FOREIGN PASSPORTS
[failure, attempt one]
Our last adventure ended with us in Santiago, waiting to visit the swedish consulate so Zoe could get a new swedish passport before going to Bolivia (so as to avoid paying the $135 dollar reciprocal entrance fee that they charge americans). This process has been over a year in the making, with previous attempts made both at the swedish consulate in Seattle, and actually in Sweden itself. So after many headaches and a lot of wasted effort, everything seemed to be lining up for success in Santiago.
We found our way to the Swedish embassy in Santiago (one of only three in all of South America) and took a number, waiting in the incredibly organized office, admiring the lovely swedish-designed furniture and curtains. After some time, Zoe was able to talk to a real swedish person, in swedish, only to discover that before she gets a new swedish passport, she needed to do some more swedish stuff - make an appointment.
Apparently, the person who actually operates the magic passport machine, which zoe has searched for in several continents now, only likes to work once a week. So we were told (quite dramatically) that we wont be able to have an appointment with this magic machine opperator "at least until April." Mind you, it was like March 26th or something...
Slightly downtrodden, we left the embassy, met up with Cara and Xav (who we were with from the farm) and proceeded to explore the rest of Santiago. Santiago is one of those cities, kind of like Lima, that everyone we met said was just like any other city and not really worth the visit - crowded, polluted, and more or less uninteresting, so we weren't particularly excited to be there. After some time there though, we really started to like the place. First, it's a little polluted, owing to the fact that it is gigantic and tucked into a valley in the desert, but all of the streets were incredibly clean and well taken care of, there is great architecture, colonial and modern, to walk around and look at, impressive museums, and beautiful parks everywhere. In general, the place felt super livable and comfortable. Also, something like 40% of chile lives in Santiago, so it really is the cultural center of the country. There are parts that are super young, bohemian, and energetic, with lots of packed bars taking up almost all of the sidewalks. The barrio of Bella Vista, which is basically an outdoor grafiti museum, with some of the most impressive pieces of street art blanketing virtually every buiding in the neighborhood.
We also happened to meet up with some other friends from the farm (rafael, from brazil and ruben, from spain) for some drinks before everyone went their separate ways - had a great time cruising with them and reminising about the good ol days (like a week ago) of apple pickin'.
Since we had a week to kill before Zoe's appointment with the Passport machine and Cara and Xav's flight from Santiago to Auckland, New Zealand, we decided to make our way to the coast to spend some time in Valparaiso.
VALPARAISO
[forty-two hills]
Wow, having not really known anything about the city, we didn't really know what to expect short of what we have seen in photos. This place is just simply unbelievable and the photos do it absolutely no justice. It's like a magical, run-down, frenetic fairy-land built on top of 42 hills overlooking the Pacific Ocean. As the earlier capitol of Chile, and South America's largest port before the construction of the Panama Canal, it grew with incredible grandeur, despite being sacked by priates some 8 times. In the last 100 years or so, with the capitol moving to Santiago, and the loss of its importance as a crucial stopping point for shipping, the city continued to grow slowly, but lost much of its opulance and developed a fine coat of grit and grime. Now, it still sits perched on its hills, with 100-year old ascensors (feniculars) still carrying its inhabitants up and down from brightly colored tin houses on winding little streets, to the super busy, dizzying center.
While there, we stayed in what has been quite possibly our finest accomodations to date, a hospedaje called La Biciclette, run but a super gregarious and helpfull frenchman name Gilles. Both we and Cara & Xav had beautifully decorated, spacious rooms to ourselves and there was a barbeque, and a super nice outdoor patio that we could use whenever we wanted to. Also, since Xav also enjoys to just sit around and drawing, we had lots of time to sketch the fully impressive scenery, while the ladies got to ditch the boys and go shopping leisurely, which worked out for everyone.
One night, while at a bar, someone we met dropped the hint that Valpariso is also home to the widely acclaimed "best chorrillana in all of chile". For those of you who have never seen a chorrillan: http://www.google.com/search?hl=es&biw=1003&bih=567&site=search&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=chorrillana&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq= It is a bed of french fries, covered by layers of sautéd green onions, beef, chicken, etc. etc. all topped with fried eggs. Pretty impressive engineering. We were told that you can find the particularly famous one in a restauarant called J-Cruz, which is hidded, by all accounts, somewhere in valpariso. After an incredibly amount of asking everyone we could about where this mysterious J-cruz is, we were able to track it down. (I say we, but I unfortunately needed to sit out for this due to some slight stomach issues induced by maybe one too many piscolas the night before). Nonetheless, Zoe, Cara, and Xav got to enjoy this miracle which is a true work of culinary genius in the junk food category, in an quite classic locale.
All said, a big reccommendation goes out to all even considering going anywhere, anytime - check out valparaiso.
HORCÓN¨
[OG hippie/fisherman hangout]
At the end of our magical time in Valparaiso, we said our farewells to Xav and Cara, wished them luck on the next six months of their travels through New Zealand, Austrailia, and Asia, and caught a bus headed north up the coast. We didn't have a set destination really, but our guide book said a little town called horcón, about two hours away from valparaiso, was chile's original hippie hangout. This seemed like as good of a reason as any to stop and pass a couple of days while we were waiting for the passport appointment back in Santiago. When we arrived, after the longest two hour bus ride of our lives, we disembarked in a town that felt very similar (climatically and geographically) to the little depressed pacific coast beach towns we know back home. Despite a sense of familiarity, this was a really unique place, with colorful little ramshackle houses crowded up along a peaceful bay full of small wooden fishing boats. Our book was definitely correct in saying that this place was chill, but maybe they were targeting a different demographic... Sure, the scene was totally tranquil and laid-back, with people and mangey dogs just hanging out on the shoreline talking all day, but hippy hangout? That's a stretch. Where we're from, I think we would call these people fishermen. Not a hippie in sight. Although we didn't make it the kilometer or so out of town to chile's only nude beach (SUPER cold), you would think at least these chilly exibitionists would've needed to walk through town for an empanada or something, considering the incredible crab-to-bread ratio of those suckers (seriously like a softball).
Horcón was beautiful, quiet, and indeed relaxed but we had business to attend to back in Santiago so we packed up our cable-equipped hostel room and grabbed some crab empanadas for the road.
SANTIAGO
[promises, yet fulfilled]
Round two, sweden embassy versus z. viklund. In perfect scandinavian form, we (zoe) arrived at the embassy early, took our (zoe's) number, waited briefly, and (zoe) stepped into the passport machine while I (again) adrmired the fine swedish furnishings. The passport machine is a thing of the future. It looks a little like the offspring of one of those x-ray machines at the dentist that you step into to have some whizzing camera spin around your head and a photobooth. It is basically a super efficient way to sum up a person's stats; it measures your height, scans your eyes, takes your fingerprints, stores your signature, takes your photo, and probably does your tarrot. The whole thing took like five minutes, and everyone said some stuff I didn't understand in a language whose only word i know is grandpa (far far). After all was done, zoe translated for me and said the passport would be ready to pick up in 2 to 3 weeks. This was great news. We had a wwoofing gig lined up in southern chile in a few days and figured we would beeline it down there and explore a bit before we went back to working.
So, off we went on nightbus #10 (for those of you who've been counting), headed towards the northern regions of Patagonia on an island called Chiloé.
We have much more to say, as this only covers up to about a month ago, but for everyone's sake, we wont drone on too long. Also we are here in Salta and we hear theres some kind of bar with 40 artisinal beers (!!!) that we need to check out before heading to bed to get some sleep before our 7am bus to Bolivia tomorrow.
