Volcanoes and Visas and Voices...or Not...

This Sunday, 6 of us gringos took a really fantastic trip to Quilotoa, a former volcano about 2 hours south of Quito. Although I have been with many of the volunteers for weeks now, it was still a super exciting and necessary bonding experience. We climbed (really, slid) down into the crater, stopping about every minute to look at the breathtaking view below us and kicking up clouds of dust all the way (my shirt, pants and face were about the color of the ground by the time we arrived). We kayaked in the crater´s lake, where the weather and water were perfect, and then reluctantly climbed back up (to 12,000 feet!). Opting to walk instead of ride a mule up the mountain may not have been the greatest decision at that altitude, but I was certainly proud when we finally got back to the top! We were all completely pooped by the end of the day, and I went right to sleep when I got home.

Here we are, halfway down the crater! (Photo by Ricardo Robledo.)


I then woke up at the butt crack of dawn on Monday morning to work on extending my Visa...so that I´m not deported before the end of my Ecua-adventure. After collecting everything I needed this weekend (a copy of my passport and my visa, a bank statement, proof of my flight out of the country, passport pictures, a written request to the ministry, an extension application, $30, AND the very specifically requested manila folder) I arrived at the immigration office at 8 am and was not set free until after 11:30! I have also been asked to come back again this week to pay the rest of the small fortune required for a 45-day extension (about 7x more than the $30 down payment, in case you were curious). Pretty sure that I will always plan around this Visa situation when I leave the United States in the future...either by staying less time or hopping from country to country. I really can´t even begin to imagine how the US might be about these things if countries in South America are this difficult!

I spent the rest of the day with other volunteers, and we all went up to the Panecillo where it poured and hailed on us, per usual in Quito, around 3 pm. My voice had been getting progressively raspier througout the day, which I probably should have seen as a hint to go home and not be outside in the rain. By the time I saw my host family at about 8 pm last night, I was a mute. Literally. My host mom created an Ecua-remedy for my illness, consisting of lime, cinnamon, a spoonful of honey, and boiled Coca-Cola. I may as well have been drinking opaque bile, but I had to oblige my host mother who said that I would wake up cured in the morning. Not so--I can´t make a sound! Therefore, I have taken my first sick day from work. Luckily, my friend Alex and I bought a bunch of movies last night just before going home ($1.25 each...and they actually function!), so I watched "Out of Africa" and will probably finish "El Secreto de sus Ojos" before the day is over. It´s so depressing to be such a bum! This has never really happened to me before, so I have no idea how long it will take for me to talk like a normal person again. Hopefully I will be a functioning human being again very soon!

We Cannot Direct the Wind....

Each day, the UBECI staff, my fellow volunteers and I work at a market in morning, take a break for a leisurely lunch, and then return to the markets in the afternoon. Today was obviously no different--but after we finished eating, I and my friends found ourselves exceptionally bored. It was a little before 1 pm and we weren´t due to start work again until 2, so we decided to walk through the streets of the city--pretty quickly, seemingly with purpose, I noticed--but we really had no idea where we were going. At about 1:30, we decided to head up to the market a little early, without the staff. Danny, our "boss," was working in an internet cafe, so we stopped in and told him where we were going. He smiled and just told us to be careful, so we made our way back up the hill to our work area.

Every day, we put up a tent in the area where we work. It is supposed to simulate a classroom, more or less, and is a tiny part of the scholarization process that children that come to UBECI activities undergo. Focus. Calm down. You are in a learning space, it subconciously tells these superbly energetic youth. Putting up the tent is actually a surprisingly arduous task...so my friends and I decided that we would surprise Danny and the rest of the staff by having everything ready to go when they arrived!

Somehow, with kids climbing all over us and putting tent pieces wherever they thought correct, we managed to get this ghetto thing standing. We were stupidly proud, really, that we had gotten everything ready for the kids earlier than usual and that Danny wouldn´t have to do any preparation when he arrived. Lisa and I went to the other side of the market to fill a jug with water for the kids to wash their hands--yet another daily chore that the staff wouldn´t have to do! We returned and got the hand washing station ready.

Just as I bent down to help Lisa pour our hand-washing water, I heard dozens of children--and volunteers--screaming behind me. I turned around quickly--the tent was nowhere in my line of vision, but everyone was pointing upwards....

