tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59844324980666102622024-03-05T19:16:34.260-08:00The Ubiquitous BlogRuiyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05133156759893010421noreply@blogger.comBlogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5984432498066610262.post-88205148980011092852007-11-04T10:50:00.000-08:002007-11-04T08:51:13.254-08:00Day of the Dead<div align="justify">I just spend Days of the Dead (1st & 2nd Nov) in Oaxaca city, and it was awesome! The whole city comes alive and has a big party in the cemetary, I kid you not! I wish I could post some photos up, cos it's really hard to describe what happened. The festival is actually about remembering the dead and celebrating the next stage of their lives. People bring flowers to decorate the graves, and bring food as offerings to the dead. At home there'll also be an altar with flowers and food offerings as well, different types of regional food etc. After the offering, the food will be eaten. It's a very colourful and positive festival, not at all like the name suggests when interpreted through a western perspective (which has really negative associations with death). The Day of the Dead tradition is a pre-hispanic tradition, but got mixed with christianity when the spanish came, so now there are crosses and pictures of jesus on the altars and the graves, along with the traditional food. </div><p align="justify"><br />Speaking of food, there are several food specialties of this state, one of which is chocolate (which is made into mole [pronounced mo-le, not mole, the animal], a sauce made from chilli, chocolate and various other spices. I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but I'm going to try and buy some to take home.....if my bag will have space), and another is grasshoppers and crickets. In the markets, there are people with selling bags of insects, I think they've been deep fried, or at least fried. They look crunchy. And as ever, flavoured with chilli, lemon and salt. There are also these giant tortillas (about 3 times the size of a normal one) called tlayudas. It's a meal in itself. </p>Ruiyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05133156759893010421noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5984432498066610262.post-48784485029897635382007-10-29T18:19:00.000-07:002007-10-29T17:26:06.002-07:00On the road again<div align="justify">I'm heading to Oaxaca City tonight (taking a night bus!). I've been in Mexico City for 1 week and it's been awesome. Lots of museums and art, and pretty colonial buildings. And old churches on practically every second corner! The Spaniards really were enthusiastic with converting the populations. Hopefully Oaxaca will be as enjoyable as Mexico City. </div><br /><div align="justify">I'm now trying to motivate myself for the next 2 and a half weeks, not that I don't like Mexico, on the contrary, I love Mexico! But it's just getting to the end of my trip, and I really miss home, and I just want to get on that plane! So, I'm just thinking, 2 short weeks left, hey?</div><br /><div align="justify">And it's also bloody cold here! It gets down to about 9 degrees at night, thank goodness I have thermals. It's unusually cold for this time of year. </div>Ruiyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05133156759893010421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5984432498066610262.post-77390358744829800282007-10-24T19:53:00.000-07:002007-10-24T17:52:17.567-07:00Pride<div align="justify">In my walk across the city, I managed to wander into the totally queer part of town. After 3 and a half months of queer abstinence, I was suddenly inundated! There were gay men everywhere! Everyone seems so out and proud too. There were rainbow flags, shops selling rainbow merchandise, gay clubs, cafes and restaurants. One of the cafes/bars was called BGay, BProud, something I did not expect to see in Latin America. Anyway, it looks like there's a pretty big gay scene in that part of town. The rest of the queers though (the LBT part) don't have such high visibility, as per usual. Gay men seem to always dominate the queer scene first. I wonder why that is...</div>Ruiyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05133156759893010421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5984432498066610262.post-3493408596314740782007-10-23T23:54:00.000-07:002007-10-23T21:51:38.084-07:00Mexico City WOO!<div align="justify">Mexico City is nothing like I thought it would be! I had imagined a dirty, polluted, dangerous and ugly city (from what I've read and what other travellers have told me), but in fact it's quite the opposite! There are really nice buildings here, in the city centre and in some parts of the inner city area, and where I'm staying is really safe (I don't know about the rest of the city). I haven't noticed much of the pollution, although there are a lot of cars here. It's not as evidently smoggy as LA, perhaps that's the problem. It's not thick black smoke, lol. </div><br /><div align="justify">I'm staying with a friend of Fabiola's (Fabiola and Christian owned the farm I was working at for the last 3 weeks), she offered her apartment when I said I was going to the city for a few days, and she's asking another friend in Oaxaca (where I'm planning to go next) if I can stay with them. What nice people! Patricia (the woman I'm staying with) lives in the inner city area, really close to the centre (if you count the presidential palace and the Zocalo as being in the centre), and is walking distance to all the major museums and galleries. It's very convenient!</div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="left"></div><div align="justify">So I arrived yesterday, and I went to the National Museum of Anthropology today. It is a ridiculously huge museum! There are 24 rooms in total, and they're all pretty big, with lots of displays and some bilingual captions. Needless to say, I spent the entire day there. I could've spent more time, but I was freezing! When we arrived yesterday, it was hot. Today, it was overcast, windy and raining a bit, it was a complete flip in weather! It's like I'm in Melbourne again. I'm wearing 4 layers of clothing as we speak. Unfortunately, I didn't have the luxury of warmth in the museum, I just had a light jacket, so I was absolutely freezing. In between unsuccessfully trying to stay warm and trying to absorb the information presented to me (half of which was in spanish), I nevertheless was able to pick up some bits of information. The Aztec and Mayan rooms were really cool. I didn't know this before, but they were really big on blood sacrifices. They'd sacrifice animals, people, even children to whichever god who needed it at the time. They also built huge pyramids and temples. It was pretty cool. </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="left"></div><div align="justify">On the food note, I've been eating lots of street food lately. I love street food, it's the best food you can get in any country! If only Australia had enough history to have good street food. I know enough spanish (and names of Mexican foods) to know what I'm ordering, and to get it without cheese! Seriously, everything has cheese and/or chilli here. You can get all fruit salads with chilli powder, salt and lime juice, same with corn on the cob, except they put cheese and mayonaise on that too! Regardless, I still love Mexican food, it's awesome! Oh, and they have blue tortillas! They're made from a blue variety of corn, unsurprisingly. They have a million varieties of corn here (ok, not that many, maybe 40 or 50). I thought Ecuadorians were obssessed with corn, that was nothing compared to Mexico! There's always at least one thing made of corn in every meal, most likely tortillas. Anyway, I'm trying lots of different foods, I just get whatever is vegetarian in the stall and ask for it without cheese, and then wait for the surprise. So far I haven't been disappointed!</div>Ruiyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05133156759893010421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5984432498066610262.post-352255099611122712007-10-15T16:49:00.000-07:002007-10-15T14:49:21.257-07:00Costa Rica update<div align="justify">A quick follow-up on the Costa Rican referendum for the free trade agreement with the USA. The results were frustratingly close, 51.61% yes, 48.39% no. I wonder what will happen now.</div>Ruiyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05133156759893010421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5984432498066610262.post-4221925691916503212007-10-15T16:45:00.000-07:002007-10-15T14:44:24.907-07:00Farm update<div align="justify">Well, I'm still at the farm, my last week here (if everything goes according to plan) before I head off to somewhere else. Just an update to say that all is well, I've only got about 1 month left before I head home, so I'm really looking forward to the next part of my trip, as well as going home again, yay! Tempus fugit.