A weekend of culture

(written Tuesday)

After our exquisite dinner, we continued to experience the fine culture of Ecuador. Saturday we bought laminated particle board to build shelves, had lunch with Jose’s extended family at his Grandparents’ country home in Paute, visited the small town Gualaceo (known for its production of leather shoes and a drink called “rosero”), and returned to Cuenca in the evening to go to the theater. Sunday we built a bookshelf for our desk, watched Deportivo Cuenca beat Barcelona 1-0 in a packed stadium of soccer fans, exited the stadium mosh-pit style, and finished off the day with some 5 on 5 soccer (boys only). Early Monday morning I was roused from my sleep by nausea. Yes, we are sick AGAIN.

I slept all day Monday, and by evening Brad was also feeling ill. I thought we had been careful about what we were eating, but somehow we both managed to get sick. Jose told us that many other people are also sick, and that maybe it is a virus going around Cuenca. He’s sick, too. I don’t know how people here get their work done, or how I’m going to get my field work done, if we are sick so often.

Anyways, back to the weekend. We bought two pieces of particle board, which they cut to the correct dimensions for us to make our shelves. It has a white laminate finish, and they even taped the sides with the same material so that it looks nice. Our first shelf, the one for our books, turned out quite nice. It is 1m x 1m, and sits nicely on top of our desk. Dad, I think you’d be proud. We managed to measure and get the shelves fairly straight, and Brad did a great job with the “power hole maker.” The only problem was that it ran out of juice before we finished the job. We gave it a rest, and returned to finish it later in the day. Our next job will be to assemble the bigger shelf for our clothing. I can’t wait to get our clothes out of our suitcases!

We didn’t realize that we were attending an extended family lunch (apparently they happen most weekends), until we arrived at Jose’s grandparents. The yard was beautiful, and so was the inside of the house. We were given a quick tour, and then shown to sit at the table where there seemed to be some confusion (I think they weren’t expecting two extras). We had a salad of lettuce, onion, and avocado with a citric dressing, a bowl of soup, a scoop of rice, some beef cooked with green peppers, tree-tomato juice, and a scoop of ice cream with blackberries and another kind of fruit. We tried to follow the conversation, but there were so many people talking at the same time that it was near impossible! Jose’s aunt had spent time living in the US (Cleveland, then Lexington, then Houston) and she spoke to us in English. After we ate, we walked outside in the garden where Jose’s younger cousins played in the fountain, then we returned to the table for coffee. Jose is getting married soon (January 8) to his girlfriend Toja, and we found ourselves amidst a wedding- planning conversation. Wow, it’s so much less stressful to talk about someone else’s wedding! The wedding and reception will be help at his grandparent’s home, so they are doing some renovations in the house and the garden to prepare for the celebration. The colors will be red and white. That’s about all I got out of the conversation.

On Saturday afternoons, Jose teaches a class on biogeography at a university in Gualaceo. We thanked his grandparents, and then went with Jose to explore the town while he held class. It is the prefect size town to tour by foot, so we left the car parked at the university. We visited the church, the garden in the center of town, the market where we enjoyed a delicious drink made of coconut, a german bread shop, and many shoe stores. We were low on cash so it was just a day for window shopping, but there were so many shoes for sale! I found a pair of boots that I liked, and some heels, and some flats. Brad didn’t really find anything he liked, and if he had there would have been the problem that his feet are bigger than average here. I thought if Gualaceo is famous for their leather shoes, maybe they would also have nice purses, but the ones I saw had “made in China” tags. We met up with Jose after his class, and tried some of the cuisine specific to Gualaceo: roseros and quesadillas. The rosero is a drink made with fruit pulp and flour. It tasted sweet, but not pasty as I would have expected with the flour. Instead it was smooth except for the chunks of fruit. The quesadilla is not the same as the Mexican- style tortilla filled with cheese and other savories. This kind is small, filled with a different kind of cheese, served cold, and tastes both sweet and dry. I didn’t really like it, but Brad thought it was okay.

