Our jungle trip was postponed because 2,000 barrels of oil spilled in the river of the jungle we were going to...bummer for the jungle and for us. So I am back in my pueblo, back to digging holes for sewage outside the houses :) See??? I do work sometimes! I even took a picture of the 2 meter hole I am digging to prove it but not sure when I can post it. For now use your imagination :)
If the river to the jungle is re-opened Anna-lee and I may be able to head out on Sunday..if not, not sure when I´ll go. Stay tuned.
So now I´m off to watch the locals surf near my house and maybe give it a try myself (one of these days).
Turns out they do celebrate Halloween a bit here so if I´m not in the jungle I´ll let you know what it´s like..I am sad to be missing Halloween in NYC which is always a blast.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Monday, October 15, 2007
So I think I can salsa :)
First things first, I received 2 packages!! So it turns out the address works but unless the package is the size of my hand it will end up in a larger city 2 hours away. But don´t worry the trip was worth it :) My lovely sister in law, Lori, sent me 5 LARGE bags of my favorite sweets - so much that even with my sweet tooth it may last the rest of my stay here. Unless the three year old, Noami, steals it of course. I also felt my first real pangs of nostalgia for home when I opened the package from my lovely college ladies - complete with US Weekly and a calendar of pics of lots of friends. If you are reading this you may be in the calendar - watch out! Nice job Karen. I got the packages on Thursday - a good start to another weekend hanging out with my new Ecuadorian friends.
Friday night 5 of us hung out at Julio´s apartment where he made dinner and some space cake (hope that doesn´t get me fired). He has a studio apt pretty just like one in New York is - and so far he´s the only person I know who lives alone so it seems to be the hangout spot.
Saturday Anna-Lee and I ventured to the nearby ´stadium´ where pueblos play soccer against eachother in organized leagues. One of the guys I work with had a game so we went to watch and cheer him on. Of course the game started about an hour and a half later than he told us to be there and he got pulled from the game in the middle of the first half. But at least we got to see some competitive soccer.
Saturday night was the anniversary of a small pueblo near where we live. A big tent was setup and there was a stage with a dj and a guy kind of running the show - encouraging people to dance or to rest etc. It was a blast - we literally danced for 4 or 5 hours. People don´t dance solo here - so you dance salsa or whatever the music calls for with the guys that are there..luckily for us we have become friends with a group of guys so we just stuck with them and their friends. They are good dancers and we just follow their lead and spin around, turn etc..I think we are getting better :) There is a downside that everyone hits the dancefloor and they play about 3 or 4 songs straight and noone sits down. So you are basically stuck out there with your partner for about 20 minutes. If the guy is pretty boring (meaning you just bob from one foot to the other for the most part) it can feel like a really long time. But for the most part it´s just a lot of fun - I love dancing here.
Anna-Lee and I are heading out of town again this weekend to meet up with the guides from Banos and next Monday we are going to Cuyabeno, a town in Western Ecuador in the jungle. I think we´ll be in the jungle for about 4 days. Should be a fun trip. Then sadly Anna-lee heads to Quito for the end of her stay in Ecuador, then Peru and Argentina and then she heads home to Australia. So I will be the lone gringa in the house as far as I know.
I should be able to post some more photos in Banos before I head to the jungle on Monday. Stay tuned.
Friday night 5 of us hung out at Julio´s apartment where he made dinner and some space cake (hope that doesn´t get me fired). He has a studio apt pretty just like one in New York is - and so far he´s the only person I know who lives alone so it seems to be the hangout spot.
Saturday Anna-Lee and I ventured to the nearby ´stadium´ where pueblos play soccer against eachother in organized leagues. One of the guys I work with had a game so we went to watch and cheer him on. Of course the game started about an hour and a half later than he told us to be there and he got pulled from the game in the middle of the first half. But at least we got to see some competitive soccer.
