¡Vaaamos, Ecuatoriaaaanos!

El Pailon del Diablo waterfall- Baños, Ecuador

Where did I leave off...

Oh right, loneliness, frustrations, and Spanish relapse. Well I will be happy to tell you that I had a really really great week. Two "really"s, now you know it's legit. In general, I had a pretty run-of-the-mill week, but I will give you some highlights.

-Monday I had a relaxing morning before my afternoon class; I made the deposit for my Galapagos cruise (Nov. 1-5)-- once I got over the initial "sticker shock", I got over the money thing and I am getting so excited to finally get there. It's coming up very quickly!

-My friend Nolan and I started, what will hopefully turn into, weekly lunch dates. It's really fun to explore the area of Quito around where we are working in search for "authentic" and cheap Ecuadorian cuisine. So far so good, we're 1 for 1.

-On the other side of the spectrum, we continue to attend the weekly Mulligans Pub Quiz, as Americanized and non-Ecuadorian as you can get. We also happen to be this weeks champions once again, this time with a little less help from the Jeopardy star. :-)

-My work at the Museum and Fair Trade store continues (I'll try to get some pictures up soon). I really really love some of the friends I'm making there. It's a very interesting organization to be a part of, and it's fascinating to see it all from within. I'm very much looking forward to begin my independent study in Fair Trade and see what else I can learn.

-Friday night brought a LIGA Futbol game. Liga is a club soccer team that used to be affiliated with one of the local universities. Tickets were cheap and the fans were ecstatic-- I've never seen a cheering section like this one (and think of where I went to high school?) These people never sat down, never stopped cheering, or singing for that matter. We all had "Vaaaaaaamos, Ecuatoriaaaaaaanos ringing in our ears for the entire weekend. It was a Liga victory, 3-0, an extremely fun night and exactly what I needed at the end of a very full week. It is so much fun to be a part of an energy like that, I recommend it to anyone visiting the country.

-Bright and early Saturday morning my travel buddies and I set out for Baños, an extremely touristy area about 3-4 hours from Quito. We had a very full and fast weekend with beautiful sights, a birthday celebration, and the famous thermal baths. The baths weren't exactly what I expected, it pretty much mirrored your average public pool, only nestled in the mountains. We did take a Cascada (waterfall) tour on Saturday and visited the Pailon del Diablo waterfall, a supposed "wonder of the world". I keep happening onto these places or experiences that I never thought I would encounter. This semester, and definitely this country is keeping me on my toes, ready for the next adventure.

Getting ready for a dune-buggy tour around Baños (This was a pre-biker helmets picture-sorry)

Nolan and I chose the SLOWEST buggy, so we were often passed on the uphills. :-(

The "Chiva" nicknamed the partybus for our waterfall tour. It came complete with strobe lights.

A cable basket suspended us over a gorgeous valley during our waterfall tour.

View from the cable basket.

Me in front of the Pailon del Diablo

The next month of weekends will take me to many corners of Ecuador and away from Quito. For those of you who know the home-body side of me, you might understand a little bit of my aprehension with all of the travel time. However on the flip side, I'm getting to travel, that's the point right? I am extremely excited for what the next month has in store. I promise to keep you all posted along the way.

Rainbow (a complete arc that this photo does not show) near Cotopaxi on our way home from Baños.