The next day, I ditched my 2 hours of class in order to spend the whole day with the birthday girl. We woke up early, packed our bags for the weekend, and set off to the magical town of Baños (yes, it means bathrooms, but, really, it’s quite amazing)! We got to see the fullness of Ecuadorian transportation in all its glory. First, we took an alimentador bus to the north Quito Trólebus station, rode that to the south Quito Trólebus station, and on to the South Quito interprovincial terminal, a journey that mi mamá had warned us would take 2 and a half to 3 hours, but which we dominated in an hour and a half—all on 25 cents each! Once at the terminal, we caught an interprovincial bus to Baños—a 3 and a half hour ride that we each bought for $3.50. It was beautiful. We arrived at the legendary town at around 1 in the afternoon, wandered around its quaint, lovely streets for a little while, and found our hotel for the night.
There was a waterfall right outside our window!!
From the hotel we went looking for a tourist agency to help us take advantage of our time there. We went to our hotel owner’s recommended store, where they told us about a beautiful 9-mile bike route that would lead us past 7 different waterfalls. Of course, we were down for a sweet combination of exercise and marveling at God’s beauty, so we rented 2 bikes and started to set out. We had scarcely been out 5 minutes (really, we never even got out of Baños) when it started to pour down rain. We pulled aside for a while, and convinced it would not relent, we rode back to the tour agency, begging to please be allowed to take the bikes out the next when it would hopefully be sunny. They kindly said it was okay, so we set off in the rain to try and entertain ourselves in Baños on foot. We walked around the streets for a little while, where there were dozens upon dozens of street vendors selling candies and making melcocha, a kind of taffy. They would literally hang the sugary dough on a nail on the side of the doorway, stretching it out and twisting it until, violá, it was taffy. Crazay.
A blurry visual version of what I just said
As we walked down the streets, we came across a giant church (cathedral?) dedicated to the Virgin Mary:
We went inside to see what it was all about. The sanctuary was beautiful, and there were paintings all over the walls describing miracles that the Virgin had done in Baños over the years, from protecting people in car accidents to making the nearby volcano Tunguragua flow away from the city. Personally, I think that was God, but what do I know? It also had a beautiful courtyard and garden.
This is holy moss: it gathers to the right of the fountain just as Jesus sits at God’s right hand.
The best part was that the top story of the church was a big museum. Mom and I had a lot of fun exploring all the rooms. Some of the highlights included the room full of fancy matching outfits for the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus:
And the room with dead animals that reminded us of Dad:
Guess which one of these is the live one:
And the walls full of plaques dedicated to the Virgin Mary and thanking her for her miracles:
So spiritual.
But our favorite room by far was the “Miscellaneous Room.” And its name was not at all deceiving; it was a big room just full of random things. There were burned CD’s, quinceañera dresses, figurine sets, old umbrellas, you name it:
Oh, and rotary dial telephones…
After getting our fill of randomness, Mom and I headed back to our hotel room to put on our bathing suits and head over to Baños’s hot springs for a nighttime dip. There were several pools there, ranging from freezing cold to unpleasantly cold to bathwater warm to scalding hot. We must have spent 2 or 3 hours there, eventually making it all the way into the hottest pool—the one we could barely even touch at first! By this time, it was only drizzling, and the cold water falling from above felt incredible as we sat in our cooking pot.
The cold pool. Mom was baller enough to swim a few laps in it!
It’s so hot some can only put their toesies in!
We worked up quite an appetite in the water, so we quickly went back to the hotel to dry off and change and then walked around Baños to find a good restaurant to eat Mom’s birthday dinner at. We wound up at a cute Italian restaurant, where we shared a meal and a glass of wine together for a relaxing 50th birthday celebration.
All our earlier talk of hitting up a discoteca that night was done away with after our dinner. We were both pooped from a long day of travel and adventure, so we went back to the hotel, planning on waking up early the next morning for our waterfall bike ride.
A special time on Momma’s special day: 11:11 PM on 11/11/11
As planned, we rose and shone the next day, enjoyed our complimentary breakfast, and headed back to the travel agency to pick up our bikes. We also put down a deposit for a birthday thriller for when we got back: hang gliding! Yeah, I’ve got a pretty cool mom. We set off on the ride, which was mostly downhill or flat, marveling at several beautiful little waterfalls on the way:
As we were riding along, we began to cross a bridge, where some men hailed us and asked us if we wanted to jump off of it. And my mom instantly said yes! So we jumped off a bridge! It wasn’t quite like bungee jumping, because the cord wasn’t elastic. That means that once we hit the bottom, we swung back and forth instead of up and down. The funniest part was that there was absolutely no medical form, no waiver, no liability release involved whatsoever… We just jumped!
With remnants of the Galápagos burn…
”What are you getting me into??”
Mom missed.
I missed worse.
After the scary part was over
So precious.
We continued on our journey after the jump, stopping again when we arrived at the beautiful double waterfall called El Manto de la Novia. We wanted to get a closer look, so we caught a cable car ride, operated by a groovy friend of ours, to the other side:
How he gets by when That 70’s Show is off-season
What awaited us was truly stunning:
We stayed on the other side for a while, admiring the river that ran below and (not creepily) watching the little Ecuadorian children playing with their families. When we headed back over, we made friends with the cable car operator’s artesian buddy:
He was very sweet and made little “S” and “C” charms out of wire for us. Although we wanted to take our sweet time and enjoy every minute of our bike ride, we decided to hustle; the last waterfall was reputedly the most incredible on the tour, and we wanted to see it for a while before heading back for our hang gliding adventure. When we arrived, we had to park the bikes and continue on foot for about half an hour. But the trek was well worth it. When we finally arrived at the waterfall, we were stricken. It was breathtaking how much water was pouring out of the rock wall every second:
I’ve never seen Niagara Falls or anything so spectacular, but never in all my life had I ever seen so much water pummeling down to the ground. Then there was a little part where you could climb underneath these rocks and up a few stairs to get behind the waterfall…and it still drenched you!
It was so awe-inspiring that we didn’t want to leave! Se took as many pictures of the waterfall as we could before hiking back up to where our bikes were parked. One of my personal favorites:
It looks so tiny now!
On our hike back up, it started to drizzle. We were worried that this meant that our hang gliding session would get cancelled, but we still wanted to make it back to Baños in time to make sure. We grabbed some empanadas on the go, piled our bikes into the back of a truck, and hitched a ride back to town. Sadly, when we got back to the tour agency, we were informed that our pilot had indeed cancelled the flight. But Mom assured me that she was fine with it, that jumping off a bridge was sufficient adventure for her. So we went back to the hotel, packed up our bags, and hopped on a bus around 5:00 to take us back to Quito, finally arriving at the South Terminal after many many stops. We took the necessary trolleys and taxis home, and were finally back at home at around 11PM. It was barely a 36 hour vacation, but we did so incredibly much!
The next day, Sunday, was Momma’s last with us. I was excited, though, to take her to my new church with me that morning. It’s cool how worship can almost take on a universal language; she said she understood a lot of what we were singing and what the pastor was saying, despite her limited Spanish. I know for me that’s one of my favorite parts about my church, how I can feel God so intimately even though I’m not praying or singing to Him in a language I normally use with Him. We ended the lovely service at around 12:30, walked the 2 blocks back home, and left again almost right away. Edmundo took us to a beautiful lookout called the Guápulo Mirador, where you could see a beautiful view of part of the valley side of Quito:
He then took us to Quito’s big farmer’s market, where there are vendors selling every fruit, vegetable, spice, flower, and cut of meat imaginable.
