Ecuador 2018
Spanish Immersion Trip:
Ecuador 2018
A trip prepared and organized by Vision Varennes to provide a wonderful experience to our grade 6 students!
Where tourism, Spanish immersion, and interacting with children of a local school coexist in one happy adventure!
Day 1: Plane + Hotel
13 students of Vision Varennes, señora Gómez (teacher) and 3 parents got in this awesome adventure!
Our farewell was a mix of different emotions! Students were excited because of their trip all together, but at the same time, they were sad because for most of them, it was the first time they were traveling alone without their parents. Our flight from Montreal to Panamá was a success! We went through douanes, check out our baggages, some of us had some medicine and some agents checked it out carefully, again. So that part was kind of long! On our way to our departure door 63, we stopped in a coffee shop. Boys enjoyed big sandwiches with bacon and eggs, plus juice! while some girls had a juice with muffins. Laurie and Manon got a very healthy breakfast with a juice and fruit! Good for them! Annabelle delighted herself with a croissant and a juice! Although, I do not remember exactly everyones choice, I am pretty sure about something: Everybody ate very well! We waited for 20 minutes, we got on the plane, a simple one with screens that slide down from the ceiling! I was expecting to have lunch in the plane, but not a very pleasant surprise to find out Copa Airlines had breakfast at 111h00 to offer. And guess what? We had two choices: eggs or french muffins! Alecia was not very lucky with eggs all around her, but she could eat a small bread with fruit and yogurth. And Emile who was next to her decided to ask something without eggs to protect Alecia from them! What a beautiful initiative! Kids got entertained very well on the plane: they watched movies and played videogames. We got to Panama on time! We adjusted our watches to the time here (1 hour before Quebec). We waited for 30 minutes and then we got on the plane. We were having a little bit of difficulty because the seating plan was not selected by me at the moment of doing the checking, it was an automatic and random selection of seats. So, you can imagine how disperse we were along the whole plane. We had to talk here, and there! Until almost everyone got somebody close. We got to the Airport in Quito at 5:15. Students had the chance of passing through immigration, they got the opportunity to talk to the officers and answered all the questions without any problem at all! |
Then, we were welcomed by Señor Anibal and señora Marcela (Diretors of American Spanish School) who gave a warm hug to every single of us!
A big autocar picked us from the airport and brought us to the hotel, every child received their bedroom the way it was planned, but some girls thought the hotel was kind of creepy! They panicked a little bit, but then we figured out! Everybody kept their bedroom how it had been told at school. We went to the restaurant located at the corner of the hotel where the owners served us delicious food. We got rice, spaguetti with mushrooms sauce, cooked vegetables and grilled chicken breast. Not everybody ate, they were not hungry as we thought. We confirmed our plan for tomorrow morning: visit to the local school and visit to the historical center in Quito. For this reason, we had to prepare the gift bags for the children. So, Mr Filion took the initiative of organizing all the goods you kindly bought for the kids, and all the kids helped with the organisation of packages. I am pretty sure students here are going to love them! There was a great variety of things! Highlights of the day
Write you back tomorrow! |
Day 2
School visit + Downtown Quito + Cathedral Voto Nacional + Panecillo Monument
What a beautiful day!
Children woke up very early today! And we were not expecting it! We thought they were super tired! 🤔😏well we were wrong! They woke up between 5:30 to 6:30 am 😥😥🙄🙄 when they were supposed to be up about 6:45. Full of energy these lovely kids!
We had a very nutritious breakfast: watermelon, scrambled eggs, cheese, bread, chocolate and juice. !Delicioso! Your kids ate very well!
At 7:45 we left to go to the local school. The bus took one hour to get there. A group of grade 6th received us in their classroom. There were three teachers who had prepared three different classes for our kids. Students were split in groups with the ecuadorian children. The two groups were very shy, our students do not talk at the beginning, neither our kids. And actually, we did not have any chance of warming up first with an integration activity. Teachers and students over there were ready to start their classes. They took a Math and a Social Studies course where our students had the chance of preparing a puppet sketch. The activity was long with some boring spots because we could not understand students talking.
Finally, I will never get tired of saying how good these kids are in Spanish! They improvised and surprised us so much with such great speeches and attitude!
We came back to our restaurant for lunch, we ate chicken soup with vegetables and tapioca in it, along came a second plate with rice, grilled meat and broccoli.
