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.