You want flowers? You got it.
You want nuts? You got it.
You want awesome Ecuadorian fruit you’ve never seen before? You got it.
You want spices? You got it.
You want seafood? You got it.
You want a pig’s head? Ew, why??
We had lots of fun just roaming around and looking at all the zany items for sale and being “productive” by buying chochos to bring home. Our final stop was to return to the artesian market once again so that Mom could pick out some scarves she wanted to give as Christmas presents….and, of course, a couple to keep. We got home at around 5 for a very late lunch, Momma’s last one with us. She packed all her stuff up and we relaxed (well, I did homework) until around 10 that night, when we had to take her over to the airport. And just like that, she was gone. She says it was a 50th birthday unlike any other and one she’ll never forget. I know that I, too, treasure her week with me as the cherry on top of an already-incredible 5 month experience.
Chau for now!
Sara
Spanish Word of the Day: Chévere
Translation: Cool
As in: My aunt went skydiving with me for my 18th birthday, and my mom jumped off a bridge with me for her 50th birthday. I’d say I’ve got some pretty chévere women in my life :)
Side note: Mom still has trouble pronouncing this word to this day. She tries to get by by saying “Chevrolet.”
After we picked up Mom at the airport, the 3 of us headed back home, where mis papás, mi Tío Jaime, and mi abuelita were all waiting to welcome us. We talked about our incredible trip in English, Spanish, and Spanglish. My mom doesn’t speak much Spanish and my host family speaks virtually no English, so we did the best we could. I was actually pretty proud of her: they understood just about everything she tried to get across and she did a convincing job of smiling and nodding if she ever got lost in the conversation. And I got all confused with the translating back and forth…I realized how much I had started to think either all in Spanish or all in English, and being in both at the same time was messing with me!
We chatted painlessly enough for about an hour, when my host parents suggested taking my mom out for a night tour of the beautiful historical district. My mom and I piled in the back seat in with my tiny Ecuadorian mami and grandma as we drove off towards the south on the beautiful Quiteñan night. At first we did a quick drive by past all the dozens of beautiful churches built in the 1500s when Quito was founded, parking afterwards in order to walk down this magnificent street called La Ronda. It’s a tiny little cobblestoned lane just for pedestrians, where Quito’s first inhabitants used to live over 500 years ago. Now it’s turned into a nighttime hotspot, full of authentic Ecuadorian restaurants and artesian shops, with jewelry makers and musicians lining the streets hoping to make a buck or two off the passersby. We walked along, enjoying the touristy signs that we had never taken the time to notice before, went in a few shops, and meandered all the way down until we decided to grab some dinner. We wanted my mom to get a real Ecuadorian experience her first night in Quito, so we ordered empanadas de viento (these giant, puffy, cheese-filled pockets with flaky crusts…enough to feed all 6 of us!), morocho (kind of like hot tapioca pudding/soup), and canelazos (hot and fruity alcoholic beverages). It was a beautiful night, and it was such a blessing to see that my 2 families were combining so sweetly and effortlessly.
Really feeling like a tourist.
Shh, don’t tell anyone, but….we’re not actually all related
The following week I still had class, so we had to think of inventive ways to get my mom out and about in Quito. On Monday, I only had class from 11-1, so my dear friend Madde (who essentially lived next door) offered to take my mom out until I got back from school. We parted ways at the Ecovía, me going to school, and Madde and Mom heading to the city’s artesian market. When I got back and caught up with them, Mom was really enjoying herself and had already knocked out a good chunk of all her Christmas shopping! Madde left us at that point to go home and do some work, but we kept plugging on till 3 or 4 in the afternoon. I was proud to see how Mom still haggled with the vendors, even in broken Spanish.
The market is like the Energizer bunny…it keeps on going.
This street is named after our beloved first president….Jorge
We got a very late lunch and headed back to take the Ecovía home. I had never seen it more crowded. Buses would come by and people wouldn’t even try to get on. And this is the country, mind you, where everyone pushes and shoves until people are literally pressed against the glass. We waited probably half an hour until we managed to squeeze into a suffocatingly full bus. And that’s where my cell phone disappeared. To this day, I don’t know if I was pickpocketed or if it got squeezed up and out of my bag, but it was gone. I had made it 3 and a half months without even so much as an attempt on my possessions, and my mom’s here for a day and I’ve already lost my cell phone. Embarrassing. I unfortunately had to write an essay for the next day, so we ended up spending a quiet evening at home.
Unfortunately for both me and my mom, Tuesdays and Thursdays were my busiest days of school: I went from 10 in the morning till 4 in the afternoon, meaning I was gone from the house from 9-5 those days. Mi mamá promised to take my mom out that afternoon, but she had a busy morning lined up ahead, so I felt bad leaving my mom alone in the house to just read and relax. But when I got home late that afternoon, she said she had just gotten back and had had a great day! Mi mamá ended up taking Mom to the equator. They went to 2 different sites, the museum I had gone to with my family earlier during my stay there and the big iconic stone monument. Mom loved all the cool sciencey tests they show you there to prove that there are some crazy weird forces going on, and she was even able to balance an egg on the head of a nail! After visiting the 2 equator sites, mi mamá took my mom out for a delicious, typical Ecuadorian lunch before heading back home. Mom said that they managed to struggle through Spanish the entire time (Edmundo said it was mandatory for her the entire week) and ended up having some good conversations with mi mamá.
My 2 moms. From 2 sides of the world. Oh, there are just so many metaphors to be made.
That night I had the special opportunity of taking my mom to Phil and Debbie’s house to experience all the wonderful characters of Casa Gabriel. We had dinner and goofed around a bit. And my mom really appreciated the chance to get to talk in English with Debbie! She loved all the boys, too; they were all so much politer around her!
On Wednesday, I had Mom come down to Cumbayá with me so she could see my long daily bus journey, my university, and the little town. I only had 2 hours of class that day, so she took a turn around the campus and strolled down to the main town part of Cumbayá, returning in time (via cab on the way back…in Spanish!) to meet up with me after my class. We headed back up to Quito, where we took a couple of buses to where Casa Gabriel and the Christian Bookstore is, followed by a taxi up to the Teleférico, the same cable car ride up the Pichincha volcano that I had been on with Edmundo.
The advertisement poster for Teleférico…oh wait, it’s just my gorgeous mom!
It warns you not to run here…in case you were planning on practicing your sprints at an altitude of 13,500 feet.
My house is right……there!
The next day, Thursday, was another one of my busy school days, so we had to look for some alternative entertainment for Mom. We booked her a half-day guided tour of the historical center of town. It got her out and about bright and early that morning, and she had to use public transportation all by herself! Even though her tour ended around at 11 or 12, she stayed and walked around for a couple hours afterwards, admiring the old streets and beautiful churches. Meanwhile, I was finishing up with class, and on the way back home, I stopped off to buy some ingredients to make a carrot cake since the next day was Mom’s 50th birthday! We celebrated that night, eating soup, Edmundo’s delicious homemade pasta, and the cheesecake. It was definitely different than any kind of birthday she would have had at home, but we were both so happy that we were spending it together.
La cumpleañera feliz :)
We went to bed on the early side that night, because we had a big, full birthday day planned ahead of us!
But you’ll just have to wait to find out what that was!
