emmiecat

The Path To Happiness does not include assassinating your friends

2007-05-11T05:33:14Z

While back in Cuenca, we went to the post office so Maya could maybe actually get some postcards off to people before she returns to the states. While there, I thumbed through a little booklet in Spanish (of course) with the postal service logo on the front, and the clerk insisted I take it. I figured it had something to do with sending mail in Ecuador and I didn't need it, but I was polite and I stuck it in my purse. The next day Maya and I had a lot of fun reading what it actually was.

"El camino a la felicidad; Una Guia de sentido Comun para Vivir mejor." "The path to happiness; a Common Sense guide for a better life." Only in the back, in really tiny print, if you look hard, do you see "copyright of L. Ron Hubbard Library, all rights reserved, this is only the individual opinion of L Ronald Hubbard and is not a part of any religious doctrine," etc. etc.

Whew. Nowhere anywhere does it refer to Scientology, nor does it offer a free personality test, but whoa, there's the post office seal on it. In a freakin' Catholic country! Maya and I translated a bunch of it and had fun. I guess it did make us happy after all!

There are 21 chapters, 65 pages, mostly with instructions to be nice to people, take care of yourself, brush your teeth, respect your environment by trying to look your best everyday (I'm not making this up!), don't be promiscuous, don't use drugs or drink too much, take good care of children, etc. Then there was Chapter 8. It's my favorite.

"No Asesines - Don't Assassinate Anyone" It goes into quite a bit of detail about the difference between killing and assassination. "No killing" would mean not being able to kill a snake that's curled up and about to bite a baby, only eating vegetables, and not being able to use self-defense. It really says those things, I'm not making it up! "No assassinating," on the other hand, means you can't do the pre-meditated and illegal kind of killing. Then they state the obvious: "El camino a la felicidad no incluye asesinar a tus amigos, a tu familia ni que tú mismo seas asesinado." "The path to happiness does not include assassinating your friends, your family, or yourself."

The final chapter basically says "Go forth and prosper" and I honestly can't remember if that's a quote from the Bible or from Star Trek. I suppose with L Ron Hubbard it could be either.

Dinner with the folks

2007-05-11T02:03:22Z

After a very full day of tourism, Maya and I rested and then took a cab to where she first lived when she arrived in Cuenca. Isabel and Xavier had invited us over for dinner at their condo. I, unfortunately, did not get pictures of the home (inside or out) but I know Maya has some somewhere. I did get these photos of the host family and the hosted one.

Nate (current exchange student), Maya, me, Isabel, Xavier

Unfortunately, baby Lucas went to sleep before photo time so he's not in the pictures. He rolled around in his walker thingy while we ate dinner, and luckily he didn't knock any of the candles over, although it came close! Both of Maya's host families are into art work, this home had modern art made out of various metals - wall hangings and a sculpture type structure. Turned out Xavier's relative (cousin? brother in law?) is the artist. The apartment/townhouse had two stories, and Maya showed me the fireman's pole in the corner that goes from the upstairs right into the dining room area. The family was preparing to move, since Lucas is learning mobility and it's not an easy to baby-proof home.

We had a nice visit, a lot easier for me than visiting the other host family who spoke no English. Xavier helped Maya translate conversations for me, and talked slowly in Spanish so I could understand. Nate from California, I swear, spoke English with a Spanish accent. Xavier twice forgot to translate and instead turned to me and repeated what had just been said...again in Spanish! We laughed about that. Then Lucas had a fun spitting on mom game, well more like blowing raspberries at her, that he could've played all night but he got put to bed. I got to talk with Isabel about Maya's little habits from a mom's perspective, and thanked them a lot for taking good care of her for the first half of her trip.

Dinner was delicious yet again. Little hamburguesitas, rice, potatoes with white "salsa" (since "salsa" just means sauce) and fruit salad for dessert. And chocolates. Lots of little chocolates that Maya and Xavier especially loved. I was told that Nestle has bought out just about every Ecuadorian candy factory around except this one. They were miniature marshmallows with a hard chocolate shell around them wrapped in foil. They weren't very good, but were very addictive. Unfortunately the ones I brought back to the states were SUPER stale and pretty horrible.

Xavier drove us back to the hotel in the rain, and once again we had to ring the outer doorbell (as opposed to the actual bell at the inner door that we usually rang) to roust someone to let us in. Then we conked out.

It's still Sunday - now to Ingapirca!

2007-05-07T05:27:56Z

We were done with the train ride a lot faster than I think we'd expected, and we got back in the car and headed south again to the Incan and Cañari Indian ruins called Ingapirca. But first we stopped for lunch. Lunch was included in the price of this tour, and we turned down a dirt road and came upon some sort of hostel or resort or public park sort of area with an indoor swimming pool (the first pool I'd seen in Ecuador, actually) and a lot of families in the pool. The lunch area had a table reserved for us and we had yet another great meal starting with soup, then our choice of entree (pollo for both me and Maya), rice, etc. We looked out the back window at people's laundry lines and the vivid green fields of grass and corn, and then it started to rain. During lunch, Eddie opened up a bit after some questions and shared his political views with us.

Seems that Eddie isn't a big fan of the new president, Rafael Correa. I had read the news before leaving the states that Correa had fired a lot of congress-people because they were obstructing his plan to revise the Constitution. The fighting about whether he could really do that, or whether they were really fired, was going on while we were there, but I couldn't understand any of the news stories on the tv about it so I asked Eddie to explain. He basically said that Correa wants to become the dictator of Ecuador and is trying to rewrite the Constitution to give him ultimate power. Now, that's pretty contrary to what I'd heard from just about everybody else who seem to think Correa is more of a socialist or Robin Hood kind of guy (limit corporations and the rich, share the wealth with the poor). It was the most political discussion I had while in the country.

On to Ingapirca-
The Cañari people were the first indigenous folks to build in this location, settling here over 3000 years ago, according to Eddie. The Incas came and conquered them around the end of the 15th century, and only lasted here a short while until the Spanish came and Conquistador-ed them out of existence less than 100 years later. We got quite a history lesson about the Inca, particularly biased toward how proud Ecuadorians are to have had this Inca stronghold and how much better and important it was than Peruvian Inca cities, etc. An Ecuadorian patriot right down to his bones, that Eddie! He told us about astronomical and astrological uses for the temple, the convent for young virgins and wives for the Inca king/emperor, and more. Here are the photos (and luckily it had stopped raining!):

This one, we were told, is the original Cañari building. They built with many rocks forming a circle around one middle rock, with mud and other gunk filling in the gaps. The window type areas used to be lined with gold, but the Spanish conquerors stole it:

This one is from the Incans, who carved the rock into very straight edges and built them all upon one another with no space inbetween, no need for mud or gunk. Apparently a lot of the stones from this area were carted away to form the foundations of buildings, especially churches, in the surrounding area.

Where the guards would stand so no one but the king got the virgins:

The Incan road to Cuzco:

After Ingapirca, Eddie took us on a real back road of Ecuador. This one really was a dirt road through farm land and rolling hills and splendor. There were many small lakes, or more like ponds or reservoirs, that appeared man made. Everything was so rich in color, the fields, the sky, the birds, the children, the farm animals. After about 15 or 20 minutes of driving, and being a little freaked out that this guy was maybe, like, kidnapping us into some nether-region of the Andes, we ended up back on the good old Panamerican Highway and cruised back to Cuenca.

But wait! Our day of events was still not over. Next up - dinner with Maya's other host family!

El Nariz del Diablo

2007-05-07T04:35:54Z

We hopped on the train, which looked more like a bus but really was a train, and took our seats in the way back inside of the train car. There was only one train car, so it REALLY looked like a bus, and they told us that this was because it was off season. I've seen pictures on other blogs of this train having 5 or more cars, but those blogs also told about derailments, so I don't mind our little one!

