The Galápagos Islands

The Galapagos was an amazing week. I'm so glad I got to experience it with my friend Rachael. We were able to visit and stay on 3 islands: Santa Cruz, Isabela, and San Cristobal. My favorite was isabela, because we got to see and swim with Penguins!! I also loved the turtle ranch in Santa Cruz, and the sea lions in San Cristobal! They were all amazing and I'm so happy I was able to see all of the animals and beaches that I did!

One of my fave photos - sharing a moment with a sea lion

Tuesday:

Travel day to Quito! In the morning I went to Marlena's high school graduation which was really cool! It was neat to see a different type of graduation ceremony. Instead of all wearing their caps and gowns, when they got called up to the front, professors would put their caps and gowns on for them and then give them their diploma. At the end of the ceremony, Charlie, Marlena's son played a song on the guitar and sang a song to honor his mom, it was so sweet! 

After the ceremony we went back for lunch, I finished packing and had to say my good byes. Byron, Marlena, and Camila dropped me off at the bus station in otavalo but we first stopped for ice cream in cotacachi because I told Marlena I'd buy her some to celebrate her graduation! 

Travels to Quito went smoothly, I got to the bus station and took a taxi to Mildred's home, where I'd be staying for the night before heading to the galapagos! My friend Rachael would be traveling with me, and she arrived to Mildred's about an hour after me, it was so good to see her!

We caught up, Mildred made us dinner and then got a good night of sleep because we had an early flight in the am!

Graduation!

Wednesday:

Travels to galapagos went smoothly! We flew in to Baltra island and then took a bus to the ferry and a ferry to Santa Cruz. We took a taxi to our airbnb we'd be staying at, but the problem with island life, or at least on this island, is that there are no street signs and the taxi drivers don't know the names of the streets.

So we called our airbnb people and they had to give directions to where we were staying. The directions were like "I'm by the lily colored house" and that's how we found our place!

After getting settled and talking to our air bnb host about what to do on the island, we got to the sight seeing! First, we ate at some food kiosks and then made our way to the Darwin conservatory center where Darwin studied evolution and made most of his theories from. We say the center where they house turtles until they are old enough to go out into the wild and we also saw where he studied iguanas. We then went to our next site called las grietas. This was two giant walls of lava rocks with crystal clear water between them. We rented snorkels and went swimming with the fishes! There were a few big fish but nothing too terrifying. It was so beautiful though, we both loved it! 

We then went to a near by beach for some swimming and snorkeling in the ocean, we saw a little sting ray! Rach saw it while she was swimming and I saw it once we were on the shore.

We went back and then showered and went back to the town for dinner at "pizza.eat" and then got some ice cream,  and then had a drink at a bar where there was supposed to be salsa lessons but we didn't see any happening and were too awkward to ask!

Darwin center- turtles!

Las grietas

Thursday:

In the morning wanted to see a few sites that were on the other side of the island so we were told to pick up a taxi and ask if they could take us there and back. We went to the main strip of town to ask for a taxi and the guy took us and was like an actual tour guide! He went on the hike with us to see great views of the islands and informed us about a lot of the nature on the island! After that we went to see Los Gemelos, which are two twin craters filled with plants and nature. They were really cool! After, we went to el chato, which is a turtle ranch, where we got to see turtles in their natural habitat. It was super neat! The turtles were huge and some moved Quicker than I imagined! Also at the ranch we got To walk through some lava tunels underground which were very cool.

After exploring the ranch they gave us unlimited organic galapagos coffee which was probably the best coffee I've ever had and we each got an empanada Which was equally as Amazing.

We headed back to town for another snack and then ventured off to tortuga bay. You would think this beach would have turtles but it was just a beautiful beach to swim in. I really loved this beach because the water was so calm and there weren't many people swimming there. Afterwards on our walk back we got to see some marine iguanas and then we washed up and went back to town for dinner. We went to a bar after dinner and met a group of students from the univerisity of Minnesota that were studying in the islands for 2 weeks, I even had a mutual friend with one of them-such a small world!

Los Gemelos- crater

El chato- turtle ranch

Tortuga bay- no turtles, but lots of marine iguanas

Friday:

We got up early because today we traveled to our next island, Isabela. It was a 2 hour boat ride and although I was fine and able to sleep through most of it, many people got sea sick. We arrived and when we got off the boat we were greeted by some PENGUINS, needless to say I was already in love with this place. We got our bags and took a taxi to our home. There were some street signs on this island so we were excited to be able to easily navigate the town. Our airbnb host greeted us and was not as helpful as our first host, she actually sounded like she just moved here because she had no idea where anything was and even led us in the wrong direction. Also the map she gave us didn't have street signs on it so the street signs on the street wouldn't be that helpful. Thankfully, we found our way into town an were able to book some tours for snorkeling the next 2 days. This is the island with the most nature and wildlife so I was very excited!!

