Daniel’s Page

August 1, 2006: Alrededor y Alrededor la Montaña

Mi mamá y papá querían manejar a un lago. Maggie y yo no queríamos manejar al lago porque el lago era muy lejos. Habría tomado 4 horas mas para ir al lago. Mi mamá y papá estaba tontos y decidieron en viajar al lago. Estaba dormiendo y cuando me desperté, estabamos dando vueltas. Eso continuaba por 4 horas. Pero cuando llegamos, pensó que valió la pena.

August 1, 2006: Bellavista

Fuimos a Bellavista, un sitio para montar caballos. Montamos caballos mucho y nos dolieron las caderas . Para almuerzo comimos mucha carne. Un tipo de la carne fue chorizo de sangre. NO ME GUSTÓ!! El chorizo tenia el sabor de comida de perros. BLEH!! El segundo dia montamos mas. Ese dia montamos a una hacienda. Caminamos por la hacienda. Vimos llamingos (un animal como una llama). El almuerzo fue bueno. Tuvimos mi sopa favorita, sopa de locro (locro es una sopa anaranjada. La sopa es de papas, una pieza de avocado, una especia para hacerlo anaranjada , y algunas veces queso) y una chuleta de cerdo.

Estoy terminado. SSSSSSSSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

July 23, 2006: Rio Muchacho

Fuimos a Rio Muchacho, una granja organica. En Rio Muchacho hay muchos animales. Los animales son: 5 caballos, 1 burro, 3 vacas, 2 chanchos, muchas chanchas (una chancha estaba muy embarazada), muchos chanchitos, muchas gallinas, muchos pollitos,y cuyes.Teniamos actividades cada dia en Rio Muchacho. El martes hicimos un tour de la granja y hicimos anillos de semillas.El miercoles pescamos para camarones y hicimos chocolate.Tambien,visitamos a la escuela de Rio Muchacho. Aprendimos que la escuela da pollos a las familias de los estudiantes. Los pollos hacen excreta en lugares y las familias sembran vegetales donde los pollos hacen excreta. Tambien, aprendimos que nuestra libertad es en nuestra excreta. El jueves montamos en caballo hasta un bosque donde hubo monos y montamos a una cascada y hicimos [asamos] cafe. El viernes mi mama y mi papa caminaron a un gran arbol de higos,hicimos tazones y cucharas de mate, y mi mama tenia una mascara de lodo. La comida era excellente. La comida era muy fresca de la granja.

TRANSLATION: We went to Rio Muchacho, an organic farm. In Rio Muchacho there are many animals. The animals are 5 horses, 1 burro, 3 cows, 2 male pigs, many sows (one sow was VERY pregnant), many piglets, many chickens, many chicks, and guinea pigs. We had activities every day in Rio Muchacho. On Tuesday we took a tour of the farm and we made rings from seeds. On Wednesday we fished for shrimp and made chocolate. Also, we visited the school of Rio Muchacho. We learned that the school givesn chickens to the students’ families. The chickens poop in places, and the families plant vegetables where the chickens poop. Also, we learned that “our freedom is in our poop.” On Thursday we went horseback riding to a forest where there were monkeys, and we rode to a waterfall, and we made [roasted] coffee. On Friday my parents walked to a big fig tree, we made cups and spoons of mate, and my mom had a mud face mask. The food was excellent. The food was fresh from the farm.

July 15, 2006: Maquipucuna: Un sitio con insectos

No me gustan los insectos. A mi papa y a mi mama les gustan los insectos. Hubo una araña grande y cucarachas en el dormitorio. Tambien, hubo insectos en las camas. GROSS! En Maquipucuna, hubo muchos pajaros. Maggie y yo jugamos en el rio. Ayer, Maggie y yo saltamos en el rio en Bahia de Caraquez. Bahia es divertido. Maquipucuna no es divertido. El dueño del hotel en Bahia tiene muchos animales. El tiene: tres perros, muchos pajaros, un papagayo que dice “Hola!”, muchos pavos reales, dos perezosos con un bebe, tres caballos, y una vaca.