This used to be a well-used train route through Ecuador, but now is really only used by tourists. Lots of gringos speaking a variety of European languages. But it was still really cool. Once at the bottom of the valley, everyone traded seats - those inside got to go up and those up top had to come inside. We got the best spot on the train - on top looking off the back. Glorious! It actually felt a lot like being on an amusement park ride, and the sound of the train on the tracks added to that.

In this one, looking out the back window at one of the switchbacks that is so steep and tight that the train actually backs up (or down) the hill until the next switchback.

Notice the cornfields! There were so many corn fields throughout these mountains, tucked into sides of the hills that made me wonder how people could even get to them.

Coming back into Alausi.

I just love the colorfulness of the people.

Back on the Panamerican Highway.

Palm Sunday tourist adventures

2007-04-30T07:24:25Z

Yes, so, we had hired Terra Diversa, a tour company, to take us to the train through El Nariz del Diablo (The Devil's Nose) where you get to ride on top of the train car as it takes you down steep switchbacks through the Andes. We were told it was a 4 hour drive to Alausi, and the train we wanted was at 11 am. We left the hotel at 6:15 am, with snacks and water, sweaters and sunscreen, and cameras for what was to be the most touristy day yet. The first thing we saw as we drove through colonial Cuenca was the indigenous women setting up their beautiful creations for Palm Sunday. I don't even know what Palm Sunday is, but they had what I thought were stalks of corn with the leaves woven into beautiful art. This picture is from the parade the day before, but is the only snapshot I have of any of it.

There were about a dozen women and about a hundred of these corn or palm leaf weavings lined up along a cobblestone road, the green plant art leaning against the old stones of a church. A great sight and we hadn't even gone anywhere yet. All day long we'd see women and girls carrying baskets woven of these green leaves or big woven stalks.

We left Cuenca on the "Panamerican Highway" which uses the term "highway" very loosely. It was more like a 2 lane road, with no yellow or white stripe down the middle, and people constantly passing one another whether there were curves or hills or not. Well, not constantly, because there wasn't all that much traffic. At some points it got downright steep, at other points it turned into a gravel road, and at most points it had so many potholes that it was extremely slow going. I realized that a 4 hour highway drive in Ecuador covers much less actual ground than a 4 hour highway drive in the states.

Along the road but still close to Cuenca were a variety of food stands being set up for the day. A roadside tent/tarp, some chickens on rotisseries, some other food cooking, and twice I saw a shocking site. A HUMONGOUS pig, I mean HUGE, dead, on its back, feet in the air, and people using what looked like a blowtorch to cook it so it would be ready later in the day for hungry travelers.

The Panamerican highway was also delightfully spotted with live pigs, sheep, dogs, cows, mules or burros with loads on their backs, colorfully dressed people tending to the above animals, and an occasional woman with a huge load of grain (wheat? corn? grass?) strapped to her back with a colorful serape. Eddie was a fantastic driver, the most careful driver of all the cars I'd been in in Ecuador (including Maya's host families!), and even so he almost hit a young boy who was chasing a dog across the road. Parts of the road were muddy, after all it is rainy season, and we saw a tour bus that had fallen over in the mud, leaning onto an embankment. It didn't look like anyone was hurt, they were simply trying to figure out what to do next.

This photo isn't one I took but resembles the people and animals we saw along the way, and the road wasn't usually that bad.

Eddie had one cassette tape in the car. The Doors. We were serenaded by "People are strange...," "Mojo Risin'," "Hello, I love you," over and over and over all the way through the Andes. Luckily Maya fell asleep and I popped my iPod headphones on after the first go round of the tape.

We ended in Alausi by 10:15, a wonderful, small town where all the mountain folk were coming for the Sunday produce and livestock market. There was also a crafts market at the train "station" along with the most disgusting, lack of privacy bathroom I've ever been in. One room, women step to the right side (and can close the door if you can breathe), men to the left with no doors to close and an old man came in to do his business while I was in there waiting for my turn. Ew. No toilet paper or paper towels, so (pardon my bluntness) I tore a mini-pad from my backpack in half for Maya and I each to use.

Anyway, here are some of my favorite pictures of the people of Alausi. There's supposed to be an accent over the i at the end of that word, but I can't figure out how to d that in LiveJournal.

And another big religious statue overlooking the city:

Skip this one...really

2007-04-30T06:51:47Z

Seriously, I don't even know why I'm including this tragedy in the journal, except that it was something we witnessed. It was ugly and bloody, and seriously skip to the next entry if you want. I won't be offended. The next one will have the good, the weird, and the beautiful from Sunday. This one has the sad, horrifying car accident we happened upon.

On our way north Sunday morning, we'd hired a tour guide and were the only two folks on the tour. Eddie was his name and we had to leave really early Sunday morning. We were headed north on the PanAmerican highway and had not gotten very far out of Cuenca when we came across an awful car accident. The car was apparently headed south, and the front end of it was all smashed up. I don't know if the people/bodies on the road had been in the car or walking and hit by the car, but there were two people, dressed in the colorful Ecuadorian clothing I'd come to love, both lying motionless on the road. I'm pretty sure there were two, one by the car, the other by the curb. Even though we only saw it for a matter of seconds, the images seemed to burn into our brains. There was a small number of people gathering out of concern, and one person who was kneeling and cradling the head of one of the injured people. There was a lot of blood, the red ironically adding to the colorfulness. It was a few miles down the road before I realized just how "lifeless" the bodies in the road were. They had not been moving at all, and whether they were dead or not we will never know.

Eddie was visibly freaked out, and reached for his cell phone to call 911. No emergency crew had even arrived yet. The 911 operator acknowledged that it had been called in; Eddie told us that the 911 operator told him "he is dying" but I wondered if that was his mis-translating that she told him he was already dead. A few minutes later we saw a couple of ambulances headed their way. Yes, a few minutes. These unfortunate people were halfway between Cuenca and the next town, so EMTs coming from either direction had a long way to go.

I found myself saying silent prayers, and trying to take comfort in the idea that these were devout Christian people who were probably honored to go home to Jesus on Palm Sunday and just in time for the big Easter week. And that even these people's families might see it that way. Then I tried picturing them in the hospital and surviving, trying to put that energy/image into the world instead.

It was a sobering experience, and Eddie drove super carefully for the whole rest of the day.

Omelette = Soup

2007-04-30T06:29:43Z

Back in Cuenca Maya went to sit down while I collected our luggage. There was only one luggage carousel and we were both interested in the woman who retrieved her little dog in a carrier from the carousel. I saw our bag, and I then saw an Ecuadorian man take it. He didn't look like a thief, just like a guy who confused his bag for ours. "Pardon, Senor!" I shouted and followed him. He shook his head and tried to leave with our bag full of our shopping spree from Otavalo! Luckily, this airport checks luggage tags before you can leave, and I was vindicated and we left with the correct bag.

Across the street from the airport we saw a parade. The country was preparing for the holy week before Easter and this is some of what we saw.

The rest of the night was laid back, dinner at another traditional-ish restaurant where we laughed a lot and had yummy food. Except that Maya ordered soup and got an omelette instead. So, it was "sopa de juevos" she ordered and a "tortilla de juevos" that she got, but still. We had a good laugh over that, and shared the omelette and my delicious potato soup. We then got our main course of pork chops, big corn, rice, plantain, beans (I think), and the waiter thought we didn't like it because we couldn't finish all our food. The soundtrack to this restaurant had been a tape of nice, traditional sounding Latin music, until a guy came out and changed it to a cassette with American top pop hits from the 70's and 80's. Hotel California, Stairway to Heaven, Beatles, Sting, and I forget what else. Sigh. I think he changed it because he thought us gringas might like it better.

Active volcanos!!!

2007-04-25T05:32:21Z

Our airplane back to Cuenca was quite delayed, and the screen that posted updates on the status of planes kept saying that ours had already taken off. I knew that all the 100 or so people in the terminal were all waiting for the same plane that we were, but I kept worrying anyway that we'd missed our plane. Especially because we were listening to my iPod, one earbud per person. It made me very happy that Maya enjoyed my selection of music as much as she seemed to! We ate yummy sandwiches and plaintain chips which were salty like potato chips from a little airport cafe called Le P'tit Cafe. Spelled just like that and a drawing of the Eiffel Tower as its logo. But as Maya pointed out, the only thing French about the place was the name. All the foods were basic sandwiches, Ecuador style.

