I just had an Amazing Weekend. Fausto finally made it up to Quito. He has been taking in college something that pretty much translates into diplomacy and international relations. We spent the weekend waiting in the rain for a Santana concert and then exploring the historic district.
Saturday was a very interesting day... we spent it huddled in the rain as the first people in one of the 3 doors to get into the concert. We got there at about 2 P.M. literally just before the pooring rain. If anyone can imagine the crazy summer rainstorms that randomly show up... well it was like that except a lot colder. We were literally in inches of water. We managed to buy an umbrella and ponchos from some vendors which partially covered us. Adam showed up with the tickets at about 4. We waited and slowly watched the lines fill up... We were super lucky to have gotten right in front. At 6 they opened the doors. I sprinted into the next line to enter the colesseum. We wait for a few minutes and we are in! We sprint into the colluseum and pick out some great seats off to one side but much closer than if we had sat directly in line with the stage. The stadium slowly filled up, we amused ourselves by making paper airplanes from the free posters. At 8 a band called Prime Ministers played... they weren't that great but we still enjoyed it by dancing and scaring everyone around us. At about 8:30 or 8:45 Santana showed! He walked out with a green poncho and one of his classic white hats. The rest of the concert was an epic blur... all the members of the band were great. The drummers were amazing, they had a trap set and a couple of guys playing congo drums. Santana of course threw down some solos and a couple of great improve songs. The concert was a total success, we had a blast! Everyone that I know who went were just as stoked! That was the biggest concert I've ever been in. The energy was amazing, it was a mix of young people and adults. Adam and I danced like there was no tomorrow... we definatly recieved our fair share of funny looks! I now have such an appreciation for Santana, the guitarist and the band, they trew it down and made an amazing show!
Monday, March 16, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
The Amazon! Part 1
From January 31st till the 4th of February I was in The Amazon! It was a Rotary trip to a jungle lodge called Yachana. The lodge is located in the Ecuadorian Amazon which is relatively at the start of the Amazon basin... it is crazy to think about how Ecuador has rivers which eventually flow into bigger and bigger rivers until they reach the Amazon River, which has the largest volume of any river in the world... And the rivers here seem huge!? Yachana has won a National Geografic award for ecoturism and geoturism. Essentially there is a touristy lodge that is completely set up for tourists, english speaking guides, really nice cabins, etc. Just down river is a population that is probably about 20 families. And a little farther down is a high school that has its focus on stewardship of the land and specific education for the Amazon. Essentailly completely epic. Yachana is along the banks of Napo River, which at this point is about... well 2 football fields seems right.
I met up with the other 19 exchange students in the airport on saturday morning. It was great seeing everyone again and we had a fun moment to talk about all that has happened since many of us have seen each other. Spanish, English, French, and German were all spoken, we boarded the plane and were informed of our long 30 minute flight to Coca, a city in the Amazon. We were off the plane before we knew it. One thing that stands out clearly was watching the Amazon jungle change. When we first saw it it was just a sea of green... Slowly it began to change, there were little roads leading to and from clearcuts... and then the red earth, which seemed just like wounds, and finally houses. Fields and the city of Coca finally filled my view. There was a wound around this town. Slowly the people were taking their influence farther and farther into the heart of the Amazon.
The humidity assailed us the second that we stepped off the plane, we met one of our guides, a man who by the looks of him didn't seem much older than us. We collected our bags and got into a chiva... which is pure ecuadorian travel. It is a converted truck to carry a bunch of people, I rode one during the fiestas de Quito. I asked if we could sit up top and we got a yes. We drove to the river and got out of the chiva to find ourselves at a hotel with monkeys, parrots and turtles running around...
I met up with the other 19 exchange students in the airport on saturday morning. It was great seeing everyone again and we had a fun moment to talk about all that has happened since many of us have seen each other. Spanish, English, French, and German were all spoken, we boarded the plane and were informed of our long 30 minute flight to Coca, a city in the Amazon. We were off the plane before we knew it. One thing that stands out clearly was watching the Amazon jungle change. When we first saw it it was just a sea of green... Slowly it began to change, there were little roads leading to and from clearcuts... and then the red earth, which seemed just like wounds, and finally houses. Fields and the city of Coca finally filled my view. There was a wound around this town. Slowly the people were taking their influence farther and farther into the heart of the Amazon.
