Tidbits of life: week 2 in La Merced (Teresa)

We're having all kinds of interesting experiences here....and you know, "interesting" can mean all kinds of things :)

On our second day of classes, we had divided into 3 small groups to play simple rhythms with percussion instruments.  As Kent says, my groups can easily get me distracted by bringing up most any topic!  This group of girls, ages 10-12 was particularly talkative, and after Kent explained what each group was to be working on, these girls wanted to figure out why Kent talks differently.  Where is he from?  They began guessing....Argentina?  Brazil?  Then one in the group, Diana, explained that he's probably from a country where they don't speak Spanish very much.  I affirmed that indeed, we are all from the U.S.   Before I could say more, they were on to discussing what language he speaks, if it's not Spanish.  After a bit, I explained that our main language in English, which surprised them, but also helped them understand why our Spanish is "different"!  Diana, who is good at explaining, then took the chance to inform me that everyone in Peru speaks Spanish as their main language.  I appreciated their curiosity and affirmed that we are eager to learn more of their language.  Lots of good learning, even when we're far off topic!! 

Luisa and I have both been sick already in La Merced.  It seems that in our first week in each new location we all experience some level of stomach sickness.  In Mexico, they say it's "Montezuma's Revenge" on  European descendants.  Luisa timed her sickness just right....she was vomitting through the evening....but then was better through the night so she didn't miss any classes.  I got sicker through the night, so stayed in bed, and close to the bathroom through the next day.  Rosa made us special tea to settle our stomachs and a chicken noodle soup (a universal remedy!) to eat until our systems returned to normal(ish).  It all passed quickly, for which we are always grateful.

Our hosts have a washing machine that we can use, and have lots of clothes lines on the top, open level of the house, which is the typical place to hang clothes.  The main challenge is that since it's the rainy season, it's always part science and part game to figure out a good time to wash and hang clothes.  I like this game, and often play it at home, so I'm up for it; I'm very glad to be able to hang out laundry again!  Often there is rain in the night and into the morning, but then clears to some degree by noon.  The question is what time the rain will return, and it returns very quickly.  Rosa advises "as soon as you see the sun, quick wash a load and hang it out...if there's full sun it will dry in an hour."  This has worked for me a couple of times now, as we have a "siesta" break from 12-4pm to go home for dinner and a rest (and laundry) before returning to teach more classes.  But, some days it never clears up, so then we wait to see what happens the next day.  Today our family is desperate for some clean clothes, so when the sun came out full at 11am, I left my family to finish class and I dashed home to put clothes in the washer.  Fun game, and we will enjoy sun-dried clothes tomorrow :)

Rain (Magdalena and Luisa)

        Last night when we were going to bed it started to pour. It poured all through the night and most of the morning. So when we were ready to go to work this morning we decided to take a mototaxi because it was raining a lot. But everyone else in La Merced had also decided to take a mototaxi instead of walking. Every mototaxi was full (normally only 1/4 to 1/3 to the mototaxis have people in them). Also, La Merced has a creek going through it, but are there any bridges? There are two bridges but only one is big enough for mototaxis and neither are big enough for cars. 

        As we headed out on the main street where we normally drive literally across the creek we saw lots and lots of semis, big trucks, and cars stopped on the side of the road. Then we got to see the now wide and fast flowing river that would easily knock a mototaxi off the 15 foot ledge. Not even the semis could go through. So we went over, along with all of the other mototaxis, to the other street that literally goes across the river to cross the bridge. There were already about 30 other mototaxis there waiting to cross the little bridge with the police directing traffic. This river goes right through the middle of town so we asked our host family why there wasn't a bridge that cars could go on. Their resoning was that this only happens about 15 days per year so it wouldn't be worth all the money that goes into building a big bridge. By the time we went home for lunch the river was still too strong for the mototaxis but cars and trucks could go through.

