Cumbayá, Futbol, Universidad...

 

There are some things that I haven’t mentioned yet, or have only mentioned in brief passing, when really I should be expanding on my experiences. Therefore, I am going to go back into the past for this entry and talk a little about my life on the mainland when I wasn’t climbing at an altitude of 4,000m or floating down a tributary of the Amazon. I’m going to talk about Cumbayá for a bit as well as my overall experiences with Ecuador in general because I don’t think I’m giving this country enough credit for its interesting culture. 

 

 

As I’ve mentioned before, Cumbayá is just outside of Quito in the Andean mountains of Ecuador. I think of it as being in Cambridge compared to Boston, but in reality Cumbayá is probably quite a bit further outside of Quito. Cumbayá is a wealthier area than most of Quito and much of Ecuador from what I gather. USFQ (Universidad San Francisco de Quito) is a private university compared to the other universities and is still struggling with being accepted into the community. It was not until recently that the Ecuadorian government or anywhere would recognize a degree from USFQ as a real degree. This controversy is due to the different structure that USFQ holds compared to the other universities. USFQ is much more similar to universities in the states with its curriculum and liberal arts feel. (This is a picture of the house I stayed in Cumbayá.)

I liked going to the USFQ campus during my stay in Cumbayá; however, that campus and even the building where I currently sit are like little bubbles of protection. I’d say that this is much less so on the islands because there isn’t as much of a need for protection although outsiders are not allowed into this building. The campus in Cumbayá was open to anyone as far as I know, but it was guarded at all times and gated in. It was also obvious of the difference between the campus community and the outside community. The campus was beautiful and from the front entrance you could see Quito up on the hill. Within the campus there was a sushi bar, a place to get crepes, and a cafeteria where our plates were taken away by patient wait staff. Of course, there is the sunken pirate ship in the middle of campus as well. As USFQ is the most expensive university in Ecuador and the country is, after all, still a third world country, only the very privileged students and those who are able to maintain scholarships attend. 

 

Many of the students in my group lived within gated communities that have guards all of the time. I did not live in a gated community but there was a gate to my house and yard. The house that I stayed in with Cecilia, my host mother, was fairly large and spacious. She has a beautiful garden with lilies, some fruit tree, and climbing purple-flowered vines. She also had a few hummingbird feeders, which means I was able to watch a different species flying around. And a Siamese cat whose name I cannot spell. 

 

I enjoyed wandering around Cumbayá on the weekends when we had no plans. We discovered many bar/café areas and there are several malls around the area. Good guacamole was never in short supply and there were amazing fruit juices all of the time. An interesting cultural aspect of Ecuador is that they have placed statues and monuments in the center of all of their rotaries or roundabouts. Even on Cristóbal there is an old iron wheel in the center of the rotary in el Progresso (the town in the highlands). Some gated communities have playgrounds and fields within them. A couple of the girls had pools in their back yards. There were also places to get hummus and delicious bread. The variety of the mainland is staggering compared to the limited resources that are on the islands. Particularly towards the end of the time before the supply boat arrives from the mainland or is late in arriving. There was a problem with finding food one day on Isabela because the supply boat was hadn’t arrived due to the swells. (Above is a picture of my campus.)

Quito has more nightlife than Cumbayá as it Quito is an actual city, complete with areas that no tourist should ever go to and squares with some form of farmer’s markets. There is an artisan market in Quito where you can buy similar wares to the Otavalo market, but with a little less variety. It is situated in a beautiful park, Parque Carolina, that is one of those places that should be avoided at night. A few blocks from there a square with tourist restaurants is situated with a weekend farmer’s market. At that market there is more jewelry as well as Ecuadorian chocolate, honey, and marmalades. This includes ají (pronounced a-hee), which is a hot sauce put on all foods other than desserts. 

