Campo Alegre

 



Some pictures from a morning walk in our , "compound". The area is a lot bigger than I thought, I walked for more than an hour this morning on the quiet small streets and did not manage to cover the entire area

 

 

The gate we all pass through in and out. The vulcano Pichincha in the clouds behind

Our peacefull sidelane

 

 



Lane down towards our house


A couple of the elaborate gates into ther mansions

 

         

A beautiful jacaranda tree by the gate





                                                                             Quito out there in the valley beyond the walls


 Pichincha seen from just inside the gate to Campo Alegre, the top lost in the clouds this morning. It is an active volcano 4,784 metres high on the west side of Quito. It is possible to climb the mountain, and we will. It last erupted in October 1999 and covered the city with several inches of ash. Prior to that, the last major eruptions were in 1553 [2] and in 1660, when about 30 cm of ash fell on the city.

 

                                                      The Ecalyptus "forest" inside campo Alegre seen from just 

                                                       outside our home   

 

Gaston one of the two fearless watchdogs in our yard

 


                                                                                           THE cottage behind the palms in the garden

 

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My purchase in Otavalo

I needed a sun hat for this powerful Andean sunshine

more Otavalo

Knitted finger puppets



 

More puppets

Not sure what these women are watching



Otavalo - pics

A munchkin who wanted to share his clementine.

An Ecuadorian specialty - roast pork!

The Abuela (grandmother) of the girl I bought a necklace from
(The necklace is made of dyed dried orange peel - very special!)

 

Otavalo Market - more WOW - we'll return here often!

The school has provided an incredibly rich country and cultural orientation for the new teachers. They have taken us on tours to: -
- Papallacta, the hot springs (which are, in fact south-east of Quito - and not north-east, as I wrote earlier);
- the Old Town and up to the Winged Virgin Monument (see picture at top of the blog);
- twice out to Cumbaya, the suburb in the valley east of Quito;
- the Ministry of Immigration (where we experienced a bit of the bureaucracy of Ecuador - we had to go, in person, to register that we were in the country - despite the fact that we had already been through a similar long registration process on arrival at the airport); and
- on shopping trips to various parts of Quito (in stores ranging from very western (eg. Home Depot-ish) to hole in the wall shops selling assorted plastic goods).
But yesterday's day trip to Otavalo and Cotacachi was the best yet!

Bread Sellers

Otavalo is considered one of the most important and spectacular markets in Latin America. It has been a market since pre-Columbian times and Otavalenos are one of the most successful indigeneous groups in South  America.



Wall hangings & other hand-woven textiles





Incredible variety of wares

Second Stop....

Tourist Llama - it was our first - so of course, we needed a picture



and an alpaca, too, of course!

Otavalo Day Trip

This was our first stop on our day trip north of Quito yesterday - The Equator!
Did you know that it passes through 16 countries?
There are at least 3 Equator monument sites in Ecuador. Hopefully, we'll visit them all.

The Equator - parking lot



Straddling the great North-South Divide (I'm on the North - Sherry)



Walk in the park

I love the beauty of this place, but having Julian Assange seeking refuge in Ecuador is a mystery to me.
 It is somewhat of a peculiar choice I would claim. A guy standing for free information having done his to spread the word, so to speak, wanting to settle in a land not known, in particular, for freedom of press or speech. However, principles are modifiable I suppose when justice and potential loss of freedom gets too close for comfort. Just wondering what’s on the agenda for the President here, is it just for the sake of Julian’s blue eyes? Vamos a ver.
In spite of the above I have not really tried to get a feel of the social, economic or political realities of our new temporary homeland as of yet, and maybe not really wanting to this time around on this new posting. I am a real long term tourist with no official status and with time to explore history and nature and first of all learn the language.  No job obligations to distract my days, I am a spouse (ugly word I think). In Danish it is “medfølgende” which is much nicer it literally means “follower”. I like that, a great woman took me with her to enjoy life in a new spot in the world, how lucky can one get.
The Spanish lessons have started. We have a private tutor coming to the cottage twice a week, so far two sessions and unfortunately I am not fluent yet. Having once been fairly fluent in Portuguese is both an advantage and a dilemma, advantage as the structure of the language is very similar and many terms are the same, but when trying to express oneself it is very, very hard not to fall into Portuguese pronunciations. As long as our teacher speaks baby language, so to speak, and v e r y  s l o w l y, I am OK, but outside that setting, in the street and real life, WOW this is going to be a somewhat uphill struggle. However, the hill is not steep, it is doable.


