Saturday, August 7, 2010
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Middle of the World?
We spent our time in Quito as tourists. One day we traveled a bit out of town to an old horse ranch and the kids did trailrides in the surrounding hills. Another day we rode the excellent Metrobus system, first trolley cars then a bus, through the heart of Quito, to one end of the city bus lines, up at Mitad del Mundo, the alleged Center of the Earth. (We decided along the way that mass transit would be much more popular in the USA if people sold little ice cream cones on the bus, like they do down here.)
With its little here-is-the-equator village and rather impressively large monument, this actually turned out to be fun stop for the team, with people checking out the very gnarly collection of tropical insects and shopping for all manner of gifts and ponchos and blankets and hats and so on.
Traveling back to town was a bit challenging, as we had to figure out the trolley car maps and stations, but we eventually prevailed, and climbed the hill with the crowds, back up to our last hotel, and a free last night before our free last day in Ecuador.
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| Equator monument, at latitude 0 |
With its little here-is-the-equator village and rather impressively large monument, this actually turned out to be fun stop for the team, with people checking out the very gnarly collection of tropical insects and shopping for all manner of gifts and ponchos and blankets and hats and so on.
Traveling back to town was a bit challenging, as we had to figure out the trolley car maps and stations, but we eventually prevailed, and climbed the hill with the crowds, back up to our last hotel, and a free last night before our free last day in Ecuador.
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| Old Quito, Santo Domingo |
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| Quito, old town |
Back in Quito, Old Town
Leaving Tena the day after rafting started off just fine. We packed up our gear and evacuated the Limon Cocha in good style, hoofing it down the hill and over into the bus depot. It was a cool gray morning, and it had rained all night, but we were lucky once again and it let up during our short walk, and resumed once we were absorbed by the big Banos bus.
So it was a 9:00 bus and we were on by 8:30 and only briefly harassed by a very creepy clown (clowns in Ecuador stick nails up their noses) and finally we were off by around 9:00 and we drifted in and out of sleep, rain dripping off the windows outside, until around 10:00 we looked outside and realized we were still in Tena...or more precisely we were back in Tena for some reason. Turns out the rains had brought down a major landslide over the road on our planned route, so we had to double-back and go another way. Two hours added to our travel, and a couple of more dollars apiece paid, we finally set out north and west at about 10:30.
Another beautiful and twisty busride, accompanied in the usual style by god-awful American kung-fu type movies from the 1980's. (Who knew they even made a "Best of the Best" part 2? Really, was there a demand for the sequel?) Back up the ridge of the Andes front range, and up into the highlands, air cooling out nicely along the way, we made our way back towards Quito. Another very decent busride, our last, bringing us back to the big city, towards the end of our monthlong adventure.
Quito is huge. It's long and skinny, confined by its valley, but the valley is really long and punctuated with big, deep fingers that stretch off in many directions. Buildings fill the valley floor and spill up the walls of the surrounding hills, cresting on the steeps, hilltops and ridgelines bursting with cellphone antenna towers. A busy, bustling, vibrant city, so very different from most of what we've seen here.
Jampacked busses and electric trolleys. Heavy foot traffic on the sidewalks. Women selling roasted maize and sweet empanadas and little skewers of chicken and sausages from open storefronts. People shopping for produce and bread for dinner. We spill into the big, modern bus terminal, find some taxis and head across town towards the old city, where we'll be staying for the next four nights.
We encamp at the Grand Hotel, which may or may not have been grand at some point in the past, and settle in. The roof offers some pretty stunning views of the old colonial city, and as we wander around we realize that we've found ourselves in a little piece of Europe, transplanted across the Atlantic by homesick Spaniards back in the 17th Century.
So like an old European city center, but a bit run down, a bit noticeably shabby and worn around the edges. Great character though, and hundreds of storefronts to explore, and a lively walking center surrounded by centuries-old churches.
So it was a 9:00 bus and we were on by 8:30 and only briefly harassed by a very creepy clown (clowns in Ecuador stick nails up their noses) and finally we were off by around 9:00 and we drifted in and out of sleep, rain dripping off the windows outside, until around 10:00 we looked outside and realized we were still in Tena...or more precisely we were back in Tena for some reason. Turns out the rains had brought down a major landslide over the road on our planned route, so we had to double-back and go another way. Two hours added to our travel, and a couple of more dollars apiece paid, we finally set out north and west at about 10:30.
Another beautiful and twisty busride, accompanied in the usual style by god-awful American kung-fu type movies from the 1980's. (Who knew they even made a "Best of the Best" part 2? Really, was there a demand for the sequel?) Back up the ridge of the Andes front range, and up into the highlands, air cooling out nicely along the way, we made our way back towards Quito. Another very decent busride, our last, bringing us back to the big city, towards the end of our monthlong adventure.
Quito is huge. It's long and skinny, confined by its valley, but the valley is really long and punctuated with big, deep fingers that stretch off in many directions. Buildings fill the valley floor and spill up the walls of the surrounding hills, cresting on the steeps, hilltops and ridgelines bursting with cellphone antenna towers. A busy, bustling, vibrant city, so very different from most of what we've seen here.
Jampacked busses and electric trolleys. Heavy foot traffic on the sidewalks. Women selling roasted maize and sweet empanadas and little skewers of chicken and sausages from open storefronts. People shopping for produce and bread for dinner. We spill into the big, modern bus terminal, find some taxis and head across town towards the old city, where we'll be staying for the next four nights.
We encamp at the Grand Hotel, which may or may not have been grand at some point in the past, and settle in. The roof offers some pretty stunning views of the old colonial city, and as we wander around we realize that we've found ourselves in a little piece of Europe, transplanted across the Atlantic by homesick Spaniards back in the 17th Century.
So like an old European city center, but a bit run down, a bit noticeably shabby and worn around the edges. Great character though, and hundreds of storefronts to explore, and a lively walking center surrounded by centuries-old churches.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Into the Jungle, part 2
So, our evening in Tena was spent provisioning for the jungle trek, meeting with the River People to discuss details of the same, and walking across town, across a big suspension footbridge across the Rio Napo, to a decidedly fancy restaurant for dinner.
