Tiputini

What a weekend/week so far! I'll start with Thursday night, because that's where the weekend really began.  After a super long week of class, my fellow gringos and I treated ourselves to a night out in Quito in the Plaza Foch, or "Gringolandia" as the natives like to call it.  I actually ate in Cumbayá with my host sisters and their boyfriends/husbands. We ate at a sushi restaurant a few blocks down from the university. It was so yummy! Some of the best sushi I've ever had.  After dinner, I took a cab up to Quito and met up with my friends. We had a blast, but we didn't stay out super late, because we had to be at the university at the ungodly hour of 6:45 so we could begin our extensive voyage to the jungle.  We spent the weekend at Tiputini Biodiversity Station, a section of the Amazon that is owned by the University of San Francisco.  Its one of the few parts of the rain forest in Ecuador that is left almost completely virgin, so its very important for conservation and research.  To get there, we had to take a (very short) flight from Quito to a pueblito called Coca. Once in Coca, we got in these huge, motorized canoes and were on the water for two hours.  After that, we all crammed onto a chiva (a big open bus with benches) and rode for two more hours through land owned by an oil company.  That was the worst part, because we really didn't fit on the chiva, so we were crammed together on hard wooden seats for two hours.  Once we got through the oil company's property, we had to get back on another canoe and ride for another two hours on the Tiputini River until we finally arrived at the station.  We were literally in the middle of nowhere, miles and miles from any sort of civilization.  The sky fell out when we were about thirty minutes from the station.  The canoes were covered, but that didn't really do much good haha. Consequently, we had quite an appropriate arrival to the rain forest.

The first night we just settled into our cabins.  There isn't much to do at night, especially after 9:30.  They only turn on the electricity for a few hours a day, and the lights all go out at 9:30.  After that, its quite dark ha.  We were all really happy at the chance to catch up on a little sleep though.  Also, we had to get up early again, because breakfast was served at 6:30.  We began our activities at 7:30.  We were separated into four groups, and we all did the same things, just a different times throughout the weekend.  I have to say I think my group got the best guide.  His name was Santiago, and he was wonderful.  He spoke to us only in Spanish, which was awesome, but he was also easy to understand, because he is Quechua and Spanish is his second language too.  He spoke more slowly and had vocabulary and grammar skills a little closer to our level.  He taught us a lot.  The first thing we did was take a walk through the jungle to the tower that let us see over the tops of the trees.  Santiago brought a telescope so we got to see lots of monkeys, a toucan, and other birds up close.  That afternoon, we took another walk to a lagoon where we paddled around in a smaller canoe and saw some different animals.  Sunday morning, we joined one of the other groups for a float down the river.  We saw more birds and monkeys, but we also saw several caymans up close.  Needless to say, we were all pretty terrified when they told us it was time to get in the water.  I was scared the entire time we were in the water haha, but nothing happened.  I think the loud group of gringos scared of all the anacondas.  Definitely a memorable experience.  That afternoon, my group went to the canopy walk, a series of bridges and platforms hundreds of feet above the forest floor. We strapped into harnesses and spent and hour seeing the forest from up above.  On the way back to Quito on Monday, we had to spend a few hours in Coca before our flight.  We ate at and outdoor restaurant that was full of exotic animals.  They had several peacocks and toucans just wandering around, turtles, guinea pigs, and really friendly monkeys.  I was absolutely thrilled, because the monkeys would come and sit on your shoulder!  All in all, the weekend was incredible.  Tiputini itself would have been enough, but we had ample opportunity to hang out and get to know each other better.  So many good memories were made this past weekend.

