Hola mis amigos y mi
familia!
I apologize that it’s been forever since I last updated this! I
think the last 3 weeks have been the best yet.
I left you off about three Mondays ago after our trip to Pahuma
Orchid Reserve. The week after that was pretty uneventful, after having
recovered from most of my ailments the week before. We had Spanish Monday,
Tuesday, and Thursday of that week. We had Wednesday afternoon off because our
professor’s aunt passed away and he had to fly out of town. I went home after
biology that day and ate my favorite meal thus far. It was a chicken leg basted
in pineapple juice, covered with pineapple chunks and little brown sugar. On
the side was a cauliflower and egg omelet—also fantastic.
We had our Spanish midterm on Thursday, and it was much easier
than expected, to say the least. A few friends and I stopped by a restaurant/bar
close to campus called Cactus to have a drink and catch up. On Friday morning,
we left early for a field trip to a reserve called Cayambe-Coca. Here, we were studying the plant diversity of
an ecosystem called páramo (pronounced “PAH-rah-moh”). It is characterized by
high elevation, cold conditions—the plants are very specifically adapted to
with stand lots of sun exposure during the day and frost at night. It was such
a strange-looking place! The plants were either really close to the ground,
covered in fur, or arranged in a rose-type arrangement. It was freezing cold and pretty rainy, but
enjoyable. In between studying the ecosystem, we hung out on the bus and drank
coca tea, which is the plant form of cocaine soaked in water, mixed with mint
tea leaves. Sounds pretty sketchy, but I assure you it’s perfectly legal. On
Saturday, we went on another field trip to the same ecosystem in a different
part of the mountains. This reserve was called Antisana (pronounced “ahn-tee-SAH-nah). This reserve was a little bit different—although
it is legally protected, it is still impacted by farm animal grazing, because
the laws aren’t as strict. We ate lunch on a lake, and we got to see a bunch of
really unique birds.
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| Cool páramo vegetation |
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| April and Hilary collecting data |
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| More weird páramo vegetation |
When we got home Saturday night, my classmates and I bought
tickets for a soccer game between two professional teams out of Quito. This was
probably one of my favorite nights so far! In Quito, the fans of soccer teams
are unbelievably intense. Even though it
was just a friendly match (the season opener, in fact), fans were fighting in
the streets 3 hours before the game, throwing rocks and shooting fireworks at
each other. Guys were walking around in bloodied chains (symbolism of
something, I’m sure), and shouting profanities at the opposition. Our bus dropped us off in the middle of one
of these street fights, and we were quickly escorted away. We probably looked
like idiots with our field gear walking between the bloodied sides of the
fight.
During the game, we were advised to sit in the less dangerous side
of the stadium. At first I wasn’t extremely enthused about this (what’s wrong
with some action, right?), but after seeing the “action,” I think we were all
pretty glad we were sitting were we were. The fans from each team were
separated by a line of 50 or so policemen, screaming and shooting fireworks at
each other. So intense. My friends and I were quite amused. During the game I
also met a little girl named Mia, and we shared some snacks and she practiced
her English with me. It was her sixth birthday, so I had my friends sing her “Happy
Birthday.” She was so excited. It was pretty adorable. The game was between a team called La Liga (“Lah
LEE-gah”) and El Nacional. I am a self-declared La Liga fan, because my whole
host family is die-hard fans. While I
have to admit the soccer wasn’t all that intense, it was definitely quite the
cultural experience. The game was also a
little bit confusing. After two 30 minute periods, the score was tied 1-1, so
it continued onto what we assumed was overtime. However, during the two
overtime periods (15 minutes each), none of the same players from the first two
periods were on the field. What’s more, even though it was tied at the end of “overtime,”
the announcers shot confetti into the air and declared El Nacional “el equipo
del año,” or “team of the year.” The next day I asked my host family, and
apparently every year, one of the Quito teams (this year it was El Nacional) is
a “team of the year.” The meaning of it is arbitrary, but the post-game
celebration of the season opener is always in honor of that team. Like I said—it was quite the cultural
experience. After the game we went out
to La Mariscal (Gringolandia, if you’ve been reading previous posts), and we
danced at our favorite club, Bungalow 6. I had such a blast all night!
