Once upon a December there were six gringos...

Preface 

Well after three weeks I think its time to look back on our mistake and the great memories we had in Puerto Lopez. On December 19th 2010 a group of six students from Kalamazoo College left Quito to go to Mantaraya Lodge which is located in Puerto Lopez, however we thought it was in Manta so I bought us bus tickets to go to Manta. The day before we left we figured out that it was actually in Puerto Lopez and this was where the story begins.





Here is a map of Ecuador and you can see Quito and then Manta on the coast.

Here you can see a close up of the coast and how far Manta is from

Puerto Lopez, which isn't that far (about an hour and a half

 away I would say, shorter if you would drive).



Chapter One: Guns and Robbers

Once upon a December six gringos were on thier way to the beach but because of mix up arrived in Manta where they tired to get bus tickets to thier final destination, however the ticket sales lady told them that they had to go a block down to the other bus terminal to buy tickets to go to Puerto Lopez. She told them the options were to either take a taxi or walk down. After talking to the group we decided that after a seven hour bus ride it would be silly to take a taxi to go down a block, afterall we could see the other station from where we were. So we decided to walk down. There we were about 100 feet from the terminal when a group of guys on motorcycles drove by. Next thing I know they circle around and a red motorcycle stops right in front of us and then another two from behind...and then he fumbles a few seconds trying to get something out from his pants, and when he finally gets the gun out my heart starts to race. I can't help but think this has got to be a joke, or a bad dream, but I know its real, its so freaking real that I am immobile. I couldn't move, but I can hear that the other guys are taking bags and demanding money and cell phones from my friends. Then he looks at me and demands that I give him something, so I hand over my ipod. And then they are off again, and there we are standing looking at them ride away with 5 bookbags, 5 ipods, 4 cellphones, money, clothes, laptops, etc. A man walks over to us, he like many others saw the whole thing happen, and tells us we should probably call the police and then one of the boys asks him to call because thier cellphones had been stolen. We walk over to the station and a very nice lady tells me not to worry, that she has called the police and within a few minutes they arrive.

Chapter Two: The Labryinth of Making a Police Report

Once the police arrived I let them know of our situation and get useful information to him, I figured there was hope that they could catch these guys becuase afterall it had only happened about four minutes after thier arrival. However, even they looked at me like I was crazy for giving him a description becuase there was no chance that they would find them. Reluctantly they spoke over the radio to alert other policemen about the robbery that had just occured. I then asked to borrow thier cell phone becuase the two cell phones that we had didn't have minutes, saldo, in order to call the US Embassy. Once I got someone on the phone I told them what happened, he then told me he wanted our names and as I began one of the police officers tells me to give him the cell phone back because I was gastando su saldo. So I tell the agent to call my cell phone becuase the policeman was getting mad that I was using up his minutes (I did not hear back from him until two hours later). The policemen then informed me that in order to make a police report we had to go to the police station, and I told them that was fine. They looked at each other and then told me that the police station didn't open up until 8h00 so if we still wanted to file the report we would have to wait until it opened. So we picked a spot inside the bus terminal and waited, and waited, and then started to contemplate whether we should go back to Quito or head for the beach and go to Puerto Lopez. Meanwhile I had texts so I texts friends to call our program director and ask her to call us. Once 8h00 came around we had finally heard from the embassy and program director and they all told us the same thing, "You should have been more careful, Manta is a very dangerous place" funny thing is that NOBODY had told us this when we told them we were going there. Okay granted we probably should have looked it up, but I figured we were only going to be there for maybe 30 minutes and therefore I didn't need to look this up. Plus, my host family would have told me to be careful, like they did when I went to Guayaquil or when I go out at night to clubs because these are places where most robberies happen, but never had I heard about Manta being a bad place. However, thorughout the trip whenever we told someone about our story they were either as surprised as we were, but most of them just told us that Manta is well known for being a bad place and that there are lots of murders that happen there every month.

