I have been on the go the past week. There are far to many great stories and adventures to describe in detail so I will summarize briefly in a list some of the highlights.
Viaje de Observacion for my track of microfinances:
-Visited 5 different cooperatives in rural areas north of Quito and learned all about how they function and the impacts they have on the communities
-Sat in on a planning meeting with the indigenous women that manage one of the cooperatives which was unexpected and lucky timing.
-Met up with the education students in an ecoturism site in San Clemente where we all stayed and ate with indigenous families.
-Saw a quinoa plant and learned how to pick and process it!
-Cooked bread over an open fire with our host mom for breakfast.
-Found a different place I may do my internship mostly because there are going to be a bunch of students around Otavalo and I don't want to be by so many people...I have to get this figured out soon...ahhh!
-Lots of good conversations and laughter with the 5 students in my track who are all awesome!
We got home late from our trip, grabbed backpacks we had left at CIMAS and met up with another friend at the bus terminal. I finally got to travel with my closest friends here: Ashley, Erin and Julia. We missed the bus we wanted so had to wait for the next one to Tena...
Tena
-Arrived at 2am and rode in the back of a pickup taxi to our hostel.
-Explored a park with monkeys and other animals on an island between two rivers.
-Ziplined for free in the park!
From Tena we took a bus then a canoe to Liona Lodge...
Liona Lodge
-Swimming in the river, sinking up our knees in mud and mud fight!
-Delicious food and coffee!
-Loooootttss of laughter.
-5 hour hike through the rain forest in rain boots.
-Eating ants off a tree and smelling delicious leaves and seeing random jungle things.
-Swinging Tarzan style on vines...and falling.
-Wading through a crystal clear river.
-Eating potato salad off leaves.
-Seeing some pretty sweet animals in a reserve that recuperates injured or captured animals.
-Rafting back down the river to our lodge.
-Loooootttsss more laughter!
-Making friends with our guide and getting him to take us out on the river on a tiny canoe in the middle of the night then swimming and having water splash fights aka "CARNAVAL!"
to be continued because I have to go to class now...oh and i figured out how to post pictures on here so sometime in the next week i will get some up but i have a bunch of papers to write so it might not happen right away.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Congreso!
Last week we divided into our separate tracks for development related classes. I am in the Microfinanzas group which I am enjoying a lot more than I expected, especially considering how I felt about economics when I left Grinnell in December. For the first week we were supposed to have a Professor named Fabián Calispa but he was only able to be there the first day because he is strongly involved with a movement of various organizations that are currently fighting in Congress for a law to promote and support food sovereignty in the country through various measures. He wasn’t in class for a few days because he was in the debates in Congress but we all really liked him. He came back for his final class today and I asked him more about what he had been doing with the food sovereignty law and he mentioned that the second debate in Congress was this afternoon and there was going to be a demonstration in support of it at 3 in the afternoon. I got really excited and invited myself/our class to attend which he was totally in support of. As soon as class was over my friend Erin and I ran upstairs to find Emilia, our academic coordinator, and ask permission for the five us in the microfinanzas track to ditch Spanish class to go to watch and listen to the debate in Congress. She said that would be fine so around 2:15 we left CIMAS with vague directions on how to get to the Congressional Building. Somehow we made it there with the help of hand gestures from friendly people on the street and some wandering around.
When we arrived Fabián happened to be standing right there and made us feel welcome amongst the dozens of campesinos and activistas. After waiting around outside the building for a while, we formed lines of men and women separate to go through a very lax security process to enter the building. The men got patted down while the women just had our bags glanced into. We entered a room overlooking the Congressional hall separated by glass to observe the debate about the law for food sovereignty. I admit that none of us understood totally what was going on because everybody spoke very passionately and rapidly, but it was incredibly interesting to observe the process. As far as we could tell there were a few Asambleístas totally in favor of the law, several that spoke generally in favor but criticized certain aspects and called for changes or additions, and one really angry lady that seemed totally opposed to it. We left before the debate was over to make it home before dark and for dinner and we couldn’t find Fabián to get a summary of what exactly had happened.
