The Jungle!

Hi All, I apologize for my EXTREME tardiness in writing this last blog entry but I have had spotty internet at best for the last several weeks. I shall first talk about the week we returned to Cuenca for a reflection week, then our two weeks on the field once again in both Loja and Zamora, and then my last remaining days in Ecuador spent in Cuenca.

Week 5: Cuenca

As I have said, we met most of this week to reflect on our first two weeks on the field, what went well and what could be improved upon for the upcoming two weeks on the field. We got a lot of time with our individual teams to talk about what we could personally improve on. I think the biggest thing was that we could have done more to promote our stoves to the people we went to visit, that way we could get more people's numbers who would be potentially interested. My host family also took me and my roommate, Asha, to a graduation party. This graduation party was unlike any graduation party I have ever been to and reminded me more of a wedding. It was pretty formal and we had a champaign toast and sat down to dinner as a whole. Also, the house where the party was held reminded me kind of of something I might see in the Hamptons: it was quite large with really nice furniture, beautiful hardwood floors and winding staircases. Yeah, they had some money going on. The next day, we had a much more informal party at our house. It was game day and Cuenca was playing Barcelona, the team from Guayaquil. A few of the Americans actually went to the game but the barbecue we had was super fun and had pretty good food.

Week 6: Loja

The following Monday, we set out to go to Loja, which actually is a fairly large city, not the country. It was also the only site where we stayed in a hostel rather than a hotel. And the hostel was actually more like a hotel because it was three people to a room and each had private bathrooms. Having so much time with my team of ten people worried me a bit because we spent a little too much time together the last time we were on the field, but surprisingly it was a great week and everyone enjoyed everyone else's company. The day we got there we went and explored and tried to see the museums but the only "museum" we found was the museum of music, seen below, and there was no museum, but rather just a bunch of people practicing their instruments because apparently Loja is famous for producing famous musicians.

First day out, we headed to the town of Gonzanamá to do our marketing for the campaign on Sunday. However, Gonzanamá was too big and had things like pharmacies, so we decided to backtrack a bit and go to a smaller village about 15 minutes away called Nambacola. There, we met a Dutch guy who, when he heard about our products and mission, gave us a few other suggestions of things to potentially sell, such as tarps to cover seeds so animals don't get at them and windup flashlights. We also did a few surveys to measure people's interest in the portable stoves. By the way, here is the picture of our stove, although we need to find a way for them to last longer because due to the extreme hear, it rusted after only two weeks as you can see:

When Sunday came around, we did a little bit of extra publicity but it probably wasn't necessary because the people already seemed to be swarming for their eye exams. A lot of people needed glasses so that day, the company ended up making $537 dollars and the entrepreneurs we work with made probably about $100 each. As for our stove, we built one during the campaign so people could see how it is built and then we did a demo making popcorn with it. However, on the ride home, we left the new stove in the town of Catamayo, where we had to transfer from pickup truck to bus. Knowing we had to replace it, what was a great day quickly turned pretty sour. Other work that we did during the week was giving our "charlas" to local groups working with Grameen Bank where the topic was conflict resolution. We were pretty prepared except for the fact that a lot of them said they work alone and therefore don't face conflicts, so we had to do some thinking on our feet and instead discussed what they thought was the most important point that we discussed, should they ever encounter conflict. The other organization we worked with was an artisan group in the town of San Pedro de Vilcabamba called "23 de junio." This was probably one of the coolest organizations we worked with. They make all sorts of cool products out of recycled paper, decorated with pressed flowers, such as these:

While there, we also got to try our hand at making the paper ourselves. I tried it and successfully made one sheet but unfortunately have no pictures of when I was making it. We ended up spending all day there. I forgot to put on sunscreen that day and was outdoors all day and it was super hot. Fortunately I was able to spend a lot of time in the shade but still expected to get sunburned and was pleasantly surprised when I didn't. Anyway, a bunch of people painted the walls and me and two other girls painted in the mural of their logo that one of the girls from the week before sketched. The black paint was a pain because it was oil based and I got it all over my hands and now, even two weeks later, it still is not completely gone from my nails. The next group apparently painted more flowers on their wall and wrote out the name of their organization. Here is what it looked like after we finished:

Another two people worked to update their brochure and help them redistribute it so they could get more business since they only work twice a week presently due to lack of business. We also spent about an hour or so doing surveys there to evaluate interest and/or need. For our free day, we decided to be outdoorsy and go ziplining and hiking which was an awesome decision. To go ziplining, we went back toward Vilcabamba (more on Vilcabamba in a moment) and stopped smack in the country about halfway there. It cost $6 for 5 rides which is a super good deal and we got to zipline pretty high up. However, the pictures actually aren't that exciting so you can check them out on Facebook if you really want to but I am not going to out them on here. After that we went to Vilcabamba, which we had heard stories about from other people about how strange it was. Roughly translated, it means something like the valley of life because a very large number of people there live to be like 100. Because of this rep, a lot of Americans go there to retire and as a result, there are just as many Americans as Ecuadorians there. Also there are just a lot of Americans there that are sick of America, so it is a pretty hippie town. Overall a kind of a strange place. Anyway, we hiked a mountain there called Cerro Mandango. The trail is kind of off the beaten path. Fortunately, we ran into some Americans that showed us where the trail was, otherwise we never would have found it. The hike was pretty steep but it was only like an hour to the top. Once we got within 5 minutes of the top, it got super steep and coming down, I think everyone wiped out a few times. But the hike was rewarding because it was beautiful at the top. My camera died after ziplining so I am going to steal some people's photos and put them up here.

A few miscellaneous notes from Loja. 1. The garbage trucks go around Loja playing a song like an ice cream truck. Except that the song is rather creepy and it sounds like something you would hear in a nightmare. I think one night it crept into my dreams that the garbage man was coming after me. 2. A comparison between Russia and Ecuador. They absolutely idolize Lenin in Russia and every down seems to have a statue of him. In Ecuador, every town has statues but of different people. The person they idolize though and you can see paintings and pictures everywhere of him is Che Guevara.

Week 7: Zamora/Timbara

The last place we went on the field was to the region of Zamora, which is a small city about 1.5 hours east of Loja. The village we stayed in however was called Timbara. This was one of my favorite places on the edge of the jungle. The first day we got there, we met our host families and I, for the first time, lived with other students. I also got the house that is a 10 second walk from the place where we meet everyday. And my host mom was awesome. She gave us all sugar cane the first day and for most of us, myself included, it was our first time ever trying it. Picture time!

Not wanting to pay to do my laundry, I waited until I got here to do my laundry and they didn't have a washer so for the first time ever, I actually washed my clothes. And I didn't exactly know what I was doing so my host mom watched me struggle. After I explained that I had never washed my clothes before she showed me how to watch and probably would have washed them all but I refused to let that happen. But now I know how to wash clothes. :)

The first full day, we went to do our marketing for our last campaign. This time we went to Guayazimi, which was truly in the middle of the jungle. We went via pickup truck and fortunately for me I got to ride in the cab rather than in the back. The day we went was super rainy and the road was for all intents and purposes not a road. It was quite a bumpy ride and I felt really bad for the two people in the back. But the marketing went really well and people were pretty receptive. Fortunately, for the day of the actual campaign the half of our team that went with the other entrepreneur to a much closer town was going to go there rather than having us return. That evening, after we finished some preparations for our charla that we were going to give later that week, one of the host dads took us on an adventure. It was fun but this guy has a sense of adventure almost to the point of being dangerous. He took us to a waterfall which was super cool and wanted to take us on a hike despite it being kind of a dangerous trail even during the day. But we did kind of get to see the waterfall with our flashlights. Unfortunately, that night I was kind of dumb and wore the rainboots they provided to us without socks, so I had some nasty blisters for the rest of the week. Next day, did surveys in Timbara about our stoves in the morning. Then we went to the town of Guadelupe to visit a mission where we actually met a bunch of other American volunteers working. We also saw the Andean model stoves that were in use, as we had been promised. Although built around the same time, one was in significantly better condition than the other.

                                                                                                    

The cement stove in much better condition

This stove is rusted on the metal and the cement is cracked

The next day was pretty chill and all we did in terms of work was final prep work for out charla that we did on Saturday. That afternoon, Manuel, the host-dad who took everyone to see the waterfall and the bigger one behind it. Fortunately, this time it was during the day so I could actually see how narrow and steep the path was and the waterfall and rivers we were hiking up had had plenty of rainy days to get good and high. But it was really fun and everyone but one person went. The waterfall was awesome, especially the big one, seen here.

