Roughing it along the Brazilian coastline:)

Posted on September 14, 2013 by Diamond

We just spent the last week and change hanging out in various places along the Brazilian coastline – Paraty, Saco do Mamangua and Picinguaba.

Just because you have no electricity and only occasional hot water shouldn’t mean it is an Eco Lodge, a trendy overused word in my opinion. Very similar to every brand claiming they are Organic.  We were staying at a legit Eco Lodge in Saco do Mamangua, Brazil.  It did not have mobile coverage or WiFi coverage, electricity came from a generator that was only on for four hours per day with additional lights that were solar to be used when the generator wasn’t on, and the water came from the natural spring nearby.

eco lodge overlooking river.

eco lodge overlooking river.

We spent two days at Mamangua Eco Lodge sitting on a river south of Rio where calm warm water flows into a dense rainforest surrounding all sides of the river.   Breakfast, like every South American morning, was a delightful buffet of locally grown (as in on the property) passion fruits, oranges, bananas and a few other fruits I can’t pronounce or write, fresh baked breads, some strange meat we stayed away from, the now famous (from our last blog) fresh juices like avocado and pineapple and the deep dark non bitter coffee to top it off.  We were on a kayak for most of the time…yep, packed it up with a few extra clothes and some hiking shoes.  Thanks to our skilled guide, Christian, who is a kayak expert!  Off we went from a small off the beaten path beach area where we kayaked about 5 miles to our sleeping Eco Posada (Brazilian name for Inn or small hotel).  Each day we ventured out to check out the waterfalls, mangrove forest and whatever else peaked our interest along the shore.

DSC02591As Linda sped by me I quickly learned paddling is not about strength, it is about rhythm and technique.  Like golf the harder you swing the more distance you lose.   A good life lesson is here, like in sports life isn’t about using braun always, the bull in the china shop can only get you so far.  Relax, let it happen and always look smooth:).

P1050383One afternoon we decided to beach the kayaks and take a hike.  Sea level to 1,800 feet in less than an hour traveling only a few hundred yards horizontally which means it was basically straight up.  Thighs started burning five minutes and then the calves started but we knew the reward of the sights was going to be well worth it.  Not to mention that we knew we had the Inca Trail four day hike and haven’t trained at all. To make matters worse, last night was the first dinner we didn’t have dessert for the entire trip, that’s almost 30 days of dessert every night.  On to the hike, a stray dog followed us all the way to the top of the mountain which was fun because it reminded us of Wiley even though I would have been carrying him within the first fifty yards.  We ended up on top of a massive rock and just chilled for 30 minutes taking in the sights before heading backdown, which was equally as difficult as the way up.
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The last day we met with a local craftsman named Dico who builds single tree boats (one tree basically carved out so the entire boat is one piece), like his forefather built boats.  He would hike up to the mountains and find a massive tree, 20 feet wide (we are talking redwood forest and Amazon big) cut it down and with an ax and other hand tools, and then slowly work it into a shape of a large canoe.  At this point he would have worked in the rainforest for 6 months, then he would head down to the village to gather 20-30 men to follow him back and then they would all start maneuvering the 1 ton hunk of wood down the the beach where he’d finish the work.  This is now a lost art, and the culture is being lost as well.  It is a complex topic, you want to know where you came from but want a better life for your kids.   So where does this leave the next generation? Do as their parents or move forward? The kids in this town take a one hour boat ride then a one hour bus ride everyday to get to school.  Is this a good balance of educating but still living in a small isolated village?  I asked if they would rather the kids stay with them in the village and make a life there or go to college and and end up working a corporate job in Rio.  I didn’t really get a clear answer from any of the elders I asked which shows how complex these realities can become.

Streets of Paraty

Streets of Paraty

Now you won’t hear me complain about Paraty our next stop, a small colonial village preserved due to being abandoned for over hundred years.  The main port used to ship gold back to Europe around the 1700’s but lost its luster when the rail system was developed.   Then in the 1800’s coffee was grown and flourished in this small town and it came back from the dead with a vengeance like Jason in Friday the 13th.  Now it flourished as the most popular side show for the wealth from San Paulo and Rio boasting 9 helicopter pads just outside the town limits.   As we pulled in by car we knew it was our kind of place; no traffic lights, no cars allowed in most of the 33 blocks (each block is 50 ft), and on the beach with narrow walking stone streets.  The number 33 is important because this was the Freemasons favorite number and the town was built by Freemasons, get it now? Yet it had all the conveniences you could ask for, a mini mart for late night snacks and a few great restaurants.   What else could a traveling man ask for?  A dinner in front of live Brazilian Bossa Nova music made us feel like we belonged, well…not really.  We thought the music was French until our waitor confirmed it was classic Brazilian music and that we didn’t recognize it because all tourist go to Rio and listen to Samba.

…switching to Linda now…

After our kayaking wilderness stay, Christian took us back to Paraty Mirin (where we launched the kayaks) and then to Picinguaba, which is a small fishing town.  On the way we stopped in a little beach town called Trindade (Trin-da-day).  So cool!  We had a picnic lunch with us, but Greg and I wanted to hang at a little beach side restaurant/bar to have some drinks (shocker). When I say beach side, I am talking ON the sand about 5′ from the water.

DSC02746Behind us there was a local guy playing the guitar and also plenty of fun people watching.  Gotta love guys in Speedos and ladies letting it all hang out in teeny weenie bikinis, despite their body type.  As I sipped my passion fruit Caipirinha (kipe-pir-enn-ya) made with the locally distilled sugar cane liquor, called Cachaça (ka-shas-sa), Greg threw back some of the local beer know as Skoal.  The town was maybe a street long with it’s fair share of stray cats and dogs.  I fed half of my sandwich to a small kitty and when he was chased away by the dog, I fed the dog.  Once lunch for me (and my new pets for the day) was complete off we went to our next hotel, Pousada Pininguaba in the town called Picinguaba…very clever name.  :-). Picinguaba means “the fishes’ refuge” in the indigenous Tupi-Guarani language, spoken by the Tupi people who first inhabited the area.  As we pulled in town in Christian’s tank of a van, pulling our three kayaks on a huge trailer, we saw a black lab mix running up and down the beach chasing ominous black volchures.  This tiny town was clearly a working fishing town.  We unloaded the van and had to walk across the beach to get to the Pousada.  We saw old wooden fishing boats, nets and old salty dog fisherman doing their magic.  Unloading fish from old, really old wooden fishing boats alongside another group of salty dogs shucking our equivalent of mussels.   Dinner that night was…you guessed it…fish!  And I’m not a big seafood fan, but it was simply delicious.  The Peruvian trout (which is more like our American salmon) was grilled over an open flame, wrapped in banana leaves.

