ORIENTATION WEEK

DAY 1 – MONDAY

So a while after 4am I woke up, and I feel sure it was the fastest I’d ever gotten out of bed at such an early time. We set off around 5 to drive to Heathrow airport. Maybe because it was so early, but there was no sentiment really when it came to actually leaving, not even for my beloved bedroom which will have been turned into a study/office room when I return! As usual, I slept through the car journey. Props to dad for driving there so early. We got to Heathrow around 7 and I went to check in my big rucksack to the American Airlines. It felt exciting just doing that as I’d never been on a flight to America before. I had about 40 minutes until I should go through security so we had some breakfast. I made sure to have a good fry up since I've heard/read that Ecuador's version of bacon is just... not... as nice...Thank god I'm bringing a tankful of tea with me.

Me and dad

Dad’s behaviour definitely implied he was feeling nervous and excited himself, bless. We went to the security gate where I said goodbye to them. Walking through the gate and leaving them was suddenly a little sad, but adrenaline took over as soon as I stepped out on the other side.

 Me at security. The last UK image captured of Oscar Beasley

It was a bigger plane than I had ever been on, but the seats and rows were pretty much the same as my usual EasyJet and Ryanair travels. Oh except each seat had screens for entertainment! I was excited to be able to watch stuff during the flight. Although the films/TV shows were on a schedule which meant I had to wait until a certain time to start watching one or just join in at a certain point after it had started, odd system. So I watched Iron Man 3, which was entertaining enough but my sleepiness kicked in and I missed the ending. After my nap I watched The Place Beyond the Pines – recommend it. A few wandering-through-channels later, we landed in Miami. The nine hours flew by!

Miami! This was my first time in America, even if it was just in an airport. I had been told quite a few times that the US immigration officers can be quite unpleasant, so I felt a certain nervousness as I headed towards the immigration. When we got there, the officers were shouting at everyone to get into lines at different spots. There was heavy tension in the air.

It was soon my turn to be interrogated, and after I said I was on a transit to Ecuador for a Spanish program the officer started speaking Spanish to me as if to test me. Anyway I made it through without being strip searched and probed or anything and went to baggage collection to collect my rucksack, which I would then have to hand in again. 

After collecting it, while standing in the queue to go into the terminal a sniffer dog started barking at the marks and spencer’s bag I was holding. Amusingly, my tomatoes from my lunchbox were confiscated. Although the female officer who had to do so recognised the ridiculousness of the situation and was quite friendly about it so that was nice, at least she wasn't waving her gun at me saying like "STEP AWAY FROM THE TOMATOES!" or anything like that. I had been told that there would be a section for people with connecting flights to hand in their baggage, but when I tried to give mine I was told to go somewhere else. A slight panic threatened to rise as I walked through the airport for a good 10 minutes to find the LAN airline desk to re-check in the rucksack, but I eventually did, so no problem.

After going through security (no bother), I had a while to wait. I bought a bottle of water, thus using a dollar for the first time. Whey! What is this change she gives me? A quarter? Cents? Huh? Shortly after, I got on to the next flight. I noticed the plane was full of Latinos, so Ecuador felt a lot closer. I had a seat to myself, and pillows/blankets were provided; the seats were also very comfortable and there was a lot more leg space here, plus the entertainment programme on the screens was a lot better because they had a large amount of films/shows to choose from and you could play them whenever, no time schedule. I liked this plane!

I suddenly got very excited again as we took off, so I just took a picture of Miami from my phone.

It's just a city seen from airplane window. But so excited!

This flight was around 4 and half hours. I watched The Big Wedding, meh. Then The Watch but it was awfully edited for family viewing so I stopped it. Then went to sleep. Then landed in Quito, Ecuador.

As everyone got up to get off the plane, I noticed I was a lot taller than everyone else. In the line for passport check, an Ecuadorian next to me started talking to me, just asking where I was from, what I was doing, etc. He was a doctor, and introduced me to the word "chevere" which I will apparently hear a lot here. It basically means "cool/great/awesome" etc. He was friendly so that was a nice introduction to Ecuadorian people. By now it was around 10pm Ecuadorian time, 4am for me. I didn’t feel groggy or anything, thanks to the few hours of sleeping on the great LAN plane. I do not know why the letters here are so small.

At baggage claim, everyone picked up their luggage but my rucksack had not yet arrived and I remained the only one left waiting. Then the conveyor belt stopped. Oh no! I asked one of the workers what happened with my baggage, and she pointed me to another conveyor belt where a new group from another flight arrived. My rucksack appeared in that one. Not sure what happened there. 

I walked out into arrivals and quickly saw Angelike, one of the international officers from UEES who were meeting us students at the airport. With her were two girls: Ashley from New York, and Michelle from Warrenville. Don’t know this place but it’s in the U.S. No one else was coming at this time (there were later arrivals for another officer to pick up) so we went in the shuttle car to take us to the hotel. This was a good time to talk with Angelike and the two girls, who really liked my British accent. I could get used to this! Angelike informed us we were a group of 43 (no other British people), but there were only 6 other boys. Fine with me! I was surprised to find out that Angelike was only 22 years old! That’s very young for such an important job. Respect to Angelike. She was born in an Amazonian town, then moved to Quito at a young age and was raised there before working in Guayaquil.

