un lobo marina y dos pinguinos

As a high school student, I reluctantly took Biology class. The only moments that I loved taking that class was  when I learned of the different ecosystems around the world. I remember learning about the Galapagos Islands and thinking “I would love to go there someday”. Through studying abroad in Ecuador the first semester of my senior year, I was able to live my dream within a week of landing in Quito, Ecuador. While I was in the Galapagos Islands, I was able to see a variety of different ecosystems in one area of the world and on various islands. I was able to take this photo to the right while I was on a dinghy, bobbing up and down in the middle of the ocean. Can you spot the two penguins and the sea lion?

Who would've thought these would all be in the same place?

While I was in the Galapagos I was fortunate enough to have an experience that most people I know have not. I was able to be in an environment where in the same ecosystem there was a lake, shrimp, pink flamingos, hardened lava, cacti, and a very distinguishable sky line in the midst of the ocean. I was so utterly amazed that there were flamingos and lava in the same place, on an island in the ocean. I had to take a picture including all the elements of this amazing environment.

My trip to the Galapagos Islands was a great start to my adventures in Ecuador.

Now to the after party… The food was excellent but that’s not really the interesting part. The interesting part was the sheer amount of alcohol present. However it does not stop there. At American weddings sure there are a ton of booze but maybe some of the young people get drunk. Here, substitute “some of the young people” for everyone over 18 and you’ve got the picture. Ok a bit over exaggeration but a good eighty percent of the people who could be drunk took advantage of this opportunity. Right I have not told you size. There were probably 300 people there. Now back to the booze. Eighty year old men and women were coming up to me trying to get me to take a swig or glass of whatever. Tactics of pretending not to understand were defiantly employed. This alcohol led to dancing and fireworks. Real fireworks. Due to the fact that the people who were lighting them were drunk, one went off in the middle of the party. This however didn’t seem to surprise people as much as I would have thought.

Finally dancing; never in my life have I seen so much salsa done by people of all ages and I have to say on a serious note if I ever get married I hope my party is as fun as this one was.

I’ve defiantly made an effort to travel as much as I possibly can here. I believe I have visited every eco-system in Ecuador. One of the first epic adventures was a jungle volcano named Sumaco. The volcano itself was not all that tall but when you consider the fact that we had to back pack two days into the dense rain/cloud forest to reach it, the tale is a bit more epic. You can see plenty of pictures of that on my facebook thanks to my compadres Max and Conor. This was probably my favorite trip I have gone on because there was no shortage of plants, a huge shortage of money (we had to pay the guide using boots, machetes, and the rest of my coco leaves) and a ton of mud. The summit was a bit cloudy, but the volcano crater was beautiful and so worth every minute of suffering. The final day we faced the fact that we really did not have enough money (or gifts) to pay the guide with so we told him we wanted to leave that night. We ended up hiking approximately 16 miles out of the jungle that day. A good three miles of that was by only headlamp and one of those lovely miles was through a creek. Sorry I am done with my bitching.

Another interesting and almost equally dirty adventure that has occurred was the attempt a climbing Chimborazo, Ecuador’s tallest mountain.  Two weeks before I summited Cotopaxi and so I must say although I went into it very scared, I was probably a bit cocky. To make a long story short (and in case my parents discover I have a blog and read this) I will spare some of the details but I got nailed in the eye with a rock and got a concussion about a third of the way up the mountain. Obviously one cannot really continue climbing with this for many reasons. If you don’t know them, just take my word for it. Anyways, we didn’t have sleeping gear because we were planning on climbing the mountain at night. What does this all mean? One of the coldest headaches I have ever had.

I got here about seven weeks ago, which seems like a long time but it has defiantly blown by. One of the questions im supposed to answer is about cultural differences and such. Here are a few that I have learned while abroad:

1. When following an Ecuadorian to a destination, no matter where you are your always “almost there” or the destination is just over that hill. I had one experience when backpacking through the forest where my friends and I were a “half hour away” for three hours. If that sentience does not make sense at first re read it a few times and it will.

