Monday, December 29, 2008

Feliz Navidad y Prospero Ano Nuevo

Merry Xmas and all the other religions that celebrate this time of year, and Happy New Years to everybody!!!
Xmas went very well for me. I spent it here in Mompiche, Ecuador. Here in Ecuador most of the celebration is done on the 24th. For me it included a dinner among all the people here that aren{t originally from here, that dont have family, including people that live here from other parts of the world like me. We each brought a plate, and it turned out to be completely vegetarian meal, DELICIOUS. We drank wine and ate til we were full! It was great. After that, I went to the house of a boyfriend I have here and spent their dinner with his family. They roasted a pig and all. Phew full. After that everybody in the town went to the disco (dance place) we have here and we all danced the night away....until 4 am! A different Xmas and very pleasurable. I felt very welcome and enjoyed my first xmas away from my family, I was surrounded by other family and friends here. The day of the 25th was spent eating candies and smaller little get toghethers for the kids and all. Spent the day on the beach and enjoyed it very much. The time between xmas ans news years is mostly celebration, music and food and happiness. It{s great. Tehre are rumors of how New Years will be spent...but it depends it on many things. I{ll let you all now.

I hope that Xmas was great for everybody and that you spent it how you wanted and made you happy. This time of year really is special. I hope everybody is happy and healthy.
It{s not the years in your life that counts, its the life in your years
Happy 2009!!!!

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

In the Amazon

I figured it would be refreshing to get somebody elses point of view........ This is what mom had to say......

We made it out of the Jungle somewhat alive thank goodness. Did you know they have carnivorous ants??? Never heard of them, but when the guide showed them to us and said we had to run through this part it was kindof freaky & we ran like grease lightning. I have never in my life seen bugs as big as a large pear, but we did... It was a beetle. We saw a Coral snake that if it bit you, 30 seconds later you would not be able to breath & you would die. One of the coolest things we saw were lightning bugs that were flying around in the rain. Every night it rains in the jungle and one of the nights we did not have a candle to get back and forth to the kitchen which was about an 1/8th of a mile away in the pitch black crossing a bridge, going up & down mud staircases... We waited for the lightning and each time ran a bit further. It was crazy... I took us about a 1/2 hour to get to the kitchen where we actually got candles, & food. Another exciting adventure we had to cross the river to get to our destination... We had to get into intertubes with our stuff wrapped in plastic bags, tied to us and hope we make it to the other side. Holy S%&_!!! I have been in the Trinity river caught in the middle by myself in an intertube, but that was nothing... I have also been in class 5 rapids white water rafting on the deadly Kern River & that was nothing compared to this... I think we all thought we were going to die in the famous Amazon River with our guide Eduardo who says trust me.... I think we should have wised up when he took us to a beautiful lagoon & told us to dive right in from a rock about 12 feet from the water. Kristin was smart & told him yeah, right after you. Sure enough he dove in, but he dove a great deal further to the left than he originally told us. Just as we thought, to the right it was only about 5 feet deep and where he dove was at least 15 ft... Not intentional on his part of course, because what we have learned down here is when they say right here, or rigt there, it is not literal they truly expect you to read their mind & know this means about 6 feet to the left instead of where they pointed. For sure we are the tourists... The next days adventure was even crazier. A Shawman "Medicine Man" took us on a hike that should have been a couple of hours to some waterfalls... 8 hours later with one tiny 16oz bottle of water we returned. The hike for sure was meant for persons who were around 20 and had much more agility than myself. Of course we did not know this until breakfast the next morning when the women who was cooking for us said I was a very strong women to have made it all the way back because it was not a hike meant for me. I felt so embarassed when I came dragging back after 8 hours.. I thought I was such a wuss and went straight to bed for three hours only to be awoke for dinner & more water. The Medicine Man did not take any water with him and drank none while we did our entire hike. Wow that was amazing because those of us that are used to drinking at least 64oz in a day and are not of the camel variety were not able to hang. Even the other couple that was with us said they were frustrated by running out of water. When we brought the running out of water up to the main guide Eduardo he argued with Kristin & told her we just were too slow. She said that argueing with him was a useless battle because they are used to something completely different. I guess the main guide missed the class where people have the power of suggestion, and none of us that were on this tour will suggest his company. In the travel world where everyone asks your opinion on what to do and where to go in each city that is a big thing. In many resturant we went to they had a book where tourist could write comments about the resturants, hostel, tours, and trips and this one will not go down as one of the best. Aside from the crazy adventures the Jungle as a whole is magnificent. There were leaves that were as big as the top have of Kristins body. There were butterflys of every color in the rainbow... Incredible. There were flower varieties more beautiful than I have ever seen. They even showed us a plant that when humans touched it would go to sleep for 1 hour then rejuvinate itself. We made it out with our faces painted and the art of spitting poisonous darts through a wooden tube... that is the important part. There are many more stories but in person it will be more lively than reading my script. I have a 12 hour bus ride ahead tonight & I get on a plane for an 8 hour trip right after & return to LAX around midnight, and work the next day.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Mom´s account

Moms email says

It was hard leaving the Galapogus Island, we went around to all of the people we engaged with and said our good byes and thank you for the wonderful experience. The day we left we did get to swim with the sharks in the morning. We took a boat out about 7:00am. The sharks were smaller than we thought, but sharks none the less. Got an underwater camera to take pictures because we thought nobody would believe us. When we got back to Guyaquil (main continent) we got on a bus and headed for a town called Cuenca which is in the Sierras. What a difference to go from sea level to an elevation of almost one mile. I guess I did not drink enough water because I got a touch of elevation sickness with a fever and after we got back from a trip to a local textile/artesian town I had to take a 3 hour nap. It sucked because I missed going through & touring the local churches. Next we went to Incaquerca which is little town along the Inca trail where there are Incan ruins. It was rainy & muddy but seeing the ruins helped us understand just how far we have come as a civilization. The ruins were lined up perfectly with the sunrise & sunset. It was set on a hill so they could see whoever would try to attack. There were aquaducts built around the whole thing as well as a place for them to have recreation which they believe they played a form of soccer/futbol. The whole pleatau was fairly suffisticated for the times, I guess very similar to the pyramids. There were even wild lamas all over the place. We did not mess with them because as I understand it they are so much meaner than the mamma sea lion.:-) It really was amazing. After returning to Cuenca we hung around the city for another day checking out the local museums, artesian shops and indiginous works of art. The Hostal that we stayed at was incredible and the guy running it told us his father built the 13 bedroom house from top to bottom and only died a couple of years ago at 90 something. The next day we headed to Riobamba where Julie (Kristin`s friend from home) has a place that we visited. It has a wonderful view of the mountain Chimboraza which Julie just climbed with a group the prior Sunday and made it clear to the top. The town is quaint & very beautiful with the setting of the mountain range surrounding it. Tomorrow we will head for the city of Tenua where there are natural hot springs surrounding the city. This city is at the edge of the Amazon and it is what they call the "Orient" and thank goodness it it closer to sea level. My head is about to explode with this elevation. We met some people that actually live in Durango Colorado who are having trouble acclamating, it is crazy high.That is all for now and I will write again soon.Happy Thanksgiving to all for tomorrow.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

SHARK!!!