Keep an eye out, we'll be writing more in a little while! Upcoming chapters include but are not limited to:
CHILOE: mystical misty island of the deep south
PUERTO VARAS: helping restore a UNESCO world heritage house and some furniture and learning to cook on a wood stove, oh and a reeeaaally cute baby
PASSPORT ROUND THREE: frustration and failure. swedes.
MENDOZA, TUCUMAN, TAFI, SALTA: zipping through the wild and wooly north! rad artisinal cheeses, bike misadventures.
until next time, and i really hope next time is sometime this week, peep our pictures! heres that link again for those of you that forgot:
LOVE,
scott (+zoe)
5.03.2011
5.02.2011
too loooooong!
i know i know i know it has been an AGE since we last posted on here! scott said he would post a few days ago but first he had to make an outline (scott, so organized that one) so, it´s like halfway there! in the meantime sate yourself by looking at a TON of new pics, like really, try not to get bored halfway through because there are like, 150! we are really almost up to date now.
just briefly, we left chile and are now in salta, northern argentina. hopefully we will be in bolivia and cruising the salar de uyuni by this weekend! but you know, NOTHING goes according to plan. just know, BOLIVIA!
here are the promised pics, check them out!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zoe_vik_lund/
just briefly, we left chile and are now in salta, northern argentina. hopefully we will be in bolivia and cruising the salar de uyuni by this weekend! but you know, NOTHING goes according to plan. just know, BOLIVIA!
here are the promised pics, check them out!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zoe_vik_lund/
3.29.2011
la vida organica/lomo lomo lomo/viva chile
hello friends! here in santiago we have finally located an internet cafe with a modicum of modernity, and therefore am able to update this blog! not to say that there isnt fast internet in south america, just that if there is an internet cafe with computers made after 1998 there are generally 30 little boys playing total recon or world of warcraft or whatever and you have to wait forever and then they are using up a lot of the banda ancha, you know. im just making excuses. the real reason is that we are having way too much fun to hang out on the internet all day, so im just not prioritizing it! ha!
as you know from when we last spoke, we were headed to el finca peregrino to wwoof. we bought the worlds most poorly made tent for about 40 dollars brand new at the carrefours in mendoza, and the worlds most poorly made sleeping bags at some chinos in tunuyan, and headed off to find the farm.
finca peregrino is located about 3 hours south of mendoza, about 6 km from the nearest town of vista flores. the area is a paradise of vineyards and farmland, cut through with irrigation canals like perfect little rivers, all fed by andean snowmelt. the mountains tower in the background, absolutely gigantic, treeless, the tallest ones streaked with snow even now in the heat of late summer. the farm is run by anna and ignacio perez, and worked by them and their adult children, rodrigo and marie jesus, and marie´s french husband manu. and volunteers! the farm is essentially a permaculture operation, and the family and all volunteers eat almost exclusively what is grown right there on the land. all the buildings are made using natural building techniques, out of local mud and straw, with glass bottles embedded in the walls for light and decoration. the volunteers live either in a little casita full of bunk beds, or in tents set up alongside the river, under a canopy of trees. the farm grows tomatoes, basil, arugula, chard, many kinds of lettuce, peas, carrots, potatoes, beets, peppers, hot peppers, eggplant, corn, summer and winter squash, cherries, pears, peaches, plums, nectarines...and much more! there are hidden gardens all over growing many other vegetables and all kinds of herbs. there are also a few horses, and an area for bees. most of all though, the farm has several apple orchards, which they harvest for sale directly and to make apple juice and apple vinegar. anna takes the nicest looking vegetables to the farmers market in mendoza every saturday, but the majority of them go to feed the family, the many volunteers, and into preserves to sell in the farm store and to last through the winter.
march is the busiest month at the farm, and they need as many volunteers as they can possibly get. scott and i were part of an overall group of 14 volunteers for the two and a half weeks we spent at the farm. the volunteers come from all over the world, though mostly from western europe, israel, and north america. with us at the farm were young people from spain, france, ireland, belgium, brazil, colombia, germany, rhode island, western massachussetts, and even a girl from our home state of washington. we all spoke spanish at mealtimes and with the family, but we did sometimes slip into english (or french, depending on whats easy) while working. and WORK we did! four hours in the morning and four at night with a much needed siesta in between, but often much more due to just how much there was to do. we weeded giant vegetable patches, harvested tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, and peppers, picked and sorted thousands and thousands of apples, cleaned and prepared vegetables for sun drying, canning, or the market, and learned the ins and outs of pressing, bottling, and pasteurizing apple juice, among other things. the farm is completely organic and totally sustained by volunteer labor.
as volunteers, we were fed spectacular, gigantic vegan meals twice a day, prepared by anna. all vegetables we ate came from the farm itself, and the food was absolutely incredible. deep dark blood red tomatoes the size of your face, grown 15 yards from the table...piles and piles of roasted kabocha and butternut squash, eggplants galore, sugar sweet carrots, baby onions...on and on and on! the food was totally incredible. it would be so easy to be vegan if someone like anna lovingly prepared a groaning table of vegetables and polenta cakes and sauces for every meal, but you have to eat so much of it to get full! i mean, like three piles of arugula and tomatoes with garlic cilantro sauce is such a bad thing...but really, you have to eat a ton. and after 8 hours of HARD labor, you´re pretty hungry too.
the apple juice we made at the farm is DELICIOUS! the farm grows two kinds of apples, granny smith and "red" apples. i asked what kind they were and rodrigo just shrugged and said "manzanas rojos" so, they might be red delicious but they taste awesome and red delicious apples tend to suck. i guess a lot of it has to do with how they are grown, so they might just be the best red delicious apples in the world. anyways, we made juice from the red apples and drank ourselves sick while pressing and bottling it. before pasteurization, it really tastes like a whole apple in your mouth, you can almost feel the texture of the apple...all the flavors, its just amaaazing. not to say that there isnt great apple juice in the states too...i had some realllllly killer apple juice in western massachussetts one time, that i have to say might even have been better. but yeah, this apple juice was out of control.
anna also has extensive training in natural medicine, and with that many people living so close together and working so hard, she has many opportinities to use it. scott came down with a killer sinus infection, and decided to ask the mama for help. she promptly grated a raw onion and pressed out a bit of juice, which she put in a spoon and handed to me to help him snort. scott leaned back and i poured it straight in! talk about fun to watch. you know how it feels to cut an onion? yeah, times a million. after a few days and three administrations of onion jugo, he was cured! no joke. anna also gave tinctures of artichoke for upset stomach, recommended lemon and olive oil for sun protection, and could perscribe certain foods for however you were feeling that day. it was awesome! for cuts there was a mysterious brown salve to apply, and then shreds of gauze to cover.
i guess i should also mention, all the volunteers shared (and shared cleaning duties for) one composting toilet, the baño seco. when properly maintained, its a beautiful system. no water is wasted, it doesnt smell, and its rather pleasant to use, with a big window facing the river. inside is a vase of herbs and there are glass bottles embedded in the mud walls. however, emptying the bucket and scrubbing it down is an unenviable task that we all had to do at least once. really, it makes you appreciate indoor plumbing so much, but also realize how wasteful it all is.
anyways, we had initially planned to stay a bit longer on the farm, but after two weeks we were throroughly exhausted. the only days off were saturday evening and sunday, which we generally spent laying around taking naps, washing our clothes by hand, and trying to hitch hike into town to (wait a long time) to use the internet and eat ice cream. (dairy!) our main reason for leaving, however, was that i needed to get to santiago to renew my swedish passport, which has been a long saga of failed attempts, both in the states and in sweden this past summer. the longer i waited to get the process started the longer it would be before i get it, and my american passport now has only one blank page, and there are many more border crossings in my future. i dont know how it filled up so fast! why dont border control people stamp in the corner of the page? why do they insist on doing it dead center and taking up so much room?? come on you guys!
