Finally more pics!

The pictures below..in no particular order...are of various events over the past 2 weeks. The Fiestas de Baños are the first 2 weeks in December. Complete with parades, concerts, motocross, car racing etc. I also went flying up in the mountains and took some day trips of my own, hiking and visiting markets. Enjoy!

Watching and dodging as the cars come flying down the hill

Wooden car race...one of the more popular and dangerous events of the fiesta

Flying

Para-penting..or flying up in the mountains outside Baños

Locals having some fun with the bulls or vice versa?? during the Fiestas de Baños

The motocross competition in Baños

Having some fun on the hike down to Quilotoa

Danny and Henry testing out the merchandise at the market

Dancers in the parade

Quilotoa

We stopped at a market on the way to Quilotoa

Volcanic activity during a day hike

Volcanic Activity

Baños is basically a city in the valley of mountains and one HUGE volcano. Normally the tourist agencies scam tourists into a $3 ride up to see the volcano and tell them they might see some activity but they never do. Of course I never fell for this thanks to my guide buddies :) But as of the past couple of weeks it is not scam. The volcano has been smoking all day and at night you can see rocks spouting out and lava running down the side of the volcano. My expensive camera takes crappy night pictures so I haven't captured it very well. Apparently the vibrations we feel aren't anything to be too concerned about and there hasn't been a big blow that destroyed the town in I think over 50 years...but I'll keep you posted :)

In addition to exciting volcanic activity, I took a daytrip to Quilotoa. Quilotoa is a beautiful lake in a huge crater. Interesting cultural twist here in Ecuador in that my friend told me we could 'rent' his uncle's car for the day. I thought that was odd enough that we would have to rent it but whatever. Then it turns out the day of his uncle actually drove us the whole way and waited for us to hike around to drive us back. So we basically paid his uncle to drive us...I don't know I thought it was a little strange. But it was fun. We packed into a double cabbed truck, 6 of us with the uncle. We made stops along the way to eat (I had a not so enjoyable time with a local soup) and at markets filled with animals and beautiful artwork. I bought a gorgeous blanket. When we finally made it to Quilotoa the hike down was a breeze and the other girl on the trip (sister of friend) was worried about the hike back up. Turned out rightly so. It was a very sandy hike down and we took a lot of time taking fun pictures. The hour hike up was painful! I consider myself to be a pretty active person and I was struggling bigtime. Not that the altitude or the fact that I couldn't stomach the animal blood soup for breakfast helped. I thought I might die of peumonia when I did get to the top because it was pretty rainy and cold and I was soaked but also sweating from the climb. Not to worry - I survived with my health intact :)

That night I headed on my own to Quito to renew my VISA the following morning with the head of my volunteer program. It went relatively smoothly, although for reasons unbeknownst to me they had my incorrect birthdate in the system and had that I was married. Go figure. The most interesting part of that day was my trips around to various travel agencies to try to get info on a trip to the Galapagos with the fam in February. Some told me they had no info for Feb yet, others that I better book right away because everything was getting sold out. But my favorite agent was a woman I spent about 30 minutes with as she made calls to all sorts of boats to try to find me something. At the end of our time, she had written lots of prices and boats down on a piece of paper for me. Her name was at the bottom, Deysi Duque...haha. I mean, people here in Ecuador are naming their kids after Daisy Duke? Is that her real name? Who knows, but I definitely got a kick out of that one.

This post is getting really long but there are a couple of other things to note. The fiestas of Baños began last Saturday with a huge parade through the streets. They build incredible floats and all the schools from surrounding areas participate with dancers and music. People of all ages get dressed up in costumes and dance - really beautiful costumes and some more cute/sexy stuff. There are also queens from the various cities..beauty queens. The parade lasted for about 4 hours...with people doling out water to the exhausted dancers along the way.

And lastly, on Monday I went on a great hike in the mountains here in Baños to get a better view of the volcano and to walk through the mountains. We hiked up about an hour and then across the mountains and down. Overall a total of 6 hours of walking. The views were incredible and I also found a gorgeous little puppy near a house that I wanted to steal but refrained :) Of course before we hiked back down the other side of the city, the guys I was with realized that their friend lived somewhere in a house near where we were...no road signs of course. They just started yelling his name until someone answered. But alas, he was not home. On our hike down, ash from the volcano was blowing like crazy and we were covered in it by the time we got down.

Ok ok I know you want pics...but the internet is not cooperating at this moment. I'll keep trying!!

Baños

I´ve been in Baños for a week now - seems like longer. I managed to find an apartment..actually more like a hotel room. And I think I found a volunteer position teaching english and helping out with the online advertising for the language school but haven´t gotten information on exactly when they want me to work yet...not really surprising :) I´m actually hoping to move into an adjacent studio apartment this week - they are finishing up the kitchen so not exactly sure when. It´s quite possible that I head back later tonight and all my things have been moved and I have no key to the door. That happened with the front door of my building...they put a lock on the door (previously unlocked because there is a front gate) and I came back and couldn´t get into the building. I basically had to walk around the city looking for my landlord to get a key. Always works out in the end!
Overall I´m psyched to be here...went canyoning last week and have been enjoying beautiful weather in the mountains. I will hopefully be heading on a short trip to see Quilotoa, a famous lake formed in a crater near the volcano Cotopaxi at the end of the week. Until then I´m setting up camp here in Baños, off today to get towels and things for my apartment. Last thing on the list is an actual job..hmmm. Meantime here are some pics...

Walked in a rally in Baños to oppose the building of 4 dams for hydroelectricity elsewhere in Ecuador. No water in the rivers means no more tourism in Baños


Canyoning down a waterfall in Baños


My first try was a bit smaller


Out to dinner with the fam in Puerto Lopez


This is the actual Sr. Iguana that shared my room in Puerto Rico..he came back to say Adios!


