AWOL! Em and Chris in South America

More pictures? Click here.

So, things got off to a rough start (the whole drama to be revealed in chapter II of this riveting mini series!)…but with our feet finally on the ground 600 miles away from the Ecuadorian coast, that all faded to the background. We had made it it to one of most unique natural sanctuaries in the world.

We chose to go the road somewhat less traveled by, and stay on the main three islands (Santa Cruz, Isabela and San Cristobal) rather than doing a boat based tour. Emily, as usual, had done quite a bit of research and it seemed the more economic route and also allowed us to do a lot of snorkeling, which is what we were mostly interested in.

Our first stop was Santa Cruz, probably the most touristy of the islands. I’m not sure what I thought the Galapagos would be like, but seeing a small town, agriculture and wide spread human habitation surprised me. It shouldn’t have, because I knew we were staying in hotels on these islands so of course there had to be towns but it was surprising to me nonetheless. Basically there are four large islands that are inhabited, the rest are protected national park which can only be visited by the Galapagos tour/cruise boats and some can be reached by smaller boats from the main islands. I guess I had thought that all the islands were strongly protected, but that is not necessarily the case. The big islands do have large sections of national park, but they also have developed areas as well. While I’m sure we missed a lot by not taking one of the cruise boats, I’m glad we got to see the more human side (both the good and the bad) of the islands as well.

Really, Em and I could go on and on about the Galapagos. Just as an example – Out of curiosity and to provide some background history going into our trip, I decided to read Darwin’s Origin of the Species since the islands were so influential in his work. Interestingly enough, in “Origin” he does not actually spend much time on his Galapagos findings, but it was obvious as we went through the islands how their unique character could have deeply impacted and given credence to his theory. Which is all to say, I could go on for some time about just that and how interesting it was to be able read his theory and see the parallels and inspiration for his theory right before my eyes. But I won’t. Instead I’ll just try to highlight some the things that we most enjoyed about the islands.

1. The wildlife – of course! This is probably the main reason why people come to the islands and even in the areas with human habitation it was amazing to see the difference in how the animals acted as opposed to those on the mainland. You could get disturbingly close to most of the larger animals on the islands. One experience particularly struck me with how unique it was. I was photographing a heron and I just kept getting closer and closer and closer, but the heron hardly even batted an eye. It reminded me a lot of the blue herons I would see sometimes while growing up in Grass Valley. The blue herons back home would have been off flying about fifteen to twenty feet earlier. So, on land and sea, the wildlife was amazing and abundant. Even just walking along the fisher’s pier in Santa Cruz we saw rays, seals and of course all the birds waiting around for fish heads (fish heads, yummy yummy fish heads).

The snorkeling was cold(!), but awesome. Emily’s favorite part of the whole trip was when we were able to swim with a bunch of juvenile sea lions ( video of said romp, click here). They were very curious and playful. One even grabbed her flipper and tried its best to hold on to it. My favorite snorkeling experience was swimming with the Galapagos sharks (“fish are our friends, not food” vegetarian sharks, go figure) and sea turtles.

2. The islands were created by volcanoes, so they are formed from hardened lava. The unusual earth made for some breathtaking and surreal scenery (see the pictures of the lava tunnels). We rode horses up to a volcanic crater on Isabela. The ride there was beautiful and fascinating. The ride back, however, was just painful (sore for days). We also hiked around on lava from a volcano that erupted less than 30 years ago. The vegetation was completely destroyed in some places, so at times it felt like we were on the moon. There are even little pockets where we could feel the steam rising up from underground fissures. The next day we went on a boat/snorkeling trip to one of the most interesting places we have ever been. There were tons of still crystal clear pools of ocean water separated by bridges and walls of lava. The lava rocks were covered in giant ancient cactus . So, you looked into the salt water and could see sea turtles, fish, rays etc. perfectly swimming around in the water and you could look up and walk around on bridges made out of lava and try not to get poked by a cactus needle.

3. The beaches and water – the water is the most beautiful blue and when there is sand it tended to be white. There’s not much more to say about that. Since we were on islands and traveling by boat a lot, we saw a lot of water, but it never got old. Emily’s favorite beach was on San Cristobal where the sea lions made the public beach right in the middle of town their sleeping den. Hundreds of sea lions would climb on to the beach and make quite a scene as they roamed around fighting, playing, looking for their families, snuggling, climbing over each other and generally making a lot of noise. We sat there for at least an hour watching their antics and amazing at how similar to dogs and even people they are.

