Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year.
The night we returned from Banos one of the ducklings; my favourite, whom I had named Jemima, disappeared. We searched all morning in the garden and under the house because Celso was convinced it must have been a Boa Constrictor since we heard no noise and found no trace of her, not even a feather. However later, when we had given up our search, we saw a cat sitting on the garden wall which Celso expertly hit with a flying rock from 10m, and we now suppose that he must have been the culprit.
I have sort of lost track of the last few days, what happened when etc so I will just have to write about what I remember and it may be a little bit out of order.
On the Monday Mum, Celso and I went in to Tena to try to finish off the car papers and to get my cedula (National Identity document). first stop the police station to get my passport number in the system.. but of course NO... not possible... all data must be entered in Quito. Then to the cedula office... Yes, they could find me in the system, but NO I couldn´t have my cedula until I had a paper from the immigration office confirming that I still had residency status... AND where is the Immigration Office... of course... it´s in Quito. Another waste of time!
However we did manage to buy mum a Tshirt having visited practicially every single stall in the market. All the clothes here are so small. Firstly the people here are quite small and secondly the women like to wear their clothes so tight!
On the Tuesday it rained and rained, mum and I did some washing, we are not very good at the old hand washing bit but we did our best. I noticed that occassionally Carmen or Filemon would come by as if checking on us! Karina arrived on the bus at around 6pm with O´mara the dog who had been drugged to enable her to travel! Later Darwin and Juan Carlos (more of Carmen´s grandchildren) arrived. They had intended to travel with Karina but missed the bus! Pablo was also meant to come but his school had decided to add 3 days to the end of term due to some government initiative which is intended to get all the kids to the same point in the curriculum.... can you imagine the outcry in the UK if at the last minute the school dates were changed?
On the Wednesday we had organised with a motorista (a guy with a long boat with a motor) to go down the river to walk in primary jungle and to visit a rescue centre that is situated on an island about an hour down the river. We had met an English guy earlier in the week and invited him along so that he could pay at least $25 of the $90 cost of the trip! (A bit cheeky but he loved the trip.)
So.. there were 9 of us in the boat, Celso, Tris and I, mum and Carmen, Karina, Darwin, Juan Carlos and Justin (the English guy).
We stopped about 45 mins down the river at a jungle camp/ hotel where we left all the food we had brought for lunch. We walked for around 2 hours through the jungle, the last 20 mis of which was in the pouring rain. It was very muddy and slippery under foot and there was so much to see that our progress was very slow but really enjoyable. Loads of insects, incredible vines and plants, and the non stop sound of crickets and cicadas. Of course you will all have to wait to see the photos! Then back to the camp to have lunch which Celso whipped up, Tuna salad, cheese, mortadella (a kind of ham), chifles (thin slices of green plantain fried), the juciest of pineapples and a granadilla each. The camp was full of things to see too, amazing butterflies, lizards, huge grass hoppers and amazing views out over the jungle and down to the river.
Then on down the river to the rescue centre. The centre is run mainly by volunteers, students from Europe who are studying conservation. We had a German girl who showed us around but we were also accompanied on our tour by a Trumpeter bird (it looked sort of like a guinea fowl) and a Kuchucho, a small opposum like animal with a long nose. The rescue centre receives unwanted pets and injured animals, they manage to rehabilitate about 25% and get them back into the wild. Another 50% have to remain on the island as they do not have the skills to survive on their own, some are loose (like the Kuchucho and the Trumpeter bird) and some have to remain in cages. The other 25% unfortunately die. We saw Marmosets, Tucans, Howler and Spider monkeys, Kapibara, turtles, tortoises, Jaguarundis (a small black jaguar like animal about the size of a cocker spaniel), Ocelots, dwarf Caymen, a Boa and loads of parrots.
On the way back up the river the sky was absolutely incredible with huge fluffy clouds in enormous towereing formations. Just near Misahualli we stopped at a small indigenous village to look at the crafts they make and take a sneaky look at their houses and their children at play
Saturday, 26 December 2009
Mitad del Mundo & Misahualli
You can access some pictures in the usual way by clicking on the green title above. but there are also some more from Misahualli and Banos at http://picasaweb.google.com/celsor35/JungleWalksAndBanos?feat=directlink which you will have to cut and paste into your tool bar and press enter to see.
Mitad del Mundo Mon 14th
We waited until after the rush hour was over and then headed North through Quito to the Mitad del Mundo, an ancient indigenous town on the equator that translates to Middle of the World. About 50 years ago some French Scientists used triangulation methods to determine that the ancient claim was true and that the town did indeed sit on the equator. They built a monument which now houses a museum that shows the costumes and some of the customs of the many indigenous tribes in Ecuador. We spent about 1.5 hours there and then went to have a snack of Humitas (a minced maize type of cake wrapped in Maize leaves and boiled) and an Empanada, a type of pastry with cheese in that is then deep fried (but you can get bread ones too). We then made our way about 150m to the North from the monument to, what is now known to be, the real equator as measured by GPS. Here there is another museum where they tell you about the indigenous cultures and do some experiments to demonstrate some of the oddities that occur at the equator.
1. About 2m south of the equator when the water goes down the plug hole it turns clockwise, about 2m North it turns anticlockwise, directly on the equator the water went straight down the plughole with no turning at all. This is all to do with the Coreolis Effect (not sure how that is spelt).
2. If you stand about 2m away from the equator and hold your thumb and forefinger together to form a ring then it is very difficult for another person to pull them apart, but if you do the same on the equator then it is very easy for another person to pull them apart. I don't really know why and it wasn't explained.
3. You can balance an egg on its end on top of a nail on the equator. I did it and so did another girl but neither my mum nor Tristan could do it.
It was a hot, hot day but both entertaining and informative. In the evening we went out to buy a couple of Budgies to take to Carmen in Misahualli.
Tues 15th
Mum and I went on the trolley (tram) to the local shopping centre where there was a DHL office to send some Guayasamin posters to Marios in New York. I left my mum in a queue whilst I went and bought a tube and some paper to wrap it in. When I returned the queue had hardly gone down at all, so by the time it was our turn we had waited for nearly an hour, only to find that the DHL system wasn't working.... another wasted time... back to the house we went and into the car for the journey to Misahualli. Tristan was in the back with two bags, the ducks and the budgies on top, it was all a little bit cramped, but at least this time we knew exactly where we were going and door to door the journey took 5 hours. We were all glad to get there, including the ducks who took to their new night time shed with gusto. The budgies were a little more subdued even though they have a large cage with lots of space to fly and loads of perches.
Wed 16th
We awoke to rain which battered down on the corrugated iron roof of the room at the back of the house we are staying in. I let the ducks out and they loved it out in the rain and the mud. Once the rain had stopped we managed to take mum on a tour of the garden, the village and the beach. We watched the monkeys in the square playing with some dogs, took photos of butterflies and flowers in the garden and generally relaxed after our busy days.
Thursday 17th
It was hot, hot , hot today. Celso, mum, Tristan and I went for a walk to the next village, Pununo, and then over the bridge and back down the other side of the river. The bridge is the 'Tina Tina', that is what Tris called it when he was little when we lived here before. It is a suspension bridge that hangs and sways, with no proper connection at ground level. It has a series of metal beams on which lie metal plates, there are several holes, some of which have been patched and some which have not. (The name 'Tina Tina' comes from the sound made when you walk across the metal plates.) The sides of the bridge have chicken wire to prevent you falling over the edge but it is missing, or not connected securely, in lots of places; it made me very nervous years ago and it was no different today. It was about a 3 hour walk with loads to see, we collected some Bread Fruit to take back home, Tristan carried the bag made from leaves and vines over his shoulder. We saw loads of beetles, butterflies, ants, termites, grasshoppers, spiders and strange plants and fruits. We stopped to pick some Cacoa (the pod that contains the seeds from which chocolate comes), the pith has a refreshing lemon taste that alleviates thirst and was very much needed. In Pununo we got a few cold drinks from the shop and then, having passed the bridge, we stopped at the huge Sabor (Kapok) tree, which is a very active ecosystem all on its own. We passed an indigenous house on stilts with banana trees all around, a host of chickens and a few pineapple bushes before we managed to find a path that would take us along to a hotel on the far side of the river from the beach at Misahualli. Mum must have taken around 100 photos, we will have to take a look later and see!
