Dear Chris Kwon,What a weekend it has been... Yesterday (which seems like a week ago), we all met at school at 8:30. We hopped on a bus with Fernando (our "principal" figure) and his wife, Eugenia. We headed northeast from Quito and stopped in Calderón, a small town. Calderón has a famous store full of clay figures. They were nice to admire, but
I'm not a huge fan of trinkets, so I was glad when we moved on. At around 10:30, we arrived at Cascada Peguche. We hiked a short ways to the waterfall. It was nice, but nothing new. I decided to explore a little, so I found a way to a sheltered area on the side of the water falls. Everyone else stayed near the waterfall,taking pictures. I met some little girls who followed me up a path (which was actually a small stream we had to walk through) to the shelter. We had a good old time exploring.
I noticed some people ON the waterfall. I decided I would try this out. My classmates eventually made it to the shed to eat some lunch. I was in no mood to eat, so I led the little girls down the path. They told me they had to go, so we parted ways and I tried to think ab
out how I could get on the waterfall. I saw a couple on the rock that everyone has their picture taken on. I offered to take a picture for them. They were from the States. They work at Denali Park in Alaska in the summers and have the freedom to travel the other time of the year. They are doing a tour of Colombia and Ecuador. They were really cool and we all set out to find the top of the waterfall together.
I saw some of my classmates on the waterfall and followed them up. We reached the top and decided that wasn't enough, so we followed some trails over the waterfall. We ended up doing a huge circle. It was scary and amazing.
I headed down to the bus to find that we still had two hours scheduled at the waterfalls. I hiked a little more, then we moved on to Otavalo.
Otavalo is a REALLY old market town. All the indigenous peoples would meet in Otavalo for a trade market. The market tradition still holds strong. Saturdays are packed full of people selling whatever you can think of. A bunch of us walked through the main Plaza and were offered good deals for all the goods being sold. I was shocked that there was anyone there on a Friday evening. The group explored the town, bought some yarn, and ate some ice cream with cheese on it.
We met Fernando and Co. at the hotel restaurant and had a delicious dinner. Everyone joined up in one of the guys' rooms and we planned our evening. We went to a karaoke bar across from the hotel. I've never really been a huge fan of karaoke, but it was fun. We took a cab 10 blocks to a discoteca, which we were assured was one of the most happening places in town. There were about 7 people there and all of them were sitting. I spent a brief amount of time there, then called it quits for the night.
This morning, I woke up at 6. A few of us headed to the animal market, where livestock is traded. It was truly upsetting. I know that it's the way most of the world lives, but I didn't need to watch pigs being dragged against their will across the street or baby chicks being sold 5 for a dollar. My buddy Edan pointed out that even though all these animals are free-range, they still looked miserable. As I was leaving, a woman with a pig coughed on me a lot. Swine flu, anyone?
We headed to the main market and went CRAZY! At first, I moseyed around the market, scoping out the sites, taking careful notes of what I was thinking about buying. I bought an alpaca sweater that I am sort of regretting. I needed a break. At around 7:30, I headed back to the hotel for some breakfast.
Feeling refreshed, I dove back into the market. This time, I had a plan. I was bargaining left and right, up and down. I bought so much stuff! Nothing was too expensive and almost everything had been discounted. We meet up at the hotel at 12 and shared our booties.
We checked out of the hotel and boarded the bus. We drove to Cotacachi, a nearby town known for it's leather goods. We went up to Cuicocha, a lake made by an old volcano (the "crater lake" of Ecuador). We were served a huge lunch, which included the area's infamous trout. We boarded a boat and took a tour of the crater lake.
We headed down to the town of Cotacachi and spent an hour exploring the stores full of leather goods. I bought amazing leather sandals for $20. It was by far the most I had paid for anything all weekend.
The picture on your right is of everything I bought. Clockwise from left:
Hammock (why? hammocks are AMAZING), 2 shirts, 2 pairs of
sandals, a flag, a sweater, mitten/gloves, yarn (for susan), mirror, and purse all for under $100.
On the way home, we stopped at some cafe for Biscochos- a common food in the area. Biscochos is a biscuit, served with cheese. We put dulce de leche (caramel) on ours. It was pretty tasty.
We bussed back to ACLAS and met up with our host parents. Antonio was there to pick me up. I'm sick and have been stuffed up all weekend. I coughed in the car and Antonio grew concerned. He asked me if I was sick and I told him yes. He asked if I had the flu. I told him I don't think so and I hope not. Later, he coughed. I looked at him and yelled "Grippe!"- Spanish for flu. He said, "No. Tobacco." We had a good old laugh about the fact that he coughs because he smokes cigarettes, then we stopped at a liquor store. I think he was buying more cigarettes. Haha. Oh Antonio. I warmly greeted at home by the whole clan plus some man and his daughter who both kissed me. They were on their way out when I was on my way in. It was strange, but that's how things are here.
I'm really enjoying my weekend trips because they are so cheap. This weekend trip was included in our tuition here, so all meals, bus rides, and the hotel were paid for. I have three finals this week, including a HUGE essay, so the next four days are going to be full-time study mode. We get Thursday and Friday off. As of now, it looks like we may head into the amazon. I hope I have enough malaria pills...
Keep on truckin' faithful followers. Wish you were here!
From,
Ali J.
I love trinkets!
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