Our flight was super exciting as Maya had a window seat and this was what we saw:

I'm pretty sure this is the volcano called Cotopaxi, which is 5897 meters high, and one of the top three highest active volcanos in the world. Cotopaxi means "neck of the moon" in native Quechua.

Next came what I'm pretty sure is Tungurahua, in the midst of spewing an ash plume. Pretty amazing! Unfortunately, this is the one that caused the evacuation of thousands of people in the summer of 2006, and I think a more recent evacuation too.

El TeleferiQo

2007-04-25T05:05:02Z

Saturday morning we woke up early. I should say, I woke up early and asked Maya if she wanted to wake up. She apparently did, since we had only 1/2 a day left to explore Quito and we wanted to go to El Teleferico - a newly built tram that takes you waaaaaayy up to the top of a mountain overlooking the city. Maya wore her new sweater, one that she'd bought in Otavalo, beautiful and made of alpaca wool. We later discovered she is allergic to it.

In the photo of the hotel room I posted a few entries back you'll notice three skinny windows at the head of Maya's bed. The one closest to her had a bird's nest in it and each morning we woke up to a dove-like pigeon type bird nesting in it. It was really cool and homey.

We had our last breakfast in the Quito hotel and went to find another taxi, realizing it was another day where we had more money than time and couldn't take the bus up. Our taxi driver charged us way too much for the ride to the TeleferiQo (ooh, I hate typing it with that spelling. We kind of obsessed, well, Maya did, about how stupid it is for them to spell it with a Q, even more stupid a capital Q.) but also offered to meet us at our hotel to take us to the airport later. He was chatty and friendly and drove us way to the top of a hill, which housed the base of the tram. Maya compares the scene to the Seattle Center and the Space Needle, and there were attractions like rides for the kids and some big center full of amusement park type stuff that we didn't have time to look at.

The tram car

not even halfway up

now we're in a cloud

slow, no running!
There was also a medical clinic as well as an oxygen bar at the top. We didn't need either, but we did have hot drinks and another piece of chocolate cake and waited to see if the cloud would clear up. We didn't have a great view of the city, but definitely had a sense of how high up we were!

A random parade

2007-04-25T03:57:19Z

Also in Quito, after we took the bus back from Otavalo, we ended up in the major bus terminal in Quito with no idea how to get back to the hotel. I thought we could find the bus, but Maya pointed out that besides a back pack jammed full we also had a bunch of shopping bags and we would be easy marks on a crowded city bus. We opted for a taxi, but even that was hard to find in the grungy, 3 level, underground bus station we were in. We finally circled back to just about where we started and found a taxi. The taxis in Quito are supposed to use a meter, and there are signs up all over the airport and bus station telling you to ask the driver about the meter, but no one actually uses it. So we negotiated the price back to our hotel, about $4 if I remember correctly, and started through lots of Quito traffic.

As we approached this big park that basically separates Old Town from New Town, we saw lots of displays of art. Not traditional art, but more like modern art set up in stands along the sidewalks lining the park. As we were looking out the window at those, we realized we were stuck in traffic because of a parade! I was excited and thought it had something to do with the art fair, but it apparently didn't. Then I thought it might have something to do with the upcoming Easter week, but it also didn't. When I asked the taxi driver (who was probably really aggravated at this point and wishing he'd used the meter instead of a mere $4 for this time-consuming trip) he said that it was a school celebrating its something-anniversary. There were marching bands, costumes, dancers, banners, and all sorts of excitement. We caught a different parade after we returned to Cuenca, but that's for another entry.

Friday night in Quito

2007-04-23T16:09:11Z

Maya has a friend who lives in Quito, Nelson, who is Ecuadorian and came to Oregon last year as an exchange student. He is now in college, in a band, and has a job, so Maya had a bit of trouble trying to contact this busy person, but her perseverance paid off and he called back on Friday. Just in time for Maya's cell phone battery to go dead while on the bus back to Quito. The gist was, he works till 9 but would like to see her afterwards. So, after resting in our room, we decided to head back out to find another dinner place. Maya really wanted Greek food, but neither the guide book, or other books in the hostal, or the woman at the front desk knew of any Greek restaurants in Quito. There were plenty of restaurants with Shwarma and that kind of Mediterranean food, but they looked kind of iffy, so we headed to a place called "Sutra" which was supposed to have middle eastern and a variety of foods. When we got there we were approached outside by a man trying to sell us a ticket for something. He spoke fast and neither of us understood, but it sounded like he was saying if we buy this ticket for $5 we can get a free drink inside the restaurant. Huh? He finally gave up trying to explain it to us and we went up the stairs to a loud, smokey, crowded scene that seemed more like singles bar than restaurant. We got a seat in the "non-smoking" area and shouted at each other over the loudspeaker music. The food on the menu was not as enticing as we'd hoped, and then Maya noticed that the image underneath the words on the menu was, you may have guessed, right out of the Kama Sutra. Whatever appetite we had for this restaurant quickly disappeared as we realized there were images of naked people in poses we really didn't need to know about, especially at the dinner table! We decided to leave and go to the very quiet French restaurant from yesterday instead.

Click on this link to see a photo of the restaurant "Sutra." It's really quite cute from the outside. The whole Mariscal neighborhood is very colorful!
http://www.43places.com/places/view/661645?featured_id=304734&view=gallery#photos

We were the only people in the French restaurant, except for the band which was warming up. Live music was something else we were looking for in Quito, but this scene didn't seem to warrant a $5 cover charge so we left before the band started. And we didn't get the $12 dessert fondue after all. Nelson called and told Maya to meet him and his friend, Brent, in Plaza Foch. We had no idea what or where Plaza Foch was, but it turns out to be a really trendy, hip, recently updated square just around the corner from where we were.

If last night seemed like a crazy spring break party, tonight was Friday and even more so. Last night there were stilt walkers that caught our eye, but they were trying to sell cars. Tonight as we walked toward Plaza Foch, we saw what they call a Chiva - a double decker type bus with young partiers on it. The top deck had about 5 people (girls and boys) dancing it up, like a clean, clothes-on version of Girls Gone Wild. "Oh my gosh, I know those people!" exclaimed Maya, and they turned out to be Rotary exchange students that Maya knows! The chiva drove by without them noticing her, though, and we met up with Nelson and Brent just as the fire jugglers on unicycles were starting to set up in the plaza. I hung around long enough to decide that these two young men were trustworthy enough to take care of my kiddo while I went back to the hotel and crashed. The youngsters ;-) walked me back to the hotel, astoundingly quiet just a few blocks from this huge scene, and were scared by the guard dog barking again. We set up an elaborate plan for me to take Maya's cell phone and for her to call me and check in from Nelson's cell phone at midnight if she wasn't back yet. I heard from her a couple of times in the night to check in, they'd successfully met up with the other exchange students after they got off the party bus, and they were basically bar hopping without actually going into the bars (cover charges!). I think she returned at about 1:15 or later, still willing to get up early for more daytime adventures tomorrow! Ah, thus started the cold and sniffles from too much activity and not enough rest.

A Chiva from a picture on the internet.

