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Well folks, we finally arrived at our destination. You know, the so called reason for traveling in South America: Buenos Aires, the capital city of Argentina. The city is expansive and culturally inundated with Italian style food and a mix of French and Spanish style architecture. The "New York of South America" truly exists, and it makes me wonder if all major metropolitan cities have a similar potential, regardless of language and culture. Cities are cities wherever one may end up, and the excitement is in the idiosyncrasies of daily life. This is why I am thankful to be with a Porteño (from Buenos Aires) family.
Andy and I arrived a little over a week ago from Salta, in the north of Argentina. We were received by Andy's grandmother's cousin's son, Emi (I'll leave it to Andy to tell the story of their relationship), and taken back to his apartment. For the last week we have had nothing but the comforts of home. Andy's family has taken excellent care of us and shown us around the city and a bit of the outskirt provincial area.
On a daily basis, we have been looking for things do get us out of the house. I found a life saving yoga class that is making me feel great after nearly 6 months of no routine exercise, and Andy is training for a 10k race at the end of the month. Otherwise, we have found some free Spanish classes and have plans to go out on the town with the cousins.
---FAST FORWARD TO AUGUST 31, 2009---
Now we are at the end of our stay in Buenos Aires and I never got around to posting the above post. I continued with my yoga classes and turned into work-out barbie, and Andy trained for the 10k, which he ran today. His time was 44.12 minutes and ran under the name of ¨Manuel Francisco Lopez¨because registration was closed to Emi´s (Andy´s cousin) company. Manuel ran a pretty good time for not having shown up, eh?
Our lives were a little lazy in Buenos Aires, but we enjoyed it all the while. We went to some great museums, took a few more weekend outings to the province with the family, and went out on the town a few nights til 5 am. The clubs don´t even open til 2, and dinner doesn´t start til 10 or 12 on the weekends. Coffee at 1 am? Sure.
We took our free Spanish classes that ended up being a pilot program for a new ´ex-pat´ program for the ever increasing number of ex pats in Buenos Aires. The class was great and focused on ´Lunfardo´ (the Porteño slang), the vos form that replaces the tú form in Argentina, hand gestures that speak for themselves, and Porteño history and culture. You won´t believe the dirty insults and foul words I learned, hah! No me rompe las bolas, ¿eh?
Now that we are used to the late lifestyle, we are leaving to work on early rising farms. Tomorrow we both leave for El Bolsón in the South (22 hours by bus). We are going to work on separate farms that happen to be hardly 30 miles away from each other. The personal space is much needed for the both of us and we look forward to seeing another side of Argentina. The government and money is centralized in Buenos Aires, so I am interested to see what the other regions are like. So far, Argentina has been the most comfortable place to live in terms of public services and amenities. Emi and his girlfriend Veronica were so nice to put us up for an entire month, as well as his entire family to take us out and treat us like their own. Ain´t nothin´ like Argentine hospitality. I do believe they can claim real Southern hospitality as their own (sorry Texas).
Also, Emi introduced me to the U.S. 1980´s tv series ¨V¨. Strange discovery while in Argentina, but it is probably the best series I´ve ever seen, and I don´t usually watch tv. Anyone know it? Was it popular in the states?
I don´t know about you, but I´m ready to come home.
Love you all,
Lauren
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Sucre: Basurero
As Lauren had promised, the thing you had been waiting so eagerly for... the DUMP, in Spanish, basurero. Apparently, landfill tourism isn't very popular (I'm not sure why), but it was one of our most memorable tours so far. Thanks to our friend Brendan Mulligan, whom we met in Sucre through our Spanish School, we had the opportunity to see something that even locals were not aware of.
Brendan is from Canada and completed his masters in hydro-geology. He is spearheading two landfill projects in Bolivia, one in El Alto (above La Paz), and the other in Sucre, where we visited. His objective is to mediate between Canadian students and Bolivian students to address the problems of leachate (water runoff) in both these sites. The work of a hydro-geologist overlaps with landfills in many regards: location of landfill in relation to water systems, type of soil/rock the landfill is placed on, and how to manage the leachate. Ideally a landfill is placed on bedrock that captures the leachate, if this is not possible, a protective liner must be used. Leachate can escape the bedrock through cracks, for which a hydro-geologist may test the surrounding soil.
We first met Brendan at his University and were suprisingly also met by the owner of the garbage company, the operations director of the landfill, and a master's student under Brenden's project. We were given a presentation by the director about the state of garbage in Sucre and how the company operates to serve the community. From the presentation and simple questions that we could ask in Spanish, we quickly learned that Sucre did not have a recycling program. This was shocking to us, only because our favorite park was equiped with three different recepticals: one for paper, one for plastic, and one for organics. Though these recepticals were painted different colors and had decent signage, there was no regular trash receptical aside from the recylce recepticals (first bad sign), which made the contents inside indistinguishable: mixed waste. The owner of the garbage company explained to us that the city merely put these containers in the park without consenting the garbage company, with whom they contract. Brendan had two theories about the matter: #1 The City merely wanted to look progressive under the false pretenses of having a recycling program, or #2 Some person from the City was naive and thought that if you simply have the containers, then you have recycling, giving no foresight to the fact there there needs to be a system in place to haul the segregated materials, not to mention a facility to process them, of which there were neither. We left the University with Brendan and the owner of the landfill to begin our tour.
The landfill was a drive into the outer-rim of the city. The suburbs are not like the suburbs of the States with large tract homes. They are rather shanty towns. The further you get from the city, the poorer the communities. We approached the entrance of the landfill, and digging through some exposed trash was a pack of dogs. As we entered the site, dogs were drinking from the toxic brown water that was the reason for our visit.
Walking the site, we quickly observed the purpose for Brendan's project. There were several exposed runoff locations that led into a large lagoon of black water with trash floating atop. The landfill was designed on the slope of a large hill, so that all rainwater from the top passes right through the landfill into this holding pond. A concrete wall was setup to dam the material, however, the wall was perferated to let the water escape, as the water pressure in the wet season is enough to break the wall down without drainage. We were encouraged to take pictures, which I have posted on the photobucket website www.photobucket.com/endlesswinter (under the Bolivia tab).
All in all, this was a wonderful experience and we have to thank our newfound-friend Brendan. We were honored to have recieved a presentation and tour from the official sources of Sucre's waste community. I asked myself at first, why would such professionals in the field take the time for two travelling B.A. grads as Lauren and I? The reason is that so little resources are available to make drastic changes. Any exposure possible to the situation opens possibilities to outside assistance. I explained to them my background in the waste management field, and Brendan explained to me that there are great the opportunities to do research in Bolivia, as the Country's universities and private sectors are usually unable to fund such undertakings. I hope to go back to school for my master's in the next couple of years. My visa to Bolivia lasts another 5 years... so who knows, maybe I will take Brendan up on his offer and use his expertise to guide me on a research project. The owner of the garbage company will have planted a good seed.
~Andy
Brendan is from Canada and completed his masters in hydro-geology. He is spearheading two landfill projects in Bolivia, one in El Alto (above La Paz), and the other in Sucre, where we visited. His objective is to mediate between Canadian students and Bolivian students to address the problems of leachate (water runoff) in both these sites. The work of a hydro-geologist overlaps with landfills in many regards: location of landfill in relation to water systems, type of soil/rock the landfill is placed on, and how to manage the leachate. Ideally a landfill is placed on bedrock that captures the leachate, if this is not possible, a protective liner must be used. Leachate can escape the bedrock through cracks, for which a hydro-geologist may test the surrounding soil.
We first met Brendan at his University and were suprisingly also met by the owner of the garbage company, the operations director of the landfill, and a master's student under Brenden's project. We were given a presentation by the director about the state of garbage in Sucre and how the company operates to serve the community. From the presentation and simple questions that we could ask in Spanish, we quickly learned that Sucre did not have a recycling program. This was shocking to us, only because our favorite park was equiped with three different recepticals: one for paper, one for plastic, and one for organics. Though these recepticals were painted different colors and had decent signage, there was no regular trash receptical aside from the recylce recepticals (first bad sign), which made the contents inside indistinguishable: mixed waste. The owner of the garbage company explained to us that the city merely put these containers in the park without consenting the garbage company, with whom they contract. Brendan had two theories about the matter: #1 The City merely wanted to look progressive under the false pretenses of having a recycling program, or #2 Some person from the City was naive and thought that if you simply have the containers, then you have recycling, giving no foresight to the fact there there needs to be a system in place to haul the segregated materials, not to mention a facility to process them, of which there were neither. We left the University with Brendan and the owner of the landfill to begin our tour.
The landfill was a drive into the outer-rim of the city. The suburbs are not like the suburbs of the States with large tract homes. They are rather shanty towns. The further you get from the city, the poorer the communities. We approached the entrance of the landfill, and digging through some exposed trash was a pack of dogs. As we entered the site, dogs were drinking from the toxic brown water that was the reason for our visit.
Walking the site, we quickly observed the purpose for Brendan's project. There were several exposed runoff locations that led into a large lagoon of black water with trash floating atop. The landfill was designed on the slope of a large hill, so that all rainwater from the top passes right through the landfill into this holding pond. A concrete wall was setup to dam the material, however, the wall was perferated to let the water escape, as the water pressure in the wet season is enough to break the wall down without drainage. We were encouraged to take pictures, which I have posted on the photobucket website www.photobucket.com/endlesswinter (under the Bolivia tab).
All in all, this was a wonderful experience and we have to thank our newfound-friend Brendan. We were honored to have recieved a presentation and tour from the official sources of Sucre's waste community. I asked myself at first, why would such professionals in the field take the time for two travelling B.A. grads as Lauren and I? The reason is that so little resources are available to make drastic changes. Any exposure possible to the situation opens possibilities to outside assistance. I explained to them my background in the waste management field, and Brendan explained to me that there are great the opportunities to do research in Bolivia, as the Country's universities and private sectors are usually unable to fund such undertakings. I hope to go back to school for my master's in the next couple of years. My visa to Bolivia lasts another 5 years... so who knows, maybe I will take Brendan up on his offer and use his expertise to guide me on a research project. The owner of the garbage company will have planted a good seed.
~Andy
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Trash Tourism, Riots and a Long Bus to Argentina
Of course ¨trash tourism¨ is a compelling title, but you will have to be patient and wait for Andy to post on the landfill we visited in Sucre. It is his industry after all. Instead I will just mention the visit to Sucre´s landfill in passing response to Brendon´s comment, and move on.
Here is the raving review of Sucre, the real capital of Bolivia.
Sucre has been the only city so far to which Andy and I have deemed a city that we could live in. The weather is mild, the streets are clean (though superficially, as Andy will explain), there are urban parks, white colonial buildings and nice people. Unfortunately the city is also accustomed to violent rivalry with La Paz for the title of capital, as well as other spurts of uprising. We witnessed a riot between campesinos (rural farmers) and police directly infront of our Spanish school concerning land rights. The campesinos threw rocks, breaking the windows of our building and the neighboring official buildings. The police responded with rubber bullets and tear gas in defense. A little gas leaked into our school, so we shut ourselves in the kitchen until it passed after about 20 minutes. Strangely enough, everyone was more annoyed than afraid. Though we were directly infront of the line of rocks and gas, nothing appeared to be threatening because we were clearly exempt from the fight.
The issue at hand was land rights, though nobody seemed to have a very clear explanation of exactly what land was in question. The riots were predicted to stop when a ´solution´ was met. Therefore, the riot was between two parties, we were safe in a buliding, and the uprising didn´t seem to make much of an impact on the city. If you recall the recent Berkeley tree sitters, they were peacefull and still made it into the NYTIMES . This riot hardly made people stop and look. I suppose after the several students were killed in the capital rivalry protests about 2 years ago, land isn´t a stop and stare issue. Note: this was the only english news I could find on the issue with a quick search. It says 1 student was killed, but I have heard that 3 were. It is a huge issue for the people of Sucre and one of the numerous reasons they hate Evo, for he never addressed the killings publically. No further opinions because as I said, I never found out the details of the protest. These are rather my observations about the impact of recurring violent protest in a city. It seems to have lost effect. Most people we spoke to commented on the aspect of racism - campesinos, or the indigenous population, vs. the urban police or law makers. We also heard comments like ¨pobre policia¨. Poor police man, instead of poor campesino. No sé.
Besides the riot, which really had no effect on us whatesoever so don´t worry, Sucre gave us a much needed rest. After the isolation of the farm, Andy and I were thankful to meet some young people, including Brendon, a Canadian hydro-geologist that was good enough to take us on a tour of the landfill, and Luli and Hernan, from whom we rented our apartment. Luli and Hernan took us to see some amazing Bolivian music, and invited us over for tea and snacks. They were so nice to us. They also had a cockerspaniel named Spock, excuse me, ¨eMr. eSpock¨, named after startrek, that delighted us with his presence. We took more Spanish classes, studied all the time, and generally did nothing much but enjoy having a well lit place of our own. When I come back to South America, I will certainly go back to Sucre for the nice people, young population, great weather and interesting political situation. Don´t let the riot story scare you from visiting.
