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I cannot believe my time in Ecuador has finally come to a close!

I left Intag just fine and finished up the report. I was pretty sad to say good-bye to that host family but also really excited to see everyone in Quito coming back from their own ISP experiences. Even getting back into Quito was an adjustment and all the bustle was slightly overwhelming and I missed that clean air in the campo. I was only in Quito for one night before we all headed out to La Hesperia, a beautiful research/lodge located a couple hours outside Quito, complete with gardens, pasture, and forest. There we all cycled through presenting our projects—something that I thought would be incredibly tedious but was actually very interesting. The greatest part was that everyone was working on something different, ranging from researching sea turtles on the coast, to assisting with construction projects with an indigenous culture in the amazon, to measuring the progress of the wax palms in the cloud forest (ok, that last one was me). Regardless, I learned a lot while also having a relaxing time to recover from the last-minute stress of completing ISPs. We had some free time to play ultimate Frisbee in the yard and later, almost all 20 of us played soccer in the rain along with some staff members, which was awesome. We all agreed it’s impossible to play in the rain and take it seriously so I am pretty sure everyone had a great time slipping around.

After the trip to La Hesperia, we got back to Quito to enjoy our last couple days in Ecuador. A group of us went to Parque Carolina, a huge park near the center of Quito, on Wednesday to play soccer with any Ecuadorians we could find to play against during the afternoon. On Friday I went back to the park with Estelle and Becca to paddleboat around a “lake” in the middle of the park, kinda silly but pleasant. Friday afternoon was also our last time with Sylvia, Xavier, and Aldemar, our two academic directors and another assistant who helps run the program. We all went to a classy pizza place where we gave them small gifts we had put together as a form of thanks for all they do throughout the semester.

As a last reflection on my study abroad time, it was, overall, an amazing experience that is sometimes difficult to put into words. My first time out of the country was reasonably successful in my terms—didn’t get robbed, didn’t get sick, and experienced the diverse regions of the country. I also improved in my Spanish and was at the end able to tell stories to my homestay family in Intag that would make them laugh, something that sounds basic but an achievement for me. And I even did have some dreams in Spanish, which I’m proud of as well. In Ecuador I had the opportunity to accomplish some things I have wanted to do in my life, including see bioluminescence (in Galapagos), successfully hitchhike (sounds dumb, but I was really excited), and bungee jump. I also learned some stuff about myself, like how I actually don’t enjoy jumping off high things and, more seriously, that I am able to travel abroad to appreciate both the new culture and my own.

So now I am here with a mezcla of emotions, having to say goodbye to some amazing people I just spent that last 4 months with, while also being hours away of finally seeing my family once again. I know I’ll eventually stop saying “permiso” when passing through people and instinctively asking “como le va?” as a form of greeting, but can guarantee my time in Ecuador will be a fond memory that is always a part of me.

Thanksgiving and more

ok, it’s been a little while since I have written in this…my bad. These last couple weeks have been quite busy, which is good and bad, but at least now I have a bit of time to catch up.

We celebrated thanksgiving here this past Saturday and it was actually a really good replacement dinner for not getting to be in the US. Susanna, Grace, Andy, Elliot and I are all doing our ISPs in Intag so we all met up in Peñaherrera, of the pueblos within Intag (it’s also where Grace lives and where Susanna and my soccer game was) the weekend before to discuss our menu and what we all planned on preparing. Then that Friday we went to Otavalo, about a 2 hour, $2 bus ride, which is the nearest town to purchase all our supplies. We were able to get all the dry ingredients in little shops throughout and then dedicated the afternoon to finding produce in the open-air market in the streets. We returned to Santa Rosa that same day and left all the stuff at Andy & Susanna’s house. On Saturday we all met up at their house and got a ride (back of a pick-up as usual) up to a reserve called Siempre Verde, which serves as a tourist place but is pretty rustic all the same.

