Travel to Quito

Living in Ecuador is much like being in a fantasy land every day.  Every day brings something special, a new blooming flower, a special smile from one of the locals, the sun radiating off the top of the volcano, the smell of roasting coffee (local coffee house), or just sitting on our patio feeling the warmth of the morning sun.

Yesterday was one of those special days.  Please let me share it with you. We had some business in Quito, so decided to take the bus.  We began our adventure in Otovalo, a neighboring town where you catch the express bus to Quito.  We board the bus and head down the Pan American Highway.  Even on a cloudy day, the ride on the bus brings special  experiences.  Remember now, we are traveling on the Pan American Highway.  The majority on board were Indigenous and local Ecuadorians, friendly smiles, adults, kids, & babies on mother's backs.

On our ride to and from Quito, here are just a few thing we experienced.  This ride takes about two hours to travel 60 miles through the beautiful Andes mountains, vast gorges, breathtaking mountain tops, snow capped volcanoes, elevation changes of 4,000 feet plus.  We traveled by Rose Farms which produce and ship hundreds of roses every day.  We passed two pack horses loaded down with fresh produce led by a couple of young men, walking right along the Pan-American highway.  Then in front of us, a large semi carrying a very heavy load of steel. (Moving about 15 mph due to the steep hill).

There was much traffic, both directions, cars, trucks, motorcycles, buses, oh yes, horses, people walking.  We probably passed or met 30 buses on the trip.

As we looked out the windows of the bus, we could see cattle grazing in the fields, crops of fresh vegetables, orchards of fruits, people working in their fields, children returning home from school.  On our return trip, as we rounded a corner, there was a majestic fresh water lake at the base of Imbabura volcano. The sun shown bright, accenting the lake and volcano in the background.

One last comment regarding our bus ride:  each way, two hours, $2.20 was the fare for both of us AND along the highway were several gas stations - regular gas $1.48 gal and Diesel was $1.03 gal.

So we arrive in Quito, a very modern city for sure.  From the bus terminal, a taxi ($5.00) takes us 30 minutes to a beautiful modern shopping center, where Claudia did some shopping and we dined at TG Fridays....  Then on to the US Embassy ($5.00) taxi, 30 minutes.  The Embassy is a beautiful facility that accommodates both Americans and Ecuadorians.

Our business finished, a taxi ($3.00), 15 minutes -back to the bus terminal and our trip home to Cotacachi.  On our trip home, we had local venders hop on the bus, selling ice cream, chips, etc., then jump off the bus to catch the next bus to do the same.

Home after a big day, lots of precious memories of the day.  Very tired, but our business completed and a great adventure for sure.

As I sit here on our front porch, looking up at beautiful Cotacachi volcano, it is hard to grasp that we LIVE in this wondrous place. To say we are blessed is such an understatement.   We wish all our family and friends could experience Ecuador.

Love to you all,
B & C

Well, here we are, the beginning of a new year.. So, Happy New Year to one and all!

We celebrated our first anniversary, one year in Ecuador, on December 31, 2012.  And of course our first Christmas here.  The customs here are quite different from those in the US.  Very few people exchange gifts.  They do get together with family, midnight on Christmas Eve, and enjoy a meal together welcoming in the day of Christs birth..  They do celebrate the true meaning of Christmas.

We also found it interesting that you have Christmas decorations that you can purchase in the stores here starting in October, but once they are gone that's it, no restocking so you need to buy early.  Also it is practically impossible to buy a live Christmas tree here so we had our first artificial tree this year.  We did miss the wonderful aroma of a Noble fir but  we adapted.

This year we hosted an Open House the Saturday before Christmas. Claudia prepared 24 dozen cookies, 8 dozen bars/brownies, 3 kinds of candy - using 18 pounds of sugar, 9 pounds of butter, and 9 pounds of flour.  WOW!  It was a great day of celebration with friends.   All 35 who attended had plenty of sugar and their was literally nothing left over because each was given a goody bag to take home so the table was emptied in minutes.  The pictures attached will tell it all!

Our little Christmas tree near the fire place.

This is our Nativity Scene which was purchased in  the town of Calderon where all types of decorations are made from marzipan.

Here are the 14 special treats for our guests.

This is our taxi driver, Manuel, his wife Maria Carmen, son John Emerson and daughter Naria.

Our neighbor Rand and on the right our landlord Michael.

This is Jhonny, Tamia, his wife and Jasly their daughter.  They are the couple who take care of cleaning and maintenance of the property.

We thought you might enjoy this information on how New Year's Eve is celebrated.

For New Year’s Eve, Ecuadorians create an effigy (doll) to burn that evening. The dummy traps all the bad things from that year and burning ensures that those things do not happen again.  In many neighborhoods it’s an enormous competition and the models are often important events from the previous year. The puppets are filled with sawdust or newspaper and some firecrackers, beaten and burned before midnight. It’s important that they are burned completely or else the bad situations that were tormenting you and your family that year will return in the New Year to bother you again.