Tonight over dinner we were watching the news because several major roads from Quito to the Coast have been wiped out due to heavy rains which is a huge deal, especially with Carnaval (a holiday which many people travel to the coast for) coming up this weekend. My mom is pretty bummed that they probably won’t be able to travel this weekend. There was a short segment on the news about the debate and it was pretty sweet to be able to say I was there and heard those people speaking, and then see it on TV! It was also awesome to experience a part of real life in Ecuador related to the policies and themes we have been sitting in our sheltered classroom discussion. I was proud of myself for making that happen for my class!
When we arrived Fabián happened to be standing right there and made us feel welcome amongst the dozens of campesinos and activistas. After waiting around outside the building for a while, we formed lines of men and women separate to go through a very lax security process to enter the building. The men got patted down while the women just had our bags glanced into. We entered a room overlooking the Congressional hall separated by glass to observe the debate about the law for food sovereignty. I admit that none of us understood totally what was going on because everybody spoke very passionately and rapidly, but it was incredibly interesting to observe the process. As far as we could tell there were a few Asambleístas totally in favor of the law, several that spoke generally in favor but criticized certain aspects and called for changes or additions, and one really angry lady that seemed totally opposed to it. We left before the debate was over to make it home before dark and for dinner and we couldn’t find Fabián to get a summary of what exactly had happened.
Tonight over dinner we were watching the news because several major roads from Quito to the Coast have been wiped out due to heavy rains which is a huge deal, especially with Carnaval (a holiday which many people travel to the coast for) coming up this weekend. My mom is pretty bummed that they probably won’t be able to travel this weekend. There was a short segment on the news about the debate and it was pretty sweet to be able to say I was there and heard those people speaking, and then see it on TV! It was also awesome to experience a part of real life in Ecuador related to the policies and themes we have been sitting in our sheltered classroom discussion. I was proud of myself for making that happen for my class!
Monday, February 16, 2009
Baños and Food!
Baños was a great weekend of outdoor adventures, wandering, cooking, eating, exploring and hanging. We (me and 4 friends from CIMAS) left after class on Thursday and after some random delays navigating through the city we arrived just as the last bus of the day was departing for Baños. Que buena suerte! We stayed at a cute hostal that some other friends recommended with an awesome dog named Gringa. Gringa knows English and likes to hike with tourists in the mountains. On Friday we went out and bought food for breakfast and lunch. One of my favorite parts about Ecuador is that you can buy a pineapple for 50 cents and a mango for about 20 cents! I scrambled some eggs to make egg sandwiches with tomato and cheese and we ate piña and pan for breakfast! After breakfast and carrying our sandwiches we headed to one of the bazillion places to rent bikes in town. We paid five bucks each and got a crappy mountain bike to ride for the day and coasted out of town. We spent all day riding down hill (mostly) passing through small towns, by various waterfalls and rivers and stopping to do a few things. The best activity of the day was a short hike to a huge waterfall called Pailón del Diablo where we crawled through this short cave-like tunnel to a balcony where we stood behind the massive waterfall roaring overhead. We all got soaking wet but it was worth it. One of my favorite feelings in the world is flying downhill on a bike and even though I had to hold back to wait for the group and because the bike was kind of crappy, I had a blast just coasting and taking in the gorgeous scenery of the mountains. It was so nice to be outside, away from the city and contamination and noise.
Friday night we got directions to a fantastic restaurant called Casa Hood where I splurged on Hindu Curry that had vegetables, brown rice, banana and coconut, as well as a mocha shake! Definitely the best food I’ve eaten in Ecuador!
Saturday morning we got up at 4:30 to go to the hot spring pools that Baños is famous for. We almost went Friday night but the hostal owner told us that it gets super crowded and greasy in the evening and we made a great decision. At 4:30 in the morning there were quite a few people there, but all ecuatorianos and we were the only tourists. It was beautiful to be in the pools in the dark then experience it getting light and be able to see the large waterfall running down the mountain right behind us. There were three pools: super hot, warm, and super cold that we moved between—hot to cold was definitely a shocker but felt really good!
