long time no see

Hello! Sorry about the total lack of blog posts recently. I haven’t been busy, just lazy. 

This will hopefully change tomorrow, when I go to the Galapagos Islands! We are leaving Portoviejo in a bus at 4 am, so I am not looking forward to the early-wake-up, but I can’t wait for the rest of it!

Here’s what’s happened in the last month or so:

A couple of weeks ago, I got on a bus to go to the beach with some friends, where I believe I contracted head lice! Not exactly what I was expecting. My friend and I both had them, so we freaked out together for a while and then bought some really disgusting smelling shampoo. We are both better now. :)

After lice, I became sick with Dengue Fever, which is a tropical disease spread by mosquitoes. It is not fun. I spent about 5 whole days in my host brother’s bedroom (because there is a/c there) with a terrible headache, body-aches, and a fever.

Then I had allergies, which have pretty much gone away by now. I am hoping to stay healthy until the end of the Galapagos trip at least.

I’ll be back in Portoviejo from the Galapagos on Tuesday, so I should post another blog update on Wednesday or Thursday.

Also, my return flight has officially been arranged! I will return to Houston on April 21. Although it’s a bit earlier than originally planned, I think it will be a good thing for me.

pictures 1

It is quite amazing how quickly two weeks can go by when you are really busy. My mom left Ecuador yesterday morning and I returned to Portoviejo. During the two weeks that she was here, we visited beaches on the coast, explored Inca ruins filled with wild llamas, happened upon an indigenous market in Cañar, biked along a winding road following a river near Baños, road rickety cablecars across huge canyons, shopped in the monstrous market at Otavalo, mingled with cows, pigs, chickens, and some guinea pigs in the animal market at Otavalo, rappelled down a waterfall in the rain in Mindo, and ziplined through cloud forests.

The following two ‘posts’ include more pictures- check them out!

at los frailes

Mom at Ingapirca (incan ruins)

after a cablecar in Baños

at Pailon del Diablo, a waterfall near Baños

pictures 2

above quito:

the animal market in Otavalo

on the (pretend) equator

rappelling

mom rappelling

pictures 3

after rappelling down the waterfall behind us:

a parrot!

and a toucan!

ziplining in Mindo

Mom, enjoying the slightly bumpy ride back to Mindo- we shared the back of the pickup with a whole bunch of corn.

amazon pictures

I have finally acquired some pictures from the amazon. Here are a couple:

eating worms:

being 'cleansed' by the shaman:

Apparently I am quite skilled with a blowgun:

eating the lunch we cooked over a fire- smoked fish, palm heart salad, yucca fries, and stinging nettle that is supposedly edible.

in the boat on the way there:

My mother has now landed in Quito! Tomorrow morning she will fly to Manta where I will meet her. The next two weeks we will spend traveling the country, trying not to get lost, and attempting to see as much as possible. Wish us luck! 

fat

Today I got home and saw that my host grandparents were at the house. I was kind of excited because I hadn't seen them in a while. The first thing that my host grandma says to me is that I look fat. Then, my host grandfather agrees with her and says that I need to watch my weight. 

Thanks, host grandparents. You sure know how to make me feel loved. 

Isn't Ecuador great?

amazonian and carnavalian craziness

This past week has been, by far, the best week I have had in Ecuador so far.

Last Monday night, all of the exchange students in Portoviejo met up, got on a bus, and traveled all night long to Quito, where we then took a plane, and then a canoe to a lodge deep in the jungle where we stayed for 4 nights.

The place we stayed is called Yachana Lodge. It is part of an organization that also includes the Yachana Foundation and the Yachana Techincal High School, which is amazing. The high school is for indigenous or mestizo kids from all over Ecuador. It is a private school, which usually means that the students have to pay to attend. However, in this school students are only required to buy their uniforms, which are brown-colored tshirts from the school. All of the costs are covered by profits from the Yachana Lodge and private donors. Since the high school is in a pretty remote location, the school schedule is a bit different- students stay at the school for 21 days and then return home for 21 days. While staying at the school, they are responsible for everything themselves- the school is pretty much run by the students. In the morning, students do different activities- they are divided into groups such as agriculture, livestock, recycling, artesania, and basic cleaning around the school. Each morning when we were there, we helped out the students. One morning, we cleared an area for reforestation with machetes. Another, we (well, not me) killed chickens for lunch, and then took out all of their insides and chopped them up for cooking! We also helped dig a small pond where they will eventually raise fish. It was really neat talking to and working with the students there- they have SUCH different lives, and it’s really interesting.