Right as we got there we just started cooking our different dishes. Susanna braved lighting the gas oven and nearly burnt her eyebrows off but made it out just fine. Grace made her sweet potato dish with camote—the sweet potato that grows here but is actually purple instead of orange—and it was super tasty. Andy was in charge of the turkey (it was a chicken but we pretty much referred to it as turkey) and it turned out really good and moist. I made a fruit salad with apple, mango, pineapple, and banana and I believe everyone enjoyed. I bought some pears to add at the market that were kinda hard but the guy told me they were Chilean so they’re ripe even when they’re hard. Once I got to the reserve I saw the USA sticker and got made fun of for being so gullible. But the fruit salad was great regardless! And Elliot made an apple crisp for desert that was quite delicious. After eating we spent the rest of the evening sitting around this really cool fireplace and chatting. made some turkey sandwiches with the leftovers for dinner, which was quite excellent. It was a really awesome evening and a really beautiful place to be so for missing Thanksgiving at home, it was a good as it could possibly be.

So this last week has been dedicated to visiting one last reserve in Villa Flora and writing my paper. The Villa Flora trip was super frustrating because I tried to get the woman who was helping me to understand that I had this map and needed to find palms on the map but basically in the end I measured 6 and she told me the rest “se desaparecieron” or that they had all disappeared. At least it was a beautiful ride to and from the reserve on the back of a motorcycle that actually had shocks to make it a bit more enjoyable.

And now I am trying to finish up writing my paper. I planned on going to Apuela to use the internet, do some last minute research, and then print my paper to turn into my advisor. The plan was to go in the morning but the electricity went out so instead I went in the afternoon. I arrived at 2:15 and the bus out leaves at 3 so I had to be quick. But right as I got there they informed me that the lights went out once again. So I ended up not getting done what I wanted to but whatever. I will try again tomorrow. A lot o the group is already back in Quito and I know I am going to be one of the later arrivals but I think I am ok with that. gives me more time to finish the paper (right now 13 pages 1.5 spaced in Spanish…pretty proud…but it’s supposed to be more like 15…whatever) and say good-bye/thank you to people here in Intag.

Soccer, birthdays, and hiking

As of now the project has kinda hit a stand-still but that doesn’t mean I am not enjoying my time out here. This Sunday Susanna and I got to play soccer with the Santa Rosa women’s team against another town in the region. It was a small field, 8 people played for each team, and it was basically open to any age just as long as you can get together enough people to field a team for your pueblo. I think the age range on our team was about 13-40 years-old. I actually am officially part of the team with a laminated player’s card, complete with my photo (taken from a photocopy of passport that I have with me (don’t worry, I have another)), and under the name Kelly Nicole (because Adamski’s just too difficult I guess). At the start of the game I was probably the most nervous I have ever been before a soccer game because I really did not know what to expect, but it was sweet and lots of fun. Some of the dads/husbands were on the sideline and would give us tips on how to score, which was really reminiscent of my younger years playing. At one point I took a shot and accidentally hit another player in the leg. Apparently it was painful for her so I felt a little bad about that. Then I saw her breastfeeding her baby on the sideline and felt really bad. But that’s Ecuador. We ended up winning the game and I assisted Susanna’s goal, as we were both forwards together in the second half. I should have two more Sundays here so a couple more games to look forward to! After our game ended we all got into the back of a pick-up and went to watch the men’s Santa Rosa team play, which was pretty fun too. I should also clarify that these Sunday soccer games are a pretty big deal and basically everyone goes out to root for their respective town. The men’s game was especially crowded and everyone was cheering and yelling and screaming (yeah, the women scream a lot when something good or bad is about to happen. I still haven’t quite figured that out). There were also a couple chickens strolling through the game as it went on. Cool thing is now I am starting to get to know more people in the community and learning names which is really nice.

Before heading back to the house we, as in Lupe and Oswaldo (my homestay parents) and I, stopped in at their relative’s house to celebrate their niece and nephews birthday. This was probably one of the stranger birthday dinners I have attended. We first all sat down and drank some purplish grape-flavored (maybe?) gelatin-y beverage while snacking on plates of popcorn, ritz crackers, and strawberries. The father gave a speech and he got really emotional doing so and started crying. Once we finished that we were served soup and another plate of food as “merienda” or dinner. Finally we ate cake, that was actually not that bad, except for the fact that they followed in true Ecuador tradition and smashed the birthday boy and girl’s faces in the cake first. I was lucky to not get one of those face slices, but that was pure chance.

