Wednesday, December 18, 2013

To the Palace

Rafael Correa was working in his office this morning. So we missed him by only a few hours. Palace guards marched smartly by us with a lot of pomp and circumstance as we toured around. When he became president, Correa opened the palace to the people and changed tradition by living with his family in his own home.



The banquet hall.


Many of the visiting dignitaries' official gifts to Correa and Ecuador are on display. The plate above is from Turkey in 2013.


This painting by Latin American artist Endara Crow symbolizes Ecuador for me -- the magic of the Andean Mountains, tiny indigenous homes and a gold tree representing hope for the future.



We leave our B&B for the Quito airport at 4:00 am tomorrow. It's been fun sharing our adventure with you. Bob and I hope that your Christmas will be merry and that all you wish for in 2014 will come to pass. Our next trip is to Peru. Until then, be happy and healthy.













Tuesday, December 17, 2013

High Up

You'd think after five weeks that we'd be acclimatized by now. But no. Quito is 2500 feet higher than Otavalo and I'm having waves of dizzyness. We're both tired for no good reason and we pulled ourselves up on handrails to the top floor of the Equadorean cultural museum today. We'd like to take a teleferiqo that goes 1000 metres up the side of the Pichincha Volcano, stopping at a lookout. But the altitude is13,287 feet and I suppose I'd pass out. We'll see.

 
Otavalo this morning.


Quito this afternoon.


We'll miss outdoor flower displays like this and are bracing ourselves for that first blast of cold air at Pearson Thursday evening.


The Cultural museum.


The chart shows Equador's geographical sculpting. The red part on the left is the coastal area, the blue centre, the Andean region and the green on the right, the Amazon jungle. It' a world of contrasts. There are two sea currents, the El Nino and the Hubolt that collide causing severe droughts, and rain storms. Seismic activity adds more drama.


This mummy of a 15 year old Incan girl was found at the top of a mountain. She lived about a thousand years ago. The material she was found in is made of alpaca and llama.


She still has dark hair -- although it's lost its lustre. The green marks are from copper jewellry she was wearing.


This is the replica a cave dating back 11 000 years or  more where skeletons of hunter gatherers and tools were found. People lived here before they lived in Canada because of our ice age.


A grater.



This fellow is in a meditating position.


Peoples in Andean cultures chewed Erythroxylon coco, a narcotic that relieved their hunger and pain. Coca was also used in Shamanic rituals. This fellow represents a coca user.




An Incan vessel showing sophisticated decoration. In the late 15th century, the Incans invaded Ecuador from Peru. The battles were fierce and bloody. But very quickly they established a sophisticated government. Ecuador's 8000 year history is divided into five eras: Pre-Columbian (before Columbus), the Conquest, the Colonial Period, the War of Indepence, and the Republican Era (now).


Solid gold death mask. The spiritual and natural worlds were infused. Much more time and material wealth was spent on tombs than in people's earthly homes. 




We're in awe of the beauty and intricacy of the pottery and metal work of people who lived so long ago. Tomorrow we're going to the president's residence. Sometimes people visitors even meet Correa.

Hasta manana.






















Monday, December 16, 2013

Cascada Peguche

A Quicha community lives in the vicinity of the Peguche waterfall. It is a beautiful area and also an Inca ritual site, where people the night before the eve of Inti Raymi or Winter Solstice, bathe in the falls for purification. During the Inca Empire, the Inti Raymi, or Festival of the Sun, was a religious ceremony to honour Inti, the most venerated Inca god. 



The name in Quicha on the left of the sign.

Legend says that inside the falls is a cauldron of gold guarded by two black dogs. On one side of the cauldron sits the devil with a plate of sand. Gradually the sand is cast away and finally repaced with gold and the taking of the soul. It's an odd story. But gold is painted on some rocks and there are invitations to enter a cave. We passed. Would like to keep our souls for a while.





A restored stone circle. There is an echo at the centre.


Two hundred years ago a fellow brought the Eucalyptus tree to Ecuador. The tree has spread and has become an invasive species that takes enormous amounts of water from the land, destroying indigenous plants and trees in the process.







