Back to Work

After arriving in Cuenca and checking into our oh-so-nice little apartment, we wasted little time in getting back to business. This was, of course, after we enjoyed a lazy Sunday morning. We spent 7.5 hours of our Saturday afternoon and evening driving from Toachi to Cuenca, and it’s not exactly as straightforward as driving from Columbus to St. Louis (for example). Several of the towns we passed through aren’t really into the road sign thing, so we had to do a bit of guessing at certain points. While making our way through the town of Quevedo, a friendly couple on a motorcycle gave us a helping hand. Chelsea hates asking for directions in Spanish, but I made her do it this time! As we continued on, day turned into night to make things a little more fun than they already were. We went through about 15 minutes of pouring rain at 25 mph, and then we enjoyed some thick fog as we started to climb up the western slopes of the Andes. Thankfully the towns closer to Cuenca had good signs, so we made it without too much fuss.

After getting some much-needed rest, we picked up some groceries from Supermaxi to stock the new apartment. Ernesto mentioned that we are close to a co-op market, so we walked over and found that easily (it’s about two minutes away). There we found a paradise of fresh fruits and vegetables at very low prices. Chelsea is really excited about this. We then continued the day’s awesomeness by capitalizing on being able to see at night and to use electronic devices. Our homemade dinner was quite tasty, and the country songs playing from our iPod gave us a little feeling of home.

On Monday morning, we went back to Mazan to visit the frogs. They weren’t, however, quite as excited to see us. We put in a nice solid search, but we didn’t find anything but spiders, lizards, and bugs. I suppose that’s how things go when you’re studying a critically endangered species whose individuals are never longer than 2 inches and live underneath rocks and razor-sharp plants. When we got back to the house, we set about removing things from our room there to bring down to the apartment. We pretty much filled the car, and we still had more things to bring down. For you ladies, I will say that we enjoyed Valentine’s Day with our favorite chocolate cake and a little bit of dancing to Josh Turner (including our wedding song).

Speaking of the car, we decided to give it some attention on Tuesday. Some nice person decided to right “Lavame” (wash me) on it during its stay in Toachi, so we thought we’d grant their request. There just so happens to be a car wash right down the street from us, so we left them the car and made the waiting room our home. Ninety minutes and 8 dollars later, we had a clean car inside and out. Given its two month hibernation while we were in the US, we also figured the car could use a little electrical check-up. The new battery that we bought after the old one died with the car at the top of the road to Mazan during the biggest holiday of the year happened to come with a one year guarantee. This guarantee includes quarterly check-ups. Good for us. So, we pulled into the electromechanic’s (as they’re known here) shop, and a boy who, Chelsea remarked, didn’t even look old enough to drive a car tended to our battery. He also tightened the clamp on one of our radiator hoses because, apparently, we were slowly losing coolant. I’m glad he caught that. I’m also glad that I now know what a radiator hose is thanks to watching Chelsea’s dad replace the radiator on my Accord from approximately 8-11:30 PM on New Year’s Eve.

But back to Ecuador, you say. The aforementioned services would have been free, but Chelsea reminded me to ask if they could replace our burned-out tail light. Sure, they could. In fact, they went ahead and replaced both even though the right one was working. This made Chelsea feel much better. Burned-out headlights and tail lights aren’t really a big deal to Ecuadorians (Ernesto’s tail light has been out since September) because safety isn’t really a big deal to them. I hope Dr. Smith from the Center for Injury Research at Children’s Hospital in Columbus never visits here. Ever. If he does, I’m pretty sure he will be struck deaf and mute for the remainder of his life at what he sees. The police don’t really do anything, either (except take bribes like pros). They just ride around in trucks and on motorcycles all day long, and I’m not sure if anyone really knows where they’re going. In any case, they don’t give people tickets for having burned out lights on their cars.

