Weekends are for Adventuring

I've realized I've been the worst picture-poster of all my weekend adventures on my blog. Minus the chocolate making, I haven't really posted pics of my weekends here. So here is a snapshot of what i've been doing... For those of you who also facebook stalk me, the first half of the pics you've probably already seen, but there's some new ones at the end :)

A beautiful cathedral in the historical center of Quito- one of many here in Ecuador

Believe it or not, you are looking at a mausoleum. Not sure why, but they thought it'd be a good idea to put the caskets right above the freeway...

A view of the city from Panasilla

A traditional dessert: figs and cheese with a syrup sauce. I usually despise figs, but I didn't know the word for fig when i was ordering so I kind of accidentally got it. But I I loved it!

The inside of one of the cathedrals. Gorgeous is an understatement. Everything is ornate, gold-plated, artistic- incredible heritage here!!!

Looking down one of the streets...

one of the soccer fields at my school! my heart skipped a beat when i saw it!

And then skipped another beat when i saw the field next to it... hahaha 

We learned how to make fabric from sheep's wool

Here's the guy spinning the wool

And then weaving it into a scarf!

We also visited the house of a musician who makes all his own instruments. If you look closely you'll spot the armadillo guitar/ukulele type instrument. 

Me trying out the old telephone, makin some long distance calls :)

Here the owner is using bamboo to make the traditional flute- it was incredible to watch!

We went and swam under some waterfalls.... so fun! One of the girls lost her footing and washed a good 20 yards down the river toward the next cascade before grabbing a rock. 

A gorgeous volcanic lake that we hiked part-way around

Sittin by the lake as the fog drifts in...

Straddling the hemispheres at the Equator! There's a tourist trap monument like 100 yards away that all the gringos go to, but when google-earth came out, the realized they built it in the wrong spot. We, however, went to the REAL equator!!! :)

The things you do when you're at the equator... 

I got to meet Hedwig.

  Not a big deal or anything, really. Just the most famous owl ever. 

 Me attempting to feed the llamas. Unsuccessfully, sadly. The just didn't like the salt i had i guess. There's no way it had anything to do with me...

This is where we met all the llamas, at the pyramids here in Ecuador. Apparently Ecuador has more ruins than peru (famous for Machu Picchu), but they built with bricks made of earth and then covered them with brush and earth when the Spanish invaded so that they wouldn't be sacked. Sadly, this makes them not as easy to restore, so they don't get that much attention. Still really incredible though! We took a tour of the sight (in Spanish of course, so don't trust much of what I say about them) and got to see where the 16 pyramids are!

Here is the top of one of the pyramids that has been excavated. The natives had scratched sundials and ways of tracking the stars into the floors on the top of the pyramids that they used for rituals. 

Sorry that the lighting was really bad, but i just wanted to show you that they use Halls as mints after meals if you eat out. A lot of the candy here has menthol in it (definitely a shocker by the way the first time i picked up what i thought was going to be a dinner mint), but here they took it to the next level by simply serving Halls.

Yesterday we went to ride the teleferico up the mountain Pichincha that our city backs up to. To give you a little perspective, Denver is the mile high city. Here, we've got the two mile high city! A few friends and I spent our Saturday morning/afternoon on top of the mountain. First, it took a while to get there because getting directions anywhere is a bit tricky. Within five minutes we got a variety of answers about how to get to the teleferico: 

1. you can't actually get there from here

2. Take the bus inside this station

3. There's a shuttle that will take you there, but you have to call it

4. (when asking about where the shuttle is...) Oh, it doesn't exist

5. go down this street and take a right. The bus goes by there, every half hour or so, don't worry!

Needless to say, we called a taxi. Definitely a good move. 

Ashley, me, Hannah, and Katie on our ascent up the mountain!

Looking down at the city... and realizing that i live in a HUGE city!!!

A view from the top!

A purdy view...

And finally the sign that made me feel so safe about the whole experience. 

Well, that's it for now! After examining this snip it of my few weeks here, you're probably wondering if I actually study while i'm here. Very good question! But I'd rather not answer that because my parents regularly check my blog... hahaha :)