This past weekend was certainly an experience. Amber and I went to our first and probably last bullfight. Amber won´t write about this, because she does not want to remember it. I thought it was fairly cruel but interesting and exciting too. Also as a warning, I´m about to describe everything that happened, which involves bulls being killed and an injured horse. Our friend's uncle, Guillermo Albán, is an internationally famous matador and he saved some tickets for us. The fight was in the city of Riobamba, which is about 3 hours south of Quito. In much of Ecuador, they´re not allowed to kill the bull in the ring. They just take the bulls out back and do it. However, in Riobamba, the matador still can make the kill in the ring. Here´s the breakdown of the bullfight we saw. 7 bulls who have had little contact with humans their whole lives are caught and brought to the ring. The first bullfighter was from Portugal and he fought the bulls while on horseback. He pretty much did everything the matadors did but from a horse. There was one matador from Spain and two from Ecuador.
The bulls weight was announced (ours were between 970 and 1015 pounds) and then released into the ring. It ran around pissed off and people with capes would distract it. The matador would also have the bull charge at his larger cape, but unlike the other people who used the hold-the-cape-and-get-the-hell-out-of-the-way method, he would stand his ground as the bull went by. After about 5 minutes of this, the president of the bullfight would have his trumpet players play a short song to signify to move to the next round. Now the Picadores come out. The Picadores are men on heavily armored, blindfolded, and sedated draft horses. Their job is to jab the bull in the back of the neck with a lance to tire it out, straighten its charge and lower its head. The horses were hit very hard by the bull and sometimes fell over. One horse was knocked over and gored in the neck. The horse got up on his own and walked out, but we don´t know its fate after. The trumpets play and it moves to the next round. Now there are guys with two decorated, long hooked spears who´s job is to go up to the bull, jab the spears in its back and get away before being killed. These guys were the most impressive in my opinion. Trumpets play and now it is the matadors main event. With a smaller, red cape and small sword the matador has the bull charge the cape as he shows off his bravery and control over the animal. The bull come within inches of the matador, but he doesn't get hurt. He does this for a about 5 or so minutes and then the trumpets play again. The final stage. The matador changes to a larger and heavier sword. He continues to have the bull charge the red cape as he waits for the right moment to kill the bull. When ready, the matador holds the sword out and lunges at the bull. If he his his mark, the roughly 2 1/2 foot sword is thrust completely into the bull, piercing the heart. The bull then stumbles around for a bit and falls over. Sometimes its clean, sometimes its pretty gruesome. Its usually not dead yet, so someone puts a knife through the back of its head. One fight lasts around 20-30 minutes. This whole thing is then repeated. Each matador gets 2 bulls each. The audience had a lot of control over the fight. If someone does something they don´t like, they whistle and yell until they stop. If the audience really likes a bull, they yell and whistle before the kill and the bull gets pardoned. This happened to one lucky bull while we were there. The ranking of the matador is based on the ears and tail system. Depending on his performance, either nothing, one ear, two ears, or the tail is cut off the bull and given to the matador. No ears is terrible, one is okay, two is better, and a tail is the best. After the fight, we jumped down into the outer ring to go meet our friend's uncle. He didn't win, but he also had some non-ideal bulls for bullfighting. We then drove home and got back to Qutio around 1:00 in the morning. Here´s the Youtube of the fight. Seriously, don´t watch this if you don´t want to see bulls die. Or at least read the description to know which parts to skip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98emN9QDqwA
On a happier note, I ran a 7k run in Quito the next morning which was run by the university we work for. I finished in 40:41 seconds, which I think is pretty good for not practicing and being at 9,000 ft above sea level. We then ate at the pancake house.
