Just Monkeying Around

 In Which, We Visit Tena and Misahualli

So one of our trips when Mom and Dad were here was down the mountains and into the edge of the Amazon to a little town called Tena. It's about 2 hours past Banos, so roughly a 3-4 hour trip, as the bus trundles. 

It's warm here (it's the Amazon...duh) with lush greenery *everywhere* which was a fun difference compared to Ambato, which is chilly and somewhat brownish these days.

We had booked a tour with a local hostel in Tena called La Casa Blanca. What a great place! Michelle was our hostess and she was wonderful. She hooked us up with a wonderful tour guide, and on Saturday morning, after a breakfast of eggs, toast and fruit, we loaded up with our new Canadian friends we had met the night before for a a day of adventure.

First up: the monkeys of Misahualli. 

Enjoying the fruits of his thievery

These guys were everywhere. I think we were the second group of visitors to arrive that morning because although they were plenty happy to take out grapes, they weren't quite as swarming as we'd heard they could be.

This little guy took the entire bunch of grapes that John had...

Even with that, we still had plenty of  interaction with them. It was fun to see how the troop interacted. The matrons tended to stay further away in the street, while the youngsters were the bold ones climbing down poles and trees and coming right up to us.

Just chillin

This guy in the tree might have been the most mischievous one of all. Right before we headed on to our boat tour, he snatched the hat of a passerby and wouldn't give it back until the man traded him something for it!

Trouble!

After the monkeys, it was time for a boat trip down the Napo River. This was actually really fun! The Napo is a tributary of the Amazon, and it's a fairly good-size river in its own right. We motored for about 30-ish minutes or so until we reached the family farm of our tour guide.

Getting ready to go down the Napo!

Here we heard more about the traditional Amazonian way of life, including how to harvest and plant yucca, and how to make chocolate!

Harvesting and replanting yucca

Then we came back to the homestead fire and set about making chicha, which is a traditional Kichwa drink made from fermented yucca. We mashed it for a bit with some salt and butter, and it actually tasted a lot like mashed potatoes.

The finished product requires several days of fermentation, so we sipped on some that had already been made. The taste was...interesting. Not overly bitter, but not really flavorful either. It tasted most similar to slightly muddy water with a bit of a tang.

The makings of chicha...or mashed potatoes

After the chicha, we set about making some chocolate from the cacao trees there on the farm. It required roasting, shelling and grinding.

Dad working for his portion of the chocolate

After grinding, then there was boiling, adding sugar and water and mixing, so make it palatable.

The fruits of our labor!

At the end, we were able to enjoy the fruits of our labor with some fresh (and huge!) strawberries and bananas.

Hello from the Amazon!

In between the farm and the animal sanctuary, we did also stop at a butterfly farm, but I didn't take many pictures there. It was really interesting though. It's run by a man from Germany, and they actually raise and export the pupae to other sanctuaries, zoos and collections around the world! The entire operation appears to be very well run and organized.

Our last stop on the trip was Amazoonico, an animal refuge. This was probably my favorite stop, even though it was sweltering in the jungle humidity. The animals and all their stories were awesome to see! I even saw several animals that I'd never heard of before, which is always fun.

Tapirs! These guys are so cute and cuddly...if they weren't 400 pounds...

They give 'raucous' a new meaning

Beautiful and lithe!

There were far more than I have pictures of here, maybe I can convince John to sit down and create a video from his GoPro...

Either way, it was a spectacular experience, all in all, and I highly recommend both La Casa Blanca and any of their trips to anyone who's interested in seeing a bit of the Amazon.

On our way back UP the Napo, with our Canadian friends in the back

That night we decided to walk around the city of Tena for a bit. This bridge is right above the confluence of Rio Pano and Rio Tena. We walked up one side, crossed over and walked down the other.

Tena at night

Tena at night is lovely. It loses the mugginess but still remains cool enough for shorts and light shirts. I doubt we'll go  back before we leave for home, but this will remain one of our most favorite trips so far!

Visitors in Quito!

In Which, We Climb Way Too Many Stairs

For those who don't know, my parents came and visited us for two weeks at the beginning of March, and we had a BLAST!

I hadn't seen them since they left for the retired life in Puerto Rico in October 2014. That's the longest we've ever gone without seeing each other face to face! 

Reunited and it feels so good - even at 3am!

John and I were both super excited to show them a little slice of this beautiful country, and where better to start than in Quito? We were pretty familiar with all the tourist things to do, so getting around was fairly simple. 

The first Saturday we caught the market in Otavalo, which was, as always, phenomenal. Dad made out with a sweet hat and Mom picked up some coasters. She later regretted not picking up a few other things, but we'll probably make one more trip up there before we leave anyway.

That night we met up with our friends David and Carmen for dinner in La Ronda, a tourist district with lots of character and LOTS of food. Also plenty of live music and drinks, which was exactly what we were looking for.

La Ronda

The next day we ended up walking to the Basilica, which may or may not have involved me taking us down (and up!)many flights of stairs. My dad has both knees replaced and bad hips, so that wasn't the greatest plan ever, but he was a trooper and we got to see a lot of really great views of the city from some of the towers.

