Hola, Hola

Otavalo

2009-09-14T08:46:00.000-07:00

A few quick pics from the market in Otavalo, a couple hours north by bus from Quito.

Apples apples apples apples.

A lot of maracas.

Pretty colors.

Slight detour, Carrying on

2009-09-10T16:47:00.000-07:00

Kim and I now find ourselves on two separate continents. We left the Galapagos a bit earlier than expected and I am in Quito and Kim is in Florida. Sadly, Kim´s grandmother, Ginger, passed away and Kim flew back to Florida yesterday morning. We´d like to take this opportunity to strongly warn against flying Copa airlines at any time under any circumstances. They were completely uncooperative in rerouting Kim´s itinerary, despite the obviously dire circumstances and instead insisted on selling her a first class ticket at over 1000 bucks. Stuck at the airport and with little choice otherwise, she ultimately decided on buying a whole new, cheaper, one-way ticket on American (cue fireworks and Sousa band) Airlines. I am here in Quito, staying at the Grinn House and taking it all in. I have my beard and One Hundred Years of Solitude to keep me company and am thoroughly engrossed in the inter- and intra-familial affairs of the Buendias.

Today I rode the Teleférico up into the mountains overlooking the city. The air was thin and the sky was blue. Chocolate at 4200 meters tastes delicious.

The End is Near

2009-09-02T08:38:00.000-07:00

Greetings, all. It has been a while since the last fresh blogload, so here's what's shaking in the Galapagos. In short, we continue to enjoy ourselves, but are ready to return to civilization... really, really ready.

Here we have a picture of the bay where you can catch a taxi-boat to the Other Side (El Otro Lado). What lies on the Other Side is more iguanas, seals, bars, and cacti.

Kim rides a taxi-boat to the Othe Side. The boats cost 60 cents by day and a dollar by night.

A game of Tonk. The rare and unbeatable hand of Four Kings. Blue footed boobies, bottom right.

A man of many hats. But which to wear?

On Some Faraway Beach

2009-08-27T07:51:00.000-07:00

The path to Tortuga Bay. Tortuga means turtle and Galapagos also means turtle. There are many marine iguanas to be sure, but I´ve never actually seen any turtles at Tortuga Bay.

Michael sits upon a ten dollar boogie board rental. A large wooden sign at the entrance to the beach warns "Danger. Turbulent Waters. No Life Guard." To which we politely reply, Posh! We almost always have the entire beach to ourselves.

Sand-dipped toe tips.

Catch a wave and your sitting on top of the world.

The Sundry Sights

2009-08-18T09:32:00.000-07:00

Mangroves at low tide at Finch Bay.

Sun-bathing marine iguanas.

Galapagos Fragata, one of the few we´ve seen on the ground.

Hermit crab (sorry to disturb you).

More Flora, More Fauna

2009-08-11T10:15:00.000-07:00

A big yellow cactus flower, apparently the bloom coincides with the full moon. I don´t know what kind of cactus this is (a Google image search for ¨big yellow cactus flower¨ yielded no positive ids).

These are called Sally Lightfoot crabs, as they are nimble and fleet.

Looking down on some slumbering sharks in a sleepy green lagoon.

A pineapple and its pups.

The ever-popular giant tortoise, looking a bit shy. A tortoise in this tucked-in position, when properly situated against some kind of vertical surface (such as the riser of a stairwell) can yeild up to a hundred extra lives when jumped upon succesively.

Under the Sea

2009-08-11T09:45:00.000-07:00

A yawning sea lion. A blue heron. The view from our apartment towards Academy Bay. A family of prickly pear cacti.

We went snorkeling with sea lions a few days ago. Avoiding the treacherous rocks which our guide warned us would "cut you like a Gillette" we dove from our tour boat into the open seas. The sea lions at first kept on land, but the soon became curious and dove in for a closer look. There were two of them that took an interest in Kim and me. It was amazing seeing them underwater and be in direct contact with them. You could tell they were just as curious as we were, checking us out as we were checking them. Having given up our apartments in Brooklyn, we are seriously considering a permanent move under the sea.

