Lots of things to love – my family, all flowers, snuggling up with a kitty on my lap, sunrises (I usually only see these via light on the clouds while laying in bed), sunsets, mountains, clouds, and listening to music while catnapping – well really just listening to music, but catnaps are a special subcategory. A good book, building fires (I relegate them to fireplaces and campfires), laughing (I need to do this more often), the sound of waves, and entering a room full of the smells of cooking.

How could I forget the moment when a pilot gives full throttle to the engines, an airplane begins to move down the runway; feeling the force of the movement. You then lift into the air and are of f to another world. I never fail to marvel at this wonder.

Having lots of opportunities for this marvel lately. Although barely home from Ecuador – less than a month – we are headed to Florida for 10 days to celebrate Jim’s parents birthdays. Happy Birthday Liz and Bob!! They are both February babies – same year 11 days apart. A Crain family vacation – Jim’s first family vacation since high school graduation and a special treat for Jim’s parents. They winter in Florida and thus we are off to visit there mini-casa and do some tourist stuff around the state.

More things to love… birds chirping first thing in the morning, the patterns of light throwing a shadow, and tucking into bed at the end of a wonderful day. And it is that time. 3:40 rise this morning for out trip back east. Time for a little snuggle in bed.

Uncle Bernie tuning our piano.

Unfortunately Jim received a call early on Monday morning that his Uncle Bernie had passed away.  Bernie who lived in Arkansas (he had moved back into the home he was born in which was so cool) had visited us in November, tuned our piano (a tuner and piano player par excellence) and seemed to be doing quite well for a spry 85.  We had a wonderful visit and he was so looking forward to another in the spring.   He lived a happy, long life and was not ready to go.  But, as I have so often learned recently, we do not get to pick our time.  He will be greatly missed.

Jackie - such a lover.

We returned to Quito late on Monday as planned and upon checking my e-mail found a note from our house sitter.  It was a reply to a previous correspondence and said that Jackson (our 15 year old black kitty) was not doing well today, would not eat or drink and was lethargic. Should she take him to the vet.  One would think that our traveling with 2 international cell phones and provision of multiple lists including our phone numbers, as well as that of the vet, would have been sufficient for a call or visit to the vet, but apparently not.  I called immediately and was informed that Jackson had died.  She had not taken him to the vet and his body was evidently still laying where he had died.  She was not willing to touch him but I am happy to say we have very special neighbors Mike and Cindy who came to the house and collected Jackson for us.  We are distraught at loosing Jackson, and at the inability of our house sitter to handle the basic skills of adulthood.  We have used many long term house sitters in the past and they have all been excellent.  We missed the mark here.

Needless to say these two events in one day, along with the loss of my Father in November has really thrown Jim and I for a loop.  So very hard to keep our spirits up and stay focused.  I won’t even go into the drive-by shooting at one of our rentals two weeks back.  Luckily no one was hurt and the bullet holes can be patched.  We have asked the tenants to move and they are in the process.  There appears to be something that is challenging Jim and I at every possible turn; even though I don’t believe in these sort of omens.  It is a twist to our lives we have never experienced.  We have both always been triply blessed.  As part of our knowing this, we also know that these difficult times too shall pass. (Just hard to feel it right now.)

Navigating the mangrove forest

We are on the home stretch of our Ecuador trip.  One week left tomorrow.  We are looking forward to being home, but have come to feel our little Quito apartment is our home and will miss being here.  It is also easier to hide our heads in the sand and pretend all the difficulties that lay ahead when we return are not real.  But, despite all the troubles, we have had a good trip, met some very nice people, got a good dose of living in a different culture and are better than ever at our Spanish.  We are not where we had hoped to be but are likely where we should expect.  Believe it or not (and I sometimes can’t), I can write a full page of text in Spanish on how I spend my time using multiple tenses and get it pretty close to correct.  I have had stimulating conversations daily on art, politics, life, death, food, travel, family, nature, work and history with my teachers.  Our Spanish challenge is to continue with it and not let it die on the vine.  Not a trivial goal.

