Feb. 9 - The "Equator"

So today I really wanted to sleep in, but I had already planned to have breakfast with Susy at 8 so that I could talk to her about the past week and let her know I was going to be living with her for the next two weeks. She was very pleased to hear that I would be with her longer. The only problem is that she had already arranged for someone else to stay for a few days around the 18th of February. I'm not sure if she said she would find another place for this person, or they were going to bunk in with me. I figure either way, I have my sleeping bag to sleep in if I have to share my bed.

Last night I had decided to meet up with my friends from school around 1:30pm, so I headed into town a little early to walk around the city and check my emails on the internet. I found this great little internet cafe overlooking a street in the Mariscal. I was quite enjoying watching the people in the building across the street go in and out, enjoying their lunch on the roof and took particular interest in this one guy who was smoking on the fire escape. It took a little while before I realized the person I was watching on the fire escape was Lee and the person eating lunch on the balcony was Meredith. I happened to pick a great seat overlooking the hostel that the school uses for those students who don't want to live with a family. Who knew I would turn into a peeping Tom when I headed down to South America. So to make sure I don't get that reputation, I headed across the street to say "Hi".

Lee was about to head out to explore the town, so I joined him as we walked around the Mariscal exploring some of the shops and two open air markets that were filled with crafts, artwork, and handcrafts made my local inhabitants. The colours in the artwork is out of this world and all from natural sources. After we had finished exploring we headed to our local bar (Coffee Tree again) and had a coffee while we waited for Anna to join us.

Once we had all gathered, we headed off to La Mitad del Mundo (The middle of the world). As with many things in Ecuador, the price for this was almost nothing. Even though it's about 20km outside of the city, we ended up spending $0.65 to get there, and it was only that high because we made a mistake and had to pay to get back on the bus. After about an hour of traveling and asking many people how to get there, we managed to find our way and arrived at the ecuator.

La Mitad del Mundo is probably the most touristy place in Ecuador, it's almost as if we stepped into Epcot Center's Ecuador Pavilion. It is filled with lots of shops, all selling the same things, restaurants all serving the same things, and "typical" Ecuadorian music. They even have a "museum" (notice the use of quotation marks...nothing here is real, it's all put together for the tourists....but you have to visit, just to say you did) where you can perform some experiments on the equator. These include flushing a toilet on each side of the equator to see how the water spins in different directions (when you are this close to the equator the hole in a toilet is too small to swirl in different directions so the toilets are designed to spin the water in opposite directions), discover how you weigh less on the equator (only about 0.02% less, but the scales are rigged to show you weigh about 2% less), and balance an egg on it's point (I dont' know about this one, I think it actually is real). Since it is all fake, we decided not to go.

The main attraction here is to straddle the equator by the monument which indicates the middle of the earth. The only problem is that this isn't the real equator (notice the fake theme here....I think Michael Eisnor helped design this place). Once GPS navigation came into existence they were able to determine the equator was actually 250m further north. Interestingly enough, the Incas had actually calculated the equator to be closer to the real equator than the French scientists who determined it was at this monument. Even though it wasn't the actual equator, we still stood on, stepped across and dumped over the "equator". No one is going to know it wasn't the real one (unless they read my blog).

Needless to say it didn't take long before we were bored with the place and headed back to the city (only $0.40 this time because a local lady took us under her wing and told us how to get home). That evening, instead of heading out we decided to head back to the hostel (where I was previously spying on everyone) for a few drinks and to have a chat. A very good way to end a relaxing day.

Feb. 8 - Quiero hablar mucho Español

Today I parted ways with Tom and Scott to head back to Quito to either pack for the cloud forest or sign up for more Spanish classes. It all depends on what the volunteer organization is willing to do. But first off I have to get to Quito.

Every time I have taken the bus so far, I was with more experienced people who I followed with blind faith. Today I had no such luck .... I was all on my own. Now riding the bus in Ecuador is an adventure that everyone has to experience before they die. The first task is finding the bus station as some cities have only one bus station, others have one for long distance and one for local transportation, and others have a different bus station for each bus line .... it can be very confusing. Luckily Scott knew at which bus station I had to start my journey.

