Vilcabamba Photos and Reading Aloud

Grateful for my health

Most mornings I start my day with a run around Parque Carolina. It’s a 2.2 mile loop around the park. I’ve written before about this place…I love it because I can go as long or as short as I have time for, it’s well lit and there are tons of folks at all paces. Some out for a morning stroll, others training hard at race pace. Most times I’m in a good mood, but of course, we all go through running phases where we think…why am I doing this? Why does it hurt? Why do I feel like this?

Yesterday was sort of one of those days. I was just sort of slogging through a run, thinking more about the million and ten things I wanted to get done at school before the kids came. My pace was slow and I was feeling sorry for myself. Imagine!

Then a handicapped man with a CP-like affliction came loping towards me, hopping, stumbling, arms flailing. I almost asked him if he needed help before I realized that he too was out for a morning run. Enjoying the fresh, cool morning air, taking in the birds’ songs, breathing. As he flailed and stumbled and jogged I choked back tears. What in the world do I have to feel sorry for myself about?

Wow. What a good reminder of how fortunate I am to have my health, my life and even the ability to go out for a morning jog. I am grateful.

Vilcabamba

It’s the November holiday. I’ve got three days off of work. Officially, the holiday is for the founding of Cuenca (an important city in the south of Ecuador). But unofficially, the holiday is for “Dia de los Difuntos” or Day of the Dead. This is when families get together, make a delicious purple corn drink called Colada Morada and visit their ancestors’ graves, usually with a picnic for themselves (and sometimes leaving food for the deceased). I’ve been planning my trip to Vilcabamba for a while now, and it’s a good thing! Everything is booked here in Ecuador-some of my friends couldn’t get a bus ticket or a hotel at the last minute. Especially, the beaches are so crowded this time of year.

I’m in Vilcabamba in the very, very south of Ecuador. It’s a quick 45 minute plane flight from Quito, then an hour drive from Loja, the provincial capital. Vilcabamba is known as the Valley of Longevity, because many Vilcabambenos live well into their 80’s and 90’s. The water is pure, the air is clean, the climate is spring-like all year round, the hills are not as steep as what I’m used to in Quito, more gradual rolling hills. Because of all these qualities, many American retirees have made Vilcabamba their home. The town center is a nice mix of older retired American ex-pats, hippies selling their jewelry and Ecuadorians enjoying the weather and strolls around the town square.

I’m staying at Madre Tierra, a hotel, resort, spa about 1KM outside of town.  It sits on a hill, overlooking the highway. Not the very best location, but there’s lots of plants around, tropical flowers, palm trees, etc. so it makes it feel more jungly than it actually is. The room I was assigned to is affectionately known as “The Hobbit Room.” You have to crouch down when entering…good thing I’m short because my head actually scrapes the ceiling! It’s very quaint and fine for a few days…but long term here I think I’d go crazy! The family that runs the place is from Washington State. A bunch of blonde kids are running around playing with the dog, laying in the hammock, mom and aunties prepare the food, dad and uncles keep the place in tip-top shape. (Kind of reminds me of Meryl Streep in Mama Mia). I’ve been traveling a lot around Ecuador, so I know what to compare this place to. The food is ok, not great. Breakfast is usually some homemade nutty bread, small portions of fruit and lots of eggs, usually overcooked and not very flavorful. The coffee is excellent, grown in Loja province, the fresh squeezed OJ is the perfect balance between tart and sweet. After a filling breakfast, guests can choose from lounging and reading in the many hammocks around the hostel, going for a relaxing (and cheap!) SPA treatment (massage, facials, etc. are around $20 per hour) or walking and hiking through Vilcabamba’s hills. There’s also horseback riding for exploring the back country. I’ve been doing a combination of all! Over all, Madre Tierra is a good value (just $15 per night including breakfast). But if/when I return to Vilcabamba, I’d probably not stay here again.

So yesterday, my last day, I wanted to try something I haven’t done since I was 10 years old out on a dude ranch in Colorado. Horseback riding! It’s a great way to see the countryside. We climbed up, up, up and had the most spectacular view of two valleys. Lush, green rolling hills, the volcano that looks like an Indian lying down (kind of like the view of the Front Range in CO, minus the snow and rocks). I’m glad I pushed myself and tried riding again, but now that I’m an adult, I’m realizing that I really do not like horseback riding! I’d rather see things on my own two feet (or two wheels!). (Now, I’m in good shape-a runner and all-but today I’m so sore I can barely walk! Guess I’m glad I saved this for my last day) I feel very unbalanced on a horse, especially when he takes off on a jog down a rocky hill!