Sunset in Bahía (almost as good as New Mexico!)

This coming weekend we have one last trip.  We’ll be heading north for a photo shoot.  I met a woman via the web who has a hacienda and trains horses (4volcanoes.com).  She uses her horses for therapy for disabled and disadvantaged kids.  She need pics of her working with her horses and I’ll be doing this in exchange for a stay at their place.  I typically don’t like doing this sort of gig – shooting for others, but occasionally I am willing.  So, I need to now get my head around this.  In the mean time, working on photos, listening to music and hanging around the apartment are doing a bit to restore my soul.

Jim, Carlos (a professor) and Carina (my profesora) cooking.

Different groups of students brought materials to build an Ecuadorian dish (fried plantains, juice of tomate de arbol (a tree tomato), potatoes, mote (ears of corn) and deserts).

Chicken and "dogs"

Jim and I did vegetables in foil and a couple from the Czech Republic made a lovely rice salad.  The school provide the meat (chuletas – beef stakes, pollo – chicken in cuts too hard to define and salchicha – read that hotdogs.)

Putting the last stitches in the body to hold the guy together.

While we were cooking, we also made our own muñeco.  You can buy then on the street corners, but it is much more fun to use old clothes and newspaper and make one.  Socks for feet and hands, a hoodie for the body and a pair of sweat pants for the legs.  All we need to buy was the mask.  After a lovely lunch, we had a costume contest (we won second place mostly on style points and because we were old….)

The Czech ladybug was part of the winning team. Her husband the pirate teamed up with another guy.

Jimbo

And me!

Carina (my professora) and Vinicio (Jim's professor)

Then it was time to burn the muñeco.  Out we took our life-size doll to the sidewalk.  Strike a match and away it burns.  The buses, taxis and people of the town continue on their ways, walking around us.  A few people gathered to watch or honked, but for the most part we were ignored.

The muñeco burning

Turns it it was a much more emotional experience than either Jim or I had expected.  After having lost both parents in the space of a year, Jim in his first full year of retirement and and many other changes in our lives, it really got to us.  Cultures have an amazing way of creating rituals to address all sorts of aspects of life and this is no exception.

Our second exposure was a visit along Avenida Amazonas – a major “new town” street not far from our casa.  We went early – around 7 as we had planned to then return home and cook a nice dinner.  We commonly find a New Years party at a hotel or restaurant (some have been quite entertaining) when we are traveling but were ready to be home.  We had heard there would be some very large muñecos (remember the dolls which are burned for New Years?) along the street which we wanted to see.  When we got there, were we in for a surprise.  We had thought it would be much too early for many people, but the streets were closed off for several miles and were wall-to-wall people.  Many people were in costume, there were bands, food stands and lots of people – many families and groups of friends.  All very safe and friendly and we enjoyed walking along with the crowds checking out the displays.  They were really more like stationary corporate and thematic “floats”, but interesting.

Out third New Years celebration was a surprise to us.  We had returned home, completed dinner and were just beginning to enjoy a bottle of champagne as the midnight hour approached.  It was starting to get quite noisy outside so we decided to investigate.  On the front of the apartment building is a big 2nd floor deck right along the street.   We took our champagne and grapes (don’t forget your 12 grapes leading up to midnight) and when we stepped onto the deck, we could see lots of fireworks.  These were not your average sparklers and an occasional bottle rocket.  Some of them are quite large – you think it must be a display put on by the city.  No so.  Everyone buys them in the days leading up to New Years.  There were also 5 or 6 separate families along our short street preparing to burn their muñecos and continue their parties in the street.  Turns out that many people go out for an early walkabout but return home to spend the midnight hour with family.  We have been told that Avenida Amazonas is deserted by 11PM.  A very rowdy street party with fireworks, music, family and in some cases a pretty good-sized fire.  We spent 45 minutes on the deck enjoying the festivities and finishing our champagne.  This video (12 1/2 minutes) probably best represents the neighborhood street scene.  As usual, my video is a bit rough and ragged, bu in this case it reflects the scene.  Perhaps some day I’ll learn how to edit…

I hope you had a wonderful and safe New Years celebration and that the coming year only brings you joy, prosperity and good times!

