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.