So we returned to Cuenca for the theater. Jose’s uncle from Quito put together several weeks’ worth of small theatrical performances of groups from all over Latin America, and Saturday night’s show was a double header. We missed the beginning of the first show, but it was easy to catch up. It was a one-man clown performance, complete with juggling, balloons, a unicycle, and audience participation. The second show was much more serious, and difficult to understand. It was about sexual abuse, a topic on which the government here is really working to educate people, but it was pretty difficult to understand the words. I also thought it was a strange follow-up to the clown show.

We had to arrive at the soccer match early on Saturday, so that we could get a seat—or actually so that we could get in the door before the match started. We met our friend Diego who had picked up the tickets for us, stopped by a small shop to grab some snacks for the game (you can take your own food and drinks into the stadiums here, it seems to be encouraged), then got in line. We waited in line for nearly an hour just to get through the door, then we had to find a place to sit. We ended up on the front edge of the concrete bleachers, snuggly nestled in. However, there must have been room for half a butt-cheek next to Brad because two guys managed to squeeze their way in. Right in front of us there were two large umbrellas (somewhat obstructing our view) and a young girl watching over a snack stand. Two older women kept returning to restock the bottled water, colas, beers, and other snacks that they were peddling in the stands. The game itself was alright, although Brad was disappointed that the players looked so tired early in the second half. We participated in the cheers, although the fans remained seated throughout the entire game. We were all happy that D. Cuenca won the match.

In the afternoon, Brad got the opportunity to find out why all the players looked so tired early in the game. He was invited to play a 5 on 5 match with some of Jose’s friends. It was a range of talent, and Brad seemed to fit right in. I took my place behind the chain –link fence because it seemed to be a boys-only game (later I was told that I could play if I wanted). Brad was on the field for about 5 minutes before he started looking bad, but he endured. He asked to play goalkeeper, but still couldn’t catch his breath. He came out of the game, and said that his lungs were burning. We’ve been here nearly 6 weeks, but still are not acclimated. There’s a 10K coming up in about a month. Maybe if we start training for that Brad’s soccer endurance will improve.

And now we are sick again. Brad missed a day of work yesterday, I missed a day of field work today. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll be feeling better.

Addendum: We have fallen victims to the rotavirus epidemic that’s working its way through Cuenca right now. Symptoms include aches and pains, vomiting and diarrhea, tiredness, loss of appetite. Prescribed treatment (as directed by Jose’s homeopathic doctor) is pedialyte and 48 hours of rest.

Dining in Style

(written Saturday)

We visited our computer friend, Manuel, this week for some help with the trouble I’ve been having with Skype (turns out it’s a hardware problem, and more complicated to fix than I want to deal with). However, he hooked us up with lots of other good things. He loaded a bunch of old movies onto my computer, and Brad is thrilled to be able to watch a movie in the evenings. He set up an appointment with a car insurance agent and offered to translate if we had any trouble communicating. Pending the paperwork and payment, our new ride is now insured against just about anything that we or anyone else could possibly do to it (including, as we asked, getting stuck in a ditch or sliding down the side of a very large hill). And he gave us the phone number to the best restaurant in town, so we made reservations for Friday night to enjoy their “Cuencana fusion” fare.

Brad called to make the reservation early Friday afternoon, and all they had left was 6:30. I was wearing jeans with a cotton shirt and Brad had khakis and a polo on, so maybe I was a bit under dressed. We were running a bit late due to the ridiculous amount of traffic (or maybe just the horrible flow of traffic) in the city, so Brad dropped me off at the door while he went to park the car. I walked in, and I believe I was their first customer. They seated me at a table labeled “18:30 Brad,” and then they turned on the music (side note, Brad had to say “like Brad Pitt” for the lady on the phone to understand his name). To communicate my name, you have to say “like the English futbol team” (which I am not a fan of). We were seated right in front of the kitchen, so I enjoyed watching the chef prepare everything. He seemed to enjoy that I was watching, and would hold up food to show me what it was as he was preparing it. The menu is arranged so that you are supposed to order one dish (family style) for four people, or you can order half the dish. We ordered half a dish of fish prepared with a seafood sauce, and while we waited they brought out eight different bowls of sauces to be eaten with bread. Among them were the traditional aji or chili sauce, a marinated chili pepper, a marinated onion, one made with pineapple and another with apples, one made from eggplant (our favorite!) and another from herbs. Our dinner was off to a great start!

