Breaking the Silence

Well, November's come and gone and I've only posted once- sorry. Since the end of October I have been really busy. The more I do the more I have to write about but the less time I have to do so. Excuses aside, here it is, what you've all been waiting for (at least since November)...

I left off with our Cotopaxi trip. The next week and weekend we didn't have a program trip so it was pretty low-key. For my film class we had to perform a skit based on one of the movies we watched. We spent a lot of time- in McDonald's unfortunately- writing and memorizing our script. I also had major projects in all my other classes. It was stressful but I made it through. But enough about school, that's not why you're here!


 That Friday we decided to go back to the Korean restaurant in Quito that we went to for Chris’s birthday. We took the bus to Rio Coca as always and caught a cab to the restaurant. It cost a lot less than the last time we came. As always there was barely anyone there but the food sure was tasty. Danielle and I both got what we had last time since it was so good. We also had some great dumplings for an appetizer. Emily ordered kimchi soup and the waiter asked her, in English “you know [whatever the soup is called]? Very hot.” And Emily was like, yeah I got it thanks. It was strange.

From the restaurant we took another taxi to a Korean market that Keunae told Chris about. While we were paying Chris asked the guy, in Korean, where the market was and he just called a cab for us and told the driver where to go. We took the taxi to the market and it ends up being this tiny storefront with some Asian vegetables and a thousand bottles of soy sauce- they had Kikoman!  But, this place was across the street from a legit market so we decided to go there instead. All around the outside of this huge warehouse of a market were permanent stands selling flowers, food/alcohol, shoes/clothes or whatever else you’d need. A few of my favorite displays: Pots of every size- from small saucepans to enormous cauldrons you could fit a person in-easily. Stacks of economy sized Tide detergent boxes, topped with cases of beer/liquor. One shop covered floor to ceiling with candy.

Inside the warehouse was a huge produce market. There were just stacks and stacks of fruits and vegetables the likes of which I had never seen. I had literally never seen some of the fruits they had there. They also had dried flowers and meats and even some prepared foods. But the most impressive things were the gigantic piles of fruits. It was really cool.

As we were wandering around, marveling at the sheer mass of food around us this guy approached us, trying to give us coupons or something. We politely said no and moved on, but he followed us. He was trying to get us to take the coupons but after he realized we weren’t going to he started trying to guess where we were from. “China…Estados Unidos….Holandés….uh…” he said pointing to Chris, Emily, me and Danielle respectively. It was strange. Eventually we shook him and left.

Back in Cumbaya Emily and Chris continued on to Lumbisi and Danielle and I went to her house to watch the next installment of Harry Potter. When the movie was finally over we were a little late to Kevin’s birthday party but it was ok.

The party was at Christina’s new apartment in Lumbisi and it was in full swing when we got there. There were tacos waiting for us but the first batch of margaritas had been finished off. So we dug into the tacos and while we ate Chris went to get more limes to make the second batch of margaritas. Yes they were from scratch!

colada morada

We hung around Christina’s for a while we headed out to the Mariscal for the real party to begin. We called two taxis, met up in the Plaza Foch and made our way to Chupitos (where we went first on Bianca’s birthday). In the cab Chris called Omar and he and Fer met us there. We didn’t stay there too long because our ultimate destination was a karaoke bar..

When we got inside the karaoke place we went immediately to the second floor- the disco. After the disco part got boring we headed downstairs to the karaoke room and made our selections. Danielle, Chris and I, and maybe others I don’t remember, decided to sing Everybody by BSB. The system was very confusing so it took a while for us to turn in our songs While we were waiting we noticed that the songs people were singing were all Spanish love ballads, it seemed, from the 90’s. So we sat there listening/cringing. And we sat there, and sat there, and sat there….

After an hour we didn’t even see our number come up. By the end it was pure torture sitting there. There were only sappy, poorly sung love songs. The only interesting thing that happened there was that a couple of guys hit on Danielle. Here was their tactic: One guy comes up behind/next to her and says, “would you like to meet my friend?” as the friend comes around the corner. They ask her if she speaks Spanish and when she says yes they continue speaking English. Eventually the friend says “you are very beautiful” and Danielle says “yo sé.”