After eating some lunch, mum and I went to an internet cafe to check our emails and then we took two inner tubes that Celso's brother Filemon has stored beneath the house and went back towards Pununo to get into the river and float down to the beach. There are two rapids on the way and mum and I flew over the first on our tyre followed by Tristan and Celso on theirs. Then for some reason mum and I got stuck and Tris and Celso moved ahead of us. Mum and I started paddling and swimming to try to move out of our slow bit of water, mum lost her shoe and then, just as we hit another rapid, she leant over to try and get it as it floated behind us. The tyre tipped and in she went. She was pulled under and past me on the tyre and then up she popped on the other side still gripping on to her shoe! She was a bit shocked and had swallowed a bit of water but she managed to grab onto the tyre and we swam to shore. Poor mum, she has now had a couple of incidents in only a few days.
Friday 18th
Another frustrating day trying to get all the papers for the car done. We found out that we had to get yet another paper - some sort of road tax- and then when went to get the car checked. This included a quick check of the lights on the car and a check that the motor and chassis numbers matched the documentation. However we couldn't pass the test until we had bought some triangles, a fire extinguisher and a first aid kit, so back into Tena to buy them, and then back to finish the check. All well this time, we went into the office to get the registration document. It was all going smoothly, if a little slowly; after half an hour it seemed like we had finally got to the end of the nonsense beauracracy, but then it turned out that we couldn't get the final paper because my passport number was not in their system. Back into Tena to another police office to get my passport number onto the system but the office was empty apart from one woman who told us that there would be nobody working until 3pm. It was just after 12 and we couldn't be bothered to wait around for 3 hours so we returned to Misahualli and we shall leave this for next week.
We spent the rest of the day relaxing. It was really hot and humid, the ducks even had to stop and sit under a tree in the shade. Later we went down to have a swim on the beach only for it to start raining, the wind was really nice though.
Saturday 19th
We (Tristan, Mum, Carmen (my mother-in-law) and I ) set off at about 9am in the pouring rain to go to Banos. It used to take about 6 or 7 hours to get there but now with the paved road and several tunnels that cut off scary drives along the cliff on the edge of a river we got there in 4. Just as we arrived the rain dried up and we stopped and found a hotel. At the first one I tried we were offered a suite with sitting room, kitchen, bathroom and 2 bedrooms, and a locked driveway into which we put the car - perfect. We dumped our bags and made our way one block to visit the church. Inside are paintings which tell the story of all the miracles that the Virgin of the Sainted Waters has performed. Some were from the 15th century and the latest in 1987. The stories always start with some sort of disaster (e.g. a car going over a cliff), then the people cry out to the Virgin of the Sainted Waters, and then they are saved (without a scratch on them)! Then on to the Thermal Baths that sit under a waterfall that falls some 50ft from one of the mountains that surround the town. We sat in the hot waters and just watched the people, there were lots of indigenous families in their traditional clothes, some had never been to a swimming bath before and were so excited. It was a very relaxing hour or so. Afterwards we went to wander the streets and look in the hundreds of tiny little shops filled with Traditional handicrafts, leather bags, bals wood carvings, alpaca or llama wool jumpers and jackets, embroidered shirts, jewelery made out of seeds, wood and all sorts of natural fibres, shells, feathers, stones etc. It is just incredible how much work goes into all the products. We left mum after a couple of hours and went back to the hotel to relax. After a couple more hours we started to get a bit worried that she hadn't returned.. I wandered the streets for nearly and hour looking for her... it was getting dark.... I even asked some policemen to check with the local hospital if any tourists had been brought in, and then at about 7pm i found her, still looking in every shop she passed and having a great time! We went out to eat in an Italian restaurant and Mum and Carmen had a couple of Cubra Libres (Rum and Cokes), just medicinal - you understand! Then we watched several Wallace and Gromit films in Spanish on the telly and fell asleep.
Sunday 20th
We ate yoghurt and cereal in our room and then mum and I set off to visit a waterfall just north of the town whilst Carmen went back to the thermal baths and Tristan slept! The waterfall is part of the Pastaza rver that has cut a thin gorge only about 5m wide through the mountain. It is probably nearly 50m deep the gorge, sort of like the one we walked up from Death Valley in California with smoothed walls from the torrent of water that passes carrying grit. The water was a muddy brown from all the rian and at one point the water falls about 10m into a large pool that seethes like a saucepan of boiling hot chocolate, this was the waterfall we had come to see. Mum was brave enough to go in an very open sided (but with bars) cable car over the river to the other side and back again, but it was far too high for me. Then we walked back to the hotel through the town and passed a colourful Sunday fruit market full of locals going about their business.
We packed all our stuff into the car and started our journey back to Misahualli. This time without the rain we were able to stop and enjoy some of the sights along the way. The first was some bungee jumping from one of the bridges that we crossed, then we stopped to visit a waterfall. We walked about 1km down into the valley through jungle to a wobbly wooden swing bridge with the sign ' Danger - no more than 5 people'... it inspires such confidence!! From the bridge we could see the water fall, it wasn't really spectacular but the best part was that there were so many Ecuadorians making the walk down to see it. Before when I have been here it was only foreign tourists that I had seen enjoying all that the country has to offer, but this time there have been masses of local tourists and they are really showing an appreciation of their country.... not so much rubbish just dropped in the streets, better signage to area of interest and more effort made to keep things looking good.
Closer to Misahualli we started to see lots of hanging nests in trees that had a wasps nest at the centre. Apparently the birds always build alongside a wasps nest for protection from predators that might try to steal eggs or chicks. The birds can whistle like a builder who's eyed up a pretty girl! Then back to Misahualli, the humidity pressing around us and the horrid aranillas making a nuisance of themselves.
Mitad del Mundo Mon 14th
We waited until after the rush hour was over and then headed North through Quito to the Mitad del Mundo, an ancient indigenous town on the equator that translates to Middle of the World. About 50 years ago some French Scientists used triangulation methods to determine that the ancient claim was true and that the town did indeed sit on the equator. They built a monument which now houses a museum that shows the costumes and some of the customs of the many indigenous tribes in Ecuador. We spent about 1.5 hours there and then went to have a snack of Humitas (a minced maize type of cake wrapped in Maize leaves and boiled) and an Empanada, a type of pastry with cheese in that is then deep fried (but you can get bread ones too). We then made our way about 150m to the North from the monument to, what is now known to be, the real equator as measured by GPS. Here there is another museum where they tell you about the indigenous cultures and do some experiments to demonstrate some of the oddities that occur at the equator.
1. About 2m south of the equator when the water goes down the plug hole it turns clockwise, about 2m North it turns anticlockwise, directly on the equator the water went straight down the plughole with no turning at all. This is all to do with the Coreolis Effect (not sure how that is spelt).
2. If you stand about 2m away from the equator and hold your thumb and forefinger together to form a ring then it is very difficult for another person to pull them apart, but if you do the same on the equator then it is very easy for another person to pull them apart. I don't really know why and it wasn't explained.
