Quilotoa

This weekend, I ventured to Quilotoa, a lake in a huge volcanic crater, with Lauren, Colleen, and Lisa (Fulbrights who are actually my age - or closer than anyone else I have met). We left Saturday morning after my tutoring, and unfortunately, the trip took much longer than expected. First, we had to take a bus to South Quito, which took about 2 hours. Next, we took a 1.5 hour bus ride to Latacunga (the town where the Mama Negra Festival was). In Latacunga, as we were all starving by this point, we had lunch before continuing our journey. It was nice to see Latacunga without all the festivities of La Mama Negra - many more stores were open and we were able to see the beautiful architecture of the town. We then boarded another bus, which took us to Chugchilán, the town with our hostel. This 3 hour bus ride was absolutely terrifying - we flew along curvy roads through the mountains and I honestly thought the bus was going to fall off the road. However, the long trip was fully worth it, as our hostel and Quilotoa were BEAUTIFUL.

Our hostel, the Black Sheep, reminded me a lot of the hostel in Cotopaxi that I stayed in. It was deep in the Andes with the most beautiful views. Soon after arriving, we had a wonderful vegetarian dinner of eggplant parmesan (possibly the first vegetarian meal I've had since arriving in Quito). As we needed to get up bright and early to begin our hike on Sunday, we were fast asleep by 9:30 in our cosy cabin with a nice fire warming the place.

We woke up on Sunday to a wonderful pancake breakfast and soon after 7, our camioneta (pick-up truck) arrived to take us to Quilotoa. This ride was probably one of my favorite parts of the weekend. We rode in the back of the truck, holding tightly to the frame and hoping to catch all the beautiful views as we sped through the mountains. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures as I was using all my strength not to fall out of the truck. After the 45 minute ride, we were all freezing, but the views were definitely worth not being able to feel our fingers.

Quilotoa, the lake itself, was beautiful. We eagerly began the trek down the crater to the lake - this was the easy part. At the bottom of the crater, we rented kayaks to check out the crater from the water. After eating our packed lunch from the hostel, we started the hike up out of the crater - this was the hard part. It took about 1 hour, which isn't long, but we had to basically climb one wall of the crater solely on a sand path where you constantly lost your footing. Plus, you had to make room for horses, carrying those too lazy to hike out. We were ecstatic to finally finish the hike.

After finishing the hike and having a snack, we rented a van to take us back to Latacunga, where we were able to catch a bus to Quito. Luckily, the return trip was much quicker than the first trip. I was back home about 4 hours after leaving Quilotoa. Overall, it was a great weekend with wonderful company, great hiking, and wonderful sights.

The morning view from our hostel

                                                    Our hostel was literally above the clouds in the mountains

Our first view of Quilotoa Lake

The trek down the crater

At the bottom of the crater - we picked up one more person at our hostel to join us for the day

Kayaking - The water was a beautiful teal

At the top of the crater

The post climb victory jump

La Festival Mama Negra

This weekend, I traveled to Latacunga for La Festival Mama Negra.  Latacunga is a small town about 2 hours south of Quito, located very close to the volcano Cotopaxi.  The Mama Negra (Black Mother) festival is held each year by the indigenous people.  They praise the "black mother" for protecting their city, especially from the volcano Cotopaxi, one of Ecuador's most active volcanoes.  The festival and parade were nothing like anything I've ever seen before.  As you would expect, there were bands playing music and many people dressed in traditional Ecuadorian clothes dancing throughout the streets.  However, included in these dancers were men dressed as women.  It was pretty hysterical.  There were also men dressed in all white with sticks who traveled throughout the crowd "purifying" people.  They would dance around you, hit you with the sticks, and chant things like "Long Live Latacunga" while another man would spit alcohol on you.  Being a gringa, I definitely stuck out in the crowd and was chosen multiple times.  In the eyes of "La Mama Negra", I am now as pure as can be.   Like parades in the US, dancers and others walked the streets handing out candies, pins, and other small things.  However, unlike the US, these people also walked around with flasks and bottles of who-knows-what type of alcohol, attempting to force shots on everyone in the crowd.  You just had to keep your mouth closed and run in the opposite direction whenever you saw someone coming with a bottle.  