Now we are in Argentina after about 24 hours of busses and taxis. The border was easy and beautiful, and the driving is agressive, but not towards pedestrians like in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. Get ready for the best part... GAS HEATED SHOWERS! We had our first one for about 5 and a half months in our hostal today. Let me tell you, those electric showers just don´t do it. The advertisement for ´hot water´in hostals started to loose meaning with electric showers, but meaning has returned and it is such a luxury. I have yet to make many observations except that Argentina has more money in cirulation, and this is apparent on the streets and in the city organization. However, so far we have only seen a bit of Salta, which is in the north. Tomorrow we take an 18 hour bus to Buenos Aires to stay with Andy´s cousins for about a month. Finally we are reaching the destination that has been our excuse for travel this whole time! We are quite excited to lay some roots for a month and maybe find some hostal work or volunteer jobs. I think I need to get to a gym as well. Too much greasy food on the road.
The Argentines seem to welcome us with any sort of help. They are quite friendly so far, but they speak extrememly fast and have more of a Spain accent which substitutes the c, s and z sounds for th. They also substitute the y and ll sounds for a ja sound. We are not used to this and it will take time.
By the way, we have flights home out of Uruguay for Oct 24!
Look forward to Andy´s post on waste management in Sucre.
Lauren
Here is the raving review of Sucre, the real capital of Bolivia.
Sucre has been the only city so far to which Andy and I have deemed a city that we could live in. The weather is mild, the streets are clean (though superficially, as Andy will explain), there are urban parks, white colonial buildings and nice people. Unfortunately the city is also accustomed to violent rivalry with La Paz for the title of capital, as well as other spurts of uprising. We witnessed a riot between campesinos (rural farmers) and police directly infront of our Spanish school concerning land rights. The campesinos threw rocks, breaking the windows of our building and the neighboring official buildings. The police responded with rubber bullets and tear gas in defense. A little gas leaked into our school, so we shut ourselves in the kitchen until it passed after about 20 minutes. Strangely enough, everyone was more annoyed than afraid. Though we were directly infront of the line of rocks and gas, nothing appeared to be threatening because we were clearly exempt from the fight.
The issue at hand was land rights, though nobody seemed to have a very clear explanation of exactly what land was in question. The riots were predicted to stop when a ´solution´ was met. Therefore, the riot was between two parties, we were safe in a buliding, and the uprising didn´t seem to make much of an impact on the city. If you recall the recent Berkeley tree sitters, they were peacefull and still made it into the NYTIMES . This riot hardly made people stop and look. I suppose after the several students were killed in the capital rivalry protests about 2 years ago, land isn´t a stop and stare issue. Note: this was the only english news I could find on the issue with a quick search. It says 1 student was killed, but I have heard that 3 were. It is a huge issue for the people of Sucre and one of the numerous reasons they hate Evo, for he never addressed the killings publically. No further opinions because as I said, I never found out the details of the protest. These are rather my observations about the impact of recurring violent protest in a city. It seems to have lost effect. Most people we spoke to commented on the aspect of racism - campesinos, or the indigenous population, vs. the urban police or law makers. We also heard comments like ¨pobre policia¨. Poor police man, instead of poor campesino. No sé.
Besides the riot, which really had no effect on us whatesoever so don´t worry, Sucre gave us a much needed rest. After the isolation of the farm, Andy and I were thankful to meet some young people, including Brendon, a Canadian hydro-geologist that was good enough to take us on a tour of the landfill, and Luli and Hernan, from whom we rented our apartment. Luli and Hernan took us to see some amazing Bolivian music, and invited us over for tea and snacks. They were so nice to us. They also had a cockerspaniel named Spock, excuse me, ¨eMr. eSpock¨, named after startrek, that delighted us with his presence. We took more Spanish classes, studied all the time, and generally did nothing much but enjoy having a well lit place of our own. When I come back to South America, I will certainly go back to Sucre for the nice people, young population, great weather and interesting political situation. Don´t let the riot story scare you from visiting.
Now we are in Argentina after about 24 hours of busses and taxis. The border was easy and beautiful, and the driving is agressive, but not towards pedestrians like in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. Get ready for the best part... GAS HEATED SHOWERS! We had our first one for about 5 and a half months in our hostal today. Let me tell you, those electric showers just don´t do it. The advertisement for ´hot water´in hostals started to loose meaning with electric showers, but meaning has returned and it is such a luxury. I have yet to make many observations except that Argentina has more money in cirulation, and this is apparent on the streets and in the city organization. However, so far we have only seen a bit of Salta, which is in the north. Tomorrow we take an 18 hour bus to Buenos Aires to stay with Andy´s cousins for about a month. Finally we are reaching the destination that has been our excuse for travel this whole time! We are quite excited to lay some roots for a month and maybe find some hostal work or volunteer jobs. I think I need to get to a gym as well. Too much greasy food on the road.
The Argentines seem to welcome us with any sort of help. They are quite friendly so far, but they speak extrememly fast and have more of a Spain accent which substitutes the c, s and z sounds for th. They also substitute the y and ll sounds for a ja sound. We are not used to this and it will take time.
By the way, we have flights home out of Uruguay for Oct 24!
Look forward to Andy´s post on waste management in Sucre.
Lauren
Monday, July 13, 2009
Mia Wallace and Vincent Vega
When we were in Arequipa, Peru, we went out on the town a few times. One time we happened upon this bar that had a classic rock cover band. They played Doors covers, the Beatles, Pink floyd and all the goodies. The catch was that they were Peruvian... which was pretty ammusing as they sang in better english accents than I do. Andy and I couldn´t hold ourselves together and moved some tables around to dance. I don´t know if any of you have seen us dance, but we are damn good. This English guy to the left of the bar took notice and made best friends with us in about 2 seconds by buying us drinks. He then gave us one of the best compliments of our lives... ¨You dance just like Uma Therman and John Travolta in Pulp Fiction¨. And so we did... without all that gangster drama.
Yesterday we arrived in Sucre, the capital of Bolivia. Since Arequipa (6 or 7 weeks ago) we hadn´t gone out much because we got annoyed with gringo drunkards and expensive gringo bars. No sense in wasting money when we can take language classes. So upon our arrival to Sucre we decided we would treat ourselves for the night. We found a gringo bar that looked fun, and they just happened to be showing PULP FICTION for their night´s lounge movie screening! Let me play down our excitement by saying that we were extatic. And we watched Pulp Fiction with our hearts on our sleeves for a taste of home via a little sick-dark humor that Quentin Tarantino delivered to us with everything we were expecting. Nothing like American humor when you haven´t had it in 5 months. In terms of humor, we generally get along well with Scandanavians and Brits best. They watch a lot of American television in Scandanavia, which relays in a similar sense of humor. Yet regardless of the other English speakers at the film screening, Andy and I were laughing and crying the hardest. I hope I am writing to a few Pulp Fiction fans out there... you will understand our feelings of joy.
As I mentioned in the last post, I´m getting over the homesickness. We found an apartment to rent for 10 days while we are taking more Spanish classes in Sucre. Seems pretty nice, and really cheap ($35 per week for both of us). Nice to have a kitchen and the comforts of home. Sucre is a great city. Clean, safe and has plenty of parks to walk around. The weather is mild as well. The nights don´t even freeze! Seems kind of odd that we went from La Paz to the very south of Bolivia (Tarija), and now we are 12 hours north in central Bolivia, but this is how things work out. After Sucre we head to Argentina, and probably have to go through Tarija again. Oh well... we are used to the long bus rides and now have face masks to avoid bus-illnesses that we so often acquire post-bus ride. Note: there is major media sensationalism about the swine flu (¨la gripe porcina¨) down here and plenty of people are wearing face masks. I refuse to become part of the hype, but I am wearing the facemask on busses because I am so sick of getting sick after every ride. It worked out well this time and we are both feeling well.
Not much to report besides our excitement over American films. City living doesn´t provide as much material to write about, but I´ll try.
´Royale with Cheese´,
Mia and Vince
aka Uma and John
Yesterday we arrived in Sucre, the capital of Bolivia. Since Arequipa (6 or 7 weeks ago) we hadn´t gone out much because we got annoyed with gringo drunkards and expensive gringo bars. No sense in wasting money when we can take language classes. So upon our arrival to Sucre we decided we would treat ourselves for the night. We found a gringo bar that looked fun, and they just happened to be showing PULP FICTION for their night´s lounge movie screening! Let me play down our excitement by saying that we were extatic. And we watched Pulp Fiction with our hearts on our sleeves for a taste of home via a little sick-dark humor that Quentin Tarantino delivered to us with everything we were expecting. Nothing like American humor when you haven´t had it in 5 months. In terms of humor, we generally get along well with Scandanavians and Brits best. They watch a lot of American television in Scandanavia, which relays in a similar sense of humor. Yet regardless of the other English speakers at the film screening, Andy and I were laughing and crying the hardest. I hope I am writing to a few Pulp Fiction fans out there... you will understand our feelings of joy.
As I mentioned in the last post, I´m getting over the homesickness. We found an apartment to rent for 10 days while we are taking more Spanish classes in Sucre. Seems pretty nice, and really cheap ($35 per week for both of us). Nice to have a kitchen and the comforts of home. Sucre is a great city. Clean, safe and has plenty of parks to walk around. The weather is mild as well. The nights don´t even freeze! Seems kind of odd that we went from La Paz to the very south of Bolivia (Tarija), and now we are 12 hours north in central Bolivia, but this is how things work out. After Sucre we head to Argentina, and probably have to go through Tarija again. Oh well... we are used to the long bus rides and now have face masks to avoid bus-illnesses that we so often acquire post-bus ride. Note: there is major media sensationalism about the swine flu (¨la gripe porcina¨) down here and plenty of people are wearing face masks. I refuse to become part of the hype, but I am wearing the facemask on busses because I am so sick of getting sick after every ride. It worked out well this time and we are both feeling well.
Not much to report besides our excitement over American films. City living doesn´t provide as much material to write about, but I´ll try.
´Royale with Cheese´,
Mia and Vince
aka Uma and John
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Goodbye Farmer
We left the farm today after Rita begged us to stay. She was so nice, but so crazy. Pity is not a feeling of friendship, and that´s usually what I felt. John, in his usual morning hurricane, rushed off to some meeting and threw in a hug and a goodbye. Not sure if he actually said the words ¨thank you¨, but he implied it, I´m sure. After all, we cleared an entire field for him for next to nothing, then helped hang a ridiculously large greenhouse tarp (remember the tarp sewing for 7 hours a day incident?). I most enjoyed the other workers on the farm. Nila was a strong manager lady who bossed all the men around. I liked her... of course. They were sad to see us go.
We left feeling good this morning. We worked really hard, accomplished a great deal, enjoyed some beautiful sunset-moonrises and moonset-sunrises, and had a place of our own for three weeks. I went through a pretty intense period of homesick loneliness, which resulted in a lot of mental negativity, but I have worked through it via physical labor. We are in our 20th week, which means 5 months. This means that my perspective is no longer that of traveling without a timelimit. We have a timelimit now, and I must try to be present in the trip rather than obsessing over past times and what I will do when I return home. I´m not feeling so travel tired now, and I am ready to make some friends. Andy and I have a lot of fun together, but the isolation can drive us a little crazy.
Now we are heading up to the capital of Bolivia, Sucre. We hope to take another week of Spanish classes, check out the surrounding area for a second week, then head south to Argentina.
More to come later.
Appreciate the readership.
Lauren
We left feeling good this morning. We worked really hard, accomplished a great deal, enjoyed some beautiful sunset-moonrises and moonset-sunrises, and had a place of our own for three weeks. I went through a pretty intense period of homesick loneliness, which resulted in a lot of mental negativity, but I have worked through it via physical labor. We are in our 20th week, which means 5 months. This means that my perspective is no longer that of traveling without a timelimit. We have a timelimit now, and I must try to be present in the trip rather than obsessing over past times and what I will do when I return home. I´m not feeling so travel tired now, and I am ready to make some friends. Andy and I have a lot of fun together, but the isolation can drive us a little crazy.
Now we are heading up to the capital of Bolivia, Sucre. We hope to take another week of Spanish classes, check out the surrounding area for a second week, then head south to Argentina.
More to come later.
Appreciate the readership.
Lauren
Sunday, July 5, 2009
LumberJack and LumberJill
Sorry to disapoint with such a long delay. However, don´t miss the post below, as it is from La Paz and I just now posted it.
