There is so much to tell! We left off on the second day in Quito. Friday we had our second class with Anabel, the language seems easy, but still there is so much to remember!! I'm afraid our brains are getting a bit old to absorb the info easily. We didn't do much Friday night (were missing our dinners with Jurate and Remis...), stayed at home and made traditional Ecuadorian dinner with Edit. We made tortillas from potatoes and cheese, then fried them in the pan and ate these delicious little "pancakes" with onion and peanut sauce (surprisingly I liked the peanut sauce, as you know, I usually can't stand peanuts in my food...) over an egg sunny side up. I have to say Ecuadorian food reminds me a little bit of Lithuanian food: lots of potatoes, filling and lots of it! :) In general, people do eat a lot of fruit here, especially in the mornings, which delights us to no end. Just Friday we bought five different fruit (one of each kind) to just try, some were absolutely delicious, others not so much :). One of the fruit helps regulate digestive system, you know what I mean :). Another really cool thing about mornings is fresh juice! They make it from absolutely everything, just this morning we had berry juice; can't say exactly what berry, they call it either raspberry or blackberry, but apparently it's something in between. In addition, there are so many kinds of pastries!! At school they always have fresh buns (light white bread with either sugar, extra egg yolks or plain) that you can enjoy during a break with coffee or herbal tea (they use real herbs, that are really good!).
Saturday Ainius had to work all day on reviewer comments for his book, so I got a chance to spend most of the day alone with Edith. After breakfast we went to her brother's car shop (Fernando is a mechanic), it took us 2.5 hours to walk there! Quito is really long - 40km and most of it is situated along side the mountains. The first thing we noticed right off the bat is pollution. The buses are spitting black fumes and you can tell the cars have no emission standards. Also, there are no real skyscrapers, so the city doesn't feel like a bit metropolis, most of the buildings are about 2-3 stories tall. Anyway, it was really nice to go for a walk with Edith and meet some of her family. Ecuadorians are really warm people that highly value their families which are very closely knit. They also show immense respect to their elders.
Once we got to her brother's shop, we had to wait for her brother to put a new radio/CD player in her car and of course it took longer than expected. Many things here take longer than expected, so I guess it's the best not to have any expectations! I like this laid back culture: anything goes :). While waiting we decided to get some lunch and it was an opportunity to try some food from a street vendor. We got a dish that I can't remember what they call it, but it was baked/fried pork with extra crunchy skin with potato tortillas and big kernels of corn (maiz). I have to say, it was absolutely delicious!!! My favorite part was crunchy skin (it's time for my American friends to say: ewwww :)).
Since Ecuador is right on the equator, the sun rises and sets exactly at the same time every day: at 6 it's up and at 6:30 it's down, no exceptions! Also, the weather seems to be also pretty much the same all year round: around 50-60F in the mornings, 65-75F (might get to 80F) during the day and about 40-50F at night. It's not the tropics I was hoping for... However, it makes sense that it's not so warm here since Quito is the second highest capital in the world (after La Paz, I believe).
Sunday, we went to visit one of their highest active volcanoes Cotopaxi in the national park of Cotopaxi. It was drizzling in Quito as we set out to visit the volcano. Once we got there, the weather was absolutely miserable! The wind was blowing horizontally with little ice crystals with such force that we got soaked in 10 minutes... Also, I couldn't climb up... I think I have altitude problems: I was short of breath, nauseous and lightheaded, couldn't walk up longer than 20 minutes... Felt like a complete woos... especially when Ainius didn't feel a thing and probably could have run up the mountain with no problems. Oh well, we just hung out by the bus with others who also were experiencing altitude problems. The views were amazing even from where we were, so we didn't miss much. Once we got home, Carlos and Edith came back with a huge pot of Edith mother's soup (with potatoes, meat, pasta and beans), which was really good! To top things off, Carlos played some of his favorite music, as he says it's his only addiction :).
Tomorrow more Spanish classes and hopefully we'll go for a walk in the old part of Quito.
Laisvas vertimas. Penktadieni vakare kartu su Edith ir Carlos kepeme tradicinius ekvadorietiskus blynelius. Jie gaminami su trintomis virtomis bulvemis ir svieziu suriu. Viskas sumaisoma, padaromi blyneliai, o po to jie pakepami. Ant blynu uzpilamas zemes riesutu padazas su svogunais. Jurate paprastai nemegsta tokiu "taivanietisku" padazu, bet si karta jai labai patiko. Beje, cia chebra valgo labai daug vaisiu, ypac pusryciams. O mums ju tik paduok. I mokykla kiekviena diena atveza svieziu bandeliu, tai per pertraukas raminame skrandzius.

Sestadieni Ainius visa diena darbavosi prie knygos projekto, o Jurate tuo tarpu bludino po miesta su Edith. Tiksliau Edith nusivede Jurate pas savo broli. Vaikis - mechanikas. Kadangi cia chebra atsipute, tai nenuostabu, kad ir sesei tenka laukti, kol brolis pataisys masina. Tuo tarpu mergikes isalko ir nusprende uzkasti. Na mesa ir kukuruzais lietuviu nenustebinsi, bet kepta kiaules oda valgom ne kiekviena diena. Atveze ir man pabandyti. Labai skanu, bet turi buti labai gerai pakepta, nes kitaip neimanoma atsikasti- guma ir tiek.

Kadangi Ekvadoras yra tiesiog ant ekvatoriaus, visus metus dienos (ir nakties) trukme nesikeicia. Saule kyla apie 6 val. ir leidziasi 6:30. Bent jau paskutines kelias dienas temperatura irgi atrodo labai pastovi. Ryte kokia 10-12 laipsniu silumos. Link vakaro susyla iki 20-25, o po to vel zemyn. Kas antra diena nulyja, bet nestipriai. Zodziu tropikais ne nekvepia, bet visu pirma del to, kad Quito yra labai aukstai virs juros lygio.

Sekmadieni vaziavome i ekskursija su grupe studencioku. Dauguma chebros arba is Vokietijos, arba is Amerikes. Nuvareme i Cotopaxi vulkano nacionalini parka. Niurus debesys gero nezadejo, bet vis tikejomes, jog rastas prapus. Atvaziave greitai isitikinome, kad musu viltims neteks issipildyti. Islipus is autobuso mus pasitiko vejas su krusa. Tiesiog "kaifas"! Be to dar 4 kilometru aukstis irgi daro savo itaka. Palipe kokias 10 minuciu ir gerokai suslape, nusprendeme grizti atgal (nors dauguma lipo toliau). Buvo pasiryzes zygiuoti iki galo, bet negi aimanuojancia zmona paliksi... ;) Is esmes nieko daug nepraradome, nes debesys praretejo tik po to, kai visi grizo atgal. Pasidziaugeme graziu vaizdeliu ir susoke i autobusa grizome namolio, kur musu lauke seimininkai su sriubos puodu. Vaizdelis vos ne lietuviskas - viraliukas su mesos kauliukais, bulvemis, pupomis ir pan. Zodziu, parijom kaip uz tevyne!

Siandien (pirmadieni) po pamoku zadejome pasitrinti po senamiesti, bet oras link vakaro subjuro, tai dareme namu darbus. Ech, tas studentiskas gyvenimas! Lyg mums jo kada truko!!

Cotopaxi May 24