Again, running out of creative titles here, haha. And we’re continuing right where we left off. I was leaving Baños and on my way to Riobamba with my study abroad program. I don’t remember how long the bus ride was, but it was broken up into segments.
During one of our stops, we had the chance to visit a mountain climber’s lodge at the base of Chimburazo (the tallest peak in world if you consider the distance from the center of the earth to its summit). The climber in charge of the house, Rodrigo, told us stories about his climbing adventures and treated us to some really yummy tea. A lot of students added alcohol to that tea but I’m not about that life, so I let my tea be tea.
After our visit at his house, we headed to a hacienda where we got to cook our dinner on lava rocks! It was also the same hacienda that Simon Bolivar had once stayed at to sign the constitution (I think that’s the right information). The food was really good that night. I really enjoyed the potatoes, blackberry juice, and flan. 🙂 And then with full stomachs, we finally made our way into Riobamba and checked into our next hotel, Casa Real. This hotel had an indoor garden situation going for them and it was really nice.
The not so nice thing though, my body was beginning to suffer from what I’m pretty sure was food poisoning. I’m not sure where it happened, but I was not feeling good and that night, I spent a lot of time shaking, drinking water, and debating throwing up. I never did, but it really sucked, that’s for sure.
Still feeling like crap the next morning, I managed to get to breakfast and keep it all down. We then left for our next service learning which was in the San Jose de Liro area. The community was called the Guamote community. There we watched guinea pigs be killed and prepared to eat. The women were very humane with the guinea pigs (minus holding them by their necks prior to their deaths) so I appreciated that but I wasn’t a fan of all the squealing that came from the guinea pigs before their necks were snapped. :(( It was just such a different experience from anything I’m used to. Guinea pigs are pets in the United States and in a lot of South American cultures, they’re food. That’s just how it is for them!
After that demonstration, we had the opportunity to see how the people shear sheep and plant their crops. We also taught the kids English again which was fun and was smoother than the first time. “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” was quite the hit that day. We finished our time up at the Guamote community with a soccer game against the kids (who were REALLY good, might I add), and lunch.
The food there was very bland in comparison to any other food we had up to that point. It was a lot of potatoes, beans, and corn that had the texture of potatoes. There was also guinea pig and I had the tiniest amount. Did I like it? No. Am I happy I tried it? Sure. I’m glad that I tried it, just to say I tried it and have had that experience but I most definitely will not be eating guinea pig again.
After our time in the Guamote community, we went and saw the first Catholic Church ever established in Ecuador. It was an old building, but it was incredible that it had stayed up for so long. I can’t remember if this church was just outside Riobamba or if it was actually within the city, but regardless, it was cool to see.
After that visit, we went back to our hotel and relaxed for a bit, which I really needed. I was feeling like garbage. Walking to get groceries at the super mall helped me feel a bit better but I still wasn’t feeling good. It was insane how much food I bought for $15. I bought a big thing of Gatorade (gotta get those electrolytes!), Amor cookies which are sooooo good, some shortbread cookies, plantain chips, and some water. It was a good deal.
Fully loaded with snacks, I headed back to the hotel and by that time, it was almost time for dinner. We went to a karaoke bar for dinner where I had my first bowl of pasta in a long time. Spaghetti tasted SO good that night, even though I felt like throwing it up (sorry for the TMI :)).
Around 11 that night, we headed back to the hotel and called it good for the night. Yes, I was still feeling like trash, and I had a lot of medication running through me to try and keep me less nauseated. Thank goodness for all the meds I brought.
The next day, we left Riobamba for our next stop at a train station, which you will get to hear more about next week. Our time in Riobamba was short, but it was still a good time. See you all next Sunday. 🙂
I ran out of creative ways to say hello to the city I visited. I think what I did works though haha. Like with Quito, I could say hello and with Otavalo, heyo was fun, but I have nothing for this one. Anyway, the next city we stopped in during my study abroad to Ecuador was Baños!
The full name of the city is Baños de Santa Agua (or Holy Water Baths in English), but for short, it is referred to as Baños. This was a pretty touristy town but it was still super cool to visit. We did a lot of fun stuff here. The geography of Baños was very different from anything we had experienced before. We were still surrounded by mountains but the area was much more jungly than before. That was partly due to the fact that we were at one of the gateways to the Amazon jungle.
On our way out from Otavalo to Baños, we visited Rose Success, one of the many rose farms in Ecuador. It was really cool to see all of the greenhouses and be around SO MANY roses. In Ecuador, roses don’t have as much value as they do in the United States, because they are in abundance there. You could buy a dozen roses for $2 there as opposed to the at least $12 you would spend on the same bouquet here. Crazy! After our business visit, we stopped at Pujili Market which is one of the many fruit and vegetable markets in that area. It was so cool to see that much fruit and all of the unique products sold. We got to try some passionfruit and that was pretty weird but good at the same time. And I learned the proper way to eat mangoes that day too! If you’re ever curious, let me know and I’ll teach you.
The next stop on our journey to Baños was a painter’s house and we had the opportunity to watch him paint a traditional Ecuadorian painting. These types of painting always include the condor (the national bird of Ecuador) and a volcano. There are typically other features commonly seen in these paintings including llamas and working people. The tradition behind the paintings is really fascinating and if you ever have time to learn about it, I highly recommend it! The arts and crafts tour continued with another stop at a pottery place where we had the chance to make our own pieces using volcanic clay. We created our pieces in a traditional way. To do this, we had to take a chunk of clay and then press it into the mold we were given. Mine had a farmer with some llamas in it. 🙂
Following that, we stopped for ice cream in a town called Salcedo, which specializes in dairy products because of all of the cows they have there. The coconut ice cream was reallllly good. And then after dessert, we had dinner and then arrived at our new hotel, the Alisamay Hotel in Baños.
That night, I’m pretty sure I got the WORST sleep I’ve ever gotten in my entire life. There was this dang rooster at the house next door to our hotel and it screeched all night. I’m not even exaggerating. He must have had a lot to say. Regardless of the lack of sleep I got, I still had a really fun day the next day.
