Sorry it´s been so long since I last wrote. I have been very busy with essays, readings, tests, and presentations. I have found a church that I will be attending during my stay here. It was started by a Presbyterian reverend and still retains some quite a bit of its reformed history but is considered independent. My cousin, who is about 10 years older than me also goes to this church. Tomorrow I we will be doing volunteer work in a community to the Southeast of Quito.
I have been fairly busy traveling, but I still have many places that are sondered quite important to visit. We´ll see. My travels so far have been more centered around the interests or travels of my Ecuadorian friends. I prefer this.
I went to the indigenous pyramids of Cochasquí two saturdays ago (I acidentally formatted my camera before saving my pictures in my computer), but here is a photo from the internet. These ruins are pre-Incan, so it´s hard to see what they looked like exactly. They were primarily used to tell the time, and to worship Inti(the sun in Quechua) and kalli(the moon). They used these automic clocks to organize every activity in their lives (including when to cut their hair).
Last weekend I went to an indigenous community where my friend David grew up named Cotocachí. I also visited a neiboring city named Otavalo. The largest Incan market in Ecuador is located in this city (it´s huge). I also went to a city called Lita, which is about 6 or more hours away from Quito witht he same friend. I forgot my camara at my house, so these fotos are from a disposible camara.
The pictures above are from when I was in a agricultural market. Everyone there is either buying or selling animals.
These pictures are of Otavalo. Below is a picture taken while I was walking through the market.
The following pictures are from my time in a pueble named Peguchi. I didn´t have many fotos left in my disposible camera, so there are three of the city itself, and the rest are of the waterfalls.
This sign says, "What you are looking at was the work of 1613 where hundreds of indigenous slaves, including women and children worked."
This sign was at the entrance of Peguchi, a very little, but historically colonial, indigenous town.
This is the path to Peguchi (the town).
This is part of Peguchi.
This is the path to the waterfalls
Las Cascadas de Peguchi
My friend David
We climbred up a little ways to the next waterfall
This is the other waterfall
Then we crawled through the tunnel behind us to another part of the waterfall that is hidden
We walked in the water to where another waterfall was:
After the waterfalls we went to his grandma´s house. She is really traditional. I ate Fritada (a way of cooking meat) and potatoes that were freshly harvested that day with chicken soup and a type of pudding that is made from a type of melon in the same family, but completely different than watermelon. There were about 15 people in the dinning room/ kitchen. We only had spoons to eat our food with, but it was impossible to eat that way, so we used our hands. They were primarily speaking Quechua, which I am slowly learning, but would use Spanish when talking with me.
This is one of David´s cousins playing with the chickens
We had plans to go to the lake that is nearby but it started pouring down rain. I am going to go back another time, and I will have my real camara then.
I was staying at the hotel that David´s father owns. They let me stay there for free.
Sunday we went to Lita. This is the river that they normally swim in on Sundays during the summer, but it was really dirty because of the rains in the mountains.
I am going to put the rest of the pictures in this message and call it a night. The internet cafe that I am at right now is closed, and the guys are waiting for me. I hope to hear from you all soon, and I love you all.
Spencer
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