Pictures from Cajas National Park!

I really liked our 3 hour hike here, though pretty intense because it had just rained and we had to climb up the hills which was pretty diff...but jawsome.

One of these pics is of a forrest and it´s the highest one in the world, i am not joking people!

Also its freeezin there.

Chao!

oh also, if anyone has skype let me know because its hella cheap and i want to hear your voices!

now i can´t sing george of the jungle, in the jungle.

Hello all,

I realize that it has been awhile since I´ve updated and I apoligize. Finals were last week...booo! (we´re on quarters)

Anyway. I was supposed to go to the jungle this weekend but guess what? No, wait...you won´t believe me...ok fine I´ll tell you. I got sick and couldn´t go, crap! Well it´s not all bad, I get to chill out in Cuenca with no homework or volunteering for a few days (i am better now). Plus I made a few new friends and will probably hang with my brosif and cousin, so it´s all good!

Wish me luck, I am cooking for my family tonight. It´s going to be pretty rediculous because the only thing I know how to make is pico de gallo and tostadas (mexican food!!). It´s ok because here all they eat is rice, potatoes, soup and bread. So, for me at least it will be a WELCOME change. Oh and cookies, gotta make those!!

Anyhoo, as always, thanks for readin!

Adios Amigos!!

CUTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Omg, i just got a present from one of the orfans this morning, awwww cute!!!

yah no. PINK EYE. no one wants to be my friend anymore...sucks.

i am a survivor.

:)

Hard-Core Cuenca-Action

So I finally had a free weekend!! It was jawsome. First, I went to the mall with my amigas and we ate pizza and salad and ice cream but I couldnt have any because I am lactose intolerant now...? so I had a chocolate covered banana and felt weird about it. Then we had dance class, which I always LOVE because I am sooo graceful, I am getting better though gracias a dios. Anyhoo, after class we all went home and got ready to go to a sleepover at Anas house, who is Cuencana but lives and goes to college in Texas, so in Cuenca she lives with her grandparents instead of living with a host family. And we drank some vino and then went to the store and bought 7 40s of good beer for $7, this is the life! I was pretty chuchaki the next day (we all were) so we decided to go to a hot spring like 20 mins away and spent the rest of the day there. I am also pretty sure I met a Norweign drug lord who lives in Colombia and is visiting Cuenca; its best not to ask questions, CHENDO!

On Sunday, my family and I went to my dads cousins house which is pretty old school and HUGE, theres like 10 bedrooms. Its really hard to describe so I am putting some pics up of my family and this dude cousin, Julio, I wish we had a schoolyard to take a pic in front of...oh I also forgot, my mom and I went to church in the morning which is aways a trip, but that day in particular they sang a spanish version of [the sound of silence] I am almost positive. hmmm...I have to give an essay to the nuns at the orphanage next week saying what they might improve on and what I learned, basically I am going to try and not go to hell by dissin they bizzz.

This weekend we are going hiking in a national park which is close to here. Some people are staying the night but the fear of death in higher elevation is somewhat ominous for me, so I opted out. Also finals are next week! YIKES.

Pues, chao amigos!!

Notes about pics:
*Fam shot-left to right, Alvaro (bro), Olgita (mom), Wilson (dad), Julio (2nd cuz?), Moi, Sister in Law (forgot her name), Niece (also forgot her name), I dont see my family much...
*Painting and house shot=hacienda house thing of my cousin
*Incan ruin outside of a museum in Cuenca I went to today
*My city!!...Cuenca!
*Llama poop
*Llama
*bird house by the ruins

Dwight Churute

Our guide/the fruit inside the chocolate plant, doesn´t it look creepy!??
Chocolate Beans!

Church across the street from the Orf

Birds in the Orf

The Orfanage Park near the Orf

Hahaha, I am hilarious. Well, no one else thinks I am because I made this joke about 57 times on our trip this weekend. We went to this reserve called Churute-Manglares close to the coast and I kept calling it Dwight Churute, no big deal if you don´t get it, you are just not cool enough apparently! Chendo! (kidding...) But it was pretty great to get out of ¨freezing asthma attack¨for a weekend. (That is Cuenca´s nickname here with the locals, I was weirded out with what a coincidence it was with my life, heh)

But seriously, we went to a cacao farm which is basically a bunch of chocolate trees, well not really, but thats what chocolate comes from. I took some pictures later that day on our hike and we saw monkeys as well as killer snakes. Ok fine, we never saw them but I swear they exist because we had two guides and one had to bring up the front, and the other the rear for that reason. Unfortunately my camera is a piece and ran out of batteries the first day of the three day trip, crap!

So it was basically like summer camp for two days, even though I never wet because I was too cool of a child. We stayed in a bunk house on this families´ land which was sweet. The next day we got up at the ass crack of dawn and went on a canoe ride which was scary as H. We went on this parana filled river on a canoe that fit 11 people but was as wide as our canoe at home. Also there was like three inches between the top of the canoe and the water and as soon as we docked we found out that it had a leak, woohoo! So we drove an hour to Guayaquil which I love, even though it was sweatty, I didn´t even care--because I could breathe! It was cool to see the difference between the people who live in the mountains compared to the coast. I don´t know if I´d mentioned this or not but I am taller than 75% of the population in Cuenca and that is no lie. Thank goodness because I was starting to freak out until we went to the coast and I felt short again, whew!

Hmm, what else? Oh I put some pictures of the Orf up. It´s really nice, well Ecuadorian-style. And I also found out that it is more for parents to put there kids in if they can´t afford to take care of them, so most all of them have families, but they live there. Teaching is going great, the girls finally understand me and I think they´re learning...??

So...anyway, I am majorly procrastinating typing up a paper for tomorrow and I should probably get going. Thanks for the emails everyone, keem em comin´.

Tengan una linda noche todos!!