Meanwhile, back on land, there are sights aplenty. We attended our first dinner party the other night, complete with a midnight moonlit ride back into town in the back of a pick up truck. We found Finch Bay yesterday and did some snorkeling there. There were little black and purple fish with yellow circles around their eyes that would swim towards your finger if you pointed at them. We saw a school of literaly hundreds of silver fish. I have no idea what kind, but they just kept coming and swiming around us. It is amazing how even the smallest fish is aware of your presence and, all projections aside, seems none the less just as curious in you as you are in it.

Greetings from Narnia

2009-08-08T11:15:00.000-07:00

Giant tortoise. Do not ride the giant tortoises.

You can see a sea lion if you look closely.

Pelican. The black rock it is sitting on is typical here - black, porous, volcanic rock.

Not sure what kind of lizard, but there are lots of them. They were licking out their breakfast from the pores in the rocks along the bay. There were many crabs too, but they were more camera shy.

We have been on the Island of Santa Cruz for a week now. We were initially off to a slow start, due to some food-borne bacterial infection that afflicted Kim. For the first few days, Kim was in bed dealing with a fever, headache, aching joints and intestinal unpleasantries. A visit to the island´s doctor and a prescription of Cipro did the trick. We´re back and better than ever and we´ve now been to the beach at Tortuga bay for a swim and yesterday we went snorkelling at the Charles Darwin research station (I saw a sea turtle). Tomorrow we sheduled a boat tour of the bay, snorkelling included.

We start our mornings with a cafe con leche at a restaurant on the bay. Internet costs more here than on the mainland, $2 per hour as opposed to $1. The ice cream bars are also more expensive here. The animals really are very tame and we´ve already seen iguannas, giant tortoises, sea lions, pelicans, crabs, and lizards aplenty.

Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands

2009-08-04T07:46:00.000-07:00

We arrived on Santa Cruz in the Glapagos three or four days ago. We first flew from Guayaquil to Baltra Island, and took a short ferry ride from Baltra to Santa Cruz. We almost did not make it to the islands at all. We arrived at the Guayaquil airport from Peurto Lopez and found out that all flights to the Galapagos were booked solid until mid-September. A friendly guy working behind the Tame Airlines ticket counter suggested that there might be a chance to get onboard if we arrived early in the morning and stood in the "waiting list" line. With few other options, we resolved to sleep in the airport overnight in order to secure a first position in line.

Thankfully, we did not have to do that. After spending a few hours in the airport (China Wok for dinner), I asked another woman behind the Tame ticket counter if the airport were indeed open all night and if she thought it would be a good idea to sleep in line. She didn´t like the sound of that and said hold on a second... I may be able to help you. In a few minutes, we had two round trip tickets to the Galapagos in hand for the following day´s 11 am flight.

Since we didn´t have to sleep on the floor of an airport, we splurged on a room at the Sheraton (again after being told that there were no rooms and nothing could be done) and enjoyed hot showers, shampoo, two giant beds, air conditioning and Transformers on a wide screen flat panal tv. No mosquitoes!

Crossing from Baltra to Santa Cruz, we were greeted by crystal blue waters and a sea lion sunning on a red buoy.

It was a forty-five minute drive across the island to Puerto Ayora. Our gracious hosts Jill and Javier have really made us feel at home. We inherited their in-town apartment and they moved into a beautiful house in a more secluded area on the island.

Puerto Lopez

2009-07-27T08:59:00.000-07:00

We are in a small fishing village called Peurto Lopez. We arrived by taxi from Olon a few days ago. It´s whale watching season and everywhere we go, men on bikes stop and say "Ballena, ballena". The coast is defintely not clear. It was overcast and gray for the first two days, but today the sun is shining for a short while at least. We stayed at a place called Hostel Mandela, at the northernmost part of town. I recommend it highly to anyone passing through. We´ve been eating a lot of fish.

Travel Day - Cuenca to Olena

2009-07-24T06:58:00.000-07:00

We left Cuenca yesterday and headed towards the coast. The owner of the hotel we stayed at was heading west to Guayaquil and offered us a ride, which we gladly accepted. Just about a half hour out of Cuenca, we entered Cajas National Park and experienced another beautiful drive through the Andes, complete with a few llama sightings.

We arrived at the Guayaquil bus terminal with an hour to spare before our bus departed for Montanita, so we headed to the food court - we had McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut and plenty of Ecuadorian fast food options to choose from.

