Tuesday, January 22, 2008

I wish I packed a super soaker...

In Ecuador, the people celebrate Carnival by throwing water balloons and buckets of water at each other. And although Carnival isn´t technically until February 3rd, most people think that starting right after New Years is a good idea. Thus far, I have been hit with five water balloons, and aimed at countless times. It is a war zone here in Cuenca, and as a gringa, I am a worthy target. I have to be on constant lookout, because the balloons can come from anywhere. People stand on rooftops and balconies and pelt passerbys, or children hide behind doorways, or teens ride around in cars, chucking them out windows. Let me tell you how wonderful it is to get hit in the face or the stomach by a balloon thrown from a car going 50 km. I have bruises. Also, it´s less than ideal to arrive at work to teach 15 teenagers, shirt soaked and clingy (even worse if you got hit in the nether-regions...). I´ve heard horror stories of getting hit in the back of the head with a frozen water balloon, or pelted by 15 balloons at once.

Apparently it´s only going to get worse.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Braving Baños

There is a volcano in Ecuador that is threatening to erupt any day now. Most of the neighboring villages have been evacuated, and the others are on high alert. So what does a group of adventure-seeking gringos do? They get on the first bus headed for Baños, one of the villages closest to the volcano that has not been evacuated, for a front row seat.

There is much to do in Baños. From river rafting to horse back riding to canyoning to sitting in the thermal baths, there`s something for everyone. We arrived at 7am, after taking a night bus from Cuenca, ready to pack in all there was to do. But first, we slept.

The first day, Kristi and Bryann took off on ATVs to discover the countryside, while Vince and I decided to spend a few hours in the thermal baths, before heading up to check out the zoo. It was pretty relaxing, although a dirty affair, since ash spewing from the active volcano seemed to cover everything, including us. The zoo was all animals from Ecuador, like the leopard, the capybara (world`s largest rodent, or ROUS, if you want to go that route!), the Galapagos Turtle, and many many birds. My favorite were the parrots who said, "Hola, Como estas?" and then proceded to laugh in a freakily accurate immitation of a woman. It was bizarre. Unfortunately (FORTUNATELY) the serpent zoo was closed.

The next day, we rented bikes and biked 16 km to Rio Verde, where we made many stops along the way. First, we watched Kristi and Bryann jump off a bridge, bungee-style, then we took a rickety cable car to a waterfall. We rode through tunnels and along cliffs, until finally we got off to hike down to this amazing waterfall, where there was a outdoor restaurant, overlooking the vista. To get there, we had to cross a suspension bridge, which warned that there could be no more than five people on the bridge at once. Not very reassuring! As we were exhausted by this time (there may have been tiny hangovers involved from the previous night...), we chucked our bikes in the back of a truck and got a ride back to Baños, just in time for a dip in the baths, a meal, and an excursion to see the volcano up close. Unfortunately, it was raining and overcast, so there wasn`t much to see, and it was freezing, but the four of us were crammed in with a busload of Ecuadorians who were chanting "Canelazo!" (an Ecuadorian alcoholic drink), and singing their heads off to the spanish pop music that is incessently playing everywhere you go. Although it was raining, and we couldn`t see the volcano, it was a pretty decent night.

On Sunday, we decided to go canyoning, which is basically harnessing yourself up and rapelling down waterfalls. We climbed down three waterfalls, wearing wetsuits and helmets. The first two were good practise for the motherload. Basically we climbed down about ten feet, and then hung in our harnesses, zipping down at our leisure for the last 50 feet, under the waterfall. It was amazing and terrifying.

If that wasn`t enough, when we got back, we decided it would be a good idea to go back to the bungee bridge and all try jumping off it. It was the freakiest sensation, as you`re standing up on that bridge, looking death in the face and saying, yup, I`m gonna jump. Against everything my brain and body are telling me, I`m going to jump. And although it took me a few times to work up the nerve, I did it. And it was horrible and amazing and scary and awesome. There`s an instant between when you jump and when the rope tightens when you are freefalling basically towards your death, and all sorts of thoughts go through your mind. The biggest one for me was, "What the hell did you just do?!" Anyhow, once we all did it, apparently we got a free jump, or a doubles jump off the smaller bridge (yeah, why did I do the bigger bridge first? I dunno, I`m an idiot?!), so Vince and I braved it a second time and jumped off together, which wasn`t nearly as bad as the first one. We conquered our fears and now can laugh about it. Holy cow.

PS -- The volcano didn`t blow it`s top by the time we left on Sunday evening. I`m not sure if I`m disappointed or relieved.

Monday, January 7, 2008

Feliz Año!!


