There´s No Place Like Home

For the first time ever, I miss Sebring, Ohio. I miss the security, and being able to walk around town at all hours of the night. I miss how clean its air is, and just in general, its cleanliness (compared to here). I miss it's quietness as well. But mostly, I miss living in a village. I'm not a city person.

Up until Saturday night, I didn't miss my shady village surrounded by corn. I was having a great time traveling through Ecuadorian wilderness. But then we came to Cuenca, one of Ecuador's biggest cities. It was definitely a change compared to the first two weeks. We weren't living the nomadic life anymore, or living together in our hotels or shanty little cabins. We were dispersed throughout the city and kind of living an almost normal life. A monotonous normal life. So to break the monotony, on weekends, we have been going out to dinner and a club.

On Saturday, we went to some clubs and had dinner. We stayed out the longest we ever have been in Ecuador. After some fun at a diskoteca it was time to head home. Everything happened so fast that a friend and I ended up alone at the park trying for cabs. After 10 minutes of trying, we split up to head home. I tried for a taxi for 30 more minutes. I was ignored by the empty ones or the others were full. Not many people were out, so I wasn't greatly worried so I started to walk. Well soon after, a taxi load of young muchisimos started to bother me, and I thought that they were going to get out of the car. Luckily for me, there was a nice Ecuadorian family across the street from me, so I ran to them and asked them to help me. They were nice enough to walk me home, which I was locked out of somehow (just to make the night even better) but who knows what would have happened if they weren't there. It was probably one of the scariest moments of my life.

Darwin says, "Find a tortoise. Now."

Oh Halloween. One of my favorite holidays. I love watching the old Twilight Zones with my Dad (also for New Years), scary movies, pumpkin carving, seeing the costumes the little ones are wearing, the weather, Fall flavors (Pumpkin....everything), but mostly, The Hunt.

Every year for the past 4 years (ish) now, my second family (my bestests friends`family, but I`m the favorite) has a Halloween party. And at this party, is a scavenger hunt with the most ridiculous clues and stunts (Ex: One year, we got arrested for points.). It`s great fun. But this year, I couldn`t be there because I am on this wonderful adventure in Ecuador. But, since I couldn´t be there, the mastermind of it all made a clue in my honor. They had to bring back: 1) Something that was "Made in Ecuador" or "Product of Ecuador. 2) A copy of Darwin´s On an Origin of Species. 3) A real life Giant Galapagos Tortoise. Unfortunetly, no one found the tortoise, but one team did find some bananas. And one of my dearest of friends did not find said bananas, like she promised me, so she got to wear the hickey of shame (another awesome clue). Next year though, be prepared, because my team is going to dominate.

Loving the Alien

So it has been about two weeks now living with my host family in Cuenca. What I`ve learned so far: Water can be cold enough to put you in physical pain; libres means pounds; I still really hate hot dogs; and my Spanish is improving.

So what does this all mean? First off, the water. So in the states, there is usually a hot water heater. Not here. In my house you go to the basement and light a pilot light type thing (Hot water on demand) in order to get hot water. Well, only one person in my house knows how to turn it on from what I`ve been noticing. So, I`ve been skipping showers (Me=gross :(  ) because I never see the person who can turn it on. But, what I learned this morning is, when there is hot water, no matter how hot it is, don`t turn on the cold water. Don`t do it! The water will instantly turn icy cold. Not fun. But I think I would rather have what I have now than a breaker box in the shower that turns on the hot.

The other day I ran errands with my "aunt" around town. When we got back to the house, she told me to go to the tienda at the end of the street and get "azucar y dos libres de papas". Easy enough now, but I could not for the life of me understand the dos libres part. The lady in the tienda sent her granddaughter to my house to ask what I needed. The chica said something about potatoes so I assumed it was right. I was sent from one tienda to the next around the corner to get a bag of papas fritas (shoe string potato chips). Go back home. Not what I needed. Sent back to the first tienda. The lady just naming stuff off with potatoes in it until it matched up with what Marilu had told me. I finally got my damned potatoes after 20 minutes.

