Sorry to have kept my loyal readers in suspense for so long - firstly I had a visitor for twelve days, and then the internet at my house died unexpectedly. I have spent the last several days sitting on my roof with my computer and dish antenna, trying to get connected to the rest of the world, and it just isn't happening. Right now I'm in a café with Liz, who also has no internet at her house.
Anyway, Craig got here on April 9th, three days earlier than he had originally planned. Since he was quitting his old job, his boss didn’t feel like flying him to the coference, so he told him he could stop working a week early and would still be paid. So he came down here on Wednesday instead of Saturday.
Craig's lunch on his first full day here:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1984.jpg
An unexpected hailstorm as we were leaving for Baños:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1985.jpg
The first weekend he was here, we went to Baños with Marie and Liz. Just getting there was an adventure. We grabbed a cab on Amazonas, and when I said “Terminal Terrestre, por favor,” the poor cabbie put his head in his hands and gave me a look that said, “Is that really necessary? Why me, God?” I saw why when we had to drive half way around the city, and then through a foot and a half of moving water in a flooded tunnel, and then over a washed-out road that had lost half its pavement. It was a $15 ride, where most rides within the city are $2 or $3. Once we were at the station, it was a four-hour bus ride…that turned into a six-and-a-half-hour bus ride when part of Tungurahua fell into the road. This is Ecuador: there’s no such thing as getting somewhere in a hurry. We got so bored sitting in the stopped bus that we started goofing around, climbing over each other, leaning out the windows, laughing at stuff that really wasn’t funny, and all the other wonderful stuff that comes from being trapped in a tin can in the dark for an undisclosed amount of time.
When we finally got there, we grabbed the first hostel we found, which turned out be unfortunate. It was inexpensive, but there was a mysterious puddle of muddy water in the bathroom, an open window between our bedroom and Marie and Liz’s bathroom, and apparently noise in the hall all night. Us three girls slept through it all, but when I woke up, I encountered an exceedingly grumpy Craig who hadn’t slept all night due to drunk yelling and rolling gas canisters. While sleeping through fire alarms may be dangerous, there are times when I’m extremely grateful to sleep as heavily as I do.
Anyway, that night we took a chiva (bus with a place to sit on the roof) halfway up the mountain. We thought it would take us all the way up, but apparently not; I guess it’s too dangerous for them to be dragging tourists up there. We stopped in a place that had grilled kebabs and people juggling fire, then went back down to the hostel. Tired from the stupid bus ride, we crashed early.
Cat on the hill:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/Pix%20from%20Liz/CT018.jpg
City from the mountain:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/Pix%20from%20Liz/CT008.jpg
Random grafitti:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/Pix%20from%20Liz/CT001.jpg
The next day we had breakfast in another hostel with a café, then wandered through town, what little there was of it. We took pictures off a bridge on one side of town, then found a small park with pretty trees and a friendly cat. Craig bought swim shorts and sandals in town, and Liz bought a bathing suit, and then we set about finding the thermal baths. After all, the town is named Baños for a reason.
Craig and I in the park:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/Pix%20from%20Liz/CT056.jpg
Flowers in the park:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/Pix%20from%20Liz/CT054.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/Pix%20from%20Liz/CT053.jpg
Can you get inappropriate with a poster? Craig finds a way:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/Pix%20from%20Liz/CT046.jpg
The scariest trash can I've ever seen:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/Pix%20from%20Liz/CT045.jpg
Advice for your safety: if the volcano explodes, hike!
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/Pix%20from%20Liz/CT043.jpg
Craig and I on the bridge:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/Pix%20from%20Liz/CT039.jpg
We found the most popular bath and dragged all our stuff upstairs to the changing rooms. Unfortunately Craig’s new shorts were too small, so he sat and watched our stuff while the three of us went in the pools. We weren’t there long, although it was nice. After we had changed back into our clothes, we walked back to a place we had passed along the way that was renting ATVs and motorcycles. We rented a pair of dune buggies for three hours and took off, following a very badly-drawn map to a mysterious waterfall. After a couple of wrong turns and turn-arounds, we found the waterfall and stopped to eat lunch. I spilled most of my lunch on the ground and had to eat my chicken with a spoon, but it was still fun. After we ate we took it in turns to watch the backpacks while going on a little gondola-type-thing over the river to the other side, where the waterfall was. It was probably a 400-foot drop from the little metal people-basket to the bottom of the gorge, but remarkably I didn’t find it scary.
I got to drive the dune buggy back into town, which was the highlight of the day for me; I haven’t driven so much as a bicycle since I’ve been here, and it’s one of the things I miss most. I’m considering renting a motorcycle for a day before I leave, if I can save up the money. Anyway, we bought some taffy, something Baños is known for, stopped for lunch (again) in a café, and then found the bus back home. We were lucky and got to the station just in time to catch the last bus of the day back to Quito. There were no landslides or other disasters, and we made it back to the city in four hours. There was a gorgeous view of the volcano Cotopaxi on the way, as the sun was setting – the color of the horizon blended into the color of the base of the mountain, making it look like the peak was floating.
The Ecovía questioning your religion?
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1988.jpg
Quito, the City of Miscellaneous Holes:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1990.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1998.jpg
...and of Frightening Electrical Wiring Jobs:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1997.jpg
Sometime during the week we wandered into south Quito and found the Panecillo. I had been there before, on my first trip four years ago, but I didn’t remember the incredible view of the city. We climbed inside the statue, took pictures of the view, and then tried to find a cab to take us back down. There was one driver who asked us where we wanted to go, and then ignored us in favor of someone else. There was only one other cab on the hill, and when I asked him if he would take us to La Marín, he said something unintelligible and then told us to wait. He wandered off, returned five minutes later and said he was looking for someone, then wandered off again. While we waited, I bought a popsicle and sat down to eat it while Craig wandered around taking more picures. The cab driver came back again ten minutes later and said, “Ok, let’s go.” We got in the car and took off, and the two of us exchanged the same look when we were overcome by the smell of pot in the cab. “Oh well,” I shrugged. “It’s not like they drive well here anyway.”
We made it to La Marin just fine, though, and wandered around in the south district for a little while before heading back to the north. It wasn’t that same day, but a different afternoon that we headed into La Marin to wander around. We found a mall that seemed to consist entirely of vendors of stolen electronics, and being the pair of geeks we are, I think we must have spent two hours there. Craig found a two-way handheld and had me ask how much it was. The vendor told me $60, and I translated while Craig bargained the guy down to $50. When we walked away, radio in hand and a huge grin on his face, I asked him what was so special about it. “See this?” he asked, pointing to white letters inscribed on the front that said LAPD. I nodded. “This is a Motorola Saber Astro, from the LAPD. I can sell this on eBay for $400.”