Picinguaba is kind of like our US melting pot.   It is home to traditional Caiçaras who are descended from the intermingling of anyone that was around back in the day, which were basically indigenous tribes, Portuguese colonizers, and African slaves. To understand more about their unique culture, we visited a Quilombo, which is a settlement for escaped slaves and other individuals who were oppressed during the days of colonization. In US terms, think of our Indian reservations minus the casinos.  They focus on family and education and preservation of their culture.  We sat down with some of the local people to have a chat after chowing down two giant helpings of  Feijoada (pronounced feesh-u-wada), the traditional Brazilian dish of a stew made with beans w pork…oh…and of course another Passion Fruit Caipirinha (I just love those drinks)!  One of the locals we spoke with was a 65 year old woman that lived the rough life…as she told us her story of having no electricity, no automobiles, walking 10 miles each way to town to get 20 lb bags of rice or whatever type of food needed, I couldn’t help noticing her modern cell phone sitting next to her.  Greg asked her how she views the changes with modern advancements and she replied with saying that people are much lazier these days.  The concept of trying so hard to keep up with their culture and traditions, yet wanting advancement for their children is a hard one.  They want the kids to stay in the community and help keep it real, but just like the kids from the tribes we met in the Amazon, the children usually grow up and want to leave.  Not sure what a good balance looks like.  Anywho – one fun tradition was dancing to drums while singing their African influenced traditional songs.  Yeah baby, dancing at last!  They gave me a multi-colored flowing skirt and the jamming began!

imageThe visit was a throw back in time to family units born out of slavery living together on former slave owner land.  The poverty was evident and so were the smiles, life is simple for them and the older generation likes that. The problem will be with the next generation that is already asking for the latest sneakers and cool american baseball caps.  Playing with some of the younger kids was great, still in the phase of easily entertained by being thrown in the air or simply looking at us like we were aliens from another planet…

Linda's new BFF, in brazil that is!

Linda’s new BFF, in brazil that is!

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The entire time we were in the Galapagos, Amazon or hiking and biking in Brazil we never came nose to nose with Greg’s most feared enemy…the SNAKE…until we were walking down the path leaving our Pousada.  imageGreg was ahead of me and screamed back to me, “WATCH OUT!! SNAKE!!!” I walked up and saw Greg holding his crotch with eyes wider than Bart Simpson’s while seeing a black and yellow snake slither across the path.  Greg turned on a dime and started calling, “CHRISTIAN…SNAKE…CHRISTIAN…SNAKE” while I tried to shoo it off the path, which I did in a after of minutes.  I tried to yell to Greg that the snake was gone, to no avail.  He ran faster that Zula Bud to get Christian to come back to save the day.  Now, Greg says he ran to get Christian because he like sakes, but we all know that Greg was scared straight and Christian was the savior.  Christian was upset to have missed the snake and Greg was glad it was gone.  Christian went on to tell us that the snake sightings are very rare and Greg was so “lucky” to have seen it…of course, “lucky” isn’t Greg’s word choice.  And wouldn’t you know it, when we went back to the Pousada later that day, the snake was waiting for Greg again and he grabbed his crotch again and called for Christian.  Can you say Groundhogs day?  I still haven’t figured out the crotch grab thing, other than Greg protecting the goods…but to each their own.

Loved Brazil…world cup 2014 anyone??  off to Peru and the Inca Trail 4 day hike with camping.  Wish us luck!

BTW – Pleese exxuse typois, as we are on the MOVE!!! 🙂

Here are two links to more pictures:
– Paraty, Saco do Mamangua and Picinguaba

Posted in Brazil, Brazil Coast-Paraty-Mamangua-Picinguaba, South America | 5 Comments

Shhh-Linda doesn’t know I wrote this

Posted on September 6, 2013 by Diamond

Today is our 16th anniversary and I couldn’t be happier spending it with Linda.  After traveling together  glued at the hip we are quickly realizing it doesn’t matter what location we are at on any given day, all days can be great when you are with someone you love.  This includes spouses, family, friends… People say you have to travel to see the world, however after traveling for five weeks we have seen more than expected in unexpected places which means if you just open your eyes you can see everything you need or want in the most places or with most people.  You don’t need to be having a cup of coffee on the streets of Rio to have a great conversation, just chit chat with the person next to you in the grocery line.   Even better, call or meet a friend or loved one and just say hello and see where the conversation takes you.   Just my humble opinion coming from having random conversations with strangers and staring at not so special landscapes but still getting what I want out of those experiences.

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On the lighter side…..

A few more items of particular importance we have noticed:

– there seems to be a shortage of napkins in South America, and when we do get napkins they are more like thin plastic then soft paper.  Sounds like a business opportunity.

-many older adults, like our age, have braces.  I can only assume it is because you get them when you can afford them or perhaps 20-30 years ago it wasn’t even a consideration with the other fundamental priorities.

-like napkins there is a shortage of personal space, I’ll never understand why someone behind me is riding up my back side as I wait in a line to buy a soda or check in for a flight.

-once again, like napkins and personal space, there is a shortage of cold meats on sandwiches.  But only on sandwiches.  When you get a ham and cheese there is one slice of ham on two or three big pieces of bread but yet they serve ham and other meats for most other meals on large platters where you can take as much as you want.

– The yogurts and juices in South America have been off the charts! We can’t get enough.  Who knew an Avocado smoothie could taste so good

– Like in Mexico, when driving you pull over to the far right shoulder when making a LEFT turn.  Say what?  Now you’ve got to cross two lanes!

– Everything has been on military time…we are now extremely proficient at subtracting 12 but still dont understand the distance, weight….conversions.  Now I get why we were taught this in elementary school, teachers knew that 30 years later it would finally come in handy.   Memory lessons would have been more helpful

-Our last two guides independently asked linda if she was a model, so like braces they may want to invest in glasses.   Of course she is beautiful and now she is also walking on cloud nine.

-When I say, “I don’t understand.” doesnt mean I’m stupid.  Why do people just say the same thing louder over and over, I or anyone else won’t miraculously understand a new language.  If they were smarter they will try another approach.  However it’s my fault for not knowing THEIR language in THEIR country.  a lesson to be learned for some people in the US, we speak english and don’t forget it.  (maybe too much sarcasm but so what it our Anniversary)

-When foreigners translate conversations into English for our convenience they explain really basic things in detail.  For instance, Our guide uses a hard book to write notes, I told him he was old school for not using an ipad. He agreed but still felt the need to explain how he can use his paper book,we went on to explain how he can write ideas, check his calendars in the doctors office, take notes.  Linda sarcastically said yeah we understand how paper works.  We all got a kick out of the Seinfeld style conversation.

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See you on the other side, of a four day hike that is

Posted in Our Anniversary | 8 Comments

Rio-A tale of two cities

Posted on September 3, 2013 by Diamond

by Greg

Brazil; home of football, corruption and now we are finding out you are basically living in a bubble if you are middle class or above. A huge discrepancy exist between rich and poor, maybe the widest of any developing country. We are staying on the recommended south end on a hilltop (the Santa Teresa and Lapa areas) overlooking Rio – basically as safe as it gets outside of having our own mobile brinks alarm system and armored car. We set out on our standard day of exploring on our own and once again we were told to take taxis after dark. So what are we expected to do?? Hop in a taxi and grab dinner, hop in another taxi and head to a bar, club, or show, hop in another taxi to go home. Not our style, we need to find some middle ground between being courted by a local travel guide and doing our own thing while staying safe. Maybe we should go back to bird watching . I chalk some of this feeling up to the day one jitters of going into a new city where everyone and everything is new…including the language (we were just getting the hang of Spanish, and now it is Portuguese). By day two we have typically settled in and can enjoy our surroundings with fresh eyes, day three we might as well be locals, except we don’t speak Portuguese and as much as people say it’s just like Spanish no one understands what we are saying in English or Spanish. This morning for breakfast I did my usual point to the menu item approach, all was good until I attempted to get my omelette cooked well done. I was served a plain egg white omelette, not the worst meal considering I had my first bout of some food poising yesterday. While on the subject of breakfast the yogurt and juices in South America have been off the charts! We can’t get enough. The Lindy’s have been on the fresh juice bandwagon for quite some time…they’ll be in heaven when they get here.

