Para Dad y Joyce

I have decided to do a special blog chronicling the visit of Dad and Joyce so they won't forget all the fun times we had. They are old, after all, and memory is the first thing to go :)

They arrived on a Monday evening (to an extremely clean house, I might add) with only enough hours left in the day to settle in for the night at my lovely Quito home. After a much-needed sleep-in, we began exploring Quito in La Mariscal, lovingly referred to as Gringolandia. We visited a market where we did our part to stimulate the Ecuadorian economy. I then introduced them to shawarma, an Indian favorite readily available on every street corner here for lunch and they also had their first Pilsener, Ecuador's national beer. After returning to the house for a bit of rest, we set out again and walked through Parque Ejido and then arrived at Parque Alameda. We discovered a structure that we could climb up which offered a beautiful view of the city. We continued on to the Centro Historico and strolled through the oldest area of Quito. Since we were already close, we took a taxi from the Centro Historico to the Panecillo, which definitely offers the best view of the city. This was also the first time Joyce and Dad really got to hear my Spanish because our taxi driver was a talker (ugh). In the evening we bought a bit of pizza for the house and Dad and Joyce had a chance to get know my housemates a bit better.

On Wednesday, we started the day with a visit to Hazel McCallion, where I teach English. Dad and Joyce met with our director and met each of the classes that I teach. Since the students were preparing for the Mother's Day program, we also had the opportunity to see the kids practicing their dance routines for the program. We then had dinner with one of my colleagues, Trish Morck. At her suggestion, we spent the afternoon visiting La Capilla del Hombre (The Chapel of the Man), which is a museum dedicated to the work of Guayasamín, arguably the most successful and famous Ecuadorian painter ever. His work is very distinctive and one can easily find recreations of it for sale all over Ecuador. We also had our first "almuerzo" on Wednesday. In Ecuador the cheapest way to eat out is to buy an "almuerzo." Restaurants here that offer almuerzos will prepare one menu of food for lunch and rather than picking from a menu, you can just go in and order and almuerzo and eat whatever they have prepared for that day. Prices range from about $1.25 to $2. I didn't tell Dad and Joyce that before they got the bill, so they were definitely pleasantly surprised. For dinner that evening we ate with la familia Moya-Ureña, the MMN family that lives here and that I work with.

On Thursday, we finally got out of the city and on our way to Baños. We survived the insanity that is Terminal Terrestre and arrived in Baños without trouble, and of course ate my favorite Italian food for lunch. After getting a room at La Chimenea (the best hostel in Baños in my opinion) we went to visit la familia Reinoso, who would be serving as our tour guides for our time in Baños, although we didn't know it at the time. After visiting with the family for a while, we returned to the town and rented dune buggies to tool around town while we waited for Elizabeth to finish work. We then had a bit of dinner and took a Chiva up to La Cruz (The Cross) to enjoy canelazos and a beautiful view of Baños with the Reinosos. Joyce also finally had a chance to order food off a cart with my blessing, choclo and kabobs.

The next morning after hitting snooze at least 4 times, I dragged Joyce and Dad out of bed to visit la piscinas. Baños is located at the base of the Tungurahua volcano and therefore is able to boast a host of hot springs. They look surprisingly like a public pool, but the water is steaming hot and they also offer showers created by piping water in from the waterfall directly beside the pool. In my experience that shower was freezing but a great way to end a bit of time in the hot spring. After a well deserved nap, we ate some breakfast and met the Reinosos for another day of fun. Our first stop, the Canopy. We arrived at a gorgeous (and deep) canyon which we proceeded to cross in a tiny little terabita and which then Dad, Joyce, Ricky, and Nayeli (who is about 7) proceeded to zipline across. Having tempted fate once with the zipline, I chose to pass this time around. We then went to the zoo where I discovered that in Ecuador, fences are somewhat of a suggestion rather than anything else as Ricky jumped fences without fear to get a better look at the animals. The only thing more terrifying than the zipline is eating cuy (guinea pig), which Dad and Joyce proceeded to do for lunch. Call me crazy, but I prefer food without teeth and hands. After lunch we walked up to a waterfall maybe half a mile behind the Reinosos house. For the first time I was able to get close enough to a waterfall to play in the stream and enjoy myself. Until we had to leave, which involved climbing over a wall. I could climb it fine.. it was getting down that was the problem. As I tried different ways to come down with terror in my eyes, Ricky kept reminding me "tranquila, tranquila (calm down, calm down)" and finally I made it down with a considerable amount of help from Ricky. Everyone else seemed to manage it without too much trouble... coordination is not my thing. In the evening, we returned to the Reinosos for one of the most delicious dinners I've had in Ecuador, prepared with mucho cariño by Sara. In the evening we enjoyed some delicious canelazos and called it a night.

