Gratitude

There's always lots to rattle on about, but I am also a big fan of lists.  So here's one (because I don't think I could find Day Planners and Thought Catchers round these parts, so I make my own).

Thanks to

• Dan for helping set me up electronically with through instructions
• Jaegs for the tablet loaner, has come in handy 
• The nice woman on the bus who saw me board with a big backpack and my hand full of bags.  She put my groceries by her feet and held my waterbottle for the entire ride.  Que cute.  
• All the people who have given me directions and suggestions: Alejandro on the plane from Florida, Alex in Quito...  These people have hooked me up with buses and pointed me in the right direction so many times, and I have been able to know my next step without having to pull a map out in public.  Gracias.  
• Zoila (the lady who lives downstair) who lent me her thermometer
• The lady who grills cheesy plantains, eres hermosa.  
• Sarah- fellow volunteer for making all her delicious desserts
• Henley- fellow volunteer for pointing out local sights, carrying the gas tanks up the stairs and being so easy to get along with 

I'm grateful for (in no particular order...) 

Free Zumba-esque classes, plantains (in any shape, form), free rides back to town, a seat on the bus, finding a connection bus instead of walking, having an umbrella, raincoat, toilet paper, fresh fruit, moto rides, the view from our roof, dinner by candlelight/twinklelight, sharing dinner with fellow volunteers, getting creative with massive amounts of zucchini, the roosters who will never let me miss the bus in the AM, LIFE (I thought I was going to die from feverish hallucinations last night), soo, I'm grateful my sister will be a nurse, that I have lots of health hookups back home, thanks Dr. Nott and Lynn for those malaria pills, I will enjoy my crazy dreams and stay away from the squitoes; Skype dates; movie nights; bachata music; rice water; caring people who nurse you back to health, country playlists (thanks Kate)

Puyo, Ecuador~ New Home

Lots to update on...  Made it to bus terminal in Puyo, got friendly pickup from project director Laura and her 16 month old daughter.  Made it to the volunteer house (there were four of us total at the time), this week we are back down to 3.  Another co coordinator, Henley, myself and an 18 year old volunteer.  He has Peace Corps experience in Costa Rica and Sarah can cook (and bake, more about that later).  I spent the week enjoying fresh fruits and veggies, waking at 5.30am, doing diagnostics at all our schools, learning new bus routes and hopping off the wrong ones, hitchhiking home (in pairs, more common than I thought, although some hitches actually function like unmarked taxis, so just make sure you know whether or not you'll be paying before you hop into someone's truck...), making dinners and spending time reading in hammocks.  Not sure why I feel tired if the school day ends around 12.30/1pm, but we have long bus rides that put us back home around 2 or 3pm.

I'm learning a lot about the achievement and resource gap between urban and public schools here.  The places where we work are all along jungle land, small one or two room school houses, my biggest school has about 40 kids, the smaller ones 16.  Some classes are going to function more like one on one tutoring sessions if you know what I mean so I'm trying to wrap my head around how to plan for all this.  Supposedly these kids are supposed to be getting at least 2 hours of English instruction a week, by law, but many local teachers are not TOEFEL certified, so that means volunteers (who have little or no teaching experience), become the replacements, or fulfill this requierement for about 40min once a week.  No wonder the diagnostics were abysmal.  I think I'm going in to this with the wrong mindset, and maybe part of that is prior education experience making me think that I can design this semester, improve my organization and planning skills and track their progress to the T...  Here is that really necessary, who am I to say the systems they already have in place are wrong, or inefficient, I really am not in the position to judge them at all.  Soo, after a two hour lesson planning session where we banged out some gold old fashioned INM, GP, IP, I'm trying to release all that and realize that I don't have control over the circumstances here.  There are first graders who have never been to school, and in the 4.5 hour school day, yeah, maybe I will have the school director who decides to take the kids down the hill on a nature walk and have them draw the view, wasting over an hour of precious instructional time.  Ahh, how could this be, I was screaming inside, no wonder they are so behind and start planting yucca at 12 instead of continuing on to the city schools in Puyo.  But, this is my chance to observe all these judgements that are passing through my head.  The pleathora of travel lit inside the house has given me a lot to reflect on, and I'm realizing I probably just need to be quiet.  Shh.