We spent Tuesday afternoon working on the internet, and we enjoyed another delightful evening in Cuenca. We returned to Mazan the next day, and Chelsea found a little Atelopus exiguus. That always makes it a good day of work for us. We transported down the rest of our things from the research house, and then we walked into the center of town to meet with Ernesto. We all had a good opportunity to catch up on goings on over the past few months. One key development is that Ernesto installed wi-fi in the zoo office, and we are welcome to use it as we like. One piece of bad news is that German stopped collecting data in El Tiink (the rainforest) at the end of January. Using her grant money, Chelsea left enough funds with Ernesto to pay German to gather data on the as yet undescribed Atelopus species during January and February. Because we had to stay for my interview in Richmond, we arrived to Cuenca in the middle of February. In typical Ecuador style, nobody asked us if we had money to keep the project going (which we do), and they just stopped. German will have recommenced the field studies by the time this is published, but we still lost 20 days of data during a time when the frogs should be breeding. Oh well, that’s life down here.

We were tired on Thursday, so it ended up being a rest/computer day. We went back to Mazan on Friday to check on some tadpoles that we are experimenting with in the lab. While Chelsea was in Cuenca this time last year, a momma frog just hopped right into the research house at Mazan. Carlos grabbed her up and gave her a new home in the lab. These tadpoles we are working with are her children. We’re trying to get them to develop and metamorphose into frogs, and they seem to be advancing well in their new conditions. Saturday ended up being a relaxation day, and Sunday we went into Cajas park itself in order to find tadpoles and download information from a data logger that Chelsea left in a pool up there. She commented that this is why she needs a ToughBook laptop, but unfortunately our friend Mohammed bin Zayed’s grant isn’t quite big enough for us to afford one.

We had more luck again in Mazan on Monday: Chelsea found an exiguus frog that is older and more mature than any of the ones we found during the fall. He still isn’t a full grown adult, but we were able to tell that he is a “macho,” as they say here. Good news! We got some unexpected news, however, while checking our email later that day. Apparently, Ernesto was able to work out our next trip to Patul (the tiny little mountain village). He didn’t have any balance left to call us, though, so we found out Monday night that we will be making this 3 day trip on Wednesday morning. Great. So much for our schedule this week.

Our apartment

Our first week back

Right now, we’re sitting at the table of our new apartment while we wait for our car to be washed inside an out ($8.00). While we wait, we thought it might be a good time to reflect on the past week here. We took care of business on Quito, picked up our car in Toachi, and drove the road by way of the coast to return to Cuenca.

While we were in Quito, we stayed with Giovanni and the girls at Casa Marianista. As always, it was an interesting blending of cultures, languages, and personalities. Dinner Friday night was particularly enjoyable because there was a full table: Brother Giovanni, Mayra, Silvia, and Father Cecilio were accompanied by Etilo (from Italy), Mario and Francesca (a father and daughter, also from Italy), and ourselves. As usual, there was pasta, cheese, wine, bread, and an array of fruits on the table. Spanish, Italian, and English were spoken and the switch between languages was fluid. After dinner, we washed dishes together in the kitchen while the older men reminisced and sang songs from a different time.

During our stay at Casa Marianista, we were able to take care of both the things we wanted to do and the things that we needed to do. The first order of business was to deliver the reagent to the Catholic University so that my samples can be processed. While there, we met with Santiago (the professor who runs the lab) and Andrea (the student who will process my samples). We also met with another staff member, Eduardo. Eduardo spent two field seasons at Mazan studying Atelopus exiguus (I know it’s been awhile, this is the cute little green one with the yellow belly). We met to discuss a publication we are planning to write among several of us who have studied this same species during the past 30 years.

The next order of business was to visit the consulate and jump through all necessary hoops to make our visas valid. You have to get a card called a censo, but it isn’t as easy as walking into the office and asking for one. First, you walk into this crazy, overwhelming room where there are desks and people and you’re not exactly even sure which people go with the desks. Then, none of the desks are labeled correctly, so when you ask where you need to be you are shuffled over to a line, only to wait in it until it is your turn when they tell you to go to another line. Then, you get to the correct line and they tell you that you need to make copies of this and that, and to get a folder , an envelope, and a copy of something to show that you have a place of residence (e.g. an electric or water bill). So finally we get all of our things in order, we wait in line again (this time we meet some other nice folks, a couple of girls from Belgium, a girl from England, and a guy from the Netherlands—all trying to go through the same process as us) and when we get to the front of the line, they take our passports and tell us to come back tomorrow. Apparently you have to leave your passport overnight to get registered, then you can come back the next day (and make ANOTHER copy, this time of the registration stamp) and then you can get your censo.

So we left the consulate (without our visas) and went to enjoy a chocolate brownie from Kallari, a nice lunch, and a stroll in the park. While sitting in the park, the Belgian girls spot us and come show us a list of what they were told they needed to jump through the second set of hoops to actually get the card made (they were a step ahead of us). No, they aren’t kidding about needing a proof of a place of residence. Yes, you will need to make more copies and bring passport photos. No, they will not complete the process without an envelope. So we thanked them, and planned to return the next day completely prepared.

When we arrived the next day, they weren’t ready yet. We took the opportunity to get some ice cream first, then some lunch, and returned in the afternoon. We were thrilled when they handed us back our passports, we ran down the street to make copies, and absolutely ecstatic when they handed us our censos. In our celebrations, we forgot to look at the cards themselves and didn’t notice until we returned to Giovanni’s that they were only issued for 6 mos. Instead of one year. But that doesn’t really matter. 6 mos. Is longer than we were planning on staying anyways. We have our censos, and shouldn’t have any problems getting out of the country this time.



We were planning on taking a bus to Toachi to pick up our car on Friday, drive it back to Quito to pick up our things, then drive to Cuenca on Saturday. However, plans changed. I was able to set up an appointment on Friday with presumably the best amphibian biologist in the country, Luis Coloma, and Giovanni decided that he would be going to Toachi on Saturday. So we went to meet with Coloma Friday morning. This is the guy that lost his job with the Catholic university, and he’s showing them that he isn’t going to let it keep him away from doing great things for the frogs. He is in the process of building an even better captive breeding conservation and research center with the help of many of the Catholic university’s former staff, at his parent’s house just outside of Quito. Our friend Elicio is working for him, and helped us navigate the bus system so that we could make it to the meeting. Elicio showed us the property and the plans for it, and also told us about a second captive breeding center at Otokiki where the climate is more appropriate for lower altitude species. The meeting itself went great, and Coloma was happy to share what he knows about the species that I am working with and offered some advice as I continue to pursue my research. It really was an amazing opportunity to sit down and talk with him for an hour about something we are both passionate about—frogs.

Saturday morning, we got up early for a quick breakfast and packed all of our bags into Giovanni’s car. There were five of us, plus all of our luggage, plus their backpacks with things to stay for a few days. Along the way, we confirmed my UD professor’s statement that Giovanni drives “like a bat outta hell” and we also stopped several places along the highway to look for plants and enjoy the view. We were almost there when we stopped for “some coffee” which actually was an entire meal in itself. We had sweet cucumber, pineapple, corn prepared two different ways, and some strong coffee (grounds and all). The Giovanni asked a young girl, Lety, 12, to go with us for a mechanic to make sure the battery is working and then to get our car from the parking lot. She didn’t know exactly where we were going, so we got off the bus a little early and walked the rest of the way. Then we had a terrifying ride in the back of a pick up to go and get our car. It turned out the battery was just fine and we didn’t need to go through the hassle of getting the mechanic (or paying him $10) but it was what Giovanni recommended. Meanwhile, he had worked out payment with the parking guy, paid him $15, and left our bags. However, the parking guy wanted more money when we got there (although he didn’t name an actual amount), and we were surprised to see our bags because we had planned on staying the night at Toachi. We loaded everything into our car (including several additional kids who seemed pretty excited to go along for the ride), drove to the house at Toachi, and carried all of our bags to the house. It was locked and Giovanni and the two Italians were nowhere around. We weren’t ready to leave yet, we still had to pay Giovanni for the parking and we hadn’t even said goodbye. So Brad and Lety went to find him, and startled him because he had thought we were leaving. He thought something was wrong, and he was abrupt in the way that he responded. The Italian girl stuck in her two sense, which only further upset Brad. We waited at the house for their return, upon which Giovanni was hospitable and very helpful, but decided that it was still appropriate for us to leave. So we started off for Cuenca.

On our way from Cuenca to Quito in December, we travelled the road through the spine of the Andes. However, Toachi is along a different way from Quito to Cuenca that goes along the coastal plain. We weren’t sure how long it would take, and we knew that none of the towns were the type of place you would choose to stop and spend the night. We called Ernesto, and he talked us through the trip and said that we should arrive in Cuenca around 10:00. He would be waiting for us, and would show us to the apartment which we would be renting from his aunt.

