Differences between the US and Ecuador

Hey Everyone!
Nothing incredibly exciting happened this past week, mainly just recovering from the high from my previous weekend.  Last week, I didn't have a picture of the tubing, so here is what that looked like.

We were all tied together, so no one could get lost.  Since there were rocks all over the river, we had to wear helmets-not the leisurely float that we were expecting.  But tons of fun, and probably much more fun than a casual floating down the river anyways.

 I have now been working at the travel agency, South Expeditions, for about 3 1/2 weeks and am finally starting to feel comfortable there.  I have really been trying to increase the company's presence on social media, so please follow South Expeditions on Facebook, twitter, and instagram :)  I would really appreciate it and there are some awesome pictures of all parts of Ecuador!  The person that I am filling in for already went on maternity leave, about 2 weeks earlier than expected, so I was slightly forced to jump head first into this job and figure it out as I go.  Luckily, the people at this company are so nice and willing to help me with anything that I could possibly need.  One of the things that I am responsible for in addition to social media, is a promotion campaign for 2 new trips that are in December of this year.  The promotion material was already done, but the owner hated it, so he asked me to re-do it.  This was my first real assignment at this job, and I was so excited to actually do something important!  As y'all know, I have no experience in marketing, so I pretty much just winged it, and the owner thought it looked great- SUCCESS!  And of course I have to ask that if you know anyone wanting to come to Ecuador on a once-in-a-lifetime trip, then send them my way, and you can get the commission.

This coming week is another holiday week, their version of Labor Day, so it will be a 4 day work week.  Most people are leaving town, but since I have been gone so much lately, I decided I will stay in Quito to save some money and relax with Dakota.

One of the biggest differences between the US and Ecuador is the driving.  Ecuadoreans are incredibly nice people, and don't seem to have ANY sense of urgency.  However, when they are behind the wheel in a car, their personality does a complete 180.  I have never heard so many horns beeping in my life- they make New Yorkers seem calm.  It makes absolutely no sense, but they will start honking to horn before the light turns green.  What are they trying to accomplish??  A general rule here, is that there are no rules when you are on the road.  Road lanes and stop signs are merely suggestions.  And the cops do absolutely nothing if you run a stop sign.  These drivers also love to use their warning/caution lights.  It's almost as if you can do no wrong as long as you honk your horn or use your warning lights.  I have been in a cab before that literally backed up 2 blocks down the road with traffic coming.  I just had to close my eyes and pray that no one hit us.  The cops only direct traffic here, because the lights aren't good enough?  Sometimes, you will see a cop, with a whistle of course, directing traffic on a one-way street  where there isn't an intersection.  Maybe someone can explain this to me, but why would a cop need to direct traffic when there is only one way you can go?

Another one of my favorite things are the street performers.  Since tourist season is about to start, I have to admit that these street performers have really upped their game.  No longer is it good enough to just juggle.  Now, you have to juggle while standing on a tight-rope.

Yep, that is correct- they tight-rope across the lane of traffic during red lights.  I was lucky enough to see the set up of this the other day.  One side of the rope is already attached to the pole, and as soon as the light turns red, they run across the street and tie the rope to the other side, then hop on.  I must say, this is pretty impressive!  If I wasn't in a hurry to get to my class, I for sure would have given this guy some money- he deserved it!  The first time I saw this, it reminded me of Phil Dunphy tight-rope walking across the yard in Modern Family.

However, if tight-rope walking isn't your specialty, you can always juggle fire.  Another equally dangerous option.

The other category of street performers are the dancers.  I had the pleasure of stopping at a red light and seeing one of the best costumes- skeletons!  I couldn't get a picture but imagine 2 guys dressed up like this.

They weren't the most talented, but their costumes were the best that I have seen yet.  I guess you need an excellent costume if you lack talent.  Hopefully, they can have more practice before the big rush of tourists comes.

Hopefully, I will have some more exciting things to talk about for the next post, but thought y'all might be interested in the craziness that is Ecuador driving!

Having the Time of My Life!

