Mitad del Mundo

Mitad del Mundo ehk Maailma keskpunkt peaks oma nime järgi asuma ekvaatoril, ehkki tegelik ekvaator asub väidetavalt 240 meetrit Põhjas. Lisaks Mitad del  Mundo’le on seega veel mitmeid nö täpselt ekvaatoril asuvaid vaatamisväärsusi. Meie otsustasime aga selle kõige kuulsama kasuks, mille ümber on ehitatud küla ja kus on mitmeid muuseume. Teadsime, et  nädalavahetustel toimuvad seal mitmed kontserdid ja muud üritused,  seega mõtlesime terve pärastlõuna Mitad del Mundo’s veeta. Ilmnes aga, et sel nädalavahetusel algas päikesekalendri järgi ka uus aasta, seega olid pärismaalased oma rituaale läbi viimas, tantsimas ja muud moodi pidutsemas.

Küla ise oli võrdlemisi igav  – aiaga ümbritsetud ala, kus leidus hulganisti suveniiripoode, restorane ja ka mõned muuseumid.  Vaatasime kuidas kohalikud toitu ohverdasid, käisime mõnes muuseumis, kuulasime kontsertti ning otsustasime lahkuda. Kuna kellegi kohalik ema oli kuulnud, et lähedal asuvas päikese muuseumis toimub tähtsa päeva puhul samuti midagi, siis otsustasime ka sinna minna. Öeldi, et tuleb esmalt bussiga lähemale sõita ning siis 30 meetrit kõndida... aga nagu me siin olles juba mitmeid kordi kogenud oleme, pidime hoopis 500 meetrit mäkke ronima J Vihma hakkas sadama ja kogu maad kattis paks udu. Või õigemini olid need pilved, millest läbi kõndisime.

Lõpuks muuseumini jõudes olid kohalikud juba lõpetamas, ent muuseum endiselt avatud. Üks huvitavamaid vaatamisväärsusi siin. Muuseum, või õigemini päikese tempel, oli lihtsalt nii teistsugune. Mõnusa aura ja viiruki lõhnaga täidetud kolmekordse hoone keskel oli ümmargune avatud osa, kust üles vaadates nägi välja. Esimesel korrusel olid antiiksed esemed, järgmisel korrusel hulganisti pärismaalaste kujusid ning viimasel korrusel maalid ja muu kunst. Viimaselt korruselt sai ka katusele minna, kust avanes võrratu vaade...pilvedel. Midagi muud ei näinudki J Hoolimata vihmast oli meil väga vahva. Ei ühtki teist turisti, üksnes pidutsevad kohalikud!

PS: väidetavalt on gravitatsioonijõu tõttu kõik ekvaatoril kergem ja muna on lihtsam naelale asetada.

L.

Monument ekvaatoril/ A monument on the equator

Ekvaator/ The equator

Ekvaatoril/ On the equator

Pidustused/ The celebrations

Mitad del Mundo

Teel päikese templisse/ On our way to the temple of the sun

Päikese tempel/ The temple of the sun

Kunstinäitus/ Art exhibition

Inkade kujud/ Inca statues

Katus ja vaade pilvedele :)/ The roof and the view on the clouds :)

Päikese tempel/ The temple of the sun

Mitad del Mundo (which means the middle of the World) should according to its name be located on the equator, but the real equator is in reality 240 meters more to the North. Thus there are many more such places that claim to be on the real equator, but we decided to go to the most famous one. Besides the statue for the middle of the World there was also a small town around it. We knew that there are usually various events at the weekends, thus we planned to spend the whole afternoon there. It turned out that it was also a special day for the indigenous people – they were celebrating the solar New year. Thus they were dressed in their traditional costumes, they danced, carried out some rituals and celebrated in various other ways.

The village itself was rather dull – there were lots of souvenir shops, restaurants and a few museums and it was all surrounded by a fence. We saw how the locals sacrificed some food, had a look into some museums, listened to the concert and then decided to leave. We decided to go to the sun temple close to  Mitad del Mundo as someones hostmother had heard that there is also a festival for the new solar year. We were told that we have to take a bus and then walk 30 meters from the last stop to get there... but as always, it turned out that we had to walk 500 meters up the hill J It started raining and it was very foggy. Well the ground was probably covered by clouds and not the fog though. J

Sadly, the festival had already finished by the time we got there, but the museum was still opened. It is one of the most interesting things to see here, because it is just so different. It had a nice atmosphere and the rooms were filled with the smell of incense. The temple had 3 floors and the middle part was opened. First floor was full of antique, there were inca sculptures on the next floor and an art exhibition on the last floor. We could also goon the roof from where there was a nice view on the...clouds, we couldn’t see anything else J Overall, we had a great time despite the rain. There were no other tourists, just the locals who were celebrating the special day!

PS: Everything is apparently a bit lighter on the equator due to gravity and it’s also easier to place an egg on a nail.

L.

