Ecuador and Back

Lots of skiing....

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 01:12:00 +0000

Rai skied in his first slalom waterskiing tournament on Saturday. What a spot - right in downtown Wolfeboro, and it's a little cove specifically for use by the Abenaki Water Ski Club. Start time was bright and early at 8 am, and boys skied first (woo hoo, love the starting spot!). There were only two other guys in his group, and because Rai wasn't seeded, he went first - which was great for him, no pressure about what the other guys were doing. He started at 21 mph and 15' off, and made four full runs; the crash came at the third buoy of his fifth run. I have no idea how they score these things - speed / rope length / # of buoys - all martian to me. Results should be available soon, so we'll see.

Grammy, Lance and the boys got up early to lend their support!

The guy in the grey between Craig and Lance is Andrei....

The turn around was pretty tight!

Video of his third run through....

OAR Rhymes with Ecuador...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 17:55:00 +0000

So, we're back from Ecuador - great travel, smooth airport return. I still have some of my 'lost days' to post about, and am working on organizing our photos and pulling some decent ones to put in an 'album'. But, being back home means a return to the usual insanity, so it's been crazy since we've been back - 'til now that it; everyone slept in today (Craig was the early bird and was up at 7, but caught him in a micro-nap at 11:30!); I made it to 9:30 (only 'cause I had to answer the phone - woulda stayed there longer!); Rai was up sometime after ten (and that is a guy who does NOT sleep late!); Andrei's still up there sawing wood at 12:01! (I stand corrected, he just appeared at 12:02!)

We went to see O.A.R. at Harborlights (I refuse to call it the Bank of America Pavillion.) We had tickets for both nights, and Thursday we did the splurge for the ticket package - gets you good seats, snacks and drinks, and sometimes meet the band. (Actually, to get good seats there, you have to buy that package - which kinda stinks.) The weather was absolutely perfect for a semi-outdoor concert - didn't even need a sweater!

So, we're there on Thursday night - listening to the opening act Citizen Cope. As usual with warm up groups (unless they're really well known), there weren't a lot of people in the seats. So, Rai heads up front to take a couple pictures and enjoy the show....

"Let the Drummer Kick" painted on the drum skin, and also a really cool song.

Rai, just enjoying some tunes, groovin - and as you can see, he was clearly obstructing people's views and causing a security risk....

...'cause here come Security. (This picture kills me, because it looks like she's dragging him away by the arm!)

So while we're listening to the opening act, Andrei heads off the the bathroom, and swings back into the tent while he's there to grab a bottle of Pepsi. (Might as well make full use of the free drinks perk.)

While he's in there, he notices the guys from the O.A.R. - they're out mingling with the crowd....so he works he way around the room and gets them to sign his pass, and the back of his shirt (black on navy was not good contrast, so he went for the pass backup.) Pretty good Andrei!

Craig and Rai headed up to check it out after Andrei returned, but only caught three of the guys there....

Meanwhile, it's intermission - Craig & I head out to walk around before the next set. We get back to the seats, and Rai's showing us a set of drumsticks while wearing a big goofy smile -

- the drummer from Citizen Cope had come out looking for him, and gave Rai his sticks! He asked Rai where his parents were, but we weren't there - the security guard actually came over and told us about it too. We were all impressed at what a nice gesture that was - not just a random toss at the end of the show, the guy took the time to deliver them (wish I had been there to meet him).

This is a totally bad video - but it's a very typical view of Rai boogying. Halfway through he notices the camera and kicks it up a notch. (Yes, I sometimes turned the camera sideways, forgetting that this wasn't a still image that you could rotate when viewing - so you've gotta turn your head - dork!)

Friday Night...

So we head back down to Boston Friday night (still dragging from the previous twenty-four hours). Grab some dinner at the Legal Test Kitchen, and head in to the show. This time, we have the 'back of the tent' seats. But, I did bring two of our passes from the night before, and told the boys to see if they could get into the tent and meet the band (again for Andrei, but Rai missed half the crew the night before). This really put them into a quandry, and they were worried about it (which was kinda funny, because previously Andrei had this whole plan worked out to get in if they were using wristbands to gain access). But, while they were out worrying about whether they were going to get caught, in walks the band. That solved it for Andrei, and they marched in behind them! (I figure my sister Michele would appreciate this...she always seemed to be good at getting backstage 'back in the day'.)