We spent our last half day on the Galapagos Islands. And what a day it was!!!
We danced the night before, some of us later than others... But we woke up at 530 the next morning to head out on our boat. We arranged a tour to a place offshore called Leon Dormido (Sleeping Lion- Kicker Rock) We got on our boat and headed out. We followed the San Cristobal shoreline and saw blue footed boobies, sea lions, pelicans, friggate birds and the always beautiful scenery. We made it to Leon Dormido after about a 45 min. boat ride. We hopped in our wet suits and grabbed our fins and snorkle...and jumped in....
...Not to mention the instant fact that you cant see the groud becuase you are out way off the shore line...it was a little scary. But we swam toward teh protruding huge rock. The side of the rock that headed toward teh ocean floor was like a cliff, and I couldn´t see the bottom. The side of the rock was covered with barncales of all colors and beautiful algae, fish homes and tons of fish. We were told to swim around the rock to the passage. There was a 30 foot wide break in the rock. So after checkingf out the sid eof the rock we make it to the passage. I saw quite a few turtles just flating along, doo dadooo, tranquil and then I looked down and saw a school (?) of rays. The white spotted rays probably 5 or 6 feet wide floating along. HOW COOL!!! Not to mention all the fish....and then before I knew it I was swimming with sharks!!! There were baby/adolescent sharks in the gap (the whole draw of Leon Dormido) They were swimming around. So yes I swam with the sharks. We got underwater pictures, so not to worry---hopefully they came out alright : / no promises. After swimming through the passage we hopped back on the boat and made our way toward Sea lion island. There the water was much calmer and shallower. The water was filled with fish, and sea lions. They are very playful creatures. They will swim right out you fast and stare at you in teh eyes and 1 foot before they reach you swerve one way. Agile! They will play with you and swim with you, and they are tons of fun! It all kinda felt like something out of Finding Nemo....like we are looking for the East Australian Current and I was asking the turtles (alright alright, only somebody who has seen that movie as much as I have would know what the heck i´m talking about!) After swimming around there, we made our way back to the island. From there we packed and said our goodbyes to our favorite bar tender and headed to the airport for our flight to Guayaquil.
Once in Guayaquil we took a bus to Cuenca. We are now here in this town which is known as the town of churches for its abundance of churches. It´s a higher elevation and filled with the indigenous influence. Also very colonial architecture scattered throughout. It´s nice to be back in the cooler climate witht the andean music, art, and green. But the Galapagos was totally worth it!!!!

Friday, November 21, 2008

San Cristobal, turtles, iguanas, fish, and birds

The Galapagos Islands.



We are on the San Cristobal Island, Galapagos, Ecuador.
What a dream!!! This plaze is uniquely amazing. Cathy, my mom, and I are here. We got here on Tuesday from the ´´main continent.´´ We spent the first day relaxing and looking around. San Cristobal is the second largest populated island(5000 people), after Santa Cruz (10000) and before Isabela (2,000 people). It is a volcanic island and it is not spring here, so it is a dry hot climate with semi-cold waters. The islands ecotourism efforts are immense. Advanced recycling program, conservation of land, water, and the animals that inhabit land and water, fossil fuel minimized, and trying to lessen their ´´footprint´´ Alhtough the three of us have decided that there are plenty more of precautions they could take to maintain these islands to the max, it is pretty advanced compared to other parts in the world.

So far we have visited many places and SNORKLED tons!! Our first full day we did a loop that covered three main spots away from the little town. Westarted by going to La Galapagueria- the gigant galapagos tortoise reserve where you can see these old big animals in a semi natural environment. From there we continued on to Playa Chino. Playa Chino is a fine white sandy beach with sea lions and snorkling. We say tons of fish, a sting ray, and a baby turtle while snorkling. From there we continued on to El Junco. El Junco is the only fresh water reserve on the island. It is made from rainfall here. We hiked up the hill to see the lake. Cathy feel on her butt and hit her head 3 times!!! It was muddy thats for sure. And mom fell face first down the hill. That afternoon mom and I went to Playa Mann, the closest beach to town (which also has the University that Julie went to while she was here) We went snorkling here as well. This beach had tons of sea lions, they are everywhere here, people and sea lions inhabiting the beach together peacefully. Nothing like La Jolla Cove. This place stresses the natural version of everything, not our [clean controlled version in the states. Speaking of inhabiting the baeach together, here{s a story... Mom and I are out snorkling and we are coming back and thereis a male sea lion approaching our stuff, he actually went up and basically sat on all our stuff, towels, back packs etc... Well shoot, what do we do???? Even our room key! So we have the clever idea to get it back somehow. While everybody is watching us on the beach, mom tries and sneaks up and take it. Ya the Sea lion was NOT having any of that!!!! He charged mom and started barking at her to back OFF. So mom runs back to me, not to mention everybody on the beach laughing at us. It was great. After about 3 attempts, he finally left, and we were able to get our stuff back. We found our cool bar that we like to hang out with our friendly bartender who makes the ´´best´´ margarita on the island, according to my mom the margarita conosiour.
The next day my mom and I went to the beach called La Loberia, named after the sea lions. We met a local guy here who offered to show us how to walk there. The beach was filled with many things. When you first enter you see all the black lava rocks that make up the coast here, and if you look very closely you could see some off colored things. They turned out to be the galagagos iguanas. Scary looking, calm animals. On the actually beach there were the sea lions chilling on the beach soaking up the rays... and the snorkling was really good. Filled with tons more fish and a variety of other things. We enjoyed there until early afternoon. Then, made our way back to show mom a traditional ecuadorian lunch- soup, rice beans chicken and juice for 2.00. That afternoon we went with Cathy to a diffferent beach on the other side of the harbor called Punta Carola (named after Mom....who knows :p ) Snorkling here was beyond amazing. The water wasnt that crystal blue water you get in other places, but your swimming along and come along a group of turtles!!! There were turtles of all sizes, babies, adolescentes and then huge turtles with shells the size of a coffee table. I actually was swimming with three turtles at one point, the water was filled with them. As well as a sea lion swimming right by me .
That night took mom out for a little taste of Ecuadorian dancing. Salsa is the popular music...but we{ll have plenty of time to check out the discoteque dancing scene here. All in all, we are all three having a great time and enjoying this unique place. Moms taking pictures, so not to worry. We´ll keep you updated...

sidenote: Cathy keeps an eco blog and she has been writing more about the ecotourism here. Check it out www.greenecoservices.com and she would like to put a sidenote that if you need to buy anything from Amazon, go through her site and click it there....help her make money .