The number one things I`m missing right now: Mom`s cooking. In Ohio, my mom makes all the food. And it`s fresh. I rarely eat fast food or a lot of processed stuff. My family in Cuenca eats okay. Rice, cheese, bread, all mostly fresh....And hot dogs. The most vile of foods. I hate hot dogs pretty much more than anything, and for three days now, that`s what I`ve been eating. But I don`t want to be rude and not eat it since they were nice enough to house me and they are also taking my on vacation with them (¡Vamos a la playa!). So, for now, I will suck it up and eat them. But I don`t know if I can take it much longer.

A shout out to Señora for teaching me 4 years worth of Spanish. It`s all coming back now, and seeing that nobody really speaks English in my family, it`s necessary for it all to come back. Compared to last Monday when I arrived at my house, I can now speak in sentances, where before, I could say "si o no". And my "mom" will even joke with me about the smelly men working on the house, and I can understand. My speaking still needs improvement, but I still have 6 more weeks of practice ahead of me.

Straw Dogs

I´m becoming more and more convinced that Ecuadorian dogs are better than most American dogs.
Why? I will explain:

Before this trip, we were told stories of all the stray animals there are here in Ecuador. We were told that it was sad but don´t pet or feed the puppies or the kitties. We even got rabies vaccines (Not the treatment with the seven shots in the stomach.). When we were preparing to come here, I was expecting to be cornered by dogs foaming at the mouth everywhere I go. That really hasn´t happened (Okay, so there have been two cases: one slight chase on one of our walks in Quito, and one story of someone being surrounded on their walk home.). What I´ve noticed is that these dogs are completely independent. They walk on the sidewalks, look both ways before they cross streets (Usually. But humans don´t do that half the time), and really don´t bother people unless people bother them. The dogs here have a crazy tendency to get onto places they really shouldn´t be. I´ve seen them in the most random places, for example, the ledges on the sides of buildings. And they will be just sitting there, doing dog things. It´s mind boggling seeing that most of the walls in the area are lined with barbs or broken glass.

So, these dogs are incredibly smart and great climbers, but what else makes them great? One of the shocking things I´ve noticed about these dogs are their breeds. The other night, while walking home, I saw a full breed Chow Chow stray. This dog would probably be thousands of dollars in the States. Here, he was just another independent dog living a simple Ecuadorian life in the fast lane (He was walking down the road, and as I said before, there are no rules in driving, so there were no rules for this guy.)

The Last Remaining Light

The Amazon has been my favorite experience so far. I loved the Tiputini Research Station. The best part about the whole place was that it was so untouched. There were paths and some lights installed, but over all, nothing. We woke up every morning to monkeys and all sorts of birds outside of our cabins every morning. It was incredible to be there.

The mornings and afternoons were fun because we could see so much of the wildlife and the plants. But at night, when it was clear, that´s when you really get to see something that isn´t in Ohio: the stars and the Milky Way. Sure, we can see some in Ohio, but not as clear or as many as there were there.

The Amazon became a special place for some of us because it became a place of bonding, massages, keeping up our neighbors, Pete Oxford´s British humor and  his giant camera, and...Well, Mike McGinty...But that´s another story. But possibly the best day was the last day we were there:

We started off the morning with the normal hike in the forest. Our guide, Romero, the guide of all guides, somehow spotted a sloth (Cross off bucket list. Next on list: to hold one.). It was practically impossible to see from the ground, but somehow he saw our mossy, fuzzy friend.

We had lunch, then when for a dip in the Tiputini River. It was rather refreshing even though we really couldn´t see what we were swimming with, but that was just another part of the adventure. We really didn´t care about the big stuff that could have been swimming with us. We were a little paranoid about the candiru, though (I suggest looking it up and using it to scare kids into not peeing in the pool).

