A Very Ecuadorian Thanksgiving

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving everyone!

I'm spending this weekend in Quito with my host family which has been really helpful in reducing the Thanksgiving-induced homesickness I was experiencing on Thursday. Here's what I've been up to since I last posted:

A few days ago (Tuesday? Wednesday? I'm not 100% sure) Daniel convinced me to skip working on my plots in the afternoon and go on a hike with him. We hike a trail called Tranquilo, which means "calm" in Spanish and is one of the biggest misnomers ever. The trail is a loop and basically goes up a mountain during the first half and then back down the mountain during the second half. The trail information sign says that it takes 4 to 5 hours to hike the entire trail, but Daniel said that that is the "tourist time" and we were going to do it in 2. I prepared myself for a very painful 2 hours.

The trail turned out to be not too bad, and we easily made it in 2 hours. The beginning was pretty tough because there were a lot of really steep parts, but once you got up a ways the views were absolutely amazing. We started hiking at 2, so when we got to the peak of the trail the clouds were just starting their afternoon descent down the mountain. Everything was so green and foggy and full of trees, it was like we were in The Lord of the Rings or something. Tranquilo is rarely hiked and it's really easy to get lost. At one point Daniel told me to go first and point whenever I saw a sign directing me to see if there were enough signs/if they were in the right places (I only got lost once!). When we got to the end instead of heading straight back to the lodge we went to the natural swimming hole in the river that runs past the reserve and jumped in. The water was really cold but it was a nice end to a fun hike.

Other than that my week was pretty much taken up by data collection. Thursday was my last day of collecting data for my project, and I didn't realize until about 9:30 in the morning that it was actually Thanksgiving and I was out in the forest in Ecuador measuring light. My "Thanksgiving dinner" consisted of chicken (it's a bird, so close to turkey), potatoes (not mashed, but still potatoes) and beets (as far as I'm concerned, not traditional Thanksgiving fare). My Thanksgiving continued with a mini breakdown (fueled by homesickness and stress) after lunch. After dinner Daniel and I watched a movie (Michael Clayton, which has nothing to do with Thanksgiving) and then he gave me a Maquipucuna shirt, which was really nice. I've decided that I'm going to consider this weekend with my host family my Thanksgiving because a) I'm spending time with family and b) I saw a turkey today when I went to the supermarket with my mom.

On Friday Daniel drove me to Nanegal, which is the biggest town close to Maquipucuna, so that I could catch a bus to Quito. It was the first Ecuadorian bus ride lasting more than 30 minutes that I'd ever taken alone, so I was a little nervous, but Daniel stayed with me until the bus came. The ride went off without a hitch and the only problem was that I was so hungry the entire time I was ready to eat my own hand. When we arrived at the bus station in Quito there were taxis conveniently placed next to where the buses come in, so I took one to my house because I was far too hungry to try and take a bus there. When I got to my house everyone was so excited to see me, and it felt so much like coming home that all the Thanksgiving homesickness I was feeling immediately went away. I spent yesterday afternoon and evening just hanging out with everyone and greeting family members as they came home one by one. It was really nice to see everyone and they were all very excited and happy to see me. Now all I have to do is motivate myself to start my ISP paper!

Hasta luego,
Caroline