last weekend´s novel...

Friends, Romans, Countrymen,
Hola. Que tal? Well let’s see. The last few days of my adventure have been exciting, peaceful and slightly nerve-wracking all at the same time. I can’t remember when I updated last (as I am typing this on my laptop without access to the internet right now…), but I believe it was before I left Quito for the weekend jaunt to Riobamba. The day before we left, Spenser and I went for a little run in the Parque de Carolinas… which was significantly less than a stellar performance. It is definitely an accumulation of out of shape-ness, sickness, and altitude… honestly, I think it is mostly altitude. We were both winded at ten minutes… but trucked on for a whopping fifteen. (Don’t laugh.) I am hoping that the lower altitude of Ibarra (only freaking 2225 m high… yeah that’s basically a mile and a half up) will be slightly more conducive to training as I try to jump back on the running horse. Anyways.

Thursday:
We headed to Riobamba on Thursday afternoon, after my LAST class and work. We went to the central bus station to catch a bus and met up with Luke, the friend that I met in the Panama aeropuerto who I have kept in touch with throughout the last month. He came up to Quito for Thursday to visit a friend… and we were going down to Riobamba to visit him and do some other site-seeing. Basically we switched paths for a day because Spenser and I wanted to ride the train down the Devil’s Nose (more on that in a minute) early on Friday morning. So anyways, we got the keys to Luke’s apartment and some seriously hand-drawn maps to find our way around the town. (So funny.) Then we headed off on the 4.5 hour bus ride. (Complete with an infinite number of vendors yelling, “mandarinamandarinamandarina… portaportaportaportaporta… heladoheladoheladohelado” as loudly as humanly possible in your ear, a potentially puking boy, and a singing boy con kazoo… bus rides are always an adventure.) Once we arrived in Riobamba (which I fondly call it “Rio”… mainly because it has no resemblance nor nostalgia como Rio de Janiero…) we headed to the tren station to buy tickets for the next day’s trip… after a broken conversation en espanol, we learned that the train can’t run from Rio to Alausi (where the Devil’s Nose part starts) due to landslides… so we bought bus tickets for the ripe hour of 6 AM to get to Alausi where we were planning on jumping the train to the Devil’s Nose. Next on the list, we hit the supermercado where we bought what any normal Ecuadorian would buy for dinner: pancakes, carrots, yogurt and jello. We were having some unusual cravings. Post dinner run, we made it to one of the missionary houses where the family was going to help us get into Luke’s apartment. They were super super nice and offered to cook us dinner and everything, but we already had our stuff so we passed and got the lesson in how to use the 8 (no joke) different keys to get into Luke’s apartment. We finally got the door opened… and we had no stove, oven, or really any basic cooking necessities… so. We trekked back over to the Culpe’s (the family) and Tracy made us pancakes for dinner while we played with their 4 girls (ages 13, 8, 4, and 6 months… quite the zoo). We only ate 7 pancakes each, a fried egg, strawberries and juice… not that we were hungry or anything. We chatted with them for awhile and then headed back to the apartment for bed.

Friday (my journal entry):
Another year and another 4th of July abroad. I rarely find myself stereotypically homesick, but there is always a twinge on the 4th. But even so, today was a good day… Spenser and I made the 4:45 AM wakeup call and somehow got a taxi and were at the train station at 5:20… and we were the only geniuses who thought getting there early was a good idea. Ha. Stupid gringas again. We had some good laughs over all of the crazy backpackers with their crazy gear – matching packs and 5-way zip pants complete with Swiss Army knife – really funny at 5:45 AM, I assure you. (Seriously… it was like Ecuador “Amazing Race” style.) Well, we pulled into Alausi at about 8 AM and played “The Amazing Race” to get tickets for the train. We literally got 2 of the last 5 tickets and made it to the train (thanks to my bano pit-stop) just in time. We were inside the car for the first half, but then we got to switch on the way back which was sweet! (And the French people were NOT nice at all!) We got the best seats and the view was truly spectacular. There are no pictures that can do it justice. I get so frustrated with the litter and pollution on most days, but there are times like these where I am simply in awe of the beauty of this country. I had to look up to the sky and just shake my head in amazement of how beautiful the world can be. When we pulled back into the station we decided to poke around Alausi for a little bit. We hiked up to the statue of Saint Piedro (Peter), which was gigantic and just a bit funny. The town was very quaint and nice – I’m hoping to have a little more of that in Ibarra, because Quito is quite the opposite! We caught the bus back to Riobamba at 10:30… it was without a doubt the worst ride yet. The aisles were packed the whole way with smelly Quitus (the Indians who believe showering in hot water will make you sick… no kidding… so it is no wonder they smell so badly), crying babies, breast-feeding mothers, spilled milk and just all-around awfulness. I was tired and dirty and I just felt gross. We finally made it back and got the hot water to work (although not the drain…). A shower has never felt so good. Afterwards, we explored Rio a bit, stopped at the supermercado, and hung out in the park until Luke got back. Then we went to watch one of his students in a play – “The West Side Story” in English. It was tal vez the funniest things ever. They were all in about 9th grade and it was just painfully awkward and hysterical at the same time. (And severely condensed! Gino only had 7 lines!) But the best part of the day was probably dinner… we ate with the Culpe’s and had spaghetti, REAL salad, bread and chocolate pie. SO wonderful.