Then our food came. The chef brought it out himself on the large ceramic plate that he cooked it on and under a ceramic dome. He set it down, and then lifted the lid to unveil the bubbling goodness within. There was SO MUCH FOOD! There were two big portions of fish amongst a garlic cream sauce with calamari, shrimp, and oysters. It was such a rich dish to the eyes and tasting it was even more incredible. The waiter portioned out a small bit on each of our plates, then returned to the kitchen to get the rest of our meal. He brought out a fresh salad of cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers all diced up and dressed with a citrus marinade, a plate of potato wedges topped in cheese, a cold salad of something in between orzo and couscous with herbs and cheese and tomatoes, the traditional corn that looks like un-popped popcorn, and a bowl of rice. We tried each of these, but concentrated mainly on the fish. Honestly, I think there was enough food for 4 people in front of us. However, we put forth a good effort toward the fish and managed to nearly clean the plate. The chef checked on us a few times throughout the course of the meal, and when he noticed that we had stopped eating, he came to offer us dessert.

Neither one of us really had room for any more food, but who can refuse dessert in a place that produced such an amazing dinner? We ordered the “chocolate temptation” and hoped that we would find a place to put it! While we waited, the live music began. When the plate came out, I was in awe. They had actually painted a picture of flowers on the plate with fruit preserves and chocolate sauce-- It was beautiful! In the middle of the plate, there was a chocolate brownie topped with 3 inches of mocha mousse topped with fresh passion fruit, and served next to a scoop of chocolate ice cream. I don’t think Brad and I said a word to each other, and before we knew it the whole dessert was gone!

And, by the way, you can use your $10 (and even a couple of $20s) at this place.

Alice in Wonderland

Last night I began reading Alice in Wonderland, and from what I’ve read so far it seems that Alice and I are having fairly similar experiences. I didn’t grow or shrink, but like Alice, I’m beginning to think that strange things may not really be all that out-of-the-ordinary. Today, we were stopped at a traffic light when a kid came out in front of us to juggle volleyballs in the street. Today it was volleyballs, yesterday machetes, maybe tomorrow he’ll juggle puppies—who knows. Brad continues to get frustrated with the illogical driving we so often observe, but as I’ve spent more time behind the wheel than he has I’ve found that it’s easier for me to just expect people to do crazy things on the road. Then it’s a pleasant surprise when the other cars (and people, and bicyclists, and dogs etc.) behave themselves. Brad’s driving is much improved, so the more he drives the sooner he’s likely to join me in “wonderland.”

This morning I had an important meeting for my research, and this afternoon I began Spanish lessons while Brad worked at Fundacion Donum. As for the meeting, we made a schedule for field work and will go Thursday to identify additional sites for my study. I guess I should explain my study in a little bit of detail. There are three main objectives:
1. To study the critically endangered Atelopus exiguus at Mazan and in the surrounding Parque Nacional Cajas. I’ve already begun this part of the study, because the main study site is a 30 min walk from our house. Additional surveying is going to require the assistance of knowledgeable rangers to access the back country in Cajas. I plan to do these surveys once a month.
2. To study chytridiomycosis, a fungal disease of amphibians, in Gastrotheca pseustes the marsupial frog. To accomplish this, I will be setting up study sites at 500m intervals from 2000m- 4500m. I identified some of these sites when I was here last February, but need to find a few more sites. This is what we plan to do on Thursday. I will be studying both adults and tadpoles of this species. I plan to visit each site once a month.
3. To work with the lab techs at Amphibian Conservation Mazan to establish better husbandry techniques for Gastrotheca pseustes, and to study development of tadpoles that I will collect from my six sites identified above. This will require time spent in the laboratory near our house, and improved Spanish so I can effectively communicate with Fausto and Diego, the techs.
Ok, so now you’re really filled in on why we are here. It’s really pretty cool to be working with local people toward the conservation of endangered species. In many places, captive breeding is the only actively pursued method of conservation. Here, we’re working toward conservation of amphibians in their native habitat while we’re also trying to establish facilities for captive husbandry. Also, the work is connected to a local zoo, Zoologico Amaru. This is the place that my friend Ernesto created on the first floor of his mother’s house. It hosts local school groups, Cuencanos, and international visitors every day. Their goal is to teach about the animals and about conservation. I am hopeful that my work here will provide additional material for education efforts of the zoo.

