Visitors and Chontacuro
February 1, 2019
After going home for the holidays I had a visitor in Ecuador. It was fun to bring a little piece of home back to Quito with me, and exhausting at the same time. I got to show him around this city I now call home, and visit some of our Ecuadorian friends that live in Connecticut in Sucua and Huambi. This trip was filled with lots of firsts for both of us.
Our first trip to The Virgin of el Panecillo. At 3035 meters, 45-meter-tall stone monument of a madonna on the top of Panecillo. In the beginning of my journey here I constantly felt as though she were watching over me and protecting me from any danger. But when I finally reached her feet and felt the high all her visitors feel, I was a bit overwhelmed. According to legends there was an old inca temple in its place to honor the sun and a second in honor of the moon of San Juan and was called Shungoloma or Yavirac. However, these temples were destroyed by the Spanish army. Now, El Panecillo symbolizes the division in Quito, North and South.
Our first trip to Sucua and Huambi. Here we spent a few days visiting some of our Ecuadorian friends from home. They introduced us to their families and showed us everything there is to see in their hometown. After a stop at a farm with a vista or Sucua, they were quick to introduce me to chontacuro. A delicacy from the Amazon. Their name comes from the Kichwa word “chonta”, which is a tree that grows in the jungle, and “curo”, which means “worm”, so they are literally “chonta worms¨. These worms can be prepared many different ways, the one I ate was smoked. While traveling it is important to try new things, especially when the people hosting you love what they are introducing you to. That doesn't mean I would necessarily go out of my way to eat chontacuros again. Special shout out and thank you again to Marcelo for hosting us.
Tomorrow, I am going with the rest of my WorldTeach cohort to Mindo and beginning to feel nervous that I may be the only one with certain worries and feelings about my trip here so far and my new life here.
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