Today I am staying in Quito. Tomorrow I will probably travel again, I am going with Giovanni and his friends to visit a typical "hacienda" (sort of old farm/ land from the times of indigenous exploitation), but today it's - for once- quiet time.
I woke up late, left 4 kgs of clothes in a nearby laundry place (basically ALL my clothes!) and then went to finally visit the historical centre of the city. I only walked around, didn't visit any museums or churches yet, i just wanted to get a feel of it and take it easy. I got lost a couple of times, and in some lonely streets I didn't feel completely safe (especially since i seemed to be the only blonde around!!), but it was just a feeling cause absolutely nothing happened. I like the "old town" a lot, it reminds me of Spain a bit, however I must say that it looked nicer at night. What I really love is the view you get from anywhere in Quito: mountains and volcanos so close you could virtually touch them, you really feel right in the middle of the Andes here. As for the rest, the city looks like any southern spanish or italian city, i.e. modern parts mixed with rough parts, but i don't find it chaotic at all (nothing compared to Rome or Naples, believe me!)...of course you see a lot of rural people, mostly reinventing themselves as street vendors, but that is also somehow their culture...i think the rural people here live exactly like rural people used to live at my grandmother's times, and in a way they remind me a little of my countryside childhood.
People here invent all sort of jobs, you have to give a "tip" to everyone, from the guy who supposely "looks after" your car when you park it in the street, to the guy who packs your purchase in a supermarket (who asked him????) :) and they continously cook and sell food on the streets and on the buses, which I find really interesting and sort of handy sometimes, when you don't feel like cooking and you' d rather eat a typical dish (although contaminated with cars pollution!)
Prices in Ecuador are somehow ridicolous for someone who lived in London her last 5 years: i can have a full breakfast with jam, eggs, coffee and fresh juice for 2 dollars, a dinner for 6-8 dollars, a mojito cocktail for little more than a dollar. I am spending a lot for Ecuadorian standards due to all my travels and the accommodation ($10 a night), but it's been a month and haven't reached the price of a week in Ibiza yet :)
Last weekend my volunteer friends Kayla & Anna, Giovanni and I went to Baños, a town 3.5 hrs south of Quito, set close to one of the most active volcanos in the world. Baños is really famous for nature seekers and travellers, as there is plenty on offer from sports activities to bars and discos at night. We ended up staying from Friday to Monday cause we really loved it. On Saturday we did an organised day trip to the Amazon forest (which is not very far) and then finished up with a visit to a local cave. The Amazon forest is absolutely amazing, despite worrying a bit at first about mosquitos and other insects, I ended up loving it and will definitely return to visit it more in the inside. This tour was in fact a bit "touristic", although for the price and the lovelyness of our guide it was a perfect first "bite" of this incredible world.
On Saturday night we danced till 2 am and the following morning we hired some bikes and went off to get see some waterfalls and bathe in a river, and on the way back we stopped at the thermal baths of the town...there are basically 2 pools with extremely (naturally) hot mineral water and all you do is enter and "cook" like a chicken in the soup, then get out and scream while you shower in freezing cold water, all this with the beautiful night view of the sourrounding mountains and volcano...all for 2 dollars! surely they could develop the pools into something more fancy, but I must say that even like this, it works perfectly to relax your tired muscles at the end of an intense day!!
I didn't have time to upload the videos, but here you can see the pictures from this trip http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=343524&id=872710289&l=7e61f795f1 , soon I will be back with more, with some videos and with more details about the nursery and how your fundraising money was spent!!
Have a great week everyone!
21 November 2009
16 November 2009
Ecuador bits & pieces
Hi friends,
I am still in Ecuador and still loving it to bits. Of course there are plus and minuses like everywhere, but I am really happy to have chosen this little paradise for my trip.
In the last two weeks we have experienced daily power shortages of up to 7 hours, with all the consequences you can imagine: no light (=eating in the candlelight and walking down the street with the light of the mobile!), no power to use hairdryers, internet or even charge your phone, quite annoying to be honest but what can you do, we are experiencing one of the dryest times of the last 40 years, so no water for the hydroelectric power centrals, hence no power. It's supposed to be winter since October in Andean Ecuador, which means rainy season, but so far it has rained like 3 times since I have been here and it's so hot and sunny it feels like August... global warming is a huge thing here as well, as you can see.