This week has been nuts so far. We have so much work to get done before we leave for Riobamba (Friobamba) on Friday.  Tomorrow is our last day of class at USFQ!  Unfortunately, that means we also have a killer test. I've been studying for days, and I still don't feel prepared.  I'm going to miss our professors here.  They've been really great, and they've taught us so much. I am ready for class to be over tomorrow afternoon, though, because we have a fun day planned.  We're going up to Quito again.  First, we're doing the Teleferiqo, which is this ski-lift type thing that takes you up the mountain so you can see the entire city.  Then a few other Catholics and I are going to mass at La Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus, which is the church covered in gold that we saw on the city tour.  For dinner, we're going to this seafood restaurant that is supposed to be amazing.  Its owned by the father of some of our friends' host brother.  They ate there last week, and they've been raving about it so much that we all want to go.  After dinner, we're going to go out again.  We don't have to leave for Riobamba quite as early as we did for Tiputini.  The ride to Riobamba is about six hours, I believe.  I'm not sure what all we're doing there. We're climbing Chimbarazo one day, and we have class for three days, but I think we might only be going for half a day at least one of those days.  We do have our final exams there next Thursday.  We come back on Friday, and we have Friday free, and then we leave Saturday.  My flight is super early in the morning, but I still don't get back to Mississippi until midnight.  Gonna be a long day of traveling. Its so weird to think my Latin American adventure is almost over! Its been quite the experience.  I'll save the reflecting for a post-trip blog, though.

I should get back to studying. I'll update from Riobamba!

Baños.

This past weekend was the only free weekend we're going to have in Ecuador. The rest are taken up with trips that are part of the program.  My class has been hammered with work so far, so we were extremely grateful for a chance to take a break and relax. We ended up with a group of twenty two total, so we all split a bus down to a small town called Baños, which means baths. Its named that because of the hot springs you can find at the base of the volcano, Tungurahua.  The volcano heats the water naturally.  A group of us went to some of the springs on Saturday afternoon. We've named it the "Gringos in the Pool" incident.  We thought it was going to be a super touristy spot, because Baños is crawling with tourists from all over.  However, we were the only gringos there. It was hysterical, actually.  We were literally in a group in the middle of one of the pools surrounded by Latinos.  I'm sure it would have made a fantastic ariel view.  After that adventure, we paid four bucks to go on a tour of the waterfalls that surround the city.  The tour was on a chiva, which is basically an open bus that drives you around and blasts music. When we got to the first waterfall, we paid another dollar fifty to go on this thing called a Tarabita.  Its basically a trolley on a zip line that takes you over the water right up to the waterfall. It was incredible. I have a video, but I can't get it to upload on here.  We also could have bungee jumped for ten dollars, but none of us were feeling that stupid.  After the tour, we went up to a restaurant called el café del cielo (cielo=sky). Its really high up on the side of the volcano in this incredible resort.  We literally got out of the cabs and walked through clouds to get inside.  After we ordered our food, we were directed to a terrace that had an absolutely gorgeous view of the city all lit up.  A few of the girls and I had been itching to get a massage all weekend, because Baños has several spas.  The resort has its own spa, so Rachel, Ryan, and I finished dinner quickly and went and got a thirty minute back massage. I had never had a massage before. I can't even describe how amazing it was. We all walked out and looked at each other and just started giggling haha.  Baños was so beautiful, even though it rained most of the time we were there.  Small towns like that are my favorite part of Latin America.  Even though there's a lot of tourism, there's still a wonderful sense of authenticity.  There's always something interesting to see and do, but there's still a small town sense of safety, and its super easy to get around. I love big cities too, but since we're not living in Quito proper but the suburbs, its not quite the same.  Cumbaya isn't very easy to negotiate unless you have a car, which most people do because they drive to Quito to work. But not many places are accessible on foot. I really enjoyed living in the center of La Paz where everything we needed was right in our neighborhood.  Also, I want to learn the bus system here. I have no need to take the bus, because I can walk to the university in ten minutes, but I feel like its something I should learn how to do.  I think my favorite part of the weekend was just getting to hang out with everyone and get to know people better.  There are so many people on this trip I don't know, and we haven't gotten an opportunity to get to know each other, because we're always in class. And then our class has four or five hours of homework every night. The segregation is getting to me. I love my friends in my Spanish class, but I feel like I could be in class in Oxford and be having almost the same experience.  We're hoping that these next few weeks will lighten up a little, because we're going to be doing some traveling during the week.  We will see.  I am learning a lot in class, I'm just itching to utilize it in real life. I'm trying really hard to do so whenever I have the slightest chance. I might start being obnoxious and refusing to speak to my friends in English. We started out speaking to each other in Spanish, but that fell apart quickly, as you can imagine ha.  This is my current favorite song: Danza Kuduro. It is literally everywhere in South America, I heard it in Bolivia, Peru, and now here. I can't get it out of my head haha. I'm trying to figure out the words without looking them up.  

