A beach weekend...

Thursday night I headed west to the beach with my friends Liz (de Nebraska), Ali (de Tejas,) and Liz's boyfriend Jorge (de aqui, Quito). What an adventure!

We went to Atacames, which was a beach I originally had no intention of visiting, because it's reputation is: dirty, too much music, touristy, basically nothing special- or attractive. But Liz's family has an (almost-beachfront) apartment with a pool they were letting us stay in, so how could I refuse?

We took a night bus which departed at 11PM, getting us in on-time at- get this- 5:12 AM. I was able to doze, but can't sleep that well on these buses. It was dark when we got off, and we took a taxi to the apartment and promptly passed out (well, after gorging on a little chex mix and talking). I killed a snail on the way inside. There were no lights outside the door, and I heard this huge POP sound after I took a step... only after we turned on the light was the truth revealed: I had mercilessly slaughtered a defenseless animal. The mama snail had pulled herself over to the baby I killed and seemed to be mourning. It was sad.

But first, let me go back to the taxi. There are no "taxis" in this town, but motorcycles with wooden seats attached... hilarious (mototaxi). Half the time we all squeezed on one, with two people balancing on the sides, or we split them and went 2 and 2. These vehicles go on highways! It is hilarious. Hopefully I got a good picture of them.

The rest of the weekend was a blur of awesome warm-ocean swimming, jellyfish stings (tally: Ali- 2, Liz- 1, Jorge y Yo: SUERTES!!) ceviche (I LOVE CEVICHE! de camarones (shrimp). DELICIOUS, and tanning. Quite relaxing. We went out Saturday night, to the infamous Malecon- beach stip with bar after bar, which actually look like tiki huts and are basically identical, right on the beach. After dancing salsa with some locals, Ali and I wandered off and started talking to some locals on the beach.

People on the coast have such a different accent than the sierra, and it can be really hard to understand. I generally have no problem conversing with people. My Spanish is far from perfect, but I can speak and understand pretty well, and sometimes I had no idea what these guys were saying. One of many differences is that they never pronounce the 's' and the end of a word- so Estados Unidos becomes a ess-tah-doh u-nee-doh with a very heavy accent.

We left at 2:30 Sunday afternoon, after one last delicious seafood meal (camarones encocados, or shrimp in coconut sauce, is amazing!). Halfway through the trip we were driving through some town which was having, just our luck, a riot. I of course freaked out (remember my worries about bus hijackings), but it was fine, just an annoyance- there were police there but it took almost half an hour to clear a path for the bus to go through (it was a small riot, taking up about a third of a city block, but not even fully from one side to the other). Jorge's parents picked us up in Quito and we went to McDonald's because we were starving (the buses don't really do meal stops), and drove us home, which was really nice of them.

I need to stop writing these entries on Mondays because it ends up being just about my trips and nothing else, but they are the most interesting parts anyway. Today I had a bad day, with my professor talking to me about how apparently I don't care about his class, when it is the only one that matters to me. People here gossip like they are in high school and it is unprofessional and revolting (which I wrote to him in an email... as well as referencing that I seem to be considered a bitch with a chip on my shoulder. I probably shouldn't have written that, but I don't care, I was furious).

Next semester I am taking Nicaragua in Transition, a health class at Beloit (with Marta! Yay!) which goes to Nicaragua for spring break. I am incredibly excited for it. It studies how microcredit helps low-cost financing in the country. I am also applying to (and hopefully living in) the Spanish house. I only have about seven weeks left here, which is really strange, and I'm not sure I like already being excited about things for next year, but it will be nice transitioning back to Beloit where I have a campus I know, am not scared of being robbed whenever I step outside the house, am not whistled at by every other man on the street because I'm a gringa, and have an amazing support system which is sadly absent here.

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!

Puerto Lopez: Isla de la Plata, snorkeling, stirfry, and smiles

So I just got back from my trip to Puerto Lopez, a small fishing town on the beach (Ecuador's coast is on the Pacific). I'll tell you about my trip, starting with the horrible bus ride. The "10-hour" bus ride went something like this:

