I’m just about to leave this hostel that I have been calling ‘home’ (base) for the last few weeks…and about to join up with a Dragomon tour thingy that will take me through more of Ecuador and Peru…ultimately ending on the top of Machu Pichu just after Christmas. As I was packing, I found a CD that a friend made me…so I have some pics to share with you guys!!

This first one is of the Eco-Lodge near Las Tolas…this was a clear day. The First week I was there, I was just surrounded by clouds. But when Candice and Chris came up, it got even clearer than this so we could see a stunning mountain range.

This is part of the town of Las Tolas. The sign indicates the artisans that we worked with.

This is the hot springs that I just got back from a few days ago…really relaxing!!

This last one is of the largest church in South America. The part of Quito that I have been staying at has a lot of old colonial architecture…sadly, there are also a lot of 70’s buildings sprinkled over ‘new town’…I guess that dark phase of architecture affected more than just North America L


I have finished 20 hours of Spanish lessons now, and yesterday I picked up a Spanish novel about the indigenous people here…I sat in a café yesterday afternoon and poked my way through the prologue…4 pages took me 40 minutes, but I at least think I understood what the author was saying!!

In South America, there are a LOT of people selling random things on the street (ie lottery tickets, shoe laces and a chance to weigh yourself) and any bus you ride has a bunch of children or men jumping on to sell you anything from fresh fruit to meet on a stick to watches…also, one thing that was kind of funny is that here is it the norm that they sell motorcycles in the same stores that they sell refrigerators! A friend pointed out that anytime you see an appliance store, you also see a few bikes too...

One last thing… a long time ago a friend of mine moved away to Ottawa and I was terribly sad. But he told me this little rhyme that I thought of last night (it was the first time I saw the moon through the clouds since being here). It goes:
I see the moon.
The moon sees me.
The moon sees the people that I want to see.

Chances are that if you are reading this blog, I thought of you last night when I said that little poem. I am having a great time here, but I miss a lot of the little things about my friends and family back home.

Lots of love,

Adrienne J

catch-up from Las Tolas...one week behind!

As i promised, I’m back to tell a few more tales from the road…

Last week Candice, Chris and I went to the cloud forest for a few days and took part in building the eco lodge…it was ssooo different having the two of them there – it was perfect the way everything worked out.

There are lots of silly little stories that I can tell from the trip there, so I will try to condense everything so that it’s not crazy long! So we worked in the morning building the eco lodge. It’s nuts how they use so few tools there but the results are soo great! All Fransisco (the man we worked with) had was a machete, a hammer, and a hand saw. We got to work with bamboo which was really great. I must admit though that I was a bit nervous using the machete…not completely unwarranted considering that a volunteer the week before cut his hand open with one!

Later that afternoon we went to the family farm of this lady we met the night before on a bus. Rosa was awesome and her kids were ssooo cute! I don’t even know really where to begin with it, but basically, we walked an hour into town with the eco lodge’s dog named Pinky (yes, it was a little dog…and he was totally crazy…constantly running ahead and barking at everything!!). Pinky proved to be great entertainment as he picked fights with a HUGE boxer, all the cows and horses and the llamas too!! Actually, seeing pinky and the llamas was hilarious! I guess he was feeling like the big dog on the farm and when he saw the group of llamas coming into a pasture near us he went nuts barking. But the best part was the reaction of the llamas! Think back to the Borg from Star Trek…remember how they acted as one and were very mechanical? Yeah…that’s the llamas! When they heard pinky bark, they immediately all turned all at once with these freaky angry/robotic faces and started slowly lunging for him. But like I said, Pinky doesn’t scare off and just kinda stepped back a bit, but kept it up.

Shoot, it’s almost dinner…so I’m running out of time to write! But while there we also rode a horse and went to this river where Chris and Candice swung off the vines…I was chicken!

The next day we worked in the morning again then did a few hour hike through the mountains to this GORGEOUS waterfall. The water was freezing, but well worth it! On the way, Fransisco showed us a million cool things about the forest there, one of which was this insane tree that has blood red sap and when you rub it in your hand it turns white and heals any cuts super fast! The machete volunteer definitely vouched for it!

The next morning we woke up early and went into town to make jewelry…it was ssooo much fun to see how the artisans work and to be able to work with nuts & other stuff from the forest. Then we headed into another town to catch the bus to La Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the Earth, point 0,0,0)…there we had the worst burger of our lives (I actually ate half of Candice’s cuz I was so desperate for food…trust me, if you tried it, you would know that it was true desperation!) and took a million and one pics over the Ecuador line. Too bad that I no longer have my digital, but maybe when Candice gets hers up online, I can post a few on here! I’m not sure which is my favorite, Candice lying dead on the line, or of her on one side and her shadow on the other.

Then we trekked it back to Quito…we thought it would be a simple bus ride, but of course there is always more to it. The bus was cramped as anything and then a police officer gave the driver trouble about our bags…or at least that’s what we gathered was happening before the bus just sped off anyways. Shoot – I REALLY have to go! There are about 40 people eating tonight, and I’ve been warned that my saved seat is going to get taken if I don’t run!!

I am joining this group tomorrow and so hopfully I can make another post in the morning before I go!!