On January 8th, we started our day off with a hike to a beautiful waterfall. The hike wasn’t anything too taxing which was nice. The views of the waterfall were spectacular too. And after the waterfall hike, the physical intensity picked WAY UP. We went to this spot where you could zipline across a canyon and then zipline back. The ziplining was SO different from the ziplining I’ve done before. Instead of sitting in the harness, we were hoistedup once the harness was attached to our chests and the line and then our feet were placed into what I will describe as a baby harness. With this zipline, I basically flew like Superman. It was really cool but kinda painful. I can’t imagine how the guys felt doing this. Yikes… When we got to the other side, we were taken down from the line and had to carry all of our gear up a mountain (I’m not really exaggerating. The hike was intense and my lungs hated me for it haha) to then get reattached and fly back the other way.
I enjoyed the zipline experience but would I ever do it like that again, probably not. There was something just so fun about the ziplining I did in Hawaii that made it better than what I experienced in Ecuador. And now you might think, wow, that’s a lot to do in one day. Did you go to bed after? The answer to that question is no. We hadn’t even had lunch yet!
After the zipline, our bus drove us up to La Casa del Arbol which is this treehouse at the top of one of the mountains in that area. It’s owned by a man who keeps an eye on all of the volcanoes in the area and if one of them begins to show signs of eruption, he notifies the government. At this place, there was this swing attached to a treehouse and you could swing “off the edge of the world”. It was a cool experience and as a disclaimer, we were not going off the edge of the world, it was more off the side of a decently steep hill. It wasn’t even a cliff. And we only had to pay $1 to get to the park! Pretty nice right? I enjoyed the swing, but I really enjoyed the view more than anything. It was gorgeous up there.
And with our incredibly long morning complete, we FINALLY had lunch. It was around 2 in the afternoon when we finally got to a market to grab some food. The food, by the way, was INCREDIBLY good. I’m not sure if it was good just because I was starved or it was actually good. I’m pretty positive that it was a combo.
With that busy day coming to a close, we then headed back to the hotel to shower and relax and then went to dinner at this really nice hotel with a restaurant called the Luna Volcan. I got to try ceviche for the first time here and I was really pleased with how much I liked it. Thanks for the recommendations, Dad 😉
The next day, after another sleepless night thanks to Señor Rooster, was quite relaxing. We only had a half-day left in Baños and we had the chance to do whatever we wanted that morning. Some of the girls and I went to this spa that wasn’t too far from our hotel called Huellas Natural Spa and the experience was pretty good. The massage I had was probably one of the best I’ve ever had, and while the manicure was pretty mediocre, the service was still great and I was shocked at how decent it all was in general for $45. I had a facial, full body massage, and manicure. After the mini spa day, we went to lunch at this place called Honey that had massive milkshakes and extremely yummy paninis. I don’t think I’ve ever had a milkshake that contained that much sugar in my entire life. I definitely crashed on the bus later.
We had a chance to explore Baños until about 3:15 that afternoon and then we were off to our next city, Riobamba. That’ll be a story for next Sunday. Have a great week and I’ll see you all next Sunday! 🙂
Like I said, we’re back with the Ecuador content, yippee! And this was probably my favorite city we visited during my study abroad program. Heyo, Otavalo! This week I’ve got stories about llamas, a lot more food and a lot of little town visits and stops. So I hope you’re not sick of the Ecuador blogs and you’re ready to do some reading. 🙂 And also maybe look at a few pictures of llamas. What I’ve included in this post is only a small fraction of the llama pictures I’ve accumulated.
On our way out of Quito we visited the ruins of one of the indigenous groups. Despite the fact that the ruins were mostly covered with grass and remained unexcavated, they were still very cool to see and it was interesting to learn about many of the beliefs and traditions of the indigenous people. One of the most interesting things I learned here was that the moon was the most important god to the people. The sun was an introduced character. And also, if you want your hair to grow longer, you need to cut it at the full moon. Kinda quirky, kinda cool.
At this same archaeological site, we were surrounded by llamas. And when I say surrounded, I literally mean it. There were soooo many. And they were all so cute too! We had the chance to feed the llamas salt and take as many pictures as we wanted. They were all really cute and I feel proud to say that I didn’t get spit on. Woohoo! I’ve never seen llamas run, but this was the place to see that at and it was really cool to spend as much time as we did with some really cool creatures.
Our next stop was at the Quitsalo Museum, basically another equator stop. This one was a more scientific view of the equator and they tried to explain things in a more scientific way. It was interesting, but it was ultimately just a plug for their explanations and documentary. I was hot and hungry and to be honest, I wasn’t all that interested. I was glad to leave that place, that’s for sure.
After our play time with llamas and second trip to the equator, we went to this place for lunch called Cafe de Vaca, or Cow Cafe. The restaurant was cow-themed and it was pretty dang cute. The food was really good too. My favorite parts were the drinks and dessert although the entire meal was really good. To drink, I had lemon, mint, and pineapple juice and for dessert we had a passionfruit mousse. So yummyyyy. We were still on our way to Otavalo at this point and our next step was a scenic view of the city as we got closer. It was really cool because we got to see Imbabura and Cotacachi, two of the volcanos in that area. A much needed bathroom break occurred too, haha.
After a long day of traveling and fun, we arrived at our next hotel, Las Palmeras Inn. This place was nothing like a Holiday Inn Express but it was pretty cute. The one thing I hated about it though, was my specific room situation. My roommates were fine, but I hated where our room was. It was on the top floor of the main building at the inn and we had no true bathroom that was just ours. Our room opened into the common TV room and then a bathroom which had a shower and all of the stuff you typically find in a bathroom, but it was accessible to all. I just felt like I couldn’t really get clean at that place. It was still gorgeous and the place was nice though.
The next day, January 6th, was going to be our big day at the Otavalo Market. I was so pumped. Our day started with breakfast at the inn and then we went to the market. We had three hours to shop to our hearts’ content and I really enjoyed it. Bartering was stressful but fun and I enjoyed being competitive will all these Ecuadorians trying to get me to pay more for things that I should. In the end, I made a friend in the market who gave me a free bracelet, walked away with a lot of llama-related items, and had a really good time. Everything was extremely cheap and it was just really cool to interact with the locals in the way that we did. This was more of what I expected out of a study abroad. All of the touristy things we had done up until this point had been extremely fun and memorable, but I went to Ecuador to experience a new culture and immerse myself in it. That’s something I definitely had the opportunity to do at the market and I loved it.
