Leaving Montanita and Ecuador

I'm headed home today.  I'm happy to be leaving Montanita, I didn't get the tanning time I was hoping for and it is cloudy and sticky humid today.  :P

Hopping on a bus soon for Guayaquil and then off to the airport.

See you in Seattle!

Montanita Day 2

Montanita Day 2

Yesterday was great, we walked along the beach all the way out to the end and along the rocks to a large point, where you could see the next beach over and the coast line for a ways, it was absolutely beautiful.  There were about 15 people on the end of the point fishing.  A few of them with poles, but most with simple a fishing line.  I'm not sure what he was doing different, or what bait he was using, but one guy in particular was cleaning up - he just caught fish after fish.  For the whole walk out, we stopped and looked at all the sea life along the way.  Most of it was pretty standard, baby crabs and snails, but it was nice for me to learn the words.  :)  There was one the Xavier didn't know the name of, it's a very dark purple, spiky animal, that stings you really bad apparently - I took his word for it.  :)  The waves were fun to watch, the shape of the rocks left many crevices for the water to jump up and surprise you from below.  We quickly determined that if the ground you're walking on there is wet, then you will be wet soon too.  I got a few pictures of one spot in particular, that got us.  It was a small crevice that just looked like a crack, really far into the rocks.  Not every wave would cause a spout of water there & not even all the large waves, it seems it has to be at just the right angle.  It was a bit surprising and kinda funny.  :)  I also got some great pics of the ocean slamming up against the end of the point.  Every once in a while you'd get a good one that splashed up te rocks and a good 15 feet of so into the air.  It was great. 

My lesson of the day -- don't underestimate how much sunscreen you need at the equator.  Could have been much worse, but I definitely have some red calves right now from walking along the water. 

After the beach, we toured around the town again for a bit and got our daily intake of empenadas (of course).  In the late afternoon, we revisited a favorite little cocktails stand we have been visiting & had a few fruity drinks, then headed over to this cute bar next to our place to listen to some live music, which was really great.  It was a guy with a guitar and a few friends, just blasting the place with everything from spanish pop, to country (in spanish).  We got dinner at a little restaurant with a few of Xavier's friends (Pedro, Alex, and Alex (also referred to as Alexandra and The Columbian).  They were really funny, from the parts I could understand.  :)  They pretty much picked on The Columbian the whole night.  It was pretty entertaining.  There was supposed to be some big beach party, but apparently it didn't happen - Hopefully tonight.  :)  So, with no beach party, we headed back to the music and cocktails with Xavier's friends.  It was fun talking with them and gave me allot of practice talking with different people in Spanish.  It was a bit of a challenge though, 'cause on the coast, the language is very different.  Everybody speaks "lazy" (not my term); they leave off the end sound of most of the words.  For instance, instead of "dos" (two),  they'll say "do_" and most of the words are run together, so it's hard to distinguish words (or impossible, for me).  So that's a fun challenge.  :)

After Hanging out there for awhile, we went to a discoteca with great music.  It was a blast.  I danced with one of Xavier's friends for a bit, but it was really awkward, I felt like a ritard - I had no idea what I was doing and he was really short (yes, shorter than me), so I was not in anyway showing any skillz of being able to follow - but it was fun to try for awhile.  I just kept laughing at myself and he  attempted to teach me, but I failed miserably - oh well.   :)  They had a guy there that was leading everybody in synchronized salsa dancing, kind of like line dancing.  He was so animated, it was absolutely hilarious.  I got a pic with him after the dancing was done.  The whole night went by in a flash, we didn't go to sleep till about 5am.  

This is definitely a pretty tranquil town with parties on the side, it's pretty fun.  Though admitedly, I can only do a few days on the beach, before I need a few more activities.  I wish I had time to go to banos before going home.  I'll have to come back soon and do more of a mountain recreations tour.  Banos specifically, apparently has ziplining, biking, hiking, waterfalls you can climb under… all sorts of stuff.  But since I only had a few days and my trip goal was to learn as much Spanish as possible, I chose Montanita - since Xavier came with, it was absolutely my best spanish speaking option.  :)

Xavier made breakfast again this morning.  I love it - it's a surprise traditional dish every morning.  This morning was fresh plantains (squashed and fried), with cheese - It may be the best thing I've ever eaten.  And all the food is so cheap here, I'm guessing breakfast for both of us cost about $1.  Yum Yum Yum!  I need to find plantains in Seattle and figure out what kind of cheese they use here.  