When we got to the police station there was a big line for people to get in, then it got to a stand still. I went inside and asked where I could make a police report and was directed to a line inside the station. Well once we told them our story we were once again given a lecture about about dangerous Manta is and how we should never walk around with valuables, the policeman that directed me to this line thought I was the guide of the group and proceed to tell me I should have known better. After explaining that I was not in fact a guide, or an Eucadorian, he still somehow held me responsible. At this point I had become the guide/translator of the group and I had retold our story multiple times that by the time we got the guy who was going to write out our report I knew who lost what, and most of everyone's birth place (State inwhich we were born, and the city of some). Once that was finally done we were ready to keep on with our adventure, but then the man told us that since of us had thier debit card, copy of his passport and Ecuadorian ID stolen we had to go to ANOTHER police station to report that. They wrote down the address, we hailed two taxis and were on our way to another police station. Once we got to the address and asked around where the police station was we were informed that the police station that we were looking for had moved about a year ago. It's new location was about 10 blocks away. So we two more taxis and off we were to this new location that we were given. We found it and had to wait another 25 inutes before being attended, during which I had to run and make copies and then come back and then go between two people to get thier signature before we could leave. 

Chapter Three: False Advertisment

This hotel that we booked was pretty pricey but we wanted to stay in a nice and safe place during our break, especially because a lot of us were bringing valuables with, so when we checked in and foundout that there was no Wi-Fi you can only imagine how upset we were. Not only that, but for those that had thier laptops, iphone, and ipad because they thought they were going to be able to use the internet they had brought them with for no good reason, had we known there was no Wi-Fi then they wouldn't have brought their valuables with and had them stolen. We were also given the impression that we could walk to the beach but that was not true, in fact to get into town we had to call a motortaxi to take us into town. There was a pool with an amazing view, too bad that they were working on the pool when we were there so there were always workers there, and each day the water just got dirttier. Also, when you look at thier brochure or picutres online you see hammicks in every room, but we did not see one hammick while we were there. Well at least there was complimentary breakfast; some fruit, bread rolls, eggs (sunnyside up or scrambled) and really good fruit juice BUT little did we know that we got charged if we wanted more bread or if we wanted a refill. Game room, haha more like a storage area that we ended up using to play some BP. We did get rooms, and they were nice and spacious. The cleaning staff came everyday and did an amazing job fixing the room up and getting us new towels when asked for. The one TV in the hotel did have cabel or a dish, which meant we were able to see a few episodes of Glee, Teen Mom, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and some Christmas movies. 

Chapter Four: Tiki bar and Colombians

The next day (Dec. 21st) we went into town to get essentials for those that had everything stolen from  them, came back and chilled by the pool. It was quite relaxing and finally felt like a vacation. Later on we went to back into town for dinner, after which we decided to go to a tiki bar and get a few drinks before heading back to the hotel. And there we were when two males come over and ask to dance. I didn't really care, it seemed like it would be fun and the one I danced with was dancing all over the place that I couldn't help but laugh. However, they seemed to get the impression that my friend Nicole and I wanted to do this more, which we in fact did not. Then out of nowhere they move closer to where we were sitting and buy the males of the group a beer and thank them for letting them dance with us. Now I didn't really care about dancing a song with them, but umm why the guys got the beer and not me made me a tad confused. Anywho, we finished our drinks and went back to the hotel and hungout for awhile and then Nicole and I went to go watch some TV and then hit the bed.

The pool side view was pretty amazing.


We finally had time to relax.

When we woke up (Dec. 22nd) we went into to town to get on the internet and finally tell our parents back in the States about the stituartion that we had landed on and then bought tickets on Reina del Camino to go back to Quito on the morning of the 27th. Later on we went back to the tiki bar and enjoyed hearing a few Bob Marley songs while swinging on himmicks and drinking some margaritas.  

Chapter Five: Mirror, Mirror on The Wall Which is The Best Beach of Them All?

On our fourth day at the beach we decided to venture out and go to the best beach according to all the locals. Los Friles was a very beautiful beach and even though there wasn't a lot of sun we still had a great time there.

The boys trying to get Nicole :)



Our guide, Roberto, was a very nice man who had been called to pick us up the first time we went into town and gave us his number so that we could call him anytime we wanted to go somewhere. He advised us to go up trail once we arrived at this beach so Nicole and I decided to take his advise. The view once we got up there was pretty spectacular.

Yup this is where we were for a week :)

Chapter Six: Our Magic Carpet/Boat and Our Journey to La Isla de Plata

Everyone that we had talked to encouraged us to try and keep our morale high and enjoy our vacation, and we did try. We thought that it would be a great idea to go to this island that is known to have amazing  animals on it, mainly the blue-footed booby. So we packed out sun block, put on our bathing suits, and headed off to the island on our magic carpet, or in this case boat. However, two of the boys were feeling under the weather and so our great adventure started off with a little bit of bad luck. We tried to get the other two from having to pay for the trip seeing as they weren't coming anymore, but it was useless. Once we had breakfast we got into a van that took us down to the shore where we boarded a boat. It was a very nice day, and after about an hour we could see that we were almost there when ... dadadadumm...our boat stopped. Yes, the engine or something, broke down and so there we were stranded in the ocean until another boat came to rescue us.

