Happy Anniversary! 5 Years!!

Today Adam and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary! This is our 2nd we are celebrating in Ecuador. Last year Adam and I celebrated our anniversary by finding out where our site was going to be (woo woo Loja!) and this year we celebrated with Adam being sick in bed (poor guy picked up what appears to be the stomach flu) but finally made our way out of the house for a fancy dinner at the Howard Johnson. That is right folks, apparently the HoJos is one of the best restaurants in town- it was quite lovely!

Happy Anniversary! I wouldn't want to share my life with anyone else!

4th of July, Workshops, and a Trip to Quito!

Happy very belated 4th of July! Adam and I spent our Independence Day with other volunteers from our cluster (region) in Vilcabamba, which is about 1 hour from Loja. Although there were no fireworks, hot dogs and hamburgers, or parades through the town, we went on a horseback ride through the mountains, ate watermelon and enjoyed a game of Risk. 

Miriam (who came to Loja on a tech exchange where she helped me with a workshop for the employees in MIES-INFA Centro de Protección de Derechos) enjoying an apple and the view!

Allison on her horse that left the pack to return to its owner's house!

Adam on his horse...everyone was stuck behind me and my slooooow horse =D

Playing the game of Risk...unfortunately not Justin's ULTIMATE RISK

A rare treat for us- watermelon!!

After our relaxing time in Vilcabamba, we returned to Loja where Nancy and Miriam helped me with a 2 day workshop for my counterpart organization MIES-INFA. A few months ago one of the women who is in charge of the office I work in asked me if I knew anyone who could help share some U.S. methodology of child protection social work. My friend and fellow PCV Nancy was a CPS social worker for 15 years so she came down to Loja with Miriam to share some of her experiences. It was quite a stressful few days, but we ended with some relaxation exercises using information from the UCI Health Education Center Relax Your Mind and Body workshops (thanks Leigh!!!)!!

Nancy and Miriam sharing to the group

Always have to have small group breakouts!

Group work always has to include markers and large sheets of newsprint

Eri leading the group in Radio Taiso...I love this!

More group work!

Guided imagery activity...I am sure a few people fell asleep!

In other news, Adam and I also went up to Quito last week to meet the new trainees during their picnic. Liz and I rode up together on the bus because Adam was already in Quito to see the PC doctor. For some reason I didn't think it would take us a long time to get to Cayambe...and Liz kindly reminded me that 14 hours is the norm! We had spent the entire day before making snickerdoodles, rice krispie treats and little snack packs for our "hermanitos" (some of the volunteers were paired with trainees just to provide support and answer any questions they have). I didn't get any pictures of the soccer game or of our "hermanitos", but I did take picture when we visited our host family and they had a group of trainees that came over to their house to make cheese. Pacha and Micaela are as ADORABLE as ever- now Mica has her two front teeth, but Pacha is missing hers. We had a great meal at their house (Magy is still as good of a cook as ever!) and got to chat with the trainee that is currently living there.

Since we had to pass through Quito to get back to Loja, Adam and I took advantage of our waiting time to go to the Quicentro Mall. It was totally bizarre being at a mall that has things like a Sunglass Hut, a United Colors of Benetton, and a Crocs store. Everything was priced the same as in the U.S. or more. I have no idea who all these rich people are that can afford this stuff in Ecuador!! We decided to splurge and ate at...of all places...TGI Fridays. $12 for a hamburger! What?!? So Adam and I shared one. Haha. And then we went to Dunkin' Donuts afterwards so I could get a coffee. Mmmm!

I love this. On their paper bags it still says "America Runs on Dunkin' Donuts" but at least their wallpaper was changed with a picture of Ecuador! I highly doubt Ecuador runs on DD though!

And of course when I saw the little sushi place in the food court of the mall, I had to get some sushi too! Again, this was also VERY expensive for Ecuador. $6.30. I can buy SOOOO much stuff for that price. But it was oh so worth it. Sushi is one of the things that I have cravings for all the time!

Other than that, I have been doing more origami with Eri at the centro comercial, and with teachers. This morning Eri and I went to this school in Loja to teach all the teachers about origami...as it turns out, our next door neighbor here in Loja is the director of the place (though I have never spoken to her before). Eri will be leaving next month (she is almost done with her 2 years of service with JICA) and I am really sad because I really enjoy working with her and she is just so great! It will be sad to see her go!

Next week Adam will be starting work with a summer camp put on by his counterpart organization. From what I can gather, it sounds like a lot of soccer and basketball! He also has some leads on projects with the technical university in town, so that is good! We like keeping busy!

Ok, well I will keep trying to post more photos and updates!!!

More origami at the orfanato!

Yesterday Adam and I went to the orphanage as usual, and this time we brought along Liz and Stacia! Stacia has come with us a few times already and last week she was helping one of the girls with English. Rosa is really really interested in learning English and is one of the few kids at the orphanage who hasn't learned any in school. So this week Stacia worked with a few of the girls on English vocabulary and Liz and I did origami (of course!) with the younger kids. We made houses, pianos, dolphins and paper cranes- and Adrianna went crazy with hers...I think she made 3 or each!

Aww, special request to get a photo with Adam =D

Liz explaining about how she eats "bichos" (aka parasites. The kids didn't get it)

Fuzzy picture but you get the point...

Adrianna with one of her many pianos!

Cake balls and a quick update!

Well I clearly gave up on the photo a day thing- plus somebody (ahem, Gamble...) said that there were others who were getting turned away by the overwhelming number of posts. Just kidding. Really it has just been "busy-not busy" (I feel like that is a good Peace Corps volunteer term...the idea of being busy takes on a whole new meaning down here).

