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I am currently home in Chicago. It is incredibly cold and snowy here! I can't believe that my experience in Ecuador is already over! It flew by. It was the most amazing 5 months of my life and I will never forget it. I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to have such an incredible experience. The friends that I made in Ecuador are people I will stay friends with hopefully for the rest of my life. I am also very glad that I can now speak Spanish. It is a very useful skill that I am looking forward to using in my future. My host mom was amazing and I am so lucky to have had such a great person to live with. Ecuador is an amazing country and I really hope I can return someday. As for right now, I am already planning my next adventure!

The best friends I could have ever hoped for!

Last Week in Ecuador :(

My last week in Ecuador was amazing. I spent the first half of the week finishing up all of my school work but once it was over, the rest was all fun! I made sure to go to my favorite restaurant where for $2.50 you get a bowl of crab soup with a whole crab in it!

On thursday night, my friends I and went out for our last night together in Quito. We had an amazing night and stayed out till almost 5 in the morning! The next day, I went to the artisenal market to buy my last minute gifts and then we had our goodbye dinner at a nice restaurant. Everyone in my IES program came, along with our professors and our host families. It was a very nice dinner but very sad. 

Me and my host mom, Ibis!

After dinner, 7 of my friends and I went to the bus station to take an 11pm bus to the beach for our last weekend! We arrived at the beach at about 5 am and took a motor-bike taxi to our hostel that was right on the water. 

We slept for a few hours then hit up the beach! We spent all day Saturday hanging out, playing cards, and relaxing on the beach. The weather was cloudy but very warm and we spent lots of time swimming in the ocean. We also ate lots of Ceviche. 

The next morning was perfectly sunny and very hot. We spent many hours swimming in the ocean, laying on the beach, and playing the Ecuadorian card game - Cuarenta. 

There were tons of people walking around on the beach selling things such as Mangos, Ceviche, cold beers, sunglasses, and hair wraps. I got a purple, sea shell hair wrap! 4 of my friends took an afternoon bus home on Sunday but the other 4 of us stayed until an 11pm bus. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the town and taking naps on the beach. We then sat on the beach until 11 eating burgers from a street vendor and drinking beer. It was a great last night at the beach.

On Monday, I met up with all my girlfriends and we got manicures together and went DVD shopping. Since there are no copy-right laws in Ecuador, DVDs only cost $1.50 so I bought a lot! We then went out to lunch and shared a Cuy! Cuy is Guinea Pig. I was very hesitant to eat it but my friends made me since it is a very popular dish in Ecuador. It did not taste like chicken like I was told, but it didn't taste too bad. I then spent the rest of the night packing and went to bed very early because I was so tired from the weekend.

By the time I woke up at 6:30 am on Tuesday, most of my friends were on their flights home. Two of my friends were off traveling with their parents and two friends, Addie and Zach were still in Quito. At 7am I showed up at Zach's house to begin Addie/Dana/Zach's day of fun! We watched Marley and Me at Zach's house since it was still very early. Then his empleada domestica (maid) made us a very good breakfast. Then we went to a really pretty park, Ichambia to hang out for a while. The park had a really nice view of the city.

It was fun to go to the park because we went to the very same park on the first day of orientation so it really brought the experience full circle. After the park we went and saw the Basilica which was beautiful. There are gargoyles out front in the shape of Galapagos creatures. After that, we went to lunch at my house. My host mom cooked a big lunch since my host grandmother and great aunt were in town, and because it was my last day. After lunch we hung out in my room and watched tv for a while. Then our Ecuadorian friend, Emelia came over and we went out for my last shwarma. We ate shwarma and drank beer and played Cuarenta for a while and our friend Nora (who just came home from a trip with her parents) met up with us. We then went back to my house and had some tearful goodbyes. 

America Latina

Thursday was my last day working at America Latina (the school that I have spent 90 hours volunteering at). It was really sad to leave because I have made such a strong connection will the kids! I work in 3 different classrooms with kids ages 6, 7, and 8. All of my kids made me really nice cards on my last day! Here are some pictures of the kids!

