Waiting for laundry... in another country?

Can you feel the excitement?

I have lots of ideas about titles but I remember I wrote one about waiting for laundry like last month and some things never change. I am in fact waiting for laundry but I'm not doing it! I'm paying like 3 or 4 dollars for someone else to do it. The guy weighed my clothes and they weighed 4.5kg or 2lbs. That is most of my clothes.

I'm in an internet cafe right now and it is the first one I have ever been in before. I'm in Otavalo right now and it is beautiful and fun. Otavalo is a big tourist town on the weekends. They are renown for their market. It was big and fun. I saw Barney which kinda freaked me out. Right now though is mostly locals. The internet cafe I'm at is right on the edge of the Plaza of Ponchos. People are working by mostly painting metal bits and music is being played loudly. I do not know what I will do when I get back and there is not music being constantly being played.

I'm going to back track a bit and tell the story of what I did last week. Monday and Tuesday were a bit hard because I was feeling lonely but it ot better on Tuesday. I went to the South American Explorer clubhouse and used the internet a bunch. I talked to this dude from Alaska about politics. Alaska is a pretty small community and he was harsh on Sarah Palin. I did some research and I do not like her policies. I will vote for Obama if I vote. I know! It is important but it is rather difficult to vote from overseas. I will try and print out an overseas ballot request and send it to Arizona in time.

Tuesday afernoon I went to Salsa class and had lots of fun. The instructor is muy guapo (very handsome). I do think more in Spanish. In one of my other post I realized I use mucho but I do not remember using Spanish on purpose. If I post a word in Spanish, just ask me and I will tell you what I meant. I ended up walking home in the dark. It is slighly unsafe but I lived in a good neighborhood and I got frustrated because no taxis would stop for me. I ate with everyone and told everyone I was going to see a movie in a local theater. I warned everyone that it would be in Spanish and I did not play on understanding anything. All of the students except for Brian came with me. We walked 5 minutes to the local theater to see "Pizza, Barra, and Faso". What I did not know was that the movie was set in Argentina and woah! what an accent. I understood what the movie was about but not the words. It was about a pack of young thieves and their lives. They try to do a big heist but end up dead, dying, or going to prison. Three of the students left in the middle of the movie. That left me and Sarah. We ended up walking home in the dark around 10:30pm. Perhaps not the safest but nothing happened.

The next day I walked around trying to find good equipment for the outdoors. I then went to the old city and climbed the Basicilia. It is a church that you can go very high up in. I climbed up to the belfry and went outside. It was high. I do not get scared of heights but this gave me a big adrenaline rush. I then went into shops trying to find a pretty shirt. I found this really shiny orange shirt for only 5 dollars. Later that night I hung out with girl Lily who I had met a school, she is a couch surfer. She wanted to go see a dance presentation so I said I would go with her. I did not realize that she had met her own Ecuadorian man on the street. His name was Jaime and he was much nicer than Damien. He is a guide and loves mountains. It was still a bit awkward. I saw a friend Tomas who is a Polish guy living in London. He invited us to go to a bar. I should of went but did not. The best part of the night was running into Damien and he handed me a flyer. That is his job. It was a flyer for a club that has strippers on Wednesday night. Too funny! I showed the flyer to Blanca and she looked shocked or askance but then stated she only wanted to see Carlos strip. This are the people running the family stay and are both in their 50's. Not the best mental image but funny.

The next day was Thursday and it was a busy day. I do not remeber too well what I did in the afternoon. I went home and chatted with Brian. I put on the pretty orange shirt and went to lunch. I then went to salsa dance class again. So much fun and I'm a horrible lead, but this Canadian girl and I finally got this spinning move down. I then did a night tour with the school. It was interesting to actually see the city at night. I tried an alcoholic drink that is a mixture of vodka? and cider. More alcohol than cider so I did not like it. I went out with Tomas, Brooke, and Danielle at a cafe for drinks. I had hot chocolate. I had an interesting time in the middle of the night with the toliet. This is the second time I have had diaherra. The first was for thirty mintues and this time was only 2 hours. It just happened to be at 2:30 in the morning. Sadly my friend Clara has had problems for four days. To sad, but she has seen a doctor. Apparently my eating habits of eating lots of free things and eating food that falls on the ground has toughen my stomach up.

Friday I went to the Chapel of Man with Brian. It displays the work of Guasaymin. We walked up there after taking the bus for part of the way. It was all uphill and it was hard. Of course, I did not mention this but every morning I attended Spanish lessons. I went out dancing but miscommunication happened and it was not as fun as last Friday.

I got up at 5:30 in the morning to pack my stuff. I made Clara late but we caught a bus going to Otaval at 6:30 in the morning. This guy started to annouce things. Clara and I thought he was a bus official at first telling people to take care when they eat the food that vendors sell on the bus. People jump on, sell some food, and jump off. Very interesting. He kept going on and on. In fact he was a traveling salesman of people to keep your stomach from getting upset. Talk about a trapped audience. I was worried about my big bag because I could not keep an eye on it. It all worked out though. Clara and I first visited the animal market. Pigs are so smart and I do not think I can eat them anymore. Some tried so hard not to get caught or go where people wanted them to. I'm a bit afraid of pigs because a pet pig of some people I knew followed me around and bit me like four times. I shyed from a pig and fell down. I have a magnificant bruise below my left knee.

Clara and I went to our hostal so we could drop our stuff off. It is La Luna and it is beautiful. Also tranquil. We made are way to the main market. Clara bought so much and I surprised myself by buying a few pieces. I bought blue elephant earnings, a grean weaved belt, and a colorful largish purse. I got the purse because I wanted something smaller than my normal size backpack so I could have one giant backpack and one purse, not two backpacks and a purse. We ran into Clara's friend Andre, a Russian. I got to say talking politics with a Russian has been one of the more interesting things to do. We all wandered about and enjoyed what we could understand of a spanish comedy act for a festival. Clara and I went back to the hostal.

The next morning Andre came to our hostal which is a 3 dollar taxi drive from Otvalo. We hiked for two hours around the area. Then we went to some local falls and ate lunch. Leisurely hiked up to the falls where I scared the Russian guy by getting close to the edge. It was fine, he was just a bit nervous. We rode to the local bus terminal and I said goodbye to them. I then wandered for an hour to an hour an half because I did not want to take a taxi. I found the right road and started walking more. Walked for about an half hour uphill until I asked and found out I was on the wrong road. Took a bus down and walked for an hour and half up the right road. I was exhausted. I ended up hiking for 6 or 7 hours. I treated myself to a nice dinner, spagetti and hot chocolate, and I told myself that in the future, 3 dollars is a good deal for a taxi. I met up with four travelers who were staying in the dorm area. I talked, ate, and drank wine with them for a few hours. God I hate wine but it is safe to drink.

I crashed and got up the next day. It has been a good day. I had lunch and the place was very busy. I told this white couple, Ralph and Janet, they could sit with me because there was no room. They have been in Ecuador for 36 years and had great stories. They pushed me to see a crater lake but I do not think I have time to get a group to see it.

I know this blog is really long. Sorry I think in the future they might all be long. I will go streches with no internet access and then I have to update you all on everything. Have fun!