Advertisement
The Ecuadorian Toilet Worm
I mean, there's lots of worms in Ecuador, a lot of internal worms, stuff like that, but I'd never ever imagined there was a worm that just kind of hung out in the toilet. I walked into the room where I was going to stay at my aunts in Quito and here was this little worm that looked like an earthworm. Well, the next day he was back too...it was weird. He'd be flushed down, and then reappear. Cruising the pipes. Master of his domain. Well, again it's been a long time. This blog is going to be covering a visit to Quito and Ibarra, and then another visit to Ibarra, seperated by about a month I think.
Ibarra if you didn't already know, is my favorite place in Ecuador. The city is so beautiful, the people are so nice, the accent is so cool, the food is so good, the arts and crafts around the province are the best in Ecuador, my best friends in Ecuador live there, I have a second house there (feels like it), it's cool during the day, cold at night, I get the best sleep there, there's LAN games with friends, there's never a dull moment really, it's my favorite place to visit.
I've been there about 5 times now. I hope to get one more visit in before I leave. Ibarra is the capital of the province of Imbabura in Northern Ecuador. It's a few hours south of Colombia. The province is known for the cities of Otavalo, Cotacachi, San Antonio, and Ibarra. Maybe a few others.
Ibarra is known for it's arrope de mora (a blackberry sauce, great
Tomate de árbol
The most amazing fruit for making juice. Rivaled only by the mango, this fruit is one of my favorites. for pancakes, ice cream, and other foods), and nogadas (nougats). Otavalo is known for its weavings and a wide variety of arts and crafts from all over Ecuador. Claims to be the best indigenous market in Ecuador. The indigenous people of Otavalo are the richest in Ecuador, if not all of South America. They have quite the business there. Cotacachi is known for its leatherworking. The best leatherworking, if not only leatherworking in Ecuador. The schools in Cotacachi have mandatory leatherworking classes. San Antonio is known for its amazing woodcarvings. That seems to be all anyone ever does in San Antonio. Carve stuff. Oh, they play chess with other woodcarvers on boards they make. I guess they're pretty good. That's what Simon tells me.
Typical dishes of the region include Hornado (you'll find that in a photo); Fritadas, fried pork with sides such as little fried balls of mashed potatoes or yuca , salad, or mote; And Cuy which is fried guinea pig. The region is all mountains and valleys, with cloud forests, and lagunas (small lakes). There's lots of Haciendas in the mountains. I think there's one where Jimmy Page stayed nearby to Ibarra.
Sick
Anna had a little altitude sickness to begin with. This is in her cousin's house, Majo. She has a really cool cousin. I know how to get there on the bus from my aunt's house too. That made me really happy. There's a lot of photos in this blog and I hope you take the time to look through them all. It took soooooo long to put them up on the web.
Let's see, where to begin. Ok, so, my sisters here were going on vacation to Quito for a few days and there was a whole week of holidays for Semana Santa, or Saints week, the week before Easter. So, Anna, Katrin, and I decided we needed to get up to Ibarra to visit. But we also wanted to hang out in Quito a few days, because it's also really fun to visit. So, I went with my sisters to Quito, where we stayed at my Aunt's house.
Let's see, while I was there I went up the Teleferico with Katrin and Taavi. It's a huge ski lift that takes you up a mountain where there are some pretty good views of Quito, as well as some small waterfalls and hiking trails. It's windy and quite cold, but definitely worth it if you're in Quito. We rode up with two Americans from Portland, and that was pretty cool. They said that I was the 4th person
The road to Mt. Pichincha
If we followed that path, we'd be in for some serious hiking. from Wisconsin they'd met in a week, so I gotta find out where all these Wisconsin people are hiding out. Once you get up top there's a bunch of restaurants, an airport terminal building (no runway), and a bunch of paths leading to waterfalls and better views. You can rent a horse led by a guide for about 5 dollars-maybe 3 or 4 if you're good-to take you up the mountain and back down, maybe 45 minutes worth of riding. However, it's much more satisfying to walk up. Make sure you're good with high altitude. Quito is pretty high up and then you go even higher up in the teleferico. Then you can find a transport back down on the ground level to take you to the Mariscal Sucre area or Quicentro for maybe...2 dollars. Much better than a taxi. That's pretty cool too.
