Ever since the Galapagos trip, my time in Ecuador has gone downhill rather than up. I don’t mean that’s gotten worse, but that in that time we’ve gone from looking forward to more time in Ecuador to looking towards the end of the program and home. I’ve been going through this process, like the others in my program, with final papers and exams being thrown at me every which way. Contrary to popular belief, there is some actually “studying” involved in studying abroad (but not that much).

I’ve also had the pleasure of performing in a play with the theater group at the university where I study, which has been an incredibly enriching experience. It’s helped my Spanish a lot and I’ve been able to really connect with a group of Ecuadorian students. The play is a Spanish translation of Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors” (“La Comedia de Equivocaciones”) and I play a guard/official. I have seven lines, and in one scene, I hold a giant spear. My gringo friends have all come out to see the show to support me, and to laugh at me even when I’m not doing something funny.

All of these factors have added up to a constant state of dream for the last couple weeks. I have been sleeping quite a bit as well, especially since I was robbed about a week ago and therefore have no cell phone (and hence no alarm clock). I’ve been thinking a lot about what my experience here has taught me and what my transition to life in the States will be like. There’s really nothing concrete, but I definitely feel I’ve gained some maturity, confidence, and world perspective in my time here.

I recently finished the book Reading Lolita in Tehran, the memoirs of Iranian literature professor Azar Nafisi. In it she discusses her decision to leave Tehran, saying: “You get a strange feeling when you leave a place…like you’ll not only miss the people you love but you’ll miss the person you are now at this time and place, because you’ll never be this way again.”

I’ll certainly miss the close friends I’ve made here in Ecuador, both American and Ecuadorian, and I hope I can find a way to see them again sometime in the future. But I’ve also become comfortable here. I’ve learned how to take buses that never come to complete stops, how to dance like a fool in Quito’s nightclubs, and how to deal with Ecuadorian norms with regard to public urination. I feel like I know Quito better than I know most parts of Los Angeles. I’m definitely ready to go home, but I know that a certain part of me will always be here in Ecuador.

That being said, I’m not going home right away. My program ends May 17^th, and that night some friends and I will begin traveling south, eventually reaching Ecuador’s third largest city, Cuenca. On the 22^nd, I’ll head to the coastal city of Guayaquil, where I’ll catch a flight to Cusco, Peru. I’ll spend the next two and a half weeks backpacking solo around Peru. My itinerary isn’t etched in stone, but I hope to visit the famous ruins at Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca, the city of Arequipa and the marvelous Colca Canyon, as well as the Peruvian Andes. I’ll be doing most of my travel by bus, heading north to Quito, where I’ll be leaving my luggage. It should be quite an adventure: it’s about 1700 miles from Cusco to Quito. That’s about the distance from Los Angeles to Des Moines, Iowa.

I’ll be taking plenty of pictures and I’ll update this blog once I return. For those of you who’d like to follow me along the way, I’ll be posting my current location and micro-updates on my Twitter feed, @msalintweeto.

Below, some photos of the play.

Que les vaya super bien,

Miguel

In the morning we caught a bus to the small town of Zambuhua. As we passed through the mountains west of Latacunga, we could see the volcano Cotopaxi towering over the city on the other side of the valley. We passed through desolate country roads and passed some pretty cool rock formations as we made our way to the tiny town of Zumbahua. Once there, we hired a driver who took us a few miles to the lake. We stood in the back of the truck as we flew down the road, enjoying the view of a spectacular valley. A clutch bro trip moment.

Finally, we arrived at the lake. Our driver Francisco pulled off a good trick for us once we arrived at the park entrance: he told the woman at the window that I was a tour guide, so I didn’t have to pay the two dollar entrance fee. Once we arrived, we spent a good few moments gaping at the lake and then got started on what would be our goal for the day: a 10 kilometer hike around the lake. The hike proved quite difficult, first for the incredibly steep peaks that surround the lake, and secondly because it started raining about halfway through our hike. Honorable mention in the Quilotoa “pain in the ass” category goes to the sheep dogs who barked at our heels as we walked on the path near where their flock was grazing.

After six wet, grueling miles we ended up back where we started. It was harder to say good bye to Quilotoa this time around knowing that I will almost certainly not see it again while I’m here in Ecuador. It’s proved to be one of my favorite places to have visited, not only because of its sheer beauty, but also because of its relative tranquility and remoteness: the voyage provides an opportunity to see the communities outside of Ecuador’s larger cities.

All in all, BRO TRIP = SUCCESS.

