Fuya Fuya

Pre-mountain climbing adventure. We had no idea what we were in for.

Club de Andinismo

Beautiful view!

(Sort of) Action shots.

Climbing! Fer let me use one of her high-speed mountain hiking sticks.

Still climbing! But almost to the top!

Another beautiful view!

Emily, Elisabeth, and I.

You might not be able to see those tiny dots, but they are people. This was the final segment of the descent.

Pooped. But pleased.

I have tons of homework this week. So of course the natural solution was to flee the city and climb a mountain. But I figure I’ll forget about the copious amounts of homework and sleep deprivation in a few days but I’ll remember climbing this mountain for the rest of my life.

And if I’m going to climb any mountain, it’s going to be Fuya Fuya. It just sounds cool. And it’s beautiful. There are lagoons at the foot of the mountain so the view was “preciosa.”

I went with Club de Andinismo, PUCE’s (The Catholic University) mountain climbing club. They do all sorts of adventuring though, not just mountain climbing. A group of about 25 went, and only four English speakers, so that was good. I spoke lots of Spanish and made lots of new friends.

The mountain was about a two hour bus ride away and I have to admit that, as we drove past mountain after mountain, I wondered why we didn’t just get off the bus and climb up one of the random mountains along the side of the road. But it seems that adventurers in the area like to “collect” mountains for lack of a better word. Everyone’s constantly checking mountains off their list. Plus our mountain was gorgeous.

So to start off with, I feel I should mention that climbing a mountain, in theory, sounds a lot easier than it actually is. It was way harder than I was expecting. Fifteen minutes into the hike, I was struggling to breathe. It felt like I couldn’t get enough air unless I just stopped entirely, which obviously isn’t very conducive to climbing a mountain. The process implies forward progress.

So anyway, I just took it slow so I didn’t get too out of breath and kept trucking. I knew better of myself than to consider quitting but I did wonder, “Why on earth am I on this mountain? I’m not a mountain climber!” But then I realized that I was on a mountain and I was climbing, so that kind of makes me a mountain climber. So I kept going.

After what felt like ages (it took about two hours), we reached the top. It was really foggy so we couldn’t see much. I felt like I was in a cloud. We ate lunch atop Fuya Fuya and then headed over to the peak of a neighboring mountain, Cochasqui, I think. To get to the summit of that mountain there was some bouldering and rock climbing involved. And when you are clinging to the side of a rock face, without equipment, hoping you don’t fall, and all you can see are mountainsides plummeting down on either side of you, it dawns on you that it’s hard to define the threshold between cool and dangerous. I was definitely into dangerous. Sorry, Dad. But I survived, if that’s any consolation.

On the hike down, we took another route. A crazy steep route. I had to walk really, really slowly but all in all the descent was less painful. Breathing got noticeably easier as I went.

At the bottom of the mountain, we chilled while we waited for our taxis (read: pickup trucks who let us ride in their truck beds) to take us to the bus station and then we took the bus back Quito. The whole adventure lasted 14 hours, from 5:30am to 7:30pm.

Okay, now I’ll go ahead and take a crack at…

FACTOIDS!

· Abortion is illegal here.

· My EcuaMami has two authentic sculptures by Caspicara, a famous 18th century Ecuadorian sculptor who is well known for sculpting little baby boys with teeth, glass eyes, and penises (most other sculptors just sort of left the penises out). The sculptures used to belong to Marcela’s father but were gifted to her upon his death. They are worth a lot of money. She was telling me that she went to Museo Banco Central to get one of the sculptures appraised and a curator told her that unless she had official papers declaring legal ownership (which she didn’t have), the Museum was going to confiscate it as property of the state. She protested and as the guide went to get his manager, Marcela wrapped the sculpture in her jacket (it is rather small) and fled the museum, running down ten flights of stairs and out the door as guards shouted after her. It now sits in the foyer inside a glass case.

