Photo of the day, 3/31/2010: and roses cost less than $1.

no shortage of calalillies in Ecuador... the garden at L'Auberge Inn

Volcan Cotopaxi...

... erupts every 100 years or so. The last eruption was 114 years ago. It's overdue and will likely wipe out everything in its path in less than 5 minutes when it does go.

Volcan Cotopaxi from below

He tells us this as we are about to walk up the trail.

I love the lack of safety regulations here. "Want to learn to surf? Here's a board, a rough set of waves and a guy named Raul who speaks no English. Have fun!" "Want to visit an active volcano? OK, on the way back you can also bike down a really slippery and steep trail with only a helmet and some rusty brakes. Have fun!"

In Oregon, to jump out of a plane and spend a minute in the air I had to sign my name to about three dozen liability releases including one that essentially said "sometimes parachutes don't open, if you die on the way down your family cannot sue us." In our litigious society even the simplest activity like purchasing a cup of fast food coffee requires a "no sue" clause of some sort. Here I have signed nothing. It's refreshing, in a weird way.

Although they really ought to consider a "no sue" clause for the country's staples, Nescafe and Pilsner. Bleeeccchh.

(not pictured: the armed guard at the park's entrance - common in South America)

what's that in feet?

Cotopaxi is the only active volcano with a glacier

view of the valley from near the top of Cotopaxi

I stayed on the bus for the bike portion, mostly because it was pouring rain at that point and only the Dutch yahoos opted to go, but also because I don't remember the last time I rode a bike and the last thing I need is a broken leg. Prior to the rain I considered it, because when else am I going to have such an option?... so thank you, rain, for making the call for me.

In the morning we had picked up passengers from Hosteria PapaGayo, a beautiful farm and hostel near Cotopaxi. When we dropped them off at the end of the day we were treated to fresh baked chocolate cake and tea in their garden.

me pretending I stayed here

sleepy puppies staying warm by the heater

I returned to my hostel happy to have had no ill-effects from the sudden change in altitude. A good sign for things to come...

Photo of the day, 3/30/2010: from 5k km at Volcan Cotopaxi.

hi, mom!

Attitude adjustment: the key to any successful journey.

The hostel I booked for three nights, because of rave reviews of the cafe downstairs and the free wifi, has neither at the moment. The cafe reopens next week and who knows when the wifi will be functioning again.

Had they had a functioning cafe, I probably would not have hit the grocery store and enjoyed the best PB&B (banana) sandwich I think I have ever had, or spent just $11 on food that will easily last me the rest of the week.

Had they had functioning wifi I would not have played with the Notes feature on this iThing and discovered a handy way to draft blog posts while offline. (Which I am most of the time, which probably means longer posts. You've been warned.)

This theory applies to any of life's daily or major adventures. Define "journey" however you want... and adjust accordingly.

I-have-no-idea-what-day-it-is five.

It seems so long ago now, but here are five fun Antarctica facts I learned on the expedition that I wanted to share. If anything is wrong, I blame my fearless expedition leaders.

1. In the '60s Argentina took sovereignty of the Falkland Islands and held hostage anyone trying to help Britain regain control... Hostages were tormented with really loud country western music. (Britain has since regained control, but this might partly explain why so many UK/Aussie folks knew the words to "Take Me Home Country Roads" during the karaoke singalong the second to last night of the expedition...?)

As an aside, it seems that Emperor penguins are attracted to heavy metal music. One of our expedition guides worked on the continent for a few years and his mate would blare metal from the speakers in the shop, and twice Emperors wandered in and stared at the speakers.

2. Only 0.4% of the continent is visible. (And I got to play on 0.0000000001% of that 0.4%!)

3. It holds 90% of the world's ice and 66% of the world's water.

Please pause to go install CFLs and insulate your attic - if/when that ice melts we're all doomed.

4. The ice is one mile thick on average and can be 3 miles thick in places. Next time you walk 3 miles (because we're not driving anymore, right - see #3?) think about how thick that would be. Neat, eh?

Another aside, the ice moves. Speed at which it moves varies but on January 1 each year scientists have to go out and reposition the South Pole marker, which moves about 10 meters/year.

4. The average temperature is -30f in summer and -70f in winter... I think that translates to DAMN COLD in celcius degrees.

5. The sea around Antarctica freezes about 1-3 miles per day in the winter. Yes, per day. I had him repeat it.

And a bonus fun fact. Approximately 2300 cubic km (2 million cubic tons of water) calves off the ice shelves and glaciers each year. I only mention it because it's fun to say "cubic."

