Cunugyacu & Quilotoa

On Sunday, Keely, me, and my host dad left Sangolquí at around 6 to go on an adventure! And it was probably the coolest adventure ever. We drove around 2 hours, mostly on a rocky and bumpy road, up the Illinizas, two mountains next to Cotopaxi. On the way, we saw a bunch of wild bunny rabbits that were really cute! We were looking for the Cunugyacu waterfall, known to be thermal. It turned out to be kind of cold because it was snowing at the top of the mountain, but it was still cool. The water is yellow because of the iron content that's in the soil in the mountain. But it doesn't really smell bad or anything; it's just yellow. The hike wasn't bad either. It was literally a 7 minute hike to the falls. From where we parked the car, we could hear the water falling (get it?? hahaha). We crossed a river using stones and logs for balance; I felt like a true nature girl! :D

After taking a bunch of pictures and admiring the beauty of the place, we left to go to Quilotoa, a lake that formed inside the crater of an inactive volcano. On the way, we stopped by Pujili for lunch - potato pancakes and fritada. Yummy!! This area rarely gets foreigners so Keely and I got some stares. We got to walk around the market, which is pretty much all indigenous people, and saw a lot of different things than normal. That does not make sense, but I don't know how to make it make sense. There was a guy that was selling these HUGE worms to eat.. Because it's supposed to be really good for pain and is a cure-all.

Then we left for Quilotoa; on the way, we passed by Tigua, a small pueblo known for its amazing art because of the famous artist Jorge Tiguaza (I think..?). We got to stop at his gallery and talk to him and look at his art. It was really cool. Then we finally got to Quilotoa. It was the most amazing place I've been in Ecuador. We got to go down to the lake, inside the crater; it's pretty deep and the ground is mostly sand so it was kind of difficult to go down quickly, but it was really fun sliding down. It took around an 45 minutes to an hour to get down the crater. When we got there, we took a lot of pictures and got to explore around the lake. There was an overnight house near the lake so we went to go look around. The rooms are really small because they're designed to be exactly how the indigenous people used them. There's only a bed and a window. Sweet and simple - all you really need.

Then we sat down at this camping table and ate bananas, dried aves (a type of bean), and pepino (a type of fruit that tastes like Korean pear - delicious!). After eating, we decided to go back up because it looked like it was going to rain. We got to climb up riding horses!! Or mules, to be exact. It was so cool because I've never been on a horse!!! Super chévere! It didn't hurt as much as I thought it would; my host dad said that my legs will hurt a lot. But my horse would NOT listen to me. He was really short-tempered and competitive, apparently, because he really wanted to be ahead of the other two horses (my host dad's and Keely's). My host dad wanted to go ahead of us because he wanted to take pictures, but his horse would not move. And my horse would RUN in front. My host dad eventually went ahead, but while we were stopped in this really tight crevice, my horse decided to run past my host dad. Awesome idea. My leg got trapped in between my host dad and his horse and my horse. It was a great experience. Then another time, when we were almost at the top, my horse decided to stop. And so naturally, the other horses stopped behind him. And then my horse lifted his hind legs and tried to kick the horse behind him. And I almost fell off!! But that was really cool LOL.

When we finally got to the top, I realized I had lost my lens cap :( Probably when my horse was acting crazy. Sad.. But at least it wasn't my camera. And I think I'm allergic to big animals because my throat started getting itchy again and it was getting kind of hard for me to breathe, and I kept coughing. The area between my chest and my throat hurt a lot, like there was something pressing against it and pressing into my body. Ouch. But it got better after I drank a lot of water and slept a little bit in the car. On our way home, we stopped by La Avelina, a famous restaurant known for their amazing chocolate-covered vanilla ice cream. It was so good.. Probably the best simple vanilla ice cream I've ever had. We got home around 7:30 because of traffic, and when we finally arrived, I was so exhausted that I couldn't do anything. Great day, great day. :)

Volcano?

Last weekend was probably the most exciting weekend I had. On Saturday, I was supposed to go to Guayaquil, the largest city in Ecuador, with my host family, but my host dad had some work to do, and we had to pick up my host grandma, who is such an adorable little lady, from her son's house and drop her off at her niece's. I was kind of bummed because I really wanted to go to Guayaquil, but the day turned out to be cool.

