Our Ecuador Adventure

Final thoughts

2009-06-15T12:45:00.000-07:00

Last night in the apartment in Otavalo:
Rosie: I’m excited to be going home, but I think I’ll miss everybody here, cuz they have corner stores and stuff. I think I’ll miss Ecuador a little bit because the people are so friendly and cheerful. Worst thing: first day of school. Best thing: learning Spanish

Althea: I’m excited to be going to home to see everybody and to talk to people, but I really like it here because everyone is so friendly. I think this is a really good place to live. I’m kind of glad this trip is over; it’s been kind of like standing in the way of planning. Everything is kind of wide open right now.The worst thing was the first day of school; the most horrible thing in the world (At the end of the day, I didn’t even know we had had math class!)

Paul: Wow. I think the dominant feeling is that my pompoms are very tired. I feel the kids’ loneliness very strongly and I try to cheer them on. Oh boy will it be nice for them to have some other folks to be with and talk to. A truckload of great memories and fantastic moments and projects and experiences, and plenty of hard dang work. Looking forward to sifting through it all stateside.

Just had an exhilarating day driving around the valley distributing our possessions to friends, many of whom helped us do so. Like a community workday of emptying an apartment. Hugs to all. Signing off, home Wed. P

Achitaita

2009-06-12T11:34:00.001-07:00

Our first kichwa blog post. Just before catching the bus to Quito for World Cup, KD and I were honored to be godparents at the confirmation of our friends' (Julio and Maria) son. Padrino in Spanish, Achitaita and Achimama in Kichwa (which they primarily speak). Catholic mass, the whole deal. Super cool thing to get to see, can't wait for Sunday: we've been invited to eat cuy (guinea pig) at their home, we plan to arrive with briefcase/shoulder bag for son Jefferson and our refrigerator for mom and dad. Fun!

Gol ! ! !

2009-06-11T06:01:00.000-07:00

Well, quite a day yesterday. We arose at 5:30 to go be "confirmation godparents" for a friend's 15 year-old, caught an 8:30 bus to Quito, enjoyed lunch with friends - and then braved steady rain to watch Ecuador beat Argentina in World Cup soccer! Only the 3 tiny Guyana countries don't field teams, so 10 teams from South America are in heated competition for the 5 invites to South Africa next year. And since it's a given that Brasil will get one, it's 9 for 4.

We stomped on them. I took my iPod recorder in and captured a bunch of songs and chants. I missed when we 40,000 were calling the bad ref a "son of a prostitute," and when we all chanted "Cry, Maradona, Cry," taunting the legendary Argentine player and now coach, but I caught plenty for a multimedia presentation.

The girls loved it, I'm so pleased and proud. South American World Cup soccer is on the Die Happy list, and we've done it!! Hooray!

Althea:
I loved the soccer so much! I didn't like the rain very much, but we had some plastic, so we stayed dry (mostly). I thought that the enthusiasm from the audience was the funnest. They all had songs that they sang, and chants for the refs when they 'did something wrong'. It's a lot better than watching it on TV, that's for sure! If Ecuador makes it to South Africa, I'll do anything to watch it! Now that we've been to a big sporting event down here, I think I'm ready to go home. I'm definatley going to miss all the friends we made down here, but I think that it will be nice to be home with all the American stuff and people. I really don't want to forget my Spanish, so I'll practice anytime I get.
C U Soon!

Rosie:
I thought the soccer yrsterday was awesome for two reasons. It was a once in a life time expirence and because WE WON!!!!! When we made the second goal that won the game people were screaming and hugging each other like they just won became the president of the united states! it was crazy and it was so so so fun. When we were walking home some gils were standing on there roof and the were screaming ECUADOR, ECUADOR. I loved it. I will never forget that soccer game or this experience in Ecuador. But i am so excited to get home and see everybody and everything.
See you soon,
Rosie

Winding down

2009-06-02T12:18:00.000-07:00

Well, it's coming right down to it. We fly from Quito June 17 and have half a week of winding down to do up here, so the days are few. Thanks all for reading and commenting, looking forward to seeing the US of A and many of you very soon. Great opportunity, many wonderful and difficult times, super glad we did it.

Hasta pronto. P

Galapagos

2009-05-21T09:22:00.000-07:00

Oh dear, our longest absence from the blog, I think. All fine, just very mobile and somewhat remote. Not much Wifi in our lives.

Returned from Machu to Cusco, left Peru, arrived The Islands early last week. 5 days on a luxury boat racing to keep up with downloading all the pictures. Stunning, spectacular wildlife, just what I'd pondered it might be. Wow, what a place! A crucible and a cathedral at once; more on that someday soon. Hundreds of pictures from lots of different islands and bays. Rosie saw her first sea turtle yesterday, Al (and K and I) our first shark. Iguanas, cormorant, flamingo, penguin, boobie, rays, friggin' remarkable.

On San Cristobal island, back to Santa Cruz in the morning. Back to Otavalo May 30.

Hugs. P

Inca trails

2009-05-10T14:15:00.000-07:00

The hardcore way to arrive at Machu Picchu is to hike 4 days along the ancient walking route of the Incas; it seems like an awesome idea. Our personal semi-heroic trail to the monument consisted of managing children, keeping up the strawberry yogurt supply, locating lodging in skanky villages and busy cities, you parents get the idea. We made it up there yesterday, and it was stunning. No sunrise due to foggy am, but rounding the corner of a stone pathway and seeing the whole complex emerging from the dawn mist – tears in my eyes. Pick the most stunning Andean col, then apply formidable engineering and artistic vision. On some levels, I’m a fan of those Inca folks.

Today we’re back down towards civilization in a little village that has been continuously occupied since the 1200’s. It’s a bit touristed these days, but I had a lovely couple hours hoofing along some hillsides, often walking on paths that showed evidence of ancient terracing from the 1400’s. I found myself pondering a bit about regime change. As I looked down into the valley at the small peasant patches of corn, barley, potatoes, quinoa and stone irrigation channels, I wondered how much it mattered whether the boss in Lima (or Cusco) was Pucaran, or Incan, or Catholic, or Fujimori. In many ways, and we’ve had a lovely opportunity to see some up close, the folks in the villages are still just raising the cattle and the children, planting the crops, gathering the firewood, wearing the hats (I’m deep into the “Hats of the Andes” photojournal). The government always demands some of your harvest or money, sometimes the power struggle rages through your own neighborhood. The Inca ruins are a ton like the Roman ruins 1700 years later. Would they have caught up without transatlantic interference? Bolivar liberated in 1820; does the 300 year interval determine how it is now? Most of the folks in this village, and my friends in Otavalo, are indigenous folks small-farming along. Will the new norm elsewhere start looking more like this?

Someone has estimated at the time of the Catholic invasion, the Incas had 19 years of food stockpiled in stone storehouses. Then a bitter civil war broke out between the two sons of the emperor (Huascar and Atahualpa), which weakened the kingdom significantly for the convenience of Pizarro and the boys. This fascinates me. The Incas had convinced the populace from Chile to Columbia that overproduction, stone hauling, and supporting The Man was vitally important. But it turns out that they were quickly brought down by internal and external strife. Keeping your eye on the ball can lead to other problems; may we all remember the importance of noticing lots of elements of life. The bee will bump up against the window until it falls down tired; the fly will buzz around chaotically and locate the other exit.

Hugs. Thanks for helping me journal. P

Inca capital

2009-05-10T14:10:00.000-07:00

I was excited about a number of stops on our Peru trip, but I had only a vague sense that Cusco was, not in fact the liquor (that’s pisco) but the launching point for Machu Picchu. I’m now a fan! It reminds me of Florence and Kyoto – the sort of place where they’re running a city inside a museum. Not huge like Quito, but tons of beautiful and old architecture. This was the capital of the Inca Empire, and it feels like it. Many of the buildings have Inca walls incorporated into them. And there is lots of the magnificent thing – car-free areas! The narrow narrow streets like Philadelphia and Charleston and lots of Europe. It’s lovely here.

See photos of us crossing the pass from the Titicaca drainage into the Cusco (and Amazon) drainage (a cute baby alpaca and our cute baby gringa) and enjoying the town before heading off to the The Wonder. P

Titicaca

2009-05-03T19:09:00.001-07:00

And then we headed (in a bit of first class bus luxury – photo) from Arequipa to Puno and Lake Titicaca. The highest big lake in the world, at 12,500 it’s a breathtaker on all levels. Much too much to show here, but see some funs shots of our host mom where we overnighted on one of the islands (with the girls’ hats her mom handknit), the mind-bending floating islands where folks have lived on reed rafts for hundreds of years, awesome. And onshore, we ended up staying in the storeroom of a friendly restaurant. See some fun shots of cultural intercambio (ukulele and juggling lessons, recording the kids singing and playing it back for them on the iPod, renting the neighborhood foozball table, lovely.

Back now to civilization – hot bath, internet, TV, coffee, soft beds, central heating. All well. P

Wildlife on land and wing

2009-05-03T19:06:00.000-07:00

The condor is a big deal down here, figuring in folklore and religion. In Colca Canyon, we saw tons, up close. Even with our point and shoot, we caught a little action. On the way over, we passed through vicuña country; they’re a cousin of the alpaca and llama – and mighty cute. And this spectacular shepherd ambled over the hill at like 12,000 feet tending the flock. With baby. Amazing.

Titicaca

2009-05-03T14:34:00.000-07:00

Just back out of the woods on a great adventure. The last 3 nights have been in the upstairs storeroom of a restaurant and a guest house of a local family on an island in the Lake. Wow, what a spectacular thing to get to see. I´ve been fascinated by this place for the past, well, 35 years or so and am so pleased we all got to see the floating islands and local folks. Stunning. Dang wifi won´t work here, so pix will have to wait. But I wanted our legions of fans to know we hadn´t wandered too far off on a Paddington hunt. Tomorrow to Cuzco as we make our way to Machu Pichu.

Hugs. P

Colca Canyon

2009-04-29T15:56:00.000-07:00

Outside of Arequipa, the second largest city in Peru (after Lima, a coastal monster at 8 million), is the deepest canyon in the world. It drops 10,000 feet from the snowy Andes to a deep gorge. We went. See photo of us in front of the tallest mountain I've ever seen (Ampato is 21,000 feet). We're standing - roadside, just off the tour bus - at 16,500. So that's a mile higher than the summit of Mt. Hood right there on the asphalt (well, it's gravel).

Very fun. All well. P

In Country

2009-04-26T19:24:00.000-07:00

Just arrived in Lima after a long day on the road - taxi to Quito, fly to Guayaquil, hang out at the mall (where we picked up Lonely Planet Peru and a few select English titles for las chicas), fly to Lima. We´re in at a cozy youth hostel, heading further south to Arequipa tomorrow. Photos of the pile o´ baggage soon. All well, 5 weeks on the road. P

The Obama Summit

2009-04-22T11:23:00.000-07:00

Their headline, not mine. The perspective from this side of the Caribbean has changed in just 3 months. The Summit of the Americas opened today with every nation in our hemisphere but Cuba in attendance. 34 in all. The organization was founded in 1994 for “democratically elected leaders” only and has transitioned in theme from primarily economic to political. The summit opened with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez leading a charge to broaden the topics of debate to include the U.S.’s obligation to help countries suffering under the economic crisis and to rough us up a little over the Cuban embargo.