JUMPING OVER FIRE...Many Ecuadorians jump over the fire once for every month to bring good luck. You have to jump over at least 12 times. EATING GRAPES...

Ecuadorians eat a grape for every wish per month (i.e. January lose weight, February find love, etc). COLORED PANTIES...Women wear colored underwear on New Year’s Eve to bring them luck for the year. Red is supposed to bring love, yellow brings wealth.  YOUR CHOICE......... GIFTS TO THE FIRE...Locals throw coins into the fire to bring them financial luck for the year and rice into the fire to make sure they will have an abundance of food on the table. WIDOW OF THE OLD YEAR...Neighborhood children get together and select one of the boys of the group to dress up as the widow. They then set barriers for cars to stop and ask for coins for the “oldie.” The widow weeps that their loved one passed and they have no money.  If the car does not give up change to their neighbor’s kid, the children do not release the rope barrier although this rarely happens as the kids are happy even with only a few cents.

The party continues through the night, loud music, dancing, etc.

 

After living here for a year, our home has taken on a new look.  Claudia has spent much time with our flowers and has just planted an Herb Garden, which will produce basil, cilantro, thyme, rosemary, dill, chives and parsley.  The few pictures below give you a look at our home.  Needless to say, we love it here and every day it just gets better.

This is the wall of Jhonny's casita next to our house.

Here is our house.

Ecuadorian style "man cave"

The new herb garden.

Raised flower garden we built last spring.

The garden extends about 20ft on each side of the "man cave"

We need to share a few highlights since the last Blog update.  

Our taxi drive invited us to his wife's birthday, at their new home.  They live up the mountain towards Cotacachi Volcano.  Manuel and his family have been working five years to complete his new small, humble, and very warm home.  It is on land that the family owns.  When building a home here you work on it till the money is gone then save more and do more work.  That is why it took 5 years to complete.   They served us a plate of corn, potatoes and fried shrimp.  It was interesting to watch as we were served and the family waited to make sure that we had enough food before they ate. It was a great day and a special honor to be invited to their home to celebrate..  

Manuel's home, approximately 750 sq feet, 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, a kitchen, dinning and living room combo.

Manuel, his wife, 2 brothers and mother. 

 

For Thanksgiving we enjoyed a traditional American style dinner at the Hacienda with friends.  The dinner was prepared by a chef who previously worked for the Queen of Spain.  Word has it that he needed some direction in preparation of a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner.  It was a very nice day but we decided that the smell of turkey cooking in our own house would be better  next year..  The Hacienda is a beautiful place up the side of Cotacachi Volcano, with much history..  

We have taken a couple of trips to Quito.  It is always an adventure.  The traffic is worse than any city in the US.  It has something for everyone, from modern shopping centers, to local markets where you can purchase literally very kind of fruit and vegetable imaginable.   It is always a treat to make these trips to Quito.  It's the time we purchase things we can't get locally, like pecans, cashews, Italian sausage, miniture marshmallows and occasionally tiny chocolate chips.  One thing we have learned in shopping here.  When you see it buy it, because it might not be there next time.

The most recent trip to Quito included a visit to the US Embassy.  We needed to renew our passports.  That was quite an experience.. The security was tighter than any airport we have traveled through.  The Embassy was obviously there for the Ecuadorians, since no one spoke a word of English, accept the gracious lady who took care of our passport paperwork.  We go back this week to pick up our new Passports.

 

We were privileged this year to  assist the preacher of our church in the buying of food baskets for the congregation.  It was quite an adventure going to a special store that gave him bulk pricing on the items and then to the open market to buy the chickens.  Each basket contained rice, sugar, oil, noodles, a can of peaches, tuna, laundry soap, bread, cocoa and a chicken. When we ask the preacher what families in the church needed food, he replied all of them (30).  On Christmas Eve there is a church service at 7:00pm then a dinner for everyone.  After that every family gets a basket of food, the children get a bag of cookies and candy which is their treat of Christmas.  What an amazing experience God allowed us to be a part of.

 We feel so blessed to be here and still have times when we can't believe what has happened to us in the last year.  We pray that God will use all of us in meaningful ways in 2013.

 

               HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

 

November 1, 2012

Greetings from Cotacachi, Ecuador!

Since our last posting, we continue enjoying our lives here in Ecuador.  Let me take you through events since our last blog posting.  Hope you enjoy our adventures.

We took a trip up high in the mountains to a village called Zuletta, home of many local artisans who create very special things.  Just the road to Zuletta is a beautiful experience. The beauty of this area of Ecuador can only be expressed as "Spectacular".

First stop was the wood carver.  As you can see, they create many items from the trees in the area. The rustic climate of the wood carvers add to their special talents as they create.

Next, the embroidery artisans.   Take note of the beautiful scarves, table cloths, clothing, etc.  They are also truly blessed with special talents and are known throughout the country for their skills.

We have several beautiful historic Haciendas in the area.. Hacienda Santiago Del Rey is just one we visited.. So much history, most buildings on the property over 400 years old.  Many of the Haciendas have been renovated, offer lodging {B & B}, and offer fine lunches and dinners of local specialties.