Random Musings on our First Four Days in La Merced (Kent)

We have experienced SOOO much in our first few days in La Merced.  So, I´m going to do this post with random bullet points that are ordered by what ever comes to my mind:

• Because there is no wifi in La Merced, we are unable to download any pictures onto the blog from our iPad.  When we return to Lima in 5 weeks, we will download as many of our La Merced pictures as possible.
• We are volunteering with the Peruvian National Police!  How did that happen?  In the U.S. it´s the parks and recs department that organize rec programs.  Here it´s the PNP.  Right now they run their summer vacation programs (vacaciones útiles), which are all sports, except for our music classes.
• The "vacaciones útiles" (literally "useful vacation") are very well organized, although there are always some glitches at the beginning of starting any program.  Our main glitch was that on the first day of classes (we are teaching 3), our third class had 50 students!  I had told them that my max was 25-30.  The advantage of having 4 of us teaching is that we can split the class into multiple groups.  Magdalena, Luisa and Teresa are all great group leaders, although Teresa´s groups somehow always get her sidetracked with conversation and questions, and then her groups get behind.  It´s really hard for a chaplain/pastor to cut people off and not listen to them. :)
• The majority of our classes are girls between the ages of 6-14.  I think it was kind of marketed that way.  We have them for 90 minutes each.  They are very enthusiastic and participate very well.  It might be because music education was eleminated from the public school curriculum years ago.
• At our initial meeting with our supervisor, tecnico Johnny Alata, he said that parents were wondering why volunteers from the U.S. weren´t teaching any English classes.  I was hesitant to say yes because I thought that four and a half hours of volunteer teaching were enough for one day.  However, Magdalena and Luisa got really excited about the idea and wanted to take charge of the planning.  So, starting Monday we will be teaching one hour of English classes to twenty-five 8-9 year olds (which probably means at least 25 children between the age of 6-14).
• Luis and Rosa are wonderful, hospitable and warm host parents and are great conversationalists.  However, I got "scolded" by Rosa for buying organic, local sugar because it´s very expensive by Peruvian standards.  For U.S. standards it was cheap--a little more than a dollar for a half pound.  
• We´re here in the rainy season.  It´s quite beautiful to be in a place that is surronded by lush green mountains that often have ground cover.  When we take a taxi from our house to town, we have to drive through a river.  All the taxis here are 3-wheeled moto-taxis and many don´t have doors, so when we go through a river we have to put our feet up so we don´t get wet.  This is especially tricky because usually Luisa is on my lap so that we can fit in a 3 person taxi.
• One culture shock here is that pictures of bikini-clad women adverstise nearly everything from organic coffee to car washes to spray paint to tours.
• We are in the coffee capital of Peru, which is a real treat, especially since the main coffee that people in Ecuador drink is Nescafe.  "Misha" coffee, which is named after the Coati animal (related to the raccoon) is billed as being the most expensive coffee in the world because it goes through a very complicated and unusual process.  The coati feeds only on coffee beans but can only digest the outer shell.  The excrement is then collected and the remaining shell is taken off.  Then it´s washed, roasted and processed.  Apparently it´s a very delicious coffee, but we will probably never know.  A very small bag costs approximately $35 U.S. 
• As a contrast, I bought 4 fresh bread rolls this morning for breakfast. The cost was 50 centimos, which comes out to 20 U.S. cents!
• The mayor of La Merced is Mario Jung, who was born in Korea and immigrated as an adult.
• This afternoon we hope to go to the Mariposario (butterfly park) and a small zoo which has regional animals.
• We all love it here in La Merced!  This is a very nice place to spend 5 weeks!  There are also some nice tours that we hope to do on some of our weekends.

On the road again.... (Teresa)

Yes, I like old country songs.....and yes, we were on the road (and winding roads) again last night!  We left Lima last evening at 10:30 on a nice double decker bus to travel to the region of Chanchamayo, in "La Selva Central" which is literally "the central jungle."  We´re in the town of La Merced, so it´s not as wild as it sounds....but it is lush, green and mountainous, and is considered a gateway into the jungle interior.  We arrived at about 7am this morning, waking up to the new surroundings.  It is like going on a mystery trip to travel in the night and cross into another geographic region. It wasn´t so fun when Magdalena and I woke up with stomach sickness in the night, and couldn´t go back to sleep until pills took effect. But, what fun to look around upon arrival and begin to discover this new place.