My favorite news and opinion source is El Comercio, a business-oriented daily from Quito. Friday, when the summit opened, they led with “Latin America waits for a response from the U.S.” By Sunday, the editorials started off with, “The Obama Summit” and “A New Era in the Americas.” The text of the main article included the description of our President, “a man who seems to listen carefully to every word his colleagues say and to communicate with every word he says the distance that he wants to place between himself and the belligerent policies of his predecessor.” As Garrison Keillor wrote in November, “Now when we travel we don’t have to pretend to be Canadian.”

Also heartening to see the published picture of President Obama arriving at the summit in Trinidad and Tobago. He was welcomed by a full dress phalynx of their military, all looking a lot like him.

The US Embassy is renegotiating a new drug enforcement agreement with Ecuador. The last one went up in a puff of smoke after some high-level police officers in the special investigation unit let US officials (who were funding the unit) review their computer files, some classified. The episode ended up with two US diplomats getting expelled and the firing of the long-term chief of the drug enforcement unit, Manuel Silva. So, how much of that was the computer deal and how much was the fact that Silva had just busted a former sub-cabinet minister, a close colleague of Correa’s chancellor, for cooperating with the FARC’s drug-running business? Sometimes it seems that the President here, Rafael Correa, is so busy being leftist-populist with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, Bolivia’s Evo Morales and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega that he’s willing to ally with some pretty shady characters. Meanwhile, Columbia’s President Uribe, an unabashed U.S. ally, has gotten a constitutional amendment passed to allow him yet another term in office. Can be hard to tell who’s got the white hat on around here. - Kristen

Peru !

2009-04-22T11:21:00.000-07:00

With just 2 months left here, we’re looking at the list of things we don’t want to miss. High on this list are Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca. And so we’re off to the southern neighbor country (get a map) on the 26th. This leaves us with just 3 Sundays in country (important to Paul, who has been invited to be a godfather) and a bunch of miles to cover (Quito-Guyaquil-Lima-Arequipa-Puno-Cuzco-Lima-Guayaquil) followed by a jaunt to the Galapagos where Kristen has landed a week’s medical gig.

Looking forward, will be missing here. Back on May 31. Hugs. P

Pig !

2009-04-22T10:53:00.000-07:00

KD scored another soccer tourney, and the team (including the only 3 white folks in the tournament) came in second. Second prize was a pig. See photos of the night awards ceremony, as well as dancing at the pig roast the next weekend. I got to watch the slaughter Sunday am for the noon roast (no aged meat here!), and even hold the flame thrower (if you burn off the fur, you can eat the skin). And our friends dressed KD in the indigenous garb, including the cool hair wrap. P

Bikers

2009-04-22T10:47:00.001-07:00

I was downtown visiting the mayor and noticed a fellow eating breakfast in the park next to his well laden bike. I asked about his trip (boat from Europe to Colombia via Martinique, down the Panamerican) and then invited him to stay with us for a bit. Jarek (Poland) introduced us to Andy (Scotland) and we had a biker party going. Andy had, incredibly, a mandolin stashed in his saddle bags, so we had some fun music – and dancing - as well (see photo of lots of strings in the apartment – Althea’s guitar, Ro’s uke, Andy’s mando, my banjo and charango. 31 strings!) Lovely fellows, great adventures, fun to play host sometimes. Happy trails, boys. P

Mexican Food

2009-04-22T10:45:00.001-07:00

Our friend Maria (she and her son Elvis – the 12 yearold hiking guide - have appeared previously here) came to dinner with her boys. We, incredibly, fed them their first-ever tortillas. Questions like “What is tacos?” were an unexpected bonus topic. Folks here eat piles of corn (they have more words for corn than Eskimos for snow), but not corn as tortillas. Why is that? Maria has invited us to be “confirmation godparents” (padrino in Spanish, achitaita in Kichwa) for Jhon (sic) the #3 son. Looking forward to meeting the bishop!

Chota

2009-04-22T10:41:00.000-07:00

Just a little ways from here is a river valley with a much warmer climate, some altitude related, some just some sort of microclimate. Went for a weekend jaunt with gringo friends Kent and Lauren. It’s super nice for all of us, especially A and R, to speak English with somebody who’s not us. Thanks K and L for spending time with us!

The (other) beautiful game

2009-04-15T09:54:00.000-07:00

In one of the great "intercambio" crosscultural moments of our time here, I recently had a chance to introduce two high schoolers to ping pong. These fellows are both on high school scholarships (free education here mostly ends at 7th grade) and they accompanied some visiting donors on the afternoon excursion. We had returned the visiting gringos to their luxury hotel after I tourguided them to an instrumentmaker's workshop and a local museum and waterfall. We had some time before dinner, so I taught these soccer jocks some hand-eye coordination. First time for either of them. I'm not sure that after the 90 minute practice session I could have beaten them.

Lovely. P

Cross culture

2009-04-15T09:39:00.000-07:00

Just three eclectic images of different living down here:

Enjoying our friend Vicente's music, girls hanging out with his mom, a neighbor pausing in the back of someone's truck to play the pan pipes (flauta de Pan). Entertaining.

All well, thanks for all the kind words. P

Good Friday

2009-04-15T09:25:00.000-07:00

6:30 I’m barely up before the day starts with a phone call, invitation from Julio et famille to join them for fanesca at midday

9:30 Mary and Rayneda arrive, a mother and daughter Paul had met a few days earlier and invited over. R entertains me with stories of her adventures on a 2-month rotation at a family medicine residency here in Ecuador

9:35 Paul arrives home with Yarik, a bicyclist he’s met at the park and invited over. Yarik, originally from Poland, is riding his bike south to Argentina, after departing Geneva 5 months ago and sailing the Atlantic to get started.

11:30 We get off the bus in Iluman and start noticing the steady flow of people up and down the road, carrying small, lidded pots by the handle. The day warms and the sun starts to come out. According to our host, on Good Friday nearly every family cooks fanesca, a thick soup with 13 ingredients, not counting the garnishes, “Then we share.”

2:00 Oops, realize on the way down the hill that I’ve left my change bag with keys at their house. Kids and Paul head into town for Spanish class. The bag found, mama Maria and I visit while daughter Gladys runs down the street to see if our soccer game has, indeed, been changed to 2pm. I got a “no importa” to my concern that blue jeans and leather boots wasn’t what I’d planned to wear for the game. The afternoon has the feel of a mild Thanksgiving afternoon, no one with anything to do but enjoy the day and each other.
Fanesca has turned out to be one of the tastiest food items in Ecuador. Our hostess was up at 3am to stew squash, beans, favas, lentils, corn, chochos… and then on top goes tomato, onions, cheese, egg, parsley, and salted fish. Unfortunately for us foodies, it’s a once-a-year event, although Maria did tell me that the “whities” (mestizos) in Otavalo cook fanesca on the Thursday of holy week. That explains our invitation yesterday where we ate our first fanesca with the family of one of Althea’s teachers. Turns out having a diversity of friends can truly double your fun, or at least your diet.

4:00 The scary team from Cotacatchi no-shows for the soccer match. After a surprisingly short 30 minute wait, we win 1-0 after the ref has us kick off and dribble down the field to score. Assembled women, men, boys and girls, gringos, mestizos and indigenas play a 30-person game on the muddy field. The crowd goes wild.

6:30 Muddy players Kristen, Kent, Lauren and Yarik haul home, having collected another South American cyclist, this time Andy from Scotland. We’re certainly pretty messy, but given the sloshing pots (and one bucket) of fanesca already on the bus, not the only offenders. Upon seeing our instrument collection, Andy retrieves from his bike the mandolin he’s been hauling since he “bought it off an old guy in Cuenca” several months back. Lasagna, bread, bananas flambé, YouCam, “Wild Irish Thyme,” and stories from the road fill the rest of the night.

Cross referenceº

2009-04-13T07:55:00.000-07:00

Our buddy Kent has a blog, and he has written a bit about us. Fun. See it here

Good-bye

2009-04-07T11:45:00.001-07:00

We experienced our first of these, and dang it’s no fun. Anna Taft, founder and director of The Tandana Foundation, had been in country for the past 5 weeks but now isn’t. She has been our best contact down here; many of our subsequent projects and contacts have flowed from her work and introductions. We’ve all 4 enjoyed her a whole bunch and are sad to see her go back to Ohio (and Mali and Colorado and Quebec). Thanks, Anita, for all your greatness.

Music program

2009-04-07T11:36:00.000-07:00

Both girls have experienced an uptick in their music education this season. The teacher is a wonderful fellow and has gotten Rosie going on recorder (flauta) and Al on guitar. At the recent performance, Al scored a last-minute cameo as backup singer on an English song (You’re Beautiful), plus she was the only student who figured out the chords (rather than just individual notes) to “Titanic” (think Leonardo and Kate, not Pete Seeger). And some students played a piano powered by blowing into a tube while playing. Do we have these in the US? They’re called pianitos here.

And Ro dazzled on the recorder and voice. Notice the gringo parents missed the memo on the Mariachi costume rental, but the rendition of “Cielito lindo” (the “aye-yai-yai-yai” song) was awesome. All very proud and pleased. And a lovely program overall. Nice job, Lucho.

And there has been some great spillover action on ukulele and guitar. Many hours sitting around the apartment learning songs on the instruments. Roll On Columbia, All God’s Critters, Circle Game, Cut the Cake (The Birthday Song), super fun. See priceless photo of Ro arriving in her new Andean hat with her uke in the gig bag. P

Field trip

2009-04-06T13:51:00.000-07:00

Semana Santa is a big deal here, so we´re off from school until after Easter. Today the whole school went in 3 busses to a nearby river valley at much lower elevation and swam in the pools of a hotel. Rosie declared "This is the best school field trip I´ve ever been on! We´ve never gotten to go swimming with school before" I must agree it was very neato, just an hour away and we were in legitimately hot, dry country - it looked like the Rockies, but with bananas growing. The Chota river valley, a bit north of us (our closest approach yet to Colombia. We just brushed the edge of Carchi province, which borders Colombia).

Cheers all. P

You win some, you tie some

2009-03-31T09:47:00.000-07:00

Sunday was a big soccer day here in the south land: In women’s action, the mothers of Grade 4, Escuela Raúl Pavón Mejía, beat the pre-Kinder moms 4-1 in the finals of the parents’ tournament. Kristen, named by opposition goalies “La Amarilla,” came through with 1 goal and 2 assists. In men’s action, Goalie Paul, “El Arquero Grandota,” punched, caught, dove and kicked to backstop the Grade 4 fathers’ team in a 3-2 win over the Grade 5 dads to make a clean sweep of the tournament for “Cuarto de Basica.” In other action, Ecuador tied Brazil 1-1 with a late game goal in the preliminary round of the World Cup. We watched with a couple dozen neighbors on the big screen at our favorite restaurant, charming way to pass a Sunday afternoon.