Saturday night was the anniversary of a small pueblo near where we live. A big tent was setup and there was a stage with a dj and a guy kind of running the show - encouraging people to dance or to rest etc. It was a blast - we literally danced for 4 or 5 hours. People don´t dance solo here - so you dance salsa or whatever the music calls for with the guys that are there..luckily for us we have become friends with a group of guys so we just stuck with them and their friends. They are good dancers and we just follow their lead and spin around, turn etc..I think we are getting better :) There is a downside that everyone hits the dancefloor and they play about 3 or 4 songs straight and noone sits down. So you are basically stuck out there with your partner for about 20 minutes. If the guy is pretty boring (meaning you just bob from one foot to the other for the most part) it can feel like a really long time. But for the most part it´s just a lot of fun - I love dancing here.
Anna-Lee and I are heading out of town again this weekend to meet up with the guides from Banos and next Monday we are going to Cuyabeno, a town in Western Ecuador in the jungle. I think we´ll be in the jungle for about 4 days. Should be a fun trip. Then sadly Anna-lee heads to Quito for the end of her stay in Ecuador, then Peru and Argentina and then she heads home to Australia. So I will be the lone gringa in the house as far as I know.
I should be able to post some more photos in Banos before I head to the jungle on Monday. Stay tuned.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Finally some local socializing...
Anna-Lee and I decided to hit the town in Puerto Lopez this weekend to see what goes on at night. This was my first weekend not traveling. The problem is that after 7pm no buses run and we live about a 15 minute busride from town. So we can´t get into town unless the oldest brother is there to drive us and the family charges us $5 if he is. Secondly, we can´t get back home very easily because there aren´t real cabs - just moto-taxis which are like mopeds with a carriage attached. They don´t like to go far out of town and at like midnight they charge you $10 - if there are even any around. So that´s why it´s not easy to go out when we are home for the weekend - and one reason we haven´t really stuck around. Back to the weekend..
So we paid Samuel $5 to take us into town around 9pm and it seemed pretty dead. There was one bar that had people in it so we went there and ordered a couple of beers. After a bit, a couple local surfers starting chatting with us and as always both knew the family we lived with - everyone knows everyone here which is actually kind of nice in terms of feeling safe with people who are otherwise strangers. These guys turned out to be the first ecuadorians we had met who had traveled outside the country. They had both been to europe - one just got back from several months in london learning english (too tough to get papers for US or Canada). They were on their way to Montanita for a big party and we decided to go along - at midnight it was Daniel´s bday - the one who just got back from London. The other guy´s name is Julio (I like to jokingly call him Febrero). These guys seemed a bit uppercrust here because they have traveled and Daniel was driving a pretty nice car - both oddities to us.
So anyway, we hopped in the car and started on our way to Montanita (about 40 minutes away). About 15 minutes into the drive..a bit past our house, Daniel realized he had forgotten to put more gas in the car and we were nearly on empty. Not a good sign at 11:30 at night. We stopped several times to check houses/stores for gas with no luck (no there are no 24 hour rest stops :)). At our last stop we were right near the beach and all hopped out. After we realized there was still no gas, we also realized the keys were now locked in the car. So we were stuck with no gas and no keys about a 40 minute walk from home in the pitch black..and it was midnight - Daniel´s bday. We had to laugh because what else can you do? The boys tried calling friends and parents but had no luck. After about an hour Julio managed to use some wire to jimmie the passenger-side door open and we were able to get into the car. We still had no gas. We decided to try to make it back to Puerto Lopez in the hopes of finding gas there. We nearly made it and of course the car died at the bottom of a hill right before the entrance into town. So we had to push the car up the hill and then coast into town. At this point it´s about 2am and there is no gas to be found anywhere and we have no way home. Anna-Lee and I had to wait for 3 hours for the 5am bus back to our house. Julio lives in a studio apt in Puerto Lopez so we hung out and listened to music and dozed until 5am. I wanted to cry I was so tired and wanted my bed!
