One Last Post

I'm in the Atlanta airport waiting for my final flight to Chicago! My heart is full with love for Ecuador and the people in it, I am so sad to leave!!! It feels like it was just a few days ago that I was waiting to depart to Quito. The past month in has been an amazing, life changing experience. I made unforgettable memories with great people. Throughout the month I was constantly amazed by the beauty of the country. I loved being immersed in the culture of Ecuador. I am so thankful for my wonderful host family, I will miss them so much!!! It will be a little weird adjusting back into reality, but I am excited to see my family and friends. I am so grateful for Simon Bolivar school, and all the amazing people I met. Thank you Spirit Exchange for the life changing opportunity, and thank you to my family for the endless support and love.

I hope you enjoyed following my adventure!!!

Love,
Molly

Last Weekend in Ecuador

Friday was my last day with the abuelitos. I was sad saying bye to them! It was fun getting to know and work with them the past few weeks. Hearing some of their stories really shows the poverty that they face. A lot of the time, the abuelito's children barely have enough money to feed themselves and their family, so the abuelitos are left to fend for themselves. It has been a great opportunity to work at the Abuelitos de la Calle. It has shown me the importance of listening, that sometimes all people want is to talk and someone to listen to them. I learned to be patient when helping the abuelitos with puzzles and other games, that is important to let them go at their own pace. I am so grateful for the opportunity and will carry the skills I learned into my future career as a social worker.

Friday after work I headed to the market with my two friends Eric and Tori! Tori and I got a dish with corn, beans, pico de gallo, and chorrizo, it was delicious!!! After wandering the market for a while, we saw something that looked interesting. It was a spiritual cleansing to rid you of bad spirits, for only $5!!! We decided to try it. The woman at the stand gave us all an egg and told us to wait for a minute and we would be taken to where they perform the cleansings. We were then lead down a hallway in the back of the market and up some stairs. We were then lead to an area that looked like a dressing room and a waiting room combined. Tori went first into this little stall, the size of a bathroom stall. Eric and I waited outside. I went next, I went in the room not knowing what to expect. The woman told me to stand still she grabbed a bundle of plants and started hitting me with the plants while chanting quietly. She then sprayed me with some green, sweet smelling spray and then rubbed the egg all over my face and neck all while continuing to chant. She took the egg and said it was over. I didn't feel any different, but it was definitely a once in a lifetime experience. 

Us with our eggs pre-cleansing

On Saturday morning Eric, Tori, Ben and I met in Plaza Foch at 6:30 to head to Mindo. Mindo is about a 2 and a half hour bus ride away from Quito. It is a little town in the jungle. We got to Mindo and checked into our hostel. It was awesome, it was like we were sleeping in a tree house, mosquito netting and everything! 

View from one of the windows

Our room! (Ben on left, Eric on right)

Nice hammocks to relax in!!!

After we settled in, we headed to a butterfly garden! It was a 40 minute walk, but it was a very pretty walk!!!

Pretty scenery on the way to the butterfly garden!

Ben with a butterfly!

One landed on me!

After the butterfly garden we walked back to the hostel. A woman at the front desk told us about whitewater rafting for only $6! We decided to do that next. We changed and then got a ride in the back of a pickup truck to the river. The raft ended up being five inner tubes tied together and the river was very rocky, but it was so fun!!! The river was beautiful and we were surrounded by cool plants and flowers the whole way. I thought it was a great deal for $6!!! I didn't get any pictures because I didn't want to bring my phone to risk getting it wet. We went back to the hostel got dried off and found some playing cards. We played cards on a deck outside right next to a little river until dinner time. For dinner we went to a place right down the street and got two pizzas to all share. We went back to the hostel and played cards until we went to bed. 

Today (Sunday) we wanted to do a big hike. We woke up around 7:00am, went to a convenience store and bought some homemade bread and peanut butter for breakfast, with some fruit and yogurt. We packed up all of our stuff and headed on our hike. We were hiking to a zip car that would take us to waterfalls. We hiked for about an hour to the top of a mountain to the zip car. 

The zip car

Ben and I in the zip car!

Once we got to the other side, it was an hour hike down to the first waterfall.

Hiking!

