Merry Christmas

I am currently at my parents house in Indiana. I got here on Dec. 19. I left Cuenca on Dec 13 and spent 4 days in Shell before I came to the states. This was my first trip to Shell. I have not had internet access on my laptop, so I have not had a chance to blog about Shell because I want to include photos. After Christmas I plan to go somewhere where I can use my laptop. I promise I will tell you all about it. What I will say right now is, I think I am going to like working in Shell.

My current plans are to spend the holidays with my family. I will be returning to Ecuador on January 5. I will be going back to Cuenca for one more month of language school (hopefully that is all I will need). Then I will be heading to Shell the beginning of February.

I am very grateful that I am able to spend Christmas with my family. Tonight we went to my parent's church for Chrismas Eve service, then we came home and sang christmas carols. We are having a good time together. I am blessed to have a family that loves me so much.

I wish all my friends and family a Merry Christmas. And may God bless you all in the coming year. Thank you for all your prayers as I begin my life in Ecuador. Like I said, I promise to get some pictures of Shell and a blog about my time there as soon as I can.

El Chorro de Giron

On Saturday we went to El Chorro. This is a place in the mountains with 3 large waterfalls. There are trails to the bottom of each waterfall. We went to the first and the second. The hike to the first one was pretty simple, one part up hill where you had to pull yourself up with your arms, but not too difficult.

Then we ate lunch. After this we set out to the second waterfall. The hike to this one is a bit different. We had a guide and we started out on the path to the falls. We got about half way and the guide noted the path was closed. So we went a different way. We hiked up the mountain through some very steep areas (my legs got very tired, very fast) for about 1 hour or more. We got to a place where we could see the falls, but we could not go any further and we were not close to it. This was a bit disappointing. Our guide tried 3 or 4 different trails to see if we could get to the falls from where we were, but no luck. So we turned around. On our way back, we walked past a cow pasture. The original path was on the other side of this pasture. Our guide, with some encouragement from our group, decided we could walk across this pasture and catch the original path which would lead to the falls. So we did. The problem with this was we had already hiked up the mountain for over one hour and this path would be close to one hour as well. This was a more difficult hike. At times we had to pull ourselves up with our arms, using tree roots or rocks. We made it to the second waterfall and it was worth it. It was beautiful.



In the photo to the left (with the waterfall in the distance) is of the second waterfall. You can see our path up the mountain. It is the lighter colored line in the middle of the photo closer to the bottom. After we hiked up that path, we hiked through the forest to the bottom of the falls.

The hike back to the car was a bit more interesting than the hike up the mountain. Those of you are hike in mountains, you know this, it is more difficult to go down than it is to go up. I did not fall this time, but I did slide down several times and I did sit down on purpose several times to slide down on my bottom (this was an easier way to go). Thankfully it was not raining, nor had it rained in several days, so the ground was dry. I am not sure I would have been able to maintain my balance if there had been mud.

The next day, my legs and arms were very sore. They still are a little (3 days later). But it was all worth it.

There are so many beautiful places like this one in Ecuador. Ecuador is a beautiful country with so much to offer in the way of scenery. I hope many of you get the chance to visit this beautiful place some day.

Feria Libre

Feria Libre is the large market in Cuenca. I went there today to get some photos and to buy fruit. There are many sections to the market. There is the section where they have clothes and shoes and other miscellanous stuff (this is only open on Wednesdays). There is the section where they have live animals. The photo to the left is of Cuyes (Guinea Pigs). Yes, they eat these (I have tried it, see my post "Cuy" from October 26). They also sell baby chicks, rabbits, turkey, chickens (all are sold as food). Then there is a part where they sell dogs (these are not for eating), there are always many different kinds of puppies.

The next part I walked through was the fish market. It starts with Cangrejo (crabs). They are bundled in packs of 12 and they are still alive. They can't move because they are all tied to other crabs. Then they have shrimp (these are not alive). Then you get to the part with fish. There are whole fish, fish already cut up but still with skin and heads, and fish filets without skin or heads. In the photo below, there are trout and the large body on the top of the table already cut up is shark. The best part about this table was the dog underneath. He was licking up the juice from the fish on the ground.

