más galápagos...

Hello again,

Thought I would post the most recent e-mail to my mom as well, a pretty detailed synopsis of the past few days here. Like last time, certain things may only apply to my mom, sorry...


The past 3 days we´ve been on the largest island in galapagos (isabela), whereas the rest of the time we´re staying here in Santa Cruz. Since my last e-mail we´ve done a lot but also got a lot of our ¨education¨/lectures out of the way, after all this trip alone does count for 2 credits. The 14th and 15th we had a lot of lectures, some of which were interesting most of which I tuned out for as there was a lot of repetition. But the night of the 14th, i cant really keep track of the days, we were just hanging out, relaxing down the ocean and saw a bunch of different rays and a baby hammerhead shark. The next day we had another lecture or 2, including a trip to the recycling plant which was really quite interesting. Afterwards we hiked to tortuga bay which is the most breathtaking beach ever. I was expecting lots of turtles but it was really just a huge stretch of pure white sand and gorgeous blue water with lots of manglades (spelling?), cool rock formations, sealions, and birds. It´s actually called tortuga bay (tortuga means turtle) because during the turtle egg laying seasons hundreds go up on shore there to lay their eggs. The next morning, your b-day, we took off to Isabela on a 2 hr boat ride that was incredibly bumpy, but really scenic and we caught glimpses of sealions, turtles, and some shark fins. Once in Isabela we visited a turtle breeding center, which is really interesting and incredibly succesful at repatriating turtles to their own islands, among other sites. The second day there we climbed a volacona that had erupted in 2005 up to its crater. The crater was an amazing site, its was huuuge and very beautiful, we had watched a video of the eruption the night before so it was cool to visualize what the explosion would have been like. After that we hiked around a desert like terrain that was covered in hardened lava which made for unbelievable geological formations and once-in-a-lifetime views. We relaxed the rest of that day after many hours hiking and sore feet by taking to the beach which was also extremely gorgeous and only blocks from our hostel. This morning we worke up early and walked to a swimming hole of which we really had no idea what to expect. We got there and it was a really large pool surrounded in manglade covered rock walls with slight openings that led out to the sea. The water was crystal clear which allowed you to see straight down to the rocky bottom covered in corral reefs. As if that wasn´t enough some sea lions started to show up, I spotted the first one when I was borrowing some snorkles and noticed a huge brown mass swim right under me. To top it off, about 5 sealions showed up and began playing together - passing a stick, jumping out of the water, splashing around, etc... In typical galapagos animal fashion they didn´t care at all that we were around so we came within feet of them as they just splashed about and minded their own business, a truly incredible and memorable way to start the day. Afterwards we boarded the boat again for the bumpy ride back to Santa Cruz. We spent the rest of today back at tortuga bay, but this time we had enough time to take the long walk down the beach to a separate beach in an isolated bay where there´s practically no waves and tons of marine wildlife. After first spotting a few rays, we found a group of about 4-5 white tipped something sharks, about 5 ft in length i´d guess, resting by a patch of manglades only feet from where the water met the sand. As freaky as it was, we walked to within feet of them to get a better view and the whole ordeal was a pretty surreal experience. That pretty much leads me to right now... tomorow we have the day free to do what we´d like but we´re also supposed to investigate a topic and work on a group presentation that we´re supposed to have ready for Sunday. Me and 2 others are talking about the environmental education given to the natives of galapagos and its efficiency, ways to improve it, etc... We´ll see how well we balance work and relaxation tomorrow...

Not sure if I´ll have another chance to post again before my departure from this lovely archipelago, perhaps I´ll be able to write something whilst on my adventure down to Macchu Picchu in Peru. Take care and feel free to write me anytime to let me know how much you miss me or just to fill me in on the brew crew.

Brett

¡GaLaPaGoS!

HAPPY MOTHER´S DAY!!

First, sorry to those of you who may have noticed I haven´t really updated this blog, recently, at all...sorry! And I can´t really claim I´m about to either, as I have limited time and access to the interent here in Galapagos, I´m just going to copy and paste a bit about my first 2 days here from an e-mail I just wrote my mom. So I apologize in advance if some of it applies to her and not you! But be certain I´m having the time of my life, but that I still miss you all and very excited to see as many of you as possible when I return to Wisconsin in little less than a month. Well here´s a bit of what my first 2 days in the most incredible place I´ve ever been and may very well be in my entire life have been like:

Galapagos has been amazing so far, everything I´d hoped it could be. After arriving around 9ish yesterday (our flight from quito was at 7:30) we immediately set off doing things. First we went to this place called Los Gemelos which translates into the twins, they were two giiiiant holes in the ground formed naturally around the times the island did because of natural gas buildups...they were really cool and fascinating. Next we went to a turtle farm where we saw around 12 different giant tortoises and found out that they´re really called giant for a reason, they´re humongous. Afterwards we explored this underground natural cave/tunnel. This may have been my favorite part of the day, it felt like we were in the setting of goonies (if you remember that movie) or something out of indiana jones, it was really amazing and I´d never been anywhere like it. We finally made it back to our hostel where we all took it easy and went to bed pretty early after an extremely exhausting but great day. I´m sharing a room with 2 nice and cool ecuadorian guys from our class. This morning we got another early start and went first to a small island called Seymour North, i think, which is all natural park and no human interference. This was really our first exposure to what I pictured Galapagos as, as we saw a huge array of unbelievable animals. As we pulled up and got ashore from the really nice boat which served as a our transport today (and was also nice for laying out on, despite a little sunburn), we were greeted right away by a baby sealion who was only about 3 weeks old and quite adorable. We continued to find other groups of sealions relaxing on the rocks all along the shore. They´re all really cute and lazy, they can only move a little bit before stopping for a nice rest. The most amazing thing about all the wildlife there, and throughout most of the islands for that matter, is that they have never felt threatened because of a lack of natural predators so you can go right up to them and they dont mind. However, one of the frigate birds who was around us when we first got there for whatever reason either thought there may have been something to eat in my hair or just didn´t like me and really scared the hell out of me when it just came down and hit me on the head with its beak. Not like it hurt at all but it just kinda confused me and caught me off guard. Especially since all the rest of the birds seemingly just ignored us. Well after the sealions we checked out some iguanas. There are 3 types, two species of terrestrial iguanas and 1 marine iguana. The land ones are pretty huge and beautifully colored, while the marine ones were a lot littler (at least the ones we saw) and mostly black, but they´re real cool because they´ve naturally adapted to be able to swim and excrete salt water, even though they´re reptiles they can stay under water for close to an hour without breathing! We also saw tons of frigate birds, similar to all those we saw in Puerto Lopez with the split tails, and some of them, only males, had their red necks all puffed up and really really big, were flapping their wings, and making crazy noises to attract females. Quite a peculiar ritual, pretty sure if i ever tried that it would have the opposite effect. Then we finally saw the famous blue footed boobies, and their feet really are very blue. They are pretty funny creatures - with the blue feet, short and stout bodies, and big googly looking eyes. We saw a whole bunch who were guarding nests of eggs and making funny noises. That pretty much wrapped up our tour of that island, aside from the time spent hiking around checking out all the vegetation. So many of the plants are endemic (only grow in galapagos) so you see lots of cool ones, like all the crazy cactuses. After Seymour Norte we got back on the boat (where they served a delicious lunch, first time I can recall that I´ve really enjoyed eating fish) and we went to the most perfect beach I´d ever seen on Isla Santa Cruz, which is the main island as far as human settlement and tourism goes and where we´re staying, but it was ont he far other end of the island away from any human presence. Though the natural settings and scenery weren´t quite as breathtaking as the beach (los frailes) near Pto. Lopez that we went to, the sand was perfectly, gorgeous white and the water was so crystal clear blue that it really seemed green, i guess you could just call it turqoise. Although it´s really cold water (comes from currents from the south) it felt incredibly refreshing and I snorkled for the first time ever. After a few minutes getting used to the equipment I set off with some friends towards some rocky areas where we saw a vast array of large and unique fish, but what really blew my mind was swimming with about 7-8 sharks and then tracking down a sea tortoise. The sharks ranged in size, but one that I saw was probably close to my size I would guess. Seeing one for the first time definately caught me off guard and scared me a bit but after a minute and finding a few more it was really exciting. Seeing the turtle was another thrill, we had been hoping to find one and myself and another girl from Texas were the only 2 to spot it before it swam away. It too was pretty huge, but such a graceful swimmer and beautiful creature. After this adventure we got back on the boats and laid out in the sun on our way back to the port near our hostel, presumingly when I got kinda burnt. The weather here is incredible, unlike Quito (though it´s nearing the end of the rainy season) there hasn´t been a cloud in this bright blue amazing sky, well just a few but they´re beautifuly and fluffy, and it´s been a pretty constant 80´s-90´s. The nights are nice, though still pretty humid and warm. We actually ran into two friends we know from back in Quito who are here with there families, and today is one of their´s birthdays so we´ll probably go out for a bit tonight to celebrate. As always the people organizing our trip are incredibly organized but that hasn´t hindered our trip at all as we´ve already done so many amazing things. In fact, it´s kind of fun to not really know what we´re doing until right before we do it. Our group is about 20 people, 11 or 12 of whom are ecuadorian but so far everyone´s getting along real well and it seems like a great group to be sharing this experience with.

I´ll try to update this again next time I get a chance. Until then, take care everyone and a very happy mother´s day to any mom´s taking the time to read this.

Much love,
Brett

whoops

Whoops, kinda forgot bout my little blog for quite a while. I´m leaving in about 45 min for a bus to Mindo, a gorgeous town that houses an amazing cloud forests and tons of huge waterfalls, but I´ll try to fill you all in about the last few weeks of my life as much as possible in the next half hour. Before I start talking bout my crazy adventures to the jungle and the coast thought I´d share with you some of the craziness that is Ecuadorian politics. This article gives a pretty good (fairly left, quite optimistic, thanks erik) of what´s been going on the past 2 weeks or so (if this doesn´t interest you skip down aways):

¨Ecuador’s Nascent Leftist Government Victorious in Confrontation with Right

By Roger Burbach

The two month old government of leftist Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa and
the popular movements that back him have emerged triumphant in their first
battle with the oligarchy and the traditional political parties that have
historically dominated the country. Correa in his inaugural address in January
called for an opening to a “new socialism of the twenty-first century” and
declared that Ecuador has to end “the perverse system that has destroyed our
democracy, our economy and our society.”

Correa’s presidency is rooted in a militant mass movement that has been
mobilizing and challenging the country’s ascendant economic and political
interests for years. The Ecuadorian political system, referred to as a
“partidocracia,” is run by factious political parties dominated by oligarchs
who pull the strings on a corrupt state that includes Congress, the Supreme
Court, as well as the presidency until Correa’s election. Even Michel
Camdessus, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, once commented
that Ecuador is characterized “by an incestuous relation between bankers,
political-financial pressure groups and corrupt government officials.”

The central demand of the broad movement that brought Correa to power is for a
Constituent Assembly to draft a new constitution that breaks up the current
dysfunctional state, ends the reign of the “partidocracia,” refounds the
country as a plurinational, participatory democracy, reclaims Ecuadorian
sovereignty and uses the state to advance social and economic policies that
benefit the people, not the oligarchy.

Correa upon his inauguration issued a decree calling for a plebiscite for the
people to vote on April 15 for the election of a Constituent Assembly. The
Congress refused to accept the president’s initiative, passing its own law
saying that such an assembly would not have the right to limit the tenure of
Congressional members or any other elected officials until their terms expired
with the next elections. It would not be an assembly with powers to refound the
country’s institutions. Then with the intent of turning the election of assembly
members into a virtual circus, the Congress declared that anyone could put their
name on the ballot for the assembly. No signatures or petitions were required,
meaning that hundreds or more could simply sign up to run for any given seat,
making the balloting virtually impossible to administer.

Correa responded by taking the Congressional legislation, eliminating the
onerous clauses, tailoring it to his original decree for a Constituent Assembly
to refound the country, and sending it the country’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal,
which rules on elections and electoral procedures. Hopes were not high, as the
Tribunal is historically viewed as part of the “partidocracia.’’ The popular
movements began to demonstrate in front of the Tribunal and Congress, calling
for their closure, and for Correa to simply issue a decree for the Constituent
Assembly.

Rene Baez, a political analyst at the Catholic University of Ecuador, says: “To
the surprise of virtually everyone the popular repudiation shook the
consciousness of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal.” Lead by its president, Jorge
Acosta, a member of a traditional right wing party, the Tribunal declared that
the statute proposed by President Correa to refound the country’s institutions
would be the one that would be voted up or down on April 15.

Outraged by this decree, fifty-seven of the one hundred deputies of Congress
voted to depose Acosta from the Tribunal. The next day Acosta and the Tribunal
responded by expelling the fifty-seven deputies from Congress for their
unconstitutional actions.
The people took to the streets in a jubilant mood. Backed by demonstrators,
Correa ordered 1500 policeman to surround the Congress to enforce the decree of
the Tribunal, preventing any of the fifty-seven deposed representatives from
entering. They attempted to hold a rump session at the Quito Hotel, but it went
nowhere, with demonstrators ridiculing them outside by throwing pieces of dried
pork fat at them as they entered and left.

Since a quorum of fifty-one members is required in Congress to conduct business,
the deposed members hoped to provoke an institutional crisis. But because of a
quirk of Ecuadorian law, each deputy of Congress is elected along with a
substitute legislator from the same party. The Correa government made it clear
it would seat any of the substitutes, if they accepted the rulings of the
Electoral Tribunal. Twenty substitutes almost immediately broke ranks with
their parties, and Congress had the quorum necessary to function.

“This is a major blow to the right wing and the oligarchy,” says Rene Baez. “The
‘partidocracia’ has been gutted in the political realm.” President Correa
proclaimed: “The fifty-seven deputies tried to sow chaos in the country…now
they have been sanctioned and deposed. Congress will continue to function.”
While the plans for the Constituent Assembly to refound the country move
forward, Correa on the same day that he declared victory made it clear that he
intends to take advantage of his powers and a more pliant Congress,
particularly to control the country’s private banks. In the midst of the
political crisis, the banks spread rumors of a “liquidity crisis,” saying they
were short of funds and might have to close their doors. Correa declared: “The
problem is the exact opposite: The banks have ample funds and reserves, they
are breaking historic records with their profits, exaggerated profits based on
high interest rates, these will be regulated and controlled.”
Correa is setting up a special commission to investigate bank accesses and
corruption dating back to 1998. “Let’s be clear” he said, “The banks are never
again going to be in the position to break the state.”

With the victory of Correa and the popular movement, a leftist axis of nations
comprised of Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador is consolidating in South America
that is bent on carrying out profound social and economic changes at home while
challenging the historic domination of the United States in the region. Correa
has already announced he is shutting down the largest US military base on the
South American coast at Manta, Ecuador. He is also moving forward with the
expropriation of Occidental Petroleum, the largest petroleum corporation in the
country, merging it with the state-owned company PetroEcuador, which in turn is
signing a number of accords for cooperation and joint investments with PDVSA,
the Venezuelan state company.

Simultaneously, the popular movements are moving forward with their plans to
make the Constituent Assembly a democratic, participatory process. In “An Open
Letter to the People,” signed by many leaders of the country’s popular
organizations, they declared: “The Constituent Assembly should be an organizing
process for the Ecuadorian people, including workshops, seminars, and
discussions at the grassroots of society that spills over and includes the
different social sectors, women, the indigenous peoples, the Afro-Ecuadorians,
workers, professors, students, informal merchants …”

“Never before has it been so clear that it is the people who make history. Today
we are at the beginning of an era of popular power, marked by the initial work
of the Constituent Assembly. It flows out of the resilience of the Ecuadorian
people. It is potent and tumultuous.Ӭ

Pretty interesting stuff, no? Back to my travels... Bout 2 weeks ago, I can hardly remember now me and a few friends met at the bus terminal around 7:30 on a Friday night, packed and ready to head to Mindo (as previously described) for the weekend. However after about half an hour of scurrying around the bus terminal looking for the bus we realized that there was not one that night to Mindo. So, we looked around at the busses and destinations we had to choose from and decided why not just go to the jungle, the almighty Amazon? We bought tickets to Tena, about 5 hours from Quito, hopped aboard the bus, and set off for the jungle. The ride there was pretty dark which hindered one of my favorite activities in Ecuador, staring out the bus window and our journeys through the country, but nonetheless the farther west we went I could sense a changing of scenery and smell the jungle´s fresh, damp, exotic air. We eventually made it to our hostal in Tena at around 2:30, and were very pleased with its comfort and location right along a river.

The next morning we awoke ready to make the most of our time in the Amazon and set out talking to various tour agencies about possible adventures for the day. After some time we made plans for a day trip into the real jungle, not just the town of Tena. The trip began with an hour drive to our first stop at a big river which runs through the jungle. Like most trips I´ve taken here, the views along the way were amazing, though disrupted at one point by a quite unfortunate incident. As myself and two others were sitting in the back of the pick up taking in the scenery and fresh jungle air, we were startled by a loud thump and bump of the truck. Wondering what it was we turned around in time to realize we had hit and killed a dog :( It´s true most dogs here don´t have a home and don´t lead the spoiled life of most pets in the states but we nevertheless felt pretty awful for it.

At our first stop, the river, we unloaded our equipment into an oversized, motorized canoe and spent about 20 minutes cruising down the river towards the jungle station where we would begin our excursion. The station was very expansive, impressive, and made entirely of bambu and after a brief few moments there we put on our enormous rubber hiking boots and set off with our great guide whom referred to himself as Mosquito, a native of Tena who´s knowledge of the jungle could lead you to mistake him for Tarzan.

Unfortunately that´s where I´ll have to stop for now, I´m off to another exciting adventure. I´ll try to be a little more timely in these posts!

Take care, ¡que les vayan bien!
Brett

Carnaval Part II, Papallama, Ecuador Video

Hello!
Been a little while since I wrote about the first part of our celebration of Carnaval, sorry for the delay - had a pretty busy week in school writing an 8 pg paper and a 10 min presentation about the evolution of Darwin's finches on the Galapagos islands, pretty exciting stuff... Back to carnaval where I left off.
The morning after our exciting day of jumping off bridges and partying in the streets, we woke up bright and early (around 7:30am, which for those of you that know me well enough is pretty early for me), ate a quick breakfast, and took off to meet up with our guide for the day. Once there we loaded up the van, threw the giant raft on top of it, and set off on a beautiful drive about one hour into the Amazon. I still cannot get over how incredibly green and beautiful this country is - every time I leave the cramped, enormous, somewhat polluted city of Quito I am blown away by the scenery. We eventually arrived at the river where we started our rafting adventure and I was awakened (awoke?) from a little nap by a loud thump which turned out was our driver running into a concrete post. Was this little mishap a sign of things to come...? We laughed for a bit about the little dent in the bumper and proceeded to unload the gear and begin our rafting lesson. First our guide, a really good, funny guy who was 24 and lives in Baños, asked for 2 captains to sit in the front of the raft and guide the stroking. No one was to eager to accept this duty as none of us had ever rafted before so finally Kraig and I agreed we´d do it, and it turned out that we had no real duties except sitting in the front anyway. Once we all had our assigned positions in the boat our guide taught us how to stroke forwards and backwards, jump in the boat if need be, react if we fall out, help others back in the boat, and celebrate making it through a rapid with a cheer and a high five of the paddles over our heads. Eager and ready to take on the river, we finally got our boat in the water and took off and, to be honest, I was pretty nervous at first. For the first few little rapids I noticed myself involuntarily sinking in towards the middle of the raft each time, but my nerves shortly turned into excitement and I began to look forward to each rapid as another opportunity to get soaked or lose my balance. At certain points throughout the excursion our guide told us we could/should jump out of the boat and just ride the current in the water (it wasn´t till after I was told there were probably pirahnas in the water, though I guess they´re not as aggressive as many people think). The first time he did so, we all kind of looked at each as if to question if he was serious, but after he pushed some of the girls sitting near him overboard I quickly jumped in. I purposedly made a point to stay near the boat, but others were not so wise. After most of us had got back in the boat 2 of our friends, Katy and Leah, found themselves a good 25ft from the boat and not moving nearly as quickly as the current was carrying our boat. Somehow Katy made her way back to the boat but Leah wasn´t moving at all and wasn´t starting to get a little nervous to say the least. Nevertheless, we found a way to paddle towards and after a few minutes of confusion we managed to get her back in the boat, though some people now doubted our guide´s advice to just jump in the water (I still thought it was fun and proceeded to jump out a few more times down the river). Shortly after our first little mishap we were making our way through a rapid when we hit a big wave and a few people fell inside the raft, no real harm done. Or so we thought. We soon realized that the rubber coating surrounding the intertube that kept all the air in had come undone and that the boat was undeniably beginning to lose its form. This was pretty obvious when those people sitting in the middle of the boat were sitting closer and closer to the water by the minute. At first we thought we were losing air and that we´d never make it down the river in the raft, but our guide eventually brought it to our attention that the boat was simply becoming deformed and all the air was being pushed to the front and back of the raft. After about 10-15 min of continuing with our damaged boat, we stopped along some extremely rocky shore to make some adjustments. First, the guide flagged down a few other passing-by rafts and advised all the girls to join other rafts and that us guys would try to fix the boat and meet them at the end. It was getting later in the day by this point and I was beginning to wonder if we ever actually would see the end of this journey. We spent about half an hour twisting ropes in and out of varios places around the boat, attempting to restore some shape to the deformed tube. Finally our guide was satisfied that the boat would work so we flipped it back over, eased our way back in, and once again set off the to face the river, just the 4 of us, me, Adam, Kraig, and our guide. We spent a good few minutes joking around that we were better off without the girls and that it was probably them who broke the raft anyhow, and our spirits were once again restored as everything seemed to be going smoothly. In fact, there were no problems from there on out, despite the fact that our poor raft was still far from in perfect condition. The only part of this whole adventure more amazing than the actual tackling of the rapids was our surroundings. Not only were we paddling down an awesome river in Ecuador in absolutely perfect weather, but we were in the Amazon forest surrounded by breathtaking cliffs, waterfalls, mountains, birds, trees, flowers, sounds, skies...the list could really go on forever. The trip certainly enhanced my desire to get back to the jungle, soon and even deeper in it. We must have been making pretty good time down the river (post-accident) because we reached the finishing point only minutes after the other rafts carrying our female castaway counterparts had. The entire experience was such a thrill that I´ll never forget, and the little problems only make my story and memory that much better! My only regret is that none of us brought a camera and so there´s no pictures of all those amazing scenes we saw along the way. The ride back to Baños was very relaxing after the vigorous few hours on the raft, despite the constant aqua-attacks of those along the road who kept up with the Carnaval tradition of trying to drench passerby´s.
Immediately upon getting back to our hostel most of us settled down for a nap. After we all woke up we had dinner at a super delicious and fun restaurant next to our hostel where we thoroughly enjoyed our food and were treated to a short but really nice concert by an indiginous, very talented band with an array of interesting string, wind, and percussion instruments. After dinner we found a chiva (party-like bus that you can ride on the roof of, which is of course where we sat) that took us to the top of the volcano that nearly covered Baños in lava in 1998 (i think). Once at the top, we were treated to various performances by fire dancers and jugglers and a spectacular view of the city down below. Photo of the fire dancer:



We descended the mountain again in our chiva (ducking along the way to avoid branches and cables) and unanimously decided we were too tired to attempt to spend another night out amongst the Carnaval craziness. We woke up, said our goodbyes to Baños and took the sobering busride back to realiy and the end of our incredible Carnaval vacation.
Fortunately, however, we only had 3 days of class left that week. What´s more on Thursday after class I discovered a group of people, mostly gringos who once lived in the U.S., who play ultimate frisbee (my favorite sport to play, unbeknownst to practically every Ecuadorian) every Tuesday and Thursday in the enormous Parque La Carolina pretty close to my house. It was sooo nice to be able to play frisbee and get some exercise again and the people were all extremely nice. In fact, the group of people have been playing at the same time and place for about 10 years now and many have lived in Quito for even longer than that. A few people that I talked to came to Ecuador as part of the Peace Corps and never left. Needless to say, I´m pretty excited to have found this group of people and to play some frisbee with them as much as I can.
When our short week of class ended we spent Friday night in Quito, but on Saturday 4 of us took off to Papallacta, or Papallama as I sometimes jokingly refer to it. This small village is located about 2 hours from Quito, in the central/northern Andean highlands of Ecuador and is famous for its natural volcanic spring baths. The drive there is slightly frightening and a good portion of it takes place high up in the mountains where the roads are thin, winding, and adjacent to steep dropoffs with only a poor excuse of a wire fence separating the road and the giant drops. Fortunately these bus drivers are pretty good at what they do and we got there with no problem. That weekend it was extremely cloudly, breezy, and fairly chilly up in the mountains but the minute we dipped ourselves in the super hot, relaxing springs there were no worries. It was a very relaxing day and a half, spent almost entirely in the many baths surrounded countless tree and cloud covered gorgeous mountains.


I got a few pictures that I´m trying to put right here that aren´t working right now, maybe if I leave some random space here I´ll remember to go back and add them...


We made sure to leave Papallacta with enough time to make it back to Quito before the Badger game against Ohio St. I hadn´t seen a game yet in Ecuador and I was more than excited to the 1 vs. 2 matchup. Unfortunately the one game I was able to catch had to be the most tragic I have probably ever watched. At least at the sports bar we were at the majority of people were Liga fans (Quito´s soccer team) and they also lost a close game at the same time, so we werent the only ones upset. Though I´m pretty sure we did make our grief a little more noticeable.
Following the weekend and Wisco´s tragic defeat (and Butch had to go and hurt himself!) I had my busiest week of school yet, researching and writng all about a bunch of Finches. This weekend has been a nice release though, we decided to stay in Quito and I spent a lot of the time with my bro and some of his cousins and friends who are in town for a while and a lot of fun. That bout wraps up the last 2 weeks, we have off school on Wednesday for a teachers´ conference so I think some of us are going to a town called Mindo, about 2 hours from Quito, well known for its wide variety of eco-touristy opportunities and activities, cloud forests, great scenery, etc...should be a nice getaway.
I made a little video montage of some of my adventures from the first two months here and put it on the internet, you should be able to access it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trmfSbv1rW8
Take care and keep in touch!!
Brett

cArNaVaL!

Que tal?
Where to begin...Carnaval is celebrated in much of Latin America as a time for excess celebration before the beginning of lent and a more solemn 40 days. So, we made sure to do just that (when in rome, right?) this past weekend, well actually 5 days since we had off school 2 days for the holiday. On Thursday afternoon we set off on our journey towards Ambato, a fairly small city located about 1-2 hours from Quito which is well known for its traditional Carnaval festivities. We arrived fairly late in Ambato the first night and settled into our hostel before wandering the streets a bit and getting to know the area (aka getting really lost). The next day, Friday, we once again did plenty of exploring, but it wasn´t until Saturday when the city really came to life and Carnaval festivities overtook the place. However we did feel the need to purchase a piñata to celebrate Carnaval (a barbie one at that) and thoroughly enjoyed beating her between rounds of cherades and tequila. That night we felt a revitalized buzz in the air and excitement in everyone´s actions and even heard about what promised to be a fun foam party (basically a dance party at some bar with lots of foam everywhere...). Despite the fact that there was only an occasional tiny spurt of foam every 20 minutes we did enjoy ourselves and returned to the hostel quite late and tired. On Saturday we awoke to a lively environment outside and set out to wondering around. First, we stumbled upon a giant crowd gathered for some ceremony at a plaza next to an amazing mural made completely of flowers, fruit, and bread (the celebrations in Ambato are named the Festival of fruit, flowers, and bread so I suppose that made sense), but it was quite a sight and seemed like it would have taken years to make. Here´s what it looked like:



After that we found another plaza where there was a unique competition taking place. Everywhere you looked there were very talented artists painting the bodies of nude women. One woman was pregnant and the painter drew a beautiful (i guess) image of a baby on her stomach. After the naked art we checked out a few different indigenous dance groups that were a lot of fun to watch. Later on we decided it would be interesting, not quite fun, but worthwhile to check out the bullfight. Bullfights are a longstanding tradition here and always draw quite a crowd, especially during times of celebration such as during Carnaval. I myself was skeptic of the event and knew I´d feel pretty awful for the bulls, after all I was a vegetarian for 7+ years and in all likelihood may be again soon. Walking into the stadium was quite a thrill as I´ve only heard of what the events were like or seen pictures (and they gave away free cardboad cowboy hats which I took quite a liking to). The fights themselves were pretty intense, though extremely unfair - it was essentially about 12 humans against one bull. Although the bulls lost every time, I made sure to cheer for them and I was pretty excited when our favorite bull, whom we named Mars Favre after the god of war and the god of everything, threw one of the matadors over the wall with his head, smashed down another wall with his head, and even got up several times after being taken down (did I mention all the spewing of blood during his final heroic moments?). Here´s a shot of a stare down between a bull and the heartless killer:



After the 6 bulls were slain we headed back to town, ate dinner, and packed up our stuff to get ready for our trip to Baños. We made it to the bus station only to find that there were no more busses that night to Baños but we found out it would only cost $20 a cab to take us there as it was only about an hour away and cabs are super cheap here. We arrived in Baños and found our way to our really nice hostel, located steps away from the craziest street in town that already showed signs of carnaval chaos the second we arrived. That night we were already pretty tired from our busy day and all the travelling so we took it pretty easy. We checked out the scene a bit and learned to avoid kids with bottles of foam spray in their hand, as they were always pretty eager to drench the gringos. The next morning we awoke early enough for the hostel´s free breakfast and were out by noon in search of plans. Baños is located on the brink of the Amazon so there are tons of places around town offering various expeditions and activities into the jungle. Right away we decided it would be fun to go whitewater rafting so we headed into one of the agencies to find out more. After watching a brief video about the trip and agreeing we would embark on the adventure the following day we noticed some pictures on the wall of people jumping off bridges, harnessed of course, and thought to ourselves, hey why not? After us guys spent a minute or two convincing all the girls it would be fun (and safe) we paid the 10 dollars and took off in the back of pickup truck, through mountainous tunnels, across rivers, and in between giant green mountains to the bridge that we were to jump off. It was truly a gorgeous scene and the bridge was set above a magnificent river filled with ecuadorian kids enjoying its water and the nice weather and plenty of large, jagged rocks. We set aside our fears, and to some extent our better judgment, and took turns harnessing up and leaping off the bridge before a long drop and a few swings back and forth. To this point I can´t decide which moment was more breathtaking and awe-inspiring, taking in the most amazing views from the glacier of Cotopaxi or dangling from the rope above a glistening river between enormous green mountains on the edge of the Amazon jungle.




Nervous smile?

After we all took our turns losing our stomachs but also having the times of lives we headed back and immediately took a nap. That night, refreshed and ready for whatever the city would throw at us, we partook in the typical tequila drinking that accompanied our Carnaval experience (when in rome...) and hit the streets. We soon found out we were not safe unarmed, as we were bombarded with foam from every direction the second we left our hostel. Immediately we located the nearest foam vendor and took part in what seemed to me to be the equivalent of World War III. Within minutes we were all covered in foam from head to toe, but laughing uncontrollably and working as a team to avenge any foaming we had received. The foam is really a weird tradition, and to some extremely disrespectful, but we decided to make the most of it and hand plenty of fun doing so. Later on we stumbled upon a dance competition taking place on a stage set up in the streets and two of our friends decided to test their moves and hop on stage. Needless to say they didn´t win but it was certainly good for a few laughs. There we met a few Ecuadorians who wanted to take us to a nearby dance club so we willingly obliged. Within an hour or so we were extremely tired so we retired to our hostel to get a little rest before what would prove to be unbelievable day on the river and atop a volcano. However I must go, I´ll try to write again soon about the rest of our incredible carnaval adventures.
Chao!
Brett

p.s.
I added a few pictures to the entry about camping at Cotopaxi, sorry I´m yet to add a whole bunch to the yahoo photo site, bare with me.