We have also been attending the Cotacachi Christian Church, a small church planted and supported by a Christian Church in Florida.. The minister has been here for nine years, sharing the Gospel with the local people.  We have enjoyed worshiping with them every Sunday, as they gather to praise God in their special ways..  They have a worship team of about 10 people, ages 7 to adult, all very special people..  We have a praise session for 30 minutes every Sunday led by the worship team.  The church is very based in scripture and the services are all in Spanish.  The preacher does speak very good English and shares his sermon notes in English on an overhead so we can follow along.  We continue trying to master our Spanish, but seems to be a very slow process.  I hope you can enjoy the brief video of our worship team in action.

Ok, a little fun here..  Here is what you might see any day of the week as you walk to or from our home.  A family with their herd of cows moving down the street.  Many times just a young boy will be moving the cows from one location to another..  Very special people in a very special country.

Remember my new friend, the large dog across the street.  Well, he somehow came up with a cut on his leg, had to have the Vet come and do some stitching, so though it necessary to share this one photo of the procedure on our front porch.  Yes, Duke is OK!

Better close for now.  Places to go, People to see, Things to do!  We continue loving this place and feel so blessed to be able to live here in this beautiful country.

More Adventures

Ok!  Ok!  I am late again updating our blog...  I wish I could say that we have just been too busy, but that would not be true.. Except for sleeping, eating, power-lounging, and enjoying every day in our new home, there is just no good excuse.

Let's begin with a picture of the folks that live here in our compound.. We had a great time together, enjoying a meal of special treats from all of us.. We have great neighbors.

Ok, what has been going on down here?  Let's take a look.

We recently attended a Horse Parade in Cotacachi.  That was exactly what it was, many, many, horses.  There were several varieties and all showed off their special abilities.  IE:  some danced to the music provided by a small car moving in front of them.  All were well trained and a pleasure to watch.

We had visitors from the US this past couple of weeks, friends from Lake City, Iowa, our first visitors to our new home.  It was great fun.  We enjoyed much of the Ecuadorian culture together for the first time.

There was the day at the Rose Plantation.  It is hard to describe this place..They were one of the smallest rose growers, shipping 15.000 roses per day to places like Russia, Japan, Europe, Australia, and the United States.  Everything was done by hand, no machines, period..  They employ about 30 workers per acre of roses, each rose getting special attention until they are cut and shipped.  The owner's son was our tour guide and had such a passion for his roses, his farm, his employees, and his country.  At the end of the tour, Claudia asked if she could purchase some of his roses..  He directed her to an area containing many, many roses and told her to take all she wanted.. These roses were too old to ship, so were to be tossed into the compost pile.  We wound up with 22 dozen rose, YES, 22 dozen..  They were all taken to our home, and Claudia made up arrangements and shared them with all our neighbors..  He produced 38 colors of roses, some colors we had never seen.  It was a great day.

Here you see the short  mother plants and the full grown roses in the back ground from which they harvest each day.

Here are just a few of the beautiful colors available.

 

More examples of color.

This is what 22 dozen roses looked like before they went into the bouquets.  We had many surprised and happy neighbors.

We also visited a local weaver, an older couple, in their home, who started with raw wool, cleaned it, spun it into yarn, and using an aged Inca loom, they made scarves, ponchos, sweaters, and blankets.  Again, everything was done by hand.  Enjoy the pictures.

Here was his spinning wheel for the yarn.

This is the Inca loom. The scarf he is making will take 3 days to complete.

We were also blessed to visit three old Haciendas.  Each one had a story and were often handed down from generation to generation.   The architecture was fascinating including walls in the homes often 2 feet thick.f.  At one time, the haciendas in Ecuador consisted of 50,000+ acres each.  At some point in history, the president of Ecuador, exercised his power and returned the land to the native population, leaving each hacienda with still many acres.  Since then, the indigenous people of Ecuador, have been farming this land that was returned to them many years ago.  From our front porch, we can see the patchwork of these small farms high up on the side of the volcanoes.

This is the first hacienda we visited.

Notice the thick walls.

The haciendas are usually self sufficient producing all the fruits and vegetables they eat along with meat, milk & cheese.

This is the last Hacienda we visited which now offers rooms for visitors to stay in along with a small restaurant.

What a beautiful path to one of the cottages located on the hacienda grounds.

The main house was filled with many beautiful paintings and tapestries.

The equator passes through Quito so we went to the area called the Middle of the World.   Of course there is a special park you can visit that is on the equator.  It's fascinating to visit the place where the hemispheres meet. It was quite interesting and after all how often do you get to stand on the southern and northern hemisphere at the same time!

After weeks of the dry season, lots of wind, no rain, and lots of smoke from burning fields (the farmers burn off their fields before planting the new crop) we are actually looking forward to what is called the rainy season..  With the exception of the wind, however, the weather has been perfect, sunny and mild temperatures.  If the rainy season is like we experienced the first half of the year, sunny in the morning and a gentle rain in the late afternoon, it is perfect weather for gringos that come from Washington.