Las Esmeraldas

So this is a delayed update, but still important :). A couple of weekends ago, our program had a trip to the Esmeraldas, which is in the northern part of Ecuador on the coast. The climate is very different, as is the culture, and it was a great trip overall. The night before, we had a celebration for two of the girls in the program, Casey & Odetty, whose birthdays were on May 5 and 6, respectively. My beloved sister, Kendra, turned 27 on May 5, and one of my best friends, Joe Riddle, turned 23 on the same day as well! 

Anyways, from Thursday-Sat. morning, we visited an Afro-Ecuadorian community named "Playa de Oro" (translation: Beach of Gold). It's not actually a beach, it's a small community of all African-descendants. They live right off the Santiago River, which has a crazy strong current and is so beautiful. Jen & I went swimming one afternoon in the river, and were having a blast being taken away by the current & then trying to swim against it -- it was a work out! Just like in the Amazon, we had to travel by canoe, so wherever we went, we went in canoe. I find the canoe rides so peaceful and relaxing. We also bathed in the river b/c there wasn't any running water in our cabins. That's what the whole community does, and it felt amazing!

This community wasn't very developed, as they only had gotten electricity maybe a year before we came, but the odd thing was that almost everyone had Direct TV. I know that sounds very developed, but some people didn't even have running water, food, or jobs, but they had Direct TV. Thus, you can see the effects of globalization and the influence of the West. It was very difficult for me to understand a lot of the people's Spanish -- they spoke very fast and definitely had a different accent and way of speaking than what I've experienced in the past. Sometimes it sounded like they were speaking a completely different language -- we had to ask them to repeat themselves and to slow down a few times. 

The community has a lot of history. They had rich resources in gold (hence its name) but people from England came to excavate all of the gold, while basically enslaving the natives to work for them. The history of this community is definitely very sad, but their spirits about the future are inspiring. They have many rich natural resources that are still left in the community, like caña de azucar, plátanos, cacao, etc. It's still frustrating, though, to see the effects of the materialism and selfishness of the colonizers, as if they have the right to take advantage of natural resources, especially in a foreign community. They couldn't steal their culture, though -- their culture, including their African roots, is very much alive & well. Their styles of dancing & singing definitely resemble African influence -- it was so fun to join in the singing & dancing. Even though I was a little lost in both, I felt honored to directly participate in a part of their culture.

On Saturday morning, we left the community to go to a beach on the coast of Ecuador. The beach's name is Same (pronounced "Sah-may") and it was beautiful! The beach was almost completely isolated b/c it was the voting weekend in Ecuador (which means that everyone has to be home in their own communities to vote). We were only able to stay for one night and less than 24 hours, but we had a great time! The water was absolutely gorgeous (so warm!) and the waves were fun -- we stayed in for hours & hours! It was my first time being in the Pacific Ocean, so that was very exciting for me. 

The only downside of the beach trip that was I got burnt, very badly. And by very badly, I mean second-degree burns. It was completely my fault -- I didn't reapply sunscreen after I got out of the water, and my whole front side got very, very burned. I was in a lot of pain for almost 2 weeks, and my skin went through a lot. At first it was burning so badly and my body temperature was super high, and then it started looking like I had skin cancer (scary), and then it finally started to peal. I went to the doctor here so that I could get some after-burn cream so that my skin can recuperate. I used a crapload of Aloe Vera while my skin was burnt, but this other cream really helped with the after-effects. I am finally pain-free, and my skin is almost completely repaired. I definitely learned my lesson there -- don't mess with the Ecuadorian sun (aka: apply & re-apply sun screen at all times). 

Now here are some pics:

The birthday girls with their presents :)

The delicious dinner that Odetty and Casey's mothers made! 

Karlita (Odetty's sister), Mélida (Casey's mom), Jimena (Duke staff), Odetty's real mom (from NY!), and Wilma (Duke staff)

The birthday girls & their fams! (Odetty's host mom on the left and Casey's host sister on the right)

Playa de Oro (Afro-Ecuadorian community on the coast of Ecuador)

This is the cabin that the ladies stayed in.

Time to make sugar cane juice!

Wilma chugged that juice so fast!

This is a cacao bean. Ecuador has tons and exports them so other countries can make chocolate. 

Araña!

On a hike!

That yellow stuff is from a tree. It is supposed to be good for scars, so I put it on a nasty scar that I have on my leg. It worked! The brown stuff is just dirt :)

Crazy tree!

The leaves in Ecuador never fail to amaze me.

