Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu was absolutely magical. I really don't know what to say about it other than that. When you set aside the over-the-top tourism staring you straight in the face everywhere you go, it was still great. I have way too many pictures and am too overwhelmed to sort through them or edit any, but here are a few just to give you a glimpse of the most beautiful and amazing place I have ever been. 

GoPro stick-on tattoos...

Cuenca & Coffee Tree

Ali and I are now in the city of Vilcabamba, also known as the "Land of Longevity" ... supposedly people live to 130 years old, but I think it's a lie. We left the city of Cuenca a few days ago and have spent way too much time on buses to get here. I do not handle long bus rides well because of motion sickness. I can't read or occupy my time with anything so I just sit and look out the window the entire time. Tonight Ali asked me what in the world I think about for 5-9 hours straight ... and honestly I really don't know. But this time the bus ride served as a great time for prayer and appreciating how incredibly beautiful the mountains of Ecuador are that we were driving through for five hours.

Our time in Cuenca was so relaxing. We arrived at our hostel on Wednesday and as we walked down the street to begin exploring the city that first day, we only made it down one block when we came across Coffee Tree. You guys, this was the real deal. A coffee shop that actually had coffee! Unlike "CoffeeNet" which didn't actually contain anything slightly related to coffee, this place had every type of coffee imaginable and had free wifi. Ali and I sat down that first afternoon and as we drank our coffee, we couldn't stop talking about how amazing it was to find a real coffee shop in Ecuador. They really knew how to cater to foreigners because they even had a bathroom with free toilet paper that you could use. Yep, it's true. Almost all bathrooms in Ecuador do not have toilet paper, or you have to buy a tiny piece of it for 15 cents from a lady standing out front. So the Coffee Tree bathroom was pretty luxurious.

Cuenca was such a different city from anything we've ever seen in Ecuador so far. It is very colonial, and very touristy. But it was calm, full of good food, and beautiful! Some areas were so fancy I felt like I was in Europe. Such a different side of Ecuador for me.

We introduced the concept of an ice cream sandwich to Ecuador. It caused much confusion and took lots of explaining, yes we want the ice cream in between the cookies ... and yes, another cookie on top ... but they made it work and we were happy.

We walked past a fancy hotel that said something about being a mansion of angels or something, so we were intrigued and went inside. The manager let us explore the building and the gardens outside. It was absolutely beautiful and the fanciest place I have ever seen in Ecuador. I felt so out of place walkin in there with my grungy clothes and Ali's crazy hair (just kidding Ali, you know I love your hair).

S U N S H I N E

Because I left home to come to Ecuador in June, I basically missed out on my entire summer. My time in Santa Cruz before I left was foggy and cold, and my time in Ecuador has been a mix of rainy, cloudy, and windy. Even sunny days in the community where I lived were windy and cold. Summer is by far my favorite time of the year ... I love swimming, spending as much time as possible at the beach, bonfires, camping, and being outside as much as possible.  I love having sun-kissed skin, salty hair, and piles of sand all over my bedroom floor. Missing out on all of that to be in Ecuador was of course completely worth it ... but there were times when I just longed to have one summer day. 

When Ali and I decided to come to Vilcabamba I didn't expect it to feel so much like paradise. Mountains, palm trees, hammocks, colorful flowers, sunshine, warm weather, and a pool ... I am loving it here. This is the first day in a LONG time it has truly felt like summer (even though it is already Fall) ... I couldn't be happier! Ali and I spent the entire day today at the pool swimming, listening to music, making another anthropologist friend, and just relaxing. It's been good to slow down and relax after an intense few months here and just take in the beauty around us. I love Ecuador.

Unfortunately I had to keep a towel draped around my shoulders the entire time we were at the pool because of an awful sunburn I got last week in Quilotoa. This tan line is going to take forever to get rid of ... oops.

Water babies ...

Hammocks outside of our room ...

I have been avoiding this blog for several days because I honestly have no idea how to even begin updating you all. So much has happened these last couple weeks, and I have so many stories that I don't know where to start! So I'm just going to jump right in.  Brace yourselves ... I'm about to break the world record for longest blog post known to man.

