david killing his gua gua de pan (bread in the shape of babies that you dip in fruit soup)
emily with her gua gua
when in ecuador??
oh, they love eachother...cute hahaha
my house in quito
crazy people hahaha
more crazy people
Monday, October 27, 2008
random pics+walk to school+ last day at cimas
david killing his gua gua de pan (bread in the shape of babies that you dip in fruit soup) emily with her gua gua when in ecuador??oh, they love eachother...cute hahaha
my house in quito crazy people hahahamore crazy people
Sunday, October 19, 2008
another tirp to tena
exiting the cave
felipe doing who knows what..being felipe
arent we a special group? (im in the back)
I went back to tena this weekend to have an interview with ecobona(the organization I will be interning with. Over half of the cimas kids ended up going (15 of us). Most of us had interviews or meetings with our families. Everything went really well. I am afraid I might not have sufficient education in environmental science for my internship. Well see…i´ll do want I can.
Our first night only 8 of us were there. We arrived at 1 am and got a hostel right outside of the bus station. Next day we switched hostels to be closer to the river. It is freakin hot as hell in tena so we spent a good amount of time swimming in the river napo. There was a rope to swing in on, but only felipe and david used it. I was happy just jumping of the side the island.
At night, once all of us had arrived, we drank a bit and went to a karaoke bar. We ended up being the only ones there beside like 5 other ecuatorians. It was a lot of fun sang some good old classics.
Our last day we went to the caves. This was the best part of the trip. We got a couple flash lights and tour guide who was awesome and way excited about his job. These caves are not touristy like in the US. No lights, not stairs, no one holding your hand…ok the guide had to do that once in awhile. But it was still awesome. We got to swim through some parts, squeeze through others, and climb around, over and under till we reached the other end. The exit was beautiful. We climbed up some rocks into the lush green forest in the middle of a rainstorm. The walk back was an adventure in itself. The rain made the hillside muddy and slippery. Almost everyone had a wipe out at some point.
After we split into groups of 4 and hitched back to quito. My group got to go most of the way in a comfortable SUV, with an awesome couple that bought us manjar. we hadn’t eaten all day and feasted on a two litter jug of yogurt and a block of cheese. I got hope and crashed immediately after dinner.
Our first night only 8 of us were there. We arrived at 1 am and got a hostel right outside of the bus station. Next day we switched hostels to be closer to the river. It is freakin hot as hell in tena so we spent a good amount of time swimming in the river napo. There was a rope to swing in on, but only felipe and david used it. I was happy just jumping of the side the island.
At night, once all of us had arrived, we drank a bit and went to a karaoke bar. We ended up being the only ones there beside like 5 other ecuatorians. It was a lot of fun sang some good old classics.
Our last day we went to the caves. This was the best part of the trip. We got a couple flash lights and tour guide who was awesome and way excited about his job. These caves are not touristy like in the US. No lights, not stairs, no one holding your hand…ok the guide had to do that once in awhile. But it was still awesome. We got to swim through some parts, squeeze through others, and climb around, over and under till we reached the other end. The exit was beautiful. We climbed up some rocks into the lush green forest in the middle of a rainstorm. The walk back was an adventure in itself. The rain made the hillside muddy and slippery. Almost everyone had a wipe out at some point.
After we split into groups of 4 and hitched back to quito. My group got to go most of the way in a comfortable SUV, with an awesome couple that bought us manjar. we hadn’t eaten all day and feasted on a two litter jug of yogurt and a block of cheese. I got hope and crashed immediately after dinner.
Monday, October 13, 2008
beach, northern ecuador
my host dad and i made a friend while walking on the beach
never seen a tree like this
these crabs are everywhere! i stepped on one and killed it :(..but not this one
Most of this trip was spent hanging out on the beach, swimming, playing cards, and drinking beer with my host fam. Pretty relaxed.
The northern coast is mostly afro ecuatoriano. This is because a slave ship crashed there at some point. Interesting story. Interesting place. i really liked the people and the atmosphere. Very friendly and relaxed. Pretty much like any coastal population I think. People that live by beaches just seem to be more chilled out. Hahaha
here are some more pics from the beach
Monday, October 6, 2008
after tena time
ahhh!!! pretty... our 5km walk back. sucks doesnt it?
climbing the waterfall
so they decided to jump in. not like it wasnt a moutain lake that was freakin freezing...wait..yes it was. silly kids.
