Ambato

Well it has been a couple days but I thought I would write about our recent trip to Ambato. Last friday the six of us got on a bus and headed for Ambato, it is on the way to Quito, about an hour from Riobamba. When we got there we went to "the mall" which is actually one of the most American-ized places that I have seen here. When we walked in the bottom floor was a car garage so we got in an elevator in order to get to the second floor. Our first stop was bathrooms and frozen capuccinos....well for those of our who needed our coffee fix!! From there we went to a store that I would consider to be similar to an american K-mart and we enjoyed walking around and looking for various needed and wanted items! Once we had all gotten our items we gathered together to figure out what people were wanting for lunch. (A little personal background for today - my stomach felt and sounded like the volcano we live by. Combine that with the fact that I can't eat wheat......well I decided to sit back and watch the others.) They decided to go back into the store and get some groceries for lunch and since I wasn't hungry I decided to sit outside the store.

(This next part is one of those stories you don't usually tell people especially family until after you get home but several of us found it funny and it portrays my lack of spanish so I thought that I would share it with you!!)

While I was sitting at the table waiting for the girls to get back this guy walked up to put his hand on my shoulder and asked if he could sit down by me. I very adamently said "No me toca"(translation - don't touch me) and "No puedo sientete" (translation - No I can't sit) That was my first mistake. The guy preceeded to get a very strange look on his face and and said something to the effect of "tu comprende espanial?" (translation - you understand spanish?) and somthing else I don't know. At this point I didn't know who this guys was or why he was talking to me but I was guarding some of the girls stuff and I didn't feel that great so I looked at him and said "espalda, espalda" shooing him away with my hand. He turned around, walked off and I was feeling pretty proud of myself, little did I know exactly what I had just said. Those of you who know spanish are probably already laughing. Espalda directly translated means back, your physical back. Basically when I told the guys "espalda, espalda" I might as well have said "your back, your back"......next time I should just say "tu rostro, tu rostro" (translation - your face) and see what kind of response I get!!

When the girls got back we went to an area that had tables and a beautiful view of the city and mountains...I apologize in the course of not feeling well I didn't get a picture of the view. I did however get a picture of the girls eating and if you look closely you can see the assortment various foods and pastries.

After lunch we caught a bus and rode to "12 de noviembre" which is a park in Ambato. I love looking out the window at the different places we drive by and at one point decided to snap a random picture. When we got to the park the first thing I noticed was the the shade, now Ecuadorian sun is very intense so if you stand out in it very long you are going to get burnt. Needless to say the shade was amazing and it felt so good to just sit down. We sat there talking for a while and they commented on the fact that I looked way too happy. What can I say? I was sitting in the shade, with a group of amazing people, and I had my camera in hand! I even convinced them to smile for a picture! After a while Amy, Rebecca, Susanne and Emma decided to look around at the shops in the square. Natalie and I were slighty exhausted so we stayed in the shade and had a good time just sitting there talking. When the girls got back we decided to head for home so we wouldn't get back to late. The sun sets around 6:30pm so our goal was around 6pm. we caught a bus to what we thought was the bus stop and stood there for a little while, turns out we were a block away fourtionately a lady standing by us noticed that we were looking for a Riobamba bus and pointed out where we wanted to go. We just so happened to catch the bus right before it left and sure enough at 5:58pm we arrived safe at aound back at The Ark.