Right away after lunch, we went to visit the Cathedral Voto Nacional located at the entrance of Quito s downtown. It is the largest church in latinoamerica and one of the most representative landmarks for Ecuadorians. It has a gothic style with high ceilings. The most amazing experience visitors expect to live is the climbing of the building, the ascent requires crossing a rickety wooden plank inside the main roof and climbing steep stairs and ladders (with solid handrails) to the top. That means you need to have a lot of nerves to climb, I did it easily this time because it was already my third time! But I remember my first one with shaking hands, not able to look around! Everybody loved the feeling of reaching the top in spite of the difficulty to do it.
We finished our day with the visit to the Panecillo statue with about 45 metres long! Huge! Kids thought it was small, but when we arrived there, they were impressed by the size of the monument. They learnt the real name of the statue is the Apocaliptic Virgin of Quito, it is called Panecillo because of the shape of the hill where it was build. It has the shape of an individual bread from the bakery 🥔 This kind of bread we call it "pan" and its diminutive "panecillo".
Unfortunatelly, we missed the chance of visiting the President's Museum. It was closed for no reason and it was the only opportunity to have a direct contact with the history of the country. I was very frustrated because I had prepared a complementary activity related to this visit.
We had dinner about 7 o clock, our menu was conformed by mushrooms cream with rice, olives sauce chicken. Kids loved it!
We came back to hotel about 7:30 pm where children took a shower, some of them had the chance of talking to their parents and we had a meeting to sum up our day and prepare the following one.
Highlights of the Day
Children woke up very early today! And we were not expecting it! We thought they were super tired! 🤔😏well we were wrong! They woke up between 5:30 to 6:30 am 😥😥🙄🙄 when they were supposed to be up about 6:45. Full of energy these lovely kids!
We had a very nutritious breakfast: watermelon, scrambled eggs, cheese, bread, chocolate and juice. !Delicioso! Your kids ate very well!
At 7:45 we left to go to the local school. The bus took one hour to get there. A group of grade 6th received us in their classroom. There were three teachers who had prepared three different classes for our kids. Students were split in groups with the ecuadorian children. The two groups were very shy, our students do not talk at the beginning, neither our kids. And actually, we did not have any chance of warming up first with an integration activity. Teachers and students over there were ready to start their classes. They took a Math and a Social Studies course where our students had the chance of preparing a puppet sketch. The activity was long with some boring spots because we could not understand students talking.
Finally, I will never get tired of saying how good these kids are in Spanish! They improvised and surprised us so much with such great speeches and attitude!
We came back to our restaurant for lunch, we ate chicken soup with vegetables and tapioca in it, along came a second plate with rice, grilled meat and broccoli.
Right away after lunch, we went to visit the Cathedral Voto Nacional located at the entrance of Quito s downtown. It is the largest church in latinoamerica and one of the most representative landmarks for Ecuadorians. It has a gothic style with high ceilings. The most amazing experience visitors expect to live is the climbing of the building, the ascent requires crossing a rickety wooden plank inside the main roof and climbing steep stairs and ladders (with solid handrails) to the top. That means you need to have a lot of nerves to climb, I did it easily this time because it was already my third time! But I remember my first one with shaking hands, not able to look around! Everybody loved the feeling of reaching the top in spite of the difficulty to do it.
We finished our day with the visit to the Panecillo statue with about 45 metres long! Huge! Kids thought it was small, but when we arrived there, they were impressed by the size of the monument. They learnt the real name of the statue is the Apocaliptic Virgin of Quito, it is called Panecillo because of the shape of the hill where it was build. It has the shape of an individual bread from the bakery 🥔 This kind of bread we call it "pan" and its diminutive "panecillo".
Unfortunatelly, we missed the chance of visiting the President's Museum. It was closed for no reason and it was the only opportunity to have a direct contact with the history of the country. I was very frustrated because I had prepared a complementary activity related to this visit.
We had dinner about 7 o clock, our menu was conformed by mushrooms cream with rice, olives sauce chicken. Kids loved it!
We came back to hotel about 7:30 pm where children took a shower, some of them had the chance of talking to their parents and we had a meeting to sum up our day and prepare the following one.
Highlights of the Day
- Children had a common favorite moment of their day: The visit tothe school, they said the felt like gods because the children of the school were all the time all around them, asking them all kind of questions. They felt so happy!