Tomorrow, We bus back to Guayaqil and I catch my flight home.  I can't wait to see me friends, but I'm sad to leave.  If it weren't for Shasta, I'd try to stay an extra 4-5 days to hit Banos, but... next trip. 

Montanita Ecuador

Montanita
Has been great so far.  As soon as I got here, I knew I went the right direction (to the coast vs. to the mountains again).  I needed to see the ocean.  Plus, travelling with Xavier, I'm speaking Spanish 99% of the time.  (He's given up on english a bit, but I'm trying to encourage it).  :)  Such great practice though, I'm understanding ALLOT, but not all.  :)  And I'm figuring out how to say most everything I need to say.  He says my spanish, including my grammer is really good, a few people have said that, but I don't know that I really believe it on the grammer part quite yet.  It doesn't sound normal to me yet, so I can't really tell if I'm putting things in the right order.  But, whatever, it works.  :D  I'm super excited though, I have 4 days of pure spanish, which should improve my spanish by leaps and bounds.  Maybe even more-so than the 4 weeks I spent in school.  Though that was necessary to make this possible.  I still have a hard time when people speak really fast, but I'm getting allot better at picking up more of when they are speaking fast. 

We got into Monanita and found a great hostel, right on the beach, for fairly cheap.  Actually, of the options, it's on the more expensive side, but for me it's cheap.  We're paying $50 total for both of us, for the 3 nights we're here.  $50 is nothing for me, and I wanted to stay on the beach with a deck, so I offered to pay for the room for both of us, since he's been such a great friend and tour guide and he has allot less than I do. 

After dropping our crap off in the room, we toured around Montanita.  It's a tiny town, only about 6 blocks worth of stuff and an amazing beach.  We sat for awhile at this place that has empenadas and beer (that's it) and proceeded to eat them out of stock (give or take - haha).  They had about 10 different kinds of empenadas which were amazing.  We didn't try them all, but we have a few days here yet to do so.  :D

Sundays in Montanita (well, all of Ecuador, really) are very tranquil.  It's illegal in ecuador to sell alcohol on Sundays, so most places shut down.  However, there are still plenty of places that don't worry about that pesky law and still sell plenty of drinks.  We walked around and looked at the crafts for sale, walked to little park, toured along the beach, watched a few surfers and then sat for awhile with Pina Coladas at small drinks stand just up from the beach.  It was great, we talked allot and I learned all about his turbulent relationship with his x.  All in Spanish.  I'm 100% spanish now, but my ability to speak and understand it fades late at night and early in the morning.  :D

After much needed showers (yikes), we ventured out for dinner and found some really great and cheap pizza (I know, not very Ecuadorian, but it sounded great) at a place called Hola Ola.  We chatted a bit with one of the very friendly lady that worked there.  She talked super fast, I caught parts of it.  :D  We chatted about Guayaquil a bit.  It was pretty funny, when we left, she said very fast, that my spanish was really good, but it was too fast, so Xavier had to tell me what she said.  I just thought that was kinda funny in an ironic way.  :D

We turned in around 11, since the town was asleep.  I slept great for the most part, but the humidity here makes everything pretty sticky feeling 24/7.  You just have to ignore it.  :P

In the morning, Xavier made me a traditional Ecuadorian breakfast for the cost, which is richer than what they eat in the city.  We had Encebollado, which was a soup, with onions, fish, cilantro and chifles (plantain chips) on top.  The broth was really yummy.  I have no idea how he made it, but it was amazing.  :) 

And now you're current, we're off to enjoy the day.  Not sure what we'll do yet, but maybe some surfing.  Mucho fiesta en la noche.  :)