So that was our first night out in Puerto Lopez :) The upside is that we made some local friends in Julio and Daniel and it was Daniel´s bday so we got invited to his bday dinner the following night. He lives in a pueblo not far from us - about a 20 minute walk. So Saturday night around 7pm after sleeping most of the day - we walked to Daniel´s. He hadn´t given us any directions because there are no roadsigns. When you get to someone´s pueblo, you just ask the first person you see where ¨Daniel´s¨ house is and they point you in the right direction. So that´s how we found it. When we got there the boys were hanging out with their surfer friends. So we sat down and they are always really nice and easy to talk to. Unfortunately, there rarely are any girls out because they generally get married very young and are bousewives who rarely leave their homes - especially once they have kids. So we really never meet girls to befriend...a not so positive cultural twist. These guys are actually unusual in that they are in their 20s and not married.
Saturday night was a bit less of an adventure but very fun. His mom cooked a huge feast of meat, corn, salad, desserts and there were probably about 20 people there. He lives in a big house by the standards here - pretty big by any standards. So we sat around and ate and talked and had a good time. Later in the evening there was dancing...it´s very fun to dance salsa and other dances here. The guys are really good leaders and Anna-lee and I laugh at ourselves as we follow along :) We also witnessed a couple of interesting bday traditions here. One is that the bday person gets hit with a belt by friends and family for how many years they are old..similar to our spanking tradition but it looks like it hurts a lot more. Daniel didn´t seem to mind. They also push the bday person´s face in the cake once it is brought out - then we all eat it anyway :) After a long night of eating, drinking and dancing we walked back home along the beach - much easier than from Puerto Lopez.
Yesterday I rode bikes with Julio to Agua Blanca, a large park with a lake that has sulfur in the bottom. It´s supposed to be really good for your skin. You dive down and get the mud and rub it on your skin, let it dry, then rinse. I have some pics of me covered in the stuff to be posted at a later date.
It was quite the socializing weekend. Now when I walk around town I recognize the surfer guys and have people to call/text to do things..quite the improvement on my otherwise non-existent social life :) I may also be taking up surfing soon...:)
So we paid Samuel $5 to take us into town around 9pm and it seemed pretty dead. There was one bar that had people in it so we went there and ordered a couple of beers. After a bit, a couple local surfers starting chatting with us and as always both knew the family we lived with - everyone knows everyone here which is actually kind of nice in terms of feeling safe with people who are otherwise strangers. These guys turned out to be the first ecuadorians we had met who had traveled outside the country. They had both been to europe - one just got back from several months in london learning english (too tough to get papers for US or Canada). They were on their way to Montanita for a big party and we decided to go along - at midnight it was Daniel´s bday - the one who just got back from London. The other guy´s name is Julio (I like to jokingly call him Febrero). These guys seemed a bit uppercrust here because they have traveled and Daniel was driving a pretty nice car - both oddities to us.
So anyway, we hopped in the car and started on our way to Montanita (about 40 minutes away). About 15 minutes into the drive..a bit past our house, Daniel realized he had forgotten to put more gas in the car and we were nearly on empty. Not a good sign at 11:30 at night. We stopped several times to check houses/stores for gas with no luck (no there are no 24 hour rest stops :)). At our last stop we were right near the beach and all hopped out. After we realized there was still no gas, we also realized the keys were now locked in the car. So we were stuck with no gas and no keys about a 40 minute walk from home in the pitch black..and it was midnight - Daniel´s bday. We had to laugh because what else can you do? The boys tried calling friends and parents but had no luck. After about an hour Julio managed to use some wire to jimmie the passenger-side door open and we were able to get into the car. We still had no gas. We decided to try to make it back to Puerto Lopez in the hopes of finding gas there. We nearly made it and of course the car died at the bottom of a hill right before the entrance into town. So we had to push the car up the hill and then coast into town. At this point it´s about 2am and there is no gas to be found anywhere and we have no way home. Anna-Lee and I had to wait for 3 hours for the 5am bus back to our house. Julio lives in a studio apt in Puerto Lopez so we hung out and listened to music and dozed until 5am. I wanted to cry I was so tired and wanted my bed!
