Craig and Steph's Vacations Blog

Ringing in the New Year in Guatemala

2012-01-08T15:36:00.000-05:00


Lunch at Pollo Campero

We had never visited Humberto, Paulina, and the family in Guatemala around Christmastime before. This year we decided that we would spend New Year's there. As two of the girls have birthdays in the first week of January, this would also allow us to be there for their birthday party.

We flew down on December 27th. Paulina, Vanesa, Yasmin, and Eddy took the 3 hour ride to Guatemala City to meet us at the airport. It was very nice to see them as soon as we arrived. We stopped at Pollo Campero for lunch. Eddy and Yasmin enjoyed the huge indoor play area. Eddy kept slipping and falling down in his stocking feet, so he took off his socks to give himself better traction. We enjoyed the fried chicken, cole slaw, french fries, rolls, and "American doughnuts."

Steph and Aracely

We drove to Panajachel, and the other kids were waiting for us in the driveway. Aracely surprised and delighted us by greeting us in English. She is in her second year of English language school. The progress she had made in the past 6 months was unbelievable. We are very proud of her! We greeted Paola, Yoselin, and Humberto, as well as other neighborhood cousins Neli and Josue.

Humberto showed us around the property. A lot of finish work had been completed in the past 6 months. He had planted a garden around the perimeter of a small courtyard separating the house from the guest rooms. There was a small Christmas tree lit up on the center of the courtyard. Humberto mentioned that it had been in the dining room, but had to be moved for space. Exterior walls had been stucco'ed and terra cotta tiles finished off the tops of the walls. It looked lovely.

Steph, Eddy, and Craig

Steph, Aracely, and Craig

The next day we took Yoselin, Aracely, and Eddy for a walk down to Lake Atitlan. It was a beautiful, sunny, clear day. This time of year seems to be a lot less humid than it is in July. The direct sun is hot, but once you are in the shade or when the sun goes down, it cools down considerably. The sky was clear and the volcanoes were visible. Aracely said the very astute, "I am hot. Ice cream is cold" in English. Hint, hint. She is so cute! So we bought chocolate cones for the kids and a strawberry cone for ourselves. The girls dunked their feet into the water. The water became quite rough. We learned later from Humberto that this was due to the xocomil, a wind that is stirred up on the surface of the lake around midday. The wind gets its name from the Mayan words for "take away" and "sin." They believe that the winds come and carry away the sins of the villagers.

Steph, Aracely, Eddy, and Craig at Lake Atitlan

The next day, the kids wanted to go back to the lake. Today we took Yoselin, Yasmin, Eddy, and Aracely. They wore shorts since their pants had gotten so wet last time. Even Terry the dog followed us to the lake! Yoselin and Yasmin are total fish and went straight in for a swim. I kept ahold of Eddy and walked him along the shore and onto the dock. Aracely attempted to just put her feet in, but some of the erratic, xocomil-induced waves splashed her and wound up getting her pretty wet. She became cold and wanted to go home. When the other girls got out of the water, they were cold as well. There were no requests for ice cream today!

Eddy, Steph, and Aracely at Lake Atitlan

The next morning we went to do errands with Paulina, Aracely, Eddy, Yasmin, and Yoselin. We went to a barber shop near the market to get Eddy a haircut. The barber laid a wooden plank between the armrests of the old-school barber chair for a makeshift booster seat. Eddy was very patient and stayed completely still while the barber trimmed him with clippers, scissors, and even a straight razor ( ?! On a three-year-old?!) Eddy looked all handsome with his new haircut.

Eddy gets his hair cut

Next we went to the market, which had expanded into some of the neighboring streets with holiday vendors. Paulina bought fresh vegetables and chicken, and we rode home crammed into a tuk-tuk. After lunch, the kids wanted to go back to the lake. Today we took Yoselin, Yasmin, Eddy, Aracely, and Josue. Paulina told the kids not to swim; just to dunk their feet. Yoselin and Yasmin stretched the rules a bit and laid down on the jetty. The waves broke over the jetty and doused them with water. They also dunked their heads into the water. They ended up getting just as soaked as if they had gone for a full-fledged swim. But at least we had remembered to bring towels today! We got creamsicles from the ice cream stand as the girls soaked up the last warm rays of the sun, and then we headed for home.

Yoselin, Aracely, Eddy, Steph, Yasmin, and Josue at Lake Atitlan

The next day was New Year's Eve, and we all woke early. We headed to the market at 9:30 to stock up on food and supplies for the New Year's Eve party that Humberto and Paulina would be hosting. We stopped to buy a huge bundle of pine needles from a local Mayan family on Rancho Grande. These would be spread on the ground and floor as part of the New Year's offering; and they have the added bonus of making the house smell like pine.