I can't believe I am leaving in 10 days! It's crazy to think that I have been here for almost 5 months already! I have had the best 5 months of my life here in Ecuador and I never want to leave! Unfortunately, my last week is full of finals. I literally haven't had any homework the whole semester and all of a sudden I have a 10 page paper, a 300 page book to read, a presentation, and 2 tests to study for. And the fact that it is all in spanish makes it much harder. It will all be over on Thursday and my friends and I are leaving friday night to spend out last weekend on the beach together!

Cuenca

I spent last weekend (Sunday through Tuesday) in Cuenca with 3 of my friends! It's the third largest city in Ecuador and it's all the way in the southern part of the country. It is a 12 hours bus ride each way but luckily we found very cheap tickets and its only a 45 minute flight! We arrived Sunday late morning. The city was pretty dead since it was Sunday so we went to the hostel that we had found in my friends guide book to check in. We got to the hostel and it was the most terrifying thing I had ever seen. It was surrounded by an enormous stone wall with about 15 metal locks and all the windows had steel bars in them. So we immediately turned the other way and found a much nicer, more friendly hostel. After that we went to lunch in a really cool restaurant/cafe/ice cream shop in a beautiful little courtyard. After lunch we spent the afternoon walking around the city.

                           The architecture in the City is beautiful! There were tons of churches and the streets were all cobblestone. There was a big town square with a huge fountain and churches and old buildings on all sides of it. 

The streets were all narrow with cobblestones and all the buildings had adorable balconies coming off of them. 

 During our walk around the city we found a really cool wildlife museum that we stopped in to find frogs and snakes and alligators and other cool animals from all around Ecuador. There was also a room with enormous spiders but I stayed clear of that room. After the museum we found a huge river that runs through the town with some of the most beautiful houses along the river.

 We eventually made our way to a viewing point on the side of one of the mountains that we had been advised to go to. From the viewing point, you could see the entire city of Cuenca! It was beautiful! From above, it looked kind of similar to Quito - a city in the mountains. But from below, it was very different. The city is much calmer than Quito and has way fewer people. In addition, the architecture is very different. 

 The next morning, we woke up early and took a bus two hours to a town called Ingapirca which has the only Incan ruins in Ecuador. It was amazing! We got a tour of the ruins and our guide told us a bunch of cool things. For example, Ingapirca is known as the Machu Pichu of Ecuador. In addition, the Incans wanted to make it the seize of Cuzaco (and had enough materials) but they were interrupted in 1530 when they were conquered by the Spanish. 

The town was in the mountains and had a beautiful view of southern Ecuador.

 As part of our tour, our guide introduced us to some very friendly llamas and let us hug them and take pictures with them.

That night, two of my friends were tired so went back to the hostel but my friend Val and I went to outdoor natural thermal hot springs to relax and meet up with some friends she had met in Quito but who lived in Cuenca.

The next morning, we woke up early again and went to a small town about 45 minutes away from Cuenca that is famous for its silver and gold jewelry. The town square has about 35 jewelry shops all selling beautiful jewelry for half the price as anywhere else in Ecuador. My friends and I did lots of shopping!

That afternoon, we went to el Museo Banco Central (a museum) which was really cool. It had different rooms with scenes from life in all different parts of Ecuador. Instead of having pictures of life, they actually recreated it with sculptures and figures. 

Fiestas de Quito: Bull Fights & Calle 13

The past week (up until Dec. 6th) was "Fiestas de Quito". December 6th (or seis de diciembre) is Ecuador's independence day and the ten days leading up to that day are fiestas de Quito. The whole city throws tons of free and fun events such as concerts, art exhibits, car races, carnivals, bull fights, parties in the streets, free alcohol and wine tasting at MegaMaxi (the local grocery store) and many more things. I went to a few of the events but my two favorite / most memorable were the Bull Fight and the Calle 13 concert. My friends and I got tickets for a friday at noon bull fight. The tickets only cost $12 and the stadium (plaza de toros) was in walking distance to from my house. So we got to the stadium at about 11:30 and the first thing I noticed was that everyone in the crowd was very upperclass Ecuadorians. They all were wearing cowboy hats and panama hats and were dressed extremely nicely. The men all wore button down shirts and khakis with sweaters tied around their necks and the women wore dresses and jeans with leather boots and designer looking sunglasses. It was a very different crowd than you see on the streets everyday in Quito. 

