Blogs from Otavalo, North, Ecuador, South America - page 30

Dear all, today is Friday, 19.08. I just came down from the mountains in the pick up truck and realised that my first week of teaching is over! After a few very cold days, we had lots of sun today and the journey through the mountains to and from school was simply beautiful. This journey will probably be the most scenic way to work I will ever have in my life! Looking back, this week has been quite challenging at times but I have learned a lot. I am a little disappointed that we have not had more than 1o kids per day, but hopefully Nicola and I will be able to build up the number of children attending school over the next few weeks. In my opinion, the few kids we had this week have ... read more

Hola chicas y chicos, all is well here in Ecuador. 6 lessons of Spanish a day are definitely doing my head in and although Senor Fernando is ever so nice, he does go on about irregular verbs in the imperfect tense - not much use for me who still struggles to string together a sentence (ie main clause, SVO structure!). I find the conversations with the locals are a lot more useful and they don't correct me all the time either!! (I have started reviewing my own teaching approach, no doubt!!) The family is really nice and I am able to say a lot more to them. We eat together at lunchtime in their restaurant and they are very helpful with everything. I think I have spotted a food pattern: la sopa, rice, potatoes, lentils, ... read more

Idag har vi upplevt Andernas hogland norr om Quito. Gav oss ivag tidigt for att komma till Otavalo innan det blev overfullt med turister. En fullspackad dag med manga vackra naturupplevelser langs vagen. Dramatiska berg-och dalgangar, sma byar med vita kyrkor, utsikt over Cayambe (3:e storsta vulkanen i Ecuadar), och vackra sjoar. Otavalo ar kand for sin lordagsmarknad som funnits sedan INKA-tiden. Har saljer indianer sina vackra hantverk. Gissa om vi trivdes... Unfortunately sa hade Lisa glomt sin planbok hemma, och Jenny fick inte ut pengar pa sitt kort i den lilla staden...sa vi fick noja oss med de dollar vi hade i fickan..men efter tva timmar sa var vi ganska redo att aka tillbaka till Quito. Jatte-kul att uppleva atmosfaren! Val hemma i huset vantade en forlovningsmiddag for dottern Ximena med fastman Jorge Luis. Vi ... read more

We left Quito early yesterday morning and set off for Mindo which is in the Cloud Forest. We stopped on the way to visit an Orchid reserve and had a walk through the sub tropical rainforest where we saw some lizards and birds. We then made our way to Mindo Gardens which is the lodge where we stayed right next the Mindo river, which was about 6 kilometers from the nearest village along a dirt track. We had lunch in the restaurant whilst watching a selection of Hummingbirds feeding just outside the window. In the afternoon we went to a Butterfly breeding centre and saw Butterflies at all stages of development. Later on we visited another cafe where we saw some different species of Hummingbirds and a Parrot. Today we were woken at 5.30 am to ... read more

Sadly, tomorrow is my last day in Otovalo after just five short weeks. I´ve really enjoyed my time here, met some great people, my family could not have been nicer (yes, even the alsatian, bless him!) and the kids at the school are just incredible. Yesterday was my last day at the school, was quite emotional sying ‘Adiós’ insteas of the usual ‘Hasta mañana’ as I left. Many of the kids had made me cards and little letters saying don´t go, we love you, please come back, etc, which was so touching. Had a little ‘moment’ saying good-bye to a couple of my favourites, so sad. Way too many stories to go into, but a few school highlights from the past month... * Heads, shoulders, knees and toes in the playground (see pic) * Buying pencil ... read more