Friday, November 14, 2008

40 hours

So I stayed with my Colombian mother, Anna, in Bogota and what a sweetheart she is.
I left Bogota Nov. 11th at 8pm and got on a bus (sidenot: i`ve considerable lightened my load- my backpack is much smaller- liberating!) The bus ride to the border of Colombia took almost 30 hrs. We passed through plenty of places that were in an upheveal. There was/is problems ith a money company there called La Piramde, and in a nutshell the owner died and peoples money disappeared... ahhh corruption. But finally reached the border.
Complications arose there and it`s a long story... but after that I hopped on other busses. I arrived Nov 13 to Guayaquil...40 hours in bus! dang!
I am staying here with friends that we`ve met through couchsurfing the first time we came, and basically taking it easy until mom gets here tomorrow!!!!!!!!!! Beyond excited!!!!!!!!!!!


What is happiness? What is happiness to YOU? How do we find it?

Monday, November 10, 2008

Hammock time

I headed off to Santa Marta, the oldest town in colombia. I stayed with Tim, a couchsurfer in santa marta and he gave me a tour and a history lesson of santa marta. i also got to meet a good chunk of his friends. One of the days we went to visit one of his friends in the hospital, Pedro Conde. If you google him, you´ll find he´s a famous actor who did lots of westerns with the famous guys, including clint eastwood. He´s been all over the world acting as well. Sweet old man.
The next day, I took some advice of Tim and other travelers I´ve talked to, and went to a little pueblo outside of town called Taganga. Although a little touristy, it was still very pretty. And the surrounding hills that came down to the bluffs were scattered with cactus- just like the San Diego dry shrubbery. I spent most of the time in a hammock reading- it´s that kind of place, relaxation to the max.
I then made my way south, to bucuaramanga, the town between the carribean and bogota. I stayed with Mathieu there, a couchsurfer from Montreal there doing exchange. What a fun loving guy. we went to his Tae Kwon Do meeting, made homemade sushi and ate til we almost exploded, went reggae dancing, and had plenty of fun conversations- a really fun loving guy.
Currenty, I´m in Bogota...the capital of Colombia. I have officially finished my loop of Colombia. I am staying with Anna, an colombian who speaks very good English because she has spent a considerable amount of time in texas, miami, and new york. I met here in Cartagena (carribean) and she offered me a place to stay when I came to bogota. Bogota is huge...it´s beyone huge, enormous, gigantic. But still tons left to explore of Colombia´s capital.
...I have a day or two to explore Bogota then its off in a bus to Ecuador... 5 days begins the countdown...see you soon mom and cathy! and ecuador.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Pirates of the Carribean

"Not all who wonder are lost"




The next couple of days in Cartagena were very nice. I spent the next day wandering around the historic town of Cartagena. It is an old town with the colonial old buildings and churches, and the "old town" is surrounded by a wall with cannons. it`s quite interesting. Inside the walls, is like stepping back in town...horse drawn carriages, cathedrals, colonial buildings. I also explored the little beach that Cartagena has. It was full of people though. I ran into Vince, a guy from Australia I had met earlier traveling. he was with a group including people from Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia. We hung out that night. The next day I took a tour to Playa Blanca. Check out the pictures. What you think of when you think of hte Carribean...blue crystal water, palm trees, tons of fish, white beaches, old boats, fish- cooked and alive, nice people, artisan work. It was all there. I got a little taste of what the Carribbean is like! Amazing. Now i`m staying in Barranquilla with a sweet couchsurfer named Rebecca from Kansas who just finished up Peace Corp in the Dominican Republic. Today I head off to Santa Marta...

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Finished up Medellin. Carribean

All in all I had a blast in Medellin.My stay with Andres from couchsurfing was a lot of fun, and he took us a lot of places and we met a lot of people. It was also cool to havea guy from Argentina and a guy from Spain there simultaneously.One of the days Argentinian and the spaniard and I went to Pueblito Paisa. An annedxed village in the middle of Medellin. It took a step back in history and also was cool to see the view.The enxt day i did a hike on the ridge of the mountains surrounding Medellin. It was beautiful, green, high up there, and definitely confusing. I ended who knows where, but I got back. That night we went to a Couchsurfing Halloween Party at a hostal called Tiger Paw. It was a blast, there must of been 50 or 60 people there, couchsurfers, visitors, hostal guests. Everybody dressed up and everything. We hung out there for awhile, but eventually moved it to one of the girls house to do dancing. We danced and chitchatted until sunrise, 7 the next morning. At 8 am I grabbed my bag and headed to the terminal to travel all day to Cartagena. Ended up the bus didn´t leave til 430 pm, a LONG day in the terminal.Eventually, after a 14 hour bus trip at night, we arrived to Cartagena at 630 am. phew. This is my first visit tot he Carribean. I´ll admit, i´ve been so wiped from that tripped I haven´t explored the beach yet. BUt I did explore an old castle from teh 1600´s. It was very cool, and from atop taht hill you could see the beautiful Carribean sunset.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Que tal beautiful Medellin

Alright, first of all only TWO WEEKS until my mamacita and cathy come to Ecuador!!!! I´m counting down and am super excited!!!!!!!!!!!

I´m currently in Medellin, Colombia.
Since the last time i wrote, i went to a finca/farm for cafe /coffee. I posted a couple of pictures. I learned all about the process to make coffee and even helped out, picking..grinding etc... Lots of fun. and got tons of coffee!. Even a litle sample of Colombian coffee in a pouch made right there. yum


I also went to Manizales for a day or so. A university town tucked away in parque los nevados. You could see a couple snow capped peaks in the distance, and Manizales was set the the green, river filled region of Colombia. I DARE say that Colombia may be the most beautiful country i´ve ever seen. Alright, i haven´t seen everything. But this country is TRUELY incredible!




