Making friends with Blue Footed Boobies

Well most of the sickness has subsided for now. Kristen and Natalie are back on their feet and I am about there as well. Tomorrow morning I booked a last minute trip to the Galapagos Islands. I am pretty excited to get out and see all the strange creatures Darwin studied all those years ago. I will be there for 4 days and 3 nights. A quick trip but for the price I couldn´t refuse.

Yesterday we trekked to the top of a nearby hill here in Quito where a statue called the Virgin of Quito resides. There were amazing views of several volcanoes around Quito, including the famous Cotopaxi. It almost made me feel like I was at home seeing all the snow capped mountains, but then the mass city beneath me reminded me I was far from it.

Have a great weekend everyone.

devin

Midweek shout out

So this week has been off to a slow start. Sunday night Kristen starts to get really dissy. All dayMondayy she layed in bed all day with stomach aches. We are thinking it is because of the altitude change from Tena to Quito. Monday night Natalie and myself start feeling a little under the weather as well. Mine was more of a headache with a scratchy throat. That night my host mom, Susanna, made me a nice broth that soothed my aches.

I slept for nearly 10 hours and yesterday I was fine, but Natalie left school early because shedidn'tt feel well. Hopefully today everyone will be back on their feet and ready to see some more sights. Its not that great being sick in a different country.

I posted some pictures of my house and bedroom along with views of the city from Natalie and Kristen's apartment.

>devin

Rafting in Tena

So our first field trip from Quito was about 90 miles Southeast to a little jungle town called Tena. River rafting is the number one reason most people visit Tena. It took about six hours by bus from Quito. It was a very long and bumpy ride. We dropped 6,000 feet between the two cities so you can imagine what a ride it was. Up and down the Andes, we saw some pretty amazing views with steep cliffs all along the way. Mom would have been on the floor for sure.
We didn´t arrive until after midnight, so we went straight to our hostel and crashed for the night. Early the next morning we ate breakfast (consisting of a roll, fried bananas, and papaya) and headed to the rafting company´s main headquarters. There we jumped in a van and drove to a small community where we were to start our journey. Many of the little kids from the area came to say hello and were interested in asking our names and talking to us. They were so cute! A little girl told me her name was Estefani. I told her that was my sisters name and she blushed.
Starting our decent along the river, we were amazed by the beautiful thick jungle on each side of the river. Monkeys and birds were frequent sights. It was like we were in a National Geographic documentary. I almost had to pinch myself. Ben (our guide) told us that we would be merging with a total of five rivers along our way.
We floated for about two and a half hours before we stopped for lunch. In this time to make a long story short, we were hiking around a rough part of the river where there were many boulders. From what I understood, we put in before we were supposed to and ended up getting sucked into a huge pocket of churning water. To save on the details, we all made it out with a few bumps and bruises.
It felt nice to walk around on the beach during lunch, we needed a good breather from our traumatic experience. The river was really calm and we swam around for a bit, it was a nice escape from the sand flies, which were really getting to us. The guides dished up a number of bowls, which all together made an excellent taco.
The rest of our journey still had some exciting moments, but we made it back in one piece. That night we all went to dinner with our new friends Jeff (from Canada), Ann, Bijorn (from Sweden), and our guides Luis and Ben. We were all pretty exhausted from fighting for our lives all day, so after dinner we went back to catch some sleep.
Sunday morning we were picked up my a local guide and taken to a place called Isla de los Monos (Monkey Island). There we go to see various species of Monkeys along with several other animals found in the Amazon. Our guide was an indigenous man who had a lot of really cool insight. He also taught us how to make bracelets out of a common plant found here in Ecuador.
It was an exciting adventure that we will be talking about for years to come. Now its back to school for this week. Yesterday we met two new students from New York who are fresh out of high school. I look forward to getting to know them and getting more confident in my Spanish speaking.

Much love,

devin

¡San Viernes!

I made it through my first week here in Quito! Classes are going great, my teacher Manuel is teaching me so much! Even at home, we only speak Spanish. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, are pretty much extra study sessions that help me practice. Hopefully at this rate I will be fluent in no time.

Kristen and Natalie arrived Wednesday night and I rode the Eco Via (the bus here in Quito) to their hostel Thursday morning. Together we went to Old Town, which is filled with many museums and historic buildings. Old town sits on a hill on the south end of town, so we had great views of the city. The main plaza was so beautiful. It was filled with orchids and other plants. There were some protesters arguing the new constitution for Ecuador that will be voted on here shortly. Supposedly their new president is taking this very far left from where they have been.

We ate lunch in a little cafe. The meal was so big and it only cost $1.25! We were stuffed! We also purchased a funny looking reed type thing. The woman we bought it from said it was guava. We had to twist it to crack it open and inside were little white seeds. The white part had a cotton like texture and you were supposed to strip it with your teeth from the black seed inside.

Today after school we are heading to Tena, which is a small town near the Amazon (about five hours by bus from Quito). I am super excited and can´t wait to see more of this country!

Hope all is well with everyone at home.

Much love

Bienvenidos

After months of anticipation, I finally began my trek of South America! Its only been just over a day and I feel like I´ve been gone for weeks. My flight was late getting into Quito on Sunday night, but my ride was there waiting on the other side of customs. I was taken strait to my Host Family where I was greeted with open arms.

Susanna and Marcos are now my Ecuadorian parents! They are both retired and spend most of the time at home. Susanna cooks me three meals a day she is the sweetest lady. They have five grandchildren that spend most afternoon at the house. Last night we played soccor in the park until it was too dark to see. They absolutely loved the key chains Ben sent with me. You can see them clipped to their clothes in the pictures.

Quito reminds me a lot of San Jose in Costa Rica except for much much bigger! The mountainsides are covered in high rise apartment buildings and there is always a slight smell of exhaust in the air from all the cars. But it is very beautiful! The weather is perfect as well. During the day it will get into the low 70´s and at night it will cool off enough to require a jacket.

Last night I went salsa dancing with several students from my school. I had such a good time and can´t wait to go again. Tonight we are playing soccor with everyone from our school, including the teachers.

In two days I´ve already done so much and can´t wait to experience the adventures ahead!

Jardine Juniper Hike

On the rare occasion that me and Steph both have the day off, we try and do something we both love... spend time in the great outdoors! What a better way to do it than go for a hike! The Jardine Juniper Trail up Logan Canyon is one I have always been wanting to do, and with only a week before I leave to S. America I guess there was no better time than now.

This 10 1/2 mile round trip trail led us to the top of the mountain where a 3200 year old Juniper Tree sits on the edge of the hill overlooking the valley below. So beautiful! You can see from our pictures its not the most appealing tree to look at. Its branches are twisted and appear to be dead with only a few small green branches coming out its top.

Kristen, who is also joining me in S America, Steph, and Myself enjoyed our lunch of Huckleberries, grapes, veggies, and sandwiches. With sunny skies and hardly any other people on the trail it was a great break from reality.