Copied from my personal blog doslenguasdosalmas.wordpress.com
Alright boys and girls, its been a while, but I’m back. Since my last update we’ve been through three cities, Baños, Tena and Otavalo.
Our time in Baños was highlighted by the volcanic hot springs. The city of Baños sits at the base of Tungurahua, a 16,000 foot active volcano which heats the pools of water down below to a comfortable but attention grabbing 110 °F. The hot springs were a nightly activity for most of the group and an early morning activity for others. When we weren’t dipping our toes in the hot water we were either in Spanish classes or doing a volunteer project. The group was divided into two and half of us taught English to adolescents the other half was repairing a road on the volcano. I worked on the road and judging based on group reactions, those who taught English felt way more justified and satisfied with their work than those of us who really just repaired this one man’s driveway. We had some fun adventures in Baños as well. One day we took a bus up to Casa de Arbol which is a tree swing over the edge of the Earth. We also did some rock scrambling and swimming at Cascada la Chamana. My favorite adventure had to be rafting the Rio Negro. Our trip included heavy rain, class III and IV rapids and a near death experience for a guide in a rescue kayak.
To say thank you to our host families (who reffered to our group of 11 men as a boy band) our group decided to make a music video to NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye” I don’t have a link to the video just yet, but when I do I’ll be sure to include it because it was beautifully choreographed and produced.
Soon thereafter we left Baños and headed to Tena in the Amazon Rainforest. We lived and studied with an indigenous family who spoke both Spanish and Kitchwa. Their farm had no electricity or hot water and TONS of bugs. We’ve been out of there for three days now and I’m still itching. We found more adventures in the Amazon by way of freeclimbing and free repelling waterfalls and swimming in a lagoon. The group agrees with me that the waterfall hike was our favorite activity yet. Another highlight of our time in Tena was a little less planned but equally incredible. Beleive it or not, when you’re an hour and a half away from civilization into the Amazon Jungle there isn’t a lot of light pollution which makes for incredible star watching oppurtunities. A group of myself and five others would wade across the river on the family’s property to this tiny rocky island, we’d lay down on our backs and continually “oooooh” and “aaaaah” at the shooting stars and cloudy Milkyway galaxy overhead.
We did have a somber moment while we were in the jungle. One of our elected student leaders for the week called a meeting on Tuesday afternoon and announced to us that he will be leaving the group to travel independently. We all agreed that it was probably the best for him but it is sad to see a group member leave. And then there were 10…
We’ve been riding public busses everywhere we go, so I’ve a great oppurtunity to observe Ecuadorean bus culture. The weirdest thing about busses in Ecuador is they stop anywhere on the side of the road and let anyone on. So you’ll get a random peanut salesman on your bus every 10 minutes; walking up and down the idle screaming “mani! mani!mani!” over and over again as you try to sleep. The end result is a bus ride that should take 2 hours takes 3. There was this one woman on the bus from Tena to Otavalo who got on and was selling tapeworm prevention pills. She gave this loud 15 minute presentation in spanish with pictures of tapeworms protruding people’s rectums. That’s certainly one thing that I won’t miss.
We arrived in Otavalo on Saturday when the world famous indigenous crafts market is at its height. I bought an incredibly cool belt but I’m wondering how authentic its production was. I’m not concerned, it is incredibly cool and I bargined it down from $15 to $10 so I’m proud.
Although I’m still experiencing waves of homesickness I’m really enjoying my time here. We have an awesome group dynamic and I’m really enjoying getting to know these nine other guys on a personal level. I’m having a great time and I highly reccomend that anyone who still has time (specifically high school students) consider a gap year trip like the one I’m on.
Also check out my buddy’s blog at jackdubreuil.blogspot.com hes a significantly better writer than myself and it’s interesting to read a second perspective on our adventures.
