[part 2]
I was going
to wait a bit to post this, but after this morning I have another adventure to
get writing about, so here is San Clemente: Part 2. (Read part one here)
After the sick/coca leaf fiasco,
the relaxed night of fire and music with the Pitzer crew and then a delicious
dinner at my host family’s house that I ate with the other Americans was
perfect. I got to hear more about the American middle schoolers – they’re
really cool people – and then afterwards when I sat down to embroider with my
host mom around the fire with the rest of the family sitting and listening to
music (Juan is a musician so they were listening to his recorded stuff with
Nataly singing) my host mom asked me what we had been talking about at dinner.
It was fun to be a bit of a translator. Plus my host mom kept telling me I was
good at embroidering! (Note: she did also tell me I was good at Spanish, so I
know she was just being nice). After embroidering for a while, I played Uno
with my American friends. A perfect kind of evening if you ask me.
The next
morning, after an unbelievable breakfast consisting of the best mango I’ve had
in my life, empanadas, and a broccoli/carrot omelet, I said goodbye to the
Americans (they were leaving that day) and went up to wait for the pickup truck
that was dropping the Pitzer crew off on our hike for the day. The view in the
truck was marvelous. San Clemente and the surrounding areas are stunning. The
mountains are green and patchworked and fall into a luscious looking valley
interspersed with lakes and small cities. Each family in San Clemente has their
own plot of land higher in the mountains so I was able to learn the types of
plants that grow in that region and see where my own family was getting their
vegetables and meat. I enjoyed the hike too. There were more stunning views and
Nina and I got to talk to some cows. We didn’t end up going to the top of the
mountain, but the hike down was certainly an adventure. Martina led us a
different way down that ended up being a couple hours longer and put us in a
different community where Martina had to ask to directions back to San
Clementine. To be honest, this was a struggle for a large portion of our group.
I run every day that I can and even my quads were killing so I can only imagine
how rough it must’ve felt without any preparation. Martina, however, (pause to
mention: she was wearing a skirt, sandal-like shoes, and carrying a small child
on her back) noticed that I was walking in the front and asked if I was an
athlete. I told her I was a runner and she smiled and asked more. We were
talking for a while when her older son finally interrupted to tell me that
Martina was a runner too. I was really excited to hear that and I got to ask
her about her running too. She’s really humble which, I assume, is why she
didn’t say anything before, but as it turns out she is the person that
represents San Clemente when there are races within the different indigenous
communities. She’s basically superwoman is what I learned. Later, when we went
to town to get ice cream, she found out my mom is a cross country coach so she
was asking me all about the proper diet for runners. To be honest, when she said
that I couldn’t help but picture the amazingly healthy meal she had prepared
for us the first night versus the typical meal I eat in season (they all end
with a large portion of ice cream…) and thought that she should be the one
telling me what to eat. Regardless, it was so cool to form a bond with Martina
over running, especially when she is, as I said a moment ago, essentially
superwoman.
Somehow we
all made it safely back to San Clemente, ate lunch with our families, and met
up around 2 to get down to the closest city, Ibarra, for “helado de paila”, a
form of ice cream native to Ibarra that we’d heard about since arriving to
Ecuador. Let me add here that last weekend was a festivity called “Carnival” in
Ecuador, which equates to water, eggs, flour, and foam being thrown at everyone
in form of celebration. Even the bus got pelted with water balloons as we made
our way into the city. We had to be careful navigating our way to the ice
cream, but we made it there completely dry. The ice cream was incredible. We
all ended up getting four different scoops of all types of flavors. They had a
huge selection of fruits and each was better than the last. We also all tried
Ecuadorian “quesadillas” which are completely different than what we think of
as quesadillas and do not actually contain cheese at all. It’s a form of sweet
bread. We’ll just say we were well fed. Thanks Pitzer, for using our tuition
money to let us eat tons of ice cream! (On the way back to Quito on Tuesday we
also stopped and ate biscochos with hot chocolate, fresh cheese, and ice cream,
so never fear, I am doing my best to take every opportunity to make each dollar
count.) On the way back to the bus station to head back to San Clemente a few
of us got foamed, but we managed to avoid some potentially big water disasters.
That night
during dinner my host brother had fun showing me some cool traditional Kichwa
dances. I kept asking him to teach me, but he kept turning bright red and
saying he wasn’t good. That isn’t true, he was really good – just too
embarrassed and cool as an 17 year old boy to teach a 20 year old gringa. After
dinner, which included chicken that I’m pretty sure had been wandering around
the yard that afternoon, and the best tomato/onion/avocado salad I’ve even
eaten, I went straight to bed.
In the morning I had more amazing food. Really
I wanted this whole blog to be about the deliciousness and freshness of the
food I ate last weekend, but I thought that might get boring. However, the food
was unbelievably incredible. My love
for the food was solidified after helping my host mom make breakfast. When I
asked if I could help, she handed me a huge knife and a mango. I’ve never
peeled or cut a mango before let alone without a cutting board, but I managed
to do so and luckily still have all of my fingers. I’m not sure how I pulled
that one off. Anyway, as I was cutting, the water for the tea started boiling
and I watched as my host mom jumped up from what she was doing, run out into
the yard, come back with some leaves, rinse them off, and throw them in the
pot. That, my friends, is real tea. The fresh tea combined with the second best
mango in my life (cut by yours truly) and the freshly baked bread, I was a
happy camper. I also got to make mango juice, which included cutting up yet
another mango sans cutting board. Again, I am lucky to still have all of my
fingers. Juice making definitely wasn’t my thing, because the mango juice ended
up way too watery and pretty gross, but alas. I enjoyed trying.
I was really sweaty and dirty by
that point in the weekend so I decided that I should be a big girl and test out
the shower. I was skeptical, but it was better than making the 4 hour van ride
back to Pitzer without having showered in four days. As it turns out that not
only is the water hotter in rural San Clemente than the water at my house in
Quito, but the water pressure is better too. Who would’ve guessed?
My heart was heavy when I packed up
and headed with my host mom and Nataly to the big picnic lunch for all the
families. It was heavier still when I had to say goodbye. I teased Martina
about how I wasn’t planning on leaving. Very seriously both my host mom and
Martina told me I was welcome back anytime. I hope to take them up on that
because this was one of the most beautiful weekends of my life. I like living
up in the mountains and embroidering and helping cook (and eat) fresh foods. I
like talking to my host mom, who opened up to me quickly. I like the strength
of the sun. I like waking up in a freezing room to the sound roosters. I like
not having wifi. I like how genuine the days feel. To be honest, I think that
this was more of what I was expecting my abroad to be like, and although I am
having and will continue to have a wonderful time in Quito, places like San
Clemente are where my heart will always be.
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