Whole again - mercado

So it is Sunday and I think that I am finally reaclimatized to the altitude here in Quito. It was no problem really when I arrived but we descended about 8000 feet to the rainforest and then reascended that amount in 5 hours....it screws with your system a lot. I didn´t eat or drink enough the first day back and kinda felt sick to my stomach Friday and then Saturday morning.

So both of my friends that were studying Spanish are gone back to the states, but before they left the three of us went to an open air indigenous people market in a park here in Quito. Many of the people are from Otavalo, a city known for its native market, and the people love to haggle. I bought a few items but honestly, it was simply overwhelming. There is SO MUCH stuff, all hand made, all relatively cheap, and it is good to take a limited amount of money when you go. The good news is that I got to pratice my spanish and asked lots of questions about where the goods were made, how long they took to make, who made them and I was understood fairly well I think. Better towards the end as I had an hour´s worth of intesive bartering practice. :)

I am convinced that salespeople are the same the world around and even more when making the sale is their entire livelyhood. Ever time you asked about something, the response was - this costs (for example) $8......but I will give it to you for $7. Or I will give a discount for buying multiple things. Or...¿Cuánto?, which means - how much do you want to pay for it. I bartered one item from $10 to $6. It was kind of intense during the negociations, but after all smiles - both sides. I love the indigenous people because they work hard, barter hard, and are friendly to me. Probably because I will buy somthing, but many Ecuadorians are more closed until you have an opportunity to get to know them.

I also found the indigenous market that is open everyday and it is more crazy and harder to look at the stuff. Let me tell you something about the goods...I saw leaves (from trees) that essentially had images tatooed into them and were beautiful. I saw art work made from different types of leaves with different textures and I was just amazed. There are products of jade, clay, wood, algodon, and alpaca. Often an item will take a day to a week to make...especially the medium sized rugs or wall hangings. The paintings are pretty spectacular as well, and many copies of the works of the painter/muralist Guyasamin are everywhere....and quite good too. There are so many cool things to look at and touch and I will try to bring my camera next time to give you an idea of the breadth of goods.

I am going to try and get in contact with my new friend Jamela (see the pictures 2 posts ago) as she apparently went white water rafting, and this left her in the hospital overnight in Tena. I know nothing right now other than though she is safe, she has to miss her trip to the Galapagos. I am so sorry for her. :(

Picture Explanation

The first picture on yesterday´s post is of Cocoa. The base for chocolate. You can take the white slimy things and suck on them (I found them to be bland) but if you dry out the inside seed it is the cocoa. We did lots of cool stuff at the first camp like seeing a tree that bleeds when cut and is supposed to help with wounds and indigestion. We sucked on cocoa seeds and slept under mosquito nets. The camp was very rustic and did not have electricity, but we used flashlights and candles and stayed up late playing a new card game called Cuarenta (40).

The second, third and fifth pictures are from the second camp, which was a lot more modern with electricity, warm showers and even a small bar. It had an amazing view over looking the river Chico (in Spanish, different in Quechua) - pic 2. I went with Nikki, who is from Minnesota, and our teacher Silvana. We met lots of people from all over the world, some teaching English as a second language in Ecuador (there is a need, but I think it is more of a volunteer thing for the most part), another small group which are trying to help Ecuador community by community (www.mannaproject.org), others on vacation after college for a year from England and from Germany. These people started in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and followed the coast around to Chile and then north through Peru and Bolivia and now Ecuador. We also met other students from the US studying Spanish and even a lady on a medical mission to a city south of Quito. In the picture (#3) it is Nikki, my fellow student, myself, and then Jamela (medical mission) and her friend Justin, who is taking some time to travel and has quit his job in New York. These two were a lot of fun and interesting to talk with. We are tenatively planning to go out to eat tonight in Quito.

The other picture is with Silvana the teacher, me, a different student named Nikki and then my fellow student Nikki. We were at an indian villiage giving books and crayons and toothbrushes to them and then we had the opportunity to buy some hand-made necklaces. It was interesting, but the children were very shy and quickly ran back to the other side of the villiage.

I put a picture of the first Tarantula that I encountered while studying on day 2 at the second camp. While we saw only 3 the whole trip they made life interesting and a little scary for us as there was a gap at the bottom of our doors in which a tarantula could easily enter. Thank goodness for thick towels. :) We placed them under the doors the final night after spotting 2 above the outside of the doors to our rooms. Oh....and the last picture is as close as I got to wrestling an anaconda...the guides found a small boa in the jungle and brought it up to the lodge for show and tell....and to put around our necks. Don´t worry....they are not poisonous....simply want to squeeze. :)

I had an amazing time and climbed up a three level waterfall, swam in a laguna, went down an incredibly strong natural waterslide, ascended a canyon with my feet on one side and my back on the other and then I went STRAIGHT UP! I also walked through an old rainforest, a newer rainforest, and squeezed between some huge rocks that had been cut away by the water.