Welcome Zuri

2009-03-30T14:34:00.000-07:00

to the blog (see 2 comments so far). It appears we've attracted an Ecuador booster with our scintillating prose. I guess that places us in a new category of blog; perhaps I should feel validated. Or perhaps just mooched upon.

All well. Hugs. P

Toothbrush and clean underwear

2009-03-28T05:06:00.000-07:00

Raise your hand if those two items were on the packing list for your last government appointment. Long story short, we got our visas renewed and can stay legally until June. And I didn’t even need to use the underwear.

We entered Ecuador in January on the tourist visa that's routinely given at the airport. Until recently, perhaps last month, that visa was renewable for a second three months. So we showed up at the National Police office in Quito and instead were told that we needed to apply for a Visa 12-IX, at a different office in the city, the following week. We staggered off to pick up our visiting friends at the airport and figure out our futures.

Options facing us as the time included getting the different visa application pulled together in days, staying illegally (done commonly, it appears, with a $200 fine on departure), and heading out of the country within the week before we overstayed our visas. I got kind of fired up about seeing some of Peru, we considered heading home early for a driving tour of the US West, and both girls seemed really clear that they weren’t ready to leave yet, a nice complement to the periodic pleas of “I want to go home.” Although we'd been told that one didn't need to apply in person for the visa, Althea informed me that she really did think we should all make the trip as planned, "just in case they need us there."

The Embassy had a few words of advice, much appreciated since it’s not really their responsibility. The South American Explorers’ Club made me feel less like an airhead for getting blindsided by this: “It’s been totally chaotic” was his comment. A friend in Otavalo spent 3 weeks and 5 trips to Quito getting her renewal. The Ecuador government website told us exactly what to bring to apply, but not where or when.

We headed into the visa office at 5am last Tuesday with both girls in their school uniforms for verisimilitude and cuteness factor. We were fully expecting to spend one day applying, a return trip getting an answer, and a third trip in 7-10 days picking up the paperwork. No phone/mail/fax shortcuts here! Instead we left the office one hour after we turned in the papers with the visas all done. Another hour at the National Police and we are all officially-registered foreigners, with Ecuadorian identity cards to prove it! So we get to stay…but I’m still thinking a trip to Mancora and Machu Pichu might be really fun near the end... - Kristen

Donations

2009-03-19T09:41:00.000-07:00

Several folks sent us with stuff to give away down here. Through the kindness and generosity of our dentist friends (Drs. Burton and Marshall) we have 150 toothbrushes and floss packages to share with the community. I asked my friend Maria de Imbabuela to help me distribute them in her tiny community. She told me to come to the community center on Tuesday and we did the deal. Notice her demonstrating how to use the floss to the kids; I used the great line "you don't have to floss all your teeth, just the ones you want to keep". So great to bridge from HR to here, and then have her help bridging the final step.

Thanks Docs! P

The bug !

2009-03-19T09:38:00.000-07:00

Here you go.

The Coast!

2009-03-12T11:26:00.000-07:00

To the Coast with our dear pals Chuck and Sue. This is the pair who first suggested Ecuador to us. We were researching many opportunities in many different Latin countries and they steered us this way. Indebted. They had lived here for a year 12 years ago and are now on their first return trip. We met in Quito and proceeded together to explore the Route of the Sun, a lovely stretch of beaches mid-coast. Hotter and dryer than the Amazon, I’m a fan. Sunny every day, swimming morning and afternoon (including some epic body surfing runs from curl to sand), healthy stomachs, few bugs (albeit one huge one (pic) which our host removed unharmed barehanded), stunning beaches and great fun (including some very sweet godmother Sudoku on the iPhone (pic)). My birthday was one to remember: watching a Pacific sunset, over the offshore rocks, serenaded by the restauranteur on Happy Birthday, eating the cake C & S had special ordered on the sly earlier in the day, baked with the flour the boss had driven to town to pickup specially, with old friends and family around. Yowza.

Back home, all well. P

Post from Dad

2009-03-09T16:11:00.000-07:00

My final few days in Otavalo were filled with people and places I will treasure in my memory for a long time. With Paul and Kristen I got to be comfortable with their end of town. We journeyed to the girls' school where I had a lovely visit with their (and now my) friend Adelaida. Her English was marginal and my Spanish was virtually nada, but we communicated with more facial gestures and hand signs than anything else. I promised to learn more Spanish before I see her again. Paul and I visited a lovely woman named Maria (I didn't get last names) in her village outside Otavalo. She is an indigenous person, a descendant of the Inc as. She showed us her garden - you can garden year-round at the Equator. It was so good to be included and I felt honored to be treated so warmly. On my last day, we took in the Saturday market which was a busy and wonderful array of all sorts of goods. I did some shopping and thoroughly enjoyed the process, including the very modest prices. That evening, Paul took me to spend time with some native musicians who played for us. Again, I felt honored to be so thoroughly included. There is more, including a visit to a 9000' crater lake which we viewed from a restaurant overlooking it. I thank Paul and his family for offering me this opportunity which I shall never forget.

Planet Money

2009-03-03T13:52:00.000-08:00

For those who missed KD's awesome publishing accomplishment the first time through, see here for her great submission. P

Mail !

2009-03-03T13:43:00.000-08:00

Just received our first letter (postmarked 2/9). Blessings on Jane for sending us photos and news clippings about the goings on back home. Amazing to see and read an English newspaper. Thanks, Jane! P

Request for information

2009-03-03T13:42:00.000-08:00

So, by my math, Friday’s stock market close put the Dow at under 50% of the the ’07 peak for the first time. That feels significant to me. In our hometown of Hood River, we’ve lost since we departed the last new car store – none of the big 3 nor any imports (never had ‘em) remain – and a huge landmark hotel.

Any stories of what it’s like out there? Any news stories out there you can refer me too for more reading? Links much appreciated. Thanks. P

Hay Sueltos? (Got Change?)

2009-02-28T08:07:00.000-08:00

$20 bills can be a liability in these parts. I can’t tell how much is undercapitalized enterprises and how much is just “the way it’s done” but having small denominations on hand is a chronic struggle. Sacagawea dollar coins are the best, easy to handle, big enough to get something done, small enough to avoid a crisis.

For a $6 bus fare I gave the helper a twenty. He rustled around in his pockets, shook his head and asked if I had any change. “No, but I can wait a while,” I replied, since we had a two hour ride to collect small bills. About an hour later I saw (my) twenty-dollar bill go out the window to pay a $2 road toll. The lady in the booth rolled her eyes and starting handing over the change. I got mine soon thereafter.

On another bus trip, I watched one of the food vendors hassling his colleague for change for a dollar, for a customer who’d bought 50 cents of cookies. Took a while but the 50-cent pieces finally got handed over.

I remember in the US frantically digging in my pockets to come up with change to avoid getting 85 cents back in coins. Here, the stores take it the other way. I fronted a $20 for a $16.25 grocery bill, and the checker wanted to know if I had $1.25 on hand. I remember this feeling from college days. Squirreling away quarters to have enough to do laundry when the time came.

Today I waited about 5 minutes beside a bucket of strawberries on the sidewalk. These were some really nice berries. The women eating from a bag of them nearby was waiting for her change. After a notable wait, the fellow came trotting back around the corner with 8 quarters of change for her, just in time for me to pay him $2, exactly.

A famer might start the day in the market with no change on hand. A bakery might have some quarters and 10 ones in the drawer by midafternoon. I ended up with a $3 internet bill, and only a $20 in my pocket. The attendant slipped out the side door and down the street to get change. When the same thing happened the next week, I offered to go for the change myself, to the Banco del Austro 8 doors down. The guard stopped me on the way in, “Whaddya want?” (in Spanish but you get the message)
“I need to get some change.”
“For a HUNDRED.”
“No, just for a twenty.”
“Oh, OK, go on in.”
Am I to understand that even the banks are short around here? KD

Here's Jim...

2009-02-26T07:24:00.001-08:00

Paul met me at the Quito airport and we went to our hotel where we spent two nights. We stayed in the “old city” which is the colonial remnant of the Spanish conquest. We spent an entire day taking in the churches - opulent but beautiful. The Jesuit church contains over 40 kilos of gold leaf decoration. With the modest level of the economy, that strikes me as grossly inappropriate, but such is the case I imagine in many Latin American countries. We are enjoying the local food – being an omnivore, as I am, helps!
A two-hour bus ride took us to Otavalo, where Paul and Kristen and the girls have an apartment for six months. As I sit here looking out at the local buildings, I see modest structures, some in great disrepair. Last night Paul and Kristen hosted a pizza (yes, pizza) party for about 20 local people, nearly all of whom are native people (indigenous descendants of the Incas). The natives speak Quichua, the old language, as well as Spanish. Speaking neither makes it difficult for me to communicate. However, the people who came were so gracious that it really didn’t matter. It was a joy to be with them and to get a sense of their gentle and loving approach to life. Smiles and touches communicate a great deal. Later last night, Julio, one of the guests, took Paul and me to the closing ceremonies of the local soccer season. Paul and I were the only non-natives there , and it was a wonderful expression of acceptance that we were included. It reminded me of an experience years ago when another white man and I were included in an otherwise all Black party. ( This was during Civil Rights times). One’s experience of another group is totally different from the inside-out. I look forward to the (all too short) rest of my time here. I salute Paul and Kristen and Althea and Rosalie for undertaking this adventure.

Jim

Busses

2009-02-26T07:21:00.000-08:00

Just back from Quito picking up our first transcontinental visitor – big shout out to my Dad for making the journey down. We had a great day poking around Quito’s churches and plazas and getting sprayed with foam by exuberant Carneval celebrators. Finished off with dinner on a 6th floor rooftop staring straight up at Orion - who sits overhead at this latitude –and enjoying the lights on the Basilica and Cathedral and la Compan~ia. Super.

And we bussed both ways. First, let me be clear that the bus system here, and throughout the world, simply makes the US’s look juvenile and woeful deficient. The transportation network in the States is that we each have our car and we drive it places. The network here is that there are buses that go everywhere – city or village – frequently and everyone takes them. Some of the details of the operation of the system are, however, amusing and imperfect. Each driver owns his own bus. So the costs are fixed – he drives to Quito and pays for his gas and maintenance. The revenue comes from each passenger. So his incentive is to fill his bus. This leads to the humorous and confusing situation of drivers hawking their services – sometimes two drivers next to each other are shouting at you “Quito, Quito, Quito, Quito!” If you think the purpose is to provide the passenger with the fastest/soonest/most pleasant ride to Quito, this can be confusing. Understanding the ownership model helps to clarify. Secondly, once you enter the bus, you cease to be the valuable customer. There is no incentive to get the onboard customers to the destination quickly; rather, the target customer is the next paying passenger. This leads to the suboptimal situation of a bus full of people slamming to a halt, frequently, along the PanAmerican highway to pick someone up at a curb. Slow. This behavior led to our 5-whoops-no-7 hour trip up from Banos. Of course, the ticket agent in Banos raved about how this bus was such a good deal for us because it skipped Quito on a loop road and avoided the city traffic. Yea, and stopped every damn half mile to pick up another paying fare. So, in summary, the perfect bus experience is where the seat next to you is empty, but all the others are full so the driver doesn’t stop all the dang time. Parenthetically, in Mexico (at least), there are limited access busses for which you pay a premium (more than, say, the $1/hour it costs here) and the bus doesn’t stop as often. Not so available here.

All well. P.

And, our first guest columnist: Dad Blackburn. Welcome, Jim!

The Big Time !

2009-02-24T12:20:00.000-08:00

Well, one of us bloggers just got externally published. Visit www.npr.org/money to see KD´s blog entry on the Planet Money website. Very fun. I´m jealous. P

The jungle

2009-02-19T06:40:00.000-08:00

Amazing, damp, gritty, stunning, thrilling, buggy, slutty. All adjectives that spring to mind for our 10 days just completed in the Amazon jungle. We descended as low as 1000 feet of elevation on the Rio Napo, with about 1500 river miles left before the mouth of the Amazon in the Atlantic. It’s been a dream of mine for 30 years to see some of it, and now we have. Hooray!

Some of the good, bad and ugly of the trip: One nice thing about the jungle is it’s nice and hot. Our intown hotel had a pool.

We were definitely the local color on the bus from town towards the jungle lodge.

(minding the bags at the scenic Tena bus station. Icky.)

Loading up on the canoe …

… with our wonderful guide Freddie (our Spanish pays off again. Freddy speaks Kichwa and Spanish). He took us touring, swimming and tubing in the river.

We canoed to an animal rescue spot: toucan, capybara, ocelot, jaguarindo, macaw, peccary, anaconda, hooray! Sweet as pie log book entry.

Rosie’s poor calves beckoned the no-see-ums (we were able to ward off the (malaria-carrying) mosquitos with repellent, but the tiny gnats seemed immune).

Ro with an improbably huge fruit (guaba) that we watched Freddy's cousin scramble up a tree to pluck with a tool constructed on-the-spot from a pole, a branch and several palm strands.

We all tried our hand at the blowgun and Rosie brought home the parrot with her dart.

A great voyage, glad to be home (the busride last night was supposed to the 5 hours, it was 7. Oof.)

All well. P

Back from the jungle

2009-02-17T14:35:00.000-08:00

Mostly just a smoke signal that we´re not in a ditch somewhere. Just out of the Amazon where we spent a week in a gritty, skanky town (Tena), then two great days in a remote jungle lodge where we visited some locals, swam and tubed in a main Amazon River tributary (Rio Napo), and toured the environs by motorized canoe. Watched our new friends harvest papaya, guaba, cacao, yucca, chiles, and herbs the old fashioned way (some of which means shinnying up the tree), tested our skills with a blowgun (Rosie and I both brought home the parrot), checked out the upper stretches of that gigantic rainforest. Wow.

Now in Baños, which is a lot like Telluride (actually Ouray for those familiar) and is quite beautiful. The gnat bites are scabbing over, stomachs settling, clothes drying out, hot springs restorative. All well, home on the bus tomorrow. Pictures soon. P

El banjo y el tio

2009-02-08T06:42:00.000-08:00

Fun day at Panecillo school. I´m shepherding through a visa application for a Tandana volunteer and needed some signed letters from the director of the school. Last time up there, some students had invited me to come sit in on English class, so I did. Our new friend Kent (we´ve dubbed him Tio (uncle) Kento) and I bussed up, did our work (see photo,¨"This Land is Your Land" was a hit), and then walked down to the bus stop. While waiting, a passing pickup took us on (photo) and refused our payment offer. Fun.

Another day el Tio and I biked out to the medical clinic where Kent´s project is centered. When there´s a friend to ride with, there can be pictures of me on the blog! Also very fun.

And Kent turned 25 on Thursday, so we feted him at breakfast (with a rousing "Happy Birthday" and a candle in a stale roll) and at a fancy dinner (photo). Very fun for all, including the girls having a 4th person to speak English to.

The apartment

2009-02-04T13:32:00.001-08:00

Took a few photos up and down the street to try to give a sense of what it’s like here on the northeastern edge of Otavalo. Nice quiet street, eg no busses or barking dogs or roosters immediately adjacent. The first shot shows two prominent neighbors: the vulcanizadoro (tire fixing guy) with the truck parked out front getting help, and across the street that tiny awning is where the elderly woman has a huge skillet simmering every single day. Not sure it’s public, but I dropped in for lunch one day and met the folks. The contents are, pause for emphasis, the same every single day. That family (including the automechanic shop out back and its workers) eats the same lunch every single day. That is, no joke, a big part of living the low-consumption reality here – tolerance of sameness. I can’t imagine eating it every day, though it was yummy the once I had it. Papas con cuero (Potatoes with leather, ie pigskin) over rice. She asked if I wanted the $1 or the $2 plate, I said $2. I think if I had said $1 she would have fished out only potatoes and left the skin in the pan. With a 7 oz Coke. Real life.

Other shot shows the 1.5 blocks before the street ends in a steep lane which quickly becomes dirt – great local hiking. And the backside is this vacant lot which today contains 3 cows grazing (I guess the zoning must be Cow-3), other days smooching teens or goats. Quiet, lovely. P

Biodiversity

2009-02-04T13:31:00.000-08:00

Recently learned that Ecuador has more species in it than North America and Europe combined. Some quick research tells me that this means the density of biodiversity here is at least 175x that of those two continents. Cool! Heading to the Amazon this weekend to see some more of it for ourselves. Hoping to do some some piranha fishing – toss in a chunk of meat on a string, watch for the swarm.

All well, thanks for reading. P

Soccer tourney continued

2009-02-04T13:27:00.000-08:00

Turns out the girls school has a team, and they were pretty excited to invite KD to play. See photos of #15 making an impact (and she scored a goal!)And the girls were doing some fine net rat work between halves. Hooray for our little local tourney, wraps up this weekend. P

Incredible

2009-02-04T13:23:00.000-08:00

That’s all I can say about this. I made friends with a shopkeeper down our block and he invited me to come to visit his community this weekend because they were having a tournament of an “ancient game”. I asked around a bit and everyone assumed he meant soccer, no one had ever heard of any ancient sports or similar.

So I went. And, in fact, there in a wide place in the street, these folks were staging the first (it appears ever) tournament reviving this game which has been a traditional kids game for the natives for many years. I’ll tell you what; I just squinted my eyes a bit and pretended I was on the ancient Maya ball court at Chichen Itza (which I have seen in ruins). I think this is an ancient game that was played way the heck back when that has sort of survived and is now being resurrected. This was an amazing, holy, brilliant, community-organizing type moment. A group of folks is attempting to enhance their traditional culture by promoting/passing on this sport. Wonderful.

Several different matches of 7 on 7 were played of Jierbis (he UR bis). The game focuses on stacking 20 shards of a brick, like beefy poker chips. This must be accomplished while the “monkey in the middle” and “Dodge ball” components are being carried out all around you. The ball is foamy, like a soft softball, and you whing it at people to get them out, if they catch it you’re out, etc. It’s got lots of elements, including a cricket-like element of trying to knock over the towers. It was great.

Thanks to Julio of Aluman for the tour. P

Soccer tourney

2009-01-31T10:08:00.002-08:00

The sporting club down the street has sponsored a soccer tournament; there are like 28 teams participating, and there was an inaugural ceremony including a parade. My pal Segundo (photo, with his son Curry on the left) invited me to suit up and walk with the team from his rural community. Fortunately, the goalie’s jersey was huge so I didn’t have to look like a chorizo (photo). Pony tails everywhere, and I don’t think there was a single player among the 100+ who came up to my chin; I hear there were murmurs of “David Beckham!” among the crowd. We had the beauty queen component (photo), the folkloric dance (photo), and the requisite speeches, half of them in Kichwa. The mayor was there, as was the roasted pig (photo). And then some amazing, small field soccer. Blistering pace, stunning skills. I had unsuited by that point. Fun day in the neighborhood P.

Some general musings

2009-01-31T10:08:00.001-08:00

One broad brush reaction to Ecuador – vs. Mexico where I have spent many weeks – is: better music, worse food. I am very taken by the Andean music (charangos, pan pipes, straight flutes); great rhythms and melodies, vs. mariachi which I could do without. But the cuisine is really survival food. I watched at the soccer tournament (photos later) the other day a fellow spectator buy a plate: 3 small boiled potatoes, an ear of corn, and a knuckle of pork. Straight up. In Mexico, there would certainly have been at least dripping red-brown (or green), spiced, yummy sauce. The post-colonial thing is very strong here; rather than drawing from a centuries-old culinary tradition, in many ways the vibe is a centuries-old tradition of enslavement by the Spanish and having anything to fill your belly is a good day. Interesting.

At this low standard of living, so much is more visible for pondering. Energy consumption for one. On our street corner, there are two vendors selling hot food; one is still using wood in the brazier, fanning away with a scrap of cardboard as the food grills, the other using gas. Pedicabs ply the streets carrying natural gas canisters, papayas, people. I think if we’re going to make progress on climate change (my friend Ben says that what we’re looking at is a 90% reduction in energy consumption in the US), we’re all going to have to start living a lot more like Ecuadorians.

Amazingly to me, Ecuador is a member of OPEC (!!) and has a lot of oil and a lot of infrastructure; there is, for example, a trans-Andes pipeline running from the jungle, up and over, and down to the coast. Gasoline is very cheap, diesel is $1 a gallon, gas about $1.50. But electricity is very expensive; there is a discouragement tax on incandescent lightbulbs which makes them about half the cost of fluorescents, vs. like, what, 5x in the US. My sense is that there is much less oil per capita than, say, Saudi Arabia where everyone lives high on government profit-sharing, but oil is a huge revenue source for the government (and a prime destructor of the biodiversity treasure of the Amazon; check out “Amazon Stranger” or “Indians, Oil and Politics” if you’d like to learn more.) The recent plunge in crude prices is going to have a huge impact on government programs (like education).