Wednesday

6:10 PM: Kimberly leaves house to walk to Stacey's.
6:25: Arrives at Stacey's block, tries to call Stacey to open door on street, finds out phone is surprisingly out of minutes, freaks out at the idea of being stranded on a Quito street at night, presses every buzzer on Stacey's building, some male godsend answers "ahh si, un momento" to my stressed "STACEY ESTA ALLI??" and lets Kim.
6:40: Get cab with Stacey and Susie to the terminal.
7:10: Still in cab. Massive amounts of traffic. Pick up Jennifer on her block.
7:20: Arrive to bus terminal, cabbie tries to charge us $1 extra because Jen got in cab, even though we told him we would be picking up a friend. She feels bad, I tell her to get out of the cab. We wait for 8PM bus departure.
8:00: Load onto bus, put our bags below although have extreme desire not to.
8:25: Bus finally leaves. We are agitated.
8:50: Oh, bus is just going to another terminal, not going to start journey! Ha-ha! How funny! We pick up passengers for half an hour, although this is supposed to be a safe bus with a direct route which doesn't pick up passengers.
9:10: 8PM bus starts departure for "10-hour" bus ride to Puerto Lopez, Ec.
10:oo: Scary-sounding noise comes from bottom of bus. I of course start to panic that something has been planted on the highway to stall our bus so it can be hijacked and we can all be robbed at gunpoint. This is due to my paranoia, but actually happens in Ecuador.
...10:something: Bus drivers stand around talking and doing nothing, finally decide to call for another bus.
11:45: (Yes, over an hour and a half later) Second bus arrives. Tired but non-robbed, we all pile on.
1:00 AM: Second bus breaks down. Yes, not kidding, second bus breaks down. I should go into comedy.
1:30: Bus drivers MIRACULOUSLY FIX BUS!!! All passengers in love with said bus drivers!!! Except they fixed the bus in the rain, and come back on and start stripping and drying themselves off with towels. It feels like an odd Ecuadorian bus driver-Chipmunks moment. Stacey and I are sitting directly behind the bus drivers, separated only by a glass panel, and feel quite awkward.
8:45 AM: ARRIVE IN PUERTO LOPEZ!!!! Almost 13 hours later.... exhausted.

Stacey ran off to the scuba shop and got to scuba dive that day, which was awesome, and Susie, Jen and I checked into the hotel, slept and were lazy bums as we we waited for her to come back. We had planned for a beach-bum day after such a long drive, but there was sadly no sun the entire weekend. At all. So we lazed around, had lunch and then dinner with Stacey when she came back from an awesome scuba dive, and went to bed early because we were still tired from the lack of sleep and as this is kind of the off season, not much was going on.

Friday we had arranged a tour of Isla de la Plata, which is known as the poor man's Galapagos, and it was well worth it. We left at 9, took a 70min-sh boat ride out there where we saw whales in the distance (they are usually only there May-Sept., so we were lucky), and walked around on the island. I opted for a shorter walk, an hour and a half opposed to 3 hours, because I wanted to do more snorkeling and I didn't think we would see much more in 3 hours... it's weird, the island is like a desert, everything is dead but there are lots of blue-footed boobies everywhere and another black bird which I don't remember the name of. I also liked that my shorter walk only had 2 other girls on it, Germans, whom I spoke with in Spanish, and our guide was awesome.

I love snorkeling! It was amazing! I'd never done it before and it was hard at first because it is absolutely against human instinct to breathe with your face in the water, but once I got used to it I loved it. I saw a lot of different kinds of fish, and our guide swam down and pulled up a purple starfish for us to see. It's amazing how clearly you can see underwater! We saw tortoises from the boat, but not in the water, because they are very afraid of people. I got to go back a second time when we picked up the whole group, and Stacey took pictures with her waterproof camera. I love swimming so it was really fun.

The ride back... was indescribable. At first we were frustrated that the guides were spending so much time looking for whales because they are supposed to be gone by now... and then we saw two, flipping through the water, they are such huge and majestic animals. We followed them (this part is kind of bad, as the boats here don't really follow any regulations regarding wildlife and we got too close to them, although we didn't harass them in any way except being right next to them) and found ORCAS as well!!! It was amazing! And they were right next to the boat. Then it was sad because the orcas started to eat the baby whale, because its throat is a delicacy... but it was so cool to be right in the middle of all this action and these huge amazing animals. I was honestly afraid they were going to capsize our boat because it was relatively small, and they were swimming under and around it! Unfortunately I didn't get any great photos, but it was wonderful.

That night we just showered and went out to dinner, and woke up early to take a bus 20 minutes north to go hike to a smaller, more secluded and prettier beach. It was about an hour and a half hike, and the beach was really nice, and we ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (still on a budget!) and went in the water although there was still no sun. After a few hours we walked back, found the bus, showered, had an AMAZING dinner at an Italian place (run by real Italians)- I had legit pesto, DELICIOUS- and took the night bus back.

While it was definitely an enjoyable weekend, and I'm glad I went, I was happy to leave- Puerto Lopez is not a nice beach or a nice town. The streets are falling apart- it looked like they were under construction, but everything was just torn up, and even on the weekdays I didn't see any work being done. There were stray dogs around whenever we were walking outside. We were walking back to our hostel around 9PM- a block and a half off what could be considered the boardwalk, I guess, the road on the water- and these two dogs started fighting with each other and looked like they could be rabid. In addition, three guys started walking behind us, not saying anything but obviously following us... it was uncomfortable, but we got back to the hostel without incident. That is the thing I hate about Ecuador. Always feeling uncomfortable, always feeling that I am being watched, that I am not safe, that I need to watch my back, even in the daytime, even in a smaller town where I know it is not likely anything will happen.

