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!