The humidity assailed us the second that we stepped off the plane, we met one of our guides, a man who by the looks of him didn't seem much older than us. We collected our bags and got into a chiva... which is pure ecuadorian travel. It is a converted truck to carry a bunch of people, I rode one during the fiestas de Quito. I asked if we could sit up top and we got a yes. We drove to the river and got out of the chiva to find ourselves at a hotel with monkeys, parrots and turtles running around...
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Quilotoa photos!
Here are some photos from our adventure! There is a photo of my family on the rim of the volcano, starting our descent. My sister and on the edge of the trail. And us in our kayak.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Hey All... back from my long respite...
Hey so as anyone who at one time was a regular reader has noticed that my posts have stopped their long steady flow. I'm not that sure why but that is just how it is going. Lots of stuff has happened recently and as I haven't been thinking about putting any of it down I'll just write for a little bit and hopefully I'll be back on track with all of my adventures.
Adam and I were robbed, well kind of, it wasn't too exciting but it definatly is worth writing about. We were walking through a dangerous part of the city, the historical district, we were there to buy school clothes for Adam. My mom is always telling me to minimize my time there and it is for a very good reason. We were walking up a hill and two teenagers came walking down the sidewalk towards us. When they got close they did a weird 'what's up man' and one guy gave his hand like he wanted to shake hands with me. Quickly, his hand passed my outstreched hand and went straight for my pocket. I pushed him away and then like lightning as he passed by adam he pulled his money pouch out of his pocket. Adam wasn't in a position to react because he had a plastic bag full of clothes. Adams first reaction was: Hey, I've got a hard time getting things out of my pocket sometimes. We decided it wasn't worth pursueing so we just let it be and laughed it off. Two weeks ago my family went to Quilotoa together. My sisters boyfriend is studying tourism, and he had been to this lake before, it is a crater lake nestled in the top of a volcano. There is the local story about how this volcano was jealous with another volcano and they fought leaving the other as the victor. This lake is really high up, we enter the páramo, which is the highest type of ecosystem that still has plants here, essentially it is a grassland. But with big clump grasses. The people who live here are hearders and farmers. THe houses are subterrranian with grass roofs. The house is dug into the ground for insulation and then over it is the grass. These houses are like 12 foot rectangles. We passed donkeys, sheep, llamas, horses and the people tending them. Finally we made it to the ake, we had to pay $1 to enter the town, which is situated along the rim, apart from the clumps of houses there are a couple of restaurants and hostels. We reached the rim and saw the green tinted lake. It is different than Crater Lake in Oregon because the sides are jagged, it seems like a giant maw lifting up out of the ground. We took some photos and then began the walk down to the lake shore. I was quite sick for this adventure, I had a headache, and just felt really low energy but I just ha to walk down to the shore. We began the descent on the trail which has been completely degraded by the horses that walk up and down the trail everyday. It costs $5 dollars to get a horse to take you back up to the top. I walked down the slowest and my dad and I went to a little point overlooking the beach where there were boats and horses hanging out on the beach waiting for the tourists. We saw mainly Germans, they seem to be the most adventurous travelers with the Gringos following close behind. At the lake shore my older sister and boyfriend rented a kayak and so did my younger sister and I. We headed out onto the still water, I couldn't help but imagine some dark monster rising up from the depths of the water. We found a place where there was water bubbling up from the shore, the water was hot. This volcano still is active, it was cool to put your hand into the water and find it pleasently warm. After we had our kayak adventure which left us wet... the kayaks weren't quite water tight. My sister and I went to a family that had brought food down with them for a picnic. We sat around their cooking fire as they boiled potatoes, and cooked steak and sasages over the fire. We didn't completely dry off but we learned that our family had left and started to hike back up the mountain. I ended up following the trail and my sister took another smaller trail following my older sister and her boyfriend. I ended up passing everyone and waited for them all. About mid-way my mom and sister had a fiasco of trying to get them bothon one of the tiny little mountain horses. I felt really bad, they fell off twice before giving up and waiting for someone to bring another horse, $5 dollars for both of them. So they ttook horses the rest of the way up. WE got in the car and headed directly home. It was about 5 when we got back to the car and we got back to my house at 9 at night. I was sick and so I didn't enjoy this trip as much as I could have but it was really cool to see a part of Ecuador that I still hadn't seen, the outlinging high plains.
