this past weekend we went to a city called otavalo where the majority of indigenous people live, the spoken language is kichua and its surrounded by 3 huge volcanoes called imbabura, mojanda, and cotocachi. otavalo used to be all farming communities but with the growth of tourism, the town has begun to focus more on making artesanias (handicrafts) which have made the mercados (markets) a very popular stop for toursist, so much so that it has become the town's main industry. depending on traffic its usually a 2 hour drive from quito..unfortunately sometimes the main road has lots of traffic, or ya konw.. landslides :D like on our return trip so we had to take a different route through mountain back roads.. took 4 hours instead
anyway this place is amazing, i loved it SO much
we went al mercado de animales which was a huge piece of land where people would just stand around with animals like cows, goats, lots of chickens, roosters, puppies and guinea pigs.. it was so crazy and chaotic.. many of the people selling the animals literally just had a bag full of guinea pigs, or crates of puppies.. it was kinda sad, but SOOO adorable <3>
after lunch we went to un taller de instrumentos (music workshop) where a guy showed us how to make all these really cool and popular instruments in ecuador and he played each of them too, it was AWESOME and at the very end, he brought out his entire family which consisted of himself, his 2 daughters who were probly about 13 and 16 and his son who was no older than 5 and they all played this one song for us, each of them had an instrument/job.. it was like a family band.. so great. then we had dinner and by this time everyone was about to fall asleep on their food cause we had to wake up at 5 30 in the morning and many of us didnt really sleep on the bus, terrence and i for example ended up just talking the entire way there cause neither of us could fall asleep, despite our attempts.. anyway by the time we finished dinner and arrived to our next place it was like 10pm .. we went to some shaman presentation, in which a woman performed rituals on 2 girls and 2 guys though each one took about a half hour, and after the first 2 girls, half of us were asleep, the other half were getting/giving massages or head scratches or back scratches :D jaja, we were all pretty much delerious but i mean it was sorta interesting the first time.. it consisted of various sayings in kichua, spitting out alcohol, and smoking about a couple dozen cigarets.. ok that probly sounds sarcastic but that was really what she did.. i probly woulda apprecaited it a lot more had i not been fighting so hard to stay awake.. anyway we finally left at about 1am and arrived to a hotel where everyone passed out in their rooms, but before i slept i decided to take a shower since im not really a morning shower person, and there was HOT water and POWERFUL water pressure.. it was SOOO nice to have hot water and pressurized shower heads again, i think i just stood in the shower for like an extra 10 minutes :p
the next morning we walked through a national park, it was so beautiful and at the very end of the trail, there was a HUGE waterfall.. a few friends and i climbed on some rocks to try to get as close to it as possible.. it was actually quite breathtaking standing so close.. we went to some other hikes around the city and learned some other stuff but none that i can remember at the moment, the waterfall was really the best part of the day.. oh yea, and we walked through a raptor zoo, that was cool too, and at the end there was a presentation with this guy who trained the birds.. we got to hold one of the birds on our gloves too.. it was just pure badassery
and of course i would have a bunch of pictures and video to upload except when i was in the fruit market my camera was stolen right out of my pocket, and i didnt even notice.. which i feel really stupid about and i spent most of my saturday being kinda bummed out.. funny thing is after we got robbed i told roxy, i wonder if i would rather be robbed or pick pocketed, and we couldnt come up with an answer.. well know i have one.. definitely pick pocketed.. sigh, when will i learn to shut my mouth :p i dont know if i should buy a new camera, and if so should i just buy some cheap one or a nicer one.. and i would have to buy it from the US cause electronics down here are SO expensive.. then again everyone else will take a bajillion pictures from all our trips and post them on fb anyway, but there's something so satisfying about taking your own... i dunno, havnet really decided yet .. i dun think i can go another 5 months without taking pictures.. i also am now like 200 dollars in debt cause i had to repay for my phone and now my camera is gone, but i wanna travel.. so i really have to see about money sths.. anyway that was the only downer about this past weekend.. besides that, i felt like i was on a high almost the entire time, it was so beautiful
its odd cause overall i really love it here, and i couldnt imagine myself being anywhere else, but it seems as though when im on my highest highs, i get robbed :D i mean i have already set a record for times being robbed in quito for the k program.. jaja i dunno, its just odd how much i feel as though im being challenged by things here, but not things you would expect.. sure the language barrier is hard and making friends is even harder and the milk and yogurt here just inst the same and.. well the list could go on, but those are all things i already knew would happen.. and though they're a constant challenge, they're not the things that are really getting to me like they are with some other students here.. rather, getting robbed with a knife or pick pocketed are the things that are just bringin me down and are causing me to think a lot about things.. like the real reason people rob.. is it to feed their families, take care of medical bills, what's the reason.. i wont really ever know but i do know that my phone and camera arent being kept as a phone or camera, they're being sold for money..who knows for what.. the poverty here is really high.. *sigh its conflicting
despite all thats happened though, im thinking in staying for 9 months.. call me crazy
well, i think thats all for now
hope everyone's doing well
