In Ecuador, Bus Rides You

My parents decided to come for a visit and this is more or less what happened.

Wherein parents visit their son in the Peace Corps, eat strange fruits and meats, mangle Spanish, ride buses and in the back of pick ups, meet really cool people and fortune telling parakeets, feed chickens, watch roosters spar and other adventures worth of a truly great vacation.

It’s hard to believe we have been home for one week; that our vacation to Ecuador to visit our son Tristan is over. Bummer. Because we really, really liked Ecuador, the people, the food, the scenery, everything. We are already counting the months for our return.

We flew into Guayaquil as it’s a mere 120 miles from Cuenca, the third largest city in Ecuador and close to where Tristan is based. That’s nothing we think; a mere 2 hour car ride in the US. Tristan and a Banos friend (bless him!) pick us up at our Guayaquil hotel Saturday morning. Miraculously we manage to stuff all our bags into his car and off we go. The terrain is flat, hot and tropical at first (vast fields of bananas and rice paddies), but within an hour you start climbing mountains as you head east towards Cuenca. For the next hour you are pretty sure this is where Jurassic Park was filmed and when you think you can’t get any higher, you do. The next thing you know, you are over 14,000 feet and your pathetic, little, sea level, heart struggles to beat fast enough to get oxygen to your big American limbs and head. The scenery loses its jungle look at this elevation and is strewn with lakes as far as you can see and terrific craggy peaks that my imagination goes nuts over. Is that Qaddafi standing next to the Virgin? No, its oxygen deprivation superimposed over the peaks. But the alpacas, horses, cows (even a dead one being skinned by a family), goats and other assorted animals along the road were real.

We finally descend into Cuenca, and are relieved to find its only 8400 ft. It’s a very big city with a very European feel complete with cobble stone streets. Tristan picked a cute hotel on one of Cuenca’s 4 rivers; the hotel is called “Villa Nova”. Our very big room is just perfect for the three of us and at 65 dollars (including breakfast & laundry) the price is right. As the purpose of this trip was to see the town where Tristan works, meet his villagers and friends, Cuenca was a nice centrally located spot. I envisioned our 8 days and 7 nights here to be very relaxing, lots of sitting in cafes watching the world go by. But that isn’t how it turned out. Tristan had us hopping every minute of the day, so much so it took me a week to recover and write this up.

We started off with a big Sunday afternoon dinner with Tristan’s host family (Isabel, her mom, one of her sons, her sister Matilda and others) in the nearby little town of Banos where Tristan lives and works. Although Tristan now lives on his own nearby, he visits them frequently and they still house his 5 chickens and his veggie garden. The dinner was the classic Banos dinner feast of spit roasted cuy ( pronounced COO-EEE and which sounds a lot better than guinea pig), some chicken all on a bed of potatoes and rice. Unfortunately they don’t drink alcohol, as wine always helps my Spanish and perhaps I could have eaten a bite of the cuy. But as it was, I nearly fainted and just couldn’t do it. But since John ate his to the bone and they were amused with my Spanish, I was forgiven (I think). They are a very quiet and nice family, so unlike ours. Tristan was relieved that the dinner went so well.

Hospitality is really something in Ecuador. Two other locals from Tristan’s town insisted we go to the National Park with them. So John and Tristan hopped in the back of the truck and off we went to go hiking to a lake near where a young girl saw the Virgin back in the 80s. It’s a big open air church now and even the Pope came to visit this place once, although I am suspicious the sighting might have had something to do with lack of oxygen. But maybe not, as I lived to tell this tale. Just as we climbed up to top of the mountain, with my heart going at full tilt, it started to hail mightily. We gobbled a few bananas and ran back down. Just for good measure, mother nature threw in some thunder and lightening. What an adventure. But we made it back to the truck where the guys had to ride in the back in the freezing rain. We were treated to a marvelous fried trout lunch, drank the local cane sugar hooch and headed back to Cuenca for a nice hot shower.

A big part of this trip was meeting the other Peace Corps Volunteers that are in the Cuenca area; Julie, her brother Seth, Jamie, Clint, Sonia, to name a few. They are just a terrific bunch of kids, helping locals with a variety of projects, and just getting some of the best experiences you can get in life. Like Tristan, most have been here about a year and their Spanish is terrific. John and I had a blast treating them to drinks and dinner at La Cigale for about 6 dollars a person! The prices were so unbelievably low to us, yet the quality and freshness of the food was impressive. Though 6 dollars wasn’t low to the PCVs who live on about 10 dollar per day! We figured what we live on a day, and its not 10 dollars!

