Rain And Sun

Almost everyone we meet here tells us that Loja has all 4 seasons in one day. In general, the morning is a bit foggy, then a nice burst of hot sun for a few hours, then some wind, then some Seattle style drizzle, maybe a Florida downpour then usually some more sun and a dry evening. You get the idea. Its impossible to predict and but we're getting used to it. This week there were two consecutive gray, cold and rainy days which had us worried until people assured us it was very unusual. It's nice to have the sun back. We celebrated with ice cream in the park yesterday. Ecuadorians seem to love ice cream. There aren't ice cream trucks here, just ice cream carts attached to bicycles.

Last weekend, the family that we are renting from, invited us on a day trip to Vilcabamba. It's a beautiful small town about 40 mins from Loja. Here, you ARE supposed to drink the water, the "fountain of youth." We read that back in the 1970s there was some 800 people over 100 years old. Hence why it is now known as the Valley of Longevity, and not surprisingly many "gringos" have made it their home. Our hosts told us of some private "American" city nestled down a long dirt road where no Ecuadorian's are allowed. Can't vouch for that. We did see a bunch of dirty hippies playing bad guitar in the town square. Vilcabamba abuts one of the largest National Parks in Ecuador and has a great scenic and mellow vibe so we hope to make it back there many more times. On this trip, we also had our first taste of raw sugar cane juice (picture included) at a small road-side shack. Although tasty, it proved unfortunate when it showed up again later in the week. Over the weekend, we also were excited to find our first hiking trail leaving from the city traversing through a park to a beautiful view of the city and surrounding mountains.

Monday we started our full schedule of teaching. Getting up at 6am isn't so difficult when the sun has already risen. We are thankful that that will never change. The SEI school is within our block, so its a fantastic morning commute. We are at school from 7 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. All families enjoy lunch together at home, as do we, and follow it with short nap. According to our hosts, siestas don't happen in Ecuador, but all businesses seem to be closed until about 3:30. We have also been helping out in the afternoons at the "Speak-Up" program (extra English classes for all ages). We are teaching teenagers, just for the next few weeks until they find more English teachers. We desperately need the time for our own Spanish lessons and lesson planning for the mornings. We have benefited, however, from the teenagers advice about restaurants and nightlife.

Ben started coaching baseball this week as well. Everyday he takes a different group of 8 to 9 year olds to experience the great American past-time at a nearby dirt soccer field. Its's basically mayhem, but they seem to like it. Not speaking the language makes instruction more difficult. We'll have to get up to speed with that in the coming months.

Tuesday the Cane juice struck back with a vengeance. Since Ben was the one that had to help the doctor (our host) finish a liter of it, he also felt the wrath. Wednesday was officially his first sick day from school. Fortunately, lots of water and some Immodium cleared things up and by Thursday he was back in action.

Last night, we experienced nightlife in Loja with the son and daughter of the people who have provided us the apartment. They are roughly our age and brought along their significant others. Although our Spanish did improve after we loosened up with a few cervezas, they were actually interested in practicing their English ( oddly enough, none of the locals want to practice broken Spanish). At dinner, we learned that steak and eggs is an Ecuadorian specialty. At the restaurant ( which was full of young people) a live band played "romantic" music and at times the entire restaurant was singing along. After dinner, we learned that discotheques are popular, involve very loud music and salsa dancing. It was a good time.