Was in Mariscal on Monday in the artesan market when i bumped into one of the girls who´d been in my group on the trek up to Machu Pichu! Seriously random!
Also, first let me say i really don´t like clowns, so when we were coming back from Mindo the other weekend and a drunken clown targeted the gringos on the bus, wasn´t impressed. Other than the drunk factor was memorable by lack of teeth and his peculiar attempts at english. Anyways, on way back from english today couldn´t believe it when guess who got on the bus! Out of all the buses in Quito, what are the chances he´d pick ours, again?!
Wednesday 20 July 2011
Harry Potter, Shoes and Drinking
Sooo, turns out Harry Potter is a whole lot more popular here than anticipated. The 3d showing wasn´t just sold out at midnight, but all day both in Spanish and English. Then when we tried to buy tickets for the 2d showing, couldn´t get them either. So overall a bit of a let down that we didnt make it to see Harry Potter, but no fear still gonna see it at some point, and probs will make it into the pirate dvd stores in a week so.... ;)
Also, finally go me some new trainers last week as my old ones are almost worn through on the sole and are split down the side! However, turns out what big feet mean is that its really hard to buy shoes! First time tried i just got laughed at and they didnt believe we were looking for shoes for me. They only had ones which looked like clown shoes on my feet! Eventually gave in to some ones that werent bad and more importantly fitted my feet.
Anyways, Thursday was my day to make the birthday cake for Emy. However, things went a little wrong from the start when i bought effectively sugared whipped cream from the supermarket instead of icing. Then when i got home, i put everything inside then went across the road to top-up my phone, only to return and realise i left my keys on the kitchen counter! So had to hang around a while outside till Mary came home! Also, due to expensive nature of cake ingredients here (more so than at home!) i gave in and for the first time ever bought a box mixture. So wasn´t sure how it was gonna turn out at all. But Elise (another volunteer) came over to help, and we decided that a nice bottle of rum would make it easier ;) Think there was something wrong with me though as rum smelt a little odd to me, but as long as i didn´t smell it before drinking, alls good! Cakes were cooking well though in testing the first one i ate a small hueco in the middle! ;) Hadn´t made it back to the supermarket so went ahead with using the cream for icing. Wanted to make the cake in the form of Maka Paka who´s Emy´s favourite cartoon character and is a greyish/brown colour. Unfortunately when trying to put a few drops of red food dye in, the lid fell off, and the whole thing fell in, turning the cream a pretty vivid shade of pink. So from that moment on it was going to be a Maka Paka rosada! As to begin with only had one cake tin and then couldn´t open the oven till that cake was done, was too late to decorate the cake by then so just put everything away for next day. Friday evening I spent decorating the cake which didn´t turn out too disastrously considering lack of normal cake making materials. Also, froze to death helping Edwin and friend collect and bring chairs to the house for the Baptism. Took a while to convince his friend that chocolate not cigarettes was what i wanted to warm up though!
Anyways, saturday morning was a more sorting stuff out, but then had some free time to go for my run and go down to the supermaxi. Felt a little bit underdressed considering they were wearing suits and dresses when we went to the church but when we got there I was better than some others who´d come in jeans. Church was quite cool looking inside as was decorated like a ship, i would assume ark? Also dunno if i´ve mentioned this but people here just love to honk their horns for no apparent reason. So as Grandad was driving us to the church, every like 20m he´d honk twice despite no-one being around? Anyways, Amy was pretty unco-operative and kept screaming and turning her head away when they tried to put the water on her, which was pretty funny tbh. Plus the priest kept going on about how important baptism is and what bad parents people are if they deprive their child or something like that, but seemed a litttle redundant considering we were there for a baptism?