After our time at the market, we went to a musician’s home where he demonstrated and played a variety of handmade instruments for us. His family performed for us as well and that was really cool. After that, we had lunch at a great local spot and I didn’t get food poisoning so that was a good thing (I wish I hadn’t thought that because oh boy do I have a story for later!). Our next little stop in Otavalo was in a little city that is known for its wood carvings. It was called San Antonio and no it was not in Texas, haha. After our short time there, it was back to Las Palmeras Inn and we had a cooking class! I got to prepare my own trout and help make empanadas. We also got to see how they make blackberry ice cream. Yum yum yum.
And just like that, short but sweet, we were saying adios to Otavalo and were onto our next city, Baños! I’m excited to share everything we did there. There was a lot of excitement and a lot to do in our next city. But you’ll just have to wait til next Sunday to hear about that! Have a good week and ciao for now. 🙂
Hola y bienvenidos a mi blog! Hoy, vamos a hablar de…I’m just kidding haha. I don’t think I could do an entire post in Spanish. I could, maybe on a very basic level, but I’m not sure that you’re all here for that kind of blog. Anyway! This week I’m going to be talking about the first city we stayed in during my study abroad from January 2nd to the 15th. Quito! The capital of Ecuador!
If you haven’t read my post on all of my journals summing up my Ecuador trip, I recommend maybe doing that before you read this post, just so you get a general idea of everything I did. Or if that’s all you want to read about my time in Ecuador, you can read that too, by clicking HERE! 🙂 You won’t be totally lost if you don’t though. On with the show!
What a wonderful way to start off my trip to Ecuador. We arrived super late on the 2nd after an entire day of traveling. My first time through customs wasn’t as scary as I honestly imagined it being. The man just asked how long I will stay, and I couldn’t remember how to say fourteen days in Spanish, so I told him “Two weeks (dos semanas)!” and called that good. My first stamp is looking pretty cute in my passport. 🙂
When we arrived at the Holiday Inn Express we stayed at downtown, my roommates and I practically all crashed. That may or may not be a theme of mine for this trip, haha. The next morning, January 3rd, we had an early breakfast at our hotel and then it was off to the Fundacion Cristo Misionero Orante, which is a school run by a group of nuns. The place was entirely self-sustaining, so all of the food they needed was right there for them. In addition to that, they also double as a safe place and home for children who come from abusive homes. At Fundacion Cristo Misionero Orante, we helped weed in the areas where farming happened so that they could plant more vegetables and herbs too. We also had the opportunity to teach English to the kids who were in class at the time. Another student and I had the opportunity to go and teach English toward the end of our time at the school, and let me tell you, it was not easy. One of the things I learned during this part of the trip is that I really wish I had taken more opportunities to learn Spanish in high school. I learned quite a bit, but what I knew still wasn’t enough. The kids most definitely wanted to communicate and I wanted to communicate back, but it was difficult. Sometimes, I felt like a fool, if I’m being completely honest. In the end though, I was more focused on just being able to make the kids smile and enjoy their company overall.
After about three hours of work at the school, we went back to downtown Quito for lunch at this super cute place, Patio Andaluz. Our first of many wonderful meals happened at this place. My addiction to blackberry juice also began this day, haha.
With full stomachs, our tour of Quito then began. We saw the president’s estate, the main plaza, and many beautiful, tight streets lined with brightly colored buildings that were both homes and shops. Locals walked around will platters filled with meringue treats which looked delicious and every chance they had, they wanted to sell us something. We also visited a beautiful cathedral during our tour of Quito. With the help of our wonderful guide, we were allowed into the church and even got to climb up to the roof and see a wonderful city view. I can now say that I’ve been on top of a church before. Literally, the very top. After this, we visited another spot where we could see all of Quito. It was beautiful and also really cool to look out and see how the building climbed up the Andes Mountains and then suddenly stopped.
Our first busy day in Quito concluded with a wonderful dinner at this place not too far from the hotel called Restaurante Achiote. The food was great, yet again, although I wasn’t a huge fan of the dessert which was figs dipped in black sugar and cheese. It was different, that’s for sure. A lot of the people on my trip really wanted to go out that night, so we went to this area deemed “Gringoland” and found a bar. I got some good old bottled water while everyone else drank. One of the things I learned to be extremely grateful for that night was the no smoking policy that a lot of places have in the United States. There was a man smoking behind me and let me just say my asthma wasn’t too pleased with that. My first experience in a bar was an interesting one, that’s for sure.
The next day in Quito, we were back at Fundacion Cristo Misionero Orante. We helped paint the wall outside the school to cover up the graffiti and also did some more weeding. If I can’t put that I’m a professional weeder on my resume at this point, I’m going to be very disappointed. Just kidding. It was REALLY hot that day and I am so glad that I brought some water, sunscreen, and a hat with me that day.
After our time at the school again, we headed to Hacienda Herlinda for lunch. The food was fantastic, again and after that we visited El Mitad del Mundo, or the middle of the world. Here I got to experience the wackiness that is the equator and now I can proudly say that I’ve been in both hemispheres at once! Fun times. With another busy day practically over, it was back to the hotel. We later had dinner (at a place that I can’t remember and appear to not have written about in my notes) and then went and got brownies at this place called Sweets and Coffee, which to me, seems like the Starbucks of Ecuador. It was a cute little place! Everyone wanted to go out again that night, but I was getting a headache, so I called it a night.
And just like that, our time in Quito was over and we were onto our next city, the one I was most excited for, Otavalo. Save the drama for your llama and I’ll see you all next Sunday!
I’m back! And oh boy does it feel good to be home. I really enjoyed my time in Ecuador but after getting food poisoning and catching a cold toward the end of my study abroad program, it sure feels good to be home. For my business minor, there was a two-week course offered through my university that would give me credit for the capstone business minor course. There were no prerequisites so it seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to go abroad for my first time and also get some college credit while I do it! I’m planning on posting more detailed stories of my time in Ecuador in weeks to come, but for this weekend, I decided to share the journals we had to write as our assignments for the class. They might be boring, they might be interesting. Hopefully you enjoy!