After the pools we went back to sleep for a little while, then got up and repeated our food buying, cooking and eating before heading out on a hike in the surrounding mountains with Gringa, the dog. It was so nice to spend the weekend outside and moving around and Gringa was great company!
Random encounters:
1. While walking down the mountain from our hike Nora Colter (Grinnellian) and I were out in front with Gringa. I was looking down watching my steps when Nora starts freaking out. I look up and walking up the trail is Frances Leslie (another Grinnellian) who is studying in Quito on a different program. Small world that we both happen to be in the same town on the same hiking path at the same time…
2. When I couchsurfed in Otavalo last weekend there were 2 other people couchsurfing with the same guy that night. I ran into them on the streets of Baños...
Today I hung out with my family, who finally returned this morning from Porto Viejo. I helped my little bros and sis with their English homework on the computer. They are super cute trying to pronounce English words. Sometimes I feel bad that 8-11 year olds can speak Spanish fluently and I can’t but then I hear them try to speak English and I don’t feel so lame.
My mom here asked me what I wanted to eat for lunch…Carne de soya with bread? Rice? Pasta? She had asked me before if I liked quinoa, which is a traditional indigenous food here and I had said I loved it but she had never made it. I saw some in the kitchen and asked if we could have that and she admitted that she didn’t know how to cook it except in a soup. So I taught my mom how to cook quinoa like rice and she made my little siblings eat some in order to eat the ice cream she had bought earlier. My oldest little brother really liked it but the younger too grumbled and made faces the whole time. It was highly amusing. My mom also never makes desserts because she said they always turn out horribly. I am not the best baker but make a fantastic key lime cheesecake. I tried explaining how to make this but found I do not have the vocabulary in Spanish to describe the ingredients…graham crackers? Pie pan? Crust? Another entertaining moment…The abuela (mother of Jesús, my dad here) is coming to visit in a couple weeks so my mom said I have to teach her how to make it when she is here.
Overall, a really good weekend with friends and family, food and frolicking!
Friday night we got directions to a fantastic restaurant called Casa Hood where I splurged on Hindu Curry that had vegetables, brown rice, banana and coconut, as well as a mocha shake! Definitely the best food I’ve eaten in Ecuador!
Saturday morning we got up at 4:30 to go to the hot spring pools that Baños is famous for. We almost went Friday night but the hostal owner told us that it gets super crowded and greasy in the evening and we made a great decision. At 4:30 in the morning there were quite a few people there, but all ecuatorianos and we were the only tourists. It was beautiful to be in the pools in the dark then experience it getting light and be able to see the large waterfall running down the mountain right behind us. There were three pools: super hot, warm, and super cold that we moved between—hot to cold was definitely a shocker but felt really good!
After the pools we went back to sleep for a little while, then got up and repeated our food buying, cooking and eating before heading out on a hike in the surrounding mountains with Gringa, the dog. It was so nice to spend the weekend outside and moving around and Gringa was great company!
Random encounters:
1. While walking down the mountain from our hike Nora Colter (Grinnellian) and I were out in front with Gringa. I was looking down watching my steps when Nora starts freaking out. I look up and walking up the trail is Frances Leslie (another Grinnellian) who is studying in Quito on a different program. Small world that we both happen to be in the same town on the same hiking path at the same time…
2. When I couchsurfed in Otavalo last weekend there were 2 other people couchsurfing with the same guy that night. I ran into them on the streets of Baños...
Today I hung out with my family, who finally returned this morning from Porto Viejo. I helped my little bros and sis with their English homework on the computer. They are super cute trying to pronounce English words. Sometimes I feel bad that 8-11 year olds can speak Spanish fluently and I can’t but then I hear them try to speak English and I don’t feel so lame.