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Rio is undoubtedly improving in many aspects of life however the entire country has a long way to go. Our guide thinks it is safe but then again he has been held up a knife point and once in his car by gun. He feels it’s still safe because only a few incidents in his whole life and they all happened “quickly” as he said.  This perspective gives you some perspective on how different locals perceive safety versus the general US perspective on safety (3 perspectives in one sentence, now thats talent).

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Today we set out on bike and rode up and down the lake and beaches, this area is the reason people come to Rio so you can forget my earlier comments on safety.  Just stay out of the city area, probably a good decision in most large cities across the world. Take for instance D.C. where three quarters of the city has never been seen by most people who have lived in the area our whole lives. Not sure why when traveling we want to see and do things that you would never do at home. Have you have taken a tour or had the desire to stroll down some random streets in SE? Point made! Now back to paradise, hundreds of mini soccer fields and volleyball courts line the beach where speedo wearing men and g-string wearing females fill up the courts. Sprinkled among the organized games a groups of four or five people juggling a soccer ball amongst themselves, probably a warm up while waiting for the next opening to play.  At the end of the beach you will find small restaurants lined with coconuts waiting to be cracked open for the water and an ocassionally make shift group of guys playing samba music. Then the wide walking path next to a bike path sets the stage for daily strolls of people watching, this would never get old. I dont know about you but I can look at brazilian butts all day:).

DSC02479We made our way to Copacaba Beach, beautiful like the rest of the area with not much differentiating it from other areas. It is basically over played its hand and now the hot beach called Ipanema next door is where the action is at.

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Time to jump in the car and head up the mountain to the famous christ the redeemer statue, set on top of a 3,000ft point overlooking Rio makes it a dramatic experience. Views from the platform are breathtaking and now we have a better perspective of why Rio is viewed as one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

DSC02502The next day we drove three hours south along the coastline, very reminiscent of the PCH in California. Large S turns hug the coast with the road high above small beach towns nestled into small bays. Every ten minutes the road swoops down into another small village we pass by, we are having “no schedule” envy for the first time. We need to make our way back here and spend some unplanned time stopping in these small towns to blend into the local life where I’m sure there is not a care in the world especially since Brazilians are known for living in the moment. The mountain ranges take a beach town feel and mash it with a jungle next door so you can have the best of both worlds. Surf and chill on the beach in the morning then strap on the hiking shoes and go trekking up a mountain or repelling in the afternoon.

The old colonial town of Paraty awaits us then a three day Kayaking trip down the coast…

For Rio pictures click here: Rio de Janeiro

Posted in Brazil, Rio, South America | 4 Comments

Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll…Columbia

Posted on August 30, 2013 by Diamond

Joint blog again. Greg first…

MEDELLÍN

This was the phrase that described the US in the 70’s. Cocaine, bullets and bloodshed described Columbia in the 80’s. Best know for Pablo Escobar and the rival Cali Cartel waging war against the government and openly killing officials and police officers in broad daylight with Medellin being the focal point. Can you imagine a US citizen so powerful, and to some degree adored by the public, that they go to war with the US ARMY and local police? It is said that walking to the grocery store was putting your life in god’s hand. Twenty years later Medellin is now recognized, and has won awards, as the most innovative city in the world. It must have been amazing to witness such a drastic transformation. The locals say the only risk tourists face here is that they may never want to leave. It is, however, not all positive. When walking the streets of downtown we didn’t see architecturally interesting buildings or clean streets. Instead we saw peddlers and homeless people lying on the sidewalks. To be more specific, imagine walking down K Street and literally stepping over a homeless person (most likely on drugs), sprawled out in the middle of the sidewalk with no shirt on.

Low income area of Medellín

Low income area of Medellín

This scene was fortunately not in the fun, vibrant area that we stayed in called Poblado. So much effort has been put into crime prevention, which has been successful, that they are just starting to get to other important social services. Our tour guide sited EDUCATION as the number one reason for the change. We saw “library parks” scattered around that offer free access to computers and books galore. There was even a mini library in the metro station. Also, all underprivileged families have free access to any museum or park in the area. What a severe contrast to, for example, the Taliban’s desire to suppress and repress its people.

Work of Fernando Botero. Famous artist from Medellín.

Outside of Museo de Antioquia – Art Museum. Work of Fernando Botero. Famous artist from Medellín.

Instead of being downtown with the bums (no pun intended with the above picture :-)), the south of the city is where it’s at! Poblado is where the upper class and gringos hang out. The town boasts a trendy, hip and lively vibe similar to South Beach. Our hotel (The Charlee Hotel) was like the W brand – with a gorgeous three floor gym and our modernly appointed room that even had an open air balcony with grill and bar overlooking the “cool” part of town.

Charlee Hotel - our patio with grill and cool furniture.

Charlee Hotel – our patio with grill and cool furniture.

View of fun Poblado area

View of fun Poblado area

Poblado is a perfect location for a group of friends to spend a long weekend living it up if eating late and clubbing into the dawn peaks your interest. Once again we couldn’t make a recommendation without first trying it. We set out on foot to grab some dinner. It turned out to be great people watching because most every restaurant had indoor and outdoor seating in the four block area that was filled with partygoers and wealthy men hand in hand with their young trophies on their arms. After dinner we hit a Mexican themed bar that was packed wall to wall, but this didn’t stop the tables full of people from bouncing up and dancing the sexy salsa on the make shift dance floor they individually created next to their own tables. We had one last stop at a hip hop bar that was playing American music. We didn’t know you could dance the salsa to rap music, but the local Columbians do it superbly. I still don’t understand how a Spanish speaking country listens to so much American music. Imagine walking into a bar in Bethesda and rocking it out to some tunes in Spanish all night (Rio Grande doesn’t count), it just doesn’t make sense to me. The next day a late lunch cemented the South Beach similarity…late partying equals a late wake up. At one o’clock in the afternoon it is still a ghost town with most places still closed. Four o’clock and a cup of coffee street side for people watching and we could see the town coming back to life. The party gods turned on the light switch for round two. We could not partake as we had to head to Cartagena on a late flight, but we were still doing the salsa in spirit!

CARTEGENA

Charm, charm, charm. We felt like we were living in an old colonial town complete with horse drawn carriages and vibrant town squares. Now I understand why Obama came to this walled-in city on the coast. Too bad his secret service took the opportunity to put Cartagena on the map for the wrong reasons.

The bar the Secret Service got in trouble at.

The bar the Secret Service got in trouble at.

Narrow one-way streets accented with two story buildings complete with ornate wooden flower filled balconies set the stage for a romantic stroll down the safest streets in Columbia. Since we were so tired from our late travels from Medellin we opted for a ham and cheese from a mini mart for dinner.

IMG_2705The next day we walked the city with David (pronounced Dah-veed), our proud tour guide. We particularly enjoyed the heavy, ornate doors on the adorable casas. Each adorned with a large brass unique doorknocker. DSC02389Apparently, doorknockers represent the owner’s personality and the additional hardware on the doors represents their wealth. After a four-hour walking tour we basically saw the entire city. Not the most beautiful beaches in the world, but it gets the job done with warm water and hot weather. New twenty story sky scrapers were going up along the beach and they are starting to rival US prices – starting at 600k going up to over a million. The government is pushing hard to increase tourism and new international investments with a 30-year break on paying any taxes for hotel owners and any other tourism investments. I don’t think the US needs tourism investments, however one of our biggest problems is not enough resources for giving back. We could use additional resources to support our non-profits and volunteer efforts. So how do you get the brightest and the best to go into this field? No income tax for this industry? There you go, problem solved. On that note, we have been discussing how to give back based on seeing the lower quality of life, but where do you start? Support your family first? Maybe your community or your religious preference? Maybe your country, if feeling patriotic scratches your itch? How about a specific cause near and dear to your heart, cancer research, homelessness, stray dogs, education….we plan on figuring this out as we continue our travels.