- The battle against fair of heights by Guillaume, Alecia and Swahili! They did it! They were panicking at the beginning, they took some time to go up to the top of the cathedral and they were so proud of themselves! Great job my brave climbers!
- Food! Children filled my head with their nicest comments about food! They are trying and eating very well.
- Dogs in the street! Kids were shocked to see there were many homeless dogs at the Panecillo area. They wanted to touch them, but they were not allowed because of health measures. Finally, affection was changed into fear, they did not want dogs close to them because of the fear dogs might bite them.
- Parents organization with the pictures and posts for you all day long! Thanks for making everything so easier and efficient!
- Parents with their positive attitude to speak Spanish, even though if is for saying "platanos" one thousand times on the day! hahahahah. Steeve got an obsession with the word "Plátanos" that our guides brought us plátanos to eat to pleased him! hahahahah so funny! Now, he said he would have a new word "Cerveza" so they might bring him some beer one day! hahahhahah I cannot stop laughing about it.
DAY 4: MERCADO DE OTAVALO + CATARATAS DE PEGUCHE
Four super days in a row! Beautiful weather, blue sky and perfect temperature have allowed us to enjoy everything completely!
Kids started their day with a delicious red berry juice very famous in Southamerica, then some fruit : watermelon, banana, bread, eggs, and chocolate milk. And even as many of you do not believe it, children ate everything!
Today was Saturday, “market day” which means Otavalo Market (the biggest outdoor market in South America) has the most activity – it is the day when there are both more vendors and more customers, which means more variety of products.
We left our hotel at 7:30 because it was a 2 hours and a half trip to Otavalo, a small city where locals wear special clothes and speak Quichua (an aboriginal langage), it is located at Northwest of Quito.
Our traject was accompanied of fun games in the bus organized by the guides and me. We made two stops : one in a popular viewpoint of the Imbabura Volcano and a second one in a local store caractherized by selling equatorian handicrafts, showing Otavalenos (people from the area) playing music live.
At the second stop, I convinced one otavalena to get on the bus with us in order to explain the use and meaning of her clothes. Did you know that just a knot location of a scarf can indicate whether a woman is single or married?
If a woman has her knot in front of her chest means she is married, so men already know they cannot pretend her, and if a woman has the knot on the shoulder is single! Well, now you know! Also, she sang two songs for us in Quechúa, her local language. It was super interesting and I encouraged kids to buy her any of her handicrafts because it was the only source of employment for this woman! Everybody bought a beautiful scarf!
On the Mercado Otavalo we were split in four groups. The place is so big that students needed special supervision and assistance with their shopping errands. We were in the market from 10 30 am to 12:30 am. Children defined as super big, messy, lots of stuff everywhere, but "so coooool"! They enjoyed going everywhere and getting good discounts for the things they wanted to buy! Guillaume gained the tittle as a the most shopalcoholic student of the group! But we need to admit he bought good things and thought in every member of his family! Definitely so cute!
At 1 o clock, we met all together in a restaurant where we ate a delicious Mute soup, a kind of corn boiled with potatoes, meat, lentils, carrots, onion and cilantro. Then, we had different choices in our menu, some students chose roasted chicken, others fried tilapia and others grilled chicken breast, with some delicious vegetables!
Then, we left the Otavalo market to go to Peguche where we received a nice surprise by two of our guides : Christian and Jhoana rented special disguises and prepared a performance today about the “Thansgiving ritual» celebrated by many equatorian tribes. They sang a traditional song to start a procession with the kids toward Peguche falls, a 20 meters water fall known by their energetic power. Local people go behind them to get wet and receive the good energy of the Pacha Mama (Mother Nature). Kids were directed very close to the water where they received this same energy! Christian had a Evil mask aimed to scare away the bad spirits that can ruin the harvest time of the year!
We had so much fun! We walked in the park of Peguche where the falls are located along with a camp park and a suspension bridge.
We got at 6:30 to the restaurant where we ate a nutritious barley soup with carrots and green peas, then, we ate rice with fried chicken breast, some «betraves» and two grilled smashed potatoes.
Highlights of the Day
Kids started their day with a delicious red berry juice very famous in Southamerica, then some fruit : watermelon, banana, bread, eggs, and chocolate milk. And even as many of you do not believe it, children ate everything!
Today was Saturday, “market day” which means Otavalo Market (the biggest outdoor market in South America) has the most activity – it is the day when there are both more vendors and more customers, which means more variety of products.