Thanks for reading and the comments. P

Dollars and retirees

2009-01-31T10:07:00.001-08:00

On a bike ride back from a nearby town (Cotacachi for those with Google Earth), I started running some financial numbers in my head. This moment was costing us, in descending order:

$25 a day for amortized airfare here ($3800/165 days)
$8 for the bike rental (but so far only two days spent on that)
$6/day for the stuff we’ve bought for the apartment
$4/day for the rent
$1.60 for the breakfast I found at the bus station (Two fried eggs, yummy stew (beef, potatoes, gravy) over rice, glass of fruit juice (papaya, I think), bun with slice of cheese, instant coffee. Very real, very non-touristy, cool)

This analysis quickly leaves lots of room for higher living; you’ve already spent the biggest ticket item, so don’t skimp on the taxi to the volcano or the charango (more on that soon. :) )

In that same town we discovered what I can only call a gringo enclave. I’d seen these in Mexico but this was my first one here. There is a walled neighborhood – could have been in, say, Phoenix – out in the fields where about 5 years ago a bunch of whiteys bought and built houses. The economics are clear; the pension goes a lot further down here than stateside. The social aspect of it seems disgusting to me, but I always crave the local color. If you don’t want that, barking dogs and roosters and buses gets old in a hurry, and one way to minimize that is to set apart and wall off. KD ran into some of these folks in the grocery store – tall white guy, attendant, hideous Spanish accent. Interesting. P

Psychoactives

2009-01-28T06:43:00.002-08:00

I always remember the quip that marijuana is the 4th most popular psychoactive drug in the US, a distant follower to nicotine, alcohol and caffeine. Down here we’ve invented a new drink, crossing Mexican and Brazilian cultures. As a lad, I was introduced in a big way to the traditional Brazilian cocktail – caiparinha – made with cachaca (sugar cane liquor, essentially rum), limes and sugar. Ask my mom about that tale. Well KD sprang for a bottle of off-brand tequila but there aren’t triple sec or sweetened lime juice. So she’s taken to a nightly nip of tequila, limes and sugar. We alternate between calling it a margarinha and a caiparita.

And I saw my first coca leaf. My understanding, then and now, is that the histrionic freaking out about cocaine has led to a total rejection of any form of this plant. Chewing or steeping the leaves is reputed to give a smooth, pleasant buzz like caffeine only less harsh. Here it is available, though not everywhere, as a tea. There are bags for sale in a few stores. Assure the FBI I didn’t buy some yesterday and didn’t steep any up. Fun! P

Cuicocha

2009-01-28T06:43:00.001-08:00

When I showed a new friend a photo of Crater Lake (Oregon’s sole national park), he said it looks just like Laguna Cuicocha (Kichwa for Guinea Pig Lake). We journeyed there yesterday and it is a great spot. Proportionally smaller than CL (with a rim trail of 10k vs. 40 miles), but similarly stunning. We boated out to the islands to see the bubbling gases from the not-inactive volcano, loved it. Looking forward to returning for an overnight in the lovely guest rooms at the sweet little hotel/concessionaire.

So, what’s up with the guinea pigs?

I hear you asking. The one Ecuadorian food we had learned of from our research before the trip was roasted guinea pig. That seemed strange, but there it is. We’ve been invited to come eat some in a home, saw it on a menu yesterday (photo), seen some on the hoof, seen signs advertising it, haven’t yet sealed the deal. Why guinea pig?

I’ve decided it’s kind of a Jared Diamond thing. Living in the mountains, there were few animals of any size, and no others to domesticate. It reminds me of climbing in the Tetons; if I had wanted to eat meat, it would have been marmot (no grizzlies in Ecuador). It’s just the same here; the traditional fancy feast is the animal you’ve always had. Now that cow and pig and chicken are here, it seems silly, but traditions are important. It’s kind of like Peking Duck, right? You have to call ahead to order that in a Chinese restaurant.

Hope to tell you soon that it tastes just like chicken. P

Ecuadorian triathlon

2009-01-28T06:41:00.002-08:00

50 meter trash dash: We’re re-enacting an event we watched our friends Mike and Robin contest in Mexico 10 years ago. Trash collection is by a classic garbage truck that slowly roams the city daily, playing a song reminiscent of ice cream trucks. They alternate days to collect Organic and Inorganic waste. The organic (including leather shoes) gets composted. There’s no sidewalk space for garbage cans and dogs roaming everywhere, thus the task at hand is to hear the truck, gather one’s rubbish, and vault down a flight of stairs and out the door onto the street before the truck gets out of range. The runner is of course cheered on my family members on the stairs or at the window shouting “trash truck, trash truck…” I’m walking the knife-edge tonight. Took the trash down about 15 minutes before expected arrival and added it to a bag already on the sidewalk. Worked for Arlo Guthrie, monitoring from the window for marauding dogs…

School bus surfing: Standing on buses being an expected event here, as elsewhere in the 2/3 world, the girls and I have had a taste of trying to stay upright inside a moving school bus without grab bars. For the taller folks like me, pushing up on the ceiling seems to do the trick. The disadvantage of height is being unable to see what’s coming next through the windows. Adults and teens surf near the often-open doors, smaller kids get shoved in through the cracks to safety. When picking up a couple older boys along the Panamerican, the driver just slows enough for them to get a good grab, hobo style, and hoist themselves on.

The white folk taxi un-hail: Look down, turn halfway away, shrug, frown, lean against the nearest fence/wall…still perfecting the technique that will dissuade every taxi from honking on its way by. The ones that actually stop don’t seem bothered that we don’t want a taxi ride, but hope dies last, I guess. We’re thinking that getting the girls’ school uniform order in will help the taxi bottleneck that we run the risk of creating at the school bus stop. - KD

Job Offer

2009-01-28T06:41:00.001-08:00

Well, I win the prize awarded to first family member to turn down a job. Teaching English at the girls’ school. One of the three teachers quit over the weekend, after getting called in front of a group of parents of Rosie’s classmates at a parent meeting. I actually thought the parent’s concerns were relevant, but probably a bit in-your-face for the poor woman. Especially here, in the land of indirect communication.

I managed to bow out of the principals’ request, and they were quite reasonable about it. Have a couple other candidates already interviewed. I think they just didn’t want to pass up a native-speaker if that was possible. I did agree to fill in for two days and meet with the English teachers some. Its fun to help with some pronunciation and fluency where needed, I’m just trying my best to stay free of really substantial commitments, like 30 hours a week of teaching! - KD

Feeding kids overseas

2009-01-25T13:14:00.000-08:00

Imagine…no jars of spaghetti sauce, no salsa, no peanut butter, no apples, no tortillas. Butter tastes funny, yogurt tastes funny, cheese tastes funny. Kitchen has no freezer, fridge too small for a half-gallon of milk. The Salsa de Tomate (literally “tomato sauce”) is actually ketchup.

All cold cereals are packed with sugar, so much that Rosie couldn’t even finish a bowl of corn flakes yesterday morning. And those were the ones advertising whole grains on the package! Not the Tony-the-Tiger Frosted Flakes kind.

On the flip side, milk comes in boxes that sit on the shelf until needed. All the mangoes, papayas, and strawberries you can eat. Great skewers of grilled chicken, beef, and sausage down the block. Most restaurants serve white rice. (The kids have stopped asking for soy sauce.)

Put on your walking shoes to go get food. Fruit stands are on one side of the street market five blocks down, vegetables on the other. Milk at the grocery store across town. Bread on the way home at the bakery. Flour, corn, oil, salt, candy, soda, gum on nearly every block in a tiny storefront.

Major bright spots this week: found Ramen on a dusty top shelf at the grocery store. And..drum roll, please…while perusing a range of spices hanging in tiny bags, I came across “Pasta de Mani” with a drawing of a familiar nut on the front. Turns out you CAN buy peanut butter here, it’s just sold 3 oz at a time as a seasoning for “Asian and other foreign dishes.” Lives in an envelope on the wall next to the oregano and cinnamon. And they’re not “cacahautes” like in Mexico, they’re “mani” in these parts.

Check out the economics of this: ramen costs 30-50 cents a package. That’s the first thing I’ve run into that costs more here than in the US. It’s hard to imagine how people make it, with the minimum wage $200/mo and 45% underemployment. Lots of produce and local food, hardly anything that comes in a package, I guess. There must be lots of households spending 50-75% of their income on food. - KD

Guanabana

2009-01-22T10:01:00.000-08:00

Shout out to Kay for sending along her chronicle of a Portugal sabbatical a couple of years ago. I’ve been rationing myself to a couple of pages a day, feels like having a comrade in alien-ness. She describes an unusual fruit that she found, and I recognized the picture. They called it soursop, here it’s guanabana; see Wikipedia for a pic of this unusual, tropical looking thing. Another new one to me is the guaba (not guava), which looks for all the world like an 2-foot green bean, but contains creamy white sweet fruit around impressive pits. Wow. We also saw some cabbages the other day about 300% of normal size. With only a moisture cycle to govern planting and harvest– vs. an annual temperature cycle – things can grow for, well, forever. This can lead to some quite different strategies for plants. A common food, for example, is lupine seeds. They just don’t have time stateside to achieve a size worth harvesting, but here they’re like garbanzos.

Panecillo

2009-01-22T09:57:00.000-08:00

Took the girls to see some real poverty yesterday in an outlying village. I’m taking some photos of students for the Tandana Foundation, and some of these kids live in dirt floor homes well off any road. Walk down the mud road and take a left at the bush type stuff (see photos). I’m thrilled for the girls to see it. We started at the village store (photo) and walked around the hillside to visit half a dozen families to gather photos for publicity for the Foundation.

We brought to Ecuador generous contributions from our dentist Bruce Burton and our pharmacist friend Nicole Schrankel. I think we will be able to make great use of these donations in this and close by communities. Thanks, you guys, for helping!

I solicited some comments from the girls:

Ro: “I think it was interesting to see how poor the people were compared to how rich we are. Because they just had like one-story houses made out of rusty cement. I couldn’t really imagine walking up a muddy hill instead of walking on a sidewalk to get to school. They don’t have really any sidewalks there.”

Al : “It was pretty cool, I kind of liked how lush it was. I was glad the Tandana Foundation could help them go to school so that they could do what they want to in their lives. It was very muddy, and I liked all the little doggies; they were very well behaved for strays.”

Moved !!

2009-01-22T09:56:00.000-08:00

into our apartment (photo)! 2nd floor of 3, grandma on the top floor, another family on the first floor. It’s about 10 blocks from our hotel, settling into cooking, more space, buying beds, mattresses, mugs, pots, fridge. A kind benefactor has loaned us a stove, desks, bed, mattresses, pots, plates, many things. Sent her $7 of roses. We entertained our first visitors yesterday.

I had to chuckle when the clouds cleared and I could see the summits of both Cotacacchi and Imbabura volcanoes from the bedroom. As the realtors in Hood River say, “Double mountain view!”

We will spend more on buying furnishings than we will on rent, pretty upsidedown situation, but we can make lots of gifts in June.

school!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-01-16T17:33:00.000-08:00

School here is a lot different than at home because I can't go to school everyday and know what I'm supposed to be doing. Going to school here is not going to school because I'm not going to school to learn I'm going to school to learn Spanish. But I am really ecxited because we're starting to move into the apartment that we rented!!!!
Rosalie

Food reprise

2009-01-15T10:30:00.000-08:00

I had heard of the goat man who walks around selling milk from the udder. I encountered him today (photo) and braved the $0.50 small cup of milk; I was fully prepared for it to taste like chevre, but it was mild as cow. Lovely. Then, on my bike ride, I encountered this awesome scene (photo). The funniest thing is that the words for skin and hair are very similar in Spanish – piel and pelo. Just a block before I had passed a place that would cut my hair (corte de pelo). Then a block later, a 3D corte de piel ! One of the valuable parts of Mr. Pig is the skin; they grill it like we would a thin steak or chicken breast.