</div><br /><div align="justify">I walked to a waterfall close to the farm yesterday, and I don't want to sound religious or anything, but once I got there, it was the most amazing experience I've had for the entire trip. The place was so peaceful and serene, so beautiful and devoid of human presence, I was overwhelmed with happiness. It was the most pure happiness I've ever felt, it's hard to describe in words. But I'd have to say that was one of the best days of my trip, all the more intensified because it was so simple. No touristing around, no gardening, no nothing. Just sitting next to a waterfall appreciating everything around you. It was great! </div>Ruiyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05133156759893010421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5984432498066610262.post-63683717840374325112007-10-05T20:07:00.000-07:002007-10-05T18:10:23.069-07:00Life and death<div align="justify">I saw a rabbit being killed and gutted today. For some reason, the actual killing wasn't as disturbing as I thought it would be. It certainly wasn't as disconcerting as the cow milking, possibly because I wasn't the one killing it. The rabbit seemed surprisingly peaceful, so much so that I felt bad knowing about its impending death. Just moments before it was hopping around in its cage; it seems so incredible that we can take away a life with such ease. In case you were wondering, the rabbit was killed by having its neck broken. Christian held it upside down by its hind legs, and whacked it hard. I had expected it to be screaming and squealing etc, but it didn't make any noise. Perhaps I was just ignorant to the fact that rabbits don't make loud noises like cows and pigs. I don't know. Perhaps it actually died relatively pain free? No, probably not. It was spasming for a few moments before it became still; it didn't take that long to die. </div><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">I'm probably making this whole event sound very matter-of-fact and heartless. Make of it what you will. I don't know what to think about death now, and the morality of this whole animal killing business (not just killing for eating, but killing for other purposes, like mosquitoes and garden pests). Incidentally, I've had to do some killing of my own. There are these white grubs in the garden beds that eat the roots of the plants and eventually kill them, so really we have to kill the grubs before they kill the plants. It's certainly not vegan, but how far can you take it? If I don't kill them, they'll no doubt be killed by someone else. Using deterrents (if there were any) would chase them to another place where they'll also be killed. If, very hypothetically, we were to deter them so far away that they didn't have a food source and they all died, we would still be responsible for their deaths and eventual extinction. That doesn't make it any better. So the question is, does that make it ok to kill a grub or a mosquito? Or is this issue too myopic to be contemplating about?</div>Ruiyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05133156759893010421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5984432498066610262.post-7753470150334311852007-10-03T18:54:00.000-07:002007-10-05T18:10:47.621-07:00¡Hola Mexico!<div align="justify">Yay, I'm in Mexico! I headed straight to the farm the day I arrived, because I had no idea what else I was going to do (being without a guide book and all that!). The farm (Rancho el Amate) is almost 2 and a half hours away from Mexico City. I don't have mobile reception at the farm itself, but there was reception in the little town about 5 minutes drive away. Go figure. Currently, my plan is to stay 2 or 3 weeks. I haven't decided exactly how long, and my plans will probably change depending on circumstances. But right now I have no plans, so am just going to play by ear. </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">The farm is cool. It's located at the foothills of very picturesque cliffs, so I have a good view when I'm gardening! They grow all sorts of stuff here, from ornamental plants like birds of paradise to edibles. The main production here is jams though. They make all kinds of fruit jams and preserves, which they sell at the organic market along with some other seasonal produce. Yesterday, I harvested carrots and weeded the garden bed, and today, I did more weeding and planted kale. It's amazing how long such a simple task takes. It took me the entire morning to weed and plant the entire bed, and by morning I mean until lunch time, which incidentally was at 2.30pm. Apparently people here eat very late lunches, at 2 or 3pm, like they do in Spain. Then they have a light supper at 9 or 10pm. I'm slowly accommodating by eating a late breakfast. It's quite an adjustment seeing as at the farm in Costa Rica, we'd have breakfast at 6.30am and lunch at 12pm, hours I'm more accustomed to. Speaking of accommodating, my body received a shock when I arrived on Monday. I was totally not used to winter weather, nor did I expect it, having just arrived from the Caribbean coast where it was too hot to even think about taking a warm shower! It is absolutely freezing here in the mornings and nights, I can see my breath in the morning, it's that cold! At night, I sleep in my sleeping bag along with 3 layers of blankets on top. But I prefer this than being perpetually dripping in sweat. The noon hours are very warm though. It's a bit like Brisbane's winter actually. I guess it makes sense, seeing as it's autumn here now. Has it been correspondingly hot in Brisbane?</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify">The food here is awesome! I'm totally in my element. The first day I arrived, I had some grain bread and beans. I thought I'd be sick of beans after Costa Rica, but after eating it, I realised I couldn't stay mad at beans for a long period of time! I love them! They are the most amazing food! Also, Mexico is chilli central!!! I've been having my fill of spicy chillies here, and they are awesome, after being totally deprived of them in Costa Rica. The chillies here that I've been having are hotter than the ones in Ecuador! Oh what fun I shall have! The tortillas here are also really good. They're so different from the shitty Old el Paso ones (or whatever the brand name is) that you get from the supermarket. I can actually taste the corn in these ones, which is the best part. I kind of learnt how to make tortillas in the farm in Costa Rica, so I will attempt it when I get home and you can all be amazed by it. Oh, and I ate cactus today! Who knew you could eat cactus! I've forgotten its name though, despite being told several times. I really should write it down. And another thing, I've fallen in love with agave! It's an amazing syrup, and I had it for breakfast today with bread, it's so tremendously yummy! It's going to be my honey replacement. I'm going to see if I can buy a whole heap before I return to Australia, seeing as it is very rare and very expensive there. I think they have shitloads of agave in Mexico, they even make a kind of tequila out of it! Awesome huh!</div>Ruiyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05133156759893010421noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5984432498066610262.post-52680540433539737552007-10-01T08:52:00.000-07:002007-10-01T07:47:34.842-07:00Random post from El Salvador<div align="justify">Comalapa International Airport, El Salvador, has free high speed internet!!! Hooray for me :D I am currently enroute to Mexico City. All my flights within Central and South America have stopovers, I guess it's just how the airline works. But hey, free internet, I'm not complaining. Eat dust LAX! </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify">So I was up at 3.15am this morning, to get a bus at 4.20am to the airport. Turns out, however, that for some reason, the first bus was at 4.40am, despite me double checking the timetables on the internet and also asking the guy who worked at the bus terminal. That was annoying, but it was ok, I got to the airport at 5am, 1 hour prior to boarding time. </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify">I also have to say that Costa Rica has an abundance of vego/vegan groceries! I was very excited to find them in the supermarket. They had soy meat substitute stuff, they didn't taste meaty at all, they were quite literally textured soy protein. I liked it, they tasted like soy! The same company, Bioland (I think they're Costa Rican), also produces mostly organic vegan muesli bars, biscuits and cookies! I had to buy the whole wheat carob cookies, they were awesome! </div><br /><div align="justify">Oh, I didn't say this in the previous post, but when we were driving from Puerto Viejo to Panama, we drove past HUGE banana plantations, and I mean massive. There were acres and acres of bananas all the way from Sixaola to Changuinola (both border towns in Costa Rica and Panama respectively) and beyond. Changuinola is practically a banana town. Almost everyone works in the banana industry, and the banana fields are landmarks for the town! Unfortunately, almost all the banana plantations are owned by one company, Chiquita Brands International, who are the successors of United Fruit Company, the company that totally exploited the Caribbean, Central American and West Indian countries and their peoples in late 1800s/early 1900s. So Chiquita are apparently the largest banana distributor in the USA, and they've totally monopolised the town. Modern day exploitation?