We left our hotel at 7:30 because it was a 2 hours and a half trip to Otavalo, a small city where locals wear special clothes and speak Quichua (an aboriginal langage), it is located at Northwest of Quito.
Our traject was accompanied of fun games in the bus organized by the guides and me. We made two stops : one in a popular viewpoint of the Imbabura Volcano and a second one in a local store caractherized by selling equatorian handicrafts, showing Otavalenos (people from the area) playing music live.
At the second stop, I convinced one otavalena to get on the bus with us in order to explain the use and meaning of her clothes. Did you know that just a knot location of a scarf can indicate whether a woman is single or married?
If a woman has her knot in front of her chest means she is married, so men already know they cannot pretend her, and if a woman has the knot on the shoulder is single! Well, now you know! Also, she sang two songs for us in Quechúa, her local language. It was super interesting and I encouraged kids to buy her any of her handicrafts because it was the only source of employment for this woman! Everybody bought a beautiful scarf!
On the Mercado Otavalo we were split in four groups. The place is so big that students needed special supervision and assistance with their shopping errands. We were in the market from 10 30 am to 12:30 am. Children defined as super big, messy, lots of stuff everywhere, but "so coooool"! They enjoyed going everywhere and getting good discounts for the things they wanted to buy! Guillaume gained the tittle as a the most shopalcoholic student of the group! But we need to admit he bought good things and thought in every member of his family! Definitely so cute!
At 1 o clock, we met all together in a restaurant where we ate a delicious Mute soup, a kind of corn boiled with potatoes, meat, lentils, carrots, onion and cilantro. Then, we had different choices in our menu, some students chose roasted chicken, others fried tilapia and others grilled chicken breast, with some delicious vegetables!
Then, we left the Otavalo market to go to Peguche where we received a nice surprise by two of our guides : Christian and Jhoana rented special disguises and prepared a performance today about the “Thansgiving ritual» celebrated by many equatorian tribes. They sang a traditional song to start a procession with the kids toward Peguche falls, a 20 meters water fall known by their energetic power. Local people go behind them to get wet and receive the good energy of the Pacha Mama (Mother Nature). Kids were directed very close to the water where they received this same energy! Christian had a Evil mask aimed to scare away the bad spirits that can ruin the harvest time of the year!
We had so much fun! We walked in the park of Peguche where the falls are located along with a camp park and a suspension bridge.
We got at 6:30 to the restaurant where we ate a nutritious barley soup with carrots and green peas, then, we ate rice with fried chicken breast, some «betraves» and two grilled smashed potatoes.
Highlights of the Day
- Latin Musical alarm clock provided by Steeve Abel every morning! Everyday it looks like we are starting with a party!
- The bussiness abilities demonstrated by the children to buy stuff and negotiate for very good prices! Guides were impressed how good they were!
- Many kids’ attitude to think first in their parents, sisters, brothers before themselves at the moment of buying souvenirs!
- Ice cream for everybody! We really enjoyed it!
- Two super Hulks who were crossed by a car that was broken down with people trying to push it. Well, without noticing we suddenly saw Daniel and Steeve helping them, pushing really hard! Then, Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr voilâ! The car started to run on the road again! Good muscles super dads!
DAY 5: HORSES + RANCH + PARENTS’ LETTERS
Nothing can be compared with the calm of the green mountains, the smell of grass, eucalyptus and camp fire everywhere we pass in our autobus.
We got at 5:45 morning to be ready at 7:00. A new guide, specialist in mountain climbing came to pick us up and we were two hours on the road, one hour by highway and another hour through an open rocky road where Annabelle had a bad moment with lot of transport nausea.
Finally, we arrived to La Hacienda El Porvenir, an old kind of fancy ranch located at the land of the volcanoes where Cotopaxi volcano is located. There, students received their Machai; a rustic small bedroom stick one another that shows how some ecuadorian tribes slept. They look like like small huts made of paille, heated with chimneys in every space of the house. They had two low beds where everyone had a friend to sleep with.
Our fist plan was a horse riding session of 3 hours and a half. The Hacienda provided the traditional costume wore by “Chacras”, in our common language “ ecuadorian cowboys”. Then, a horse was given to us. Some kids were kind of afraid at the beginning, but after one hour, optimistic attitude was shown in the environment and we finished it with happy faces everywhere. Charlie and Manon were so happy telling me how they had defeated their fear!
