What a country this is?!

So again, I apologize for the long gap between posts. Life has just been so crazy and awesome. I will try to do it justice without getting two long.

Three weekends ago was sort of a recovery weekend. After a long but amazing beach weekend, I needed some time to just chill. So the majority of the time was spent just bummin around Quito, exploring bars and clubs as well as the parks.

Saturday, however, my host dad and I along with several students from my program climbed Rucu Pichinca, the roughly 15,500 foot volcano that I see out my window every morning. This was by far one of the coolest things I have ever done. After taking the Teleferiqo (the little ski lift sort of thing that takes people up to a really cool look out point over the city) we hike almost 3 hours up to the summit. Then it decided to rain. To put that in perspective, that was only the second or third time in over a month that it had rained in Quito. When I first got here, they were having to ration power because the rivers that feed the hydroelectric plants just weren't high enough. So it rained. A lot. All the way down. Everything was soaked after the hour and ahalf descent but it was still amazing. To think that for a while I was at least 1000 feet higher than any person in the continental US was just mind blowing. I am planning on climbing some more mountains while I am here and i can't wait to get that feeling again, especially keeping in mind the poem I included in the last post.

Two weekends ago was Carnaval. THanksfully, I was able to find a bar that was showing the Olympic Opening Ceremonies so that was fun to watch on Friday. Because we had Monday and Tuesday off of school, my program took us on a field trip into the Amazon rain forest. I really had no idea what to expect with this, but my mind was blown. After spending the the first afternoon exploring and swimming in a cave and climbing around an amazing waterfall, we headed to a quaint little town for the night. The next morning we piled into motorized canoes and headed down the river. After a pit stop at little animal rehab zoo and a close encounter with some wild monkeys, we reached our jungle lodge destination. After a late lunch, we headed a little farther up river and got to visit an indigenous family and see their house and their way of life. After dinner the (highly intoxicated) village Shaman came and performed a short ritual. Monday morning brought a really cool hike through the jungle learning about plants and animal and also eating some lemon ants which I would recommend to anyone looking to add a citrus flavor to your favorite dish. aThat afternoon was probably the most fun of the whole trip when we made Huck Finn style rafts out of balsa wood and floated down the river for a while. Because our group was so large we had two rafts which inevitably turned into a war. I am proud to say that the USS Hernan Es Mas Sexy Que Fabio came out on top. Through this experience, I think I might have found the inspiration for my next adventure: floating the Mighty Mississippi on a homemade raft. This sounded like a wonderful idea til I did a little bit of looking into it. It is still possible though, we will have to see. Tuesday we stopped at a few more museums and zoos on our way back to bus and home. Overall it was a phenomenal experience. It was exactly how I had imagined the rain forest. Buggy, extremely dense forests, humid, and just lush green everywhere. I hope to make it back to do some insane white-water rafting later in the semester. Although I was a little disappointed that we didn't get the whole Carnaval experience, it was still a great trip. Ecuadorian Carnaval is not like what you think of from Rio and other Brazilian cities. Basically here it is just a country wide water fight. The whole week you never know when you might get hit with a water balloon. I was on several busses that got hit and in the more rural areas people would just take their hoses out into the street and soak whatever passed by. It was super fun and harmless (although apparently in some towns people throw eggs which could get kinda painful).

Unfortunately, I didn't take too many pictures on this adventure. Sometimes it just wasn't practical to have a camera. Others I was just enjoying the moment too much to want to see it through a lens. I sang a lot of 3x5 by John Mayer:

Didn't have a camera by my side this time
Hoping I would see the world through both my eyes
Maybe I will tell you all about it when I'm
in the mood to lose my way
but let me say
You should have seen that sunrise with your own eyes
it brought me back to life
You'll be with me next time I go outside
NO more 3x5's

After a short week of class, another weekend of just chillin in Quito was necessary. It was also nice because I got to celebrate 'the beginning of my third decade on this celestial ball' (as my dad referred to my 20th birthday) with my host family and friends this past Saturday. After making ice cream cake and helping my mom with empanadas about 10 people came over and sang and ate. We then headed down to a wine and tapas bar for more celebration. (Side note for any wine people: I don't know if you can buy it in the States, but if you are looking for a phenomenal red, go out and find a bottle of Concha y Toro (Chile) Sunrise Tinto Carmenere. One of the most amazing things I have ever sipped in my life.) After four hours of just sitting, tasting and talking, we called it a wonderful night. Sunday morning was another great Latin American experience. My host brothers favorite futbol team which is from Guayaquil was playing in Quito, so he invited me to join him for the game. It was one of the craziest things I have ever been a part of and there were definitely times that I didn't feel safe. Drums and songs and flags and chants and confetti. At one point someone who didn't like a call throw a waterbottle a good 75 feet and hit the assistant referee. Unfortunately the game ended in a draw so I didn't get to experience victory craziness but I'm sure that i will get to another game while I'm here.

So there you have an update. If you made it all the way through that I applaud you. This weekend we are off to another beach where there will hopefully be big waves and surfing lessons. I'll let you all know.

Please know that the fact that you all take the time to read this blog means the world to mean. Please email me about what is up in your lives and i will do my best to respond. I love and miss each and every one of you.

Take care and keep well.

One month gone by...

And how wonderful it has been. I have been thinking about this post for several days now and there are times when I feel like it couldn't possibly have been that long yet and there are others that feel like its been more like a year. But looking back, I am so amazingly glad that I am here and I would not want to be anywhere else in the world right now.

I am borrowing an Ecuadoring hiking and climbing guide from a friend right now to sorta start thinking about some of the more wildernessy adventures I want to take and I stumbled upon this poem that I think is amazingly applicable literally, but also figuratively as well.