Panoramic view from the front of the Basilica - you can see El Panecillo!

Monday was probably our longest day, just in terms of being out and about. We had the driver of the hostel we were staying at take us to Mitad del Mundo, El Teleferico and El Panecillo, all in one day. 

We were pretty exhausted after that, but it was definitely worth it. Mitad has finished up their major construction projects, and they've got some lovely museums about the French geodesic missions to Ecuador to find the middle of the world as well as an AWESOME miniature model of El Centro Historico of Quito.

El Teleferico was a really fun adventure as well. While it was nice and warm down in the city, by the time we got up to the edge of the valley we were all glad to have jackets and sweaters, because it was COLD!

Just a veeeeeery small portion of Quito

The views were amazing and they had several hiking/biking trails as well as advertisements for horseback riding, so we may need to check that out again as well.

Finally, El Panecillo, or, that little lump of a hill in the middle of the city with a giant statue of a madonna, known as the Woman of the Apocalypse. The description comes from Revelation 12:1-18.

We were able to climb up (on the inside) to the top of the pedestal, which offered more great views of the city. Along the way they had explanations of how and when the statue was made.

Tuesday morning was our time to rest and relax, and then we packed up and left for Ambato around 1pm. 

While exhausting, I thoroughly enjoyed everything we did, even the stuff John and I had done before. It's kind of fun to hit up areas you've already been to as a tourist again, this way you can find a bit more in-depth information or new angles of seeing things. 

Up next: our trip to Tena and the tour up and down the Napo River! This was definitely a highlight of our trip, and I would absolutely recommend it to anyone considering the foothills of the Amazon here in Ecuador.

Coming Home

In Which, We Plan to Return

Yep, it's true. We've decided to come home. 

We were initially thinking just to visit in June, but after looking at travel costs and considering several other options, we've decided to simply make our final return.

We'll be planning on coming back sometime in the beginning of June, most likely within the first 10 days or so. We'll hopefully be housesitting for some friends for a week or so, and then, when they return, we'll move over to John's grandparents' house for a few days.

THEN, the plan is to visit my parents in Puerto Rico for a month. If you follow me on FB, you'll know that they recently visited us for 2 weeks, so we'll return the favor. 

When we return from PR, we'll settle back into our house and basically start afresh with all the things we've learned while living in Ecuador. 

We have a couple posts waiting in the wings regarding our Mindo trip (back in January) as well as lots of photos from the trips we took while my parents were here, so look for those in the coming weeks.

Mama T, when we went to Banos

Getting ready to canoe down the Napo River outside Misahualli!

In the meantime, we're still making the most of our time here, with possible trips to Quilotoa and the beach (again!) in the mix. 

Either way, we plan to enjoy the rest of our time here to the fullest.

The Holidays and a Hike

In Which, We Are Lame but also Fit

John has never been happier during the holiday season. Why, you ask? Because this is the first year he's not had to put up any kind of decorations since we've been married.

Scrooge.

So, yes. It is the holiday season, Christmas is almost upon us, and while we aren't too preoccupied with it this year, it does produce some longing for home when we do come upon decorations and general holiday frivolity.

We haven't actually done too much that's holiday related. We were supposed to go to a Christmas concert at the local theatre one Friday, but that was one of the days we went to Quito, and by the time we got back it was late and we were exhausted. We also missed the Crossfit Christmas party that night which was irritating.

Thanks a lot, Quito.

So I'm keeping my eyes open on the local paper to see what other festivities we can crash. Hopefully we'll find some good ones.

They love Christmas here. Not quite to the commercial extent that they do in the States, but they love lights and fireworks and pageants and all sorts of holiday displays.

One of our friends' house looks like an army of elves threw up inside of it. His mom is an artist/crafty person, and she ADORES Christmas. She's got more (handmade) Christmas decorations than you can shake a stick at.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg!

We'll actually be splitting our time on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve between David's house and his family, and Juan and Andrea's house and their families. We're really looking forward to it!

In other news, we hiked up the mountainside behind our apartment a few weekends ago. It's actually the very far west side of the valley that Ambato lies in, so it's significantly steep.

You know it's bad when the stairs give you stitches...

Re: it kicked my butt.

FYI, this "dirt" is more like sand

But the views from the top were AMAZING. We got to look out towards the west and see views we never get to see since we're at the bottom of the hillside.

West!

Ambato, which is to the east

Going down was MUCH easier than up (go figure) but we also ran into an obstacle course of black wiring that, if you weren't paying attention, would trip you and happily break your neck. Lucky for us, we are fleet of foot. 

Well, John is. I'm just exceedingly slow.

This is probably our internet line...

He and Jethro were ahead of me the whole way

So that's that! Today I made cinnamon buns with Andrea and Juan Martin, and I think they are going to be deliiiiiiicious! We'll take a pan (or 3) with us to dinner on the 24th to help contribute and to also say thank you to Juan's family for inviting us to celebrate Christmas with them.

Be very, very jealous

John's in the process of writing about the visa fiasco that happened last week, so stay tuned for that!

