Think Lord of the Rings meets Emperors New Groove.

first thing's first: listen to my band's new song whilst looking at the rest of these pictures.

https://greyglass.bandcamp.com/track/lioness

thanks.

Bueno! This weekend my companion and I hiked Rucu Pichincha, a volcano close to Quito. It was a gorgeous hike. Like, holy moly! Think Lord of the Rings meets Emperors New Groove. 

 

Hiking this trail 6 mile trail up an insane-o steep mountain was a rather spur-of-the-moment decision, so we were incredibly ill-prepared. As in, starving and freezing our BUNS off near the peak. Hence, the warming my hands in my pits pics. 

Ending altitude was 4696 meters = 15,406.8 feet = 2.9 miles.

mystery hawk

my band's first single

Feel free to stop whatever you're doing and listen to this song! You can listen to if for free, then download it for a buck.
Have a dope day!

https://greyglass.bandcamp.com/track/mark-twain

hundreds of guinea pigs

The picture on the right is pure gold because we took it trying to capture the essence of the scenery and unwittingly posed right next to a giiiiaant pile o poop.

This last week I was in a city called Otavalo. It's a very unique city in that it is mainly populated by indigenous Ecuadorians. Where as most south Americans have genealogical ties to Europe that stem from historical conquests from Spain and whatnot, everybody in Otavalo... doesn't. They descend straight from the Inca people. Emperors New Groove people.

 

Here's some google pictures of what EVERYone wears here. Every dude has long black hair down to their waist. And I mean everyone - we attended church and the whole congregation had long hair including the stake presidency. I asked our guide why, and told me rather matter-of-factly "it's our identity." Huh.

The stake president took us to his guinea pig farm. Guinea pig farm. Literally just hundreds of guinea pigs runnin around. Squeaking up a thunderstorm. I guess you could say that that was the most defining moment of my life.

I ate some pretty weird/delicious food, attended a traditional Otavaleño dance and learned some Kichwa (their language).

All in all, it was a pretty refreshing experience. For example: while attending the dance, me di cuenta de que the people here are super family oriented and everyone was dressed so modest. In American (and Latin) culture, if you want to dress fancy, you dress sexy. Often times super not modest. Here, when they dress fancy, they dress... noble. And elegant.

Such a humble and inspiring people. I learned tons of other stuff, including the correct and most dope way to invite people to your party, but that's all I feel like typing right now. Ali tuta, wauki!

the LAST thing I thought I was going to learn in Ecuador

(The only reason I'm writing this is because it might be of SOME help to someone out there. Blogging about personal feelings/thoughts is super weird to me, please don't get used to me doing it haha)

(PS this is kind of centered around marriage and family, which I realize some people hear wayyy more of than what they'd like to, so if you're one of those people, I'm not judging you go watch cat videos instead I personally think they're hilarious and WAY more entertaining than people's thoughts)

Bueno

I'm here in Quito, Ecuador, working as an intern for the dream internship of all internships. Like, I honestly could not have thought of a better internship myself. 

Side note, this stuff happens to me all the time! Not in a braggy way, but in a "what is my life" and a "whyyyy am I so blessed" kind of way. Sometimes I feel that I'm part of some sort of weird elaborate experiment where everything dope that could happen to you happens to you and the results are still inconclusive to the controller so he just keeps laying on the dopeness and I'm just aight sweet thanks

anyways

I'm doing this dream internship and I thought coming here was going to be the best thing ever because included in the internship was 

• traveling the world, 
• being super independent,
• studying abroad, 
• and working in foreign countries. 

The most ULTIMATE package ever, right?

NOPE.

FREAKING, 

NOPE.

The biggest lesson I've learned down here? 

Marriage and family are the most important things. Period. 

To make it more clear, my thoughts before coming here regarding marriage/family went like this:

"I know getting married and starting a family are good things, and they sound fantastic, but give me some time- don’t know if I’m ready for that. And when I get married, I definitely want to take my time before kids and travel the world and stuff.” 

And now? Now that I’m actually “traveling the world and stuff?” Now I say: 

FORGET TRAVELING, MAN!! 

I want a family! I want a wife and I want to be an awesome husband and I want little niños!!! 

Yeah, weird, I know, how is that the big-takeaway from my travels. 

I don't know how this all happened either- maybe it's been my studies here (scriptural AND academic), the examples of amazing Ecuadorian families focusing on what's really important, watching romantic comedies, or complete cultural subversion. Who knows. Or, maybe I've snapped and this is all bananas.

It's funny, because my church teaches this stuff. It's actually a fundamental principle of our doctrine - marriage and family, that is- it's sanctity and their roles in our eternal whatever. Happiness. Joy, EVERYTHING

And God sent me alllllll the way to Ecuador to figure that out! (Hopefully to do some other stuff too.) He knew that I knew this stuff, but he also knew I didn't want it as much as I should have. To the point where traveling and getting smarter were bigger priorities to me. 

I consider God to be my Heavenly Father, and a very patient and loving one at that. This trip has been ample evidence of that.

I've done some pretty cool stuff so far, but I get the vibe that God knows what is absolutely most important for me, and that he's nudging me in the right direction. He can do the same for you, too.

Sorry for no pictures, my phone got robbed by a couple punks. I hope they open up my bible app and read about how evil stealing is and feel SUPER BAD ABOUT THEIR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY AND SPECIFICALLY ME

hope this helps! Stay sweet and faithful.

Scott