Baños from above during a moto ride up in the mountains

I´m Moving!

But before I get to that info on my last 2 weeks in my pueblo...

I have been working in the mountains in a ´vivero´. After a 40 minute walk into the mountains (luckily not so much up as in) there is essentially a garden of various types of plants and trees being grown for reforestation. It´s beautiful and always filled with butterflies (and unfortunately mosquitoes). It´s basically a one-man show and I follow Marseal around and do as he says. Some days we are filling small bags with dirt for planting seeds. Other longer days :) we are shoveling dirt and sand and wheelbarrowing them into huge piles for later use. It´s humid and sweaty and bug-infested but he´s an interesting guy and the area is beautiful.

We finished the houses before I left for the jungle and I have been told that the families are moving in this week so I need to go check and see today or tomorrow. It would be fun to see them all moved in.

Ok so back to the move. As I have been traveling here and there around Ecuador I have been to a town called Baños several times and have really enjoyed my time there. The pics of the waterfalls, jumping off of bridges and rafting are all from there. Anna-lee and I became friendly with a lot of the guys that work as guides so that´s fun. There are also great restaurants and fun bars with lots of locals and tourists passing through. It´s pretty small and walkable and just overall my favorite place so far in Ecuador.

So I decided it might be time to leave my sleepy pueblo and try out Baños for a while. I was most nervous about telling my family as I thought they might take it personally that I wanted to move. Turns out they were totally cool about it - so cool that I´m a little suspicious that they want to be rid of me!! Next issue was to find out if my program has projects there to work on. Turns out that is a no but there are projects mostly working with children in places such as orphanages in a town a 40 minute busride away which isn´t so bad. So I have decided to take the plunge and if I can´t find fulfilling work in Baños I´ll commute..what the heck. Since my program doesn´t really exist in Baños I´ll likely rent a small apartment for a whopping $60 a month including water, electricity, everything. A few guys I know live in the apartments so they can show me the ropes and hopefully teach me to cook something in the communal kitchen :) Yes, miracles do happen.

So Sunday 11-18, I am heading off on a new adventure to hopefully survive on my own in Ecuador. Stay tuned...

I survived the jungle :)

We finally made it to the jungle and we saw incredible wildlife, bathed and swam in the Amazon River which the guide told us has taken over from the Mile as the longest river the in the world - little bit of trivia for everyone. After a 3 hour van ride along the bumpiest rockiest roads and a 2 hour canoe ride, we arrived at a lovely lodge/campsite. The showers and sinks use water from the Amazon so we mostly bathed near the dock in the river with biodegradable soap and shampoo. The water was extremely refreshing because it was so hot and muggy the whole time. We saw unbelievable sunrises and sunsets from a lake near our lodge. We saw pink bellied dolphins, monkeys, birds and parrots galore. We caught barracuda and put them back of course. We hunted for and found boas and caymans...but alas no anacondas. We also saw a village of locals who must live a very quiet life among the wildlife..with no phones, no cars and not many people. The river actally is like their road because they zoom around in canoes with motors. I also had a great group of people with me, 3 french girls, 2 dutch men, an awesome american and new zealand couple and a norwegian brother and sister. Below are pics!

Oil Spill :(

Our jungle trip was postponed because 2,000 barrels of oil spilled in the river of the jungle we were going to...bummer for the jungle and for us. So I am back in my pueblo, back to digging holes for sewage outside the houses :) See??? I do work sometimes! I even took a picture of the 2 meter hole I am digging to prove it but not sure when I can post it. For now use your imagination :)

If the river to the jungle is re-opened Anna-lee and I may be able to head out on Sunday..if not, not sure when I´ll go. Stay tuned.

So now I´m off to watch the locals surf near my house and maybe give it a try myself (one of these days).

Turns out they do celebrate Halloween a bit here so if I´m not in the jungle I´ll let you know what it´s like..I am sad to be missing Halloween in NYC which is always a blast.

So I think I can salsa :)

First things first, I received 2 packages!! So it turns out the address works but unless the package is the size of my hand it will end up in a larger city 2 hours away. But don´t worry the trip was worth it :) My lovely sister in law, Lori, sent me 5 LARGE bags of my favorite sweets - so much that even with my sweet tooth it may last the rest of my stay here. Unless the three year old, Noami, steals it of course. I also felt my first real pangs of nostalgia for home when I opened the package from my lovely college ladies - complete with US Weekly and a calendar of pics of lots of friends. If you are reading this you may be in the calendar - watch out! Nice job Karen. I got the packages on Thursday - a good start to another weekend hanging out with my new Ecuadorian friends.

Friday night 5 of us hung out at Julio´s apartment where he made dinner and some space cake (hope that doesn´t get me fired). He has a studio apt pretty just like one in New York is - and so far he´s the only person I know who lives alone so it seems to be the hangout spot.

Saturday Anna-Lee and I ventured to the nearby ´stadium´ where pueblos play soccer against eachother in organized leagues. One of the guys I work with had a game so we went to watch and cheer him on. Of course the game started about an hour and a half later than he told us to be there and he got pulled from the game in the middle of the first half. But at least we got to see some competitive soccer.

