Ah, the Food!

The other day my friend and I were walking down the street towards her house and almost missed the basket of avocados in the doorway of a store. The sign in the basket said "10 for $1." Yes, $1 for 10 avocados and they were big ones. I'm happy when I can get 4 big ones for $1. Well of course we got 10 of them. We shared them because neither of us could think of what we'd use 10 for all by ourselves. I know, they freeze, but that requires room in the freezer and I have mine pretty full right now.

Then, right behind the avocados were a box of lovely tomatoes. There wasn't a price on those so I asked. They were $1 per kilo (2.2 pounds). OK, I can do that. There are prices like that fairly regularly (well at least for the tomatoes) and when they're in abundance you can get lemons 20 for $1. That's when I make the most lemonade and lemon pie (key lime using lemons instead).

I've been here two years and I still get excited about the price of fresh produce.

I may have photos soon.

What a Beautiful Day

Yesterday was a fabulous day here in Cotacachi.  Of course, there are far more fabulous days here than there are challenging ones but yesterday seemed particularly good.

When the skies are clear (or almost clear) we get up to views of the mountains that are stunning.  I took this photo while pet sitting just a few blocks from home but you can see them from all over town. What a beautiful view!

Market Trip -- Fruits and Vegetables

We saw lots of fruits and vegetables on our little market trip as well.  In fact, we started down at the Indigenous market.

Before we even got to the market there were folks setting up their wares on the sidewalk.  In the foreground are bags of strawberries.  I didn't get a chance to ask how much hers were but they are generally $2 (for a kilo--2.2 pounds) in the market so I'm going to guess hers might be as low as $1.50.

Market Trip--Butcher Shop

Not long after our last cooking class, Dan took several of us on a trip to the mercado--the fresh foods market.  The butcher shop isn't part of the actual market but it is said to have the best reputation in town so off we went.

Most of the meat markets here carry both bulk (sometimes made fresh right there) and packaged sausages.  Unfortunately, what they seem to lack is any kind of sausage that doesn't resemble bologna or mealy hot dogs.  It's sad but true.

Cooking Class with Dan

I suspect I've told you this recently but here it is again.  My life is so busy I hardly have time to take a deep breath.  That's lovely but I find that my blogging tends to suffer.  I love blogging and miss it when I don't make time to do it (or to edit the photos I've taken to put into posts).  So, here goes--let's see if I can be a little more consistent.

Earlier this month friends and I took another of Dan Delgado's cooking classes.  We primarily focused on dishes with a slightly spicy, somewhat Mexican flavor but with a few interesting touches.  Well, of course there were interesting touches--Dan taught the class.

We started working with purple potatoes.  Aren't they lovely?  The skins are so dark they almost look black but I absolutely love the way they look inside.

A Story of Inspiration and Support

I love this story!  It is so indicative of the support system we expats have developed that I had to share it.

There are two part and I'll start with the part that has nothing to do with today's story but was going to be here as a blog post anyway and has direct bearing on what's happening.

A friend of mine, Caroline, realized that one thing we really need here and didn't have was a more formal emergency support system amongst those of us who live in a new condo complex as well as a few other close friends.

Another Of My Neighbors

There are so many sides to Cotacachi that it's difficult to portray the complexity of it at times.  These photos give you a slightly different view of life for some people here.

This is the front door of one of my neighbors.  She lives about five doors down from me. It's a little hard to see but there is an open space at the top of the bottom right panel in the door, not to mention the huge gap at the bottom of it.

Otavalo Market

I had a chance to go to Otavalo with a friend of mine and this time I took my camera.  Enjoy.

At the "food court" at the bus terminal, this is where all the food booths get the water for doing dishes and cooking.

This is the back side of the food booth area, where the tables are for people to eat. The tables are all blue and every table is a different booth.  Next time I'll be good and get a picture of the fronts of the booths that shows the food that is for sale.

Right across from the bus terminal people have laid out their produce to sell.  We thought about going to the Café Donuts right behind them but we wanted to get a little street vendor food closer to the Plaza del Poncho.

Rats!  It was bright enough that I couldn't see the display after I took the photo so I didn't see that there was so much glare on the window but you can still see the meat hanging in the window of the butcher shop.  Yes, the part on the far left that doesn't have the glare is open to the street.

Is this fabric not beautiful.  This is the display along the side wall to help entice you to come in to purchase their wares.  The fabric isn't "cheap" by local standards but at $4/meter, it wasn't bad.  I got two meters of the bright red to hopefully get a blouse made out of it.  We'll see how it goes.