Because the location is so unique, it’s home to a wide variety of bizarre and beautiful animals. Most famous are the sea and land turtles, which we were able to see a great quantity of, both in the wild and in captivity. In one of the turtle nursing center that we visited, we saw famous “Lonesome George,” the last of a particular species of turtle only found on one if the Galapagos islands.  We even got the privilege of watching two turtles “copulating,” which we all handled in an incredibly mature manner. Ever-present were sea-lions, who we got to see hunting for schools of fish, and with whom we got the chance to swim while snorkeling on the island of Santa Cruz. It’s quite startling to be looking down at fish and have a sea lion dart right at you, swimming around you as if only to show off its grace under water. We saw a wide variety of birds as well, including penguins, pelicans, and the famous blue-footed boobie.

While looking at a group of iguanas, whose black scales allowed them to blend in perfectly with the black volcanic rock of the islands, I suddenly thought of Charles Darwin. If I had been able to see all these magical creatures at a time when humans had scarcely set foot on the island, I thought, and I was able the manner in which these creatures fit so well into such a unique environment, it would probably be pretty hard not to conclude that these organisms had adapted to their surroundings to survive. I just feel so privileged to have had the opportunity to visit these islands, not only because of their spectacular beauty, but also because they’re so expensive and difficult to access. Truly an unforgettable experience.

Five days of snorkeling, hiking, and relaxing in one of the world’s greatest natural treasures with my friends from the program, whom I’ve learned to love like brothers and sisters. I literally could not think of anything more perfect. I would highly recommend a visit to the Galapagos to any who have the opportunity (and by opportunity, I mean a ton of money) to explore the “enchanted islands.”

Of course, my descriptions don’t do this place justice. I had some videos I wanted to show and too many pictures to upload, so I decided to make this little video slideshow. Change the video quality to HD and view full screen (both bottom right corner) for the full experience. Enjoy.

Cotopaxi National Park is the home of the Cotopaxi Volcano, the world’s tallest active volcano. We caught a couple buses and then hired a truck driver for the day to get into the park (it was José, me (Miguel), José’s brother Miguel, and the pickup driver also named Miguel). Eternally covered in snow, it takes technical training and a lot of effort to scale Cotopaxi in its entirety, neither of which we had on Saturday. Instead, we hiked up a considerable way up some very steep rock to reach the snow. We were able to see the summit (or roughly where it is) and I was pretty impressed. The mountainside was a very interesting environment: the red rock made me feel like I was on Mars, and yet, at the same time, we were all throwing snowballs at each other.

Once down from the mountain, we drove through the national park. Large rocks are spread out throughout the park, probably products of volcanic eruptions.  We also got to walk around Lake Limpiopungo, a small marsh-like body of water nearby. It’s a great spot for bird-watching; we also got to spend some close up time with some wild bulls and admire the three peaks of the nearby Volcano Rumiñahui.

The highlight of the day, however, came on the bus ride home. My friends and I were forced to stand up, and, so being incredibly bored, I played a little tune on the harmonica. The four boys (between 8 and 14) sitting in the seats next to me then started to ask me questions, and we got to talking to music. “Do you know Michael Jackson?” they asked. This lead to a good 45 minutes of them requesting Michael Jackson songs and me trying to sing them the best I could. I also taught them what some of the songs meant in Spanish. They also requested a song from my friend Brittany (who didn’t know any Michael Jackson) and we treated them to a delightful rendition of Justin Beiber’s “Baby.” Definitely the best bus ride of my life.

This video gives you a pretty good idea of how epic the ziplining was. If you listen closely, you can hear the guide call me “Rafael.”

Of course, my nerdiness forced me to take a slightly different path than my friends. I was quite curious about the little town of Montecristi, 150 kilometers or so north of Montanita.  It’s also the world capital of the Panama hat, which, contrary to popular belief, actually originated in Ecuador.For one, it is the birthplace of Eloy Alfaro, one of Ecuador’s most famous presidents, leader of the Liberal Revolution of the 1890s. After leading a successful coup in 1895, Alfaro pushed for rights for the indigenous, built Ecuador’s first major railroad, and, most famously and controversially, created separation of church and state in Ecuador. Arrested, dragged through the streets of Quito, and then set on fire in 1912, he’s emblematic of Ecuador’s rocky and unstable political history. Today revered as a political martyr and a symbol of democracy (which is ironic, as one of my drama teachers pointed out, since he took power in a coup), I’m not too bold in saying that he holds a similar position in the national conscious as Abraham Lincoln in the U.S.

So, I took a night bus out of Quito to the coastal city of Manta, a delightfully uninteresting coastal town mostly known for its fishing industry. Looking for breakfast, I happened upon the town’s largest fish market and processing area. The beach was filled with trucks, boats, and fisherman. I spent the better part of an hour watching some man hack fish up on the sand with a big knife (I think it actually may have been shark), and debating whether my mother would have thought it was cool or gross.