4. Sushi! So yeah, the only fish I eat is raw. There is a really good sushi restaurant that overlooks the bay in Santa Cruz. We spent a pleasant evening there for my birthday dinner.

5. CEDEI invaders – there were probably about 12 CEDEI teachers on the islands all at once, so we kept bumping into people that we knew. We all had our vacation at the same time, so it makes sense, but it was weird to be in a completely different place and still find a friend to eat dinner with.

A few more pictures – here!

So, first things first. You do not “celebrate” Carnaval in Ecuador, you play Carnaval. Up until the Sunday that we went to Gualaceo I don’t think Em or I had really caught the spirit of the holiday. In the days preceding the actual holiday weekend Ecuadorians we know asked us if we had played Carnaval yet and ask us what we were doing to do for the weekend. Em had plans but they kinda fell through because everything was booked in the places that we wanted to go to. So we would give a blah-I-don’t-really-know response and they would look at us like, what’s the deal, it’s Carnaval! Up until that point we (well, Em really) had only participated in Carnaval as targets for water bombs (foreigners and females are the preferred targets. So if you’re a foreigner and a girl, you’re quite popular). Needless to say Em wasn’t too thrilled with the whole thing. Though, she should have felt honored. One of her students was sad because she had not been the target of a water bombing at all.

So the plans to go to the coast, or possibly to Banos had failed. Em heard that there was a big celebration, parade, etc on Sunday in Gualaceo, a town about an hour away. We decided to go there with a few other CEDEI teachers. There is a CEDEI campus in Gualaceo, a perfect place to stash our stuff to keep it from getting wet and as we were to discover it also had a balcony overlooking the street where the parade would be. Oh what fun that would prove to be…. but I digress. Saturday we hiked up to Turi, a little pueblito overlooking the city taking the many, many, many steps that wind up the mountain from Cuenca to Turi. We had been up there before with Ludi and family, but there is a bit of a sense of accomplishment when we were looking down and could see far below, the point where we had started. Also, we know the city a lot better so the view was more interesting this time, with many land marks that we easily recognized. When we got back home, we went in search of some dinner but everything around us was totally deserted, it was like being in a ghost town. Apparently, people leave Cuenca for the holiday either to the coast or to farms in the countryside. While we were passing by one house we suddenly were surrounded by a barrage of water balloons, none of which actually hit us. We must have made the kids’ day though, because we were probably the only people that walked by all day. It was that dead.

Sunday rolled around and we hoped on the bus with three other people (Gretel, Lee, and Tom) to Gualaceo. Our welcome to the town was water being squirted into an open window in the bus. Most people were wise enough to keep theirs shut but there was one chink in the armor and a few people got wet because of it. There were also some boys on the bus with water bombs themselves, and they were throwing them out of the bus at other people. With their last one, they accidentally hit their own window frame and got themselves totally wet. Nice shot. That was just the beginning. Basically we were entering a water-war zone where anyone is a possible target. Amazingly we made it to CEDEI without major incident and were able to stash our stuff high and dry. The city had wisely turned off the water before the parade to keep things kosher. But, when without water, the people arm themselves with these cans of spray foam (called “spuma”). So really, you’re never safe.

The parade was….interesting. There were a couple clever floats, but as far as the whole production was concerned, it wasn’t anything amazing. But it was unlike any parade I have ever seen before. Your standard parade, you basically sit and watch while the people run, walk, dance, ride their way along. If you’re really lucky, some candy is tossed your way (well not anymore, someone might lose an eye, lawsuits might get filed, environments might be damaged, people might get cavities, or worse, enjoy themselves….yeah). This parade however, audience and performers alike all had the cans of spuma and it was the strange war between the parade participants and the parade watchers. The participants got the worst of it because they had to dance, sing, parade, whatever while spraying the onlookers. The onlookers had the easy job, they just sat on the sidelines and did their best to make soapy snowmen of the performers. Nobody was immune, even police officers would get covered. It was truly awesome.