</div>Ruiyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05133156759893010421noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5984432498066610262.post-76986857189907126972007-09-30T17:05:00.000-07:002007-09-30T16:11:05.015-07:00I have an uber tan!<div align="justify">Yes, 5 days spent snorkelling and lounging on the beach will do that to you. I have the biggest bathing suit tan. I forgot my proper togs in my hasty packing before I left Brisbane, so being inspired by what we did in Grafton, I just jumped into the water with a sports bra and undies (it was ok, they looked close enough like togs). 5 days later, I have a huge white patch on my back in the shape of my sports bra. It's actually pretty funny! Everyone at the hostel has been commenting on it (when they can see it). It's really distinctive. I guess now I know why you wear a bathing suit as opposed to a sports bra, lol! Thankfully, despite having a huge tan, I didn't get sunburnt. The sun here is really strong, which reminded me to constantly reapply sunscreen, so yay!</div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">So anyway, a bit about where I've been. After the farm, I headed to the Caribbean coast with 2 other people who decided to tag along with me from the farm. We went to a town called Puerto Viejo, which is right at the southern end of the Costa Rican Caribbean coastline. The town had a strange vibe to it. For one thing, it felt like the gringos completely outnumbered the locals. There were white people everywhere you looked, it was incredible. Obviously it was a tourist town, but it just felt different. Banos in Ecuador was also a tourist town, but that one felt right as a tourist town. I guess it was more developed. Puerto Viejo was like a small town being infiltrated by tourists. Despite the copious numbers of tourists, the streets, bars and clubs were mostly empty. That was another strange thing. The hostel we stayed at was pretty much fully booked, but we hardly saw anyone throughout the day and night, just handfuls of people scattered around the place. </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">It's funny, there are lots of people here of African-Caribbean descent, and they all speak spanish with a caribbean accent! It was cool! Also, you know you're in a beach town when all the roadkill are crabs...</div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">The Caribbean Ocean has really warm waters and small waves. There's one big surfer beach (called Salsa Brava) but apart from that, the waves were pretty small, just gently lapping at the shore. We were in Puerto Viejo for 2 full days, where we went swimming the first day and snorkelling the next. It was good to swim/float in the ocean. Good body surfing waves were irregular and generally far apart, so in between waiting for a wave, I'd just float in the ocean. That was fun, now I can sort of understand why people lie in those sensory deprivation tanks, it's actually really relaxing! The snorkelling here wasn't that good though. At this stage, I was comparing to the Great Barrier Reef, and there's almost no basis of comparison. The reef here was small, the corals were brown and there were scarcely any fish, just little ones randomly swimming around. It was pretty disappointing, but I guess I shouldn't be comparing to the GBR, which is one of the best in the world (I think). We hired bikes to ride to the snorkelling place, it was fun! The bikes were basic, old school bikes. At first I freaked out cos they had no brakes on the handle bars, but then we figured that you can brake by pedalling backwards, so it was ok after I had gotten used to it. </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">The beaches here are so stereotypical though. Mostly tranquil ocean, white sand and a coast lined with coconut and palm trees, right at the beach. I never thought it would be so stereotyped! I guess this must be what it's like all over the Caribbean. </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">After a few days in Puerto Viejo, we randomly decided to take a sidetrip to Panama, to another sun, snorkel & dive place near the border called Bocas Del Toro. It's a series of islands also on the Caribbean coast. Although this is also a tourist town, it didn't feel weird like Puerto Viejo did. The locals balanced out the gringos, and the place just seemed more natural. I liked it better than Puerto Viejo. We went snorkelling here as well, and it was heaps better too. The corals were actually colourful, and there were lots of little fishies to swim after, lol! Plus I had a better snorkel, one of the ones that can drain water out of the bottom, so I didn't swallow salt water like I did in Puerto Viejo. I wish I'd brought my own stuff, which would've been heaps better, but I guess that would've been impractical due to my already ridiculously heavy bag! It's getting heavier as I go along, unfortunately...</div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">The border crossing between Costa Rica and Panama was so small. On both sides, there was a small, one window immigration office to stamp your passport. An old bridge connects the two countries, and most people just walk across. It was very cute.</div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">So anyway, I'm heading off to Mexico bright and early tomorrow morning. I'm going straight to the farm, cos I have no idea what else to do in Mexico and hopefully I will have inspiration there. I think they have internet access at the farm so I can keep you all updated...i hope this is not wishful thinking. </div>Ruiyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05133156759893010421noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5984432498066610262.post-357235479034784712007-09-30T16:30:00.000-07:002007-10-01T07:24:06.970-07:00No TLC, yea!<div align="justify">So I got back to San Jose this afternoon, after a week in the Caribbean Coast. I got off the bus, and walking along to the hostel, I see hordes of people wearing "No TLC" t-shirts and badges, carrying flags and all sorts of jazz. It looked pretty awesome! Apparently there was a rally earlier today to protest against TLC (which does not stand for tender loving care! It's Tratado de Libre Comercio, which is Free Trade Agreement in spanish. The internet is so wonderful!). I arrived at 1.30pm, just in time to catch all the people walking back from the rally. It looked like a really good rally though, judging by the amount of people walking in the streets with "No TLC" paraphernalia. The entire main street in San Jose was blockaded to allow for the protestors, I wish I could've seen the march, I imagine it would've been amazing! There was so much graffiti all over the city (yes, more than usual) against TLC, "oligarquía ≠ democracia" and the like. They weren't anti-bush or anti-USA as such, more pro-Costa Rica and national pride. Lots of people were wearing "Me ♥ CR" shirts and waving the Costa Rican flag. </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">So a bit of background, as far as I know, Costa Rica and the USA have a proposed FTA on the table. At first, an unofficial poll revealed that most people supported the FTA, something to the tune of 80%-20%. A few months later, however, the figure changed to 50-50 (I don't know why). So far, all the local people I've talked to are against the TLC, and I've seen more stickers and graffiti around the country that are against it. The government is putting it to the people, and there's going to be a referendum on 7th of October. Apparently, the current president got elected on the promise that he would sign the TLC with the US?! It'll be interesting to see the outcome of the referendum!</div>Ruiyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05133156759893010421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5984432498066610262.post-13044378744097865122007-09-27T15:29:00.001-07:002007-09-27T15:31:02.121-07:00The chocolate factorySo a little catching up. I just lost the entire entry that I was typing before, so this one is going to be short as I can't be bothered retyping the entire thing.