And now I can throw this stupid piece of paper away. Every little bit helps when you're traveling light...

Photo of the day, 3/29/2010: do it again, Mommy.

sunrise from my "hotel" room

Photo of the day, 3/28/2010: THIS should've been on the t-shirt.

Basilica del Voto Nacional - t-shirt here

Hasta, Manta y hola, Quito.

In a fitting end to my time in Manta the lights went out across the city just as Sra and I were heading out the door to go to the bus station. (The station was just a block away but, ever the gracious hostess, she insisted on walking me there and carrying my daypack. It was so nice that I almost didn't care that she was banging my bag - and my camera - all over the place... Almost.)

This was not uncommon though. The lights went out at the house often and Tia placed candles strategically around "just in case" ("por si acaso"). That night, in addition to the pitch black it also started to rain. After two weeks of taxis beeping incessantly, dogs barking and roosters crowing, and TVs blaring, it was nice to roll out of town in pitch dark to the sound of rain on the window. I have some fond memories of Manta and that is one of them.

I was mildly worried about taking a night bus for my first long bus ride, but this was an "executive" line (read: an additional dollar for your ticket buys you added security - AND a cup of Coke and a package of cookies as well, because wouldn't YOU want a sugar high as you embarked upon an 8 hour overnight bus ride? I know the 3 year old sitting in front of me did!). The only incident involved two policemen who came aboard about an hour outside of Quito, harassed a passenger for five minutes, then walked off the bus (leaving the passenger on the bus). They were speaking quickly and I couldn't follow what was happening, but no one else seemed concerned so I went with the "when in Rome" theory and followed their lead. But I didn't go back to sleep.

Quito, day 1: Because I was getting in so early and expected to have had little to no sleep, and because I had essentially spent five weeks with people (!), I treated myself to a single room at a "hotel" near Mariscal Sucre (aka "gringolandia"). For $20 I got a large room with two beds and private bath, a huge breakfast, cable and DVDs...

home for two days

... and all-hour access to THE cutest kitten. That alone was worth every penny.

look at that FACE! (the cat's, not mine)

After settling in, one of the other guests offered to show me around so we wandered through Parque El Ejido (a huge park with tons of craft merchants and street artists) and I found hostels for the rest of the week.

Parque El Ejido

We had lunch at El Cafecito (spinach crepe = YUM!), at which point I got tired of my companion's whining (note to self: find some females/nonAmericans to hang out with...!) and went back to my room to rest. The "hotel" overlooked the mountains as well as the Sanctuary of El Guapulo, rumored to be the oldest church in Quito, so later I walked down streets so steep they would embarrass San Francisco to have a look.

Sanctuary of El Guapulo from the top

Sanctuary of El Guapulo from the bottom

Along the way were the most interesting murals and some amazing views.

wall aht, part I

wall aht, part II

wall aht, part III

Time out #1: I haven't even mentioned... Quito? It's GREEN. And high in the mountains. I think I'm at 3000m right now... whatever that means. :) The days are pleasant, maybe 75 degrees, and at night I get cold. No mosquitoes, no humidity, no cold shower only to start sweating again 10 minutes later, no fan pointed at me 24/7. Heaven. Just waiting for the head cold to kick in!

from my room with a view

flowers in the "hotel" garden

Time out #2: Quito honors historic days by naming streets after the date. It felt a little odd at first, telling the taxi driver to take me to "Avenue 6 de Diciembre" or "Avenue 10 de Agosto"... There's also lots of graffiti referencing historical dates.

Time out #3: They recently changed their street address system. Most homes and businesses have both addresses, which makes it verrrrry confusing when you're trying to find a place.

donde estoy? no se.

Okay, so day 2: headed to Old Town for an abridged walking tour. Quito's old town is beautiful. The whole city is lovely, actually. It was declared "a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in the 1970s for having the best preserved and least altered historic center in Latin America." (Thank you, Wikipedia.)

Anyway, it was Palm Sunday so people were out and about en masse. (And in mass, of course...)

Plaza Grande

Plaza and Monastery of San Francisco

I got my fill of the Plazas as well as some amazing empanadas con verde (YUM), then decided to skip the taxi ride to El Panecillo and go to Basilica del Voto Nacional. Why pay $8 to see "the only Madonna depicted with wings" when you can pay $2 to see a church decked out with iguanas, turtles, bears and anteaters instead of angels?

looks like your average cathedral... until you get close

This church also offered walks up the towers for really nice views of the city - and the winged Madonna statue - now how much would you pay?