Sidenote: There used to be a stretch of train tracks that ran from Quito to Guayaquil (the two largest cities in Ecuador… about 10 hours apart via bus). This was quite the feat because of the terrain of the Andes… and there is a small stretch south of Alausi (a tiny town) called La Nariz del Diablo that is basically a ridiculous bit for a train to traverse, even today. It does so by switching back and forth across cuts in the rock… going backwards and then forwards. The train no longer runs the full stretch due to landslides, but there is a touristy type deal that takes you over the Nariz del Diablo stretch… the exciting part being that you get to ride on the roof of the train… hence the adventure.

That was Friday in a nutshell…

Saturday:
A pretty lazy day. We laid around all morning at the Culpe’s post-American breakfast and played with the girls. Later that evening, we went to a 4th of July party (yes, on the 5th of July… so Ecuador) with all of the local American and Canadian families that are here doing missions work. We ate A LOT of burgers, chips, and desserts… followed by a few painful games of volleyball with a soccer ball while feeling like I was going to explode (we split matches 1-1, in case you care… I did…). The games were followed by the National Anthem and fireworks. The show was fun and singing the National Anthem was surprisingly patriotic. It felt good to look at our flag, under the stars, surrounded by the Andes and be proud of where I am from. Weird situation, but nice nonetheless. The stars were truly beautiful out in the middle of nowhere. The Big Dipper and the North Star were clear as day and the moon was as bright as ever. We headed back to the apartment shortly after that and crashed.

Sunday:
Spenser woke up at 2 AM puking… which was fun… so Luke and I explored a park in town before going to his church at 11. The park was nice, it had a sweet view of the city and the surrounding mountains and volcanoes… and church was nice too. I surprisingly understood a good chunk of it. My Spanish is improving, although I am far from fluent. We went back to check on Spenser afterwards, and there was little improvement… so we caught the next bus out of Rio and back to Quito. (There was only one puking incident on the bus… and thankfully a bag was involved…) Once we made it back to the apartmento, we choked down one last dinner and I packed up everything for Ibarra…

Monday:
I am currently laying on my bed in my new home in Ibarra… the journey was thankfully relatively uneventful. A had a taxi waiting for me at 7:30 AM at the apartment in Quito and we picked up three other people along the way. About halfway through the ride, the guy sitting next to me struck up a conversation and we talked about a lot of things. (En espanol, of course!) He is 24 and works for the United Nations in Quito and was headed to Ibarra for a two-day conference thing. He gave me some weekend travel ideas and I told him about Texas (where he will be going for a conference in a few months)… when we finally made it to San Antonio de Ibarra (where I am living) we exchanged email addresses… more Spanish practica! (Definitely NOT a Latin American boyfriend… please don’t get any ideas. He thought I was 18… typical.)

The house is less than breathtaking from the street… which is where I was dropped off… and the senora was not at home… so I ended up sitting on the sidewalk for a few minutes before the woman who owns the furniture store next door asked if I wanted to wait there. Cristina, my senora, showed up only 10 minutes later frantically asking if I had been there for long. She is the sister of the senora (Fanita) who my friend, Lauren, stayed with last summer. (They live right across the street. So funny.) She let me into the house and I dropped all of my stuff in my new room. The house is sweet. There are TWO hammocks (SCORE.) and a sweet rooftop sitting area with a great view of the mountains. My bed has springs and Cristina is fantastic. She is super nice, a bit spastic and understands my espanol. Basically we were made to be. I gave her the letter that Lauren wrote to Fanita and she was literally so excited about it… it was funny. After I unpacked my things (and successfully clogged the toilet… typical… my life is a sitcom…) we headed into Ibarra and she showed me how to get to the hospital. It is a small little thing and serves the underserved population in the province of Imbabura… should be intersante… I start tomorrow (Tuesday)… loco. We ate lunch at a little place and talked up the waiter and just had a good conversation… this transition has been (thus far, at least) about 15 bajillion times smoother than the transition to Quito. Probably because I am not a bumbling idiot who speaks no Spanish this time around… hmm. Anyways. I am not living with anyone else, which is good and bad… there is supposedly another girl at the hospital who perhaps I can befriend… and there are three other people in Ibarra that I met at the school in Quito… so. I might have some English speaking companeros if I can just figure out how to work the phone… But that is my story up to now. We are going for a walk around 5… and hopefully some ensalada de frutas that I have heard so much about… :) Ciao!