Christmas in Cumbaya

So I am back in Cumbaya (Quito), spending the xmas holiday with my host family that I first stayed with when I came to Ecuador. Leaving the island was rough: I did not want to leave my host family and all the friends I made, not to mention the beautiful island itself. The Yepez family made me a farewell dinner of lobster and rice and potatoes and more homemade hooch. We exchanged gifts and I bawled like a blubbering baby. We all arrived in Quito on Saturday and were put up in Hotel Corlina. Sunday evening we had our farewell dinner, and then few by few, students were taken to the airport to return home, or else continue on their travels. I was surprised by how emotional I became, saying goodbye to some great friends, trying to make plans for Spring Break (Asheville, baby!).
Monday some of us went to the Oswaldo Guayasamin museum in Quito. It is his old home and studio converted into galleries of his collections of pre-colonial artifacts, his original artwork, and a side exhibit of other painters representations of Guayasamin. He is considered one of the most influetial and important artists in all of South America, and was from Quito. I was so happy that I had the chance to see his museum. He was a spokesman for peace and used his work to depict the agony and suffering caused by war, slavery, and oppression of culture.
Later, me and two friends rode to Mindo, a small town just a few hours from Quito. We stayed in a small cabin, surrounded by lush green hills and small streams rushing. Mindo is known for the butterflys and orchids that grow, this time of the year is supposed to be the best for the orchids to be blooming. We walked up a long muddy road to the Marioposia (Butterfly Nursery) where we entered a small area, netted closed, of course, with probably one hundred beautiful butterflies. There were owl eyes and blue morphos, and plenty more that i couldn{t identify. We were told that because there hadn{t been much rain lately, most orchids weren{t in bloom. We had lunch in town and took a two dollar bus back to Quito. We all went out together that night, dancing in downtown Quito is not near as much fun as dancing in San Cristobal, and the other four students left the next morning. I woke up alone in a huge hotel room and felt ready to come home for the first time in four and a half months. I packed my things and left them with the hotel, while I roamed around Quito by myself. I went to the Cultural center and saw a lot of pre-colonial artifacts, including many pots made by the Incas. I walked around more, ate an almuerzo, and then rested in a park for awhile. There was an artisan market set up, many families out together, and even a brass band in the park and a small parade.

Dos Tiburones y Dos Angelitas

Saturday I went with my class to fish with the new program, Pescando Vivencial. The morning started off great, us 8 students were pumped to catch a big one. A local restaurant named Deep Blue (owned by one of my many host uncles on the island) was going to cook it for our dinner that evening. Our first bite bent the line and Carolyn jumped up and strapped on a belt with a holder for the pole, that way she could hold the line and reel in as fast as she could. Try as she did, she wasn't fast enough, because a lobo came up and munched our catch, lure and all. This was a disappointment, as the sea lions just swim with the boat and are obviously waiting for us to catch anything. What lazy little stinkers they can be! We fished many different areas, but didn't have anymore nibbles. Finally, much later in the morning, we had two bites at once! Both of the fishermen turned tour guides grabbed the poles and tried to reel them in quickly. To all of our dismay, two black-tipped sharks snagged these fish, but also bit down on the giant hooks. For the next twenty minutes or so, the professional fishermen struggled and fought with these sharks, about five and a half feet long, splashing and squirming on the end of the line which can hold up to 350 lbs. Finally, one fisherman was able to cut the line, freeing the shark. The second one was hooked and the lure pried from it's giant mouth. I saw it's eye, a white-ish grey orb that seemed to gaze at nothing. The shark was freed and released and the fisherman cheered and wiped the sweat from his forehead: he had saved his lure, with only gills left. We had no more bites that day, but luckily for us, the other boat with students had caught a wahoo and a tuna, so we would have something to eat with our rice that night for dinner. It wasn't until then that I heard a superstition about having bananas on boats. Apparently this is terrible luck, not just for fishing, but for anything to go wrong. "Well, that explains alot," I commented, as I recollected all of us happily chewing on the bananas earlier that morning, wondering why there were not more bites on our lines. It was an amazing experience, and so scary to see the sharks that close. Now I understand why the fishermen have resorted to long-line fishing and other newer techniques, in order to catch anything and not be robbed by sea lions and sharks. 

