Carnaval....woooooo....continued

This was our Barbie piñata that entertained us for quite some time...we´re so weird.








Anyway...to continue from Ambato. On our last day in Ambato, we went to a bull fight.....ay de mi! It was really difficult to watch...I had never seen anyone hurt an animal like that before, but it was a really good cultural experience, to say the least. Plus we got really cool hats...








Okay, so we headed back to Ambato to get our stuff, grab some food, and head for Baños. PS-we had the dumbest waitress in the history of waitstaff personnel ever. And it was not the fault of our poorly spoken Spanish, she was just not intelligent enough to handle complicated things like water and such....

So we got to the bus station to get on our bus to Baños, but of course, there was no bus to Baños....wonderful. Since we had reservations, we needed to get their that night. So we hired two taxis to drive us the 45 minutes from Ambato to Baños...it was more expensive obviously, but it was ok. Then I broke the window in the cab, and I thought the cab driver was going to kill me....oops.

So we got to Baños and everyone was pretty tired, so we just kind of hung out and went to sleep. Our hostel in Baños was really nice because we all got our own bed and a bathroom with HOT running water.

Our first full day, we walked around to inquire about what to do. We stopped at a place called Aventurandes where they offered just about everything you could think of. To start off, we decided to jump off a bridge...you know, no big deal.

So we all hopped in the back of a pick up truck and drove to the bridge. It was actually two bridges that were parallel and you put on a harness and free fall between the bridges over a cute little bubbling brook....which wasn´t really as cute when I thought I was about to plummet to my death....needless to say, once I got over how ridiculously scary it was, I jumped....and it was exhilarating. I am so afraid of heights, but I was just like, ¨Laura, you´re in Ecuador, just do it!¨ I´m so glad I did...It was so much fun.




The first picture is the congratulatory bridge we made for people to run through after they jumped. The second is of my friend, Leah, dangling in the air above the water.

After we jumped, we got back in the truck and drove back to our hostel...being careful of course of the water that was being thrown at us from time to time...I guess it´s a pretty easy target when you have the back of a pick-up truck full of gringos.

Later that night, we planned on checking out the night life of Baños. However, upon leaving our hostel, we were all immediately under attack. The foam war had begun and we were without ammo....so we went back inside to change into some not-so-nice clothes and then we sought out some foam vendors so we could protect ourselves. IT WAS CRAZY. It was like four blocks of complete strangers just attacking anyone and everyone with foam. I felt like I was 5 years old-I had a huge grin on my face the entire time...even when it was covered in foam. You had to be careful though, because if it got in your eyes, it really stung. I was soaking wet from head to toe in foam...it was no holds bar, and everyone just went insane. My friend, Adam, spent like 30 dollars on foam alone, but it was almost a necessity.

Then we went to a big stage that was in the middle of town where there was some sort of performance. It ended up being a bunch of attractive young ladies, and so obviously Adam and Kraig invited themselves up on the stage to help them out....it was hilarious. They were singing and dancing with them and having a great old time. We all just stood out in the audience laughing our heads off.....crazy kids. Finally, we had enough and decided to retire for the evening. Despite the fact that I was soaking wet and had really blue and pink hair, I was too tired to shower, so I just went to sleep.

The next morning we had to wake up early because we were going white water rafting! We met our tour guide and loaded up a big van and started driving to the river. On the way, we stopped to check out this beautiful waterfall called La Novia, which means The Bride, because the waterfall looked like a veil. I am obsessed with waterfalls, so I was pretty pumped about this little stop. When we arrived at the river, we all got outfitted in helmets and life vests, which actually made me pretty nervous. Then we had a little instruction time so that we could pretend like we knew what we were doing once we were in the water.

Then it came time to pick positions in the raft. So Kraig and Brett were the captains, and then the guide had to pick the members of each of their teams......Lo and behold, I was last (traumatic dodgeball nostalgia) Of course everyone got their jollies that I was the last one to be picked....the guide swears he did it by weight and that I was the smallest, but....I don´t know...it was traumatic/hilarious nonetheless.

So we finally get in the water, and it is sooooooo amazing. The views are sensational, and again I think to myself how incredibly lucky I am to be here. We head through the first couple rapids, and they are pretty intense, a little scary, but really fun.

About 45 minutes or so into our river adventure, the divider in the raft pops off, and the air is no longer distributing itself equally. Contrary to popular belief, and just because I might have been flopping all around the raft....it was NOT my fault.

Our guide made this hilarious face while telling us that this had never happened before. Great! Okay....so we kept going until we got to a place where we could do a little regrouping. Of course, it had to be like the rockiest most difficult terrain to maneuver ever. We all ended up having to split up....the hombres had to stay behind and help fix the raft, and the women all got split up and we had to go rafting with strangers.....well whatever.

So my friend, Jackie, and I got into a raft with the new people, who were pretty nice. However, the guide on this raft had a little surprise for us. He thought it would be really funny to push us into the water! Oh, hahaha, you funny little man. Actually, it ended up being really fun when I wasn´t scared to death that I was going to get decapitated by a rock or eaten by a piranha. So we made our way down the river, and it seriously was so much fun. My arms hurt, but it was totally worth it. I was quite worried about our boys, though, because they were nowhere in sight. But alas, we all made it down the river, with only a few difficulties. They ended up using a rope as a temporary divider to get down the river. So we all reunited, had some lunch, and headed back to the hostel.

Later that night, we bought tickets to go on a Cheva, which is a big party bus that has roof-top seating. We obviously went to the roof and started driving up to the top of a volcano. It was really fun, but a little bit tricky trying to avoid cables and branches and such while driving in the dark. Once we reached the top, the view was incredible.
Then we were entertained by people who did cool tricks with fire...

By the time we got back, we were all so exhausted, that we just wanted to go to sleep. It was such a great vacation, though. Everything was fun, incredible, crazy, unbelievable, you name it. I just cannot say enough how grateful I am to be here, to share these amazing opportunities with the amazing people I´ve met, and to be exposed to such incredible beauty.

I hope life is treating you all well. I also hope you all know how much I care about you, love you, and miss you. Cuídense mucho.....much love! Love, Laura Lynn

Carnaval.....woooooooooo

So the last five days were probably the most fun, crazy, and incredible of my life. Carnaval was nutso and our accompanying trip was equally as cool. We left Quito on Thursday afternoon and headed to Ambato....let's see...Ambato had some sort of Carnaval fesitval going on, but we weren't really sure, so we just walked around. This is where we saw art...aka artists using live, naked people as their canvases...it was actually really cool. I'm not going to lie, it pretty much made me really uncomfortable, but I still watched.....very brave souls...good for them. As we continued walking, we came upon some dancers in some sort of stadium, so we went inside to watch. They were really cool, and the guys were phenomenal shimmiers (I just made that word up...they shimmied) Then this other guy with really, really attractive long curly hair (not)came into the middle and started singing-I would also like to mention that he was wearing women's shoes---and I was just watching like a happy little gringo, which apparently translates to, "Please come over here and bring me on stage with you so I can look like a total idiot when I try to dance with you while holding my huge backpack" which is precisely what happened....my friends had a lot of fun with that one. There may be photo documentation....anyway...

We purchased a pinata earlier in the day, so that was the activity for the evening. It was a Barbie pinata, which makes it WAY cooler. We thorougly enjoyed buying ridiculous things like dinosaurs and jumpropes to put inside. We're funsters... Oh, another portion of the evening that may evoke some jealousy....we played charades...AGAIN---we are so cool.

So earlier in the day, we had received some flyers that advertised a really fun foam party! Cool! Okay, so we went to the foam party, but there was a MAJOR lack of foam. Basically it was a bar and every like 25 minutes, the ceiling would squirt out like .02 ounces of foam. I thought it was hilarious. So the foam party was kind of a bust....but we were going to be compensated....

Okay...to be continued...I must go to bed now. LOVE YOU ALL

Leave me breathless

Our camping trip to Cotopaxi National Park was......yeah, the words don´t exist. I´m tempted to go with incredible, insane, amazing, breath-taking, but those don´t even come close to justifying the experience we had.

We weren´t exactly well-prepared for this trip. After some speedy grocery shopping and packing, we finally made it to the bus station on Friday evening (we were supposed to leave at 2:30, but apparently that translated to 4, Ecuadorian time). So we hopped a bus headed for Cotopaxi National Park, kind of, and traveled through some ridiculous traffic.....FINALLY we were nearing the end of the ride, however there was no station in sight. So obviously, we just got dropped off in the middle of the PanAmerica highway in the middle of the night with all of our camping gear on our backs....and nowhere to camp. The park closes at 3 (it was around 7), and we were an hour drive away from the entrance. We took out a flashlight and started walking....I don´t know what I was hoping to find, but it was definitely scary. We saw some light, and walked toward it. We ended up talking to people and finding out that we were, in fact, very far away from the park, and that we would have to wait til the morning to get there. So we asked them if there was anywhere to camp, and they said they would let us camp on their land for five bucks....obviously we said ok.

Yeah, um, it was a farm. We literally set up our tent on a farm next to a pig pen, complete with a cute little piglet, and cows, and sheep and a really scary dog that barked all night. Whatever, it was perfect. We made some peanut butter and jelly and toasted some marshmallows over our campfire. We literally sat around the fire and sang whatever songs we could come up with...it was so fun. Then we went to sleep because we knew we needed to get up early the next morning to get to the park....and by went to sleep, I mean I stayed wide awake all night. Apparently a few of my friends are snory mcsnorepants, and between that and the dog and goats and the pigs, I had a little trouble falling asleep. Oh yeah...we were also close to a road and everytime a truck drove by, there was a terremoto (earthquake). So after a good night´s awake, we packed up our stuff and hired a driver to take us to the entrance of the park.