so we said our goodbyes and left the finca peregrino with some new friends, cara and xav, and set off for chile! but first we stopped in mendoza for a few nights, where we took our first hot showers in 20 days (the finca had what was essentially a hose connected to the wall at head height in a dark cement cell...sufficient but not what you´d call comfortable) and washed down some gigantic steaks with two bottles of excellent wine. (latitud 33, if you have an interest in argentine malbecs, give it a try) sorry anna! i loved your salads but i also loved that ribeye and french fries with mayonnaise.
anyways, after a few days in mendoza, a failed attempt at going to a winery in maipu (really EVERYTHING is closed on sunday, dont bother trying to do anything but flop around in a park) and an awesome impromptu outdoor concert, we took the bus through the andes and landed ourselves in santiago de chile, where we are right now! while here we plan on wandering around, getting my swedish passport at the embassy, eating chorrillana (google THAT if youre feeling carnivorous, hungry and fat) trying to understand chilean spanish (which is competing with coastal ecuador to have the hardest to understand, least spanish sounding spanish) and just generally getting some things taken care of in this first world (expensive...) city.
from here we head to valparaiso, either tomorrow or the next day, to spend the weekend by the sea. we might try and do some camping around here, there are some pretty incredible looking hot springs to the north...and we are also trying to find somewhere to wwoof for another couple 3 weeks, hopefully by that time my passport will be ready to pick up. ideally we would like to go south into the lake district or to chiloe, but its getting chilly down there now and as i mentioned, our tent is less than stellar. we shall see. in the end we dont have any plans, because life is more fun that way. we will be in bolivia by sometime in may, and thats about all we know.
peace and love
Z+S
here are some pics, totally out of order and a weird sampling, but yeah. because i think it might be a long time before i update flickr.
as you know from when we last spoke, we were headed to el finca peregrino to wwoof. we bought the worlds most poorly made tent for about 40 dollars brand new at the carrefours in mendoza, and the worlds most poorly made sleeping bags at some chinos in tunuyan, and headed off to find the farm.
finca peregrino is located about 3 hours south of mendoza, about 6 km from the nearest town of vista flores. the area is a paradise of vineyards and farmland, cut through with irrigation canals like perfect little rivers, all fed by andean snowmelt. the mountains tower in the background, absolutely gigantic, treeless, the tallest ones streaked with snow even now in the heat of late summer. the farm is run by anna and ignacio perez, and worked by them and their adult children, rodrigo and marie jesus, and marie´s french husband manu. and volunteers! the farm is essentially a permaculture operation, and the family and all volunteers eat almost exclusively what is grown right there on the land. all the buildings are made using natural building techniques, out of local mud and straw, with glass bottles embedded in the walls for light and decoration. the volunteers live either in a little casita full of bunk beds, or in tents set up alongside the river, under a canopy of trees. the farm grows tomatoes, basil, arugula, chard, many kinds of lettuce, peas, carrots, potatoes, beets, peppers, hot peppers, eggplant, corn, summer and winter squash, cherries, pears, peaches, plums, nectarines...and much more! there are hidden gardens all over growing many other vegetables and all kinds of herbs. there are also a few horses, and an area for bees. most of all though, the farm has several apple orchards, which they harvest for sale directly and to make apple juice and apple vinegar. anna takes the nicest looking vegetables to the farmers market in mendoza every saturday, but the majority of them go to feed the family, the many volunteers, and into preserves to sell in the farm store and to last through the winter.
march is the busiest month at the farm, and they need as many volunteers as they can possibly get. scott and i were part of an overall group of 14 volunteers for the two and a half weeks we spent at the farm. the volunteers come from all over the world, though mostly from western europe, israel, and north america. with us at the farm were young people from spain, france, ireland, belgium, brazil, colombia, germany, rhode island, western massachussetts, and even a girl from our home state of washington. we all spoke spanish at mealtimes and with the family, but we did sometimes slip into english (or french, depending on whats easy) while working. and WORK we did! four hours in the morning and four at night with a much needed siesta in between, but often much more due to just how much there was to do. we weeded giant vegetable patches, harvested tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, and peppers, picked and sorted thousands and thousands of apples, cleaned and prepared vegetables for sun drying, canning, or the market, and learned the ins and outs of pressing, bottling, and pasteurizing apple juice, among other things. the farm is completely organic and totally sustained by volunteer labor.
as volunteers, we were fed spectacular, gigantic vegan meals twice a day, prepared by anna. all vegetables we ate came from the farm itself, and the food was absolutely incredible. deep dark blood red tomatoes the size of your face, grown 15 yards from the table...piles and piles of roasted kabocha and butternut squash, eggplants galore, sugar sweet carrots, baby onions...on and on and on! the food was totally incredible. it would be so easy to be vegan if someone like anna lovingly prepared a groaning table of vegetables and polenta cakes and sauces for every meal, but you have to eat so much of it to get full! i mean, like three piles of arugula and tomatoes with garlic cilantro sauce is such a bad thing...but really, you have to eat a ton. and after 8 hours of HARD labor, you´re pretty hungry too.
the apple juice we made at the farm is DELICIOUS! the farm grows two kinds of apples, granny smith and "red" apples. i asked what kind they were and rodrigo just shrugged and said "manzanas rojos" so, they might be red delicious but they taste awesome and red delicious apples tend to suck. i guess a lot of it has to do with how they are grown, so they might just be the best red delicious apples in the world. anyways, we made juice from the red apples and drank ourselves sick while pressing and bottling it. before pasteurization, it really tastes like a whole apple in your mouth, you can almost feel the texture of the apple...all the flavors, its just amaaazing. not to say that there isnt great apple juice in the states too...i had some realllllly killer apple juice in western massachussetts one time, that i have to say might even have been better. but yeah, this apple juice was out of control.
anna also has extensive training in natural medicine, and with that many people living so close together and working so hard, she has many opportinities to use it. scott came down with a killer sinus infection, and decided to ask the mama for help. she promptly grated a raw onion and pressed out a bit of juice, which she put in a spoon and handed to me to help him snort. scott leaned back and i poured it straight in! talk about fun to watch. you know how it feels to cut an onion? yeah, times a million. after a few days and three administrations of onion jugo, he was cured! no joke. anna also gave tinctures of artichoke for upset stomach, recommended lemon and olive oil for sun protection, and could perscribe certain foods for however you were feeling that day. it was awesome! for cuts there was a mysterious brown salve to apply, and then shreds of gauze to cover.
i guess i should also mention, all the volunteers shared (and shared cleaning duties for) one composting toilet, the baño seco. when properly maintained, its a beautiful system. no water is wasted, it doesnt smell, and its rather pleasant to use, with a big window facing the river. inside is a vase of herbs and there are glass bottles embedded in the mud walls. however, emptying the bucket and scrubbing it down is an unenviable task that we all had to do at least once. really, it makes you appreciate indoor plumbing so much, but also realize how wasteful it all is.
anyways, we had initially planned to stay a bit longer on the farm, but after two weeks we were throroughly exhausted. the only days off were saturday evening and sunday, which we generally spent laying around taking naps, washing our clothes by hand, and trying to hitch hike into town to (wait a long time) to use the internet and eat ice cream. (dairy!) our main reason for leaving, however, was that i needed to get to santiago to renew my swedish passport, which has been a long saga of failed attempts, both in the states and in sweden this past summer. the longer i waited to get the process started the longer it would be before i get it, and my american passport now has only one blank page, and there are many more border crossings in my future. i dont know how it filled up so fast! why dont border control people stamp in the corner of the page? why do they insist on doing it dead center and taking up so much room?? come on you guys!