From there I took a twenty minute bus ride to Montecristi. I don’t quite know what I was expecting, but it was definitely underwhelming. I didn’t spend much time there, but I was able to see what was worth checking out in the town. I bought my Panama hat ($20), saw their rather pretty church in the main square, and visited “Ciudad Alfaro,” the museum dedicated to Alfaro and the mausoleum containing some of his ashes. The ashes were accompanied by a very strange statue of bare-chested Alfaro, surrounded by a variety of faces and figures. It reminded me of Horatio Greenough’s statue of shirtless, Zeus-like George Washington, and seemed to me equally silly. I think national heroes are better memorialized with all of their clothes on. But maybe that’s me.

From there, I went south to Montanita, finding my friends on the beach without making a single phone call. We had dinner, raged, and then headed to Puerto Lopez in the morning. From there, we went to Playa de los Frailes (Friars’ Beach), what I was told was the most beautiful beach in Ecuador. I must say, it was pretty incredible. Frailes is a protected national recreation area: it was quiet, free of stores and salespeople, and absolutely gorgeous. We spent a few good hours playing around in the water, relaxing, and exploring the nearby rock formations (tons of crabs!). Back in Puerto Lopez, we took a night bus back to Quito. A pretty sweet weekend, all in all. And if we’re keeping track, my mileage count was 1,153 kilometers, or 716 miles.

The other reason we decided to stay was because the lake was absolutely spectacular. The walls of the crater were very steep, and the water was perfectly blue and still. The clouds sky, and crater walls were perfectly reflected in top of the lake. We decided to walk down the super steep hill to the lake bottom, passing by indigenous workers from the nearby community carrying heavy rocks up the hill for some construction being done on the path. When we got down to the bottom, we rented a kayak (Mackenzie was given a paddle, I was given what appeared to be a very large salad spoon) and started to row around. The lake was still until a cloud began to descend on the lake. As it did, we saw the water start to ripple as the wind rolled by. Pretty cool. Except I couldn’t really paddle and my butt got really wet. And it was a total pain walking back up the hill and I was wondering how those indigenous people did it while carrying rocks on their backs. But I digress.

Saturday morning, one of the local villagers took us in the back of his truck to Zambuhua, a bustling center of local commerce. It was very interesting to see people from the countryside making their way into town to sell their craftwork, as well as bringing sheep, pigs, and llamas through the tiny streets. We hopped on a bus heading to Latacunga, and we watched people stuff sheep into the compartments below the bus. We waited for about 45 minutes while they tried to fix the engine of our bus, at which point we jumped onto another bus, only to see our original bus leave a few minutes later. I was really pleased.

Back in Latacunga, Mackenzie decided to head back to Quito and I decided to keep on trucking to Banos. I took a bus south to the city of Ambato, and from there purchased a bus ticket to Banos. As I sat and waited for my bus to arrive, the man who sold me my ticket ran up to me and started yelling at me. “¡El bus ya se fue! ¿Dónde estabas tú? (The bus already left! Where were you?)” Apparently the bus that read “Puyo-Tena” also stopped in Banos. Oops. The guy who was yelling me herded me onto another bus, which dropped me off a few miles away, at a bus stop where I was able to pick up a bus to Banos.

I met my friends in Banos, a very cool tourism-centered town up in the mountains. It’s known for its hot springs and spectacular waterfalls (there are said to be 50 in the vicinity of the town). I spent the night cruising the town with my IES friends and some gringos that they had met earlier in the day. They left early the next morning, and I stayed to bike “La Ruta de Las Cascadas,” a mountain road leading past some of the biggest waterfalls in the area. I got off the road to climb down and see one of them, called “Machay.” I then got a ride back up to the town in a truck/taxi. It was pretty nice, but I must say, Banos just felt too gringo-y for my comfort.

I took a bus back to Quito that afternoon, completing almost 300 miles of travel over the weekend. I was exhausted, and it was definitely worth it, but I’ve learned that trying to cram too much into one weekend isn’t a great idea, especially when relying on Ecuadorian bus transit to get you from place to place.

Our guides had all kinds of great activities planned, including hikes through the forest, canoeing, swimming, and piranha fishing. We were able to see a bunch of small monkeys, a bunch of exotic bird species, as well as a variety of fascinating bug species. The one part I didn’t enjoy was our night walk through the woods: wandering through the jungle late at night to look at spiders and grasshoppers freaked me out beyond reason, and it didn’t help that our guide’s name was “Fausto.”

