Tena

So I traveled west to Tena, the gateway to the Amazon, this past weekend. It was a brief but beautiful adventure. After a hilariously disgusting (odd adjective combo but it really is the perfect description) bus ride, we made to Tena, which was nothing like the grass huts that I had envisioned. Near the end of the long bus ride after alternating who gets the floor and who gets our one seat, Kristen and I discovered a mysterious goo all over our backpacks and my shoe and my thigh after putting my backpack on it. Our first thought was, is there really poo all over our stuff? But after laughing until our sides hurt, it was confirmed after the sniff check that it was in fact vomit. How wonderful right? After some cleaning up at the hostel we went to a great restaurant owned by a chipper old German where the rest of the bunch met up with us.

Bright and early on Saturday morning we began our whitewater rafting adventure, one of my greatest Ecua-experiences to date. River People, the rafting company, was run by two Irish brothers (not really what I was expecting in the Amazon) that had lived in Ecuador since they were kids. The all day trip was absolutely incredible, packed with class 4 rapids, lots of splashing and swimming, a homemade lunch made by their mom, and even a jungle hike. One of the rapids was too big to raft so we hiked up one of the steep sides of the river and then repelled back down once we got past the rapid. It was the jungliest of all jungle hikes for me. And no jungle experience is complete without tripping and falling on a poisonous plant from the Amazon. The stinging went away after a couple hours though, no worries. The untouched rainforest that surrounded us was out of this world: lots of little waterfalls, vines, green parrots, and tropical foliage. We didn’t get many pictures after Mateo’s camera got too cold from the water or something, but here’s a few!

Quito-ing

Hello all,

This has been one of my more academically challenging weeks, hence no new posts. I am coming down to the homestretch in my classes, so the professors are piling it on. I don’t mind too much, that’s what I am here for right?

Brief update on Ecua-life:

Blackouts

Lately we have been experiencing “rolling blackouts.” Ecuador mostly runs on hydro-power but unfortunately the rains just didn’t come this year. What does that mean? There isn’t enough power to go around. Fortunately they have started to give us warnings so we can be ready for the 4hr blackout in our homes. Aside from the hassle of complete darkness at times (my host fam does seem to want to invest in some candles) it has been kind of fun. I always liked power-outages when I was younger because that meant the normal routine was put on hold for a little while. And everything was so quiet. I went out to eat the other night and they had a fire in the fireplace and candles on all the tables, who wouldn’t love that?

Protests

College students across the nation that attend private universities are not happy. The president has recently passed a law making all universities public. It will surely change a few things. In a country that is becoming more and more socialistic, the government will have a much bigger role in the curriculum, manner of teaching, etc. They can even go as far as deciding how many students can have a certain majors. For example, if there are plenty of filmmakers or ecologists in the country then they will not allow more students to study those subjects. It seems like their freedom is slowly being taken away from them.

Correa

The friendship between President Correa and Chavez is making Ecuadorians a little uneasy. Chavez tells Correa to buy weapons from Russia; Correa buy weapons from Russia. Chavez doesn’t like Columbia; Correa doesn’t like Columbia. Chavez thinks the US is evil, Correa thinks the US is evil. Correa likes Chavez a little too much. 'Nuf said.

Update on my Ecua-happenings

The photos below are of my previous weekend around Quito. The last one is a view from my apartment. There is a HUGE statue of an angel in South Quito way up high that we made the trek to see. The stairs to get up to her were endless but the view of the city was great. I leave tomorrow for Tena, the closest I will get to the Amazon. Hopefully by next post I will have gone white-water rafting and spelunking.

Ciao,
Carrie

Rio Verde

Just got back from a beachy weekend in Rio Verde with some amigos. This weekend getaway was much more tranquilo than the others. We went to the beach, a whole 50 yrds from our room, spent time with the owners, which was Mateo’s host family, went on a short little boat ride up a river out to sea, ate some delicious ceviche, and not much else. I have had an immense craving for ceviche ever since the first bowl. Something about the combination of seafood, lime juice, cilantro, red onion, tomatoes, and salt just seem to work. Add some patacones (fried bananas) on the side and you’re in heaven.
Life in Rio Verde is much more simplified than what most of us are used to. Many live in huts along the river, fish for sustenance, play a lot of soccer, and pass the day with their families and neighbors. Most of the citizens are black and I think for some of the lit’uns, it was their first time seeing a blonde-haired, blue-eyed person. We only saw a couple other tourists throughout the four days, so needless to say we stuck out a little.
Our beach hardly had a soul on it. We spent hours swimming in the warm ocean (Mateo kayaking and Kristen and I bobbing around in child-sized inner tubes) and walking alone the shore with nothing around us but the vast Pacific and the wide sandy beach. It was a dream. I knew it would be last time at the beach in Ecuador so I tried to soak it in as much as I could.
Well this five day weekend has come to a close. Back to the books! 46 days left.