Quilotoa

Hoolimata sellest, et ma terve laupäeva haigusega võideldes voodis teki all olin ning ei teinud muud kui vaatasin filme ja jõin teed, otsustasin pühapäeva hommikul kell 5.30 kodust väljuda ja Quilotoa’sse sõita. Nimelt kutsus Xime, mu töökaaslane, mind oma ülikooli matkaklubiga kaasa ja ma ei saanud ju ometi minemata jätta J Pakkisin piisava taskurätikute ja lõunasöögi tagavara kaasa ja olingi valmis minema. Nagu kohalikele omane jäid enamik inimesi muidugi hiljaks, ent 3.5 tunni pärast olime kohal.

Teel Quilotoasse tutvustasid teadjamad mulle eemal asuvaid mägesid, millest enamik olid lumega kaetud. Veidi enne laguuni juurde jõudmist sõitsime läbi Zumbahua küla, mis oli pungil pärismaalastest, kes kõik pühapäevaseks turupäevaks valmistusid ja linnatänavatel tantsisid. Ümbruskaudseid mägesid katsid põllud ja maapind oli kohati, ilmselt vihma tõttu, ära vajunud.

Kohale jõudes jagati inimesed(nii umbes 60) kaheks rühmaks, osad valisid lihtsama tee ja laskusid laguuni äärde peesitama, mina, koos 37 ülejäänuga, otsustasin ümber laguuni matkata. Meid hoiatati muidugi ette, et matk kestab umbes 5 tundi, kuna tegemist ei ole mitte lausmaaga... vaid matkaga, mis tähendab 9 kilomeetrit mööda mäeharju üles-alla turnimist. Nagu oleks seitsme mäe otsa roninud J Tee oli kohati üsna olematu, liiv ja sellel lahtised kivid. Mõlemal pool mäeharja järsk langus. Ühel pool avanes vaade laguunile, teisel pool lõpututele mägedele. Ja nii me siis kõndisime, tunde ja tunde. Üksnes üks inimene andis alla, teiste iseloomud ei lubanud J

Kui olime umbes kolmveerand maast läbinud otsustasime mööda mäenõlva diagonaalis alla laskuda ja ka laguuni juures ära käia. Kuna tee alla pidime ise leiutama, siis tuli kohati üsna ekstreemsetest kohtadest üle ronida. Lisaks oleks mõned meist peaaegu jalgpalli suuruse kiviga, mis mäe otsast alla veeres, pihta saanud. Üllataval kombel elas keset järsakut ka üks süsimust härg, kellest riburadapidi mööda hiilisime.

Lõpuks jõudsime laguunini! Vesi oli nii-nii sinine ja õhk uskumatult soe. Üldse päistis terve päeva päike ja oli mõnusalt soe. Puhkasime järve ääres veidi jalgu ning tegime venitusharjutusi ja pidime taas mäkke hakkama ronima. Viimased tund aega tõusu oli matka kõige raskem osa. Ma ei ole vist mitte kunagi niiiii aeglaselt kõndinud, aga üles ma lõpuks jõudsin! J Laguuni ääres olid päris väsinute jaoks ka mõned hobused, kes ainsa transpordivahendina toimisid. Quitosse jõudsime õhtul kell 9, edasi koju jõudmine võttis veel tunni.

Mõnusat uut nädalat soovides,

L.

Teel Quilotoani, Cotopaxi/On our way to Quilotoa, Cotopaxi

Quilotoa

Teel ümber laguuni/On the way around the laguna

Pärismaalased/Indigenous people

Mägi oli kohati üsna järsk/The mountain was quite steep in some parts

9 kilomeetrit ümber laguuni/9 kilometers around the laguna



Sinine vesi :)/ Blue water



5 tundi hiljem/5 hours later

Paadid järve ääres/Boats by the lake

Tõusu lõpp/ The end of the ascent

Despite having spent the whole Saturday in bed being ill and doing nothing other than watching films and drinking tea, I decided to leave the house at 5.30AM on Sunday go to Quilotoa. I just couldn’t not go, because Xime, my coworker, had invited me to go there with her mountaineering club. So, I grabbed lots of tissues and enough food for lunch and I was ready to leave. Lots of people were late as always, it’s Ecuador after all J But we got to Quilotoa in 3.5 hours.

I was lucky to be surrounded by people who love mountains as they could name all the mountains on our way and tell stories about them. We passed some of the highest mountains in Ecuador, most of which were covered by snow. We had to also pass a village called Zumbahua, which was full of indigenous people who were getting ready for the Sunday market and dancing on the streets. The surrounding mountains were covered by fields and there were landslides, possibly due to rain.