Friday to Otavalo

2007-04-23T06:28:33Z

We woke up early, again, to meet our taxi to take us to Otavalo, a wonderful little town well known for its crafts market. Maya had been there once already with the Rotary group, but wanted to go back. The taxi, more like a modern station wagon, picked us up in front of our hostal with no problem. We then went tooling all around the streets of Quito and picked up another woman, an Ecuadorian who sat in the front seat next to the driver. So far so good. Then we tooled around some more and heard the driver say that there were two more people joining us. Uh, okay, there was only 1 seat left. Turns out the 2 people were two very young little girls who had spent some time with their aunt in Quito and were headed back to their mom in Otavalo. They were 7 and 4 years old and they were going in this taxi with total strangers and no adult to accompany them! The 4 year old got to sit on a seat in the back, with all the packages and letters being delivered, and the 7 year old sat next to me and stared at me most of the trip. The driver gave the girls little barf bags and we were on our way. Thankfully, no one had to use the bags, especially since Maya realized that we accidentally threw away the motion sickness pills she'd bought the day before in our rush to leave the hostal on time! I felt bad for the little 4 year old thinking she was getting something special, and got an empty bag. The drive was uneventful and we ended up in a quaint little village at the taxi company's office and the driver pointing us in a general direction to find the market. It was easy to find, and it was so early that we were almost the only tourists there to buy anything! By the early afternoon, though, there were plenty of other people, and we'd done plenty of shopping, too!

Here is what it looks like on Saturdays, it wasn't that crowded on Friday:

Thanks to the travel book I had, I was able to notice the subtle differences in the dress and features of the people in this northern part of Ecuador versus Cuenca in the southern part. First of all, the folks in Otavalo are SHORT! I was a totally average height for women in this town, and saw many many women significantly shorter than me! Also, the women dress colorfully, but their tops are billowy white blouses in Otavalo, but not so in Cuenca. Cuencans wear white hats, the "Panama hat" woven of straw, and Otavalians tended to wear brown or black hats, I think made of felt. And one more noticeable thing was that the people of northern Ecuador had darker brown skin than the Ecuadorians where Maya lives. We learned a theory about that on Sunday (which I'll explain when we get there).

We had lunch at Ali Allpa, a restaurant in our guide book which was situated on one of the streets bordering the market. After asking what the "menu del dia" was, we decided to order something else. I got lasagna and yummy juice, Maya got chicken in lemon sauce. Both were delicious, however, as we ate the entire restaurant filled up with locals and everyone except us was eating the menu del dia! That's basically an entire meal for $2 - juice, soup, what looked like fried rice or stir fry, and a small dessert. Neither of our meals was more than $3 or $4, and we also tried a "Inka Kola" which is a green soda and kind of tasted like lime snow cone syrup with fizz. After lunch we bought more stuff from the market before heading back to Quito by bus.

Shopping in Ecuador at the Plaza de Ponchos market was quite the experience in bartering. We'd approach, or more often be approached by, vendors who would tell us in Spanish how good quality their goods were, then quote us an insanely low price which we were then supposed to barter them even lower. Maya and I both gave it a good try, but basically the prices they were asking were already so cheap that we felt really wrong arguing it lower! We had to make 2 trips to the bank machines because we bought lots o stuff! It was fun, just like vacations should be!

We miraculously found our way to the bus station where some young teenage boys were hustling people into the bus for "Quito, Quito!" While waiting in the bus, various vendors of frozen yogurt pops, waters, and sodas would come into the bus approaching the captive tourists. Once on the road, the bus would stop at random places and pick up more people until the whole thing was pretty full. Once we were close to Quito, or maybe in the outskirts, another vendor came on the bus and made a little speech in the front, which neither of us understood. Then he strolled down the aisle and handed candy bars to everyone on the bus. He gave us 3. Apparently the speech was a sales pitch because then he came back around collecting either money or the candy bars back. We bought ours for 50 cents - not each, total. Another vendor came on the bus later that did the same thing, but with what looked like cd's or video games. We didn't buy any of those.

Next entry, back in Quito later that night and Maya's adventures in Gringolandia....

More Quito tales

2007-04-23T05:41:36Z

During our stroll through historic Quito, we were approached by little boys with shoe shine equipment. I should say I was approached, since my shoes were black. It didn't matter that they were Reeboks or that I was a girl, the boys would approach and ask to shine my shoes. One little kid was particularly assertive and insisted "Shine shoes, YES!" when I said "no."

We also stopped in a town square that had a poster type display of the history of the Corpus Christi celebration brought over from Spain. Basically, there were a whole bunch of posters of people dressed in hoods and robes like the Ku Klux Klan, only purple. Apparently the KKK stole the costumes from this very sacred ceremony of Catholocism, as this stuff dates back to the 1500's. I didn't understand much of the explanations in Spanish about this stuff, and I got excited when I saw one that talked about the Jews in Ecuador! That is, until I got to the sentence that basically translated into, "although most people believe the Jews killed our Savior, Ecuador welcomed survivors of the holocaust into the country anyway." I could be remembering wrong, but it was both hilarious and horrifying at the same time.

We went back to our hotel/hostal and looked at Google Earth photos of Ecuador, finding Quito, volcanoes, and Cuenca from above. It was cool!

We then ventured out to dinner. The hostal had advertisements for a few local restaurants and we decided to go to The Creperie and have crepes and dessert fondue. Yum! It was only a block and a half away from the hostal, so how we managed to not find it for 45 minutes of searching is still a mystery! We walked up and down and over and around the Mariscal district, in awe of what we were experiencing, and still couldn't find it. We settled on a Thai restaurant instead, which was on the second floor of a building overlooking the scene of the Mariscal. Maya was delighted with the food, especially since she hadn't had Thai food since leaving Portland. She also had the most amazing glass of grape juice on the planet. It was as if someone had just taken the sweetest, freshest purple grapes and squeezed them just for her. I tried to find another glass of grape juice - jugo de uva - for the rest of the trip but never did. We also had super yummy chocolate cake for dessert - warm and soft in the middle. Mmmmmm.

So, about the Mariscal. We had no idea we were landing in the hippest part of town. It felt like part college town, part spring break madness party town, part North Beach of San Francisco, part French Quarter of New Orleans, all rolled into one small area about 8 square blocks or so. And crowded! So many 20-somethings, a good proportion of them tourists from all parts of the world. The buildings were all colorful and there were lots of bars and party joints. Maya and I were both pretty intimidated by the whole thing! At the Thai restaurant we had a good view to people watch, and got a good laugh out of the studly young man who struck a pose and waited for women to notice him. (If you've ever seen the movie "10 Things I Hate About You" he totally reminded me of the character who is the male model, bragging about posing for an underwear ad.)

As we walked back to the hotel, Maya all of a sudden exclaimed "Oh my God, there it is!" and pointed to the quiet, discreet French restaurant we'd been looking for all along. We laughed so hard until a big guard dog on our street scared us!

Thursday in Quito, part 2

2007-04-15T17:08:11Z

This was one of the churches (Iglesia el Saguario) around the central park of Old Town Quito.

This is a government building of some sort. It's not the president's house, which was also nearby. Or maybe it is a side view of the president's house. Hmmm.

Plaza de la Independencia

Cute Quito street

La Compania (we should've gone into this one)

We didn't actually go into many of the churches, to tell the truth, we were tired and had seen plenty of churches and amazing architecture and they all started to blend together. We did head toward the Plaza San Francisco because a friend of mine had told me that church and view were worth seeing. Then we saw the massive statue:

Can you get the scale of this thing!? It's huge! My book says 30 meters tall, however much that is in feet. It's the Virgin of Quito, and apparently you can climb up inside the base for a view. We didn't, though, as we'd heard that the neighborhood underneath the statue is kind of dangerous and not really worth the trip. I was fascinated with the statue from afar, though.

backing up, forgot about Wed. night

2007-04-15T16:28:33Z

So, yeah, Maya's friend, Jacob, an exchange student from Texas, called and invited us to go to see a live, Spanish language performance of Jesucristo Superstar. Yep, Jesus Christ Superstar, live and translated! It sounded interesting, plus I'd listened to the record a million times as a child and enjoyed all except the Yvonne Ellison track (how on earth do I remember stupid little details like her name from the '70's?!). It was free, and it was at a gigantic shopping mall, much like any large shopping mall you'd find in the US. After many phone calls and transportation arrangements, Jacob's ex-host mom gave us all a ride to the far away mall and dropped us off. We had no idea WHERE in the mall the thing was, so we went wandering, past the movie theater, past the food court, and then discovered a big long line of people. That's where we wanted to be. We politely waited at the back of the line until we got almost to the door and then they locked the doors. With 4 police guards keeping people out. What did they think the crowd to see Jesucristo was capable of?! Eventually a woman came out of the theater and berated the folks still lingering for being on "Cuenca time" instead of actually being on time and told us/them that the doors were closed for the night. Soooo, we headed back through the mall trying to decide on what to do next. As we came back upon the food court, we realized there was a gigantic movie screen that was simulcast broadcasting the Jesucristo performance into the mall. The sound and picture quality was awful, and Jacob thought the acting/performing was no better, although it was really hard to tell from the weird screen. All the tables in the massive food court were full, so we stood and watched for a couple of minutes and realized that we didn't understand any of the lyrics and weren't really in the mood for this anymore. We walked by the movie theater and decided we didn't want to see any of the movies there (Babel, Hard Candy, or the thing with the old guys on motorcycles) and eventually just went back to the hotel, where I packed for Quito and Maya stayed downstairs visiting with Jacob.