My Spanish school is called Simon Bolivar, and I hope to study 8 hrs/ week. Most schools require 10-20, but with my research schedule, Brad’s hospital schedule, and living 45 min from the city, 8 hours is as much as I can manage. My professor is a young woman named Berta, and I think we will get along well. Today we spoke in conversation for the first 30 minutes of the lesson, and I think she was trying to gauge my level. Let me assure you, the lessons are much needed! It is nice to have someone who is patient in listening to me speak, and can help me find the correct words or grammar to complete my thoughts. The school has its own curriculum, and in the next weeks we will (hopefully!) progress through the intricacies of the Spanish language as well as customs and phrases specific to Ecuador.

Happy “ride your bike” day! Our friends here are also observing the holiday, and on our way to work we saw several critical masses of students on bike! Today also marks our 4 month anniversary :)

On (sort of) working in Ecuador

So . . . having recovered from my bout of food poisoning, I was finally able to get started with my volunteer work this week. On Monday morning I went to Fundacíon Donum, a charitable foundation that provides medical care and social services to poor members of the community. I’m not really sure if the doctors get paid for their work at the foundation, because the patients only pay something like $2 per visit. In any case, the doctors definitely work at other places where they make their money. The ENT clinic hours in the morning were only 9:30-11:00, but they packed in quite a few patients. I didn’t keep an exact count, so I can only say that I think we saw about a dozen patients in that hour and a half. I wasn’t able to attend the afternoon clinic at the foundation because we had to drive over to the public hospital to submit an official letter from Ohio State requesting that I be allowed to volunteer there. The hospital director accepted the letter, but then the secretary told me that the ENT doctor wasn’t there and that I needed to come back the next afternoon. Great. So I missed the afternoon clinic at the foundation for five minutes of business at the director’s office.

We did go back to the hospital the next day, and I was able to meet one of their ENT doctors. Chelsea was waiting with our car outside in one of the streets, meaning that I wasn’t able to stay for that afternoon’s clinic hours. Instead, the doctor told me to come to a private clinic where he works for a surgery the next morning. Well, I showed up at this clinic right on time at 9:00, and there was hardly anyone there. I found a secretary and asked her about the surgery, and she directed me to the nursing station. Then the nurses told me that the anesthesiologist was late and that the surgery would actually be at 10:30 or so. I sat down and read my medical Spanish book for about 20 minutes, and then the ENT doctor showed up. I ended up going with him to see the patient he operated on the day before, a little girl who fell and hit her nose, to the public hospital to drop off some paperwork, and then back to the private clinic for the surgery. After I watched him do the surgery, we went over to another private hospital where he saw some patients in his office. By this time it was 1:30, and I told him that I really needed to eat lunch and find my wife, and no I don’t think I can join you for more office visits at the public hospital this afternoon.

I took Thursday off because Chelsea was informed by our friend, Jose, who works for ETAPA, the agency that owns the national park and our house, that he was planning on coming to our house for a meeting in the morning. So we waited for him, had lunch, went out to do some field work, and then he was there when we got back at 3:15. We had a nice talk about things that he is working on for us, and he told us that we have another meeting Tuesday morning. Well, it’s nice to at least have a plan. We also worked out that we would meet him at his house that evening to take hot showers. We were so excited for hot water and clean bodies that we left our house without our phones. We realized this when we got to his house, he wasn’t there, and we didn’t have any means of calling him. We drove around for a little bit and then magically ended up at our favorite restaurant in Cuenca for dinner. After a lovely meal and conversation with an American traveler, we found a “cabina” from I which I called Ernesto in order to get Jose’s phone number so that I could then call Jose and let him know that we were on the way to his house. We were successful in working this out (he was just at his parent’s house which is right next to his apartment). After wonderfully hot showers, we went with Jose (also a member of a rock band) to a concert at El Rock Garden, apparently Cuenca’s newest performance venue. We met a lot of people and had a very nice time, despite being able to understand about 1.5% of the lyrics in the songs.

