Monday art class creations!

My mural!!!

At long last I started my mural in the playground this week, and finished in 3 days as it was fairly straightforward! You can see its progress below!

School pictures

At Frances´s request and for anyone else who may be interested, some photos of the El Porvenir school.

Inside one of the classrooms where the 6th and 7th grade (totalling 22 students) are taught together.

The main building here contains 2 classrooms.
The larger building behind is an auditorium.
In the background on the right is the mountain Puñalica which we climbed a few weeks ago in the rain!

This is the playground and play area with the headmistress´s office, third and final classroom, and computer room in the background.

Origami madness

Another monday rolls around and its time again for me to teach "art" to the entire school (all 50 of them) of El Porvenir. With somewhat limited resources I decided this week to do paper-based activities, which for the older ones meant fun collages, and the younger ones fun origami! The collages went down well and the origami even better, this was the first time the 4th grade have managed to concentrate on something in my classes for more than 5 minutes!

Large weekend in Bolivar province!

With my time here running out (in 1 month´s time I will be sitting on a plane somewhere!) I am now using my weekends to travel about beyond Ambato. This weekend was the turn of the little-visited province of Bolivar where I intended to visit a small village called Salinas which is known (to serious cheese and chocolate experts) for its cheese and chocolates. So I set off friday lunchtime on the 3 hr bus trip, the first 2 hrs of which are supposed to be spectacular as you cross the moors at about 4000m with views of the mighty Chimborazo (6310m, a huge snowy mass) BUT! as the bus made its ascent we hit thick thick fog with visibility of maybe 5m... we chugged along at a snail´s pace and I crossed my fingers a) we wouldn´t hit anything and b) I would get to see the views on the way back. I arrived into the provincial capital Guaranda to change buses at about 15:30, having read there should be the last bus to Salinas at 16:00... shame no-one knew where to catch this bus, I was sent all over town and didn´t find it, toyed with the idea of going back to Ambato but decided to stay the night in Guaranda then try again the next day. So I wandered back into the town centre to look for a hotel, tried about 4 places but they were either full or just didn´t like the look of me... except one place which officially had been closed for some reason and had all the rooms sealed off, but I could stay there if I was willing to climb through the window into the room! Anywhere was considering going back to Ambato where at least I knew I wouldn´t have to sleep on the street, when I heard a "de donde eres?" (where are you from) behind me in a foreign accent and turned round to see a group of blonde girls, who turned out to be on a school exchange year in Guaranda and were curious as to who the foreigner in town was! They proceeded to help me find a delightful hotel room for $7 a night, with assurances that I could stay with them if I couldn´t find anything... then later on invited me to a quinceañera party at a club in town! Though the host was celebrating her 15th the rest of the invitees looked more like 18 so I didn´t feel too old! (A little foolish wearing hike boots in a club though.)

I made it back to the hotel not too late but slept badly due to 1. the cold 2. the noise 3. the light streaming into my curtain-less room (you expect curtains for $7??) 4. THE COLD!!!

Next day I got up bright and early ready for mission impossible 2: finding the bus to Salinas. Fortunately I found it soon enough and was off again on the windy mountain roads. We pulled into Salinas about 11:30 and I wandered up to the only hotel in the village but they were waiting for a big school party to leave, so some locals took me down to visit the salt mines in the meantime. A little bit about Salinas: it was your normal run of the mill highland village until about 1970 when some young Italian priest turned up and set up a load of cooperatives producing cheese, chocolate, salamis, and er, footballs, cooperatives which now involve pretty much the whole village. The chocolate is excellent, the cheese I saw being made but didn´t try, and the footballs... look much like normal footballs. The idea is also that you can visit the various producers to see everything being made, however unfortunately as it was the weekend nothing much seemed to be open. Still it was a nice village to visit and I walked about a bit in the mountains, did some drawing and watched the simultaneous and very entertaining town football and volleyball matches in the main square. And bought some chocolate and a lovely woolly hat which does not look unlike a teacosy. (Ecuador hat purchase running total: 3!)

More photos to follow on the flickr site in a day or two!

