Update

DUDEEEE!!!!!!!

Check this out!!! --> http://www.tvncanal.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4656%3Aen-ibarra-se-delimitan-barrios&catid=81%3Aprisma&Itemid=198

I STARTED THIS!!!! =D And they're continuing with it!! And that guy speaking in the Youtube video at the bottom? I KNOW HIM!! And almost all the other people!! We all worked together on the very first parroquia, and dang but I'm so proud that they continued with it and are going to finish the other four!

YAYYY!

El fin

I just realized that I never really gave closure to this blog. I guess I've been lazy/decompressing/busy, but it's only right to have a proper ending (or at least a segue post....not that I'm even sure what I mean by that).

Anyway, a favorite quote from my last night in Ibarra with my host family, after my host mom told me again that she was going to miss me (and all in Spanish, of course):

"Stephanie, I've never hosted someone like you. All you do is read!!"

:) Yes, I did indeed read a lot....not as much as I thought would warrant a quote like that, but I guess.....I do read a lot. And not that I wasn't participating in Ecuadorian life!! Just in the downtimes...which, there were quite a few....which only happen during the non-school-year parts of the year, so, you know. I gotta aprovechar those moments.

I've realized from this internship that I don't want to spend the rest of my life doing urban planning, which is fine. At least, not solely urban planning. I realized that my heart still lies with righting all the injustices in the world--human trafficking, slums, poverty, malnutrition. And my interest in urban planning actually arose from my interest in slum development--finding a practical and applicable way of doing that. I realized while I was in the Amazon, however, that law school would probably be a good solution/start to addressing injustice......(duh)......so I guess the final update now is that I'm studying for the LSAT (to be taken in October) in still somewhat off-balanced hopes of going to law school and changing the world. Off-balanced hopes of law school, that is, because I did try to not be a lawyer for most of my college career. But I still want to change the world no matter what, and ever since I discovered the international human rights and public interest programs in law schools, I've been a little more convinced (sigh....aka I just never really did my research and let my biases take over instead).

Since I'm back at school now and reuniting with old friends and acquaintances, when people ask me how my summer was, I always answer with "challenging." But I always follow that up with "but it ended up being very good, and I enjoyed it a lot." Which is the truth, folks :). And I also realized that I never mentioned I was doing this through ELI (Experiential Learning International), but I literally would not have been in Ecuador this past summer if they hadn't been so kind and expedient in placing me in their program! So I'm obviously very grateful, and I do recommend them if anyone is looking to do an internship or volunteer program abroad.

Y así hemos llegado a la conclusión. ¡Que todos les vayan bien en las aventuras de la vida!

CUYABENO, here we go

Allllll right--I've finally departed (figuratively) from my first lazy days in Houston and am GOING TO POST about the Amazon!

Being in the Amazon jungle (I was in the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve) for five days was possibly the scariest and most beautiful experience of my life thus far. Below is a recounting of my time there...

Day 1

• My friend from Rice, Michelle, and I took an overnight bus from Quito to Lago Agrio (11pm - 6am), where we had breakfast at a hotel (Hotel D'Mario) while waiting for another bus.
• There were a lot of other tourists with us there, and we ate with two Swedes that we shared a taxi with to get to the hotel from the bus station. It was a mother and her 23-year-old son, and they were hilarious. She was like the cool but sometimes clueless mom, and he was the exasperated but loving son. They had so many stories...the mom had at one point apparently been dating/engaged to the crown prince of India or something like that, and the son worked at a legit bank in London. It was a pity that we didn't end up being on the same tour, but it was so cool getting to know people from a culture that I had never really thought about before.
• We took the next bus (1.5 hours) from the hotel to the "Old Bridge," which was on the Cuyabeno River, and then got in a motorized canoe to go from the bridge to the Samona Lodge, where we would be staying. The ride took about two hours, with lots of pauses on the way when the guide pointed out cool animals to us.
• So we got to the lodge (btw, I would DEFINITELY recommend Samona Lodge if anyone is going to the Amazon in Ecuador), rested a bit, and then took the motorized canoe to a place called Laguna Grande (Big Lake) to swim!