On Saturday, after the parade ended, we left Latacunga to go to Cotopaxi.  We spent the night in a beautiful hostel in the country side - after leaving the main road, we drove for about 1.5 hours on a dirt road before we got to the hostel.  It was definitely worth the drive as it was absolutely gorgeous.  The sunset, the mountains, the garden - everything was wonderful!  On Sunday, we rented horses and went for a 3 hour ride up into the mountains.  I had a wonderful time - just now I have a very sore back and legs.  Upon returning to the hostel after the horse ride, we were able to relax in the jacuzzi and read by the fire.  It was some much needed relaxation before returning to Quito to start another busy week of volunteering.

One of the many "women" in the parade

Some "women" line dancing throughout the streets

A couple in traditional Ecuadorian dress

More parade dancers

The "purifiers"

The masks of the "purifiers" - yes, it was a little bit frightening

More dancers - I loved all the beautiful colors

Look at the beautiful colors of Ecuador clothing!

Myself, Jo and Kathy - 3 of the 5 weekend travelers 

The sunset from our hostel in Cotopaxi

The wonderful view from our hostel in Cotopaxi

Horseback riding in the mountains

We even got to look like Ecuadorian cowboys with our chaps!

The five of us on our horses

El Dia de Los Difuntos

Saturday was El Dia de Los Difuntos (the Day of the Dead).   Walking through much of Quito, you wouldn't even know it was a holiday, except for the abundance of colada morada (a fruit drink with a deep purple color to resemble blood) and guaguas de pan (bread shaped and decorated like a baby) everywhere.  However, John and I decided to spend the afternoon in one of Quito's largest cemeteries, El Cementario de San Diego.  Here, you could definitely tell that it was a special day.  At the entrance to the cemetery, there were hundreds of people selling flowers, rosaries, and of course, colada morada and guaguas de pan.  The cemetery itself was packed with families, painting and decorating family members' tombs, eating food by the tombs, and just spending time with each other.  It was a pretty powerful thing to watch - definitely made me miss my family.

Saturday night, John and I went out for one last meal together.  He left Quito on Monday morning to return to the states, with no plans to return to Quito in the near future.  It was a pretty tough goodbye, as John is the friend who helped me to arrange this entire gap year.  We went to an Italian restaurant which was delicious (if anyone comes to visit me - we will definitely go to dinner there one night).  Plus, the meal did not include rice!!

I spent Sunday relaxing in one of Quito's many parks with a few friends.  I love spending Sundays in the parks.  Since Sunday is a very family-oriented day, there's always plenty of people watching with a lot of cute kids and adorable puppies!

My way of participating in the day's festivities - my guagua de pan

The flowers outside of the cemetery

The pictures below are all from inside El Cementario de San Diego - John and I got a little carried away with taking photos.

Halloween Edition

Let me start by saying in Ecuador, Halloween is technically banned.  The president does not want Ecuadorians to celebrate any foreign holiday, so instead of celebrating Halloween, Ecuadorians are supposed to celebrate El Dia de La Bandera (The day of the shield).  However, this law does not stop anyone from celebrating Halloween.

So last night for Halloween, along with 40 other people, I went on a chiva, basically a wooden party bus.  We rode around the city for 2 hours - dancing, singing, and even stopping in a plaza to elect a rey and reina (king and queen) of the chiva.

Hannah, Lauren, Colleen (the three fulbright girls)  and I dressed as an Ecuadorian meal.  Hannah was arroz (rice), Lauren was una sopa de espinaca (spinach soup), Colleen was espumilla (a type of ice cream treat sold on the streets everywhere), and I was guagua de pan (a little bit like a gingerbread man but made from bread).

We all had a great night! While there were no children trick or treating and I did miss the American candy, it was fun to celebrate Halloween in a new way!

The chiva which drove us around town all night

Guaguas de pan - It's a custom to eat these on El Dia de Los Difuntos (Day of the Dead - Nov 2)

The Ecuadorian Meal - A guagua de pan, arroz, espumilla, and sopa de espinaca

Just your average guagua de pan!