Life in the bus station is like an ant colony without a Queen directing the traffic. It's absolute chaos ... but somehow it's ordered. You have to find your way through a sea of people, all going to different places (some only there to rob you), in order to find the ticket window with a bus company you want to use, going to a town you want to visit. Everyone's trying to sell and buy tickets as if you were trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Half of the destinations you have never heard of. Now if you are headed to a small town, you have to talk to all these people to find out which route will take you to your town. Once you have all that figured out and buy your ticket (usually about $1 per hour of travel .... but as with the NYSE, prices very depending on who you are and what type of bus you are taking) you head off to find your bus, put your bag below (hopefully it will be there when you get off the bus) and head to your seat.

Now what happens if there isn't a bus station in your town? Why you stand on the side of the road and stick out your thumb of course. You can be standing in the middle of nowhere and if you stick out your thumb the bus will stop and give you a ride, it doesn't matter whether or not they have room.

So once you've made it on the bus you're in for the best part of the trip ... the people. As the bus drives around the country, it stops all over the place, all you have to do is ask. You can get off at a gas station, by your house, at the bus station, or even on the side of the road, in the middle of nowhere, to use the bathroom. Anything goes. You'll even pick people up all over the place even if you can't see a house for miles. If there's no room, you stand in the isle. One of the best things about stopping all the time is that people walk on the bus to sell you chips, chocolate, water, soup or steak dinners with Cesar salad and a twice baked potato (you have to call ahead if you want it well done). They even come on the bus to preach the word of the Lord, sell their herbal tea or ask for money because they were robbed (there is an inverse relation between how poor you look and how long your sob story has to be ..... one went for two towns).

Getting off the bus is the moment of truth. First, you have to see if your legs work anymore. As the average height in Ecuador is about 5', the "jaws of life" have to be brought in to pry me out of my chair, and then I have to crawl down the isle (there isn't any headroom either). The second thing is you have to trust the bus driver that this is actually the town you want to go to, since most of the time there is no indication it's the town you want to visit. The final moment of truth is if your bag is there. Being a good Canadian, I wait for everyone else to get their stuff (bags of grain, TVs, backpacks, garbage bags full of clothes, and on one occasion, their sheep from the roof) before I step in to reach for my bag. Luckily it has been there so far, but there are horror stories about it disappearing.

Now that you're off the bus you have to find where you are going. For the most part, the area around the bus station isn't the safest part of town, and with a big backpack, you want to take a cab. But which cab do you take since everyone is trying to take you to your destination. Once you find your cab driver and find out how much the trip costs (ask first or else they will take you for a ride) but it doesn't prevent being taken for a ride. Well I found a cab driver who told me the ride would be $6, so I hopped in. I should have known better though as I hopped into an unmarked cab ... bad move.

After driving for a while he started to get curious about my watch ... how much it cost, where I got it and how well it worked. He didn't stop eyeing it for about 10 minutes before he started to tell me that the trip will actually cost $7. Once we got to the bus station I used for reference he said that to go any further would cost $8. I decided that this was enough, so out I got. First off, he didn't want to open the trunk to get my bag (it survived the bus but not a taxi where I'm the only person there), so I wasn't getting out of the car before he opened the trunk. Once I got my bag, I gave him my money, and he claimed he didn't have any change so I would have to pay $10 for a ride where he didn't even take me to my house. Needless to say, I won't take an unmarked cab again ... but it likely won't be the last time I get hosed.

After taking the bus home (Susy's home again) and dropping off my bags, I headed out to the Spanish school to ask about changing my volunteer plans in hopes of taking two more weeks of Spanish. I emailed Meredith earlier in the week so when I arrived everything was organized for me. All I had to do was pay, but they didn't take credit cards. So with Meredith as my escort to prevent getting robbed, I went to the bank to get the money to pay for the course. It's a good thing she's strong because no one bothered me (Quito is notorious for people getting robbed, about half the students have been robbed .... it's just a matter of time).

Since I was now staying in Quito for another two weeks, I went to an American run club, called South American Explorers to become a member. It was like stepping into the US. English is the language of choice, the computers have English keyboards and in the back they have REAL coffee. It is a little piece of heaven with offices in Lima and Cusco where I can leave luggage, call home, use the internet for free, read fellow traveler's reports on where to go and what to do, and most importantly meet up with other travelers. If anyone is heading down to South America, I highly recommend joining.

Last week, when we had parted ways, my friends from school and I had decided to meet for drinks at our neighbourhood haunt, the Coffee Tree. As with every time we go, they had drinks and I had some real coffee (what I would do for a Starbucks right now). After a few drinks at Coffee Tree we headed to a dance club to enjoy some music before heading home and getting hosed again by a cab driver (he said it would cost $3, it ended up being $6). It has been determined that instead of my usual making sure the women get home safe, the women are going to have to take me home to make sure I don't get hosed again.

