escuela minga, quilotoa, mama negra, and futbol!

the past week and a half has been full, full, full!!  we spent a week teaching at a school in a small pueblo called malingua pampa.  the school, escuela la minga, was started by a woman from colorado about thirteen years ago and though she is living back in the states now she remains very involved and has the reputation of a demi-god in the area.  you can read the story of the school here:  www.escuelaminga.org

unfortunately we were sick for the first part of the week.  we arrived a couple days before todd, who returned from his brother's wedding in the states without a hitch (yay!), but we had little to report because we'd all just been in bed the whole time!

poor sick kids!

so it ended up being a recovery week for our traveling family and truly it was a great spot to be sick.  we stayed with the family of elvia and paulino who have four boys including a two month old baby!

elvia cooked three ample meals a day for us (usually with the baby on her back!.....the women are so so hard-working!) so we had the luxury of resting!

todd and i mostly taught english classes everyday.  this freed up the english teacher, who also happens to be the school director, time to get some much needed administrative work done.

lucy and riley, once they were feeling better, went to class as students.  this was a great experience for them as they got to see first-hand how poor the education is for kids in rural areas of many countries.  for example in their math class the teacher came in, wrote a bunch of stuff on the board, told the class to copy it and then left the classroom. that was the whole math class!  and randomly they also had a marching class, which they were thrilled to participate in...hear the sarcasm there :)

lucy with some of her classmates

as usual it is the faces of the kids that mark our hearts......

our illnesses put a little damper on our week at escuela la minga, but all and all we had a great visit!



there is a hiking trail called the quilotoa loop that is very popular with backpackers. it is a 3-5 day hike that goes from village to village.  the quilotoa area (which is where the school was) is quite beautiful with mountains that look like patchwork quilts.

since the school we taught at was only a few miles away from one of the stops on the loop and we were able to take little hikes after school every day, we didn't feel the need to hike the loop.  however i didn't want to miss the famous quilotoa lake which is at the end the hiking loop, so after our few days in latacunga we took a bus out to the lake and stayed for the night.  i am so glad we made the effort as this is a stunning volcano-crater lake which the local people believe has no bottom!

from the crater rim we hiked down to the lake where we rented kayaks to paddle around.....we were again at elevation (11,500ft) so the hike back up left us breathless!

the peaks of mountains just beyond the crater were visible at sunset...

after we finished classes at the school on friday afternoon we caught a ride back to the city of latacunga.  our timing was super lucky once again as this weekend coincided with latacunga's big festival called mama negra.   the story of the festival is that the virgen de merced saved the town of latacunga from the volcano cotopaxi.  since that time the virgen has been celebrated with a festival every year.

view of cotopaxi volcano from our hostel in latacunga

the mama negra was added later and despite asking i couldn't really understand her significance.  though my knee jerk reaction is that it seems a bit politically incorrect, by all appearances she is a beloved figure in the festival.

this festival was both similar and yet completely different from the festival we saw in peru.  as in peru there was a parade of dancers and music, and though there were a few masks in the ecuador festivities they were not a dominant feature as they were in peru.   instead of masks, many had painted their faces black in celebration of the mama negra.

in the mama negra festival each group in the parade was represented by a guy carrying this huge crucified pig, with chickens, rabbit, cuy (guinea pig), bottles of liquor, loaves of bread, cigarettes...you name it, all hanging off the pig.  as it was explained to us, each represented a party which had several hosts, and each hosts' donation to the party is carried in the parade.....it looked very heavy!  periodically these guys would spin the huge pig thing around....somehow nobody fell over (which seemed the real miracle to be celebrating as most paraders were imbibing freely!)  at some point in the weekend festivities presumably the pig and other animals are roasted and eaten and the alcohol is drunk!

here is a video of a guy with the pig load....

one of my favorites was the guy carrying just a load of booze, no pig........who needs food, right?? guessing that party was a little out of control!

in the evening there was a display of fireworks for the festival.  these are not your usual fireworks, but rather this bamboo tower that ignited in a rotating, spinning display....each section lighting another section! all this set in the plaza in front of the iglesia de merced.  parts of the structure would fly off into the night spinning sparks....... what could go wrong??  it was actually pretty cool.

there were also these stalls selling this yummy drink of aguardiente (sugarcane alcohol which is made in ecuador) with cinnamon and spices served hot...little glasses for all of 50 cents! the second night we got ourselves a whole bottle ($2)!!

it also happened to be our 16th anniversary so the celebration seemed even more fun and special....cheers to us!!!!


the second night of the festival there were no official fireworks, just more parading.  the atmosphere felt decidedly more drunken and wild.....so of course we took our children out into the mayhem!  todd loved that they added fireworks to the pigs!!

