Author Archives: eileen

This past weekend Tim and I traveled to Cuenca, Ecuador. We decided somewhat at the last minute that this would be a good weekend to travel: I’m still on vacation from the CEC and Tim was able to shift his schedule around so that he could take off Friday and Monday morning. So on Wednesday we found the email addresses of some Ecuadorians who we met in Madison when we volunteered at MESLS. We arrived in Cuenca around 9am Friday morning and checked into a hostel, dropping off our bags to be a little lighter for a stroll around town. Our hostel was an old colonial style house with central courtyards.
Cuenca is the third largest city in Ecuador, but the historical section of town is a very manageable size and the whole city is about the size of Madison (a welcome change from the 2 million plus population of Quito). Most of Friday we walked around the city looking for a place to eat lunch. (We hadn’t get seen our WorldTeach or Ecuadorian friends to get the scoop on where the restaurants are). So eventually we gave up and ate at a chain restaurant, it was ok and the food was safe, but not exactly what we were hoping for. Friday afternoon I took a nap alongside one of the rivers that runs through the city while Tim read his book. It was nice to be near clean water and hear the sounds of a shallow river. We found a very nice restaurant to eat dinner at Friday night and then walked around the city some more. Saturday afternoon we met up with our Madison friend, Pablo, who had a car. He drove us to an overlook of the city and gave us a great car tour of the city. That night he made us dinner (accommodating the problem eaters and everything) and we had some great conversations in Spanish.
Sunday morning, Pablo, Rosalina (another MESELS student) and Rosalina’s finance Sebastian took us to El Cajas which is a nature reserve a short ride outside of Cuenca. Sebastian also brought along Rosalina’s pet wiener dog, Pancho. Pancho had a great time. There are hundreds of lagoons in the reserve and lots of hiking trails. We hiked around one lagoon (Pancho pretty much did it twice since he would run ahead and run back). After our hike we had lunch at a gorgeous restaurant in the mountains. The restaurant had huge windows on all sides with views of the mountains and small waterfalls/fountains. Pablo, Rosalina, and Sebastian were extremely generous: they sneakily paid for our lunch and wouldn’t let us contribute. They also bought us two beautiful ceramic mugs that are one of Cuenca’s trademarks. Our last night in Cuenca, Pablo invited us to stay with him and he gave us ride to the airport the next morning.

We really enjoyed being outside of the big city, with friends and a well-loved dog. It was a wonderful trip. We are looking forward to seeing them again. Another MESELS student, Masaki, from Japan is moving to Cuenca for 7 months to learn Spanish. He was one of our favorite students when we volunteered so we hope to see him when they visit Quito.

We are back here in Ecuador and we just wanted to thank everyone we saw in Wisconsin for making it a wonderful visit. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see or spend as much time with everyone we as would have liked. SO, all of you should come visit us here in Ecuador. We would love to see you. Here is the link to apply for a passport:
http://travel.state.gov/passport/get/first/first_829.html

If you have any interest let us know and we’ll help you arrange flights, excursions, and the necessary preparations.

Instead of commenting on the blogs, until we figure out how to stop the casino people, click on the “contact us” link on the right-hand side of this page.

Happy New Year.

On Saturday Tim and I took a bus to Otavalo (a town outside of Quito famous for its artesan mercados). We had some serious Christmas shopping we wanted to work on. We got up pretty early but didn’t quite make it on the road when we had planned. Anyway we were on the bus by 8:30. Tim snagged some seats that appeared to have more leg room than the average seats and we were off.

Another passenger boarded the bus and tried to act like he was part of the bus personnel, he put a bag in the overhead rack and offered to put one of our bags above as well. Tim considered it and knowing that all the bag had was a pair of my old sweatpants (in case we stayed the night in Otavalo) he agreed. After he put the bag up he sat down in the aisle across from us. A few minutes later the guy asked Tim what time it was and he replied “8:30.” Tim asked him how long the bus ride to Otovalo was and he asked again for the time. Tim told him again and the dude said the bus should get there in about 2-2 ½ hours. The guy then went up to the front of the bus and when he came back to his seat faked a little trip and dropped about 30 cents in our laps. Real convincing. He tried to pick them up, and Tim just pushed him back and said “espera, espera” (hold on buddy, wait a sec). We collected his change and discretely checked our pockets to make sure everything was in place. Yep. He didn’t get anything off of us. What a sketchball he was though.