We were warmly greeted at the small bus station by Luis, our host, who quickly packed our heavy suitcases into a mototaxi and packed our sleepy family into his car taxi (taxi driving is his work).  Within 5 minutes we were greeted at their home by his wife Rosa, who is equally as warm and welcoming as Luis.  They are empty nesters whose adult children live in Lima, and they have much experience hosting university students from the U.S., including Goshen College students.  There home is nestled in a small farm of chickens, fruit trees and countryside, just outside of town.  It is another "tranquilo" place to be, for which we are especially grateful after two weeks in a huge city where we had to guard our children and belongings every moment.

After visiting for a bit with Rosa and Luis, we settled into our rooms just enough to be able to shower and nap until the main meal at 1pm.  Our agreement is that we will have lunches with our hosts, and do breakfast and supper on our own.  They are very happy to share their large kitchen which has a gorgeous view on 3 sides of the countryside and mountains.  We enjoyed chicken, rice, green salad and passion fruit juice, along with more conversation at lunch.  Then we did more unpacking before heading out for a walk to town, a 30 min. walk at a relaxed pace.

After asking for help a couple of times, we located the main plaza around which the town is set.  And, for some reason, we quickly noticed a fair trade coffee and chocolate shop on one corner :)  We had heard that Menno Tea (bottled garden mint tea company founded by former Goshen College students) is sold at a coffee shop here....and sure enough this was the place: Highland Coffee.  (Their plant is outside of town, and we´ll definitely tour that later.)  Today we just enjoyed some Menno Tea, terrific iced coffee, samples of coffee liquor (requested by Kent!) and chocolate covered orange peel (all local products!).

It seems that wifi isn´t available in town, so we found an internet store, and we are each on a computer, catching up on Facebook, email, and the blog.  Next we´ll visit a grocery store to get breakfast and supper supplies before heading back to our new home, likely by way of mototaxi.  Tomorrow morning we´ll meet with the man who directs the police department´s summer children´s programs to finalize plans for our classes that will begin on Thursday.  We look foward to teaching and enjoying music with children again, and in this new setting.  And we look forward to learning more about La Selva Central!

What's in the neighborhood? (Luisa and Magdalena)

A couple of days ago we took a walk on San Juan avenue (the Main Street in the neighborhood) and were surprised with the amount of vendors and small stores. So last night we walked there again but this time we took note pads to write everything down. Here are the results from one side of three blocks:

Stores:
-- 10 pharmacies
-- 9 dentists
-- 7 clothing stores
-- 5 chicken restaurants
-- 5 Chinese (Chifa) restaurants
-- 5 hair salons
-- 5 phone stores
-- 5 bakery's
-- 5 glasses stores
-- 5 gold buyers and sellers
-- 4 convenient stores
-- 3 ice cream stores
-- 3 toy stores
-- 3 photo stores
-- 2 banks
-- 2 pirated video stores
-- 2 shoe stores
-- 2 juice bars
-- 2 office supply stores
-- 2 medical centers
-- 2 casinos
-- 2 dollar/euro/soles changers
-- 1 health food in a bottle store
-- 1 alcohol store
-- 1 orthodontist
-- 1 toy/purse/jewelry store
-- 1 vet
-- 1 pizza place
-- 1 tailor
-- 1 wedding dress store
-- 1 western union
-- 1 Chinese/seviche restaurant
-- 1 perfume and gifts store
-- 1 tour agency
-- 1 Peruvian restaurant
-- 1 craft store
-- 1 Peruvian drinks store