The day to day
We have just finished our second week in Tarija, 3 hours from the Argentine border. The town is set in a valley that reminds me a bit of California. The climate is moderate, and the area grows grapes. The landscape is desert with mountains in the far distance, and the farm is a slight walk from a river.
Don´t forget that we are in mid-winter. We start work a 7 am, and while the nights have averaged -4 C (24.8 F), 7 am is frosty. We eat a load of toast with homemade orange marmalade every morning at 8, work again from 9 to 12. Then we eat an enormous Bolivian lunch, work lethargically and over fed from 2 to 5, then study spanish and cook dinner. Tired by 8 and in bed by 9. Every day save Sunday.
I didn´t like Farmer John, the owner, much at first. He´s a Brit who has been in Bolivia for 30 years. Thus he has developed a very South American opinion of women as house-slaves. The first two days he had me sewing green house tarp material the ENTIRE day, while Andy did the physical labor. I got so annoyed at this and demanded that I do the same work as Andy. I am not good at sitting and sewing all day just because I´m a lady. Andy is better at sewing than I am anyway.
The physical labor that we were both now assigned was the job of lumberjack/jill. Over the course of two weeks we successfully cleared with machettes and hauled away the brush of a 60 by 30 meter plot of overgrowth. Now John has an entire new plot to farm, and we will probably be doing something similarly monotonous and hard for our last week here. We are pretty buff now.
Back to John, however, once I was doing the same work as Andy, John would address us as ¨Andy¨as if he was doing all the work. Let me give an example:
Lauren and Andy, in a field clearing land with machettes and an ax. About 10 trees have been fallen. Enter John, stage left, speaking in a British accent.
John: Ah Andy, the Ax- man!
Andy: Actually, Lauren chopped all those trees down with the ax yesterday...
John: Uh, nooooo... (chuckles and walks away)
Lauren rolls her eyes as John gives new orders for the day.
You can imagine the dynamic. However, things have improved and I have realized that John simply doesn´t know how to interact with women until they prove they know history or tennis. I think he respects me a bit more because I could explain the history of American independence and how a tie-breaker is played in tennis.
Rita, John´s wife is another story. We see John for about 10 minutes during breakfast, and sometimes for lunch. Other than that he is a work-aholic off the farm for an agricultural business association that specializes in niche market products such as asparagus, red chard, kholrobi, cherry tomatoes and so forth. Right now the farm is nearly out of production, and he only works on site on Saturdays. Still, he is never around and we deal with Rita for the most part. She is Romanian and likewise has been in Bolivia for 30 years. She is a nice but extremely neurotic house wife that does nothing but tell us stories of drama and her bad marriage and so forth. Good Spanish practice, but I´m about to bust a nerve with all of her inappropriate stories and particularities. Nevertheless, she takes car of us as if we were her kids and won´t even let us wash a dish. Therefore, we cook our own dinners to get some space, even though she would be happy to cook all of our meals for us. Another strange dynamic. Oh god, I´m turning into her with this gossip about her! Excuse me, but we have been isolation with her for two weeks.
The Farm
The farm is not organic. This is my main qualm. Unfortunately it is also non productive during th winter season so we hardly set food in the fields. John spot sprays with pesticides or fungicides when there are pest problems, he uses synthetic fertilizers on top of his compost, and he does not intercrop. He is a business farm, and has nothing to do with the organic community that the organization WWOOF (Willing Workers on Organic Farms - through which we find these work-trade farm gigs) is supposed to support. I believe he heard about the free labor through a grape growing friend and signed up as a WWOOF farm while ignoring the organic part.
WWOOF in the USA is fairly true to the goal of sustainable farming. WWOOF farms do not have to be certified organic, but in the States they are generally operating beyond official organic standards anyway. Organic certification is quite expensive and many small farmers cannot afford the paperwork. South American agriculture proposes yet another complication: the global export market. As an organic farmer in California, there is little economic incentive in terms of government subsidies, to grow sustainably. Most organic farmers convert for ideological reasons of health, soil preservation and opposition to the excessive use of petrolium and chemicals in industrial agriculture. However, there is a local niche market in which to sell these more expensive organic crops. In South America, there is no such local niche market. All organic certificatied products are for export. Thus for organic certification to be financially feasable for a South American farmer, they must be part of a large organic or fair trade association that will gaurantee sale of their crop in North America or Europe. These crops generally include cacoa (for chocolate) and coffee beans. Further, these farms are organic, but still monoculture and farm far from sustainably if taken into account the ammount of transportation required for export. Yet without these export organizations, it is simply not viable to farm alternatively in the South. One must produce crops for local markets, and this is done with chemicals.
The result for a program like WWOOF in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia is that the farmers are generally gringos that fall into several categories: they either have farms for their own hobby and consumption, thus operate ideologically but lack the financial means to operate on a level of sustainablilty attainable in the US. Otherwise, WWOOF farmers are not so organic production farms that hear about free labor through the gringo-farmer network. The third and most bizzare category to me is that of the ´agro-eco-tourism´organization that somehow finds it´s way onto WWOOF. I find these organizations somewhat exploitative and under the umbrella of rural development through tourism economy (i.e. bring money to the poor countryside via touristic amenities). A few of these organizations offer treks and a really ´natural´experience all inclusive with yoga, spa treatments and ´pay by the thousands to volunteer´ programs. This is not exactly the exchange of information about growing that I´m looking for. The situation is unfornunate for us because we are here to learn different forms of sustainable agriculture. It´s a pity that we can´t work with locals... they don´t have internet access and I doubt they would know what to do with a bunch of gringo transient-hippies traveling around doing work for free and looking for sustainable farming practices to take home. I suppose that´s why the organizations that set such programs up charge by the thousand. They take care of gringo needs while the gringos can pretend to help locals. We, on the other hand, don´t know what we´ve signed up for until we´ve arrived and started work. At least it is always a break in spending our budget, as we are basically living for free right now. And after nearly 5 months of hostals and street food, it is a luxury to have our own room, kitchen and bathroom. We are finally feeling healthy and without parasites (as I know is the most interesting subject of this blog). Further, we´ve got time to try different things out, which is what a lot of travelers don´t have.
Fear not, however, because we will be returning sooner than later. We are travel tired and will be WWOOFing and staying with Andy´s family for the remainer of our trip. We didn´t ¨tour¨much, but we did our fair share with Machu Pichu and we are done with being tourists (as much as we can be). We want to stay long term in our destinations from now on. My Dad and Lori will be visiting Oct 10-19, and we have decided to shorten the trip by a few weeks and leave about a week after them. We should be back before Halloween, but we have not yet booked the flight. See you all for the holidays, and HAPPY 4TH OF JULY! I hope everyone got their fair share of budwiser on the beach. What I wouldn´t give for a stars and stripes jump suit, some fireworks and a beer cozy out in the desert right about now... I miss you USA. More than the USA, I miss family and friends. Hope all is well. Send e mails and comments!
Love,
Lauren
The day to day
We have just finished our second week in Tarija, 3 hours from the Argentine border. The town is set in a valley that reminds me a bit of California. The climate is moderate, and the area grows grapes. The landscape is desert with mountains in the far distance, and the farm is a slight walk from a river.
Don´t forget that we are in mid-winter. We start work a 7 am, and while the nights have averaged -4 C (24.8 F), 7 am is frosty. We eat a load of toast with homemade orange marmalade every morning at 8, work again from 9 to 12. Then we eat an enormous Bolivian lunch, work lethargically and over fed from 2 to 5, then study spanish and cook dinner. Tired by 8 and in bed by 9. Every day save Sunday.
I didn´t like Farmer John, the owner, much at first. He´s a Brit who has been in Bolivia for 30 years. Thus he has developed a very South American opinion of women as house-slaves. The first two days he had me sewing green house tarp material the ENTIRE day, while Andy did the physical labor. I got so annoyed at this and demanded that I do the same work as Andy. I am not good at sitting and sewing all day just because I´m a lady. Andy is better at sewing than I am anyway.
The physical labor that we were both now assigned was the job of lumberjack/jill. Over the course of two weeks we successfully cleared with machettes and hauled away the brush of a 60 by 30 meter plot of overgrowth. Now John has an entire new plot to farm, and we will probably be doing something similarly monotonous and hard for our last week here. We are pretty buff now.
Back to John, however, once I was doing the same work as Andy, John would address us as ¨Andy¨as if he was doing all the work. Let me give an example:
Lauren and Andy, in a field clearing land with machettes and an ax. About 10 trees have been fallen. Enter John, stage left, speaking in a British accent.
John: Ah Andy, the Ax- man!
Andy: Actually, Lauren chopped all those trees down with the ax yesterday...
John: Uh, nooooo... (chuckles and walks away)
Lauren rolls her eyes as John gives new orders for the day.
You can imagine the dynamic. However, things have improved and I have realized that John simply doesn´t know how to interact with women until they prove they know history or tennis. I think he respects me a bit more because I could explain the history of American independence and how a tie-breaker is played in tennis.
Rita, John´s wife is another story. We see John for about 10 minutes during breakfast, and sometimes for lunch. Other than that he is a work-aholic off the farm for an agricultural business association that specializes in niche market products such as asparagus, red chard, kholrobi, cherry tomatoes and so forth. Right now the farm is nearly out of production, and he only works on site on Saturdays. Still, he is never around and we deal with Rita for the most part. She is Romanian and likewise has been in Bolivia for 30 years. She is a nice but extremely neurotic house wife that does nothing but tell us stories of drama and her bad marriage and so forth. Good Spanish practice, but I´m about to bust a nerve with all of her inappropriate stories and particularities. Nevertheless, she takes car of us as if we were her kids and won´t even let us wash a dish. Therefore, we cook our own dinners to get some space, even though she would be happy to cook all of our meals for us. Another strange dynamic. Oh god, I´m turning into her with this gossip about her! Excuse me, but we have been isolation with her for two weeks.
The Farm
The farm is not organic. This is my main qualm. Unfortunately it is also non productive during th winter season so we hardly set food in the fields. John spot sprays with pesticides or fungicides when there are pest problems, he uses synthetic fertilizers on top of his compost, and he does not intercrop. He is a business farm, and has nothing to do with the organic community that the organization WWOOF (Willing Workers on Organic Farms - through which we find these work-trade farm gigs) is supposed to support. I believe he heard about the free labor through a grape growing friend and signed up as a WWOOF farm while ignoring the organic part.
WWOOF in the USA is fairly true to the goal of sustainable farming. WWOOF farms do not have to be certified organic, but in the States they are generally operating beyond official organic standards anyway. Organic certification is quite expensive and many small farmers cannot afford the paperwork. South American agriculture proposes yet another complication: the global export market. As an organic farmer in California, there is little economic incentive in terms of government subsidies, to grow sustainably. Most organic farmers convert for ideological reasons of health, soil preservation and opposition to the excessive use of petrolium and chemicals in industrial agriculture. However, there is a local niche market in which to sell these more expensive organic crops. In South America, there is no such local niche market. All organic certificatied products are for export. Thus for organic certification to be financially feasable for a South American farmer, they must be part of a large organic or fair trade association that will gaurantee sale of their crop in North America or Europe. These crops generally include cacoa (for chocolate) and coffee beans. Further, these farms are organic, but still monoculture and farm far from sustainably if taken into account the ammount of transportation required for export. Yet without these export organizations, it is simply not viable to farm alternatively in the South. One must produce crops for local markets, and this is done with chemicals.
The result for a program like WWOOF in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia is that the farmers are generally gringos that fall into several categories: they either have farms for their own hobby and consumption, thus operate ideologically but lack the financial means to operate on a level of sustainablilty attainable in the US. Otherwise, WWOOF farmers are not so organic production farms that hear about free labor through the gringo-farmer network. The third and most bizzare category to me is that of the ´agro-eco-tourism´organization that somehow finds it´s way onto WWOOF. I find these organizations somewhat exploitative and under the umbrella of rural development through tourism economy (i.e. bring money to the poor countryside via touristic amenities). A few of these organizations offer treks and a really ´natural´experience all inclusive with yoga, spa treatments and ´pay by the thousands to volunteer´ programs. This is not exactly the exchange of information about growing that I´m looking for. The situation is unfornunate for us because we are here to learn different forms of sustainable agriculture. It´s a pity that we can´t work with locals... they don´t have internet access and I doubt they would know what to do with a bunch of gringo transient-hippies traveling around doing work for free and looking for sustainable farming practices to take home. I suppose that´s why the organizations that set such programs up charge by the thousand. They take care of gringo needs while the gringos can pretend to help locals. We, on the other hand, don´t know what we´ve signed up for until we´ve arrived and started work. At least it is always a break in spending our budget, as we are basically living for free right now. And after nearly 5 months of hostals and street food, it is a luxury to have our own room, kitchen and bathroom. We are finally feeling healthy and without parasites (as I know is the most interesting subject of this blog). Further, we´ve got time to try different things out, which is what a lot of travelers don´t have.