In the afternoons, we did various activities- one day we went to a shaman to be ‘cleansed’. I’m not sure it worked for me though- I went home with about 10 million more mosquito bites than I came with. Another day we floated down a section of the Napo River. Another we went for a hike in the Yachana reserve.

We left Yachana Lodge at 8 on Saturday morning. After another 3 hour ‘canoe’ ride (actually just a long skinny river boat), and another 30 minute plane ride, we arrived in Quito. On the way from Portoviejo to Quito, we rode in two van sort of things- we were 19 people, so we fit perfectly. On the way home, however, some people stayed in Quito with their families, so we were less people and it wasn’t worth it to rent another whole bus. So, our chaperones tried to get a couple of bus or plane tickets. Since it was just at the beginning of Carnaval, though, there were NONE available. So, four of us ended up traveling across the country in taxi. The drive was absolutely gorgeous. 

We arrived in Portoviejo at about 10 p.m., and so I unpacked my dirty clothes, filled my duffel bag with all of the clean clothes that I had, and went with my friend Leslie’s host family to the beach for Carnaval!

Leslie and I spent Sunday night, all day Monday, and Monday night in Crucita, the closest beach to Portoviejo. Crucita is not know for being especially good for carnaval, but we still had a lot of fun. During the day we went swimming, and then went walking along the ‘malecon’, the road that runs alongside the beach. One of the things that people do during Carnaval is throw water, spray foam, and whatever else they want to on people walking in the street. Leslie and I thought it was absolutely hilarious, so we walked back and forth along the road until we got too tired to do anything at all.

On Tuesday morning, we went to San Clemente, which is known for being a wonderful place to celebrate Carnaval. We met up with a couple of other exchange students and spent the day relaxing. At about 7 at night, we went to find something to eat, and I ended up staying out all night long. There was one street there that was absolutely stuffed with people. The sides of the road were filled with small stands selling beer and stands set up by discoteks playing music. So, the streets were filled with people dancing and drinking. In order to walk through the streets and stay with the people you were with, you had to hold hands, and weave one by one through the mass of people. It turns out that drunk people like throwing water and beer on people even more than sober people, so by the end of the night, I was completely wet, and stank like beer. It was surprisingly amusing though, and we spent a good part of the night walking back and forth through the streets. At about 7 a.m. we went swimming in the ocean (in our clothes), to get the smell out. We ended up going home that morning, where I added to my pile of dirty clothes, and then took a good long nap.

I am now without any clean clothes, VERY sunburned, and still exhausted. It was, without doubt, the best week I have spent in Ecuador. Funny, isn’t it, that only about 1hour of it was spent in Portoviejo?

Since my camera is not working, I plan on stealing all of my friend’s pictures from the Amazon, so I will post those soon.

things going on

So, here’s an update on what’s coming up.

Monday I leave for the AMAZON RAINFOREST! We’re leaving at 10pm in bus, which means we’ll arrive in Quito around 6 am, and then we will take a plane, and then a CANOE to the place we’re staying. I’m pretty excited about that. Unfortunately, the trip’s pretty short- we go back to Quito in the morning of Saturday the 13, and then I assume that we’ll be heading back to Portoviejo right after that.

Carnaval, the holiday that everyone has been talking about since I got here starts on the 14^th, and lasts until the 17^th. The current plan is to go to the beach with my family, but I’m not sure if that will happen if my host dad is still sick. Hopefully we’ll still be able to go.

I think that after Carnaval, I will be changing families. I really like my current family, so I’m not really excited about it, but my next family seems really nice as well so I’m not not-looking forward to it either.

THEN, my mother is coming! She’s coming on the 24^th of February, and staying for a couple of weeks.

So, I will have a busy next month or so. Which hasn’t happened in a while, so I’m pretty excited.

I’ll let you all know how everything goes!

covered in mud

Haven’t updated in a while.
Last weekend I went to Montañita, a beach about three hours away. It’s primarily known for the large amount of marijuana and surfing. Although I did neither of those, I still had a really great time.