The bullfight began with music and all the matadors walking out together and putting on a bit of a show with dancing horses and bright sparkling costumes. It was exciting until the first bull came out. The matadors hid behind parts of the wall and egged on the bull so it kept running into the wall and got more and more angry. Apparently they stab the bull with flaming pieces of metal before they let it into the stadium so it is very angry and riled up. After a while of running around, one of the matadors stepped into the middle of the arena and fought the bull. He started with shorts decorated swords that he stabbed the bull in the back with until it got weaker. He finally stabbed a two foot long sword in the back of the bull and bull finally fell. 

Once the bull fell, the matador ran around the arena while people in the audience threw flowers and hats down to him and the bull was attached to horses and dragged around the arena to lots of applause. As soon as they started stabbing the bulls with the small swords, I knew I wasn't going to like the event. I couldn't beleive that they will kill such innocent animals for sport and make such a big show of it. The worst part is, after the first bull was killed, there were 5 more! I had to watch 6 poor innocent bulls get killed for people's pleasure. No wonder bull fights are banned in Spain. It was a very interesting experience but something I do not wish to repeat. 

The next day, my friends and I went to the Calle 13 (trece) concert. It was very far south in Quito and there had been a festival with food and smaller concerts and other activities all day and the day ended with Calle 13. Calle 13 is a very popular band from Puerto Rico. The venue was enormous and was outside. Luckily, the weather was perfect. It was completely full of people and the music was great! 

Since there were so many people, my friends and I kept loosing each other. So Zach and Liz both bought awesome light-up ears. That way, when we got lost, Zach and Liz just had to hoist someone on their shoulders to look for the other pair of ears. It worked great!

I have had a very busy past few weeks. To start off with, my parents and sister came to visit! They came in late thursday night and I spent the entire weekend with them. On friday we went all over the city of Quito and had dinner at my host families house. It was a very interesting dinner because my real parents dont know how to speak spanish and my host mom doesnt know how to speak english so I had to do a lot of translating. She cooked an amazing dinner though. On saturday we woke up early and took a 2 hour bus ride through the mountains to an indigenous village called Otovalo. We spent the morning going to the enormous market and buying lots of things and then went to a really pretty lake that was ten minutes away that was at the base of a volcanoe and had lunch there.

Here is one of the many booths at the market selling jewelry

This is someone selling spices and grains at the market.

On Sunday we went up the teleferico which is a gondala that takes you up one of the mountains in Quito. You are supposed to be able to see the entire city but it was cloudy so we couldnt see much below the clouds. However, we did get a good view of the surrounding mountains which was really pretty and we went on a hike in the mountains. My family left early monday morning to spend a week on a cruise in the galapagos which i was very jealous of.

I spent the week going to classes and hanging out with friends as usual. One of the nights my friend and I baked pumpkin muffins and pumpkin pie which was delicious. They do not sell pumpkin here so I had my parents bring me a few cans. My host family loved the muffins and pie!

Thursday was Thanksgiving. My friends and I wanted to to bake our own dinner but none of us knew how to cook a turkey or had time so we went to an irish pub for dinner. They actually did a very good job of making thanksgiving dinner.

For $10 each we got a big plate of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, carrots, and salad, a bowl of apple pie with ice cream and 2 glasses of wine. I did miss sweet potatoes, corn bread, and pumpkin pie though.

On friday morning my friends and I woke up early and went to a lake thats about 2 hours away called Cuicochi. The lake was beautiful. It was in the crater of an active volcanoe so the water was bubbling. There were two islands in the middle of the lake that were covered in guinea pigs (cui are guinea pigs which is why the lake is called cuicochi). We took a boat tour of the lake and the islands and then went to lunch on the rim of the volcanoe. We tried or order guinea pig for lunch but they were all out!

My family came back from the galapagos friday night so we went out to dinner at La Ronda which is a street in the old part of Quito with tons of small resturants and cafes and shops and lots of street music. It was really fun. on Saturday we went to Mitad del Mundo which is where the equator is. I was surprised that a line painted on the ground could be so exciting!