Fear not, however, because we will be returning sooner than later. We are travel tired and will be WWOOFing and staying with Andy´s family for the remainer of our trip. We didn´t ¨tour¨much, but we did our fair share with Machu Pichu and we are done with being tourists (as much as we can be). We want to stay long term in our destinations from now on. My Dad and Lori will be visiting Oct 10-19, and we have decided to shorten the trip by a few weeks and leave about a week after them. We should be back before Halloween, but we have not yet booked the flight. See you all for the holidays, and HAPPY 4TH OF JULY! I hope everyone got their fair share of budwiser on the beach. What I wouldn´t give for a stars and stripes jump suit, some fireworks and a beer cozy out in the desert right about now... I miss you USA. More than the USA, I miss family and friends. Hope all is well. Send e mails and comments!
Love,
Lauren
Friday, June 19, 2009
La Paz: Pollution, Protests and Pretty
I wrote this in La Paz and didn´t post. This is a litle over 2 weeks old...
We´ve been in La Paz, Bolivia for a week and a half taking Spanish lessons. There seems to be a protest every other day, though they are nothing serious like violent riots. Simply marching for indigenous rites, or protesting the loco bus drivers for overcharging. Today, the day we were planning to leave, there is a blockade getting out of the city. No vehicals may pass. We hear the Peru border and buses to Cuzco are blocked as well. Not too much of a problem considering the farm we had been in contact with for the last 2 months overbooked and can´t accept us at the moment. Luckily another farmer happens to be in La Paz right now, and we are about to meet with him. His farm seems more organized for production and sale, however he is near the Argentina border near the city of Tarija, which is a lot more south than we planned on being for the moment. We would like to see the jungle, but that would require a lot of backtracking after the farm. We´ll see how plans go. Tarija is a 20 hour bus ride. Brutal.
As far as the protesting goes, it is constant and seemingly inefficient. The reason for protest is generally ambiguous to me. This week we have seen signs about dirty elections, unemployment, bad economy and all calling for ¨a solution¨whatever that may be. Of course I am not involved in the news here, so it is hard for me to understand exactly what is going on. However the protesting seems very controlled. For example, in Peru there were blockades to Cuzco, which of course blockes tourists from Machu Pichu, the number one economy in the area. The government allowed 2 days of blockades before they threatened to bring in the army, and the protesters withdrew. The controversy was (and still is) over water rights, a major issue with privatization of previously nationalistic governments, in South America. No further opinions because like I said, I´m never quite sure what the protests are all about and how the government actually responds in the long run.
Pollution - self explanatory. Cities are dirty and give me asthma attacks. Haven´t been able to get over a cold since Cusco since we haven´t dropped below 7,000 feet in a while. It is cold and dry. Oh, we both have parasites again. I´m getting used to those little guys. I´m fine with them until they decide to have a birthing party and give me gas and/or worse. We got more thorough testing this time and have more serious meds. The problem is that once we get rid of them, we´ll just eat something nasty again. Can´t avoid food and water. Just getting used to being kind of sick.
Aside from the pollution, La Paz is beautiful and probably my favorite city so far. I really like the people here. The only issue we had was being accused of theft at this huge market in the sky (literally, on the highest road in La Paz - 4000 meters or so). Apparently La Paz has the biggest market in South America. Let me change that to black market. One can buy anything from used t-shirts to a car engine. We bought some nicer clothes so we don´t look like scum bags for Andy´s family in swanky Buenos Aires. I learned a lesson about traveling and buying traveling clothes... don´t do it. When traveling I wear what I always wear... jeans, t-shirt or a dress. Sporting stores like REI talk everyone in to these lame hiking pants that you will never want to wear in a city... we sent home about 8 lbs of stuff in Peru, including the hiking pants. Oh well. Lessons learned.
One last thing about La Paz... most of the gringo tourists in their 20´s are looking for cocaine in Bolivia. There are even secret cocaine bars that cater to this demand. The Bolivianos know near to nothing of this cocaine use, as the entire industry is for the US and Europe. Rather, Bolivians chew coca or drink coca tea. The coca leaf is legal and chewed as a subtle stimulant by the campasinos (rural farmers). It is less stimulating than coffee or black tea, and helps with altitude sickness, stomach problems, works as an anesthetic and has other medical uses. It is far from cocaine, but the US and UN have implemented coca irradication policies which terrorize the coca farmers with areal sprays and illegalization in parts of south america. Obviously, the problem is the demand for cocaine, and not the growth of coca leaves for chewing and cultural rituals. The punishment is on the wrong end in my opinion. I wonder if all these white kids would want cocaine if they visited a production ´lab´out in the countryside somehwere, where it takes a whole room of leaves to produce a gram out of cocaine and the workers´ hands and feet degrade from mushing the leaves with acids and chemicals to prep the leaves for refining? Coke doesn´t seem so cheap then... (about $20 USD per gram in La Paz, as I found out from asking some people in our hostal).
Sorry, never took a picture of La Paz. We need to get better at the piture taking thing.
We´ve been in La Paz, Bolivia for a week and a half taking Spanish lessons. There seems to be a protest every other day, though they are nothing serious like violent riots. Simply marching for indigenous rites, or protesting the loco bus drivers for overcharging. Today, the day we were planning to leave, there is a blockade getting out of the city. No vehicals may pass. We hear the Peru border and buses to Cuzco are blocked as well. Not too much of a problem considering the farm we had been in contact with for the last 2 months overbooked and can´t accept us at the moment. Luckily another farmer happens to be in La Paz right now, and we are about to meet with him. His farm seems more organized for production and sale, however he is near the Argentina border near the city of Tarija, which is a lot more south than we planned on being for the moment. We would like to see the jungle, but that would require a lot of backtracking after the farm. We´ll see how plans go. Tarija is a 20 hour bus ride. Brutal.
As far as the protesting goes, it is constant and seemingly inefficient. The reason for protest is generally ambiguous to me. This week we have seen signs about dirty elections, unemployment, bad economy and all calling for ¨a solution¨whatever that may be. Of course I am not involved in the news here, so it is hard for me to understand exactly what is going on. However the protesting seems very controlled. For example, in Peru there were blockades to Cuzco, which of course blockes tourists from Machu Pichu, the number one economy in the area. The government allowed 2 days of blockades before they threatened to bring in the army, and the protesters withdrew. The controversy was (and still is) over water rights, a major issue with privatization of previously nationalistic governments, in South America. No further opinions because like I said, I´m never quite sure what the protests are all about and how the government actually responds in the long run.
Pollution - self explanatory. Cities are dirty and give me asthma attacks. Haven´t been able to get over a cold since Cusco since we haven´t dropped below 7,000 feet in a while. It is cold and dry. Oh, we both have parasites again. I´m getting used to those little guys. I´m fine with them until they decide to have a birthing party and give me gas and/or worse. We got more thorough testing this time and have more serious meds. The problem is that once we get rid of them, we´ll just eat something nasty again. Can´t avoid food and water. Just getting used to being kind of sick.
Aside from the pollution, La Paz is beautiful and probably my favorite city so far. I really like the people here. The only issue we had was being accused of theft at this huge market in the sky (literally, on the highest road in La Paz - 4000 meters or so). Apparently La Paz has the biggest market in South America. Let me change that to black market. One can buy anything from used t-shirts to a car engine. We bought some nicer clothes so we don´t look like scum bags for Andy´s family in swanky Buenos Aires. I learned a lesson about traveling and buying traveling clothes... don´t do it. When traveling I wear what I always wear... jeans, t-shirt or a dress. Sporting stores like REI talk everyone in to these lame hiking pants that you will never want to wear in a city... we sent home about 8 lbs of stuff in Peru, including the hiking pants. Oh well. Lessons learned.
One last thing about La Paz... most of the gringo tourists in their 20´s are looking for cocaine in Bolivia. There are even secret cocaine bars that cater to this demand. The Bolivianos know near to nothing of this cocaine use, as the entire industry is for the US and Europe. Rather, Bolivians chew coca or drink coca tea. The coca leaf is legal and chewed as a subtle stimulant by the campasinos (rural farmers). It is less stimulating than coffee or black tea, and helps with altitude sickness, stomach problems, works as an anesthetic and has other medical uses. It is far from cocaine, but the US and UN have implemented coca irradication policies which terrorize the coca farmers with areal sprays and illegalization in parts of south america. Obviously, the problem is the demand for cocaine, and not the growth of coca leaves for chewing and cultural rituals. The punishment is on the wrong end in my opinion. I wonder if all these white kids would want cocaine if they visited a production ´lab´out in the countryside somehwere, where it takes a whole room of leaves to produce a gram out of cocaine and the workers´ hands and feet degrade from mushing the leaves with acids and chemicals to prep the leaves for refining? Coke doesn´t seem so cheap then... (about $20 USD per gram in La Paz, as I found out from asking some people in our hostal).
Sorry, never took a picture of La Paz. We need to get better at the piture taking thing.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Titikaka Cold
Since I last wrote, we have been on the road nearly every other day. We are tired now, and looking forward to the next farm where we will remain for about 6 weeks.
After Arequipa we took a sleepless night bus to Cuzco, which must be the capital of tourism in all of South America. The city is absolutely stunning, elaborated by colonial buildings built with Inca- handcrafted stones (which the Spaniards stole for their own buildings when they conqured), yet I haven´t run across so many gringos in one place, nor have I seen so many people walking around with fancy cameras without fear of getting robbed. The cameras are so plentiful there that indigenous women dress in traditional dress, bring llamas into town and wait for a picture to be taken for which they can charge. For some reason this isn´t seen as exploitative to those who choose to take the picture, then get offended when the woman demands pay.
We spent a few days there, then we did it. We caved. We went to Machu Pichu. We payed the ridiculous train and entrance fee and we arrived at the site at 6 in the morning to get entrance to the mountain the overlooks Mach Pichu in order to see the view from high above. O´the anxiety. I have never experienced such soul-death to see something beautiful, which of course it is. Machu Pichu is enveloped by enchangting mountain peaks and clouds. However the Disney-Land tourists ruin the ruins. The crowds were obnoxious, the toursists hardly tried to speak any Spanish, and got angry when the restaurants didn´t function the way they do in Europe or the US. I couldn´t believe the self imposed entitlement some of these people portrayed in their actions and lack of patience for the people who inhabit the surrouding areas. While tromping over a physical history of colonization, we, as tourists, are commiting a post colonial exploitation through tourism. And yes, I admit that I am part of this. However, traveling can be done with respect and with an aim for ethical interactions with the cultures we meet. From now on, I am not going to ¨tour¨. We are going to work on farms, stay with Andy´s family in Buenos Aires and try to interact with people on a personal level of working, not consuming. We can´t deny that we are foreigners, traveling for a limited amount of time, but we can avoid tourism... for our own sanity and morality if nothing else.
After those harsh and opinionated words, we are now in Bolivia and it is great. Save the $135 visa for Americans only (they have a policy of reciprocity on visas), Bolivia is extrememly cheap. Hostals are $2-4 per night for a private room, a meal is about $1. After crossing the border we went to Copacabana, and yes, I did laugh because Lola was at the Copacabana. I was not, however, wearing yellow feathers in my hair. Copacabana is on the Bolivia side of Lake Titikaka, which is amongst the highest lakes in the world at nearly 4,000 meters. The lake was one of the most beautiful, pristine places we´ve seen so far. We took a very slow ferry to nearby Isla de Sol, where the beginings of the Inca legends exist in myth, and spent an extremely cold night. The altitude of the lake provides an extrordinary view of islands and glacial montain peaks in the distance. In some directions, we could not see land.
After Copacaban we were about a week into coughs, to each our own. Breathing in eachother´s faces every day probably doesn´t help to quarantine an illness, but what can we do when it is so cold? We hopped on a 3 hour bus to La Paz, which is where we are now. It is equally ¨Titikaka cold¨ here, but we have found a nice hostal with a kitchen, and a good Spanish school which we began today. It is good to be in Spanish classes again because we have struggled enough with our current abilities to know what we need to be conversational. We will stay here for another week before heading to the next farm, about 120 km from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, which is in the jungle near Brazil. And our somewhat of a plan: After the Bolivia farm, we will see a bit more of Bolivia, then head south to Argentina to stay with Andy´s family in Buenos Aires for 3 to 4 weeks. From there we will stay on another farm near the Mendoza area, then go to Santiago, Chile to fly out in early November. Our flight back to the US is out of Costa Rica, but I doubt our budget will allow spending much time in Costa Rica. Save that for another trip.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Lauren
After Arequipa we took a sleepless night bus to Cuzco, which must be the capital of tourism in all of South America. The city is absolutely stunning, elaborated by colonial buildings built with Inca- handcrafted stones (which the Spaniards stole for their own buildings when they conqured), yet I haven´t run across so many gringos in one place, nor have I seen so many people walking around with fancy cameras without fear of getting robbed. The cameras are so plentiful there that indigenous women dress in traditional dress, bring llamas into town and wait for a picture to be taken for which they can charge. For some reason this isn´t seen as exploitative to those who choose to take the picture, then get offended when the woman demands pay.
