October 16, 2011 School, hiking and on to the beach!

Different kinds of corn...delicious...a
delicacy in the town of Pauta at the
Sunday market

Typical indigenous ladies at the in Pauta

Ricardo and Papacita reading the Kindle! (Yolanda's dad)

Once again we have so much to share.  Since a picture is worth 1000 words, I shall go with more of the pictures and less of the words. We finished up our last week in Cuenca with more weekend  trips before heading to the coast.

We finished up our month of school at Amauta Fundacion. This was really a chance for both of us to advance our Spanish. I have a hard time admitting that I am becoming an advanced student and am now realizing that I have studied just about all the grammar I need (including subjunctive) and now my big challenge will be to use all that I know. Building vocabulary and verbs is what I need to work on. When we arrived at the beach we both had to take a test to determine our levels and we tested the same....because I am good on paper and Ricardo is good in speech. After a few days, though, we realized that we needed to be with separate teachers and changed for the last 2 days to private instruction. We are now planning to read together every day and work together on our Spanish...also to speak to each other in Spanish more often.

In Pauta with the family... including our new friend
Fernanda from Brazil.

Mi maestra in Cuenca...Katia

Tree Huggers!!!

We loved this forest in Cajas National Park...the trees are called paper trees as the bark peels off and looks like paper.

Love this collage of plant life

The woods at Cajas

Brian goes for a COLD dip!

 

Who is helping???

Our maestra Jessica in Montanita...outdoor classroom

Oscar at the aquarium....preview of
things to come at Isla de la Plata

Volcanic mud bath (before the mud massage) 

OK...now we are at the beach and dreamed about beautiful warm water for daytime and swimming as we had been cold in Cuenca. Little did we know that this is not the warm time at this part of the coast so we are back in our long sleeves with several blankets on our bed every night.  Montanita was a surfers town with mostly young people, loads of dreadlocked hippies selling jewelry and trinkets, street vendors selling drinks on the street at night....party city. We lived at the Cabanas which was part of the school and had all young folks as our neighbors. In fact we made good friends with a young man from London, Rupert and we plan to see him again in Peru. He joined us on this "very different" day of volcanic water, mud, massage, steam and aloe vera. If you are looking for a surfer vacation then we would recommend this beach but if not...perhaps there are better places to visit. We did enjoy our school and our teachers and so the experience was worth it. Now we are one hour north, in the beach/fisherman village of Puerto Lopez and will report on that in the next blog.

Once again....love to everyone and thanks for traveling with us through South America.

This was taken after the mud massage...letting the mud dry to remove the impurities (what impurities??). Before the massage we went crawling in the mud.After the mud massage we cleaned off and then had aloe vera massages followed by steam room...skin like babies at the end.

Our place in Montanita

Soup and mint tea at our favorite Veg. restaurant
in Montanita....Pacha Mama

Relaxing at the cabanas

Amazing colors on the beach

Our place in Montanita

Montanita night life (before the crowds)

October 1, 2011 Life is full each week

Man's Best Friend - at the mercado

We are now winding down our time in Cuenca with just this last week of school at Fundacion Amauta before heading to the beach for a bit of warmer weather. I usually like to highlight all the great things about our travels but I will have to be honest and admit that the weather here in Cuenca has not been great. They say it is summer and that it has been an unseasonably colder time but it does not seem like any summer I have seen. It is cool every day and most often rains for some part of the day. We need to be sure to carry our umbrellas and jackets (along with gloves and a scarf) every day.

One of our new pastimes (started in San Miguel) is drawing in pen and painting with small watercolor kits - to journal and capture memories of our travels. I am trying to do a couple each week during our travels and am enjoying it immensly - both the meditative aspect and the intention to notice details and memories that I might not have noticed in the past. Here are two examples of mine - one at the airport in Mexico City waiting to leave and one at Joan and Bill's house in SMA - in the bedroom. I hope to continue for the rest of our travels (hesitate to commit to the rest of my life!!)

Roof tiles for Yolanda's house in the campo
typical of the tiles on all the roofs in Cuenca

Living with a family allows us to adventure out almost every weekend. We have traveled to most of the small towns around Cuenca as well as longer weekends away. One weekend included a trip north to Riobamba and Alausi. Each city or town in Ecuador has its unique look as well as indigenous dress and often its own specialties for food. Needless to say, we don't try everything, but those that fit our wishes.

We have seen several Llamas in the
 countryside.
This one in the town of Giron

Yolanda - the "tree hugger"

Ping Pong in the Yungilla Valley
- much lower altitude
than Cuenca and
therefore much warmer

Volcan Chimborazo -
Ecuador's highest mountain
 (6310 meters - about 19,000 ft)
with a glacier on top.
 This is a view from trip between
Riobamba and Alausi

St. Pedro - overlooks Alausi

La Nariz del Diablo (Devil's Nose) train -
one of the most difficult train systems in the
world as it desends a 765 meter sheer cliff.

Typical students walking to school just like us.
Maybe we need uniforms too!

Here are a few thoughts about Ecuador. During my spanish classes I have a good chance to talk with my teacher about the life and culture of Ecuador, especially Cuenca which is an old colonial city with very conservative roots. It appears to me that this part of the world is in many ways like the USA in the 1950's-60's before "The Women's Rights" movement. It is a very "macho" culture and men treat women like servants and for the most part, do not partake of any family responsibilities other than earning money. (Often this is happening in the US and sending to the women and children back in Ecuador.) The Catholic church is very strong here in Ecuador and unlike Mexico - very separate from the indigenous people. In fact there is quite a class structure and there seems to be very little mixing of the Spanish or European families and the indigenous. Because of the strong church influence, divorce, birth control, gay rights, etc. is shunned. This conservative environment is uncomfortable but does provide much discussion among our friends here in Cuenca. I do hear from others that the younger generation is beginning to change some of these things but it is going to be a long time. I find myself explaining to my teacher Kathy about the many changes that happened over the years in the USA.

