Livin It Large In Ecuador: April 2014

Easter has definitely been my favorite holiday spent here in Ecuador. Holy Week, or Semana Santa, is a very big celebration here. This past week has been filled with events throughout Quito, plus lots of family time :)

I went to several concerts in the old town - an Andean orchestra outside in the Presidential Plaza, a children's choir and a Mexican musical group both in churches of the Centro Historico (including the Compania - possibly one of the most extravagant churches in Quito). I loved hearing live music - the orchestra especially made me realize how much I miss orchestra and the cello!

On Good Friday, or Viernes Santo, I went to the Old Town for the processions. Some of you may have heard or seen photos of this, especially of the "KKK-like" people. I'm so glad I had the chance to experience this religious tradition. I went to the "Jesus del Gran Poder" processions (the most popular and largest), which lasted for about 3 hours and went all about the Old Town. This was maybe one of the most intense parades I have ever seen. The streets were filled with cucuruchos, people dressed in all purple with the large cones on their heads. The cones are a symbol of humility and the color purple symbolizes pentinence; these people walk in the parade as an act of faith to god for all to witness. While it took me some time to get accustomed to thousands of "KKK-like" people flooding the streets, it was not this that shocked me the most. People also walked dressed as Jesus bearing HUGE crosses (remember - Quito's Old Town is full of hills), wrapped themselves with barbed wire, cacti, nettles and thorns, and even lashed themselves. Some dressed as Romans and walked along side of those dressed as Jesus, whipping them repeatedly. And, almost everyone walked in barefoot - it was a very, very hot day. You could see their immense pain and exhaustion as the people passed. After the processions, I went to Chiri's (the sister of Matele) house for Fanesca - the typical Ecuadorean meal of Semana Santa. It is a soup made with 12 grains to represent the 12 apostles and fish to represent Jesus himself. The soup is soooo delicious - maybe one of my favorite parts of Semana Santa :)

On Saturday, a friend and I took a trip to Mindo, the cloud forest about 2 hours north of Quito, to do some hiking. Since this was not related what-so-ever to Semana Santa, and I'm waiting to get some photos from my friend, I'll save this trip for my next posting.

Today, we celebrated "Pascua" or Easter much like my family does in the States. Matele's family came over for a wonderful lunch of hornado, a typical Ecuadorean dish very similar to pulled-pork but so much better (Matele made this because I had mentioned that we usually have ham at home). We even had an Easter egg hunt in our apartment. And we finished off the day with a night-time Easter service.

After catching the "travel bug" while my parents and Hannah were here, I have decided to use my final months here visiting the final places on my Ecuador bucketlist.

Two weekends ago, I visited Cotopaxi National Park, the home of the Cotopaxi volcano, the second highest volcano in Ecuador and one of the tallest, most active in the world. The park is about an hour and half bus ride from Quito, so a friend and I planned for a day visit. After waking up before the buses were even running, we arrived at the park around 8 in the morning, just as the gates were opening. We rented a 4x4 truck to drive us around the park for the day. Our first stop was the refuge, a small hut at 4,800m and about a 45 minute hike up the volcano. This is the farthest point that people can hike without official guides, as after this point the climb gets very technical and full of glaciers. Our next stop was a beautiful lagoon, where we did a nice easy hour hike. Before leaving, we did one final hike along the valleys formed by the lava flow and eroded from storms. Overall, it was great to get out of the city for some fresh mountain air.

This past weekend, I visited Papallacta, thermal volcanic hot springs. After palm sunday mass, a few friends and I headed off to the springs for a day filled with relaxation. The springs are far up in the mountains. The resort we visited had about 15 different pools, all different sizes and temperatures. Plus, a river ran right through the resort, so if you were very brave, you could hop into the freezing water as a little refresher before getting back into the spas.

Now, I just need to visit Mindo, a cloud forest reserve, and Banos, an adventure town at the base of volcano Tungurahua (the one that has been erupting for the past 2 months now) in order to finish my Ecuador bucketlist!