Sarita
Spanish Word of the Day: Chatarra
Translation: Junk
As in: My cell phone was a piece of chatarra…why did you steal it, you sly Ecovía thief??
Saturday, November 5th: We woke up early to another Jean’s Home breakfast, before catching the water taxi back to the main port for our bay tour. Our first stop of the morning was Las Grietas, the cliff jumping site we had gone to on our first day with BCA. I was excited, because I had wanted to take my mom here all along.
We walked through these marshlands to get there
My mom and I both jumped off the cliffs, the only girls in our group! I’m so proud of her :) I had forgotten how long it took to get here, though, and we were given very little time to enjoy the place before we had to leave to get to our next destination. We hiked back, where I suffered a grave casualty: my sandal broke. I hobbled over the rocks most of the way back with just one shoe, until our tour guide saw me and insisted I wear his, while he continued on in just socks. He ignored my many protests and I slipped those giant bad boys on.
Two idiots walk onto a beach…
When we arrived at the dock we were whisked away in a boat, passing through the breathtaking channel of love:
Our next destination was la playa de los perros, “dog beach,” where a ton of iguanas and a beautiful view awaited us.
Thursday, November 3rd: Today we had to wake up inhumanly early to catch our 4 or 5-something boat back to Isla Santa Cruz. Me, Junko, Emily, and Clay got to sit on top of the boat and welcomed in a beautiful island sunrise.
Worth it? Absolutely.
Wide awake by the time we got to port 2.5 hours later
Today the BCA-sponsored portion of our Galápagos adventures was ending. Those of us (all but 5 or so) who chose to stay longer were left on our own, and I had the pleasure of having my mom come to meet up with me in celebration of her 50th birthday! So I headed off with those who were leaving the islands back to the airport. We made a quick pit stop at the Charles Darwin Research Station and were on our way!
Once we had trekked back across the island and crossed the channel on the ferry I got a voicemail from my mom saying that she was stuck in Guayaquil with a 2 hour delay. I was already going to have to wait about an hour after the BCAers left for my mom, but now it looked like it was going to be a 3 hour wait. So I settled down in the teeny airport with La Ciudad y los Perros until her plane came in. But I didn’t get much reading done, since a (very cute) Galápagos tour guide distracted me with some small talk and his life story.
My momma finally arrived and we got to hug and talk in person for the first time since July. We took the bus, ferry, other bus journey to Puerto Ayora, where we were met by Stephanie, the daughter of the owner of our bed and breakfast called Jean’s Home. She took us to the site by water taxi, and we settled in the cozy place. Unfortunately, by that time it was already past 4 in the afternoon, meaning it was too late to go exploring or adventuring on the island. So instead we walked around the main boardwalk of Puerto Ayora that afternoon, trying to land a spot on a day trip to another island. We were really interested in Isla Seymour for its supposed awesome snorkeling and myriad of wildlife. But neither Seymour nor any other island, for that matter, was in the cards for us. That first week of November was a national holiday, and the Galápagos was absolutely packed with tourists, both foreign and Ecuadorian. That meant that all day tours were already booked up, and we were not going to be getting of Isla Santa Cruz.
We accepted our bad luck and decided to just enjoy the island God had given us (real tough life, I know). So we continued walking on the boardwalk, window shopping and buying presents for friends and family. I got a good chunk of my Christmas shopping done, and it was just the first week of November! Later that evening we sat down for a nice fancy dinner, just the two of us. We drank our first cocktails together, talked about life, and just enjoyed being together for the first time in a long while.
Friday, November 4th: Today my mom and I woke up semi-early and enjoyed a homemade breakfast at Jean’s Home. From there we hit the Charles Darwin Research Station for round 2 (for me at least). I didn’t mind at all, because this time we could really take our time and see everything. Besides, Momma was anxious to cross off the first thing on her Galápagos to-do list: see Lonesome George. But just the walk there had some nice surprises. We ran across a beautiful cemetery bursting with life the day after Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).
And then Mom got a surprise by the little friends she met just lying on the side of the road:
We then got to the Research Station and admired all the tortoises and land iguanas.
Token baby picture
On the left is Lonesome George and on the right is a female companion (so he’s not SO lonesome…)
With my buddy Diego, another San Diego native
God was feeling festive when he made this little guy
All the mommas and poppas at feeding time
After leaving the Research Station we walked back down the boardwalk to the center of Puerto Ayora, where we grabbed a bite to eat for lunch. And took pictures with WAY too many statues of animals, like this one:
And more than you could probably handle.
While we were resting, sitting by our concrete tortoise friend, we happened to glance across the street and saw a travel agency advertising bay tours. We stopped in and asked what it entailed, because we definitely wanted to get some quality snorkeling in. We were promised snorkeling galore and more, so we booked the tour for the next morning and rented snorkeling gear for the afternoon while we were at it.
From there, we set off with our flippers and masks for the second thing on Momma’s to-do list: Tortuga Bay.
Yeah, this place
It was a straight, flat walk through what felt like a desert. Everywhere surrounding us were these cool cactuses that grew up to be as tall as trees! The Galápagos is the only place on earth with cactuses like that! We found ourselves feeling more and more every hour that we were in a very special place, and we knew we were so blessed to be there. We took a little while longer to get to Tortuga Bay than expected, since poor Mommy’s hip kept flaring up at her. But when we got there, there was no question: the hour walk was worth it.
This is la playa mansa, “the angry beach,” the first of two at Tortuga Bay. It seemed pretty similar to other beautiful beaches we are blessed to live around, until we saw this guy:
What, you don’t have iguanas just walkin along your beaches?
We were warned not to swim here, that only surfers were allowed, since the waves and rip tides were too difficult. I can understand that for someone for Oklahoma or something, that could be an issue. But me and my so-cal mom looked at each other thinking it looked pretty tame. That is, until we arrived at the second beach, la playa mansa, which really does mean “the tame beach.” It was gorgeous, sunny, and completely without waves.
Perfect for Oklahomans.
Momma and I laid out on the beach for just a little while to rest after our long walk before strapping on our snorkeling gear and heading out to the water. We had heard that Tortuga Bay was reputedly awesome for snorkeling and was full of sea turtles, but when we got in the water, all we could see was muck. We swam around for a while, hoping that the water would clear up as we got farther out, but it stayed pretty murky, and it was near impossible to see anything. My mom thought for a split second that she saw a shark, and I had the same experience with a sea turtle, but other than that we struck out. We found out later that just the day before it had been clear and beautiful, and that we must have just come at low tide, when the sand gets kicked up into the water. But on the positive side, we saw another thing on my mom’s checklist from the water: blue footed boobies! They were hanging out on the cliffs above la playa mansa, so when we got out of the water we took a little walk to check them out.
The blue feet on those boobies are a sight to behold
Gotcha poopin
We hung out at Tortuga Bay until they told us we needed to start walking back (in order to make it out before they locked up the entrance/exit for the night) and caught a taxi back to the main part of Puerto Ayora. It was already dinner time, so Mom and I got a bite to eat before heading back to Jean’s Home. We got all cleaned up after our long day and crashed, excited for our bay tour the next morning.
One more Galápagos update coming!
Sarita
Spanish Word of the Day: Bobo
Translation: Silly
As in: Blue footed boobies are piqueros de patas azules in Spanish, but were also called bobos for short because they are a little silly looking. When translating to English, they thought “bobo=booby, how perfect!” And now we just laugh at them.