Friday I awoke with a plan to do some serious work. I was going to go to the foundation for both the morning and afternoon clinic sessions. Unfortunately, we learned from the secretary when we passed her in the street that they were having a celebration for the priest who founded the charity that day in a park with which we weren’t familiar (we later learned that it is on the other side of the city). We thought she told us that the foundation would be open at noon, but we must have missed a key part of this conversation. After enjoying a very nice bus tour of the city, I returned to the foundation in the afternoon to find that it was still closed. I need to give them my contact info so that I get these memos in the future. I suppose I will try again Monday morning and see what surprises the next week brings.

Turistico

*written Sunday September 19

Right now I’m sitting in my pajamas (fleece pants, down booties, a scarf, a shirt, sweat shirt, and puffy vest) and thinking about all the new things I did and learned over the past few days. Brad and I had dinner, tamales and fried bananas, a couple of hours ago, followed by hot chocolate. I’ve nearly exhausted my yarn supply, and hope to buy more tomorrow so I can continue working on what I hope will be a giant afghan to keep us warm. It’s funny how the vocabulary we’re acquiring is so specific to our work and hobbies. Words like crochet hook and yarn, timing belt and clutch, tadpole and limb bud, anti parasitics and otolaryngology, goalie, soccer match and fan have required referencing our dictionary or asking our friends.

Thursday night, our friend Jose invited us to a rock concert. The venue was called “El Rock Garden” and two bands from Ecuador had shows scheduled. Brad and I have been living on the mountain, with no TV or internet and very limited electricity. We’re often in bed by 9 or 10 at night, and asleep by 11. The show didn’t even start until 10:30! The venue itself was in an old house, with the stage in the living room and viewing from both a balcony and the area directly in front of the stage. I wondered if, like Zoo Amaru, the owner’s mom lived upstairs. Can you just imagine middle aged parents trying to fall asleep with a rock concert going on downstairs?!? There were maybe 60 people there, all dressed in typical “rock” attire. I thought it was funny that they were barely bopping to the beat, but Brad was distracted by one particularly tall Ecuadorian. He decided to go stand near the guy so I could judge who was taller, but I just couldn’t stop laughing. Neither could some of the friends we were sitting with. All in all, we enjoyed the music and the people watching but our lungs and our ears had enough by the end of the evening.
When depending on other people here, we’ve learned that things don’t always quite work out. On Friday, Brad was supposed to volunteer at Fundacion Donum—no one was there all day. Instead, we took the time to ride the tourist bus around Cuenca, eat typical food of the region, and catch up on our emails. The tourist bus was a double decker bus and actually quite informative. The guide pointed out some of the unique points around town including the barranco (cliff), all the houses owned by Juan Eljuri who is the second richest man in the country and whose sister owns the bridge we cross every day on the way up to our house, the classical Spanish style architecture of Cuenca, some famous churches, the flower market, the hospital where Brad works, the house where Simon Bolivar stayed for a month on his way to Peru, and maybe most importantly, he pointed out where we needed to duck to avoid decapitation by the wires crossing over the street. The tour culminated in a 20 min stop at a place called “Mirador Turi,” a really amazing viewpoint which overlooks the entire city. After the tour, we got a recommendation from the bus driver on the Andean pipe music we had been listening to along with the artist’s upcoming concert 2 hrs after the tour ended. We also got a recommendation for lunch which was not as good. The restaurant has a nice view of Parque Calderon, the beautifully landscaped park in the center of the historical district, but food that wasn’t the greatest. We ordered both of the two lunch options, and Brad’s choice ended up being better than mine. He got steak chopped up and cooked with green peppers. I got gooey, sticky, hairy pig skin cooked with potatoes. I won’t order “papas con cuero” again, I prefer to throw the pig skin than to eat it.

