Laguna Cuicocha

Isn´t this place beautiful? Too bad it was a bit cloudy today. We weren´t able to see the volcano Cotacachi but the water was crystal clear. I will post my pictures soon. This one is from google. Since it is a lagoon in the crater of a volcano there are no fish in the water, just algae and lots of birds. There was a hotel on the smaller island but there was a fire so it was abandoned. Also, the name Cuicocha comes from the fact that there are wild cuy (guinea pigs) in the area. Haha, I wish we could´ve seen some wild guinea pigs. That would´ve been fantastic! I have yet to try cuy but I am sure I will get the chance at some point while I am here in the campo.

So there are two ways you can see Cuicocha, by foot or by boat. Lindsay and I chose boat. You can hike around the entire lagoon. Maybe I will do it at some point before I leave. It would be a good warm up for this summer. The boat ride was fun though. There are birds that look like black ducks with a little orange or white patch above their beaks. They are called Andean Coots. Cool huh?

We took a taxi back to La Calera and it is quite apparent that the weekends are all about sports here. The soccer field had a game going on and everyone was there watching. I showed Lindsay around and we walked back to Cotacachi. I continued my search for a bike and in the process I witnessed a parade for the Reina de Cotacachi. It was really cool! I wish I had had my camera with me. Oh well. On the walk back to La Calera I met a girl named Maria who was 15 years old. After getting to know each other a bit I learned that she works at a hotel and has a 6 month old son named Pedro Jose. She has no siblings and she doesn´t acknowledge her father anymore because he was violent and I believe a drunk. Que triste. Unfortunately, stories like hers are not uncommon in the campo. Girls get pregnant here at really young ages and since there isn´t any sex ed or contraception anywhere, there has been little in improving the statistics. Poor girls. I had a conversation with Ines the other night about girls. She said that if she has another kid she would like a boy because they are easier to raise and they can´t get pregnant. Machismo runs wild here and guys still have the privilege of not having to take responsibility for their actions. Que pena. There have been some improvements in Otavalo. Lindsay is working with an organization that works with family planning and sex education. The biggest problem is that the communities are catholic for the most part so sex education is out of the question. It is just assumed that kids won´t have sex until they are married...yeah right.

Speaking of church, I went to church last night with Ines, Patricio and Daniel (some boys from the area). There was music and a three hour service in Kichwa. I wish I understood Kichwa. I´m definitely trying to learn some while I am here. Oh man, the music at one point was so bad though. The guitar was way out of tune and I could tell from the look on the pastor´s face that he knew it was bad. Haha, the people sang loud and proud anyway.

This place is getting busy so I should probably get off and let others use the internet.