Quito soundtrack

Every morning I wake up promptly at 7 am.  The sun is streaming upon my bed and Nuvia (my darling 24 year old roomate, who manages this hostel/house) has already silently left for her day job.  The Huayra Causay students have been up for a while. I can hear them talking and laughing in the room directly above mine where all the women sleep. The wood floorboards creak as they bustle about, getting ready for their 8:30 am English class.

And every morning there is the music they play from their laptop playlists sometimes as often as 2 or 3 times (!) before they head downstairs for breakfast - not terribly loud but loud enough that they can learn and remember the English. I hadn't thought of most these songs in years and it's funny how they have been conjured up for me here, of all places.

These songs will be forever ingrained in my brain as the soundtrack of my memories of Quito.  I have by now commited their lyrics to memory too, like the lines of a deeply analyzed poem in h.s.  I won't miss hearing them - EVERY SINGLE DAY - when I'm gone, but I will always hear them again in life with a fond hint of nostalgia :)

This Quito track includes:

• Total Eclipse of the Heart - Bonnie Tyler 
• I Will Always Love You - Whitney Houston
• Eye of the Tiger - Survivor
• Kama Chameleon - Culture Club
• Hotel California - Eagles
• Eternal Flame - The Bangles
• Hey Jude - Beattles
• My Heart Will Go On (Titanic movie)- Celine Dion

Things could be worse. At least my students are not into heavy metal!!

P.S. And these are the songs I've taught my students the lyrics to during our afternoon English lessons: Don't stop believing (Journey), All summer long (Kid Rock), Time after time (Cyndi Lauper) - also the wise words to Baz Luhrman's "everybody's free to wear sunscreen" :)

My final weeks in Ecuador...

It´s hard to believe its been a month since I´d arrived in Quito as the time really has flown so effortlessly ... I love Quito more and more every day, and Ecuador is so beautiful. After Peru, Patagonia, Argentina.. all places I loved, I wasn´t expecting to be so thoroughly blown away.  (BTW, I came across an Ecuadorian film ¨Qué Tan Lejos¨that´s very popular here and also won a few prizes ... see it especially for its great landscape views of the country http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0951297/)

I´ve only a few more weeks remaining here though. With my limited time and budget, I won´t be visiting the Galapagos afterall, and am heading to the Cuyabeno Reserve in the Amazon instead. Purchased my 4 day/3 night trip with Neotropic Turis today and am leaving on an overnight bus for Lago Agria on Sunday. I´ve heard so many wonderful things about Cuyabeno, can´t even believe I´m spending next week hanging out in the Amazon rainforest.  You can read about more about Cuyabeno and the lodge where I´ll be staying here: http://www.neotropicturis.com/index.html

The plan after Cuyabeno is to begin making my way south and fly to Argentina from Guayaquil (though flights at the moment are looking prohibitively expensive).  I´ve been in touch with one other solo woman traveler, Emily, through Couchsurfing and we might try to meet up somewhere along the way, possibly in Baños or Cuena. It will be good to have company on some of those long bus rides, and it´s also nice to be working with someone to coordinate an actual plan (for all my high falutin´solo traveling ways). 

Thus, my itinary at the moment looks as follows:

• Today - Sunday 3/7 @ 11 pm:  Quito (hang out, visit El Centro, museums, etc etc)
• Monday, 3/8 - Thursday, 3/11:  Cuyabeno Reserve
• Friday, 3/12: Layover in Quito ;) 
• Saturday, 3/13 - Monday, 3/15: Hiking at Lake Quilotoa in the Andes, and hopefully staying at the Black Sheep Inn (http://www.changemakers.com/es/node/20809)
• Tuesday, 3/16 - Thursday, 3/18: Baños
• Friday, 3/19 - Monday, 3/22: Cuenca
• Tuesday, 3/23 - Friday, 3/26: Villacamba (still TBD! Or else straight to Guayaquil from Cuenca)

The plan may change again and dates may be condensed depending on what happens when I arrive at each place, but I´m feeling pretty good about it so far. We shall see.

Besos.