Today I am writing from the computer of a hostel in central Quito...this morning, together with other 2 volunteers (Anna from France and Kayla from USA) we have left the family we were living with in the small village of Conocoto and moved to the city. We were a bit fed up with being away from Quito as to go out at night we always had to take a taxi to Quito, which can be dangerous as well. I am so happy to be here and on top of it we pay less! This area of the town is called Mariscal and it's full of bars, discos and restaurants, quite a few tourists around here but also lots of Ecuador people hang out here so it's a lot of fun.
The other night we went salsa dancing, but it was quite frustrating for me since every-single-body dances really well, they are born with the rhythm...while I am not!!! So I have decided to take some lessons, maybe next month.
One thing I really hate of Ecuador is the amount of street dogs, you find them everywhere while there are virtually no cats in this country...definitely a minus, given how much i looooove cats :)
The work at the nursery is almost at its end, this will be my last week and I already feel sad, they are all adorable even when they scream or cry and you wish you could throw them out of the window :) but I love them all and I will definitely miss them and visit them again. Now I will go to a children shop to buy lots of toys and other stuff for them with the fundraising money you guys gave me...we will make a party on Wednesday and can't wait to see them screaming with excitment at the sight of all their new toys and tools.
I will definitely post some pictures soon, and will also tell you all about my last weekend in the Spa town of Baños (=Baths) and the trip to the Amazon forest :)
Have a great week!!
I am still in Ecuador and still loving it to bits. Of course there are plus and minuses like everywhere, but I am really happy to have chosen this little paradise for my trip.
In the last two weeks we have experienced daily power shortages of up to 7 hours, with all the consequences you can imagine: no light (=eating in the candlelight and walking down the street with the light of the mobile!), no power to use hairdryers, internet or even charge your phone, quite annoying to be honest but what can you do, we are experiencing one of the dryest times of the last 40 years, so no water for the hydroelectric power centrals, hence no power. It's supposed to be winter since October in Andean Ecuador, which means rainy season, but so far it has rained like 3 times since I have been here and it's so hot and sunny it feels like August... global warming is a huge thing here as well, as you can see.
Today I am writing from the computer of a hostel in central Quito...this morning, together with other 2 volunteers (Anna from France and Kayla from USA) we have left the family we were living with in the small village of Conocoto and moved to the city. We were a bit fed up with being away from Quito as to go out at night we always had to take a taxi to Quito, which can be dangerous as well. I am so happy to be here and on top of it we pay less! This area of the town is called Mariscal and it's full of bars, discos and restaurants, quite a few tourists around here but also lots of Ecuador people hang out here so it's a lot of fun.
The other night we went salsa dancing, but it was quite frustrating for me since every-single-body dances really well, they are born with the rhythm...while I am not!!! So I have decided to take some lessons, maybe next month.
One thing I really hate of Ecuador is the amount of street dogs, you find them everywhere while there are virtually no cats in this country...definitely a minus, given how much i looooove cats :)
The work at the nursery is almost at its end, this will be my last week and I already feel sad, they are all adorable even when they scream or cry and you wish you could throw them out of the window :) but I love them all and I will definitely miss them and visit them again. Now I will go to a children shop to buy lots of toys and other stuff for them with the fundraising money you guys gave me...we will make a party on Wednesday and can't wait to see them screaming with excitment at the sight of all their new toys and tools.
I will definitely post some pictures soon, and will also tell you all about my last weekend in the Spa town of Baños (=Baths) and the trip to the Amazon forest :)
Have a great week!!
09 November 2009
2 weeks in Ecuador
Last weekend was a long weekend, as Monday 2nd November, Dead's Day, is a national holiday in Ecuador, and the 3rd is Independence Day for the city of Cuenca, which for some reason is celebrated in the whole country. As I was feeling better, I decided to take advantage of these days off and went for a trip to the most famous indigenous town in Ecuador, called Otavalo. In this little town, indigenous people still wear the traditional clothes and make most of their living by selling their beautiful handicrafts at the local daily market. However, they are also quite integrated with modern life and even though they cannot be considered rich, they definitely live in decorous conditions.
We had good fun in Otavalo as we joined a friend from Couchsurfing, Julio, and his friends, all of them locals of Otavalo. We first had a trip to the nearby lake of Cuicocha, which is a beautiful lake in the crater of a volcano, and then stopped by at a local town festival at the nearby village of Cotacachi, where I could taste some local food including roast guinea pig!! Julio & friends were shocked as foreigners usually find the idea of eating a little sweet guinea pig quite disgusting, but enter Lorena!!! I loved it, tasted better than chicken!!
