Ecuador y más allá: More Amazon pics and weekly update

First, some country news- Rafael Correa won the election [surprise surprise] and will be president for another term. He won over 50% of the votes and there were 6 or 7 other candidates that ran. It's crazy to think that so many people ran for office and it really split the votes. Funny fact- In other countries [Ecuador] it is perfectly legal for the government to ban drinking for 72 hours over the election weekend so no one will be intoxicated while voting. Yeah, that happened. Also, it is mandatory by law that everyone 18 and older must vote. Since not everyone actually cares to vote, my Ecuadorian friend told me that many campaigns buy votes.

My identity has been shaken. I have begun to have cravings for tilapia, jugo de tomate de arbol [tree tomato juice] and tomato soup. My whole life I have hated tomatoes and fish. Now I like it- WHO AM I?

For my ecology project, I am spending 10 hours at three different rivers with my partner. We are assessing the impact of humans on the abundance of bird species. The river we went to this past weekend was called Rio [River] Chiche. It is one of the most contaminated river because the city dumps its waste water into it. The next part of the story is why I'm so happy that I am in a country with basically no rules. We drove into the water treatment plant and asked one of the workers there if we could get a sample of the waste water that they pump back into the river. He lets us and we went on our merry way. In America, there would be guards out front and there is NO WAY the company would let dumb college kids take samples to prove there is a lot of contamination in the river. I have realized that there are SO MANY rules in the US and everyone is afraid of being sued.

I went to El Museo de la Ciudad [The Museum of the City] this past weekend because I have to right a paper on it for my Ecuadorian culture class. The museum takes you through different exhibits that explain the history of how Quito became Quito. It was a really awesome museum and I learned a lot! A few exhibits were sad that showed the slaughter of the indigenous people by the Spaniards.It's a part of their history that not many people talk about. Sounds a lot like the US, right? Only difference is, the indigenous people here didn't get casinos.

There were also no rules at this museum [except no flash photography]. There were no guards around anywhere so I could have stolen stuff [if I was a horrible person]. I guess they just have more trust for people, which was a bit refreshing. I really liked the art that they had hung up in the hallways. After the museum, we went into a BEAUTIFUL church that was covered with gold. It was the most beautiful church I've ever seen. I'll post pictures of that later.