Saturday, November 30, 2013

Amauta

Our Spanish group for the last two weeks -- a fascinating bunch of world travellers, an anesthetist and a pharmacist (both women), a dentist and some students from the business and education sectors.


If you have any thoughts about learning Spanish, Amauta is a great school that has one on one classes and excellent personal attention from the staff. My instructor is on the centre left. I'll miss her. Quito, Equador is a very inexpensive four hour flight from Miami Florida.




There are thousands of new houses under construction here. Location is everything though. These houses are a skip and a jump from a major road and just behind this rustic brake service place. You can see them in the background of the photo below.



There are 9 000 Americans, 2 000 Canadians and many Europeans living in Cuenca alone and thousands more in other parts of the country. Some have integrated into Spanish speaking communities.

The majority though live in regions unto themselves. A huge apartment building here in Cuenca is called 'Gringolandia' because all the residents are from North America or Europe. They stick to themselves and shop in areas where English is spoken. The lure is low cost housing, food and health care and a wonderful climate. Clothes and tech devices here are prohibitively expensive though.

A Parisian couple sitting behind us last night at the concert spend their time in a hacienda south of Cuenca near the Peruvian border, here in Cuenca and also in Paris. An active life that makes ours look static.

We get to sleep in tomorrow -- something to look forward to because we've been going full tilt for the last two weeks. Our plan for today, our last day here is to ride the local buses. See you in Riobamba tomorrow. I hope you'll save some snow for us. Be well.



Thursday, November 28, 2013

The Tagua Nut





The tagua nut, also called 'vegetable ivory', comes from the fruit of a tree that looks like a palm or palmaceus, but is actually the ciclantaceus tree or using the impressively sounding scientific name, the Phytllephas Aequatorialis Macrocarpa.







The ciclantaceus tree with fruit.





The tagua nut.






Finished product, coloured and polished.

Bob and I just bought a chess set depicting indigenous Ecuadorians. I love this material because of its natural beauty but also for the organic colour added to produce jewellery and items like this massage device. So the next time you come to visit us, you can try it out!








A massage tool. It will be in our kitchen waiting for you.

The Nut

Tagua grows in the tropical rainforests of Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela. Ecuador, though, is the major exporter. The fruit of tree is round, from 8 to 20 inches in diameter.

The process for creating the finished product is amazing. The content of the immature fruit is a tasteless crystalline liquid. When ripens it turns into a sweet milky substance, then later to a gelatinous viscous consistency and finally an very hard material just like ivory.

Tagua produces fruit after15 years and can bear fruit for up to a hundred years. A 35 to 40 year old plant is about six feet tall and will produce in over 3 annual harvests around 15 heads.

Thousands of people turn the Tagua nut into buttons, figurines, beads, chess sets, napkin rings and door knobs but the roots also contain medicinal properties. The leaves are used for hut roofing and the dust from the production is used in cattle feed because of its high energy content.

Tagua is often substituted for ivory because of its colour, appearance, hardness and feel. So its use helps prevents the endangerment of elephants and because only the nut is used in production, prevents rainforest deforestation.

Piedra De Agua Water Stone

Have you ever dunked completely in mud or had a Chinese Steam Bath? Well they are some experiences. We spent five hours last Wednesday at the Piedra De Agua, a thermal spa with the water and steam coming from a volcano.

After massages we had a private attendant for the four hour process. He followed us from one area to another with a stop watch so we couldn't skip the cold water dunk. He was very persuasive.






The internet photo above doesn't do the place justice because the spa is carved from volcanic rock. Part of it is underground, like the pool below.





We had two 15 minute sessions in a sauna with one full minute -- yes timed with a stop watch. I tried to sneak out of the cold part. But the attendant wouldn't let me. Geez.

There were two mud baths: the one red mud and the other silver. You cover your whole body, hair and all with red mud, slither down into it, shower and then slip into the silver mud and do the same thing all over again. Each bath has special properties to remove toxins. So we must have been well purified.







This is a Chinese Steam Bath. It's the oddest contraption I've ever seen. The one above is portable. But the boxes Bob and I were in were made of wood and were in a dark room. You walk into them, sit down and the attendant closes the front doors.

Then the attendant lowers wooden flaps down around your head. There's a hole in the top like the one above for your head. You get a towel wrapped around your neck. So you are completely enclosed. You keep your hand on a value inside to monitor the steam. There were four boxes in the room. Another couple walked in for their bath and had a good laugh at us sitting in our boxes.

We've just come home from a concert in the old 16th century church put on by students in the Faculty of Music at the University of Cuenca.







A 16th century painting from the church.






Part of the ceiling.

Tomorrow is our last day of classes. We leave early Sunday morning for Riobamba. Tomorrow night we're going to a Sufi concert. It might be a bit freaky. Hasta luego.

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Around Town

Cuenca is a huge city. You can see the cupolas of the new cathedral off in the distance.
















and up close today.







"We're in the navy now."


























The centre town market is gobsmacking for many reasons. Ecuador has hundreds of different types of fruit.


























We beat a hasty retreat from the market's meat section.







Yum.


















Outdoor bread store.






A fig tree on the museum grounds and





an odd looking goose.