We spent a few days there, then we did it. We caved. We went to Machu Pichu. We payed the ridiculous train and entrance fee and we arrived at the site at 6 in the morning to get entrance to the mountain the overlooks Mach Pichu in order to see the view from high above. O´the anxiety. I have never experienced such soul-death to see something beautiful, which of course it is. Machu Pichu is enveloped by enchangting mountain peaks and clouds. However the Disney-Land tourists ruin the ruins. The crowds were obnoxious, the toursists hardly tried to speak any Spanish, and got angry when the restaurants didn´t function the way they do in Europe or the US. I couldn´t believe the self imposed entitlement some of these people portrayed in their actions and lack of patience for the people who inhabit the surrouding areas. While tromping over a physical history of colonization, we, as tourists, are commiting a post colonial exploitation through tourism. And yes, I admit that I am part of this. However, traveling can be done with respect and with an aim for ethical interactions with the cultures we meet. From now on, I am not going to ¨tour¨. We are going to work on farms, stay with Andy´s family in Buenos Aires and try to interact with people on a personal level of working, not consuming. We can´t deny that we are foreigners, traveling for a limited amount of time, but we can avoid tourism... for our own sanity and morality if nothing else.
After those harsh and opinionated words, we are now in Bolivia and it is great. Save the $135 visa for Americans only (they have a policy of reciprocity on visas), Bolivia is extrememly cheap. Hostals are $2-4 per night for a private room, a meal is about $1. After crossing the border we went to Copacabana, and yes, I did laugh because Lola was at the Copacabana. I was not, however, wearing yellow feathers in my hair. Copacabana is on the Bolivia side of Lake Titikaka, which is amongst the highest lakes in the world at nearly 4,000 meters. The lake was one of the most beautiful, pristine places we´ve seen so far. We took a very slow ferry to nearby Isla de Sol, where the beginings of the Inca legends exist in myth, and spent an extremely cold night. The altitude of the lake provides an extrordinary view of islands and glacial montain peaks in the distance. In some directions, we could not see land.
After Copacaban we were about a week into coughs, to each our own. Breathing in eachother´s faces every day probably doesn´t help to quarantine an illness, but what can we do when it is so cold? We hopped on a 3 hour bus to La Paz, which is where we are now. It is equally ¨Titikaka cold¨ here, but we have found a nice hostal with a kitchen, and a good Spanish school which we began today. It is good to be in Spanish classes again because we have struggled enough with our current abilities to know what we need to be conversational. We will stay here for another week before heading to the next farm, about 120 km from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, which is in the jungle near Brazil. And our somewhat of a plan: After the Bolivia farm, we will see a bit more of Bolivia, then head south to Argentina to stay with Andy´s family in Buenos Aires for 3 to 4 weeks. From there we will stay on another farm near the Mendoza area, then go to Santiago, Chile to fly out in early November. Our flight back to the US is out of Costa Rica, but I doubt our budget will allow spending much time in Costa Rica. Save that for another trip.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Lauren
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Straight Shot South
Pictures 1. Me, silly in field at Neverland Farm 2. Friends at Neverland farm
We left Ecuador nearly 2 weeks ago, and we have already been in the south for one week. The first week we spent most of our time in buses or combis (shared van-taxis that go where the bus lines don´t). We crossed in eastern-central Ecuador at Las Balsas where we had to take a rickety open aired truck to the border. Got stamped out, walked across a river, and got stamped into Peru. There is a little concern about the swine flu (la gripe) at the borders and transit terminals, but besides that it was very simple for us to cross. From there we spent two days in dusty transit towns taking combis because the buses didn´t run that far north and east.
Our first desination was Chachapoyas from where you can see the Incan ruin of Kuelap. Kuelap is similar to Machu Pichu, as it is a well preserved ancient city. The graduer probably does not match that of Machu Pichu, which means that neither does the tourism. We took a tour with a car full of local tourists and 2 germans. The ruin is high in altitude and has a magnificant view of the surrounding mountain ranges. I had to ´translate´for the germans with my really bad spanish, which was quite frustrating for all of us, especially the guide who was forced to speak at a elementary school level and still be misunderstood by the gringos. My spanish is getting better, but the constantly changing accent from town to town makes it quite difficult to develop an ear for it. Writing and reading is easier.
We ran-hiked down the mountain from Kuelap after the tour, met the car at the bottom, got bused back to town and hopped on a bus to the coast, Chiclayo. Chiclayo is a dusty, busy and hot port town. We didn´t see much there because we decided we wanted to get straight to the south after the frustration and heat of the north. After a day of waiting for a bus we caught a night bus to Lima. Spent about 8 hours in Lima and caught another night bus to Arequipa (in the south). Lima was big and modern in the financial-tourist district. We had no interest in staying in such a big city.
We have been in Arequipa for the last 4 days. The city is surrounded by large volcanoes that are usually snow capped, but one is predicted to blow soon so the ice has largely melted. The summits reach over 6000 meters (19,685 feet), which is quite sufficating for climbers. Recently, Incan child mummies were discovered in the summits near Arequipa, providing a wealth of information to researchers on sacrificial practices. There is a mummy in a museum here who was discovered completely frozen, with flesh, hair, muscles and liquids still intact after nearly 500 years of freezing. The Incas were amazingly strong and dedicated peoples to have hiked to such heights in sandals, without oxygen and carrying the elaborations necessary for a sacrifice. Researchers believe that childeren were sacrificed to appease the mountain gods when natural disasters like volcanic erruption occured. The children were chosen from birth, raised in a temple, and eventually sacrificed by a blow to the skull around the age of 12-14, depending on the various needs of the gods. Extremely interesting history and cultural practice. Similarly interesting is the geological situation of the area.
As in all of south america, there is also a lot of colonial history expressed through impressive monastaries, churches and religious art. It is not so much of my interest, probably because I don´t know the biblical stories. Today we went to a monastary that has been open for 400 years and is still functioning with 30 nuns. It is completely walled up and takes up several blocks with it´s internal streets. Beautiful and bizzare, as it was originally founded for only the wealthiest nuns who lived lavish lives with 1-4 slaves each. There are rumors of debauchery and excessive wealth within the walls prior to a major reform in 1870, however the stories about pregnant nuns seem to be simply unfounded rumors. The wealth on the other hand, was not, and can be seen in the china and silk displayed now in the museum. It only opened to the public in the 1970s. Before, the sisters were in complete isolation once admitted.
Tonight we go to Cusco to see Machu Pichu. It is expensive and touristy, and we orignially decided not to go. However, we are here, and it is a world wonder. I know it will be magnificant, even if I have to step over people with cameras to see it. After Cusco we go to Lake Titicaca and to Bolivia. We will end up spending only 3 weeks in Peru. The reason is that we could not find a farm to work on, and the next one is in Bolivia. The only way we will be able to extend our trip for as long as we want to is if we find work-trade opportunities to halt the spending. Bolivia is going to be a lot let touristy, cheaper and we have heard nothing but good things.
Congratulations to all of my friends who are graduating this month. Maybe you´ll meet me down here? I miss everyone and hope you will keep the e mails and comments coming.
Love,
Lauren
*Note on the posts, there are no new instructions on how to post. The only setting I could change was to make posting open to anyone, even without an account to this site. Again, I´m sorry if it is difficult to post.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
To Peru
I have recieved a few complaints regarding problems commenting on the posts. I changed a few settings, so please try to comment again if you gave up in the frustration before. Hopefully it works now. If not, simply throw your computer out of the window. That should fix things.
We´ve been bumming around Vilcabamba all week being a little bit lazy and waiting for test results to see if we have parasites or bacterial infections. I have parasites, Andy is clean. Nothing that a few nuclear bomb strength anti-parasitic pills won´t take care of. If you drink alcohol, they cause projectile vomit as a side effect. And there you have the first insight to our intestinal situation. It´s part of the game down here.
Today we leave for Peru through the Las Balsas crossing near Zumba. Our first stop is Chachapoyas from where we can go to Kuelap, a site similar to MachuPichu without the tourism (yet). I think we´ll make it there in 2 days by bus.
Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers reading.
Love and thanks for reading.
Lauren
We´ve been bumming around Vilcabamba all week being a little bit lazy and waiting for test results to see if we have parasites or bacterial infections. I have parasites, Andy is clean. Nothing that a few nuclear bomb strength anti-parasitic pills won´t take care of. If you drink alcohol, they cause projectile vomit as a side effect. And there you have the first insight to our intestinal situation. It´s part of the game down here.
Today we leave for Peru through the Las Balsas crossing near Zumba. Our first stop is Chachapoyas from where we can go to Kuelap, a site similar to MachuPichu without the tourism (yet). I think we´ll make it there in 2 days by bus.
Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers reading.
Love and thanks for reading.
Lauren
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Lost Boys
To answer Jim V´s comment from the last post, no, Neverland Farm in Ecuador is not owned by Micheal Jackson. Rather, the farmer decided on the name after Peter Pan´s Neverland and call all the volunteers Lost Boys, which is what we quickly became. What is a Lost Boy? A lost boy is someone who stays at Neverland long enough to figure out that they can get lost eating fruit or scrambling up the hillside or swiming in the flashing river and it is still part of work. Lost boys have special pet projects on the farm - mine was digging in the compost because I love building compost piles and looking at rotting food decompose, and Andy´s was building shelves. One lost boy was quite good at moonwalking, but not because MJ was there to teach her. No, we didn´t learn much about agriculture because the farmer wasn´t too much of a farmer. Regardless of the frustrations, we learned how to work and play simultaneously, and to work things out in our little group of transients. By transients, I mean that we made friends with some great great people. Friends for a month mean more than you can imagine when on the move.
Now we are in Vilcabamaba, the larger town near the farm. We are staying at a hostal, which is really a resort, for $10 per night, which would be $300 per night in Hawaii. I cannot emphasize how beautiful this valley is. We are on a hill and get tremendously impressive sunsets every night. This place attracts gringos for life. There is a large community of them who have come to stay - most of them are pretty weird to me, but so is then nature of an ex-patriot, verdad? I don´t think I´ll become one because I like the west coast too much and I miss my friends and family (yes you). By the way, thank you so much for commenting. I´m glad you are still paying attention after our infrequent posting habits. You are very encouraging with your comments and I greatly appreciate it.
We will be in Vilcabamba getting clean and relaxing for a few days, then onto Peru. We don´t have plans yet, but I think we might avoid the big tourism places like MachuPichu because you can see ruins just as impressive without the tourists elsewhere. We´ll be looking for another farm as well. Someday we will post more pictures. My hair is longer and Andy´s is shorter. We have plenty of bugbites and I generally smell bad, sorry. The internet is slow so posting pictures is a pain but we´ll try to bring ourselves to do it before we leave for Peru. If you´ve been to Peru, send us advice.
One more note, Endlesswinter seems to be a misnomber because it is always warm here. When it rains it pours and washes out roads and houses, but most of the weather has been mild and wonderful. I hear it will be cold in the south, and it is still officially fall.
Love,
Lauren
Now we are in Vilcabamaba, the larger town near the farm. We are staying at a hostal, which is really a resort, for $10 per night, which would be $300 per night in Hawaii. I cannot emphasize how beautiful this valley is. We are on a hill and get tremendously impressive sunsets every night. This place attracts gringos for life. There is a large community of them who have come to stay - most of them are pretty weird to me, but so is then nature of an ex-patriot, verdad? I don´t think I´ll become one because I like the west coast too much and I miss my friends and family (yes you). By the way, thank you so much for commenting. I´m glad you are still paying attention after our infrequent posting habits. You are very encouraging with your comments and I greatly appreciate it.
We will be in Vilcabamba getting clean and relaxing for a few days, then onto Peru. We don´t have plans yet, but I think we might avoid the big tourism places like MachuPichu because you can see ruins just as impressive without the tourists elsewhere. We´ll be looking for another farm as well. Someday we will post more pictures. My hair is longer and Andy´s is shorter. We have plenty of bugbites and I generally smell bad, sorry. The internet is slow so posting pictures is a pain but we´ll try to bring ourselves to do it before we leave for Peru. If you´ve been to Peru, send us advice.