· Today, I was the only student who showed up to my Psychology of Sexuality class (does my taking that class explain some of the factoids?). It was just me and the professor. Class went on as usual. Don’t worry, it wasn’t awkward.

· When I was descending Fuya Fuya, I saw what I thought was a large moss covered boulder but when I stepped on it, it was kind of springy. Not a boulder. Turns out it was some sort of highland grass that grows so tightly together it forms a huge mound. They best way I’ve heard them described are as looking like giant, green brains.

So I think I’ll stop here. I hope everyone is doing well. You are all in my thoughts. I’m headed to the beach again this weekend, but a different one this time. I’ll try to write again soon. ¡Hasta luego!

Amazon Woman

Cascadas.

Heliconia, my favorite flower in Ecuador. These are everywhere.

I learned how to french braid!

Monkeys we saw in the wild! The river was really low at points so we had to disembark the canoa so it could advance. One of the times, we happened upon these monkeys.

They did not like having their picture taken. Their tails were kind of like hands and wrapped around a branch to stabilize them as they launched themselves at us Superman style. I was pretty sure we were about to get attacked by wild monkeys but then its tail stopped him and he just landed in some lower branches.

It was Valentine's Day.

Bananas.

Cacao.

Each cacao bean is covering in this white membrane. You can suck on it like candy and it tastes kind of sweet and sour. Nothing like chocolate.

My new look.

Coffee.

The food that the indigenous family made for us. Yummy.

Swinging on a vine. Typical Pam activities.

Giant spider that can fish. Yes, it can kill fish. Weird.

Sangre del Dragon. There are trees that bleed and the "blood" had healing capabilities. If you get cut on a hike, dab a little of this on the wound and it'll seal the cut almost immediately.

Hiking through a stream. We had rain boots.

Our group

Our mode of transportation

Holding a jungle cat!

...and a large turtle.

Toucan eating guaba.

World's largest rodent, Capybara. I guess I should have put something in the photo as a size reference, but he came up at least to my knees just laying there like that.

I saw an Ecuadorian man with Nail Patella Syndrome.
It made me miss my family.

I hope everyone is doing well. I’m doing wonderful, although a little bogged down with homework. So of course, I’m updating my blog. I’m creating an illusion of progress without actually making any headway on the mountain of “deberes” that await me. But I’m a little behind on the blog entries, too. I’m writing about last weekend’s adventures instead of this weekend’s.

Last weekend (Saturday through Tuesday) was Carnaval. While there are some celebrations in the city, a lot of people head out to do some traveling. We took advantage of the time off of classes to go to the Amazon. Our study abroad program hosted the trip so almost everyone went.

The first day we went caving and hiked to a waterfall. Encounters with wildlife: bats, tarantulas, giant beetles. That night we explored the little town and had deep talks about religion. Definitely fascinating to hear so many different points of view and I think I learned some things about myself. Self discovery in the Amazon.

The second day we moved to another hostel, deeper in the Amazon. The only way to get there was via canoa (giant motorized canoes) by way of Rio Napo (while not the Amazon River, it is a river in the Amazon) and from that point on we went everywhere via canoa. There aren’t many cars in the Amazon, if you can believe that. We visited an animal rescue center, visited an indigenous family, and saw a spiritual cleansing by a Quichuan shaman. The indigenous family trip was interesting. We started by walking through their “farm,” although it wasn’t really a farm. It seemed much more naturally occurring. They had coffee, cacao, bananas, guaba (not guava), papaya, mango, oranges, yucca, avocado, peppers, ginger, and all sorts of other plants and trees native to Ecuador. They fish in the river and they sell whatever extra they have to buy what they do not produce themselves.