It rained good and hard overnight, which was a precursor of things to come during the three day trek in the dense rainforest near Tena. I was forced to skip out on this trek due to my nagging and persistently annoying ankle injury, so I´ll blatantly steal some of the stuff posted on the Springfield group´s blog, located at:
www.renaissancegoestoecuador.blogspot.com
From Aurora, the SRHS teacher in our group:
Aurora is known for understatement--it may not have been terrible, but it rained on the second day in a major way. I was in Tena, comfortably back at the Hostel Limon Cocha, and it came down in sheets. A classic tropical deluge, rain hammering on the sheetmetal roof like someone was pouring out an infinite bucket of ball bearings, the racket so loud that it was literally impossible to carry on a conversation. So the team got more than a little bit wet, and of course muddy, but we´re pretty used to that by now, and everyone returned to Tena in good spirits, full of stories of the jungle and the rain and of Thomas falling into hip-deep mud, and Nikki swinging on a vine and slamming into a gigantic tree, and so on. The group spent sunday afternoon hosing off the tents and laying things out to dry all over the hostel´s driveway and generally having a good time.
It rained good and hard overnight, which was a precursor of things to come during the three day trek in the dense rainforest near Tena. I was forced to skip out on this trek due to my nagging and persistently annoying ankle injury, so I´ll blatantly steal some of the stuff posted on the Springfield group´s blog, located at:
www.renaissancegoestoecuador.blogspot.com
From Aurora, the SRHS teacher in our group:
We left for our jungle trek early friday morning. It was such an amazing experience. As a biology student, I learned so much about the diversity of plant defenses and adaptations that exist. What fun to see so much of what I had learned about. The kids were laughing at my exciting over the ´walking tree´and the leaf cutter ants (yay e.o. wilson!) and the trees with huge spikes and all the rest of the amazing diversity.
Tena is located on the edge of the Amazonian basin -- kind of the highlands if you will. So, it was humid and of course it rained, but it wasn´t terrible. We wore wellies for the mud and to protect against snake bites. Much to my happiness we did not see any snakes, no one got bit, but we did have lots of mud!!!! Including a thigh-high stream crossing!!!
Our guide Gregory, who now lives in Tena, but grew up in the jungle taught us about traditional uses of plants -- both for food and for medicine. It was really interesting to compare it to what we learned in San Clemente -- another indigenous area.
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| Amazon rainforest |
Some of the highlights were swinging on a vine across a ravine, eating sugar cane, the stream crossing, our bbq the last night, seeing the amazing diversity of the jungle and just how beautiful it is. Oh, and the amazing diversity of insects!!!!!!!!!! I loved it!!!!
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| Eddie doing the Tarzan thing |
Monday we started our actual ´´vacation´´ part of the trip, with a full day of white water rafting on the Rio Jutunyacu, which feeds into the Napo, which eventually feeds into the Amazon itself. This was a VERY fun day indeed, the group split into two rafts with very excellent guides, getting onto the water around 10 in the morning and rafting for hours. The river is rated class III, and it was good and strong and very rough in stretches, the water being pretty high from the recent rains, all of us getting tossed around and bounced all over the place, which is what rafting is all about.
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| Adrenaline Monkeys say hello to the river |
It was an absolute blast, our guides having people taking turns ´riding the bull´ by sitting on the nose of the raft as we did stretches of chaotic, churning rapids, having us do ridiculously fun maneuvers like spinning the raft around in circles as we ran rapids, or running the raft up onto giant, smooth rocks then sliding off..
Some kids took advantage of the chance to hop out of the boats and float down safe stretches of rapids with their lifejackets. Others took less intentional rides outside the boats. All of us had a fantastic time, breaking for a great lunch along the way, visiting with some locals who were panning for gold along the riverside, taking in the thickly forested banks of the river with orchids hanging off the tree branches, marveling in a huge variety of butterflies and bright white kingfishers and giant black vultures riding the thermals overhead.
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| no piranhas in sight |
Some kids took advantage of the chance to hop out of the boats and float down safe stretches of rapids with their lifejackets. Others took less intentional rides outside the boats. All of us had a fantastic time, breaking for a great lunch along the way, visiting with some locals who were panning for gold along the riverside, taking in the thickly forested banks of the river with orchids hanging off the tree branches, marveling in a huge variety of butterflies and bright white kingfishers and giant black vultures riding the thermals overhead.
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| Liam rides the bull |
So we rafted the Amazon. How cool is that?
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Into the Jungle
So we left San Clemente good and early, bussing it down the giant hill one last time, blundering around in Ibarra a bit until we found our bus, then heading out, south and east, towards Tena and the Amazon. This was a bit of a complex travel day, since we were trying to avoid Quito and its traffic and its widely separated giant bus terminals.
We took our first bus for about two and half hours to the midsized town of Pifo. This was a gorgeous ride at times, with awesome, with clear views of the giant, glaciated snowcone of the Cotapaxi volcano along the way. But the bus was very crowded, the aisles packed full of people (including some of our group who had to stand) and the consistent stopping and going to get and release passengers was a bit trying at times. Traveling down the spine of Ecuador´s central highlands, passing through innumerable towns and villages and small cities, it was easy to believe that this is South America´s most densely populated country. Finally we reached Pifo, walked a bit with all our gear to an adjoining roadway, and waited on the side of the road by a petrol station for a Tena-bound bus. After waiting less than an hour, a big, yellow Banos Express cruised on up, and we piled our bags underneath, piled ourselves into the interior, and set off for Tena.
This country´s transportation infrastructure is totally impressive. Good pavement everywhere you want it. It just works. It runs on schedule. You can count on it, which is much more than I can say for a lot of other places I´ve been in the past.
So we pointed southeast and began climbing the giant set of ridges that defines the central highlands, curvy and steep and green as always, then after a couple of hours began our descent. Vegetation getting more and more tropical, air getting more humid, road twisting down through deep green valleys, we plied our way out of the mountains and into the Amazon basin, accompanied, as always, by an awful American martial arts movie dubbed into Spanish on the bus´s TV.
About 4 hours out of Pifo we crossed a big bridge over a roiling brown river and rolled down a big hill into Tena. The heat and humidity and general shabbiness of Tena were a bit offputting at first, and we floundered around, walking in circles with all of our gear, in the heat of the late afternoon, until we finally got it together and figured out where we were going and found our hostel. This was decent place, with a great view of the town and the mountains in the distance and soon enough we were comfortably ensconced, the kids pretty excited about having beds for the first time in a long while, and we began to settle in and make plans for the jungle trek, which would begin the next morning.
More later...this internet cafe is about to close.
We took our first bus for about two and half hours to the midsized town of Pifo. This was a gorgeous ride at times, with awesome, with clear views of the giant, glaciated snowcone of the Cotapaxi volcano along the way. But the bus was very crowded, the aisles packed full of people (including some of our group who had to stand) and the consistent stopping and going to get and release passengers was a bit trying at times. Traveling down the spine of Ecuador´s central highlands, passing through innumerable towns and villages and small cities, it was easy to believe that this is South America´s most densely populated country. Finally we reached Pifo, walked a bit with all our gear to an adjoining roadway, and waited on the side of the road by a petrol station for a Tena-bound bus. After waiting less than an hour, a big, yellow Banos Express cruised on up, and we piled our bags underneath, piled ourselves into the interior, and set off for Tena.