Once we got on the rescue boat we proceeded to the island, and commenced our 2 and a half hour hike. It was so sunny that I could just feel myself getting red and gross, but seeing all the blue footed bobbies was so worth it.

 

Blue-footed Booby!

The babies only have white fur.

Facts

- The female is slightly bigger than the male

- The female also has a bigger pupil 

- Once the chicks hatch the parents take care of them until they are about three months old, by that time they are able to fend for themselves

- The female usually lays more than one egg because one of them usually dies while they are young

- Both female and male have blue feet but it takes about a year for them to get them

Our journey continued after with a small lunch on the boat and a little bit of snorkiling. I attempted to, but lets just say I started to feel under the weather myself and so I stayed on the boat while the two boys went about swimming with the fishes. No worries, I will get another chance when I go to the Galapagos.

Chapter Seven: Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas With A Few Cocktails

I knew that I was going to have a GREAT time, I mean I had to, it was Christmas afterall and I was at the beach! What better way to start to day with pancakes! But, yet again the Grinch stroke again by making our pancakes probably one of the worst I've hard in awhile. Did that bring us down? NO! Nicole and I had reservations in town to get massages so went went down. We went to a lady's house where she gave us each a massage. It was sorta painful, oily, and a tad akward when she had us turn around (back side down) and didn't give us towels to cover our upper body.

Once we cleaned up we went back to the beach where we were greeted by our canadian friends, sand, and the SUN!! Ahhh it was magical. We got beach chairs by out tiki bar, ordered some drinks, got into the water, got tanned and relaxed all day :)


Chapter Eight: Agua Blanca and Fritz the Whale

This was going to be our last day so Nicole and I decided to go check out this sulfuric lagun, that nobody knew where exactly it was coming from. Roberto was feeling a little chuchaqui so he asked his friend to take us around, which was very nice of him to do. The tour included a tour around the small museum, caminata, and then afterwords we went to this cliff where you could see all the National Park which was pretty cool. On our way back to the town our motortaxi guy asked/took us to see the skeleton of this dead whale named Fritz. All in all it was a nice way to end this memorable trip. 

This is what's left of Fritz.

Chapter Nine: Are We There Yet?

Even though we started off the trip on the a bad note, and even though things kept going wrong, we always tried to keep a positive atittude and a good sense of humor. However, we were ready to go back home to Quito. We had bought our tickets three days before that would take us to Quito. Well the night before my host brother, Jonathan, called me and told me that I might run into a problem trying to find tickets to come back. I told him not to worry becuase we had bought our tickets already. So after a wonderful time at the beach we were also looking forward to getting to Quito and enjoying the rest of our time in Ecuador with the rest of the group. We get there and our happily ever after gets a stab. Our bus company,Reina del camino, was shut down by President Correa after a bus from this company had gone off a cliff and killed 39 people and injured 32 (the bus was only suppose to have 40 people onboard). Here is a link to more information to this tragedy that occurred and this is still under investigation by the government: http://www.hoy.com.ec/noticias-ecuador/reina-del-camino-no-reinicia-sus-labores-453793.html

Well here we were, ready to leave and no bus to take us. Our sorta guide, Roberto, told us to get our money back so we went to the ticket booth onlly to find out it was close and that it had been since the accident and would not be reopened anytime soon. Long story short, found tickets to go on a bus to go to Quito, about 12 hours later we get to Quitumbre which is REALLY South of Quito and have to take a taxi to our homes. Yet, we made it all to our homes, many with just the clothes they were wearing, but safe, healthy and with lot of good and bad memories to share. 

...And we all lived happily ever afer.

Fin    

Thanksgiving in the Equator, el zoologico y el censo.

November 25th:

Hannah, one of the planners of this incredible
dinner, moi, and Jamie in the background
doing something crazy as usual.

