Thanksgiving Dinner

I didn't think it would be possible this year, but I actually got to celebrate Thanksgiving! Yesterday around noon, all 9 exchange students from Guayaquil, and 4 others from Machala and Ambato who took a plane here, gathered at the house of one of the exchange students to cook ourselves a traditional thanksgiving meal. We made the turkey, mashed potatoes, a LOT of cooked veggies, apple pie with ice cream and pumpkin pie, thanks to my friend who thought ahead and brought a can of pumpkin with him to Ecuador for this day, knowing that they don't sell it here in the grocery store. They also don't sell stuffing or cranberry sauce here either, so we didn't have that with our meal, but it was still really good! While we were cooking the food, a red Macaw casually walked into the kitchen, which we all thought was amazing and were taking as many pictures of it as we could. The family explain that a few years ago this bird came to their house and they fed it, and every single day since it keeps coming back for the food, and pretty much lives with them.

 We all went around and said what we're thankful for, and we all pretty much said the same thing: our host families, friends, families back home for being so supportive of us, and the food. 2 of the exchange students are from Germany, and also 2 from France, so their first Thanksgiving diner ever was in Ecuador! After eating our meal, we played some music on the guitar than all went swimming for a bit! I had to leave early, around 9:30 because I had school the next day, but it was definitely a Thanksgiving I will never forget. 

Las Penas

I forgot to put my experience about Las Penas on my blog for almost 2 weeks now, but better late than never!

  





2 weeks ago my grandpa, mom, and siblings took me to Las Penas, also known as the colored houses, to climb 444 stairs to the top of the all the houses to get a view of Guayaquil. 444 stairs doesn't seem like a lot, but when it is over 90 degrees and the sun is beating down on you, we couldn't go more than 150 stairs at a time before taking refugee under some shade for a few minutes. The walk up was really beautiful, because all the houses are painted with different bright colors, and hanging on each house is a black and white photo from what the houses used to look like before they fixed them up and painted them. There are also some little restaurants and bars on the walk up, which a lot of people go to at night when the entire area is lit up and you can walk around from place to place. When we got to the top, there was a small church with beautiful stained glass windows, and across from that was a lighthouse that we climbed, and that was where we got the best view of Guayaquil, Duran, and Samborondon. On the walk down we took a different route, which brought us to a really nice fountain and newly built building that are right on the river.

Banos

This weekend I went to a city in the mountain called Banos with the host family of my friend Clemence, from France, and 3 other exchange students, 3 from US and 1 other from France. The night before we all slept at Clemence's house, and walked to a restaurant in her neighborhood to eat, than after stopped at another exchange student's house to hang out and play the guitar for a few hours. The next morning we squeezed 11 people into 1 van, bags included, and departed from Guayaquil at 9. The drive was so pretty once as we got into the mountains. I love being the car in Ecuador because it's always so beautiful to watch the scenery as it passes by. I never get bored during car rides here. We stopped in a small town on the way that was selling typical artisan hats, bracelets, pants, act. from Ecuador, and in this town every single store was selling jeans for only $10 dollars, way less than Guayaquil! We also pulled over on the side of the road to walk in the snow that was at the foot of a volcano called Chimborazo, which is actually one of the most popular hikes people do in the world.

We finally arrived in Banos in the night after about 8 hours in the car. We stayed in a French hotel called "La Petit" which was only 1 block from the center of the city. That night we had some diner at an Italian restaurant, and got to ride around the city on a ride that consisted of 15 carts attached together that is painted like a giraffe. Very strange, but really fun! Later in the night we met up with 3 other exchange students, one from my city who had been in Banos for a few days with his cousins, and 2 who live in the capital of Ecuador, Quito, which is only an hour or so away. We walked around the city for a bit, which felt like we had so much freedom because in Banos it's very safe to walk around as a group of kids at night, where in Guayaquil you couldn't even do that during the day. Than we spent the night going to a few local discotecas to dance and meet a lot of people! We only got 1 hour of sleep that night, so the next day was exhausting.

In the morning we hopped in the bed of a truck that drove us 20 minutes up the mountain away from the city to go canyoning. Canyoning is basically repelling down a waterfall, wearing a wetsuit though cause the water was freezing! This was so much fun, and at one of the waterfalls, the rocks dropped off, so you were just slowly suspending down tot he ground, hanging in the air with the waterfall raining over you. Later that day we rented buggys to drive around the city and mountains to see some awesome views, and we got to stop at a a place to go canopying, which is zip lining over a river, but the harness is attached to your back and feet, so your stomach is facing the ground and you feel like you are flying! That night we walked around the city more, and bought some jewelry at another artisan place, which I thought I did a good bargaining job, but my friends in school today told me they had ripped me off by a lot. That night, after diner where we all tried Cuy (similar to a guinea pig), we went dancing again at the discotecas, and got to see 2 of our other exchange student friends from a city close to us! It was great to see them, because this will be the last time we hang until the end of the year from our All Around Ecuador trip, because the Amazon and Galapagos trips will only be with our own city, and 1 other city that is close to us. That night we met a lot of tourist people, visiting from all over the world! We met a group of 20 people from Denmark who are traveling all over Ecuador with a travel group for 2 months. I also met some people from Russia, Chile, and Argentina, and after getting to talking I learned that the one from Argentina went to the US as a Rotary exchange student a few years ago!


 <----Buggys
 (felt good to drive again
 after 10 weeks!)




                              Canopying---->





The next morning, after only a few hours of sleep, we wanted to go rafting, but because the drive was so long back home, we couldn't fit it into our day, so we had to pack up the car and leave Banos. This was actually really sad for me because I loved this trip and the mountains were so relaxing and fun because of the how much safer it is than Guayaquil. Also, because we were in the mountains it was much colder there, so it was nice to have a chance to actually wear my sweatshirt. It almost felt like fall back home, but instead of the leaves changing colors, it was all palm trees. Banos has been one of my favorite parts of Ecuador so far, and I really hope I can go back there again this year when my parents come to visit, because I know they will love it too!