Studying Spanish in Quito Part 2

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Yesterday I had my last Spanish lesson meaning that I will soon be hitting the road again. I've very much enjoyed my time in Quito and have mixed feelings about moving on. I'm excited about the places that I'll be visiting over the next few weeks, but I've begun to feel quite at home here and it'll be sad to leave the new friends that I've made. Here's what's been going on over the last couple of weeks or so.

Wednesday 2nd November - Day of the Dead

This day is a holiday in Ecuador but we still had school. This year the President decide (rather at the last minute I think) that people would be given two additional days of holiday so that everybody could have Wednesday to Friday off. Apparently this was to try to stimulate tourism on the coast following April's earthquake. It sounds good in theory but many people here can't afford to take three days off work. Also, people have to work an additional Saturday to make up for missing the Friday. The situation at school was equally confusing with almost everyone on a different timetable. It was eerily quiet in Quito over these few days - especially on Friday (which I had off from lessons). I finally found everybody in Carolina park on this day!

On 2nd November itself the school laid on the special food of the day - colado morada (a warm fruit drink which is red like blood) and pan de guagua (sweet bread made and decorated to look like a baby). I had more colado morada in the evening at bible study. On 3rd November the school organised a trip to replace lessons for those who wanted to go. We went to a town called Sasquisili that has several big markets on a Thursday. It was an interesting trip but unfortunately the markets seemed to have been downsized for the holiday too. Some of the highlights included: lots of guinea pigs and rabbits for sale (for eating; not for keeping pets), learning the difference between a llama and an alpaca, seeing all the men at their sewing machines in the market (fixing the clothes is a predominately male job) and the people selling various medicines who had models of the human body to help to explain what their drugs do. We also ate some very nice market food - cheese covered in maze and then fried.

It was on this trip that I met a couple of girls who helped me to completely change my plans for the weekend. My original intention had been to make the most of the extra day by going to Mindo for the weekend; but Tina told me about the Mama Negra festival that she wanted to go to in Lataguana on Saturday. As this was not something that could be done any weekend (unlike Mindo), I changed my plans to join her for the festival instead.

Mama Negra - Latacunga - Saturday 5th November

A couple of things about Friday before I write about the festival: I didn't do too much on Friday. It was nice to have a more relaxed day. In the morning I did my washing. This is only noteworthy because of the speed at which my clothes dried in the morning sunshine. By the time I had finished hanging out my washing, the items I had hung out first were already dry! In the evening I went out for a pizza with some of the other students from the school and then to the cinema. We went to see "Queen of Katwe". It's a lovely film. I would recommend catching it if you can.

On Saturday we met early in the morning to catch the bus to Latacunga - but not early enough as it turned out because there were large queues for the bus. There were 7 of us altogether so we ended up getting a couple of taxis and the taxi driver found an extra body to ensure that the taxis were both full. This was a good option but we did hit a slight problem when we got to Latacunga as we hadn't coordinated where the taxis were going to meet. Fortunately they had both headed for the bus station and we did eventually track each other down.

We followed the crowds over the footbridge and into the centre of town. What I had been told about the festival by my teacher was that it was like a parade with fireworks and dancers - which did indeed turn out to be the case. Mama Negra is a traditional festival in the Cotopaxi area to pay respect to the volcano. The Mama Negra character is a lady who intervened to improve the rights of workers in the area. There are a number of unusual customs including people carrying a whole, uncooked pig on their backs with all sort of things sticking out of it, throwing sweets to the spectators and passing around alcohol, men dressed in drag, people with their faces painted white with multicoloured stripes who grab people from the watching crowds and "cleanse" them by spitting drink over them and brushing them with big leaves and tradition dances around things that look a bit like maypoles. The fireworks were at the beginning of the parade and were just loud bangers. (It was light after all.) At the end of the parade are a man on a horse and the Mama Negra herself - a man dressed as a woman with his face blacked out.

We didn't actually see the end of the parade. All along the parade route there is temporary seating, most of it banked. We elected to stand rather than pay to sit, and managed to find a pretty good spot next to some plastic chairs that had just been set up on the ground. We were told that the parade had already started but we ended up waiting about an hour and a half before anything started to come past. Finally two people in Mario Bros costumes came past and then a muppet in a police car (so random). These were shortly followed by the men setting off the fireworks. We stood for another hour or so watching the parade come past. It wa fun but quite repetative. In the end we decided we had seen enough and at least two and a half hours of standing in one place had taken its toll on our feet. Instead we headed off to find some lunch.