The family had an agreement with our guides, I think, because our guide led us into their home. They were expecting us but were not very receptive. But if 15 foreigners walked into my kitchen gawking and holding cameras, how receptive would I be? Hernan, our guide, showed us around their kitchen and methods of cooking. They smoke most of their food, including meats, because they do not have a refrigerator. The mother of the home prepared us some foods to try: yucca with salt, fried bananas, fish from the river, oranges, guaba. Except for the fish, which I didn’t try, it was delicious.

The third day we went on a three hour hike through the jungle. I saw all sorts of scary creatures. And plants. Our guide was telling us about a plant used for natural healing that works into the muscles and relieves pain. Then he asked if we wanted to try it. Thinking it was going to be pleasant, of course I said yes. We all rolled up our sleeves and Hernan whacked our arms with a huge chunk of leaves. It was an instant burning sensation like having a bunch of thorns in your arm. That lasted for about fifteen minutes and when it went away a bunch of red bumps took its place. Not cool, Hernan, not cool. And I ate an ant, not very vegetarian of me but it tasted like lemon.

After lunch we made raft out of balsa logs and rope and went rafting down Rio Napo. It was relaxing. We sang. And some of the children in the indigenous family we met the day before canoed/swam over to our raft and joined us. It was nice. When we finished, we stopped at a little patch of land the middle of the river and took the rafts apart. We had to take canoes back to the hostel but we couldn’t all fit with the raft logs in the canoes. Five other people and I stayed on the little “island” until the canoes could go back, unload, and turn around. At first I was worried about mosquitos since it was getting late but it ended up being a blessing in disguise. The water was warm. The sun was setting. The sand felt great. All in all, it was a very pleasant half hour.

The last day we visited an Ethnic Indigenous museum. It really didn’t share too much information on the indigenous way of living, except for a demonstration on different types of traps used to catch animals in the jungle. Mainly, it just had a whole bunch of animals. Monkeys running around everywhere. And I held an ocelot. After visiting the museum, we headed back to Quito with a stop to see one last zoo. Although, observing caged animals was not my favorite thing from the Amazon trip, this last museum was cool because we saw the world’s largest rodent, a capybara. It was huge!

But anyways, I know this is kind of short for how amazing my trip was but most of the fun was experiencing nature. I think my favorite day was hiking through the jungle and then cooling off, rafting in the river. It was AMAZonING (Get it?! Amazon, amazing!). Such beauty everywhere you look. But I couldn’t help but think that I don’t have to travel to the Amazon to see natural beauty. Brown County, Indiana is beautiful, too. And it’s a lot closer. I guess it’s a matter of appreciating and taking care of what you have.

But. Now for a couple…

FACTOIDS!

· Ayahuasca, a plant found in the Amazon region, can cause month-long hallucinations if too much is taken.

· There is a type of ant in the Amazon that can, with a bite, put you into a coma. It’s a pretty giant ant.

· A lot of trees in the Amazon have “superficial” roots, or roots very close to the surface, because the forest floor doesn’t have many nutrients. Because of this, many trees have immense bases with above-ground roots that are 4-5 feet tall. Back when groups of indigenous people inhabited the forest, they would pound on the roots to communicate long distances. The sound is a low, resonating boom that can easily be heard across the forest.

Well, until next time! I should be chronicling this weekend’s adventures soon! Hope you all are doing well!

Week in Quito

Ann and me. Notice the sprawling city in the background.

Photo Ann took. Cool church.

El Panecillo

(Notice she has wings. Most depictions of the Virgin Mary don't have wings. Quito's Virgin is special.)

This reminded me of Kim.

So I didn’t do a very good job of taking pictures this week but a lot happened. A good week. Saturday, I hung out with Ann (we call each other cousins, even though it’s more complicated than that). Aunt Patty introduced us. We went to Panecillo, a big statue of Mary atop a mountain that overlooks the city. Originally we wanted to climb Pichincha and ride horses but it was rainy. Alas, it shall have to wait. We tried to compensate by climbing to Panecillo but the “Tourist Security Division” of the city Police told us it was a bad idea and gave us a ride. We went to lunch at Uncle Ho’s (who sells t-shirts that say “I heart Ho’s”) and then went to meet Ann’s host family. Santi, her host-brother, owns a restaurant setup next to the EcuaVoli (higher nets, three people per team) courts in Parque Carolina so we hung out there even though the games were called off due to rain.