Today I went to Montecristi, about half an hour away from Portoviejo to climb a mountain! It’s actually just a hill, and not very far above sea level but it was fun. We took the bus to Montecristi, and walked up to the top part where the road goes. One of the guys we were with noticed that some kids had been following us, and that three of them had entered the trail to go up the mountain and one of them had stayed behind. And that seemed kind of fishy. So we killed time inside of the museum that is there at the top until they left. Walking up the mountain wasn’t particularly difficult, it was just really muddy. On one part, the trail got wider and I chose the wrong side to go up. I ended up getting stuck there because it was too slippery and I couldn’t go up or down. So I threw myself onto the ground a bit further over on the trail, hoping that that way, I could at least get back to the part that wasn’t terribly muddy. It didn’t work. I ended up sliding a good ways down the trail on my stomach instead. :) When we got to the top, we took a break and ate a bit, and then headed down. For some reason, the guys we were with decided to take the really dangerous way down. Lots of 6-9 foot drop offs and SO MANY loose rocks that liked to go crashing down the hill into the people in front of you. I spent a good portion of the time either sliding down on my butt or being caught after half-jumping-half-falling off of a cliff. It was very fun. Today I am sore though. :) And covered in tiny little scrapes and bruises. When I got home I had mud smeared all over my legs, shoes, shirt, arms and face. :) I don’t have any pictures right now but I will try to post some as soon as I can steal them from my friend’s camera. :)

Totally unrelated:

People like to say that math is the same in any language. It’s not. In the Spanish class that I am now in we had some major confusion.

One billion= 1,000,000,000

Un billón= 1,000,000,000,000

one trillion= 1,000,000,000,000

un trillón= 1, 000,000,000,000,000,000

Strange, isn’t it? I bet this has caused some major confusion in the past. I also learned how to say this number in Spanish: 31,415,926,535,897,932,384,626,433,832,795. I don’t know how to say it in English. But I thought that was interesting. It’s easier in Spanish.

cloudy with a chance of meatballs

Portoviejo’s weather is predictable. Take a look at the forecast: http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/tenday/ECXX0017?from=today_topnav_BusinessTravel  . Basically, high of about 90, low of about 70, and scattered thunderstorms. eeeeeeevery day. I have yet to actually hear thunder, but there sure has been a lot of rain. Portoviejo is a big puddle. A wonderful place for pigs, or people in rainboots.

As far as I know, the power outages have officially stopped. So no more eating dinner by candlelight or laying on the porch outside when it’s super hot. I will kind of miss the inconveniences that the power outages caused- sitting in the movie theatre waiting for the generators to kick in and to continue the movie, having to return to the post office the next day to recieve your package because the computers won't work without electricity, spending the hottest days in the mall because it is air conditioned...

I am currently spending my free time reading The DaVinci Code in Spanish! Which is interesting. I have to look up a whole bunch of words but I understand everything that is going on. It really shows me how much Spanish I actually know. I can read an adult-level book and actually understand what's going on (even if I do have to look up every other word)!

winter time

It is, without a doubt, winter time here in Ecuador. This means rain (FINALLY) and heat. I am feeling quite at home in the humidity. Unfortunately, wintertime also means that there are SO MANY BUGS. Last night it was really hot so I slept without a sheet on top of me, and I woke up with at least 50 more mosquito bites on my legs. Tonight I will wear bug spray to bed. 

It is kind of amazing to me that Portoviejo is able to function year after year in the wintertime. It has just begun and already the streets are FULL of mud. Everything that was dust is now mud and it is gross. I am considering buying some rubber boots for when I want to leave the house and don’t want to get dirty. Until now the only sort of footwear I have worn have been flip flops, and those are not so much fun when the streets are full of mud.

I have now taught Ricardo three card games, and we play, at least once, every day. He knows ‘Go Fish’, ‘Old Maid’, and a game that a Swiss girl taught me that is apparently called ‘Asshole’ that we have renamed as ‘Galleta’ (cookie) in Spanish. :) I am really going to miss him when I change houses.

Today I went with a group of med school students and recent graduates to a village about 35 minutes away from Portoviejo. They were holding a one-day free clinic thing for the children in the town. The doctors saw between 90 and 100 kids, and all of the medicines that were prescribed were free, as long as we had them. It was nice to be in such a hands-on position helping this community. I was dedicated as the master weigh-er and height-take-er, so I’m really good at that now.

I also weighed myself for the first time in 5 months. I didn’t eat dinner tonight. :)

There will not be any pictures for a while. My camera is not working. :(

the bus terminal, my new second home.

I am way behind on blog-writing. Just posted the previous entry.

