Ecuador: Day 12

Day 12:
Breakfast was at 7:30 and our tour was at 8:00 so I had the hotel knock on my door at 7:00 to wake me up. That never happened. Instead I was woken up by mom wondering if I was coming to breakfast at 7:30. I made it to breakfast a couple minutes later, grumpy, but awake. We had fruit salad, eggs and a roll along with a juice called Tomato of the tree. Now I've liked every fruit I've tried in Ecuador, except this one. It tastes like tomato but more bitter and a bit fruity. It was interesting to say the least. Next we went to get some boots and rain ponchos then all piled into the van and set off. It was amazing looking out the windows of the car and seeing the Amazon all around us! All the wonderful trees and shades of green. We drove along for maybe thirty minutes the whole time I was lost in the beauty around me.
Suddenly we came upon people doing construction in the middle of the road. They were digging a large ditch to put drainage tubing into the ground. We were stuck. The workers said it would be one hour until they would be done. So we waited in the vain, mom chatting with the tour guide and Greg and Howard talking amongst themselves. I went to get my camera out of my bag and found that for some unknown reason, it had stopped working. After maybe 45 minutes they still weren't done. By now other cars had built up on both sides of the street. Someone went to ask the people how long and again they said "one hour."
So we decided to get out and walk, hoping that our van would catch up with us as soon as the road work was done. Our guide was very perceptive and had an eye for seeing things. He stopped us and said "look a blue morpho." Now the blue morpho is a butterfly that I never thought I'd see in my life. Its famous and supposidly very rare. There is actually a great film about his butterfly called "The Blue Butterfly". We all looked to where he pointed, but didn't see a thing except branches and leaves. After a minute or two I finally saw it. What looked like a brown leaf with a spot on it like an eye. The butterfly had its wings closed and thus we couldn't see the blue. It was still amazing just knowing that we actually saw one of these wonderful creatures.
We continued on and soon came to a fish farm. There were all these square ponds in the grass. The water was clouded so we couldn't see the fish but you could see shapes moving. There, Talapia fish were raised along with some other, very large fish. The large fish we kept in this big pond. A tour bus load of teenagers were at the pond. They had little fish they were throwing in to try and get the big fish to come to the surface. We never saw the whole fish, just a little of it and let me tell you, it was big. Really big. Border lying on huge. It was like a serpent rippling in the water. Soon the kids started stabbing the little fish on wooden sticks to try and lore the large fish out. I must say this upset me quite a bit. They would impale the fish sometimes while they were still alive and seeing them twitch was not a happy sight. I am very much against animal cruelty and this was very upsetting so I turned away from the scene. One of the teenagers had a "fish-stick" that he held out over the water, sticking the fish slightly under the water. All of a sudden something huge chomped down on the fish and stick, causing everyone to scream and the kid to almost fall in the water.
We continued walking. Patricio, our guide, showed us a type of palm tree that is used to make what are called "Panama Hats." He pulled some of the new leaves off the plant and showed us how to make a woven headband. It was difficult at first but I was soon weaving away. The headbands turned out really nice in my opinion. I wore mine the rest of the day.
Next he showed us a cocoa tree with one of the "fruits" on it. It was really wild looking with reddish pink and brown stripes. There was also this fruit which Patricio cracked open showing us the white seeds. He rubbed the seeds with his finger and they turned bright red. He said this was a dye used mostly for food. He proceeded to paint lines on our faces. We must have looked very odd with our face paint, headbands and yellow or blue rain ponchos.
We continued on our walk. It was so nice feeling like we were away from all the towns and media of the world. Just in the trees in the middle of nowhere. It grew very warm and we were able to take off our ponchos which was nice. We came upon a termite nest and our guide placed his hand upon it and then showed us all the little bugs crawling on his hand. He than rubbed his hands together and all over his arms crushing the little bugs. Once he was done, the bugs were gone and all that was left was this interesting smell like ceader-wood. He said the wax from the bugs is a natural insect replant. Mom loved the smell and hoped we come across anther nest so she could try it. We walked on, enjoying the sights, and soon met up with the van. We drove on for a little while and then parked on the side of the road. We walked into the jungle, following Patricio. I really felt like I was in the rain forest now. There were streams with big mossy logs over them that served as bridges. We came to a clearing with all these wooden houses raised above the ground. We stopped there, put our backpacks in one of the huts and headed over to the bank of the