My last week in Cuenca was really nice. Thursday I went to lunch with Carmita and had cuy (guinea pig). It tasted fine, but it was hard to eat because they give you the whole thing, including the head, and you have to just rip it apart with your hands and teeth. I couldn´t make myself eat the head, even though I´d been told it was the best part. It had teeth and everything. Carmita took it home for her family. On Friday we had a little goodbye party. Two new British students, a couple, had come so we all ate and danced and drank canelazo (a warm cinnamon drink with sugar cane alcohol). I made a carrot cake with cream cheese icing and they were all very impressed because they don´t make sweet things with carrots or cream cheese here, apparently. The recipe I got from the internet wasn´t as good as Grammy´s and so I promised Carmita that I would send her that recipe when I get home.
I went to Loja over the weekend hoping to go to a nearby national park and the market in Saraguro. The park didn´t work out, so I was stuck in Loja all day Saturday, and there wasn´t much to do. Saraguro was nice though. The women there wear heavy, pleated black skirts, big white hats with designs on the underside of the brim, and big beautiful pins that hold their shawls together. The men wear black shorts, black ponchos and one long thick braid. It is the first place I´ve been to where their were as many men in traditional clothing as women. Traveling here is funny becuase you go places and there isn´t really anything to do except people watch, and the people watching is great. You go on market day because that´s when everyone else is there, but a market full of raw meat and dried beans isn´t much use to a traveler without a kitchen.
I´m back in Cuenca for the day before heading to Guayaquil in the morning and flying to Lima in the evening. It is nice to be back. I will miss Cuenca. Especially after my weekend in Loja, I appreciate having a place that I know fairly well. When I got off the bus I knew just where to tell the taxi driver to take me, where to eat lunch, where to go for the internet, where to sit and read my book, etc. It is a really nice city and I will miss the comfort of familiarity, but I am also very excited to be heading to Peru. I´m really interested to see how it compares to Ecuador. I´m maybe more excited to see Carolyn than Machu Picchu, though. It has been exactly two months today since I left and it will be nice to see a friend.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
I´ve been all over!
My Spanish classes are going really well. I had a few moments of frustration last week because as the work gets more complicated, my questions about it also get more complicated, but I have trouble explaining exactly what is confusing me. It will be awhile before speaking Spanish comes at all naturally to me, but I at least now feel like I have learned enough that with time to digest it all, and with a lot more practice, I will be able to make myself fairly well understood.
In addition to learning a lot of prepositions last week, Carmita took me on a few cultural excursions. We went to one of the two panerias that still use wood ovens to bake the small rolls that people in Cuenca eat for breakfast, dinner and snacks. They sell all different varieties, sweet and savory, everywhere, but now they are mostly baked in electric ovens. We also went to the shop of Cuenca´s most famous finisher of Panama hats (which are actually from Ecuador). He´s been doing it since he was six and still does everything (shaping, dying, finishing the edges) by hand. In the states, his hats sell for hundreds of dollars, but you can get one here for $30 (so put in your requests now). On Friday, we went to the Museo de las Culturas Aborigenes, and Carmita explained the significance of archeological pieces from all over Ecuador. I also went on my own to Centro Interamericano de Artes Populares, which displays crafts from all over South America.
Today, we went to the market and I was cleansed by a shaman. She made a big bouquet of herbs, crushed them a little, and had me deeply inhale the scent three times. Then she hit me all over with them while speaking in Quichua. When she finished with the herbs, she spit water in my face and rubbed an egg all over me. Next, she put some herb infused oil in my hand and I rubbed it into my hands, neck and hair. Finally, she used ashes to put x´s on my forhead, stomach and back. Before hand, Carmita had explained the significance of everything to me. The scents and oils of the herbs are for good health and relaxation. The egg absorbs all of the bad energy in my body. The crosses are protection against other people´s bad energy. There were a lot of other women there with their children. Carmita also explained that they believe that children are very susceptible to other people´s energy, that the energy is transmitted through the eyes, and that pale eyes are especially strong. This finally explained why mothers here always seem unhappy when I smile at their children. She said that her grandmother had very pale eyes, and would wear sunglasses whenever she was around babies and young children. The whole things was very interesting and I did feel calmer afterwards. Supposedly, I will sleep really well tonight.
