Montanita

Montanita is the most amazing little hippie town I've ever seen. We stayed in a hostal on the beach called Hostal Kundalini, which of course meant that I got to get up and do yoga on the beach every morning without anyone thinking twice, and even had a few locals join me once or twice. We did some surfing and made friends with a few bloaks that were staying in our hostal. this encounter occurred when we were in desperate need for a male figure to re-locate the triantula that was above our bed. One of them was a tall male model from guayaquil who ended up being pleasant eye candy for a few days, a 5ft-nothing surfer from i forget where, and a 6'2 semi-pro soccer player from mexico with a name non-other than Jesus.
This place was amazing, we're talking giant dream catchers hanging in the middle of the street, no shoes neccessary, sleeping on the beach, yoga on the beach, surfing with the locals, all the coconut ice cream you can imagine for a whopping 25 cents a pop, and the best vegetarian food south of the border.

Corpus Cristi festival.... its a two weeks celebration with all the Dulce and fuegos artificiales you can imagine.

My first encounter with meat in about 7 years. In Ecuador the word vegetarian just doesn't click for people and my boss is the worst of them all. We pulled up to a side vender, which is meat that no one should be eating, especially a vegetarian like myself. Within 10 seconds he had bought it, and it was in my hands and I was eating it!!! And it took just about that long for my body to reject it. I think now I've got him convinced that I am not a meat eater!!!

The ride home in the back of Mark's truck after eating meat!!!

Malabars and Face Painting

Ok- for the last few days we've been in Riobamba helping out with a fundraiser for a play that is being put on by the children with disibilities in one of the local schools. The money is for the children of the school and also for the children in the communities in Guamote. The last two days have consisted of us trying to sell tickets to people in the park. We had some of the jugglers helping out with the play come while we had a face painting booth where Ashlie and Kimley showed off their artistic abilities on the faces of Ecuadorian children. I used one of my many hidden talents, as you can see by the provided video... and did some juggling with the malabars. We gathered quite a crowd. I think they liked watching the gringa's make fools of themselves. An older woman came up to kimley and I and kept smiling and saying, "oh look at the gringa's play together, how beautiful they are when they play." We couldn't stop laughing and I'm afraid this only added to the fiasco.

Los Communidades

A few photos of the children I'll be getting to know this summer in the communities surrounding Cuenca. 

In the first two communities we went to, the children greeted us with a traditional dance program. They are so excited to have us and it makes us so excited to work with them. We have started our education classes and have also been working with the women in the communities with their gardens and cooking classes, teaching proper hygiene, and will start next week working with Cuy (guinea pig) micro enterprises.

Kimley and I awaiting our treats for the community

Donde Esta Los Banos?

This past weekend my mates and I went to Banos in Ecuador. It's a beautiful city that rests beneath an active volcano. We went horse back riding to a waterfall, and went to the hot springs where we met some travelers and shared a giant natural hot tub with about a hundred ecuadorians and europeans. Later we made friends with our hotel manager who told us all about the history of the volcano. He was near the top when it last errupted in August and had amazing photos to show us. He took us to the top where he was standing during the erruption which is an area that no one goes to anymore because its too dangerous. We could hear the lava grumbling and could see where the erruption had destroyed homes and fields. He told us that we were now in the most dangerous part of all of Ecuador-a little exaggerated I'm sure. The next day we went on a zipline across a river rivine, and then took four-wheelers up to another waterfall close to Puyo. It was so fun and action packed, but also pretty dangerous. Looking back, we trusted just about everyone and everything, but as soon as we heard cute french travelers, an active volcano and ziplines for 25 cents we didn't think to hesitate. My cute mates Christyn on the left and Ashlie in the middle. The Old Catholic Church in the center of Banos
Grafiti for the best of emMarianne, Ashlie, Kimley and I heading off to the waterfall

A distant viewWe wanted to go cheap, so we squeezed all of us into one hotel room. I slept in the middle which meant that I got to be the big and little spoon that night...a first for me.

Bienvenidos a Ecuador

Hola!!!! Me encanta Ecuador!!! It is amazing!!! The land, the people, the language en todo. I will be living in Cuenca for the next three months but have been staying in Rio Bamba for the past week to become familiar with the people and the work that we are doing here. Rio Bamba is a smaller city tucked in the Andes, with an active volcano and surrounding communities of indigenous people. we flew into quito around 10 Saturday night and hopped on a 4 1/2 hour bus ride to rio bamba. it was crazy!!! With all of our luggage and gringa essence, we were definitely a site for soar eyes. As soon as we got off the bus we took a taxi to our apartment. The smallest man i have seen yet, pulls up in a supped-up (by sudamericano standards) compact car, with cigarette smoke oozing out the windows. Somehow he fits us all in, chucks the luggage in the back and starts taking off down the road, cranking vato music, weaving in and out of traffic, barely skimming past dogs, people and other vehicles. As we drive, little flashing blue lights start going off on the sides of his windsheild. it was then I realized I was trapped in the "fast and furious" with a wannabe paul walker as my driver.

A man by the name of rolando came to pick us up. he was so kind and helpful. But by the time we got to the apartment we were exhausted and dirty and just wanted to go to bed, so we said good night and expected him to go home aswell. But no, what does he do? he gets on the computer and starts playing guns and roses (not the good stuff might i add) for about an hour or so. We just laid there, not knowing what to think. All we could do was laugh. We're talking 3 in the morning right now!! needless to say, he is quite a character.

We taught our first English class to Rolando and Adriana. They showed such enthusiasm and kept saying that they were so excited to learn. During the middle of the lesson Adriana asked us to explain the meaning of the words to Amy Grant’s song ‘Eternal Flame.’ It was awesome. Even Rolando started singing along. I have grown very fond of Rolando and his music appreciation.
Today we woke up early to go to Guamote. We went to two indigenous towns that primarily spoke Chitchua. My job for the day was to sacar fotos of the people in the community which of course, was quite alright with me. I love being swarmed by little kids asking to see their face on the back of your camera. Later we went around and helped families learn how to use their new irrigation systems that Ascend recently built. The village consists of probably a hundred or so huts and one community center, but Ascend has already built 50 irrigation projects in the surrounding area. It was amazing to visit with the families that will be benefiting from the work that we will do. I am excited to jump right in.

A few photos of the Community

Coachella Con Corbett

A few weeks ago, I went to California to visit my friend Corbett. It had been a while since I'd visited Cali so it was a much needed vacation at the end on the semester before taking off to South America. We first went to LA for a night and then went to the Coachella Festival in Indio. It was amazing. We saw MIA, Portishead, Hot Chip, MGMT, Junkie XL, The Cold War Kids and Prince to name a few. Afterwards we spent some time at Corbett's in Huntington Beach where we did some bike riding, some vintage shopping, some crepe eating- Corbett served a mission in France mind you, and I got to see my friend James for a bit. It was the most relaxing weekend I'd had in a long time. Muchas Gracias Corbett por todo.