We were divided into two groups as soon as we got to Quilotoa. 38 of us, including me, decided to hike around the crater. The rest, about 20, decided to take the easier route and spend the day relaxing  by the lake. We were of course warned that the hike would take about 5 hours as the land was far from being flat. Instead we had to climb up and down the mountains for 9 kilometers. It’s probably equal to climbing  7 mountains J There was almost no road at some parts of our hike and the path was mostly covered by sand and rocks. Since we hiked about 400 meters above the lake, there was the laguna on the one side and a steep declivity with a view on endless mountains on the other. Only one of us gave up, the rest of us couldn’t J

We decided we also wanted to go down to the laguna after we had hiked for about 3.5 hours and so we began descending diagonally until we finally reached the lake. Since there was no path from where we wanted to go, we had to climb over some quite extreme places. Some of us almost got hit by a rock that was falling down the mountain and we all had to pass a bull, who for some reason lived there.

We finally made it though! The water was so-so blue and the air was unbelievably warm. We were lucky with the weather, because it was sunny for the whole day and it was pretty warm. We were given some timeto relax and stretch  by the lake after which we had to climb up the mountain to get back to where we had started. The last ascent was the most difficult part of the day. I don’t think I’ve ever walked soooo slow in my life, but I finally made it! J There were also some horses for the most tired ones, but there was no road for cars. We reached Quito at 9PM from where it took me another hour to get home.

Have a great week!

L.

Kaootiline Karneval/Chaotic Carnival

Meil siin Ecuadoris, nagu ka teistes Lõuna-Ameerika riikides olid möödunud nädalavahetusel pikad pühad. Nimelt tähistati siin karnevali. Kui Inglismaal on pannkoogipäev, Rootsis vahvlipäev ja Eestis vastlapäev(vastlakuklitega), siis siin on karneval rongkäigu, veepüstolite, veepommide, imeliku vahu, munade, jahuga ja kes teab veel millega. Karnevali ajal valitseb Ecuadoris täielik kaos, rannikule minekuks tuleb piletid soetada juba nädalaid enne pühi, teiste sihtpunktidega on veidi lihtsam, piisab vaid nädalast. Kõik inimesed üritavad neljaks päevaks suurlinnadest, eriti Quitost, välja saada ja kas siis rannikule või mõnda muusse linna minna.

Mina otsustasin seekord ranniku asemel koos Stefaniega Austriast Cuencasse sõita. Cuenca on suuruselt kolmas linn Ecuadoris(Quito on teine), elanikke on umbes sama palju nagu Tallinnas. Cuenca on koloniaalstiilis linn täis ajalugu, väljakuid, parke ning tosinaid kirikuid. Linna keskus on meeldivalt pisike, ühest otsast teise on võimalik umbes 30 minutiga kõndida, mida me ka lugematutel kordadel tegime. Cuenca, nagu ka Quito vanalinn, on kantud UNESCO’sse.

Kuna Cuenca asub 9 tunni kaugusel Quitost ning Cuenca lähedal on mitmeid huvitavaid vaatamisväärsusi, siis otsustasimegi need neli päeva Cuenca mägises ümbruses veeta. Jõudsime Cuencas ära näha peaaegu kõik kirikud, ka mõned muuseumid, kohalikud turud, vabaõhu kontserdi, Panama mütside tehase. Tuleb välja, et Panama mütsid on sootuks Ecuadorist pärit. Nimelt transporditi mütsid algselt Panamasse ja sealt edasi kaugematesse sihtriikidesse, nõnda kutsutaksegi mütse eksitavalt Panama mütsideks, ehkki pärinevad Ecuadorist.

Pühapäeval otsustasime kolmes ümbruskonnas paiknevas linnas ära käia, kuna karnevali puhul olid kavas mitmed pidustused. Loomulikult lõpetasime läbimärgadena ning vahuga kaetuna J Esimeses linnas, Gualaceo’s, käisime traditsioonilisel puuviljaturul ning vaatasime rongkäiku,Chorderleg’is sõime traditsioonilist lõunat (mis koosnes sealihast, valgest maisist, tortilladest ja salatist) ning kuna linn on tuntud oma kullast ehete poolest, siis imetlesime ka kohalikku ehetevalikut. Viimasesse linna, Sigsig’i õnnestus meil minna üksnes kohalike abiga, kuna pühade puhul oli bussiliiklus väga hõre. Kohale jõudes hakkas muidugi sadama, nagu peaaegu igal pärastlõunal meie reisi jooksul. Sigsig’i peaväljak oli vihmast hoolimata rahvast täis, inimesi pritsiti vihmaveega ning loobiti jahuga J Taustaks kõlas eemal toimuv kontsert ja linn lõhnas cuy(merisiga, traditsiooniline toit siin) liha järgi. Eriti tiheda liikluse tõttu võttis Sigsig’ist tagasi Cuencasse jõudmine 1.5 tunni asemel 3.5 tundi.

