Exploradventures

Mitch, Kristy and I couldn´t find out how to contact the bungie jumping company so we took a 2 hour bus ride to the bridge and found nothing. It´s over 300 feet and the tallest jump is sudamerica but we made a day out of it. We hiked down to a pretty river, through the snakes and freaking HUGE spiders everywhere. We climbed and bouldered on some rocks- small cliffs then headed home. On the bus ride we were almost mugged by a scary gang of 13 year old boys. No worrys mom, I´m safe at Papaya Net and getting ready to go hookahhhhhhhh

Ah my favorite eduadorian song just came on...i´m going to miss it!

¡CHAO!

Birds

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat and what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on it. Is life not more than food and the body more than clothing. Look at the birds of the field, they don´t worry about their food nor store up grain for tomorrow yet your heavenly father feeds them. How much more valuable are you than the birds. Matthew 6 25

Anxiety is caused by a loss of faith.

I´m really going to miss Bunglow 6, chilly mornings, and fresh fruit. I´m slowing preparing myself to leave. Tomorrow we are exploring and a couple of us are going to try to rappel somewhere. Saturday I´m going to the middle of the world, the equator, and some Incan Ruins.

I found out yesterday Cameron is picking me up from the airport!!!

Life is beautiful,

¡CHAO!

Colombianos

Xiao and I just practiced salsa and a bunch of traditional Colombian dances because Paola and Davids parents are here from Colombia. It was so fun! I love the music here 1, 2, 3, 4 uno dos tres cuatro..muy rapido muy raidooooo..(a great song)

I have to get dressed to go see UP the new disney movie con mis amigas.

Tomorrow is the last ladies night and the whole family is going out so it might be a couple days...

¡CHAO mi amores!

Volcan de Chimborazo

Here are a couple awesome ladies making a rub in Riobamba. It will take 4 of them a week to finish a single rug. Props to the industrial revolution anyone? The first two days of this weekend weren't very interesting we were supposed to go mountain biking but that was a bust. Sunday, however, was wonderful. We hiked up Chimborazo Volcanoe. Only about half of the group made it up. On my way up I thought I was almost last but it turns out I was the third to make it up. We obviously didn't make it to the peak because you can only do that at night because of melting and avalanches. Any true fan of Bear Grylls knows what I'm talking about.

On the way up I got super hot and basically stripped down to my pants and a t-shirt at less than 30 degrees. I'm not sure how but I even lost a sock. (Yea, I know...wtf?) We drank some coca tea which helped with the altitude. (and yes it's illegal to bring to the States, I tried)

Chimborazo is unique because even though Everest and other mountains are higher, Chimborazo is the furthest point from the center of the earth and the closest point on earth to the sun. This is because the earth flexes and bows out about 2 kilometers at the equator. We hiked to about 5,500 meters which is over 16,000 feet, trumping Snowmass and Pikes peak easily. The top is around 19,000 feet I believe. It was quite wonderful and cloudy. Emma and I took a Chacos picture. We are going to try to send it in and be in an advertisment.

Today Emma Abby and I were going to explore the old city but NO we had some suprise Spanish classes pulled out of nowhere so that sucks. After climbing that far I decided that some day my husband and I are going to take awesome vacations and climb up volcanoes, raft down the amazon, and see the seven wonders. Life is so short and I don't really want possesions I just want to see and experience as much as I can. (I promise I'll be home for Christmas mom.)

p.s. Sara Monster: I forgot to say thanks for the 5 leaf clover to left in my notebook for me. I see it everyday and I think of you.

And did I ever mention that I eat potatoe soup with popcorn in it all the time. You have to get used to it but it's pretty good. I'm not sure if I already mentioned it. Mom, Dad, soup-popcorn night soon? haha

Not all children like me...

I´m spending some time volunteering at a school for needy children in Quito called Ñeque más Ñeque. My ássigned´ child´s name is Matias. He is pretty awesome first his name sounds like gladiator and he looks pretty samoan for being Ecuadorian.The problem is...I think he hates me.
There is obviously a language barrier but he seems to being pretty annoyed that I exist.