A Day in Guayaquil, Ecuador

Guayaquil
Saturday morning, I headed to Guayaquil with Rebecca, a girlfriend I met from school.  Her boyfriend was flying into Guayaquil and I decided to go to the coast, which meant I needed to go through it anyway, so it worked out perfect.  Normally, I wouldn't have planned much time in Guayaquil, as it's muy peligrosio (very dangerous).  Even taking taxis isn't safe, because many of them will just drive you to their friends, so that they can take all your shit.  Plus, from what I've heard, it just isn't really a city that has that much too offer.  Well, the reports about what the city has to offer were wrong, but the taxi warnings are true (according to the locals -- not first hand, thank goodness). 

Luckily, a few of us had met a friend from Guayaquil a few weeks earlier in Cuenca, via our schoolmate Kendra.  My new Guayaquil friend, Xavier Enrique is awesome.  We've been friends since the moment we met.  He knows just enough english to help me and is great to talk to.  I've helped him with his english a bit and he's helped me a ton with my spanish.  We're both really patient with teaching, so we have fun talking and practicing the languages.  :) 

Xavier met us at the train station and helped us find a great hostel that wasn't in the guide book.  Word of advice, if you're ever in Guayaquil and have a choice between a room with or without air conditioning… spring for the air conditioning.  At first, we were like… ah, who cares, we don't need it.  But the rooms were SO astronomically hot and humid, that you break out into a full body sweat within about 5 seconds of opening the door, with no window, so know possibility of cooling it down any.  After coming back in the evening and having the rooms be just as bad, even though it was nice and "cool" (I'm guessing a cool 70 degrees by our hostel (far enough from the river to not get allot of breeze), but with no sun at night, of course, so it didn't feel quite that warm really) outside -- we gave up and got air conditioned rooms.  It was like heaven in comparison.  The location of the place was great, we were just outside of the center and could easily walk around to all of the different interesting sights. 

Xavier gave us the grand city tour, which was really great.  We started with empenadas that were F'ing amazing, then wandered over to el parque de centro to see all the iguanas that live in the park.  The park was beautiful and the iguanas were totally docile and petable, it was great.  Still grasping spanish a bit though, when we were figuring out the plan, at first I thought that we were going to go eat iguanas, but quickly (or not so...) figured out were going to go eat and then see the iguanas  (whew).  :) 

After many iguana pictures, we walked to the shore, passing a few beautiful buildings, including a beautiful municipal building with statues and palm trees in front.  We got to the river and walked up some massive steps to get to the top, the steps were almost as tall as my legs, it was pretty funny walking up them.  At the top, you could see really far up and down the river.  A few boats went by that were there for transit or tour, but no others under motor.  We saw a couple fisherman with nets and a row boat, no poles.  It was a really great view.  I wonder how deep the water is, because the water was really muddy -- clean, but muddy -- from the muddy river bottom and there were allot of floating branches all over the river.  

We continued on down the walkway and checked out the scenery.  The area was really beautiful.  You could see the residential area called Pena in the distance, which was absolutely gorgeous from there.  Every house was painted in one of 5 or so almost pastel type colors.  It looked pretty amazing from a far.  We walked through a garden area that was really beautiful, huge trees with the roots hitting the ground  You could tell the tree was possibly [relatively] young, because none of the draping roots from the tree were very beefy (at least that's my uneducated guess, assuming it's even that type of tree). 

We continued along the river , just enjoying the  beauty in the middle of the city.  Near the end of the walk, they had a huge fiesta for charity with dancers and music and such, which was pretty cool to watch for a few minutes. 

We waited for our friend Nick, who was flying through Guayaquil and hangin' with us for the day on his way to Peru.  Then we headed to this area close by that was super cute.  It was a seemingly never ending set of stairs, winding up the hill, lined with tiendas and bars and snacks and other stuff.  Each of the buildings had a picture outside of it of what the building looked like before it was renovated.  It's pretty amazingly different.  Apparently, the entire waterfront area and that stairs area lined with bars and such were all fairly new.  The president had the entire thing redone to bring some beauty to the city and attract tourism, etc.  I can't imagine what the city must have been like before that, but as sketchy as the city is in general, It was a great call to fix that all up and provide one safe place where people can go and have fun at night.  From what I understand, literally everywhere else in the city is unsafe at night unless you personally know the people.  We sat and had a beer overlooking the river, with a sweltering hot, yet cooler than before breeze.  What a great day. 