All in all, we had a wonderful weekend. I was in awe during the waterfall tour thinking about how impressive the nature was, and how what we were seeing was only a tiny part of a tiny town in what is a relatively tiny country. There's so much of the world out there, and I'm luckier than most people in what I've had a chance to see, but there's still so much to take in.  Its moments like those that make me resent sitting in a classroom for five hours a day, no matter how beneficial it may be to my language skills.  Sometimes you just need to breathe the air, smell the smells, talk to the people, and kind of find you own way. 

Friday, we leave for Tiputini Biodiversity Station in the Amazon. I'll update after with tons of cool animal pictures, hopefully.

Luck.

Goodness. So much has happened since I last posted. This is gonna be a long one.

Well, we left Cuzco, Peru at 6 PM on Wednesday. We were told that we would be in Lima at 2 PM the next day.  However, we did not arrive until  about 5 or 5 30. We were also not on and Ormeno bus, which is the company we bought our tickets from. It was so weird, because we were led to the bus by and Ormeno representative. Oh well, it still got us to Lima. The trip was not super comfortable though, because we had to go through mountains. The bus from Lima to Quito was actually an Ormeno bus, and it was a little better. The trip was longer, about a day and 14 hours.  We had a little delay in northern Peru. There was a protest blocking traffic in the middle of the road. We sat for about an hour until the police came and tear gased the protestors. We had the windows of the bus open, and just a tiny bit of tear gas got in, but it still hurt!  We got here Saturday around ten.  However, we were dropped off at the Ormeno office in the middle of the street, not at a bus station. We called the emergency contact at the university, and she told us that our city tour was starting in half an hour and we had to take taxis to Cumbaya, a suburb of the city where the university is located. At this point, we had not showered since Tuesday night, had not eaten or slept very well, and we had all of our luggage. So we pile into taxis, and go to the university, but no one was there, because the tour was today.  So we wait for about half an hour, stranded orphans on the steps of the university, and then our host families start arriving. Turns out my host familly lives about two blocks away, so I can walk to school! My host family is wonderful. I got so so lucky. Its just me living here. Some of the other students had to double up. That means I get lots of good Spanish practice! In the house its just me, my host Mom, Martha, and her youngest daughter, Monica who is 21. There are two other daughters, but they are married. I met one of them yesterday when we went to Cayambe, where their family has a rose plantation. Roses are the fourth most important export in Ecuador. They also have horses and other farm animals.  Thats where the dad, Felipe, lives. After exploring the plantation, we went to a bull fight haha. Its a part of the holiday that is going on right now, the Festival de San Pedro.

Today, we went on the tour around the city. We started with the equator, which was pretty cool. We saw water spin different ways on different sides of the line and an egg balancing on a nail.  After that, we toured around Quito itself. I wish we were living in the city, but Cumbaya is very nice as well. We had a tour of it today, and there are a lot of cool places to go and eat and eat and hang out. A bunch of us are going out tonight to celebrate the Fourth of July hahaha.

I like it here a lot, but I feel a bit stifled by the program. Not by my host family, they are cool with me coming and going as I please. But our orientation session today was very long and full of them telling us not to do a lot of things. All of it was good advice, but after living in our own house in La Paz and having our own agency and freedom, this is a little strange. I think it will relax a bit after we all get settled in though. We start class tomorrow. There are four classes, a beginner, and intermediate, and two classes of advanced. Thankfully, the placement test that I bombed when my Bolivian internet quit on me was not counted, so I will be continuing at the correct level.

This weekend is our only free weekend. My host family was very excited about taking me somewhere, so they are planning a trip to somewhere where we can see lots of hummingbirds and other animals and zip line in the forest. I think some of my friends are thinking about going as well. The next weekend we will be in the middle of the Amazon at Tiputini Biodiversity Station. The third weekend is in Riobamba, a small mountain town, and then we leave the last weekend. I have a feeling this trip will fly by.

I am going to wrap this up, because I still have some things to do before we go out tonight. I also feel weird taking over my host familys computer for extended periods of time. Sorry for the weird punctuation of this post, the keyboard is in Spanish, and I cant find some of the characters haha.