On Saturday, I went to Ingapirca, which is Ecuador´s most important Incan ruin. It was very interesting and a good warm-up for Machu Picchu! I also met some other young English speakers and we all went to Cañar in the afternoon for the Inti Raymi festival. It was the kind of thing you would have been interested in, kind of like the big cultural exposition in DC. We watched a lot of interesting dances and ate some good seco de pollo. One of the groups, I think from the Cuenca area, did La Vaca Loca, which was also being done here during Corpus Christi. Basically, people dress as cows and fireworks shoot off of their costumes into the crowd. In the states, it would be considered a major fire hazard, but here it is just part of the fun.
On Sunday, I went to Gualaceo and Chordeleg, two small towns near Cuenca. I had also wanted to go to San Bartolome (a town famous for its guitar makers where I was hoping to find something good for Charlie) and Sigsig, but couldn´t manage to get a bus to either for various reasons. I really enjoyed Gualaceo though. They have a very colorful outdoor market full of fruits, vegetables, spices and other dried goods. On the other side of the river, they have a live animal market. I was too self concious to take any pictures in the market, but it was definitely interesting to watch people try to get their new pigs into grain bags to transport back to their homes, and painful to hear the pigs squealing in terror. Speaking of pigs, Carmita had recommended trying hornado (whole roasted pig) in the indoor food market, so for lunch I had a big plate of hornado, mote (hominy), llapingacho (mashed potato pancakes) and salad. Muy rico! Chordeleg was a less interesting. I thought that they also had a Sunday market, but all I could find where tourist oriented jewelry stores. The area is famous for its filigreed silver jewelry, which is beautiful, but not exactly what I was hoping for. I did arrive right when church was letting out, so the whole town was filled with people in their Sunday best, which ranged from silver high heels to intricately embroidered and beaded traditional skirts and blouses.
This is my last week in Cuenca. I wish that I could learn more Spanish, but I am ready to move on and see new places, especially since my next major destination is Machu Picchu. I fly from Guayaquil on Tuesday, but I´m hoping to go down to Loja to visit Parque Nacional Podocarpus and the Sunday market in Sanguro this weekend.
When I get pack from Peru, I´m planning to WWOOF and my options look pretty good. I´m most excited about the prospect of working on an organic shrimp farm on an island off the coast of Guayaquil and an organic flower farm somewhere north of Quito. Shrimping and flower farming are two of the least environmentally friendly agricultural industries in Ecuador, so it will be interesting to see how these alternatives work. I have to start contacting these places after I post this.
This weekend´s pictures.
In addition to learning a lot of prepositions last week, Carmita took me on a few cultural excursions. We went to one of the two panerias that still use wood ovens to bake the small rolls that people in Cuenca eat for breakfast, dinner and snacks. They sell all different varieties, sweet and savory, everywhere, but now they are mostly baked in electric ovens. We also went to the shop of Cuenca´s most famous finisher of Panama hats (which are actually from Ecuador). He´s been doing it since he was six and still does everything (shaping, dying, finishing the edges) by hand. In the states, his hats sell for hundreds of dollars, but you can get one here for $30 (so put in your requests now). On Friday, we went to the Museo de las Culturas Aborigenes, and Carmita explained the significance of archeological pieces from all over Ecuador. I also went on my own to Centro Interamericano de Artes Populares, which displays crafts from all over South America.
Today, we went to the market and I was cleansed by a shaman. She made a big bouquet of herbs, crushed them a little, and had me deeply inhale the scent three times. Then she hit me all over with them while speaking in Quichua. When she finished with the herbs, she spit water in my face and rubbed an egg all over me. Next, she put some herb infused oil in my hand and I rubbed it into my hands, neck and hair. Finally, she used ashes to put x´s on my forhead, stomach and back. Before hand, Carmita had explained the significance of everything to me. The scents and oils of the herbs are for good health and relaxation. The egg absorbs all of the bad energy in my body. The crosses are protection against other people´s bad energy. There were a lot of other women there with their children. Carmita also explained that they believe that children are very susceptible to other people´s energy, that the energy is transmitted through the eyes, and that pale eyes are especially strong. This finally explained why mothers here always seem unhappy when I smile at their children. She said that her grandmother had very pale eyes, and would wear sunglasses whenever she was around babies and young children. The whole things was very interesting and I did feel calmer afterwards. Supposedly, I will sleep really well tonight.