For dinner, we went back to the river, t o this area where they have a handful of different restaurants you can order at and sit at one of the tables by the river.  The food was great and the location was unbeatable.  On the way there, we walked by this park area where the kids could get into these huge plastic bubbles and walk on the water in them.  I REALLY REALLY wanted to see if they would let me do it, but we didn't have time.  We had about an hour for dinner and then Nick had to head to the bus terminal and we had to go to the airport to pick up Rebecca's boyfriend. 

The airport pick up did NOT go as planned when we got there, we were told the wrong terminal for Kevin's flight and the flight that we thought it was, was delayed an hour and a half, so we sat in the airport for two hours, to learn that we had the wrong spot and had totally missed him.  We finally caught up with him at the first hostel we tried to stay at, but decided not to.  By the time we got everything figured out and got him to the correct place, it was about 1:30am, so we got a really late start to the night.  :(  But it was still fun…

We headed back to the bars on the stairs and after the 3rd one, finally found a place with both space and a cold beer - whew… things were looking up.  The bars quickly closed, around 2:30, so we headed to a kareoke bar in the building below where Xavier lives, where he knew the owners, so we could hang out with people there for awhile.  It was fun, we listened to bad kareoke, danced, met new people, and had a great time.  :)  After the bar, we hung out at Xavier's waiting for the seguro (safe) cab his mom had called for us.  (It's very normal here, the whole family lives together for a very long time.  Even possibly after getting married.)  It's a pretty crazy concept, but it's not safe in Guayaquil to hail a taxi after the bars at night, unless you're in the one safe place I was talking about (even then, there's a chance it's not safe.)  The taxi that Xavier's mom called was somebody that they knew and he walked down to ensure it was really him.  Knowing somebody in the city made a huge difference and made our experience in Guayaquil SO much better.  He knew how to keep us safe, while still allowing us to be able to go out late and have fun.  We got back to the hostel and crawled into bed around 4:30am. 

The next morning, we had a couple hours in the city, so grabbed empenadas (awesome!) for "breakfast" and repeated some of the previous days tour for Kevin.  Such a great experience in Guayaquil.  We headed to the bus terminal at 1pm and I said goodbye to Kevin and Rebecca, who headed back to Cuenca.  :(  I hopped on a bus to Montanita with Xavier, who decided to come with me. 

Cuenca Finite

Cuenca Finite

Last week was my last in Cuenca.  I had a fun week, but very mellow (much needed).  It was actually the last week of school for many of my friends there, so we got together for drinks everyday per usual and talked about our plans coming up and all that fun stuff.  I also started doing daily beers and flashcards with Caleb, which I wish I had done earlier.  I'm going to miss all my new friends -- most of them were really young, but truly a fantastic group of people, wise beyond their years. 

The funny as hell award goes to mi amigo Caleb. He just cracks everybody up non-stop.  I will have to add more of his phrases later as I think of them, but here's a few to get you started.  To put these in context however, you need to know a little more about him.  He's from Minnesota, grew up on a farm and does (or used to do) help work on other farms from time to time.  You name it in the country and he's probably done it.  When he graduates from college, he's going to be a police officer, but continue doing some taxidermy on the side.  I can't remember half of the jobs he's once had, but the list would be long and includes things like calving (helping cows give birth), cleaning stalls, etc.  I learned all sorts of new sports that exist, such as "cooning" (raccoon hunting).  I'm not truly doing him justice, because I don't remember it all, but you get the general idea.  Anyhoo, a few of my favorite phrases… and thanks to Caleb for the ones he's going to send me to add to it.  :)

• He's "Nuttier than a squirrel turd"
• [Well crap, after all that, I can't remember any others right now --  I'll be back}

