the surreal salinas life

Some random shots of life in Salinas . . .





these are the salt flats (i guess that's what they're called) that give Sal-inas it's name (sal is salt in Spanish for anyone who doesn't know).

So we started out the next morning ready to roast the cacao. Of course, nobody knew where the key was so we literally had to break in to the roaster room at the fabrica.

Finally inside the guys start the roaster up - loading in a 125 lb. bag of cacao.

Me on the other hand, I got the exciting job of wrapping chocolate while those guys roasted and the people who went to work at 2 a.m. slept. It was freezing and boring and Carlos and Amanada locked the door to the room we were sharing (sexiled? not quite sure).

Plus, I realized that I had left behind some medicine in Quito and had to figure out a way for Jazz and Henry to send it to me by bus (one small advantage to my situation). of course, this required a couple of phone calls to henry and jazz (about $5 worth), some frustrating conversations with Carlos, and a thankfully very helpful one with the boss at the fabrica who actually told me where to have the medicine sent and then said they'd send someone to pick it up for me (of course, this required constant checking back and constant changes in the assumed arrival time - oy). in the conversation that day henry also told me they were planning a beach trip for the following weekend (and a dinner party : ( as i readied myself for my third fried egg meal of the day!)

the whole time i was wrapping chocolate, all i could think of was that i could totally feel lucy's pain.

granted, i didn't have a factory belt to contend with, but after about 2 hours I had only packaged about a hundred bars and wrapped about 30 in wax paper.

So to entertain myself after a couple of hours of this excitement, i got up and starting taking pics from the window.




Stepped out onto the stairs and these kids started saying hi to me. (i was definitely the only gringa in town, so i got a good bit of attention from the locals)


After dinner we went back to chocolate making,

(the funnels used to measure out the amount of chocolate per bar)

though there was a bunch of chocolate wrapping again (the bars they made late at night the night before). I started talking to the guys who were tempering the chocolate in order to get in on that as well. Slight improvement. Though, when I told Manuel i wanted to learn about the rest of the process his response was to talk to Carlos (anyone picking up on the circular nature of my life these days). After some more chocolate wrapping some folks were heading back to sleep. Amanda told me I should go to sleep, I said it depended on what was happening next. When I asked Carlos he said more wrapping, I asked about timing and what was going on I was told that we'd probably be there until at least tuesday or wednesday, but that if i was cansada (tired), i could leave whenever i wanted. All very strange. Not sure if he ws just picking up on my frustration or what. Anyway, I said I'm fine, I just want to learn the whole process, so he said tomorrow I could go "down below" with Pancho (in the green shirt) and Cristian and Hiram to roast the cacao. I took the opportunity to tell Carlos that I would have to be back in quito by thursday though (for the beach of course)

Spent the next day roasting cacao . . .

here the guys are putting the roasted cacao on to the table to cool

Pancho (Comando, Francisco, so many names . . .) breaking up the cacao some before we put it into the machine that breaks it up more and theoretically separates out the shells from the cacao beans

the machine (with us pushing the cacao through it)

cacao (in the machine)

remember i said the machine "theoretically" separates the parts. but, not so much. so after a few passes through the machine, the cacao refuse still gets sifted through and then we pick through the end result by had to get rid of as much casing as possible.
me and Comando, taking a warming break.


It ain't a pretty job (or a clean one). Here's us at the end of the afternoon.


and my mask

After dinner that night we went to "the" disco in town.

it had spinning multi-colored lights

a tiki bar

a pool table

and a bouncer.

(i actually saw him turn away a 10ish year old boy, though a 12ish looking guy got in.) shortly thereafter, the bar wound up packed solid full of pairs of 15-17 year olds. crazy, totally surreal.

of course, after a bunch of beer, and dancing (chino actually asked me to dance and we had a blast), we actually went back to making more chocolate. really this place is nuts!!!

Tena, Tena, Tena, Tena

Forgot to mention how at the bus terminal all the ticket sales people are just constantly yelling out the names of the towns to which their busses go. So, as you're sitting there, for say, 2 1/2 hours waiting to go to Tena, you hear the call "Tena, Tena, Tena, Tena, Tena" at least a hundred times. Plus, there's "Ambato, Ambato, Ambato, Ambato" and "Banhos, Banhos, Banhos." Eva and I almost decided to go somewhere else while we were waiting since some of those yellers are so damn insistant!

