Ecuador

Well, I just finished my first 2 weeks of this crazy 60-week adventure! And, they were completely wonderful! It´s been the perfect way to start out. I´ve had two people taking very good care of me, letting me get my feet wet gradually.First, Carey Aiossa (EWS alum) picked me up at the airport and shepharded me through my first week abroad; my first taste of not being able to communicate with people would have been MUCH more difficult without her there to move things along (shocking, I know)! Carey was a very good example for how to ignore the incredibly obnoxious tss-tss-ers, who seem to think that hissing at someone is the best way to get their attention (although who can blame them when it actually works with Ecuadorians). We had some good times leather shopping (aka, scoping out the Cotacachi cutie), chatting, playing games, chatting, listening to good music, chatting, cooking, etc.

Then, Carey found me a hiking partner for Lago Cuicocha (Carey´s knee not being willing) and I found my host for week 2! Justin and the pup, Buckley, very politely suffered through a few hours of beautiful hiking (picture the deep blue of the ocean surrounded by a lush green and interupted by 2 lush green islands) and me puking every 40 minutes (shocking, I know)! Initial puking aside, week 2 turned out to be very chill and very fun — lots of sleeping late, eating well, studying GRE vocab, embarrassing ourselves with GRE math, horsing around with the pup, sitting on crammed buses to get to town listening to…dare I say it…horrendous Ecuadorian music, dancing/drinking the night away in Quito — all in all, a really great time! …despite all of our vocab studying, I´m afraid I´m not being very perspicuous or disingenuous with this post…but, it´s my first one, what can I say?!

That pretty much brings me to today, my first day on my own (insert ominous ¨oooh¨ here). Really all I have to do is get myself to Cusco and then I am once again under the watchful eye of a host (yeah Up-With-People-alum network!). Nonetheless, there´s still a bit of transition there; I think my Spanish has improved 20 times more in the last 18 hours than it did in the last 2 weeks (if I can even be so bold as to say ¨my Spanish¨ for how non-existent it is).

Since I´m at the airport (in Lima), I´d better wrap this up before I rack up an even more obscene internet bill! I am looking forward to what is sure to be a lovely night in the Lima airport before heading out to Cusco in the morning (fairly fucked up flight schedule if you aks me…but no one did).

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Quito accomodations:
- hostel populated by Peace Corps volunteers
- hot showers
- clean…enough
- near enough to fun bars and restaurants
- …that´s pretty much it…

Carey´s house (in Cuicocha, near Cotacachi):
- apparently a converted chicken coop
- bright walls, lots of pictures and art on the walls
- a very persistent mouse/rat(s?)
- great food! (all care of Carey, of course)
- bad liquor! (not Carey´s fault, of course)
- comfy kitchen and great music
- stand-offish, but curious neighbors
- the stirring sounds of buses and roosters in the morning
- lots of dust!
- great view for watching the moon rise over Cotacachi (active volcano)
(For future reference, Carey plays a mean game of Snap!)

Justin´s house (near Imantag):
- mostly self-built (2 stories with connecting ladder)
- bright walls, great curtains, lots of pictures
- amazing lack of clutter
- chocolate chip cookies! carrot cake! …oh yeah, great non-dessert food too…
- mostly indiginous neighbors, who seem to need VERY loud music VERY early in the morning
- kids who collect and stare as you wash dishes and bathe at the school baño
- stinky pigs, rampant chickens and obnoxious roosters
- great view of mountains all around (at night, from inside, looks like you´re on the edge of the ocean)
- happy, playful, needy puppy (Buckley)
- good movies playing on the iBook nearest you!

Ecuador (well, Quito and a few northern areas):
- usually a perfectly comfortable temperature for me
- a range from friendly, but guarded folks to supremely indifferent folks
- beautiful mountains and volcanoes, when you can see them…beautifully shrouded skies when you can´t
- lots of busses
- lots of loud music
- an airport in the middle of downtown Quito (makes for a striking view from the tarmac)
- …hmmm…getting too tired to recall much more at the moment

STAY TUNED! NEXT STOP: CUSCO