Angelike also told us about Ecuador’s poor sewage systems: when using the toilet, we must put the toilet paper in the bin after using it because the piping cannot handle the toilet paper. So every toilet in Ecuador has a bin next to it full of used paper. Um.

Me and the two girls were a bit hungry so we stopped at a Pizza Hut to get a takeaway. A unique Ecuadorian experience right. The weather was fairly cool, we were all wearing jumpers. I understood it would not get really hot until we arrive to Guayaquil on the Saturday. We eventually arrived to Quito, and to our hotel.

Our hotel Tambo Real! I did not actually take this photo, it is from google images. But since we arrived at night, this is a resemblance of how I saw it upon arriving.

We were given keys to our rooms; I was told my roommate was a Mexican boy named Jose Luis. The girls agreed I would come to their room to eat the pizzas after leaving my bags. I went into my room but this Jose Luis was not there. I left a note on the bed which he had clearly marked as his and introduced myself, explaining I was having pizza with the girls, gave their room number, and that he was welcome to join when he arrived.

I went to their room and the pizzas were disappointingly cold now, but oh well. Soon after, there was a knock at the door. Jose Luis? I opened the door and there was a somewhat chubby Mexican-looking fellow. Meet Jose Luis. His nickname is Pepe. We all chilled for a while and then we went back to our rooms. I discovered Pepe had actually come with his girlfriend. It was 1am now, so me and Pepe did not talk much and went to sleep. Unfortunately we were running low on water rations, because you cannot drink from the tap here, so all we had were a few drops of water left in each of our water bottles. We hoped we’d be able to sleep through the whole night and not get thirsty.

View from our window. Ecuador!!

I actually had a pretty good day; I enjoyed my flights and arriving to Quito and I had a real nice time meeting Ashley and Michelle, and my roommate Pepe. I was excited to meet the other internationals and start the Orientation week. Unfortunately, we had to get up the next morning at 7.30am.

DAY 2 – TUESDAY

Thankfully, our wake-up call ended up being a while after 8am instead. It was just the phone ringing although when I picked it up I couldn't hear anyone on the other end. I felt pretty good waking up this morning. Especially reading an e-mail that said I had passed the assessment I did over summer. We went downstairs for breakfast and in the elevator we met Lindsey, from Canada. Breakfast was quite normal, eggs and bread, and I met Pepe’s girlfriend Karla. By the way, I have no idea why the writing appears smaller here.

View from one of the hall windows

After we had to go to a big room on the 1^st floor for an introduction talk with all 43 of the internationals. Here everyone stood up and introduced themselves, some in Spanish and some in English (me Spanish). The different countries we were all from were USA, Canada, France, Belgium, Mexico, South Korea, Australia, and UK (just me). The other boys were Esau (Mexico), Djibril (France), Steve (Australia), Brenn (Canada) and Matt (U.S.). I was one of the youngest, there were about three girls who were 19/20; the rest of the people were older. The oldest student was Frances, who was 28. Here I also met Andrea for the first time; she is the boss, the Don, the head of the International Department at UEES. There was also Diego, an assistant who is not based at UEES or even in Guayaquil but appears to be a good contact. 

 Internationals! The two girls on the left are Michelle and Ashley, who I will remember as the first friends. The girl and boy at the front are Mexicans - Nancy and Esau.

We then had a lecture where Andrea explained a bit of what to expect while living in Ecuador. She mentioned there are a lot of men who will stare, catcall, and say pervy comments to the women (sounds like the ordinary man). We also were advised that when in Guayaquil, we should only take taxis from the companies they’ll tell us about rather than hail a cab off the street because some of those drivers may rob us. A year or so ago, two female international students were robbed by hailing down one of these taxis; another man got into the car and they were threatened by gunpoint to give their money/withdraw from their cards. Thankfully they didn’t have much to give, and they were in a dodgy area too. So I feel sure we won’t have this problem, besides if there’s say three of us in a cab there will be no space for the robber to come in as well. They also informed us of the ‘Ecuadorian time’, which refers to the lateness which Ecuadorians are accustomed. It is the norm apparently to turn up half an hour or an hour after the original appointment time, apparently if one turns up at a party or dinner bang on the time they were given, it would be seen almost as rude. What about at university? Can we arrive half an hour late to class and claim we’re exploring Ecuadorian culture? Hmm. Anyway nice of Andrea to talk through these things although I had already read about them before.

We split into two groups for our tours this week, English speaking and Spanish speaking – each group travelled in their own bus. I went with the Spanish speaking group, which was full of Mexicans and the French. The only other native English speakers were Ashley, Michelle, Devan from Canada, and Lizzie from Australia. Our guide was the lovely Angelike, while Andrea went with the English speaking group. So we went on a guided tour through the historic centres of Quito. This means city squares, cathedrals, and churches, and some buildings.

 Our group at our first stop, a church.