Feb. 7 - Finally a low key day

Today we visited Jambi Kiwa, an association of medicinal plant producers. This association is a coop of local community women who grow medicinal plants and bring them to Jambi Kiwa to have them turned into medicinal teas and medicine. They have done a lot of work with the communities and the women to determine which plants grow best in their town, and have been able to start cultivating previously wild plants. It has been hard getting started, but last year they were able to send 2 crates (about 50,000 boxes of tea containing 15 tea bags each) to France (these boxes, written in French, were my main source of information on the organization, after Tom), and will be sending some to Just Us Coffee soon.

Once we finished meeting with them to find out how things have progressed over the past year, we were taken downstairs for a tour of the factory, then off to their "experimental farm" behind the factory. For hygienic reasons, we had to wear special boots and lab coats, which as I'm sure you can imagine were way too small for me .... but I did look good in a 3/4 length sleeve. In the factory itself we were taken through the process of creating tea bags from the point when the tea comes in the door, through the two drying processes, bagging and then shipping it off to the market (where they would sell the tea for $1 per box) or overseas (where it would sell for upwards of $5 per box).

Since this was a pretty low key day, Scott and Tom went off to do some work, while I just started wandering around Riobamba in search of real coffee....no more Nescafe for me. Sadly my search was in vane, and I also figured out there is not much to do in Riobamba if you are a tourist. It's the type of town you go to in order to go elsewhere. It's a great starting off point for hiking expeditions in the mountains, the crossroads for the coast, mountains and jungle, and the end of the train line.

One thing Riobamba did offer was a lot of interesting people, and dinner tonight was no exception. That evening we headed to dinner with a group of Tom's friends. Spanish was the language of choice, but there were over 6 countries represented among our group, including our host, a nun from Belgium who came down to work with the mission. She had a Bob Marley problem and was quite adamant I had more (strong) sangria and more rabbit stew to eat. Some of the other people there were individuals who had been traveling with us around the countryside, and a man who is working towards helping these communities with alternative energy sources. All in all it was a very interesting evening as many people were willing to translate portions of the conversation that I could not understand ..... after they asked me for my opinion on the subject, of course.

Feb. 6 - The Sultan of the Andes

Today I woke up to some serious thunder and overcast skies. Some of the thunder was so close that it actually shook the windows. It wasn't until I got to breakfast that I was informed the thunder was actually the eruption of Volcan Tungurahua over 30km away, and the overcast sky was actually volcanic ash and steam. The focal point of this eruption was actually 7km below sea level, and since the volcano extends 5km above sea level, the ash and fumes were traveling at least 12km before it even reached the atmosphere. Because of the eruption schools in Riobamba and the surrounding area had a "Volcano Day" as they were expecting the ash to fall later in the afternoon (they would not reopen until Friday). The soot in the air was quite strong and you could taste it and feel it in your eyes and lungs. About half the town was wearing masks to help with breathing, and Tom packed three for us in case it started to fall like snow later in the day. The volcanic eruption even made the CBC news (click here to read).

After leaving Riobamba we headed to the town of Pulingu San Pablo at the foot of Chimborazo. This town was another one where Tom has been helping out. Here, one of the main goals is providing the locals with an alternative source of income as well as to build a school. We were welcomed by the community and invited into the school for a presentation on how they have progressed in their community development and where they would like to take things next.

After the presentation was over we went to one of the cabins the community owns. The cabin was built after the community came to the conclusion they could not pay back a loan after the economy collapsed in 2000. The idea was that they would rent out this cabin with half the income going to pay off the loan, and the other half would go the community. So far this has been very succesful, and the cabin is currently being occupied by Spencer, who has been living in the town for over 6 months teaching English in the local school.

One of the best features of this cabin is the view it has of Chimborazo (6,310m). The top of this magnificent mountain is the furthest point from the centre of the earth, over 3km further away than Everest. As the cabin is at the base of this mountain (3,800m) it is further away from the centre of the earth than the top of Everest, and I'm only wearing a sweater. One of the new income strategies of the community is to help people hike to the top of the Chimborazo, which due to recent road construction, can be achieved in less than 8 hours, but still requires a mountain guide, as hiking is very difficult. It is even hard to hike the small hills in the town of Pulingu.