I love this mural!  It's such a shame that there is that sign right in the center of it.  It's still lovely.

These women are vendors at the market.  Until the customers show up they're sitting there working on their needlework.

The artwork is so vibrant.  It is definitely not all my style but there's something here for everyone.  I wish I'd gotten a close up of the feathers.  They're the small pieces laying on the table.  There or paintings on them.

This woman has a large variety of styles of art.  I'm particularly fond of the things in the front left corner of the table.  I have some in my house that I had framed.  They are made from homemade paper that is pressed into a mold.  The motifs are raised and a part of the paper before it is painted. They're quite lovely.

I love the colors of this stack of alpaca blankets.  The ones on the left are fairly thin but still warm. They're about the size for a double bed and you can get one for between $12 and $20 depending on whether or not you bargain at all or well.

These guys were so funny.  The one on the right was dozing when the one on the left came along and tweaked his nose.  I asked if I could take their pictures.  Sure, they said.  The one on the right kept raising two fingers as if in a peace symbol.  I discovered after I'd taken the pictures that he was asking me for $2 to take their picture.  I told him I'd give him $1 but not $2.  I figured that if I was paying for the pictures, they could pose for me so when the fellow on the left offered to pinch his friend's nose again, I pulled the camera out again and clicked away.

I have to admit, they are pretty darned cute.

I loved these adorable kids clothes.

There are a couple of things of interest in this picture.  First of all, my friend and I got some of the lovely fried things on that platter.  They're a little like donut holes but the inside of them is bright yellow-y orange and she puts half a dozen of them in a little bag and then sprinkles sugar over them, all for 50 cents.  While we were sitting on the steps eating them, the fellow to the left casually walked past carrying four chickens--they're alive.  Right here he's standing there talking with someone and just holding the chickens upside down as they pick their heads up periodically to look around.

Not all the sales people have formal booths.  This guy has all his shirts in his suitcase and he found a little patch of sidewalk and is laying things out to sell.

This street has vendors down it for several blocks.  I've never seen the whole market.  I'm guessing I've seen 1/4 of it and I've gone over 8 or 10 blocks.  Of course I always start at the same place because I start from the bus terminal.  One of these days maybe I'll just walk past these streets and explore a new part of it.  I'll take my camera and see if there's new stuff to share with you.

Again, on the way out of town, there was another vegetable display.  Unfortunately I was in a taxi and couldn't stop to see what they have.  This was on a Saturday, though, and market day here in Cotacachi is Sunday so getting fresh produce in Otavalo isn't a big priority for me.

That was my morning in Otavalo.  Oh, the reason I was in a taxi was because I'm not great at taking the bus home from there.  I might have to do it next time just so I can take pictures of people getting on the bus.  It's the most amazing thing.  These lovely, polite, timid people absolutely mob the entrance to the bus and people get totally mashed trying to get on.  If you're not good at pushing and shoving small people, you might not get on the bus.  Of course this is only on market day and only in the afternoon.  The rest of the time it's just like any other time.  For me, I'd rather pay my half of the $5 taxi ride back home than fighting the bus.

Cooking Class

We have a fabulous resource here in Cotacachi.  Dan Delgado not only serves as the liaison between the expats and the local government-type folks, he's a world class chef and offers cooking classes in our own homes for a little bit of nothing.  His specialty is teaching how to make our favorite foods with what is available here.

My Young Neighbors

You may recall that there is a four-story building on the same property where I live.  On the ground floor there is a cyber cafe and the upper three floors have one apartment each.  The couple who live on the third floor have three adorable children and the other day they let me take their pictures.

If the parents don't mind, the kids always have fun with it because I let them see themselves on the back of the camera after I take each shot.  That always makes them smile and be up for more pictures.

Oh how I wish I could remember the oldest boy's name.  It's something like Ariel but that's not right.  One of these days I'll actually remember it after he tells me what it is.  I'd guess he's about 7 or 8 and he's the shyest of the three.

Restaurant Review

The other day I went to a local restaurant and thought I'd share with you.  In fact, I've been thinking of doing more reviews of restaurants.  I eat out on a fairly regular basis here so sharing the food and the locations seems like something that would not only be fun to do but would give those of you who are planning to visit or come here to live a better idea of what is available.  Besides, this gives me an excuse to try new places (as if I needed an excuse).

This particular day I had a great meal in a great atmosphere.  I have some partial photos of the food but I was having so much fun talking and eating that I failed to get as many as I would have liked.  The only other thing I didn't get was the name of the restaurant.  It's funny but things here seem to be identified as much by their location as their name.  This is the one that's a little past Solid Rock, on the other side of the street, just before you get to the plastic store on the corner just this side of the market.  I know, it doesn't sound simple but it works. I think part of it is that there are so many little restaurants here that a description is better than a name.