QUITO Everything we experienced in Quito has surpassed my expectations. I expected Quito to be a busy and modern because it is a big city and the capital of Ecuador, but I didn’t expect it to be as fun to explore and beautiful as it is. If you wanted a quiet afternoon to sit in the grass and watch people, you could do that and have a panoramic view of the entire city. If you wanted to go out with friends and have a good time at a bar and sing some karaoke, you could do that too. You could also just wander the streets of downtown Quito and look through all the shops and see all the beautiful architecture that makes Quito so special. Honestly, the food has been the biggest surprise to me too. There has been so much food at every meal and it has all been so unique and delicious too. The food is all so filling too. When looking at what makes Ecuador and the United States similar, obviously the currency has been similar and that has been so convenient. There have been a lot of differences. The food has been so good here and the process of each meal has been so different. Meals are so long here and it’s interesting that lunch is the prioritized meal here and that they really value family time at meals too. In the US, I feel like meals are important and valued but not to the same extent that they are in Ecuador. The driving has been so different here too. Being in the bus, there were so many times where I was concerned for people driving or walking around but they all just made it work! It was cool to see how polite all of the people were when driving for the most part too. Even when someone cut someone else off or a person didn’t like what they saw on the road, they would honk quietly and move on with their day. Out of everything in Quito, I feel like being at the school had the biggest impact on me. I truly didn’t realize how scary it is to have a bunch of people around you that speak a language I barely understand. I took a decent amount of Spanish in high school but I felt so overwhelmed by how fast the kids spoke Spanish and I couldn’t keep up. It was also amazing to see how happy all of the kids were with their simple life. I was inspired by them for that. They would find reasons to smile and giggle and act goofy in any situation! And when they were playing, it was also so crazy to see how aggressive and rough they were with each other. What truly shocked me was their ability to just get right back up and get back to what they were doing after being knocked to the ground or get knocked in the head with a soccer ball. Now those were some resilient kids. What I really enjoyed about the school was the curiosity of the kids and their desire to communicate with us even if we had our language barrier. The kids would try so hard to find other ways to get answers out of me if I didn’t understand what they asked the first time and it was and I admired their persistence. They were also so curious in what we were doing and I loved it when some of the boys came over and tried to help weed. They were adorable. I hope that what we did at that school helps the teachers and nuns and kids feel good about the place they work and play at. I hope they are able to use that space to grow more food and continue to be super self-sustaining and helpful in the lives of all of those kids. Quito was a fun, beautiful city and I feel so lucky to have been able to experience everything we did. Quito will always be special to me now because it is the first city I visited on my first time outside the US. I hope I get a chance to come back!
OTAVALO AND THE NORTHERN HIGHLANDS Since leaving Quito, the trip has only gotten better. When we went to the Cochasquí Archaeological Park and got to see all of the llamas, I had so much fun. That was such a unique experience and that place was so beautiful. The tour guide mentioned something about the energy of that place I believed in it fully. That park was super cool. I really enjoyed learning about the information that is known about the people that lived there. The whole thing about cutting your hair at the full moon to help it grow longer was fascinating. Their ability to track the stars and understand their environment based on the patterns of the sun, moon, and stars was fascinating. When we arrived in Otavalo and finally had the opportunity to go to the market, I think that became my favorite part of the trip. While the previous days had all been incredible, I feel like I was able to immerse myself into the culture even more and engage with the locals more which is something I have looked forward to this trip. Bartering was a new and fun way to shop and I was able to use some of the Spanish I know to make some pretty good deals. $15 for a pair of silver earrings just seems insane in the United States, but that was a deal I was able to make while at the market and I thought that was pretty cool. There was a man toward the back of the market that sold jewelry and by the end of our time there, I would say I made a friend at the market. We were his first customers of the day and he even gave us free bracelets for being his first customers. It was really cool to see all of the different things that people had made and how proud they were to display their goods. The work with the jewelry and wool products was especially impressive. After our time in the market, I really enjoyed going to Nanda Mañachi, Peguche, and the town of Cotocachi. Each stop we made had something so unique to it and I loved the emphasis on tradition. Especially with Peguche, I loved seeing parts of the traditional processes in making the beautiful wool scarves, sweaters, blankets, and tapestries. Other big companies that make wool products may have more perfected wool, but at Peguche, there was clearly so much passion and love for the work and culture which means so much more to me than precision and perfection with creating the wool yarn to begin with. After visiting Peguche, I don’t think I’ve ever actually felt softer wool. Between Quito and the cities of the Highlands, I feel like I’ve liked Otavalo and the Northern Highlands a little bit more. I did enjoy the modern, big-city feel that Quito had, but I feel like Otavalo and the other smaller cities we visited here expressed so much more culture and tradition which I enjoyed seeing and being a part of. Just thinking about the way that people dressed in Otavalo already was so different from Quito. Most men had long, braided hair and wore some form of a hat. The women all had very long hair and I can’t recall seeing a single woman that wasn’t wearing a skirt. It was all very traditional here and there was clearly so much pride with it too. I liked to see that. Every little town we visited specialized in one thing or the other which was cool too. Like with San Antonio, they specialized in wood carvings and you might be able to find some of that in another city but not to the same extent. In Quito, there was no specialization like that. It was mostly modern, and you could find a variety of things everywhere.