Today... I had a great musical expirience. Today when I was in the bus two guys boarded the bus. One with an andean flute and a guitar, and another with a ukelale type of string instrument. They played and sung for about 15 minutes as I was on the bus. I was really happy, honestly, there are many people who do tons of street preformances... but live music is quite hard to come by on the street corners. I had about $.75 and so I gave them 50 cents. It was a great preformance, it seemed like some people were bothered by it, but the majority really liked it. It was a great way to head to my house!
Adam and I were robbed, well kind of, it wasn't too exciting but it definatly is worth writing about. We were walking through a dangerous part of the city, the historical district, we were there to buy school clothes for Adam. My mom is always telling me to minimize my time there and it is for a very good reason. We were walking up a hill and two teenagers came walking down the sidewalk towards us. When they got close they did a weird 'what's up man' and one guy gave his hand like he wanted to shake hands with me. Quickly, his hand passed my outstreched hand and went straight for my pocket. I pushed him away and then like lightning as he passed by adam he pulled his money pouch out of his pocket. Adam wasn't in a position to react because he had a plastic bag full of clothes. Adams first reaction was: Hey, I've got a hard time getting things out of my pocket sometimes. We decided it wasn't worth pursueing so we just let it be and laughed it off. Two weeks ago my family went to Quilotoa together. My sisters boyfriend is studying tourism, and he had been to this lake before, it is a crater lake nestled in the top of a volcano. There is the local story about how this volcano was jealous with another volcano and they fought leaving the other as the victor. This lake is really high up, we enter the páramo, which is the highest type of ecosystem that still has plants here, essentially it is a grassland. But with big clump grasses. The people who live here are hearders and farmers. THe houses are subterrranian with grass roofs. The house is dug into the ground for insulation and then over it is the grass. These houses are like 12 foot rectangles. We passed donkeys, sheep, llamas, horses and the people tending them. Finally we made it to the ake, we had to pay $1 to enter the town, which is situated along the rim, apart from the clumps of houses there are a couple of restaurants and hostels. We reached the rim and saw the green tinted lake. It is different than Crater Lake in Oregon because the sides are jagged, it seems like a giant maw lifting up out of the ground. We took some photos and then began the walk down to the lake shore. I was quite sick for this adventure, I had a headache, and just felt really low energy but I just ha to walk down to the shore. We began the descent on the trail which has been completely degraded by the horses that walk up and down the trail everyday. It costs $5 dollars to get a horse to take you back up to the top. I walked down the slowest and my dad and I went to a little point overlooking the beach where there were boats and horses hanging out on the beach waiting for the tourists. We saw mainly Germans, they seem to be the most adventurous travelers with the Gringos following close behind. At the lake shore my older sister and boyfriend rented a kayak and so did my younger sister and I. We headed out onto the still water, I couldn't help but imagine some dark monster rising up from the depths of the water. We found a place where there was water bubbling up from the shore, the water was hot. This volcano still is active, it was cool to put your hand into the water and find it pleasently warm. After we had our kayak adventure which left us wet... the kayaks weren't quite water tight. My sister and I went to a family that had brought food down with them for a picnic. We sat around their cooking fire as they boiled potatoes, and cooked steak and sasages over the fire. We didn't completely dry off but we learned that our family had left and started to hike back up the mountain. I ended up following the trail and my sister took another smaller trail following my older sister and her boyfriend. I ended up passing everyone and waited for them all. About mid-way my mom and sister had a fiasco of trying to get them bothon one of the tiny little mountain horses. I felt really bad, they fell off twice before giving up and waiting for someone to bring another horse, $5 dollars for both of them. So they ttook horses the rest of the way up. WE got in the car and headed directly home. It was about 5 when we got back to the car and we got back to my house at 9 at night. I was sick and so I didn't enjoy this trip as much as I could have but it was really cool to see a part of Ecuador that I still hadn't seen, the outlinging high plains.
Today... I had a great musical expirience. Today when I was in the bus two guys boarded the bus. One with an andean flute and a guitar, and another with a ukelale type of string instrument. They played and sung for about 15 minutes as I was on the bus. I was really happy, honestly, there are many people who do tons of street preformances... but live music is quite hard to come by on the street corners. I had about $.75 and so I gave them 50 cents. It was a great preformance, it seemed like some people were bothered by it, but the majority really liked it. It was a great way to head to my house!