After we finished our business at the cabin, we headed across the road and up a small (maybe 100m) hill that was extremely challenging due to the altitude. At the top of this hill was the town of La Chorrera, a significantly more impoverished community in comparison to Pulingu. One of the ways this community is trying to improve it's situation is by herding alpacas, who's wool is very valuable. Most of the citizens of the town were actually in the hills tending to the herd while we were visiting.

One of the ways to tell the economic situation of a community is by the type of housing the community has. The citizens of La Chorrera were living in the traditional huts. These huts, about 200 square feet in size are home to up to 8 family members (the door also comes to my chest...so it's not built for tall people). They cook, sleep, work and live in these small homes. As Tom has helped this community significantly, we were invited into one of the larger of these homes for some food as a sign of thanks. It was a remarkable experience to be welcomed into one of these homes for a traditional celebration meal of potatoes, beans, cui and tea. The tea was a lemon grass brew that was incredibly rich and good. The cui on the other hand was a different story as cui is the Spanish word for guinea pig. It is often served at celebrations and is kind of tough ... especially the skin! And just so I knew what I was eating, when I returned home, Julia's housekeeper went out back to grab her son's pet guinea pig. So needless to say, only ask what you are eating after dinner.

That evening we headed back to town for a relaxing evening. Scott and I went to a bar for some food and to watch soccer. After our meal, I don't think we are allowed back in the bar. First we ordered our food and two orders of chicken wings came instead of one. So we sent one plate back only to later decide we wanted to have another order of chicken wings. When Scott went up to the bar the waiter misunderstood us and brought two beers. We sent those back only to order some beer when we finished the first beer. Even the soccer game was just as crazy since the home team fans kept throwing bricks on the field at the players and refs. So the ref called off the game, and with that we went home to rest.

Feb. 5 - Visiting the Sky People

Today was an early morning as I awoke at 4:30am in order to make it to Huanca Pallaguchi that morning. Tom, Scott and I all piled into the pickup truck to head over to Father Charlie's place. Upon arriving I was certain that I had brought the wrong clothes to travel today. One of the people who was joining us was dressed in a down filled parka, while another was in a one-piece snow suit (which I didn't know they even made anymore). All I had was a sweater to keep me warm...I didn't even have a hat! But honestly, how cold could it really be? (The answer here is a lot colder than imaginable).

Huanca was a 3 hour drive away from Riobamba. After picking up Maria, we drove an hour along the Pan-American Highway before turning on to a dirt road for our two hour drive. As I had been suffering from dehydration over the past couple of days, I had a lot to drink this morning (including some extra coffee to keep me awake) only to find out that on a bumpy road I have the bladder of a 2 year old which made the trip a little uncomfortable.

The drive was absolutely magnificent and included green mountain after green mountain. Of course, there were the obligatory hop-ons (there's no bus, so our pick-up truck was the transportation of choice for many people). Once we got about half an hour into the drive we were high enough that we were actually above the clouds and were able to look out over the sea of clouds, which were broken up by mountainous islands. It was absolutely magical and something I've always wanted to see. It didn't disappoint.

Upon arriving in Ecuador, I have heard about how the Pan-American Highway is the commercial corridor and as you got further away from it, the economic situation of the communities diminishes. This morning I was able to see that. As you went further back into the countryside you would notice how people would slowly transform from westerners to the indigenous people who live in the hills. Huanca is one of those towns, which is struggling, but they are determined to improve their situation, and the first step is a school.

For the past few years, Tom (along with the other people in our group) has been helping the people of Huanca build a school in this small community. I should mention that all the work these communities do is aided by outsiders. People like Tom only act as consultants and help the community when they hit a roadblock. All the fundraising and labour is done by the communities themselves. On average, you can build a good quality school for about $10,000, but this community wanted to go further and have built a large school of about 6 classrooms, accommodation for the teachers and are currently building a cafeteria for the students (the reason for coming out here). All in all, this community has managed to raise about $100,000 to build this magnificent school. In order to keep costs down, lessen their impact on the environment and stay close to their roots, this school (as many are) was built with adobe bricks. These bricks are made from a combination of volcanic soil and grass found around the town, then dried for about 6 weeks. The final bricks are stacked together and covered with a thin layer of cement to create an extremely durable material and great insulator.