2. Knowing how to get there and being able to explain how to get there are very different things. On the way to one of my backpacking trips, I got lost and forgot my map so I had to ask directions. I luckily knew the general direction I wished to go but needed to know specifics. When I asked some of the locals in the town I was in, I literally got a different answer from each person I asked. Some even pointed to roads I knew for a fact did not exist. And when I finally got to an internet cafe much later, they turned out to all be wrong. In Ecuadorian culture it is embarrassing to say that you do not know so, everyone will pretend as though they do…. when in reality in all likelihood they probably don’t. So I’m supposed to comment on a part of the culture I don’t like, and I feel that the reason for not liking this is rather self explanatory…. I get lost.

3. Finally one other major difference, is how they eat. Im generally hungry an hour or so after I eat breakfast which consists of a variety of things but in my house it almost always consists of fruit, bread and cheese. This hunger is easily tamed by a tasty chicken empanada purchased for cheap price of anywhere between fifty cents and two dollars. Lunch, my grandmother pushes as much food on me as my belly can hold. Food is kinda like a sign of love here so I guess Im well loved. However so much love sometimes results in cramps after walking up the three flights of stairs to my room. Dinner is coffee…… and you guessed it (or probably didn’t)  bread and cheese again. All and all the food here is awesome. The fruit is insanely delicious, cheap and accessible but i defiantly miss my kale and spinach. Oh and milk.

Cayambe is a 18,993 foot volcano, towering above (but usually in the clouds), of a town called…you guessed it, Cayambe! The town is famous for butter biscuits called biscochos, which are equally as delicious as climbing a 19k’ volcano. Except volcanoes aren’t delicious.

Brayton had to go to a wedding, and the new group for the semester had just got here, so our good friend Brett was definitely not acclimatized for such an adventure. Thus, Conor and I would be climbing it together. For a lot of the huge mountains here, there are refuges at 15k or 16k feet (k=1000 if you weren’t in the know), except the access roads to get to said refuges are basically washed out boulder fields, so you need a 4×4 vehicle. We found a nice hefty truck in Cayambe, who would take us to the refuge. Awesome. The road was atrocious, and I’m sure most of the cost of the ride probably went toward paying for frame damages to his truck! Anyway, he dropped us off not quite at the refuge, telling us it was already dark, and charging us more…oh the life of a gringo climber (gringo=white, climber=gets ripped off, gringo climber=gets ripped off bad). We hiked up a bit, found a nice place next to the refuge to set up the tent, got all cozy, made dinner, and had an awesome nights sleep to a beautiful sunrise. NOT. We did have a great dinner and sunset on the way in, but we woke up at 1am (called an alpine start in the climbing world- you wake up early to minimize rockfall/avalanche danger/keep the snow hard), and began our dark and cold way up the mountain.

I could write hours about the climb, basically Conor was on skis, so he was skinning up; I was trudging in boots but happy to have the security of crampons. Although it was cold and windy when the sun came up, it was one of the most beautiful things I ever experienced (seriously!)! My fingers were numb so I didn’t take a picture at the climax, but I’ll add one right before the sky lit up. Why, you may ask, was it so amazing? Well- the entire sky turned violet, then pinkish yellow, and you could see everything (EVERYTHING) in any direction- practically all of Ecuador. Every large volcano, Chimborazo, Cotopaxi, Antisana, Illinizas…oh yeah, and I was climbing up a huge volcano in South America. The entire experience was surreal and made me exceptionally happy to be here!

Well, we suffered up further and further- and I do mean suffered- the altitude makes you weak and pant like a dog- until I was semi-hallucinating, seeing spots on the snow, and felt like I was going to puke everywhere, with a little headache. The summit was not on my mind! However after a pancito (little piece of bread) and a bit of Gatorade, I sucked it up and lead what was next- a steep headwall, probably around 200-300 feet of 60 or 70 degree snow (just what I love- YES!- at altitude on a huge volcano- double YES!!). I was really not looking forward to this when I saw the steep wall, but once I started up it, I regained my enthusiasm and we eventually crested el cumbre (the summit). Stoked to be on top, but exhausted, we were bummed because a lot of clouds had moved in, and we couldn’t get the all expansive summit view we had hoped for. Worth it for the sunrise though! What goes up must come down (especially at altitude), so we headed down- Conor went a separate way to pick up his cached skis, and I slogged through the softening snow rather quickly, arriving for a nice afternoon nap in the tent. Aw yeah, the good life. Except the next week I got a terrible flu and missed school all week. (Still worth it!).

