School Visits in Otavalo and Cotacachi

After the first couple of weeks of classes, everyone in my program split up into four different tracks according to our interests and what we want to do during out internship time here in Ecuador. I'm in the Education track, the remaining three tracks being Environment, Public Health, and Micro-Finance. This past Monday and Tuesday, we went on excursions with our groups to visit possible internship places and learn more about the topic. My nine classmates and I, along with two of our teachers, took a trip to Otavalo and Cotacachi, two primarily indigenous towns about two hours from Quito.

In Otavalo, we went to a school called Raul Pavon Meija which is a private 'primary' school (Elementary and Middle School ages). It was a very unique setting where they teach all of the basics, plus English, and some agricultural things too. Students have an opportunity to learn the process of buying and raising chickens until they are ready to be sold. They also have a garden where they grow beans and tomatoes. As most of the kids in the school will continue to work in agriculture as adults, this teaches them tasks that are relevant to their reality as well. The director mentioned to us that the students learn English because Otavalenos commonly move to the US or Europe seasonally to sell hand made crafts. Typically these people make enough money to make the trip every year and go on quite the shopping spree once they return to the low prices of Ecuador.

That afternoon, we made our way to Cotacachi where we visited Laguna Cuicocha, or Lake of the Cuys (Guinea Pigs). Cuicocha is actually the crater of a huge volcano that is filled with melted snow from neighboring peaks. Apparently the volcano itself is still somewhat active and releases gases into the water, but hasn't erupted in over three thousand years. It was a beautiful lake with very clean, blue water and the surrounding cliffs and peaks were incredible.

That night we stayed at Ranchero Santa Fe in Cotacachi, a beautiful hotel, where we were all able to relax and get some much needed sleep. The next morning we headed to our next school in a community called San Pedro outside of Cotacachi. The students and teacher at this school prepared a huge welcome program for our group, including decorations and traditional indigenous music and dancing. It was a really amazing experience, they were all very welcoming and proud to have us there. This school is a model for inter-cultural bilingual schools in the area. There they teach both Spanish and Quichua, the most prominent indigenous language in Ecuador, which is very rarely taught in schools. The entire student body is of indigenous descent, and therefore they are taught to preserve and take pride in their language and customs. One of my classmates is going to start an English class there as well, and I'm sure she is going to have an amazing time at that school.

We visited a few smaller schools that day before heading back to Quito. It was a really amazing trip and great to see the different education systems that exist in the area. Enjoy the photos!

Carnaval in Tonsupa!

Here's a picture I took from one of my friends who managed to snap a few.

This past weekend (well it was really Thursday through Tuesday for me) was Carnaval and a group of my friends and I took a trip to a coastal town called Tonsupa to enjoy the time off and soak up the sun.

We left Thursday night from Quito and arrived in Tonsupa at 6:00am on Friday-I didn't sleep much, but it was a good set up because we didn't have to pay for a room Thursday night and had the entire day on Friday to check out the area. Friday was by far the calmest day of the trip, most people that head to the beach for Carnaval don't leave until Saturday or Sunday because everyone has Monday and Tuesday off of work. It was a good day to explore, we also took a bus to the neighboring town Atacames where we bought some groceries for our stay. We stayed at a small house that belongs to one of my friend's host family. It was pretty rustic-outdoor shower and no running water inside-but it fit the bill. We were able to figure out how to cook and wash the dishes which helped us save money, and we only payed $7/night, which during Carnaval is pretty cheap (usually you can't stay anywhere on the beach for less the $15 during Carnaval).

That night we headed back to the beach where the bars have outdoor parties every night. There is probably nothing better than drinking Capirinas and dancing in the sand. At the end of the night, we made our first rookie mistake in Tonsupa. A group of my friends and I got burgers from a street vendor (which a lot of Ecuadorians were eating at too) only to find out later that we most likely were not served beef but some other kind of mystery meat...donkey? dog? Oops. Luckily I didn't get sick.

We also found out that night that four other girls from our program who were also staying in Tonsupa were robbed earlier that evening. Apparently they were walking down the beach at 6:30 taking pictures of the sunset when three men approached them and took their purses. They lost cameras, phones, money, credit cards, keys, iPods, it was awful. That was when I decided not to take any chances and didn't bring my camera with me to the beach. So-sorry for the lack of photos, but I'll put some other ones up soon.

Aside from those two negative notes, the rest of the stay was amazing, here are some of the highlights.