Inside the church. Sure it looks nice but I can honestly say I am not particularly fascinated on visiting a number of churches, even though I appreciate our guide's effort in taking us around. 

There was another church/cathedral which had access to the top of the tower, where there was quite a nice view. Getting up there meant climbing some very steep ladders/staircases which was a bit of a struggle for some people.

The Virgin of Quito/Quito's Madonna, who overlooks the city. Scary.

Me, chilling.

 During this time I got to know some more of the Mexicans and Djibril, the French boy. Although the vast majority of people are only here for 4 months (one term) which is a shame as some of them will no doubt end up being good friends. Also, I was not feeling any jetlag or altitude sickness so far. Great! Quito seemed like a nice place, somewhat relaxed. Also, even though I thought the temperature would remain mild during our time in the highlands, the sun came out a few times and it was actually rather hot.

I do not know what this place is but I thought it looked nice. There was a lot of restaurants here in the corridors so I was convinced we were coming here to eat, and was left thoroughly disappointed when we just walked straight out.

Town square 

The Spanish speaking group!

We then went to a shopping mall together with the other group to get food. I and a Canadian girl named Devan went to investigate a phone shop to enquire about getting a local SIM card but we didn’t have much luck. We did not actually have much time so we got a take-away for the bus. We went to the toilet before leaving, where I noticed the bins full of used toilet paper. I still was not sure about this. Toilet paper breaks down in water, so surely it’s very unlikely to plug and damage more than any other things flushed down there, right? Hmm.

Anyway, on the bus it was a bit tricky to eat. There were a lot of bumps. We arrived to La Capilla del Hombre (chapel of man) which is an art museum by Oswaldo Guayasamin dedicated to the people of Latin America. It consists of a chapel with an art gallery, and his actual house. Well, more like mansion. Quite big with a lot of halls, rooms and staircases, as well as a huge front lawn with a swimming pool, and a nice view of Quito and some mountains. The house was also full of artefacts/sculptures/paintings. I did not realise this but apparently, the Chapel is meant to ‘document about man’s cruelty and humanity’s potential greatness’ but I did not understand enough to elaborate further on that, sorry.

 Guayasamin had a nice pool on his front lawn

 Guayasamin's grave

 I think these ladies were changing his flowers

Michelle and Ashley and me - the original first night arrival pizza hut crew!

 Spanish speaking group again!

And now the whole group! Loads of people to still meet and talk to.

During this time, I and Djibril were trying to kick-start some plans for going out for a drink later on. There's so many ladies and it is the second night already so a few cheeky beers definitely made sense. When the time came to go back to the hotel, the majority of people were exhausted and went back to sleep/rest for a bit. I was fully awake though and did not want to rest, I wanted to stay outside. No time for rest! I was quite happy that I wasn’t feeling any after effects of the journey here, though I was worried it would kick in at an extreme level at some point later. Anyway, me and Pepe just chilled in our rooms and showered. People kept ringing each other via the room telephones to see what the plan was and a plan was made to go eat.

Eventually, the group split up because there were two choices people had decided on: a Korean restaurant and a Mexican restaurant. Sorry Korea but I preferred the Mexican option. Some of us went there, and I thought the food was nice but the Mexicans complained it was no good. If anyone should be able to judge Mexican food, it would be Mexicans. 

After, it was time to bond over beers so we bought a few crates and took them to my and Pepe’s room where some of the group came (some just went to sleep instead, great see you later). Perhaps the most valuable education on Ecuador we learned today was the name of the common Ecuadorian beer brand: Pilsener.

Ecuadorianly refreshing!

We quickly discovered the altitude here seemed to cause a lot of foam to spill out when opening a bottle, as demonstrated by myself in this picture. Which was kind of annoying, getting foam spilled on you when you open a beer, but at least you're having a beer. Pepe is the lad next to me, and next to him is Djibril.

Steve, from Australia!

 Anyway, this was a great evening getting to know some of the other internationals. It was especially nice to spend time with those who had been in the English speaking group, since we were mostly split up from them during the day.

DAY 3 - WEDNESDAY

Everyone had a late start again. Also, because tonight was going to be spent in another town, we all had to place our luggage downstairs for it to be put in a security room (we would be coming back here tomorrow). Me and Pepe also noticed a sign which said alcohol was prohibited, and we had quite a big bag full of empty Pilsener bottles, so we stealthily hid them in our wardrobe.

We departed around 10 in our two buses to the Mitad del Mundo, which is supposedly the halfway point of our planet on the equator. There was also a museum about the indigenous ethnography of Ecuador. The weather was much hotter than yesterday. It is an extremely common thing for people to take pictures of themselves standing on the half-way line, so yes I thought I may as well. Unfortunately, when someone took a picture of me with my phone, the picture came out awful due to some bizarre camera settings my phone had somehow gone on to, so I was left without a picture.

La mitad del mundo! Oscar was here.

After this we departed to Otavalo, a largely indigenous town which took a couple of hours to get to. 

About halfway through the bus journey, the scenery definitely became a lot more authentic as we went through the mountains passing indigenous homes. This pole ruins the picture, bad timing from my part. 