Since my first week here, the family that owns the hostel I'm staying at has been rebuilding the back building to add more rooms to the hostel  It's been really interesting to see the whole thing be torn down and rebuilt by hand.  So if you're wondering about the random pics of construction in my photos, those are progress photos along the way.  It's really crazy watching them build it.  Literally each and every piece is done by hand.  In the beginning, the nocked the building down wall by wall with sledge hammers.  The cement is mixed with shovels and scooped in to buckets and handed down the "assembly line" (aka, to the next guy) to be poured into the intended place.  The tools they use are rudimentary at best --  when laying a large area with cement, they used a wooden board to flatten and spread it.  It was really interesting watching everything come along.  The building should be done in about a month.  Celso invited me back for the big fiesta they'll have when it's complete, but unfortunately, I doubt I'll be able to make that. 

Kids say the darndest things...

I funny story as I was saying my goodbyes to Celso at the hostel… we're chatting and goodbyeing, etc… his son is sitting there as well and his grandson (about 5 years old?) is floating around poking his head in and out - super cute kid.   We hug adios and I start up the stairs to my room.  As soon as I'm out of eyeshot, I hear his grandson at the top of his lungs, ask… "Grandpa! Is that your girlfriend?"   Every one of us just busts out laughing.  It was absolutely the funniest thing.  :)  such a cute kid

Cuenca - 6/18/2012

Yesterday was a pretty successful day...

La Farmacia
I finally got my amoxicillin, so I should be feeling better in no time.  I am already starting to.  It's definitely different buying drugs here.  This isn't specific to Cuenca by any means, it's similar in most non US countries I've been too, but worth describing.  They have farmacias (pharmacy) all over the place and many drugs you would need a prescription for in the states, you don't need one for here.  I haven't fully tested how far that goes.  I did however, need a prescription for my amoxicillin, which I got from our dance (salsa) instructor from the school, who also happens to be a doctor.  So that was awesome. Anyway... I went to the farmacia and handed them my prescription, which incidentally didn't even have my name on it, nor did they ask -- which makes me wonder if I even actually needed it.  She went and grabbed a few boxes of amoxicillin, then just count off and cut 21 pills out of the packet.  On the counter in front of her computer.  I don't know why, but I just found it funny, considering in the states, they are very much seperated from the customer and it could take 45 minutes for them to fill a prescription for you. 

Espanol and lunch
I had lunch at Chiplote, I sat at the bar and spoke spanish with the bar tender for awhile, which was fun. I think today, I'll do an early dinner at a different bar where I can talk to the bar tender in spanish, it seems to be a good way to get some spanish in. :)

Guacamole
I went to the market with Kim and Rebecca after school, we got all fresh ingredients (in espanol), including Avocadoes (5), Tomatoes, onion, cilantro, limes and jabeneros (we couldn't find jalepenos).  In the evening, we got together at Kim's place (her host family's home) and made Guac.  I've never used jabeneros before, so we chopped them up very very tiny and used very little.  We only used only a half a pepper, because it burned our eyes just cutting them, even with gloves on - that was crazy.   Ultimately, I think we could have used a little more, but I errored on the side of keeping it edible.  :)  We may try again later this week if we can find jabeneros, or maybe even if we can't.  The guac was pretty awesome though, it was a huge hit and it was fun chillin at the bar with a huge bowl of guac and a few beers. 

The avacadoes here are really different.  They're more yellow inside than green, and the ripe ones feel like what would be an over-ripe avacado feels like at home.  When you open it up, the outer part of the avacado is super soft, but the middle is on the harder side.  Yet even though it's a bit hard, it still tasts like a ripe avacado, not under-ripe, like ours would.  It's really strange.  The skins are about half the thickness and durability of ours as well, when scooping out the avacado, the spoon is "sharp" enough to cut through the skin -- so wierd. 

