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| Orchids |
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| More orchids |
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| This is what a pineapple plant looks like! |
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| Still more orchids |
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| This room was an insects nightmare, full of carnivorous plants, like these lovely pitcher plants. |
Friday, September 28, 2012
Botanical Gardens
Past Sunday was an opportunity to see some of the beautiful attractions in Quito, namely the Botanical Gardens. We spent the day walking through the park La Carolina, which is really a beautiful park in its own right, and a wonderful place to spend an afternoon. But the real reason we were there was to visit the gem hidden inside the park, a lovely little botanical garden. The trip was a lot of fun, and the gardens were quite beautiful. They are able to pack a ton of vegetation into a very small area, and display a stunning variety of plant climates. From Amazon to desert, with 365 days a year of sunshine and warm weather it's pretty easy to make a nice garden. I really just wanted to write this to share some of my favorite photos from the trip, so here they are:
Today's word is... Salsa!
This past weekend was spent enjoying beautiful Quito. On Saturday we attended the birthday party of our host Mom Veronica. This had the facade of a simple, classy, boring dinner party. Complete with with Ramada Conference Room B level catering and awkward dry conversation, but that huge dance floor speaker in the corner belied more sinister intentions. And indeed once the plates were cleared and small talk fizzled out the music came on. And in a matter of about 10 minutes the house turned into a hot Latin dance club, hips in full swing. This vodka fueled dance party lasted until about 2AM and actually turned out to be much more fun than I had expected. My program director Maria showed up, and it turns out that she was the life of the party. A full on Latin mama, Maria was stomping those boots and swinging those hips long after most people had collapsed from exhaustion.
One thing about the party that really surprised me was just how stereotypically Latin everything was. I have to give kudos to American comedy shows, because they really are not far off on their Latin American impressions. The title of this post comes from a classic bit on the Colbert Report, where Stephen interviews his Latin-American counterpart, Esteban Colberto, host of the Reportero Colberto Gigante! And his character was pretty spot on, I would say 75% of the guys at the party looked and acted exactly like his impression. I didn't take any pictures from the party, as I didn't want to be that kid standing around snapping photos of other people dancing. So I've added a still from the Reportero Colberto Gigante to give you an idea of what the party looked like. For your reference I have included a link to the bit (Here).
One thing about the party that really surprised me was just how stereotypically Latin everything was. I have to give kudos to American comedy shows, because they really are not far off on their Latin American impressions. The title of this post comes from a classic bit on the Colbert Report, where Stephen interviews his Latin-American counterpart, Esteban Colberto, host of the Reportero Colberto Gigante! And his character was pretty spot on, I would say 75% of the guys at the party looked and acted exactly like his impression. I didn't take any pictures from the party, as I didn't want to be that kid standing around snapping photos of other people dancing. So I've added a still from the Reportero Colberto Gigante to give you an idea of what the party looked like. For your reference I have included a link to the bit (Here).
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| The best facsimile of a picture from the party. |
School's In
This week marked my one month anniversary of work at Escuela Aliñambi, so I thought I might share a little about the school and what I do there. For those of you unaware, Aliñambi is the school at which I am currently doing my volunteer work for the foundation. It is called an "Escuela-Jardín Particular Mixta" This means essentially that it is part orphanage, part school, and part farm. The school is for children from the ages of 4-12 (except for the one kid that I swear is either 14 or on steroids) and for most purposes functions like a regular school. Class goes from 7:30AM until 12:30PM with an hour for lunch/recess. Kids learn history, reading, writing, speaking, art, and all of the other basics you should get from elementary school. There is one catch however: remember that "orphanage" part from before, well that is what makes Aliñambi a little different. The children that go there are all in some sort of situation that prevents them from going to public school (usually fairly expensive in Ecuador.) Dead parents, extremely poor families (can't afford food poor), and street children are all very common at Aliñambi. As you might imagine this makes those basic elementary school skills much harder to teach. Most of the kids have absolutely zero education before they enter the school. Many of them do not speak very well, and even the older children often cannot read or write.
