Seis Meses and flying January 29, 2010

Greetings,

It’s been so long I’m not sure who will even read this. I am sure I’ve had no visitors in months. This is my effort to continue a blog.

Our travels have almost come to an end. We do not yet have our own house over our heads, but we are taking baby steps toward that and hopefully in the coming week it will happen. We are moving to Santa Cruz where I will begin full-time…normal work from 9-5. My Wednesday afternoons with flamingos has come to an end. I will be working as a student advisor in a small international office. It is on the most amazing campus of the University of California Santa Cruz.

I am hoping to return to blogging. I will try to post recipes (made an awesome leek, kale, arugula soup last night) and pictures of our new lives.

We are happy and healthy and I’m back online.

Blogging it North August 12, 2009

I have not updated this blog for a little while as I have started a new one for our travels. Check it out at: www.southamericabyland.wordpress.com. I hope to pick this back up once we are settled again in the south of Chile. Maybe around December. Until then see you at our other blog!

Sunlight everyday, all day July 22, 2009

With temperatures between 60 and 115 Fahrenheit, endless amounts of peaches, nectarines, excellent Mexican food and health food grocery stores galore, California has to be one of the coolest states the northern part of America has to offer. Arriving in the southern part of the state on the Forth of July to fireworks and constant Michael Jackson music and  news, I was reminded that returning to the United States is a challenge, but always an entertaining one. I began the adjustment with five days in Los Angeles before heading north 4 hours to Morro Bay for Grandpa’s 95th birthday. I stayed with family (see picture of totally cute nephew above) and enjoyed the incredible vacation.

 From Morro Bay I continued traveling north and met up with friends. We hung out in Santa Cruz and once again I had awesome weather and incredible company.

We played frisbee (see pictures above), checked out the boardwalk including rides (below), ate lots of Mexican food (the national food of California I’m sure) and chilled on the beach. 

I also visited a farmers market in Santa Cruz. What incredible produce that state has.

 

Fresh blueberries were in abundance….for $10 a cup. 

After reaching the most northern part of the world I will visit in the next 2 years, I ended my trip with an exceptionally long drive back to LA and another few moments with my parents. I then set out for a journey south through Atlanta and on to Santiago…where I am currently chilling on the 7th floor of Mar del Plata, Providencia with a glass of Chilean (of course) Cabernet Sauvignon. From here it’s on to finding our traveling vehicle, getting our things together and setting out for six months of traveling. 

Thanks to all who made the past 17 days possible. To good friends and family who made the time to hang with me, drive me places, laugh like fools together and catch up on lost time. And to the beautiful state of California for it’s incredibly dry, hot and clear weather (a complete contrast to where I am now) and its sunsets after 8 p.m., I couldn’t have asked for more. 

Lastly to the California Kittens who surely have a home on earth or in kitty afterlife today. You made me laugh harder than I had in years and gave me yet another tragic animal story for the year. 

A special thanks to Mom and Dad. They make it all possible.

Lush June 16, 2009

Andres took an afternoon nap. One of our last in this house. Taxo joined him.

We will move in less than 2 weeks. Packing is a pain. It is not something that gets easier the more times you do it. It’s still a headache the 10th time I’m pretty sure. The cat does not get to come with us, at least not for the time being. Maybe next year we will ship him to Chile with the in-laws. He will be greatly missed, along with a number of things. It’s been a good 12 months.

Cool Mo June 16, 2009

My nephew Mo graduated from preschool this week. I wish I could have been there. He is really such a cool kid.

He’s the bright eyed one. I just love the “I Love Jesus!” sign behind them. Ridiculously cute.

And the Rest of the family; Christine, Kali, Jo and Grandpa Phil.

What a crazy bunch.

Thanks Dad for supplying the pictures.

Have my Cake and Eat it Too June 9, 2009

What a wonderful birthday I had. My last 365 days of my 20s. Time does fly doesn’t it?

To Baños for a 29th Birthday June 6, 2009

I’m off of work for 8 days due to the swine flu. Two students at Colegio Menor were diagnosed with it after returning from a trip. So Andres and I took off Friday a little after lunch and came to Baños to stay at Luna Runtun and relax for a few nights. On our way we were given a spectacular show of a full rainbow. It was hard to do it justice in photos, but I tried. 

The 4 hour car trip was good practice for what is to come in our lives for the next 6 months and really, just good times…

We checked into our room at Luna Runtun and chilled before dinner.

We enjoyed a wonderful meal orchestrated by Rodrigo. I didn’t get good pictures of the food yet, but I do have the chef. 

Roberto and Mercedes are on their way to join us here for a night, to celebrate June 6, 2009. What a cool gift. 

If only the rest of my family and friends could join me.

Selling off material possessions. May 19, 2009

This is the second time in a year that we are selling off our worldly items and moving on. I think that is too much for one year. Luckily it’s the last time….then 6 months without a house. Which is worse? 

I’m posting the items we are selling here. It will all be available as of June 30th. 

Refrigerator
1 yr. old
Electrolux
$425

Durex stove 4-top
$35

Indorama Toaster Oven
$50

Glass Blender
$30
Osterizer

Chaide & Chaide Mattress-1 yr
Full 2×2
$130

Crazy Hail in Quito May 4, 2009

Andres was out running errands today and managed to pass under one very heavy storm cloud. Being 8,500 ft. in the air causes the clouds to do strange things. One cloud passing managed to dump a lot of hail in a very small area. Look behind at the nice blue sky. My father-in-law Roberto works barely a mile away and didn’t get touched. 

Crazy Andes.

April 22, 2009

From record heat in California to mega-droughts in Africa I think by now it is clear that the heating of the Earth is eminent and will be painful for us who will see it. It is unfortunate that if only we each made daily choices that were pro-earth and stopped looking at our surroundings as linear we could likely begin to start healing the vast damage that we’ve done.

Today, for Earth Day I shared with my students the image of the earth being like a large cruise ship. If the captain of the ship wants to turn the ship to the left he can turn the wheel, but it takes awhile for the large ship to react and begin to turn itself. It is the same with the brakes. It takes 3-5 miles for a large ship to fully stop. The Earth is the same. Once we begin to make changes in our lives and begin to live in tune with the Earth understanding that it is not at our disposal, it will take time for Earth to feel the change and begin to heal. Unfortunately, if we don’t begin to change until we feel the true effects of the damage we have done, we will have to live years of pain until nature can begin to renew itself. 

I am a proponent of Earth and I hope you will join me and begin now to make daily pro-Earth choices.

Back in the south April 14, 2009

We are traveling in the south of Chile and visited the island of Chiloe. Incredible place. We slept in a palafito, which is a house hanging over the water. The place was called Hostel Palafitos and it was wonderful. Great service, great breakfast, quiet and just so cool sleeping over the water. Here is the view from our place.

We also visited the coast and hiked to the water. The water was completely red as they are suffering from red tide. But it was still beautiful. On our way there we came across the most amazing mushrooms I’ve ever seen. They are called amanita muscaria and although they are poisonous you’d have to eat about 13 caps to die. They are also eaten for nutrition as you can cook them and then they are eatable. They are also hallucinogenic when eaten raw. We passed that up, but couldn’t help but take 1 million pictures of them.

I also followed Andres around taking pictures of him taking pictures.

Tomorrow we head to Buenos Aires for 2 days 3 nights of eating and shopping, yum yum.

Wedding in Atuntaqui March 13, 2009

We attended the wedding of Andres’ first cousin, Paca.

The wedding was on a Saturday evening in the town of Atuntaqui. It was an interesting small town wedding. We attended the Catholic church service first.

After surviving that we made our way to the reception, which was conveniently held in the hostel where we were staying. It was more like a hacienda with a dinner room. It was a nice venue called Hosteria Natabuela. Highly recommended place to stay if you find yourself in Atuntaqui. After a quick dinner and dessert each table was given a bottle of whiskey and the drinking and dancing promptly commenced.

