where to begin?

So, I know I haven't written in a few days, but I'm gonna try to recap as much as possible. Friday morning I arrived at the cafe to David telling me Carlos had been there already to talk to me (I arrived at 9:15 mind you). I asked if Carlos would be back before leaving for Tena. And of course David said he should be. So, back to the kitchen for me. Helped out with some meals , then David asked if I would go with him to the bus terminal to ick up the food delivery from Tena for the dinner that night. He and I headed out on the trolley (by the way, i am fascinated by the lack of chivalry in a machismo culture like this - David always got on the trolley first, barely checked to make sure I was with him, though he did offer me a seat on the raised hump of floor by a seat in front of us : ) ) We bungled our way through the bus depot, since David had never been there before - a bit odd for a Quiteno to have never been to the bus station. And after three of four attempts found the package pick up place and made our way back on the jam-packed trolley (really an electric bus) that played rudolph the red-nosed raindeer - don't ask, apparently they are all gearing up for x-mas already, who knows).

A couple hours later someone said something about Carlos coming back. Shortly after that David called Eva out of the kitchen - where, I assume, she was meeting Carlos. I walked back out into the dining area and outside and back to the kitchen. Nothing. Went back to sit outside and finally David came out to introduce Carlos.

I actually had a really good conversation with Carlos (from what I could understand and hear that is - it was pretty loud outside and Carlos speaks pretty low and again with the accent that I'm so good at). Anyway, I think we had a pretty decent conversation. We worked out that I would come to Tena on Monday to leave with him and the others from there to Salinas to make chocolate on either Tuesday or Wednesday. (Cesar is also supposed to bring a group, including Eva, to Tena on Monday so am trying to connect with them.) He said they had a lot of chocolate to make and would probably be there for 12-15 days. He also said it's pretty rough up there (it's at 3500 meters above sea level - Quito is about 2850) and most volunteers don't last more than 8 days. He said he had a really hard time the first time he went too. So, I get the sense I may be heading back to Quito on my own after about half the time there. We'll see.

Apparently Salinas is also famous for cheese and salami, (yeah, I know, but Henry and Jazz will appreciate), dried mushrooms, and rough-spun sweaters. Henry has already figured out that if I post pics of the sweaters to my blog he can place an order while I'm there : )

We talked about making different chocolate things. Judy told Carlos that I was a food person (I did tell him I have no training, just home stuff), so he is hoping I can really help with making truffles which they want to be there next big thing. At the end he was really nice and thanked me for coming to help and told me that I was welcome there and Kallari's doors were open to me. It was such a nice response, especially after some of the oddities of my earlier greetings and encounters.

After lunch we closed the cafe to prepare for a special Kichua dinner (the cafe does these pre-arranged three course dinners) for a group of 9 American students. We had a blast cooking (palmito soup - take note allison; fish with a marinade of pepper, cilantro, garlic, and oil and cooked wrapped in leaves with some chopped palmito; fried yuca; salad; aji - the spicy condiment they eat with everything and made from aji peppers, cilantro, onion, and tree tomatoes - which is a fruit here), and then got up to the brownies and, of course, they didn't even have their own brownie recipe!!! they were asking me about proportions of a recipe I'd never seen. Madness!!! Finally Frankie found a recipe book on top of the fridge - but, surprise, that wasn't really the recipe either so he had to call Elsie, who also works in the kitchen, but who was home in Tena, twice to get the right info to make the brownies. Then, he really only had the ingredients and wasn't super enthused to listen to me about the assembly, but finally he got on board.














clowning around in the midst of prep


brownie and aji prep

The students showed up and dinner was served.

It didn't quite go off without a hitch though. Eva finished making the blackberry juice that Frankie had started, but nobody added sugar so Frankie added it and starting stirring the juice with a metal spoon in a glass pitcher and somehow busted through the side of the pitcher. glass and purple juice went everywhere, including all over the bottom of my jeans. i rubbed that crazy blue lava industrial kitchen soap on them though and no signs of purple (only question is if the soap cleaned or re-dyed the material!). Then, taking a two beers out of the fridge, Eva dropped one and more liquid and glass everywhere. Other than that, things were pretty calm. We served the (in)famous brownies with a special strawberry decoration courtesy of, well, me. (there were already strawberries in the presentation, i just changed the form).

After dinner we tried to go out - Eva wanted to go dancing - but since it was two days before the election the ley seca was in effect (dry law - as in, no alcohol sold/served for two days before until noon the day after elections) so nothing was doing. Eventually we just got cabs and went home.

Saturday I woke up in a bit of panic cuz I had a dream remembering I forgot to get the rest of my shots. So, waiting for Henry and Jazz to come back from the friend's house where they'd stayed the night before, I made a call and found out about shots. When Henry got back and we got going we decided it was too late to head to Otavalo (the original plan for the day - the country's biggest indigenous market - we'll go when i'm back from salinas). We headed out for shots. Seemed good and clean, I mean, rubber gloves are overrated anyway, right?? got typhoid and yellow fever probably should have done tetanus, but didn't quite get that far.