P

First biking aka Otavalo Roubaix

2009-01-15T10:14:00.000-08:00

I paid the $8 and went on my first ride into the country. The first reaction is, after walking around a town for 10 days, a bike makes things much closer; it’s way faster than walking! I headed out of town to go to Panecillo to deliver a message for the Tandana Foundation. This is perfect mountain bike country; the roads are either paved and shoulderless (photo of the Pan American highway) or paved with stones (photo. For you 4-wheelers out there, the Paris Roubaix is a wildly famous bike race that includes many sections of pavé, French for “uneven rocky cobbles”). This road gradually faded to jungle as I left town (photo) and then to grassy path (photo), then to pig path, then Maria (photo) rescued me and showed me where to cross the creek and push my bike uphill through the corn field. She had walked about a mile each way to harvest this long grass to feed her guinea pigs (food and pets, more another day on that)

Awesome ride, sprang for two half-liter bottles of water at the top. In the 15 minutes I sat at the little store, these two tiny ones (photos) came by twice, to buy cumin and matches. Their daycare plan clearly includes walking back and forth to the corner store a lot.

Also on the ride, I encountered this amazing clothes washing scene. In my time at the helm, doing the laundry and minding the kid might have involved toys, a book, perhaps a couch. Not so here. I asked her if I might take her picture and she replied “for free or for pay?” I said for pay of course and gave her a buck and we were both happy (honest! I showed her this and other pictures afterwards and she smiled)

P

Urban development

2009-01-15T10:11:00.001-08:00

Their tax dollars at work! I couldn’t help being struck by the sight of two fellows with pick axes removing this block of sidewalk. After watching millions of dollars of machines having at it in downtown Hood River last spring, the contrast was stark. There are quite fancy seeming colored tiles on most of the sidewalks around here, and it appears this section is now catching up. Arthur, I wonder if they have tax increment financing for this work?
And this (photo) is a building project on our corner. Note the placement of bridges for the pedestrians to traverse the gravel piles.

P

The Mayor

2009-01-15T04:05:00.000-08:00

One idea I had to rustle up projects was to pay a call on the mayor of Otavalo, and I did this week. Being a consejal myself (city councilor) it seemed like a reasonable thing to do.

Don Mario Conejo is the first indigeno mayor of Otavalo, and I believe one of the highest ranking natives in the country. He is wildly popular here, winning a majority of votes in a race with multiple candidates. Some, of course, feel that he has abandoned the indigena agenda and compromised his people's interests to the interests of the whole populace - welcome to politics, right?

He speaks, as do all indigenous folks here, Spanish and their native tongue, Kichwa. There is a strong movement to retain this language, and it is somewhat working. You hear the older folks on the square and in the street, dressed in the traditional garb, speaking it, and many of the promtional signs around town include it, though not the stop signs or anything like that. It's position is somewhat less than, say, French in Montreal, but quite strong. It's part of the current culture here. When I told folks in Quito we were coming up here, they asked "Why? To learn Kichwa?"

So, I dressed up in my finest, took some business cards from the City Council, and marched down to the Municipal building. The receptionist and secretaries were very gracious and we set an appointment for Tuesday at 11. I arrived a bit before the appointed hour, receptionist apologetic, could I come back at 2. I did see my name was written in the scheduling book on her desk, so it wasn't "We forgot" but more like "Latin life happened". Not unexpected, I've experienced this type of thing in Latin cultures home and abroad, so I was happy to come back at 2. At 2, it was "Oh very sorry, could you come back in 30 minutes" This now felt a bit unorganized. So I came back at 2:30 and sat in the full waiting room until about 3:15 -

(during this time, I had a pleasant conversation with a local woman who inquired of me, her neighbor on the bench waiting for the mayor, "What type of problem do you have?" I got to learn about her group's concern and hope to visit her tiny village on the outskirts. She farms beets and potatos to sell at the Otavalo market. Stay tuned for that post hopefully)

At 3:15, I was whisked in and had a very pleasant, brief visit with a very impressive, charismatic, creative leader. I was very taken by him. He apologized for the wait and rescheduling and invited me to sit in on a session he was entering with a delegation of indigenous leaders from Bogota. So I got to sit in on a couple of hours of mutual boosterism and idea sharing with the Columbians, spoke briefly two times, and came home with an armload of swag - posters of the City, calendars, a CD, postcards, etc. and well-wishes for my time here and assurances that if I needed anything to please let them know. We'll see what may come of it; I have some ideas.

So, a very intersting little adventure. As a fun side note that I think lends insight into the cultural politic, last weekend I told my new friend Segundo - the maestro of the minga - that I had an appointment with the mayor and asked what should I say to him. Segundo is a huge promoter of local culture, teaches at a local bilingual school (and I'm not talking about Spanish-English!), has recorded traditional stories in Spanish and Kichwa for use in schools, etc. So when I asked Segundo what should I say to the Mayor, Segundo told me I should tell him "Alli Punja" (Kichwa for "good morning"...)

School goes on, quite disappointing in quality, K and I are attending with Rosie for translation and support, all being good sports about a tough situation. Hoping to make a friend or two there, Althea seems to be doing just fine up in 8th grade.

Food: Enjoyed two new teas: limoncello and oregano, made with steeped leaves of lemon and oregano. Yum.

P

Comments layout change

2009-01-13T04:06:00.000-08:00

Genius brother David has altered the layout so we can conveniently browse the comments made most recently regardless of post. Nice! Thanks, David.

Thanks for all the comments, Chuck's image of the beef processing is amazing.

Kristen has been attending school the last 3 days to smooth the transition for Rosita, it's helping. Had our first schoolfriend visit yesterday; Tania and someone else came over for playing cards and iTunes after school. They had scheduled twice before on Friday and Saturday and no-showed. I was in a bit of a panic, though Al didn't seem phased by it all.

Great weekend of fun. I was invited to help with a minga - a work party. We moved 1000 bricks from behind the neighbors house to near the dump truck to into the dump truck, then rode atop the load across the valley to the sister's house site, then unloaded them. About 4 hours of sweaty work with a nice group of fellows, then dinner and basketball on the community court. I felt like Yao Ming. Very fun.

The minga inviter is a lovely man named Segundo whom I know through the contacts I made at the Tandana Foundation, a local group working on community building, health care and education. Segundo has welcomed me with open arms; we've played music, hiked, alley-ooped and are planning to record some stories he has translated from his Grandpa's Kichwa (Andean language) into Spanish. Tandana translated them into English and wants a recording voice. Me! Fun.

I have an appointment to meet the mayor later today, have no idea whether that will yield any interesting activity or not. KD has an appointment to meet a government health coordinator of some sort. We went hiking with Segundo and wife Maria and their kids Sunday, feeling blessed.

And plenty of difficult things. No crying before school today, a nice change. Plenty of "at loose ends" time for me to figure out how to engage, regular stuff. Great opportunity, tons of fun, hard work. The standard deal.

thanks for all the good thoughts. Pictures soon. P

Anglo on Market Day

2009-01-10T18:40:00.000-08:00

A major hazard of being white in a market town, especially on Saturday, is being endlessly approached by people trying to sell you stuff. Coconuts, sunglasses, sweaters, bags, fried fish with the head on… I mentioned today how nice it would be to have a label on my hat that said, “I’m not a tourist,” and caught myself. How many Black men in the U.S. are sick of being treated as criminals? How many Latinas have wanted a “Don’t assume I only speak Spanish” tag? Paul chimed in with a name for our current problem, “Walking While White.” - KD

Kid interview, KD's lists

2009-01-10T18:16:00.000-08:00

What’s it like going to school where you don’t speak the language?
Rosie: "It’s really scary sometimes and really overwhelming. I, like, don’t know what to do. It’s not like my American school where I just know what to do. I miss my parents more than I would at my usual school."

Althea: "I think of mom translating at home, and then I get teary eyes. Then the teacher goes and asks me to read in Spanish, and I was really scared. Then she said I did 'muy bien.'"

Kristen’s lists -
Things I’m really appreciating having:
Running water, cold AND hot
A second cooking pot ($5 to double the inventory and triple our water-boiling capacity)
A refrigerator and stove
Shoes that fit
A toilet
Fleece
Four bowls to cook and eat with
A second and third teaspoon
Enough money
Company

Things I’m thinking would be really nice:
A pressure cooker (tried beans at 8,000 feet; soaked then boiled 2 hours, still crunchy)
A fourth teaspoon
A slotted spoon
A second pair of jeans

Shopping list for moving with our suitcases into an unfurnished apartment:
4 mattresses, perhaps with beds
Fridge
Stove
Table with 6 chairs, hoping for company
2 Electric shower heads (only cold running water in most buildings here)
Broom
Pillows, sheets, towels
Plates
Bricks, boards, crates, cardboard boxes
(I wonder if they have here those huge plywood spools that grace every grad student apartment?)

Things I saw walking home from the kids’ school Day One (about 3 miles):
A pony tied in the back of a tiny pickup, looking out over the cab
Cement bricks being made on-site for three-story buildings
Cow tethered and grazing on an empty suburban lot
A ten year old girl washing laundry in the front yard, 10 am on a school day (but not for her, it appears)
A huge German Shepherd with her forepaws on the second story balcony railing, surveying the traffic on the Pan-American Hwy
Men sitting at a road junction, looking for all the world like a U.S. day laborer congregation minus the Home Depot backdrop
Girls walking to school in traditional dress with an apron made from the school uniform skirt and school sweater over the top
Pigs, geese, goats, chickens

Clothing (and thanks, commenters)

2009-01-10T08:26:00.000-08:00

You guys rock. I appreciate the input.

Pretty much I'm the blogger, aren't I? The girls get distracted on the computer with more fun things to do (iTunes, youtube), but I'll try to steer them towards it. Suffice it to say that they are in deep: going to school, eating weird food, living away from every single friend. Wow. They're heros. I will pass on your great cheering on to them.

A question about Obama; I've not heard a single mention of this down here. People ask us where we're from, we say US, they say what part, they sometimes ask us if that's in the middle part of the country, we say it's near California, they nod. Then we speak of other things.