BAÑOS Baños was an incredible little town and I’m glad that it was added to the program. There’s so much to do there and the town itself has so much variety in its geography and it’s in a good location for adventure tourism. Baños is surrounded by volcanoes and mountains so that makes it a prime location for adventurous mountain climbers, mountain biking, and also for hot springs. It has a lot of waterfalls and rivers that create opportunities for whitewater rafting and other water-related activities. Baños is just in a great geographic location and that is part of what allows it to support so much tourism in general but especially the adventure tourism, as I mentioned. Tourism in general definitely has a positive impact on the economy in Baños. It was clear that Baños relies on tourism and the money it brings to the city based on all the souvenir shops and touristy experiences like ziplining, bike tours, and the swings off the mountainsides. Out of everything we did in Baños, my favorite thing was the zipline because the views were just so beautiful and I enjoyed getting to be around so many other people that were excited to do fun, adventurous things like ziplining. I’ve ziplined before but it was just such a unique experience getting to be strapped in face down and experience the canopy as if we were flying. That hike was not so fun though when we needed to get to the second platform to come back. That was intense. Regardless, the views were great and I really enjoyed the zipline. In comparison to Otavalo, Baños just had a lot to do and was clearly a town geared toward tourists. From the goods that were sold to the appearance of the shops to the way locals interacted with everyone, Baños was clearly a tourist town. Baños just had so much variety too. There were the Andes and the Amazon rainforest and rivers and waterfalls and hot springs. Otavalo, on the other hand, was more geared toward its own people. The market was more of a tourist attraction but it still appealed to the locals. They were still very involved in the market and the overall culture of the market. When we visited Rose Success on our drive to Baños, I really enjoyed getting to see the process of growing the roses, picking the roses, and ultimately preparing them for shipment to their various locations. It was interesting to learn about the specific requirements for roses going to specific places. Like for roses going to Russia, the stems need to be quite long. And I was also shocked to see some of the roses that were deemed unfit for export. They looked gorgeous to me! It was cool to see that roses that aren’t selected for export at least make it to the markets and stands throughout Ecuador. That’s a much less wasteful way to run a business, especially a flower business. Overall, Baños was a fun town to explore and experience. It has so much to offer and I know for a fact that everything we did in Baños will not be forgotten. I’m excited to see what programs in the future have the chance to experience in Baños!
A BUNCH OF SMALL STOPS Our visit to Rodrigo’s home and the Urbina Estacion was really cool. I liked the art on the walls in that room we were in that displayed each of the volcanoes and big mountains in Ecuador along with the surrounding cities. That really put everything in perspective when looking at the geographical layout of Ecuador. I loved hearing Rodrigo’s stories too. He was such an interesting man and clearly has a lot of experience with the mountains and volcanoes of Ecuador. If he comes out with a book in the near future, that’s something I would be interested in reading so that I can learn even more about his life and support the exciting work he does. The lava rock dinner following our visit to Rodrigo’s house was so fun and a super unique experience. The hacienda we ate at was gorgeous and it was cool to be in the same building Simón Bolivar once stayed in. Getting to grill my own food was a fun experience. All of the food was so good that night and if I had to pick a favorite part, I would definitely say the flan. It was delicious. When we went to Riobamba, I was honestly shocked by how nice it ended up being. When we initially drove in, I was honestly quite sketched out by everything we drove past but when I could finally see everything the next day, that opinion changed. The hotel was very nice and had really good strawberry-blackberry juice and the downtown area was actually quite cute. When we visited the Guamote community while in Riobamba, I really enjoyed getting to try and teach English again. The class we had was much more shy than the class that I had at the school outside Quito, but they were so cute and I loved watching them try to follow along when we sang “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes”. The guinea pig preparation was honestly rough for me to watch but I was happy to see how humane the process was and I was impressed by how fast the women killed and cleaned the guinea pigs to prepare them for our meal later. When we finally had lunch, I was surprised by the food, honestly. I expected it to be bland and was going into it thinking I wasn’t going to eat very much food at all but I had a decent amount of potatoes and corn. The food was pretty bland but it was fresh and I did enjoy eating it when there was seasoning and hot sauce provided. I even tried a tiny piece of guinea pig but I think after that experience, I probably won’t try guinea pig again. One of the biggest take-aways I had from our experience in that community was that you don’t need much in life to be happy. Living a simple life doesn’t mean you live a sad life. That was quite the opposite in the Guamote community and it’s something I plan to think a lot about and apply to my own life. The Devil’s Nose train ride was the first train ride I’ve actually ever taken and for my first one, I’d say it was pretty good. I enjoyed the views and was glad that Effy could do some explaining and pointing out for me because the tour guide on the train was extremely difficult to understand. When we arrived at the mountain community, I really enjoyed getting to see the dances. I loved the bright colors and really loved the skirts the women wore. I wish that we had a chance to wear those and dance around in them but the dancing we did was still very fun. Before and after the train ride, it was fun to explore Alausí. It was a cute little town. The food was pretty good and extremely cheap there as well. I spent $6 on a meal for a huge glass of blackberry juice, a bowl of chicken soup, rice, chicken, and a salad. It was a good deal and I’m still so shocked by how cheap food is here. In the US, a meal like that would’ve easily cost about $15.
INGAPIRCA AND CUENCA The Ingapirca ruins were cool to see, especially when looking at the fusion of Cañari and Incan culture and tradition in the way the different structures were built. It was interesting to compare pure Cañari-built structures to pure Incan-built structures and then see how they came together, especially with that one room that was supposedly where the Incan king and Cañari princess stayed. These ruins were more of what I expected to see when we first visited the ruins on our way to Otavalo. It was interesting to see that the moon was another important god to the Incans and Cañaris. That has been something consistent throughout many of the indigenous and ancient communities we’ve learned about during our time here. Our time in Ingapirca was extremely short but I enjoyed the time we spent both at the hotel and the ruins. Cuenca was another short visit, but I also enjoyed the time we spent there. Cuenca had a very different vibe to it than any other city we visited. It was busy and moving, but the dominance of the Catholic religion definitely played into the tone of the city. I remember Effy telling us that no building can be taller than the Catedral de Cuenca and that goes to show how powerful religion is in that city. I loved getting to go in and see what that cathedral looked like. It was an incredible building and the feeling I got from standing inside it was truly powerful. The beauty of the churches we passed and got to see clearly demonstrate that people in Cuenca care deeply about their religion. From the three baby Jesus parades I saw, I also realized how important community and that sense of religious belief as a community is to people in Cuenca. The fact that mostly everything was also closed on Sunday demonstrated how seriously people in Cuenca follow their religion, once again. On our way out from Cuenca, stopping at Homero Ortega was a fun and interesting trip. It was cool to learn about the process of making Panama hats and I truly feel confident saying I’ve never seen that many hats in my entire life. There was so much variety in the size, style, and color of each and every hat that came out of that company. I was impressed by the care and quality that went into creating each hat to make sure that something wonderful was made. The quality surely pays off when looking at the customer base that Homero Ortega has, including Princess Diana, Julia Roberts, and Johnny Depp. It was crazy to hear about the one man who paid $40,000 for ten hats and the process that goes into working with clients to create the hats in demand. I just don’t think I’d ever spend $4,000 for a single hat. They were great quality though and they had a bunch of fun, cute hats that might be worth it. When looking at Ingapirca and Cuenca in comparison to a lot of the other cities we’ve visited, they’ve definitely been more on the indigenous side of things, like Otavalo. There were more businesses that appealed to locals and the traditions of the people there as opposed to tourists. There was a small town feel to both Ingapirca and Cuenca that reminded me of Otavalo, just because neither are truly big tourist towns. Truly though, it’s hard to compare these cities to past cities we’ve been to during our time here because we haven’t had the same amount of time to experience them as we have with cities like Quito and Baños. Ingapirca also just didn’t seem like a very large city and a majority of things in Cuenca were closed due to the fact that it was Sunday while we were there. Regardless, both were great little cities and I enjoyed spending time in both. Hopefully students next year will get to enjoy a more lively Cuenca!