This country´s transportation infrastructure is totally impressive. Good pavement everywhere you want it. It just works. It runs on schedule. You can count on it, which is much more than I can say for a lot of other places I´ve been in the past.
So we pointed southeast and began climbing the giant set of ridges that defines the central highlands, curvy and steep and green as always, then after a couple of hours began our descent. Vegetation getting more and more tropical, air getting more humid, road twisting down through deep green valleys, we plied our way out of the mountains and into the Amazon basin, accompanied, as always, by an awful American martial arts movie dubbed into Spanish on the bus´s TV.
About 4 hours out of Pifo we crossed a big bridge over a roiling brown river and rolled down a big hill into Tena. The heat and humidity and general shabbiness of Tena were a bit offputting at first, and we floundered around, walking in circles with all of our gear, in the heat of the late afternoon, until we finally got it together and figured out where we were going and found our hostel. This was decent place, with a great view of the town and the mountains in the distance and soon enough we were comfortably ensconced, the kids pretty excited about having beds for the first time in a long while, and we began to settle in and make plans for the jungle trek, which would begin the next morning.
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| Tena, seen from the Limon Cocha hostel |
More later...this internet cafe is about to close.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Community Service, part 3
We also spent two of our days at San Clemente away from our service project. One of these was spent engaged in a full-day attempt at the summit of the Imbabura volcano, up to an elevation of about 14,500 feet. I was forced to skip out on that climb, due to a nagging ankle injury I picked up in the Pinan lakes. I´ll try to get one of the kids to fill in that blank here on the blog, if and when time permits.
Another day was our ´cultural day´arranged by our local hosts. This was a fantastic day, from start to end. We were met at the house by Manuel´s son, Atik, and Atik´s inexplicably German wife (whose name escapes me at the moment) and together we traveled down to the big town of Ibarra. We walked part of the way, to the town of La Esparanza, and had a bit of a history lesson along the way, learning about how all of San Clemente had been part of a huge hacienda, owned by a single wealthy landlord, all the way up until the 1980´s. At that point the locals--who were basically serfs, working as tennant farmers since colonial times--organized themselves and, in effect, went on strike. They had help organizing loans through some of the church groups in Ibarra, and with some capital, and maybe a little bit of a threat of violent resistance, forced the landlord to sell out and let the people buy the land their families had been working for countless generations. This led to the self sustained community that San Clemente is today. Many of the local areas remain landlord-owned haciendas to this day, almost like medieval manors in their economic structure, with farmers paying their rent with crops, and having no property rights at all.
So we made our way by bus back down to Ibarra, and had breakfast in the huge, fantastic covered market there. I could never do justice to this place in words. In many ways it was very much like the big markets you find in the bigger towns all over the developing world. Hundreds of market stalls selling every kind of local produce imaginable, a very graphic section of meat stalls selling things most of us would prefer not to think about at all, all of this crowded in under sheet metal and corrugated plastic roofing, people loudly hawking their products in singsong voices. Just simply awesomely fantastic.
So we had breakfast in one of the countless restaurant stalls, enjoying wonderful cheese empanadas fresh out of the oil, and some tea and eggs and whatnot. Los catorce gringos were definitely an attraction unto themselves, but we´ve gotten kind of used to that. After breakfast we strolled the city a bit, which is apparently known for its sweets, and then we returned to the market where the kids were broken up into pairs and given little lists of items that they had to go procure in the sprwaling marketplace. Everything from dried oregano to baskets of potatos to quartered fresh chickens. This went pretty well, despite the language barrier that affects almost all of us here, and we eventually regrouped and bussed it back up the hill.
The rest of the day was spent preparing and enjoying a traditional meal. The ubiquitous potato-and-whatever-you-have-handy soup, roasted and boiled maize and potatos, chicken grilled over coals, dessert of small home-made tortillas with the local sweet fruit jelly and watermellon slices. We cooked outdoors, using the traditional stoves built into the ground outside our house--basically small, deep holes dug next to an embankment, so that you can fit a pot onto the top, and build a fire below--and had a great afternoon chopping, cleaning, and cooking together as the day wore on.
Later in the afternoon some of the women from town came by to demonstrate their embroidery, which is an important cottage industry, and some of the kids tried their hand at doing some of their own, and we were able to buy some really sweet items--shirts and placemats and table runners, etc.--as souveneirs (sp?)
Our already excellent day was capped off by a visit from some of the community members who form a traditional band. This was absolutely one of the highlights of the entire expedition. They set up in our house: six string guitar, fourteen string guitar, fiddle, two recorder-pipe players, a little boy on a simple bass drum, three women and a little girl to sing and dance. FANTASTIC rootsy andean pipe music, strings filling in with a stomping rhythm, pipes and high voices floating over the whole like the clouds over the valley below us. There´s no way, again, as always, that I can do this justice in words. We caught alot of this on video, which will help you picture the scene, but it was such a perfect moment, the kind of moment you can´t create on purpose, an emotional high, the kids up and dancing, the stars sparkling in the flawlessly black sky outside our little house on the hill, smoke from our cookfires flavoring everything eucalyptus.
Delicious in every possible way.
Unforgettable.
It´s moments like this that keep me coming back for more, and make me dream of expedition even when I´m surrounded by the clean, pilow-soft luxury, comfort and love of my own home.
Another day was our ´cultural day´arranged by our local hosts. This was a fantastic day, from start to end. We were met at the house by Manuel´s son, Atik, and Atik´s inexplicably German wife (whose name escapes me at the moment) and together we traveled down to the big town of Ibarra. We walked part of the way, to the town of La Esparanza, and had a bit of a history lesson along the way, learning about how all of San Clemente had been part of a huge hacienda, owned by a single wealthy landlord, all the way up until the 1980´s. At that point the locals--who were basically serfs, working as tennant farmers since colonial times--organized themselves and, in effect, went on strike. They had help organizing loans through some of the church groups in Ibarra, and with some capital, and maybe a little bit of a threat of violent resistance, forced the landlord to sell out and let the people buy the land their families had been working for countless generations. This led to the self sustained community that San Clemente is today. Many of the local areas remain landlord-owned haciendas to this day, almost like medieval manors in their economic structure, with farmers paying their rent with crops, and having no property rights at all.
