RIP Monkey

Just got some very sad news that my beautiful cat, Monkey was put down today. She has been in the wonderful care of my dear friend Ashley since the end of June as I was not able to bring her to South America with us. Unfortunately, she got some terrible liver cancer that started to show symptoms on Thursday and by today the vet determined that there was nothing that could be done.    She enjoyed a great 9 years in this world, purring every minute even up until the end. Thank you Ashley for being there for her at the end. She will be missed by everyone who met her!
Update, here's a couple photos:

Day Trip to Otavalo

On Saturday, we headed out of the city for a day trip to Otavalo, which is a well known local crafts market. It was a long and beautiful drive through the Andes. I have never been afraid of flying or heights in my life, but there were some moments on the bus when I had to close my eyes. The roads are narrow and windy and  just wrap around the side of the mountains. Sitting on a bus, it felt like we could go over a cliff at any moment.

Anyway, the market was HUGE with thousands of vendors very cool and we got some nice things. We also stopped at a few other places including the equatorial line, Mitad Del Mundo, and straddled the earth. Throughout the day we got to see llamas, alpacas, cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, horses, guinea pigs, peacocks, and lots and lots of dogs!! Overall, it was a great day! Enjoy some photos below. (of course, Spencer wanted me take some inappropriate pictures of him and the massive equator line but I figured I'd veto him and post the following)

Photos from the drive, beautiful:

   

   

Photos from the Middle of the World:

 

 

Photos from Otavalo:

  

 

 

Having a drink with our new friend Graham overlooking the Market.

After the market we stopped for lunch in a nice resort style place that had peacocks!!!

  

At an overlook we got a chance to take a photo with some highland people and an alpaca and a llama.  The alpaca was super soft, but wanted to lie down right when we got there.

 

 

Spencer got a cool new hat in a little town called Cotacacchi.

This was the last of the school organized new teacher orientation trips, so it may be a while before we have some more fun pics to post.  The apartment is coming along, hopefully I'll take some pictures of that next week for anyone who is interested in our digs.

Lovely Ecuador

As promised, I wanted to share some positive observances of our new homeland. While some things are challenging and difficult, there are a lot of things that are AWESOME here:

• All four seasons everyday!  Literally, it's chilly at night into the 50s but goes up to 80ish during the day in the sun.  If you don't like the weather, wait a few minutes, it will change or find some shade. Apparently the wet season is coming, but even that will be nice as it is a little too dry right now. I could use a little humidity (never thought I'd say that)
• The people here are sooo nice. No matter what the problem, everyone is great about it and assures us that it will work out. No one gets too worked up (traffic is a pain, but that's true everywhere). From the people at Spencer's school to our landlady to everyone else we've come across, the attitude is always positive and easy. Love that!
• No Bugs.  Seriously, we're at 9,000 ft and I've seen very few bugs up here.  Love it!
• The park behind our house, obviously.
• Every taxi we have taken has been between $1-$3.  It's awesome.
• The promise of amazing travel in our immediate future.  Whether to the jungle, the galapagos or the beaches, we pretty much can't go wrong.  Many pictures to come!
• Fruits and veggies galore!

Much more to come!

Tomorrow we are heading out of the city for the day to Ottavalo.  Hopefully, we'll have many pictures to share.

Quirky Ecuador

So, there are some things here that are not good or bad, just different. I don't want this post to come across as a whiny complaint of my new country, just some observations (okay, some of them are more annoyances, I'm human and opinionated and it isn't all puppies and sunshine here). I will follow up this list soon with some equally complimentary observances, of which I have many:

• This is my favorite and I’ve been meaning to share this excerpt from our orientation guide regarding local addresses in Quito for a while:
  “Finding an address in Quito can be a bit of a challenge as there are 2 systems for numbering a house or building. Some addresses will have just a number which indicates how many meters the building is from the main road.  A building may also have a letter pre-fix.  This letter indicates the quadrant of the city (N, S, E, W).  This letter will be followed by a number, which indicates the number of blocks from the closest main road, there is then another number which is the distance from the last intersection.  Ie: the address – Whymper N28-42 y Ave. Fco. Orellana indicates that the building is on the street named Whymper, is in the northern quadrant, the 28^th block from the closest main road, and 42 meters (more or less) from the last intersection which would be Av. Fco. Orellana.  Some buildings may show both systems of numbering”  Got it?!?! Clear as mud.
• After spending YEARS happily adopting and adjusting to the growing green movement in America- reducing, reusing and recycling, I have landed back in the '70s. Seemingly, no one here is worried about their global impact. Despite my best efforts, I can not avoid the daily consumption of many plastic bottles and have no resources to recycle them. Litter is more abundant then I’d like to see.  Automobiles spew gross black fumes at their whim etc.
• The security here is intense.  We have four keys to get from the street into our apartment and our landlady is planning on adding another lock to our door!  All homes are surrounded by high concrete walls topped with barbed wire, electric fences, or straight up broken glass embedded in the concrete, none of which are visually appealing. We have a private security guard posted on our street from 8:00 am – 8:00 pm.  His name is Marco and he is awesome and helps out with other things like getting our water jugs and gas refills.  I’m sure this need for personal security is rooted in a cultural history of instability, civil wars and uprisings, but it’s taking some getting used to.  Back in Warwick we barely locked our door for the last 10 years and no one had high concrete walls surrounding their property.
• I had anticipated being disturbed by the local street dogs here, but I think I’ve come to terms with them. For the most part, they seem content with their lives.  They appear well fed, docile and free to roam their chosen neighborhoods.  What I did not anticipate are what I am calling, the “Yard Dogs”. Related back to the high level of security, you don’t actually see these dogs for the most part, but you hear them. They are posted as additional security behind the compound walls and you get a nice little jump when walking by and they start barking at you and poking a paw under their fence.  In my (silly American) mind, they are begging to come out for a walk with me and interact with the world they are cut off from!  Every time Maia and I are out walking, we wake up entire blocks of yard dogs as we stroll along.