Saturday we planned to do some reconnaissance work for my field sites. My friend and coordinator with the National Park, Jose, said he was free and would love to give us a tour. He meant a tour of the “hidden places” in the city, not of the park. So he and his girlfriend, Toja, showed us around. We ate hot dogs served with coconut juice, we passed by a good place to buy cheap clothes and another to buy cotton t-shirts with original designs. We went to the flower market and tried some special tea made by the nearby convent, and then to a cooperative where we could by organic tea, yogurt, honey, chocolate, granola, etc. Brad learned where to get the best chocolate cake, and we ate Andean food for lunch: pig skin (crispy this time instead of gooey), several different kinds of pork, llapingachos (fried potato patties), and chocla (a kind of large- kernel corn). In front of the restaurant, the whole pig was on a spit and there were big pots of food cooking. The woman preparing the food offered us a sample as we were walking along the street. Later, we went to a place where you can buy several different kinds of tamales. We got two of each, and saved them to heat up for dinner. We did get some work accomplished during our outing. I needed some supplies for my research: ethanol to preserve specimens, fine tipped tweezers, and a rain gauge. Jose took us to a pharmacy where we were able to buy the ethanol, and told us a story about how it is really old. One time, there were elephants in town for a parade and one made it’s way into the pharmacy and wrecked everything! Now, it is decorated with old medicine bottles and known for the lotions and potions that they mix in- house. Also, we looked in a couple of places for cheap shelves to put our clothes on (we’re STILL living out of suitcases). Jose, who just moved into a new apartment, is planning on making shelves himself. He offered to help us do the same, so hopefully that will be a project for this week.

Brad was supposed to play soccer today with a group of guys, but as usual plans fell through. Instead, we did what I’ve been wanting to do sonce we got here, we visited the natural hot springs. The place is 10 minutes outside of Cuenca and is called Banos; the specific place we went to is Hostal Duran. It’s one of the more expensive locations ($5/ person, which also means it is less crowded) but we’ve heard it’s also one of the cleaner locations. They make you shower before entering and you have to wear a shower cap while in the pools. Wow did that hot water (100 degrees F) feel good! The pool itself is big enough to swim in, and there were elderly people as well as young children, Cuencanos and visitors from other countries. While we were in the pool, it rained for a while and the steam floated off the water all day. We also got to experience the Turkish bath which was essentially a steam room scented with eucalyptus. And when the day was over, we took another hot shower before we left. I’d say it was a well- spent $5. We’re both refreshed and ready to start a new week!

on the ROAD again!

We FINALLY have a car, in our possession, and I am getting good at driving it here. As one of our friends recommended, you need to learn to drive “always under attack.” This explains it perfectly. There are no lanes, no turn signals used, and these crazy traffic circles that are big enough for three cars wide. Yesterday I was making a left hand turn, and cars crept up on each side of me—we all turned at the same time. While driving here, you have to watch out for the people walking in the street, the kids playing next to the street, the dogs running through the street, the cars passing you on the left and right, the motorcycles that creep up out of nowhere, and the cars that look like they are going to turn in front of you at every intersection, oh, and the cars and trucks and buses that stop without warning. Good thing I got to practice on Sunday when there wasn’t much traffic. Then I had to learn how to really use the 4x4. Driving up our mountain takes me about 30 min, and I need to sit on the edge of my seat for the entire trip so I can see the road in front of me on the incline. There’s one part that’s tough, and I’ve had to back down a couple of times to get up it, but I think maybe this afternoon I’ll master it. Oh, and driving up the mountain after dark: accomplished. We’re really on the move! And we can wear real clothes—hello jeans and tennis shoes, good bye hiking boots!

So now that Chelsea can drive me into town, I’ve started volunteering. Today I went to Fundacíon Donum, a charitable foundation that provides health care and social work services to particularly poor people. I met one of the ENT doctors, and he talked really fast to me for about an hour and a half straight while he saw patients. Usually I understood what he was saying, but sometimes I just nodded my head. There were lots of people with allergies, sinusitis, hearing difficulties, and deviated septa in their noses. Nothing particularly exciting, but these problems are really common here. The doctor said that about 80-90% of people have allergies. That may even be worse than the Ohio Valley! This afternoon I have to go to the public hospital and give them a paper from Ohio State’s med school requesting that I be allowed to volunteer. I guess I’ll find out what schedule the ENTs have there, and I’ll try to put together a reasonable plan for myself between the two places. Being a volunteer medical student/doctor is really hard when I only speak a little Spanish. Thankfully the Latin medical terms are just about the same wherever you go!