This lady came on to the coach to sing a couple of folk songs, and sold some clothing to some of the students.

After arriving to Otavalo, we checked in to the hotel to have lunch. This hotel was a lot smaller, and all the boys were initially placed in one room. Lads room! But then we realised two of us would have to share a bed, so the staff ended up giving a spare room for two of us so the two Mexican lads took that one. It was noticeably colder here. 

Our hotel, looks nice!

We had lunch, and had rice with chicken. It seems we will be having a lot of rice and chicken during our stay in Ecuador.

Our lunch table - Oscar and the Mexicans.

After lunch we went to Peguche, a small indigenous village. Again we were divided in the two separate language groups and visited each place separately. 

Our group first went to a family’s home, where a man named Cesar demonstrated the weaving process, a method of fabric production which many of the indigenous make a living out of.

Cesar

Cesar weaving.

Myself and the ladies rapt with attention.

We then went to another indigenous family who were folk musicians. The parents and the two children played us some music. Below is a minute-long video of this family's jam that I recorded from my phone, excuse the low light quality.

The kids take it away with their vocals at 0:25

Djibril the Almighty failing to blow the horn (although he managed to make a sound on the fourth go)

It was then time to visit the shaman, where one member of our group would have their soul cleaned. Shamanism is a practice of divination and healing in which the shaman encounters and interacts with the spirit world. On the way there, it was clear everyone wanted to volunteer so Angelike asked everyone to pick a number between one and twenty; the nice Canadian girl Devan picked the right number – seven. 

We arrived to the dusty old cabin where the shaman awaited for a fresh soul to save from evil spirits, allegedly. The shaman was a small old lady who spoke in Quechua, one of the traditional indigenous languages.Once we were all inside, Angelike decided it was time to tell Devan she would have to strip down to her underwear. Poor Devan. I felt some of the girls were suddenly not so disappointed that they had not been picked. Thinking about it, I guess I wouldn’t have minded, especially with the female audience. Stripping down to underwear is the equivalent of being at the swimming pool really, just imagine you're at the swimming pool but with an added shaman. I was interested to see exactly what the process would be, though one of the girls got uncomfortable enough that she decided to leave and wait outside. Devan was getting quite nervous so we did our best to encourage her and cheer for her which worked. Go Devan! She was commanded to stand over the wooden centerpiece, and had to rub a candle all over her body which the shaman would then take and pray over.

The floor set up 

The shaman prayed by the candle to discover the state of Devan’s soul.

The shaman then smoked a cigarette and swallowed a lot of sugarcane alcohol. This was unexpected. She announced that Devan suffers from bad energy and bad days, and that the ritual would reduce this and offer her health and luck. So the shaman lit a fire on the candle, and Devan was told to stand over it. The shaman then drank more of the alcohol and spat it out into the candle’s flame several times, creating a ball of fire which made most people jump!

She then began to spit the alcohol onto Devan, and as well as smoking another cigarette and blowing the smoke onto her. There was some giggling throughout some of the process. The shaman spat alcohol over the green leaves, blew smoke onto them, and then patted the leaves all over Devan’s body, doing this twice. The shaman then took some eggs out and did her 'spit alcohol and blow smoke' thing on the eggs and rubbed them all over Devan.

The shaman took the leaves and eggs outside, apparently to remove all the negative energies from Devan’s soul so she could be renewed. The shaman returned and offered her hands to Devan, they were filled with oil and flowers which Devan then spread over herself. The ritual was complete! Her body and soul were cleansed! She was announced as being extremely clean and was instructed not to shower for three days despite having been covered in spit, alcohol, smoke and dirt.

Well, that was quite entertaining. It would be interesting to know exactly what was going on from the shaman’s perspective. I read on the internet from a shaman’s report that apparently they may see ‘black creatures’ above the person they are cleaning, clutching at them. Scary!

We returned to the hotel, and got changed for going out that evening. I went out with the Mexicans, and a couple of Canadians and Australian Lizzie. We just ate some burgers, and ordered a few drinks. I was definitely getting on really well with the Mexican students, especially my new bro’s Pepe and Esau. 

Night Otavalo

The Mexicans made an important plan for tomorrow night when we return to Quito to have a session of ‘aguas locas’ (crazy waters), apparently a common beverage for Mexican parties. Aguas locas consists of squash drinks and vodka being mixed in a water tank, the appeal being that it tastes good enough to not notice the vodka taste. So that was for tomorrow, watch out Quito hotel!

Internationals set loose in Otavalo

Returning to the hotel, we found all of the French were in our room with a few cheeky bottles. Eventually, we moved the party downstairs in the lounge area and again this was a great time to bond with some of the internationals. Angelike, Andrea, and Diego returned at some point late from a bar, and generously did not care we were up late and (some of us) being noisy.


DAY 4 - THURSDAY

It was amazing how easy it was to wake up early these days despite only having 5 or 6 hours sleep. Usually it's a struggle, but these days I've been jumping out of bed. Then again, there were naps to be had on the bus journeys. But still, the reason I’m happy to have such short sleep is because this week is so fun. Whey!