GUAYAQUIL AND SALINAS BEACH The visits to both chocolate companies were interesting. I enjoyed seeing the process of creating chocolate from the bean fermentation at Guangala to the actual molding and making of chocolate at Tulicorp. At Guangala, I loved seeing how knowledgeable Rafaela and Jimmy were about their work. They were also clearly very passionate about the work they do and I appreciated the sustainable aspect of their business as well. It was very clear that Guangala considers the environmental impacts their work has on the world around them and that sets them apart from other cacao processing companies. There was also a very clear positive relationship between management and the workers. The way that Jimmy and Rafaela both interacted with workers on the patio was very positive and encouraging. It was good to hear that Guangala is set on educating their employees too. From what it sounded like, Guangala makes sure its workers are educated on matters from different diseases cacao plants can get to how to properly harvest cacao pods and prepare them for fermentation. Continuing education is important in all fields but I found it very interesting that Guangala invested so much in it for their workers. It shows that they want high-quality products and employees who know a lot and care a lot about their products. At Tulicorp, I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the company. Everyone working while we were there was focused and working hard but they were clearly enjoying themselves. The conditions were hot and it was somewhat dark in there, but they were completing their tasks and smiling while they did it. That that they enjoy what they do. Happiness at the employee level comes from a strong management team and from what I could tell, Tulicorp was well run and has a fantastic family running it. It was cool to see that there had been four generations of cocoa business owners at Tulicorp. The passion for cocoa ran in the family and it very clearly continued and was displayed in the work we got to see and hear about. Tulicorp had a small business feel, but everyone there knew that they were an important and powerful company that worked with a lot of big names and companies like Trader Joe’s. At both places, I was surprised by how involved management was with the entire process. It was cool to hear that Jimmy, Rafaela, and people at Tulicorp regularly visit the cacao farms to see the workers and their plants. They are so much more involved than I ever expected them to be and I feel like that helps both Guangala and Tulicorp stand out in Ecuador. In terms of regulations, I was surprised by all the sustainability regulations that both Tulicorp and Guangala held themselves to. To me, the biggest surprise came from the sustainability regulation aspect of the chocolate industry. It’s not something I would have initially considered to be important but it definitely is and it’s great to see such successful chocolate businesses working so hard to take care of the environment. I wasn’t too surprised by the amount of regulations otherwise though. It makes sense for a high-quality product to have a lot of regulations. In order for something delicious and desirable to be produced, there has to be a process that regulates everything from the qualities of pesticides and insecticides that protect the cacao pods all the way to the machinery and maintenance of that machinery that makes the chocolate.
And with the end of that journal comes the end of this extremely long post. I hope some of you are still around to see this, haha. In the weeks to come, I’ll highlight each major stop we made that was reflected by each of my Ecuador journals. I had a lot to say with my journals but there is just so much that we did and covered during my two weeks in Ecuador and I can’t contain it all to one or two blog posts. So if you’re into travel blogs, that’s what this is going to become for a bit. Have a wonderful week everyone! 🙂
This is meant to be upside down. Haha. My grandpa has some great brick walls at his house. 🙂
This past weekend was another visit to New Mexico. Road trips can be pretty fun! We celebrated my aunt and dad’s birthday on Saturday and then just spent quality time with family which is always good. 🙂
We left on Friday with my whole gang, dogs and all and enjoyed a nice and cool drive down to Farmington, New Mexico. We made our regular stops at Gunsmoke outside of Buena Vista, Colorado, South Fork, and the McDonald’s in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Marty and Boo, my doggies, always enjoy road trips, and Marty has always really enjoyed getting to stick his head out. Both Marty and Boo really enjoy getting to eat the occasional French fry too, after our McDonald’s stop. Haha.
Friday night we enjoyed a great dinner with lots of veggies from our garden and angel food cake for dessert. The angel food cake with fruit was a highlight for sure. 🙂
Saturday was my dad’s birthday as well as my aunt’s birthday. We spent the day relaxing, eating more good food, and playing Uno. There was just a lot of good time with family. We also went dorm room shopping at Target. Shockingly, the Target in Farmington had better options than the ones back in Broomfield! We also did some shopping for my aunt’s new kitten. She’s a cutie!
For the big birthday dinner that night, we had root beer floats and a delicious peach cream pie for dessert. Safeway makes some delicious and cute cakes nowadays, let me tell ya!
With the birthday festivities over, Sunday was spent getting ready to go back to Colorado and just like that, our fun, family weekend was over. We were welcomed back to Colorado with a lot of rain and cooler temperatures which is always refreshing. The road trip back to Colorado is always really long (it has always been 7-8 hours but the desire and anticipation to get home seems to make it longer). The views are always beautiful too. Some of the drive can be boring, but it has always been fun to see what’s out there.
I’ve really enjoyed the time my family has spent in New Mexico. I wish that the visits could be longer but the time my family and I spend together is always great and so worth it. Family is so important and will always be.
It’s crazy to think that summer’s almost over now! I’ve got one more week of freedom, ahhhhhh. I hope you all have a great week!
I’m sitting on a plane writing this and it most definitely won’t be uploaded until late tonight. Oopsies! I just had a wonderful weekend in California. I went to visit one of my really good friends from school. Her and her family live in Sacramento and were wonderful in letting me stay at their house for the time I was there. Just a heads up, this is going to be a long post, so get comfortable!