Sunday, I went with some friends to a Super Bowl party hosted by the Marine house on the US Embassy Compound. It was really fun even though Colts fans were vastly outnumbered (and heckled.) But there was pizza. And English. I wasn’t complaining. And now I have friends at the Embassy.

My art class takes field trips around the city to museums, churches, etc. This week class was held in the Historic Downtown at the Iglesia de San Francisco. I have to say though, when you combine my professor’s vast vocabulary with my seriously lack of knowledge when it comes to art, I really miss a lot of what’s going on in that class. I did, however, understand his rant against gum chewers and pigeons with their acidic poop for ruining the church exterior.

My EcuaMami hosted a baby shower for her nephew’s wife yesterday. It was pretty similar to the baby showers I’m used to except A.) Everyone was speaking Spanish. B.) Everyone was served my Rebe, who wore all white and C.) Instead of gifts, a card was passed around and people signed it and slipped in some cash. It was given to the mom-to-be at the end of the party. It seems cash is gifted at weddings, as well. I have to say, it’s definitely more practical. And the unwrapping process was a lot quicker. Anyways, there were games, diaper cakes, talks about breastfeeding. The usual. It was really nice to get to talk to so many different Ecuadorian women, though. The more people I meet, the more universal everything seems. Once you get over the language barrier, we are all the same really. It was almost like being with my own family.

This week I started volunteering with Extreme Response. IES offers a service learning course but I didn’t have room in my schedule so I am just doing it on my own in my free time. Yesterday was my orientation and today was my first day. I’m working at a daycare center located at the city dump, caring for kids whose parents make a living by sifting through trash looking for recyclables. The dump is actually full and now functions as a transfer site to the new dump an hour and half outside the city. City trash collection trucks come and dump trash into a huge pile. People immediately jump into it ripping bags apart while bulldozers push the trash into the next set of trucks. The bulldozers don’t look out for the people; people lookout for the bulldozers. Needless to say, it’s dangerous. But they are proud to say it’s been a little over a year since the last death.

It used to be that the kids would work in the trash with their parents, often being fed from the trash. Now children are no longer allowed in the dump itself. The daycare feeds them lunch and snacks each day, for many the only square meal they get. Extreme Response put a clinic on site at the dump and got all the children medical care. They are also working on getting on the children birth certificates and all of the documentation necessary for them to be enrolled in school. Extreme Response’s goal is to break the poverty cycle so that none of the children in the daycare grow up to work in the dumps like the several generations before them.

My role, however, is to play with the kids during the day. The kids are infants through six-year-olds. Some are really aggressive, others silent, and other just want hugs and to be held and picked up. It’s really stressful; I’m not going to lie. My Spanish still isn’t perfect and we have problems communicating. The daycare center is small, there are lots of children, and there aren’t many staff members. None of the staff members really talked to me and I was left alone to be in charge of all of the children several times. Mostly, though, I just read aloud. Some listened, others played. This is definitely going to be an experience. I will keep you posted. I’m working there every Monday and Fridays when I’m not out of town traveling.

This weekend, I’m going to the Amazon. It’s one of the trips that IES is hosting so it’s going to be a packed weekend. Lots of good stuff planned. Jungle, waterfalls, caves, rafting, shamans. Good stuff. I had to buy a lot of stuff to get ready though. I needed hiking boots which cost $130 on average at the mall. My EcuaMami knows where to shop though. She drove a half hour away to this little hole in the wall store that sold really nice hiking boots for $30. Plus she talked them into taking another $2 off. Basically, I’m convinced she’s magical. She saved me $100.

Okay. On to the…

FACTOIDS!!!