Zumbahua to Quilotoa March 10, 2009

I traveled with my Dad for a long weekend south of our place to a town called Quilotoa. After 4 hours in the car we stopped to visit the market in Zumbahua. On Saturdays Zumbahua has an amazing Andean open air market. The stands are full of ready made food, knit wraps and plastic shoes and the floors are littered with sheep skulls. It is an experience. We arrived hungry and, as neither of us were that bold, ate granola we had brought and some bananas we bought. It was no sheep head stew, but we were satisfied.  

After a stop there and 30 minutes driving in the wrong direction we were finally back on track towards Quilotoa. We arrived in the late afternoon to the beautiful and small town. We checked into Pacha Mama hostel and I visited the reason most people come to visit this small town; the caldera Quilotoa. 

The town of Quilotoa lies 1500 ft. above Quilotoa lake. After a strange night of sleep we spent the day hiking down to see the turquoise water from eye level. We spent our late morning and afternoon kayaking, eating crackers and tuna and chilling in the good weather. 

After relaxing by the water we rode some tired mules up the hill. I think I may have preferred the walk, even at 13,000 feet. It was such a wonderfully, typical, Andean town and I’m lucky to have visited it with my Father.

Two Headed Butterfly February 13, 2009

We traveled to Mindo last weekend, a two hour trip by private vehicle and really worth the time. We visited a butterfly arboretum and went on an awesome hike to a waterfall. 

While viewing butterflies we found a two headed one.

Jungle Palm Worms February 6, 2009

I went on a trip with 34 students from my 7th grade classes. We spent one night in a jungle lodge near a town called Tena, about 4 hours from Quito and another night camping in the rain off of the Arajuno River. Torrential downpours is a better description as rain just doesn’t do it justice.

Here is a picture of one of the few clear moments.

This picture was taken from my tent. 

For dinner we had a covered area near where we camped and put together our own dinners of chicken, fish, heart of palm and a palm worm, wrapped in a leaf and cooked over coals.   This was served with yucca and madera, or ripe cooked banana. The worm was an experience. I’m not talking about a small grub. This thing was huge and moving as you may imagine a giant worm moving. 

This live worm was ripped in half to release its flavor and then tossed with the other meat and wrapped up in the leaf. 

I didn’t eat a whole worm, but I did take a good sized bite. I can’t say I was able to stomach it easily, but I can say I tried it and it tasted good. Then I was slightly grossed out that it was stuck in my teeth for the next 15 minutes. I do have to say that evening, I was just as grossed out by the chicken. Thinking about a live one of those in front of me and killing it is much worse than the palm worm.

 I’m not sure how ethical it is to eat something you can’t kill.

Making bread, well almost January 11, 2009

 

I have this great bread book called The Tassajara Bread Book by Edward Espe Brown. It has wonderful step by step instructions for making bread at home by hand. Last night Andres and I worked painstakingly to recreate the bread that is illustrated in the book’s first recipe “Tassajara Yeasted Bread”. The process took about 3 hours including the various times the dough was left to rise. We seemed to be going really well, with each of the steps looking somewhat like it’s numbered, illustrated instruction.

I finally got the first loaf ready to go into the oven. I turned the dial on our only oven in the house, our toaster oven, and…click, out went the electricity. I’m sure we blew a fuse, but being 11pm and the first time this had happened we were unable to figure out what we would need to do to get the juice flowing to the house again. The bread, the poor, poor, almost perfect bread. I wrapped up the various pieces of dough, which by this time were in the form of rolls and loaves and put them aside for a time when I would be able to bake it. 

This morning electricity was restored and I put the dough in the oven. I was hoping for something at least somewhat edible so as to not waste 12 cups of flour, milk, oil etc. The rolls turned out small and hard, but edible and I’m sure we will eat the loaves, even though their consistency isn’t what was expected. 

Overall disappointing, but I do vow to try again. I’m kicking myself for not investing in the full sized stove with gas oven. The $80 extra just seemed like so much at that time. Toaster ovens are not ideal for bread in so many ways. 

The machine responsible for the ruined bread and loss of electricity. This is the morning after these rolls should have been baked. They did not get any bigger than this, just a lot harder (see above). Maybe I’ll make breadcrumbs. 

These are two of the loaves the day after they were supposed to be baked. They look very different than they did last night. They would have been much fluffier if they had been properly baked.

