Well here I am! I made it to Quito. And luckily so did all of my bags. After landing in Quito Thursday in the early morning (between 8 and 9 I think?), the day felt like two or three verrrry long days and it was confusing to pretty much all of us. We went all around Quito yesterday and stayed in a hotel last night and left Quito yesterday morning after a WONDERFUL breakfast (yay!) to go to Otavalo, Ecuador.
Otavalo is a 2 hour bus ride from Quito. On the way there, we visited La Mitad del Mundo (the middle of the world) and I stepped in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere at the same time. While we were there, the sun was PERFECTO and so warm. I did get a little red, good thing for sun lotion. Almost to Otavalo, we picked up two indigenous Ecuadorian women on the way who sang to us and sold us $3 scarves. Yes, of course I bought one :) I got a little red today too while I was walking around Otavalo's SUPER GRANDE market.
I have been warned that the very high altitude will make you dizzy, tired, have a headache, and more. I have had a headache on and off today and I bought about a liter of water to drink. At home in Syracuse, I drink a lot of water. But here, you have to be sure to drink water to feel well all day. I'm talking about drinking bottled water from when you wake up until you go to sleep. ALL day. I love water, so I can't complain about that so much, but I was frustrated tonight at dinner with the food. I hate to admit it, but I'm a little food-homesick. Don't get me wrong; the food is good here. I'm just taking it easy. I'm afraid to try certain foods because of the way they're prepared here and because I don't know how clean it is. So for the first few meals I have tried to have fruits, bread, bottled water, empanadas, and some veggies.
Interesting things I saw while in Otavalo:
1. A woman walking on the street breast feeding. Like, you can see everything.
2. A garbage truck picking up garbage (obviously) and playing ice cream man music. Muy extraño.
3. A VERRRRRY skinny cow with its head in the ground. It was just weird.
4. Police/guards ALLLL over the place, especially in front of/the doorway of banks with machine guns and bulletproof vests.
5. Women wearing jeans with no back pockets and heels allllll of the time. Ouch! Also, they tuck their shirts in their pants. They're all about celebrating a curvy body here. It's a nice change from home.*
As you can tell, I find the Ecuadorian culture very interesting! I learn something new everyday. They love to drink blackberry juice with breakfast. I had some this morning- it was so perfect and delicious and frothy!
Today the group and I visited Peguche (a super poor village) and it's waterfalls and two musical instrument workshops. Very entertaining! Will try to post pictures later.
Tomorrow I meet my host family in Cuenca. First, we eat breakfast (yummy Hotel Quito breakfast!) anytime between 7:30-9:30, 10 we visit a museum and then we check out of the hotel at noon to fly to Cuenca at 1:45 and classes start at CEDEI (pronounced say-day-E) on Monday. DIOS MIO.
Hasta luego!
*I know all of these things are part of Ecuadorian culture. I'm not making fun of them, I am simply expressing interest in what I saw because I have never seen things stated before.
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