Soccer game & Manta

HOLA! So last Tuesday my friends and I went to a soccer game! Honestly, the soccer game was the funnest thing I've done in Quito. It exceeded all my expectations. We got out of class a little early and ran to the stadium (nearly 3 hours early) to grab good seats. The first half was a little boring since nobody scored, but once halftime came around, things began to change to say the least. At the soccer game, most of the people in the stadium were EXTREMELY DRUNK. This one guy stumbled upon our group and started talking to us to practice his English. He was pretty intoxicated and convinced he is the actual superman haha. Later on her asked us to do the chicken dance with him. I am so sad I cannot upload videos on here, but on my facebook there is a video of this. My friend Kristina and I did the chicken dance with this drunk Ecuadorian man in front of a crowd where people were recording us and singing along haha. It was an amusing half time to say the least. The second half of the game was super exciting as well! WE SCORED TWICE AND BEAT PERU!!! VAMOS ECUADORRR! Every time we got a goal, the crowd went insane. I was literally showered in beer.  The momentum of the crowd was unbelievable. Anyways, the soccer game was an amazing experience and I hope I can squeeze in another game or two before leaving Ecuador!

It was crazy because during the whole game, it seemed like hundreds of police were surrounding the Peru section to make sure there wasn't any violence. Also at the end of the game, the Peru section was let out of the stadium before anyone else to avoid conflict. 

The guy below is "Superman" Check out my video on facebook if you can! It's called "El Partido de Futbol en Ecuador" Apologies for saying a bad word at one point, a guy spilled his beer all over my camera. 

Okay so this past weekend a few of us took the Thursday night bus to Manta, Ecuador (the beach!) It was a great weekend. Unfortunately, I only took two pictures haha. Below is a picture of the hotel we stayed in. For our last weekend trip, we decided to do a luxurious room! The hotel had an infinity pool as well. It was beautiful.

Picture of the beach! I am not sure if I will be able to return to Galveston after going to the beaches here and in the Galapagos haha. Overall it was a great weekend! We spent most of our time relaxing on the beach, eating delicious seafood and playing in the waves. At one point we went on this banana boat but our guide kept flipping us over on purpose! Oh well, it was still a lot of fun. 

So today is a special day because IT WAS MY LAST DAY OF WORK! I don't think I've mentioned this on my blog, but I've had the worst job ever. I've hated it. BUT NOW IM FREE! The only cool thing from my job was the view it had of Quito so I took some pictures of that this morning. 

I cannot believe it is already the end of November...WHAT!? WHERE DID TIME GO!? This weekend we are going on a field trip for one of my classes then the next two weekends we are staying in the city because there's a giant two week celebration for Quito's independence. Then....back to America... 

Oh boy. Well I hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving and EAT TONS OF TURKEY! Until next time.

Cotopaxi

Hola! Okay so this past weekend my friends and I "climbed" Cotopaxi, the largest active volcano in Ecuador!  

Quick story before that adventure- My friend Erinn and I had dyed our hair back in September. I went darker and loved it! (It washed out after 3 weeks) Anyways, I've been wanting to dye my hair permanently, the same as it had been. I went to the salon and told them I would like to go darker, but NOT BLACK. Well, as you will see from the pictures below, my hair is nearly black now. Something must have gotten lost in translation. Oh well, change is fun haha.

Anyways, Cotopaxi is about 1 hour away from Quito. My friend and I are doing a project over the national park there so figured we might as well go and check it out! 

Unfortunately, the day we went it was EXTREMELY foggy. The picture below is a view of Cotopaxi from the laguna we hung out at first.

Jessica and I in front of Cotopaxi

This picture is at Laguna Limpiopungo. The laguna is supposed to be home to a variety of animals and plants. In fact, there is a specific species of bird that is about to go extinct (they only live in this laguna) and it's estimated only 100 or less are still alive. But....

All we saw was tons and tons of poop...

We did see 1 bird. But, that's it. The highlight of our laguna walk was taking pictures with all the poop. 

Anyways, after the laguna, we were supposed to drive to a parking lot where we would then hike 1 hour to the refuge where there is food and a gift shop. IT WAS INSANE. There was so much snow! The guide said usually there is no snow until you reach the refuge/are close to the refuge. He couldn't even drive us all the way to the parking lot the weather was so crazy. I was super excited because although I was just informed I did play in snow as a one year old baby, I thought this was my first time in real snow. 