So after a pretty eventful Sunday, Monday I went with Oswaldo and another guy Wilbur to hike the other side of Reserva Neblina Norte, starting with a climb up from the road. The start was pretty steep but at least at this point we were on a trail. Once we reached the top after about an hour of hiking we started the descent with the main purpose of finding the naturally growing palms on the side of the mountain. Making things a bit more difficult is the fact that palms don’t naturally grow alongside trails, meaning the three of us just plowed down the side of a mountain with Oswaldo in front with the machete clearing the way. The grade was so steep so we would be grabbing at branches, vines, and roots to stay on our feet, though at some points I just gave up and slid down a bit on my butt. And at one part we encountered these super prickly plants so we all got a few spines in our hands that were a bit painful. All and all it was pretty ridiculous, really fun, and I got to measure 10 palms in the area, some pretty huge. That means I also got to use this little contraption Sylvia showed us back in Tiptini on how to measure angles to the tops of trees and use that measurement to calculate the height. So I made my own with a protractor, floss, and a pen and am pretty proud of how it turned out. Now I just have to remember trigonometry and I’m set.

So a good start to the week and I already have plans to visit 2 of the 8 palm places in the area this week.

Back to Intag, this time for a month

Alright, I am in Intag and currently loving the change of pace from city life in Quito. I was a bit hesitant and nervous about spending a month in Intag, mostly because it can feel pretty isolated at times. But now that I am with my homestay family- mother, father, and 12 year-old brother (he is the youngest of four kids, the other 3 moved out, and reminds me a lot of alec. he loves to bother the dogs and its apparent he is pretty good at filling time by himself)- and living in a beautiful house right next to the river, I think it should be a good month. The food here is delicious and super fresh and I also have two friends Andy and Susanna living about a 30 minute walk down the road—trust me, that’s short for distances in Intag.

I arrived on Sunday and after meeting with my advisor I met my homestay father and hitched a ride in the back of a pick-up to the house. On Monday I got started right away on my project by taking a trip out to La Reserva Neblina Norte, a reserve recently bought by a local NGO Decoin. Andy and Susanna joined me and two men who are part of a group focusing in conservation led us through the forest. The trail started at the top of this huge mountain which was pretty steep heading down and only meant we would have to head back up a similar trail at the end. It was really beautiful but pretty exhausting and I slept well that night.

So the verdict is so far so good. I know I have a lot of work to do this month but I think it should be pretty fun as well, so I guess we’ll see.

Galápagos!

*its not letting me add pictures :( so i will try again later

So, yeah, the Galápagos are basically as sweet as you would expect them to be. The trip started off with taking a plane from Quito to Guayaquil and then on to the Galápagos . Right from the beginning we split into two groups of 11 and didn’t really see the other half the entire time. My group began with the homestay portion on the island Isabela. I lived in a family consisting of a mother, father, and 3 daughters along with another SIT student, Anna. Right when we got there the first night we headed to a Catholic mass (this is a Tuesday night) with the family. I have yet gone to service in Ecuador (my Quito family isn’t too religious) so I never would have expected to go to mass for the first time in the Galápagos . It was really interesting and upbeat, like a lot of singing and clapping. And they also sang the “Our Father” to the tune of “The Sound of Silence”. No joke. And a stray dog just kinda ran through the church midway through and people weren’t really phased by that.

We would have breakfast with the family and then leave with the group for the day, and return home for dinner. We spent the first day snorkeling around Isabela. This is a picture of the part called Los Tuneles. The snorkeling wasn’t too great but I really loved how the rock had eroded into little bridges over the ocean.

The next day we went for a hike up Sierra Negra to see some active craters and volcanic area (active as in the last eruptions were in 2005). I don’t know why I had in my mind that there would be some forest-like parts to the islands because that is pretty wrong. Sure trees and plant life does exist but a large portion is just exposed dried lava from previous eruptions. It looked like a completely different planet, totally barren.

After 3 nights on Isabela we switched places with the other group and began living on the San Jose, a really really nice boat. We had all our meals on the boat and then we would get in wooden pangas (smaller boats) to arrive onto different islands. We would travel during the night (thank you motion sickness medicine) and then each day snorkel or walk around the islands. This is the boat. It was super nice—we were definitely not roughing it.

We spent one day each at San Cristobal, Espanola, and Floreana. All the beaches were absolutely beautiful with white sand and clear blue water. And the animals here, most with no history of being hunted or anything, have no fear of humans. We all came within inches of sea lions, sea turtles and penguins while snorkeling. While on land, we got to see tons of blue-footed boobies, Nazca boobies, and frigate birds. There was even a baby 4 month-old albatross that was along one of the walking trails and began pecking at the shoes of one of the guys in the group. This is a picture of me with a sea lion pup.

