Mountains, New Constitution, and no beer (OK-still beer)

These are two images of my trip to Riobamba yesterday. When I come home, ask me for the video of these musicians playing, it is truly enjoyable.

Yesterday the vote for the new constitution of Ecuador took place, and in the end, Sí (yes) won with roughly 65% of the vote. This means Ecuador has now on their 21st constitution, and only time can tell if any of the 400 some articles will actually be enforced and change the country for the better. For me, it was an interesting time to compare the differences in election processes of Ecuador and the United States.

For example, There was a law forbidding the vending and consumption of alcohol for three days before and during the vote. Additionally, the vote took place on a Sunday, and was obligatory. You can extrapolate whatever you'd like from these differences, but the funniest manifestation of this was the back to back events of seeing a poor elderly foreigner being rejected at the grocery store while trying to buy bottles of wine, and walking out to the parking lot and viewing some younger fellow stumble out of his car, head into the grocery store with beer in hand, no later than 4pm.

So, yesterday I went to Riobamba, a town about 3 hours south of Quito in the Andes, with a friend who needed to vote in that area. I must say Riobamba is possibly the most beautiful town I have seen since my time here, as the parks, colonial edifices and history are well-kept and rich in history. The experience was complete with a visit to the traditional tortilla joint, in business over 100 years now with the same recipe (a type of corn meal mashed into a ball with a bit of cheese inside-Yum!)

But the best jem of all was the luck we had in being able to see the three main mountains surrounding Riobamba, Chimborazo, El Altar, and Tungurahua completely clear (almost always they obscured by clouds) Chimborazo is in fact the closest point to the sun in the entire world, Altar is the steepest climb in all of the Andes and Tungurahua has been actively destroying villages, roads, and the surrounding countryside since 1999 with its volcanic activity. Coincidentially, I have chosen this mountain as my geology project of choice for this semester. More on what I find out about Tungurahua later.

Unfortunately I have class but my next post will have the attached photoalbum link :)