So we made our way by bus back down to Ibarra, and had breakfast in the huge, fantastic covered market there. I could never do justice to this place in words. In many ways it was very much like the big markets you find in the bigger towns all over the developing world. Hundreds of market stalls selling every kind of local produce imaginable, a very graphic section of meat stalls selling things most of us would prefer not to think about at all, all of this crowded in under sheet metal and corrugated plastic roofing, people loudly hawking their products in singsong voices. Just simply awesomely fantastic.
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| taking breakfast in the Ibarra market |
So we had breakfast in one of the countless restaurant stalls, enjoying wonderful cheese empanadas fresh out of the oil, and some tea and eggs and whatnot. Los catorce gringos were definitely an attraction unto themselves, but we´ve gotten kind of used to that. After breakfast we strolled the city a bit, which is apparently known for its sweets, and then we returned to the market where the kids were broken up into pairs and given little lists of items that they had to go procure in the sprwaling marketplace. Everything from dried oregano to baskets of potatos to quartered fresh chickens. This went pretty well, despite the language barrier that affects almost all of us here, and we eventually regrouped and bussed it back up the hill.
The rest of the day was spent preparing and enjoying a traditional meal. The ubiquitous potato-and-whatever-you-have-handy soup, roasted and boiled maize and potatos, chicken grilled over coals, dessert of small home-made tortillas with the local sweet fruit jelly and watermellon slices. We cooked outdoors, using the traditional stoves built into the ground outside our house--basically small, deep holes dug next to an embankment, so that you can fit a pot onto the top, and build a fire below--and had a great afternoon chopping, cleaning, and cooking together as the day wore on.
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| stoking the fire & cooking on the traditional stove |
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| working on embroidery with women from San Clemente |
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| awesome local band jamming in the hills |
Delicious in every possible way.
Unforgettable.
It´s moments like this that keep me coming back for more, and make me dream of expedition even when I´m surrounded by the clean, pilow-soft luxury, comfort and love of my own home.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Community Service, part 2
OK that last post was a bit maudlin and emotional. Sorry. This stuff brings it out in me.
So, what was our project in San Clemente? Well, simply put, we moved about a million rocks, more or less, down a dried up ravine, as part of an effort to begin building a retaining wall for a road that is constantly threatened by the seasonal rains. This roadway is crucial to the town's budding cultural tourism business, as many of the homes where visitors can find lodging during homestays are located upon it. The road is split at one point by what can only be called a river, which is dry this time of year. This river is crossable even when it flows across the roadway, but the flowing water erodes and destroys the sides of the road as it climbs a steep hill beyond its banks. Our project was the begining of a much longer one, which will build a large stone retaining wall to protect the hillside and preserve the road in all seasons.
What this meant for us was we had to move a huge quantity of rocks, to fill these giant wire cages that, when filled and stacked against the wall of the ravine, would create an unerodable protective barrier against the rushing water. So move rocks we did, forming a long chain to pass them from person to person and form gigantic stone piles, then moving those piles in a similar fashion to get them down to where the cages were being assembled, wired together, and finally, painstakingly, filled. Our work usually begain around eight thirty or so in the morning and would continue until around one in the afternoon. Long hot mornings in the sun, working side by side with people from the community who were also recruited to help out.
This was frustrating work at times, seeming endless and pointless at first, but as the ditch was excavated along the hillside and the cages were fitted into it, it became more obvious what our goal was, and we could take satisfaction in seeing some slow progress towards an endpoint, some time off in the future. We actually got quite a lot done, and made an excellent start to the project, which will be continued by the community, and aided by two other WCE teams that will be in San Clemente in August.
Lunches during the project were provided by the community, and were a wonder in and of themselves. At the lunch break we'd walk up the hill just a little way to the house of Raul, Manuel's brother. This was a gorgeous, leafy hacienda with llamas in the yard, an incredible traditional outdoor kitchen, and the feel of a colonial era ranch house.
The women there would spread out large woven mats on the grass of the lawn, or in the shade of the covered courtyard one day, it being good and hot, and several dishes were laid out for the ultimate traditional, family style communal meal. Giant pots of quinwa and potato soup, boiled potatos, roasted maize kernels off the cob, several different kinds of thick, fantastically fresh juices, rice and greens and strips of meat marinated in lime juice. After lunch we´d ride out our food coma with a sweet communal siesta, then it was back to work.
So, what was our project in San Clemente? Well, simply put, we moved about a million rocks, more or less, down a dried up ravine, as part of an effort to begin building a retaining wall for a road that is constantly threatened by the seasonal rains. This roadway is crucial to the town's budding cultural tourism business, as many of the homes where visitors can find lodging during homestays are located upon it. The road is split at one point by what can only be called a river, which is dry this time of year. This river is crossable even when it flows across the roadway, but the flowing water erodes and destroys the sides of the road as it climbs a steep hill beyond its banks. Our project was the begining of a much longer one, which will build a large stone retaining wall to protect the hillside and preserve the road in all seasons.
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| hauling rocks at the work site |
What this meant for us was we had to move a huge quantity of rocks, to fill these giant wire cages that, when filled and stacked against the wall of the ravine, would create an unerodable protective barrier against the rushing water. So move rocks we did, forming a long chain to pass them from person to person and form gigantic stone piles, then moving those piles in a similar fashion to get them down to where the cages were being assembled, wired together, and finally, painstakingly, filled. Our work usually begain around eight thirty or so in the morning and would continue until around one in the afternoon. Long hot mornings in the sun, working side by side with people from the community who were also recruited to help out.
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| Liam and a local woman rock & roll at the work site |
This was frustrating work at times, seeming endless and pointless at first, but as the ditch was excavated along the hillside and the cages were fitted into it, it became more obvious what our goal was, and we could take satisfaction in seeing some slow progress towards an endpoint, some time off in the future. We actually got quite a lot done, and made an excellent start to the project, which will be continued by the community, and aided by two other WCE teams that will be in San Clemente in August.
Lunches during the project were provided by the community, and were a wonder in and of themselves. At the lunch break we'd walk up the hill just a little way to the house of Raul, Manuel's brother. This was a gorgeous, leafy hacienda with llamas in the yard, an incredible traditional outdoor kitchen, and the feel of a colonial era ranch house.
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| Imbabura, seen from Raul´s casa |
Community Service in San Clemente, part 1
Getting to San Clemente was actually pretty easy. We caught a public bus and rode for a couple of hours to the fairly large city of Ibarra (maybe 50 km north of Quito, in the northern highlands) then waited a bit and caught another bus which took us basically straight uphill for about half an hour to the village of San Clemente.
San Clemente is a tiny little town on the slopes of the Imbabura volcano, an extinct, eroding cone whose broken hulk looms over everything in the area.