Switching to Linda now…

What fun activity do you still do that your grandparents did? Do you dance the same way as your grandparent? They do in Latin America…with pride. I love it! While at a fun bar in Cartagena, I had a sweet Columbian lady attempt to teach me her ways. You all know I love to dance; so learning the Columbian salsa was a fabulous undertaking for me. The hardest part was not the foot steps, or the hip movement, but the fact that she told me my upper body HAD to remain still. Say what? No wiggles at all? You’d think not moving something would be easier than moving something else in a certain way…but not in my case. She even had her husband help as well as a friend. I asked the counts for the steps and she hesitated and told me that the steps didn’t matter and that I should just feel the music. How fun.

After a late night of salsa dancing the night before, we slept in and decided to take an afternoon walk out of the walled city to visit the Castillo de San Felipe Barajas fortress. IMG_2683 IMG_2687The fortress is the most formidable defensive fortress/castle built by the Spanish in the mid 1500’s in a location that could defend enemies approaching by land or sea. Now, certainly no Inca building, but very impressive. We even eerily walked through some of the underground tunnels.

Tunnel at Castillo San Felipe de Barajas

Tunnel at Castillo San Felipe de Barajas

It was all fun and games until the lights flickered out and we were in pitch black! Freaky! During our brisk walk to and from the fort, we realized that the charm of Cartagena is definitely much more prominent within the old city’s stone walls. The walls were built in the late 1500’s to protect the town from repeated wars and pirate attacks…the English sea captain, Sir Francis Drake, being the main nemesis. During a stroll on the wall we were stopped by the Mother of Spanish speaking family, that was holding a camera. We assumed she was flagging us down to take their picture, but lo and behold, she wanted us to be IN the picture. Now, that’s a funny twist! I guess we gringos are picture worthy.

Next, a long overnight fight to Brazil…Rio de Janeiro. More soon!

Posted in Cartagena, Colombia, Medellín | 2 Comments

You Amazon!!!

Posted on August 24, 2013 by Diamond

Napo Eco-Lodge - Ecuadorian Amazon

Napo Eco-Lodge – Ecuadorian Amazon

Bugs, rain, mosquito bites, humidity….everything I thought the Amazon was before arriving. This is exactly why we wanted to “live” this and experience it for ourselves because none of what I thought it would be like was accurate. Yes it was humid, our clothes are still damp a few days later. Yes, it did rain, but not all day as I thought (it rains about 250 days a year). And, NO, Greg did not get a single bug bite. There were virtually zero bugs around when we ate our meals outside in the dining area. Now, that is amazing!

Although the saying, “You Amazon” did not come from the Amazon River (which crosses 6 countries), Greg and I sure felt like Amazons when traveling around the region. The indigenous Ecuadorian people are very petite. Whether strolling past the farmers market stands, or boarding the roofed canoe in the Amazon, we had to be sure to duck so as to not bump our heads. I can only imagine what our dear tall friends, the Wills, would have to do. Maybe crawl around?! 🙂 Now that’s a funny image!

Getting to the Ecuadorian Amazon was like a scene from the hilarious “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” movie. Actually, it was more like a plane, bus, motorized canoe and a paddle canoe. Once we landed at the Coca airport we were quickly transferred by bus to our motorized canoe for a two plus hour trip, then transferred to a manual canoe for another hour of paddling, then we landed at the Napo Wildlife Center (an amazing eco-lodge in the middle of the Amazon jungle).

Canoe on way to lodge

To be clear, we did not do the paddling…our fabulous Local Guide (Faulto) and his support paddler (Domingo), with some help from our Naturalist (Marco) did all of the work. We were thinking that this better be good as we were almost all natured out! We weren’t sure the Amazon could top the Galápagos as the animals there just hang out right in front of you as if you are invisible. It was really unbelievable! In the Amazon you had to really search the wildlife out…listen, and smell. It was like searching for Sylvester Stallone in the Rambo movie “First Blood” when he was camouflaged in that mud bank hiding from the bad guys. All you could see was the whites of his eyes when he decided to open them. Or was it the Arnold Schwarzenegger “Predator” movie? Anywho, I wasn’t sure I was in the mood to play the “Where’s Waldo” game all day. I was certainly banking on our Guides having amazing eyes and ears…and they sure did!

Upon arrival everyone was assigned a group and guides for the duration of the stay. Wouldn’t you know it…we were assigned a great family of five from Washington, DC! Susan and Bill Bass with their sixteen year old triplets; Maggie, Sarah and Will. It wasn’t long before we must have said something they liked because they basically adopted us for the remainder of the trip. We ate breakfast, lunch and dinner together each day and went out in the same small canoe twice a day together. Four feet wide and about thirty feet long, the canoe is small enough to maneuver inside remote shallow tributaries in search of some new species that has never been seen by human kind. As the days went on the practical jokes started, I couldn’t resist plucking a long skinny fern leaf and tickling the ears of everyone in front of me during our hikes. The last night our DC family invited us to their hut for a pre dinner drink of Cuba Libre (rum and coke, meaning free Cuba…it was named based on people drinking it heavily during the Cuban – Spanish independence war). It was delicious after back to back long days of getting up at 5:30am to catch the wildlife doing their morning aerobics.

Before I bore you with a list of animals we spotted, I must comment on the other guests. They were almost more fascinating than the wildlife. Everyone had camera that could have taken a picture of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. In conversations it came up that these lenses can cost between $15,000-$20,000 dollars. I jokingly told one of the younger guys from NYC that he should have saved his money and used our point and shoot camera and doctor it up in some photo program. At least he could laugh it off. One couple even brought a tape recorder filled with bird calls…or maybe I will call it a bird decoder. We were behind the bird decoder people and I’m fairly certain our guide thought their bird calling machine were real birds. Oh boy. Off to a funny start!

Camera Envy

Camera Envy at the Parrot Lick

How many acres are in a hector? Two and a half ares, about the size of a large plot of land some might live on. Why does this matter? In the Ecuadorian Amazon one hector has more plant and tree varietals than the entire land mass of North America. This is seriously mind-blowing! And there is more, the Napo Wildlife Center is on the most bio-diverse land in the world. Thankfully our tour operator knew this when they booked us because until three days ago I didn’t know what bio-diverse even meant. So the stage is set and I actually felt bad being there since we just picked up this new interest in wildlife and environmental awareness and now we find ourselves in the most complex, lively, environmentally important place on earth. Once we got our bearings on this reality we both took a pause to appreciate how fortunate we are to have this experience.

Crazy Large Tree Trunk

Crazy Large Tree Trunk

We lucked out and were able to see seven or eight different monkeys. I can’t recall them all…but I do recall that we saw Squirrel, Capuchin, Monk Saki, Golden, and Howler monkeys. The Howler monkeys were awesome! They had babies with them and they HOWL (yeah…shocker and it can be heard up to three miles away). To check out their howls click this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHBjjdIx8dE. We also caught a glimpse of a few sloths that were totally entwined in a trees. Then, last but not least…the Giant Otter! Whoa!

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DSC02183For the next few days we went on two excursions a day. Day one we climbed up an observation tower about ten stories high just above the jungle canopy.