Down town, new area

Before we came here we heard all kind of stories about the crime level in Ecuador, carjacking, armed robberies, pickpockets, you name it, they have it. And for sure there is a rather high level of crime and theft, but by utilizing the most uncommon of senses, the so called common sense, you are fine. Although luck can run out at times, as long as you put the “antennas” out and do not flaunt your obvious wealth one is left alone and in peace.  
Just as I was heading out by taxi, a very easy and dirt cheap transportation in this city, the other day to the new downtown area I was asked by Patricia, head of human resources at the school,  if I was bringing any valuables. I said yes, and no - just my camera, a few dollars and myself. “What about the gold chain around your neck?” she asked and then looked up at me and followed up with, “Oh, you are a big man, and Ecuadoreans are afraid of big men, so you are fine.”
Quito is divided into a number of different areas, the new area I was going to explore and practice my few words of Spanish in is an area full of shopping malls, broad avenues, fairly ugly standard architectural structures, but with the redeeming part consisting of an enormous park, La Carolina, right smack in the middle of it all. The park is ½ km wide and 2 ½ km long, and it is safe in the daytime as long as you are big. It is full of Ecuadoreans enjoying themselves, more so on week-ends I found this time, but hey, somebody has to work.
The other main two areas of interest are Gringo Town and the Old Town - another day for those.



 

 I strolled around the park, sat down now and again and took some pictures as discreetly as a 300mm tele-lens allows you. I came across this fellow making a sculpture out of a huge tree trunk with a Husquarna chainsaw. We fell into a conversation and for a while I felt really good about it, I could understand a lot more than I thought and actually answer too, until realising that he had heard my Portuguese mixed in there and started speaking in Portuguese. That was certainly very kind but not helpful for my purpose, and of course his Portuguese was also way better than mine has ever been. Sigh!!

He was an Ecuadorean artist who has made big wooden sculptures in all the parks in Quito as well as in other S. American countries.  The rest of the day downtown only led to ordering coffee and lunch, no long intellectual discussions with the locals quite yet.





Having been driven all over this town now by school buses and taxis I walked home, it is a lot closer than I thought, just about 5 km, however the hills are killers not least combined with the thin air, which still after these almost 3 weeks is a factor.
The air is clean here, exceptionally so except when a big bus goes by in a black cloud but the lack of oxygen does slow you down, burning lungs one of the new teachers called it and that’s how it feels if you move up hill in “normal” pace.
Up here in our little gated ‘oasis’ the air is also full of the fragrance of eucalyptus. These trees are not indigenous to South America. They are, as in Africa, imported from Australia, and planted on steep hillsides to prevent landslides. To me one of the nicest smells ever, it is a strong reminder of the Southern Highlands of Tanzania where Sherry’s and my long term travels started in the last century.
 
  



Who would have thought we would end up in a cottage when settling in Quito?  situated in the backyard of  Señora Sari (Sara) Torres’ property.  She is “old money” in this society, her home being in this community for more than 35 years. It must have looked very different in times past, now it is a gated community. One passes through a well manned gate into the area, and inside it is somewhat of an oasis, with own clubhouse, little church, playgrounds and tennis courts all covering an area of 20 – 25 acres right on the escarpment towards one of the valleys around Quito . It is a mix of huge villas and reconstructed homes turned into apartments, mainly occupied by old money and diplomats; it is hard to get a real impression of the homes when walking the quiet lanes, all are behind high walls with elaborate huge wooden or metal gates. Behind the gates German Sheppard’s and other nasty snarling, barking, drooling dogs. Our yard has two beagles, named Ariana and Gaston, barking yes, but not much bigger than you could step on them should they get to frisky.
Sari is the Matriarch of this homestead, she lives with her daughter in one half of the main house, and in the other are her son, daughter-in-law and two 4 – 6 year old sons. Our cottage was built for her other son, but he moved to Guayaquil, the main port (I think) of Ecuador about 270km south west of here. So our present home is rented, but solely to teachers from Academia Cotopaxi.
We had pizza and a couple of bottles of excellent Chilean wine the other night in Sari’s home and got much of her life story. She is married, second marriage, to a Norwegian, he is in Stavanger in Norway working in oil of course, she is here, something about problems with his daughter. But he apparently visits quite often so she expects he and I can have some discussions about our brotherly nationalities. Could be, at least we all know that the Norwegian Vikings were very nasty specimens while the Danish were real nice and cuddly.

