Dancing at an arts carnival

Fresh Fish!

Catching Up Part 3: More adventures in Cuenca

Some pretty wildflowers I picked on a walk

A very rickety bridge we crossed to get fresh fish

Me and my sweetie Teo

Learning how to make gnocchi

So much gnocchi

Catching up Part 2: First few days in Cuenca

My house in Cuenca

Ecuadorian Drum

Ecuadorian Vase

The Ecuadorian version of a doily

Close up of doily

Flower Market

Me and the girls on a bridge of the Rio Tomebamba

Catching Up Part 1: Quito

Although I have been extremely busy with all my college applications recently I have also been busy doing a plethora of exciting things in Ecuador.  These photos will serve as an overview.

A very cute old lady feeding the pigeons

A beautiful roof in Quito

A very old church in Quito

One of the many colorful streets in Quito

An adorable old man playing guitar

View from the roof of Casa Victoria

Video Explanation

Below are three more videos from the trip to the ranch.  The first is a view from the bed of the truck with Allie and Liz, two members of the new family who have moved in next door to me.  The second video is from later that day while helping herd and evaluate a group of female alpacas.  The owner, Stuart White is going to be selling about 15 to Cajas National Park.  The final is a reinterpretation of the Sound of Music.

It has been a very long time since I have posted but it is for the wonderful reason of having too much fun rather than the awful reasons of being kidnapped by rascally Colombian guerrillas, contracted some horrible deadly mosquito disease or joining a  cocaine gang.  Fortunately none of those things have happened to me although they would provide interesting blog fodder.  Speaking of fodder I just cooked a very successful Thanksgiving meal for more than 20 aunts, uncles, and cousins.  The menu consisted of cumin glazed carrots, garden salad with homemade garlic butter croutons, cornbread, cinnamon butter, garlic, not soupy garlic mashed potatoes, apple crisp/pie, and a gigantic trough of the most scrumptious cornbread stuffing I have ever tasted.  The only thing I did not cook was the turkey which was delicious and very moist, (probably due to the fact that they actually injected it with a few cup of red wine, basting is for wimps, injecting is the way to go.  The party was actually in honor of my older cousin/sister getting her thesis approved and graduating from grad school but it sufficed as slightly belated Thanksgiving celebration.  I had some lovely conversations about the origins of Thanksgiving with some of my older cousins who perceptively asked whether any Native Americans celebrated Thanksgiving at which point I had to sheepishly respond that I doubted any Native Americans approved very much of the holiday and hastily explain that at this point it was really an excuse for far flung family members to gather around one table rather than an actual celebration of friendliness with native Americans.   They were also very intrigued by the Black Friday concept of which they seemed to know more about than Thanksgiving itself.   It was quite a lively party and while some families left around 9:30 I woke up frequently through out the night until about 3:30 AM to the sound of raucous Ecuadorian laughter. 

            Today I took the bus for the first time all by myself which is not an easy task but I did manage to escape the fate of being sold an overpriced cookbook.  I spend my days now working at the Fundacion Cordillera Tropical, tutoring the younger girl in reading, writing, and English, as well as my own reading, music, and art that I never had time for in high school. 

In closing a couple things that I find interesting, amusing, and or disgusting about Ecuadorian culture. 

1.     1.      People in the backseat and often even people in the front seat don’t wear seatbelts.  Even children as young as one or two years old just stand in the back seat.  And it is not as if Ecuadorians are such good drivers that accidents won’t happen.  They are the craziest drivers I have every seen.   Imagine Boston craziness and take that to the 7^th power.   They are CRAZY!!!!  There just are not rules besides go when you can and honk whenever it seems mildly appropriate, or even when it’s not!

2.     2.   Light switches are lazy and will often refuse to work regardless of whether or not the electricity is working and necessitate multiple identical switches back and forth before actually doing their job.

3.    3.    For some odd reason people here do not seem to see the value in refrigerating things.  When you’re done eating things, they should go back in the fridge, especially when they contain meat and dairy.

4.    4.    Another interesting habit of theirs is putting mayonnaise on…EVERYTHING