South American adventure

we have done so much this last week and have not had much internet to write. on saturday night we went to la festival de las ensaladas, salad festival which there was so much food. salads of every kind imaginable and a lot of bread too even though this week was not pan fest. on sunday we spent the day with the oñas and we went for a walk with them towards el cinto which i was surprised to find out that in Quito there are walking paths and a bit of nature too. Clever ended up giving us a ride back to our casa on Sunday night where we slept and woke up at 6 to catch a series of busses to Baños. we arrived in Baños in the afternoon and spent the day exploring this village. we visited the guitar workshop, found lunch for 2 dollars that was huge, and found a hostal with a kitchen and a cheap grocery store which i loved because for the next three days our food bills were so cheap. we relaxed in the hammocks and woke up early to rent bikes and left for the Baños-Puyo route which is 61km and we are proud to say we did it all. along the way is la rute de las cascadas, the route of the waterfalls and we stopped and hiked to see some of them. que linda. we made it to Puyo very tired after the second half of the journey that was more uphill and it lasted 5 or 6 hours in total. we caught a bus back to Baños and arrived wanting nothing more than hot showers, dinner and bed. thankfully we got all three.

in the morning we went to Mass and took a bus to Tena and then to Misahualli and arrived in this sleepy jungle village after dark. it was so hot and humid! we had to buy a beer to cool us down, and i normally dont like beer too much. in the morning we bought breakfast prepared for us which is the first time we have done that in more than 2 months and it was nice to be served breakfast. then we walked 8km in about 2 hours in the hot hot sun to reach then entrance of lagoons and waterfalls which we immediately went swimming. and watched the beautiful butterflies of all colors fly by. then we hiked a ways up to the larger waterfall and Al climbed up half of it. we got back to Misahualli by bus because of the extreme heat, hydrated and i wanted to relax in the plaza and read but not 2 minutes later came several monkeys. it turns out 30 monkeys live in the plaza and they come out to play in the afternoons. they tried to steal my book, Al´s cross necklace, and they succeded in stealing a crab from a nearby restarurant and were playing with the crab in the tree. how funny and entertaining. there was also a tv crew filming a tourism ecuador show that was there and they interviewed us for a segment on Misahualli. the monkeys were climbing all over Al and one jumped on my arm too. i did not get any reading in because of all the action!

we found a seafood restaruant near the river Napo and ate dinner, and they had salsa music on so we stayed and danced for a while after dinner. after we went back to the hostal and tried to sleep but it was difficult with the heat. thankfully we had a fan.

in the morning we went walking and exploring a bit and bought dried cacao which i know how to make chocolate from in about an hour. this is the cacao dried and fermented, now i just need to cook, grind, and cook again before we have amazing chocolate. i was very happy about this purchase. we caught the 11am bus to Tena and in Tena we left for Quito arriving at 7pm just after dark even though we tried so hard to get back before dark so we could walk and avoid a taxi fare, but no such luck.

today we played with Salome, a 10 year old girl who is the godchild of the dueña of our casa and i made irish soda bread again. tonight we have to pack again because in the morning we leave for the country with the Oñas to celebrate Dia de los Difuntos, Day of the dead which is a 2 day holiday here and we do not have to work until wednesday. i bought mozarella cheese and pepperoni because we are going to make brick oven pizzas.

tonight we will have kraft mac and cheese that someone left behind in our kitchen. we are very excited because here it is very expensive to buy and we have not had mac and cheese in months!

hasta luego

Dios les bendiga

saturday night was great! we brought irish soda bread and there were breads of all kinds at pan fest (festival of breads) there was german bread, zucchini bread, banana nut bread, olive and rosemary bread, along with dips and guacamole. we ate so much bread but it was fun. on sunday left early and took the trole to villaflora where we met the Oñas and they drove us back to their house which is farther south than where we work, about 45 minutes away from where we live although we all live in Quito. we live in a very long city. in the morning and went to Mass with them in their barrio. after Mass we went to a few stores looking for the ingredients to make colada morada which is a wonderful fruit drink. we prepared banana nut pancakes for them and they prepared a late lunch of rice, puree de potatoes, meat, and crab. we spent the whole day with them. Alejandro (Al) was playing with Kati the little girl all afternoon while i cooked with Pati. i was also playing their keyboard and there were many requests for jingle bells which i obliged. they drove us to catch a bus around dusk and we got home before it was too late. monday morning i went to CEA and sang more songs with the children and helped with english homeworks. on monday i recieved an email from Clever the father of the Oña family that said he hoped we got home safely and that if we want to come over again this weekend there is no problem. there is a church that is an hours walk up a small mountain se llama el cinto that we might go to with them on sunday. monday night we went out to La Ronda with friends for the despedida of Dana, a friend from Germany that will be leaving this week but tues was her last day at CENIT with us. on tuesday we had an especially busy day at work because of the theatre play that we performed in front of the high school. i was the clean daughter that always washes her hands and bathes but i did not want to eat the pork because i was afraid i would get the swine flu. it is a play that we wrote to dispell misconceptions and display information about our campaign of health to the students about the flu and the swine flu. it went really well! i wore this fancy blue dress and my hair in pigtails with rosy red cheeks. pictures soon to come. then we went to all the classes to give a talk about our individual topics of which mine is the transmission of the flu. we did all of this again today for the younger children as well as the other classes.

apart from this, i have been spending a few days working on my visa documents which are plentiful. hopefully we will get the 90 day extensions. also we are planning our trip for next week becasue we get a week of vacation and we are going to the amazon. i have been talking and emailing trying to get contacts for a guide so we can go a bit cheaper than with an all inclusive tour. we are leaving either sunday or monday for the week.

yesterday after work we played frisbee in parque Carolina with some very serious frisbee players but it was good to run a bit and be tired.

last night we had tango lessons and tonight as well with Daniel. tonight my friend Elissa is coming over for dinner. she is from NY and graduated from UB and happens to be working 2 years in Quito so we are meeting up tonight.

tomorrow i have a lot to organize for the next group that will have their eye checks on friday at Vista Para  Todos. and i am also giving guitar lessons to a little one in the morning and talking with 2 parents to negotiate the price of the glasses their children need.

hope you all are well.

Dios les bendiga y chao!

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