One cannot stay on the summit forever - One has to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this. What is above knows what is below - But what is below does not know what is above One climbs, one sees- One descends and sees no longer But one has seen! There is an art of conducting one's self in The lower regions by the memory of What one saw higher up. When one can no longer see, One does at least still know. Rene Daumal

On this adventure I hope to literally stand on summits and while I will not be able to remain on them forever, the feeling of accomplishment will live on forever. I will stand on figurative summits as well and these more likely than not will probably end up being the ones that are truly the most defining. But by the same token I will not be able to remain here forever.

Although I might give that the old college try.

This morning, upon for the first time measuring my stay in months not days or weeks, I started thinking about how much longer I will be here. Although this is still officially undetermined, I sorta started mentally preparing myself for the fact that this adventure isn't gonna last forever. I know I'm not even a quarter of the way done, but I also know that the time is gonna fly. I started a list of things I wanted to make sure that I do before I go and just in my uber-excessively-plan-loving brain I was able to start thinking about how long I would need to do everything. Upon my departure I had grand schemes of finding an awesome job here for the summer and staying for the fall semester, but somewhere along the way those had been transformed into grand plans to enjoy a summer of excellent traveling and exploring. Those then became maybe half the summer of traveling and then returning to the US to work a little bit before going back to school.

But this afternoon greeted me with a bit of amazing news. I have started playing Ultimate once a week with a really interesting group of people from all sorts of walks of life. Upon talking to some of them, it was brought to my attention that it is actually very easy for gringos to get jobs in Ecuador and that these people all have amazing connections. I talked to a women who works for a chocolate company who said she could probably get me an internship and possibly a small living stipend. Several people said that they got there jobs because of people in the club.

So I guess what I realized is that in this first month I have become amazingly comfortable here in this city, but maybe almost too comfortable. I think I might have lost some of my adventurous spirit. But as I begin this second month, I think I may have found it again. Although I have a lot of time to figure summer stuff out everything is back on the table.

It was nice to get this little kick in the booty early on forcing me to reexamine what has been going on since my arrival. I truly believe that the most meaningful and permanent ways in which this experience is changing me as an individual can't be understood or even realized until I am gone. But it is important to keep in mind the changes in the daily stuff like the complacency that I had settled in to.

So I'm not sure if any of that really made sense or if I connected all the dots that are loosely floating around in my head right now. I would encourage all of you though to think about your summits. What mountain can you climb that will make an eternal difference in your life? How will you change because you reached that summit? Whatever you do, never stop climbing.

I'd love to hear about some of the great stuff that everyone is up to. Of course keep me posted about your summits but about the small hills you crest as well.

Peace and Love

Sun, sand, surf and spaghetti in Same

This past weekend, for my first independent travel adventure, I went to the beach with 8 other IES students. We were technically in a small town named Same (Sah-may) but our hosteleria was several kilometers down the beach and was very peaceful, quiet, and isolated. It was ridiculously awesome.

First off, let me say that the transportation here is phenomenal. There are buses that go anywhere you might want to at just about any time. And they are ridiculously cheap. We decided to leave Quito late on Thursday night which would get us in to the beach early Friday morning giving us essentially an entire extra day on the beach without having to pay for an extra night of lodging. This ended up not working out quite as well as we'd hoped. Somehow we got stuck in traffic for 5 hours between 1:30 and 6:30 AM on a little two lane mountain highway. We think there was some sort of car accident but we have no idea how it took so long to clean up. It might have something to do with the impatience of Ecuadorian drivers who unnecessarily clogged the road not allowing anyone to get anywhere. But eventually we made it.

The little resort we were staying at was essentially empty. We got two big cabanas complete with kitchens, an ocean view, and all the privacy anyone could want.

My first trip down to the water was at the peak of an amazing high tide. It was fun to be able to put my knowledge from Astronomy 201 (what up Gwen?!) to use explaining tides and why they were higher at the full moon. The waves were great. I was however blown away by the ocean bottom. Instead of sand, it was essentiall carved rock. When I first stepped on it without being able to see, I had no idea what was going on. Luckily I was able to go back out during low tide and explore and take some cool pictures. The nights were super fun. Friday we were all very tired so after a nice walk down the beach to a great thatched-roof restaurant and an great bonfire, we all crashed pretty early.

Saturday morning, one of the other guys really wanted to make pancakes. So, with the meager utensils we managed to scrounge up a wonderful breakfast (complete with mamosas). The sun finally came out Saturday afternoon so there was plenty of time for swimming, lounging, and studying of course. We opted for an early spaghetti dinner then got on a bus and headed in to Atacames, the bigger town nearby, for some fun evening beach activities.

My Lonely Planet travel guide describes the bars on the beach as "virtually indistinguishable from each other," and they were absolutely right. With music blaring, just walking up and down the beach was an experience. Of course we stopped to enjoy a fruity beverage or two just cuz they were so extravagantly decorated with fresh fruit. A bus back seemed a little more difficult to come by so we piled 6 people into the back of a motorized rickshaw for a very exciting trip back to the hostel.

Sunday morning brought an early check-out in order to catch our morning bus home. We got back to Atacames with a little time to spare so I took the liberty to explore a bit and find a great panaderia (bread shop) for breakfast. The ride back was much less eventful and we got home right on time for dinner and an evening of homework.

Overall, it was a phenomenal weekend. The weather might've been better, but nothing is gonna be perfect. (And it sure beats the snow of Cleveland at this time of year!) This was also a great experience for general traveling. I got to see how easily the bus system works and will definitely be taking full advantage of that in the next couple of months.

Gotta run now to class but enjoy some pictures!