Primero mes en Ecuador

Ola chicas y chicos

Como estas? Chevere?

Here everything fine. I will start to write here in this section about the first month in Ecuador!

Quito is a strange city with 2 city centres: a historical centre and a bar centre or whatever one wants to call it. I live in the latter. I went to the historical one the first Sunday I was here: amazing relaxed and nice.

The weather here is also strange: in the mornings it is usually warm and sunny. Later on the day, the rain starts to fall down as if God opens up his garage door with lots of hardcore thunder and lightning which makes all the cars go wild with their alarms and sometimes the electricity falls out. Shocking sounds cause of the mountains around!

I took Spanish classes the first 2 weeks at Yanapuma, a foundation which works for indigenous groups, sustainable development etc. Walking everyday 15 minutes to the school and having classes from 9 till 1 was quite intense, but it worked! I understand quite some Spanish now, reading is fine as well, but speaking I need to practice lots. I have time for that, around 5 months, so it will be fine. At the school I met some great people, specially Steven and Erica, both from the States. The second Friday we went out with a group from the school, salsa dancing and 2 very, very cheap cocktails made me quite tipsy, probably cause of the altitude here as well. The problem was that we went with a group the next day, at like 8 in the morning, to a crater, around 2 hours away with the horrible, contaminating bus. However, the crater was lovely, and it was great to be outside of Quito, one of those dirty cities where you definitely need to walk with a scarf before your nose, otherwise you will ´smoke´ 30 cigarettes a day!

That Sunday, I was very tired, the altitude is asking something of your body, but later I went to the climbing gym (5 min walk from the university). A great boulder wall they have there! Awesome! But very hard and strong, which punished me with muscle pain for 4 days. They also have a climbing area which is kind of like a real rock, but different. Looks awesome. The other wall is all overhang, and hardcore climbing stuff. Everything you need to do by lead climbing, and I haven´t met anyone yet to climb with, so I stick now with bouldering, which is fine as well.

The next week Spanish again, some salsa at Tuesday (teaching Steven to dance, who didn´t think he would ever be able to dance salsa, is great!). That weekend we went to Banos together; an awesome area! We went with the morning bus at 6 on Saturday from Quito and arrived there at around 10. Went mountain biking along the river and saw lots of waterfalls during the day, with a lot of sun.

The next day we went rafting, never did that, (no not even me) and it was amazing! Immediately i wanted to do that the next time for a couple of days! It was great, and lovely to be outside of dirty Quito again. Took the bus back to Quito at 5sh.

On Monday I was supposed to start with my internship, but my prof. could only see me at 3, so I did some homework at the university: reading some Spanish articles and a book. I met my prof. before already with another girl which is helping him with the project. The whole meeting was so interesting also due to the fact that they got a call from the green party of Germany. They told her that many people support the project like Prince Charles, Gorbatsjov, etc! I got so excited! I will work with them, writing emails to get people support the proposal, also the Dutch government and others.

However, I haven´t really started my internship yet, that´s because I got sick. This weekend I went with my roommate, a dutch girl (in the meantime I moved to an apartment in town, where 2 other dutch girls are living as well) to the beach: Puerto Lopez! We left on Wednesday in the evening (11) and arrived there at around 9 in the morning. Amazing area: beach, palm trees, blue water, hot and sun very strong. So, in the middle of the day: no sunbathing for us. We went with a boat to a island where we went snorkeling: amazing fish. And, we saw the special blue footed birds at the islands and pelicans. We caught one fish as well (see pic!) and I even ate fish-soup; Ceviche. However, everything they cook here is with a lot of salt: horrible taste. Anyways, on Saturday I had a headache and didn´t want to do anything. That night was cold, hot, cold: fever.

On Sunday we went to a natural park: which was very interesting, although i was in a horrible state. We saw some interesting birds there around. We took the bus back at 9, which is always horrible due to the road, bus, etc. Monday my horrible diarrhea started in Quito and since then I feel awful. Just went to the hospital and indeed: i got an infection. So antibiotics again and for now no internship for me. I can work at home though quite a lot, so I do that. I feel much better now (strong stuff those medicines) and can really start with the internship and my research since we need to hurry for Copenhagen.

Anyways, furthermore, I pretty much feel okay here. Jamie and Michelle, the dutch girls, are very kind and amazing. My prof as well, kind of everybody here. Haven´t been robbed yet, which is quite normal here, so I hope that will stay that way. However, off course I miss ya’ll!

Now, look at the pictures, and enjoy.

Hasta luego!

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