Monday night was the kickoff of this week's XMAS activities put on by the tourism chamber, who my father and sister are members of. I helped my sister for two days painting large cardboard candy canes and mistletoe cutouts, stuffed about 500 small grab bags of candy for the kiddos, and made little votive candles with plastic soda bottles. That night me and my friend Jazmine dressed as angelitas with white dresses, paper wings and garland halos and held votive candles and walked in the parade, behind a very unhappy white horse pulling a carriage with about twenty kids piled on. Afterwards we went to a cafe and sat at the bar to have a beer. Even more pictures, as everyone wants to take a picture with an angelita and her beer mug. 

After the parade there was a holiday cartoon shown in the square and my family dished up hot chocolate and bread for everyone who came. Last night all the different elementary schools presented their handmade ornaments for the city tree. Tonight I am face painting after class, I have been practicing my tree and star shapes, I hope I can get it right...

Una Semana Mas...

Somehow I only have one week left on San Cristobal, before returning to Quito and setting out on my own for a few days before returning to the states. Where has the time gone? This week was the last week of actual classes (next week is final presentations) and the last hours spent volunteering. On Wednesday, I taught the level 4 English class Solomon Burke's "Gotta Get You Offa My Mind" = awesome. Today I made XMAS cards with the kids at El Progreso and brought juice and cookies to have a little party. They all made cards for me and wanted me to take pictures with all of them and me and the little XMAS tree they have set up. So funny to do when it's nearly 90 degrees outside. Very sad to say goodbye to all of them, I can't say for sure that I'll be missed, but I will miss all of them, for sure. 

Tonight I'm going out for drinks with friends, but not too many...In the morning I'm going fishing with my classmates and my professor, who's the director of a program called Pescando Vivencia (Livelihood Fishing). This is a new program happening on San Cristobal to try to persuade more fishermen to have an alternative income in tourism. 

I'm finishing up my final papers and presentations. I'm writing my final project on how the tourism industry has influenced people living in San Cristobal to learn English as a second language, incorporating my service work experiences. 

I'm not sure how I feel about leaving the island so soon, returning to a large city and then back to the US. I have many new friends to keep in touch with, but am also excited to return to my loved ones back in the states. 

Cumpleanos Almuerzo

Tomorrow is my papa's 59th birthday, so there was a huge almuerzo today to celebrate: sopa, rice, chicken, ensalada, and papas fritas. I helped the women in the kitchen all morning. I'm still not sure if I was more trouble than I was help, but it was fun and the food turned out great. First, I apparently don't know how to cut up a chicken correctly. But I had a chance to redeem myself on the second bird. Then I made an ensalada with cooked carrots, peas and corn, apple, tomatoes, green pepper, and cilantra, with salt, lime and, of course, mayonessa. It turned out pretty good, though, and once all mixed together, my sister told me that it was an experiment, a good one, since we would indeed be eating it. Then I browned some potatoes in butter on the gas stove (something I can definitely do, thanks German heritage!) and added some oregano. There was juice and homemade liquor. It was brown like whiskey, but it had been infused with pasas (raisins) and burned like the devil. For dessert we ate watermelon and pineapple, and then some retired to the hammocks while Vicente brought out the cds, including Shakira, everyone's favorite. ;) We danced a little, and he sang a lot! All day friends and family showed up to wish him "Feliz cumpleanos!" and to eat some of the food on the back porch and visit for hours. He has a twin brother, and the two of them are ridiculous when together. They joke and pretend to be the other one, even though they don't look that much alike at this age... I love the idea of a party for whomever shows up, though there were probably thirty guests over the course of the day. The gifts are for everyone: great food shared among relatives and lifelong friends, dancing and drinks. And there is always room for one more at the table...

Minga!

