Hola Loja

After a delightful and unexpected yoga session in the Guayaquil airport (empty room with bamboo plants...needed to stretch my creaky bones and something about it just said 'ohm') I was finally aboard my freshly booked flight to Loja where Dany and Jorge were waiting for me.

It seemed like we had just taken off when we started to make our descent. It had been almost a year since I'd seen these immense mountains shooting out of an absurdly green valley but this was a geography I had not forgotten. Down to the leaves blowing in the wake of our landing. And just like that it was like I had never left. In the one room arrivals area, I saw Jorge and Dany on the other side of the doors, where they had to wait. I immediately began flailing like the wacky-waving-inflatable-arm-flailing-tubemen. Short of running through the plastic flaps separating the luggage loaders from the luggage grabbers, I was the first person near the bags and when I had them with me, I ran over probably 3 people and knocked the wind out of a guard with my big roller bag but it didn't matter because I was about to give much awaited hugs to some of my best friends--not just in Ecuador--but on this whole planet. It felt surreal. The air, which for the past 24 hours had been of the gross recycled airport variety, even felt more vibrant and contributed further to the zigzag feeling I had all over. All my Spanish exploded out of my heart and mouth like I hadn't forgotten one word and we hopped in the car for a quick Popsicle snack.

Jorge regaled us with tales of his recent travels in Peru with Megan (my roommate in Ecuador last year) and though we all wished she could be there, it was somehow still enough to know that she had just recently seen Jorge and had the desire to return to Latin America so soon too. It just further enforced the profundity of our experience here and the quality of people we met. Our coconut-berry-mint mango  pops (a truly Ecuadorian combination...) dripped as the dusty winds of Catamayo swirled around us. We were just sitting at a random corner store, but because even that in and of itself is something more markedly Latin American, I was so happy. If I had to turn around and get back on a plane to the US, even that little chat over Popsicles while listening to honking horns, churns of conversations in Spanish and sharing the same space with two people I love dearly would have been worth it. Luckily, it was just the first of my 10 days here, so there was far more to come.

We hopped back in the car on the winding road back to Loja. Something about that road feels tattooed into my memory, down to every last curve in the road. And when we came around the curve revealing the view of Loja below, I knew I was home, all the sparkling lights below.

ReLAX

Two things are wrong with this picture: I'm wearing PANTS and I'm in the international terminal but cannot find my connecting flight to Panama City...once again, trying not to panic, I search for the Copa airlines booth and simply cannot find it. So I continue to search, this time for the help desk, which LAX likes to hide for some reason. I finally encounter it and am greeted by a very made up Eastern European woman who informs me that Copa airlines is actually a few terminals back. 

So once again, I was in the wrong terminal, sweating with my bags, wanting to kill someone from United Airlines who mistakenly directed me to Tom Bradley. I'm sure you're thinking well can't you just take the shuttle between terminals? Well here's the thing with that--it's a crappy bus that comes once every ??? and in the time you spend waiting you could probably just walk there. Not to mention it's one way. And it's a bus: i/e have fun dragging your huge suitcase on board. Also, I hope you're not disabled because you're going to need a hovercraft to use this airport.

Steam fuming out my ears (did I mention I hate this airport...?) I finally find the Copa airlines booth and am delighted to at least see that there is absolutely no line. Security is a breeze and I find my gate, which, per the norm, was the veeeeeeery last one. Everyone at my gate is speaking Spanish, with most people blasting something from their phone with no headphones as an ambiguous Latino guy stares at me wondering where I'm from. I can tell he wants to talk to me but doesn't know in what language. Sorry pal, from now on, I do not espeek engleesh.

Because...Ecuador

I am about to have a heart attack because in addition to being on hold with Tame (Ecuadorian airline) to change my flight, all my other plans have changed too. Oh and I think I forgot all my Spanish. Silly me for trying to plan something in advance in Ecuador...

