Splurge

The end of June marked several occasions. One, our third anniversary on June 25. Two, Erin's successful completion of her first year teaching. Third, the successful completion of a long goal of mine to teach in international schools. Clearly, it was time to celebrate. I was racking my brain for something unique to do, something else than climbing mountains or surfing waves and camping, something we would never ever do normally. Then it came to me...spend money, we never do that!

Leafing through the now well-worn Lonely Planet, I happened upon a Hacienda-Ranch-Hotel near Cotopaxi. This place had everything Erin and I would never ever pay for ourselves...gourmet meals provided, llamas walking around the ranch, luxurious acomodations (fireplaces in both bathroom and bedroom, cotton robes, down comforters, hot water bottles in the beds, etc.) Not to mention that the whole place is built around Incan Ruins from a guardhouse that sat along the Incan highway from Cuzco to Quito! Truly, your head rested against a 15th Century Incan wall while you slept, you ate in an Incan Dining room, and, although the mix with Christianity is kinda weird, you could get married in a chapel made from Incan Walls.

We went for it, we stayed a night and maxed out our credit card at the Hacienda San Augustin De Callo; but what the hell, when do you get to sleep in an Incan House that also housed Alexandar Von Humbolt and Edward Whymper?

If you've got some cash, I highly recommend this place, when you include the meals for two people, and tours, it's not much more than a fancy hotel in the city...and it has so much more to offer. While we were there, Rob and Lisa Howard were photographing the place for an upcoming article in Conde Nast Travler, so keep your eyes peeled.



Interesting side notes:

The photographer we met, Rob Howard, who, besides being an extremely amiable guy, also has made some amazing trips. He's been taking pictures forever, and now works for all the big names, Men's Health, National Geographic, Conde Nast, etc. He's been in the Columbian jungle with the FARC, been held up by Kurdish rebels, and has taken photos of most of my climbing and skiing heroes. We had a great time with he and his wife.

The owner of the Hacienda, Mignon Plaza, is the aunt of one of my students. He and his family own the private (and rumored Incan burial grounds) Hacienda next door to hers. The Plaza family is very influential, Mignon's Grandfather was President of Ecuador in the early part of the century; and the current Plaza's continue to do many things for the people of Ecuador. On the bus out of town, I met a gentleman who confirmed this "The Plazas are good people, they help everyone from the churches to the schools, to the farmers."

Pirato

Pirated CD´s and DVD´s are a way of life outside the borders of the U.S. Like it or not, there is no stopping the pirating of electronic products. Like a Starbucks on every corner in the states, you can´t walk a block without finding a DVD shop in Ecuador hawking your favorite Alf episodes or the most recent Hollywood release filmed (usually surprisingly well) in the back of the theater. Don´t want to fight the crowds at that Sex and the City premier? Go buy the DVD for a buck fifty from your local neighborhood capitalist.

Strangely, though, it´s mostly DVD´s that are sold, and it is difficult to find music. (Though there are plenty of music DVD´s). That is, until I found the Russian Mob. My friend Carl turned me on to an MP3 store run by a Spanish speaking Russian ¨family.¨ They sell their CD´s for 4 dollars, and each one contains between 10 to 15 albums, bootlegs, rare-cuts, and live concerts of your favorite artist. From Willie Nelson, to Jethro Tull, to Miles Davis, this is truly impressive. For 40 dollars, I just transfered 6 gigs, 1411 songs, and 3.2 days worth of music to my computer...including (John Newkirk and Rhett Baker) the entire Bad Religion collection. It almost makes me forget that the only beer I can get is a cheap lager.

WNCW

God bless the internet. Because of those little gerbils running around inside my computer, I can download and listen to the best radio station on the planet...88.7 WNCW out of Asheville, NC. When my family first moved to South Carolina we stumbled upon this little NPR gem muddling through it's first year on the air. We've been devout fans ever since. In fact, I would say that listening to WNCW gave our family a lot of direction, in a way it gave my parents a whole new set of friends, and it gave my sister and I something to hold on to from our Appalachian Roots. Through its music diversity, the station has further connected my family. Each of us listens to the station every day, and I suggest you do too. Download the web-stream here.