While touring the school, I managed to experience first hand the gratitude people have for the help they receive. Due to my lack of Spanish, I was not able to understand the words, but you didn't need to. The tone and expressions these people had was powerful enough to transcend any language. It was enough to convince anyone that their life work should be to help other people. Even though I didn't do anything to help build this school, I left with such a great feeling inside that could only grow stronger by helping. Because of the speeches I heard there I've decided to do more language courses so that I can better understand the people's hardships and understand how I can help them. I left the school with an open invitation to return to help them with the final bit of construction.

After having tea with the community leaders (the main way of showing gratitude is to feed you) we headed back to Riobamba. On the way we stopped at cascading waterfalls to have lunch (which included an apple that came back to haunt me again, and again, and again, and again). Alongside the waterfall we were able to watch some children tend to their sheep in the most interesting way...they threw rocks at them. It was enough to scare the sheep from crossing the road and was the least amount of work for the children to do. A few people also passed us on donkey-back or by foot, walking from one town to another.

Once back in Riobamba we headed over to Father Charlie's place to rest before dinner. From his roof we were able to watch Volcan Tungurahua smoking off in the distance near Banos (30km away). According to Father Charlie, it had blown a new hole in the side and you could see a new eruption every 5 or 6 minutes. After we had all rested we headed off for a unique dinner. Have you ever wondered what 4 Canadians and a French woman would speak in a Chinese restaurant??? ..... Spanish of course.

People - Traveling around Riobamba

Tom (back row second from the right) is my main contact for my travels over the next couple of days. After sailing across the Pacific, he decided that he was going to spend his life helping those less fortunate. Born in Canada, Tom joined the Scarborough Missions as a layperson and began traveling around Latin America. After a stint in both Panama and Peru, Tom ended up in Riobamba with his family and lived there for 14 years. While in Ecuador, he spent a lot of time getting to know the local communities and started setting up projects to help them. The purpose of his trip this time is to check in on these community projects. Tom currently lives in Wolfville and manages "Just Us Coffee's" ethical sourcing and community relations with the goal of continuing their Fair Trade product line.

Scott (far left), as mentioned before, was my ride from Quito. He has done some extensive travel after finishing his Masters in Math including a few months working with Mother Theresa's organization in India, tending to the sick and elderly. You know Kilimanjaro, well he climbed the mountain next to that. Hailing from Mississauga, Scott, 30, works for Free the Children as the coordinator of their Ecuador projects. His goal during his two-year stay here is to make a lot of connections in communities around which the organization can build their trips.

Maria (front row far right), is Scott's right hand woman. As an indigenous person she has been a great asset to Free the Children. Knowledgeable in both Quichwa and Spanish, she has been able to help Scott break down barriers in many smaller communities where Spanish isn't their first language and they are wary of outsiders.

I should also take a second here to describe Free the Children. This Canadian organization was started by Craig Kielburger in 1995 at the age of 12. The mandate of the organization is to stop child labour. Unlike other organizations working for the same goal, FTC focuses not on political change, but social change. Their goal is to find ways for these children to stay in school to get a better education and help the communities develop alternative sources of income so the children don't have to work. They do this in three steps, first build a school (if they have a nice school the students will come), second help with clean water (one of the main reasons for missing school is either having to travel for 2 hours to get water or being sick because of no clean water) and then finally help improve the economic situation of the community. All this work is done by high school and university students who raise the money and travel to the projects where they volunteer.

Father Charlie (far right) is one of the most entertaining people I know. Hailing from a large family (about 96 great-grand nieces and nephews), Charlie joined the Scarborough Mission at a young age and was first sent off to the South Pacific for 25 years, where he preached under a dictatorship. At the young age of 73, Father Charlie has moved to Ecuador to fill in a vacant spot at the Riobamba parish. He is full of energy, stories and just a great guy to be around. If anyone is headed to Ecuador I'll give you his number (Scott is even trying to find a way for all the Free the Children volunteers to meet him).

Spencer (no picture) is right up there with Katy when it comes to bravery. This 18 year old Thunder Bay native was sitting in a lecture lead by a teacher in the local university when he decided that he wanted to go and help in Ecuador. He left Canada, without speaking Spanish and headed to Ecuador to live for the year teaching English. After living by himself in a cabin in a small indigenous town about an hour from Riobamba, Spencer is filled with stores and an experience that will help him when he goes to university in the fall.