Saturday night was the anniversary of a small pueblo near where we live. A big tent was setup and there was a stage with a dj and a guy kind of running the show - encouraging people to dance or to rest etc. It was a blast - we literally danced for 4 or 5 hours. People don´t dance solo here - so you dance salsa or whatever the music calls for with the guys that are there..luckily for us we have become friends with a group of guys so we just stuck with them and their friends. They are good dancers and we just follow their lead and spin around, turn etc..I think we are getting better :) There is a downside that everyone hits the dancefloor and they play about 3 or 4 songs straight and noone sits down. So you are basically stuck out there with your partner for about 20 minutes. If the guy is pretty boring (meaning you just bob from one foot to the other for the most part) it can feel like a really long time. But for the most part it´s just a lot of fun - I love dancing here.

Anna-Lee and I are heading out of town again this weekend to meet up with the guides from Banos and next Monday we are going to Cuyabeno, a town in Western Ecuador in the jungle. I think we´ll be in the jungle for about 4 days. Should be a fun trip. Then sadly Anna-lee heads to Quito for the end of her stay in Ecuador, then Peru and Argentina and then she heads home to Australia. So I will be the lone gringa in the house as far as I know.

I should be able to post some more photos in Banos before I head to the jungle on Monday. Stay tuned.

Finally some local socializing...

Anna-Lee and I decided to hit the town in Puerto Lopez this weekend to see what goes on at night. This was my first weekend not traveling. The problem is that after 7pm no buses run and we live about a 15 minute busride from town. So we can´t get into town unless the oldest brother is there to drive us and the family charges us $5 if he is. Secondly, we can´t get back home very easily because there aren´t real cabs - just moto-taxis which are like mopeds with a carriage attached. They don´t like to go far out of town and at like midnight they charge you $10 - if there are even any around. So that´s why it´s not easy to go out when we are home for the weekend - and one reason we haven´t really stuck around. Back to the weekend..

So we paid Samuel $5 to take us into town around 9pm and it seemed pretty dead. There was one bar that had people in it so we went there and ordered a couple of beers. After a bit, a couple local surfers starting chatting with us and as always both knew the family we lived with - everyone knows everyone here which is actually kind of nice in terms of feeling safe with people who are otherwise strangers. These guys turned out to be the first ecuadorians we had met who had traveled outside the country. They had both been to europe - one just got back from several months in london learning english (too tough to get papers for US or Canada). They were on their way to Montanita for a big party and we decided to go along - at midnight it was Daniel´s bday - the one who just got back from London. The other guy´s name is Julio (I like to jokingly call him Febrero). These guys seemed a bit uppercrust here because they have traveled and Daniel was driving a pretty nice car - both oddities to us.

So anyway, we hopped in the car and started on our way to Montanita (about 40 minutes away). About 15 minutes into the drive..a bit past our house, Daniel realized he had forgotten to put more gas in the car and we were nearly on empty. Not a good sign at 11:30 at night. We stopped several times to check houses/stores for gas with no luck (no there are no 24 hour rest stops :)). At our last stop we were right near the beach and all hopped out. After we realized there was still no gas, we also realized the keys were now locked in the car. So we were stuck with no gas and no keys about a 40 minute walk from home in the pitch black..and it was midnight - Daniel´s bday. We had to laugh because what else can you do? The boys tried calling friends and parents but had no luck. After about an hour Julio managed to use some wire to jimmie the passenger-side door open and we were able to get into the car. We still had no gas. We decided to try to make it back to Puerto Lopez in the hopes of finding gas there. We nearly made it and of course the car died at the bottom of a hill right before the entrance into town. So we had to push the car up the hill and then coast into town. At this point it´s about 2am and there is no gas to be found anywhere and we have no way home. Anna-Lee and I had to wait for 3 hours for the 5am bus back to our house. Julio lives in a studio apt in Puerto Lopez so we hung out and listened to music and dozed until 5am. I wanted to cry I was so tired and wanted my bed!

So that was our first night out in Puerto Lopez :) The upside is that we made some local friends in Julio and Daniel and it was Daniel´s bday so we got invited to his bday dinner the following night. He lives in a pueblo not far from us - about a 20 minute walk. So Saturday night around 7pm after sleeping most of the day - we walked to Daniel´s. He hadn´t given us any directions because there are no roadsigns. When you get to someone´s pueblo, you just ask the first person you see where ¨Daniel´s¨ house is and they point you in the right direction. So that´s how we found it. When we got there the boys were hanging out with their surfer friends. So we sat down and they are always really nice and easy to talk to. Unfortunately, there rarely are any girls out because they generally get married very young and are bousewives who rarely leave their homes - especially once they have kids. So we really never meet girls to befriend...a not so positive cultural twist. These guys are actually unusual in that they are in their 20s and not married.

Saturday night was a bit less of an adventure but very fun. His mom cooked a huge feast of meat, corn, salad, desserts and there were probably about 20 people there. He lives in a big house by the standards here - pretty big by any standards. So we sat around and ate and talked and had a good time. Later in the evening there was dancing...it´s very fun to dance salsa and other dances here. The guys are really good leaders and Anna-lee and I laugh at ourselves as we follow along :) We also witnessed a couple of interesting bday traditions here. One is that the bday person gets hit with a belt by friends and family for how many years they are old..similar to our spanking tradition but it looks like it hurts a lot more. Daniel didn´t seem to mind. They also push the bday person´s face in the cake once it is brought out - then we all eat it anyway :) After a long night of eating, drinking and dancing we walked back home along the beach - much easier than from Puerto Lopez.

Yesterday I rode bikes with Julio to Agua Blanca, a large park with a lake that has sulfur in the bottom. It´s supposed to be really good for your skin. You dive down and get the mud and rub it on your skin, let it dry, then rinse. I have some pics of me covered in the stuff to be posted at a later date.

It was quite the socializing weekend. Now when I walk around town I recognize the surfer guys and have people to call/text to do things..quite the improvement on my otherwise non-existent social life :) I may also be taking up surfing soon...:)

Back home in my little pueblo...

