studying in español

I thought I'd write about what it's like studying in another language. This is my first time since my study abroad experience in Chile that I've had to participate in academic conversations, produce academic written work, and read texts written in academic language. Even then, it's tough to compare- in Chile, I spent the morning in Spanish class learning some basic/intermediate vocabulary, and learning other seemingly unnecessary, but always useful words, like "fairy godmother" and "cuddle". I spent the afteroons in seminars given by notable speakers, but in retrospect, I think I just got the main ideas, rather than understanding every single word. Writing my Independent Research Project was difficult, but luckily I got to include lots of quotes from my interviews with ice cream sellers, so even then I was including words like "cachai" and "mi'jo" in an academic work. My Spanish had also improved drastically by that point. At UPS I took several literature classes after returning from Chile (and later, Ecuador), but conversations in class usually revolved around discussions of "civilización y barbarie", which is markedly different from political discourse about populism, imperialism, neoliberalism, and all the other semi-vague "ism"s that we regularly discuss.

Here, sadly, no one uses "cachai" in or out of academic situations, and the work is significantly more intense. I'm no longer granted the luxury of a Spanish teacher, and I'm on my own for reading, writing, and especially conversing.* Still, I'm lucky- Ecuadorian spoken Spanish is known for being well-enunciated and without the same number of local slang words as Chile. It took me a bit of time to get used to how each professor speaks, but going to class really isn't an issue for me- I understand 99.9% of what the professors say, to the point where I can pull out single words that I don't understand from their lectures. Of course, these words are usually easily defined based on context clues, but I usually just write the words at the top of my notebook page to check on exact English translations when I get home. I definitely couldn't have picked out single words that I didn't understand in Chile- instead, I was picking up main ideas and missing out on lots of words. If the word continues to be a major theme, I can usually ask someone sitting next to me about what it means to make sure.

Reading is a different story, mostly because the language is even more formal and academic. I had a hard time figuring out the best way to do my readings here- do I do them next to the computer and look up all of the words that I don't know immediately in a Spanish-English dictionary online (I left my tangible dictionary at home)? Do I just read through without interrupting everything to look up words? Should I write down all the words to come back for? I've settled on a sort of mix- I read through the whole text, underlining important things and writing commentaries in the margins, and circling words that I don't understand. If the word is repeated or it seems to be absolutely critical to the comprehension of the sentence, I'll look it up, but usually I go through the article when I finish and write the word definitions in the margins later.

Oddly, I find that academic conversations are the most difficult for me. While I can ramble away for significant periods of time about the absurdity of the amount of rain we've been getting, about what I made for lunch three days ago, or even do extensive impressions of teenage Chilean girls, academic conversations are more challenging! This is probably because I've really never been expected to produce an academic discourse on the spot before. In Chile, Spanish classes were informal and all other classes were similarly casual, and our Spanish levels were all much lower so less was expected. Puget Sound classes again didn't require much of a political vocabulary, or really much discussion that wasn't based on literature themes (or occasionally hidden sexuality in Harry's classes). So here when I'm suddenly required to pretend to be a mediator and paraphrase the Hydroelectric company's complaint to the local Municipality in legal language, it's a bit of a challenge. Mostly, it means that I prefer to hold my academic conversations in small, study groups than in front of the entire class, but I'm getting better at sounding like I know what I'm talking about and using formal sentence structures, rather than ending every sentence with "cierto, weon?" (right, dude?)

All in all, my transition from sounding hip and cool on the streets to sounding sophisticated and well-learned in the classroom is going more smoothly than I expected. But still...I'd like to be able to incorporate more words like "fome" and "la raja" into the classroom. I guess I'm just waiting for the perfect moment...

*This is only partially true- I have a fantastic proofreader in Chile who makes sure that I'm never on my own for writing, and regularly checks to make sure that I don't use too informal of language in academic papers.

