South American adventure

we have been here on the coast in Puerto Lopez for the last week. it is wonderful, full sun, no cold. we have swam in the ocean almost every day. today we attempted snorkeling but it was not our most successful endeavour. we want to try again tomorrow with victor who actually knows the good spots to go. we were at a really nice hostal with Kryn and Ashley that were here for a week that is on the north part of the beach. we each had our own cabin, access to the hammocks and the cabañas on the beach in a more quiet part that was a wonderful vacation for us after doing everything cheap in Quito. Kryn and Ashley left 2 days ago, and now we are back to our frugal spanish speaking selves. We are now staying with Elsita and Angel, my host family from when i was here before. she lets us use her kitchen which makes food expenses much lower and we are happy with that. last night we prepared a spaghetti dinner (al made the sauce from scratch) and i made a bruschetta. it was so good, but lacked good wine. we will have to wait until argentina for this.

we went to agua blanca hiking and bathed in the sulfur pool. we walked and ran to the extreme north point of the beach. we made chocolate fondue with pineapple and bananas. we still have more cacao, so we will do another fondue with one of my families here before we leave. we have plans to go fishing with the alvias on sunday, and then on monday we are planning to take an early morning bus to guayaquil, then to cuenca by nightfall.

i was very happily surprised that my friends here remember me and so much about when i was here last. they remember stories, things i said that i didnt remember until they mentioned it. they talk so much faster here on the coast than in Quito, we are having a little trouble understanding because they blur all the words so quickly.

we are looking for advice for cheap flights home. we looked a bit on orbitz and the best we could do so far is a flight between argentina or uruguay to miami then a separate flight from miami to buffalo, but still it is not cheap. al is searching for a cheaper way home in may.

feliz año 2010 a todos!

feliz navidad y año nuevo! we had a very busy last few weeks finishing up our work with CENIT, packing up and leaving our house and then going to the country with the Oñas for 4 nights and the 5 days of celebration. it was a Christmas very different from anything we have ever experienced. we left on the 23rd and i rode in the back of the truck with Jessie and Josh for a very bumpy 4 hours. we got there and went to Isinlivi, the town nearby and watched the selection of the new queen of Isinlivi, and the former queen Diana (neice of Clever, the father of the Oña family) hand over her title. the queen of the festivals reigns all year and does service projects for the children and elders of the surrounding area. after this ceremony was the first of 5 days of dances, a type called banda that is from here in Ecuador, it is an extremely loud music played by live bands, i found a lot of similarities to a marching band with the trombones and trumpets, and the bass which was the loudest of all. the sound systems that were not very good did not help with the way too loud sound. on the 24th al woke up early and helped slaughter the pig they had been raising to eat for christmas. he has an entirely new perspective on meat now and says that all meat eaters should have to pass this rite. i slept with earplugs and did not wake up until they were torching the pig later. i helped too and we all ate fried pork and mote for lunch. it was very good because it was so fresh. later in the evening we went to isinlivi for the 11pm Mass followed by a procession in which everyone held a candle as we walked in a group up to el calvario which is a nearby hill. there were dancers in costume including Daniel and Esteven, the boys of the Oña family. there were fireworks and when we reached the top of the hill we rested a moment and everyone was playing with sparklers. we all processed down the hill again and back to the church. then there was another dance which we did not attend but rested in the back of the truck until the bus left with our friends at 3am. jessie, andy and josh left for peru via Latacunga and Guayaquil at 3am and we were sad to see them go. we worked and lived with Jessie 4 months and grew close to her. she gave us each a bracelet she made with the colors of ecuador to remember our time here.

on the 25th we all woke up very late and went up to isinlivi for an entire day of dancing. by this time we were quite tired and our heads hurt so we rested a while in the truck but then it rained so we stayed inside and did not dance. i do not like much banda because the dance does not require much skill, it is just shuffling your feet with a partner facing you. i prefer salsa.

