It's so funny because everyone here asks who people vote for. Im pretty used to it by now, talking super open about my political views, and even getting weird looks when I talk about how yes homosexuals SHOULD have the right to get married...lol hopefully I don't get back to the states and start asking people who they are going to vote for.. :-/
I arrived from Cuenca this last sunday. We had a three day weekend, partly because of the Cuenca fiestas (and also because of the Guayaquil ones..what can i say, they love their fiestas). Chino and I drove down to Cuenca on friday morning (let me be specific we left at 4:30 AM!!!!!) thinking there would be traffic. Well there was like no traffic because we arrived in Cuenca around10:30 AM, only took us 5 hours, which was pretty good. We checked into a hostel recommended to us by some other volunteers, super lindo :) We dropped off the car and walked to the Centro.
The military were preparing for a welcome ceremony for the President. We then walked around the center and in the evening took a tour of the city in one of those double decker buses. Yeah, not such a good idea because the cables that they do have hanging around in Cuenca were super low and would've clotheslined us if we hadn't ducked, haha. But all in all it was a nice tour. We traveled up the top of one of the mountains and were able to look over the whole city!
We went to eat at one of the restaurants down by the river, and then walked around the area that has different bars, restaurants and discotecas. We were too tired to go out out and decided to walk back to the hostel around 11. We stopped by the main park to watch a "teatro de la calle" (street theater). It was pretty funny!
The next morning we tried to wake up to go to the park and see the program for the president. It was supposed to start at 9 and we arrived around 9:25, thinking it wouldn't really start on time (because NOTHING starts on time here). Well turns out they had started and ENDED, haha. BUT-we saw the presidents party flags and a bunch of people along the street, so we crossed and realized that the president was in one of the buildings talking. We waited right outside the building where he was and were able to see him and many other political figures come out!!! It was so neat the passion that the people have for their president. We got some pretty good fotos, I'll try to put them up on facebook. The closest I've ever been to a president!
In the afternoon we went to the National Park close to Cuenca. Really gorgeous countryside and such fresh air. We stopped by a little family restaurant in this ANCIENT house and had habas, choclo con queso and caldo de gallo, y locro de papa...YUM!!
We came back to the hostel and slept, completely exhausted from all the walking we had done in the past two days! We didn't end up waking up till 10 PM and went out to eat at this middle eastern estaurant. I had Ginger chicken, so good! Then since we had taken like a 3 hour nap we decided to see what night life there was. We ended up going into the first clubs that looked like it had people. It was really inside was a pretty good size, with different rooms decorated, and really good music!
Cuenca is absolutely beautiful. It is very clean and organized. Even though they were in their fiestas and every night there were a lot of people, it wasn't like partying out of control and seemed really safe to walk back to the hostal at night.
Sunday we woke up and ate breakfast then got the car and headed to some ruinas de Ingapirca that were supposed to be on the way back. Well lets just say that they were a bit farther than we thought..haha We did about a hour guided tour and then walked down to this inca face that is on the side of the mountain. They aren't sure if is natural of man made, but pretty incredible-looks like an Incan....it started to rain towards the end of the tour, so by the time we got to the car we were completely empapados!!
We then made our 5 hour drive back through the mountains to the querido Ambato. We hit really bad rain and hail getting into Riobamba but were in Ambato by about 9-10 PM.
Monday was back to work. We are doing a lot of preparing for our World Aids Event on December 6th. I also did a nutrition conference for some 500 students on tuesday!! I think they really liked my presentation..pretty interactive, well as interactive as a presentation can be for 250 students (one group in the morning, one in the afternoon)!!!
Sharon, Bianca and I are preparing with our girls group for our final presentation that will be on December 6th or 7th as well! So many good things going on this semester, it makes it harder to image how I will ever leave this place. I've completely lost count on how long I've been here. People ask me and I tell them over a year...Over a year, wow!
Monday is another feriado, Ambato's independence day. So there will be a parade of some sort and it looks like PC will be visiting me....so we'll see!!
Chauuuuuu
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