Tuesday, November 1st: Today was work hard and sweat day. We got up early and boarded our famous chiva bus that played awesome 80’s workout music. In fact, we all became obsessed with a song we had never heard before: “Searchin’ (I Gotta Find a Man),” and it easily became the Galápagos theme song.
Just getting on our morning Jazzercise.
The chiva took us to the base of our day’s 12 kilometer hike up and around a volcanic crater. It took about two and a half to three hours to make it up to our destination, but the view that awaited us was more than worth it.
The inside of the immense crater
The prettiest rocks I’ve ever seen
The black spot in the middle is one of the sites where the volcano erupted… and you can see the ocean in the distance!
On the hike back down is where things got complicated. I have really bad knee issues, and by this time they were hugely swollen and each step was getting more and more painful. I was getting worried that I wouldn’t be able to make it to the end, when all of a sudden a group of horseback riders trotted by me and the man at the end asked me if I wanted to ride. I looked up and saw that the last horse was rider-less. I thanked Jesus and told the kind man yes, please. As we were walking along the trail he told me that the woman who had been riding my horse had gotten off and started walking because it hurt HER knees too much to ride. Of all the ironies in the world. I felt God laughing with me in that moment and thanked him that He always takes care of me. I made it to the end of the trail half an hour later, acknowledging that I’d be nowhere (or at least still really far behind) without Jesus and his miracle horses.
After cleaning up and chowing down we went back to the Iguana Bar with our local friends for the night, although significantly less dancing was in store for me!
Wednesday, November 2nd: This morning we boated for 2 minutes over to a mini Island right next to Isla Isabela. It was such a teeny island that there was nothing on it except a little path for you to walk on and admire the wildlife. Small that it was there, though, we sure saw a lot. It was home to about a million marine iguanas, such as these little babies:
Aw so much iguana love
The island was also one of the few last places on Galápagos where white coral is found.
White coral vs. red Sara
We even saw a little baby penguin! The Galápagos are the only place north of the equator where penguins are found in the wild, and they’ve adapted here so much that they couldn’t go back to Antarctica even if they wanted to.
I promise that black smudge is a penguin!
After Iguana Island we hit up 2 nearby snorkeling places, and it was unreal! In the first one there were insane amounts of sea turtles that we swam with, probably annoying them immensely. I wish I had an underwater camera to show you how incredibly beautiful they were, but you’ll just have to take my word for it. In the second spot we found a playful sea lion cub who played with us in the water. It was kind of like an impossible 10-on-1 game of tag, where all of us humans were “it” and were going after the sea lion, but we could still never corner him. At times he would literally swim inches away from your face and dart off to the side at the very last minute. We ourselves flipped around and chased him, probably looking like complete idiots, but we couldn’t have had more fun.
After lunch that day we went to Isla Isabela’s tortoise farm. The Galápagos tortoises are newly in danger from predators and competitors that we as humans have intentionally or accidentally brought to the island (such as fire ants, dogs, goats, cows, etc.). In order to protect them, they have set up farms to raise the tortoises from the incubation process until they are big enough to survive in the wild on their own without risk of elimination from the introduced species. Which means we got to ooh and aah at dozens and dozens of tiny baby tortoises!
Now it’s your turn!!
Something so tiny will grow up to be something so magnificent
From there we went and checked out a little lagoon with native flamingoes:
And then hit up a site called el Muro de las Lágrimas (Wall of Tears). This wall had been built during World War II by American prisoners. The sick-minded warden had his inspiration from the Great Wall of China and decided that, to keep his prisoners busy and productive, he would have them collaborate on a big project. They had to gather these giant rocks from around the island and lug them back to the site where they would incorporate them into the wall. They never finished, stopping after about 3 years of the backbreaking work.
Can you even imagine?
The beautiful view at sunset from up above the wall
I mean I guess the Galápagos is kinda pretty…
That was our last night on Isla Isabela, so instead of going to the Iguana Bar or walking around town we decided to hang out at the hotel for a bit and pack up for our 4:00 wake up call the next morning.
The last of the Galápagos to come soon!
Sara
Spanish Word of the Day: Bendecida
Translation: Blessed
As in: I couldn’t help but feel immensely bendecida the entire time I was here.
After being sick the past few days, during one of which I missed Harry Potter Day at USFQ, when the entire campus got transformed into Hogwarts in some sort of passive rebellion against Presidente Correa’s firm anti-Halloween stance (don’t even get me started about how bummed I am I missed this), I was feeling better and ready to hop on a plane to the Galápagos Islands! Since we did so very much, Ima break it down by day to better organize my thoughts:
Saturday, October 29th: We got to the Quito Airport quite early and boarded, stopping off quickly at Guayaquil and then making a straight shot for the island of Baltra, arriving at around 11 in the morning. When we got there, I have to confess my heart sunk. Baltra is the ugliest stretch of land I have ever seen. It is brown, barren, flat, and hideous, and I thought I had been lied to about the supposed beauty of the Galápagos Islands for 20 years and was being laughed at in the face. Fortunately they must’ve figured out Baltra is feísima, since that island is only for the airport and military housing. Taking a deep sigh of relief, we boarded a ferry that crossed a narrow channel of turquoise waters to the infinitely-more-beautiful island of Santa Cruz. We met our tour guides for the week (since the Galápagos Islands is a national park, you’re not allowed to go many places without a licensed guide) and got on our little tour bus to take the 45 minute ride to the biggest city on Santa Cruz, Puerto Ayora. On the way we stopped at Los Gemelos (the twins), 2 giant volcanic craters created by a collapse in the ground. The earth literally got sucked inwards in 2 spots:
After oohing and aahing over the craters we continued to our hostel where they made us the most delicious lunch. We then picked out our snorkel gear and headed over to the ferry. We crossed over and hiked for about half an hour before arriving at Las Grietas, a narrow channel flanked by cliffs, perfect for snorkeling practice, and, much more up my alley, cliff jumping!
So close.
After another incredible meal at our hostel, we roamed around Santa Cruz at night. It was a nice change from Quito: we walked around in shorts and t-shirts, there was no reason to feel even the slightest bit unsafe, and their taxis were all white Toyota trucks that would take you anywhere within Puerto Ayora for $1. But there was not a lot going on so early, and we were pretty tired from our long day of travel and immediate adventure that we ditched the nightlife and hit the hay relatively early.
Sunday, October 30th: This morning we went up to the highlands of Santa Cruz. First we went and explored an underground volcanic lava tunnel. Tubes of lava from a volcano miles and miles away had run under the ground, and when the lava cooled, it left giant cavelike tunnels that you can walk through and explore.
Go ahead, just walk into the giant gaping hole in the ground.
Crawling on hands and knees
All the beautiful colors are caused by mineral oxidations
After exploring the tunnels we continued on to Rancho Primicias, where Galápagos tortoises live in the wild. We were super lucky, because at the time of year that we went, the tortoises like to stay put since they don’t have to migrate for mating or laying eggs. I know it’s strange to think about tortoises migrating, but they actually travel dozens of miles when it’s baby time. We could get within 2 meters of them at the park, and we ended up staying for quite a long time because they are such peaceful, entrancing animals. They taught us how to approximate the tortoises’ ages, and the vast majority of the ones at the ranch were over 100 years old!
Impart to me your wisdom, o sabio.
It’s actually a lot harder to be a tortoise than it looks
Awkward tortoise!
