La Selva (part 2)

November 1st:

8h00: Desayuno

9h30: The cavernas (caves) de Jumandy was a really cool experience, however there were a lot of tourists inside which is not something I had expected. We started off by meetin our guide, who showed us a lot of plants and had us tasts some. Then we went inside the cave which involved stepping on a lot of slippery rocks and trying to see in the dark. We all got into the water and then kept on going until there was a part where the water had risen becuase of the heavy rain that came down the night before so we had to swim across. Now it should be noted that we were warned that this might happen, which is why we didn't bring our cameras, and I had to get the smallest size boots that the hostal had, but I guess they were still too big becuase while swimming across...they fell :( I finished the rest of this hike with my socks, and of course fell right before we got out and had a pretty noticable bruse. Once we got out of the cave we were surprised to find a pool with huge slides, and we of course got on them :)

12h30: We went back to the hostal (still no power) and had lunch.

15h00: Arrived at la comunidad de los Wuayra Churis which was this Quichua community and saw a few traditional dances. Dita volunteered to be in one that was suppose to be this dance that the groom and bride do when they get married. It was pretty cool.

Before the dancing began they drew on our faces to welcome us into their community.

The first dance was a salutation to the sun.

Here comes the bride...dum dum dadda!



18h00: Went back to the hostal, had dinner and then went on this night hike through the Amazon in search of nocturnal animals. We didn't really see much, but it was pretty cool nonetheless.



This is a common size leaf that you will find in the Amazon.


November 2nd:

8h00: Breakfast

9h00: Arrived at Proyecto de Turismo Comunitario "Petroglifos" in Cotundo

First petroglifo that we saw called “Yachak Rumi (Shaman).”

Petroglifo  "Rimak Rumi”

This is the pamphlet that told us all the images that we were supposed to be able to see.

Last petroglifo that we saw, the guide pointed out that it has one big shape (a frog) and
then other shapes of animals, like two snails at the top.

 



Group picture of the K students + Noah; new friend we made
that's here via the International Program for Service
Learning (IPSL) + a Dugadito.



11h00: Arrived at the hostal and had some down time. At first I was confused why we didn't get on the bus and go back, but I actually enjoyed this time a lot. We decided to do a little bit of yoga, Hannah was our instructor, afterwords we got into the pool and then headed to our cabins for a quick shower. Then we started to pack, had lunch, came back and got on the bus to head back to good old Quito :)



USFQ and La Selva (part 1)!

Here are some things that I've been meaning to post but haven't:

My courses here at USFQ (Universidad San Francisco de Quito)

Mondays/Wednesdays/ Fridays	Tuesdays	Thursdays
11h00-11h55: Genero y sociedad	10h00-11h25: Introducción a la Cultura Ecuatoriana	10h00-11h25: Introducción a la Cultura Ecuatoriana
13h00-13h55: Política Latinoamericano y su pensamiento	11h30-12h55: Literatura global	11h30-12h55: Literatura global
15h00-17h00: Work at APDH (only Mon/Wed)	14h30-16h30: Etnografía	14h00-16h55: Técnicas Básicas de Pintura

Only in Ecuador...

• will you can find guards with guns
• buy KFC and get rice and beans along with your chicken
• are there no public libraries
• you get a five day weekend for Dia de los Muertos
• due to the high altitude will you party hard one night and wake up the next and feel gassy all day

Only in USFQ (my school here)...

• Would you have your classes canceled in order to celebrate the 22^nd anniversary of the school with champagne and a live band
• Are there tiles EVERYWHERE, which is convenient because it rains almost everyday so the odds of me falling are pretty good :)
• This past week we had pirate week, yeah I like to dress-up as much as the next person but this was quite the experience, heres the link to the school's blog where you can see the events/flyer for this event:
  http://usfqecuador.blogspot.com/2010/10/celebracion-piratica-san-pancho.html

  



Yup we had a sunken boat in the school's
pond and there was a zipline that people got
on to go from one side to the other.

 

There were various activities,
this was a skit that a group did,
not sure why but it was great.