So that was our first night out in Puerto Lopez :) The upside is that we made some local friends in Julio and Daniel and it was Daniel´s bday so we got invited to his bday dinner the following night. He lives in a pueblo not far from us - about a 20 minute walk. So Saturday night around 7pm after sleeping most of the day - we walked to Daniel´s. He hadn´t given us any directions because there are no roadsigns. When you get to someone´s pueblo, you just ask the first person you see where ¨Daniel´s¨ house is and they point you in the right direction. So that´s how we found it. When we got there the boys were hanging out with their surfer friends. So we sat down and they are always really nice and easy to talk to. Unfortunately, there rarely are any girls out because they generally get married very young and are bousewives who rarely leave their homes - especially once they have kids. So we really never meet girls to befriend...a not so positive cultural twist. These guys are actually unusual in that they are in their 20s and not married.
Saturday night was a bit less of an adventure but very fun. His mom cooked a huge feast of meat, corn, salad, desserts and there were probably about 20 people there. He lives in a big house by the standards here - pretty big by any standards. So we sat around and ate and talked and had a good time. Later in the evening there was dancing...it´s very fun to dance salsa and other dances here. The guys are really good leaders and Anna-lee and I laugh at ourselves as we follow along :) We also witnessed a couple of interesting bday traditions here. One is that the bday person gets hit with a belt by friends and family for how many years they are old..similar to our spanking tradition but it looks like it hurts a lot more. Daniel didn´t seem to mind. They also push the bday person´s face in the cake once it is brought out - then we all eat it anyway :) After a long night of eating, drinking and dancing we walked back home along the beach - much easier than from Puerto Lopez.
Yesterday I rode bikes with Julio to Agua Blanca, a large park with a lake that has sulfur in the bottom. It´s supposed to be really good for your skin. You dive down and get the mud and rub it on your skin, let it dry, then rinse. I have some pics of me covered in the stuff to be posted at a later date.
It was quite the socializing weekend. Now when I walk around town I recognize the surfer guys and have people to call/text to do things..quite the improvement on my otherwise non-existent social life :) I may also be taking up surfing soon...:)
Friday, October 5, 2007
Back home in my little pueblo...
I´ve settled back into things this week in my pueblo. My first day back to work on Tuesday, one of the guys went and bought a bottle of whiskey and soda water and just kept filling cups with shots and passing them around. Don´t ask me if the last house is a little crooked :) I only took one tiny shot - I wouldn´t want to be rude! That brought me right back to my coastal roots.
It´s good to be back in the house as well. We have been mostly hanging around at night listening to some Cat Stevens I bought because the oldest brother plays guitar and he knows It´s a Wild World...good old singalongs.
Yesterday afternoon I went out to take a stroll on the beach with Miguel and we ended up on an adventure - why would I have expected less? First he took me on a walk to a hostal that has 3 adorable little monkeys, 1 bigger monkey, 2 black labs and a bunch of birds. The caretaker let us into the grounds and the little monkeys were crawling all over me - adorable. The bigger monkey stayed with the caretaker and kept trying to hold his hand - so humanlike it´s uncanny. The best part was that the dogs and monkeys all play together. The little monkeys jump on the dogs´backs and the dogs try to wrestle them off. Very cute. We hung out for a while and petted and played with the little guys and the dogs. The bigger monkey was more shy. I´ll probably be wandering by there again to say hello. I did take pics but I can´t upload them here because the internet is too slow...soon!
Next we wandered back to the beach and walked back past the road to our house to some huge rock cliffs. Miguel told me that there was a pretty secluded beach on the other side of the cliff and we could climb over to it but it was a little dangerous. I figured I was up for an adventure...halfway up I wasn´t so sure. There was very little sure footing along the loosely named ´path´. I think I lost 10 pounds in sweat just out of fear I was gonna slip and fall to my death or at least break some bones. Once we finally made it to the top it was a beautiful view. I didn´t get to enjoy it for very long before Miguel was bounding down the other side. I wasn´t so sure I wanted to go down to the beach because I knew I´d have to climb back up but of course I followed.(Note that as we climbed up the rocks and then went down the more woodsy side complete with cactus, Miguel was barefoot and I had on sneakers.) I basically slid down on my butt to get to the beach while Miguel ran..whatever it takes I guess. The beach was tiny and protected on both sides by huge rocky cliffs. At high tide there is no beach, but it was low tide so we were able to walk along the rocks. We hung out for a while and enjoyed the views.
I was getting nervous about the time because I didn´t want to climb down the original cliff in the dark. Luckily, Miguel has university at night so we headed back up. Getting up was easy - probably because I was freaking out about the final descent. I had no idea how I was going to get down without breaking my neck. Turns out that Miguel basically had to climb before me and put my feet in place and hold them as I climbed down. Once again I tried not to look down. I obviously survived because I am writing this :) but I could not have been happier to get my feet back on the beach. I was filthy and sweaty and I have a picture of that too. But I was happy to have had an adventure with Miguel - hopefully he´ll take me on more since I survived. Of course to him I´m not sure it was such a big adventure. He kindly informed me that there is a much more difficult path and the one we took women of 40 and 50 years do :)
This is really my first whole weekend at the house and the guys I work with told me there is a dance in the outdoor bar near where we work so I´m hoping to get Anna-Lee and maybe some of the family to come with me tomorrow night for some dancing. I´ll keep you posted...
It´s good to be back in the house as well. We have been mostly hanging around at night listening to some Cat Stevens I bought because the oldest brother plays guitar and he knows It´s a Wild World...good old singalongs.
Yesterday afternoon I went out to take a stroll on the beach with Miguel and we ended up on an adventure - why would I have expected less? First he took me on a walk to a hostal that has 3 adorable little monkeys, 1 bigger monkey, 2 black labs and a bunch of birds. The caretaker let us into the grounds and the little monkeys were crawling all over me - adorable. The bigger monkey stayed with the caretaker and kept trying to hold his hand - so humanlike it´s uncanny. The best part was that the dogs and monkeys all play together. The little monkeys jump on the dogs´backs and the dogs try to wrestle them off. Very cute. We hung out for a while and petted and played with the little guys and the dogs. The bigger monkey was more shy. I´ll probably be wandering by there again to say hello. I did take pics but I can´t upload them here because the internet is too slow...soon!
Next we wandered back to the beach and walked back past the road to our house to some huge rock cliffs. Miguel told me that there was a pretty secluded beach on the other side of the cliff and we could climb over to it but it was a little dangerous. I figured I was up for an adventure...halfway up I wasn´t so sure. There was very little sure footing along the loosely named ´path´. I think I lost 10 pounds in sweat just out of fear I was gonna slip and fall to my death or at least break some bones. Once we finally made it to the top it was a beautiful view. I didn´t get to enjoy it for very long before Miguel was bounding down the other side. I wasn´t so sure I wanted to go down to the beach because I knew I´d have to climb back up but of course I followed.(Note that as we climbed up the rocks and then went down the more woodsy side complete with cactus, Miguel was barefoot and I had on sneakers.) I basically slid down on my butt to get to the beach while Miguel ran..whatever it takes I guess. The beach was tiny and protected on both sides by huge rocky cliffs. At high tide there is no beach, but it was low tide so we were able to walk along the rocks. We hung out for a while and enjoyed the views.
