VACATIONS!

VACATIONS,

Well, once again I am pretty shocked at how little I have blogged. There is so much I want to blog about and yet somehow it doesn't happen.  I am actually beginning to turn my sights to coming home - and I am very excited to do so.  But I want to catch up on my blog/journal  before I return.

I teach in 8 week cycles and will teach a total of 4 cycles.  Next week I will end my third cycle and I will begin my fourth and last cycle June 5.  In between cycles we have at least a week off.  Time off is hard for me - weekends alone are a struggle, as I spend way too much time alone so having several weeks alone poses a challenge.   Popular vacations for expats/ tourists are the Galapagos, the Amazon, and other beach places.  As I only travel alone here I pick places and activities that I think I will enjoy alone AND that I think I can handle logistically on my own and with my limited Spanish.  Logistics really just means my ability to get around a city and feel safe.   

When we have holidays, which is VERY often, I do not take day trips as I do not trust my ability to get back home.  There are some very popular places very close, but often the bus drops you at a corner and you have to get yourself and your luggage to a place for the night. I would be willing to do this with another person, but with all the warnings of pirate cabs, lack of uber/cabify outside of town, etc etc. I have taken the timid approach.  Were my Spanish fluent, I would do it. While my Spanish has improved a great deal I still struggle when trying to carrying on a conversation that has an objective.

All that said.. I have had some great trips here and so will tell you about them.

NAZU HOUSE  GUAYAQUIL CHRISTMAS BREAK

There was a very looooong break for me to fill from Dec. 22 - Jan. 15. I don't think I have ever been so lucky as to plan a vacation in advance and hit EXACTLY what I needed at that very moment.  I planned the vacation way in advance as I knew staying alone for four weeks would drive me absolutely crazy but I also knew that if I returned to the States there would be a good chance I would not return.  So I planned a week on a train, and 2 weeks taking Spanish in Cuenca, another city in the Andes.  As it turned out, by the end of November I was very sick.  I still don't know exactly why my stomach turned on me so violently, but I was barely eating at all through December.  Also, I was unable to get a full nights sleep at my first home for a variety of reasons.  By December 22 I had changed houses and considered myself  well.  But it turned out that I was far tireder than I realized and so this three weeks of vacation turned out to be perfect.

The picture above is the place I stayed for three nights in Guayaquil.  The idea was that I would explore Guayaquil and then take the train back to Quito.  Guayaquil is larger than Quito and on the coast.  I waited too long to make reservations and ended up spending a lot more money at a lot fancier place than I intended.  BUT, it turns out it was just the universe looking out for me.  Guayaquil is hot and humid, particularly in December.  Think Deep South/August/no air conditioner.  However, NAZU house was on top of a hill, many breezes and very very pleasant. Also I had a fancy room with lots of windows, a large comfortable bed, AND NETFLIX on a big TV.  Breakfast and dinner was included and this is where I spent Christmas.  Instead of exploring Guayaquil I ended up reading, sleeping and watching movies.  It was really quite nice and I kept feeling better and better. This happens to me when I get really really sick... I think I am well because I feel soooo much better but I just continue to get better and better and keep thinking.. OH YEAH...THIS is what it is to feel good.

So after three days of THE CROWN,  and several other series while lying in cool breezes and eating really great breakfasts and dinners came part two of my trip -

EL TREN

I left Guayaquil and the cool breezes to take a train trip from Guayquil to Quito - basically leaving the coast and climbing the Andes to Quito.   I have never done anything so blatantly and ridicously touristy in my life.  For some reason I thought this was going to be like a train trip in Europe - but it was solely for tourists. The trip seemed extra extra expensive to me but I decided to spring for it due to my love of trains.  It once I saw how it operated - it was easy to see where the money went.  Turns out that Tren Curcero is the only train in Ecuador - there is no more freight trains or passenger trains except for tourists.  Because of this, people on the streets are not used to seeing trains.  Therefore 4+ men with bright red jackets on motorcycles accompanied the train and when an intersection with a road or street was approaching they "sped" ahead (speed was not one of our qualities - we took 3 full days to go 270 miles) to the intersection to control/stop traffic for the train. We were slow because we moved slowly ( usually we were being pulled by a steam engine) and we stopped all the time for markets, dances, lunch, chocolate plantations and flower plantations.   We were also accompanied by a bus  that carried our luggage and took us from train stops to our hotels (no sleeping on the train).    We were treated like royalty, so I continued my  resting and eating, but for these four days I was with 27 other people - and it was just a lovely, fun group.  I am still in touch with friends I made on this trip.