The plan today was to go to Cuicocha Lake, a crater lake at the foot of a volcano. But first we encountered our first unpleasant experience of the week - a cold shower. I expected this to happen at some point, but I imagined it being in a hot area where a cold shower would not matter, not in an already cold-ish place like Otavalo. After desperately trying to find some kind of control for hot water and standing around waiting in the blind hope that the water would turn warm, I did what I had to do and got in that shower. The anticipation was much worse, I was in and out quickly. Others, like Djibril, were in denial and skipped the shower altogether.

The other English speaking lads: Brenn, Matt, and Steve.

After breakfast, we had a couple of hours or so to check out the Otavalo crafts market, where there were many indigenous artefacts, clothing, souvenirs, etc. I decided not to buy anything, I would have more chances in the future and I did not want to add to my full rucksack already. 

After walking around for a while, me and Djibril left for a much more pressing matter: food. Everyone else seemed content with just buying a sandwich for the coach journey, but us two have larger appetites which a mere sandwich cannot satisfy. So, we found a place for a take-away meal of chicken and rice.

Djibril, with some axe/pipe thing that he'll likely never use from the market.

Eventually, it was time to depart for the lake so we set off in our two language coaches. Angelike remained as the guide for our group, so I was getting to know her much more than Andrea. Most of us fell asleep on the coach after eating. Anyway, we got to Cuicocha Lake around 1. It was basically a big lake in a circle with some tiny land in the middle, but it looked very nice. The water was all blue and sparkly, the type that you think hey that would be really nice to swim in, but then you remember it would be freezing here in the high mountains. So we basically chilled for a bit and posed for a lot of pictures.

With Carmen, from Mexico.

With Casandra, from Mexico.

Representing Mexico.

Spending almost all my time with the Mexicans is definitely classing me as a Mexican. 

Sup ladies

With the lovely Angelike.

Pepe and Karla! Lovely couple :)

Some Mexicans, Frenchies, and a British.

The whole group

After taking pictures, we still had to wait half an hour for going on the boat that would drive us around the lake. So naturally a few of us thought the waiting time should be spent with some Pilseners. We headed into the bar/restaurant by the lake, ordered a few, and sat down with a nice view of the lake.

A while later, we went down towards the boats. After putting on lifejackets, the group split into two boats and we climbed in.

Off we go!

Our boat

Sat next to my buddy Steve, looking good in our shades.

We drove around the lake and that’s about it, but it was pleasant enough. The driver drove all over the place a couple of times though, he probably had a few Pilseners back there with him. We got off and went back into the bar/restaurant, were some hot tea was being served. The waiters offered a few drops of liquor poured into the tea if we wanted, so some of us tried it out of course. That liquor definitely ruined the tea, it was so strong that it took us ages to drink our teas, grimacing as we did so and not enjoying it at all.

We then took the long journey back to Quito. Again, a lot of us took this time to sleep, as shown below by Esau. 

When we arrived to the hotel, the first thing we all had to do was get our luggage from the security room and take back upstairs to our rooms. My bag was actually on the top floor instead for some reason along with a few others, it was a bit tedious waiting around but then we got back to the same rooms we each had before. Me and Pepe still had the beer bottles from the other day in our wardrobe.

Everyone chilled or took a nap and then ate. Me, Esau, Pepe and his girlfriend Karla ordered pizzas which we ate in Karla’s room. A couple of other Mexican girls were there too eating a salad. Karla’s roommate is a Korean girl named Solbi, but she was not in as a few had gone to the Korean restaurant again, kind of a shame cos I'd like to meet the asians. After eating, it was time to prepare the aguas locas. So me and Pepe went to buy the drinks and water tanks to carry back to the hotel. On the way in we passed a suspicious Andrea, Angelike, and Diego; no doubt they wanted to join of course.

Esau and Mexican girl Casandra prepared the aguas locas and eventually about 15 to 20 of us were gathered round in Michelle and Ashley's room, which is where the event was taking place. So naturally we stayed there for a couple of hours having a merry time, moved rooms when there was only a few of us, then eventually we all went to bed around 3am or so. Yet another fun night wreaking havoc in Ecuadorian hotels, but a shame we were missing quite a few of the others especially the lads from the English speaking group. Some good friendships were being built and it was a shame they all go back after 4 months, but oh well there are a lot of good times ahead.


DAY 5 - FRIDAY

Today we left Quito for good, so we loaded all of our luggage into the bus which would make its way to Riobamba tonight after a couple of other destinations during the day. Me and Pepe managed to finally dispose of the beer bottles from tuesday night into some rubbish bags. After a couple of hours, we arrived to Hacienda La Cienaga. Hacienda in Spanish means a large estate or plantation with a dwelling house. 

This place was indeed a large estate or plantation with a dwelling house.

We walked around this house and its gardens, where there was also a little church with a tower.

There were also some llamas hanging around.

Esau chilling with a llama.