Love you all!!

Now that's what I call a nice bath!

Yes - I AM still alive. The last few days were awesome! On Sat Candice, two fellows named Chris (Chris 1 & Chris 2) and I went to a little town about two hours from Quito named Papallacta. Why? Simple: for great natural hot springs of course!!

We ended up splurging (30$/night) and stayed at the resort & spa…massages were really cheap (35$ plus discount). The first night we were ssoooo waterlogged. I think we were in the water from 8pm-2:30am…but I’m sure that none of us would change a second of it for the world. The thermal baths were amongst lovely gardens, surrounded by the cute huts of the resort, and had the Andes looming in the background. Not bad.

The sad thing was that everyone else left on Sunday…Candice had to get back to Quito for her flight home on Monday and Chris 1 & 2 had to get on their way too. I decided to stay until today (Thursday) and get fully pampered…

I am really glad I stayed. I got to eat great food and relax and not have to be concerned about the things that happen in big cities. I also met some really interesting people while there. A few nights ago the usually quiet place exploded with all kinds of groups. I ended up hanging out with people from the Discovery Channel who were about to head into the jungle to make an episode of some show. They were really nice people & had lots of great stories to tell. Later that night when we were hanging out in the hot tub this couple joined us that were hilarious…I found out that the lady worked for the United Nations in the Human Resources department…too bad I didn’t get her contact info!

Other thank that, I got burnt really bad…yes, to the point of a tomato…and then had to avoid the baths so I went to this nature information thingy they had up the mountain and learned about bats and this crazy small deer that they have that is only 20’’ tall!

I also decided something on the bus ride back…I really don’t like Tom Cruz. I think he’s ugly and not a good actor. Maybe I was influenced by being forced to listen to a loud Spanish version of one of the Mission Impossible movies that fully gave me a headache…plus I was amongst a group of people who don’t know what deodorant is…maybe that had something to do with it? I don’t know. But I do know that after 2 hours on that bus I couldn’t wait to get off and go back to my hostel!!

So here I am, back in Quito for a few days to rest and learn more Spanish until I meet up with my group on Sunday. I can’t wait!! Oh, and I will post again later to write about what happened up at the cloud forest when Chris and Candice came up.

Feel free to write me – I should be good about getting back to people in the next few days!

Ttys! Addy :)

ps - I forgot to say that this was a real treat to have hot water because in the cloud forest there wasn't hot water and it was COLD there...plus the showers here in Quito are tempramental at best...so constantly scalding/freezing you.

life on the farm

I am just taking a break from my Spanish lessons and have a few mins before I go back…yes that’s right, I decided to take 20 hours of lessons here in quito to improve my language skills… so far it is pretty fun! i found out that by accident I was saying something about punching a robber in the buttox… which we all decided over here really might be one of the only things that would throw these fellows off!

We are supposed to go back to tomorrow (Candice and i), and there may even be someone else coming with us…yes, I guess the glamour of the pig trying to eat my leg then beating up on the dog…then getting chassed by stampeding cows and being afraid of roosters attacking me really peaked someone’s interest. Not that anyone should get the wrong idea at all! It was actually lovely there…soooo nice to wake up in a cabin with no electricity on a mountain and only see mountain ranges covered in tropical trees peaking through clouds…yeah, I guess the e-coli poisoning and the attacks by the animals were kinda worth it!

I am running out of time before I have to go back to the lesson…but a few quick stories from the lodge! So the pig (Chancho) lives under the kitchen…there are spaces big enough between the floor boards to push food down to feed him…anyone wonder how I got ecoli? Anyways, so that was one thing…oh this isn’t funny, but after working in the morning I would go to the town of Las Tolas which is a 1hr walk on the prettiest gravel road once again through the clouds…anyone want to know what it’s like to walk through a cloud? Simple: wet. No, scratch that. Very wet. So I’d get there and then make jewelry for the afternoon and the ladies of the town would ask me to solve their marital problems since I took psychology…I am still trying to figure out what kind of job to tell ppl I do so that they don’t ask me things like that…any suggestions?

Anyways – I have to run back to the lessons!!

I tried to email a few ppl today and call some others…but this computer messed up…im just hoping that this will work!!

Adrienne J

Yes - I am alive!

this entry is long overdue! i have been in Ecuador for over a week now and i am sure some of you are wondering what is going on with me and whether or not i am still alive and in one piece. good news - i am still here!!

so the bad news out of the way first - my camera got stolen on the 2nd day (i know, i know, never have your bag in the compartment above you! at least all they took was my camera, and i brought my 35mm camera as a backup...so it´s just annoying to deal with insurance and all that)... so that´s bad news number one...the other annoying thing is that i got a bacterial infection which has left me feeling awful. i had to leave the cloud forest early for the weekend to visit the hospital. but all should be well, im on medication and have been told to rest and drink lots of fluid...you know, the usual.

so now that the bad news is out of the way, im glad to say that the rest of my trip is really great! candice and i are having a GREAT time here and really enjoying the other travelers we're meeting!

i will post more hopefully later today when i have the pics from candice's camera, but know that i am fine and would LOVE to get emails from you all saying how you are doing!!

lots of love,

adrienne :)