I was getting nervous about the time because I didn´t want to climb down the original cliff in the dark. Luckily, Miguel has university at night so we headed back up. Getting up was easy - probably because I was freaking out about the final descent. I had no idea how I was going to get down without breaking my neck. Turns out that Miguel basically had to climb before me and put my feet in place and hold them as I climbed down. Once again I tried not to look down. I obviously survived because I am writing this :) but I could not have been happier to get my feet back on the beach. I was filthy and sweaty and I have a picture of that too. But I was happy to have had an adventure with Miguel - hopefully he´ll take me on more since I survived. Of course to him I´m not sure it was such a big adventure. He kindly informed me that there is a much more difficult path and the one we took women of 40 and 50 years do :)
This is really my first whole weekend at the house and the guys I work with told me there is a dance in the outdoor bar near where we work so I´m hoping to get Anna-Lee and maybe some of the family to come with me tomorrow night for some dancing. I´ll keep you posted...
Monday, October 1, 2007
More photos from my first trip
I decided to pop into the internet cafe to put up some photos for my loyal readers :)
I also realized I forgot to mention a couple of things in my post below about the end of my trip so here you go...
When we went to lunch with the guys after rafting, we had a delicious lunch. It looked a little suspicious (as in we had no clue what we were eating) but it tasted great and we were starving so we ate it up without asking questions..generally my policy. After our plates were licked clean we were told we had just eaten monkey skin (piel de mano)...yum!
And now for a mini civic lesson. Yesterday was a very important voting day in Ecuador. They elected a new Assembly which eventually they hope will replace the current Congress which operates similarly to the US system with parties. Apparently the party system does not work very well because it is all political infighting (sound familiar?)so the president called for this new Assembly. This is what I gathered from taxi drivers in Cuenca and Guayaquil :) The streets were all packed with people and traffic yesterday as people were out to vote - pretty cool.
The other interesting/funny thing about the vote is that we found out about it Thursday night while we were at dinner. The English maitre de came over to warn us that no alcohol would be sold in Ecuador for the next three days because of the vote on Sunday - no craziness in Ecuador before the big vote!
Ok on to the photos cuz I know that´s what you want...don´t forget to read the rather lengthy post below for the stories behind the pictures. And if you want chronological order, look at the pics starting at the bottom.
Our feast in the mountains
The Incan road in the mountains outside Cuenca
After the breakfast shots and before the dancing in the mountains outside Cuenca..
Monkey Face (Cara de Mono) orchid in a greenhouse in Cuenca
The domes of the old cathedral in Cuenca
Views from the mountainous part of the trainride
Countryside during our trainride - one of the conductors rides on top
The rafting gang..Juank is on the left (hopefully he´ll take us to the jungle)
I also realized I forgot to mention a couple of things in my post below about the end of my trip so here you go...
When we went to lunch with the guys after rafting, we had a delicious lunch. It looked a little suspicious (as in we had no clue what we were eating) but it tasted great and we were starving so we ate it up without asking questions..generally my policy. After our plates were licked clean we were told we had just eaten monkey skin (piel de mano)...yum!
And now for a mini civic lesson. Yesterday was a very important voting day in Ecuador. They elected a new Assembly which eventually they hope will replace the current Congress which operates similarly to the US system with parties. Apparently the party system does not work very well because it is all political infighting (sound familiar?)so the president called for this new Assembly. This is what I gathered from taxi drivers in Cuenca and Guayaquil :) The streets were all packed with people and traffic yesterday as people were out to vote - pretty cool.
The other interesting/funny thing about the vote is that we found out about it Thursday night while we were at dinner. The English maitre de came over to warn us that no alcohol would be sold in Ecuador for the next three days because of the vote on Sunday - no craziness in Ecuador before the big vote!
Ok on to the photos cuz I know that´s what you want...don´t forget to read the rather lengthy post below for the stories behind the pictures. And if you want chronological order, look at the pics starting at the bottom.
Our feast in the mountains
The Incan road in the mountains outside Cuenca
After the breakfast shots and before the dancing in the mountains outside Cuenca..
Monkey Face (Cara de Mono) orchid in a greenhouse in Cuenca
The domes of the old cathedral in Cuenca
Views from the mountainous part of the trainride
Countryside during our trainride - one of the conductors rides on top
The rafting gang..Juank is on the left (hopefully he´ll take us to the jungle)
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