Latin American Studies, Fellows Trip to Ecuador, May 31 2007-June 14 2007
Top Row: Me, Mary Worthington, Maria
Whatley, Becky Atkinson, Patricia Terry, Janet Alexander, Tour Lady, Jennifer
Beall & Dave Finn
Bottom Row: Fred Shepherd, Myralyn Allgood, Amanda Borden, Bryan Johnson, Jeff
Northrup, Clara
Gerhardt, Nancy Whitt, Theresa Davidson, Mark Baggett & Heather West
June, 2007 I got the opportunity to travel with 17 of my fantastic Samford colleagues to Ecuador. This trip was funded through a grant that our World Languages department got from the US Department of Education. My project is reported on my México-January 2007 page. Here are some pictures from the trip:
All pictures below are "thumbnails." Click on a picture to see a bigger copy, afterwards, use your browser's back arrow to return to this page. If you see any pictures that you want a higher resolution copy, just email me. Most pictures have 3-4 Mbyte originals
Guayaquil
Wandering Guayaquil
La Rotunda, Bolívar's and San Martín's historic meeting:
Parque Bolívar aka Iguana Park and the adjoining Cathedral
Along the Malecón:
San Francisco Church:
Leaving for Cuenca:
Santa Ana Historical District
This is an interesting area of the city. It is the oldest part of the city, and until recent renovations one of the most dangerous parts. Part of the un-improved section was viewable through a gate. What a contrast. the "other" side was in terrible condition. I love the name of this street, the "labyrinth street."
The View:
Parque Histórico Guayaquil
North of town is a historical and natural park. Birds anyone?
Where is his head?
Now I'm hungry for breakfast!
Here kitty, kitty, kitty . . .
What a great looking group . . .
Other animals:
Night Cruise on the Guayas River
Our ship:
Santa Ana at night:
Dancing and fellowship, what a great night!
Coming back to port:
Cacao processing plant
Chocolate is great, even in its raw form. I wish that they sold bags of the beans.
Banana plantation
We went to a "organic" banana plantation and had lunch.
Manglares Churute Ecological Reserve
Probably one of my favorite excursions was to a semi-tropical area to hike for a couple of hours.
This is Ralph the Spider, what a beauty!
We were stopped by a herd of cows in the road. As always the folks are friendly.
Somehow we fit on this very tiny and homemade bridge.
Cuenca
Wandering Cuenca
Lots of Hummingbirds:
Last time I was here they were working on this plaza. Before:
After:
We got to attend a church service at the Centro Cristiano de Cuenca (Avenida de las Américas y Angel Figueroa.
During the week we went to the Panama hat factory: Rafael Paredes e Hijos (Calle Larga entre Aguirre y General torres. www.ecuadorianhat.com.
These dresses are made from hats!
On the last day we went to the Mercado 9 de Octubre and a couple of us "visited" a Curandera or folk-healer. For one dollar they would cure whatever ails one. David was the first. I think that the flowers on his head say it all . . .
And then Jennifer:
Others did it also, but I had to leave for a meeting at the University.
Estudio Sampere Language Institute
One of the main goals at Cuenca was to attend Sampere for a week of Spanish lessons. There are cheaper places to go, but not a lot of better ones. They provide high quality lessons at a moderate price. Highly recommended! http://www.sampere.es/learn-spanish/spanish-courses-ecuador.html
We went to their Wednesday cooking class:
Was that Jeff washing dishes? Busted!
My Family in Cuenca
Daughter Olenca, Daughter-in-law Monica, Papa Enrique Carpio, Mama Lola Gotuzzo, Son Fabian and Sobrino Perry.
And the maid's daughter, Carolina, eating my favorite snack, Crackerjacks!
Museo de Culturas Aborígenes
Banco Central Archeological and Ethnographic Museum and the Pumapungo Archelogical Park
This could be me!
These are real! Wow that's gross! (John, Paul George and Ringo?)
Now outside to Pumapungo:
The Incan demonstration garden:
Colleagues on the hillside:
Noche Cuencana at La casa del Rio
We had a great demonstration of Cuenca and Ecuadorian culture at the Cuenca Night: Beautiful dancing:
The Maypole and Ribbons were great. They had a very complicated dance that wound up the ribbon and they un-wound it with no knots! Well done!
These guy's masks were weird!
Most of our group joined in dancing at the end:
Hot air balloons (I'm glad that most of Cuenca has tile roofs!):
Fireworks:
If you want, you can download a movie of the fireworks:
And finally, dinner:
Maria’s uncle Jorge’s rancho
On Friday afternoon we were able to visit Maria's uncle Jorge at his rancho. What a blessing!
Let's see, I was there as a little girl . . .
In the "Ranchhouse"
Their private chapel and crypt:
Walking near the river:
I love a good rock on the side of a rushing river . . .
Cool! a solar hot water heater:
This is the stable house!
Riding horses:
If you want you can download a movie of Maria or Jennifer riding horses:
El Cajas National Park
I would have liked this best if it was not for the altitude. hopefully after a few weeks in Cuenca, this place will be more comfortable. What a beautiful place!
It is hard to tell, but this is not so much of a group hug as a fight against hypothermia. The wind and cold were fierce!
A little farther down was the Lago Toreadora. If we had the time, Dave and I would have ringed the lake!
University of Cuenca Computer Classroom
Leaving Cuenca and heading to Quito
Ingapirca
Santuario de Biblián Virgen del Rocio and the city of Biblián
The church is built on the side of a rock wall. How pretty!
Down in the town was a celebration for the "Corpus Christi":
Ingapirca
A beautiful mountain that has ruins on top on the way:
The Ingapirca ruins:
The Incan Bath:
The Incan Face, which is the official face?
Finally a beautiful sunset. Wow!
Posada Ingapirca
Chimborazo
The oldest church in Ecuador, La Balbanera Chapel:
The farthest point from the center of the earth! the Chimborazo Volcano.
We had a great lunch at the base of the mountain.
Quito
That's the face of justice! (On the right.)
At the Mitad del Mundo monument:
My camera ran out of batteries, so I do not have more in Quito, although my earlier trip showed most of the same places.
What a fantastic trip. Ecuador is great, very friendly and comfortable, but combine the location with a great group of my colleagues from Samford and you have a trip that may never be reproducible. Much thanks to Myralyn and Maria, the organizers of the trip. I feel that I know this country better, my colleagues better and now myself even better.
I will return to Ecuador this fall by myself. I hope that I will not be too disappointed to continue the experiences by myself. Thanks and God's blessings to my friends:
Maria, Heather, Myralyn, Brian, Janet, Mark, Amanda, Teresa, Jeff, Patricia, Nancy, Becky, Clara, Jennifer, Fred, Mary and especially my roomie, Dave!
All pictures below are "thumbnails." Click on a picture to see a bigger copy, afterwards, use your browser's back arrow to return to this page. If you see any pictures that you want a higher resolution copy, just email me. Most pictures have 3-4 Mbyte originals
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