Quilotoa!

This past weekend was spent celebrating the battle of Pichincha... or whatever it was that gave us monday off! On saturday morning, a bunch of worldteachers and I wound through the mountains by bus to the tiny town of Chugchilan. We stayed at a baller hostel which for 10 dollars a night included breakfast AND dinner. It was fantastic. And a good thing that they had 6 blankets on each bed because it got cold up in the mountains. Pretty much the weekend was spent playing bananagrams and comparing our countdowns until when we leave and talking about what food we miss the most. (Oh My G-d! meeeeee too!!! I would do ANYTHING for macaroni and cheese with breadcrumbs on top!!! auuuuuuuuuugh!) But we also did get to see the beautiful Quilotoa lake! it's a volcano/crater lake in the middle of the mountains. According to one of our truck drivers, it last errupted in the 1700's and left the landscape as mountainous as it is. Half of our group hiked down to the water and back up. I decided to go with the adventurous group and hike around the rim of the crater. We were told that in about 3 hours or about halfway around the lake, we would hit a river and a small town, where we should deviate from the trail to hike back to chugchilan. However, after asking hikers coming from the other direction, we realized it was possible that this river and small town do not in fact exist and we would not know where to turn off the trail. Plus, the looming rain clouds were fast approaching the higher cliffs that we would have to climb, and we could hear thunder in the distance. After two hours of hiking, we thought it would be wiser to hike back the way we came and hitch a ride back to chugchilan from the town of Quilotoa. This turned out to be a good decision. We avoided the rain and we safely made it back to chugchilan in the back of a pickup truck (as we had missed the last bus by 45 minutes). Overall, it was a great weekend. I got to hang out with Americans who commiserated with my Ecua-frustrations, and I got to hike and see the beauty of this country with whom I currently have a love/hate relationship. It was literally, a breath of fresh (cold, mountain) air.

Carbohydrates

As much as I love my host mom, I simply cannot handle Ecuadorian food anymore. It´s been some time that I´ve been in food withdrawal, but I simply cannot take another day.

Breakfast usually consists of bread with cheese and fruit juice. On the rare days that there is something different, it is a fried egg with french fries or a fried egg with rice.

Lunch always consists of a soup that contains potatoes and meat, and then a heaping plate of rice with something. That something is either a meat stew, a potatoe salad or (the worst option) overcooked pasta with an oily sauce.

Dinner is either leftovers from lunch or bread with cheese (again).

I actually can´t take it anymore. I have gotten into the habit of picking up an ice cream on the way to my afternoon class to forget about the lunch I just had.

The Atkins diet has never sounded so good.

Llanganates Mountains!

This past weekend I went on I hike with three other worldteachers and two Ecuadorian friends (who happen to be tour guides) to the Llanganates mountains. It is said to be where ancient Incan gold is still buried, hidden from the Spanish invaders. We did not find any gold, however we did find a lot of cows and interesting high elevation vegetation. The views of the mountains were absolutely spectacular. I had been rainy the whole week before (and it continues to be rainy this week) but this weekend we got lucky. It was cloudy, but not rainy. Juan says that if the group of explorers are good people and they get along, the mountains will treat them well. He said that whenever he takes a tourist group who bickers with each other, the weather does not cooperate. I kind of like the theory. Anyway, we got to the base of the mountains by taking a bus from Ambato to Pillaro and then hopping in the back of a pick up truck that was headed in the same direction we were. (one of my pictures is of me and my Ecudorian friends in the back of the truck.) Once we got to the national park we hiked for 6 hours (1.5 hours of which was a grueling uphill march). At about 4pm, we finally made it to the refuge where we would be spending the night. We made spaghetti and played a card game called cuarenta with the park rangers who live at the refuge. It was so much fun just to chat with them, learn about what they do in the national park.. and of course talk some shit about playing cards. We went to bed early from pure exhaustion. Hiking in altitude is hard! It was VERY cold up in the mountains at night, but we were snuggly warm in our multiple layers and multiple blankets. The next morning, we woke up at about 8 and looked out with window. We were clearly above the clouds. The valley below us looked like a bowl of whipped cream. And it was absolutely silent, a sound I rarely hear in Ambato where there is always either city sounds or roosters. This past weekend's trip was so refreshing. It was good to be reminded of how beautiful this country is. So I thought I should share it with you!