I’ve had a busy week- there was an exchange student from the US who lives in Riobamba staying in my house for a week so we tried as hard as we could to spend as little time in Portoviejo as possible. :)

On Tuesday we went to Crucita, where we ate encebollado (new favorite!) and then swam in the ocean. It rained the whole time, but was still a lot of fun. Wednesday we went to San Clemente, except we got off the bus too early- in San Jacinto and had to walk the rest of the way to San Clemente. Friday we went to Bahia and San Vicente. Total transportation cost for four hours in bus and two boat rides- $4.35. Saturday we went to Manta, where we met up with the four exchange students there, who are living like kings. We went to the grocery store there, bought some food, and then went to the beach for a picnic.

I have become quite familiar with the bus station over the past few days. And I now plan on using it a lot. There’s no use to stay in Portoviejo when you can leave Portoviejo. :)

cuenca!

Last Friday I went with Alex from Switzerland and her host grandfather to Cuenca. I finally asked permission from Rotary at about 12 Thursday night, and we left at 6 on Friday morning. 

We rode with her host dad and one of his coworkers to Guayaquil in his car, which is nice because it’s faster than the bus. The road between Portoviejo and Guayaquil is terrible. I spent most of the trip somewhere between the seat and the roof of the car. We took the bus from Guayaquil to Cuenca. We didn’t have the best luck either- in the first minute of the trip, the bus had stalled out at least 10 times. It also had a max speed of about 30 miles an hour. On flat ground. Aaaaaaaaand pretty much the whole trip was uphill. Needless to say, it took a while. At least an hour longer than it should have.

We did arrive in Cuenca eventually. The bus decided to drop us off outside of town though, because he said there was too much traffic. So we walked to a city-bus station and then took a taxi to a hotel. We left our stuff at the hotel and went exploring. That night, we went on a bus tour around the city.

The next morning we got up early and went to a city outside of Cuenca called Chordeleg, which is famous for selling ‘inca gold’. Pretty much all they have in this tiny little town are shops that sell jewelry and shops that make shoes. The town is gorgeous though. We went back to Cuenca for lunch, which we ate at a market. We ate meat from a pig that still had a head and a tail and had been roasted whole, which was gross to look at, but very tasty. When we left the market, we saw a horse walking along the streets of Cuenca, probably delivering things to the market from the countryside. It was quite interesting- not something you see everyday in downtown Houston. That afternoon, we tried to go to the main museum in Cuenca, that was featuring a paintings by Guayasamin, but when we arrived at the museum, we found that it was closed, due to the energy shortages. We walked to another museum instead, and then to a store where they make Panama (Montecrisit) hats. Alexandra and I had a short fashion show and tried on at least ten million different hats, and then the owner of the store took us upstairs to a hotel that she owned. The view of the city was fantastic.

Later, we wandered around Cuenca, and in the evening, went to a hot springs just outside of Cuenca. Where I dropped my camera in the water. :(

Sunday morning we visited the cathedral in Cuenca and then went to the bus station to go home.

One of my favorite things that clearly separates the highlands from the coast is that the indigenous culture is so much stronger in the highlands. There are so many people- mostly women- walking around the streets of Cuenca in their traditional outfits, which are absolutely gorgeous. 

This week there are three exchange students who live in Riobamba here visiting, one of which is staying in my house. So we’ve been busy doing things here. We’ve been to the beach twice, once when it was raining, and we have plans to go to the beach tomorrow and Saturday as well. :)

here are some pictures!

lunch!

me eating lunch. :)

fruits and vegetables at the market: fashion show at the panama hat factory:eating a guaba:

some women dressed traditionally:

fishin

I have a friend from Switzerland who is here on a different sort of Rotary Exchange- she is only here for 3 months, but she is staying with a girl who is also her age, and when she returns to Switzerland, the girl from Ecuador will return with her to stay for 3 months. She got really lucky with her family- they have taken her almost everywhere in Ecuador! She is leaving next week, so has been doing a bit of traveling close to Portoviejo- trying to do everything before she leaves. Tuesday I went with them to a town about 25 minutes from Portoviejo called Montecristi. We just did some shopping in the market there, and it was fun. Wednesday night, they both showed up at my house unannounced and asked if I would like to go to the beach with them to spend the night in their beach house. I threw some clothes in a backpack and was out the door in less than 5 minutes. The girl from Switzerland hadn’t seen the fishers in the morning at Crucita. So we drove up there and spent the night. In the morning, we woke up at 6 and went walking along the beach to where the fishermen are. I had been there before while they were unloading the fish, but this time was more interesting. Last time, I just saw all of the fish that they chop up to make fish flour- they use the heads and gross parts of the fish that we don’t like to eat, and grind it up and feed it to livestock to make them gain weight faster. The people who chop up the fish are of all shapes and sizes- there are children, teenagers, adults, and old people. 