At 4 kilometers per hour this guy was on the move
We all gathered at the main entrance area where we learned a little bit more about the animals. One of our guides pulled out a 40 pound tortoise shell, and we all had the opportunity to slip it on and try to walk around in it. It was definitely a workout!
Note the vein in the neck.
We left the ranch and headed back down to Puerto Ayora, where we all boarded a boat and took the 2 hour ride over to the Island Isabela, where we would spend the rest of our group-trip time. We relaxed that night, getting to know the little town on the edge of the island before our big snorkeling day ahead.
Monday, October 31st: Today we took a boat ride to Isla Tortuga, an island formed by a big volcanic crater next to it. You can’t actually step foot on Tortuga Island, but it’s full of ecological wonders and animal species.
Gorgeous blue water like you wouldn’t believe
Lobos marinos :)
Beautiful mineral colors and a blowhole
From there we returned to Isla Isabela, just at a different location from where we were staying. It was a particularly unenjoyable boat ride, as I got stuck in the one spot on the boat that was fiercely pelted by sea water for the hour-long journey. And no one on my entire boat full of boys offered to trade places with me. Imagine that. So, needless to say, I was thrilled to arrive at our destination. This part of the island was black volcanic rock, where tidepools formed in between the hardened lava.
Mangrove on the right vs. freshwater plants on the left
We saw a ton of wildlife walking around the volcanic rock. For example, it was home to the most beautiful little crabs:
Sebastian’s a little camera-shy.
And the shark from JAWS.
And giant marine iguanas.
After admiring the animals from above, we got to go in the water with them! Although the water was a bit murky we snorkeled with sharks and sea lions and even chased down a couple of sea turtles. It was a perfect afternoon.
After returning to our part of the island, we chowed down dinner and decided to check out the seaside Iguana Bar near our hotel. We had a fun night, each white girl easily getting claimed as a dance partner by a Galapagueño for the evening, as we barely noted that Halloween passed us by.
Galápagos is only getting started! More updates soon!
Sara
Spanish Word of the Day: Soñar
Translation: To dream
As in: I can’t believe I am so blessed to have been to the Galápagos Islands. I look back at these pictures and wonder sometimes if I wasn’t just soñando.
Monday morning of the following week I did something I almost never do: I quit. I realized that I woke up every Morning with every bone in my body protesting going to la Clínica El Inca. I hated not doing anything at all, and I was growing sick of feeling disrespected by Amy. So I called her and let her know that I felt like going to the clinic wasn’t a good use of my time and wasn’t helping anybody, and that I had decided not to come to the clinic anymore. It was hard for me to do, but I felt so relieved afterwards. My mom is always telling me I should take a load off more often and not be so involved in so many things, spreading myself thin, so maybe this is the start of things. La Clínica El Inca was the first thing I’ve done that I’ve really not enjoyed, so at least I can stay I’m not sticking with things I hate just to stick with them! Also I have stayed involved with Casa G till the very end, and that is something I truly love doing, so I feel less like a quitter haha.
On Tuesday night I got to lead a devotional at Casa Gabriel again. God had been putting it on my heart for a while to talk to the boys about confession. And not just confession to God, but specifically confession to one another. Something I realized that I take for granted is a Christian community, a group of brothers and sisters in Christ that I can trust, come to with my problems and my sin, and look to to hold me accountable. Being in Ecuador and not having a community like that really showed me just how important that community is, and how much I don’t appreciate the one I have back home enough. The boys at Casa G are so incredibly blessed to have a community like that in their very home, and I felt like God really wanted me to tell them that.
On Wednesday night I went to our program director Daniel’s house for another discussion session for our pre-semester course credit. This time we talked about one of my personal favorite things in all of God’s beautiful creation: food. We even got to cook a little bit! Daniel is a vegetarian, so we made beer bread and lots of stuff with quinoa: 2 different kinds of quinoa patties and a quinoa salad called tabouli, and feasted upon it as we talked about Ecuadorian food issues, complications, and food differences. Afterwards I grabbed a cab to my Tía Elena’s house where we were celebrating my cousin Ricardo’s 35 birthday. I stayed and ate MORE food (cake, duh) before going home and having a Skype session with my beautiful friend Laura Mead. I really haven’t had much time for contact with home (as you can tell, I’m writing this October update in December), and people back in the States are so busy with school, that I really haven’t gotten to talk to many loved ones. It was so refreshing to talk to Laura about everything that’s been going on here, and to know that there’s still a place for me back home, even if I don’t always feel like there is sometimes.
That Friday night I spent in at home, because we had big and early plans for the weekend. A few weeks earlier, one of the BCA girls found a groupon for a really nice resort called Arashá, where we could stay 2 for 1, or just 60 bucks per couple for the weekend, plus other supposed perks included. 14 of us bought the groupon, and 6 had gone the weekend before, leaving that weekend for 8 of us, all ladies, for a luxurious girls’ weekend. We got up early and arrived at the northern bus terminal around 7AM Saturday morning and caught a bus to Mindo, where they dropped us off so we could take another bus to the resort. We got there around 10:30 in the morning, got settled in our rooms, and went to go explore the resort. We got on our swimsuits and went to the pool, which was gorgeous and heated to the temperature of a nice bath.
Gettin pruny wit it
After that, we played mini golf in the precious outdoor course. There were flowers and green everywhere, which made it matter less that I suck at the sport.
Plus I found myself a cute Asian girlfriend, so it all works out
Hole in 8, baby.
After the Masters we went to a chocolate-making lesson. We felt pretty cool/pro because we had already done this at Río Muchacho earlier in the semester:
Chocolatier thugs
We were actually quite surprised, though, because the chocolate we made this time was head and shoulders above the chocolate we made on the farm. But everybody knows resort chocolate kicks farm chocolate butt. By the time our chocolate lesson was over, we had enough time to catch the free flick being shown at the resort’s little theater, but it had something to do with bears and we weren’t so down. So we went back to our rooms to make ourselves dinner with the food we had bought and set down to a night of girl chat.
The next morning there was a free birdwatching tour at 6AM, but I simply could not force myself to get up. Instead I slept in a bit and didn’t feel one bit guilty. Stina and I were really excited because we were planning on going to the Arashá spa that day, because part of the groupon deal was that we got 50% off on all spa services. They had these $80 packages for a 2-hour treatment including massage, hydrotherapy, facial, body wrap, and exfoliation, meaning we were going to score and get all that stuff for just 40 bucks! When we called the spa to make our reservation, though, they told us that the groupon was only good for a 30 minute massage, originally like $60, meaning we would get it for $10 less than the huge package. Not so stoked on the idea, we didn’t make a reservation. But Keiko then said she was almost certain the website deal said “all spa services” so we went to the lobby to use their internet to find out. Sure enough, it said all spa services were fair game, and the receptionist in the lobby agreed with us and set to calling his boss and the spa to get us in. Stina and I were excited again, already picking out what packages we wanted, when the receptionist came over and told us sorry, but “all spa services” means only individual services like massage, facial, or exfoliation (all super expensive compared to the packages), but “special packages” are not included under that category. We were really skeptical at how they kept changing their story and how it didn’t seem to match up with the online deal, but we just decided not to give them any of our money, so in the end it was their loss.
Instead we all went on a little hike through the back of Arashá’s property to Río Blanco. We were also super disappointed with this, because Arashá had insisted on its eco-friendly development and how they were trying to protect the rainforest. The website even talked about how they ended up canceling plans to build a zipline because they would disturb the peace of the animals in the area during the construction. And as we started walking farther and farther away from the main resort, all we saw was destruction. They were actually cutting down the rainforest to expand their property! But we kept walking and eventually made it to Río Blanco and me, Meg, and Alma went for a refreshing little swim.