El Panecillo between the towers

Quito from above

Finally, hit the Vivarium in Parque de Carolina, a well done exhibit featuring about 80 Amazonian/otherwise local critters (and an all-female staff - not sure which was rarer).

I may be the only person who seeks out vivariums in foreign countries - I'm OK with that

snake demo

Ended the day by figuring out how to take a pretty darned amazing moon photo...

we really like tha moon

All in all a good couple of days. Ready to go higher though - Cotopaxi, here I come...

Photo of the day, 3/27/2010: keepin' Quito weird.

mural on the way to Sanctuary of El Guapulo

Photo of the day, 3/26/2010: beach aht, part II.

last look at Murcielago beach

To Quito!

What a communication debacle this whole week has been... My stomach was feeling bad on Tuesday. I somehow communicated this in broken Franglish and the family took care of me. So sweet. Later this week I finally learned future and past tenses for verbs, which I thought I used properly before I left this morning (telling them I planned to eat with the other students for lunch) and when I got ¨home¨ today (telling them that I´d already eaten when they asked if I wanted food), but they fixed me lunch anyway. They didn´t mind when I declined with a confused look on my face, and I think we worked it out that it was just a breakdown in the language, so whatever. And last night I got home from my first (and really only) night out with the other students and they were very worried, even though I´d explained at breakfast (or so I thought!) that I wouldn´t be home until 10pm.

It´s all good. Just frustrating. Tonight I patiently tried to ensure they understood I was going to use the Internet and then go to dinner with the other students, and they said ¨(got it, no dinner see you at 8:30).¨ I was so excited that I may have gotten the tenses right, and in my excitement I gave them two thumbs up and one of the elderly women did the same thing back to me with a big grin. CUTEST THING EVER.

(Hopefully they won´t have dinner waiting for me when I get back. SIGH.)

I really do like these ladies though. They are spunky, generous, completely giving and just great people. This has been my experience in Manta. Every person I´ve encountered, whether it be at the supermercado, at a cafe, walking by on the street, or mi familia, has been patient and helpful (especially the postal worker who probably wanted to quit as soon as I walked in the door the second time).

And I can´t speak much for the beer but the food has been quite amazing. Ceviche will not be the same when I get back to the States.

All of which is not to say I plan to return to Manta in the near future, but... I did learn quite a bit of Spanish in these two weeks. I understand a whole hell of a lot more than I can speak, but I think that´s OK and will shift as I practice. And as of yesterday I have photographic evidence that I surfed!... well, I do not have said evidence but it exists. I will post a photo whenever I receive it. I actually stood on the board for a 15 second ride last night. It was a great feeling.

Now off to temperate climates and mountains. Onward and upward... literally!

Photo of the day, 3/25/2010: for the nerds.

I was very happy to see these anywhere in South America. This was in the dorm of the Spanish school.

Photo of the day, 3/24/2010: beach aht, part I.

Murcielago beach

Photo of the day, 3/23/2010: yeah, I surfed that.

the day after the surfing competition 15 miles north

Yo pienso que...

... one should not attempt surfing lessons on the same day there is a big surfing competition 20 minutes up the beach. The (non-competing) pros were out in full force yesterday where we practice and it might be the same today. It´s the first time we´ve seen pros, and it´s a
sign that we should not have been out there in the washing machine that was the Pacific Ocean.

I actually stood up 3 times for more than 3 seconds, but in between those times I wiped out several times and banged my knee once pretty badly. (It´s fine, just achy, but I am not really excited about today. Unfortunately I have to go to the beach (a 20 minute walk) to see how the waves are and if we will try ¨lessons¨ this afternoon... There is no such thing as texting my surf instructor to see if we are on for lessons in this life. Hmph. Interesting what we take for granted.

Feeling a bit blah, bored, lonely today. Ready to implement a new saying: if you can´t take the heat, get the hell out of Manta. Might hang out with the other students instead of with the family for dinner tonight.

On the upside, I think I mailed a package yesterday! Well, I left it at the post office, and the lady took my money and all my forms along with the package, so I think it might actually get to Portland in the next 4-6 weeks. That involved quite a process of going here for tape and back to the post office, then going there for copies and back to the post office, and felt like a huge accomplishment considering she spoke no English... Hopefully dinner tonight will go as well.