My mom here asked me what I wanted to eat for lunch…Carne de soya with bread? Rice? Pasta? She had asked me before if I liked quinoa, which is a traditional indigenous food here and I had said I loved it but she had never made it. I saw some in the kitchen and asked if we could have that and she admitted that she didn’t know how to cook it except in a soup. So I taught my mom how to cook quinoa like rice and she made my little siblings eat some in order to eat the ice cream she had bought earlier. My oldest little brother really liked it but the younger too grumbled and made faces the whole time. It was highly amusing. My mom also never makes desserts because she said they always turn out horribly. I am not the best baker but make a fantastic key lime cheesecake. I tried explaining how to make this but found I do not have the vocabulary in Spanish to describe the ingredients…graham crackers? Pie pan? Crust? Another entertaining moment…The abuela (mother of Jesús, my dad here) is coming to visit in a couple weeks so my mom said I have to teach her how to make it when she is here.
Overall, a really good weekend with friends and family, food and frolicking!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Baños!
I´m heading to Baños along with most of the students on two different programs at CIMAS after school today! Excited for adventures!
Last night friends came over to cook dinner and keep me company! We made pasta and veggies and watched a movie. Being alone last night wasn´t as scary but my family will be back before I get home.
:)
Last night friends came over to cook dinner and keep me company! We made pasta and veggies and watched a movie. Being alone last night wasn´t as scary but my family will be back before I get home.
:)
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Home Alone
So yesterday after walking home from CIMAS with some friends and taking them to the fruit stand next to my house to buy snack and lunch material I enter to find my mom here waiting for me. Bad news: the grandmother of my host dad died yesterday and the whole family was leaving that night. All fine and dandy, nobody was that sad but they still had to go to Porto Viejo until Saturday for her funeral. One of the weirdest parts for me being here has been having someone cook for me and wash my dishes and clean my bathroom and doing everything for me...I insist on washing my own clothes and keep my room clean but its still weird. I convinced my mom here that I would be fine, I could cook for myself and she showed me all the bazillion locks and alarm systems on the house. So for the next few days I´m home alone in a house in Quito. Movie marathon with friends this afternoon! Hopefully one of my friends that lives close by will stay over with me tonight. I´m fine being alone, but as soon as it gets dark and I am alone I start hearing everything. After my fam left last night I layed in bed for a couple hours hearing every movement the neighbors made convinced that someone had broken into my house. I´m probably going to head on an adventure somewhere on Friday because we don´t have class. Not sure where yet...
For Spanish class this afternoon everyone cooked with their family and brought a typical Ecuadorian dish to share! So pumped for lunch today!
For Spanish class this afternoon everyone cooked with their family and brought a typical Ecuadorian dish to share! So pumped for lunch today!
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Otavalo, Couchsurfing, Sleep
Otavalo--the city with the largest market in south america. packed with vendors tourists, fruit, ponchos, animals, colors, smells, tastes! well, that was saturday morning...
we (kevin, lauren and i) arrived friday morning to otavalo to do an interview with Runa Tupari. the interview was more for us, to see if we really wanted to do our 6 week internship with them. they are more than happy to have us there working and learning from them. we all met at my house at 7 am and took a taxi to the edge of town where we grabbed a bus to otavalo. no tickets, no schedule, just standing on the corner in the middle of nowhere waiting for a bus that says otavalo to go by. eventually one did and we climbed aboard. everyone had told us it took 2.5 hours to get there but within an hour and a half we had arrived. 2 hours before our interview. the bus dropped us on the side of the road and pointed up the road. we assumed that was the direction of plaza de ponchos where Runa Tupari's offices are located so we began hiking up the hill. several blocks later we arrived at plaza de ponchos, the main market area in otavalo, to find people just beginning to set out their goods. there were no other tourists yet. it was calm and a nice change from the noise and chaos of quito. we wandered around for a while and lauren got suckered into buying several things. we didn't want to arrive to early to our interview so we found a place to grab breakfast. while we were sitting eating our grilled cheese sandwiches (seems to be common for breakfast here, i eat it at least twice a week at home) and eggs the floor behind us opened and a man popped out carrying a large sack. we all jumped with surprise then started laughing another man appeared in the door, took the sack, then the first guy climbed back into the whole in the floor...i don't want to know...