Now, it’s back to Quito and reality. I’ve heard it said that you know you’re content in your life and your job if-when you return from a vacation you actually look forward to coming home. This is me! Vilcabamba was a wonderful escape for a few days, but I really am looking forward to being back in my own routines in Quito, having my own space to spread out (minus the head scraping in the Hobbit Room) and seeing my students.

PS-I'll post photos as soon as I have a fast internet connection

Go Dad Go!

No big news…Life is good. I’m so proud of my dad who’s running the MCM today! Go dad!

I just finished an intense three day training on the PYP program that I’m teaching this year. I was with a wonderful group of international teachers from schools all over Ecuador and South America. It was nice for me to connect with them professionally. I also got some new strategies and reminders of old ones I had forgotten.

(But I had to miss the Halloween parties at school)

Let’s see what else I can update you on…We’ve got just two days this week, then I head to Vilcabamba. Very excited about that. End of the month is a half marathon that a few friends from school and I are going to run.

Enjoy the snow! J

Love. Rachel

I’m so lucky to have a wonderful family in Puyo to visit every so often. I’ve written about them a lot. This weekend, my teacher friend, Natalie and I are visiting them.

I’ve written before about Sara, a young woman graduated from medical school in Cuba, wonderful person. We’re all really, really sad because Sara’s baby died in childbirth, strangled by the umbilical cord just a week ago. Sara and the baby boy were perfectly healthy through the whole nine months. Such a tragedy. Sara’s a doctor, graduated from Cuban University, some say the best in Latin America. She’ll have to do a year of rural health, to give back to the Ecuadorian government and then she’ll be able to be a doctor here in Ecuador or in her husband’s country of Cuba (which I doubt she’ll go back to), Sara is so devastated right now, and I can understand why. So much hope these nine months, all the preparation for a new baby. It’s a really hard time right now for her.

And the baby’s death comes right before the November holiday of Dia de los Difuntos. We made the typical Colada Morada purple thick hot drink with the family. I’d love for all you readers to be here with me, so I’ll try to describe the process of making the beverage, a tradition for all of Ecuador (and I think even in Peru and Bolivia): All the peeling of the fruits (pineapple, babaco, blackberry, blueberry), the purple flour (from purple corn), the spices (cinnamon, cloves), the sugar, the hot water. Simmering away over the open fire for hours and hours. Chatting about everything and nothing in particular, cumbia music playing in the background, So we had some happy moments, Sara was able to distract herself being with family, cooking and enjoying this hot drink.

In other, happier news, we’ve got Halloween coming up at school. Even though Ecuadorians don’t celebrate it, at my school we get to do the costumes, candy and Halloween stories. Fun! I’ve been teaching in the States where this holiday is kind of frowned upon. But I think it’s all in good fun, especially with 2^nd grade boys who love this sort of thing J. There won’t be any pumpkin carving (hard to find here!) or caramel corn (unless a US mom brings it in) but I’m sure there will be plenty of little witches and ghosts. As for me, I’m not sure yet who I’ll be…perhaps Ms. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus or Ms. Viola Swamp from Ms. Nelson is Missing.

Trick or Treat!

Hi! Greetings from Mitad del Mundo. I’m really busy but enjoying life J. My students are a joy to teach. Such curious children, it makes teaching really fun. We wrapped up our weather unit and now we’re starting migration. We’re going to be interviewing people from the school, finding out what it’s like to be a migrant-what do we keep from our culture, what do we adapt living in another place, what do we maintain. Plus the kids are going to do a country study. The social sciences are much more up my alley than natural sciences, so I think this new unit will be a lot more fun for me to teach than weather.

Although I’ve settled into life here in Quito, there’s still so much I haven’t done…sometimes I feel like a tourist in this country and that’s OK!

Last week, some friends and I went to the National Georgia Ballet in Quito. They did really acrobatic dancing, it was more folk dancing than ballet but still really neat to watch.

