After a fairly uneventful week we decided to go geocaching in the Parque Metropolitano in Quito. For those of you who don't know, geocaching is like a treasure hunt with a GPS. You log on to the website, look up the geocaches in your area and plug their coordinates into your GPS. Then you use the GPS to help you find the treasure hidden in the park or wherever. When you find it- usually a tupperware-sized container but they can be smaller or larger- you can take or leave any little trinket inside as well as sign in saying you found it. Easy. Well, it's not so easy when you don't have the GPS...which we didn't.
Given a Google maps image of the park, we figured out where the several caches should be and figured we should be able to find them- and by 'we' I mean Kevin who has, apparently, done this before. So Kevin, Danielle, and I got off the bus and started climbing the mountain to the park entrance. The streets were wind-y up the hill so a seemingly short distance on the map took forever. Finally we got to the entrance and it turned out that Emily, Mary and Chris- who had taken a cab- were on the opposite side of the park. After a lot of searching we found them, on a playground. By the time we had played on the playground to our content it was starting to get dark so we gave up on the geocaches.
The following Sunday we had a group trip to Papallacta, hot springs like Baños but much smaller. It was a very short ride but we took the nicest bus we had taken all semester! Before going in the hot springs we went on a hike- which we had to PAY for. The hike was nice, if a little treacherous, taking us up, over, and back down a small river. After our hike we went to the hot springs which were much nicer than the ones we went to in Baños. There were several different pools at varying temperatures and you could even go in the freezing river! Several people took a little dip in the river when the hot springs got too hot but I passed. We marinated for a while in the communal bathtub until we noticed that the water was slowly draining...so it was time to go.
We all changed and had lunch at the restaurant by the pools. On the menus they had "milkshakes" including a chocolate option. Since none of us had had one in a long time, most of us got chocolate shakes. Unfortunately they were more like chocolate milk than anything so we'd have to wait until getting back to the States before getting a real milkshake...
The next week I had to go to a dance performance in Quito for class. Since I didn't know where I had to go I asked to carpool with a couple girls from my class. We met at the esquina mall and it turned out the one girl's parents were driving! Traffic in and around Quito was pretty bad but we made it on time. During the ride the one girl talked constantly. She is in a female rap group and was intent on telling us her whole life story. At least we didn't ride in silence. Unfortunately, since we couldn't get tickets in advance- it was a free show- we didn't get in to the show. So we just turned around and went back home.
Since I didn't get to see the show the first night I convinced Danielle to come with me to see the next show in the series the next night. We cabbed to the theater early to get our tickets since it was raining, then went to find somewhere to eat. We thought about going to a KFC near by but decided it looked like a truck stop and ate at a little cafe on the theater plaza instead. It looked expensive but turned out to be reasonable- we made a good choice. Sipping mochaccinos, we looked down on the umbrellaed masses from the second floor window lining up for the show. Finally we decided to venture out into the rain. Since we had tickets we basically cut the whole line. I felt bad about it for about 3 seconds until I remembered that lines do not exist in Latin America.
The show was weird. It was a lot of props and not much dancing. It was just one dancer who was dressed in some kind of white bondage jumping around the stage, and swinging from a rope. Not my style. After the show we decided to take the bus rather than a cab, but it took us a while to figure out that the bus stop was under the highway... Turns out we were at the last stop on that line. Danielle asked the guard guy which way we wanted to go and once we got on and the doors were closing, he rushed up to the door and said "goodbye!" as if we were best friends...also weird. It was a weird night, but I had gotten used to weird.
Hasta luego,
Caitlin
Next up: Atacames is heating up!
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