on the 26th we went up to isinlivi again for the toros (bulls) where there were competitions among the men of the town who could torrear (bullfight) better by untying the ribbon from the head of the bull. this was quite interesting to me and i was happy that they did not kill any of the cows, just anger them. the prize for getting the ribbon was 2 bottles of whiskey and a grilled pigs head mounted on a brightly colored rug.

on the 27th we washed the sheets by hand and packed up and drove by isinlivi on the way out for another day of bulls in which al went inside and did a few minutes of getting a little close to the bulls then running for cover up the fence like most of the men.  

i enjoyed talking with and spending the time with all the family members that were there of Clever and Pati. and the bugs were biting me more than ever, i have dozons of bites on my ankles that thankfully do not itch anymore.

on sunday night we returned to Quito again and stayed 2 nights with the Oñas at their house. on monday we went to the centro historico for the last time to walk the plazas and buy a few last minute things that are plentiful in Quito but in the smaller towns not so much. we ate lunch at Don Jimmys in Mercado Central which is Als favorite place to eat in Quito with the sea bass and shrimp ceviche. we made it back to the Oñas in time to help prepare a turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and rice. i told them a traditional turkey meal in the states does not include rice but the culture of eating rice with every meal here is too strong so we ate our turkey with mashed potatoes and rice verde which was made with spinich. we invited family members of the Oñas over and 25 people enjoyed a wonderful turkey good bye dinner with us. i played the guitar and we all sang christmas carols in spanish, al and i sang some of the same in english while they all listened fascinated. we toasted with wine (sweet for everyone else and dry for me) and Clever gave a few words about how it was a Christmas dinner and also a good bye dinner for us. they asked Al and I to say a few words and we thanked all of them for their welcoming us and their generosity. their grandmother was there and stayed the night and there were no more beds so they asked if i was ok sleeping in the same bed with her, a smaller twin bed. i agreed and thought it would be a rather sleepless night but it turned out to be fine. this morning we woke up early, ate left overs for breakfast and Clever drove us to the bus terminal where we had another sad good bye. i am sad to leave Quito, we have many friends there and so many good memories. but we will return, either before or for the big party for Katis 15th birthday (quinciñera) that is in 9 years. we hopefully can return before then though.

we arrived in Guayaquil today later this afternoon and made our way to the hotel. what luxury! we never stay in hotels. in a few hours we will go to the airport to receive Als sisters and then we are going in the jaccuzi with them and tomorrow we are off to the coast! Puerto Lopez here we come…

Happy New year everyone!

i cant believe that we only have a week and half left here in Quito. there are so many things we still want to do we have a list. this past week we spent sunday with the onas cooking and spending time with their family. we made cheese empanadas and coffee and then later in the night we returned back home. on monday i sang my new christmas songs with the CEA children and they loved it. on tuesday i went to vista para todos with a 9th grade girl for a topographic exam that took much longer than it should have because of the power outage we had to wait several hours for the doctor to arrive. on tuesday night we had a christmas party here where we made hot chocolate with peppermint and decorated cookies and made paper snowflakes to decorate the kitchen with snow since there is no snow here ever. it rains occasionally but often it is warm and sunny. it all depends on the sun, when it is out it is very warm when it is not it can get quite cold especially at night. my friend rianne gave me a pair of warm socks that i am very thankful for many nights.