I´ve been pretty sad all day about it. We made a book today that was three pages long about the Argentina game yesterday. He wouldn´t let me help but I thought he was justbeing shy so when he went to the baño for awhile I thought I would suprise him by helping him color his illustrations. Wrong. Apparently I colored the Ecuador fúbol player stick figure with the Argentina jersey and the Argentina stick pigure with the Ecuador jersey. He just like of stared at me like...you...freaking...idiot.

I had to get on facebook to look at camp pictures so I could remember a better time when children loved me. haha Tonight we are hanging out with some amigos from Switzerland. I´m slowing learning some Swiss-German phrases but it´s really difficult to remember. This weekend we are hiking a part of Cotopaxi, the tallest volcanoe in the world. It´s a three day trip so I´ll try to tell you all about it Mondayish.


Here is a picture of mi madre y hermano. They are the two on the right.

¡2-0 Ecuador!

We beat Argentina!

¡VAMOS ECUATORIANOS SI SE PUEDE TENEMOS QUE GANAR!

5 hours in the sun 4 hours in the pouring rain...it was worth it

The Amazon Rainforest

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Who wants to move to Southern Ecuador with me? I know Dana will.

I´m having a difficult time putting into words how unbelieveably beautiful everything is in the Amazon. Everything is wet, lush, and brilliant. There are fruits and waterfalls EVERYWHERE not to mention plentyof mosquitos (ouch.)

Saturday we visited three major waterfalls. We had to take a jankity/awesome cable car across an enormous gourge with a river below us. At the second one we found a sweet swing and domianted it. Also if you know me at all you know I love finding four leaf clovers there was an entire field of four leaf clovers! I laid down right in the middle of them.

Right before we were finished hiking to the third waterfal we saw this sign... (God Exist)
We climbed down to this platform that was probably 10 feet away from this enormous waterfall that was a part of a river that empties into the Amazon. Every few seconds a huge wall of freezing Andes water poured down on us. We had to scream at each other to talk it was so loud. Everyone who ventured down that far was pretty overwhelmed and there was a lot of hugging.
I can´t believe I am so lucky to experience all these beautiful things. God is so amazing and his creation is so much bigger than Missouri. The entire hike I was in awe of the extravagance of the earth we live on.

Sunday we rafted down a river that empties into the Amazon. Our guide said it is actually a younger river so the rafting is more intense than the Amazon River (especially since it was pouring down rain some of the time). Our guide was insane he pushed my friend Abby out of the raft! He kept singing We Will Rock You and La Bamba haha! And he insisted on reminding us of all the pirañas. Which is pronounced peer-rawn-yuhz, it was cracking me up. I´m pretty sure he had a cold too because he kept hawking the biggest lougies right next to my ear as I was trying to enjoy the peaceful landscape of Amazon Valley.

Anyways Rafting was by far the most fun I´ve had here. The river was insane! The view was indescribable. There were clouds sitting in the middle of the trees along the river, they seemed to be suspended there by something.

Okay so now we are back home and I am expecting to go to school on Monday...wrong! We left early from the Academia and stood in line for 8 and a half hours to get tickets to the World Cup qualifier Ecuador vs. Argentina fútbol game Tomorrow. (The game starts at 4pm central time and should be live on ESPN.) Ecuador won Sunday so if they beat Argentina (which is hard to do) they will be in good running for the World Cup and the Latin American Cup. I actually don´t know much about fútbol so sorry if any of this is wrong but I´m pretty sure it´s what´s going down.

I am so incredibly sunburnt from standing under the Equator for that long, but it was worth it. We didn´t get lunch so I bought a mango and a water for this sweet lady who was about 3 feet tall. I might be losing weight from all the fruit but I don´t know because the hoof soup, guinea pig, and Galak Bars might be evening it out. After standing in line for 5 hours everyone all of a sudden decided to get mad that we were gringos and were ahead of them in line. They kept trying to get the polica to kick us out of line. As J-Lew and Professor Lupin would say...ridiculous (Riddikulus). It was a cultural experience to say the least. I haven´t seen sports fans this radical and it wasn´t even game day. I can´t wait till tomorrow we get to leave school early to go stand in line...sometimes I can´t believe I am getting school credit for this stuff.