We then went to a snorkeling spot called Concha de Perla. We snorkeled around and saw fish, sea lions, blue footed boobies and PENGUINS. I was swiming right next to Penguins and sitting on rocks next to penguins and they didn't even flinch. They came right up to me and we shared moments!!! It was the best thing ever. We swam and admired the Penguins and other wildlife and then swam back to shore. We got back to town and had dinner on the "main strip" and then took a walk on the beach and found some lawn chairs on what was possibly private property but no one bothered us. We layed and listened to the waves crash ashore before going back to our air bnb.

When we got back to our airbnb we went to unlock our door but found that it was already open. We walked in an all of our stuff was still there and we tried locking the door but it would not lock. We tried calling our host but the phone went straight to voicemail, so we would be sleeping in an unlocked room. To combat this, we piled up our bags in front of the door and hung shoes to block the door and I slept with bug spray next me in case anyone decided to enter.

PENGUINS

We stumbled across a sea lion

Saturday 

We woke up safe and found out host in the morning and asked her to switch rooms, which we were able to do.. And our new room locked. We got some bread for breakfast and then rented bikes to do a self guided tour. It was a rough road... Aka we were biking on sand which is impossible, so we walked out bikes until we hit what was more of a path. We biked for 10 minutes and got to a turtle center where we admired more tortoises and got to see some turtles mating! We learned that the female turtle often tries to escape but once the big guy is on top it's difficult for the female to get away. The male tortoises also like to make loud noises. Then we bikes to a pond and saw some flamingos!

Then we took another road (aka dirt path) for about 30 minutes before making it to the wall of tears. This monument was from a prisoner camp in the galapagos. It was basically a wall built pretty high up of lava rocks. We took a set of stairs and climbed up high to admire the wall from above. Then we climbed even higher and had a great view of the island- we were completely out of breath when we reached the top. On our bike ride back we stopped at some other site, like a tunnel, some ponds, and a few beautiful beaches! We saw turtles and iguanas on the road when biking- they even had signs that said "iguana crossing" to make sure walkers and bikers proceeded with caution!

After 3.5 hours of biking we returned the bikes and got some lunch before going on our afternoon snorkeling tour. We went to a nearby island called Tintoreras and went on a little nature walk over all of the lava rocks. Lava is what all of the Galápagos Islands are made of. We saw a million marine iguanas which are black so they blend in with the rocks, but during their mating season they turn beautiful colors to attract their mates. We also saw some penguins (!!!!!) and I told our guide that I loved penguins because they mate for life are loyal animals and then he crushed my dreams and told me that monogamy was unrealistic for penguins and he basically hated love because he said having one mate for any creature is unrealistic and stupid. I think he had intamacy issues.

I at this point was upset with my guide but I still enjoyed learning about the animals. We also got to see a bunch of blue footed boobies which are birds with blue feet! Then we got to go snorkeling and on our snorkle we got to see a lot of different species of fish and around 6 huge sea turtles! It was awesome. My favorite fish I saw was the rainbow fish because it reminded me of that children's book! We also saw blue starfish which were really neat! 

We got back and showered and then walked on the beach with 2 girls from Georgia who we met on our tour and then bought a coconut to drink on the beach, which tasted terrible. Then we had some amazing Schwarma for dinner and then hit the hay.

Biking!

Turtles mating

Wall of tears

Blue footed boobies

Sunday:

Today we had another snorkle tour, but this one was a little farther away to the lava tunels. This was really cool because there were lava tunnels under water! We got to walk on some of the lava tunels that were above water and then snorkle/ swim underwater to see the lava tunnels. On our snorkle expedition we saw penguins (!!!), spotted eagle sting Rays, golden sting rays, manta rays,white tipped Sharks, chocolate chip start fish, sea turtles, eels, sea horses, and a million different fishes! So beautiful! Also, I loved our tour guide because he confirmed that penguins DO mate for life and that my other tour guide was wrong. So I have faith in love again. 

Then we had lunch on our boat and headed back to th dock.

