Crossing the Colombian/Ecuadorian border

IPIALES ONTO TULCÁN

After 22 hours in a bus ride that took us up mountains, down mountains, around mountains, and into valleys, we finally reached Ipiales, a town that sits a mere 10 minute drive from the Ecuadorian border. During our long trek down Colombia the bus stopped only once in the middle of the day on Sunday so that we could eat lunch. Otherwise it was straight driving from 11pm Saturday night to 8pm Sunday night. The bus ride went from being really really cold at night after the sun set, to really really hot during the day when there was no cloud cover. Because I live in high-altitude Bogotá, sometimes I forget just how close to the equator I live until I enter into the valleys where it is SUPER HOT.
So we were in Ipiales and we trekked over to a super cool cathedral located in a valley over a river, attended Mass, and took a lot of pictures. Above is a picture of the santuary. Many faithful people from around Colombia make pilgrimages to this cathedral, and along the way down into the valley the walls of stone are filled with plaques thanking the virgin for all of the miracles that have happened in her name.

NOW IN ECUADOR

Now we are in Ecuador, in a town called Otavalo about 3 hours from the Colombian border. Although Spanish is spoken in this town, one of the main languages is Quichua, which is an indigenous tongue. People can still be seen walking the streets in traditional clothing, carrying their children or large packs on their backs. Most of these people are fairly short, probably no more than 4ft6in-5ft tall. In the center of the city every day there is a large market where one can buy everything from hand-made sweaters to hand-carved chess sets.

DOLLARS IN ECUADOR

In Ecuador they use the US dollar because it is much more stable than the previous currency, sucres, however the prices are obnoxiously lower than the prices in the US. For example, a 2-hour bus ride from Otavalo to Quito costs only $2, whereas a 2.5-hour bus ride from Minneapolis to Duluth would cost at least $30. A crunch bar in the US costs about $.75 and in Ecuador $.20. Even using this computer in this internet café is only costing me $.01/min. The bills used here are exactly the same as the ones used in the US, but they mint almost all of their own coins. The sackagewea dollar coin is circulated here, but then they have their own 50cent coins, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies with their own images.

CALLY´S BIRTHDAY
Today is Cally´s 25th birthday, by the way. What a way to spend it!!

Tomorrow we head to Quito, about a 2-hour bus ride from here. On the way we will pass ¨la mitad del mundo¨ or the middle of the world (I´m crossing the equator tomorrow).

WE'RE GOING TO PERU IN A BUS

In about an hour Cally and I will be heading out on the roadtrip of our lives. We are making our way down to southern Peru in buses. Our first leg is from Bogotá to Ipiales, a city located on the Colombian/Ecuadorian border. There isn't anything to do in this small town, except see what is supposed to be a super cool cathedral. Our bus leaves at 10:30pm from Bogotá and arrives in Ipiales at 8:30pm tomorrow night....that's right....22 hours. More to follow when we arrive!!!

Tonsillitis?!

Once again I am sick, but this time I have TONSILLITIS! (amigdalitis) Once again bedridden, once again medicated.....

This is like the 6th time I have gotten sick in Bogotá....I hope I can make it through the year without dying!!!

June and 7am don't mix...

OH MY GOODNESS IT'S JUNE AND I STILL HAVE TO GET UP FOR 7AM CLASSES!!!

WHAT'S THE WORLD COMING TO??

LLAMA'AS, LLAMA'AS, LLAMA'AS!

Buying minutes on the street

In Colombia you can have 2 different types of phone plans: pre-paid or post-paid. Post-paid is like having a plan, paying for one month and getting a certain amount of minutes and text messages. But most people my age have a pre-paid plan, where they just buy cards on the street or in stores to recharge their minutes whenever they run out (this is what I have).

However, if you don't have enough money to recharge your card, you can "buy minutes" on the street. Anywhere in Bogotá you can find vendors with cellphones selling minutes to make phone calls. They usually cost between 200-300 pesos per minute (about 12-16 cents).

In front of La Javeriana you can hear the yells every morning..."LLAMADAS LLAMADAS LLAMADAS!" (calls calls calls!) They do this all day every day. I can't imagine having a job like this, but I appreciate the accessibility of this service.

The Earth is shaking.....

First the quakes in China, then here in Colombia, now in Iceland....goes to show how connected we all really are.

LARGE EARTHQUAKE HITS CENTER OF COLOMBIA

EARTHQUAKE AND SHAKY BUILDING STRUCTURES

It was 2:20pm, I was in my pajamas and preparing my lunch. Being a Saturday, I had slept until noon, had no intention of doing anything productive until at least the late afternoon, and wasn't expecting any type of excitement. As I was scooping my pasta-sausage-cheese-corn concoction into my bowl, I started to feel some movement below my feet. "No worries," I thought to myself; our building has a faulty foundation and always moves a little bit when a lot of traffic passes by.

But the trembling of the floor didn't stop. I looked over my shoulder and saw that the door to the kitchen was swinging back and forth, hitting the wall every few seconds. The glasses on the counter were rattling. I could hear voices outside. I looked out the window and saw everything moving back and forth. The ground gave off a deep rumbling noise...."This isn't traffic," I realized, "this is an EARTHQUAKE!"

Now, I've experienced various earthquakes in my life before, including one here in Bogotá, but nothing was like this one. The others lasted just a few seconds, and were over before I realized what was going on. This time, the ground below us shook for nearly a minute, and everyone was racing out of their homes and into the streets. My first reaction was to get below a door frame (thanks Hollywood for the great earthquake emergency lessons), but then I decided that because of the poor structure of our building, it might be a good idea to go outside. After the earthquake was over, our building continued to rock back and forth like a swing.

Shortly afterwards, the news stations announced that the earthquake had a magnitude of 5.5 on the Richter scale, and the epicenter was in the northern part of the state of Meta, which is located south of Bogotá. The closest city to the epicenter was Villavicencio, yet tremors were felt all the way in Medellin and Bucaramanga. The earthquake was felt in all parts of Bogotá, from Bosa in the south to Chia in the north. So far 15 deaths have been reported, and various injuries.


PLATE TECTONICS OF COLOMBIA

Colombia sits on the far northwestern corner of the South American tectonic plate. A small portion of Northern Colombia is cut off by the Caribbean plate, and to the west lies the Nazca plate. Earthquakes are not uncommon in Colombia, but hardly ever does one of any sufficient magnitude hit Bogotá. Pretty neat for someone who grew up in the middle of the strongest tectonic plate on Earth, (the North American plate), where no earthquakes, volcanoes, or mountain forming ever take place.

However, knowing that the structure of my building is crap, and that I live on the 4th floor, if the quake had been any stronger, I would probably have problems getting out. Oh the joys of living on the edge!