Long update

One of the many waterfalls at Intag

Walking through the forest

I haven't updated for a while, due to lack of free time or internet that works well. So hopefully this will work out.

Picking up from the Monday out, Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty normal, except that I finally talked to my parents on Tuesday night for the first time since I've been in the country. It just takes several tries to get through to my cellphone, probably because the lines here are always busy. The phone connection is kind of funny because there is a delay, which made conversation kind of challenging, but it was still really nice to talk to everyone.

Wednesday night, I didn't feel too hot, so I stayed home from school the next day because they were going to the market and I didn't think it would be great to go. I never actually was sick, I just felt really sick. Some bacteria finally penetrated my defenses. I watched a bunch of telenovelas that day, including 'Amor Real' which is one that I watched this past summer. It's different being sick here. I told my host mom that I wasn't feeling well and that I didn't want to go to class, so she called one of my groupmates and told him that I was tired and wanted to rest. He called me back to see what was going on so I told him that I was actually kind of sick. Then, for lunch, I didn't want to eat more than a bit of rice and some chicken, but everyone thought that the reason I didn't want to eat was because I was in love because I guess here the only reason for not eating is being in love. Also, the maid thinks that the reason I'm sick was because I didn't eat her cooking the day before, which might be it, but she claimed that if I didn't eat her cooking, I would be even more sick. Thursday night, I was feeling better so I went to the market in Sangolqui with my host family and they bought a huge amount of fruits and vegetables for under $40. They seriously had two large sacks and a large box full of everything from babaco to apples to mote to bananas. So I got my market experience in that day after all.

On Friday, the classes had a big food thing going on, but I still wasn't feeling great so I didn't eat too much. Later I had a pretty good discussion with the maid about religion and ethnicity. She was surprised to hear where my great-grandparents came from. Then we started talking about religion and she told me she was Jehovah's Witness, which surprised me because of the huge hold the Catholic Church has here. It was hard to describe to here what Lutheran meant, let alone Protestantism. Later that night I went out with some girls from the group to see a movie in English to kind of unwind. We saw Preguntandole el viento, or 'Asking the dust', a movie from a year ago starring Selma Hayek and Colin Farrell. It was ok, kind of depressing. It really reminded me of Moulin Rouge only without singing and dancing and actually being good. The funny thing was listening to the movie in English and then reading the Spanish subtitles because some of the translations were quite humorous.

On Saturday, we hopped on a bus and headed off to the bosque nublado (cloud forest) in Intag, north of where we've been. The trip took about 5 and a half hours, an hour and a half of which was on a bumpy, gravel road in the mountains and a half hour of which was hiking to the reserve, Intag Cloud Forest Reserve, where we were staying. The scenery from the bus was incredible, so many nice views of mountains. The road went right on the side of some mountains, so the drop off was kind of exciting/scary, but I really enjoyed the ride. We got to the reserve and ate lunch right away, which was incredible. We had vegetable lasagna, cookies, salad (the lettuce is okay to eat here because it's organically grown right on the farm), and lemonade. Later I explored a bit with some people and we hiked into the forest to one of the waterfalls and later up a hill to another waterfall where I slid down a natural water slide. It was pretty nice to play around in some water. We also saw some birds known in english as cocks of the rock, which are these very loud bright red birds that people come to Intag from all over the world to watch. Later on, the owner Carlos talked to us about his farm and his organization, DECOIN, which opposes mining in the area, especially in Junin, a town closes to where we were. He has an incredible story, including many death threats and one recent close call where people for the mining company came to the farm to kill Carlos, although he had left fifteen minutes or so before and was hiding out in the forest for a while afterwards. The organization and the community have been able to hold off the mining process so far, but who knows how long until other companies come in to exploit the copper reserves. There's a good video about this issue that we watched: http://www.ekostv.com/node/227. Carlos was just an incredible guy to talk to. Later that night, we had some more great food and then played cards.

The next day, we had some great pancakes with vanilla syrup for breakfast with some fresh coffee grown on the farm. Then, my group had a nice four hour nature hike with Roberto, a local who knows a ton about the cloud forest. It was a really nice hike, but before we knew it we were hiking up a mountain/hill. I'm still not sure whether what we hiked was a mountain, but it felt like it. To make matters worse, we were all wearing botas de caucho (rubber boots) because the trail was muddy in places and we had to cross some streams. We found some nice waterfalls and caves, as well as some nice views from the top of the mountain. Along the way we saw some huge beetles, strange spiders, butterflies, larvae, and some birds. We got back in time for another great lunch of salad, rice, lentils, and more. Then MaryEllen, an American who is now an Ecuadorian who knows her history of the country and is the editor of a local newspaper, lectured us on the history of Ecuador. Later that night, we just hung out while Faba told stories.

