last day in ecuador

My trekking plans fell through so i decided to mountain climb the highest active volcano (or so the ecuadorians claim), Cotopaxi. Actually, it was the only activity that fit within my limited schedule in Quito...and i thought climbing a volcanic glacier seems so much cooler than just hiking up a big hill... Basically, upon reaching 18k feet (we started at 15500ft), the altitude started to kill me. Not to mention the 25mph winds and snow, the fact that i´m climbing this mother fucker at 2AM in the morning and my head lamp is failing didn´t help the situation at all. The altitude didn´t give me a headache, nor did it get me nauseous. However, it DID get my head spinning like when I drink and take at least 2 vicoden simultaneously, and i swear my eyes were starting to cross- I looked the desperate (and very inebriated) fool, literally dragging myself on all fours, when i couldn´t stand up straight. it was that or falling down the mountain, only hoping that if my crampons or ice axe don´t catch in the freaking glacier, then my guide who's got me harnessed will save me. It was a test of my will, and more importantly a great lesson in knowing just how far my body can go. I've always thought that it was mind over matter, but this trip proved me wrong. Or I'm just not as fit as I thought. I have NEVER in my life experienced such physical exhaustion and extreme fatigue as I did on this mountain. It was a humbling moment, and I decided (read my body decided for me) to not go any further and I didn´t reach the 19,000 summit. Next time, I'll just make sure to acclimatize a few more days before attempting such a climb. Taking a day trip to these thermal baths in a nearby town, where I did have to walk up a steep 2 kilometers, during which I ran into a guy with an armful of brooms attempting to sell these on a desolate road (perplexed at who is client base was, amazed that he saw the earning potential for this market activity), is not the best way to acclimatize. I just got back into Quito and will be leaving to come home tomorrow.

good to be back in ecuador

Hey everyone! Despite the fact that Ecuadorian Immigration almost didn´t let me into the country b/c they didn´t have a record of me actually leaving the country last time i was here 4 years ago, everything else has been smooth travels. The children at the organization I am visiting (and used to work for back then) threw a "Fiesta para Linda" and they presented me with songs and dance, and we played a bunch of games as well. One contest in particular amused the crap out of me. When one of the educators announced that we would now commence the "Baile de Limon", the kids hurriedly grabbed a partner. Girls grabbed their girlfriends and the boys grabbed their buddies. Each pair then proceeded to grab a lime. They subsequently put the lime on their foreheads and pressed each other hard so as to not let the lime fall without the use of their hands. The objective is to be the last pair dancing with lime intact in between each others faces. Of course, a few kids cheated and they were immediately thrown out. The rest followed the rules and were concentrating really hard, too hard. Soon the dancefloor transformed into something that appeared to be a makeout session of homosexual elementary kids. It wasn´t though, of course . As song after song ended, I was beginning to become impressed with the will and concentration of some of these kids. One particular pair of girls caught my attention. After about the 3rd song, I noticed that the girls had let their lime fall to both their eye sockets. Ít´s inevitable that the lime will slide down the face a bit, but to have the lime pressed against the eye is definitely the worst. So imagine, you´ve got this lime pressed real hard against your eye and you´ve got to dance, i mean MOVE your entire body to the beat of the music, or you LOSE. These girls´ lime had burst a little from pressing their faces so hard together, and the acid from the lemon juice started to make them cry. Yet, their conviction to stay in the contest made them hold each other more firmly, and they continued to dance through the duration of a couple more songs. At this point, I´m laughing my ass off watching the other kids, yet I´m starting to get concerned about the potential danger of pure lime juice seething in one´s eyes. I mean, if you can toss some raw fish in lime juice and called this "cooked" (this is how you make Ceviche)....Well, the contest finally ended and the girls only came in third, and they didn´t get that prize they worked so hard for - a tennis ball. However, they didn´t lose their spirits and we all had a ball till the party ended.
Well, other than hanging out with the organization and my friends, I´ve been enjoying the leisurely pace of a traveler without an agenda, and remembering the days when I used to live here, feeling nostalgic for times past. At the same time, it saddens me about the economy and how the poor and middle class had to bear the brunt of the bank scandals and dollarization of the economy. As a result, the middle class here is disappearing and there is more crime on the streets than before. It's a sad reality that everyone accepts. Just last night, coming back from dinner at my friends house, there was a guy, who was assaulted. He lay bleeding in the middle of the street with a crowd gathered around him. Blood was staining the pavement and from what I could see, it was coming from his head...however, a couple of kids didn't seem alarmed at all. In fact, some girls started giggling and pointing at the victim. Cars drove by and nobody stopped to help. I've learned to listen to people's opinions and perceptions with a grain of salt, however. Some will claim the complete opposite here- that dollarization needed to happen, and now, people actually have credit and can take out loans, unlike before. That now, there's no prostitution on the streets. That now, there are nice public buses manufactured by mercedes benz that guarantee you're never late for anything (i do miss the kitschy old rickety buses with dashboards filled with La Virgen paraphenalia).... As my spanish improves at an exponential rate, i'm forgetting some very basic english...which kind of scares me. Like not remembering how to spell 'confortable(?)', comfortable(?)... hasta luego mis amigos, linda