• Btw, we took the motorized canoe everywhere we went, because traveling in the Amazon only happens by river (unless you're taking a hike--but even then, you get to the hiking trail by boat).
• So on our way to swim in Laguna Grande, our guide, Jairo, told us that there were all sorts of animals in the waters, such as electric eels, piranhas, stingrays, anacondas, and caimans (alligators). So then everyone in the boat (there were 10 of us: 3 French, 2 Aussies, 1 Ecuadorian, and 4 Americans) was like, "Uh.....are you sure it's okay to swim in here then?" And Jairo (he was such a jokester) was like, "Of course!" And yes, there were all those animals in the rivers/lakes there, but apparently not in the part that we swam in.......in any case, I did end up jumping out of the boat, and the water was soooo refreshing! Not cold like you might expect. And tourists from other lodges/canoes were jumping in, too, so it was fine. We went swimming there every day, and it was definitely one of the highlights for me =].
• So after that, we waited a little bit in the canoe until nighttime, and went on an "exciting" night hike. OKAY. If you ever see that word "exciting" being ascribed to an event in the Amazon, it means SCARY/DANGEROUS. To be fair, 'scary' is my opinion, and dangerous could be toned down to 'risky', but STILL. The purpose of that night hike was basically to find as many huge Amazonian insects/arachnids as possible, so we definitely saw tarantulas, wolf spiders, some other kinds of really ridiculously big spiders, giant crickets.....and this ant called the bullet ant. Now, the bullet ant is one of the biggest ants in the world (an inch long), and is so named because if you get stung by one, it is equivalent to being shot. It is scored as one of the most painful stings out of all insects. So Jairo had a bullet ant on a twig and was showing it to us, when one of the girls in the group realized that a bullet ant was on one of the guys in our group. It was one of the Aussies, and to his credit, he didn't freak out as it was crawling all over his back. Jairo was like, "SHOOT" except more explicitly, and rushed over and flicked it off. Luckily, our Aussie didn't get bitten, and Jairo told him that he was extremely fortunate. After that, I started praying really hard to God (I was already praying before that had happened) that everyone would be kept safe. In the end, we all came out uninjured, which was a blessing.
• On the way back to the lodge (in our motorized canoe), Jairo spotted (from like...across the flippin' river in the dark with nothing but a flashlight) a baby boa constrictor. So we go over, and he manages to get it on his paddle, and it's dangling a foot away from my face for a while, so I'm kind of just crouching there mentally freaking out while everyone else is going to town with their cameras. Anyway, we leave and make it back to the lodge without further incident.
• Dinner is by candlelight when we get back, since there is no electricity where we're at (it was REALLY dark). Jairo also directed his flashlight at the ceiling above where we were eating, and showed us the frog and tarantula that were up there....yes, tarantulas live in that ceiling. But you got used to it.
• We were exhausted by the end of the day, so we all dropped into bed.

Day 2

• Breakfast, including the best pineapple ever. Quite literally the best I have ever tasted.
• After breakfast, we took a 2-hour boat ride (during which Jairo pointed out many exotic animals) to a Siona village deeper in the Amazon. When we arrived, we saw this little guy:

• His name, apparently, was Nacho, and he is a woolly monkey. He was very inquisitive, and seemed to like blonde hair a lot, bit at fingers a bit, and climbed onto a lot of people, including me.

• In the Siona village, we all learned how and helped to make cassava, which is bread made from yucca! It was really cool. We went from the very beginning--the yucca getting dug up from the ground--to the very end--cooking the flour over a fire and then eating it with pineapple jam or tuna. It was, again, really cool...you can find my photos of the whole process on Facebook.
• We had lunch there, and Jairo asked for volunteers to get their cheeks/arms painted with this dye that comes from a spiky fruit. I volunteered, and asked for a flower for lack of a better idea but Jairo painted a sun instead.

The fruit from where the dye came.

• After lunch, we stayed and visited the shaman of the village. We did a little Q&A with him, and somewhere in there we all realized that there was a snake on a ceiling timber. Jairo hadn't noticed, and he flipped out just a little bit because he had been right under it and was unaware that it was there (the snake could have dropped on him). It was a whiptail snake, which is not venomous, but it is painful if it whips you with its tail.....hence the name. The shaman was not as mysterious or as foreboding as I had anticipated, and he did a cleansing ceremony with one of the guys in our group (an American who was there with his wife, both nurses). He basically gently smacked the American with stinging nettles, which the American said didn't hurt too much. It was an interesting experience--definitely made me wonder even more what the Siona people believed in.
• We headed back to the lodge after that, but not before stopping somewhere in the river to snap more pictures of a teenage anaconda that Jairo had seen (again, uncomfortably close).
• After we rested, we went off to do some piranha fishing, and I caught a fish!!!! I caught a fish! =D But it wasn't a piranha (lol, I was the only one who caught a fish other than a piranha). It was called the mouse fish, apparently non-carnivorous, but it still had teeth.....anyway, our boat driver (Don Hector) took it for his dinner.