And that reminds me, too, that there are armed guards stationed throughout the cities of Ecuador. I saw unarmed guards in Guayaquil, or only armed with clubs, and plenty of machine gun armed guards in Cuenca. Usually they were standing outside of pharmacies, also banks. It wasn't really scary, just different.

Okay, back to the Quito story next.

Thursday to Quito

2007-04-14T02:38:29Z

I think our airplane to Quito was at 8:30 am. We woke early, had packed last night (thank goodness!), and checked out of the delightful Posada del Angel (leaving two large suitcases locked up there awaiting our return, however), and took a taxi to the airport. The flight to Quito was uneventful, up down in less than 30 minutes. We weren't really sure what to expect from Quito, and were kind of hoping to find the one and only synagogue in Ecuador. I'd done research online and had an address for both it and the Jewish community center type place, but that was about it. On the drive in from the airport we actually passed the community center or the school or something that had a star of David and a reference to it being a Jewish place. It was far far away from our hotel.

We had gambled on a hotel in Quito from this line in my travel guide: "The small and inviting Posada del Maple is another one of those funky old homes that seems to go on forever in a maze of staircases, balconies, and plant-filled courtyards." It did not disappoint!

courtyard of hostal

Maya in front of hostal in Quito

We checked in and were led up two flights of stairs to our 3rd story room, Room 10. Not as clean as the other hotel, but every bit as adorable.

Maya's bed

Linda's bed

We didn't rest as much as we could have/should have because we still thought it might be possible to go to Otavalo today. We wove our way down the stairs and to the public pay phone in the hotel/hostal. We tried to call Taxi Lagos, the place my guide book says has taxis to Otavalo for just $7.50 each. We thought that would be preferable to the bus on windy curvy roads for 2 hours! We lost our coins in the phone and were told by the front desk at the hotel that Taxi Lagos only sells tickets in person. So, we hired another taxi to take us to the taxi place. Taxi Lagos turned out to be a weird little walk up booth type thing that is mostly used by people to send packages to smaller towns in the vicinity of Quito. Like a cheap FedEx, I guess, because we stood in the line and were the only tourists and the only ones without a package or letter in our hands. Yeah, we felt more than a little out of place. We bought tickets for the next day, another bright and early start at 8:15, and tried to find the historic part of Quito. We consulted a map and used Maya's sense of direction (yay, it worked!) to get onto a city bus that took us where we wanted to go.

Quito is divided into two main parts (where tourists are concerned, anyway): Old Town and New Town. Old Town is the historic part of town with churches, cathedrals, churches, cathedrals, and churches. New Town is also known as the Mariscal district and is also known as Gringoland. More on that later.

We stopped in a supermarket to buy water and snacks, and mostly to get change for our bills so we could take the bus. We stopped in a big park to consult our map (we didn't want to be seen on the street, speaking English, being white, and looking at our map!) and had to honestly turn away a beggar who asked for change because we didn't yet have any. She walked away using my line "No entiendo" (I don't understand). For some reason there were many many benches in the park, but fences preventing us from actually getting to any. We got a good laugh out of that!

We got off the bus/trolley (trole) at a random plaza that looked historical - Plaza del Teatro, which has a renovated theater that was originally built in 1878. Sheesh, not even old! We started walking and found our way into another colonial courtyard type building with restaurants in it! Yay, 'cause we were hungry and tired. Quito is definitely more expensive than Cuenca, but still a good meal can be had for well under 8 bucks. We ate at "Hasta la Vuelta, Senor" and read about the local monk who used to escape at night out the window of the monastery (presumably the building we were eating in?) by climbing on top of the cathedral's Jesus on a cross. This monk would then have notable escapades with booze and women before coming back before dawn. His attitude changed, though, when the wooden Jesus he climbed on started talking to him, asking nightly the Spanish equivalent of "Until when?" and the monk would reply "Until I return, Father," thus the name of the restaurant. The monk eventually hallucinated his own death by alcohol poisoning and decided he'd actually dedicate his life to God as he had originally pledged. The meal was good - my Ecuadorian tamal wrapped in a banana leaf was delicious, as was the guanabana juice (ask Maya, I still don't know what that is but it was gooood). Maya's soup was weird, though, and tasted like olive oil.

the restaurant

2 musicians came by, one with pan pipes and one with a little guitar thingy and serenaded us and the other diners. It was cool, then they asked for donations and I gave them a dollar which was probably way too much. I was too embarrassed to get a picture of them right at our table, so the above picture is the one guy asking for donations. Oh well!

Next entry will have photos of a few churches. Coming soon.

Wednesday, March 28

2007-04-14T01:32:13Z

So, maybe it was Wednesday that the icky old men ogled me on the street. I can't remember, and it's not important.

Wednesday we took Maya's host family's suggestion and went to the Museo de las Culturas Aborigines in which we easily spent more than 2 hours (not including the amount of time in the gift shop at the end). My book says, "Some 5000 pre-Columbian pieces span every Ecuadorian culture up to the Spanish conquest," and I suppose there were about 5000 things we looked at! There were little tiny statues of goddesses, bigger statues of goddesses, big and little statues of people - including people chewing coca leaves, people with body malformations including Siamese twins, people in the act of creating more people, and statues of the particular body parts needed for that act too. We weren't allowed to take pictures and the weird little guide book we had said there was a souvenir book in the gift shop but we didn't see it.

found these photos on a webpage!

There were also these musical instruments that were like BIG windchimes which we were allowed to touch and make sound. I think they may have been obsidian, or almost obsidian but stronger, about a foot or more in length (each piece) and hanging from a big stick. You just moved one and it set the whole series in motion, about 8 in total, and it sounded very deep and resonant. So cool! Then we turned the corner and saw lots of stamps, not mailing stamps, but like carved clay to dip into ink and then stamp onto a page. Lots and lots, flat ones and rolling ones. Each room had a page in our guide book, even if they were hilariously out of order in the book, that explained what tribe, what years, and what part of Ecuador each of the collections were from.

There was a pottery room, well, they were all pottery rooms pretty much, but this one had big, gigantic pots with little bitty heads sticking out of the sides of them. They were cute. Later, there were big pots with knobs that looked like today's alien faces sticking out of them, and we hypothesized that the Incas must have had some communication with extra terrestrials that influenced their art work. It didn't say that in any of our books, though. The last room had metals, including sewing needles, clasps for holding a shawl together, as well as weapons, mostly little catapult things. I wish I had pictures, it's really hard to remember and describe it all!

Then we cruised the gift shop which Maya deemed "the best gift shop EVER!" We proceeded to stock up on our first Ecuador souvenir purchases, and maybe a gift or two as well. The shop owners loved us because we didn't barter and we spent lots of money. We didn't think you're supposed to barter in a museum gift shop, but the way they were thanking us made me think maybe we were supposed to.

We walked back into el Centro area, and stopped at an ice cream place right on the plaza of Parque Calderon, the main "central park" of town. The helado was more like gelato than ice cream, and we saw people all the time eating cones as they walked around downtown. Business men as well as tourists. Maya kept saying how Cuenca has so many tourists, but I honestly couldn't tell. We walked by a market but didn't stop, I think it was starting to rain.

After resting a bit, and more gifts from North America to Maya, we went back out to eat some more! We went to a restaurant called Raymipanpa which also offers traditional Cuenca cuisine. It was back near the park, practically next door to the helateria (ice cream shop) we'd been to earlier. The food was good, but not as good as El Maiz the day before. I think it was this place that brought us popcorn before the meal, instead of the big corn stuff that I'd come to like. We had super good lemonade and iced tea, though! And the food really was good, there was just so much of it that the waiter thought we didn't like it. Food in Cuenca is so inexpensive! This was a touristy place and the meals were only about $4 - $6 for a gigantic plateful.

Parque Calderon

Tuesday afternoon

2007-04-12T04:27:08Z

After the Museum of Medicine, and after the rain cleared up a bit, we ventured back out to go to another type of museum. As we were trying to cross the big street along the Tomebamba, a city bus drove by and one of Maya's exchange student friends (Chase) yelled hello from the bus to her! It did my motherly heart good to know that Maya has friends there that know her well enough to greet her like that.

Speaking of greetings, people in Ecuador greet one another with a kiss to the cheek. The right cheek, I believe. It's not the "kiss kiss" of Europe, but half of it! Her host family greeted me with that at the airport, and I learned quickly to offer this greeting to most of the people Maya introduced me to.

The next "museum" was called the Zoo Amaru. It was a tiny little hole in the wall with displays of tarantulas, frogs, snakes, fish, and other reptiles. We paid our $2 to go in and got our very own tour guide who couldn't have been much older than Maya and he spoke in slow enough Spanish that I understood much of what he said. It helped that he was kind of reading his lines from the cards on each of the windows. The tree frogs were the coolest part, but there weren't very many of them. The fish tanks were the un-coolest part because they had fish on display that are sold regularly in aquarium stores here. Neon tetras, zebra fish, all the fish that have been in aquariums that Maya's had. But then there were the piranhas, too. Vegetarian piranhas that only eat plants, and toothed piranhas that Maya said look like Voldemort in the last Harry Potter movie. Here's a link to the zoo's website: http://www.zooamaru.com/

We meandered home, that is, back to the hotel and readied ourselves for dinner with the folks - Maya's host family. Fernando came to pick us up. It was already kind of dark but I could see that we were driving toward the edge of town. We drove past a really expensive hotel but also past all kinds of dingy looking places, too. We then crossed a little bridge over a river and were on a small road. Then we turned left onto a dirt road with potholes and beautiful houses. I saw this drive again in the daylight on my last day in Cuenca and it is beautiful! Farm land, cows (black and white just like here), corn fields, and big newer homes, as well as some big older homes. A ways down the road we turn to the right and have to wait for the gate to open - yes, Maya now lives in a gated community of 3 homes! These pictures were not taken that night, but show the property of her family's home, her aunt's home, and another relative's home. They're currently building a 4th house for the abuela.

Maya's house

The other houses on the property

Fernando likes to cook in this kitchen:

and I had the better sense to answer a zealous "Yes, of course!" when they started serving dinner and asked me if I like fish. At least it wasn't trout, which there is a lot of in Ecuador. It was actually quite good, and I ate it all, even the shrimp on top. We also had mashed potatoes and for dessert was a key lime pudding type of thing. They also opened a bottle of wine from which Maya and I both drank (and Fernando and Pachi, too). We returned to our hotel around 11 pm, totally exhausted, and locked out of the entry into the courtyard! Good thing Fernando was still with us because he knew where to look for, and was tall enough to reach, the doorbell at the top of the doorway.

Maya and host family

Maya's pink, Catholic bedroom

Maya has two mommies

one of the family rooms

Tuesday morning

2007-04-12T03:35:02Z

Today we set off to go to some museums mentioned in my travel guide. I think we both had breakfast in our quaint little breakfast courtyard again, then relaxed in the room and made phone calls about tours and trips to Quito. We made a plan and began the late morning walk to the Super Maxi (supermarket) which is across the Tomebamba River. We were in search of cream cheese so Maya could eat the bagel I'd brought her from Florida! Instead of walking through el Centro Historico, we took a short cut and went straight to Calle Larga, which is the street overlooking the river. Apparently, though, a difference of 3 or 4 blocks is a big difference in that there were no tourists or gringos in sight, and I got leered and ogled twice by icky old men. One leaned way in toward me and told me "I loooove you!" The other had just finished spitting on the sidewalk when he puckered his lips and made a kissy sound at me. I was grossed out but also relieved that he wasn't puckering up to spit again! Just to be fair, Maya had her share of oglers, too, especially a few days later when a nice looking young man on a motorcycle thoroughly checked her out. She gets the hunky ones, I get the spitters. Ah, youth.

We were never in any danger, it wasn't that kind of neighborhood, just more isolated for a small handful of blocks, until we got back into the area with museums and hotels. The big stairway down to the river and bridge and I had to be a tourist and take this picture:

I did not take a picture of the street performer who was dressed up like two people (like, real arms pretended to be legs with a fake upper body attached...can't really describe it - Maya, can you help?!) and would perform for the cars stopped at red lights while his partner would ask for change. Maya gave them money since she enjoys their show. On the way back over the bridge I gave money to a cute, tiny little beggar woman who was much shorter than me and dressed all colorfully. Maya said she was probably Quechua, which is the indigenous culture of the area. Sociology lesson: 50% of Ecuador's population is comprised of people from the original indigenous cultures. That's like if 50% of our country were Native Americans. Imagine! And so many of the people wore bright, colorful, traditional clothing. Not for show, not because they wanted to attract tourist attention, but because that's what they wear. This photo is from a post card, but it is exactly an example of what we saw everywhere in Cuenca, and even more people dressed like this in the outlying towns.

So, we bought cream cheese and oritos (miniature bananas) at the SuperMaxi and went to the Parque de la Madre (Park of the Mother) to have a picnic. I thought it was called that because moms like to take their children there, but I wasn't thinking Catholicism and Maya corrected me that it was named for The Mother of God. We then went to the Museo de la Historia de la Medicina which is housed in an old military hospital, yet another colonial courtyard type building. The travel book description says, "Even fans of the macabre will consider the Medical History Museum one of the most bizarre collections they have ever seen." Since Maya and I have been to the catacombs of miles and miles of skulls underneath Paris, how could we pass this one up!? These contraptions are not nearly as old as they look - lots of stuff from mid 20th century. It was not a shrunken head, but there was a strange and small mummified corpse just laying (lying?) in a glass case amidst other display items with no explanation attached whatsoever. We decided to not take a picture of that, it didn't feel respectful.

an operating table

an x-ray machine

It started to rain before we left, so we relaxed on a bench underneath the shelter of the building and took more pictures.

Pictures of Maya - jumping ahead in the story

2007-04-11T18:49:03Z

Maya and Rio Tomebamba

Maya in a cloud at the top of El Teleferiqo

Maya's current host family - Fernando (dad), Karolina (sister), Cristian (brother in law), Maya, Pachi (mom), Caridad (younger sister)

Monday, part 2

2007-04-11T05:56:20Z

We then continued through historic, colonial, delightful Cuenca to El Banco Central which sounds like it ought to be the bank, but is really a big museum. We were not allowed to take our cameras into the museum, so descriptions will have to do. The first part of the museum was filled with pottery, big, small, and tiny, with Spanish, English, Quechua, and Braille interpretations/explanations. Under the braille were examples of the pottery that could be picked up and felt by any and all. There was a display of modern-ish art in another room which we decided to skip, and we went downstairs to the Numismatic museum, which means money. We looked at coins from pre-Ecuadorian times, to a time when Ecuador and Colombia were the same country, all the way up to the sucre - bills that they had until just a few years ago when Ecuador's currency changed to the US dollar. Yep, this tiny South American country uses the same money we use in the states. Very weird. They still have coins, but use them interchangably with US coins.

