The Market in Otavalo

We saved our shopping for the last weekend so we didn't have to cart our purchases all over Ecuador. We also wanted to wait for Otavalo, a city north of Quito, which was towards the end of our trip and the home to the largest market in South America. Booths, as far as the eye can see, sell everything from toothpaste to pigs to alpaca sweaters with little images of alpacas sown into them. For those of you who don't know, here's what an alpaca looks like:

Who knew something so fluffy existed in the wild. Next, notice the Alpaca sown in the front of the sweater made from of alpaca wool. Brillant. This may or may not have been the exact sweater I bought Bridget, my younger sister.

The purchase that was my personal favorite was the 17 finger puppets (if you know Margaret's job you'll understand), nearly one for each animal in the animal kingdom.

To accomodate all our purchases, we had to buy a separate bag, which after a little recommended negotiation, cost only 50 cents. We filled her to the brim. Here's an example of the chaos that forced us to shop for hours. This picture only shows about 1/100th of the merchants and goods in the lively market on any given Saturday.

Now we go back to Quito for a few more days, then again to Guayaquil to fly home for four days for my older sister´s wedding. Congrats Britt and Theo!

The Last Hike

Judging from our blog entries, it might appear that all we´ve really done is hike through the Andes. Well, it´s partly true. Rest assured, however, that this will be the last outdoor-sy post for a while because from here on out, we´ll be in Quito for a few days and then living in Buenos Aires until late December.

At the Black Sheep Inn, the eco-tourist destination I mentioned earlier, you don´t have much to do beside eat, hike, hangout with the other guests, and read. It´s a spectacular place three hours from any major city in Ecuador. It´s well isolated. Most guests have to ride in a back of a pick up truck to get there...which might have been the better option, given the four-hour, bumpy-ass bus ride we took! The trip is so worth it though.

On our third day here, we took a hike to an active volcano that erupts every 10,000 years. In the mean time, however, it doubles as a giant mountain lake. Don´t ask me how that works.

This will give you a better idea of what we saw.


A bit more to come on the Black Sheep Inn.

Salasaca.

So, from the tourist haven of Banos, we moved on to a decidedly non-tourist destination, Salasaca, the home of an indigenous community (the Salasaca), in the Central Highlands. There is a backstory here: over the summer I met Rosa Maria, the director and founder of a bilingual school in Salasaca, when she came to Chicago to work with my organization. She graciously invited us to visit her town and school and stay in her home when she heard we would be in Ecuador. So we did, and it was wonderful. Here's the view from the porch of her really cool house, which she has set up sort of like a hostel (though we got to be the only guests!):

But we spent most of our time there at Escuela Katitawa, Rosa's school. To be clear, the school is bilingual in Spanish and Quichua, the indigenous language of the Salasaca and many other Ecuadorian groups. It is not a public school, and thus does not receive government funding for its operations. It has 30 students, from the ages of 3 to 14, three classrooms and three teachers. Rosa is a fascinating person, extremely active in her community in terms of political issues, women's rights, and education. She is passionate about her indigenous identity and culture and preserving it for the children at the school, who are surrounded on all sides by towns where people speak only Spanish. Here's one of the school buildings and one of our youngest new buddies:

Just because she was the cutest little person ever and super funny, we had to add a face shot of her as well. Her name is Karina, and she's three. And she has some trouble keeping her soup in her mouth.

We spent about two and a half days there, working most of the time with the kids at the school (where the staff was not shy about thrusting us into leadership roles immediately!). The kids were pretty hilarious, and also not shy whatsoever. We played games, taught some English, and realized that kids are pretty much the same everywhere:

As for other Salasaca experiences, we were fed some excellent soup (almost exclusively soup, actually), we got to attend a political movie screening (Spanish, quite interesting) and town meeting (Quichua, not understandable to us, unfortunately), and we got very used to the noises that cows and donkeys make, which are actually quite different than the moos and hee-haws we usually imitate... All in all, it was a great few days, and a place we'd love to visit again.

Finally, a Volcano!

We're a little behind on posts for a couple reasons. First, we spent three days in an indigenous community called Salasaca (an worthwhile experience which Margaret will soon post on). Second, we arrived yesterday at the Black Sheep Inn, an eco-tourism destination, which is so isolated we have to use an old satellite dish to get Internet, which they admit isn't the fastest or the cheapest connection in the world. They want you to hike, horseback ride, and read. Whatever. But to finish up on Baños...