I came back from Vilcabamba just in time for New Years. The bus ride from Loja to Cuenca was slowed down by many obstructions in the road, in the form of small children in various costumes (the Grim Reaper, Spiderman, army men, skeletons, etc) barricading the road with ropes and bricks and themselves. I didn`t quite understand until we got closer to Cuenca, and lined up on the side of the highway were dummy after dummy, stuffed with newspaper and fireworks, ready to be blown sky high in the name of good fun. It seems that in Ecuador, children dress up in costumes and blow things up.

I got together with my roommate, her boyfriend and a few other teachers, and we walked around Cuenca to see what was going on. Nearly every house had a dummy outside their door, and a lot of neighborhoods and community associations put their resources together to construct elaborate scenes depicting various messages (mostly political). Ten foot high replicas of the president, George Bush, sharks, green men, cars, among other things were on the explosive agenda. There were firecrackers and sparklers for sale, and your mission was to find the greatest scene and place yourself there to watch it`s demise at midnight. At around ten minutes to twelve, all the neighborhood children rushed these sculptures and demolished them, dragging down the dummies, and kicking the hell outta them. Then the adults joined in, getting out all their frustrations from the past year. At midnight, the city went up in flames as each pile was ignited in a huge fireball. I nearly lost my eyebrows, and it looked like a war zone. Except everyone was cheering and kissing each other (I managed to escape, although most of my friends were not so lucky). Though I`m sure it was a terrible blow for the ozone layer, it was a very interesting way to ring in the new year!

The Sacred Valley


On Boxing Day, I headed down to the south of Ecuador, to Vilcabamba, nicknamed the Valley of Longevity because of the many inhabitants who live over 100 years. It is a place to chillax and decompress, and that´s exactly what was on the agenda.

First, however, I decided to do an 8 hour horse and hike trek. It didn´t matter that I hadn´t ridden a horse in over ten years, and never for longer than an hour or two. It didn´t matter that I was alone, with my spanish speaking guide, and had no idea how to steer a horse (is that even what you call it?!) up a mountain, and was wearing totally inappropriate rubber boots for the trek. I was Gung Ho. And after a few minutes, terrified outta my mind! It had been raining a few days prior, so watching the guide´s horse slip and slide up the mountain and through the passes was less than comforting. However, the views were stunning, and soon I relaxed and had a chat with the horse, telling him I was going to trust him with my life, and he could do what he had to do as long as he didn´t kill us both, or buck me over the side of the mountain (I´m pretty sure he understood English, cuz after that, he was a lot more calm and I didn´t die!). We were walking along the ridge of the Andes, at some points with sheer rock on one side, and sheer cliff on the other. It was amazing. Unfortunately, I was too scared to take any pictures (that would have involved letting go of the saddle horn, a risk I was unwilling to take). After three and a half hours, we had reached the middle of nowhere, and commenced our hike, after tying up the horses so they could lunch on lush green grass.

The hike was more like scrambling from root to root up a cliff (in rubber boots, remember!). Soon I was huffing and puffing and swearing under my breath at my monkey of a guide. My legs and feet were on FIRE, and I was about to sit down and give up when we came upon a waterfall. It was really nice, and wet and we stopped and ate lunch. After half an hour of awkward conversation, we decided to go and find the horses again. One hour later of gruelling hiking, legs on fire from the rubber boots (never NEVER again!), we got back to the horses. Just as the sky decided to open up. At the top of a mountain ridge. Three and a half hours from civilization. We jumped into the saddles (well, I spastically scrambled up into mine...) and started down the mountain. If I was terrified going up, I was petrified coming back down. I honestly prayed from start to finish, often squeezing my eyes shut so I wouldn´t scream. The rain had made the trail slick and muddy, and I kept envisioning myself plummeting to my death, thousands of feet below. It was awful. Plus, my legs and butt were sore and chafting on the saddle. And did I mention that it was pouring rain? Who wouldn´t want to sign up for such an adventure?! At one point, I begged the guide to stop and let me off for five minutes, and he made it seem like I was asking for the moon. I didn´t ask again, although it took us over four hours to get back to Vilcabamba. When we were finally back, I couldn´t even summon up the energy to get off the horse. I was finished. The guide and his father literally had to peel me off, and I could barely support my own weight, let alone walk back to my hostel!

At any rate, I spent the next four days recovering from my horse trek, but that recovery included a full body massage one day, a neck and shoulder massage the next, and many an hour chillaxing by the pool. I also made friends with some of the ex-pats in town, Ira (the scarecrow) and Bill (the 65 year old Ben R.), and had a tour of Ira´s cob house, with his living roof. I´m pretty sure I could definitely retire in Vilcabamba and hang out with these guys, as long as it didn´t require any more horse rides. Gosh. Never again.