I arrived late Thursday night and was welcomed by cooler temperatures (in comparison to the oven that Colorado has been lately). On Friday, my friend showed me around Sacramento and we went to Old Town as well as Downtown Sacramento. Old Town was super cute and there was this fun candy store we went into. They had the most taffy I’ve EVER seen in my life. As a recommendation, I ask you all to never never never try chicken and waffles taffy. It’s gross. That’s all I have to say about that.
When we went to Downtown Sacramento, my friend and I stopped at this really pretty place for lunch called The Bank after walking around for a bit. We went to Pressed Juicery prior to lunch and both got rose lemonade and a watermelon pomegranate juice. Healthy and yummy juice options there for sure! I just wish we had one in Colorado. 🙁 I’m pretty sure they’re expanding out of California, but not quite yet…
The best way I can describe The Bank: its an old bank turned into an upscale cafeteria with really good food options. They had burgers, Mexican food, pizza, poke bowls, a bakery, and a bar. The burgers at Station 8 (that was the name of the little restaurant) were what my friend and I got. So yummy too by the way! I got the Bank burger and it came with mushroom gravy and sour cream on it in addition to many of the tradition things you find on a burger. The fries were good too, but too much for one person. If you stop by The Bank, I would recommend splitting the fries with another person.
After lunch, we walked around Downtown a bit more and then my friend took me to the Starbucks Reserve, which is basically a fancy Starbucks. There are only a couple of them in the country, I think. That was pretty cool and then I got a very yummy drink from them and a couple cup to keep (I’m a dork). I got the nitro dirty chai. 10/10 would recommend!
We finished out Friday watching movies: Primal Fear and A Few Good Men and then went to bed because the next day was going to be a long day. We were going to San Francisco!
The next day started around 6:15 in the morning and we went to Chick-Fil-A for breakfast on the way. At this moment, I remember thinking, “Thank goodness Colorado time isn’t too different from California time!” Waking up that early wasn’t too bad. I think the drive was around two hours. After finding parking, we went to Union Square and went to this one mall that had a Nordstrom with like eight different floors. There was practically an entire floor dedicated to shoes! It was crazy. At that mall, we walked around Nordstrom for a while and then stopped by American Eagle and Lululemon. I was very excited to go to the Lululemon. 🙂
After some shopping, our next stop was the Museum of Ice Cream. Wow was that a fun place to go. If you’re ever in San Francisco, PLEASE go. The amount of ice cream you receive and the fun you have is worth the price. You do need to get tickets in advance though, just a heads up.
You enter the museum by going through the “pink portal” which is just a pink tube slide. After that, my friend and I were greeted by a person in a jumpsuit with otter pops. We created ice cream names for ourselves (I was Ana Banana haha) and then moved onto the next room. The next room was a cute little diner where we got s’mores ice cream. The cone was dipped in chocolate and the ice cream was dusted with graham crackers. It fully tasted like a s’more! Room after room, we got more ice cream and got to take so many cute pictures. There was a lot of fun stuff to do in each room too!
Like in one, we got to make bracelets, there was one where we got to play with fun mirrors, there was one with those giant frosted animal cookies you could sit on, there was another with cute unicorns you could take pictures with, and there was another room where you could write words on a wall with magnetic letters. There was also a room with a pool filled with sprinkles that had a slide and diving board. That room was pretty cute too. We got ice cream sandwiches made of chocolate chip cookies and pink vanilla ice cream at the sprinkles pool.
Overall, the Museum of Ice Cream was a super fun, super interactive, and super cute place to visit. If you ever plan to make a trip to California, take your family to San Francisco and this place in particular and be prepared for A LOT of ice cream.
After our ice cream adventure, my friend and I walked around Union Square a bit more and spent an hour inside Tiffany’s. No, we didn’t buy anything, but the gentleman assisting us allowed us both to try on a few pieces which was really fun. 🙂 Maybe someday I’ll be able to afford some of that jewelry.
Our day in San Francisco was still not over! We went to Pier 39, where I got to see Alcatraz from a distance, ate a bunch of mini doughnuts covered in cinnamon and sugar, went on a carousel, and navigated my way through a mirror maze. After our fun at Pier 39, we headed to a small beach where my friend and I took some more pictures and I truly got to see the Golden Gate Bridge.
By now, dinner was rolling around and so we hopped back in the car and took a short drive over to Ghirardelli Square. There, we had dinner at the San Francisco Brewing Company (great pizza and virgin drinks there by the way!), and then went to get some chocolate. I would have ordered a milkshake or some ice cream but I was all ice-creamed-out from my adventures earlier in the day.
After dinner and some more shopping, we began the journey back to Sacramento which began with a stop at a viewpoint of the Golden Gate Bridge. Oh my goodness was it cold and windy, but the view of the bridge and San Francisco as the sun set was spectacular. Lots of good pictures from there! Then it was another two hour drive back to my friend’s house. I crashed that night, that’s for sure. The next day was going to be much more relaxed, THANK GOODNESS.
On Sunday, my friend and I went to see the new Lion King movie which I am proud to say that I really enjoyed. Disney did a fabulous job sticking to the plot of the original movie (which they’ve struggled with in their remakes, in my opinion). That made the movie a lot more enjoyable to me. After the movie, my friend and I stopped for lunch at In-N-Out because what trip to California would be complete without it?
This was my first time ever going to In-N-Out and I was pleasantly surprised by the simplicity of the menu and of course, the tastiness of the food. That was a good burger. Does it beat BurgerFi? In my opinion, no. But it was still a very yummy meal. After lunch, we went back to her house and just relaxed until it was time for me to head to the airport for my trip back to Denver and here we are in the present time. 🙂
To my friend, if you ever read this, thank you so much for showing me Sacramento, San Francisco, and just California in general! I had a blast with you and your family. And thank you to your family for allowing me to stay at your home and have fun with you all for a weekend! California is a fun state to visit and explore and I look forward to visiting it many more times to come. Have a good week everyone!
This isn’t even stuff that happened this past weekend, but it did happen the weekend before and I felt the need to share now. My mom and I had a mission, and that mission was to find a new tennis skirt at Lululemon. And of course the closest Lululemon was in Boulder. Since I was home for the weekend, I took a trip to Boulder, the home of the enemy (Go Rams!), and went to the 29th Street Mall.