It is a primarily indiginous Andean community that is working hard to retain and reclaim its Inca-native american heritage. On arrival, we were brought to a sweet little house on the hillside (everything is on a hillside there) above the school and village center and we found, much to our delight, that the house was ours for the week. So the kids piled their stuff into the very basic upstairs-attic area and the adults claimed spots in the little bedrooms, and we found that we had toilets and even a little kitchen area with a gas cooker and a sink, and life was indeed good .
After a short while we met Manuel, a community leader and our main man for everything in San Clemente. We discussed our schedule, and the nature of our project in the town, and decided that some folks would go back into Ibarra in the morning to shop for food and project supplies, and we spent the rest of the evening settling in and playing with some of the local kids and figuring out the kitchen and the water and so on.
So we spent the next seven nights at Casa Rosita. Our days were spent doing the project work and getting to know the community, getting an introduction to its traditional way of life, visiting with the irresistibly cute kids at the little school's summer camp, and generally falling into the languid, sweet rhythms of daily life in an Andean mountain village.
I love the community service phase of these World Challenge expeditions. Despite the intense awesomeness of the backcountry trekking, the unpredictable adventure of the bus travel, the fantastic chaos of the big marketplaces, the selfish thrill of being torn completely away from our daily lives and being so far away from home and everything we know, despite all of that, it is always the community service portion of the trip that stays with me, that lodges deep inside me somewhere and comes back to me weeks, months, even years later. This is the part of the trip that moves me most.
It's just so real. We're not tourists during community service. We're guests. We're not just taking. We're giving. We become a part of the community iteslf, and give back a little for everything we've taken. We experience the harsh and beautiful realities of daily life in a tiny little developing world village in a way that most visitors can never, ever see.
More later. Just writing this I miss the peace of San Clemente, and it's making me sad.
San Clemente is a tiny little town on the slopes of the Imbabura volcano, an extinct, eroding cone whose broken hulk looms over everything in the area.
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| Imbabura, seen from the road in San Clemente |
It is a primarily indiginous Andean community that is working hard to retain and reclaim its Inca-native american heritage. On arrival, we were brought to a sweet little house on the hillside (everything is on a hillside there) above the school and village center and we found, much to our delight, that the house was ours for the week. So the kids piled their stuff into the very basic upstairs-attic area and the adults claimed spots in the little bedrooms, and we found that we had toilets and even a little kitchen area with a gas cooker and a sink, and life was indeed good .
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| casa Rosita, our home in San Clemente |
So we spent the next seven nights at Casa Rosita. Our days were spent doing the project work and getting to know the community, getting an introduction to its traditional way of life, visiting with the irresistibly cute kids at the little school's summer camp, and generally falling into the languid, sweet rhythms of daily life in an Andean mountain village.
I love the community service phase of these World Challenge expeditions. Despite the intense awesomeness of the backcountry trekking, the unpredictable adventure of the bus travel, the fantastic chaos of the big marketplaces, the selfish thrill of being torn completely away from our daily lives and being so far away from home and everything we know, despite all of that, it is always the community service portion of the trip that stays with me, that lodges deep inside me somewhere and comes back to me weeks, months, even years later. This is the part of the trip that moves me most.
It's just so real. We're not tourists during community service. We're guests. We're not just taking. We're giving. We become a part of the community iteslf, and give back a little for everything we've taken. We experience the harsh and beautiful realities of daily life in a tiny little developing world village in a way that most visitors can never, ever see.
More later. Just writing this I miss the peace of San Clemente, and it's making me sad.
Pinan Lakes Trek, part 3
The last night camping in the Pinan lakes was rather wet. OK, very wet. It rained pretty much all night and right up until the dawn, all of us hunkered down in our wonderfully effective tents (no sarcasm...we were dry) and wondering just how were were going to break camp and cook our wonderfully delicious oatmeal in such a deluge. But the skies smiled on us again, and the rain quit around 6:00 AM, and we piled out onto the soggy ground to break camp then set out.
A long day, spent primarily in descent. After some up & down traversing of small ridges we found ourselves pointed down, down, and down several different clefts and cuts and little mini-ravines full of mud and, increasingly, full of broken rock and somewhat firmer ground.
Down, down, down, and down some more, with stunning views of big towns and the widiening Otavalo valley below, we picked our way for hours down the hillside. Around 11 Joel said we had about one and a half hours left, then he said the same thing around 1:00, then the same thing around 2:30.
Finally we could see our destination below us, a little touristy strip of a town called Chimborozo that is known for its hot springs. So we worked our way through fields and bushwhacked down steep hillsides for about another 1.5 hours until we finally spilled onto an actual road, met up with our horse crew and our stuff, and made camp on the grounds of a small hotel there.
A great trek. Dinner in a roadside restaurant that night, followed by an evening and morning of washing and drying our clothes and kit, then soaking in hot pools and luxuriating at the receiving end of giant pipes gushing fantastically hot torrents of water, blasting away the mud and muck of the trail.
Next up, community service in San Clemente.
A long day, spent primarily in descent. After some up & down traversing of small ridges we found ourselves pointed down, down, and down several different clefts and cuts and little mini-ravines full of mud and, increasingly, full of broken rock and somewhat firmer ground.
Down, down, down, and down some more, with stunning views of big towns and the widiening Otavalo valley below, we picked our way for hours down the hillside. Around 11 Joel said we had about one and a half hours left, then he said the same thing around 1:00, then the same thing around 2:30.
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| descending from the Pinan lakes, towns way off in the distance |
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| descending towards the end of the trek |
A great trek. Dinner in a roadside restaurant that night, followed by an evening and morning of washing and drying our clothes and kit, then soaking in hot pools and luxuriating at the receiving end of giant pipes gushing fantastically hot torrents of water, blasting away the mud and muck of the trail.
Next up, community service in San Clemente.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Pinan Lakes, part 2
The next morning we woke to the sound of thundering hoofbeats, as young local boys maybe 10 years old, riding bareback, rounded up their herd of horses and led them by our camp.
Day 2 was much easier and much shorter, following various (as always muddy) tracks up though the grassy, wide open hills of the lake country. After only about 3 hours or so we crested a hill and the view opened up and presented us with Lago Pinan itself, spread out and filling a gorgeous valley below, high green and tan hills framing the opposite shore.
We bushwhacked down the long, clumpy hillside to the eastern side of the lake, then followed its shore a bit before making camp in the early afternoon. We were fortunate to make camp when we did, because not long after the skies opened up with some serious rain, and we retreated into our tents to ride it out, raindrops thundering off our tentflies.
