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!

Quilatoa

Sorry its taken so long to update this - I've been very busy. Last Friday, the university that i take classes at, La Catolica, had a big party for the sociology department (one of the classes I take there is a sociology class). We all met at the school on Friday morning and they took us on buses to a small indigenous village about an hour away called Calicali. It was in the mountains and right on the equator. They took us to a big field with a pretty courtyard and small waterfalls and benches. There was also a band and lots of food and drinks. We each had to pay $8 for the bus, the band, the food, and the drinks. We got there at about 10 am and we didn't leave to go home until 7 pm. It was very fun for the first few hours but it got pretty cold since it was in the mountains and we got tired after a while and we were stuck at the place since it was pretty much in the middle of no where. It was still really fun though. 

Saturday we slept in and then at about noon we left to go to Quilatoa. Quilatoa is a place I have wanted to go since I first got to Ecuador. I felt pretty sick Saturday morning but I went anyway because I really wanted to go. Quilatoa is a lake in the mouth of an active volcano. It was a trek to get there. We had to take the ecovia to the trolly bus, two different trolly busses just to get to the bus station. And then from the bus station in Quitumbre, we had to take a bus to Latacunga. Then one to Zumbahua. And then finally one to Quilatoa. It took a total of about 5 hours but only cost a total of $4! When we got to Quilatoa it was dark so we found a hostel. We found a nice one that cost $10 which included a big room with 6 beds (there were 6 of us) and a fireplace, dinner, and breakfast. Quilatoa is at such a high altitude that it is freezing and no where in Ecuador has heating. Our hostel had a big communal room where everyone at together. The room was really warm because of all the cooking. While eating dinner we met a group of people in their 20s from France who were traveling around Ecuador and we met an elderly couple from New Zealand. 

After dinner we went to our room, put on all the clothes we brought, and huddled near the fire. Luckily, one of my friends knew that there would be fireplaces in the room and brought s'mores supplies. So we spend the night playing games and make s'mores out of cocoa cookies (which are a mix between graham crackers and shortbread cookies), nutella, peanut butter, chocolate, and marshmallows. They were amazing. 

The next morning we woke up bright and early and had breakfast with our new friends. Then we set out to the lake. A spectacular view of the entire lake was a mere 2 minute walk from out hostel. However, we decided to hike down into the mouth of the volcano so we could actually touch the lake.

It took about 30 minutes to hike down the rock and sand. Once we got to the water, we hiked around a bit. Then two of my friends decided to go swimming. So while they were finding a good place to swim, my other 3 friends and I found a crazy boat that cost $2.50 to rent. It was a piece of plastic with 4 lawn chairs stuck onto it and wooden paddles. So of course we rented the boat and paddled out to where our other crazy friends were going cliff jumping into the lake. They didn't jump from very high but it still looked pretty scary, and it was very cold. After hanging out by the lake for a few hours, we made our way back up. However, i was pretty sick by this point and one of my friends has a very bad knee. The hike back up takes about 2 hours and is extremely difficult since it is sand and rock and since we were at such a high altitude. So my friend Liz and I decided to rent horses to take us back up. It was the best decision I have ever made. It was a bit terrifying at first since the horses were pretty much climbing up rocks, but when we passed by our dying friends, it was definitely worth it. When we got back up, we had lunch in town and began the long journey home to Quito.

The next day I was really sick and spent the entire day in bed. It turns out I had strep throat so I took antibiotics and by tuesday afternoon I felt great. Tuesday night, after class, a bunch of my friends and I went to a soccer game. La Liga (one of Ecuador's professional teams) was playing. It was really exciting since La Liga won the South American Cup last year so they had lots of fans. They played a team from Chile and ended up winning 6-1. Last night (wed night) we all went to my friend Zach's house after class and made the rest of the s'mores on his patio outside. And tonight, we are going to the beach! Some of my friends have work or school related things this weekend but a few of my friends and I were talking and have nothing to do, so we figured - why not spend a few days relaxing on the beach? 

La Amazonía

I spent this past weekend deep in the Ecuadorian Amazon. We went to a place called Tiputini which is right off of the Tiputini river. The journey began at 7 am on Friday morning. We met at the airport to take a 30 minute flight to a town called Coca. The flight, however, was delayed almost 2 hours because the Coca airport was closed due to heavy rains. When we finally made it to Coca, we took a short bus from the airport to the river. We all sat down by the river to wait for our canoe when all of a sudden - a bunch of monkeys began jumping on us. It was seriously one of the best moments of my life.

After playing with the monkeys for a while, we boarded our first canoe. The canoes were shaped like canoes but had motors and canvas tops because it rains a lot in the Amazon. The first canoe ride was 2 hours. Luckily the canvas top was there because it poured rain for most of the two hours.

After the first canoe ride, we boarded a wooden open aired bus which took us two more hours down dirt trails. Random indigenous people kept hopping on the bus and then whistling really loudly when they needed to get off. After the bus ride, we took another two hour canoe ride on a different river. This canoe took us to the place we were staying. It was right off the river (the only way to access it was by canoe) and it was a research station for the University of San Francisco in Quito. We had to walk up tons of stairs which brought us to a big open air patio with tables and a kitchen where we ate all of our meals. There was a trail behind the eating area that lead to a library and a further along the trail were very simple open air cabins where we slept. Luckily, they were screened in and were relatively clean of bugs (besides the tarantulas that were on the outsides of some of the cabins). The camp only had electricity for 2 hours a day so at night we had to use candles. It was also 90% humidity all the time so we had to put all of our cameras and phones and books in a dry box in the library when we weren't using them.

The first night we were there, we watched a documentary made by a guy who lived and researched in the camp for 8 years. It was kind of like planet earth but it was made in the place where we were staying. It showed all of the animals in the amazon, including live footage of an anaconda eating a monkey. Saturday morning we woke up for 6:30 am breakfast and then began our adventures. We were divided in 3 groups of 5, each with our own guide and we all had to wear giant rubber boots because of all the poisonous animals on the ground. Our first activity was to go to a viewing platform above the trees where you could see forever. It was beautiful. There were telescopes up there and our guide found tons of birds and monkeys for us to see. After that, we went to a rope bridge in the canopy that was so high up and so rickity that we had to wear harnesses and clip ourselves on the whole time. It was infested with ants so it was kind of gross. 

After lunch and a short nap, all 3 groups went canoeing down the river and then we got to swim in the river. As we were all jumping in, our guides told us that the river contained anacondas, sting rays, and caymens (alligators) and that if we let our feet touch the ground we would probably get bitten. It was pretty frightening but we were so hot that the water felt amazon. We did see dolphins however which was really cool! So we spent 2 hours floating down the river in life jackets. That night, after dinner, we went on a nighttime nature hike in the dark. We all brought out flashlights and went deep into the jungle. The amazon is incredibly loud at night. Our guides pointed out tons of animals, including terrifying spiders. One was bigger than my hand!! There were some really cool bugs. We also saw lots of frogs and we even saw a snake.

That night we all played cards by candle light and listened to all the noises of the jungle. The next morning we woke for our 6:30 breakfast and started on another hike. This time we spent almost 4 hours just hiking around the jungle while our guide pointed out animals. We saw a whole group of squirrel monkeys and tons of birds. Our guide was really good at bird calls - the birds even answered him! We also ate ants that tasted like lemon and we chewed on a plant that made our tongues turn blue for 5 hours! 

At the end of the hike we ended up in a beautiful lagoon and we canoed around it for a while. There were many water animals and tons of flying turkeys. 

After lunch, we went on yet another hike and saw many more animals. Our guide kept pointing out giant spiders which I did not appreciate. That night, we went on a caymen hunt. We all boarded the canoe and our guide had a giant flashlight and we found a bunch of caymen and capybaras on the shorelines. Caymens are kind of like alligators and capybaras are the biggest rodent. They are the size of large pigs and are nocturnal.

On Monday, we began our journey home which was the same as the journey there, which of course included monkeys.

Things are pretty much back to normal in Ecuador. The president is safe in his mansion and the police are back at work. The police force did not come to an agreement with the president and the country is very politically unstable but there are military men roaming all the streets to keep the peace and to keep things safe. We just have to be more cautious than normal and be very aware of our surroundings. My host mom bought our street guard a giant can of pepper spray.

I had a pretty boring weekend since I was on house arrest for most of it. We weren't allowed to go outside until Saturday (we were locked in from thursday morning until saturday morning) and we had to be inside by dark saturday and sunday. Luckily, on Friday we were allowed to take taxis to each others houses so we spent the day Friday watching movies and eating oreos and ordering in Chinese Food. However, by Saturday morning, we were all so restless we spent the morning just walking around Parque Carolina (a huge park nearby with tons of vendors and sports fields). In the afternoon, I played in a soccer game with one of my Ecuadorian friends. It was really fun but the girls were pretty bad. Even though I am also very bad at soccer, I was in way better shape than most of them.

I am back to classes and work (teaching English at the school) this week. Friday, however, we leave for the Amazon!! It is one of the trips that is arranged by my abroad program. They sent us the itinerary today and it looks very intense but awesome!! Just to get to the place we're staying we have to take a plane, a bus, and a boat, and a 5 hour hike. I have to start taking my malaria pills soon and the 3 most common side effects are personality change, hallucinations, and vivid dreams. I'm a bit scared...