Observation Tower

Observation Tower

Additionally, we went to a Parrot Bird Lick, yep had no idea what this was either. Apparently the parrots need to sooth their stomachs by licking the clay.

Parrot Lick

Parrot Lick

We hiked into remote areas that were so dense that our local guide brought a machete and took the canoe deep enough into narrow tributaries that we would hit the bottom, duck under branches and hand maneuver around trees to the point where we had to turn around. Boa constrictors from a distance were fine with me especially after we found ourselves within one foot of a large tarantula.

DSC02144The tribe of 180 indigenous people who managed the eco lodge were so appreciative of the visit since this is how they make a living after they agreed to no longer hunt and fish for survival. This is one of the many ways Ecuador is preserving the amazon jungle.

To see more Amazon pics click here: Ecuador – Amazon

So…Ecuador…farewell to the only place in the world you can eat breakfast on the beach, lunch in the mountains and dinner in the jungle, we had a great trip to this peaceful country! Squeezed between the two largest producers of cocaine, Ecuador’s people are living clean and progressing with impressive education and infrastructure projects. Something we are really amazed with is how much originated in this tiny country the size of Colorado with only 14M people. What do Panama hats, the largest supply of bananas and Mike Judge (the creator of Beavis and Butthead) all have in common? I would recommend a visit to anyone interesting in taking a break, but then again this is our first country so take the comment with a grain of salt. Hopefully I will say the same thing after leaving each country we visit.

We hope Columbia has the same welcoming people and 80’s American music 🙂 ~ if not I guess we will be relegated to staring at the beautiful people.

Co-Authored by Linda and Greg…just leaving Medellin and heading to Cartagena! Peace out!

To see all of our photos click here: Photos

Posted in Ecuador - Amazon, South America | 2 Comments

Zip-lining in Retirement

Posted on August 18, 2013 by Diamond

No we are not retired but we did spend the last few days in two really cool towns that are retirement material.  Cool is really the operative word.  Imagine taking Dewey Beach for its party and no need to drive conveniences, mix it with Vail for the mountain and sports available year round with a final ingredient of a west coast surf town like Venice Beach for its laid back surf dudes and weather.  Now you have Baños, a tiny town surrounded by large volcanoes, that attracts adventure thrill seekers from around the world.

baños valley

baños valley

The type of town where two guys from Chicago visited a few years back and never went home and now own a microbrewery in the vibrant town square, sitting next to a 19th century gothic church and a  hand pulled taffy store.

baños Church

baños Church

This is definitely a place I would like to return to and would recommend to anyone interested in outdoor sports and finishing the day with a local drink called Canelazo (Naranjilla fruit juice, raw sugar, cinammon, sugar cane liquor).  Hiking, white water rafting, rock climbing, zip-lining, and the most outrageous of all…repelling through waterfalls, are the core sports of Baños but not the only.  We, of course, did none of these because we didn’t plan enough time, hence the need to return. We did, however, visit the local church which houses Ecuadorian paintings all representing miracles that have been performed over the centuries.  We especially liked the image of the Virgin Mary floating over a house while everything else around it burned.  I do believe in miracles, particularly the USA hockey victory over the Russians in the 1980 Olympics .  With clouds rolling in at basically head height, due to our altitude, we finished our tour with a beer at the microbrewery called Stray Dog. I couldn’t make a recommendation without testing out the merchandise first hand.  A handful of couples on vacation would have a blast in this town….hint, hint.

Chicago style beers in Ecuador

Chicago style beers in Ecuador

Oh yeah, if the extreme sports aren’t enough danger, an active volcano that bellows smoke out of its crater daily sits directly above the town and could blow its top any day like popeye when Bruto hits on Oliveoil.   In a serious eruption, lava could flow over 200 miles so there really would be no chance for survival if this baby blows.  That is basically the distance from D.C. to the beach.  The moral of the story is dont #%€^+ with mother nature.

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Hidden, or should I say used to be hidden, in the southern Andes mountain is a small 18th century town of about 400,000 people called Cuenca.  Used to be hidden for two reasons;

1- until1960 the roads were so poor that the city was isolated from the rest of the world,

2- it is the hottest retirement location in the world for expats.

It is estimated that 5,000-10,000 Americans are living in the city.  This is easily understood when the weather year round is between 50-70 degrees, monthly expenses including rent are 2,000 dollars and health care is excellent with European and American trained doctors cost less than 100 dollars per month. (It’s not to late to catch the afternoon flight connecting in Miami).  Cuenca’s cobblestone streets, flower filled plazas and french inspired iron balconies make it a walking paradise for locals and tourist alike.

Cuenca riverfront

Cuenca riverfront

Unlike other SA cities Cuenca is safe, we went to dinner last night and felt comfortable walking home.  It took us a long while since I was navigating and got lost.  I kept seeing the same street named “Calle” and ended up walking in circles.  It wasn’t until Linda asked me what street we were on and I said “Calle” and she, being the more advanced Spanish speaker, told me that “Calle” meant “street” in spanish…and every street name noted “Calle” before the actual name.  This was the final straw, I have decided to stop trying to learn the language and go for the universal hand sign approach.  We all know the signs and it’s amazing what you can get done without speaking.  For example:

– Ordering food – just point to what you want on the menu.

– Drinking beers – the hand chug of course.

– How much – the good old finger rub up in the air. Aiirport – hands Flying over.

– I don’t understand – head and shoulders shrug, and if it’s really bad feel free to raise your hands along with the shrug and last but not least

– It’s all good – thumbs up.

Sitting at a cafe yesterday, waiting for our afternoon city tour, a sea of 60 year old white haired Americans rolled in and took over most of the 20 seats. They proceeded to smoke cigars, eat hamburgers and play cards. Like it is not bad enough that all the locals stare at us, I get it we are Gringos, but we couldn’t figure out why the Americans were staring as well. Maybe it was a territory thing and they needed to send us young kids a message. The word Gringo is used positively here…of course it is if these white bread Americans are coming down here and spending all this money.  The origin of Gringo came from the US – Mexican drug wars years back when Mexican cartels would spray paint buildings “green go home” because the US military wore green uniforms – thus, “green go” aka “Gringo”.  In closing, an Interesting circle of life between the US and SA has come to light.  Riddle me this batman. They leave SA and come to America to work, and we work and leave to retire in SA…hmmm not sure exactly why this matters.  So someone smarter than me needs to figure out the impact of this migration.

“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!”— Hunter S. Thompson

Based on that quote we are off to the Amazon Jungle in search of the worlds largest anaconda and fastest jaguar.

Posted in Ecuador - Cuenca and Baños, South America | 1 Comment

I need a Cotopaxi (or Coco!)

Posted on August 16, 2013 by Diamond

This is a joint blog…Greg first.

I need a Cotopaxi, or at least a little break, as we have been moving and grooving for 14 days.   I know what you are thinking and I’m thinking the same thing, but we have another 260 days to explore and we need a break already?  Here is how I see it, the first two weeks was a vacation and moving forward we need to start traveling and not vacationing.  Yes, on vacation you have packed days and live it up from dust to dawn but it’s not realistic or desirable to do this long term.  When traveling you need to take it a bit slower, soak up the sites and blend into to the local culture.  Fortunately, we have built in several days, and in late september several weeks, to just settle into a city that we will call home for a short period of time.  (Disclaimer complete)

After a 1.5 hour drive south from Quito we hit the Andes mountains and our next stop in the region called Cotopaxi.