on thursday night we did the questions for pub quiz at a bar in the mariscal. al read them in english and i read the trivia in spanish. friday morning i got to work early to take Nicole the girl in 9th grade for the contact lenses but she was not there because she is sick. so we will have to go next week. i am also training Evelise to continue my project after i leave and we have been having a lot of meetings to discuss exactly how i do the vision project. every few days this week i have also been running with increased mileage training for the 10K that we ran today. 8 km each day i ran last week was very tiring. on friday night we had a movie night we watched Love Actually with more hot chocolate and popcorn and some friends from the casa. early early saturday morning we took the Trole to Mercado Mayorista leaving the house about 6.30 and arriving at 7.30 to meet up with Pati and the Onas. we went to the market where every saturday morning they sell clothes and shoes very cheap. i finally bought shoes that i have been meaning to buy for weeks that are better for dancing. al bought a leather jacket and we bargained the price down quite a bit too. at the other market we bought guinea pig that is a delicacy here and we cooked them up with garlic, onion and served them with potatoes, a salsa with peanut butter and all on a bed of lettuce. i was a bit hesitant but very curious to try cuy (guinea pig) and it was actually very good, like no other meat i have tried. we stayed home with the children and let the parents go out for a baptism and party to follow and the children went to sleep early so we could sleep too. we spent the night at the onas and woke up at 5.40 this morning to get to the 10K race by 6.10 because it started at 7. by a miracle of sorts we met up with our friends before and after the race even though there were thousands of people running and we do not have a cell phone. we ran with Kai, our German friend until the last kilometer when he wanted to run really fast and i could not go any faster. my goal was to run the entire time and to finish in less than 1 hour and we did both so i am very happy. we finished in 59 minutes!

after the race Clever drove us to Benjamin and Carmens house, the brother of Pati where we visited and had breakfast. we made plans to go swimming next saturday morning which Al is very happy about finally getting to swim in Ecuador.

we are off to a late Mass right now because we were running this morning and we could not go earlier.

feliz navidad a todos

los cabellos son de oro

so here is the story of the last week thanksgiving dinner. we had to stay longer over at grupo game because the turkey was not finished cooking. we arrived here by taxi with al with the turkey on his lap. look for the photo. we arrived late but most people arrived late anyway. we ate a huge dinner with dishes from all around the world. everyone told of what they were thankful for, and later we cleared the tables and danced salsa until past midnight when most people started to leave. it was a wonderful thanksgiving albeit nontraditional.

on sunday last week we spent the day with the onas at their house helping them prepare chaulafan and a cake for estevens birthday (their oldest son.) at the start of the party all the little ones went in front of everyone and told a joke or a story. then esteven and daniel went around offering snacks to everyone, then we all ate the rice dish and after the cake. there were 25 friends and family of esteven there. clever drove us home later at night. this past week a lot of parents have come to me asking to take their child to Vista Para Todos for an eye exam. i took 5  children up on friday and this week i will go 3 times again (it is more than an hour by Trole each way) for followup treatment for the children. last week i spent some hours looking up traditional latin american christmas songs and learning them by ear. last week i sang them with the children and the children of CEA especially like Cascabel which is the spanish translation of Jingle Bells. Just like the children in NY like it so much.

on friday we had an afternoon of party at CENIT for the fiestas de Quito because today is the date of the founding of Quito. 2 of my friends and i won a dance contest with all of CENIT watching, then later there was a costume party in which i was a princess and al was a deportista (spotsman?) there was a contests for the best costume and 2 large cakes. i have been running every few days this week training for the 10K. I ran 5K on Friday and 8K on saturday morning in La Carolina, a park in the north of the city with Jessie. friday night there was a large party in the street below our casa for the fiestas de quito with live rasta music. we went out and danced with a group from our casa for a while. on saturday morning after we went to the house of Jessies old host family and had breakfast with her, bought all the ingredients and came back here to cook for the surprise birthday party of a friend of ours Sherry from Toronto. i showered quick and then carried almost all of the food by myself to catch a bus to Sherrys house (which was very heavy) because al was sick in bed with a fever. the party last night was mexican food and about 20 people. it was a really fun party with us singing happy birthday in 4 languages (espanol, english, german y mandarin)

as i am typing this i am using a computer of a friend of ours from germany and their keyboard is different, the z and y are reversed so i have to keep reversing the errors of the manz words that i tzpe but realiye that the y and z are mixed up. the germans are alwazs complaining about this.