it was 6am and very very coldat the end of our trip to tena not a single one of us wanted to go back to quito because, well we dont really like quito. so we had our prof drop us off at a little mountain town called papallacta that is know for its hot baths. image a sound of music setting and that is almost how beautiful this place was. we were starting to run out of money so instead of taking a taxi truck to the hostel we walked the two km up hill. this town is higher than quito so the attitude is killer going up hill with a pack, not mention i am kinda out of shape. the first hostel we looked into we stayed at. we had to take there “simple” rooms cause they were the cheapest. $10 a night, included the thermal pools. another gorgeous hostel. it was much colder here than in tena so the hot baths were awesome. there were three to choose from. one outside where you could see the stars, a lager indoor one, and another indoor one that was really warm and a more romantic setting. haha
we spent most of our night relaxing in the hottest bath.
we woke up at 530 the next morning to go on a hike in la reserva cayambe in el paramo, which is at a very high altitude. i am glad we went in the morning. it was a a lot of hiking and cool enough to not sweat buckets. we also got a beautiful view of a snow covered mountain. we hiked to the lagoons and a waterfall. to get to the water fall we had to go a little off the path and the land up there acts like a sponge so we got pretty muddy. the did little rock climbing to get the waterfall.
again we did not want to pay for a taxi back to the hostel so we waked the 5 km from the nature reserve. luckily it was down hill most of the. we got back to the hostel by 1010 am ate breakfast and waked to the the highway to catch a bus back to quito. i got home and crashed a 7pm. now i am back in quito writing papers for a fews days. thursady i am heading to the coast.
we spent most of our night relaxing in the hottest bath.
we woke up at 530 the next morning to go on a hike in la reserva cayambe in el paramo, which is at a very high altitude. i am glad we went in the morning. it was a a lot of hiking and cool enough to not sweat buckets. we also got a beautiful view of a snow covered mountain. we hiked to the lagoons and a waterfall. to get to the water fall we had to go a little off the path and the land up there acts like a sponge so we got pretty muddy. the did little rock climbing to get the waterfall.
again we did not want to pay for a taxi back to the hostel so we waked the 5 km from the nature reserve. luckily it was down hill most of the. we got back to the hostel by 1010 am ate breakfast and waked to the the highway to catch a bus back to quito. i got home and crashed a 7pm. now i am back in quito writing papers for a fews days. thursady i am heading to the coast.
tena time
shooting darts
basket weaving
home sweet home
green!
eating fruit on the farm, and yes we are in the middle of a farm at this pointJust got back from a four day trip to el oriente. also known as the freakin amazon rain forest!
the environmental track students, all 5 of us, got to go to the amazon area for our observation trip. i
we stayed on an organic farm with out lights or running water. we visited two indigenous communities and learned a lot of their hardships fighting against oil companies, loggers, and other large companies.
the rain forest is what one would expect. really hot, really humid, and had some of the biggest f'ing bugs i have ever seen in my life.
the people are unbelievably nice though. such as welcome change from quito. especially the indigenous communities were so inclusive. i never expected to feel so welcome.
so i think i will be doing my internship in an indigenous community for 5 weeks helping with agriculture and tourism. i have never gone 5 weeks with out running water or electricity. i am a little worried about that, but bathing in a river cant be that bad right? i have to get used to the food though. the eat yuca, bananas and fish mostly. the yuca and bananas i totally cool with. but it will take me awhile to get used to being served a whole fish, and eventually i will have to learn to eat the head of the fish as well. it was a challenge enough for me to remove the spine. so i'm a wimp, I'll get over it. but i really hope this internship possibility works out. it would be an amazing opportunity.
the environmental track students, all 5 of us, got to go to the amazon area for our observation trip. i
we stayed on an organic farm with out lights or running water. we visited two indigenous communities and learned a lot of their hardships fighting against oil companies, loggers, and other large companies.
the rain forest is what one would expect. really hot, really humid, and had some of the biggest f'ing bugs i have ever seen in my life.
the people are unbelievably nice though. such as welcome change from quito. especially the indigenous communities were so inclusive. i never expected to feel so welcome.
so i think i will be doing my internship in an indigenous community for 5 weeks helping with agriculture and tourism. i have never gone 5 weeks with out running water or electricity. i am a little worried about that, but bathing in a river cant be that bad right? i have to get used to the food though. the eat yuca, bananas and fish mostly. the yuca and bananas i totally cool with. but it will take me awhile to get used to being served a whole fish, and eventually i will have to learn to eat the head of the fish as well. it was a challenge enough for me to remove the spine. so i'm a wimp, I'll get over it. but i really hope this internship possibility works out. it would be an amazing opportunity.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
trip to mindo
so i am a bit behind on this blog thing. sorry bout that. semester is kicking into to gear here as i am sure it is back in the states as well. ton of papers and readings. some things you cant escape no matter where you are.
despite this i am still having awesome weekend trips. i will try to sum up trips the best i can.
