Baños and Otavalo

the little puercos are born


































hiking in Otavalo





































making humitas with Nicole




















The feria in Otavalo



























































Market day, Otavalo

































Selling jugo de caña sugar cane juice delish!















local snack, chocho con choncho beans, salsa topped with fried pig meat
























































































Mural in parque central, Baños


















my apartment

Baños de Agua Santa

Back in Baños, Ecuador although this time I´m doing anything but backpacking. I arrived with 2 suitcases, found a beautiful apartment a little outside of the center and am keeping myself extremely busy. When I first arrived I spent the month of December playing all over the mountains with my friends. My birthday was spent swimming below waterfall Machay, swimming in my birthday suit, dancing in the streets til the wee morning, drinking a local liquor called ¨callo de gallina¨which is sweet and cost 25 centavos! Then Christmas away from my family for the first time was different. I was invited to Oscars home and his family killed their prize cuyes (guinea pig)
and chicken for the feast. Then for Chirstmas Day, I was invited the the Vargas Family to help cook in the kitchen, to learn to prepare traditional food and we feasted all night until 2 am then everyone went out dancing. Then there was New Years Eve here as well. What the locals do is every barrio (neighborhood in the city) builds a monigote (puppet) that can be a parody of something bad that occurred in the recent year...that represents all the bad things you want to put behind whether its death of a loved one, heartbreak,robbery, regret,whatever and at midnght EVERYONE kisses eachother, says Feliz Año and drags the monigotes out into the street like criminals and burns them litterally burning all the bad energy of 2008 to begin all over again with a clean slate.
Then I began my new year by throwing my demons into the fire as well and am feeling ready for a beautiful 2009. My days in Ecuador are spent volunteering at a Childrens Foundation. We have art projects, teach them to read, offer free English classes, play games, and just hang out by providing a place where they can get out of the house and not in front of the TV and find ways to be creative. I love my kids. I also volunteer at the local hospital trying to get certified in medical spanish. All the nurses and doctors are all confused as to why im doing this since im not a med. student. I say, ¨to hopefully have a job back in the states translating¨. WHo knows. And in my free time, I go climbing with Oscar and his friends, biking, and at night I have a group of really cool guys I hang out with that love to play pool.
Tomorrow i start a new job up on the mnt at this really fancy resort doing marketing or something.
Ive met all my neighbors and am meeting more people in the community every day. They treat me dfferently when they realize im not just passing through. DOwn below is Oscars tio with his mama pig about to go into labor. Ive got pics of the little puercos onthe next blog.







































My friend, Jacqelyn


















Cooking up local delicacies for Christmas Feast. Fried dough then topped with homemade syrup












Butterfly refuge above waterfall Machay
































Alexis, Jose y Elian from the Fundacion

Baños, Ecuador

Happy Dance in the cocina!

Getting some climbing advice in Quito, Ecuador.

Sunset in Baños, Ecuador.

Oscar talking with the monkeys at the Zoo.

Belaying climber below the bridge with Paulo.

Mountain Biking with Jay (Korea)

Women packaging sweet tomatoes for the market.

Enjoying herself during the street festival.

Baby donkey finshing up feeding time..passed during the bike ride

Rafting el rio pastaza, class 3

Doombuggy Day!

Standing on scary cable bridge above waterfall ¨Pailon del Diablo¨

Fresh fried fish I caught just minutes before in the spring.

Ain´t she a beauty.

Passing the river valley by cable car.

Rafting, Rockclimbing, Camping, Driving doombuggies, Mountain Biking, Dancing, Canyoning...all in the little town of Baños tucked away in the green mountains below the belly of the grumbling Volcano (which erupted in 2006 and the entire town evacuated for 6 months).

So, Libby and I left Vilcabamba. There wasnt a whole lot of work to be done yet and we found we had more free time than we knew what to do with, so we talked to Christina about moving on and she was amazingly supportive. I plan on going back there on my southbound route to peru.
We went 5 hrs north to Cuenca, stayed there for a few nights and were more impressed with the European style of the city and the food than the Cuencaños themselves. Then another 8 hrs north to the beautiful town of Baños.

We arrived in Baños late last Monday night after a super exhausting 9 hr bus ride. Then the following morning, we ran into an amigo we met the night before at the bus stop and he invited us along with him to watch bungee jumpers off the bridge. It was so nice of him to show us around all day. Anywaays, we walked to the bridge, there werent any people jumping off the birdge over huge rock boulders and a little stream. No thanks. Then we walked 4 or 5 miles down the road to a cable car where we road over 200 ft above the green river. My confidence in Ecuadorian engineering wasnt that high. We hiked up the waterfall, then stopped at this house were it was a little restaurant out of her house. This is the best part.....we went around back and she has a man made spring with lots of trout with water pumping into it from the waterfalll above. The water is puro, puro. She handed me and Libby and stick with fishing line attached and a big chunk of bait. We caught our lunch in minutes then watched her scale and gut them in seconds while they were still breathing,while the dogs watched. We had fresh caught trout, rice, salad, and patacones (sweet, fried platanos). It was the most delicous meal I have had in weeks.
Then we took the cable car back, hitched a ride in the back of a truck for another 10 inutes down the road and jumped off....walked a few feet before another family gave us a ride in their pickup truck. We arrived at Pailon del Diablo Waterfall. It was a beautiful but quick hike down into the fall....then another scary bridge. It was something out of an Indiana Jones film. A cable bridge 100´s of feet above rushing rapids. We all sat down for awhile, watching the waterfall, and I think I drifted into meditation for awhile. Ahead at the start of the bridge is a sign, ¨5 personas lo maximo´. Well, as I was sitting in the center of the wobbly bridge, a family of about 6 walk on and I jumped up out of anxiety and fear and yelled ¨¡ 5 personas lo maximo, 5 personas lo maximo!! Then got the hell off the bridge. I am pretty sure everyone had a good laugh at my expense.
Then, Libby and I met a group of traveling artesanias sitting above the trail ( people who travel selling their jewelry..who were all unbelievably beautiful) where I bought myself a pretty weaved bracelet and earrings from Ruben de Argentina and Carlos de Uruguay. We sat there with them, talked and accepted their offer to sit and drink a beer. After minutes of hanging out, I was offered a marriage proposal from Ruben. He was really funny , nonotheless, he gave me an ankle bracelet for our union. He was heartbroken after I told him I was already called for by a handsome boy waiting for me in the States. His response was , ´pero no esta (but hes not here)?!! I laughed, said thanks for the beer and the braecelet and we left.
Libby, William, and I hitched another ride back to Baños and went to the town hot baths, aguas thermales, and soaked most the night with the rest of the town, until i was too hungry and I was getting muy inqieta, cranky. I felt like i was in Greece with the huge, pool-like communal hot baths. They were public jucuzzis.
The next day we drove doombuggies around town where we passed the mnt bikers with our heads down in shame as we drove our deisal pumped, loud buggy..but it was soooo fun!!!
Then the following day, we went rafting down the el rio negro. Class 3...not too exciting, but I managed to still get thrown out. Im still not sure whether I fell or the guide pushed me. Good fun. I love rafting. I need to do it more when I get back to Asheville..of course when its not December.
The guide was cool, he offered to take us mnt bikig the next day, gratis. He had a day off and offered to take us. It was beautiful, it was exhausting, and it was muddy, and we loved every minute of it.
And, lastnight we just got back from 2 days of rockclimbig outside of Cotopaxo Violcano with some friends. I learned a lot. I hadnt climbed in years.