Cuarenta, Parades and Volcanoes

Today is my last full day in Riobamba, since I will be leaving tomorrow (Sunday) for Tena! There are supposed to be transportation strikes starting on Monday, which means that some key roads will be blocked, so I am leaving a day earlier than planned. I have emailed my soon-to-be boss in Tena and he wrote back to tell me that I`ll most likely be heading into the jungle on Monday morning!

Spending time in Riobamba has been very nice. On Thursday night I went with my host sister to a Cuban film at the Casa de Cultura...it was old and hard to understand and a bit strange. I found out that they had played Machuca (a chilean film) the night before which would have been much better. Yesterday I did some errands, drew some maps and then last night I played some very good cuarenta games with my host parents and Veronica. Veronica and I won although I have a feeling there will soon be a rematch.

Today I went with my host family to the huge Saturday market which was very cool....my host mother and host grandmother bought lots of fruit. I took some nice videos and pictures throughout the morning, including some lovely pictures of roasted pigs and cut-up chickens.

This afternoon I went with the family to yet another market, then to Helados de Paila for some ice cream (my third time in 4 days). After this we watched a cool parade that included dance groups from various parts of Ecuador, including Tena and La Costa. Now it`s almost sunset and the sky is the clearest it`s been since I arrived....off in the distance Tungurahua is emitting lots of steam and ashes which is pretty cool. Now it`s time to go back to the house and pack for the jungle....my next post will probably be from the Oriente!