It has been a very soft landing, much due to the fact that we were shown this place the day after arriving and on the fourth day moved into a fully furnished (although not very comfortable furniture) house including everything in the kitchen, just unpack the suitcases and hang in the closets and put in the drawers. Even the internet was operational same day we moved in, and TV was set up a couple of days later. A maid was arranged for a weekly cleaning and washing of clothes.

Will we stay here? probably not the whole time in Quito. It’s calm and quiet here and only a slightly breathtaking uphill walk of 15 min. to Sherry’s work, but one of the things we envisioned when moving here was living with a view.
With Quito placed in a valley (or sort of several valleys), the city is 8km wide and 50km long surrounded by mountains and with a least 3 volcanoes within visibility (on clear days), the views are often, in addition to the thin air, quite simply breathtaking.
The problem could be availability though, together with a number of other new teachers and families we spend the first 4 days in Quito looking at apartments, we saw 20+ places, nothing that just said “this is it”. But we will find it under the criteria close enough to the school for walking, big enough for us and guests, safe area, and of course THE View, like that one:

link to my school

http://www.cotopaxi.k12.ec/home/

El Papa or La papa?

We spent the first 4 days in the Quito Hotel. I was excited about this sign that advertised a "celebration of potatoes" in the hotel restaurant. Every morning the breakfast buffet included some form of potatoes that were very delicious. I "whatsapp'ed" these pictures to Sarah (in Burkina Faso, where the staple is rice), who LOVES potates (to make her jealous :)). I had used google translator to inform me that  "papa" is pope. So, I thought the sign was very interesting, because it celebrated the potatoe as the "pope of half the world". We had a little discussion (on whatsapp) back and forth about the other half of the world, perhaps non-catholic(?), eating rice and maize, etc. I have since learned that "el Papa" is "the Pope" and "la papa" is "potato" and "la mitad del mundo" can be either half the world or middle of the world (i.e. equator). Here, I thought it was a great play on words, when really, had made a mistake translating a word, without regard for the gender "el" or "la".

our backyard

One advantage of our little cottage in the backyard, is this bbq nook. We had our sundowner here tonight, while Ole got a little wood fire going. He is going to grill some sausages as soon as the fire turns to grillable coals. We will buy charcoal later this week for future bbq's. We'll have to learn how to fire this oven to roast a suckling pig, or bake bread... and we need a few more comfortable chairs, maybe even a hammock.

A little piece of Canada...

Casa Quebecua - this restaurant is in the Mariscal district, the tourist district of Quito. It is a poutine restaurant. We did not eat there. Very odd sight to stumble upon!

Week Two

Week Two continued with more exploring of Quito, starting the procedure to get an Ecuadorian driver’s licence, continued car hunting and bonding with the other new teachers.

Lunes (Monday) – housing in place – now the car search begins – Carlos (who works in the copy centre of the school) is the man to see about this. We told him we were looking for a 5D Vitara for less than $14,000, with low kms and he went to work combing the internet used car sites. In the meantime, Ole had also been doing some online car hunting, so we visited some used car dealers ourselves. This brought us to new areas of town. Getting around Quito by taxi is easy and cheap. A 15 min ride to downtown costs $2-3.