Sorry for not giving y'all an update last week, but nothing too exciting happened and I was sick, so I decided not to write anything.  Lately, I have been busy working my 2 part-time jobs 5 days a week, so that doesn't leave much free time.  For anyone that is interested in teaching English, I must say that the past 2 weeks have been somewhat frustrating for me.  My morning class only has one student, so when she can't have class, there is no class and I don't get paid.  Well, recently, she has been very busy and we have only had 1 class a week, when we are supposed to have 4 classes per week.  My boss has sent out emails asking if we can teach certain classes but I am never able to because I am supposed to have my class from 7:30-9:30am.  So now I am not getting paid since my student keeps canceling, but I also can't pick up other classes because I am supposed to have my morning class.  Anyways, it has been frustrating, but hopefully that morning class will be done this week and I won't have to deal with this anymore.  In addition to work, I unfortunately was sick some of this week.  I ate a cheeseburger last Saturday night and was sick all day Sunday.  An Ecuadorean told me about a local remedy for sickness where they make oregano tea.  This did not sound appealing in any way, but I felt so bad that I figured it was worth a shot.  Much to my surprise, this actually helped me feel much better within about an hour- so if you are ever feeling sick, you should give this a try!  Since I was feeling better on Monday, I thought I could start eating normally again, and this turned out to be a huge mistake.  Monday night I woke up sick again, and this time I had to cancel my morning class.  Figures that the one day my student can actually make it to class, I have to cancel because I'm sick. But no worries, because I am feeling much better now- it only took about 4 days to get back to 100%.

Since I was feeling better, I decided last minute to join the weekend trip from the Spanish school to Mindo.  I went to Mindo with my family back in the beginning of February and loved it, so I thought why not go again?  After going a second time, I must say that I LOVE Mindo even more now!  There is so much to do in this tiny little town and it's only 2 hours away from Quito.  We stayed at this super cute hostel that is associated with my favorite place La Casa de Chocolate- it's almost as if God placed me there as a reward for surviving the sickness! Here is a picture of our room and the view.  And there was a river right outside our room, so you could hear that soothing sound all day/night long.

Once we got to the hostel, we ate lunch then went for a hike.  Our tour guide/teacher told us that it would be a 2 hour hike and we were going to see a waterfall.  I have been in Ecuador for about 2 1/2 months now, and I know Ecuadoreans aren't always the most trustworthy, and I learned this lesson again.  There is a common joke in Ecuador that says "How do you know when an Ecuadorean is lying? Because they're lips are moving".  After about an 1 1/2 hour hike uphill, I started to realize that this hike is probably going to be a lot longer than just 2 hours, and we weren't even at the trail to the waterfall yet.  It took about 2 hours just to reach the trail, but luckily, Mindo is at a lower altitude than Quito, so it didn't bother me walking uphill.  We were able to see some great views along the way.

Once we got to the trail, the real fun started.  Not long after starting this trail, we discovered a part where you could continue on the trail, or you could repel down the rocks.  At this moment, I have to say that Ecuador Kim is much more adventurous than America Kim, so I decided to try the repelling.  I was the first to go after our guide and I haven't ever repelled before so it was a little bit of a challenge for me.  And my legs are kinda short, so there were times where I physically couldn't reach anyplace to put my feet.  It was a struggle to say the least-and being in Ecuador, of course, there was no harness or anything like that, just a rope

After successfully making it down, we moved on and found a tarzan swing.  This is so basic, but so much fun.  I took a couple turns on this swing and had people push me so I could go further.

It might have been an incredibly long hike, but it was so great because there were surprises everywhere you turned.  These little obstacles made the hike much more fun and interesting than your basic walking through the forest.  After what seemed like 10 hours of walking, we finally reached our destination of the waterfall.  We all wore bathing suits because you could go in the river.  There were multiple options: jumping off a cliff, going down the slide, standing in the pool beside the river, or be boring and not get in the water at all.  The cliff was probably 35 feet high and I know I said I am adventurous, but I'm not that adventurous, so I took the slide.  I was so excited until I looked and saw that the slide ends about 12-15 feet above the water.  Looks like I was going to be free falling into the river after all.  The slide was fun but man that water was COLD and the current was strong.  Since the current is strong, there was a guy working at the waterfall to help you get out, thank goodness!