Cotopaxi Country

Cotopaxi Country

This is where I would typically throw in some useless knowledge but I am on such information overload I don’t know where to begin.  Cotopaxi is also a volcano and for some reason Linda and I now think we are Lewis and Clark so we decide to hike part of the volcano.  Twenty years together and we have explored more and are about to complete more hikes in theses two weeks than in the combined twenty years past.  Not to mention we have the Inca trail 4 day hike in a few weeks.

We are so excited for this new journey of hiking we are embarking on and today feels like the first day of school, excited but nervous about making an ass of yourself somehow.  We stop on the way for a quick snack and as I get out of the car I see Linda all bundled up with full hiking gear strapped on to include, glacier like shades, back pack, multiple layers and a jacket.  I felt terrible telling her we were still 30 minutes away and that the stop was for a drink and snack.  She was obviously the first one on school grounds that first day of class each year.  We are planning on hiking up to 16,000 feet, this is a pretty big deal because at this altitude each breath yields about 50% less oxygen (46% to be exact but 50% sounds more dramatic).  To put the hike into perspective Kilimanjaro peaks at 19,000 and only about 60% of the people make it to the summit.  Nothing like jumping in head first, or should I say feet first!

Cotopaxi Volcano Hike (means neck of the moon) – My turn…this is Linda

My disclaimer…I have hiked up to Caddies in Bethesda before (even in the snow), but not a volcano, so I was ready to go!!!  The little stop for a snack threw me all off!  I was mentally ready to roll baby!

The climb was gorgeous.  Strenuous going up because it was very steep, and tricky going down with all of the loose rocks and little pebbles.  It was 15,953 feet at the top.  We were so relieved that we didn’t have a bad reaction to the altitude since we have the Kilimanjaro hike (19,000 plus feet) in October.   We were certainly winded but I think the Coco tea we had before our climb helped us out.  The tea is made from the COCO plant!  Yes, the same plant used to make cocaine but without the other ingredients!  The plant is a sacred plant here as it is said to provide energy, settle your stomach, and helps with diarrhea – all symptoms of altitude sickness.  We also bought Coco candies for later!  🙂

Cotopaxi Volcano

Cotopaxi Volcano

Greg and Linda - at the Cotopaxi Volcano Refuge...15,953 feet!!

Greg and Linda – at the Cotopaxi Volcano Refuge…15,953 feet!!

Heading down was much like roller skating over marbles.  And you all know me…an event cannot pass me by (including a trip to the gym) without me getting a souvenir of a wound of some sort.  On the way down I slipped on the rocks and slid back…so my warrior wound is a little boo boo and abrasions on my hands, not that bad!  As we descended the clouds quickly came in around us and then the snow started – almost a cross between hail and snow.  It was crazy how quickly the weather changed…dropping about 15 degrees.  Wow!  It was then time to head off to a quick lunch in an off the beaten path restaurant with a stepa (straw) roof.  Since the weather changed so quickly, there were instant mini-streams all around, so the van we were in could not make it to the restaurant, so a short hike for us to get there.  The hike was worth it as the view was all mountains!

After the Cotopaxi Volcano climb to Refuge...snow everywhere!

After the Cotopaxi Volcano climb to Refuge…snow everywhere!

The second day in Cotopaxi was even more adventurous…horseback riding (Greg hated not having control of such a large beast!), a llama visit (I’m adding a llama to the list of animals I want to take home with me…sea lions and blue footed boobies already on the list) and a very rigorous bike ride in the afternoon.

Linda and Llamas are also in love

Linda and Llamas are also in love

I felt like a little 8 year old tomboy on a BMX bike.  We tore through rocks, mud, sand with rocks, more rocks, steep dirt and rocks and some rocks that were on more rocks.  P.S. I have never ridden a bike on anything other than a street or flat sand, so this was crazy to me!  Scratch that…I forgot…I rode a bike down a mountain in Vail in August several years ago and flew over my handle bars.  So, this was double crazy for me.  Greg kept turning around laughing after every big hill we tore up…he thought it was hilarious seeing little ole me keep up.  I remained unscathed.

Dirt biking baby!

Dirt biking baby!

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Now, of course you know what happened when we got back to our Hacienda after all of these physical conquests…I hurt myself stepping over our MacBook’s power cord.  My knee popped in and out of socket…all good…just need some ice and am glad it popped right back in.  MAN – SERIOUSLY!!!!  I’m such a klutz.

While traveling we’ve been very cognizant about being polite, respectful and friendly so as to not be the stupid, aggressive people from the Estadios Unidos. Norte Americanos need a little help in the PR Dept, so to that end I’ve even been waving and saying some spanish greeting to even the kids walking by with their cows in tow (seriously…they were walking their cows to get milked) and all the little girls say ‘hola’ back and giggle away.  Probably because I sound ridiculous, but at least they know I am trying!  The kids are so cute.  Btw, cows milk goes for $0.45 per liter here and a good cow produces 20 liters a day.  The cows are walked to the local plant to be milked twice a day. How’s that for useless facts!?

Cute kids in Cotopaxi...they'll be walking their cows to get milked shortly!

Cute kids in Cotopaxi…they’ll be walking their cows to get milked shortly!

Now, more on this kickin’ Hacienda we are staying in.  It is called Hacienda of San Agustín de Callo.  Built on the site of an Inca palace, one of the two most important archaeological Inca sites in Ecuador.  This place feels like a story book…from the main courtyard (now the main photo on our blog) you can see three architecture styles:

Hacienda San Augstin de Callo

Hacienda San Augstin de Callo. The black walls on the right of the picture were made by Incas in the 1400’s

(1) Inca – Imperial style 15th century, construction style which the Incas used for their temples and palaces It was built by Tupac-Yupanqui (Inca Emperor).  Any relation to good ole hip hop Tupac?!?!?  (RIP)

(2) Spanish Colonial – 18th century and

(3) Republican – 19th century.

The temperature here gets down to 50 degrees at night, but there is no heat in this Hacienda.  Every room has an impressive fire-place.  See below pics.   Our bathroom, bedroom and little sitting area all have cranking, crackling fires!  We will both smell like a cookout when we leave here!  We will need to air ourselves out for sure!

Fireplace in bathroom...crazy cool!

Fireplace in bathroom…crazy cool!

Fireplace in bedroom

Fireplace in bedroom

Fireplace in sitting room. Check out the old books on the top of the mantel.

Fireplace in sitting room. Check out the old books on the top of the mantel.

FARMERS MARKET…COW HOOF ANYONE?

Last, but certainly not least, is the visit to the outdoor farmers market.

Market in Latacunga - small town outside of Cotopaxi

Market in Latacunga – small town outside of Cotopaxi

There were so many fresh veggies, fruits, even flour being made in front of us straight from the grain.

Making Flour from Barley - Market in Latacunga outside of Cotopaxi

Making Flour from Barley – Market in Latacunga outside of Cotopaxi

When I say fresh, I mean so fresh that we saw a small farmers family…grandma, mom and daughters…all sitting on the ground wiping the mud off the fragrant spring onions.  The work ethic was so apparent!  We even saw a 4′ 10″ man carrying a sack of potatoes that was bigger than he was. People were not just “manning their stall” they were all a buzz preparing, cleaning or peeling something.  Nobody was sitting still!  Everything looked so delicious!  Farm fresh eggs, every herb you can imagine, fifty different types of potatoes, juicy berries, vibrant flowers, …the list goes on and on! Yum!