We arrived at 10:00, picked up Ernesto, and drove just around the corner to an adorable little apartment. It is a tiny house just next to the house where aunt Evita, uncle, and three cousins live. We have our own standard iron gate with a small patio between us and the road. It isn’t on a main street, so there isn’t too much noise and the river Tomebamba is just across the street. When you come into the apartment, there is a combination kitchen and living space. We have a table with 6 chairs, a stove (no oven), sink, refrigerator, and cabinets stocked with some plates, silverware, pots and pans. We have a cushioned bench, a rocking chair, and a coffee table. There is a door that leads to the bedroom in which we have a bed, two nightstands, and a large closet. From the bedroom, there is a door that leads to a small bathroom complete with a hot-water shower. We still don’t have television or internet, but I couldn’t be happier with the apartment itself!

Monday we went to Mazan to do some field work (no Atelopus exiguus out and about) and to pack up some of our things to bring down to our new apartment. We packed clothing, food, kitchen supplies, and field equipment. We filled the car, and realized that the room wasn’t empty. We will have to return for our large laundry basket, our small book shelf, and the rest of our camping equipment. Instead of going out for Valentine’s day, we decided to unpack our things, make dinner at home, and enjoy two pieces of our favorite chocolate cake.

Conclusion: We’re here in Cuenca with our nice apartment. There is a convenient fruit market across the street and a car wash just down the street, and we are warm, happy, and ready to work!

Live from the Air

We’re on our way back to Ecuador. We’ve had a whirlwind of a trip to the US, and we’re looking forward to the next four months in Ecuador. The amphibian research is up and running, the clinic is off to a great start, and we’re thinking about sneaking in a trip to Peru if time allows. We’re a little anxious about returning, but we’ve been able to make some positive changes before we’ve even arrived. Our friends Ernesto and Amanda have lined up a furnished apartment in Cuenca—we’ll have reliable electricity and, more importantly, hot water. We’ll be closer to friends and farther away from the puma.

During the past two months we were able to enjoy time around the holidays with both families, attend residency program interviews , meet with advisors, restock on supplies, participate in our annual Branches community retreat, visit with friends, eat Jeni’s ice cream, eat Graeter’s ice cream, sleep in our warm and cozy bed, drive my car over the 100,000 mile mark, fix Brad’s car (again!), celebrate my birthday, attend a potluck, crochet an afghan, drink bubble tea with the knitting group, go thrift shopping, cheer for Buckeye football and basketball, watch the SuperBowl…. Everything but the annual re-gifting party (which I assure you will DEFINITELY be a priority on next year’s calendar!)

Some highlights from our time at home:
1. Singing Kumbaya around the Christmas tree
2. Eating Christmas cookies
3. Sharing foods and spirits from Ecuador with our friends in Columbus
4. Spending our first Christmas together
5. Learning to (sort of ) replace a radiator on New Year’s Eve
6. Girls’ night / Boys’ night
7. Mom’s home cooking (x2)
8. Birthday parties and potluck
9. Getting stuck in O’Hare Airport and arriving after 2 AM before my interview in Arkansas

We were so glad to have the opportunity to see so many of you while we were home, and we hope to keep in touch with you through the blog and emails now that we’re back in Ecuador. We return on May 31, and we’ll miss you until then.

* Note: This post was written on the airplane, well before we realized that our camera disappeared at some point during the flight. A post full of consternation will follow.

Where the map turns blue

Having completed everything that we needed to do in Quito by around 2:00 on Monday afternoon, we decided that there was no reason to hang around here for the entire week. Since neither one of us has yet been to the Ecuadorian coast, we decided to make a trip to the beach our final adventure for this year. Having been recommended by Giovanni and his Italian friend, Italo, to go to Pedernales, we decided to go somewhere quite close. We love our Rough Guide dearly for all that it has done for us, and it delivered this time as well. I called the number for a secluded beachfront hotel, and we had our reservation without any trouble. But, as you know by now, this is Ecuador.