Martes (Tuesday) – Ole visited more car dealers and I joined the shopping group. First stop – MegaKywi. This is the Home Depot of Quito! Truly! It was a culture shock to walk in those doors. Just like in Peterborough, the plants are to the left, with outdoor furniture and bbq’s just beyond those. The aisles are laid out just like at home with plumbing, electrical, tools, screws, paint, etc. I really did not expect to see this here. From there we went to El Hogar (=Home Outfitters). Some of the teachers got completely unfurnished apartments so they needed supplies from these stores. After that we went to Santa Clara market, where “hole in the wall” shops sell rattan and wooden furniture, all sorts of plastic containers, basins, etc., for very little money. Big difference between the morning and the afternoon shopping venues!

In the late afternoon Ole and I walked the streets of the Mariscal area, checking out the stores/shops selling beautifully hand-crafted alpaca wool sweaters, blankets, woven tapestries, jewellery, etc.,  the sidewalk cafés and the artwork in the square. This is a tourist area where backpackers stay and young Quiteños party at night.


Happy Hour in Plaza Foch (Mariscal)



Plaza Foch - Poster Art Display

Miércoles (Wednesday) – Processed all the paperwork for an Ecuadorian driver’s licence today, with the assistance of Paola, who is a Spanish teacher at Academia Cotopaxi (my school). First stop – the Ecuadorian Red Cross to get blood type cards, then to get photos, photocopied passports, Ontario Driver’s License and paid $250.  Paola’s father has a driving school and he processes the papers as if we have taken his driving course. So we are paying for a driving course that we, in fact, are not taking – hence the expensive price. Paola will deliver all of the paper work to …somewhere official… and in one month, or so, we have to go to that place and do the written test in Spanish. We have to get 15 out of 20 questions right. So, we are in a hurry to learn Spanish.

Jueves (Thursday) – There’s little movement on the car hunting, as Carlos does the research on the car that Ole has found, and determines that the paperwork is not quite in order so that car is not a good one to pursue. Back to the drawing board….

We spend the afternoon in Cumbaya (a suburb 30 minutes east of Quito) at the home of Eddie and Jenny, the High School principal and his wife,  together with Tina, the curriculum coordinator, and the whole gang of new teachers, sharing stories of international school experiences before Ecuador. Altogether this group has international school experience from China, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Nepal, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Mexico, Cayman Island, Cairo, and Kuala Lumpur.

Viernes (Friday) – The car hunt continues with Adrian, Paola’s husband picking us up and driving us to a couple of dealers, before taking us to see a car he has for sale. He is a mechanic who also sells used cars. Ole really likes the Ford Explorer he has for sale, but needs to think about it until Saturday.

We take a long walk through La Carolina (central park) and do some grocery shopping.

Sabado (Saturday) – The school arranged for a bus and tour guide to take “tout le gang” to Old Quito. Quito was inhabited by Incas before the Spanish arrived in 1526. However, the Incas chose to raze the city rather than hand it over to the Spanish so there are no Inca ruins in Old Quito, but it is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site, because of its architecture, plazas, and churches that blend Spanish, Moorish and Indigeneous elements. It is a place we will return to often.

Domingo – Started Spanish lessons today. This will be fun! The grammar is much like French and the vocab has a lot of similarities with Portuguese.

About the car-hunting – Ole had called Adrian (through Paola – because her English is excellent) on Saturday to make an offer on the Ford Explorer. Since they had not returned his call he called back today to find that Adrian had taken the car somewhere and there was an accident and he did not bring the car back??!! Umm…we may be a bit sceptical, but this does sound like a weird story. We really think that he probably sold it for a higher price than he had offered it to us for. We may never know the truth. So - back to car hunting tomorrow. We do have another lead – our landlady’s son has a Chevrolet dealership in Guayaquil (250 kms from here). He has a 2012 he is offering us for $17,000. Ole has to call tomorrow to get more details. We really did not think that it would be so difficult to get a car.

In the afternoon we met Graham (from BC) and went to El Ejido park, where artists gather every weekend to display and sell their art. We took a long walk back through town and La Carolina Park to Laura’s apartment for a potluck get-together. 

I start work on Monday 8am to 4pm. This week is orientation to the school (mission statement, goals, technology, assessment, curriculum, etc.) for the new teachers. Next week all teachers are back and the following week the students start.

