Mindo and Otavalo

Hey all,
So, last weekend I went to a small town called Mindo with 4 of the Linfield students and one girl from Oregon State University. Getting to Mindo was an adventure because none of us knew how to get to the bus stop. We left for Mindo in three different groups: Ali and Eli left on Friday and I am still not sure how they got there because they had a hard time explaining it, but they got there and found a hostel (another story). On Saturday morning Jen and Angela (the girl from OSU) left and took a taxi to a bus station, but found out that they had just missed the last bus (and the next one wasn't coming for about 4 or 5 hrs), so they took another bus from some corner that took them close to Mindo and then hopped in a truck to go the rest of the way...I think that's the story. Katelyn and I left later in the afternoon because we spent the morning volunteering at a Children's hospital for kids with Cancer (we basically we dressed up as clowns, sang and danced for the kids and it was SO much fun and we met some really cool volunteers who do this all the time). After we finished at the hospital I called Jen to get directions to Mindo, and it was confusing, because she wasn't even quite sure where they went to get the bus...so Katelyn and I decided to wait for the 4pm bus that left from a bus station that we didn't know how to get to, but we were lucky and her host mom's friend offered to drive us to the bus station. We got to the bus station, which was huge and started walking around trying to find a sign that said "Mindo", we walked by many signs and as we were passing one, a man said "Mindo?" and we said "yes, how's you know" and he said "well you have your backpacks and you are obviously tourists" which I guess means you are going to Mindo? So, we bought our tickets and 2 hrs later we arrived in Mindo.
We basically ate, talked, and went to sleep early. The next morning we ate a delicious breakfast in the hostel we were staying at and then took a chiva to a place to go zip-lining. There were 13 different lines and it was so much fun and the scenery was so beautiful. Afterwards, we were tired and sweaty and we began to walk back into town and a family in a truck drove by us and asked us if we wanted a ride, so we hopped in the back where their two kids were sitting and enjoyed the drive back into town. After we ate lunch we went to the bus station and caught a bus back to Quito. It was a fun trip and I hope to go back to Mindo because there was a lot we didn't get to do. Mindo is a popular destination to go bird-watching and to see many butterflies, but we basicaly only had time for zip-lining.
To see pictures of this trip go to: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024347&l=90284&id=65202295
During the week, on Tuesday Katelyn and I went to a College Fair in Quito because a representative from Linfield was here and we went to help him out. It was a lot of fun talking to prospective Linfield students from Latin America and I really hope that some of them apply and get accepted!
On wednesday I went with other Oregon students to listen to a band play. One of the guys in the band is one of our OUS program directors, Franco, and so he invited us to go listen to one of his five bands play and the program paid for our entrance fees. It was really nice to just sit and listen to music.
Today (saturday) the Oregon program had a trip to Otavalo, I think it has the second largest market in Latin America. It was SO big, there were so many colors everywhere and it was really cool to see and experience. By the end of the day my bargaining skills had dramatically improved...we did a lot of bargaining. I will hopefully put up pictures of this trip soon. We also went to see the waterfall, Peguche, that is in Otavalo and on our way back we stopped at a coffee shop where the real (not where the touristy monument is) Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the World, aka the Equator) is and we were able to balance an egg on the equator! It was really cool!
Wow, this is probably going to be a really long post, but another cool thing: I signed up to get a conversation partner to practice my spanish with at the university and I got an email on Friday informing me that I had two conversation partners, I am hoping to meet them on Wednesday and I am really excited! (It can be kind of hard to make friends here)
Anyway, I think that is all I have to say for now :)

Peace,
Nadia