Darcie's in Ecuador

I arrived back in Quito yesterday afternoon after a great vacation. Peru was really a fabulous way to spend my spring break-I couldnt have asked for more. I spent my last 2 days in Lima...in a different neighborhood that was MUCH nicer than the first night I spent there. It was actually very modern and clean. The weather was great too. I was pretty tired of museums and churches so I didn´t do much on my last 2 days...I went to the beach and relaxed there for a while, saw some ruins located right in the middle of Lima, went shopping, and went to the zoo.

It was a nice end to the vacation...Saturday morning I even got to experience an earthquake. Right after I woke up, I was starting to pack up and all of a sudden the ground started to shake. It wasn´t a big earthquake, but it was kind of a weird feeling. It only lasted about 30 seconds, maybe a little longer.

Now I have about a month left in Quito...left on my to-do list: relaxing in Baños, a trip to Cuenca and perhaps to the beach or Cotopaxi.

I feel like this spring break is flying by! I´ve done quite a bit and it´s been a great experience. I arrived in Cusco about a week ago-the town really just thrives on the location being near Macu Picchu because there really isn´t much to do there other than look at churches, talk to locals and organize trips. So I spent 2 days walking around and relaxing and finishing up everything I needed to get in order for the big hike.

I left for the hike EARLY Thursday morning...around 4:30 or so. I met up with the rest of the group and the 2 guides. In all there were the guides, me, 2 guys from Argentina and 2 girls from Sweden. We took an hour and a half drive to Mollepata where we ate breakfast, got the mules loaded up and took off from there. Day 1 of the hike was supposed to be the easiest day...I think we were all about dead after we finished the 8 hours of hiking that day. It was mostly flat but there were some steep uphill parts and it was really hot. All day long we could the snowy mountains in the distance...which we didn´t realize was where we would camp it. It was absolutely gorgeous...we were at the base of Huallkantay (I think that´s how you spell it) and in the valley was Salkantay which were both snow covered and there was a full moon so the snow just glowed. It was so quiet there it was unbelievable...and absolutely freezing cold as well. We slept for a few hours that night and then woke up early for day 2...which was the hardest day. We started off with about an hour or so of moderate uphill climbing and then after that we had to go through the pass to the highest point of the trip so we climbed vertically about 1 km, not sure how far in distance in 2 hours or so. Getting to the top was definately worth it though. The view was incredible and it started to snow. We were standing right across from Salkantay and you could hear the sound of the ice cracking and falling...it was crazy. After a bit of time enjoying the hard work getting to the top, we started downhill. Which you´d think would be easy, but after a few hours your knees just shake and hurt and you´d kill to go uphill again. On Day 3, the Argentines left because they were going to do the hike in 4 days instead of 5, so it became 1 guide and the 3 of us girls. We had a great time walking, but we had a lot rough terrain to cover...a lot more downhill, climbing up and over waterfalls by jumping from stone to stone, huge mud pits, etc. The highlight was taking a ¨bath¨in the hot springs to clean up which we all really needed. On day 4 we walked uphill a bit and then followed the train tracks all the way to Aguas Calientes where we got to stay the night in a hotel. It felt so great to take a hot shower and sleep in a bed and have a real bathroom after the few days without. On the last day, my birthday, we woke up for an EARLY breakfast of birthday cake that the cooks made for me and then headed to Machu Picchu to get an early start. It´s really easy to understand why they named it one of the 7 wonders of the world. It was absolutely stunning...I even made the 1 hr hiek to the top of Wynapicchu to get the view down on Machu Picchu (if you look at most pictures thats the big mountain you see behind the city). The hike was totally worth it. After Machu Picchu, we were compeltely exhausted, we tried to get an early train back to Cusco but it was sold out so we had a nice lunch and took our regular train, which got back an hour later than it was supposed to, but it was still an amazing way to turn 22. I never thought that I´d celebrate a birthday at one of the wonders of the world.

Yesterday, I went white water rafting about 2 hours outside of Cusco. That was a lot of fun, and probably a new hobby of mine. There were 2 guides in training who came with us in kayaks and I got out of the raft and went in the kayak with one of the training guides for the last half hour...it was a lot of fun. I can see how people get addicted to it! After that I took an overnight bus to Arequipa where I´m at for another 2 hours.

There isn´t too much to see here, but I visited a museum that has ice mummies that they found in the mountains around Arequipa which was interesting and I also visited a really cool convent for nuns that really aren´t nuns which is kind of hard to explain, but the place is like a square block maze to go through.

Tonight, I´m headed back to Lima so I´ll have 2 days there and then my vacation is over and it´s back to Quito and back to school.

I arrived in Lima late Saturday night. I´m so surprised at the airports here...even when you think they´ll never get out on time, they do. And we actually arrived a few minutes early too...customs was so quick and easy I don´t think they really care who comes into the country...I´m not sure the man even looked at my papers other than to stamp them.