Seems we were birding by fire-hose (just like Spanish).  On this day we managed to see around 70 different species of birds.   It is good that our guide could keep track of them for us.  They were all interesting, pretty and colorful but began to blend together.  “Look, another brightly colored yellow tanager.”  We must have seen 15 species of tanagers!

Roadside Hawk - yes, he was beside the road, but that *is* it's name.

It was quite a change from our 6 species in Quito.  Mindo has moved a bit upscale since our last visit three years ago.  Still a very rural town, but the tourists trade is beginning to bring more money and thus a better life for the people.  We spent all four days birding and hiking – three with a guide and one on our own.  All-in-all, we identified around 150 birds.  A pretty amazing number as in 10 days in Texas last Spring for the migration, we only saw 100 species.

Slaty-backed Whitestart - they were nesting in the cliff next to the road.

On our solo walk we saw a live armadillo!  Very cool!  This is the first live armadillo either Jim or I had seen.  Turns out there are two species around Mindo.

Christmas Eve (Noche Buena) is more of a big deal than Christmas day.  We had dinner (roasted leg of lamb, rice, potatoes and salad – not traditional) with the owners of the hostel  where we stayed (an Ecuadorian/US couple – Luis and Susan who lived in the Chicago for 15 years and moved to Mindo 5 years ago), their friends from Tuscon and Carmalita, a lovely woman from Mindo.  Carmalita spoke no English, talked very softly and has no teeth.  We sat with Carmalita and it was really hard for us to follow her Spanish.  But we had a fun and enjoyable Noche Buena.  The folks next door (not at our hostel) had an even better time.  They started partying around 10 PM and did not stop until around 10 the next morning.  Loud music, singing, talking and general drunkenness.  But, I guess they had fun.  Unfortunately we had a 6 am birding date with our guide Sandra.  A very short night for us.

The courtyard garden at CasKaffeSu our hostel.

After returning via bus – $2.50 a piece for a 2-hour bus ride on a pretty comfortable and empty bus followed for a 20 minute taxi ride that cost more than the bus ride (but still only $6.00), we are now back at school, studying and preparing for Nuevo Año.  Lots of activities and traditions around the new years.  Get your grapes ready.  The last twelve seconds leading to midnight, you have to eat twelve grapes, one at a time and make a wish for the new year with each one.  There is also a tradition of “año viejo” which is a managotas or muñecos – a doll of varying sizes, stuffed with straw or paper, clothed or painted and with a mask representing a well known person, either liked or disliked from the past year.

There are also some giant ones that line one street and can be seen on New Years Eve.  The tradition (much like Zozobra in Santa Fe) is to burn the effigy at midnight on New Years Eve to cleanse the bad and good from the past year and prepare for the new.  Last time we were in Ecuador, we also heard that you write your bad things on a piece of paper, throw it in the fire and then jump over the fire as a further cleansing activity.

Managotas in El Mercado Santa Clara

Lastly, everyone dresses up in costume for New Years Eve – evidently it is common to see men dressed as women – stop traffic and “request” money from people.  It is supposed to be in the name of the widows of the barrios.  Hum…  Last time Jim and I were in Ecuador, it was more like armed robbery.  But, I’ve been told the current government has cleaned things up a bit.  Jim and I have our masks (read that costumes – I have a nice blue feather carnival mask and Jim has a glasses/nose/tongue mask and horns) ready from New Years celebration at school…  Us who never dress up!  The pressure was great but we had fun shopping at the street vendors for masks.  (Stay tuned)

So very cute! Can you name the characters?

I’ll close with some more pics of various things and a couple of videos (for those of you really into them!)

Cloud Forest Trail (video)

Panorama view of cloud forest and Mindo (video)

Me thinks this is the Andean Emerald.

