Mi segundo viaje con la universidad ---- Otavalo y Cayambé

Well, Ecuador won their second game on this past Thursday to qualify with the other 15 teams out of the total 32 teams. Even though they lost today (Tuesday), they still are going to play this Sunday to begin the single elimination of the 16 teams left. The US has not qualified yet – their last and determining game is Thursday.

Oh, and to let you all know, when Ecuador played on Thursday, I had 2 of 3 of my classes canceled that day so to enjoy the festivities and to be able to watch the game. The class I had, we ended up going to a restaurant nearby the university to work on our Spanish while eating out. And then today on Tuesday I got to miss my art class since once again the game was being played during the class time. The next game is Sunday (too bad it’s not during the week).

Also, just to give you a perspective of Ecuador’s success and why so many people are so happy over there success and celebrating so much, this is only Ecuador’s second trip to the world cup which only takes place every 4 years and they have never advanced to the round of 16.

OK, so after Thursday, I began my second trip with university to Cayambé and Otavalo, about 1.5 hours to the north of Quito, Friday morning (luckily not too early).

Our first stop was, besides the gas station, the place where we were going to stay, the oldest hacienda in Ecuador dating back to 1580 when the conquistadors came from Spain. The place is called Guachalá. We learned the entire history of the place from the owner of the place who told how his family got ownership of this place through the hundreds of years of change of Ecuador. (Of what I can remember, a very brief version is that there were lots of planned weddings so that the land owned with the Hacienda grew to astronomical amounts until the 1970’s when the government had land reforms to give back a lot of the land. Primarily at first the land was farmed with crops and animals as well as the fabric making, but then as land prices increased and land was taken away, flower greenhouses were built on the land and eucalyptus trees were planted) The estate included an old mill, a place where people, especially indigenous people, were forced to create fabrics, 2 churches, other old buildings, and the hostelria are where we stayed. You can see a description of my room below the second picture.

After a tour of the place, I went horse back riding through the country side and through eucalyptus trees planted by his family. This was very relaxing but got burnt. While riding, I tried some eucalyptus leaves which tasted like a hall’s cough drop.

After learning about the significance of why Ecuador is called Ecuador (it was the first place where the equator was able to be calculated due to factors such as visibility of the sun from the mountains and the fact that there is a mountain on the equator) and how the equator was calculated. From there, we went to Cayambé for the town fiesta. There, there was live music, fireworks, and traditional hot wine or cold medium boxes of cold wine.

The next morning, we visited the future site of the monument for the correct site of the equator and then went to Otavalo where there is a huge open air market in the streets --- probably over a thousand booths selling things from hats, table clothes, works of art, raw chicken and cow, to fresh fruit and vegetables. From there, we went to eat lunch at a restaurant next to a lake below a mountain and returned home only 45 minutes late, not 4 hours like before.

Sunday, father’s day, besides doing homework, I went with Marifer and David’s dad and their grandma Mercedes to the center of Quito, which is the old historical section of Quito, for mass. We visited a few churched and found one that had just started (there were masses in each church at different times). I definitely am going back. It is an entirely different city and only a trolley bus away for me. Hopefully I will be able to get some more pictures.

Oh, below with the pictures are more details about my trip.

For the plans for this week and weekend, I have a midterm (oh, I successfully finished my midterm art portfolio on Mon) in Spanish and think I will be going to the coast over the weekend by bus.

I will try to post my lesson for the week later.











On my horse at the hosteleria, that like me, liked to eat a lot of food on the way.
One view of the hosteleria. I have many more because this place was really a neat place to stay. It had a pool inside a greenhouse which had all kinds of tropical plants -- and the green house was connected to the backdoor of my room so that I could just walk out from my room into the greenhouse. Inside my room was a fireplace with chopped wood ready to warm me up when I returned for the night. The wood was all eculyptus so it also made the room smell like Vic´s vapor rub. They had all that eucalyptus wood because the owner of the hosteleria and his family beforehand has planted the trees to sell for some years.
One picture of the fiesta in the town center celebrating the patron saint of Cayambé, San Pedro. This contraption in the center was a bit scary. It was lit and it would should fireworks and have contraptions that would spin around with someone turning it on the bottom all while everyone else was really close. The shooting of the fireworks in the sky was not the problem for me. It was when it came to one section of the contraption when little army men with gun shot fireworks into the crowd for about 3 minutes. You had to duck every time it came around to you, but no one in the crowd seemed to mind... I guess I could only laugh.
So this is the true equator, unlike Mitad del Mundo -- but you gotta give the early French explores credit for doing a close job (only like 240 meters away) for the tools they had. This site will be the new Mitad del Mundo for tourists and is currently under construction.
Another view of the construction site. In the background are stones set in specific places. In the center between the two stones runs the equator. On Sept 21 and March 21 if you are on the equator, your shadow will be exactly on the equator. The other two stones on either side represent the angle of your shadow (23.5 degrees) on Dec 21 or on June 21 if you are on the equator at this monument. It is pretty interesting to note that the ancient indigenous community used these properties of angles at the equator to construct calendars, build monuments which lit in specific places on specific days, and were able to roughly locate the equator as well. I am excited because June 21 is coming up and some of the old churches in Quito have special light occurrences inside such as for only this day, the devil eats fire... I saw the video... the light goes from a bunch of scattered ¨flames¨to a small tiny dot ending exactly at the devils mouth. Another for the beginning of spring on March 21 has a statue of God illuminated on his face. These things even go as intricate as an order of importance in which the light illuminates the statues or pictures on these special days. These builders were pretty smart and talented.

One of many open-air meat markets in Otavalo.One of many fruit stands in OtavaloA picture of me at the very nice restaurant beside the lake next to the mountain. What is especially neat about this picture is that the plants beside me are actually annuals --I forget the name but I know Gee Gee plants them in her small flower bed in front of the house.
Another picture of the restaurant

La Inglesia San Francisco. I wish I could take pictures inside of these churches... they are spectacular in their beauty. They have artwork depicting the Stations of the Cross, saints, and other events. Entire walls and ceilings can be made with gold. Inside are many statues of Saints and Jesus. Below the wooden floors in one section in this church were catecombs. Some of the churches are being restored but it still amazes me how much has been preserved. It also amazes me that they are still all in use.
This is another Church in the center of Quito, whose name I cannot remember. But I do remember this is one of 3 churches which are on the same street and separated by only few hundred feet. Another interesting note is that all of these have masses on Sunday even though they are next to each other and each church has a mass almost every hour with some masses that are next to each other that are at the same time.

La Virgen Panecillo de Quito, is really big and sits atop a hill south of the center of Quito. It divides the South of Quito from the rest of Quito.
The biggest church in Quito ... I still need to visit it and maybe go to mass there.Besides celebrations for Corpus Christi on Sunday, there were also celebration of the coming of summer and the sun god Inti (I think this is the Quechua word for sun) Marifer and David´s dad, their grandma Mercedes, and I watched some demonstrations after going to mass and before waiting for the procession through the monastery and church for Corpus Christi.