I keep track of my favorite songs that I hear while at work, and at the end of the school year I've rewarded myself with the purchase of these songs on itunes. Here is is, my list from the

WNCW listen at the desk while grading papers in Ecuador 2007-2008 Best of....

Song Time Album Artist
Southern Suggestions 5:00 Southern Son Michael Reno Harrell
Dangerous Times 4:48 Color Came One Day Chuck Brodsky
How Will You Shine? 5:11 Noble Creatures The Gourds
Wagon Wheel 3:52 O.C.M.S. Old Crow Medicine Show
After Midnight 4:52 After Midnight The Seldom Scene
From Now On 3:23 Secrets Sierra Hull
City That Care Forgot 5:36 City That Care Forgot Dr. John with Eric Clapton
and Ani Difranco
Summertime 3:08 Honey Songs Jim Lauderdale
Floo-id 3:57 Daydream Turbo Pro Project
Steam Powered Aereoplane 4:16 Leftover Salmon Live Leftover Salmon
Falling for It 2:54 Airstream David Wilcox
This Is My Life 3:42 The Golden Hour Firewater
Wine 3:35 Mission Door Peter Cooper
Twenty-Four Hours a Day 3:18 Elana James Elana James
Hard Livin' 4:55 Amen Corner Railroad Earth
King Ebeneezer 6:34 Mountain Tracks, Vol. 5 Yonder Mountain String Band

I also REALLY wanted this Peter Cooper song, comparing Pearl Jam and Nirvana...but alas, it's not on itunes.

http://www2.jsonline.com/multimedia/multiplayer.asp?id=11787

I've Been Tagged!

I was tagged by dear Katie out in Salt Lake City (a possible location for our back-to-the-States retirement), and I must admit, it's the first time I've been tagged. This is a cute, fun way to learn more about people, so I'm answering the call, tagging others, and also using this post to shamelessly plug my new blog. But you're going to have to read through the "ME" game before you learn about my newest internet ramblings.

1. What were you doing 10 years ago?
Oh my, the "dark time." I had just finished my first year of college at UNCG where I was studying Psychology and English, but mostly that year revolved around a completely unhealthy and dysfunctional situation with my Cross Country and Track teams. No need to go into specifics. It was bad enough the first time around!

2. What are 5 non-work things on my to-do list today?
Email my bank info to Tie-Care so I can get my health insurance reimbursement.
Order some new trail runners
Get a shopping list together for our July visitors: Jess and John E. Johnson
Squish Bali--and do a family squeeze with Tim too.
Figure out what time the open mic fundraiser begins tonight at Cafe Libre.

3. What snacks do you enjoy?
I'm having a hard time remembering what I used to snack on regularly in the States. Here's what I snack on currently:
Pan de yucca (bread made from yucca flour and bit of cheese)
Dark, jungle chocolate
Bananas
Tim's fresh fruit and yogurt smoothies (he is the master)
Chiefles (plantain chips)
Can coffee be considered a snack?

4. What would you do if you were a billionaire?
Tim and I were just talking about Bali would do if she were a millionaire, and there were some pretty cool things she'd do, so first, I would make Bali a millionaire.
Invest/save lots
Lavishly retire our parents
Give much to friends and charities I appreciate
Send Tim to get his PhD in whatever educational field he chooses--or all, if he so chose
Buy my brother a house and set up a trust fund for the college education of his future children, of which I'm sure there will be several.
Travel the world!
But I would still want to do this international teaching thing for awhile. This job rocks and would so even more if we didn't have to worry about money and how much we're making.

5. Where have you lived?
Boone, North Carolina
Greensboro, North Carolina
Boulder, Colorado
Quito, Ecuador

6. What jobs have you had?
Ski Instructor at French Swiss
Logistics at NC Outward Bound
Coffee/Counter Manager at Spruce Confections
Executive Assistant/News Editor at the AAC
Education Coordinator at LNT
Full-time Graduate Student and Substitute Teacher
Teacher--Psychology and Theory Of Knowledge in Ecuador

Well, that was fun. I tag: Amanda, Karen, and Jessica to help her get started on her new foray into the blog world (Jess, it's okay to post twice in one week--or one day, for that matter).