We showered and packed up our things because we were headed to our third and final island, San Cristobal. We took a little tiny airplane to get there, there were only 7 people on our flight, which lasted about 40 minutes. We got to the airport and went straight to our air bnb which was the nicest of the three, and had the best location as it was a 2 minute walk to the boardwalk and main strip. Our host was very welcoming and she haves us a map and some good advice! We were hungry for dinner so we went to town and had some yummy pizza and ice cream. San Cristobol is known for their sea lions which is very true because they were everywhere!! We walked along the boardwalk and saw a ton and heard their loud noises which sound like goat/ like they are coughing or puking, it's not a very pretty noise but the sea lions are beautiful!

Lava tunnels

Monday:

We took a taxi to see a few different spots in the highlands of San Cristobal. first, we took a hike around el junco, which is a lake inside of a crater. It was so beautiful and we were walking through the clouds! Then we went to a tortoise breeding center and got to see some baby turtles which were so little bad cute and there were also medium and large size turtles. Our next stop was puerto chino, which was a beautiful beach that we admired and hiked around for a little. We saw a few sea lions and blue footed boobies as well. Lastly, we stopped at a tree house which was super cool. They actually rent out the house to people, but we just visited and climbed up, and also climbed down to the basement underground. It was neat!

We got back and had some empanadas and batidos for lunch and then rented some snorkle masks and explored 3 different spots. First, tijeretas, which was a clear water spot by a bunch of rocks where we got to see turtles, sea lions, rainbow fish, and more fish! Then we went to punts carola, which was a beach with a ton of sea lions!! One of them started chasing me as I tried taking a picture with it! Lastly, went to playa mann to watch the sun set and see more sea lions! 

After showering (IN A HOT SHOWER FOR THE FIRST TIME IN SO LONG) we got dinner at an authentic Ecuadorian restaurant and then had ice cream and admired the sea lions for our last night on the islands. 

El Junco- crater lake

Tree house 

Tuesday:

We woke up early for our last day on the islands and went to la Loberia, which is another beach with a lot of sea lions. Sea lion in Spanish is lobo del mar, which literally translates to wolf of the sea, so we don't quite understand that. I did some snorkeling and saw a lot of fish and some tea turtles while Rachael soaked up the sun.

We headed back to shower up and pack, then grab some lunch, say bye to our sea lion friends and head to the airport. 

Hanging out with our sea lion friends

The Galapagos was truly amazing! I loved being able to be so close to all the animals, the scenery was beautiful, and PENGUINS. 

I have now gotten to experience many different parts of ecuador: the pacific coast, Quito, the Andes, and the Galapagos. Ecuador's slogan is "all you need is ecuador" which is true, because it has so many varied regions you can get a taste of it all in just one country!

Thanks for an amazing journey, ecuador! Now, off for a week in Peru!

Sending smiles from the Galapagos,

Rebecca 

My last week in La Calera

This was my final week in La Calera, I could get all sappy here but I'll make another blog post dedicated to my reflections and nostalgia. Here's what happened in my last week in the andes and here is a picture of my amazing family that I will miss most about my time here:

Monday:

We worked most of the day and did a color workshop with the women! One of the problems we face with WWBM is that when we place an order sometimes we get different colors than what we asked for, usually because their supplier didn't have that color in stock.

So we created a color wheel with each color bead that they had and gave names to all the colors and updated the order form with the new color names.

In the afternoon I had a puppy play date. It was wonderful. The puppies liked my toes.

In the evening Flora had a meeting with other women in the community about a project making Rosaries. I tagged along. Apparently, a women from the states is coming to la calera later this week to teach a group of 15 women how to make rosaries and she is paying them by the hour to do so for 10 days. It sounds interesting and we were even able to skype with her at the meeting. I'm interested to see what happens!

Tuesday:

We went to cotacachi this morning to look for leather strips that we could use for some of the necklaces, we placed an order at a store and are going to pick them up tomorrow. We also bought some trays that the women will use to work on so they can easily transport their work to different tables and put it away so they can use the table to eat dinner.

We also spent a good amount of time running errands with Flora. But at the end I of course had to visit my ice cream vendor. 

We got back and had lunch and then got to work on the jewelry. Flora made us some colada naranjia and popcorn for a snack which I of course loved! I sent them our new order for WWB that I made and Monica was able to use the formula sheets I made last week to calculate the costs and amounts of seeds they will need to buy for the new order. We took inventory of all the seeds they have so they now know by weight how much they have and if they will need to buy more when an order comes in!

Feeling good about the progress we are making. 