Ecuadorfantasma

I read that this guy on Twitter had people take pictures of their streets and neighborhoods without cars and people around yesterday, as part of a project "Ecuadorfantasma"- Ecuador ghost.

A little more than 1,000 people were arrested across the country yesterday for violating the laws, including 30+ members of the Ecuadorian Armed Forces for drinking during the Ley Seca. No domestic flights were scheduled (except to and from Quito-Guayaquil with the express purpose of continuing to the Galápagos), and 14 international flights left and 9 arrived. Tourists or anyone else arriving in the airport were allowed to leave to return home, but they had to be accompanied by a salvoconductas- a special driver. Those who were planning on leaving the country had to be in the airport before 7am, when the Ley de Inmovilización took place- even if their flight didn't leave until 4pm!

Sorry for all of the probably uninteresting details- it's just that how often does an entire country shut down for a day without a natural disaster?

If you're interested, check out this slide show at the El Comercio website to see a slide show of the photos of Ecuador's streets without people or cars. The slide show is at the bottom of the page.

Thanksgiving and Censo

My Thanksgiving social debut last night was a success! My co-host Julia and I met up Friday evening to buy the food and to do some serious cooking and chopping (so much chopping Friday and Saturday that I actually have a blister on my right index finger from holding the knife!). We had a few setbacks- no pumpkin (canned or fresh) to be found, nor French's onions. Both were easily solved- we all ate an apple/mango crumble, and the green bean casserole was decorated by these hyper-fried mega-skinny potato chip sticks. There was (of course) a turkey named Pablo el Pavo (pavo is turkey...).

The green bean casserole was a surprising success (I didn't think people would like it much), as was the stuffing. And everyone LOVED the canned cranberry sauce! The mashed potatoes were probably the only "familiar" dish that people had had before, but they seemed to like the new ones too. Actually, I don't think there was a single dish that was unanimously disliked- the devilled eggs disappeared in a flash, the Chilean appetizer of Philadelphia cream cheese presented on a plate with soy sauce and sesame seeds sprinkled on top (to be eaten with crackers) was a smash hit- I guess the only thing left over was the green salad, which was devoured later in the evening anyway!

All in all, there were about 25-30 people in my not-so-big apartment so it was pretty tight, but not as bad as I thought! Here you can see people hanging out, grabbing the grub, and a close-up of the lovely co-hosts:






Today is a big day in Ecuadorian history- they're doing the first Census in almost 10 years. High school students in their uniforms are scheduled to come by and ask everyone some questions. As a result, there are some pretty strict rules. First of all, there is a Ley de Inmovilización which means that you're not allowed to leave your house between 7am-5pm. Second of all, there's a Ley Seca which means that you're not allowed to sell or consume alcohol during a certain period of time. These laws have been strictly enforced- it's definitely more like an authoritarian state around here today! I've barely seen or heard any cars on the street all day, and no one is walking around. The few cars that I've seen have been police, checking out the streets and even military vehicles. Granted, at least in my neighborhood, there's not much for the police to do- they seem to be mostly drinking Coca Cola, walking slowly, and from the little that I heard from my open window, they're gossiping too. Still, I read that in Guayaquil they arrested some rowdy people who were obviously drunk and trying to enter a public building with more booze, so I would imagine that the police have been busy in other sectors. I've seen high schoolers walking around, but no one has come by my apartment yet, and it's 4:30! I might not be included in the Census.

I read another interesting article in the newspaper today (online of course- I can't go out to buy it) that talked about some of the technical difficulties of the Census. It talked particularly about Cuenca, where there were five "undesired" regions that high schoolers were particularly worried about going to as part of the Census. One of the regions was known for a high rate of crime and robberies, another one had an overrun dog population and the students were worried about being bitten, and another was known to be a popular illegal immigrant neighborhood (mostly Peruvians), and the students were worried about getting answers from the residents there, or worse that they would violently refuse to be interviewed. The article also mentioned that police, teacher, and even military chaperones would be increased in those areas, and that in no cases were the high school students' lives being put at risk, but it was an interesting view at the practical difficulties of doing the Census. On top of that, it started to DOWNPOUR here around 3pm, which I'm postulating might be the reason why I was not Censo-ed.