“Are you serious?!” He nodded and kept grinning. "Leave it to you to take a vacation and find a way to make money." We left the radio at my house so it would be safe, and by the end of the week, he had decided to sell his own radio and keep the new one for himself.
It was around that same time that the internet at my house went down. We did everything we could think of to fix it, but nothing worked, and by the time he left I still had no connection. We had been planning to spend the second weekend in Otavalo, but we woke up at 9am on Saturday morning…and then 10am…and then 11am. At that point I poked him and said, “I don’t know how late the buses leave from Otavalo.” “And I don’t care,” he said, and rolled over and went back to sleep. He said later that he was letting me sleep because I was sick, but I think he just wanted to sleep. Not that I objected – I’ve already seen Otavalo, and I do like my sleep.
Friday night we went to Nobar. Marie and Liz have been there several times, but it was the first time I had been back since the first unfortunate incident our second weekend in Quito. We had a good time dancing and trying to get Liz to dance with some guy who spoke neither Spanish nor English and couldn't understand a word we were saying.
Craig at Nobar:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_2002.jpg
Braulio at Nobar:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_2004.jpg
Craig and I with the owner of our favorite restaurant, an Argentinian steakhouse:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_2005.jpg
So as I said in the beginning, I’ve spent the last several days sitting on the roof with my computer, geeking out and tweaking my technology in the hope of find the civilized world. I’ve had minimal success, and today is not a good day to continue, as it’s raining. We had a little party at my place last night, and when my friends arrived, I was sitting on the roof-peak, wrapped in wires and having a conversation with my computer. (Well, I was actually having a conversation with Craig, but it appeared I was talking to my computer because I wasn’t wearing a headset.) I threw down the keys so Marie could let them all in, and then climbed down to the balcony, where we hung out for hours drinking, eating popcorn, taking pictures and laughing at each other.
I'm sure I've left a lot out of this entry, but at least you all know I'm still alive. I'll think of the rest later and post it another time. I also have more pictures, but have been unable to upload the largest ones due to the fact that Ecuador seems to have very little bandwidth anywhere.
Showing posts with label traveling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label traveling. Show all posts
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Monday, March 31, 2008
Mindo
Went on another two-day trip this weekend, this time to Mindo with the school. We left almost on time for once, only twenty-five minutes after scheduled departure, and arrived in Mindo two hours later. The hotel was pretty, actually made up of a bunch of separate buildings connected by paths and separated by trees. Our guide told us to put our stuff in our rooms and meet back in the center dressed in clothes that could get wet.
Our room:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1910.jpg
View from the balcony:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1911.jpg
More balcony view:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1912.jpg
Liz and I had heard a rumor that we were going white-water rafting, and we weren’t sure we wanted to go. I nearly begged off, given my unfortunate history with water, but we decided to at least put on our bathing suits and see where they were taking us. We met with the rest of the group and climbed back onto the bus. It was only a ten-minute drive to the edge of a river, where there was a small rocky beach and a truck full of black inner tubes. The tubes were roped together seven at a time into large rafts, and we were given life jackets and helmets and told how to properly sit and hold onto the rafts.
Each raft had two guides with it to steer. I didn’t bring my camera because I didn’t want to get it wet, but Morgan took some pictures that hopefully she’ll email to me, and I can post them later. The river was white water, all right, full of large rocks and “holes” and little waterfalls. The water was freezing cold, but I had had the sense to put jeans and a t-shirt over my bathing suit, so I wasn’t miserable. In fact, it was pretty damn fun. I felt like the raft was going to tip over a couple of times, but it didn’t, and when we arrived at the end point, we were all disappointed that the trip was so short.
Liz with a raft:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1946.jpg
Lunch was in the hotel restaurant; I don’t remember exactly what we ate, but everything they served us there was comida típica, which we’re all starting to get a little tired of. In the afternoon we went on a short hike to the mariposaria, or butterfly aviary. That was where I took the most pictures. The butterflies were neat (although unfortunately the only Blue Morphos we saw were dead!), and there was a huge spider that was probably the most picture-worthy of all.
Hotel dining room:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1915.jpg
Butterflies:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1917.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1919.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1920.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1921.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1923.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1924.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1925.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1927.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1929.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1930.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1931.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1932.jpg
Flowers and plants:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1926.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1935.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1937.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1938.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1939.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1940.jpg
Spider:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1934.jpg
Mariposaria:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1941.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1943.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1933.jpg
After the hike, we were looking forward to a rest, but instead they took us on the bus into the town of Mindo proper, and told us we had an hour and a half to wander. I don’t know what they expected us to do for that long, because Mindo is a tiny town, but they told us that if we wanted to, we were free to come back to the bus early and sit inside. Ali and Liz and I wandered around town for about forty-five minutes, then decided to return to the bus. When we got there, though, the driver was nowhere in sight, and the bus was closed. Ali tried to climb in through an open window, but didn’t quite make it, so we wandered off again. Liz bought a soda, and the three of us sat on a bench and waited.
Sign in the marketplace:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1944.jpg
(Translation: “We pierce ears, nosez, navels, painless and free.” Yeah, sure.)
Statue in the park:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1949.jpg
While we were parked there, Ali suddenly had another idea for how she might climb into the bus. Back we went, and this time she managed to get all the way up and into the open window. Then she opened the door and let us in, and closed it again. We sat in the dark in the back of the bus until the driver showed up again, and then we crouched down and hid. I’m not honestly sure why we hid, but we waited until more people came on the bus before sitting up again, and I don’t think the driver ever noticed that we broke into his bus. We could even have stolen it, as he had left the keys inside…but none of us had driven such a large bus before, so we contented ourselves with just breaking and entering.
Ali climbing the bus:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1955.jpg
Ali successfully in the bus!
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1956.jpg
We crashed early after dinner, and the three of us decided to skip the hike the next morning. Our guide told us it was two hours to the top, a quick swim in a waterfall, and an hour back down. So we got up in time to eat breakfast with everyone else, and then spent the morning lounging by the pool, reading and sunning ourselves, and agreeing that that was a much better alternative to an exhausting hike. I read through another large chunk of the question pool in my geek book over the weekend, and I’m doing really well. I can’t wait to take my license test when I get back to the States.
The drive back to Quito after lunch was dreary, rainy, and uneventful. I was in bus coma the entire time, just sitting and listening to music and looking around, not talking to anybody and not sleeping. For quite a while, Liz and I were the only ones awake aside from the driver, which was fine with me. People started waking up again once we hit Pichinca province, and we got back to the school about six o’clock.
