Five days doesn’t sound like a long time, but the amount of stuff that has fit into these days makes me excited for the next months to come. I knew I was going to enjoy my surroundings when deciding upon Ecuador as my destination due to my longstanding fascination with the Andes mountains, but I didn’t realize how much my world was about to change. I have never left America for more than 12 days which made mentally preparing for what was about to come nearly impossible. I have spent the past year and a half gearing up with information and resources to support myself during my time in Ecuador, but learning is one thing, doing is another.

I most likely brought way too much stuff which I realized when I arrived in Quito, Ecuador when all of the people trying to help me with my luggage kept laughing… una gringa loca! I wanted to tell them that I was staying for a while, but my lack of sleep the night before, traveling, and being overwhelmed not only made my intermediate Spanish flounder, but my English wasn’t very good either. It was frustrating, but I made it to where I needed to go. I was happy to sleep in a hostal with comfortable beds and a garden surrounding me: Hostal del parque tababela.

Cosanga is about a 3 hour bus ride from Quito. Once again, everyone was astonished about what I brought with me…. I kept telling myself, “it’s the books and things that I brought for camping and planning summer camp activities!” but really, I didn’t have to bring enough shampoo to last my whole stay… una gringa loca! I had great company on the trip to Cosanga. Fergo is from Cosanga and has very good English (I still tried to chime in with my Spanish as much as I could). He answered every question I had and told me a lot about the land as we traveled to Cosanga. We even talked about dreams, yes!! I told him that I might cry because of the scenery… I did. We passed by Papallacta, Baeza, Las Palmas while weaving throughout the Andes mountains going from the highlands to la Amazonica. Reaching Cosanga took my breath away. This is where I will be for 9 months (seriously considering this to be longer… a year, two years? hmmmm).

Fergo and I brought my stuff to Sustainable Roots. I tried to bring my stuff into the house as quickly as possible so that the other volunteers didn’t see my massive amounts of stuff… unavoidable. I was greeted by the whole team! 1 from Germany, 1 from Canada, 1 from Nebraska, 1 from Colorado, 1 from Oregon and 2 from Bozeman, Montana (what are the chances?!). Toni and her husband Aladeo also welcomed me warmly. There was so much going on that I didn’t know what to do first! They showed me around the house which has over 7 raised garden beds, a huge green house, compost piles and many other projects to create the most sustainable surroundings as possible. I love this space!

That night I ate guinea pig, or cuy, a delicacy in Ecuador. Muy delicioso!

The next morning, 8 of us woke up at 3:30 am to wait for a bus (for 1.5 hours) to take a hike that was supposed to show us many volcanoes and lead us to some hot springs. They said I didn’t have to come since I’ve been traveling and we didn’t go to bed until midnight, but how could I say no to that?? It ended up being a 14.5km (about 9 miles) hike that took my breath away… literally and figuratively. I forgot that I was coming from 1 foot above sea level to about 3,000 feet above sea level. Whoops. The group was really nice and waited for me from time to time. The trail was called “El agua y la vida” and was the most beautiful hike I have ever been on. Although there were clouds covering the volcanoes, they were moving so quickly that the light was constantly changing and giving little peeks into the distance. Lakes popped up everywhere as we hiked and so did the mud. I only fell twice and managed to keep my shoes relatively clean. Surprised? Me too.

The hike took about 6 hours up and down the Andes mountains, over the ridges, past a llama farm to Papallacta. The hot springs were the fanciest I’ve ever seen, not to mention the best thing I could have asked for. My airplane-cramped, top-bunk, 3.5 hours of sleep, 6 hour hike body was in sweet, sweet heaven and surrounded by beautiful mountains. Mountains that I’ve seen in my dreams.

I slept like a baby that night! Good thing because the next four days are the most celebrated occasion in Ecuador: Carnival!! I spent the morning working with the team making a Chinese dragon for our float. It was awesome. Chains of paper, a large dragon head and each of us were equipped with a ton of foam to spray the spectators. The parade we were in had 3 other floats and the parade route was less than a block long, the cutest parade I’ve ever seen!! After everyone was thrown into the river, it was time to eat, drink and be merry – and be merry I did. Although I was tired and wanted to sleep, I must not know how to say “no” in Ecuadorian because I ended up staying up until 9:00 am celebrating Carnival. I mostly enjoyed speaking with the locals and getting to know some of them. My stomach hurt from laughing.

The next day included a farewell dinner for 6 of the volunteers who were headed out on their next adventures. I was more excited for them than anything else. They are incredibly nice people and will be growing their strengths in so many different ways in the next leg of their journeys: Cheers to the wanderers!

It feels nice to be able to unpack my (multitude of) bags and settle into where I will be for the next months to come. I was able to check out the garden and start talking about the classes I will be teaching today which made me really excited. I have so many ideas and visions, but I have to remind myself to calm down in order to learn more from the community. They are my teachers. My mind keeps thinking about other teaching experiences I’ve had, but this will be completely different. Cosanga had a teacher for 30 years that told her students that they will never learn anything and that they will fail. That broke my heart. Although she has retired, the students (and some of their parents) still feel inadequate and unsure of their capabilities. The past 6 months have been the first stages of growth from Sustainable Roots volunteers catching up from the damage that she did. I’m looking forward to finding out how we can continue the growth with the school and with the community.

Although I could keep writing and writing, I will tie this up for now. I’ll leave you with some pictures and my warm wishes of happiness and positive energy to you in your life. I think of my friends and family often and how they have carried my spirits higher than the stars. Thank you all for checking in on me and for all that you are.

Until next time,

With love,

Krysta