Westfield students take the trip of a lifetime

“A trip of a Lifetime” was how some of the students described the Westfield Study Abroad Trip to Ecuador this summer. The group left Westfield Area High School (WAHS) on June 18 and toured various parts of Ecuador in South America until their safe return on June 27. Westfield Spanish students have been traveling biannually with Señora West since 2001. Over the years, students have gotten the opportunity to travel to Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru, Spain, and Puerto Rico. This, Señora West’s final trip with Westfield students, was the first time the group had ever traveled to Ecuador.
Eight students and two chaperones left WAHS around 3:30 a.m. on June 18.
The group flew from Chicago to Atlanta to Quito, Ecuador. In Atlanta, they met up with a group of eleven from Kansas that would be traveling together with them for the entire trip. The group of twenty-five landed at the Quito airport around 10 p.m. There, the tour directors picked them up and drove everyone to their homes away from home for the following five days. Small groups of two to three students stayed with individual host families in the city. The tour directors made individual introductions as each small group of students was dropped off at their homes.
June 19 was a full day of touring in and around the Quito area. Quito is the capital of Ecuador. The downtown historic center is full of churches, beautiful buildings, the national capital building, and the national cathedral next to the home of the archbishop.
Students spent time in Independence Plaza, saw the Convent of San Francisco, and were treated to a concert by an orchestra inside a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a church covered in gold leaf on the interior known as La Compañía de Jesús. They were also treated to a chocolate tour and tasting. They learned about the chocolate-making process and tasted different flavors and percentages of chocolate with milk and sugar ratios. Everyone had their favorites. For some, it was the chocolate, and for others, it was the fresh brownie and hot chocolate served. Then, the group went to the Basilica in a different part of town. They were able to see the building from a couple of floors up near the beautiful stained glass windows and even climb to the top of the condor tower, for fantastic views of the capital city, the bell and clock towers of the basilica, and the guardian angel statue of the city.

The group was then transported to the Teleférico Quito, which is a popular aerial tramway that ascends the slopes of the Pichincha volcano, offering stunning panoramic views of the city and the surrounding Andes Mountains. It’s one of the highest cable cars in the world, reaching an altitude of 3,945 meters (12,943 feet). The ride itself takes approximately 20 minutes and offers access to various hiking trails and scenic viewpoints.
Lunch was at a restaurant with a view of the Mitad de Mundo monument (Middle of the World). The monument was built to honor the French mission of 1736 that sought to determine the location of the equator. The true location of the equator, as determined by GPS in the modern era, is only 787 feet north of this monument. While eating lunch, the group was treated to traditional Andean live music. After lunch, they went to the Intiñan Museum located on the actual equator. The museum has two main focuses. First, to teach about the native tribes of Ecuador, including the Shuar and the Waorani. There are some replicas of typical houses of some of the tribes...one complete with a live guinea pig farm. Secondly, there are interactive experiments that can only be done on the actual equator. Many in the group earned certificates for balancing an egg upright on the head of a nail! They also saw how water spins in a different direction depending on which hemisphere they were standing in!
June 20 was community service day. The group went to a local supermarket to make the necessary purchases to feed an “American-style” lunch to kids at a nearby orphanage. Asking kids to shop for supplies to make hot dogs, salads, sides & dessert to feed 90 people was amusing. Once at the orphanage, students played a balloon race game with the kids to break the ice. Then, most of the boys played soccer, and the girls taught each other dances from Ecuador and dances from the USA. A smaller group broke off to prepare lunch in the small kitchen. Lunch was served, and the orphanage kids (ages 5-18) enjoyed something different from their normal, even though it was simple. They made hot dogs, lettuce salads with dressing (they don’t use dressing there often), served with Doritos or Sour Cream and Onion chips, Oreos, and soda. The group also donated yogurt for breakfast and ice cream for a future snack.
After lunch, there was more soccer or time on their limited playground equipment until it was time to leave. Two students listed this day as one of their top three activities, and multiple students mentioned that they hope they never forget the kids’ smiles at the orphanage and how much appreciation those kids showed for our visit.
Then, the group was transported to the language school that was their home base for the week. There, they had cooking lessons as they prepared dinner. Dinner consisted of grilled chicken, grilled cuy (guinea pig), salad, fresh juice, fried plantains, a spicy peanut sauce called ají, and a four-milk cake, which was similar to the pastel de tres leches (three-milk cake) that is so popular in much of Latin America.
On June 21, the group drove North to the Imbubara province. They stopped at a fruit stand to try chirimoya- custard apple, and again in Tabacundo, where they specialize in growing roses in many varieties and colors. Large, beautiful bouquets of 24 roses sold for $5 there!
Sometime later, they stopped again near San Pablo Lake at the base of the Imbabura Volcano, where the local specialty is hot chocolate with bizcochos and cheese. The bizcocho is a hard cookie that can be dipped into hot chocolate. For the remainder of the trip from there to the city of Otavalo, Ceci and her daughter, Sarita, taught them about traditional Otavalan women’s clothing and sang a song in their native Quichua language. Once in the city of Otavalo, the group was given an hour and a half to shop and bargain for clothing, woven items, jewelry, unique painted items, leather goods, foods, and more in the famous market.
