On Sunday, my family surprised me with an early breakfast and an hour long drive to the Cajas National Park. As I will most likely say about everything I see here, it is incredibly gorgeous. Apparently someone saw an angel there, so there is a church, covered boxes for lighting candles and a lot of religious paraphernalia, both at the bottom and at the top of the mountain. According to my phonetics and phonology professor at CEDEI, people come from around the world (or at least the country) to see this place. But Cajas isn't just a religious site. There is also a small market filled with slightly-overpriced indigenous goods (mostly for tourists) and a few paths up (at least) one of the mountains. My host brother, Diego, and I hiked up one of the mountains, only to get completely soaked by a rainstorm at the top (don't worry, my camera was very well protected!). The view was incredible, and I enjoyed spending time with my family. After our hike and frantic slide/run down the mountain and back to the car, the family stopped for lunch at a little place on the side of the road. I had a packed lunch because my family cooks vegetarian for me, but everyone else had either chicken, fish or cuy (or as we know them in the US, guinea pig). After lunch, we headed out to the family's country home (casa del campo), which ended up being about 25 minutes away from home (or at least that's what I calculated...I haven't actually timed it yet). Again, an incredible view. We picked some pears, little circular fruit and "zombie fruit" (the actual name of which I can't ever seem to remember), and visited the chickens. The adults made dinner from food grown/harvested on the property while Bridget and I played with the kids, Annalee and Litsy. Litsy said she was interested in photography, so I turned my camera over to her for an hour or so (I was right there the whole time, ready to grab it just in case!). Most of her photos didn't actually turn out, but she's learning. Technology is extremely expensive in Ecuador, so she probably won't ever purchase a nice camera unless she decides to study photography or saves her money for a very long time. To put the cost in perspective, semi-decent televisions that would cost about $300 in the US cost at least $1,400 here. Good thing I brought all the technology I'd need for four months... Overall, it was a nice day. I'm enjoying my host family, though the language barrier can be a bit rough at times. My spanish is improving every day (as far as I can tell). I have three weeks left in one of my classes, and five (or four?) left in the other, then we will be halfway through the semester. Part of the Spring Semester CEDEI group is going to the Galapagos Islands for "spring break" but it was a couple thousand dollars too expensive for my budget, so my family is planning on heading to the beach for a long weekend while I have school off. Nothing is set in stone though, so I'll figure it out later. But for now, I'm back to homework and studying for my midterm... ¡Adios!
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AuthorKate Hiller is a wannabe world traveler studying journalism and Spanish at Ohio University. This blog is about her experiences living abroad in Cuenca, Ecuador for a semester. (Spring 2014) Archives
May 2014
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