase! Our other outing in Otavalo was Parque de Condor, which is a bird santuary. My favorite was the sign for the snowy owl, which told us that the bird was most famous for its part in Harry Potter. =P
Anyway, after Otavalo we went to some tiny little village (I'll have to find the name later) where we visited a forrest that was basically like a jungle. Unfortunately along the way Yush's suitcase lost a wheel and though she's got four, it was really tough for her to push it around, especially on the cobblestone streets. That, and
Ecuadorian woman and grandchild
Taken on one of our 2 hour standing bus trips apparently all of our travel plans involve randomly getting picked up and dropped off on the sides of highways, with no signs or indications of any sort that we can figure out at least. After getting dropped off in apparently the middle of nowhere, we then often have to *cross highways* pulling our luggage around. Honestly, it's all a little insane. Most of the time we just follow our professors around going "what the -??? are we *doing*?" =P Anyway, the forrest was cool, we got to see lots of native plants that're used for medicinal purposes, and generally very pretty.
After that we went to the Cloud Forest (basically really high up, gorgeous views of the countryside, staying in a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere). It took us about 4 hours by bus to get there, and for a good 2 hours we were all standing because the bus was fillled past brimming. Not quite like India with people hanging off the sides of the bus and riding on top, but all the seats taken and the aisle absolutely stuffed with people. It was suffocatingly hot, rather motion-sickness inducing, and really just not a lot
of fun. That plus the roads we were on were very badly paved and often went extremely close to the edges of the cliffs (also extremely reminiscent of India where every 3 minutes I was sure we'd topple over the edge) but much more... erm.. interesting since we were trying to keep our balance at the same time. At least our hotel there was very nice and filled with trourists from all over, which was rather interesting because at any one time you could sit in the dining room (they served us all family style, with no ordering but everyone pretty much eating what was put in front of them) and hear Spanish, English, German, French, and possibly something else I didn't recognize. That next morning we went horseback riding through the mountains, and it was *gorgeous*. So incredibly green, and everywhere the hills were terraced for farming. It was so interesting to see the farmers wearing those red ponchos and little black hats with a peacock feather on the side like you associate with images of Ecuador, and the little girls with the white billowing skirts, and realize that it's not just a stereotype, but a reality! Anyway, the
Countryside landscape
Taken while horsebackriding from Chugchilan to the lagune riding was extremely interesting. For whatever reason our guide thought that we were experienced horsemen and thus let us canter and gallop through a lot of the windy mountain paths, which was both exhillerating and a little scary considering how competative our horses were! Sue's horse, a *huge* mare (bigger than my stallion) was always incredibly upset when she wasn't in front, and thus kept racing with Yush's mare. My horse, Cafe, would get into the action every now and then, and I kept having to keep him from biting Yush's as he passed her (aparently the didn't get along...). Anyway, we made the trip in 2 hours, whereas it usually takes 3 - 3 1/2 hours =) (Me gusta!) to an old volcano that's now dormant and has turned into a laguna. I can't remember the name right now, it's in my journal, but it was gorgeous. We hiked down to the laguna, which was the most brillian blue, and green near the shore, and then hiked back up, which was... painful. It was a volcano, so basically it went straight up all the way, and that plus the high altitude (though we'd been taking acetalzolamide) was really not so much fun. But, we made it! And it was totally worth it. =)
I think from there (all the days are getting mixed up in my head... I have it down in my journal, but it's back in my room right now...) we came here to Rio Bamba (not Rio Grande, as I made the mistake of the other day... =P ) which is famous for being in the mddle of a ring of volcanos, some of which are still active (we saw one smoking the other day.... hmm.....), and for being where the first Ecuadorian constitution was written. (Yet another onerous bus ride, involving standing for about half the time..) The most common touristy thing to do here is to take the train through the countryside to a city (ugh... names... erm... Al-something). I thought this would be like a *train* train... you know, like an Amtrak type thing, but I really should have known better, this being ecuador. It was basically one really old car of a train, fitting maybe 50 people, very loud, and like everything in Ecuador, running diesel (I swear, it gives you such a headache in the city). The views really were stunning, but unfortunetly we weren't allowed on top which is where you really get the best views, because apparently rather recently the train had fallen off the tracks, and thus being on top was just a little dangerous. So... stuck inside. Not so bad, though, except that on the way here, due to our having to leave the Cloud Forrest at 3 AM and taking about 3 different buses (none of which we had any warning about when we were getting off)
Oops. Gotta run. Mas classes de espanol! Will continue later, but figured something is better then nothing.
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Dana
non-member comment
Hola!
Hola Angela, I am glad you are having an exciting time! Necessito mejorar mi espanol...tenemos practicar juntos cuando llegaras a los Estados Unidos! (probably this is riddled with mistakes!) Hee hee...(HUGS) Abrazos, Dana