Taavi, a friend from Ibarra, ended up coming to Quito to stay with his Uncle over by the Condado shopping center, which is maybe 20 or 30 minutes from my aunt's house. A straight shot. I was pretty happy this time because I realized that "El Bosque" shopping center is like, a 5 minute
Out of shape and with lungs from the coast hiking in the mountains.
Katrin on her comfortable horse, actually, I didn't find myself too tired from hiking. The girls however had some serious sickness. There was even some running involved. Crazy stuff. walk from my aunt's house. And here I was thinking it was really far away because my aunt always drives everywhere. I also figured out how to catch a bus to Quicentro (largest shopping mall in Quito), which is awesome because it's a 5 minute walk from where Majo lives. I can also catch a bus from Quicentro to the Mariscal, and Quicentro to another mall nearby, so I'm pretty much set from early morning until about 9 at night. No more expensive taxis. Just 25 cents.
Taavi and I usually ended up meeting at Quicentro, where there's just about everything anyone missing the states or Europe could want (well, most of what they could want), can be found (mainly books and coffee). We'd then end up walking to the green (or was it blue) apartment building where Majo lived (Katrin and Anna stayed there). We went to the Cevicheria Zavalita of Quito (same as on the coast, a bit fancier maybe), and had some amazing garlic shrimp. That was really good stuff. The only problem was that Anna was sick for quite a bit of the time. We ended up going to the Plaza Foch to
Cloud valley
Definitely going to get wet in there. There's some small little village in a valley outside of Quito where clouds move through like that. The only way out of it is up this rocky path. I wonder if this valley here is that valley. hang out two nights in a row with the cousins. Luckily they gave Taavi and I rides home, otherwise it would probably have been 6 dollars for him, and 3 for me in Taxis. I've turned into a pretty hard taxi bargainer. I can usually get it down from 5 to El Bosque to about 3 or 3.50, which is pretty damn good late at night. I also got to visit my Colombian friend that works at a restaurant/bar in the Plaza Foch. I just go sit and talk with her every time i'm in Quito. Pretty fun though. What else, I missed Mitad del Mundo because I was too lazy to catch a bus. That was ok though. I found some sour patch kids in the mall. Those were really good. At least there's one thing I can find here that's not in Chile. Ha.
Ended up going to Ibarra on a Tuesday. The buses to Ibarra and Otavalo used to pass really, really close to my aunt's house. Like, a 10 minute walk, the highway above "El Bosque." Well, we hiked all the way up there only to be informed that the buses no longer
Well...that's the Andes
This picture sums up a lot of the Andes, a beaten path, some dry grasses, clouds, rain, and a single person. I like that. passed that way due to a bunch of mudslides in the weeks before. So, we went back down to my aunt's house and waited around, before finally catching a taxi to the terminal, which is on the other side of the town...not fun. Now the buses take way longer to get out of Quito, at least that's what it seems like to me. I liked it better before definitely.
The bus to Ibarra passes through a really scenic landscape, all these arid mountains (well, actually, everything is pretty green now) with lots of agave plants. Further into the Imbabura province it's all small farms. Once you hit Otavalo you're pretty close to Ibarra.