The inside of the train was so beautiful and
the trip felt like we were getting ready for an
old time train ride - many families.
The trip was about 2 hours each way.

A scary walk across this bridge - Puento Negro which was part of the
rail system in days gone by. So still RR ties with big spaces inbetween
and nothing to hold on to.

The train station and restaurant at the bottom of the mountain in Sibambe

El Nariz de Diablo - see along the two lines where the tracks zig zag
up or down the mountain.

Here we are at one of the most interesting, and challenging moments of our trip. We were invited by one of the administrators of our school, Narcissa, who is a professor of Tourism at one of the local Universities - University of Azuay, to speak to the students about our travels, our lifestyles and why we travel the way we do. I thought we would be able to do this in English and therefore we thought a bit about what we might say but did not prepare at all for Spanish. On the way to the school Narcissa said we could do a bit in English but she would prefer that we stay in Spanish.  When we arrived only one or two of the 40 students spoke English so we spoke in Spanish. I have no idea what I said nor how correct it was, but the students loved us both. In fact, at the end they came up to us one by one to have their pictures taken with us. It was a grand "reto" (challenge) but fun and we were both proud of ourselves.

University of Azuay - we both gave a talk to students of Tourism.

Here we went again this past Saturday to one of our favorite spots. This National Park, at 12,000 feet (above the treeline) is only about 30 minutes from Cuenca by bus and so an easy day trip. We enjoyed time with new friends and hope to go again this weekend before heading to the coast. There are over 500 glacial lakes so much to see and do.

Nacional Parque Cajas - Lake Toreadora...we walked with friends around it

Brian and Fernanda - our new friends.
Brian is from Texas and goes to our
school and we met Fernanda on the bus -
 she is from Brazil.

I am so grateful to all our family and friends who keep up with our blog and write to me that they enjoy seeing our pictures and following our travels. Please note that if you want to click on any of the pictures you can and they will enlarge.

We look forward to an exciting October and will report from the coast of Ecuador in the next few weeks.

Love to all,
Susanita y Ricardo

September, 2011 Bienvenidos a Cuenca, Ecuador

The river Tomabamba and this view can be seen
 from the living room in our house

Here we are once again in Cuenca, Ecuador at the end of our first week of our four month adventure in South America. It felt like "coming home" when we returned to my family of Yolanda and her daughter Bernarda. We are just a part of this family enjoying many meals together as well as short trips to nearby sights. This week we were joined by Kris, another student at our school who is here for one week. She was fun and we are all enjoying speaking and listening in Spanish. I must say that my listening skills have improved as our family members love to talk and tell many stories.

Beautiful door from the nuevo
 church in the center of town

Big local and organic Saturday market

Mote - one of our favorite foods, served like rice
 to include in soups, or just as a side dish.

Most days we are going to school from 8am-noon. In the afternoons we either have events at the school or we plan an outing with the family. We always return home at about 1pm for Almuerzo (main meal of the day) and then enjoy a lighter meal in the evening. Yolanda is very accomodating to us to make sure to make all the foods that we like and she lets us join her in the kitchen to help whenever we want. She is thrilled that Ricardo does the dishes. This seems to be an oddity here in Ecuador as most men do not partake of any chores of the home.

Carrots at the market

An example of a meal in our house.
 Lots of hot and cold veggies

A view at the top of one of the many sets
of steps leading up from the river.

some kind of squash type vegetable

A fruit at the market, though we have not tried it yet

Panama Hats

Cuenca is the home of the "Panama Hat" and this is was part of our city tour. Richard is in the market for a new one as his last was given to a friend in Mexico. As you will note if you have been reading this blog for a while, I am repeating some events and even some photos. It is very hard not to take photos in this photogenic surrounding. I know that many of you enjoy the photos so I am including many and will just put captions on them rather than detailing all of the events surrounding them. 

Pumapungo - Ruins right in the middle of town -
dating from both Canari and later, Incas.

Near the ruins is an area with birds of Ecuador

Cuenca boasts the fact that it has 52 churches in the center of town - allows to go to a different one every week!

A view of the 3 cupolas of the main church in the city.

The family - Yolanda in the back,
Kris and Bernarda in the front

In the town of Gulaceo - hand embroidery

The ancient art of IKAT....string is wrapped around yarn and then dyed naturally. The string is later removed and another time to dye
which gives a different pattern when it is woven. We saw this in the town of Gulaceo.

My new IKAT shawl with the woman
who made it.

Some of thousands of new orchid plants that are being germinated
and many new species are being created. We visited one of the largest
Orchidareas in the country - with orchid being shipped all over the world.

I love these leaves.

with our guide at the orchidarea

An amazing Peacock - doesn't look real in this picture or
in real life.

Two happy campers

Rosareo - a drink with fruit, and the Ecuadorean version
 of a quesadilla which is a corn and anise treat.

Hot springs in Banos de Cuenca - about 15 minutes from downtown.

We are glad to be able to stay in touch with all of you through email and this blog and we are able to talk on skype so send us a note with a good time to call you and we will try. Also glad that I can keep up with many of you on facebook - never thought I would be so attached to it, but it sure is a great way to stay in touch when traveling as gypsies. Another great travel addition this time is our kindle's. Richard is reading only in Spanish using the kindle Spanish dictionary and I am happy every night with my lighted kindle reading (in English). FYI, I am reading "Unbroken" which I highly recommend.

Well, that's it for now....more to come in a week or two. Thanks for joining us on our travels.