week 5 of Ecuador

As much as I love blogging.. sometimes its so hard (and annoying) to continually document your life. I love living my life and taking photos while I do it...but sometimes I just dont make time to actually post it all..and then it piles up, and then I get annoyed that I have SO much to remember/blog, etc. etc.
Thats whats going through my mind right now.. but you probably dont want to hear that. I´ll just suck it up, and  update on Week 5 of Ecuador

W returned from Cuenca late Tuesday night..  so our 5th week was kind of short and kind of uneventful..
Wednesday: After work we went to visit Old Quito again...  with Caro and some of her friends. We ate at this resturant that had an amazing view of the city. After our first trip there, we were told that the city is more beautiful at night.. agreed! Once again my pictures from my point & shoot.. doesnt do the real view justice. But enjoy anyhow.

Friday: We went to go see Eclipse. (Special thanks to Sharada.. she did NOT want to see this movie, but she came with me anyway!) So in Ecuadorian movie theaters.. you pick where you want to sit. When it was our turn to buy our tickets/pick our seats.. the only seats left where in the very first row. AKA I would have had to strain my neck as I watched Bella, Edward, and Jacob on screen. So we didnt buy the seats and stepped out of line.... then two seconds later a super nice Ecuadorian girl came up to us and asked if we wanted to buy the tickets Eclipse tickets she just bought, because she didnt want to see it anymore! I asked her where the seats were and she said "mas atras" (aka in the BACK). I gladly accepted!
As for what I thought of the movie.. I wasnt a HUGE fan of it. I didnt think it was very much like the book at all.. and I´m a big fan of the books, so I wasnt too pleased. My friend Sarah says its because I didnt see it with her. She´s probably right! hehe. 
Saturday : We ventured off to Otovalo... a town that has a HUGE market where you can get lost for hours.. look at a ton of Ecuadorian handmade products (alpaca blankets, hammocks, paintings, purses, etc. etc). We left early in the morning, spent the WHOLE day there, and finished all of our soveunir shopping for our friends & family! Oh how I love shopping!!
I didnt bring my camera because Lonely Planet said pickpocketing is popular there. I wish I did though, as I saw several people with huge SLR camers.. but I did bring the small Flip camera (that the CARE USA office lent us) and got to take one video of this guy chopping the heck out of a coconut.

I also just realized that with this flip camera.. you´re able to freeze the video for a picture. So here´s a small/not so great picture of a tiny section of the market

Sunday: We visted the Mitdad del Mundo. (Middle of the World). For those of you who don´t know.. Ecuador is one of the countries that lies on the Equator.. and they are proud of it!  They built a huge monument to show it off. Surrounding the monument you can find.. live music, resturants, sovunier shops and tons & tons of tourists/Ecuadorian familes out for a Sunday visit.

 SERIOUSLY though.. how amazing is the Ecuadorian sky?

 When a stranger is the only person you have to take your photo.. you get what you get.

The sun kind of ruined this picture..

Favorite

My whole body.. in two different hemispheres. 

Then I had the bright idea to try and accomplish a jumping picture. Why? Because then my body would be in the middle of the world AND the middle of the air, of course! The only problem.. I´m not quite used to the continuous shot on my point and shoot (like I am with my SLR that is back in the states). So there were many, many attempts..

A candid and slightly embarassing photo of me in between my jumping attempts. (PS- Dulc, does that hand remind you of anything? hehe)

This is my favorite, when my shoe fell off..

And finally...

Then I wanted to climb the monument for a picture.. but as soon as I started a security woman came out and yelled at me. Heres some pictures of my failed attempt..

So we went to the other side (where there no people/securty guard) and quickly snapped some photos.. muhahaha. 

Then we tried to go & find the "real" middle of the world (apparently the exact coordinates of 0º Longitude and 0º Latitude is not where the monument is.. they only built it there because there was more space I guess.) But it was closed.. so we looked at a few stores and headed home!