On Saturday, I went to Ingapirca, which is Ecuador´s most important Incan ruin. It was very interesting and a good warm-up for Machu Picchu! I also met some other young English speakers and we all went to Cañar in the afternoon for the Inti Raymi festival. It was the kind of thing you would have been interested in, kind of like the big cultural exposition in DC. We watched a lot of interesting dances and ate some good seco de pollo. One of the groups, I think from the Cuenca area, did La Vaca Loca, which was also being done here during Corpus Christi. Basically, people dress as cows and fireworks shoot off of their costumes into the crowd. In the states, it would be considered a major fire hazard, but here it is just part of the fun.
On Sunday, I went to Gualaceo and Chordeleg, two small towns near Cuenca. I had also wanted to go to San Bartolome (a town famous for its guitar makers where I was hoping to find something good for Charlie) and Sigsig, but couldn´t manage to get a bus to either for various reasons. I really enjoyed Gualaceo though. They have a very colorful outdoor market full of fruits, vegetables, spices and other dried goods. On the other side of the river, they have a live animal market. I was too self concious to take any pictures in the market, but it was definitely interesting to watch people try to get their new pigs into grain bags to transport back to their homes, and painful to hear the pigs squealing in terror. Speaking of pigs, Carmita had recommended trying hornado (whole roasted pig) in the indoor food market, so for lunch I had a big plate of hornado, mote (hominy), llapingacho (mashed potato pancakes) and salad. Muy rico! Chordeleg was a less interesting. I thought that they also had a Sunday market, but all I could find where tourist oriented jewelry stores. The area is famous for its filigreed silver jewelry, which is beautiful, but not exactly what I was hoping for. I did arrive right when church was letting out, so the whole town was filled with people in their Sunday best, which ranged from silver high heels to intricately embroidered and beaded traditional skirts and blouses.
This is my last week in Cuenca. I wish that I could learn more Spanish, but I am ready to move on and see new places, especially since my next major destination is Machu Picchu. I fly from Guayaquil on Tuesday, but I´m hoping to go down to Loja to visit Parque Nacional Podocarpus and the Sunday market in Sanguro this weekend.
When I get pack from Peru, I´m planning to WWOOF and my options look pretty good. I´m most excited about the prospect of working on an organic shrimp farm on an island off the coast of Guayaquil and an organic flower farm somewhere north of Quito. Shrimping and flower farming are two of the least environmentally friendly agricultural industries in Ecuador, so it will be interesting to see how these alternatives work. I have to start contacting these places after I post this.
This weekend´s pictures.
Monday, June 9, 2008
I was in Cajas!
After my birthday, this was a fairly uneventful week. I mostly just worked on my Spanish and bought my plane ticket to Peru (a much more complicated process than it may sound like).
On Saturday, Kim and I went to Parque Nacional Cajas and it was amazing. I´m uploading pictures right now, but I´m not sure that they really do it justice. It was quite possibly the most impressive place I´ve ever been. First, we walked in the lower cloud forest area, which was similar to La Hesperia. The hike in the paramo was what really got me. We hiked around several lagunas and through a forest of quinua trees at an altitude of 4000 m, making it one the highest altitude forests in the world (according to our guide). The vegetations was incredible and even though it rained the whole time, mist seemed to suit the place better than sun would have. The only drawback was that we went with a group and some of the people were wearing totally inappropriate shoes and so they were slipping all over the place and we had to go very slowly. I didn´t mind too much though because it gave me more time to look around.
That night, Kim and I went out dancing with one of the teachers from the school at a place with a live salsa band. My salsa isn´t very good, but we had a lot of fun.
On Sunday I was going to go to some markets in smaller towns nearby, but I was exhausted from hiking and dancing. I ended up going to with Katy and Angelica to Katy´s sister´s ´country house´ (it´s really just a suburb of small cabins in the hills above the city) for a realxing lunch. Afterwards we made milcocha, which is like taffy. I still don´t talk very much when I´m with them, but it´s getting less awkward.
On Saturday, Kim and I went to Parque Nacional Cajas and it was amazing. I´m uploading pictures right now, but I´m not sure that they really do it justice. It was quite possibly the most impressive place I´ve ever been. First, we walked in the lower cloud forest area, which was similar to La Hesperia. The hike in the paramo was what really got me. We hiked around several lagunas and through a forest of quinua trees at an altitude of 4000 m, making it one the highest altitude forests in the world (according to our guide). The vegetations was incredible and even though it rained the whole time, mist seemed to suit the place better than sun would have. The only drawback was that we went with a group and some of the people were wearing totally inappropriate shoes and so they were slipping all over the place and we had to go very slowly. I didn´t mind too much though because it gave me more time to look around.
