La Mitad del Mundo

School has been wreaking havoc on my life as of late; I believe I finally have a set schedule. What’s more, it really ought to be set, because if I can’t add a class anymore and dropping one would not only put me below full time status, but would also incite a $50 fine which I’m not about to pay.

            Our French class has continually been put on hold because of no available room space. Actually, a number of my friends and I were initially excited when we started school, because we saw that a lot of our classes were in a building marked AULAND. Imagine how stupid we all felt when, attempting to find the building, we were told it stood for Aula Indeterminada (Undetermined Room).  Yea. Stupid foreigners, right?

            Anyhow, to continue with French, which I need for my minor, I had to move to another class at a time that conflicted with my Quichua class. So I had to drop that one and find another class that wasn’t full and was at least remotely interesting to me, if not applicable toward my St. Norbert classes. I settled on German. I also chose a class called The Films of Alfred Hitchcock, which should be interesting to say the least.

            This past week my friend Mallory turned 23, so we celebrated accordingly at a place called Loco Por Futbol (Crazy for Soccer).  It was a decent time with hamburgers bigger than those I serve at Red Robin (imagine that!). We then made our way to Chupito’s, a bar with shots for only $1.50. One of the best things about Quito is that you can take a taxi downtown for about $2, so getting pissed up is never really a problem. What IS a problem, however, is that after getting home I’ve thrown up twice now from drinking. I don’t ever really drink much, but I think the altitude is something not to be reckoned with. I’ll have to be more careful about that in the future.

            Anyhow, I had Friday off, on Thursday night a bunch of us went to buy tickets for the soccer game on Saturday and then see a movie in the middle of the city. We saw a horror flick called “El Orfanato” filmed in Spain. It was a great movie, and I was surprised that I could understand almost fully all of the dialogue.

            On Friday, a bunch of us took a trip on the Teleférico, a cable car that suspends passengers above a huge sloped mountain and offers a panoramic view of the entire city of Quito. After being in the tiny car for about twenty minutes with my knuckles as white as the cable car itself, I was astounded at the beautiful view before me. Quito’s long and narrow perimeter wasn’t visible even on the top of the mountain, where the air was a good twenty degrees cooler. It was also significantly more difficult to breathe, and so as my friends ventured up the mountain further, I decided to stay behind and have a smoke. The buzz was much better than normal.

            After almost having a panic attack on the way down, my friends and I decided to celebrate by going shopping in the city center. I got my hair cut for a dollar (the price was about right) and then went shopping at a nearby mall where all the clothes are rip-off designers. I got a D&G sweatshirt and a few T-shirts after haggling with a few of the shopkeepers, and then met up with my friend Nate who recently bought a car because he hates busses. I don’t understand how you can hate busses so much where you’d want to waste $6,000 on a car in Quito, where the traffic is so horrible it would take you 20 minutes to go around the block, but I figured if he had the money that must be motive enough.

            The ride back home to quick change before a Friday night party we went to proved interesting to say the least. Almost all the cars here are standard, and the hilly terrain caused Nate to clunk out three times, the worst of which was when we were stopped heading upwards on a hill. In order to move forward, he had to release the clutch and floor the gas just right, and we almost hit the truck behind. I vowed never to ride with him again, which lasted about 3 hours until I needed a ride home.

            The party was almost impossible to find, tucked away in a gated environment guarded by giant structures similar to toll booths. We arrived promptly and I had a really great time; a huge group of my friends from school came and we all danced. I probably had a little too much of  a good time, as after this party was the second time my dinner came up at 3 am.

            The next day, the same group went to a soccer game, which is a qualifying game for Ecuador in the World Cup, held in 2010 in South Africa. These games are intense, and I donned a jersey, a huge clown-ish hate, some face paint and a giant five-foot flag that I waved every time our team scored the 3 points we did. At one point, Bolivia scored (only once) and the team’s fans, who were pocketed throughout the stadium, proudly screamed with delight and held their flag high. I kid you not, half the stadium turned to these fans and yelled obscenities like hideputa (son-of-a-bitch). At one point, the entire stadium began to chant it, at that alone was a sight to see. Imagine an entire stadium (see pictures) chanting a swear word. I swear, I learned more potty talk there than I have in my entire 12 years of Spanish. The police presented themselves multiple times to stop mini-riots that broke out in the crowd. It was absolutely ludicrous.

            Following the game, a bunch of us went out drinking (I swear it's the national pastime here) and then went salsa dancing, where I received some lessons in the dance that everyone in the country seems to be a professional at. I got home around 1:30, anxious for today’s trip to la Mitad del Mundo (middle of the world) where you can do some amazing things.

            Santiago picked us all up around 11:30 and we drove to the monument, which boasts to be at the very center of the earth. What’s comical is that the actual equator (proved through GPS tracking) is about 300 meters south, where another museum sits, which we promptly visited.