Spectacular storm clouds in Quito this afternoon:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1958.jpg
Our room:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1910.jpg
View from the balcony:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1911.jpg
More balcony view:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1912.jpg
Liz and I had heard a rumor that we were going white-water rafting, and we weren’t sure we wanted to go. I nearly begged off, given my unfortunate history with water, but we decided to at least put on our bathing suits and see where they were taking us. We met with the rest of the group and climbed back onto the bus. It was only a ten-minute drive to the edge of a river, where there was a small rocky beach and a truck full of black inner tubes. The tubes were roped together seven at a time into large rafts, and we were given life jackets and helmets and told how to properly sit and hold onto the rafts.
Each raft had two guides with it to steer. I didn’t bring my camera because I didn’t want to get it wet, but Morgan took some pictures that hopefully she’ll email to me, and I can post them later. The river was white water, all right, full of large rocks and “holes” and little waterfalls. The water was freezing cold, but I had had the sense to put jeans and a t-shirt over my bathing suit, so I wasn’t miserable. In fact, it was pretty damn fun. I felt like the raft was going to tip over a couple of times, but it didn’t, and when we arrived at the end point, we were all disappointed that the trip was so short.
Liz with a raft:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1946.jpg
Lunch was in the hotel restaurant; I don’t remember exactly what we ate, but everything they served us there was comida típica, which we’re all starting to get a little tired of. In the afternoon we went on a short hike to the mariposaria, or butterfly aviary. That was where I took the most pictures. The butterflies were neat (although unfortunately the only Blue Morphos we saw were dead!), and there was a huge spider that was probably the most picture-worthy of all.
Hotel dining room:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1915.jpg
Butterflies:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1917.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1919.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1920.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1921.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1923.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1924.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1925.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1927.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1929.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1930.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1931.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1932.jpg
Flowers and plants:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1926.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1935.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1937.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1938.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1939.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1940.jpg
Spider:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1934.jpg
Mariposaria:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1941.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1943.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1933.jpg
After the hike, we were looking forward to a rest, but instead they took us on the bus into the town of Mindo proper, and told us we had an hour and a half to wander. I don’t know what they expected us to do for that long, because Mindo is a tiny town, but they told us that if we wanted to, we were free to come back to the bus early and sit inside. Ali and Liz and I wandered around town for about forty-five minutes, then decided to return to the bus. When we got there, though, the driver was nowhere in sight, and the bus was closed. Ali tried to climb in through an open window, but didn’t quite make it, so we wandered off again. Liz bought a soda, and the three of us sat on a bench and waited.
Sign in the marketplace:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1944.jpg
(Translation: “We pierce ears, nosez, navels, painless and free.” Yeah, sure.)
Statue in the park:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1949.jpg
While we were parked there, Ali suddenly had another idea for how she might climb into the bus. Back we went, and this time she managed to get all the way up and into the open window. Then she opened the door and let us in, and closed it again. We sat in the dark in the back of the bus until the driver showed up again, and then we crouched down and hid. I’m not honestly sure why we hid, but we waited until more people came on the bus before sitting up again, and I don’t think the driver ever noticed that we broke into his bus. We could even have stolen it, as he had left the keys inside…but none of us had driven such a large bus before, so we contented ourselves with just breaking and entering.
Ali climbing the bus:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1955.jpg
Ali successfully in the bus!
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1956.jpg
We crashed early after dinner, and the three of us decided to skip the hike the next morning. Our guide told us it was two hours to the top, a quick swim in a waterfall, and an hour back down. So we got up in time to eat breakfast with everyone else, and then spent the morning lounging by the pool, reading and sunning ourselves, and agreeing that that was a much better alternative to an exhausting hike. I read through another large chunk of the question pool in my geek book over the weekend, and I’m doing really well. I can’t wait to take my license test when I get back to the States.
The drive back to Quito after lunch was dreary, rainy, and uneventful. I was in bus coma the entire time, just sitting and listening to music and looking around, not talking to anybody and not sleeping. For quite a while, Liz and I were the only ones awake aside from the driver, which was fine with me. People started waking up again once we hit Pichinca province, and we got back to the school about six o’clock.
Spectacular storm clouds in Quito this afternoon:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1958.jpg
Friday, March 28, 2008
A Weekend Up North
Originally the three of us, Marie and Liz and I, had plans to go to Tulcán and Ipiales this past weekend. But as we were making said plans, I realized that registering my visa on Thursday would leave me without my passport for the weekend, so I couldn't leave the country...and once I told Marie how dangerous Colombia is for Americans, she didn't want to go either. So she told Eduardo that we didn't want to go, and he obediently changed plans. I was a little surprised that he didn't put up a fight, but figured that maybe he actually understood the danger of getting us kidnapped.
Classes ended Wednesday for the week of Easter holidays, and my mom went to the beach for the weekend. Thursday night, I went out with Liz, Marie, Braulio, and Jhemardín to Dragonfly. We had a couple of drinks and then couldn't decide where else to go. Eventually Braulio and Jhemardín went their own way, and us three girls headed back to my house. We hung out for several hours, goofing around and taking silly pictures and enjoying having time to ourselves in a comfortable house-space instead of a club.
Exploring the roof:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1718.jpg
Me and Marie, unable to peel ourselves off the floor for laughter:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1758.jpg
Me and Liz:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1767.jpg
We took off on Friday afternoon for Cotacachi. We found a nice hostal with a room for the four of us, dropped off our stuff, and wandered around the small artesan market in the center of town. After that we went down the road to a large party that was happening in honor of Semana Santa. There was a far more extensive artesan market, and when we reached the end of that, we found a concert being played by a rock band called Los Búfalo. Their music was an interesting mix of straight-up rock and Latino dance music. We hung out for a while and watched, then walked back toward town for dinner, which we found in a small, nice, and inexpensive restaurant.
Awesome stage setup:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1779.jpg
Me goofing around after dinner (yes, I did fall on my head when I was done; and yes, I was perfectly sober):
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1784.jpg
As I was sitting in the lobby of the hostal before going to bed, a large parade started going by outside the window. It struck me as an odd hour for a parade at 10:30 at night, but it went on for half an hour or so. The funniest part was the people walking behind the shoulder-carried floats carrying rolls of electrical cable, and following them, the people pushing gas-powered electrical generators...all to keep the lights on the floats lit.
The next morning we had breakfast in the hotel and then took off for Ibarra. Eduardo had told us that we would be staying at his friend's hacienda in Ibarra. Well, we met his friends in Ibarra...but when we had been driving an hour past the (very small) town, I began to wonder where exactly we were going. Clearly it wasn't Ibarra. As we were taking a drink-break on the side of the road and waiting for the rest of our vehicular caravan to show up, Craig called me and asked where we were. I told him I honestly had no idea, but with the few clues I had, he managed to find us on a map, and then unhappily informed me that we were under six miles from the border of Colombia.