I must say, the Amazon region is absolutely fascinating. It was really interesting to see some of the indigenous people who still live out there, and we got some idea of how isolated and forgotten a lot of these communities are. The sad irony is that modernity has caught up with the Amazon in one respect: the extraction of petroleum. Oil was discovered in the eastern part of Ecuador in the 1960′s, and since then it’s become a key national export (As my history professor said in class the other day,  almost any worthwhile building in Quito was either constructed during the 17th-century colonial era or the late 20th-century oil boom). We saw several large boats carrying industrial equipment down the Rio Napo, and I noticed a few sites that appeared to be petroleum extraction centers as well. It really made me feel like I was going up the Congo River on in Marlow’s steamboat in Heart of Darkness, and as a group of foreigners on tour there, I had a nagging feeling that we were contributing to a neo-colonial cultural dialogue. It’s quite a shame to think about that region being razed by Big Oil.

Perpetuating 21st century imperialism or not, here are my photos. One of them features a monkey:

I´m now living in another part of the city, closer to PUCE as well as the Mariscal, the city´s chief bar-restaurant-tourist hub. My host mother´s name is Isabel, and she´s as nice as can be. Her large apartment is full of books, art, and photos of her children. There´s another woman living here named Doña Alus, who is originally from Medellin, Colombia but came to Quito to escape the drug wars there. They met through their kids, and Doña Alus lives in the house in exchange for cooking, cleaning, and washing clothes. It seems like a lovely home so far and I´m looking forward to spending the next couple months here.

Oh, a couple more things about the house. Not only do I have a killer view out the two large windows of my room, but I also have my own small balcony. And while Isabel doesn´t work, she does cook pastries and other goodies to supply local businesses.

And finally, last but certainly not least, while walking around my new neighborhood the other day, I realized it was fate that brought me there. Not only was ¨Calle Abraham Lincoln¨ about a block away, but close by was ¨Plaza Abraham Lincoln,¨ a large traffic circle featuring a Lincoln bust. I´d love to do some more research as to when this was constructed and why, but for now, I´m just happy to be here.

Feb. 14 Update: Here’s an article on the Lincoln statue, in Spanish. It was erected in 1959 as part of Quito’s revamping efforts for a large international conference. The statue was donated by a committee of Americans living in Quito. Fun fact: the Ecuadorian historian mentioned in the article as attending the re-dedication ceremony in 2009, Dr. Carlos Landázuri, is now my history professor at La Universidad Catolica.

Pics of the View and My New Neighbor:

Things are really starting to shape up here. I finally was able to track down the theater group at PUCE, and I got permission from the professor to participate with the more advanced theater group, which may mean landing a part in the spring production. We’ll see. I spent one afternoon doing some exercises with them, and it was pretty much the same stuff we pretentious theater people do in the States: “I want you to choose an animal and walk around the space as that animal…” I also participated in a few improv games, which was a bit difficult because of my Spanish skills. I found a solution, however: in a scene that was supposed to be a quiet meditation class, I chose to enter as an obnoxious gringo trying to find a salsa class.

I woke up early on Saturday morning to go to a nearby town called Zambiza to teach English to kids in the local school (A friend of a friend told me to show up at a bus stop to go teach English. So we went.). My friend Wes and I had absolutely no idea what was going on, and we ended up sort of just greeting the kids and telling them we’d be seeing them every few Saturdays. After the session, however, there were a few boys still hanging around, and we asked them if they wanted to play frisbee. I’ll say, there’s almost nothing more fun than playing Ultimate Frisbee with a bunch of fourteen-year-old Ecuadorian boys. I was totally exhausted by the end of it, but it was a blast. One of the kids brought his guitar out, and we sat playing songs in English and Spanish for like an hour. Can’t wait to go back there.

Finally, I went on another adventure with the PUCE hiking group, this time climbing to the two peaks of the volcano Pasachoa, to the south-west of Quito. I enjoyed this hike more than the hike up Pichincha a couple weeks ago, since a) it was less intense and b) there were more Ecuadorians and less gringos on the hike, which meant speaking more Spanish and getting to know more new people. I won’t say the hike was easy though, it was definitely exhausting and we had to do some clambering over bare rock. There’s something exhilarating about walking with a steep hill on your left and a steep, foggy abyss on your right. Hiking to both summits was totally worth it though, the views were absolutely killer.

Always something to do and somewhere new to explore in Quito. The first picture is me sliding down the steepest slide I have ever seen, it’s attached to an old airplane that sits in the middle of El Parque Carolina. I’m shocked that children are allowed to ride this thing. Next is Miguel, Doug and Wes being pretentious on Calle La Ronda, a cute and entertaining street in Quito’s historic center. After that, Pasachoa.