It's November!

I accidentally skipped an October update, I hope you'll forgive me. Fortunately, while I wasn't writing on the blog, a lot of awesome stuff was happening in October, so here's the rundown...

I went to COLOMBIA!!! It was super cool and a perfectly timed vacation. I didn't even realize how much I needed to get away from work and life here. When I got back to Ecuador, I felt totally refreshed and ready to jump back in. Vacation time is NOT overrated people.

I started the trip in Bogota where I met up with a friend from home. I never ever ever would have considered visiting Colombia alone, although now I don't think its quite the crisis situation that we all imagine. All developing countries have their safety issues and as long as you're not straying too far off the beaten path, its safe.

After Bogota we visited Villa de Leyva and San Gil.

"Pozo azul" or a little blue pond outside of Villa de Leyva.

Riverside botanical park in San Gil.

Then we headed up to the Carribean coast and an absolutely beautiful national park on the beach called Tayrona. To get to the beach, you have to hike a ways through the jungle (like an hour or more) which was obviously super hot and sticky.

And once you get to the beach? You can rent out a cabaña for $80 (no thanks), camp (no tent) or sleep in hammocks. No joke, the hammock was the best sleep I got the whole trip. All 10 hours of it.

After that we went to Cartagena, which is as awesome as it looks in the movies. Despite the oppressive heat and humidity, I really enjoyed the city and the many channels of American crime shows in English on the tv in our room. Don't judge me!

Colorful colonial buildings in Cartagena.

The last full day was spent at a mud volcano, which is pretty much exactly how it sounds. You climb to the top of a little hill and then jump into a mud pit with about 50 other strangers. It you want to bond with someone or many strangers, go to the mud volcano. It was super super weird and amazing.

Andrew and I and our 50 closest stranger-friends enjoy the mud.

At the end of the month I made a trip down to the jungle in the province of Zamora-Chichinpe. It was my first time that far south, and I kept having to remind myself that I was still in Ecuador because it was  so different from my chilly little mountain oasis.

The jungle is really awesome! We stayed at some cabañas about 4 hours from the capital of the province in the parrish of Nangaritza.


We played in waterfalls...


and took a river boat ride...


We swung on every vine that looked strong enough to hold a person...


and entered the Labrinyth of a Thousand Illusions... which is made up of ancient coral covered in jungle. The coral apparently comes from the period of time when Ecuador was ocean, but now sits in the middle of the Amazon. We were also warned to not stray off the path because there are landmines still buried around from the 1995 border war with Peru. Awesome.


After the labrinyth we were treated to this lovely view...


All in all, it was a great trip and I can't wait to visit again. It was only my second time visiting the "Oriente" as they call it here, but I really love it. I plan on using my extra vacation days to go play for more time before I leave next summer!

As far as my normal life is going... things are pretty good at the moment! I'm working a lot more in the schools doing health classes which is fun. I'm also getting involved with the founding of a women's jewelry collective in Chalaguan, which has a lot of potential, but we'll see what happens. Unlike the dry latrine project, this idea came from the women themselves so I'm hoping that they will be more motivated to see it through. Next week we're going to meet with them to figure out the logistics and how they should organize themselves. I've made my logistical and possibly financial support contingent on my getting to do a series of child development classes with them in January and February, so hopefully we can get a lot of stuff done at once! An adult educator with the Ministry of Education (Cecilia) is the one heading up the effort, and so far we work pretty well together, so I think this project might actually happen! Keep your fingers crossed.

I'm also heading home for a visit December 17 through the 28!! I really can't wait. I really do love Ecuador now, a love which took a full year and a half to blossom, but I'm extremely excited to see family and friends and eat cheese and watch TV. I can't tell you how much I've missed delicious cheeses.

Ok thanks for reading! Hope this finds you well. I'll leave you with this picture of me and some of the basketball team at the awards ceremony a couple weeks ago...