Wednesday:

In the morning we went to Otavalo to buy more beads and supplies for the new order, and Alia, Monica's daughter tagged along. It was fun to have her there, she is such a sweetheart! 

After otavalo we went back to cotacachi to pick up the leather, but the owner wasn't there so we'll have to go back tomorrow. However, the trip to cotacachi was not wasted, because we were able to get ice cream.

In the afternoon I took my first "time off" from work. Marisol's family wanted to teach me how to make Quimbolitos, one of my favorite Ecuadorian treats and this was the only day/time that worked for them.

Marisol's husband's sister, Gladis, knows how to make them so we went over there and I got to know his side of the family, since before I had only known marisols brothers and sisters. We all went over to the other side of la calera, Camila, Lili, and Suri came too! 

Quimbolitos are little cakes that are made inside of leaves. It was so fun making them and chatting with everyone! I thought we were going to make like 20-30 of them but we actually made around 70! 

We had to go to the "backyard" and pick leaves off this plant to use for the cakes. We wiped down the leaves with a wet wash cloth. To make them the ingredientes we used were: a lot of flour, eggs, sugar, butter, milk, and some boiling water mixed with "anis de pan." After hand mixing (and when I say hand mixing I mean we used our hands to mix) this huge bowl of batter, it was time to put it in the leaves.

We scooped a pile onto the back of the big leaf and then folded it up like a little package. Once we finished, in order to cook them we put them in a pot with boiling water, but not touching the water, they were sitting on a metal plate with holes in it to let the water through.

They turned out quite delicious, although someone said something went wrong because they didn't rise like they are supposed to, I thought they were great and ate 3.

I also spent some time talking to byrons niece, Vero, who is also studying business in college and graduating next week! She really wants to learn English and come to the states and i told her she should come and stay with me! She was so nice and funny and I think may be one of the first girls I've met that is around my age, studying in college, and doesn't have a boyfriend or kids, so it was nice to be able to really relate to someone!

After baking and sitting around the table chatting for a few hours it was time to head back home. We took a bunch of Quimbolitos back with us and I grabbed a few and went over to share them at floras home. I ended up staying there for a few hours, I played some go fish! With Alia but spent the majority of the time drinking tea and having bread and chatting with Flora, Monica and Marisol. It was so fun to just sit around the table and talk about all that has happened in the past month and joke about ridiculous things. I really feel like my Spanish has improved a lot because one of the things I always felt like I struggled with was expressing my personality and being sarcastic or joking around in Spanish, but I am getting better and better at that!

After a while we went back home for some shut eye.

Thursday:

In the morning Keenan and I went to cotacachi to pick up the leather for the necklaces. Unfortunately, she still wasn't there, so we went next door and asked if they could call her to see when she was coming. They were able to get a call of her and she said she couldn't find the leather color we wanted so she would give us the money when she got to the store in the afternoon. So we would have to go back again tomorrow. 

We walked back to la calera for lunch and then did work in the afternoon. We had a fun time listening to music and working, and we made some new designs as well.

After dinner I went back to floras home with Lili and we played go fish we Alia.

Friday:

Today was the official last day of my internship and the first day the woman worked on the rosaries. A woman and her son came from Florida to la Calera to teach a group of 15 women how to make rosaries and they are paying them by the hour. I chatted with the Woman about her project and learned a little bit about how they are made as well.

After lunch at floras, Keen and I went to Cotacachi to pick up the leather, but the woman said she couldn't find the color we wanted, so she gave us out money back. I asked her to bring the other colors she had so we will see if those new colors will work when she brings them on monday!

Then went to my fave ice cream shop but decided to switch it up and get a milk shake-mint choco chip, it was delicious. At the shop the owner, and I can call her my friend now because of how often I go there, commented that she liked my necklace, which was one that sumak muyo made. I immediate thought and asked her, would you like to sell this jewelry at your shop? After showing her some more picture of the jewelry that I had on my phone, she was very interested! I told her I would send her an order form and more info tonight.

When I got back to Flora's I got to work on putting together a catalog of all their products with pictures along with an order form in excel. I was able to finish it all and send it off today!

Since it was our official final day of work, the women wanted to throw us a celebration dinner. My family, keenan's family and flora's family all ate at flora's house. The meal was great, and huge! Chicken potatoes, veggies, and rice. Yum! I gave a little toast ad got pretty nostalgic about my time in la calera, and then Ines and Flora also said some kind words!

