Category Archives: Ecuador

Our travels this past weekend took us first to an ecolodge named Alandaluz, right outside of Puerto Lopez, and then to Montanita, a small surfing town and a very popular tourist location. We flew to a city called Manta, where we were greeted with taxi drivers offering to take us to the bus terminal. Once I mentioned that we were going to Puerto Lopez, a chorus of replies echoed with the slightly cooler “a Lopi” and/or “a Lope.” The coast was noticeably more laid back. On our bus ride, we passed through towns full of people reclining on hammocks. The landscape leaving Manta was dry and dirty. We drove through miles of hilly land covered with leafless bushes. The bus was cramped and uncomfortable, and the heat and humidity were difficult to tolerate, but they were playing a movie starring The Rock and Christopher Walken, which they followed up with Triple X, starring Vin Diesel, so the three-hour trip wasn’t too bad. Once in Puerto Lopez, however, we changed to an even less comfortable, more crowded bus for the 15 minute ride out to Alandaluz.

Alandaluz was essentially paradise. It’s an ecolodge which boasts cabanas complete with funky, pastel-colored trim, palm leaf roofs, and four-poster beds with classy mosquito nets suspended above. On your way down to the very quiet beach, you’ll see a plethora of beautiful flowers, and if you’re watchful, you’ll see the occasional iguana or exotic bird. The food is safe and yummy, and while we were there, at least, we saw way fewer bugs than you see during the normal Wisconsin summer. This is where we had our mid-service meeting, at which we shared some teaching tips, discussed the status of our expectations, and assessed where exactly we thought we were on this whole journey/adventure.

The mid-service itself was sometimes tough to handle, what with iguanas running through the woods and the constant wash of ocean waves beckoning from the beach, but it was great to see everyone, many of whom we hadn’t seen since our month-long orientation in Quito last September. We will have an “end-service” meeting sometime at the end of May, where some of us will see each other for the last time in our lives. And then Eileen and I, at least, will be here for another two months, finishing up our teaching at our schools. It looks like a handful of us will extend the stay in Ecuador for another six months or a year. Chances are good, they tell us, that one of us will marry an Ecuadorian. One of us may stay off and on in Ecuador for the remainder of his or her life. Some of us may, as a career, stay involved with WorldTeach or get involved with some other volunteer organization that has ties to Ecuador. A few of us will go back home and start up grad school of some sort, an endeavor which ultimately will affect what we end up doing with our lives more so than Ecuador will. Some of us will return to the US with a sense of superiority from having experienced firsthand that life without “America” is possible. All of us, I imagine, will return frustrated with our own culture. And of course, none of us will ever be the same.

To be continued . . .

We are going to be at WorldTeach midservice this weekend and it´s likely that we won´t have internet access. Midservice is at Andaluz which is near Puerto Lopez on the coast on Ecuador. This is our first trip to the beach and we are excited to see another region of Ecuador. We will try to take and then post pics of the trip sometime next week. We hope to post more frequently next week. Tim says vows to ¨kick it up a notch¨ when we return.

TRUE: Tim and Eileen ate $20 worth of sushi for Eileen’s birthday meal.
FALSE (at the time of the posting…): Tim has illegally downloaded over 200 songs since we’ve been here.
TRUE: The Snickers slogan in Ecuador is “Hambre?”
TRUE (at the time of the posting…): We clean the house once a week.
TRUE (they’re three bucks) We’ve bought ten DVDs since we’ve been here.
TRUE (there was LOTS of celebration over this one): Ecuador’s soccer team beat Brazil this past week.
TRUE (Tim’s police gassed a concert and it floated over to Steph’s classroom): Tim’s students tear gassed Steph’s students (Steph is another WorldTeach volunteer).
FALSE: We found a tree frog in our shower this weekend.
TRUE: There’s a Mac store opening near our gym.
FALSE: The people at the Swissotel know our names.
FALSE (it actually says “welcome”): Our “welcome” mat says “bienvenidos.”
FALSE: We keep a calendar on which we X off the days until our winter break.
FALSE: Tim has gone into the “Smocking Center.”
TRUE (and they were all delicious): Eileen had three cakes and a brownie in honor of her birthday.
TRUE: Tim and Eileen’s cell phone is held together with tape.
TRUE (festivities usually start a few weeks early, they like to spread things out): The festivities for Quito’s December 6th Independence day have started.
TRUE: Two weeks ago, we purchased our first Christmas gift.
TRUE: Tim has refrained from purchasing any cinnamon rolls from the Cinnabon right next to our gym.
TRUE: There is a church next door that has hours-long music worship sessions every Sunday

