Coup d’état? Concert, soccer game, and Papallacta…all in one week!

September 30th:

On Thursday I woke up, went to class but then round 11am we were told that classes had been canceled due to protests that were gong on in Quito. At first I thought I sort of thought it was a joke, but once I saw students running out of their classrooms I got my things and began to worry a little. I found my friend Sarvie and we went to go talk to the director of our program (Tania). Here is what she told us:

a) the police and military (except the air force) were protesting

b) the reason they were mad was because of a new law that went into effect last night that said that the police and military were no longer gong to get bonuses when they got promoted

c) that Quito could be in a state of chaos

d) that we should go home in Group asap

So here we are in a group ready to go to Quito when another director told us that ALL international students were NOT allowed to leave campus. We were told that riots were breaking out, stores being broken into, and that the police was demanding that the president void the law. As we had lunch on campus we were also looking at the news and I admit that when I saw President Correa being hit by tear gas and being pushed and shoved I was definitely concerned. Well we were told that we could go home around 3ish. On my way home I stopped by Sarvie's house, her host mom informed me that a state of emergency had just been declared and that I should probably go home sooner rather than later. Once I got home I sat by the TV with my host sister and it seemed like things were a lot worse in Guayaquil. I remember watching a news channel and then the news caster telling us that police men ontop of Pichincha and trying to cut the signal of the station, which they were successful at doing. (Late the police said that they did this because only one side of the story was being reported).Things got tense at night while the military (about 700 soldiers) was trying to rescue the president (the police say that they never had him as a hostage) because it was during this mission that bullets started to go off like fireworks on the 4th of July. No joke. I remember my host brother telling me we could hear the fireworks and I gave him a "don’t exaggerate" face and we muted the TV and sure enough we could hear the gunshots! Well we could see the police firing at the military and vise versa, it was so surreal for me. And then, we see a person go down, and we were all like, "ummm is he ducking? wait...he isn't moving...oh crap is he ok?!" and then police surrounding him and carrying him away. Well as of today (Oct. 3, 2010) there are 8 reported deaths and about 100 were wounded. The president was then taken to the palacio de corondelet (presidential palace)  where he gave a speech condemned the police and military (some were with him, and some were against him) for acting the way they did. He said that it was a sad day, and that those behind this failed coup are going to be punished.  So here is what I know now:

a) that the bonus cuts were happening in order to fund other civil services

b) instead of the police getting a bonus for Christmas, having a child (host dad told me this one), being in serves for x amount of time, etc. they were going to get a higher salary instead of getting a bonus  

c) the country is divided, some think that President Correa had no business going into the protest on Thursday while others think that this is the only government that has done a lot to get the country into shape

d) there are people who believe that this was NOT an attempted coup, that the police were just showing their dislike of the new law vs. those (Correa believes this one) that think that this was an attempted coup orchestrated by  ex president Lucio Guttierez  

e) in the new constitution that was voted by Ecuadorians in 2000 the president has the power of dismantaling the Asamblea nacional (their congress) which would give him control of the country, and then have reelections for the asamblea and he is saying he doesn't want to do this but that if he has to, in order to get the country back into control, he will....

President being rescued/taken from el hospital de la policia

Well tomorrow is another day in Quito, classes are going to resume and I can't wait to hear what people think of this situation at school (most people there dislike Correa). Oh, I almost forgot about the other stuff that I did this week, here is a quick summary:

September 25th:



Glow sticks? check, tickets? Check :)



Well we decided to go to this techno concert, the headliner was Paul Oakenfold! I am not going to lie...I didn't know who he was, but he was amazing!! On top of that we were pretty close, the lighting, the people, and of course the music was great, I danced the WhoLe time. However, we couldn't buy drinks...okay they were selling small cups of water for 50 cents but that’s a rip off, a whole bottle is like 30 cents here. But, I can't complain too much...

September 29th:

I decided that I HAD to go see a soccer game, so I grabbed my host brother and called a couple friends and went to go see La liga (Quito's team, like the Chicago's Chicago fire) vs barcelona. I knew we were in the fan section, but I did not know it was going to get intense, there were random mosh pitchs that were started, fireworks exploding over our heads, some beer thrown into the air, drums, and of course the chanting that went on throughout the whooooole game. However, Quito won 4-0 and we were all super happy.



Grant, me and Jameson in the fan section :)





My host brother Cristian and host cousin.



October 1st:

SOo we were advised to stay in and cancel all travels on Thursday, but after the president was rescued and the military and police seemed to go back to work we thought we might wait until the next day and decide whether to go though with our plans or not. Once I woke up my host mom told me that all the stores were reopened and that the police was back to work, and that she thought it was safe for me to go travel. Calls were made (including our program director) and it was decided that we would go, but with the condition of paying for a private buseta to take us there and bring us back (total of $10). So by 3:30pm we were in Cumbaya and on our way to Papallacta. Once we got there we relaxed, got into the termal water and then had dinner, and hit the termal water again....it was great!! After experiencing a possible coup, Papallacta was exactly what we all needed. Here are a couple pics of our relaxing weekend:  



Dinner was great, expensivish...but worth it.



Ahhhh my girls...