this is one of those time that there is so much to write about you have no idea what to do with yourself.

ok so i did this waterfall thing in a place called peguche and the waterfall was cool and everything but what really was wonderful was when me and a few friends climbed above to a magical fairy land that belonged a couple hundred years in the past. lots of uncut grass, a family lying on some of it, picnic style, and cobble stone floors, also some pretty exquisite and long views of this middle earth. apparently if we had kept walking we would have hit the san pablo river, a place we will have to return too. on this trek above the touristy waterfall we crossed paths with a campesino who spoke quichua. so we all talked to him in the language and the whole thing couldn't have felt more surreal/unreal.

enter stage right, maya and lianna, into a normally empty field, a couple acres by another couple wide. the smell of dirt roads and animals makes them realize this is actually happening. maya gets bumped in the leg and looks around to see a wiley pig disobeying its owner by trying not to follow him. alright. to her right, a barb wired fence about 4 feet high is the only thing between her and an interesting sale taking place. she notices that an ecuadorian, smile in tow, is haggling a vendor for a duck. they decide on a price, he pays her, and like all normal salespeople, she picks up the baby duckling from the couple dozen in the pen and stuffs it into a paper back.
-paper or plastic for your live duck, sir? she imagines.

after another minute of walking further, they see to the right that a pickup truck has it's back open. inside the small space are a cow and pig, ready to go. the truck owner and 2 others help him push and carry the second cow into the trunk. they succeed, close the back and the driver gets in his seat, to take his fresh pickings home.

$1.50 for a ham, salami and cheese sandwich as big as your face.
$2.00 for a bus ride from quito to otavalo
$9.00 a night for a shared room with a friend.

on the bus ride to otavalo i thought about what i would write about in my blog when i got back, and also that i didn't tell anyone i would be gone for a weekend. well at one point of the bus ride i thought i would write about how this breakup i did a couple weeks ago is still affecting me and how i need to just deal with it but i now realize that that would have been doing completely the opposite of what that post would have been saying i should be doing, which is living in this very moment at this very moment but still i figured i would find a way to get that in there even now, 3 days later.

i also thought i would write about how beautiful this otavalo is, how special and different it is compared to quito, but i think you people can understand the differences between a major metropolitan city and a small town which has a market overtake most of the historical downtown every saturday. instead i'm writing about what i thought i would write about just not in much detail and sharing a couple of cool stories. and being self-reflexive, which i do too often.

sushi in quito is more expensive than sushi in los angeles.

katun ñukaka kushilla mi kani. ñukaka ishkay llamatami kani.

otavalo is colorful. my family is colorful and wonderful and i really felt like i was coming home after my weekend away for the first time.

i've only been in ecuador for 2 weeks and a little more.

maow magadow is the noise of a cat meowing, apparently.

the sprite i'm drinking was made in ecuador.

OJO: after this week, polls aren't allowed to measure how the upcoming election of the constitution is going. the last poll said that the 55% of the population believed in SI.

chao.