so we said our goodbyes and left the finca peregrino with some new friends, cara and xav, and set off for chile! but first we stopped in mendoza for a few nights, where we took our first hot showers in 20 days (the finca had what was essentially a hose connected to the wall at head height in a dark cement cell...sufficient but not what you´d call comfortable) and washed down some gigantic steaks with two bottles of excellent wine. (latitud 33, if you have an interest in argentine malbecs, give it a try) sorry anna! i loved your salads but i also loved that ribeye and french fries with mayonnaise.
anyways, after a few days in mendoza, a failed attempt at going to a winery in maipu (really EVERYTHING is closed on sunday, dont bother trying to do anything but flop around in a park) and an awesome impromptu outdoor concert, we took the bus through the andes and landed ourselves in santiago de chile, where we are right now! while here we plan on wandering around, getting my swedish passport at the embassy, eating chorrillana (google THAT if youre feeling carnivorous, hungry and fat) trying to understand chilean spanish (which is competing with coastal ecuador to have the hardest to understand, least spanish sounding spanish) and just generally getting some things taken care of in this first world (expensive...) city.
from here we head to valparaiso, either tomorrow or the next day, to spend the weekend by the sea. we might try and do some camping around here, there are some pretty incredible looking hot springs to the north...and we are also trying to find somewhere to wwoof for another couple 3 weeks, hopefully by that time my passport will be ready to pick up. ideally we would like to go south into the lake district or to chiloe, but its getting chilly down there now and as i mentioned, our tent is less than stellar. we shall see. in the end we dont have any plans, because life is more fun that way. we will be in bolivia by sometime in may, and thats about all we know.
peace and love
Z+S
here are some pics, totally out of order and a weird sampling, but yeah. because i think it might be a long time before i update flickr.
perro caliente, cordoba
lunch
buenos aires
buenos aires rooftop
i weeded all those onions! look how proud they are
apple break. weird faces.
we went to a beach on a river with a lot of mica in the sand. scott let me decorate him.
climbing trees in la reserva, BA
everything for the sickness, santiago
the pre incan civilization that built this wall of mud in a thousand years ago (in what is now lima) worshiped the sea as a god, and ate sharks, the strongest of the sea creatures, to feel closer to the divine. it is earthquake proof and the walls are original.
our brazilian friend wellington, and yours truly, at cuesta blanca.
3.10.2011
an update and some clarification
hello! i write to you from mendoza, argentina. when we last spoke about a week ago, we were just beginning our love affair with buenos aires. i can now say without a doubt that it is one of my favorite cities in the whole world. it most resembles a rundown southern european city, with colonial architecture, tree lines streets, and sidewalk cafes, albeit with a distinctly south american bent. its definitely a metropolis, with lots of first world things like pilates studios and upscale nail salons, but it also has some things that arent tolerated in the united states and europe, like tons and tons of large scale graffiti, most of it very cool, and pockets of run down buildings that wouldnt pass any inspection, but are beautiful nonetheless. we spent over a week in buenos aires, mostly just walking and walking and walking around. the city is HUGE. i always thought new york city was the best test of a good pair of shoes, ie ones that look cool but allow you to walk 6 miles a day every day on uneven pavement without pain. turns out buenos aires is also good for testing shoes, and my ecuadorian jellies didnt pass. oh well.
the main reason we jetted down south so fast (instead of doing the quilotoa loop and surfing along the northern coast of peru as planned) is because we didnt realize how deep into late (southern hemisphere) summer we had gotten! we wanted to experience the south before it gets fallish down here, and then go back up slowly. this new plan also puts us in bolivia (which i am jaaaaazzed for) in may, the nicest time of the year there. while all of you up north im sure cant wait for spring, spring for you means fall for us, so im feeling the opposite way about the changing of the seasons. actually it´s good for us, because we get to participate in the harvest season! we heard back from a farm while we were in BA, which told us we could come participate in the apple harvest, which goes through march and into early april. they also have other vegetables, and make cider and vinegar, and have various natural construction projects. we are VERY excited to get out into nature and do some good work!
here is the website, its in spanish but you could probably google translate. try to ignore the comic sans.
http://www.elperegrinorganico.com/espa%F1ol.html
anyways. we had to leave BA to get to the farm in time for the harvest. we spent a couple days in cordoba, which was pretty meh. as someone who is sensitive to horrible graphic design, the boulevards lined with HUGE shitty looking signs above every store really bugged me. is that snobbish? im sorry. im actually not that sorry. why would you cover your beautiful old spanish architecture with a 15 foot wide hideous sign in hot pink and yellow ms curlz advertising crappy imported clothes from china? street after street of ugly signage and lots of traffic. bleh. not that cordoba as all aesthetic wasteland, there was a beautiful canal cutting through the city and we made some really lovely friends in the hostel. our last day there we went to a river an hour out of town called cuesta blanca, where we hiked along the banks scrambling over rocks until we found our own little empty patch of sand on the calm little river. we spent the day with a new friend, listening to brazilian music on our crappy speakers, eating peaches (totally ripe and perfectly in season here, i know youre jealous) sunning ourselves and swimming.
we are now in mendoza, a town that i already love! so leafy! so pretty! sidewalk cafes, wine! mountains! looking for sleeping bags and a tent (i think we are going to start camping a whole lot, mostly for economical reasons, but also for freedom reasons) before we skip out to the farm. we should have internet access there, and we will try to upload photos from the last month and maybe some from the farm too.
xoxox
zoe
the main reason we jetted down south so fast (instead of doing the quilotoa loop and surfing along the northern coast of peru as planned) is because we didnt realize how deep into late (southern hemisphere) summer we had gotten! we wanted to experience the south before it gets fallish down here, and then go back up slowly. this new plan also puts us in bolivia (which i am jaaaaazzed for) in may, the nicest time of the year there. while all of you up north im sure cant wait for spring, spring for you means fall for us, so im feeling the opposite way about the changing of the seasons. actually it´s good for us, because we get to participate in the harvest season! we heard back from a farm while we were in BA, which told us we could come participate in the apple harvest, which goes through march and into early april. they also have other vegetables, and make cider and vinegar, and have various natural construction projects. we are VERY excited to get out into nature and do some good work!
here is the website, its in spanish but you could probably google translate. try to ignore the comic sans.
http://www.elperegrinorganico.com/espa%F1ol.html
anyways. we had to leave BA to get to the farm in time for the harvest. we spent a couple days in cordoba, which was pretty meh. as someone who is sensitive to horrible graphic design, the boulevards lined with HUGE shitty looking signs above every store really bugged me. is that snobbish? im sorry. im actually not that sorry. why would you cover your beautiful old spanish architecture with a 15 foot wide hideous sign in hot pink and yellow ms curlz advertising crappy imported clothes from china? street after street of ugly signage and lots of traffic. bleh. not that cordoba as all aesthetic wasteland, there was a beautiful canal cutting through the city and we made some really lovely friends in the hostel. our last day there we went to a river an hour out of town called cuesta blanca, where we hiked along the banks scrambling over rocks until we found our own little empty patch of sand on the calm little river. we spent the day with a new friend, listening to brazilian music on our crappy speakers, eating peaches (totally ripe and perfectly in season here, i know youre jealous) sunning ourselves and swimming.
we are now in mendoza, a town that i already love! so leafy! so pretty! sidewalk cafes, wine! mountains! looking for sleeping bags and a tent (i think we are going to start camping a whole lot, mostly for economical reasons, but also for freedom reasons) before we skip out to the farm. we should have internet access there, and we will try to upload photos from the last month and maybe some from the farm too.
