Hello hello!!
First of all, I'll apologize for not writing a letter last week. My week last week was pretty normal and filled with school stuff (sometimes it's easy to forget that I'm still in school and not just adventuring for five months straight, which doesn't help my motivation to do school work... EVER). Also, although I did have some things planned for last weekend, they ended up getting scratched off my agenda, as I caught the flu or some annoying sickness, and didn't really feel like doing anything all weekend. On a better note, I'm feeling much better, and crossing my fingers that my sickness while studying abroad phase has passed and will not return!! Oh, and also!! My house now has a new puppy!! It has a stupid name... in my opinion. Diógenes or something like that (I probably butchered the spelling of that one), but it is adorable... he was a gift from my host sister's boyfriend for Valentine's Day!! What a Valentine's Day gift, huh?! Wow!!
Well, to continue, my weekend was great!! I had another trip with my Volcanology class, this time to a town called Baños, which is about a three hour bus ride west of Quito. Our main reason for going to Baños was to observe the volcano called Tungurahua that is currently erupting (or, well, spewing) and causing quite a commotion throughout Ecuador. A crew of reporters and camera men actually came with us (they rode on a different bus), and taped us throughout the day on Saturday. It was kind of amusing to be sitting on the bus staring out the window, and all of a sudden see a really excited woman jumping up and down while waving at us, with a camera man at her side. I felt kind of famous. It was even more amusing to see my teacher Teo lecturing us while holding a microphone and trying to see around the camera pointed in his face.
Well, back to the trip... our first stop was at the edge of a mountain next to Tungurahua, where we could see the volcano and the lava flow from when the volcano really erupted in 2006, leaving six people dead and even more in bad conditions. Teo explained to us how he thinks the entire area at the base of the volcano should be converted into a National Park to save all of the inhabitants from being killed when the volcano erupts again. It was nice to know that Teo cares so much more about residents of Ecuador than he does about tourists that would want to visit the park, or in other words, Americans. Thanks, Teo!! Just kidding =) Our next stop was at a small town at the base of the volcano, where, after losing Teo for about a half hour (very typical of him... I swear, that man needs a leash. Someday he's going to forget us somewhere and finally realize that he's missing something after a few hours) we helped to distribute food, clothing, and other supplies to a Red Cross building (or the Ecuadorian equivalent of that). We all made a big line and handed the supplies from the back of a big truck to the building. We felt so helpful (I actually still don't understand exactly what the point of us doing this was... Teo kind of left us in the dark with the whole purpose of this stop). So after this confusing stop, we stopped in Baños to eat, and then continued on to the lava flow that we had seen from the edge of the cliff two stops ago. Again, Teo disappeared, so our class decided that it would be a good idea to climb up the lava flow to get a better look at Tungurahua. The lava flow was really cool, it mostly consisted of dirt and lots of pumice, which is pretty much dried ash water. It looks pretty much like rocks, but it super light. It was an interesting feeling beneath our feet. As we got higher and the clouds began to clear up a bit, the top of the volcano became visible, and we could actually see smoke coming from it!! We felt so aliiiiiiive standing at the base of an active, smoking volcano!! Haha. After we had been walking up the volcano for about 20 minutes, we heard Teo calling us from the bottom, so hiked back down to listen to another one of his lectures with the TV camera in his face. That night, we were supposed to all take cabs to get a view of the volcano at night, but after calling the volcano watcher guy, Teo told us that the volcano wasn't doing anything, so it was pointless to all pay money to go look at it. He then promised us that we could go back some random night when it was doing something cool if we wanted to (drive to the volcano after school some day, watch the volcano, and then come home in time for school the next day). Hah, sweet!!
The next day we got up early and set off for Cotopaxi, another volcano on the way back to Quito (I mentioned this volcano in one of my previous emails, I get to climb it with my Andinismo (rock climbing) class later in the semester). The park was very interesting. It didn't really consist of anything but the volcano. Around the volcano it was very bare, mostly consisting of just dirt, sometimes a big rock or two. There were also a few shrubs around, but as we climbed the mountains, they got more and more scarce. We wound up the mountain for a good half hour before getting to our stop. The weather was kind of gross, it was rainy and cloudy. I didn't mind the rain too much, but the clouds were a bit irritating. It was also a bit frightening to be on these muddy dirt paths winding up a mountain on a huge bus. I swore we would get stuck in the mud (well, actually more like hoped) and would have to walk back to the information center at the bottom of the volcano. About 20 minutes into our ride up the muddy path, we could see the volcano. It was beautiful... I think the barren landscape surrounding it made it stand out so much more. It made me so excited for my Andinismo trip. When we got to our stop at about 8,000 feet (WOAH!!), we got out of the bus, and it was cold!! It was wonderful!! We then walked to this big crevasse where the lava had flown down the volcano, and then of course, slid down the crevasse. During our lecture at the bottom, it started snowing!! Well, it actually started out more as freezing rain... I could see little icicles all over my rain jacket. But it turned into snow!! It was fabulous, maybe the most exciting day ever since being in Ecuador. So after our lecture, we climbed back up this huge, very steep hill (you needed to use your hands on this beast, unless you wanted to tumble back to the bottom). After getting to the top, although I had really only climbed about 100 meters, I felt like I had just ran 10 miles. It's amazing how much the altitude can make you feel like you're suffocating... but I liked the feeling. It made me feel accomplished, hah!! Then it made me realize how necessary it is to start training for my climb up the volcano with my Andinismo class, so that's my new goal. Time to start running!!
Well, I'll say ciao with that, and will attempt to go back to studying (I have so many tests and school crap right now, eeew). Now that I've gotten a good taste of snow again, I'm not missing WI quite as much anymore, but I still miss you all!! Thank you all for your wonderful replies to my emails so far, I love reading them (even though some may wonder why I want to know about “boring” lives while I'm here... that's not true, hearing anything from you is anything but boring)!! So keep the emails coming if you have time, they always brighten my day!!
Lots of love from South America...
Jenna
It's belief that gets you there