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| Hinchas de La Liga (Fans of La Liga) |
We had Sunday off from school and studying. I met up with a couple
friends from my program, and we went to the Artesan Market, and chatted over
some coffee at Juan Valdez café in La Mariscal. The next day I was sick again,
just like the week before. I stayed home
from school and laid in bed all day. My host mom made me some “eat-this-when-you’re-sick”
soup for lunch, and it was just chicken noodle soup (without the chicken). But,
as I’ve said before, Cecilia is an amazing cook, and it was delicious.
I was feeling better by Monday night, and went to school the rest
of the week. It was a pretty uneventful
week as far as school goes. It was our
last week of Spanish, which we ended with a final exam on Friday. I felt a little bit guilty, because the
Spanish class I’ll be getting credit for is apparently one of the harder
Spanish classes at Madison (Spanish 311, for you Madison friends), and all I
had to do was sit and speak Spanish 3 hours a day for 16 days. I suppose I can’t complain.
On Wednesday night, I went out to dinner with my friends Hilary,
Whitney, Sam, and Aviv at a restaurant called Focaccia (you guessed it—Italian food). As I said before, I’ll admit that I miss my
pasta. I had a huge plate of pasta with a white wine sauce, bacon bits, basil,
and garlic, and the five of us shared a bottle of cabernet sauvignon. I also ordered some tiramisu cheesecake to go
(fantastic decision). Not that I don’t
enjoy those other nights out on the town, but I definitely preferred this
setting to our big group of 21 gringos at a club.
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| Me, Whitney, Sam, Aviv, and Hilary at Focaccia |
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| Amazing dish! |
We were given the following weekend free to do what wanted,
so the majority of my classmates and I chose to go to Baños for the
weekend. Baños is basically a small
resort town of about 15,000, and they’re famous for their adventure activities
(zip-lining, whitewater rafting, bungee jumping, canyoneering, etc.). We rented a bus to take us the 5 hours from
Quito to Baños for 10 dollars per person, and we left Friday after our Spanish
finals.
Baños was such a cool town! It was pretty quiet, and in
short consisted of a street of bars, a mountain side of waterfalls, some hot springs,
a beautiful church, and some hostels. We
stayed in a beautiful hostel five or six blocks from “downtown.” Friday night,
our bus arrived around 11:00 p.m., and we left our hostel to go downtown. We danced and enjoyed a few Pilseners (the
famous Ecuadorian beer, as you may recall from previous posts). One of my new
friends, Francisco, a Quiteño (the name for a person from Quito) who goes to
the same university as we do, showed us around to the best clubs. Since Baños is a popular tourist destination,
there were lots of people from all over the world, and it was really fun
talking to everyone in broken English, Spanish, and French. On our way home, my friends Lizzie, Laura,
and Francisco stopped at a hole-in-the-wall hamburger joint for a late night
burger (probably not the best decision as far as food contamination goes, but I’ve
been healthy ever since). Here we met
some fourth-year medical students from Milwaukee that were staying in the same
hostel as us. They were specializing in anesthesiology, and had some interesting
things to say to me about my decision to change my major away from medicine.
Ask me about it later if you’re curious!
Saturday our big group went whitewater rafting on the
Pastaza River. A chiva (the
Ecuadorian word for a party bus), picked us up from our hostel and took us 45
minutes to the start of the 2 hour run.
It was such a great time! The river wasn’t incredibly intense (probably
between a level 3 and 4 for those of you who know rafting), but it was still so
much fun. They’re substantially less
careful in Ecuador about safety and regulations, so a few of the guides didn’t
hesitate flipping our raft and pushing people into the rapids. It was pretty extraordinary. Lunch was
included in the rafting tour, so we had chicken, rice, and broccoli soup at the
company’s family restaurant in a nearby town. All around, not a bad deal for 25
bucks.