Photo opportunities galore - and Andrei was wearing his vintage 'Spring 07' t-shirt (which he had signed while he was there).

Jerry - Andrei's inspiration for playing saxophone (and the only guy in the band that Andrei's not taller than!)

Benji - always looks so serious when he's playing, but looking pretty relaxed here....

Chris: "So Rai, what are you doing this summer." Rai: "Oh, mostly waterskiing." Come to find out, Chris' wife went to college on waterski scholarships....we keep trying to tell him, but what do we know? (Maybe he'll listen to the cool guy?)

Mr. Richard On....

Mark, way cool.

Group shot with Jerry - because Craig and I were 'outside' the fence, we convinved Andrei to ask Jerry to come over and take a shot with us....(dorky parents)!

The Market at Otovalo

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 23:18:00 +0000

Our guide Jose is always at least 10 minutes early. Yesterday, he got stuck in traffic and was 15 minutes late - as a bonus, I got to see the peacock show his stuff.....

We hit the road to go visit the markets of Otovalo. Our first stop was the livestock market. It actually starts at 6 or 7 a.m., and we were there around 10, so a lot of the animals were already sold - but I gotta say, it was quite a sight! Chickens in crates, and in feed sacks (didn't get a shot of that). You'd see ladies walking around with two chickens in each hand, hanging upside down by their legs...keeps 'em pretty quiet carrying them that way. There were crates (like the plastic bread crates for delivery to supermarkets) full of chicks and ducklings. We saw pigs and piglets, cows and calves, bunnies and, of course, a food court.

Oh, I almost forgot - they also like to eat guinea pig in Ecuador....

We watched some animals getting loaded onto trucks after they were purchased. Our guide told us that the white pigs are much noisier than the others - and boy, was he right! Andrei and I had a lot of laughs, because after this one pig got loaded (squealing the whole time!) he jumped out and they had to load him in again!

After the livestock market we drove over to big market, which has two main sections - meat and produce, and then regular goods for sale. The produce section was really colorful, with all the fruits and vegetables and grains. Huge, beautiful blackberries; biggest zuccinni I've ever seen; fresh shelled peas and beans. They would display their produce in a big bowl, with a smaller bowl full on top - no scales there, the smaller bowl is the purchase amount.

The meat products also had their own section - gotta say, the Board of Health would have a field day there! No part of an animal goes to waste - planning on making chicken soup? get some of these for a nice broth....

Headed over for some souvenier shopping in the market - would have purchased a few more things, but felt hurried by Andrei and Jose. Some things were so inexpensive that I didn't have the heart to dicker with them, but I did work it a little bit on one purchase.

Grabbed some lunch at a 400 year old hacienda nearby, and while there we saw this little old lady from La Mirage. We had had many laughs at her expense at dinner the night before, because when they brought out the Phantom of the Opera music box appetizer, she thought it was so charming that she cranked it up and played it about three times. Wind that up one more time granny....

Then, off on a two hour ride to the Papallacta thermal springs. As always, winding mountain roads that are only one lane in each direction - some interesting passing goes on there (uphill, past trucks). There are groups of cabins built around pools, usually four or five in each cabin erea. One of the pools is a 'polar' pool - which is aptly named (think of swimming in the rivers in the White Mountains) and the others are directly fed from the thermal springs. Some are hotter than others, so you kind of pool hop to regulate your temperature. We spent about an hour and a half in them before dinner, and then another half hour after dinner. They even use the springs for heating - all the rooms have radiant heat in the floors, nice and toasty! Best night's sleep I've had this week!

Kinda fuzza from all the steam vapors!

Living it up at La Mirage

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 00:05:00 +0000

The hotel where we are staying is actually outside Otovalo, in a town called Cotacachi. It was a hacienda, and then converted to a hotel. Andrei and I walked the grounds this morning, and could not believe how much there was to see, considering we're a 10 minute walk from downtown. There are horses, llamas and chickens in various fields and pens, and five peacocks roaming the grounds.

