Days 1 and 2 (June 9 and 10): Safe Arrival and Cultural Exploration
Greetings from Quito, Ecuador, very close to the center of the world (we go to the equator tomorrow) and very high above sea level!
There is only one staircase outside our rooms at the seminary in which we have access to wifi.
We have only just discovered it, so we have only just now been able to post on the blog (our apologies for the delay and the radio silence). The staircase is also where everyone is congregating this evening as they await showers.
Here is a play by play of the first two days of our trip:
We arrived safely in Quito after a long flight with many other mission trip teams (they all had matching shirts). It was cool to see how many people are coming to serve in Ecuador this month! Pancho, Pity, and their children picked us up at the airport with huge smiles and long hugs and took us to our home this week: el seminario nazareno (a Nazarene seminary) that is host to several other groups and allows us to have a lot more space to sleep and play in as opposed to the apartment homes we’ve stayed at in the past.
Saturday, today, was a day of exploration outside of Quito. We took our charter bus (classic) up into the mountains towards Otavalo where we shopped at the huge outdoor market. On the way we stopped at a café above a beautiful lake to take pictures, hear a local family playing traditional Andean music, and meet our first llamas! One was a kind llama that “purred” when you pet it (so a student told me), but the other one was a sour llama that spat at strangers! Dre, however, boldly offered him grass (he refused) and was able to pet him without receiving a gift of saliva in return.
Everyone successfully bartered and spent at the market in Otavalo, coming away with jewelry, jackets, sweaters, nicknacks, and art. All reasonably priced. Since the pictures don’t do it justice, picture this: the market is a maze of bright colors and smells (mountain air, spices, leather…and garbage and dirt too—it’s not totally idyllic), endless aisles of booths full of traditional clothes, handmade jewelry and figurines, spices, fruits, toys, and more, with stray dogs and stray tourists milling in and out.
From there we drove to the nearby town of Cotacachi, named for its active volcano (it didn’t erupt), where we lunched on leathery steak, tender chicken, potatoes, and Ellie and Dre braved the traditional cui (roast guinea pig). They enjoyed the guinea pig, which truly tastes like chicken. Afterwards we roamed the street to see the leather goods the town is famous for before we were lightly rained on and departed for the lake of Cuicocha. We hiked up the side of the lake to take pictures, and then at the bottom we paused to pray as a group and hear from Pancho about how God is at work on this trip and will bless us, as he already has before we ever came here. Everyone stood in a circle and said aloud one thing they were very thankful for in that moment (most of the students said their family/parents! so they do indeed appreciate y’all). We gave thanks for God’s beautiful creation that we were able to experience and sang “Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord,” before going down to the water’s edge to take a boat ride.
After an hour of waiting (or something rather long) and playing games, we took a ride around the lake which is in a volcanic crater and the lake-bed emits volcanic gas (you can see the bubbles coming up and the water is crystal clear). Since the water has sulfur in it there are no fish, but we met a group of duck-type birds and also small seagull/heron-looking-white birds whose Spanish names escape me. They eat algae.
Tuckered out from all of this adventure, most everyone slept on the bus ride back into the city. We ate dinner at Rusty’s, an Ecuadorian form of MacDonald’s that includes neon orange cheese on its burgers and hot dogs, but luckily has decent french fries and milkshakes. Pancho is enthralled with Rusty’s (I am not, but the students seemed to enjoy their meal).
Cheers, peace, and grace to you all. I am so impressed with the happy group dynamic and the genuine kindness of the students in this group. It’s going to be a good week. Have a lovely Sabbath day tomorrow!
Alice
(p.s. the rest of these posts won’t be as long (I don’t think), but we owe you many words for having to wait so long on news)
Praying for a successful, safe trip!
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