Long-tailed Sylph - Check out that rudder!

Oh my gosh, too hard to ID right now!

A local trout farm. It may be called trout or tilapia in the markets...

The terrain around Mindo. So beautiful!

Walking to School from Our Old Apartment

As I mentioned, we’ll be skipping class tomorrow and Monday to visit Mindo – a very cool birding spot 2 hours north of Quito where they have recorded well over 300 unique species of birds.  We have a driver and guide picking us up tomorrow at 7 am.  We’ll be birding for almost 12 hours; along the Old Nono-Mindo Road.   In a country with over 1600 bird species, Jim and I have managed to ID…. get ready for this… 6 species.  Quito proper is not where the birding activity lies and we have seen a few more, but it is really hard to ID these birds. We need lots more practice and a guide will provide much needed experience.   As reference, Ecuador is roughly the size of Colorado and has over 1600 unique species.  The US has not quite 900 species.  We are missing a lot of birds.  We do have one very cool hummingbird – a Black-tailed Trainbearer – that we see everyday from out balcony while having lunch.  Much more interesting than the hummers in New Mexico.

We are now ensconced in our final apartment in Quito.  Once we left the old place – we do miss the community sense of the street life – we spent a couple of nights in a temporary apartment as ours was still occupied.  We really prefer our current place.  It is smaller but much brighter,  warmer as it gets sun most of the day and has a little private balcony.  Our “original” casa had a balcony overlooking the street such that we could watch the world go by.  Our new place is at the back of a compound of maybe 10 apartments and a few hotel rooms.  Thus, we have no idea what is going on outside the courtyard.  It is hard to find the perfect place.   Here are a few pics of the latest apartment.

La cocina - note the "refri" to the left. So much nicer. And a micronda (microwave.) But, no oven. Check out the cool door!

The living room. The fireplace is to the right... you can barely see it.

El balcon con la mesita.

One thing that Ecuador does not seem to put a premium on is indoor lights.  Our kitchen/dining room is 11 x 11 feet.  In the middle is one, yes one, 60 watt bulb.  When you stand at the stove, it is in shadow.  Tricky cooking.  We do have 3 lights in the bedroom – twice a large as the kitchen/dining room plus two bedside lamps.  Thus, one of the bed lamps moves back and forth daily.  These pics are from our old apartment, but provide a sense for how the light seems…  All the lights were on when I took these from our old kitchen.

Looking out from the kitchen.

Looking into the hall from the kitchen

Supermaxi – Life in Quito would not be complete without a bit of discussion of Supermaxi.  Supermaxi is akin to a modern supermarket in the US.  You would definitely recognize it although some of the products and the mix of items is a bit different.  It does however have a few differences…  The isles are narrower and people have a very different sense of sharing them.  One example, although I could tell you many.  An empty isle.  I’m looking across at salad dressing (not a big selection).  At the end of the isle slowly comes a Nun towards me (but it could have been anyone).  I am ready to make my selection but decide to wait for her to pass.  She stops her cart directly in front of me and begins shopping behind her, seemingly unaware of me.  You either move the cart, reach over or around it, or wait.  We were the only two people on the isle.  A few other different things: when you empty your groceries onto the table, you then just leave your cart whee it is.  There may be lots of people in line and lots of extra empty carts in the way.  Eventually, an employee will come by and collect the carts – not an easy task with all the lines of people.  You cannot get the carts to the other side as the space is too narrow.  On the other side are the sackers with the old fashion upright carts to take your groceries to your car or taxi (with a tip please!)  Probably the most interesting part though is that the prices on the products are for “affiliates”.  The real price is maybe 5% higher.  Jim and I just yesterday became affiliates.  You fill out your form (including passport #) and a copy of your passport and get your temporary card.  We’ll get our permanent card in 15 days!

Well, this is getting way too long – I should publish shorter and more frequently.,  A couple of additional pics taken yesterday on an outing to old town.  Have a very Merry Christmas!

