Ecuador Galapagos & Andean Service Adventure 2025
June 28, 2025
Today was a long travel day! In the morning, we had breakfast at the hotel and went to the airport. At the airport we got new boarding passes and got through the busy Houston security. Before boarding everyone got drinks and snacks! We then boarded and had a relaxing 5 hour flight to Quito.
We arrived in Quito in the late afternoon. We got through a long line in customs and got our bags from the bagage claim and met Fabricio before driving to a small cafe for dinner.
For dinner we had amazing homemade empanadas and fruit juice made from guanábana and blackberry. The family running the restaurant were very friendly. After dinner we got to the hotel, found room assignments, had a quick Ecuador orientation and went to bed.
By: Boden
June 29, 2025
Hola from Ecuador day 2!
Today was full of fun adventures, bonding bus rides and four course lunches. During these we got to know each other, and form new connections. We started day 2 by waking up at 7:00am for our breakfast of fruits, eggs and a croissant. We then hopped on the bus and headed to our first destination, Pichincha volcano. We took a breathtaking ride up the side of a HUGE green gorgeous luscious mountain of trees. BUT… the mountain was in fact NOT a mountain at all. When we got we got to the top we discovered, the Lucious gorgeous mountain of trees, was a VOLCANO! After this SHOCKING realization we found it a great idea to hike to the top of said volcano. On the way of this breathtaking (literally) hike we were greeted by two beautiful fluffy clouds. But they were not clouds! They were… ALPACAS! These creatures were wearing authentic regalia full of vibrant threads and colors. At the top of the hike we found two swings – one thrilling, the other exhilarating, both intimidating-for they were hanging OFF of said volcano. After risking our lives, and breaking our comfort zone barriers, we hiked back down, hopped in the bus, and headed to our next destination, El Mitad del Mundo. This location is the center of the world with a latitude of 00°00’00”. We were lead through this incredible destination by a tour guide who taught us many things including the indigenous cultures and their customs; and the life of the Amazon. We also learned about how incredible this point on earth really is. After this, we headed to lunch at El Patio. This was an incredible experience where we ate food that was 40-70% cultivated in their garden right outside the building. During this meal, we were given 4 courses. Starting with a delicious soup, then a fresh garden salad, an elevated chicken and fries, and last but not least, a flavorful ice cream topped with rich dark chocolate and figs. Our next destination brought us to the downtown city of Quito. There we explored the Neo Gothic Cathedral and the Basilica. We then left Quito and headed back to our hostel. Once we got to our hostel, we had some down time and then had dinner of hamburgers, fries, and sodas! We discussed and created our group contract with our hopes and aspirations for our trip to come. New adventures await us to tomorrow as we step into the community where we will spend the next five nights with our homestay families.
Peace out boom Shaka laka hasta mañana!
XOXO Mac and Margaux 😉
June 30, 2025
Hola!!!! Somos Camila y Sophie!
This morning, we woke up bright and early in our hostel and packed our bags for the busy day we had ahead. We enjoyed a breakfast of bread, scrambled eggs and a fruit and yogurt bowl (we are well fed here!). Then we said goodbye to the hostel and hopped on our magic school bus to travel to one of the largest street artisan markets in South America where we had the chance to haggle en Español with the artisans themselves. I, Camila, was able to haggle the price of a pure silver bracelet from $28 to $15 with my haggling rizz. I, Sophie, on the other hand, have negative Ecuadorian haggling rizz since my French skills surprisingly have little influence in this country. But don’t worry, I am actively practicing mi Español y estoy mejorando. Thanks to mis amigas I was able to purchase dos bracelets para $5. Poppy if you’re reading this you should be proud! I was also gifted a bracelet with an S bead from Sam so I’m building a stacked wrist. The market had clothing, jewelry, ponchos, and other handcrafts including a FC Barcelona Jersey with a cactus Jack sponsor on it.
After shopping, we went to a volcano cráter lake and hiked to a hermosa mirador. The altitude really got to us on the hike and we found ourselves quickly out of breath. After that, we took the bus to the La Calera comunidad where we had a PLENTIFUL lunch (way more than Sophie could take, pero era muy delicioso). After lunch we played a game of soccer with the host mommies and their children. Again the altitude hit us hard! Then we came back to the community house and were designated to our host familias and we shared a piece of cake and introduced ourselves.
Camila and I are together with a family that has two cute young kids and dogs as well. Camila does all the talking for me. After we got to our house, we went through the backyard to another home that had a soccer field and we played soccer with a group of little boys, who were mucho better than us. We returned for dinner and we enjoyed pork, guacamole, rice, and potatoes. Then we winded down by playing Uno, escondido (hide and seek), and teaching the kids how to play Spot it. We were so tired after our long day but so excited to start working tomorrow.