Saturday night we went out again, but it was a much quieter
night since everyone was exhausted from the day. I had pesto pasta for dinner. I know what a lot of you are thinking—don’t
worry, I eat plenty of Ecuadorian food—I just can’t pass up a good plate of
pasta. A few of my friends tried cuy (“KOO-ee”), which is grilled guinea
pig. It’s a delicacy in Ecuador, and I’m planning on trying it at some point!
Can’t pass up trying new things. :)
I'm sorry I didn't take any pictures on the Baños trip! I didn't want to get my (mom's) camera stolen.
My friend Molly and I left Baños early with Francisco to
head back to Quito. We took a public bus back for a whopping 4 dollars for the
5 hours it took. As I’ve noted before, public transportation is vital for so
many Ecuadorians, so it is unbelievably inexpensive. Also, as a side note, I
apologize for any of you who might be uncomfortable when I talk about the
prices of things here. I do it mostly because it gives you a better sense of what
life is like, and because I think gives you an idea of the standard of living. I
hope I haven’t offended anyone.
Monday morning, my class left early for a week-long
fieldtrip to the coastal province of Manabí to study at a dry forest reserve
called Lalo Loor. For the first 4
nights, we were housed in a beautiful rustic shelter made of palm and
bamboo. This has definitely been my
favorite trip thus far. There was no
electricity or running water in our “house.”
The reserve runs on a “cero basura” (meaning, “zero trash”) policy.
Everything is recycled, composted, or packed into bottle bricks. Bottle bricks
are a new up-and-coming idea for conservation; dry trash is compacted into
water bottles, which are then used as bricks to build structures. Check out
this website if you’re curious: http://www.bottlebrick.com/.
I thought it was a pretty neat idea. Our
showers were fed by the nearby forest stream, and the toilets were compost. It
was a really cool reserve! It is about 2
km away from the town in which I’ll be doing my month-long internship at the
end of the semester, so I’m hoping to see more of it!
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| Sweet parrot at the fruit market |
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| Fruit market on the way to Lalo Loor |
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| Hammocks under a palm thatch roof right outside our house at Lalo Loor |
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| More vegetation |
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| Beautiful vegetation at the dry forest reserve |
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| Classmates during dinner |
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| Soup (not sure what kind), mashed potatoes, shredded lettuce, and a grilled pepper mixture, made by Bigote, the head chef at the reserve |
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| Our little getaway from the outside |
Lalo Loor, the owner of the Lalo Loor Reserve, also produces
dairy products locally. We got to sample his yogurt, and it was incredible. He
makes liquid yogurt in blackberry, peach, vanilla, soursop, and strawberry
flavors. I wish I could bring some back
for everyone to try! The reserve is also working on a project to bring children
from local schools in to learn about the forest and its conservation. Since the arrival of the Ceiba Foundation 8
years ago, a lot of progress has been made in the reforestation of the area,
the involvement of the community, and the education of local school
children. In the days we were there, we
learned about plants, bugs, water quality assessment, and dry forest
conservation. The dry forest we were in
is really only dry about half of the year. Since we’re in the wet season right
now, it was lush with vegetation and soaking in mud. It was such a beautiful forest, though! One
of the days, our lecture was interrupted by some howler monkeys hanging on a
tree 10 feet outside the window. You don’t get that every day!
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| Terrible picture of Steve and I on the bus with some of Lalo's yogurt |
One of the most interesting lectures/field activities was
learning about water quality. The water quality in the area I worked in was
quite low; the local town of Tabuga (my internship town, pronounced "tah-BOO-gah") uses the river for
everything. It is a trash can, a washing machine, a bathroom, and a shower for
many of its residents. Tabuga and the surrounding towns are very poor, and
there are many ongoing projects by Peace Corps representatives, volunteers, and
organizations like Ceiba working on education, healthcare, and sustainable
agriculture projects. I met lots of locals during the trip, all fantastic, interesting,
and unbelievably genuine people. Being
in Tabuga was a pretty humbling experience, and I’m really looking forward to
spending more time there in April and May.
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| One of the neighboring towns near Tabuga |
On Friday, we left the reserve to head to the beach. During the day, we stopped at some mangroves.