I hate liars.
DAM! We look good.
When we got back later that afternoon, we even saw loggers dragging wood by our room! Here we were getting really upset with Arashá for all their sketchiness. Pretty much they sit on a throne of lies. So around 4 in the afternoon we booked it out of there to head back to Quito. We hopped on a bus, and the dude who came by to collect our money charged us $4.50 each! Now, they way land transportation works in Ecuador is that each hour of travel costs about a dollar, so this trip should have costed us no more than $3 each, tops. We were getting kinda suspicious of this guy, and we started arguing with him, trying to negotiate. Meg even asked him to his face if he was charging us the gringo price. But he wouldn’t back down, and kept saying it was $4.50. Our luggage was already under the bus, and we didn’t want to flag down another bus, so we coughed up the dough reluctantly. 2 kilometers later we arrived at a little town, and a bunch of people got on. When the man came to collect their money, he did so really discreetly so that we couldn’t see the transaction. So when he left, we asked the newcomers how much they were charged. 3 bucks, they said. We then asked people who came on before us how much they paid, and they said 4 bucks. Okay, we’re pretty peesed, because this dude just totally ripped off the 8 of us, we even called him out on it, and he still insisted on the jacked high price! I know you’re probably thinking that $1.50 is not a lot of money, but actually it is a lunch or 6 in-Quito bus rides, or over a gallon of gas. And when you multiply that by 8, $12 is like a gold mine! Plus it’s just a matter of principle, that he thinks he can take advantage of us because we’re white. So the next time he came back, I called him over and unleashed my Spanish fury, asking him why he charged us $1.50 for 2 kilometers of travel, saying that we know how much things cost here, pointing out what he charged others, and insisting it was unfair and that we wouldn’t let him take advantage of us because we were foreigners. And he still wouldn’t back down! We settled with taking down the name of the company and the plate number of the bus, threatening to call and report them. We never did, but it was the last scrap of dignity we could find for ourselves and the last bit of power we could hold over him.
The next week started off great, and we were all so excited because we could smell freedom in the air. USFQ has decided that since we get a week off during spring semester for spring break, why not do the same thing for fall semester? So this was our last week of class before having a week off as free birds, and for us BCA students that also meant: The Galápagos Islands!! Life was good, and we were all jittery with excitement.
UNTIL Wednesday morning, when I woke up not feeling so good. I went to school, because I only had 2 hours of class, but I was miserable the whole time. I took the buses back home only half aware of what was going on, walked home, and went straight to my bed. I had the roughest sleep, making what was only 4 hours feel like 10, and when I went downstairs to eat something, I simply couldn’t convince myself to do it. I hadn’t felt this sick in a long time, and the Galápagos was only 3 days away! My mom took me to the doctor who lives next door (what luck), who also happened to be named Sara, and she did a little exam on me. Turns out I had an empacho, which literally means belly ache. Go figure, I could have told you that. But it also implies that you ate the wrong combination/proportion of food and now you’re paying the price. She “prescribed” me a ton of drugs (although “prescribe” isn’t the best word, since in Ecuador you can go to any pharmacy and pick up pretty much any drugs you want over the counter, even antibiotics or Vicodin), and my mom and sister went to go pick them up for me. I didn’t go to school the next day, but faithfully took my drugs, and fortunately I was almost good by Friday, with just a little bit of butt juice lingering.
Friday after school I stopped off at a bathing suit store with a few BCA friends to see if we wanted to get anything for the Galápagos. We were assuming that they would be dirt-cheap like everything else in this country, but they were way way out of our price range. We kicked that idea and went home to spend the last night with our families for a week.
I, however, am unfortunately terrible at packing. It literally is one of my least favorite activities in existence. So amidst all my procrastinating and distractions, I finally got done packing at 2:30 in the morning…oops! I hit the hay, jittery with excitement that I would be going to the Galápagos the very next day. Well, that day! My life is unreal sometimes :)
Peace,
Sara
Spanish Word of the Day: chicle
Translation: bubble gum
As in: Never let your mom go buy you meds if she’s going to pick the chicle flavor for everything. I promise you will hate your life and your tastebuds.
The following Monday, I was dreading going to la Clínica El Inca, but I went anyways because I have this thing about commitment and keeping busy. And I did nothing for 2 hours. Not one single patient showed up, and I just sat there trying not to be overly upset about the fact that I was wasting my time, one of my biggest pet peeves. Monday afternoons always cheer me up, though, because it is both fun AND productive with the boys at Casa Gabriel.
That Tuesday night at Casa G we had a birthday party for one of the boys, Darío. It was sweet, because you could tell how much simply celebrating a birthday meant to them. Although it was a down-to-earth birthday party, consisting of dinner, cake, a few presents, words of affirmation, and praying over the birthday boy, it was still the most wonderful birthday party I have ever been to. You could tell that Darío, and none of the other boys, for that matter, took nothing for granted and were so grateful for what they had been given. One of the presents Darío got, for example, was t-shirt, and I’ve seen him wear it at least 3 times since then on Monday and Friday afternoons. I felt so blessed just to get to be a part of it.
That Thursday night was a night that went down in BCA history. A bunch of girls and guys had made plans to go to a discoteca called LIFE for Ladies’ Night (the guys get in for free before 11 or something like that, so everyone wins). At first I was reluctant to go, especially because of my 8AM clinic duty the next morning, but I was eventually convinced. I showed up at Masako’s house around 10 all ready to go, but apparently my black jeans and top weren’t good enough. I hadn’t gotten the memo that all the girls were wearing dresses (which you don’t really do in Quito because it’s so dang cold), so Emily, who had borrowed a couple of dresses from a friend, had me try on one of the dresses she wasn’t wearing. It was black and short and tight and so not something I would normally wear, but everyone insisted I wear it, so I caved.
We got to LIFE in time for the boys’ deadline, and were pretty much the only people there. Not even the DJ had shown up yet; they were just playing a CD for the time being! But that never deters us, and we started to have a good time. Unfortunately the only complimentary drinks they were offering that night all included a purely revolting vodka, so I skipped the bar and went straight to the dance floor. BCA claimed its own little corner of the club where people could hang out and drink or rest if they got tired from dancing. It was during one of these such breaks that Jordan literally came running over to us looking shocked. I thought part of the building was on fire. But instead he says, “Guys! The couple from Cotopaxi is here!!”
Now for a little bit of background: when we were camping in Cotopaxi, we ran across a truck that had gotten stuck in a bunch of bushes off the main road because it had ingeniously tried to take a shortcut. All of the boys in our group jumped out of our cars to help digging and pushing, and soon they had freed the couple and their truck from the rut. Later that night the couple, Francisco and Marisa, found our campfire and decided to move their tents over by ours and hang out with us that night. Although they’re in their late 30s, they were definitely the life of the party (which apparently in Spanish you pronounce “whiskey”). All the Ecuadorians in our group were elated, since their drank had been confiscated upon entering the park, and now they could truly camp. Francisco and Marisa hung out with us that night, ate breakfast with us in town the next morning, and were then on their way.
