Our life has almost settled back into something resembling normality... almost. We still have a ton of work to do on our house -- though we've been here for almost 3 weeks, we've been traveling and entertaining visitors for pretty much all of that time, so we haven't had any time to do much more than unpack the basics. Our last visitors of this busy stretch, Andrea and Bruce from NH, left us at the Budget office in Manta yesterday, and while we were very sad to see them go, we quickly switched back to our Tabuga mindset and rushed home to see the pets. It's good to be back!
The adventures we've been having have been incredibly worth it, and we've consummated a huge tour of the country, from the cloud forests of Mindo to the climes of Otovalo, Cayambe and Latacunga, and finally back down to our coastal region as well. Let's start off the pictures!
We were incredibly busy between Christmas and New Years (yes, I'm aware that this is a theme) because we still had our friend Greg's topless 70's Land Rover to tool around in – meaning that each day was filled with trips around town and to Pedernales to take advantage our our mobility. The day/night before NYE we were invaded by a bunch of visiting friends that were on their way to Canoa for New Years, so we cooked up a big meal, played a bunch of cards and then decided to drive to Tabuga beach around midnight to light our Christmas tree (and a bunch of driftwood) on fire. Notable that I made it to the beach and back in the Land Rover that had no headlights – I had to drive with my headlamp on, very very slowly. But having a car, headlights or not, just opens up so many great possibilities.
Andrea and hummingbirds in Mindo:
Our big group of visitors at the Middle of the World!
Pictures from Otovalo, the biggest market in South America:
In-room fire service at the Casa Sol in Otovalo
Casa Sol
Bus station, Cotocachi
Llama in Casa Sol
Cascades near Casa Sol, Otovalo
The workout deck at Black Sheep Inn, outside of Latacunga
Man and wife working together
The high Andes!
Quilatoa Lake (kind of like Crater Lake in Oregon)
On the walk back from Quilatoa... chasm
On the walk back from Quilatoa... chasm
The trail
Once more to Isla de la Plata!
So that's where we've been for the past two weeks or so... and explains our happy tiredness! I'll also take this opportunity to tell you a bit more about our Christmas and New Years Eve, both of which were spent inside the friendly confines of the Tabuga town proper. First, here are some pictures taken when Andrea and I dressed up as the Christmas Fairy and Santa Claus and attended the pre-school Christmas party. It's hot and sweaty work being Santa in the tropics, but as pretty much everything I do down here is hot and sweaty work I paid no mind and just slapped on some sunglasses.
Christmas Eve we spent in the traditional way: drinking, dancing and hanging around with friends until midnight, at which point we hugged everyone a Merry Christmas and then were served a big Christmas dinner around 1am, followed by more drinking and dancing. Needless to say we were pretty wiped out on Christmas Day, so we spent the day drinking homemade eggnog (I found a recipe I could make in our blender), playing scrabble and inviting the neighboring kids to come in and pick up a little Christmas grab-bag we'd prepared for each of them. Pretty damn special!
So we were pretty tired when New Years Eve rolled around... especially since we spent the day driving to Canoa (only breaking down three times) to return the Land Rover, and didn't get back to Tabuga until around 5pm. No time for a nap – we showered and walked uptown to a party that was reminiscent of Christmas Eve: plenty of dancing, drinking and waiting until midnight. NYE was spiced up by a Quincenera going on downtown – the Ecua-equivalent of a Sweet Sixteen Party, and this one had free bottles of rum getting passed around to everyone in attendance.
At midnight it was time to burn the effigies. That's right, burn the effigies. All over Ecuador effigies get burned on New Years Eve, but there are apparently some translation problems inside the country because in the mountains the effigies that are burned are evil people or beings, to banish their energy for the year ahead, while on the coast your burn respected loved ones to receive their blessings. Being the good Tabugans that we are, we put together an effigy of my dad (we had found the perfect paper mache head in Pedernales or else we probably wouldn't have even thought of it) and brought him to the party. I must admit that it felt very, very strange when the effigies got thrown into a pile and lit, but as dad had very good company in the pile I got into the spirit and enjoyed the tradition.