Back upstairs we cruised through displays of the traditions, customs, and artwork of each of the provinces of Ecuador. It was only kinda cool because I didn't want to see a museum hanging woven goods, I wanted to see the goods at a real market! And seeing pretend people swinging in hammocks in a pretend jungle was odd. But then....

Shrunken heads.

Real, REAL shrunken heads from a native culture in the jungle of Ecuador. Skip to the next paragraph if you want 'cause I'm getting a bit graphic. There were about 5 or 8 shrunken heads in a tactfully done display. Actually, each one was in its own case, so you only saw one at a time, but my word it was indescribably unusual. Again this part of the museum had English translations (no hands on exhibit for the blind, though!!!) which taught about the meaning and ritual involved in this now-prohibited practice. Apparently, shamans would shrink the decapitated heads of murderers to avenge the death of the murder victim. The display made it sound like quite a rare ordeal, done without malice and with the idea of liberating the souls of both victim and now-shrunken murderer. But, my goodness, heads the size of baseballs, or at least softballs, with hair, mustaches, everything in tact. Mouths were sewn shut with some sort of twine, but I think that part of the ritual was to untie it a year later, maybe to retie it with a different kind of twine of significance. And, no, there was no description of HOW they were able to shrink them.

Outside of this museum, in the backyard basically, were the Incan ruins of Pumapungo. It is so well-maintained that it was hard to visualize it as old as it really is - my tour book says it was already in ruin in 1547 when Spaniards arrived. There was also a bird zoo with parrots and other birds of the region, and a beautiful expansive garden with plants native to the area that were/are used for food and other purposes throughout the years. And 3 kitty cats, possibly the only cats I saw during my whole time in Ecuador.

After Pumapungo, we stopped at a restaurant called El Maiz. It boasts of having typical Cuencana cuisine and it was DELICIOUS! Maya took another attempt at jugo tomate del arbol, still had a weird after taste, and I had blackberry juice or some such dark purple delight. They brought us a bowl of motepillo (big puffed corn) to eat while we waited (like a Mexican place would bring chips, or an American place would bring bread) and it was yummy. The meal I ordered was the Cuencana special, really juicy pork, mote, choclo con quizo (corn with cheese), tomato salad seasoned just right, and litte potato and cheese pancakes that have a name I can't remember. We sat at a table on an outside patio and relaxed and watched little yellow birds fly by. After lunch it was about 4:00 and we went back to the hotel and rested. (Maya probably watched Smallville, one of her new addictions. Yes, in fact, I think it was the first episode ever and it was awful!)

The next time we ventured out was in search of dinner, believe it or not after that big late lunch. We first stopped at El Cafecito, a touristy little club/coffee shop that Maya loves and said it reminds her of Portland. It was packed and nowhere to sit, so we went down the big outdoor stairway toward the river and to the Wunderbar. It's another touristy place, but this time more with German and Austrian tourists. We had wonderful guacamole and lemonade (or it may have been iced tea - the tea was so sweet and lemony that it was like lemonade). Back in the hotel, before falling asleep, Maya showed me her pictures of the Amazon jungle trip she took on her digital camera. Maybe someday you who are reading this might see them too....

At some point during this day we walked along the Tomebamba River a tiny bit. It's at the bottom of the stairs under the Wunderbar, and is the main river of the 4 in Cuenca. We saw beautiful architecture and hotels, museums, and homes.

Pumapungo

cute little street

The restaurant and meal from their brochure!

Monday, March 26 in Cuenca, part 1

2007-04-11T05:01:50Z

I haven't even been back a week and I already don't remember the details of my first morning in Cuenca with Maya. I'm sure we went downstairs in our hotel to the breakfast room where there were bananas, coffee, and tea. We sat at a table and an older woman brought us a basket of toast and bread, asked if we wanted "huevos." Maya ordered hot chocolate and fried eggs for both of us. The woman also brought juice...the first of some of the best juice I've ever had. I don't remember if it was pina (pineapple) or naranjilla (no american equivalent, says Maya) but it was good. Fresh. Strong. Either before or after breakfast we explored the hotel, peeking in rooms that were left open after people had checked out, and climbed the stairway to the 3rd floor, wondering if those rooms would be even cooler than ours!

Then we started to walk through el Centro Historico of Cuenca, which is to say, right outside our door. We didn't walk far when Maya taught me how to cross the street in Ecuador. Apparently stop signs and stop lights mean something completely different to Ecuadorians than to North Americans! A stop sign means that the car comes to a rolling slow down until about halfway into the intersection where, if another car is not coming, they then speed up and continue on their way. No one (maybe 5%) uses turn signals, so you can't even be sure that a car moving the same direction you're walking won't turn and crash into you as you cross the street either. Even city buses drive like this and Maya has heard reports of pedestrians being hit by buses. People do stop at red lights, not that there are very many stop lights in historic Cuenca, but start moving again when the light at the cross street turns yellow (luckily the cross street drivers stop on yellow!). Crossing the street became a frequent adventure!

We dropped off some film of Maya's to be developed at a shop less than a block from her school. Dang it but I did not get a photo of the outside of her school. It's a very non-descript building just smack in the middle of the historic center of town. Red paint on the bottom of the building, yellow on top, and gruesome pokey things sticking up on all the windowsills, I guess so no one climbs in. It looks nothing like a school from the outside, and even shares the outer part of the building with little shops. Once you find the front door, it opens into a courtyard and that is where it starts to look like a school. Maya and I poked our heads in, said "hi" to two people she knew (one who was related to her first host family), and then pretty much left because Maya was skipping mid-terms and didn't want to be seen on the premises!

our hotel is the yellow part

our breakfast room!

March 24, part two, Cuenca!

2007-04-09T00:43:04Z

I don't remember a thing from the airplane ride to Cuenca, except that it was fast! Only about 30 minutes. We got off the airplane down a stairway onto the tarmac, like in the old days, and followed the yellow striped road to the terminal. I kept looking for Maya, not sure where I would see her first! Inside the tiny Cuenca terminal was one luggage carousel and a glass wall keeping non-travelers out. I saw her immediately, but as I told her later, I was not 100% sure it was her, she looked different, and I didn't want to be caught waving to someone that wasn't my daughter! But it was, indeed, her, and she sort of snuck through the doorway so we could hug. Big hugs and we both started crying! She returned to her host family beyond the glass and got comforting hugs from them while I waited for my luggage (including the big, purple, piece of crap suitcase I bought for Maya. Grr). Maya gave me a bouquet of flowers, and I tried to get used to her with long hair and wearing a white sweater/hoodie! Long fingernails and earrings too!

Maya's family drove us to our hotel, understanding that Maya and I ought to be alone tonight. We made plans for dinner at their home on Tuesday, and they dropped us off at the cutest, coolest hotel - Posada del Angel (website: www.hostalposadadelangel.com). It looked just like it's website, clean and adorable, and we were shown to a room with 3 twin beds, a ceiling to floor window with colonial doors on it and a tiny balcony outside looking over cobblestone streets and orange tiled roofs. Sooooo cool!

I don't even remember if we spent time in the room or went immediately to find dinner. Probably a combination. It was a Sunday night and we didn't want to stray far from our hotel, so we ended up at a place called "New York Pizza" if you can believe it! We each had a slice and a juice. Maya ordered jugo tomate del arbol (#1) which she wanted me to taste. Sweet tree tomato juice with a biting aftertaste that made me make a face. She chided me for the face, then tasted it herself and couldn't stop from making her own face. Ja!