I think it's time for another cup of tea here. I hope everyone is enjoying the long Thanksgiving weekend back at home!

sneak preview

This is (hopefully!) what stuffing for 20-25 people looks like as it's being "stale-ified":




It seems a bit intense that my first attempt making stuffing that doesn't come from a Stove Top box is specifically making stuffing for TWO DOZEN PEOPLE, but hopefully everything will work out well!

Feliz Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

I get the day off too- my Int'l Relations theory class is cancelled in the evening, so I have a free day. I'm going to celebrate the Pilgrim's arrival by doing the most American thing there is to do in Quito- eat a quinoa bagel with hummus at the Mr. Bagel cafe. From there, I'm going with an American and a German to check out the TeleferiQo (a funicular-like ride up one of the mountains that looks over Quito), and from there we'll be purchasing food for Saturday.

What is happening on Saturday, you might ask? Well, Saturday is the day that I'll be celebrating Thanksgiving...al estilo Ecuatoriano. The other gringa at the University and I invited classmates who have never celebrated before, and we'll be preparing the whole shebang- turkey, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, stuffing, pumpking pie (hopefully!), salads, and fried bananas (that's the al estilo Ecuatoriano part). It should be a good time!

I hope everyone has a good day! I'm thankful for friends and family that support me from near and afar, for good health and safety here in Quito, and for Mr. Bagel. You guys??

water purification project

Blue skies this morning! Of course, most mornings start out nice and cheery and the afternoons and evenings end in a downpour and thunder/lightning storms. I've learned that I should get to the University early (even though most of my classes don't start until 4pm or later) to read in the library to avoid walking in the lightning storms on my way to school. Either way, it's definitely an instant coffee and Shakira kind of morning.

I thought I'd mention my activities on Saturday, because I accompanied my Rotary club all day on their mission to install water purification systems in 6 schools in a nearby rural zone. I got up really early and met my Rotarian at his (pent)house in the North of the city, and we got in the car and drove out to the zone where Mindo is- it was about a 1.5+ hour drive to get there from the semi-north of Quito.

So we got out to this hosteria in the zone, which was our base- we ate breakfast there, and "my" Rotarian's wife and I bonded by eating more than our allotted empanadas (I LOVE empanadas de verde! They're made with green bananas (not green as in unripe- as in, starchy and not sweet) with cheese inside, delish) and drinking juice (another thing I love- jugo de tomate de árbol- tree tomato juice. Definitely NOT comparable to v8!). The Rotarians were divided into groups so that each group would visit a school to formally present the water purification system. These systems had already been installed and were properly working- this was mostly a formal ceremony that we did.

My Rotarians and I visited a secondary school (6th-12th grade) that was about 25 minutes from the hosteria base. There were probably 90-120 students that were there, who all came out on a Saturday for the ceremony, which was impressive. I was shocked by the military style of this rural school- all students wore uniforms (white blouses, grey skirts, high heels for girls, white button-down shirt and grey slacks with a tie for boys), and they stood at attention and even marched when the director asked them to. The principal said some words, the president of the parents committee said some words, there was a representative from the Ministry of Education and he said some words, and the student body president said (like, 7) words. Oh, and of course the Rotarians said some words, asking the community to take care of the system, etc. Also, there were these leaf cutter ants carrying pieces of leaves from the very nearby forest into their anthole, which was right in front of me and was perhaps more interesting than the speeches. Sweet!





The water project is pretty important- most homes, stores, etc. in the region don't have access to drinkable water, so parasites are a pretty big deal- you see some kids with inflated stomachs etc. as a result. Apparently some Ministry of Health officials have come in and done anti-parastical treatments, but not all families remember to/can send their kids in for the series of treatments, so it's not always very effective, and of course when you're drinking untreated water, even if you've gotten rid of your current parasites, you're just going to be exposed to more. So having drinking water at the school (which seemed like it was very much a community meeting place) seemed like a good project.