So we went to Baños partly because we wanted to see a volcano. We were literal in the shadow of Mount Tungurahua, yet we some how failed to see it even after three days and a hike to look for the damn thing. If you want to see how ridiculous it is that we couldn´t see the volcano from Banos, type in "Banos, Ecuador" into Google Maps and you can see the volcano puffing right over the city.

The second day, even after the ridiculous 40-mile bike ride, we took a steep hike up the mountain right outside town in search of the volcano. The views were amazing. We tried to hike up to a place that reportedly has a view of the volcano, but when we got as close as a couple hundred feet from the outlook site, we were thwarted by the fact that the path went right by someone´s home, and there were two sleeping dogs lying across it. Before you judge, Ecuadorian dogs are not American dogs. There often isn't a bowl of Pedigree waiting for the well groomed pup at home. They feast primarily on the fear of tourists. We decided not to tempt fate and dog bites and turned back instead. Not a huge deal, since you can´t actually see the top of the volcano above the clouds except in the early morning.

To say the least, I wanted to see a volcano. Luckily on a walk in Salasaca, I saw her, Mount Tungurahua. It was pretty amazing to see an active volcano so close. This picture does not do it justice.

Baños: done aaand done!

Okay, obviously there´s a hell of a lot more to do in Baños. But we really feel like we´ve taken advantage of as much as possible in the three days we´ve been here! Baños is pretty small, but it´s kind of the hub of adventure-y travel in this part of Ecuador, with all kinds of places offering biking, jungle tours, rafting, etc.

We arrived at night and didn`t take too much in; we stumbled to our hostel, which turned out to be the quietest, cleanest place ever. We were shown the charming rooftop terrace/restaurant by the hostel operator, and as she led us to the outdoor balcony, she pointed up. We both jumped and gasped-- literally right in front of us was an enormous mountain that we hadn´t been able to see in the dark, which went straight up at apparently no slant whatsoever. Coming out of it was a waterfall, which we later learned fed the nearby thermal baths that the town is named for.

This place is gorgeous, surrounded by massive green mountains on all sides and in the shadow of the active Tungurahua volcano, which we haven´t actually fully seen since it´s behind all those other peaks. Yesterday we did the 61km bike ride (we´re South American now, we only use the metric system) from Baños to Puyo, which is technically mostly downhill, but includes a surprising number of difficult climbs for a trip that drops 850 meters in altitude. It was an absolutely breathtaking ride; we went from being high up in the Andes and looking at waterfalls to essentially being in a tropical area at the beginning of Ecuador´s eastern rainforest territory. Here´s what it looked like at the beginning:

Notice Brian´s fanny pack and German soldier-style helmet.

Along the way we got a spectacular view of the Pailon del Diablo (Devil´s Cauldron) waterfall. We got really close to it, you might not be able to tell from the photo but the spray from it was soaking me at this point:

We also got to look at it from a precarious suspension bridge, whose capacity was just five (5!) people. I don´t really like heights though, so while I was on the bridge I mainly concentrated on not peeing my pants. The view, however, was amazing.

Oddly, we don´t have any shots of the end of the ride. I´m assuming that it´s because we wanted to die after five hours, and had no strength to look for or operate the camera. We were pretty hard core there for a while, but passed out as soon as we got on the bus back to Baños.

There is more to tell about Baños, but we´re on a bit of a time and technology crunch...more to come soon!

Thanks Parents!

So Margaret went to open her second book of the trip and was pulled to a random page somewhere in the middle. Placed in the book was this:


For those of you who haven´t met them, these are my parents. All I have to say is this: They would. I think they do stuff like put their picture in books before we travel so we´ll find it one day and suddenly remember how much we love them. Margaret and I both agree, however, that we need no reminder. That goes for Margaret´s parents too. Both the Doughertys and the Conway/Neafsey clan have always been amazing, especially in preparation for this trip. Whether it was letting us stay at their place for two weeks, helping clean our apartment, or coming to eat dinner with us and take the car home the night before we left, they were more than willing. They deserve thanks and their parenting deserves recognition. Thank you guys so much for everything. We love you!