Laguna Quilatoa

Last friday my classes at Quinchicoto were cancelled for teacher training hooray! So I took advantage of the long weekend, packed up my little rucksack, and headed off for the well-known but off the beaten track Laguna Quilatoa, a crater lake up in the mountains. Distance-wise it is not too far from Ambato but it´s unpaved road half the way and there is only 1 bus a day, so it takes 5+ hours to get to! My lodging was the famous (in the eco-world) eco-hostel Black Sheep Inn, a lovely place, all vegetarian, green, very welcoming, with composting toilets with possibly the best view in the world.

Despite my guidebook saying you had to reserve as it´s very popular, the first night there were only 2 other guests, then the next day a few more turned up. The setting is fantastic, on the side of a hill overlooking a range of valleys and canyons. Completely cut-off from civilisation with the only sounds those of the farm animals on the hostel grounds and in the valley.

I had one full day there and had hoped to do the popular hike from the lake back to the hostel, mostly downhill, through a dramatic canyon, but a) didn´t fancy doing it on my own and b) to get to the lake you have to catch the one bus a day which passes the hostel at an insane 3AM! So instead I joined the other 2 guests on a more leisurely hike from the hostel to the nearby cloud forest. Cloud forest, you may say, what is that, as I had wondered also, is it not just a forest which is a bit misty at times? For there are surely many of those in the British Isles. But no, it turns out to be a super-humid forest full of orchids, vines, bromeliads, and other exciting things. My photos don´t do it proper justice as it did look like something from a fairy tale.

The next day I was returning home and visited the lake on the way... so after that being the point of my trip to the area, I only ended up spending half an hour there! Fortunately the sunday bus service was much more extensive than other days so I was able to avoid the 3am bus and catch a more civilised 9.30am instead. I got to the lake, took a few photos, bought a nice woolly hat, and caught a ride down to the next town where I would catch the first bus on the long journey back to Ambato.

I love to go a wandering...

.... up a freezing cold rainy mountain on my day off.



Yesterday was the chosen day for the ascent of the well-known (to the few thousand people who live near it) mountain PUÑALICA, a mountain of nearly 4000m but as there are snow-capped volcanoes of 5000-6000m nearby, it only looks like a fairly modest hill in comparison. Where we started was at about 3300m so it wasn´t too far but it is a steep climb and the weather didn´t make it any easier. Not too bad going up but towards the top we went into the clouds and as we reached the summit it started raining.
Coming down we went a little off-piste and got completely soaked by the waist-high grass, not to mention falling over a few times into said grass as the ground was uneven (fortunately it was very soft grass and quite nice to fall onto, if only it hadn´t been so cold and wet). At the top we would have had fantastic views of Chimborazo (where I did my cycling 2 weeks earlier!) and Carihuayrazo... had it not been for the rain.... which reduced visibility considerably.
For entertaining moving pictures of the above photo, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECUZ2Bz0Fww

El dia de los difuntos en Salasaca

The 2nd November much of Latin America celebrates Day of the Dead: the day the departed return to earth... Here in Ecuador people celebrate by visiting cemeteries, taking plenty of food and drink with them, the whole family going, spending the entire day there. We went to visit an indigenous village called Salasaca, where the celebrations are very traditional. Everyone goes along to the cemetery in their finest clothes, including a hat so fine it has to be covered up with a plastic bag to keep the rain from damaging it (they can apparently cost up to $200... but if you were going to end up with a hat-shaped plastic bag on your head would you not just skip the hat...?).
The current cold and rainy spell began this weekend as you can see in the photos - despite that you can still see in the last photo my best sighting yet of the very active volcano Tungurahua!

Before and after

Little Ecuadorean guinea pig, you are right to look scared and try and hide in a corner. For you know the Day of the Dead is approaching and you are the meal of choice for that day... as you are for many other special occasions. Yours is not a life spent idly in cage, taken out to be stroked and fussed over. You are not to be named Fluffy, Toffee or Gnasher. You are to be roasted and served with boiled potatoes.

You are, actually, quite tasty... bit like chicken.