We boarded the bus and left Guayaquil. After passing through some very poor areas on the outskirts of the city, we entered into a desert area with cacti and low lying vegetation. Before we knew it (three hours and one Spanish-dubbed Bruce Willis action flick later), we were at the ocean.

The bus dropped us off in Montanita, but it seemed more like Daytona Beach at spring break. We treked through the surf looking for a hostel, but didn´t like the vibe. We´d heard of a small town just north called Olena and decided on that. We found a hostel with views of the ocean. At $20 per night, it´ll probably be the cheapest oceanside lodging we´ll ever pay for. We fell asleep to the sound of the surf after a long day of travelling.

Moon Walk

2009-07-22T12:26:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Cuenca a two days ago after a scenic six hour bus ride through the Andes. Scenic is not a word I use often to describe a six hour bus ride, but it was spectacular. The road was literally being built as we drove upon it. Some stretches were done, others were in various stages of near-completion. We passed through a few small towns, but mostly just lots of long stretches of mountain and road.

Cuenca is beautiful. It is our favorite city so far- very clean with many churches and markets that we´ve been wandering through. We just ate lunch at a place called Raymipampa, where we both ate "humitas" (sweet corn bread served in a corn husk) for the first time and I ate my first ceviche in Ecuador (delicious, but not as good as the street vendors at the Red Hook ball Fields in Brooklyn). Tomorrow it´s off to the coast via bus to an as of yet undetermined beach town.

We heard that Walter Cronkite died and were both shocked that he had still been alive in the first place. Bootleg Michael Jackson DVDs abound and I saw a kid moon walking in the park yesterday.

Ice Cream

2009-07-17T10:12:00.000-07:00

We awake every morning to the sound of our backyard neighbor clearing his/her throat, followed shortly thereafter...FLUSH...(I like to think of said flush as a snooze alarm). Stir crazy would be an accurate description of our final days here in this small town...we´re itching to get out...next up Cuenca and Michael´s birthday...I´m trying to pull off a great day via internet (fingers crossed)...guest list was a breeze...

Today we have vowed to step away from the ice cream. Every morning we wake up and say ¨today no ice cream¨... it creeps up on you...all of the sudden we find ourselves on a bench in the center of town with an empty wooden popsicle stick, a chocolate stain on one of our shirts and a strange ¨how did it happen again¨ look on our faces...It is noon, we have 9 more hours to stand strong. we can do it...(i hope, it´s so good)...

For any of you out there making a check list of things to bring to south america, toss a camera on your list. I left mine at home, regret...thought I could rely on the trusty old iphone, she is no longer with us (R.I.P.). Photos are the key to blogspiration (photos are the fruit that make blog juices flow)!!!

Author Photos

2009-07-15T11:49:00.000-07:00

In response to requests for photos of the travellers themselves, here are some pictures of Kim and Michael.

Kim pours a cup of coffee at the Hostel Rendez-Vous in Vilcabamba.

Michael ladles hot water into an old-fangled coffee contraption.

Yours trulies.

Kim takes a swim.

The South American Backwards Flushing Toilet

2009-07-15T11:24:00.000-07:00

The toilets in the Southern Hemisphere flush in a counter-clockwise direction.

Pictures from a hike a few weeks ago

2009-07-14T08:39:00.000-07:00

I don't know the name of this, but it is most definitely Seussian.

Star pod. The constellations here appear right-side up, unlike in the Northern Hemisphere, where they are upside down.

Orange and purple reproductive organs. The moths flying around this were the same color as the flowers.

The popular San Pedro cactus. Hippies use this in their witchcraft rituals.

Flying creature with irredecent wings. What says you, Seerveld?

The wind is blowing through town today. My sister is going to have her first baby any day now and I'm wondering if I will be able to tell exactly when it happens. These are a bunch of photos we took on a hike when we first got into town, but I am just posting them now because it takes a long time to post these things given slow internet connections and slow as slugs USB 1 ports.

There's my Chippy!

2009-07-14T08:32:00.000-07:00

Chanting in the Valley

2009-07-13T11:17:00.000-07:00

We are still in Vilcabamba and taking spanish lessons from Luz. We have observed that the eating of an afternoon ice cream bar is a common custom in town and we have readily adopted it as our own.

Every afternoon, there is a rainbow in the east over the mountains and every sunset so far has been beautiful and its own - pink and blue one day, yellow, gray, and green the next. We are figuring out where to go after this. Maybe up to Cuenca then west to the coast. Where would you go? At the end of July, we will meet up with Kim´s friends and zip over to the Galapagos.