Octavalo, Ecuador

This is the biggest market in South America apparently.  I'm sorry.  I return without souvenirs family, just a pair of the typical black velvet shoes the ladies wear that I thought looked like some pretty casual black flats.    I ate a lot of mote, corn, with arvejas, peas, tostado, toasted kernels, some cheese, salt, hot sauce on top.  When I hopped on another bus with my little snack bag, I even asked another vendor for an extra squirt of hot sauce and she gave me a refill, even though I didn't buy from her originally.  Talk about generosity!  I came to Octavalo and it turned out it was party day, a huge street fair, beauty pagent, parade all happening that evening.  I met a Colombian girl who had come into town to hear her friends play Andean music (lots of zampona happening here) and she and I split a  taxi, wandered with me to find a hostel (cheaper than Colombian, about $5 a night) and wander until we found a good viewing spot for the parade.  We got squished a lot, then I lost her, but called it an early night.  Apparently, people stayed out dancing in the street until 2am.  I was pretty beat from bus rides so I was in bed before 10pm.  I ended up in a room with two Austrians who are WALKING all over the world.  They don't carry much, live simply eating lots of fruits and veggies they say, but just get their shoes resoled when needed.  Wow.  Mad props.  Tis amazing what you figure out that you don't really need when you commence life on the road.

Apparently Buddha said (somewhere along the line), Good people keep walking whatever happens...  in good fortune and in bad.  I would use quote marks if only I knew where to find them.  I think that my mini lesson is get over the fact that the nice girl who wanted to take pictures of the parade accidentally deleted all your fotos from Colombia.  Be grateful I still have a camera.  Be thankful to the people who took pictures in Guatape, Medellin, Cocora and Armenia, I have those and I have memories that will stick with me for some time.  Gotcha Buddha.  Be like Nemo.  Just keep swimming.

Couchsurfing in Armenia and Popayan

Ok, thought I'd try something new and venture into the Couchsurfing thing and I've had really good experiences.  Things don't always work out and you aren't always able to make connections with initial contacts, but I think it can be a  really good base for making people connections, finding friends in a new place and getting to know the country.  I really appreciated it, especially when I was traveling by myself and looking for some good company.  I went out dancing in Armenia on a Tuesday night (this means we picked all the songs they played), ate higado and kind of liked it, rode on a motorcycle with my huge backpacker bag, learned how to DRIVE the moto (and it was a manual might I add, only stalled out several times...  Don't worry mom, it was on dirt, not a main highway), explored the local market and wandered into art museums with a local university English teacher.  Sweet!  Thank you Frany and Pilar for awesome experiences.  Check out the fun times we had below, entire family, bro, cousin, other Argentinian Couchsurfer included...

Salento 8/27

Last night I took the bus from Guatape back to Medellin (2 hours), another bus to other terminal and then the 5 hour ride to Aremenia.  Beautiful landscapes, just weaving through mountains.  I was arriving pretty late and had planned to just find a spot to stay close by to the terminal but two Spanairds on the bus were also trying to get to Salento so we hopped in a taxi together.  At the last minute this strange Israeli guy came with us too and then the subject of terrorism came up, the taxi stalled out while the driver was struggling to get us up the hill and find the hostal in the dark.  Man, please, why are we going into politics with this dude?  Luckily, after asking directions from 3 different people we came across the hostal and I snatched up a room with three German girls.  The place, La Serrana, was clean, had free breakfast, coffee, wifi and spectacular views.

The next day I walked with the Spanish guys down the hill for a coffee farm tour.  I had done this in Costa Rica before, but perhaps that was the commercialized version.  This was the mom and pop business, without any big machines, they actually used a little hand-crank molino ( I had only seen these used for grinding up corn for tamales, etc).  We saw the plants, learned about the new cuts made every 8-10 years to help rejuvenate the plant (only has about 3 life cycles before the quality starts to go down), the banana plants used for shade, how to pick the right red bean, pop off the husk, dry them out, toast, grind and voila, hacer el cafe.  Truthfully, all the coffee I´ve had here in the land of Juan Valdez has been pretty, well, not so great.  Apparently the best stuff is exported which explains why Folgers tastes better than my tinto.

After wandering back to the hostel, I decided to give the Couchsurfing thing a try.  Some roommates had tried it in the past and I´ve been getting sick of the hostal lifestyle.  It can be fun, but it also feels like a continual party with backpackers, not a real look at the country or it´s people.  Another person was telling me about their good experience so i thought I´d give it a go.  The first place I landed was a place to drop my bags. a bar/resturant called the Speakeasy.  A Bostonian Brian greeted me at the door, and I met Dave and Dan (the Australiuan bros) who bought the property and have been cleaning it up, turning it into their business for the past year or so..  It was fun, although they were supposed to be celebrating someone´s birthday and going away party that night, a ton of peole ended up wandering thru so I was able to help out in the kitchen and waitress.  Good times.  Lots of interesting people to talk to, Dave made some awesome Thai curry soup and  my stuff stayed safe.  Thank you for good people in the world. 

Gutape 8´25

I ventured off with my travel partner Laura to the town of Guatape.  Cool little lake town, kinda felt like Atilan in Guate.  Really colorful houses that represent the trade of the person that works there (ex. one mgihtt have keys would be a locksmith, or corn a farmer, etc).  We threw our stuff down and made the trek to Penol, a massavie slab or ???  to climb the 659 steps to the top for a worthwhile view.  Actually, there were 740 steps because once you get to the top, there ar ethree more little gift shops that are crammed into a lighthouse strcuture and you can just continue to work your way up.

The next day we hiked to some waterfalls with a couple from London who were taking a break from the typical travel the world in a year thing.  They brought the two hostal dogs along who knew exactly how to get us up to the waterfall.  Sweet. 

I met a girl who has been living in this hostal and working there for 4 months.  She kayaks in the early AM, jumps in the lake for a dip, and then after doing 3 hours of tidying up around the hostal, goes for long bike rides and hikes by waterfalls.  This sounds like the life to me... 

Ipiales-Tulcan Border Crossing= Check! Mission Accomplished 8/31

Man, I was sweating bullets in the Ecuadorian Migration line, but I made it.  I got the friendly lady who was smiling at me while I was waiting, thank you Jesus!  That morning I went to an internet cafe to print off a backup itinerary, a flight back home from Quito to Newark to show my proof of return trip.  I thought I´d learn the second time around from the slight mishap in Atlantic City Airport.  I freaked out on the collectivo ride over, since the false trip I had printed off still went over the 90 day tourist visa.  Whoops.  Good thing they didn´t ask for that.  I left my hostal in Ipiales, (my Couchsurfing with the English teacher fell through), got on a blue collectivo that left me about 50 ft from the bridge and began my journey.  I spoke with some fellow Colombians (from Popoyan about 6 hours north of the border) who were visiting family.  They got the same feeling that I did- maybe it´s because the air is chillier up here in the Andes mountains, but the people are definitely not as warm and friendly as I had become accustomed to in Colombia.  When I asked someone for directions, the mother whispered to her daughter, ¨Tell her we´re not from here¨.  Geez.  At least in NY, I respect the lack of eye contact, I´m gonna keep walking, screw you, I don´t have time to give directions attitude, but here I was shocked.  Maybe this is teaching me something about myself.  Hmmm...  Anyway, the family took a picture with me at the border crossing, I got my Colombian exit stamp, walked over the bridge, got my Ecuadorian entry stamp and voila, must leave the country by Nov 28 2012.  We will see how this renewal visa process works...

In Ipiales my hostel people were pretty nice, they walked me to the corner and pointed out all the places where I could find my salchipapa (french fries-sausage mix) or fast food.  I opted for some elote, good old grill roasted corn on the cob.  I doused mine with aji preparado (they don´t do much spicy sauce here, but this one was spice with peanut butter, lots of mani up in the mountains).  I chatted up the lady and she even gave me a complimentary papa (potato).  Score one for the nina.  That night I buried myself under all the covers that were in the bedroom and left my two sweatshirts on.  The guy on the plane leaving Florida laughed at me when I had my scarf on, but I´m so grateful for all my layers now.

Once I made it acros, caught another minibus to Tulcan terminal, from the terminal another supposedly 3 hour bus to Octavalo, which was more like 4.5 hours (lots of checkpoints where they search bags below bus).  Phew.  Adios Colombia, it´s been real, but I´m ready to stop living out of my backpack now.