river. Although it is not the Amazon river, it still looks rather like it. Maybe smaller, but with that same feel. We got into a wooden canoe and sat on little seats of wood. It began to rain so we had to wear our ponchos. It was amazing to be on the river. It made me feel as though I was back on my eighth grade rafting trip and it made me realize how much I love rafting. This was much calmer of course with little to no rapids, but it was extremely wonderful. Seeing all the types of plants and trees on either side of us. It was so calming and I enjoyed it quite a bit. The man who was rowing for us was extremely good as dodging the rocks which stuck up at intervals. I was sad to leave the boat once we'd reached our destination. We met the van and they drove up a little ways to this little hotel. It seemed like an extremely nice place. It had a little pool with all types of plants and fruits and it looked out over the Amazon and the river. It was a stunning sight. (I have a picture, but I cannot upload it yet, I'll publish it as soon as I can.) It was amazing. We watched around the gardens a bit, Patricio pointing out all types of bugs, including these awesome spiders.
We got back in the van and drove back to the little village of huts for lunch. It had cleared up and was now actually sunny which was nice. For lunch I had chicken, rice yucca and a bit of salad. Basically the same thing as the night before, but it was better here. Mom, Greg and Howard had fish. We even had the caned peach again.
We found out that this was a sort of hotel and you could stay in these little houses overnight. I thought it sounded fun but mom and Greg didn't think so, they were more skeptical then I. There were these two dogs, one old and losing fur, the other a little adorable puppy. They would sit under the table and hope for food. They were quite cute especially the puppy!
After lunch we got into the van and drove a couple minutes to a village that looked a bit like the one we'd just left. We grabbed our packs and followed Patricio across and bridge and into the jungle.
Everything was just gorgeous. The velvety green moss that clung to the trees, the canopy of leaves above our heads, the scent of freshness all around, everything. Patricio showed us many things in the forest. Different saps including "Dragons blood" which is red and thick and hence the name. We saw many types of medicinal plants that the indigenous people used to use and still do today. We also saw some neat creatures along our journey. Although no monkeys, which I was hoping to see, we did see cutter ants which were really neat. It was just like in "Bugs Life" and "The Ant Bully" seeing the ants carrying their pieces of leaf, usually more than twice as big as them. There were also some bigger ants that clung unto our shoes and wouldn't let go. They were a bit freaky actually. At one point, Patricio picked up a gray blue rock by the river bank, got it wet and began to rub it. It began to take on the texture of clay. He covered our faces with this blue gray clay because he said it was good for our skin.
After a long, yet very enjoyable walk threw the jungle, we came to a wooden bridge over a creek that made me feel like I was in an adventure movie. Across the bridge we could see an amazing waterfall. It was huge and so calming. Unfortunately, the group of annoying (fish stabbing) teenagers arrived there at about the same time and all went into the lake at the foot of the waterfall. It wasn't so calm anymore, but it was still lovely to watch the waterfall. We saw some people who had made rain hats out of giant leaves. It was funny and very practical. Greg and Howard changed behind a rock into their bathing suits and went into the freezing cold water, but mom and I decided not to. Instead we washed our faces in the river. My skin felt so smooth and soft afterward, I guess the clay was good for the skin. We stayed at the waterfall for maybe half an hour and then began our journey back through the forest. We saw a tree frog on a rock, which was neat. We couldn't touch him because Patricio said he was probably poisonous, but it was nice to look at him up close. We also saw a stick bug!
The journey back felt much shorter for some reason, but it was still nice. Greg had fun drumming on the hollow roots of a tree. It was very loud and made a good drum.
Once we emerged from the jungle we got back into the van and drove to a bridge that lead to a village of indigenous people. The village was small, with several huts and a school building. In one of the huts was a little "store" where the people sold jewelry and other handmade goods. I bought myself two bracelets.
Upon returning to El Pigual, mom, Greg and I headed over to the "sauna" to relax a bit. It wasn't quite what we were hoping for. The steam rooms light was out, the jacuzzi had no water and there was no towels, but it was still nice to lie down in the sauna.
We headed over to dinner, only to be informed that we were having beef, which mom, Greg, and I don't eat. Howard got a bit angry because they wouldn't give us another option of what to eat, so he went to talk to the manager. In the end, we ended up having salad and Greg ordered fish off the menu. I thought the whole thing was a bit unnecessary, but then again, maybe not.
I headed back to my room, read a bit and fell asleep. It was an amazing day.