Speaking of the new foray (shameless plug! shameless plug!), Jess is going to be an author on my new blog, which Tim will have to add to our friends' list here. Beyond doing a race here and there, keeping up the mileage in the summer and hibernating in the winter, I have not run regularly or with a major goal in mind since college. But next summer I turn 30, and I wanted a major running goal. I've always said I never wanted to do a marathon because of various injuries and what-not. Now I want to try. But not only do I want to try a marathon, I want to try an ultra marathon next July. I guess I just want to know if I can do it. I love trail-running and think it's something I could do all day long. The problem is that I don't really have regular running partners here, so it can be hard to motivate when it's such a solitary pursuit. I created the blog so I could make what I'm doing public, to hold myself accountable for a training schedule, and also to try to entice others to join me--if not in my distance, then at least in some goal of their own so that we could support each other via the web. It is my greatest wish to grow it, so that many women are posting, commenting, getting the advice they seek, and feeling good about supporting friends in reaching their goals.

So consider this your official invitation. If this sounds like something you want to join me in, if you have some running goal that you're struggling to meet or if you want to start on one and think the help of other chicks in the same boat would be a benefit, please drop me a line. You can comment here or there. We'd love to have you. In fact, we need you. I have room for 95 more authors. http://www.friendsrunningforum.blogspot.com/.

Cafe Velez

My summer employer, Outward Bound, runs trips in Ecuador during the fall and spring seasons. Of course, with my teaching schedule, I´m unable to work any of these trips; but better than working a course down here, my boss at OB introduced me to Jose Niccolas Velez. Jose, or Peppinico as he is known down here, is a mountain guide working for everyone from the Colorado Mountain School to the American Alpine Institute...and of course, Outward Bound. Lately though, Jose has been trading in his crampons and ice axe for jungle boots and a machette. You see, Jose has begun roasting, distributing, and farming the best organic coffee here in Ecuador. Historically, Ecuador has not been well known for producing good coffee. It´s a huge export, but it mostly goes towards McDonalds and Folgers, not Starbucks or Whole Foods. Jose is changing that. He works with local producers to increase quality control, and then he takes the beans home and roasts them in his Ferrari of coffee roasters, imported directly from Idaho!?!

I facilitate ordering coffee for our teachers at school, and what started as a grocery bag of coffee delivered once a month to school has grown into a box of 20 bags distributed every two weeks! Two weeks ago, Erin and I visited a farm Jose just bought. He´s making the next step...farming his own beans.

Enjoy the slideshow, this is where your morning addiction starts....

(remember, you cam click on the slideshow to view it full size)

More Ecuador Reporter

My third article (this one on coffee and sugar cane production) has just appeared in The Ecuador Reporter, and I´ve been told I might even be getting a fancy business card....que rico!

Even better, my editor is actually getting me assignments that involve drinking!

Dear Sir, We are currently writing a monthly newspaper here in Quito for tourists and travellers that come to Ecuador. Would it be possible to write a column on the vineyard there in Yaraqui? I'm looking to send a journalist there in the coming weeks so as to get the story in there for the July edition.

Best wishes,
Tom Nicolson Editor,
The Ecuador Reporter

We´ve also had some nice complements lately on the paper, the Ministry of Tourism complemented my column directly, and this email came in from a CBS News Producer:

Hi Tom,

I am a CBS News co-producer and news writer who happened to pick up a copy of your newspaper in a restaurant called "The G Spot" last night. I wanted to let you know that I think you and your staff are doing a wonderful job! Keep up the good work. As I´m sure you´re aware, there´s no other media like it down here.

Now if I could just figure out how to get paid....

Bird Watching and Mindo, a Moon guidebook "pick"

Last month we finally made our way down to the hamlet of Mindo. Mindo is known for being a quaint little get-away, close to Quito, with the above said birdwatching galore. To here birdwatchers tell it, I couldn't wait to find ostriches wandering the streets, parrots streaking though restaurants, and hummingbirds sipping at my white russians. However, though the birds would be a nice icing on the cake, Erin and I were primarily drawn to Mindo for a wedding celebration of two fellow teachers, Daniel and Tanya. We had a a day off on Friday, and so we made a two night stay of it.

