bang & slash

Unfortunately, today seems to be a Costa Rica relapse. As soon as I got to school I felt really nauseous and continued to feel bad all day, but I made myself eat some lunch. Then during salsa lesson(AGAIN- shoot me.) I started feeling hot so I went outside for a little. I don't know why I bothered coming back, but as soon as I did the instructor grabbed me as his example partner and basically I completely blacked out and started sweating profusely, like I could NOT see- there were spots (what's bigger than spots?) everywhere. So I tried to sit down and sort of kind of missed the chair. The instructor and Liz helped me outside, which included one bruised knee and scraped foot, and I threw up like 3 times. I felt really good until I got home.. and threw up again. But now I really think I'm better.

This weekend was amazing! Nobody went out Friday night because we all had to wake up really early Saturday. I decided to stay in and watch a movie with my family, but of course they picked a horrible, 3-hour long movie, so I still didn't go to bed until after 1am. Our first stop was the the Pyramids of Cochasqui. Our director described them as "overgrown," but essentially they were hills that supposedly had something important underneath them. Either way, there were some really nice views and I've now had my life's supply of llamas so I guess that's good. I always hated those nagging desires to feed a llama. After the Pyramids we went to the Mitad del Mundo!!! It's the only official equator monument. A bunch of important scientists chose Ecuador because it is the only country over the equator that is clear and high. It was really cool, but while trying to take a corny cartwheel picture I hurt my hamstring again... but only for a few minutes haha :) After lunch we went to the Otavalo market. It's one of the biggest, most popular indigenous markets in Latin America. In 3 hours I managed to spend over $100; however, I was able to cross several people off my list so I consider it a success. That night we ate at a pizza place but then watched this indigenous music group for over an hour. They were...awesome.

Sunday we woke up early and started with a hike to the Cascada de Peguche, or waterfalls. The hike wasn't bad, and at the end we could swim behind the big one to a smaller one! The water was freezing because no sun hits it obviously, but it was so cool!!!! Next we went to the Parque Condor, this reservation where birds are rescued or donated and then trained to go back into the wild. This isn't really my type of thing BUT there was a very exciting moment during the bird-show when a Blue Hawk saw another bird, flew away, and never came back. I guess he wasn't trained very well. Also I met(yes, met) Hedwig and Errol from 2 of the Harry Potter movies.... which sort of makes me famous. Lunch consisted of Qui(sp?), in other words, guinea pig. It really, not to be overly cliche, did taste like chicken, but it involved a lot of work for not so much food so I gave up. After lunch we went to this house to see this adorable old couple weave in the old indigenous style. On the way home we stopped at Cuicocha, a GORGEOUS lake. Just gorgeous. Somehow almost everyday I see something more beautiful than the last. After hiking around that we came home to Quito, dirty and exhausted.
All in all, not a bad weekend.