After that, instead of heading back to Timbara, Manuel decided it was perfect time to hike a mountain. So we did, kind of. We started to then we couldn't find the trail so we used a machete to make our own trail and cut down some grass. The good news is since all there was around was grass, CLEARLY we had some good strong things to hold onto as we climbed up at a 45˚ angle. No, but seriously it really was a good time and sometimes you just have to have a sense of adventure. Here we are on the mountain.

Next day was probably one of the coolest days in Ecuador. It was our free day and we went on a jungle tour. It took some convincing for me to go because those blisters I had gotten earlier in the week were really bothering me and it was a little pricey to go, but looking back I have absolutely no regrets about going. The three hour ride we took to get there was the same road we took to get to Guayazimi and then went about an hour past that. From there we got in a boat and went up a river for about an hour seeing all sorts of cool things. The thing that captivated me was the massive amounts of different types of butterflies that I saw. When we had almost reached the trail where we were going to do our jungle hike, I saw something else super cool: two rivers that met, one with blackish-red water and the other with light blue water, and the waters didn't mix. Of course I snapped some pics of that:

That is not a beach off in the distance...

When we started the hike, I was a little scared because I found a prickly caterpillar on me and it is the jungle and there are all sorts of crazy things in the jungle. But after that, I just embraced it and the hike was super awesome. I got to swing on some of those tree ropes like Tarzan, saw a tree that is thought to be something like 300 years old and super tall, cool rock formations like flat bottom boulders you can sit under, and some cool wildlife. I managed to get some good pics of butterflies like these:

And some cool plants:

The old, giant tree called "La Abuela" 

Sangre de Drago, which has red sap and medicinal properties

Some people also saw a toucan, but I unfortunately was not so lucky. We had to turn around when we saw a sign that said there were active landmines, at what I think was the Ecuador-Peru

border so that was cool. On the way back, we "bathed" in the river and saw a community of the Shuar indigenous people. All in all, an awesome day. Next day, we gave our charla to the restaurant Amor y Fortaleza, but in true Ecuadorian fashion, we had to wait over an hour for them to show up. When we started, there weren't many people there. Most of the host families were there, since most of them were involved with Amor y Fortaleza. My host-mom, who is not involved with Amor y Fortaleza and has her own restaurant was there. It went pretty well though and they said we provided them with some valuable tips in conflict resolution; some didn't even know what it was. As for marketing, we created a model business card for them to use, and they liked that idea a lot. In the afternoon, we actually went to the restaurant and got to try our hand in taffy-making from sugar cane. It was pretty fun and the President of the Asociación Amor y Fortaleza's daughter was there and two days later, she left to go compete in the Olympics in London for Racewalking. She gave a couple of the Americans a lesson in racewalking then raced them. I can't post it on here but I recommend you watch it on Facebook because it is highly entertaining. That night, I went to a party for some saint with my host family, meaning I went to a party with every single one of my host families. Any excuse to party, right? Next day was campaign day but it was pretty slow and in total we only made like $174 dollars.

A few miscellaneous notes about Zamora: my host mom was an awesome cook and I tried some really new foods (but in all of Ecuador, not just there), such as Yuca which I think is cassava? in English. It is something like a fibrous tuber. Aji, which is an awesome sort of hot sauce, great for putting in soup that can be kind of bland. Cuy, guinea pig meat, although I didn't actually eat that in this region. Whole fried Tilapia, sugar cane, mote, some sort or corn that has absolutely no taste, boiled green bananas, which also have no taste, and lots and lots of rice, which I never want to eat again. And lots of different fresh fruit juices, such as my favorite, tomate de árbol (Tree Tomato), guayaba (Soursop), and maracuyá (passionfruit). Also, I got bitten alive in Zamora, my bugspray probably didn't even do anything. I didn't realize the blisters I got were as bad as they were but I spent my first day back in the US doctor hopping. Lastly, my cheap phone broke for no reason, so I had to fork over $35 for a new used one, that ended up breaking 4 days later. That wasn't fun but was merely a blip in an overall awesome trip. 

Week 8: Cuenca

Next day, we travelled back to Cuenca and had to just wrap things up by Thursday, which was when we all left to go back to the US, or Peru or the Galápagos for some. Tuesday, we had all day just to prep for Wednesday, when we did our final presentations on the charlas we gave to organizations, the articles we all wrote about various aspects to healthy living, and what each team learned about their respective projects. Hearing about what all the other teams did during their time was really interesting to hear about. Wednesday night, Asha and I gave our host family gifts and finally took pictures with them. Here is the pic with me and the whole fam:

L to R: Anabel, Sylvania (mother of the three girls), Maria Eliza (the crazy 3-year old), Olga (my host mom), me, Mikaela, and Maria Eugenia. The dogs Toby and Goofy.

