Happy 4th of July!

Ah, what an exhausting but great weekend! Quito literally wiped me out, out of energy and out of money. I decided to take the night bus to Quito because its 7 hours non stop and it would allow me to have an extra day in Quito but it was quite an adventure. First, I was lucky enough to buy the last ticket for the 11 o’clock bus but little did I know that it was going to be in between the bathroom (not going to describe it, I think you can imagine) and a drunken man. I didn’t know he was drunk until after I greeted him and his response was ever so friendly and reeked of alcohol. He then proceeded to be the chattiest man in all of Ecuador and I had to turn down his offer for a breakfast date and personal tour guide numerous telling him I didn’t think my “awaiting boyfriend” would approve. Shucks…maybe next time. Also, I never knew that the same bus that serves as a sauna during the day turns into an icebox at night. I boarded the bus in a sweater and jeans and took off my sweater because of the humidity and woke up after an hour and shivered for the remaining 6. Nonetheless, I arrived safely in Quito and only had to wait 10 minutes (I had expected a 2 hour wait) for my friend Ethan to show up.

Ethan and I spent the day site seeing around Quito as neither one of us had been there before. And by site seeing, we actually planned our sites around food places that we wanted to try. We went to breakfast where we shared a bagel with cream cheese and banana nut pancakes. Because it was only 7 am, we were able to sit for an hour and half and chat and catch up. We then planned to walk around the old town, view some churches (ended up hiking to the top of a bell tour, across a rickety bridge and three sets of ladders at probably about an 83 degree incline, not the safest and Ethan made me go first, see photo below) and then went and enjoyed a delicious lunch at an Indian restaurant.
Ah the glories of Quito. After lunch we headed to Cayambe to help prepare for the BBQ in the morning, which was shockingly a fairly nostalgic trip for the both us. I’m not going to lie, when I say we went to help “prepare” the BBQ, I mean we went and cooked the entire BBQ. But it was a lot of fun to meet a bunch of volunteers, new and old. I ended up meeting my “little brother” and he was as inquisitive as his emails suggested. It was good to hear that he was doing well. The new kids have only been here for two weeks and its odd to think that was I two months ago. I felt so much superior and experienced then them!

After the bbq, Ethan and I headed back to Quito where we met up with two other girls from our group and we ended going out to Mexican food (delicious!) and getting drinks and taking them back to our friends house (she was one of our co-trainers during training, she completed her two years and is spending one more working in the office). It was fun to catch up and hear each other’s horror/crazy stories of being in site.

For the 4th, we went over to another one of our co-trainers house for a mini-bbq (really can’t get enough of the bbq’s) where there was a wide variety of people, a few including some of our language facilitators which was so much fun to catch up with them after two months and to hear them practice their English!
The next morning Ethan and I went to church that his brother recommended for us; we went for the first 45 minutes and sang a bunch of songs and then they had somewhat of a half time and we decided that we’d had enough so we left. After we went and met up with more friends for lunch (all you can eat mangolian bbq, delicious!) and after I jumped on a bus to come home. Which actually turned into the longest bus ride of my life. Four hours to Riobamba, 2 hours in the Riobamba bus station, then 4 hours more to Cumanda. But the best part is this little town that you go through on the way to Riobamba that is famous for its ice cream cones (Salcedos) which had I had the opportunity, I would’ve bought two. The second vender to get on the bus ran out before he got to my seat. Sad.

I had a great weekend but yet I was still anxious to get back to Cumanda. I missed my neighbors and Melita a lot after being gone. Ha they actually called me everyday that I was gone just to make sure everything was alright. That's saying a lot because with the way that cell phone plans work around here, people never call unless its really important. So I guess that means I’m really important…I did bring Gloria back some bread (she swears that the bread is better in Riobamba) and so she offered to wash my clothes for me. All of them. It took her two days, I can’t even begin to imagine how long it would’ve taken me. That reminds me, I should go take them off the line before it starts to rain again.

I hope you all had a great 4th of July. Mom I really missed your typical flag fruit pie, the 4th just isn’t the same without fresh blueberries and cherries. Actually I take that back, July isn’t the same without fresh blueberries and cherries!