By the way...it rained at least three times a day and was constantly moist. Thankfully, since we were close to the mountains it was not super hot and stayed in the 70´s most of the time. My clothing took about 5 days to air dry and even then they were kinda damp from the humidity. I recommend simply bringing a mixture of old short and long sleeve t-shirts and then donating them to the garbage can. I had a shirt that was incredibly stinky after my swim in the river during a floating trip towards the Napo river...the Napo is the primary artery to the Amazon.

The wierd thing is that the rainforest is about 8000 feet lower than Quito and I think that yesterday I was struggling to adjust back to the altitude. I didn´t eat much and didn´t drink enough water, but today feel much better. Just need to keep adjusting. :) I will post more soon.

Anaconda Trip - Pictures

Here are the pictures:

I will write more in the morning hopefully as I am feeling a bit tired and worn down from a fun, but long week in the jungle. I really didn´t get enough sleep last night and look forward to hitting the sack. I am going to put a few pictures up (I hope) and will post more tomorrow. The good news is that I survived and had an amazing adventure. :)

I´m Alive

Hey everyone...more soon, BUT I am alive, had a great time, am really dirty, hungry and don´t have enough money with me for anything more than going home. I promise to write later and hopefully upload some pictures. :)

Pictures Update...Gone for a Week

Since I am leaving SUPER early in the morning for the Amazon and will not return for a week. I am sorry that I cannot post while I am there but the Anaconda´s rule everything, even the internet and they are quite selfish with it. Therefore, I will be taking pictures and writing my thoughts so that I can pass them on to you when I return.

Here is a picture of me and Alexito.

Alex can wear on me some days but I think that he is a good kid over all. He and I got to be friends over the pictures in my computer of me and my family and then we played the hide the object game while riding in the car the other day. So...I guess we became friends and he gave me a cold. What a trade! :) The good news is that I am like 95% healthy I think and hope that a decent night´s sleep will cure the rest.

To give you an idea of the snake skin on the wall...the little one is the Boa and the big one that will not fit in the frame is the Anaconda. Please believe me when I tell you that it extended at least another 3-5 feet on either side of the frame. This was at the Mitad del Mundo, the Ecuador location, and I unfortunately had too little time to really enjoy everything about the place. I guess it is normal to want to spend more time in a place like this, but as always we want to see everything and simply go...go...GO!

So, for those of you that think that I have a poor taste in clothing, I give you this guy...he is a character in their fesitval of the Sun, which begins tomorrow on the Solstice. He represents the devil, but something else as well. There is a syncritism of the indian religions and Catholicism. The former gods of the sun, moon, and other natural things, have found a connection to a certain Catholic saint and therefore, both are kind of celebrated at the same time.

Anyway, this guy really wanted me to take his picture and his girlfriend tried to get out of the picture. How would you like to date the devil? :)

The next picture is the from the top of that mountain the day I got really cold and really sick. As you can see the weather was not good, but the mural was kinda cool and is fairly normal for the Ecuadorian artists that I have seen (non-indian artists that is). There is a strong connection in their culture between the pre-Spanish peoples and the repression that has occurred in different ways ever since. The two hands are breaking the chains of repression and you have the sun, which represents the importance of the sun now and before with their chief god being, Inti - the sun god. You can see the intermingling of the two religions with the cross and the church on the right. This whole thing was painted on a huge wall about 20´ by 60´ if not more.

The final picture is of a huge head....NOT MINE! :) and me. This was in the church/school/nunnery that I visited and in which the guide didn´t really want to help me much. I really do not know what it means, but there are little faces on the head in different colors and the chain with the rock coming out of the mouth. Any ideas?

So I hope that you all keep me in your prayers as I don´t think that I am in good enough shape to win against the anacondas, and I didn´t buy the blowgun that I saw today...

Back in a week! Hasta luego.

My favorite bread...Pan Guayasin

Here is a pìcture of my favorite bread from the local (to the school) Panadería.

Yummy!

Pictures - San Diego & Graveyard

This is a cross in the cementerio (cementary) near to the church of San Diego. It is crazy that they bury many of the people above ground in these structures and each one has the name and often flowers as well. The bigger buildings are for the rich or more important people here. When we arrived a funeral procession was happening and I tried to catch a picture. Later (as has happened often) I found out that I wasn´t supposed to take pictures here.