Discotecs and cemetaries

I think this will be my final post! I don´t expect too much excitement in the next 3 days before boarding a plane home. Although... I do have 8+ hrs in the Guayaquil airport during which I might try to create some type of adventure. I can only sit and read on a metal bench for so long!

Friday night was a new experience in that a group of us celebrated one of our professora´s b-days with dinner at a Chinese restaurant and a danceclub afterward. The dinnertable was very interesting - part Swiss, part N American and part Ecuadorian. It was quite festive, and the discotec was a very different piece of Ecuadorian culture. Loud techno mixed with American rap and packed with people who barely had room to move, let alone dance! It was very fun, but it was followed by an early morning for our next excursion to another hike.

This time we drove about an hour from Cuenca to a small town that showcased both modern architecture and the more traditional adobe style buildings. We wandered the town, then drove to a random gravel road where we proceeded to hike straight upward to a pinnacle where a cement marker stood. This is one of the few markers the Incan used to determine where the center of the world was. It provided a great view fo the surroundgin mountains as well as a heart-stopping moment when I realized a nice hairy tarantual was an inch from my foot. But then my heart twittered again when the guide told us it was to each person´s own as far as getting off the hill. Looking down I felt like I needed rock climbing gear, but I went ahead and ran-walked-skipped-tumbled-slid down. From there we went to another mountain/hill that again was almost straight up. But when we were almost to the top, we came into a little sancutary with a tiny lake and 3 other ´doorways´ out of this sanctuary. It´s hard to explain but this lake was considered sacred to the Incans and very important for trade because this spot was the crossroad in essence to the N, S, E and W of the valley. In each of the corners was a tip of this mountain and it´s said that there are caves underneath where royalty are burried. Surrounding the lake are several mounds of rocks which serve as tombs for other high ranking people. We sat under the lone tree by the lake and had one of the most serene moments of my time here in Ecuador. We hiked back down observing the terraces the Incans created to farm the hillside land and brick-makers who were preparing to build a new home.

Sunday I visited the church a friend mentioned before I left. It is close to the house where I´m living and it was a beautiful morning for a walk. When I found it I was surprised to discover a church that could have easily been in the US. The building looked the same, they had the same structure of service, the same 20 min sermon, and the same songs only in English. It was nice to worship there, but I guess I was hoping for something a little more Ecuadorian, not American. I rested and studied the rest of the day and Monday brought new professoras and students. I´m still with Stephanie, who has introduced me to the other Swiss in the school and we´ve had a good time together. I love the variety of people I´ve met here. Teachers, therapists, stock brokers, Physics PhDs, medical students, nurses and college kids to name a few.