Viaje al Oriente

Octobre 30th:

7h30: Got to Quicentro (meeting place to board the bus)

8h45: Stopped to take a pic infront of Antisana

 

Antisana



9h00: Papallacta, it was great to get into the hot springs. We also played a couple name games with the IPSL students, Duga family, and Ecuadorian students that were joining us on this trip. 

12h30: We stopped at Baeza to have lunch and Natalia (director of our program who was on maternaty leave), husband, and her less than 3 month baby girl joined the group.  

14h30: Llegada a Huasquila! We got keys to our cabins, bri and Hannah were my roommates, and this hostal was GREAT! We had hot running water, great water pressure, a hammick, towels, and a great view of the mountains to look at everyday. 



15h30: Walk through the jungle. Our guide explained that we were going to through la selva secundaria y primaria and the difference is that the secondary jungle has been destroyed by humans but is being  reforested, so at times its harder to walk through because there are small plants that are growing. Unlike the primary jungle, where humans haven't destroyed and so the trees are huge and prevent sunlight from coming in and letting smaller plants grow. We saw some vines, the Dugaditos got to swing on them, went through a waterfall, learned about some cool plants, and went through a cave.

 

Vines, these were tiny campared to those
 you can find deeper into the jungle.




This was the waterfall that Hannah
and I went through (its brings
good luck we were told).



  

This was one of the coolest plants we learned about, its called sangre de dragon and our guide
told us that its acts like toothpaste, heals cuts/scars, stops itching, and other remedies.

This cave got smaller, there wasn't alot of light, there were bats, and at one
point we were told not to tough the walls because there was a big spider there.
However, since most of us didn't have flashlights we still did.



Stew and the Shaman (behind him).

19h00: Got back, showered (this shower felt great, and I was pleasantly surprised to see they had shampoo and conditioner for us seeing as I forgot to bring some). Then we had dinner which started with a brindise from the owner of the hostal and some special pina coladas. Afterwords Steward volunteered to be cleansed by a Shaman, which was totally different than the curandera we saw in Otavalo. The lights were turned off, Stew sat on a stool, didn't have to take his clothes off, there was some smoke involved and wacking with leaves accompanied by music that was being played by 2 other people, and then sucking or perhaps blowing smoke into Stew's hands.

 

 

October 31st:



7h30: Breakfast, which involved pancakes!

8h30: Arrived at Puerto Ahuano and went on a canoe through Rio Napo  until we got to el Centro de Rescate Amazoonico. This place was so cool, and humide! Here are some of the animals we saw:

Loros!



Tucan!



 

Caiman (type of alligator)



  

 

Capuchino monkey! They were so cool, but a little crazy too :)
At one point one of them stuck their hand out and tried to take
someone's camera.

Woolly monkey that was also out of a cage and was just chilling as we passed by on the trail.

Spider monkey! This was the best picture I could get because if you look
at where his hands are the fence had really small holes...but I feel in love with
this type of monkey, you can say it was love at first sight :)

We were walking through and someone pointed out that there were turtles on the path
doing the dirty (thats another way of saying they were having sex) and sure enough they were.

12h00 Lunch at Selva Viva

13h30: We went swimming in el rio Arajuno (I started to have an upset stomach so I got out of the water and decided to go for a walk around the edge of the river with Hannah.)

(on the way to our next destination we saw the deforestation started during the ex president Lucio Gutierrez with his plan of creating another international airport in the city of Tena, it was pretty depressing to see)

We were told that this project was stopped half way because Lucio left but it seems like Correa is planning on finishing the job, which would create jobs but Ecuador is a small country and there really isn't a need for another international airport, especially not near the Amazon where the biodiversity could (would) be hurt.

15h30: Arrived at Museo de la Comunidad de Chichico Rumi where we got to see more animales and learn about several animal traps, quite interesting.



Anaconda! We asked why they had it's mouth taped and we were told that they did it because if not it would try and bite them whenever they went inside to feed him, or her we didn't ask its sex.  



Un tigrillo, Our guide went inside and played with the tiger and I was a little jealous.

The sign says "Trap for fish (big)."

The Capibara is the biggest rodent in the world!! 