Lovely flowers

Outside the Iglesia

For the past, week after school we have been looking at different apartments and have settled on one that is slightly closer to school (only 12 vs 15 minutes walk). We have decided to move into “luxury” – hot and cold water, with pressure, in both the kitchen and bath, purified water in the kitchen – the kitchen is in our apartment – a small fireplace and a shared courtyard with flowers. And, of course Internet. These luxuries will cost us quite a bit more money, but given the recent death of my father, Jim and I are both a bit off our game and think that an easier environment might help our souls. Saturday is the moving day so stay tuned for photos of the new casa.  Here is a pic I captured during our apartment search.  No, it is not one of the places we looked at.  Still under construction.

"Moving" into a building.

I’ve not talked about our Spanish classes. Although we left for Ecuador November 16, due to our return to the US we have only had 8 days of classes. They are going well and very poorly. This is Spanish by fire hose. We spend 4 hours each day, talking, writing, reading and listening in Spanish with our private teachers. Sooooo many new words – and old words to re-remember – and homework each evening. Some days we feel good about our progress and others we wonder what we are learning. The teaching is somewhat unstructured. We discuss everything from local and world politics, to culture (in the US and Ecuador), history, eating, traveling and just about any topic you can think of. (We are learning so much about life in Ecuador.)  We are both confident we understand Spanish better than we ever have and can likely communicate somewhat better, but we no longer have sponges for brains. The words just hit them and bounce off. So very hard to nail vocabulary. And, I must say my writing in English is now non-existent. I was never a good speller, but now I can’t spell in English or Spanish…! Here is a picture of my current professor Carina. Still need to get a pic of Vinicio, Jim’s professor.

¡Carina – mí profesora buena!

Ok, I realize this might be getting a bit long. However, two other things strike me which I want to talk about. Since our return, Quito has become more lively. Quito Days (the founding of Quito) was on December 6^th. We just missed it but my sense is that it is the opening to the holiday festivities. Since our return, there have been fireworks every night. Some are pretty spectacular displays (we have a great view of much of Quito from our balcony), others just the neighborhood fun. The laws here don’t seem to preclude some pretty big and noisy displays in the barrios. For the past hour it has sounded like gunshots outside, but they are just fireworks – you can see the flashes from them reflections in the clouds. I can only imagine it will get more fun and spectacular as the month progresses.  Speaking of reflections in the clouds…

The fog on Thursday night. A real "pea souper."

The other interesting change is the weather. In my last post, I talked about how glorious the weather was when we returned and how comforting it was. Since Monday morning, the weather has gotten progressively cloudier, rainier and foggier. As the week has progressed it has been foggy in the valley in the morning (Quito is in a big valley but we are up a bit on the hill). This evening the fog has already settled on us. Visibility is definitely less than a half mile, it is quite damp as it rained all afternoon and it is getting pretty darn cool in our apartment.  Jim was heating the kitchen via the stove while we cooked dinner this evening  (but of course the kitchen is outdoors so it was for not!)  We are really looking forward to our little fireplace in the new apartment. Luckily we are always warm when we go to bed as the bed has three, yes three, dense, thick wool blankets along with a comforter.

We did manage last Sunday to visit the botanical garden near our home. They have a nice exhibit of live butterflies and insects so I’ve included a few pics of them. I took these with my new tiny point and shoot camera. I should have taken the “real” camera to the park but have been carrying the little camera for ease and safety. Now, if I would just use it more….

La mariposa.

Un bicho (insecto)... bug...

Note that I wrote this last Thursday – December 15 but only now have the time and the internet to post. So, now that we have reliable internet at home, I’ll post again tomorrow with some thoughts on the new casa.

No es mariposa o bicho pero es muy interatante.

A warm welcome back to Quito

It is sunny, warm and nearly cloudless this morning in Quito (but it is cloudy this afternoon) .  A nice welcome home for us after the early cold weather and snow in Albuquerque. Upon return I seem to be more keenly aware of the luxuries of our current home.  Luxury comes in many forms.

Our shower.  Many people might not consider this particular shower a luxury.

