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

Tear Gas & Thermal Baths (& July 4th)

My Second week in La Calera went smoothly for the most part! The festivities of San Juan wrapped up and we got to start working on the jewelry project. Here's a fun photo from Inti Raymi! 

Monday:

Unfortunately still wasn't feeling all that much better. Today was another day of festivities for San Juan, but I decided it might be best if I layed low and rested so that I could be 100% better for tomorrow.

However, in the morning I was able to meet and chat with some of Marisol's extended family who was staying here and visiting from Quito. 

In the evening when everyone came back from Cotacachi, I saw Suri crying and I asked why. Apparently, they accidentally ran over one of the puppies when coming home today, upon finding this out, I just about started crying too. 

I chatted with the family in the evening and everyone is so interested in my diet because I don't eat much meat, that is the strangest thing to them. They also still don't understand why I won't eat the Cui (guinea pig), as someone showed me their plate at dinner with a Cui head on it, I excused myself and wished everyone a good night.

Tuesday:

Yet another day of partying for San Juan. Got up in the morning and again needed some help getting dressed up in the traditional clothes. Then went to the cantina to set things up and get ready to sell. I spent some time chatting with Elizabeth, a niece of Marisol who lives in Quito and is 24. We took my little host sisters to the plaza to dance. I had my first real food today without getting sick, so that was a positive experience. 

More observations from San Juan:

Chicha is the alcoholic beverage of choice, I have not tried it (1, bevause I can't drink while on the rabies vaccine, 2, because it smells like vomit). The drink contains herbs, corn, alcohol and some other things, people buy buckets of it and use a cup to scoop out the liquid, drink it and pass it along.

They also drink Puro, which is a hard liquor that quickly puts people at a level which disables them from talking and waking. I have gotten pretty good at understanding drunk Spanish, although it is very difficult. I really have never seen a party like this. It amazes me that people can drink this much and then get up the next day and do it again. At the end of the day we always see people being carried home, or laying in the street. It's interesting because of course this happens at college towns, but the group of people that are partying at San Juan are majority men ages 15-80, And yes there are older men getting belligerently drunk.

Another thing I noticed is the whiles and sticks that the men carry around have a variety of things attached at the top. I have seen cut off baby doll heads, real dead animals, fruit with a head carved in it, stuff animals and more.

Today's afternoon of San Juan festivities was particularly eventful. As I was selling in the cantina, I heard a bunch of people start screaming and running into the cantina covering their noses and eyes,  I wondered why and then felt my eyes and nose starting to burn. Well, the men of la Calera started fighting with men from a different community and it got so bad that the police interfered and threw a year has bomb. 

Remedies that I saw people using to combat the tear gas:

First of all, everyone came running to the cantina to purchase cigarettes (or Cancer sticks as Marisol and I have been calling them). I struggled to sell the cigarettes because I was crying so much from the tear gas. Apprentlty smoking makes the tear gas hurt less? Not sure, I wouldn't try it. Also, Flora started smoking and blowing the cigarette smoke into the eyes of the little kids, maybe as a distraction from the other smoke, not sure. 

Also, people started buying and eating lemons, another strategy to make the smoke hurt less. Finally, people started making fires, I saw some on the streets, some in our cantina and some in the woods, the one in the woods that was by our cantina started getting out of hand and one of the people in our cantina called the fire department, but then other people put it out before the firefighters got there.

Flora said the coast was clear and asked if I wanted to go to the plaza, so I accompanied her. As we approached the plaza I felt the gas again, this time I had the awful taste in my mouth, my eyes and nose also burned and I sprinted back to the cantina. The men were throwing rocks at each other, and using their whips. One of the cousins of someone had a wound on his arm.

And you might think the party would stop after something like this happens, but noooo, they keep dancing and drinking the night away. 

As we drove home later that night we went pay the hospital which was super packed with all the men injured from the battles of San Juan. I was talking to Flora about it and she said she thought they weren't going to fight this year because of the treaty, but I guess that treaty got broken. 

Today's new experience was tear gas, and now I know why they call it tear gas

Dancing in the street

All of my host sisters

Making Chicha

Fire in the woods

When the tear gas bomb was thrown

Wednesday:

The final day of San Juan, also known as Dia de Los mujeres (women's day). About 6 days for men and one for women, hey it's not much, but I'll take it. And of course, today was my favorite day of San Juan.

We started the day with a group of tourists (high school students) coming to floras home to purchase hammocks (that floras husband rodrigo makes) and jewelry. It was fun to chat with the students and sell the jewelry!