After the burning, it was another late 1am dinner and then dancing in the middle of town until we could dance no more. At around 4:30am, Andrea looked over from a little kid she was dancing with to see me sleeping in my chair, like a true Ecuadorian... and that's how late we made it. A great way to greet the New Year!
I'm glad to report I typed this whole blog from our bamboo-walled farm house, which is nice and cool and not too buggy now that we've got some good mosquito netting up over the large bay windows. It's been raining the whole time – the rain (and the rainy season) started about a month ago and has come pretty much every day. Amazing to see the quick changes as the cracked and brown countryside immediately sprouted bunches of lush weeds and grass – and now it's up to our waist where there used to be only dirt and I'm planning on spending a day or two with a machete to reclaim our driveway. The rain also brought a cornucopia of birds to our farm, including Toucans on rare occasions that are crazy beautiful.
Once more to Isla de la Plata! 
So that's where we've been for the past two weeks or so... and explains our happy tiredness! I'll also take this opportunity to tell you a bit more about our Christmas and New Years Eve, both of which were spent inside the friendly confines of the Tabuga town proper. First, here are some pictures taken when Andrea and I dressed up as the Christmas Fairy and Santa Claus and attended the pre-school Christmas party. It's hot and sweaty work being Santa in the tropics, but as pretty much everything I do down here is hot and sweaty work I paid no mind and just slapped on some sunglasses.
Christmas Eve we spent in the traditional way: drinking, dancing and hanging around with friends until midnight, at which point we hugged everyone a Merry Christmas and then were served a big Christmas dinner around 1am, followed by more drinking and dancing. Needless to say we were pretty wiped out on Christmas Day, so we spent the day drinking homemade eggnog (I found a recipe I could make in our blender), playing scrabble and inviting the neighboring kids to come in and pick up a little Christmas grab-bag we'd prepared for each of them. Pretty damn special!
So we were pretty tired when New Years Eve rolled around... especially since we spent the day driving to Canoa (only breaking down three times) to return the Land Rover, and didn't get back to Tabuga until around 5pm. No time for a nap – we showered and walked uptown to a party that was reminiscent of Christmas Eve: plenty of dancing, drinking and waiting until midnight. NYE was spiced up by a Quincenera going on downtown – the Ecua-equivalent of a Sweet Sixteen Party, and this one had free bottles of rum getting passed around to everyone in attendance.
At midnight it was time to burn the effigies. That's right, burn the effigies. All over Ecuador effigies get burned on New Years Eve, but there are apparently some translation problems inside the country because in the mountains the effigies that are burned are evil people or beings, to banish their energy for the year ahead, while on the coast your burn respected loved ones to receive their blessings. Being the good Tabugans that we are, we put together an effigy of my dad (we had found the perfect paper mache head in Pedernales or else we probably wouldn't have even thought of it) and brought him to the party. I must admit that it felt very, very strange when the effigies got thrown into a pile and lit, but as dad had very good company in the pile I got into the spirit and enjoyed the tradition.
After the burning, it was another late 1am dinner and then dancing in the middle of town until we could dance no more. At around 4:30am, Andrea looked over from a little kid she was dancing with to see me sleeping in my chair, like a true Ecuadorian... and that's how late we made it. A great way to greet the New Year!
I'm glad to report I typed this whole blog from our bamboo-walled farm house, which is nice and cool and not too buggy now that we've got some good mosquito netting up over the large bay windows. It's been raining the whole time – the rain (and the rainy season) started about a month ago and has come pretty much every day. Amazing to see the quick changes as the cracked and brown countryside immediately sprouted bunches of lush weeds and grass – and now it's up to our waist where there used to be only dirt and I'm planning on spending a day or two with a machete to reclaim our driveway. The rain also brought a cornucopia of birds to our farm, including Toucans on rare occasions that are crazy beautiful.