Street Vendors:
-- 15 pirated video vendors
-- 15 general clothes vendors
-- 9 convenient store carts
-- 8 jewelry vendors
-- 8 socks and underwear vendors
-- 4 fried food vendors
-- 4 hat vendors
-- 4 remote control vendors
-- 4 shoe vendors
-- 3 book vendors
-- 3 corn vendors
-- 2 odds and ends vendors (it looked like they just robbed somebody)
-- 2 cell phone case vendors
-- 2 flip flop vendors
-- 2 cigar, shoe polish, batteries, and watches vendors
-- 2 fruit carts
-- 2 ice cream carts
-- 2 finger nail clippers and other finger nail stuff vendors
-- 2 piggy bank vendors
-- 2 toy vendors
-- 2 tiny electric stuff vendors (again it just looked like they had robbed a person)
-- 2 sunglasses vendors
-- 1 man with a basket of homemade cookies
-- 1 shoe polish, shoe laces vendor
-- 1 belts and wallets vendor
-- 1 electronics vendor
-- 1 shirt vendor
-- 1 chicha morada (Peruvian drink made out of purple corn) vendor
-- 1 man collecting recycling
-- 1 woman selling lottery tickets
-- 1 bread and chips vendor
-- 1 chia seeds vendor
-- 1 white board vendor
-- 1 quail eggs vendor
-- 1 leather stuff vendor
-- 1 second hand shoes, pants, and balls vendor
-- 1 hair stuff vendor
-- 1 chocolate bar vendor
-- 1 assorted artisans stuff vendor
-- 1 ice cube tray vendor
-- 1 poster vendor
-- 1 lanyards vendor

Two weeks in Lima (Magdalena and Luisa)

We're in Lima Peru, the biggest city we've ever been in with 10 million people. We've been here for almost two weeks and are getting ready to go to the rainforest on Monday. The first week we went to a Suzuki violin festival.  This week, what we've done so far in Lima:

--We are staying at the Mennonite Brethern church in Lima that we attended last Sunday and we met lots of people. The church is about 40 people and located in a big house.

--On Monday we went to the Malecon which is the downtown area along the ocean. We rented bikes for three hours so we could see get to see everything. We stopped at a nice artisan market where Magdalena bought alpaca yarn to knit a sweater and Luisa bought some colorful flip flops. We biked on a very nice path with trees between the two lanes of a busy main street. We also got a glimpse of a pyramid that was discovered in the middle of Lima but we didn't have time for the tour. We saw nice fountains and nice parks. Also there were lots of hang gliders that were gliding over the beach and over tall buildings and it looked fun but it was really expensive so we didn't do it.

--From Tuesday to Wednesday we went camping with three other families from church. The one family has five kids so there were lots of kids to play with. The camping place was on the beach but the beach was closed the whole time we were there so we just went to the four swimming pools. We played soccer, uno and other games with them and we had a great time. We also made Mac n cheese with tuna for supper which was new to some of them and they all wanted to try some and they loved it.

--On Wednesday evening we went to a concert at the Suzuki festival. The concert was the Latin American orchestra and choir. Each country had their own outfit which was very cool because it made the orchestra and choir very colorful and diverse looking.

--Thursday we went on a tour around town with our friend Willy. He took us to see the historic part of Lima where we got a tour of an old cathedral with catacombs underneath. We also went to the palace where the president lives and we saw the changing of the guards ceremony. We also went up on a very tall hill (in Indiana we would call it a mountain) and we could see a lot of the city and the ocean.

--Today we will go to a museum about the history of Lima. We will go with one or two of the families that we went camping with.

--Tomorrow we will go to the house of a woman from the church for lunch (their main meal) and visiting with her family.

--On Sunday we will attend this church again and then will go to the house of a family we went camping with for lunch with their extended family.

--On Monday we will leave at 10pm to go on an eight hour bus ride to the rainforest where we will be for about a month.

The Suzuki festival (Magdalena)

This past week we spent at the 30th Annual Latin American Suzuki Festival in Lima Peru. It was held at a huge catholic school called Santísimo Nombre de Jesús that was just fifteen minutes away in taxi. The festival went from Tuesday to Friday with a final concert on Saturday. From Tuesday to Friday it was like school, we had a schedule with our classes and where they were. 

