Mural Pictures!

the start.

Finished...ish. :).

Craters, volcanos, lakes, waterfalls and more.

It´s hard to breathe at 12,000 feet, especially after three bus trips, the last was standing and white-knuckled as the bus screeched around hairpin turns and the chicks in the brown paper bag scratched and clucked away in similar anticipation to my own. The roads are wet, as everything has been and erosion here is a big big problem. At one point in the trek all passengers had to get out of the bus because it was sliding down the mountain road under its weight. We walked down a couple of switchbacks before boarding the bus again.

Laguna de Quilotoa is an enormous opaque turquiose puddle spanning the bottom of a crater high up in the Andes. The small town adjacent to the lake is full of green felt fedora wearing indeginous folk. Bright red sweaters and wool pashminas add color to the richly green mountain sides that sit cold and quiet with fog that sweeps in an out in a matter of minutes. Climbing around the interior of the crater was thrilling- the cliffs drop straight down and the mudslides are recent and very real. There is a lot of littering here and garbage is burned daily, which dyes the edges of this stunning place with a strange smell and a reminder that people are constantly subject to the environment rather than in control of it.

Met some friends here. Shared stories straddling the equator line, cartwheels over it, hand stands, staying at the Secret Garden in Quito and eating huge communal dinners with travelers from all over the world. It´s pretty much a big party on the Gringo Trail: cheap, thrills, quick friends in the midst of everyone trying to find something that means something. Or something that moves them.

Michelle, Alicia, Liz and myself are stuck in Baños cause it´s too damn fun here. The volcano is smoking, but hard to see on most days as the clouds come in and sit right on top of it by 10am every day. There are thermal baths, hiking, pub crawls and oh yeah, Carnival. Last night was the official evening- huge parades: bands, dance troups, clowns, cross dressers, devils and then the crowd that turned into a huge water fight with squirt guns and silly string. Dios Mios, the silly string. Pretty much everyone is your enemy and they try to squirt foam straight into you face. Totally awesome and fun until some of that nasty soapy stuff went straight into my eye and then I got pegged with an egg. Gross. It´s okay though, I chased the guy down and screamed at him in my fluent Español. He told me it´s how all the guys flirt around here. Yeah. Totally ready to date that guy now after the romantic gesture of raw egg in my hair. Michelle and I hit the strip, bathed in the bano sink and danced salsa the rest of the night.

El Muro (The Wall)

Michelle and I finished! That´s right , 630 some square feet of concrete. So, I think this is my first real mural and it felt good, better yet, it felt right. We were given instructions to paint images of the surrounding areas: Maquipacuna and Santa Lucia (nearby eco - reserves), Nanegal´s waterfall ¨La Piragua,¨ an Incan archeological site, and a reference of the Colibris or womans jewlery making group.

We spent a couple of days scraping and prepping the wall, walking and hour and a half into town to buy paint and then we went at it. Waking up at 6:15 daily to get as many hours in as possible before the rain started again, we finished it up in about two weeks. Biggest obstacles: 1) La Uvia, the rain was the topic of every conversation. 2) The freakin kids! Who knew I would be one to discourage kids from painting, but my god! Initially, we tried to bring em in to help, until ten minutes later they had put paint in their hair, rubbed themselves all over the wall and forced us to take them into the school yard to hose them down. Fortunately, due to the rain we weren´t using waterbased paint. Unfortunately, for the kids and our own skin, we weren´t using waterbased paint. See Mural Pictures! for more...

Rain and Rivers of it.

It´s been raining sinceI got here. However, on an optimistic note, this morning rocked. Riveted awake by some fairly strange dreams I started early to hammock and journal until the aroma of breakfast called me downstairs of the hostel Rocio in Mindo, Ecuador. Awww man, blessed with the fruit of elsewhere- fresh mangos, pineapple, papaya and bananas adorned the table followed by scrambled eggs and pan. Coffee is different here. I went a WEEK without it entirely trying to maintain my pride and not drink the instant stuff. I´m not that addicted and there are certainly other lovely, new things to sip on.

The clouds lifted (slightly) and Michelle and I jumped at the opportunity to do, oh yes, an outdoor activity. Tubing!!! The river is high and fast right now, so I actually hestitated for a moment when our 13 year old guide pulled out a ¨raft ¨like thing which consisted of six thick, patched tubes roped together, handed life jackets and helmets our way and told us (in Spanish) to hop on and be careful to balance out the boat with our weight. My hestitation was more like a pause to stop and ask for a tighter helmet for my tiny head. Yeah, I guess I wanted this thing to fit well. The water was freezing, muy rapido, and there were trees and branches arching over the water´s surface. I yelled the whole time. It was great.

I´m happy to be writing this first blog today as the past week has been a challenging one. Arriving in Quito was quite a shock to my system, in so many ways I´m sure you can imagine. The language barrier was the biggest shocker, but I think I´m up to speed in tourist talk (¿donde el baño? Puedemos a comprar una tarjeta de telefono aqui? ¡Ayuteme! ¿Serpentes estan peligrosos? etc...). I´m taking Spanish classes with a local middle school professor. He doesn´t speak English and I spout out a single word accompanied by erratic arm gestures. I recently have come to the conclusion that I am not so good at pantomime. Aww so time will tell.

Tomorrow , Michelle and I will head back to Las Marianitas to work on our 90´by 7´mural... our volunteer work. I couldn´t ask for anything better. Oh wait, yes I could, and it would be to do the mural and have it NOT rain.

Living in Mariantis thus far has been interesing. There is one other volunteer in a nearby town and a woman with the Peace Corp. living across the futbol field frome me. There is a womans´ cooperative that has diminshed in membership from 20 to 4 women. Michelle and I helped with the jewelry making for a few hours but there isn´t an export business set up. They usually make money from volunteers (like myself) or the occasional school group that passes through on their way to the Eco reserve up the road, Maquipacuna. Also, the organic garden affiliated with the group is a sad sight. Aside from some healthy rows of lettuce and radishs, yucca (a root like potatoes) and platanos (bananas and plantains to us) there is little growing. The town is chock full of little kids with no shoes, runny noses and a gazillion stray dogs. I´ve only been there a week and with everything so new and different I´m not sure how to interpret much and feel no rush to try and do so.