Rain, Rain Go Away!

This week was just another week of teaching and classes. Bill, our culture professor from Whitewater took us to a new market during class this week; dangerous, I know! It had lots of new things we hadn’t seen yet so it was great to check it out. I was pretty under the weather with a cold all week though, so it was lots of early nights, water, and Vitamin C for me all week. Thank goodness I’m on the mend! We had another weekend to ourselves that we had to try and make plans for but any plan we made ended up getting canceled because of rain. Even so, it turned out to be another good weekend.

It is the rainy-season in Cuenca right now but there had not been rain in two weeks until it finally rained on Thursday and once it started it has hardly taken a break all weekend. We of course wanted to go to the markets for a little bit before dance class on Friday but we were denied because it was pouring outside. Instead we took a taxi to the travel agency to figure out plans for Saturday and walked to dance from there. Dance class was once again a great workout and lots of fun! J I don’t know if I’ve ever moved my hips so much while dancing! Haha

After dance class we tried a new restaurant that we’ve been wanting to try since we arrived in Cuenca that is right across the street from the place where we take classes. It is an Italian restaurant and I couldn’t decide between pizza and pasta so Ashley and I shared them both. They were both delicious. As much as I miss some foods from home, I am yet to be disappointed from a restaurant we have tried thus far.

Saturday morning we took a taxi to CEDEI School to paint. One thing we have to do while we’re here is a beautification project at the school so we are painting and organizing the library to make it a more fun and welcoming place. We are painting the tree and letters like in Chicka Chicka Boom Boom on the walls so it is going to be really cute. With teaching and planning at school we hardly have time to work on it, though, so it was nice to get a few hours work in on the weekend. It’s finally coming along.

Gotta love being the tallest one to get all of the
high areas on the wall! haha

Working hard!

The progress so far!

While we were painting it started raining, though, and ruined our plans of taking a tour of Cuenca on a double-decker bus in the afternoon. We ventured out a little later once the rain took a break to get the shopping in we missed the day before. Of course another successful trip! The rain picked up again as we were leaving the market so we had to taxi home but then we got pizza again for dinner.

The entrance to the zoo right along the side
of the road. Very different from anything
in the states!

We didn’t have any set plans for Sunday so we were able to spend the day with our family. It was a great day and I loved spending time with them! It started off a beautiful, sunny day. First they took us to a zoo in Tarqui, which is a pueblo about 20 minutes from Cuenca. We were so excited when they told us we were going to the zoo. I didn’t know what to expect at all but it was very different than what I picture as a zoo. It was very small with chicken, rooster, bunnies, llama, deer, ostrich, peacocks, penguins, birds, turtles, and monkeys. It was just in a field along the side of the road with wooden and chain fences and such but it was neat to see.  We got to see the peacock open all his feathers so that was awesome. Then there was a little monkey that was on the outside of the monkey area and it jumped on me. It was only there for a second but I didn’t know what to do. Haha It of course started raining a little at the zoo but not much so it wasn’t a big deal.

Our host dad feeding the bunnies.

The peacock! I was so excited!

Two super active monkeys swinging on the ropes and
fighting like crazy. They were so funny.

We walked along a bridge right next to the
ostrich so they could have reached out
and pecked us. Our host dad loved feeding
these two too!

The little monkey shortly before he jumped
on me. He was so cute!

A scary, rickety bridge we had to walk on on
to see the penguins.

After the zoo we headed further from Cuenca but we didn’t know where we were going. When we arrived in a Giron I knew I recognized the name from somewhere. Once our family told us we were going to a waterfall I remembered that was the name of the place with the waterfall we had wanted to go to this weekend but it was a little too expensive with the travel. So Aimee and I got to go to El Chorro (that’s the name of the waterfall) with our family for free. It was so pretty! Since the area is in a drought right now there wasn’t as much water and the waterfall was smaller than it usually is but it was still very pretty. We climbed on the rocks to get pretty close to it with our host dad so we got some neat pictures. I couldn’t believe it when I found out that was where we were going though; I was so excited! We got to do something we wanted to do while saving ourselves $27 at the same time!

So pretty!

There was nowhere near as much water as
usual because they are in a drought right
now but I'm glad I still got to see it.

Aimee and I up by the waterfall. It was so pretty and I could
have just listened to it all day.

Aimee and I with our little sister, Maria Rosa.

From the waterfall we continued a little further to a very pretty resort to have lunch. The road to get to the resort was a small gravel road (like the one we had to walk down in Yunguilla but much longer) and we were bouncing all over. We had a delicious meal with a dessert and then we got some more of the hot, alcoholic drink that we had had in El Cajas. We sat and talked at the table for quite awhile just enjoying ourselves. Our family is so much fun and super nice so I love spending time with them.

The hotel restaurant where we had a
delicious meal.

It got very foggy while we were eating lunch so it was a slower ride home. The beautiful day we started out with turned rainy and yucky just like the three days prior but that didn’t ruin our day. For not having any plans, it turned out to be another fun weekend in Ecuador!