I´ve settled back into things this week in my pueblo. My first day back to work on Tuesday, one of the guys went and bought a bottle of whiskey and soda water and just kept filling cups with shots and passing them around. Don´t ask me if the last house is a little crooked :) I only took one tiny shot - I wouldn´t want to be rude! That brought me right back to my coastal roots.

It´s good to be back in the house as well. We have been mostly hanging around at night listening to some Cat Stevens I bought because the oldest brother plays guitar and he knows It´s a Wild World...good old singalongs.

Yesterday afternoon I went out to take a stroll on the beach with Miguel and we ended up on an adventure - why would I have expected less? First he took me on a walk to a hostal that has 3 adorable little monkeys, 1 bigger monkey, 2 black labs and a bunch of birds. The caretaker let us into the grounds and the little monkeys were crawling all over me - adorable. The bigger monkey stayed with the caretaker and kept trying to hold his hand - so humanlike it´s uncanny. The best part was that the dogs and monkeys all play together. The little monkeys jump on the dogs´backs and the dogs try to wrestle them off. Very cute. We hung out for a while and petted and played with the little guys and the dogs. The bigger monkey was more shy. I´ll probably be wandering by there again to say hello. I did take pics but I can´t upload them here because the internet is too slow...soon!

Next we wandered back to the beach and walked back past the road to our house to some huge rock cliffs. Miguel told me that there was a pretty secluded beach on the other side of the cliff and we could climb over to it but it was a little dangerous. I figured I was up for an adventure...halfway up I wasn´t so sure. There was very little sure footing along the loosely named ´path´. I think I lost 10 pounds in sweat just out of fear I was gonna slip and fall to my death or at least break some bones. Once we finally made it to the top it was a beautiful view. I didn´t get to enjoy it for very long before Miguel was bounding down the other side. I wasn´t so sure I wanted to go down to the beach because I knew I´d have to climb back up but of course I followed.(Note that as we climbed up the rocks and then went down the more woodsy side complete with cactus, Miguel was barefoot and I had on sneakers.) I basically slid down on my butt to get to the beach while Miguel ran..whatever it takes I guess. The beach was tiny and protected on both sides by huge rocky cliffs. At high tide there is no beach, but it was low tide so we were able to walk along the rocks. We hung out for a while and enjoyed the views.

I was getting nervous about the time because I didn´t want to climb down the original cliff in the dark. Luckily, Miguel has university at night so we headed back up. Getting up was easy - probably because I was freaking out about the final descent. I had no idea how I was going to get down without breaking my neck. Turns out that Miguel basically had to climb before me and put my feet in place and hold them as I climbed down. Once again I tried not to look down. I obviously survived because I am writing this :) but I could not have been happier to get my feet back on the beach. I was filthy and sweaty and I have a picture of that too. But I was happy to have had an adventure with Miguel - hopefully he´ll take me on more since I survived. Of course to him I´m not sure it was such a big adventure. He kindly informed me that there is a much more difficult path and the one we took women of 40 and 50 years do :)

This is really my first whole weekend at the house and the guys I work with told me there is a dance in the outdoor bar near where we work so I´m hoping to get Anna-Lee and maybe some of the family to come with me tomorrow night for some dancing. I´ll keep you posted...

More photos from my first trip

I decided to pop into the internet cafe to put up some photos for my loyal readers :)
I also realized I forgot to mention a couple of things in my post below about the end of my trip so here you go...
When we went to lunch with the guys after rafting, we had a delicious lunch. It looked a little suspicious (as in we had no clue what we were eating) but it tasted great and we were starving so we ate it up without asking questions..generally my policy. After our plates were licked clean we were told we had just eaten monkey skin (piel de mano)...yum!

And now for a mini civic lesson. Yesterday was a very important voting day in Ecuador. They elected a new Assembly which eventually they hope will replace the current Congress which operates similarly to the US system with parties. Apparently the party system does not work very well because it is all political infighting (sound familiar?)so the president called for this new Assembly. This is what I gathered from taxi drivers in Cuenca and Guayaquil :) The streets were all packed with people and traffic yesterday as people were out to vote - pretty cool.

The other interesting/funny thing about the vote is that we found out about it Thursday night while we were at dinner. The English maitre de came over to warn us that no alcohol would be sold in Ecuador for the next three days because of the vote on Sunday - no craziness in Ecuador before the big vote!

Ok on to the photos cuz I know that´s what you want...don´t forget to read the rather lengthy post below for the stories behind the pictures. And if you want chronological order, look at the pics starting at the bottom.

Our feast in the mountains

The Incan road in the mountains outside Cuenca

After the breakfast shots and before the dancing in the mountains outside Cuenca..

Monkey Face (Cara de Mono) orchid in a greenhouse in Cuenca

The domes of the old cathedral in Cuenca

Views from the mountainous part of the trainride

Countryside during our trainride - one of the conductors rides on top

The rafting gang..Juank is on the left (hopefully he´ll take us to the jungle)

End of First Trip

It´s Sunday afternoon and my first trip comes to a close tomorrow when we head back to the little pueblo of Puerto Rico. I left off a week ago with a post on my bikeride through Banos so I´ll pick up there.

