It has been a while since I have updated here. So many things have happened that I´m not going to be able to cover them all. The overwhelming feeling I have here though is that it is not so different from Canada. There are the blatant differences but those don´t make that much of a difference when it comes down to it. I don´t feel like I´m thousands of miles away from home.
The people here are for Ecuadorian standards fairly well off. Peguche is near to Otavalo where a lot of tourists come to shop in the huge market there. I am working with a group of indigenous women here who want to start a community tourism business. There idea is that groups of women from other parts of the world will come and stay in their houses and take spanish lessons, artisanal lessons, and tour around. The most important part of the experience will be that they will live and see how indigenous women live in Peguche which has a very strong indigenous community to the extent that most people speak Kitchwa as well as Spanish. We are going to be putting together a package for womens groups to look at and hopefully setting up a web page.
Spanish is going well and I can communicate quite well with most people. It does get quite exhausting though.
We went to quite a few tourist places on Saturday with all three groups. We saw people rapelling down through the waterfall in Peguche which looked like a lot of fun. We then went on the most terrifying bus ride of my life. Up the switchbacks on the mountain. It was like driving the Trout Lake road in a Greyhound bus but in a moderately populated area with kids and dogs and houses and other cars all over the place. We went to the Condor Park where they rescue and rehabilitate birds of prey. If you haven´t seen a condor they are huge. They have a wingspan of 3 meters. I would not want to meet one in a hang glider some day. From the Condor park we went to Cotacatchi which is a leather producing city and then to Cuicocha Lake where we had a tour. 4 of us went on one boat and the rest went on the other. I was one of four people on the boat with PANDA, the only social group for gay people in Quito. It was a riot! It was mostly gay guys and they wanted to know all about Canada. They were dancing all over the place. I guess it is one of the few places that they feel safe, because being gay in Ecuador is a no-no. They were in a big group so they were really comfortable. Anyways, my internet time is running out. I´m still figuring out my post program plans but I´ll let y´all know when I know. I love you all and miss you. I wish you could all see this beautiful country,
Anna
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