Due to its incredible traffic congestion which has developed over the past 15 years or so, Quito recently enacted a transportation law with the aim of improving traffic flow. As it stands, they use the final digit of a car’s license plate to enforce the law. Each day of the week, there are two final digits which are forbidden to be on the road between 7-9:30 AM and 4-7:30 PM. Tuesday happens to be 3 and 4, and it also happens to be the day when we were making our merry way to the coast for a relaxing trip. We had breakfast at the usual hour of 7 AM, and we were in the car by 7:30. We had made it across the city and nearly to the highway when we attracted the attention of a motorcycle policeman. He motioned for us to pull over, so we did. I handed him my driver’s license, and he proceeded to inform us that our car was not allowed to be on the road at that time of day (he took the liberty of adding an extra hour to the stated time during his explanation). He then mentioned that our car would be impounded and that we would have to pay $80 to get it back the next day.

Being a generally polite person, I offered to wait until 9:30 in order to respect their law before resuming our journey. He didn’t go for that, and he told us to follow him to where a group of other officers was on patrol. They had us pull into a bus company’s parking lot, and we were hoping that we would get to wait there. A few minutes later, however, one of the officers came over and told me that I needed to walk down the street and talk to a different officer about our situation. So, I walked over and began a nice friendly conversation with this officer. He repeated the law and the prescribed punishment to me several times, of course while managing to ask where I’m from, what I think of President Obama, and other things. When I expressed my distaste for having my car impounded, he pulled out his cell phone and called the guy who pulled us over to see if he would be willing to “help us out.” After a bit of beating around the bush, it came to the point that we would be allowed to drive away at 9:30 after all.

Now, I need to point out that I am new with the whole bribing police officers and government officials thing. I attempted to make a deal with this officer right there on the street since he seemed to be in charge of the operation. As soon as I reached for my wallet, however, he stepped back with his hands up. He then decided to have me go back to our car and wait for the officer who pulled us over. Once this guy showed up, I attempted to pull out my wallet again. Being the well-trained sleazeballs that they are, he told me to get in the car and then pull out the money. He handed me my driver’s license back, and I handed him his $60 bribe. Lovely. Then the guy in charge of the bus station demanded $5 for us to park there for an hour and a half (which was about three times overpriced), but I figured I wasn’t really in a position to make anyone mad at us. We read our books until 9:30, and then we got back on the road to the beach.

Once we got on the road (and out of Quito) the drive itself was quite nice. First we had to drive down the western slopes of the Andes to the coast. The road is thin, trafficky, and winds through the mountains. The mountainsides are lushly green, at times foggy, and the waterfalls are spectacular. Road crews are working diligently to meet the demands of increased traffic, but widening a road through the mountains can’t be an easy job. Once we got through the mountains and past Santo Domingo, the road flattens out on the coastal plains. We stopped for a quick lunch, and continued another couple of hours to the coast. Pedernales is the closes beach to Quito, and the hotel we had made a reservation at, Punta Prieta, was just south of Pedernales.

We arrived to the hotel, and had to pull the car through two gates before reaching the reception desk. The woman at the desk said she had no information about the reservation we had made only a day earlier, and wasn’t too friendly about it. We asked to see the rooms, and she readily agreed—starting with the most expensive. Well, the most expensive was out of our price range, and we nearly had to beg to see the cheap room. After some deliberation, she decided the cheap room wasn’t going to suit our needs and she gave us the mid-range room for the cheap price $30/ night. The room itself had two full sized beds, a bathroom with hot water, and a beautiful balcony with a small table and two hammocks. The room was built at the top of a cliff, facing the beach south of the point. It was private, serene, and a perfect place for us to relax a bit before coming home.

After making our lodging arrangements, we headed down for a late afternoon walk on the beach before dinner. The weather was cool, cloudy, and a bit windy. We took off our shoes and waded in the water. We appreciated the smell of the ocean breeze, the wildlife, and the colorful seashells.

We returned to our room before dark, got cleaned up, and walked over to the hotel’s restaurant for our 7:30 reservation. The hotel is quite secluded, so the restaurant there was really our only dining choice; we were not disappointed. The same woman who had shown us the rooms prepared our dinner, and was quite apologetic that they didn’t have fish because they weren’t expecting us—would shrimp be alright? So we sat alone in the restaurant, tauted in our Rough Guide for it’s spectacular views, and enjoyed a simple dinner of shrimp, rice, and vegetables. We didn’t find out until the next day just how spectacular the cliff top views were, complete with pelicans and other birds flying by and iguanas hanging out in the brush beneath the window.