Each day everyone would have a private lesson for twenty to forty minutes long where a teacher from somewhere in South America would give you a lesson on the piece of your choice. Also, for fifty minutes, everyone would be in a group class with about ten others that were their level and the teacher would help them with the group songs that everyone would be playing at the final concert. The group lesson were very fun because the teachers loved playing all kinds of games like bowing each other's instruments or walking around on chairs while playing twinkle twinkle. Each day there would also be a play-in where all the 120 violinists went to the gym and played songs from twinkle twinkle all the way up to the Bach double together. And everyone got to pick an elective or two including orchestra, choir, and cajón (a box drum). Then every afternoon there were three recitals and each kid had been assigned to one of these twelve recitals. Here you would perform with an accompanist for your peers.

One night there was a concert that all the violin, cello, recorder, guitar and flute teachers did. They had solos, duets, trios, quartets, etc. up to 12 or 15 people. It was a great concert. On Friday night was the workshop concert where the orchestra, cajones and choir performed. And the festival ended on Saturday night with the final concert where the cellos had their play-in, the recorders had their play-in and then the violins had their play-in.

The festival was a great experience getting to music with violinists from all over South America. Just in my group class alone was a girl from Bolivia, a girl from Colombia, a girl from Peru, six kids from Brazil, me from the US and our teacher from Chile. We also met a family that was there from Canada. 

Festival languages

Kent gave the girls an assignment for the third day of the Suzuki Festival, "initiate a conversation with at least one other student."  Magdalena quickly responded, "Yesterday I tried that with my stand partner in orchestra, but she only speaks Portuguese, she's from Brazil!"  Teresa suggested that Magdalena could start learning Portuguese, but she insisted that her stand partner needs to learn Spanish, since that's what the rest of the continent speaks (except for a few tiny countries on the north coast).  Meanwhile, Luisa has been able to talk with her stand partner, since she's from this city and seems as outgoing as Luisa.

This is the way it is here at this international festival.  Obviously the official language is Spanish.  But there are 25 students who came from Brazil, along with teachers and parents.  Magdalena's first private teacher was from Brazil, but speaks Spanish and English.  Her second private teacher, who was born in Japan and studied under Suzuki, is a Brazilian resident who speaks Japanese, English and a bit of Spanish.  Luisa's private teacher is part of the Colombian contingent, and teaches only in Spanish.  It's certainly true here that music transcends cultures and languages!

How's the Suzuki Festival, so far?

HIGHLIGHTS from the first two days....

Magdalena:  My teachers are fun and helpful.  My group teacher has us play a bunch of games (with instruments and songs) that are fun and challenging.

Luisa:  I like being in the orchestra with Magdalena.


LOWLIGHTS from the first two days.....

Magdalena:  I was super behind in the group class because I don't have all my past songs memorized like others do.

Luisa:  There are only two violas in the festival, so we're combined with cellos for everything.

Happy to be in Lima (Teresa)

We have arrived safe and sound in Lima after many hours of traveling...and we are happy, grateful, and tired!  We began yesterday afternoon, leaving Guayaquil at 2pm on the bus and arrived in Lima today at 6pm.  The longest stop was at the border, entering Peru, where we spent nearly an hour while everyone went through the lines with documents.  Our bus was a luxury 2 level bus, which had bathrooms, wifi, movies, snacks/drinks for sale, and meal service (included in the price).  It worked out very nicely, and we saved lots of mullah compared to flying.  Half way through the trip, Luisa declared that it was nice enough to repeat on our return trip to Ecuador at the end of May.

We really enjoyed seeing the southern coast of Ecuador and the northern coast of Peru.  We were surprised how close the Andes mountains are to the coast, and we saw sand dunes larger than our dunes in Michiana!  It was also very interesting to see crops of bananas, rice, asparagus, grapes, and others we couldn't identify.  The last two hours, just north of Lima, the road was right along the ocean.  Incredible scenery, but made me a bit nervous.  Thankfully, our bus driver didn't drive as speedily as the ones who passed us!

