Dinner, Anyone?

I have some fabulous guys out in my courtyard today, digging up all the weeks and other stuff that is making it ugly.  They're going to come back on Thursday afternoon to plant new stuff.  This is very exciting!

When I went out to answer a question Humberto had, I saw some kind of giant worm-like thing.  You might notice that I'm not exactly a gardener.  My technical knowledge stops right around needing to water things when it's dry.

Of course out came my camera.  Here are the beasties:

I put a key down there with them to give you something to compare them to.

Ah, they found another one.  Of course Humberto is much braver than I.  He just picks them up and tosses them over to the place where he's collecting them

Collecting them?  Yes, they're going to take them home with them.  This is a traditional food in the indigenous community.  Yep, they're going to eat them.  Humberto explained to me that they cut off the slightly fatter back half and throw that away and then eat the head and front half.  From the relatively translucent qualities of them, it appears that the back half has something like intestines ad/or poo in there.

I now know that they're call curso.  I tried to look it up on my Google Translate but there wasn't a translation for it.  When I asked, I found out it's a Kichwa word.  Kichwa is the language of the indigenous people here.  It's so beautiful to listen to.  It includes a lot of "sh" sounds and is almost musical.

I recently learned a bit of trivia.  In Star Wars, the language of the Huttites (as in Jabba the Hutt) is based on Kichwa.  They had this guy who could listen to a language for a period of time and then come up with narrative--it didn't include real words, just the sound of that language.

Watch for more landscaping photos and then it's time for Inti Raymi photos once again.

Another New Hot Spot in Cotacachi

Cotacachi has yet another business owned by an ex-pat.  The Monkey Bar opened a couple of weeks ago to great enthusiasm (including mine).  I got a little wild and crazy that night but it was all great fun with good friends.  The funny part is that this was on a Saturday night and before noon on Sunday, people I went to play cards with already knew how many drinks I'd had (five of them--yes, I know, that's a rather high number and, so, probably memorable).  Small town living is such a riot.  If you can't deal with people talking about you, this might not be your ideal place to live.

Bits and Pieces, December 19, 2012

Christmas in Cotacachi

Christmas here is a very big deal.  It's very commercialized, just as it is in the States, but the whole thing doesn't start until around the first of December.  I'll have lots more photos and discussion about Christmas here but I wanted to start out with the processions that take place from the 15th through the 24th of December.  This is the miniature one from last night:

I came up behind this one and it was within seconds of being over so I only got a couple of photos but with a wee bit of explanation I think you'll get the spirit of it.  There were sparkly fireworks at the corner where they started and the one where they ended (that would be a total of one block).  Traffic stopped on one side of the street for them but went around on the other side.

Bits and Pieces, Nov. 24

I was just looking over the stats for the blog and noticed that my post on low income budgets was the most-read one in quite some time.  If you want to let me know what other things you might like to know about the cost of living here, I'd be more than happy to fill you in where I can.

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Want to see a photo of one of the adorable street dogs here?  This is Oliver and he has a loving foster mom until he finds a permanent home.  He's in great shape, just skinny and starved for love.  I'm not suggesting you adopt him, just sharing how adorable he is.

Is he adorable or what?  This is him after a week of being fed regularly.  He has a long way to go but he's a healthy little guy.

Bits and Pieces

When I was on my way home from the Parade of Horses, I saw this woman going into an unfinished building.  I wasn't sure what she was doing until she had gone back into her house and I passed the place she had been.  She had food in that container and had put it down in there for the dog to eat.

I recently splurged and bought an electric juicer.  This isn't the kind where you peel the fruit and run it through and it pulverizes everything and separates the pulp from the juice.  No, this is just one of those things like the manual citrus juicer we're all familiar with but it's electric.  I juiced about a quart of juice in less than half an hour and the cost of the oranges was only about 30 cents.  I would have gotten more juice out of them if I hadn't had them hanging around for so long.  I was having a terrible time juicing them by hand and the older they get, the more the juice dries up or evaporates or something.  Now I can take advantage of sales on juice oranges and have fresh juice whenever I want it.  Some days it's the little things.