After that I headed for Medellin, a city of 3 million people. Fairly large, but also fairly healthy. I am staying with a couchsurfer (actually the ambassador of Colombia for couchsurfing) simultaneously with a guy from Argentina who has been traveling for 1 yr 8 mos. and a guy from Spain who is here only 5 days doing a project wtih you and drug involvment. Very sweet people.
Medellin is a ver nice big city,, not that I like big cities too much. It is filled with unique and ample architecture, everywhere there is something to be seen. It also has a metro, the only one in Colombia that spans all of Medellin, an awesome system.
I walked through centro and the pedestrian boardwalk of sorts, met a guy painted in blue. tons of stuff. went to ecopark cerro el volador, a bi mountain park right in the middle of the city with beautiful views of the city (there is a pic). I also went to a place callled pueblito paisa, a little annexed pueblo in centro with a lot of character and good views. We also did a couchsurfing get together last night for a bday of a couchsurfer. Lots of fun to meet everybody and the locals from here. It was a diverse group- as always with cool people like couchsurfers. Argentinans, Spaniard, German, USA, and local Medellinians.


I also (see the pics) went to La Piedra. WOW is what i have ot say of that. 200 m high, 650 steps to reach the top of the rock. and the view is spectacular! like jaw dropping. pics can´t capture it! A huge lake going to the horizon filled with islands of pine trees and everything, little pueblos, little boat holding places, everything. very incredible. There have only been a couple of times in my short 19 years of age that i´ve said wow like that. one example would be the Grand Canyon when my dad and I did a week road trip out there that was a lot of fun! and La Piedra was no exception.


Medellin has been a lot of fun all in all, a big city, but plenty to do and really nice people. I continue north to eventually see the Carribean for the first time! Cheers to firsts! experiencing new things!!!! TRAVEL!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Thank you

HELLO AGAIN ALL!!!!!
I{d like to start by saying thank you to everybody. For all the support you have all given, ever single one of you. You know how you say that every minute somebody is thinking about you and you don{t know it. Well you have no idea how many of you I think of- at random times too!! Hahaha
Also thank you for writing on my message board and staying in contact with me, i really enjoy it. Hugs!!
As for the continuation of the sabbatical...
I{m traveling through Colombia yes. Believe me, it is one of the most beautiful places I{ve ever seen. It{s gorgeous. Of course if you don{l like green (uhhhum Auntie Diana) you wouldn{t like it. If you don{t love Colonial ranches, horses and carriages, coffee fields, nice people, people calling you ´¨mami´, good food and just awesomeness...then you wouldn{t like this place.
I am couchsurfing through Colombia (http://www.couchsurfing.com/- can{t recommend it enough!) Right now i{m in Armenia staying with a Juan here, who works on computers. He lives with his mom (with is not uncommon among bachelors in s. america) and she is an absolute sweetie, who has a unique interest in Native American history. Ha what do you know i have something like 1/32 in me- it{s like we are twins and i{m your study- not. Not that i{m dissing my ancestors, i{m grateful nonetheless. :)
Today I spent the whole day in Salento, a little pueblo outside of town. This was one enchanting town. All the buildings painted colorful colonial colors. artesinal places, a nice plaza with many vendors of fresh trout caught form the town that runs through the stream. The best trout i{ve ever had- freakin delicioso!! Colombia is also filled with old cars ( i know you would like that dad! and joe :) ) Filled with old Buicks, land rovers from teh 60´s, willy´s. awesome. I took one of those jeeps to a nearby valley, valley de cocura. Incredibly beautiful, full of horses, ranchs, streamsa nd rivers, palm trees (the nat{l tree of colombia is a palm tree that grows at some 2000 m. very different) cows, beautiful. I met a girl from Germany who is studying in Bogota. We did the 4 hr hike together. Following the stream and then headed up the mountainside. Gorgeous!
Tomorrow I head to Manizales and continue through Colombia! woohoo!!
p.s. i{m trying to post pics. check it out. it will pics of colombia so far. keep in mind i can only post so many, so ill have to delete the others. there old anyways and so much has happened between then!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Self declared salsa


Alrighty well plans have changed.

I left Mompiche yes and I went to the Columbian border to get another 3 months to ensure I could travel around with my mom. After two days of confusion, frustration, and argument, learned taht I could NOT enter Ecuador again. I know kinda scary. As for mom coming, something will be arranged don´t worry. Julie is still in Riobamba working as well.
As of right now I am traveling through Colombia for about 3 weeks, couchsurfing!!! (http://www.couchsurfing.com/) It is a beautiful beautiful country. And definitely has a different feeling than Ecuador.
I stayed in Cali, the self declared salsa capital of the world (and i´m sure not many would dispute it) It gave a new meaning to a market city as well. YOu could find anything there anything. not joking. It still had a colonial feel as well and was surrounded by beautiful mountains.
RIght now I´m in Buenaventura. A large port town on the pacific. And there is a town festival right now.
I plan to do a loop up to the Caribbean coast of Colombia and then head down to Bogota. If I can, and it isn´t too expensive I´ll fly from Bolivia to Peru. And then be able to get mother dearest/hot mama/mamacita
(bythe way, everybody calls you ´mami´in Colombia, it´s awesome)
THose are the plans, but as i´ve learned, they change so often...
I´ll try and be safe.
Plenty of stories...

Sunday, October 19, 2008

We´re off to see the wizard...

As of today I have left Mompiche. I was there for almosttwo months. And it was fantastic. I gathered lots of memories and some photos. But it was just what the doctor ordered. But like all prescriptions, they must come to an end...
I´m en route to Quito where I´ll visit immigration and hopefully get an extension so my visa doesn´t run out when my MOMMIE comes to visit in November! The next month will be filled traveling through the Oriente, theamazon of this beautiful country. I´m excited. It is a region unknown to me. When that month runs out, mymom will be arriving, the 15th and who knows what will do for the much anticipated 2 weeks she will be here (along with Cathy!) I´ll keep ya up to date as much as possible.
MUCH LOVE
mucho amor, abrazos, y besitos
XO

p.s. any suggestions for this site, how i´m writing the blogs etc... let me know. I´ll take them into consideration...