For our last day in Baños we had breakfast at the Reinosos and then were taken on a tour of the country around Baños by Sara and Nayeli. Joyce was able to meet a fellow beekeeper and see the hives that he kept. We also played in a river that Sara's family has come to for picnics and such for years. It was lovely. After a bit of lunch we returned back to Baños to catch our bus home. Throughout our time in Baños it was a complicated dance to try to get the opportunity to pay for something and buy gifts for the family without them feeling that they should get us something else. The generosity of the Reinosos has been unmatched by anyone else I've ever met, in Ecuador or anywhere.

We returned back to Quito to find my house full of people and Tobi making potato soup. A great return, to be sure. The next morning, we went to the Mennonite Church and Dad and Joyce got to have many conversations in Spanglish. In the afternoon we went with the director of my school on a drive around Ecuador on a search for rose plantations, which wasn't too successful. We then had dinner in the Centro Historico and had a chance to see the Basilica lit up at night. The next day, we went with the director of my school again to Cotocachi to visit a lake in a volcanic crater. We had to buy six tickets to take the boat around the lake, and since there were only four of us we invited two girls to go with us who had said they couldn't afford to go. After we got back, one of their boyfriends who happened to be a musician gave us an impromptu concert of indigenous Andean music.

The next morning we decided to sleep in a bit as we were all pretty tired, and then we went to the Teleferiqo, the cable car which climbs the Pichincha mountain and offers a fabulous view and a serious lack of oxygen. After a bit of lunch, we went back to the market to finish up shopping for souvenirs to bring back to the states. In the evening, my friends Belén and Tomás came by the house with humitas and quimbolos, traditional Ecuadorian food. They had come by the previous night as well and were so disgusted with my failure to expose Dad and Joyce to traditional Ecuadorian food that they took matters into their own hands.

For our last day, we tried to find a wax museum that I had heard about but ended up in El Museo del Banco Central, which turned out to be exactly what Dad was interested in seeing. It had a wide variety of artifacts from different indigenous groups, colonial art and modern art. It was awesome. I later read in my guidebook that this was the one museum you shouldn't miss in Quito. Chalk one up to dumb luck. We enjoyed more traditional Ecuadorian food for lunch, encebollado and ceviche. We also enjoyed an Ecuadorian tradition of being glued to the tv when Liga or Barcelona is playing, in this case Barcelona. For our last dinner, we ate a cafe near my house where the owner specially prepared lasagne for us. This cafe also happened to boast the best canelazos I've had outside of Baños. And a lone waitress who made Dad feel confident in his Spanish, which was a great way to end our time.

In the morning I went with Dad and Joyce to the airport to help them check in, only to find out I couldn't get in to any point where I could be of assistance. I came back home to find that Dad had pulled a trick I taught him with the Reinosos and had sneakily left me money on my desk after I had gone downstairs. So there is a very complete account of La Visita de Dad y Joyce so now they can always remember the time they spent in Ecuador!

Demasiado Depedida-ing

In Latin culture saying goodbye is very important and saying goodbye has its own word, despedir, and a going-away party is referred to as a despedida. I love this part of Latin culture, but lately there have been far too many despedidas for my taste. I'll rewind a little bit though and give you an update on what's been going on.

About two weeks ago my dad and my aunt arrived in Ecuador and I spent their visit serving as a tour guide and translator. We did all of the typical tourist things in Quito but the highlight of the trip was visiting Baños. When we were about half an hour away I called the Reinosos. I had been expecting that we might go to dinner with them or coffee, but we ended up with the family serving as our constant tour guides for the entire time we were there. We hiked to waterfalls, drove dune buggies around the town, drank canelazos and a million other things. It was an amazing trip. My dad and aunt fell in love with the family immediately and once again Baños was full of cariño.

Yesterday I saw my dad and aunt off at the airport and today my dear friend Emma and her boyfriend Angus left for the United States as well. With so many people leaving I know that my life here is going to be a little different again. It's great to be here for a longer amount of time than most people, but saying goodbye is really hard. My other extranjero friends are here for as long as I am so I won't have any more despedidas until my own so that's a bit of a relief.

Today was our Dia de la Madre program at the school and to my dismay I forgot my camera. As many times as I've seen kids perform in different programs, I never get tired of it. I hadn't seen the kids for almost two weeks so I received a lot of hugs.

Now it's back to normal life as I'm working tomorrow and Sunday and then the whole week until Friday. I've almost forgotten what normal life is like here. I have less than two months of 'normal' life here and then a month of traveling, then a month of crazy wandering around the states before grad school. I have a feeling it's going to fly...