the weekend of the 27 i went to mindo, which is about 2 hours from quito. It is kinda a smaller version of banos. much smaller. the bus ride there was hell. the driver sped around mountain curves the whole time. i don't think the road ever got straight. by the time we got there i was about two seconds from hurling and was really shaky until we sat and drank a pitcher of lemonade from the nearest cafe.
we were greeted by a man that wanted us to go to his hostel. on the way to his we were intercepted by a woman who wanted us to go to hers instead. we checked out the dudes hostel. it was a little sketch. no locks on the doors were the main turn off. so we walked the 5 min outside town to the womans hostel, which was beautiful. $7 dollars a night with breakfast. kinda a summer camp set up with bunk beds on the top floor, but with a room with a lock included.
we decided to take it. there we 5 of us that came on he bus and we were expecting 3 more to be coming via hitch hiking. so there were plenty of beds and we got a deck with hammocks and beautiful few of the selva.
we soon learned that not 3 more but 8 more had decided to hitch hike to mindo. the owner of the hostel (Claudia) had no issues with 8 more people coming to stay at her hostel.
the hostel was so awesome. there were so many cool people there. this dude had been staying for a month from France, but he lived in Spain, and was now in Ecuador to start a coffee plantation. there were also people from Spain, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand.
on top of this there were a pack of the cutest dogs ever that we could actually play with, and a little kitty the dude from France found in the forest, and a duck pond.
at night the owner got us some cheap beers, even thought it was a dry weekend cause of the vote, and we sat around with some of these international peps and talked until 2 or 3 and ended the night in giant massage circle.
during the day the first five us went zip lining though the canopy at an awesome place that would let you go upside down. after that we went tubing down a river. there were too many rocks to go fast, but it was a nice relaxing tour down a river nonetheless.
The next day Trent, Sally, and i went on a walk through the rain forest with the new Zealand couple. the walk was four hours and passed by 8 waterfalls. before we left Claudia told us it was like and Indiana Jones hike. soon enough i understood her reasoning. we walked over those iffy wood plank type bridges and used ropes to balance by ledges on steep trails, and even did a little rock climbing over tiny waterfalls to get to the bigger ones.
the walk was exhausting, but well worth with. the waterfalls and rain forest were gorgeous.
the butterfly
superman
ready to go tubing
our tubing guide
oh yeah, hammocks in the hostel
puppies!!!
getting ready to zip line
the zip lining crew with the guide
despite this i am still having awesome weekend trips. i will try to sum up trips the best i can.
the weekend of the 27 i went to mindo, which is about 2 hours from quito. It is kinda a smaller version of banos. much smaller. the bus ride there was hell. the driver sped around mountain curves the whole time. i don't think the road ever got straight. by the time we got there i was about two seconds from hurling and was really shaky until we sat and drank a pitcher of lemonade from the nearest cafe.
we were greeted by a man that wanted us to go to his hostel. on the way to his we were intercepted by a woman who wanted us to go to hers instead. we checked out the dudes hostel. it was a little sketch. no locks on the doors were the main turn off. so we walked the 5 min outside town to the womans hostel, which was beautiful. $7 dollars a night with breakfast. kinda a summer camp set up with bunk beds on the top floor, but with a room with a lock included.
we decided to take it. there we 5 of us that came on he bus and we were expecting 3 more to be coming via hitch hiking. so there were plenty of beds and we got a deck with hammocks and beautiful few of the selva.
we soon learned that not 3 more but 8 more had decided to hitch hike to mindo. the owner of the hostel (Claudia) had no issues with 8 more people coming to stay at her hostel.
the hostel was so awesome. there were so many cool people there. this dude had been staying for a month from France, but he lived in Spain, and was now in Ecuador to start a coffee plantation. there were also people from Spain, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand.
on top of this there were a pack of the cutest dogs ever that we could actually play with, and a little kitty the dude from France found in the forest, and a duck pond.
at night the owner got us some cheap beers, even thought it was a dry weekend cause of the vote, and we sat around with some of these international peps and talked until 2 or 3 and ended the night in giant massage circle.
during the day the first five us went zip lining though the canopy at an awesome place that would let you go upside down. after that we went tubing down a river. there were too many rocks to go fast, but it was a nice relaxing tour down a river nonetheless.
The next day Trent, Sally, and i went on a walk through the rain forest with the new Zealand couple. the walk was four hours and passed by 8 waterfalls. before we left Claudia told us it was like and Indiana Jones hike. soon enough i understood her reasoning. we walked over those iffy wood plank type bridges and used ropes to balance by ledges on steep trails, and even did a little rock climbing over tiny waterfalls to get to the bigger ones.
the walk was exhausting, but well worth with. the waterfalls and rain forest were gorgeous.
the butterfly
superman
ready to go tubing
our tubing guide
oh yeah, hammocks in the hostel
puppies!!!
getting ready to zip line
the zip lining crew with the guide
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