We took a bus into Loja a few days ago and Michael Jackson videos were playing in the stores and his songs were coming out of car windows. Besides the detection of of such a major siesmic shift as the passing of a King, we are pretty much buffered from the hub-bub.

There is a black and brown puppy who visits us every morning and a few cats that roam around and nap out front. The next door neighbor doesn´t seem to like us. We are, afterall, the foreigners who moved in next door. There are a lot of donkeys around and, boy, do they hee-haw. The roosters crow at the faintest hint of dawn and dogs bark and howl through the night. Last night I woke to a chorus of men singing a strange chant in a minor key. A chorus of women then responded with a verse of their own. This went on for a good half hour, back and forth.

Some Flora but Mostly Fauna of the Front Yard, Vilcabamba, Ecuador

2009-07-07T10:11:00.000-07:00

We're getting along well with the neighbors, except perhaps for the mosquitoes which we're initially a problem but now seem to have simmered down.

Giant spider. The color of the thick web is an incredible yellow-orange.

Wasps' nest. We evicted them with a broom, but they promptly began to recolonize. So far, no stings.

Passion flower (aka, the Tilt-a-Whirl)

The fruit of the flower's (and the bee's) passion, the Passion Fruit. Tart, tangy and seedy. We haven't quite figured out how to properly consume it.

Cool Mr. Stick Bug (aka, Phasmatodea).

Mysterious insect eggs on the kitchen window.

Dos mariposas on the raspberry bush. Not sure what kind... (David S., do you know?)

Language Lessons, Vilcabamba, Ecuador

2009-07-07T09:54:00.000-07:00

Kim and I took our first Spanish lessons with our teacher, Luz. She lives three doors (well, gates, really) down from us. I am happy to be learning the language as it has been something of a hindrance not knowing it so far. We've managed to feed and house ourselves and travel around as best we can, but knowing the language will only open up more doors (or gates).

A few days ago, an old man appeared at the gate to our yard with an empty pot. He was very friendly and introduced himself, but beyond that, neither he nor we could get much further in the conversation. What was that mysterious pot for?

We brought a mosquito net along with us. One of those last-minute frantic purchases that has proven useful. We rigged that up over our bed and it has so far eliminated the night-time mosquito bites, but our movement is constricted and it feels like we're sleeping in a small car.

Here is a picture of a small car -

Thanks for the feedback on the blog. It's cool to know that people are reading. This is pretty much the main way I'm keeping in touch with people, so if I haven't been in touch directly, know that I have all of my friends and family in mind when I am writing this.

Cheers!

Home on the Road, Vilcabamba, Ecuador

2009-07-05T10:34:00.000-07:00

We found a spot in Vilcabamba to rent for the month of July. It´s got two bedrooms, a kitchen with potable water, and a bathroom with a flushing toilet and a hot shower. There are sunflowers in the front yard and blue morning glories growing in up the front fence. There is basil, oregano, and mint growing alongside the house, an orange tree in the backyard, and a lemon tree in the front yard. There´s passion fruit vines, raspberries, and a papaya tree, too.

It is nice to have a home base for laying down our big packs, and especially for having a place to cook our own meals. Here we have our first purchase from one of the little groceries in town - one pineapple, three carrots, four heads of garlic, one red onion, olive oil, avocado, rice, salt, lentils, beans, peas, pop corn and a bag of cumin.

Michael prepares said loot into a delicious feast. Last night we had spaghetti with pineapple tomato sauce.

Going down the road feeling glad. Look out round the curves for taxi pickup trucks loaded with an entire family heading into town.

Night falling on Vilcabamba at the center of town.

Strange fruit, Vilcabamba, Ecuador

2009-07-03T08:22:00.000-07:00

The Ants Go Marching On, Vilcabamba, Ecuador

2009-07-03T08:04:00.000-07:00

We hiked up a dry river bed and saw lots of ants, cacti, butterflies, rocks, and flowers. We heard an ominous rustling in the trees, but were undeterred. We got to the top of the hill and there was a gate, but it was locked, so we turned around and hiked back down the hill.