<br /><br />So I spent 2 weeks at the wwoof farm, La Iguana Chocolate. It was ok, I learnt a whole lot about chocolate process, or rather from the cacao fruit to cocoa powder. They are not chocolatiers here, so they don't make chocolate as such (like chocolate bars etc). They produce cocoa powder, pure powder without the butters and liqours taken out, it's really just very finely ground cacao beans. It's really awesome. I definitely had my chocolate fix during the 2 weeks that I was there. We made brownies and chocolate sauce, and it was decadent.<br /><br />Speaking of food, we ate with the family when we were there, and you guys are not going to believe what they have. They eat rice and beans every single day, 3 meals a day. It's incredible, it's not even a variation of rice and beans, it's always white rice with red beans (they also have a bean plot, along with the cacao!). There are side dishes that go with it (like salad) which change, but aside from that, it's a rice and bean staple! Lucky I like beans...Fortunately though, there was a Canadian woman, Caryl, who was there for half of the time that I was, and she'd usually try to cook something different to accompany the rice and beans, so there was some variation. Oh, she also cut my hair, which is awesome. I now have uber short hair, like boy length, which I quite like. I'd forgotten how short short hair feels like, and I'm really enjoying not having hair in my face all the time, or billowing around my neck. I really like it, it looks ok too and is absolutely no maintenance, which is awesome.<br /><br />So there will be more updates later, when I am not so put off by the computer wiping out my last half hour's work!Ruiyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05133156759893010421noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5984432498066610262.post-26968000539221390252007-09-10T06:34:00.000-07:002007-09-10T05:39:13.601-07:00Off to the farm<div align="justify">Hey hey! I'm heading off to the farm today for 2 or 3 weeks, I don't know whether they have good communication networks there (i.e. phone and internet), so if you don't hear from me, it's not because I've forgotten or whatever. </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify">I'm looking forward to the farm, but a little apprehensive at the same time as I don't know what to expect. All I know is that they're primarily cacao growers, and they make chocolate. Sounds interesting huh? Maybe I can learn how to make chocolate? That would be so very handy! Never will I have problems buying chocolate again, yay! Which reminds me, in Ecuador, they don't eat block chocolate. All the chocolate comes in the form of chocolate biscuits, or wafers, or chocolate bars and the like. Needless to say, they all have milk and are all very sweet. The only block chocolate they have there is cooking chocolate, which also had milk. I had a serious chocolate craving at one stage but couldn't get anything. It was very sad. I ended up finding chocolate biscuits (like oreos but not. Even te oreos have milk products there) which didn't taste anything like chocolate. It was quite disappointing. But coming back to the farm, I don't even know exactly where they're located, seeing as everyone I ask has never heard of the town, and it doesn't exist on any map. It's probably very small (perhaps akins to Chiriboga?). Well, we shall see after I arrive tonight then. The good thing is that I can leave whenever I want, and am not bound to stay for a set amount of time (unlike in Ecuador). </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify">Well, wish me luck!</div>Ruiyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05133156759893010421noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5984432498066610262.post-73807012824256072052007-09-07T19:01:00.000-07:002007-09-07T18:03:25.012-07:00Damn computer<div align="justify">For some reason, the paragraphs in my last post aren't being published properly. There's supposed to be a space in between the paragraphs, and because I am anal and a perfectionist, it rather irritates me that it's not publishing as I have typed it, despite me having edited it several times. I just wanted to clarify that it's not my fault just in case any of you are also just as anal and are bothered by it.</div>Ruiyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05133156759893010421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5984432498066610262.post-17399902077558787792007-09-07T19:00:00.000-07:002007-09-07T17:58:55.528-07:00Blah blah<div align="justify">I've been bumming around San Jose city for the last few days. I was right in my thoughts on the first day, there isn't that much to do around here. But I don't really mind. I've been taking things very slowly, and today, I even went to the park and read Harry Potter (they had the 5th book in the hostel, in english too!)! Oh the joy. </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">In other news, I bought a camera yesterday! It's the most manual and most basic of cameras, I'd say it's just one step above disposable. It cost 3000 CRC (about USD$6), and the film for the camera was more expensive than the camera itself, which I thought was a little ridiculous. But at least I can now take happy snaps, and you can all see photos when I get back :o)</div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify">Since I'm now cooking for myself, I've been totally avoiding potatoes and rice! It's soooo good! I bought a whole heap of chickpeas and lentils in the wet market (I love wet markets, it's so much fun shopping for food outside a supermarket!), then I went to the supermarket to find tomato paste, and ended up finding textured soy protein!! It's supposed to be a meat substitute, but it's the kind that doesn't taste at all like meat. It just tastes like soy, the kind that I like :D it also absorbs whatever flavours you put in it, but unfortunately, I didn't have any exciting flavours to go with it, just a whole lot of tomato paste and ginger (yes, I managed to bring it with me from Ecuador!). I figured it would be completely irrational to buy a bag of spices seeing as I'd never be able to finish it in 1 week. But it worked out well anyway. I'm also no longer eating bread for breakfast. I bought some rolled oats and bananas from the market, and am having oatmeal! It is so amazing, I love it! Oh the simple joys of food!!</div>Ruiyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05133156759893010421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5984432498066610262.post-43185486649456159602007-09-04T14:35:00.000-07:002007-09-04T13:37:10.934-07:00What to do???<div style="text-align: justify;">There doesn't seem to be many things to do in San Jose...I walked to the Contemporary Art Museum today, but they were in the process of changing exhibitions, so there was nothing to see! It was ever so disappointing, as that was the only museum which looked interesting. I'm not sure what else I can do here. There are trips that can be done out of San Jose, but I haven't found anything interesting yet. They all seem to be the same old stuff, like horse riding, volcano tours, hiking and various other naturey stuff. I'm having a bit of a lull at the moment, and am feeling disheartened and possibly also disorientated, so am not in the best mood to go out and do stuff. That's not too good, is it? Plus I've gotten used to cheap stuff in Ecuador, so everything here just seems expensive. I think Costa Rica is the most expensive country in Central America (so says a book I read). Anyway, will keep you posted with updates. Hopefully I'll feel more lively tomorrow...<br /></div>Ruiyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05133156759893010421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5984432498066610262.post-91354886740188548532007-09-04T14:30:00.000-07:002007-09-04T13:27:56.968-07:00San Jose, Costa Rica<div style="text-align: justify;">I made it to San Jose! Yesterday, after I checked in for my flight, I realised that my ticket included a 'technical stop', which turned out to be Guayaquil. Guayaquil is the largest city in Ecuador, and is a very prosperous (and apparently also very dangerous) port city near the southern coast. So my route to Costa Rica turned out to be Quito-Guayaquil-San Jose. Much time spent waiting. And speaking of waiting, when we were in Guayaquil, we got word that San Jose airport had suddenly closed, and will remain closed for 3 hours because apparently a plane broke down, or had some sort of incident. I'm still not sure exactly what happened, but we had to wait at Guayaquil airport for another 3 hours! I was so bored. The airline compensated us for food though, which was nice of them to do so, seeing as the delay wasn't their fault. The food wasn't that good, it was just a croissant and a softdrink from a cafe, both of which I now regret consuming as the croissant had cheese and the drink was overly sugary and artificial. But I was hungry at the time, and you can only have morals and values when your needs have been met. Oh the shame.