Clothing: So, we're on the Equator. Central America is all in the northern hemisphere and thus experiences rainy when US is in summer, dry when we're in winter (more or less). Makes for great vacations. Here, there is not an annual weather change of much significance. I did hear of a "summery period around Christmastime" [El veranillo del Nino], but pretty much the significant weather is a daily fluctuation. And in a fairly narrow range. Honest question: Has any of you ever lived in a house with neither heat nor air conditioning? I have not, until now. It gets hot and cool every single day here. I have decided that the best description of the climate here is... Mister Rogers! I'm always taking off and putting on long sleeved garments. I wear a light wool/chamois shirt in the morning over my shortsleeved shirt, sometimes a thin wool hat, and then by 10 I'm hot and taking it off to put on my sunshirt for protection because we're at 8000 feet on the equator. I wear a dopey floppy sun hat when the wool hat comes off. I've not yet wanted the shorts I brought, jeans every day. Loose running pants for the sessions at the stadium. It's a very different mindset; in OR, you wake up, if it's cool you kind of decide that today is a sweater day and head on out. Here you have to change clothes a couple of times each day. And heaven help you if you go out in the heat at 3 to meet a friend without bringing your wool shirt because by 6 you're cold. The Andinas all wear shawls; this is good shawl country. When you get hot, you sort of fold like a banquet napkin and balance it on your head. No photo, sorry.

First full market day (Saturday) Yes, it's like Hood River in August. You know where to not go, tons of stuff to buy, tons of folks have come who want to buy it. Food and handcrafts out the kazoo. Amazing.

Tomorrow: energy consumption. I'm so enjoying being in an OPEC member country full of pedicabs hauling cinderblocks, papayas and grandmothers.

P

Telecom

2009-01-09T10:13:00.000-08:00

In response to a comment, what about the realities of telecommunication down here. Thanks brother David for the prompt.

OUr friend Mark had given me a primer on cell phone access here and he was very accurate. You walk into many many stores (though it took 3 tries here) and buy a SIM card (though they call it "un chip") for $5 (remember, we use US dollars in this country). This gets you a phone number (Quito area code is 02, Otavalo is 06, all cell phones are 09. We had considered waiting to buy "un chip" until after we arrived in Otavalo so we wouuld have a local, not big-city area code, but that was irrelavent/impossible) and $3 worth of minutes. Mark had explained that before leaving the states, we should call our cell service provider (ATT/Cingular) and ask them to unlock our phone so that it would work with other service networks. I understand there is some regulatory component of this; our 2-year contract with ATT had just expired, so they were not unhappy to enable us to do this - they provide a 8 digit code to type in.

So, I bought the chip, put it in, entered my unlock code, and have a phone number. This was all new to me.

Local vs. international calling: Things are in an amazing phase of transition en este momento. The cheapest way to call home is Skype, but you have to have good bandwidth. There are many internet cafes, but the most common activities there are gaming and emailing on the web; as a result, the environment is loud music. You need a silent room to skype, and that's quite a different environment.

Now, the next cheapest way to call home is IP phone, like Vonage or VoIP. These very much exist. For 10 cents a minute, I have called Mom and housesitter etc. There is a little bit of delay, just enough that you kind of tend to stomp on one another like the old days of international calling. But the price is right. Landline intl. calling is 25 cents a minute. The two choices look very much alike - like a row of phone booths in the corner of a storefront. Like study carrels in college libraries. There is a little meter on the wall and you pay after. But the big difference is that a little store will have landline "cabinas" as they're called (and ads for cell phone service - here Porta and Movistar), while the IP phone cabinas are in the corner of places with broadband, ie internet cafes. Once you figure out that to call Mom on the phone you go to the internet cafe, it all falls into place.

Side note: our heroic struggles with email were partly the result of the fact that we like to use client software for email, ie Outlook. Most of the world seems to use web interface email (eg. gmail, hotmail) and that doesn't pose the same ISP compatibility issues.

I would guess there are 10 internet cafes in this town, and they are frankly only for the young poor folks who don't enjoy WiFi in the hotel. I am sitting on my hotel bed typing this. Only about 120 kbps download speed compared to about 1200 in my home in Hood River, not really enough to watch youtube, for example, or to video skype, but plenty for blogging and email.

At the cafe it costs $1 per hour of computer time, and in general you can't bring in your laptop. Not much WiFi, mostly sitting at a row of their computers with the young local gamers and the gritty backpackers.

That's the scene down here. Hugs. P

Food

2009-01-09T06:40:00.000-08:00

A bit of follow up to previous post on this topic. I took my camera with me today (last time I was cooling down from a session on the track; I am willing to risk my sweatshirt and hat on the bench at the stadium, but not the camera) and got some shots. No crabs today, disappointing, but I saw the pear woman. (When she asked me how much I wanted to buy, I explained that I only wanted a picture. And gave her a dollar. My friend Sue helped me understand this aspect of it. I'm here for the interest and chatting and learning. She's here to make money for her supper. So paying for the chatting feels like a good balance.) So, anyway, she wanted to put out more pears for me to photograph (photo) and... out came this box! I know Fred Duckwall a bit from working with Port Commission and was pretty darn psyched to see his logo on the street down here.

And then I saw some of those snails I mentioned the other day (photo). Boiling in pot on the back of the stove, ready for sale in single serving sizes in the front. Yum!

Indigenas and Exercise

2009-01-09T05:46:00.000-08:00

Public Service Announcement: I feel a bit like the folks at public radio; I put this stuff up and have no idea how many people are reading it. I have gotten some lovely comments, cheering and questions from several folks, and I am realizing that I greatly look forward to seeing that a comment has been added. It's the lifeblood for me, folks; if you want me to write, write me! If you don't have and don't want a google account, email me your question or comment. Like they say on OPB - do your part!

Brother John asked about the famed Otavalo market. Well, I haven't been here for a weekend yet, but by all accounts it rocks. And the 7-day a week market is dang impressive. I'm guessing that Saturday in Otavalo will be like August in Hood River: don't go downtown much, stick to the outskirts, hunker down until the wave passes. Like a duck-diving surfer. We'll see.

This brings me to topic 1 today. (No photos on this topic; photos go with topic 2. Hang in there.) The indigenous people of the Ecuadorian Andes are, if you can believe it, thriving. Have you ever seen those two words together in a sentence? I'm totally interested in this. It appears that the craft market draw of Otavalo (handicrafts of all kinds - gourd painting, stringed and wind instruments, fabrics, clothing, hats, jewelry - has somehow not been coopted by the anglos and that the indigenous (I like the word Andinas (Andean people)) folks have organized and own the joint. They dress in traditional clothes (including the schoolkids, who wear the school uniform skirt like an apron over their long navy dresses), but drive cars - some nice cars - and run the show. It reminds a lot of meeting the CEO of Good Shepherd hospital in Illinois during my consulting days; she was a diminutive nun in a habit. Perhaps the best example I've yet seen of this juxtaposition is a woman about my age trooping down the street in full traditional garb, with an new Abercrombie and Fitch sweatshirt overtop to ward of the am chill. So cool to see natives making it economically. And this seems to translate into cultural vibrancy as well. Tons of folks speak Kichwa at home and on the street, there are parks in town named things like Ruminahui (and not just Pizarro etc.) I'm getting to help a fellow record in English a reading of a Kichwa folk tale that he has already recorded in Kichwa and Spanish. Fun!

Topic 2: All who know us know that exercise is an important part of the equation for Kristen and myself. We certainly didn't bring our bikes in the "Pile o' baggage" (previous post), so how's it going? Well, Kristen had taken control of the kitchen for this chapter, and last night she quipped "I'm learning how feed a family of four on five miles a day" Lots of opportunity to walk to market, school, internet phone store, everywhere. I have been hitting the municipal stadium a bit in the am (photo) and found some boys to run around with. At 6:30 in the morning, at least for the last 4 mornings, there are maybe 75 folks getting it done in the stadium: aerobics (photo) to rocking music, calesthentics, jogging, awesome. And not all skinny young people. There some old and some round folks out there keeping body and mind healthy. It's super fun to see a culture of fitness; it reminds me a lot of some European communities I've seen. And then peeled or squeezed oranges afterwards (photo). And I couldn't resist two photos of the back stretch of the track: hand painted on the wall are the start (salida)and finish (llegada) of the 100m.

Woof. Enough. Thanks for the interest. And comments! P

Some photos

2009-01-08T09:33:00.000-08:00

Our kitchenette, breakfast on school day 1 (bus comes at 6:30!), First day of school (with Edwin the nightwatchman at our hotel), and waiting at the bus stop.

First week in Otavalo

2009-01-08T09:22:00.000-08:00

Well, I guess it takes me longer to write it than for you to read it, so here goes. Lots of thoughts today. NOTE: some graphic language today, and an answer to a query Brother John placed in a comment the other day. (Hint, hint)

Food: Always a fascinating topic in any country, including one’s own, and one that I keep finding myself interested in. Yesterday I peaked the family’s “gross food” meter with the cholos for sale on the square. A small bag, seasoned with lime and salt, of tiny snails. Like escargot, except more the size of marbles. You eat them by picking each one up and sucking out the protein. Yum. Today I moved past that personally with the visit to the meat aisle at the local outdoor (though covered) marketplace. It's the same level of indoors as the tent at a huge wedding reception. I watched a woman in native garb, including mid-length decorative frilly sleeves, running the bandsaw on the room temperature side of beef. Cow heads, tubs of liver, tubs of intestines, tubs of pork skin, you get the picture. Awesome, real, and very very disgusting. It’s the same fundamentally as how our meat gets from hoof to us, but in our country the consumer never sees any of the steps. Aldo Leopold, ecologist extraordinaire, reminds us, “The fundamental risk of living in the city is the mistaken understanding that food comes from the grocery store and heat comes from the furnace.” Amen, brother. Other fairly stunning sights included crabs, live, tied into rectangular bundles with string and then boxed, 4 bundles to the case, into very rectilinear, normal looking shipping cases. Wow, sorry I didn’t have my camera at the moment.

Of course, another side of the food scene is that on the equator, you can eat local strawberries (for $0.50 a pound) in every month including this one, though the cherries only come in December/January. Any botanists who can clarify the why of that would be welcome. I also saw, piled on the cart on the street corner, some lovely, small green fruits with a pointed end on them bearing the familiar sticker www.usapears.com. Gordy, you should be proud! Fun!

Affordability: Another area of interest to me. For us certainly the largest cost of this adventure, far and away, is the forgone income, ie the not working. Living here is far cheaper than the states, but how much cheaper? We stayed for $60 a night in Quito, which felt like plenty to spend to stay out of a gritty place, and we were very pleased with that comfort level. We’re temporarily in a hotel kitchenette until we find a better place, and this is $40 a night including breakfast. Now, a $1200 mortgage payment puts you at $40 a night, so this is no more expensive (nor cheaper) than at home. We have been told that we can find an apartment for $90, $150, $180, just looked at one for $230 a month. That’s like $3-8 a night. Interesting. So that’s the largest expense in one’s budget (though the $3.5k in airfares doesn’t amortize down very quickly), though going out to eat can easily exceed that (a simple dinner can be like $5 a person, so $20 would be 0.5 – 8 nights of rent). A kitchenette is certainly an economical tool to have in one’s possession.

Girls at school for day 2 today, some tears yesterday, brave souls getting a truckload of compassion bootcamp. They sit at the desk mute. Althea was quite distressed to not even know which class was which (Is this math? Science? Language Arts?) Rosie taught a hand clapping game to a new amiga Leslie; sweet. They're being brave, I'm very proud and anxious for them. We didn't go with them on the bus today, took them to the stop and put them on. Wow.