Have you noticed the Cluster Map at the top of the right column?  I've been fascinated by it.  Sure, it tells me where people live who are reading my blog (and I'm shocked, amazed, and very pleased that they are from such diverse locations) but it also breaks things down by state in the US.  In addition to that, it shows me where the last 10 people who have viewed the blog live.  It's fun for me.  I have no idea if it might be of any interest at all to anyone else but, you know me, it struck me as interesting so I shared it with you.

After writing about what to pack when you come here, it occurred to me that I had left something rather important out.  Bring your hand sanitizer.  I suspect you can buy it here but I haven't noticed it and you'll want both a little portable one and probably one to refill it.  Bathroom sinks here do not have hot water and there are many places where the public restrooms won't have any soap.  (Of course many of them don't have toilet paper, either.)  If you have germ issues, the hand sanitizer is a good idea. Quick update on what's happening in my life these days. My computer still awaits its new hard drive which has either already been sent to me from the States or will be in the next few days. I'm cat sitting at two separate home. It's a wee bit more challenging than it originally would have been but, well, life happened. One of the kitties managed to escape and was on the run for pretty close to two weeks -- she came home yesterday -- hurray! I've gotten a tiny job doing administrative work for a friend of mine. I've spent lots of time with new friends who have been avid blog readers. We have a new restaurant in town. In other words, lots is going on here and there's a ton to write about as soon as I can blog with a bit more ease. Thanks for hanging in there with me.

Dancing

During Inti Raymi I was heading to the grocery store in the late afternoon when I came across a dance competition.  The differences between the participants of Inti Raymi and these young people was a major contrast so I absolutely had to have them in my blog.  I probably would have put them in here anyway, just because it's a slightly different view of Cotacachi than I generally see.

Enjoy the photos.

My Kindle

Not long before I moved to Ecuador I asked my daughter and her family for a Kindle for Christmas.  I was very lucky and got the Kindle Fire--the most amazing gadget you can imagine, especially for someone moving to a non-English-speaking country!

You can get tons more info at amazon.com

I read a LOT and there is no practical or inexpensive way to get English language books here.  Kindle

Quick Note

I couldn't resist!  I just had to tell you.  Ever since the blog South of Zero discovered my blog, my stats have skyrocketed (thanks, SOZ).  Perhaps they haven't skyrocketed in terms of what some people think of as "skyrocketing" but they sure have for my tiny blog that was originally put together to keep me from having to repeat the same information in multiple emails to friends and family but ended up being something I just enjoy doing.

Anyway, I started checking my stats far more often, sometimes once or twice a day.  I've slowed down on that now that I just expect those numbers but this morning I took a peek and noticed something that made me laugh out loud.

The stats include the number of times a page is viewed and when I saw the top viewed page this past month, well, it took my breath away.  I won't keep you in suspense.  It was "Laundry Day" with 175 views in the past week.  Coming in a not-very-close second was "Photo Roundup, June 10, 2012" with 140 views.  Yep, 35 more people were interested in my laundry than photos.

Want to see what the rest of your collective interests are?

Miscellaneous Observations

I have a couple of things to share today.  The first is cute and funny, the second is sad but shows the coming together of native Ecuadorians and Expats.  Even though it's not a happy story, it still has heartwarming aspects.

First, though, the fun stuff.

People here have far fewer inhibitions about asking quite personal questions.  The first one that surprised me happened not long after I moved here.  Several people wanted to know how much rent I pay.  These weren't friends or even acquaintances possibly on their way to becoming friends.  No, they were local people I would meet and strike up a (very limited) conversation with.

When I was at church last Sunday a man sat down in the row in front of me and introduced himself and shared that he was trying to learn English.  We had a lovely conversation until it was almost time for the service to start.  One of the first questions he asked was, "How old are you?"  I thought perhaps his English still needed a little work so I asked him to repeat it.  Nope, he was serious, he wanted to know how old I am.  After I told him, I discovered that he is 56 years old.