Got back to the house about 6 or so, with all the guests but dinner wasn´t going to be ready for quite a while so i offed to get me a snack of salchipapas! Also, was a little awkward as seemed a room full of either couples of old people who all knew each other. So I played with all the little kids for a while to ease the boredom. Now let me put this out there that Ecuadorian parties are something else. The evening basically consisted on toma toma/ baile baile! At one point Edwin had me taking the shots round as he said he couldn´t do it as they kept giving drinks to him. So, I´d go round with the tray and everyone wants you to take a drink with them, so I´d come back with like 5 empty ones of my own, then have to go round again as i hadn´t had enbough for everyone the first time! They also thought it was hilarious to get me to dance, mostly cause i´d already said i suck at it. But i think i provided a fair amount of entertainment with my attempts ;) Not really sure when they went to bed, Mary said she sent people home a bit after 4, but I gave in at 3.30 at fell asleep, apparently with my light still on. Next morning no-one got up till 11 and there was a ton of empty rum bottles on the kitchen table. Made myself a nice breakfast though of leftover rice, cake, and some yoghurt.
Effectively took the rest of the day to clear up, and we all got a couple hours napping time aswell cause Edwin´s parents took Emy for the day. Then about 6.30ish got my new housemate Ross, surprise surprise also from the states, but he seems really nice and he speaks good spanish. Though Edwin was calling him arroz to begin with ;) Due to my not so great state, decided i couldn´t face the 10 hour bus ride to the beach so i ended up giving that a miss!
Monday was chilled and didn´t get up till 10.30. Then gave Ross a quick tour of the area, and in the afternoon we went into Mariscal and the artesan market there. Also picked up a few films on the way home. Watched Prince of Persia on Mon which wasn´t too bad then The Eagle yesterday, which was the biggest bromance ever. Wasn´t what i was expecting at all!
Then yesterday managed to not hear an alarm clock by my head for over two hours and only woke up at 9(when im supposed to be at the office) as Mary knocked on the door! Almost did the same today as overslept but Edwin knocked earlier around 8.20 so wasn´t late this time!
Our structure attempt for english seemed to be working but got told yesterday that they´re cutting teaching english and kinda combining it with the markets program to create a sorta summer school session for the market kids. Then this morning i went to actual summer school program as they were short a person to teach maths. I was told someone had already planned out the lessons so i just had to go through it with the kids, but their ability was seriously uinderestimated, not to mention within the age groups there was such a variety in ability which made it really hard to do anything. Had to totally abandon the plan and adlib. But think i have a better idea now of what they know and can hopefully sort something for next week. I think the other issue is that Americans have lower standards for Maths according to what they´re taught in school. But that´s just a thought ;)
Will tell you my plan for this weekend, though i change things all the time so you never know! On friday finally hoping to get to see the new Harry Potter considering was a bit of a fail last week! Then Saturday hhead to Baños until early Monday morning where we´re gonna head to Quilotoa where we can do a 4/5 hour hike (depending on sunlgiht) upto and around a crater with the cool lake inside. Then depending on money situation might to a downhill biking trip next thursday on Cotopaxi. Then next weekend is just Mitad del mundo, Otavalo again and some time in old town as haven´t actually done that yet! Then fly out of Quito 6am Monday 1st August!! Can´t believe where the times gone, I mean only got less than 2 weeks left till i leave!
Also, finally go me some new trainers last week as my old ones are almost worn through on the sole and are split down the side! However, turns out what big feet mean is that its really hard to buy shoes! First time tried i just got laughed at and they didnt believe we were looking for shoes for me. They only had ones which looked like clown shoes on my feet! Eventually gave in to some ones that werent bad and more importantly fitted my feet.
Anyways, Thursday was my day to make the birthday cake for Emy. However, things went a little wrong from the start when i bought effectively sugared whipped cream from the supermarket instead of icing. Then when i got home, i put everything inside then went across the road to top-up my phone, only to return and realise i left my keys on the kitchen counter! So had to hang around a while outside till Mary came home! Also, due to expensive nature of cake ingredients here (more so than at home!) i gave in and for the first time ever bought a box mixture. So wasn´t sure how it was gonna turn out at all. But Elise (another volunteer) came over to help, and we decided that a nice bottle of rum would make it easier ;) Think there was something wrong with me though as rum smelt a little odd to me, but as long as i didn´t smell it before drinking, alls good! Cakes were cooking well though in testing the first one i ate a small hueco in the middle! ;) Hadn´t made it back to the supermarket so went ahead with using the cream for icing. Wanted to make the cake in the form of Maka Paka who´s Emy´s favourite cartoon character and is a greyish/brown colour. Unfortunately when trying to put a few drops of red food dye in, the lid fell off, and the whole thing fell in, turning the cream a pretty vivid shade of pink. So from that moment on it was going to be a Maka Paka rosada! As to begin with only had one cake tin and then couldn´t open the oven till that cake was done, was too late to decorate the cake by then so just put everything away for next day. Friday evening I spent decorating the cake which didn´t turn out too disastrously considering lack of normal cake making materials. Also, froze to death helping Edwin and friend collect and bring chairs to the house for the Baptism. Took a while to convince his friend that chocolate not cigarettes was what i wanted to warm up though!
