churches & ruins

It took me a while to get around to writing this post, but I'm finally catching up about last weekend as I head out on another weekend adventure tonight! So, last Thursday night, we headed to Cuenca, a historical and colonial city about a 11-hour overnight bus ride south of Quito.

FRIDAY
We got to Cuenca in the mid-morning, checked into a hostel, and started exploring the city. It's much more tranquila than Quito, and it's filled with churches, cathedrals, and parks. We headed straight for the Chicago Pizza restaurant that was recommended in Lonely Planet, and it was definitely worth it. We spent the afternoon walking around the city, checking out the churches and plazas, and going to Museo del Banco Central, which included a tour of some Incan ruins behind the museum. For dinner, we celebrated our friend's birthday at a Mexican restaurant, which was, of course, delicious.

Church of the Immaculate Conception ("New Cathedral")

Love a good door pic

Iglesia de San Alfonso

Ruinas de Pumapungo (behind the museum)

Out for Mexican!

SATURDAY
After a delicious, slightly American breakfast, we headed out of Cuenca about 2 hours to the Incan ruins at Ingapirca. It's Ecuador's best-preserved archaeological site, and it's pretty cool. You can climb all over the ruins, which we took advantage of, claro, by taking tons of pictures. We headed back to our hostel in the afternoon, napped, and ate at a crepes place across the street for dinner.

Group pic at the ruins

Our attempt at a jumping picture

One of the coolest parts of the day was meeting another Tarheel on the bus on the way to the ruins! Her name is Natalia, she's a junior like me, and she took the year off to travel around South America. She was living in Cuenca at the time and worked at the crepe place where we ended up eating dinner!

UNC all over the world!

SUNDAY
After sleeping in, we had another pretty good breakfast and then walked around the city a little bit. After a big debacle at the bus station, we (illegally) took a bus about an hour away to Parque Nacional Cajas, a huge park known for its thousands of beautiful lakes. It was pretty chilly and started to sprinkle as we were leaving, but it definitely valió la pena! (one of our favorite Spanish phrases - means it was worth it) We headed back to Cuenca, walked along the Río Tomebamba, and ate our last dinner back at the Chicago Pizza restaurant. Then we took yet another night bus back to Quito!

Group pic (minus Alice Ann) at Cajas

The TOMS were excellent hiking shoes

Laguna Llaviucu at Cajas

pico y placa

And I thought the traffic in Chapel Hill was bad...

The traffic in Quito is unreal. Think 15-501 after a UNC men's basketball game. Then add about 5,000 pedestrians, another 10,000 cabs, and about 3,000 buses. And welcome to Quito! Luckily, last May, the municipal government implemented something called Pico y Placa.

PICO = basically rush hour traffic, when the traffic is super bad
PLACA = the last digit in everyone's license plate

So, Pico y Placa takes place Monday through Friday, from 7:00 to 9:30 in the morning and from 4:00 to 7:30 in the afternoon. During those hours, the drivers with Pico y Placa are not allowed to be driving in certain areas of the city, the busiest and most trafficky areas of the city. The day that you have Pico y Placa depends on the last digit of your license plate (placa). For example, on Mondays, people whose license plates end in 1 or 2 have Pico y Placa. On Tuesdays, those whose plates end in 3 or 4, and on and on.

I'm not sure how well it has worked in the last year because there still seems to be a ton of traffic, but maybe it's still an improvement from this time last year.

what a life

I just finished dinner with my mom and my little brother Leandro, and it hit me how easy the life of a four-year-old is. He was upset during the meal - he's not much of an eater. The biggest complaint he had was that he was cold (while dressed in a turtleneck, pants, and socks) and that he didn't want to eat. All he wanted to do was put on his pjs, watch "Lazytown" (his favorite T.V. show), and go to sleep.

What a life.

In other news, I'm now on my second Ecuadorian phone. I may or may not have dropped mine for the 3rd or 4th time, and it was on its last leg anyway. But thanks to the black market, I got my new(ish) one for only $20!

nothing better

psalm 62

My soul finds rest in God alone;
my salvation comes from him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.

Find rest, O my soul, in God alone;
my hope comes from him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
My salvation and my honor depend on God;
he is my mighty rock, my refue.
Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour out your hearts to him,
for God is our refuge.