Esmaspäeval otsustasime veepommide ja muu atribuutika eest põgeneda, ehkki õhtul visati meid mööduvatest autodest siiski läbimärjaks, ja läksime Cajas’e nimelist loodusparki avastama. Park oli üüratu..... meie läbisime üksnes 4 tunni pikkuse raja, millest viimased 3 tundi matkasin läbimärgade jalanõudega, kuna maapind oli kohati soo laadne ja mul õnnestus laukasse astuda.. .J (Sellest või siis veepommidest tingitult olen nüüd kolm päeva haige olnud.) Loodusparki sisenedes anti meile üks suurimaid kaarte mida näinud olen, lahti voldituna oli ilmselt minu pikkune... sellest hoolimata eksisime peaaegu mitmel korral ära. Rajal nägime peale meie veel umbes 10t inimest, ehk seetõttu, et alustasime oma matkaga kell 8 hommikul.

Viimase päeva jätsime Ingapirca jaoks. Ingapirca on tuntud oma suurimate Inca varemete poolest Ecuadoris. Stefanie teadis rääkida, et varemed ei ole enam nii suured nagu nad varem olid, kuna ümbruskaudsed inimesed kasutasid kive majade ehitamiseks, ei tea siis kas hea õnne/aura pärast või lihtsalt praktilistel põhjustel. Varemete kõrval nosisid Alapacad muru ja pilved katsid ümbruskonna mägesid. Ei ühtki veepommi varemete ümber! Üksnes lahtise autoga mäest alla bussijaama sõites saime taas pisut märjaks. Bussiga meil vedas! Kohalik taksojuht väitis, et 4 tunni jooksul pole ühtegi bussi möödunud... Meie muidugi ehmusime korraks, kuna pidime tagasi Cuencasse jõudma, et siis õhtul Quitosse sõita(Ingapirca on umbes 2 tunni kaugusel Cuencast), õnneks tuli meil üksnes 10 minutit oodata ja olimegi peagi tagasi Cuencas.

Sõit tagasi Quitosse kujunes ootamatult sündmusterohkeks. Umbes kaks tundi pärast Cuencast väljumist peatas meid politsei. Kõigil paluti bussist väljuda, kotid otsiti läbi, pidime censo’d ja passikoopiad ette näitama(koopiad seetõttu, et originaali on ohtlik kaasas kanda, isegi censo’st on mul koopia - kui neid pole, siis on politseisse minek...), bussist ja inimestest tehti pilti ja võisime edasi sõita. Lisaks oli meie ees istuval lapsel terve tee süda paha ja bussi meeskond pidi pidevalt põrandat puhastama. Kõige tipuks oli umbes poolel teel Quitosse olnud avarii, väidetavalt oli 17-20 sõidukit kokku põrganud ja kogu tee oli suletud... Tagasi Quitosse jõudsime kell 4 hommikul, magasime mõned tunnid ja läksime taas tööle :)

Head ööd!

L.

Cuenca



Cuenca



Panama mütside tehas/Panama hat factory



Müts valmimas/ A Panama hat in process



Pipi maja?:)/Pipi house? :)



Gualaceo



Rongkäik ja vaht/Parade and foam

Mõni oli üleni vahuga kaetud/Some were covered in foam

Kohalikud murjamid/Local children

Lõuna/Lunch

Cuy Sigsis'is/Cuy in Sigsig

El Cajas

El Cajas

El Cajas, kuskil seal astusingi vette.../El Cajas, I stepped into the water somewhere there...

El Cajas

Ingapirca varemed/Ingapirca ruins

Naljakas puu/ A funny tree

Hüpe :)/Jump :)

Alpakadega/With alpacas

Last weekend plus Monday and Tuesday were public holidays, because Ecuador, like most of the other South-American countries was full of Carnival celebrations. If England celebrates Shrove Tuesday with pancakes, Sweden with waffles, Estonia with special sweet buns with cream, then carnival is celebrated with parades, water guns, water balloons, strange foam, flour and eggs. There is a complete chaos in Ecuador during carnival, because most of the people try to go to the coast or other places away from the big cities. Thus, tickets have to be booked already weeks in advance.

I decided, instead of going to the coast, to go to Cuenca with Stefanie from Austria. Cuenca is the third biggest city in Ecuador(Quito is second), and there is almost as many inhabitants as in Tallinn. Cuenca is a colonial city full of history, various squares, parks and dozens of churches. The city center is not very big, it only takes about 30 minutes to walk from one end to the other, which we did for a lot of times. Cuenca is a World Heritage as is the old town of Quito.

As Cuenca is located 9 hours away from Quito and there are lots of things to do and see in the surrounding area then we thought these 4 days of holidays couldn’t have been better spent. We used the first day to explore Cuenca, we saw almost all of the churches, some museums, markets, a concert and the Panama hat factory. It turns out that Panama hats originate from Ecuador. They were initially transported to Panama and then shipped to other countries, thus the name has not much to do with the hats.