            We took a tour and learned about the native tribe that thrived on the equator hundreds of years ago, complete with shrunken heads, actual dead tarantulas and anacondas. I shot a dart through a tube and hit a tiny cactus target and learned about the equinox on the equator. The tour included some really interesting demonstrations, including watching water turn clockwise about two feet north of the equator and counterclockwise just south of it. I balanced an egg on a nail (there is almost no centrifugal force), and was lifted in the air by four people who only used their first two fingers on each of their hands. The forces also make it considerably more difficult to walk in a straight line with your eyes closed. It was all really interesting.

            Then we visited a volcano crater, where people have made a small society. At around 4:00, the clouds all move in, and you can’t see into the valley, and we watch the fog creep down the sides of the mountain, blanketing the rock in a cottony mass. It was really neat.

            It was another great weekend, filled with some interesting sites and awesome learning experiences. I think next weekend we’re going to Otavalo, where they have a huge market. Should be fun!

This is the monument (which isn't correct) that marks the middle of the world.

This is a diagram showing how to shrink heads. It was pretty graphic.

This is me trying to balance myself on the equator. Difficult!

OHMYGOD! I balanced an egg on a nail!

This is how the natives harvested good energy. I happen to be doing it at the ACTUAL center of the earth's surface.

Given the crazyness of all this middle-of-the-world talk, I though it appropriate to be upside down near the monument.

Outside the soccer stadium.

An entire section of the field was draped in a gargantuan flag depicting the words "Ecuador, Mi Pais" or "Ecuador, My Country"

Look at all those yellow jerseys!

Mark, Mikaela, Felipe, Santiago, Kayla, Marshall, Margaret, Mikaela, Rachel and me

Just before my salsa lesson!

My best friend in Ecuador, Margaret.

Baños

This weekend was an absolute blast [for the most part]. Thursday night a bunch of us went out to an Argentinian steakhouse and then went dancing. It was fun, except when I'm in a large group of people, I tend to sweat a lot, which procures quite a bit of stink-eyes.

After a severely hung over Friday morning, a bunch of us decided on a whim to take a 3.5 hour bus ride to a tourist city called Baños (which literally translates to 'Baths'). The town is known for its large indigenous population and natural hot springs. Unfortunately, the combination of these two things made it impossible to enjoy either, as the multiple times our group tried to enter the Springs it was chock full of the indigenous. But we still were able to do a lot of other things.

I guess I'll start earlier. We (and by we I mean five of my gringo friends) decided to meet at 11:30 at a nearby bus station and leave from there. One girl stayed over at two of my other friends', so she had to travel a half an hour each direction to pack some stuff, so we pushed our meeting time back to 1. Then another of our friends decided he wanted to come, and one of our original group decided to invite this (uneducated, annoying, and altogether quirky and unwholesome) girl he was seeing, thus inspiring other to invite other people, and so on and so forth. Our group grew to about 15 people, which is an abhorring number of people to travel with. 

After thinking the bus station was one way, then directing our taxi cab to two incorrect locations, we finally found the "Terminal Terrestre" which is home to busses that travel all over Ecuador. After boarding our bus and buying some alcohol (a native brew called "Cristal" [not the expensive kind]), we were soon on our way. Our bus driver was absolutely nuts. It was nerve-wracking enough driving over steep cliffs with guard-rails of approximately five inches, but he felt the need to pass everyone. Keep in mind, this guy was passing sports cars and motorbikes by driving into on-coming traffic. Often times, passee would speed up, stranding our bus in a lane with traffic traveling the opposite way. When this happened, cars would often careen toward us, forcing the driver to change lanes to the left AGAIN into a non-existent lane, teetering on the edge that led into deep, rocky basins. I was in the second row, so I could see absolutely everything that was happening, and let me tell you, it was not so much fun.

I figured a little alcohol would call me down, and so reaching into our bag, I opened up the Cristal. Imagine my surprise when I smelled it and there was no stench of vodka or tequila, just a stagnant odor of crushed-up peas lingering in my nostrils. I practically vomited all over my friend Marshall in the next seat. 

When the alcohol proved to be an impossible option, I laid back and prayed for it to be over, but it only got worse. The driver continued to pass cars, now not only on mountain edges, but while going around curves where the traffic was impossible to predict. He also did not turn his headlights on the entire drive, which began at 6:00 pm (the sun sets here at 6:20, remember) and ended three and a half hours later.

As much as I thought I was going to die, I was much relieved when we arrived in Baños all in one piece. We immediately went out to eat at a Swiss Bistro (it was difficult finding room for 15 of us to eat together) and then to a bar, but most of us retired early, exhausted from traveling.

It was agreed that our entire group was to go bike-riding the next day, which proved to be an interesting feat.  Entrusting our safety to an 18-year-old Ecuadorian tour guide, we all went biking through the Andes to see a few "cascadas" (waterfalls). At one point, the road entered a mountain, and with no other passable route, all fifteen of us had to ride about 500 m (nearly 1800 ft) through a straight tunnel with no lights. It was possible to see the other end of the tunnel, but about half-way through, it became pitch black, which is dangerous with 15 bikers going 15 different speeds. I was third in line almost the entire tour (which I found ironic considering I had a cigarette in my mouth half the time), so I only had to worry about 2 people in front of me in the tunnel. When we exited, all of us stopped to wait and make sure nobody was left behind. When there was only 13, some of us began to worry. We yelled into the tunnel, and were then informed by our British friend Megan that Rick (her traveling mate) and an artisan named Leah who was staying at our hostel were still in the tunnel. Megan noted that she had heard a few rocks skid, but didn't think it sounded much like a grave fall, but her estimate proved wrong as we heard the squealing of tires and a car quickly turn on its headlights (yeah, NO ONE drives with their headlights on here, even when they're in a pitch-black tunnel) followed but the shadow of Rick in front of the car, bending over to pick up his bicycle. Both Leah and Rick exited the tunnel about 5 minutes later, Leah bloody and ripped-up from flipping over Rick after he fell. It was comical, largely because Rick spent the morning saying he hadn't ridden a bike since he was seven and wasn't much looking forward to biking, followed by Megan's echo that Rick is probably the most un-athletic person she knows.

After that adventure, we visited "El Manto de la Novia" (the veil of the fiancée), which a waterfall that you can visit but taking a cablecar hundreds of feet about the rocky Andean terrain. That was really interesting; someone like me who is scared of everything traveling by a thin cable. Needless to say, my face was white upon return to land.

We also visited "El Pailon del Diablo", a waterfall named from the devil's face that appears in the rocks at the bottom. I'll post pictures when I get them, they're AMAZING, but the hike down to see it was brutal. We literally walked to the bottom of the Andes, no easy feat, and then had to climb and crouch through cave walls nearly a yard tall (if you can imagine Gollum from Lord of the Rings, you can get a pretty clear picture) to walk behind the waterfall and view its power in full force. It was beautiful and awe-inspiring at the same time. The sheer power of the water hitting the ground and bouncing back up reminded me of a miniature Niagara Falls. 

We visited one more cascada called El Machay, where we all swam. It was awesome. Imagine a blue lagoon with 2 giant waterfalls falling from above. The only unpleasantry was the rocky bottom of the stream with cut my feet up a little bit, but it almost seemed like a scene from Turistas. We all stripped to our underwear and just jumped in. Incredible.

Anyways, after that, the bike trip went smoothly. Some of my friends went bungee jumping and some almost got hit by oncoming traffic, but we all got back in one piece safely. That night we took a volcano tour that began at promptly 9:15. We had all decided we were hungry beforehand, so I spoke with the hostel owners to ask what was fast, cheap, and good, because we decided to eat together at 8:30. After hearing of a place that serves great Ecuadorian food, some idiot in our group decided to veer off toward a place called Café Good, which took an average of 45 minutes to prepare anything with meat on the menu. Nobody bothered to ask, however, so I was entrusted with the task of returning to our hostel where we were supposed to meet for the volcano tour, and demand of the guide that she wait another 15 minutes for everyone to arrive. I was furious. I may not have intricately planned where we were eating, but I had a plan and this stupid girl blew it all off to go somewhere on a whim, and all 15 of us followed her like lemmings. I wish she would have fallen off the Chiva that we traveled on (sort of like a short bus, but you can ride on top) to get to the top of the mountain.

The next day 5 people decided to go horse-back riding, which cost $25 that a third of the group didn't have, and they stayed persistent even though it was freezing and rainy. I stayed behind with my friend Mook who took the Canadian artisan Leah up on her offer to put a wrap through his dreads. Everyone left periodically through out the day, separately, the weekend having taken its toll on our collective friendships. I will never travel with a group that large again.

After another three and half hour ride that took almost four, I arrived in Quito, but not after suffering about 5 soiled baby diapers and a smushed bus filled with people who don't shower. See, the bus lines here like to make extra money, so even though every seat is filled, the driver picks up people on the side of the road who pay half the price to stand the entire way and make the ride uncomfortable for the rest of us. The corruption is so prevalent in this country, its very disempowering to know that even though I paid fully for my ticket, I can't prevent the bus companies from doing what they want to do. 

I went to a bookshop called Papiros yesterday to pick up 2 text books from a store required by my Spanish class. After getting home, I realized that they had given me two of the same books, so now I have to take another hour bus ride just to exchange them. How annoying.

I have class soon, so I better stop here. I believe I'm going to a soccer game this weekend, so that should be fun! Hasta pronto...