Anyway, back to Tena, where I spent the afternoon walking through town until I found myself at the Parque Amazonica. It was $2 to get in, so I almost didn't go (that's pretty steep by Ecuadorian standards, especially in Tena), but I had a bunch of hours to kill and nothing to do, so I figured why not. After about 20 minutes wandering around, I passed a group of kids. One of them (Denise, the second from the left) called out to me "Senhora, Senhora, wait, wait. Do you know this park? Can you help us? Can we walk with you?" I told her I didn't know it, but that they could walk with me. They were apparently on a school assignment to collect different plants and put together some kind of presentation. I hung out with this little crowd for a bit



and then we were joined by three others.

(me, Sharol, Alexandra, Denise, Cristian, Andreina, Jennifer - with the leaf infront of her face - Andres, and Rubi)
So, I spent the afternoon running around the park with a bunch of 10-12 year olds and had a blast. They were constantly joking around with each other and trying to hold my hand (there were actually a few near battles over that). After a few hours in the park we headed out to share a Coke (and a smile - okay, couldn't resist). Then everyone but Denise and Alexandra left and we hung out a bit longer. Finally, I walked with Denise to the place her mom works (a place for making telephone calls). We all chatted for a while and then I left to head back up the hill to meet up with Edison for dinner. We then walked all the way back down to the river, across from the park for a pizza, and then I headed back to Carlos' place. He showed up about an hour later. We chatted for a bit and headed to bead so we could be ready for the taxi to pick us up at 8 to get the cacao loaded up and head to Salinas.


So here are the guys loading up 11 125 lb bags (and 1 65 lb bag) of cacao along with all our crap and 6 people including the driver into an extended cab pickup to drive 8 hours to Salinas. YAY!!

And here's what about half of the drive to Salinas looked like. Let me tell you how much fun that ride was.

Can you all even imagine roads being open to traffic looking like this??
And to make matters worse, the whole way there everyone was speaking in a mix of spanish and kichua so i couldn't understand much of what was going on around me, and, this great air freshener that you see above smelled like a urinal cake. Mix that with the ever present dust from those great roads, and just enough b.o. and you have a fanatastic ride.

We stopped in Ambato for lunch sometime around 3 and nothing much was open so we wound up at a chicken place where I had a palid version of a salad and bad fries for lunch (for 75 cents).

There were, however, some really interesting things along the way, like a town where every store sold jeans (very strange, though on the way back to Quito a week later I also passed through a town where basically every store sold ice cream. it's all a bit odd).

Here there were people packing produce along the side of the road (here it's carrots)

This whole family in partially traditional garb speeding past us on a motorbike.

And if I could only remember the damn name of this awesome snow capped mountain . . .


obviously we were getting pretty high (here, we're above the clouds). Salinas is at 3500 meters above sea level.

We finally arrived in Salinas (this is the central square,

but you wouldn't have known that cuz it was pitch black when we arrived sometime around 7:30). Also, nothing was open so we were at this french fry/burger place for dinner (here they sell these fry dishes that are essentially fries with some form of fried meat on top, usually some kind of hot dog or sausage. it's really popular. ) so, needless to say, i had my second meal of fries for the day. fabulous!! oh yeah, and i bought a tube of cookies to suppliment (the most substantive junk food I could find at the telephone place, the only other open place on the square).

I also discovered that after all that, we were still heading off to work, not so sleep. So, after "food" and dropping our stuff off at the lodging house . . .
(the common room)

(one of the two rooms where all 9 of us stayed, with one nasty bathroom)

we headed off to the fabrica, the chocolate factory to prep the molds and fold the packaging for the chocolate bars.


Finally went back to go to sleep at about midnight. At about 2 in the morning there was lots of commotion and people all getting dressed. Of course nobody told me anything, and finally I got out of bed to ask what the hell was going on. I was told people were going to work, but I could stay and rest. At least I finally figured out that not everyone was going to the fabrica so it wasn't just that they were letting me off the hook.

Anyway, I think that's enough for now. I know there is still basically another week of updating, but it's gonna take a few : )

go back to Tena

I've uploaded the pics. Will update the narrative with the pics for the rest of my time in Tena and Salinas.

back in Quito

And, compared with Salinas, I feel like I'm back in the developed world. Sorry to have been so out of touch. Encountering internet in Salinas is quite an adventure. It allegedly exists in at least two places - the actual internet spot (which of course is never open when it's supposed to be and, didn't have internet one of the two times I encountered it open), and the hotel (where it was not working either of the two times I checked). I did manage to get free internet for a few minutes from the nice man who owns the cafe/pizza shop across the street from the hotel and once a the internet spot. Needless to say, no blog activity. Now I am back at the apartment with Henry and Jazz, have eaten a nice dinner of pizza loaded with fresh veggies and salad, and I am totally exhausted. So, I'm off to bed before I fall on my face and you'll have to wait til tomorrow for the chocolate-making adventures of Salinas. I promise I will eventually catch up with the past 6 days and the pics from the past week.