It's really quite unique here...last night at dinner, we had an extra dinner companion - Javier...

He came with little tent card that said "Hi, I am Javier and your dinner companion for the evening but please do not feed me."

The dinners here really have a flair for presentation - check out our little 'mini appetizer' (don't ask me what it was - I have no idea, but it was pretty good, and involved quinona - which is a local grain). It arrived in a wooden music box, playing the theme from Phantom of the Opera.

Breakfast is served in a little building that overlooks the lawn, where we watched the peacocks. When we arrived for breakfast, there was a fire in the fireplace, and a table set for two. Since we were the only ones here, we knew it was for us! A platter of fresh fruit, three wheels of cheese, a tray of breads (awesome croissants and strawberry jam!), and a meat platter (ick). Fresh soursop juice (interesting, Andrei had that one, and has had it with blackberry juice in a drink that he calls the Ecuadorian strawberry dacquiri), or fresh passionfruit juice. Then, she asks us if we want cereal, waffles, pancakes or eggs...A Feast! Oh, and of course, hot chocolate - Ecuador make the best hot chocolate...always steamed milk, none of that hot water stuff.

Andrei rigged the camera to take a shot of us on the steps facing the lawn. No tripod or any tall flat surface - he totally winged it using the base of a fence surrounding the garden - it took a few test shots to get it right.

Jose (our guide) picked us up at 9:00, and we went for a hike at the Cuicacha Crater. It's a volcanic crater, and the lake was formed from glacial runoff. It's 600 feet deep, and has no sources of water other than rain. It's still considered active, and sometimes bubbles appear. There are a few cracks in the bottom, and whenever there's an earthquake in the country, the water level drops. We didn't hike the whole loop (that takes 4-5 hours), we only did about 45 minutes. We started at about 8600 feet, and climbed to 10,004 - a new personal best for Andrei and I!

Toured a couple local towns, one is known for their woodcarving, the other for its weaving. In San Antonio, the whole square is surrounded by shops and galleries of woodcarvers. One guy had this huge (3') shrimp, and life-sized crocodiles and armadillos - amazing craftsmanship. In the second town (no clue what the name was) we visited a weaver named Jose Cotacachi - an amazing craftsman! He dyes all his own wools, and weaves them on an old-fashioned manual loom. He showed us how there is this one kind of worm that lives on a type of cactus. When the worm is dried and squished, it creates a red ink - add lemon juice an it turns a shade of orange; add baking soda and it turns purple. He also uses black walnuts and sulphur to create other colors. Bought an awesome alpaca wool sweater for myself as a souvenier.

Finally, off for a quick walk to a local waterfall...

Grabbed some lunch, and then back to the hotel for a swim and to lounge around...

Off to dinner, wonder what surprises await us....

Back to Civilization

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 12:05:00 +0000

Most of yesterday was spent in travel - although we managed to squeeze in some fun in the beginning. The only rough start to the day was the fact Andrei did not really enjoy the lodge's breakfast - he doesn't like pineapple juice (fresh and awesome), he didn't want bread and jam, he doesn't like coconut so he couldn't enjoy the homemade granola, the milk was strange so he had water, and the eggs had tomatoes, peppers and onions so he only ate a couple bites. He did eat a bit of plain yogurt, but how blah! (Mom, I know you will totally appreciate reading this after a lifetime with this picky eater!) The up side was that they had chocolate oreos at the honor bar, so bought him a pack for later....

After checking out of the lodge, we drove into Mindo (about an hour away) and went on a series of canopy zip-lines - most awesome! This totally made up to Andrei for the bird watching he endured on Tuesday (post on the 'lost days' to follow). Mindo is a little tourist village where they do river rafting (they lash together about 6 giant innertubes and then float down the river) and have other natural tourist attractions, and not one, but two, zip line companies. (The entrances are literally 30 feet apart.)

There are 13 sets of cables that you cross, zig zagging over the trees. Not sure how high up they are, but pretty high, and some of the rides are pretty long (200 yards?). On the 'slow' cables you just have to hang on; on the 'fast' cables to hav to keep one hand on the cable to balance yourself and also to brake. In addition to a helmet and the riggings around your waist/legs, you wear suede heavy duty work gloves that they cut extra pieces of leather for and glue a double thickness of across the palm of the gloves .