And there it was--literally 30 feet in the air, if not higher--half of a tent, flying through the sky! Looking at it, I felt like I was in the middle of a tornado. One of the legs caught on to a wire and dangled there for a few long seconds, probably some of the scariest of my life. I knew it would inevitably come crashing down, 28 metal tubes and all--but where? On who?! Could we possibly be responsible for some serious injury today? My heart was literally doing somersaults. It was totally our fault, too, if not mine alone, as I was the volunteer with the most seniority. It really hadn´t been windy, so I had completly forgotten to tie the tent to anything!

The tent did come down from the sky very soon after. The metal rods of the tent crashed against the tin rooves of the marketplace. Pieces of the tent went EVERYWHERE. It was one of the most awkward and embarrassing experiences of my life, but none of us could stop laughing. We stood there, with all of the kids, in complete shock. Once we snapped out of it and realized no one had been hurt, we ran down to where the tent had landed to try to get the pieces together, still giggling out of complete embarrassment. We managed to find 27 of the 28 metal rods, rendering the tent completely useless in 10 seconds.

None of the staff was openly upset or angry, but it was certainly embarrassing for all of us! We explained to Danny and the others how proud we were to have had everything done before 2, and they just laughed. We are probably going to pool our money and buy a new tent for UBECI. But I´m just glad that it´s all over, and that the only damage done at the scene was to one market roof made of tarp-- one that costs $4.85 to replace.

Give `em a Break

As much as I adore our Ecuadorian kids--it really makes me happy to play, sing, talk, and paint with them at the markets every day--I am always so pleased when the weekend comes, excited for a chance to get away from all the dirt and grime, the little noses dripping with snot, the blasting reggaeton that makes your ears bleed, the vendors (adults and children alike) giving you sad looks that make it impossible not to pity them with every ounce of your being, the hour-long rides on stuffy busses to get where we need to go. I always think, phew, I´m so ready to not have to wake up at 7:30 am, to not have children hanging on my limbs...and to be CLEAN for a change! It´s not like I feel like I "deserve" it after a week of hard work or anything. I don´t. Nonetheless, it feels good.

I can escape from the little things in Quito that make me uncomfortable. From work, I can escape on the weekends. I can even leave the city if I want to and go somewhere I can actually breathe in without inhaling...opaqueness. I depart from this country in less than two months and return to one of the most well-off places on the planet where I will experience virtually complete comfort again. There will always be toilet paper and soap in the bathroom, and there will always be clean drinking water when I´m thirsty. I can wake up in the morning and put on a clean shirt that doesn´t have any holes. I never had to do my homework outside, on the floor, amongst rotten fruit or peels. Little luxuries that I usually take for granted--even here, I guess, with my own host family--are things that these 3-to-12-year-olds, evidently, rarely have access to. It seems like they never have even a short break from this unfortunate situation into which they were born. I´ve never had to do anything to make sure my family´s ends meet.

I wish I could do more than I do now. I always try remind myself that grassroots movements like this take decades and decades to truly make change ("It isn´t a sprint, it´s a marathon!"), but it´s these specific little children that I have come to love and care about. My heart aches for them. If someone were to tell me that last year, 20% of kids in Quito worked and this year it´s only 18%, that wouldn´t mean anything to me at this moment. Despite whatever development work that organizations like UBECI do, these kids--Camila, Evelyn, Oscar, Edwin, Erika, Lesly, Anahi, Melany, Viviana, and dozens more--are growing up right now with windburned faces and stuffy noses and untreated injuries...and selling crap alone in the markets, on busses, or in the streets. They don´t stop for weekends and can´t leave on December 16th. I think about that and really feel powerless.

Home Again, Home Again

So, my adventures as a super tourist have come to an end; it´s back to the markets for 8 more weeks! Last night, I was so excited to finally return to sleeping in what I consider my own bed. As frustrating as work can be sometimes, I missed the kids so much and couldn´t wait to get back this morning. I was super lucky to have experienced a "mid-term" of sorts to re-organize and rejuvinate.

Being away made me realize just how acclimated to Quito and my house and my work I have become. This really feels like a permanent life. Unexpectedly, when we landed on the mainland, my first thought was "I´m home." In a way, being here feels like less of an adventure now. But I guess that just means I´m comfortable, and that´s a good thing.

Fotos de la Isla Bartolome

Today was mostly about gorgeous (and arguably Martian-like) landscapes on an island that is only 350,000 years old (virtually nothing speaking geologically, according to our guide; the oldest Galapagos island is 5 million). We climbed 367 stairs to a high point on the island and the views on the way were absolutely breathtaking. There was very little wildlife, but we did finally see some Galapagos penguins in the water and on the rocks--the 2nd smallest species in the world and the only one that ever crosses into the northern hemisphere!