Once in Lima, we followed directions to the Mennonite Brethren church by taxi; 45 minutes winding through this city of 10 million (approximately).  I'm glad I don't have to drive in this traffic.  We were met at the church house by the pastor Ronald, and church members Eliana and Ricardo.  The made us feel right at home, and after showing us around the large house (including space where they worship) we walked to a favorite pizza place to get carry out.  We look forward to getting to know this church group more, including worshipping with them two Sundays.  They've already told us they look forward to us sharing music in the service :)

The Dangers of Living Anywhere (Kent)

One of the fears people have of traveling to far off places is that many places in the world are dangerous.  This is especially true of the western perception of the "developing world."  "Poorer" is often thought of as being "more dangerous."  However, this trip has helped me to realize that everywhere on the world has it's own set of dangers.  Yes, the war zones of this world are extremely dangerous.  Those are the extremes of the one end of the spectrum.  I think it's wrong to assume that the place where we are from (Goshen, Indiana in our case) is automatically on the other end of the safety spectrum.  There are plenty of dangers in Goshen, Indiana, but we are accustomed to them and know how to live with them.

If there was a list called "The Top 10 Safest Places to Live in South America," the island of San Cristobal, which was our home for the first 4 months of our South American journey, would most likely be on this list.  Overall, it's safer than Goshen, Indiana.  The police are the only ones who own guns.  There is an extremely low crime rate.  Parents feel safe letting children roam the town just like "the good old days" in the United States.  There are only two organized sports for children, basketball and soccer, and there are not near the number of injuries we have in the states.  Traffic is very light here and is doesn't go very fast.  There aren't many accidents at all, and when there are accidents they don't involve semis, snow, ice or deer.

However, there are other dangers, and we have learned how to live with them.  Whether you are swimming in Lake Michigan or the Pacific Ocean, you need to be careful with waves and currents. Most sea creatures are not harmful to humans, including the sharks here.  Only the sting rays are dangerous, and if you don't get too close to them and you stay out of their way, there's no problem.  Centipedes are one of the more dangerous land animals in the Galapagos.  They are much bigger and longer than their North American cousins, and their bite will give you a fever for a few days.   Adult male sea lions can be very dangerous, but everyone knows to stay away from these beasts.  There is only one adult male per group, so usually there is just one  per beach.  Human-made structures don't have the same standards and codes as we are used to, which can be dangerous.  A number of the National Park railings and boardwalks are missing some pieces.  A large section of overhang at the brand new airport recently broke off and fell on someone, sending them to the hospital.  And then there's electrical wiring, which is often sticking out of things and looks a bit haphazard.

Hot showers here are luxuries and we are not assuming we will have these everywhere we go in Ecuador and Peru.  Our shower (see picture) consisted of a long pipe coming out of the wall about 18-24 inches.  On the end of the pipe is a shower head, which has wires coming out of it and are taped to the pipe.  These wires are what heats the water.  When I first saw this set-up, it looked quite haphazard, but then I got used to it, because things that would not pass inspection in the US are everywhere.  Then one morning as I was taking a nice hot shower there was a pop and an explosive noise.  Teresa, who was at the sink started yelling "Stop!  Stop! Stop!"  I was in my own world, shampooing my hair and enjoying my hot shower and didn't really want to be bothered, but being the obedient husband that I am,  I looked up to see that the shower head was on fire, and had a flame of about six inches high!  I quickly turned the water off.  The flame became smaller, but was still there, so I blew it out.

So, there I was naked, wet and with shampoo in my hair.  Do I cry for help and have our whole host family examine the situation while I am wrapped in the shower curtain?  Awkward!  Should I try to rinse my head off in the sink?  No, the sink is too small and my head is too big.  Then I remembered that on the shower head you can turn on or off the hot shower, although it wasn't  exactly clear to me which way was off.  I did my best guess and turned on the water.  I was right!  Cold water came out and I quickly rinsed off with cold water.  I got dressed and ready for the day and then went out to tell Yolanda, the matriarch, what happened.  Yolanda's eyes got big and concerned as I told her what happened, and then she burst out laughing! She said that Pepe will fix it later.  By the time we came home for lunch, a new shower head with new wires was installed, although some of the other remaining parts are still black from the fire.