Thursday, October 9, 2008

My first apartment

Well I{ve got my own apartment of sorts, living on my own for the first time. I[ve been living in Mompiche now for a little over a month. SOme may remember how much Julie and I bragged as Mompiche being paradise when we first visited it.
Well after talking with Cloro, I was able to exchange staying in a cabana for cutting weeds and stufff with my machete in the back...sweet deal! The cabana is a closed bar and the bar is below nd there is one big room above it. 50 feet from the waves, window looking out over the sunset, other window looking over the fishing boats, no electricity, doesn{t get much better, i{m telling you.
Julie is still in Riobamba. The semester lasts until the end of this month (there are 2 month intense sessions), she might do another or we{ll travel around again...gotta ask her what she{s up too
MOm is coming the 15th of November and believe me you can{t imagine the excitement.
I{ve also been able to frequently get the phone charged and have been able to receive calls from mom and my family and friends. It{s really nice. glad she got it!!
Life is good.... yaaa

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

This whole phone thing would work great if my phone would charge... right now my phone is temporarily disabled, the charger and phone aren´t workign together...durrr. I¨m working on getting it fixed and it should be fixed in the next couple of days. If you´ve tried to call or send a message, sorry... everything takes a little longer here :)

Monday, September 15, 2008

We have a semi-permanent residence if you are interested in sending anything to Julie or I
Name
Correo Central Riobamba
10 de Agosto y Espejo
Riobamba Chimborazo Ecuador, S.A.

And please let us know if you do, so we can pick it up. Julie will be in that area until about the end of October, maybe more. I don`t know how long packages take, you can ask UPS or something though.
Julie is here in Riobamba the University teaching English classes. She has 3 classes of different levels 5 times a week. She is really enjoying it. And has her own apartment she is renting, it`s pretty cool.
As for me, i`m traveling around alone, wherever the wind takes me...but i`m still in ecuador for the time being.
I also have a cell phone now, if you are interested in calling me or writing a text message. The following should work to contact it
How to dial to Ecuador cellular:
for calls to a cell phone dial: 011 + 593 + 9 ??? ???? so it will be 011+593+9 0209875
011- intl code
593-ecuador
That should work. No gaurantees I`ll pick up of course...but give it a shot.
Until next time, Ciao.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Big Rock hard MEN


¡¡¡¡¡Columbia!!!!!!!

Ok yes rumor sand the news reporters had it right, we went to Columbia. Our visas were going to expire, so we had to leave the country to get them renewed. Obviously, Columbia was our first choice :D
So we set up a couchsurfer in Popayan, Columbia and made our way to the border. After some complications, argument, and a relieving stamp, we crossed into Columbia and took a bus to Popayan. We arrived at 4 am, so we hung out at the terminal until a reasonable hour to call our couchsurfer.
Emma´s house was fun. We spent the time the couple of days in Popayan exploring the centro, trying Columbian food, going to thermal hot springs that reaked up sulfur (great for the skin), enjoying live jazz at a bar. She was definitely hositable.
We then made our way to San Agustin to see the archealogical ruins, one of the most important ruins on the S. American continent. After a vicious bus ride with many security stops, we made it. THe next day we did a 3 1/2 hr. walk through the park and saw the big rock hard sculptures that were pretty impressive. The next day we did a 5 hour walk through the Columbian countryside to explore the waterfalls and other ruins spread about the countryside. They were beautiful days.
Now that we´ve restored our visas, we´re back in Ecuador where Julie will be staying in Riobamba for 2 months at a University to teach English and I´ll be headed off to continue exploring Ecuador. Until next time

p.s. Join couchsurfers!!

Monday, August 18, 2008

Farc

Hopefully that title doesn´t scare anybody but... today we arrived in Quito again because we are headed out to Columbia tomorrow. Not to worry...i think :)
Our visas are going to expire soon and Columbia is much closer than Peru, so off we are! We are passing through the safest border town, Tulcon and making our way to Popayan to visit the San Augustine ruins. They are one of the most important ruins in the south american continent! Should be fun. WE{ll probably stay there for around a week, depending on how are plans change and all. But i{ll keep you updated...until then. Love everybody!!!

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Banos (literally bathrooms?)

Hiddey Ho...
We are here in beautiful Banos!! Enjoying the valleys, waterfalls, and thermal hot springs. Yesterday we rented bikes for $5/whole day and did a bike ride with Julie´s old host brother from Quito who came down. We hoped on the bikes and did a 25 km decent toward the town of Puyo. There are 7 waterfalls along the windy beautiful valley road. The last one beign the most beautiful, Pailon del Diablo. An impressive 100 rushing waterfall that drops into a rocky pool. You could actually hike behind the waterfall and experience the wet awesomeness. But before we had reached the last waterfall on our bike trip we stopped at a bridge. And little did you know there was bungee jumping... and us being craziness enough bought a ten dollar ticket....strappped in and Julie and I jumped off the 50 m bridge toward a rushing river. What an exhiliration!!! It was awesome- excitign to cross things off our list to do before we die (although some of the things on our list could be the cause of death :D ) haha. It was quite a blast.
That night we met up with the people we met in San Pablo, EWB. and went to a cool bar with live music and got to play the bongos, drums, cow bells and just jam and sing all night long. It was quite a fun night!!! We´re enjoying Banos and it´s cool cafes and atmosphere and then are heading ot Puyo later today to check it out... ciao ciao

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Alpaca?

We finished our tan project with Engineers without BOrders in Pilingui San Pablo. We met that amazing group of people and have made some great friends, they are a lot of fun. But we finished that up and have now moved onto Banos for a couple of days to get out of the cold and take a little break.
On the 19th we plan on heading to Quito for a day and then to Columbia for a week to renew our visas...don´t worry we´ll take all the precautions, and we´ll be safe :) I´ll keep you updated on how it goes.
Hope life in the states is happy and healthy, just like us!
And mom, hope to see you soon when you come to visit. that reminds the invitation is open to anyone who wants a vacation, it can be arranged to come visit us!!!
p.s. alpaca are in the family of llamas and were in abundance in san pablo, they are adorable, and make good sweaters....oopps

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

...San Pablo....

We left Guayaquil and headed inland
We are now ¨¨stationed¨¨¨in San Pablo, home of Casa Condor. This village of 48 people is stationed right at the base of Mountain Chimborazo, the peak on earth closest to the sun. It´s about a 19,500 ft. mountain, and our village is at about 12,500. But because weare on the equator, there isn´t snow in our village, just windy and chilly as heck!!!
We met up with a group that just got here from Colorado, Engineers without borders, and there are doing a 2 week construction project here building a HUGE thousand of gallons tank to hold and suppply the water from the natural spring on Mt. Chimborazo. It´s pretty awesome. They recruited us as volunteers, and we are having a blast!!! They are some really cool people and the manual labor is fun, so our next two weeks are filled :p It´s definitely different than the coast, chilly chilly here but beautiful all the same. My camera is temporarily (or permanently, don´t know yet) broken, so we´ll see how that goes. It´s a bummer because the land is BEAUTIFUL!!!!
ciao

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Craziness!!!!