Well that’s it for now, I hope maybe I’ve spurred you to book a ticket down here and get some yourself, before the glaciers all melt (no seriously!). Anyway hope you enjoyed and I’ll keep you posted on the more interesting things I do down here (mountains, jungle epics, etc…). Until next time…

Brayton and I had a free 5-6 days after the postsession finished, so we had to explore this awesome country! We met a kid named Conor, who is a friend of a friend from Willamette, and happens to love climbing and exploring just as much as we do. Sweet! He had the crazy idea to climb some random 12,000 foot mountain in the jungle called Sumaco (the Beautiful One). Sounded good to us! Perfect way to end the postsession and begin the semester abroad!

Oh yeah, first we climbed (with the postsession group), the local ~15,700 ‘hill’, Guagua (pronounced ‘wawa’) Pichincha. We had ambitions to rock climb some routes up top, but we were exhausted and it was rather cold. At least we got out of smoggy Quito into the beautiful hills! Here are some pictures- check out the view of Cotopaxi we got!

Anyway back to Sumaco- we would be trekking up a jungle volcano for three or four days, sleeping in refuges (there were 3 of them), and all in all enjoying ourselves! We took a bus to the right town, but didn’t realize the road diverged…we got a little lost and had to backtrack and sleep in Tena- which is a pretty cool jungle city if I say so myself. The next day, we got an early start, and began the trek! We found a guide, named Franklin, and he led us through the thick murky muddy wet and beautiful jungle to the refuge. We got to the refuge early, so we had time to explore (machetes came in handy!), and eat a fantastic dinner of chili, beef chunks, and yucca and carrots (I only remember this dinner because it was SO GOOD!). The next day, waking up to wet clothes and wetter socks, we decided to hightail it to the third refuge. This involved vertical mud, puddles which almost filled our rubber boots, and slipping as the unseen roots in the mud twisted the support-lacking rubber boots. The second refuge overlooks a beautiful lake, which was a fantastic place to take a quick lunch break. However, due to the cold (in the jungle?!) and the rain (the ever present rain), we didn’t stay for long, and continued up a ridge and down a steep hill to the last refuge, at the base of the summit cone itself! This night was a bit ridiculous; we thought brown rice would give us good carbs, but because its brown rice, and our fire never really got started, it took at least 2 hours to cook. We ended up eating crunchy rice, to say the least! The next day we woke up at the crack of dawn, and began the steep ascent to the summit (which seemed to never end). Once FINALLY at the summit, we could see the lake in the crater, but only barely because of all the mist and clouds. Imagine that, 12,000 feet on a volcano summit in the jungle?! I’ll take it! We wanted desperately not to suffer (did I say suffer? I meant…enjoy) another night in a jungle refuge, so we booked it out of the jungle, and into the town at the base of the volcano (Pacto Sumaco), where we enjoyed real beds (!!) and one of the better nights of sleep I’ve ever had. Upon waking up in the morning, we all realized that it was one of the coolest adventures we had ever done- even though the rubber boots turned all of our feet into hamburger, and parts of the trek were complete misery. The pictures are where we got dropped off on the road as the sun started to shine in the jungle, a clearing with tall trees, the view from halfway up the summit cone before it was foggy, and the lake at the second refuge.

Hope you enjoyed, until next time!

So here goes: I got here in Quito late June 4th, the airport seemed a bit small but there were plenty of people and it was exciting!..Until I realized one of my bags (my precious backpack! with climbing gear and clothes!) was lost. Eventually figured out that it was still in Atlanta, and never flew over, and that I’d receive it in a few days. Guess that was the first adventure!