3. You can balance an egg on its end on top of a nail on the equator. I did it and so did another girl but neither my mum nor Tristan could do it.
It was a hot, hot day but both entertaining and informative. In the evening we went out to buy a couple of Budgies to take to Carmen in Misahualli.
Tues 15th
Mum and I went on the trolley (tram) to the local shopping centre where there was a DHL office to send some Guayasamin posters to Marios in New York. I left my mum in a queue whilst I went and bought a tube and some paper to wrap it in. When I returned the queue had hardly gone down at all, so by the time it was our turn we had waited for nearly an hour, only to find that the DHL system wasn't working.... another wasted time... back to the house we went and into the car for the journey to Misahualli. Tristan was in the back with two bags, the ducks and the budgies on top, it was all a little bit cramped, but at least this time we knew exactly where we were going and door to door the journey took 5 hours. We were all glad to get there, including the ducks who took to their new night time shed with gusto. The budgies were a little more subdued even though they have a large cage with lots of space to fly and loads of perches.
Wed 16th
We awoke to rain which battered down on the corrugated iron roof of the room at the back of the house we are staying in. I let the ducks out and they loved it out in the rain and the mud. Once the rain had stopped we managed to take mum on a tour of the garden, the village and the beach. We watched the monkeys in the square playing with some dogs, took photos of butterflies and flowers in the garden and generally relaxed after our busy days.
Thursday 17th
It was hot, hot , hot today. Celso, mum, Tristan and I went for a walk to the next village, Pununo, and then over the bridge and back down the other side of the river. The bridge is the 'Tina Tina', that is what Tris called it when he was little when we lived here before. It is a suspension bridge that hangs and sways, with no proper connection at ground level. It has a series of metal beams on which lie metal plates, there are several holes, some of which have been patched and some which have not. (The name 'Tina Tina' comes from the sound made when you walk across the metal plates.) The sides of the bridge have chicken wire to prevent you falling over the edge but it is missing, or not connected securely, in lots of places; it made me very nervous years ago and it was no different today. It was about a 3 hour walk with loads to see, we collected some Bread Fruit to take back home, Tristan carried the bag made from leaves and vines over his shoulder. We saw loads of beetles, butterflies, ants, termites, grasshoppers, spiders and strange plants and fruits. We stopped to pick some Cacoa (the pod that contains the seeds from which chocolate comes), the pith has a refreshing lemon taste that alleviates thirst and was very much needed. In Pununo we got a few cold drinks from the shop and then, having passed the bridge, we stopped at the huge Sabor (Kapok) tree, which is a very active ecosystem all on its own. We passed an indigenous house on stilts with banana trees all around, a host of chickens and a few pineapple bushes before we managed to find a path that would take us along to a hotel on the far side of the river from the beach at Misahualli. Mum must have taken around 100 photos, we will have to take a look later and see!
After eating some lunch, mum and I went to an internet cafe to check our emails and then we took two inner tubes that Celso's brother Filemon has stored beneath the house and went back towards Pununo to get into the river and float down to the beach. There are two rapids on the way and mum and I flew over the first on our tyre followed by Tristan and Celso on theirs. Then for some reason mum and I got stuck and Tris and Celso moved ahead of us. Mum and I started paddling and swimming to try to move out of our slow bit of water, mum lost her shoe and then, just as we hit another rapid, she leant over to try and get it as it floated behind us. The tyre tipped and in she went. She was pulled under and past me on the tyre and then up she popped on the other side still gripping on to her shoe! She was a bit shocked and had swallowed a bit of water but she managed to grab onto the tyre and we swam to shore. Poor mum, she has now had a couple of incidents in only a few days.
Friday 18th
Another frustrating day trying to get all the papers for the car done. We found out that we had to get yet another paper - some sort of road tax- and then when went to get the car checked. This included a quick check of the lights on the car and a check that the motor and chassis numbers matched the documentation. However we couldn't pass the test until we had bought some triangles, a fire extinguisher and a first aid kit, so back into Tena to buy them, and then back to finish the check. All well this time, we went into the office to get the registration document. It was all going smoothly, if a little slowly; after half an hour it seemed like we had finally got to the end of the nonsense beauracracy, but then it turned out that we couldn't get the final paper because my passport number was not in their system. Back into Tena to another police office to get my passport number onto the system but the office was empty apart from one woman who told us that there would be nobody working until 3pm. It was just after 12 and we couldn't be bothered to wait around for 3 hours so we returned to Misahualli and we shall leave this for next week.
We spent the rest of the day relaxing. It was really hot and humid, the ducks even had to stop and sit under a tree in the shade. Later we went down to have a swim on the beach only for it to start raining, the wind was really nice though.
Saturday 19th
We (Tristan, Mum, Carmen (my mother-in-law) and I ) set off at about 9am in the pouring rain to go to Banos. It used to take about 6 or 7 hours to get there but now with the paved road and several tunnels that cut off scary drives along the cliff on the edge of a river we got there in 4. Just as we arrived the rain dried up and we stopped and found a hotel. At the first one I tried we were offered a suite with sitting room, kitchen, bathroom and 2 bedrooms, and a locked driveway into which we put the car - perfect. We dumped our bags and made our way one block to visit the church. Inside are paintings which tell the story of all the miracles that the Virgin of the Sainted Waters has performed. Some were from the 15th century and the latest in 1987. The stories always start with some sort of disaster (e.g. a car going over a cliff), then the people cry out to the Virgin of the Sainted Waters, and then they are saved (without a scratch on them)! Then on to the Thermal Baths that sit under a waterfall that falls some 50ft from one of the mountains that surround the town. We sat in the hot waters and just watched the people, there were lots of indigenous families in their traditional clothes, some had never been to a swimming bath before and were so excited. It was a very relaxing hour or so. Afterwards we went to wander the streets and look in the hundreds of tiny little shops filled with Traditional handicrafts, leather bags, bals wood carvings, alpaca or llama wool jumpers and jackets, embroidered shirts, jewelery made out of seeds, wood and all sorts of natural fibres, shells, feathers, stones etc. It is just incredible how much work goes into all the products. We left mum after a couple of hours and went back to the hotel to relax. After a couple more hours we started to get a bit worried that she hadn't returned.. I wandered the streets for nearly and hour looking for her... it was getting dark.... I even asked some policemen to check with the local hospital if any tourists had been brought in, and then at about 7pm i found her, still looking in every shop she passed and having a great time! We went out to eat in an Italian restaurant and Mum and Carmen had a couple of Cubra Libres (Rum and Cokes), just medicinal - you understand! Then we watched several Wallace and Gromit films in Spanish on the telly and fell asleep.
Sunday 20th
We ate yoghurt and cereal in our room and then mum and I set off to visit a waterfall just north of the town whilst Carmen went back to the thermal baths and Tristan slept! The waterfall is part of the Pastaza rver that has cut a thin gorge only about 5m wide through the mountain. It is probably nearly 50m deep the gorge, sort of like the one we walked up from Death Valley in California with smoothed walls from the torrent of water that passes carrying grit. The water was a muddy brown from all the rian and at one point the water falls about 10m into a large pool that seethes like a saucepan of boiling hot chocolate, this was the waterfall we had come to see. Mum was brave enough to go in an very open sided (but with bars) cable car over the river to the other side and back again, but it was far too high for me. Then we walked back to the hotel through the town and passed a colourful Sunday fruit market full of locals going about their business.
