exciting days!

hey all,

i had a great past four days. each day was filled with new sights, experiences, and food! it made up for missing out on Shell last week. i can't post pics yet but i'll do that tomorrow.

Friday
after doing some reading on how to optimize websites for search engines (fun, eh?) i joined James and his team for a daytrip to a place called Papallacta (pa-pa-yac-ta). This place was known for it's cooler temperate, and hot springs! the ride was about 2 hours...and it was absolutely beautiful. there were mountains after mountains...and just when i thought we had reached the top of a mountain, another peak would rise and stretch farther than the one before. the last 10 minutes until we reached the springs were a little nerving. it was a dirt road...and seriously was the size of 2 mcd's drive-in...and we were on a bus. without and traffic control, we ventured towards the springs on this less than stable road, and was informed that many buses had fallen off the side of the road. did i mention that the edge of the road was a cliff? yeah...we saw memorials for buses that had fallen, and were even greeted with an abandoned truck that had tipped over before. the springs were surreal as we sat in different temperatured waters. the warm, non-stinky water, was pleasant as cool mountain air breezed refreshed us from the pollution in Quito. there i sat in a hotspring, looking at a giant mountain right before my eyes...it was incredible.

that evening i learnt another spanish accent - people from Colombia. people from Colombia sound different from people in Quito (i can't even say Ecuador cos people on the coast of ecuador sound different than Quito.) anyways, i discovered this when i re-watched a movie called "Maria, Full of Grace" with my bro. i had watched this movie prior to coming to Ecuador to "brush" up on spanish...but watching it a second time was neat because i actually understood the language, despite the accent, and the setting of families and the culture and etiquette. it was like watching it with a new perspective.

Saturday
it was our grandma's birthday - el complean~os de mi abuelita. she turned 80! we celebrated at uncle Edwin's house out in La Armenia, a valley about 45 minutes away from Quito. big house, out in the country, and with 3 generations living in it. yah, families stick together here. we ate...shishkabobs but they're called "pinchos" here...with my favourite ceviche de camarone (shrimp cocktail). played some soccer, the guys did something with pellet guns and popcans, and then after i got to play volleyball! except it's called Ecuavolley...ecuadorian volleyball. basically, it's played with a soccer ball (needless to say my arm killed after, but it was still fun!) and with three people. so i played with cousin Emile, and Javier...someone's father in the big family... we were there the whole day...and it was fun. oh yah, and they have killer ducks that chase you and peck you if you're not careful!

Sunday
4x4 racing! ok, so i didn't race, but i went to go watch 4x4 racing. it was nuts. killer hot, and millions of people piled all over the track...mud everywhere, Pilsener (ecuador's official beer) and loud trucks! it was a lot of fun actually. i got to watch 3 races or 8 laps each, and got to meet more people. you know how races in canada...you would normally sit in the stands? well, there were not stands here...YOU were the stand...piles of dirt and earth were overflowing with people as the trucks went by. many people also had umbrellas to cover themselves when trucks went by cos mud flew everywhere. we managed to stay "clean" in that we didn't get mud, but our hair and faces were completely darkened by dirt at the end of the day. results? yet another killer tan, dirty face, and lots of fun!

Monday
got the day off. Faby and i ventured off to
Quito's Teleferiqonewly opened, the Teleferiqo is simply a cable car up to the top of Pichincha, the volcano/mountain range that is west of the city. my patience got tested more as schedules weren't running on time and we were waiting many times thru out the day. but thankfully, he reminded me "well, do you have anything else to do?" good point...no....i don't, so let's wait. there were many bouts of me saying "esperamos para nada!" - we are waiting for nothing. long long story short, we left the house at 10:30am, and got to the top of Pichincha at 5:30pm. the times in between were spent taking bus after bus, waiting, eating, waiting, finding out that time the info booth said the bus would be there was wrong, waiting, eating...waiting...and waiting! when i actually got into the cable car, i was still convinced that i would never make it up top cos of everything that had happened that day. but ye of little faith - we made it up...right to the top! all 4000+ meters of it! my pictures will show tomorrow, but i got to see ALL of Quito from the top. and just like the drive to Papallacta, it was mountain after mountain and valley after valley. man, i thought Chilliwack and the Fraser Valley was beautiful...the Andes and its valleys are endless, and stretch forever. the weather was obviously much cooler...about 5 degrees...but it was awesome. fresh, cool air, like canada! for a while, i felt like i was Frodo and Samwise trekking it up to Mordor... not only was i up atop a mountain, but i was in the clouds! we were up there for about 1.5 hours and got to see the sunset...or simply disappear since we were up top. there was a time where i saw clouds below me AND above me. i got a great pic too. anyways, when i was up there, i was totally reminded of Psalm 36 and verses 5-6:

5 Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the skies.

6 Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains,
your justice like the great deep.
O LORD, you preserve both man and beast.

yeah, it was pretty cool.

additional observations:

i played with James' kids when we were in Papallacta! he has 3 little ones and all are so cute. so yeah... i thot it was just south american kids that i like...but i played with true blue white canadian kids too :P

i heard Spain spanish while in line for the teleferiqo, and they sound like Sean Connery...they pronounce their "s" like "sh." so instead of "como estas" (how are you?) it's "como estash."

christian my bro wanted to hear some punk/hip hop/ska music... so i got to share relient k, five iron frenzy, john reuben, and toby mac. it's been awhile since i heard all of them actually...since i've been listening to my "mature" music of norah, michel buble, and josh groban :P

can't remember if i already shared this, but WHITE pineapple is from the coast, and YELLOW pineapple is from everywhere else

10 de agosto (10th of august) is this week, so we get Friday the 12th off as a national or city holiday. lots of festivities to celebrate the Independence of Quito from the Spaniards

"Zorro" means fox, "aguila" means eagle - i learnt those from watching Apollo 13 with spanish subtitles ;)

ok that was long enough...i'll let you go now. thanks for reading!

dL