Beautiful landscapes everywhere we went! The only problem, the weather was cold and windy, so everyone finished the activity with black faces and red itchy eyes because of the dirt that was blown along the way.
At lunch, we had a delicious and healthy lunch to eat: quinoa soup with fresh truite from the area, with white carrots and steam cooked vegetables. But, Alecia, Alexis, Manon and Livia did not eat at all because they did not like it. Sadly, they ate just a little bit. We did not have any extra option to choose.
In the afternoon, students had two free hours. They played table games, went to see the animals and took a walk around the ranch.
For dinner, they had spaghetti with ground beef natural sauce. They ate very good, but Alexis missed her dinner because he had a stomachache and nausea, so I gave him a chamomile with anis tea to help him relieve his pain, he went to bed right away and 30 minutes later he was feeling ok. Everyone else ate their pasta! So I was relieved kids have eaten something.
Finally, we concluded our day with one of the most emotional activities of the trip: reading the parents’ letters. This year I just prepared a speech about being grateful for everything your kids have, a good life, parents that get worried about them and want all the best for them. I emphasized on the fact of sharing part of our trip with poor children who are happy in an environment that does not provide them everything a kid deserves. Then, I reminded them the importance of appreciate everything parents do for them and I gave each one the letter of their parents.
Kids started to read and cry, they miss you and they loved every one of your words! Laurie got very sensitive when I said it was Father’s Day, she thought a lot about his father! Émile was crying and then he remembered today was her sister’s birthday and he started to cry even more... Swahili and Manon did not cry at all, but they were so grateful of having their letters! Guillaume did not want to read the letter, he wanted to be alone, but I told him not to worry if he wanted to cry! Then, he read his letter, cried and said he had loved his letter! Annabelle started to cry since the moment she received her letters (all her family wrote her) . Corallie was crying and so happy of seeing memories of her first trip with her parents! Alecia and Charlie cried and laughed at times, they said their parents had wroten them funny things, too. Then we said good night and they went to sleep 💤
I personally took Alexis" letter to his bed. He was awake and he was feeling very well and I told him I had a surprise for him. He stayed at his bed reading his letter.
How surprising and touching is to know the power of words! Thanks for yours, dear parents! Your kids felt your love and they missed you one more time!
One of the things about distance is to have the chance of missing your love ones, to appreciate more what they do for you, and to reaffirm our love for our parents.
We got at 5:45 morning to be ready at 7:00. A new guide, specialist in mountain climbing came to pick us up and we were two hours on the road, one hour by highway and another hour through an open rocky road where Annabelle had a bad moment with lot of transport nausea.
Finally, we arrived to La Hacienda El Porvenir, an old kind of fancy ranch located at the land of the volcanoes where Cotopaxi volcano is located. There, students received their Machai; a rustic small bedroom stick one another that shows how some ecuadorian tribes slept. They look like like small huts made of paille, heated with chimneys in every space of the house. They had two low beds where everyone had a friend to sleep with.
Our fist plan was a horse riding session of 3 hours and a half. The Hacienda provided the traditional costume wore by “Chacras”, in our common language “ ecuadorian cowboys”. Then, a horse was given to us. Some kids were kind of afraid at the beginning, but after one hour, optimistic attitude was shown in the environment and we finished it with happy faces everywhere. Charlie and Manon were so happy telling me how they had defeated their fear!
Beautiful landscapes everywhere we went! The only problem, the weather was cold and windy, so everyone finished the activity with black faces and red itchy eyes because of the dirt that was blown along the way.
At lunch, we had a delicious and healthy lunch to eat: quinoa soup with fresh truite from the area, with white carrots and steam cooked vegetables. But, Alecia, Alexis, Manon and Livia did not eat at all because they did not like it. Sadly, they ate just a little bit. We did not have any extra option to choose.
In the afternoon, students had two free hours. They played table games, went to see the animals and took a walk around the ranch.
For dinner, they had spaghetti with ground beef natural sauce. They ate very good, but Alexis missed her dinner because he had a stomachache and nausea, so I gave him a chamomile with anis tea to help him relieve his pain, he went to bed right away and 30 minutes later he was feeling ok. Everyone else ate their pasta! So I was relieved kids have eaten something.