Once the bus got out of Quito they put a movie on. We were pretty exicted to see that it was “Home Alone:” very appropriate for getting in the Christmas shopping mood.

We got into Otavalo and spent about 2 hours scooping the wares and making our purchases. There are little stands EVERYWHERE on Saturday in the town. We have some pictures in coppermine of some of the stands. Everything was very colorful. Two hours is about all the shopping we can stand in a stretch (even if it is fun shopping). So we stopped at a little Italian restaurant for lunch and recharged. It didn’t quite fill Tim up, so he bought some bananas from a fruit stand to supplement. We bought a few more gifts and hopped on a bus home (we decided against staying the night). We left feeling pretty good about the number of people we could cross off our Christmas shopping list.

Yesterday we had a wonderful Thanksgiving feast: we are so thankful for everything and all the wonderful people we know. Our worldteach family is wonderful.

Preparations: I’ve been daydreaming about having thanksgiving since late September. Everyone helped plan food and logistics and everyone brought lots of food. Bill helped me make the pumpkin pies the night before. Saturday morning Tim and I went to buy some last-minute purchases for the day. We got avocado for guacamole and on the walk home the bag broke and they rolled on the ground. Thank goodness they were just going to be peeled and mashed anyway.

The turkey according to tim: a little dry, but not bad.

The turkey according to Kristi (our subdirector): better than her mom’s

The meat thermometer: useless. It said the turkey was done in 2 hours

The apple pies, ala master baker Steph: Our landlord loved them so much they asked to take home a few slices

The pumpkin pies: Tim loves to quote Garrison Keilor: “The best pumpkin pie you ever ate wasn’t that much better than the worst.” So does it even matter?

The amount of food: true to thanksgiving tradition we had way too much food. It was great: turkey, stuffing, gravy, green beans, corn, applesauce, mashed potatoes, salad, fruit salad, egg and potato dish, homemade salsa, chips, fresh vegetables and dip, cheese, crackers, guacamole, bread, pies, applecrisp, mora bread, cookies, sangria, wine, soda, after-dinner drinks.

Space: We all squeezed into our first floor, it was standing-room only. Nice and cozy.

Clean-up: Everyone pitched in and helped do dishes and clean up. We had four big garbage bags of trash when all was said and done.

The day after: Some people came over and helped us eat some leftovers and we made fresh-squeezed orange juice and pancakes. We also listened to Christmas music.

WE JOINED A GYM!!! We’ve started working out there this week. They have elliptical machines, treadmills, recumbent bikes, and a stationary bike. It’s in a safe neighborhood in the Plaza de Las Americas so we can also plan and get on the internet on our working-out trips. It’s a little more than we wanted to pay, but it has what we need and won’t completely break the bank like the Swiss Hotel would have. Anyway, the first afternoon we worked out we had to go at different times to fit it into our schedule. When I arrived I saw Tim on a recumbent bike happily spinning away. I changed in the locker room and then the owner introduced me to the personal trainer on duty: Gonzalo. Gonzalo walked me over to the aerobic equipment near Tim and asked, in Spanish “so, have you ever worked out before?” Um. Yeah. I wanted not to be insulted, but I was sorely tempted to retort, “Yes, I have worked out before, in fact, my team won a national championship in the US.” I didn’t though because 1) I am out of shape and that statement would have come off as pretty conceited 2) it isn’t as common for women in Ecuador to workout so the question wasn’t as strange as it would have been in the US and 3) I’m sure he just wanted to be sure I wasn’t going to hurt myself on the equipment which, considering my history with injuries, isn’t a bad idea. So anyway, I took it pretty easy my first day: warming up, stretching, working out, cooling down, and stretching some more. These last few months here I have been doing some yoga and walking tons with a circuit or two thrown in, but I wanted to ease into steady-state workouts.
After working out I deciphered the towel system and showered. The shower was a wonderful surprise. It was phenomenal. The normal showers in Ecuador leave a few things to be desired. As we posted when we first got here, usually the water is heated with electricity. So you control the water temperature basically by adjusting the pressure (hot water = very little pressure, high pressure = cold water). In our apartment you can have a hot shower with a steady stream of water, which is more than adequate. At our gym though, the shower isn’t electric so you can have a piping hot shower with as much pressure as you want. It’s beautiful.