We packed all our stuff into the car and started our journey back to Misahualli. This time without the rain we were able to stop and enjoy some of the sights along the way. The first was some bungee jumping from one of the bridges that we crossed, then we stopped to visit a waterfall. We walked about 1km down into the valley through jungle to a wobbly wooden swing bridge with the sign ' Danger - no more than 5 people'... it inspires such confidence!! From the bridge we could see the water fall, it wasn't really spectacular but the best part was that there were so many Ecuadorians making the walk down to see it. Before when I have been here it was only foreign tourists that I had seen enjoying all that the country has to offer, but this time there have been masses of local tourists and they are really showing an appreciation of their country.... not so much rubbish just dropped in the streets, better signage to area of interest and more effort made to keep things looking good.
Closer to Misahualli we started to see lots of hanging nests in trees that had a wasps nest at the centre. Apparently the birds always build alongside a wasps nest for protection from predators that might try to steal eggs or chicks. The birds can whistle like a builder who's eyed up a pretty girl! Then back to Misahualli, the humidity pressing around us and the horrid aranillas making a nuisance of themselves.
Monday, 14 December 2009
Exploring North Ecuador 7-13 Dec
Back to Quito 7 Dec
Tristan and I successfully navigated our way back to Fabiola, Rebecca and Karina’s house in the South of Quito, with only one error that took us through the centre of the city instead of going round the edge, but Tristan is getting very good at map reading!
It is so noticeable how dry the air is in Quito, and I really noticed the altitude this time when climbing the two flights of stairs to the flat. That evening Tristan got locked into the bedroom, the door handle turned but did not pull the catch open so in the end we had to break the door handle off with a hammer!
It rained and rained on the 8th, we replaced the door handle, took Omara (the dog) for a walk and pumped up the air bed for Tristan and me to sleep on. When we went to pick up mum from the airport at around 11pm it was chucking it down. The bureaucracy at the airport was the same as ever so it took mum at least an hour and a quarter to get through passport control and get her bags and finally appear through the gates. Then we had to brave the rain to get to the car and then find our way back to the South of Quito with very poor visibility. Luckily Karina had agreed to come with us to help us find our way back to the flat.
Wednesday the 9th was a frustrating, frustrating, frustrating day. When we bought the car we paid the dealership to sort out all the papers (or so we thought), and today was the day that we needed to go and pick them up and then go and get some stamp from another office. NO, NO, NO, it can never be THAT simple in Ecuador. First to an office with the notarised (authenticated by a solicitor) contract of sale (this is what the dealership had got done for us), so that they could tell us how much tax we had to pay. Then to a bank to actually pay that amount. Then to another type of bank called a ServiPago (basically you can pay all your bills there, e.g. electric, water etc) to pay to have a Revision (like an MOT) only to find that we needed to have had the car booked into a computer, so to another office to get it booked in, only to find that, because of the type of car we have bought (a Vitara) that a Revision is not necessary as it has already had one in the last 12 months. Then to the Transit Police to get the car registration changed over into my name, called Matriculation, but there was a power cut so they were not working. However we did manage to ask a couple of questions and find out that 1) I needed to get the compulsory Ecuadorian Insurance document changed into my name, and 2) that I needed to bring the car with me in order to get the registration document in my name and that they were open at 8:30 am the next morning. So off we went to get the insurance changed over.
This whole process had taken over 5 hours as we had to drive from place to place and at each queue or fill in forms etc. Poor mum and Tris had been very patient just looking at what was going on, but we did drop them off for about 1.5 hours in a big shopping centre whilst we tried to go to the police. We returned to the house with me a great deal frustrated by the whole experience, how can they make it so complicated and have no list of things that need to be done. Each of the offices seems to work completely oblivious of what the other offices do so they are unable to tell you what documents you need or where you need to go next.... and worst of all these offices are situated all over the place so you have to negotiate your way around Quito with its incredibly poor signage.
At 6am on Thursday 10th I set off back to the Transport Police. There was a huge queue of cars outside and I asked what this was a queue for. I was told by a policeman that it was for the Revision (the MOT thing), I told him that I was here for Matriculation and that my car already had a Revision so he told me to join a queue of people waiting on the pavement. I parked the car and waited in a long queue of people at the gate. Finally we were allowed in and I got myself in the queue for the Matriculation. After about ½ an hour a man came along the queue checking that everyone waiting had all the documentation that was needed, he told me that all my documents were in order and asked which was my car, pointing down to the cars that had been brought in for the Revision. I told him that my car was parked outside and he wagged his finger at me and told me that I needed to bring it in so that they could check the Chassis number matched my documentation before they would give me the new document. Well, fuming, but what could I do but go and join the queue of cars that now stretched around 3 sides of a 200m or so block. We sat and sat and eventually I went to ask how long it usually takes to see the cars and was told that probably I wouldn’t be seen today but I could wait if I wanted to.
So back to the flat I went and was there by 10.30am so that at least I wouldn’t waste another whole day.
Tris, mum and I set out on a Quito sightseeing tour. We went by Trolley (tram) to the old centre, to the old colonial style squares and the churches. Outside one of the government offices were police with machine guns slung over their shoulders, the other police and many security guards carry pistols, but it was a little alarming to see the machine guns and made us feel that there must be some high alert security status. The churches are completely amazing with their intricate gold leaf, gaudy statues and amazingly detailed carving but at the same time incredibly ugly. The expense makes you feel sick when you see the poor who have nothing, and the shock tactics used in the paintings of sinners in hell are really quite awful. We started a slow walk up to another church, The Basilica which stands on the top of a high hill in the centre of the old town. You are allowed to climb up into the bell towers and then you have a view across the old city to the south towards the Panecillo, another hill with what looks to me like an angel on the top, but apparently it is the Virgin! Also you can look north to the new city with its modern high rise buildings and wide streets. As we approached the front of the church we had to descend a very steep one way street with the cars coming up towards us. Mum was taking a picture of the church when two boys on a motorbike going the wrong way down the street whizzed past and ripped the camera out of her hands. It gave mum a real shock and it was so sad that she lost all the photos she had taken. After climbing to the bell tower (which is absolutely exhausting at this altitude (2800m or so) and taking in the sights, including the fabulous Galapagos animal gargoyles, we went to the Basilica Police station just outside the church to report the theft (we had tried before but the door was locked, I presume because they had all gone to lunch!).
We were taken by 3 police in their pick-up truck down to the Tourist Police office, occasionally when the traffic was too slow they blasted their siren but it made little difference. After waiting another half hour for this lot to come back from lunch, we filled out a form that was officially stamped and signed so that mum can claim on her insurance.
We caught a bus to the North side of town and ate some lunch in a shopping centre with marble floors and sparkling windows, Christmas decorations and clean loos! It is such a contrast to the other parts of Quito with the rubbish, the uneven flooring and loos without seats and sometimes without doors where you have to pay for a small bit of loo paper before you go in!
Mum bought herself another camera very similar to the one she had just lost and then we caught a taxi up a steep hill to the Guayasamin Foundation. Oswaldo Guayasamin was a famous Ecuadorian painter something in the style of Picasso. Marios, who we had stayed with in New York, had asked if I could get him some paintings whilst I was in Quito so this was our chance to look through all the prints and find what he wanted. The foundation is housed in Guayasamin’s old home which was a charming walled villa with beautiful gardens dotted with great sculptures. Having found 2 that were on Marios’ list we took another taxi back to the flat in the south with a great taxi driver called Miguel who was very chatty and charming even though we were taking him away from the good rush hour fares in the North.
It was an exhausting day but 100 times better than yesterday!
Otavalo 11-13 Dec
At about 11am we (Tris, mum, Pablo (who was allowed to miss school to come with us) and I) packed into our little Vitara and set off North for Otavalo. We took the bypass road around Quito again and this time the signs to the Pan American Highway, which runs from Colombia right the way down to Chile, were not too bad at all. The road was really good and now has two toll gates where we paid 60c and $1. We were also stopped by some police who checked my vehicle documents and driving licence. The policeman accepted the old Matricula (vehicle registration document) and my contract of sale so at least I Know that all of that is in order!
We arrived in Otavalo at around 1:30pm and dropped off our bags in our hotel (that I had booked via the internet but who had absolutely no record of our arrival!) then we went to a local restaurant to have our lunch or almuerzo. The dish of the day was rice, chicken and lentils at $1.25 and it was delicious!
Next we drove out of Otavalo and up the mountains to Lake Cuicocha which sits in an enormous volcano crater, probably about a mile across. The huge eruption that made the crater occurred around 4000 years ago and then, about 2000 years ago, another smaller eruption formed two mounds in the centre of the original crater which are now islands in the middle of the lake. The water is a clear aquamarine but there are no fish in the lake as the only water that enters is either rain or seeps through the mountains.
We took a boat out to the islands, which Pablo and Tris loved, and our boat driver stopped at the point where bubbles of gas leak up through the lake showing us that the volcano is still active. However the water is not warm so I don’t think an eruption is anywhere near imminent. There didn’t appear to be much sign of life at all around the lake, we saw some moorhens, a few egrets and were told that there were Guinea Pigs and rabbits on the islands brought there by past inhabitants. There weren’t even any water boatmen or midges in the water – it was all very strange.
We climbed up onto the path that circumnavigates the crater, there were masses of different plants and flowers and fantastic views across the lake and also down over Otavalo and the surrounding mountains. We were now up at about 3100m so again it was very tiring but worth the effort.
We rolled back down into town and parked the car in the Municipal car park (that gets locked up at night) and then went to have showers. Just as mum was finishing her shower the electricity was cut, but luckily the hot water was from a tank so Tristan and I were able to shower in hot water by candle light! Afterwards we went out to find something to eat and had the most enormous amount of food in a local Chinese restaurant, about half of which we had to bring back to the hotel in a doggy bag, we intend to make it into soup tomorrow for lunch as the kitchen in the hotel is open for us to use after 2pm.
Saturday
We got up at 6am and made our way across town through streets of people setting up for the artisan market to the farmers market. Pigs were squealing, some were refusing to budge and were being pulled from one end and poked from the other, corals filled with guinea pigs seethed like a moving sea, kittens meowed, puppies barked, chicks were squawking, cows stood serenely and chewed the cud. We bought 4 ducklings, that we were assured were 3 females and 1 male, to take to Carmen in Misahualli and we have kept them in the bath most of the day. They were very hungry and thirsty but seemed quite happy to waddle up and down in the bath.
After a breakfast of fruit, muesli and yogurt in the hotel we went out to the artisan market and wandered around for over 4 hours browsing through the amazing stalls. The amount of work that goes into all the weaving and crocheting, jewellery and painting, basket work and carving is just incredible. Mum bought some gorgeous little alpaca hats for 2 neighbours that are going to give birth any time now, a fabulous alpaca jumper and Panama hat (which are actually an indigenous female hat from one of the tribes in Ecuador) for herself. We also wandered through the local produce market which was full of fruit and vedge stalls with neat little piles of fruits and an amazing variety of colours.
In the afternoon we walked along an old railway track to see the Peguche waterfall which was a real disappointment as it was really small and the road had been built right on top of the falls! However it did give us a chance to see the ´normal´side of Otavalo with loads of sports going on, young couples wandering the streets, cows, pigs and sheep tied up by the road or tended by young boys, the small fields of potato or maize crops and the general comings and goings of all the Otavalenians who were not interested in the Artesan market.
Sunday
A much more leisurely morning; we sat out in the hotel garden and ate yogurt and cereal and freshly baked bread. We set off to visit some pyramids near Tabacundo at the Cochasqui archeological site. I visited these about 14 years ago when I was first in Ecuador. Before the Incas came North to conquer the Ecuadorians there was a thriving matriarchal culture. The Queen of the Tigres ruled a huge area of northern Ecuador and there is evidence that they had trade routes to the coast and to the Amazon region. They built several pyramids (not the Egyptian pointy kind but more like the Aztec or Mayan ones) with long ceremonial walkways to the top platform. The pyramids are lined up with major constellations and had shadow sticks on the tops that were either designed to work with the moon or the sun. The shadows of the sticks would obviously move throughout the year and markings on the surface of the pyramid would be covered by the shadow indicating that crops should be planted, crops should be harvested, that it was a good time to get pregnant etc. We had a guide who was 70 years old and, although he had only primary schooling, was very knowledgeable about the site as he had worked there for over 20 years. He was very interested in teaching about all the indigenous knowledge that was being lost and told us about plants and their uses, about how many of the things they were discovering about the site were still in use by the indigenous people of today.
There is evidence that the area was very fertile, and our guide even remembers that as a child there were many more crops grown and the region was much wetter with huge forests covering the valley between the fields and houses. However in the 1950s an American firm stripped the valley of its trees and started a tea plantation. Once they had destroyed the soil with their over farming they planted Eucalyptus trees and left. Eucalyptus is a real pest, it is so thirsty and sucks all the water from the soil leaving it dry and susceptible to wind erosion.
Our guide was also very keen to let us know how easy it is to damage these archeological sites. There has been some robbing out of the pyramids and the surrounding tombs but the culture had no knowledge of gold or any other metals so the robbers smashed up the pottery and other finds because they thought them to be of little value.
We got to one part where a reconstruction of an indigenous house had been made and mum was particularly interested in the similarities between the beliefs here and those she has seen in Nepal. For instance, people were not invited into the house because they might bring in bad energy, so every house had a portion a bit like a porch where visitors could be entertained. Also Guinea Pigs and other plants were kept in the house because they absorbed bad energy. (Guinea pigs are also a staple in this area!) The cooking fire is surrounded by three stones and the stones used to grind foods are very similar.
It was a very interesting couple of hours and then we returned to Quito and this time managed not to get lost.
Tristan and I successfully navigated our way back to Fabiola, Rebecca and Karina’s house in the South of Quito, with only one error that took us through the centre of the city instead of going round the edge, but Tristan is getting very good at map reading!
It is so noticeable how dry the air is in Quito, and I really noticed the altitude this time when climbing the two flights of stairs to the flat. That evening Tristan got locked into the bedroom, the door handle turned but did not pull the catch open so in the end we had to break the door handle off with a hammer!
It rained and rained on the 8th, we replaced the door handle, took Omara (the dog) for a walk and pumped up the air bed for Tristan and me to sleep on. When we went to pick up mum from the airport at around 11pm it was chucking it down. The bureaucracy at the airport was the same as ever so it took mum at least an hour and a quarter to get through passport control and get her bags and finally appear through the gates. Then we had to brave the rain to get to the car and then find our way back to the South of Quito with very poor visibility. Luckily Karina had agreed to come with us to help us find our way back to the flat.
Wednesday the 9th was a frustrating, frustrating, frustrating day. When we bought the car we paid the dealership to sort out all the papers (or so we thought), and today was the day that we needed to go and pick them up and then go and get some stamp from another office. NO, NO, NO, it can never be THAT simple in Ecuador. First to an office with the notarised (authenticated by a solicitor) contract of sale (this is what the dealership had got done for us), so that they could tell us how much tax we had to pay. Then to a bank to actually pay that amount. Then to another type of bank called a ServiPago (basically you can pay all your bills there, e.g. electric, water etc) to pay to have a Revision (like an MOT) only to find that we needed to have had the car booked into a computer, so to another office to get it booked in, only to find that, because of the type of car we have bought (a Vitara) that a Revision is not necessary as it has already had one in the last 12 months. Then to the Transit Police to get the car registration changed over into my name, called Matriculation, but there was a power cut so they were not working. However we did manage to ask a couple of questions and find out that 1) I needed to get the compulsory Ecuadorian Insurance document changed into my name, and 2) that I needed to bring the car with me in order to get the registration document in my name and that they were open at 8:30 am the next morning. So off we went to get the insurance changed over.
This whole process had taken over 5 hours as we had to drive from place to place and at each queue or fill in forms etc. Poor mum and Tris had been very patient just looking at what was going on, but we did drop them off for about 1.5 hours in a big shopping centre whilst we tried to go to the police. We returned to the house with me a great deal frustrated by the whole experience, how can they make it so complicated and have no list of things that need to be done. Each of the offices seems to work completely oblivious of what the other offices do so they are unable to tell you what documents you need or where you need to go next.... and worst of all these offices are situated all over the place so you have to negotiate your way around Quito with its incredibly poor signage.
At 6am on Thursday 10th I set off back to the Transport Police. There was a huge queue of cars outside and I asked what this was a queue for. I was told by a policeman that it was for the Revision (the MOT thing), I told him that I was here for Matriculation and that my car already had a Revision so he told me to join a queue of people waiting on the pavement. I parked the car and waited in a long queue of people at the gate. Finally we were allowed in and I got myself in the queue for the Matriculation. After about ½ an hour a man came along the queue checking that everyone waiting had all the documentation that was needed, he told me that all my documents were in order and asked which was my car, pointing down to the cars that had been brought in for the Revision. I told him that my car was parked outside and he wagged his finger at me and told me that I needed to bring it in so that they could check the Chassis number matched my documentation before they would give me the new document. Well, fuming, but what could I do but go and join the queue of cars that now stretched around 3 sides of a 200m or so block. We sat and sat and eventually I went to ask how long it usually takes to see the cars and was told that probably I wouldn’t be seen today but I could wait if I wanted to.
So back to the flat I went and was there by 10.30am so that at least I wouldn’t waste another whole day.
Tris, mum and I set out on a Quito sightseeing tour. We went by Trolley (tram) to the old centre, to the old colonial style squares and the churches. Outside one of the government offices were police with machine guns slung over their shoulders, the other police and many security guards carry pistols, but it was a little alarming to see the machine guns and made us feel that there must be some high alert security status. The churches are completely amazing with their intricate gold leaf, gaudy statues and amazingly detailed carving but at the same time incredibly ugly. The expense makes you feel sick when you see the poor who have nothing, and the shock tactics used in the paintings of sinners in hell are really quite awful. We started a slow walk up to another church, The Basilica which stands on the top of a high hill in the centre of the old town. You are allowed to climb up into the bell towers and then you have a view across the old city to the south towards the Panecillo, another hill with what looks to me like an angel on the top, but apparently it is the Virgin! Also you can look north to the new city with its modern high rise buildings and wide streets. As we approached the front of the church we had to descend a very steep one way street with the cars coming up towards us. Mum was taking a picture of the church when two boys on a motorbike going the wrong way down the street whizzed past and ripped the camera out of her hands. It gave mum a real shock and it was so sad that she lost all the photos she had taken. After climbing to the bell tower (which is absolutely exhausting at this altitude (2800m or so) and taking in the sights, including the fabulous Galapagos animal gargoyles, we went to the Basilica Police station just outside the church to report the theft (we had tried before but the door was locked, I presume because they had all gone to lunch!).
We were taken by 3 police in their pick-up truck down to the Tourist Police office, occasionally when the traffic was too slow they blasted their siren but it made little difference. After waiting another half hour for this lot to come back from lunch, we filled out a form that was officially stamped and signed so that mum can claim on her insurance.
We caught a bus to the North side of town and ate some lunch in a shopping centre with marble floors and sparkling windows, Christmas decorations and clean loos! It is such a contrast to the other parts of Quito with the rubbish, the uneven flooring and loos without seats and sometimes without doors where you have to pay for a small bit of loo paper before you go in!
Mum bought herself another camera very similar to the one she had just lost and then we caught a taxi up a steep hill to the Guayasamin Foundation. Oswaldo Guayasamin was a famous Ecuadorian painter something in the style of Picasso. Marios, who we had stayed with in New York, had asked if I could get him some paintings whilst I was in Quito so this was our chance to look through all the prints and find what he wanted. The foundation is housed in Guayasamin’s old home which was a charming walled villa with beautiful gardens dotted with great sculptures. Having found 2 that were on Marios’ list we took another taxi back to the flat in the south with a great taxi driver called Miguel who was very chatty and charming even though we were taking him away from the good rush hour fares in the North.
It was an exhausting day but 100 times better than yesterday!
Otavalo 11-13 Dec
At about 11am we (Tris, mum, Pablo (who was allowed to miss school to come with us) and I) packed into our little Vitara and set off North for Otavalo. We took the bypass road around Quito again and this time the signs to the Pan American Highway, which runs from Colombia right the way down to Chile, were not too bad at all. The road was really good and now has two toll gates where we paid 60c and $1. We were also stopped by some police who checked my vehicle documents and driving licence. The policeman accepted the old Matricula (vehicle registration document) and my contract of sale so at least I Know that all of that is in order!
We arrived in Otavalo at around 1:30pm and dropped off our bags in our hotel (that I had booked via the internet but who had absolutely no record of our arrival!) then we went to a local restaurant to have our lunch or almuerzo. The dish of the day was rice, chicken and lentils at $1.25 and it was delicious!
Next we drove out of Otavalo and up the mountains to Lake Cuicocha which sits in an enormous volcano crater, probably about a mile across. The huge eruption that made the crater occurred around 4000 years ago and then, about 2000 years ago, another smaller eruption formed two mounds in the centre of the original crater which are now islands in the middle of the lake. The water is a clear aquamarine but there are no fish in the lake as the only water that enters is either rain or seeps through the mountains.
We took a boat out to the islands, which Pablo and Tris loved, and our boat driver stopped at the point where bubbles of gas leak up through the lake showing us that the volcano is still active. However the water is not warm so I don’t think an eruption is anywhere near imminent. There didn’t appear to be much sign of life at all around the lake, we saw some moorhens, a few egrets and were told that there were Guinea Pigs and rabbits on the islands brought there by past inhabitants. There weren’t even any water boatmen or midges in the water – it was all very strange.
We climbed up onto the path that circumnavigates the crater, there were masses of different plants and flowers and fantastic views across the lake and also down over Otavalo and the surrounding mountains. We were now up at about 3100m so again it was very tiring but worth the effort.
We rolled back down into town and parked the car in the Municipal car park (that gets locked up at night) and then went to have showers. Just as mum was finishing her shower the electricity was cut, but luckily the hot water was from a tank so Tristan and I were able to shower in hot water by candle light! Afterwards we went out to find something to eat and had the most enormous amount of food in a local Chinese restaurant, about half of which we had to bring back to the hotel in a doggy bag, we intend to make it into soup tomorrow for lunch as the kitchen in the hotel is open for us to use after 2pm.
Saturday
We got up at 6am and made our way across town through streets of people setting up for the artisan market to the farmers market. Pigs were squealing, some were refusing to budge and were being pulled from one end and poked from the other, corals filled with guinea pigs seethed like a moving sea, kittens meowed, puppies barked, chicks were squawking, cows stood serenely and chewed the cud. We bought 4 ducklings, that we were assured were 3 females and 1 male, to take to Carmen in Misahualli and we have kept them in the bath most of the day. They were very hungry and thirsty but seemed quite happy to waddle up and down in the bath.
