Still Discovering New Fruits

I love that 8 months into living in Ecuador I am still discovering new fruits all the time. For example, I walked into my friend Kate's apartment this morning for a lesson on how to make scones (my first attempt on my own was an epic failure) and found this little gem sitting on her counter. I immediately asked about it and she offered to crack it open to share. So, I tried my first mangosteen this morning and it was delicious!!

We need to get some of these delicious things in Rhode Island!!

Random Photos

A bunch of our fellow new teachers live in the same neighborhood with us so we decided to get together this weekend and catch up with a Progressive Dinner. We hit four houses for four different courses. It was great fun and great food.

 

Got this photo of a soccer game happening across the street from our house on Friday night. The crazy part was that they were playing at 10:30 pm! They take their soccer very seriously here.

As I've mentioned before, there are LOTS of dogs in this city (most of the leashed ones are Schnauzer's oddly). Unfortunately, tons of them are stuck in tiny little yards or on rooftops and it's very sad, but we have had to get used to it because there is nothing we can do to change it. They are kept for security so that they can bark a lot and look really scary. Here are some of my favorites because they are such a funny and eclectic little pack:

Note the cocker spaniel, husky and golden retriever. I like to imagine that they are best friends and spend their weekends frolicking in the countryside.

Safety First in Ecuador

Came across this scary sight yesterday and had to share:

 

That is a pole loaded with hundreds of electrical connections and you can see that many of them are just live wires that are hanging down just off street level. Safety always comes first in Ecuador!

Tragedy in Quito

Okay, tragedy may be a little strong for this one, but I am super bummed! As I've mentioned a dozen times before, my absolute favorite part about living in our apartment is the amazing park behind our house. Maia and I love to trek around up in the park daily entering through an opening right near our house. Unfortunately, last week I headed up there as usual only to discover that someone has locked the gate!!!

Here's a photo of the gate:

Here's a photo of the Ecuadorian 'lock' (how did they bend the re-bar like that and wouldn't it have been easier to just buy a padlock?)

We can still access the park, but this was definitely the best and most convenient gate. This recent development as well as a few other issues has lit a fire under us to find a new apartment soon.  Stay tuned.

We had another visitor!

We were very excited to host another visitor all the way from Chicago this past week, our friend from college - Mary Beth. We had great plans to show her all around Quito and a cool area called Otavalo. Unfortunately, Ecuador showed us who is boss once again. More on that later.

Mary Beth arrived after a very easy travel day from Chicago on Wednesday evening. Thursday she and I headed off to see the Middle of the World monument in the morning. We actually started at one of my favorite spots, an amazing Crater viewpoint called Pululahua:

Next we hit the Museum of the Sun for some fun equatorial experiments including the balancing of the egg:

  

Finally, we hit the great photo op Middle of the World monument, where I neglected to take any pictures, oops. 

Continuing on our tour, we headed to the Old City for some historical sites. Mary Beth and I climbed to the tippy top of the Basilica (via a rickety ladder that would never have been accessible to the public in the US - very dangerous) for this amazing photo:

Here's Mary Beth at the beginning of the climb:

Next we headed towards the Plaza Grande to do some people watching and I found this memorial to Hugo Chavez (this was the day after his death and Ecuador had declared 3 days of mourning). It was much smaller than I had expected considering the news out of America was claiming that South America was virtually in hysterics, evidently, Ecuador was handling his death pretty well:

The next morning we headed out early for Otavalo, a mountain town about 2.5 hours outside the city. We chose it for Mary Beth's visit because we could do a wide variety of activities in a small place. We started by visiting a local waterfall:

 

 

 

I continue to get a big kick out of the Ecuadorian's general lack of safety awareness.  Here is a woman who decided to completely ignore the "Danger, Do Not Enter" sign and go right underneath it to access the waterfall. And the other picture is Spencer on a scary bridge that moved a shocking amount while we crossed it:

 

Next we headed to the Condor Park, which was very cool and we got to see some huge and cool birds. But was also a little sad as they just looked like they wanted to fly away.

 

Yes, this is a Bald Eagle and we were so close! This picture does not do this awesome bird justice.

 

This guy looks like a pigeon in this picture, but he was about 2 feet tall and much cooler then anything you see on the street in New York City.

  

They did a cool flight / feeding demo that was entirely in Spanish and we missed most of (due to an out dated guide book, thanks Lonely Planet). But, check out the location!

While walking around the park after, we found this HUGE winged blue bug dragging it's loot, a GIANT hairy spider.  We just had to share:

 

After that we headed back to our hotel, Casa Mojanda, for dinner and a quiet evening before what was planned to be a big day on Saturday visiting South America's largest outdoor market. Here is the stunning view from our little cabin's porch, and a little friend we met on the grounds.:

 

That night we had a great dinner and headed to bed. Unfortunately, Mary Beth and I both woke up in the middle of the night with food poisoning that took us down HARD. We spent all night and the next morning trading turns in the bathroom before making the sad decision to head back to the comfort of home in Quito without getting to see the market or do the other items on our itinerary. Oh, Ecuador.

Unfortunately, the food poisoning slowed our tourist pace to a complete crawl and for the next three days we were only able to get off the couch for a little while each day. We were able to go up the TeleferiQo on Sunday only to be chased down by a hail storm. On Monday we headed to the Artisinal Mercado for some souvenirs for Mary Beth but had to head back after too long.

Overall, it wasn't the trip that I had carefully planned for Mary Beth, but we made the most of it and accomplished what we could. It was nice to see an old friend and be able to show off our new homeland. And, it was a great reminder that Ecuador is a tough place and it is always in charge!