Mindo!

This weekend nine of us went to Mindo which is a cloud forest in northern Ecuador.  Our hostal was amazing.  It was an orchid garden and had a bunch of hummingbirds.  And the owner would put out bananas in the morning that would attract several different varieties of toucans! Breakfast was included and was delicious! 

The first day we went tubing.  Basically they tie a bunch of tubes together and we sit in between them.  The guides then takes us down the rapids kicking off rocks along the way.  It was a blast and the guides looked like they were having so much fun! I would/want to definitely do it again! After the tubing we went to a butterfly sanctuary and were able to look at hold some gorgeous butterflies.  We also saw the caterpillars and their cocoons as well! Some of the cocoons looked like little gold earrings, they were so pretty.  Then we went to a chocolate store where we had a tour of the whole process.  We saw the fruit the cacao beans come from and even tried the fruit which was incredibly delicious.  We saw the process of drying and fermenting the beans along with how it's turned into chocolate.  We then got to make our own chocolate by adding ingredients to our cacao paste.  And at the end of the tour we got to sample a brownie! It was a very interesting and delicious experience! 

Then next day we went zip-lining.  It was so fun riding across the tops of the trees.  Our guides were pretty funny and one of the people in our group was actually working for the sip-lining company so we all had a great time! I won't lie, I was more than a little scared on the first run, but after that I was ready for more! Afterwards we went on a cable car that took us to the trails to see some waterfalls.  Normally there is a spot in which you can jump off a rock into the rushing water, but because of all the ran, the current was way to strong so we just admired the beauty for a while.  

Then it was time to head back to Quito and time to get back to homework.

I only have about a month left and I have mixed feelings.  I've decided that I'm probably ready to be back in the US, but I am in no way ready to leave Ecuador.  I still have a few things I want to do and places to see.  But most of all, I don't want to leave the people I've met here, both Ecuadorian and International.  It's going to be hard.  So I'm choosing not to think about it! 

I will try and update my blog a bit more frequently.  Sorry I've been so terrible lately! 

Semana Santa in Quito

I spent Holy Week (well the weekend at least) in Quito in order to see the famous Good Friday procession.  It was quite interesting.  Men and women dress in purple robes, as jesus, and as roman soldiers and process though the streets of the historic center.  Some men were walking with chains, some with crosses, some with wooden and beams, and some even had cactuses on there backs.  It's very traditional to carry whips as well and hit themselves as they process.  For these people, this pain is a form of punishment for their sins.  They experience some of the pain that Jesus suffered as he was put to death.  Many of the people don't wear shoes and I could tell that the heat from the black pavement was pretty painful.
I went with Molly's host family to the procession and they are very stereotypical Ecuadorians in the sense that we were late getting to the procession and then we slowly, very slowly, walked around to find a better view of the procession.  It was an experience.  We then had the typical semana santa soup.  It contains almost every grain/hearty vegetable you can think of.  For me, it's quite intense and I can rarely finish a bowl.  We then walked through a park where I shot a gun at a wall and won some free candy! Molly wasn't as lucky.  Then we headed back to our houses and somehow didn't end up paying for our bus!
I spent the rest of the week relaxing and enjoying the last bit of my spring break!

Peru (Machu Picchu and Cuszo)

For Spring Break/Semana Santa I traveled my way down to Peru.  We left Thursday night and arrived in Lima for our 5:45am flight.  We figured we would be able to sleep outside our gate in some nice comfy chairs, but no, we couldn't go through security until 3am so we just lounged around the Lima airport and slept for a little while in a hallway.  We successfully made it on our flight and arrived in cuzco around 7am.  We then hopped in a taxi to purchase our tickets to Machi Picchu and decided on taking a tour bus through the Sacred Valley (our taxi driver was very convincing and had a company all lined up for us).  It was gorgeous. First we went to the ruins of Pisac, which was where I bought a memory card for my camera because I had forgotten it in my computer at home.  Then we ate a delicious Peruvian lunch and continued onto Ollantaytambo.  The ruins there were quite amazing.  Pisac was more ruins of an old town and in Ollantaytambo, it was ruins of a temple that had lots of stairs and terraces.  The town also was basically all inca foundation (one of the only cities that the Spanish did not completely destroy and rebuild upon).  So all the streets and foundations of buildings were inca.  I really loved it there and wished we had had more time to explore.
The next day we left at 6am to Aguas Calientes on Perurail.  It was a beautiful train ride through the Peruvian countryside.  When we got to Aguas Calientes (the town below Machu Picchu), we checked into our extremely nice hostal (best shower I've had in Latin America) and bought food for lunches and dinner to help save on the cost of staying in a town built for tourists.
Then we grabbed the bus up to Machu Picchu! It was amazing.  I have always dreamt about going there, so to be standing in Machu Picchu was truly breathtaking.  It's nestled in between several mountains and there literally are no bad views from anywhere in the archeological site.  We hired a guide and she told us all about the abandoned city.  I couldn't believe it had been lived in for 100 years and then the town fled to escape the Spanish.  All that work for only one generation.
That night we made pasta and homemade spaghetti sauce for dinner.  It was thrown together randomly, but turned out to be quite delicious!  We met an argentinean, a couple of americans, a peruvian, and a guy from norway.  It was great hearing all there stories and reasons for being at Machu Picchu!
The next day we returned to Machu Picchu in the early morning to hike up Huana Picchu.  It was very mystical seeing the town covered in fog and clouds.  Once again it was breathtaking.  It was about an hour long uphill/upstairs hike in the rain.  When we finally got to the ruins it was pouring rain and pretty chilly, so we hid in a cave for a while trying to decide whether we should head back or not.  At first it was so cloudy we couldn't see anything and we thought we might have hiked up and paid extra for nothing.  But then suddenly the clouds parted and we got to see Machu Picchu from above.  It was incredible.  We could see everything we have wondered through yesterday and so much more! It was definitely worth all the effort! (We actually ran into several people who had wanted to climb Huana Picchu but the tickets were sold out, so we were thankful we splurged and got the tickets ahead of time). After a while of soaking in the beauty we descended back down to Machu Picchu and spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the city some more.
We then headed back to Cuzco.  Our train got delayed, it was having some mechanical problems.  Then the tracks were out so we were bused the rest of the way.  Our hostal boys were supposed to pick us up at the station, but we had told them we were coming by bus so they went to the other station while we were dropped off at the train station.  We finally found our hostal and of course the guys weren't there to check us in because they were still waiting for us.  But thankfully a guest let us in and got us settled.
The hostal was great.  It's partnered with a children's charity in Peru so all the money goes straight to needy kids.  And it was run by two guys (one is a forest guide and the other runs the charity).  They were great and so helpful with everything.  They even came out with us to do a couple of things and show us the city.  I want to go back and volunteer with them sometime.  Just have to find the time and money!
In Cuzco we went to several museums (colonial art, inca history, cacao history).  It was all interesting and beautiful.  The crazy thing abut Cuzco is that it's very touristy.  We kept calling it Peruvian Disneyland.  And it kinda was.  Everyone was so surprised when we spoke spanish and by how good we were at speaking the language.  It was interesting converting everything from soles (which I kept calling pesos) into dollars.  But I couldn't believe how cheap it was, and I though Ecuador was cheap! We all bought alpaca sweaters and other little souvenirs.
Overall it was an amazing trip and I really hope I get to go back!