Zip Zip Zip

ZIP LINE!!! We were picked up at our hotel with the one other person zipping with us. Daniel turned out to be an awesome guy to spend the morning with. He took our pictures and was patient with my nervousness.  There were six lines that ranged from 150- 550km. We were able to zip in all different positions too. Regular, upside down, superman, double superman, and butterfly. 

After we zipped for a few hours they cooked the fish that Alicia and I had caught. I do have proof that Alicia ate fish. Yea doggie!!!

We spent the rest of the day wandering around town. Baňos is known for its taffy made from locally grown sugar cane.  It is super fun to watch them make it. We were both told not to eat it… but we are rebels and had a whole bunch anyways. Nom nom nom!

We also went to an “animal Prison,” aka a zoo. We saw some neat creatures like the national bird, the condor. I was a little disappointed that we did not get to hold a monkey.

Rode a basket across a nice wide canyon, poked around the other side, then rode it back.

Decided to walk home. The walk was just fine except for the dead dog on the side of the road and the massive blood splatter that went with it. I can’t believe neither of us lost our lunch!!!

Spent some time in our hotels spa right before we had private massages in our room. Glorious!!!

It was a wonderful day!!!

All of the Excitement In the A.M.

The main goal of today was to get to Baňos. We had another lovely night at our hotel followed by a wonderful breakfast. We had our hotel call us a taxi, thinking they would get us a good one. Considering all of the walking we did yesterday, I thought I would have been sore. I wasn’t too bad… until after that taxi ride. So, the ride to the bus station was to take about an hour. Well, with our driver it too about 15 minutes. Enough said. Zipping in and out of traffic, stopping half way under a cement truck. Driving 60 mph (100 kph). No seatbelts. Not to mention, there were no “Oh S&*% handles)! I’m sure he found our gasps and facial expressions amusing.

Other than that our day was very uneventful. Took a 5hr bus ride to Baňos. Our hotel was not at all where Google maps said it was at, but it turned out ok. Our hotel is amazing!!! There have a sauna, hot boxes, and hot tubs. The family that runs it is so sweet. They don’t speak a lick of English, but somehow we communicate just fine! Baňos is very unique because almost everyone has dogs as pets. It is so nice to see dogs that are not starving to death and that are not afraid of people. Our hotel owners have three dogs, all of which  are super cute/friendly!

The super nice man that helped us find our hotel and called us a taxi set us up with a bomb trip tomorrow zip lining through the canopy. On Monday, we will be taking a bike tour to a plethora of different waterfalls!

Old Town Quito

Had an amazing night sleep and a great breakfast at our hotel. Jaunito met up with us to be our tour guide for the day. We are so lucky that he would spend one of his two days off hauling us all over town, telling us all of the stories of Quito. We are also super lucky because he is very interested in history, so, he knows everything!

View From The Spire

The hotel is right off of the Piaza de San Francisco. Naturally we started there. A fun story: a man by the name of Cantuna was commissioned to build the Monasterio de San Fransico and had a set amount of time to finish it or he would be thrown in prison. The time was drawing near for the church to be finished and Cantuna realized there was no way it was going to be done. He made a deal with the devil; if the devil could complete the church in time then he could have Cantuna's soul. The day came to present the church to the commissioners. The church was complete except for one block... Technically, the church was not complete. The commissioners were not concerned, so, he was not thrown into jail, and the devil did not get Cantuna's soul, The church was amazingly gorgeous.

Plaza de la Independencia. Our awesome tour guide told us that all of the main squares in Ecuador would be set up like this one. A church on one side, a monestary across the square from it, the presidential palace (or the local leaders home), and the city hall across from that. There is a mondo statue in the center representing Ecuadors independence from Spain. We had the oppertunity to tour the Presidential Palace. It was grand, flashy, and beautiful.

La Basilica!

Took a nice long walk up to La Basilica, This is the largest Gothic basilica in Latin America and took over 100 years to build. Truly jaw dropping. There is an option to climb the spire and the two towers. Of course we did that. the towers were an easy climb and had fantastic views. The spire on the other hand was a little stressful. I am quite confident that all three of us needed to change our pants after that climb. Literally, it was a 400ft climb straight up an down. Totally worth it!

The Climb

A Tower Of The Basilica Seen From The Adjacent Tower

Jaunito Climbing

Our next towering adventure was to Cerro Pancillo (the cupcake mountin) which over looks Old Town. Incan sun ceremonies used to take place at this hill top.The statue of "The Virgin of the Americas is situated up there now. She was made to be the protector of Quito, but has been refered to as facing the rich and having her back to the poor (rich Quito is situated to the north/front of the statue and poor Quito is situated on the south/back of the statue). Only being able to climb to the base of the globe that she stands on, we were still able to get a higher vantage point even from  the Basilica!

Looking Up At The Virgin Of The Americas

I cannot remember if I have shared this yet or not, but Quito is a very lllllloooooonnnnngggggg city. Karry said that it takes approximately 3.5 hours to drive from the far north to the far south. However, it takes less than a half hour to drive from the far east to the far west. As you can imagine the pictures do not do justice to the view.

A Picture That Does Not Do The View Justice

After our tour guide was nearly hit by a bus we headed to La Ronda. That is about how nochalant he was about being grazed by the bus, while I was freaking out. Any ways, La Ronda is a very romanticly ornate colonial district of Quito. It is know for being a spot there men would serenade women to their balconeys in hopes to make them fall in love.

I left my toiletries bag at  Katty's house. That really, really made me mad at myself. I'm still not sure how I managed to do that. I have one prescription in particular that I need to prevent the week of the dragon (enough said). It was crazy to me that I could walk right into a pharmacy, show them the name of the medication I needed, and they gave it to me. No questions asked, no hair pulling, no prescription from a doctor. Blew my mind and made my day.