Gorgeous Veggies - Market in Latacunga out side of Cotopaxi

Gorgeous Veggies – Market in Latacunga out side of Cotopaxi

So fabulous, until we sauntered over to the meat area.  Can you say, “cows head on a platter?”  Yes, we saw a woman pulling the skin/fur from a cows head that was on a platter…perhaps cow heads don’t float my boat but she gets a thumbs up from me for not wasting anything.

Skin being removed from cow head...yup.

Skin being removed from cow head…yup.

That includes the heart, liver and other guts we saw.  Put it all to use!  Ya know…gelatin comes from hoofs…or used to.

Cow Hooves

Cow Hooves

Now…I’m torn here because you KNOW the meat at the market is from a cow, pig, chicken, etc that was from a local farm and were fed fresh grains, bright green grass…only the best.  Also, the farm animals here live a happy life.  I saw them…they were chillin’ like Bob Dylan just enjoying the scenery hanging in the pasture.  No mass production meat warehouses here!  No chickens shoved in to pens so small that they can’t turn around or cows being shot up with hormones.  HOWEVER, only the indigenous people here can actually eat the meat without getting sick, due to the way the meat is handled. No refrigeration, random people touching the meat (with dirty little hands), etc.  With the invention of refrigeration, vacuum packed wrapping, and better sanitary conditions, we poor Americans perhaps became weaker.  The indigenous people here have the enzymes to be able to digest this meat without getting sick.  Now, I’m not lobbying for rotten meat in the US in order to strengthen our funky rotten meat tolerance, but here is something to think about… In the US we have better sanitary conditions, yet we jack up our meat with hormones and such plus we provide a piss poor quality of life for our livestock.  In Ecuador they have organic meat from livestock that lives a happy, carefree life yet you can’t go to the local farmers market to get the meat or you’ll be sick from bacteria due to the poor handling of the meat.  Which would you prefer?

Third disclaimer from this post: I am a carnivore.  I do try my best to eat more fruits and veggies when possible and I opt for organic or Amish meat so that I can eat happy, clean meat.

All for now…sorry to gross you out with the head and hoof pics, but had to share!  Miss you all!

If you want to view our pictures, click on this link: Photos

Hugs,

Linda

Posted in Ecuador - Cotopaxi, South America | 1 Comment

Quito, Ecuador…everyone loves American 80’s music!

Posted on August 12, 2013 by Diamond

“Hola. Lo siento. Mi español is muy malo.” (Hi. Sorry. My spanish is very bad.) That has been my most utilized phrase in Ecuador thus far…other than the obvious, “¿Dónde está el baño?”  It seems to really prepare the listener for what is to follow, which is always a good effort of something resembling the Spanish language.  I’m suffering from a severe case of bilingual envy.  Thank goodness for our fabulous tour guide, José.  He’s a cool 30 something who lived in the US for a bit and grew up in Quito with a constant stream of English speaking exchange students staying with his family.  He has taken us everywhere…starting with a tour of the old part of the city and the more modern side. It’s crazy how you will see a modern building, then a gothic church then an old colonial style building.  I love the eclectic vibe.  Quito is such a fun mix.  Not always safe here…the policía on every corner and all the guards carrying guns, speaks to that.  However, we haven’t had any issues despite the fact that the silly Gringos wanted some exercise (no gyms around the old town) so we walked up a very long, steep set of stairs in the Panecillo area.  Afterwards both our tour book and José said that was a bad idea…even in broad daylight. Yes Mom Mom, we will do better due diligence next time! 🙂

Gothic Church - Basílica del Voto Nacional

Gothic Church – Basílica del Voto Nacional

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Iglesia de La Compania de Jesus - So much gold!

Iglesia de La Compania de Jesus – So much gold!

Here are some Quito tidbits…more useless knowledge that Greg wants me to be sure to include:

– Ecuador has been using the US Dollar as their currency since 2000.  That certainly has spared me from having to use my not so efficient math skills.

– A volcano is considered ‘active’ even if it hasn’t erupted for over 200 years. As long as it rumbles occasionally or spits out some ashes, it’s ALIVE!  So applied to me, I’m considered ‘active’ because I never shut up.

– There are stores in Quito that just sell eggs!  Now that’s a site for the easter bunny! 🙂

Egg Store

Egg Store

– The funicular ride is a great way to get a view of the city and mountains.  It took us up about 13,400 feet.  Living at sea level is a piece of cake.  Most people feel the altitude at about 8,500 feet…cotton mouth, shortness of breath and headaches are the most common side effects.  We did take a bit of a walk at the top of Quito and were winded, but not too bad.

View from Funicular

View from Funicular

– Chicken soup with chicken claws/feet in it is yummy but disturbing to look at.

Chicken Feet in Chicken Soup

Chicken Feet in Chicken Soup

– In the ladies baños the toilet paper is usually one main roll outside of the stalls.  It took me a few times of unzipping to realize I didn’t have paper in the stall with me!  Old habits die hard.  Which leads me to the second item…always carry tissues!

– Ecuador’s Independence Day from Spain was yesterday…August the 10th.  They celebrated in Quito with bands, fire works and street performers.  Blues music in Spanish is so funny to hear, but I loved it!  However, most of the music was traditional Ecuadorian.  There were policía everywhere, but the crowds were very tame.

– There are many stray dogs, but not the kind you’d expect….lots of poodles!  Pretty  fancy for a stray dog!

–  The word ecuador is Spanish for equator (I’m still trying to show off my minimal Spanish).  On our second day in Quito José took us to a museum that marks the location of the equator, known locally as la mitad del mundo (the middle of the world).  We did little science projects showing the effect of being on the Ecuador…like trying to walk a straight line with your eyes closed.  Sound familiar to any of you?  I felt like I was in a fun high school science class.

The Equator!

The Equator!

– We were also able to see an actual shrunken head, compliments of the Jivaroan tribe that lives in the Amazon.  Good to know that the head shrinking ritual is only allowed to be performed on an animals now. Yikes in either case.

Shrunken Heads - Human on the right and a sloth on the left

Shrunken Heads – Human on the right and a sloth on the left

– The Pululahua Volcano (means water cloud) is on the equator and when it rains, if the rain drop falls to the south side it will end up in the Atlantic…north side ends up in the Pacific.  Now that’s cool!

PARTY IN THE USA…or not!!

Now for the American 80’s music….on Friday, José took us to the very cool, modern Mindalae Museum for dinner and a show of folklore dancing.  He invited us to meet out his beautiful wife (Saskya) and some of his fun friends (Paola, Oscar, Irene, Santiago, Pancho and Liz) afterwards. We met up with them at a super cool lounge called Narajanilla Mecánica (clockwork orange) that was an old house with funky furniture and artwork everywhere.  Everyone was so gracious to let us hang out with them!  They even spoke English so our monolingual ears could understand them (yes, my bilingual envy popping up again).

After teaching our new friends our “tonight…WE RIDE” toast and getting a little toasty, we went to a bar called Flashback.  I found a new “Irene” (pronounced IRRRENYEA) to dance with (don’t worry Cha-Cha, I can never replace you!)  Irene is one of José’s buddies that loves to dance and loves 80’s music (who doesn’t), hence the bar Flashback.

Irene and Linda at 80's bar

Irene and Linda at 80’s bar

The awesome band played fabulous 80’s song after 80’s song…from Boy George to Madonna! We never expected a little piece of home to be joining us in full force like that.  What a blast!   We danced, chatted it up and had rum table service.  I wish I could say the same for how we felt the next day.  Gregorio took to napping in the back of the van on the way to the natural Hot Springs called Papallacta.  Thank goodness that our agenda items that day only consisted of soaking in the hot water pools and getting massages!  José, Greg and I were all hurting.