Anyways, saturday morning was a more sorting stuff out, but then had some free time to go for my run and go down to the supermaxi. Felt a little bit underdressed considering they were wearing suits and dresses when we went to the church but when we got there I was better than some others who´d come in jeans. Church was quite cool looking inside as was decorated like a ship, i would assume ark? Also dunno if i´ve mentioned this but people here just love to honk their horns for no apparent reason. So as Grandad was driving us to the church, every like 20m he´d honk twice despite no-one being around? Anyways, Amy was pretty unco-operative and kept screaming and turning her head away when they tried to put the water on her, which was pretty funny tbh. Plus the priest kept going on about how important baptism is and what bad parents people are if they deprive their child or something like that, but seemed a litttle redundant considering we were there for a baptism?
Got back to the house about 6 or so, with all the guests but dinner wasn´t going to be ready for quite a while so i offed to get me a snack of salchipapas! Also, was a little awkward as seemed a room full of either couples of old people who all knew each other. So I played with all the little kids for a while to ease the boredom. Now let me put this out there that Ecuadorian parties are something else. The evening basically consisted on toma toma/ baile baile! At one point Edwin had me taking the shots round as he said he couldn´t do it as they kept giving drinks to him. So, I´d go round with the tray and everyone wants you to take a drink with them, so I´d come back with like 5 empty ones of my own, then have to go round again as i hadn´t had enbough for everyone the first time! They also thought it was hilarious to get me to dance, mostly cause i´d already said i suck at it. But i think i provided a fair amount of entertainment with my attempts ;) Not really sure when they went to bed, Mary said she sent people home a bit after 4, but I gave in at 3.30 at fell asleep, apparently with my light still on. Next morning no-one got up till 11 and there was a ton of empty rum bottles on the kitchen table. Made myself a nice breakfast though of leftover rice, cake, and some yoghurt.
Effectively took the rest of the day to clear up, and we all got a couple hours napping time aswell cause Edwin´s parents took Emy for the day. Then about 6.30ish got my new housemate Ross, surprise surprise also from the states, but he seems really nice and he speaks good spanish. Though Edwin was calling him arroz to begin with ;) Due to my not so great state, decided i couldn´t face the 10 hour bus ride to the beach so i ended up giving that a miss!
Monday was chilled and didn´t get up till 10.30. Then gave Ross a quick tour of the area, and in the afternoon we went into Mariscal and the artesan market there. Also picked up a few films on the way home. Watched Prince of Persia on Mon which wasn´t too bad then The Eagle yesterday, which was the biggest bromance ever. Wasn´t what i was expecting at all!
Then yesterday managed to not hear an alarm clock by my head for over two hours and only woke up at 9(when im supposed to be at the office) as Mary knocked on the door! Almost did the same today as overslept but Edwin knocked earlier around 8.20 so wasn´t late this time!
Our structure attempt for english seemed to be working but got told yesterday that they´re cutting teaching english and kinda combining it with the markets program to create a sorta summer school session for the market kids. Then this morning i went to actual summer school program as they were short a person to teach maths. I was told someone had already planned out the lessons so i just had to go through it with the kids, but their ability was seriously uinderestimated, not to mention within the age groups there was such a variety in ability which made it really hard to do anything. Had to totally abandon the plan and adlib. But think i have a better idea now of what they know and can hopefully sort something for next week. I think the other issue is that Americans have lower standards for Maths according to what they´re taught in school. But that´s just a thought ;)
Will tell you my plan for this weekend, though i change things all the time so you never know! On friday finally hoping to get to see the new Harry Potter considering was a bit of a fail last week! Then Saturday hhead to Baños until early Monday morning where we´re gonna head to Quilotoa where we can do a 4/5 hour hike (depending on sunlgiht) upto and around a crater with the cool lake inside. Then depending on money situation might to a downhill biking trip next thursday on Cotopaxi. Then next weekend is just Mitad del mundo, Otavalo again and some time in old town as haven´t actually done that yet! Then fly out of Quito 6am Monday 1st August!! Can´t believe where the times gone, I mean only got less than 2 weeks left till i leave!
Wednesday 13 July 2011
A Weekend of Awesome Eating
So this weekend like 15 of us went to this place called Mindo which isnt that far out of Quito only 2 hours or so. It´s a tiny little town and could easily walk the whole thing in 20mins! Anyways, after getting settled into the hostal we went to this place called Chocolarte for lunch where they have these amazing chocolate brownies. Also had a cheese toastie and a banana milkshake to go with it. Then we had to rush back as we were late for getting picked upt o go ziplining. There were either 12/13 lines and was really cool views. Plus you got to go upside down, or they´d bounce the line up and down with you on it or you could go with a guide and do like superman or something!
After this we were going to go on a coffee tour that lonely planet recommended as having the best coffee in Ecuador. However, surprise surprise LP was wrong again and the coffee place was actually shut down. So we ended up back at the same place we had lunch for a demonstration on how he makes some of his chocolate, we got to help peel and grind the cocoa and then were served a fondue with a massive fruit bowl and biscuits :) Was seriously good! Then decided to wash that down at the juice bar next door, I had passion fruit juice. Spent a while chilling in the hostal before it was time for dinner. There was another chocolate place next door that did cocoa/caramel beer, so we gave that a try and wasn´t too bad though don´t think i´d have the cocoa one again! Dinner was massive pizzas that were sooo good. And after a small walk to ease the digestion we just hung out at the hostal for the night.
Next morning, started with breakfast at a new place, so eggs, bread, milk, juice ad a banana milkshake. Seem to currently be eating a lot of eggs and think they´re growing on me! ;) Also, wandering around town, me and Elise, found these Quad bikes you could rent out for $10 an hour. So we were totally set to do that only to be shot down by the fact you had to have either your driving license or original passport. I lost my license and we all only take copies of our passports with us on trips! So there went that idea. Instead some of us went tubing. They had all these rubber tubes tied together to make a giant one and then down the river we went. It was unbelievably cold to begin with but after a minute or two you kinda numbed out and it was just really fun. Our guide was like a sppiderman, leaping from rocks to push us around and jumping from side to side!
Anyways, after a nice warm shower we still had a while left before the bus home so there was only 1 thing to do..... eat lunch! ;) Me, Nik and Alex ended up at a little more expensive place as we couldn´t get over how good the food smelled! I had a grilled chicken sandwich with fries. Then for desert the others came back and we had these awesome warm chocolate brownies with ice-cream!
On top of all the food, ended up spending more money as it was such a great place to get some more gifts aswell! lol
Luckily, when i got home there was spaguetti waiting for me and then i got pizza the next day for breakfast so my family had obviously got the memo about my weekend of eating! Then to round it all off we did a pot luck at the volunteer house, by we I mean those who live there plus me. Anyways, ended up with soooo much good food. Amy made this amazing spicy pasta, Megan did an egg dish with veggies and potatoes, Jon made the most amazing potato annd cheese tacos, I did some cheesy garlic bread and Nik made guacamole! The others had also got cake and ice-cream for desert though after dinner we had to wat a couple hours before we could eat anything else! And that rounded off the weekend of awesome eating! :)
Yesterday, Me and Nik spent the morning planning the english lessons annd trying to give it some form of structure. Anyways, we had the most successful lesson in the afternoon to date so think it was worth it. We had full attention for 99% of the time which is basically unheard of, and they actually participated in the activities aswell! whoop
Also, helped Danny do the posters to promote the summer lessons which start next week; I get to teach maths (which i have been missing! ;)
So, today off wiith couple others to buy our tickets for the Harry Potter premiere tomorrow, theres like 15/20 of us going to see it at midnight, in english! :) excited!!!!