Interesting fact: Visible from the town of Riobamba is the talles volcano in Ecuador, Chimborazo. It is 6268.2 meters above sea level. What makes it unique though is it is the farthest point from the center of the planet. Because the earth is not a perfect sphere and bulges at the equator, the top of Chimborazo is farther away from the center of the earth than Mt. Everest.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Baños and Cuenca
This past weekend was a 5 day holiday weekend for us, so we took advantage and traveled south. Thursday morning we began our venture on a 45 min bus ride to the south bus terminal in Quito. From this terminal, virtually every city in Ecuador can be reached. We bought tickets to Baños. Baños is a city about 3 1/2 hours from Quito. It is famous for its hot springs. When we got to Baños we found our hostel, a microbrewery, and some pizza. Microbreweries are very rare in Ecuador, but pizza is not. A 16" pizza was only $5.50. We had a terrible time sleeping Thursday night because the people in the street never slept. We later learned that this was because of a 7 hour religious pilgrimage walk from Ambato to Baños that happens every Holy Thursday. There were thousands of people sleeping and partying on the sidewalks. The next day, we climbed up to the statue that overlooks Baños. We counted over 680 stairs. After this, we started for the hot springs. Our guide book had crappy directions and we ended up on the wrong side of the river. Feeling frustrated, we overlooked our frugal ways and hired a cab to get to the baths. Best 2 dollars we've spent so far. The springs consisted of 7 different pools ranging in temperature. We started with the hottest. It smelled like pee and iron because the water came directly from the rocks in the floor of the pool. The water was also yellow an murky from the natural minerals. After we got over the smell, it was pretty refreshing. We tried a few other pools which were cooler and smelled less, but we ultimately favored the pee pool. A local treat of Baños is taffy. There are many shops where people are pulling taffy on wooden pegs mounted on the doors. We tried some fresh off the peg. Another popular treat is to suck on pieces of sugar cane. We bought a bag and chewed on them in the park. Later that night we had canelazo, the traditional Ecuadorian hot drink, and watched another thousand people walk down the street toward the church singing and carrying a coffin with Jesus inside. This night was a better night sleep because we changed rooms and there were not thousands of people sleeping in the streets.
The next morning we woke up and started the journey to Cuenca, a city more to the South. We tried to buy a bus ticket straight to Cuenca but that was not happening. We had to buy a ticket to Riobamba (about 2 hours away), wait in Riobamba and then continue the rest of the 7 hours to Cuenca. We were really glad to get off the bus that night. We picked out a hotel from the guide book called Hotel Pichincha. When we arrived it looked pretty nice from the street. We when found our room we realized that we had checked in to an insane asylum. The floors creaked with every step, there was a random closet with metal bars outside our room, the room had no windows to the outside but it did have a nice creepy sink and mirror in the corner, the bed was metal, there was a small door leading to a space in the wall inside the shower and last but not least our pillows weighed 8 pounds each and John´s pillow felt like it was stuffed with balls of cat fur and corn kernels. Not wanting to spend time in the eerily silent room we wandered around the city. After seeing the massive old cathedral and another pretty church we set out to find something to drink. We just kept walking down a random road and don´t you know... we happened on another microbrewery. What are the odds? This bar had 4 different homemade beers and they were cheap. We did not order the 1.25L beer, but if we had it would have only been $4. We sat in neat hammock swing chairs and enjoyed the drinks. After we were done we headed back to the hotel. Despite the fact that John didn't quite fit on the bed and the fact that every move resulted in a thousand squeaks, we actually slept alright. In the morning we woke up and went to Easter mass at one of the churches that we saw the previous night. Even though we didn't understand it all it was still a nice mass. Afterward we set out to quiet our rumbling tummies. I turned down many places because they just didn't seem right. Finally we happened upon the market. On the top floor we discovered rows of ladies making breakfast. We settled on a plate of rice, pork meat and skin (for John), a hard boiled egg, potatoes and hominy and a raspberry juice. Two plates and the juice came to a whopping $2.50. We took a couple hour walk around the city to help us digest. Our walk took us past other churches, the river and lots of interesting markets. We ended up back at the first market for lunch. This time John had pork that was pulled directly from the roasted pig sitting on the counter, potatoes, and a coconut juice. Then we walked around more. Sometimes we just sat in the park and watched people too. Since it was Sunday there was not much open and we were back to the hotel by 10. On Monday morning we had breakfast with the rice and egg lady again. Taking the advice from some people at work, we booked a flight back home instead of trying to endure the 12 hour bus trip. Totally worth it and we got to see Cotopaxi from the plane.
