A Breath of Fresh Air

In the past week, I´ve been to the ends of the earth and back. Well, not quite, but the Middle of the World, yes. Last Wednesday, I went with my aunt, uncle (Patricia & Guy) and Andrew to La Mitad del Mundo. We were able to take pictures of each other on different hemispheres and walk to the top of a museum dedicated to the different tribes of Ecuador to see yet another view of surrounding mountains of Quito.

This past weekend, I traveled to Mindo, a small city notorious for its natural life. Here, you can watch as hummingbirds stick their long beaks into exotic flowers, listen to the concertos of a group of frogs and observe some different 30+ species of butterflies. The most interesting type of butterfly being the indigenous Owl Eye Butterfly, which has two large yellow circles on each wing that seem to be carbon copies of a pair of owl eyes, as the name suggests.

Also, in Mindo, we were able to go on a ride on the tarabita, which is similar to a cable car ride at an amusement park (reminiscent of all my time at amusement parks with Teen Travel this summer), but the only difference is this vehicle takes you from one edge of the jungle to the other. From here we were given the choice of two paths: the 1st leading to six different waterfalls that were about 20 minutes away hiking, the 2nd leading to one major waterfall called Cascada Reina that was at least 45 minutes to an hour away. If you know Andrew or I, you know which we chose as compared to the rest of the travelers. The hike to Cascada Reina was really beautiful, partially because we were probably the first tourists through that path in a while, judging by the amount of spiderwebs and the amount of birds we could hear. Once we arrived to the waterfall, we hopped into the water, which must´ve been around 40 degrees farenheit and went for an abbreviated swim. Perhaps the most exciting aspect of the hike was in the return back to the cable cars, when we heard a loud scurry through the trees and all I could see run past was a small gray animal, which was difficult to identify but could´ve been anything from a small monkey to a bear cub.



As an update, I am now in my third week of teaching at SECAP. Just to give you an idea of some common pronunciation mistakes made in my English class (things we definitely take for granted.) --Iceland vs. Island--Niece vs. Knees--Uncle vs. Ankle--Beach vs. Bitch (my personal favorite). Another favorite pasttime is realizing the literal meaning of some English words. I would´ve never made the same word associations if I hadn´t been teaching such a Basic level of the language. For example, my classes´two favorites are waterfall, which literally translates ¨aqua se cayo¨/ the water fell down and stepfather, which translates literally as ¨padre que da un paso¨a father who steps in.



It´s been a great first two months so far. This weekend, our family is moving up the street on La Prensa to an area that is more suitable for the family business. The following weekend, I will be heading to Cuenca for the festival with a good number of the other teachers placed in Ecuador.

"Corré, corré, corré..."

An equipo photo of Therese, Jeff, Andrew and me before the Ecuador/Venezuela game on Saturday at the the Stadium in Quito.

I haven't gotten the chance to write in this blog for a while, partially because I've been running, running, running around Quito...

Last week alone, I visited the Guayasamin Art Museum, called the Capilla del Hombre, which examines man's suffering in Ecuador and throughout the world. His paintings are very powerful and are worth taking a look at. (guayasamin.com) We also visited the Panecillo and got a great view of the city of Quito, which stretches from North to South between the mountains. The city itself takes about an hour or so to cross by car and from the view of the large Virgin Mary statue, nothing is left to the imagination. On Thursday, we went to the Jardin Botanico in Parque Carolina (my favorite park to visit). The Gardens featured a number of different species of orchids and indigenous plants that are only found in Ecuador and its surrounding regions. Finally, on Friday, we visited Old City "El Centro" de Quito and were able to walk around and see the President's Palace, the Egas museum and climb to the top of rickety ladders to see the view from the Basilica de Voto Nacional, which stands tall in the center of the city.

Saturday was the big day and as we walked through Old Town, we realized that we should've bought the yellow jerseys and not the white and blue jerseys, but alas, even at 9AM, you were looked at strangely if not wearing some sort of national pride shirt for the Ecuadorian team in their debut in the elimination round of the World Cup 2010. The game's energy was incredible and old men and young girls alike were thrilled for the game to begin. Unfortunately, Ecuador had control of the ball the entire game but never scored and somehow Venezuela was able to make the only goal of the game. All in all, it was still an unforgettable experience of how sporting events should be. [Meanwhile at home, BC went on to beat our rivals Notre Dame and move to the 2nd place position in the country.]

Sunday, we were able to visit my aunt Patricia in her home in Conocoto, some 45 minutes from my home near the Airport. We ate a seafood lunch and played with her dogs. She has her own mini Noah's ark ready, with a variety of dogs, a cat, parakeets (at least 30), a horse, bunnies, chickens and a parrot. This Wednesday, we will visit the Mitad del Mundo with them and experience a little more of Quito's tourism.

Today, I began my second week of classes and will be teaching Time & Weather at SECAP to my two classes of 45 students and 32 students. It has been an interesting ride and I can't wait to continue on exploring.

PS--The headline for this blog entry is a borrowed phrase from the one and only David Naranjo, the 3 year old boy I live with who is obsessed with "dar-ing vueltas" and running through the house...I hope to steal just a bit of his energy to continue on experiencing Quito the way it should be experienced.

An Excursion to the South, Destination: Baños, Ecuador

This past Wednesday, Andrew & I headed off to the city of Baños for my first mini-trip outside of Quito. The bus ride was about 4 hours, but well worth it. We passed through Latacunga and Ambato and when we finally arrived, came to a nice little café for breakfast called ¨Rico Pan¨, which we later found out was one of Lonely Planet´s recommendations for a great $2 meal, similar to the grandiose almuerzos I´ve grown to love in Quito. One of the coolest and most striking elements of the small town of Baños is the waterfall right above la Piscina de la Virgen, the thermal baths. [I have at least 10 snapshots of just the waterfall alone and the visit was amazing.]

On Thursday, we went on a lengthy bike ride through the lush green mountains surrounding the city and wrapping around the paths that would take us toward Puyo, some 70kms away from Baños. While it was close to impossible to make it there in just one day, under the conditions of a hot sun and little nourishment, we got pretty close. In our trek, we saw at least 20 individual waterfalls and on the easy downhill lengths, we were able to take in the greatness of the mountains.

All in all, the first trip away from the bustling city of Quito was tranquilo and a welcomed trip away prior to my teaching, which begins just 2 days from today. I´m very excited and can´t wait to begin my first semester, with two different Basic English classes at SECAP (Iñaquito & Colon). The only difficulty lies in the fact that there will be no Spanish spoken within the walls of the classroom. That is, I will be speaking English to a room full of people who know ¨Hi, My name is...¨which should make for an interesting first few days and force me to be a little more creative in the classroom.