A teacher at school and his wife own the newest hostel in town, The Hummingbird; but the wedding celebration brought quite the crew of teachers out to his hostel so we found ourselves at the equally nice Caskaffesu.

Arriving on Friday, we found, of course, rain. That's been the soup du jour lately, but it feels kind of appropriate in a cloud/rain forest. After the rain passed, Erin and I decided to venture out and find the birds. Strangely, there were none at the hostel...even though it was named The Hummingbird. We found a nice trail behind the hostel, and we walked it's length, taking in flowers, dogs, a river, kids playing, but no birds. Damn, you must need to get up earlier for those things...that's what the pros say, anyway. We made plans for a 5Am wake up the following morning. Hey, if that's what you have to do to see flocks of Eagles and Macaws, so be it.

The next morning came plenty early, but to see the sky blackened by the wings of 1000's of colored birds was going to be worth it. We walked through the sleeping village, and towards some waterfalls that would supplement the experience of a parrot landing on my shoulder. We walked. And walked. We passed two professional birders, noting their binoculars. We walked. We stopped and ate our breakfast. We walked. We looked at trees through squinted eyes. We walked. We found a dog who followed us up the road and named him Pancho. We asked him where the birds were. He had no answer. We listened, we looked, we walked. Finally, we arrived at the entrance to the waterfalls...and their they were, soaring across the jungle, six parrots. They were...oh, how can you put it into words, well, they were six green birds flying in the air.

But hey, we saw them, and that was good enough.

I'm pretty sure there are some amazing birds in this photo, really spectacular.

With the bird show all wrapped up, we finally took in our "trailhead." The actual start to the trail was on the other side of a massively deep jungle ravine, and more impressive than the six small green birds, was this contraption which would take us there.

The term: Cable Car really does apply well here, because there is only one cable for support, and, it's powered by a Nissan car engine.


Yes, that thing has a gear shifter, gas pedal, clutch, brake; and yes, I mentioned to him that Toyota was a better motor. He agreed as I nervously boarded the car. Anyway, Erin and I had a calming ride across (the car goes surprisingly fast, he definitely shifted into another gear when we were in the middle of the ravine), and we had a good time wandering around looking at the waterfalls and playing Tarzan in, not of, the jungle.






Having had all the bird watching, vine swinging, and waterfall excitement one can handle in a day, we hitched a ride back to Mindo in time for the wedding celebration. Of course, it rained, but Todd and his wife have a beautiful hostel, the white russians were flowing, we found gnnochi for lunch, and a raucous game of frisbee was being introduced to the town kids, who truly do play in the street. Tanya and Daniel treated us all to a great dinner, and we partied into the evening, somehow waking up at 6:30 for the bus ride home.

Illiniza Norte: Conquered!!

This past Sunday, May 18th, and my dear mother's birthday to be exact, Tim and I climbed Illiniza Norte with a friend from another American school. Tim climbed this mountain in December with Andrew, back when I was sitting out with head colds. So this was my first go of it. The weather was, well, the same as it's always been any time I've tried to climb a mountain here. Norte also had quite a bit of snow, making for fun and mildly technical climbing at times. We hiked from the trailhead at about 8 am and returned to the mighty "Lando" at about 5 pm. All in all---GREAT day, even if I was a little slow. Norte's summit is at 5,126 meters (just shy of 17,000 feet). While we climbed higher than this on Cotopaxi, Norte is now my tallest summit, and therefore, something I'm proud of.

The sun came out for a couple minutes so Tim had to snap off a few shots of the uncharacteristically nice weather.

We crossed paths with some Swedes (well, they may have been German) pulling a full-on Ed Whymper revival. That dude wore his smoking jacket, cotton pants and Panama hat on the climb. You can see how bundled up we were.

Cold and snowy on the summit, and much unlike Tim's first climb here where you could see Cotopaxi all the way across the valley.

