Domingo y Lunes

Sunday began with a hike around Cuicocha, known as the guinea pig lake. Michael and I got a late start due to a delay in being served breakfast at the restaurant at our hotel. Breakfast was not so exciting, eggs with tomatoes and toast. Thus when it was time to head out we asked the proprietor to call us a cab. She asked which hike we wanted to go on; the shorter (3.5 hours) or longer (6+) and we opted for the shorter one as there were still 4 hours of bus travel ahead of us. She and another gentleman at the hotel informed the cab driver of where to go although he had no idea despite the use of a map. Off we went after 15 minutes of discussion with the cab driver.

As previously mentioned, he had no idea where he was going.Heslowed down at every driveway/road/building. He dropped us off at the first road that he thought looked promising place followed by promptly retrieving us and telling us that the road we were on was not correct. After taking us WAY up the road he dropped us off at another road. We walked up it for 20 minutes and I was convinced that it was the wrong way. We turned around, made our way back to the main road and found a very nice van driver who showed us the correct way! FINALLY! The hike was quite arduous, the first 1.5 hours were uphill. The sun was blazing but there was a fierce wind so it wasn't too hot.
A volcano in the distance with clouds atop it was the frame for the hike with sweeping views of the two islands in the middle of the crater lake being the picture in the frame. All the words i use to describe how beautiful it was just do not do it justice. When I am removed from the grittiness of the poverty in th etowns, the scenery here is breathtaking. I would estimate that the hike was about 5 miles long; yet it took us 4 hours due to all of the uphill. Many rest breaks were to be found!

Post hike it was back to the hotel for a quick lunch, french fries and vegetable soup, YUM! I had a nice chat with the proprietor while paying the bill ($15 for one night, what a deal!) She is Dutch and has been living in Ecuador for 26 years. I am continuously intrigued by people who leave their homeland to live in another country and assimilate themselves to it. She expressed interest in having volunteers come stay at her hotel and work for her so I offered her suggestions for websites to post on.
I really enjoy seeing the Quecha women in Ecuador dressed in their traditional dress. This was quite prevalant in Otavalo. The women wear gold necklaces of many strands encompassing their entire neck. Their traditional clothing is embroidered blouses with long blue skirts. Many women of all ages wear this dress as everyday clothes, I admire their sense of culture and limited Western influence. During pensive moments I cogitate on what the traditional dress of the American woman is nowadays???? Yikes.

It was then off to the buses. The first ride into Quito had the lovely treat of playing a dubbed Jackie Chan movie. Yowza! The film quality was no muy bueno but it was overall entertaining. I also bought some sugar cane from a bus vendor to chow on during the ride. Not a classy look I have deccided, chewing on sugar cane followed by spitting it out. But oh my goodness it is delicioso.

Second bus only had 10 people on it so I had my whole two seats to myself, what a luxury! The views were gorgeous, huge verdant mountains with sweeping ravines right next to the bus. The only downside was that people seem to think the ravines were trash bins. As in bags of household trash piled aside and going into the ravines.
We were graciously picked up at the random bus stop in the middle of nowhere by two of the volunteers, thank goodness for Michael's cell phone.
Dinner was carrott souffle; may be my favorite meal yet. Six volunteers arrived from San Francisco as well. They are with a volunteer group and will be volunteering in the local town for a week with an organic farm & a tilapia farm. Side note: the tilapia farm is right next to the river- I wonder what the environmental impact of having the farm drain into the river is?

Woke up this morning feeling really conflicted about this volunteer placement. I emailed the monkey reserve to ask them if there was space a week earlier yesterday.Yet they are full. All weekend the placement had been riding on my mind; that it wasn't what I expected and that I still had no idea how much I was paying for it.

After breakfast I sat down and tearfully discussed how I was feeling with the co-managers. They were really understanding and totally supportive. They also informed me that the owners agreed to only charge me the quoted price on the website. HOORAY! I informed them that I wanted to leave a week early which they were also supportive of. We had a great discussion and I left feeling a lot better.

I spent the such a peaceful morning, the smell of tomato plants in the air, sun was shining with a few white puffy clouds making their way across the sky and the river rushing by in the backround. I chatted with one of the employees Jorge who told me that the gardener Luis is in the hospital. Not good. Jorge (OF COURSE) asked if Michael and I are a couple, do I have a boyfriend in the States, do I like boys? After we moved on past the important stuff he saw that I was listening to my Ipod and asked how much it cost. Apparently here in Ecuador electronics are incredibly expensive compared to the US. It is such a strange feeling coming from a country where one really can have anything they want and be anything they want (within reason) to a country where a persons weekly wages are less than I spend at the grocery store in a week. Also, all of the conversations are in Spanish! He was very patient. After looking up the word for song in Spanish (cancion) I asked if he wanted to have a listen on my Ipod. He enjoyed my wide range of songs that shuffle randomly picked.
Lunch was plantain potato soup with rice & lentils on the side. After lunch I chatted with one of the co-managers about her experience here in this country and coming to this place for the past 11 months. It was one of those conversations where you see someone elses point of view, and how their life lessons can teach you your own.

Post chat I headed to the orchid garden feeling very pensive. I thought about what my goals and expectations were for here, and what are they now. My goal in coming here was to have an "amazing experience" and learn about plants while conquring my fears of travelling solo in a third world country. Through my previous conversation I had a shifting in my thoughts. Reflecting back on the book I read prior to coming "The Four Purposes of Life," one of the purposes is "learning life's lessons." Through this reflection I have decided to stay here at this reserve for the intended time, 3 more weeks. I have shifted my expectations to making an impact on whatever work I do here by doing my best work and working on myself in the process. If I really want to be able to be my best self then I should be able to do when my expectations aren't met as well as when they are, and maybe through this I will learn how to have less outward expectations. Thus learning from life and not trying to control how it teaches me. I am not going to think about what is going to happen here when I leave and if my work will be continued, but that I have left this reserve better than I found it. By cleaning every orchid leaf in sight and therefore helping the flowers to bloom, to planting and caring for vegetables in the garden to provided sustenance for future volunteers and guests.

I feel good about this decision and that it is the right thing for me. Checking my email this evening I received several emails from family members expressing concern and support. This brought tears to my eyes and made me once again thankful for being so lucky to have family members support me in all my crazy endeavors.
Thank YOU my readers for going on this journey with me too, wow I can't believe it has only been a week!

After orchid cleaning I was really warm and convinced two of the volunteers to walk down to the river with me so I could go for a dip, it was FREEZING! After 5 minutes of watching me swim, they both jumped in with their clothes on! It was so refreshing, the rivier is SO clean and had quite the current. We climbed up on rocks & jumped in, and had a swimming against the current contest. For those that know me, they know I will not win any swimming contest. It was a lot of fun and such a beatiful setting, huge rock walls covered in greenery, water rushing over rockes on either side of us, and birds chirping overhead.
Tonight at dinner we had vegetables with rice (sensing a rice theme yet?) and I had one of my favorite comfort foods, rice with butter. YUM! The other volunteers especially Michael thought I was strange when I explained that this and pasta with butter are among my favortie foods. (:

Going to bed now, on a top bunk tonight, hoping no millipedes and/or bats will drop from the ceiling.