New Year Ushered In

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So Happy New Year to all. Susan and I had a nice holiday doing a little entertaining and a little travelling as well. After Christmas, Susan was blessed with a week off from work, while I, still had to continue with the daily grind. Not really, there wasn’t a whole lot going on at the office.

Katie, Susan, and I went out to FRATES with Ari on Friday the 28th. Ari came to Ecuador to travel around and to volunteer some of his time at FRATES. He will be staying out there for a few weeks trying to help in whatever ways he can.

The four of us spent most of Friday morning working on weeding and mulching the medicinal plant garden. There are 15 plant beds in all and I think we were able to tackle about 3 of them. There is/was quite literally, a jungle growing in the garden. After working for a few hours, Antonio made us a fabulous lunch out there. We sat around eating, drinking, and talking about the finer points of life in Ecuador.

That afternoon, our PC friend Andrea and her family came to Puyo for a two night stay. Andrea’s mother follows our blogs religiously and some might even call her a blog stocker. She was dying to meet us and we were dying to meet her - now was our chance.

They got rooms at El Jardín and immediately fell in love with the place - not surprising, it is the best place in town. We met them there for dinner. Susan Birch-Carl, another of our PC friends was coming to Puyo as well to spend the weekend with Sue and I. She also came to dinner.

Andrea’s family is hilarious. You can certainly tell by their personalities that they are related and that they are a fun and loving family. Unfortunately, Andrea’s father did not make the trip to Ecuador. After dinner, we moved into the tv hut at El Jardín to watch a movie and to eat some of Andrea’s mother’s pumpkin cookies - damn they were good.

As luck would have it, Andrea’s mother is a budding birder so I was able to hook them up with Chris Canady, the local bird expert and director of the ethnobotanical park in town. We met Chris the next morning around 7:30 and he took us all to his park. We did more of tour of the park than a birding trip, but no worries - it was still a blast. We went to parts of the park I had not seen before and were off-roading it, as the trails were no longer in good shape. Chris taught us about the interesting plants in the park and their uses. Somehow Andrea’s brother, Alex, managed to knock down a wasp nest which sent us all running into the jungle to avoid being stung. Andrea’s mom is apparently deathly allergic. Miraculously we avoided stings. Somehow, the wasps were uninterested in us.

Later that day, we went into town to go to the Waorani store, but it was closed. We decided to eat lunch instead. This, of course, was fine with me. I like food more than I like to look at artesenia (though only because I’ve seen this particular artesenia a million times before). After lunch Susan, Susan, and I went back to our apartment for a nap and the Crosbys returned to El Jardín for some R&R. I am not sure Susan and Susan actually napped though. They started watching episodes of Huff that we have on DVD. I think they watched 6 episodes that afternoon. I didn’t nap either though. I spent my time up on the roof trying to build a roof for my vegetables growing up there. They all seem to have stunted growth due to the constant inundation of water. We do have cucumbers growing well though, so that is a good thing.

The plan was for Andrea’s family to come over later for some cocktails and speed scrabble. Andrea’s mother is a champion scrabble player and she didn’t disappoint with this ¨new¨ quick version of the game. She beat us all - surprise!!! I really didn’t play, so I didn’t lose. I enjoyed circling the table watching everyone else rack their brains to make words. Speed Scrabble is one of those games I need to pump myself up to play. My vocabulary has never been all that big and when you add in that we were playing it in Spanglish (English and Spanish words) I was at yet another disadvantage - damn Spanish speakers in the room.

The next morning, we saw the Crosby’s off. They were able to make it to the Waorani store to buy some artesenia - so that was good. Susan stayed the day and watched even more videos with Susan. I made us some homemade mac and cheese and we had a killer fruit salad for dinner. We then watched a movie together - Human Trafficking. It was good, but not great. Susan left the next morning- she was headed back to her site for some New Year’s Eve celebrations. She’ll be coming back in a couple weeks though with her parents who will be visiting her.

New Year’s Eve was different to say the least. I woke up in the morning and finished Frank McCourt’s Teacher Man then proceeded to start reading Deception Point by Dan Brown (a book that Andrea’s mom gave to Susan two days ago). I read most of the day - only interrupted by eating and one short jog. By 8:00pm I had read 500 pages. Susan tore me away from my book so that we could venture out into Puyo to take in the festivities.