After visiting the equator and taking lots of turisty picture, we went to really cool museum that was right nearby. We got a tour of the museum which was all outdoors. We learned about indigenous life on the equator and our tour guide did a lot of cool demonstrations. One of my favorites showed the centripital forces that are on the equator. He put water in a basin exactly on the equator and when he opened the plug, the water drained out straight down. He did the same thing but 4 feet to the south of the line and the water drained out in the a funnel. He did it again 4 feet to the north and the water drained in a funnel going the opposite direction. It was amazing how much a difference 4 feet could make! After the museum, we went to a nearby volcanoe. The volcanoe was really cool because there was an entire village in the crater of the volcanoe!

On Sunday, we couldnt do anything because it was the national census. That meant that everyone in the entire country had to stay home the entire day and wait for school girls to come and give them the census. It was very bizarre. My parents werent allowed to leave their hotel and I couldnt leave my house untill the census people came. When I could finally leave my house and go to the hotel, the streets were absolutely dead. There was no transportation to I had to walk about 30 minutes. For the entire 30 minutes i didnt see a single car and the only people I passed were school girls in uniforms and a few police men with giant guns. It was wierd.

My parents left to go home early monday morning and life went back to normal. Apparently one of the volcanoes nearby is more active than its ever been before and we have been warned of an eruption. On monday, a few of my friends and I went out to a small resturant for lunch. My friend Zach and I ordere crab soup for lunch and we were brought a bowl with broth and an entire crab in its shell inside the bowl! We were then brought a wooden board and a hammer to crack the crab ourselves. It was very interesting but the soup was amazing and only cost $2.50!

Quito days have begun here! Next monday is 6 de diciembre which is Quitos independence day and the week leading up to it is called Quito Days which just means there are tons of parties and cool events all week. On Monday night, our abroad program rented us a Chiva. A Chiva is a big open air bus with ropes on the ceiling to hold onto and a DJ on board. They gave us all plastic cubs to wear around out necks on a string and had jugs of canelazo (warm alcoholic fruity cider) to drink. We drove around the entire city for two hours blasting music and dancing on the bus. It was tons of fun!

For this friday my friends and I got tickets for a bull fight which is another popular activity on Quito Days. They are supposed to be very fun but there are lots of protesters because they kill the bull. On Friday night we are going to my friends host families hacienda (farm) because her host brothers are throwing a big party there for Quito days and on Sunday 3 of my friends and i are going to Cuenca which is supposed to be an incredibly beautiful city in the south of Ecuador.

Baños

I finally have a computer!! I went 4 weeks without one but now that I have one I can finally update my blog. About two weeks ago, two of my friends and I went to a place two hours south of Quito called baños. Its an adventure town in the mountains. We only went for two days and one night. The first thing we did when we got there was bungee jumping!! It only cost $10 and it was terrifying! It was a 100 meter jump off the side of a bridge over a river. It was the scariest thing I have ever done. The next day we went canyonering. We put on harnesses and wetsuits and climbed waterfalls for a few hours. It was really fun.

The bridge that I jumped off!

Me jumping. It was pouring rain. My friend Erin was very scared and sat on the side of the bridge for a while and the workers were getting very cold and wet so finally one of the guys came and pushed her off the side. It was very funny.

Canyonering

GALAPAGOS!

I just got back from the Galapagos and it was amazing! It was probably the most beautiful place I have ever been. We left Saturday morning and satyed until Wed. The whole country of Ecuador had work and school off monday tuesday and wednesday because tuesday was El Dia de los Muertos and wednesday was la Independencia del Cuenca (the 3rd largest city in Ecuador). Our flight left very early Saturday morning. We had a short layover in Guayaquil and then we arrived on the island San Cristobal. We checked into our hotel, had lunch, then went to a research center and our guide gave us an overview of all the Islands. We then spend the rest of the afternoon on a white sand beach that was covered in about 150 Sea Lions. We played with the Sea Lions and watched the sunset. The weather was nice but it was a little chilly so most of us didn`t go swimming.