More importantly though from the perspective of an educator is the fact that the children have no discipline whatsoever. And who can blame them? It's not their fault that to survive they have focused more on how to steal from figures of authority than how to respect them. To give an example, on my second week there I was asked by the director of the school to "teach some basic English and watch" the second graders for a couple of hours because the teacher had to leave. So there I am alone with a class of 20 six-year-olds who have never met me before and are difficult to control under normal circumstances. Needless to say that it was a complete train wreck. After the first 5 minute honeymoon period they were completely impossible to control. It takes a surprisingly short amount of time for kids to realize that they can take advantage of someone three times their age. So I spent the next 2 hours playing firefighter, just trying to prevent as much damage as possible. Only in this situation it was like fighting a forest fire with a water pistol. For about 30 minutes I was able to keep most of them interested with puzzles (throwing the pieces at each other, not solving them) and reading books (looking at the pictures.) During this period I only had a couple of kids try to fight or escape by climbing out the window. For the last hour however, I was the captain of the Hindenburg. It was all I could do to keep the kids from killing each other, and I wasn't even very successful in that regard. Note: lets keep in mind that these are kids who don't even speak Spanish very well and I would not consider myself fluent in street-child Spanish so I couldn't understand half of what they were saying. Anyways, during that last hour the kids managed to turn the room into what looked like an atomic bomb test site; they destroyed a class project model of the school, two kids escaped through the window, and one kid punched another girl in the face and her nose started bleeding.
Of course I cannot blame the kids for this (well maybe a little), I blame the woman who thought it would be a good idea to put an eighteen-year-old volunteer with no teaching experience in charge of 20 six-year-olds for two hours. Aside from that experience however the school is not all bad. My duties there are basically to say a few basic things in English when I can (good morning, hello) and to act as a teacher's aid for kindergarten. I am starting to develop the eyes in the back of my head that are a prerequisite to being a kindergarten teacher, and I'm getting very good at telling kids to stop fighting and cut it out... but that doesn't always help. Sometimes the kids are just a real pain in the ass. And yes, I realize the irony that you can catch me as a child on the premiere of "America's Most Annoying Children" coming to TLC this spring. I certainly have a whole new respect for any teacher of young children anywhere, it takes some special form of masochism to want to devote your life to trying to control a bunch of little feral, rabid, energy-sucking monsters.
I have to say though, this experience is certainly an excellent stepping stone and learning opportunity to prepare for my next project: Wild Animal caretaker in the Amazon.
More importantly though from the perspective of an educator is the fact that the children have no discipline whatsoever. And who can blame them? It's not their fault that to survive they have focused more on how to steal from figures of authority than how to respect them. To give an example, on my second week there I was asked by the director of the school to "teach some basic English and watch" the second graders for a couple of hours because the teacher had to leave. So there I am alone with a class of 20 six-year-olds who have never met me before and are difficult to control under normal circumstances. Needless to say that it was a complete train wreck. After the first 5 minute honeymoon period they were completely impossible to control. It takes a surprisingly short amount of time for kids to realize that they can take advantage of someone three times their age. So I spent the next 2 hours playing firefighter, just trying to prevent as much damage as possible. Only in this situation it was like fighting a forest fire with a water pistol. For about 30 minutes I was able to keep most of them interested with puzzles (throwing the pieces at each other, not solving them) and reading books (looking at the pictures.) During this period I only had a couple of kids try to fight or escape by climbing out the window. For the last hour however, I was the captain of the Hindenburg. It was all I could do to keep the kids from killing each other, and I wasn't even very successful in that regard. Note: lets keep in mind that these are kids who don't even speak Spanish very well and I would not consider myself fluent in street-child Spanish so I couldn't understand half of what they were saying. Anyways, during that last hour the kids managed to turn the room into what looked like an atomic bomb test site; they destroyed a class project model of the school, two kids escaped through the window, and one kid punched another girl in the face and her nose started bleeding.
Of course I cannot blame the kids for this (well maybe a little), I blame the woman who thought it would be a good idea to put an eighteen-year-old volunteer with no teaching experience in charge of 20 six-year-olds for two hours. Aside from that experience however the school is not all bad. My duties there are basically to say a few basic things in English when I can (good morning, hello) and to act as a teacher's aid for kindergarten. I am starting to develop the eyes in the back of my head that are a prerequisite to being a kindergarten teacher, and I'm getting very good at telling kids to stop fighting and cut it out... but that doesn't always help. Sometimes the kids are just a real pain in the ass. And yes, I realize the irony that you can catch me as a child on the premiere of "America's Most Annoying Children" coming to TLC this spring. I certainly have a whole new respect for any teacher of young children anywhere, it takes some special form of masochism to want to devote your life to trying to control a bunch of little feral, rabid, energy-sucking monsters.
