r, we ate with a Quechua family. A woman cooked yuca (a starchy potato-lik
e food), plaintains, and maita (fish cooked in a palm leaf over the fire). They were all delicious! And served on palm leaves! We also tried chicha (a beer-like drink also made from yuca that tastes like sour yogurt). That was kind-of gross. After that, we went to an old animal-trap museum (located inside a hut) that had different animal traps used by Quechua people to catch jungle animals like wild pigs, rabbits, deer, chickens, etc... F
inally, we ended the day at an animal rescue center also located in the middle of the jungle. The animals were pretty neat. We saw lots of tucans, ocelots, water-guinea pigs (the size of real big pigs!), and the smallest monkey in the world. The point of the shelter is to provide a safe home for animals that have been poached and are in danger of extinction in Ecuador.
Oh - did I forget to mention that I went bridge-jumping? (It's called "Puenting" (bridging) in Spanish.) From the picture you can see that it was an extremely terrifying jump (75 meters) but totally exhilarating. (What do you think about THAT Mom and Dad?!) 
(haha). It was like riding your bike through a haunted house. At the end of the route we stopped at the "Pailon del Diablo." You have to get off your bikes and hike to a bridge over this torential waterfall. It was really cool (I don't have a picture though because it's kind of hard to take one when you're on a bridge and it's pouring rain.) At the end of the route, instead of hiking back, we rode in the back of this shady truck. There were petrol tanks rolling around and a man sitting with us who had about 5 teeth (which we didn't know until we asked him a question and his reply sounded like garbling). It was very funny.
So - another memorable experience! Hasta luego...
Yesterday a group of us went to the Equator! And did you know there are two of them? One was from before GPS and the other was established afterward. We went to the real one first. It was like a mini-epcott with all these little huts where a tour gu
ide would take you to learn about the indigenous peoples who lived on the equator many moons ago. It was really cool. We learned about the Tzantza technique of shrinking decapitated enemies' heads and wearing them around the neck as a symbol of honor. We also got to do all these cool tricks that only happen on the equator - like balancing an egg on a nail - which I successfully did and received a certificate for!
Hello everyone! Sorry it’s been a week since my last post. I had an exciting weekend and wanted to wait until afterwards to write again…
e went zip-lining on 10 cords! It was great! We got to do it in superman and upside-down positions. Later that night we ate a delicious lunch/dinner of trout, rice, lentils, hearty chicken soup, and fried plantains – served with delicious ají (hot) salsa. The next day we had a tour of an orchid and butterfly garden. It was awesome! (Check out the picture of the butterfly whose wings look like an owl’s face. It is an evolutionary mechanism that wards off predators!) That was followed by a really fun (and cold) white water tubing ride. We rode in two groups of interlocking tubes down a rocky, fast river with two guides in each group to navigate. It was a great weekend! Stay tuned for more edventures… :-)
building (a former cinderblock and brick house) to work. Each tutor has a table for their group. Today I worked on teaching units, tens, and hundreds places in math, as well as english numbers 1-20, bingo, and reading a story while the kids write down what I say (dictation). We have recess that lasts anywhere between 45 minutes and an hour where usually the kids play soccer on a dirt field. Today it was sooo windy and dusty! Not enough to make the kids stop playing though (I don´t know what that would take!). When I got home I had to wash my face and clean my ears to get all the dirt out. At around 12:45pm the kids come back to the Fundacion with their cups and bowls for colada (a warm oatmeal protein drink that is quite tasty) and usually some kind of soup. Then a little after 1pm the tutors leave for the bus and ride home for lunch. The rest of the day is up to us!
Hello all! What a wonderful weekend it has been. On Friday we presented our plays at the Fundacion. Many parents came, so that was nice. Snow White went spectacularly. I actually had to fill in as the very handsome Prince because the boy who played the role did not show up. I had 4 very important lines (in spanish): "What a beautiful woman. What a shame that she died so young. I'm going to give her a kiss" and "I love you too." Everyone got a kick out of it. And it was hilarious when our 7 dwarfs said "heeeyooo heeyoooo heeyooo" because of their accents instead of "heigh ho." They sounded like pirates.
Saturday we woke up at 5:30am to leave for our first excursion. We first stopped at a market where people from the coast trade with indigenous people from the mountains of Ecuador. I bought some gloves made from alpaca (llama) fur and also a small tapestry of the countryside also made from alpaca. Then we got to our destination: Quilotoa. It is a a crater lake. You start off at the top and hike your way down to the bottom where the lake sits. The hike down was very steep, sandy, and rough! And when we got there, the water was freezing! A Quichua man 
(Quichua is the name of the indigenous people here and also their language) told us that he could take us in his boat to some thermal waters over some ways. We bought his claim and consequently were greeted with waters that were still freezing. The "thermal" part was a tiny stream of bubbling water running down some rocks and into the HUGE lagoon. We jumped in because we had made it that far already and were greeted with second coldest water i have ever been in (the first being when i took a shower in chemistry lab - as many of you know). But the best part is yet to come: instead of walking back up we rode donkeys! Quichua children were our 
guides and the way they communicated with the animals was by making these weird whisper noises that sounded like "qwitch whitch." It was great. Once we were back at the top, Galo (our host dad) took us around part of the top of the lagoon to take in the view of the Andes mountains (An entire circumnavigation would take 4 hours). It was spectacular. Since I'vebeen here there's one thing that's for sure: you NEVER get sick of the mountain view.
our entire host family (Adriana, Galo, and their 8-year old Julio and 1-year old Paula) made the trek (Wow). On the way there we stopped at a market to buy some fresh fruit (granadia, tazo, pineapple, manderin oranges) and veggies (avocado) so that once we got to the waterfall we could have a little picnic. The day was hard work, but very nice. :)