19h00: Arrive in Tena and have free time to walk around before we had dinner. I still wasn't feeling too good, and I think it has to do with the altitude changes (it takes awhile for me to feel it, but when it does I know it because my stomach starts to act up...if you know what I mean). So after having a few spoonfuls of food I was FULL and my new friend Noah helped me finish my food :)

19h30: Arrived at the hostal (it had started to rain on our way back) only to find out that the power had gone off, and so we went to our cabins with one headlamp and were completly drenched when we got in. Let me tell you, when it rains in the Amazon...it RAINS! We then had company, Dita and 2 Ecuadorian girls came over and we tried to learn to play an Ecuadorian game called cuarenta (forty) but half way into it had to stop becuase the deck was not complete. I can't remember how MASH (a game we gringas had played during middle school) came up and we started to teach them how to do it, we had fun bonding over this :)





I was drenched!





APDH, Tour of El centro historico, and Guguas de pan

I would like to start with a few WTF moments I've had this past week, hope you like them they are quite funny now that I look back at them:

1. During the tour of Old Quito my eyes were a little irritated so I took my contacts off, next day I go to the doctor’s because my eyes hurt and are still red and I am told I have BOTH eyes infected...wtf!
2. On Friday I go to my Gender and Society class thinking I am going to take a quiz, when the girl next to me asks me if I am ready to take the examen parcial ( mid-semester exam)...wtf!
3. Friday night was a failure, one of our friends never showed up (we were going to celebrate her birthday) and then Hannah and I go into a club called Blues something because we think some of our new friends are there...we pay $2 to get in, and then call the girls only to find out we are in the WRONG Blues club...wtf!
4.  I was on the Ecovia (bus/trolley thing) on my way to my ICRP when this couple gets right infront of me and start a MAJOR PDA session, and mind you its crowded and I can't move, and then they wouldn't move so I missed my stop and had to get off 2 stops later...wtf!

October 20^th:

I went to APDH to start my ICRP and it was great!! The people there are so cool and enthusiastic about having me there, they even gave me a bracelet to welcome me into their family. One of the first things we did was go over the hours I was going to do and filled out an agreement for my program. Then Anaite was like “tienes algo para escribir?” and then she told me to make her a spreadsheet and then an itinerary (and dictated things she wanted on each) …needless to say I felt a tad overwhelmed. Then she took me to the volunteer desk and I went straight to work. However, at one point (while waiting for a page to load) I felt like I was in the right place and feeling like this was going to be a great experience. I mean when I think about some of the projects she wants me to do, which involve doing a presentation for the organization and writing an article for the next issue of their magazine, it all sounds so cool, but also carries a lot of responsibilities. I will keep you updated as to how day two goes, here is the website in case anyone is interested in checking them out: http://www.apdh.ec/

Later on that day…


View of El Palacio Presidencial ontop of
La Catedral Metropolitana. 

Originally I was signed up to go on a tour of old Quito, or Centro historico, at night on September 30^th but that was canceled because of the protests that were going on, aka attempted coup e’tait. So, we had it rescheduled and it was GREAT!!! I feel like I’ve gone to a lot of cool places in Ecuador, but I forget that there is so much to do here in the city. El centro historic is so cool, and it was great having a guide to tell us the story behind the churches and the architecture of everything. We even got some VIP treatment by going into churches during closing hours and we were escorted around by 5 policemen who frequently stopped traffic for us. Here are some interesting facts of the tour (in no specific order):

• On the top of the La Catedral Metropolitana there is a roster and our guide told us that it was something that the Spaniards brought with them, and that the roster is suppose to call in people to mass (specifially for Christmas mass), he also said something about how men usually give their respect to the roster right before serenading a girl (for good luck).

• There was a point when our guide told us that there were things he couldn’t say, but that he did want to say something now because we were alone, he said something about the bad rep. that the church has had in the past and about the politics behind past bishops, like Gabriel Garcia Moreno. He made Ecuador a better place but he was known as a tyrant because he imprisoned and/or kill those that were against him. He also gave the church a lot of power, and supported them in everyway he could.

This is a monument dedicated to the heroes that fought for the independence of the Ecuador
from the Spaniards in the battle of August 10, 1809.