The picture above is The Devil's Nose, one of the great engineering feats of Ecuadorian trains -back when there were "real" trains.  This is the solution for taking a train up a sheer cliff.  Basically it is a switch back system which I never quite grasped even when I was doing it; but the train chugs north a bit, backs up switches tracks and chugs south a bit.  Here is a video that shows The Devil's Nose.from above on a drone,  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJnokcv0sek I like it for the view of the Andes.  They are so green and beautiful. 

And then once I was back in Quito I began the third part of my trip...

CUENCA

Walking Down a Cuenca Street

I went to Cuenca on New Year's Eve  and on Jan. 2 began Spanish lessons until I had to return to Quito to begin teaching.  New Years Eve in Ecuador in the Andes is a lot of fun.  There are two traditions that I became aware of.  The first of these was puppets or dolls that people buy to burn in the streets.  You can burn something you love, something you hate, or something you just feel like burning.  There are many merchants selling the puppets along the streets and you can see them riding in and on cars.  Many puppets were burned outside my window in Cuenca.

POOR WOODY

The other tradition - which added a lot of time to my ride to the airport - are the viudas -widows"- who come out New Years Eve.  These are men in drag dressed loosely as women (there is no attempt to look good) often carrying baby dolls.  They are "disgused" as widows with children and they stop cars and beg for money.  I have a hard time calling it "drag" having lived in the Bay area for so long- where drag always looks great!

This is all in good fun, and while traffic slows as cars are stopped - there is no sense of fear.

After New Years was over I could begin Spanish lessons and exploring Cuenca.  I LOVED Cuenca.  It is what I called "Ex- Pat Ready" .. It has all the charm of  Quito Old Town, but it is clean, upscale, and safe.  There is a very large expat community and so one can get all sorts of food and English materials. In Cuenca - I walked and walked and walked.  Cuenca is quite small - so you can walk to almost all destinations.  Sometimes it takes 45 minutes - but it is always a lovely walk (sometimes a lovely WET walk)  I have always been a walker but living in Greenville and being a caretaker -all that slowly eroded away. (Greenville is just not that great of a "destination walking city- I used to walk to the movies, the bookstores, and the grocery stores.) But in Cuenca I got my walking legs back.  Also in Cuenca - I realized that my caretaking days are now part of my past and no longer part of my identiy.  Maybe it was just time and it was going to happen .. or maybe it was a rather quick transition from being sick and feeling unsafe in Quito - to feeling well and safe.  If I ever live in Ecuador again, I bet it will be Cuenca.

AND FOR MY NEXT AND FINAL ACT

My next break was in March and I spent that on at home - in Greenville.  And now I have my last week off before I teach my last 8 week cycle and then fly home.  And this break I am spending in the Miraflores neighborhood of Lima.  I will be taking a week of intensive Spanish - my last hurrah before I return to the English speaking world.  I will have two weekends to explore Lima and mostly Spanish classes during the week.  So we will see what will happen

I am finishing this up in the Quito airport waiting for me flight.  I arrive tonight and then come back to Quito late next Sunday night, attend the teachers' meeting Monday, start teaching Tuesday and then 40 days of class and then home.

I don't anticipate any more trips- if I get a chance I will jump on it.. but this is probably my last travel adventure until I return to the States.  But I have really planned a LOT of vacations over the next year... the next one being a train ride across Canada.

So its time to go to the gate. ... No one would check my big suitcase so I have to figure out how to get that done.  I started this post last week.. and now I end it (without proofing it so who knows what I said) to board the plan to Lima.

Happy Memorial Day to those in the States