After we ate, the little girls had put together a dance for us! It was adorable. They got all dressed up in their traditional indigenous dress and did a few different dances to some of the traditional music. They even dragged me and keenan out of our seats at the end to dance with them. 

After the dances, they taught us how to play one of their favorite games: blind tag. And yes, I was up first. So basically they blind folded me and I had to tag someone to switch turns. I decided I would be safest on the ground, so I crawled around until one of the kids fell on top of me at which point I decided I should probably take off the blind fold. Everyone else took their turn and we had a fun time running around, playing, and laughing. Even flora went blind folded! 

After running around the house, we had some tea and bread before heading back home to sleep. 

Saturday:

Last weekend at the soccer parade I saw a gringo, first non-ecuadorian person I've seen in La Calera, so I decided to see what this guy was doing here, plus I love making friends. His name is Jacob and he is from Norway volunteering here for a month. Anyways, I went to Intag with him today because Keenan was heading to Quito and I really wanted to see a new place! 

We left really early and got there and took a 2 hour beautiful hike to see a waterfall, which was lovey! Then we saw a big face on the side of a mountain, kind of like mt. Rushmore, but completely natural. After that, we went to try and find the coffee co-op because Intag is known for its coffee, a big reason I wanted to go, but it wasn't open! We then went to the thermal baths, which were similar to Chachimbiro, but not as many pools, and I liked the Intag scenery better. So beautiful and relaxing to be hanging out in a valley between mountains in a hot tub. I really wanted to find a coffee co-op and we ended up getting to see a coffee farm where the seeds are taken off the plants, de-shelled, and dried. I absolutely loved learning about the coffee making process and seeing the plants! The plants smelled soooo good, but not the smell of coffee, they smelled like flowers, and that is because little white flowers grow on coffee plants! I even ate one of the seeds off the plant, which actually tasted nothing like coffee. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a cup of intag coffee in intag, but I loved seeing the farm and learning about the process!

We then had lunch and took a drive through the cloud forrest before heading back. I really really really enjoyed driving through the cloud forrest, so much that I made our driver stop so I could stand outside in the clouds. This sounds so silly, but I have always been fascinated by clouds. When flying in air planes when I was younger, and still to this day, I would always want to touch the clouds. So I was basically living out a dream by standing in a cloud. It was great.

We got back to cotacachi and decided, since we were not able to get coffee in Intag, there was an Intag cafe in cotacachi that we decided to visit for a cup of jo. So I got to have my Intag coffee today... it just wasn't in Intag. We chatted for a while and I got to learn a lot about Norway which was fun! I then obviously had to show him where the best ice cream in town is, before we headed back to la calera. 

I got back and went to Marisol's sister, Marlena's house down the road. She was working on a DIY project and I was instantly intrigued. She was making a bowl out of recycled newspapers and spray painting it. She said she saw something on TV and wanted to try to make things to sell at the market. Being the pinterest fanatic that I am, I of course had to show her the site and told her to come over after dinner and we could look up craft projects.

I had dinner at home and then went to Flora's with Marisol and Keenan to have some tea because it was Keenan's last night in la calera. We chatted for a bit and laughed about all that happened over the month. 

I also promised Marisol that I would give her lessons on how to use Facebook/ the internet and also Marlena was coming over so she joined the lesson. I helped sign Marisol and Marlena up for Facebook, helped Marlena get a new e-mail account because her other one didn't exist, and also signed Marlena up for Pinterest. She was amazed at all of the different things your could make using magazines, newspapers and other recycled products. She wants to try making things to sell in the markets and I think this stuff would sell well because it is differnt from what everyone else is selling! Marisol was having a blast finding friends and looking at photos on Facebook. I'm excited that they are both on Facebook now so that I can keep in contact with them easily when I'm back in the states!

 COFFEEEEE

 Norwegian friend!

 I'M IN A CLOUD!

 Cloud forest!

Sunday:

Today was family fun day! I had been wanting to go to Peguche, a near by town, to see a waterfall that everyone told me I should go to. I asked all of my family members if anyone wanted to go and Marlena and Carmen said they would want to go! Lili and Carmen's two kids, Yani and Ibrahim came too. Unfortunately, Marisol and the others had to work. 

