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