On Monday we went white water rafting with a local crew of guys. It had been recommended to us the day before by a couple of german girls in our hostal. When we arrived at the tour shop to get our wetsuits and helmets the head guy informed us that our trip would be different than the day before - we would be going on a level 4 advanced course. Apparently since we were the only tourists signed up for the day, the locals decided to take us along on a fun day of their own :) Of course in true Ecuadorian style we spent the first 45 minutes driving around to find a place to get the tires of the van pumped up and then had to wait for a taxi to bring out some forgotten equipment. It turned out to be a great day because the guys who took us were were a blast. It was rainy and a bit cold but we warmed up as soon as we hit the river and had to paddle for our lives. Unfortunately I don´t have any pictures from the actual rafting because we couldn´t get our cameras wet but the river was rocky and a lot of fun. We were in a large raft with the two of us and 4 guides. There were also two kayakers on the river with us in case we needed rescuing. It was exhausting and exhilarating and I was definitely glad that we did the more adventurous part of the river. They took us for lunch afterwards and we became buds and decided to meet out for a night on the town that night (our last night in Banos).

So later on Anna-Lee and I met up with our new Ecuadorian friend, Juank, played some pool and MNF was actually on at the bar - a miracle! A few other guys met us out and we went to a few bars, played pool and hung out - my spanish was flowing after a few beers :) At one point we met a bunch of Irishmen visiting Banos (drunk Irishmen of course). I talked to them in english for a bit as the only spanish they knew was, una cerveza por favor (a beer please) and one of them said to me, quote unquote ¨your english is really good¨...it was hilarious and made me feel quite good about my spanish - even if he was blind drunk :) After a while we all headed to the local discotech and danced and sweated the night away - a great way to end our time in Banos. We are hoping that Juank will come visit us in Puerto Lopez and he may even go to the jungle with us in October - he is a jungle guide so that would be very handy!

After a lovely time in Banos, we headed to Riambamba mostly to take a train to another city because the train ride along the mountains was supposed to be great and there was a part called the Devils Nose, the only functioning part of the Trans-Andean Railway completed in 1902. We were expecting a death defying descent but after 4 hours on the train we were a bit disappointed. The views of the mountains were spectacular and we rode literally on the edge of the mountain for the devil´s nose part - but 6 hours on the train was too much. And after the train we still had a 4 hour busride to Cuenca, our destination. When we finally arrived in Cuenca on Wednesday night we were pretty traveled out. Of course when we arrived to the hostal we had reserved, it was no longer at the same address so we had quite the adventure searching for it and finally the owner of the hostal came to pick us up...good use of the cellphone!

We were psyched to see as we walked around Cuenca on Thursday that the city was just as beautiful as everyone had said. It is a city of narrow cobblestone streets situated along a river. There is a beautiful old cathedral and the blue domes can be seen from everywhere in the city as a guide to get back to the center of town. There are no modern, ugly buildings - they have kept everything very colonial-looking and it looks great because of it. The city is also easy to walk and get around so we spent most of our first day checking out the main sites in the city, the cathedral, the markets, the river, and a great museum on Ecuadorian culture. They did an awesome job with the museum as it outlined the many different regions of Ecuador and the cultures, dress, daily lives of the people. There was a cool section on the people that live in the jungle in the southeastern part of Ecuador who seem to have a separate jungle culture all their own - complete with shrinking the heads of adversaries!

The next day we checked out the modern art musuem full of art from locals and bought some gifts in the markets for Naomi, the little girl in our Ecuadorian family who will be 3 October 8th. So lots of culture for us... but that wasn´t enough.

Yesterday we took a day trip 40 minutes out into the mountains to spend the day learning about Canari culture. The Canari were the Ecuadorian people in the south central part of Ecuador before the Incas and Spaniards came along. Of course day trips in Ecuador are always an adventure. We took off on time for once, but when we got there we were served a ´welcome tea´ which was really a mug full of jameison or some shot that I did not want to be drinking at 10am - but of course we had to drink it all. Then the guide played Canari instruments and sang for us while we had to ´dance´ with his children. And by dancing I mean skip around in circles holding hands at a running pace until I thought I was gonna throw up. Good times after a mug of alcohol.

After that lovely breakfast, we headed on a hike up the mountains. Our guide took us through the woods near his house and showed us all the plants they use for medicinal purposes - they don´t believe in modern medicine still. It was really beautiful and it was cool to spend the day outside a city with a family who lives in the mountains and has such a distinct culture. His 14 year old daughter came along with us and was fun to talk to - I got a kick out of the fact that she carried her cellphone the whole time - I guess they aren´t too far outside city culture :) We walked along the still dirt road through the mountains that the Incas and Spaniards used - where the Spaniards discovered gold. The dirt is gold, red, orange, all types of colors naturally. Eventually we stopped to have a picnic and we were hoping to experience our first taste of guinea pig, but no such luck. They did lay out a delicious meal on the green mountainside on a table cloth - no plates, which is what they do for special occasions. There were veggies, beef, potatoes, cheese and an interesting tea. Then we did some knitting and crushing of corn for soup stuff - they were showing us the types of things they do on a daily basis. I think I´ll stick to buying and ordering :)

Today we are back in Guayaquil on our way back home for a few weeks while we plan a trip to the jungle. I´m getting kicked out of the internet cafe in 5 minutes and I´m not sure when I´ll get pics on the blog again - may not be for a bit. Stay tuned!

Recent Pics

Sorry they post bottom up so they are in backwards order..so it´s best to look from bottom to top :)

El Diablo

Swinging after my jump

Trying not to freak out
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Anna-Lee preparing for her jump

Views along the bikeride of the river valley in Banos

Indigenous Ecuadorians from the mountains

Mr. Iguanas identical twin Senor Iguana

Waterfront in Guayaquil

Party in outdoor discotech in Montanita

Anna-Lee and the German guys in Montanita

Ecuadorian bro Miguel at the beach near our house

Guayaquil and Banos

We are a few days into our trip and things are going great. Guayaquil turned out to be a beautiful city with a great promenade along the river. We walked around the city for about 3 hours on Friday when we arrived. They did a great job with the waterfront - lots of space, clean, lots of shops and people hanging out. We also went to a few parks. There is one park that has the same type of iguanas as the one under my bed. Many will be happy to know that I found Mr. Iguana´s identical twin Senor Iguana and I took pictures of him...to be posted soon. I also saw all his cousins, the trees were literally filled with them. One actually fell from a high branch and plopped on the ground while we were there. He recovered slowly and climbed back up. At night we went to a beautiful part of town with cafes and bars along lots of steps kind of up a mountain side. We perused and climbed to the top where there is a small war monument and lookout tower from which you can see the whole city lit up. It was gorgeous.