Finally...
And -- Allas! I found flashcards! woohoo!
I'm feeling allot better, so I'm getting more blog-inclined, if you can't tell.  :)

Cuenca - Random Stuff

Random tidbits, that I wanted to add:

A Delicacy
Cuy is a delicacy in Ecuador, that they have at most fiestas or any special dinner.  It's hard to wrap your head around it at first as a United Stateser, but Cuy is Guinea Pig.  So in case you're wondering what all the pics are of guinea pig looking animals in the markets... that's because it is actually guinea pig.  I haven't tried it yet, but if I have a chance before I go, I might try it. Supposedly it's amazing.  ???  I'll keep you posted if I try it. 

Espanol
I got in a bit more practice last night with the Espanol, which was great.  I found I was actually able to understand a conversation at a bit of a faster pace even, which was pretty cool.  I'm still a bit slower on the talking part, but I'll get there.  And at least I'm improving.  :)

A Blessing Ritual
During a previous walk around the city of Cuenca, we went into a market to take a look around.  There's an area where a few older ladies performing a blessing ritual to cleans and cure.  It consists of smacking the person with a leafy plant of some kind, rubbing egg on the person to cleans the bad spirits and spitting (yes, actually spitting), a concoction of (I think) sugar, water, and something else onto the person several times.  It's really interesting to watch.  I took lots of pictures of it. In some you can actually see the spitting.

Ecuador - Medicinal Plants

For Medicinal Purposes...
Per my last post, I've been sick with a sinus infection all week, so it wasn't the most exciting week, mostly school, then homework, then resting up to go out for a bit with friends at night.  But one especially cool thing I learned, was from talking to a few friends I met on the street; Grace and Christy, from Florida.  I wasn't feeling well, so they told me about some plants they got from their teacher (they're at a different school).  These plants apparently have great healing power.  You take the plants and steep them in a small amount of hot water for a bit, then fill the rest of the cup with hot water and drink it.  I was a bit hesitant, but ready to try anything, cause I'm so sick of being sick.  And this stuff is supposed to cure your cold in a day.  So I was in...

In the long run, it didn't cure my sinus infection, I don't think it was really a match for amoxicillin.  But honestly, if I had enough of it to take it 2-3 times a day for 4-5 days (maybe even less), that I kind of think it actually would have cured my sinus infection.  After taking it on Friday, I felt amazing that night, I didn't feel sick at all. Though admitedly, I was skeptical of it lasting very long.  I really think a few consecutive days of it though, and I would have been cured.  So now I'm on a mission to figure out how I can get these plants at home. 

Grace and Christy have friends that went to the same teacher and kept a very detailed blog as they went, including all the different plants and what they're good for.  They're blog is http://sigamesur.wordpress.com - the passage about these plants and their story of meeting their teacher is in the archives under March 2012, if you're interested in more.  I've included the info on the plants from their blog below.  I couldn't get them all situated quite right, but at least you can see them all.

I believe I used the Pata con Panga  (?), Violeta (Violet), Oreja de Burro (Donkey Ear), Romero (Rosemary), Tomate de Arbol (Tomato Tree).  I'm not sure if that exactly right, or included everything, but it's close, based on the pictures.  Some of these will be easy to get at home.  A few, I'll have to look into.
These medicinal plants from the greenhouse at their school and growing wild around Cuenca

Geranium- used for aches and nasal hemorrhage

Ruda- used for cough, headache from a bad smell &; natural pesticide

Pata con Panga- used for cough, fever, and influenza

Sabila- used as an anti-inflammatory

Violeta- used for cold or influenza

Menta- used for relaxation

Oreja de Burro- used for influenza, cough and cold

Toronjil- used to calm the nervous system and relieve stress

Floripondio o Guando- used to improve eyesight and cleanses the lungs

San Pedro- a hallucinogenic used for Rituals

Manzanilla- used for stomach pain and for good dreams

Cedron- used for relaxation. It’s delicious!

Herba Luisa- used for low blood pressure

Culantrillo De Pazo- an aromatic herb

Santa Maria- used for menstrual pains, to low the fever, and for indigestion

Romero- to improve memory, to alleviate to the muscle pains or spasms, to stimulate the growth of the hair, and to support the circulatory & nervous system.