On Sunday we visited three villages nearby Cuenca, because there were some events due to Carnival. It’s not a surprise that we were both already wet and covered by foam in the first town, as were most of the other people J In Gualaceo, the first town we visited, there was a parade where all of the people(and the animals) who took part in it were covered in foam. We also had a look around the town and went to the local food market. In the second town, Chorderleg, there were lots of gold shops and  the town is famous for them, we also had a traditional lunch which consisted of pork, white corn, tortillas and some salad. The bus connections were not very frequent due to the holidays, thus we wouldn’t have made it to Sigsig, the last town, if there hadn’t been some friendly locals who offered to take us there. Unfortunitely it started raining as soon as we got to Sigsig, in fact it rained almost every afternoon of our trip. The main square was nevertheless full of people who had come to enjoy the concert, eat cuy(guinea pig, traditional dish in Ecuador) and play with water and flour J It took us 3.5 hours to get back to Cuenca, even though it was supposed to only take 1.5...

As the weekend had been full of water and other carnival related activities then we decided to escape from it on Monday, nevertheless we were still hit with water balloons from the cars that passed by in the evening. We went to see a national park called Cajas. It was enormous...we only hiked for 4 hours though, because it is only permited to go to the easier tracks without a guide. A part of our trail was a wetland and so I had to hike the last 3 hours with wet shoes J(It’s either because of the wet shoes or the water balloons that I’ve been ill since we got back L.) We were provided with a massive map(almost as tall as me) when we entered the national park, despite that we almost got lost a few times. We only saw about 10 other hikers besides us, perhaps because we started our hike at 8 AM.

We left the last day for Ingapirca. Ingapirca is famous for its biggest Inca ruins in Ecuador. Stefanie had heard from somewhere that the ruins used to be a lot bigger, but people used the stones to build their houses. There were lots of Alpacas who ate grass near the ruins and the surrounding mountains were covered in clouds. There were no water bombs near Ingapirca! We couldn’t escape from them entirely though as we drove down to the bus station at the back of a car with no roof... A local taxy driver told us that he had not seen any busses pass by within the last 4 hours...we were thus scared we might not make back to Cuenca for our bus to Quito(as Ingapirca is about 2 hours away from Cuenca). Luckily we only had to wait for 10 minutes and we got back to Cuenca by the afternoon.

The journey back to Quito was rather eventful. The bus was stopped by the police about 2 hours after we had left Cuenca. We were all asked to step out of the bus, our bags were checked and we had to show our censoes and passport copies(copy, because it’s dangerous to carry the passport around, I even carry the copy of my censo instead of the original one - if you don’t have them then the police will take you to the police station), they took pictures of the bus and the people after which we could continue our journey. Furthermore one of the children was sick for the whole trip and the workers had to constantly clean the floor. And there had been an accident about 4 hours from Quito, we were told that there were 17-20 vehicles in the accident and therefore the road was closed...We got back to Quito at 4 AM, had a few hours of sleep and then it was time to go to work J

Good night!

L.

Mindo

Kirjutatud nädal tagasi, postitada jõudsin alles nüüd...

Eelmisel nädalavahetusel õnnestus meil lõpuks Mindo’s ära käia! Olime juba mitu nädalavahetust plaaninud Mindo’sse minna, ent muud plaanid tulid vahele. Laupäeva hommikul sisenesime lõpuks kokkulepitud bussi, millest mõned meist muidugi maha jäid, ja asusime Mindo poole teele. Sõit kestis veidi üle 3 tunni ja magada ei saanud, kuna oli ju vaja aknast välja vaadata J Kohale jõudes oli meile vastu tulnud hostel Rubby omanik. Nime oli hostel saanud omanike esimese poja järgi. Hostel oli pisike, ent armas. Võrkkiikedega nagu siin kohane.

Jätsime asjad hostelisse ning jagasime hosteliomanikega renditud autot seitse kilomeetrit eemal asuva koseni. Koski olen ma siin veedetud kuue nädala jooksul näinud vist küll rohkem, kui terves oma elus kokku...  Eriti meeldejääv oli see kosk aga seetõttu, et seal oli üks kalju, millelt sai jõkke hüpata. Kalju oli 9 meetri kõrgune ja vool üsna tugev. Mina ja Tuve olime need vaprad, kes pärast juhendaja käest mitmeid kordi üle küsimast et kaua ta seal on töötanud ja et kas kõik hüppajad on ikka elus, ka ise hüpata otsustasime. Veepinnale tulles ootas meid juhendaja, kes meid turvaköieni aitas, mida mööda me siis end ükshaaval jõest välja tirisime. Kuna me olime muidugi nii targad, et ükski meist ei võtnud rätikut kaasa, siis jalutasime 7 kilomeetrit Mindoni läbimärgadena. Meie õnneks paistis päike ja kilomeetrid möödusid kiirelt.