Finally, we concluded our day with one of the most emotional activities of the trip: reading the parents’ letters. This year I just prepared a speech about being grateful for everything your kids have, a good life, parents that get worried about them and want all the best for them. I emphasized on the fact of sharing part of our trip with poor children who are happy in an environment that does not provide them everything a kid deserves. Then, I reminded them the importance of appreciate everything parents do for them and I gave each one the letter of their parents.
Kids started to read and cry, they miss you and they loved every one of your words! Laurie got very sensitive when I said it was Father’s Day, she thought a lot about his father! Émile was crying and then he remembered today was her sister’s birthday and he started to cry even more... Swahili and Manon did not cry at all, but they were so grateful of having their letters! Guillaume did not want to read the letter, he wanted to be alone, but I told him not to worry if he wanted to cry! Then, he read his letter, cried and said he had loved his letter! Annabelle started to cry since the moment she received her letters (all her family wrote her) . Corallie was crying and so happy of seeing memories of her first trip with her parents! Alecia and Charlie cried and laughed at times, they said their parents had wroten them funny things, too. Then we said good night and they went to sleep 💤
I personally took Alexis" letter to his bed. He was awake and he was feeling very well and I told him I had a surprise for him. He stayed at his bed reading his letter.
How surprising and touching is to know the power of words! Thanks for yours, dear parents! Your kids felt your love and they missed you one more time!
One of the things about distance is to have the chance of missing your love ones, to appreciate more what they do for you, and to reaffirm our love for our parents.
Day 6: Volcano and Park Cotopaxi
One of those moments where tears, dealing with bad weather conditions, headaches, and negative attitude about achieving a goal got all together to measure our mental and physical strength.
One of those moments where you defeat everything and your feel such a pride of having made an effort! WE DID IT!
This morning, we woke up at 7:30. They were so happy telling me how original their bedrooms Machai were! They slept very well. We had great food for breakfast: Orangina juice, a plate with Papaya, natural yogurth and granola on it, most of the kids did not eat the fruit. Then, we had the choice of Banana pancakes, French toast or Eggs. All the kids ordered Pancakes, bread and hot chocolate.
Today, our plan was the climbing of Cotopaxi; a snow-capped volcano which underfoot it's reddish-brown gravel mixed with black and grey. It is 5897 meters tall. It is the highest volcano of Equator and the park is the biggest park of the country and the most visited in South America. For tourists is a "must-do-it", the whole area of the volcano is breathless.
When, we looked through the window we could see weather was cold. We had a blue sky and gresil was falling down. The good thing was that our montain guide warned us about the weather, too. He said we would try and then we would make the decision according to the condition of the mountain. Well, we got on an autocar to drive one hour to the parking lot of the volcano. Then, we arrived and came out of the bus, and "Oh my gosh!!!!" wind was blowing with such a power, along with a high quantity gresil falling in a perpendicular way hitting our faces. Some kids started right away with their negative attitude with all kind of expressions: "It is horrible", "I can not do it" "how long do we have to walk" "I want to stay"... Then, we encourage them to try, many groups of tourists were going up and some others going down, letting us to know, it was bad but it was worthy.
We had two mountain guides that evaluated the situation and told us we would be able to go up, slowly. For sure we would be at our point (4870 mts) in about one hour and a half. Along with the kids, we set up our challenge "Lets do it!" said most of them, so we started it!
Johny (guide) Daniel and Steeve headed the walk, in the middle Andrés with some kids, Christian and me in the back.
I stayed at the back of the group to help those ones who were last. Swahili, Manon, Annabelle, Charlie and Livia started to feel the attitude, so I gave half of the pill for the altitude right away, Manon started to cry telling me she did not want to do it, but finally I convinced her to do her best, to go slow. I was with them until the end! Pulling them with my arms to help them, but at some point I could not do it anymore. I were at their side with my praises "Lets go girls! We can do it! I started to describe the possible symptoms they would be feeling along the way, how to breath, how to walk! At the last part of our way, Johny came to help Swahili and Manon, and Christian help them, too. We arrived super tired, but with a great sense of satisfaction.
We got into the refuge where the rest of the group was waiting for us, happy and tired telling me they had do it!
Then, we descended the mountain, each at our own pace with only cold as a difficulty! We got at our bus 20 minutes later! By then, students had just positive comments and I had a great relieve in my soul because of the accomplishment we made.