• After that, we went swimming in Laguna Grande again (and yes, we all felt really weird doing that right after we had gone piranha fishing with little bits of raw beef.....of course we were fine).
• And then we went looking for caimans. Sigh. It was all very nerve-wracking, you know, looking for alligators in the dark, etc. I had my towel and rain poncho ready to hurl at a caiman if it came looking for trouble, and I assumed that having a towel in your mouth would at least hinder you for a little while before you could get it clear enough for a try at human. Anyway, we saw a caiman, and made it back to the lodge alive.
• Dinner while it poured outside. And after dinner, we played cards with the French, Ecuadorian, and Aussies (since it was still pouring)! It was a lot of fun, and I really like French people now haha.

Day 3

• Breakfast.
• Day 3 was our morning hike day. We took the canoe to a place to start a 2-3 hour hike through primeval jungle, where Jairo showed us a bunch of cool medicinal plants/plants in general. There was quinine, curari, natural mosquito repellent, and lots of others....at one point, Jairo broke off a couple of twigs from a tree and pried them open, showing us ants inside. And then he had us eat them. Yes, YOU READ THAT RIGHT. I ate ants.....lemon ants. They did, indeed, taste like lemon.
• We also waded through this real-life swamp in the middle of the hike.....Jairo, of course, knew where all the unseen, underwater logs were, and it was definitely scary taking his word for some of the steps to get through the swamp. A lot of patches were much, much deeper, so if we didn't want to swim through, we had to very cautiously make our way on these tenuous, invisible logs. I slipped once, but didn't come to too much damage, although my jeans still have mud on them (even after going through the laundry).
• Also, Jairo walked SO FAST. It was amazing how much forest he could cover in the time it took the rest of us to get through a single muddy patch (yes, it was so muddy. At the very beginning of our stay, Samona Lodge provided all of us with rubber boots and rain ponchos--two very necessary items if you are to survive comfortably in the Amazon jungle. Ain't called a rainforest for nuthin').
• After our hike, we reached the canoe that the boat driver had left for us at a predetermined point, and we canoed back to the lodge (and man, but that was hard...after a long hike, and then it started pouring, and it was a long way....my arms were pretty tired after that).
• But then we got to eat lunch and relax in the hammocks! =] It was the first time that I had been able to get into a hammock and just space out (I actually fell asleep for a bit). Suuuuper relaxing.

• We went swimming again, and came back for dinner. It was a more relaxing day, and Michelle and I stayed up that night with the French, Ecuadorian, and Aussies to play cards. It was a lot of fun =].

Day 4

• We were supposed to go bird-watching at 6am this morning, but we didn't since it was raining. Sadly, the rest of the group was leaving (since they were only staying four days, but Michelle and I were staying five). So Jairo, Michelle, and I went canoeing in a different lake--one in which motorboats couldn't go in order to preserve the natural flora and fauna. Apparently that lake was also where a group got attacked by a caiman two years ago. Needless to say, I had my paddle ready to become a weapon if it came to that. In any case, it was very peaceful, although my arms were aching by the time we got all the way back to the lodge.
• For the rest of the day, Michelle and I just relaxed in the hammocks until the next group of tourists arrived. There were about 18 people, and Jairo acquired six of them to guide along with us. We went out to swim, and saw dolphins in the lake! The Amazon is the only place where there are pink dolphins, which were what we saw. (Btw, the ecosystem that we were in is called Igapó, which is a Portuguese word meaning freshwater swamp forest. But basically, that section of the Amazon, including Laguna Grande, is flooded for 10 months of the year, and completely drained for the other 2 months. It's crazy, and rare, but also really awesome.)
• We went looking for caimans again that night, and we saw the same one, but this time it was REALLY, UNCOMFORTABLY CLOSE (because Jairo kept throwing pieces of meat to it--pieces of meat that were getting progressively closer to Michelle and me). The caiman was definitely less than five feet away. I felt like it was staring me down at one point, and I had my rain poncho in both hands and was sending out mental thought waves of, "Ohh no you don't. Don't you DARE. Don't-you-dare. Yeah. You heard me--I WILL fight you. So don't even think about it." So anyway, he turned away after a couple minutes more of looking at Michelle and me, and I was really relieved....and then we went back to the lodge for dinner.