Huge shoutout to brother David for slashing his way through some thorny computer issues; more precisely, the local WiFi ISP would not permit us to connect to our SMTP server to send email through Outlook. Several trips hoofing crosstown with the laptop, countless clicks of send/receive, reinstalled email accounts, changing server settings, authentication requirements, google searches, pleasant visits to support.microsoft.com, you get the idea. Davey, you rock!

Hugs all. P

Arrived in Otavalo

2009-01-06T11:58:00.000-08:00

I guess the long and short of it is we: descended about 1000 feet (down here at 8000 we're sprinting up the steps), crossed the Equator on the Pan American Highway (photo), scored a sweet deal on a lovely little kitchenette apartment in a nice hotel, took the girls to check out a school (photos)(thanks Hayden and Bill), liked it, and they will attend their first day tomorrow. I especially like the photo of Ro's first few minutes in her new classroom.

This town is lovely. There's a strip of semi-horrifying tourism services immediately adjacent to the main market square (they call it Poncho Plaza - LOTS of musical instruments, hats, geegaws, bags, jewelry, etc. to buy), but also plenty of real world less-developed country (a friend calls it "underconsuming country")town to live in. I feel like we shot from far far away and came pretty dang close to a good mark. Thanks Chuck and Sue and Hayden and Bill for the great counsel.

We have a phone number, too. Comment here or email if you would like it. P

Pile o' baggage

2009-01-05T06:25:00.000-08:00

We took a vote and decided to put up this picture, albeit out of chronological sequence. This is 4:30 am New Year's Day in PDX; coincidentally, taken by our friend Tood who was passing through on her way to Florida.

We almost were trying to set it to music: 5 duffle bags, 2 roll aboards, 4 backpacks. And a banjo.

All well. Good thoughts certainly helping and welcome. P

Last days in Quito

2009-01-04T16:33:00.000-08:00

All continues well in our South American metropolis. We’ve established a lovely little beachhead here at our hotel: friendly, cozy, quiet, pleasant (photo). I have made friends with the restaurant staff; they go off menu to make bland pasta and deliver hot chocolate to the room for the gringa girls. Today, they invited me to join in the noontime card game; I bought the table beers and learned to play the traditional Quito game of 40. I’ll teach you all when I return.

In addition to OLD, Quito is quite HIGH! Yesterday, a friend of my friend Skip’s met us and took us up the Teleferiqo (gondola) from downtown (9,000 ft) to 13,000 (photos, do the math on 4100m). After a few minutes, the clouds cleared and Pichincha Volcano appeared at 16,500 (photo) – the highest mountain I’ve ever seen, higher than anything in the lower 48. This held the record for several hours until I saw Cotopaxi from Ed’s apartment – 19,500! That’s in the neighborhood of Denali. Yahoo!

Afterwards, Ed and Pilar hosted us in their home for pizza and visiting; their kids are 7 and 4. The 3 Little Pigs was a big hit on the couch (photo). Thanks for a great day you guys!

Today was our last day in the big town. We checked out mass at a giant Spanish colonial church on the Plaza Grande: full-on gilding and Rococo interior. Wow. Then a huge park in the center of the city where folks were out in force enjoying soccer, volleyball, basketball, biking in the sunshine. Lovely. Some ice cream for the girls, all in good spirits.

Otavalo tomorrow! Paul

And a few words from the girls:
Althea Says:
It was a great ride on the gondola yesterday, and our friends were very nice and their part of Quito was beautiful. We go to Otovalo tomorrow, and I'm hoping it will be a little more homey. We will See the school and maybe meet some friends! :-)Hoping it all goes well,
Althea

I am just kind of feeling weird about coming to Quito and then leaving Quito it is kind of a big change. it will be interesting to see what is like in Otavalo.
Rosie

Going To Ecuador!!!!!

2009-01-04T06:08:00.002-08:00

Going to Ecuador was a really big surprise and i really didn't see it coming.but it seemed so far away when they told me but it isn't so far away anymore because we're in Ecuador and it is a lot different then i thought it would be. But over the time I've been in Ecuador it isn't to bad here. it is actually kind of fun. Rosalie

Going To Ecuador!!!!!

2009-01-04T06:08:00.000-08:00

Quito!

2009-01-02T11:48:00.000-08:00

It feels a little boosterish, but I’m quite interested in some of this info and wanted to pass it along. We’re staying in the Old Town area of Quito (photo of street in front of our hotel). In the 1940’s, the aristocrats sort of block rushed another section of town and created New Town, or La Mariscal. It’s reputed to be more tourist-inhabited and isn’t Colonial-building-central like this area is. This part of town is in fact, for this hemisphere, really old.

La Plaza Grande was first laid out in 1534 – that’s Plymouth Rock minus 85 years, and during the lifetime of Michangelo, before Shakespeare’s birth, just 15 years after Cortez started whacking on Aztecs. It will be 500 years old when Rosie finishes college. Old!

I walked over today while the juniors were acclimating to new time zone and 9000 feet (ie snoozing); it was quite bustling (photo) with families and musicians enjoying the last day of Xmas break, plus riot police with those plexiglass shield things waiting patiently in reserve as the respective boosters of two political opponents shouted and cheered and waved their index fingers at each other. The Cathedral is on one side, big obelisk thing in the middle (photo).This Plaza is now called La Plaza Independencia in commemoration of kicking out the Spaniards in 1809 (after nearly 300 years of colonial rule); the obelisk is the monument to that.

Eggs and buns and fruit salad and café con leche for breakfast downstairs this morning, tomorrow we’re looking forward to hazarding the Coastal Breakfast: Green banana balls stuffed with cheese or fried pork rinds. Yum!

Hugs to back there. Paul

Arrived!

2009-01-02T06:37:00.000-08:00

All safe and sound, thanks for all the good wishes out there. Dear friend Geoff took time away from Beth´s birthday dinner and NY Eve to drive us in, 4 am shuttle from hotel, Houston at noon, Quito at 10:30, immigration and then taxi to hotel at 11:30 (Quito is on NYC time, so really only 8:30 pm for us). Whew. Stellar travelers, iPod movies, kind neighbors shared brownies and headphones with us.

Wé´re staying right in the center of the City, a UNESCO World Heritage site, one of the best Spanish colonial areas in the Americas (apparently). Big city, but an interior, quiet hotel room. Ventured out this am around the block, stopped in on a mass filled with people less than my shoulder height. Words for the morning: Salvador, Par and Peluqueria - savior, pair (of eggs, on a menu) and haircuttery.

Thanks for reading. We have a date to visit a friend of a friend tomorrow and his family. Cheers. Paul

2008-12-31T20:08:00.000-08:00

Althea Says:
Hi People. We're about to leave, and my dad says we should write about what we feel. My sister can't because she has a "raging fever". I hope she gets better before we get to Quito, because there is an altitude of 9,000 ft there, and that might make her more sick. I'm really excited, but scared at the same time, because I don't know much about Ecuador or the place we'll be living. As soon as we get settled, we'll post pictures. I'm excited to see the warm weather and i heard the people are really nice there, and I can't wait to meet friends. I'm interested in the school we'll be going to, and I don't know how much like the middle school here it will be. I'll tell you about my first day of school once I start. Stay Tuned. :-)
xoxo
Althea

1 week to go

2008-12-25T15:15:00.000-08:00

Well, we became front page news yesterday in the the local paper. The girls and grownups each got a lot of quotes included in Kirby's story; thanks Kirby!

Check out most of the story at http://www.hoodrivernews.com/News%20stories/2008/103_news_travel.htm

We're hoping for a bit of thaw before New Year's so we can fly out; 3 feet in the backyard and snowing hard.

Paul

Kristen's last day!

2008-12-20T08:40:00.000-08:00

I completed my last day in clinic yesterday. It was more of a whimper than a bang, what with the snow storm and all. The staff sent me off with an autographed shoulder bag full of goodies: including calendar, water bottle, and just the book I'd been trying to get hold of, "Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell. I'd asked Book Stop to order it in for me, and when Erin showed up there looking for a book for "Dr. Dillon who's going on sabbatical" the owner sent her off with just the one she knew I wanted! Small towns are great. Here's the soundbite that's going out to local medical folks:

Dear colleagues,

I’m writing to fill you in on my plans for the next 6 months. I very much appreciate the support of Steve Becker, Tony Gay, Beth Foster, and our practice administrator, Francie Karr, in helping me arrange to take a sabbatical leave from January through June, 2009. During my absence, Angie Reynolds, MD, a family physician who also has Obstetrics fellowship training, has agreed to work with us at CGFM and at the hospital. I know you will welcome her warmly, and I hope she enjoys her work here as much as I do!

My family and I are going to live in Ecuador for 6 months. Our children will attend school there, likely in the community of Otavalo about 100 miles north of Quito, and Paul will be working in a community development project. Once we get settled, I anticipate working with local projects to provide health care in the surrounding villages. I'll also get the opportunity to walk my daughters to school each day, cook dinner (if I still remember how) and do some reading that doesn't have CME credits attached!

A couple weeks away...

2008-12-16T13:31:00.000-08:00

More details in place. Friend Geoff has offered his large car to take us to the airport in the early morning of New Year's Day. The Hood River News is running a little story about the trip; I'm hoping that will steer a lot of folks towards this blog (let us know if you found this through that).

Here's the snapshot of what's happening here: we're taking 6 months away from Hood River to live on sabbatical in northern Ecuador, probably in the small city of Otavalo. There's a school there we think will be a good match for the girls, some volunteer service work that Paul has found, and by all accounts it's a safe, pleasant place to be. We're looking forward to everyone getting to buff up their Spanish and get a good taste of how most of the planet lives. We will return in June.

Questions welcome, as are good thoughts and well wishes.

Paul

Shots and airplane tickets

2008-12-05T16:52:00.000-08:00

Another big day of preparations. Online banking, medicine, bandaids (for trading and gifting), guitar strings (for gifting), plus more vaccinations (tetanus, Hep A and B) and BOUGHT TICKETS! We've been playing airfare roulette but have now purchased tix for 6 am on New Year's Day - a cheap time to fly, it turns out. So we're booked to fly to Quito and have our first few nights of lodging reserved downtown. We have a contact in Quito to look up, see the city, and then make our way north to Otavalo.

Exciting. Paul

Shots!

2008-12-02T08:18:00.000-08:00

Vaccination day at the hospital yesterday. We got an hour's briefing from a wonderful nurse on the particulars of rabies and hepatitis and malaria drugs. We walked out with prescriptions for malaria and antibiotics, plus yellow fever live (!) virus in our arms and oral typhoid vaccine. A great day for the girls - all of us, I guess - to start to experience this as a real trip that is actually happening. Soon.

Plane fares keep going down, almost ready to commit to Jan. 1.

Thanks for reading. Paul

First post

2008-11-24T12:19:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm groping my way here. I've set up this blog now to chronicle our South American journey for our family and friends back home. Hope I don't look too foolish on the web. Paul