Then after lunch we got dressed up for the last day of San Juan. Like I mentioned before, usually all of the men gather up in la Calera to dance to Cotacachi together for all the other days of the festival. Today however, it was finally the women's turn. We met by the comunal house. And by we, I mean me, Flora and Blanquita. Yes, just 3 of us, two ecuadorian a and a gringa danced our way to Cotacachi. When I asked Flora where all of the other women are, she joked that they all died and we are the last of the women in la Calera.

So naturally we had to take a picture. 

I said they'll put this photo in a museum- the last of the la Calera women (plus a gringa)

Flora and Blanquita explained that there are 4 Días de Los mujeres during the year that are determined by the solstice and seasons.

Also, I found out that there are a group of 5 people from Quito that are doing a documentary on the community of la Calera. They were filming us as we danced our way to Cotacachi. the director of the film wanted to interview me and I said sure as long as he's ok with non-fluent Spanish. He asked me about the tear gas and the fighting that happened yesterday at San Juan, he also asked me about what I'm doing in la Calera- so look out people, I'll be staring (more like possibly featured) in a documentary!

We danced and danced and everytime we got to a street corner/ intersection, we danced in circles for 5 minutes as the band played in the middle of the circle. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, we had our own personal band accompany us to Cotacachi.

At one point, 3 more women joined (including a child), and we kept dancing and dancing, we even stopped traffic multiple times, and when I say stop traffic I don't mean because people wanted to watch us dance, I mean because we were literally dancing in the middle of the street so cars could not pass by.

When we met up with all of the other women closer to the plaza in Cotacachi, our group grew significantly, and now I actually felt famous because people on the streets were stopping to watch us dance. I can't tell you the number of people that were taking pictures and videoing us. I've never had paparazzi before! Paparazzi and an interview all in one day!

It felt a little weird since I was the only gringa, but I felt more comfortable having Flora and Marisol there because I am living in la Calera and they all wanted me to dance with them.

When we finally got to the plaza we did what the men did for their dance: dance in circles around the band at each corner and then go to the next corner. The only difference was that there were no police there to organize the different groups, so it was a little bit of a mess in terms of there being 2-3 groups at the same corner all trying to dance in circles, but Flora got everyone organized!

I babysat Camila and suri during the day while the moms went to the cantina. They girls wanted to go on a jumping thing, so I waited/ watched them as they did that. We went back to the cantina and ate a little bit and hung out until the next dance at the plaza.

Got to see Byron's son, Michael. So adorable!

We all headed out to the plaza and did 3 entire loops around, stopping and circle dancing at each corner every time. My feet are so sore! Why I liked this day more than the others: these women are classy and don't throw whips around and bang street signs with sticks, they don't start fights which result in the police throwing tear has bombs, they don't get beligerantly drunk to the point where they can't talk it walk, and they still have a lot of fun dancing.

Dancing even after the sun went down.

After the dancing we went back to the cantina. It was much calmer that the past nights, which I enjoyed. I was able to talk to some natives and also chat with the crew making the documentary. 

My favorite person I chatted with/ my favorite person I've met so far in Ecuador was Carlos. He was from Quito and wandered over to Cotacachi by himself to celebrate inti Rimi. He was a VERY happy person, he was very intoxicated but kept telling me all of these deep quotes! He was also always smiling. 

My favorite things things he told me:

1.When you're in an unknown place and an opportunity is presented, don't turn it down because you might not have that opportunity again.

2. Dancing is a necesisty. I said so you have to dance all day? And he said you have to dance all your life. Then he explained how he perceives dancing, and that it's more about how you carry yourself and express yourself and that you can dance with every step you take. He then proceeded to get up and show me how you can walk and dance at the same time.

He then went and danced with the people playing the music and whipped a flute out of his bag and started playing that.

We hopped in papito Byron's car and went home to sleeeep!

Thursday:

They day we are supposed to start working! And we did! In the morning the women had to return all of the things they rented for the cantina and pay for the beers that they sold, but in the afternoon we started working on the jewelry. 

They taught us how to make one of their necklaces and I observed their processes on how they go about making them. I also asked a lot of questions about why they do this, where they get their beads, average salaries in Ecuador and more. It was fun to sit around the table, make jewelry and chat with them. They had to go back to Cotacachi a few hours later, so I stayed at floras home and played with Lili and Alia (Monica's daughter) and here's a picture of Monica's newest daughter, Emily, who I absolutely love to hold! 

We had a late dinner of rice and french fries and then I played around with Lili, Camila and Elkin before heading to bed. Elkin has his exams tomorrow and said he has his P.E exam tomorrow so I was having him show me the exercises he will be tested on, and then Camila was trying to do them as well!

Friday:

I discovered how wonderful my rooftop terrace is and even hopped over the terrace to sit on the roof for some amazing views of the surrounding mountains.