Just a week before my arrival, Jorge found out he needed knee surgery on the very day after I got there. Can you tell your surgeon to come to the beach...? Dany naturally didn't want to travel alone all the way from Loja to Guayaquil so we sought Cris out and filled Jorge's spot...until she realized she had a supletorio exam and a wedding to testify at on the exact dates we were supposed to be at the beach...ok so Dany will fly solo...until she couldn't get a bus ticket for the date she needed. This is classic Ecuador. Not to say it is a disorganized mess and you can't make travel plans in advance...but it's kind of a disorganized mess where you have to wait til the last minute to make most plans even if waiting til the last minute is not advisable. You just hope you're lucky and always come prepared with a plan B. It's the good and the bad part of Latin America. Good because you have flexibility in the moment and don't have to prepare months in advance to do great things but bad because sometimes your plan B becomes plan Z...and plan Z finds you outside a bus station at 5am hoping there's a space for you...

We were maybe to plan M--and it all happened within 24 hours of my departure. Still not in Latina Nikki mode, I absolutely panicked, already preparing to go to the beach alone. Luckily, Dany gracefully took the reins and changed my flight so that I would first arrive to Loja. Oh. Ok...little by little my r's became rr's and I was checking out of gringa Nikki mode.

After squeaking out my final torturous workday, I raced home and packed, because the night before, already in Ecuador mode, I decided to stay out all night with friends in lieu of packing. Worth. It.

Now it's off to LAX because god forbid I try to start an international trip stress and sweat free...

Nos vemos de nuevo

Well it hasn't even been a year since I left Ecuador and I am already making my way back. Once again, I did a terrible job blogging when I lived there last year, and unfortunately by now it's too late to go back and fill in the missing spaces, so let's just take it back to that very last day...

I sat in the Catamayo airport with Juan and Fernanda very aware of the clock ticking above my head. It wasn't supposed to end like this, but after a series of work visa complications and general shadiness, I had to call it quits and flee back to the US despite having actually secured a job in Loja. I wanted so badly to stay, but the reality of the situation became clear and I thought it better to return to Latin America under less desperate circumstances instead of being manipulated and not even have a work visa. Not to mention the additional pressure of the pending student loan payments--being an adult is complicated. They tell you to follow your dreams and passion, but also you have to be responsible for yourself...

So there I was and finally my flight was announced. We bid each other adieu, me with tears the size of tropical storm raindrops. I had absolutely no idea (nor confidence) of when I would return to Latin America in general, much less my little home in Loja tucked away in the southern Ecuadorian Andes. I cried for an hour, for two hours, for a week, for a month...and as the sun disappeared over the Ecuadorian horizon, so did I.

What felt like a grueling several hours later, I found myself in the Spokane airport wondering why on earth I left paradise to come back to this crummy reality. Who cares about the loans when I could die tomorrow? I felt like I belonged nowhere and had absolutely no direction, nor any leads to even propel me forward. 

Little by little, I came back to myself, though my heart was still very much broken. Until I got my first paycheck from Clearwater...and in addition to using it to pay off some of those cumbersome loans, I splurged on a plane ticket back to Ecuador. 

It's a traveler's dilemma: do I return to somewhere I know and love or do I venture to somewhere new? I pondered if I should instead go to Japan or India or heck why not Latvia..but still felt that I needed to go back to Ecuador and be with my friends and family in Loja. It didn't matter if I even did anything noteworthy during the trip--rather I just wanted to see them, speak Spanish, eat some amazing food and breathe in a little bit of that Andes air. 

It's been a long 3 months waiting for the calendar to say July 24th, but finally it's here and I get to go home for vacation. 

Cantaclaro with your Canelazo with your Zhumir with your energy drink

Saturday June 8^th, 2013

In classic me fashion, I slept in really late because I really just suck at waking up early every single day, in addition to the fact that my week had finally caught up to me and all the mate and tea in the world couldn’t help me stay awake.