PS we posted Cuenca pics in the coppermine.

This past weekend Tim and I traveled to Cuenca, Ecuador. We decided somewhat at the last minute that this would be a good weekend to travel: I’m still on vacation from the CEC and Tim was able to shift his schedule around so that he could take off Friday and Monday morning. So on Wednesday we found the email addresses of some Ecuadorians who we met in Madison when we volunteered at MESLS. We arrived in Cuenca around 9am Friday morning and checked into a hostel, dropping off our bags to be a little lighter for a stroll around town. Our hostel was an old colonial style house with central courtyards.
Cuenca is the third largest city in Ecuador, but the historical section of town is a very manageable size and the whole city is about the size of Madison (a welcome change from the 2 million plus population of Quito). Most of Friday we walked around the city looking for a place to eat lunch. (We hadn’t get seen our WorldTeach or Ecuadorian friends to get the scoop on where the restaurants are). So eventually we gave up and ate at a chain restaurant, it was ok and the food was safe, but not exactly what we were hoping for. Friday afternoon I took a nap alongside one of the rivers that runs through the city while Tim read his book. It was nice to be near clean water and hear the sounds of a shallow river. We found a very nice restaurant to eat dinner at Friday night and then walked around the city some more. Saturday afternoon we met up with our Madison friend, Pablo, who had a car. He drove us to an overlook of the city and gave us a great car tour of the city. That night he made us dinner (accommodating the problem eaters and everything) and we had some great conversations in Spanish.
Sunday morning, Pablo, Rosalina (another MESELS student) and Rosalina’s finance Sebastian took us to El Cajas which is a nature reserve a short ride outside of Cuenca. Sebastian also brought along Rosalina’s pet wiener dog, Pancho. Pancho had a great time. There are hundreds of lagoons in the reserve and lots of hiking trails. We hiked around one lagoon (Pancho pretty much did it twice since he would run ahead and run back). After our hike we had lunch at a gorgeous restaurant in the mountains. The restaurant had huge windows on all sides with views of the mountains and small waterfalls/fountains. Pablo, Rosalina, and Sebastian were extremely generous: they sneakily paid for our lunch and wouldn’t let us contribute. They also bought us two beautiful ceramic mugs that are one of Cuenca’s trademarks. Our last night in Cuenca, Pablo invited us to stay with him and he gave us ride to the airport the next morning.

We really enjoyed being outside of the big city, with friends and a well-loved dog. It was a wonderful trip. We are looking forward to seeing them again. Another MESELS student, Masaki, from Japan is moving to Cuenca for 7 months to learn Spanish. He was one of our favorite students when we volunteered so we hope to see him when they visit Quito.

Just a quick story. My first day back at SECAP, I climbed the stairs to go to my office. Unfortunately, the door to room 4 was locked, and since I need to go through room 4 to get to my office, it was a very bad beginning. I asked the security gaurds if they could open it, but they said they didn’t have keys and that I’d have to wait until 8:00 to get in. I was a little miffed since my class started at 7:30. But luckily, at about 7:35, I found a custodian sweeping up the burnt new year’s refuse in the parking lot. I asked him for help.

Together, we climbed the stairs again and he tried his key on the room 4 door. It didn’t work. I started thinking of how to run class on a non-existent plan B, when he went into a closet and came out with a screwdriver. He simply wedged the door open. It was great to be back.