Alright the past week has been crazy!!!! woohoo
I don{t remember what i wrote about last, but i guess i{ll try and continue from there.
Our friend Ruben from Esmeraldas who we stayed with had invited us to his birthday party back up in Mompiche (the aesome little fishing village we stayed at) and this party just coincidentally happens to be the Fiesta de la luna llena (festival of the full moon) as well. So after some consideration, Julie and I decided why not take the 10 hour bus ride from Guayaquil to Mompiche to enjoy a weekend vacation from our vacation. So luckily we didn{t have to travel with our big bags, we left most of our stuff in Guay. and headed out with enough for a couple of days. After the 10 hr bus ride we arrived to Atacames (the beach north of mompiche) on a friday night a 10 pm- the streets we full of people and music and sand!!! it was crazy. We went dancing a little, drank a batido (fruit shakes mmhhmm) and walked around in search of a cheap hostal. Stayed in Atacames a night and left that morning to Mompiche...
Luckily a truck stopped beacuse we were hitchhiking to save money (don{t worry it{s mostly safe) and this truck just happened to be going to Mompiche to drop off sand for construction...what luck!!
So we reached Mompiche and said Hi to all of our friends!!! We also looked for Cloro to stay in his awesome house again, but unfortunately he already had other visitors. So we we lucky enough to stay with our friend Morongo who owns a bar at the end of the beach. We spent the day in usual Mompiche lifestyle, walking the beach, eating, sitting in hammocks, talking to our friends, swimmin....it{s beautiful!!
We went to Cloro{s for dinner and had a bonfire and roasted up some fish- it was delicioso!!!! woowee. After munching down the fish, we headed over to the full moon festival. There was a bunch of people there, dancing, bonfire, just having a good time. We met up with some of our friends and made some new ones. It was a BLAST!!!! Luckily there is another one every month, awesome!

(writing a couple days later... )
The next day we went to a little pueblo with our Esmeraldas friends and went to Portete beach. You have to swim across the river to get there, but it is worth it. It was definitely a blast, but not a good idea ot go without sunscreen!! eekkk We had a lot of fun. We spent the next couple of days continuing the Mompiche lifestyle and helped out in our friend Morongo´s bar. We are planning to return to Mompiche in a month and a half or so to open up our friend Cloro´s bar!!!! Julie and I will be running it and it will also include a place for us to stay. So after we head inland in a couple of days to Riobamba to do our volunteer work for a month, we´ll head back to Mompiche for a 1-2 mos. to run our bar.
We finally, after much confusion and frustration with the bus terminal, made it back to Guayaquil at 6 am. We spent that day preparing for our weekend bike trip with the same group we met through the repelling trip, ciclistas sin fronteras...bicyclistas without borders. We headed out friday morning to Cuenca, which is elevation 12,000 ft. and it gorgeous!!!! Friday day, we got our first taste of mountain biking. Nothing kicks your butt harder that biking uphill for 10 km at that elevation...extreme!!! But the view was gorgeous, and however difficult- it was worth it!. We then rode downt the mountain into Cuenca, about 17 km away- acceleration!! adrenaline! woohoo freezing!!! (by the way 1.6 km=1mile) We made our way to the hotel that night and ate and rested because we were going to need our energy for our 25km trip manana.
We got up the next day and headed out to the trail head for Incapirca, Incan ruins. This trip was amazing!!! We rode through hills, valleys, rural villages, beautiful ecuadorian countryside, and tons and tons of mud!!! It was amazing. It was intense, probably one of the most extreme things I´ve done (since I haven´t been skydiving- MOM! :D ) but it was definitely worth it once we reached the top of the mountain right before sunset and got to check out the amazingness!!! It was absolutely gorgeous (facebook pics are coming!) We enjoyed to beauty, but eventually had to head back (it was freezing!)
The next day we went to the International MTB mountain biking competition for all of south america. I thought what we did was intense, these people take it to the next level!!! Columbia won for the girls and guys competition...figures- Columbia!! Eventually we headed back to Guayaquil, and hear we are...
until next time! Ciao

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

4 men 4 women 4 beds

Hola Hola!!!
Well still here in Guayaquil enjoying ourselves very much.
We have visited the park of iguanas which is filled with iguanas
walked on Malecon 2000, teh huge board walk project
walked on Malecon del salado, the older smaller version
went to the zoo here and saw some really cool stuff, you could get really close to the animals. I was actually holding a wolly monkeys hand! and later was standing 5 feet away from a sleeping lion! it was crazy. we went with some freinds we met here through a couchsurfing friend. We just meet tons of people, they are really nice.
We also did a trekking and repelling trip with a friend, Geovanny, we met on couchsurfers. He is a part of bicycling club here in Guayaquil, so a couple of people from his club and volunteers from teh red cross who had the equipment and knowledge went. The place was called 7 waterfalls, it was about a 45 mins hike into a amazon looking jungle. We passed a couple of waterfalls before we reached the one we were going to do repelling on. It was about a 30 ft waterfall that dropped right into a clear pool of water surrounded by a rock wall, it was amazing. They set up the repellinga nd Julie and I both repelled down the waterfall, attached to the rope! It was awesome, adrenaline rush too, especially when i almost slipped! phew. It was quite a day. We plant to spend a couple more days here in guayaquil, and have a couple of things planned, so it should be fun.
We are still staying at our friends house. One of the boy´s mom and sister arrived from the Galapagos yestereday and so now it´s definitely a full house, people sharing beds all over the place!! Don´t worry....i´m sleeping with julie if you have any questions, in our own room! Geez!!!