Looking for gold!

This is how much gold we found after about 45 minutes of looking for it. This is worth probably about $2 - stupid British people who stole all of the gold from this community!!!!

This is the Santiago river and our beloved professor, Juan García Salazar. I love the river, & him.

Beautiful sunset. Beautiful community.

Marimba time!

The kids of the community doing a traditional dance for us.

All of the other kids watching.

More of the community.

Same (Sah-may) beach!

Sunset, pollution-filled, yet beautiful sky :)

Loved sleeping and waking up to the sound of waves outside my room.

The water was so nice. Very warm & the waves were fun! 

Sunkissed & happy.

It felt so nice to be at the beach, even though I got a nasty sunburn!

Fiesta a la playa!! (Feliz día de la madre!)

We didn't want to leave :(

This is the skinny arms stance. 

Columbia girls!

We almost had the beach all to ourselves!

<3

Party on the bus for Mother's Day!

My next update will be about my amazing trip to Peru, so stay tuned!

Semana Santa

So as you all know, this past week was Holy Week. For those who observe, Happy Belated Easter! Christ is risen! So, Ecuador is very very Catholic, as are many other Latin American countries, and therefore Holy Week (Semana Santa) is a pretty big deal. Most schools are closed, and there are lots of events going on in the city. On Good Friday, there is an annual procession in the historic center of Quito that starts at 12:00pm (which symbolizes the hour at which Pontius Pilate condemned Jesus to death) and goes until 3:00pm (the time at which Jesus was crucified. The procession consists of purple-hooded, Ku  Klux Klan-looking, penitents (cucoruchos) who show their repentance by carrying heavy crosses, tying chains to their feet, by wearing crowns of thorns on their hand, and by whipping themselves. Thousands of people go to watch, and it was definitely a good experience to go. I only stayed for about 30 minutes, because the procession is pretty repetitive, but I'm glad I went. Here are some pictures from the procession:

I don't know the reason behind the purple hooded robes... 

These crosses looked very heavy -- it took many people to carry some of them.

This guy took on this cross all by himself.

Later that same day, my family & I went to my host mom's cousin house to eat the traditional Fanesca soup. This is a very special soup that is unique to Ecuador. It contains 12 different grains/legumes that have significance in that it represents the 12 disciples of Jesus. There are many different theories about the origin of the soup -- my host mom swears that Jesus and the disciples ate this exact soup. Others say that its origins are indigenous. In fact, my Kichwa teacher told me that the preparation of the Fanesca soup is an indigenous tradition, and it is merely a coincidence that the time when the indigenous first prepared it, is during the time of Holy Week. According to this theory, the indigenous people of Ecuador  received a sign from a bird (don't remember the name of the specific bird) that told them that the grains were ready. Then, the indigenous people used all of the grains to make this soup, as a way to thank the earth for giving them these rich grains. Whatever its origin, Fanesca takes DAYS of preparation because in order to make it, you have to peel each one of the grains, and do other tedious tasks to get the soup just right. Its taste is very rich, and it fills you up with just a small serving. I was fortunate enough to try 2 different versions of the soup -- one on Friday and one on Saturday. The first one I tried had fish in it. Even though the indigenous population of Ecuador never added fish to the soup, the Christian influence on this dish led to the addition of fish (to represent Jesus, I suppose). I don't really like fish, and the taste of the fish pretty much took over the taste of the grains, so the first Fanesca wasn't my favorite. However, I did eat most of it and I could tell that it had a very rich taste. My second Fanesca didn't have fish in it, and therefore I was able to taste the grains better. I liked this one more and it was so rich and so fulfilling. I unfortunately did not take a picture of either Fanesca but here is a Google pic to give you a general sense of what it looks like:

 

As you can see, it is custom to add things into the soup, like plantains, fried dough, cheese, eggs, etc.

On Easter Sunday, I was able to go to a church service with my host mom -- Hallelujah! I haven't been able to go to church once since I've been here, so I was really excited about this. The church is walking distance from our house, and it's an evangelical/Protestant/non-denominational (obviously, I'm not really sure haha) church that has 4 services each Sunday, and each service is packed! I was expecting a church that was very Catholic (as most of the churches here are Catholic or at least have a strong Catholic influence), but the service was surprisingly very similar to some churches I have been to in NYC! The music was upbeat and exciting, there were dancers, song leaders, drummers, guitarists, violinists, etc. The pastor was also really great -- very funny, passionate -- and his sermon was heavily aligned with the Bible. I really enjoyed the service, and I almost understood every part of it! It was definitely a different experience worshipping the Lord in a different language. However, it was great to know that even though worshipping in Spanish in a different country is a little out of my comfort zone, I am still worshipping the same God! I love to experience God working and touching lives outside of the United States! :)

In the jungle, the mighty jungle...

