¿¿¿¿¿Ecuador or Oregon????

I am loving life here in Ecuador. There is so much hiking to be had - on the coast, in the mountains, in and around volcanoes, in forests etc. Ecuador as well as Oregon have so many outdoor adventures and I am truly soaking as much up as possible!
As I start my fifth month down here in South America, I have had several reminders of my home state. I am truly grateful for the reminders of what a great place I live in. I have met a few people from Oregon, in the book I just finished - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - the author and his son are on a motorcycle road trip across the states and they drive through Oregon. I loved being reminded of the beautiful parts of my home state - eastern Oregon, Bend, LaPine, Klamath, Crater Lake etc.
This past week out at Alto Choco, we continued to build some mud walls on the kitchen which led to a huge mud fight and then a dip in the river to wash off. We also planted over 100 plants at the local hot springs in exchange for some food and a soak. I am continuing to work with a boy who has Syndrom de Downs. It is really fun. He is 13 years old and we are working on his writing skills - he can now write 3 letters of his name together.
Over the weekend, I went on another group trip with students from the University in Quito. We went to Laguna Quilota - another caldera volcano. It was quite beautiful with the water a beautiful green color. We saw several rainbows. After the hike down to the water, it started to rain and it rained for the next 3 or 4 hours as we backpacked to our campsite. It was rain very similar to Oregon - steady and not too heavy. It cleared up just in time for us to set up camp thank gosh. We then took a trip into "town". About 25 - 30 of us went and it was hilarious!! The town ended up being a few buildings with one store which was closed. One of the guides knocked on the window and the owners ended up opening the store, provided refreshments and even wheeled out their entertainment center with a boom box for music. They had 2 boys ages 5 and 8 years old who were racing amongst all - wearing a mask from the movie Scream and trying to scare us. It was really quite funny. We had an hour or 2 of entertainment in the local convenient store. The next day we hiked 3 hours to the next town and took a bus back through these highlands. Gosh it was gorgeous!!! On the bus, we ended up having a dance party in the aisle and in the front of the bus - great fun! Some of us were doing flips using the handrails, others dancing in pairs and the rest all in the aisle boogeying down to some great Cumbia music and of course some Reggaeton - the popular music down here.
I forgot my camera so will add some more pictures later.

Fuya Fuya

I spent another fabulous week at Alto Choco. There were a total of 6 of us - Nikki from Australia, Ben from Scotland, Clara from Sweden and Julie from California - with me and Ramiro. Nikki and Ben are studying Spanish as well so we really got to practice which is great. I do find that it is hard to practice Spanish when there are a lot of english speakers aroun. We do tend to revert to English. I hope to spend more time with just Spanish speaking people and not so many travelers to increase my skills.

I am glad I came back to Alto Choco. I have been practicing being the assistant -leading the volunteers in activities, coordinating activities etc. Ramiro offered me a job!! I would get paid a little bit of money and my expenses would be covered so I am thinking about it starting maybe in April or May. He said I could travel to different reserves - there is one in the Amazon and one on the Galapogas Islands..... so we will see. But I feel really lucky for this opportunity and it will definately help with the finances later on :-)

First I will go to Patagonia. It is really quite far from Ecuador - at least 3 days of straight bus travel (I will be taking at least a week). Flying is out of the question because of the cost. It actually is cheaper to fly, with a round trip ticket, to Europe or the States than it is to travel within the countries of SA. But I cannot miss out on this opportunity to see all the glaciers and be closer to the tip of SA!!

This weekend the 6 of us met up with a group of about 20 international students from Quito. We camped for the weekend at Laguna Mojanda which is about 30 minutes outside of Otavalo. Krysi, Dennis and I with my friend Maurice went there and hiked around the lake. This time, we camped around the lake and then summited Fuya Fuya which is about 4800 meters high. We had a clear morning for the hike with quite a bit of wind but it was great. We even had sights of Quito.