Saturday was a minga limpieza (community clean up day). Two of the students are volunteering at the recycling center for their service work, and they organized the whole event with the municipio. We all recruited our families and met at the city building at eight in the morning. We waited for about half an hour (in true island-time fashion) for the people from the municipio to show up and unlock the door. Once they did, they gave us all t-shirts and gloves and giant trash bags. Then we were delivered by pick-up taxi to different areas around town to pick up litter. There are many open lots around the schools and between neighborhoods, so lots of trash blows into the plants and trees there and gets stuck. Along the streets there are lots of little bits of trash, and in small ditches lots of people just chuck their finished bottle, bag, or can. After about three hours of hard work, we all were amazed at how good it looked. My brother told me that not many local people like to participate in mingas anymore, they are becoming less connected to the idea of community as a family. It was great to see so many young locals, however, helping out. Maybe it will ignite a passion in the next generation, like my own. 

Suerta Chica

Last Saturday I was invited by Jose, my host brother, on his day tour with his tour group. I joined about fifteen rich, old Germans on a very nice boat. First we went snorkeling at Isla Lobos and the tourists all gawked and squibbled about the iguanas, very red now for the mating season, and the frigate birds all circling overhead, ready for someone else to find some dinner to steal. They are indeed the Bad Boys of the Galapagos Skies...We then navigated to Leon Dormido, so beautiful each time I get to see it. We were distracted when Jose spotted a group of dolphins swimming and jumping out of the waves, we followed them for awhile, and I was tempted to swim with them, but knew I wouldn't be able to keep up at all. Jose said that I was good luck to have on the boat, as no one (including myself) had seen dolphins yet. I kept this information to myself, assuring them that, yes, indeed, it was because I was freeloading on their very expensive trip that the dolphins chose to make an appearance. Yes, yes, and you're welcome. "Ya, bitte shon!" 

Here I will briefly comment on how incredibly hilarious it was to witness Jose, who has excellent English, but a very strong Spanish accent, fumble with German around these old fuddy-duds. He's so funny and genuine, but they totally ignore his desperate attempts at learning their own language in order to better serve them. It was not taken personally, however, he laughs at all of them behind their hairy backs...

To my dismay, none of the geezers wanted to snorkel around the giant rock formation, where all the sharks and giant manta rays like to hang out. Since I didn't exactly feel right about insisting they wait an hour on only me to do it, we navigated on to the beach. Once at Porta Grande, I went snorkeling by myself around the mangroves (very cloudy mess) and almost RAN INTO a giant sea tortise! I nearly spit my snorkel out of my mouth, and he seemed to do a double take, before darting off into the cloudy water. I returned to shore and slept in the sun a little. When we were navigating out of the bay a while later, we saw many more tortises, one pair was, you know...copulating. Another sight that is rare and surely due to my presence on the boat trip. 

When I returned, I went to school to help out on the Thanksgiving dinner that was planned for that evening. We had five chickens (I would have preferred cuy), mashed potatoes, spinach quiche, green bean casserole, stuffing, rolls from a local paneria (bakery), pumpkin pie, and apple crisp. It was so good, I couldn't help but eat a lot of everything. Fast. And so later, after one and a half beers, I started to feel like I was inflating slowly. After getting very sick from a holiday dinner overdose, I decided that my system can't handle meals without white rice and fried plantains anymore...

Muchas Islas

So I haven't written a new blog in a while, I'll try to do an accurate job of updating what I've been doing. Halloween weekend some friends and I went on a sea kayaking and camping trip. Twelve of us rented a boat and left in the early afternoon. We rode to a beach where we paired up and kayaked along the coast to another beach. A couple little sea lions swam around us and followed for awhile. Gradually, Ingvild and I noticed that our kayak was filling up with water, and that we were tipping a little more than we liked as some larger waves hit us. We raised our paddles, the sign for the boat to come pick us up. Feeling good about sitting so still, we suddenly tipped completely and were briefly dunked. Once more at the surface, we caught each other's eyes and burst out laughing. Then a group of pelicans that had been floating in the water near us began flying our way, I was sure they were going to land on our heads, but they passed us by. Phew. We climbed into the boat and picked up the rest of the gang and watched the sunset on the water as we navigated to a different beach, Porta Grande, where we would camp. I ended up opting to sleep in the open air on the floor of the boat, there was almost a full moon and it was Halloween night. So beautiful! We also had been watching baby hammerhead sharks fishing in the waters around where we had anchored, so I wasn't too stoked about making a wet landing to get to the beach (wading in knee-deep water to shore from the boat). 