Tagasi Mindo’sse jõudes olime ülimalt näljased, leidsime ühe tüüpilise Ecuadori restorani ning nautisime päevamenüüd, mis koosnes supist, praest värske kala ja salatiga ning mahlast. Kõik kokku maksis umbes $2.50. Seejärel suundusime šokolaadi  ’tehasesse’. Teatavasti on Ecuador üks maailma suurimaid kakaoubade kasvatajaid ja parimad Euroopa šokolaadid on just Ecuadori kakaoubadest tehtud. Ringkäigu alguses tutvustati kakaopuu vilja, mida me ka maitsta saime, samuti proovisime kuivatatud kakaoube. Ehtne mõru šokolaad ilma grammigi suhkruta! Edasi nädati kuidas kulgeb protsess ubadest šokolaadini. Samuti kasvas aias taim, mida kasutatakse diabeetikute shokolaadides, ehk et looduslik magustaja. Samas majas valmistati ka erinevatest puuviljadest õlut ning šokolaadist veel vaha, mett ning erinevaid küpsetamiseks mõeldud kastmeid. Ringkäik lõppes šokolaadi brownide ning samas majas tehtud šokolaadi jäätisega. Nämm!

Õhtul istusime veidi veel meie nädalavahetuse lemmikuks saanud mahlabaaris, kus ligikaudu 30 vilja seast sai valida mahla ja batido(piimaga) vahel, ise samal ajal kiigel õõtsudes. Proovisin ka avokaado batido’t, mis oli justkui piimakokteil ja seejuures väga maitsev. Õhtusöögiks sõime küpsetatud banaane juustuga ja 12 paiku suundusime tagasi hostelisse.

Pühapäeval oli meil varajane äratus. Hosteli perenaine oli juba kell 5.45 meile hommikusööke ette kandmas ja kell 6 väljusime, et minna hosteli peremehega linde vaatlema. Kolme tunni jooksul nägime nii öökulli, papagoid, rähne kui ka pisemaid linde. Kokkuvõttes kõigile meeldis ja mõnel meist õnnestus läbi teleskoobi mõni neist suisa pildile jäädvustada.

Linnuvaatlemise käigus olime taaskord umbes 5 kilomeetrit kõndinud, ning kuna asusime canopy kohale üsna lähedal, otsustasime ka canopy ära proovida. Canopy tähendab mööda trossi ühest otsast teise lenneldes kulgemist. Rada koosnes 13nest sellisest trossist, mõni niest oli kiirem, mõni aeglasem. Samuti õnnestus meil ära proovida ’batmani’ ja ’mariposa’(liblikas, pea alaspidi) asendites lendamist. Väga vahva oli! Sealt tuli meil taaskord mõned kilomeetrid tagasi Mindoni kõndida, et siis liblikamajja minna, kus meile liblikate eluiga ja arengut tutvustati. Hiljem saime mööda ruumi ringi käia ning liblikaid imetleda. Samas kasvanduses olid ka orhideed ja koolibrid, viimaseid neist oli ülimalt raske pildistada, kuna nad ei püsinud üldse mitte paigal...

Nädalavahetus kujunes seega ülimalt tihedaks ja teguderohkeks, pühapäeva pärastlõunaks olime kõik  väga väsinud ja ei suutnud tagasi Quitosse jõudmist ära oodata. Nüüdseks oleme kõik taas välja puhanud ja uuteks seiklusteks valmis. Üksnes sügelevad sääsepunnid tuletavad meelde, et veel mõned päevad tagasi olime metsade ja jõgede keskel.

Nüüd aga salsa tundi. Pikast pidustusterohkest nädalavahetusest juba üsna pea!

L.

Teel kose juurde/On our way to see the waterfall



Hüppasime sealt, kus inimesed seisavad/We jumped from where the people are standing

 

Kiik :)/A swing :)



Kakaopuu vili ja kakaooad/Cocoa fruit and cocoa beans



Öökull/An owl




Tuukan/Toucan



Meie(4 Saksamaalt, 1 Islandilt, 1 Austriast, 1 Šveitsist, mina ja giid) varajastel hommikutundidel/ Us(4 from Germany, 1 from Iceland, 1 from Austria, 1 from Switzerland, me and the guide) early in the morning

Levinud liiklusvahend/ A common view

'Mariposa'

'Batman'

Liblikas/Butterfly



Leia pildilt koolibri/Find a hummingbird



Mindo

Tüüpiline maja, ootamas teist korrust/ A typical house, waiting for the second floor to be built

This was written about a week ago, but I never had time to post it...

We finally managed to organize a trip to Mindo last weekend. We had been planning it for a while, but there was always something that came up at the same time. We started our trip on Saturday morning, of course some of us missed the bus J It took a bit more than 3 hours to get to Mindo and it was impossible to sleep, because there was so much to see on the way. We were greeted by the owner of the hostel where we stayed at as soon as we got off the bus. The hostel was called Rubby(as was the name of the owners first son) and it was small, yet clean and cosy. With hammocks, as almost all the hostels here.

