to top it all off....

If you know me, you know I like to cook.  And eat.

I'm not going to disclose the amount of goat cheese that was consumed...

Bruschetta

Richard's creation: chicken breast topped with goat cheese, lime, and basil sauce; topped again with mushroom, onions, basil balsamic.

Sooooo excited for what's coming!

A great end to a fantastic weekend!

fun in quito

Spanish class ended on Wednesday, and I have already started to enjoy Quito more.  On Thursday, I went to a salsa class with a few chicas.  We all get $50 from BU for "cultural experiences" so we will probably get 12 classes for $50.  Hooray for "free" salsa lessons!

Awesomeness is beginning!

Last night I went out to Plaza Foch with the rest of the kids from my program.  It's been hard to coordinate social things, and I feel as though it's leading to some tension because the group mentality reigns supreme.  We went to a great club and danced the night away.  Here's one exchange I had on the dance floor with an Ecuadorian:

ecua man: how old are you?
me: 20
ecua man: are you married?
me: no *scoff*
ecua man: you're going to leave here married!
me: haha. yeah. right.
...a little later...
same ecua man: i think im in love with you
me: hhaha yeah right, i think i'll go dance with my friends now!

heh heh....

Today, I went to a fútbol game in Quito with Alison, Eushavia, and Tommy.  We met Diego from Houston who comes to Quito for work every two weeks.  We watched the game with him and his family, and had a great time!  They were all hysterical and very happy to have us join in the fun.  And we got some jerseys and refreshments too!

Me and Alison in our new jerseys.

Diego's video of cheering fans

The teams tied, and we headed to T.G.I. Friday's after the game for a "celebratory" beer.  I had to peace out a bit early because there was another celebration going on at my house...


I arrived to a house full of family!  Everyone was there to celebrate Orlando's birthday, so I took advantage of it and snapped a bunch of photos...

Me and my host family!

Juancho and Valentina, the youngest of the family.

Eventually, the Aguardiente was opened and was finished shortly after.  The dancing began, and someone bought another bottle...

Maria Elena and Orlando break it down.

Diego and Patricia; and Daniel and Paula

Mario and Juancho duel

Valentina, que preciosa!

Orlando and Vale

Orlando showing me how it's done

weeeeee this is sooo great!  Mario and Vale

Mágica!

Carmen Elena and Juancho

We danced salsa, reggae, cumbia, etc.

que chistoso!

la vida en quito

Time has been moving along quite quickly in Quito.  Thank goodness, because I am running out of things to do here.  I hate to say that I am bored, but it´s been difficult to find things to do to entertain myself.  My days are spent going to class, hanging out with my host family, and surfing the internet.  Because I get home at around 17h30 everyday, I haven´t really had time to explore the city.  This will change after today when I finish my Spanish class.  From today on, I will be done with classes at noon and I will have time to poke around the city.  I´m looking forward to it.

Since I´ve been here, I´ve been on a neverending search for a decent bar of dark chocolate.  I´ve gotten some recommendations from my professor, but the brand he recommend can be purchased in the United States.  I want some legit Ecuadorian chocolate, but it seems that most chocolate is exported as pure cacao, so there´s a lack of actual chocolate here...I still have some chocolate left from the U.S., but I´m going to need more soon...

 About half of the family went away last weekend because Mario was in a triathalon and Paula was in a swim race across Lago San Pablo.  I think Mario did well, but he said something about how the water was really cold and that he had some trouble swimming.  Paula got second place in her race, and brought home a really impressive trophy!  Mario brought some cuy back, and I got to try it!  Oh, cuy is guinea pig if you were wondering.  This cuy was fried, but it is also prepared grilled.  I ate one of its little legs, and it tasted like chicken/duck, and was quite tasty!

Juancho went back to school last week, so he comes to the house after school every day.  On Monday, I corrected his English homework on present and past simple tenses.  It made me wish I had paid more attention in grammar class in middle school.  I had so much trouble trying to explain why the past tense of leave is left.  English really doesn´t make any sense now that I think about it...

Orlando´s birthday was yesterday!  On Monday, I tried to find his favorite brand of coffee at SuperMaxi (grocery store), but could not.  I asked MaríaElena where I might be able to find it because it´s his favorite.  She told me to buy Aguardiente Antioqueño instead, a Colombian liquor.  So I bought my host father a bottle of hard alcohol for his birthday.  He was so happy when I gave it to him.  Only in Ecuador!

The other night, MaríaElena asked me a for what she described as un gran favor.  This is how our conversation went:

María Elena:  Sarah, can I ask you for a big favor?
Sarah: Sure, what´s up?
ME:  Will you tell Juancho that you will give him a prize if he stops biting his nails by the time you leave?
S:  Um, what?

ME:  He bites his nails, and we have always asked him to stop, but he never has.

S: I don´t know if I can do that.  what do you want me to do?

ME:  well, don´t let him know that I told you to.  just say that he should stop and that you´ll give him a prize if he stops by the time you go back to the U.S

S: ok, i´ll see what i can do

So it seems I have some scheming to get to... I´ll let you know if he takes the bait.