on our last day in latacunga we traveled to a neighboring city an hour away to catch one of ecuador's professional soccer games.  most of the bigger cities each have their own team (cuenca, quito, guayaquil, ambato, etc.) and they play each other regularly.  we watched the city of ambato's team called mushuc runa play against quito's universidad catolica team.  it was a small stadium but a super fun day for our soccer loving family!

and bonus picture!    .....this is the kids trying a new fruit which turned out to be a bit sour!!

we are now headed to the ecuadorian jungle for a few days. we couldn't resist the opportunity to see the amazon again!
hasta luego!

banos

the kids and i spent an action packed four days in banos.  todd actually flew back to the states in order to attend his brother's wedding.  this was a very last minute decision and he only booked it last week. when we first considered this option before leaving on this adventure neither of us felt comfortable leaving me with the kids by myself......but now we are accustomed to travel and feel safe so it seemed reasonable.  thus we parted ways four days ago with todd going to quito to catch his flight, while the kids and i headed to banos (i cannot figure out how to write spanish characters but there should be a little squiggle above the 'n')

banos is a very popular backpackers destination and for this reason alone i was thinking of skipping it. but we kept hearing from folks how much fun they had here...plus we needed somewhere to land while todd was gone.  there are loads of adventure activities here for pretty low prices......hence its popularity with backpackers.   there is white water rafting, canyoning (which here means rappelling off of waterfalls), zip-lining, mountain biking, bridge jumping, etc. and the most i saw that anything cost was $30, typically things were in the $10-$20 range.

the town itself isn't particularly charming but the setting is lovely with lush green mountains, waterfalls, and hot springs all nestled in to the valley at the bottom of an active volcano.  volcan tungurahua last erupted in 2006 (with lava flows and everything!) and since then has 'burped' a couple times but it is monitored and nobody in town seems particularly worried.

the first day we took a waterfall tour.  you can actually rent bikes and do the same tour but after seeing bikers on the same very narrow winding roads as the tour buses i am so glad i dismissed this option!   on this tour the kids did their first zip-line.  it was from one side of a river canyon to the other....and they of course loved it!

we rode back from the other side in this yellow cage gondola like thing

post-zip with the river canyon they traversed in the background

there were of course waterfalls on the tour as well. the biggest of which has suspension walking bridges and walkways down to the waterfall....it was quite beautiful.

in the afternoon we went to check out one of the hot springs in town. this one called the tempas de la virgen was just around the corner from our hostel.  it turns out that wearing bathing caps is obligatory....which riley was a huge fan of!!  it had a waterfall in the background, and the water was lovely (it didn't smell like sulphur!!)  there was a big pool with bathtub-like temperatures and another smaller pool which was pretty hot...maybe 105? we all missed todd as he loves a good hot soak!

the kids enjoyed the zip-line so much that the next day we signed up for a canopy tour which included a 6 zip-line course.  again the kids loved loved loved it!

one of the zips had a double line so the kids got to go superman style together......

this is the self-video they took of their superman style flight...

....and the last line of the day was upside down.

riley would like you to know that he was also upside down but flipped over right before i took the picture

in the afternoon post-zipping we ventured to the other hot springs called tempas de salado, which are a little bit out of town...though not super far as we walked there.  these pools were set in a nice canyon, with several pools of different temps and another good hot one!  the kids had so much fun playing for hours!!

and yesterday we hiked up to the casa del arbol.  you can take a tour there or a taxi but we had heard that the hike was about two to three hours.......it took us four hours!! i am pretty sure we got lost as there is no such thing as a marked trail in ecuador, plus it was straight uphill for those four hours.....much more than we bargained for!!  but once we got there we enjoyed the swings that have you looking down a mountain side, with the volcano in the background!  even i braved a swing!

we also had some great food while in banos.  as all good travelers we headed to the mercado for lunch where we discovered llapingachos, which are fried mashed potato patties served with avocado, salad, and rice (it is actually traditionally also served with chorizo and a fried egg, but we liked ours vegetarian style)...super yummy and costs all of $2.

and we also had dinner at this middle eastern place where you removed your shoes and the sat on the floor.  we had hummus and baba ganoush with pita bread!  i don't normally take pictures of restaurants but this one was so unusual and so good we were just giddy (we ate there a couple times!)

so that is about it for our banos adventure.  all said we had a super fun time here.  we missed todd but we are glad he is able to be with family at his brother's wedding (and we are a little bit sad that we can't be there as well, but we have happy wedding wishes in our hearts).

next we head to the town of latagunca and then into the rural areas of the cotopaxi province.  we are set up to volunteer at a school for a week. todd will meet us there in a couple days.
hasta luego!