Have I mentioned that this is a truly outstanding group of kids? Nothing seems to phase them. They were out after the storm, in some off and on drizzle, cooking snacks and fooling around and learning to juggle and playing a sort of improvized volleyball with our caballeros and trying to teach them, with hilarious effects, to throw a frisbee.
Follow this with camp food, and a chilly wet night, hunkered down by about 7:30. Before bed our guides made & shared some truly delicious tea from their cooktent, which was a perfect end to another excellent day on the trail.
Days three and four brought us through more remote, open hill country as we climbed up and away from the lake basin. Cold mornings and afternoon rains that came late enough to spare us from having to hike or make camp in any serious rain. At one point we crossed a substantial river in a two-person tarabita, which is basically a hand-powered little metal basket thing suspended on a cable. Much fun, as Colin G.(who we have taken to calling Tex) pulled us across.
Our third camp was tucked into an S-shaped branch of some nameless river, down about 30 meters of a basically vertical slope from the dirt track we had been hiking at the end of our 6 hour trekking day. A magical feeling place, with flat wide cedarlike trees overhanging the river in places, making little shaded coves and grottos. Tenting with the sound of rushing water over rocks in the shallow riverbed. Fantastic.
Day four brought us up to the high point of the trek, at about 4100 meters (13,500 feet) as we hiked through absolutley beautiful open hill country dotted with little kettlehole lakes, steep rocky mountain peaks surrounding us, gigantic puffywhite clouds floating over us and occasionally reaching down to touch us on the trail.
At one point we climbed pretty streadily for almost three hours, working our way up two gigantic hillsides, up to the peak of our trek. Was it hard? Pretty much so. Did these kids complain or kvetch in any way? Not once. They just strapped it on and huffed it up the hill.
Finally we crested that big ridge and started working our way down towards a small lake (Lago San Pablo, I think?) where we could see our horses and crew, way, way off in the distance. We made camp there on the sodden lakeshore, again just in time to beat the afternoon rain, then emerged in the sweet sunshine of the late afternoon to cook and play and enjoy our well earned rest.
OK, more later. Off for almuerza.
SL
Day 2 was much easier and much shorter, following various (as always muddy) tracks up though the grassy, wide open hills of the lake country. After only about 3 hours or so we crested a hill and the view opened up and presented us with Lago Pinan itself, spread out and filling a gorgeous valley below, high green and tan hills framing the opposite shore.
 |
| Lago Pinan, seen from camp (click for larger image) |
We bushwhacked down the long, clumpy hillside to the eastern side of the lake, then followed its shore a bit before making camp in the early afternoon. We were fortunate to make camp when we did, because not long after the skies opened up with some serious rain, and we retreated into our tents to ride it out, raindrops thundering off our tentflies.
Have I mentioned that this is a truly outstanding group of kids? Nothing seems to phase them. They were out after the storm, in some off and on drizzle, cooking snacks and fooling around and learning to juggle and playing a sort of improvized volleyball with our caballeros and trying to teach them, with hilarious effects, to throw a frisbee.
Follow this with camp food, and a chilly wet night, hunkered down by about 7:30. Before bed our guides made & shared some truly delicious tea from their cooktent, which was a perfect end to another excellent day on the trail.
Days three and four brought us through more remote, open hill country as we climbed up and away from the lake basin. Cold mornings and afternoon rains that came late enough to spare us from having to hike or make camp in any serious rain. At one point we crossed a substantial river in a two-person tarabita, which is basically a hand-powered little metal basket thing suspended on a cable. Much fun, as Colin G.(who we have taken to calling Tex) pulled us across.
 |
| Crystal & Alysia ride the tirabita (click for larger image) |
Our third camp was tucked into an S-shaped branch of some nameless river, down about 30 meters of a basically vertical slope from the dirt track we had been hiking at the end of our 6 hour trekking day. A magical feeling place, with flat wide cedarlike trees overhanging the river in places, making little shaded coves and grottos. Tenting with the sound of rushing water over rocks in the shallow riverbed. Fantastic.
 |
| River camp, seen from the road above (click for larger image) |
Day four brought us up to the high point of the trek, at about 4100 meters (13,500 feet) as we hiked through absolutley beautiful open hill country dotted with little kettlehole lakes, steep rocky mountain peaks surrounding us, gigantic puffywhite clouds floating over us and occasionally reaching down to touch us on the trail.
 |
| High lake country, about 12,000 feet ASL |
At one point we climbed pretty streadily for almost three hours, working our way up two gigantic hillsides, up to the peak of our trek. Was it hard? Pretty much so. Did these kids complain or kvetch in any way? Not once. They just strapped it on and huffed it up the hill.
 |
| climbing up towards 4100 meters on day 4 (click for larger image) |
Finally we crested that big ridge and started working our way down towards a small lake (Lago San Pablo, I think?) where we could see our horses and crew, way, way off in the distance. We made camp there on the sodden lakeshore, again just in time to beat the afternoon rain, then emerged in the sweet sunshine of the late afternoon to cook and play and enjoy our well earned rest.
 |
| the last camp, seen from a distance (click for larger image) |
OK, more later. Off for almuerza.
SL
The Pinan Lakes Trek, part 1
OK...a little backtracking seems in order.
We left La Luna for the Pinan lakes trek as planned, cruising along tiny, windy roads through the steep green mountains in a little private bus to the town of Apuela, which is home to the guides for our trek. Have I mentioned that this country is unrelelntingly gorgeous? Well...it is. Apulea is a tiny town tucked into a nearly vertical deepgreen valley. We stayed in little cabanas there owned by Joel, our trek guide.
Next morning we set out very early in a sort of truck-bus vehicle and wound slowly through the mountains for about 2 hours to the little village of Irubi. Tiny, rectagular town center that felt, to me, like something from the old west, the white stucco church framed by the valley walls. There we met up with our horses and their caballeros and began our 5 day trek.
This was a long, hard day. To start, we climbed for pretty much the entire morning, first on small dirt roads, then eventually diverting onto muddy trails that wound up the sides of the steep valley walls. Amazing views of snowcapped Cotacaxi(?)volcano and the surrounding mountains on the way, cultivated fields giving way to higher elevation woods as we pressed onward.
Around noon we began descending the other side of the ridge, working our way down narrow trails and slick gulleys full of mud. We eventually reached the floor of the valley (yes many of us fell, beginning our trek-long encounter with serious dirtiness) and had lunch by a sweet little river, then crossed over to climb to another ridgeline via yet another steep, muddy trail. We finally reached the top of that climb after a couple of hours of ascent, passed through a gate that indicated we were entering national parkland, and began bushwhacking our way down to yet another river, through clouds and drizzle and roaming banks of fog.