que viva quito! (the phrase that everyone is yelling this weekend)

thank you to both of our parents for skyping with us and giving us the advice we needed to cook the turkey, stuffing and gravy properly. the turkey is very close to being done and looks wonderful and the stuffing and gravy are amazing. its really thanksgiving now!
happy thanksgiving everyone!

on thursday we bought a 9 kilo turkey (about 19 lbs) and walked from santa maria to our casa, al with frozen turkey and me with the other bag of groceries about half an hour. it defrosted in the fridge 2 days and we asked to use the oven and our dueños said no, so this morning we took the Trole (public transport) with the turkey and walked uphill 6 blocks to the house of our friends to use their oven. we could not contact them before so we just showed up and rang the bell asking if they would grant us the favor of using their oven for the 4 hours necessary. we prepared the stuffing and gravy and are now waiting for the turkey to finish cooking in about 2 hours. we are using a large pot to cover the turkey instead of tin foil which i have never seen used here. everything is improvised. we stuffed half of the stuffing in the turkey and the other part is cooking in a pot along side of it in the oven. around 4 we are having our big fiesta for thanksgiving at our house in which 30 of our friends are coming over. they are all bringing a dish from their respective country. after dinner we will salsa dance in our house and if we feel like going out we might go out dancing. we are deciding if we want to take the cooked turkey by public transport or take a taxi back to our casa. our friend leonie from germany is here helping us cook. al and leonie went out to buy bread for a small lunch because we will have such a large dinner in a few hours.
tomorrow we are going to the oñas to help them cook and bake a cake for the birthday part of their oldest son esteven. 35 friends of esteven will be there and we are making a chaulafan which is a mixture of rice and vegetables and meat with spices. al will help with the chocolate cake.
on friday 3 children came to me asking if i can take them to get their eyes checked so this friday again i will go with several children, as well as on monday to pay for the glasses of one child.
i am reading a book of parables, stories and morals in spanish called la culpa es de la vaca (its the cows fault) that i plan on buying this book so that if i ever teach spanish someday i will use these short stories with my students. who knows what i will do for a career, but i find it works best if i dont think or worry about it too much because this only brings stress. for now i will enjoy today and all the food from around the world as well as the typical american turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and stuffing. it finally smells like thanksgiving here even though it doesnt feel like it with the sun and warm weather.

chao a todos y feliz dia de las gracias!