Walking through the streets of Cuenca was like being in Paris for the first time. Narrow cobblestone streets (una via) with beautiful buildings that I can't even describe. We went back to the hotel and had to ring a bell - a real bell, not an electronic door bell - with a rope hanging down in front of the door to be let back in. In our room, I'm sure we had a cuddle and catching up talk, but I'm also sure I was exhausted and had to cut it short. We kept laughing at ourselves for bonking our knees into the bedpost of the 3rd bed which was precariously in the way of the bathroom. It was delightful to see Maya, and as if we had never been apart. We didn't go into a lot of "how have you been?" type stuff, just picked right up in the moment and were happy and giggly.

March 24, part one, Guayaquil

2007-04-07T19:32:41Z

I woke up in the big king sized bed in UniPark Hotel in Guayaquil. I think that breakfast was supposed to be included but I wasn't sure and I didn't know how to find out. I started to think maybe that's why there was the fruit plate in my room, but my travel books said not to eat fruit unless it can be peeled (because it would've been washed in the water we're not supposed to drink). So I ate the banana and a bagel that I'd brought for me from Florida. Michael called again and, again, it was very quick (calling card ran out too fast). I set myself a goal to leave my hotel room by 12 noon. My flight to Cuenca wouldn't leave until 5 anyway and I had planned to explore the scenic part of Guayaquil if I could get up the nerve.

The book I keep referring to is Moon Handbooks travel guide to Ecuador. It said that the iguanas in the iguana park across the street from my hotel are fed around noon and that it is quite a sight to see. I put on sunscreen and took the elevator downstairs to see if I would find iguanas. I thought I knew how to operate the elevator with my card key for the hotel, but apparently you have to use it not only to get into the elevator but also to get out. I discovered this while I was laughing uproariously at my predicament that the elevator had taken me not to the floor I wanted but to the basement and the door would not open. Okay, I'm in Ecuador, I don't know how to get out of the elevator or how to call for help and explain what's happening! Luckily, I've been in a few hotels and figured out how to get myself to where I wanted to be without embarrasing myself to any of the locals.

Then I crossed the street into a beautiful square park with a big statue in the middle and a huge cathedral across another street. There were HUNDREDS of iguanas! It was sooooo cool! Big ones, little bright green ones, fast ones, barely moving ones, on the ground, on the tree trunks, in the tops of trees, climbing over each other, eating, resting. I've never seen anything like it (another motto of my trip!). The park was full of iguanas and families watching the iguanas, and a few couples making out. Some street vendors selling cheap snacks and cups of coca cola. I am self-consciously aware that I am the only white person, an awareness I will feel even more severely as the day goes on.

I decided to walk 3 or 4 blocks to the riverfront. The Malecon is what they call it, and it is like the eastside Esplanade in Portland times 15 with shops and food and playgrounds and towers to climb to look out over the river and city. So, not really too much like the Esplanade after all. The architecture of buildings on my walk was cool - a Moorish Clock Tower, a big 4 domed government building, some statues of people breaking free of colonialism. As I walked along the Malecon is when I realized that even though I was the only Gringa, I was not the only tourist!! Everyone had cameras and were taking in the sights. It was as hot as I'd been in in a long time, too, and I went to buy a bottle of water - 35 cents! This was my initiation into how affordable or even cheap everything is in Ecuador!

Except for my lunch. I splurged on a spendy Sunday buffet in the UniCafe and tried a little of many things, except for what was blatantly seafood. Had some good salads, casseroles, fried rice, and a not so good piece of beef. Couple of desserts - flan and some pudding type stuff that was sort of a cross between cake and pudding. It was yummy though!

Back through the mall to my hotel room and channel surfed in the air conditioning until it was time to go to the airport! I successfully bartered with the taxi driver on the price, without really intending to, it's just that the hotel said it'd be $4 and the driver tried to charge me $5.

Once in the airport I discovered that there was no reservation in my name on the flight to Cuenca, but that there were seats available. ("No hablo mucho espanol, habla ingles?" She didn't but we managed to successfully purchase my ticket anyway!) Checked my bags and went to the gate. Listened to cheesy musak including the Theme from the Godfather, and The Impossible Dream! I thought the flight left at 5 pm, or 17:00 as they print it on the ticket, and it wasn't until five to 5 and we hadn't even started boarding that I realized it didn't leave until 6. I mustered my Spanish language bravery and asked (successfully!) a woman if I could borrow her cell phone to call Cuenca. I reached Maya just in time to let her know I'd be an hour later than she expected. All good, got on the flight and off to see my daughter!

Days 1 and 2 - without Maya

2007-04-07T19:22:00Z

Day One was Friday, March 23. I left Portland and spent lots of long hours on a plane to Fort Lauderdale, Florida where dad and Lyn were waiting for me at the airport. Not much to tell, still didn't seem real that I was about to travel to South America. Went out for yummy Italian food and then to bed early.

Day Two was, obviously, Saturday, March 24. I didn't have to be in Miami until 4 in the afternoon for my flight to Ecuador, so dad and I went to the deli and had good bagels and iced tea. I was able to buy the last onion bagel in the deli to bring to Maya! We took Bailey to the dog sitter's house and then travelled down to Miami's airport. Dad and I had really good sandwiches in a French bakery in the airport (who would've thought they would be so good!), then I went through the security system and into the international gate area.

That's when it started to hit me that I am really going to South America! I kept thinking of Maya doing this same trip, being in the same gate (which I later found out she was at a different gate) just 6 or so months ago. I was scared and uncertain of myself, I couldn't even imagine what must have been going through her head! I talked to some people whose plane to Peru was broken and they were on indefinite delay. I listened to my iPod and felt like it was playing me a soundtrack to the movie of my life at the moment, Simon and Garfunkel singing "America," sort of about traveling America looking for connection and sense of self. Seemed appropriate and kinda spooky that it was what randomly came on the iPod.

Flight to Guayaquil, Ecuador was uneventful, dark so no views from the window, and watched "The World's Fastest Indian" on the mini tv screens on the plane. Struck up a conversation with the heavy metal/alt rocker from Ecuador seated next to me. Shaved bald head, Rasputin pointy beard, gauged earrings, tattoos on his calves which were visible because he was wearing long cut off shorts. He was nice and helped me translate the customs form they handed out only in Spanish. Listened to him gripe about his country's custom's restrictions and how limiting they are about bringing things in to the country. "Only 30 cds! I have more than 30 cds but I'm not planning to sell them, they're my own collection! Man, this is bullshit!"

Landed in Ecuador, the airport was really quick and efficient with luggage, customs, and (whew!) the hotel really did have a driver holding up a sign for me to recognize as I left the security zone of the airport. Took a minivan/minibus to the hotel and saw much more poverty and grunginess than I had expected during the drive. The hotel was WIERD! Good, 4 star hotel, but with a very strange layout.

I checked in and the women at the desk started speaking very fast Spanish to me. "No hablo mucho Espanol. Habla Ingles?" became my theme. Apparently I was offered a free drink at the hotel bar/restaurant, but I had no idea where that was or how to ask about it, so I accepted the coupon and followed the bellboy.

We went through the pretty doors and all of a sudden, instead of being in a hotel, we are in a shopping mall. A closed shopping mall on a Sunday night, lights out, escalators turned off, stores locked up with the big gates closed on them, and the bellboy tells me that my room is in the second tower of the hotel. We curve around the mall and get to an elevator that I don't know that I'll ever be able to find again!

Once to my room, the bellboy opens the door and I don't have just a room but a humongous, expansive, HUGE suite all to myself. As if I weren't scared enough, now I have all this open space around me with no idea of where I am or how to communicate with anyone! My long-ago high school Spanish sounds good in my head, but when I open my mouth it doesn't come out. There's a big living room, then a hallway with the bathroom off to the side, and then the sleeping room with a KING sized bed just for me. A chocolate on the nightstand, and a bowl of fruit on the table along with rose petals in a bowl of water (for my fingers?). The bellboy declined a tip (?!) and left the room. I locked every lock on every door that I possibly could and channel surfed until Michael called from Portland. What a relief, even though it was a quick little call!!!

Somehow I calmed my nerves enough to get some sleep, and the next day....