After a breakfast of fruit, muesli and yogurt in the hotel we went out to the artisan market and wandered around for over 4 hours browsing through the amazing stalls. The amount of work that goes into all the weaving and crocheting, jewellery and painting, basket work and carving is just incredible. Mum bought some gorgeous little alpaca hats for 2 neighbours that are going to give birth any time now, a fabulous alpaca jumper and Panama hat (which are actually an indigenous female hat from one of the tribes in Ecuador) for herself. We also wandered through the local produce market which was full of fruit and vedge stalls with neat little piles of fruits and an amazing variety of colours.
In the afternoon we walked along an old railway track to see the Peguche waterfall which was a real disappointment as it was really small and the road had been built right on top of the falls! However it did give us a chance to see the ´normal´side of Otavalo with loads of sports going on, young couples wandering the streets, cows, pigs and sheep tied up by the road or tended by young boys, the small fields of potato or maize crops and the general comings and goings of all the Otavalenians who were not interested in the Artesan market.
Sunday
A much more leisurely morning; we sat out in the hotel garden and ate yogurt and cereal and freshly baked bread. We set off to visit some pyramids near Tabacundo at the Cochasqui archeological site. I visited these about 14 years ago when I was first in Ecuador. Before the Incas came North to conquer the Ecuadorians there was a thriving matriarchal culture. The Queen of the Tigres ruled a huge area of northern Ecuador and there is evidence that they had trade routes to the coast and to the Amazon region. They built several pyramids (not the Egyptian pointy kind but more like the Aztec or Mayan ones) with long ceremonial walkways to the top platform. The pyramids are lined up with major constellations and had shadow sticks on the tops that were either designed to work with the moon or the sun. The shadows of the sticks would obviously move throughout the year and markings on the surface of the pyramid would be covered by the shadow indicating that crops should be planted, crops should be harvested, that it was a good time to get pregnant etc. We had a guide who was 70 years old and, although he had only primary schooling, was very knowledgeable about the site as he had worked there for over 20 years. He was very interested in teaching about all the indigenous knowledge that was being lost and told us about plants and their uses, about how many of the things they were discovering about the site were still in use by the indigenous people of today.
There is evidence that the area was very fertile, and our guide even remembers that as a child there were many more crops grown and the region was much wetter with huge forests covering the valley between the fields and houses. However in the 1950s an American firm stripped the valley of its trees and started a tea plantation. Once they had destroyed the soil with their over farming they planted Eucalyptus trees and left. Eucalyptus is a real pest, it is so thirsty and sucks all the water from the soil leaving it dry and susceptible to wind erosion.
Our guide was also very keen to let us know how easy it is to damage these archeological sites. There has been some robbing out of the pyramids and the surrounding tombs but the culture had no knowledge of gold or any other metals so the robbers smashed up the pottery and other finds because they thought them to be of little value.
We got to one part where a reconstruction of an indigenous house had been made and mum was particularly interested in the similarities between the beliefs here and those she has seen in Nepal. For instance, people were not invited into the house because they might bring in bad energy, so every house had a portion a bit like a porch where visitors could be entertained. Also Guinea Pigs and other plants were kept in the house because they absorbed bad energy. (Guinea pigs are also a staple in this area!) The cooking fire is surrounded by three stones and the stones used to grind foods are very similar.
It was a very interesting couple of hours and then we returned to Quito and this time managed not to get lost.
Thursday, 10 December 2009
Misualli 3-7th Dec
Our car did well on the journey up over the Andes and down to the amazon region of Ecuador, to Misahualli. We stopped quite a few times on our way out of Quito to check that we were on the right route (and we were) because there were virtually no signs that meant anything to us. The journey took us about 5 hours (better than the 9 hours by bus), on the newly paved road which suprised me by how well it had been done. There was only one, about 1 mile long, section of unpaved road, and several tiny 50m stretches, a couple of dodgy bridges and not as many potholes as I expected! The last bit of road into Misahualli from Tena, which used to take over 1.25 hours to cover, is now a lovely bit of smooth tarmac (the best we have seen) and it takes about 20 minutes. There were some fabulous views as we went through the mountains, completely different from the rocky type mountains in the US, these are lush and green. Up on the sides of the mountain you can see the little terraced fields that the idigenous people work. However, we didn't stop to take photos as we wanted to get to Misahualli before dark and we didn't start until about 2pm.
Celso's mum Carmen was down in the centre of the town, but we met Filemon, Celso's oldest brother at the house and we drove down and ate some supper in Carmen's friend Rosa's restaurant on the corner of the square whilst monkeys played in the street. After supper, Carmen enjoyed the novelty of being able to drive around the town square waving regally at all her friends.
The house that we have in Misahualli is looking really good. When the roof was redone some ceiling fans were put in which is bliss compared to when we lived here 10 years ago. The garden is absolutely amazing, in some of the photos it looks like jungle, there are some amazingly tall cactuses (that I wouldn't have imagined would grow well in these humid and wet conditions), also lots of flowering trees and lots of different fruit trees. Carmen has 2 chickens and a cockeral. One of the hens has 10 chicks that hatched just a few days ago, the other hen lays but has not been sitting on the eggs. The chicks are so beautiful but a couple are limping because the cockeral keeps rushing in to have his way with poor old mum and he steps on them in his eagerness! The cockeral also crows most of the night so he was a bit of a nuisance and on our third day there we had managed to persuade Carmen that he needed to be 'got rid of', so we ate him!
The 4 days we were there flew by. Poor Tristan got really badly bitten by the little black flies (Aranillas) that always irritate foreiners to these parts. I remember how they used to bother me 10 years ago, but strangely, this time, although they still bit me, I did not react to them and get the same huge red lumps that Tristan got. On Saturday we went into Tena to go to the market where the indigenous people are meant to sell loads of wild meet, like Armadillo, but there wasn't much available, however we did manage to buy a really good mosquito net, like fine nylon stockings, that did not allow the Aranillas through (the one we had bought from England was useless against them).
Disappointed with not having been able to find meat at the market we went in search of Chonta Curos. These are large beatle larvae that live in the Chonta palm. We found an indigeous couple who had been out collecting them and we bought a couple for 25c each. They were gutted and then fried in their own juices! Tristan managed to take a taste but couldn't find anything really agreeable about the whole experience. So Celso ate the tow of them with glee!
There have been some really big changes in Misahualli since we were here. For one, with the road there is more tourism from Ecuadorians who come down to spend some time on the beach by the river bringing some well needed cash to the restaurants, boat drivers and shops. There is even an internet cafe which a guy called Eduardo has set up with his wife (from Germany I think). They are housed in a new building that has been made possible because of a new wall that has been built at the marina, so now instead of a rocky path from the square down to the beach there is a large paved area that prevents any floods coming up into the square, and then there is a slope and some steps down onto the beach. The monkeys are a great tourist attraction and they have left a boat up at the back of the beach which collects water and the monkeys all go there to have a wash, they are so human like, they scoop up the water and wash their legs and arms, I haven't managed to catch it on film yet but I shall be trying again. There is also a new bridge over one of the 2 rivers that meet at Misahualli so that you can get to the other side without taking a boat, a real novelty!
We used the new bridge to go on a search for Guavas. This is a long (about 50cm), broad bean like fruit that you open up and take out the 2cm long beans with their covering of pith, and then you eat the pith and chuck away the bean. It is very difficult to describe what the Guava is like, it is just juicy, sweet and very nice. We found some kids who agreed to go up into a tree for us that hung out over the river and throw some of the fruits down. They climbed up like they belonged there, and weren't at all concerned about the river below. We ended up taking 10 for $1.