One more note, Endlesswinter seems to be a misnomber because it is always warm here. When it rains it pours and washes out roads and houses, but most of the weather has been mild and wonderful. I hear it will be cold in the south, and it is still officially fall.
Love,
Lauren
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Neverland
Sorry for the delay, we have been far away from the internet. Neverland farm is a 45 minute walk from a tiny town called Tumianuma. Tumianuma is an hour bus ride from Vilcabamba, which is the closest place with internet and phones. The remote setting of the farm, however, is my favorite part.
We are set between jagged, nearly vertical mountains that are green with brush. The farm is on the river, which is fast but shallow enough to go swimming. We are coming out of the rainy season and entering the windy dry season, which means no more roads washing away, but soil erosion from the wind. When we first arrived the roads nearly shut down from landslides and we barely made it to the farm. The weather has been very nice for the last two weeks.
It seems like everyone has mixed feelings about the farm. The volunteer community ranges from 8 to 15 people, and the owner isn´t around too much to manage the group of transients. Therefore, we are staying for a full month and figuring things out as we go. The food production of the farm is not functioning adequately, so we bring in most of the food we eat. The garden is start up, and lacking compost entirely (the number one ingredient for organic farming). However, we are growing a decent amount of crops that will produce long after we leave. Besides the frustrations I come across with the agricultural system and lack of management, however, the farm is a wonderful place to be for an extended period of time. I enjoy the long term volunteers very much, and we have a lot of fun even when working. After work we cook great food and wonder around the land looking for fruits and fire flies. Life is remote and simple. And there are citrus trees everywhere.
Interesting fact about the land : it was founded by a ¨fruitarian¨ parapaleygic that started a cult there years ago. Johnny Lovewisdom wrote a bunch of bizzare philosophy that remains in the room next to ours. I have yet to read it, but for some reason I like the idea that a cult leader that ate only fruit planted all the citrus trees around. It´s a strange story. There must be hundreds of citrus trees, but that was a long time ago. The trees haven´t been pruned properly, and now it is a farm that supports travelers that aren´t sure what they are looking for.
We are staying in a room with big open windows without glass. There are bugs everywhere and we are dirty and we are happy. The meadows are full of butterflys, and I often think about how the place deserves the name Neverland. We milk a cow once in a while. I never knew how difficult utters could be. There are horses, a burro, dogs, cats, kittens, a venomous snake that big one of the dogs, so we killed it (she had 30 eggs and a rat inside and we are drying the skin), spiders and soon there will be puppies.
Staying in one place for a month is what we needed. The hostal circut, or gringo trail, is very tiring and expensive. I don´t want to stay on it for too long at one time. I´d rather farm hop for the majority of the trip. There is a lot to learn from farming, and right now I am learning that I am able to do things I once thought were hard, I just have to stop complaining. I really like this tool called a barretta. It´s a metal bar that you can break up hard soil with and pry huge rocks up with. It feels good to work and hurt a little bit. Sometimes the Ecuadorian men don´t like women to do heavy work though - they say it will damage our uterus and reproductive systems. A bit archaic, but it is cultural and feminism doesn´t go over too well sometimes. I let it go.
I miss everyone a lot. It´s only been 2 months but everyday is so different that I feel that I´ve been gone for longer. I think about the return often, but I am also looking forward to the changes about to come.
Love,
Lauren
We are set between jagged, nearly vertical mountains that are green with brush. The farm is on the river, which is fast but shallow enough to go swimming. We are coming out of the rainy season and entering the windy dry season, which means no more roads washing away, but soil erosion from the wind. When we first arrived the roads nearly shut down from landslides and we barely made it to the farm. The weather has been very nice for the last two weeks.
It seems like everyone has mixed feelings about the farm. The volunteer community ranges from 8 to 15 people, and the owner isn´t around too much to manage the group of transients. Therefore, we are staying for a full month and figuring things out as we go. The food production of the farm is not functioning adequately, so we bring in most of the food we eat. The garden is start up, and lacking compost entirely (the number one ingredient for organic farming). However, we are growing a decent amount of crops that will produce long after we leave. Besides the frustrations I come across with the agricultural system and lack of management, however, the farm is a wonderful place to be for an extended period of time. I enjoy the long term volunteers very much, and we have a lot of fun even when working. After work we cook great food and wonder around the land looking for fruits and fire flies. Life is remote and simple. And there are citrus trees everywhere.
Interesting fact about the land : it was founded by a ¨fruitarian¨ parapaleygic that started a cult there years ago. Johnny Lovewisdom wrote a bunch of bizzare philosophy that remains in the room next to ours. I have yet to read it, but for some reason I like the idea that a cult leader that ate only fruit planted all the citrus trees around. It´s a strange story. There must be hundreds of citrus trees, but that was a long time ago. The trees haven´t been pruned properly, and now it is a farm that supports travelers that aren´t sure what they are looking for.
We are staying in a room with big open windows without glass. There are bugs everywhere and we are dirty and we are happy. The meadows are full of butterflys, and I often think about how the place deserves the name Neverland. We milk a cow once in a while. I never knew how difficult utters could be. There are horses, a burro, dogs, cats, kittens, a venomous snake that big one of the dogs, so we killed it (she had 30 eggs and a rat inside and we are drying the skin), spiders and soon there will be puppies.
Staying in one place for a month is what we needed. The hostal circut, or gringo trail, is very tiring and expensive. I don´t want to stay on it for too long at one time. I´d rather farm hop for the majority of the trip. There is a lot to learn from farming, and right now I am learning that I am able to do things I once thought were hard, I just have to stop complaining. I really like this tool called a barretta. It´s a metal bar that you can break up hard soil with and pry huge rocks up with. It feels good to work and hurt a little bit. Sometimes the Ecuadorian men don´t like women to do heavy work though - they say it will damage our uterus and reproductive systems. A bit archaic, but it is cultural and feminism doesn´t go over too well sometimes. I let it go.
I miss everyone a lot. It´s only been 2 months but everyday is so different that I feel that I´ve been gone for longer. I think about the return often, but I am also looking forward to the changes about to come.
Love,
Lauren
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Chillin on la playa
After hiking around Quilotoa to remote Quichua village towns with amazing people and scenery, we schlepped 16 hours of bus rides to the coast of Ecuador. To us, it was an entirely different country than the mountain towns we had become accustomed to. People actually wear flip flops and tank tops!
The first beach town we spent a few days at was Puerto Lopez. The touristy activities were too expensive, so we ended up chillin in hammocks and walking the beach quite a bit. The first night we met a couple hippy kids, one girl from Austria - Melony, and a guy named Jemi who said he is from The Light when you ask him where he is from. We cooked for them a couple nights, hung out with them on the curb selling their handmade crafts, and ended up staying at Jemi's property he had been gifted by a friend. It was interesting to say the least to get the perspective of a native to South America (we think he was from Brazil) about global politics.
The beach of Puerto Lopez was nice, but very littered with garbage and washed up fish from the commercial boats, not to mention the over abumdance of motorcycle taxis holloring us down for rides when everything was a 10 minute walk (the industry was reliant on tourists mostly, and it's the off season right now). So... we went to a town 17 km south and the beach was immaculate, and all to ourselves. We befriended the woman who managed our hostel - Sandra - and it turned out to be more of a bed and breakfast than a hostel. We were stoked to buy produce to cook for ourselves, which seems to be a good solution for our digestion.
Another 8 hours of buses yesterday, and we are now in the beutiful city of Cuenca, probably Ecuador's most charming... as they say in the Lonely Planet. We are getting all the emails and updates off now before heading down to Loja later today where we will start working on our first farm for a month or so. It is called Never Never Land, after Peter Pan, and there we learn more about farming and forever be kids, as one must be at such a place as Neverland. We are looking forward to having a bit more purpose than just being tourists.
So for now, check out the link www.neverlandfarm.org, and we will try uploading some pictures soon. We may not have much internet accessability, but we hope to still check once a week. From the ABOUT page on the weblink, there are instructions to leave us messages if you would like to call.
Much love,
Andy and Lauren
The first beach town we spent a few days at was Puerto Lopez. The touristy activities were too expensive, so we ended up chillin in hammocks and walking the beach quite a bit. The first night we met a couple hippy kids, one girl from Austria - Melony, and a guy named Jemi who said he is from The Light when you ask him where he is from. We cooked for them a couple nights, hung out with them on the curb selling their handmade crafts, and ended up staying at Jemi's property he had been gifted by a friend. It was interesting to say the least to get the perspective of a native to South America (we think he was from Brazil) about global politics.
The beach of Puerto Lopez was nice, but very littered with garbage and washed up fish from the commercial boats, not to mention the over abumdance of motorcycle taxis holloring us down for rides when everything was a 10 minute walk (the industry was reliant on tourists mostly, and it's the off season right now). So... we went to a town 17 km south and the beach was immaculate, and all to ourselves. We befriended the woman who managed our hostel - Sandra - and it turned out to be more of a bed and breakfast than a hostel. We were stoked to buy produce to cook for ourselves, which seems to be a good solution for our digestion.
Another 8 hours of buses yesterday, and we are now in the beutiful city of Cuenca, probably Ecuador's most charming... as they say in the Lonely Planet. We are getting all the emails and updates off now before heading down to Loja later today where we will start working on our first farm for a month or so. It is called Never Never Land, after Peter Pan, and there we learn more about farming and forever be kids, as one must be at such a place as Neverland. We are looking forward to having a bit more purpose than just being tourists.
So for now, check out the link www.neverlandfarm.org, and we will try uploading some pictures soon. We may not have much internet accessability, but we hope to still check once a week. From the ABOUT page on the weblink, there are instructions to leave us messages if you would like to call.
Much love,
Andy and Lauren
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Quilotoa Loop
We left Baños this morning. The town was a bit too touristy, but beautiful landscape as all of Ecuador. We did a bit of hiking there, soaked in the thermal baths which turned out to be public pools with crowds even at 6 am, then went out on the town to sing Cranberries and Eagles songs at a karaoke bar for Andy´s birthday last night. Karaoke is big here, and people seem to have an ecclectic taste for American hits.
Today we left for Latacunga, a market town. We are staying in a hostal for $3 per person tonight (no windows), then leaving in the mañana for the Quilotoa loop. Many reviews claim this to be the best trip in Ecuador. The trip consists of getting really confused trying to find different buses that run at irregular hours like 3 am to tiny mountain towns in order to see a beautiful lake at the top of a volcano. So far we have had very good luck with buses, and we hope this continues. If not, we get a little lost and that´s fine. We will probably be out of contact for the next 4 days. We´ll let you know how it goes.
Love,
Lauren
Today we left for Latacunga, a market town. We are staying in a hostal for $3 per person tonight (no windows), then leaving in the mañana for the Quilotoa loop. Many reviews claim this to be the best trip in Ecuador. The trip consists of getting really confused trying to find different buses that run at irregular hours like 3 am to tiny mountain towns in order to see a beautiful lake at the top of a volcano. So far we have had very good luck with buses, and we hope this continues. If not, we get a little lost and that´s fine. We will probably be out of contact for the next 4 days. We´ll let you know how it goes.
Love,
Lauren
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Photos
If you look to your upper right, you will notice a nice link to our photobucket site. You can now actually click on it, sorry that didn´t work before. We will try to update photos every week or so.
We are in Baños, the town of thermal baths and tourists (not toilets). Tomorrow is Andy´s birthday and we are going on a mountain bike ride towards Puyo. The mountains are very steep and we are not far from the jungle,though we probably won´t venture into the Amazon until Peru. Our hostal is near a waterfall. The landscape is beautiful and volcanic. Very steep mountains in every direction - you wouldn´t believe the verticle degree of the farms around here. We hiked up one today. Last night we checked out the town´s three bars and a discotec where we practiced our gringo-salsa moves we learned in Quito. Tomorrow we have to get up at 5:30 am to avoid the crowds at the thermal baths.
Thanks for reading.
Love.
We are in Baños, the town of thermal baths and tourists (not toilets). Tomorrow is Andy´s birthday and we are going on a mountain bike ride towards Puyo. The mountains are very steep and we are not far from the jungle,though we probably won´t venture into the Amazon until Peru. Our hostal is near a waterfall. The landscape is beautiful and volcanic. Very steep mountains in every direction - you wouldn´t believe the verticle degree of the farms around here. We hiked up one today. Last night we checked out the town´s three bars and a discotec where we practiced our gringo-salsa moves we learned in Quito. Tomorrow we have to get up at 5:30 am to avoid the crowds at the thermal baths.
Thanks for reading.
Love.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Rain and shine
Quick update - We have been staying with some friends from Spanish class. They rented us a room at $20 for the week! The apartment is new and on the mountain. Our window looks up at Pinchincha, the volcano in Quito. We take a really crowded bus to school every morning. Tomorrow is the last day of school, and we are off to Baños and the jungle for a week or so. We have to come back to Quito to pick up some mail, then we are off again to the coast, Cuenca and Loja where we will start the farm. The climate should be nice in Loja.
