excremento no es malo, es bueno

Where did I leave off? I really can't remember what happened last Saturday night.. I think I just played ping-pong/pool with my family. Sunday Kelly, Lily , and I walked around and bought fresh fruit from this market. I have never had pears that amazing in my ENTIRE life. It's the little things.. That afternoon I watched The Hurt Locker with Liz, and that night I watched Viernes Locos with my family. It is even funnier in Spanish. So it was a relaxing day, but I didn't do all that much studying for my final exam.

Monday morning an United Statesian (sp?) came to talk to us about the Amazon and biodiversity in Ecuador. First of all, Amazon literally means without breasts, because the Amazonian women depicted in old literature/art had no breasts because they would shave them off para be more effective archers. I found this quite interesting/disturbing. Also I learned that Ecuador is ranked 4th as far as biodiversity, after Colombia, Brazil, and Indonesia BUT because of their small size, they're technically #1. Which means there's a lot of cool stuff here and I go on a week trip into the Amazon in December!!! Our final exam wasn't that bad and I'm sure I passed which is really all that matters haha.

Monday night we went to a party at Diego's but we had to be at the bus stop at 1am for our bus to the coast, so that was fun. I think the alcohol helped me fall asleep easily though which was awesome. A couple hours from the coast our bus broke down so we lost a few hours waiting for a replacement. We made it to Canoa, a little beach town, by 11 and had about 5 hours to sunbathe, eat, etc. Of course I've heard that you can actually get MORE burnt when it's overcast, but being the badass I am I though I would be able to take on some equator sun. I was wrong. And I still cannot sit due to the 3rd degree burns on my butt.

We arrived at Rio Muchacho, the organic farm, by dinner time. Food was one of my main concerns because I knew the farm was vegetarian, and being my father's daughter I didn't know how I could survive 4 days without red meat. Surprisingly though, or maybe not?, the food was awesome. They use a lot of ginger with drinks, salads, etc. and it was just so good. Like just after a few days I could feel the difference from having better food in my body. It was really cool. Unfortunately, a lot of the time was spent learning about organic farming, not actually farming. There was really only one day of hard work when I had to get up at 5:45 to shovel manure and feed horses, pigs, and cows.

One afternoon we hiked to this amazing tree (pictures to follow on facebook) that kills all the trees around it because its root system is so extensive. Another day we went on a 5km walk (some took horses, but I was too cheap) to Mama Jovita, a 97 year old Shaman. Along the walk there were 22 streams and rivers we had to cross. It was beautiful. We listened to her talk about her life, work, and family for a while she was so interesting. Behind her house is a "monkey forest," but clearly they use that term loosely because after a treacherous hike up this cliff there were 2 monkeys about 100 meters up in the tree. I had to pee really bad at this point and of course while I was squatting in the middle of the trail (this was no time to be concerned about privacy) the monkeys started throwing poop and peeing at us. So everyone is screaming at me because I'm blocking the trail but I couldn't just stop peeing! When nature calls..

A truck came to take us back but in typical Ecua-style it got stuck 3 times in the streams and we would all have to get out and push. Finally, after the 3rd time the driver caught on, but his new strategy included gunning it through every river. I guess I should be thankful we didn't have to push anymore but the bruises covering my body disagree. For lunch this day we cut down huge banana leaves, roasted them over the fire, put rice, some peanut concoction, cabbage, etc in it and then wrapped it up. By the time we got to the "monkey forest" everything had mixed together and the banana leaf works as an insulator. It was delicious.

Oh we also had activities like making rings from palm seeds, cups from gourds, chocolate and coffee. I hate chocolate and coffee but the crafts were pretty cool.
Friday afternoon some of us were going to go to Puerto Lopez for whale-watching but the weather was terrible and nobody wanted to spend the money so we just came home instead. It ended up working out well though because Friday was Christian's going away part because he studies in the U.S. It helped me get my mind off of John Fuller a little and even helped cheer me up, because if there is one thing I'm sure of, John definitely would have wanted me to celebrate his life by drinking :) The party was a lot of fun but now we won't see Christian again until December :(

It was a little hard getting out of bed on Saturday but then Lily, Liz, and I spent the day making banana bread. The bread came out perfect as well and now my family wants me to make it again because they already ate it all. Today Liz, Lily, and I ate at an Italian restaurant in La Mariscal and went shopping in the mall. So after stuffing myself full of Italian I made a bag of candy in Entredulces and for the first time since I've been here my family decided to have fast food for dinner. I'm going to explode.

Oh! And I've been working out like a maniac to try to get in shape to summit Cotopaxi. By next weekend I think my hamstring will be ready to run outside but so far I've just been using my dad's elliptical. Cotopaxi is about 20,000 feet above sea level, it's an active, snow-peaked volcano and you need a guide and everything to summit it. I'm so excited!