Marie with my lion in Ibarra:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1789.jpg
When I confronted Eduardo with that information he admitted that yes, we were in fact where Craig thought we were. I relayed that back over the phone, and recieved some muttered threats against Edu for lying to us about our destination. When Marie asked him again a few minutes later to confirm where we were, he changed his mind and said Ibarra. But having already admitted once to the truth, I wasn't buying it.
As we got going again, I told Craig I would text him town names if I saw them, and then we promptly dropped out of cell reception. We drove half an hour up the side of a mountain, into the middle of nowhere, and stopped at...I had no idea what it was. None of us had a clue where we were, and I was miles out of cell reception. The countryside was beautiful, but we were confused. Eventually we figured out that we were at a bull-fighting ring, and some of the people we were with started setting out a picnic underneath a shabby shelter above the ring. At least, they claimed to be...but food did not appear for a couple of hours, only more booze.
Bored and goofy in the middle of nowhere:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1792.jpg
By three o'clock, we were still hungry, and bulls had not appeared - but Liz and I were quite happy with the rum selection. We were probably there about five hours in total. The food, when it finally showed up, was good, and helped us to sober up before we fell in the bull ring. A bunch of the guys went and got out pink and yellow capes and started playing with them, and then the natives who seemed to run the place started letting the bulls in the ring. They were young bulls, not the full-grown variety, but they were still dangerous. Edu got run straight over and somersaulted backwards head-over-heels, which panicked Marie but was rather spectacular to watch.
Torreando:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1798.jpg
Bull-fighting (video):
http://s258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/Videos/?action=view¤t=100_1799torreando.flv
A walk in beautiful countryside:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1802.jpg
More countryside:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1806.jpg
As twilight fell, the bulls were put back in their pens and the food and drinks packed away...but the car that had been providing music had run out of battery. Another car was brought around to jump it, but once that was done, the guys managed to get BOTH cars stuck on a hill. All of us women stood and watched and laughed hysterically while the guys struggled for half an hour to get the cars up the hill. It was fully dark and damn cold by the time they figured it out. Marie, Liz, Edu, and I had seats in José's mini-SUV, which was definitely the best place to be. He's the owner of the hacienda, so he knows the area very well, and we went bombing down the side of the mountain so hard we were hitting our heads on the ceiling.
When we appeared back on the cell map, I called Craig to tell him I was still alive. The hacienda was ten or fifteen minutes from the ring, at the base of the mountain. When we got there I hung up so I could take my stuff inside. I had reception in the driveway, but when I got inside, my reception dropped out again. I was going to go outside to return his call, but my phone was out of juice, so I plugged it in and left it to charge.
The first thing I saw when I walked in the door of the ranch was something strewn across the floor under my feet. I pointed out that something had broken - it looked like pieces of a flowerpot at first - and someone pointed up. Following the gesture, I saw that it was actually a large piece of the ceiling that had fallen in. Wincing at what that might mean for the rest of the place, I followed whoever it was that knew where we were sleeping. Once again, the four of us were sharing a room, and I winced again when I walked in the door. It was musty, stale, dank, and dirty, and the two obscenely large guard dogs had followed us in and were walking on the beds. Shooing the beasts out was a problem in itself, but we eventually managed to shut them out.
Playing darts in the hacienda:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1810.jpg
Now, I'm not generally picky about the sort of places I stay in. As long as they meet some standard of decency, I'm fine - but the hacienda didn't meet any standard I could possibly name. I sat on the couch in the main room to join everyone else who was sitting around and talking and snacking, and nearly leaped up again when the springs tried to bite me in unmentionable places. It was the sort of furniture that you were afraid to sit on for fear of what might scuttle out when you did.
Dinner was the leftovers of lunch. After we ate, I wrapped myself in a blanket (my own; I refused to touch the ones already in the room) and went outside to hunt for cell. I found enough to assure Craig that I was still alive and not mad at him as he had been afraid of. When I came back in, Marie and Liz had made my bed with the blankets and pillow I brought. I appreciate the gesture, so I slept in the bed, even though I had been planning to sleep on the floor, as it seemed to be the cleaner option. I slept horribly; I didn't dare to roll over for fear I might touch some part of the bed, and I was freezing cold the entire night.
Entranceway:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1813.jpg
Guard-beast:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1814.jpg
At nine o'clock the next morning we were awoken by a loud, rude pounding on the door. We all nearly jumped out of our skins, then settled back into bed and started lazily talking and slowly waking up. A few minutes later, someone fired three shots right outside our window, and we all nearly died of a collective heart attack a second time. When that didn't get us to appear in the kitchen (by then, because were just plain pissed off), someone opened the door, let the dogs in, and closed them in with us. Our yells of protest brought no sympathy, so Liz leaped out of bed and kicked out the beasts.
"Breakfast" was sandwiches made of the equivalent of Wonderbread, obscenely chemically preserved ham, and mustard. We all agreed with horrified looks that the shower was not to be touched without a hazmat suit, then got dressed and went outside, following the sound of more gunshots. In the car the afternoon before I had been introduced to one of our "bodyguards'" guns, a Glock .40. Three of the guys on the trip were carrying, and I was excited by the idea that we might get in some target practice.
I only got in one shot, which I don't count as "practice," but I hit what I aimed at, which made me happy. Liz even got a video of said shot with my camera.
Shoot 'em up (video):
http://s258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/Videos/?action=view¤t=100_1812glock.flv
Odd pic with spent casings:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1815.jpg
Hacienda's yard:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1816.jpg
Main room:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1820.jpg
We took off relatively early, around ten o'clock, and had lunch in Ibarra, then finished the drive back to Quito uneventfully, with the one exception of viewing a rather spectacular car wreck.
Can you find the car??? Hint, it's silver:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1831.jpg
Though it was nice to get out of the house for the weekend, the fact that I count myself lucky not to have fleas now is rather more disturbing than I was aiming for.
Classes ended Wednesday for the week of Easter holidays, and my mom went to the beach for the weekend. Thursday night, I went out with Liz, Marie, Braulio, and Jhemardín to Dragonfly. We had a couple of drinks and then couldn't decide where else to go. Eventually Braulio and Jhemardín went their own way, and us three girls headed back to my house. We hung out for several hours, goofing around and taking silly pictures and enjoying having time to ourselves in a comfortable house-space instead of a club.
Exploring the roof:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1718.jpg
Me and Marie, unable to peel ourselves off the floor for laughter:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1758.jpg
Me and Liz:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1767.jpg
We took off on Friday afternoon for Cotacachi. We found a nice hostal with a room for the four of us, dropped off our stuff, and wandered around the small artesan market in the center of town. After that we went down the road to a large party that was happening in honor of Semana Santa. There was a far more extensive artesan market, and when we reached the end of that, we found a concert being played by a rock band called Los Búfalo. Their music was an interesting mix of straight-up rock and Latino dance music. We hung out for a while and watched, then walked back toward town for dinner, which we found in a small, nice, and inexpensive restaurant.
