That's just the way it is

Two events happened today that made me understand (not necessarily appreciate) Ecuadorian culture more deeply. The first was in my History class when we started talking about racism. Our teacher asked the American students if we thought there was more racism here in Ecuador or back in the US. A girl said that even though there might be more in the US, it is much more obvious and open in Ecuador. I brought up the example of using words like negro/negrito, chino, or even longo. These three terms describe Afro-Ecuadorians, Asian-looking people, and Indigenous people. I said that using these words perpetuates the racism by making it "acceptable" to classify people by their race or what they look like. Before I finished my statement, some Ecuadorian students in the class protested loudly and said that it is in no way racist to use these terms because it is acceptable and not offensive. May I point out that these are white Ecuadorian students. The teacher then chimed in and said that if you are of a certain race, for example, Indigenous, it is acceptable to profile that person in Ecuador. I responded that even though it is acceptable and normal does not mean it is not racist and does not mean in any way that it is "correct." Needless to say, the teacher was offended by my comment and briskly ended class and was the first out the door.

The second event was extremely personal. I met a guy back in August who I am still very good friends with. We see each other two or three times a week but we don't usually go to each other's houses. Let me describe what he looks like: he is a tall, darker-skinned Ecuadorian with curly black hair and a goatee. I invited him to have Thanksgiving with my friends and I and so before dinner, he met me at my apartment. We went upstairs to get my stuff and we left for my friend's house. The next day, the woman I live with, Maritoni, said she needed to talk to me. She explained that one of the neighbor women upstairs had seen my friend and I come into the apartment and she didn't like how my friend looked. On that day he was wearing jeans and a nice jacket- just like any other Ecuadorian guy would wear. Maritoni had met my friend and defended him against the woman, but she couldn't get over how he had curly hair and a goatee. Now, I have brought a dozen friends home to my apartment. I'm sure this same woman has seen them all since she must sit at her window staring at the entrance to the building. Never once has she complained until I brought a lower-middle class Ecuadorian guy to my house. He is not allowed in the building because she judged him immediately on how he looked and didn't trust him with a small white girl like me. I am incredibly offended since it is so personal and I have never once met this woman. Maritoni explained that "that's how people are here" and how women here are extremely judgmental and racist.

Both these events happened on the same day and I have been angry at the woman upstairs and Ecuadorian culture in general for being so incredibly judgmental. Even going to my university, I feel like I have to dress very nicely and stylishly, otherwise the girls will give me dirty looks. I never gave a second thought about bringing my friend to my house. MY HOUSE. It is extremely humiliating when you have to explain to your friend why he can't come to your house anymore. Not because he was loud, not because he broke anything, not for any of the normal reasons to be banned from a building. He cannot come to my house simply because of the way he looks.

My understanding of Ecuadorian culture grew a lot today. And unfortunately it was not for the better.

Addicted to the Unknown

The most amazing thing about traveling isn't the new foods you try, the people you meet, or the mountains you climb. It's actually the risks you take to experience all of them. You become a different person, strap on your hiking boots, take rides from strangers, show up in an unknown city alone. Sometimes you will meet a middle-aged man from England trying to escape a nasty divorce during a tropical storm. Or sometimes you will hitch a ride on the back of a tractor. And after you settle in a place for a while, you will meet more people willing to drop everything to hear your story. Of course you can't remember every person, every conversation, but each one shapes you in a way you might never know. And then there are the people who change your life so deeply, so immediately, you can't quite remember how your mind worked before. Remember these people. Remember the Brit and the nine hour journey you took to arrive in that town. Remember the farmer who gave you a ride on his tractor and how you weren't quite sure how to get home. These are the memories you will think about in the middle of a cold, rainy day when you're back home. Somehow, being on your own in an unknown land puts a little risk into your life. This risk leads you to have an amazing, life-changing journey. But then again, this might not work for everyone. I am, afterall, addicted to the unknown.

Camino del Inca, Ingapirca, and Cuenca

For fall break, I decided to go on the hike with my Andinismo class which was the Inca Trail, or Camino del Inca. No, we were not in Peru. The Inca Trail extends from the south of Colombia all the way down to Bolivia. I have hikes parts of the trail in Bolivia and Peru so I was excited to check this off my list! There were 17 of us hiking with some Ecuadorians and other students from the US. The hike was 3 days of hiking and 2 days traveling. We took a bus from Quito to Alausi and then camped at the start of the trail for the first night. 

Before the trip, we all made plans for who was sharing tents. One of the Ecuadorian guys in our class said he had a 6 person tent so there were 6 of us that were going to sleep in that. On the bus to Riobamba, we found out he just didn't bring the tent. So we all squished into the other tents. Our camps didn't have electricity, water, or bathrooms. It was extremely cold- so cold my entire backpack and its contents froze the second night!! The first day of the hike was pretty short but the hardest. We climbed up a rocky stream for a good hour which felt like a stair master. After that we ascended some more and arrived in a small valley between two big mountains. We walked for a few more hours and arrived at our camp which was a flat part in the bottom of the valley. There were no trees, no big rocks, no shelter. It started raining as we arrived at camp so we set up our tents very quickly and dove into them and waited for the rain to stop. 