Oh yea and we stuck it to the man again because all together our tikets for the game were $827, thanks Missouri State.

Today we went to a wonderful art museum and I bought a beautiful print Niño Dormiendo for on $6. I would talk more about the amazing past few days but my favorite Asain is waiting for me.

Oh yea I got to Skype with Cameron yesterday, he sat the computer at the end of the dinner table while they were eating so it was like I was having dinner with the Wileys. My skype account is lisa.dennis125, I´m pretty much never on but just in case.

¡CHAO! Zaijian (Mandarin Chinese, I´m pretty much fluent)

What I´ve eaten. (It has a face.)

Where I´ve been.

This is where I am going tonight.

So far the only bad things about Ecuador...

1. Patas

2. It´s hard to upload pictures

3. I can´t make smiley faces on these keyboards

Yesterday we convinced our professor to buy 3 gourmet Cakes payed for my Missouri State University. I had to explain ´stick it to the man´ to Paula and David.

Yesterday we went to the Park de Carolina and rented a paddleboat.  An entire 8-10 year old boys futbol team attacked us with splashes. We retaliated and soak those little diablos (devils.) As Sara screamed diablos! diablos! I stole their water bottles (they have long range splash capabilities) and we attacked again.  It was pretty crazy, the policia thought there was something wrong but they left us alone once they realized it was all in good fun.  After we got out we took a soaking wet picture with them.  

Last night we played some intense South American bowls (be jealous Ferrancole.)  

Tomorrow I'm going to a ballet and then there is a Sombrero Fiesta at La Academia.  

Thank you Katie for my wonderful card, I love it! 

Otalvalo, Cuicocha, y mas.

¡Hola amigos y familia!

This weekend I visited the Oltavalo market. The Oltavalen people are the closest deendents to the Incas. The women dress in lacey white shirts with beautiful hand embroidery and they all wear lots of golden necklaces, even the toddlers. After bartering I ate lunch at a hacienda 15 minutes away. I tried cuy (guinea pig) which DOES NOT taste like chicken. It was sort of fishy and chewy mmm... not. They also gave us these shots of indigeonous blackberry alchohol. At first I though it was sauce for my rice...I´m glad I didn´t make that mistake. Speaking of mistakes while eating, I learned a very important life lesson a few days ago. Never confuse papas and patas. While papas are compleately harmless potatoes, patas is hoof. Long story short I ate pig/horse hoof soup. Yep. It was interesting, I felt like I was back in biology lab as I investgated the various choped ankle bones, fat globs, tedons, and freaking giant animal tonail. I actually got 3/4 of the soup down before I started to throw up a little.

Now that I suffieciently grossed everyone out I´ll continue. At the hasienda an Otolavan band played all these bank-money instruments while they little precious niños danced. Then the band got in the middle and we all danced around the band with the kids showing us all their moves. It was one of the most beautiful moments of my life.

Later I visted the sacred waterfall, Cascada de Peguche, in the Adean highlands. For dinner we ate at this HUGE hacienda, I tried a bunch of new exotic fruits and juices. ¡There was an original Picasso in the master bedroom!

They next day I woke early and ate huevos fritas (fried eggs) y cafe con leche (coffe with milk) for breakfast. I drove then hiked up to the mouth of Cuicocha Volcanoe. The mouth of the Cuicocha had a beautiful teal lagoon with two small islands in the center. It was take-your-breath-away beautiful. We were really hungry and found these small berries that are safe to eat and taste like apples.

We ate lunch a the base of San Pablo Volcanoe at a delicious restuarant. For dessert we had blackberry and guanabana ice cream, yum. Right before we had to leave Mitchell and I jumped in the lake, it was spur of moment and definitly 35 degrees. I was pretty cold on the drive back to Quito but it was worth it to swim in a lake at the base of one of the tallest volcanoes in the Andes.

Right now I believe we are going paddle boating at a park, I should probably do some homework though...I´m planning on pulling a Ferranto and waiting until the last minute.

CHAO