Coming Back

In which, we revive our blog

So as you can see, we are absolutely TERRIBLE about updating this blog. The last post was July and we're now almost halfway through November. EEK.

While there's a lot that's happened, there's also a lot that's been normal. We've pretty much settled into a daily routine, with the occasional adventure. August was pretty tame, as we were trying to settle in after our June/July adventure to the beach. At the beginning of September, we met up with the proofreading guru herself,  my friend and sensei, Caitlin Pyle! She and her husband Ben were here in Ecuador for 3 months (they've since moved on to Argentina) so we met up down in Banos for a weekend trip. That was really fun and involved an afternoon trek to Pailon del Diablo (Devil's Cauldron) and the zoo! Check out their blog over at The Work Anywhere Life - they've got some really great pictures and videos of the weekend.

Taking a tarabita over the river valley

Pailon del Diablo - the actual waterfall is DIRECTLY to the right

On a bridge, looking back at Pailon del Diablo

After that, we spent the rest of September putting our lives together for our big trip home in October. That involved several weeks of prep for Jethro as well as a last-minute trip to Quito/Otavalo for some gifts.

Raw, local honey!

We also made a little side trip to Ibarra, about 45 minutes north of Otavalo, for el Caceria del Zorro, which is basically, the fox hunt. Only in this particular hunt, it's a rider dressed as the character Zorro, and everyone chases him down. We weren't able to stay for the actual race but we did get to see the parade. There were over 600 riders in the parade, which meant a LOT of horses, which made my inner 9-year-old girl so very, very happy.

There are actually several race categories, for both younger and older riders to compete and chase the Zorro. Seeing them all in the parade was exhilarating, with the variety of horses and riders. Some were beautiful, other were extremely talented and well trained. I really hope we get the opportunity to come back and see the race someday!

After this last trip, it was nose to the grind. The apartment needed cleaning and we had to ensure that our housesitters had all the information they needed to make their stay as easy as possible. We had made arrangements for a retired American couple living in Panama to come and stay in our apartment with Jethro so we didn't have to leave him at the vet for the entire time. Clyde and Terry were AMAZING and you can follow their adventures at Along the Gringo Trail. 

With those arrangements made, we headed home to good ol' South Kackalacky (South Carolina, for the uninitiated amongst us) for Will and Amanda's wedding in Charleston as well as a chance to visit with our friends and family.

Aren't they just ridiculously good-looking??

For those who don't follow me on Facebook or Instagram, I won't relive our ordeal to even get back home (TL;DR - it was a version of hell on earth), but at the end of the day we made it back. We had a great time visiting with everyone, catching up with our families and spending quality time with those we love. We were in the States for about 3 weeks, from October 7th - October 29th. We got in all the good Southern cooking we'd been missing and did some shopping for some of us (...me) to correct our wardrobe shortcomings.

That time my sisters and I were all on the same continent, in the same state, city, and room!!

It was a great time, and for those we didn't manage to see, we're sorry! We'll be in Ecuador for 7-8 more months though, so feel free to come see us!

We made it back to Quito on Thursday, the 29th, and the trip back was MUCH more pleasant than the trip home. Even so, by the time we pulled up to our apartment the next day, I was pretty much ready to never travel with checked luggage again. It's nice to have all those things when you settle in, but lugging two 50# duffel bags is no joke.

We had a bit of a snafu with Clyde and Terry's transportation to Quito, but they finally got underway at about 6pm. A little later than they hoped, but they made it there safe and sound and enjoyed several adventures over the holiday weekend.

Pan de guagua and colada morada

Oh yeah, did I mention we arrived back on a holiday weekend? November 2nd is Dia de los Difuntos, or Day of the Dead. They celebrate it here in Ecuador a little differently than what you might expect. There's special bread (pan de guagua) and drink (colada morada) that everyone makes based on their own family recipes. There's fireworks and parades, and here in Ambato they have one of the biggest fairs in the entire country. On November 2nd itself, many families go to the cemeteries to remember their loved ones. It becomes a family outing, with food and games abounding.

We didn't go to any of the cemeteries, but we did check out the fair since it was literally 3 blocks from our apartment. We went Saturday morning to avoid the crowds. It was a beautiful, bright sunny day and it was a perfect re-introduction back into Ecuador and Ambato. There are vendors and artisans from all over the country selling their wares. There's also a CRAP ton of food from all over the country, which is just another way of spelling happiness.

Basically, to keep MILs away... ;)

Since then, we've basically been settling back in, trying to adjust to the altitude and finding a schedule again. 

This past Thursday, Ambato celebrated the 195th anniversary of its declaration of independence from Spain. There were parades and commemorations and people all over the place. It also coincided with a South American World Cup Qualifying match between Ecuador and Uruguay. We went to watch the match at a small restaurant with our downstairs neighbor, Andrea, and had the pleasure of seeing Ecuador win! It was an exciting game, and it was fun to watch it with the locals. As you might imagine, they were VERY animated. 

So that's it. We're back and once we get fully acclimated to the altitude again, we'll start looking at some more adventures. Banos is in the books (always), as well as Quisapincha, Puyo, and Riobamba. Who knows, maybe we'll get really adventurous and try the beach again?