This time, we saw a lot cooler things- a hammerhead shark, a fish called a ‘picudo’ or something like that in Spanish that look s like a swordfish that they use to make ceviche that was HUMONGOUS, and another huge fish that has a big fan-shaped fin on it’s back.  Here are some pictures, because those are by far the most interesting:

I woke up this morning with a sore throat, and I am hoping that I am not getting sick. I did not enjoy being sick the last time, and i don’t think I will be able to stand being sick in this heat.

This morning when I woke up it was raining! For the third time in almost 20 weeks. It was exciting.

machalilla

Today I went with Marvin my friend from Germany, a girl who is here from Switzerland, her host sister, and her host father south to the Machalilla National Park. After picking me up about half an hour late (just on time for Ecuador), we made our way to Manta, and then took the Ruta del Sol south. This road basically follows the coastline, which results in some pretty gorgeous views. After a while, we stopped, at a beach named San Lorenzo, where we got out of the car and walked down the beach. San Lorenzo is gorgeous. There is a really small town there, but the beach was basically deserted the whole time. At one end of the beach, there is a large cliff, with caves and cracks that have been carved into them by the constant crashing of the waves. We explored the beach for a while, trying to coax the  crabs out of the cracks in the cliff, but eventually had to get back in the car and continue.

Ecuador is interesting in that you can look out the car window and see only dead-looking, dry, and brown plants, and then while you blink, they change to different sorts of plants, all of which are green and pretty. Unfortunately, most of our trip was full of the ugly brown sort of scenery.

We finally arrived at the Machalilla National Park a bit later. We did a sort of mini-tour through the archeological part of the park along with a trip through the bird-section of the park. After that, we went to a small pond full of black water. Apparently it is a sulfuric pond, and the mud and water are supposed to be good for your skin. It smelled so bad, but we decided to get in anyway, since the guide told us that the smell wouldn’t stick. After smearing mud all over our bodies and then rinsing it off, we discovered that the smell DOES in fact stick. We then walked back to our car and went straight to the beach, hoping that the salt water would get rid of the sulfur odor we were covered in. It didn’t quite get rid of it, but it did help a bit- we could now stand riding in a car full of sulfur-smelling people. While we were at the beach, a boat full of fish came in to unload, so we watched the battle between the fishermen and the birds.

After swimming for a while, we realized that we still hadn’t eaten, and it was 3 o’clock! So, we headed north to a beach named Puerto Cayo, where we ate lunch. After lunch, we decided to head home to Portoviejo. We stopped at a gas station to fill up, since we knew we wouldn’t be able to make it all the way back without getting gas, and found out that the gas station was out of gas. And, unlike Houston, there are not gas stations on every corner. We ended up having to drive about 20 miles to a different city to get gas, which meant we had to take a different road back to Portoviejo- one that was significantly uglier and in much worse shape.

 

feliz año nuevo!

Hello all, and Happy New Year!

New Years celebrations are, without a doubt, cooler here. For the past week or so, the streets have been full of proof that New Years would be an experience- stands selling yellow underwear and grapes in downtown, millions of people trying to sell lottery tickets, and people making and selling massive amounts of effigies of all sorts of cartoon characters and famous figures.

Here in Portoviejo there is a contest for the best ‘año viejo’ (new year). Yesterday morning we went driving around the city to look at all of them. They were AMAZING. They all have a theme, and they were all huge. The worst part was knowing that they would all be burnt. My favorite was one that was based on the Botanical Gardens in Portoviejo- it had all sorts of animals, and they all looked great.

Last night we took our ‘año viejo’ outside and joined all of neighbors in the street. We got kind of excited, so we set them all on fire before midnight, but it was still quite cool. Standing outside on a street full of people, with a huge exploding fire in the middle of the street and fireworks going off all around us was quite cool. After hanging out outside for a while, we all went inside and prepared dinner. We all ate, and then afterwards, my host sister and host dad went out to parties- they left around 2:15, and I think that they got home around 9 this morning. :)

I am not quite sure what we will be doing today. The plan was to eat ceviche for lunch, but now Ricardo is sick and no one else is awake so I don’t really know.

Happy New Year!

One of the large año viejo's for the contest:

año viejo's being sold in the street:

our squirrel:

all of the neighbor's año viejo's- ready to burn!

burning!