New Year’s in Puyo was different than any other I have experienced. Each barrio (neighbourhood) has their own fiestas. The young men dress up as women and set up road blocks. As cars approach they get stopped and the young men flaunt their fake breasts and short skirts - in order to pass, the drivers need to hand over a small amount of change. The other interesting tradition in Ecuador is for people to make paper Mache mannequins of famous or infamous people. At the stroke of midnight, they set them on fire. Sooooooooo - Puyo became an inferno at midnight as thousands of paper Mache creations were burned.

Susan and I wandered up town and were greeted by a huge crowd of people. The city had a few bandstands set up. There was music, food, fireworks, and people all about. We ran into one of Susan’s friends Maria and spent a couple hours walking around with her. She did her best to explain the traditions and weird oddities that we were witnessing.

One of the things that was most interesting/alarming, was the number of fireworks being set off by 10 year-olds. Kids were walking around with Roman candles - usually launching them into the air, but at times, launching them into crowds. These Roman candles were interesting in and of themselves. They were about 2 feet long and once lit, they would fire off about 15 shots. Of course, like any unsafe firework, there was often a strangely long delay between lighting it and it actually going off. The delay led many to actually look down the barrel to see if it was a dud. This resulted in a couple of facial shots, but no blown out eyes. Somehow, I feel like I was witnessing, the human version of survival of the fittest. The fireworks were brought here to weed out the morons. Oh yeah, I also saw a guy stuff one down his pants so that he could shoot fireworks from his crotch - brilliant form of birth control.

Stupid humans aside, my favorite firework episode was watching a dog on a roof top bark at every single firework shot up in the air - it was funny - I probably watched him do it 50 times before, even I grew bored before he did.

Finally, Susan and I strolled back towards our apartment and barrio to usher in the new year. We stopped by our barrio’s fiesta and watched as they lit a huge bonfire of mannequins at midnight. We gave each other a new year’s kiss and then shook the hands of a few neighbours before returning to our apartment. By 12:30am the air was thick with smoke - so much so that we had to close our windows to avoid a night of hacking. Susan fell right asleep, but I stayed up to finish my book - I read until 3:00 that morning.

We got up at 6:00am to catch a bus to Latacunga. Even at 6:00, the air was still thick with smoke. As we walked from our apartment to the main road, we saw the aftermath of the day long celebration - smouldering fires, beer bottles, drunks passed out on the sidewalks, puke, trash, etc. etc. Gladly, we caught a bus and rode outta town.

The bus we caught was a Puyo to Quito bus. Latacunga is a town between the two. When the ayudante (person who collects money) came to get our fare, we said we were headed to Latacunga - she said that the bus wasn´t going there. We said that it is a Quito bus that passes through Latacunga. She said that there were not enough people going to Quito on the bus and that they would only go to Ambato. Hmmmmm - so much for bus schedules - this was a first for us. No worries, there are tons of buses going from Ambato to Latacunga. We caught one right away in Ambato and were in Latacunga an hour earlier than we needed to be. We were meeting Roger, his kids, and Jay (another PC Volunteer) in Latacunga. From there, we were going to Quilotoa and Chuchilan to spend a few days doing some hiking, card playing, drinking, and relaxing.

While we waited for the others to arrive, Sue and I walked to the market in Latacunga. It is a big market and has one whole section devoted to shoes. Seriously, there had to be about 50 stalls of shoe vendors. These were followed by a series of sock vendors - this seems logical - after the socks though, all bets were off. There were hats, electronics, foods, blankets - the list goes on and on.

When everyone had arrived, we got on a bus headed for Chuchilan. This was going to be a 3-4 hour trip on mountain roads. The trip itself was scenic until it started to get cloudy and rainy. The bus had to stop at one point because the road was partly washed out. We all got off the bus while the driver hacked away at the mountain-side with an acedone (hoe) to make the road wide enough to pass (I´ll include a photo of this with the blog). After 10 minutes of digging he drove the bus across and we all got back on.

Roger, who had been on this trip before played the normal dad role. Whenever we’d ask how much longer, he’d say ¨20 minutes¨ to which he did this an unprecedented 5 times. The last time though, he said ¨5 minutes¨ and damned if he wasn’t spot on.

