"Damos una vuelta!"

This weekend with my host family was a fun and entertaining one, for sure. Friday after class and my four hour nightmarish experience at La Dirreción de Migración (which I will not speak more of for fear of reliving painful memories and then doing something I might regret out of a desire for sweet revenge), I finally returned home just as it was getting dark. My family was all at home and I joined Soledad (my host sister who is expecting a baby and who, although she says she is due at the end of April, I think cannot possibly have more than two weeks AT MOST before little Pablo Jose comes into the world) and Marco on Marco´s bed, where we watched "Clueless" in Spanish followed by "Two and a Half Men." I also realized as we were watching these things that I had begun to not even think twice about the dubbed Spanish over familiar TV shows and movies...in fact, it is stranger to me now to watch something on TV in English.

After a while, we all had pan, té, cafe, and queso in the kitchen and then decided to go over to Soledad´s house, where her husband, Raoul, was with two friends from work. So my mother, Marco, Soledad, and I all drove over to their house, which in reality is only a few blocks from our house, but it was quite impressive, to say the least. Their house is actually more of an apartment or condo and is in a gated community. Once inside, Soledad eagerly gave me a tour and it made me want an apartment just like theirs. It is three floors and very new, with a really cool loft area on the third floor and a deck on the roof with a spectacular view.

Soledad also went through and showed me the baby´s room--the crib, the toys, and the clothes. I felt so happy for her and Raoul as she showed me everything--they are going to love their son so much (not to mention my host mother is going to spoil her first grandson rotten) and they deserve to be happy. Soledad had told me before that, for a long time, she thought she could not have kids, so this is sort of their miracle baby. I am very excited that I will most likely be there when she has the baby--I can only imagine how crazy it will be when they finally bring the baby home!

So after the tour, we joined everyone downstairs, where Raoul and his friends were drinking some beer and listening to music. After a while, one of the friends had to leave and my mother decided to go home, too. The rest of us, however, decided to "dar una vuelta," which I thought at the time meant to go for a walk. To my modest surprise, it turned out that it meant driving aimlessly around Quito for a while, which actually turned out to be pretty fun, since I got to see some of the city that I never had before.

The friend that came, Tato, me, and Marco all sat in the back. Marco pointed out various sites and things to me as we passed. Tato, on the other hand, was pretty quiet but would occasionally say something--usually a very dry but funny comment. Eventually, we stopped at this hot dog stand which was apparently the place to be, since it was crowded with people, standing all over the sidewalk eating hotdogs and hamburgers. Only Tato and Raoul were interested in eating, but we all got out and stood around talking for awhile. Eventually, one of Tato and Raoul´s friends walked up and talked with us for a while.

OK, so while we were standing there, Tato kept jokingly saying things like, "Alex se va con nosotros" and "Alex sale con nosotros" (essentially, "Alex leaves with us, Alex goes with us"), so I joked right back "¿Es la unica cosa que tu puedes decir?" ("Is that the only thing you can say?"). Eventually, we parted ways--Tato and his friend and Marco, Soledad, and I. Only later did Marco tell me that Tato actually really did want me to go out with him and his friend, but that because he knew I was on anti-parasite medication and could not drink he did not really seriously ask (yes, I failed to mention before--a few of us came back from la Selva with some parasitic action going on and although I luckily just felt generally strange and nauseous, I finally took anti-parasite medication last Thursday and Friday but UNFORTUNATELY you cannot drink while on it unless you want to kill your liver). So, anyway, FRUSTRATING! Because even though we did not talk too much and I do not want to make too big a deal of it, I was...intrigued by Tato and would have loved to have spent more time with him had I not been on that stupid medication...stupid parasites! Argh!

ANYWAY, so Saturday we all woke up early and drove two hours to Otavalo, which is where my family is originally from and where my host mother´s mother lives. We stopped along the way at a restaurant for breakfast, but I was unfortunately suffering the hangover effects of my anti-parasite medication and was not feeling too hungry. It was really a shame--they had eggs, bisochos (kind of like biscotti, but so much better!), fresh-made cheese, and coffee. I stuck to aqua con gas.

When we finally arrived in Otavalo, I broke out the list I had of all the gifts I wanted to get people (as well as some things for myself) and my host mother, Denisse, and I set off into the market. Now, whereas I had visited Otavalo on a weekday briefly before when it was more or less dead, Saturday it was INSANE! Every street was lined with vendors selling everything imaginable! And not to mention, on the weekends, Otavalo is also invaded by tourists, hence I saw a load of gringos walking around. It is amazing--I am not saying that I exactly blend in, but I never really thought that tourists in other countries really looked like the stereotypical image I had of them. But apparently, they really do. And they really do stand out as painfully obviously as I had thought, too. I cannot tell you how many people with fanny packs, white tube socks pulled up over the calves and worn with khaki shorts, and polo shirts I saw! Wow...just, wow...

Anyhow, so the way our shopping expedition worked was I went first, plunging through the crowded lanes, and when I found what I was looking for, I stopped at the stall and picked out what I wanted. Then, my host mother would kindly step in and say to the vendor, essentially, "Look, I am from around here...I know how it works and this is my daughter...now, let´s get that price down, okay?" and she was always able to knock off a decent amount for me, which was great. I have no illusions: bartering is a skill I am just plain not good at, but thank goodness, my mother is a pro. All in all, I walked away with pretty much all my gifts for people back home taken care of (Score!) except for good old Ecuadorean coffee and chocolate, which I will wait until my last week to buy.