The next morning we began kayaking more after breakfast and arrived at Cerro Brujo (Witch Hill). This rock formation was a little spooky (appropriate) and had many caves, which we snorkeled through. This is the picture of The Cathedral on Facebook, if you've noticed. Next we rode to Leon Dormido and snorkeled through the channel; here we saw MANY (more than twenty?) Galapagos and white-tipped reef sharks, which were probably about ten feet below us. I also saw a few spotted eagle rays, very large and also close. Finally we snorkeled again at Isla Lobos (Sea Lion Island), where of course, we saw sea lions, marine iguanas, rays and lots of fish. 

The next day we left for our two week trip. First we rode to Isabela, where we stayed in nice hotels for three days. Here we took lots of little tours. The Wall of Tears was one interesting stop: a huge stone wall built during WWII by prisoners on the island. The idea was for them to build a huge room where they would be placed and closed off and left to die. Hence, the name. We saw lots of estuaries, red and white mangroves, another galapaguera (tortise hatchery), and the most beautiful beaches in all of the places I've seen in the Galapagos! The sand was the most fine, it seemed to stretch clear into the sun, and were so peaceful and empty. Another day we hiked five hours to Volcan Chico and saw the huge crater, I think it's the second largest in the world. Anyway, no Pompeii action and we all made it back safely. 

Once we left, we travelled to Santa Cruz, where we boarded our tour boat for the rest of the islands. My boat was the Eden, a beautiful ship which housed 16 of us for the next four days. We had all incredible meals on the boat, and then our guide would take us hiking and snorkeling each morning and afternoon. Thankfully I didn't get seasick or too sunburnt. We went to Bartolome, Seymour, Genovessa, and then back to Baltra. I saw so many gorgeous sunsets, rock formations, volcanic rock, iguanas, fur seals, sea lions, sally lightfoot crabs, red-footed boobies, blue-footed boobies, lava gulls, birds of paradise, frigates, penguins, and rays, not to mention more new fish! We sadly said our goodbyes to the crew and arrived in Baltra, where we directly crossed the ferry (they could totally just build a bridge, but that's kinda the point in this culture) to Santa Cruz. Here we stayed in another hotel for one week. This is the most populated island, at about 16,000 inhabitants, and is also the most touristy. We took some tours here and snorkeled more, but immediately noticed how a fleet of four or five tour boats meet up at each site, depleting my feeling of satisfaction, due to the higher populations. (Ha! sorry I had to geek out on some tourism theory, there). We spent one day visiting Floreana, the least populated island, of about 150 people. This island is the most mysterious, as there have been many unsolved murders and cryptic stories. In the highlands we hiked around the 'pirate caves' where buccaneers used to hide out and hide their booty. (I found none) There are also the remnants of hollowed out rocks where a German family had lived after WWII. Very cool, and I tested out a rock ledge bed, deciding if I could live in a dollhouse for a whole summer, I could live in a cave on the side of a mountain, too. I visited two beaches while in Santa Cruz, but they couldn't compare with Isabela. The people are friendly, for the most part, but I find that folks here on San Cristobal are the most genial. Santa Cruz has more Westernized (and more expensive) restaurants, gift shops, and of course, night life. I had a lot of fun, but was very happy to return to my favorite island: San Cristobal. 

Now we're back and things are 'back to normal.' I am starting new service work tomorrow, helping teach English to kids in El Progresso (a small village in the highlands) and to make Christmas decorations out of recyclable materials. I am still helping teach English at the university. Tonight I taught them the words to the Beatles song, Baby You Can Drive My Car. They loved it, even more than the Willie Nelson song I played for them in the last class. 

Some unrelated business, my email account was hacked into, so I've created a new one. If you haven't already, please drop me a line: emileebynum@gmail.com