We rolled into Chuchilan around 4:30 and met Dennis Test (volunteer from Omnibus 97 - this was his site) at the hostal. Dennis is helping run the hostal, so he gave us the lowdown on how things work and where our rooms were. We immediately ordered some grilled cheese sandwiches and French fries, cracked open some beers, and then played speed scrabble. Dennis is not my favorite person in the world. In fact, I´ll go as far as saying I don’t like him at all. He is very competitive, acts like a no-it-all, and often has no couth when it comes to manners. I had a bad poker experience with him back in Quito a couple months ago. The story goes something like this: A group of us were playing a friendly poker game. The buy in was $5 and we decided that 1st place would get 75% of the money and 2nd place would get 25%. Dennis refused to play because he said it wasn’t worth his time if he couldn’t win it all (strike one). We finally worked something out that was ok with him - he then refused to start handing out chips until everyone’s $5 was on the table (strike two - remember it’s a friendly game). Then while playing, whenever someone would help out one of the new poker players he would cry foul saying that if they didn’t know how to play it was their own damn fault (foul ball). I didn’t last all that long that night, partly because I don’t really like poker (especially Texas Hold´em - get a life people - there is more to poker than Texas Hold´em) and mostly because I was tired of sitting at that table. So, about an hour into it I went all in with a 2 of diamonds and a 3 of spades - naturally I lost - Dennis told me that was stupid and that I should learn to play poker (strike three). The poor guy didn’t realize that giving up $5 was worth it if meant I could leave him at the table. I was there with Roger and calmly waited for him to finish before I left to go back to the hostal. I found out later that he lost the game - got what he deserved I suppose.

So, back to Chuchilan. When Roger told me that this was Dennis site, I had some reservations about going, but ultimately decided that I can deal with anyone for a few days and that perhaps I was too harsh on Dennis the first time around. We all can be competitive at times and we can all come across a little strong at times.

Dennis was an excellent host and was intrigued by our speed scrabble game. He asked to play so we let him join. He then proceeded to kick all of our asses pulling out all sorts of two letter words like qi, za, and ef. I suppose that these are legit scrabble words, but to me, scrabble should be more about using words that you actually know the definition to. When Dennis pulled out zas, I finally had enough. I asked him to define it and he said it was the plural of za. I asked him to define za and he said he didn’t know, but that it was a word. We let him have his day and ignored the fact that he was offended that we would even challenge him at all.

That night, the poker chips came out and I decided to go to bed. I promised that I would play the next night. I just wasn’t ready for poker with Dennis. I started reading my next book and made it all of about 4 pages before I fell asleep.

The next morning we got up and had breakfast. We then caught a camioneta to Quilotoa to take the hike around the crater lake and back down through the valley to Chuchilan (I’ll include a photo or two of this as well). The camioneta ride takes about 1.5 hours - the hike takes 4 hours. I know that seems strange, but the ride involves weaving in and around hills and valleys while the hike is a straight shot down into the valley and then back out again. Well, straight is a loose description as we got lost a few times on the way.

The crater lake starts the hike. It is absolutely breath-taking. We started at 10:00am. We had a crystal clear day and were able to see three other snow covered mountains off in the distance - one being Cotopaxi volcano. Normally, in these parts, clear mornings give way to rain and clouds a little after mid-day.

As we hiked, we realized that the trails were not marked at all. Apparently, the trail was marked, however the local indigenous guides tore down the signs in the hopes that people would get lost and have to hire them to find the right trail. Since Roger had done the hike before, we trusted his sense of direction. Within 10 minutes we were faced with a fork - Roger directed us one way claiming he remembered this spot. After 30 minutes Roger had made this claim another 10 times, even though we had crossed another 5 or 6 trails. Finally, he admitted that he didn´t know the path we were on. Fortunately, we could see the town we were headed to off in the distance and decided that any trail we took would eventually wind down into the valley and head in the general direction we wanted to go. Once we made the decision to follow a certain path, the going was good and it took us exactly where we needed to go. The beauty of this whole place is that there were hundreds of paths leading to huts, farms, and water and each of these paths would have been viable. If Sue and I do the hike again, we will most likely not be able to find the same route and will make a new route getting the opportunity to see even more of the landscape.