Saturday we took a horrifically long 8 hour bus trip to Banos and I almost starved to death because the one lunch stop was at 11 but I didn´t realize that was my only option for food...oops. It was pretty awesome though because we drove around and around and up through the mountains and it was gorgeous. At one point about 20 indigenous Ecuadorians came running (literally) from the mountains to get on the bus. They were all in fedoras and wool (cold up there!) and bright colored shawls and sweaters just like you see on postcards. They smelled of smoked something and all had their front teeth rotted out. Definitely cool to see them all up close.

Once we finally arrived in Banos early evening on Saturday we ate and wandered around a bit. I discovered that I can finally upload pics here so I´ve been working on that. Stay posted. Banos is located in the mountains and has lots to do and see - very beautiful. Today we rented bikes and rode along a road along the river with lots of waterfalls. We came upon a bridge and did some swing jumping along the way. You get harnessed in and climb on to the ledge of the bridge and are instructed to dive head first off so that you do a somersault and swing back under the bridge. Terrifying because the very shallow river filled with large rocks is not very far away but awesome adrenaline rush. After we survived that we continued on our bike ride to a town along the river where you can sit on the banks of rocks. Lots of people and kids hang around and play. We also hiked down to a huge waterfall called The Devil. It was very very loud and unbelievable how powerful the water came down into a pool of water that churned and churned and eventually flowed into a river. We were able to climb down very close - amazing sight. The rocks around it are gorgeous and smooth from all the years of water flow.

Tomorrow off to go rafting for the day...and of course I scheduled myself a massage :)

Ciao!

Tomorrow I´m heading off on a 10 day trip with Anna-Lee (australian amiga) around southern-central ecuador to check out some other cities and sights. I´ll be sure to keep you all updated along the way and hopefully get some pictures uploaded in the larger cities.

There seems to be great interest in mr. iguana. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of him but one of the german guys may have so I´ll see if I can get one from them eventually. I can´t say I hope he comes back so I can get one - sorry! But if he gets over the terror of his leap and does reappear I´ll get a picture this time.

Thanks for those who have already sent packages - very speedy! And yes, it will help my popularity with the 3 year old in the house. I´ll keep you updated on the receipt rate. I´ll start checking the post office once I get back in early October.

Last but definitely not least, my very exciting news from the past week is that the german guys bought meat and made HAMBURGERS for dinner last night. We also had ice cream and soda!! Yes, it was an amazing meal :) They left today so it was a goodbye and thanks for having us celebration. Apparently there was some kind of cow issue here (possibly mad cow but I didn´t really get the full idea of what Liz (mother of the family) was trying to tell me). So she didn´t eat the burgers and the boys had to buy it from a kitchen in a restaurant - not even available in stores. But worry not - I enjoyed my burger and am doing great!

Recent Adventures

I came to town hoping to do a book exchange but of course the place is closed so I decided to stop and give you guys another update since a lot has happened since my post on Friday.

First, Susan, the new german roomie, apparently went to the house for about 10 minutes (while I was posting the note about her coming) and came to Puerto Lopez where I met briefly and in that time decided she did not want to live in the house and was going to live in a hostal in the larger town. I think it was a mixture of the non-private bathroom and small pueblo that drove her away. Last I heard she was heading back to Quito, the capital. Oh well - apparently she is the first volunteer in 8 years to split like that. Rumor has it she has/had a boytoy in a neighboring town. Who knows, maybe it didn´t work out. Anyway, that´s it for Susan.

Second, I went to Montanita for the weekend. Montanita is the backpacker party beachtown basically. And it definitely lived up to that reputation. Friday night I went with Anna-Lee and the 2 german guys and we hung out on the beach most of the night, partying and hanging out with other people. Unfortunately it was pretty overcast and not very warm so Saturday after sleeping in :) Anna-Lee and I read on the beach under blankets and the german boys headed back to our pueblo. Saturday night Anna-Lee and I lucked out. The table we ate dinner at turned into the backstage of a street show put on by ´locals´. They played african music on drums and had jugglers with fire etc. It was quite the show and we chatted and hung out with them and their friends who were all sitting around us. After the show we all headed to the discotech, where they took us to the front of the line and got us in for free :) - we felt very VIP. The discotech is an open space with a stage where the band played (some of the same guys from the drum show) and a fugata, or fire. It was really an awesome scene, as everyone was dancing around to spanish, reggae and even american music. The band was really good, and it was what I imagined of the south american nightlife. Although, actually turns out it´s mostly like that in tourist towns and probably the larger cities that I´m visiting in the next couple of weeks, not in my tiny pueblo. At least we have singalongs in the house while the oldest son plays guitar - aahhh small town fun :)

Lastly, there has been a rather large iguana living on the roof above my bedroom who at one point left me some caca in my room when I was gone to Manta. The window of my room is not fully enclosed so there is no way to keep mr. iguana out really. He never came in while I was there and they don´t bite so I was not too concerned. Today, he got a bit more bold. I look up from a short siesta after work and before lunch to see him halfway in the window. He´s about 3 feet long and I freaked and he ran away. But my room must be very enticing because later in the afternoon one of the german guys informed me that the iguana was under my bed. We all crowded around and there was no way I was going in. So Miguel (host-brother) went in with a stick to try to chase the iguana out. We were all kind of listening to the beast scurrying around from outside the bedroom on the balcony. After some thrashing, the iguana took what we all thought to be a running suicidal leap off the balcony. But he ended up jumping like 8 feet to a tree in front of the house and climbing into the tree! We were all freaking out that it could jump that far. I am hoping the iguana isn´t back in my room when I go back or I might have to relocate my bedroom. Not exactly what I want to wake up to in the middle of the night.

