Our New Apartment

We are now living in a new apartment. After 7 years of living on our own, living with a host family did not provide the privacy, control and quietness in our own home that we had grown accustomed to...so we made the difficult decision to move into our own apartment for the remaining seven months abroad. Without a doubt, having a host family was a very valuable experience as we were settling into Ecuador. To the Cobos family, we owe a great debt for introducing us to the places, the foods and the traditions of Ecuador.

Our new apartment building still provides us some of the same conveniences -- close to school (a 5 minute walk), a supermarket around the corner, and we can speak English with the family/landlords. The family owns the building and a feed store for farmers, so to speak, which is located in the main floor of our building. In the store they sell small chickens, feed and medicines for animals. Out back they keep the chickens, which wake us up each morning. It as if we are living on a farm right in the middle of the city.


Cooking in our own kitchen—a novelty once again after 4 months of being provided daily meals by the house maid/cook in the Cobos home. You might be surprised- what! Not interested in having a maid/cook! Certainly, it made life easy, but we are happy to be wearing the aprons again in our own kitchen. We can cook and eat exactly as we want...which means less meat in the diet. For the most part, our kitchen came furnished (our entire apartment for that matter). But, first thing we purchased for the kitchen – an orange juicer! While here, we must take advantage of a dozen oranges for $1. In addition, Imagine two baskets full of fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, farm fresh eggs for only $5! Fresh fruits and vegetables year round in Ecuador of course! We once saw an orange tree with the fruit from every stage on the tree-- because it´s forever producing.

And, a picture of Ben at our very small dinner table enjoying repe, a traditional soup of Loja, made of mostly green bananas, potatoes, green peas and cheese. With some guidance from our Spanish teacher, Ben made his first pot of repe successfully accompanied with two more Ecuadorian favorites- popcorn (try it on top of soup- it´s a nice garnish) and boxed wine!

And thank goodness we eat mostly dishes of fresh fruit and vegetables because plastics, cans, bottles, etc are NOT recycled. I gringe throwing tin cans, plastic bottles and other "recyclables" in the garbage can. Recycling, once lauded as a sign of progressivism in Loja around 2001, is not in fashion any longer. The only thing that can be recycled here- grande glass beer bottles. Ben doesn’t complain being forced to purchase the grande cervezas in order to do good for the planet. Throwing your trash in a public garbage can…not in fashion either. Bus attendant’s here consider “cleaning out the bus” as throwing trash out the window while moving. Literally! Unfortunately, we have seen it.

Our Favorite Thing at the Market

We went shopping for produce this morning at the street market and stumbled upon this little chap. The most original artwork found in Ecuador yet...the price, $1.

The Famous Otavalo Market

Last weekend we took a 12 hour overnight bus ride back to Quito for the final signatures on our work visas. Finally, after 4 months, 3 pictures IDs and $200 each in fines, we have our appropriate Ecuadorian work documents. We made the most of the required trip by heading up to the famous artesan market in Otavalo (about 2 hours north of Quito) as well as going back to the Turtle´s Head in Quito for some microbrews (of course!). Otavalo was well worth the visit...blocks and blocks of quality handmade crafts at extremely reasonable prices. Just the colorful display of items was mesmerizing! Take this handknitted mask, for example. Hmmm...which family member will be the lucky receipent of this Ecuadorian gift? Our backpacks were loaded at the end of the day, and our negotiation skills refined. One must be ready to negotiate the price, it´s the norm.. It helps to "only have five more dollars" or wait until closing time for the best deal.

Trippin' in Ecuador

Well here it is finally.  The recap from our Christmas vacation along with some xtra large photos since many of you have been asking for more pictures. We were fortunate to have Roberta in country to help us celebrate Christmas and bring in the New Year. We had a great time together exploring Ecuador.... well, most of the time. Anyhow......

Our first day in Quito we did the regular tourist thing including a brief visit to the central basilica. Roberta had a hard time with the hills as Quito is ove 9000 ft. in elevation. Loja is at around 6200' so Sara and I had an easier time. It was nice to feel a little cool air once again.

We had been looking forward to this trip for many reasons. One of them was to enjoy a good beer that actually has some flavor. Salud!

After a 3 night stint in the big city we headed out to the Ecuadorean coast for some relaxation and sunshine. We stayed in a great little town called Canoa where the mood is quite "tranquilo". Our hostel was called Balloo and is owned by a British ex-pat. We were at the edge of town in a quiet little cabana with a beachside view. Good stuff!

We celebrated Christmas by renting surfboards and taking some lessons. As you can see the waves were HUGE so it was a good time. We were both able to stand up while on the waves but don't look for us in the X-Games anytime soon.

The only logical thing to do after visiting the beach is to ride 10 hours by bus up into the mountains. As you can see it was well worth the trip. We stayed at the Secret Garden which had an absolutely incredible view of Cotopaxi, one of Ecuador's many majestic and active volcanos.

The Secret Garden keeps "wellies" on loan for their guests. We took full advantage as we explored the area.

We  paid for a guide to shuttle us up to one of the nearby peaks. We then walked up another 300m and topped out at around 3800 m or around 12,000 ft. This place made us feel out of breath.

Being the extreme sports enthusiasts we are, we decided to ride mountain bikes back down. Really it was more painful than scary.

Sara feeling at home with the horses on the property.

Next stop was Laguna Quilotoa and the Black Sheep Inn. A really spectacular, emearld green lake in the crater of an active Volcano. They say the center is so deep it cannot be measured

The Black Sheep in is owned and operated by some American Ex-Pats who have done a fantastic job supporting the local community while making gringos feel at home with hot showers and great food. It is also known as an exceptional eco-lodge because of their many efforts at water conservation, farming, and land management.They also happen to have a super kick ass disc golf course. Our friends Erik and Alisha also visited this place a couple of years ago.

We lucked out and got to spend the new year with the black Sheep Inn and the town of Chugchilan. Its a small community of about 250 people but they had a great fiesta. This is perhaps one of the rowdiest Ecuadorean holidays. Everyone makes an effigy of something from the old year they want to get rid of. Our host had a few English students that she was hoping would improve their behavior in the new year. Here we are posing with them. At the end of the night the effigies are tossed on a large fire and the old years bad juju is burned up.

Here are some folks posing with the effigies in town. Many of the local kids wondered if it was them that was being burned.There was a huge celebration in town and they welcomed us with open arms. Fireworks, bands, dancing and of course lots and lots of drinking. We could hear them still partying at 7 in the morning.

And last of all, no one had bothered to mention that busses would be extremely hard to find on New Years morning. Christmas morning, no problem. But New Years people are simply too tanked to handle anything in the morning. Needless to say our trip home was nothing short of misearble. Lots of waiting for this and that. Traveling from one place to the next until we finally made it back. Whew.

Happy New Years all! May 2010 be an awesome year for all.