20 - Border Crossing, Ipiales, Cali

I woke up early on Tuesday, December 21 and took a 6 hour bus ride from Quito to Tulcan, Ecuador. At the immigration office I met another gringa from the states who was also on her way to Colombia. Together we walked across a bridge crossing the border from Ecuador into Ipiales, Colombia. There we had to wait in line for over an hour to get our passports stamped for Colombia.


My bible, Lonely Planet, told me about a really cool church in Ipiales that was built over a canyon. I shared a cab with my new friend Sally, and together we visited this incredible Church. It was really an amazing site to see.



Next we had our cab drive us to terminal terrestre and together we took an overnight bus to Cali. Before getting on the bus we walked through a group of young boys who were on their way home after winning a big futbol tournament. They were really excited to meet us and kept asking if we had ever met any celebrities and how to say different things in English. It was a lot of fun talking with them for a bit. They were so funny.
The 10 hour bus ride to Cali was fairly uneventful until about 4 in the morning when our bus was stopped by the police for a drug search. All the men had to get off the bus and get patted down. The police went on to search every single bag and all over the bus for drugs. They didn't find anything, so after the 45 minute delay we were back on our way. We arrived in Cali around 5:00 AM this morning. It was still dark, so we stayed in the bus station and had a snack and tea while we waited for the sun to come up. At the bus station we met Alistair from London. Sally had to continue on her way up north, but Ali and I spent the day together exploring. In other words, I drove up to Cali with Sally and then spent the day with Ali.

Ali and I walked all around the city checking out the sites. There's a river that cuts right through Cali and all along the river there were tons of Christmas decorations. The entire area alongside the river was filled with these dancing people, musical notes hanging from trees, fake waves going across the river... the list goes on. There were so many decorations, and by day it seemed a bit excessive.


However, at night when they were all lit up, it was really beautiful, and one of the most impressive city productions I have ever seen.



This lit up boat was on cables and moved back and forth across the river. Beautiful.

Here's a picture of one of the churches lit up at night.

Ali and I also walked to the Cali Zoo, which is the largest zoo in Colombia. It was a lot of fun to see all the animals, and we had a great time taking fun pictures.






This is a picture of me and Ali in front of the Aquarium part of the zoo.

The next day another backpacker who was also staying in my hostel invited me to join him and his friends to go hiking up one of the small mountains that surrounded Cali.


The hike was a lot more intense than I expected and the blazing sun didn't make it any easier.


We discovered an awesome cave and went exploring. We kept going deeper and deeper into the cave until it was so dark I had to use the flash on my camera to see where to go. We were excited to see where the cave would lead us (I was hoping for buried treasure), but unfortunately the end was nothing exciting. The cave just stopped. I guess whoever dug it out got bored.



At the top of the mountain were three giant crosses (like 60 ft) and an incredible view of the city of Cali.
The hike was tough, but well worth the effort. I was exhausted, which was a good thing because that night I took an overnight bus to Bogotá and I was able to sleep the entire way. The guy next to me had to shake me awake when we arrived.

19 - Goodbye Guayaquil

Wednesday, December 16th I packed my bags and took a 9 hour bus from Guayaquil up to Quito. I've stopped in Quito for a few days to visit my Quito family and BU study abroad students, but I am en route to Bogota, Colombia to meet Mama Cermak for the holidays.

Although I'm very excited to see my Mama I will really miss Guayaquil. I made such great friends and I have so many wonderful memories.



Here I am with my two best Guayaquilena amigas, Karina and Sofia. I spent many a nights partying, dancing, and laughing with these lovely girls. I'm going to miss them soooo much.



This is me and Greta Mino at an orchid farm. Greta was my mom away from my mom. Thank you Greta for everything!

I loved my time in Guayaquil, and I was really sad to leave. I hope my next adventures will be just as incredible as Ecuador.

18 - My Work in Hospital Del Niño

Over the past two and a half months I've been going about 4 or 5 days a week to Hospital Del Niño to volunteer. I worked in the same department as Dra Greta Miño, the lovely woman that I was living with in Guayaquil. We worked in infectologa pediatrica, which has patients with diseases such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.
I'm obviously no doctor, so I wasn't doing any medicine, but everyday I would go to the different rooms and talk to the kids and their families. I left crayons and paper with the kids that weren't healthy enough to leave their rooms, and I brought the kids that were healthy enough to the "playroom". By playroom I really mean an empty room with some tables and chairs and a few toys. At least that's how it was when I first got there.



I started out everyday doing art projects with the kids. We painted and drew pictures, we made Christmas decorations, we played with clay, and we made flowers out of tissue paper. Once the kids got bored with the art projects we played games. I brought some fun toys from the states, and I also bought some games while I was there. The older kids loved playing Connect Four. One boy, Jorge, liked it so much and played so often that by the end he was beating me!




I can't put most of my pictures of the kids on the internet, but I do have lots of great photos and a video that I'm excited to show you when I get home. In the meantime these pictures of the kids' artwork will have to be enough to demonstrate all the fun we had together.









I also painted a mural.

If you go back up you can see what this wall looked like before.

My work in the hospital was a really great experience. I loved playing, talking, and laughing with the kids. It was an inspiration to see such big smiles from kids that are living such hard lives.

To Irene, Nicole, Anahi, Victor, Oliver, Jorge, Debra, Carlos, Gabriel, Kevin, Daveana, Sebastian, David, Sara, Marlon, Erica, Melanie, and all the other children who brightened my days, thank you.

