Super Bowl in Quito

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The week before I arrived in Quito a group arrived at the cabana from one of the rainforest protection groups which works with the community. In Junin people dont tell you things, so I had no idea they were arriving until the day they got there and I really didnt know what was going on except that 20 people just showed up at the cabana. They are working with the communitys protected nature reserve, and I have absolutely no idea what my role is in regards to this. Right now we are working on the ecotourism project that the community has in order to make money for the community. Basically, the other observer Laura made a tourist brouchere and we have to get it printed and start passing them out on the street and in the tourist agencies that the community has connections with. However, this is really slow going and tourists do not usually travel to Junin during the rainy season. So on a day to day basis, I go to the community if its not raining too hard and say hello to people. I might play soccer with the school children sometimes, they are all better than me. I also read a lot. It was nice to have people around the cabanas, nights in the jungle can play tricks on your mind and be pretty bothersome sometimes.

Last Friday I left INTAG with the school teacher, Patricia, to get the schools computer fixed in her home town of Ibarra. Katie and Hannah, who I have mentioned earier, were kind enough to donate some money to pay for a truck to get out of Junin and for the repairs, thanks again girls. Ibarra is about 3 hours north of Quito, it has a population of about 100,000 but does not have a building taller than 5 stories. It is also the place where Ecuadorians claim ice cream was invented. It is also situated at the foot of a volcano which destroyed the city in the late 1800s, so naturally they rebuilt the city in the same location. I stayed with Patricias family Friday night. Ecuadorians are extremely gracious and hospitable people, they litterally make every effort to make guests as comfortable as possible and Patricia and her family are no exception. Her family has an apartment and she has 2 childern in their 20s, one who is 11 and a grandson who is 2 living in her apartament. They also have a television, with cable, with English programs. Ive never been so happy to see an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond. That suprised me, teachers only earn about $3000 a year but her family seemed pretty financially well off. Saturday morning we all loaded into her familys 1970s Chevy Malibu and took a tour of the city. That afternoon I headed off to Quito.

Luckily, Patricia decided to leave INTAG in time for be to be able to go to Quito to watch the Super Bowl. Quito has a big tourist enclave which is unique to anywhere else in Latin America where I have traveled. It is filled with bars, clubs, hostals, resturants all designed to attract that gringo dollar. It also has a lot of Western themed bars, so I watched the game at Mulligans Irish American Pub. The place was packed with other gringos watching the game, it was a very surreal expierence watching the Super Bowl in Ecuador in an American style sports bar, asking for chicken wings, hamburgers and beer in Spanish watching the game being broadcast in English with Spanish dubbing. The Ecuadorians made a valiant attempt at the chicken wings but sadly fell short. I was really happy to be doing something which I could do in America, minus the Spanish and what not, plus the game was really good. Unfortunately, they did not show the commercials so I did not get the full package.

Monday I met Jeff, the observer who is returning for his second tour of observering. We are heading back to INTAG tomorrow to spend Feburary in the rain.

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