I have to say though, this experience is certainly an excellent stepping stone and learning opportunity to prepare for my next project: Wild Animal caretaker in the Amazon.
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Dinner is Served
I figured since it's been about 3 weeks now I should make a post about the food here. As far as Ecuadorian cuisine goes there's good news and bad news. The good news is, just about everything I've eaten here has been delicious. The bad news is, this is not the place to come if you're on Atkins. Seriously, any dieter here would be well and truly screwed. The reason being that 90% of the Ecuadorian diet is made up of simple starches. Every single meal is is built around rice, and has an accompanying starch as well, sometimes two or three. You really will not lack for carbs here, let me paint you a picture of a typical menu.
Breakfast: White roll with jam (starch), banana (starch+sugar), instant milk with instant coffee (more on this later)
Lunch: Soup with two or three of the following, rice, yuca, potato, noodles, beans, corn (all starch)
Main Dish is two cups of rice (starch), beef with a sauce, some kind of potato (starch)
Dinner: Same soup as lunch (starch)
Main dish is two cups of rice (starch), pasta (starch), and chicken with sauce
I'm not exaggerating here either. They really love their rice... Literally every single meal is a mountain of rice with potatoes or noodles or yuca. Sometimes I have nightmares of suffocating under a giant pile of rice. Here are just a few of my favorite meals that I've had in the house. Dinner one night was rice soup, followed by rice and pasta with cheese sauce. Lunch one day was yuca and potato soup, followed by a massive plate of rice fried up with corn and beans. Oh and then there's the all famous noodle soup with french fries in it... yes they put french fries in their soup, don't ask me why, all it does is turn into a soggy potato sponge. When you're really lucky, they make plantains, which are absolutely delicious... but they're still just starch.
Of course there are many many other things that Ecuador does very well, or very poorly for that matter. I'm going to list here some oddities/highlights of the Ecuadorian food scene that I've found so far.
1.) Everything is instant. Ecuadorians are obsessed with instant milk and instant coffee. Yes that's right, in a country that produces some of the worlds finest coffee you will be hard pressed to find anything other than freeze dried crystals from the mega-mart. Seriously, even at 95% of the cafes and restaurants in Quito you cannot find real Ecuadorian coffee. I recently asked a tour guide in town if he knew of a cafe in Quito or a store where I could get some good domestic coffee and he was honestly stumped by the question, I never got an answer. Chocolate is the same way. There is one company in Ecuador (Republica de Cacao) that sells good Ecuadorian chocolate, the only catch being that they charge more than $5 for a bar (in Ecuador $5 would be like paying $20 in the states.) The worst part is that Ecuador is world renowned for producing some of the finest coffee and chocolate; in Europe and the States you will find their products in the most gourmet upscale food shops and restaurants, but good luck finding it 20 miles from the farm. The reason for all this apparently is that almost all of the domestic gourmet food products from Ecuador are exported. So anywhere in Europe or the States you can find top-notch organic Ecuadorian coffee and chocolate for reasonable prices, whereas in Ecuador you are forced to cough up $5.50 for a little bar of chocolate or enjoy the bitter metallic taste of CAFE ORO instant espresso.
2.) Alcohol in Ecuador is an issue. There are two types of beer here, both of which taste like sweaty fermented bathwater, and the wine isn't much better (think tin-foil mixed with old tomatoes and spiked with some rubbing alcohol.) Of course if you want you can purchase imported wine, beer, or spirits, you will just have to pay more than double what you would in the States or Europe. The same good Chilean or Argentinean wine that costs $12 in the States should cost much less here right? After all, they're so close. Well think again, those bottles will set you back up to $30 here. The reason for this being that Ecuador has extremely high taxes on imported food products (the same reason Nutella is $10 per jar.) Unfortunately for people living here the imitation food companies haven't really figured out how to copy good beer or wine yet, so you're stuck with a hole in your pocket or a hole in your gut, the choice is yours. That brings me to my next point however...