My tent is now an international tent :-) It has traveled far and wide with me for 15 years and I am excited for it to be used in several more countries. Although in the future when I travel again on other adventures, I do not think I will carry it. I only brought it along on this trip for my volunteer experience in Patagonia where it is required. So I am extra excited to put it to use in these great Andes mountains and as many times as possible!!

Hearts Wildly Open

Hearts Wildly Open
Breathe
Breathe love into the cup of your hands
and place your flaming palms
against your heart
Let this warmth
melt your fears
like wax before a fire
and watch the delicious softening reveal
the wildflower of your heart.
We must live
with Hearts Wide Open
HEARTS WILDLY OPEN

So I have had a switch of plans. A little delay in going to Patagonia. I am going to stay here in Ecuador for at least another 2 weeks. I love it here and I am going to go back and volunteer with ZooBreviven in the Alto Choco forest. I was invited back to help out and I am going to see how I like it for 2 weeks. If it works out, I will probably return after Patagonia.

I have spent the last 2 weeks on the coast of Ecuador. It is an interesting place. I have never before seen desert at the ocean. Cacti on mononliths and islands and walking on the way to the beach. The seafood has been fabulous - I am in love with Ceviche - a lemon juice broth with raw fish. MMMMmmmmm - Calamari is my favorite. It was hot at the coast - shorts, bathing suits, sarongs and nothing else for 2 weeks. I stayed with a friend in Guayaquil - the biggest city in Ecuador. It is a city that I have not wanted to visit because it is fairly unsafe. But I stayed in the safe part of the city - along the riverfront where there were armed guards everywhere at all times of the day and night. Guayaquil was miserably hot and humid - similar to Cartagena. AAARRRGGGHHH. 3 showers a day just to stay somewhat sane and keep my brain from boiling.

I was glad to leave after 3 days and am excited to be back in the mountains! Currently I am in Quito. I went to some thermal springs about 2 hours east of Quito. The mountain pass is at 4,000 meters ( around 12,000 feet) and is the gateway to the Amazonia. The thermal pools are just below the pass. It was beautiful - high mountains 360 degrees around and we were able to camp for the night. So hot soaks in the evening and in the morning. This morning on the way back to Quito, I caught a great glimpse of the Volcan Atinchinca - covered in snow. It was awesome!

Happy New Year 2010

Happy, happy new year!!! May 2010 be a prosperous year for all - filled with peace and love, adventures and dreams come true. May we all find beauty and love in each day. Heck there is such an abundance, we could all find love and peace in every moment.

It was really interesting spending time down here in Ecuador during the Holidays. I expected there to be big celebrations for Christmas. But it was just another day - business as usual. The locals said Christmas was a holiday for the children. I liked how there was not much emphasis on gifts at all. There were some christmas lights hung throughout different towns and we could hear christmas music in both english and spanish.

New Year's was a totally different story! Stores, bars, restaurants were closed both on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. The buses even did not run in the evening of the 31st and in the morning of New Year's Day, the buses started later. All over Ecuador, they made these ano viejos - which were dolls made from paper mache. They would write something they wanted to let go of for the new year and after a big meal at 12 o'clock, they burned all these dolls - there were tons of fires everywhere. Some people bought heads, others made them. I loved the intentions behind them. There was some epic partying. I have never seen partying til 1 pm on New Year's Day. People just did not want to stop partying, dancing, celebrating. Rebecca and I finally went to bed at 9 am. We tried to get some sleep above all the music, woke up around 11am and there was still music playing. One of our roommates from Spain commented, "They just never stop. I do not think they know how to stop." It was so true. So if you ever really want to celebrate New Year's, I recommend Ecuador.

On New Year's Day, we were hanging out on the beach when these 3 boys came up to us. They roughhoused and when we got tired of them wrestling around us, we sent them off to the beach and the water. They were super cute and super energetic!!!

Here are some pictures of the anos viejos: