vaaaaaamos Ecuatoriaaaaaanos

I finally made it to my first futbol game - qualifying game for the '14 World Cup - Ecuador v. Peru!  Here you can see everyone in their umbrellas (we actually were lucky enough to have a HOT and SUNNY afternoon, although everyone around me was wishing for rain).  You can see the fans with the big Ecuador flag in the right corner, with Volcan Pichincha in the background..

The game was extra exciting because we WON - what you see below is the shower of beer that you get drenched in every time we score a goal - I got drenched twice..

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On Sunday I went to a telethon being held in La Casa de la Cultura, a few blocks from my house.  The telethon was for Yasunizate - a mission that people all over Ecuador are fighting hard for.  It is a forest in the far east of Ecuador that is overlying a large oil reserve..  basically the story line of Avatar. 

http://yasunizate.org/web/

But anyways, if this video ever uploads, you will see this incredible kid of about 5 years old from Ibarra, addressing the crowd on the importance of preserving the jungle.  He spoke first in Quechua and then in Spanish, I think here you can see him speaking Quechua. 

Cross your fingers that the video works, because he was incredible to see speak!

My host-mom and Emelia, adding her handprint to the Yasunizate banner.

One snapshot of the telethon stage - there were famous bands from all over Ecuador.  In this photo you can see some dancers in traditional garb from different parts of the country..

Emelia was having too much fun playing with my camera.  This is the same shy girl who comes running to skype convos with my mom to serenade her in spanish... 

Escapades

So a couple weeks ago we went to a bull fight...

 ...kind of gory and hard for me to watch..

....  but they don't kill the bulls anymore (or not in in the middle of the stadium anyways - they take them back inside and electrocute them).  The President is against the bull-fighting.  A lot of my students have told me they don't like it either because it's not even Ecuadorian, the Spaniards brought it here when they took over...

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 Last weekend I went with a few people I work with up to northern Ecuador, to a town called Tulcan...

..we rode through amazing hillsides and valleys of this plant..

...it all seemed like a desert but I think it rains a lot, but the altitude was close to 4000 m...

..we took our tour of the Ecuador-Colombia fronterra in the back of a friend's pick-up truck..

 ...and got really cold so decided to swing by an agua termalis...

...and then we were really hungry and decided we wanted to eat some sancocho..

... and then since we were in Tulcan, a place known for its gorgeous cementary, and also since we had these days off to travel for the Dia de Difuntos, we had to go and take in the fresh flowers and sculpted cypress trees at the cementary at sunset...

...and had to take a group picture of us at the cementary..

The next day we woke up early to head into Colombia again to visit La Iglesia de Las Lajas - a gorgeous church (that was built when it still belonged to Ecuador.. I think) that was built at the site of a Virgin Mary "apparition" on a mountain side alongside a rushing river.. 

...the entire walk to the church is covered in these plaques, each thanking the Virgin for another miracle...

...under the church, below the height where the bridge begins is the first church that was built at the site...

...here we are!  Brian, Lucas, our great guide Oscar, Sara, Flo, me....