We don't always know what dangers lie ahead of us.  However, we know to take precautions--especially when traveling.  The Ecuadoran Government actually hands out a Safety Guide pamphlet to everyone entering the country.  After all, it is in their best interest that tourists have a good experience.  It covers things like how to identify  licensed taxis, tour guides and tour agencies, drinking water, and ATM safety.  On our 26 hour bus ride from Guayaquil to Lima that we will take today, we've been told that we should not get off the bus (safety reasons) until we arrive.  Once we get to our destinations, we will be in places where we will be connected with our hosts, which makes a big difference.  Being part of a community and being connected to local people, like we will be most of the time, is really key.  It's like the t-shirt I used to have:  "Guns don't protect people.  People do."

Horsing Around on New Year's Eve (Teresa)

Picture an afternoon in the green, rocky hills on a tropical island....a perfect mix of sun and a refreshing breeze. You and a few others set off to a horse farm where able guides will match you with a gentle animal for an afternoon of horse-back riding, hiking along hilltops where tortoises roam free, and viewing breath-taking vistas of the island, coastline, and ocean.

Now you almost have a complete picture of what we did on the afternoon of New Year's Eve.  The weather was perfect; not too hot, cooler than the port town where we live, and the rain had ceased after steady nighttime showers.  The mosquitos and flies had been enlivened by the recent rains, but we had put on long pants, sleeves, and substantial repellant.  Our group included the two German volunteers from our house, Kassandra and Isabel, Magdalena, Luisa and me.  The guides were attentive and skilled with the horses, hiking along with us (leading the horses of Magdalena and Luisa), up and over rocky, verdant hills until we reached the plateau where they own another piece of land.  There we left our horses tied, and while they rested we hiked together, stopping to take it the views.

Cloud cover came and went as we picked out sights we now recognize:  the grand Leon Dormido (the large rocks where Kent went with a group for deep-water snorkeling);  the lovely, little Sea Lion Island where all of us had visited (and snorkeled) on our boat trip a few months ago; the port and town which we've called home for nearly 4 months; picturesque sandy and rocky beaches, some we've visited and some not; and Frigate Hill that we've enjoyed hiking many times.  From this point we could easily identify where the rains fall more and less often by the colors of vegetation.  We could also easily see the covering of invasive guava trees just below the plateau.

Our guide, and farm owner, explained that the area where we were standing had also been taken over by introduced guava trees and raspberry bushes.  When he bought the land from the parks department it was with the understanding that he would undertake a reforestation project, like that of the park property nearby.  This farmer, along with a crew of international volunteers, has cleared this plateau of guava and raspberries, and has re-planted thousands of young scalesia trees.  Some are already four feet tall, now growing quickly in the rainy season.  Because of the reforestation project, this area is a perfect habitat for the native tortoises to thrive, and we spotted two of them (approximately 7 & 20 yrs old) resting in the afternoon sun.

The only part of the idyllic picture I painted in the first paragraph that didn't happen was the hope for a gentle animal to ride.  Well, several of us had a gentle horses to carry them up and down the hills.  But my horse and Luisa's horse weren't!  They actually were nervous, rowdy, or just full macho horses.  I don't know the correct term since, as we told the guides at the start, only Isabel was a knowledgeable and experienced horse-rider; the rest of us were not.  They put Luisa on hers because of it's smaller stature.  I'm not sure how I lucked out with mine!  When the horses were in line and walking along one by one, we did alright.  But when my horse was too close to any other, or saw other male horses in the pasture along the road, he made quite a fuss, even rearing up, and scaring the crap out of me several times!  When we all reached the top of the hill, and Luisa's horse came near to mine, they both went nuts, nearly throwing us from their backs, and knocking over the younger of our two guides.  The owner soon got them under control, and Luisa and I dismounted safely, though we were certainly shaken.