Then they traveled to Cotacachi, a city known for its leathercraft items. There, they ate lunch, shopped, and then traveled to the Cotacachi Cayapas National Park with a local shaman named Antonio. Antonio did a fantastic job explaining the ancient solar and lunar calendars at the site, and then he and his wife, Juanita, shared the traditional summer solstice ceremony for everyone at the offering site overlooking the beautiful lake.
June 22 was a long day on the bus to the city of Baños, known as the gateway city in Ecuador to the Amazon rainforest. The first stop to stretch their legs was in the province of Cotopaxi, where they tried a traditional ice cream bar layered in multiple flavors. There was also a nearby stop overlooking a lake where people chose between ziplining or using a cable car to go from one end to the other.
Stop two was just before entering Baños. This region is famous for sugar cane products. They stopped at a stand to see how the cane was cut, peeled, and chopped into small pieces that could be sold for people to chew on or to be pressed into sugar cane juice. The group tried it both ways. It seemed most preferred to chew on the pieces. In Baños, the group saw a waterfall and entered the cathedral before eating lunch at a unique restaurant on the roof or “azotea.” They all got to try “encebollada,” considered a national dish. It is a hearty fish and onion soup often made using albacore tuna or swordfish.
The main activity of the day was the world’s most famous swing is located at a place called La casa del árbol. This place had beautiful gardens and was located on a mountainside overlooking the valley far below. While on the swings, the clouds broke and the group got views of a nearby snowcapped volcano that had not been visible earlier in the day. The next stop was the hotel for the evening, but the roads to get there were not passable in the normal bus. So the group boarded a chivas bus, which are traditional, brightly painted, open-sided buses that play dance music and would be called a party bus here in the States.
June 23 began with an optional hike for anyone ready by 6 a.m. The hike descended about 250 feet to see a 30-meter (98-foot) waterfall on the premises of the hotel. It was powerful and impossible to approach without getting soaked because the spray went everywhere. It was beautiful! The hardest part of the hike was the climb in altitude to return to the hotel.
After breakfast, the group traveled to El Pailón del Diablo, one of the tallest waterfalls in Ecuador, standing at 80 meters (262 feet). Many of the students chose to climb behind the falls, getting drenched in the process. There was a dry hike through rainforest terrain to get there, a suspension bridge to cross, lots of mist, and rainbows. Those who climbed behind the falls were close enough to touch it.
The long bus ride home was broken up with a stop that was another favorite of most on the trip- ziplining across a canyon overlooking a double waterfall and rainbows! The amazing part was that each person could decide what position they preferred to zipline in: sitting up normally (the conservative choice), superman style (the most popular choice), or upside down (for two daredevils). A cable car took the participants back to the top of the canyon, where the bus awaited to return to Quito and the last night with their host families.
On June 24, the group boarded the bus for the coastal city of Atacames. As they descended from 2850 meters (9350 feet) to sea level, the landscape out the window changed dramatically. The coast was significantly warmer than Quito, and the landscape contained cacao plants, watermelons, pineapples, and bananas. Many people were drying cacao seeds on the sides of the highways to be able to make chocolate. Atacames was a sea of people riding on motorcycles (sometimes 5 people on one bike) and tuk-tuks (also referred to as moto taxis or auto rickshaws). The sunset on the beach was beautiful, and everyone slept well!
June 25 started by boarding a small boat and driving it out to sea in search of whales! For a while, it seemed that they had struck out, and the captain turned around to head back toward land when all of a sudden, a whale breached in the distance. The group sailed side by side with a pair of humpback whales for a while and saw another jump nearby.
On the way back to land, the boat sailed by la isla de los pájaros, bird island. It is named because it is inhabited by hundreds of blue-footed booby birds. Near the island, there was a shallow area where the group swam before returning to land for breakfast.
After dinner, there was a marimba show with singers and ballet folklórico dancers. It was live-streamed on Facebook and some of the group, including Señora West and Jabari (the birthday boy), participated on stage. The performers even sang to Jabari and included him in a dance. The group ended the night with a birthday cake and piñata to make Jabari’s birthday away from home special.
June 26 had free time until noon to go for a last-minute walk on the beach, shop at the nearby market, and pack bags before boarding the bus to return to Quito for the evening flight out of the country. The flight boarded around 10:30 p.m. and arrived in Atlanta around 6 a.m. on June 27. There was just enough time to find breakfast at the airport before their flight to Chicago. They returned to Westfield around 3 p.m. after 27 hours of continuous travel.
Students shared so many amazing memories. Some of the things mentioned as trip favorites included ziplining, waterfalls, the swing at the “end of the world,” bargaining at the markets, the marimba show, and volunteering at the orphanage. Students agreed that the “anticipation before” the swing and zipline were the scariest moments of the trip. They were surprised by the amount of Spanish that they understood and how well prepared they were.
Answers to the question about what they hope to never forget ranged from the smiles at the orphanage to whale watching, to their host families, participating in the marimba show, giant moths, and those who wrote THE WHOLE TRIP/EVERYTHING because the whole experience was so amazing.
The group would like to thank everyone who helped make this trip possible, from their parents, chaperones, the school board, and everyone who ever purchased something or donated money during a fundraiser, bake sale, concessions, or while they pumped gas for tips. ¡Muchas gracias!