Address Update

Turns out I didn´t get the full info when I asked for the address at the post office. You have to include the province, which in hindsight makes much more sense :) Also, don´t send anything important because apparently the receipt rate of packages is about 50%.

Here is the updated address:

Niki DeCou
c/o Liz Bermeo
Puerto Lopez
Manabi
Ecuador

Sorry Lori - hopefully the package will still get here if you sent it earlier today. I expect things to take 2-3 weeks. And yes, so far the Sudafed has come in very handy as I had a cold last week. Other than that I´ve been ok so far... fingers crossed.

Week 2 Adventures

Week 2 here is coming to a close - I can´t believe it´s only been 2 weeks...
This week 2 german guys showed up who lived here a couple of years ago for a year. They are great favorites of the family - one of the guys is the godfather of the 2 year old girl in the house. They are fun and their spanish (and english) is great. I think they are staying for a week or so before heading back to univerity in Germany.

It seems like every day brings a new adventure. Today a new girl is coming to live in the house and volunteer. Her name is Susan and she is German and 24 and that´s all I know. I haven´t met her yet.

In terms of work, I feel like I get to know the guys I work with better every day which is really fun. I think they are getting attached to me :) It turns out that a lot of the guys I´m working with are the fathers of the families that will be living in the houses. The houses are part of a government-subsidized project to build houses for low income families (I´m not sure which families aren´t low income here but whatever). So I think it´s cool that I´m working with the guys who are actually going to live in the houses. Right now I´m mostly working in a plot of 3 houses and I work with 2 brothers and their bro-in law, all of whom will live in one of the 3 houses.

As far as food goes, there is definitely a staple meal of fish and rice every day. Eggs for breakfast. Sometimes we have pasta at the house and some meat, but mostly fish and rice. Always rice! The cooking is pretty good, but once in a while (ok once a week) when we need to mix it up we go to an american owned place in puerto lopez and have steak sandwiches or french toast or something yummy.

I am heading to Montanita tonight or in the morning with Ana-Lee (my australian housemate) and I think the 2 german boys also. It´s supposed to be a great beach town with lots of gringos like myself. If the internet is good there maybe I´ll post some more pictures. I took a bunch of the house this week and some on the beach as well.

Lastly my address here. It turns out that there is a post office in Puerto Lopez and all mail gets sent there with the family´s name and people just go check on Wednesdays and Thursdays to see if they have mail. So if you mail me something, send me an email so I know to go check the post office. Also, keep it small because I think bigger packages will get stuck in bigger cities. As many of you know, I´d love nerds, sour patch kids and swedish fish :) All are welcome and none appear to exist in Ecuador.

Niki DeCou
c/o Liz Bermeo
Puerto Lopez, Ecuador

Photos!

Working with the guys to build the brick wall on the outside of the house.

Some of the family members, myself and 2 other westerners in front of the house after a hike up into the mountains. Check out the little ducklings :) and yes that is a machate Samuel is holding.

The family van on the road in front of the house - oldest son Samuel is driving.

The beach a 5 minute walk from my house. It´s overcast most days in the barrio where I live, Puerto Rico, but the beaches are very beautiful.

That´s all for now because it took me over 2 hours just to get these photos up. When I´m in a bigger city with better internet, I´ll try to post more!

Escape!

I have escaped to another coastal town for the weekend with an australian girl who also volunteers (in a tourist office) and lives in the house with me. We are desperate for HOT showers so we are staying in a hotel :) We are in Manta - a coastal town a 2 1/2 hour busride from Puerto Lopez and a much bigger city with much faster internet. Hot showers and fast internet equals heaven. In a couple of weeks we are going to travel around Ecuador for a week and then I think I´ll also go with her to the jungle at the end of October. Sign up for visits fast people as my time is getting booked! I think Sara Kramer has booked the end of February to travel around with me at the end of my trip.

Housekeeping:
Apparently my cellphone number without a calling card is 01159397607517. WITH a calling card it´s 0059397607517. If one way doesn´t work.. try the other.

Sara Kramer wins the award for first and only phone call so far - at least successful one (this is when she booked her visit time..hint hint) . I missed a call at about 11pm last night CST - sorry whoever that was. Please try again!

As for questions posted.. I did drink the Pilsner.

Planning on posting pics tomorrow now that I know this internet is so much better. I´m not sure if I can post many here so check your email.

Cell Phone

I got a cell phone today which I need to activate later tonight. To reach me from the US they told me the entire number is -

00593 - 97607517

I think the first 5 numbers are the country code for Ecuador. They don´t have calling cards in Ecuador so I won´t be able to use it to call out... I´ll still have to use the internet cafes and phone cabins for that. Unfortunately I haven´t found anything cheaper here than twenty five cents a minute so I don´t make many phone calls. Anyway, I´ll be using the cellphone to receive calls from all of you :)

I´m still working on an address. From what I understand everything just goes to a post office with my name and my family. So I think you´ll have to let me know if you are sending something so I can check for it as opposed to it being delivered to me.

