LA AMAZONIA!!!

The amazonian rain forests are nothing like anything I've ever seen before. The amazing plants, animals, insects as well as the company of really great friends made my amazon trip the best one yet. We did and saw so much that I'm going to have to break this trip up into the four days we spent enjoying one of the most increadible places on earth.

DAY 1: REUNITED
For this trip, rotary split us up into groups of around 20 to 25 people based on our rotary clubs. Meaning that I didn't get to go at the same time as Sonja, Maddie and Usman however my club got to go with a lot of the people from Cuenca! Cuenca is a city in the mountains, but very south of Quito meaning that we haven't seen those people since the Manabi trip back in November. It was so great to meet up with Anna-Maria, Theophile, Cyrille and a bunch of other people again!

We left the Quito airport at around 8:30 in a small plane about the size of the one I took to get from Moncton to Newark. Half an hour later we arrived in Coca, a city in the amazon region however we were going much farther in. The heat and humidity we felt getting off the plane was a little shocking, so different from cold, dry Quito. From Coca, we had a two and a half hour bus ride to get to where we would be eating lunch and boarding the canoes to take us to the camp.
That was where we met up with our friends who were coming back from their trip. A little sunburnt and bug bitten they let us know it was the best trip yet. Although I did believe them, I had to find out for myself. We had a pretty typical Ecuadorian lunch (rice, meat, vegetables) then loaded the canoes and headed off. The whole grouop was in two different canoes (which had motors). It would be about a 2 and a half to 3 hour trip to the camp. On the way we got to see lots of different species of birds, HUGE spider webs that looked like clouds on the bushes. We were told that in them were millions and millions of little spiders living together in a community.... oh joy.. We got to see little squirel monkeys as well as capuchino monkeys, who are cute but also have a tendency to attack the native children and eat their eyes depending on their mood. However, they did tell us that NO animal is agressive unless it feels threatened first. We also saw the most beautiful electric blue butterflies ever! They explained to us that we were on a black water river, all the nutriments from the trees and plants go into the water making it a very vitamine filled yet murky river.
The camp where we stayed was actually an eco-lodge, everything ecologically friendly meaning that we couldn't flush the toilets, couldn't drink the water from the tap or brush our teeth with it and only had electricity from 6 pm to about 10:30. Everything was powered by solar energy, so if there was no sun during the day, it meant there would be no or very little electricity at night.
That night, after it got dark we took the canoes to another part of the forest to go hiking and looking for nocturnal animals and insects. We were there, in long pants, shirts, big rubber boots and flash lights standing in the middle of the rain forest... WOW! We saw a lot of spiders... big surprise. Surprisingly I didn't see a tarantula although there were ones that were just as big. ew. We found a... creature, a mix between a spider and a scorpion. We also saw huge grasshopers and these insects that look like fireflies. Funny moment : APARENTLY... some fish sleep really close to the surface of the water and when they hear a noise (say.. a boat..) they start jumping to save their lives. Well..on our way back to the camp, Benedicte ended up with a fish on her stomac... did I mention I was sitting beside her? Haha.
That night we all took showers (so so hot in the amazon) then went to sleep in the safety of our mosquito net covered beds. The guides told us that because of the time of the year and the region we were in there was a 0% chance of anyone getting malaria. I think I only got one mosquito bite the whole trip!  

I roomed with Benedicte (Denmark) and Melina (Switzerland)

 DAY 2: EXPLORING

Tuesday morning, Benedicte, Melina and I woke up early to go watch for the pink river dolphins. After breakfast we slpit up into 2 groups and went for a three hour hike in the rain forest, once again we were dying of heat in our long clothes but it was a very neat trek. We saw a tree which could heal malaria, stomac aches and head aches depending which part you ate. We got to clim and swing on vines like tarzan and we each ate an ant... YUM! Haha it was very small and tasted pretty good, like lemon because the roots of the tree it lives in are very acidic. We got to see the worlds most   

poisonous frog. It is tiny but contains enough venom to kill 50 people. The venom is in the sweat produced on it's back and can only kill you if it gets into your blood. SO you can touch it as much as you want but if you eat it.... you'll die. Amazonian tribes would cover the ends of their spears with the venom in order to kill instantly. We got to see a giant ant that is more poisonous than a tarantula or a scorpion and were also taught which plants are the most important for survival incase you get lost. We didn't have to worry about the big cats or wild boar because they live about 4 hours deper into the jungle from where we were.

 This is a cute caterpillar... but poisonous.

After our hike, we went back to tha camp, had lunch then went fishing for piranahs!!! YAY!! In my opinon it's better to try to avoid these.....( please notice the razor sharp teeth).

But there we were, trying to catch these animals, our bait was bleeding meat.. yuuummmmy. There is a special technique in catching these too... in order to get the most bites, you have to beat the water with your rod THEN throw the line in. That way it sounds like an animal has fallen in and the piranahs will come running... or... you know what I mean. Everyone in the canoe caught one except me, they would just eat the meat right off the hook before I could pull it back up :-(. It was fun anyway.

Afterward they took us to the middle of the lagoon (may I remind you, the same lagoon in which we were piranah fishing and watching for caimen and anacondas) and told us to jump in. Being insane exchange students we had a nice swim while watching the sunset. Before the sun had completely set, we all had to get back into the boats before the caimen and snakes migrated back to where we were swimming.

Dripping wet and surprizingly chilly, we spent about an hour more in the boat shining our flashlights around looking for the red eyes of the caimen. We ended up seeing a few which was really cool. Caimen are a little smaller than alligators and not quite as dangerous. We finally made it back to the camp, pretty much exhausted had supper then as Papa would say, crashed. Might I add that I slept very well every single night.

DAY 3: CULTURE!

This was probably my favorite day. After breakfast we had a three hour canoe trip to get to an amazonian village. On the way we got to see pink river dolphins, but much closer then before, a whole family of monkeys SO CUTE!! And a giant turtle. In the first part of the village we met and played with a little monkey named Nacho. We also picked yuca (a vegetable kind of like a potatoe) and they taught us the process to make it into a type of bread. The bread is very tasty and can last up to 20  



days. ALSO, grating the yuca is part of the process to making the bread. What you are left with after are the pieces of yuca but also a liquidy version that happens to be a great remedy for sunburns. Some of us went swimming in the river before it was time to go, we'd walk a bit, then jump in and get taken away by the current. Lena, Theo, Irina, Cyrille, Otis and I may have had a little mud fight which was dirty but... very fun! We played for a while in the river, then we had to hop back into the canoes and go to the next part of the village. The second part is where all the kids go in the morning to school.

It was a very small school, only two rooms they also had a basketball court and of course a soccer field. We got to taste HUGE grapes right out of a tree as well as non bitter grape fruit! Also, they got us to try a tiny little seed that was probably the most spicy thing I have ever tasted! (They didn't think to warn us first either hahaha.) I wish I had brought some back for cousin David :-p As part of the tradition of the tribe, they offered us their special beer. Which is actually fermented with their spit... tasty I know. Oh well, we all tried a little bit of it. Only a little because it is actually a very strong drink and could be  

 dangerous for those of us who aren't used to it. The purpose of us going to this part of the village was to visit with tha Shaman or the doctor. He explained to us about what it was like to be a shaman and what kind of things they do. He told us that there are two kinds of jungle doctors; one that uses plants and all natural things to help with pain or cure fevers and such. To become this kind of doctor you need to study a very long time, this one had studied for 16 years. Then, there is the witch doctor for which you only have to study 2 years but it is a very dangerous practice and isn't allowed in that particular tribe anymore.

After our meeting, we played a short soccer game (exchangies versus the peopple from the village) lets just say we didn't win and leave it at that. It was all very fun though.

We got back to the camp and after supper one of our guides Luis told us three different amazonian legends and then we had fun drawing tatoos on eachother with this seed that dyes the skin. The amazonian women also use it to dye their hair, it makes it jet black. What's funny is that you can't see the dye (where you marked) until the second day so some people woke up on Thursday with a few little surprizes. Thank goodness the dye only lasts about a week.

The reason you can see it here is because we marked with pen first.



DAY 4: HEADING HOME :-(
On Thursday everyone was a little down... no one wanted to leave! We all woke up at 5 am to go out onto the lagoon and watch the sunrise.



We also had a chance to go for one last swim in the lagoon, only a few of us went though, the rest were packing. The canoe trip back to civilization (haha) was faster than the one coming into camp. We made it to the place where we had lunch when we were first arriving and had lunch once again before heading off on hour 2 and a half hour bus ride to the airport in Lago Agria.

In the bus we saw a big snake on the road and stoped for pictures and such. Everyone was tired so most of us slept a little.

It was at the airport that Lena's mom (girl from Germany in my rotary club) texted her to tell her that once again, we would be changing houses. Now at that time I was finally comfortable with the idea of going to Quito not to mention tired from the trip, so lets just say the news wasn't taken very well at first. As it turns out though, this new family is perfect for me.... but that's another story for later.... right now my fingers are most likely going to fall off.

All that to say that I am having the most amazing time ever. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world. Thanks for all the support from home, I can say I've made to and back from the amazonian rain forest without a scratch :-)

Our group.... of the exchange students there were 3 boys and 18 girls.... and one Canadian, moi! :-)

changes

Ever since school started up again my life, or plans for it have been somewhat of a roller coaster. To make a long, painful drawn-out story short (okay, that may have been a little exagerated)...but still. Right after I got back from the beach I was told that I wasn't going to have to change my house, school or anything. A few weeks later, rotary called Mami to tell her I was moving and had to change everything. They couldn't tell me where or when... just they were doing a draw to see where the girls in my club and I would end up. Gotta love when your future depends on who draws your name from a hat.... hahah. Really though, the day Mami told me that, was probably my hardest day yet. My family (being amazing) made up for it my taking to la mitad del mundo (the middle of the world)... literaly!

me, my aunts Lili and Ceci and Mami



Before going to the actual line of the Ecuator, we all had lunch on a volcano looking down into the crater.... very cool might I add.

I also got to make friends with a llama... there were a few in the front yard of the Inn where we ate.



To continue with my roller coaster story... since I kind of left it hanging in my intro, my coucellor e-mailed me the next day saying that they would not change my school. GREAT news for me since it meant I would still be able to do dance, play soccer in the olympics, organize the musical review and go to the model United Nations. However it also meant I long drive from either Quito or the other valley, Cumbaya. A few days later I got another e-mail with the information of my new host family, I'm going to Quito. Meaning, leaving my house at 6 am in order to take 3 different buses to make it to school on time. I'm not even going to go into the bus horror stories I've been told, because I'm pretty sure Papa would personally rent a jet plane and come to Ecuador and take me home. I just found out today that my new uncle works in Valley de los Chillos, so he will drive me to school every morning! Got very luck there! I still have to leave at six in the morning, but at least I don't have to deal with Ecuadorian public transportation. My cousellor called my mom a few days after I got the new host family e-mail to tell her I might not be changing houses at all anymore. By then, I didn't even want to think about hoping for that..... I was tired of rotary always changing their minds and had accepted that things like these happen for a reason. It's a good thing I didn't get my hopes up because as it turns out, I'm moving away as soon as I get back from the Amazon. I'm alright with it though, I have this peace about it and as sad as I am to be leaving this family, I'm a little excited to see what's in store for me up in Quito.

Other than my dizzing moving situation, I've been keeping busy. We were told at school that the exchange students now have to do ALL the homework, tests and projects and we will be marked just like the other students. I personally don't mind.. other than the fact that I had to restart taking math/ have been asking my brother for help ALL the time. I've been convinced to organize a musical review for mother's day. I have a lot of friends who can sing and we're going to be doing Mama Mia.. hahha I know. Since we have a very big dance competition coming up in March, I have dance everyday now except Fridays, I really love it! I've started running every morning at 5:45 with one of the orphans (Fanny) who lives in the school on my street. She's 18 too, I'm going to miss her a lot.

Saturday we had the opening ceremonies for our in-school olympics, every class is a team, we all have different uniforms and there is a playing schedule during class time and everything. My grade all had the same uniform. We kind of look like lady bugs... the jerseys are red and on the back have a line down the middle and three spots on each side... yeah... even the boys. One of my really good friends Santiago won best athelete of A P CH and got to run around the field with the torch! I think in school olympics are a really cool idea!

  My sexto (grade 12) sociales!!! <3 them





  I was "la representante" for our team, so at one point in the ceremony I had to walk out with out captain Agustine and have people judge our uniform. Our team won!! They also game me flowers, so cute! I guess having to wear the lady bug antenas was worth it. Maddie and I have be-friended the daughter of our gym teacher, she is adorable and always talks with us when we're having lunch before dance.

Me, Lea and Maddie

Later that day I went to help the people at Antorcha de Vida (the foundation where I help with the disabled kids). There was kind of a foundation fair going on in Conocoto. We had a little tent and were selling clothes and little bags of snack food. There wasn't A LOT of people there... lets just say we weren't selling a lot. I decided to take a tray of things and walk around.... thanks to my newly found "gringa" powers we ended up with quite a bit of money. Yes, mom, this story was for you by the way. I got my picture taken with one of the girls I volunteer with for the new paper.... cool!!

Well, that's about all for now. Thanks to my changing of home drama I've experienced a few hands on life lessons. Like... nothing is certain, never take what you have for granted and when life throws you lemons, make orange juice. Doesn't make sense? Neither does life, but I know there's a plan behind all this and I'm ready to find out where it is taking me. All I need is some patience, strength and faith. Thank you to those who have encouraged me while I ranted at them via facebook chat. Thank you to everyone really for the prayers and support. You're a really big part of the biggest year of my life! 

Love, la gringa (who isn't really a gringa because she's canadian but gets called that anyway).

Me and Sonja (my German daughter)... oh yeah, sorry

mom, I forgot to tell you I've adopted. hahah









Feliz Navidad y Año Nuevo!

Alright, so I realise it's been a while but in my defence I did try to do this twice right after Christmas and my computer died on me both times. December was my busiest month yet, fnishing up school, practicing everyday for my dance presentation and of course preparing for Christmas. The dance presentation went really well. We had both a hip hop and a zamba choreography. I never expected to be dancing either of those styles EVER... but hey, that's what exchange is for.                                                                                 Sonja, Usman, Maddie and I did a secret santa gift exchange aswell as having one in each of our classes. The one in my class was really fun. We started about 2 weeks before the last day of school (exchange date) and gave our secret santa something small leading up to it. My secret santa was Patricio who is actually our student council president, I gave him mapple syrup and other Canada type things. I got a really cool bag that says "yo corazon Ecuador" (I heart Ecuador) on it from Andreas. All the exchange students gave a presentation on Christmas in our countries and finished it off with our own version of Feliz Navidad. Another fun event we got to participate in was our grade's

Cena de Navidad (or Christmas supper). It was at Danilo's house (he's in the physics class). There was food, picture taking and of course dancing... it wouldn't be Ecuador if there wasn't dancing.It was a really fun evening with all our school friends. A Christmas tradition that is different here would be "La Novena". Now before I decribe it I would like to remind everyone that the majority of people here are Catholic or have that background.What happens is, nine days before Christmas and all the days leading up to it people get together to pray the Lord's prayer as well as recite a prayer from a little pamphlet everyone has. There is also usually food involved and it's a nice time with family and friends. Since our Cena de Navidad was 8 days before Christmas,

my whole grade got together before we ate and prayed "La Novena". It was pretty cool. Now, my family didn't do this everyday, I think we went to two but some people pray it every single night. You don't have to have a big group of people to do it either, some people do it by themselves or with one other person. 

We got out of school on December 23rd. Everyone recieved a scarf, gloves and candies from the school, which I thought was really neat. On the 24th, Mami, Andrea, Sebas, my two aunts Ceci, Lili and I all drove down to my abuelito's (grandparent's) house in Ambato. A city about 2 hours from where I live. Since my host father treats all his employees to Christmas dinner down in Coca (the Amazon) he wasn't there with us.

.  We all had a nice supper at my granparent's house. The food wasn't really that different. We ate turkey, yummmm! Along with rice and a bunch of different salads. I must say, I did miss the usual mashed potatoes, although I got those the next day for lunch so really everything was quite normal. In Ecuador they celebrate Christmas like they do in Quebec, the night of the 24th. Although it isn't quite as big. My aunt Ceci and Andrea dressed up as Mr. and Mrs. Clause and passed out all the presents that were under the little, fake Christmas tree in the living room. That's one thing I should mention, all the trees here are fake. Doesn't quite have the same Christmas smell as I'm used to. I managed to give everyone a present on my exchange student budget with the help of some of the Canada themed things I had brought with me. My family gave me a pair of black boots, and I got scarfs and a shirt from my aunts and grandparents. It was just enough to make me feel like part of the family. Oh! Special thanks to Jeff who sent me a David Phelps C.D., which I may have opened early due to excitement.. love, love LOVE! Haha..Christmas day we had lunch at our cousin's house then drove back to the

valley to unpack and re-pack... we were headed to the beach! On the coast it is summer time, winter where I live in the mountains, I know! SO COOL!  Once again, we drove five hours down that twisty, turny road. I'm not sure my stomac and I will ever get used to it. We spent the whole week leading up to New Year's at our beach house in Pedernales with mami's cousin, her husband and their daughter . Once again, I was the youngest (not used to that either). Since there was a lot of eating, sleeping and relaxing going on I needed to entertain myself. Papa has kind of raised me withthe mind set that napping is for old people and sitting around doing nothing is a waste of time, made the week a little restless for me.. merci Papa :-p. Let's just say I REALLY missed Patrick, Selina, Daniel and even the early wake-up call from the younger cousins at the cottage. Now, running on the beach is BEAUTIFUL, and I really loved doing it but the hot sand kind of ripped up my toes. Also... (and you can't tell in the last picture due to my newly found editing talents hahah) but I got the worst sunburn of my life! It was actually one of the few I've gotten here in Ecuador but.. * tear...ouch!

Okay, so now I've made it sound like we did absolutely nothing all week, which isn't true. One of my familie's own traditions is to buy tons and tons and tons of candies, then deliver them to the children living in the poor comunities very close to our beach house. It was a really neat experience and if only you could have seen them running up to the truck, they were so excited! We stopped at a few schools (there were a lot of candies). One of the schools had two rooms for all the grades (k to 12).

   

 I've already told this to a few people, but next year we all need to get together and copy some of Ecuador's New Years traditions. They are SO fun and there are a lot of them. My family didn't even do them all. We DID make a life sized doll called el año viejo to represent the old year. We made him with a paper mache head, and old clothes filled with wood chips, fire crackers and other stuffing. Once we were finished we took a lot of pictures and set him in a dry place (it was raining) to wait until 12. In the mean time, we drove out to the main beach community to see the festivities going on there. We got to see a lot    

 of unique año viejos, which can be made in any form you want. There was a ninja, the smurfs, the president, anything really. Of course there was dancing, along with fire works and fire crackers. Andrea had to save me from a fly away fire work.. kind of and entertaining moment. We didn't stay in the village very long. Back at the beach house we had a really late supper of chicken, rice, mashed potatoes and salad. Oh and wine that was mixed with pop (for me A LOT of pop) and different fruits all chopped up into the cup. At 11:45 we brought el año viejo outside to get him ready to be burned! It's supposed to represent the passing of the old year. We burnt him at 12, said happy new year and hugged and kissed (the usual). When the fire died down a bit we all took turns jumping over him for good luck. Very fun. Other traditions include:

1- Wearing white clothing and yellow underwear                              2- Running around the outside of the house three times carrying a suitcase 3- The boys dress up as girls, then go out onto the street asking for money. You go walking and take change with you to give them. They are supposed to represent the widows of the old years that are being burned. It's quite amusing.                                            I'm sure there are more, there's one that has something to do with eating 12 avas at midnight I think..... but I'm not exactly sure what that one is for. Obviously all the traditions can't be done all at once.. otherwise you'd be running around the house with a flaming dummy and a suitcase while choking on avas. I feel like that would only lead to injury which is not exactly the best way to bring in the new year.

Well, I do believe that's all for now. I apoligize for writing a short novel instead of a blog entry, hahah. I suppose that's what I get for not writing earlier. I'm doing fine and everything here is great, I haven't found out if I get to stay with my family for the whole year yet so I'm just praying I'll be able to! Thank you for all the love, support and prayers. I do miss home, although I am having the time of my life here.

So... to explain this picture, Sebas had sun in his eyes and was warming his

hands with the heat coming off of my back due to my crazy burn.