Hola mis amores :) ¿Cómo están? Estoy bien, recuperando de mi viaje a la AMAZONIA el último fin de semana. Fue un viaje increíble y espero que puedo regresar otra vez en el futuro. Deben ustedes venir conmigo en el futuro, sería muy chévere :) Es importante reconocer que la Amazonia es muy diversa y hay muchas partes diferentes y yo solamente visité una parte en el Ecuador. Esto significa que mi experiencia no se puede generalizar a la Amazonia entera, y eso es muy importante. Por ejemplo, en la parte en que yo visitaba, no había monos (por lo menos, visibles) o animales "salvajes"en la selva, sino había una variedad de insectos, bichos, y biodiversidad. (If you can't read this b/c you can't understand Spanish...learn!)

Yachana Lodge - the place we stayed for 4 days. So pretty!

Some of the cabins that we stayed in -- we definitely didn't "rough" it, but I was okay with that!

One of the views from one of our late afternoon hikes 

Silhouette.

Me & my friend Maggie :)

Sweaty from hiking, but happy to be amidst such beauty :)

This woman was my hero. She was pulling that yuca out of the ground like it was nothing, when in reality it was actually pretty hard. She was also using her machete like a ninja to clear out the weeds.

This is how the indigenous women carry the yuca back to their communities...looks like a headache to me!

Oh you know, working the poncho!

One of the communities that we visited

The cooked yuca, before the mashing session began!

I was definitely getting into the whole mashing thing...it definitely felt good to get some of that pent-up anger out ;)

We are Death Eaters (Harry Potter reference, for all of the n00bs out there). 

The shaman in the local community with our guide

This was the part of our natural cleansing where the shaman blew tobacco smoke on us. Tobacco actually really helps clear out your system!

This plant is used by parents to punish their children when they are misbehaving.

& I can def. see why -- this is what happened as a result of just one little hit from that plant. My hand was burning so badly!

These are flowers that are used for paint

This is my cool Amazonian warrior design!

I'm pretty much an official Amazonian warrior now.

This was the gun that they use to hunt -- you have to blow really hard to shoot out the bullet, and most of us failed and didn't hit the target. 

This is another weapon that is used to hunt -- it's basically like a javelin. Although I look super intense and legit, I was not successful in hitting the target. SIGH.

This is a huge ant that is dangerous b/c if it stings you, you get a crazy fever, instantly. There are some crazy insects/bugs in the Amazon, for real.

Loving the Amazon.

This tree is friggen enormous. It's like 400 years old or something, and it's just beastly. ¡QUE BESTIA!

Me & my boo, Casey -- having a moment near the Tree of Life.

¡Salvemos la Amazonia!

This is our crazy guide, showing us how to climb a tree that has no branches.

Tree-hugger.

There were def. parts of our hike where we thought we were going to fall & die. ¡Sobrevivimos!

Things got pretty cray cray during the hike. 

Survivors. Amazonian warriors. B.A.

Don't mess. 

The Napo River, a tributary to the Amazon River.

A crazy looking picture I took of the sunset.

View from our lodge. 

Que bonita.

I really don't think I could ever get sick of this view.

All smiles :)

The whole gorup in our sexy ponchos.

Taking our rest from one of our crazy hiking adventures.

We visited a local high school and this was their little greenhouse.

Roller coaster ride in our HUGE canoe!

We're ready to swim!

This was our "train" -- fun times! The current was pretty strong & it was super relaxing to just float in the river!

Our trip to the Amazon was definitely the best trip so far -- it was so great to be surrounded by beauty wherever we went. I definitely want to come back to visit one day, and I want to visit other parts of the Amazon as well. It was so peaceful and relaxing and I definitely needed this get-away from Quito and the city life. It was also really nice & tropical and hot, so that was a nice change as well. I didn't get eaten by too many bugs (I was literally applying bug spray every 5 minutes), so that was a pretty good deal. It did rain a little, but it was the good rain b/c it wasn't too cold & it just felt refreshing. I can't even describe how nice it felt to fall asleep to the sounds of nature (waterfalls, crickets, etc.). So in summary, the Amazon was awesome -- definitely an unforgettable experience.