Back in Quito, mo and I spent 3 days touring the city, doing all the touristy things I hadn´t had time to do yet. On Tuesday we went to the Mitad del Mundo, aka equator, which is about 25 minutes outside the city. There is a little village built up to support the tourism, a monument with a really cool museum of some Ecuadorian history and descriptions of all the different indigenous cultures that exist in Ecuador. There is also a big line dividing the northern and southern hemispheres and some places where you can do experiements like watch water flush in both directions, or balance an egg vertically (which my friend Carmen did successfully!)
We also walked around the old part of the city for a couple of hours. The old part is really cool because is so old and has such distinct Spanish influence in the arcitecture and during the day is crowded with tons of people wandering around, working, hanging out, etc. We went into some super old churches that are crazily ornate and then ate lunch in the middle of Plaza San Fransisco, the biggest plaza in the old part of the city.

On Thursday we rode the TeleferiQo, this kind of gondola thing that goes from Quito almost to the top of Ruku Pichinca, the smaller volcano that looms over the city. It takes you straight from like 2900 meters up to 4100 and you get to the top and can see for miles and miles and miles. Besides the huge drop in temperature at the top, it was really cool. We also wandered around the Parque Carolina, a huge park in the middle of the city and we went to the Museo Guyasamin. Guyasamin is this incredible Ecuadorian artist that painted these crazy sort of simple, sort of abstract depictions of the suffering of Ecuadorian life. His stuff is really cool and there are prints of it being sold all over the city, so it was especially cool to go to the museum and see all the originals and read the descriptions. If you´re interested, here is a link to some of his stuff: http://images.google.com/images?q=guayasamin&hl=es&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=images&ct=title

Yesterday I went to a town called Otovalo which is about 2 hours north of here. They have a big indigenous/artisan market there. The market goes everyday, but on Saturdays it is out of control, filling the whole main plaza and every street surrounding the plaza for 2-3 blocks in each directions. It had everything from scarves and jewelry to carpets and embroidered sheets and tablecloths, to wood carvings and paintings, and more. Basically everything you could imagine. There were also vendors walking around selling all sorts of juices and traditional foods like pan de yuka (deep fried yuka bread), beans mixed with veggies in a bag, these typical half-popped popcorn kernels, roasted corn and bananas, etc. Plus, on the far edge of the plaza there was more of a food market where there were fully roasted boars waiting to be carved and sold, ground spices, veggies and fruits. It all seemed espeically exotic because nearly all the vendors were wearing full out indigenous dress and they all wanted to talk and convince you to buy thier stuff. Even though the market is super touristy and the Otovaleños are the most well off indigenous group, it was really cool to see the unique flavor of thier indigenous culture. Basically all of the things that were being sold are handmade and come from fairly local communities.

When I got sick of walking around the market I decided to go on a short hike up one of the hills surrounding Otovalo (its still in the Andes) to this tree called El Lechero, which is supposed to be a healing tree. The unpaved road wound up the hill almost 5km past really rundown houses, cows, sheep, pigs and goats grazing on the side of the road, children playing in the street and woman washing clothes outside or cleaning thier yards. At the top, past a grove of Eucaliptis trees all the vegetation cleared and gave way to this one lone, bare tree: El Lechero. Plus the top of the hill was so barren, without houses or people and had a great view. When I got to the top I was so glad I had taken the time to climb up there.

Today is Quito´s independence day, its 200th birthday. Last night they closed off all of the roads in the old part of the city and there were thousands of people walking around and different stages with different types of music playing in every plaza- everything from regaetone to indigenous, andina music. I went with some people I know from the hostal, a mix of Ecuadorians and other extranjeros and it was really fun. The old city looks crazy all lit up at night and with the fireworks and light shows and music all going on, it was really really fun.

Since Mo left on Thursday night and I have spent a lot of time trying to organize my schedule and figure out how I am going to do everything I want to do in the next couple of months. I have been in touch with Dra. Tamayo, the doctor in La Libertad on the coast and am going there to begin working tomorrow. I am taking an overnight bus tonight, which will take about 11 hours. I am not exactly sure what I will be doing when I get there, but she has said that I can do nutrition education for malnourished kids, working on an oral hygene campain, and I think just generally help out in the Centro Médico Municipal. I am really excited to start.

I also have been in touch with an organization based in Maryland through on of the directors of AYUDA. They are doing a mission trip for like 5 days on the northern coast trying to discover the distribution of the 2 most prevalent strains of malaria to figure out the best manners of treatment. I think that on Aug. 20 I will be going there for the duration to help out with everything from translation to setting up mosquito nets to administering tests... So these are the immediate plans, still a little unorganized and all left for the last minute in true Ecuafashion.. but I am excited all the same!

Thats all!
xo