Next up was dinner with the Padre at the beautiful blue Banos church. Now this event had Tristan really worried, but we didn’t let him down. We attended the mass before hand (I loved the dogs just trotting up and down the aisles), then ate dinner with 14 folks all in Spanish. I thought Catholics were big drinkers and I was looking forward to some nice wine with dinner to facilitate my Spanish. But alas, no wine again, just a spot of coke. Dinner was once again the cuy and chicken on an enormous bed of rice and potatoes. But rumors of my not liking cuy had made it to the church and I was mercifully spared. The boys this time were served an entire half of cuy, including head and feet. Tristan and John ate quite a bit. They like the crispy roasted skin, but its pretty clear to me there is no meat on these animals. I hear it tastes like pork.

Speaking of pork, Friday is pork roasting day in Banos and all sorts of folks set up a freshly killed pig and roast it on the spot with a big ass blow torch. They sell it piece by piece to passers by. I think I will try that this Friday in downtown Wayne, PA. Tristan said we had to get there early or it would be all gone. He was right. We got there about 9am, just in time to watch these folks skillfully torch the pig (it was already dead), scrape the skin and do that again. It looked like hard work. Cars started pulling over for a square of the crisp roasted skin, salted on a bed of these weird big corn pieces called Mote. We were back later for the rendered bacon. Omg, was that terrific. That may actually have been the only day I ate fat. For the most part we consumed fruit in massive quantities either fresh or ground up in drinks including a yummy avocado shake. There were the usual fruits; papaya, watermelon, mango, and bananas. But there were also fruits like tomato del arbol which reminds me of a persimmon and is actually a member of the potato family even though it grows on trees (go figure); granadillas which somewhat look like a lime on the outside, but you cut it open and scoop out the sweet brain-like insides; and uvillas also known as gooseberries (my new favorite). They even make a fruit soup here. It’s traditional for November 1, the day of the dead, but good anytime I can attest. I think I will make it for Thanksgiving if I can find any decent fruit that time of year.

Tristan’s Banos friend showed us his fighting roosters. They are beautiful, but when you set them on the ground they take on the nearest living thing. Just like our Jack Russell Daisy. Actually, they stared each other down, jumped over one another, fluffed up etc. But without spurs on, it’s kind of like my dogs fighting. It was all show.

We went with Tristan shopping for stuff for his apartment, including shopping for a used refrigerator. Tristan says you ‘Google Ecuador style’, which means you just ask a bunch of cab drivers where to buy a used refrigerator until you find one that does. Haha I thought, no Craig’s List? What kind of country is this? But with 90 minutes we had located a beauty that was big enough to fit the beer keg we brought him (I kid you not) and had it delivered to his apartment. Beat that Craig’s List. Other shopping adventures included going to the big open air market where you can buy everything (except used refrigerators) and get your fortune told by a parakeet named Lulu. It’s pretty complicated and I am still trying to decipher just exactly what my fortune is.

A visit to Cuenca wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the Inca Lounge run by “Mike”. This cute place is conveniently located near our hotel, which may be why Tristan had found it. Inca serves up great food and drink to a mix of ex pats and locals. Oh, but the Ecuadorian government doesn’t allow liqueur to be served or sold on Sundays. What’s that about guys? It doesn’t go over so well with the vacationing set or the locals for that matter. But other than that, the locals I spoke to in my limited Spanish had nothing much to complain about and were rather proud of their country and even their government.

As if Tristan weren’t up to enough, he coaches a local rugby team. Due to most of the men taking night classes, practice often doesn’t start until 10p! But it must be working as they are still basking in the glow of their gold medal finish from last fall! John managed to stay up late enough for one of his practices.

Finally, we saw a lot of evidence that Cuenca really is on the top ten list of ex-US places to retire as reported by the Wall Street Journal. We didn’t meet any tourists, but all the elderly gringos we saw were searching for a place to live here. We can certainly understand. We loved this area of Ecuador, the people, natural beauty, even the crazy insane 25 cent bus rides around town.

Ciao. Until next time!
Patricia and John Schreck

Ditch That Rice Baby!

We all know the reality of working out in Ecuador. It is no fun being chased by dogs or being gawked at, so here is how I deal with it. No, this is not a weapon to fend off the hounds or a club to beat the onlookers and whistlers.
No need to spend your hard earned cash on fancy weights, this piece of equipment costs around $6 and can be used for various workouts. No matter how far out in the Campo you are, you can find these materials. Plus it is fun and easy to make!

1. Find a piece of sturdy metal piping in the desired length and weight. Mine is a meter and half, weighs about 10 lbs and cost $3.
2. Buy cement and sand! Should not cost more than $3.
3. Get some soda bottles, I used 3 liters. Cut the bottles around the top
4. Fill them with a mixture of sand and cement, and then add water and mix until you have cement paste.
5. Place the pipe as best you can in the middle of the cement. Let dry for a day.
6. Now do the other side!
7. Make sure you get the sides to be pretty close in weight; you can add more cement to either side if need be later.

I made mine wide enough so I could squats, should presses, curls etc. Great for guys and gals! You can also make dumbbells this way too.

Enjoy!

Palabra

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.