Like every year, when summer draws to a close, it is difficult to go back to work, but at the same time it is exciting to start something new.

The  hotsprings at Papallacta - 2 hrs east of Quito, at 3,300 m. Divine!

Week One - Post Script

P.S. After composing the Week One email/post we took a taxi to La Carolina, the Central park of Quito - there were people everywhere, playing soccer, basketball, walking, picnicing and doing zumba (about 150 people together) in the park. One main north-south street is closed to cars on Sunday so that people can bike, rollerblade, stroll, etc. through a main part of the city - along a 30 km stretch of street.

Quito is 50 km long (north to south) and 8 km wide (east to west).
We walked through Inaquito market and did some supermarket shopping. Here are some of the sights we encountered.

The first photo is the zumba in the park, the second two are from the market. There are many varieties of fruit and maize that we have never seen before. And who knew there were so many different kinds of chilis. We have lots of food exploration to do too....

Zumba in La Carolina Park, Quito



Varieties of chilis in the market



Week One - WOW

My father kept asking, “Why are you doing this?” He could simply not understand why we would give up good incomes, a beautiful lake-front home and all the creature comforts we enjoyed in Canada to move to Quito, Ecuador, South America. And he wasn’t even thinking about all of the work it took to pack up our home, and sell our vehicles.
I do not think that we ever really convinced him with our arguments of adventure-seeking, travel opportunities and professional development. Maybe some of the stories we will share will help him to understand what this is all about. So …after one week – here’s our first impression.

We don’t speak Spanish (yet). But using the languages we do speak (including French and Portuguese) and thanks to the good nature of Ecuadorians, who are incredibly friendly and helpful, we have managed to arrange accommodations, SIM Cards and minutes for our cellphones, eat regularly (no guinea pig yet, though) and not get lost.

The school has pulled out all the stops providing a driver and others to support our house hunting, shopping, banking, etc. There are 9 new teachers (3, like me with non-teaching spouses, 2 singles, and 2 teaching couples, one with a 5 year-old and one on the way, and the other just married last month). We all arrived on Monday or Tuesday,August 6-7, and we are all in various stages of getting settled.
We looked at 20 apartments over the first 3 days and decided to try out a small 3-BR house, a 15-min walk to school. The house is perfect, fully furnished and equipped (dishes, bedding, etc.). The only drawback is that there is absolutely no view from the house, except for the high walls surrounding the property and well-kept gardens. We are living in the Andes and from some places in Quito, you can see 3 snow-capped volcanoes all at once. We would prefer something with a view of the valleys and peaks. We want to be able to look out our windows and see that we live in South America. But now that we have this base, we can take more time to find what we are looking for. Heck – what is one more packing and unpacking….??

Today the school arranged for us newcomers to visit Papallacta (pronounced papajacta because 2 l’s is really a /j/ as in jump – I love this language already!). Papallacta is about 2 hours NE of Quito. I am not absolutely sure of the NE part, because it was overcast and the roads twisted and wound up and down and around mountain sides, and being south of the equator also throws me off. I lost track of the direction. As we stepped out the van we discovered we were underdressed – at 3,300 m above sea level it was cold and misty as the clouds rolled in – BUT – we were there to spend the day in the hot springs. That was heavenly!!! There were 6-7 pools with varying temperatures. We spent a couple of hours in the hot water, had a nice lunch and returned to Quito late afternoon. Definitely a spot we will return to.

The weather has been perfect, warm, sunny days with 22-24 degrees and cool evenings falling to 14-16 degrees and nightly lows of 9-10 degrees. We have not been very bothered by the altitude, but we do get winded very easily, walking up stairs and hills. The traffic is hectic, but not worse than Dhaka or Cairo. The food is great – lots of potatoes, fresh fruit (the papaya we have for breakfast is sooooo delicious) and we’re looking forward to getting to know about the varieties of quinoa. 

So…the first week has been a whirlwind. Week 2 will be about car hunting, getting local driver’s licenses, sorting out our technology (e.g. the blackberry doesn’t work, we still need to get internet in the house) and more exploration of Quito. I don’t actually have school stuff until Monday, August 20.
Here’s a picture from the school.