3.) Enjoy tasty Tostitos! No I did not misspell that. Because of the very high taxes on imported food, many imitation food companies have arisen to create products that are "similar" to foreign brands, while still being made in Ecuador. That is why if you walk through the super market you will see such well known brands as Tostitos corn chips, Rufles potato chips, Magnem ice cream, and Carnatien instant milk. You see, by changing just one letter of the brand name and using similar packaging, these companies can piggy-back off of the international marketing campaigns while still getting the "Mucho Mejor si es Hecho en Ecuador!" seal of approval (and tax break that comes with it.)
4.) Here's one upside of living in a hot climate without air conditioning: ice cream. Every day from 11AM until 3PM it gets blistering hot in the sun. To combat this issue, ice cream shops have popped up all over the place, and they know what they're doing. These are the kind of places that would charge $5 for a cone in the States, here you get the same quality for $1.50. And of course you have the benefit of being in a tropical climate, which brings flavors such as Passion Fruit and Guava into just about every shop. Speaking of which...
5.) Passion fruit and guava... Oh. My. God. Most certainly the best thing about Ecuadorian food is the fruit. Vegetables are not such a big deal here (see rice.) But when it comes to fruit, they don't mess around. The ice creams, jams, smoothies, and juices, wow... oh man the juices are amazing. At almost every meal you are served a fresh squeezed juice, and it is the best part of the day. Blackberries, nectarines, passion fruit, mandarins, kiwi, cherry, pineapple, guayabana, borojo, tomate de arbol, and then the one and only: guava. Guava is really hard to describe, suffice to say that guava juice, jam, ice cream, and smoothies make up about 50% of my fruit intake (the other 50% being passion fruit/blackberry.) However many pounds I have left on my suitcase going home will be stuffed with guava jam I'm sure.
6.) One final thing. Manjar de Leche, look it up. This has become my latest addiction and it's a bad one. I went to the store the other day and literally bought all of the Manjar de Leche they had in stock (3 kilos.) In one sitting I eat about 300g of this stuff... and that's not good, considering that it's meant as a condiment. Manjar is a type of Dulce de Leche or caramel. It's think, dark, rich, complex, and too good to be true. It's meant to be used as a topping for desserts or spread on biscuits, but I just eat it with a spoon. This one may be competing with the guava jam for space in my bags.
Well I know this was a long post so thanks to anyone who read it. Buen Provecho!
Breakfast: White roll with jam (starch), banana (starch+sugar), instant milk with instant coffee (more on this later)
Lunch: Soup with two or three of the following, rice, yuca, potato, noodles, beans, corn (all starch)
Main Dish is two cups of rice (starch), beef with a sauce, some kind of potato (starch)
Dinner: Same soup as lunch (starch)
Main dish is two cups of rice (starch), pasta (starch), and chicken with sauce
I'm not exaggerating here either. They really love their rice... Literally every single meal is a mountain of rice with potatoes or noodles or yuca. Sometimes I have nightmares of suffocating under a giant pile of rice. Here are just a few of my favorite meals that I've had in the house. Dinner one night was rice soup, followed by rice and pasta with cheese sauce. Lunch one day was yuca and potato soup, followed by a massive plate of rice fried up with corn and beans. Oh and then there's the all famous noodle soup with french fries in it... yes they put french fries in their soup, don't ask me why, all it does is turn into a soggy potato sponge. When you're really lucky, they make plantains, which are absolutely delicious... but they're still just starch.
Of course there are many many other things that Ecuador does very well, or very poorly for that matter. I'm going to list here some oddities/highlights of the Ecuadorian food scene that I've found so far.
1.) Everything is instant. Ecuadorians are obsessed with instant milk and instant coffee. Yes that's right, in a country that produces some of the worlds finest coffee you will be hard pressed to find anything other than freeze dried crystals from the mega-mart. Seriously, even at 95% of the cafes and restaurants in Quito you cannot find real Ecuadorian coffee. I recently asked a tour guide in town if he knew of a cafe in Quito or a store where I could get some good domestic coffee and he was honestly stumped by the question, I never got an answer. Chocolate is the same way. There is one company in Ecuador (Republica de Cacao) that sells good Ecuadorian chocolate, the only catch being that they charge more than $5 for a bar (in Ecuador $5 would be like paying $20 in the states.) The worst part is that Ecuador is world renowned for producing some of the finest coffee and chocolate; in Europe and the States you will find their products in the most gourmet upscale food shops and restaurants, but good luck finding it 20 miles from the farm. The reason for all this apparently is that almost all of the domestic gourmet food products from Ecuador are exported. So anywhere in Europe or the States you can find top-notch organic Ecuadorian coffee and chocolate for reasonable prices, whereas in Ecuador you are forced to cough up $5.50 for a little bar of chocolate or enjoy the bitter metallic taste of CAFE ORO instant espresso.