House Calls, Vilcabamba, Ecuador

2009-07-03T07:58:00.000-07:00

We are picking up the keys for our new house in Vilcabamba today! After seeing two properties, we decided on the simpler of the two in an effort to be closer to town (and by simpler I mean it´s cheaper and not nearly as luxurious as the other one). Spanish lessons are next on the list, we´re hoping to find a tutor to work with us around 5 or 6 days a week. Yesterday we took our first Vilcabamba hike. We are surrounded by rolling green mini mountains, so we don´t expect a lack of things to do any time in the near future. The young lady who we´re renting from is actively involved in the local community center...we found out there is yoga twice a week for $3 and a lot of volunteering opportunities with the local children (guitar lessons, gardening, mobile library). When all the lights go out in town the animals here start to sing. It sounds like there is a boxing match going on in the distance...and for those of you city folk following, roosters crow all. night. long....all night.

Vilcamamba, Ecuador

2009-07-02T11:50:00.000-07:00

Greetings! We left Mindo a few days ago and traveled about 2 hours by bus back to Quito. After spending the morning and early afternoon around the airport and it's environs, we hopped on a quick and cheap plane to the southern city of Loja. Our view of the mountains as we flew in at sunset was worth the price of the ticket. We shared a cab from the airport to the city with a husband, wife, and child who patiently persevered in conversation with us despite both of our very limited Spanish-speaking abilities. We spent the night at the Hotel Chandelier, recommended by Lonely Planet, but definitely not Kim-approved. We ate at a good vegetarian restaurant, but we were tired of the city and were itching to get down to the valley of Vilcabamba, which we´d heard good things about. We arrived in Vilcabamba yesterday and were quite charmed. Within a few hours we were bouncing through the hills in the back of a truck to check out a house that´s for rent here. We´re thinking of staying a little while and taking some Spanish lessons. For the time being, we´re lodged at the Le Rendez-Vous which is by far the nicest place we´ve stayed yet. The rooms surround a beautiful garden and breakfast did not disappoint - it being a French-owned establishment, they seem to use real butter instead of margarine, which sadly appears to be the standard. We can refill our canteens with pure water for 10 cents. We´ll check out another house for rent tonight! More to follow.

Casa de Cecelia, Mindo, Ecuador

2009-06-30T08:15:00.000-07:00

2009-06-29T12:25:00.000-07:00

a night out in quito

quito

and here we have the jungle cruise...thank you walt, thank you.-mindo

michael meets mindo

2009-06-29T12:07:00.000-07:00

view from our hostel in mindo...

kim hiking up to the waterfalls (las cascadas)-mindomichael awaiting breakfast with a smile-mindo

Mindo, Ecuador June 29

2009-06-29T10:35:00.000-07:00

hello, friends! we have been in the birdwatcher´s paradise of Mindo for the past few days staying at a place called Casa de Cecelia. After a frantic trek around Quito with all of our gear in search of an elusive bus station (we were following an out of date Lonley Planet guide book), we arrived in Mindo in high style, paying a taxi driver $40 to drive us the entire way from Quito. A bargain by our New York standards, and it made our cabby´s day.

We are almost a week into the trip at this point and our gastrointestinal systems are adjusting. our spanish is terrible, but we´ve perfected the phrase "mi español es muy malo". We´ve befriended a nice American couple from Michigan at a hostel called Le Quetzal. Barbara roasts her own coffee beans, makes homemade strawberry ice cream, and processes her own chocolate, too.

An errant ziplock bag of granola attracted a long-tailed visitor to our ´habitación´ last night. We successfully warded of the hungry creature by erratically shining our mini-mag flalshlight around the room and in general making many foolish hissing and clapping sounds. Our sleep was restless to say the least. Kim had Phil Collin´s "One More Night" stuck in her head and I came up with a touristy t-shirt slogan "A rat crawled in my window...in Mindo".

Blog Successfully Created

2009-06-20T13:53:00.000-07:00

Hola! As part of our preparations for an adventure in Ecuador, we have created this blog. The name of this blog is "Hola Hola". Another name that we considered was "The Blue Footed Bloogie".

We will leave Brooklyn on Monday, June 22. First stop: New Jersey. We'll fly out of Newark on Tuesday afternoon, June 23. After overnight layover in Panama, we'll fly into Quito, the capitol city of Ecuador, arriving on June 24. We expect to have internet access in Quito and will post our first true blue post then.

Till then,
K & M