Mi Trabajo (My Job)

Today was my third day of work and I think I had a breakthrough with the guys I build houses with - one of them gave me a Pilsner (beer) at 9am...that has to be good :)

My first day of work they were all pretty skeptical of a girl working with them to build houses so I busted my butt to prove myself. It was pretty miserable though because we were laying the foundations for a few houses (small houses) so I was helping to create the cement mix manually. I now know that cement is made of sand, cement mix, rocks and water. And we were shoveling that mix into piles and out of piles to get it mixed up well and create ¨mezcla¨. It´s freaking heavy stuff and after two days of it I am already getting callouses on my hands from the shovel. The work is hard but I like getting to know the guys - they are very nice and I am definitely a novelty so they like to talk to me which is great practice for my spanish. Being with the guys is also fun because they expect me to join them in whatever they do. Yesterday - tired of waiting for the bus they all jumped into the back of a truck passing by and I rode with them. It´s definitely an authentic experience. Today, on my third day, there was a break from laying foundation and I scraped dried cement off of wood - very fun stuff. I generally work 8-12, which doesn´t sound long but it´s long enough for me :)

I know I owe pictures and I do have them, of the house, the family and working but I keep forgetting to bring my camera cord to the internet cafe. Poor excuse I know - I´ll send some out next time.

!Estoy Aqui! (I´m here!)

Surprisingly, after a summer of all flights being delayed, my flights from Newark and Miami both took off on time. The adventure began when I arrived in Quito. A rep from the organization was supposed to meet me, but since I hadn´t emailed with them in at least a week I wasn´t really sure they knew I was coming. So I got through customs quickly and wandered out looking for a sign with my name on it. I didn´t want to look too desperate so I kind of kept walking out to the curb - and of course I was immediately assailed by people wanting to find me a cab and hotel. Problem was I didn´t know if I needed either. Luckily, minutes before having to make that decision I saw a guy with my name plackard. He and his wife helped me to their Chevrolet (this will be important later) and we headed to their house where I would stay for the night before flying to the coast. They nicely stopped at an internet cafe/place for international calls to show me the ropes. This is where the adventure began...



The good old chevy´s battery died while I was phoning home. Patricio (rep who picked me up) waved down a cab, then a truck to jump his car but with no luck. Next, he corralled 4 guys to push the car while he tried to start it...forwards... then backwards... no luck. We are probably about an hour into the process of trying to get the battery going again when Patricio has yet another car hooked up to his car. He is revving the gas when he turns to me and says ¨?Sabes conducir?¨ ¨Do you know how to drive?¨ Next thing I know I´m straddling the stick shift so that I could slip my left foot onto the gas before he let it completely go with his right foot and went back to check under the hood. This is made more awkward by the fact that he is trying to shift into second gear and my right butt cheek is cramping. Finally he jumped out and I slid into the drivers seat - all while keep the gas going. Mission accomplished.



I´m in Puerto Lopez now after a short flight to the coast and a 2 1/2 hour busride to Puerto Lopez. Turns out I´m not living right in town but about a 10 minute busride outside in a village called Puerto Rico. My house is definitely the Ritz of the village but still has no running hot water and no real bathroom to speak of. There is a room with a sink, a separate room for toilets and a separate shower. My bedroom is pretty large and reminds me of a really well built treehouse. Slightly open air because the windows aren´t fully enclosed. The top floor of the house houses us foreigners (there are 2 brits and 1 aussie girl now) and is beautifully built of bamboo and wood. The staircases are spiral and wood. The family is great, nice and very willing to speak to us foreigners as we butcher their language. I already had delicious fresh fish for lunch, the father of the household is a fisherman who comes and goes for weeks but is here for now. There are 3 sons, 25, 18 and 17. The oldest is married with a 2 year old and they all live in the house. It is a very lively household with chicks and chickens in the backyard and constant teasing among the family.. the mother is a real firecracker (just had to throw that word in there).



Tomorrow I start work - so that´ll be for next time.



Hasta luego,

Niki

I'm officially a 'guest blogger'

Getting a slow start today after a very fun company outing yesterday (swimming, tanning, bbq-ing, three legged races and of course karaoke)...couldn't really ask for a better last day 'in the office'.

Today is my first official day as a guest blogger. My former teammate wrote a very generous introduction for me and you can check out the whole article here:

http://pleatsncleats.blogspot.com/2007/08/fantasy-football-101-by-laura-nicole.html

Off to brave the heat doing errands and finish up packing...

Packing up...

It's my first day of 'leave' and packing isn't going so well what with the US Open on all day and a basic lack of motivation (packing is not my thing). I did manage to find time to write a Fantasy Football 101 article as a guest blogger for my friend's new Sports Blog http://pleatsncleats.blogspot.com/.

Maybe I'll be able to deal with the tragedy of missing football season by writing from Ecuador - it'll be therapeutic :)

I'll get back to packing...in the meantime check out the sports blog above (my article should be posted today under a pseudonym - see if you can figure it out) and see what I'm getting myself into here:

http://www.elep.org/
I'll be doing volunteer work in the Construction and Infrastructure program.

Hasta luego,
Niki

Last Day at AA|RF in 2007

Today is my last day at work, and I'm not sure reality has set in that I won't be coming back to my lovely cubicle for a very long time. Actually I know it hasn't because I don't feel the need to say goodbye to people. I'm beginning to think that I'm not going to feel like I'm moving to Ecuador for six months until I'm actually in my new home getting settled. So for those of you who read this and did not get a formal goodbye - sorry!

I hope that many of you keep tabs on me and keep in touch with me through this blog and that some of you come to south america for a visit so that we can meet up and travel.

Hasta luego :)