The waterfall!!! It was huge, the spray felt so good because it was so humid and hot outside!

Once we reached the first one, we sat and put our feet in the water and had some snacks. Then, on to the next waterfall!

We packed our suits in the backpack just in case there was a waterfall we would want to swim in. There were people swimming in waterfall #2 so we decided why not?! There were little changing rooms, so we all changed and got in! The water was very cold, but once you got used to it, it wasn't too bad. We swam around for a while enjoying the view and decided to head back. The hike back was heard because it was mostly uphill, but we made it! We took the zipcar back to the other side and started to hike back town to our hostel! We walked for about 10 minutes and then a car pulled up next to us and said they could take us back down! It was a family that we met at waterfall #2, we got in and as they drove us down we chatted about where we all were from and about their 3 year old son. They offered to take us all the way back to Quito, but we had all ready bought our bus ticket. They dropped us off and we offered to pay and they refused to take it! I was amazed by the kindness of that family!!! After the hike we had a few hours to kill before our bus left. We changed into some clean clothes and relaxed on the hammocks at the hostel. Then, we got on the bus and headed back to Quito!! Mindo was so relaxing and the perfect place to go for a weekend trip. I had so much fun and it was a perfect last weekend here!!!

I can't believe I am leaving on Tuesday!!! My time flew by here. I am constantly being amazed by the beauty of Ecuador. I have loved being immersed in a new culture and I think it will be a little weird to return home.

Thank you so much for reading!!!

Love,

Molly

Great Week of Volunteering!

I have had a very busy, but very good past couple days!!! Tuesday I volunteered in the morning. I played jenga and did puzzles with some of the abuelitos. I've been getting to know more and more of them and it has been amazing to hear all of their stories. After volunteering I got lunch at a little cafe on my way home. A little later I met some friends to book a hostel for this weekend, we are going to Mindo!!! After that we headed to salsa lessons. I really enjoy salsa, all of us students are getting pretty good!

Wednesday I volunteered again in the morning. I colored pictures with some abuelitos, while a big group of them did a memory activity. I came home for lunch and relaxed and read my book for a while. The school hosted a little fiesta before the big Ecuador versus Peru soccer game!!! Then we all headed to Plaza Foch to watch the game. They tied, but it was still a fun game to watch. Everyone gets really into it!!!

Today (Thursday), I volunteered until 1:30. I really enjoyed volunteering today. An abuelito and I were doing puzzles together, when we first started he was having a lot of trouble finding where the pieces fit and which way they went. But, by the end of the day he was finishing the puzzles pretty quick! It was really fun to work with him and to watch him get more confident the more we worked on the puzzles. After volunteering I met my friend Tori at the school and we headed to Old Town to see some of the beautiful churches!

Plaza Grande in Old Town

The Iglesia De La Compania De Jesus

Inside the Iglesia De La Compania De Jesus. Also known as the church of gold, everything was gold!!! It was beautiful. It took 160 years to build!

San Fransisco Church

Inside of San Fransisco Church

After exploring Old Town for a while, Tori and I headed back to the school for salsa lessons! I'm going to be a salsa pro by the time I go home!!! 

This weekend I am going to Mindo for a night! I am very excited!!! 

I feel so blessed for the opportunity I have here, it is going by so fast and I am trying to soak up every minute!!!

Thank you for reading!

Love,

Molly

Papallacta and Antisana

I had an amazing weekend!!!!

On Saturday I went to Papallacta hot springs! There were 12 of us who went, it was fun to go with a big group. We met at the school at 7:00am so we could beat the rain in the afternoon. It was about a 3 hour bus ride to Papallacta. There are nine hot thermal pools, one river water pool, and three cold water pools. The hot springs that feed all of the thermal pools at Papallacta come from rain water filtered by Chacana caldera, where the water is heated by magma from the many volcanoes surrounding Papallacta. The thermal baths are said to have many health benefits such as improving respiratory function and reducing inflammation. The different baths ranged in temperature. The hottest one was VERY hot, I only went in to my knees. The river water pool, meant to cool off, was freezing but felt nice after sitting in the thermal pool for a while. The thermal pools were very relaxing and the scenery was beautiful!

The river that the river pool water comes from!

Some of the thermal pools!

A pretty flower I saw!

Beautiful scenery 

We were so close to the clouds!

Saturday night was an Ecuador versus Brazil soccer game, which was a very big deal. A group of us went to a restaurant to watch the game. Everyone there was very into it, it was very exciting. I didn't stay for the whole game because I had to get up early, but it was fun!

All of us in our Ecuador soccer jerseys!!

On Sunday I went to Antisana National Park. I went with three other students from the school and a guide named Christopher. We all met at Plaza Foch at 5:00am. We went early to have a better chance of seeing condors and Antisana glacier. It was about a 3 hour drive. On the way we stopped at a canyon where condors nest. There are only 70 condors in all of Ecuador, they are monogamous and lay 1 egg every two years so it is rare to see them. We got to the canyon when the sun was hitting it, which is the perfect time to see condors. We saw three!!! They are huge and so beautiful. Christopher had binoculars so we all took turns watching the condors fly around the canyon, it was an amazing start to the day!!! 

The canyon where we saw the condors!

We drove into the park and it was breathtaking. There were wild horses, cows, bulls, and llamas. There is a protective fence along the road because the bulls are really aggressive and sometimes attack cars. In the park you can see Cotopaxi volcano as well as the Antisana glacier. We drove for a while and stopped for pictures along the way. We went for a three hour hike through the valley of all of the mountains. 

Antisana Glacier!

Cotopaxi (on the left covered in snow)

Closer view of Antisana

Me and Cotopaxi!

The whole group!

Me and Antisana Glacier

Cool plants I saw on the hike

Antisana covered with clouds

The lake that 60% of Quito gets it's water from!

 A wild llama.

It was a great day!!! I am amazed by the beauty of Ecuador. 

Today (Monday) I went to the center this morning. There was a high school group from Chicago volunteering with us, it was fun to get to know them and hear about their time in Ecuador. Three of the girls from the group sang a couple of songs for the abuelitos, they all loved it. I played jenga again today, I am going to be a pro at jenga by the time I leave, I play it for at least an hour everyday. I really enjoy volunteering and getting to know all of the abuelitos! 

I can't believe I am leaving a week from tomorrow, time flies here!!!

Thank you for reading!!!

Love,

Molly

Volunteering

Hola! Today I had volunteering at Abuelitos de la Calle. Which is a center in Quito that provides breakfast, lunch and activities for elderly people. I get there around 10:00am and help serve breakfast; coffee and bread. All the volunteers then pass out puzzles, games, and pictures to color. Some days we have people come in and facilitate activities for the abuelitos, for example today they had dance therapy. Around 12:30 we start to get lunch ready, which is soup, rice, meat, and vegetables. All the food is donated from local supermarkets. The abuelitos are all so grateful and friendly. They speak really fast and sometimes it is hard to understand them, but there is another volunteer Jacob from Florida who speaks Spanish very well, so he translates for me sometimes. Overall, I really enjoy volunteering! It is rewarding to see how grateful the abuelitos are and how much they appreciate the meals.

The center.

Jacob and I playing jenga with some of the abuelitos.

After volunteering yesterday I went to the Basilica Del Voto Nacional. It was huge and so pretty!!!

Side view

Front view

I paid $2.00 to climb it! This is a pretty stain glass window on the second level.

To climb to one of the towers you had to cross this bridge (it was a little scary)

And then you had to climb this ladder (also a little scary)

But the view from the tower was beautiful! 

After the Basilica I went back to the school for salsa lessons! The boy to girl ratio was a little off, there was only one other girl besides me. But, it was still fun to get to know more people and learn some basic salsa moves. 

Today after volunteering, I went to Mercado Santa Clara, a huge market with tons of food. 

I played it safe and got chicken and rice. My friends Eric and Tori got goat and I tried a bite, it was pretty good!

Lots of fruit!

After our lunch we got fruit milkshakes. It was fruit, milk, and sugar put into a blender. I got mango, it was delicious! 

I'm so happy to be back in the swing of things!!! Tomorrow (Saturday) there is a big group of us from the school going to Papallacta, which are hot springs about an hour away from Quito. 

Thank you for reading!!!

Love,

Molly