An Ode to Buses

Buses are the way to travel in South America, mostly because they´re the only way to get around. So far Margaret and I have traveled about 300 miles by bus, which has taken a total of about 17 hours. Why do the buses on average only travel 15-20 miles per hour, you ask? Hairpin turns, hitchbacks, rockslides, goats, and many other obstacles the Andes present. But with this slow trek comes an experience worth mentioning. First of all, you have these views:

Clouds and towns below us at every turn.

Secondly, the buses are a scene themselves. Often standing room only, even for long trips, the buses are crowded. The bus drives along with the driver´s assistant hanging out the side of the bus yelling the destination to people waiting on the side of the road. If the people waiting happen to be looking for a bus, they jump on as we slowly roll past. The bus doesn´t stop because, I don`t know, I guess they`re in a hurry.

When we do stop to let people off, the vendors get on. Ecuadorians selling everything from warm banana bread to fruit salad to Ginseng place themselves strategically all over the countryside. They have one to two minutes to get on and off the bus before it leaves with them on it or not. I´ve seen one or two vendors hop off the moving bus. Margaret and I can see all of this of course because our heads, and no one else`s, stick above the seats made for people at least a foot shorter than we are.

So with the views, the food, and the entertainment, the rides just aren`t that bad. They`re even a bit fun.

Sangria and Inca Walls.

A few days ago we ascended slowly, slowly up the mountains to arrive at the city of Cuenca, Ecuador´s third largest. It´s a really charming and interesting place, definitely up there in terms of altitude (as evidenced by our rocking headaches on the bus), and full of cobblestone streets, universities, live music, big churches, and restaurants. We were greeted really warmly by our hosts at El Cafecito, the hostal...they were in the middle of a staff party, so they barely showed us our room before ladling out cups of sangria for us from a bucket. Yes, a big, red, festive bucket. The whole place is really lively, with all the rooms centered around a popular restaurant/bar, which makes for good eating and hanging out. We spent nearly all day yesterday seeing the sights and markets and walking all over the city, some intentional walking, some not so much...

Today we took a bus ride (with many others, including an amazing Frenchman with sweatpants tucked into his short, pointy, maroon boots) to the ruins of Ingapirca, even higher in the mountains. A great guide told us about how it first belonged to the Cañari, a matriarchal society who lived there 1100 years ago and worshipped the moon as their main goddess. Then the Inca took it over and made it all about the sun, their main deity (those Inca...soooo predictable!). There is evidence of both cultures there, including a tomb with a dead princess and her 10 drugged, buried-alive gal pals, circular foundations, rectangular foundations, aqueducts and water systems, and stones and temples that are placed so specifically that during the solstice and equinox, the sun shines directly into tiny little niches.

Here it is:

Tomorrow, on to Baños! And no, that doesn´t mean bathrooms...

Iguanas, Kind of Like Squirrels

So in Chicago we have squirrels, rabbits, and the occasional raccoon. I´d like to think that if an Ecuadorian saw a squirrel, he´d be as afraid as I was when I came upon the iguanas in the park. Something tells me, however, that he wouldn´t.

In the Parque Bolivar of Guayaquil, four-foot long iguanas just sit there and do nothing as people pet their faces. As most North Americans would, we hesitated at first when a group of people gathered around the gringos (us) and started yelling ¨tocala!¨

Of course, we had to tocar.

Just so you get an idea of the size of these guys, which sat literally every 3 feet in most of the trees and on the ground, here you go.


I thought it was a dinosaur at first.


Iguanas can move quickly when they want to, hence my hesitation to touch anywhere near its man-eating mouth.


Go here to see the video of Margaret petting the iguana.

On to Cuenca, a city in the Andes.

La Llave Grande

Hello family and friends, and welcome to our travel blog! It took us a while to get it set up, partially because we had so much to do before we left, but mainly because we couldn´t figure out a name. We finally settled on La Llave Grande, which means The Big Key. Beyond the many metaphors you could attach to keys, and the fact that this trip (our ¨entrance¨ into another part of the world) is a really big deal for us, we ultimately chose the name because on our first night here, the hotel gave us a key to the room attached to a key ring in the shape of...a huge key.

The ridiculousness of it went perfectly with our state of mind at the time.

So we have arrived, after many flights, in Guayaquil, Ecuador. It´s a huge, hot, bustling city, but we actually haven´t seen too much of it yet besides a few blocks and some dancing dollar bills:

We´ll let you know more once we check out the iguanas that are reportedly in a park nearby.