Ecuador local food mainly consists of plain rice with some sort of meat & potato, and lots of vegetable soups and maize based food and drinks, nothing particularly fancy but I really love it!! They also drink a huge amount of natural juices, and they are all absolutely delicious. Luckily it looks like my stomach is now adapting, so I am back to tasting everything what's on display ;)
We took the trip in Julio's parents' car, a SUV with an open back (sort of a small truck), which is the most common means of transport in Ecuador. Locals travel in groups in these "camionetas" and when they don't fit anymore inside (of course if 5 are allowed at least 7 passengers will travel in the seats!! kids never wearing any belts...), they travel (like us) sitting or standing in the open luggage space on the back - like we did!!
On the 2nd Nov, Deads' Day, we went to the indigenous cemetery to check out the local tradition of indigenous families to sit on the relatives' tombstones and spend the whole day there eating and having fun, very interesting.
You can see the pictures on http://picasaweb.google.com/lorenaminig/Ecuador1
I spent the rest of the week working at the nursery, I now have a fellow volunteer and house mate, a very cool French girl called Anna and we have a lot of fun together with the kids and the mothers. You can see the pictures of a typical day at the nursery on http://picasaweb.google.com/lorenaminig/Ecuador2
This weekend I went with Giovi to a town 2,5hrs away from Quito, called Mindo, right in the middle of the tropical cloud forest. We had an amazing time walking in the forest (vegetation is amazing, and there is plenty of "colibri" hummerbirds & butterflies), and trying an activity called Canopy, where you slide down a cord over the forest, really cool!! Again, more pictures on http://picasaweb.google.com/lorenaminig/Ecuador3
Videos can be viewed on http://www.youtube.com/user/loriecuador
I am loving the time in Ecuador, it's been 2 weeks but it feels a much longer time, and I really enjoy every bit of this amazing trip! Hope to be back with more pictures and videos soon...
Always thinking of you, take care
xxx
We had good fun in Otavalo as we joined a friend from Couchsurfing, Julio, and his friends, all of them locals of Otavalo. We first had a trip to the nearby lake of Cuicocha, which is a beautiful lake in the crater of a volcano, and then stopped by at a local town festival at the nearby village of Cotacachi, where I could taste some local food including roast guinea pig!! Julio & friends were shocked as foreigners usually find the idea of eating a little sweet guinea pig quite disgusting, but enter Lorena!!! I loved it, tasted better than chicken!!
Ecuador local food mainly consists of plain rice with some sort of meat & potato, and lots of vegetable soups and maize based food and drinks, nothing particularly fancy but I really love it!! They also drink a huge amount of natural juices, and they are all absolutely delicious. Luckily it looks like my stomach is now adapting, so I am back to tasting everything what's on display ;)
We took the trip in Julio's parents' car, a SUV with an open back (sort of a small truck), which is the most common means of transport in Ecuador. Locals travel in groups in these "camionetas" and when they don't fit anymore inside (of course if 5 are allowed at least 7 passengers will travel in the seats!! kids never wearing any belts...), they travel (like us) sitting or standing in the open luggage space on the back - like we did!!
On the 2nd Nov, Deads' Day, we went to the indigenous cemetery to check out the local tradition of indigenous families to sit on the relatives' tombstones and spend the whole day there eating and having fun, very interesting.
You can see the pictures on http://picasaweb.google.com/lorenaminig/Ecuador1
I spent the rest of the week working at the nursery, I now have a fellow volunteer and house mate, a very cool French girl called Anna and we have a lot of fun together with the kids and the mothers. You can see the pictures of a typical day at the nursery on http://picasaweb.google.com/lorenaminig/Ecuador2
This weekend I went with Giovi to a town 2,5hrs away from Quito, called Mindo, right in the middle of the tropical cloud forest. We had an amazing time walking in the forest (vegetation is amazing, and there is plenty of "colibri" hummerbirds & butterflies), and trying an activity called Canopy, where you slide down a cord over the forest, really cool!! Again, more pictures on http://picasaweb.google.com/lorenaminig/Ecuador3
Videos can be viewed on http://www.youtube.com/user/loriecuador
I am loving the time in Ecuador, it's been 2 weeks but it feels a much longer time, and I really enjoy every bit of this amazing trip! Hope to be back with more pictures and videos soon...
Always thinking of you, take care
xxx
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