Winding Down in Quito

¡Hola!

My time in Quito is almost finished. This Friday I´m off to the Galapagos Islands. I wish I could spend a little more time here, getting to know the city and the country.

Last weekend was spent in Quito. On Saturday, Margot, one of the volunteers, and I visited the Museo de Banco Central. It was an interesting mix of prehistoric art and more conventional paintings and sculpture.

After the museum, we perused the artist market in Ejido Park. I bought a necklace, and then spent some time talking to Ignacio. Ignacio and his father are jewelers, and have a stand in the park. I bought a ring from his father a few weeks ago. Ignacio is university student studying journalism. He´s quite an interesting guy. And he was able to suffer my mediocre spanish.

Sunday I went to the mall. Yes, I travelled all this way, and I end up at the mall. I was curious to see what a high-end mall in Quito would be like. Malls are malls anywhere in the world. Lots of shops, lots of people. The prices were similar to prices back home, however, here in Quito, these are expensive prices. Yet, people were shopping.

I don´t know if I mentionned that the average salary is $150 per month. And housing starts at $50 per month. Food is inexpensive, as is transportation.

Before heading to the mall on Sunday, I visited another park called Carolina Park. It is huge and full of people doing anything you can imagine. And it was a beautiful sunny day on Sunday. I love visiting city parks and watching families and people doing whatever it is that they do.

Well, I need to get to the supermarket before it closes, so I´ll end here.

cheers,
Stacey

I spoke a little too soon

¡Hola!

When last I wrote, I had just spent two days in bed with the flu. Well one week later, I´m still struggling with a head cold. And Sunday I came down with pink eye, or in my case, red eye. My left eye was as red as a tomato, and was swollen. And it itched so much that I was ready to remove it from my head. On day three it spread to the other eye, although the medication I put in my eyes prevented the right eye from getting very red. All in all I spent four days in bed with my eyes closed, listening to podcasts and books on tape downloaded on my iPod. I love my iPod. Currently my eyes are a little itchy, but they are definitely better than they were earlier in the week.

On Saturday, our Ecuadorian guide took me and the new volunteer John to Otavalo for the day. Otavalo is about two hours north of Quito, in the Andes. Otavalo is famous for native handicrafts. It is also where many local indigenous people live. You may have seen photos of female and male indians with a single long braid, and wearing woolen ponchos and a felt or panama style hat. They speak quechua in addition to spanish.

The city of Otavalo itself is not very attractive, but the surrounding area is beautiful. In addition to the mountains and valleys, there are five big lakes. We visited one called San Pablo. The area is similar to Cayuga Lake back home in Central New York, only CNY doesn´t have such huge mountains. As in CNY, there are also small waterfalls. We visited the falls in Mt. Peguche.

The handicraft market sells typical native handicrafts. The indians weave brightly colored striped cloth for scarves, bedspreads and table cloths. They crochet table cloths and table runners. The make hammocks. They knit sweaters, hats, gloves, scarves and ponchos out of llama wool. They make felt and panama straw hats. (Panama hats are made in Ecuador, not Panama.) They carve figures out of wood. They make wood, macramee and silver jewelry. And you can buy touristy stuff, too, like t-shirts, key chains, caps, wallets and so on. You can find the same stuff in the local weekend handicraft market here in Quito, too, but the Otavalo market spreads for blocks and blocks.

On Sunday, before my eyes turned red, I rode the teleferico (cable cars) to the top of one of the local mountains in Quito. Quito is over 10K feet ASL, and the peak at the top of the teleferico is over 14K feet ASL. They sell oxygen just in case you need it. Once at the top of the teleferico, you can continue to hike even higher. Walking uphill at 10K feet in Quito is challenging enough for me, so I decided to enjoy the view at only 14k feet. And an amazing view it is. There are houses and buildings everywhere, as if the mountains and hills were leaking houses.

Between the flu and conjunctivitis I have missed five days of school. That´s one third of the time I had planned to teach. I feel bad about this.

The foundation that governs the school arranged two weekend outtings in the Amazon for certain people associated with the foundation. I was invited to go this weekend, but decided to pass. Given my weakened immune system, who know what awful disease I might catch. With my current luck, I´d probably get Dengue Fever. The director at the school couldn´t understand why I didn´t want to go. Battling the flu and conjunctivitis didn´t seem like a good excuse. Besides, part of the trip included a cleansing by a local Shaman. Now, I´m a believer in natural medicine, but I draw the line at Shaman spit. Part of the cleansing process requires the Shaman to spit in your hair and smack you leaves. I decided to pass on this opportunity.

It´s hard to believe that my time in Quito is almost over. Only one week left, then it´s on to the Galapagos Islands.

cheers,
Stacey

alive and sorta well

¡Hola!

It´s been an interesting week.

Last weekend Melina, another volunteer, and I took the bus to Mindo. Mindo is small town (and that´s being generous) in the Andes about two hours Northwest of Quito. The area resembled Costa Rica, only with more dramatic mountains. We think it is a rainforest. It rained half the time, and it was a forest. Hey, what do I know. I´m from Detroit.