I honestly forgot how scary Boulder was. I used to visit all the time considering that my dad worked at CU Boulder, but it has gotten weird, let me tell ya. There were just a lot of weird stores and the overall vibe was just a little weird. Regardless, I found my skirt at Lululemon and will happily be wearing it on the court whenever I get the chance. We also found a couple of really cute racerback tank tops and another cute shirt for working out in. I would definitely consider Lululemon to be on the more expensive side of clothing, but the quality is amazing, and their clothes last for quite a long time, so the price is worth it.
After our time at Lululemon, we walked around Macy’s and then Brandy Melville, which I didn’t realize was an actual, physical store. I’ve known that you can shop at Brandy Melville online, but like I said, I didn’t realize it was an actual store you could shop at in person. I also knew a bunch of girls that LOVED Brandy Melville clothes in high school and made the biggest deal of it, but I’ve never really understood that. If Brandy Melville is your style and you love it, I’m not judging, but still, wow.
There’s honestly a lot of clothes that are that way in my opinion. As long as you’re comfortable and confident in what you wear, then that’s awesome! There really isn’t a need to go around making a big deal of other people’s outfits, judging them for the brands they wear. Clothes are clothes, let’s keep that in mind. Kind of like with the brand Supreme, I never understood the appeal. Super limited edition, super “cool”, and super expensive. And the only thing that separated Supreme hoodies from a perfectly good and comfortable hoodie from Kohl’s or Target was the logo.
Anyway, back to the story of my weekend. After our walk-through of Brandy Melville, my family and I stopped at Starbucks (woohoo) and finished our Boulder afternoon adventure with caramel cloud macchiatos. And if you get the cloud macchiato iced, it’s even better. Honestly, the cloud macchiato is my favorite all-time drink at Starbucks. It’s beautiful and so tasty and so different from any other Starbucks drink I’ve ever had. It’s unfortunate that it’s a limited edition drink, but it’s really not too big of a deal. Hopefully they’ll bring it back around!
I hope you all have a great week. I’m glad that the weather is finally getting warmer, especially after having a horrible bomb cyclone x2 this past week. See you next Sunday!
As many of you know, I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to the island of Oahu this past summer after my high school graduation. This past week was a rough week of tests and speeches, so during one of my study breaks, I took some time to look through my camera roll on my phone and I stumbled across some pictures from my Hawaii trip.
It was at that moment that I realized how much I LOVED Hawaii and how excited I am to be able to travel there in the future. Out of the many places I visited while in Hawaii, Byodo-In temple was definitely a favorite and I would consider it one of my favorite places on Earth, as of right now at least.
I remember first arriving at the temple and thinking it was going to be some small, so-so, meh kinda visit. Boy was I wrong! The scenery was gorgeous, the temple itself was gorgeous. Even the swans and frogs were gorgeous! Like who calls a frog pretty?
The peace and just overall feeling of the area was so peaceful and calming and with all of the stress I dealt with this past week, it was wonderful to find a way to relax myself. I bet a lot of you can relate in some way. Remembering a relaxing time or a calming place you’ve been can really help actually calm you down!
Everything about Byodo-In temple was just magical and just thinking about the feelings and calmness I felt there make me so content and at peace and I love it. I really hope to visit again in the near future. I’m not quite sure when but I know I’ll make it happen. Have a great week everyone. 🙂
I hope you all have been enjoying these posts about my trip to Oahu. Sorry if there hasn’t been a lot of variety the past month and a halfish, I just didn’t want my posts about Hawaii to basically be novels. Some of them still are, but that’s fine. Anyway. Onto the last two days in Hawaii!
June 1st was the day we went out to Pearl Harbor. We originally wanted to go out to the USS Arizona Memorial but unfortunately, it was closed, and I think it’s still closed due to structural issues. Despite this, we got a tour of the harbor which was still very, very cool. And even before that, there was a 20 minute movie on Pearl Harbor and the day it was attacked. Before my visit to the harbor, I learned about the tragedy on December 7, 1941, but actually being there taught me so much more. It was extremely powerful and uplifting and patriotic to be at Pearl Harbor. It was fascinating but also horrifying to learn about how the Japanese planned their attack on Pearl Harbor and then attacked. It was also saddening to learn about all of the lives lost that day. While we were on the boat tour, our guide told us oil still leaks from the USS Arizona which lies directly below its memorial. She then told us that some say the oil is the ship’s own “black tears” and that the ship will continue crying until the last of the USS Arizona’s men and survivors pass away. I thought that comment itself was extremely powerful and shows the impact that the attack on Pearl Harbor had on the United States. Please visit Pearl Harbor if you ever go to Oahu. Just do it.
After our visit to the harbor, the rest of the day was pretty chill. We finished up the day with some shopping in the area surrounding the Hilton Hawaiian Village, another walk along the beach, a successful hunt for seashells, and the Friday night fireworks put on by Hilton. Fun fact about seashells: You can take seashells and other non-living or broken off pieces of coral from the Hawaiian islands and that’s all you can take. If you take sand, that’s considered disrespectful to the motherland and some people have even sent sand back to Hawaii because they’ve experienced bad luck after taking sand. It was so sad that our trip was coming to a close!
On our last day on Oahu, my aunt and uncle took me to this cute little breakfast and lunch place called Eggs N’ Things. They had the most amazing chocolate chip pancakes. And to top off those pancakes they had this really good coconut syrup. Mmmmmmm. That was a good last breakfast in Hawaii. After filling our bellies, we went to the ABC Store one last time, walked along the beach again, and then were off to the airport. My trip to Oahu was the most magical, amazing, and wonderful trip ever. I had the best time with my aunt and uncle and I’m so thankful to them for all we did. Oahu, I intend to be back. Not sure when, but I know I’ll be coming back. Still writing about this trip now makes me miss it and also reflect on all the fun I had. I find myself looking at the pictures I took and watching the videos I recorded A LOT. Something I also loved about Hawaii was how my allergies and asthma were practically non-existent. Being in such a humid and wonderful place did wonderful things for my body. I also felt like I had so much more energy and stamina and I could just go and go forever! What a great time. 🙂 Like I said, I’ll be back Hawaii! Have a wonderful week everyone. Aloha Oahu!