The bulk of my travels begin next week!  The class just finished the montane portion of the ecology course.  Next up is coastal ecology, with trips to los Piqueros and los Galápagos.  I´m sure there will be lots of news and pictures in the next few weeks.

I´ll leave you with some views of Quito from my bedroom window:

La Hesperia

Eeek! I have two tests tomorrow (one in Ecology, the other in Spanish) and a paper due.  I have a lot to do, but I wanted to put up tidbits and photos from this past weekend.  I'll write some nerdy captions to help me study...

We went to La Hesperia for the entire weekend!  It's a hacienda east of Quito that has a large adjoining section of protected cloud forest.  We stayed in a farmhouse on the property and explored the farm's grounds and surrounding forest.  They fed us really well (lots of vegetables!!!), which is always important.

Amazing spider web

The inflourescence of Heliconiace.  These bracts hold flowers (i.e. those green grass-like things sticking out of the pink canoe-like things...)

The common name of this plant is mother in law's tongue.  They have sharp, tough leaves...

Ali with friend and local celebrity Araceae monsterra.  These plants have numbing factor in their sap.

Palm trees have horizontal leaf scars, and check out that foliose (flaky, leafy) lichen!

Jack-in-the-pulpit...a member of the Araceae family.

I love hydrangeas!

Cute, skinny horses at the farm

There were 4 of these dogs at the farm (they all look exactly the same).  They are cute, but are fairly vicious and attack without warning.  I was on the main road and one attacked me (it jumped on me, bit my ankles and shoelaces, and played tug-of-war with my pants).  I had to throw sticks and rocks and yell at it to pretend like I was playing catch get it away from me.  I miss well behaved dogs.

Alison and Eushavia walking toward the main house.

Huge bromeliad (Bromeliaceae) in a tree.  Bromeliads tend to be epiphytic and cover trees.  This adds another dimension to the tree's canopy.

Araña

The fuzzy stem on this Araceae helps the plant collect water when the roots are inadequate.

Algae!

The bracts of a different member of the Heliconiaceae family.

Walking through the river...very refreshing after a long hike

Mariposa!

Batty Time with Jaime

We set up 3 mist nets right before dusk to catch some bats.  We were very successful!  After picking the bats out of the nets, we put them in canvas bags, and took them to the house.  There, we examined each bat one-by-one and took various measurements etc.  In case you were wondering, bats are very cute!  The ones we caught were pretty small--we might see some bigger species in the Amazon.

We caught about 12 individuals, and 6 species total--pretty good numbers for the area.  Three of the bats were not released and were collected in the name of science.  One of those three had been injured in the net, and would not have survived anyway.  I'm not sure why the other two were collected...

Check out those pearly whites

More updates later this week when I have less on my plate...

cotopaxi

On Sunday, the class took a day trip to Cotopaxi, a stratovolcano south of Quito.  The peak is 5897 m (19347 ft) above sea level.  It's the second highest peak in the country, and is the highest active volcano in the world.

We arrived at the Cotopaxi National Park only to have our bus searched by 3 guards under the suspicion that we had alcohol with us.  I know we're American college kids, but it was 9:00 am on a Sunday...

We started off at a little museum to read about the flora and fauna found around Cotopaxi.  We then continued up the road...

We stopped to snap some photos of Rumiñahui, a stratovolcano, behind the Limpiopungo Lagoon.  The wind was already very strong here!

Bosher cousins with Cotopaxi in the background!

Glorious Cotopaxi!  I apologize for some repetitive photos later on...

We did a mini project on how plant height and diversity changes with increasing elevation.  It's the first of our many small projects.  The group split into four groups, and each group measured a 1m by 10m transect at each of 6 sites we visited.  In each transect we counted the number of species we found and measured the height of the tallest plant (if we remembered to...).

Alison and Amelia measuring the transect.

As you can see, I was really focused on counting plants...

This vertical face does not support any snow.

Alison and Amelia counting and documenting plant species in the Páramo.

A brave little flower in the mid-páramo.  You can see the cushion plants in the background.  Cushion plants grow very close to the ground to avoid exposure to the wind, therefore minimizing their heat loss.

Class at the foot of Cotopaxi.

This plant is called mountain climber's friend because it is the largest plant found high up in the páramo.

Some more brave flowers at mid-páramo.  The cushion plants are more visible in this photo.

As we made our way up the road to the parking lot, the bus had to take some pretty intense switchbacks.  I was beyond impressed with our bus driver because we managed to avoid tipping over.  We rocked back and forth up the road, clutching our stomachs and possessions to avoid nausea and injury.  We finally made it to the parking lot to do our last transect--but there wasn't much life out there to count.

Here, you can see the refuge (a small yellow rectangle to the left) for climbers.  The snow and glacier used to cover the reddish part of the mountain just up until the refuge.  But climate change, blah blah blah you know the story, has caused the glacier and snow to recede.  The rock is reddish because it contains iron that has been oxidized with its fairly recent exposure to oxygen.

I'll be back for you, Cotopaxi!  Gotta start training now...

A better look at the reddish rock and the glacier.

Our mighty, magic school bus in the parking lot.