We left our luggage to the hostel and shared a rented car with the owners of the hostel to a waterfall, which was seven kilometers up the mountain. I think I’ve seen more waterfalls within the six weeks here than in all of my life together... I’ll remember this waterfall though, because it had a cliff, which was 9 meters high, where it was possible to jump into the river. Me and Tuve were the brave ones who decided to jump. Of course we asked our instructor tons of questions before we actually jumped, just to be sure it was safe. He insured us that within the 5 years he had worked there there had been no accidents and he also agreed to jump first. He waited for us in the river to lead us to the rope which we had to use to pull ourselves out of water because the stream was quite strong and there was a waterfall just 20 meters from us. We had all left our towels to the hostel and so we dried ourselves with a 7 kilometer walk back to Mindo. J

We decided to have some lunch as soon as we got back to Mindo since we were all starving. We soon found a typical Ecuadorian restaurant and enjoyed the lunch menue, which consisted of some soup, a main meal with fresh fish, rice and salad and a juice. It all only cost around $2.50. We also went to a chocolate ’factory’. Ecuador is known to be one of the biggest exporters of cocoa beans and the best chocolates in Europe are made of Ecuadorian cocoa beans. We were shown the fruit of a cocoa tree, which we could also try. We also had a chance to taste the roasted cocoa beans, which tasted like pure dark chocolate without any sugar. From there we were given a tour of the small factory and we were shown the various steps of chocolate making. There was also a garden where they grew a plant which they used in chocolates for diabetics, the leaves of which were increadibly sweet! Besides chocolate they also made various kinds of beer (of different fruit), honey and various sauces of chocolate. The tour ended with chocolate brownies which were accompanied by homemade chocolate ice-cream. Yumm!

We decided to spend the evening at our favorite juice bar, where it was possible to order a juice or a batido(with milk) choosing from around 30 different fruit. And there were swings instead of chairs! I tried avocado batido for the first time, it was a lot more tasty than I thought it would be. Just like a milkshake J We had baked bananas with cheese for dinner and returned to the hostel at around 12.

We had an early morning on Sunday. The hostess had our breakfast ready by 5.45 and we left the hostel at 6AM to go bird watching. We walked around for 3 hours and saw an owl, parrots, woodpeckers and some smaller birds. We were all happy we went and some of us even managed to capture some pictures of the birds through the telescope.

The next up was Canopy(zip-lines), since we finished bird watching about 5 kilometers from Mindo and it was really close. There were 13 zip-lines, some of which were slower, others faster. We could also try flying in a ’superman’ and ’mariposa’(butterfly, upside down) poses. It was a lot of fun!

We had to walk a few kilometers back to Mindo from the canopy place and decided to go to a butterfly house when we got back. We were told about the development of butterflies, after which we had some free time to have a look at all the butterflies, orchides and hummingbirds. It was incredibly difficult to take pictures of hummingbirds, since they were just so fast and restless...

We had all together a very intense weekend and we were all very exhausted by Sunday afternoon. But we’re all well rested again and ready for new adventures. Only the itchy bug bites still remind us that we were in the middle of forests and rivers just a few days ago...

I’m off to a salsa class now. Will write about the long Carneval weekend soon J

L.

Sünnipäevad/Birthdays

Eile otsustasin, väikevennale mõeldes, shokoladimuffineid küpsetada. PALJU ÕNNE, OLIVER! J Loomulikult seisin taaskord nõutult küpsetustarvete leti ees. Muffinivorme oli ainult kahes suuruses: väiksed ja üliväiksed... Võtsin loomulikult väiksed. Ecuador on üks maailma suurimaid kakaotootjaid, ent shokolaadi valik on siin küll ilmselt üks maailma nigelamaid. Otsustasin taaskord retsepti veidi muuta, valge shokolaadi asemel olin sunnitud ostma valge shokolaadi õhitud riisiga ja mõru shokolaadi asemel piimashokolaadi.

Küpsetama hakates tuli Ailin, Omari 7 aastane tütar joostes kööki, haaras tooli ja lusika ning teatas, et tema tahab aidata. Ütles, et võtab suisa kokandustunde ning et viimane kord õpetati neile kuidas riisi keeta. Hädavajalik oskus Ecuadoris! Nii ma siis juhendasin teda, tema muudkui segas tooraineid kokku, luges igasse vormi täpselt ühe tüki shokolaadi ning kolm mandlilaastu ja panime muffinid ahju küpsema. Järgmine kord lubasin Ailin’iga pannkooke küpsetada J

Muffinid läksid asja ette, kuna lisaks mu väikevennale Eestis, oli ka Hannese, töökaaslane Rootsist, ning ühe rentniku sünnipäev. Hommik algas seega puuviljasalati ning tüki koogiga, jätkus tööl sünnipäevalaulu ja muffinitega ning pärastlõunal India restoranis lõunatamisega! Lisaks sain õhtul teiste vabatahtlikega Mehhiko restoranis kokku. Nimelt on mul iga kuu esimene teisipäev kalendris tähistatud kui vabatahtlike kogunemise päev. Tavaliselt sööme õhtust ühes pizza restoranis, seekord otsustasime aga suure nõudmise tõttu Mehhiko restorani kasuks. Seega õnnestus mul täna riisi söömist vältida J Ehkki Esthela valmistas meie eilseks õhtusöögiks pasta bolognese kastmega!