This boy (I didn't catch his name) is the son of Julia's housekeeper. I had to put him in here because he was just so cute. I wanted to take him with me when I left (exactly why I'm not working with children on this trip). It took him about a day to get comfortable with me as I'm sure he has never seen someone so tall, but once I picked him up and held him against the ceiling he wanted to play with me all morning. He kept wearing my sunglasses and my watch and followed me around. He especially enjoyed my camera with which I took two pictures of him. When we flipped them quickly it looked like he was shaking his head no. Definitely one of the cutest kids ever (don't worry Glen, you were cuter).

Feb. 4 - How do you meet another Gringo???

There were two goals for today, get a warm sweater and make my way to Riobamba. The first problem with this was that today was Carnival, and as such nothing was open. I wandered around the Mariscal Sucre in search of an open store that would sell fleece. When I found one I approached the only sales person who spoke English, to find out he didn’t work there. He was a Canadian helping his friend (who was as big as me) find a fleece large enough for him. With our broken Spanish, we managed to find sweaters large enough for both of us.

So, finally warm, I headed off to meet Scott, one of the people who I would be travelling with for the next few days. One nice thing about Ecuador is that it is really easy to find another “white guy”. There are only a handful of us around. So, needless to say, I managed to find Scott with relative ease. We hopped into his truck to make our way down to Riobamba to meet Tom.

On the way, Scott told me about himself and the work of "Free the Children". Tom helped Scott with this project while he was in Ecuador (the reason for Scott joining us on this trip). He also spoke a lot about his experiences in Ecuador so far. Once we reached Riobamba we tried to call Tom to no avail. After we finished dinner, we learned from the waiter that the city code for Riobamba was 03, not 02 as we had been dialing. With this information, we got through no problem.

After meeting Tom at the bus station, we headed over to Julie’s house, where we were going to stay for the rest of the week. Upon arrival, Julie invited us in for some tea. There was a lot of catching up to do between her and Tom, none of which I understood (a common theme this week which makes me think I need some more Spanish lessons). I didn’t have to worry too much as we headed off to bed early since we would have to leave by 5 to get to tomorrow’s meeting on time. So far I have been getting up before 7 every day while on vacation…..I don’t even get up that early for work back home. It just ain’t right.

People - Spanish Classes

Susy (in the green on the right), my Ecuadorian mother, never married or had kids, so the students who live with her are her children; she especially likes and spoils the guys. After selling her clothing factory, she decided to spend her money on travelling around the world. There is hardly a place she hasn't been and when you look around her house, it isn't hard to tell as her place is filled with knickknacks from all over the world....including her collection of over 200 swizzle sticks (used every morning with our fresh juice). Her current job, aside from being a full time mother to me, is going to offices to sell clothes. As I'm sure you've been able to tell, Susy is very proud of her country and enjoys nothing more than showing people how great Ecuador is.

Wendy (on the left in the picture), a 26 year old from Holland, had been at the language school the longest when I arrived. She was the ring leader as she seemed to always have a plan for what we should do; see a movie, go to the chocolate cafe, and join her while she travels in the jungle. She came down to Ecuador with the goal of learning Spanish, one of the very few who didn't come to do any volunteer work. When finished her four weeks of courses in Quito, Wendy was headed to the jungle for another language course combined with travelling, before joining her sister for some travel around Ecuador. Upon returning to Holland she hopes to use her masters in Sustainable Tourism to find a job in the Amsterdam area.

Anna (on the right in the above picture) came to Quito as part of her University program. Her program (Spanish with a minor in French) requires her to spend the third year abroad either studying or volunteering in her different languages of study. Anna, 22, spent the fall on the small French island, Reunion Island, north of Madagascar studying at a local university. In Quito she is taking 2 weeks of language training and then will head to a school for street children where she will teach them for the next 13 weeks. Once finished she is going to travel from Lima to Santiago, Chile before going back to Wales to finsih her studies.

Lee joined me in the kennel on Thursday but we didn't get to know him until Friday Night. After leaving school at 16, Lee has worked to help pay for travelling around the world. Now, 24, he has travelled extensively and worked almost every job available (including Tree Surgery....I'm still not convinced it is a real job). The nice thing about him is that these stories would come out slowly and you never knew what was coming next. An Englishman and white to the bone, Lee was up for everything....the perfect partner in crime. In Quito, Lee is studying Spanish for four weeks before he starts teaching English. Even he doesn't know how long he will be in South America.