Instead of roses i got teargas

Feliz dia de San Valentin!
Just so you're not worrying off the bat mom, I didn't actually get teargassed, but was close... Allow me to explain. Yesterday I went with Fernando and his cousin, Juan Carlos, to the futbol (soccer) match between Liga and Barcelona, Ecuador's two most popular teams. Liga is the pride of Quito and was founded en La Universidad Central and is the hometown favorite, while Barcelona is native Guayaguil, a city on the souther coast. There's already a bit of animostiy between the two largest cities in Ecuador and its locals, the quitenos and guayaguilenos, and the soccer match is apparently the preffered stage to let loose all of their emotions. I was expecting an intense game, but I was not prepared for what ensued. Don't get me wrong, I was not harmed and had a blast, but the loyal fans of the two teams made the camp randall badger student section seem tame. The second the players took the field the stadium was filled with confetti, shouting, a constant beating of drums, chants, songs, bottle rocket explosions, fights, tons and tons of policeman, and the teargas of the policemen used to break up the fights. Whereas I've seen people get thrown out of Brewer games to climb up the fence to grab a foul ball, here kids no older than 7 were climbing over 20 feet up wired fences, hanging by one hand, and shaking the fens furiously to celebrate a goal or mock the opposing team's fans. Spectators were even seated by whom they cheered for, with the Barcelona fans occupying the upper deck. Though it's definately a good idea to have them separated, as it became apparent Liga was going to win a few devout Barcelona fans decided to relieve themselves over the balcony onto the unsuspecting heads of the Liga faithful. Fortunately I was under the overhang and able to avoid anything that fell or was thrown from above. When all was said and done, Liga won an exciting game 2-1 and I had a great time.
Now I'm getting ready for the 5 day weekend ahead of me, during which I'll travel to both Ambato and Banos to celebrate Carnaval and relax in some of Ecuador's natural spring baths. It should be another amazing weekend, I'll fill you all in when I return.
Chao,
Brett

Coat Oh Pack See!

Hello!
Had the most unbelievable weekend that I´m so excited to share with you all. Words can´t really adequately describe it all but I´ll do my best and add a few pictures (I´ve got a bunch more to put on the yahoo pictures site, please be patient with me). The weekend got off to a pretty hectic, jumbled start as we finished class and bought
a bunch of groceries to get us through the weekend in time to find out we only had 2.5 hours to get to the park, before it closed at 5pm (we later found it had closed at 3 anyway). We scrambled to find a taxi to get home from school quicker than the bus would get us there, and had plans to meet at the bus terminal at 2:30 in time to take the 2 hour ride to the Cotopaxi National Park. So, by 4:00 we had all managed to reconvene at the bus station, well aware we wouldn´t make it legally into the park yet hopeful, optimistic, and in good spirits as the six of us, including my bro Fernando whose ability to communicate well would prove very use
ful, set off for what would be an interesting and unforgettable journey.
First, there was a political rally of some sort that immediately set us back at least an hour, and before we had even made it out of Quito it was well past 5:00pm. Finally, we reached our stop at around 7:00, grateful to get off the cramped bus. However, our stop was nothing but a sign alongside the highway in the pitch black, somewhere in Ecuador. We got off the bus, searched frantically for a flashlight, and surveyed our options. We recognized some railroad tracks that we were told we had to cross at some point after getting off the bus and elected to head that way. At this point we knew we weren´t making it to the National Park and just hoped to find somewhere to set up camp. After walking a while with a ton, almost literally, of equipment, bags, food, etc... down some dirt road with only a flashlight guiding the way we made it to a few homes, happy to see signs of life. After Fernando talked to some of them, a family agreed to let us camp on their land. Grateful and eager to put all our stuff down, we crept through fields, around trees, and past snorting animals which we hoped were all enclosed to an open patch of grass where we finally pitched our tents and ate some food, my first peanutbutter and jelly in Ecuador. Somehow we managed to pitch both tents in the dark with only one flashlight and start a pretty decent fire with logs far smaller than we would have preferred. Although we weren't at the base of the world's largest active volcano yet, the sky was absolutely full of stars - an amazing sight I've never even seen in the many quiet nights of Wisconsin's northwoods. What's more, the constant snorting of the pigs, barking of the dogs, and chirping of the bugs created quite an unforgettable environment and memory that I'll cherish forever. There was also a younger man, Marcos, who lived on the farm who seized the unique opportunity to roast marshmallows, drink, and relate with visitors from a distant land and it was nice to spend the night with a local ecuadorian, although he did seem timid, reserved, and somewhat intimidated by our presence. We went to sleep, or at least tried, extremely content with the first adventure of our great weekend. Upon waking up we finally were able to see our surroundings, distant mountains, run down farms, and many more wooden cages of pigs, sheep, cows, and roosters than we had expected. Here´s kind of what it looked like:





We got an early start to the day, not too surprising as the roosters were pretty obnoxious the second the sun rose, and hired a ride from a local with a truck (this is actually common, not just another improvised part of our weekend) to drive us to Cotopaxi. On the ride to the volcano and park we passed a number of small villages where everyone within sight of the truck waved to us with big grins. As we realized with Marcos the previous night, visitors are rare and thus appreciated. We also passed a family whom our driver had ties to who was preparing for a giant feast and party by removing all the hair from an enormous pig, killed and sprawled out on a table, which they were preparing to cook by burying beneath a bed of hot coals, or something like that (quite a sight for a vegetarian of 7 or so years...).
Eventually we made it to the park where we were greeted by cold winds, a deer, a fox, and an unimaginably vast amount of cow poop which we eventually learned to deal with after only an hour or two. The cow poop was especially easy to ignore when you considered your surroundings - a huuuge park displaying infinite signs of geological developments that made me glad I had taken a class or two back in Madison that could help me appreciate a bit more the impact of mountainous formations, glaciers, the ice ages, etc... On our way to the volcano there were tons of big boulders scattered around the parks deposited here and there by the glaciers many, many years ago.
Finally we made it the spot where we would begin our climb up the volcano to the glacier. As we drove to higher and higher altitudes the beautiful views were overtaken by the thickest fog I've ever been in, to the point where you could only see for a bout a foot or two ahead of you. The second we opened the doors of the truck we were struck by ferocious and freezing winds and immediately took to our bags to add more layers of clothing. We made some final preparations and set off on our excursion up the volcano. The climb itself wasn't all that grueling but the altitude made it seem incredibly tough. For the majority of the climb, we would walk along for about 50m (sorry, everything's in meters here and I don't really know conversions for feet) before taking a breather. Within about an hour and a half we reached a refuge where we found out were 4800m above sea level (somewhere around 13,000 ft I'd guess, higher than any peak in the continental U.S.) and had emerged from the intense fog. After another little break and a few pieces of smushed bread, we trekked past a few signs warning us of the beginning of the avalanche zone, though it was probably a bit off thanks to our buddy, global warming. After another few hundred meters and about 45 min we finally reached the glacier (around 5,000m high, about 15,000ft) and I can honestly say it was one of the most amazing, gratifying, sobering, meaningful moments of my existence. As if setting foot on my first glacier wasn't enough, just as reached the end of our journey the sun came out in full force and the clouds seemed to disperse just for us. To be that high into the sky, staring at the most breathtaking dispaly of nature I'd ever seen and to be able to turn around and see an endless landscape that seemed infinately far away was almost too much to handle. We sat there for quite a while, rarely talking, mostly taking everything in and taking as many pictures as our cameras would allow before realizing we only had 20 mintues until our scheduled rendezvous with the truck driver some 1,000 meters away. Luckily, was a lot easier to get down the volcano than up it, and pretty fun to scurry down it, and we reached the truck with a few minutes to spare which we spent celebrating our feat with a little tequila. Some photos of the glacier:





Next our driver took us to the lagoon where we were set to camp. Supposedly there was a campground somewhere but we were unable to find one, so we finally just set up camp amidst the most beautiful landscape. The rest of our day consisted of cooking a delicious dinner of fire-roasted veggies, lots of potatoes, relaxing and staring back at the volcano we had just climbed, playing baseball and monkey in the middle with a hard apple, and collecting more firewood. It had been a long day, well two days, and after a bit more whiskey to both stay warm and pass the time, we fell asleep pretty early. Beautiful landscape where we set up camp with Cotopaxi off in the distance:



That night the wind was so strong we were convinced we'd have to spend the morning collecting our belongings or tent parts, but somehow everything was intact despite the collapse of the tent that housed our bags. We woke up bright and early once again to a hot sun and more magnificent views in every direction. Our truck driver friend showed up a bit early so we quickly packed up our stuff and put away the tents and said our goodbyes to Cotopaxi. We had planned to take a bus back to Quito but our driver mentioned a train to Quito that was leaving soon in which you could ride on the roof and of course we were not about to pass on yet another exciting adventure to add to our weekend. At the train station, we had arrived just in time to be the last people crammed aboard the roof of the train. After applying some sunscreen (which proved inadequate for the combo of the sun and wind) we were off and immediately it was evident to us that we were in for another wild experience, for as we passed the first bridge a bucket of water was poured onto the entire rooftop of passengers, to the surprise of many, including us. To fill you in, this upcoming weekend marks the celebration of Carnaval, a huge occasion in all of Latin America. However, in Ecuador they have the strange tradition of throwing water at everyone, from everywhere, all the time (apparently even a week before the actual holiday). As we chugged along we were treated to many awesome sights, friendly, waving families, and plenty of baths. The drivers seemed to get the biggest kick of this, for as we approached every village they would slow down and honk the horn, allowing all the kids time to grab their water and soak the defenseless passengers (though we did have an umbrella which would frustrate some of the aqua-terrorists). Finally, wet and tired, we made it back to Quito and treated ourselves to a feast at Pizza Hut after a weekend of PB & J's and potatoes.
In all, it was quite the weekend, one which will never be forgotten. Now there's just a few short days until what should be yet another great time: Carnaval. Some of my friends and I are takign advantage of the long weekend (no school on monday or tuesday) by travelling to the nearby towns of Ambato and Banos, both of which should prove to be very nice. That's it for now, I don't have time tonight but I'll add a bunch of pictures to this entry asap. Happy Valentine's Day.
Que les vayan bien,
Brett