There is no denying that I was sorta dreading Thanksgiving becuase I was not going be spending it with my family in the States, but thanks to all of the wonderful people that organized and assigned everyone something to cook, bake, or buy this was one of the most memorable Thanksgivings I've ever had...I even baked!! Granted it was hard to be focused in class becuase I was thinking about all the amazing food I was going to have, and when people asked why I wasn't eating lunch I had to explain that it was a strategdy to make room for dinner :) No worries though, I did have snacks throughout the day. I baked the pastel de tres leches the night before with Sarvie and my host mom. I am going to be real though, she did most of the doing, but Sarvie and I did help (whenever she let us that is). I had a big group project that day so I was running from one place to the other; left school around 16h15 and then got to my house around 17h15, and then started to get ready. We had instructions to come with our dish, $5 for wine, towel and swim suits (there was an option to get into the pool) and to come dressed up. Before I go on I would like to give a shout-out to Alana and her amazing family for hosting us and letting us all come over and enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. Seeing as this was a special event I decided to go all out, I curled my hair, but on my boots and nice skirt and I was ready for this dinner. The food was great! I have to give it up to Hannah and Nick for thier wonderful job with the turkey...or should I say turkeies, that they cooked. However, what really did it for me was the fact that we were all together, our little K- family totally made me feel nice and at home as soon as I walked into the room.



 Friends + Food + Dancing = Unforgettable night!

 November 27th:

Due to the census that occurred Nov. 28th we had to be in the house all of Sunday so we decided to not travel and attempt to do homework. However, I've been wanting to go to the zoo so Hannah, Sarvie, and I went to the Zoologico on Saturday, which ended up being a greater mission to get to than I had anticipated. At the end we got there, only after taking a taxi, 3 buses, and then getting on a taxi-truck.

This is the biggest turtle I've ever seen!

   

Oso de anteojos.

November 28th:

The next day I was home all day due to the immobilization decree what was in effect from 7h00 to 17h00, airplanes didn't take off, public transportation wasn't operating, and there was also a Dry Act all weekend that prohibited the sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages. If you violated any of these you were taken to jail and fined, the military was everywhere making sure people were not drinking, I was actually out with some friends having dinner when a policeman came in with a camera crew and asked us if we were drinking and then and we told him we were not, but he looked around the table and then when he saw our table clear of any sort of drinks left, but not without telling us (in English) "Don't drink". My host sister and I decided to make it a Harry Potter marathon, but we only got to see two of them due to the fact that my host dad wanted to see his novelas. We were finally surveyed around 15h00 by two middle schoolers. There was one question that sparked some controversey, the question asked what culture the individual associate with, and the options were white, indigenous, mestizo, black, or other. People understood this to be a question about your race and although most Eucadorians are mestizos many of them shun their indigenous or black roots so there were many who said that they were white. This has been an ongoing problem in Ecuador everytime that they do the census. Another problem is the fact that there are people that live in very remote areas of the country, and in order to get an accuarate count of the population the president was sending officials to these remote areas where sometimes they had to go by boat to these communities. Something that the upper class and top-middle class feared was saying the real number of rooms they had because they fear that Correa might want to do something like Chavez has done in Venezuela and that is to put squatters into homes that have guest rooms, or rooms that are not being used. Here is a link if you want to read a little more about what Hugo Chavez is doing in Venezuela: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101108/ap_on_bi_ge/lt_venezuela_expropriation.

Guayaquil: Human Rights Conference

November 18th:

Was is worth $130 to go to Guayaquil for 24 hours to be part of a human rights conference? UmmMmmmMm....YES! I woke up nice and early (5h00!) and then got on our way to the conference, which was everything I expected, but with a few surprises. The conference brought various organizations together to discuss what Plurinacionalidad meant to them; politically, socially, and economically.