Friday night was an outing to La Ronda, one of Quito’s most famous streets in the old colonial part of the city. Cobblestone streets, white washed buildings, lots of hills, closed off to cars. Beautiful to walk around in at night. The typical thing to do at La Ronda is drink canelazo (a hot cinnamon/lemon drink w optional alcohol) It really warms you up on these cold Quito nights. Also there are strolling musicians playing old Spanish guitar music, dancing in the streets and typical old Quito foods: empanadas, potato soup with avocado and cheese. A fun evening.  It also happened that the Mama Negra festival was going on at the same time as this, so we got to see a really cool parade through the streets of La Ronda. Mama Negra actually happens in Latacunga (a town about an hour south of Quito). But the folks from Latacunga were offering their gifts to the Quitenos, that’s why they came. Folkloric dancing, kids on horses, the mama negra (a man with his face painted black) leading the parade, men dressed as Spanish conquistadores, indigenous people…there’s a ton of history behind this parade, a cultural anthropologist would have a grand time dissecting it all.

So, everyone in the US is gearing up for Halloween. Here in Ecuador, we’re gearing up for Day of the Dead. Some folks visit the gravesites of loved ones and put food offerings for them. Everyone else who doesn’t do that does make the Colada Morada and Wawas de Pan. Colada morada signs are everywhere in Quito. You stop into a little restaurant and ask for a big glass of the drink. It’s made from blackberries, pineapple, cinnamon and other spices and served hot with sweet bread babies all decorated with frosting (wawas de pan). It’s a fun tradition and I’m glad it lasts a few weeks before the actual day!

We get a few days off of school for Dia de los Difuntos so I’m going to go down to Vilcabamba in the province of Loja which is the most southern province of Ecuador. It’s known as the Valley of Longevity in Spanish because people in this valley live a really long time. There’s fresh air, really healthy lifestyles (kind of like the Colorado of Ecuador) I’ll do some hiking to old Incan ruins, maybe horseback riding, hot tub soaking and exploring. Should be a nice get away.

I love to take little short breaks from the hectic life of Quito, so I’m here in Casa Mojanda (do a google search for them and check out the website for photos-they’re breathtaking!) I feel like my descriptions of all these places don’t do them justice. This morning I took a long walk in the hills. It was so peaceful, very foggy, I smelled the eucalyptus trees, and fires because families in these parts cook a lot over the fire and use them to heat their homes. The place itself is a bunch of cottages and then a big open house where all the meals are. The whole place is filled with folk art from Ecuador and the Otavalo region. Just a really nice atmosphere to relax and recharge.

Hope you all are doing well and enjoying October and pumpkins (Ecuador does have a lot of amazing fruits and veggies, but no pumpkins, so enjoy some pumpkin pie for me J)

30 de Septiembre

One year ago on September 30, here in Ecuador there was an attempted coup against President Rafael Correa. The national police force tried to take power. There was violence and attempted kidnapping and coup.

So this September 30. 2011, President Correa organized a “Dia de la Deomcracia” commemorating the day. He reportedly paid folks $10 each (a large amount of money if you’re poor) gave them a free bus trip to Quito and a T-shirt  to come to the HUGE demonstration in the city’s park, Parque Carolina. When I say huge I mean enormous! There must have been thousands of people there. Of course, as Americans, we were warned to stay away, but it was just blocks from my house so I went.

There were indigenous groups from all over the country in their proudest moment. There were also mestizos from the coast, from the southern part of Ecuador and from the north. These are people, some of them had more than a 20 hour journey to get to the capital. From what I could tell, it was really quite peaceful. Lots of music, laughing, videos of the day a year ago displayed on a huge screen. In my opinion, it was an awesome display of national unity-Afro-Ecuadorians from the coast, little old indigenous women from the highlands, tribal chiefs with feathered head dresses from the jungle.

I’m not quite sure yet what I think of Rafael Correa. I know he’s a leftist and that a lot of Ecuador’s elite are not happy with what he’s done with the country (these are my friends from Academia Cotopaxi). Yet, when I talk with my poor friends from the jungle and from Chimborazo they are thrilled with how empowered they feel. It’s the first time that they feel they’ve got an elected leader who represents them. They feel they have a voice. I’m not sure Correa is a wack-o as the press makes him out to be. But, I suppose I don’t have to make up my mind about him right now…

Let’s see, in other news, I’m trying to take advantage of the weekends to get out of the city and take my new friends to beautiful places. So, even though I’ve been to Mindo lots, I’m here again with a new friend. She and I are staying at El Quetzal, a local chocolate factory and coffee roaster. The aroma is amazing! Today will probably be a hike through the cloud forest, some bird watching and a tour of the chocolate factory with a tasting at the end J

Keep in touch!

Love, Rachel