Muudest uudistest niipalju, et pühapäeval õnnestus mul mu telefonist ilma jääda... Mindo’st bussijaama tagasi jõudes(rohkem juba järgmises postituses) sõitsime umbes 15 minutit metroobussiga ja selle 15 minuti jooksul mu kulunud töötelefon maagiliselt haihtuski. Mu ülemus ütles juhtunust kuuldes, et , Liis, mul on väga kahju, aga tere tulemast Ecuadori! Jaanuaris Ecuadori jõudnud vabatahtlikest on umbes pooltelt juba midagi varastatud, seega oli üsna tõenäoline, et minugagi midagi juhtub.

Kõige koomilisem oli aga see, mis täna hommikul juhtus J Ütlesin eile Xime’le(mu töökaaslane Ecuadorist), et tulen veidi hiljem, kuna teadsin, et lõpetame täna hiljem. Mu ülemus oli aga unustanud, et mainisin seda juba eelmisel nädalal ja oli seega jõudnud helistada nii mu Ecuadori perele kui ka Tove’le(vabatahtlik Rootsist, kes minuga samas majas elab). Ühesõnaga umbes 40 minutit hiljem tööle jõudes olid kõik paanikas ja üllatunud, et ma ikka tööle jõudsin. Pean kiiremas korras uue telefoni hankima J

PS: käisime eelmisel nädalal taaskord projekte külastamas. Ühes neist oli ühel õpetajal pisike imik. See ei seganud teda aga tunde andmast! Nimelt kussutas ta lapse vahetunnis magama, seejärel klassi sisenedes palus kõigil tasa olla, pani lapse vankrisse magama ning alustas tundi. Oi, Ecuador J

L.

Muffinid/The cupcakes



Vahetunnis/At the lunch break



Vabatahtlike ja õpilastega ühes projektis Põhja-Quitos/with volunteers and students at a project in the Northern part of Quito

I decided to bake some muffins yesterday, since it is my little brothers birthday today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, OLIVER!:) It was, of course, difficult to find all the ingredients  and utensils. The cupcace forms were only available in two sizes: small and extra small... I took the small ones, of course. Also, Ecuador is known to be one of the biggest cocoa bean producers, yet it probably has the smallest variety of chocolate available. Thus, I had to adjust the receipe, I used white chocolate with rice instead of plain white chocolate and milk chocolate instead of dark chocolate.

Ailin, Omars 7 year-old daughter, came running to the kitchen as soon as I started to bake. She grabbed a chair and a spoon after which she announced she want  to help me. Ailin told me she takes cooking classes and that the last time they were taught how to boil rice. An essential skill in Ecuador! So I guided her whilst she mixed all the ingredients, counted exactly one piece of chocolate and three pieces of almonds for each cupcake, after which we put the muffins in the oven. I promised her to make pancakes with her the next time J

It turned out to be great that I baked cupcakes since it wasn’t just my little brothers birthday in Estonia, it was also Hannes’s(Swedish volunteer, who works with me at the office 2 days a week) and one of the womans birthday who rents a room at our house with her family. Thus, I had a great breakfast that consisted of fruit salad and some cake, after which we all sang at the office for Hannes and ate cupcakes and then we went to an Indian restaurant for lunch. I also met some other volunteers at a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Namely we have a meeting every first Tuesday of the month. We usually go to a pizzeria, but this time we went to a Mexican restaurant since lots of us wanted to have Mexican food instead. Thus I was able to avoid eating rice today J And Esthela also made pasta Bolognese for us yesterday!

My phone was stolen on Sunday... we were on our way from the bus station(because we came back from Mindo, I’ll write more about it in the next post) to my house. We took a metrobus and it only took us 15 minutes, but somebody managed to somehow steal my phone within these 15 minutes. My boss said, when she heared what had happened, that, Liis, I am very sorry about what happened, but welcome to Ecuador! Around 50% of the volunteers who arrived in January have been robbed already so it was just a matter of time when it was going to happen with me.

The funniest thing was what happened this morning though J I told to Xime(my coworker from Ecuador) yesterday that I would come a bit later today since I knew we would finish later. Gina, my boss, had forgotten that I mentioned it to her last week though and so she had managed to call to my hostfamily and Tove(Swedish volunteer who lives at the same house with me). So, everybody was panicking by the time I got to work. I need to get a new phone asap! J

PS: we visited some more projects last week. There was a teacher who had had a child a few months ago in one of the projects, it didn’t disturb her to give classes though! She walked around with the baby at the break to make her fall asleep, then asked the students to be quiet when she entered the classroom, put the baby into the buggy and began with the class. Oh, Ecuador J

L.