Today, on my shopping trip (I went to a tienda, a grocery/department store, and the fresh foods market), I realized that many people openly stare into my cart to see what I have in there.  I had seen it before but hadn't taken much note of it until today.  It's very interesting that there isn't any sense that what I have in my cart might be none of their business.  Of course I don't mind, it's just different than what I've experienced in the States.

By the way, you may have noticed that I use "the States" rather than "America" when I'm writing here.  I do the same in all other areas of my life as well.  Here in South America there are many people who find it a wee bit arrogant to refer to one portion of North America as "America."  There are also any number of Canadians here and I've never heard them make any mention of it but I try to be considerate of what they might find less than respectful.  At any rate, I just thought I'd share with you why it is that I have changed how I refer to my home country.

Now for the less than happy events.

About a week ago a woman in our community wrote an email about having been burglarized and gave a great many details telling how a local had scammed her and was able to get a copy of her house keys and used them to burgle her home.  I want to be very clear right up front that I don't believe for one minute that this man is representative of the rest of the community. 

Hummingbirds

I finally got some photos of hummingbirds!  We have 131 varieties of hummingbirds in Ecuador and some of them live right here in Cotacachi

Enough talking--here are the hummingbirds in the guava tree in my back yard (taken with a telephoto lens and then cropped, so they're not as crisp as I would like but there you are, it is what it is, right?).

 

Weekly Roundup of Photos

I love these little food carts.  To be honest, I didn't even take a look at what he's selling but it looks like it might be beans with lime juice.  It's served in, what else, a small plastic bag and comes with a plastic spoon.

Road construction, Cotacachi style.  As with the street cleaning, repairing damaged cobblestones is a low tech happening here.

Not all indigenous women carry everything in those fabric carriers.  This woman has traded hers in for a modern backpack.  Actually, she has the fabric alternative wrapped around her shoulders so she's prepared for larger parcels.

Cotacachi Traffic Jam

Cars are backed up for an entire block.  Yep, a genuine Cotacachi traffic jam.

Fire Trucks, Etc.

The other day I heard a siren while on my way to somewhere-or-other.  It would sound for a second or two and then stop for a few seconds and repeat frequently.  Ah, how I wish I was faster on the draw with my camera!  A smallish fire truck passed by with an entire class of little kids (kindergarten, first grade, something like that) and one teacher all sitting on top of the truck.  Yes!  On top of the truck.  There was a rail about 12" affixed around the edge and the kids had their legs under the rail and were hanging on--well, most of them were--and the teacher was perched on what might have been the cover of a spare tire or something of similar size.  She didn't look overly comfortable but the kids were having a ball.  There were two firemen hanging onto the back of the truck, watching the kids from their positions closer to the ground.

My first thought was, "Oh, what an exciting adventure for those kids!"  My second thought was about the likelihood of that happening in the States.  That would almost certainly be zero.

It was one of the many times I think about how a litigious society takes so much of the adventure and imaginative joy out of the lives of its citizens.  It's not perfect here in Ecuador, nor is it anywhere in the world, but I am so appreciative of the little things that I experience here that I missed out on for so many years in the States (that is, when I'm not thinking about some of the things I don't have here, but those are getting fewer and fewer).

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Weekly Roundup of Photos

Since I seem to be accumulating more and more single photos with no real blog post to attach them to, it seemed to make sense to start a weekly post that has the pictures of things that I found interesting during the week.

I hadn't been out in the back yard for several days and when I went out on Wednesday morning, this beautiful surprise was waiting for me.

This stick isn't attached to a tree or anything else.  It's simply serving as host for the plants on either end of it.  I wonder how long it's been growing like this.

 

The fronts of houses and apartments almost always look grim and dreary.  There's room here for a car to be parked behind the decorative gate and then there's the lovely patio in the center courtyard of the home.  This is just the part I can see from the street but it goes off on either side.

I love these bicycles.  I see them every once in a while and I have absolutely no idea why they are so beautifully decorated but when I find out, I'll definitely let you know--well, if it's a fun explanation at any rate.