We left in the AM and took a bus to Peguche and took a long walk from there. The waterfall was better than I expected! There was a lot to do in the park: many look out points to climb up, a cave, a mini waterfall you could climb through the water to get to, medicinal baths, parks with beautiful trees, lovely hikes, fun bridges and more! It was such a blast. Marlena and Carmen are hilarious and the kids are so adorable and well behaved that we all had such a good time together. We took so so many photos and roamed around just seeing what there was to see! We roamed for about 3 hours until we randomly hiked up a hill that led us to the outside of the park. We were all pretty hungry so we got some empanadas and colada morada to hold us over until we got back. 

We walked out of peguche and waited on the side of a high way for a bus to drive by and then hopped in to go to cotacahi. We had planned to make some ice creams and a carrot cake in the afternoon so we went to the supermarket to get the ingredients. We went back to Marlena's home and had some more food before heading to Carmen's home to get baking! I had a blast baking and dancing and singing with everyone in the kitchen as we put together some ice creams and carrot cake! The carrot cake was quite delicious and I have to wait until tomorrow to try the ice cream! 

After baking, we decided to try to choreograph a little dance that we would perform tomorrow for my last night. Everyone is coming over to Marisol's home to make a dinner for my last night in La Calera. Sad to leave, but happy to have met this amazing group of people.

Taxo fruit!

 Making ice cream!

 Carrot cake!

Monday: 

This morning I went back to Cuicocha lake, which is the lake I went to last weekend to watch the swim competition. I wanted to go back to do the hike around the lake. I went with Yani, (10) Carmen's daughter, and we took the hike around the lake! It was beautiful! and actually a very strenuous hike... we climbed a mountain. It took us 3 and a half ours to make it around the lake. I thought we got lost because at one point we ended up on a main road with cars… the whole hike was a trail and somehow we ended up on a highway. We walked down the road for about 30 minutes and I thought we were lost so we waved down a taxi and went back to la calera. Apparently, we were not lost, and the highway walk was a part of the hike.

We had lunch and then I did some laundry and while letting my clothes dry I decided to get to work on my final project of my time here- making cookies. I got all the ingredients and made some yummy chocolate chip cookies for dessert tonight. I started packing all of my things to prepare for my departure tomorrow.

In the evening after dinner, we had a going away fiesta with the family. Carmen and Marlena and I made guacamole, the brought the ice creams that we made yesterday (which were great!!) and we had the cookies I made. The kids and I preformed our choreographed dance, which was pretty hilarious and then we sat around and chatted and laughed and did "aerobics" exercises/ hilarious dance moves to attempt to burn off all of the calories we just consumed. After making sure we had each others contact information right, we had to say haste luego. The kids made me the cutest cards and gave me such good hugs I didn't want to let go!

It has been an amazing time here in La Calera. I am so grateful to have met these people and lucky to be part of such a giving community. Until next time, ciao!

Mari with the cookies, guac, and ice cream

 Love these crazy kids

Love these wonderful women.

Sending smiles from La Calera,

Rebecca

The Microenterprise Life

My 7th week is in the books. We've made progress with the micro enterprise and have had fun along the way. I really enjoy just sitting around the table and laughing with the women as we work, it's so enjoyable. I was able to visit the town of Zuleta and also Cuicocha this week. The inaugural football tournament started (which is a really big deal here!!) and I made emapanadas with the fam. Solid week.

Here's the view on our ride to Zuleta (taken while sitting in the back bed of a truck)

Monday:

3 of the professors from UW that are working on the Wisconsin without borders project that set up our internship have come to ecuador to visit the site. 

Today was also Independence Day for the city of Cotacachi! They celebrate similarly to how we do in the states, with a large parade! The people in the parad e are mostly schools from all of the surrounding towns. They play their instruments and dance through the streets! Even the fire department comes out!

After observing the parade we got to work and started discussing the order of jewelry that the women are going to put together for the professors to bring back to the Wisconsin.

We worked for quite a while and then I went into town with 2 of the professors for a snack break (ice cream) and to grab groceries for dinner. One of the professors made chicken with wine sauce for dinner which was delicious and so flavorful! 

When we got back we did a little more work and then hit the hay after a long day!

Also, 2 of the professors don't speak Spanish so I have gotten to do a lot of translating, which has been helping me improve my Spanish!

Part of the Independence Day parade! Lots of different groups and schools participated in the parade- dancing, twirling sticks and playing instruments!

Tuesday:

The professors wanted to see where the women buy their beads, so we took a trip in the morning to Otavalo. We spent quite a bit of time in the bead shop and also searching for other supplies we needed in Otavalo. It was my third visit to the bead shop that week so I've become best friends with the guy who runs the shop! 

