Quilatoa is beauuuutiful! - 6/15/09

Well this past week hasn´t been epic or anything, but there certainly has been some highlights. We have been preparing the kids at the school for an open day that will be ocurring on the 18th. People from all over the community, surrounding areas, and a local news team will be coming to Katitawa. The kids will be performing traditional dances, explaining the dry toilets, compost, recycling, and solar panels, talking about the volunteers who come from all over the world, the teachers will be talking about the school, and finally there will be a celebration of the holiday, Intiraymi. Initraymi is the local celebration of the Earth and I think the Sun which comes complete with a traditional ceremony and a sheep roast. THe sheep arrived today and I´m doing my best not to get attached. We were thinking its name should be either cena (spanish for dinner) or lambchop. So practicing for the opening day has bee taking up most of school time. It´s important that it goes well not only to show the community that Katitawa´s more experimental ways are beneficial to the kids, but also, to attract new students. This past weekend 2 volunteers and I went to Quilatoa for the weekend which is a tiny town that has one of the most beautiful lakes situated in the center of an old volcano. It is incredible gorgeous with turquoise blue water and an amazing hike. We hiked down to the lake, hung out for the afternoon, then hiked all the way back up. The altitude kicked my ass, to put it mildly. We stayed at this lovely little hostal right at the park entrance that had wonderful, big, family style meals, a big warm fireplace, and copious amounts of hot chocolate. No one slept well because the altitude is so high up you literally can´t breathe, but it allowed a group of us to get up and watch the sun rise over the crater which was phenomenal. Also, I´ve changed my plans slightly to meet up with my friends Sam and Andrea a little earlier than I planned to leave Salasaka, but what are the chances of a South American rendezvous? It will be really great to see some familiar faces, so for now I´m just going to enjoy the rest of my last week in Salasaka!