After we dropped off the grandma, we met up with my host cousin's family to get some lunch. We went to a very typical restaurant where they sell typical Ecuadorian food. What, do you ask, is typical Ecuadorian food? Well, usually it's a lot of mote (type of corn), fried meat, and plátanos. We ordered 3 plates of fried pig skin with mote, a plate of fritada (fried pork) with potato pancakes and mote for me, and half a guinea pig for my host uncle. Sweet. And I got to try it!!! I took a picture of it, but accidentally erased it before I could upload it :( sadness. Guinea pig sounds really gross because they're so small and are like pets. But I don't like guinea pigs so I decided to have a piece. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be! The skin was super chewy and felt like rubber in my mouth and the meat tasted kind of like fish - i don't know why. I don't know if I'd be able to eat it again, just because I know it's guinea pig. If they had just put a plate full of the meat w/o telling me what it was, I'd probably eat it. Hehe

Then after lunch, we went to the TeleferiQo in Quito, which is a place where you ride those cable cars up to the top of a mountain. But it was really cloudy, and we wouldn't have been able to see anything, so we decided to go to the amusement park right next to it instead called Vulqano. My host family told me that it used to be really big when it first opened, but as the instable weather started interfering with the park's business, less and less people started to go, and shops started to close down. They had to close down a lot of the rides, too, so now it's really small. But there are a few good rides that are still open. There was one that made me really sick; it's like the Viking Boat, but there are two "ships" that go opposite each other, and it also goes all the way around like when you swing a yo-yo. At one point, I thought I was going to fall out of my seat.

There's also another ride that's very similar to the Giant Drop at Six Flags Great America, but not as giant. It was alright. We also went on the Viking..which was very not exciting. There was this ride called Catapult where two people ride in this capsule ball connected to ropes and the machine pretty much just throws them around. It looked really intense.. and I wanted to go on it, but I didn't at the same time. So I didn't :) We also got to go on the bumper cars! It was really exciting because I got to ram into a lot of people that I didn't know. Hehehe

After Vulqano, we were supposed to go to the Centro Histórico de Quito (self-explanatory I think), but it started to rain, so by the time we got there, it was closed. Boo, because I really wanted to go. But I'll be living in the city for three weeks, so I still have time to explore. After being stuck in Quito traffic, which is probably worse than Chicago's I-90/94 traffic, we went home and just chilled :)

Otavalo

So.. this is going to be a crazy long day full of updates. I haven't been able to update last week and this week because I was being super lazy and didn't want to spend so much time thinking. Haha but I was also busy with class since it was our last week.

I shall begin where I left off. So last Tuesday, we had breakfast and then left Intag because we were planning on stopping by a city called Otavalo, which is known for their rich industry of artesanal crafts. They have these amazingly colorful pants/shirts that are really lightweight and comfortable; everyone in our group has at least 2. Before we did anything in the town, Lisa, Laura W., Joi, Andrea, and I went to this really delicious restaurant and had hamburgers because we had been fed as vegetarians for the past four days. I think it was the best hamburger I've ever had in my life. Hehe.

Then we went to the Otavalo market, which was awesome! There were so many crafts and other things to buy such as alpaca sweaters, which are really soft. I wanted to buy an alpaca blanket, but I have no idea how I would take that home.. So instead I bought another pair of the pants, some cool bracelets, and hand-knit slippers that are super warm. Love! The indigenous people there reminded me of Korean people at the markets in Korea because as soon as you walk by or just look at their booth, they'll come running up to you and asking you if you want to see a certain product. Then they'll pull out everything else they have.. And they don't leave you alone, especially if you're foreigners. A couple of the men tried to say hello to me and one of my friends.. Awkward.

Then  we went home, which took about 2-3 hours. I felt so gross as soon as I got home that I had to take a shower immediately. It was a great shower. Then I can't remember what I did, but I probably went to sleep because I was so exhausted from the trip.

The rest of the week went by fairly quickly even though I didn't do anything during the week except go to class and come home. Or I can't remember.. Sorry people. But I'm pretty sure I didn't do anything. The weekend was really exciting though. :)