At about the halfway point, we stopped to have a snack. Roger´s daughter was feeling a bit ill, but she was still enthusiastic about making the hike. We pressed onward and finally reached the bottom of the valley. We did find ourselves at another fork in the trail, but two young indigenous gals were there to point us in the right direction for $2. Roger agreed to pay them - I was disappointed, because it took away from our unsaid plan of forging our own way that we had all subconsciously agreed to from the start. However, the girls were cute and I´m sure the $2 would be a welcome addition to their coffers.

They walked us to the trail that would take us right to Chuchilan. By this point it was about 2pm and we still had sunny weather. We took this incredibly steep winding trail down the mountain side. When we reached the bottom, we stopped to have another snack and then started back up the other side to Chuchilan. Roger’s daughter was really struggling at this point - she took multiple breaks. When we were making our ascent into Chuchilan it finally started to rain. At this point, Susan, Jay, and I decided not to wait up for Roger and his kids. It was raining and we wanted to get back by the fire to have some beers and rest our weary bones.

We made it back in good time and then waited for an hour for Roger to come. He finally came and his daughter was in really bad shape. She went straight for the bed. Roger said that she was really struggling to breath and was extremely sick. He told us that at one point when we were a little ahead on the trail he thought that she was going to stop breathing all together. I told him that I was pissed that he did not alert us to the severity of the problem. We could have returned to the hostal and sent a camioneta for her. Oh well, she made it and was recouperating.

That night we played another rousing game of speed scrabble - this time using the rule of having to be able to define the words you use. Dennis complained about this rule, but still kicked our butts.
After dinner, the poker chips came out. We played two games at a $2 buy in. I lost both, Sue lost both, Roger lost both, however, Jay and Dennis each won. Go Jay!!! Jay also won the night before making him the first to beat Dennis twice in the span of 24 hours. This will surely go down as a legendary performance.

The next morning we got up and began the long trip back to our sites. We took a camioneta from the hostal to the town of Zumbahua. This is on a major road connecting Latacunga with the coast. We arrived and immediately caught a bus headed to Latacunga. The whole trip took about 4 hours. Once in Latacunga we parted ways with Roger and his kids, as well as, Jay. We met two other Americans at our hostal and they travelled this part of the trip with us. Sue and I then caught a bus to Ambato and another to Puyo. We got into Puyo around 4:30. I went to the office to check my e-mail and catch up on some sport scores, however, the internet was out, so I was out of luck. I returned home and made some chili for dinner.

My stomach hadn’t been feeling that great all day and after making the chili I was unsure that I could eat it. But, I decided that I was hungry, the food smelled great, and that I could stomach it - bad idea - as I lay in bed at night the food just stewed in my belly. I knew it was only a matter of time before it came back out. Susan was reading in the other room and asked what was wrong as she saw me grabbing a plastic bag. I told her that I had to crap and puke and wasn’t sure I could finish one before having to the other. The bag was insurance. I proceeded to have explosive diahrea just flushing it in time to puke my guts out. The rest of the night was spent lying in bed hoping to not crap my pants - which I can say that I successfully negotiated my bowl movements while maintaining clean underwear.

I did lose a lot of fluids though and have since spent most of the day sucking down liquids. I spoke with the PC nurse to see if I might have amoebas or giardia again, but she said that based on how quickly the symptoms came on, that I most likely just have a bacterial thing going on and that I’d have to wait it out.

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Photos

Mannequins
These are an example of paper mache mannequins that are burned to ring in the new year - this elaborate design was poking fun at the Queen of Puyo contest a few months ago.

Road too narrow
This is the road we had to pass through on our bus trip. The driver had to chip away at the hillside to make it wide enough to pass

Quilotoa Crater
Sue and I hanging out by the top

The Valley
This is the valley we had to hike down into.

Our Hike
The view from one of the trails we took on our hike

Kichwa Guides
Our two young Kichwa guides who pointed us in the right direction for a mere $2.

Jay Winning
Jay winning at poker.

Dennis Losing
Dennis losing at his favorite game - Texas Hold´em. Poor guy.

Comments

[chris]

look t the pictures
check out rupert murdock with the shiny pictures on his article. Do we need to send you some rubber sheets as crap insurance? Jeff swears by them.