We hopped a cab, which took the really cool, super steep, winding back roads to the old city. went to Cafe Model for some typical Ecuadorian snacks for lunch. Got a humitas (like a sweet corn tamale, but a little salty too) and an empanada de verde (like a small quesadilla but the tortilla is made from plantain). Then went into this cool gold leafed church de la Compania (unfortunately couldn't take pics - so this is Henry outside the gate of the church) and then went and wandered to the central plaza/park to sit for a bit.

Okay, so I know you can't see this in motion (I totally forgot that I have video capabilities on my camera), but this is my favorite crossing signal ever. The little green dude is totally booking. His feet move so fast and I thought it was hysterical because it is so apropos of crossing the street here!

There is a whole row of these cool posts and each was designed by a different local artist (hundreds if years ago)

After the park we decided to check out this family owned ice cream shop (operated by the fam since like 1858). Had some tasty tropical fruit ice creams (guanabana, taxo, uvilla) and some popcorn (it's eaten with everything here, but really, probably not ice cream i just saw a cute little kid at the next table eating it so we got some : )

another cab up to this crazy virgin statue on the panecillo hill (virgin de quito). it's kind of creepy looking, with a serpent at her feet and it's this long winding crazy road up there. we got there, walked around, decided we didn't want to pay to climb up in the statue,

the view from Panecillo (quito down below)

saw this crazy humvee on steroids that was on some pan latin america unification tour for hugo chavez and saw the eu election monitor truck and then couldn't find a cab back down. finally one came and we headed home.

met up with jazz to walk down this hill neighborhood called guapalo right near their apt. we were trying to get a present for a friend of jazz and henry. no stores were open, almost got attacked by a crazy dog (it actually came rushing us and then snapped at my ankle, biting my pants, thankfully, i was wearing pants!!) then he went away. the neighborhood is all these winding roads, cool houses and cute little shops I love this road

Who says they're not veggie friendly here?? I love this little pig telling us not to eat him : ) (this was painted on a wall in Guapalo)

Stopped to take a picture of Jazz and Henry and these three cute little boys came running over and lined up to pose for me to take their picture. so here they areheaded back home, stopped at this bizarra casino to see what was up and use the bathroom, but that ley saca just killed the whole town. nada.

went home and finally decided on indian food for dinner. went to this place where jazz knows the owner and we actually got served alcohol - the waitress was like, but you're foreigners, n problem. we're all pretty sure that the law makes no distinction, but. . . food was good. came home stuffed and henry and i watched the human stain. good movie - and i'm not just saying that for wentworth : )

I know this is long, but I wanted to get everything down before i forget, because i'm off to tena tomorrow and then to salinas where i don't know about the internet situation, so it may be a while.

Anyway, today we had some breakfast at the apt. then drove to Papallacta the best and most famous thermal baths in Ecuador. it was about 1 1/2 hour drive on crazy roads, with beautiful scenery. kind of looked like south dakota for part of the ride - weird. the last few km are on unpaved, rutted roads like you wouldn't believe. kim i definitely had flashbacks to the atitlan passage, though jazz is a way calmer driver than any we encountered. but it's nuts, mountain roads, steep drops, big trucks and busses.

got to the baths, which are really cool. all different pools (all tiled, but nicely done) of different temps, and sizes, and depths. there are plung pools too and a river running by that you can go in too (it's freezing) and the temp of the air is pretty damn cold too. Did that for a while and then went to the restaurant for a lunch of grilled trout (that's what they're famous for there) and some awesome fried dough in maple syrup dessert. after lunch we headed to the "steam room" (a hut over some of the steaming water) and then another plunge before a shower - also in the hot waters, though not hot enough - from spigots. Drove back to Quito and have been laying low here since then - had some nice cheese and tomatoes and bread and wine (that jazz ran out to buy illegally ffrom his local bar where they know him and apparently tons of americans were out drinking - remember dry til tomorrow at noon.

Spoke with Eva a couple of times to work out a plan to meet up tomorrow at the bus depot at 7:20 to head for Tena. Cuz, of course, Cesar just told her to meet at the bus terminal. Didn't tell her it was the main one for the city (in fact, seemed to lead her to believe it was small), or that there are actually at least three counters for the bus company line we're to look for. Or that there are tons of people, and vernders, and stall, and little shops, and all kinds of stuff going on there. So, we made a plan to meet up - the two of us - first, outside the station after about 3 back and forth calls to get all the info. Then about an hour and a hald later she called back to say Cesar had just called to tell her that they were now gonna leave on Tuesday cuz someone in the group is tired or something.

So now I am no longer waking up at the crack of dawn to be at the busses so early. I got to try to communicate all of this to Carlos in an email using my brilliant Spanish. Basically I told him that I'd at least be a few hours, if not a day later than originally planned. i told him they were going tuesday and if he was leaving for Salinas on Wed I'd try to go with them cuz it is easier and safer. otherwise, i'll still be heading out tomorrow, just not sure yet when.

Hopefully i can upload some more pics for everyone to see all the cool things of the past few days. I may also add more to these postings when i can think a little more.

sorry for all the rambling . . . .