The weather insisted on being cool and cloudy the next day, so we enjoyed walking on the beach, sitting in the hammocks and reading our books. The hotel staff had also set up two hammocks in a little cabana on the beach for us, so we had our choice of locations on the private beach and our skin was sheltered from the harsh sun. The day was broken up by our meals, shrimp ceviche for lunch and pan fried fish for dinner. We went to bed early, and fell asleep to the waves crashing onshore.

We had another half day to spend on the beach, collected a few more seashells and took a walk down the south beach toward a group of fishing boats. We left the hotel before lunch and drove to Pedernales to check out the coastal scene there. While we ate encocados (fish cooked in coconut milk) at a restaurant across the street from the beach, we saw that Pedernales was a slightly more “hopping” place. There were chairs and boogie boards for rent on the beach, juices and alcohol for sale in little thatched stands, and vendors selling an array of tourist souvenirs. I think we made the right choice with our secluded cliff top hotel.

We spent the afternoon driving back to Quito, and got here just in time to miss dinner. Giovanni kindly offered to make us a soup, and although I wasn’t hungry I knew Brad wouldn’t decline the offer. It was a quiet evening, and a nice opportunity to chat with Giovanni over bowls of potato, spinach, and cheese soup. He reminded us that breakfast would be served promptly at 7:00 am, then wished us a good night. Later, we made some phone calls to family and enjoyed our last full night of sleep before returning to the US.

This is our last blog until February 2011, we hope you’ve enjoyed them and promise to continue just as soon as we return to Ecuador! Our lives in the US just aren’t quite so interesting…

Shopping and the Census

The whole point of leaving Cuenca over a week in advance of our flight back home was for us to be able to attend the Saturday market in Otavalo. An indigenous town about 2 hours north of Quito, Otavalo is famous for its artesans. Its market is one of the largest in all of South America, and Saturday is the big day. Now, it must be said that Quito is a fairly large and difficult city to navigate in an automobile. The city is one large, uninterrupted mass that stretches probably 25-30 miles from north to south. Needless to say, I was a little worried about getting lost once we decided to drive our car to Giovanni’s house from Toachi. When we asked Giovanni for directions to the Panamericana Norte, however, his answer couldn’t have been simpler. All we had to do was get on the big road one block over from his house and drive until it meets the highway. Whew!

So, after enjoying a nice breakfast, we hit the road around 8:00 AM. We stopped to buy fruits called chirimoyas from one of the many ladies along the road, and we pulled into town just before 10:00 AM. The market was definitely in full swing. Even with living in Cuenca, I don’t think Chelsea and I had seen so many white people since August! We quickly went into bargaining mode, because you should never take the first price someone offers you at a market. We wheeled and dealed, picking up items which you aren’t allowed to know about yet. In the space of two and a half hours, we had crossed most things off of our shopping list. One vendor even gave us a large bag so we could consolidate our little bags, and we were surprised to find that our purchases practically filled it up! We took our huge bag back to our car and then sat down for some lunch.

With legs rested and tummies full, we returned for a little bit more. Shopping in this setting is always easier when you don’t really need anything that you’re looking at. The vendors always want to sell, but they’re pretty good at noticing when they can stick to a price because you want something really bad. Looking disinterested and walking away are the two best techniques for getting prices to fall sharply, but it’s hard to look disinterested over something you came to the market knowing you wanted to buy. Following our lunch, however, we took our disinterestedness to a new level because we didn’t have to fake it. I prefer not to stop and look at things unless if I’m considering buying, but Chelsea likes to stop and smell the roses, if you will. She had people calling after her, asking her what her price was for this or that. She also used the walk-away technique to perfection when she got a guy to drop from $12 to $7 for a certain item. He had previously been offering us 2 for $18 or 3 for $24, but she got us 1 for $7. This was quite impressive to me given that cheapness is something of a family tradition in honor of my great-grandfather.