When it was time to mount our horses again, I first asked what other tips they could give us for handling our horses.  They reiterated what they had told us on the way up, but didn't give me much comfort for my return trip.  The one guide did give me some comfort by escorting Luisa's horse again on the way down.  My horse probably sensed my nervousness, because on the return trip he didn't want to go!  I had to repeatedly put my heels in his sides ("harder!" the guides told me) to keep him moving at all.  And the owner (trying to help?) repeatedly commented on what a "fun" ("divertido" in spanish) horse I had.  He also said my horse was tired of carrying too much weight.  Was he really commenting on my weight?  Was this comment appropriate, in any culture?!  I just really wanted to get back to our starting point and get back on my own two feet!  I considered dismounting and leading the horse rather than riding, but who knows what this crazy horse would've done with me in front of him!

Finally, as we neared the starting point, I could breath a sigh of relief.  And just then, I heard Magdalena and Luisa both let out a holler.  Magdalena's horse (Luisa watching from behind) got spooked by something and reared up, nearing tossing Magdalena.  She stayed on, and again, the guide got the horse under control quickly.  But, at that point we were all ready to dismount and put this experience behind us.  Who's idea had this been anyhow, for all of us with no or very little experience with horses, to take this trek?!  We all managed to to dismount with no more problems, to say "thank you", and pay what we owned our guides.  With nerves on edge we returned to the safety of a taxi, and headed back to town.

But there was more adventure to be had before we reached home.  At the edge of town, two young men, dressed up as women in black mourning clothes and carrying baby dolls, ran into the road, blocking our taxi from passing.  These "viudas" (widows) are a common tradition here on New Year's Eve, which we had heard about but not yet witnessed.  Now we had!  They were quite a sight, but also quite playful as they danced around and hollered until someone from the car would give them a few coins, then they would allow up to pass.  We were all laughing by the time we reached our house; nearly forgetting our earlier brushes with danger, we were ready for the festivities of the evening and night to come.  A wild and crazy New Year's Eve, and it was only 5pm..... a bit too much excitement for me!!

Leaving San Cristóbal (Magdalena)

Just an update to say that we left San Cristóbal today. We flew for and hour and a half to Guayaquil, the city we were in for our first week, and we will be in a hostal for two nights before taking our 26 hour bus ride down to Lima, Peru.

New Years celebration on San Cristóbal (Magdalena)

A couple nights ago we had a great New Years celebration. We started off in the afternoon by decorating the patio to create a display for the muñecos. Pablo was entering the competition this year and the judges would come by the house later to judge. Then our family, Ashanti, Diana, Kassandra and Isabel went to the malecón to look at the other muñecos. When we got back to the house the judges had already come and gone so Pablo put the muñecos in the back of the truck to display and most of us got in and we went around town showing off the muñecos. When we got back (at 10:30) we had supper. After that we still had an hour to waste. Everyone was tired but as it got closer to midnight everyone became more excited and became more alive. When it was about twenty 'till we all headed out on he street with the muñecos and put them on the rocks across the street. Luisa and Ashanti decided they were going to run around the block with suitcases which signifies good luck with lots of good travel in the new year. Then when it was midnight lots of fireworks went off down the road and we lit the muñecos with lots of gasoline. Then we all gave New Years hugs and went to the park in the middle of town where most of the people on the island were gathered along with lots of tourists (mostly Brazilian). And lining the edges of the park were lots of beer vendors. We danced to the music of the band for a while. Then our host family went home and our family went for a little walk around the park where we happened upon a drunk volunteer that we knew and he wanted to talk to us for a while. Being a sheltered Mennonite child, I hadn't ever talked to a drunk person before. It was funny. He kept bending over really far (more than someone who is over 6' 6" needs to) to talk to my mom. He asked us a couple times what part of the US we are from and he talked about how he lives in the part of Germany that is really close to the Czech border and in Czech they have really dangerous fireworks that can burn off half your arm. Then after we had been talking to him for a while he leaned over and said in my moms ear, "I'm sorry but I have to pee." Then we went on a pointless walk around town which didn't make any sense because nothing is open at 1:30 in the morning. So my dad and Luisa went home and my mom and I went back to the party and stayed for a half an hour more before walking home.