Unfortunately we never got to sing our BSB because we couldn’t stand being in that room any longer. We just wanted to get out of there. A bunch of our group had started playing pool so we went out there to say goodbye. No one was really paying attention so Danielle and I just left. As we were going down the stairs to leave Betty ran after us so she could share a cab. When I got home it was pretty late but I watched Dancing with the Stars anyway.

Saturday was pretty chill since it was our first weekend off in a while. No one had any plans so that afternoon and Danielle’s parents were out of town so I went over to her house and we had a movie day. We watched the next two Harry Potter movies, A Single Man- which was really good but really depressing- and then the Jungle book to cheer us up. As much as I love that movie though, I couldn’t help falling asleep.

On Sunday we decided to go to the Panecillo since none of us had been there before. So Chris Danielle Emily and I all met at Bigote so we could catch the bus together. On my way out of the house Guadalupe stopped me and told me I had to bring some ‘colada morada’ with me. Apparently she/Mirian had made a huge pot of ‘colada morada’ that day. It’s a thickened juice drink with chunks of fruit in it that Ecuadorians traditionally drink on and around the Day of the Dead. Seeing as it was October, even though Day of the Dead is in November, it was apparently time.

Colada morada is traditionally drunk with guaguas de pan (‘bread babies’) which are loaves of sweetish bread that are filled either with chocolate, caramel or jelly and iced to look like babies in swaddling clothes. It’s very odd eating a baby’s head, but it’s also delicious!

On the way to Bigote, with my container of colada morada in hand, I bought a chocolate-filled guagua for us to share. We devoured the bread but the drink wasn’t a big hit.So then we got on the bus to Rio Coca and, since we didn’t know exactly where to go, took a taxi to the Panecillo. The Panecillo (literally the ‘bread roll’) is a large hill on the southern end of Quito and on top of it is a statue of the Virgen de Quito also called the Dancing Virgin who is the only Virgin with wings.

When we got there we went inside the giant Virgin statue and climbed up to the overlook. On the way up there are a couple of floors of models/dioramas of other churches. The most interesting thing about those are the descriptions that were comically translated into English, the little tiny people dressed in indigenous clothing that populate these dioramas and the profuse amount of glitter in the display boxes.

 

We took some pictures from the balcony but the supposed ‘guard’ railing seemed like it wouldn’t prevent you in any way from falling from the Virgin’s feet. Once we had our fill of the view of Quito from above we made our way down the hill, on foot this time, on the stairs we heard we shouldn’t take. Turned out we were perfectly fine taking the stairs thought we did deface a tree. The dangerous stairs made us dangerous!

Once we came to a busy street we flagged down a taxi to take us to Quicentro. At the mall I was looking for tights and footie socks but only bought socks because there were no tights in any color more interesting than tan or navy. Then Danielle bought what she needed to dye her hair purple and we went to lunch at El Español. We all got sandwiches that were on an enormous loaf of French bread. I got a coffee to go and we walked through the rain a few blocks to the bus stop to save some money. 


That's all for now but now that the trip is winding down I should have more time to update.
Up Next: The Return of the Amazon Twitch!!


Hasta Luego,
Caitlin

The Treasure Hunt

Our second day at the hacienda we were told to be up for breakfast at 7:30 so I set an alarm so I could get up and take a shower first. I stumbled half blind with sleep into our all yellow bathroom and as I got into the shower, noticed that both the valves said “F” for frío (cold). That was not something I wanted so see so early in the morning! Turns out the one was actually hot and the shower was fine but I was scared for a minute.

Around 7:30 Emily and I wander out and no one is around, not even anyone who works there. So I went to see if I could get into the secret room behind the bookcase again- to make a wish with the volcanoes- but I couldn’t get it open! None of the books did anything, they were all actual books. At breakfast, which was at least an hour later than we were told,  Chiri told us the book we needed to use to get in the room. It didn't work but we found a screw that was holding the bookcase to the wall so when we unscrewed it the shelves just swung right open!