Some Beautiful Landscapes




Bartolome...or Mars?


A Galapagos Penguin! Possibly one of the cutest animals I have ever seen in real life.


The Frigate Bird: called the Galapagos pirate because it steals everyone's booty. Mean.

More Galapagos Photos

The fauna of Isla Plaza Sur!

Swallow Tail Gull: an endemic species of the Galapagos.


Marine Iguana: quite exceptional as far as iguanas go. It can swim. :)


Sea Lion and Baby


Land Iguana


Sally Lightfoot Crab: apparently, they have no predators on the Galapagos once they're fully grown. I can't understand why...they look tasty to me....



...and a pelican.

I Have a Feeling We're Not in Quito Anymore.

Yesterday morning (after waking up at 5:30 am, which is 4:30 Galapagos time!) my parents and I flew into Baltra, one of the three Galapagos Islands with an airport. I'm not saying that I was expecting to fly into paradise or anything, but I was definitely surprised when the plane landed and we were surrounded by miles of dry, red dirt spattered with seemingly dead cacti. However, as soon I stepped off the plane and could breathe in the warm, clean air, I decided it didn't really matter.

We met up with a tour group and hopped on a bus to the coast of Baltra. As we turned a corner, I saw the turquoise water for the first time and within two seconds my eyes were fixed on a sea turtle--my first sighting ever! After ten minutes I already had goosebumps. I knew we were truly somewhere special.

We took a very short boat ride to Santa Cruz, where our hotel is located. On Santa Cruz we saw two huge craters as well as a ginormous lava tunnel formed by volcanos--a day full of unique landscapes. We also walked through a giant tortoise farm, where I was super thrilled to finally see some wildlife! I definitely regretted wearing sandals, however, because tortoise poop was massive and abundant. Just like they were!



We drove from one coast to the other over the course of the day and ultimately ended up at the hotel. I was definitely expecting to feel like I was in a different country than I had been for the last two months, but the streets of the town on Santa Cruz looked almost identical to those of the smaller Ecuadorian cities I've visited. It just hadn't occurred to me that many Galapagos residents might share a lifestyle with people on the mainland: the same food, same cell phone providers, same marketing techniques, same Ecuadorian flag-color grocery bags. It surprised me, but I knew that each island was supposed to have its own "personality," and that we would soon see so much more.

I could not have been more right. Today, I truly felt like I took a 2-hour boat ride to another planet instead of just another island. We inched our way to the coastline of Isla Santa Fe on a small water taxi that Galapagos residents call pangas, where the sand was white and the sea lions slumbered...in a colony of a hundred. Although they barked like dogs with whooping cough, I very much wanted to crawl right under their flippers and take a nap, too! But I guess the second best thing was being awake to watch them snuggle, swim, fight, and play.




We explored the rest of the island and saw the Santa Fe land iguana, a reptile that is not found anywhere else in the world, as well as the Blue-Footed Booby, one of the most famous birds on the Galapagos. I really can't believe I have now seen one in real life! Finches, crabs and lizards were also all over the island. Most of the animals couldn't have cared less that we were there--even the sea turtles, baby sea lions and white-tipped shark we encountered in the water when we swam. It was amazing!



To call this island "beautiful" would be an insult. I really don't think there are words to describe it, this gem in the middle of the ocean where wildlife doesn't have to be threatened by anything. Then again, I guess I should say "gems," since there are 18 of them. And we'll see another just as incredible tomorrow.

I feel pretty helpless being spoken to in English by locals giving tours or serving us food. Sometimes I feel so spoiled for being here that it's almost hard to think about anything else, but I am trying so hard to get over it because I know this is something I will probably never do again, and I want to soak up everything. It really is hard to believe that I am where I am, seeing what I'm seeing!

Where's my Hawaiian Shirt? And my Hat?

It's been interesting showing my parents around the city for the past few days. Sometimes it's surreal to see them in my new world, where I've spent the last 7 weeks creating a life away from them, but I'm excited to have the chance to show it off. It's also been fun to do all the touristy things in Quito that I had yet to really consider: the TeleferiQo (pictured below), the Panecillo (a famous statue of the Virgin Mary--with wings--on the top of a hill, from which there is a very nice view), seeing the inside of the beautiful Basilica, etc. Although I have lived here for a while already, I rarely think to sightsee 15 minutes from my house.

And I am finally able to post pictures to the blog (for now)-- I'm on my own computer for the first time since being here because we're in a hotel with WiFi!