The hike was gorgeous- plenty of paramo ecosystem and lagoons after every turn. We mainly walked on the side of the mountains maintaining altitude the whole time. The sun was strong and while we were walking we were hot but once we stopped we had to pull out our fleece jackets and hats since it was so cold. 

We reached an altitude of 4200 meters on the hike- yes there was snow. We didn't see cars, roads, or any signs of human activities until the last day when we ended in a village. 

Since we had to bring all our food, tents, and supplies, we had donkeys carry our backpacks for the first two days. At the end of the day we would pet them and ride them around. It's amazing how strong these animals are. 

We had to bring all our own food so I resorted to squished bread and peanut butter and jelly or tuna and crackers. We also brought lots of alcohol- to warm up at night, of course!

This was the only time on the hike we had to be creative. The entire hike is a little flooded or very rocky so we were constantly jumping rock to rock or jumping over the mud. I felt like I was in a Mario game at one point. This river was too deep to walk through and there were no place with rocks to jump on. So we found a big piece of wood and scooted over since it was too narrow to walk across. 

The end of the hike! This is our whole group when we finished in a village on the third day. 

The Inca Trail ends near the ruins of Ingapirca which are the most complete ruins in Ecuador. You can see the water systems, the sun and moon temples, and several palaces. The ruins are no where near as impressive as Machu Picchu and the stones are not cut as well, but it was really cool to see. 

We arrived in Cuenca at night on the third day and took a bus quickly around the city. We were all exhausted and walked around a bit but then returned to our camp right outside the city and had a nice dinner and salsa danced the rest of the night. 

The next morning most of the group left but I decided to stay with a few people to take a night bus on Sunday. This is the main cathedral in Cuenca and is the biggest in Ecuador and one of the biggest in all of South America. The city is absolutely beautiful- it feels so European with the streets and architecture. 

We stood in the back of the cathedral for Sunday mass. It was packed to the gills and buzzed with a constant chatter of kids running around and tourists taking pictures. It is a pretty modern church- built in the late 1800s I believe. 

We were buying candied applies right outside the entrance when mass ended and everyone came out. Some people were wearing casual clothes, some Sunday best, but many people were wearing traditional indigenous dress. 

There is a lot of beautiful graffiti in Cuenca. This is just an example on a staircase near the river. I love this city so much! Everyone was so nice to us and we found plenty of cute cafes and art galleries to hide in when it started pouring. All in all, the trip was extremely successful and I hope I might have the opportunity to return to the south next semester!

Kayaking in Tena

Local girls who enjoyed playing with our equipment.

             Here in Ecuador I have two great guy friends- Santiago and Nicolas- who go to the Catholic university in Quito. Santiago loves kayaking so this past weekend I agreed to go with them to the city of Tena which is Southeast of Quito in the Amazon. We arrived in the town and immediately felt the humidity and could see the contrast from the highlands climate. Santiago talked my friend Sammy and I into going kayaking with him and Nico on a 3+ river. This means that in the US, a beginner kayaker would go on a 1 river, but we decided we’d be fine on the 3+.

               We drove out to our starting point up river from Tena and were greeted by many local children who saw the burns on my legs and kept calling me the burnt white girl. We loaded our equipment into the river and practiced skim rolls which were much harder than they look. I couldn’t quite master it, so Santiago gave our guide, Alejandro a concerned look and said that if I flipped, just to pull my skirt and swim away. This didn’t exactly comfort me, but I figured it couldn’t be that hard.

Kayaking along the river. The tall tree in the background is called a Sable and is over 100 years old- it is the only tree that was saved from the destruction of the oil companies in this region. 

             We started out on the river and you could hear the first rapid before you saw it. The roaring water made my stomach flip and I realized how inexperienced I was. I could barely control the kayak in a current, even worse in raging rapids. Nevertheless (not that I had a choice) I gripped my paddle tight and tried avoiding the whirlpools. At the end of the rapid, I was crying. I was shaking so badly because I had had no control over my kayak the entire rapid. Luckily, my kayak was very large for me so that I basically floated above the water.

We're alive!

            I was mad at my friend Santiago for telling me I could handle it and I was mad at our guide, Alejandro, for not paddling right next to me. The second rapid was even worse- huge waves with big boulders added to the mix. My whole body was shaking at this point but I decided to keep going. The next few rapids came and I got better with controlling my movements. I learned how to snap my hips to steer the boat and how to better avoid the trickier waves. One of the biggest rapids came and I was on the right side of the river. Alejandro yelled at me to get on the left to avoid a whirlpool, but I couldn’t get over in time. I tried paddling straight through the giant wave, but the current was too strong and flipped my kayak around. I rode the wave backwards and somehow survived. After the rapid, a professional kayaker paddled up to me and told me how awesome my trick had been back there. I nodded weakly and checked to make sure my head was still attached to my body.  