we have uploaded almost all of the new photos and videos to the flickr site so you all can see them. we are continuing with our salsa lessons on tuesdays and our prof says that al i are not allowed to dance together during lessons because if we always dance with someone of the same level we dont progress as quickly. so al danced with rianne who is quite good and after we all watched the two of them dance really well together reuben our prof said we could dance together 5 minutes as a reward to al for dancing so well. we went out dancing wednesday night and although there were some really good salsa dancers there were so many people we hardly had room to do any vueltas (turns) but it was still fun. on thursday i continued to look for more children that need to go with me to get their eyes checked and was only able to find 2 so we went as a small group on friday morning. i made quimbolitos also on thurs night which are a typical crilloe dish that is a sweet pastry cooked in a large platano leaf by steam. i had to improvise to get them to cook right because our kitchen lacks a steamer proper but as always my improvisation with cooking seems to work out one way or another. on friday night we listened to rock songs with reuben for his english lesson and he tried to listen and write out the words by ear to guns and roses sweet child of mine. my ear proved to be the best of the three of us at figuring out what words they were singing, so i helped reuben when he could not understand them. on saturday morning jessie nicole and i went to the park to do yoga in the warm morning sun. que rico. we stretched an hour and then on our walk back stopped and borrowed the grinder again from the restaurant and i helped jessie make chocolate to bring to the festival de postres (festival of dessert) that we had staruday night. al made his moms recipe kahlua cake that turned out great and everyone loved. we watched part of the movie juno, i shaved als head, and we walked to the centro historico to the house of our friends where the party was saturday night. there were cakes, apple crisps, ice cream, hot chocolate, fruit fondue with the pure homemade chocolate. very sweet but very good. sunday morning we took a bus early to the oñas and walked up a large hill behind their house called el cinto and arrived at the church near Lloa, a village on the other side of the hills. it was strange looking on one side and seeing all of Quito sur and the other and seeing panoramo and fields of green on the other. two entirely different worlds. we picked herbs that i infused into water and make a very healthy drink. we went to church there and made a picnic of chicken with potatoes and salad with fruit juices. we ate on the tailgate of the car of the oñas and danced as the fog rolled in, stretched in the park, then returned back to their house. al napped while i looked at photos with the oñas, photos of their wedding, photos of their children when they were really little, and photos of us with them taken in the last few months. their grandfather came from the country with fresh milk that we boiled and drank hot as we looked at photos and they told me stories. they drove us home in the evening, we drank the last of the colada morada that i am determined to make one more time before we leave here because the fruits needed to make it cannot be found in the states and we really like this drink. i went to bed very early because we have been so busy that i have not rested much. we are training for the 10k in 3 weeks and i have only this time to increase my milage from 4 or 5 km to 10km. and the race begins at 7 in the morning more than an hour from our house. early early morning to be had. if it doesnt rain today i will run later this afternoon, but not before i find new shoes for dancing because the ones i have are not good for salsa. we are going to an open market in the centro historico where i am told there is a monton of shoes that are not too expensive. later tonight i am going to take a tea and relax.

chao a todos y que les vaya bien. quedales caliente!

last week was the first full week we have worke in a few weeks. i spent the most of the week when i was not in CEA doing music and homework help with the children, i was calling and meeting with parents and looking for more children who need to go with me to get their eyes checked. there are two girls whose eyes have high astigmatism and the treatment for this is very expensive, one is 21 dollars the other 50. this does not sound like that much here but for the families with whom we work this is a lot. i have met with a lot of families and explained the treatment needed and offered that we pay a part of the cost of the 15 dollar lenses the child needs so that the parents have to pay 10 or 8 and am saddened when they tell me the need to come back in 2 weeks or a month to be able to pay for the 10 dollars. it is a different world here. people earn what they can and spend it on their immediate needs and very few have savings for things such as paying 10 dollars for glasses. 10 dollars is a lot here. yesterday i went to the north of the city to pay and order the glasses of one student and while walking on the street i received a lot of attencion from the people walking by, much more than normal. they called me blanca, gringa, gringita, bonita, guapa, americana these translated are white person, gringa, little gringa, pretty, beautiful, american. usually i get one comment but yesterday it seemed everyone wanted to make theirs. because it was raining and i could not go running in the park, i just stayed in our casa, prepared morocho con leche a hot beverage for the cold temperature, and reflected on how often here i feel like the foreigner because my skin is so much lighter and immediately i am identified as a gringa. i dont like the term gringa and when people call me it i tell them my name and ask them to call me Annie. figuring out how i fit in to the culture here is an important part of growing and it is not easy but i am trying to accept these perceptions and make connections with the people i can. which i am doing a lot. las oñas are the wonderful family that we spent saturday with building an improvised grill in a wheel barrow with bricks on all sides and a borrowed grate from a nieghbor. we grilled chicken, beef, shrimp, and had a large meal. then i prepared what was left of the ground cacao into chocolate that we had a fondue again with pineapple while we all snuggled together and watched anaconda  4 a very bad movie but it was in spanish so i used it as another opportunity to learn more spanish and i do acutally understand almost all of what people say to me or i ask them to clarify what a word means if i dont know. sometimes i communicate myself well and other times i know how much i have yet to improve. everyday there is growth and i am doing my best to be patient with myself as i learn. after watching the movie, we used the rest of the chocolate to make hot chocolates with milk and a little cinnamon. the best hot chocolate of my life. sorry starbucks.

