Cuenca Day 2- Ingapirica, The Inca Ruins

On Saturday morning I woke up and had a nice full Ecuadorian breakfast, consisting of a bowl of fruit covered with yogurt, bread, eggs, fresh juice and coffee, and learned that the pipes in the house had exploded roughly two weeks before I arrived so there was no hot water. Luckily, due to the fact that all the families live in little compounds, I was able to go over to Mercy's house and get a nice warm shower before we left for the ruins. Once Pablo, Catarina's brother, arrived we all packed into two cars and headed out. I was under the impression that the ruins were roughly a half and hour away. About and hour and a half into our drive we stopped next to a little restaurant that was known for its delicious chancho, or pig. As you can see in the picture they use a blow torch to sear the skin, called cuero, of the chancho into a delicious fried food. Along with the cuero the family ordered everything they had that was traditional Ecuadorian food (mote, toastada, salchicha). While I had eaten all of these foods before I had no reservations about diving in because they are all apart of my favorite foods here. Back in the car and satisfied from our meal, we drove the final hour. So after two and a half hours of total driving time through the beautiful countryside and mountains, on the half finished new highway financed by the Ecuadorian government, we arrived at Ingapirca.

The weather was a little bit drizzly but nothing so bad as to delay our self-guided tour. The size and complexity of the city they built was extremely impressive. Just walking around all I could imagine was the amount of time and human labor it took to erect the city. In the center was the temple of the sun, which also acted as a large sundial. On the hillside they had a bathroom area set up along a stream that ran out of the town and the irrigation canals were nothing short of astounding. Despite the large amount of time that has past it is still amazing, to me at least, how advanced they were for their time period.

After walking around for a bit we went to the super tiny history museum of the Inca's in this area. Seeing pictures and designs of what the city actually looked like was very cool, but somewhat sad. During the 50's through the 70's many people took the stones of structures to either keep in their homes or the build homes out of them. It appeared as if complete structures that were present a half a century ago, had no remnants whatsoever. The government did step in a made it a protected national site, but it is unfortunate the amount of damage that was done.

We ate lunch at a little shack next door and then got in our cars and drove back. Saturday night was relaxing. Juan and I watched the Cuenca soccer team on tv and ate some bread. What is amazing yet again was how they kept asking me if everything was ok and if I was having a good time. I had a free place to stay, they didn't let me pay for one thing the entire weekend, and I had amazing company to talk to and explore the city with and they were worried I was bored! Before I went to bed, Monica wheeled in a tv on a little stand and spent 10 minutes trying to get the antenna to work despite my continual reassurance that everything was perfect just the way it was.

My second day and last night in Cuenca was a success and just as fun as the first day. So much had happened and I never even stepped foot in the city center or any of the main tourist sites in town.

Cuenca Day 1- Ecuadorians might be the nicest people on earth (continued)

After I settled into my room, Mercy told me that she would show me around the city. So the two of us, Juanita, and Luis piled into their old rusted SUV to explore. The first place we were going to visit was a neighborhood named Turi, which is famous in Cuenca for its view of the city. What should have been a 10 minute drive turned into over 20 minutes as I learned that Mercy, despite living her entire life in Cuenca, doesn't like to drive and doesn't know her way around very well. She explained that she loathed driving and usually only goes to places around their neighborhood or makes someone else drive. Although delayed, we all made it safely to Turi and the view was amazing. Cuenca truly is a smaller version of Quito but much cleaner and different monuments to pick out as you trace the skyline. It was pretty wind and cool so we decided to drive through the Old Town.

Mercy quickly became flustered with driving once again and couldn't make the U-turn necessary for our decent out of Turi. Luis is unable to drive due to back surgery and Juanita is only 2 years old so that left it up to me to get us back into the city. Being behind the wheel for the first time in another country was pretty fun and I was able to navigate us back down the mountainside. Mercy let me be the driver for a little while until we got back into the city and told me we had to switch back since I don't have an Ecuadorian license.

We drove by all of the sight seeing areas downtown, a few areas multiple times due to Mercy's slim knowledge of the city streets, but I didn't mind and sincerely enjoyed riding and talking with them. On our way back to the house we stopped by one of their favorite street vendors and bought some choclos, an ecuadorian staple that is similar to corn on the cob but eaten with cheese...delicious. After our snack Mercy let me drive the rest of the way back to the house and she told me that it was her husbands birthday so we would be having a big meal later in the evening.

