Weekend Adventures in Ecuador

Written by Benita Bruce - Ecuador 2009 GapBreak

Hello all,
Sorry I have been so slack with the news. We seem to have been really busy lately!
In the week after Easter, we began looking at possible placements. For a couple of days, I worked at a disabled centre, which I thought I would enjoy, but it ended up being quite disappointing as I didn´t feel like they needed a lot of help and there was about 6 volunteers there so on Friday I went to have a look at a school, and really loved it. It´s quite poor and only takes about 20 mins to get to on the bus, so much better than the hour or more to the disabled centre. I started work there on Monday, and I´m really enjoying it. I am there with another guy in our group, Max, and we are assisstant teachers most of the time, but I think they need the help because the teacher we are with speaks only very basic English. We teach English or help out with the computers, which can get interesting when its all in Spanish! The work is difficult but also pretty rewarding, and the children are all so cute and friendly.

My Spanish is improving a lot to. I managed to talk to a couple of girls for about 20 mins today, in very broken Spanish with them repeating a lot, but I was quite proud of myself! We are continuing with lessons and it is getting harder now, meaning I need to do some actual study, but I really think it´s worth it.

Last weekend we headed to a place called Baños, about 3 hours by bus, and it was absolutely incredible! The town was really small, nestled in a valley, so surrounded by massive green, rolling hills. There was even a waterfall about 2 mins walk from our hostel! We hired bikes for the day and went for a ride for about 3 hours along the road, through some gorgeous countryside- made even better by the fact that most of the way was downhill! It was such a spectacular ride. Went for a bit of a wander around the town that night, which was really interesting. Saturday morning was spent white water rafting, which was so much fun. Went to the hot springs in the afternoon to soak away the soreness from the two days of physical activity and spent the afternoon playing cards on the terrace of our hostel. A few of us got up early on Sunday morning to head to the baths again at about 6, but they were STILL packed so we didn´t stay for too long. Left Baños after lunch, all very tired but having loved the weekend.

This week has been spent basically working and doing Spanish, but this weekend we are heading off to a place called the Quilotoa Loop, which is meant to have some gorgeous scenery, and we will visit a volcanic crater lake on Saturday, where you can hike round and also walk down the side of the volcano to. Should be a good weekend!








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