That night, Kim and I went out dancing with one of the teachers from the school at a place with a live salsa band. My salsa isn´t very good, but we had a lot of fun.
On Sunday I was going to go to some markets in smaller towns nearby, but I was exhausted from hiking and dancing. I ended up going to with Katy and Angelica to Katy´s sister´s ´country house´ (it´s really just a suburb of small cabins in the hills above the city) for a realxing lunch. Afterwards we made milcocha, which is like taffy. I still don´t talk very much when I´m with them, but it´s getting less awkward.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
I was in Puerto Lopez!
Thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes!
Things here are going well. I´m learning a lot of Spanish, although I´m still not great at putting it to use. Carmita is very patient and encouraging, as is my family. This is a little embarrassing, but when I wrote before I said that there were two sons, but there is actually only one. His name is Carlos Eduardo and I swear that I was introduced to him twice that first day, once as Eduardo and once as Carlos, but the second time it was as I was walking in the door and he was walking out, so I didn´t see him that well. Anyway, they are very nice and very understanding of both my timidity and my poor speaking abilities.
Last week I did a little sight seeing and a lot of walking around, trying to get a feel for the city. I went to the two main iglesias and to the Museo de Arte Moderno. Thursday was the last night of Corpus Christi, so I went and watched the fireworks and ate a lot of dulces. Cuenca is a great city for just wandering and looking, but I was also a little lonely and overwhelmed. There is only one other student, Kim from Amsterdam, taking classes at the same time as me and we hadn´t really spoken much, but on Friday she invited me to go to the beach with her for the weekend. We went to Puerto Lopez and had a really nice time. This is her fifth week taking classes, so her Spanish is much better than mine, and she speaks fluent English. We ate ceviche, which is my new favorite food, and went to Parque Nacional Machalilla. Later in the summer, it is a major humpback whale breeding spot, but right now it´s just Ecuador´s nicest beach. There were only about thirty minutes of sun all weekend, but we hiked around and swam and managed to get a little tan because the sun here is much stronger than at home. It´s really nice to know that I have a good travelling companion for the rest of my time in this area.
I had a nice birthday yesterday. Carmita brought me a rose and a piece of banana cake that she had made. Then, during our 11 am break, we had a little party with Kim and her teacher Sophie and Helenita, another woman who works in the office. They brought this amazing tres leches (three milk) cake, which is apparently very popular here. In the afternoon, I went for coffe with Kim and in the evening my family had a little celebration with more cake and cookies and singing.
Things here are going well. I´m learning a lot of Spanish, although I´m still not great at putting it to use. Carmita is very patient and encouraging, as is my family. This is a little embarrassing, but when I wrote before I said that there were two sons, but there is actually only one. His name is Carlos Eduardo and I swear that I was introduced to him twice that first day, once as Eduardo and once as Carlos, but the second time it was as I was walking in the door and he was walking out, so I didn´t see him that well. Anyway, they are very nice and very understanding of both my timidity and my poor speaking abilities.
Last week I did a little sight seeing and a lot of walking around, trying to get a feel for the city. I went to the two main iglesias and to the Museo de Arte Moderno. Thursday was the last night of Corpus Christi, so I went and watched the fireworks and ate a lot of dulces. Cuenca is a great city for just wandering and looking, but I was also a little lonely and overwhelmed. There is only one other student, Kim from Amsterdam, taking classes at the same time as me and we hadn´t really spoken much, but on Friday she invited me to go to the beach with her for the weekend. We went to Puerto Lopez and had a really nice time. This is her fifth week taking classes, so her Spanish is much better than mine, and she speaks fluent English. We ate ceviche, which is my new favorite food, and went to Parque Nacional Machalilla. Later in the summer, it is a major humpback whale breeding spot, but right now it´s just Ecuador´s nicest beach. There were only about thirty minutes of sun all weekend, but we hiked around and swam and managed to get a little tan because the sun here is much stronger than at home. It´s really nice to know that I have a good travelling companion for the rest of my time in this area.
I had a nice birthday yesterday. Carmita brought me a rose and a piece of banana cake that she had made. Then, during our 11 am break, we had a little party with Kim and her teacher Sophie and Helenita, another woman who works in the office. They brought this amazing tres leches (three milk) cake, which is apparently very popular here. In the afternoon, I went for coffe with Kim and in the evening my family had a little celebration with more cake and cookies and singing.
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