Lazy Sundays

Hi!

Well, I am living in a country with a new constitution! The sí vote won by a lot. I live next to one of the voting sites, and Sunday was a zoo. Picture a 4-lane road entirely filled with a steady stream of people all day, people mobbing the voting booths with no apparent structure or order, while vendors take advantage of the situation and sell everything under the sun. My favorite was the man selling whole cooked pigs, face and all. Appetizing. Second place goes to the man who tried to convince me that I needed 3 TV remotes for 50 cents.

I climbed volcanoes this weekend! My Volcanology class went to Papallacta, an active volcano that produces natural hot springs. So, we all popped on our bathing suits and swam! It was like a hot tub, pretty cool. My professor also delights in making us get ridiculously dirty, so we also went on a jungle trek through heaps of mud. I also dunked myself fully clothed in a freezing Ecuadorian waterfall, with my professor egging me on!

Anyways, a verbal tour of Sunday in Quito:

Sunday is my favorite here because the city transforms into relaxation mode. They shut down one of the main streets so everyone can bike/run/walk down it. There’s vendedores on every corner selling everything: soccer balls, socks, snow cones, pirated movies, tickets to Bolivia, cow hoof soup (all of which I have seen).

Also, the best painters from all over come to sell their work at the huge Artisan’s market. It’s incredible, rows and rows of incredible paintings, and you can talk directly with the painters, lots of awesome stories.

Everyone also goes to Parque Carolina, the huge park that I run through. It’s really cool: there’s always a dozen soccer games going on of all levels, basketball too, free aerobics classes with legions of participants, and a beautiful loop for runners. There’s also a circus-like section of the park, a dirt bike course, a reptile house, a paddleboat loop, a dinosaur museum, a skate park – needless to say, it’s a blast to see what’s going on. The whole park is framed by the city and the mountains. Have I mentioned the mountains are spectacular? They’re absolutely spectacular. Words don’t do justice.

There’s also usually music too, but probably not what you think. Usually, someone is playing a pipe-like instrument, but he’s usually playing movie theme songs from the U.S., lol. I swear, if I had a penny every time I heard Titanic or Shindler’s List on pipes....

My other favorite thing to do on Sundays is to pick out a new Panaderia to try. Bread (pan) is SO cheap here: you can get anything for less than 40 cents. There’s dozens of Panaderias all over and every one is just a little bit different. Today I had some sort of hard orangish bread dipped in chocolate, last week I had yuca bread, always fun.

Although the city is huge, it’s really easy to pop around the city in buses: 25 cents gets you almost anywhere you want to go in town. It’s how we measure money now too (“3 dollars for a meal?! That’s 12 bus rides!”.)

Now that I found my camera charger I’m going to make a picture tour of Quito! Next weekend, we’re climbing Cotopaxi, the big volcano! Anyone want to explain why the U.S. is collapsing while I’m gone, geez (it’s all the news talks about here)!

Nos vemos, Lis