This night bus also left at 8PM, but we got back to Quito before 5AM- so our first bus ride was almost 13 hours, and the second not even 9! Oh Ecuador. We all shared a cab back and passed out because it was close to impossible to sleep on this bus ride as it went so fast.

This week will again be busy as I have real work to do, and birthday festivities to participate in (my birthday is Saturday!!) I am trying to not be upset that I have to go on a trip with a class I dislike and probably wake up around 6AM on my birthday... partying too hard Friday will be regrettable, but probably occur. Sorry mom and dad, you only turn 20 once. Just imagine what will happen next year! Ha ha.

I only have a few more weekends that I can plan trips for, and need to figure out if I actually can travel during finals week, and where to go... I want to do Macchu Picchu, but think it will be prohibitively expensive, as is the Galapagos- although after Isla de la Plata, I don't feel the need to go there. I would love to, but it's too much money right now.

I have to say I am already a little excited for Beloit next semester, except the weather... I miss you all!

Love,
(still a teenager) Kim

Model UN weekend... "and China will give you kimonos..."

I think I just had the most academic weekend of my life, except maybe the weekend before the AP Government exam. My Model UN class (entirely English) had its first Security Council simulation, in which I acted as the lone ambadassor from Costa Rica. It was a lot of fun but definitely frustrating. I think the Russian Federation should just leave the United Nations. And Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. They refuse to compromise. Except Russia has veto power so this is probably not happening anytime soon.

Anyway, I was at the university in this conference from 4-midnight Friday, 9-8 Saturday and 10-6 Sunday... it would have been awful if I didn't love the class, professor, tutors and students so much. There is only one other American student, who is a good friend of mine (he was Burkina Faso so we sat next to each other during the simulation) and the Ecuadorian students are very nice and welcoming, moreso than other students I know here. I felt totally comfortable and interacted with a lot of different people. Saturday night we went out to a pizza place for dinner (and cerveza) and everyone took their turn standing up and talking about the class and being sappy, in Spanish (including me!) and we went to the house of one of the students and stayed out entirely too late considering the fact that we still had to be ambassadors the next day. But it was fun. We have a larger one at the end of November which is supposed to be the entire General Assembly.

I have an amazing weekend planned. I am going to Puerto Lopez with at least two friends, hopefully more! Puerto Lopez is a beach- I finally go to the beach!- and you can take tours to Isla de la Plata, known as "the poor man's Galapagos" to see the animals and swim and snorkel and visit an island!! Aaaaiiee! I am so excited. We are also going to go to the national park and spend another day on the beach. I am worried that my suntan lotion won't be enough, I have about five bottles of 30 or 50 but my host mom told me I NEED to buy 80, except I don't really have the money to this week, I am on a pretty strict budget. Even though it is ECUADOR, costs still add up like this-

$20 to $25 round trip bus
$15 to $25 2 nights in a hostel *probably $25, for a decent place*
$20 combined entrance fee to Isla de la Plata and National Park
$35 ish for trip to park (90 min boat ride each way, snorkeling, lunch)

So rounding up those prices is $105, not counting food and water which must be bought, and possibly having to take a cab back from the bus station, or to, and any other transportation near Puerto Lopez... ay. I have about $140 budgeted for it, it better be enough!

This week I have a lot to do with class- preparing for a MUN presentation next week and doing the Beloit app for the Nicaragua class next spring- before getting on a bus Thursday night... it will be busy! But I am so excited to finally go to the beach and do all these outdoorsy things! Pray I don't get fried like a lobster! I might have to find a way to get some better sunscreen...

So, I got robbed. For real this time.

I knew it would happen.I'm not surpised. It was stupid. We were watching the debate and had to call 2 taxies because there were 6of us. she lives on a deseretd street. one taxi came, the girl who lived in the house left because i knew where the palce wa.s we waited on the corner for the 2nd taxi. never xame, started to walk to a more populated street to find one after 15 inntues, could nt get back in the house, 3 men came at us running.

al i n all it was not too dramatic. they came running, we gpot it, threw our purses at themm no trobuel. i was lucky because i am so fucking apranodi- mall of you whomake fun of me for it- i had $30 on me, maybe fuive bucks in my purse, only (EXPENSIVE, but whatever) makeup in my purse. keys in my sweater pocket. i theeqw my purse at them. all i lost was a few bucks and makeup. a nice makeup brush. i was lucky, unlike my 2 frined,s who lost a combination of: house keys, cell phone, $30+, etc. thank god no documents.

FUCK. it was so stupid. to wait on that corner with nowhere to go. we just felt so safe. to walk to find a cab... but therw qwas no other option... but we are just lucky that we were not physically harmed in any way... thank the lord.... i dont even believe in the lord... i am okay just shaken up... fuck... how could we be that stupid....

so, finally, i got robbed.