Tale of an Ecuadorian Bus Ride

In Ecuador buses are by far the most popular form of transportation. In a country only about the size of Colorado you might think that would be convenient. However, because of the extreme geographic diversity it is entirely possible to hop on a bus at the north end of the country and drive for twenty hours over mountain peaks and through deep valleys without even coming close to the southern boarder. Luckily Ecuadorian buses are also extremely entertaining. Imagine combining a roller coaster with an open air auction and a live infomercial.

After swearing in on April 22, which fittingly enough also happened to be earth day, I headed out east to the Amazon. The bus ride from Quito is several hours of descending through increasingly beautiful scenery. You drive past towering mountains with plots of farm land clinging to steep slopes in haphazard checkerboards, through misty cloud forests and finally into the rich green humidity of the Amazon.

Along the way a parade of vendors roam the aisles selling potato chips, lemonade, empanadas and bags of tropical fruit. Ocasionally a passanger inspired in a moment of religious fervor will stand up and deliver a half hour sermon at maximum value.

At one point a guy came on the bus to sell a lovely new invention. A belt with a hidden zipper on the back where you can store up to forty folded bills without anyone knowing! Another ambitious salesman explained that if you´re a woman and you keep your cell phone in your bra when it rings you´ll get breast cancer and if you´re a man don´t keep your phone in your pocket because it will give you prostate cancer. Luckily for only one dollar he will sell you a special charm to attach to your phone that will block these cancer waves.

For the grand finale just as we were nearing the end of the trip a man boarded the bus carrying a baby monkey no tricks or trinkets he just wanted to take his pet monkey along for a ride.

Let´s get technical

So I´m just finishing up twelve days of what the Peace Corps calls technical training. For the last week we´ve been traveling all over Ecuador visiting other Peace Corps volunteers, hearing about their projects, and hopefully gaining some new technical knowledge to go start our own projects.

Traveling anywhere in Ecuador seems to require a grueling bus ride of at least five hours along rocky roads clinging to steep cliff sides. But we´ve visited some incredible places. Yesterday we learned how to use GIS systems for land mapping. This is a pretty big feat for a girl who can barely figure out how to work her cell phone. It was a blast.

We went into the Amazon jungle and hiked around practicing marking points and trails with the GPS. I saw giant tropical flowers, crazy spiked caterpillars and a mushroom that looked like an eyeball. We returned tired and covered in river mud to eat a dish of ¨iampaco¨a delicious indigenous meal of chicken, onions, hearts of palm and yucca wrapped in palm leaves and baked over hot coals.

Sometimes it's hard to believe I'm actually here. It's such a completely different world but every day brings a new adventure.


This is why I love machetes.




















Eyeball mushroom.












Iampaco lunch.

New Beginnings

Bienvenidos to all my soon to be devoted readers. It took me a little while to get the blog going but as they say in my new home country ¨Más vale tarde que nunca¨. So for my first blog you´re going to get a two paragraph reenactment of my first six weeks in Ecuador.

I´ve been living so far with a host family in a small town high in the Andean mountains taking lots of Spanish classes and making many new cultural discoveries. I spent those first weeks falling desperately in love with the Sierra (the mountainous central region of Ecuador) only to be told two weeks ago that for the next two years I will be living in the middle of the Amazon jungle. I was devastated. But no one in their right mind signs up for the Peace Corps expecting to live a life free of surprises and setbacks so Amazon jungle here I come!

Despite the 90 degree weather and the poisonous snakes my site is awesome. Think giant vine-covered trees and gorgeous green river valleys. On the bus ride down I saw eleven waterfalls. In my backyard there are at least ten different kinds of fruit trees just waiting to supply me with delicious juicy snacks. My host family is incredibly welcoming and my counterparts are amazing. I´ll be working with the local municipio on environmental education, organic agriculture and sustainable water management just for starters.

So far my jungle Peace Corps assignment isn´t entirely what I expected but at least they´ve got fun and games.


My host family's house in the Sierra.

Wild mountain blueberries.

Mountain hiking.




















Beautiful Cayambe.