We ate lunch at a pizza place that was actually pretty tasty! We went to the plaza to do a little shopping and then back to Otavalo! Back at floras home the women were working and then able to make some more necklaces with the beads we bought in Otavalo!

We had dinner at floras and then played some card games with Alia before heading to sleep!

A new view found in Otavalo.

We also had a little meeting in this cute coffee shop, where I had a delicious latte (first in 6 weeks)!

Wednesday:

One of the professors had read that in a near by town there were a lot of specialty shops and workshops of women who do embroidery. The town was called Zuleta and it was beautiful! Very tucked away in the mountains, but such a gorgeous drive up there. It took us about two hours to get up there and unfortunately the place we had in mind that we were going to visit was private property (a super fancy "hacienda" hostel type place). The man working was nice enough to open up the embroidery shop for us to look around. Flora and Marisol came with us and we're interested to see this type of work. Unfortunately, there weren't many other places to check out in Zuleta, so we headed back down the mountains to la Calera (with a stop in Ibarra for lunch!) I got to ride in the back of the truck on the way back which made for some beautiful pictures!

Back in la Calera we worked on some orders, played Go Fish with Alia and then the professors said their good byes and headed back to the states!

That evening I spent some time with Camila. She had wanted to paint my nails a few days ago and I told her she could.. Until she told me she would with her marker. I said no no no. I bought some nail polish when I went to Otavalo and surprised her with it and she was so excited. I let her paint my toe nails, and she also managed to paint my toes too. She's not one to stay inside the lines. It was also red Polish so it currently looks like my toes are bleeding. But no worries. She was so excited to have painted my toes nailed she dragged me around the house to show her siblings and parents her grand master piece on my toes.

The group in Zuleta

Camila painted my toes (yes, nails and toes)

Thursday:

Keenan and I went to Otavalo this morning to pick up an order we had placed for some new beads. We had to wait a while for the owner to get there but when he came he had everything we needed! We went back tonal Calera for lunch, which I had a yummy soup with quinoa, potatoes, avocados and tostados- I've had a lot of soup here, this one has been my favorite. Then after lunch, we got to work on the new designs, which was a lot of fun to work on!

I went home for dinner which was another type of soup, and after dinner I talked to Marisol and her husband Byron for a while about traditional weddings in their community! It was so interesting to learn about some thought I would fill you in as well!

When proposing, the man brings a ton of food and beer to the girl's parents house to ask for her hand.

There are 3 days of celebrating 

1. House of the dad of the groom

2. House of the girl

3. House of the godparents 

When you bring gifts for the bride and groom on their wedding day, also bring beer for the dad and eggs or flour or rice for the mom, also you can give gifts to the godparents if you know them.

The day after the wedding the godparents of the bride and groom wash the couples face with flowers and ortiga and water. They make a cross with 3 flowers and ortiga and wash/hit their face with that. Ortiga is the stinging nettle plant that people slapped me with during the bathing ritual- I can't imagine that feeling good on your face.

The bride wears a traditional white blouse and white anako and the groom wears all white with a blue or black poncho.

Weddings are a big thing here! People usually get married young. Marisol and Byron got married when they were 21 but they said some people get married at ages 14 and up! 

So interesting to learn about traditions in other cultures!

Also, on our walk back from Cotacachi, Keenan and I got a little lost/ took some back "roads" (actually grass paths) to get back to la Calera. Saw some of my favore ex-pat houses from the back and was amazed! There are 500+ Americans living in Cotacachi, mostly people who have retired, and they live in beautiful houses!

Friday:

We worked for most of the day! We made some new designs and I created a cost formula so the women would know the material costs of how much they would need to spend and how much of each bead they would need when an order comes in!

Our work schedule is not your average 9-5. That is the interesting and wonderful thing about microenterprise work. It's on your own schedule. The women work when they want to, so I've had to be pretty flexible with when I'm available (not that I have plans or anything..) We usually work for maybe an hour in the morning and then have lunch and start back up around 2:30 and then often work until 7 in the evening, depending on how the women are feeling. 

I'll also tell you about the food that I've been eatting!

The la Calera diet (that I eat) consists of rice (not as much as the coast though), potatoes, chicken, And lots of soup!

The soup usually has veggies, broth, potatoes, sometimes noodles, sometimes avocado, sometimes tostados.

As for drinking, juices are also really popular here. Lots of blackberry juice which is outstanding, and Marisol often makes me fresh squeezed OJ which I love. Coladas are also popular, they are warm juice that is a little thicker, you use a spoon to drink. Flora made a passion fruit one and a blackberry one which were great. We also have had some fresh popped popcorn the past few days which I absolutely loved.