Juanito was the best tour guide that we could have ever hoped for! Thank you so much for letting us drag you around town on one of your very few days off. You are THE BEST!!!

On Our Own

Last day as a team...

Started with leather town. Beautiful and expensive. Juanito must not have been too sick of us from yesterday because he came along with us again today. What a great guy! He put up with our shinanigans all day long. Leather town and wood town were not as successful as the Otavalo market for us. I suppose it was that way for everyone because multiple people asked to go back to Otavalo (more details to follow).

NEXT!!! Cuicocha. I distinctively remember before the trip started that we were told we would be going on a boat tour on a lake in an extinct volcano crater. Well, fun fact, Cuicocha is active! Even though it has not exploded for 3,000 years I felt it was a little risky tempting it like that. Boy o boy. The whole lake is filled by rain water. That is totally amazing considering the size of that honker! No fish live in the lake due to the sulfur and other gasses let off by the volcano. We got to see some of the gas emissions near the middle of the lake.

Front Of The Boat Was A Bad Choice Kalli

Back to Otavalo!!! Alicia stocked up on gifts and greatly improved her bargining skills. Our entire shopping crew was impressed. Lindsey, Alicia, and I all got Jaunito a gift for putting up with us all week. Then he discovered Alicia and I were staying longer. That sweetheart is going to spend the next day (maybe two), hanging out with us, being our tour guide. AMAZING! What a guy! He deserves something so much better than the hat.

Market

Made a pit stop on the way back to Quito and the equator. Took some rad pictures super quick, then loaded back up!

On Both Hemispheres At The Same Time

As soon as we got back to Kattys it was work, work, work. Getting all of the bags that the shoes and meds in consolidated. All of peoples things crammed into the bagged bags. Amy and Ross brought us dinner and came to bid our team farewell. It was a tearful goodbye for me (who is suprised???).

Katty, Alicia, and I had a big group snuggle after everyone left. Very comforting. Then, Juan's PaPa picked us up and took us to our Hotel Botique. Apparently in these things, anything and everything in them is for sale. Neat! It is beauiftul and fun!

Our Room From My Bed :)

Tomorrow we will be exploring the historic district of Quito with our professional tour guide Mr. Juan!!!

Side note - Jaunito is an aspiring reg-atone artist. He preformed for us last night. Awesome! 

A Bartering We Go!

June 19, 2013

This morning we made the trek from Quito up north to Otavalo. One of the largest markets in South America is here in Otavalo, however, that is on the weekends. My dear Jaunito says that they shut down many of the streets because there are so many vendors. Our group spent many hours and lots of money. It is one of those markets where you get to barter. So much fun!!! Juan was impressed with my bartering skills. Alicia, Lindsey, and I were super lucky to have his help. Without him, even with my mad skills, we would have spent a lot more.

Here is my secret… spend lots of time picking out the thing or things that you want… ask the price… ask for it to go lower… look concerned when they say no… then walk away. You’ll get the price you want every time! Alicia went to town on alpaca blankets. Those of you who are getting those, you are VERY lucky.

The Shopping Crew

After the market we headed to Wood Town (aka San Antonio).  There were so many beautiful carvings that they looked like they were made in China. An amazing experience to watch those amazing artists carving away making masterpieces. I tried to carve one time…. Disaster.  Stupid piece of sap ended up breaking into approximately ten million pieces. Major disaster. 

After dinner we did a little more debriefing followed by Katty sharing her story. What an amazing, amazing, amazing, woman!

Back to Quito!

June 18, 2013

The only goal of the day was t make it back to Quito. And, we accomplished that. We spent the morning organizing the remaining supplies, taking inventory, and packing them up for the various groups they will be going to here in Ecuador.

Alicia was sick all night, but is much better now! I am so happy my travel buddy had a speedy recovery!!!

We had some time before dinner, so, a large group of us went for a brisk walk around Quito Valley. It was so funny to see the look on people’s faces when a parade of gringos came walking down the street.

I found this really interesting: Katty was telling us that she can only drive down town on Tuesdays. In Ecuador, the color of your license plate corresponds to which day you can drive down town. Weird. I guess that since there are so many people they work it that way.

Back to School????

We set up our full opperation for just one day! It was great. In all, we saw 168 patients. The kids at this school are very underpriveldeged. Almost every child had to have their ears cleaned. Almost every child had rotting teeth.

Two little girls really touched my heart today. The first was a sweet little girl named Clamentia. This cutie has a very bad home life. We spent a lot of time with her and gave her extra loves. The other was a darling girl named Luz. She came in and told us that her mouth hurt a little. When she opened her mouth you could see the roots on one of her molars. It was flipped sideways, growing out of the gums and into the cheek. The tissue around the tooth was begining to rot. The teacher told us that the parents could not afford to get the tooth pulled; it would be $200-$300. After much thought, prayer, and digging around we found a solution. Someone had given Nancy (our leader), money  to sent on a special child. She chose Luz. The money will pay for her tooth to be removed. AMAZING!

Luz - My Tooth Girl

After a long day and a quick stop at the mall we finally got to go home. Since it was our last night in Riobamba, we were given another wonderful meal by our dear cook Gloria.
     Side not - Gloria's son makes jewelery. Holy cow it is beautiful!
Following dinner we had a ceremony thanking each of our translators and each of our Army personel. It was very moving. Then, we were all taken outside to watch a traditional Ecuadorian Sun Dance. Bomb! Their costumes were fabulous and so was the show! Lindsey put on the fuzzy lamb chaps and danced solo with the group. And, at the very end they brought most up us up to dance.

Alicia and The Army Gals

Being a sappy pants I had a hard time saying goodbye :(