not barking

Said goodbye to Hayley in a taxi, she got out in some dodgy, down town part of Quito, in the poring rain; which we still haven’t escaped, and that’s the last I saw of her. We’d spent the day at "Mitad del Mundo" (middle of the world); the correct one calculated by GPS a few years ago, where there is a small ethnographic/astrological museum called "Museo Solar Inti Ñan". There is another big stone monument called "Mitad del Mundo", it´s 240meters south, and the park it’s in also serves as a homage to all the scientists who had (falsely) calculated the equatorial line in the past.
We saw some really interesting experiments, including water being pored down a drain! This was to illustrate the Coriolis Effect (?) (different rotations in the two hemispheres, clockwise in the northern, anti-clockwise in the southern.) We also tried walking, eyes closed, along the equator, and found that you get pulled north; apparently the north has a larger magnetic force (because of all the land?). It was here I managed to balance an egg on a nail, I got a certificate, as well as all the sense of achievement I think ill ever need. After the museum I got a dose of Ecuadorian bureaucracy, when I went to pick up a parcel from the post office, 3 taxis, 3 visits to the photocopiers, one to the "Chamber of books", and 1 bus ride later, I had it; I think that was actually efficient...
For the next two weeks I was stuck in Quito with minimal money, waiting for a new cash device to arrive. Spent most days reading, writing or trying to improve my Spanish, and most nights I spent in the kitchen cooking, and trying to communicate with the family who run the hostel. Jacinto, Dolores, Heiddi, and Marcelo were (are!) great, friendly, kind, and very generous with their food! They are also very patient with me, when I’m fumbling with my words, and even acted as translators for me when Alejandra, a Colombian woman, with a thick and speedy accent; who was a semi-resident at the hostel, decided that I wasn’t cooking properly, and took over. Partially I think to get me out the way, so she could use the stove, to make a huge broth of herbs, fruit, honey, alcohol, and holy water, which she muttered prayers over as she cooked, and later told me she used to wash with to get rid of bad spirits, and give her good luck. I think It was a fusion of Catholicism, and indigenous rites, fruits were quartered, and liquids were poured in the shape of a cross (cardinal points?), but all the herbs she used were the same as the ones used, by the indigenous for healing, in Mexico and Guatemala.
Cero Latitude (http://www.cerolatitud.com/), a Latin American film festival, was running whilst I was in Quito, and I managed to get to a few of the screenings, including a "marathon" of shorts, I sat through 40 of a possible 47 films (almost 8hrs), before cramps and tunnel vision forced me to leave. My bank cards finally arrived, and I celebrated with carrot cake and a hot chocolate, which made me feel really ill as I’d been up all the night before drinking $2 bottles of rum, with a guy from Liverpool.
So on the 22nd of November I got on a bus and left for Otavalo, a smaller, more rural town, about 90km north of Quito. 1st hour of the trip was spent trying to get out of the city, stuck in traffic, tunnels, etc, with black exhaust fumes seeping in the windows. But we made it. immediately outside Quito is high desert, barren and uninspiring (from the road) but about 2hrs in we hit a plateau, and everything turned green, and it started to rain. Otavalo is a relief after Quito. I checked into a hostel for a couple of nights and checked out the Artisan market which is at it’s biggest on Saturdays, when all the gringos get shipped in by minibus from Quito.
WWOOF is an organization which links volunteers with organic farms all over the world, they exchange food and bed/experience on a working farm for labor. I’d been in contact with a lady who has a farm near Otavalo, and who’d offered to put up with me for a few weeks. But she was at a Baptism, being inaugurated as the God Mother, so she gave me the name and address of her friend Zulay who, she said, might need some help with some weeding. She did, about 20 munites of it, but in exchange she put me up at her house for two days, fed me (Catsos), introduced me to her family, and pets (dogs, chickens, parrots, canaries, tortoises, a rabbit and two guinea pigs; the last two I’m told were for the cooking pot), and took me with her to some of the local villages, where she chatted to relations and employees, and I watched a game of football be played by some kids, who were using the open door of a church as a goal mouth.
I met Michela, the Lady who owns the farm, one evening at Zulay´s house, and the next day we got a taxi up to it (via the market to buy vegetables! which no one here seems to eat). Her farm is at 3200m half way up Vulcan Cotocachi, near Laguna Culcocha, where she lives with five cats, a dog (Laika), two camelids (one llama and one llama/alpaca cross), and some volunteers. When I arrived there were three others Meghan (New York) Nick and Travis (California) who were instantly welcoming and friendly, showed me where to drop my stuff, find food, (real) coffee and showed me round the property. Travis left that day and Nick was going to follow the next day, he had built the foundations to a set of dry stone steps, and showed me what I needed to do to build the rest. Spent the next week and a half breaking rocks, eating too much, chatting to Michela and Meghan, and catching my breath; the air up there is thin.
Went back to Quito for a few days, (including Quito Day; big festival with parades) to meet Jacinto, and accompany him to the cost on his holiday, caught a bus late on Friday night, it was packed, so ended up having to jam myself in between a seat and a bin on the floor at the back of the bus for 7hrs. Porto Viejo is like a completely different country, it’s hot, and the people speak incomprehensibly fast. Jacinto took me to his sister in-laws house, which is out in a semi desert, they looked a little surprised to see me, it’s doesn’t seem like a place many tourists go. But they invited us in and cooked us rice with fried cheese (delicious) for breakfast, and then sent us off with keys to her road side bar/pool house, where we drank beer and played billiards for a couple of hours. At about 10:30, Jacinto´s nephew picked us up and we drove out into the hills to visit his mum. there was almost nothing but dried up, dead looking trees and sand that I could see, smoke was rising from quite a few of the surrounding fields, where the farmers were burning the left over organic matter from last years crop, in the hope of improving the soil, but it looked like a lost cause. His mum wasn’t expecting us (me), she was very shy, and immediately started tiding her house. I felt like I’d made her feel awkward but Jacinto told me to sit down and not worry. He then showed me the artifacts he’d uncovered in gave sites, on his mum’s farm; pottery, bones, necklaces, and one piece which could have been a hair pin, or brand, it had inscriptions on it that looked like Japanese text. He guessed that the stuff was about 3000 years old, I have no idea.
We spent the rest of the day playing billiards, and drinking beer with some of the locals, before Jacinto´s brother in-law picked us up and took us to his house, where we drank whiskey till I could stand any more and went to bed. Got woken up about three hours later with breakfast; a big bowl of cerviches (raw fish marinated in lime and tomato juice) with plantain crisps. That afternoon we spent at the beach drinking even more beer, eating more seafood, and managing to shop without leaving our seats as vendors came round with sunglasses, music, DVDs, sweets, cigarettes, etc... That night, after another of Jacinto´s sister in-laws (he has 12 sibling in-laws) cooked us more fried cheese, we got a coach back to Quito, I had a seat this time but the road was so bumpy I couldn’t sleep. Wasted more time trying to communicate with my bank, decided it wasn’t worth the aggravation, so came back to the farm, armed with thermometers and hydrometers; my final projects were to brew and then distill some kind of alcohol at the farm and build a mini stone henge. Managed to to both, to produce about a bottle and a half of "Hair of the Cat" ready for new years, (flavoured it with raisins and cinnamon, which took the edge off) and to put some stones together for the mini henge. Left to go back to Quito on the 29th, to meet Hayley on the 30th, which is nice.

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