Cotopaxi

Once we finished breakfast our group all piled on the bus and we took a drive to the start of our hike. During our drive Chiri told us some myths about the volcanoes we saw. For instance they say that there are three Pichincha volcanoes, a baby, a mama and a grandpa/dad (he just said viejo which could be either) and they will erupt in succession from smallest to biggest because “when the baby cries, mama gets up and dad gets upset.” We stopped a couple times to get good pictures of Cotopaxi and Rumiñahui (this time we could see the hole in his ‘lip’)

After the bus driver- our normal bus driver’s brother- got all pissy about driving in between some plants we made to where our hike started. It was just this vast, flat, rocky wasteland, with almost nothing but rocks, lichen and some very hearty flowers with Cotopaxi looming in the distance. We walked across that for what seemed like forever- I wasn’t keen on walking across so many rocks since I was prone to slipping- and then finally found somewhere to cross the river- on foot. Here is where our boots came in handy.

 We all started rolling up our pants and getting ready to cross but Marcos wouldn’t let anyone go by themselves. He guided everyone, even sort of tossing a couple of the lighter ones onto the shore. Even with assistance we all ended up getting pretty wet. Water inevitably got in the boots and I forgot to take off my socks. Oops. Then the boots were passed back and forth across the river until everyone made it across.

From there it was just a short hike along the river bank to a little cliff cave thing where we stopped to have lunch. The people from the hacienda who had come with us brought a bunch of food and we had all taken turns carrying the pots and utensils needed for our lunch. Our group all plopped down on the ground in front of the cave and dug into the oritos (the tiniest bananas you’ve ever seen) and mandarinas someone had carried while Marcos went to cut down a tree for firewood. Finally most of us rallied and went to find some kindling- we were told not to come back until we each had five sticks.

While we were sitting Keunae made a new BFF. One of the hacienda people’s daughters, Wendy, had come with and she immediately stuck to Keunae. I’m sure her mom was happy about it because she just told her to stay with Keunae all the time. Wendy showed us where the best sticks were and led us to the waterfall. Keep in mind she’s like 9.

When we came back with our kindling the fire was already started and the food beginning to cook. So everyone but those cooking followed Chiri into the forest through the perfectly straight rows of trees to this clearing that had a spongy floor. There Keunae, Wendy, Grant, Caro and I all stayed while the rest went on another little hike. I just took a nap on the soft ground, it was nice.

We ate right after we got back. It was all very good especially for being made in a cave. While we were eating Marcos came up the hill with about 8 fish speared on a stick that he had just pulled out of the river like it was nothing. Once we were done digesting we started gathering our dishes and Chiri told us to go down to the river to wash the plates so we started down the hill. As we were walking Chiri yelled to us that he was just kidding. I should have known given the bookcase incident. So we left our cave and hiked our way back to the bus along the side of the river. It was a slightly harder hike than on the way in, but we didn’t have to cross the river, and it was more interesting than rocky tundra, so I liked it better. 

Most of the hike was through the brush on the side of the river but eventually we met up with a road and took that the rest of the way back. From the road we saw some bulls grazing in the distance, at the foot of a volcano. On the way up Marcos asked me where I was from- yes, he speaks! I told him close to Chicago because most people understand that. But apparently he thought that Chicago was a country. I told him that I was from the US and that Chicago was a city there. He’s a cowboy born and raised.

Back at the ranch (haha) we packed up our things and hung out on the porch until we had to go. Chiri explained to us that the ‘treasure’ we were supposed to find that day was nature. He told us Rumiñahui said that people who are blinded by gold will never find the treasure. Then he gave us postcards and we were off. But not before we watered the garden we had planted the day before, to really reinforce the friendship we planted. As we were watering the plants, and taking some last minute pictures, the bus driver started revving the engine because he was really raring to go. It was pretty obnoxious.

As always the drive back took longer than the drive there so we started getting worried we wouldn’t have enough time to write our skit and get the rest of our work done before Tuesday- on which I, at least, had a skit, mindmap, a paper due and a test. So when we finally got back Chris, Emily, Keunae, Danielle and I all went to McDonalds (the only place open past 8pm on a Sunday) to write our skit. We went into the Playplace for privacy but they kicked us out of there around 9:30 and we stayed in the main dining room until close.

next time on TFTE: the epic skit and the dancing Virgin!

Hasta luego,

Caitlin