· Ecuador is implementing a new transportation plan, named “Pica y Placa,” which begins in March, in effort to save energy. “Pica y Placa” means “Peak and Plate.” The last number of each license plate corresponds to a day, for example my EcuaMami’s plate ends in a 6, so her day is Tuesday (for example, not actually sure). But anyways, on Tuesdays, her car can’t be on the road during peak commuting hours both in the morning and evening. It’s a two and a half hour chunk of time, twice a day. People will either have to go to work really early or take public transit. Daniela says she’d have to take four different buses to get to work. This doesn’t really affect me except that it’s already hard to fit in the Ecovia. We’re like sardines. Quito isn’t the first city to try this, but I couldn’t help thinking about how people would flip out if this was tried in Chicago.

· I found a Bagel Shop named Mister Bagel. Its own by an American named Hugh Gillis and I always want to call him Bruce Willis.

· My host sister, the one who lives in France, is a genius. She worked for NASA and now UNESCO. She is fluent in three languages. I live in her old room and her bookshelf is intense: Socrates, Allende, El Cid, Shakespeare, Sophocles, Homer, Neruda, Tolstoy. No light reading whatsoever; I looked. The amazing part is that when she was studying in the US, in Miami, some homeless man threw a huge rock at her car as she was driving by hit her in the head. Her skull was literally caved in. My EcuaMami flew up and lived in the US for her recovery. She lost her short term memory, couldn’t walk, and couldn’t read. Doctors weren’t sure if she’d ever be able to walk again. But she is seriously brilliant. After five months, she was almost fully recovered. That was five years ago. The funny thing is Marcela, my EcuaMami, expressed no bitterness at the US. Actually she said she was glad it happened there, because the quality of the medical care. I just thought that was funny. I think I’d be bitter at Ecuador if that happened to me here.

Okay, so I think that’s all for now. It’s late and I’m getting tired. I can sleep during tomorrow’s bus ride, though. Five hours.

¡Hasta luego!

Mindo and Same

Zip-lining in Mindo

Mariposa

Taxi ride back to the hostel after tubing

The porch of our hostel.

Same, the beach! (Pre-sunburn)

Walking to Casa Blanca via the highway. The tide was in so we couldn't walk via the beach and, yes, this is a completely normal thing to be doing.

Giant snail Ale found.

Whenever I see a traffic cone, I think of Matt.

(There are lots of traffic cones in Quito.)

Hello, everyone! So I've already been in Ecuador an entire month! I can hardly believe it. Time flies when you're having fun and this has certainly been a fun few weeks.

Two weekends ago a group of about fifteen of us took a 2.5 hour bus ride to Mindo, a Cloud forest and “bio-diverse paradise.” We stayed at a lovely hostel and we were very taken care of, for only $6 a night. There were hammocks next to hummingbird feeders. It did rain a lot night, though, and I forgot my rain jacket. I mean why would I need a rain jacket? “Cloud forest” in no way implies the possibility of precipitation.

We went zip-lining though the jungle and our guides let us do tricks: I went headfirst with my arms out like superman and upside down. For some of the longer zip-lines, we could see the cables disappearing into the fog. A bit eerie. I have to say though, it was really fun but nothing compared to jumping out of airplanes! We went extreme tubing though a river that was full of boulders. Our guides would jump out of our huge tube/raft apparatus, kick off a boulder, spin us around, and hop back in. It was intense. I just giggled the whole time. We also visited a butterfly farm and an orchid garden.

This past weekend we went to the beach in Esmeraldas named Same (sah-may). The bus ride there was supposed to be seven hours but we ran into a bad car accident on a mountain highway which caused us to move only ten miles in five hours. It took fourteen hours to get there. Mer. However, the beach was beautiful. I keep having these surreal moments where I look around and think, “This is my life. This is happening. I’m in Ecuador” and look around and take it all in. It happened again when I was in the ocean and turned around and saw the view of the shore. Breath-taking.