Love you fam! Vous me manquez beaucoup! – Sophieee
Love you and miss u so much!!!
Camila<3
July 1, 2025
Today was a thrilling experiencia with our homestay family as our first day staying in La Calera. We started this aventure at 7:30 sharp and ate a delicious breakfast of eggs, bread and Jam, and plantain.
After speedrunning our morning routine, we headed down to el comedor, the dining hall, to start our morning of manual labor.
However, before said work started, we got to experience a powerful cleanssing ritual lead by a native Quichuan shamaness llamada Mamá Rosita. We stood around a flower circle and were cleansed by the smoke of herbs and palo santo while she chanted tradicional ancestral songs.
After the ritual, we started our first day of community service. This included carpentry to build a playground for the local youth, painting the walls of the community center, and cleaning old tires to repurpose as planters. We put in almost 4 hours of dedicated work before we rested for a delicious Lunch.
The meal started with a potato soup accompanied by beans, this was followed by a large plate of carne, guacamole, y papas suaves, accompanied by a refreshing tomato juice. The meal ended with flavorful tree tomatoes que explotaron jugosamente en la boca.
After lunch we returned to our home stay families to rest and clean up for la fiesta de IntiRaymi! The girls were dressed in traditional quichuan outfits. It was the woman’s festival that evening so the men didn’t dress up, as their portion was the night before. We all bussed to Cotacachi plaza where there were a few thousand Ecuadorians dancing pateada to give thanks to la Pachamama (Mother Earth) for a good harvest.
Prior to joining the festival, we visited a local leather workshop, cuero, where we learned about the process of making leather from start to finish. We then quickly joined the parade of dancers and did a full rotation around the plaza. We stopped for a fresh squeezed mandarin juice sold by a loca food vender, on everybody soul we could drink five of those back to back!
By then, dusk had begun to fall upon us as the sun regressed behind the mountains and the moon arose from valley across, as the shadows turned into night. We all took the bus back to La Calera, had a quick debrief and reflection of our experiences that day, and returned to our host families for a freshly cooked dinner with homegrown ingredients. This consisted of an appetizer of sopa , soft and flavorful pollo, and a side of quinoa cooked with vegetables from the garden. After our bellies were satisfechos, some friends came over to play Uno, a homestay gift to our family, and played with our homestay brother. We then traveled to the house of other Global Works students and explored the village, guided by Justin, our 13 year old homestay brother. We returned to our respective houses at 10 so we could get a good nights rest for the upcoming plentiful day.
-Roen y Diego
July 2, 2025
Buenos noches from Socrates and Plato!
Today we woke up with our host family to eggs, and bread with cheese and jam. We also had tea and juice, how delectable! We started off our work with painting tires with very creative designs. Woohooo!! Some of us built a playground for local children. Others painted goal posts and other people painted walls. After that we had a good lunch with celery soup. We went back to home stays and chilled for a while for a nice siesta. We then walked over to a leather shop called Calzado SM. The guy at the leather shop named Germán was very kind and makes his own very good quality leather products and he let us in the workshop and gave us a good opportunity. We made cool wallets by hand and worked very hard for multiple hours. We then went home and rested and went to sleep. Tomorrow we continue our work in hopes to finish every project!
-Carlos & Sam
July 3, 2025
We woke up early in the morning and had delicious breakfasts (courtesy of our homestay parents). For most of us, the breakfast consisted of eggs and assorted fruits. We walked down the streets of the town to get to the place where we did our service.
Once we arrived, we rolled tires down the hill (carrying was harder) and painted more tires and the walls, while Roen laid down concrete at the workbench. Margaux, Mac, Charlotte, and Isabelle painted a mural on the outside wall. Everyone pitched in to dig holes and plant flowers inside the tires. Afterwards we stopped for lunch to have soup, chicken, and pineapple juice.
After our service we arrived back to our homestay families and some of us played game with the kids like soccer or throwing a frisbee. Afterwards we prepared to go to our dream-catcher workshop.
At our dreamcatcher workshop we were each given a metal ring to wrap our leather around. After we glued our leather to the ring we used strands made from bull intestine, which were surprisingly smooth and straw-like, to create the main net inside of the frame. Afterwards we added extra leather to aid us in attaching the beads and feathers.
With our dreamcatchers done we slammed down some dinner and headed to the cultural festival night, with clothes provided by our homestay parents. We played games, had fun, and danced for the rest of the night.
By Liam and Max
July 4, 2025
Today was our final day in La Calera. We started the day by having breakfast at our homes with our families. Then we all made our way to the comedor and quickly got started on making a traditional meal called Pachamanca We all put on our Rupay Restaurant matching aprons and hats and got to work. Everyone worked together making it, some of us cut up veggies for a delicious salsa, wrapped veggies, fruits and meats in cabbage and different kinds of big leaves, husking corn, everyone doing their part to make this amazing meal. Once we finished preparing we started putting the food in a deep hole lined with large leaves and used very hot rocks from the fire to layer into the food so it would cook. Once it was filled we made a barrier of stone bricks and leaves to protect the food from the dirt that goes on top.