This psalm is one of those passages that I am always coming back to in the Word. It always gives me peace when I'm at my worst. Life in Ecuador is continuing to go wonderfully, but I've realized that when people who have studied abroad before talk to you about their experiences, they tend to leave out the hard parts. Like how much you'll miss your family and friends, but at the same time, how much you'll dread the day when you have to leave the country you've called home for so long. Like how difficult it is to truly live in the moment here when every time you log onto Facebook, you are reminded of life back in the U.S.

After a rough week at school (and rough is defined as: 2 presentations, an exam, and a report - basically, an easy week at UNC), I had a really fun and relaxing weekend. My friend Alice Ann and I spent St. Patrick's Day partying hard -- eating dinner with family and then watching movies with snacks from the Fybeca. Friday was spent trying to figure out plans for the Galápagos and then dinner out to a nice Thai restaurant, followed by yet another movie. Saturday, Alice Ann, our friend Johnny, and I ventured out to Otavalo (about 2 hours away), where there is a huge market. I bought plenty of stuff for myself, as well as for my family and my apartment. One of my favorite purchases was an alpaca blanket. Might be the most comfortable thing I've already curled up in. Saturday night, Alice Ann and Johnny came over with the intention of watching another movie, but we ended up sitting in our kitchen with my host dad Guille and his friend Pepe, drinking beers and chatting in Spanish for 4 hours. Nothing like it.

Alice Ann & I in Otavalo

The only reason AA came over was to hold my sister

Goal accomplished: I held Linet, and I loved it

intermedio

Believe it or not, I've already spent over 2 months here in Ecuador, and I have about 2 months left. As I approached the halfway mark of my time here, I started to think about what had happened so far and what I wanted to accomplish in my last 2 months in South America. Here are some goals I thought of:

METAS:
1. Find a place to volunteer teaching English
I love teaching English. I volunteer with an ESL tutoring program in Chapel Hill, and I spent last summer teaching English to secundaria students in Tamaula, Mexico. I would love to find a place here where I could do something similar, whether it's with adults, teenagers, or kids.

2. Hang out more with Ecuadorians
I've met a good number of Ecuadorians here, but I definitely haven't spent the time with them that I would like to. And I love my group of friends here, all of whom are American, but I also know that I'll be able to hang out with them in the U.S., and I want to take advantage of my time here to hang out with locals and practice my Spanish.

3. Spend less time on Facebook
It's really quite amazing how much time I spend on Facebook here. It's a great way to communicate with each other here (we like to talk on our phones as little as possible because we pay for each minute), but it's also distracting, and I feel useful when I spend hours and hours on it every day. And as odd as this may seem, I would also kind of like to spend less time talking to people at home. Not that I don't absolutely love my family and friends at home, but I also don't want to get home and realize that I spent all my time in Ecuador missing people back home.

4. Hold my baby sister
Yes, I've been here over 2 months, and I still haven't held my 3 1/2-month old sister. I think it may be because it seems like I'm always sick, and she always seems to be prone to various ailments. I also haven't asked, so that might be the first step.

5. Learn more Spanish vocabulary
My conversation and culture classes are helping with this, but I've realized that while I can speak pretty confidently, I'm missing a lot of vocabulary. And what's a better place to expand your vocabulary than in South America? Hopefully I'll come back with a lot more words under my belt.

I think that's all for now, but I'll add more as I think of them. And I leave you with one more picture of Plaza Grande in Centro Histórico in Quito...

a weekend in quito

After a one-day "week" of class, the weekend arrived yet again! Instead of jetting off to yet another beach or to go jump off some more bridges, we spent the weekend exploring Quito, something that I haven't had the opportunity to do often since I've been here. My friend Alice Ann's boyfriend Casey was visiting, so we got to show off the city to him.