In other interesting facts, I learned from the rep from the Ministry of Education that in this zone, parents are paid a monthly stipend if their kids go to school as an incentive to not keep them at home, working. I didn't realize that the zone was that impoverished, or that there were that many economic activities for kids to help out in- as far as I could tell, the zone seemed to be mostly based on eco-tourism and maybe some virgin forest exploitation for the wood. The area was really beautiful- semi tropical with lots of greenery and flowers around.





The parents committee made us all a nice lunch (caldo de gallina- chicken soup- not like a brothy soup, there's an entire chicken leg in the soup) and I ate mote and yucca- both very starchy (mote is like barley or boiled wheat). We handed out sandwiches that we had made for the students, along with a cereal bar and soda (the irony of the fact that we had just installed drinkable water and that we were handing out soda to these kis was not lost on me).

In all, it was a very useful project although I felt a bit uncomfortable being there for only a formal ceremony suggested by the Rotarians themselves.

Basta lluvia YA

This week has been dominated by RAIN! I mean, I'm used to the rain after so many PNW years but still, my idea of moving to a tropical country (one named after being on the Equatorial line!) was that if it was going to rain, it would at least be warm and that there would be toucans and monkeys around. It has been raining up a storm here (haha), and it's freezing! It's exactly like living in the PNW except,

a) people use umbrellas here and
b) there's no indoor heating and
c) I have limited hot water.

The umbrella this is fine by me (why DON'T we use umbrellas in the PNW?), but the heating thing is a serious issue! In general, homes here don't have indoor heating (or cooling systems, for that matter) so the "put another sweater on" technique is the only warming technique. For example, I am currently wearing two pairs of socks with a heavy crocheted slipper-like sock on top of those, a t-shirt with a long sleeve shirt over it and a hooded sweatshirt, a scarf, leggings under my pants, and I'm under a blanket. No joke! You might remember that my apartment has lots of windows and there are more windows not pictured, so cold air enters easily into the apartment, making it rather igloo-like with this cold rain! On top of that, I have a hot water heater that's on a timer to save energy, so I have limited hot water time ranges (and max. 5 minutes in the shower before the hot water tank runs out- hey, it's 2 minutes more than in Chile!) and hot showers aren't always a possibility.

Today is a good example of what is expected in the PNW and what I was not expecting in Ecuador:

I woke up, ate breakfast, read about the Colombian conservative party in the 20th century, and got ready to meet a friend to walk to the Parque La Carolina to participate in a free aerobics class set to techno/reggaeton/electronica music. It wasn't raining, and the sun was even shining! I put on a sweatshirt (that I later took off), and we walked to the park. As a side note, these aerobics classes are amazing! They're led by one of several incredibly fit, 55+ men, and set to music that you don't usually hear 55+ men listening to. It's totally public, but there's a big group of mostly women all participating so it's easy to blend in. If you're lucky, you'll see women dressed like this (I saw her when I was in Ecuador a few years ago and merely watching the aerobics class):



Anyway, we went to the class, did lots of leg lifts and some complicated mambo steps all set to a bumpin' rhythm, and even managed to do the cool down stretches, when suddenly without warning, it started to DOWNPOUR. The only thing to do was to take refuge under a (sadly, almost leafless) tree with other park-goers. We waited there for at least 15 minutes, hoping the rain would pass, and then ended up getting sopping wet as we ran around in the rain, trying to find a better tree. After eating ceviche de chochos (beans, toasted corn, onions, tomatoes, cilantro, etc. included, no actual seafood) we ran again, soaked to the core where we luckily nabbed a taxi to take us home. Upon arriving home, I couldn't even warm up with a nice shower (I used up all the hot water with a morning shower), and was forced to put on the ridiculous amounts of clothing previously mentioned.