After this we were going to go on a coffee tour that lonely planet recommended as having the best coffee in Ecuador. However, surprise surprise LP was wrong again and the coffee place was actually shut down. So we ended up back at the same place we had lunch for a demonstration on how he makes some of his chocolate, we got to help peel and grind the cocoa and then were served a fondue with a massive fruit bowl and biscuits :) Was seriously good! Then decided to wash that down at the juice bar next door, I had passion fruit juice. Spent a while chilling in the hostal before it was time for dinner. There was another chocolate place next door that did cocoa/caramel beer, so we gave that a try and wasn´t too bad though don´t think i´d have the cocoa one again! Dinner was massive pizzas that were sooo good. And after a small walk to ease the digestion we just hung out at the hostal for the night.
Next morning, started with breakfast at a new place, so eggs, bread, milk, juice ad a banana milkshake. Seem to currently be eating a lot of eggs and think they´re growing on me! ;) Also, wandering around town, me and Elise, found these Quad bikes you could rent out for $10 an hour. So we were totally set to do that only to be shot down by the fact you had to have either your driving license or original passport. I lost my license and we all only take copies of our passports with us on trips! So there went that idea. Instead some of us went tubing. They had all these rubber tubes tied together to make a giant one and then down the river we went. It was unbelievably cold to begin with but after a minute or two you kinda numbed out and it was just really fun. Our guide was like a sppiderman, leaping from rocks to push us around and jumping from side to side!
Anyways, after a nice warm shower we still had a while left before the bus home so there was only 1 thing to do..... eat lunch! ;) Me, Nik and Alex ended up at a little more expensive place as we couldn´t get over how good the food smelled! I had a grilled chicken sandwich with fries. Then for desert the others came back and we had these awesome warm chocolate brownies with ice-cream!
On top of all the food, ended up spending more money as it was such a great place to get some more gifts aswell! lol
Luckily, when i got home there was spaguetti waiting for me and then i got pizza the next day for breakfast so my family had obviously got the memo about my weekend of eating! Then to round it all off we did a pot luck at the volunteer house, by we I mean those who live there plus me. Anyways, ended up with soooo much good food. Amy made this amazing spicy pasta, Megan did an egg dish with veggies and potatoes, Jon made the most amazing potato annd cheese tacos, I did some cheesy garlic bread and Nik made guacamole! The others had also got cake and ice-cream for desert though after dinner we had to wat a couple hours before we could eat anything else! And that rounded off the weekend of awesome eating! :)
Yesterday, Me and Nik spent the morning planning the english lessons annd trying to give it some form of structure. Anyways, we had the most successful lesson in the afternoon to date so think it was worth it. We had full attention for 99% of the time which is basically unheard of, and they actually participated in the activities aswell! whoop
Also, helped Danny do the posters to promote the summer lessons which start next week; I get to teach maths (which i have been missing! ;)
So, today off wiith couple others to buy our tickets for the Harry Potter premiere tomorrow, theres like 15/20 of us going to see it at midnight, in english! :) excited!!!!
Tuesday 5 July 2011
Camping in Cotopaxi
So Saturday we chilled in Mariscal for a while in the morning where I bumped into some of the others who were looking to rent equipment to go camping at cotopaxi, which is the second higest volcano in Ecuador and surrounded by a nationa park. Sounded pretty cool so decided to join them even though they were going next morning and ment missing the tennis (though turns out wasn´t much to miss by looks of things!).
Then me and Erin went over to the volunteer house where Amy had made these awesome enchiladas and rice. Was a little spicy but seriously good! Just hung out there with the others for a couple hours and watched some Dexter :) Anyways figured bit after 8 ought to head home as Erin wanted to see the family and get photos etc as Friday family night was not a success. They weren´t home when we got back so assumed they´d just popped out for a while. We´d got some rum for the occassion so decided to start on that. But several hours and half a bottle of rum later they still weren´t back. Even tried texting them though they didnt respond. Round bout midnight in rolls a rather drunk Edwin with Marie and Emy in tow. Rest of night went downhill from there as the rum gradually disappeared and Edwin became harder and harder to translate! Unfortunately ended in Edwin and Marie having a massive shouing match at like 2 in the morning across the house. And couldn´t go to bed still as had to wait up for Erin to leave as she was getting picked up at 3am!