Day 5

• Michelle and I packed up all our stuff, hung out in the hammocks for a bit, and then got in the motorized canoe for another couple hours until we made it back to the Old Bridge where we had first departed on our Amazon adventure. I was a little sad that we had to leave. Despite all the tarantulas and rain and snakes and non-electricity, I had rather enjoyed my time in the Amazon. There had been surprisingly few mosquitoes (read: almost NONE in the lodge--amazing), and so many blue Morpho butterflies! They are these gorgeous, huge electric-blue butterflies that were a rarity when I was in Costa Rica (in fact, I only saw two of them, and both in the same museum), and yet in the Amazon, one would flutter by every so often, and it was just always breathtaking to see them because I really do mean they have breathtaking blue coloring. I looked for every last one before the boat ride was over, since I knew that I wouldn't be seeing them after I left the Amazon. In any case, it was a truly wonderful trip (although very scary at times), and I do wonder if I'll ever return, perhaps to see more of the Amazon, or perhaps to interact with the indigenous people who live there =]. God truly is creative!

With that, I will end with a few of my favorite scenery photos from Cuyabeno. =]

Sunset.

Laguna Grande at dusk.

Check out that reflection! Reality vs. dreams ;).

A better look at the full reflection of the trees.

The lake where Michelle and I went canoeing. Beautiful.

Majestic.

The moon on day 3 of our trip. It was getting to its full size.

Breathtaking moon scenery on day 4.

Am alive!

Hey! I am back from the Amazon and safe and sound....which I must say, is quite relieving to me (praise the Lord! I was praying a LOT while walking around in the jungle), since it was one of the scariest (if not the scariest) experiences of my life. It was also fascinating and SO beautiful!!

In any case, I will update soon, with many details! And photos to boot. Hopefully that will happen tonight, although I'm not sure, since I need to repack everything for the States. I'm quite sad that I'm missing 4th of July celebrations by one day, but I'll be back in less than 48 hours!

So actually, I'm going to go try roasted guinea pig today (called cuy here), as my last Ecuadorian experience. Yeah.

Happy Independence Day everyone! =]

El Oriente

I am in Quito. Ahhh!

As in, in Quito and done with my internship in Ibarra. I am nothing but a tourist now. Ahhh!

Okay, I'm being dramatic again, but I mean...it was obviously a more emotional day than usual, what with having had all the despedidas (good-byes) yesterday at the Municipio (and everyone making a little speech, including me), and last night with all the family (the brothers, sisters, in-laws, and children), eating, drinking, dancing Ecuador's native dances together, and more speeches. And meeting up with a few other co-workers later and saying good bye. Ahh.

And of course this morning, saying good bye (again) to some co-workers, and then to my immediate Ecuadorian family and Rachel. I will really miss Rachel (probably the most)...we had some really good times together, and were always laughing!! =]

Well now, I will steer myself away from all these thoughts on farewells, and say that I am leaving for the Amazon jungle in a little under an hour (at 11pm--and we arrive at 6am...what else is new). Michelle, my friend from Rice, and I will be in Cuyabeno for a 4-night, 5-day tour. Cuyabeno is one of the ecological reserves in Ecuador, and it's part of what is called "el Oriente" in Ecuador. (There are four parts to Ecuador: (1) la Costa, the coast, (2) las Sierras, the mountains, (3) el Oriente, the east/Amazon, and (4) los Galápagos, or the Galapagos Islands.)

Here's our itinerary, more or less (we're going with www.andeanchallenge.com):

"1.-Quito - Lago Agrio - El Puente . Flight 10:30 a.m. or bus journey (one day before - 8 hours) to Lago Agrio. Drive from Lago Agrio to el Puente. Canoe trip down on Cuyabeno river to our camp place .Exciting night walk.


