San Gabriel

On the 27th-29th of November, I went to San Gabriel, 20 km from the border of Colombia with Rebecca and Constanza and their host mom, Sara.

San Gabriel is Sara's home city and she has relatives there, which meant that we could stay in the home of her relatives.
The trip there took a long time! From my home to the city, it took more than 6 hours!
When we arrived, we had dinner and went straight to bed.
On the Saturday, we was driven around in a car to all the nearby sights - a special forest that contains trees with leaves that are good for your teeth, if you chew them.

Afterwards we went to a lagoon that I walked around together with Rebecca.

Next stop was a waterfall, where we also ate bread and cheese with dulce de leche.

Afterwards we went back to the house we stayed in and had lunch.

We still had more experiences to come though, as we went to a cave and a river, where we did a little bit of hiking. And we visited a mammoth as well.

Sunday we went home very early.

Staying at the home of Ecuadorians also came with another funny experience: Having the relatives taking pictures of us (and putting them on Facebook of course).

The bathroom was the weirdest experience during the weekend! Because the wall only went halfway up, and behind it was stairs! Yes, you could look into the bathroom! Furthermore, you could hear any noises coming from the bathroom in the dinning room. Oh well, Ecuador!

Forrest
Skov

Leaves that are good for your teeth
Blade der er gode for dine tænder

Forrest
Skov

In the top of the trees - I have no clue what this is!
I toppen af træerne groede disse. Jeg aner ikke hvad det er!

Mushrooms
Svampe

The lagoon
Søen

The lagoon
Søen

The lagoon
Søen

Waterfall
Vandfald

Waterfall - this time closer on
Vandfald - denne gang tættere på

I felt like an explorer - I wish it had been possible to walk further down.
Jeg følte mig som en opdagelsesrejsende - jeg ville ønske, at jeg kunne have fortsat!

At the cave
Ved grotten

The cave
Grotten

Looking out of the cave
Når man kiggede ud fra grotten

There was an altar inside the cave that ruined the unspoiled experience
Der var et alter inde i grotten, der ødelagde den uspolerede oplevelse

Mammoth and my new friend!
En mammut og min nye ven!

Bathroom - And yes, you can see the stairs behind the half wall.
Badeværelset - Og ja, du kan se trapperne bag den halve væg.

Our goodbye-picture
Vores farvelbillede

During dinner as well!
Der blev også taget billeder under maden.

Den 27. til 29. november tog jeg til San Gabriel, 20 km fra Colombia, sammen med Constanza, Rebecca og deres værtsmor. Vi boede hos hendes familie, eftersom hun har slægtninge der og kommer fra den by.

Efter vi ankom spiste vi aftensmad og gik direkte i seng, siden vi var meget trætte efter den lange bustur!

Lørdag blev vi kørt rundt i en bil og første stop på turen var en skov, med træer der har blade, som er rigtig gode for tænderne, hvis du tygger dem.

Næste stop: En sø, som jeg gik rundt om sammen med Rebecca.

Tredje stop: Et vandfald, hvor vi også stoppede for at spise brød med ost og dulce de leche. Og selvfølgelig tog vi tilbage til huset for at spise frokost efterfølgende.

Sidste stop på dagen var en grotte i La Paz og flod, hvor vi vandrede lidt omkring, og på turen hjem kørte vi forbi en mammut.

Søndag tog vi forholdsvis tidligt hjem.

At bo hos en ecuadoriansk familie bød også på andre oplevelser: Familien blev ved med at tage billeder af os, som selvfølgelig også blev lagt på Facebook.

Den mærkeligste oplevelse var dog badeværelset. For væggen gik kun halvvejs op, og bagved var en trappe. Derudover kunne alle potentielle lyde fra badeværelset høres i stuen. Men ja, Ecuador.

Zoológico de Quito

On the 22nd of November I went to the zoo with Rebecca since my travelling plans for the weekend had been destroyed.

Normally it is weird going to a zoo in a foreign country, but going to the zoo in Quito was pretty cool, since almost all the animals, were animals that can be found in Ecuador!

Monkey
Abe

Turtle from Galapagos
Skildpadde fra Galapagos

Turtles from Galapagos
Skildpadder fra Galapagos

Parrot
Papegøje

This is a really big tortoise shell!
Kæmpe skildpaddeskjold!

Other animals, also as visitors to the zoo.
Andre dyr er også på besøg i zoo.

Andean bear
Brillebjørn

A wild cat at the size of a pet - I cannot remember the name.
En vild kat som findes i Ecuador, men som er på størrelse med en huskat. Jeg kan dog ikke huske navnet.

