Viva Loja!

Loja celebrated it's Independence Day on November 18th. While the holiday was on November 18th, Loja took the opportunity to have, at least, two weeks of festivities. Each barrio (neighborhood) had its own parties which included soccer matches in the street, Ecua-volley tournaments, and live music at night with dancing in the street.

There were also two parades: high school marching bands and a military parade. It was very uncomfortable to watch high school students wearing full, long sleeve uniforms marching in the hot sun for four hours. But, actually, it is not uncommon for us to be wearing shorts and tank tops, while Ecuadorians have on jeans and sweaters and maybe even a scarf. Presentation is very important here. Most Ecuadorian men here in Loja are always wearing a collared shirt and dress shoes (even when changing oil in cars). Ecuadorian women in Loja wear full suits to work and are rarely seen without their stilettos.

The military parade was the following day and included a brief history of the important battles and wars in Ecuador. Floats came by decorated to depict the scenes of courage and horror. After the floats came the modern soldiers of varying specialties carrying sticks, flags and bazookas. We also got to see some military dogs and anti-tank brigades. It was an impressive show.

The night of the big celebration, there was a crowd of about 2,000 Ecuadorians standing shoulder to shoulder in the plaza to view the live music and fireworks. People were crowded into all of the stores and street side tiendas to buy liquor and beer. We opted for the curbside kegerator from which we were served 20oz. Pilseners by a nine year old girl and her sister. Cane lasso, the sugar cane liquor drink of Loja, was also being served around the crowd by young men wearing tuxedos.

After a couple hours of dancing and music on the main stage, the real action was unleashed in about 15 minutes of fireworks. It’s not like the kind in Elliot Bay that are launched off of a barge. These babies fired right off of the roof of the church in the main square. Our necks were sore from looking straight up for so long. Meanwhile the crowd was showered with debris from the fireworks and smoke filled the square. It was a superb display.

As a side note, in case any of you are curious, we are still experiencing daily rolling blackouts. It seems the rains have returned so the periods of disruption are shorter, but it will take some time for all of the turbines to be back on line. We're looking forward to it.

Futbol in the streets.

This week marks the 189th anniversary celebration of Loja's independence from Spain. They make a habit of celebrating everything here which is one of the best parts about this culture. Most importantly it means we have two more days off to enjoy our stay here. It also means we get to witness a variety of local events which mark the celebration. These events include parades,dancing, neighborhood by neighborhood celebrations, sports competitions and of course lots of drinking.
Our neighborhood, I forget what its called, had the opportunity to host events last weekend. We go to see scantily clad women dancing on a stage in the street accompanied by karaoke backed music and lots of young drunk people. It was fun but we mostly enjoyed the music from inside our apartment.
The next day we got to see part of the neighborhood soccer tournament which took place in the main street by our house. The road was blocked, goals set up and lines painted from curb to curb. The game is actually a little different than real futbol in that the field is only about 40 yards long and the ball is smaller and hard as a rock. I made the mistake of trying to kick one back to some people playing in the park one day and I just about broke my foot. The craziest part is that most of them wear Chuck Taylor type shoes with worn tread and very little support.
The games are pretty intense because the field is so small. They were using the high curbs like a hockey wall, kicking pushing and shoving each other. Its actually quite amazing that they weren't all covered with road rash and skinned knees. Meanwhile, the sidewalks were lined with fans and onlookers eating ice cream and drinking beers. It was a fun sight.
On sunday we also got a chance to check out part of the Equavoly tournament in our neighborhood. Equavoly is an odd hybrid of volleyball with only 3 players per team and more lax rules about how you can hit the ball. We'll try to get some pics of this up later. Its fun to watch and hugely popular everywhere in Ecuador.
Look for more photos of the parade on other festivities later this week.

Rolling Blackouts

Well, in addition to our poor internet connection at home, we are now scheduling our internet and computer time around nationwide rolling blackouts. Apparently there is a severe drought in the northern regions and the hydroelectric dam is super low. This means that there is a shortage of electricity and all of us must share the burden. Unfortunately we never really know when it will hit. Without that magic electric shower device, it can make for some cold bathing. It is possible that these rolling blackouts will last until December when the rainy season begins. We wonder what the impact will be on the economy of Ecuador.

A holiday weekend in Banos, Ecuador

Last weekend we had the luxury of a four day weekend to get out and do some traveling. We took off on a night bus at 9 p.m. and traveled north to Baños where we were in search of natural hot springs and some good old gringo food. We arrived at our drop off point around 6 a.m. and after stumbling around dumbfounded for a while we figured out how to catch the bus for the final 1 hour leg of our journey.

