¡Hola amigos!
I planned on blogging somewhat regularly before I left for Ecuador. However, tumblr was always in Spanish and I had no idea what was going on. Sad to say, but it took me a month to figure out how to turn it to English.
The whole Spanish thing is getting better. Its pretty liberating and encouraging when you first can understand advertisements, signs, and conversations. Im getting by with broken sentences, many gestures, and the sympathy and patience of others.
My host family is amazing! I live with Olympia, who is around 60 and has 7 children and many grandchildren. Her granddaughter, Maribel, lives with us and is 14. All of the extended family is somewhat close to where we live in San Luis, Cayambe.
Ive been teaching at a primary school in San Luis, which has around 50 students. It goes from grade 1 to 7, and I teach each class for about an hour. Im beginning to get a handle on their names. Theyre all so adorable. Everyone seems to enjoy the song head, shoulders, knees and toes, as well as the various games Ive made up to teach them expressions in English; a common favourite is the emotions, where we act them all out.
Living with me in the surrounding communities of Cayambe are four other Canadian women from Kings: Laura, Emily, Madison, and Michelle. We all went to Banos (a big tourist attraction in Ecuador with natural hot springs) last weekend.
The weekend was filled wih laughter, buses, and more buses. From Cayambe on Thursday, we took one bus to Quito, and stayed the night in Centre del Mundo hostal (¨center of the world¨). We went to this restaurant called Red Hot Chili Peppers, where the food was amazing and they actually played quite a few songs by RHCP. From there, we all headed to this bar where we got 6 giant pilseners for 8 bucks.
Taking advantage of our short time away from our host families (whom we love, but it was nice to explore), we went to another bar which had many flags adorning its walls. We ordered a large fishbowl of sex on the beach; while we were drinking it, we noticed beer pong rules on the wall. We asked about the game, and were directed to a glass covered table with specific circles for glasses and Obama´s face (no idea why Obama was on there). We played a few games while requesting some gems of songs.
On the street, we were handed a ticket for a free drink at this place called ¨No Bar¨. We thought we´d just grab our drink and head out. The place was jumping, and we ended up moving onto the dance floor. Not long after, a guy had asked if we´d dance with his friends. We soon got this bottle game going, where an empty beer bottle is placed in the middle of the circle, and everyone dances over it. Sounds simple, but was such a blast. Ended up dancing until 2 when we figured we should head back to our hostal for a few hours of sleep.
Waking up at 9 on Friday morning was interesting. After 3 hours of sleep, none of us wanted to move let alone take another bus. But since our destination was Banos, we all climbed out of bed and grabbed a cab.
The cab driver took us to the wrong station (it mightve been a misunderstanding). After asking several people, we ended up taking a city bus to get to the proper station. The bus was super crowded; the night before got to us, and Michelle said she was going to be sick. We ran off the bus, and waited for another one to pass by. After the first bus, we grabbed another city bus. Once we got on the bus to Banos, we were happy to finally be on the right track. A few minutes in, and Michelle was hastily asking for a bag. I gave her one, and Laura puked in it. And another. Ohh, travelling.
We ended up making to Banos after 4 hours. We walked to our hostal, Plantas Y Blancos (literally Plants and White). We grabbed lunch at Cafe Good, where I had coffee: BREWED COFFEE. Always a treat. We then explored the town, and Em, Madison, and Laura signed up for rafting the next day.
We had dinner at Cafe Hood, where all of us had 3 dollar sandwiches. While walking around town, we stopped at a street performer who had a large gathering. Seeing gringas (a term for foreigners), the person performing asked where we were from and everything. He asked someone to come up, so Madison went up, the whole time mouthing ¨get me out of here¨. She was a good sport, until the guy asked an audience member to be her boyfriend. We all ran away, laughing at the ridiculousness of everything.
We had a few drinks in our hostal, then Em, Madison and I headed out to find a bar. We ended up at this hole in the wall, which I dont remember the name of, since they were advertising 1.50 large pilseners. After being there 2 minutes, the bartender offered us free shots (which tasted like lighterfluid). Soon after, we were invited to play pool and learn to salsa. We stayed until closing at 3, all proud of our new dancing skills.
The next morning we woke again at 6, this time to head to the famous baths. We went to the bath out of town since there are less tourists and more locals. After some confusion, and managing to pay the child price, we got into the hot baths. The water was amazing.
From there, Michelle, Laura and I went to grab breakfast while Em and Madison caught up on some sleep. We went to Blah Blah Cafe, where we ordered PANCAKES. With ice cream and fruit. So delicious.
We then all parted ways, Em, Laura and Madison for rafting while Michelle and I rented mountain bikes. The guy working at the bike shop gave us a map of where to find the waterfalls, a pump, lock, extra tire and helmets all for $5 each. We hit the road. It was raining, but it was refreshing while we sped down the mountain.
We stopped at the second waterfall to take pictures, and a woman stopped behind us. We introduced ourselves, and she said she was from France, travelling around South America for a few months. Being in her 50s or 60s, she seemed super rad. We asked if we could go explore the waterfall, she said of course, but that she didnt have a lock. We offered to share ours. After locking up our bikes, we climbed down the mountain to the waterfall, crossing an Indian-Jones-esque bridge. Taking many pictures, we climbed back up the mountain and continued to bike down the highway.
At the next waterfall, the hike was long and tiring. The sound of the waterfall hit our ears before we could see it. We kept walking, and saw the powerfull waterfall. To get beside it, one had to climb in a 2 foot space along the mountain, underneath the side. Bracing my closterphobic ways for a pristine picture, Michelle and I crawled through - she compared me to Gollum. Getting a picture, we started our walk back up the mountain.
We caught a truck back to Banos with a couple from Quito. After waiting in traffic for a while, we learned that traffic was stopped for a fiesta and that we´d have to get out and continue back to Banos on our bikes. Michelle commented that this was weird, but the woman from Quito corrected us with ¨no, not weird: this is Ecuador¨. We raced through the traffic on our bikes, when we realized we didnt have a chance to say goodbye to our friend from France. My bike chain broke, we ended up walking our bikes, when we heard a faint ¨Naomi! Michelle¨, and there was our friend! We got to say goodbye.
After making it back to our hostal, we all got ready for a trip to the volcano, hoping to see it spew lava in the dark night. It was cloudy, however, so instead of the lava, we saw a beautiful shot of Banos.
We had some drinks at the hostal, and then headed out to find a good spot for our last night in Banos. We ended up going to Go Bar, where we met up with some of the people we met the night before as well as some of the girls´ rafting guides. We then headed to Leprechaun.
The next morning, we bought our tickets for 10am. After some last minute shopping, we got on the bus. And then another bus. And another. Then the bus from Quito to Cayambe. And lastly, our bus to our neighbouring villages.
If you´ve kept count, I had about 9 hours of sleep the whole 3 nights. We returned back to our host families exhausted but oddly revived.