I stayed in Lima only for Sunday morning and then got on a bus to Nasca, which is where I am for another couple hours. Nasca is a SMALL town where the Nasca people lived around 2000 years ago or so. There are also the Nasca lines which are figures that were created in the sand of the dessert and have stayed for about 1500 years or so. They´re so big that they can´t be seen from the ground, so I took an airplane ride to see them. The plane was just like the town, small! I sat right next to the pilot and 2 other people sat behind us andt hat was it. We circled all 10 of the figures on the ground, and of course the pilot tried to make us sick in doing so...I held out but I was a little queasy towards the end of the flight. After the flight, I went on a tour to a Nasca cemetary about 30 km outside of town. It´s basically in the middle of nowhere, and up until a few years ago was completely unestablished and grave robbers just dug up the tombs, tossed the mummies aside and took what they wanted...now it´s a little more established with tombs that have been excavated but there are still bones and bone pieces all over the ground which is kind of creepy really. The mummies there are so well preserved because of the climate...it only rains here for a maximum of 3 hours per year. The only harm done to the mummies has been the sun has bleached the bones white instead of yellow and caused the skin to decompose much faster than it should. They´re working to stop that right now, but like all things in south america, that will probably take 50 years!

In less than 2 hours, I´ll be taking off on a bus to Cusco. I should arrive there sometime tomorrow afternoon, and then I´ll have a couple days to finalize everything for my hike (hopefully, i´ve heard a lot of talk about trails being closed because there has been a lot of rain and their afraid of mudslides, but we´ll see when i get there what´s true and what´s not).

It´s been a little while since I last updated...

2 weeks ago I went to Riobamba to ride the train down the Nariz del Diablo which is basically just a stretch of track that winds down the mountains, unfortunately riding on top was no longer allowed so it ended up being kind of just a regular old train ride and not all that exciting.

Last weekend, I went to Otavalo which is a community that has a lot of crafts and shopping and traditional types of things. I spent the day there, had a good time and bought a few things. All in all a good time.

I also went out with some girls to celebrate Tina´s birthday which was a lot of fun.

I´ve been teaching a lot lately, and right now I´m looking forward to my trip to Peru. I leave on Saturday! It should be a fabulous time.

Well it´s been a little while since I´ve updated...Last weekend I took a trip to Guayaquil which is down south of Quito about 8 hours. It´s the largest city in Ecuador. I expected that there would have been a lot to do there, but it worked out to be a perfect weekend trip, with the perfect number of things to see and do for a weekend.

I left Friday after school by bus. Thanks to my perpetual earliness and Ecuador´s perpetual lateness, I made the bus that was supposed to leave an hour or so before the one I planned to take. It worked out well and I got to Guayaquil around 5 am on Saturday. I took a cab to my hotel and slept for a few hours.

The first place that I went was to a park within the city. My lonely planet guide had said that there were iguanas there and made it seem like if you were lucky you´d see one or maybe two in an afternoon. I walked into the park and there were close to 100 iguanas-and not little ones either! They were all over the place and running around. They´re a certain type of iguana and apparently they only live in Guayaquil but because the city was built up basically they only live in this park. It was really cool to see. Then I ventured over to the Malécon. Which is basically a huge boardwalk along the river running most of the length of the city. There were lots of shops and restaurants. It was a cool place to spend most of the afternoon. After that I went up to Las Peñas, which is kind of like La Boca in Argentina but on a hill. Brightly colored houses with lots of little shops and a total tourist trap. So after climbing the 563 steps (they had them numbered, I didn´t count them) all the way to the top, I discovered a rather odd Pirate museum and a lookout point where you could see the entire city. After that I did some shopping, walked by the cemetary which is much like La Recoleta in Buenos Aires, and crossed off the rest of my ¨things to see¨list. I still had time that night, so I went to the IMAX theatre, the only one in Ecuador, and saw I am Legend (the way it was probably meant to be seen). I could hardly believe that for 6.50 I got to see the movie, popcorn, a hot dog, and a drink. Makes me wonder why we pay so much at home!

I left Guayaquil for Quito Sunday morning after eating some breakfast. I sat next to some crazy old man on the bus who kept telling me about his young male friends who lived in Quito. So I put on my headphones and slept most of the way to Quito.

Teaching wise, things have been going wonderfully. It´s a busy time of year with lots of meetings and report cards coming up as well. We also got a new assistant in the classroom so that added to the hectic week we had. I did get my first observation comments back from my university supervisor and she thinks I´m pretty great...she had all great things to say about my lesson that she watched. I feel like I´ve learned so much here about teaching already, and I´m only halfway done!

Weather wise...I am so thankful after 8 days of rain in Quito that it finally decided to be sunny today! It had gotten so cold because the sun hadn´t been out, and everything was damp and gross! Hopefully the sun will stay out for a while now!

No traveling for me this weekend. Last night we had a 2nd grade party for all the teachers, assitants, parapros, etc. in 2nd grade. Everyone brought some food and we ate and drank lots of Pilsner (1 of 2 beers you can get here). It was a great night. It´s interesting how different everyone is OUTSIDE of school when the kids aren´t around.

Next planned trip will be to Riobamba, hopefully next weekend. They have a train that goes through the mountains and you ride on the roof...apparently quite a thrill.

I´m also uploading some pictures from Guayaquil so you can look at those as well. You can get to my pictures by clicking on darcook under authors on the right side of the screen, you might have to scroll down a little bit. It will take you to a new page where you can click on my photography on the right side of the screen.