The sun was shining through the windows of my bedroom early on Friday morning and without looking at my alarm clock I knew what time it was. Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday a pig is roasted (with a flame thrower) right out front of my apartment around 8am. It only takes a few minutes from the start of the process until my house is filled with the aroma of bacon and usually a few extra flies. Bacon cologne?
Fridays are my favorite day in Baños by far. Every corner has a pig roasting or some other kind of food cooking over a grill. The spas always seem to play their music extra loud on these days and it gives it the feel of fun beach town. Didn’t bring your bathing suit? No problemo, you can always rent one... Forgot your favorite floatable toy? No worries, we got them too.
I have become good friends with the one of the local tienda guys, Jaime, who I had thought was his brother until after being here a few months. He has shown me house, a 2nd floor apartment on a dirt road surrounded by farms. This is typical for here in Baños. What was not typical was the flat screen-surround sound set up in the living room, the flat screen in the bedroom and the two person Jacuzzi style hot tub with a small flat screen TV. Jaime has done well for himself and has spent some time living and working in Nashville Tennesse. He also showed me the article that crowned him Nashville’s best waiter in 2008. Easy to see that he would win, he is friendly and is always in a great mood.
His father, brother (who also runs the tienda) and mother all run a pig stand on Fridays. It is by far the best pig in Baños. Best part is every once and awhile I get free lunch from them. Nothing like good food for free!
One morning when I opened the door of Pricilla and Cheesesteak’s pen I was angrily greeted by the later. She strutted right up to my feet and gave a few sharp pecks and walked away. My first thought was “maybe I will eat sooner than expected.” Then
I noticed the water trough had been knocked over and was bone dry. When I refilled it the pair of them ran right to it and drank for quite some time. These two seem to be much smarter than the other three chickens I have. They are of a different and dumber breed and have even gotten stuck in the food dispenser a few times which has kept me baffled to this day on how they could do that.
I recently gave up on growing out my beard for two years. After 6 months the beard had run its course and drove me mad. My community found this hilarious. The most common greeting I received began with a good laugh and a phrase similar to “you look so much younger.” Padre Vicente saw me and almost fell over laughing “you look like a fifteen year old boy.” Well, it is true I do look younger, but 15?
Well the whole thing helped me to achieve one of Peace Corps unofficial goals.
Provide the locals with entertainment.
My homemade hard apple cider experiment yielded an ok first batch and far better second one. The current fermenting batch at the Baños Brewery is a Cranberry Pomegranate Hard Apple Cider coming to a bar nowhere near you. I might keep this batch for myself!
This past weekend I went to Saraguro which is about 2.5 hours south of Cuenca. Jamie, another PCV, organized a fiesta to get together and have some fun. The main event was a sheep roast (in actuality it was a ram, and we didn’t roast it, it was cooked over a stove) on Saturday. Jamie hails from Texas, but his family is from Mexico so he wanted to share some of his culture (and food!) with fellow volunteers.
It was an interesting yet long process from the moment the throat was cut to the actual eating the meat. However, it was well worth the wait. The sheep tacos were to die for!
The first part Sunday was spent recovering from eating too many tacos and the consumption of copious amounts of cervesa. Afterwards a bunch of us hiked to some spectacular waterfalls and enjoyed the scenery.