After the parade, the water came back on and all hell broke loose. CEDEI has pretty much the highest balcony in the area and a nice strong water supply up on the balcony. We had picked up some water balloons earlier and so we commenced to bomb pedestrians below and other balconies. I think us boys went a little crazy but it was a lot of fun. It was like being a kid again. The best targets were open back trucks of marauders that would be hitting other people. We would get them in turn and there was nothing they could do about it. A little later we got what was coming to us. The whole group of us went down to river where the main bash was going on. On the way we got soaked by people in balconies and people by the river with buckets of water. Poor Thandi hated every second of it. She doesn’t mind getting a little wet, but being attacked by water was just too much for her. The rest of us had fun though, it really was just like being a kid again, a whole city full of grown up kids.

To see more pictures of Cuenca click here

So, it’s been a while since our last post and even in our previous one we didn’t mention much about our day to day life here in Cuenca. So….what exactly are we doing in here? Of course the main purpose is to learn Spanish and experience a different culture. But while we’re here we are up to other things as well. Emily is teaching English at CEDEI and I, well I am basically sitting around doing a whole lot of nothing. That’s not entirely true, it was a stroke of luck that my ex-boss emailed me while we were in Argentina and asked if I could work remotely. The travel funds were running a little low so, I took the job. Shout out to all you people at ISI that are reading this instead of working! And for those of you who were wondering why you were seeing my emails but never my face, mystery solved. I’m just a ghost in the shell. It is a part time position but it pays the Ecuadorian bills and leaves me free to take up my studies on line……

Yeah….about those studies. Unfortunately that isn’t happening as planned. I ordered a book that I need for the course over a month ago and……I’m still waiting. So that part of our expected plans isn’t going so well. But in general, life is good here. I have some free time to work on a programming project of mine, I have been cooking a lot, which is a lot of fun, and in general I just have time to just waste. A luxury that I rarely had in the states. It always felt like I was enjoying myself on borrowed time. Here, sometimes it feels like I actually have some free time on my hands. So, for me things have been pretty relaxing. I am starting to get a bit itchy for the book to arrive because this is kinda of throwing a wrench into how we planned out our year.

Emily
CEDEI is one of the largest language institutes in Cuenca. They have a variety of programs there. It is nice because local teachers teach Spanish to foreigners and foreign teachers teach English to locals, so there are all kinds of people both teaching and learning at the school. I teach 3 different classes a day. Each group is different. One is a mixture of people from the ages of 14-28. The next is the silliest class filled with a couple of very goofy early teenagers (3 of them are VERY involved in their high school drama team, so they like everything to be lively and interactive.) The last class is the highest level the school offers. It is similar to an introductory college course on culture. There is a strange mixture of students in that class. There are 4 women in their early 20’s – early 30’s and one 16 year old boy. He keeps us constantly amused and on our toes. Each group of classes lasts for 10 weeks then we get a little break. So, not a bad way to make a living – except that I don’t think many Americans could afford to live on what they pay for very long without a savings or a second income, so it is a good thing that Chris is able to still work for Intuitive.

One disadvantage to teaching in English and working with so many other great English teachers is that I am probably not learning Spanish as quickly as I would if I had to function totally in Spanish. I am taking classes twice a week. That really helps me because I don’t just absorb other languages like some people are able to do.

Chris
So that’s basically it. We’re working. I’m waiting to be able to do school. In the meantime, the teachers at CEDEI always are doing something on the weekends and evenings so there are constantly things going on. A couple weekends ago we went up to Chunchi for a birthday party of one of the Ecuadorians we know. It was well, interesting, cold, wet and in the middle of a cow farm. Good Spanish practice though. For the return trip to Cuenca, Em and I had the option of riding in the back of a truck the whole way, but we decided for the bus which was a little slower, a little safer, reasonably comfortable and a LOT drier. It poured down ran on those who opted for the back of the truck. Pobrecitos.

Carnival is approaching, so water balloons, water guns, water bottles are showing up around town Apparently Cuencanans thing the best way to celebrate before lent is by getting everyone wet. Several of the CEDEI teachers have been water bombed, including Emily, though they have yet to score a direct hit on her. I have yet to be targeted though so who knows what the deal is. I have a feeling they might target extranjeros more often, but that’s just a theory. We’re not sure exactly what we’re going to do for Carnival yet. Some of our friends are going to Peru, others to various places on the Ecuadorian coast. We’ll see what looks the most appealing.

Well, we hope everything is going well back home. Until our next update, que pasen bien!