Otavalo

Today is no good. I already managed to lose my sunglasses after wearing them for just about a half hour, I am sunburned from Otavalo, and my stupid credit card company put a block on my card even though I already put a travel alert on it weeks ago. I cant pay for anything today, so I called the credit card company and I have been on hold for 35 minutes already just waiting to tell someone to please unblock my card. Even though it is their mistake. Grrrr!!!!

On another note, our Otavalo trip was really amazing. Minus our first bus ride to Otavalo. The bus driver thoguht he was a race car driver. He took hair pin curves at top speed and I swear at times we were only driving on two wheels. At the same time, this scary clown music was on top volume in the bus, like a sick soundtrack to our imminent death. Even though I was convinced we were going to die, I still found the confidence to make a video of our ride.

We got off the bus after 2 hours and went to Lago San Pablo, a beautiful lake at the base of Volcan Imbabura. We took a boat ride around and the weather was finally nice for once. Rich Ecuadorians often go to the lake for weekend trips. There were a few alpacas lounging around the lake, as well, soaking up the sun.

After the lake, we crowded into a bus to go to the Otavalo market. We had a 3 course lunch for $1.25 and then had 3 hours to browse the stalls at the market. I bought a few things, my most favorite purchase being an empanada filled with apples It started pouring rain, then stopped, then started again, then stopped. Everyone kept running for cover and the vendors were constantly covering and uncovering their goods with plastic tarps.

We crammed into another bus after our time at the market to go to a nearby waterfall, I think it is called Peguche. It was really beautiful. Our guide, Vincicio, then decided it would be a great idea to scale the almost vertical hillside next to the waterfall in the mud and pouring rain. I am not sure how we made it, but we got to the top. And then we kept going. There was a giant gorge with another waterfall, and at one point we crossed a 3 foot wide mud bridge that was the only thing between us and one waterfall on our right side and the other waterfall on our left. Vincicio was quite the gentleman, though, and helped all 5 of us girls every step of the way to make sure we didnt fall to our deaths. We continued our hike through the hills and I felt like what we were doing was actually bushwacking instead of hiking. We were soaking wet and covered in mud and sweat and at times it seemed like we were forging our own trail! The hike was really fun though, despite being one of the hardest and probably most dangerous I hike I have ever been on.

After our hike we crammed into yet another bus and again there were no seats left so we had to stand until we got to the base of the hill that Vinicio{s aunt lives on. Then we all climbed into the back of a pickup truck for the bounciest ride of our lives to the house we would be spending the night in. We stayed in an indigenous village in a house made of mud. Vinicios family lived there and I believe they farmed corn and raised chickens. We made dinner together in their kitchen and washed everything in the water that they had collected in buckets that were sitting out in the courtyard amongst the cow patties and, well, the cows themselves. We were worried we would get sick from the water and the dirty knives, etc... but we popped a pepto bismol and it was okay! Our dinner, which we ate on a mat on the floor (there is no table) consisted of potatoes, tomatoes, cheese, lettuce, and.... guinea pig! The entire guinea pig was cooked, feet, head, and all. The head is the best part, I hear. Its a special meal for weddings and other celebrations, I guess our visit is included in such important fiestas. The sad thing was that as Iris (a girl in our group) was helping to cut up the guinea pig to cook it, all of its little guinea pig friends were under the kitchen table squealing, like they knew what was happening to their friend. I guess they just roam free in the house, as do the other animals there including their 2 dogs, cat, chickens, turkey, and 2 GIANT cows that hang out in the house. We slept on beds that were basically wooden tables and I my hips were bruised in the morning! I was scared to go to the bathroom at night because you had to walk through the mud past the two giant cows in order to get to the outhouse... which, weirdly enough, was at their front gate and had holes in it so you could say hello to whoever was paying you a visit that day! Haha. All in all, though, staying at Vinicios aunts house was really amazing. The funny thing is, in our rugged, rural house... there was a TV and a CD player.

Vinicios aunt lives with her husband and their grandson, Luis, who is 9 years old. Luis really liked all of us girls and tagged along everywhere we went and was extremely interested in our digital cameras. He was so excited when I asked him if he wanted to take a picture with me. Whenever he was with his other little friends, though, they were all constantly whispering and conspiring in Quichua to sneak up on us and we had no idea what they were saying or laughing about. All the boys in this community wear their hair down their backs in very long braids, and in general they are a very, very short population! Even Vinicio himself commented on how short he was, and thought it was hilarious that Jonna and Iris, the two Dutch girls, were about twice his height. He was constantly making jokes about how that was so wrong. Hehe. In the morning when I was getting ready for the day, Vinicio and his uncle were mesmerized by the idea of contacts and watched me very intently as I put them in my eyes. His uncle just kept laughing and shaking his head as he watched me intently.