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Guayaquil

We have now arrived to the biggest city in Ecuador, Guayaquil...named after the indigenous King Guaya and his wife Quill, who he drowned beofre letting the conquistadors get their hands on her...and then drowned himself. so i guess they made a citty off of that! just kidding. The city is based around the River Guayas that meets up with the pacific. It´s pretty freakin hot and muggy, nothing like the sierra, quito, where it´s quite cool and dry. Ecuador definitely has a plethera of environments, all in this tiny country.
We are staying here with friends of oen of Julie´s friends from the Galapagos. It´s a little bachelor pad filled with 4 guys all from teh Galapagos, studying here, civil engineering. THere are really nice and are showing us around Guayaquil.
There was a project here called Malecon 2000, a gigantic boardwark that runs up and down the rio guayas- it´s really nice. The city is also light up at night and it is really bueatiful. You can climb up a big hill and reach a light house, but on the way the 444 steps are filled with bars, discotecas (dancing), and people...it´s really a cool set up.
TOday we went to market, a costco sized building with an open air market filled with individual vendors- fruits, vegetables, whole pigs, chickens, fish...everything, quite a sight to see. We plan to explore a good chuck on Guayaquil tonight with our friends and check out the famous night life.
p.s. we might have a somewhat permanent address coming up at our volunteer place

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Flashback to the 70´s

We left Manta and headed to Montanita,a small beach town. This place was like a hippie town from the 70´s it was insane. Hippies, surfers, tourists, and Ecuadorians all thrown together. People barefoot and with dreads. The beach was nice, plenty of chances to play volleyball, enjoy the huge waves, and walk the artisan streets and eat some good grubbbb :) We enjoyed our stay but found it a little too touristy for our taste. Although we met some cool people and enjoyed the relaxation....we´ve decided to continue on down to Salinas. A big town with a beautiful beach but lots of building. We adopted a kitten in Montanita and brought it with us, we named her Zero. We´ll either keep it with us, or find a home for it here. Julie and I are doing good and traveling cheap- so all is well!!!! We´ve also passed the month mark.... with plenty more to see. After Salinas and Guayaquil, we are heading inland to the mountains to do our volunteer work. Should be fun, i think the beach for everyday for a month has been plenty, so the change of scenery will be nice. until then!

Saturday, July 5, 2008

4th of July

if you haven`t checked it out so far, we highly recommend you do...
www.couchsurfing.com

...
This is the way we have been traveling for the most part through Ecuador. We met Ruben in Esmeraldes through this program, and have either stayed with people he knows or couch surfers all the way along the coast. It`s a blast.
This is how we are still in Manta. We found a 64 year old American lady who happened to live 2 streets down from where we were staying previously with Leo and friends of Ruben. She doesn`t speak much Spanish at all and is from Miami. She is currently in Quito and getting ready for a trip to the galapagos. But, even though she wasn`t here, she threw a party at her house, most of which was run by her house helper and many american and ecudorian friends she has here.
For 4th of July we partied at her house, ate hamburgers, hot dogs, potatoe salad, baked beans, pahela (an ecudorian dish), jello, and cake...it was a feast. We tried to keep the American theme going with Johnny Cash music and the whole bbq. It went pretty good and Julie and I stuffed ourself until we couldn`t move any more. So we met plenty of very nice people and had a great time.
Today we took a day trip to Puerto Lopez. This is a cute little beach town much like Canoa that has some tourists but still has maintained that Ecudorian feel to it. It was a much longer bus ride than expected, but worth it. It is in a bay and is known for it`s whales and great fishing, so the ocean was filled with little boats. We walked around there, checked out the artesian booths, and ate some empenadas. Got a little confused on the ride back home because there were no direct buses, but luckily we met a really nice old man who helped us get back to Manta cheaper than getting to Puerto Lopez. We`ll try and see if we can find some couchsurfers in Puerto Lopez to maybe stay a night, if not, we`ll head to Montanita on monday and meet up with some friends. Hablemos pronto

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Manta

Well we left Canoa....and never did get a chance to go paragliding, but we will keep our search going for another chance perhaps.
...We finished exploring Canoa and went to a cave with our friends. This cave has bats in it and was pretty cool. The tide was too high to go into the main cave which apparently has tons of bats and cool rocks and those hangy things that look like candy. But we still had fun. Festivals ended so the town was on a very slow pace the couple of days, since there was so much fiesta the whole weekend...
We made some great friends in Canoa and declare it a pretty cool place, altough it is bigger than Mompiche, it still has a nice fun atmosphere to it.
We have now made our way to the next city, Manta, a big port town. We are staying with friends of Ruben (esmeraldes) who hooked us up. We in an apartment of an uncle that is huge, it is like being back in the states. We are staying with Rubens friend Leo and today we will hopefully go explore the beach and this city, if weather perks up...until then.
p.s We also plan on celebrating Fourth of July here...get a hot dog, coke. french fries and some small fireworks, so feliz dia de independencia!!!

Sunday, June 29, 2008

The festivals of canoa continued and there was another parade, mass, music, and a large dance. IT was very fun. Julie and I danced cumbia, merengue, and a bit of salsa til 3 in the morning. The people of Canoa are really nice...very friendly. The dance is for all of the pueblo, so there is young, old, everybody dancing with everybody. The new presidents of Pedro y Pablo were selected- the two governments that run this town together, and everybody celebrated. We spent today hanging out on the beach, playing soccer, reading, and meeting awesome people. There are more tourists here in the town of Canoa, so we´ve met people from Colorado, KEntucky, Massachusetts...all very cool people. We are still looking into doing parapentes, paragliding, tomorrow, if the wind picks up enough. until then,... check the pictures out on facebook if you have access.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Festival de Canoa

Well fiestas are really cool. The beaches have stuff going on during the day, eco-bvolleyball, swimming, surfing, jewlery sellers...and the night, music blasts through the streets, bands march, and there is a huge dance in the school for all of the community. IT is quite an adventure. Other than that, life is pretty tranquil...as it total of Latin America. It´s been a little cloudy, so little chance to go in the warm water...but those chances will come. There is some amazing wildlife here...howler monkeys, monkeys, tons of birds, fish, everything.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Canoa...

We left Pedernales...saw all that it really had to offer. Now we have reached the beautiful town of Canoa. We took a 3 hr bus ride to get here, passing throught the beautiful ecudorian jungle!! We made it to Canoa and we searching for a firend of friend from Esmeraldes. So we decided to plop down on the beach with our bags and asked these two random guys walking down the beach. What luck, tey know the guy we were looking to stay with, BUT he is in another town right now!! Ah so "tiburon" the guy told us of a place we can stay for 3 /night! chevere! So we planted ourselves...
To occupy our time, we went to Bambu bar owned by a guy from Kentucky. This man had a brilliant idea that we took him up on. If you pick up a bag of trash from the beach you get a free cocktail! Hey we`ve got two hands and nothing but time! So we each grabbed a bag and started picking it up. Canoa just happens to be at an unfortunate place were the tide brings the trash...so in no time our bags were full. Well also met some chicos on the beach who helped us out. We picked up trash until sunset,and what a sunset it was! Canoa also lies between two sets of huge bluffs so there are very cool cliffs right on the beach. Also has provided us with an opportunity to do paragliding, parapentes, which we are trying to do later this week! *which reminds me, have fun skydiving leila* We ate yummy food and drank our cocktailes that night. We also ran into people from Mompiche, guitarists that are traveling down to argentina, cool people.
Today we went with the same guy we asked for the room and his friend on an awesome bike ride out to a finca, or farm. But this isn`t a regular farm, it was the only house for miles right on the beach with cows and a crazy bike ride there. It was a blast!!! Julie ate it bad on the way back...ug she has a huge bump on her head. She went head first after hitting a rock beacuse the bikes didn`t have any breaks...and the hill was steep as heck. But we made it back and our butt bones hurt after a whole day of riding. We meet some other cool people and found out that we arrived just in time for Canoa festivals this weekend, what luck! So that should be fun...until next time.
Hope everybody is good back in the states.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