So now I'll just post random photos when I get around to it. That sounds good to me!

Today's photo is...surprise surprise...more food! A few weeks ago I made some cake balls for Stacia's birthday since I had been meaning to try out the recipe that I had seen on Bakerella's blog- http://www.bakerella.com/ They turned out pretty good aside from how messy dipping cold cake balls into chocolate are. But Stacia said she enjoyed them, so that was enough for me!

Next weekend I am going to be going up to Quito/Cayambe area for the new trainees' picnic. Adam and I had signed up to have "hermanitos" (little siblings) from the training group, where we answered questions they had (mostly packing for the PC). I think I'll make a batch of these for our hermanitos. We'll see how they turn out!! Hopefully cleaner and easier than the first attempt!!

In other news, I am going to 2 different cities this week to do workshops on origami with teachers, and then this Friday 2 volunteers are coming into town to help conduct a workshop for my office on social work. I'll be leading a session on stress and relaxation techniques. Adam helped prepare and translate some documents for the city because the mayor of Loja was going to the Shanghai World Expo. He is also working on translating the Loja tourist map into English. Also this weekend we are going to be celebrating 4th of July by going hiking and horseback riding in Vilcabamba! Fun! I will definitely have photos!!

Renee's Visit to Ecuador (Part 3: Galapagos Day 4 & 5!)

On our fourth day in the Galapagos, we headed to the highlands of Santa Cruz Island where we saw twin volcanic craters, crawled through a muddy lava tunnel, and saw where the Giant Galapagos Tortoises roam freely. We were able to see the tortoises munching on maracuya (passion fruit) and barreling through the brush (it's pretty impressive). There were also a lot of shops to buy souvenirs, but since we aren't really souvenir people, I just took photos!

One of the twin craters- doesn't look as impressive in photo!

The tunnel was created through flowing lava

One of the many giant tortoises- this one was probably half the size of me, and probably quite old

Close up shot- ET anyone?

And the strangest looking tortoise of them all! =D

Blue footed boobie souvenirs!

Hungry pelican!

For lunch we got to relax at an oceanside hotel (the Finch Bay Eco Hotel in Puerto Ayora). It was nice to have a lunch outside with the ocean waves in front of us. The meal was really nice and we had a yummy dessert of maracuya cream puffs! For some shocking reason, I have no photos of our meal!

After that, we headed to the Charles Darwin Research Station where they have a rearing in captivity program. It was amazing to see how tiny the baby tortoises are (even the ones that are 4 or 5 years old!) after seeing the larger tortoises that are closer to 100 years. They then release them into the islands to repopulate.

One of the things I was really looking forward to was seeing Lonesome George. He is the only one of his kind (Pinta Island Tortoise) and is known as the rarest animal on the planet. Unfortunately, we were able to see where he lives and the two female tortoises that live in his pen with him (they are trying to breed). He was probably in hiding somewhere because we couldn't spot him, but it was quite disappointing. =( Hence why I didn't come home with a Lonesome George shirt.

Have you seen this tortoise?

However they had plenty of other tortoises at the Charles Darwin Center, as well as land iguanas at the research station.

Male tortoise unsuccessfully trying to mate with another male tortoise

Land iguana

This tortoise's neck was quite impressive- I was hoping we would see him lifting his head to grab a bite to eat!

After our time at the Charles Darwin Research Station we had a chance to walk into town to do a little bit of souvenir shopping. Adam picked up some coffee and a shirt for his parents, and Renee found some great purchases too. She is regretful that she didn't pick up the ceramic Sally Lightfoot Crab piggy bank though!

Our last night on the ship, they brought on some entertainment and we also had a great final meal! Then the following morning (May 28th), we departed to San Cristobal where we visited the museum and then headed into town for more souvenir shopping. It was quite a cute little town and we had a good time just strolling about.

Lazy sea lions making their homes on boats in the dock

San Cristobal Island

We flew out around noon and were happy campers (as seen in the photo below of Adam and Renee getting onto the plane), oblivious to the adventure we would soon have. I made the mistake of saying to Renee while we were taking off, "Wow, everything went so smoothly in the Galapagos! There were no issues at all! Usually when traveling, some snafoo comes up." And no sooner had I said this, an announcement is made on the plane that Volcan Tungurahua had erupted and an ash cloud was in Guayaquil, causing the airport to be closed down. As a  result, our plane would be diverted to Manta.

Well, this was quite unfortunate for us, because our plan was to arrive in Guayaquil around 2pm and hop on a plane to Loja at 4pm. So we debated what to do and decided that we would take a bus from Manta to Guayaquil (which took about 4 hours) and then stay overnight in Guayaquil and make our way to Loja the following day. On the bright side, Renee got to see some of the towns along the coast and the houses made of caña, and experienced the Ecuadorian bus rides (bad action movie included!).

At the airport in Manta with all the other confused passengers. Many were heading back home to England or the US so they were concerned about if they would make it out!

Renee biting into our free snack on the bus (thankfully Metropolitan Touring arranged a bus to take us from Manta to Guayaquil so we didn't have to pay for it).

So all in all, everything in the Galapagos went so smoothly and I would highly recommend the MV Santa Cruz to anyone who wants to visit the islands but be on a larger ship for seasickness issues. If only the rest of Ecuador had their tourism down the way they have it down in the Galapagos! That would just make having visitors so much easier! 

A continuation of Renee's Adventure in Ecuador will continue in another post!