Twentieth Birthday & Quilotoa!

I am halfway through my trip right now, which seems crazy. I only have 2 more free weekends left to plan trips for, and there are so many places I want to go! In the interest of length, I won’t mention anything before Thursday of last week because it was just business as usual: class, homework, my massive consumption of political commentary and hatred for McCain, etc. [Election countdown: 16 days... I honestly think I will go mad if Obama doesn’t win, I am so emotionally invested in this election!] I have this huge dilemma between the desire to respect people's beliefs and ultimate refusal to believe that any sane, non-mentally-ill person could vote for McCain. I admit to being a judgemental Democrat. Does that mean it's any less obnoxious? Anyway...

Thursday night I went out to dinner with about 40 students at the university here (mostly Americans, almost all foreigners, but a few Ecuadorians as well) then I went out to a club with my friend Liz, her boyfriend Jorge, my friend Ali and her sister and best friend from home! Her family flew in Thursday night and brought her best friend as a surprise, I am so jealous! It was really fun. At the restaurant we had a huge table tat must have stretched at least 30 feet, plus another table because we still had too many people. It was a birthday celebration for me and three other students who had their birthdays this week. At the end either the restaurant brought us cake or someone paid for it, but I got to blow out a candle.

Friday I was quite tired from the night before so I had a lazy day, tanning on the roof and reading until I went to Jorge’s futbol game with Liz, which was really fun except FREEZING- we need to bring a blanket next time. Then we went out again but I didn’t stay out too late because I had to wake up at SIX on Saturday (yes, my birthday...) to travel to Quilotoa with my Beloit sociology class for the weekend. We met at 7:45 in a bus stop (I had to get up so early to make sure I was awake, pack, take a taxi to the bus stop (not on my line), etc.

We took two buses for a total of about 5 hours to arrive at Quilotoa, which is south of Quito in the Central Sierra of Ecuador. It is COLD. It is at a higher altitude than Quito (not sure how much), and whenever we were outside we had hats, gloves, scarves, the works. It is an indigenous community set on a beautiful volcanic lake... it is breathtaking. I need to get pictures up. While I get wireless in my house, it is slow and I think my computer is infected, so uploading pictures is more frustrating than watching Sarah Palin try to answer a question about foreign policy.

When we arrived Saturday we had lunch (made by one of the families), spoke with one of the men from the area who is an artist and makes beautiful paintings– I bought a small one– and got settled in our hostel. In these small communities in Ecuador a lot of “hostels” will really be people’s houses with extra beds, but this one had an entire separate part of the house, and we met a whole group of European travelers as well. We hung out in the huge bedroom where we were all sleeping, and my professor asked if I had brought anything to celebrate my birthday. Previously in class I’d asked if I could bring a bottle of wine, but didn’t bring anything on the trip. She seemed distressed that I hadn’t, and declared that we would need to go out and buy something to celebrate.

She, I, another American student and a friend of the prof traveling with us head out in slight rain to look for some type of alcohol in this small indigenous town... the first little shop we stop in only has boxed wine (Theta love) except this kind is supposed to be terrible, so we continued on. I was confused at the next store when a man held up what must have been a five gallon water bottle, but it was a homemade cinnamon alcohol from Ecuador... perfect, my professor said. There’s a drink you can make with it that’s really sweet, so we got it and headed back.

When we all had dinner the owner of the hostel proclaimed I had to eat everything because it was my birthday (what?) and three little girls who were there the whole time– not sure if they were related– danced for us in their traditional costumes and then declared I would have to dance because it was my birthday.... ahem. Thankfully they pulled up some other gringos as well so it wasn’t just me making a fool of myself. They were trying to teach everyone to do these native dances, and one of the boys in my group was being really awkward, plus he is over 6 feet tall and was dancing with a 4 year old... I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time.

At the end, when we were all sitting down, the owner came over to me and gave me one of the warm wool hats they have as a birthday present! And each of the three girls did as well (a pair of MUCH NEEDED gloves and two bracelets which I am not going to take off). It was really nice. When people started going to bed, I stayed up late playing a card game called “Capitalismo, Asshole” for quite awhile with four of the guys in the group, which was so much fun. I will explain the game later because this post is already getting quite long, but you should play it!

When I woke up this morning I was FREEZING, even though I slept in two long-sleeved shirts, an Old Navy fleece, a hat, scarf and gloves... my hands were the coldest. We got ready and ate quickly and headed down to the Laguna. This is such a beautiful place, I really want to go back and spend more time there. It took about 30 minutes to go down completely- it is SO STEEP. I will try to post pictures soon. There is a lot of sand and when you walk the sand completely covers your shoes in some parts. It was actually really hard just to go down, because I was wearing too many layers (apparently in the laguna is the only place in this town where you’re not at risk of frostbite!) and it was so steep downhill, but it was a gorgeous view and I’m really glad I went. I took a mule back up (it’s pretty common there, you pay $5 for the ride which is so worth it...) because I had already been feeling nauseous, possibly due to the altitude change, and knew I would be miserable if I tried to climb back up the crater.

That said, I don’t think I ever want to take a mule again. It wasn’t always uncomfortable, but something about the ride made it impossible for me to sit up straight or I had incredible back pain (which ceased immediately when I got off), and mules follow a path right next to the edge of the road (or, you know, cliff) which makes you feel like you could plunge to your death at any moment the mule chooses. The guide behind me was also hitting it or whipping it to make it go faster (not often or hard, it seemed), but it made me really sad and uncomfortable and I was just sitting there thinking “this poor animal has to suffer because I can’t hike up the volcano” and felt really bad. Except it was really good that I took it, because I have hiked here around Quito, and I know this volcano was waaaayy beyond my ability... I would have been miserable and likely sick trying to go up it.

After that we went back to the house where we first stopped on Saturday afternoon and spent time with some of the kids from the community, playing musical chairs and teaching them English (aka singing “Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” dozens of times). It was really fun because these kids are ADORABLE. Oh man. I wanted to take a few of them home with me. Around 1 we got on a bus back to Quito. Five hours of buses sound miserable, and can be, if you get motion sick, but I quite enjoy it. Especially the bus from Latacunga to Quilotoa is GORGEOUS, it passes canyons and everywhere in Ecuador there are mountains and the scenery is amazing. I brought my ipod on this trip– I usually never do, I think it’s actually the first time it’s left the house, but even when I’m just sitting there, looking out the window is enough to pass the time (during the day... night buses are a different story, as you saw in my last entry. I hate them but sadly they are too practical to pass up when traveling far away).

Here I am sitting in my bed, tired and with too much work ahead of me as always, but I know I will get more out of experiencing Ecuador than sitting in the library. There will be enough of that next semester, I’m sure.

*Also- if you are reading this- Beloit has a really late start date for next semester (Jan. 18) so I was thinking about coming a day or two early to Madison or Chicago and hanging out. Let me know if you'd want to hang out... and if I can stay with you! (Because if I don't have somewhere to stay this won't happen.) It would be fuuuun.

Ciao!