After this came another, mercifully shorter, climb, and then, at last, we crested a hill to see a fantastically green valley spread out below us, the oxbowed Pinan river ribonning through it, wide open flat grasslands dotted with cattle and little herds of horses. We followed a trail down into the valley and a little bit later our guide, Joel, put his fingers to his lips and blasted out an impossibly loud whistle. Fog-horn loud, this whistle was, as he was calling some of the caballeros from about amile away, and shortly thereafter three of them came cantering around a corner on horseback, far below us still, horses kicking up water and tossing their heads in the fading light of the late afternoon, like a scene out of Bonanza or some classic old western.
(Can you see why I love this stuff? One of many scenes that I will simply never forget.)
We walked down to meet them, then mounted horses to ford the shallow river, and finally reached our camp. A nine hour trekking day in the bag, we made camp by a curve in the river and the kids started in on cooking dinner.
Yikes this is a long post. More later.
SL
We left La Luna for the Pinan lakes trek as planned, cruising along tiny, windy roads through the steep green mountains in a little private bus to the town of Apuela, which is home to the guides for our trek. Have I mentioned that this country is unrelelntingly gorgeous? Well...it is. Apulea is a tiny town tucked into a nearly vertical deepgreen valley. We stayed in little cabanas there owned by Joel, our trek guide.
 | |
| Apuela, seen from the road above (click for larger image) |
Next morning we set out very early in a sort of truck-bus vehicle and wound slowly through the mountains for about 2 hours to the little village of Irubi. Tiny, rectagular town center that felt, to me, like something from the old west, the white stucco church framed by the valley walls. There we met up with our horses and their caballeros and began our 5 day trek.
This was a long, hard day. To start, we climbed for pretty much the entire morning, first on small dirt roads, then eventually diverting onto muddy trails that wound up the sides of the steep valley walls. Amazing views of snowcapped Cotacaxi(?)volcano and the surrounding mountains on the way, cultivated fields giving way to higher elevation woods as we pressed onward.
 |
| Into the mountains on Day 1 (click for larger image) |
Around noon we began descending the other side of the ridge, working our way down narrow trails and slick gulleys full of mud. We eventually reached the floor of the valley (yes many of us fell, beginning our trek-long encounter with serious dirtiness) and had lunch by a sweet little river, then crossed over to climb to another ridgeline via yet another steep, muddy trail. We finally reached the top of that climb after a couple of hours of ascent, passed through a gate that indicated we were entering national parkland, and began bushwhacking our way down to yet another river, through clouds and drizzle and roaming banks of fog.
After this came another, mercifully shorter, climb, and then, at last, we crested a hill to see a fantastically green valley spread out below us, the oxbowed Pinan river ribonning through it, wide open flat grasslands dotted with cattle and little herds of horses. We followed a trail down into the valley and a little bit later our guide, Joel, put his fingers to his lips and blasted out an impossibly loud whistle. Fog-horn loud, this whistle was, as he was calling some of the caballeros from about amile away, and shortly thereafter three of them came cantering around a corner on horseback, far below us still, horses kicking up water and tossing their heads in the fading light of the late afternoon, like a scene out of Bonanza or some classic old western.
(Can you see why I love this stuff? One of many scenes that I will simply never forget.)
 |
| Rio Pinan valley at the end of Day 1 |
We walked down to meet them, then mounted horses to ford the shallow river, and finally reached our camp. A nine hour trekking day in the bag, we made camp by a curve in the river and the kids started in on cooking dinner.
Yikes this is a long post. More later.
SL
Monday, July 19, 2010
Greetings from Ibarra!
Hello again,
Posting this from an internet cafe in Ibarra, a bustling city in the shadows of the Imbabura volcano, on whose slopes we are currenly living & completing our community service project.
I do not have a whole lot of time at the moment, so I hope to add to this post at some point soon. Internet access has been hard to arrange, so who knows if that will actually happen.
Our expedition is going exceedingly well. The Pinan Lakes trek was fantastic, taking us through some truly gorgeous, stunning wilderness. Backcountry backpacking supported by a horse team and caballeros, over 50 miles by foot. Pretty good and cold, rather wet at times, trails often a muddy slop, reaching up and above 13,000 feet.
These kids are an amazing group, excellent attitude throughout everything the mountains threw at them. We ended up in a cheesy little tourist town with hot springs and rejoiced at the receiving end of three-inch shower pipes gushing torrents of beautifully hot water. We were kind of a sodden, muddy mess at the end of our trek.
Now we are encamped in San Clemente for our service project. High up on the slopes of Imbabura, this is a sweet little community of about 500 people struggling to reclaim their traditional culture and way of life. They have been wonderful hosts. Yesterday we came to town to shop in the fantastically chaotic central market. We had a breakfast of beuatifully fresh cheese empanadas in a food stall there, then the kids were paired off and given lists of specific items to find & buy in the big, narrowalleyed marketplace.
Back at the house we then prepared a traditional meal, followed by Andean pipe music and dancing in our adopted home.
Delicious in more ways than one.
Today the group heads up to the summit of Imbabura, then we have two more days of project work before we head dow to the jungle.
Sorry but I have to rush. If I miss the bus, I´ll need to walk about three hours straight uphill.
SL
Posting this from an internet cafe in Ibarra, a bustling city in the shadows of the Imbabura volcano, on whose slopes we are currenly living & completing our community service project.
I do not have a whole lot of time at the moment, so I hope to add to this post at some point soon. Internet access has been hard to arrange, so who knows if that will actually happen.
Our expedition is going exceedingly well. The Pinan Lakes trek was fantastic, taking us through some truly gorgeous, stunning wilderness. Backcountry backpacking supported by a horse team and caballeros, over 50 miles by foot. Pretty good and cold, rather wet at times, trails often a muddy slop, reaching up and above 13,000 feet.
 |
| muddy tracks were the norm on the Pinan Lakes trek (click for larger image) |
Now we are encamped in San Clemente for our service project. High up on the slopes of Imbabura, this is a sweet little community of about 500 people struggling to reclaim their traditional culture and way of life. They have been wonderful hosts. Yesterday we came to town to shop in the fantastically chaotic central market. We had a breakfast of beuatifully fresh cheese empanadas in a food stall there, then the kids were paired off and given lists of specific items to find & buy in the big, narrowalleyed marketplace.
 | |
| whole roasted pig sizzing in its own juices was a favorite in the Ibarra marketplace |
Delicious in more ways than one.
Today the group heads up to the summit of Imbabura, then we have two more days of project work before we head dow to the jungle.
