Chapter 11: The View from Turi

  I ventured out on a Saturday afternoon after sleeping in and having felt a bit under the weather the past two days. My plan was to just explore the path that ran alongside the river by our house and see what happened from there. The sun was beating down on me with only scant clouds in sight and my nose full of sniffles. The sun and the sniffles brought me back to a similar day, a day with a twin sun to this one: Lobsterfest '09. When I was part of the radio station, Lobsterfest was the outdoor concert we had every year at the end of spring quarter. The day of Lobsterfest I couldn't breathe very well due to a stuffy nose and also couldn't talk very well due to losing my voice a few days before. My brother had come down for the weekend to hang out and listen to music, all of my favorite people from the radio station were there. The sun was mercilessly beating down, but the bands were great. Russenorsk, Kaslo, She Bears, they were all there as well as a ton more. Jay Reatard headlined; he was kind of a jerk to the set up crew and sound technicians, but he put up on a good show nevertheless.

Lobsterfest '09, the band is either Kaslo or She Bears

  Back in the present tense I was walking alone, only accompanied by the music in my headphones and the supplies I had brought along. In a short while I ran into my host mom and my sobrinos who were also out for a stroll. We all laughed at meeting there on the path. Lupe asked me where I was going, I admitted I did not know. Her eyes lit up and she told me that if I was feeling energetic then I could walk to Turi, the hillside vantage point on the outskirts of town. I thought that sounded like a fine adventure. Lupe told me to follow the river to the third bridge, there I was to cross. Then I was to wind my way through the new part of town until I found a staircase that would take me up to Turi. It was a quest!

Incan ruins, kind of like Starbucks, but more historically important

  I walked until I found the third bridge, on my side of the river there was a small site of Incan Ruins, yes perhaps they are everywhere here, like Starbucks in the US, except more historically important. I crossed the bridge then crossed the following roundabout. Just as prescribed I wound my way through the city streets, keeping Turi in sight as I went. Each step closer meant the sun beating down more and more, though I put sunscreen on before I left, I neglected to bring a water bottle. As I climbed one of the ascending streets I lucked into finding a store that had   large water bottles for only 50 cents. Proud of my find and now less in danger of becoming dehydrated, I continued on.

One of the cows, less dangerous than at Ingapirca

Sheep on a hill

   I ended up crossing yet another river that I did not know existed in Cuenca, finding a flock of cows and sheep as I went. A little further down the way I had to cross a four lane high way, it really wasn't too bad. I still wasn't sure exactly where the staircase was located, so I ended up asking a few different people. It was a good way to practice my Spanish and they were all fairly friendly. The grandma with her grand-daughter I asked, said that Turi was very close and in fact they were going the way way as well. Wow those stairs were steep, and they seemed to just go on forever. Once I made it to the top, it made the whole trek worth it. Wow, just wow, the view was magnificent. You could see all of Cuenca, the mountains in the distance and Cajas the national park nestled between the mountains. I was still extremely hot from the sun and the hike so I walked around a bit in Turi in search of ice cream. Luck beyond luck I found a vendor selling cones, two flavors per cone for 50 cents. I got a Guayaba and Chocolate cone, it hit the spot.

the endless staircase

The view from Turi # 1

The View from Turi # 2

The View from Turi #3, I magically got myself in this one, imagine that!

   The way back was a bit quicker since I didn't have to wind my way quite as much. When I was almost home I found some guys playing volleyball in the park so I stopped to watch for a bit. I think it was then that I decided I want to play volley ball some Saturday or Sunday afternoon before I leave. When I got home I wolfed my lunch down, Lupe asked me if I enjoyed the food. I replied it wasn't bad. She laughed and told me that there is an Ecuadorian saying that goes " Cuando hay mucho hambre, no hay mal pan" or roughly translated, "When you're really hungry, nothing tastes bad". I laughed and agreed that was a good saying.

PS I snagged an awesome pic of the clouds on the way home

Chapter 4: In the Valley of the Giants

  The next day began with me and Ross waking up late for breakfast.  We hurriedly got dressed and got to the dining room as quickly as possible.  By this point the group was used to Ross and I being a bit tardy for meals and such so they weren't too worried, but they did say that had we slept any longer we would have missed breakfast completely. That would have been a bummer. Our meal consisted of four slices of warm bread per person on a little tray with jam, scrambled eggs and a slice of ham.  The waitress also came around to ask if we wanted tea, coffee or a variety of juices. I thought one of the juices she said was pronounced "wana-wana", in reality the juice in question is called "guayabana": for reference it rhymes with menomena. The rest of the table gave me a very strange look, they asked what I ordered.  I said, "Wana-wana", they all laughed, but I still got the right juice so it worked out in the end.

                                        (Here's a cow we met, cuz I thought you all might like her)

  After breakfast we ran to the back of the hacienda to take turns on the rope swing we had found the previous afternoon.  You don't know the meaning of a good workout 'til you've been on a rope swing at altitude. It was exhiliarting and exhausting at the same time.  Once we were all suitably out of breath it was time to get onto the bus for a day trip to the nearby towns of Patate and Baños.



  In Patate we were dropped off in the city center by the plaza.  We were put into groups of tow to three people with sheets of questions to ask the people of Patate about their town. The questions ranged from the origin of the town's name to the population size, to the most important building in town. I was paired with Kaelyn and Isaac, I think we were all a bit nervous to go up to random people, but there was a sizeable crowd of people in the plaza due to a middle school science fair so we had our pick of people to question.