After my friends took a few pictures of my freaking out and running around like a crazy person in the snow, we began our hike to the parking lot so we could get on the trail for the refuge. IT WAS PAINFUL. It was sleeting and the wind was insane. Most of the hike to the parking lot we had to walk backwards because our faces hurt so bad.

But we did see a neat little snowman on the way...

After hiking for a bit, we finally reached the parking lot! That is also where we made the collective decision to not hike to the refuge. The twenty minute hike to the parking lot was good enough for us. 

IT WAS SO COLD!! Being from Texas I did not have the proper gear to hike in snow. I wore a long sleeve shirt and two small jackets while my other friends, who happen to live in New Year, Iowa and Indiana, were wearing crazy warm looking rain coats. I was jealous. SHOUT OUT to my host family for giving my gloves and Emily for giving me a warm hat. Thank goodness.

The hike back down wasn't bad because all the sleet was hitting our backs rather than our faces. Because we were no longer in pain, I took a break to make MY FIRST SNOW ANGEL! So fun. Although I quickly became wet and even colder haha. But, it was worth it.

I just want to say that I absolutely love Ecuador. Yesterday I climbed a volcano and played in snow, 6 days earlier I was snorkeling with sea lions. TRY TO TOP THAT AMERICA. 

I'm off to a ton of homework. I'm getting nervous because my time here is running out; I only have one month left. WHATTTT!? This weekend I am pretty sure we are going to the beach, so I'll post pictures and such on Sunday!

GALAPAGOS ISLANDS!

Okay so I am currently working on a project about THE VOLCANO I HIKED YESTERDAY (ill post pictures of that tomorrow) so this will be a short update! Pictures tell more than words, right? So anyways, the Galapagos was absolutely amazing. Every single day we traveled to a new island and did fun activities. We also seemed to do some sort of activity involving turtles every day as well. I've never seen so many turtles in my life haha. The Galapagos was absolutely beautiful, pure and full of wild life! Yay for lots of pictures!

Super old giant turtle! He was about 100 years old

We walked through a cave created by lava! 

Picture of all the islands

We had a 1 hour hike to Tortuga Bay (beach) and on the way, there were tons of these cactus alien trees. 

La playa. It was insane! After swimming, we were walking back to shore and there was a sting ray swimming by us! I was a little frightened. 

These crabs were preeetty large

My friend Kyle hanging out with a sea lion haha. Typical day

You can't really tell, but there are blue footed boobies!

Marine Iguana. I am so happy when we snorkeled there were none of those. The iguanas get HUGE and look terrifying.

Sharks! I was a little concerned since we were about to go snorkeling in a place nearby. When we asked the guide what to do if we see a shark, he said "swim away calmly." Oh Ecuador.

Tons of baby iguanas! I am making peace to them because when I first when near them to take a picture, a few spit at me. I later found out though thats how they get rid of the salt water in their body after swimming, they just sit and spit.

LOBO MARINO!!

Giant marine iguana! 

Snorkeling was a blast! We snorkeled with sea turtles and sea lions. One sea lion stayed with our group and we played with him for a while. It was amazing. But I will admit, when I was swimming and a sea lion randomly popped in my face, I somewhat panicked and screamed haha. 

I found this to be really interesting. Building this wall was a punishment for the worst criminals in the Galapagos. Many died and are supposedly their bones are within the wall. Que loco! 

One day, we went on a FIVE HOUR HIKE (it was brutal) The first two hours it was really foggy and we couldnt see anything. 

But then it finally cleared up and we got to look at all the volcanos and volcanic rock!

In our last hotel I had a king sized bed! It was super cool. I slept sideways because I could.

One of the boats we rode on we were able to climb to the third level and look down at the ocean. We saw dolphins, turtles, sea lions and A HAMMER HEAD SHARK!!

Poor lonesome George. Last of his kind. He is supposed to live another 80 years though so thats good. Although he has been living with females for a long time, he just doesn't have any interest to reproduce with them. Poor guy.

So, that was my trip! SUPER CHEVERE! I will post tomorrow about the volcano and SNOW!