Awesome stage setup:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1779.jpg
Me goofing around after dinner (yes, I did fall on my head when I was done; and yes, I was perfectly sober):
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1784.jpg
As I was sitting in the lobby of the hostal before going to bed, a large parade started going by outside the window. It struck me as an odd hour for a parade at 10:30 at night, but it went on for half an hour or so. The funniest part was the people walking behind the shoulder-carried floats carrying rolls of electrical cable, and following them, the people pushing gas-powered electrical generators...all to keep the lights on the floats lit.
The next morning we had breakfast in the hotel and then took off for Ibarra. Eduardo had told us that we would be staying at his friend's hacienda in Ibarra. Well, we met his friends in Ibarra...but when we had been driving an hour past the (very small) town, I began to wonder where exactly we were going. Clearly it wasn't Ibarra. As we were taking a drink-break on the side of the road and waiting for the rest of our vehicular caravan to show up, Craig called me and asked where we were. I told him I honestly had no idea, but with the few clues I had, he managed to find us on a map, and then unhappily informed me that we were under six miles from the border of Colombia.
Marie with my lion in Ibarra:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1789.jpg
When I confronted Eduardo with that information he admitted that yes, we were in fact where Craig thought we were. I relayed that back over the phone, and recieved some muttered threats against Edu for lying to us about our destination. When Marie asked him again a few minutes later to confirm where we were, he changed his mind and said Ibarra. But having already admitted once to the truth, I wasn't buying it.
As we got going again, I told Craig I would text him town names if I saw them, and then we promptly dropped out of cell reception. We drove half an hour up the side of a mountain, into the middle of nowhere, and stopped at...I had no idea what it was. None of us had a clue where we were, and I was miles out of cell reception. The countryside was beautiful, but we were confused. Eventually we figured out that we were at a bull-fighting ring, and some of the people we were with started setting out a picnic underneath a shabby shelter above the ring. At least, they claimed to be...but food did not appear for a couple of hours, only more booze.
Bored and goofy in the middle of nowhere:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1792.jpg
By three o'clock, we were still hungry, and bulls had not appeared - but Liz and I were quite happy with the rum selection. We were probably there about five hours in total. The food, when it finally showed up, was good, and helped us to sober up before we fell in the bull ring. A bunch of the guys went and got out pink and yellow capes and started playing with them, and then the natives who seemed to run the place started letting the bulls in the ring. They were young bulls, not the full-grown variety, but they were still dangerous. Edu got run straight over and somersaulted backwards head-over-heels, which panicked Marie but was rather spectacular to watch.
Torreando:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1798.jpg
Bull-fighting (video):
http://s258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/Videos/?action=view¤t=100_1799torreando.flv
A walk in beautiful countryside:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1802.jpg
More countryside:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1806.jpg
As twilight fell, the bulls were put back in their pens and the food and drinks packed away...but the car that had been providing music had run out of battery. Another car was brought around to jump it, but once that was done, the guys managed to get BOTH cars stuck on a hill. All of us women stood and watched and laughed hysterically while the guys struggled for half an hour to get the cars up the hill. It was fully dark and damn cold by the time they figured it out. Marie, Liz, Edu, and I had seats in José's mini-SUV, which was definitely the best place to be. He's the owner of the hacienda, so he knows the area very well, and we went bombing down the side of the mountain so hard we were hitting our heads on the ceiling.
When we appeared back on the cell map, I called Craig to tell him I was still alive. The hacienda was ten or fifteen minutes from the ring, at the base of the mountain. When we got there I hung up so I could take my stuff inside. I had reception in the driveway, but when I got inside, my reception dropped out again. I was going to go outside to return his call, but my phone was out of juice, so I plugged it in and left it to charge.
The first thing I saw when I walked in the door of the ranch was something strewn across the floor under my feet. I pointed out that something had broken - it looked like pieces of a flowerpot at first - and someone pointed up. Following the gesture, I saw that it was actually a large piece of the ceiling that had fallen in. Wincing at what that might mean for the rest of the place, I followed whoever it was that knew where we were sleeping. Once again, the four of us were sharing a room, and I winced again when I walked in the door. It was musty, stale, dank, and dirty, and the two obscenely large guard dogs had followed us in and were walking on the beds. Shooing the beasts out was a problem in itself, but we eventually managed to shut them out.
Playing darts in the hacienda:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1810.jpg
Now, I'm not generally picky about the sort of places I stay in. As long as they meet some standard of decency, I'm fine - but the hacienda didn't meet any standard I could possibly name. I sat on the couch in the main room to join everyone else who was sitting around and talking and snacking, and nearly leaped up again when the springs tried to bite me in unmentionable places. It was the sort of furniture that you were afraid to sit on for fear of what might scuttle out when you did.
Dinner was the leftovers of lunch. After we ate, I wrapped myself in a blanket (my own; I refused to touch the ones already in the room) and went outside to hunt for cell. I found enough to assure Craig that I was still alive and not mad at him as he had been afraid of. When I came back in, Marie and Liz had made my bed with the blankets and pillow I brought. I appreciate the gesture, so I slept in the bed, even though I had been planning to sleep on the floor, as it seemed to be the cleaner option. I slept horribly; I didn't dare to roll over for fear I might touch some part of the bed, and I was freezing cold the entire night.
Entranceway:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1813.jpg
Guard-beast:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1814.jpg
At nine o'clock the next morning we were awoken by a loud, rude pounding on the door. We all nearly jumped out of our skins, then settled back into bed and started lazily talking and slowly waking up. A few minutes later, someone fired three shots right outside our window, and we all nearly died of a collective heart attack a second time. When that didn't get us to appear in the kitchen (by then, because were just plain pissed off), someone opened the door, let the dogs in, and closed them in with us. Our yells of protest brought no sympathy, so Liz leaped out of bed and kicked out the beasts.
"Breakfast" was sandwiches made of the equivalent of Wonderbread, obscenely chemically preserved ham, and mustard. We all agreed with horrified looks that the shower was not to be touched without a hazmat suit, then got dressed and went outside, following the sound of more gunshots. In the car the afternoon before I had been introduced to one of our "bodyguards'" guns, a Glock .40. Three of the guys on the trip were carrying, and I was excited by the idea that we might get in some target practice.
I only got in one shot, which I don't count as "practice," but I hit what I aimed at, which made me happy. Liz even got a video of said shot with my camera.