I've been drinking tea, reading more about limited democracy in Colombia, working on an essay, and drinking more tea to stay warm ever since.

This was kind of a roundabout post, but I hope that you all are staying warm back home. I heard rumors of snow in the PNW? That's when you REALLY need indoor heating, or a fireplace.

Saludos and greetings in Ecuador

There are lots of things that are different about Ecaudorian/Latin American culture that I'm getting used to and really like. For instance, I used to be fairly uncomfortable with the beso greeting- women kiss men and women on the cheek as part of introductions, when they meet up with old and new friends, and when they leave. (BTW, men shake hands or do a hearty back slap with other men and kiss women on the cheek.) I used to be perpetually confused about this- if the other person doesn't initiate the beso, should I go for it anyway? If it's a party and there are 30 people there, do I have to go around beso-ing everyone? (My learned answer to both of these questions is, YES.) Now I really like the beso because it's a nice way of acknowledging people when you see them, and it really is fairly socially "institutionalized", so if people don't lean in for the beso right away I assume they think I might not know what to do/feel awkward, so I usually just go for it myself. At parties, it's a great way to briefly learn everyone's names (the introductory beso is accompanied with both parties stating their names) and then later, you've already briefly met so it's easier to go up to new people and start talking. It's also a good way of letting people know you're leaving (although the farewell beso seems less mandatory- with big groups, it's common to do a wave and/or blow a kiss). Basically, the beso is a nice way of meeting and acknowledging people instead of awkward American traditions- young people don't usually shake hands, and a hug right away seems a bit weird. It should be mentioned that the beso rules apply in most social situations, but not in all academic situations. I usually plant a beso on the person that I sit next to in class (usually someone I know already), and then if I'm talking to people during breaks or after class there's some besos involved as well, but it's not common for people to go around kissing everyone as they arrive to class.

What IS common when students arrive to class (and this is a different cultural thing that I'm less fond of), is a greeting. In the morning, it's a buenos días, in the afternoon/evening it's a buenas tardes (buenas tardes translates to good afternoon, which is used much later than it is in English- for ex. it's not uncommon for people to be buenas tardes-ing until 7 or 8pm, something that I don't think happens much in English- another interesting cultural difference!), and when leaving class or entering a late class, it's a buenas noches. This is nice when people enter in a timely manner to class. But it's also not uncommon for students to arrive significantly late to class (and to answer their phones during class- what?! but that's another post), and to enter with a nice, loud buenas tardes, interrupting everything! The professor can be presenting, students can be presenting, the class can be having a discussion, no matter- the door opens, and the student- instead of slinking in quietly to a back seat- greets everyone in a nice, loud voice.

Now, don't get me wrong- the point is that this isn't rude here. In fact, it's common for people to interrupt conversations and classes, etc. to present themselves and greet everyone. I guess in social terms, it's ruder for people to not say hello and to skip the greetings than it is for them to interrupt something because they came late. Interesting, yes? Yes.

$10

I DID buy more fruits and veggies today. $10 worth. Ten dollars goes a long way here- check it out:




To be totally accurate this is:
9 oranges
2 canteloupes
1 bunch of cilantro
5 heads of garlic
3 mangoes
1 purple cabbage
1 broccoli
1 head of lettuce
6 apples
2 red peppers
1 yellow pepper
3 avocadoes
1 bag of strawberries
8 tomatoes

Not pictured: 4 more tomatoes that I didn't see in my bag when I unpacked.

So all of you thinking about coming to Ecuador- come visit! It's cheap! We can eat lots of tomato sauce together!

tomates

I have become an absolute EXPERT at making homemade tomato sauce. Tomatoes are ridiculously cheap here, and canned sauce is not. For example, I can usually bargain the lady into giving me 9-10 tomatoes for $1, where as when I checked out the Prego sauce in the Megamaxi it cost $4.37. With my new basil plant (recently de-caterpillar'ed last night, putting an end to the mystery black balls appearing on leaves, which I realized were caterpillar poop), my tomato sauce is rivaling anything canned.