We had dinner then walked around the very small town for a while then went to bed. At dinner, our guide asked if we wanted sea sickness pills because we had a 2 and a half hour boat ride to the next island in the morning and we all looked over at the ocean, saw how crystal clear and calm the water was, and declined the pills. The next morning, we woke at 6, ate breakfast and boarded the boat. The boat was pretty small and it had a very powerful engine. As soon as we got off shore, the waves got huge. It was fun for the first 15 minutes when the boat was pretty much jumping the waves and flying, but after about 20 minutes, 12 our of the 16 of us got very sea sick. We spend the next 2 hours with green faces, our heads between our knees, and barf bags in our hands. It was a miserable 2 hours. We finally got near the island, in calm waters, and went snorkling! The water was pretty cold so we all wore weat suits. We saw giant turtles which came so close could pet them, an octapus, penquins, and sea lions. The sea lion was swimming right next to me doing tricks in the water!! We then arrived at a small island called Floreana where we saw tons of giant iguanas. They were all over the rocks along with more sea lions and giant crabs.

After lunch and recovering from the sea sickness, we hopped on a wooden bus and drove up a mountain in the center of the island to go see giant turtles and hike. We saw a beautiful view of the rest of the island and of the surrounding ocean. Our guide then fed us all sea sickness pills (thank god!) and we got back on the boat for another two hour ride to the biggest island in the galapagos called Isabella. The pills made us all very tired so we slept the entire boat ride. When we got to the island, we went to the beach for an hour.

We swam in the waves for a while even though it was pretty cold. After dinner, we all went to sleep pretty early because we were still drowsy from the sea sickness pills. The next morning, we woke up very early again and went on a 10 mile hike to a beautiful volcano. The hike began in clouds so it was cold and misty but we emerged out of the clouds and it was very dry and sunny. The volcano was beautiful! The colors were amazing and we the view was spectacular.

The hike took almost 6 hours and was exhausting. Our guide gave each of us a peach and a bottle of water and we were all starving by the time we got back! Also, the part that was sunny was very dry and dusty so we got covered in dust. Then we went back into the cloudy, misty part and the dust turned into mud. It was pretty gross. After the hike, we had an amazing lunch (we were all famished) at a tutle preserve place. Then we went to a marshy area with flamingos and another beautiful white sand beach.

The next morning, we woke up early again, had breakfast and then went on the boat again to another island, called Santa Cruz. We went snorkling again on the way and saw giant fish and lots of cool coral. We got to the island, had lunch, and then went to see some more turtles. We also saw giant twin craters and climbed in a giant laval tunnel. We spent the rest of the afternoon on yet another beautiful beach that was about a two mile hike away.

That night, we had a big last night dinner. We sat down at dinner and they brought us soup. Then they put giant platters of pasta, salad, french fries, and pizzas on the table. Then they brought each person a plate with half a chicken, an enormous steak, sausages, and potatoes. There was sooooo much food!! I couldnt even eat half of it!! After that, we went to a club on the island and then hung out by the dock for a while. We watched fish and sting rays swimming around. At about 3 in the morning, my friend tried to ride a bike that was way too big for her and fell off of it in a cactus. She was rooming with me and my friend nora so we spent the rest of the night picking cactus spike out of her arm and leg with tweasers.

The next morning we woke up and went to the Charles Darwin center and saw Lonesome George. George is the only one left of his species and it between 100 and 120 years old!!

Then we went to the airport for a 10 am flight home to Quito. We were all very sad because it was a beautiful sunny day (the other days had been mostly cloudy) and all we wanted to do was spend the day on the  beach. When we got to the airport out flight was cancelled but they wouldnt let us leave because they didnt know when our flight would be. unfortunately, we ended up waiting 5 hours at the airport and we could literally see the ocean from where we were sitting. It was frusterating.

But overall, the trip was amazing! My only complaint is that we saw too many turtles and didnt spend enough time on the beach. Also, the weather wasnt as warm as I expected. The galapagos gets water currents from 3 different places at different times of the year. At this time of the year, the galapagos is getting their currents from the south pole which affects the weather. 

Here are some more turtle pics:

Robbed!