Same cat
Den samme kat

And it has normal cat behavior
Og den opfører sig som enhver anden kat

All types of birds in the zoo as well
Og der var også mange forskellige fulge

Alpacas!
Alpakaer!

Getting up close and personal with the alpacas
Nærkontakt med alpakaerne

Carrots definitely help on learning to know the alpacas better.
Gulerødder hjalp bestemt på at blive venner med alpakkerne.

I was interested in the hug. The alpaca was interested in the carrots in my hand.
Jeg ville gerne have et kram med alpakkaen. Den ville gerne have gulerødderne i min hånd.

Caiman!
Kaiman!

Iguana

More birds
Flere fugle

So many different species!
Der er så mange forskellige slags fugle i Ecuador!

And even more birds!
Og endnu flere fugle!

Den 22. november tog jeg i zoologisk have med Rebecca, da mine planer om at rejse væk i weekenden var blevet ødelagt.

Normalt er det lidt underligt at besøge en zoologisk have, men den zoologiske have i Quito var anderledes, fordi størstedelen af dyrene findes i Ecuador.

Quilotoa! 15th of November.

On the 15th of November I went to Quilotoa with a group of the other volunteers (Annika, Brónagh, Felix, Heike, Rebecca and Sofie) and Rebecca's host mom and her parents from England, as they were visiting her in Ecuador.

Quilotoa is a crater lake in the height of almost 4,000 meters. And the lake changes colors depending on the time of the day.
We did a one day trip to the lake, which meant leaving the house at a quarter to six, since it was a four hour drive to the lake, after going to Quito and meeting up with the others.

You arrive at the rim of the crater and have the options to either walk the rim (7 hours), walk down to the lake at the bottom of the crater or enjoy the view from the crater rim, without doing any hiking.

The view at the lake is really beautiful. I immediately started running down the crater with Felix and Sofie joined us as well. We were on a mission and had limited time! I cannot remember how long time we spent going down, but we were definitely slowed down by all the photos and panoramas we stopped to take.
At the bottom of the crater we waited for the rest to catch op. We went kayaking for 20 minutes on the lake and afterwards I walked the way up again with Felix. We did it in less than 40 minutes, whereas the sign at the bottom of the lake actually said 1½ hour for going up!
And we were the only ones from our group who actually hiked up again, as everybody else desided to rent a donkey or a horse for 10 $ to take them up from the lake.
But I think the hike up was totally worth it and the lunch afterwards was so delicious, since we were hungry from all the exercise.
Afterwards we headed home and the nights rest was well deserved.

Quilotoa

Quilotoa

Quilotoa

Quilotoa

Quilotoa

Quilotoa

Quilotoa

Quilotoa

Quilotoa

Quilotoa

Quilotoa

Obligatory we finished the hike, look horrible and I have got water on my glasses from kayaking picture.
Det obligatoriske vi klarede vandreturen, ser forfærdelige ud og jeg har vand på mine glasser fra da vi sejlede i kayak billede.

Den 15. November tog jeg til Quilotoa med en gruppe af andre volontører (Annika, Brónagh, Felix, Heike, Rebecca og Sofie) samt Rebeccas værtsmor og hendes forældre, der var på besøg fra England.

Quilotoa er en sø, der ligger nedder i et vulkankrater i omkring 4000 meters højde. Og søen skifter farve i løbet af dagen.
Vi tog til søen på en endagstur, hvilket betød at jeg skulle afsted omkring kvart i seks, da køreturen til søen tager 4 timer, og jeg skulle til Quito først for at mødes med de andre.

Du ankommer til kanten af krateret og har herfra en række muligheder.
Du kan enten gå rundt langs kraterkanten, hvilket tager omkring 7 timer, hvilket vi ikke havde tid til.
Du kan gå ned til søen i bunden af krateret.
Eller du kan blive ved kanten og nyde udsigten, uden at du behøver vandre rundt.

Udsigten over søen er meget smuk og jeg begyndte straks at løbe ned mod søen sammen med Felix og Sofie fulgte også med us, hvorimod de andre tog det mere stille og roligt. Men Felix og jeg havde begrænset tid og vi var på en mission! Selvom vi blev forsinket lidt af alle de billeder og panoramaer vi tog på vejen.
Ved bunden af søen ventede vi på at de andre kom ned, hvorefter jeg sejlede i kayak med Felix på søen i 20 minutter, inden vi begyndte opstigning, som Felix og jeg klarede på under 40 minutter, hvorimod skiltet ved bunden af søen siger 1½ time. Alle de andre valgte at leje et æsel/hest til at komme op.
Men vandreturen var virkelig det værd, og vores frokost bagefter smagte formentligt så meget bedre, fordi vi havde fortjent den og vi var virkelig sultne efter vores lange vandring.