Blogs from Otavalo, North, Ecuador, South America - page 9

24th June- From Quito we headed north to a town called Otavalo which is known for its craft market. We arrived late afternoon on Wednesday (never believe them when they say the bus will only take 2 hours!) and having found somewhere to stay, we headed straight out into the market. It is colder than we were expecting in Equador so Alpaca socks, hats, blankets etc were the order of the day! You can get pretty much any craft that you want in this market, and in about any colour so we found it a bit too easy to part with our cash and soon realised that we would be sending a parcel home full of the things we had bought. Amongst other things we bought beaded jewellery, blankets, hats, wooly socks and pan pipes (why ... read more

Life starts early here in Otavalo. Especially if you´re a plump guinea pig and it is Saturday. Otavalo´s animal market starts around 4am, is in full swing at 6am and winds down by 8am. Careful inspections, passionate haggling and a lot of poo goes down just off the PanAmericana highway and it usually all happens while I´m still dribbling on my pillow. Not today though. By the time my brain woke up today, I was standing in a field surrounded by livestock. It would possibly be easier to list what animals weren´t there. We didn´t see elephants, girafes or kangaroos. No doubt had they been native to Ecuador they would have been at there too. The market was hectic and noisy - a bit like an animal version of the stock exchange (except it seemed to ... read more

OK, I´ve had some difficulties getting my blog going, so I have a few days of info. I made it into Quito quite smoothly, not the same for my co-volunteer from the UK who was re-routed thru Bogota, Columbia and then had her luggage lost. I didn't get to see much of Quito, since I got in around midnight, but the next day we went to "Museo de sitio intinan" (museum that sits at latitude 00,00,00 degrees on the equator). It was a great time. . .our guide showed us some amazing interactive demonstrations about gravity pull and the good news. . . I way 2.2 less pounds here! How cool! One of the challenges is to try to balance a raw egg on its end on a nail. I was successful (I love these kitchy ... read more

I just received my last details and my teaching assignment! I will be working in the Huayrapungo community. It is the furthest and most remote of all of the communities I could have been placed in for this project. I am excited. . . the scenery should be breathtaking, and yes, the air will be thin, but I will get used to it, eventually! I am a little nervous about my rusty Spanish, but am told that it is common to feel that way. I will certainly get ramped up quickly during my first week and 24 hours of lessons that are scheduled! I will be working with 1st and 3rd graders. . . similar to the ages of my nephews, so they will be fun and interactive, I'm sure. I know it will be hard ... read more

My creativity is definitely being put to the test! Right now we're doing numbers 1-50, counting and learning to write them. We've been doing them all week and we have them next week as well because the kids are taking forever to learn. Ok, so how many things can you do with 50 numbers? You might be surprised. Lots of counting, worksheets with all the numbers listed with some missing that they have to fill in, greater than/less than, go fish (or at least my version of it, because they have to be able to say the numbers!!! a favorite of theirs...), counting steps for distances between things, counting windows, tables, chairs, etc, going for walks and counting butterflies, pictures with different parts labeled with different numbers and they can only color the number that I ... read more