HOLA DESDE GUARANDA, ECUADOR…

It’s FUN DAY! Hello beloved glimpser families, Kimberly and Tony here fellow Glimpsers and also the Líder del Día. We were so ecstatic and honored to have our turns as Líder del Día, that Kimberly couldn’t even sleep as she lied in her hostal bed awake and waited for Tony to wake her up.

So to begin our day, we did our usual wake up call at 7:00 am. As we knocked on each Glimpser’s doors and sang a perfectly practiced and harmonized, “GOOOOD MORNINGGGG GUYYYSSS,” we were greeted with many angry looking “I hate you faces.” But other responses were fortunately more pleasant. After that, we did a quick head count, and was off to La Estancia for breakfast to enjoy some delicious yucca pupusas with cheese, eggs, and a side of bacon. Delish!

With our moods lifted and energy restored from our amazing breakfast, we were fueled with an enthusiastic mindset and was ready to take on the bus ride to Chimborazo, a significant symbol to Ecuadorian culture, and known to be the highest point closest to the sun. One of our trip coordinators, Joshua (the British man), busted out the speaker which hyped up the entire bus and was soon snatched by Ryan who blasted Taylor Swift songs making the whole bus break into loud karaoke. Tony was the only one hating on the Taylor Swift singers. Instead, he looked dramatically out the bus window with his head in his hands, wondering what his life has come to. At our first stop, Kimberly began taking as many pictures of Peter as possible because she knew that Peter’s mother (Kimberly) would have done the same. We stopped at a statue not far up Chimborazo road when Carlos, our tour guide, provided details about the tombstones which memorialized the hikers & climbers that have passed away due to the high elevation and hypothermia. Here we took photos, drank some delicious hot chocolate and other snacks that the Glimpsers provided. We then made our way down slowly back to the bus so no one would trip and fall.

Guide, Carlos, explaining to us the different eco-systems leading up to Chimborazo

We went for a quick stop at the South side of Chimborazo where we had chicken sandwiches for lunch, minus the 4 vegetarians on the trip who had mushrooms instead, (Aleta, Noah, Aisha, and Kimberly.) We caught hold of a cute pup and one of our trip coordinators, Alex, wanted to purchase it.

Once we arrived back to the hostel, started sorting out the details for our CAP presentations. As a group, we worked efficiently to present through our student translators (Yomaira, Cat, Tony, and Lupe) to the Llullundongo community leader, Angel.  

Presenting our CAP project

We walked to the school Verbo Divino, to teach our 4th day of English to Spanish speaking students. After English tutoring, the Glimpsers were full of high energy which is the usual effect after a successful day of tutoring. We started walking to La Estancia where we had dinner. Back at the Hostel, Kimberly and Tony finished up the nightly meeting with thorns and roses then passed the torch onto the next Leaders of the Day, Ryan and Peter. They did a fantastic job with the agenda and we are excited to see what they will do in tomorrow’s blog so stay tuned until then.