Now about to arrive to the Cotopaxi National Park to start our first climb…the Cotopaxi Volcano.  Will report later.

To check out our pics click here: Photos

Big hugs!

Linda

 

Posted in Ecuador - Quito, South America | 8 Comments

Seen enough birds, onto the large mammals

Posted on August 11, 2013 by Diamond

DSC01074We wrapped up the last few days on the islands hanging out with large tortoises, adorable sea lions and a few sea turtles.  The last day we woke up early,  6:30 AM starting out with a zodiac ride to what they call a wet landing.  This means you get out of the boat and get wet before getting to land, so creative.  We completed a strenuous hike then some snorkeling followed by hanging out with sea lions on the beach.  While snorkeling Linda saw a baby sea turtle (an endangered species) sitting on the bottom of the ocean floor about 10ft down, she called over our naturalist, Danny, and other snorkelers to get a view of the turtle as well.  Danny dove down to get a closer look a realized the turtle was caught on a fishing net.  He pulled the turtle up, placed it in a zodiac that came over and then proceeded to do some minor surgery by cutting away the netting.  The operation was a success and Danny dropped the turtle back in the water and it swam away.  After the turtle rehabbed for 10 minutes he swam back our way, we knew it was the same turtle because we could see hand prints on its back shell where algae was wiped away.  So cool to interact and help.

Greg being attacked by sea Lion

Greg being attacked by sea Lion

We have always enjoyed nature and wildlife but now we have a real appreciation for both conservation of the earth and how creatures live their lives just like us inferior humans.  After all, we are the species that need all this extra help to live; houses, restaurants, cars, doctors…  A tortoise can live to be 170 years old, not saying I would like to sit in my shell and move a few feet each day but it’s still twice as long as our life expectancy.

Galapagos Giant Tortoise

Blue footed boobies have a dance ritual they do to attract a potential mate, the mate on the other end will determine how well they dance and how pretty they are before engaging.  We all know Linda loves to dance, enough said:)

Blue Footed Boobies

Blue Footed Boobies

 Most sea birds eat fish, they can fly over the sea a few hundred feet up, spot and fish and dive down at 40mph head first into the water and pull out a fish.  They have a gel sack around their head to lessen the blow to their brain, imagine doing this everyday, we get brain damage from just heading a soccer ball and I have a headache just thinking about it.  I will try to continue to write about useless knowledge so if you get bored of hearing about our travels maybe you will still read the blog because you are learning something 🙂

 It’s the last night on the cruise, We had dinner with a few Ecuadorians named Carlos and Christian.

Greg Wrapping with dudes

Greg Wrapping with dudes

What did we learn?

-They love the United States but when people from South America move to the US they look down on people who stay in South America, not very nice.

-Although I could barely understand their English they thought they had no accent when speaking English.

-Their political voting system is better than ours.  Simply put, whoever gets the most votes wins, these people are crazy:) And yes, this is a political statement I am making.

-We made them try to talk in a southern slang and a New York accent, it was hilarious.

-When you barbecue don’t eat at the table, just hang around the grill and eat as everything comes off the grill.  And never cook with propane. As Carlos said “just take a big can of oil, cut it in half and throw some wood in what else could you need.”

-We went back to our room to find that our room steward made a person out of our towels…complete w clothes, a laptop and baseball hat. So clever. The animals were great but the dude takes the cake!  We were laughing historically. Linda made a dummy laying across our bathroom threshold in a funny retaliation!

-Everyone is so gracious to the dumb gringos trying to learn spanish…not the same in the US when a South American person is learning English!!!! Here they help, encourage and give tips.

Flying out to Quito, the capital of Ecuador.  At 9,350 ft above sea level it is the highest capital city in the world.  (more useless knowledge)DSC01218

Posted in Ecuador - Guayaquil and Galapagos, South America | 8 Comments

Why South America?

Posted on August 4, 2013 by Diamond

By Greg

After speaking with several travel agents 8 months ago I quickly realized how much I did not know about the world, and some would say this translates into life. I thought I had traveled a fair amount and learned about life and listened to my surroundings, and I had! However these initial planning conversations made me realize my world was very narrow, but how could this be? I had been all over the US on business and personal travel, to Europe at least 5 times, hit every island in the Caribbean I could find (I just realized the Bahamas consist of 170 islands not just the Atlantis on Nassau:)). And then it hit me, the US and Europe have the same cultures and are both equally developed and the islands, well dirty bananas and Khalik beer can only teach you so much.

Travel with new eyes is what many books tell you, the way I see it (no pun intended) old eyes see new things because everything is new when you travel. As an example, on friday something as simple as being served my coca cola in the long skinny spiraling glass bottle was amusing. Now that is irony, everything is new but it is really an old bottle style that we all just probably forgot about.

All aboard! First stop Ecuador. I love me some chocolate, raise your hand if you knew chocolate grows on trees. Ecuador is one of the largest exporters of chocolate in the world. They don’t make the bars, they just pick the raw cacao bean off the trees, dump the beans into a canvas sacks and export by the pound.

We spent our first few nights in Guayaquil, outside of learning about the people, history and culture which are really our main interests the city is kind of boring but yet progressive. Who would have thought that a city in Ecuador would have a bike sharing program?  It is interesting how a country can be 20-30 years behind the US in fundamental things like education but have bike lanes and bike sharing which we are still struggling to adopt. Enough said so moving on, and no that was not a political statement.

Charles Darwin proved his theory of evolution, survival of the fittest/natural selection in the Galápagos Islands. We arrived here saturday and started hiking and sightseeing on the different islands. Six hundred miles west of Ecuador in the middle of the pacific I realized that even plants live or die by this theory, but how do they adjust and change without a brain? I think this is a profound question but then again I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed. I knew we were in for a treat when before we even left the docks for the boat a baby sea lion was suckling on its mom no more than 1 foot from where we were standing. For the last two days we have been getting up early, hiking different islands, back to the ship for lunch then back out for some hiking and snorkeling. We are really just walking and observing the wildlife but everyone onboard seems to think we are taking on Mt.everest each day the way they are dressing. Imagine a bunch of wanna be hikers pampered to the hill with one to one crew ratios loading up every morning with hiking shoes, pants, jungle shirts, wide brimmed hats, walking sticks, loaded up backpacks and multiple cameras hanging from their neck all rushing the door at the same time like the wildlife that has been here for the last 400,000 years might decide to get up extra early today and take the trek west a few thousand miles to some new remote island. Well fortunately for all us extreme naturalists 🙂 the sea life, reptiles and birds were out in full force.

Yesterday riding back on a zodiac (small rubber boat) to the main ship one of the wanna be hikers asked our guide how long we “hiked” today, much to my surprise the guide said maybe a mile. I was shocked because I thought it was at least 1.1 or 1.2. All jokes aside for a few sentences, nowhere on earth can you interact with these species so naturally and closely, for two reasons 1) you can only go to the islands with a certified guide and things are very regulated which means the animals have never been harmed by humans so they aren’t scared and will just walk up to you. I swam up to a sea-lion today that was sunbathing on a rock and was staring at it eye to eye less than a foot away. 2) many if not most species only live in the Galápagos.

Time for siesta, pictures coming once we get back to the mainland in a few days.

Posted in Ecuador - Guayaquil and Galapagos, South America, Why? | 9 Comments