Wow…I have been really recalcitrant on my blog entries. Once I get so far behind, it makes it even that much harder to motivate myself to get caught up. Here are a few highlights of the cool things and/or interesting things I have done the last few weeks:
Visit from Frank. Our friend Frank came from Northwest Ohio to Ecuador for a visit. He came bringing gifts of joy including Guiness and two GPS units for Jer’s project, and granola bars and Take 5 bars for me. Yay! Together we did some exploring around Puyo. We hiked to the Hola Vida waterfall (see previously posted photos) and took another hike down to the Pastaza River. I translated for him on a visit to the local orchid garden/park. Over a 3-day weekend we went up to Otavalo and checked out the market. There we helped him bargain for some cool gifts including alpaca blankets, cotton hammocks, tablecloths and sweaters.
Visit to Las Lajas. From Otovalo, we traveled on a crowded slow-moving bus to Las Lajas, a small community of about 400 people located high in the mountains where our friend and fellow Ohioan, Roger was doing some work. Our host, Norman, opened his house to us and invited us to dinner with some friends in a small brick house that was built with support from the Ecuadorian government. We had a fascinating conversation about farming practices, global warming and geography over a hearty and tasty Sierran meal of chicken, potatoes and rice. Most of the families in the community have small plots of land where they graze cows or grow potatoes and other vegetables. Everything we ate was likely grown or raised within a few hundred meter radius of the house. In addition to sharing our knowl
edge about live fences, windbreaks and nitrogen fixing cover crops, we also learned a lot from them. For example, we learned that about six years ago a Russian tycoon purchased an entire valley for $10 a HECTARE. There, with financing from the Russian government, he installed irrigation and constructed a 70 hectare greenhouse for growing roses. Approximately 1000 Ecuadorians work in the greenhouse earning $6 per day to spray, prune, cut, and package roses. The roses are then shipped to Quito where they are flown in jumbo jets to Russia where they sell for up to $5 a stem. We of course had lots of questions about their working conditions, the use of pesticides, recent strikes, etc. We also asked if we could buy land for $10 a hectare. Evidently the price has gone up a bit.
Las Lajas happened to be celebrating their annual festiv
al in honor of their patron saint. Not unlike many other small towns in Ecuador, Las Lajas honors said saint by having a mass followed by lots of drinking, dancing and fireworks. But mostly drinking. In the community house the church ladies were serving up and selling “hervida” which was basically moonshine mixed with hot water, lemon, sugar and spices. Norman bought a bottle for the 5 of us to share. It was $1. Whether it was the temp
erature of the drink or the booze itself, the hervida did help to warm us up as we watched the most bizarre “firework” display I have ever witnessed. The town had spent weeks and untold amounts of money building a massive tower of sequentially lighting pyrotechnics. The words escape me on how to describe this contraption. Think of the game Mousetrap…now envision it made of strictly bamboo, masking tape and superpowered sparklers. And imagine it three stories tall. Now picture lighting one part of it, and as it spins, it sets off several other huge sparkler in the shape of an animal, 
which when fully lit then sets off a line of fireworks on the second level. It was surreal. The fact that no one lost an eye, finger or entire hand or limb is no small miracle. This was probably helped by the fact that about 22 seconds after lighting the contraption, it started to rain. Everyone crammed into the doorway to the community house seeking shelter from the rain to watch. Because we are tall, we could stand near the back of the crowd and see over most people’s heads. But as Frank moved forward for a photo moment his 6’4” frame topped by a cowboy had blocked a few people’s lines of sight. It was quite a sight
. After the pyrotechnics, everyone’s attention was directed to center stage where a series of musical acts performed. One of the leading acts was a pleasantly plump woman with big 80’s bangs and super-tight clothes topped with an oversized sombrero who seductively sang Mexican rancheras. The men in the room were mesmerized and cat called to her in between songs and costume changes, which was basically taking off one layer after another, as the costume got skimpier and skimpier. I sat with some of our new friends on a chair with a thick wool blanket spread across our laps. Norman came around periodically to offer more hervida and say how happy he was to have new friends. As the night wore on and the acts got increasingly worse (or better, depending on your perspective) people started getting really sloppy drunk. They had to stop the show at one point as some superdrunk guy kept wandering onstage to pry the microphone away from the performer to do karaoke. The guys were getting tired of being peer pressured to keep up with the locals’ drinking, so we eventually decided to call it a night and head back to crash on Norman’s cold concrete floor. They guys had sleeping bags and I curled into fetal position on the very short pleather loveseat. Thank god for the alpaca blankets we just bought or I would have been a popsicle. I got up to go to the bathroom (er, yard, as there was no bathroom) around 4 a.m. and the bass was still thumping from the party up the hill. Here, here to the patron saint!
Norman had already finished milking his cows by the time we got up. Around 8:30 we walked together to his neighbor’s house for breakfast. As we walked up the hill, we passed a number of villagers who continued to party…or had passed out en route home. After we ate our hardboiled eggs, bread with homemade cheese and instant coffee, our hosts expressed deep disappointment that we were planning to leave so soon. They said they had already started making lunch for us. Feeling guilty for the effort they went to cook for us, yet time pressed to get to the neighboring town for another event, we asked if we could maybe eat lunch early or take it with us. Then, in some mis-communication or poor translation, we found ourselves being served plates mounded with fritada (fried pork) and mote (hominy)…just 15 minutes after finishing our breakfast. We all quietly moaned as we eyed the enormous amount of food we were being essentially forcefed. Okay, not really, but it would be rude to refuse. So we ate as much as we could physically be forced down. Yes, we ate breakfast and lunch within the period of 45 minutes. We waddled out of the house then bade a grateful farewell to our new friends and headed down the road to the next town.
edge about live fences, windbreaks and nitrogen fixing cover crops, we also learned a lot from them. For example, we learned that about six years ago a Russian tycoon purchased an entire valley for $10 a HECTARE. There, with financing from the Russian government, he installed irrigation and constructed a 70 hectare greenhouse for growing roses. Approximately 1000 Ecuadorians work in the greenhouse earning $6 per day to spray, prune, cut, and package roses. The roses are then shipped to 
al in honor of their patron saint. Not unlike many other small towns in 
erature of the drink or the booze itself, the hervida did help to warm us up as we watched the most bizarre “firework” display I have ever witnessed. The town had spent weeks and untold amounts of money building a massive tower of sequentially lighting pyrotechnics. The words escape me on how to describe this contraption. Think of the game Mousetrap…now envision it made of strictly bamboo, masking tape and superpowered sparklers. And imagine it three stories tall. Now picture lighting one part of it, and as it spins, it sets off several other huge sparkler in the shape of an animal, 
which when fully lit then sets off a line of fireworks on the second level. It was surreal. The fact that no one lost an eye, finger or entire hand or limb is no small miracle. This was probably helped by the fact that about 22 seconds after lighting the contraption, it started to rain. Everyone crammed into the doorway to the community house seeking shelter from the rain to watch. Because we are tall, we could stand near the back of the crowd and see over most people’s heads. But as Frank moved forward for a photo moment his 6’4” frame topped by a cowboy had blocked a few people’s lines of sight. It was quite a sight
. After the pyrotechnics, everyone’s attention was directed to center stage where a series of musical acts performed. One of the leading acts was a pleasantly plump woman with big 80’s bangs and super-tight clothes topped with an oversized sombrero who seductively sang Mexican rancheras. The men in the room were mesmerized and cat called to her in between songs and costume changes, which was basically taking off one layer after another, as the costume got skimpier and skimpier. I sat with some of our new friends on a chair with a thick wool blanket spread across our laps. 
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