A new house being built outside the Park.


See you tomorrow in Quito.







Sunday, December 15, 2013

A Place to Settle Down


In Cotacatchi today we stopped in at the Serendipity cafe owned by Tommy, a world traveller who owns two suitcases, three saxaphones, the cafe and three passports. "I can pack at a moment's notice," he said.

Where are you from in Canada?" he asked. "Near Toronto," we said, figuring he was American. "I'm most comfortable in Europe," he said. "But I lived for a long time in B.C.s Slocan Valley and did a lot of historical restoration in Nelson in the 70s." I bet he was a draft dodger, I thought. "Were you from the States at one point?" I asked. "From Hawaii," he said.

We learned a lot from Tommy about the cost of living here and how to immigrate from the States or Canada. It takes about three years to obtain residency papers. Apartment or house rental is $400-500/month, including all services, even phone. If you happen to be over 65, you can fly within and outside the country at a 50% airfare reduction. A 12% sales tax is applied to all purchases here. 

But if you are a senior and save all your receipts, 50% of the sales' tax is returned. That's a substantial amount of money if you are building a house." You've got to visit several times and live here for at least four months or so before deciding to move here." Tommy said. "Many people make rash decisions to relocate, build homes and regret later. No one should expect to assimilate." Tommy is fluent in Spanish, German and Portuguese.

We ran into a lot of Americans at the cafe. Some spoke a little Spanish. Almost all were there because they had a hard time making ends meet in the States. Some admitted they wanted to escape the States's politics and current issues.

Cotocachi Cayapas Ecological Reserve


The Cotapachi volcanic crater is about 15 minutes outside of town.


A tribe of Cayapa Indians lives in this reserve of volcanic lakes, waterfalls plant and animal species. Besides more than 500 species of birds and 2000 types of plant life, there are anteaters, ocelots, foxes, raccoons, parmo wolves, sloths and deer fish and other creatures. 



In the early 1990s a mineral surveying program partly funded by the World Bank intended to develop extraction industries here. Protests against publication of mineral deposit maps and mining in the the reserve's southwest cloud forest area have been successful so far. 


I hope the world can protect this area because it is one of the planet's rare unfarmed regions and also because it contains a small remaining corner of cloud forest that stretches from southern Panama to northern Peru.


The Imbabura Volcano.

Finally some good coffee and real cream. It comes from the top of a bottle of milk. It's not whipped. Maybe it's clotted.

You might wonder why I'm taking photos of coffee machines and grinders. Well some cafes have the machines. But the coffee is vile. Either they don't know how to use the machines or all the good coffee is exported. I can't believe how much I've missed the stuff. It's amazing how you often don't know the importance of things (and people) in your life until they are gone. 





Nescafe is everywhere.


Motorcycles, sound systems and sometimes wine are cheek by jowl in the same store.


A church along the way.


Tomorrow is our last day in Otavalo. Tuesday morning we leave for Quito and the last leg of our adventure. My backpack will be on my lap and not on the floor this time.

Hasta luego.











Saturday, December 14, 2013

The Otavalo Market



As they say, "A picture is worth a thousand words." At the same time, photos don't do the market justice because overnight centre town is transformed into market stalls
 selling textiles, tagua nut jewelry, musical instruments, dream catchers, leather goods, fake shrunken heads, indigenous costumes, hand-painted platters and trays, purses, clothing, spices, raw foods and spools of wool.

Products come from goodness knows where on people's backs, by carts, vans and trucks. All the wares are stashed in large bags or plastic drums. The stalls are made of metal tubing cover by plastic sheeting. Very small children help out and there are lots of them in this city. It's like Deep River ON in the 60s here. Tons of families making babies.

Wearables and decor.










Food.


Yum.



This looks and smells like stewed prunes.


They are put into a bun with cheese and voila, a sweet sandwich.


Spices.


Unchilled chickens.



Pealing fruit to make juice.




Deep fried corn,


is served as an appetizer (top).


We couldn't tell whether these were small clams or fried insects. I think I'm getting more squimish around food now. Hundreds of families take part in this eyepopping market.

Be well.