2.) Alcohol in Ecuador is an issue. There are two types of beer here, both of which taste like sweaty fermented bathwater, and the wine isn't much better (think tin-foil mixed with old tomatoes and spiked with some rubbing alcohol.) Of course if you want you can purchase imported wine, beer, or spirits, you will just have to pay more than double what you would in the States or Europe. The same good Chilean or Argentinean wine that costs $12 in the States should cost much less here right? After all, they're so close. Well think again, those bottles will set you back up to $30 here. The reason for this being that Ecuador has extremely high taxes on imported food products (the same reason Nutella is $10 per jar.) Unfortunately for people living here the imitation food companies haven't really figured out how to copy good beer or wine yet, so you're stuck with a hole in your pocket or a hole in your gut, the choice is yours. That brings me to my next point however...
3.) Enjoy tasty Tostitos! No I did not misspell that. Because of the very high taxes on imported food, many imitation food companies have arisen to create products that are "similar" to foreign brands, while still being made in Ecuador. That is why if you walk through the super market you will see such well known brands as Tostitos corn chips, Rufles potato chips, Magnem ice cream, and Carnatien instant milk. You see, by changing just one letter of the brand name and using similar packaging, these companies can piggy-back off of the international marketing campaigns while still getting the "Mucho Mejor si es Hecho en Ecuador!" seal of approval (and tax break that comes with it.)
4.) Here's one upside of living in a hot climate without air conditioning: ice cream. Every day from 11AM until 3PM it gets blistering hot in the sun. To combat this issue, ice cream shops have popped up all over the place, and they know what they're doing. These are the kind of places that would charge $5 for a cone in the States, here you get the same quality for $1.50. And of course you have the benefit of being in a tropical climate, which brings flavors such as Passion Fruit and Guava into just about every shop. Speaking of which...
5.) Passion fruit and guava... Oh. My. God. Most certainly the best thing about Ecuadorian food is the fruit. Vegetables are not such a big deal here (see rice.) But when it comes to fruit, they don't mess around. The ice creams, jams, smoothies, and juices, wow... oh man the juices are amazing. At almost every meal you are served a fresh squeezed juice, and it is the best part of the day. Blackberries, nectarines, passion fruit, mandarins, kiwi, cherry, pineapple, guayabana, borojo, tomate de arbol, and then the one and only: guava. Guava is really hard to describe, suffice to say that guava juice, jam, ice cream, and smoothies make up about 50% of my fruit intake (the other 50% being passion fruit/blackberry.) However many pounds I have left on my suitcase going home will be stuffed with guava jam I'm sure.
6.) One final thing. Manjar de Leche, look it up. This has become my latest addiction and it's a bad one. I went to the store the other day and literally bought all of the Manjar de Leche they had in stock (3 kilos.) In one sitting I eat about 300g of this stuff... and that's not good, considering that it's meant as a condiment. Manjar is a type of Dulce de Leche or caramel. It's think, dark, rich, complex, and too good to be true. It's meant to be used as a topping for desserts or spread on biscuits, but I just eat it with a spoon. This one may be competing with the guava jam for space in my bags.
Well I know this was a long post so thanks to anyone who read it. Buen Provecho!