Stay tuned for part 2 of this list soon!

What a view

Spencer took this shot today from his desk in his new classroom.  We're not in Providence anymore!

Ecuador is kicking my ass

I have been spending sooo much time in the amazing park behind our house, that it was inevitable that I "take a spill" at some point. It was only a matter of time and yesterday was the day.  While out walking with my awesome walking partner, Kate, I decided to act like superwoman and scale a balance beam type structure we came across (these are randomly placed throughout the park). I was doing great until I decided to jump down off the end. It was only 3 feet!

Well, my knees hate it when I do these silly things and one of them immediately gave out. Unfortunately, it was my better knee (not the one whose ACL I've torn twice). After a big crunch and some writhing in pain, Kate and I slowly made our way back down the mountain towards home. Thankfully we came across a cab once we hit a road that I took while Kate walked Maia the rest of the way down (THANK YOU KATE!).

Once home, my knee started to swell as expected. I've done this to myself enough times to know that it is probably a bad sprain and there is not much they can do beyond surgery and I am not ready to take that on down here. So, I had resigned myself to just take it easy at home for a few days and try to tough it out. Spencer went to school today and inquired if there was a pair of crutches I could use for a few days.  To which they responded by sending the school doctor to me! My first house call!  Too bad doctors don't do this in America anymore.  She was great, checked me out, agreed with my diagnosis for the most part.  Gave me crutches and a compression bandage and a shot of anti inflammatory in the ass. Then said she'll be back tomorrow to see how the swelling is doing before deciding if I need an x-ray.

It's feeling better already so I have high hopes that I will be back hiking by the weekend. In the meantime, I am taking advantage of my lack of responsibilities and enjoying my couch. I'll keep you posted on what happens.  Fingers crossed I don't end up in some crazy Ecuadorian imaging center tomorrow.

Between this and the altitude sickness, Ecuador is kicking my ass!

Finally made it to the Old City and took some Pics to share

We had a great tour of the old city today, pretty amazing place.  I love that Quito was declared the first UNESCO World Heritage Site along with Krakow, Poland in 1978 (the city I studied abroad in during college). We took some pics below, but I don't feel like these really convey how beautiful and cool this part of the city is.  We live in the more modern north section about a 20 minute car ride from here.

 

 

These pictures are of the Basilica, a massive colonial church built over the last century. 

It holds 10,000 people inside!  

The architect wanted to infuse some local Ecuador flavor, so instead of gargoyles on the facade, you can see native animals like turtles and iguanas (I tried to capture some, not sure if they come through).  

 

Cool streets. VERY STEEP

 

Shots from the Grande Plaza and posing with the Presidential Palace Guard.

More random shots from the old city. Leave it to Spencer to find a cute puppy to chat up.

Finally, a view looking north over the city from the perch of the winged Virgin Mary.  

A random shot from a hike this afternoon.  The more I discover in this park, the better it gets!

Have to share this....

One of the things I was really looking forward to with this move was adopting the local custom of having a housekeeper.  Its a luxury in the states that I haven't been able to afford on a regular basis.  Well, we have been in our place for a little over a week and our housekeeper came for the first time on Wednesday.  She spent nearly 3 hours busting her butt, very admirable, especially considering how small our place is and our minimal furniture and lack of stuff to dust.  The place looks great and our beautiful South American hard wood floors look shiny and amazing.  And as a special bonus, I just discovered that she even organized the drawer where I was stuffing plastic bags (who knew people even did this)!  Had to share this picture. All for only $12.00!!!

Walk at your own risk

Came across this on our way to Super Maxi yesterday. Spencer almost fell in.  Be sure to watch your step in Ecuador!

Also came across this burned out section in the woods behind our house.  Trying to decide if this was a deliberate burn or not. It's very other wordly, but contained to a small section and my walking paths seem untouched.

Look what we found today!!

A little bit of New England here in Quito!

Found the DD while out shopping for a washer and dryer for our apartment.  After a week of pricing them out in a variety of stores, we finally stumbled upon one where we think we got a great deal.  Apparently, they dont really do rebates here so instead they throw in "Regalos" or freebies to sweeten the deals.  We bought the washer dryer and a microwave from a store, but the lady threw in an iron, rice cooker, glass bowls, spatula, big spoon, and even a 5" portable TV! She literally kept running back for more.  It was hilarious.

We also had another pricing quandary, bonus points to anyone who can figure out how much the dryer cost from this sticker posted on the item: