HELLO!
I made it home safely on Friday, I landed at 7.10am. My parents and brother very kindly came and picked me up form heathrow. It was lovely to be met by them. :)
The journey back was fine, no major delays. Houston airport is rather boring but I only had about 4h there so that wasn't too bad. Of course it was raining when we landed in London - back to good old english weather! Although the weather in Ecuador wasn't completely sunny and warm. Quito was always very cold and often raining. For the last month it was warm and sunny in the morning but then overcast and sometimes raining in the afternoon.
It was a brilliant 10 week adventure. I really could not say what the one best thing was. I suppose that one section that I would most recommend for other people to do would probably be the cruise in the Galapagos because it was just such an amazing place! On the other hand, Cotopaxi was brilliant, as was the jungle!
Lizzy and I got on very well. We were barely apart for 6 weeks but never had any arguments or fell out particularly which is fairly impressive considering we shared a room for all of the time except 4 nights.
It is nice to be home even though I loved being in Ecuador. It is nice to be in my own bad and back in the same routine I had before. The same breakfast!! Nothing much has changed here, the house it all the same and it seems Cambridge is too! Anyone who says my teeth have not moved while I have been away can definitely be proved wrong seeing as how my bottom retainer no longer fits on my mouth :S It was brilliant to be able to wear normal clothes again, I look not quite so hideous and I have never flet so clean in 10 weeks as I did after washing my hair in the shower and having a bath here and then putting on machine washed clothes. :D
Anyway I have now finished my Ecuadorian adventures! It was an amazing trip that I will never forget!
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Monday, 30 August 2010
Wednesday, 25 August 2010
last two weeks in Ecuador :(
HOLA!!
During the past two weeks the work we have been doing has been fairly similar to before. We continued going to the school on Tuesdays and Thursdays to teach and Wednesdays to paint the playground. Last week we stayed on Thursday to continue painting and then we also went on monday this week. This is because we were keen to paint all of the designs that we had planned to do. We have made good progress and there is just a tiny bit left to do which lizzy will finish off tomorrow. On Monday there was a large group of Americas that came to the school to do some community work. Most of them just played games with the kids but some helped us paint, which was really useful!
We have managed to teach the kids some new vocab while we were there. With the youngest ones we covered numbers 1-10, geertings and colours. We managed to play some games using numbers and colours outside. We used the paintings we had done on the floor of the playground. This works really well because they enjoyed it but also managed to learn at the same time. With the middle class we covered a bit more, got them up to 20 with the number and did the basic family members, as well as colours and greetings. The oldest group was the easiest to teach because they were the best behaved and we could get them to write vocab out and then decorate it for their english board. Once we told them what to do they got on with it, making our job easy! I really enjoyed teaching the kids altough playing with them was more fun! The most difficult part was trying to control them in Spanish. It was also sometimes a bit tricky when they asked me a question and I was not sure what they were saying! Once a boy was asking me something about chocolate (but I was not entirely sure what!) so I was just agreeing with him, hoping he might then leave me to clean the paint brushes. Lizzy then shouted at me that he was asking me to take him in chocolate, the next day. I quickly said that I didn´t have any and that we were not at the school the next day anyway! It certainly has not put me off teaching children and doing the lesson plans was fun. To begin with is was hard to know how much to plan because we didn´t know what they already knew or how quickly they would learn but we got the hang of it after a few lessons.
Last Friday it was Lizzy´s birthday. We did not do anything particulalry special (I had given her some socks the previous weekend as a present!) but I did give her the little parcel that her parents had given me a few months ago. Lizzy had no idea I had it, so it was a nice surprise! On Friday and Monday we got to go tree climbing. It was great fun. We had ropes and harnesses and climbed up to 17m on Friday and then 25m on Monday. The view from the top of the second tree was amazing. It was not too hard work. You had to push with your legs and pull with your arms to get yourself up. Last weekend we went to Mindo with David (a dutch boy staying at the same palce as us doing research). It was brilliant! We had a really great time. We only went on Saturday and got back on Sunday but we managed to do plenty of things. We went zip wiring. This was GREAT! You go on 13 zip wires across a valley. They zig zag across. The views were stunning. There was also a chance on some of them to go as a shape - either superman or a butterfly. Superman is where you are attached fromn your back and face downwards and a burrerfly is where you are turned upside down. I went as a butterfly on one of the zip wires. It was so scary but brilliant at the same time! I was slightly worried I might fall out of the harness (even though I was with an instructor) because they are just normal waist harnesses. David went as superman and Lizzy also did the butterfly one. We also managed to go tubing. Lizzy and I had gone in the jungle but this was a bit different. Before we just floated downt the river on the gentle current. This time there were lots of rings joined together and it was much rougher. Nobody actually fell out but there were times when we derfinately had to hold on tight! It was good fun. We walked to the river a couple of times and sat there because it was very peaceful and there was a lovely cafe that sold the best ever batidos´that we walked past! On the Saturday night we went out. We had dinner out then went to a bar and then a club. It was really good fun!
I am now back in Quito and not looking forward to my alarm going off at 3.30am tomorrow! My flight is at 6.40 and I get in to London on Friday morning. It will be nice to be home again but I have had a fab time here too. I will miss this country. I am looking forward to seeing friends and family and also eating certain foolds (like pasta!) that I have not had for 10 weeks!
ADIOS!! Hasta pronto!
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
During the past two weeks the work we have been doing has been fairly similar to before. We continued going to the school on Tuesdays and Thursdays to teach and Wednesdays to paint the playground. Last week we stayed on Thursday to continue painting and then we also went on monday this week. This is because we were keen to paint all of the designs that we had planned to do. We have made good progress and there is just a tiny bit left to do which lizzy will finish off tomorrow. On Monday there was a large group of Americas that came to the school to do some community work. Most of them just played games with the kids but some helped us paint, which was really useful!
We have managed to teach the kids some new vocab while we were there. With the youngest ones we covered numbers 1-10, geertings and colours. We managed to play some games using numbers and colours outside. We used the paintings we had done on the floor of the playground. This works really well because they enjoyed it but also managed to learn at the same time. With the middle class we covered a bit more, got them up to 20 with the number and did the basic family members, as well as colours and greetings. The oldest group was the easiest to teach because they were the best behaved and we could get them to write vocab out and then decorate it for their english board. Once we told them what to do they got on with it, making our job easy! I really enjoyed teaching the kids altough playing with them was more fun! The most difficult part was trying to control them in Spanish. It was also sometimes a bit tricky when they asked me a question and I was not sure what they were saying! Once a boy was asking me something about chocolate (but I was not entirely sure what!) so I was just agreeing with him, hoping he might then leave me to clean the paint brushes. Lizzy then shouted at me that he was asking me to take him in chocolate, the next day. I quickly said that I didn´t have any and that we were not at the school the next day anyway! It certainly has not put me off teaching children and doing the lesson plans was fun. To begin with is was hard to know how much to plan because we didn´t know what they already knew or how quickly they would learn but we got the hang of it after a few lessons.
Last Friday it was Lizzy´s birthday. We did not do anything particulalry special (I had given her some socks the previous weekend as a present!) but I did give her the little parcel that her parents had given me a few months ago. Lizzy had no idea I had it, so it was a nice surprise! On Friday and Monday we got to go tree climbing. It was great fun. We had ropes and harnesses and climbed up to 17m on Friday and then 25m on Monday. The view from the top of the second tree was amazing. It was not too hard work. You had to push with your legs and pull with your arms to get yourself up. Last weekend we went to Mindo with David (a dutch boy staying at the same palce as us doing research). It was brilliant! We had a really great time. We only went on Saturday and got back on Sunday but we managed to do plenty of things. We went zip wiring. This was GREAT! You go on 13 zip wires across a valley. They zig zag across. The views were stunning. There was also a chance on some of them to go as a shape - either superman or a butterfly. Superman is where you are attached fromn your back and face downwards and a burrerfly is where you are turned upside down. I went as a butterfly on one of the zip wires. It was so scary but brilliant at the same time! I was slightly worried I might fall out of the harness (even though I was with an instructor) because they are just normal waist harnesses. David went as superman and Lizzy also did the butterfly one. We also managed to go tubing. Lizzy and I had gone in the jungle but this was a bit different. Before we just floated downt the river on the gentle current. This time there were lots of rings joined together and it was much rougher. Nobody actually fell out but there were times when we derfinately had to hold on tight! It was good fun. We walked to the river a couple of times and sat there because it was very peaceful and there was a lovely cafe that sold the best ever batidos´that we walked past! On the Saturday night we went out. We had dinner out then went to a bar and then a club. It was really good fun!
I am now back in Quito and not looking forward to my alarm going off at 3.30am tomorrow! My flight is at 6.40 and I get in to London on Friday morning. It will be nice to be home again but I have had a fab time here too. I will miss this country. I am looking forward to seeing friends and family and also eating certain foolds (like pasta!) that I have not had for 10 weeks!
ADIOS!! Hasta pronto!
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Saturday, 14 August 2010
Second week of volunteering!
HOLA!
So last week was pretty similar to the first week we were here. On the Tuesday Lizzy wasn´t feeling great so I went and taught at the school on my own. It actually went OK considering how little spanish I know! The kids were not too badly behaved and I managed to teach them some english. On Wednesday we started painting the school playground. This was good fun although the kids did come out and get all of the paintbrushes mixed up in different paints and try to ´help´. We have so far only painted a hopscotch and the blue of the river that we are going to write the months in a stepping stones. We did manage to get acryllic paint all over our hands as well, and it is VERY difficult to get off. I was wearing my PJs to paint in because I do not really want to get paint on my other clothes. I only got a small amount of paint actually on my clothes so far altough there were times when the kids were around that I thought I could have easily been covered in paint all over! We have also been continuing to make a bird list of all of the birds in the reserve and look through a booklet to go in the guets´rooms about the lodge. It has been really interesting and fun to spend more time getting to know the kids and the people at the lodge.
Last weekend we went to Otavalo. It was great fun. On Saturday morning we got up early to go and see the animal market. There were pigs screaming constantly! There were also cows, sheep, cats, chickens, guinea pigs and ducks. They were often just shoved in to bags or in cages. The chickens were held upsaide down by their legs, often tied to other chickens by thier legs as well. It was certainly an experience! After that we went and looked round the other markets. There were stalls absolutely everywhere! There was fruit stacked really high and then just rows and rows of stall selling clothing and jewelry. It was very impressive and very hard not to buy everything! I think that I managed to be quite restrained and not buy tooo much stuff!
On Saturday afternoon we went up to somewhere where birds of prey are kept. Some of the were massive! We saw the andean condor, the biggest flying bird! It was about 1m tall and their wing span can get up to 3m. It was very impressive but they are in danger of extinction. We also went to some magic tree. It said about it in the guide book. It was slightly random, it was just a tree in separate from any others but we did get lovely views from there. We then walked the 4.5km back in to Otavalo and again had some really fab views. In the evening we went out for a lovely chinese meal!
On Sunday we had a fairly relaxing morning. We walked around Otavalo a bit more and looked in another church. It is a very pretty little town. There are lots of people there in the local clothes. We got back here to the lodge on Sunday evening and this morning spent 1.5 hours washing our clothes!
We are hoping to be off to Mindo next weekend but this week should be similar to the others.
Adios!
xxxxxxxxxxx
So last week was pretty similar to the first week we were here. On the Tuesday Lizzy wasn´t feeling great so I went and taught at the school on my own. It actually went OK considering how little spanish I know! The kids were not too badly behaved and I managed to teach them some english. On Wednesday we started painting the school playground. This was good fun although the kids did come out and get all of the paintbrushes mixed up in different paints and try to ´help´. We have so far only painted a hopscotch and the blue of the river that we are going to write the months in a stepping stones. We did manage to get acryllic paint all over our hands as well, and it is VERY difficult to get off. I was wearing my PJs to paint in because I do not really want to get paint on my other clothes. I only got a small amount of paint actually on my clothes so far altough there were times when the kids were around that I thought I could have easily been covered in paint all over! We have also been continuing to make a bird list of all of the birds in the reserve and look through a booklet to go in the guets´rooms about the lodge. It has been really interesting and fun to spend more time getting to know the kids and the people at the lodge.
Last weekend we went to Otavalo. It was great fun. On Saturday morning we got up early to go and see the animal market. There were pigs screaming constantly! There were also cows, sheep, cats, chickens, guinea pigs and ducks. They were often just shoved in to bags or in cages. The chickens were held upsaide down by their legs, often tied to other chickens by thier legs as well. It was certainly an experience! After that we went and looked round the other markets. There were stalls absolutely everywhere! There was fruit stacked really high and then just rows and rows of stall selling clothing and jewelry. It was very impressive and very hard not to buy everything! I think that I managed to be quite restrained and not buy tooo much stuff!
On Saturday afternoon we went up to somewhere where birds of prey are kept. Some of the were massive! We saw the andean condor, the biggest flying bird! It was about 1m tall and their wing span can get up to 3m. It was very impressive but they are in danger of extinction. We also went to some magic tree. It said about it in the guide book. It was slightly random, it was just a tree in separate from any others but we did get lovely views from there. We then walked the 4.5km back in to Otavalo and again had some really fab views. In the evening we went out for a lovely chinese meal!
On Sunday we had a fairly relaxing morning. We walked around Otavalo a bit more and looked in another church. It is a very pretty little town. There are lots of people there in the local clothes. We got back here to the lodge on Sunday evening and this morning spent 1.5 hours washing our clothes!
We are hoping to be off to Mindo next weekend but this week should be similar to the others.
Adios!
xxxxxxxxxxx
Friday, 6 August 2010
Maquipicuana
HOLA!
So we were picked up on Monday morning and taken by taxi, bus, bus and then a random truck to where we are now volunteering. The truck that gave us a lift from where the bus stops actually went to a completely different place because they did not know where to go but we got here fine in the end! We are staying in a house a bit away from where the guests of the lodge stay. Lizzy and I are sharing a room and there are tiolets and showers nearby. We also have a shared balcony. We were the only two voluunteers to begin with but then another person came back and is living in the same area as us. He is Dutch and is doing a project here for university.
We are teaching english at the primary school on Tuesdays and Thursdays but on Wednesdays we are painting the school playground. I am really looking forward to painting the playgorund, so far we have just done the designs, such as the days of the week in a flower and numbers in a snake etc. We have to walk to and from the school, it takes a good hour! We are there until about 12ish and then come back here for lunch. The kids are really cute and it is fun to play with them as well as teach them. We are teaching 3 different classes. The youngest ones are 5-8 and basically don´t know any yet. The class in the middle know he very basics and the eldedst class (up to 12) know a fair bit. The youngest ones are hard to teach because they do not tend to focus on one thing for very long but they are sooo cute! At break they also like to play games with us and generally run around!
On Mondays and Fridays we are staying here at the lodge and teaching the staff english or helping to maintain the trails around here. We are also doing a few other projects such as making a bird list for the reserve and creating a document about the lodge to go in the rooms for the guests. This is also fun although the staff are hard to teach because they already know a lot of english. I would not really be able to do this wothout Lizzy because even though they said spanish was not essential, it certainly helps!
This weekend we have been doing some walks around the reserve. It is really beautiful. There are lots of insects to see and birds. Lizzy did just fall 4m from an observation place but seems to be OK (phew!).
I am glad that here at the lodge people seem to be used to blondes so that I do not get as many strange looks or anyone trying to take pictures of me, which is very awkward!
Adios! xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
So we were picked up on Monday morning and taken by taxi, bus, bus and then a random truck to where we are now volunteering. The truck that gave us a lift from where the bus stops actually went to a completely different place because they did not know where to go but we got here fine in the end! We are staying in a house a bit away from where the guests of the lodge stay. Lizzy and I are sharing a room and there are tiolets and showers nearby. We also have a shared balcony. We were the only two voluunteers to begin with but then another person came back and is living in the same area as us. He is Dutch and is doing a project here for university.
We are teaching english at the primary school on Tuesdays and Thursdays but on Wednesdays we are painting the school playground. I am really looking forward to painting the playgorund, so far we have just done the designs, such as the days of the week in a flower and numbers in a snake etc. We have to walk to and from the school, it takes a good hour! We are there until about 12ish and then come back here for lunch. The kids are really cute and it is fun to play with them as well as teach them. We are teaching 3 different classes. The youngest ones are 5-8 and basically don´t know any yet. The class in the middle know he very basics and the eldedst class (up to 12) know a fair bit. The youngest ones are hard to teach because they do not tend to focus on one thing for very long but they are sooo cute! At break they also like to play games with us and generally run around!
On Mondays and Fridays we are staying here at the lodge and teaching the staff english or helping to maintain the trails around here. We are also doing a few other projects such as making a bird list for the reserve and creating a document about the lodge to go in the rooms for the guests. This is also fun although the staff are hard to teach because they already know a lot of english. I would not really be able to do this wothout Lizzy because even though they said spanish was not essential, it certainly helps!
