Part 2

Our final evening in Ecuador was awesome. We went to see Inti-Illimani perform at the Casa de Cultura with Ricardo's parents, which in and of itself would have been a great end to our time in Quito. They are an amazing Chilean group, very political, and probably one of the most important South American groups in recent history. Eben and I were able to see them perform last summer on Long Island, which was kind of random, but we were excited to see them in South America. The group is made up of about 8 guys, all of whom can play at least 3 instruments. During a single song, one person can start playing the drums, then switch to the pan flute, and do vocals in between. It's interesting to see (and hear) the range of their musical abilities. There's no doubt that they are incredibly talented. I was happy because they played all of my favorite songs, and both the group and the audience were full of energy and passion. It was awesome.

What made Inti's appearance even more special was that there was a very special guest in attendance... the President of Ecuador! When we had first arrived at the Casa de Cultura, we had noticed that there were military police all over the place, which seemed kind of odd. There were even bomb-sniffing dogs pacing the stage for an hour before the concert. We had thought that maybe this was to prevent radical conservatives from attacking Inti (you never know), but alas, it was all for the President. While he was surrounded by Secret Service men, he was really friendly and shook everyone's hand who approached him and didn't seem too concerned about being protected. During the intermission, Eben and I ran over to where he was sitting to see if we could score an autograph or something. I was overcome with dorky excitement and shook his hand with a dorky grin on my face and couldn't stop giggling. Thank goodness Eben was much cooler. Kind of.

Eben: (makes autograph gesture with our program)
El Señor Presidente: ¿Usted es ecuatoriano?
Eben: Uh, no, americano.
El Señor Presidente: ¿Habla español?
Eben: Uh, un poquito.
El Señor Presidente: Ah, okay. What are you doing here? (signs program)
Eben: We're visiting a friend that we go to school with, traveling.
El Señor Presidente: That's wonderful! (pats Eben on back)

And so it went something like that. My personal opinion is that he is a mighty nice guy. What makes him even cooler is that for the finale of the concert, Inti was like, "Okay, we're going to sing the song you all came for (El Pueblo Unido), but only if the President sings it with us." So of course we're all turning around in our seats, trying to see the President, when all of a suddent he appears on stage with his Secret Service men and military police dudes, smiling and waving. And he takes his place at a microphone and sings "El Pueblo Unido," THE song of revolution, with Inti-Illimani, fist raised in air. It was awesome. So not only did we get to meet the President of Ecuador, get his autograph, and talk to him, we also got to rock out and sing revolution songs with him. Can life be any more awesome? I really don't think so. :)

So that brings me to Perú. We flew out of Quito Friday night after a bit of a delay. The Quito airport had to shut down because the tire of a plane from Iberia airlines exploded as they landed. Miraculously, nobody was hurt, but it took some time to tow the plane off of the runway and clean up the exploded tire. How very very scary. Our flight took off without any problems, and we spent the night in Lima (kind of) before going back to the airport at 4 am to fly to Cusco. We are doing a homestay with an older woman, Gladis Valencia, who lives close to the city center. It's less expensive than staying in a hostel, and this way we'll speak more Spanish. Both very good things.

My first impression of Cusco is that it is very very different from Quito. The mountains don't look the same at all. While the mountains in Quito were very green, here they look very dry and brown. The city as a whole is kind of brown now that I think about it. I don't know if that will make any sense, but once we put more pictures up, maybe you will understand. I feel a connection with Cusco that I just didn't have with Quito. Part of this stems from Cusco being much more catered to tourists and backpackers, which I don't think is a bad thing. There is so much to see, so much to explore both within the city and outside, that every moment feels as though it should be an adventure. I hope it will be. We're doing some light sightseeing today and hope to see some ruins outside of the city next weekend. We start our work tomorrow (yay!), which is very exciting and just a little scary. We don't know what we'll be doing yet, but our next update will be full of information. Until then, this is the website of the organization we'll be working with. Feel free to explore! I can tell that Cusco is going to be one of new favorite places. I'm so happy that we have 3 weeks here!

So that's about it for now. We have uploaded all of our Ecuador photos, which can be found at our online photo album. Our Perú photos will probably come a bit more slowly, both on the photo website and on this blog. We will, however, edit past entries to add photos, so be sure to check up on those in the coming weeks.