at runa tupari we each just talked about our interests and the two guys that work there, Cristian and Faust, told us about the organization and showed us around the building. later in the afternoon Faust drove us around to some of the indigenous communities to show us different projects of Runa Tupari and UNORCAC (the indigenous cooperative organization they are affiliated with). we visited a family, or woman, that is one of the tourist hosts. one of us will probably be living with her. she was suuuuper sweet and i hope i get to live with her! then we went to a nursery where they start native plants and it give them to families on the condition that at some point, when they are able, they family pays back the nursery with other plants. its a way of diversifying the plants in the area, improving nutrition in the family and protecting native species. i will probably work there a few days a week. there is also a cooperative that makes honey at the same location. next we visited a cooperative that dries a couple different fruits and seeds, is certified organic and is expanding markets into europe and other places. lots of good projects to work on and learn from and we get to go on tours to translate and help out when there are tourists! i'm excited!
on friday night we couchsurfed with a guy named julio! we met him on a random street corner, walked back to his place...a large room full of all the sweaters, ponchos, clothes etc. that are sold in the market. his parents were there counting inventory. we dropped our stuff in an empty room with a mattress on the floor. he told us we were going to pick up some other people and followed him to his truck. i had no clue where we were going or who we were picking up. we pulled up to another random corner where there were two people sitting with big backpacks...more couchsurfers! we grabbed some food and hung out with the couchsurfers, julio and his friends for a while but we were pretty tired and wanted to get up early to see the animal market. that was an experience i don't even know where to begin describing. after the animal market we went to the fruit area and bought a bunch of fruit to make into a salad back at julio's place. delicious!
good first couchsurfing experience! and so much more fun that just staying in a hotel or hostel because you immediately have a friend that knows whats up in the city.
this weekend we have a take home exam so i spent a lot of the weekend working on that, or trying to then falling asleep. i slept all afternoon yesterday when i got home then fell asleep again at 9:30 last night. i've had a cold for over a week so i figured i needed it but i'm still not feeling great. hopefully tomorrow will be all better...
we (kevin, lauren and i) arrived friday morning to otavalo to do an interview with Runa Tupari. the interview was more for us, to see if we really wanted to do our 6 week internship with them. they are more than happy to have us there working and learning from them. we all met at my house at 7 am and took a taxi to the edge of town where we grabbed a bus to otavalo. no tickets, no schedule, just standing on the corner in the middle of nowhere waiting for a bus that says otavalo to go by. eventually one did and we climbed aboard. everyone had told us it took 2.5 hours to get there but within an hour and a half we had arrived. 2 hours before our interview. the bus dropped us on the side of the road and pointed up the road. we assumed that was the direction of plaza de ponchos where Runa Tupari's offices are located so we began hiking up the hill. several blocks later we arrived at plaza de ponchos, the main market area in otavalo, to find people just beginning to set out their goods. there were no other tourists yet. it was calm and a nice change from the noise and chaos of quito. we wandered around for a while and lauren got suckered into buying several things. we didn't want to arrive to early to our interview so we found a place to grab breakfast. while we were sitting eating our grilled cheese sandwiches (seems to be common for breakfast here, i eat it at least twice a week at home) and eggs the floor behind us opened and a man popped out carrying a large sack. we all jumped with surprise then started laughing another man appeared in the door, took the sack, then the first guy climbed back into the whole in the floor...i don't want to know...
at runa tupari we each just talked about our interests and the two guys that work there, Cristian and Faust, told us about the organization and showed us around the building. later in the afternoon Faust drove us around to some of the indigenous communities to show us different projects of Runa Tupari and UNORCAC (the indigenous cooperative organization they are affiliated with). we visited a family, or woman, that is one of the tourist hosts. one of us will probably be living with her. she was suuuuper sweet and i hope i get to live with her! then we went to a nursery where they start native plants and it give them to families on the condition that at some point, when they are able, they family pays back the nursery with other plants. its a way of diversifying the plants in the area, improving nutrition in the family and protecting native species. i will probably work there a few days a week. there is also a cooperative that makes honey at the same location. next we visited a cooperative that dries a couple different fruits and seeds, is certified organic and is expanding markets into europe and other places. lots of good projects to work on and learn from and we get to go on tours to translate and help out when there are tourists! i'm excited!