When we were finished playing in the water, it was time to hike back up to the road...obviously stopping to play on the swing again.  Then, it was time to start the trek back into town.  Some took a taxi, but my friend Betsy and I decided to walk.  Now, I was starving at this point, so I was walking as fast as I could.  Betsy and I thought "ok, it took almost 2 hours to walk up here and we had to stop to wait for the rest of the group a few times, and now its all downhill so it should take about 45 mins, right"  WRONG!  It seemed like this walk was somehow longer than the walk up.  Once we finally made it back to the hostel, we found out that we had hiked a total of 15 km!  With this knowledge, we quickly decided that we could now eat whatever we wanted for the rest of the day, and enjoy the delicious brownies at La Casa de Chocolate.    For the rest of the night, we just ate dinner and then went out for a little bit, but we were all exhausted so it wasn't an extremely late night.

Sunday, we had breakfast, then walked to the zip-lining place.  Even though we walked to almost Peru the day before, we decided to walk to the zip-line because it was only about half the distance.  This was a different zip-line than the one I did with my family a few months ago, and it was just as good. The guides let us do some more adventurous stuff than your basic position of being a cannonball.  On about the 3rd line, they said we could go upside down if we wanted to- yikes.  Of course I am a natural born leader, so I was usually the first to go and I couldn't let anyone in the group show me up, so I went upside down.  This was scary but amazing at the same time.  It's a completely different view and unique experience.

Once you go upside down, going back to the basic position is so boring, so the guides tried to keep us on our toes.  The next line, we weren't allowed to go upside down, so they let us go without holding on, which pretty much just made you spin.  Finally after asking many times, the guides let us go upside down again.  Betsy and I also went down in superman position, but you had to go with a guide.  This was a little awkward, but you feel like you are flying so it was pretty cool.

On one of my favorite lines, the guide asked me "strong or weak?"  I had no idea why he asked that but of course I responded "strong".  And remember, I always go first, so I didn't know what was going to happen.  All of the sudden I take off and the guides start bouncing the line from both ends- and I'm flying up and down.  I could not stop giggling and laughing.  I was loving that!  This was definitely worth the $20!

After zip-lining, it was time for tubing.  We all thought that it would be a leisurely float down the river. Once again we were wrong- that seemed to be the theme of the trip.  There were about 8 inner-tubes tied together and we had a guide go with us.  Basically, this was taking an inner-tube down mildish rapids.  Not relaxing but of course tons of fun.  Some people were a little terrified, but Betsy and I were laughing non-stop.  The current was very strong due to the rain the night before, and there were rocks all over the river, so we were bouncing all over the place.

This was such an adventurous weekend, which I absolutely loved.  I definitely recommend going to Mindo if you are ever in Ecuador, and I know I will go back many times before my time is up here.  It's a shame I have to go back to work, but I gotta work so I can enjoy more adventures like this past one!

Jungle Adventures

This past week has been a great week for me!  Through a friend at the Spanish school, I found another part-time job working at a travel agency called South Expeditions.  There is a lady who works in the office doing marketing and planning that is about to go on maternity leave, so they needed someone to replace her for a few months.  Since most of their clients are based in the US, they wanted someone with good English skills, which was great for me!  The company specializes in adventure tours and all of the tours are customized based off of what the clients want, and let me tell you these are not cheap tours.  I started the job on Wednesday, and was talking to the person that I will be replacing and one of the tour guides about their tours in the Galapagos.  Since I will be responsible for marketing these tours, they want their employees to experience the tours first-hand, so I'm hoping that I will be able to join one of the Galapagos tours.  

The beginning of the week was once again very rainy.  However, on Tuesday, I experienced my first actual storm in Ecuador- and this was finally a real storm.  Luckily, I was inside my apartment but the sky lit up like fireworks accompanied by thunder so loud that it shook the apartment.  Someone posted this picture on facebook from the storm.

