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.

Well, it has been over two months since a Blog update.  Shame on us..  We will try to do better in the future.

We just returned from a four week visit to the United States. After many months of waiting, and changing our travel plans three times, we did get our Permanent Resident Visas, which enabled us to make this trip.  We are now Permanent Residents of Ecuador.

Claudia's mother celebrated her 90th birthday on June 12, and most of our family surprised her with a party.  We held an open house which many of her friends and extended family were able to attend.  It was a good time of celebration and memories. Amanda did the organizing for the weekend and  open house as well as the decorating. Dan took all the pictures.  They both did a great job!

From Left, Sage, Dexter the dog, Kara & Matt,Bruce & Claudia, Matthew, Moose & Debbie, Tracey & Alan, Mom, Amanda & Dan

We spent time with Bruce's brother and family in Oak Grove, Missouri - enjoying 100' heat almost every day.  We traveled with them, in their new motor coach, to Iowa for the party and enjoyed camping out at Spring Lake Park outside of Jefferson.

Then on to Seattle to complete some business and visit more family and friends..  It was a great trip, seemed to be on the move all the time, now back home for some R and R.

We also took our first trip on an Ecuadorian bus from Cotacachi to Quito, about a two hour ride for only $2.   Riding the bus is quite an experience including cushy seats, a movie shown while riding and venders that come on board to sell you everything from food to  toothbrushes. After a great experience on the bus, we plan to do it again real soon.

Last week we visited the Condor Park, just minutes from our home.  The park is close to the top of one of the mountains so the views were spectacular. the condor is quite a  fascinating bird, and soooooo big.  In the park, there were hawks, owls, eagles, and yes condors in all their glory.

Not an especially attractive bird being a member of the vulture family.

This is Cyambe Volcano...reminds us a bit of Mt Rainier.

Here is a picture of a condor next to one of the indigenous people.  This gives you a better idea of the size.

Our neighbors and us hosted our first BBQ this past weekend.. We had sixteen guests, enjoyed fresh shrimp, fresh salad, great T-Bone steaks with baked potatoes.  It was a chance to enjoy our patio area behind our home.  Everyone seemed to have a good time.

We continue to enjoy this place so much.  Every morning, it is coffee on the front porch with a beautiful view of Cotacachi Volcano, OR the back patio with a  beautiful view of Imbabura Volcano.
Fresh fruit for breakfast; lunch of with fresh veggies, and maybe popcorn and a good movie in the evening.  Life is good! 

Rainy Season Ends

Another month has passed, and yes, we are still loving this country and our home of five months.
We are still attending Spanish class two days a week. Nosotros estudiamos espanol todos los dias.
A few highlights this past month: we were given a tour of our Spanish teacher's sweater factory; a trip to the weavers of Paguchi, and Bruce celebrated his 70th birthday...  You will enjoy pictures of all within this update.

The sweater factory: Don Miguel imports raw wool  or alpaca from Peru. (FYI: he imports wool from Peru because the quality is much better than Ecuadorian wool.)   It comes in 800 pound bundles to his factory.  He takes it to another local factory where it is stretched, dyed, and spun into skeins of yarn. The process is fascinating. As the wool is stretched into barrels it is then pulled from the barrels and  spun into yarn, skeins of yarn are then dipped into a dye, then dried on the lawn outside the factory.  Much of the machinery used in this process is over 100 years old and still working every day to produce this fine product.

Ecuadorian wool which is never used in Don Miguel's factory.  This was wool from another customer.

Peruvian wool

The stretching machine

the small dying vats are used to make multicolor yarn.  The skeins are loaded and one end is dipped in the vat.  After soaking it drys and is turned on the hanger and dipped in the vat again for a new color and the process continued untill all the colors are added.

Spinning the yarn

The large dying vat for one color yarn

Drying the yarn

The skeins are then returned to Don Miguel's factory, where he delivers the skeins  to his "knitters", these are women living in the mountain villages surrounding Ibarra.  There are literally hundreds of knitters.  These women hand knit each sweater to the design they are given; the completed
sweater is returned to the factory, where the buttons, zippers, labels, etc. are attached.   Then, they are
packaged, boxed, and shipped to Don Miguel's clients.. Except for the zippers almost all of these things are done by hand including packing and sealing of boxes..  At present, all his buyers are in European countries, France, England, etc.  This week a container of sweaters, scarves and hats was sent to France.  Before a container is shipped there is usually a big push to complete the order.  Because of this Claudia had an opportunity to help a couple of days in the factory with  sewing fleece bands in stocking caps.  It has given us a new appreciation for all the details and workmanship  that goes into a handmade article of clothing.   Most of these beautiful hand knit sweaters sell in Europe for $200.00+. 

Scarves and sweaters.

Completing belts for sweaters.

Sewing on buttons.

Knitting sweaters

Many of the sweaters have zippers and then a placket that buttons over the zippers.

Boxes ready to be filled

Now, about this birthday.  Bruce turned 70 years old on May 17th.  Who woulda' thunk he would be retired, living in Cotacachi, Ecuador, on his 70th birthday.. His birthday actually lasted four days.  It
began with dinner at the Hacienda with Claudia, a very special meal in a very special place;  then
a BBQ with neighbors, beef filet and all the trimmings. It pays to have a gourmet cook in the neighborhood. We have great neighbors, who have become great friends.  As a test of our mail service, Bruce also received one birthday card from the US, took 10 days to get it here  :-) but good to know the possibilities.

Finally we went to El Condor in Paguchi.  This area is known for there hand woven items.  On a quiet ride  through this part of the country, with your windows down you can hear the sound of the looms in the homes as they work away creating these beautiful items.  The patterns and techniques have been handed down through generations.  We were in awe of the brilliant colors and intricate patterns, let alone the time involved in creating these intricate pieces of art.  They take the wool after shearing and cleaning and card it by hand.  Then it is spun into yarn and wound onto spools.  During this process they also dye the wool themselves, creating the dyes from plants and even insects.  The items are woven on Spanish looms or Inca looms.  After watching the demonstrations we couldn't believe the time it takes and physical endurance to bring there creations from the raw wool to finished product.

Carding (combing and stretching) the wool

Spinning the wool

Loading onto spools

The Inca loom.  Notice the loom is held taught by a strap around her back and bracing her feet.

This table runner took 15 long days to make on the Inca loom

Notice the intricacy of the pattern

The Spanish loom

This is an Inca calendar created on the Spanish loom.

Another Inca design created on the Spanish loom

It has been a good month of learning and discovery and we have barely scratched the surface...more to come.