on friday night we couchsurfed with a guy named julio! we met him on a random street corner, walked back to his place...a large room full of all the sweaters, ponchos, clothes etc. that are sold in the market. his parents were there counting inventory. we dropped our stuff in an empty room with a mattress on the floor. he told us we were going to pick up some other people and followed him to his truck. i had no clue where we were going or who we were picking up. we pulled up to another random corner where there were two people sitting with big backpacks...more couchsurfers! we grabbed some food and hung out with the couchsurfers, julio and his friends for a while but we were pretty tired and wanted to get up early to see the animal market. that was an experience i don't even know where to begin describing. after the animal market we went to the fruit area and bought a bunch of fruit to make into a salad back at julio's place. delicious!
good first couchsurfing experience! and so much more fun that just staying in a hotel or hostel because you immediately have a friend that knows whats up in the city.
this weekend we have a take home exam so i spent a lot of the weekend working on that, or trying to then falling asleep. i slept all afternoon yesterday when i got home then fell asleep again at 9:30 last night. i've had a cold for over a week so i figured i needed it but i'm still not feeling great. hopefully tomorrow will be all better...
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Ecotourism
on friday i'm going to otavalo to interview with and check out Runa Tupari, an ecotourism organization that i hope to do my internship with! here is the website:
http://www.runatupari.com/ingles/quienes.htm
my friend kevin is going to be working with the same organization but we will be in different communities. on friday we will have our interview during the day, visit some rural communities with projects and couch surf with a young man named Julius! so pumped! this will be an adventure.
http://www.runatupari.com/ingles/quienes.htm
my friend kevin is going to be working with the same organization but we will be in different communities. on friday we will have our interview during the day, visit some rural communities with projects and couch surf with a young man named Julius! so pumped! this will be an adventure.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Pictures
Check out my picasa web album to see a few pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/afreeberg/AmiSAwesomeAdventures?authkey=RVzYbKpAWjo#
Uploading them there is pretty slow but there are more on facebook if you want to check them out.
No Spanish class this afternoon again because my professor is in the Galapagos with the other school she works for. What to do? We shall see...
http://picasaweb.google.com/afreeberg/AmiSAwesomeAdventures?authkey=RVzYbKpAWjo#
Uploading them there is pretty slow but there are more on facebook if you want to check them out.
No Spanish class this afternoon again because my professor is in the Galapagos with the other school she works for. What to do? We shall see...
Sunday, February 1, 2009
independence and friends
the last few days have been full of excursions and adventures! definitely getting a grasp of the city and feeling more comfortable with my spanish, understanding at least. i'm also finding a group of friends that i really like and am getting much closer to.
yesterday we went up in the teleferiQo which is a large enclosed ski-lift like thing that takes you up a mountain that borders quito. the views were stunning and it was beautiful to see the whole city and how big it really is. we hiked for a few hours, but most of that time was spent resting, taking in the views, contemplating life, and laughing because it was pretty hard to breath up there.
last night i felt like i was getting a cold so i stayed home and drank tea. i am not feeling much better today, but hopefully things will clear up. as for school, we are in the process of selecting our internship and i am deciding between ecotourism and agricultural cooperatives. either way i want to live in a rural community and integrate into the daily life there. i will keep you posted on what i decide.
yesterday we went up in the teleferiQo which is a large enclosed ski-lift like thing that takes you up a mountain that borders quito. the views were stunning and it was beautiful to see the whole city and how big it really is. we hiked for a few hours, but most of that time was spent resting, taking in the views, contemplating life, and laughing because it was pretty hard to breath up there.
last night i felt like i was getting a cold so i stayed home and drank tea. i am not feeling much better today, but hopefully things will clear up. as for school, we are in the process of selecting our internship and i am deciding between ecotourism and agricultural cooperatives. either way i want to live in a rural community and integrate into the daily life there. i will keep you posted on what i decide.
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