xoxox
zoe
3.02.2011
an update: i think that the last time i talked with you we were in quito, about to get on a bus to lima, peru from where we would take another one to go to santiago, chile. well, we made the bus to lima just fine (although it took 3 days and there was some really weird border crossing stuff that i can explain some other time). we stayed one night in lima to relax a bit and shake out our legs before the next 3-4 day bus ride. when we went to the bus station the next morning to ask about buses to santiago, it turned out that all of the buses headed that way were booked through mid march so we started to explore other options. we found that pretty much every bus was booked for at least a few days and we started to stress out a bit... then we found this kid from colombia who was in the same boat. he was starting grad school for graphic design in buenos aires, argentina and had to get there as quick as possible and told us that one bus company had a bunch of people who had bought tickets to buenos aires and didn't have all of their paperwork in order to enter argentina and that if they didn't get it sorted out in time they wouldn't be able to use their tickets and the seats would be open. so we wound up waiting ALL day in the bus station, with fingers crossed, hoping that these people wouldn't be able to use their seats. (a little sidebar about waiting for this sort of thing in peru: everything is wildly unorganized, lines hardly exist, no one working anywhere really knows whats going on, and its SUPER hot.) so after much frustration, and a lot of arguing between a family of 4 without their papers and the bus company, it turned out that they wouldn't be able to enter argentina so they would't be able to use their tickets. so, with the bus scheduled to leave at 4pm, the three of us bought our tickets at 4:45 and RAN to where the bus was leaving from, checked-in, and collapsed into our seats...
this was SUCH a long bus! over 72 hours in total. look at a map, from quito, it seems about the same distance to LA as it is to buenos aires. and we didn't stop except for gas. the entire time, they blasted terrible american movies dubbed in spanish. all we ate we crackers, and combining the previous bus of 40 hours, we realized that we hadn't had a fruit or vegetable in over 10 days. we did pass a lot of very beautiful landscapes throughout the trip though. we drove the entire coastline of peru (incredibly beautiful, look for pictures later), through the driest desert on Earth, crossed the andes, and passed through the entire farmland of argentina (which is really just as flat as you could imagine with green fields stretching all the way to the horizon, with only a few poplar trees and houses/barns obstructing the horizon). we also had MORE than enough time to practice spanish on our captive audience of fellow-bus riders so we're feeling pretty good about that now.
BUT, now we're in buenos aires - "the paris of south america". it is, by all accounts, an incredibly modern, gigantic, sophisticated city and it feels VERY good to be in such a place after so much seated time. we got in last night, checked into a cool hostel downtown, and slept SO soundly in our real bed. the weather is absolutely perfect right now and we just ate a giant, breakfast with real coffee for the first time in WAY too long. i think we'll be here for about 2 or 3 more days.
from here, we're going to take yet another overnight bus back to the farming area around mendoza, argentina to a wwoofing farm that wrote us back about helping them with their apple harvest. their main production is apple juice and cider and march is the big go-time for them. we're thinking we're going to spend most of march there, drinking apple juice mostly.
that's all for now! going to go explore this awesome city now. also, i think we're planning on taking you up on that argentinian steak dinner tonight! the battery for the camera is charging and we'll make sure to take some pictures!
love you guys, hope all is well!
scott
this was SUCH a long bus! over 72 hours in total. look at a map, from quito, it seems about the same distance to LA as it is to buenos aires. and we didn't stop except for gas. the entire time, they blasted terrible american movies dubbed in spanish. all we ate we crackers, and combining the previous bus of 40 hours, we realized that we hadn't had a fruit or vegetable in over 10 days. we did pass a lot of very beautiful landscapes throughout the trip though. we drove the entire coastline of peru (incredibly beautiful, look for pictures later), through the driest desert on Earth, crossed the andes, and passed through the entire farmland of argentina (which is really just as flat as you could imagine with green fields stretching all the way to the horizon, with only a few poplar trees and houses/barns obstructing the horizon). we also had MORE than enough time to practice spanish on our captive audience of fellow-bus riders so we're feeling pretty good about that now.
BUT, now we're in buenos aires - "the paris of south america". it is, by all accounts, an incredibly modern, gigantic, sophisticated city and it feels VERY good to be in such a place after so much seated time. we got in last night, checked into a cool hostel downtown, and slept SO soundly in our real bed. the weather is absolutely perfect right now and we just ate a giant, breakfast with real coffee for the first time in WAY too long. i think we'll be here for about 2 or 3 more days.
from here, we're going to take yet another overnight bus back to the farming area around mendoza, argentina to a wwoofing farm that wrote us back about helping them with their apple harvest. their main production is apple juice and cider and march is the big go-time for them. we're thinking we're going to spend most of march there, drinking apple juice mostly.
that's all for now! going to go explore this awesome city now. also, i think we're planning on taking you up on that argentinian steak dinner tonight! the battery for the camera is charging and we'll make sure to take some pictures!
love you guys, hope all is well!
scott
2.20.2011
la costa! (not the one in burien)
as always, the requisite apology for such a long pause between blog posts, but we have been away from the internet for a long time! so its not really our fault. where have we been, you might ask? well, all over the coast, and it was awesome. scott taught me how to surf, we ate a lot of shrimp, and met tons of interesting people from all over. i didnt wash my hair for several weeks and scott wore the same tank top every day his shoulders werent too burned to be exposed, so really it was an excellent low-heigeine adventure.
first stop was puerto lopez, a sleepyish fishing village on the central coast. mostly we went there because it was easy to get to by an overnight bus from quito, but it exceeded all expectations. we got a great hotel room right on the beach for 7 dollars, scott got right to surfing, and i commenced sunning myself all day every day (with sunscreen, dont worry.) there were tourists, but not very many...probably about a dozen in a city of several thousand. the town is pretty small, and the economy is almost completely based on fishing. this makes for an incredibly laid back atmosphere, since everyone gets done working at about 11am. after hauling in their fish, the fishermen sit around on hammocks and in deckchairs on the sidewalk, with their shirts pushed up to get breeze on their bellies. people play cards with their families, hang out with dogs, and mostly just lay around looking pretty happy. giant coastal vultures and pelicans swoop around in the sky above the beach hoping to find some scraps, and there are always people playing soccer. there are little huts on the sand that sell juice and beer and sandwiches and ceviche, and if you buy anything there you get to hang out in their hammocks all day so we were happy there for a long time.
because of the lack of other tourists (relative lack, we did meet a nice guy from arizona and some old swiss people) and most peoples early starts for fishing, the town pretty much goes to sleep at 9pm. eventually we felt like making friends and getting some party time in, so we headed south to montañita, the fiesta capital of the ecuadorian coast.
turns out, montañita...sucks. its basically trying to be vegas/mykonos/cabo, so if thats your scene maybe its fun. we made the mistake of going on a weekend, a BUSY weekend with the reef south america surf competition, so it was super crowded, filthy, and expensive. it did have a beautiful long beach full of absolutely gorgeous super tan human beings from argentina, uruguay, chile, etc, but other than that it was pretty nasty. at night it filled to the brim with 19 year-old ragers from guayaquil and everyone got really, really drunk. we hung out for a while, but unfortunately scott drank most of a nalgene full of completely unpurified tap water (a result of accidental steripen misuse) and then got quite ill. our 40(!!!) dollar a night shithole hotel room only had partial walls dividing us from the two-song-only teenage dance party in the hallway, the toilet did not work, it was approximately 120 degrees with no fan, and we both got bedbug bites all over. soo, next morning, once scott rallied, we made our way out.
to ayampe! a tiny little town on the ruta del sol, north of montañita and south of puerto lopez. its a beautiful area with lovely beaches and people. the towns are so small theres really no restaurants only eco-hostels, so your only option is eating there. they know this, so its expensive, but nonetheless super comfortable so we relaxed and recovered for a few days, enjoying our tent in the jungle. i read dracula in a hammock, which is a great book, and totally deserving of its fame. scott read a cheap thriller novel. the waves here were interesting in that the break was super close to the shore, so you could watch all the shredder 10 year old local boys do tricks right between you and the sunsets.