-Finding an amazing ice cream shop in town-best pistachio ice cream I have ever had, and very appropriate for the weather. It was very hot and very humid everyday.
-Getting shrimp ceviche on the beach for breakfast one morning, it was delicious and actually a good thing to start the day with, especially if you're chuchaqui.
-Getting sprayed with water and silly string while walking around town, it was Carnaval after all, basically one long water fight.
-Swimming in the WARM water of the Pacific, even at night, the water was the perfect temperature.
-Cooking home made mac-and-cheese with the five girls I stayed with, Becky, Erin, Sarah, Maddie and Liz.
-Finding a lizard behind the toilet, and watching them scurry around on the porch at night.
-Taking the 'taxis' which were motorcycles that pushed covered carts around the towns. Even though motorcycles were never meant to transport six people at one time.
-Soaking up the sun, until we all got burned, the sun is crazy strong on the Equator!
-Buying five days worth of groceries for six people for $40!! Everything is so cheap here : )
-Figuring out that we had to manually fill up the toilet tank with water that was sitting in a bucket in the bathroom for the toilet to flush. I guess I can live without running water.
-Learning how to barter with the taxi drivers. We're all becoming so cheap that coming back to the high prices in the US is going to be quite a shock.
-Spending time outside on the beach with my great friends. We all had a great time!

Banos!

This past weekend, we were given three days off [because we had a take home test] so a group of friends and I decided to head to Banos for a little getaway. Banos is a small town situated at the bottom of Volcan Tungurahua. The city is famous for its pools of natural hot water coming from the volcano, but there's a lot more to do there than just relax...

Once we arrived and ate lunch on Friday, my friends and I wandered through the streets which are lined with travel agencies and companies that take tourists on different excursions. About seven of us decided to go for a horse back ride, so we hopped into the back of the agency's pickup truck and drove to the house of the family who owns the horses. Waiting for us was our THIRTEEN year old guide, Jonathan. We were all pretty dumbfounded when we realized that this kid was 'in charge' but he was great and we all had a really good time. We reached a gorgeous waterfall where we got off the horses to climb up the falls and take some pictures. The climb was a little sketchy, especially since this kid wasn't about to catch any of us if we took a spill, but the view was well worth it. We returned safely (and quickly-the horses knew the way back and decided to run for it) and decided to relax a bit in the hot pools which were only a block from our hostel. We ate an excellent dinner with a few rounds of two-for-one Mojitos and called it a night.

Saturday was a non-stop adventure-starting with a few of my friends bungee jumping off one of the bridges just outside of the city. Watching them jump was just about as much of a thrill as I needed-I wasn't even tempted to jump myself (I'm sure you're happy to hear that, Mom). From there we took about a 15 kilometer bike ride to check out the different waterfalls. We also took an open gondola-type ride across one of the gorges; it was beautiful with great views of the mountains and the river below, but again, heights are not my thing and I was happy to get my feet back on solid ground. Next was a hike to a waterfall called 'Pelon del Diablo' or Hair of the Devil, which is easily one of the most powerful waterfalls I have ever seen-there definitely isn't any swimming going on at the bottom of that one.

Following that hike was a much needed lunch break, and before we knew it, we were off to the next excursion: white water rafting. Everyone was pretty freaked out by the idea of rafting, I was one of only a few who had done it before, but we all had an amazing time. My group was split into two rafts, and four other girls and I happened to land in the raft with a guide who I can only describe as borderline crazy. After about five minutes of rafting, our guide abandoned ship and jumped onto the other raft leaving us girls to our own devices. We survived a few small rapids and promptly pulled our guide back onto our raft. Not long after his first stint, our guide started throwing my raft-mates into the water, leaving me to catch everyone's oars (which he had noted would cost us $40 each if we lost them). I thought I was safe, but as soon as I would start to pull someone back into the boat, we would both be in the river again. Truthfully, it was really fun and we all got over our fear of falling into the water pretty quickly. Little did we know, this experience would come in handy just ten minutes later. The other raft was in front of us when we witnessed them go over a rapid that pitched all but two out of the boat. We braced ourselves, but we too were effortlessly thrown from the raft when we hit the same rapid. We all eventually made it back to our boat, and even more miraculously, nobody lost their oar! This rafting trip turned out to be one to remember. After this long day, another soak in the pools and good meal was all we needed.

Overall, everyone had an amazing time in Banos, we all felt that we packed just about as much as we could into a weekend and came home to Quito satisfied and exhausted. I still pulled off watching most of the Super Bowl (Go Saints!) and that take home test got turned in this morning.

Tomorrow I'm bringing Ceviche de Camarones into class-and I'll be happy to share the recipe once I get back to the states.

Next adventure: Carnaval!! I'll be on the beach from Friday to Tuesday-can't wait to tell you all about it!