The scenery on the drive to Mindo was stunning: plenty of lush green cloud-covered mountains and valleys. We drove through some of the clouds along the way. The Andes are so cool.

The first day we went tubing down a rather rapid river. It was just Melina and I on the tube raft. We had a private tubing raft guide. His mission was to keep us from crashing into the rocks and dying. Boy did he earn his money! This was my first time tubing, and I had a ball. The water was a little cold, but the fear of crashing into rocks kept my mind off the cold.

We also visited a butterfly garden. Butterfly gardens are so delightful! So tranquil. Butterflies of blue, yellow, red and black frolicking in the air! I unsuccessfully tried to coerce a couple of the butterflies to eat melon off my hand. They must get tired of tourists forcing them to eat melon off their fingers.

Later that afternoon Melina and decided to explore the ¨town¨ -- all four blocks of it. That took all of 10 minutes. After dinner we had drinks at a cool little bar on the edge of town. This was THE (only) place to be. Their margaritas were excellent!

The next morning we visited the waterfalls park. We took an open cable car across the valley to get to the starting point of the trail. Again, we had a private tour guide, a cute young guy named Michael Angel. He guided us up and down the mountain to see two of the four waterfalls. We didn´t have enough time see all four, which was fine with me because visiting two falls was challenging enough for me. All my energy was focused on not sliding off the mountain. It had rained the night before, and the trail was muddy. And I was wearing rubber Croc sandals, which tend to slide in the mud. But then again, I think I would have had the same challenge had I been wearing hiking boots. Atleast it was easy to wash the mud from the Crocs. This little adventure took about 2.5 hours in total.

Touring in Ecuador is so inexpensive. The round trip bus fare to Mindo was $5. The double occupancy room with a private bath and breakfast was $10 per person. Dinner was $5. The excursions totaled $25 per person. Margaritas were pricey at $3 a piece!


On Tuesday I awoke feeling achey all over. At first I thought I might have malaria, because the symptoms of the flu and malaria are similar. But since I didn´t have a fever or chills, I figured that it wasn´t the flu. But to be on the safe side, I consulted with a doctor. He agreed that it was the only the flu. But he also told me that I was suffering from hypertension! I don´t have hypertension in the US, so imagine my shock when he told me that I have it here. Apparently it is not uncommon for people to develop temporary hypertension at high altitudes. So I´m taking high blood pressure medicine for a few days. This sucks.

I slept for two days, and am now feeling much better. I missed two days of work (oh darn).

Teaching the lovely children is getting better. I take each day and each class as they come. Today was a better day. We´ll see what joy tomorrow brings.

Today my host mother decided to make me a traditional Ecuadorial dish for lunch. It was tripe in a peanut butter cream sauce, with rice. It´s called librillo. It tastes as good as it sounds. But I ate it all, and I didn´t grimace once. I decided to eat dinner out tonight. I had indian food. GOOD indian food.

Well, I need to get some sleep.

Cheers,
Stacey

TGIF

¡Hola!

Thank God it´s Friday. Teaching five hours of classes a day is exhausting. And getting up at 5 AM doesn´t make this any easier. Fortunately next week is a short week. On Monday they inaugurate their newly elected president, and so school is closed. I don´t see the connection, but I´m not complaining.

These first three days went about well as could be expected. I didn´t kill any of the children -- but I came darn close. Yesterday I had two classes of donkeys. The Ecuadorians call kids aged 13-16 "burros". And asses they were. Today I taught little kids. They are so cute! All day long, they would run up to me and hug me, both inside and outside of class. They greeted me with a song clalled "Morning Teacher", sung to the tune of Frere Jacques. They made up for yesterday´s classes of burros.

Today was my first day of riding the bus to school with out Gabriel, my guide. And all went well. Although I will say that riding the bus is a violent experience. The bus races along the road at 40 mph, and stops suddenly whenever anyone inside or outside the bus signals the driver. With all this herky-jerky stopping and starting, you don´t need coffee to wake up. Much to my amazement, several people on the bus are able to sleep. Sixty percent of my energy is trying to stay in my seat, and the other forty percent is trying to figure out where I am so I don´t miss my stop.

Well, I have to get going.
cheers,
Stacey

Let the teaching begin!

!Hola Chicos!

Today was my first day of teaching. And to use my new favorite phrase: Vamos a ver (we will see).

The school where I am teaching is a school created by the government of Quito to showcase new and improved methods of teaching for children in kindergarten through high school. The objective is to more effectively teach these children the skills they need to suceed in work and advanced education. Some students follow a more generic course of study, while others focus on accounting, physics, chemistry. The school was founded about six years ago, and the first class of high school seniors graduated last year. Only about 25% of the students who started six years ago, graduated.

The school is located in the Carapungo district of Quito. It´s a 45 minute, two bus ride from my house. Today Gabriel, my guide, had to meet me at my house at 6 AM to show me how to get to the school. Gabriel is 19 years old, and is a night owl. Pobrecito (Poor Gabriel).

Carapungo is located at a lower altitude than central Quito which makes it bloody hot! Luckily it´s a dry heat.

My classes are daily. Classes start at 7:15 AM and end at 1:20 PM. I will teach four or five classes a day, with a total of 23 classes a week. There are 430 students in the school, and I will teach everyone of them at least once a week. What will I do exactly? I will try to keep one step ahead. Fortunately I enjoy working in these type of figure-it-out-as-you-go situations. My other favorite phrase is: Que sera sera (what will be, will be).

Today´s classes went reasonably well. I tought 12 and 16 year olds. The 12 year olds were much better than I had expected, attention and attitude wise. The 16 year olds are, well, 16 year olds. The class of 16 year olds refused to do what I had wanted to do, but instead they asked me lots of questions. They wanted to know what I thought about Bush, the war in Iraq. They told me that they thought americans were racist against immigrants, and that american teen-agers are lazy, selfish, and violent (Columbine). They also wanted to fix me up with their single English teacher. We´ll see how things go next week -- with the students, not the teacher.

After I went home and had lunch, I took the bus to Gringo Land (a part of Quito where we gringos hangout) all by myself! Tomorrow I take the bus to work all by myself. Guess I´m finally getting oriented.

Well, time to make my way back home.

cheers,
Stacey

Two Miles High

Hola de Quito, Ecuador!

After a week in the sun on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, I arrived in Quito which is about 11,000 ft ASL (above seal level). And what a change in climate and terrain it is!

But let´s start with Costa Rica.

After Santa Barbara, I spent a week at a high-end all inclusive resort on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. The resort was on the Gulf of Papagayo, which is located at the top of the Nicoya Peninsula, and at bottom of Guanacaste Province. My particular stretch of beach had black sand. All the Costa Ricans talked about how white the sand was, so the black sand was a little shocking at first. But, black sand is kinda cool. It´s much softer than white sand. And the seashells look beautiful against the black. The resort also had a white sand beach about 30 minutes North by boat.

The resort itself was okay. You could tell it was an older hotel complex that had been rennovated. And like most resorts, the huge pool is the center piece. The people who worked there were very nice. The food was good, however, there was more meat than seafood. Fortunately they always had rice and black beans. And I could nave my gallo pinto (rice mixed with beans) with eggs and a tamale every morning.

The temperature was brutally hot: 95 degrees during the day, and 80 degrees during the night. And humid. The sun was bitingly strong, probably due to the close proximity to the equator.

My days were full of reading, sleeping, eating, drinking. I refused to leave the property because to do so would cost me a minimum of $60! And that´s just to take a taxi to the next beach! The prices for excursions from this hotel were outrageous. So I stayed on the property. Next time, I will stay a beach further south on the Nicoya Peninsula. One that is closer other beaches and shops and restaurants.

On Saturday, January 6, I flew to Quito. It took over 12 hours to get there because I had to fly through Miami! But other than the duration, the flight was wonderfully uneventful.

Since my plane arrived at night, I didn´t seen Quito until the next morning. And what a beautiful place it is! City is long and narrow, and is surrounded by even higher mountains (13,000 to 14,000 ft hight mountains). The city itself is not bad. It has lots of hills, which seem like mountains when you are walking up that at 11,000 ft ASL. The altitude hasn´t been a problem so far. The days are really hot, and the nights are light sweater weather. The Ecuadorians wear winter coats!

I am staying in the home of an older woman who´s husband passed away about two years ago. Her name is Mercedes. And she´s an amiable lady. She speaks only Spanish, which is fine by me. We´ve had some great conversations. Her house is smaller than the house of the Costa Rican family. However, it seems that she lives in one of three houses that are grouped together. Her sister and her mother live in the other two houses. And they share a common entrance from the street. My room is in the attic, and given the slant of the roof, I can stand upright in only 1/3 of the room.

Tomorrow I have an interview with the director of the school where I will be teaching English. Then my assignment will start on Wednesday. I learn more about my students tomorrow.

On Saturday I went to the center of the world. Quito is a 30 minute bus ride from the Equator. The thought of being able to stand on both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres at the same time was a little exciting.

Today I was given an orientation, but I don´t think it stuck. I know where certain areas are, but I don´t recall how to get to them. This mainly because I have to take the bus. And the bus system is confusing. As the bus comes speeding down the street, I have about 2 seconds to read the three signs in the window to figure out if the bus is one I want. If it is, then I have to flag it down. They don´t have bus stops. You can catch a bus ANYWHERE, and they drop you off ANYWHERE you ask them. To get off the bus, you yell to the driver that you want to get off HERE. And if you are a woman, the bus stops so you can get off. If you are a man, the bus slows down and you have to jump off a moving bus! Taking the bus to work the first few time should be interesting.... Thank goodness taxis are so cheap!

Well, that´s all I have to say for now.

cheers,
Stacey