Things are great. We even figured out how to get money from a bank teller rather than the ATM today. We aren't too sick any more, we eat a lot of chocolate, we are cooking for ourselves now - a blessing, and we are practicing Spanish every day. Tonight we may go grab a beer with our teachers. As they say, drinking makes your Spanish better (or as my dad says, one beer makes your Spanish better and any more makes you forget all of your vocabulary). We'll see how it goes.
Otherwise, we are just living here. Still dodging traffic. It rains every afternoon. I keep forgetting that it's winter here.
Love,
Lauren
Things are great. We even figured out how to get money from a bank teller rather than the ATM today. We aren't too sick any more, we eat a lot of chocolate, we are cooking for ourselves now - a blessing, and we are practicing Spanish every day. Tonight we may go grab a beer with our teachers. As they say, drinking makes your Spanish better (or as my dad says, one beer makes your Spanish better and any more makes you forget all of your vocabulary). We'll see how it goes.
Otherwise, we are just living here. Still dodging traffic. It rains every afternoon. I keep forgetting that it's winter here.
Love,
Lauren
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Team Gringo
We have been staying with a family in a fairly posh apartment in Quito for the last week. Señora AnnaLucia and her husband Alfonzo are taking care of us. Anna cooks us dinner, and they both speak slowly and simply for us. We are able to converse about simple things like agriculture and tourist spots. They are very nice people, but it is a bit expensive to do homestays, so we are waiting to hear back from some people we met in language school who are renting a 3 bedroom house for $300US per month. We hope to rent a cheap room from them next week, to complete our last week of language school in Quito.
Last Thursday we went on a fieldtrip to a market outside of a major volcano called Cotopaxi. The bus rides to destinations outside of Quito are my favorite (though I am always slightly ill in buses). The farmscapes are amazing because the volcanic mountain ranges boarder the agriculture. Our spanish teachers walked us around like puppies pointing out the various tropical fruits and such. We are such gringos. I can´t wait until we can speak a little better so people don´t look at us with such suspicion. Most of the time, however, people are very nice and helpful. They are very used to US and E.U. tourists here. The ¨newtown¨ nightlife reminds me of the nightlife in any other major US city, except you can drink on the streets at any age. If you try, you can even find an $8 cocktail. Otherwise 24 oz bottles of beer are only $1, though we have been a little too nauseas to drink very much beer. They have english language bookstores in this area as well.
Old town Quito is much less touristy. Sunday in Old Town is quite lively. There are enormous Spanish colonial churches, studded with gold on the entire interior on every other block. We even caught a University jazz festival there today. Quito really is beautiful, with the surrounding volcano range and the impressive architecture. However, it is very crowded with street vendors and with taxis and buses the stop for no one. We look forward to getting out of the city for good next weekend. We plan on heading to the jungle and to the coast before our first farm in Loja, southern Ecuador (5 hours from Peru by bus).
Not too much else to say. We are getting over stomach aches every other day, and dodging traffic while we are out, but we are having fun. Andy is about to post some pictures... stay on the edge of your seat.
Love.
Last Thursday we went on a fieldtrip to a market outside of a major volcano called Cotopaxi. The bus rides to destinations outside of Quito are my favorite (though I am always slightly ill in buses). The farmscapes are amazing because the volcanic mountain ranges boarder the agriculture. Our spanish teachers walked us around like puppies pointing out the various tropical fruits and such. We are such gringos. I can´t wait until we can speak a little better so people don´t look at us with such suspicion. Most of the time, however, people are very nice and helpful. They are very used to US and E.U. tourists here. The ¨newtown¨ nightlife reminds me of the nightlife in any other major US city, except you can drink on the streets at any age. If you try, you can even find an $8 cocktail. Otherwise 24 oz bottles of beer are only $1, though we have been a little too nauseas to drink very much beer. They have english language bookstores in this area as well.
Old town Quito is much less touristy. Sunday in Old Town is quite lively. There are enormous Spanish colonial churches, studded with gold on the entire interior on every other block. We even caught a University jazz festival there today. Quito really is beautiful, with the surrounding volcano range and the impressive architecture. However, it is very crowded with street vendors and with taxis and buses the stop for no one. We look forward to getting out of the city for good next weekend. We plan on heading to the jungle and to the coast before our first farm in Loja, southern Ecuador (5 hours from Peru by bus).
Not too much else to say. We are getting over stomach aches every other day, and dodging traffic while we are out, but we are having fun. Andy is about to post some pictures... stay on the edge of your seat.
Love.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Visit with Vanessa
After our language class yesterday, we were picked up at our school by Children's International, a non-profit organization that my Bubbie sponsors a child through. Her name is Vanessa Aleman Cartuche, 16 years old now. Bubbie has been sponsoring her for 8 years now, a good deed she began when my grandfather died in 2001.
We had the meeting all arranged from the States and were in contact with Children's Int'l Kansas City office. Bubbie got a letter in the mail explaining how we were to contact Children's Int'l in Quito, and cell phone numbers for staff here.
Pedro Diaz was the staff person that organized our Sponsor to Child visit. He's in his late 20's and has family in Texas, but grew up in a small town in Ecuador.
Pedro called Vanessa's town as La Luna de Pobres -- The Moon of The Poor. It's a suburb located in South Quito, in the hills above the city.
When we got there, the road of stylized cinder blocks continued only 50 yards from the main highway. We were pleased to see amongst the shanty-esque houses that are typical in Ecuador, a small single story building with a Children's International sign on it. Lots of children were waiting outside, and we were escorted in to take a tour.
Vanessa was waiting patiently for us inside. We met her and vaguely recognized her from a picture my Bubbie gave me that we kept with us. The first thing she did was hug us. I pulled out from my backpack a picture of Bubbie that I printed to give her, and the care package of jewelery, a hankercheif, and some Snickers (Bubbie has a big sweet tooth if you didn't know).
Pedro Diaz took us around the building with Vanessa, showing us the library, computer room (4 computers - mainly for the sponsored children in the town), and a doctor/dentist office - one doctor, who was giving a kid an annual teeth cleaning.
We followed Vanessa to the classroom/library, and there we met her teacher, mom, and sister. We got to sit down with Vanessa and her mom, and Pedro Diaz was able to translate what Lauren and I couldn't understand, or couldn't figure out how to say in Spanish. Vanessa seemed to know a bit of English, but was a bit embarrased to try, as we were a bit embarrased to try Spanish. Amongst the barriers, we were able to have a meaningful conversation and learn a bit about eachother.
Vanessa is obsessed with John Travolta and Marilyn Monroe (she sported a 50's sweater) and is has been a good student all the way through schooling, as her parents are very supporting and pushing to achieve more than what they were raised with (something not very common with parents as Pedro explained). Vanessa is now in the secondary part of her highschool education, which is optional, and is studying mathematics and physics. Her mom is a full time mother, with one of her sisters being deaf, and her dad is a locksmith. She wants to go to LA and meet the stars (as we all do I suppose).
In summary, our visit was very special, for all of us. We hugged and they couldn't be greatful enough for supporting their family, something Lauren and I couldn't take responsibilty for, but which we will convey to Bubbie. Lauren and I were just stoked to meet some locals and catch a peak into Ecuadorian life. It was a great coincidence that our first destination was where Vanessa lived, and we are greatful to Bubbie for having us deliver the gift to her. If anybody appreciates pictures, it's Bubbie, and I can't to show her pictures of our visit. It will mean a lot to her.
Love,
Andy
We had the meeting all arranged from the States and were in contact with Children's Int'l Kansas City office. Bubbie got a letter in the mail explaining how we were to contact Children's Int'l in Quito, and cell phone numbers for staff here.
Pedro Diaz was the staff person that organized our Sponsor to Child visit. He's in his late 20's and has family in Texas, but grew up in a small town in Ecuador.
Pedro called Vanessa's town as La Luna de Pobres -- The Moon of The Poor. It's a suburb located in South Quito, in the hills above the city.
When we got there, the road of stylized cinder blocks continued only 50 yards from the main highway. We were pleased to see amongst the shanty-esque houses that are typical in Ecuador, a small single story building with a Children's International sign on it. Lots of children were waiting outside, and we were escorted in to take a tour.
Vanessa was waiting patiently for us inside. We met her and vaguely recognized her from a picture my Bubbie gave me that we kept with us. The first thing she did was hug us. I pulled out from my backpack a picture of Bubbie that I printed to give her, and the care package of jewelery, a hankercheif, and some Snickers (Bubbie has a big sweet tooth if you didn't know).
Pedro Diaz took us around the building with Vanessa, showing us the library, computer room (4 computers - mainly for the sponsored children in the town), and a doctor/dentist office - one doctor, who was giving a kid an annual teeth cleaning.
We followed Vanessa to the classroom/library, and there we met her teacher, mom, and sister. We got to sit down with Vanessa and her mom, and Pedro Diaz was able to translate what Lauren and I couldn't understand, or couldn't figure out how to say in Spanish. Vanessa seemed to know a bit of English, but was a bit embarrased to try, as we were a bit embarrased to try Spanish. Amongst the barriers, we were able to have a meaningful conversation and learn a bit about eachother.
Vanessa is obsessed with John Travolta and Marilyn Monroe (she sported a 50's sweater) and is has been a good student all the way through schooling, as her parents are very supporting and pushing to achieve more than what they were raised with (something not very common with parents as Pedro explained). Vanessa is now in the secondary part of her highschool education, which is optional, and is studying mathematics and physics. Her mom is a full time mother, with one of her sisters being deaf, and her dad is a locksmith. She wants to go to LA and meet the stars (as we all do I suppose).
In summary, our visit was very special, for all of us. We hugged and they couldn't be greatful enough for supporting their family, something Lauren and I couldn't take responsibilty for, but which we will convey to Bubbie. Lauren and I were just stoked to meet some locals and catch a peak into Ecuadorian life. It was a great coincidence that our first destination was where Vanessa lived, and we are greatful to Bubbie for having us deliver the gift to her. If anybody appreciates pictures, it's Bubbie, and I can't to show her pictures of our visit. It will mean a lot to her.
Love,
Andy
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Otavalo and back
Otavalo is a small town with one very large market. Friday night was dead upon our arrival because everyone had to get up Saturday morning to haul their livestock to the aminal market at 5 am. We got there around 730 and the chickens were still kickin'. Cows, sheep, bunnies, chickens, pigs, baby chickens, baby sheep, baby pigs, and about 1,000 people. That was over early, but only about a half mile away the famous Otavalo craft market boomed with colorful, handmade wool products amongst other crafts and plenty of street food. I (Lauren Jennifer Powell) bought some goofy overalls, of course. Andy added to his collection of belts made for children.
When we tired of the market, we set out for Lago San Pablo. The bus dropped us off at the wrong stop and we ended up walking for about 2 hours through a town without any finished buildings, then through the most beautiful corn fields. An enormous volcano sat before us. We did see the lake, but we missed the walking path. However, the walk through the town and farmscape was much more enjoyable. We passed a few old women hauling large packs of produce or hearding sheep. They were suprised to see us on their path, but everyone was friendly nonetheless. In fact, the people in Otavalo were much friendlier than those in Quito. It was a very safe place, with many people of all ages bustling about until midnight after the market. It was quite refreshing after the hectic experience of Quito in our first week.
We are now back in Quito to start a language program tomorrow. Tonight we are in a less busy area than before, so we are at ease. Tomorrow we start our homestay with an Ecuadorian family. We've decided to do it here because we get a good discount through an organization we joined that provides resources and discounts for traveling gringos like us (they even have club houses in all of the major cities down here). Speaking of gringos, we have met so many people in our hostals (which have been very nice with DELICOUS breakfasts). Many people are traveling alone and meet people in hostals to travel with. The hostal crowd cracks me up because we are all very similar people, but from very different continents (mostly N. America, Europe or Australia). Several people we've met are doing the same exact trip as we are. There are also plenty of organized groups. We have yet to meet another couple traveling together.
Although we are not too excited about the big city, our Spanish improves daily, and the classes will help a lot. We will take a dance class and a cooking class as well. After another week we plan on heading South to the Cotopaxi volcano and the town of Banos to soak in some natural hot springs. We'd like to do some sort of a guided trek in Cotopaxi. After that we'd like to make it to the coast, then to Loja where we are STILL waiting to hear confirmation from our first farm. If that doesn't work out we'll simply move on to Peru.
So far we have had some interesting lessons in tourism. First, tourists will ALWAYS get charged more than locals in a taxi. Second, look 4 ways before you cross the street. Third, wash your hands and drink 3-4 liters of water per day (without drowning). Fourth, none of us are 'volunteers', we are fortunate travelers, and the people that help us when we are lost are extremely kind hearted. I'm sure I will have more to say on this as we go along. And Fifth, carry small change.
