Howdy!!
How
is everyone?! I had a great past couple of weeks. Two weekends ago,
I didn't do too much (which would be why I didn't write last week).
I was scrambling to finish up a bunch of end of the year stuff, which
I did, and it felt great! Also, to take a break during that weekend,
I explored a little part of Quito that I still hadn't explored yet on
Saturday. I went to Old Town in Quito and climbed up the Basilica,
from which you can see many beautiful views of the city! It was
wooonderful. After the Basilica I went to Quito's little market,
which is always very enjoyable! Also, at the market, I bought a
hammock, and although I still have no clue where I'm going to put it,
I'm really excited about it! Other than doing a bunch of homework
(which I don't think you want to hear details about), that's about it
for that weekend, so I'll continue on to my next adventure!
Last
week I totally took advantage of a shortened school week to travel.
For some reason we didn't have school on Thursday of last week, and I
don't have class on Fridays. I also only have one class on
Wednesdays. So a friend and I decided to skip our Wednesday class
and take a nice long trip from Tuesday night till Monday morning to
two large cities in Ecuador and to a beach!
We
left Quito on an overnight bus on Tuesday headed for Cuenca, the
third largest city in Ecuador. It was a pretty town, but quite
honestly, there wasn't very much to do there. So instead of
staying for two days as planned, we only ended up staying for one
day. We explored the city in a half a day, and then decided to take
a bus to a nearby town called Chordeleg, which is known for selling
lots of silver and gold jewelry for really cheap. The town was cute,
and indeed was FILLED with jewelry stores. In the main plaza, there
couldn't have been any less than thirty shops that were all
practically the same, haha.
So
after our day in Cuenca, we took a bus farther to the west to the
biggest city in Ecuador, Guayaquil. It definitely was a big city
(not to mention, HOT)! I felt like we were back in the US. It was
very developed and FULL of people. And the bus terminal was like an
airport. It had four floors, restaurants, even a grocery store!
Geesh. So after leaving the bus terminal and dumping our bags at a
hostel, we walked around town, admiring the big, pretty buildings on
the way to the shoreline, and even running across the famous Iguana
Park in the middle of the city, where iguanas just kind of roam
around! Kind of funny, actually. So after the iguana park, we made
our way to “El Malecon,” which is a walkway along the shore of
the ocean. Along the walkway, we saw various restaurants, cool
trees, statues of random Ecuadorian people (well... probably not that
random, but we didn't bother to actually look to see who they were),
and of course lots and lots of people. At one end of El Malecon is a
market, which we walked though for a bit, and at the other end, a
neighborhood called “Las Peñas,” which is a small
neighborhood filled with colorful houses and shops that line a
stairway of four hundred some steps (that are all numbered) that you
can climb to the top, where there is a lighthouse and a beautiful
view of the city! By the time we got to the lighthouse, it was dark,
so we got to see the whole city lit up at night! On our way back to
our hostel from the lighthouse, we happened to pass an IMAX, and
figured we would go to the showing of Transformers since we weren't
tired yet, so that was an exciting end to our night.
The
next morning we hopped on a bus to go to our next stop, the beach
town of Salinas!! The bus ride to Salinas was a very normal
Ecuadorian bus ride. It was hot, smelled like some weird Ecuadorian
food, and played a strange Ecuadorian movie. So we were happy when
we finally arrived at our destination. Our stay at Salinas was
really nice. Other than the fact that there were a ton of people
there due to the Thursday vacation that all of Ecuador had, the three
days at the beach were very relaxing. We spent our days laying on
the beach under a red umbrella, occasionally jumping into the
(surprisingly yet satisfyingly cold) water, and buying a snack or
drink here or there from a vendor on the beach. We also spent a lot
of time laughing at the vendors... they were EVERYWHERE. I don't
think we ever went two minutes without a vendor pushing something in
our face or having to listen to a vendor jabber about what he or she
was selling. And some of them sold the most bizarre things. Of
course there were the normal vendors that sold drinks, ice cream,
earrings, and sun hats. And clearly the hair braiders could be found
anywhere you looked. But some of them just didn't make sense... some
sold these ugly home-made jewelry holders, and there was even a guy
walking around selling paintings! And not little paintings either, but
rather big wall hangings that probably measured 3 feet by 3 feet...
maybe even more. We just didn't really get it. I mean, would you
really buy a painting on a beach? Well anyway, that's about it for
our Salinas stay. It was a very relaxing couple of days, we really
didn't do anything but lay on the beach, walk on the beach, sleep,
and eat sea food and ice cream. Who could complain about that?
Well
that's all for now I guess. This weekend/coming week, I'll be
traveling even farther south to a spa town called Vilcabamba, which
is apparently the most relaxing place in Ecuador. A great place to
go after finals week, I'd say!
Oh!
Also, I've added more pictures... of my climb up the Basilica in
Quito and of my past week/weekend adventure!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2384259&l=a5667&id=8630239
I
hope you enjoy em!! If you have any time, shoot me an email, I
always love to hear from you all!
Love,
Jenna =)