<br /><br />We arrived in San Jose at 8pm local time. Costa Rica is 1 hour behind Ecuador, so that makes it a 16 hour difference between Australia. On the plus side, my phone actually has reception here, what a bonus! I hadn't organised a hostel to stay in yet, as my credit card, for some reason, has decided to stop working, so I was slightly stressed about not having anywhere to stay! I need not have worried. Outside the airport there were a few people holding accommodation signs, and I just picked 1 of them, Costa Rica Backpackers. I had intentions to go to another place, but couldn't get any confirmation for availability, so I just went with the people at the airport. BAD decision. I really don't like this place. First off, I got completely ripped off with the exchange rate. I paid for the hostel in USD (it seems to be widely accepted here) thinking that I would save my CRC for markets etc. It was $33 altogether, and instead of giving me $17 back, they gave me change in CRC, at a rate worse than at the airport! It was ridiculous! The room I'm in has 4 bunk beds, but there's not a lot of space for everyone's luggage. Plus they didn't even provide a pillow! I had to use my sleeping bag for a pillow. There were no matches/lighters in the kitchen to light the stove either. I'm very disgruntled with this place, and am not recommending it to everyone! Needless to say, I went out and found another hostel this morning, the one I had originally planned on going to anyway. I should've gone there to begin with, there were no space issues. Plus they're cheaper and offer the same services.<br /></div>Ruiyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05133156759893010421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5984432498066610262.post-45192698630236666772007-09-01T16:55:00.000-07:002007-09-01T14:45:26.125-07:00School in Jipijapa<div align="justify">I forgot to mention something about my school in Jipijapa in my previous post. Just to give you all an idea about the shack status of the school, one day we turned up and discovered that the entire school had been picked up and moved 5m down the road! Can you imagine a school/building that can be moved as and when you desire?! Yes, we were just as shocked when we discovered. We couldn't believe it. And I only realised because I needed to go to the toilet (the bush toilet, there are no toilets at the school) and the bush wasn't in its usual position. </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify">The other day, we had a sudden gust of strong wind, and it blew off part of the school's corrugated iron roof! We didn't realise the roof wasn't even nailed on before that. The corrugated iron has just been placed on top with no fastening device, it's ridiculous. Seriously, you can take the school apart and put it together again like lego! I guess that's how they moved it in the first place...</div>Ruiyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05133156759893010421noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5984432498066610262.post-4291864358418724152007-09-01T16:40:00.000-07:002007-09-01T14:39:20.712-07:00Winding down in Ecuador<div align="justify">Ok, I did elaborate further in the previous post (I decided to build on it and explain our fiesta in Puerto Lopez a bit more), but it didn't end up being published, so I can't be bothered spending another hour typing the same thing which should've been posted. You'll all have to wait till I get back (or some other time when I feel like elaborating on it) for details. In a nutshell though, we went to Puerto Lopez to celebrate one of the other volunteers' birthday and we stayed the night there. We went to a bar later in the night, got talking to the owner/manager, and he ended up giving all of us free drinks and taught us how to make mojitos. We all got shots of aguardiente (local liqour made from sugar cane), and we made 7 tall glasses of mojitos. Needless to say, we were quite happy by the end of the night, which is why we only had 3 hours sleep! </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Anyway, to the present, I am currently in Quito (for the last time). I'm almost finished stage 1 of my trip. I'm jetting off to Costa Rica on Monday. Overall, the volunteering has been ok. Not exactly what I expected (especially for the Chiriboga part, which consisted of absolutely no reforestation on our part, but quite the opposite instead!), but it was alright. Teaching children was very interesting. You really need a lot of patience for it. It was frustrating at times, but quite satisfying when they've learnt and understood what you've taught them. It was slightly difficult for me (due to the spanish), but we got along fine, and they understood what I was trying to say anyway, which was good. I think my spanish is improving, at least now I can get around and buy stuff without having to look up the dictionary for every second word! </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">On the food note, I think I've consumed enough rice, potatoes and sugar here to last me a lifetime! Every meal has some kind of rice or potato, and all the juices have lots of sugar in it. Towards the end, they just made us salad all the time, cos we're all pro salad and fruits. Oh, in Jipijapa, they bought papayas, but they are nothing like you've ever seen. They were MASSIVE!! They were about 30-50cm long, probably 15cm diameter. And they were really good too, just sweet enough and soft enough to melt in your mouth. They are nothing like the ones in Brisbane, and are by far the best papayas I have ever eaten. There are also lots of bananas here. I've been eating heaps of them too, both raw and cooked. So far I think I've tried bananas that have been cooked in 3 different ways. I think they were different types of bananas too. Bananas are the ones you eat raw, platanos are ones you have to cook, and plaintains are probably something else altogether, I forget what. Oh, also, here's another way to have orange juice. What we did was peel the skin (just the outer part, leaving the inner part, so you end up with a white orange), cut the top off, and then squeeze and suck the juice straight out of the orange. It's as natural as you can get it, you don't even need a cup! It's awesome, we're quite obssessed with the oranges. </div>Ruiyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05133156759893010421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5984432498066610262.post-5631935300137975932007-08-28T18:34:00.000-07:002007-09-01T14:19:14.639-07:00How do you teach little children who don't listen?!<div align="justify">School today was a nightmare of a morning. We'd only had 6 hours sleep in 2 days (we arrived back in Jipijapa at 2am Monday morning and had to get up at 6.30am for school, and Monday afternoon we took a bus to Puerto Lopez [a beach about 1 and a half hours away] and stayed the night. We were drinking in a pub until 2.30am, then went back to the hostel only to get up again at 5.30am to get the bus back to Jipijapa to be in time for school! It was slightly crazy, and we were all dead today), and for some reason, for the last 2 days, the kids have had absolutely no concentration and paid no attention to anything we tried to teach them. It was insane! I was so dead that I really could not be bothered doing anything, plus was not in the best state due to alcohol the previous night. So we took the easy option and combined the kids, so the 2 of us could teach them together (i.e. 1 person talks while the other rests. It was a good option!). We tried to teach them about the environment, but due to their immense lack of attention, I doubt they remembered, or even understood, anything. Actually, they didn't, because we quizzed them about it later via a game (another easy way to teach, kinda like putting on a video, but we don't have that luxury), and they couldn't answer even the easiest questions. Ugh, how very frustrating!</div>Ruiyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05133156759893010421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5984432498066610262.post-79895766701571171772007-08-28T18:30:00.000-07:002007-08-28T16:32:59.403-07:00Cuenca<div align="justify">We went to Cuenca for the weekend, it's the nicest city I've visited so far in Ecuador. Shame I don't have photos, or I would post a whole heap. It's also the cleanest city I've seen here, and it's real clean, not fake clean like Baños (where it was only clean in the touristy area). The people and government in Cuenca seem to take a real pride in the cleanliness of their city, there are bins everywhere, and also lots of signs promoting the city's cleanliness etc. It was really awesome! Here I also saw the first court in the country! I didn't realise I hadn't seen one here before until now. I'm sure there must be one in Quito, I just have not come across it yet.