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.

Holidays and Closing out 2015

In Which, We Finally Put Up Holiday Pictures

So, by now, you know the drill. We do something fun/cool, put up a few pictures as teasers, and then don't put up a blog post till months later. Sigh. 

This is a compilation of both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. We spent both holidays with friends and their families, and it was a great time all around. 

Christmas was very family-centric, with an exchange of gifts, prayers for each individual, dancing, and, of course, food and drink! We were welcomed with open arms by Juan's family and had an amazing time. 

New Years was great too. We went with David to his family's celebration and had a wonderful time walking around, seeing the huge Ano Viejos, which are basically effigies that are then burned at midnight. They take a lot of forms, from superheroes to Elvis to some that are horror inspired. 

Then we finished everything off with sparklers and watching the fireworks at midnight, followed by the first meal of the New Year. 

Freaky...

They're feeling the blues

A little Thor action

Overall, it was an amazing time! It was a great closeout to 2015 and a wonderful beginning to 2016!

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!