Ecuador: Day 11

Day 11:
We awoke around 10:30 and began to pack up all our things in our hotel room since we were going on a trip to the amazon for a couple days. We met Eduardo in the lobby around 12:00, we checked out and then headed to the university. We were going to meet Howard who was going to drive us. Howard is the sculpting teacher at the university and we had met him the week before because he sat in on Greg's class several times. Unfortunately he wasn't ready to leave yet so we headed over to a restaurant to pick up some food for the journey ahead of us. Mom and I got our favorite taco salad along with lemonade and a yummy fudge/brownie thing. Finally Howard, Greg, mom and I piled into the car and started off. Howard talked a lot to Greg telling stories and past experiences of Ecuador. I must first begin by saying that Howard is from New York yet he moved to Ecuador some years back and likes it very much. Some of the stories were quite interesting, that is until him and Greg began to talk about politics which, as you may know, is not one of my favorite subjects. The drive was very very long, around five hours to be exact. We drove threw small villages, grassy green fields, by volcanoes and threw lovely mountains. The streets were quite bumpy due to the cobblestones and the large bumps in the road which would come up out of the blue in the middle of the highway. Many times we would stop to ask the locals for directions. Sometimes we'd have to ask several times because each person said something different. It began to grow dark which wasn't great because I couldn't look at the forested mountains anymore. We went threw some pretty amazing tunnels. The walls were chiseled and Howard remarked that it looked like "The Bat Cave!" It was also wild because water would pour down even inside the tunnel! It was as though the mountain was so soaked that it was always dripping. Plus Howard wasn't quite sure how to use his lights, or else he would forget to turn them on so we'd go into the tunnel and it would be pitch black, which was rather scary to be honest. When arriving in the city of Puyo, which was where our hotel was located, we asked directions and, as always, received many different directions. We ended up going the total round about way to the hotel threw streets filled with potholes. It was a bumpy ride, but we finally made it to our hotel "El Pigual".
From what I could tell of the hotel at night, it seemed like a nice place. Mostly outdoors with little cabin like houses and lots of jungle like trees and animal sounds. We ate dinner which was extremely dry chicken, salad, rice and yucca (which was actually quite good). For dessert we got a canned peach sliced nicely on a plate. It wasn't awful, but not amazing either. Mom and Greg had one room while I had another so we all went to our respective rooms after dinner. The room smelled rather odd, like moth balls or something and the bathroom smelled even stronger. I also had this light that seemed to have a blue bulb in it and this made my room seem rather sad.
I read a bit, but was so tired that I ended up just going to sleep. I had a rather odd sleep, waking up sideways in the bed filled with strange dreams.

Ecuador: Day 9, 10,

Day 9:
We awoke early because we were supposed to met Eduadro, Maria and Ivan (his friend) and drive up to Otavalo (a city with a great indigenous market). While we were eating breakfast and Ivan showed up with his sister (who for the life of me I cannot remember her name, sorry). We set out about half an hour later, I drove with Ivan and his sister because there weren't enough seat belts in Eduardo's car. Me and Ivan's sister got along and talked for a bit about music, books, Pride and Prejudice and other films. We first stopped at the sight of about 15 ancient Quitu pyramids. If you didn't know you would most likely think these pyramids were large grassy mounds for that's exactly what they looked like. We walked around with a guide who had been at the sight since they were first excavated in the late 1960's. He was an interesting fellow and told many stories about the people to us. It was neat because there were many lamas that lived there and I loved being able to see them up close. They're so cute and I never noticed their similarity to camels.
They never found any treasure in the one pyramid they dug into. It was discovered to be a burial place and they found over 100 skulls. At the top of one of the pyramids there was an observatory that the Quitu (the original people of this area) used. There was a place where they observed the moon and a place where they watched the sun. Our guide did a cleansing ritual on Greg with different plants because he sensed Greg had some bad energy. We also went inside the little museum they had with artifacts which was interesting.
We set out again and after about an hour (maybe more) we arrived in the city of Otavalo. Unfortunately just as soon as we arrived there it began to rain. We walked around the market and I found a ton of lovely things; striped pants, an amazing headband, little bags, a blouse, socks scarves and many other fantastic things. And the best part was, everything was so cheep. For example my pair of striped orange pants were only three dollars. One could buy many many amazing items and not feel as though they had used a lot of money. Mom and Greg also found some nice things, like sweaters and purses. The market was so nice to look at because of all the hanging blankets and knitted things in bright colors. And even though the sky was gray all the color made everything more cheery.
The one thing about the market that disturbed me was seeing all the roasting meat around. There were grills and stalls with pig heads and chicken carcases. I felt a bit nauseous and I'm still not to fond of eating meat after that. It was also sad seeing all the trash laying about, on the streets and in the plants. It just felt so forlorn and run down, as if the people didn't care.
We ate a late lunch/early dinner at this odd restaurant called Buena Vista (Good View, which was a good name because the view over the market was great). Mom and I got a vegetable lasagna and a salad. They were both good. We piled back into the car and headed home. I found myself dosing off during the ride, but it was hard because the streets were so bumpy and I kept waking. In all I had a great time at the market, it was lots of fun.Day 10:
We got about around 10:30 and met Eduardo and Daniel (one of Greg's students). We all piled into the car and headed off towards Cotopaxi (a volcano near Quito). It took about an hours drive before we could see the volcano although threw out the day it was covered by clouds. Eduardo wanted to take us to visit a Hacienda near the volcano but we couldn't find the way to get there. We asked many different people and they all seemed to point us in a different direction. We finally found the street which was small and bumpy. The Hacienda was quite beautiful. As we drove up I noted that it felt rather like Argentina and the ranch there. It was built on some Incan ruins so parts of the walls were white washed and others we old stone brike. I really loved it there. We explored a bit and found this beautiful room with a dirt floor and a table with roses in the center. It felt like the perfect place for a photo shoot of some sort. In the center courtyard one could admire the lovely building with its yellow and white walls and then, later on, a herd of lamas came and you could feed them carrots. They were so cute and were really soft as well. There was a garden with lots of flowers and ducks who waddled around near the pond. There was a lovely room that felt really cosy with pictures of the owners and neat old books and objects.
We sat down to lunch with another group of five people. Two were diplomats at the Argentine embassy stationed in Quito, they were really interesting and talked with Greg a lot about politics which didn't interest me much, but they still seemed nice. One girl, who was about my age was from England and was in Quito learning about chocolate because her parents own a chocolate factory. When I heard this I thought that that seemed extremely fun having parents that own a chocolate factory and traveling to learn more about chocolate. But it turned out her true passion was for dance.
The first part of the meal was Locro which was amazing, maybe the best so far. We also got an incredible juice called Naranjilla. It takes like Pineapple, orange, guava and peach all together. I got a chicken salad while everyone else had fish, it was really yummy. For dessert they had this fruit (which I don't remember) in this sauce which I really liked but Greg wasn't fond of. In all the meal was really really good, expensive, but good.
We left the Hacienda and drove to a giant house-sized rock that came out of the volcano. It was huge! It was wild to see but sadly it was covered in graffiti, which wasn't very nice to see. We drove home and I was happy to be out of the car. I really loved seeing the Hacienda, it was one of my favorite things thus far.