When we got back Mercy pulled out some photo albums and I learned all about how she and her husband had met and other fun stories about their vacations and family gatherings. This really helped me settle in and it was fun to see pictures of Catarina when she was younger. Monica and her boyfriend Julio arrived and told me they were going to pick up some stuff for the party and I should come along so Mercy could prepare the food. We ended up repeating my city tour from earlier but it was completely different seeing all of the churches and streets lit up.

We arrived home just in time for dinner and I met Juan, the birthday boy, and both of his parents. The food was great and their family was fantastic in terms of conversation. After dinner we sang a very interesting version of happy birthday that had Spanish and English verses (which was funny because no one in their family speaks english) and ate some delicious birthday cake.

At this point it was almost midnight and I was exhausted from traveling and being awake for almost 20 hours so I headed off to bed. Right before I went to my room they informed me that the whole family was going to take me to the Inca Ruins the next morning! I was tired but excited as to our adventures to come.

Cuenca Day 1- Ecuadorians might be the nicest people on earth

This past weekend I had three days off work so I decided to visit Cuenca, a small historical city south of Quito. Last Tuesday I was talking to the woman who owns the restaurant next door, Catarina, because I knew she grew up there. It is my favorite restaurant in Quito because the food is delicious and Catarina is super nice and always gives us extra food and drinks. When I told her I was going to Cuenca she immediately got out a pen and paper and wrote down her father's address and phone numbers for all her siblings and told me to call them when I landed. I thanked her multiple times but told her I didn't want to bother her family members though she insisted.

On Thursday night, about 14 hours before my arrival in Cuenca, I went back just to ask Catarina if she had let her family know that I was going to call when I arrived. She said no but that she would call her sister right then and demanded that I accept a free cup of coffee. When she returned she told me that her sister would pick me up from the airport and show me around the city. I didn't know exactly what the appropriate response to that sort of gesture is so I thanked her repeatedly and gave her a big hug.

When I landed in Cuenca I called Catarina's sister Mercy from a payphone since I don't have a cell phone down here and we communicated enough information to hopefully find each other outside of the airport. I was supposed to look for a white SUV and she was looking for a white boy in a blue sweater. Our official meeting place translated too "out front" of the airport. Despite the lack of a detailed plan, 10 minutes later she pulled up and I hopped in. I was accompanied in the front seat by Juanita, her two year old daughter who sat in my lap on the drive home. She took me back to her house which is located within the same cement walls as her father's house. I was told to wait in the living room while her father, Luis, came down. Luis is a very short, round man that hurt his back so he walks with a cane in each hand. After his voyage down the stairs into the seat next to me, he immediately started asking me every question imaginable and telling a ton of jokes in which I'm pretty sure I only picked up about half of.

After about 20 minutes Catarina's other sister, Monica, came back from work to have lunch. The three of us sat down in the kitchen and talked for a while. I figured out that Monica is a lawyer and works for a University in the city. When we were all eating the enormous amount of food she made, she apologized to me for not having my room ready yet but that I could set all of my stuff in there! This was the point where I realized that this was going to a much different weekend than I had planned, but in this case different meant way better because I wouldn't be traveling alone. Their hospitality was like nothing I have ever experienced before and just sitting around talking with them was so much fun.

There is a lot to write for this one so I am going to break it up and post a new section each day until it's all done. Hope this sparks your interest to read more!

Getting into a routine...trips in the near future.

While this last week wasn't particularly exciting it did go by very quickly. The first few weeks are always a little crazy trying to settle in but I finally started to get into a rhythm with my schedule. Also, I switched some work shifts around so that I can do some traveling this month. I will be going to one of the smaller, but well preserved historical cities of Ecuador, Cuenca, from the 23-25th of July. I've never traveled alone down here so this should be fun little trip to see the city and crash in hostels. At the end of June, I will also be traveling to Cartagena, Columbia with an American friend of mine that is also living down here. It is a beautiful beach town with a lot of history between fighting off invasions on their city due to its lucrative business to its liberation from Spain.

For now I am just hanging out and watching as much TV in spanish as I can because its a great way to practice. For those of you who are fans of the show LOST, I recently began watching the first season and its pretty intense. Besides watching TV, I plan on hanging out with my host family from last year this weekend and catching up with them. No worries, more exciting posts are to come.

