Fuya Fuya and Otavalo!

a view from the top of Fuya Fuya



halfway to the top


Us at the top of Fuya Fuya


EL LECHERO...beautiful tree that overlooks lake san pablo


The city of Otavalo from above


Lilli with our new travel guitar we bought at the market!





views of the saturday market in otavalo, note dave´s height compared to the locals!



view of the city center of Otavalo, with imbaburra in the backround!


sweet! fireplace at our hostel!


Dave´s awesome sunburn



more views of the lake


Lilli chillin at our hostel in Otavalo


La Laguna Cuicocha

Aight, its the Hopper writing this one so it is going to be short and sweet. Robin is looming over my shoulder making sure that it doesn´t fall short.
The story left off in Mindo, with us having conquered two waterfalls and having just met some chill folk who were expats. We took off from Mindo for Otavalo, one of the best known artisan locales in Ecuador. Every Saturday, thousands of vendors come to sell their wares, pets, and food to other Ecuadorians and tourists. It was pretty overwhelming as we left our hostel at 8 am and didn`t return until 12 pm. We had a blast dealing with vendors and seeing all the different types of products we could buy, from clothes to watches to sunglasses to shrunken heads! We were able to find a guitar as well from a friendly local artist who sold us the shredder for 30 bucks.
After the event, we took a short, actually turned out to be long, hike to Lago San Pablo, one of the largest natural lakes in Ecuador. Pretty cool but on the return we visited El Lechero, a famed spiritual tree located between Otavalo and the lake. It was a pretty magical place as the tree stood out on a hill with nothing surrounding it and had big, ole Mt Imbabura standing watch in the background.
Before all of this (I like to be similar to Quinto Terintito with none sequential stories), we took off for Laguna Cuicocha, a crater lake in the shadow of Cotacachi. We stayed at this cute hostel called El Mirador, which looks out on the lake and the beautiful peak of Cotacachi. Our second day there, we hiked around the lake for 11k (about 8 miles) and had some amazing views of the surrounding valley. We were pretty wiped out after the hike and decided to go for a short jaunt the following day. All in all, a great place and we had a ton of fun being out in nature.
So, we returned to Otavalo, did the market, and today summited a peak that is 13,900 ft! Booyyyaaaa! Our guide, Pablo, was a worker at the hostel we have been staying at. A very friendly guy who took us up the short walk to the summit. Lil and I both had a bit of exhausation wash over us due to the lack of oxygen but it was quite a lot of fun. We summited andhad returned to the trailhead around 11 so we cruised over to another lake, had some lunch, spoke in Spanish and called it a trip. When we got back into town, we both needed a nap but we rallied to write this blog and get ready for tomorrow and farming time! We are both super excited and will keep you all informed as the journey progresses. Much love and be well!

Da Hoppa

Hola from Mindo!

Hi all,
Dave and I have found ourselves in a little town called Mindo, about 2.5 hours west of Quito. Mindo is situated in a cloud rainforest, and it is well known for the hundreds of species of birds which live here. When we arrived on Wednesday night it was pouring rain, something that we found to be the norm over the past few days. The morning is usually bright and sunny and hot, and as the day wears on, clouds roll in over the forest and then it pours! The rain cools things down a bit, and then the rain continues on through the night and is wonderful to fall asleep listening to.

When we first arrived in Mindo, things were not going so well. Dave and I went out on a hike on a nearby trail to try and spot some birds on our first day here and all was going well until my stomach started churning. By the time we got back to the hostel I was feeling pretty sick and had a fever and Dave was starting to feel a bit sick as well. The night was spent taking turns in the bathroom and trying to comfort eachother as best we could. Needless to say, the next 2 days were spent recovering. We have no idea what we ate, or what we contracted that caused the virus; but being sick in a foreign country makes you homesick and sad. Luckily, a woman in town recommended we try some oregano tea, which is supposedly the cure-all for stomach ailments among the locals. We were cured!

When we were finally feeling well enough to venture out, we decided to take a 10 minute busride out of town to a place called Mindo Lindo, which we were told was a key birdwatching spot in town. We found that Mindo Lindo is actually a family´s house, they let people walk around their property (which is all rainforest) and look at the birds for a small charge. The woman who owns the business is a german ornotholigist who asked if her daughter might be able to accompany us on our hike to hear us speak english (she apparently really wanted her daughter to learn). Once we started hiking, it became clear that Edith, her 11 year old daughter, had absolutly no interest in speaking english at all, but instead wanted to teach us all the names of the plants and animals in the forest in Spanish. She was quite an intellegent little girl, she taught us about certain plants that could cause you to vomit blood if eaten, and how certain plants in the forest have adapted to growing upside down, so that they are protected by their leaves from the sun and from hungry animals.

Today we ventured farther from Mindo and walked about 4 miles to some waterfalls which we had heard about from a man who rode the bus with us from quito to Mindo. There were lots of people hiking the trails and swimming underneath the watherfalls, and there was also a slide which you could slide down which dumped you out into the river. It was super crazy! Dave convinced me to do it, and I ended up flying off the end of the slide and landing with a huge splash and a mouthfull of water. Well worth it though, super fun!

Dave and I just got back from hanging around a small coffee shop owned by a woman from Corvallis, OR (go figure), her friend who is also from the states, and another man from Ecuador. Tonight we will be meeting up with them to do some slacklining and hopefully, if it stops raining, they said that they would spin fire for a bit! We shall see.

Tomorrow it is off to Otavalo, where we will be doing some hiking before heading off to our first farm.

Ok, time to post some pictures...more to come soon!


Dave on a lookout above the waterfalls


beautiful view of the cloud forest



hummingbirds everywhere!


the poisonous berry....don´t eat this!



Views in the forest while we hiked with Edith


Yay Mindo!


Dave and I on a lookout over the forest


beautiful forest hike...this was before the stomach flu hit :(


beautiful flowers on the terrace of our favorite cafe in Mindo


ooo, lily flower!

More from Quito!

the view up the street that our hostel is on


frutas en el mercado


jugos!


Medicinal plants that are sold at el mercado


Jackie (my Spanish teacher) and I on the terrace


Robert, Dave and Nicolai in La Mariscal


mmm...star fruit in my mojito!


Dave rock climbing at el roco droma


Public graffiti in Quito

This past week has been full of Spanish, spanish and more spanish. Dave and I have been taking classes at the school run through the Secret Garden hostel, the classes were taught on the upstairs terrace overlooking the city and we each took about 4 hours of class a day. I was originally going to take 40 hours of classes, but decided to only take 20…the city is a little claustrophobic for us, not to mention Spanish lessons are muy caro (very expensive). We decided to end our time in a Quito a week before schedule to allow us some time to explore the countryside before heading to our first farm on March 15th.
I have been studying Spanish with two friends we have met here from Europe; Nicolai from Germany and Robert from Holland. We have a lot of fun in our classes, we are constantly mispronouncing things; causing Jackie to erupt in laughing fits. The other day we were learning how to talk about temperature. Caliente = hot and frio= cold. Apparently you can only use the word “caliente” when talking about the temperature outside, not when referring to your body temperature. I learned this the hard way by saying “Yo estoy caliente” when Jackie asked how I was doing that particular day. This, in Spanish, literally means “I am horny”. And thus, the laughing fit began.
Other funny things about our Spanish classes; Dave and I take our Spanish classes at the same time, on the same terrace, but with different teachers. Our teachers enjoy asking us funny questions about our significant other and then shouting across the room in Spanish to tell the other one what we said about them. Good stuff. On Saturday, Jackie and Diana took me, Dave, Nicolai and Robert to the local market to teach us the names of fruits, vegetables, and popular Ecuadorian dishes. We stopped at a jugo stand (juice stand) and tried all different kinds of juices and milkshakes made from tropical fruits. The juices here are amazing! You pick any kind of fruit you want, in any combination, and they throw it all in a blender with ice and sugar and give you a huge cup of it; usually jugos cost only .50 cents! Our Spanish teachers introduced us to the women at the jugo stand and they kept giving us more and more combinations to try. I love love love the jugo de coco (coconut milk juice) and Dave likes alpalfa and morra (a green mixture similar to wheatgrass, and blackberry).
Also while exploring the market, Dave decided to buy me a lily flower to try and get a rise out of our Spanish teachers (the Ecaudorian people are very romantic, and Diana and Jackie swoon at us whenever we do anything remotely romantic). One of the women at the flower carts saw Dave give me the flower and was so enamored than she came over and gave me a rose as well. I came home from the market with a tummy full of jugo and an armful of flowers.
Sunday was our day off from class, so Dave, me, Nicolai and Robert walked down to an outdoor climbing gym in Quito and went climbing for a few hours. The routes were really difficult; definatly a challenge for Dave and pretty much an impossibility for me. Dave and Nicolai climbed while Robert and I ate mangos and lounged in the sun. Afterwards we went out for drinks in the tourist area of Quito, called La Mariscal.

Before I end this entry; just a few more observations of note:
-Buying school supplies is very very funny. In all the bookstores and school supply shops, they keep the spiral notebooks behind the counter and you need to ask for what you want (lined, not lined, big, small, etc.) They then pick one out for you, and there are always really funny pictures on the covers; which you just get stuck with. I wanted to get a super suave plain black notebook but I ended up with a huge picture of tweety bird winking at me. Yesterday Dave and I went to get another notebook because we ran out of paper, and ended up with a picture of a tiger and the caption “happy animals” on the cover. I find this small detail of life in Ecuador absolutely hysterical.
- Speaking in Spanish is like playing charades. My grip on the Spanish language is quite minimal, so asking for directions or ordering things often involves excessive gesturing and animation. Last night we met a man from Argentina whose English was just about as bad as our Spanish and we talked for a half an hour with him, acting out words in Spanish and English, pointing and making funny faces in order to get our points across. We laughed at each other more than we actually ended up talking, but it was a good language lesson for all parties involved.

Tomorrow Dave and I leave Quito for Mindo, a cloud rainforest that is home to more than 450 species of tropical birds! We will try and update soon; but no promises, we might be very busy chasing butterflies and spying on hummingbirds!

We love and miss you all….
Hasta la vista!

The Never Ending Ride and Quito

After departing our hostel at 3 pm on Friday, we boarded our 26ish hour bus ride from Lima to Guayaquil. The bus was pretty nice; two floors, with fully reclining seats and a TV for movies. It also had two bathrooms downstairs, which came in very handy later during the voyage. Now, if you have ever taken a bus for a few hours, you probably know that it isn´t a bunch of fun; going overnight was a walk through the darkness of transportation world. I´m not taking about the bus company, which I would highly recommend; I´m talking about how you have to sit in your seat for hours upon hours. The ride started out fine and we watched two bootleg American films. We knew they were boot-legs because there were parts of the films that obviously weren´t edited properly, with cameramen still being seen on the scene. The night dragged on, we didn´t get too much sleep and I had an eventful meeting with the bathroom downstairs after having dinner (my body is still getting used to the food down here).
We arrived in Guayaquil around 8 at night, more than the 26 hours we were told but that is just how things work down here. We met a German woman on the bus named Nora, who already had a place to stay so we cruised along with her to check out that hostel. It was the Manso boutique hostal. A bit pricy for the two of us (35 dollars for a room for two!) but we had free breakfast and were tired enough to pay. Now, a few things about Ecuador. They use the American dollar; no, I´m serious. Our presidents are on their national currency. A twenty down here still has the face of Andrew Jackson across it. Next, people don´t wear headphones when they listen to music; they just pull out their i-phones and rock out to music loud enough for all to enjoy. It´s pretty funny! Next, everyone we have met is very nice and willing to hear our broken Spanish; sometimes, they even try their English out. Two other fun facts: showers here are electric and you can´t flush toilet paper down the toilet.