Translation: I don’t like bugs. My dad and mom like bugs. There were a big spider and cockroaches in the bedroom. Also, there were bugs in the beds. Gross! In Maquipucuna, there were lots of birds. Maggie and I played in the river. Yesterday, Maggie and I jumped in the river in Bahia de Caraquez. Bahia is fun. Maquipucuna is not fun. The owner of the hotel in Bahia has many animals. He has: three dogs, a lot of birds, a parrot that says “Hola!”, a lot of peacocks, two sloths with a baby, three horses, and a cow.

July 11, 2006: Vernacular

I got up and we went up this funicular (Al Perry calls it a ‘vernacular’). So, basically, my parents dragged me up to 13,000ft. Then we took the ‘vernacular’ down and it felt like falling off of a cliff. Then we got to the bottom and went to this place called ‘Chocolate’ and we were going to get some food except they had, like, no food. So, we had to have hot chocolate only. It was yummy. I have a nice king bed at the hotel and I can’t wait to use it. So, goodbye.

July 6, 2006: So that my readers will be happy

My dad is forcing me to write more. He wants me to write about the silly blackout that happened tonight. All of a sudden the lights went off. Wow. The kids started screaming, and I thought ‘what’s the big deal about a blackout.’ They started running all over the place. I was the only sensible one and kept eating. Then the kids showed up in a line holding flashlights above their heads. Bye for now because I need to trim my toenails.

July 5, 2006: My Father (a.k.a. ‘the worm eater’)

My dad went to the market and got fruit. Some of it was good, like the guanabana – I can’t describe the taste exactly, but it’s good. Then they found this fruit which is known to have worms in it. I saw the worms when they cut the fruit open – the worms were little and white. The teachers said that the worms are ‘healthy’ for you. My dad ate some. It was GROSS.

July 4, 2006: July Fourth

Today all these people showed up, and I had no idea who they were. Then we had a cake which tasted awful. It was dry, and there were these little thingies inside of it that were green and red. It had marshmallow frosting that was sticky and gooey.

July 2, 2006: Fuya Fuya

Today we drove a long way to this mountain called Fuya Fuya. Then I started hiking up it with my dad and Señor Washington. I started having a cough and Sr. Washington took me down. Then I waited in the car for 2 hours while my dad and Sr. Washington went up the mountain without me. I felt nauseated – we were at about 12,000ft up (higher than Mt. Crumpit). Then we got home and my mom gave me a lot of soda. I got to eat whatever I wanted, which was fun. There were chickens and they got slaughtered by Alfredo. My dad took some gory pictures, which you can see later on. Ciao for now.

July 1, 2006: Market Day

Today we got to sleep-in, and then we went to the market for the whole day. We bought lots of Ecuadorian stuff. We got chess sets, llama camas (blankets made out of llama wool that you can put on your bed), tapestries, T-shirts, and lots of girlie stuff (blouses and purses). My dad thinks he’s good at bargaining, but he really isn’t. For example, we left one vendor after not being able to get the price down to below $25 for five emroidered shirts, and then my dad had to go back later to pay the $25, which meant that I couldn’t get what I wanted. That’s all for now.

June 27, 2006: Cloud Forest

We left the house and got on a cool train. We got to ride on the top of the train. We went over a bridge with, like, a 1000ft drop-off on either side. We went through awesome tunnels, and in one of them the conductor stopped the train and water dripped down on our heads. Then this branch hit Maggie in the eye, even though Senor Washington said to duck. Then we went in a car to this house where there were lots of doggies. It was sad because one of the doggies was very thin and scratched-up. Then we started our hike and crossed a river. I fell twice and got soaking wet (my shoes are still wet). And then we hiked through all these brambles, and then we got to a waterfall, and we got to go under the waterfall. I was sad because there were no monkeys. But there were lots of bananas (so why no monkeys?). Then we went to a market and we bought a zillion mandarinas (tangerines).

June 26, 2006: Internet Café

I had to get up really early and then we had to walk a mile to our Spanish school. When we got there, I met my teacher. She was nice. She taught us how to say things that are around the house. Then she took us to the market – we got to see many exotic fruits there. After classes, we went to an internet café -- I had to sit there while my father did some boring thing on the computer. Tomorrow we’re going to a cloud forest, and I am hoping to see a monkey there, and maybe go swimming with the underwater camera I got from Senora Wilkinson and maybe take some pictures.