Here's my fave soup! 

Saturday:

Today I received my last rabies vaccine, and now that I am in bed writing this I can finally say that it went smoothly with absolutely no problems (finally!!). I had a driver pick me up at 7am this morning and we went straight to the hospital metropolitano in Quito. We got there by 9:15, I waited for about an hour, a nurse came in and gave me the vaccine, I paid and we left to go back to la Calera. 

Hooray! I'm done!

I was home by 1pm for a wonderful lunch of my favorite soup with the family.

I wanted to do some walking (and get ice cream) so I headed over to Cotacachi and Keenan joined me. We were also joined by floras dogs. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this in another post, but her dogs follow her or us everywhere we go. They accompanied us on a 40 minute walk to cotacachi and even walked around cotacachi with us and they always manage to find their way back home by themselves. They have even followed us out of la calera when we were in a cat, they run behind the car until they can't run anymore. They walk with me to the bread store and wait outside the store while I get bread. They are gaurd dogs to the max.

I got coffee flavored ice cream from my favorite suppliers along with a homemade peanut butter cup which was delish and then just did a little shopping in the leather district of Cotacachi. I also stopped by floras little market set up where she sells shirts and her jewelry. I ended up watching over her spot for about 40 minutes while she left to go talk to someone. A few people asked for prices on things and I had no idea so I just made up prices! I think I aimed too high with the prices because no one ended up buying anything. 

I walked home and then went to dinner at Keenan's home stay because it was his host sisters first communion that day and they were having a big feast to celebrate and they invited me over. There were a lot of people! Keenan is living with floras son, Luis, and his wife, ester, and their two daughters, Helen and jade. It was fun to get to talk to new people and converse about different things! I also spent some time playing with floras brothers daughter Alia, 7. I painted her nails and we played some hand games, she was adorable. We are good food and even had cake! Then headed back home to sleep.

Sunday:

Today was lovely. I had been wanting to go to this like called cuicocha and when I was at Keenan's house last night for dinner, Marco, floras brother said he was going with his daughter Alia today in the AM, so I asked if I could tag along and he said of course. 

He picked me up around 8:00 and we drove up the mountains to this large crater lake with floating islands inside the lake. The reason Marco and Alia were going was to watch the annual swimming competition there. It was super cool to see! The swimmers were so intense and the water so so cold that when they completed the race they were carried inside wrapped in blankets, sometimes on a stretcher, and placed next to the fireplace and given chocolates and cinnimion tea. I had some of the tea and it warned my soul- I was cold just looking at these people. After watching the race and admiring the beauty of the lake and mountains we headed back because there was a special event happening in la Calera today.

It was the inaugural opening day of soccer and also the festival to celebrate planting season! To celebrate this, there is a huge parade through the town of la calera (BC that is where the tournament is) but teams come from all over the region to compete. There were cows, little girls dancing, all the teams in their uniforms with little kids dressed in uniforms too, and a woman with each team carrying flowers. We watched the parade and at one point Camila and I jumped in and headed towards the soccer field. At the field, all of the teams lined up and lots of speeches were given and then finally they started to play!

I walked with Camila back to the house for lunch, we actually are at grandmas house today which was fun to chat with marisols sister, Marlena- she also shared a REESES CUP with me because someone sent her a bag from the states. It was heaven. I went back to the field with my host fam later and watched some more games of soccer. I also met a guy from Norway. He was the first gringo I've seen in la calera so I was curious what he was doing here and I also love making friends. It was fun talking to someone in English! And learning about Norway!

The sun was setting so I headed back for dinner. Again, we are at grandmas, but this time the whole family was there! It was like my first weekend there when it was Father's Day. It was so fun to eat with the big group. I also helped cook empanadas which turned out great! I had my Spanish playlist going and we were singing, joking around and making fried dough and it was a blast- a moment I'll always relish. They said they have a big family and it keeps growing- and I said, yeah you even have a gringo now :) they laughed and hugged me and the little girls hugged me so tight I no I am going to struggle leaving next week.

Lake cuicocha and the floating islands

With Marco and Alia

Futbol!! 

Parading for soccer- little girls dressed up - Alia and jade in the middle representing the sun, which is representative of planting season

Lots of empanadas con Carmen

The chiquitas and Mateo 

The nicest people you'll ever meet

Sending smiles from La Calera,

Rebecca