we swooped back to puerto lopez for a few days and did a snorkel trip to isla salango where we saw blue footed boobies and sea turtles, and a giant pod of dolphins swam with our boat. we ended the tour on a secluded white sand beach on an uninhabited island with fresh fish ceviche and fried plantains. it was totally worth it.
continuing up the coast, we finally made it to canoa, everyone´s favorite beach and surf town. we stayed in an excellent hostal, coco loco for any of you planning a trip, run by a super rad alaskan/mexican couple. we had our own kitchen and everything. everyone at the hostal was fun, the bars in town were great and cheap, and scott got to surf every single day, multiple times a day. we met tons of interesting people and a few real weirdos (in the best possible way). also the hostal is a cat and dog rescue operation, where they rescue strays and spay and neuter them and find them homes. there were tons of cats and 4 super dirty kittens, so i loved it. the weather in canoa was a little tropical, it rained every day but not all day. WE REALLY LIKED CANOA! on the weekend the beach was packed with families from quito, swimming (i.e. sitting in the shallow waves getting SUPER sandy) in their clothes in huge groups and hanging out, but the rest of the week was chill and laid back. the only real drawback was that the closest atm was 20km away, so you have to take a cab or hitchhike and devote a chunk of your day to re-up your money.
oh also, coastal ecuadorian spanish just doesnt sound like spanish at all. they drop at least half the word, no one says S´s, and people with the thickest accents sound like they have their mouths full. not only is it hard to understand, they also didnt understand us! all our spanish confidence was shattered, but now that we are back in pifo for a couple days we are once again feeling competent...
from canoa we went up to mompiche, the last stop on our coastal jaunt. mompiche is very hard to get to, but well worth it. three busses and a ride in the back of a guys truck later, we finally arrived to a tiny town sprinkled here and there with gringo surfers and quite a few argentinian expats. its an absolutely beautiful place. the beach abuts a coastal rainforest that stretches all the way from ecuador to the darien gap. we met a really lovely man from california named sol funk who is starting a permaculture situation just up the road and owns a restaurant that usually isnt open, but where we hung out drinking beer quite a few nights. mompiche has an excellent point break, where when the swell is just right the surfing is apparently out of control good. the rest of the year its still good, but no 15 foot waves, which is just as well for me. this is where i finally got up! scott says im doing great, but i feel like hes just flattering me because it works out really well for him if i like surfing, like, in life. so i do like it, but im sure i have a loooong way to go. but i can catch waves and stand up for a while! so. the only drawback to mompiche, is the rainforest. rainforests have bugs. bugs like me. even bathing in deet i came away with well over 100 bites, of all varieties. iiiiitchy. (see photo on flickr.)
now we are back in pifo, hanging out with the puppies who are finally getting fun (and huge and fluffy) and obviously leona, who is just the sweetest thing. she plays with the baby puppies which is hilarious, because not all of them know how to play fight yet. yesterday we went to otavalo, which is the largest indigenous market in south america. apparently in the 1960s peace corps volunteers went to otavalo, which is mostly indigenous, and taught them how to make sweaters and tapestries and helped them set up businesses for selling handicrafts. its now a prosperous town with a GIANT market with every kind of souvenier you can think of, as well as a huge section of meats, vegetables, grains, jewelry, etc.
today and tomorrow we are working on setting up wwoofing in peru and argentina, and tuesday morning we are heading to latacunga to to the quilotoa loop, hiking to a lake in a volacanic crater. from there its down the andean spine of ecuador to baños, cuenca, and vilcabamba, and then on to PERU to the coastal desert and the longest wave in the world. (hear that surfistas? greg, stu, mitch, etc? the longest wave in the world! you can ride it for almost a MILE! come down!) we wont be back in ecuador now for many months, so internet access will be sporadic. i will try and get us into the habit of shorter, more frequent blogs and picture updates, so expect more soon. until then, peep flickr for lots of pictures of sunsets, beaches, and palm trees.
1.29.2011
iremos a la playa!
We haven´t been very up to date on posting since we´ve been super busy conjugating and pluscuamperfecting and imperfecto subjuntivo-ing all over the place, but finally we made it! Yesterday was our last day of spanish classes in Quito! We were surprised to get certificates saying that we completed level intermediate 3, and now we could be considered...ADVANCED (whoa). We´re both really glad that we took four weeks of classes, and we feel totally competent getting around and having little conversations now. We are also able to read magazines in Spanish, and we are both getting into Arquitectura y Diseño, a magazine from Spain. The school had a bunch of activities, tours, and such that students could do for super cheap, so while enrolled we took part in some of the offerings. We took a couple of classes where we learned how to make traditional Ecuadorian cocktails and cuisine, went on a city tour of Quito at night, went to the equatorial line, and to a couple of museums. We met some pretty cool people who were also taking classes there. Almost everyone at this school was either German or Norwegian so Zoe and the other Scandivanians got to talk about things i couldnt understand in their secret languages.
School aside, things have been pretty wild in Pifo. The last two weeks were spent in celebration of the patron saint of the town so the whole place has been in full-on fiesta mode. I never thought I would see as many animals duking it out in the name of celebration as I have here in Pifo.
The festivities started off with a sort of drag race for horses. On the outskirts of town, on someone´s farm, someone plowed a long, straight track, maybe a mile long. Then came the racks of loudspeakers, piles of beer, every horse in town, tons of spectators in big cowboy hats and little women selling tiny plastic toys and cevichochos (like a delicious lima bean and fried corn salad salsa bowl). It seemed that there was no real order to how the races proceded, but it went something like this - two men with really nice hats (presumably the horse owners) would start conversing, then a bunch of other guys in hats would crowd around, the two men and a couple others would pull out a bunch of money, shake hands, and soon enough two little men would mount the horses and trot down to the far end of the track. With no seats or designated viewing areas, the audience would just crowd around the finish line in the track, looking down towards the little guys on the horses. Then, with no real indication that the race had started, the horses would begin galloping down the track in a full sprint toward the crowd. Everyone stood excited as the horses approached, until the last second when the crowd would split and the horses would come hauling down the narrow alley formed by people. Having never been to a horse race in the states, I can´t say this for sure, but I highly doubt that they are as exhilerating as this was. One of the highlights was when one of the racing horses galloped over a dog, sending it hurdling, flipping and spinning for probably 30 feet down the track. Miraculously, the dog didn´t seem injured as it immediately launched into a sprint and headed for the hills. We could see it run for probably five minutes before it disappeared over the horizon, but I wouldn´t be surprised if it was still running as I write this.
Last weekend was another equally interesting experience of animal battles for entertainment. It started with bullfights. I´ve never really been into the idea of bullfights where you just kill the bulls at the end - I kind of feel like we´ve already asserted our dominance over cattle with things like the big mac and ultimate whopper or whatever and don´t have much more to prove by killing one with a sword in front of a bunch of people. Cows are pretty stupid to begin with and it shouldn´t be that impressive that we can outsmart them with capes and tricks. So it was a pretty fresh experience to see the Pifo take on bullfighting. Essentially, they have a big truck full of really pissed off bulls parked next to a big fenced off field. All the people are either in a couple of grandstands or just sitting and standing on the fence, totally exposed to the field and whatever might happen in it. Inside the field, boys and men of all ages stand around (either with capes or without) and wait for a raging bull to be released and charge at them all. The whole goal is pretty much just to look couragous and get as close to the bull as you can without getting smashed. There were no swords involved and not really any violence toward the bull at all - it was really just the bull charging at all the people while they ran away (or didn´t). The best part about it though was just how many people were in the field with the bull, standing next to the fence all relaxed like there wasn´t a pissed off horned mammal the size of a truck charging around. There were even guys walking around the inside of the field selling things like souvenir capes, mangoes with salt, and more chochos. A couple of times this lacadaisical attitude resulted in some guys getting more than a little embarrassed as the bull ripped off his pants with his horns, or mashed him into the fence in front of all his friends. All said though, no one seemed to really get hurt and it was super entertaining.