Monday, January 5, 2009
Some pics... becuase I'm lazy
So My Christmas after the thoughts that I put down was quite interesting. My parents didn't buy us presents becuase the plan was that we were all going to go to the coast for the new year. So we decided to open the presents that I bought for them and the presents from my sisters. I bought all of my presents with Johanita my younger sister for my family, we bought a tie for my dad, a blouse for my older sister Eli and pants for my mom. I also got Johanita a T-shirt. I got a great shirt from johanita and from Eli I got a little ecuador mug! I also gave my family a peace flag from West Wind Peace Flags in Ashland. They loved it! I was super stoked to have brought the peace flags. I also gave them a christmas ornament. I'm not sure if when I was writing the last post if I knew whether the place had changed for our christmas dinner... well it did, at the last minute, we went to my aunts house. It is way, way in the north of Quito. It is a small apartment, and there were like 20 people it was nuts. It turned into a disorganized hodgpodge of people in every room, I could tell that my mom was dissapointed. Becuase of the multiroomedness it seemed way different than a christmas dinner, one cousin was doing homework for college, another listening to music, a few people sleeping, and others watching TV. It was kinda a bummer for everyone that it turned out that way. So my family left early and... well the picture of the kids with the hoola hoops is from christmas eve when I went to give the bags of candies. My dad and I recieved deodorant from my aunt! hint hint...
Whats New!? Feliz Año Nuevo
Ok so lets start with my fellings about the new year: I remember Blythe telling me last year that 2008 would be a good year. I think that 2008 was actually a great year, it seems like this planet may be starting the turn around, I feel like 2009 will be better, this is just an exponential growth, as more and more people begin to change their way of thinking, slowly, the force is growing. 2009 is going to be an even bigger change, it is the time to start looking to ourselves, we, the common people have the answers and the power to change.
As far as my feelings go... I feel as if life is putting me in this situation to challenge me. I have never felt so assaulted on all levels in my life, it is really almost too much. But I am calm in the midst of the swirling chaos of my situation. I have been here long enough to really have my decisions about what is up, I have made so many changes as I mentioned in my other post. I think that I'm going to place my creative energy in Capoiera and Breakdancing, I think I might look into a way of getting some of the music that I lost and a new Ipod. I feel the loss, really, that music was something to do in all of the time that is just nothing. But in any avent everything really is good. The honest truth is that I've been looking at everything from the perspective of learning, it is just that I'm frustrated at how the dice were rolled. I will come out of this year completely different, I just want to come out with a positive change that will help me in whatever path that I choose to take. The city for me has become a completely new form of energy to work with, the energy here is just... hard, cold, and hateful. I think that just living in the city has had an irreversible affect. I said this to ben "I came to Ecuador high on life... and now I've become completely serious" The simple facts are that Ashland is such a different place than the rest of the world. I came to Ecuador to learn and that is what I'm doing... so I can't complain. Life is Good, just difficult... and without sleep... that is just nuts, I'm going to be sleeping all summer.
As far as my feelings go... I feel as if life is putting me in this situation to challenge me. I have never felt so assaulted on all levels in my life, it is really almost too much. But I am calm in the midst of the swirling chaos of my situation. I have been here long enough to really have my decisions about what is up, I have made so many changes as I mentioned in my other post. I think that I'm going to place my creative energy in Capoiera and Breakdancing, I think I might look into a way of getting some of the music that I lost and a new Ipod. I feel the loss, really, that music was something to do in all of the time that is just nothing. But in any avent everything really is good. The honest truth is that I've been looking at everything from the perspective of learning, it is just that I'm frustrated at how the dice were rolled. I will come out of this year completely different, I just want to come out with a positive change that will help me in whatever path that I choose to take. The city for me has become a completely new form of energy to work with, the energy here is just... hard, cold, and hateful. I think that just living in the city has had an irreversible affect. I said this to ben "I came to Ecuador high on life... and now I've become completely serious" The simple facts are that Ashland is such a different place than the rest of the world. I came to Ecuador to learn and that is what I'm doing... so I can't complain. Life is Good, just difficult... and without sleep... that is just nuts, I'm going to be sleeping all summer.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Random Photos!
So these are a couple of photos that I've got. Adam and Claudio chillin' on top of my roof. The mountain that is close to my house and Kaeti another exchange student from the US during the gift exchange in Crepes and Waffles... how cliche but great waffles!
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