<br /><br /></div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify">Anyway, Cuenca was a spanish colonial city. It used to be an Incan administrative city, but the whole city was burned down during an Incan civil war (before the spanish arrived). So the spanish just built over it, resulting in lots of old colonial buildings and cobble stone streets. It's such a nice city, and relatively safe too (it felt a lot safer than Quito anyway).<br /><br />On Saturday, we went to the Museo de Arte Moderno (I'm sure you can all work out what that means), it was really good, and I really enjoyed it! They had artworks from many local artists, and also artists from South America. There were sculptures and paintings. I really liked this series of watercolours, it was titled 'Memories of the wood' or something like that, I forgot the actual spanish title, otherwise I would've written that, I just know my rough english translation for it. Anyway, they were all simple, mostly black and white, close-up watercolour paintings of bark on a tree, but slightly abstract. It took me a little while to realise it was actually bark, because the artist had personified it by giving each bark painting a face, so it was like the tree had a 'life', and thus memory. None of the faces had happy expressions, they were probably not too happy at being cut down. It was really clever! I was very impressed.<br /><br />After the art museum, we wandered around the city and came across another museum/cafe. We walked in with interest, and it turned out to be the most alternative 'museum' I have ever seen! They had really cool artwork, all the walls were painted on, and there were sculptures set into the walls as well. It's hard to describe it, I really wish I could've taken photos. There was a painting on the wall of legs spread open, and where the woman's vagina is supposed to be, there was a 3D carving in the shape of labia, and inside there was a demon (or something similar), shaped like female genitalia. It was really cool (I doubt many of you would agree with me, right?)! That was probably the largest, most confronting piece. The rest were demon/skeletal sculptures, different interpretations of Jesus being crucified (not many were very respectful to christianity, so perhaps that provides a further image of the place), and various other demonic stuff. There were even claws set on the floor of the steps!<br /><br />Oh, I also got my glasses fixed! Not really fixed, because as I suspected, titanium can't be soldered back together. I just bought new frames and they fitted the lenses into them. I kept my broken titanium ones just in case. My new ones are black and full-rim, but thin, so not like Kylie Kwong! They're just cheap plastic ones (for $12), but at least they stay on my head now, and don't tilt to one side.<br /><br />Um, what else did we do? Despite the overwhelming abundance of churches and museums, we only went to one museum (as described above. I don't think the alternative place is a proper 'museum' as such) and one church. The church was very grand though. I don't know how old it is, but it was huge, and in the main square of the city, so it obviously held some level of importance when it was built. The interior was all marble, and there were statues and mini altars all along the side of the church. The main altar had a big 4-sided arch (with a round dome, kinda like in the vatican), and I think it's all gold leaf. It was very shiny! The church had a very high ceiling, and above the main altar was an even higher dome. It was quite impressive. Oh, near the entrance, there was a statue of much younger Juan Pablo II (aka John Paul II). I wonder if they're going to get another one of Benedictine XVI.<br /><br />On Sunday, we walked to a lookout (Mirador del Turi), where there are vistas of the whole city of Cuenca. Despite having climbed Rucu Pichincha, I still had to puff and pant my way to the top. Cuenca is in the sierra (i.e. mountains), so it's also high altitude, although not as high as Quito. When we eventually got to the top, it was quite picturesque. Cuenca is built in the valley, so there were a lot of mountains in the backdrop. All I could see from the top was red though. It seems like most of the buildings and houses have red roofs! And like many other colonial cities, the buildings are usually not taller than 2 or 3 storeys.<br /></div>Ruiyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05133156759893010421noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5984432498066610262.post-91967760853203092572007-08-21T16:54:00.000-07:002007-09-01T14:46:09.416-07:00Jipijapa<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">I am currently in Jipijapa, a small town near the coast. It was a hellish bus ride to Jipijapa. It was originally supposed to be 9 hours, which I thought was bad enough. But the 10am bus on Sunday decided that it wasn't running, and there was no other direct bus until 8pm (which would've been too late) so we had to get a bus to a nearby town called Portoviejo, and from there get another bus to Jipijapa. The descent from Quito was very long and winding (much much more so than to Chiriboga). The bus driver was driving really fast, I was sitting in the first row next to the door, and the door was left open for the entire trip. It was so dangerous! Not to mention the bus driver kept overtaking trucks, even though the road was winding most of the way and there were lots of blind spots. At one stage, a car was coming round the corner on the other side and we were overtaking, and the car had to veer off the road a bit to avoid hitting the bus which was driving in its lane! But everyone seems to be doing this sort of thing over here (as I said before, safety has a completely different meaning here), so I suppose it's normal. And they got us here in one piece, so it's ok. Yes, it was during this highly dangerous bus ride that I think my camera was taken. I left my bag in the bus at one point cos I had to go to the toilet, but Carmen was watching it. I think it was then, but I don't know. Carmen insisted that she was watching it the whole time, I'm not blaming her or anything, but I don't know when else it could've happened. And I only realised when we got off at Portoviejo, by which time it was too late, as it was about 6 hours later. Sigh. Anyway, when we got to Portoviejo at 10pm, it turns out there was no bus to Jipijapa until 12.40am. So Carmen went off to find alternative transportation, and returns with an unlicensed taxi (ie a guy with a van). It was actually really funny, because there was a policeman there asking the driver questions, and he was telling us not to trust this guy etc. But we went with him anyway. We were crammed into the van like sardines in a can. We eventually arrived in Jipijapa at midnight, only to start teaching the next morning (or rather the same morning).<br /></div><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">We are officially teaching english here, but my school is sooo tiny, I don't know if it can be really called a school. It's just a bamboo shack with little benches, and there are only 10 students (who don't all come to school) of varying ages. The students all live on the same road as the school. It's a dirt road, and the houses around are so absolutely ramshackle. They're all bamboo houses on stilts, with thatch roofs. It looks so incredibly poor and rural, and yet it's only about 7 minutes from the 'city' centre on a scooter. Yes, we have to go by scooter. The kids have a regular teacher, who ferries us there and back. I'm there with another volunteer, and I teach the older kids (there are 3 or 4, depending on who turns up), Johanna teaches the middle kids, and the regular teacher takes the smallest kids.<br /><br />My kids are about 9 or 10 years old. They know how to count to 10 in english and also a few random words, but that's about it. Honestly, I don't know how knowing english is really going to help them that much. I also tried to teach them maths yesterday, but all 4 of my kids were at different maths levels. One of them didn't know how to multiply or divide, while the others already knew the multiplication tables, despite them all being of similar age. It's an interesting experience. By the way, it's rather difficult trying to teach maths in spanish, but I think I am doing ok so far, even though it's only been 2 days.<br /><br />Yesterday, I taught them the english alphabet, and also the days of the week in english. It is so difficult to get them to concentrate and write down things in their book. It took the entire morning (about one and a half hours) just to do the 7 days of the week. And that was just to get all of them to copy it down (yes, all 4 kids), I doubt they've remembered it.