At any rate, the food at the restaurant that currently has no name for the blog post, was nothing short of fabulous.  We all had the menu de dia (menu of the day) and I'm not actually sure they serve anything else.  We weren't offered menus and just asked about the menu de dia and we all decided it sounded good so that's what we had.  The ala carte menus in most restaurants (when they have them) are always more expensive than the menu de dia and are rarely as good let alone better.  The only time I tend to stray from the special of the day is if it's something I just don't like. So far I've never been disappointed.

We started with the traditional large bowl of soup.  This may look kind of small because the spoon is very large but I'm guessing there was between 1 1/2 and 2 cups of soup in there.  Today it was a vegetable beef soup with lentils.  I'm not generally overly fond of lentils but this was fabulous!

The Housewarming Party, Part III

And so the party time arrived and so did the guests.  It was wonderful and absolutely perfect.

There were new friends as well as "old" ones (it's really hard to have old friends when I haven't even been here a year, yet).  By the way, I'm the one in yellow.

The Housewarming Party, Part II

It's Saturday morning and I'm getting ready for the party with those little things that still need to be done, like finishing up cleaning the bedroom.  I still have a lot of stuff that needs places to store it.  Well, as Scarlet would say, "I'll think about that tomorrow."

In the meantime, my friend, Marcia, came over with some of the food she made for the party.  She brought Oscar and Wilde with her.

They went to live with Marcia two days ago.  They're miniature poodle puppies.  Oscar's on the right and Wilde is on the left.

The Housewarming Party, Part I, the Preparations

One thing I've learned about myself is that if I wait until I'm really ready to do something, it could take forever.  Thus, when friends said they were going back to the States in mid-February and really wanted me to have my housewarming before they left, I said, "Sure, that's over a month away--no problem."

What was I thinking?  Well, one of the things I was thinking was that I needed to have a date in mind or it wouldn't happen.

Hacienda San Isidro

I was fortunate enough to be able to have dinner at Hacienda San Isidro a few nights ago and I simply have to share the experience with you.  It was amazing!

The hacienda is at the foot of Cotacachi Volcano and is higher in elevation than Cotacachi.  The higher we drove, the more we climbed into the clouds.  I love the way the light fog blankets everything just a bit and softens all the edges.

If I had been a clear evening we would be looking at the mountain in this photo.

"What Do You Miss the Most?"

I met with a group of people on a tour of this area just a little while ago and I was reminded that there are things I've forgotten since I got here and other things I don't really think about so I thought I'd share a little of that with you tonight.  If people on the tour were wondering, I'll bet some of you are as well.

Mindo -- Birds of Los Bancos

And here we are, at the end of the Mindo photos.  It was a fabulous trip and one that I hope to make again.  Our tour guide has gone close to a dozen times and never tires of photographing the birds and butterflies (particularly the birds).  I think it could definitely be that way for me.

On Wednesday we made a little trek up to Los Bancos, a small town near Mindo, to have lunch, watch birds, and go to an ATM if anyone needed to do that.  Mindo doesn't have one--Los Bancos does.

The restaurant was also a small hostal.  The rooms are on the left, the restaurant in the back.

Mindo -- Butterflies, Part 2

Yesterday's butterflies were all hanging out on the netting, patio, stones, or people.  Today I wanted to share the shots I got of them looking like they're out in nature.  I think these are my favorites--well, they are until I look at the others.  They're really all my favorites.

Mindo -- Butterflies, Part 1

We went to a butterfly preserve where they help certain butterflies survive the predators in the wild.  It was fabulous to be able to view them in a relatively natural looking setting before they were released back into the wild.

The first thing we got to see was where they put the pupae they have collected so they can hatch.  These are the pupae of butterflies that hatch at the waters edge.  They really are as sparkly as they look.  It mimics the look of sun glinting off water and helps camouflage them.

Mindo -- Birds of Mindo, Part 2

I went out to the same bird watching location a second day, this time in the rain.  The photos may not be quite as clear but I think the birds are still just as lovely as ever.

This first photo may be my favorite from the trip.  There's this little fellow sitting on the sign for his feeding station looking exactly like the bird painted there.  Was he posing for me, do you think?  Probably not.

Our tour guide, Euni, captured this picture on our last morning there.  It was raining again and I decided I didn't think I wanted to go one more time.  Darn!  Well, I'm just glad she got the shot.

A toucan in all his glory!