We have now left the little pueblo of Mompiche. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay ad met some pretty awesome people and did some pretty awesome things. WE also visited an island right off the coast called Muisne, and semi large trading town. We had to take a boat to get there...and took a boat bake to our beach front property at sunset....while raining...what fun! We have now reached Pedernales a large market town right on the beach. We have friends that we met in Mompiche that live here and showed us around, but today we plan to head to Canoa. We had a crazy bus ride here on a bus make of basically woodon a road that was nonexistant, phew... We are having a blast and being safe...of course.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Is this a dream...???


Ok....we are not dead...just lost in a dream. How many of you have read those romance novels where there is a couple on the beach with palm trees and all that stuff. Well that is kinda of what is happening. We are traveling what is called La Ruta del Sol...it is a way downt he coast of Ecuador that travels through all the beach towns and everything. We are having an amazing time. We stayed in Esmeraldes with a friend for a week and meet everybody i nEsmeraldes, or so it seems...and we also stayed a night in Atacames. A beach with a different bar every 20 feet right on the beach. We´ve meet tons of people, all nice, and continue to meet great people, eat great every day, swim in the wamr water right outside out secluded cabana everyday, and just relax. Our most popular saying... ¨we can´t believe how much people would pay to do this...¨aaahhhh too much to write here and not enough money to pay for the internet, but we´ll tell you in the future. We are safe and completely enjoying ourlselves- we hope everybody is ok and doing well. Talk to you soon!!!!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

It´s raining its pouring (lluvia cae lentamente sobre mi)

Well guys today is our last day in Quito before we leave for Mindo and Esmeraldes and the beautiful Ecudorian coast... so internet access is iffy :)

We met a awesome guy David on a hike we did up to Pinchincha and we are staying at his house. He just got back from a 4 month biking trip down South America- chevere!! (cool) We went to Sangloqui yesterday and checked out the cool markets, and ate Indian food here- how good. We met the cool group of hiker people that we hang out with so it´s cool. Today we walked around Quito and took it easy staying in the beautiful parks they have everywhere here.
Today was my first Ecuadorian storm, thunder lightning, rain and a little bit of hail- it´s awesome and the sky here is amazing!

Julie and I are both in good health, have gotten plenty of sleep and had plenty to eat...so no worries. The food here is delicious be the way. 1.00-1.50 for rice, beans, meat, soup and juice. So delicious!!! We´ll try in keep in best contact as we can for the next couple of days/weeks but no gaurantees. We hope everyone is doing well. And as far as pictures go... we´ve taken plenty but haven´t uploaded the majority of them to the internet, takes too long, so sorry...but if we find free internet access at one of the hostels...of course we will. Adios for now

Monday, June 9, 2008

Quito

I´m in Quito with Julie. We are having a blast figuring out how to get around and all, the public transportation here is amazing, and only cost .25 per ride. Quito is a huge huge city much bigger than new York. We have visited the Old Town were there are a lot of cool churches and old type houses and streets. We went to one church, the Basilica, built in the 1700´s that was very cool and climbed all the way to the top of the towers to see a beautiful view of Quito!! Que bonita. The people here are very nice, you can ask anybody anything so it´s very gun. We also went to Mitad del Mundo- middle of the earth were we stood with each side of our bodies in different hemispheres. and took a little hike to Puleahua, can´t really describe that. We also spent a day at the thermal hot springs with a family we found on couchsurfing who has lent us a bed for free for three nights. chevere! We plan to go to Otavalo manana to see the Indigenous market and check up el norte de quito. Should be fun. I´ll try and keep you all updated, keep in mind uploading pictures is a pain in the butt...so bear with me : ) Buenas noches



June 8, 2008


Well today was supposed to be our day of relaxing because we had taken a long bus ride to the towns of Otavalo and Ibarra yesterday to check out the markets and then went to dinner with Julie´s host brother and sister form last semester. So today we decided to go up to the teleferico qhich is a rail thingy like in Palm Springs or at the Zoo that takes you up the mountain in a cable car. It takes you up mt. Pinchincha which also happens to be teh name of this province. We are in teh province of Pinchiincha and the city of Quito. At the top of this mountain you can see all of Quito which is amazingly HUGE!!!! It would take 3 or 4 photos next to eachotehr to captrue it all. We ran into a guy we know and hima nd three of his friends were going on a 2 1/2 hr. hike up into the mountains behind teleferico. So in our jeans, t-shirt and sweater with 1 bottle fowater we decided to go along...
What an adventrue the scenery is amazingly beautiful and green, it is gorgeous, ro hermosa. We took plenty of pictures, don´t worry... It actually ended up beign a crazyy ass hike. It is similar to the scene in Lord of the Rings where Sam and Frodo are on their wayt o mordor in teh clouds and sharp rocks, EXACTLY like that except we didn´t have a Golum tied up and walking behind us...and we don´t have huge hairy barefeet...our shoes are actually pretty nice Well it actually started hailing and raining on our way up there and I couldn´t really feel my fingers for a large part of the time, but it was still and amaizng adventure. We made our way to the top and enjoyed the scenery up in the clouds and practically on top of the clouds. We then had to go down the sand part of the mounhtain by running for the most part, really similar to skiing it was really cool, but know our feet look like something out of Lord of the Rings. We made our way down just in time for dark and on our way down Quito lite up, what a sight! We went and had dinner with this group who are really nice and we aer going to stay at this guys house tomorrow night for two nights, for free. It is cheaper than the hostal we are in now, which is only $5/night. Well we aer now goin to munch on some candies and drink some cola...look for updates later.
p.s. While in quito we are trying to check our emails more frequently because it might be a bit more difficult later on...