Sorry but I have to rush. If I miss the bus, I´ll need to walk about three hours straight uphill.
SL
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Greetings from Otavalo
Hola everyone,
Greetings from Otavalo, in the Andean highlands north of Quito. We arrived here on Sunday as planned, after a fairly uneventful and reasonably comfortable 2 hour busride from Quito.
We are truly in Ecuador now, althought this is a very large town it is very very different from the big city of Quito. On arrival we crammed into a little storefront restaurant for an Amuerza, a complete lunch of chicken potato soup, juice, and fried chicken with rice and veggies. Very authentic (down to the chicken feet in the soup), very delicious, very cheap. We are truly in country now.
It was a short ride in a group of taxis up to our hostel, in the hills above town. How can I describe this place? Words like gorgeous, fantastic, perfect, and ideal sping to mind, but words will not suffice. A simply beautiful spot, high on a hillside with stunning views, soft grass for our tents and a sweet little hostel building to accommodate us and feed us. There are even hot showers. We could not ask for a better spot for acclimatization.
Wasting no time, we took a short hike in the rain our first afternoon here up to a little waterfall, then another hike in the hills above town yesterday, then we hiked down into town today.
This group of kids is FANTASTIC. Yesterday we messed up and walked about a mile down a steep cobbled road, then had to turn around and climb that unnecessary hill and there was not one complaint, we just turned around and huffed it up the hill. Back at the hostel it was pretty cold and rainy but spirits were high, the kids recording very silly videos on their cameras, others reading, writing, hanging out.
So, things continue to go extremely well. In Otavalo today we are checking out the market and basically wandering around. I just came from the covered market, with an extremely graphic meat market that was kind of a shock to some of the kids i was with. We don't usually see massive platters of beef livers, or tubs full of entrails for sale at our markets, after all.
Time is short. Tomorrow we{ll attemt the nearby Fuya Fuya volcano climb, to about 12,500 feet or so. Day after that we set out for our long trek.
Adios!
SL
Greetings from Otavalo, in the Andean highlands north of Quito. We arrived here on Sunday as planned, after a fairly uneventful and reasonably comfortable 2 hour busride from Quito.
We are truly in Ecuador now, althought this is a very large town it is very very different from the big city of Quito. On arrival we crammed into a little storefront restaurant for an Amuerza, a complete lunch of chicken potato soup, juice, and fried chicken with rice and veggies. Very authentic (down to the chicken feet in the soup), very delicious, very cheap. We are truly in country now.
It was a short ride in a group of taxis up to our hostel, in the hills above town. How can I describe this place? Words like gorgeous, fantastic, perfect, and ideal sping to mind, but words will not suffice. A simply beautiful spot, high on a hillside with stunning views, soft grass for our tents and a sweet little hostel building to accommodate us and feed us. There are even hot showers. We could not ask for a better spot for acclimatization.
Wasting no time, we took a short hike in the rain our first afternoon here up to a little waterfall, then another hike in the hills above town yesterday, then we hiked down into town today.
This group of kids is FANTASTIC. Yesterday we messed up and walked about a mile down a steep cobbled road, then had to turn around and climb that unnecessary hill and there was not one complaint, we just turned around and huffed it up the hill. Back at the hostel it was pretty cold and rainy but spirits were high, the kids recording very silly videos on their cameras, others reading, writing, hanging out.
So, things continue to go extremely well. In Otavalo today we are checking out the market and basically wandering around. I just came from the covered market, with an extremely graphic meat market that was kind of a shock to some of the kids i was with. We don't usually see massive platters of beef livers, or tubs full of entrails for sale at our markets, after all.
Time is short. Tomorrow we{ll attemt the nearby Fuya Fuya volcano climb, to about 12,500 feet or so. Day after that we set out for our long trek.
Adios!
SL
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Greetings from Quito
Hola everyone,
Greetings from Quito! We arrived here last night as planned, after a long but very smooth day of travel. We left Thompson´s Island pretty early, T´d it over to Logan and everything went pretty much how it was supposed to.
We had about 1.5 hour delay in the miami airport, which was actually quite easy to deal with (for many of us, at least) since it gave us a chance to watch the second half, overtime & ending of the Ghana v Uraguay world cup match. It was quite a scene, with at least 100 people from all over the world cramming into one of the news&candy shops in the terminal stripmall to watch on the flatscreens mounted there. Incredibly dramatic, exciting game, with a group of guys from Ghana, one with a black star buzzed into his hair, living and dying with every passing moment of the match. Very awesome.
So we arrived failry late last night to find our very sweet little hotel, got some sleep, and then today met with our in country agent to go over logisitics, etc. Today´s being spent making plans, making bookings, and doing some wandering around this part of Quito, which seems like a pretty decent city overall. In a fit of irony, we had lunch today in an indian restaurant.
So, tomorrow we head up into the mountains, through Otavalo, for a few days of acclimatizing, then on to our main trek in the Pinan lakes. I have no clue if or when i will be able to post again.
Did I mention that this is a fantastic group of kids? Well, it is. You should be proud of them.
OK then, adios for now.
SL
Greetings from Quito! We arrived here last night as planned, after a long but very smooth day of travel. We left Thompson´s Island pretty early, T´d it over to Logan and everything went pretty much how it was supposed to.
We had about 1.5 hour delay in the miami airport, which was actually quite easy to deal with (for many of us, at least) since it gave us a chance to watch the second half, overtime & ending of the Ghana v Uraguay world cup match. It was quite a scene, with at least 100 people from all over the world cramming into one of the news&candy shops in the terminal stripmall to watch on the flatscreens mounted there. Incredibly dramatic, exciting game, with a group of guys from Ghana, one with a black star buzzed into his hair, living and dying with every passing moment of the match. Very awesome.
So we arrived failry late last night to find our very sweet little hotel, got some sleep, and then today met with our in country agent to go over logisitics, etc. Today´s being spent making plans, making bookings, and doing some wandering around this part of Quito, which seems like a pretty decent city overall. In a fit of irony, we had lunch today in an indian restaurant.
So, tomorrow we head up into the mountains, through Otavalo, for a few days of acclimatizing, then on to our main trek in the Pinan lakes. I have no clue if or when i will be able to post again.
Did I mention that this is a fantastic group of kids? Well, it is. You should be proud of them.
OK then, adios for now.
SL
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Great Travel Quote
The most exciting thing about travel to me is that you're constantly wrong. You're constantly challenged by your own preconceptions. You're forced to relearn such basic, basic things. Words you thought you knew the definition for become completely changed: the word work, the word hunger, the word generosity.
Anthony Bourdain
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