This weekend we have been doing some walks around the reserve. It is really beautiful. There are lots of insects to see and birds. Lizzy did just fall 4m from an observation place but seems to be OK (phew!).
I am glad that here at the lodge people seem to be used to blondes so that I do not get as many strange looks or anyone trying to take pictures of me, which is very awkward!
Adios! xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sunday, 1 August 2010
travelling around ecuador
HOLA!
Oh, I have just skimmed my last blog and realised how many mistakes there were in it, my excuse is that I was tired although I am now too. Hopefully I will do better this time!
So we had a lovely time in Cuenca. It was small enough to walk everywhere so that was nice. Even though we were tired we made sure that we went around Cuenca because we knew that we only had a day there. The buildings there were very pretty but by the time it got to about 3pm we were really tired so ended up going back to the hostel and relaxing.
The next day we got up fairly early to get a bus to Guayaquil. This took about 4.5h but was not too bad. At least we got to Guayaquil at a reasonable time of day. We again managed to find a hostel to stay in that night and could leave our bags there straight away. We decided to find somwhere to get our laundry done. This was more difficult than we had expected and ended up getting a taxi to somewhere that really wasn´t very close to the hostel. We spent the afternoon walking around Guayaquil. We walked along the promenade by the river. This was really pretty, with a good view of the city! We then also went to see the main squares and churches in Guayaquil.
The next day we had to go back to pick up our washing before getting the bus tio Puerto Lopez. We had got a bus ticket for 9.45 but ended up missing this bus because the taxi driver could not find the lanudry place and then it ended up being the wrong one etc etc... Anyway we managed to get to the bus station at 9.50 with our lovely clean washing. We got the next bus to Puerto Lopez (11.15) so spent some time in the bus station but we were very careful with our bags! It took quite a while to get to Puerto Lopez so we got there at about 3pm. We quickly found a nice hostel and then had a little wander around. It is a very small town so it didn´t take us long to look round. We then got a couple of drinks at one of the bars on the beach. The next day we went whale watching. This was brilliant! We saw about 6 whales all in one group. We then went on to a small island and walked round a trail (similar to the Galapagos but with less wildlife). We were able to have a quick snorkel before heading back to the mainland on the boat. On the way back we saw more whales! This time they were breaching and slapping thir fins on the water :) It was really close as well. On the beach on the mainland in the morning we saw some of the fish that the fisherman had caught. It was really sad, there were dead Manta rays and sharks :(
The next day we had the joys of a very long bus journey. We went all the way back to Quito. The guide book recommended a certain compnay so we took their bus. It was supposed to only take 10h but took 13h. We realised we hasn´t booked anywhere to stay in Qutio so tried ringing somewhere. Lizzy tried to ring someone but couldn´t really hear what they were saying. I then tried a different place. I asked if they spoke Enlish but their response was ´no´(helpful!) so we struggled on in spanish, I could understnad most of what they said but trying to tell them things was interesting. Eventually we came to some conclusion. When we eventually got to Quito we went to the hostel I had rung up and they had room so we stayed there. The next day we spent walking around Quito. We mostly walked around the old town, looking at churches and other buildings and parks. I was shwoing Lizzy the places that Amanda and her family had shown me before.
Yesterday we went to Cotopaxi. It was BRILLIANT! We were driven up to 4500m and then walked another 5oom up to the glacier. The views were absouletly stunning. It was hard work walking uphill at that altitidue but it was definately wotrth the effoert! We had lunch up at the refuge at 4800m and then we got to cycle some of the way down. I cycled 11km down to the bottom (from a lake). It decied to start hailing on us which wae really painful but ti was also great fun. We got covered in mud and there were times when I really didn´t feel in control of the bike! We then went out in the evening with Andrew and Adri (They have kindly let us stay there again for a couple of nights). It was rellay good fun. We met up wit some of Andrews friends and went to a club.
Today we have been to the Ecuadtor (because Lizzy hasn´t been) We saw the monument again and there was some livve music which we listed to for a bit and we looked round the stalls. We managed to work out how to use the metro bus in Quito to get us most of the way back too!
This week has been so much fun. We have spent a fair amount of time on buses but seen so many interesting things too. The highlight for me was getting to the glacier on Cotopaxi but whale watching is a very close second! We have managed to stay safe and so far have not had any major problems!
Tomorrow we are off volunteering in the cloud forest!
Adios! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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