The next day was my group's turn for painting and drawing which was a nice relaxing activity. We drew leaves, flowers, and people without looking down at the paper and then we used watercolors to fill in the drawings a bit. Carlos's wife, Sandy, who used to live in the U.S., led the session and she was really nice. That night, we had really good quinoa burgers for dinner and some of the guys in our group organized a sweat lodge. I didn't do the sweat lodge but I stood by the fire and then watched the video about the copper industry and some taped footage of encounters between villagers and mining personnel. It would be great to do my Independent Study Project on this issue, but I think I'm already pretty set on doing traditional medicine and the public health system. Faba already things he has a good connection with a hospital in Riobamba where I can volunteer while doing my project. I'm glad things are working out while in that area. Most people don't know what they want to do yet and I'm already on my way to finding a place to go.

General reactions from the cloud forest: Everything is damp and once something is exposed to the air, it will not dry out until you leave. Even my bedsheets felt damp and my towel never dried. Our cabins, the place where we ate, and the pavillion didn't have electricity so we used a lot of candles to light the way, which was nice, especially eating by candlelight every night since the sun is down by 7:00. There were tons of dogs hanging around the farm. There was a really cute puppy that the family had just bought, but he liked to bite everything. I didn't really pet them too much because I was worried they all had fleas or some other type of disease, but I enjoyed seeing them. Also, we use latrines rather than real bathrooms, which is kind of cool because it really does help with the sustainable lifestyle of the farm. I had heard so often about sustainable living and finally getting to see it in action and working successfully was great. It's amazing what Carlos and his family are doing with their farm and their reserve. Also, the bugs there bit quite a lot and now, even several days after returning from the cloud forest, I have over twenty freakishly-large bugbites all over my lower legs and a few on my arms. It's a good thing the altitude is too high for the mosquitoes that carry malaria because I would probably have malaria by now if they did live there. And lastly, the food was great. It was so healthy and yet so tasty, and we didn't have any meat the whole time. Also, the lemon tea was amazing. I miss all the good, healthy food. Also, there were hammocks all over the place and they were so nice to relax in. I worked on trying to get a little further in 'Northanger Abbey' in them, but they made me want to nap. I'll have to buy one like them to take home. Overall, it was a great, beautiful, relaxing place to go and I'm so glad we spent a few days there. It would be nice to go back sometime.

We left the cloud forest on Tuesday morning, expecting to get back to Los Chillos around 6:00 with a two hour stop in Otavalo to shop at the world-famous market there, but things took a different turn. There was a paro (strike of sorts) and local people were blocking the autopista with different materials to prevent people from getting through so we couldn't take that route home. The people were asking for an irrigation system that the government had promised them but the president was out of Quito until next Wednesday so we weren't sure how the problem would be resolved. Anyway, our two hour stay in Otavalo ended up lasting until the following morning, but I really liked the city and it was fun hanging out with the group for one more day. My time in Otavalo was well-spent. I bought a lot of stuff to take home. They have so many beautiful things like hammocks, sweaters, jewelry, tablecloths, and so much more. I hope to go back and buy more, but I don't know how I'm going to be able to carry it all with me for the rest of my time in Ecuador. I also explored and found the city hall and a really pretty brick church. Later on, a big group ate pizza at this nice and cheap restaurant and we had some cake and wine on the roof of the hotel, which had a really nice view of the city.

The next day, the strike was still on and there was no gas due to the road block, but we still had some gas and our leaders knew of an alternate route. Again, we took a cobblestone, bumpy one-lane road through the mountains for quite a while, getting slightly lose along the way, but the road was gorgeous. There were really nice views of mountains and even of Cotopaxi and Cotocachi volcanoes. We got home in about five hours and all was well. The strike ended the next day when the government promised to pay for a new irrigation system, so it's really cool that the people got what they wanted.

So this is updated until Wednesday morning and I'll try to get the rest of it updated sometime in the next week. I've been online forever today so I feel like I should give it a break now. Chao.