¡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:
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!