Our hostel had its own beach and no one was there besides our group so we had the beach to ourselves. It was a very relaxing weekend. I laid out it the sun, read, swam, crashed into some waves, swung in the hammock, and got a sunburn. It was nice. We visited Casa Blanca for dinner the first night (the sea food is really good on the coast. So good in fact, there isn’t much of a need for vegetarian options. I ate plain spaghetti noodles.) And the next day we visited the well known tourist beach, Atacames. I much preferred our little private beach. The next morning, the boys made “scrambled pancakes” for breakfast and we had a spaghetti dinner overlooking the beach the next night.

The past two work weeks were pretty routine. I’ve started running though and I can definitely feel the altitude difference in my breathing. Running in the park is an experience: I have both seen a man peeing on a tree and another man not wearing pants (I think he was changing into soccer shorts).

Carnival is next weekend, a huge celebration is Quito. We’ll actually be using the break to go to the Amazon since we won’t be missing class but some people, mainly kids, have started celebrating early. My friend and I were walking home from class together and we saw this big group of school girls in their uniforms. They were all about seven years old, I’d guess. We chatted with them a bit and then they handed us some water balloons, joking that we should throw them at random people on the street. We laughingly went along with it until one girl got antsy and launched a balloon at her friend. And then the balloons started flying. I managed to stay relatively dry but then someone produced a can of silly string. I got covered. This all went down in the middle of the street. Scenes from Pam’s random life.

I’ve been trying to help Rebe with lunch when I don’t have much homework to do. The first day she let me fill a water pitcher. Today, she let me make salad (except for cutting tomatoes; she did that). And I learned how to make fresh apple juice. Other flavors to come. However, after being with Rebe throughout the hour and a half process of making lunch, I got personally insulted when Jose came home and said he wouldn’t eat the rice she made because it had carrots in it. I mean, seriously? Rebe didn’t seem to mind at all.

By the way, Jose and Daniela, thankfully, behave contrary to typical Ecuadorian couples in that they do not engage in excessive amounts of PDA. Mostly Jose calls Daniela his “gordita” (she is not even a little bit fat) and Daniela tries to get me to call Jose a “joda.” Except I know what it means (translation: bad word).

FACTOIDS! (Warning: some of these factoids are PG-13)

· Rebe came in my room the other day holding an (unopened) condom, asking me to explain what it was. She said she found it in her son’s pocket. She looked surprised and a little sad when I told her. Definitely an awkward moment.

· Prostitution is legal here. They have a health card that has to be updated each month to say that they are disease free. They typically charge about $1 per half hour. (I learned this in grammar class; I am not doing that sort of field research for my factoids. Not quite THAT dedicated to this endeavor. )

· Fifteen years ago, homosexuality was a crime here. Suspected homosexuals could be jailed.

· If a mother goes to jail and has no where to send her kids, they go to jail with her. When they are 12-13 years old, they are kicked out of the jail. There are no government programs available to support them.

· Petroleum is stored in barrels and transported in the back of pick-up trucks. They usually have a rope or something to secure them together. They drive really slowly and honk ever five seconds so no one runs in to them. And sometimes they shout, “Gas, gas!”

· Continuation of the above factoid: One of these slow moving gas trucks was driving just faster than my walking pace alongside me as I returned home. The man in the passenger seat gave what my ROTC Sexual Harassment Awareness PowerPoint would call “elevator eyes” and with a creepy smile gave me a nod of approval.

· “Piropos” or catcalls are much more common and culturally acceptable here. Some are creepy but some are nice. Pretty much all of them are creepy to me though because I’m not used to it yet. But there are definitely worse things than being called linda, preciosa, or bonita as I walk down the street. One time this seventy year old man on crutches said “Hola, Hermosa” with a toothless grin.

So this weekend I’m staying in Quito for the first time. But details to come in the next blog!