Interesting fact: When people in Ecuador describe a person's height with a hand gesture, they always keep their hand perpendicular to the ground with their thumb pointing up. They only describe the height of animals with their hand parallel to the ground. It could be seen as offensive to describe a person's height with a parallel hand.
The next morning we woke up and started the journey to Cuenca, a city more to the South. We tried to buy a bus ticket straight to Cuenca but that was not happening. We had to buy a ticket to Riobamba (about 2 hours away), wait in Riobamba and then continue the rest of the 7 hours to Cuenca. We were really glad to get off the bus that night. We picked out a hotel from the guide book called Hotel Pichincha. When we arrived it looked pretty nice from the street. We when found our room we realized that we had checked in to an insane asylum. The floors creaked with every step, there was a random closet with metal bars outside our room, the room had no windows to the outside but it did have a nice creepy sink and mirror in the corner, the bed was metal, there was a small door leading to a space in the wall inside the shower and last but not least our pillows weighed 8 pounds each and John´s pillow felt like it was stuffed with balls of cat fur and corn kernels. Not wanting to spend time in the eerily silent room we wandered around the city. After seeing the massive old cathedral and another pretty church we set out to find something to drink. We just kept walking down a random road and don´t you know... we happened on another microbrewery. What are the odds? This bar had 4 different homemade beers and they were cheap. We did not order the 1.25L beer, but if we had it would have only been $4. We sat in neat hammock swing chairs and enjoyed the drinks. After we were done we headed back to the hotel. Despite the fact that John didn't quite fit on the bed and the fact that every move resulted in a thousand squeaks, we actually slept alright. In the morning we woke up and went to Easter mass at one of the churches that we saw the previous night. Even though we didn't understand it all it was still a nice mass. Afterward we set out to quiet our rumbling tummies. I turned down many places because they just didn't seem right. Finally we happened upon the market. On the top floor we discovered rows of ladies making breakfast. We settled on a plate of rice, pork meat and skin (for John), a hard boiled egg, potatoes and hominy and a raspberry juice. Two plates and the juice came to a whopping $2.50. We took a couple hour walk around the city to help us digest. Our walk took us past other churches, the river and lots of interesting markets. We ended up back at the first market for lunch. This time John had pork that was pulled directly from the roasted pig sitting on the counter, potatoes, and a coconut juice. Then we walked around more. Sometimes we just sat in the park and watched people too. Since it was Sunday there was not much open and we were back to the hotel by 10. On Monday morning we had breakfast with the rice and egg lady again. Taking the advice from some people at work, we booked a flight back home instead of trying to endure the 12 hour bus trip. Totally worth it and we got to see Cotopaxi from the plane.
Interesting fact: When people in Ecuador describe a person's height with a hand gesture, they always keep their hand perpendicular to the ground with their thumb pointing up. They only describe the height of animals with their hand parallel to the ground. It could be seen as offensive to describe a person's height with a parallel hand.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
We got really high...
