Pictures!

Here are some random pictures from the trip so far! Enjoy!

I am taking an Andinismo (mountaineering) class and so we practice repelling from the gym ceiling!

At the International Student welcome party, we played a giant game of flip cup- 3 tables.

This is the view of Quito from the top of Pichincha. We took the Teleferico (ski lift type thing) up and then hiked a bit further. As you can see, there have been fires all over the city recently. Many of the locals think it is arson. 

At the top of Pichincha, we just lay in the grass and looked at the city and mountains. 

This is Narcissa, Marcelo, Pato, and David playing a game called Zapo. They NEVER got tired of this game and played constantly. It involves throwing big brass washers at holes in a piece of wood. Our kitchen is the building in the picture. 

There were a few baby guinea pigs while I was there! 

This is Sangay, the 1 year old oso de anteojos (sunglasses bear). He is extremely friendly but we can't touch him. He eats oatmeal and fruit- I'm not sure how he's growing so quickly on such a small diet!

This was one of the only friendly horses. While the guys were changing the sprinklers, I would try and get over my fear of horses by petting this guy. 

The last weekend on the farm, the three of us went camping up the mountain where there is a little cabin. No water, electricity, nothing. We hiked around during the day but what was really scary was when Muneca (in the picture) got stuck in a big thorn bush at night about a kilometer from our camp. We thought she was being eaten by a puma so we ran out with sticks and light and tried finding her in the forest. 

On one of the last days, Marcelo let me ride one of the horses bareback. It was so calm!

This is my favorite goat, which I called Maldito (little fucker- loosely translated). He would run away from the pack and just didn't care if I tried herding him in a different direction. All the goats had unique personalities. 

This is a view of the mountain, Cotopaxi, where the farm was located. I feel such a strong connection to this mountain since I woke up to it, worked underneath it, and lay in the grass in the evenings and gazed at it's glaciers. 

This is Muñeca, the queen of the farm. She ended up sleeping on my pillow next to me every night. Recently, she was bitten very badly by an unknown animal so I'm hoping that she is able to recover. 

Arriving at Ilitio

“Take a bus going south. When you hit the town of Lasso, get off the bus at the second intersection. Get in a pickup truck and go east until you hit the farm.”

These were the directions I had to find the farm, Hacienda Ilitio. I knew that Cotopaxi was south of Quito, so I headed south hoping I wouldn’t get too lost. I arrived at the bus station and heard someone yelling Latacunga, which was in the direction I needed to go, so I ran to the bus and managed to get the last seat. I sat next to a very flirtatious old man who interrogated me about my love life, Mexico, and tried setting me up with a man sitting across the aisle. When I needed to get off the bus, he insisted on getting my phone number so I temporarily forgot how to speak Spanish and hopped off the bus unscathed.

The bus pulled away and I was left on the side of a highway, alone, with no camionetas (taxi trucks) in sight. I took a deep breath and ran across the highway to a store that would know where the camionetas were. I looked like a ridiculous tourist: big straw hat, two big backpacks, and a bag filled with food and a frying pan. The woman in the store started laughing and asked if I needed a camioneta which I responded to with a weak nod. When the truck arrived, I climbed in and told him I needed to go to Hacienda Ilitio and 45 minutes later, he pulled up to a picturesque farm house and told me to get out. I was greeted by Sebastián, the farm owner, Marcelo, the live-in farm manager, and Taryn, another volunteer.

The farm was unbelievably beautiful. The huge orange house was straight from a magazine and behind it, the volcano Cotopaxi popped out of the clouds showing off its breathtaking glaciers. There were fields filled with alpacas, llamas, horses, sheep, cuy, hens, ducks, falcons, and even a bear! The gardens were overflowing with quinoa and cauliflower and many unknown greens. Our bedroom was big and the bathroom was an actual bathroom complete with warm water and a toilet! We didn’t have to work until Monday and so Taryn and I hung out for the rest of the day.