Later that same day, approximately 100 feet away from where we sleep, the town was holding cock-fighting championships in a school gymnasium. This also proved to be super interesting and not quite as violent as we expected. Apparently, since this was some sort of championship, the roosters were all worth a ton of money and none of their owners wanted to see them die so whenever the fights looked like one rooster was obviously going to win, the owners jumped in a pulled their prize cocks out of the ring before it was too late. We got there really early so we had great seats and were right in the middle of the whole crowd betting with each other the whole time. I guess the fights went on all night, but after such a long day of watching animals tussle, we were pretty exhausted and headed backhome to listen to the shouts and fireworks from the comfort of our own beds.
---
As for now, we´re super excited to be done with our classes and ready to head to the coast for a little sun and beach for a couple (or three?) weeks. We´re extremely thankful for the hospitality of Matt and his family for putting us up so generously in Pifo. Matt has a lot of people stay with him on their trips through S.A., and all of the art in his house are gifts from previous visitors. In keeping with that theme and as a way to say thanks, we painted Matt a picture of his pets, which we will post below.
Since this has been a pretty animal-centric entry, we should keep with the theme and update you on the animal life here at Matt´s. Argo finally gave birth to 8 puppies in the old pig pen, and she has been doing a great job being a mom, keeping them safe and fed for the last two weeks. Since she´s pretty much a milk factory these days, she has lost a lot of weight so has been getting special food all to herself that she is allowed to eat in the kitchen, so she doesnt have to share. The puppies finally opened their eyes yesterday, but we put them in the grass this morning and it became clear that they´re still not quite to fun puppy stage, as they just laid in the grass and cried for their mom. We will probably come back here after the coast to play with the puppies in a while when they´re a bit more mature.
School aside, things have been pretty wild in Pifo. The last two weeks were spent in celebration of the patron saint of the town so the whole place has been in full-on fiesta mode. I never thought I would see as many animals duking it out in the name of celebration as I have here in Pifo.
The festivities started off with a sort of drag race for horses. On the outskirts of town, on someone´s farm, someone plowed a long, straight track, maybe a mile long. Then came the racks of loudspeakers, piles of beer, every horse in town, tons of spectators in big cowboy hats and little women selling tiny plastic toys and cevichochos (like a delicious lima bean and fried corn salad salsa bowl). It seemed that there was no real order to how the races proceded, but it went something like this - two men with really nice hats (presumably the horse owners) would start conversing, then a bunch of other guys in hats would crowd around, the two men and a couple others would pull out a bunch of money, shake hands, and soon enough two little men would mount the horses and trot down to the far end of the track. With no seats or designated viewing areas, the audience would just crowd around the finish line in the track, looking down towards the little guys on the horses. Then, with no real indication that the race had started, the horses would begin galloping down the track in a full sprint toward the crowd. Everyone stood excited as the horses approached, until the last second when the crowd would split and the horses would come hauling down the narrow alley formed by people. Having never been to a horse race in the states, I can´t say this for sure, but I highly doubt that they are as exhilerating as this was. One of the highlights was when one of the racing horses galloped over a dog, sending it hurdling, flipping and spinning for probably 30 feet down the track. Miraculously, the dog didn´t seem injured as it immediately launched into a sprint and headed for the hills. We could see it run for probably five minutes before it disappeared over the horizon, but I wouldn´t be surprised if it was still running as I write this.
Last weekend was another equally interesting experience of animal battles for entertainment. It started with bullfights. I´ve never really been into the idea of bullfights where you just kill the bulls at the end - I kind of feel like we´ve already asserted our dominance over cattle with things like the big mac and ultimate whopper or whatever and don´t have much more to prove by killing one with a sword in front of a bunch of people. Cows are pretty stupid to begin with and it shouldn´t be that impressive that we can outsmart them with capes and tricks. So it was a pretty fresh experience to see the Pifo take on bullfighting. Essentially, they have a big truck full of really pissed off bulls parked next to a big fenced off field. All the people are either in a couple of grandstands or just sitting and standing on the fence, totally exposed to the field and whatever might happen in it. Inside the field, boys and men of all ages stand around (either with capes or without) and wait for a raging bull to be released and charge at them all. The whole goal is pretty much just to look couragous and get as close to the bull as you can without getting smashed. There were no swords involved and not really any violence toward the bull at all - it was really just the bull charging at all the people while they ran away (or didn´t). The best part about it though was just how many people were in the field with the bull, standing next to the fence all relaxed like there wasn´t a pissed off horned mammal the size of a truck charging around. There were even guys walking around the inside of the field selling things like souvenir capes, mangoes with salt, and more chochos. A couple of times this lacadaisical attitude resulted in some guys getting more than a little embarrassed as the bull ripped off his pants with his horns, or mashed him into the fence in front of all his friends. All said though, no one seemed to really get hurt and it was super entertaining.
Later that same day, approximately 100 feet away from where we sleep, the town was holding cock-fighting championships in a school gymnasium. This also proved to be super interesting and not quite as violent as we expected. Apparently, since this was some sort of championship, the roosters were all worth a ton of money and none of their owners wanted to see them die so whenever the fights looked like one rooster was obviously going to win, the owners jumped in a pulled their prize cocks out of the ring before it was too late. We got there really early so we had great seats and were right in the middle of the whole crowd betting with each other the whole time. I guess the fights went on all night, but after such a long day of watching animals tussle, we were pretty exhausted and headed backhome to listen to the shouts and fireworks from the comfort of our own beds.
---
As for now, we´re super excited to be done with our classes and ready to head to the coast for a little sun and beach for a couple (or three?) weeks. We´re extremely thankful for the hospitality of Matt and his family for putting us up so generously in Pifo. Matt has a lot of people stay with him on their trips through S.A., and all of the art in his house are gifts from previous visitors. In keeping with that theme and as a way to say thanks, we painted Matt a picture of his pets, which we will post below.
Since this has been a pretty animal-centric entry, we should keep with the theme and update you on the animal life here at Matt´s. Argo finally gave birth to 8 puppies in the old pig pen, and she has been doing a great job being a mom, keeping them safe and fed for the last two weeks. Since she´s pretty much a milk factory these days, she has lost a lot of weight so has been getting special food all to herself that she is allowed to eat in the kitchen, so she doesnt have to share. The puppies finally opened their eyes yesterday, but we put them in the grass this morning and it became clear that they´re still not quite to fun puppy stage, as they just laid in the grass and cried for their mom. We will probably come back here after the coast to play with the puppies in a while when they´re a bit more mature.
Alex also got a new puppy, and she has really been the star of the show here at casa Ford. Her name is Leona and she is REALLY CUTE and loves to snuggle and play. She´s part dauchshund, so we also call her the salchicha, which means hot dog. Last weekend we hiked along an old railroad track that winds through some small towns, along a beautiful steep canyon, and through a bunch of tunnels. We saw a bunch of kittens in front of some peoples house, and Matt asked if we could take one. They said sure, so we carried the cat all the way back home. In case you didnt know, cats arent crazy about being carried, especially by strangers, over long distances. Anyways, after a few escapes and rescues, which involved a few kitten attacks and bandaids, she seems to be settling into living on the roof. She isn´t very social, but she likes yogurt and leftover breakfast cereal, and hopefully she´ll kill off some of the mice and rats that live in the chicken coop. Oh, and the baby chicks are totally not even babies anymore, they all are putting on their new big kid feathers and today they even got grownup chicken food! Hopefully most of them are girls, so fresh eggs are on the horizon.