...about 14,400 feet high to be exact. On April Fools Day (which is not celebrated here), we attempted to climb the closest mountain to us in Quito. The mountain is called Rucu Pinchincha. It is about 15,400 ft tall at the summit. To start the hike many people, including us, ride the teleferico to almost the top, about 13,450ft. The teleferico is a cable car that takes you from bottom to top in under 10 minutes. We planned to start the climb around 8am. Well, we arrived at the bottom of the teleferico to discover that it did not have any power at the top, but rest assured that the electric company had been called. We decided to wait it out. While waiting we met a really nice family from St. Augustine, Florida. They were in Quito for the week with their two young boys. I remember thinking that it was really cool that they took their kids to interesting places abroad instead of the usual Disney Land or Myrtle Beach. We ended up waiting around for about 3 hours. Then finally the line for buying tickets started to move and we were on our way up the mountain. At the top of the teleferico we took some pictures (one of a llama) and got a really nice view of Quito. It was hard to believe that even though we were seeing a hugh chunk of the city, it was not even close to seeing the whole thing.
Now the hike. We finally got on the trail around 12:30pm (a very late start). We climbed up and down the man and dirtbike make path. We reached the rock part about 2 hours later. From our view on the rocks we could see the ash slide (made from a past eruption). Unfortunately we could also see a gigantic storm moving in on us rather quickly. It started to hail lightly as we decided to turn around and forego our summit attempt. The hail steadily picked up both size and frequency. We happened upon an overhang with other hikers just as the hail got really bad. While waiting out the storm in the ¨cave¨ we got to see some really neat horizontal lightning and hear some close and very loud thunder. It took about 45 minutes for the storm to pass. We made our way back to the teleferico. I (Amber) fell more times than I care to remember on the slippery and muddy trail. My pants were about 5 pounds heavier at the end of the hike because of the mud.
We are looking forward to the next time that we can make this hike, and make it to the top : ) I have a few pictures of the hike on my facebook page...more to come when we make it to the top.
Interesting fact: Any bus in Qutio, and maybe even Ecuador, costs 25 cents per ride. No matter how long you ride or where you are going. We can literally get a bus from one end of the city to the other for 25 cents...and Qutio is 22 miles long. Pretty much the buses are always crowded...but it is totally worth it.
Now the hike. We finally got on the trail around 12:30pm (a very late start). We climbed up and down the man and dirtbike make path. We reached the rock part about 2 hours later. From our view on the rocks we could see the ash slide (made from a past eruption). Unfortunately we could also see a gigantic storm moving in on us rather quickly. It started to hail lightly as we decided to turn around and forego our summit attempt. The hail steadily picked up both size and frequency. We happened upon an overhang with other hikers just as the hail got really bad. While waiting out the storm in the ¨cave¨ we got to see some really neat horizontal lightning and hear some close and very loud thunder. It took about 45 minutes for the storm to pass. We made our way back to the teleferico. I (Amber) fell more times than I care to remember on the slippery and muddy trail. My pants were about 5 pounds heavier at the end of the hike because of the mud.
We are looking forward to the next time that we can make this hike, and make it to the top : ) I have a few pictures of the hike on my facebook page...more to come when we make it to the top.
Interesting fact: Any bus in Qutio, and maybe even Ecuador, costs 25 cents per ride. No matter how long you ride or where you are going. We can literally get a bus from one end of the city to the other for 25 cents...and Qutio is 22 miles long. Pretty much the buses are always crowded...but it is totally worth it.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Activities in Loja
I´m starting my last week in Cariamanga, the city in Loja province. My daily routine has been to get up early and meet my coworkers at the municipal building. We then head out to the many small communities around the city. The closest one has been only 15 minutes away, but the farthest was about 2 hours driving. When we get to a community, I mark a point at the school, take a picture, and then we find someone who is home that can give us some information about the community. We usually try to find the president of the community, but sometimes he or she is elsewhere working. I also walk the paths I can with the GPS, or draw them on a topo map. Once I get back to the hotel, I put the GPS tracks and points into the computer and note the driving times to each community. The people are very nice and often give us fruit or frescita, a watered down fruit juice drink. I`ve been eating and drinking everything they give me, and thankfully haven´t gotten sick. One time in between houses, we saw people making panela and gararpo (I don´t know how to spell the second one). Panela is a hard candy made from boiled down sugar cane juice. It is very similar to maple sugar candies, but tastes more like molasses. Gararpo is also the sugar cain juice boiled down, but it is still a liquid. It looked like a bucket of very muddy water, but tasted pretty good. Many of the towns are very close to Peru. I gotten within 3 km or so of Peru now. Last Friday, we went through a military checkpoint, and right behind the checkpoint was a sign that warned of landmines in the fields. They are leftover from a border war in 1996. Poor cows. Last Saturday I went camping on the top of the mountain that looms over Cariamanga. I also saw the squirrel type animal that lives only on this mountain. It was about the size of a cat. Here are pictures of the city, mountain, and squirrel. http://micariamanga.galeon.com/ There is a big metal cross at the top of the mountain, and I climbed to the top of the cross. The people I went camping with sometimes rappel from the arms of the cross.