We went for a night walk along a path in the jungle at the back of the beach and saw huge bats flying around. There was also an enormous spider and a millipede, but then we got a little lost (things have changed in 10 years) so we decided to turn back. We were visited by plenty of bugs in the house though, including a medium sized (about 10cm across) tarantula that appeared on the bedroom wall.
All this stuff is out of order. I have found it difficult to find time to write with so much going on. I might remember more later and add it in!
Celso's mum Carmen was down in the centre of the town, but we met Filemon, Celso's oldest brother at the house and we drove down and ate some supper in Carmen's friend Rosa's restaurant on the corner of the square whilst monkeys played in the street. After supper, Carmen enjoyed the novelty of being able to drive around the town square waving regally at all her friends.
The house that we have in Misahualli is looking really good. When the roof was redone some ceiling fans were put in which is bliss compared to when we lived here 10 years ago. The garden is absolutely amazing, in some of the photos it looks like jungle, there are some amazingly tall cactuses (that I wouldn't have imagined would grow well in these humid and wet conditions), also lots of flowering trees and lots of different fruit trees. Carmen has 2 chickens and a cockeral. One of the hens has 10 chicks that hatched just a few days ago, the other hen lays but has not been sitting on the eggs. The chicks are so beautiful but a couple are limping because the cockeral keeps rushing in to have his way with poor old mum and he steps on them in his eagerness! The cockeral also crows most of the night so he was a bit of a nuisance and on our third day there we had managed to persuade Carmen that he needed to be 'got rid of', so we ate him!
The 4 days we were there flew by. Poor Tristan got really badly bitten by the little black flies (Aranillas) that always irritate foreiners to these parts. I remember how they used to bother me 10 years ago, but strangely, this time, although they still bit me, I did not react to them and get the same huge red lumps that Tristan got. On Saturday we went into Tena to go to the market where the indigenous people are meant to sell loads of wild meet, like Armadillo, but there wasn't much available, however we did manage to buy a really good mosquito net, like fine nylon stockings, that did not allow the Aranillas through (the one we had bought from England was useless against them).
Disappointed with not having been able to find meat at the market we went in search of Chonta Curos. These are large beatle larvae that live in the Chonta palm. We found an indigeous couple who had been out collecting them and we bought a couple for 25c each. They were gutted and then fried in their own juices! Tristan managed to take a taste but couldn't find anything really agreeable about the whole experience. So Celso ate the tow of them with glee!
There have been some really big changes in Misahualli since we were here. For one, with the road there is more tourism from Ecuadorians who come down to spend some time on the beach by the river bringing some well needed cash to the restaurants, boat drivers and shops. There is even an internet cafe which a guy called Eduardo has set up with his wife (from Germany I think). They are housed in a new building that has been made possible because of a new wall that has been built at the marina, so now instead of a rocky path from the square down to the beach there is a large paved area that prevents any floods coming up into the square, and then there is a slope and some steps down onto the beach. The monkeys are a great tourist attraction and they have left a boat up at the back of the beach which collects water and the monkeys all go there to have a wash, they are so human like, they scoop up the water and wash their legs and arms, I haven't managed to catch it on film yet but I shall be trying again. There is also a new bridge over one of the 2 rivers that meet at Misahualli so that you can get to the other side without taking a boat, a real novelty!
We used the new bridge to go on a search for Guavas. This is a long (about 50cm), broad bean like fruit that you open up and take out the 2cm long beans with their covering of pith, and then you eat the pith and chuck away the bean. It is very difficult to describe what the Guava is like, it is just juicy, sweet and very nice. We found some kids who agreed to go up into a tree for us that hung out over the river and throw some of the fruits down. They climbed up like they belonged there, and weren't at all concerned about the river below. We ended up taking 10 for $1.
We went for a night walk along a path in the jungle at the back of the beach and saw huge bats flying around. There was also an enormous spider and a millipede, but then we got a little lost (things have changed in 10 years) so we decided to turn back. We were visited by plenty of bugs in the house though, including a medium sized (about 10cm across) tarantula that appeared on the bedroom wall.
All this stuff is out of order. I have found it difficult to find time to write with so much going on. I might remember more later and add it in!
Wednesday, 2 December 2009
we are safe and well
Hi all, just to let you know that we arrived safely in Quito, Ecuador on a flight from Houston on the 28th November and we are now staying with Celso´s sister Fabiola, her son, Pablo, and my sister in law Cuma´s two daughters, Rebeca and Karina, who live in the South of Quito.
We managed to find and buy a 4 wheel drive car to take us down to Chile, a 1999 Chevrolet Vitara.
Today we spent 3 hours queuing to get our Cedulas (the Ecuadorian identity document) only to find that I was not in the system and will have to return to Puyo (in the South East of the country) where I got my first cedula. Celso couldn´t get his because apparently the computer did not show our marriage even though we had to get it put onto the system in order for me to get my first cedula back in 1998! The system here is such rubbish. I asked if , because I wasn´t in the system, they could just give me a new number and put that in the system, but they said no they had to find the original documentation even though I had copies of all of them with me - so infuriating. The only reason that I want my new cedula is because it means I can get into all the tourist places at local prices (about 1/20th or less of the tourist price) and also they let you go to some places that tourists are not allowed to go to at all. Ah well!
So we have spent the last few days covering miles and miles in Quito looking for the car and yet again tomorrow we have to take the 2 buses and travel about 1.5 hours to go back to where we got the car because they forgot to get us to sign one of the documents that is needed to get the registration documents into our name. Everything here is so complicated, when we took the money out of the bank to buy the car it took 3 different people 20 minutes just to fill in the paperwork and they wanted to know things like how many children I had, for what reason I can´t even imagine!
We will probably go to Misahualli (where we lived when Tristan was a baby and where Celso´s mum lives) tomorrow after signing the document for the car, then I will be returning to Quito to meet my mum at the airport who arrives next Tuesday to stay with us for Christmas and explore Ecuador with us. It´s all go for us but not very interesting to write about!!
We managed to find and buy a 4 wheel drive car to take us down to Chile, a 1999 Chevrolet Vitara.
Today we spent 3 hours queuing to get our Cedulas (the Ecuadorian identity document) only to find that I was not in the system and will have to return to Puyo (in the South East of the country) where I got my first cedula. Celso couldn´t get his because apparently the computer did not show our marriage even though we had to get it put onto the system in order for me to get my first cedula back in 1998! The system here is such rubbish. I asked if , because I wasn´t in the system, they could just give me a new number and put that in the system, but they said no they had to find the original documentation even though I had copies of all of them with me - so infuriating. The only reason that I want my new cedula is because it means I can get into all the tourist places at local prices (about 1/20th or less of the tourist price) and also they let you go to some places that tourists are not allowed to go to at all. Ah well!
So we have spent the last few days covering miles and miles in Quito looking for the car and yet again tomorrow we have to take the 2 buses and travel about 1.5 hours to go back to where we got the car because they forgot to get us to sign one of the documents that is needed to get the registration documents into our name. Everything here is so complicated, when we took the money out of the bank to buy the car it took 3 different people 20 minutes just to fill in the paperwork and they wanted to know things like how many children I had, for what reason I can´t even imagine!
We will probably go to Misahualli (where we lived when Tristan was a baby and where Celso´s mum lives) tomorrow after signing the document for the car, then I will be returning to Quito to meet my mum at the airport who arrives next Tuesday to stay with us for Christmas and explore Ecuador with us. It´s all go for us but not very interesting to write about!!
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