  We talked to kids, we talked to adults. Some people were helpful, some less so, but everyone was friendly.  Well, except when we asked some boys at a booth a few questions and their teacher came over to yell at us.  He made it clear that they were supposed to talk about their project, not random things.  So we asked them about their project and learned they had done a bit of research on the difference between organic pesticides and manufactured pesticides.  It was pretty interesting. Another group of middle schoolers had a project that tried to prove that music helped the growth of plants.  Kaelyn thought that was a ridiculous idea, but Isaac and I informed her that the sound waves do in fact interact with the plant's to promote cell growth. We ended up finding almost all the answers and met some very interesting people by the end of the hour.

  We arrived in Baños about 20 minutes later after passing the a crew excavating the pumice from the last time the volcano had gone off.  WE had lunch at an international restaurant run by an Italian man with a pony-tail.  The restaurant felt like it would have fit in just fine with the locales of Court Street in Athens. It was quaint, and cozy with board games and books to read while you relaxed or ate.    When I say it was international, it was quite international- They had Mexican, Italian, Hindu, Thai cuisines and more.  Each meal came vegetarian, but you could request beef or chicken if desired. I had two triangle enchiladas with pinto beans on the side and also salad. Isaac and Ross had Thai noodles, I tried a bit, they were quite tasty with a lightly spicy peanut sauce.

   Again when we returned we had time to rest, but did I? No, no I did not. We went for a walk. We found the pool which was not open for swimming, but it was indoors and that whole building seemed very nice with little rooms for massages and a small amount of workout equipment. Hmm, now I'm a little fuzzy, we might have walked down the path to say hello to the cows or the horse...or we might have played with Shoes for a bit.  I forgot to mention him before, Shoes is this very old bulldog that lives at the hacienda, he had a bit of a hard time walking and breathing, but damn he was cute.

  For dinner I had Seco de Pollo, which was very flavorful. Basically Seco de Pollo is a type of chicken basted in a light sauce, all though the name infers that it is a dry chicken..We were all tired after dinner but still excited by our surruoundings so we went star gazing for a bit.  Amazingly, for the first time during our trip th stars were magnificently visible.  Sadly the volcano was not.  We sat in the darkness talking about Harry Potter, the stars and life.

  Did we go to bed after this you ask? Clearly we must have after such a day full of activities, but no again we did not. Isaac came over to our room with his Ukelele. We howled and yowled, strummed and clapped our songs and rhythms like crazy men.  By the end were fairly decent at playing Oxford Comma by Vampire Weekend, Come On Eileen by Dexys Midnight Runners and one more I cannot remember. I think we kept the whole hacienda awake for awhile, but we didn't care, it was too much fun.  We've come up with a a bunch of ridiculous band names for ourselves so far which include: Humboldt y Las Fantasmas, and The
Singing Gringos.

Vampire Weekend
Oxford Comma

Chapter 2: Journey to the Middle of the Earth

   Our first day in Quito consisted of so many things. Among those things were an awesome continental breakfast, a trip to an outdoor museum, lunch in an Ecuadorian mall, and a tour through the center of the city.

    Me and my roommate Ross had an interesting time finding the part of the hotel where breakfast was served.  He thought it was near the lobby, I thought I had heard someone say the seventh floor.  We didn't find any food in the lobby, but we did get to practice our Spanish with the concierge by asking, "Dondé está el lugar de desayuno?" He replied in English, "7th floor"

  After breakfast we all piled into the bus for an hour drive just past the city limits to the outdoor museum celebrating indigenous culture/history and also it has the line that demarcates the global middle of the world, the actual equator. At the museum the tour guide  told us about the ancient peoples of Ecuador and also had us do a variety of activities, like showing how water would drain differently north and south of the equator due to the Coriolis effect.  I learned that when water drains directly on the equator, the water does not spin at all, it simply falls straight down, who knew? There was also a challenge to try to balance an egg on the head of a nail directly on the equator. Your balance is increased by putting one foot on each side of the equator that way you are pulled equally in both directions, or something like that. Anyway, the point is, after two tries, I managed to do it successfully! Each of us who managed to do it got a certificate for our accomplishment.

 

Sarah and I trying our best to balance eggs, it was hard!

  After the equator we headed to the center of Quito for lunch at the mall.  Lunch was tasty and we got another opportunity to practice our Spanish by ordering, but we ended up making a mistake somehow and ordered a bit more than we intended to.  On the plus side Inca Cola is delicious, it tastes a bit like cream soda.
 

  Our next stop was the La Basilica del Voto Nacional where our walking tour of Quito began. The Basilica is a mammoth cathedral that celebrates the right to vote in Quito. There are a myriad of gargoyles that festoon the ramparts of the cathedral. Each gargoyle is a different animal from the different regions of Ecuador; there were panthers, iguanas, large birds, turtles, sloths, you name it!  On the tour we saw the plaza central which houses a large green space surrounded by the local government, the national legislature and the president's palace.  On the steps of the capital building there were a group of protestors, but we were a bit confused as to what they were protesting.

                                                     The Plaza Central complete with Protestors

                                               The Guards outside of the President's Palace


  After a stop at a giant statue of St. Mary with wings we returned to Hotel Quito to rest. Except we didn't rest: a few of us went down to workout and I swam a few laps. It was really only a few because I got pretty winded, I think from the altitude.

                                                        (The giant statue of St. Mary)

  That night we ate a restaurant called Hunter's. I had Locro de Queso, which is a potato and cheese based soup with half an avocado in it, and also 3 empanadas that were super tasty!

edit:pictures added =p

Bienvenidos

  Welcome to my blog, I will writing here to recount my adventures, travels and various escapades while studying abroad in Ecuador. I hope this blog is informative, interesting and a guide to the country. Feel free to comment on any and all posts I make, and to tell anyone else you think might want to read about my travels. I'm excited and ready for a language experience as well as a lot of hiking and anything else that might come my way.

I hope you all enjoy,
Eric