Interesting Fact: This is a bit of a stretch calling this a fact, but it is the opinion of myself and the people in Loja province that they have the most correct Spanish pronunciation in Ecuador. In the Andean highlands, like Quito, the people pronounce the double L´s like a J sound. For example: ¿Como se llama? sounds more like Como se jama. Also, in the coastal provinces, they often pronounce only half the word. So dos, tres, and seis, (2, 3, 6) sound more like do, tre, and sei. Loja is a really good place to learn and practice Spanish.
Interesting Fact: This is a bit of a stretch calling this a fact, but it is the opinion of myself and the people in Loja province that they have the most correct Spanish pronunciation in Ecuador. In the Andean highlands, like Quito, the people pronounce the double L´s like a J sound. For example: ¿Como se llama? sounds more like Como se jama. Also, in the coastal provinces, they often pronounce only half the word. So dos, tres, and seis, (2, 3, 6) sound more like do, tre, and sei. Loja is a really good place to learn and practice Spanish.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Half Way There
I have officially been living without Johnny for 10 whole days. I cannot say that I like this situation at all. I would like to have him back at home...but I will have to wait 10 MORE days for that. 10 long days. Without Johnny at home I have nothing to do, nothing to clean, no one to talk to. Last week was alright because my boss from Ohio was here and there was a conference. I went to work early and stayed there late. This week I have had normal hours...
So what have I been up to besides only eating cold food and reading my weight in books? Well since Johnny has been away I have seen the mountain on the equator (Cayambe) almost everyday and I am taking pictures of it for him to see. (Side note: When John is around the mountain usually likes to hide behind the clouds...maybe it is scared of him.) One morning while I was eating breakfast I saw a baby llama down the hill from my house. I couldn't get to my camera fast enough, but rest assured I will get a picture of that beast. I have been helping the countless bugs that think my home is their home back outside (and perhaps giving them a nice little fling down the hill). I tried to make Spanish flashcards but I got bored and stopped. See I told you I was boring.
On the bright side... I think that I got rid of my parasite. Well actually I had two... Frank and Hal... and then they married and became a horrible parasite named Hank. I think he got tired of living off cereal and tuna and decided to leave for good.
John tells me that he has been eating a bunch of stuff in the field, from sugar cane juice to oranges to basically anything that the people have to offer. Good thing he has a stomach of lead and has not gotten sick. When I talk to him it sounds like he is having a good time. He went camping on Ahuaca (a mountain with a cross on the top) last weekend and will explore some caves near there this weekend. I hope he is ready to cook for me when he gets back... I am looking forward to it.
Interesting fact: The city of Quito restricts the days that you can drive based on the last number of your license plate. They choose two numbers per day. For example on Monday cars with plates that end in 1 or 2 are not allowed to drive during the busy times. If you are caught driving during the restricted times your car will literally be taken away from you. The first offense, you will lose your car for 1 day but the second offense and you will lose your car for 3 days. Pretty crazy. They did this to try and cut down on the number of cars causing the traffic jams every work day but I have heard that it doesn't really work. My way to get around the traffic? I walk.