The littlest nest January 10, 2009

 

Wandering around our yard yesterday I found the most interesting nest; actually, one of the only nests I have ever found. It is 3 inches by 3 inches and has a beautiful, tiny egg in it. I think the nest is abandoned, but it seems that there were other eggs and this one didn’t make it until the end; which would have been her beginning. The egg is in a blackberry bush. It has such a beautiful, peaceful, tranquil home, exactly what I am looking for.  

 

To give you an idea of the size of the nest, check it out next to a blackberry. 

The yard here is incredible. It is full of fruits and vegetables; avocados, lemons, passion fruit, tree tomatoes, blackberries, corn, cilantro, and figs. Below you can see a picture of a fig from our tree.

I am hoping that when we move to Chile we will have even more fruits and vegetables in our yard.

Stay tuned for the launch of our travel site.

Incredible Views and Tap Water January 7, 2009

The south of Ecuador was just awesome. We spent 3 nights in Cuenca where we got to see the children’s parade on Christmas day. From there we traveled 5 hours south to Loja and then another hour to Vilcabamba. We were able to enjoy an irate drunk man who sat at the back of our bus the last hour, strangely entertaining in a nerve racking way. We checked into a really cool lodge called Rumi Wilco on the outskirts of the small town of Vilcabamba. Our place was super rustic, but very comfortable and fully equipped. It was awesome. We were able to relax for five days where we read, hiked, cooked, drew, painted rocks and sat in the hammock and let the hours pass us by. The days were fully enjoyed and passed so fast despite our pace of life.

 

From there we checked into a hotel called Madre Tierra. This was an unfortunate mistake as the place recently changed ownership and took a complete dive. So now you pay for a 4 star hotel and receive -2 star service. It was bad. I won’t go into it, but if you are interested sent me a note and NEVER go there. 

The one good thing about the place we choose to stay for New Years were the friends that we happen to meet just after our dinner that last night of the year. We were enjoying nice music and good company and began to talk to some other guests from the hotel who were sitting nearby. We ended up not only spending the start of the New Year and the following days at the hotel together, but we have been able to hang out with our new friends since that time as they have been stranded here in Quito due to the heavy travel season and not many flights. It’s worked out ok for us though as we’ve all had such a great time. We’ve cooked together, eaten together, traveled together, hung out for days and just enjoyed each other’s company. They really feel like they could be family.

We are sad to see them go, but are hoping that they can get their university classes that they were supposed to attend yesterday.

We already miss you Shani, Shira and Aviv. 

Fresno in Vilcabamba January 6, 2009

We arrived in the south of Ecuador in a fairly small town named Vilcabamba. It is known as the city of longevity due to the high numbers of people over 90 who live there. Although, a scientific study recently showed that the exceptionally high numbers of seniors was actually due to a culture of individuals exaggerating age for community status. Not sure what the real story is, but we arrived in this southern equatorial town the day after Christmas. We found Rumi Wilco, an ecolodge that provides an awesome rustic cabin called the Pole House next to the river. 

As Andres read the first night I checked out the numerous old books the cabin stored. I found a cool one about snakes. Paging through the book and it’s strange 1960’s text and pictures I came across page 32.   Check out the stamp that was there: 

I had been missing my friends and family from Fresno. How cool to find this in such a remote place. Made me laugh and wish you all were here. 

Love you Fresno.

Eating a Guanta December 17, 2008

The Pacheco family was delivered a smallish rodent sent by a friend of theirs from the coast. The animal came via land, wrapped in bags of ice. It was the size of a small pig. 

Guanta or Paca

According to Frommer’s, the animal is a forest dwelling creature that feeds on fallen fruit, nuts and leaves. With such a diet you might think it would taste good. Maybe it was the fact that I had seen the corpse hang out in the sink before trying it (see above), or the fact that I couldn’t get the idea of a giant rodent out of my head, but either way I wasn’t able to eat very much of it. 

It was prepared with a maracuya (passion fruit) sauce and was roasted. The final product could have passed for beef, or possibly pork in appearance and odor. It smelled like bacon in the pan.

Nothing like a large rodent for dinner. I’m glad I can say I have tried Guanta.