Well it had to come to an end eventually, I'm currently writing this post in Guayaquil Airport, Ecuador while I wait for my connecting flight home. Helen wrote the second part of this post a few weeks back and I was supposed to send post it a while back also, so some things are a little out of date. We've both had an amazing time in Ecuador. If anyone is interested in learning Spanish, I would definitely recommend Cuenca, Ecuador. It's a beautiful old city surrounded by great countryside and mountains. There are also a lot of spanish schools in the city, we went to Amauta Fundacion and I can't recommend it enough.
Here is the post Helen wrote a few weeks back...
Another two months have passed, and we are still in Cuenca, and there is quite a lot to update on. Carnaval was great fun here. It was a celebration that lasted for about 4 days, and every day we got wet! Gringos and girls are especially targeted, and one day as we were walking back from the market, I (Helen) was chased by 4 men with buckets. They managed to catch me and poured all the buckets of water over my head! I was completely drenched! We spent a few days over Carnaval in the country with friends, pictures can be seen here. We also spent a fun morning driving round the streets of Cuenca armed with water balloons and throwing them at whoever took our fancy. Revenge was sweet!
Our visas turned out to be very easy to sort out. We were able to get student visas, organised through the Spanish school we’re attending. The visas cost $130, and allowed us another 12 months here, with multiple entry and exits. We also received student cards for Cuenca, which allow us to get into many places at the prices Ecuadorians pay. Quite a bonus, as the difference between the two prices is sometimes fairly substantial.
We are still taking Spanish lessons, and are both pretty proficient now, although more practice is certainly needed! We are now in our fourth home in Cuenca! After staying in a beautiful apartment in the centre of the city for 6 weeks or so, we decided to try living with a host family here. We rent a room in their house, and the idea was that we would improve our Spanish through being more immersed in the language. Unfortunately it hasn’t worked out quite as well as we’d hoped, since the family aren’t in the house too often.
Our time here is running out now, we are both due to return to the UK in 3 weeks time. In the last few weeks, we have planned a trip to the coast and a weekend trip to a town 5 hours south of Cuenca called Vilcabamba. We have both really fallen in love with Ecuador, and especially Cuenca. There is so much that we will miss from here...the price of food (4 avocados for a dollar!), the markets, the people, the clowns who dress up and juggle in front of lines of stopped traffic for money, the strange and affectionate nicknames people have for each other – gordita (fatty), viejita (oldy) just two examples, the bakeries with their delicious pastries and cakes, and of course the friends we have made here and the local people, who love to wear bright colours and Panama hats (and are so protective of them that when it rains they put plastic bags over their hats, while still wearing them), who are friendly and funny, and even sometimes a little bit sly.
Bye Ecuador!
England, here we come.
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