Shoot 'em up (video):
http://s258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/Videos/?action=view¤t=100_1812glock.flv
Odd pic with spent casings:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1815.jpg
Hacienda's yard:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1816.jpg
Main room:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1820.jpg
We took off relatively early, around ten o'clock, and had lunch in Ibarra, then finished the drive back to Quito uneventfully, with the one exception of viewing a rather spectacular car wreck.
Can you find the car??? Hint, it's silver:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1831.jpg
Though it was nice to get out of the house for the weekend, the fact that I count myself lucky not to have fleas now is rather more disturbing than I was aiming for.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Otavalo
I mentioned in my last entry that I had spent a weekend in Otavalo. It was a trip arranged by the school, and most of the exchange students went. We met at the school at 8am on Saturday morning, since María Ísabel had told us to be punctual so we could leave on time. Of course, we sat on the unmoving bus for forty-five minutes before we actually went anywhere. So much for “en punto;” this is Ecuadorian time.
The drive was a couple of hours, and the four of us from KSC took up the far back seat of the bus and spent the ride goofing off and taking stupid pictures.
Braulio unable to take a nap because we’re taking pictures of said nap:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1513.jpg
Rockin’ out to Manson, Juanes, and a punk band whose name I’ve forgotten, respectively:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1515.jpg
The bus took us straight to the marketplace, where we spent a couple of hours wandering around.
Fruit stand:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1516.jpg
Hand-painted plates:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1518.jpg
More fruit:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1519.jpg
Dead chickens:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1520.jpg
Beads:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1523.jpg
Gourds:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1524.jpg
Map of Otavalo painted on a wall:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1527.jpg
Spices:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1528.jpg
And more spices:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1529.jpg
Native kids sing in Kichwa on the bus so they can get a ride (sorry it’s out of focus, my camera was acting up):
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1531.jpg
Liz and I bought matching jackets in the market:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1532.jpg
Marie and Braulio at Cabañas del Lago, the hostería we stayed in:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1533.jpg
The hostería’s dog:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1535.jpg
Plotting to take over the world from my cabaña:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1541.jpg
Marie having a laughing fit after I trapped her in the wardrobe:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1545.jpg
Falling over after struggling to drag the tire swing up the set of steps:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1552.jpg
Having fun flying!
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1556.jpg
Me and Marie preparing to swing together:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1557.jpg
Marie and Luis trying to put together the ping-pong table they broke:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1561.jpg
The night that we stayed at Cabañas, they took us out on a boat on the lake. There was a Mariachi band, and they lent us ponchos for warmth and served canelaso, which is a cinnamon-flavored alcohol, served warm in bowls.
Marie, me, Braulio, and Liz on the boat:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1563.jpg
Marie and me on the boat:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1564.jpg
FIRE!!
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1565.jpg
Dork from Idaho that we have nicknamed Frosted Tips, for obvious reasons:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1567.jpg
María Ísabel’s hair “on fire:”
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1569.jpg
Mariachi:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1570.jpg
Canelaso:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1571.jpg
On Sunday, we went to a native hut about half an hour from Cabañas, where they gave us a talk on native culture, and played music and danced.
Native music:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1573.jpg
Dance:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1578.jpg
Cool countryside:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1581.jpg
After the music and dance, we took a hike to a waterfall, Cascada de Peguche. No one had actually thought to warn us that we’d be hiking anywhere, so we were all carrying extra jackets and purses and stuff, and Liz wasn’t even wearing sneakers. The hike was hellish, but the waterfall was at least pretty.
Cascada de Peguche:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1584.jpg
Preparing for a “heart-cleansing” ceremony:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1586.jpg
Part of the trail we hiked up, from another part of the trail:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1587.jpg
The drive was a couple of hours, and the four of us from KSC took up the far back seat of the bus and spent the ride goofing off and taking stupid pictures.
Braulio unable to take a nap because we’re taking pictures of said nap:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1513.jpg
Rockin’ out to Manson, Juanes, and a punk band whose name I’ve forgotten, respectively:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1515.jpg
The bus took us straight to the marketplace, where we spent a couple of hours wandering around.
Fruit stand:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1516.jpg
Hand-painted plates:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1518.jpg
More fruit:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1519.jpg
Dead chickens:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1520.jpg
Beads:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1523.jpg
Gourds:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1524.jpg
Map of Otavalo painted on a wall:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1527.jpg
Spices:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1528.jpg
And more spices:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1529.jpg
Native kids sing in Kichwa on the bus so they can get a ride (sorry it’s out of focus, my camera was acting up):
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1531.jpg
Liz and I bought matching jackets in the market:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1532.jpg
Marie and Braulio at Cabañas del Lago, the hostería we stayed in:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1533.jpg
The hostería’s dog:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1535.jpg
Plotting to take over the world from my cabaña:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1541.jpg
Marie having a laughing fit after I trapped her in the wardrobe:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1545.jpg
Falling over after struggling to drag the tire swing up the set of steps:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1552.jpg
Having fun flying!
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1556.jpg
Me and Marie preparing to swing together:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1557.jpg
Marie and Luis trying to put together the ping-pong table they broke:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1561.jpg
The night that we stayed at Cabañas, they took us out on a boat on the lake. There was a Mariachi band, and they lent us ponchos for warmth and served canelaso, which is a cinnamon-flavored alcohol, served warm in bowls.
Marie, me, Braulio, and Liz on the boat:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1563.jpg
Marie and me on the boat:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1564.jpg
FIRE!!
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1565.jpg
Dork from Idaho that we have nicknamed Frosted Tips, for obvious reasons:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1567.jpg
María Ísabel’s hair “on fire:”
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1569.jpg
Mariachi:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1570.jpg
Canelaso:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1571.jpg
On Sunday, we went to a native hut about half an hour from Cabañas, where they gave us a talk on native culture, and played music and danced.
Native music:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1573.jpg
Dance:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1578.jpg
Cool countryside:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1581.jpg
After the music and dance, we took a hike to a waterfall, Cascada de Peguche. No one had actually thought to warn us that we’d be hiking anywhere, so we were all carrying extra jackets and purses and stuff, and Liz wasn’t even wearing sneakers. The hike was hellish, but the waterfall was at least pretty.
Cascada de Peguche:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1584.jpg
Preparing for a “heart-cleansing” ceremony:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1586.jpg
Part of the trail we hiked up, from another part of the trail:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1587.jpg
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
The Beach
For starters, an adorable cat that I met on Thursday morning behind my house:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1352.jpg
I finally managed to actually go and do something this weekend – I went to the beach with Marie. The four of us went shopping on Thursday, having failed again to ride the teleférico (this time Pichincha was too cloudy to bother), and Marie told me she was going to the beach with her friend Eduardo and his friend Nelo, and she begged me to come along.