Our day on Floreana was probably the highlight of the entire trip to the Galápagos . We started out visiting Post Office Bay. Post Office Bay used to be used by whalers as a way to keep in touch with people not on the islands but today is basically continued by tourists. It’s a barrel where people drop letters or postcards to send. You then take back any notes that are for people that live near you and hand deliver the letter. So I put in a postcard for home…. and hoping someone from TO area will deliver it for me! While we were sorting through letters someone saw some whales breaching out in the distance. So what better thing to do than drop all our stuff on the beach, call in the pangas, and chase after the whales. I was really skeptical of actually being able to catch up to them but sure enough we came right alongside what turned out to be a mother and baby humpback whales. This was the best picture I was able to get, but it may show up a bit blury.
Afterwards we headed back to the beach in time to play soccer against the crew of other boats. On Floreana there is permanent sand/dirt field with goals and we played along with some of our boat’s crew in small-sided games. Running around for a bit and I was ready to go snorkeling off the beach. We went one more time in the afternoon at one of the best spots in all the islands called Corona del Diablo, or Devil’s Crown and it was so amazing. The water was so clear and it was incredible how much we were able to see.

Our Galápagos excursion was much more relaxing and low-key then the Oriente but I can actually say I learned a bit while out there. Managed to escape without getting sunburnt and pretty much had an amazing time overall.

Organic Farm and Otavalo

Earlier in the week, we took a day trip out to an organic farm. Since we were getting back later, we were all expected to bring a sack lunch. The day before, Gladys asked if I would like a hot dog or a hamburger for lunch. Caught me a little off guard but whatever, it was nice of her to make my lunch everyday in the first place so we decided on a hotdog. The next day I went to breakfast and to my surprise, I had a hotdog waiting for me for breakfast as well as one already in my lunch. And a hotdog here means the dog and bun and then mayonnaise, ketchup, and crumbled potato chips on top—not exactly appealing at 7am. I ended up just packing it up with my lunch, which was a really good idea since I got pretty carsick on the way to the farm and it probably could have been worse with a hotdog sitting in my stomach. The farm was interesting, still trying to figure out how it relates to anything, but I learned a bit about the whole process so that was cool.

On Friday, Becca, Estelle, and I took advantage of the weekend in Quito and headed out to Otavalo. Otavalo is about a 2 hour bus ride away and it’s a medium-sized town that is famous for its Saturday morning open-air market. We got their Friday night to scope things out and then headed to the market at 7am the next morning. And we actually didn’t do too terrible at bartering, despite the whole aspect of having to do it in Spanish. So I am catching up on my Christmas shopping…hope the fam likes the gifts! But the market was really cool and basically consumed the town center, with streets shut down and constant people roaming around. There was also a livestock market and I have never seen so many pigs on leashes before…I wasn’t a huge fan of that side of the market. There was also an indoor section where you could purchase freshly cooked meals and other food items—this part kinda reminded me of Pike Place Market in Seattle, except I couldn’t recognize half the food that was being sold or understand half of what people were saying. We left Otovalo around 2 so we could make it back to Quito to watch the big soccer game- Ecuador vs Uruguay—determining if Ecuador will play in the World Cup. I ended up watching the game with my homestay mother, sister, grandmother, and then the sister’s boyfriend, a niece and her boyfriend. It was fun to watch with people who were so passionate about Ecuador soccer and when they scored, everyone went crazy screaming and clapping. Then it was pretty disheartening when Uruguay scored within a minute and then won the game.

One more week in Quito and then off to the Galápagos on Tuesday!

Journey to the Amazon

Back from the Amazon! It was such an awesome trip overall, even the travel there and back was exciting! We started off by taking a plane from Quito east over the Andes to Coca, a small town with an even smaller airport. From there we got into a long motor boat on the Napo River to reach the Repsol (an oil company) checkpoint. This is the view from the boat on the Napo River. What’s kinda crazy is this oil company is really powerful, so much so that it is able to function on its own set of rules, different than the Ecuadorian government. Its also a strange dynamic to have to pass through an oil company, responsible for exploiting the Amazonian area, in order to reach a biodiversity research station on the other side. At the checkpoint we got in a ranchero, kinda like a bus but without any sides. That took us to the Tiputini River, from which we took another boat to reach TBS- Tiputini Biodiversity Station. We got situated in cabins, went swimming in the Tiputini, and had a short lecture in the evening.