So what have I been up to besides only eating cold food and reading my weight in books? Well since Johnny has been away I have seen the mountain on the equator (Cayambe) almost everyday and I am taking pictures of it for him to see. (Side note: When John is around the mountain usually likes to hide behind the clouds...maybe it is scared of him.) One morning while I was eating breakfast I saw a baby llama down the hill from my house. I couldn't get to my camera fast enough, but rest assured I will get a picture of that beast. I have been helping the countless bugs that think my home is their home back outside (and perhaps giving them a nice little fling down the hill). I tried to make Spanish flashcards but I got bored and stopped. See I told you I was boring.
On the bright side... I think that I got rid of my parasite. Well actually I had two... Frank and Hal... and then they married and became a horrible parasite named Hank. I think he got tired of living off cereal and tuna and decided to leave for good.
John tells me that he has been eating a bunch of stuff in the field, from sugar cane juice to oranges to basically anything that the people have to offer. Good thing he has a stomach of lead and has not gotten sick. When I talk to him it sounds like he is having a good time. He went camping on Ahuaca (a mountain with a cross on the top) last weekend and will explore some caves near there this weekend. I hope he is ready to cook for me when he gets back... I am looking forward to it.
Interesting fact: The city of Quito restricts the days that you can drive based on the last number of your license plate. They choose two numbers per day. For example on Monday cars with plates that end in 1 or 2 are not allowed to drive during the busy times. If you are caught driving during the restricted times your car will literally be taken away from you. The first offense, you will lose your car for 1 day but the second offense and you will lose your car for 3 days. Pretty crazy. They did this to try and cut down on the number of cars causing the traffic jams every work day but I have heard that it doesn't really work. My way to get around the traffic? I walk.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
A time apart...
We learned on Wednesday that Johnny will be leaving for Loja (a southern province of Ecuador) on Sunday (today). He will be gone for 20 days. I, Amber, am not thrilled about being alone for so long here in Quito. As you may know, we don't have a computer, television or any real form of entertainment at our house. Also, I don't really know how to use the stove because it is gas. So what does this mean? I will be going to bed around 7 pm out of boredom and I will be eating anything that doesn't need to be warmed up (we don't have a microwave either, just in case you were wondering).
As for John, his dog bite is healing nicely. It doesn't bother him at all and nothing much ever came of it... not even a big bruise. Down in Loja he will be working on a GIS/GPS project for the research program at Catholic University and Ohio University. He is flying down there alone and will not have anyone to translate for him. He is however bringing the Spanish-English dictionary. Who knows..he may come back completely fluent. While down there he will go to different communities and take points of where all the houses are in the area. He literally has to time his walk to and from each house so that in the summer we will know how long to spend in each village. From past experience we know that some houses are as much as a two hour walk from the center of town and Loja is a fairly mountainous province. Sometimes he will be with some Ecuadorian workers and sometimes he will be alone.
On a happier note, we bought a blanket at the market... FINALLY! It is a very nice two sided (one black and one white) Alpaca hair blanket. It will be my best friend while John is gone... along with my books of course. The lady at the market wanted $35 for it but we walked away paying only $25. Not too bad. Also, the other day I found a nickle on the side walk. That officially brings up the amount of money we have found here to $1.56.
Interesting Fact: The roads in Ecuador leave something to be desired...especially when you are outside a major city. For example, John is flying to Loja. The flight will take 50 minutes. If I wanted to take a bus to Loja, it would take over 13 hours. (The bus isn't like a greyhound... it doesn't make other stops.) The time difference is due to the fact that the roads are dangerous and they zig-zag across mountains...not to mention that sometimes there are potholes so big that can swallow cars. The total distance from Quito to Loja is around 250 miles... only slightly bigger than the width of Ohio (which can be driven in roughly 4 hours). The one nice thing about the roads in the country... the views : )
As for John, his dog bite is healing nicely. It doesn't bother him at all and nothing much ever came of it... not even a big bruise. Down in Loja he will be working on a GIS/GPS project for the research program at Catholic University and Ohio University. He is flying down there alone and will not have anyone to translate for him. He is however bringing the Spanish-English dictionary. Who knows..he may come back completely fluent. While down there he will go to different communities and take points of where all the houses are in the area. He literally has to time his walk to and from each house so that in the summer we will know how long to spend in each village. From past experience we know that some houses are as much as a two hour walk from the center of town and Loja is a fairly mountainous province. Sometimes he will be with some Ecuadorian workers and sometimes he will be alone.