We eventually settled on a place serving chicken and chips. The food was fine but one of the lads found a chicken foot in his soup which was very off-putting. They even had a tv on showing the parade so I saw the guy on the horse. After eating we decided to have a look round the town rather than heading straight back to Quito. While eating pineapple in one of the squares, some of the guys from the parade went past. They spotted our gringo group and we became a bit of an attraction. They started playing some music and invited us to dance with them. It was definitely a highlight of the day. We then did some shopping and found a very nice cake place. We finally headed back to get the bus back to Quito at about 4:30. Unfortunately this appeared to coincide with the end of the parade (about 5 hours after it had started - no wonder people sit!) However we were able to get on a bus with relative ease, a much cheaper option.

Avenue of Volcanoes Train Journey - Sunday 6th November

Sunday was another early start. This time I went on my own on the Avenue of Volcanoes train trip. This has been one of my favourite days in Quito. The train was extremely comfortable with panoramic windows and a cafe. There was commentary in Spanish and English throughout the day and each coach had its own guide. They even had chocolate cake available first thing (although I didn't have any of that) and donuts later on (which I did purchase). The train journey heads south through south Quito and then on to the volcanoes. Great and varied scenery. There are also several stops on the way. All of the other passengers on my carriage were from Ecuador.

The first thing you pass is some great street art south of the station. Going through the city, some of the track went right along the road, sharing a path with the traffic. Leaving south Quito always takes a while but gradually the scenery becomes more rural. The views when we finally got into the valley were great, and we were even able to see the snowy peak of Cotopaxi on the way back. The first stop was in a small town and was primarily to allow two trains to pass. You could buy some food but there wasn't much else to do. We then continued to the furthest point on our journey - El Boliche. This is in Cotopaxi National Park and the station is 3547m above sea level. Here we did a short walk through the woods, which included a stop to hug and sacred tree and some lessons about the medicinal properties of some of the plants. I also tried some of the local tea for altitude sickness.

We got back on the train and headed back to Machachi. I have fallen in love with Machachi. If I was going to live in Ecuador, this is where I would want to live. It is a rural mountain town with lots of farms and great views. When we arrived at the station we watched some traditional dancing. We then had lunch at a very smart restaurant. Downstairs they had set up the house to look as it would have done at the beginning of the last century. It was very European. After lunch we visited a farm. This was the only part of the day I wasn't so keen on because all of the animals were cooped up with very little space to move. Finally we headed back to the city.

Botanical Gardens

I haven't done as much with my afternoons as I had anticipated. There have often been things to be done or afternoon activities at school to participate in - or it has been tipping down with rain! However in my penultimate week of lessons I did make it to the botanical gardens with another student from school. They have a frog exhibition on at the moment and we got a tour from one of the students who is conducting research into how a liquid produced by one of the frogs could be used to treat leukaemia. There were some odd elements to the tour - like the plastic singing frogs at the beginning who had been designed to look like the three tenors. However overall it was a good way to spend an afternoon. As well as the frogs, there was a great range of orchids on display.

Football - Thursday 10th November

Football is the most popular sport in Ecuador. People are less interested in their National league (although I've seen plenty of people in football shirts when a local team are playing). However they like the European Leagues (there are pubs in and around Plaza Foch called "Liverpool" and "Chelsea"), and get very excited when the National team are playing. Suddenly everybody is wearing yellow. The qualification matches for the next World Cup are taking place at the moment. Ecuador had two matches in the past couple of weeks. The one on 10th was away to Uruguay. I went to the pub with quite a few of the other students and a couple of the teachers from the school to watch the match. Unfortunately Ecuador lost, but it was good to be in a pub watching football. There were a number of Germans there who got to experience a bit of what it is like to support a national team that doesn't win all the time! We watched half of the Brazil/Argentina match too but Joshua and I decided we'd had enough by then - plus I still had homework to do. Fortunately Ecuador beat Venezuela last week to keep their qualification hopes alive.

Mindo - Friday 11th November - Sunday 13th November

So the reason I still had homework to do on the Thursday was because I had spent Thursday afternoon on a fool's errand. My teacher had told me that I needed to buy my bus tickets to Mindo in advance Incase they sold out - and the only place to by the tickets was at the bus station in the north of the city. I spent 45 minutes getting there only to be told that they can only be bought on the day of travel! Such a waste of time. On the Friday I had lunch at Gloria's because Joshua left on the Sunday while I was away. I had been going to make pavlova as Joshua had made us all a German dessert a couple of weeks earlier. However the trip to the bus station the day before meast I didn't have time in the end so I cheated and bought a cake. (Very nice it was too). Gloria's grandson was over too. He's three. I had to assist him with eating his "tree soup" (soup with broccoli and cauliflower in) while Gloria went to rescue the washing from the sudden downpour. He miraculously found that he could use the spoon himself when it came to eating cake!