After we had an extreme and relaxing few days at Cotopaxi, we went to Banos with our friends Anna and Valentine who we met at our Cotopaxi hostel.  They just graduated college and are traveling around South America for eight months together. We basically decided to make the trip with them out of convenience, but we ended up spending the entire week with them and loved every minute of it. They were so much fun and I really don't think we could have found better people to travel with. Banos turned out to be one of the funnest weeks we have had yet ... we made so many interesting and crazy friends, we ate TONS of food, we danced, bought way too many fruits and vegetables at the Sunday market, ate some more, and laughed until we cried every single day.

We hung out in this park a lot. It was a really nice place to relax and eat empanadas. It's always a good time when empanadas are involved.

We cooked breakfast and dinner together every night, and every night always ended up being a feast ... for example, one night we made tortilla pizzas and between the four of us we finished twelve pizzas, and throughout the day finished 26 crepes. I should be embarrassed but I'm just not. We would sit at this table and talk and laugh for hours each night until people would complain that we were occupying all of the kitchen utensils, pots, and pans. 

Valentine grew up in Australia, but he is originally from Russia. When the son of the owner of our hostel found out he was Russian, he became completely obsessed with Valentine. He wouldn't stop talking to him in Russian and insisted that he drink an entire bottle of vodka with him ... disgusting. But this love affair really worked to our benefit since it got us vip status at our hostel and a huge discount on the cost of our room. Below is a picture of the Russian love taking place. Good thing Anna is a confident girlfriend and doesn't mind when men temporarily steal her boyfriend.

Ali and I also went canyoning while we were in Banos. It was legitimately the scariest thing I have ever done. The first two waterfalls we repelled down weren't too bad ... but when they took us to the 55 meter tall waterfall in the end, I thought I would never make it home alive. I mean, I like doing things that scare me sometimes, but I am not the most extreme person and do not feel the need to prove myself so it took everything in me to not turn and run away before going down it.

This is one of the small ones ...

So chill ... for now...

I guess you were supposed to stay more to the right of the waterfall but instead I just went straight down the middle of it where the water was too powerful and I fell. Scaaaaaarryyyy

This is the huge one.  That's Ali's little body about to go over the edge. There are no pictures of me going down this one because I went first, but at least we got some of Ali. Not gonna lie, I thought about the last conversations I had with my family and friends and how they might have been my last ... I know tons of people have gone canyoning before me, but we all know I am dramatic. I can't help it that I actually thought I might die. Don't judge me.

 An old, somewhat heavy woman and about ten skinny little dutch girls went down it before us with no problem ... I think I hated them for about 20 minutes because of how NOT scared they were and how completely terrified I was, but once we made it to the bottom I wanted to hug all of them because of how happy I was to still be alive.

After Banos Ali and I went to a town called Latacunga. We really only went there to spend one night before we went to a Crater Lake called Quilotoa. While we were in Latacunga, we were walking around one night exploring the town when we walked past a little bakery. We decided that we couldn't just not try something, so we picked out a tiiiiiiny little pastry. After we took a bite, we were too in love that we just had to get something else too. Well, a few minutes later we had bought one of everything they had. And no, we didn't feel guilty at all. 

We went back to our hostel and were sitting on our roof when we realized that we could see directly into the window of the gym next door where a zumba-aerobics type class was going on. We sort of jokingly started doing the class with them, but ended up doing the entire class with them from outside. The people in the class kept looking up at us and laughing but no one stopped us so we just continued on! 

We went to Quilotoa Crater Lake the next day. I have nothing to say about this experience except creepy town, creepy hostel. Nada mas. 

While Ali and I were on a short hike we walked past a random patch of pine trees. I miiight have gone a little crazy? The thing is, I really really love the mountains. One of my favorite things about summer is getting to be in the mountains either at Camp Hammer, camping with my family, going backpacking, going to tahoe, etc. Since I didn't get to spend any time in the mountains this entire summer I have felt deprived. When I saw these trees I got so excited and made Ali climb down to them with me just so I could at least just smell them! I basically buried my face in the branches so that I could smell the amazing smell of the pine trees, but when that wasn't enough for me I started ripping off branches and tearing them apart so that I could smell them better. Then I climbed up into the tree and just sat there enjoying being near trees. Ecuador is beautiful but they barely have any pine trees so this was really exciting to me. Then, as if I wasn't being psycho enough, I broke off about seven small branches and tied them onto our backpack and insisted that we carry them home with us. The entire night and next day I always had at least one small branch in my hand so that I could constantly smell it, and believe me I was gettin some weird looks from people on the bus as I was trying incredibly hard to find a position to set the branch on my shoulder so that I could sleep but still be able to smell the leaves. I can't decide if I am embarrassed about how crazy I am or not ... I think not. I can't help it! 