The drive to the entrance was amazing, bumpy, but amazing nonetheless. We decided to have him drop us off a little higher up so that we didn´t have to hike as far (THANK GOD) We stopped at this little plateau in the middle of the volcano and layered up. If any of us were missing the cold Wisconsin weather....we weren´t any longer. It was cold! I had to put on two pairs of pants and four shirts, plus mittens, a scarf, and my hood. Then the hike up to the glacier began...I wasn´t really exactly sure what we were in for...what I was in for was the most physically taxing, emotionally rewarding, and spiritually uplifting experience of my life. The altitude was nutso...I could barely breathe just standing there...oxygen wanted nothing to do with us at this point. We took like 7 steps up this vertical trek, and had to stop to take a break. And then another seven or eight steps, and another break. My lungs were screaming and I´ve never felt more out of shape in my entire life. This continued for the next hour and half or so til we reached the refuge...at 4,800 meters....then we went even higher and at more of an angle through a zona de avalanches (avalanche zone...ahh) until we reached the ice and snow at the glacier. Once again, there are no words...the view was insane, there were 360 degrees of pure beauty. We were above the clouds, we could see mountains, and snow, and volcanic ash, and gosh I don´t even know what I was looking at. I just know that I was literally breathless, and overwhelmed with so many thoughts going through my head. I just sat there and stared.

We were kind of rushed to make it back down in time to meet our driver who had ALL of our stuff, so it was pretty important that we were punctual, though I doubt he would have left us stranded. The way down was significantly easier, you just had to dig your heels in the ash. Needless to say my knees were totally shot-downhill/downstairs always kills them--I just tried not to recognize this, though. Once we reached the bottom, we clearly had to celebrate...and what better way than with some tequila...hahaha.

Finally we made it back down to the base of the volcano and hiked another half hour til we found somewhere to camp. Apparently we were camping illegally, but I´m finding this to be an extremely relative term here in Ecuador. We were in Laguna, or what I like to affectionately refer to as the Valley of Poop because honestly everywhere you stepped there was some form of animal feces....que yummy! Whatev...we set up camp and made a fire. We ate tasty little packets of vegetables, which were so good because we were so hungry. Then we managed to entertain ourselves by playing monkey in the middle with an apple, followed by some apple baseball. After the sun went down (and it was even colder) we went in the tent where the charades commenced...no literally...we played charades for hours...it was a blast. Oh, and I have to talk about the stars. I´ve never felt closer to the sky...the stars were like BAM in my face....super bright, just nutso. It was just so peaceful to be there...there was literally no one else around for miles, and it was amazing.

Okay, this is soooooo lengthy, I´m sorry. We packed up the next morning and our driver met us to take us to the train station to head back to Quito....so we got on the train, well actually it was the roof of the train. We put all our stuff inside, and climbed up to the roof of the train--are you serious??? It was so fun. So we´re just sitting like happy little gringos on the roof of a train and we go under a bridge...on top of the bridge was a little jokester with a bucket of water. As we passed, he dumped the whole bucket on us. We were both stupefied and entertained. I thought it was hilarious, and a little chilly, this ended up happening many more times as we passed through little towns where the people were getting the Carnaval kicks by throwing water on the roof-top riders. How funny! Carnaval is next weekend, and it is traditional to throw water on any and everyone. So we thought this was just ridiculous, and thought, well we should probably celebrate the insanity with some tequila....you´ll notice a common theme in our celebrations...all in fun though.

Alas, we arrived back to Quito after an incredible trip. Side note....none of the aforementioned things were planned...we really had no idea what we were doing or where we were going. The tranquility and easy-going nature of the country makes my heart very happy. Plus, I am very proud of my group of friends. We are always able to laugh and make the best of every situation. We have some crazy teamwork chemistry...always a bonus. Okay....enough enough...love you and miss you all...keep in touch! LOVE!

To whom it may concern

I think this is probably just a little bit easier than sending out a bajillion emails. That way, if you´re interested in what´s happening, you can come here, and if you don´t care, you won´t be bothered by my emails!

To sum up....Ecuador is amazing. I am so lucky and incredibly happy to be here. I have an amazing family, and I´ve met some really great people, who are helping better my experience. So far I have been to the middle of the world-literally-Otavalo, a huge market in northern Quito(where my wallet was stolen) the beaches of Esmeraldas (Tonsupa), where a little boy peed on me on the bus. That pretty much sums up my first month in Ecuador....

This weekend, we are planning a camping trip in Cotopaxi National Park. Cotopaxi is the tallest snow-covered volcano in Ecuador, and in the world, I´m pretty sure...but not entirely, so don´t take my word. I´m really excited, and I´m hoping to have some more things to share after this weekend.

Oh yeah, I´m in school, too, so I might mention things from time to time about that. Anyway, I hope that this will be a better way to keep EVERYONE updated on the fun little happenings here in Ecuador. You can respond via this website, but I of course still love getting emails from everyone. Love and miss you all!