Then, we said "Good bye" to the mountain. I grew up walking in the mountains in Colombia, and one things I learned, it was that people needed to say Thanks to the mountain for allowing us to climb it. Ecuadorians have the same tradition, so I taught them how to do it. Each kid touched the ground and had a little conversation with our friend Cotopaxi.
Then, we drove to a near pic nic area, we had some lunch and we came back to our hotel at 4:30 pm. I thought students would have liked to sleep in the bus, but they sang all way long!
Hightlights of the Day
One of those moments where you defeat everything and your feel such a pride of having made an effort! WE DID IT!
This morning, we woke up at 7:30. They were so happy telling me how original their bedrooms Machai were! They slept very well. We had great food for breakfast: Orangina juice, a plate with Papaya, natural yogurth and granola on it, most of the kids did not eat the fruit. Then, we had the choice of Banana pancakes, French toast or Eggs. All the kids ordered Pancakes, bread and hot chocolate.
Today, our plan was the climbing of Cotopaxi; a snow-capped volcano which underfoot it's reddish-brown gravel mixed with black and grey. It is 5897 meters tall. It is the highest volcano of Equator and the park is the biggest park of the country and the most visited in South America. For tourists is a "must-do-it", the whole area of the volcano is breathless.
When, we looked through the window we could see weather was cold. We had a blue sky and gresil was falling down. The good thing was that our montain guide warned us about the weather, too. He said we would try and then we would make the decision according to the condition of the mountain. Well, we got on an autocar to drive one hour to the parking lot of the volcano. Then, we arrived and came out of the bus, and "Oh my gosh!!!!" wind was blowing with such a power, along with a high quantity gresil falling in a perpendicular way hitting our faces. Some kids started right away with their negative attitude with all kind of expressions: "It is horrible", "I can not do it" "how long do we have to walk" "I want to stay"... Then, we encourage them to try, many groups of tourists were going up and some others going down, letting us to know, it was bad but it was worthy.
We had two mountain guides that evaluated the situation and told us we would be able to go up, slowly. For sure we would be at our point (4870 mts) in about one hour and a half. Along with the kids, we set up our challenge "Lets do it!" said most of them, so we started it!
Johny (guide) Daniel and Steeve headed the walk, in the middle Andrés with some kids, Christian and me in the back.
I stayed at the back of the group to help those ones who were last. Swahili, Manon, Annabelle, Charlie and Livia started to feel the attitude, so I gave half of the pill for the altitude right away, Manon started to cry telling me she did not want to do it, but finally I convinced her to do her best, to go slow. I was with them until the end! Pulling them with my arms to help them, but at some point I could not do it anymore. I were at their side with my praises "Lets go girls! We can do it! I started to describe the possible symptoms they would be feeling along the way, how to breath, how to walk! At the last part of our way, Johny came to help Swahili and Manon, and Christian help them, too. We arrived super tired, but with a great sense of satisfaction.
We got into the refuge where the rest of the group was waiting for us, happy and tired telling me they had do it!
Then, we descended the mountain, each at our own pace with only cold as a difficulty! We got at our bus 20 minutes later! By then, students had just positive comments and I had a great relieve in my soul because of the accomplishment we made.
Then, we said "Good bye" to the mountain. I grew up walking in the mountains in Colombia, and one things I learned, it was that people needed to say Thanks to the mountain for allowing us to climb it. Ecuadorians have the same tradition, so I taught them how to do it. Each kid touched the ground and had a little conversation with our friend Cotopaxi.
Then, we drove to a near pic nic area, we had some lunch and we came back to our hotel at 4:30 pm. I thought students would have liked to sleep in the bus, but they sang all way long!
Hightlights of the Day
- Bravo for the effort to everyone! It was hard! But we did it! 1 hour and 20 minutes! What a record plus this harsh condition!
- Bravo to Guillaume, Alexis, Emile, Swahili, Livia, Kassandra, Charlie for all their equipment for mountain climbing!
- Bravo Annabelle, Charlie, Manon, Swahili, Livia, Corallie and Kassandra for doing their best to get at the refuge even when they did not want to do the activity!
- Bravo to Laurie who was suffering in silence, who did not complaint at all, who dealed with her own difficulties! What a positive attitude my dear one!
- Special thanks to Christian Filion for the gloves and hat for some kids. Unfortunately, they were kids that forgot their warm clothes in Canada! Yes, after all the preparation, all the times I told them it would be cold, four girls did not have any gloves, hats, a warm jacket to wear. According to them, they knew, but they just forgot! I felt really sad and fustrated because you can not imagine how many times I talked about this day in our preparatory meetings for the trip.