Some other updates. The national park people have come up with some emergency funds to get us more electricity and hot water. Perhaps in the next month instead of the next year, we’ll see some changes. Our room is warming up, maybe because of all the things we put in it or else we’re getting more used to the cold. We still need shelves for our clothes and our desk, but slowly we are getting organized. My field work is slow, but that’s to be expected for the dry season. I’ve found two different species, and will continue to search. This week I will set up a schedule with the rangers, and hopefully next week I will begin visiting some of the other sites. I’ve also started an afghan, done in the style of my friend Athena. Mine will be a little different because it is made from purchased yarn because people here don’t have scrap pieces to donate to the cause. Instead I’m buying a few skeins at a time. My first challenge is how to undo the skeins into a ball because I haven’t quite figured out how they are wound yet. I’ve figured out three already, maybe I’ll be a master by the time it is finished. Brad has been invited to join in pick-up soccer games, and we’ve also been invited to a photography club. Last night we stopped by our friend Jose’s house, and he was having boy’s night with fifa soccer video games.

We hope you all are doing well. Please feel free to comment on our blog or send us messages to keep us updated on what’s going on with all of you!

Photos of Our House

Today Brad fed the lions. Our friend Ernesto, the one who owns and operates a reptile and amphibian zoo in town, is also in the process of creating a zoo with megafauna. So we went with him to feed the three lions, the puma, the ocelot, and the spectacled "beer" (bear). Then we fed ourselves at the KFC. Ernesto was pretty excited to eat food from Kentucky with a "Kentucky man."

We also advanced in the process of buying a car. We agreed to a price, went to purchase a fill-in-the-blanks contract, took that contract to a notary to fill out and stamp after we signed, went to the hallway to have a color copy made for $0.35, went back to the notary, then ran to the bank to find that it closed at 4:30. We don't have the car yet because we haven't paid for it. Its first journey will be to the mechanic, or at least that's the "plan."

This morning we met with Jose, who has claimed to be the person who will make our living accommodations more comfortable. I'm sure that he will, but I'm not so sure that the changes will be made before we leave Ecuador. Bureaucratic red tape may be even worse here than at home. Meanwhile, he has offered to invite us into his home to take hot showers and stay in town if we need. Maybe if we take him up on his offer, the house will get fixed faster. He also promised that we will have written permission to begin research by the beginning of next week.

