Honking fixes everything

The crazy director of the school. El jefe.  Photo credit to one of our dear children.

My new love, Anaomi, the youngest of the Quishpe clan to come to the school.

Lianna's birthday cake. Chocolate + berries + walnuts = best cake ever.

Quilotoa! A lake in the crater of a volcano that collapsed when it last erupted in 1797.

Recap of the week.  On Monday we ventured into the historic district to go to mass at La Compañia, a Jesuit church.  I really just wanted to go in order to be inside of this gorgeous church again.  The outside itself is very intricate, but nothing compared to the inside, where everything is covered in gold.  There are so many different things to look at and take in.  It was amazing to be there.  And when we walked outside it was dusk and the clouds were amazing.  Truly beautiful and a treat to see.  The historic district is one of my favorite parts of Quito - the architecture is colonial and pretty.  Tuesday we ran for the first time (and only time for me...) while we were in Ecuador.  It felt so good to stretch my legs and the park was pretty.  We were surrounded by vegetation and trees, which is rare in Quito.  Concrete, dust and cars are very prevalent but I definitely had missed trails and trees.  It was also Lianna's birthday so we celebrated with cake, a song and a rap from Caitlin.  Chocolate cake was so yummy :)  Wednesday through friday were a blur and when we came home from school we just chilled at the house.  On thursday and friday I subbed for Sam in preschool/first grade.  Babies!  They were so cute!!  But it was definitely a different setting for teaching - lots of singing, reading stories, coloring and learning letters.  Being the sole teacher was nice but at the same time you never got a break.  Pros and cons to everything.

Saturday morning we went to the bus station and got right on a bus to Latacunga, our first stop.  No wait at all!  That bus ride was pretty uneventful and we were all seated in the same area.  On our second bus, which took us all the way to Quilotoa (a gorgeous lake in the crater of a volcano) we were split up throughout the bus.  But we all got seats! I was between two nice kichwan couples.  These buses are the main transportation for many people in ecuador, as having any kind of car is a luxury.  We learned this as a brown paper bag of baby chicks fell from the overhead shelf.  One of them fell between Hannah and her seatmate.  I found it absolutely hilarious.  Her not so much.  People transport their goods and everything on the bus - dogs, livestock, literally everything.  Partway through there was a herd of sheep blocking the entire road.  The bus kept rolling, just honking like crazy so they would move.  And did they run.  I'd never seen sheep roaming freely, but this area had a really big native base and there was a lot of farmland and livestock - there were so many cool fedora's on the bus.  It was interesting to see the contrast between their traditional clothing and modern brands.  One women around our age was dressed head to toe in traditional clothing, but had an aeropostale 87 big purse.  Infiltration at it's finest.

Quilotoa was amazing!  It was slightly cold and windy (so glad I brought my raincoat as it blocked the wind really well) that some of us bought gloves at a market right by the lake.  I took so many pictures, as you just couldn't resist taking another picture and then another just in case it was different than before.  The color of the lake was gorgeous especially with the constrast of the emerald green mountains.  The coastline was pretty with such a variation of color as the water got shallower, and the middle of the lake changed color as well due to the waves and wind moving around the sand (and then changing the depth).  We hiked all the way down and ate lunch overlooking the lake and mountains = breathtaking.  I wish I could do that every day.  I went exploring around the edge of the lake to find different places to sit and just gaze at the surrounding area.  So peaceful and relaxing, and it was fun to climb around and see everything from a different perspective.  I climbed to a peak and I felt like I was on top of the world.  

Our ride home was slightly terrifying.  The first part was fun - we rode in the back of a pickup truck back to the city where we catch the bus.  The guy was hilarious and stopped at his house without mentioning anything to us - he just stopped and got out.  It was cool to stand up and feel the wind push you back if you let go, and the scenery was gorgeous.  Right at the end two teenagers hopped up and held on to the back - hitching a ride as the driver couldn't see. 

We waited for a bus for awhile.  It was cold.  And we all just wanted to be home.  So after about the fifth offer, we decided to take a pickup truck to Latacunga, an hour and a half drive.  Four of us were in the cab and three of us were in the bed.  Right before we were about to leave, the driver's son decides to join us.  Where does he decide to sit?  The front seat.  Two people in the driver's seat.  We quickly had him join us in the back.  We were used to cramming people in from taxi rides and such slash we felt way more comfortable.  Craziest ride of my life.  They don't obey lanes, it got dark, this guy passed every car that he encountered (going around curves with no visibility... and a cliff on the other side, as these roads are literally carved out of mountain or hillsides) and then fog set in.  And he liked using his cell phone and playing with the radio.  Time to hug my backpack and close my eyes.  He literally tried to pass this one truck for five minutes.  He would tailgate, get up alongside, honk like crazy and then have to back off as a car was coming at us.  I think he wanted to get back home really badly and I feel bad if he caught on to how nervous we were - I'm sure he knew what he was doing, but putting our lives in someone else's hands on these roads was just a bit scary.  It seriously feels like a dream now.  I prefer taking the buses now.  You can just stare at your seat and not see the oncoming traffic.  But he got us there safe and very quickly.  We passed a bus and we thought it for sure was the group that left before us and we were going to laugh if we beat them home.  Our bus ride to Quito wasn't a whole lot better.  The movie they played was Kiss of Death, where one of the semi main characters dies in a head on collision.  Irony?  And so many people commute to party in Quito!  Drunk city.  But we made it home safely - we forced our cab to go all the way to our house.  We got inside and collapsed. Home sweet home.

This only ended up being a day trip and cost a little over $20 (cheapest weekend ever), but it was one of the prettiest places.  Well worth the hike and long commute.  When else would you commute over eight hours to stay somewhere for around five to six hours?  So many pictures, memories and good stories.

But we have been here for a month now.  Where does time go?  Two weeks left of school...