After completing our shopping spree, we took a few pictures around town just as it began to sprinkle. The sprinkle shortly turned into a downpour, so we waited it out from the safety of the Lead Bullet (pushing the nickname again). We made a reservation for a hotel in a nearby village where I stayed during my medical program in February. The drive over was interesting due to the road resembling a shallow pond, but our ridiculously expensive all-terrain tires acquitted themselves well. Much like Mazan, the hotel’s electricity and water appear to be very sensitive to the rain. There was no power when we arrived, but we enjoyed sitting outside and listening to the birds (albeit was pretty chilly). We headed up to the hotel’s restaurant for dinner around 6:30, but they informed us that the chef wouldn’t be arriving until 7:30. No big deal, this is Ecuador. We sat down next to a glorious fire and ordered hot chocolate. While savoring those, the hotel’s volunteer struck up a conversation with us. At one point he mentioned their local cane alcohol drink that is served warm, noting that it is made with mora. Chelsea expressed interest in comparing it to the canelazo of Cuenca, and a few minutes later the volunteer returned with two complimentary glasses for us. For the cold, he said. The chef did eventually arrive, and we enjoyed two very nice dinners before heading to bed.

We knew Sunday was going to be interesting in its own special way, because it was the day for the 2010 Census in Ecuador. Since they don’t really use the mail, sending out questionnaires for everyone to complete and return wouldn’t really work. Especially since a lot of people have address like, “in the corner behind the school” or, “up the mountain at kilometer 8 on the road to Cajas” (sound familiar?). In order to combat this logistical hurdle, the brilliant government of Ecuador decided to enact an “Immobility Law” from 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM. The law is basically self-explanatory: according to the government, you’re not allowed to leave your house, or hotel, during the stated hours. Honestly, they expected people who paid money to visit this country to sit around inside all day long even though they don’t have anything to do with the Census. Poppycock, I say.

So, we went to the restaurant for breakfast at 9:30, hoping to eat enough food to last us most of the day. This hotel had a wonderful buffet breakfast with pancakes when I stayed in February, but, of course, the chef wasn’t there to prepare it. The guy running the place told us something to the effect that they were closed for the Census, but they could get us one of the smaller breakfasts on the menu. Okay, better than nothing. Once we finished up, we asked our host what they could offer us for lunch. He told us that, sorry, they would be closed for lunch due to the Census. We then decided to follow the example of the German guests and ask for some food to go. He said that, yes, he could do this, and what time would we like it to be ready? Confused, we said, “How about 1:30?” No problem, he said, I’ll be here. Quite accustomed as we are to not really understanding how things work in this country, we set out for a walk to the Peguche waterfall. We took the opportunity to spend more time learning how to use our camera, and we got some nice pictures of the waterfall and hummingbirds in a field of flowers close by.

We returned to the restaurant just after 1:30, and our host came shortly thereafter to take our orders for lunch. Not content with cold food, Chelsea asked if he could prepare us a sandwich. He said yes, and brought the lunch menu to us. They were able to prepare at least half the things on the menu, so Chelsea got a grilled cheese and I got a crepe with mixed fruits on top (I actually ordered pancakes and a crepe arrived, but oh well). Then the Germans came in and ordered lunch as well, so I’m pretty sure the restaurant would have looked pretty darn open for lunch to anyone else who walked in. Chelsea then continued on her roll and asked the host to prepare us a fire, which he did quite efficiently. We then spent our remaining immobility time sitting by the fire and reading. The drive back went quite smoothly thanks to the reduced traffic, and we are now able to look back upon another interesting and quite nice trip.

Avenue of the Volcanoes

Since we have an Ecuadorian car to babysit, we have been thinking about what to do with it during our time in the US for quite some time now. Traveling on buses with bags full of valuable items isn’t really a great idea: some thieves here have made an art out of cutting into bags that you place between your feet and relieving you of your expensive items. Larger bags that get stored in the cargo areas at the bottom of the bus sometimes decide that they want to get off before you do. With these things in mind, we decided to drive ourselves up the Panamericana from Cuenca to Quito.