FRIDAY
- Slept in! And, of course, spent some time on Facebook
- Went to the Hospital de los Niños with my friend Tyler to look into volunteering there
- Met up with my friends Tim and Cole to meet up with AA, Casey, and Shannon in Centro Histórico
- Finally got to explore Centro Histórico again (after the traumatic robbery of last month)

 

- Went to the black market to get Cole a new cell phone (saw nice D-SLR cameras being sold for $250!! and I kept an eye out for my own camera)
- Dinner at Pizza SA -- best pizza in Quito, I swear, not to mention they have pretty great sangria
- Headed to La Ronda, a winding cobblestone road lined with tiendas selling canelazo (hot alcoholic beverage famous in Ecuador, flavored with different fruits - imagine alcoholic cider), empanadas and chocolate. So much fun strolling down the cobblestone streets, sipping on canelazo, and enjoying the night. Reminded me a little bit of the callejoneada in Guanajuato City, MX

Cheers to canelazo!

SATURDAY
- Headed in the morning with AA, Casey, and Johnny to the mercado in Parque Ejido, a park that has a market set up on the weekends, as well as artists with their amazing artwork lining the streets. Bought 2 pairs of "Ecua pants" (colorful pajama pants that may or may not be the most comfortable things I've ever worn), a painted cross and picture frame, and a headband
- Walked over to Mercado Artesanial near la Mariscal and bought Ray Ban aviators
- Lunch at Café Amazonas, a little break from Ecua food
- Headed to Quicentro (the huge mall) to show Casey, then went and relaxed in Parque Carolina

- Spent most of the rest of the afternoon/evening watching movies in bed, wearing my new Ecua pants
- My parents had 4 of their friends (2 couples), along with their kids, over for dinner last night. Lorena (my mom, who's 29) made quesadillas and guacamole that were delicious. One of the couples was Argentinian, and the other was Cuban, so it was a very international dinner table. After dinner, we had delicious flan, also made by Lorena, and then sat around chatting and drinking coffee. Our conversations ranged anywhere from parenting (to which I had nothing to contribute) to the drinking habits of Cubans to the English language to OCD and how one of the women was like Monica on "Friends." We finished the night with about 2 hours of Texas Hold 'Em. It was really fun hanging out with Lorena and Guille's friends, especially because they're all fairly young, and even though they have kids, I didn't feel too out of place.

Today, I went to church for the first time in a month -- traveling makes it hard to go regularly. Then, Ashley and I went on a walk around Parque Carolina, which is packed with adults, kids, and dogs on Sundays. The plan for the rest of the day seems to be homework and movie watching!

CARNAVAL

How do I even begin to describe this weekend...

I spent the Carnaval holiday weekend (aka Mardi Gras) in a beach town called Montañita that's about 10 hours away from Quito. We took a bus on Thursday night to Guayaquil and then transferred in the morning to a bus to Montañita. Once we found and checked into our hostel (Hostál Montezuma - highly recommended), we hit up the beach! And that started a weekend full of TONS of people, lots of sun and ocean, and staying out till all hours of the night. We met a bunch of cool people from all over - Argentina, Ecuador, Chile, Australia, etc. We also got to participate in all of the fun Carnaval traditions, which include:
- spraying loads of foam everywhere...day and night
- throwing water everywhere
- wearing face paint and masks 24/7

Basically, we could not have picked a better place to spend the holiday weekend, and we'll for sure be going back!

View of the beach from our hostel

Sunset jumps!

Girls after a night out

Beach -- SO many people!

We love foam!

Sunset :)

We <3 Montañita!

being sick is no fun

Well, I just finished off my first pack of Halls cough drops. I must say, my bedside table looks pretty pitiful. There's an empty tea cup (which used to hold my honey/lime tea that I already polished off), tissues, cough drop wrappers, and another pack of Halls, just waiting to be demolished.

To add on to this wonderful night, I'm also studying for the first midterm that I'm actually worried(ish) about. It's Latin American Colonial Art History. Why, you might ask, are you taking that class? Yes, I ask myself the same thing every Tuesday and Thursday at 2:30pm. And I'm asking myself that now, as I study about 70 works of "art," which range from cathedrals to portraits to random drawings that look like primitive cartoons. I took art history freshman year, and it was probably my least favorite class that semester. So I'm really wondering why I decided to take another class just like it here...in Spanish.

Just a couple of examples of what I have to know by Thursday...

Procesión de Corpus Christi, siglo XVII

San Agustín de Acolman (vista general), siglo XVI

Well, at least it'll be over on Thursday, and then I'll be headed to the beach for 5 days!