On some of the slow cables you can do tricks, if you ride with one of the guides. There are two guides in every group - one goes first and is in charge of stopping you at the end, the other stays 'til last and gets everyone riggged. For the tricks, you have a choice between the butterfly and superman. The butterfly is when you hang upside down and the guide holds your legs - killer on the waist because all your body weight is on that and the rigging kinda digs into you - but totally crazy. Andrei, of course, was the first to try this maneuver (we had a group of three 20-somethings from Philly with us). Your other option is the superman, where they put your pulley in the back, and the guide holds your legs and you fly parallel to the ground - like superman (with your arms out, of course!). And yes, Andrei went for that move too! We did take some video, but I'm not sure how to load it, and you have to watch it with your head turned sideways because the camera was hanging from a strap off our necks, and it hung sideways!

Lunch at a lodge nearby, and then three hours in the car to Otovallo. Amazing climate changes as you travel, I think there are about 20 microclimates in Ecuador - driving along and suddenly you're in the desert, wait a while longer and your in sub-tropical rain forest... The elevation changes are insane too, as you ride up and down mountains - one minutes you're at 3500 feet, then you're at 6500.

I think I like Otovallo the best so far, what little I've seen. It's very fertile ground from all the volcanic soil, and everything is nice and green. The city is not humongous like Quito (which has 1.5 million people), and seems a much easier pace.

Saw two snow-capped volcanoes on our ride - one of which is the only snow covered volcanoes on the equatorial line in the world (but this picture is the other one...)

The other thing I saw, that I haven't seen for ages is people riding in the backs of trucks - the one below is definitely the most dangerous one I've seen so far....

Well, tons more to tell you - but gotta get the boy up for breakfast so we can meet Jose at 9:00. Oh, did I tell you that we are the only ones at our hotel? I guess there are others coming in today, but last night we had the place to ourselves - ha! Even got to meet the chef, Claudio!

Well, TTFN - try to catch up with you later!

Look out the window

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:33:00 +0000

Look out the window to the right....mountains

Look out the window to the left....city

Cute little park on the corner....

Love the wiring!

Didn't get to bed until about 2:30 this morning, but the internal clock is pretty much set for 6:30. My personal motto (one of many) is 'If you are on a trip with any connecting flights, and any legs of travel include ahead of schedule departures or arrivals - beware, those are harbingers of doom.' Well it wasn't doom, but the extra 3 1/2 hours at Miami Int'l because they had a cabin pressurization problem was a total drag.

Today is an easy day, we don't have to meet Jose until 10:00 to go to Old Quito, which is a UNESCO heritage site and supposed to be quite an architectural gem. Later, lunch at the volcano crater...hope it's dormant!

Highlights from yesterday:

*Found an awesome area at Logan that was quiet and out of the way, and had comfy wooden rocking chairs to hang out in. Bonus!

*Three and half hours in Miami trying to figure out if they were going to fix the leaking window or get us a new plan (got us a new plan).

*Got off the plane on the runway, then took a bus to the terminal.

*Thought Andrei was going to pass out while waiting in the Customs line. Got sweaty and woozy, but luckily made a quick recovery. I think it was fatigue and weird eating schedules. (Thank God he didn't hurl!)

*The luggage area is crazier than Aruba! Pretty much flung in the room, and you have to go get it and then send it thru the scanner to exit.

Hotel is nice, with a big, rather old fashioned room. We're in a corner room, and it has a cute little balcony (that you can actually walk on) that wraps around. Had to explain to Andrei what a 'bidet' was - I'm sure he'll be blogging a shot of that. Can get cigarettes as part of the mini bar - ha!

Bon Voyage

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 18:33:00 +0000

Went to visit my Mom on Friday - the one day this week we didn't have anything planned. Nothing, of course, until I made plans to go to Gram's, then suddenly there's a youth group murder mystery dinner theater at 5:00 that they really wanted to go to! So much for a leisurley day - but it was a blessing in disguise, 'cause traffic north was hideous, and if we had left later it would have been bogatrocius. (vocab. courtesy of Frazz comic)

Of course, a visit to Grafton in the summer must include a foot-long on a grilled bun with a chocolate milk!

