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
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxG3tQoLIuTueEEDmHKRwoixLy_ZaAXvmWcFIu264DqCiPPJU2IFeqF_O4hg4HSxTzdz2qGxVr8e0KC2QQD1VOv0mZ-rBVOteNnzvhr9CgYt3MEmY1WZvQJlM46kM1eOhuhCOw1_hPeGY/s1600-h/IMG_2064.JPG">
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