Ecuador: Day 7 and 8

Day 7:
It was a relaxing morning which, I think, was just what I needed. We ate breakfast, I had my usual fruit and a croissant, and then I worked on my computer a bit. Greg had another headache and so when he went to get I message I decided to come with him so I could ride the bike at the gym for a little while. It was actually quite fun, I rode the “workout bike” with this odd serious man beside me while watching a muted makeover show. After that I went up to the room and relaxed a little more. At around 2:30 Greg had an interview with the while Greg was interviewed and I couldn’t help admiring the photographers camera. It was fun watching and wondering what the interview would be like in the paper. They said they wanted to do another one with his family as well, which would be nice.
Next we went to the university and I sat in the back, as usual, while Greg talked. I got quite bored because most of the night was Greg reviewing peoples work and I didn’t have my headphones with me. I also wasn’t very inspired to draw, nothing quite turned out the way I wanted and when I tried writing, the same thing happened. Mom’s lecture got delayed due to the lack of time. After the class Greg, mom and I went out to have a late dinner with two of his students, Daniel and Pablo (Pablo looks rather like my drama teacher Corby). They are both really nice and I had a great time. Mom and I both got the Locro (Ecuadorian potato soup) which was amazing. Pablo has an amazing gift for drawing. His pen drawing just blow my mind. Overall it wasn’t the best night, but the dinner made everything better.
Day 8:
On the morning of July 3rd it was really sunny and hot. I was so excited because I thought I could finally wear a skirt. We met Eduardo and Maria (his wife) at 11:00 and to go the the botanical gardens. Once we got the the gardens the clouds had begun to cover the sky and it was starting to get cold. The gardens were really nice. There were all these neat plants and the orchid greenhouses were especially interesting. There were so many unique types. Our tour guide was really nice and I learned lots about the different plants. Here are some of the plants we saw:






























































After the gardens we went to visit Eduardo’s friend who has this make-shift museum of dinosaurs he builds. They’re quite wild because they move and snap at you. At one point I was really freaked out because this dinosaur popped up from behind this wall roaring a knocked fake rocks towards us. I’m rather embarrassed to say I jumped and let out a bit of a scream. Next, Eduardo, Greg, mom and I went to lunch at the restaurant at the Hilton Hotel. We had heard from Pablo that it was really good so we thought we’d give it a shot. I’ve been having an odd stomach ache were after anything I eat I’ve been getting stomach cramps. Due to this I decided to get the chicken and rice soup which was actually really good.
We met Maria and went back to the university. During the class I worked on this post, drew another of my Pendragon drawings, listened to moms talk and joined in the drum circle at the end. Everyone was banging on whatever they could find; drums, cans, knees, poster tubes, etc. It was a bit sad saying bye to everyone because I liked some of the people a lot. Maybe I'll see some of them in the future.