Thank you also to Greta and Hospital Del Nino for giving me this wonderful opportunity. I know I gained more than I could ever repay.

17 - Riobamba and Cuenca

I arrived in Riobamba on November 17 after a 5-hour bus ride from Guayaquil. The drive from Guayaquil was incredible. Almost the entire trip was through the Ande mountains. We passed lots of small indigenous villages, herds of cattle and sheep, banana plantations, and the scenery was beautiful the whole time.
I wasn’t planning on staying in Riobamba long… just until the next day when I would take a train to another town. However, when I went to buy my train ticket they were all sold out and the next train wasn’t till Friday. I could have been upset or frustrated by the fact that I was “stuck” in this city for two more days than I had planned, but instead I made the best of the situation, and I enjoyed every minute of my time in Riobamba.

Riobamba is at 2750m. Something about the altitude got my lungs all mucus-y and I ended up with no voice for the first night. Legit couldn’t talk. I had to order tea by writing it on some paper. Luckily I met a really nice Colombian named Ricardo who told me the secret to getting my voice back. He told me to go to the market in the morning and buy 25 cents worth of ginger and a lime. Then make some tea with crushed ginger and some lime juice. I’m all about home remedies, so the next morning I headed to the market. Here’s what I saw:






Dozens of chickies.



I loved the market. There was so much to see. There was a huge fruit section with fruits of so many colors and shapes and sizes, and there was a spices section with lots of different smells, and a grain section with potato sacks filled with all types of rice, and of course there was a meat section with pig legs stacked on top of one another, giant slabs of meat hanging by hooks, entire pigs cooking on stoves, and hundreds of skinned chickens. Although I only recently turned carnivore I didn’t flinch at all at the sight of all the meat. Not even when one of the vendor ladies pointed out the entire cow head, eyes and all. The market also had clothing, jewelry, and other nick nacks. I don’t think visiting markets will ever get old.
I bought my ginger and lime and left to find a café.
At the café I got some hot water, prepared my tea, and by the time my mug was empty my voice was back. Woohoo!


I spent the rest of the day exploring Riobamba, checking out the plazas and churches, and all the other scenes. At night I went to a tourism agency and booked my activity for the next day: A biking tour of Volcán Chimborazo.

Volcán Chimborazo is the highest mountain in Ecuador, and it’s peak (6310m), due to the earth’s equatorial bulge, is also the furthest point from the center of the earth. Don’t forget that for Monday night trivia (Ila).
Going to Chimborazo was one of my favorite days so far in Ecuador. We drove up the volcano to the first refuge, then I hiked up to the second refuge (5000+m), built a snowman, hiked back down to the first refuge, and from there I hopped on my two wheeler and mountain-biked the rest of the way down. The trip can’t be described with words, so instead I put together a short video. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq42H6oxoPA
(If you have problems viewing the video try copying and pasting the link)

So as you can see this driving/hiking/biking adventure was pretty much made for me. The adrenalin pumping high speed biking volcano descent was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done in my life.

Friday morning I woke up at 5:30 AM to get to the train station and get to the famous Nariz Del Diablo train (nose of the devil). The train has this name because part of the track goes along a really steep section of Andean slope and part of this slope has the face of the devil. In order to get up and down this section of the mountain a series of switchbacks was carved into the rock and the train goes forwards and backwards to ascend the nearly 1000m. Many lives were lost in the construction of this section of track, but not in vain because the completion and first ascent of the Nariz Del Diablo in 1902 was the most incredible feat of railway engineering the world had ever seen (Lonely Planet).
Once again words can’t explain the experience, so I put together another video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HXFrdd1ZoQ

On the train I met Graham from Ireland. He’s another backpacker and he’s been trekking south from Canada (!) since August. I hung out with Graham for lunch and we took a bus together to Cuenca. Graham was a very adventurous sort and he liked trying everything - especially local food. So of course when we got to Cuenca he wanted to try the traditional cuy (pronounced like “we” but with a q). We asked at our hostel where we could find it, and off we went in search of the delicacy. We walked and walked and walked to the outskirts of town until we finally found a small outdoor restaurant with a giant pig cooking over a fire and three cuy on skewers.


I don’t think I would have tried it on my own, but I couldn’t let Graham down, so we ordered up, and I enjoyed my first cuy. It was actually a lot better than I expected. I don’t know my meats too well but Graham told me it tasted like a mix between chicken and pork. Either way it was good.


p.s. To us gringos cuy is also known as guinea pig. Bethany had a guinea pig when we were little. Good thing for Bethany I didn’t know how good it would taste. Teeheehee.

The next day Graham and I explored Cuenca. We walked up and down the narrow cobble streets and admired all the beautiful churches and plazas. I think Cuenca is by far the most beautiful city in Ecuador.






We also stopped in a Panama hat store. Don´t let the name fool you... These sombreros are 100% hand-made in Ecuador.



The hats range in price and quality based on the thickness of the straw used to make them. I asked to see the most expensive hat, so the store owner took us upstairs to an office with a locked cabinet. She unlocked the cabinet and took out a $600 Panama hat! Apparently it took an entire year to make. Yowza. The straw is so fine and the quality is so good you can roll the hat up small enough to put it through a wedding ring and when you unroll it it maintains the exact same shape. I took a picture with it, but those few seconds will be the only time I have a hat that expensive on my head.


Later in the afternoon I took a bus back home to Guayaquil. What an awesome trip!