2.- Cuyabeno river. After breakfast, trek into the primary rain forest learning about medicinal plants, flora and fauna. After lunch, journey downstream to relax and enjoy the surrounding nature on tubes (water tubing).


3.-Cuyabeno River. After breakfast, we paddle by traditional dug-out canoe on the Caiman-Cocha (Laguna del Caiman) where we will enjoy this unique nature. Lunch. Hike in the primary forest including lessons in the use of plants for survival. Before we head back to our camp, we’ll have a relaxing time to swim and enjoy the sunset on the magnificent Laguna Grande.


4.- Cuyabeno river. In the morning, walk to the Tarapuy Siona Community, our naturalist guide will explain about the culture and traditions of the native people. Piranha fishing in the afternoon. Return to the camp. Night canoe trip in search of caimans (alligators).


5.- El Puente-Lago Agrio-Quito. Early morning bird watching. After breakfast journey upstream the Cuyabeno river to El Puente. Drive back to Lago Agrio at 16:00. Flight or bus journey back to Quito."

Well.....there are many other things to write about my experience here, but it will have to wait until after el Oriente. For some reason, I am loath to blog right now....although that may be due to these last days here in Ecuador. Well (again), it is time for me to go, entonces hasta luego. =]

I need stronger bug spray

Back from the beach! Covered in mosquito bites, but what can one do....it is the same no matter where I go--Houston, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Indiana--all the mosquitos flock to me like bees to honey! Sighhh T.T

Atacames was quite enjoyable, although I ended up going alone since my housemate got really sick =[. Traveling solo was a good experience, although it was really sketch being asked by almost every single male who talked to me whether I had a boyfriend and if I was traveling alone (and being the naive--and probably foolish--traveler that I am, I said, yes, I was traveling alone).

It was exceedingly humid in Atacames, and I was trying to figure out if Houston was worse or not (guess I will figure it out soon haha). It's a pretty touristy place, not just for foreigners, but also for Ecuadorians and other Latin Americans. Actually, at the hostal I stayed at, there were TWO Colombian families with kids who were on vacation in Ecuador. Both of them were from Cali, and both of them were very kind to me and took me in as part of their family when we met at the hostal (Hostal Chill Inn, with Yolanda, the Swiss owner who was very kind and made a great breakfast of eggs-in-a-hole, which is a cracked egg cooked in a hole in the middle of toast, with seasoning--soo good). One of the Colombian moms even gave me an orange kanga with white palm trees on it! (A kanga is one of those sheets you see girls wearing at the beach...you can tie it in different ways over your swimsuit--as a dress, skirt, etc. Very useful!)

We (the two Colombian families and I) also went whale watching in this small boat (small compared to the big, blue ocean with strong swells wayyy out there....I mean it--we were FAR from land). And we spotted whales multiple times!! I think it might have been the same ones, maybe, since it was a pair, swimming side by side. It was so awesome!! And they looked like killer whales to me, but I think it's actually humpback whales that come to that area. In any case, they were HUGE...even from the distance we were at....much, much bigger than our boat.

Other than that, I just chilled, played on the beach, ate ceviche, did some souvenir shopping, and read my book (Dark Watch by Clive Cussler--only about 50 pages in. I've only ever read Sahara by him, and that only because I saw the movie first and really liked it. Hmm...I think I've only ever read Sahara by him....Anyway, turns out that he's a pretty decent adventure/sci-fi writer, right up my alley of genre interests, or one of them anyway, so when I was in Quito a few weeks ago, I picked up his book at a bookstore that had several books in English. That was in expectation of reading at the beach of course...I had to keep myself from cracking the book open till I got to Atacames).

So yes, that's my weekend in a nutshell! The 10-11 hour bus rides to and back were a little brutal, but oh well. And I am only working two more days (tomorrow, technically today, and Wednesday) before I head out to Quito! (And an Amazon jungle tour for five days before flying back to Houston.) It's been quite the adventure here...and will continue to be. Tomorrow, Rachel and I are planning on getting our hair dyed and cut, respectively (heheh, no worries, I am not dying my hair). And I think we're also planning on trying cuy, which is roasted guinea pig, specialty of Ecuador! Hahahaha...will let you all know how that goes! =D

Atacames

Off to the beach. BBL.

=D