On a happier note, we bought a blanket at the market... FINALLY! It is a very nice two sided (one black and one white) Alpaca hair blanket. It will be my best friend while John is gone... along with my books of course. The lady at the market wanted $35 for it but we walked away paying only $25. Not too bad. Also, the other day I found a nickle on the side walk. That officially brings up the amount of money we have found here to $1.56.
Interesting Fact: The roads in Ecuador leave something to be desired...especially when you are outside a major city. For example, John is flying to Loja. The flight will take 50 minutes. If I wanted to take a bus to Loja, it would take over 13 hours. (The bus isn't like a greyhound... it doesn't make other stops.) The time difference is due to the fact that the roads are dangerous and they zig-zag across mountains...not to mention that sometimes there are potholes so big that can swallow cars. The total distance from Quito to Loja is around 250 miles... only slightly bigger than the width of Ohio (which can be driven in roughly 4 hours). The one nice thing about the roads in the country... the views : )
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Bad timing
So I(Johnny) was going to write a little bit about the food, because we didn't really do much this past week that's very interesting. The most exciting thing we've done is go to the movie theater last Saturday. We watched The Descendants which fortunately was in English with Spanish subtitles. The tickets are only about 5 dollars a person. Unlike theaters in the U.S. all of the seats are assigned when you buy the ticket. I'll talk about the food when we truly have nothing else to say, but yesterday's events are worth mentioning. So on our daily walk to work, we often see and hear lots of dogs either in the street or behind people's gaits. Yesterday, as we were walking, there was another man about 50 feet ahead of us walking his dog. When the neighborhood dogs see this, they all bark and get excited. At that same time, a man was coming out of his gait. As he opened it a very excited dog went before him. Unfortunately, I was walking right in front of the gait when he opened it. The excited dog immediately bit me on the leg and then returned back inside the gait. I had no time to react. I showed the man who opened the gait, but he kept walking. I then called our boss at the university, and he came to help. We talked to the owner and the police were called to fill out a report. The police came and wanted to take me to a clinic to get it cleaned up. I got to ride in a police truck (they drive pick-up trucks instead of cars). We think the dog is healthy, so I hopefully won't have to get the rabies shots in the stomach. We'll find out more tomorrow. The bite was not serious, but it did break the skin. It was just a quick, hard bite just below and to the left of my left knee. I guess that's one way of leaning how to say "to bite" in Spanish. If I start to foam at the mouth and go crazy, Amber will have to write the rest of the blog posts.
Interesting fact-The correct way to handle an aggressive dog in Ecuador: With the exception of the very privileged dogs, every dog in Ecuador has had a rock thrown at it at least once in its life. What you're supposed to do if a dog is being aggressive is to pick up a rock and act like you're going to throw it at it. They almost always cowers and back down. If there are no rocks around, then just pretend like you picked up a rock and are about to throw it at it. They don't know the difference.
Interesting fact-The correct way to handle an aggressive dog in Ecuador: With the exception of the very privileged dogs, every dog in Ecuador has had a rock thrown at it at least once in its life. What you're supposed to do if a dog is being aggressive is to pick up a rock and act like you're going to throw it at it. They almost always cowers and back down. If there are no rocks around, then just pretend like you picked up a rock and are about to throw it at it. They don't know the difference.
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