Our shower - a simple luxury.

There is only a trickle of water (there is no water pressure as it is gravety fed), the water is flash heated in the showerhead and if you touch the showerhead you get a nice buzz from the 30 amp, ungrounded circuit (upper right) sharing your bath.  We have learnd how to make the trickle of water actually hot (just barely turn on the faucet) such that the evaporation does not win out and cool you more than the warm water.  To have a shower and get a moment of warmth on the cloudy mornings (we have no heat except the sun) is a luxury.

A “refrigerator”.  Our kitchen has no refrigerator.  We do have privileges to use the refrigerator in the building owners apartment – just walk in and get your stuff – but it is a floor down and if they happen to be out, you are out of luck.  Thus, we have managed to locate in a modern (by US standards) supermarket a nevera portátil – a.k.a. a styrofoam ice chest.  Turns out, that is what all the signs call it as well – ice chest, but the locals told us they were nevera portátil ‘s which translates to portable refrigerator.

Our nevera portátil

In any case, we now have one…. but buying ice seems to be impossible.  We have solved that problem with an old trick we both learned from our frugal parents in childhood.  Fill water bottles (or milk cartons in our youth) and freeze them in the building owners freezer.  Violà !  We have a refrigerator in our kitchen! What a luxury.

Jim and I are coffee and tea snobs.  Can’t help it.  Latin America is the home of Nescafe and tea bags – not our preferences if at all possible.  I had brought a tea infuser along and managed to find a very lovely tea shop with all the usual tea suspects I’d find in Santa Fe.  Jim had the opposite problem. It is not hard to find ground coffee in the supermarket, but he had not brought his drip filter.  French presses are pretty common but Jim *wanted* a drip filter.  Mountaineering is big sport in Ecuador because of all the volcanoes and big mountains (the Andes).  With a visit to the backpacking store we are able to find a collapsible drip filter.  Perfect for travel and a great cup of coffee for Jim.  Turns out luxury is easy to achieve.

Music.  We have a little (in size) portable hard drive with much of our music on it.  We brought that with us but only had our laptops for listening.  Just not good enough; the sound quality sucked.  Off to the big supermall (with all the premium stores of the fancy US malls) searching for a small set of speakers to plug into the laptop. Ah… Mozart while I type. We will have to ship a box home with our nesting material.

One of the things Jim and I wanted to accomplish with this trip – and our “retirement” – is to find a simpler life.  It is so easy to become encumbered with all the items and baggage of our lives.  Perhaps we are getting a tiny glimpse of some of the little things that make us happy.

If only we had a decent internet connection to make this post…  Sitting on the balcony stealing an open, very low quality signal.  A chore for this afternoon.

Mom and Dad - September 1979

My Father passed away last Wednesday – one year and a few weeks after Mom.  He was not ready to go; his mind was strong but his body just gave out.  He missed Mom greatly, but was active in many things and was looking forward to new adventures.

We all start with two parents.  I was lucky enough to have two caring, loving parents who always challenged me, encouraged me to try whatever intrigued me, and always believed in and supported my dreams.  They were always there for me.  It is so surreal being an “orphan.”  I have four wonderful brothers and sisters, but it is just not the same without Mom and Dad.

Jim and I flew back from Quito on Friday and will be here for a couple of weeks.  We had considered just coming back and not finishing this journey, but Dad would not have been happy.  He was excited about our adventure and always loved to travel himself.  Both my parents had the wanderlust gene and I got it in spades.  As we have a house sitter, we are staying at Mom and Dad’s; a place I have never lived (even for a night) without one or the other there.  A very strange experience the first night but ultimately cathartic.  My parents purchased this house before I was born; it is our family “homestead”.

When I set up this journal I said that I’d be brief on words and will be.  Way too hard to express my feelings in words.

We have no TV which is not a big problem; it’s actually good for us! But… the internet is not working.  I can see lots of networks around the neighborhood with very week signals, and can connect to several university sites (there are universities on both sides of us), but for those of you in-the-know, the network address for all of them is 1.1.1.1.  Not too comfortable connecting to them. They have talked to the internet company (as it has worked in the past) and they said there has been an outage.  But, the owners son can see the network and it works for him. So, for the time being we are stuck using the internet at the school, or going to public coffee houses.  Not an ideal situation.

Here is our kitchen.  We have two pots, a skillet, two bowls, two plates, two cups…. you get the picture.  Yesterday morning, the gas cylinder was empty.  No coffee or tea.  Sigh.  But, the gas truck drives down the street each day honking it’s horn.  You run out into the street, and the guy replaces the cylinder for about $3.00 (US).  This in included with our apartment.  Oh, did I mention to reach the kitchen, we exit our apartment, go down a flight of stairs, under the clotheslines, around the corner and then into the kitchen.  It is technically outside but in a very protected spot.  Oh, there is also no refrigerator in our kitchen, but we have access (most of the time) to the refrigerator in the owners apartment.  Through a door, down a flight of stairs, if the door is open come in; if not, knock.  Then through their apartment to the kitchen to get our supplies.  As you can imagine, we have purchased a small styrofoam chest (not very common) and are now freezing bottles with water so we can keep our supplies a bit closer.

There is so much more to tell about our apartment but will save for later posts… except for one more tail.  The locks.  Our bedroom has a key as our living room is technically a shared space with another apartment (not in use).  The door to the apartment has a separate key – you must turn the deadbolt three times to open, then three times to lock it.  The entrance to the garage 4 flights down has a separate key, which you turn twice to open the deadbolt and again, twice to lock  Then to exit from the garage there is yet another key and deadbolt which you turn twice to open… and again twice to lock.  And the balcony has the 5th and last key.  Our introduction to the keys was a 20 minute show-and-tell where everything was explained (in Spanish as the owners do not speak English), up and down the stairs with the demo first, then Jim having to try it.  Needless to say, we are secure.

Despite these challenges – it is not so from the way many Ecuadorans live, we are settling in and making our little nest.  Yesterday was the first day of class.  Mine was lots of fun – Jim’s professor challenged him much more.  I’m done with my homework but Jim still works away!  More on that in another post.

The Calm

Ah, the first taste of a foreign country when starting a trip.  The gringa. Perhaps the hardest moment on the trip.  A total re-adjustment of thinking and attitude.  But, also a great moment… the promise of the adventure to come.  When I wrote this, we were not yet in Ecuador.  Waiting in Panama City for our plane to Quito.  These two images reflect the “high” at the beginning of the trip ….and the adjustments made to an altered reality.

The Adjustment

We’re settled into our temporary housing.  An easy transition – much easier than typical.  Perhaps as we’d been to Quito previously and had a sense of what to expect.  This is one of the things we were hoping for.  Temporary digs have beautiful gardens with a live-in bunny!    The constant piss-ant stream along the ceiling is not perfect, but we have this problem at home from time to time as well. The ants here stay at the ceiling so don’t bother us as all.

A view from the rejected apartment.

We’ve been checking out apartments and schools for the last two days. The first apartment had a view to die for…  but, the place was quite dirty, had minimal furniture and all we had to do was “create a list of what we needed to set up house” and they would provide it…  Hummmm.   It was hard to pass up as the view was spectacular and the price was good.  Then we looked at the wonderful vacation rental with a special rate.  A truly lovely place that would be a wonderful respite when we needed to escape (which is needed on a long trip.)  It was our choice, but much more expensive, and no oven.  I want to bake.  The gardens were spectacular and the apartment very lovely.  Sooooo, hard to pass up.  But, we manage to find a very clean “apartment” with a private bath and shared kitchen with an incredible view of the city and Pichinchia (see an earlier posting.)  We settled on this one as it was very affordable, and it will provide a much more “Ecuadorian” experience.  More of a challenge,… but challenge is good.  You’ll have to visit the next post to see our new Casa.  Moving in on Monday.

Oh, yes, we picked a school to begin our studies.  More on that next time as well.