I'm sure that people were very confused as to why we had a small tree hanging off of our backpack the next day as we walked from one town to the next to catch the bus, but we didn't care. Or at least, I didn't care. I'm glad that Ali accepts my craziness.

Ok, now that you have spent four hours of your life reading this mile long blog post, I am officially finished for now. I come home in less than three weeks now. I can't believe it! I still love it here so much, but am so excited to be home as well. 

Cotopaxi

We got to stay near the volcano Cotopaxi last week for a few days. It was such a relaxing, refreshing, and fun few days. We went on the most intense hike of our lives up to a waterfall where we had to climb over boulders, logs, and scale (small) cliffs. We also hiked up to the refuge on the volcano and then mountain biked down. Mountain biking is WAY scarier than I was expecting and I thought I was either going to get Shaken Baby Syndrome from how bumpy it was, or fall and roll down the side of the mountain. Luckily neither of those things happened, and we made it safely to the bottom where it started hailing with thunder and lightning. Thankfully our hostel had a hot tub and a fireplace and a HOT shower so we got to go home and warm up and relax after the ride. I will post more about Cotopaxi soon, but for now here are a few pictures of the beautiful views from our hostel. 

Staying at this hostel was like going on vacation to the mountains with your family. We all spent our days doing various activities and enjoying the beautiful nature all around us, and then came together at night to eat our meals together at a long wooden table and finished the nights curled up on couches reading next to the fireplace. We met amazing people and thoroughly enjoyed the abundance of warmth (ie. fireplace, unlimited coffee, tea, and hot chocolate, HOT showers!, a hot tub, and even a fireplace in our room).  I think I took a three hour hot shower to make up for three months without hot water ... ok, that's an exaggeration. But I really was in heaven being able to take a real hot shower!

What we've been up to the last few days ...

Despidida and Ali's brilliant creation: Volcan Cayambe cake ...

Hanging out with Ali's host sisters and playing dress up ...

Pacha and Mika ...

I have been back with my host family for two weeks now since Intag, and it is SO good to be back! As I was walking up the road to our house I could see into the yard and saw my host sister and Don Pedro (the family friend) killing chickens ... you guys, I was actually excited to peel chicken feathers with them! I was just so incredibly happy to be back home and with my family that I didn´t care if we peeled chickens all night, I was just so happy to be around my host family. When I saw my host mom come out of the house I just ran and gave her the hugest hug because I missed her so much. I told them all my stories from Intag and they loved them. They told me I can bathe in the river behind our house if I want to. It was so cute to see how excited they were to have me back, especially my host dad, who I´m pretty sure is my biggest fan. I love it. When we ate dinner that first night I just kept thinking, this food is soo good!!! But I think it was just that it was my host mom´s food that I am familiar with and it just made me feel so at home eating her food. It was like coming home to my real mom´s cooking, doesn´t matter what she cooks it´s just amazing because it´s a homecooked meal from your mom. It felt so good to go to sleep in my bed that night and put my things away in my room... and to wake up without beetles in my hair.

I love being back. The last month and a half have just been so incredible and I am absolutely LOVING my life here. I have gotten so close to my host family and they truly feel like real family. The relationship I have with them is something that I used to think was impossible. I have been staying at the table after dinner with my host mom and sister a lot lately and have gotten opportunities to talk with them for hours. I love getting to know them and I love how honest they are with me ... and I especially LOVE how much Spanish I can understand now! It´s truly amazing.  And, I think I have officially become a local. I walk down the street and hear ¨Hola Rebecita!¨ from the neighbors, and I am fully part of the family business. When we go into town to sell chickens to the local markets, all of our customers know me and I am fully capable of making business transactions now. They´re going to be so confused in a few weeks when their gringa isn´t there to sell them their chickens anymore! It´s crazy to me to be such a part of the community here but I absolutely love it.

Now I am just soaking up my time with my host family and this life that I have built here, because it is coming quickly to an end. Que triste...