Hi all. I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post - we have been very busy! I'm heading to Cuenca with the four other Americans this weekend. It's Ecuador's third-largest city and supposedly the most beautiful. It's also about a 10 hour bus ride through the Andes. We're leaving tonight, so I won't have a chance to update for most of the weekend. I promise I'll put up some more general reflections regarding the country and the people soon, but for now I wanted to post a few photos from our last trip, to Mindo - two hours north of Quito, in the cloud forest. Classes and service-learning start next week. In between salsa lessons, museums, and nights out on the town I don't know how I'll ever manage to fit them in! WOW! Anyway, here are the photos:
Okay, so this photo is not technically from Mindo. Instead, it was taken during a lunch Juan's house. Juan is our program director. He lives in Guapalo, an older part of Quito located on the side of a cliff. As a group, we concluded that his backyard looks like the Swiss Alps meets ancient Greece meets, well, Ecuador of course. It's absolutely gorgeous. I love this photo of us and I loved the lunch, a traditional coastal meal shared with high-ranking officials of Universidad Politécnica Salesiana (UPS), one of the universities where we'll be taking courses. We had the chance to discuss not only potential courses and extracurriculars, but also favorite Ecuadorian slang. I lamented the fact that everyone drinks instant here and one of the women promised me coffee anytime I drop by her office, fresh from her husband's organic coffee farm on the coast.
Me and Anna on our way to our hotel in Mindo.
One of the many great cloud forest views from the cabaña I shared with Anna and Mariel.
The main lodge where we lounged in hammocks during the day and played candelit chess at night.
Anna and Maribel walking to our cabaña from the main lodge.
Philip showing us all how to get a butterfly to eat banana from your fingers. The woman in the background is Jimena, one of the awesome-incredible-fantastic-amazing-there-aren't-enough-superlatives-in-the-world-to-do-justice program coordinators.
And me with a beautiful ojo de bujo!
Avi, me, and Anna.
This photo was half an hour in the making. Butterflies are beautiful, but so very fickle.
This is the garden adjacent to the lodge. All our vegetarian meals came fresh from here!
Our guide, Fernando, taking us on a short hike to learn about some of the most common cloud forest plant species.
Covered in mud, but having a great time: Johnathan, Lolo (another program coordinator), and Mariel.
Survivor: Ecudaor.
Our guides were amazing! They somehow managed to navigate six novices down the rocky Mindo River – and trust me, it looked like hard work.
Tubing in the Mindo River: So. Much. Fun. There's really nothing more I can say.
About to zip-line! I didn’t realize that Philip was taking this photo, but I’m glad he did because I can recount the conversation verbatim. Me: I’m not going to die? Fernando: It’s not your time. Me: Promise? Fernando: I promise. Me: ¿Estás segura? Fernando: Segur
o, por favor. I can’t translate the last two lines without some explanation. I was so nervous that I could barely talk and I accidentally referred to him as female. His response made me laugh and I felt better about jumping off a cliff with nothing but a single cable for support.
Here I go!
Please note that Philip is not wearing shoes.
Fernando is 22, but one of the other guides teased him for acting like a kid on the ropes. In this photo, he's is doing all kind of ridiculous acrobatics while adjusting his harness mid-air. You know - just chilling.
Posing in front of the final line! In the background, you can see Lolo is already on her way.
Okay, so this photo is not technically from Mindo. Instead, it was taken during a lunch Juan's house. Juan is our program director. He lives in Guapalo, an older part of Quito located on the side of a cliff. As a group, we concluded that his backyard looks like the Swiss Alps meets ancient Greece meets, well, Ecuador of course. It's absolutely gorgeous. I love this photo of us and I loved the lunch, a traditional coastal meal shared with high-ranking officials of Universidad Politécnica Salesiana (UPS), one of the universities where we'll be taking courses. We had the chance to discuss not only potential courses and extracurriculars, but also favorite Ecuadorian slang. I lamented the fact that everyone drinks instant here and one of the women promised me coffee anytime I drop by her office, fresh from her husband's organic coffee farm on the coast. 
Me and Anna on our way to our hotel in Mindo.
One of the many great cloud forest views from the cabaña I shared with Anna and Mariel.
The main lodge where we lounged in hammocks during the day and played candelit chess at night.
Anna and Maribel walking to our cabaña from the main lodge. 
Philip showing us all how to get a butterfly to eat banana from your fingers. The woman in the background is Jimena, one of the awesome-incredible-fantastic-amazing-there-aren't-enough-superlatives-in-the-world-to-do-justice program coordinators.
And me with a beautiful ojo de bujo!
Avi, me, and Anna. 
This photo was half an hour in the making. Butterflies are beautiful, but so very fickle.
This is the garden adjacent to the lodge. All our vegetarian meals came fresh from here!
Our guide, Fernando, taking us on a short hike to learn about some of the most common cloud forest plant species. 
Covered in mud, but having a great time: Johnathan, Lolo (another program coordinator), and Mariel.
Survivor: Ecudaor. 
Our guides were amazing! They somehow managed to navigate six novices down the rocky Mindo River – and trust me, it looked like hard work. 
Tubing in the Mindo River: So. Much. Fun. There's really nothing more I can say.
About to zip-line! I didn’t realize that Philip was taking this photo, but I’m glad he did because I can recount the conversation verbatim. Me: I’m not going to die? Fernando: It’s not your time. Me: Promise? Fernando: I promise. Me: ¿Estás segura? Fernando: Seguro, por favor. I can’t translate the last two lines without some explanation. I was so nervous that I could barely talk and I accidentally referred to him as female. His response made me laugh and I felt better about jumping off a cliff with nothing but a single cable for support.
Here I go!
Please note that Philip is not wearing shoes.
Fernando is 22, but one of the other guides teased him for acting like a kid on the ropes. In this photo, he's is doing all kind of ridiculous acrobatics while adjusting his harness mid-air. You know - just chilling. 
Posing in front of the final line! In the background, you can see Lolo is already on her way.
Beautiful photos!! ah! It sounds so amazing and adventurous -- I'm so jealous. Classes! haha I forgot you were taking them ;) Hope you're having a great time (duh), and girl, if the biggest mistakes you make in your Spanish are using feminine instead or masculine when you're about to zip line, I don't think you need to worry about fluency! Miss youuu. -julia
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