Monday night my house was robbed. I was out to dinner with my host mom and sister for my moms birthday. When we got home, at about 9:30, we saw that the enormous steel garage doors had been bent apart and the chain had been broken. We walked into our house to find broken glass everywhere and tons of things missing. My room is on the 2nd floor (my mom and sisters are on the 3rd) and I couldnt even walk into my room. The walls of my room are big closets and drawers where my mom stores a lot of things and every single drawer had been emptied out and thrown across the room and all of the closets had been torn open the things pulled out of them. It was so scary to know that people had been in my room going through all of my stuff. After cleaning my room, i found that my computer, my camera, my backpack, a small bag with some of my makeup, and my US cell phone charger (but for some reason not the phone) had been taken. I was very luckly that they left my passport and credit cards. They also took about $40 out of my wallet but for some reason left the wallet with the credit cards in it behind. Also, in my bathroom, i had two small makeup bags - one had makeup and one had $150 in cash. For some reason they took the one with the makeup and left the one with the cash. Luckily, I had my ipod in my raincoat pocket and they didn´t think to look there.  From my family they took 7 large and expensive paintings, two plasma tvs, some jewelry, and my mom and sisters passports which had American Visas in them which are really hard to obtain and very expensive. Luckily I have insurance on my computer so my parents are going to buy me a new computer at home and bring it when they visit in 3 weeks. So for the next few weeks I will get lots of reading done because its not like I can just walk down the hall to borrow a friends computer.

Even though what happened was very unfortunate, we are all very lucky that we are ok. My host mom kept saying "thank god we werent at home" because in Ecuador when people rob houses, they always bring weapons. If it hadn´t been my moms birthday, I probably would have been home alone which is a very scary thought. We have an alarm system for the house that we never really used before (unless we went away for long periods of time) but now it is always turned on which makes me feel much safer.

I am so thankful they didn´t take my passport because I am going to the Galapagos on Saturday!!

Esmareldas

So it was just another normal weekend in Ecuador....on the coast at a tropical beach. A bunch of my friends either had school or works things to do this weekend so two of my friends and I decided to hop on a bus thursday night and go to the beach for two days. All 3 of us have two big tests this week so we really needed to mental rest before actually having to do class work this week. 

So we got on a bus midnight thursday night that took us to Esmareldas. We got there at about 6 in the morning and were met with a bunch of guys with motorized bikes with benches on the back. My friend Ali had heard that Same was a really nice, quiet beach so we asked the bike guy to take us there. So after 45 min of practically falling off the back of his bike, we arrived at a beautiful beach called Same. Since it wasn't even 7 am yet, most things were closed. So we found 3 hammocks on the beach and took a 2 hour nap. When we awoke, we found a really nice hostel on the beach called Casa de Amigos.

The hostel looked like it was from the movie Mama Mia and the hostel owner was just like Maryl Streep.   The first thing she said when we walked in was "im so sorry - im working on a lot of repairs. It was full of bright colors and there was a huge fountain in the middle. The hostel was run by a lady from germany and her daughter. It is the quiet season at the beach so we were the only ones staying there. She charged us $10 for a room with tv and air conditioning (which is really rare in Ecuador), breakfast, and the hostel had boogie boards and sea kayaks that we could use. It was awesome!

We spent Friday laying on the beach, reading (for one of the tests we have on wed) and boogie boarding. We then relaxed in our room before dinner and watched a ridiculous movie called "the magical witches of the garden". We ate dinner right next door at this awesome hut type place that was literally 10 yards from the water. We ate pizzas that were cooked in a big stone oven and played cards. We then watched another stupid movie and went to bed. On Saturday we took a walk along the beach (it was really long and there were a lot of apartments), ate giant coconuts that only cost $1, and went kayaking! Since there were only 2 kayaks, we tied a boogie board to the back of one of them. We then had lunch and took a bus back home to Quito in the late afternoon.

I spent sunday at an enormous wooded park near my house with 3 of my friends and then we went to an art museum. I will have to actually do some school work this week because I have to tests on wed but then on saturday, IM GOING TO THE GALAPAGOS for 5 days!!! I don't think I have ever been more excited for anything!