You know what I did last weekend...

Alright, mis queridos...one last weekend update to share with you some sights, some adventures, and a little bit more of Ecuador :)

An incomparable sunset over Quito with a view of Volcan Cotopaxi

Friday, we were all feeling the need that comes for celebration with the end of a TESOL course week. So, we headed - Brianna, Lindsay, John, Raed and myself - to the Mariscal for a real dinner of our choosing, and ended up at the Magic Bean, como siempre.

There are a few reliable things here, actually. The weather is not one of them. 

But the Magic Bean will always be the best choice for dinner in la Mariscal, 

TESOL will always be stressful (even right to the very end), 

the altitude will hit you every time you walk uphill, 

my sister and her boyfriend will get into at least one nonsensical fight every week, 

every other taxi cab driver will try to overcharge you, 

and the buses will always fill la Avenida America with the unavoidable stench of diesel fumes.

South Quito sunset

This mountain is visible only about once a week.

Friday night after dinner and this beautiful sunset, we stayed up late finishing our reflective essays (mine turned out to be 12 pages). The next morning, Lindsay and I were up before the dawn to catch a bus north for Otavalo. We arrived about nine in the morning for the bustling street market town. After browsing our choices, Lindsay assisted me in bartering (I'm just don't have the heart for it) and I made some economical choices, and some less than economical. We split a fresh passion fruit, which has seeds that look like watery fish eggs but taste amazing, in the street and went out to lunch in an upstairs cafe where a live band was serenading a roomful of gringos. I think most of the gringos in Ecuador are in Otavalo on any given weekend; I actually felt in the majority again, rather unfortunately.

We left Otavalo - without taking any pictures! - and headed for Cotocaxi, there to catch a cab for Cuicocha (the name meaning in Kichwa "guinea pig lake").

The shores of famous Lake/National Park Cuicocha

We walked around a bit :)

Lindsay and I

Looking out from the lake

A patch of THE greenest grass we'd ever seen

After Cuicocha, we took an extremely windy ride in the back of a rapidly speeding truck to Quiroga, where we could catch a bus to Ibarra. The idea of Ibarra is that, aside from being one of the sierra's more sprawling and 'metropolitan' cities, it is famous nationwide for its helado (ice cream).

Unfortunately, by the time we arrived in Ibarra, Lindsay made the judgment call to head quickly back to Quito before it got TOO late...so we got a view of the city through the bus windows that we boarded for Quito. If I get to come back to Ecuador with some free time, I'll hold to the goal of spending a few days' worth in Ibarra. Perhaps the late afternoon sun deceived me into a more beautiful view of the city than I should have had, but I deemed it worth knowing.

Later that night, we passed some after-dinner conversation and games at the house of the host family of some boys from our program. We called the night as early as we could, because we had an early morning appointment with Volcan Cotopaxi...

An hour up the mountain, but still not there

Our cloud-shrouded volcano, awaiting climbers

Warm-up hour-long hike around the "lake"

Like I said, it rarely clears off completely - but still breathtaking :)

These little purple and yellow flowers are ALL over the ground

Amazing the cars in this "parking lot" don't just blow right down the mountain in the crazy wind

Our path awaits!

We're not acting freezing, we ARE freezing.

Just a midway lookout point...over everything!

Made it!!! This first shelter, or refugio, translates to 15,000 feet!

The steep path up and down

You have no idea the sacrifice it was to take my hands out of my pockets!

Yay!

Up in the clouds, the Volcano looms...inviting multi-day hikers.

There ya go, I touched the snow of Cotopaxi :)

An idea of the view, and the incline.

I took all these pictures without unwrapping my fingers..

The picture's not crooked, the mountain is.

Taking a photo of John taking a photo of me.

It was scary standing even here in the 50 mph wind!

Celebratory dinner and dessert at Crepes and Waffles for Brianna and I :)

That banana split is as real as it gets.

That's right, la copa caramel is gone :)

Oh, yes I did.

The mountain climb was steep, extremely windy, and certainly a challenge despite it's relative brevity. We got to hike around a lower-altitude lake for an hour and enjoy the atmosphere. I had a good time chatting in Spanish with Fabian, our guide, and Lindsay's host dad. He was telling me what good shape I was in -- and I in turn warned him that the fast walker he was seeing was about to be crippled by the altitude of the volcano into the slowest.

Thankfully, Fabian was a very patient guide. I did move slowly up the Volcano with John, the climb affecting us each in different ways. Lindsay hikes the Andes somewhat regularly from her home in Peru, so she did well. Brianna did just as well climbing up, but her fear of heights grabbed her on the way down. I moved slowly up, my breathing improved from the teleferiqo, but experiencing the same problem of low oxygen circulation to my muscles. Once the climb started, my calf muscles contracted tightly and never once relaxed. Quite painful! Pero no soy quejona. I'm no complainer!

We made it to the first refugio and warmed up (partly) with some hot chocolate and sandwiches. We were offered the chance to continue the climb, but with each of us in less-than-favorable condition (for me, my legs were freezing and my feet, in leather sandals, were completely numb!), we decided to head back down from there. 


The thing about hiking Volcan Cotopaxi is that, despite the cold and debilitating wind, little hail-sized bits of ice are constantly whipped off the glacier in the wind, and they hit every exposed part of your skin like freezing rocks, making it hard to look up and see. We each got a good dose of windburn!


The car ride back, we uncomfortably passed the heck out. Around 4 pm and back in the warm sunshine of Quito, we took the most satisfying showers of the whole trip and Brianna and I walked out and down to el Jardin (the mall), where we took care of some, a-hem, shopping, and treated ourselves to an energy-filled meal.


Sunday night at home was my first chance to update y'all and do a little work...this week we continue to wrap up our last assignments (there's still a relatively impressive list of them) and prepare our final portfolios. My own teaching challenges are over, but I'm not immune to the struggles of my peers -- our busy weekend set Brianna back in her usual preparations and the stress hits hardest on Mondays. Much of tonight and tomorrow will be devoted to encouraging her in her lesson plans. It's easy to see how overwhelming the course can become just in the course of a day!


On that note, I think it's time for bed, don't you? I've got the tired eyes :)


Hugs to you all!
Nikki Jade