I’d barely had time to put pants on (no, who am I kidding, I wore a skirt) before it was already time to go out to dinner for Jessie’s birthday. At first we were thinking La Casa Lojana which is a little more upper crust. It is a hotel/restaurant area that serves sushi. We glanced over the menu and while they had a decent selection, it still seemed a little ridiculous that a California roll was going for almost $8. Ainhoa had pointed out another sushi place that seemed a little more in our price range and style—it’s called Sushi Cat. In addition to having a cute name, the way it was decorated inside was cute with koi and origami decals on the walls. I don’t even really like sushi that much, but I was sold. They even have a roll with Dorito crumbs to give it a panko effect—but hey, when you don’t have panko, you gotta improvise!

On our way out of Sushi Cat, we ran into Juan and made plans for later on. Not much later, the Juans were outside our front door ready for a booze run to Megan’s favorite place, Hipervalle. Hipervalle seems to be one of the most erratically stocked stores of all time. Some aisles are practically exploding with goods, while most others have gaping holes. Luckily their alcohol selection was sufficient and we bought two bottles of Zhumir which is basically a really strong wine cooler, coming in at 15%. Aka, the perfect beverage of choice for babies like me. Oh and I guess they mix it with energy drinks sometimes, too. Hello Four Loko…

We made a sophomoric trek to a mirador (viewpoint) of the city and enjoyed our baby booze to the sounds of Blink-182, reeeeeally making me feel like I was back in high school—but in the best way possible and hilariously aided by the fact that we were drinking legally in an illegal way. With energy drinks. It was one of those moments where you laugh at jokes you haven’t made yet with friends you’re still getting to know but you feel you’ve known for years. We debated over who partied hardest: Ecuador, Spain or Argentina with the Juans trying to get Ecuador in the lead, but Megan and I argued that because the bars are legally obligated to close around the time the Argie and Spanish bars are just getting going, they were out for the count. Argentina’s clubs made my eyes bleed. So maybe they win. Or lose…

Being watchful for the yuta, we took our final sips staring out at all the little lights of Loja and became some of them as we made our way back to town to meet up with the rest of the group at the bars. But not before I sophomorically snuck Cantaclaro in my purse…

Cantaclaro is effectively Ecuadorian moonshine. It tastes horrible and is totally unnecessary but added to our jar of canelazo it was even more ridiculous. But again, it went with our theme of legally drinking illegally. We felt as blurry as all the pictures I was taking and headed over to Juan’s house where we were trying to be quiet, but also dance to salsa music—an impossible combination. I would never say I was a good dancer and I took salsa lessons just once in high school, so I was surprised to mostly be keeping up, especially given the cantaclarelazo effect. But one by one, we started to look as dazed and bored as people who have too much money on a hot day. I finally settled into bed, already knowing that Hangover was ready to snuggle me until tomorrow afternoon…Ooooh my head…

Offroading with UTPL

Friday, June 7^th, 2013

7am rolled around and that meant it was time for our mini road trip adventure with Carlos and Verónica (2 UTPL faculty advisors) in addition to Sam, Brita, Jessie, Joa, Diana and Ana. I showed up around 7:10 thinking I was perfectly on-time-late, but we wouldn’t actually get on the road until 8 due to some car confusion. Here’s hoping like hell that the 4WD works on these trucks…

We were on our way to Tres Lagunas first, with our final stop in Oña. On the way out of town and towards our destinations, we of course enjoyed chatting as we got to know each other better. A topic of common recurrence was my accent/vocabulary, being that they are heavily influenced by my stay in Buenos Aires. #sorrynotsorry. And while Ecuador generally maintains a good relationship with Argentina, they consider it to be the least “Latin American” country of all and regard Argentines as a bit stuck-up. I guess this is partly true, especially if you’re talking about porteños, but my love of all things Argentina doesn’t stem from the fact that I think the rest of the countries in South America son una mierda; it’s because I spent so much time there, met its people, traveled to its cities and grew so much as a person. So just hold on one minute, Ecuador, because I can guarantee after 2 months here, you’re going to have a room with a view in my heart.