A few days later, we started ACLAS- Andean Center for Latin American Studies- which was basically intensive Spanish school for the next 6 weeks! However ACLAS does many other language oriented programs, including teaching English, and also teaches business/marketing skills (except I believe that’s Grupo Macro)…but I digress. I found ACLAS to be a fantastic place, and my professors quite enthusiastic and helpful. What more can I say, I took Spanish classes for 6 weeks, got 2 credits (aww yeah!), and learned a TON of Spanish and how to actually communicate in this country…(sort of- still working on that one!)

As for the post-session, we had different excursions around the country every weekend. First weekend was free, I believe Brayton and I went climbing at a small but fun and very close crag (climbing locale)…while the others went to Baños (a tourist town with hotsprings and extreme sports). I regret nothing.

Second weekend we went to Otavalo, which was super interesting and fun; for those of you who don’t know, Otavalo is a super famous indigenous market, meaning there’s awesome handmade goods and crafts there for cheap- and you can barter with them! Think Alpaca sweaters, hippie pants, panpipes, various colorful bags, panama hats…I’m currently having problems uploading/sizing pictures but they’ll be up soon. Anyway Otavalo was a great second weekend. Pictures of the church at night, the animal market, and a typical vendor stall.

Third weekend…we went to Atacames, a beach city on the northern part of the coast. Super nice beach, super hot, got sunburnt (it IS the equator..)…and we were allowed to party at night- because that’s what happens on beaches…well in Atacames they have little tiki beach huts that are pretty low-key during the day, but at night, every one bumps loud reggaeton/salsa/techno, all bumping different music no more than 20 feet apart. This was rather eye-opening- however we all danced and had a fun time. The next day, it was rum and coke strawberry soda on the beach/hammocks, and, being a Saturday, the night scene was likely the craziest thing I’ve ever seen- I couldn’t tell you numbers, but the party was way too large for the tiki huts, and went out maybe 100-300 feet on the beach…probably the most people I’ve ever seen drinking and dancing at once- THIS was Atacames (or so I heard!).

After our …relaxing weekend on the beach, we went to the jungle next! Not too deep in, mind you, but right on the Rio Napo (kind of like the Amazon, but not), in a ridiculously nice hotel! Activities included visiting a jungle animal rehab, trekking in the mud in the jungle, and meeting an indigenous family…oh yeah also we rafted down the Rio Napo on a balsa wood raft- pretty cool! Can’t remember what we did the last weekend, but the next weekend…you’ll see!

And that was the postsession. All of a sudden, 6 weeks in this awesome country were cut short- everyone but Brayton and I left, and it was kind of sad…until we realized we had another 5.5 months here!!! To be continued…

The volume and variety of noise was astounding. We had spent an amazing night listening to the sounds of the forest and absorbing our first clear view of the Milky Way, and awoke the next morning before the sun rose in order to be out in our canoe as the Amazon Rainforest woke up. In the heart of the rainforest along the Cuyabeno River in northern Ecuador, the most chaotic jumble of noises can be heard best at dawn or at dusk, when the sun is low in the sky and animals’ activity is high. Our guides paddled the canoe, all the while looking around and listening intently for the clues that we were oblivious to. Having grown up in indigenous communities in the area, our guides were familiar with the patterns of the rainforest and could read the natural signs with ease. They directed our gaze toward toucans, ospreys, kingfishers, capuchin monkeys, and pink freshwater dolphins, and awed us with their knowledge of how the diverse array of creatures interacted with and benefited from one another. When we disembarked from the canoe and began exploring the reserve on foot, I lagged behind for a moment. I closed my eyes, and sunk my boots into the ground. This forest, which smelled and felt in many ways like any forest in the Pacific Northwest, was no ordinary forest: it was the Amazon Rainforest, pure and simple. Surreal, untainted, untouched—one of the many treasures I found in Ecuador.

This picture is of the Old Town district in Quito, Ecuador.  In this area of Quito one can see clearly the remnants of Spanish colonial rule. One of the main lessons I took away with my from Ecuador is the fact that big cities are not as different around the world as I had once thought. A big city is a big city. I found I could thrive in Quito and it has in turn given me the confidence to travel more and explore other big cities around the globe. The people may speak different languages, have different customs, or value different ideals, but you will find most of the same infrastructures and institutions in Quito, Ecuador as you would in San Francisco, California. This, to me, is very reassuring.