Unfortunately the heavy rain persisted and in the end I just had to go out in it because I needed to get to Mindo. The good news was that there was no problem buying a ticket. It rained all the way there and when I arrived in Mindo the town was in darkness. I didn't think much of it until I got to the hostel, which was also pitch black. It turned out that the electricity had gone a couple of hours earlier. It didn't come on again until the following afternoon. The hostel I stayed in was very small. It only had two rooms. One had three beds and the other had a double. I had booked a bed in the dorm room but there were three Americans staying so I got the double to myself 😊 The couple who ran the hostel were lovely. Marco kindly showed me to a local restaurant that had a generator. There was only one table that was semi-available. I ended up sharing with a 10 year old girl who had come to charge the phone for her parents and do her homework. I discovered she had an English test the next day despite the fact that it was a Saturday. (Usually there isn't school here on Saturdays but it does happen sometimes.)

My fellow guests got the first bus out of Mindo in morning and I had the hostel to myself for the rest of the weekend bec Saturday night's guests failed to turn up. I did move rooms though but we didn't know they weren't' going to come. I had my first lie in for ages. The lack of electricity meant that I had a cold shower when I got up. Fortunately it had stopped raining though. When I finally made it out, my first destination was the butterfly centre. It was a longer walk than I had anticipated but that worked out well because I arrived exactly at the recommended time to see them at their most active. There were lots of butterflies to see and I even had some land on me. They also had caterpillars and cocoons on display. In the entrance there were a couple of trees that were attracting a large number of hummingbirds. It was a great place to pass an hour or so.

By the time I got back into town, the electricity was back on. I went back to the hostel to charge my phone and straighten my hair. Then I found a nice place for a late lunch before heading to a chocolate tour. Most of the chocolate in Ecuador is dark chocolate. This place explained all the processes involved in producing a chocolate bar. There were also opportunities to sample things, including an amazing piece of brownie with chocolate sauce at the end. My final activity for the day was the frog concert. This was a bit out of town at another hostel. Although the hostel I stayed in was lovely, clean and amazingly cheap, I think the true Mindo experience is probably found a bit further out of town more into the cloud forest. This particular place had a pond full of frogs and some toads. They were making a great noise. The tour started with some wine. We then walked through the forest, trying to spot frogs with our torches. The frogs were pretty small but our guide was excellent at finding them. He also showed us "glow in the dark" fungi growing on one of the trees. It didn't glow much but you could just about see it.

On Sunday I got up early to make sure I got a bus ticket. It was raining again, although the electricity stayed on this time. Fortunately the rain had eased off a bit by about 8:30am so I headed off to find waterfalls. Again I gas underestimated how far I had to walk to get to them, but it was a good, uphill walk through the forest anyway. I finally made it to the cable car and had enough time to visit the main waterfall. The path was pretty muddy and slippery though. I thought I was the only one who had braved the rain but it turned out that there were quite a few other people there too. Nobody was swimming in the waterfall though. I made it back to town in time for a quick lunch before my bus back to Quito. The journey back was much better than I expected which meant I could have a long FaceTime session with my mother when I returned. When I arrived back at the house, I discovered that Christmas had exploded over the front room! I normally put my tree up the weekend before Christmas, so 12th November seems a bit early to me!

Last week at school

This last week has been good too. On Tuesday I met one of my friends from my small group for lunch. We ended up chatting for three hours! My Wednesday evening bible study group has been one of my favourite things in Quito and I have met some lovely people through it. It was sad to have to say goodbye on Wednesday after such a short time. On Tuesday I also did my last salsa class. In the evening there was a birthday celebration for Gloria's other grandson's 10th birthday. Many family members and some people from his parent's church came. It was a nice evening with snacks and cake. I mainly listened to the conversation but was able to join in a bit. Trump's win has been a hot topic of conversation, as I imagine it has been globally. The primary concern is Trump's threats to deport illegal immigrants as there are a number of Ecuadorians in the States illegally. The consensus is that gringos are loco for having elected him - which seems fair enough. I have been assured that the term gringos only applies to Americans in this context.

On Wednesday we had a cookery lesson at school. The problem was that there were far too many people trying to cook at once. In the end all I did was peel and chop some garlic. The rest of the time was spent chatting (in English) and eating! It was quite fun, but I learnt nothing!

For my last Spanish lesson we went to a local museum which has information about life in the jungle. My teacher has helped me to find a jungle tour to do in my last week here so it seems appropriate. The girl who showed us round was very uninterested in doing so, but fortunately my teacher had a lot more information to share. So my lessons are finished. I have covered four past tenses, the present tense, the imperative, the conditional, the future tense and the present and imperfect subjunctive - plus prepositions. We have also discussed politics and religion - and food when pushed. I feel the lessons have been productive overall. I can complete grammar exercises with quite a high degree of success, but I need to practice speaking. A high number of Italian words still slip in when I'm tired. I think I'll have quite a lot of opportunity to practise over the next few months though.

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Photos

Traditional Day of the Dead food
Colado morada y pan de guagua.