Trip to Ecuador- Into the Amazon

Hola amigos,

 

I have now been in Ecaudor for almost a week. In ways it seems much longer and much shorter than that. Tomorrow Andrea, who arrived safely in Quito despite confusion about flight times and luggage losses, and I are headed to our volunteer projects. We will be spending two weeks in the Amazon jungle in a small community called Campococha, near the city of Tena in the south-east of Ecuador (incase you feel like looking it up). We will be staying in small cabin-huts and will be using mostquito nets to sleep. Apparently there are monkeys who try to take your things, especially food, and snakes, spiders and other insects that like to make their way under your bed and in your boots. There will be more on this first had in the next update.

 

I, for one, am really excited about this portion of the trip because besides working really hard to give the community things it needs to succeed, we get to interact with a culture, language and psychology that is totally different from our western perspective. Also doing a full hard days labor, seeing a completely new place, exploring and discovering things about the world around me and myself can not possibly be a bad thing.

 

The last few days I have been busy, as I sure every day will be. Yesterday we climbed up to the TeleferiQo, a tram that goes to the top of the mountains near Quito (4,100m or 13,451ft) and despite going through a cloud on the way up, the weather miraculously cleared at the top where the view of Quito was spectactular. I have been to mountains before, but this was unlike anything else I had ever seen. You could see the city nestled in the valley running north to south and mountains surrounding the whole thing, and in the gaps you can see the areas beyond, cities and greenery. The cloud was behind us so we couldn´t see the volcano, but we will get to see it later in the trip.

 

After coming down from the TeleferiQo we had a "clase de cockteles" where we went to a bar and learned to make drinks (cocktails) local to Ecuador or South America. Most of them were really good. (Yes, I wrote them down so I could remember them after drinking them, and yes, we can make them in the US).

 

Today we went back to the old city after our last spanish class to see the things we couldn´t when it was pouring rain. We could finally see the sun today! It was beautiful and sunny. I did remember to put on extra sunscreen. The city is beautiful in the sunlight. Although the rivers in the streets was pretty cool. We saw more churches and what the locals do. There were a lot more people outside, understandably.

 

Laundry is done, bags are packed, snacks have been bought. We are now ready to head out, for real now.

 

Interesting facts:

The local alcohol is peñas which is minimum 140 proof (it´s knid of like the moonshine of Ecuador)

The expression T.I.E. (This is Ecuador) is used a lot due to things being late, unmarked, moved, changed, or closed without notice.

It is more common to have a pet tarantula than a pet cat because indiginous people believe that cats cause asthma and allergies.

 

I think that is all that I have for the moment-

 

Buenos noches,

 

Katie