These are figures of animals, which were the Gods of the indigenous and
was a way for them to put a little bit of thier own beliefs into this new religion
that they were being submitted into beliving by the Spaniards.



• Oh and underground of the two churches we went into there were underground tombs, we got to go under and see them in La iglesia de San Agustin

• La iglesia de San Agustin had a few interesting legends, one of them was this legend of how the church was made. As the story goes there was an indigenous man named Cantuña who was told to build a chapel before sunrise the next day. There was no way he was going to finish, and then the devil appears to him in the shape of an old man and makes a deal with him, he would help build the chapel but the man had to put ALL of the rocks into place and in return Cantuña would have to give him his soul. Cantuña makes the deal, but gets the last rock and engraves in it a phrase saying “he who carries this rock acknowledges that God is better than he is” (or something like that) and so refuses to carry it out of pride. Hence Cantuña was able to stay with his soul and there is a place in the church where you can see that there is a rock missing.

October 23^rd:

My host dad, Jorge, had a conference/exhibition and I was invited to go check it out, I roamed around for about 45 minutes and had a lot of fun looking at the different booths. Afterwords I left to go have dinner at Iggy’s house, which was sooo much fun. We had dinner, and then went to the roof to look at the city lights, walked to a Colombian panaderia but the men working there were a little sketchy…but good night overall. J

October 24^th:

My host family took me to a family friend’s house for dinner and some pan de guguas y colada morada which is a bread in the shape of a baby (and some cheese in the middle) and this warm drink that is a mix of strawberries and other fruits and lots of herbs.

October 25^th:

I went to APDH for my second day of volunteer and was given an assignment: read up on plurinacionalidad and the writings of Boaventura de sousa santos and write resumes of his writings. So I did, people kept coming in and out and got to meet all of the other volunteers and next thing I know it’s time to go home. I say it was another good day at APDH, I get to go back on Wednesday and I hope to have something to show Anaite by then. 

Viaje a la costa y otras cosas :)



The place where we stayed was an ecological station.

 October 8th:

What’s better than having to wake up at 5:45 am on Friday after a late night out ? Nothing. We had to wake up nice and early to go to the coast, which was about an 8 hour bus ride (I slept through most of it). We stopped in Atacames to eat some food, which was… well it was sorta a bad experience for me (and my friend Dita). We thought we would share our food, I was going to get pasta with mariscos and she was going to get ceviche because we both hadn’t eaten it yet. The ceviche was good, but we had no idea that the pasta with fish was going to be so massive! And that it was going to have soo many baby squids!! We both sorta lost our apitite after we saw them…and did I mention that there were not one, not two, but three HUGE shrimps. Well I love seafood, but this…this was something that I had never experienced in my life and has made me think twice about seafood. Well after this interesting lunch Dita and I felt a little down, so we went on a hunt for ice cream, which we were able to find, praise the lord. We arrived at our site and the first thing we saw was mud, and more mud and then muddddddd. We were then told that we needed rubber boots because of all the mud we would be walking through...oh yeaa we came during wet season is what we were told, a fact that would have been good to know BEFORE we got there. About 45 minutes later we changed into our shorts, and boots ( they had to lend me some) and off we were to go see the near by town called Bunche. The town is pretty small and pretty poor, most people there live from what they farm and our guide, Andres, explained that this was due to the shrimp bust that really hit the people there and in the surrounding areas. After that pleasant walk we went to the beach, got in, threw mud all over the place, and then headed back to the site. We shower, had dinner with all these German volunteers that were also staying at the biological site, and then headed off to see the very anticipated Ecuador vs. Colombia partido. In case you didn’t know Ecuadorians (I am generalizing) don’t really like Colombians, because the thought is that they bring a lot of the violence over to Ecuador. Well we saw some of the first half and then the Germans came over and invited us to their bonfire, and so we left the game and went to chill by the beach with Germans around a bonfire and then went to sleep.

On our way to the monkeys.

October 9^th:
Once again we had to wake up at 5:45 am, but we were all soo excited to go see monkeys!! We got into a motorboat and went to go see monkey, mangroves, and learn about king tides, the life cycle of shrimps, mangroves and other interesting things about the shrimp farm industry and how the 1989 shrimp bust gravely effected Ecuador’s economy and the lives of the people in these areas. Then we came back to the bus, changed into our bathing suits, had trouble getting the bus driver to leave so we could change (he ended up staying in…) and then got into another boat and went to the island of Muisne. We had dinner and then got into the water and although there was no sun, we had a great time at the beach and some people played soccer with the locals. After words we went to this bar/marimba presentation which was fine, they even asked some of us to dance with them, and then they went to change for the second dance. And this is when things got interesting. The girls came out with short skirts and little tops, and when they started dancing it was pretty sexual and of course I would get picked to dance this one and not the first one. Well it actually wasn’t too bad, we were all laughing until the little 7-year-old boy tells me to get down and lay there. All the girls sort of just looked at each other, and then slowly went down. Once I saw the little boy get down and crawl towards me I laid down and covered my eyes, because I had seen what was going to do down (he was directly on top of me doing a thrusting movement). We all experienced a little cultural shock that night. However, Andres had told us that the number of teenage pregnancy was high here because of the lack of education, but he also pointed out that education was free but most of the people there didn’t really see it’s value. Yeah they could go to school, but then if they wanted to go to college they would have to leave and go to a big city, but how could they pay for that? They couldn’t. So why waste time learning, when they could be helping around the house, get a job, and wait until they meet a guy and reproduce. It was a different side of Ecuador that I value because up till this point we have been in the big city.

MONKEYS!! They actually started to throw their fisis at us...that's when we
decided that we should leave.



These were some of the illegal shrimp farms that we had to walk through to go see the monkeys.

Jameson and I after we had some more breakfast on some beach.

Jamie and Scott on a triciolo in Muisne.



The first presentation of Marimba was really cool.




This girl was the best, she knew how to dance sooo well...I was a tade jealous.

 October 10^th :

One of many pictures we took.

Woke up, ate, and then got on the bus. Now I know it took us about 8 hours to get to Esmeraldas (the region) but it took us about 12 hours to get back to Quito, no joke. In part if was because we kept stopping to get snacks, buy souvenirs in Atacames, food, and bathroom breaks. About 2/3 of the way back we sorta went wild on the bus, and started taking pictures, playing games, and sticking our heads out of the windows. This is more or less around the time that we decided we were close like a family but cooler, hence we became a band! Oh yea, we are tight like una familia but we rock like a band ;) I tried to do some reading, and I was half successful. Anywho once I got home I skyped with my parents, showered, and then hit the sack.

October 13^th:

Elizabeth and Malcolm blowing thier candle!



Well this was Malcolm and Elizabeth’s 21^st cumpleanos!! We decided to go to a Mexican restaurant in El mariscal aka Plaza fosh then went out to dance. We went to El Bungalow and the bouncers were like, “its ladies night” which apparently meant we got in for free, drink were free until 10pm, and we could go to the dance floor. The guys on the other hand, had to go in threw another door, and wait upstiars until 10pm when they were allowed to join the ladies on the dance floor. This was a good night, and the birthday people seemed to have had a great time J

Ummm foood and friends!!



Oh I forgot to mention that I cut my hair!!!!

Me and the birthday boy!!

October 14^th:



I went to go see the office of an organization where I think I am going to do my Integrative Cultural Research Project (ICRP) called Asamblea permanente de derechos humanos (APDH) and the people there were super excited to have me, it also helped that they had a Geneva (a girl from kalamazoo) volunteer there and she did a lot for the organization. I had talked to Geneva and when I told them about that they were like “ you know her? Ahhh that’s good to know” and so I think I definitely have an “in”. I then went to classes until 5pm and then came home ate, and slept until 6am the next day.

October 15^th:



I went to go visit another organization called Fundacion regional de asesoria en derechos humanos, but the people there weren’t as thrilled to see me, and we tried to see if there was enough work for me there and she said she was going to e-mail me and let me know. The next day I check my e-mail and she sent an e-mail saying she didn’t think she had enough time to “train” me and that she would need me to help out with more hours starting this month, but seeing as I still have classes to do I don’t think its going to work out with them. This was another chill night, we went to el mariscal but just chilled at a swarma place and then went home.