I started the day by nearly taking the front end off while backing out of Jose’s parking spot, but the silver lining to that is that now we should have enough damage to the car to meet the $100 minimum required for our insurance policy to cover the repairs. After making sure that the car wasn’t going to fall apart and the gate wasn´t damaged, we headed for the highway. The drive through the Andes is really quite pretty. You get to see out over many different valleys along the way. They call this section of the road “The Avenue of the Volcanoes,” and they are justified in doing so. Unfortunately, there were too many clouds for us to see all but the biggest volcano (this is usually the case unless if you’re in the area around 6 AM). We got a view of the massive base of Chimborazo, which at 6200 meters or so and close to the Equator is the farthest point from the center of the Earth.

We then took Jose´s advice and stopped at the market in Ambato to have llapingachos for lunch. Ambato is more of a city than a town, so it took us over an hour to get in and out of the city center. Since you can’t just park your car when it has stuff in it in this country, there was no good place in town to stop and eat our food. Fittingly, we stopped at a gas station so we could get out of the car and share our Thanksgiving lunch. We’re pretty sure the attendant cheated us out of $3 and didn’t actually put any gas in our car, but neither one of us felt like arguing over $3 . . . in Spanish.

Chelsea then remembered that the upcoming town of Salcedo is famous for its multicolored ice creams on a stick. I passed the first sign advertising them and asked Chelsea where she wanted me to stop. She replied, “Anywhere. Every store in town sells them.” She was right. We probably passed over a hundred ice cream signs. With so many options, it’s hard to know which one to choose. For our purposes, I made a good choice. The lady at the store hopped up when we pulled over and gave us roadside service. We drove away with ice cream sticks in hand, and they were delicious!

From Salcedo, we continued on towards La Union Del Toachi. We passed through Aloag, then switched roads instead of heading north to Quito. Here, the highway continues west toward the coast—fortunately it wasn´t our plan to go that far. However, it is amazing to travel downhill in the Andes. The vegetation changes significantly and waterfalls flowing down from the mountains are common. Along this part of the drive, we saw car washes advertised with semi- naked ladies for truckers to wash their cars, we saw a guy´s bare backside as he stood next to his car to respond to the call of nature, we saw a large devil´s face carved into the side of a mountain, and finally we came to Toachi.

When we arrived in Toachi, we had to carry our things across a large footbridge and up to the house. Neither one of us are particularly good at traveling light, so it took a few trips. However, we were very excited to meet an old friend, Elicio, when we finally arrived at the house. He is involved in an amphibian conservation project in this part of the country, and is currently building a frog house. He invited us to sit down with them to dinner, we spent the evening catching up, and got to see a monkey that came to the “monkey feeded” near the dining table. We enjoyed the much warmer climate of Toachi, slept in the following morning, then were on the road again to Quito.

We had planned on leaving the car in Toachi, but were uncertain about the best way to get our things (and ourselves) to Quito. Elicio suggested we drive the car to Quito, then he could bring it to Toachi the next week. So we re-loaded the car and hit the road. Quito is a big city and local maps leave something to be desired, but Brad braved the challenge and succeeded! We easily found our way to Giovanni´s house, and he greeted us both with a big smile and warm hugs. His house feels more like home than anyplace else in Ecuador, and I´m pretty sure it is the Marianist spirit which permeates the house. He offered us a temporary parking spot at his house, inside the gate. We also got to catch up with our friends Mayra and Silvia, the girls who live here. They were both shy, but managed to practice their English with us and we practiced a little Spanish while Italian was also being spoken at the table.

As always, Giovanni stopped what he was doing to prove himself Marianist, and got us a snack when we arrived. Jams are his specialty, and he had 2 new ones for us to try: one of some bizarre tropical fruit and the other of the fruit of the chocolate plant. You have to be brave to try the food here, but bravery is usually rewarded. The jams were delicious, and I´m afraid Brad liked them enough to wear out his welcome!

Tomorrow, we have a big shopping trip planned. We are going to the famous Otavalo Market, and hope to find a bank once we get in town! It will be a day of Christmas shopping in the busy market, then we hope to spend the night in a hotel Brad´s medical group stayed in last February. Sunday is a day of travel restrictions, so we may be stuck there. They will be conducting their census (which they do in person since the mail system is so poor), and no one is allowed to leave their house or apartment or hotel from 7am- 5pm. It should be an adventure!