later saturday evening the oñas drove us to the panecillo which is the statue of the virgin mary that overlooks the whole city and links the south with the north. we can see the panecillo from our casa as well as from the dining room of CENIT. the views of the city are amazing and they are preparing the large lit up figures of Jose, Maria y Jesus -Joseph Mary and Jesus that can be seen from all parts of the city for the navidad, asuming there is luz of course, there have been a lot of power outages and certain sectors have 4 hours of no electricity each day. it is a lack of water and the hydro pumps cannot produce electricity enough for all the city. thankfully we live behind a hospital so we almost always have power. the hot showers have been hit or miss, and many days after running i want to shower but it is cold so i have to cook and wait until many hours later for it to be warm.

on sunday we went to the house of another volunteer Veronica and she baked us apfel strudel which is an austrian pastry of apple strudel. que rico. we celebrated her birthday in her absolutely gorgeous modern house. i did not realize how simple and primitive our kitchen was until i was in hers. but i love our kitchen and our community of German, Austrian, Holandese, Ecuadorian, American , Canadian house full of people who keep us company as we cook and we eat together, salsa dance in the kitchen, and learn German in part by just listening as they talk. and the view from our terrace is amazing from the hammocks.

Al is doing well holding up the street outreach in Camal with the absence of the head volunteer who is on vacation these weeks. yesterday a mother of one othe niños of Al gave us shrimp so Jessie and Al and i cooked it with a pesto pasta and salad. we always eat good when we cook with Jessie.

we are beginning preparations for Dia de las Gracias Quito or Thanksgiving in Quito. we are inviting everyone and i am buying the turkey and we will have mashed potatoes and green been caserole, but aside from that we are asking everyone to bring a traditional dish from their country. multicultural and never traditional. asi es mi vida.

we finally got the extensions on our visas! 91 dias mas en ecuador! we bought a box of wine to celebrate finally being done with the long process of getting the extension. this makes us very happy because we can stay in the country and continue working with CENIT until Christmas, go to the country with theOñas for Christmas, spend new years with Kryn and Ashley in Puerto Lopez, i can spend more time with my friends on the coast, andwe can seen more of southern ecuador before we leave to enter Peru in the middle of January.

i am continually surprised by the sun and warm weather and keep saying to Al, can you believe that it is the 16th of november? as we walk to the bus in the morning in the warm sun.

i have been running in the park a lot of afternoons and there is a 10k near where we work in december that i might run. running at altitude makes your chest tighen up a bit more than i am used to but i am training a bit to get passed it.

chao todos!

we dont have much time to write because we need to eat dinner and go dancing in a little while but i thought i would write a bit. on sunday we went to the country with the Oñas and had a wonderful 3 days eating amazing food, and spending time with the family. on monday the day of the dead we went to Isinlivi to the Mass and then walked around and put cards and flowers on all of the graves of the deceased family members of Clever, the father of their family. the cemetary wa filled with people and the Mass was there in the cemetary. interesting. we came back tuesday night and got ourselves ready to work on wednesday. i had a very busy 3 days at work and on friday i took 6 children to the doctor to get their eyes checked, topographic exams, and 3 to get their glasses. they were very happy trying on frames. last night we had a good bye party for Daniel, our friend from Berlin. this morning we were going to go to Latacunga but we decided to stay in and relax and play guitar and make chocolate with the cacao we bought in the amazon in Misahualli. we had chocolate fondue with piña (pineapple) and strawberries that was really good. i had several stores and then a restaurant looking for a grinder for the cooked cacao before a man from a restaurant loaned me his. then we went running in Ichimbia and lifted weights. tonight we might go salsa dancing? tomorrow we will spend the day with the Oñas and make lasagna after Mass. hope you all are well.

con amor,

Annie y Al

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