Ataco o Sangurache- used to lower blood pressure

Tomate de Arbol- used to alleviate a sore throat

a leaf that produce a milky liquid-adhesive to seal cuts

the milky-adhesive

used for insect repellant

Riobamba, Alausi and Tren de la Nariz del Diablo

Ok, it's been awhile since I updated my blog, sorry about that.  I've been sick for about the last week and a half, so I've been resting allot.  Turns out I probably have a sinus infection.  blagh.  But luckily I met a friend here that's a doctor, so he's going to write me a prescription for amoxicillin, which is what my doctor said to take.  Hopefully my symptoms will be gone in a few days. And now for my travelling update...

Riobamba
The weekend before last, I took a trip north with friends from school; Olivia, Rebecca, Stephanie, Nick, and Caleb.  We took a 5 (or so) hr bus ride to Riobamba, a small city in the Andes.  We left early, so we got there around 1.  We spent the day walking around the city.  It was cute and they had a small market, but there wasn't allot to do in the city -- 1 day was plenty.  At first, our mission was to find a cappuchino, but that proved pretty much impossible.  By the time we found one, we had explored the whole city and it was dinner time, so we grabbed a few beers and had dinner at this mexican place, El Rey del Burrito.  That was quite possibly the best Burrito I ever had.  It was somewhat early, so we sort of bar hopped around the city and tried to find a billiards bar to play some pool.  Everybody we asked seemed to know where there was one, but none of the directions ever actually panned out.  So, we continued our bar hopping around the city for the rest of the night.

Tren de la Nariz del Diablo
The next morning, we hopped on a bus for Alausi to take the Tren de la nariz del Diablo (the Devil's nose train). Alausi was a really cute little town, we walked around their little market and up a few hills.  the views from the hills and the look outs were absolutely amazing.  We also found this little restaurant and had an amazing breakfast for $2.  Gotta love the prices in Ecuador.  Alausi was super cute, but we're glad we stayed in Riobamba.  There wasn't much in the way of night life in Alausi - we saw one Karaoke bar. 

We hopped on the Tren de la Nariz del Diablo in Alausi.  It's kinda funny looking back, because everything you read about the train ride and the mountain, makes it sound like it's this treacherous train ride with amazing views, down the cliff  side of the devil's nose, so you're really high and can see everything.  We were so excited to see this huge cliff and amazing views (hence the trek it took to get there).  Unfortunately, in reality, it was allot less impressive.  I do think it makes a difference based on what you are used to.  Caleb isn't used to seeing big mountains in Minnesota, so he was pretty impressed.  But for those of us that are used to the cascades, Olympics, and whatever mountain ranges the others were used to, it was a small hill that with allot of imagination, sort of looked a little like a nose.  Oh, and the treacherous train ride down the cliff -- was not quite as advertised -- basically, the train came from the side and went about 300 yards around the outside of the devil's nose, about 1/4 of the way up the mountain (not high at all), then reversed back down where we went to a look out area where you could look up at the mountain.  So, not very impressive, but it was still really pretty.  There was a deep gully and river along most of the ride, which was really pretty. 

After the lookout, we went to an area they had set up, where we ate lunch and watched a traditional dance.  They also had a small museum set up with some artifacts and a picture of the mountain, so you can see the nose shape.  After about an hour, we headed back to Alausi.  Probably the funniest or potentially scariest thing about the train is that they have a guy whos job on the train is to hang out near the back, which is where we were and as we go around corners, he would literally hang out the door, switching from side to side, to make sure that the train was staying on it's tracks.  Funny, yet nerve-racking.  :)

When we got back, we hung out in the town for a few hours before hopping on the bus back to Cuenca.

Cuenca - la segunda semana (the 2nd week)

What a fun week.  Last weekend, I went to a few different clubs and did allot of dancing.  we were out till about 3 or 4 am both nights.  On Sunday, I went to Gualaceo, where they have a huge market on Sundays.  It was great to see so many different fruits, vegetables and grains and cuancan people selling what they've grown.  Everything was crazy cheap.  we bought bananas for 10 cents and a pound of grapes for $1.  We have some great pictures of the market and the people.  We saw them load up the older woman with huge bags of grain and such on their backs, using blankets or shawls (sort of) as backpacks.  Then the little old ladies would take off to wherever they were going, with a load that is bigger than they are almost. 

After Gualeceo, we took the bus to Chordeleg, where they have lots of stores with different silver goods.  Everything there was actually pretty expensive, but I don't know allot about silver, so it's hard to say if it was expensive for what you get or not.  We had a great lunch there though, with chicken and plantains.  I like the food here allot.  I haven't had anything bad yet, not really. 

This week was pretty busy with school again, but it's getting easier.  Most days, myself and my school friends have a similar schedule... we're in school at 7:45, then do homework and eat lunch, walk around the city for a bit... then take a siesta and meet up again in the evening for dinner and drinks.  We went Salsa dancing on wednesday at La Mesa (a salsa club), which was alot of fun.  I've gotten home around 12 or 1 each night.  Not allot of sleep overall, but it's been alot of fun. 

I'm finding I can actually distinguish words when people talk fast now, which is really a huge step, let me tell you.  I can understand a little bit, which is awesome.  I've had lots of conversations here and there in spanish, when people are patient enough to speak a little slower.  I'm loving learning spanish and have learned a ton, but I still have a long ways to go before I'm fluent, for sure.  I'm hoping with two more weeks of school, that I'll start to be able to have more conversations and maybe at least understand allot more when people are talking fast.  :D  We'll see. 

Tonight, I'm going to a fiesta with the owners of my hostel.  They're throwing a big party to welcome their daughter back into town.  I'm not sure where she was, but I'll find out later.  It should be fun though & I'm hoping I get to speak allot of spanish.  :) 

For the weekend, I'm taking off with some friends from school to go do some sight seeing.  we're headed to Alausi and possibly Riobamba.  We're going to take the Devil's Nose Train from Alausi (normally it would be from Riobamba, but it's not working at the moment).  The train winds down the side of a cliff in the Andes and is supposed to have phenominal views.  

I've been fighting a cold for a few days, so I'm off to take my nap, so I can hopefully avoid getting sick. :(

Cuenca - 1 week in

One week down (well, almost - 5 days).  This week has been really busy.  I've been in school all week, which has been great.  Though with it having been so long since I took spanish, I had allot of catching up to do and still do.  Mostly, I don't have all the vocabulary, so I'm making flashcards like a mad woman and studying allot more than I thought I would.  It's humbling for sure, they don't give that much homework, but being in a different language and all, it takes me ages to do it.  I'm getting quicker though.  :)

My class only has two people, including me.  My co-student is Edwon, he's ~65 yrs old.  He's funny in class and it's pretty cool that he'd come to cuenca to learn spanish at that age, but we don't hang much outside of class.  :)  The school has activities in the evenings, like a cooking class in somebody's home, salsa lessons, or museum tours (they will change every week).  That's been great, cause I've been able to meet other people from the school that are -- well, my own age compared to Edwon.  :)  Most of them are about 20, just babies.  One guy is 32, so I'm not the only one in my thirties, woohoo!  They're all allot of fun, I'm glad I was able to meet them and hang out with them this week.  We usually go to the school activity and then grab a few beers afterwards.  Tonight should be fun, we're going to go to a salsa club and show off some of our new moves. 

I haven't gotten to explore much of cuenca yet, unfortunately, but that's the plan for tomorrow.  So far this week, I've been in class at 7:45am every morning, then doing homework and studying till the activity that evening.  I had quite the adventure earlier this week though (sort of), trying to find index cards of all things.  every paper and copy shop is pretty sure the place across the street has them.  It's pretty funny.  They do exist here apparently, everybody knows what they are, but nobody actually has them.  I also learned that they have more paper and copy stores than we have starbucks, per block.  Luckily, my hostel neighbor found something similar at one of the paper shops, so I should be able to find some afterall.  Also, walking around the city, I noticed something a bit funny.  there are a ton of doctor and lawyer offices.  The funny part being that, they are always the same office.  Nearest I can figure, the more lawyers in the office, the worse the doctor?  Just kidding, but it did strike me as an ironically funny pairing.