Not quite where I expected to be

Here in Tena, that is. So, I know, again, this will so surprise everyone, but after about two hours frantically trying to reach Carlos on Monday morning to see if it was okay for me to come to Tena on Tuesday with Cesar and Eva instead of Monday, he finally answered the phone (actually one of them - I´d been calling two back and forth, left one message, and sent a couple of emails starting the night before). He answers, I tell him it´s me, he´s like "hi". I ask if he´s gotten any of my messages, he says yes, and nothing more. I launch into an explanation of why I want to come tomorrow with those guys (more safe, I have no phone, etc.) and he´s like "fine." I really have to get out of this whole American idea of thinking things that are arranged are actually arranged or that anyone expects anything. Yeah, I know. Henry had already left that morning not knowing if I was staying or going, so after his meeting he came back and we had some snacks and updated our blogs : ) (that´s why you all got all those pictures). We headed out to meet his friend Emilia for lunch at that same restaurant, Indochine. She also brought her friend Oliver. We had another decent enough meal and Emi got to meet Octavio (she went to culinary school and is just back in the country and looking for work, so this was very good - I´ve only been here a week, but I´m a damn connected networker already!!) I met Octavio´s business partner and chatted with him for a while - he´s half Vietnamese and half Irish and grew up mostly in Virginia in the DC area. Have I mentioned in the last day or two how ridiculously small the world is here?? After lunch we went with Emi to get a tattoo (for her that is, not for anyone else). And then Henry went off to class so Oli, Emi, and I went to the indigenous market in town where we ran into Oli´s business partner so he ditched and I bought a bag cuz the one I´d borrowed from Henry that day was bleeding on my shirt : ( Then Emi and I went food shopping (including grabbing chocolate from Kallari, so Emi also got to meet them and may come help in the kitchen there - I told you, I´m good!!) so we could cook dinner and Jazz and Henry would come by later. Went to Emi´s place - she lives with her dad right now and Jazz designed the house, and it is really incredible. So many walls of glass, I really want to see it during the day. So we cooked and baked (Grandpa Lester´s lace cookies with Kallari chocolate on top - a test run for the cafe) and what was supposed to be a quinoa risotto, but just became quinoa because it got insanely late, and some roasted root veggies, and some sauteed ones to go with the quinoa, which we topped with a balsamic glaze and walnuts. Those guys also had steak : ) Finally got home around 12:30 and went to bed!! Next morning got up early cuz was supposed to meet Eva and Cesar at 8:30 to bus to Tena at 9. Of course, they were late, but only a bit and instead we spent 2 1/2 hours waiting for these chicks from the UK who apparently got locked out of their hostel or something. Thankfully, they turned out to be really cool or the bus ride would have been a bit unpleasant. Got on an 11:00 bus (on the road to Tena) and were making good time until . . . . can you guess Kim???? Roadblock! Construction in the middle of a bridge. At least, unlike in Guatemala, they were actually doing work!! Go figure!! But, we still had guys show up with snacks and drinks to sell (they materialize out of the ether I swear!! and that turned out to be good since we were all a little chompy as my brother would say, so the homemade potato chips and pocorn were a nice diversion during the 30 minutes that we waited (much better than the return from Chichi, no?)(my favorite part of the roadblock. anyone notice anything wrong with this picture - granted understanding a little spanish will be helpful . . . ) made it the rest of the way without any other complications. Arriving in Tena Even called Carlos with Cesar´s phone to tell him I was arriving, and he even answered on just the second call!! We all went to a restaurant when we arrived (around 4:15) and I called Carlos again to tell him where to get me. We had lunch, crappy service (I mean really, I´m pretty flexible, but a utensil is really helpful with a fried egg and rice, dontcha think??). Plus when I tried to pay for a $2.50 meal with a $5, and the woman didn´t have change, while I was trying to see if I had something smaller the bitchy waitress was like "dos (2)" yeah, thanks honey, I´m definitely that stupid and didn´t just order my meal from you in Spanish or anything (including a whole conversation about something I might eat that would actually be vegetarian). Anyway, Edison came to get me. We hung out for a bit to say bye to Cesar who´d gone off to get provisions for their trip (the rest of the folks were heading into the rainforest for a few days) and then we went to the Kallari office, where Carlos and the rest were in the midst of an all day meeting. He explained a bit about me, they seem to really be banking on my truffle-making experience - YIKES - have really