<br /><br />Well, it's really ok. It's not as bad as I thought it would be. The kids are fun, and kids are the same everywhere, whether it's a rural town or city, so I think it's easier to handle 4 kids rather than a class of 30 or 50. The other volunteers here are teaching in proper schools in town (walking distance from the house), only Johanna and I are in the poor rural area with a ramshackle school. But I don't mind that much. It's a good experience to see such different lifestyles (wow, I sound like such a damn tourist). It really makes you appreciate what you have. But then I think about how useful knowing english actually is for the children (not very, especially only 2 weeks of english). What would actually help them? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. </div>Ruiyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05133156759893010421noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5984432498066610262.post-3164266192723074212007-08-21T15:50:00.000-07:002007-08-21T13:51:49.673-07:00ChiribogaHello all! I'm back in electricity range. The past 2 weeks have been ok, we were in a little village (think small cluster of houses who are collectively given a name. Yes, Chiriboga is that small) about 2.5 hours from Quito. It took that long to drive down there on the bus even though it's only 55km away. It was a very long, winding descent.<br /><br />Chiriboga is in the cloud forest area. Hence the surrounding mountaintops are hidden in clouds in the morning and evening, and it rained almost every single day. It was a really nice area. Very naturey.<br /><br />The volunteering work was ok. We didn't get to plant trees (even though that was what I thought we were going to do). Instead we helped to prune a whole lot of fruit trees (and I mean seriously prune. By the time we were done, probably about three quarters of the tree was on the ground), and also helped build a bridge across the river to a little island (apparently for the eco-tourists). I didn't mind pruning, but I had issues with the bridge building work. Firstly, it wasn't really done in an eco-friendly manner. What we did was we dug holes for the bridge foundation on both sides, and then dug a pathway to the bridge on the mainland side. The pathway was probably 20m long in total, 1m across and about 10cm deep. Digging was fine, it was just that we had to throw all the topsoil (TOPSOIL!) into the river! It was such a waste of soil!! Not to mention the pollution of the river, and the deaths of countless earthworms! I felt so bad, I tried to save the earthworms. I picked them out of the soil before it got thrown in the river, but I obviously didn't get very far. Some had already been chopped in half by the time I got there. I saw a fat earthworm that had been hacked and it was bleeding from its end, and wriggling around. It was a lot of blood for a worm. Anyway, I was slightly disillusioned from the bridge building stuff (for the above reasons). The rest of it was ok.<br /><br />What else did I do? Oh, yes, the obligatory cow milking. I have to say, I never thought I could possibly be any more vegan, but I think after this milking experience, I've reached a point of no return. Seriously, my first thought upon putting my hand around the cow's teat was that this was so immensely unnatural. There is NO other word to describe it. Let me give you a mental picture. The cow was tied to a fence, and her hind legs were tied together (so she can't move). Her calf was tied close to her, but was not allowed to drink her milk, even though it was clearly hungry. The calf was used to stimulate the milk glands (I guess so the milk will flow easier). The man (who works on the farm) got the calf to suck on each teat for about 5 seconds (during which time very little milk flowed out), and then promptly tied it up again. So not only were we taking milk from another animal, we were also depriving its child from its natural source of food and nutrition. It was just so wrong! I tried to squeeze less, and towards the end, I was telling the guy that we should stop because he was trying to get every last drop out of the cow, and I thought it would be better for the calf (and maybe less painful for the cow) if it weren't so. I'm well aware that the cow will keep producing milk, and that the calf will have a chance to feed later (in fact that was what the guy told me when I questioned him about the calf) but really, the calf should have first feed, and anything left can be taken by people, not the other way around. It's just unfair! And besides, it feels really strange to put your hand around an enlarged nipple and squeezing it. I wonder why some people have issues with drinking human milk, but not with cow milk. Drinking human milk is so much more natural, at least it's from the same species.<br /><br />We didn't do much else in Chiriboga. We worked in the mornings (about 4 hours on average per day) and had the afternoons to do whatever, because most of the time it rained, so it would've been difficult to work anyway. We went to the pub a lot in the afternoons. Actually we went practically every day once we discovered it existed (later in the first week). The pub was really small (obviously). It was actually someone's house, they lived upstairs and the pub is downstairs. It had a pool table (it was slightly slanted to one side, which was both an advantage and a disadvantage), and the room was only slightly larger than the pool table, which meant that we had to move every time someone was trying to take a shot in order to avoid being poked with the cue. It was a very quaint experience. The following week, the pub ran out of beer!<br /><br />On the weekend, we didn't work. On the Saturday, we hiked to some waterfalls in the cloud forest. It was really nice. We went swimming in a waterfall pool, but the water was freezing, so we just stood in the water trying to keep warm. The walk was ok, it was a really steep ascent up to the waterfalls though (there were several falls, but each connected to the other. They flowed into each other), practically a vertical climb. We created a lot of erosion and displaced a lot of plants and soil in the process of scrambling up and down the hill (the cumulative effects of 15 people). I won't go on forever about our environmental impacts, lest you get bored reading the hippie diaries. I don't need to preach to the converted anyway (you're all converted right? ;) ). The waterfalls were pretty, very small though. They all had little rock pools, just large enough to swim in, but too small to be considered anything other than a small pool. During the hike, we also had to do numerous creek crossings. I was a little paranoid about slipping and falling into the creek and getting everything soaked, so I was perpetually looking at my feet. Predictably, I didn't see a a fat vine right at my head height, and I ran straight into it. I wouldn't have minded, except it broke my glasses...the left handle thing (the part you can fold down, I have no idea what they're called) was snapped cleanly off. But at least the lens didn't break. I've managed to sticky tape it back together, and it's holding so far. I think it should last until I get back. The most annoying part was that on the way back from the waterfalls, I ran into the very same vine, also because I was too busy looking at my feet and forgot to look up. It's such a hazard.<br /><br />Oh, we also saw a tarantula! It was near the pub, and it was as big as my hand (if not bigger)! It was cool! There were LOTS of spiders in Chiriboga (Stacy, you'll be glad you're not here!), especially when we were pruning the trees. There were spiders on practically every tree. I was trying not to ruin their webs while pruning the trees.<br /><br />Um, I'm not sure what else to say for Chiriboga. I think that's pretty much all we did. The other volunteers are quite nice. There were 2 French, 4 Germans, 2 Spanish, 2 Ecuadorians (volunteers from the uni in Quito), 1 English person, and me. It was a good sized group for the kind of work we did. There are fewer volunteers in Jipijapa (where we are currently teaching in schools), but more on that later.<br /><br />Oh yes, in case you were wondering why there are no photos in this post, it is because I can't find my camera. I think it was stolen enroute from Quito to Jipijapa 2 days ago sometime on the bus :( I was really depressed about it, but I'm slowly getting over it. I'm going to see if I can get a cheap digital camera here or in Quito, and will see what insurance will do about it. I'm not looking forward to dealing with the insurance company cos it will be so bothersome! Sigh. In the meantime, we will have to put up with a very dry blog...Ruiyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05133156759893010421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5984432498066610262.post-13535595978891566102007-08-06T10:44:00.000-07:002007-08-06T08:43:11.520-07:00Volunteering (finally)This is going to be the last post for the next couple of weeks. I am heading to a place called Chiriboga this afternoon, it's about 2 or 3 hours south of Quito. I think it's quite remote, because there's no electricity there. Obviously I won't have internet access.