I would like to dedicate this blog entry to all those readers out there (I know it is just you Mom & Dad) who had Guinea Pigs for pets as a child because.... they were delicious!!! (Bridget this means you).
For my going away dinner my family in Tabacundo decided to give me a true Ecuadorian feast! I have to say the meat was good but very rich and in the future I think I would only want a half of Cuy (preferably the bottom half so I didn´t have the head looking at me while I ate the rest of its body). Anyway this was an amazing gesture on my family´s part, especially since it probably cost them about $40-50 dollars which is pretty expensive here, and made the goodbye even harder.
On another note after these pictures were taken, some friends and I headed off to a birthday party. Needless to say we drank a little bit at the party and it was kind of a rough morning (Chu Chaki is the saying for hung over here). So you could imagine my delight when I was trying to enjoy (and when I say enjoy I mean force down) my usual tea with ham and eggs breakfeast when my Tabacundo father sat down next to me with just a plate of Guinea Pig heads and some potatoes. I swear all their faces were pointed in my direction and the smell alone almost made me lose it!
All in all the meal was a great experience and I can only foresee more Cuy (Guinea Pig) in my future. 
We were in a small tourism town called Mindo where a volunteer has been working with an organization to develop their small animal facility. Right now he has worked with them to build a number of buildings for their chickens, another facility for their cuyes (guinea pigs) and he also helped them build a fish pool for a kind of fish they sell in the markets here called Tilapia. All in all it was really cool to see that, with a little bit of hard work and know how; one person could really make a difference in the lives of the people here. 
After our Puerto Quito adventure, our class split up in 5 different groups. Everyone going to a different part of the country that represented where we were going to be living for the next two years, I went along with the Agriculture Sierra group and on our first day we made the 6 hour trip to a small city south of Quito, called Riobamba. This town is where the famous tourist train leaves from in which you can enjoy the mountains and scenic views of Ecuador by sitting on top of the train. We heard rumors though that they stopped this because of a Chinese tourist getting decapitated last year. Anyone want to go?!!! Anyway, Riobamba is a very safe feeling, clean city in which we were able to see some of the local sites and visit their museums. The next two days we went into the country where one of our teachers is actually from and learned how he has been working with a German organization on developing land conservation techniques and other small animal production, very interesting. On Thursday, we headed off to a small town in the mountains called Salinas. Approximately 1000 people live here and they are nationally known for their success in the small business arena, having about 80 small businesses altogether. They have everything you can possibly think of, sausages, cheese, wool clothing, compost, mushrooms, salt mines, chocolate, soy products, paper, let alone a booming tourism industry (well booming for a small town in Ecuador). I really enjoyed this town because it was here where things were made a little more relative for me since I am going to be working more with small businesses in Vilcabamba, than in agriculture. 
