PLEASE do not me mad at me! I know I have been a very bad blogger, but I am going to make up for it right now with lots of update! I have been really busy the last few weeks, with a trip to ARGENTINA, and returning to mid term exams! Also, please check out my WEBSHOTS web page, I am uploading a lot of pictures today!
Lataguna (see pictures above, and also more on my WEBSHOTS!!)
Latacguna is a smaller city about 2 hours south of Quito, the capital of the province Cotopaxi, Cotopaxi is also one of the many volcanoes in Ecuador. Just yesterday I received an email about one volcano, near Banos named Tungurahua, that has had some recent increased activity. Maybe we will see an eruption?? Anyway, we arrived to Latacunga Friday afternoon and took another bus to the smaller and much more remote pueblos outside of Latacunga. My friends and I, Anouk and Sarah, felt more and more removed from the city we know, Quito, the farther we traveled. We drove in a bus up and the side of a mountain, the temperature decreasing steadily. We were really in the middle of nowhere. Surprisingly, my phone still worked. We finally arrived at Quilatoa, a very small town about 2 hours outside of Latacunga. We hopped off the bus right next to our hostel, where a woman was waiting, and greeted us. We were very happy to find a hostel so quickly- it was much colder and very windy at this higher elevation.
Everything was heated by fire, we had an oven/stove thing in our room, there was one in the main dining room, etc. It was very cozy, as around dinner time, all the guests (which were only 3 more people, one Ecuadorian and two French girls) met in the kitchen/dining room. We had some really nice food that the duena, the woman owner, of the hostel made; some chicken, rice, creamy vegetable soup, and bread with marmalade. Here we had the opportunity to talk with the owners of the hostel, and their childen. After dinner, we found ourselves very tired, as it had already been dark for awhile, but it was only 8.30 pm! More or less, when the sun goes down in the campo, or a rural area, people go to bed, because there isn't much else to do with no light! ( We did have electicity in the hostel)
ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS
Recently, the 30th of September, there were elections in all of Ecuador to elect an assembly of people, to re-write and reform the constitution. The only requirement for candidates: 18 years of age. There were over 150 candidates, even one person in my university! While we were in the hostel, I talked with a man who was going to Quito the next day to vote (everyone votes in their home town). I asked him who he would be voting for and he said without a doubt, Correa. He explained that before Correa, there weren't as many jobs for him and people like him who live in a rural area, but now, it is different, and he has work.
*The outcome of the assembly elections were very much in favor of Correa's party, which now holds 2/3 majority in the assembly. Some people are very happy, because they believe Correra will bring more jobs to people who need them and try to start programs to lessen the poverty, which in some areas of Ecuador is 70%. Correa is a socialist president, and is classified as part of the "New Socialism of the 21st Century" with other Latin American presidents like Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Evo Morales of Bolivia. One the other hand, some people do not like that Correa's party has won the assembly majority, as they think the country will take a turn for not only socialism, but communism. It is very interesting to learn about politics here, because there is such a wide range of opinions between people.
The rest of our trip this weekend was really great. Lago Quilatoa is a caldera, or now a lake where there used to be a volcano. Gorgeous! We hiked around, and took a truck to Zumbahua, another small town near Quilatoa. Saturday means the market, and this market was much more for the local people, we were the only white people. This market was a lot more crude and basic than Otavalo; bones lay all over the ground, left from people after finishing their lunch, chickens tied up under cooking stands, literally, to be cooked up next, and there was even a slaughtering station, where we saw sheep lined up to meet their fate right there. USDA standards of meat processing were probably not met here.
This trip, I really got to see some of the rural areas of Ecuador, that are so different than Quito, but are so interesting and beautiful. The people were kind and welcoming, and I really got the feeling we were far away from everything we knew; the Ecovia bus, the university, and Supermaxi (basically Wal-Mart in Ecuador). An amazing trip!
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