The last day, we had our graduation from Spanish school where we said goodbye to the host families and in the afternoon we headed out for Guayaquil to catch our flight. I will leave you all with one last picture (hopefully you enjoyed them) in this very long (sorry...) blog entry from that ride, where we were above the clouds. Until my next travels, so long!

The Field!

Hello all! I apologize for just now writing but I actually have been away and wasn't on the internet or computer for two whole weeks. Personally, I see this as an accomplishment because I like my computer a lot. Anyway time to recount my experiences of Pulingui and Palmar. Two very different places.

Pulingui

We left en route to Riobamba (the city about 40 minutes from Pulingui) and about halfway there our bus broke down, and when I say broke down, I mean the tire basically fell off. Yep, it was a good experience, so we drove one tire short (of 8 tires, not 4) to the nearest town where we transferred busses and from there we went the rest of the way. When we got there, it was nice and chilly, and stayed that way the entire week, since we were at an elevation of about 3200 meters and in very close proximity to Chimborazo, the highest peak in Ecuador and due to its proximity to the equator and the equatorial bulge, the closest point on earth to the sun! I had a really good view of it when it wasn't covered in clouds directly from my bedroom window. I took a whole bunch of pictures of it but here is the best one when the sky was clearest.

Speaking of my bedroom, the living situation in Pulingui. So my host family consisted of a single mom and her 13 year old daughter. The mom cared for her elderly father who lived downstairs from her so I technically lived in a different house from her although it was right across the dirt road from me, a 10 second walk. The house I was in had four rooms, my bedroom, seen below which consisted solely of a bed, a kitchen/eating area, a bathroom, and another room that had tools in it.

Now the bathroom had plumbing but no running water, so I had to get used to using buckets in place of running water to take showers, wash hands, and flush toilets. Suprisingly, it wasn't that difficult to adjust to the concept of bucket showers, the water was at least warm that way. However, it was so cold outside that I was shivering when there wasn't any water on me. Since the house had no heat and it was probably only like 40 degrees at night, I had to bundle up. Every night I ended up wearing sweatpants, a jersey, a sweatshirt, socks, and gloves and then bundling up under the wool covers. I also lived at the top of a hill. With the air significantly thinner and me having a hearty cough, climbing up the hill was a blast, but not really. That was quite the experience. There was a lot of dust everywhere and tons of dogs, most of which were kind of mean and aggressive and intimidating. However the food they gave me was awesome and I could never finish it. The soups at every meal, including breakfast one day, were great for warming me up.

Now, the work I did in Pulingui. First day, we went to market for the campaign that we were to have later in the week. We walked around a tiny village handing out fliers and giving our spiels about the products and giving free eye exams. We prepared a chat to an artisan group that my host mom was a part of where they sell woolen products to tourists but they don't get very many tourists so therefore they don't make much money. They are also being outdone by machines. However, that week they didn't have time for our chat so the group after had to do it. We also built our model stove that is the basis for the major product of our team, where we decide how much people could benefit from a potential portable stove. We went to the campaign that we had previously marketed on Friday of that week and a lot of people showed up but it was a very poor community and a lot of people didn't have the $7 that it costs to buy the glasses which was pretty sad. That Sunday we split up and marketed for 2 more campaigns in the towns of Cuatro Esquinas and San Simón. Those campaigns are probably going to be more successful for one, because they have a bit more money and also seemed very receptive to the idea of the campaign.

That Saturday was my day off. A bunch of people went to climb part of Chimborazo, the highest mountain in Ecuador at about 20,700 feet. I, however, having a nasty cough decided that would be a bad idea and hopped on a bus with a friend to the touristy town of Baños. Located at the base of another large volcano, it has a lot of natural sulfuric springs that are supposed to be really good for you. I quite enjoyed the experience. I also got my first ever massage while I was there which was also nice.