- Our pace was steady. We stopped every five or so minutes to check we're all keeping up and that nobody was too affected by the altitude.
- How lucky parents are this year of being informed about what their kids are doing at every moment! Last years, parents needed to wait until the following day to know about it, and kids were allowed to call just one day. Accompanying parents are doing a super job posting pictures and messages all day long on the web. Thanks so much Steeve, Daniel and Christian!
- The positive energy of the kids after having a harsh time at the mountain.
Day 7: Papallacta Hot Springs + Walk for the city + Charlie's Birthday Party
"Total relaxation time in the middle of the mountains" was the motivational phrase of the day!
We woke up at 6:30 am with a Birthday tune on the speaker, everybody got up and went right away to Charlie"s bedroom to hug her for her Birthday! She was so happy receiving everybody"s good wishes!
We left our hotel about 7:40 am, we spent two hours in the bus that drove us to a place called Papallacta.
Papallacta is a very small town hidden in the Andes, in which very little can be done other than visiting the legendary Papallacta Hot Springs that channels the hot water that flows naturally from the neighboring volcanoes and makes it reach artificial pools were guests can dive. The climate of Papallacta tends to be cold and rainy, so it is particularly pleasant to spend a day appreciating the cold but beautiful landscape from the heat of these hot springs.
We spent 2 hours and a half enjoying two big pools. One was kind of warm, and the another one was really hot. Everybody loved that plan! They relaxed completely in this place!
At lunch, they had a super delightful surprise: hamburger with french fries. They were so happy eating them!
In the afternoon, we arrived to our hotel, changed our clothes and get ready for a walk in the neighborhood where the hotel is located. We observed the streets, the people, the traffic, the public transportation appereance! I hope students can give a whole opinion or idea about how Quito really is. Then, students arrived to the dance school where they took salsa classes. Meanwhile, I took Charlie to the beauty salon where they washed their hair, massaged her scalp and comb her hair. How lucky she was! She was beautiful and ready for the party!
I had prepared a party to her that included a delicious cake with a special ecuadorian decoration, with a legend and a bicycle in pate and a simple decoration of the place, strawberries with cream. She was so happy! We sang her "Happy Birthday", we danced, laughed and had a wonderful time together.
Finally, we got to the hotel at 9:30 pm, everybody went to sleep because they were tired. And they were kind of sad because tomorrow is their last day of the trip! They were so surprised about how time passed so fast!
We woke up at 6:30 am with a Birthday tune on the speaker, everybody got up and went right away to Charlie"s bedroom to hug her for her Birthday! She was so happy receiving everybody"s good wishes!
We left our hotel about 7:40 am, we spent two hours in the bus that drove us to a place called Papallacta.
Papallacta is a very small town hidden in the Andes, in which very little can be done other than visiting the legendary Papallacta Hot Springs that channels the hot water that flows naturally from the neighboring volcanoes and makes it reach artificial pools were guests can dive. The climate of Papallacta tends to be cold and rainy, so it is particularly pleasant to spend a day appreciating the cold but beautiful landscape from the heat of these hot springs.
We spent 2 hours and a half enjoying two big pools. One was kind of warm, and the another one was really hot. Everybody loved that plan! They relaxed completely in this place!
At lunch, they had a super delightful surprise: hamburger with french fries. They were so happy eating them!
In the afternoon, we arrived to our hotel, changed our clothes and get ready for a walk in the neighborhood where the hotel is located. We observed the streets, the people, the traffic, the public transportation appereance! I hope students can give a whole opinion or idea about how Quito really is. Then, students arrived to the dance school where they took salsa classes. Meanwhile, I took Charlie to the beauty salon where they washed their hair, massaged her scalp and comb her hair. How lucky she was! She was beautiful and ready for the party!
I had prepared a party to her that included a delicious cake with a special ecuadorian decoration, with a legend and a bicycle in pate and a simple decoration of the place, strawberries with cream. She was so happy! We sang her "Happy Birthday", we danced, laughed and had a wonderful time together.
Finally, we got to the hotel at 9:30 pm, everybody went to sleep because they were tired. And they were kind of sad because tomorrow is their last day of the trip! They were so surprised about how time passed so fast!