Unfortunately, these past couple days I have been sick. Nothing major as it's just a cold, but my voice is far from normal, I am using an abundance of tissues, and I find myself very tired after doing little. After two doctor visits, two trips to the farmacy, five days of taking pills with seven more to come, I should hopefully be feeling better. I missed only one day of school and one day of work...hopefully that is all I miss. Gotta go to bed early tonight and rest up.
Last week the group went to Cuenca. It was a good trip even though I spent most of my time there resting in the hotel. The bus ride was very long. We stopped to spend the night in Riobamba. I liked visiting there. One of the men who worked at the ecuator with Charles Marie de la Condamine was named Pedro Vicente Maldonado, an Ecuadorian. Turns out he was from Riobamba. There was a large statue of him in the town square, or plaza central. His statue was pink, courtesy of the decorative lights around the square. The church nearby was green. 'Twas an odd yet pleasing effect.
The next day, this would have been Thursday, we continued on to Cuenca. There were some stops alond the way as there were the day before, for scenic vistas and bathroom breaks also. I was excited when we got to Cuenca! Right by our hotel there was a shop for horse people! Saddles, boots, hats, everything. It was really cool.
In Cuenca I saw really old, BIG churches. Huge churches. They had speakers up so the people in the back could hear what was going on. In the old times, did people scream, or just not get to hear anything? But the windows...wow. They are SO pretty. I also saw two parks that were very nice. Really the city was very clean, much less trash than in Quito. The amount of graffiti was the same. Actually there were many hamburgers painted around, also pigs. So I missed the original conversation, but later durind dinner Travis and Brandon were talking about how those two images had corresponding followers, like gangs. I chose hamburgers with Brandon.
I also ate ice cream, saw many delicious looking food shops, visited two different churches, and I also felt well enough to go to the museum. There were many paintings but mostly old, old, old pottery and the like. Amazing how long that stuff lasts, how well it was made. Photos on facebook...
But the rest of the time I was stuck in the hotel. Thankfully I was well enough to go at all, I much preferred going to staying in Quito. On the way back to Quito we stopped at another church, I don't remember the name, but it is the oldest one in Ecuador. The inside was surprisingly modern, however. There was a guy...man, I wish I could remember the names of things. But he was making small sculptures out of the seeds of some plant. They were white and very hard, kind of like an old coconut. I don't know how to describe it. The seeds are called something like tauhua (togWA, more or less). Anyway that was pretty cool.
We only got to spend two nights in Cuenca, the other two (one at the beginning, one at the end) nights we stayed in Riobamba. The last night in Riobamba we got to go shopping. I didn't buy anything, but I looked a lot. One girl whose parents were shopkeepers let me pet her kitten. She told me his name was Como, that he was abandoned and alone when she found him but now he has a home with her and her family, and they like to play with him even though he scratches. That was the jist of it anyway, her Spanish was a little too fast for me to get all of it. She was nice.
Sorry about the lapse in posting, things got a little rushed. I will post more before the program ends, for sure. Now, though, I have school things to do...sigh...then sleep. Sleep is good for the sick. But I am surviving! Everyone have a great week, ¿si?
Juls
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