And here's Brian with his mighty Land Cruiser which we had to push out of a muddy ditch that very morning:

And the parting shot--Ecuadorian car wash:

Wednesday

So, it's Wednesday night in Quito, and in honor of, well, Wednesday, I thought I'd show you a bit of what my Wednesdays look like (not to be confused with Windsday, of course).

Wednesdays are special days for me because I get to do something here that I never felt I had the financial resources to do regularly in the States: yoga. A lovely British woman here teaches a private class to about 8 of us on Mondays (I teach an extra class after school and wasn't able to get in on this class) and Wednesdays.

So here's how the day-to-day looks:

I get up at about 6:20 to start the coffee cookin' and the bagels toastin' or the oatmeal boilin'. . .

I start begging Tim to get up at about 6:35. It usually only takes him about another 5 to roll outta bed. We are out the door at 6:54 to catch the "Teacher Bus" a block up the road. Understand that since our move to the new apartment, our morning walk is now only 3 minutes and we're not sweaty and tired when we get on the bus. Big plus for me!

Wednesdays at school mean an extra hour in the morning with no kiddos. So we arrive to quiet, birds chirping here and there, and smiles all around. Wednesday mornings = professional development.

I begin my day in my classroom where I greet Dr. Freud, who is always there waiting for me.

I teach a total of 4 classes: 11th and 12th grade IB psychology (sooooo fun!!) and 11th and 12th grade theory of knowledge (TOK--soooooo confusing!!) But the 12th graders have already taken IB exams, so I only have two classes which means I am only teaching one or two classes out of the entire day. I think I probably have the easiest job in the entire school.

Most days, Tim and I eat lunch together. If he's out of bed by 6:39, he has time to fix a hasty salad for us to share. Sometimes we eat in Tim's room and have lunch with Megan, my sister in law, over Skype. Today, we ate in the teacher's lounge. Yes, the TV is super-grande, but it's rarely on.

After lunch, I resist the urge to surf the web and actually have time to dream up some pretty alright lesson plans.

After school, we take the sardine-can teacher bus out to our old stomping grounds: Guapulo. The new Shakti Center boasts an Organic Farmers Market on Wednesdays (morning :-p) and Saturdays, Korean massage tables, children's art classes, and our yoga studio.

They even sell spirulina in case we decide we need some.

After browsing the Organic wares and handmade soaps, we meander up to our "studio."

Somehow, we manage to fit 8 students and one instructor into this space. While it's not the most mod space you've ever seen and has no mirrors, it certainly comes with a certain charm and character and we've all become quite attached to it.

However, the weather is turning around lately and we'll have half days in June, so I think I'm going to abandon yoga class until September rolls around again. I figure I've done enough that I can lead myself through the beneficial poses I've come to depend on, and I would totally have the power to avoid Hero pose, Camel pose, Half-frog, or anything else that requires severe pain in my knees. But of course, isn't half the point of taking yoga classes to teach yourself how to be okay with your body and level of expertise in any pose? I'm not necessarily convinced. I think June = running!

After yoga, I catch a cab home where Tim will make some sort of scrumptious dinner--or we'll have sushi delivered. Tonight: steak fajitas and mango margarittas!!

And while cooking, eating and cleaning, we do one of the following:

--Watch the news online (States news)

--Watch news video podcasts

--Watch episodes of Arrested Development (OMG--soooo funny!)

--Watch episodes of My Name is Earl (Again, funny beyond belief)

--or engage in stimulating conversation about life, politics, or where we want to live after Ecuador. Oh yes, we already have list. . .

Tonight? It was MSNBC online.

After that, pretty much every night, no matter what else is going on, I spend the rest of my time playing with, squishing, and snuggling this little princess right here:

And that's about as typical as Wednesdays get around here. Maybe not glamorous and overtly multi-cultural, but I love it just the same.

Current nightly obsession: Getting through the second Harry Potter in Spanish before I have to give the book back for the summer.

New Article

I have a new article in the Ecuador Reporter. The topic is Rainy-Day Rock Climbing. The ER is coming into its own, and you should check it out for a variety of articles on Ecuadorian tourism, politics, art, etc. The article can be found here.