Apartment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgtAOUQ-D-g


Enjoy!

Gringo Garden

Things I find funny:
1. One of the older women in my town wears a be-jeweled pink hat that says “White Culture.”
2. Walking to work trying my best to avoid the mud puddles in the dirt road only to fall in one.
3. Naming the local dogs, making up personalities and their back stories.
4. Moo-ing at a cow and having an old lady see me do this and just stare with an expression of confusion.
5. Being the town’s goofy white guy.

So for those of you who have not heard, I can now add chicken farmer to my resume. I now have 5 chickens that I keep at my host family’s house. I also started a small garden, with some things I like and others I hate...
There is a fruit here called “tomate de arbol” and it’s pretty sour and my least favorite fruit ever. I told my host mom I wanted to plant “tomates.” She gave me instructions on where to go in the market and who to buy from. As directed I went to the market and found the right section. A nice lady came up to me and says “tomates?” Strange, I guess she reads minds. (I later found out that Isa had told her a bearded gringo wanted tomates) So she hands me the plants, 4 for a $1. The leaves seemed to be bigger than I remembered, but I paid the dollar and left.
While planting I looked at the leaves of these tomate plants and then at the tomate de arbol ones Isa has. Fuck a duck. I had just planted 3 of these damn things. Oh well, someone else can have the pleasure of eating them.
Garden de Gringo has:
Lettuce, Tomate de arbol, garlic, wax beans (not my idea), radishes, carrots and rosemary. I am going to plant tomatoes, onions and broccoli as well in the near future. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to let me know!
I have also moved out of my host family’s house and into my own apartment. It has a mudroom, bathroom, kitchen, to bedrooms and a little outdoor patio. The larger of the bedrooms is going to serve as the man-cave/brewery. The place is coming along but still needs a stove and fridge. So for now it is peanut butter sandwiches and street food (yummmmmm).

La Gallina

Hey everyone, this is my first attempt at a video blog!

It is me and Isa (my host mother) killing, preparing and cooking a chicken, enjoy!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj4Kr0T3-BE

(Copy the link into your browser to watch)

If you find that gross, check out this article Rick sent to me about chicken nuggets...

http://www.dietsinreview.com/diet_column/10/chicken-nuggets-made-from-pink-goo/

Keep on bloggin'

So as some of you may know I went back to the US for the holidays. I think the biggest shock was the cold! Woo wee was it cold! It was nice to see everyone, friends and family. I did not feel culture shock of any kind that I noticed. What I did feel was an immense amount of appreciation for all we have as Americans. But mostly I felt very lucky to have such supportive and great friends and family.
10 days went very quick and the next thing I knew I was back to work on the other side of the world.

April fools in Ecuador falls on the 6th of January, which is also my birthday. My host family was nice and bought me a small cake to celebrate the occasion. However they had a fun surprise for me. As I blew out the candles they instantly relit to roars of laughter from the family. This went on for several minutes and I have never seen them laugh so hard. I am sure my face expressed my embarrassment and frustration. Finally I just grabbed the candles and dunked them in water and that was that.

As if the trick candles were not enough… Isabel offered me a piece of gum after I had eaten my piece of cake and I should have known better. Sure enough it turned my tongue black as the night. This was also hilarious to the family and I could not help but laugh at myself. Laughing at myself has become a very important part of my life.
This time of the years is also the festivals for the Virgin Guadalupe here in Baños. It is a pretty exciting time to be here. There are frequent parades and lots of fireworks throughout the days and nights. One of the traditions I participated in was the trek behind the idol of the Virgin. Each barrio (neighborhood) decorates the street with balloons and palms to welcome here.

The trek is about 10 km and the streets were filled with people. Isabel called it a “rio de gente” (river of people) and that is what it looked like. It was estimated to be about 2,000 people.




Another fun aspect of the festivals is the plaza central has tons of little tent restaurants set up. Some serve different kinds of shish kabobs (these are great!). The most common one has sausage, green pepper, onion, hot dog type meat, steak and potatoes served on a plate with it.

Other places are a little fancier and have tables to sit at where you can order the typical two course meal. It is usually soup with a side of mote (boiled corn) and the second course is rice with beans and some kind of meat. The typical soup for this festival is sheep liver, intestine and heart soup. It is not too bad but it takes some getting used to. The limes served with it definitely increase the flavor and make it much more enjoyable. It has taken some time but I am finally starting to enjoy some of the food here I did not like originally.

Several carnival games and rides are also set up in the center. The Ferris wheel looks terrifying. I am not a big fan of heights, but this Ferris wheel in particular scares me. It looks very rickety and to top it off it is set up on the side of a very large hill. My imagination ran wild and I pictured it detaching while I was riding it and rolling down the hill all the way to Cuenca. So I passed on the opportunity to ride it.
Sorry it has been so long since I last updated! I am trying to get back on regular blog schedule.