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Middle of the World / Old Town
On our way home from Mitad del Mundo we stopped in the Old Town of Quito to do a little self guided walking tour of some of the architecture and cathedrals there. In short, it was a really cool walk. We got to see several plaza's and old government buildings with colonial style architecture. The Arabic influences were noticeable, and the preservation was outstanding. But the most enjoyable part was getting to see all of the amazing cathedrals. I've never been one for church, but I have to admit that I wouldn't mind spending a couple of hours listening to a priest go on about Jesus if it meant I got to sit in these churches. They really are outstanding, and the couple pictures that I got do not do them justice (I guess you'll just have to come see them for yourselves, too bad.) One in particular is something everyone should see: The Compania de Jesus is supposedly the richest church in the world. On their information it says that every square centimeter of the inside is covered with 24 carot gold leaf. I was only able to snap one picture before they told me "NO PHOTOS!" but I've provided a link to some pictures so you can get an idea of what it's like (Here). It's so breathtaking I actually thought about taking more pictures anyways, but I was afraid some old nun would come up and whack my knuckles with a ruler.
In other news I'm pretty sure that I've picked up some bichos during my stay. For those of you not familiar with the word "bichos" let me just say that I will no longer be traveling alone. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I will be bringing some friends home with me, friends that I'm sure my doctor would not be very happy to meet.
Here are a few pictures from the day:
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| Me at the fake Mitad del Mundo |
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| The view of Cotopaxi from the top of the monument |
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| The view of Cayambe from the top of the monument |
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| Me at the real Equator, one foot in the North, one in the South |
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| I believe this is the Monestario de San Fransisco |
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| The only picture I got of the Compania de Jesus |
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| Inside the Monestario de San Fransisco |
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| Look closely in the background to see the Virgin of Quito perched atop the city |
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| A close up of the Virgin (or so she says.. I don't buy it. With wings like that you can't keep the boys away.) |
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Jump!
This post is dedicated to the Van Halen classic Jump, for reasons which I will explain later... here's a link to the song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlq0lYB3iSM) Warning: Watching this video may cause spontaneous 80's hair, the urge to wear leather pants, and/or nightmares of men doing splits in skinny jeans.
Still on a jungle high from the Amazon, we decided to do a day trip to the Mindo cloud forest this Wednesday. Talk about a paradise... Mindo truly looks like something out of a movie. It is one of the most biodiverse spots in the world and a top birdwatching destination. Anyone visiting Ecuador must plan a trip to Mindo, it boasts over 450 species of birds, a butterfly garden, an orchid garden, canopy ziplining, a chocolate factory, and of course our propose for this trip: the waterfalls. Having only about 5 hours in Mindo (much too short a time) we decided to hike through the 6 waterfalls trail. These are big cascades, many of which you can bathe/swim in, but my personal favorite was the Cascada de Nambilla for one simple reason: you can jump.
I had no intention of jumping when we arrived, in fact I didn't even bring a swim suit (dumb.) But once we were there and I saw the fall I thought "When am I ever going to have this opportunity again." So I climbed up to the ledge above the falls and observed the drop. There was one local jumping already so I asked him if I would break my legs and he said "probably not".... so with that reassurance I thought "Viva la vida!" and went for it. I have a video of the jump. Now in the video it doesn't look like that big of a fall, but believe me, from up there it looked quite high, and it was. Turns out it's about a 10 meter (~35 feet) drop. As a point of reference for those of you at home, that's the height of the very top diving platform at the outdoor natatorium... the one you're not allowed to go off of. Also, when I was actually jumping I imagined myself taking a deep breath and then running and leaping off of the ledge like an action hero... In reality I kind of just waddled up to the edge and hopped off timidly, not the coolest looking thing, but at least I did it (twice actually, it was really fun.)
I have tons of pictures that I'm going to try to get uploaded to the flickr, for now I'll just upload the best ones here.
Still on a jungle high from the Amazon, we decided to do a day trip to the Mindo cloud forest this Wednesday. Talk about a paradise... Mindo truly looks like something out of a movie. It is one of the most biodiverse spots in the world and a top birdwatching destination. Anyone visiting Ecuador must plan a trip to Mindo, it boasts over 450 species of birds, a butterfly garden, an orchid garden, canopy ziplining, a chocolate factory, and of course our propose for this trip: the waterfalls. Having only about 5 hours in Mindo (much too short a time) we decided to hike through the 6 waterfalls trail. These are big cascades, many of which you can bathe/swim in, but my personal favorite was the Cascada de Nambilla for one simple reason: you can jump.