For example…

We made a stop in Saraguro for breakfast. My eyes were practically bleeding from how tired I was, so it was obviously time for mate. I know that probably contradicts the argument I was trying to make above that I’m not an Argie elitist, but horchata, while ridiculously delicious and a beautiful fuchsia color, just isn’t going to give me that boost. To balance out the bitter mate, however, I ordered a tree tomato smoothie. The taste was love…

But we were off again. After one mishap, we found the actual trail we needed and did some serious off-roading. Normally everything makes me carsick, so I was continually amazed that I was doing just fine. I mean, it wasn’t something I’d like to do for more than 45 minutes, but with the view and the company, it was more than tolerable. When we finally got up to the crossing, we found that of course the river was waaay too high and there was no way to cross. So we drove down the bumpy road again and decided to try on the Oña side.

As we made our way to Oña, the weather seemed to be clearing up so we had better hopes. But our hopes were dashed again when coming up from the other side we had even worse luck, not to mention that the roads were basically mud—but Veronica drove like a champion. The aquatics team braved the wet, windy páramo weather which team social science stayed in the car. I bought waterproof pants for this, but do you think I remembered to wear them? No of course not.

On our way out of town (which was a ride bumpy enough to dislodge your colon…) we saw a cow scratch its head with its hind leg. That’s probably not that interesting but I have never seen anything like that before and it’s worth remembering because it was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen despite the fact that Veronica made it seem like that was common…Our guts all jumbled up, we stopped for linner where Sam had the pleasure of ripping my trout’s head off. My insides felt great…

Nikkilude #4: Ecuadorian food specialties

I’m still learning the names of a lot of food and being a vegetarian means I’m not going know how a lot of them taste, but here are a few dishes or otherwise uniquely Ecuadorian foods that I’ve tried or noticed.

1.       Locro—this beautiful soup is a rich, creamy cheesy potato soup, usually garnished with tomatoes and avocadoes. It is delicious. You will fall in love with every bite.

2.      Horchata—stop right now thinking you already know what it is. It’s not the sweet, rich white Mexican drink you’re thinking of that Kearns sells right next to their nectar. It’s an herbal tea that is especially popular in Loja, where they are famous for it. It is slightly sweet naturally, but usually flavored with sugar and lime. It is the color of beets and is divine.

3.      Ceviche—quite frankly, I’m not really a ceviche fan because even when I did eat meat, seafood wasn’t really my thing. But that’s probably also because I don’t live directly on the coast. Essentially the seafood is still raw-rare and marinated with lime juice and garnished with a variety of things, depending on the local offerings and tradition. But ceviche comes in a lot of different forms, so it’s hard to pin it down, especially since I’m not even eating it!

4.      Cuy—this is guinea pig. For some, it’s sad and cruel because they consider the guinea pig to be a pet and therefore how could it be a local specialty?! I know I’m a vegetarian, but at the same time, I really think the line between edible and inedible animals is not only totally arbitrary but unnecessarily judgmental when used against other cultures. They’re easy to raise, small and provide a good source of protein—why wouldn’t you eat it? So chew on that the next time you think you’re taking the high road eating a good burger. And speaking of chewing, apparently the guinea pig is pretty crispy but chewy and kinda goes along the “tastes like chicken” lines.

5.      Mote—this is a puffed white corn that we call hominy. It comes in various different forms and can be served cob style or perhaps mixed with eggs. It’s ubiquitous and definitely a staple.

6.      Tree tomato—I think I might have explained these, but they are similar in texture (but not flavor) to a tomato. They are a bright yellow-orange inside and are quite tart by themselves. Mixed into a smoothie, however, they are to die for.

7.      Canelazo—again, I’ve already mentioned this, but it is a famous Ecuadorian alcoholic drink. It has naranjilla juice with cinnamon and is warmed up. It warms your tummy, especially when you drink it with friends :)

Ok that’s not too much, but that’s all for now. More to come!