There's this American guy from Oregon that lives in Montañita, James, that has this crazy idea to start producing mezcal here in Ecuador. Mezcal is a liquor made from the agave plant, generally associated with Mexico, I think mainly around the Oaxaca region. Anyway, he wants to start harvesting agave plants, and making something that would probably be similar to Cristal or Zhumir or maybe caña in terms of the crowd it caters to (Cristal and Zhumir are two cheap, nasty
Quito...most of it. a good 3rd
As you can see, there's a big storm moving in from the right. I wouldn't mind being right on the line as it moved left, right on the light and the darkness, see if you can keep with it. You know. Light meeting darkness. Good meeting evil. You'll find it all in Quito. liquors that are produced in Cuenca that appeal to the younger crowd, and caña is the nasty sugarcane aguardiente that is produced on the coast). Actually, I guess he could make aged mezcal that would cater to a different crowd as well. Well, he was explaining all of this stuff to me a while back and it seemed like it could work. Doesn't seem like there's too many laws in Ecuador that would restrict anything like it, or if there are, they aren't enforced. And he wouldn't have any competition. So...we'll see how that goes for him.
We really did a lot of stuff this time. We ended up going to these hot springs where there's a bunch of different pools with different water temperatures. The ones further down are cooler, while the hottest ones are up top. They are sooooo amazingly refreshing. The only problem is transportation there and back. It's out in the middle of nowhere in the mountains, and you can either charter a bus with a large group of people (like we did), which might be about 20 bucks (this is just a normal bus that goes out of its normal route to
Yar, thar she be.
A storm's a brewin'. It's a lot scarier when you're there, on the mountain, eye level with the clouds, and there's lightning. The photo can't sum it up well I guess. drop you off and pick you up at about...9 or 10 probably), or you can get a truck to drop you off in Ibarra for 10 dollars, riding in the bed. That'd probably be the more interesting option for 10 people.
We ended up staying at Kenneth's house, which was different from the normal Lukas's house setup. Kenneth's family was quite cool though. They lived in a more modern house I suppose, it reminded me of the states. There was JIF peanut butter. That was a treat.
One big problem in Ecuador (for most of the people I've met), is that they don't communicate well. Don't communicate well when they're angry at you. In all other areas they're loud, outspoken, and in your face with their communication. But when they're angry. No. That's up for you to figure out and do something about. You'll be all set to go out and then it'll be a "no." Why you might ask? Well, last week, you asked to go out until 2 in the morning. They say yes. This whole week they've been angry because you've stayed out until 2 when they said "Sure, sure, go on,
Taavi Taavi Taavi
Gained another meter in altitude for his GPS. Ha. have fun, take care, love you!" They tell you what you want to hear so you're happy, and then when you take their word and follow it, you get in trouble. OBVIOUSLY you should have known to be back at 10, because you'd already been out late the 2 nights before. Otherwise, you're in trouble for following their orders. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. That's how it goes in Ecuador. You always think that THIS time it'll be different. But it's not. We've all been fooled here like 5 times at least. Stumped. Completely stumped. But you have to adapt to it. You're the weird one for not knowing that they're angry when everything appears normal. I love it when my grandma is angry that I leave a cup in the room upstairs, but I get it through the grapevine from like, 3 people. She can't just come to me and say "You know what Nathaniel, could you always bring your cup downstairs so there's no cups in the rooms upstairs?" And I'd say "Sure, no problem."
The white lie is tried and true here. I don't ever take anyone's word
Visibility issue
I'm sure the people that were coming up were not going to be pleased with the views. That's a cloud right there. anymore. Never. I'm never sure if what I'm being told is a white lie to impress me, or make me feel good, or make them look good, or what. I just know it's a problem here. Can't tell anyone anything either. The word "secret" is not known in Ecuador. Remember all this, in case you're here.