It took some prodding, but eventually I decided to go. The original plan was to leave Thursday evening for a three-hour drive to…well, we weren’t actually sure where. I headed to Marie’s house and had dinner there, and then Eduardo called and told her that it was too dangerous to drive at night, that we ran the risk of getting car-jacked, and he would rather leave at 6am on Friday morning. So I stayed at Marie’s that night, and got up at 5:30am. The guys, of course, didn’t actually show up until 7:15, by which time Marie and I were grousing about how we could have gotten another hour of sleep apiece. The drive turned out to be not three but five and a half hours, and we had lunch in Atacames at 12:30.
We got spectacularly bored in the car and started taking pictures.
Of each other:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1364.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1365.jpg
Of ourselves:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1367.jpg
...making funny faces:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1368.jpg
Of the view:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1370.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1375.jpg
Gum anyone?
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1373.jpg
Of each other taking pictures:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1374.jpg
Marie takes a nap on my lap:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1380.jpg
After lunch we finally reached Eduardo’s aunt’s condo in Casablanca. It reminded me a bit of being in Grand Cayman, the house and the beach and the weather. It was probably somewhere around eighty degrees and humid, the kind of humid where you get out of the shower and can’t dry off, no matter how many times you run the towel over yourself. We spent a while sunbathing on the balcony, and then went for a walk on the beach. I waded into the ocean and had a good time playing in the waves, though I refused to actually swim.
Marie and Eduardo:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1383.jpg
Lounging out on the balcony Friday afternoon:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1384.jpg
View from the balcony:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1385.jpg
A walk on the beach:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1393.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1396.jpg
Nelo, me, Marie, and Eduardo:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1394.jpg
Just before sunset we walked back to the house and jumped into the “hot tub” (the same temperature as the pool, actually) and hung out there until after the sun went down. That night we went out to a bar in Atacames to dance, and honestly I wish I’d stayed at the condo. I was already tired when I went, and I didn’t wake up any after we had eaten a pizza and reached the bar. Eduardo bought us a round of caipirinas, then spent the rest of the night continually handing me mine when I didn’t drink it. It wasn’t that I forgot it was there, it was that I thought it was disgusting! What can I say, I don’t like tequila, and tequila with aguardiente is even worse.
Marie and I were both tired and ready to leave by midnight, and the guys told us we would leave soon. At 1:30, I was still sitting there, getting attacked by flying ants and playing with my cell phone. Finally Marie told Eduardo again that we wanted to go home, and that time he got the hint and we went. Of course, by the time I was in bed, I wasn’t tired anymore…go figure…and I was up until 4am.
The original plan was to leave on Saturday afternoon, but of course the only point of having a plan around here is that you know that’s what will NOT happen. I slept in, hung around reading for a while, then went for a walk with Marie and Eduardo to find lunch. We found an awesome little seafood place on the beach, where I got some of the best fried fish I’ve had in a very long time. I also got a coconut, where the vendor cuts off the top and sticks a straw straight into it. You drink the coconut milk, and then get it cut in half so you can eat the actual coconut. My camera decided to start working again in time for me to get a picture of it. It had been taking blank pictures the night before, but I think it just didn’t like the change in altitude, and the iris stuck shut for a while until it adjusted.
Coconut!
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1404.jpg
Inside the coconut:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1407.jpg
Lunch, best fried fish ever:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1409.jpg
I was happy with the previous day’s decision not to bathe myself completely in the ocean when we saw, on the way to lunch, a large pipe pouring something liquid and black into the swimming area. It looked suspiciously like raw sewage, so when Marie asked me if I wanted to go swimming again, I said no. Not waiting to catch my second wind this time, I went to bed obscenely early.
Sunset in a hammock:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1410.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1411.jpg
Sunday morning I got up, managed to find some granola for breakfast, and then spent way too long reading in the pool. I went to find my sun block when Marie warned me I was turning red, but it was too late. We left the house around 3:30, had lunch/dinner in Atacames, and were finally on the road home by 5pm. Given that dark comes around 6:30, I wondered what had happened to their dire warnings about carjacking. Nobody seemed concerned, though, so I didn’t ask. I read my book until it was too dark to see, and then put on my iPod and started texting Craig out of shear boredom.
Lunch in Atacames before leaving:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1412.jpg
We were into Pichincha province and under half an hour from Quito when all the cars in front of us stopped and put their blinkers on. Nelo stopped behind them and got out to see what was going on. After a minute or so he came back, and the entire line of cars turned around and went the other way. In less than five minutes, the same thing happened again. Stop, wait, turn around. Now think about this: once you have turned around twice, you’re repeating what you did the first time. At that point I was really wondering what the hell was going on.
Halfway back to the original stop point, a policeman directed us down a little dirt side road. We drove maybe half a mile, and then someone on the side of the road waved frantically. Eduardo rolled down his window, they conversed, and then we turned around again. I couldn’t imagine where else we could possibly go, but it turned out that we had missed another dirt path. Eduardo explained to us that there was a protest going on in the main road, and we had to drive around.
Eventually we made it back on track, and they dropped me off at my house. By that time we had been in the car for six and a half hours…so much for the three-hour drive.
All the bouncing on the poorly-kept roads through the small towns had pointed out to me just exactly how much my sunburn hurt now. Once I was in bed, Craig called to ask how the beach trip had gone. By that time I was dehydrated, shaking, tired, in pain, and starting to go into shock. I tried to hold myself together, but it wasn't five minutes before I found myself in tears. He convinced me to make the trip to the kitchen to get water, even though I could barely walk, and kept me awake long enough to drink it. By the time he told me it was safe to go to sleep a couple of hours later, that I had recovered enough that I wouldn't die before morning, I felt a lot better.
I bought aloe today for the sunburn, but I really can’t tell how much it’s helping. I know I didn’t dare take a shower today because I already feel like I’ve been skinned alive, and the water in my shower isn’t exactly gentle. I’m glad I got to the see the sun, though; apparently it poured rain in Quito the entire weekend.
This has not been my week for technology, either. On top of my camera having that temper tantrum, my watch rusted and then stopped, and my computer has caught a whole array of viruses that I can’t seem to get rid of. The camera is behaving at the moment, and I can get a new watch, but I’m not happy about the computer. I think what happened is that I picked up a virus on my flash drive from one of the café computers, and then transferred it to my own machine. When I got my computer on broadband last week, the one virus downloaded others for company, and now they are having a grand old party in my hard drive. I need to connect it to a network again so I can download virus updates, but I’m afraid that it will also download more trojans at the same time. I love technology – when it works.