Needless to say, was bordering on dying next morning having to get up at 8 to meet my friend at the trole station at 8.30 to go get the bus to the town near Cotopaxi. But couple hours later, lot of water and some bread things were looking up and the bus to Latacunga only took 1 1/2 hours as opposed to the expected 2 :) The others had gone the previous night somewhere else and were meeting us at Latacunga. Unfortunately they got lost so we had to wait like an hour and a bit but gave a nice break to have a nap. Then when they arrived, it turned out Thomas´friend who lives here was giving us all a lift though it meant fitting 8 people into a car which was a teeeny bit squished! Also people had to hide everytime we went near police as even here, in town can´t do that!
Arrived at the entrance to the park only to be informed as we were foreigners we couldn´t be trusted to enter the park ourselves, we were allowed to stay in by ourselves but not allowed to go along the straight road with no detours minus a guide. AKA a giant scam to rip off the gringos. Unfortunately having no choice we had to pay the guide to come with us where he drove us like 20 mins to this ´laguna´more like overly flooded grass, though still pretty, then another 5 mins to the campsite. Toms friend didn´t have enough gas (petrol in real english) to make it up to the car park we wanted to go so left to get more whilst we set up camp. Was actually quite a big 5 man tent and easily accomodated the 6 of us. Anyways, the car park is part way up the volcano and then you can hike another hour up to the refuge which is where people who are going to summit it spend some time acclimatising. We could seriously feel the altitude going up and whilst it didn´t look that far was really hard and were walking on a kinda sandy/rubbly surface meaning every step you took you kinda sank and slided back a bit!
Was totally worth it once we got to the top with the awesome view especially of the sunset. Would have been cool to reach the snow but that was quite a bit higher and the refuge is already at 4,180m or so. Also is insanely expensive to summit it as have to have a guide and all the equipment to do so! Having taken so long to get up, literally took 5 mins to run back down!
Was kinda chilly by time we got back to tent and said goodbye to toms friends who´d been so nice and helpful. Also couldn´t light little gas burner outside so had to do so in the tent to boil water for our ´pot noodles´. Also made some hot chocolate and I had my speakers and ipod so had some music aswell. Then Tom and Vida got a fire going outside aswell. Only issues swhen we went back inside the tent with our $3 bottle of watermelon vodka. Vida like paniked at every noise outside and grabbed my arm spilling my vodka everywhere, then when emily went outside to the toilet, she started screaming there was a cow outside - which im still certain there wasnt - causing more spillage. Then to top it off someone scared vida with a noise outside and she like dived across the tent with another cup of vodka, so had to clear that all up. Then i think we were probs in sleeping bags by 10/10.30! I didnt sleep too bad though kept waking up from the cold every now and then. When we woke up was tipping it down though so after eating our cereal, more hot chocolate and some bread, packed up and were set to go. Had originally planned to walk out the park down to the Panamericana(highway) which was a 5/6 hour walk. But after an hour in the poring rain, not being able to actually see the scenery or anything, managed to hitch a lift from a passing man in his truck who took us all the way to where we could catch the bus back to Quito.
Kinda was tired so just slept and read for the rest of the evening then went to bed early as i was up at 6.45 for our morning exercise hoy, which was harder than usual!
Anyways, Cotopaxi was really cool looking was only a shame we didn´t get a chance to do some actual hiking though was really glad we made it up to the refuge as liek i said the view was awesome!!
