For my mother…

Wow, it’s been way too long since I’ve written a post. Needless to say I’ve been super busy – mostly with various projects at work. I’ve also been busy thinking about and preparing for a visit to the states – which will be for about 10 days and will take place in about a month.

Another project I’ve been working on this week is a birthday present for my mom. Unfortunately it’s kind of tough to get a gift from Ecuador to the States, so I got a little creative, and my gift is made up of the pictures below. ¡¡Feliz cumpleaños madre!!

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A crazy month!

My last post was about my New Year’s celebration…and it’s been non-stop work and travel since then! At first, traveling around the country sounds like a great prospect. In reality, however, it becomes pretty tiring to be away from home. This month I’ve had a 5-day trip to Loja (which is the southernmost site that WorldTeach Ecuador has), a 4-day trip to Riobamba (about 4 hours south of Quito), and a 4-day trip to Mindo (an awesome little town about 2 hours northwest of Quito. The trips to Loja and RioB were site visits – a chance to check in with volunteers, observe their classes, visit with their host families, and see how they are adjusting to life at their placement sites. The short trip to Mindo, which happened this past weekend, was for a Mid-Service Conference. At that conference 10 volunteers who arrived in September gathered to reflect on the past 5 months, share about both positive and negative experiences, and exchange teaching ideas. A few highlights of my travels included:

– Buying LOTS of bulk coffee in Loja, which lies in a region of Ecuador very famous for their coffee. At $3 a pound, I came back to Quito stocked up with 6 pounds!

– Happening upon a political event in Loja that the president was attending! I didn’t even know it was going on, or that President Correa was going to be there, but I snapped a few photos of him nonetheless.

– Getting an incredible view of Chimborazo Volcano, which is located just north of Riobamba. I had a great vantage point from the roof of my hotel, where I snapped a few photos. Did you know that Chimborazo is the farthest point from the center of the Earth?? It seems like that should be Everest, but because of the equatorial bulge and Chimborazo’s proximity to the equator, Ecuador’s highest mountain actually holds that distinction.

– Eating some delicious hornado, a local speciatly, in the central market of Riobamba. Hornado is actually whole-roasted pig, which I tried to snap a picture of, but the women attending their stands wanted to charge me $1 to take a photograph. On principle I refused to pay, and I sarcastically thanked them for the hospitality that they so graciously offer to foreign tourists like myself.

– Having a delicious dinner at Caskaffesu, an awesome little restaurant and hotel in Mindo. It’s become a WorldTeach tradition to eat group dinners together at that restaurant; their fantastic food keeps us coming back.

– Staying an extra day in Mindo with Gaby. We had a blast going zip-lining and lazing around the pool, soaking up the equatorial sun – where I also had some fun playing around with my waterproof camera (see picture below).

A view of the beautiful city of Loja

A rare sunset as I was arriving in Quito from Loja

An amazing view of Chimborazo from my hostel in Riobamba

All geared up for zip-lining in Mindo

Playing around with my camera at the hotel pool

Now that I’m back in Quito I’m back to the office for lots of projects, reports, and paperwork. A highlight of yesterday, though, was heading down to the Centro Histórico for a special event. On Sunday and Monday the World Cup trophy was in Quito, as part of a worldwide tour, that is, naturally, sponsored by Coca-Cola. They had the trophy on display at a local shopping center, and I was fully planning to go check in out and snap a photo of myself standing next to it and displaying my best cheesy smile and double thumbs-up. The problem, however, was that I found out that you couldn’t just buy a ticket. You had to find two specific Coca-Cola bottle caps, one that said “Tour” and another that said “del Trofeo.” Only by redeeming those two bottle caps could you acquire a ticket to the event and get a chance to see the trophy. Well, at first I thought I’d start looking, then I realized that I really didn’t want to go on some Charlie Bucket-esque quest to get my ticket, only to fork over my money to one of the world’s largest corporations.