We were going to go hiking in some sort of national park full of marshes and cloud forests further north, but never got around to that. Next time. I'll need to bring serious rain gear though, it'll be wet and muddy as hell there. That's what Lukas says. However, we did go hiking up a smaller mountain close to the city. Just a cow pasture mountain, but it was still a long hike. Probably about 5 hours in total. It had some amazing views though. Simon, Lukas, Taavi, Kenneth, and John had been up it before a few times, searching for the "virgin peak." We didn't go that far, but we got to the last bit of pasture before it was quite overgrown. We had to be up by about 5, and then heading out by 5:30 or 6. Luckily, Simon
Ecuadorian Kid
She was pretty funny. I swear that every time I listen to a little kid speak Spanish, and hear how pure and clear it is, that the kids in South America must be more mature and developed than kids in the States. Not sure if that's true though. had packed supplies: A liter bottle of Coke, 2 yogurts, and 6 bottles of water...dork. We weren't short of liquids in any case. Really nice views of the mountains early in the morning. I'd recommend getting up early to see the beauty of Imbabura. Yeah.
What else, we also sampled the familiar experiences of La Hacienda, where the owner now knows me by face and we shake hands each time I'm there. It's all because I saw him at the discotech the same day I'd been there paying for Simon and I. Simbad's is still the same, except the Iranian guy doesn't work there as much. Went to Otavalo on Saturday, didn't do too much shopping though. Were going to go eat cuy at Simon's aunt's cuy restaurant. That hasn't happened twice though. Gotta get that done the next time. Can't leave Ecuador without that. Oh, found out that my good friend Jo was leaving about....4 days after we left. Thankfully we were in Ibarra. It was quite a shock though. Easter was pretty uneventful. It didn't even seem like Easter at all. It was weird. Nothing was open, and there wasn't much to do. We did
Half light half dark
Breaking through the bottom of the cloud. Really do like that classic contrast. eat fenesca the day before, which is the typical Easter plate.
That sums up that time in Ibarra. The next time was just guy time. No girls traveled with me. Guy time is good though. Really relaxing, really loosens you out. Niklas came to Ibarra again too. Kenneth was leaving this time. Seems like everyone is leaving Ibarra. This was also the shopping time. Went to Otavalo for the weavings, Cotacachi for some leather, San Antonio for some woodwork, and Ibarra (of course) for some of the delicious sweets. Met a new kid, Christian, from Austria. He's the latest addition to the boys of Ibarra. Most of the girls are gone now. There's one left from YFU. Way more from Rotary I think. I haven't seen the old crew with the red truck because I think they crashed it.
There was modeling this time. Lukas got to be a model at the fashion show of Ibarra, where there were some pretty famous bands and people from Ecuador. Got payed 20 I believe. That was pretty fun to go to, though it kind of limited seeing him the last night. His mom is the most amazing
The psychedelicly evil Anna
She always turns out great (turns out, ha) in these blurred photos that have a really cool trippy feel to them. If there isn't a psychedelic setting on the camera, there should be. That'd bring the 60's back. cook as always. I think she's my favorite cook of Ecuador. No one I've met can cook better than she can. She makes the best colada morada EVER!!! Really good juice too. Lukas and I went with his sister to a small faculty party at a bar on his street, and they had the best tomate de árbol juice I'd ever had. It was really good. Simon lost his cell phone, so it was really hard to plan anything with him, missed eating cuy again because of that. Otherwise we'd find him around the center. The bus ride was 15 hours there this time, really, really long. That was because of a whole bunch of traffic in Quito, don't know why. Usually it's only 12 hours. You really get used to it, I'm all set for a measly 1 hour to Eau Claire now. Yeah.
Well, that about does it for the trips to the mountains. I'll be going to Quito this Sunday to catch a plane on Monday to the Galápagos. That should be the trip of a lifetime. Well, that's it for now. Should have another blog up after Galápagos. Be sure to check out all the
Plaza Foch
Anna's cousin Majo and her cousin...his name escapes me. But we went out two nights to the Plaza Foch, which is where all the "farra" is. All the partying. All the gringos. Yeah. It has some good places to eat too. A nice place to go if you want to hang out into the night. photos. There's about 60, so don't miss them. Otherwise you're missing out. Cheers.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.089s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 11; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0549s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Coralee
non-member comment
fried guinea pig! NOOOOO! also the thing about people being angry, yah that's pretty much how we do it in my family too, you eventually learn to pick up on the signals^^