Hasta pronto. Be well.

At the Ruins

On Sunday we arrived at the Incan Ruins after getting mired in the drainage ditch. We were breathless again and only discovered later that the area is also at 13 000 feet. It's hard to imagine Incan life as it was in the 1500s with the little that remains. But one photo shows the Temple of the Sun that marked the four solstices for crop planting and harvesting.







The Temple of the Sun. The building had just the centre hole to let light into the blackened room. The shaft of light measured the four soltices. Ecuador, named for being at the Equator, has two plantings for some crops.







The ruins.





A corn grinding morter and pestle.





The replica of an Incan home. It windowless because of the fierce winds.






A stone used to measure season. The stones on the right marked a Canari tomb. The Canaris preceded the Incas and after a 10 year battle remained undefeated. So the two civiliations joined forces. But they didn't life happily ever after because 100 years later the Spaniards arrived and demolished the people and their temples.






The ruler walked on this road to the temple every day. There is another road, hundreds of kilimetres long that runners used to carry messages. You can hike to it today and imagine yourself running along hundreds of years ago.

The archeological museum we visited today filled in a lot of blanks. The Incans had a remarkably well organized and dynamic society with beautiful pottery, gold and silver ornaments.





Implements.





A self satisfied character.





The Incans used silver to represent the female, corresponding to the left side of the human body -- the moon, the night time, the heart, spirituality and fertility. Gold represented the male and the right side of the body -- the sun, daytime and the head.


















The museum also displayed contemporary architecture.







The suffering of the people.






An indiginous woman's labour.


Speaking of labour, my instructor has one week to go and she is holding on. Female employees in the private and public sector are allowed three months paid employment after birth. Fathers have just been granted three weeks to be home after birth. The sign of a civilized society.

Yesterday my homework was to write a literary criticism. My instructor was impressed wtih the results. So now I have to write another. Gads. We have two days of classes left and on Sunday leave for the five hour drive to Riobamba. The hotel receptionist is happy to drive us because his five year old son is asking for Christmas presents!

Monday, November 25, 2013

Finding a Way

Yesterday, I had no doubt that our driver to the Incan ruins, a native of Cuenca, would know the route. However, sometimes there are surprises. If, for example, city planners decide to reconstruct at the same time all the roads leading in a certain direction, you can get into a muddle.

And so having tried three routes to the ruins yesterday on progressively smaller roads, we found ourselves on a rutted rocky, narrow trail, the car's wheels thoroughly mired in a primitive drainage ditch.

I said to Jaime, "I'm getting out. That will lighten the load." Bob got out too, and engineer that he is started collecting rocks to fill the ditch. I sauntered off to take photos, knowing the fellows would find a way.

Carpe diem photos --







A shepherdess.

















Potato crop.






Bob and I usually walk around together on these trips, Bob with a guide book in one hand and a map in the other. I have my camera and generally pay more attention to the people, to the design of buildings or to the quality of light than to street names and directions.

Today we separated. I had a mission and Bob had his own. Bob had said, "Remember, two turns to the right and one to the left." Later on, I more or less followed his directions. But I got lost in the less part of the equation. In frustration I looked up and lo and behold there were the blue church spires that we see from our hotel room window. I had found my way.

That is the way this trip is turning out. After Cuenca, we know we are heading north to Riobamba. But how we'll get there is still a mystery. We are trying to avoid an inexpensive six hour bus ride on a chicken bus or an expensive flight north to Quito and then somehow back south again.

I love the way we travel, often bumbling along. But sometimes I wonder what travelling on a cruise ship would be like where you'd put your things in one place and forget about them. I spend a lot of time looking for things that have wandered away.

Today I bought my third Spanish book, the first I'm actually reading. Yippee. My instructor suggested that Bob and I speak only in Spanish. Vamos a ver.

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Breathless at 13 000 Feet


Today's hike at Parque National Cajas felt just like strugging in the Himalayas. Guide books tell us that the park is in the Occidental Montain Range of the Ecuadorian Andes. Even though Cuenca's altitude is 8 000 feet, add another 5 000 feet and you feel it. We stopped a lot to catch our breath. Bob got a frontal headache. Not me! Smirk. We are pinching ourselves that we are here high in the Andes.

The trail's signage begins impressively. We were relieved because we were warned that it's easy to get lost on the trails. Piece of cake I thought. Then all of a sudden the signs disappeared. In the blink of an eye we got lost for the first time -- after a huge descent where we hung onto trees and bits of grass to get down. Then we had to climb all the way back up. What a workout.

Then I slipped into a mudhole. Bob said, "Pull your boot out slowly so you won't lose it." Jeeze. I squished along the rugged trail for the next three hours.



























































































































People here call this tree a Paper Tree.





































The hole I fell into. It felt like quicksand. Bob grabbed me to stop my leg from slipping down further. It was totally yukky.











Steep trails.


We prepared well with both down and Gortex rain jackets. Ice pellets showered down during the last hour -- more pleasant than rain and interesting sound effects.

Tomorrow I'll send photos from an Inca Ruin. Best from Bob and I.



Location:Mariscal Sucre,Cuenca,Ecuador