This is the view of the station from the river.

The next four days we were split up into groups and rotated where we went each morning…beginning at 5:30am…and which of the native guides would show us around for the day. The first day my group went to Torre 1, basically a huge scaffolding that had a platform on top from which we watched a beautiful sunrise over the canopy of the forest as well as some tons of different birds—toucans, macaws, oro pendulums, parrots just to name a few. Before even getting to the tower we stopped to watch a group of woolly monkeys pass by in the trees above us—so cool. The next morning we went on a hike on one of the many trails around the station and learned about the uses of many plants in the forest. 3^rd day we went to El Puente, a huge rope and wood bridge at the canopy level connecting different trees together for some more bird watching. I am coming to realize I definitely underestimated the enjoyment of bird watching…its actually pretty fun.

This is the view down the bridge. You can also see a ladder up to an even higher platform. From there, the view was awesome. The fourth day we did La Flotada, where we took a boat upstream and then jumped into the river and floated alongside back to the station.

After the morning adventure, every day was different. One of the first days we had our “drop-off” which is when the guides lead us out into the forest leaves each of us individually alongside the trail somewhere to have some time to enjoy nature alone. As we were walking along, the guide—Don Meyer (I was a big fan of Don Meyer. He was probably between 60-70 years old and knew the forest so well)—would point things out along the way for us to see. As we were crossing a plank bridge over a creek, he stopped to show us something. While we were trying to figure out what he was pointing at, we all hear this loud CRACK and before there was any time to react the bridge snaps in half and we all fall about 6 or 7 feet to the creek (fortunately dry) below. Luckily, no one was hurt too bad and, looking back, having 6 of us on a wooden bridge probably wasn’t the wisest idea. What was even better was Don Meyer pulled out his camera to take a picture of all us silly gringas and the broken bridge.The broken bridge, a couple days later after it rained and the creek filled with water.

One of the evenings we went on a night hike, Don Meyer as the guide. He pointed out to us monos nocturnos, small monkeys that are really difficult to spot since their nocturnal, a tree frog that he found from at least 20 meters away, and a humming bird nest on the backside of a leaf. The grand finale (in my opinion) was near the end when we saw what they call a langosta, which means lobster in Spanish. It was actually a huge grasshopper-like insect that was at least 8 inches long and 2 or 3 inches thick. Ridiculous.

The last day we all could chose what we wanted to do. Some people went along with researchers to follow different packs of monkeys, others went fishing with the chef. I ended up going on a long hike with Anna, Grace, Susanna, and Teddy, led by, once again, Don Meyer. Earlier in the week Sylvia had talked about how this one trail was haunted, mostly because the camera trap (motion censored to photograph animals all hours of the day)in the area once caught a glimpse a black leopard, really strange and never seen again. So I asked Don Meyer if the trail was “embrujado” and at first I worried I had kinda offended him with such a dumb question. Instead we went the day with him telling us stories of different people he knows and their experiences with the “forest spirits”. Aside from his cool stories, we also saw some incredible things along the way—sleeping monos nocturnos, spectacled owls, a non-venemous snake.

This is a picture of me, incredible gross after our day hike (and the long sleeves are to avoid getting bit by bugs. it was HOT and humid out there) and Don Meyer. Once we got back to camp and said good-bye to Don Meyer, we decided to quickly hike out to the ox bow lake about 45 minutes away. There we took a canoe and paddled out into the lake where we saw the unique hoatzin bird and long nosed bats. It also started raining while we were out in the middle of the lake which felt so refreshing and it was just so sweet to be in the middle of this tiny lake with such beautiful surroundings.

This is us on the canoe in the ox bow lake. Front to back: Anna, Susanna, Me, Grace, and Teddy. it started raining pretty hard about 10mins after this picture

The amazon was so incredible and we all had such a great time out there. It was pretty exhausting and I arrived back to Quito with some pretty smelly clothes. I think for most of us it’s a bit of a bummer to be back in Quito; I know for me the luxury of warm showers and electricity still doesn’t outweigh getting woken up by an oro pendulum every morning.