Rhianna Banana

Raven-haired beauty

After Pierre’s departure, I went back to my site and ate cheese and watched the Gilmore Girls and Arrested Development to make myself feel better after having to say goodbye to him. I also helped Janet move to Quito and made Trent, Lindsay, and Megan make signs to welcome my family at the airport. Oh, and Megan and I dyed my hair black. I’ve always wanted to see what I would look like with black hair, and I figured now was the time to experiment, before I go back to the states and have to get a real job.

Julia and Nathan arrived a couple days before everyone else. My male entourage (Miles and Trent) accompanied me to the airport to greet them, which was great. We each held up a sign. Mine read “Welcome North American Scum” which is from a song by LCD Soundsystem that Nathan likes. Luckily no one else read the sign so I don’t think I offended anybody!

The next day, Nathan, Julia and I left for my site. They met all my Ecuadorian friends and saw my place. They were shocked by the humbleness of my apartment. My place is really small, and the water and electricity occasionally go out. But, any place after this will seem great by comparison!

After visiting my site, we returned to Quito to meet up with my mom, Sasha, and Charlene. We did a couple of touristy things in Quito and then we all left for the Galapagos on Saturday. I didn’t bring my camera to the Galapagos because it was my second trip out there and everyone else had their cameras. Sasha took some great pictures! Here’s the link to her album:

http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=15741202155675670/l=340438696/g=3994898/otsc=
SYE/otsi=SALB (You can´t click on this link; you have to copy and paste the first part and then the second part all together in your browser.)

I will just let the pictures speak for themselves. We spent about 3 full days in the Galapagos, and then it was time for Nathan, Julia and Sasha to head home. Charlene and my mom stayed a little longer for a quick trip to Mindo. The best part of that trip was the frog concert at our hotel. The owner and his dog took us on a walk around the property at night. He had learned the names and calls of all 18 species of frogs on his property, and would play his recordings of frog calls back to the little guys. They would then call in response. It was very cool, especially for a frog enthusiast like me =)

Then we returned to Quito, visited the indigenous market in Otavalo, and my visitors left.

Now I’m going to steal an idea from Janet and use a song lyric from Steve Poltz for my next post title =)

posted by Unknown @ Friday, February 08, 2008