<br /><br />I'm going with 10 other volunteers (they're all from various places in Europe. I'm the only person from the Southern Hemisphere!). 2 people from the volunteering organisation are also coming with us, and I think 2 university students as well (maybe they're researching or somethin). There's a cow in Chiriboga, and we have to milk it everyday. Great. I don't mind milking cows, I just don't think that I should do it seeing as I'm not drinking it. But oh well, I can't really complain. Community spirit and all that jazz.<br /><br />Anyway, much love and peace until then. Hopefully I'll survive the mosquitoes...apparently you get eaten alive there. I'm armed with a mosquito net and 2 bottles of insect repellent.Ruiyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05133156759893010421noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5984432498066610262.post-10647152204288729552007-08-06T10:35:00.000-07:002008-12-09T03:19:07.665-08:00Mindo<div align="justify">So, Nele and I went to Mindo last weekend, on Friday and Saturday. It is seriously the tiniest tourist town ever. If it weren't for the tourists, it would just be like any other small village. There's one main road that's paved (it's only about 200m long), and all the other roads off this road are dirt roads. Below is a picture of the main road. There are cafes, tour agencies and little shops all along the main road.<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5095601325492398770" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS6pmMar7HL0eQ-_tcfsoYmUEBIlUg5-5vUhy1pORkmIRMTgJ_LCapv7LV3pxBb74oflTDSw_1iZy3CbY51pKFp2UmqB7gqBJUgDy_layLxj_ZiAxPVHS7S-idPm4TPpWxnZyPChNqM7c/s400/IMGP0722.JPG" border="0" />Below is a road just off the main road (you can see the main road in the background). It's quite a contrast. There are a couple of cows at the side, I don't know if you can see it. And the houses are also built in stark contrast to each other. There are nice, properly built houses next to old shacks (i.e. built with random bits of timber and corrugated iron, where the roof is likely to leak). You can sort of see it in the photo. I didn't take too many photos of the houses because I felt rude, I mean, it's someone's house, not a tourist attraction!<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5095601630435076802" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifPnfBQiYH249BW0fwQ_sJw8RwuH3XvIb5BDll7kq7IFjx58RVDEo6QHGz4MfWnD7WuVdkFljghJFLTnlLoNw9b3RrAeI3D1r_gR6UMGWsZiqlndsSpVpmxhBFzw6t0hsEEVpB_-Hlwi0/s400/IMGP0725.JPG" border="0" />This is the hostel in which we stayed. It's also the oddest hostel I've ever stayed in. I mean, it's fine, it was clean and comfortable, but it looks like it's been built with random bits of materials. Not that I have a problem with it, I just haven't come across anything like it before. And they've utilised every single bit of space. They've put beds in every little bit of space they could find, so instead of individual rooms, you have to walk through one room to get to another. There are private rooms as well (like a double room), but they're not that private. <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5095605860977863410" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8w8Oq11Sl5rD4SuSKGFWsJUa8lE2UJ8eiwYU13oJikwvZOsZoogH5QxnErFQx3NpezS6QIcdDctUx665-JQIeYIwavU0FAXRxlkFCUa4UJRRRCwXLP4vgGYZ3Yrh8rFjK9oUcdUgi7Os/s400/IMGP0718.JPG" border="0" /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5095603296882387666" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOv-7GEOOsogc_Af_cV84f31M-LCj-yyzsmUNSbWPRCEUkiBgWI6pH1MzIETYmoON7-AR2ES-ULbn8Q3dRW5TpNIfCZd5aep-4f83csJzgRjYpVFKiR0lQ4KzjNrth8v072dOigQ4F09I/s400/IMGP0708.JPG" border="0" />Nele's bed was next to a windowless window (i.e. it was a hole in the wall). I don't know why, because all the other sides had windows, just not at her end! I suppose the plants act as a window/cover (see top picture). A butterfly managed to get itself trapped, and it couldn't get out as it had flown to my end of the room (where there was a window). It had been fluttering in the same place for at least an hour, and it looked so frantic and distressed. I had to rescue it, so I moved it to Nele's side of the room and I have never seen anyone (or anything?) look so relieved as it clung onto some plants.<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5095604559602772706" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZDBnj924bgY_CiMPvFN57eBP3PLuM2cUPmkuwgiTHIlKIsVErT4iFHMyQ4dus_4Ms6BURPf7tmcRe-qAbq3ZTbrSkHfStZmtOwvZEwWmbTnLyiUeEViw_GmK3GclJJf18r_u4YJdL6z8/s400/IMGP0706.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div align="justify"><div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYGMh8S3T8d2uvXdaXa4ZybuIYOBrvIn-a0q0A7IvsfM_Ymax-gg8X0wDHOElhxb20cfC5PfIoUtwBuen5r_6mjnFxgXUEhmMv8OcyJxpMbYIHKkYqPjAaIhCpTXCPqSkC9-UbuNgm9xY/s1600-h/IMGP0739.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5095606857410276098" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYGMh8S3T8d2uvXdaXa4ZybuIYOBrvIn-a0q0A7IvsfM_Ymax-gg8X0wDHOElhxb20cfC5PfIoUtwBuen5r_6mjnFxgXUEhmMv8OcyJxpMbYIHKkYqPjAaIhCpTXCPqSkC9-UbuNgm9xY/s400/IMGP0739.JPG" border="0" /></a>On Saturday, we took a cable car type thing across the gorge. We got great views of the cloud forest. They're called cloud forests because they're high altitude rainforests (ish), and because of the altitude and the amount of rainfall, the forests create clouds! Pretty awesome stuff! </div><br /><div>We went hiking (it's a really nature-y place, apparently all the birders come here). After doing Rucu Pichincha, this was so easy. It was a waterfall hike, so we walked along the tracks and visited several waterfalls. Here we are at a waterfall. </div><div></div><br /><div>We had planned to go swimming in the waterfall pools, but when we got there, the water was freezing! I managed to go as deep as my thighs. My legs were totally numb! It was very refreshing though. Below (left) is the largest waterfall we visited. It's not that big, but it was the biggest in the area. The people there actually stood underneath the waterfall. The locals believe that waterfalls have healing properties, so I think that's what they were doing.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5pGKNpqrBr6td-z-DObOdtJHFlqzfsm2cHjIPcnMW-ZxQlB_EjRcIlZfyfKz0ALTInYZNxdgV5m66GYywyPKyL2DEAAbNo-Kf_7l-gNH9bdvZCHPsV6cE_ZuLD5Rv5hFJDzjjcsqI8iU/s1600-h/IMGP0750.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5095608455138110226" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5pGKNpqrBr6td-z-DObOdtJHFlqzfsm2cHjIPcnMW-ZxQlB_EjRcIlZfyfKz0ALTInYZNxdgV5m66GYywyPKyL2DEAAbNo-Kf_7l-gNH9bdvZCHPsV6cE_ZuLD5Rv5hFJDzjjcsqI8iU/s320/IMGP0750.JPG" border="0" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyYdhxVVnFUFQMGCPNT6Q_4i2J26uA066mwpuu0yocgO6pKLAAZK5pPcvBNiX3ptATBBB5BRcq0DlEZKRhBdxo92nC4htt3j5nUKkJAswPAz1SiaHvheNN2GbIyxEicbvPN7n05TGsyA4/s1600-h/IMGP0753.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5095608725721049890" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyYdhxVVnFUFQMGCPNT6Q_4i2J26uA066mwpuu0yocgO6pKLAAZK5pPcvBNiX3ptATBBB5BRcq0DlEZKRhBdxo92nC4htt3j5nUKkJAswPAz1SiaHvheNN2GbIyxEicbvPN7n05TGsyA4/s320/IMGP0753.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div></div>I didn't get that far. Here's the photo of my attempt. It was rather dismal, but I was freezing. Plus the spray didn't help. It was fun though!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><div></div><div> </div><div>Here's the general photo of the forest (I think it's a protected reserve, so that's good), and the cable car thing which we rode. I could go on forever about safety, but I won't. I mean, we were safe, but the workers have really bad workplace health and safety conditions. Seriously, the woman who rode with us on the carriage stood on the outside (even though there was room on the inside for her). She was hanging on to the bars! It was so dangerous, she could've fallen off at any point in time! But I suppose everyone does that kind of thing here...</div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5095609713563527986" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihP94PoOLfqJ38cvV-gOP0lEQ-a6VzHp478j7PazO2z210pLoYwnUwiuoZRFEl_wcCEFIvauexuu6dr7acrvvkwTUBqeiGX24F_p8PHgGlIgxAgUSkqqEuDrGsHjbMUDIWI2MQpzyNr6Y/s400/IMGP0761.JPG" border="0" /></div></div><br /></div></div>Ruiyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05133156759893010421noreply@blogger.com0