Today we went to Otavalo to see where the women buy their seeds from. We spent a while in the store picking out which ones we wanted and I talked to the guy working to learn more about how they get the seeds, how much the different types of seeds cost, and what the names of all the colors are. I took one of each color and put them on a string and had him write what the names of all those colors were. This will be helpful for our communication with the store as well as when I go back to Wisco and am talking to Flora about what colors we want to order!

We came back from Otavalo and had lunch, and then afterwards we made some more jewelry. Now that I had the prices for all the seeds I was able to do a cost analysis of each of their jewelry pieces. It was fun to try out new designs and color patterns with the new seeds that we just bought. Then Flora made some tostadas for us to snack on- tostadas are like corn nuts!

I'm glad that we are finally getting into the swing of things with work, it will be fun to see what we accomplish over the next 2 weeks!

Playing around with the new seeds and new designs!

Saturday:

Today I went to Otavalo with Keenan to do a little shopping! Otavalo is known to have the best markets in Ecuador, so I was excited to do some bargaining! I loved all of the products made with alpaca fur and I ended up getting myself a blanket and a sweater that looks like a mix of something that bill Cosby and mr. Rodgers would wear! I also got a few gifts but mostly just enjoyed looking through the hundreds of vendors and all of the different things they were selling!

We had lunch at a Mexican deli which was delicious and also went back to he bead store and got a few more beads and different string for the women. 

We took the bus back to Cotacachi and I had some grocery shopping to do because I told my family I would be making them dinner to celebrate America's independence. 

In Cotacachi, I also found my new favorite place, it's a cafe owned by two Americans. I felt it was necessary to support an American establishment on the 4th of July so I bought a scoop of homemade chocolate coconut ice cream and it was amazing. I will for sure be going back! They also have a cute little library and pottery shop, it's adorable!

I bought groceries to make grilled cheese, mac and cheese, and brownies, because I would be cooking for 13 people, that was the easiest and most American thing I could think of!

I cooked for about 2 hours (also there was a spider crawling on my face/nose that freaked me out) and then served dinner to my wonderful family! 

The Mac and cheese probably could have used a little more cheese, but the grilled cheeses turned out great (and I put avocado in some of them!) but the family enjoyed all of it (or at least they said hey did!!) Hoping that they actually liked it! They were so so stuffed after dinner that only a few people had room for dessert, but we enjoyed the brownies and saved the rest for everyone else to eat tomorrow!

I brought some of the left over food and some brownies over to floras home to share. The ladies who ran the cantina were all there for a meeting and ate all of the leftovers! I was glad that all of the food was eatten and that I could keep the spirit of the Fourth of July alive, even in Ecuador! 

Mi familia!!

Flora and the rest of the women trying out some American food!

Cheese on cheese on cheese

This large spider was on my face

Fave purchase of the day

Also pumped about my blanket- which i bargained down from 35 to 25

And the brownies- this was a shot in the dark because the oven didn't have a temperature knob so I had to guess and check, but they ended up turning out great! 

Sunday:

Keenan and I took a day trip to Chachimbiro! This is a small town about 2 hours away known for their thermal spas. We got up early and took a taxi to Cotacachi and caught a 6:45am bus to Ibarra and from there a 7:45am bus to Chachimbiro. We arrived and went straight to the baths. It was definitely different than I expected. There were 2 sections, one was more like a water park for kids and the other was more relaxing and mostly filled with adults. I chilled in the relaxing part the whole day. There were so so so many pools of water all with varying tempatures. All of the water is completely natural which I really liked!

There was a steam room, jacuzzi, individual bath tubs you could fill with the water temperature of your choice, and a bunch of other pools with temperatures ranging from brrrrr freezing to I think my skin is melting off! I relaxed in the warm tubs but switched it up sometimes! I met a nice family from Colombia who I talked to the mom for a while and she was super kind and her daughter was adorable!

We caught the 3:30 bus back to Ibarra and then another to Cotacachi. I really wanted to go back to the ice cream place I went to yesterday and when we arrived in Cotacachi and started walking towards the ice cream place I heard someone call my name. It was Luis, Marisol's brother, he offered us a ride back to la Calera. I couldn't say no, that was so kind of him, but I also so badly wanted ice cream. So we got in the car and I asked if I could buy them ice cream! A win win! We went to my new fave place and I got Luis and his wife each an ice cream cone, and of course one for myself, today I tried mint chocolate chip! Only $1 for the best ice cream !!

I loved relaxing in the pools situated right between 2 mountains! Nature is beautiful!

Overall, solid second week! Can't believe I only have 2 weeks left here- the time really does fly.

Sending Smiles from La Calera,

Rebecca