We had a really great view of the entire city after riding the TeleferiQo, "Quito's loftiest tourist attraction," according to my mom's guidebook, to an altitude of 4,100 meters (almost 3 miles above sea level!). You can see the actual TeleferiQo in the background on the right. Fun fact: it hailed on us while we were up there!

Tomorrow, my parents come to work with me. On Wednesday, we are off to the Galapagos! For some unexplainable reason, I can't wait to be back in the airport. Oh, yeah...and to see the marine iguanas and blue-footed boobies :).

Beach Bums and Coup d´Etats

Our experience in Canoa ended up having much less to do with soaking up the sun and much more to do with avoiding being permanently sucked into one vortex of a beach town.

Canoa has a population of only 6,000 people, and to us it felt even tinier than that. We would, per usual in this country, have local boys approach us and hit on us unabashedly, but the difference in Canoa was that we would see these same boys everywhere. They all led a lifestyle that somehow allowed them to be free to hang out and flirt all day, every day. They learned where we were staying. We began to believe that Canoa was a town full of people with no ambition whatsoever, and for me personally, the trip became so much aout avoiding frustrating situations with horny Ecuadorian boys that I often forgot that it was supposed to be a vacation. Unlike many of my friends, I, unfortunately, have zero tolerance for the cross-cultural love game that we ran (or, rather, run) into virtually every day. Some girls really play into it, which actually makes them consider staying! It´s really that intense, as I have seen it first hand.

Aside from this, we met so many Americans who had come to Canoa for vacation and either a) gone home, sold everything, packed up their life in the states and come back to this surfer town permanently, or b) never left at all. I felt like I should have been making a movie when I talked with some of these people. Walker, from Seattle, is a 27-year-old college dropout who plays online poker to pay for his virtually indefinite travels. Lenn, a divorced father of 3 grown boys, abandoned his Kentucky life after a vacation in Canoa for his own recently purchased internet cafe and beachside restaurant. He knows that, due to a new highway being built from Quito to Canoa, that the beachtown will soon be way less of a secluded getaway and way more of a flashy tourist attraction. Monetarily speaking, his genius plan is to ride that wave to the top without a hint of shame. Lenn loves himself.

By far the most interesting (and arguably the only inspiring) person that we met in Canoa was a man that we called Tiki Barber--only beause he looked like Tiki Barber--and the name totally stuck. We met him one night early in our trip and from the beginning, my friends and I all agreed that we felt really great vibes from this guy. But it was for some abstract reason that we couldn´t exactly pinpoint. He probably had the most unique perspective on life that I have ever heard, and I would really like to share his ideas after I process them...and remember them all. There will definitely be a Tiki Barber blog post sometime in the near future.

I also just have to throw out there that Canoa is home to probably the best food I have ever eaten in my life. We had phenomenal shrimp or fish dinners for $3-$5, and the veggie food at some of the specialty restaurants was to die for. I think the thing that would keep me in Canoa forever wouldn´t be the laid back, secluded nature of the place, but the incredible cuisine.

After an extremely surprising five days, Lisa and I arrived back in Quito at about 4 am Thursday morning (Katie continued travelling because she´s done at UBECI). We came back at the perfect time, we discovered later-- little did we know that the Ecuadorian government would "teeter on the edge of collapse" later that morning. As foreigners, my fellow volunteers and I were removed from the situation almost immediately. We went to work yesterday morning and, as soon as the staff found out what was wrong, we were "evacuated" to Santa Isavel, another UBECI project area outside of Quito. There we stayed, confused and completely uninformed, until about 2 pm when we could find a bus to take us back into Quito. We were basically told not to leave our houses all night.

As the entire police force went on strike, Ecuadorian and Columbian citizens took advantage of the opportunity and robbed several banks, as well as committed other crimes, throughout Quito and Quayaquil. Several members of the police force found President Rafael Correa in the hospital--where he had already been for some kind of knee surgery--and teargassed him. The air force took over the airport and wouldn´t let any traffic in our out until about 5:30 last night. There were barely any busses or taxis and the streets in some areas we basically deserted. Good times! The UBECI staff tells us that this kind of thing is fairly regular in Ecuador (the last few presidents have had similar issues with attempting to be "overthrown"). I certainly didn´t feel like I was in danger yesterday, and things seem to be improving today, although school was cancelled in a lot of places and we´re not working today either. My host family is very happy that the president didn´t back down. People here are very much in favor of the reduction of police and other government officials´ bonuses and say that Correa is one of the least corrupt presidents yet. So...I suppose we´ll see how everything unfolds.

The airport has reopened, so my parents are coming into town tonight as planned. We´ll see if they can leave the hotel this weekend...!