Baca Ortiz Hospital

Over the past ten days I have been settling into my new job and searching for places to volunteer. I stumbled across and organization named "Fundacion Sol y Vida" (Foundation of Sun and Life) which is a non-profit organization based in the Baca Ortiz Hospital in Quito. From what I can tell there are two children's hospitals in Ecuadaor and this is the main one (the other is on the pacific coast). People travel from all over the country, mostly on bus rides from anywhere between 2-12 hours, to receive treatment. It is a general public hospital but this foundation in particular works as a middle man to subsidize the price of chemotherapy medications for children with cancer.

Yesterday I had my first opportunity to tour the hospital and I had mediocre expectations because of the financial state of the country, but was somewhat hopeful because this is supposed to be the premiere children's hospital. Needless to say I was shocked when we walked into the building to see literally hundreds of people packed in and sick children everywhere. There were lines of people waiting to receive bread and bananas in the lobby and the smell was awful. The doctor giving me the tour explained that people show up between 5-6am and begin waiting in lines. At around 8am, these ticket office type windows open and give out numbers to those in line until about 10am. Almost all of the doctors that work in this part of the hospital work from 8ish-12 and then work in private clinics in the afternoon.

She also took me up to a few of the upper floors of the hospital that are privately funded and the change is incredible. The first two floors of the building are dirty and run down while the upper floors of the same building resemble what we would find in a hospital in the U.S. Still, much of the equipment that was brand new two years ago is broken and some medications are hard to come by. I was also surprised to hear that over 95% of their chemotherapy patients are ambulatory (Quimoterapia ambulatorio). After the children receive their medication they are sent home (even though it may be hours away) because the hospital is filled with bacteria and they are more prone to infection if they were to stay.

It was quite the experience and I look forward to going back and spending time with the children while they receive their treatments.

Brad's back in Ecuador

Howdy howdy all,

I am back in Ecuador and plan to keep up with my blog a little better this time. I arrived after a wonderful weekend in North Carolina attending an absolutely beautiful wedding with a beautiful bride (my cousin sarah!) and having a great time with the family. This summer I am working at a Hotel (Hotel Casa Foch-click here to see pics) and continuing to improve my Spanish language skills. Last year I did a study abroad through Ohio State and the owners of the school also own the hotel (in fact they are right across the street from each other) so through that connection I got this job. I've worked probably about 80 hours since I arrived but luckily I am supposed to have the next two days off. Nothing else too exciting going on here except yesterday there was a Pride Parade in Quito that went right in front of the hotel which was very entertaining and cool to see that they have here in a society that views being gay much differently than we find in many parts of the U.S. Well that's about all for now.

Hope everyone is doing well and Ill post again soon.
Brad

Independence day throwback

Cotopaxi…Independence Day on a volcano

Hola amigos! It´s time for another update! This story starts off on the early morning of Independence Day 2009. The entire group of students here in Quito met outside the school at 7am to get ready for some extreme off road biking. We piled into three rickety trucks/vans to begin our two hour trip to the world´s largest active volcano. The volcano is inside of ¨Parque Nacional Cotopaxi.¨ When the crew arrived at the park entrance they received a quick history of the park and the volcano. Not only did they learn that the volcano has had a few violent eruptions in the past few centuries, it was due in the next 10-15 years for another one (one eruption approx. every 120 years).

After this promising news we piled back into the van to ascend 2.5 kilometers where we would get on mountain bikes and head down. One extremely curvy road later we arrived at our destination only to find ourselves in the middle of the blizzard. Our guides decided that it was too dangerous to start from that point so we descended 1 kilometer to where the snow was less blinding.

We hopped on our bikes and literally began shooting down the mountain. It didn't seem incredibly steep but if you didnt hold both brakes down you would begin to reach Tour de France speeds on a rocky and snowy path. I was in quite a dilemma because I was very cold and wanted to get to warmer weather, but on the flip side I wasnt in the mood to die so I balanced desires and still made it to our first checkpoint in pretty good time.

At our first checkpoint we had descended far enough that there was no snow and it seemed that we were in the middle of the desert! The sun was out, the weather was hot, and little vegetation was to be found. Right before the first checkpoint the guy in front of me went down hard and flipped his bike over him. Luckily he was fine but his leather jacket was a little scratched up. Overall we only had 4 or 5 people fall down out of 16 and only was somewhat serious (he fell and hit his head and it cracked the helmet!). Everyone made it home safely and had a good time though.

All in all it was a great day and the scenery was breathtaking. Our first trip as a group was successful!