Rocks and water and people

Last weekend and this weekend I got to go see some pretty great local sights with some pretty great people (local and American). So, I don't think I need to say much other than in the captions of the pictures.

First, last weekend I went to Lake Cuicocha in Cotacachi with Kat and Janay! It was pretty cloudy at first but later we got some nice views. And it was an enjoyable 4-hour hike to circle the crater-lake! Apparently if you take a boat around in the middle you can see the bubbles from the volcanic gases escaping :)

We were lucky to see even this much with the clouds that were there for the first half of the hike!

Kat telling us about the plants! Her internship is with a tour guiding business so she goes on tours (like this one, twice) to help translate to foreign visitors. 

Janay, Kat and I!

Kat said we could eat this plant so we did! It was sour, and I love sour, so I ate a few little stalks of it :P 

Janay and I in a more rainforesty part of the trail. You definitely could not see the lake the whole time, but it was nice to have different things to see throughout.

Now it cleared up! There still wasn't quite enough sun for the water to be it's nice turquoise color that I read about, but it was still beautiful! 

We're pretty high up on this hike (remember, it's the crater of a volcano so it's already on top of a mountain...) and could see the clouds over our cities.

Clouds creeping in again.

All done! Afterwards, we walked for a while since the number we had gotten from our taxi driver was wrong. It was starting to get dark and cold and we were in the middle of nowhere so luckily a nice couple from Guayaquil stopped and drove us into the city! They were fun to chat with, until they started talking about how ugly all the indigenous people we live near are (which they are totally NOT) so that got a little uncomfortable.

I was fascinated with this grape juice I had afterwards... it actually tasted like grapes and not the grapey flavor that our juice has! Probably because they way Ecuadorians make juice is by putting fruit and water in a blender... not squeezing fruits. 

So then this weekend, I finally got to go see Peguche Falls. My host family has been telling me for weeks that they were going to take me there, and so because this is my last weekend in Otavalo, we finally got around to it! I went with my sister Karly, my brother Mateo, and my cousins Diego and Ariana. We walked for a little over an hour to get there, explored for a while, and walked back! I passed out for the rest of the day when we got home - it was so exhausting!

Took a mirror pic with Mari and Karly first... we're like the bars of cell-phone service ;) It's strange being the giant in this country! I'm taller than most people, which is definitely not something I'm used to! 

Diego on our walk to the falls.

We walked through a sort-of marshy area with water dripping everywhere!

In a little tunnel with the cousins!

The girls :)

Cave... had to get in it. You should know this if you've been following my blog :)

It was definitely an interesting walk... including crossing this irrigation thing over a ravine.

The boys! 

A little pool of volcanic water on the way.

The water was so clear... this is taken with my under-water camera, which was actually looking up from under the water.

The whole group! I hung my camera from a tree branch and used the timer :)

Just part of our interesting journey to the falls.

And here it is! There were a lot of tourists, so we took the path up to a little viewing area at the top of the waterfall, which turned out to be way cooler!

At the top, we saw where the water was coming from. There was this one waterfall on the left here, and far inside the cave on the right was another waterfall!

A tunnel that led to an opening inside the cave! So cool. It was pitch black before it turned and showed the light from the cave, so I periodically took flash pictures to figure out where we were going. I didn't quite have to crawl, but I was really crouched over. 

And we emerged from the tunnel!

A little later, we just decided to suck it up and get into the water. Karly and Mateo had done this a while ago, and a few other people got in, so we knew it was safe.

View looking up from inside the cave! Still, water dripping everywhere.

Diego and I in front of the cave-waterfall.

After that, we found a really steep path up the side of a hill, so Diego, Ariana and I climbed it. 

A tunnel/cave system built by the Inca people a long time ago in the side of the mountain. It was KILLING me that we couldn't go in and explore it!

Partway back on our walk home, relaxing (and doing gymnastics, I guess) in a nice grassy area.

And indigenous family hanging out at the side of the river. Up a little ways was a man leading his cows around, and a woman washing clothes in the river. I felt a combination of loving the seemingly peaceful lifestyle they had, while knowing from my classes the struggles they face being a part of the state of Ecuador.

I loved exploring these beautiful areas so close to home! Trying to go on a bigger trip over the weekend is exhausting for me, so these are especially nice. Despite that, we are trying to go to the coast next weekend so hopefully that will all work out and I'll have another cool piece of Ecuador to show you!

Title...

Hi! I'm too lazy to think of a title right now, especially since this blog post is going to be super random. My list of "stuff to blog about" is growing long and I'm nowhere close to coming up with some sort of theme or title to tie it all together so... here is a bunch of random stuff I've been doing or thinking during the last couple of weeks!

Last Friday night, my sister and I were planning on going out dancing, but something happened (I think  the bars got caught letting in minors) and every single bar/club/restaurant that sold alcohol in the city closed down for a week. So we went to my cousin's house real late to celebrate his birthday instead! (since his was one of the restaurants that was closed).

My cousin's birthday! And his adorable daughter Rafaela helping him blow out the candles.

At work I've been continuing to do random things! One day, there was a workshop for midwives (and lucky for me, the subject was nutrition!) and so the day before, my boss told me to get 50 bananas because we were all going to get food and share it at the workshop. So I bought 50 bananas on the way to work the next morning (only $3!) and lugged them up the stairs to the workshop. Turns out the whole food thing got cancelled, so there I was, with 50 bananas. Luckily I managed to give 10 away, but had to bring the other 40 home. I'm not sure what my host mom did with them after she gave me 4 for breakfast the next day...

bananas on bananas on bananas

Traditional midwives at the workshop!

So far Fridays have seemed to be our most interesting days at work. Two Fridays ago, we painted that room (in an older blog). Last friday, after I got back from an interview with the head of the nutrition department at a university in Ibarra, we built a huge wooden frame to help hang a giant sign about hearing aids and check-ups outside the building. Today, we went to Ibarra to stand in the bus terminal and hand out information about our clinic. And of course the second half of my work day continues to be stolen by little Emily :)

I'm sawing!! That was hard. 

Darwin and Anna nailing the sign together!

Aaand the finished job.

Anna and I in the terminal handing out info.

Emily "giving me a manicure." Which means, gluing balled-up pieces of toilet paper to my fingernails.

The health sciences building at Universidad Técnica del Norte. I miss campuses, even though this one was not nearly as pretty as Lawrence.

I went to a talk that a nutritionist gave to a sort-of day-care for old people. It was all stuff I knew, and it wasn't super interesting, but it gave me another source for my paper so whatever!

One thing I found interesting is that on the bus home from Ibarra, a woman who was sitting next to me asked if I spoke Spanish, and then started explaining about Jesus! I quickly told her I didn't need the tract she was giving me since I already am a believer, but it made me think. So far I think I've been evangelized to twice in Rwanda and twice in Ecuador, and it reinforced something that I've been feeling about missions for a while - that it is no longer the stereotypical "white man goes to the wild to preach" type of thing that is often associated with it. I think it's awesome to see how every person in the world in any place can lay claim to this truth and share it with others, and I felt honored to see that at work in these situations! It shows the true global nature of missions - everybody being called everywhere, not just missionaries flowing in one direction.

Lately, as I've been spending a lot of time alone here, I've been thinking about how to take control of my life more and get the most out of each day. I have been going on lots of walks between periods of hard work on my paper, and they're way more refreshing than just sitting on the computer to take a break. I've been trying to get the most out of little things, and have become quite content with staring at things like mountains or randoms cows for a long time :) And I have been learning how to take more joy in the silly things that happen when you're in a foreign place like the chicken that I heard on my bus or the third dog I just found in my house after 3 1/2 weeks of living here!

My favorite volcano, Mamá Cotacachi :) Isn't she beautiful?

Ice cream :)

Swings a ways behind our house. Obviously they do a lot of good! 

The sunset outside of my room!

Soon I'll post a blog about Lake Cuicocha, a beautiful crater lake I hiked around with Kat and Janay. I'm waiting for my family to go to Peguche falls first so that I can post them together!

Also, I'm definitely learning the truth of the phrase "absence makes the heart grow fonder"... I miss everyone back home a TON! I always said I was not the type of person to miss people while I was gone, but it turns out I was just never gone long enough :)

This little city.

Without all the homework (and with a state of denial about my final paper...) I have had some time to get to know Otavalo and to hang out with my lovely host family!

I think being alone here (aka without any people from my program... or anyone who speaks English for that matter) has been really good for me. When I'm with other people I know, or can get to know easily, I tend to just go along with whatever they're doing and I don't really stop to think about exactly I want to get out of the experience. In Otavalo I have been able to do more of that, and I have been a lot happier here! I only wish I was here longer so that I could develop the friendships I'm making and really invest in Jambi Huasi. 

So, I'll show you a bit of what I have been up to outside of work hours! First is a nice night spent at the cultural center for a concert, and out to my cousin's restaurant for pizza afterwards.

Surconciente, a band from Venezuela, had a free concert in Kinti Wasi!

Janay and Kat came down from Cotacachi for the concert, and my sister came with me as well!

My cousin's daughter, Rafaela! Such a cutie.

My cousin and his friend performing at his restaurant.

I've been spending some nice quality time with my host family (as well as some loooong days of joining them on their errands...) including preparing for and going to my sister's thesis defense/graduation!

Fashion show where my mom and sister made me try on ALL of my sister's dresses (this is only a few). Anyone who has ever lived with me knows that I try to minimize the clothing-changes I do in a day because I hate it. Believe it or not, I had to do this two nights in a row! Bonding, right?

My bro bought some hair wax at the salon so I'm giving him a middle part :P

We got our nails done! $3 manicures!

Aaaand here's mine!

Here's Karly with the book she made as part of her senior thesis! It's a guide to how fathers can spend more time with their kids, because her thesis is about the lack of quality time shared between the dads in our city and their children.

She passed! And graduated :)

Mirror pic in the mall after the graduation. Other than the blurry dude walking in the background, this is my Otavalo host family!

Other than my host family, I have spent some time with a few host cousins and my sister's good friend. We have gone to the discoteck for dancing a couple of times, driven/walked around the city, tried micheladas (Karly's fav... it's beer with lemon, salt, pepper and hotsauce in it. Actually not bad!), and gone to the pool. Oh, and there's kids for me to hang out with, which is always fun! 

Mateo and I "doing homework." I told him I'd help with his English homework, which consisted of practicing the pronunciation of the song "Don't You Worry Child." Needless to say, this turned into a dance party.

Emily! When school gets out and she comes to the office, that basically means I can't do work anymore ;)

Last but not least, I have been exploring during some of my time alone. It's nice that city is small enough where I can safely just start walking around to see what I find, and still easily find my way back. Of course now that I said that, I'll probably get lost. Oh well.

I found a cafe with this big bowl of vegetables on the menu and I was SO HAPPY! I have been eating rice and beans and potatoes for 2 1/2 months now and had been absolutely craving something like this!

Cool like statue things near my neighborhood! There was a whole "band" of these.

Dinosaur Road.

These dogs did NOT want me walking near their house. At one point there were six of them, all mad at me.

Roof dog lyfe.