Which is good, because other than broccoli, I'm out of other vegetables (except onions), so I've been topping things with tomato sauce and calling it a serving of vegetables. Today I ate garbonzo beans with tomato sauce (delicious!), and last night I had broccoli with tomato sauce (double whammy).

Tomorrow I will definitely need to buy some more veggies though.

Parque Nacional Las Cajas

Prepare yourselves for pure Andean beauty.







The hike was pretty intense because we were already at 3,000 meters of altitude (higher than Quito!) and we were everywhere between lakes and really high mountains.

I just realized that I only posted pictures of lakes (they're the prettiest!), but there were lots of just open expanses with puras montañas.






I'm now back to the usual grind. You know, reading throughout almost all waking hours, with brief descansitos for cooking or consuming absurd amounts of cream cheese. But worthwhile vacations!

Notable future dates:
6 December- Alvaro returns!
17 December- End of first trimster! (not to be confused with the actual end of assignments- I'll be assigned a final exam to be finished within 48 hours in most of my classes on the last day of classes, around 17 Dec. for most classes)
19 December- Arrival of family unit!

Lots of things to look forward to! Besos y abrazos para todos.

Cuenca

Cuenca was incredibly beautiful! It's about 9.5 hours by bus (if the bus driver doesn't stop for a 1-hour dinner at 1am during the drive), and I went with some friends from the hostel where I had stayed before. We left Sunday evening, and arrived Monday morning at 4:45am and were unfortunately greeted by rain! Even more unfortunately, the hostel where we had called ahead to make reservations only had four beds for the six of us, so despite being extremely tired from not sleeping well on the bus, I had to share a tiny twin bunk bed with one of my travel companions! Also, the bathrooms smelled bad and there was a cat that was constantly jumping into bed with us, so we left the hostel when we woke up on Monday morning, and treated ourselves to an incredibly delicious breakfast- delicious, warm bred, cheese, butter and marmelade, fruit salad, eggs, juice, and coffee- all for $3.50- and that's an expensive breakfast!

We had specifically come down to Cuenca for the Festivales de Cuenca that celebrate the city's independence- the official independence day was Wednesday, 3 November, but there were exciting things going on all over the city on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and I'm sure Thursday and Friday too, although we left on Wednesday evening.

Monday we spent walking around the city, seeing the beautiful cathedrals, the fancy buildings with ornate façades, and going to the events set up in the plazas. There were tons of ferias de artesanía, and we ate lunch in the plaza. I lucked out because it's usually hard for me to find street food that I can eat (it's usually all meat and french fries with hot dogs- salchipapas), but I found this woman selling comida natural- natural food. I got a plate of fried rice with veggies and limited soy meat, potatoes with some sort of sauce on top, and a cup of hierba luisa with panela- an herb drink sweetened with panela, a non-refined, popular sweetener. Loyal readers may remember when I went to the coast of Manabí the last time I was in Ecuador to visit and organic farm, and I watched as one man cut down the cane and went through the entire process of making panela. Anyway, the food was overflowing on my plate and it cost $1- wow. Then we listened to a concert in the plaza, including a Chilean group called Illapu- they sing música folklorica- and I'd never heard them in Chile, although I liked them a lot. Rach, you have a sweet gift to look forward to that I picked up for you at one of the local ferias.

The six of us from the hostal had all met up with our friend Emma, who had previously been in the hostel in Quito with a few of us, but had moved to Cuenca to finish some research. Emma took us to this bar that she'd heard about, but never tried. As we walked in, we realized why it was so note worthy- the bar was kind of like a cave, and there were skeletons and other deathly/metallica things painted on the walls and displayed in some of the display windows, all while heavy metal music played. Definitely an interesting experience! I ate some locro de papa, which aside from llapingachos (fried potato pancakes with cheese!), is one of my favorite comida típicas- typical foods. It's a potato soup usually served with a slice of avocado and some cheese. I've already mentioned that the nights were filled with hazardously delightful fireworks shows, and on the first night (1 November) we also visited the Municipal Cementery to see the Día de los Muertos action.