After I finished shopping, we walked with Denisse to the local hospital. She is a med student (studying, specifically, physical therapy) and she was instructed by her professor to put up fliers advertising for an upcoming medical conference at the hospital in Otavalo. Now, this was definitely an experience I will never forget.

I have been to UNC Hospital many times, since my mother works there, and so all my impressions of a hospital are basically based on that. UNC Hospital is light, huge, always full of doctors and nurses, and patients, as well. The lobby is almost all glass, so sunlight always pours in. Always, just a really lively, busy place. There could not have been a greater contrast with Otavalo´s hospital.

There is a giant fence all the way around it, first of all, and Denisse had to show her med student ID card to the guard so he would let us in. We walked to the entrance on the side that said "Emergencía" and into the tiny waiting room, empty except for some chairs and two women who sat there, silently waiting. A sign advised us to press a doorbell if we wanted a doctor´s attention, so we pushed it and then waited. After a while, a man in scrubs unlocked and opened the door that led to the rest of the hospital. Denisse talked with him briefly and he told us that we could put up the fliers wherever we wished. Then he locked the door behind him and was gone. So Denisse put one up in the waiting room, then we walked around to the front entrance.

The main part of the hospital reminded me of Catonsville Elementary a little, only spookier. It is a brick building and old. It gave me the impression of a hospital that at one point was fully staffed and state of the art, but had with time fallen into disrepair, judging from the dark, windowless, empty hallways and peeling paint. Chairs lined the long, dark hallway and the only person we saw was a little girl who entered behind us and wordlessly ran down the corridor and disappeared through one of the doors.

We posted another flier there, then turned and left, walking back through the crowded streets to my host grandmother´s house. We picked her up, all piled in the car, and took off down the winding country roads. Eventually, we arrived at a gorgeous crater lake--the same crater lake that we stopped at on our way to Intag (I posted pictures of it in one of my first rounds of photos). This time, however, we went to the little hostel located on the water´s edge. Marco, Soledad, and I bought tickets and piled into a boat with a bunch of other tourists to take a turn around the lake.

It was a cold, cloudy day, but this gave the place a romantic, Ireland or Scotland-esque feel. The whole time we were motoring around the lake and the two mountainous islands in its center, both thick with trees and brush, I kept thinking that the Loch Ness monster would be just as happy here as in any lake in Scotland. As we drew closer to the islands in the center, I also noticed that there was a little house build in the low, marshy land between the two islands, partly hidden by the reeds at the water´s edge. It looked abandoned and empty, but I thought of how beautiful and peaceful and also lonely it would be to live there.

We eventually stopped on the far side of the islands, near shore and amongst a bunch of small, black ducks who flapped and dove all around us, while our guide told us a bit about the lake. Apparently, it was formed from volcanic activity thousands of years ago and that even today volcanic gases (mainly sulfur, I think) rise from the bottom of the lake continually, therefore making any fish life impossible. Only when he pointed that out did I notice that, all around us, little bubbles were rising to the surface, like boiling water. The water itself was beautiful--crystal clear in the shallows and in the deeper parts an amazingly vivid blue. Despite the lack of fish, however, wolves, rabbits, and armadillos, among other things, apparently live on the islands.

Eventually, we returned to shore, piled back in the car, and drove off to have lunch at a restaurant called Mr. Chancho´s. Now, by this time I was starving, having gotten over my anti-parasite medication hangover, but it gave me pause slightly as we rolled up to the restaurant because, right in front, was a giant statue of a smiling indigenous woman, brandishing a bloody knife, with a statue of a slaughtered pig hanging behind her. However, my hunger and the fact that my family could not wait for me to try this Ecuadorean delicacy of fritadas overcame all.

Fritadas, I discovered, is basically fried bits of pork. I was presented with a heaping plate of them, along with tostado (corn), potatoes, and some other corn-ish thing I could not quite identify, as well as queso. I ate what I was given, as I was starving and, given that I had not eaten much at all in the past week due to my bout with parasites, my family was beginning to think I had a serious problem or something. However, the experience reinforced my previous thoughts (based on eating a pig foot with my previous host family, learning about the environmental benefits of vegetarianism in Intag, and also seeing the numerous barely-identifiable animal parts hanging up in windows and the pig heads displayed by street vendors beside heaps of fried pork) about possibly trying vegetarianism upon returning to the States.

After lunch, we dropped off my host grandmother at her house and then drove back to Quito, arriving after dark. Exhausted from the early morning and long day, I pretty much went to bed straight away after we got back.

The next morning, we all had breakfast and then piled in the car and head to the birthday party of an uncle (I am not sure exactly how he is related) in Cumbaya. It was a very interesting day, if a bit overwhelming meeting all the people at the party. They were all extremely nice, though, and we had a great meal of beef (I think...), potatoes, rice, ceviche (cold soup with shrimp), and a chocolate cake my mother made.

One thing I have to say that I LOVE about Ecuadorean food (and I really do love a lot of it!) is that, with almuerzo, oftentimes you get served popcorn and tostado with it. What other culture is there where you get to eat popcorn with your meal??? And tostado is perhaps my new favorite snack food and hey! You get to eat it at lunch! Not as a snack, not as dessert or something, but WITH your meal! Heck yes!

ANYHOW, we have many preparations to do before we leave for a week on the Coast starting this Wednesday. I have to say, I am not entirely looking forward to it--besides the intense heat and humidity, we were told that this is by far our most difficult excursion because we will be living with very poor families for a week. For a week, we simply have to observe them and participate in their daily activities. I know it will probably be very eye-opening and rewarding, but still...I think it is one of those things that I will be glad I did AFTER the fact, but might not enjoy quite so much while it is going on...vamos a ver...

Until next time, ciao!

-Alex