Palmar

After our week in cold Pulingui, we went to the warm Ecuadorian coast for a week oceanside. Our biggest project there was working with an organization called NeoJuventud, which is an organization run largely by kids that does many projects around their community. Their latest project includes opening up a small pizza joint, which had awesome pizza. They also made an investment in an oyster farm, the first of its kind in all of Ecuador. Their other big project involves planting the largely deforested mangroves, which are trees that grow in water. We contributed in small part to each of these projects. We went to a small town slightly more inland called Río Seco to market for our campaign later in the week. We were thinking it would be a good turnout at the campaign because the people were receptive to it however, the day before the campaign, there were two weddings in the town so the a lot of people didn't show because they were up until 6 AM and probably hungover. I was kind of disappointed with the work for the week because it was heavily activity based and not as much work based. We met with an artisan group that makes necklaces and bracelets out of recycled paper and tried our hand in making one of their beads. It was pretty cool. We also baked cookies and bread and went around selling it to promote Palmar Pizza and had a day where we cleaned up the beach. Anyway, here is the picture of the mangroves:

Other than that, the climate there was very warm, but relatively dry. However, when the sun came out, it was rather oppressive and drained me of my energy. On those days, when afternoon came, I couldn't keep my eyes open and needed to take a nap. This made going to the beach really nice. A couple people from the group that was there the previous week got stung by jellyfishes but only two people got mild stings the week we were there. The beach also provided a really nice breeze so it felt great to just sit in the hammocks and read in our free time. Here is my favorite picture of the beach at sunset:

And the last thing is my host family and the food. Technically, my host family only consisted of my host mom and dad. However, at any given point in the day there were between 10 and 12 people there because their kids and grandkids and who knows who else were also always there. They were a super nice family but hard to understand because they spoke with very different accents than I am used to and also very fast, even when I asked them to slow down, which I don't think they really knew how to do. They took me to a quinceñera though which was pretty cool. I was offered drinks but had to turn them down because our program prohibits drinking in Palmar because it is a fishing village and they have had a lot of issues with alcoholism in the town and we don't want to be seen promoting that. But the quinceñera was super fun and an altogether new experience for me. I was out until about 2 that night and had an early morning the next day though so I was super tired. The food in Palmar was good. Lots of fish, as you can probably imagine and TONS of rice, but the rice was good, it was like sticky rice and quite flavorful. But now I am sick of rice and starch in general because I probably ate about 2 weeks worth of starch in the one week I was in Palmar.

So overall, those two weeks were a great experience. Pulingui was definitely something I was not used to: sleeping in 40 degree weather with no heat, no running water and dusty roads but I came here for new learning experiences and indeed it was. Palmar was a little bit better off but both places pushed my comfort zones in different ways and I am super glad. Now I am back in Cuenca for the week then I am off to Loja for a week and Zamora for a week. I will have my computer with me on that trip and regular access to the internet at least in Loja. Keep in touch! ¡Chau!

The Mountains!

¡Hola de Cuenca!

I have now been in Ecuador for one week and am loving it but my days are very long. We flew into Guayaquil, where it was super hot, and I knew I wouldn't like it if it was like that the whole time I was here. Having gotten there at about 11 PM, it was about 85 degrees and super humid out, lying both on the beach and the equator. NOT FUN. But the next day, we traveled to Cuenca, which is the third largest city in Ecuador and is situated in the higher altitude so it is much cooler and more manageable. On the way there, we went through El Cajas national park, which is really high up in the mountains. Saw lots of llamas and realized it is my life goal to ride on one.

As for the program I am doing, it is wonderful. We have really long days for the first two weeks, when we are here in Cuenca. Spanish class 8-noon with a half hour break and then go home to our homestay (more on that in a second) for lunch and walk back for training and discussions from 2:30-6. The Spanish classes have made my brain hurt most days because it is really demanding but hopefully my Spanish is improving as a result. The afternoon discussions are really cool. We usually discuss an article and have some sort of training on the products, such as eyeglasses, water purifiers, vegetable seeds, solar lamps, or stoves that we are going to be promoting, all at reasonable prices so that people can live an improved, more healthy lifestyle. More on this to come as we have one more week of training here and then we head to Riobamba for a week, where we will be having these campaigns and living with Quechua people.

On Monday, me and another girl from the program, Asha, moved into a homestay that we will be in whenever we are in Cuenca. I am pretty sure that the people we are living with are pretty well off. My host mom lives here (and is a wonderful cook) as do her son, two daughters, and four grandchildren. The grandchildren are very cute and love to play with me. While we are kind of on the subject, I will talk a little bit about food in Ecuador. Seafood, specifically shrimp, are very popular here. So are grains. Lunch is the big meal of the deal and usually consists of soup, usually potato soup, as a first course and then some sort of protein and grain as a second course. They really like grains here since potatoes, quinoa and corn are all more or less native to the area. Also, they have a lot of fruits here that aren't prevalent in the US like papaya, which I have been eating, along with pears, bananas, and apples almost every morning.

