Kayaking on Quilotoa

A few weekends ago we went to Quilotoa, which is this breathtaking lake inside a caldera from a volcano. It took about 4 hours to go there by bus, so it was a pretty long day trip but so worth it! 

 I mean, look at this. Anyway, we walked all the way down so we could go kayaking on the lake. 

It was just us 4 on the trip, from Germany, Denmark and Ecuador. 

On the way back up from the lake, it was quite exhausting. From altitude but also just because it was a long way up hill. 

When we finally got back up, we found out there was no more busses going to Quito (not very well planned), but we got a lift with some people who lived there luckily 😀

My Volunteer Projects

Time to write something about my project as a volunteer. I am working as a volunteer at the organization Patronato San Jose which has different departments around Quito. I work in Casa de los Niñez, Casa Metro Jovenes and Circo de Luz. Normally you just have one project but because I did not feel like I could help a lot at my main project Casa Metro Jovenes, I tried to help in other projects as well, where they needed even more help. So these are the 3 projects I am working at: 

Casa de los Niñez

In this project we work with children whose parents work on the street and we provide food, education, games etc. for the children. I mostly work with the small ones who are 4-5 years old but it depends on the day. All the children are really cute but they can be difficult to handle sometimes especially when I also have to speak in Spanish while trying to stop their fights. I also work as a dance teacher for all children, because every Friday all 100-200 children dance together and I tried to teach them some hip hop. I wish I could share some photos of me and all the children, so you could see cute they are.

Casa Metro Jovenes

This project is a house for young people that offers different kinds of workshops like English, Sports and Arts. Here I help with the English classes and anything else they need help with, but most of them are older than me and know how to control themselves unlike the children, so there is not as much to help with as at Casa de los Niñez :) 

Circo de Luz

The organization also offer a circus for young people. Here they learn how to do acrobatics, lifts, juggling and many more circus tricks. It’s mainly for the young people who is not going to school and  I just help where I can since I’m not the biggest circus artist, the only thing I can do is some acrobatics and dancing. In the circus I also learn a lot of tricks myself and it is always very fun. 

Day trip to Pichincha

First weekend in Ecuador and the weekend before I started my project as a volunteer. We woke up at 6 am to go to the volcano Pichincha, where we went with the Teleferico up the mountains. 

In the morning it was pretty foggy so we couldn’t see anything. But later we could see all of the capital Quito and it was amazing.

I went together with the other volunteers from Germany and Denmark. Most of them are here for a whole year while I am only here for 6 weeks.

In the end the altitude was 4400 m and I could feel that it only was my 3rd day in this altitude compared to the other volunteers who has been here 2 weeks more. 

Photo credit: Marie Lütjen ❤️

Arrivel in Quito

I arrived to Quito in Ecuador 22 January 2020 and this is the view from my room in my host family.  The first couple of days have been amazing and very busy. First day was spent in the office of my organisation VASE with introduction and the same evening we went to a Salsa Club. Those who know me, know that I love dancing and it was incredible how everyone was so good at dancing salsa and bachata too. I think I already found my favorite place in Quito.

There is a lot of other volunteers who just arrived to Ecuador like me and they are all super nice. We spent one of the first days on sightseeing in the historic center of Quito, where we visited many places including the church "La Basilica".