Fortunately, on Sunday evening I was reading a news report about the trophy tour and heard that it would be at El Cambio de la Guardia, or the Changing of the Guard. El Cambio de la Guardia happens every Monday morning at the presidential palace on the Plaza Grande in downtown Quito. In about eight months of now living in Quito I haven’t been there to see the event, because normally there isn’t that much attracting me to it. However, yesterday, in addition to the pageantry and formality of the choreographed marching guards, the president and a variety of other political or soccer-related figures were present. After the changing of the guard happened (which by itself was pretty cool), President Correa was handed the trophy (I believe he was the only person in Ecuador who actually got to touch it), lifted it up triumphantly, and even kissed it. It was actually pretty cool to see and get a few pictures of, even if I didn’t get to take my double thumbs-up selfie next to the trophy.

Guards lined up on the palace, and media in the plaza, before the event

President Correa greets the crowd before the Changing of the Guard takes place

There were enough people in the plaza that it was tough to see all of the ceremony

Present for the ceremony were, (R-L) President Correa, the vice-president, the Minister of Sports, the Minister of Social Development, National Director of Football, and the coach of the national football

Naturally, the proceedings including an official unfurling of the national flag

Sorry, Ecuador, but I’m afraid this is as close as you’ll get to the trophy this year

The national team coach (far left) was stuck snapping photos of the trophy

A Pacific coast New Year’s

I hear there’s a cold snap in North America at the moment – I hate to rub it in, but the weather here on the Equator is pretty amazing as always. I like to say that here in Quito it is eternal springtime: pretty much all year long you can expect highs of about 70 degrees, mostly sunny skies, and a chance of rain. Like many Quiteños, I decided to descend from the Andes and head towards the warmer climate of the coast to celebrate New Year’s. Gaby (my girlfriend of about a month in case you didn’t see my last post) and I traveled to Canoa, a small little beach town near the city of Bahia de Caráquez.

It was fantastic to spend five days on the beach. Canoa had plenty of people around, but it wasn’t super crowded like some beaches here in Ecuador can be during holidays. The temperatures were warm throughout our time there, and for the most part there was pretty good sun. However, the best part about being on the Pacific was simply the fact that I really didn’t think about work, or nearly anything for that matter, for five days. It was super relaxing, and a much needed breather before diving into a lot of work during this first month of 2014. I won’t spend too much time writing about this trip, but rather let some pictures speak for me:

Driving to Canoa by private car – a much faster alternative than public bus!

Day one – relaxing with Gaby and some of her friends from work

I could do this all day…oh yeah, I did

The beautiful beach of Canoa

Looking back at the beach from the water

Enjoying the waves of the Pacific

A local restaurant had french press coffee!!

This was the scene basically every afternoon

A paraglider taking off from the beach – a common sight in Canoa

One of several bonfires that were lit to ring in 2014

On the beach at midnight

The other fantastic part about being on the coast, especially in the province of Manabí, was the food! I love me some meat, rice, and potatoes, which are the staples of the Andean diet – but the food on the coast of Ecuador is so refreshing by comparison! Every day we ate fresh dishes made with fish, shrimp, or other seafood, and our share of plantains (usually fried in some way!). Here are a few highlights, with some pictures following:

– Encocado: Fish or shrimp in a delicious sauce made with milk and plenty of coconut.

– Ceviche: Fresh fish, shrimp, or clams (or all three!) mixed with lime juice and lots of tomato and onion.

– Corviche: A fried delicacy! A dough made from plantains, formed into an oblong shape, stuffed with a bit of fish, and deep fried!

– Arroz Marinero: A huge pile of basically fried rice, with tons of seafood.

– Emborrajados: Battered and deep fried plantains cut length-wise into strips. Essentially Ecuadorian fair food!

Enjoying some ceviche (with chifles, or fried plantain chips) on the beach

Corviches being prepared

Corviches and emborrajados being taken out of their frying oil

There was a much-deserved long line for this fried goodness

Well worth the wait

NYE meal of encocado de camaron

And my arroz marinero – I wasn’t quite aware of how much food I was getting myself into