As for the social aspect to Cuencan life, the first big thing I did was go to Corpus Christi. This is an annual festival in downtown right by where all the cool looking cathedrals are. I know it is some sort of Catholic holiday but I still don't know what it signifies. Anyway, it is 8 nights, and each night they have tons and tons of sweets stands that all look delicious. Check them out.

There were also these things that kind of represented hot air balloons because they were lifted up by fire but they were too small to have any people in them but they looked pretty cool. Don't know how many of you all have seen Tangled but it reminded me of when they put the balloons in the sky like they did then. Here is a picture:

There were fireworks as well but everyone has seen fireworks before so I won't post pictures of them. However, each night they also have this display of ground fireworks as well and those were the highlight of the night. It came in rounds, kind of but as soon as one part was finished the next part would start. The coolest part though was the part that was super unsafe. At the end, the structure with the fireworks spewed sparks out into the crowd so everyone was running away from them trying to dodge them and everything was mass chaos. Even though all of this had been planned, it caught the Americans off guard a bit and everyone, myself included, got a big adrenaline rush. Here was the structure while it was going off:

 Yesterday, I went to the artisan market and wanted to see, not buy, what they had to offer. However, everyone else was buying things and I couldn't resist. I bought a bag that says Ecuador and has two people wearing the Panama Hats on them. My justification for that was that I came with a backpack and didn't bring a bag. I also bought a pair of pants that are pretty snazzy looking. In total for the 2 things, I paid $11. Anyway, Panama hats are a misleading name because Cuenca, Ecuador is where they are made. Many people where them when they wear the traditional dress. They are made of rigid straw and people here are very proud of them.

The last thing I will tell you about for this entry is what I did today. Today a group of the Americans went to El Cajas national park to go for a hike. It was significantly cooler there than in Cuenca, despite it only being about a half an hour away because we went up to about 4200 meters, or about 13000  feet. I thought it was super cool because we saw all sorts of wildlife and there were almost no trees so you could see for a while. Some of my favorites of the day:

 a beautiful flower that can also double as a hallucinogen

 The small rock in the middle looks like the Virgin Mary praying

The mammal indigenous to the Andes!

Last but not least, while we are on the topic, I have been adjusting to high altitude. Everyday in order to get to the Spanish school we have to walk up a huge hill and I can definitely feel it then. And today when we were up even higher in Cajas, going uphill for about even a minute, I would get a bit winded. I did a comparison yesterday of Cuenca vs. Colorado Springs to see which was higher because the only other time I was ever in high altitude was when I was in Colorado Springs in 2007. However, the lowest part of Cuenca is higher than the highest part of Colorado Springs and I can feel it when I go uphill for sure. That's all for now. Until next time, Ciao!

The Anticipation!

¡Bienvenidos a todos!

On Saturday I am departing for Ecuador until July 26th. I will be out of country for about 8 weeks, trying my hand at development work and improving my Spanish skills. I am so excited and know it is going to be a phenomenal experience. I have never done anything like development work before but have a good idea such work is what I would like to pursue as a career path so this will be the best way for me to know for sure. Anyway, I will be flying into Guayaquil, the country's largest city and spending my first two weeks based in Cuenca, getting some training and intensive Spanish lessons. From there, we go out to various satellite sites where we actually will be doing the development work, more details on exactly what work I will be doing to come. The first city we go to is Loja for a week, then Zamora, which is very rural, for a week. After that, we go back to Cuenca for another week to discuss our work. Then we go back out to satellite sites, first Riobamba. Fun fact: Riobamba is where the largest volcano in Ecuador is and apparently it is the point that is furthest from the center of the Earth because of the Equatorial bulge. After that, we go to the coast for a week and then go back to Cuenca for a few days before I come home. Everywhere we go, I will be staying in a homestay, which I have learned from previous experience is a fantastic way to get to know the people and culture of a country. I think that is about all for now, but I will try to keep my blog updated. I am not sure how prevalent the internet will be when I am there, but I will do my best to keep everyone updated!

Adios!