Then me and Erin went over to the volunteer house where Amy had made these awesome enchiladas and rice. Was a little spicy but seriously good! Just hung out there with the others for a couple hours and watched some Dexter :) Anyways figured bit after 8 ought to head home as Erin wanted to see the family and get photos etc as Friday family night was not a success. They weren´t home when we got back so assumed they´d just popped out for a while. We´d got some rum for the occassion so decided to start on that. But several hours and half a bottle of rum later they still weren´t back. Even tried texting them though they didnt respond. Round bout midnight in rolls a rather drunk Edwin with Marie and Emy in tow. Rest of night went downhill from there as the rum gradually disappeared and Edwin became harder and harder to translate! Unfortunately ended in Edwin and Marie having a massive shouing match at like 2 in the morning across the house. And couldn´t go to bed still as had to wait up for Erin to leave as she was getting picked up at 3am!
Needless to say, was bordering on dying next morning having to get up at 8 to meet my friend at the trole station at 8.30 to go get the bus to the town near Cotopaxi. But couple hours later, lot of water and some bread things were looking up and the bus to Latacunga only took 1 1/2 hours as opposed to the expected 2 :) The others had gone the previous night somewhere else and were meeting us at Latacunga. Unfortunately they got lost so we had to wait like an hour and a bit but gave a nice break to have a nap. Then when they arrived, it turned out Thomas´friend who lives here was giving us all a lift though it meant fitting 8 people into a car which was a teeeny bit squished! Also people had to hide everytime we went near police as even here, in town can´t do that!
Arrived at the entrance to the park only to be informed as we were foreigners we couldn´t be trusted to enter the park ourselves, we were allowed to stay in by ourselves but not allowed to go along the straight road with no detours minus a guide. AKA a giant scam to rip off the gringos. Unfortunately having no choice we had to pay the guide to come with us where he drove us like 20 mins to this ´laguna´more like overly flooded grass, though still pretty, then another 5 mins to the campsite. Toms friend didn´t have enough gas (petrol in real english) to make it up to the car park we wanted to go so left to get more whilst we set up camp. Was actually quite a big 5 man tent and easily accomodated the 6 of us. Anyways, the car park is part way up the volcano and then you can hike another hour up to the refuge which is where people who are going to summit it spend some time acclimatising. We could seriously feel the altitude going up and whilst it didn´t look that far was really hard and were walking on a kinda sandy/rubbly surface meaning every step you took you kinda sank and slided back a bit!
Was totally worth it once we got to the top with the awesome view especially of the sunset. Would have been cool to reach the snow but that was quite a bit higher and the refuge is already at 4,180m or so. Also is insanely expensive to summit it as have to have a guide and all the equipment to do so! Having taken so long to get up, literally took 5 mins to run back down!
Was kinda chilly by time we got back to tent and said goodbye to toms friends who´d been so nice and helpful. Also couldn´t light little gas burner outside so had to do so in the tent to boil water for our ´pot noodles´. Also made some hot chocolate and I had my speakers and ipod so had some music aswell. Then Tom and Vida got a fire going outside aswell. Only issues swhen we went back inside the tent with our $3 bottle of watermelon vodka. Vida like paniked at every noise outside and grabbed my arm spilling my vodka everywhere, then when emily went outside to the toilet, she started screaming there was a cow outside - which im still certain there wasnt - causing more spillage. Then to top it off someone scared vida with a noise outside and she like dived across the tent with another cup of vodka, so had to clear that all up. Then i think we were probs in sleeping bags by 10/10.30! I didnt sleep too bad though kept waking up from the cold every now and then. When we woke up was tipping it down though so after eating our cereal, more hot chocolate and some bread, packed up and were set to go. Had originally planned to walk out the park down to the Panamericana(highway) which was a 5/6 hour walk. But after an hour in the poring rain, not being able to actually see the scenery or anything, managed to hitch a lift from a passing man in his truck who took us all the way to where we could catch the bus back to Quito.
Kinda was tired so just slept and read for the rest of the evening then went to bed early as i was up at 6.45 for our morning exercise hoy, which was harder than usual!
Anyways, Cotopaxi was really cool looking was only a shame we didn´t get a chance to do some actual hiking though was really glad we made it up to the refuge as liek i said the view was awesome!!
Friday 1 July 2011
Keeping Up to Date
Sooo, staying on top of things this week.