Then we went to the soccer field and played for around 3 hours while the food cooked. The little kids were team captains, it was gatos vs perros, after lots of playing perros won! Then it was time to go back to the comedor to reveal our lunch. We worked together to pull the food from the ground for it to be organized inside. When it was ready everyone lined up to fill their plate, it was an amazing lunch! After lunch we went to make jewelry, some of us made pendant necklaces and some of us made bracelets. We all went home to rest and help our families prepare food for our big and final dinner at the comedor. When we all arrived Isa led a salsa class before we set up for dinner. Once everything was set, everyone put what they brought on the table and everyone lined up with plates to get some of everything. We all ate at one long table and had an amazing time. To end the night with appreciation everyone said something sentimental to their families and received a hand made bag and some kind words. Lastly everyone went around the fire and had s’mores and lots of smiles.
By Charlotte
July 5, 2025
¡Hola, somos Dora! This morning we woke up early to eat breakfast and say our final goodbyes to our lovely Quichua mamás y familias. We all piled on the bus with excitement in going to the hot springs! Tragically, our majestic bus driver, Carlos, could not drive there as heavy rains in the amazons caused recent mudslides and hindered the camino there. Benjamin, Isa, and Fabricio scrambled to make a new itinerary for the day. This included driving back to “la Plaza de Ponchos” in Otavalo, one of the biggest artisan markets in South America, visiting a local artisan chocolate factory, and driving to a scenic viewpoint. We started our two hour crusade with music and the lovely sound of Sam talking ten decibles louder than needed. We finally made it to the artisan market but this time it was Saturday and there were WAY more vendors. This influx included more people selling jewelry, crafts, instruments, clothes and lots of people selling food that we did not buy. The core of the market was the same as before so we spent our time roaming the nearby side streets. Our second stop was Yumbos chocolate in the historical district of Quito, silly enough it was the same plaza we were at on day 1. We got an extensive lesson on Ecuadorian chocolate lead by a not short Ecuadorian with luscious hair and a nose piercing. Funny enough, due to our schedule change, our trip leader Isa planned a scrumptious lunch right before our chocolate tour. Safe to say we were the biggest, the largest we’ve ever been. And with this size we lost our desires for cocoa in the shape of squares but it was very yummers so we indulged anyways. On top of this, Camila decided it was a good day to have her birthday so we had brownies and cake as well. After they ripened us up it was time to say goodbyes to our attractive chocolate man who had a charming and intriguing accent that resembled Gru from Despicable Me.
Surprisingly, bus driver Carlos was late due to city traffic for the first time so had to sit on the curb like a bunch of happy bums as we took pictures of Diego’s sunglasses as the locals took pictures of us. When our king Carlos arrived we rejoiced and hopped on his big autobús. The journey to the scenic viewpoint was scenic itself but nothing could compare to this giant stone woman perched on top of the hill, la protectora de Quito – San Panecillo. This is where the locals could really tell that we were touristas. We had drones recording us, and we smiled like silly geese while we had a photo shoot together in front of the historic statue. Our stop here was longer than intended because on top of Benjamin and Fabricio wanting to take pictures from every angle, some of our cadets wandered off to get some of their own pictures. Once our mission was achieved we spent the next 2 hours listening to our epic group playlist of the strangest assortment of artists which included, Asap rocky, Bob Marley, Fleetwood Mac, and Dire Straits who unfortunately never appeared because the playlist was rigged. It didn’t matter anyways since someone who we’ve mentioned before was louder than the music itself. Even after raising the volume multiple times. Once we arrived to what felt like the middle of nowhere, we were greeted by a hotel that was conveniently close to the airport. It’s crazy how things like this keep on happening, it’s almost like we have trip coordinators. After settling into our luxurious suite with 5 beds and tv that had someone’s Netflix account named Jimmy, we had juice with a side of dinner with a side cake because Camila was randomly born on this day which so happened to be the day of our chocolate tour. To burn off all these calories, we played the most strenuous sport – pool. We started off strong but our quality diminished when we started playing doubles with Diego and Liam who had both claimed they had played before. Knowing that we had to wake up at 4:30 the next day, we had the bright idea of watching the last two episodes of Squid Game season 3. We went to bed at a not-so-reasonable midnight and surprisingly we were okay in the morning and watched Wimbledon with Boden.
Squid game season 3 is not worth watching.
Happy Birthday Camila.
We miss you, chocolate man.
By Carlos and Roen