Sure this place was nice and all but I’m not sure what was so special about it, I think because important people (like presidents) have stayed there and it has a glowing reputation for that so fair enough. There was also a room where there have supposedly been sightings of a woman ghost, but we didn't see her.

We then went into the lounge room and a band came out of apparently nowhere and played a couple of songs. 

We were all eventually encouraged to get up and dance, which some did more enthusiastically than others. This video shows us in the clapping stage before we started to bust our moves, shame that part wasn't filmed. Unfortunately I couldn't upload it onto here from facebook, so you have to click on the link below if you want to see it (it's only 15 seconds).

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10153184640705008&set=vb.110650318975223&type=3&theater

After this, we went to visit the Salasaca community. First thing we did was eat (good). Our meal was a plate of plantain  food prepared by the people of the community, which we were all thankful for.

Hungrily waiting for the food.. 

My first (possibly only?) vegetarian meal of the trip. I know two certain people who would appreciate this meal. 

We then went outside where a few people of the community demonstrated some music and dance, and weaving again.

They did a little dance with some tins strapped to them, reminiscent of Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins. 

They volunteered for someone to join them in some weaving, which was braved by Canadian Brenn.

Brenn finds his true calling.

We kind of hung around for a while after without doing anything, so I was keen to get on the bus and get moving. 

After a few hours, we arrived to Riobamba. Looking through the bus window and getting off the bus, this city looked to me like there was not really anything here. This cannot be the city, must be the outskirts. Going into the hotel, I was placed in a room with the bro’s Pepe, Esau, and Djibril. However, there were only three beds, so after a picking process me and Esau ended up having to share a double bed.

I accompanied Djibril outside to an internet café of sorts, where he made a quick call to his mother. Walking down there and back to the hotel, this place did look really empty and kind of not like a city, just some houses and motorways. So whatever part of Riobamba this is, it's not very nice. We also had a problem that there were not any shops here selling Pilseners (or anything else), so we put our faith into the hotel bar.

Back in our room, we had good news: another bed was placed inside our room, so we each had our own. Today was actually the birthday of two fellow students, so a cake was given out after the meal we had at the hotel. 

Meal time

Happy birthday to Casandra and Lindsay! 

Casandra turned 24...strange how many people are a fair bit older than me, still feels nice to be 20.

There was also a karaoke party being set up downstairs in the bar lounge, hooray. This turned out to be the most enjoyable night yet, having a good time at the karaoke area with drinks and some impressive renditions of the classics, as well as some awful renditions. Even Angelike and Andrea hanged out for a while. 

There's always that one person that starts singing and makes you think "wow you actually have a brilliant singing voice". That honour today went to Jieun from Canada, actually she's Korean. Myself, I sang one a Ricky martin song actually ("un dos tres, un pasito delante maria!"), to get my Hispanic singing into play. I like to think I was impressive. Sadly, no videos were captured.

Me, grooving.

We actually finished the hotel’s beer supply, cos you know we like to party. The bar closed around 2am or so after a magnificent dance/jump to ‘What is love?’ by Haddaway. 

What is love?

So we then chilled outside with Diego and let us all carry the night on for a bit in his room. It got to the point when it was just me, Pepe and Diego left and with these two talking somewhat fast, it was the first time I struggled to keep up with what was being said in Spanish. Anyway, great night!


DAY 6 - SATURDAY

This morning, I woke up somehow refreshed despite the 3 hour sleep. There was a nice big breakfast for us of eggs and beans. Later today we would arrive to Guayaquil and meet our host families, and spend our first night in our new homes. People were excited and nervous, but honestly I was not thinking much about that; I was having such a good time with this group that I actually kinda wanted to spend longer together. 

We departed towards Mount Chimborazo, an inactive volcano where we’d go hiking for a couple of hours at very high feet.

After a couple of hours, the bus stopped at some field for us to get off and view/take pictures of the landscape.

Djibril!

We take any chance for a picture with the lovely Angelike.

Of course holding the Mexican flag again.

We soon got back on the bus again and another 2 hours later we arrived at an already high point of Mount Chimborazo. Getting off the bus, it was definitely quite cold and windy. Mayte the Mexican girl generously lent me her scarf. After a hot tea in a cabin, we all started walking. All of a sudden, the altitude caused us all to suffer from short breathing. I was not expecting it so soon so definitely felt weird. Some people decided to not ascend any further.

Group photo after the first mini-trek, after which a few people decided to stay here while the rest of us went higher.

We hiked upwards for a bit, and it definitely got very drowsy. The increasingly short breathing and headaches definitely made me feel quite dizzy, by the time we reached our stop point at another cabin I was walking a bit all over the place. 

Struggling to keep my eyes open.

Gringo lads (UK, Australia, US)

Sadly, the extreme wind ripped apart Esau's Mexican flag.

Our stop point was at another cabin, called the 'second refuge' (segundo refugio). I assume there's a few more as you go higher and higher, and they are resting points for those that hike higher (maybe even to the top) as you'd need to take it slow with a lot of resting to handle the altitude. This cabin was empty, some more tea would have been great! But I'm not complaining, it was a good experience and almost fun in a way to experience this dizzying altitude effects, I did not expect to feel it so much. 