           The rest of the trip was easy. I could handle the rapids and they became weaker than at the beginning. We stopped at a beach to swim for a while and I talked to Alejandro about the petroleum companies around the area (blog post to come). Alejandro spoke Kichwa so we practiced a bit to his amazement that I spoke and was knowledgeable about the Kichwa culture. We finished the river and rode back to Tena where we met up with my friends, ate ceviche and ice cream, and crashed in our hot, humid hostel. 

After the trip we went to go see the Monkeys in Misahualli. They weren't exactly friendly. 

Otavalo & Cotacachi

The past two weekends I have gone to two cities- Otavalo and Cotacachi. The first weekend I went with 6 other girls and we planned to hike both days, but since it was raining the first day, we looked around the famous Otavalo market.

The market is amazing. There are hundreds of stands set up selling all sorts of things from hats to jewelry to daggers. The art is incredibly beautiful and the jewelry is unique and authentic. I walked up to one jewelry stand where the woman was selling Mayan calendar earrings. I looked at them and the woman, who was obviously not Indigenous, started speaking broken English to me. Now, I really hate it when Ecuadorians speak English to me. I think it is very disrespectful to assume that I don't speak a word of Spanish. I said no thanks to the woman and started walking away when I heard her ranting in Spanish about how Americans are so cheap and disrespect her work. So I turned around and went back to the table and explained to her that she had offered an Ecuadorian a pair of earrings for $8 and then turned to me and offered them to me for $22 in English. She was a little stunned that I had understood everything and finally agreed to sell them to me for a lower price.

There are other things, however, that I don't mind paying a little extra for. I met a man who had a booth filled with art- not just art he bought from the distributors, but art he painted himself. I really liked his work and talked to him for a little while about his life here. Every morning he sets up his stand and carries all his art to the plaza and on Sundays he travels to Quito to do the same thing. It is a hard life and I can't imagine he makes a decent living off of selling his art since there's not much of it.

On Sunday, we woke up early and took a bus to Cotacachi, a town close to Otavalo that is famous for their leather goods. However, we were there to hike around the Cuicocha lake which is a lake formed from an extinct volcano. The hike took four hours and for most of the hike we had amazing views of the lake and countryside. After, we went into town and bought a few leather goods and then headed back to Quito.

The second weekend, we took a bus up on Friday afternoon and met up with my friend's boyfriend and his friends. We went to one of their houses which is an old hollistic/meditation house with an amazing garden and many statues. We played music and then went on a hike to a waterfall after dark. The waterfall was straight from the movies- fireflies lit up the forest and the waterfall reflected the moon. The guys played traditional Andean music and we returned to the house where we salsa danced.

We woke up the next morning to one of the boys telling us he would give us a yoga lesson. Well, the yoga lesson lasted two hours and included an ancient story. It was cool, but the guys were giving us weird vibes so we all left and went into Otavalo for lunch and then headed back to Quito.

I love the feel of Otavalo because it is so Indigenous. All the women wear the traditional dress and I can strike up conversations in Kichwa with almost everyone in town. I really want to spend more time up there with a smaller group so that I can explore the non-touristy areas.

How to get 100% on a History Presentation

One of my classes at USFQ is Modern History of Latin American Republics. Our teacher, Carmen, is extremely intelligent. Unfortunately, she doesn't have much control of the class. The boys will be talking the entire time and make kissy faces at her and she just waves it off.

Today, my group had to give a presentation on the independence movement in Colombia. We were supposed to present in under 20 minutes but it took the full hour. I went first and took about 5 minutes, then my friend from the U.S. went and took another 5 minutes. Then my Ecuadorian friend went and talked about anything relevant to Colombia in the slightest. The teacher stopped him at one point and asked why he didn't talk about three of the most important battles. He choked a little and then said "I would like to take a moment to congratulate Katie- it's her birthday!" Everyone in the class sang and cheered for her and he continued on his speech- all while the teacher forgot about the battles. While the last girl was presenting, two of our group members were on their cell phones in front of the class.

Although we didn't cover the most important battles of the revolution and instead talked about current problems with FARC, we received a perfect grade. Apparently, long-winded talkers are appreciated here in Ecuador.

Riding the Ecovia

How many people can fit on the Ecovia? Fifteen more!

This is a common joke here in Quito about the Ecovia- one of the public transportation trolleys. It is very convenient, but it usually hot, smelly, and so crowded that you are held up by the people around you. The Ecovia costs $0.25 and you can ride from Rio Coca in North Quito an hour south. When you get on, if you're extremely lucky, you might find a pole to lean against. Otherwise, you have to reach up and grab the rail on the ceiling and hope no one gropes you in the process. Oftentimes your face will be inches away from the creepy man staring into your soul. Other times, you'll come into contact with the rapper who will serenade you in hopes of a dollar. 

What bothers me most about the Ecovia, and all buses in Quito, is that NO ONE OPENS THE WINDOWS. Everyone is sitting in agony sweating up a storm and the simple answer is to open a window. But the slightest wind means that it is cold and people will bundle up in parkas and shut all the windows. By the end of each Ecovia ride, I trip out of the bus and take a huge breath of relatively fresh air. 

Basically, I would rather ride a pink tricycle with a horn through the streets of Quito than ride the Ecovia. But since Quito seems to have a shortage of pink tricycles, Ecovia here I come!