Some Improvements, New Challenges

Saturday was a good day. We found and purchased a crappy set of expensive sheets and we took a potential car to the mechanic and he said the equivalent of “look no farther, my friends.” This was good to hear, after several exhausting days of looking at cars, test driving a car that broke down along the side of the road, and test driving another that first we had to put gas in and then it had really poor steering. This one is a ’98 Grand Vitara, also crappy and expensive, but well taken care of. We paid Mocho, the mechanic, $10 for the check, and were told that with $500- 600 of repairs, it shouldn’t give us any trouble over the next year and it should be easy to sell. This story is to be continued…. On Monday we are moving on to the next stage of buying the car: negotiating a price, making sure it hasn’t been involved in any criminal activity, and having a notary stamp a contract which says that we own the car. If all goes well, maybe, just maybe, we will eventually have a car. Then we’ll need to learn to drive here…
Updates on the house. Some things are better and others are worse. Last week, our 5 gal.bottle of clean water ran out. It took three days to get a new one, because the bottle itself costs $12 and refilling the bottle only costs $1.75. We had to wait for the guys who work up here to come, then they had to take the bottle down, and then they brought up a filled bottle for us. It would probably be worth the $12 to have TWO bottles so that they could be rotated, and we would always have water. So we got back to the house this past Friday evening, and same story with the gas tank. I wanted to make dinner, and found out that it was empty. When we went to town on Saturday, we told our friends. They gave us the keys to the lab up here, and said that there was a tank we could use until we could get ours replaced. So we went to the lab, and found that the tank was locked in a new building for which we didn’t have the keys. Only one person knew where the keys were, and his phone battery was dead so no one could reach him. We finally got ahold of him, switched the gas tank, and found out that the other tank was almost empty. Meanwhile, we ran out of money on our phone and can’t make any more calls until we go recharge the account in the city. Oh, and the things that are better: we now have carpet, and sheets, and some clothes on hangars, and our clothes are sorted and organized (although still in suitcases), and we have a pretty blanket to cover up the Tiger blankets that are famous here for their warmth and ugly design, we have our desk and our toiletries organized, our sleeping bags are hanging neatly from the ceiling, and we bought a beautiful piece of art work that is hanging from our wall. It is a ceramic plate painted with a scene from the city. There were many to choose from, but Brad made the final choice based on my poor Spanish skills. We were riding on the bus past a building that said “derechoshumanos” and I thought it was a building for straight people. Brad said it means “human rights,” and this very building is in the beautifully painted plate that we purchased. We still need some shelves, a curtain, and perhaps a space heater.
Brad was sick today. He woke up feeling fine, but after a few hours decided that he wasn’t well enough to partake in field work. I went by myself, didn’t have any luck finding frogs, and lost track of time when my watch said 2:40 each time I looked at it. When I returned to the house, Brad had been sick several times, and looked awful. I’m not sure what he ate that I didn’t, but I was glad we weren’t both sick. We were debating what to do since we were out of money on our phone, when it began to rain. It down poured. I thought about walking to the Ranger’s house about half a mile down the mountain, but we decided that it was unlikely that anyone would be there late in the day. Brad didn’t feel well enough to walk down the mountain himself, and I wasn’t so confident that we would be able to find a taxi to take us into town on a Sunday afternoon. We decided to wait it out. By evening, he was feeling well enough to drink a cup of tea and play some cards. Hopefully the night goes well.
We’re thinking about renting an apartment in town. You can get something decent for $150, and something furnished with utilities (including direct TV and internet) included for $430. The cheap one doesn’t even come with a stove (although we were told they are cheap, $30). The main thing we are interested in is a hot shower and the convenience of being able to do things in town. Without a car (again, we’ll see how things go Monday), it takes us about 3.5 hours travel time to get to town and back (an hour and a half of that is walking up and down the mountain). Brad needs to be able to get to the hospital without sweating through his clothes, and we have to take care of business in town. Tuesday we meet with Jose, the guy who is supposed to be helping make the house comfortable for us and helping me coordinate my research. I guess we’ll find out in the next few days what we’ll need to do.

The Story of a $10 Bill

$10 bills don't always work so well here. Typically, when you get money out of an ATM here, it spits out a bunch of $20 bills, then two $10s for good measure. You think, "Oh, great, the $10's will be easier to use here." Wrong. It's amazing how difficult it is to get change here.

Case 1: We took a taxi to the mall. It was raining, so instead of walking the 40 minutes or so, we hopped in a cab. I knew I didn't have much change, and I should have known better. When we got to the mall, the driver asked for $3. I handed him a $5, thinking it would be no big deal for a taxi driver to give us $2 in change (I say change because I was expecting dollar coins). No, the driver didn't have any change. Instead I handed him two dollar coins, some dimes, a nickel, and a handful of pennies that added up to $2.89. I suppose we got the better deal.

Case 2: We went to a nice restaurant where the wait staff all wore really nice, matching outfits. I wanted to kill some time since all the places that sell cars were on break (apparently business isn't done ANYWHERE except in restaurants between 1:00- 3:00 in the afternoon). We ordered a banana split. It cost $2.50. I thought I would be cunning and try to accumulate some change, so I paid with a $10. The waiter took the bill over to his manager and didn't know what to do with it. He had to come back and tell us that he had to run next door to make change. So we waited. He returned with a handful of coins, but was able to complete the transaction.

Case 3: Awhile back in Quito, we had a similar problem. We ate at Brad's favorite vegetarian restaurant, El Maple. Our total bill was $8 for the two of us. It would seem that paying with a $10 would be perfectly reasonable. Nope. We waited nearly 15 minutes while the waiter ran around town looking for change.

In a country that operates almost exclusively in cash, why doesn't anyone ever have change? I can't seem to keep it in my coin purse. I can't count the number of times we've boarded a bus and I was afraid I might not have a couple of quarters to cover our fare. The tens and twenties seem to linger in my wallet, but the quarters, fifty cent pieces, and dollar coins don't weight me down!