Art Bradish's - doesn't get much better than that!

When I had asked the boys earlier in the week if they wanted to go - they said 'yes' - and then Rai says "can she get us a cake?" He loves the white cakes from Mrs. Mack's Bakery! (Frankly, who doesn't, once they stopped making those horrible dry yellow cakes - always had to make sure there was plenty of milk in the house!) Of course, Gram is not one to let you down when it comes to dessert, so the bakery put together a 'Bon Voyage' cake for us.

One thing I haven't done in ages is go down to the brook by Mr. and Mrs. Allen's.

Notice Andrei's red shirt in the background -

he wasn't much interested in lingering and observing nature.

Told him he better start being interested,

'cause that's going to occupy a lot of his time over the next week!

He's gone...

Found 18 crayfish without flipping a single rock! I caught two, just to show I could....

Nothing on the schedule for the rest of the day - gonna throw in the last couple loads of laundry and finish up the suitcases. Rai's off to Grammy's for a couple days, and Andrei and Craig are going to see Predator at the movies tonight....gonna enjoy the peace and quiet and slower pace for a little bit (if I get my chores done, that is!).

Customer Appreciation Concert at Tupelo on Sunday night - anyone ever heard of Gandalph Murphy and his Slobovian Circus ?

Why Ecuador?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:22:00 +0000

Why not? For a while now, Craig and I have talked about doing some international travel, once the boys are in college (which is really not that far away - yeow!). And when we say travel, we mean actually living somewhere for a couple months at a time, not just a week here and there. (Hence the new subscription to International Living.)

Earlier in the year, Craig read an article about Ecuador, and asked if I was interested in going on a scouting trip to check it out. Hey, I'm always up for an adventure, and Andrei's a pretty good travel partner - so why not? Next thing you know, we've got a travel agent and airfare booked. It's only an 8 hour flight (plus layover), and their time zone's only an hour behind ours....

We will be leaving on Monday the 19th, and will return on Monday the 26th. We fly into the capitol of Quito and will stay overnight. Tuesday we're off to old Quito, then on to the cloud forest region at Bellavista Lodge. Wednesday will include nature hikes in the region, orchids, bird-watching, canopy zip-lining and more. (Can't wait to do the zip-lines!) Thursday is an early wake up to enjoy one of the best bird-watching sanctuaries in the country ("incredible experience even for non-birders"), then on to the region of Otavalo with stops along the way. Friday's a full day exploration of the region, visit to indigenous homes and possible horseback riding. (Since Craig's allergic, I told Andrei we should do it now while we have the chance.) Saturday's a visit to the world famous market at Otavalo (shop your head off!) and in the afternoon on to the Papallacta thermal springs region in the high Andes and overnight at a spa. Sunday we'll be soaking our bones in the crystal clear thermal springs (aaaaaah!) and also hiking (and back to the springs after our hike, I'm sure). We'll return to Quito that night to prepare to fly out in the morning.

Sounds busy, but fun. I told Andrei that he's my translator - since he's had a year of Spanish and I took five years of French! (I think I know more Romanian phrases than I do Spanish.) We'll also have a guide with us, so we won't be totally left to our own devices.

I'm starting to get a little excited....

One Week and Counting....

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:07:00 +0000

Well, the countdown begins. Andrei & I leave for our Ecuadorian adventure next Monday - aaaaaugh - so much to do! Why is it that the week I need to focus on home and packing there seem to be a hundred other things scheduled for that week too? A's summer class, dentist/torturedontist, church thing tonight, ladies bible study, food pantry, update my ipod, charge all the electronics, figure out how to work this blog, learn some Spanish.... Good thing I do well under pressure.

Rai has already asked "What are Dad and I going to eat while you guys are gone?" I'm thinking there will be lots of eating out, and an occasional meal thrown on the grill. My friend Donna has offered to have them over for dinner - an offer which I'm sure they'll take her up on.

Well, gotta quit goofing off and get something done!

Testing 1, 2, 3

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 22:30:00 +0000

Well, just messing around with this. First time attempting to put together a blog. Gonna have Andrei do one too, and we can compare notes.