travel_ng

Today we arrived in Puerto Lopez for the first day of our week break. We took a 10 hour bus from Quito to Puerto Lopez overnight. It definitely wasn’t the comfiest thing, but at $12 a seat, it’s a steal. We arrived at our cute little hostel with a quiet beach front. There were mounds of these beautiful, colorful rocks washed up on the sand, and we all strolled collecting a few unique rocks to bring back with us. Puerto López is on the coast of Ecuador, and is known to have amazing seafood. Today I went to lunch and had some shrimp in a coconut sauce. They also came with another type of Ecuadorian food, which is smashed and fried plantains (top left).

I am extremely grateful for being able to go on a cruise to the Galápagos Islands! These pictures don’t even capture all the amazing memories I made deep sea snorkeling with sea lions and turtles and seeing all the species of the islands. One amazing thing about this experience was the ability to get so close to the animals. Since they don’t have many interactions with humans, they don’t see them as a threat. You could even almost accidentally step on a sleeping sea lion because they wouldn’t even flinch! Ecuador aims to protect their treasure to the extent of spraying all luggage in the airplane to avoid introducing an invasive or new species. The species of the islands have all been carried here through wind or water currents, and adapted and evolved to their new home. This trip really reminded me how truly amazing nature is. Besides the two ports, we entered and excited the cruise, we saw no civilization, which was hard to leave and come back to highly-populated Quito!

Spending my 21st birthday in Ecuador is definitely a special birthday I will never forget! I’m thankful for my host family for celebrating this special day with me like I am their own child. Also, a special shoutout to everyone else in Ecuador who celebrated my birthday with me! At the same time, I am also grateful for my family and friends back home for sending their wishes from thousands of miles away. I missed celebrating with all my family and friends back home, but this was an unforgettable birthday in another country!

On another cooking note, for my birthday weekend I wanted to bring a little bit of home to my Ecuadorian house. I found the ONLY Chinese market in all of Quito which coincidentally had a few pre-made dumping skin wrappers. My host mom had been asking me about the different types of Asian food, since there are little to no Asians here, and the Chinese food I’ve tried is not great. So I taught my host family how to make these “little Chinese empanadas” as they call them. My host mom was super excited because she hadn’t even made regular empanadas in her house. They really liked them and we topped them off with my host dad’s homemade ají hot sauce and they were great! Even my sick little host sister was asking for more!

This week in panadería class, we made pan dulce. This is pan canilla and rolled to make cinnamon bread rolls. The shapes are a little hard to make, because after forming them they continue to rise significantly. Hopefully I’ll get better in the upcoming weeks! 🍞

It’s been almost a month since I’ve been abroad now. And two of my favorite things about Ecuadorian food are the different fruits and chifles! Here’s a picture of the open-air market, Mercado de Iñaquito, I talked about a few weeks ago. Each vendor had this much fruit on display! Fruit is super cheap here, and there are a bunch of tropical fruits I had not heard of before coming here. A common thing to do with the fruit is to serve it as part of a set lunch as a juice. In Ecuador, they call it “desayuno,” which is just the word for lunch in Spanish. It is a preset lunch menu consisting of a soup, 1-2 main course options to choose between, a dessert, and a juice. The price of almuerzo usually ranges from $3.50-5 in USD, and I love being able to try all the different fresh juice combinations! My other favorite food discovery here has been chifles, or plantain chips, like you’d find at Porto’s Bakery. They’re so good and are sold in grocery stores like regular potato chips!!

This past weekend we went to Otavalo, and I’m exhausted!! The bus ride from Quito to Otavalo is about 2 hours (for only $2.50!!) The area is known for its indigenous craft market on the weekend, so we left early Saturday morning ready to find some goods. They sold everything from jewelry, paintings, sweaters, bed sheets, and soccer jerseys. As you can see, we were all a huge fan of the vibrant and cozy alpaca blankets. Here is a picture of us in one of our hostel rooms. Although in our plans, we had booked an airbnb that had fallen through the cracks once we arrived, we were close to the waterfall called Cascadas de Peguche and were able to walk there from our hostel on Sunday morning. So in the end, it worked out pretty well!

Today was the first day of my panadería (bread making class)! We started with the basic “pan blanco” (white bread). Kneading the dough took a while, and making different shapes was a lot harder than I thought. Props to 85 Degree Bakery back at home! 😂 Next week we’re making a vanilla bread. Also I think our kitchen uniforms are a bit much…I don’t think the hat is necessary, but I guess it’s a look!

Yesterday we took the Teleférico up Pichincha Volcano, an active volcano surrounded by Quito. The ride took 18 minutes, and the air was surely thinner than Quito due to its elevation. From the top you can see the shape of Ecuador, its oblong shape, and its valleys.

This past weekend I went with my host family to visit my host grandma and where my host mom grew up. We drove two hours south of Quito to visit Latacunga, which is located in the Cotopaxi Providence. Cotopaxi is an active volcano that last erupted two years ago, and is one of the world’s highest active volcanoes. Here is a picture of our view on the freeway on the way to Latacunga! In Latacunga I stayed at my host grandma’s house and toured the city at night. I got to try tamales at the house, which had a different texture than what I’ve had back at home. Latacunga is a smaller city, and it was nice to get a way from the big city for the weekend!