Hasta. Think cool thoughts for me!

A day in the life, Manta.

7:15am - wake up.
7:30am - breakfast, usually a cheese/bread panini (YUM YUM YUM love queso blanco!), fruit, juice and Nescafe.
8:00am - start the short walk to school, verrrrrrrrry slowly.
8:30am - Spanish classes
12:30pm - take a taxi back to la casa ($1 anywhere in town, expensive for the distance but given the heat it´s worth it)
1:00pm - lunch usually some sort of fish, rice (always rice, always), juice, sometimes beans and fried bananas/plantains (YUM YUM YUM)
1:30pm - whatever I want, which could be a siesta, studying, running errands, finding Internet, watching TV, but it always involves avoiding the heat
3:30pm - head to surfing class
4:00pm - get beat up by la Playa for two hours
6:00pm - head back to la casa, shower
7:00pm - dinner, always ensalada and juice (jugo), sometimes with bread (pan)
8:00pm onward - whatever I want, but inside... because of the heat and also because of safety.

It´s quite safe here, actually - I have never ever felt threatened, and I wish I could say ¨have you heard of Oakland, CA¨ in a nice way, but after 9pm everyone recommends a taxi home. I tend to be so tired and heat-cranky (and the Ecuadorian beer, Pilsner, is pretty crap beer that I don´t wish to spend my precious $1 on) so inside nights are just fine with me. Generally I do whatever I didn´t do in the afternoon (TV or study or talk with mi familia for a bit).

Lather, rinse, repeat. It´s a nice, laid back routine. But I´m now counting the days until Friday when I leave for Quito and city life...

Photo of the day, 3/22/2010: a journey of a hundred miles...

... begins with a bunch of teeny tiny steps.

Photo of the day, 3/21/2010: we did not share our drinks.

the aforementioned chicken

Slowing down.

This afternoon I opted to hang out in an Internet cafe getting pictures uploaded/caught up. These cafes are the only places with A/C other than the supermercados and honestly, I´m quite tired of the heat and humidity at the moment... Thankfully just another week of Manta and then back to Quito and my kind of temperature.

Yesterday´s adventure was interesting. Caught a bus to Puerto Lopez, mostly to get out of Manta for a bit and see what was down south. The scenery from the bus ride down the coast ($3 for 2 hours!) was really quite stunning. The beaches down the coast are more pristine than those of Manta. Aussie amigo Paul and I had a very low-key afternoon, enjoying some ceviche at a sidewalk cafe, then wandering up the coast a bit to Parque Nacional Machalilla and Los Frailes beach (AKA, ¨the middle of nowhere in general, Ecuador¨).

The walk to the beach on the dirt road from the park entrance was long and hot, with a million little butterflies flitting around. There was not as much greenery as I´d hoped for, and it was too hot to explore any further inland. A ¨taxi¨ (motorbike with attached carriage) drove by and we hopped a ride the rest of the way and treated ourselves to ice cream at the beach entrance, then walked down to enjoy the scenery.

I think we´re both a bit spoiled from west coast US and Australian beaches, because this was touted as the most beautiful beach in Ecuador, and sure, it´s a pretty little beach but...

That´s pretty much it. It is always interesting to me that any beach along the Pacific Coast seems to look exactly the same. If not for the clothing in that picture, I could´ve been in California or Costa Rica or even parts of Oregon...

After about an hour the sun was hot and the beach was small and closing soon, so we caught a ride back to Puerto Lopez with some European/Chileans on vacation, had a drink on the beach with a chicken, watched a bit of the sunset, wandered around the town for a while and caught the bus back to Manta.

This morning we went east to Montecristi, home of the world famous Panana hats. I did not buy one. I did take a few photo of ¨the church¨ and plaza...

But there wasn´t much to see in Montecristi either, especially since we weren´t buying hats, so it was back to Manta early this afternoon and here I sit.

Perhaps it´s the westerner in me but I´m not used to sitting around in the afternoons. I need to change my mentality. A slow and easy life is a long, prosperous life... Pura vida, eh?

Or maybe it´s just the damn heat.

Photo of the day, 3/20/2010: and oh, that blowfish blow!

Murcielago beach

(Technically speaking, this was not taken on March 20. I didn't take many photos in Manta so I'm cheating a little. Artistic license and all that.)

Photo of the day, 3/19/2010: hip hop happening!

near the Boardwalk on Murcielago beach