After spending the day recovering from our long bus ride in Guayaquil, we took a taxi to the transportes Ecuador bus station with hopes of taking the 9:00pm overnight bus from Guayaquil to Quito. And that is when the madenss and wonderfulness of Ecuador began. We bought out tickets for our bus and claimed a nearby corner with our backs as we needed to hunker down to 1.5 hours before we took off. While manning our items, two young kids came hopping over to us screaming and yelling with joy. They were just being kids and it was pretty funny to watch them run, fall, yell, throwing things at each other. Then, their mother came over and started conversing with us. I was able to pick up on some of what she was saying and able to get across where we were from, where we were going, why and some other basics. Then, she started talking about her youngest son´s birthday and before you know it, she invited us to the party on Sunday the 28th! Welcome to Ecuador! She was seeing that I was having difficulty understanding everything so she busted out her cell, called a woman named Kris, and gave me the phone. I was talking with an American woman named Kristin, who was working in Quito for the Peace Corps. She retold me that Lil and I were formally invited to his birthday party and that she may be there as translator. (We called Kris on Tuesday after we arrived and are going to get a beer with her on Friday and will hopefully go to the birthday party on Sunday as well). The bus was long and sweat-tastic but the joy of having other wonderful people surrounding us was overwhelming.
We were told that the bus from Guayaquil to Quito would take 8 hours, so we planned on 10, based on what we had been told, and our experience on our first bus. However, this bus was 1.5 hours early, so we ended up arriving in Quito shortly after 5 am, when it was still dark. We hung out at the bus station until the sun came up and took a taxi to the secret garden, our hostel. (Thanks for the recommendation Amanda!!!) Our hostel is great, it is 5 floors, with abundant potted plants, funny painted decorations on the walls and tons and tons of rooms. There is also an open air terrace on the top of the hostel with a bar and restauraunt that serves breakfast (desayuno) and dinner(cena). The food is delicious and not too expensive, and they have vegetarian options. We are going to stay here for approximately 2 weeks while we take spanish lessons at the spanish school that is run through the hostal. Lilli met two guys from Germany and Holland who are also beginners, so they will be taking a group class together. I am a little more intermediate level so I will be taking a higher level class. In addition to setting up our Spanish lessons, we have been meeting lots of fun people at the hostal, including a pair of women from NZ, a couple from Sweden, and a few people from Europe. We are a bit embarrassed that we only speak English because every single person we have met speaks two or more languages (one of them being english) We are excited to start lessons and hopefully be bale to communicate more effectively. Today we took a cab into the new city ( we are staying in the old city section of quito) to explore the botanical gardens. They were wonderful! Check out the pictures!

-Dave


inside our hostal


Another view



The view from the terrace


Dave hanging out at the terrace restaurant


One of the many fruit stands in Quito. You can get any tropical fruits you want! Papaya, Bananas, Mangos, Passionfruit...yum!

Below are pics from the botanical gardens!

Lima!

The buildings here are so colorful, this is Dave and I in front of one of the houses; bright red!


Sea Urchin!


sun and the sea!


Cerbiche! Yum!


Beautiful tile wall in Miraflores


First day in Lima, overlooking the sea!


Hello all!
I am writing this post from our hostel in Miraflores, which is the tourist district in Lima Peru. We arrived here on the 17th at about 2 am, and the whole process; NYC to Mexico city, Mexico City to Lima, and the airport to our hostel went without a hitch. On our 2nd flight, from Mexico City to Lima, we met a man named Sergio, who was a very fiendly missionary who decided that our 5 hour flight to Lima would be a good chance for us to learn some Spanish. Dave spent the greater portion of 3 hours speaking to him in Spanish, while I listened and tried to follow along. By the end of our flight, Sergio had flipped through an entire magazine and taught us the names of the objects on the pages in Spanish. I think I retained about 3 words.