Día de los Muertos isn't a solemn day to remember your deceased family members. Instead, most people brought candles and flowers to the cementery at night to light up the graves, and the family comes to sit around and talk, and have a good time with the family. People drink colada morada and guaguas de pan (pronounced wawas de pan- it literally means babies made of bread), and some people even hire musicians to come and play their family member's favorite music in front of their crypt. Because rather than tombstones for every person buried, this cementery was typical of most large Latin American cities that I've seen- it's all above ground in stacked crypts. The night when I visited, there were ladders everywhere so people could climb up to another level and walk around to visit their ancestor's crypt. The whole cementery was really a joyous place, with light and flowers everywhere.

On Tuesday I separated from my hostel group to meet up with a friend of mine from the University who was also in Cuenca, but heading to the Parque Nacional Las Cajas. Getting out to Las Cajas was kind of a disaster because we had to spend the 1.5 hours standing in the bus because they had sold out of tickets when we wanted to board, but when we finally got there, it was immediately worth it. It was significantly colder, but we did a 4.5 hour trek in a loop through the National Park- WOW. Beautiful sierra, pristine lakes, we passed through a totally unique forest portion that reminded us all of the scene in The Princess Bride where they battle the ROUS, but was impossible to capture on the camera. There were llamas a few birds, and jumping fish, but not much other wildlife.

Wednesday we went to a viewpoint to see the city from a distance, checked out the Modern Art Museum and the Museum of Popular Art, as well as various ferias de artesanía again. We ate in the market, which proved to be much harder for me this time- I literally had a woman tell me that she wouldn't take my money because she didn't want to replace the meat in the set almuerzo (lunch) with more of the salads. Another woman told my friend Emma who was trying to explain that she wanted to eat everything BUT the meat that she was racist and that she wouldn't talk to her more. Eventually we found a woman who sold us yucca, beans, salad, and mote instead of the meat, so that was good.

All in all, Cuenca is HERMOSA. My pictures don't do it justice, especially because I didn't take many because all of my friends were taking pictures and generally had better cameras. But enjoy what I managed to take.







Here we have a glimse of the beautiful blue cathedral domes, a view of just some of the beautiful buildings, most of our group in a café, a meat vender in the plaza, and the ridiculous fact that the festival organizers were handing out this orange paper visors and a large portion of the people at the Illapu concert wore them! I even saw one guy with an orange visor on top of his baseball cap- WHAT?!







Lovely buildings, a flower market before the Day of the Dead, and a semi-aerial view of the downstairs portion of the market.

Pictures of Parque Nacional Las Cajas to come soon!

de vuelta a Quito

I'm back from Cuenca! It was absolutely stunning, a well-preserved World Heritage city. To top it off, the fiestas for the festival de Cuenca (celebrating 190 years of Cuenca's independence) were amazing, even if everything seemed slightly unsafe. As a slight preview, first, imagine a tower made of bamboo wood with fireworks that are likely illegal in the US. Now imagine that there's a crowd of probably 1000+ people crowding around the precarious tower as it spews out fireworks. Second, imagine a (likely drunk) man with a paper machê cow costume (vaca loca) dancing around a crowd circle- also spewing fireworks from his cow costume. Third, imagine beautiful lanterns being set on fire (kind of like hot air balloons, the fire helps them rise up and doesn't destroy the lantern- yet) and launched into the night sky- as fire balls drop down on the observing crowd.

Truly an awesome opportunity- I'm really glad I went. I also got to hike around the Parque Nacional Las Cajas, which I'll definitely be posting pictures of- hermoso.

More updates later with pictures- I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm back in Quito without any burn injuries and ready to become a studying machine.