I had no intention of jumping when we arrived, in fact I didn't even bring a swim suit (dumb.) But once we were there and I saw the fall I thought "When am I ever going to have this opportunity again." So I climbed up to the ledge above the falls and observed the drop. There was one local jumping already so I asked him if I would break my legs and he said "probably not".... so with that reassurance I thought "Viva la vida!" and went for it. I have a video of the jump. Now in the video it doesn't look like that big of a fall, but believe me, from up there it looked quite high, and it was. Turns out it's about a 10 meter (~35 feet) drop. As a point of reference for those of you at home, that's the height of the very top diving platform at the outdoor natatorium... the one you're not allowed to go off of. Also, when I was actually jumping I imagined myself taking a deep breath and then running and leaping off of the ledge like an action hero... In reality I kind of just waddled up to the edge and hopped off timidly, not the coolest looking thing, but at least I did it (twice actually, it was really fun.)
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| Geronimo! |
I have tons of pictures that I'm going to try to get uploaded to the flickr, for now I'll just upload the best ones here.
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| The view from our cable car ride. |
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| Kamila swimming in one of the falls |
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| Kamila and I swimming in Cascada de Nambilla |
A weekend in the Amazon
It's been a while since I last blogged, but I've been keeping very busy during that time. So busy in fact that I did not get to look at the pictures from our Amazon trip until last night. There are so many good pictures that I'm going to upload them all for you to see at this link (http://www.flickr.com/photos/willecuador/sets/)
It was a really great trip, the Amazon is like no other place on earth, and our lodge was wonderful. We did a 4 day 3 night stay at the Guacamayo lodge (I think that's how you spell/say it... we just kept calling it the Guacamole lodge), which is part of the Cuyabena reserve. The food was good, the company great, and the jungle incredible. Having a guided tour was a must for sure. The animals in the rainforest are so well camouflaged that would not have spotted them if they were right under my nose... our guide spotted them from 10 meters away while going 15 mph in a motor boat.
I got to check plenty of things off the bucket list: swimming in the Amazon river, swinging on a vine like Tarzan, fishing for Piranhas, and climbing the largest tree in the world just to name a few. Here are a few pictures that I just can't resist posting on the blog:
The best part of this whole experience was that it got me excited to go back, more to come from the Amazon in a month and a half!
It was a really great trip, the Amazon is like no other place on earth, and our lodge was wonderful. We did a 4 day 3 night stay at the Guacamayo lodge (I think that's how you spell/say it... we just kept calling it the Guacamole lodge), which is part of the Cuyabena reserve. The food was good, the company great, and the jungle incredible. Having a guided tour was a must for sure. The animals in the rainforest are so well camouflaged that would not have spotted them if they were right under my nose... our guide spotted them from 10 meters away while going 15 mph in a motor boat.
I got to check plenty of things off the bucket list: swimming in the Amazon river, swinging on a vine like Tarzan, fishing for Piranhas, and climbing the largest tree in the world just to name a few. Here are a few pictures that I just can't resist posting on the blog:
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| Ready for the adventure! |
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| This was the tarantula that liked to hang out in the main lodge... where we ate. |
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| My Tarzan moment. |
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| Swimming in the Amazon at sunset: check! |
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| Angry monkeys |
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| This was the pet monkey that they keep at the indigenous community; his name is Nacho, aka: my best friend. |
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| Is that not the cutest picture you've ever seen? One of the indigenous girls with her pet river otter. |
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| It's the biggest species of tree in the world, how could I resist climbing it? |
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| In back, me and our friend Mariana. In front is Kamila (right) and our guide Sulema (left) |
The best part of this whole experience was that it got me excited to go back, more to come from the Amazon in a month and a half!
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Al cielo del mundo
A few days ago I went with Toby and Kamila to hike Pichincha. Pichincha is the closest volcano to Quito, just outside of the city. You take a gondola up to the base camp, from that point you go on foot. We just kept hiking until we were about 3/4 of the way to the summit (it got dark and we had to go home.) The views from Pichincha are absolutely breathtaking. You can see the entirety to Quito and it´s suburbs. Note: Quito is huge, about 50 km long from North to South. When the clouds get out of the way you get a great view of Cotopaxi with it´s snow cap. And the whole area is just unbelieveable: the clouds, the valleys, the mountains. It was really one of the most amazing things I´ve ever done. I took tons of pictures so I´ll post some here, and hopefully later I can get all of them on flickr, which I have still yet to touch. Next on my list is to summit Pichincha and hike Cotopaxi!
