Second week in Cuenca

Dear readers of SAM blog,

We started our second week in Cuenca off with an amazing hike through a national park in Cajas. We continued our Spanish classes, which took place in our classrooms and out in the city, where we visited markets, museums, a zoo, etc. After searching for the past week or so we were finally able to acquire a frisbee, which got a lot of use in the park. Cuenca was an awesome place to be during the Ecuadorian ¨Carnaval¨ celebration, because there´s a tradition that invites everyone to throw water-balloons and spray foam at pedestrians on the streets. We went through multiple 100-packs of water-balloons, some of us going out with backpacks full of them at a time. Campos, Nick, and I bought superhero costumes (Spiderman, Superman, and Batman, respectively) which further enlivened the Carnaval experience for us. On Saturday, we all packed our bags, said goodbye to our host families and Cuenca, and left on an overnight bus (12 hours long) to Otavalo. We´re all having an amazing trip so far and miss everyone back at home.

Michael L.