Group picture at the cabin, the majority of us made it to the top, well done!

We went back down and got back on the bus, some people still felt a bit groggy but honestly as soon as we were back down where the bus was I felt completely fine. 

Now was a 5 hour journey to Guayaquil, with two stops along the way for the toilet. After the first stop, we got to ground level of the country and it definitely started to get a lot hotter. The bus suddenly became very stuffy, and we all took off our jumpers as some started to sweat and moan about the heat.

Final bus ride for the Spanish speaking group!

We arrived to Guayaquil around 8pm, but did not properly drive through the city. We immediately got onto the bridge towards the Samborondón area, a piece of land on the other side of the river where our homes and university are. It is also meant to be nicer there than the main city of Guayaquil, as well as a lot more secure. We arrived to our university UEES. We took our luggage and headed towards the hall where our host families were waiting for us. The campus was nice but small, with palm trees and a couple of fountains, although I had already seen pictures of it.

We entered the hall and saw all the host families. Some were just the host mothers, some were a bigger group with their own sons. Those of us in the host programme stood at the front, waiting for our name to be called out, while the Mexicans who acquired independent accommodation sat down to receive further instructions later. The whole standing around thing like pigs for slaughter made us feel a little nervous, and I actually recognised my host mother Nizida sat in front of me. I was not 100% confident though, and I gave a little smile to her but she did not smile back and looked elsewhere.

The first to be called out was Andie, from the States. Everybody stared at her as she wandered off towards a woman who suddenly stood up to greet her and take her away, never to be seen again. The whole process was a rush. No one could properly say bye to each other, each student would kind of get dragged away by their new family. Anyway when they called my name the woman in front of me was indeed Nizida and suddenly had a huge smile and open arms to greet me with. Before I knew it I had already been taken outside, not really able to communicate with the others by being totally distracted by Nizida’s never ending speech of how nice it is to meet me and how she hopes I have enjoyed my time in Ecuador and such and such. But she seemed nice and friendly, so that’s good and much better than the doubting thought I had when she did not return my smile just a short while ago.

Her son Eduardo, or Dr Eduardo as he calls himself in our e-mail correspondence, was waiting outside the UEES entrance in his car. It turned out one of the Canadian girls and her host mother were getting a lift with us because they live very close to Nizida’s home. As we approached Dr Eduardo’s mysterious tinted window car, I was happy to have another international with me. Her name is Colby, and she was one of the few I had not really spoken to during the week. She is tall! After a firm handshake, Eduardo helped put our bags in the boot and we drove off. I caught a few glimpses of the other internationals getting into cars, it was a weird feeling to suddenly be apart after spending so much time together. There was a good-looking woman in the car who I happily thought was my host sister Priscila, but it turned out she was just a friend of Eduardo. It was a short drive, just under 10 minutes. Our neighbourhood is called Entre Rios. A translation of that is 'between rivers'. So there should be a river somewhere close. We dropped Colby off and round the corner was Nizida’s house.

Going into the house, it was smaller than I expected. The house had two floors, but the upstairs floor was an entirely different living space where someone else lived; there was a gate next to ours with a staircase which led to this upstairs flat. Since I’d come to believe of this area being for the rich, I had imagined maybe some rather fancy living quarters awaited me, so I was just a little bit surprised that the house was quite narrow and untidy with lots of clothes and tools all over the lounge room. There is a tiny mini-market right next to the house, which is nice and convenient. So I got shown to my room, honestly my first impression was not too good. Mostly just because there was no window inside, which made the room look smaller and possibly like a prison cell. But I quickly recovered, a window does not matter, this is just fine. Besides, I later saw there was a small glass pane thing at the top of the wall that looks into the hallway. Also, I had my own bathroom! Great! However, the shower has only cold water. Maybe I'll just wait til tomorrow then.

Nizida left me to unpack my stuff, and my positive outlook was further damaged when I saw quite a few ants on my bed, crawling on the covers and there were more underneath. My first thought was, did this room not get cleaned? Surely everything was prepared and cleaned. Then I just realised the ants must of come in in the time since Nizida left everything ready. So I exterminated them, and braced myself for more ant invasions to come in the next few months, aware that cockroaches and other beasts may be added to the mix.

I then went to eat at the dining table, Nizida had made some food, it was just rice and chicken though, nothing exotic like a rat. With a glass of wine, she kept me company to talk. She has had quite a lot of host students before, and she also said usually she does not make food at night cos she goes to sleep around 9/10 on weekdays and I will have classes at night. That was a bit worrying, I like to eat a lot and I am not sure what this night class stuff is about. I have noticed by now that Nizida definitely likes to talk a lot. She gave my key to the house as well, attached to a ‘little mermaid’ key ring. I eventually retreated to my room after saying goodnight to her and Dr Eduardo, who was sat outside on the front porch, charming his lady friend with a bottle of wine. Smooth operator.

I spent a few hours staying up, mostly talking with some of the other internationals especially the Mexicans, who all have their own places. It was definitely tempting to go out and meet them for a beer but it was much better to stay in for my first night. This orientation week was so awesome, I had so much fun with this group, and I look forward to a relaxed day tomorrow (I hope).

DAY 7 - SUNDAY

I woke up around 11ish, which was great. Strange to wake up without the sounds of Pepe snoring away. Today is our time to spend with our families before we start university tomorrow. Today was nice smart looking Oscar day (lock up your daughters!), so I wore one of my collared shirts and combed my hair to the side. By combed I mean gelled. 

The entrance to my new home.

Nizida took me out for a walk around Entre Rios. It was hot! Sunny and boiling. There are secured gates for coming into the neighbourhood (or 'ciudadela' as called here). I saw the main road where the local shops/cashpoints/restaurants/take-outs are. Entre Rios seems nice, relaxing and quiet. Well, quiet at times. There are a lot of dogs around barking a lot, and the main road is by the highway which is full of speeding beeping cars. But away from those, it is quiet enough. 

We went to the parque historico – historic park. I am not sure really why it is called that. The park starts off as a zoo, where they have parrots, monkeys, caimans etc. Then there is a massive square with a couple of mansions for people to go into (but they had nothing specifically interesting inside so not much point, would be cool to live in though) and there is a path to walk by the river which looked nice actually. I really should have taken some pictures, but I did not really think about it at the time.

Nizida

There were also a couple of stage areas where shows were performed. We saw two. One of them was a man and woman singing insults at each other, it was a men vs women thing but all in good humour. I did not actually understand the jokes and found nothing funny, but most of the audience was laughing. These singing folks definitely speak with a stronger accent than I have noticed so far here in Ecuador; we had been told the Guayaquil accent is stronger/harder to understand so I guess this is the accent. Obviously it does not apply to everyone, as I perfectly understand Nizida, Eduardo, and some random people Nizida talked to on the street. 

The second show I actually enjoyed more as I could understand it. It was a comedy play with some eccentric characters. I did not even have to understand it, one of the guys was hilarious as a macho man with an extremely high squeaky voice and a crippled way of walking, and he was very funny.

After that Nizida took me to the two shopping centres, which are out of Entre Rios but are extremely close to walk by. The biggest one is Riocentro, where the local cinema is. Then the smaller one is called Village, or Plaza Village. On the escalators, I saw Ashley with her host mum. I was really happy to see another international. I was missing their company today. Also soon after, I walked past new bro Esau and the two Mexican girls Nancy and Mayte. The three of them share a flat in Entre Rios, so it is only a matter of time before I head there for a few beers. I could not really talk long as I was with Nizida, so after introducing them to each other and earning a couple of frowns at my goody looking appearance, me and Nizida made our way back to the house.

I just chilled for a couple of hours. They have a back patio, where Nizida has her working station for the clothes. There is also a hammock. I’d be interested in watching some Ecuadorian tv, but I don’t really have access to one. The other bedrooms have big televisions, and there is a small one in the front room but the sofa next to it had loads of stuff on it. Anyway in the evening I met up with Colby, my fellow international. We went to the main road to have a drink with an Australian girl named Athanasia. We went into a bar/restaurant and as we ordered beers, we discovered no alcohol is served on Sundays, apparently anywhere. Why, God?! I can only imagine the horrific reactions the other international lads must have had. So we had some cokes.

The two girls mentioned a couple of incidents I had not heard about. During a gas station break on the bus ride to Guayaquil yesterday, some guy came onto their bus to take pictures of the two Korean girls apparently just because they're Asian and that supposedly amazes some folk here. Anyway he was shooed off the bus by the driver, who he himself apparently asked for a photo with the Korean girls at some point. Poor Koreans. Also during one of the nights in Quito, one of the Belgium girls was apparently being followed by some guy. She decided to take action like a turtle and got on the ground to roll into a ball, then stayed there. I feel sure I would never use this strategy if I ever had to escape from robbers. Luckily, the guy did not do anything as her friends came to the rescue and shooed him away. Also, Colby has hot water in her shower. I felt jealous until she said she does not have a fan in her room, which makes it even.

We saw a couple other internationals: Michelle was in an ice-cream place, being spoiled by her host family. There were quite a lot of them, they had just come back from church. I wonder if I will be required to go with my family at some point. Nizida asked me about my religion, I said I did not really have one, and the subject was never discussed again. Michelle told us she lives in Las Riberas, a neighbourhood on the other side of the motorway. This place is apparently for the very well off, and she has a swimming pool in her house. The three of us felt envious. We checked out a place called Bhundeo, where I ordered a take-away burger. Ecuador, full of new experiences. There, we saw a few of the French girls, who live in the accommodation houses at UEES. I never considered applying for that since it is only for females. They told us they have hot water there, as well as a Jacuzzi. Hey envy, get outta here!

We made our way home, take-away in hand. I have to be up at 7am tomorrow, for being at UEES at 8, so an early night would be a wise decision. But excitement has no time for sleeping! I stayed up chatting away with other internationals and went to bed far too late, ready to begin the new term. This week has possibly been the best of my life.