We hope to be able to upload pictures this week. Thanks for your posts. Send e mails too!
Ciao!
Lauren and Andy
When we tired of the market, we set out for Lago San Pablo. The bus dropped us off at the wrong stop and we ended up walking for about 2 hours through a town without any finished buildings, then through the most beautiful corn fields. An enormous volcano sat before us. We did see the lake, but we missed the walking path. However, the walk through the town and farmscape was much more enjoyable. We passed a few old women hauling large packs of produce or hearding sheep. They were suprised to see us on their path, but everyone was friendly nonetheless. In fact, the people in Otavalo were much friendlier than those in Quito. It was a very safe place, with many people of all ages bustling about until midnight after the market. It was quite refreshing after the hectic experience of Quito in our first week.
We are now back in Quito to start a language program tomorrow. Tonight we are in a less busy area than before, so we are at ease. Tomorrow we start our homestay with an Ecuadorian family. We've decided to do it here because we get a good discount through an organization we joined that provides resources and discounts for traveling gringos like us (they even have club houses in all of the major cities down here). Speaking of gringos, we have met so many people in our hostals (which have been very nice with DELICOUS breakfasts). Many people are traveling alone and meet people in hostals to travel with. The hostal crowd cracks me up because we are all very similar people, but from very different continents (mostly N. America, Europe or Australia). Several people we've met are doing the same exact trip as we are. There are also plenty of organized groups. We have yet to meet another couple traveling together.
Although we are not too excited about the big city, our Spanish improves daily, and the classes will help a lot. We will take a dance class and a cooking class as well. After another week we plan on heading South to the Cotopaxi volcano and the town of Banos to soak in some natural hot springs. We'd like to do some sort of a guided trek in Cotopaxi. After that we'd like to make it to the coast, then to Loja where we are STILL waiting to hear confirmation from our first farm. If that doesn't work out we'll simply move on to Peru.
So far we have had some interesting lessons in tourism. First, tourists will ALWAYS get charged more than locals in a taxi. Second, look 4 ways before you cross the street. Third, wash your hands and drink 3-4 liters of water per day (without drowning). Fourth, none of us are 'volunteers', we are fortunate travelers, and the people that help us when we are lost are extremely kind hearted. I'm sure I will have more to say on this as we go along. And Fifth, carry small change.
We hope to be able to upload pictures this week. Thanks for your posts. Send e mails too!
Ciao!
Lauren and Andy
Thursday, March 5, 2009
I have a bathroom
We are still struggling with Spanish. Yesterday Andy asked a restaraunt owner if "I have a bathroom", rather than if "you have a bathroom". I got a kick out of it until I tried speaking with some Ecuadorians later in the day and slipped into Spanglish because they spoke English better than I spoke Spanish. We are gringos, no doubt about it.
We are still in Quito, staying at our original hostal and still trying to figure out whether we want to stay in Quito for another week and start a language program here, or if we want to move on to a town slightly north of here, and recommended by Janet Reese and Meghan Grodeon, called Otavalo. Quito is very hectic and the air is bad due to bus traffic, however there are many other travelers around and the Ecuadorians here are interested in us and willing to converse with our poor Spanish. Otavalo, on the other hand, is supposed to be beautiful, more rural and much smaller than Quito. We will probably end up doing another week in Quito for language, then one week in Otavalo before week head south and to the coast. Eventually we hope to work on a farm in Loja (the most southern major city in Ecuador).
Now that I have exposed our indecisive travel logic, I'll fill you in on what we have been doing. First you must know that Quito has an elevation of nearly 10,000 feet. Our first night we were out of breath walking up two flights of stairs and a bit nauseous. Our first day we felt a bit better so we decided to walk to "New Town", or Mariscal Sucre. Instead we ended up in "Old Town", the historical district. Though the opposite direction than intended, Old Town was quite interesting. We had lunch in a large market place with raw meat hanging in every which direction, and fruits, vegetables, soup and juice stands in every other direction. Of course we thought we would have "traveler's diarrhea", as they so euphemistically call it, after that meal, but alas, we still haven't been sick. Old Town had a large church and a theatre district as well as an art museum. HOwever, after three hours of being out we were exhausted (blame the altitude), and had to go back to the hostal for a siesta. We rested most of the first day in order to acclimatize.
Yesterday we were feeling a bit more physically stable, so we took a long walk through New Town, and on to the "Bohemian" town of Guapulo. If you've been to Greece, you know how steep residential roads can get. This cobble stone street was nothing less than a narrow ski slope. We crawled down for about a half hour to a large Church that appeared to have been converted to an International University. Finally we got a view of the surroundings of Quito - green and volcanic mountainsides all around. Grumpy from hunger, we sat down at a small mom and pop restaurant for the set lunch, or almuerzo, which consisted of potatoe and corn soup, rice, sourkrout, the most delicious chicken, and a fried plantain. The food here is wonderful, and lunch is generally $2 US per person (Ecuador is pegged to the US Dollar(. Needless to say, we did not walk back up the mountain street, but took a taxi half way back to our hostal, walked the rest of the way, then took another afternoon siesta.
Last night we decided to venture out, which was not as scary as the books say, and we went to a very Brittish pop quiz, or trivia night. We were teamed up with 3 Ecuadorians who wanted to practice their English, and in turn we practiced our Spanish a bit. We came in last place... oh well... How were 3 Ecuadorians and 2 North Americans to know that WHAM was the first Brittish pop group to tour China? Need I point out the bias?
By the way, I can't figure out how to type a question mark on this keyboard, and the spell check doesn't work, so excuse poor punctuation and spelling.
I'll admit it, we haven't taken any pictures yet. But I swear, we will!
We love you all,
Lauren and Andy
We are still in Quito, staying at our original hostal and still trying to figure out whether we want to stay in Quito for another week and start a language program here, or if we want to move on to a town slightly north of here, and recommended by Janet Reese and Meghan Grodeon, called Otavalo. Quito is very hectic and the air is bad due to bus traffic, however there are many other travelers around and the Ecuadorians here are interested in us and willing to converse with our poor Spanish. Otavalo, on the other hand, is supposed to be beautiful, more rural and much smaller than Quito. We will probably end up doing another week in Quito for language, then one week in Otavalo before week head south and to the coast. Eventually we hope to work on a farm in Loja (the most southern major city in Ecuador).
Now that I have exposed our indecisive travel logic, I'll fill you in on what we have been doing. First you must know that Quito has an elevation of nearly 10,000 feet. Our first night we were out of breath walking up two flights of stairs and a bit nauseous. Our first day we felt a bit better so we decided to walk to "New Town", or Mariscal Sucre. Instead we ended up in "Old Town", the historical district. Though the opposite direction than intended, Old Town was quite interesting. We had lunch in a large market place with raw meat hanging in every which direction, and fruits, vegetables, soup and juice stands in every other direction. Of course we thought we would have "traveler's diarrhea", as they so euphemistically call it, after that meal, but alas, we still haven't been sick. Old Town had a large church and a theatre district as well as an art museum. HOwever, after three hours of being out we were exhausted (blame the altitude), and had to go back to the hostal for a siesta. We rested most of the first day in order to acclimatize.
Yesterday we were feeling a bit more physically stable, so we took a long walk through New Town, and on to the "Bohemian" town of Guapulo. If you've been to Greece, you know how steep residential roads can get. This cobble stone street was nothing less than a narrow ski slope. We crawled down for about a half hour to a large Church that appeared to have been converted to an International University. Finally we got a view of the surroundings of Quito - green and volcanic mountainsides all around. Grumpy from hunger, we sat down at a small mom and pop restaurant for the set lunch, or almuerzo, which consisted of potatoe and corn soup, rice, sourkrout, the most delicious chicken, and a fried plantain. The food here is wonderful, and lunch is generally $2 US per person (Ecuador is pegged to the US Dollar(. Needless to say, we did not walk back up the mountain street, but took a taxi half way back to our hostal, walked the rest of the way, then took another afternoon siesta.
Last night we decided to venture out, which was not as scary as the books say, and we went to a very Brittish pop quiz, or trivia night. We were teamed up with 3 Ecuadorians who wanted to practice their English, and in turn we practiced our Spanish a bit. We came in last place... oh well... How were 3 Ecuadorians and 2 North Americans to know that WHAM was the first Brittish pop group to tour China? Need I point out the bias?
By the way, I can't figure out how to type a question mark on this keyboard, and the spell check doesn't work, so excuse poor punctuation and spelling.
I'll admit it, we haven't taken any pictures yet. But I swear, we will!
We love you all,
Lauren and Andy
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
First Night in Quito
Here is Lauren´s Post. Andy may write his own...
Never have I had such an easy trip! We hardly waited in LA or in Miami, then when we got to Quito our taxi driver was waiting for us (although my name was spelled ¨Lauren Dowll¨), and he took us straight to our hostal. It is a really cool old building and we are on the top floor overlooking the courtyard. It is certainly worn down, but very clean with a nice cafe and several computers. We met one guy this morning from the Netherlands who was very friendly and assured us that during the day time, the area is very safe regardless of the many traveler safety advisories. That was nice to hear early in the morning.
We arrived around 11 pm last night and got to bed feeling a little light headed due to the high altitude, but this morning we feel well after a little food and water. We have been practicing our Spanish already. Most people so far seem to speak English, so they can correct us, but they prefer Spanish.
By the way, we are only 3 hours ahead of California because Ecuador does not use daylight savings time. I suppose they don´t need to since they are on the equator and sunlight is probably pretty consistant.
We are very happy, and the trip got off to a great and easy start. Today we will visit a travel center to get some tips on language programs and things to do. Apparently we can go to the exact (GPS located) equator and watch water flow down sinks in two different directions on either side of the equator. Pretty cool..
Today we will also look for a calling card. Everything is really cheap and I am very glad we decided not to bring a phone because we can call the US for 6 to 12 cents per minute from here, rather than the 2.50 per minute on an international cell phone. And it looks like we will have regular internet access unless we leave urban areas.
Never have I had such an easy trip! We hardly waited in LA or in Miami, then when we got to Quito our taxi driver was waiting for us (although my name was spelled ¨Lauren Dowll¨), and he took us straight to our hostal. It is a really cool old building and we are on the top floor overlooking the courtyard. It is certainly worn down, but very clean with a nice cafe and several computers. We met one guy this morning from the Netherlands who was very friendly and assured us that during the day time, the area is very safe regardless of the many traveler safety advisories. That was nice to hear early in the morning.
We arrived around 11 pm last night and got to bed feeling a little light headed due to the high altitude, but this morning we feel well after a little food and water. We have been practicing our Spanish already. Most people so far seem to speak English, so they can correct us, but they prefer Spanish.
By the way, we are only 3 hours ahead of California because Ecuador does not use daylight savings time. I suppose they don´t need to since they are on the equator and sunlight is probably pretty consistant.
We are very happy, and the trip got off to a great and easy start. Today we will visit a travel center to get some tips on language programs and things to do. Apparently we can go to the exact (GPS located) equator and watch water flow down sinks in two different directions on either side of the equator. Pretty cool..
Today we will also look for a calling card. Everything is really cheap and I am very glad we decided not to bring a phone because we can call the US for 6 to 12 cents per minute from here, rather than the 2.50 per minute on an international cell phone. And it looks like we will have regular internet access unless we leave urban areas.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
11 days of English
Here is the checklist folks:
Lauren: Finish school (check)
Andy: Quit career job (check)
Both:
Move out of respective college towns (check)
Spanish class (check)
Wilderness first aid course (check)
Travel insurance (check)
REI mania (check)
Family time (in progress)
Move to Ecuador (Depart March 2, LAX)
We will be finding a language program once we arrive (so we don't get ripped off by paying for one online before we see it). Then we will be "WWOOFing", or working for room and board on farms, and looking for other sorts of work as we travel. If you have any suggestions or contacts, feel free to send them our way.
I'd love to see everyone while I'm in San Diego. Andy will be here too. Come to our Going Away Party Feb 27.
Lauren: Finish school (check)
Andy: Quit career job (check)
Both:
Move out of respective college towns (check)
Spanish class (check)
Wilderness first aid course (check)
Travel insurance (check)
REI mania (check)
Family time (in progress)
Move to Ecuador (Depart March 2, LAX)
We will be finding a language program once we arrive (so we don't get ripped off by paying for one online before we see it). Then we will be "WWOOFing", or working for room and board on farms, and looking for other sorts of work as we travel. If you have any suggestions or contacts, feel free to send them our way.
I'd love to see everyone while I'm in San Diego. Andy will be here too. Come to our Going Away Party Feb 27.
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