 

I think my most cultural experience in Quito was attending the game between Deportivo Quito and Independiente Argentina. This was a small futbol (soccer) game where only about a third of the stadium was full and there was a tiny section of Argentinean fans. Like any sports event, outside the gate there are people trying to sell tickets, food, and team apparel. Inside the gates there is even more hustle and bustle where a good number of us picked up jerseys for Quito, sporting the red and blue of the team colors. Throughout the stands there were more people selling scarves with team colors, candy, drinks, and large cups of beer. There are team songs and swearing at the other team (as well as your own team). A large blue and red flag was thrown over us and dragged across the stands then sent back down during one of the breaks in the game. Quito ended up winning the game 1-0 or something, but the refs were still attacked and protected by guards at the end. Random people ran onto the field playing trumpets and running around. As we left the stadium, there were armed policemen with dogs guarding sections. The night ended with a ride back to Cumbayá in Mateo’s hippy van.

 

I believe futbol is the most popular sport in Ecuador. Watching games with people is intimidating. We joined some local at a bar one evening to watch a big match thinking that it would be fun and another good cultural experience. However, no one spoke a word while the players were in action and at halftime the brief exchanges were for drink orders and speaking about the game. We sat in the back of the bar and were basically glared at anytime we muttered anything that was audible. During other big matches there are crowds outside of a corner store on the boardwalk intently watching the games on the large TV that the store has presumably for this purpose.

Going dancing at various places has been interesting as well. In Quito there are a lot of discotecacs as well as some salsatecas. Cumbayá has a few bars and restaurant/lounges, but the real nightlife is in Quito. The best place we went was probably Seseribo. It has really good atmosphere and amazing salsa dancers although there are also dancers who just do the same two or three steps over and over again. Salsa can be frustrating because what you do is completely up to the guy, unless you are a girl and you are back leading, which you are never supposed to do. On Cristóbal there’s 3 places that I can think of where people dance. I’ve never been to Neptunes, la Isla has salsa music for part of the night, and the music at Iguana Rock is basically the same set of 15 or so songs every night. When there are big festivities, there is also dancing in la concha, like during the Galápagos celebrations that were taking place one of the first weeks we were here. On Santa Cruz there are more places to go to dance, but I still like quaint Cristóbal.

Aside from dancing and futbol, another important aspect of Ecuadorian life is their food. But I am still determined to devote an entry to the food that I have tried and some of which I have come to love so that will have to wait. Ecuadorian hospitality is pretty amazing. Most of the people that I’ve interacted with the islands are particularly kind. My Ecuadorian classmates are particularly awesome. They always offer food and give up their seats and are just really nice people in general. I think Ecuadorians are more likely to speak to random people about random things like if they notice your foot is swollen or ask you where you are from. I’m sure part of random people talking to people in my group is the fact that we are obviously not Ecuadorian. I am slowly getting tan and I at least have dark hair. But I freckle, burn, can’t stand wearing pants and sweaters during hot weather, and my Spanish is still horribly lacking. Still, I like to think that part of the community is more accepting of student and volunteer gringos than of tourists.

There are bad things about living in Ecuador as well… even more so about living on the islands sometimes. Ecuador is still a third world country, no matter how beautiful it is and how privileged I have felt being here. The hospital on Cristóbal is nowhere near American standards. The hospital on Santa Cruz is supposed to be better, but there are occasions when people have to be lifted back to the mainland. We have to drink bottled water in all of Ecuador all of the time. Quito has bad water… Santa Cruz has worse water. We were advised to not even brush our teeth with the water in Santa Cruz, which I’ve been doing throughout the trip otherwise. My stomach hasn’t been any worse than it gets in the states, but some people have gotten really sick. And currently the mosquitoes are pretty killer because of all of the rain we’ve been having. We are also very lucky to access to internet, even though it’s so slow that you can barely load articles for your classes.

Even with its bad sides, I still love this country. It is beautiful beyond belief and I have very mixed feelings about leaving it so soon. Not to sound like a broken record, but I really hope I can make it back here some day. Also, just a note, I’m currently avoiding writing a paper and have had a lot of stuff to talk about. I’m going to try to post entries more often for the next 3 weeks then I had done for the past 3 months, but probably not at the frequency of these past few days. Either way, enjoy!  

 

Here are 4 pictures taken in my homestay garden in Cumbayá and a picture of the campus dog, Loba. Her name means wolf and she's a pretty husky who spent most of her day napping in flower beds and ignoring the students despite our pleas for her to come play with us. She was friendlier on weekends when there were less people around to give her attention. This picture of her really sums up our life in Cumbayá pretty well. 

Best wishes to all at home!