Next comes the fruit market. This part is beautiful, there are many colors. The bad part is it is right next to the fish market so that is all you smell.

There is also a part with other meats (whole pigs, guinea pigs, beef) The sell every part of the animal that has been slaughtered. The tongue, the eyes, the intestines, the stomach, the hooves (they make soup with this ??). I did not visit this part today (the fish market was enough for one day).

My trip was successful, I bought some very good fruit (apples, bananas, granadillas).

The Flavor of the Burger

This is the name of a place that makes hamburgers. My friend Juan, loves this place. He thinks the burgers are wonderful. It is just a small little kitchen on the side of the street. There are always several people standing around. You order your burger, wait a little while, when it is ready, it comes to you in a plastic bag. You can either take it home, eat it in your car, or stand on the sidewalk and eat it (this is what many people do).

Well, I had my first flavor the other day. I got the Italiano (it came with ham and cheese). The only reason the burger had any flavor was because it had ham and cheese and ketchup on it. It was flat like a McDonalds burger, and hard and chewy.

The problem is there are not many places here that make hamburgers so they do not know what a good hamburger is. There is a Burger King and a few other local places that make burgers, but it is not something they are used to eating. I say they need a Redamacks or Oaken Bucket!

The First Ecuadorian Haircut

I got my hair cut in September, before I left Massachusetts. Now it is December and I had frizzy, dead ends. I knew I could wait another 3 weeks until I was back in the states for a hair cut and pay $30+ or I could get my hair cut here and pay $3. I am going to have to get my hair cut in Ecuador eventually so why not start now, right?

So I decided to do it. I asked the lady I live with where she goes and if she would recommend it. She did recommend the place she goes and told me how to get there. I was a little worried, because no matter how hard I try to explain to the person cutting my hair, I always get bad hair cuts. So I asked at school, how do I explain in spanish how I want my hair cut. One of my professors told me exactly what to say. To say I wanted capas (layers) and only las puntas (the ends) cut off.

So I went to the peluqueria (salon) and explained exactly what I wanted and showed her how much I wanted cut off (only about 1 cm). She said she understood and she began to wet my hair. She then picked up the top part and made her first cut, about 3 inches off the top. My eyes got really big as I now realized she would have to cut the rest just as short to make it all flow. She thought she was doing a great job. And in reality she gave me a good hair cut it just is not what I wanted.

I think it looks fine, but I don't like it because I worked for over a year to get my hair to an easy style for Ecuador. I could go to bed with wet hair, straighten the front in the morning (about 3 minutes) and that was it. And if it didn't look good, I could pull it all up into a clip on the back of my head. Now, forget it, I can't even put the front behind my ear it is so short. Because I have curly hair, I can't leave it alone now because when my hair is short, my curls are not pretty. So now I have to straighten all of my hair except the back and I can not put it in a clip if I don't have time.

It is amazing how quickly someone can ruin something that I have worked so hard on for so long. But the reality is in about 6 months it will be back to the way it was and I will be laughing at this "bad hair cut". So I am a little annoyed about the whole thing, but I know it will grow, so oh well.

The best part is when I got home from the salon, I told the lady I live with that I don't like it. That I told her one thing and she did a completely different thing. She said they always do that to her too. So now I am wondering why she told me to go there. As for the first cut being in the front, I talked with a couple other women here who said everyone who cuts hair here does it that way. And they also told me that they never get their hair cut the way they want it either. So it appears to be the Ecuadorian way. I guess I have this to look forward to everytime I get a hair cut. Yipee!!

The photos are of my bad hair cut, one with it curly (how it would look if I didn't have time to fix it) and one after I have had time to fix it. Of course with it fixed, it looks fine (not much different than before). The tie dye shirt is a tribute to my good friend Karen!