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1352.jpg
I finally managed to actually go and do something this weekend – I went to the beach with Marie. The four of us went shopping on Thursday, having failed again to ride the teleférico (this time Pichincha was too cloudy to bother), and Marie told me she was going to the beach with her friend Eduardo and his friend Nelo, and she begged me to come along.
It took some prodding, but eventually I decided to go. The original plan was to leave Thursday evening for a three-hour drive to…well, we weren’t actually sure where. I headed to Marie’s house and had dinner there, and then Eduardo called and told her that it was too dangerous to drive at night, that we ran the risk of getting car-jacked, and he would rather leave at 6am on Friday morning. So I stayed at Marie’s that night, and got up at 5:30am. The guys, of course, didn’t actually show up until 7:15, by which time Marie and I were grousing about how we could have gotten another hour of sleep apiece. The drive turned out to be not three but five and a half hours, and we had lunch in Atacames at 12:30.
We got spectacularly bored in the car and started taking pictures.
Of each other:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1364.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1365.jpg
Of ourselves:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1367.jpg
...making funny faces:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1368.jpg
Of the view:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1370.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1375.jpg
Gum anyone?
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1373.jpg
Of each other taking pictures:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1374.jpg
Marie takes a nap on my lap:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1380.jpg
After lunch we finally reached Eduardo’s aunt’s condo in Casablanca. It reminded me a bit of being in Grand Cayman, the house and the beach and the weather. It was probably somewhere around eighty degrees and humid, the kind of humid where you get out of the shower and can’t dry off, no matter how many times you run the towel over yourself. We spent a while sunbathing on the balcony, and then went for a walk on the beach. I waded into the ocean and had a good time playing in the waves, though I refused to actually swim.
Marie and Eduardo:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1383.jpg
Lounging out on the balcony Friday afternoon:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1384.jpg
View from the balcony:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1385.jpg
A walk on the beach:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1393.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1396.jpg
Nelo, me, Marie, and Eduardo:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1394.jpg
Just before sunset we walked back to the house and jumped into the “hot tub” (the same temperature as the pool, actually) and hung out there until after the sun went down. That night we went out to a bar in Atacames to dance, and honestly I wish I’d stayed at the condo. I was already tired when I went, and I didn’t wake up any after we had eaten a pizza and reached the bar. Eduardo bought us a round of caipirinas, then spent the rest of the night continually handing me mine when I didn’t drink it. It wasn’t that I forgot it was there, it was that I thought it was disgusting! What can I say, I don’t like tequila, and tequila with aguardiente is even worse.
Marie and I were both tired and ready to leave by midnight, and the guys told us we would leave soon. At 1:30, I was still sitting there, getting attacked by flying ants and playing with my cell phone. Finally Marie told Eduardo again that we wanted to go home, and that time he got the hint and we went. Of course, by the time I was in bed, I wasn’t tired anymore…go figure…and I was up until 4am.
The original plan was to leave on Saturday afternoon, but of course the only point of having a plan around here is that you know that’s what will NOT happen. I slept in, hung around reading for a while, then went for a walk with Marie and Eduardo to find lunch. We found an awesome little seafood place on the beach, where I got some of the best fried fish I’ve had in a very long time. I also got a coconut, where the vendor cuts off the top and sticks a straw straight into it. You drink the coconut milk, and then get it cut in half so you can eat the actual coconut. My camera decided to start working again in time for me to get a picture of it. It had been taking blank pictures the night before, but I think it just didn’t like the change in altitude, and the iris stuck shut for a while until it adjusted.
Coconut!
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1404.jpg
Inside the coconut:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1407.jpg
Lunch, best fried fish ever:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1409.jpg
I was happy with the previous day’s decision not to bathe myself completely in the ocean when we saw, on the way to lunch, a large pipe pouring something liquid and black into the swimming area. It looked suspiciously like raw sewage, so when Marie asked me if I wanted to go swimming again, I said no. Not waiting to catch my second wind this time, I went to bed obscenely early.
Sunset in a hammock:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1410.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1411.jpg
Sunday morning I got up, managed to find some granola for breakfast, and then spent way too long reading in the pool. I went to find my sun block when Marie warned me I was turning red, but it was too late. We left the house around 3:30, had lunch/dinner in Atacames, and were finally on the road home by 5pm. Given that dark comes around 6:30, I wondered what had happened to their dire warnings about carjacking. Nobody seemed concerned, though, so I didn’t ask. I read my book until it was too dark to see, and then put on my iPod and started texting Craig out of shear boredom.
Lunch in Atacames before leaving:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1412.jpg
We were into Pichincha province and under half an hour from Quito when all the cars in front of us stopped and put their blinkers on. Nelo stopped behind them and got out to see what was going on. After a minute or so he came back, and the entire line of cars turned around and went the other way. In less than five minutes, the same thing happened again. Stop, wait, turn around. Now think about this: once you have turned around twice, you’re repeating what you did the first time. At that point I was really wondering what the hell was going on.
Halfway back to the original stop point, a policeman directed us down a little dirt side road. We drove maybe half a mile, and then someone on the side of the road waved frantically. Eduardo rolled down his window, they conversed, and then we turned around again. I couldn’t imagine where else we could possibly go, but it turned out that we had missed another dirt path. Eduardo explained to us that there was a protest going on in the main road, and we had to drive around.
Eventually we made it back on track, and they dropped me off at my house. By that time we had been in the car for six and a half hours…so much for the three-hour drive.
All the bouncing on the poorly-kept roads through the small towns had pointed out to me just exactly how much my sunburn hurt now. Once I was in bed, Craig called to ask how the beach trip had gone. By that time I was dehydrated, shaking, tired, in pain, and starting to go into shock. I tried to hold myself together, but it wasn't five minutes before I found myself in tears. He convinced me to make the trip to the kitchen to get water, even though I could barely walk, and kept me awake long enough to drink it. By the time he told me it was safe to go to sleep a couple of hours later, that I had recovered enough that I wouldn't die before morning, I felt a lot better.
I bought aloe today for the sunburn, but I really can’t tell how much it’s helping. I know I didn’t dare take a shower today because I already feel like I’ve been skinned alive, and the water in my shower isn’t exactly gentle. I’m glad I got to the see the sun, though; apparently it poured rain in Quito the entire weekend.
This has not been my week for technology, either. On top of my camera having that temper tantrum, my watch rusted and then stopped, and my computer has caught a whole array of viruses that I can’t seem to get rid of. The camera is behaving at the moment, and I can get a new watch, but I’m not happy about the computer. I think what happened is that I picked up a virus on my flash drive from one of the café computers, and then transferred it to my own machine. When I got my computer on broadband last week, the one virus downloaded others for company, and now they are having a grand old party in my hard drive. I need to connect it to a network again so I can download virus updates, but I’m afraid that it will also download more trojans at the same time. I love technology – when it works.
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