Forgot to mention that aswell as tidying my rrom on Monday , partially from boredom, I also decided to cut my hair as it was starting to annoy me. Given that it usually gets cut like tops every 6 weeks and hadn´t been cut inlike 3 months.... not good. On the other hand, didn´t have enough money to spare to get a haircut so decided to do it myself! Gotta say given i can´t see the back of my head and i did it with my penknife, I think the result wasn´t too appaling ;) Cut like 2 inches off the back as that was what was really getting to me.
Yesterday we went out again though there was only like 7 of us and my friend from Peru, Phillipa, whose currently in Quito. Were gonna have an earlyish night but as usual didn´t really work out annd got home about 3, after goinng back to that same burger place as last week. As a result i was less than happy asbout getting up this morning with like 5 hours of sleep, but did it anyways annd market wasn´t that bad today actually!
Though there was some confusion later on as they made us all go back to the office for some meeting only to be told when we arrived we were gonna have it after lunch instead, so had 50 mins to get home, eat and get back. Considering it´s a 15 min walk to get home was a lil pushed for time! Back at office and they were still waiting onpeople so i went ahead to english classes with the other 2 volunteers (only 3 at the mo!). However got on the bus to realise i lost my nice new sunglasses, though 2 weeks life span isn´t too bad, and then bus took like 50 mins to get where we were going so only had under hour with the kidfs. tThen inside we couldnt even get into the classroom as is locked and the security man had disappeared. So had to play outside and only got into the room for the last 20 mins!
Anyways, hoping things perk up, as planning to spend the evening as family time, as Erin´s last night, though i´m not sure they´re overly keen on it, or even aware of our plans, as Marie really seems to0 have gone off Erin recently, though Erin asures me that Marie never liked her! ;)
Then tomorrow is probs another chilled day, then we´re hacving an enchilada party at the volunteer house. Sunday morning is of course Wimbledon finals, so I shall be finding myself a large t.v to watch it upon! (yes i did plan my weeken partially around that) Then either Sunday or Monday think gonna head to Mindo with a few others where they´ve supposedly got this really cool ziplining! Should be fun :)
Forgot to mention that aswell as tidying my rrom on Monday , partially from boredom, I also decided to cut my hair as it was starting to annoy me. Given that it usually gets cut like tops every 6 weeks and hadn´t been cut inlike 3 months.... not good. On the other hand, didn´t have enough money to spare to get a haircut so decided to do it myself! Gotta say given i can´t see the back of my head and i did it with my penknife, I think the result wasn´t too appaling ;) Cut like 2 inches off the back as that was what was really getting to me.
Yesterday we went out again though there was only like 7 of us and my friend from Peru, Phillipa, whose currently in Quito. Were gonna have an earlyish night but as usual didn´t really work out annd got home about 3, after goinng back to that same burger place as last week. As a result i was less than happy asbout getting up this morning with like 5 hours of sleep, but did it anyways annd market wasn´t that bad today actually!
Though there was some confusion later on as they made us all go back to the office for some meeting only to be told when we arrived we were gonna have it after lunch instead, so had 50 mins to get home, eat and get back. Considering it´s a 15 min walk to get home was a lil pushed for time! Back at office and they were still waiting onpeople so i went ahead to english classes with the other 2 volunteers (only 3 at the mo!). However got on the bus to realise i lost my nice new sunglasses, though 2 weeks life span isn´t too bad, and then bus took like 50 mins to get where we were going so only had under hour with the kidfs. tThen inside we couldnt even get into the classroom as is locked and the security man had disappeared. So had to play outside and only got into the room for the last 20 mins!
Anyways, hoping things perk up, as planning to spend the evening as family time, as Erin´s last night, though i´m not sure they´re overly keen on it, or even aware of our plans, as Marie really seems to0 have gone off Erin recently, though Erin asures me that Marie never liked her! ;)
Then tomorrow is probs another chilled day, then we´re hacving an enchilada party at the volunteer house. Sunday morning is of course Wimbledon finals, so I shall be finding myself a large t.v to watch it upon! (yes i did plan my weeken partially around that) Then either Sunday or Monday think gonna head to Mindo with a few others where they´ve supposedly got this really cool ziplining! Should be fun :)
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