Baños is know for it's spectacular location at the foot of the Tungarahua volcano which also provides the heat for the local natural springs. By all accounts this is a tourist town chock full of Europeans, Americans/Gringos and Ecuadorian vacationers. FOr good reason...it is a super cool place with a laid back vibe and beautiful scenery.

Known for its thermal hot springs, we made a point to get up at 7am to take a dip in the hot swimming pool at the bottom of the waterfalls. WEll, 7am was not early enough because it was chock full of Ecuadorians even then. At least they were requiring that we all take a soap shower prior to entering the pools. It was an experience that lasted about 15 minutes for us due to the crowds.

We were thrilled to find restaurants serving hearty breakfasts with fresh dark black coffee(not so common in Ecuador). After enjoying a nice breakfast on Saturday morning, we set out on a hike which turned out to be more of an adventure than we anticipated. We followed various signs that pointed to a "village" which we somehow missed. Instead we ended up at the ¨Casa de Arbol.¨ And, it was exactly that...a tree house, but with the most incredible view of the volcano, which we caught a glipmse of before it hid behind the clouds, and the world´s coolest tree swing. It swung straight out over a steep cliff which dropped off about 500 ft. below to sprawling farms and forest. A total trip to swing on. The volcano has been quiet for the past 3 months, so unfortunately we could not see any fireworks show at night.

The next day we rented mountain bikes for a little day trip adventure past multiple waterfalls and then the largest waterfall of them all at the ending destination. The riding was a little scary, at times, due to the holiday traffic, but the cars were pretty good about passing and leaving room. The best part is that it was all downhill and we only had to pay $1.50 for a ride on a flatbed back to town.

On our last day we checked out of the hotel and headed off to a spa to enjoy some of the locally touted treatments. For $35 each we enjoyed a mud bath, steam soak and a 1hour massage.The mud bath was hilarious because after we spread mud all over our bodies (yes, we were wearing bathing suits), the lady popped in a DVD and made us do some kind of latin dance video to help dry off the mud. There we were, covered in mud, dancing to the antics of some latin dance instructor on t.v. Thank goodness it was a ¨private¨lesson!

Next, they put us in what called a Bano de Cajon, where you sit in a steamy wooden box, and they seal you in with only your head sticking out. Fortunately you have exclusive control over the steam output because MAN IT WAS HOT!. After we watched a lady practically stumble to the cold bath, we though better than to over do it. Occassionally we could summon the attendant over by saying ägua por favor¨ and he would hold the glass of water with a straw to our mouths for a refreshing drink. TO add an element of torture, they periodically opened up the doors and literally threw cold water on us. At one point, the man wearing large galoushes straddled the cold water bathtub and motioned for Ben to sit down under him and then proceeded to dump a couple of cold water buckets over him. It was exhilirating to say the least. We both found it to be both hilarious and stress relieving.

Catacocha and Colada Morada

This blog is a little delayed because our internet was out for a week.

Last Sunday, October 25th, we had another great road trip outing with our host family. We traveled west to a small town called Catacocha. The trip included passing over an approx. 12,000 foot mountain pass—beautiful views. It was about a 1 ½ hour trip that probably should have taken 2 – 3 hours. Drivers here think little of passing right before blind corners and don’t hesitate to cross double yellow lines. In addition, we have yet to see a single speed limit sign….anywhere. Needless to say, road travel by passenger car is not for the faint at heart. Sometimes you just have to look away and hope that you’ll be to your destination soon.

Upon our arrival in Catacocha we were treated to a great “canopy tour” overlooking the city. Canopy is a loosely used term because we really weren’t in a canopy, although we did come within feet of some trees. It happens to be the dry season in this area right now, so things were looking a little crispy. Still very beautiful but we couldn’t help but wonder what it would look like in December or January during the wet season. The zip lines were a good thrill, and it was really cool to look out over the horizon. This area is also known as the Incan balcony and we could see mountain tops stretching out for miles in the distance with a huge green valley below us. We had a great lunch in town (a great picture of Ben indulging in Ecuadorian meat-cecina), a speedy and scary ride home and still had time to rest and catch up on some work for the week.

On Thursday we traveled downtown to get some bus tickets and found ourselves in the midst of a student protest/rally complete with closed streets and police in riot gear. We’re not sure exactly what they were protesting but we came across a friend that showed us his banner which said something about “University autonomy”.

The odd thing is that it coincided with an Ecuadorian tradition of women selling a hot beverage called Colada Morada for the coming All Saints Day and All Souls Day. They lined the streets of the main square with huge vats of purple fruit punchy stuff on hot plates and tables full of bread called “Puerco” ( It’s supposed to look like a pig). It all has something to do with Catholicism and pork but we’re not quite sure what. Anyhow, it made for an entertaining walk and

we really wished we had the camera. We did buy some bread, so you could see the “Puerco”.