The best part of that day was the night time. Two others and I sat down at the dock and watched the sun set over the river and the forest together listening to Jason Mraz and just soaking in moment. Slowly the stars came out and the faint arm of the Milky Way was right above us. The jungle became more alive with its nocturnal critters and they sang us their songs from a distance. It was so refreshing to just sit and listen and reflect on where we were and what we were doing. I really hope that one day I can return to the station and do research there.

There are no rules in driving

So Ecuador is amazing. It feels like we have been here for a long time, and it has been less than a week.

We left Quito and went to the Intag Cloud Forest. You have no idea what fear is until you ride up and down the side of a mountain on a sketchy mostly dirt road that has barely enough room for the bus, let alone the other cars, construction crews and motorcyclists that share the road. Then looking out your window, and not being able to see the road underneath said bus, because the road is just that narrow. The only thing scarier is doing the same thing, but in an open air bus practically made out of wood. To make things a little bit worse, Ecuadorians don´t have rules in driving. There are speed limits, but they´re not followed. And you can almost do any illegal maneuver here and not be in trouble.

After surviviing the drive to the Intag, we arrived in Junin, where we stayed in an ecotourism cabin/tree house. Kristi and I slept in hammocks on the roof. We went on a hike to the little village of Junin (to learn more, watch Under Rich Earth). From Junin, we went to Carlos Zorrilla´s farm, where he grew a bit of everything to try and make it as natural and organic as possible. We were right on the mountains, and sometimes in the clouds. There was no electricity and barely running water. It was completely rustic, but so much fun. Other than the bugs. There were lots of those, and big ones at that. Our first night, after we turned off the lights, we heard something like a rock falling. I turned on my flashlight to see a giant cricket on the floor. He was probably around two-inches in any direction. He was promptly squished by Laura.


We had our own beds for a while, until the rain came. Our cabin leaked just a bit and three of our beds became completely soaked. Wednesday morning, we went on an intense four hour hike around the mountains. Our guide was cool and would make jokes about snakes hanging from trees. Soon into the walk, we actually found one...and it was poisonous. So what did we do? Get as close as we could to take pictures of it. The hike was rough and muddy, but some of the views we got to see were just breath taking. 

Dreaming of the Osaka sun

Well it has been a long couple of days. Yesterday was or departure from wonderfully rainy Ohio to the beautiful Ecuador! Our flight to Georgia was pretty smooth and tolerable since it was only around 120 minutes long. Our flight to Quito was a bit turbulent, but watching the sun set from our windows and flying over Cuba or the night lights from Panama wad incredible. By the time we landed, we were all ready to crawl into our beds at the nicest hostel ever.

You know those first few moments after you wake up and can't really remember anything? I had one of those this morning. Realizing that you're in another country and that the whole day before of flying and airports and emotions wasn't a dream wad really exciting. Especially looking out your window to see a mountain appear from the fog!

Today's biggest adventure was out tour through Quito and getting to straddle and fight over the Equator. Trying cuy, hot wine and just bonding by sharing all our food and drinks with each other (probably not the most healthy thin to do, but delicious all the same). Can't wait for more adventure and less altitude sickness! Pictured will come soon enough.

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

So it's the night before we leave, and getting ready to leave is utter madness! Had to buy a camera bag and a memory card adopter thing (The one thing the bookstore doesn't have) so I could clear out my full camera, since apparently Fuji memory cards are impossible to find. Still trying to make my side of the dorm look uninhabited, and pack the rest of my stuff. 

I sad good-byes to my family this weekend, which was sad. But there will be no more sad, since this is going to be the greatest adventure ever!

Also, tomorrow is my brother's 18th birthday, so my gift to him is not being able to harass him via text for the next 10 weeks. Happy Birthday! And have fun at Homecoming tonight.

Anyways, I should stop procrastinating and finish packing and what not. Byes!