This is a unique ecosystem, with very few number of plant species that are
highly adapted to living near saltwater.
They are not very well conserved, due to the abundance of shrimp farms
lining the coast. Ironically, I had a delectable plate of breaded shrimp for
lunch. It’s a shame that deforestation tastes so good!
Friday evening we arrived at a beautiful, rustic,
privately-owned beach resort called Punta Prieta where we would be staying
until we returned to Quito on Sunday. It
was Hilary’s 21st birthday on Thursday, so everyone on the trip (my
professors included) celebrated in good fashion on the beach Friday night. We
slept in tents both nights on the beach.
Saturday during the day, we were given the entire day off to hang out on
the beach. We swam in the ocean, read, laid in the sun, and played cards all
day. Despite the rain all night the night before, we couldn’t have asked for a
better day on Saturday. We were fed by
the family that owns the resort for all of our meals, and they were so good to
us! We had fresh fruit in the mornings, and a variety of fish, shrimp, and
chicken for lunch and dinner. It was
such a nice getaway, and I’m thinking of going back there during spring break
in a few weeks.
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| Sunset on the beach, night 1 |
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| Steamed broccoli, plantains, salad, and pan-seared garlic shrimp, with a glass of cabernet |
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| Lounging area on the beach |
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| My tent buddies, Hilary and Tyler |
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| The view from the main cabin house at Punta Prieta |
Sunday was reserved entirely for travelling back to
Quito. We ate lunch at a random roadside
buffet, and we were back in Quito by 6:00 p.m. Sunday night. I was exhausted
from the week, and I went to bed soon after saying hi to my host family. We
were given yesterday and today off to rest and recover from the week before. After Skyping and catching up on my 134 miss
e-mails, I went to the market and bought a fresh pineapple (a dollar), and read
outside. Last night, my friends Hilary and Tyler came over and we ordered pizza
and ate and chatted for hours with my host family. I think we kept them pretty
entertained!
Today for lunch my host mom made aguado de gallina (“ah-GWAH-do day gah-YEE-nah”), or chicken rice
soup. It is usually served as the main dish because it is so filling. It has
rice, peas, corn, peppers, chicken broth, and a whole chicken leg in it. It was
definitely one of my favorites. For dessert we had espumilla de mora (“es-poom-EE-ya day moh-rah”), or blackberry
mousse. It was even pink, in light of el
día del amor, or Valentine’s Day.
Here are some interesting facts:
-Over 97% of the forests between the coast of Ecuador and
the mountains on the east side of the country have been deforested for
ranching, pastures, and grazing. Growing up in the U.S., we were always taught
to “save the rainforest,” but the incredibly important coastal ecosystems are
much more endangered.
-It is extra easy to be a good boyfriend in Ecuador—you can
buy 25 roses for a dollar.
-Many of the people on the coast, especially in the province
on Manabí speak Quichua as their first language. It’s an indigenous language,
and it pretty different from Spanish. Many of the people I met on the coast
hadn’t really had much schooling, but still knew at least both Spanish and
Quichua, and often knew French or Portuguese. I think we’re slacking a little
in the States.
As many of you know, I’m not a big celebrator of Valentine’s
Day. However, I think y’all are pretty great, and I’m really grateful for your
love and support. So, a shoutout to all of you, especially to my many mothers:
Mom, Debbie, Sheri, Pat, Val, Meghan Ernest, etc. I love you all!
Sorry, once again, that this is obnoxiously long. Lots to
catch up on! Starting next week Friday,
I’ll be going to the Amazon for two weeks, so starting Friday I won’t be in
contact until after that field trip. It is pretty crazy to think that my time
here is already a third over! I must say, I’m living the good life. Also, for those of you that have been asking
or are curious, Andrew made it safely to Cape Town, and he’s been living it up
as well. He started a blog too: www.asemesteronthecape.blogspot.com.
He doesn’t have super consistent access to internet, but he said he try to keep
it updated. In the same vein, thanks for all of your support! I’m glad you guys
are interested in my/our lives. :)
Love,
Caitlin