We took a hike around the community in the morning up towards Volcan Imbabura, again sloshing through the mud from the rain and dodging thousands of cow patties. Luis tagged along as Vinicio explained to us about the community and how there are actually never any tourists there besides us, the people he brings from Yanapuma. Along the way we passed some houses and entire families would pour out of these small houses and stare at us. The men always were the ones who were excited to come up to us and shake our hands and ask where we were from, and the women and girls stayed back and whispered and laughed to each other while pointing at us. Everyone was really friendly though and genuinely excited to hear about our lives. They asked us what crops we grew in our towns When we explained a bit more about what our modern lives were like, they told us that our lives must be so hard compared to theirs. The views as we walked around were incredible because we were on the slopes of Volcan Imbabura and so looking around us we could see Volcan Imbabura in front of us, Volcan Cotacachi behind us, and the beautiful green farming valley in between the two.

Later we said goodbye to our host family for the night and caught another truck down the hill. We hung out in the main town square for a bit while Vinicio tried to convince another guy with a truck to drive 5 white girls with giant backpacks to our next destination. We browsed around some stalls in the main square to see what food they were selling, and discovered that everyone was selling pig heads and fruit. Delicious. Then we hopped in the back of the random guys truck and made our way to Laguna Cotacachi, a deep, clear volcanic crater lake that is part of Cotacachi. The highest peak of Cotacachi, covered in snow, provided a nice background to the lake. We took a boat ride around the lake and saw its 2 islands up close. When we stopped the boat, we could see bubbles coming up from the bottom of the lake... the volcano is still active!

After another ride in the back of a truck, lunch at a hole in the wall place, two more bus rides, some unexplainable traffic on the curvy mountain road back to Quito, and a taxi ride back to La Floresta, we finally arrived back home. We were covered in mud and sweat, had been wearing the same clothes for two days, our bodies hurt, and all we wanted to do was take a shower, eat dinner, and pass out. Fun adventure we had, though

(I am happy to say that after 35 minutes on the phone someone finally answered at WaMu and told me that I can only put travel alerts on my card for 30 days. Yay. Means I have to put a new one on my card every month. So inefficient. I love banks.)

Anyhoo, back to Quito happenings. We are a bit annoyed with the food we get at Cecilias house because we are paying the same as another girl is for her host family, but she gets more food than us plus laundry. She gets soup, a main dish, and dessert for dinner each night whereas we only get enough food to fill half our plate and there are never any leftovers if we are still hungry. Cecilia only makes the bare minimum for everyone. Granted, dinner is not the main meal here in Ecuador, lunch is. But still, it is frustrating for us because we are always so hungry after dinner and we know other host families are different. Then to top it off, in the morning for breakfast all we get is a piece of dry, tasteless bread and the same guyaba marmalade every day. Plus fruit juice (which is great) and tea. But I cant survive on dry bread every morning. Rachel and I have complained to our Spanish teacher at Yanapuma, but we feel really awkward making any real complaint because it would be very obvious to Cecilia that it was us two who complained since everyone else has been at her house for a longer period of time and they havent complained yet. Plus our Spanish teacher just thinks we eat a lot and thinks it is kind of funny that we are like men. So instead of telling Yanapuma or Cecilia, we instead just went to the supermarket (which is called Supermaxi... hahahaheeheehee) and stocked up on fruits and snacks to supplement our breakfast bread. We snuck some instant oatmeal to breakfast today and ate it secretly from our tea cups. We are also going to go out to dinner more often to get bigger, second dinners... but unfortunately Cecilia still gets paid the same $13.50 per day regardless of if we eat her food or not. At least it is just another two weeks. We will be leaving Quito on the 28th to go on a 3 or 4 day trip to Tena in the jungle, and then well be going to the Galapagos as soon as we get back and then make our way south to Peru.

On another note, the music of Quito is also a bit annoying... especially when it wakes us up at 6am each morning. The neighborhood dogs bark constantly for about 3 hours straight starting at 6am, the indigenous people who live in Quito drive up and down the streets in our neighborhood in trucks filled with fruit and fish with a megaphone that blasts the same unintelligible phrase over and over again in a monotonous voice urging everyone to come out and buy their food, aaaand everyone else in our house gets up at like 7am and talks loudly and uses the bathroom which is right next to our room. Weeeee.

Oh yes, and guess what? The sun DOES exist in Quito. Yesterday it was hot and sunny and wonderful. Kind of intense, though. I am on the equator, apparently. Good to know. I was actually sweating as I walked around town all day... granted, I was also practically running from place to place trying to get everything done before class at 2pm. And everything was going wrong and I was a bit stressed out. But eh... then the rains came on cue at 3pm and washed all my worries away. Thunder, lightening, all the regulars came out to play. Today its sunny again but Ive finally learned my lesson and have my umbrella with me in my purse.

Ive been sneezing up a storm the past few mornings. I think I am allergic to Quito.

Toodle loo!