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| The summit of Pichincha |
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| View of South Quito |
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| Me and Kamila looking at Cotopaxi |
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| In the background is Cotopaxi, snow capped |
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| Sunset in the South Quito Valley |
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| Cotopaxi... I want to go there (© Tina Fey) |
Heaven on Earth
Now that classes have started, I have to be up at 6:00 to make it to school on time. This comes about 7 hours before my usually wake-up, but there is an upside. The views are unbelieveable. When the sun rises and everything is just right there is nothing more beautiful than the views to the south of Quito.
This morning the mountains were aglow. The orange sun illuminating the hundred shades of green-tan-brown. Every peak and crevasse looked alive; one plateau shone a bright orange-yellow while casting a deep green shadow on the forrest to it´s side. Behind the mountains Cotopaxi was peaking it´s head out, parting the clouds to show off its sparkling snow covered peak. Big billowing pillows rolled over the mountains. Limned by the rising sun each whisp, crest, and dip was visible. The sun outlining the clouds with a pale orange set against the silver-white puffs. Some clouds settled into small valleys, others fell around the peaks. They did not obscure, but rather framed the mountains like a big blanket being pulled over a sleeping giant. I did not take any pictures, as I´m certain that no camera could capture completely the beauty of this panorama. Now, you all know that I´m not a believer... but if there is a heaven, I´m pretty sure this is what it looks like.
This morning the mountains were aglow. The orange sun illuminating the hundred shades of green-tan-brown. Every peak and crevasse looked alive; one plateau shone a bright orange-yellow while casting a deep green shadow on the forrest to it´s side. Behind the mountains Cotopaxi was peaking it´s head out, parting the clouds to show off its sparkling snow covered peak. Big billowing pillows rolled over the mountains. Limned by the rising sun each whisp, crest, and dip was visible. The sun outlining the clouds with a pale orange set against the silver-white puffs. Some clouds settled into small valleys, others fell around the peaks. They did not obscure, but rather framed the mountains like a big blanket being pulled over a sleeping giant. I did not take any pictures, as I´m certain that no camera could capture completely the beauty of this panorama. Now, you all know that I´m not a believer... but if there is a heaven, I´m pretty sure this is what it looks like.
Smokey the bear says...
Only you can prevent forrest fires!
Apparently this motto isn´t as big of a deal in Ecuador as it is in the States, because Quito is on fire. According to Kamila it hasn´t rained for almost 3 weeks, something very uncharactersistic of this climate (it usually rains every day.) I´m not sure what started all of the fires but as Buster Poindexter would say, ¨It´s hot, hot, hot!¨ We hiked up Pichincha a couple days ago (active volcano around Quito, about 4300 meters) and that´s where we really noticed the fires. There´s about 4 or 5 large blazes that are clouding the skyline with a smokey haze. In addition, there are smaller brush fires all around Quito and along the highway. Going to Quito by bus you can see the charred remains of the fires flanking the roads. And at least twice now we´ve been choked out by the thick smoke that a fresh fire leaves in it´s wake. I don´t know if Quito has a prepared response to forrest fires, but somehow I doubt it. The best we can do at this point is hope for some rain. So everyone at home get out your Native American artifacts and do a rain dance for Quito!
Here are some pictures of the fires from Pichincha:
Apparently this motto isn´t as big of a deal in Ecuador as it is in the States, because Quito is on fire. According to Kamila it hasn´t rained for almost 3 weeks, something very uncharactersistic of this climate (it usually rains every day.) I´m not sure what started all of the fires but as Buster Poindexter would say, ¨It´s hot, hot, hot!¨ We hiked up Pichincha a couple days ago (active volcano around Quito, about 4300 meters) and that´s where we really noticed the fires. There´s about 4 or 5 large blazes that are clouding the skyline with a smokey haze. In addition, there are smaller brush fires all around Quito and along the highway. Going to Quito by bus you can see the charred remains of the fires flanking the roads. And at least twice now we´ve been choked out by the thick smoke that a fresh fire leaves in it´s wake. I don´t know if Quito has a prepared response to forrest fires, but somehow I doubt it. The best we can do at this point is hope for some rain. So everyone at home get out your Native American artifacts and do a rain dance for Quito!
Here are some pictures of the fires from Pichincha:
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