Travels Travels Travels

So I know it has been quite sometime since I have written but I have been super busy and traveling a lot both independently and with the school for the last couple weeks. My first adventure outside of Quito was to Otavalo a couple hours north of the city with a very large indigenous community. Since our group was going there on a field trip anyway a few of us decided we should hit it up early to see the huge market that happens every Saturday. Now this market was absolutely amazing! It covered nearly the whole main town area going almost 10 blocks in each direction with each stall filled with artisan crafts like jewelry, paintings, sweaters, scarfs, alpaca blankets and so much more all at ridiculously low prices even before bargaining. Although much of the stuff was very similar from stall to stall we still found ourselves wandering through the market all day even in the midst of a downpour, though we did take a break to have some lunch in a very Ecuadorian little restaurant where we were served chicken foot soup that came complete with an entire chicken foot sticking out of the bowl. Later that evening a group of us decided that we should go to a cock fight that occurs every Saturday and is completely legal here in Ecuador. Many of the men buy there chicken at the market that day and then enter them in the contest later that night. This was one of the more interesting experiences so far complete with spears on the claws and all. The arena was very legit with a big circular area at the bottom and then chairs that circled it in stadium seating up. Of the more than 100 people there approximately 8 were women, 5 of them being from my group. To say the least this was one of the strongest machismo experiences I have had so far. During the week I had a school field trip where we learned a lot about Traditional Andean medicine that is practiced in many of the indigenous communities. We saw various hospitals that have a mixture of western and traditional medicine and in one where a lot of traditional medicine is practiced saw a cuy (guinea pig) cleaning. This consisted of the yachuk (shaman) rubbing a what started as live guinea pig all over the body of one of my classmates for a few minutes. The cuy serves as a diagnostic tool so after she had finished rubbing it on her, and it had died, she proceeded to cut it open and examine the various parts of the cuy. She then stated that the girl had some back and hip pain, two things she had actually mentioned to friends the day before...kinda crazy I know, but also super interesting. Unfortunately we had to return to Quito early since that night many indigenous people were protesting a new law regarding the mines and they shut down the roads starting at midnight by putting burning tires, rocks, and trees on many of the main thorogh fares throughout the country. Later that week we visited another area and hospital and from there me and a few friends went to a town called banos (yes like the bathroom) where they have all sorts of outdoor adventure sports and hotsprings due to the volcano that is very close to the town (and has been active in recent years). This was one of the most amazing places because in two days we went biking nearly 30 kilometers (mostly on the freeway though there were a few bike paths) and although most of it was downhill and heading toward the Amazon basin there were good chunks of uphill sections that seemed to be never ending. During the ride there was a bridge where a company had a bungee jumping operation set up so we all stopped and decided to jump from 40 meters before continuing on our way. For lunch we stopped at a waterfall called el diablo which was a 1km hike in, but all downhill so the way out was kinda painful! At the waterfall they have cut a hole into the side of the cliff so that you can climb through a cavelike section of the cliff and stand basically underneath the waterfall. The next day a few of us went rafting on a trip that normally takes about two hours but due to the heavy rainfall the night before causing the river to flow extremely fast and making for some amazing rapids took us about an hour. Although we were a boat of 5 girls and 1 guy plus the guide we were the only one that didn't lose anyone from our raft! While on the trip we heard people talking about rapelling through waterfalls, something I have been wanting to do since I heard it was an option so we joined up with them and did that for the afternoon. This is very similar to rockclimbing except it consists only of the descending part and you have a waterfall running over you as you go down. The waterfalls were in one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen and really don't have the words to describe nor pictures to show since we were all completely soaked and didn't think a camera would survive. In the beginning learning to trust the rope and harness was very difficult especially since it was hard to get a good footing in the little canvas tennis shoes they had us wear but by the end we were all scaling down 20meter waterfalls like it was nothing. By the end of this weekend I was absolutely exhausted and am still working on catching up but it was totally worth it and some of the most amazing experiences!! That night for dinner we heard that cuy (yes guinea pig) was available in town, it is a speciality in Ecuador, so we tried that as well and it was surprisingly good. One person described it as tasting similar to duck, though I don't think I have ever eaten duck so I really wouldn't know. It was kinda difficult to eat because it was so small and there isn't really a lot of meat on it, but once you get past that the flavor is actutally really good! So far this week has been much more laid back except for the homework load which has increased drastically, but I did go to a soccer game last night which was absolute craziness. People here are in LOVE with their soccer! Everybody was decked out in red, waving flags, singing a song that by the end I could sing a few lines along with, and throwing thousands of bits of tiny torn up newspaper. I feel like so far my experiences here have been more than I could have asked for and I am even starting to feel like I can communicate reasonably in Spanish. Tonight I had a very long conversation with my mom about women's position in Ecuador and I was actually able to speak without thinking out every word and get across my point clearly! YAY there is hope haha!

Well it is getting late and I have a full day again tomorrow. I am heading to the beach for the weekend and then on another field trip with my school for all of next week (we are studying tropical diseases something I am super excited about and the professor is awesome!) so it will be probably until next weekend till I am on again. I miss you all!