Some of the topics became very heated because this term is very controverisal, many people see is as a term that is promoting regionalization and thereby making the country separate instead of unitng the country. However, I think these people are missing the REAL point of what plurinacionalidad is trying to promote, and that is:
a) respect for everyone
b) it's knowing who you are (as an Ecuadorin) and this comes into play because there are Ecuadorians who deny (or don't associate themselves with) thier roots and when asked what they are they say they say they are white, when in reality nobody really is, which is the hidden racism that appears to be in a lot of Ecuadorian minds. Now I should say that I am GENERALIZING and that this is always a tricky thing to do, but with the census coming around the corner this was a very big deal in the conference, because when people say they are white and they aren't they are not allowing an accuarate count of the population.
c) economicaly/politicaly asking for there to be more open dialogues to see what sort of reasources are needed and provide them; ex. in the rural areas of Ecuador there is a lack of education (no or bad quality of schools), daycare centers, better living conditions, etc.
d) there is a belief that this only effects indigenous communities...well its doesn't
e) There is a belief that there can/should only be one Ecuadorian culture, but this is true but you can be part of more than one culture. Ex. Just like in the States there are different cultures so is the case here in Ecuador, the people from the coast do things a little different than those of us that are in the mountains areas of Quito. Therefore one part is no more Ecuadorian than the other, and when someone moves from one region to the other they learn to mix this two cultures and it's the mix that plurinacionalidad is promoting and in a way encouraging...it shouldn't be you have to choose between the two (I mean how can you?)
f) This term is also aspiring to challenge Ecuadorians to create thier OWN image of who they are going to be, and not look to the occidental in search of this definition.

This is Jose, who spoke about the Afro-ecuadorians and hopes that they have faced, for example he talked alot about the word negro and how this was a word that the conquistadores gave people from Africa in order to exculde them from the Ecuadorian culture. He also pointed out that this was the way that Afro-ecuadorians were being acknowledged in the constitution until the new one was written in 2008.

We did have a break, which is when some of the membres of APDH decided to take me to this park where there were iguanas EVERYWHERE!! It was great!

This was the park of the iguanas :)

The iguanas were everywhere, on the side walks, trees, benches,
 etc. I couldn't get enough of of them.



Then I went on an errand with a member of APDH and then got back in time to hear the beginning of the closing panelists discourse which was Ecuador: integracion regioinal y una nueva arquitectura economica. From all the panelists Jorge Acosta was probably the panalist that mostly talked about what needs to happen as far as Ecuador's economy goes. He believes that Ecuador needed three basic things:
1) Go back to their currency, around the year 2000 Ecuador stopped using thier currency, sucres, and started to us dollars as thier currency.

Jorge Acosta, a politician during the morning and quite
the character at night.

2) Banco del sur, Jorge talked about the need of the creation of a Latin American bank that would be able to provide loans to developing countries in order for them to create better public services for thier citizens and better thier lives, which in turn be an investment for the country because then they would have more educated citizens with better health services at thier disposal.

Afterwords, they decided to take me around and it was a night full of laughs, dancing, walking, dancing, eating, and more dancing.

Guayaquil used to be very unsafe and poor, a lot has changed in the last decade, but
one of the ways they decided to deal with this poverty was by blocking off the poorest
of the poorest places from the nice places. This is a picture of where the blocking off began, which was right next to the bar that we were in watching un partido de futbol...wtf?!

This was the nice, touristy, part of Guayaquil...the part that we
are allowed to see and walk around. In fact, this was the beinning of the
hike up to this light house that was ontop, and each stair was numbered, I think
there were a little more than 450 steps that we climbed, no biggie.

Finally there!

View of Guayaquil at night, ontop of the light house, was amazing!!

November 19th:

I missed my flight, had to wait to see if I could get on the next one. I was. I went to school and then came back home and got ready to go see HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HOLLOWS!!! However, afterwords I tried to get into my house and realized I had lost my keys, and of course my host parents had decided to go away for the weekend so I was locked out, and had to ask my host dad's brother if I could sleep there fore the night (he lives downstairs with his family). The next day we had to get a ladder and someone that works for him climbed it and went through a window, opened the front door, and let me in...yup it was a very crazy 48 hours.

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...

New law in Quito: Pico y placa

So I thought I should write a little about this new law in Quito called pico y placa, which is a new law that is trying to reduce traffic. Pico refers to the times of day that there is the most traffic (aka rush hour) and placa is a reference to the last number of your license plate, which according to that number you know what day of the week you are NOT allowed to drive. This is only applicable in most of Quito, and has only been in place for about four months. Now you can try and be slick, or forget (like my host dad), but you better believe that the police is going to stop you and give you a nice ticket. First ticket is $80, second is $120, and by the third it’s a $240 fine...yupp, and I have no idea what happens if you get pulled over a fourth time...license revoked? $380 fine? I have no idea. Anywho this also means buses can't run on thier given day, my bus driver tried to be slick and got pulled over, he was not a happy camper after that. Here is a link (in espanol) if you want to read more about this. http://www.eluniverso.com/2010/05/03/1/1447/desde-hoy-rige-pico-placa-vias-quitenas.html