Yesterday, Dave and I spent the majority of the day getting aqainted with Miraflores, exchanging our money, walking the boardwalk by the sea and fumbling through spanish phrases in an attempt to order food, use the bathroom, and ask for directions. Dave took 4 years of Spanish in high school, and it is coming back to him very quickly. Most people in Miraflores speak a little bit of english, but Dave knows more Spanish than they know english, so it is more effective to fumble through the wording in Spanish and use excessive gesturing than to try and speak english. Peruvians are very friendly and it seems that the harder we try to speak their language, the more apt they are to help us.

Last night we went out for drinks with a wonderful woman we met at our hostel named Karen, who is from Norway. Karen speaks fluent Spanish, so she was especially helpful in ordering drinks and helping us some more with our spanish. Today we went out for Cerbiche with Karen as well; Cerbiche is a traditional Peruvian dish which is cooked in lime and hot chili peppers. Amazing!
We ended the day with a dip in the ocean and frying ourselves in the hot sun...even though we wore sunscreen we burnt the hell out of ourselves..hmmm, I guess we need to cover up a bit more if we don´t want to get torched.

Tomorrow we will leave for Ecuador to attend our spanish school, it takes 2 buses and over 24 hours to get there, but I hear they have food and drinks on the bus, so we should be happy campers. More to come soon!

Bon Voyage!

After setting sail from Portland to Boston, we realized we wanted to create another post to our blog. With that said, we already have been over here for almost two weeks and this is the first one we were able to write! We will try to keep up on our travels a bit more; feel free to remind us to post more often.
Once we got back to Lil's parents' place in Natick, we packed up her Mom's car (Putt Putt) and headed down to the grand city of Bristol, CT. Through the rolling hills and the lush concrete, suburban jungle, Putt Putt guided us to my folks' place on Violet Drive. We spent a few days hanging with the family, Mom commenting on the hair (the usual first comment), my brother Jeff telling me his M3 Beamer and his Applebee woes, meeting his wonderful girlfriend Ashley, playing pool with my Pops and meeting up with some great people that I had not seen in over a year and a half. One of the most memorable moments for me was hanging out with Jeff and Ash one night playing the game "Loaded Questions". We laughed, we cried, we made non-PG jokes and had a great time connecting with my brother and his wonderful partner.
Then, we packed up and blew out of that popsicle stand (my humor doesn't work on everyone but just try it). Putt Putt faithly returned us in one piece (no thanks to I95, where if you are not going 75 then you will get honked at) to Natick. Lil's folks were gracious enough to provide the entire downstairs space as our "Home away from Home". We hung out with her folks the first few nights and even managed to check out a local climbing gym, Boston Rock Gym. Lil's uncle Steven used to own the establishment back in the 90s and then sold it a few years back. I give it two thumbs way up: tons of bouldering, top-roping and plenty of lead climbing for all to enjoy. I even met a new inspiration: Jon, a 62 years-young guy who started climbing only three years prior. When I struggle on V2s from now on I will think twice about complaining that I can't do it; I will try to reflect on the fact that I have been given the physical talent to use my athleticism at such a young age.

Lil and I then parted ways for a night; I went into Boston and Lil visited a friend in Framingham. We both had a grand evening, Noam being a little prince and Caroline showing Lil a good time, and then we met up in the city on Friday to tromp around a bit more before heading down to NYC. Last night, I experienced my first Jewish service at Temple Beth David, where Howard Worona (Lil's dad) led the service through the art of song. I was very impressed by the entire experience, especially how the community gathered together and acted as one loving, caring unit.



Lil, Howard and I at the Worona's house in Natick


Playing music:)


Today, Lil's parents and mine are meeting up (wish us luck). Tomorrow, it is the rest of Lil's extended family (yep, double dose of family for us this weekend). Monday, we are heading into NYC to stay with my good friend Heather and then flying out on Tuesday. Already missing the wonderful peeps of Bend and Portland; thanks for sending us your support.

Til Suramerica,
Hasta la vista
G Hop (Robin will not allow me to include her name with this post because she does not care for my writing style)