only done that a few times, and never at altitude. gonna get interesting around here soon. I may get run out of Ecuador in a shower of poorly set truffles!! Then Edison took me to Carlos´place - (Carlos' home and the view from his porch - of our taxi) where I am staying and we waited for Carlos to return. Had no idea how long he´d be or what else I could do since I didn´t want to miss him and still had no phone. Finally, around 7:30 he came home. Told me - no way - that he had to go back to Quito the next day, so we´d be heading to Salinas only on Thursday. He was at least apologetic and also asked me about how things were going in Quito. I do like him, he´s just hard to figure out. Figured out that Edison would take me with him on Wednesday, to bag the dried and fermented chocolate. Also looked at some chocolate cookbooks - Carlos wanted to show me one of the good ones they have. After that, Carlos disappeared, Edison left, and I was left totally confused (ma nish tana ha laylah hazeh, mikol haleylot? right? what makes tonight different from all other nights??) about 20 minutes later, Carlos reemerged and said something about making dinner. I seized the opportunity to ask him every question I could think of. when was he leaving and coming back? when were we leaving? how long would we be in salinas? how about a key? the phone? anything else?? It seems you really have to jump on any chance for information, so I keep trying. Then he said he´d be back in a minute and went and bought us dinner from a little spot across the street. Tilapia cooked wrapped in a leaf and some yuca and some onion and tomato salad. Said it was typical of here and hoped I´d like it. So, we ate and chatted a bit. He went off to see his sister and neice and I wrote in my journal. Eventually he came back and decided to sit and rest a bit out on the porch with me, so we talked some more about family, my job, Kallari. I was initially thinking some of all this confusion was that he is young. But, apparently, he´s 30, so not so much. Anyway, I went to bed, he got ready, and headed out for a 2am bus to Quito. Got up this morning (after being awakened around 3:15 by loud music, lots of people walking around and what sounded like someone on the porch - finally got back to sleep after that). Discovered there was no water in the sink in the kitchen. No water in the sink in the bathroom - which, by the way is outside the house of course, a little concrete cabin with a sink, toilet and shower head all in about 4 sq. ft - and the only place with some water was a hose. so, I went back, grabbed my shampoo and soap and propped the hose over the door in the bathroom and proceeded to attempt to shower with the small trickle coming out of the hose. Henry, are you sure you want to visit me when I´m here?? After that adventure, I got dressed and headed out to meet Edison at a restaurant on the main strip. Got in a little early so stopped to email mom and tell her I had arrived in one piece. Had some breakfast with Edison, added minutes to the phone Carlos finally gave me, bought some water and grabbed a cab to the cacao production area and picked up Louis along the way (Another Kallari employee). So, the three of us bagged cacao into 125 lb bags. I think they were a little surprised when I said I wanted to help not just watch. It was pretty cool and the smell is amazing, sort of chocolately, sort of earthy, hard to describe. But I loved it. Edison explained some more of the storage, drying, and fermenting process to me, (where the cacao is fermented, the beans spend a few days fermenting in the top boxes, then they are dropped to the next level, then the next) (where the cacao is dried after it is fermented; it drops to here from the bottom level of the wooden boxes) and then (after a lot of sweeping up) we started walking back to town. About halfway we stopped to hail the bus. Got off the bus at the central market so I could see all the cool produce. (medicinal herbs) We wound up passing a place where they were also bagging cacao. A middle man operation. We went in (were invited) and Edison grabbed a few beans, even to my novice eyes it was clear how much better quality the beans from Kallari are. That was pretty cool. After the market, Edison left me and I´ve been internetting since then (of course an adventure to actually find Skype to talk to my mom - one woman told me they had it and after I checked multiple computers, she was like, what is that thing you´re talking about. Que Bueno!) So, that´s my story for now. Gonna wander a bit then probably meet back up wtih Edison for dinner and maybe to go to a bar later. Of to Salinas at 8 tomorrow morning. Not sure when I´ll be able to add the pictures for these few days, so check back. I will have internet in Salinas (where I´ll probably be for 8 days making chocolate). will be in touch . . . .

Look back at yesterday

Hey all, promise to update today later (am obviously not on a bus to Tena at the moment, more on that), but in the meantime check back on the last blog. I added some text, loads of pics, and think the formatting should be right now.