Meredith (on the right in the picture) was my Candian saviour. Hailing from just north of Sarnia, this 26 year old has travelled extensively through Spanish countries. After spending some time in university in Costa Rica, she decided to learn everything there is to know about the culture. Now with a Masters in Spanish, she has spent the past couple of months travelling through Central America. Once she is finished her travelling in March, she will be able to say she has been to every Spanish speaking country in the Americas except Venezuela and Paraguay. She was a high school friend of my good friend Marcie, we clicked instantly and plan to bring Latin America to Marcie in Shetland when we get back to Canada. Once back, Mer hopes to find a job with the RCMP or spend 4 months teaching on a class afloat boat (and it will be my fault if she doesn't get the job since it was my photographic eye that created a view of her teaching an English class for her application).

Kat is probably one of the bravest people I have ever met. At 19, she has taken a gap year before University to come down to Ecuador (on her own without knowing the language) to learn Spanish and do some volunteer work at a local playhouse. In spite of all this (including not knowing anything about theatre) she came down with a big smile on her face and intends to travel solo for a few weeks once she finished her project. From Germany, Kat oozes confidence and is always looking for the next thing to do, especially if it involves being out in nature.

Susy's family welcomed me with open arms. I was invited over for dinner on Thursday night so that I could meet her niece (currently studying in Switzerland and with whom I was supposed to click because we both speak French and English). Susy's mother (playing the piano), at the ripe old age of 95, oversaw the proceedings with great pride. Susy's brother, Raul, made for the most entertainment in the family. As soon as I stepped in the door he knew I was the type of person one could torment. I managed to joke around with him in Spanish. He presented me with a CD that had a cover picture of him making music with a saw. He surprised me as I didn't think he was for real. It turns out that Raul is indeed the world's top "saw" player (it took a little bit of convincing before I believed them). Apparently he has travelled around the world with his saw and has made three CDs of his music.

Feb. 3 - CARNIVAL!!!!!!

Carnival is celebrated in Quito by throwing water at other people. We decided this was not our style, so instead we opted to head down to Ambato where Carnival is celebrated with a fruit and flower festival. We headed to Ambato early in the morning (Same group, but we substituted Wendy for Mer) for the 2.5 hour bus ride down. On the way Mer, who has a Masters in Spanish from Western and has been traveling around Central America for about 2 months, educated me on Latin American music (which, as I have learned, makes it impossible to sit still) and told me her life story.

Once in Ambato we headed off in search of the fruit and flower festival only to find out that it doesn’t start for a few weeks. Instead we went to the main street where the parade just had just gone through. The street was filled with people selling various things, spraying each other with foam and general merriment. No one was safe. The army was sprayed as they passed, people would roll down their car windows and spray each other, even some of the police were holding cans of spray foam. It didn’t take us long before we were doused with foam and were forced to arm ourselves with cans of foam with which we could spray on other people in defense. We had a great time, especially watching Lee chase down the little kids who were spraying him, and chasing us around. Everyone seemed to know that we were in for the fun and spared no mercy in covering our faces, and clothes with the foam. Mer and Kat made the unfortunate decision to wear white shirts, because by the end of the day, their shirts looked tie-dyed.

After lunch, we decided that we needed to head someplace more docile. So, after handing our half full cans of foam to street children, we climbed into some taxis to head up to the Monumento a la Primera Imprenta to see the view over the city and the still active Volcan Tungurahua in the distance. The view was remarkable, and there was music playing since there was going to be a festival later that night. So, without skipping a beat Mer decided to start dancing and we all joined in (with all the locals watching and wondering what we were doing). I do feel the need to say that aside from Mer (whom I’ve dubbed a “white chocolate covered raisin” because she’s white on the outside and latino on the inside) none of us knew how to dance. One man did join us and tried to help, but to no avail. It was just Mer teaching us how to meringa (I think that is what it was). Kat was pretty good, but the rest of us needed a lot of help.

Once we were tired (it is quite high up and the altitude kills you) we started our walk down the steep hill and noticed that people were lining the streets waiting for the end of the donkey race through town. Definitely not something you are expecting to come across when you are walking around town. While we were standing there, about five people passed us riding the donkeys, but the last one was having some troubles with his donkey which would not do what he was told.

Once back in town, we sat down for a while in the main square and watched the people come and go while we waited for Mer’s friends to meet her (she was spending the night there) before we hopped on the bus and headed back to Quito for a much needed rest.