I think that is about it! Just packing up for the beach and the start of our wanderings. Keep checking in to tell us what you´re all up to and to hear what we´ve been doing!
-Scott
tough guy.
he was ok! don´t worry.
los gallos
boooooooooring.
the salchica, resting in the gutter.
santa luna
1.15.2011
1.08.2011
estamos tratando de aprender español...
hey!
sorry it´s been a while since the last post, but we have been busy busy busy! on monday we started taking the bus into quito for 4 hour intensive spanish lessons. its going really well! scott had taken a lot of spanish in school but lost a lot of it from disuse, and i hadnt taken spanish since like, i dont know, 2001? but we are both doing well now, scott is picking it back up fast and its been a little easier for me to learn i think because of my french. the first few days were frustrating because every time i would try to say something in spanish it would come out french...but i think my brain is starting to switch over. finally saying "porque" instead of sounding like a jerk and saying "parce-que." anyways. studying a language this intensely is physically exhausting, but very effective. we are both very grateful for the opportunity to immerse ourselves completely in spanish and dedicate all of our energy to it.
the busride into quito is pretty fun, if crowded. its pretty much like the L train at rush hour, if the L train was a bus, and if you had to hang out the doors if you couldnt quite fit all the way in. we usually get seats after about 20 minutes...the trick is to stand in the aisle next to some seats containing middle schoolers in uniforms, because they are guaranteed to get off in tumbaco. the bus costs 55 cents and winds through some pretty spectacular valleys on its way up to quito, so if we can see out the windows its quite pleasant. i dont actually mind commutes anyway as long as im not driving...
quito is a cool city with a lot to look at. the "new town" is full of tall modernist concrete buildings and has a really nice huge park. our school is located in the backpacker part of town, which is nice but way more expensive than everywhere else and also really full of middle aged germans on birdwatching trips in ripstop 3-part zipoff pants and intense hiking boots. there are lots of cute cafes and restaurants though, and its very central.
the old part of quito is my favorite. the hills are really steep and its full of old colonial buildings, gothic revival churches, a 16th century monastery with a beautiful church with an interior totally covered in intricate dark wood carving, another old church whose interior is completely plastered in gold, old plazas and squares, narrow streets lined with tiny stores that sell anything from gutters to plastic pipe to candy, etc. there is also a cablecar that goes up to the top of a nearby mountain, from which you can supposedly see the whole city. (quito is a long skinny city in a super high valley, i think it´s at like 10,500 feet or something, so the mountains around it are REALLY tall) we havent gone up in said cablecar because by the time we get out of class its usually cloudy. but soon!
in other news, matt´s dog argo is very pregnant and should be having puppies pretty soon. im obviously super excited because i love baby anythings! so, more updates on that later. also later today we are going to go pick out some new baby chicks because all the chickens keep "going on vacation to cuba with their friend the weasel."
not much else to report! just studying spanish, riding the bus, playing scrabble and waiting for the puppies, really! two more weeks of spanish (and possibly a third if we feel like it) and then we are off to the coast for some sun!
xoxo.
z.
ps, you can click on any of these pics to make them bigger, if you´re into that sort of thing!
ps, you can click on any of these pics to make them bigger, if you´re into that sort of thing!
1.01.2011
pictures...
we´ll be posting a few pictures on the blog but mostly they´ll end up on zoe´s flickr, which you can see here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zoe_vik_lund/sets/72157625723402016/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zoe_vik_lund/sets/72157625723402016/
Feliz Año Nuevo
Happy New Year!
Last night we rang in 2011 ecuadorian style. We started off with a feast of traditional ecuadorian (and some gringo) fare, then moved to the streets. In Pifo, new years is one of the biggest holidays and all of the families dress up life sized staw effigies called año viejos (old years) with masks, clothes, and mementos of last year. These are all burned at midnight to wash away bad aspects of the previous year. We dressed ours up as Alex, the 13 year old of the family we´re staying with, complete with a faux computer to break his addiction to world of warcraft. After cruising around and looking at all the clever año viejos we went to a friend´s house for more food and drink. While there, everyone was sitting around a big table having a long, laughter-filled conversation (which neither of us could follow due to our slim grasp on spanish). Once it was explained to us that all of the guys would be partaking in another new years tradition, all of the girls ran off to plan our outfits. Suddenly, I was being put in a real leggy dress, sunhat, and lipstick. Apparently, a thing guys in town do is dress up as old widows of the año viejos and dance through the streets pretending to cry and pester people for money because they can´t feed their children due to the fact that their husbands just got burned alive. So, as if I didn´t stick out like a man wearing a dress and bad lipstick enough already, there I was, dancing to pan-flute music played by what looked like a child in a cape in front of the whole town, shimmying the stuffed-animal-fake-boobs in my dress for spare pennies. I do have to say though, that I think Ecuadorians have new years figured out.
Today, we´re doing absolutely nothing in accordance with the Ecuadorian belief that whatever you do on the first day of the year, you´ll be doing for the remaining 364. So, we woke up at noon and four hours later, we still haven´t gotten dressed and all we´ve been doing is sitting in the sun reading, doodling, playing with dogs, and looking at the beautiful chickens. So far, 2011 is looking pretty good.
Starting this Monday, we´ll be taking the hour long bus ride from Pifo to Quito for spanish classes every day. We´ll do that for maybe a couple or three weeks and then head to the coast? Not sure yet. Looking to get our language skills in order before backpacking so we don´t wind up wearing a dress and sunhat without at least having some say in it first.
-Scott
Last night we rang in 2011 ecuadorian style. We started off with a feast of traditional ecuadorian (and some gringo) fare, then moved to the streets. In Pifo, new years is one of the biggest holidays and all of the families dress up life sized staw effigies called año viejos (old years) with masks, clothes, and mementos of last year. These are all burned at midnight to wash away bad aspects of the previous year. We dressed ours up as Alex, the 13 year old of the family we´re staying with, complete with a faux computer to break his addiction to world of warcraft. After cruising around and looking at all the clever año viejos we went to a friend´s house for more food and drink. While there, everyone was sitting around a big table having a long, laughter-filled conversation (which neither of us could follow due to our slim grasp on spanish). Once it was explained to us that all of the guys would be partaking in another new years tradition, all of the girls ran off to plan our outfits. Suddenly, I was being put in a real leggy dress, sunhat, and lipstick. Apparently, a thing guys in town do is dress up as old widows of the año viejos and dance through the streets pretending to cry and pester people for money because they can´t feed their children due to the fact that their husbands just got burned alive. So, as if I didn´t stick out like a man wearing a dress and bad lipstick enough already, there I was, dancing to pan-flute music played by what looked like a child in a cape in front of the whole town, shimmying the stuffed-animal-fake-boobs in my dress for spare pennies. I do have to say though, that I think Ecuadorians have new years figured out.
Today, we´re doing absolutely nothing in accordance with the Ecuadorian belief that whatever you do on the first day of the year, you´ll be doing for the remaining 364. So, we woke up at noon and four hours later, we still haven´t gotten dressed and all we´ve been doing is sitting in the sun reading, doodling, playing with dogs, and looking at the beautiful chickens. So far, 2011 is looking pretty good.
Starting this Monday, we´ll be taking the hour long bus ride from Pifo to Quito for spanish classes every day. We´ll do that for maybe a couple or three weeks and then head to the coast? Not sure yet. Looking to get our language skills in order before backpacking so we don´t wind up wearing a dress and sunhat without at least having some say in it first.
-Scott
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