This is the same couple (although technically they aren’t an actual couple, I guess, they just do a bunch of fun stuff together and act as if they were a couple) that Jordan had run into. We all went rushing over there to say hi, and they were so sweet and excited to see us, as if we were a bunch of old friends. Francisco, who is apparently a peace corps doctor and makes a fat paycheck (don’t quite understand how that works), told us that drinks were on him tonight. He ordered a bottle of nice tequila and 4 bottles of this impossibly blue liquor called Hpnotiq for our entire group, and thus the night began to get crazy. I tried the tequila, my first shot of hard liquor (okay, I was wimpy and it was definitely only like half a shot), and I was no fan at all, and the Hpnotiq was incredibly sweet and fruity, and I wasn’t just feeling it, but between the rest of BCA and Francisco and Marisa, all the booze was gone, gone, gone by the end of the night. We had a super fun night dancing with all of them. Marisa is the first Ecuadorian woman I’ve met who’s actually taller than me (she actually used to be a famous Ecuadorian supermodel back in the day). We danced a lot of salsa together, and I actually got to be the girl! She was a great man, even in heels. We stayed until much later than we should have (I had the clinic at 8 the next morning, and I think Marisa, a schoolteacher, had work at 7), finally leaving around 2:30 or so. On the way out, Clay got a glimpse of Francisco’s bill: the man dropped 680 bucks on us that night! Turns out the Hpnotiq, which is already pretty expensive in the States, was $150 a bottle there! We were blown away by his generosity (and perhaps a little bit of foolishness) in spending that much money in just one night on a bunch of kids he barely knows. And we haven’t seen them since, either. But that was a crazy and fun night.
Us with our favorite loaded 30-somethings
Conga cluster of death
The next morning I was surprisingly awake and rejuvenated for the Zámbiza clinic. That, in contrast to the other clinic, was actually super fun, as we started to do our full-range development tests on the children at the daycare. That week we started with physical development, measuring height, weight, babies’ head circumferences, etc. and doing a simple overview exam. It felt so good to get to do something for once!
That night after tutoring at Casa G we had another big cooking sesh. We all gathered at Keiko’s house to whip up some homemade enchiladas. Well, “whip up” probably isn’t the best term out there, since we started cooking around 6:30 and didn’t actually get food on our plates till after 10 o’clock. But it was delicious and definitely worth the wait.
Saturday included my favorite activity, sleeping in, and a not-so-favorite activity, studying. I feel like I’ve gotten spoiled on the semester system. It’s nowhere near as fast, so I guess I must feel entitled, as if I don’t have to study anymore. But that night I got a break and went out to karaoke with Edmundo and a bunch of his older friends, but it ended up being a great time. Sunday morning I went to church and had a pleasant day relaxing with the fam and of course reading the never-ending Cien años de soledad. Well, it did end, because I’m done now, but you get the point.
Chaucito!
Sara
Spanish Word of the Day: chuchaqui (particular to Ecuador)
Translation: hungover
As in: Many poor friends were chuchaqui after the night at LIFE, but at least they didn’t have to cough up $680 and pay double punishment.
The first week of October wasn’t the funnest in the world. Contrary to study abroad stereotypes, I had a ton of work to do. I called in sick on Monday for la Clínica El Inca, because I wasn’t feeling 100% after Bombolí the day before. I’m not crying about it, since i probably wouldn’t have done much anyways haha. Aside from my other usual volunteering activities and school, I spent pretty much the entire week reading Cien años de soledad, which turns out to be a beastly book. I had to present on the major themes the following week, so I was being a good girl and staying on track, meaning no fun random excursions.
I gave myself a break on Friday, though. On my way home from tutoring at Casa G (today tutoring meant watching Lion King in Spanish…rough deal) I ran into a Christian bookstore just down the street that I had never noticed before. I checked it out, and there were tons of great books there, both by Latin American authors and US authors translated into Spanish. I decided to buy Edmundo a study Bible; he had mentioned several times after seeing mine that he wanted one in Spanish, and when we had gone out to buy Cien años the weekend before he looked for one but had no luck. He hadn’t seemed to have found one, and here all of a sudden I find a Christian bookstore that I walk past twice a week with a dozen different options. I took it as a sign and sprung for it. When I gave it to him that night, he absolutely loved it, and he still tells me he reads it every day. I know I’ll that’s one present I’ll never regret giving, and I will never miss the dollars I spent on it.
That night I went out with the boys, going dancing at a club called la Juliana with Edmundo and 3 of my late brother Andres’s friends. It’s really cool that despite the age difference Edmundo is still great pals with all of his brother’s friends. They are all pretty silly and I had a fun time with them. We even met a famous Ecuadorian futbol player there and snapped a photo with him! No, you can not see it (really that’s only because I don’t know where it is).
Mi papá is from the province of Manabí on the Ecuadorian coast, and they have the most delicious sea food, so on Saturday my whole family went to get lunch at a Manabí restaurant. I thought it was really yummy, but they all said it was nowhere near satisfactory, so goes to show we gringos have no taste. I guess I just have to try the real thing someday!
That night I went out with my sister Anita to celebrate her friend Tayo’s 30th birthday. In Quito they have these things called chivas. Literally that means she-goat, but in this case it’s a big bus/truck with a semi-open back where you drive around the entire city listening to popular music. Well. These people are not popular music types of people, but rather rock music types. So they had the probably-first-ever-in-chiva-history Chiva Rockera. I thought it was a total blast. All the great rock songs they know were in English, meaning I was more familiar with the songs slash could sing along to them better than the actual Ecuadorians who were throwing the party could. It was so much more fun than what I imagine your typical chiva being!
Despite staying out late on Saturday night, I went to my awesome Ecuachurch the next morning (love 11AM services), and came back to a house full of relatives. We had a big typical Ecuadorian meal together, but I unfortunately had to leave lunch early (meaning like 4 in the afternoon) to head down to my university in Cumbayá to work on my Cien años de soledad project with my partner. Fortunately that was the end of a yucky work week, and hooray because I haven’t had such a week since!
Chau for now!
Sarita
Spanish Word of the Day: poste de striptisera
Translation: stripper pole
As in: The poste de striptisera in the middle of our Chiva Rockera was instead used as the center of a mosh pit. Pretty sure that should be made a universal change.
On Monday morning I went to the clinic as planned. Unfortunately, there were really no patients still. One came in around 9 o’clock and the nurse taught me how to take her blood pressure and pulse. But that was about all the action I got. I tried not to be discouraged and told myself that the patients would come eventually, especially since we were going to be doing a health fair that weekend. That afternoon was better, since I got to go to Casa G, which is never lacking in excitement or energy. Those boys are really sweet. They know I leave my house at 7:30 AM for the clinic and don’t eat a bite till I get there at 2 in the afternoon, so they always set a plate of food aside for me. They laugh because they say I’m not like all the other gringas who come to their house and refuse to eat a crumb, even when it’s offered to them. But they like it and I certainly don’t mind, so everybody wins.
On Wednesday I had nothing to do, so Edmundo offered to take me to see a movie, since tickets are already dirt cheap (like $3-$4) and Wednesdays are two for one days. Not bad. We saw the Dilemma, which was not even worth the buck fifty per person. Edmundo still talks to this day about how terrible of a movie it was haha.
The next night a bunch of girls decided to hit up Ladies’ Night at a discoteca called Mía, and this time we were smart and just invited the ladies. But we were also not smart because we arrived at like 9:30, and apparently that is not an acceptable dancing hour for Ecuadorians, since it was not yet open. We decided to walk the few blocks down to la Mariscal and went into a sketchy looking Indian restaurant where we ate shwarmas and some of the girls shared a few bottles of the Ecuadorian beer Pilsener (I think it tastes like caca).