With this week being a holiday week, I didn't have classes on Thursday and Friday.  So we left Friday morning for Misahualli in the jungle.  I was very excited about going to the jungle but also very nervous because I didn't know if there would be a lot of snakes and other animals around.  Thank goodness, this part of the jungle doesn't have a lot of snakes, but they do have tons of monkeys.  The town is located where Rio Misahualli and Rio Napo join, so there was a little beach area to swim in.  The monkeys are very smart and realize that this is where the tourists are, so they love to show off and steal cameras, sunglasses, or anything they can get their little hands on.  

It took about 4 hours to get there, so we arrived in time for lunch.  After checking into the hostal and eating, we went down to the river and decided to take a boat out for a ride down the river.  The boats that they use are very similar to gondolas that you would find in Venice, not in the amazon of Ecuador. Our driver took us to an indigenous village and then back to the town.  I was amazed by how beautiful the jungle was, and how green and luscious the vegetation is. 

This place truly looks like a pre-programmed computer background, not reality.  One thing about the jungle is that it is extremely humid- I felt like I was in Georgia during July.  And remember places in Ecuador don't usually have A/C or heat, so the only thing that can cool you down is the breeze, which was a warm.  Of course we used the heat and humidity as an excuse to drink cold beer and eat ice cream constantly.  At night on Friday, we decided to go on "The Worm."  This is a kiddy ride that is like a train that takes you around for 15 minutes but only costs $1.50 (even for the Gringos!).  We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.  The Worm would chase it's tail and drive in circles- and spinning is always my favorite part of any ride, so I was LOVING this.  After chasing it's tail, The Worm drove down the road swerving, which was even more fun, and then it chased its tail some more. Apparently, in true Ecuador fashion, The Worm can also be used as a taxi so we had to drop some people off at their home during our ride.  We decided to get off of The Worm at this restaurant on the other side of the river to have a drink.  

When we woke up Saturday morning, no one in the hostal had water.  There was no telling when the water was going to come back on, so we spent the majority of the morning finding another hostal to stay at.  We ended up finding a great hostal that was off the main square and only $15/night with breakfast included and not only did they have water, but they had hot water!  Hostal El Pasiano was so cute and had a nice jungly garden surrounding it, so it felt very secluded.

 Once the hostal situation got figured out, I was very antsy to get our day started.  I didn't care what we did, but I just wanted to experience the jungle.  We found a guy that gave customized tours, so we decided to do a tour with him for a few hours.  The tour consisted of a 30 minute boat ride, hour long walk through the jungle, then about 45 minute tubing/floating down the river, and then a boat ride back to the town.  The walk through the jungle was amazing and very muddy.  Luckily, we were given boots to wear through the mud.  However, there were times that we stepped in mud almost to the top of our boots, but what is a jungle tour without some mud right?  We saw tons of different types of trees, spiders, ants and gorgeous vegetation.  There was even a vine/branch that you could swing on.  Only 2 of us tried this because it required a lot of upper body strength, so I just went for one swing or I would have fallen in the mud.

As soon as our walk through the jungle was over, we were incredibly hot and it was time to tube down the river.  The current was pretty fast, so we floated a good ways down the river.  This was so relaxing and it was a perfect day outside.  I could have stayed on that tube for hours.

Once we got back to Misahualli, a few of us decided to swim in the river, but the current felt like it had the strength of rapids.  I decided that I didn't want to work that hard for a relaxing river swim, so I sat on a big rock that was in the river.  I'm sure we looked like those stupid gringos that tried to swim directly to the rock instead of starting upstream and letting the current take us there-oops.  

For dinner, we decided to go back across the river to this restaurant that is in the middle of a garden and very serene and peaceful.  Of course, after dinner we all wanted to ride The Worm again- I felt like such a kid and think we had more fun than any of the kids.

Sunday morning, we had breakfast and relaxed at the hostal before coming back to Quito.  I was exhausted after our weekend, so we didn't do much after returning home.  This week will be a very busy week for me with work because I still have my morning and afternoon classes and also my job at the travel agency- looks like I will be drinking lots of coffee!

Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend!  Until next time...