True life: I survived a shady Indian joint
Once we were certain that Mía had to be open for business, we walked back up and started to dance. The best part was before 11 PM, because it was man-free. They stick all the girls in a little corral where they can dance and get free drinks until 11. No men are let in, obviously, because giving men free drinks is a sin in Ecuador. Sadly 11 came soon enough and the XY creatures were let in and that’s when things started to head downhill. Like when this charmingly wasted gentleman would not leave us alone, for example:
We are scared.
By a stroke of luck, I had worn a ring on my ring finger (made out of copper and beads) which he took to mean I was married, so I escaped unscathed, unlike some other poor girls. Well, maybe not EVERYBODY had such a bad time. Madde may or may not have danced with the OWNER of Mía the entire night, but, hey, we can’t all be that classy. All in all it was still a fun night with the girlfriends. And the upside was that I didn’t have to wake up early the next morning. Laurie, the doctor from the Zámbiza clinic, called and canceled for the next morning, September 30th, the one-year anniversary of when the President was held hostage and at gunpoint in a military hospital for 10 hours. She was worried that it would be too dangerous what with the expected political demonstrations and influx of people from all over the country, so she told me to take the day off. See? Political upheaval benefits everyone.
I still tutored at Casa G in the afternoon, though, and when I left it was raining like gatos and perros. So when I finally left the house around 6, there was immense traffic. All of the taxis and buses were full, and even when a bus did stop at my stop it of course was not going by my house. I waited 45 minutes and still had no luck, so I called my mom for advice. It made no sense asking her to come and get me since it would’ve taken her forever in the traffic, so she told me to walk down and take the Trolebús to “la Y,” its northernmost stop, where she would pick me up. So I walked down the street and got on what I thought was the Trolebús and waited to arrive at the station. But like the Energizer bunny it just kept going and going and going. I finally called my mom when I was positive that I was farther north than my house, and we figured out eventually that I had gotten on the Metrobús and not the Trolebús. Silly me. I had to catch the bus going the other direction, meet up with my mom, and drive the rest of the way home in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Fun! I felt so stupid, but I guarantee you, I have not made that same mistake again.
By the time I got home at 9PM I had already missed the eggplant parmesan night at one of the BCAers’ house. Edmundo took pity on me and took me along with him to his friend Jota’s house where he was making choripan for some guests (Choripan is a delicious sausage (chorizo=spicy sausage) sandwich (pan=bread) that I am now addicted to). It was a fun older-person Friday night and we talked about things like machismo in society and politics, but I still really enjoyed myself.
The next morning was the big health fair with la Clínica el Inca, and another source of frustration for me. On Monday Amy had told me that she would come pick me up at my house and take me over to the health fair site at 8AM on Saturday. Only problem is, she didn’t know where I lived and she never called me throughout the week to find out. I woke up at 7:15 not sure if it was still even on, so I decided to call her once, and if she picked up I would go, and if she didn’t I would go back to sleep and not worry about it. Unfortunately she picked up. When I asked her what time she would be here, she said, “Oh, did I say I would pick you up? Well, I don’t really know where you live, so could you just walk to the clinic and I’ll pick you up there?” Lady, the clinic is a thirty minute walk, it’s 7:20, the health fair starts at 8, I’m not ready, haven’t eaten breakfast, you told me you would pick me up at my house, you were irresponsible and never called me, and now you want me to walk for half an hour to the clinic, all so I can help you? As much as I wanted to rant that, I just said no, I couldn’t walk to the clinic. So she asked me to walk to a big street corner that’s only about 15 minutes away instead. I told her I would leave my house by 7:35 to get there by 7:50. I rush-freshened up, ran out the door, buying a piece of bread at a panadería on the way for breakfast in order to get there in time. I was about a block away, and it was already 7:50, so I called her to let her know I’m almost there…”Oh, Sara, I haven’t even left the HOSPITAL yet!” (Please note, the hospital is a good 10 minute drive away). I was really frustrated at this point, because I’d bent over backwards for this lady when she was supposed to be giving me a break, and AGAIN she doesn’t call me at 7:35, when she knows I’m leaving my house and she hasn’t even left the hospital yet. So I ended up sitting on the busy street corner for 15 minutes, subject to hunger and the various “hola mamis” from disgusting men passing by. When Amy finally got there, instead of begging my pardon, she begins to rant on how a man from the hospital was late in getting the dentist caravan to her, taking half an hour to get there when he said he would be there in 5. I couldn’t believe my ears. This woman was so absolutely clueless and selfish that she didn’t even realize that she had done the same thing, only worse, to me.
I tried to put on a happy face during the clinic and cool down, reminding myself that it wasn’t about me. And I actually had a pretty good time once we started moving. I took blood pressure, stuck holes in people’s fingers to measure their glucose, and took the height and weight of a million adorable little children. The 5 hours passed quickly, but I was still more than happy to be getting on out of there. When I got home, I chowed down some lunch and then set off with my brother, who volunteered to take me to a bookstore so I could buy Cien años de soledad for one of my classes. We went to the centro histórico and had luck at the first bookstore we strolled into, and I bought the fatty for 4 bucks. What Edmundo neglected to tell me was that the bookstore was a pirated bookstore, and I’ve never had a crappier book in my life. All the time it would mess up conjugations or put weird symbols in the middle of the text, and several pages were missing throughout the book, so I had to be creative with that at times. And I supported the local pirating economy, too. Yay me.
Edmundo let me tag along to another one of his friends’ houses that night where they were barbecuing hamburgers for a bunch of guests. It wasn’t In-N-Out, but pretty dang good by Ecuadorian standards! I was pooped from my early morning and I had another one planned for the next day so Edmundo took me on home and I passed out.
Sunday morning I woke up early and met up with all of BCA at one of the big bus terminals for our excursion to Bombolí, an ecological reserve about an hour out of Quito. It was founded by an young couple, who is now an old couple but still precious, who wanted to limit the resources they were using. They bought a portion of the cloud forest (which is now the only part of the cloud forest still there) and moved there, building their property and making their own irrigation and energy systems. It was pretty impressive.
Without a doubt favorite method of butt-hurting transportation
We got there and listened to the husband talk about practical and hands-on education before pulling on some big rain boots and taking a muddy hike through the property. He taught us all about the plants they grew and how they took advantage of ecological conditions to maximize the success of the ecosystem. We even got to replant these miniscule orchids from a fallen tree branch…after kissing them, since apparently “love” is the first requirement for making anything grow or thrive. Love cute old grampas.
Sorry, I don’t have anything witty to say.
The wife provides income for the reserve by making cheese and manjar de leche from the milk from the cows they raise there. She walked us through the process of making 2 different kinds of cheeses: mozzarella and make the other one up because I can’t remember. It was surprisingly a lot of work!
It may look like sponge, but it’s the best mozzarella I’ve ever had
After seeing all that the reserve had to offer, the missus made us a giant, delicious lunch almost entirely from products raised or grown on the farm. We all made food babies and headed on back to Quito, making it home by early evening, which I spent with the fam before heading to bed to end off a lovely week.
Chau for ahorita!
Sara
Spanish Word of the Day: sombra
Translation: shade
As in: I was starting to get tired of la doctora’s sombra-y behavior.