Buying pine needles for New Year's Eve

We continued on to the market. Stalls of fireworks were set up in the streets. Paulina bought all kinds of fruit, as well as beans, vegetables, and beef. She bought the girls each a new pair of earrings to start off the new year. It was warm in the sun and Eddy led us all over to a milkshake counter. We had delicious milkshakes flavored with fresh strawberries. After getting all the food that we needed, we stopped at a clothing stall and Paulina bought some new outfits for the girls. We rode another overstuffed tuk-tuk home with all of our purchases.

Paulina and Paola at the market

Vanesa prepares canteloupe to make ponche

Later in the afternoon Humberto's mother came over. She, Paulina, and Vanesa cut and prepared the various fruits for the traditional warm punch ("ponche") which they would be making. The New Year's Eve party was going to be a pot-luck. Paulina was making chili con carne, and guests would be bringing other dishes. In preparation for the party, Humberto and the kids scattered pine needles on the floors of the hallway and guest rooms, and on the ground. They hung up red and green streamers and green balloons. They positioned a row of tables with chairs on both sides down the middle of the hallway. Someone brought over a grill.

Humberto and Craig

Yoselin

Craig and Paola, New Year's Eve

Fun with sparklers

Salud!

The kids played with sparklers. At around 10:15, Carlos, Vilma, and Elizabeth arrived. We sat with them in the living room and drank a locally-produced fruit cordial. It was bright red and very sweet, in a Johnnie Walker bottle. We all drank a toast. As it approached 11 o'clock, other guests began to arrive. Humberto's brothers and their families, nieces and nephews, Humberto's sister Juana and her daughter Rocio, and Humberto's mother. They were grilling sausage and steak on the grill. As an appetizer, there were warm fresh home made tortilla chips with fresh guacamole. The tortilla chips were satisfyingly crunchy and really hit the spot. Some of the older kids were acting as dj's, using Humberto's computer and a set of speakers. Aracely danced in front of the Christmas tree.

We could tell when it was midnight due to all of the fireworks that went off simultaneously around the city. Some were professional grade and visible from a distance, but most people just lit their own around the neighborhoods. Humberto lit off some which created a shower of sparks, and others which twirled around on the ground. Everyone hugged and wished one another "Feliz Año." Humberto wore a pair of glittery 2012 sunglasses that a client had given him today. After I photographed him in them, he gave them to me. It became my mission to try to photograph as many guests as possible wearing the glasses. That was good for quite a few laughs.

Feliz Año, Paulina!

Craig, Rocio, and Steph ring in 2012

New Year's Eve buffet

By 12:30, the food was ready and the buffet was open for business. By this time, we had already lost a couple of the younger kids to sleep (Yoselin and Eddy both fell asleep in their chairs and were carted off to bed). Everyone piled their plates with chili con carne, sausages, blood sausage, chicken, rice, etc. And we drank rum and orange juice. The food was delicious. Paulina's chili con carne was fabulous. It was our first time ever trying blood sausage, and we were surprised at how spicy it was. We all sat around chatting and enjoying one another's company late into the night. Families said their goodnights and took kids home. Humberto and Paulina's kids went to bed with the exception of Vanesa, who was still going strong playing on the computer. We did a double-take when, at 4:15 a.m., Eddy came stumbling out of the house. I intercepted him and held him on my lap, where he promptly fell back to sleep. After a few minutes I brought him to his room (where Aracely and Yoselin were already asleep), tucked him in, and turned off the lights. Craig and I took that as our cue to call it a night. We left Humberto, Paulina, and three other guests to finish off a bottle of XL Extra Light Rum. Since the party was literally right on the other side of our wall, we didn't really get any sleep until the party ended at 5:30.

New Year's Eve buffet

New Year's Eve dinner

Eddy and Steph at 4:15 a.m. New Year's Day

The next day got off to a slow start, given that we had all been up so long the night before. Craig and I didn't emerge from our room until almost eleven o'clock. We helped to clean up the mess and Paulina made us a lovely light breakfast. Today was Yasmin's eleventh birthday. Although we knew the kids wanted to go to the lake today, we knew that there would be a joint party for Yasmin and Paola (whose thirteenth birthday is the 5th), so we needed to try to keep them distracted. At around 4 o'clock, Vilma, Carlos, and Elizabeth arrived, soon followed by other guests. There was a lovely birthday cake. Humberto brought home a large rabbit piñata, and the family filled it with hard candy, lollipops, and gum. The children (and even some of the adults) got plastic bags ready for candy-gathering. Yasmin got the first swings at the piñata, as some of the men pulled on ropes to make the piñata swing back and forth on a wire. Paola was the one who really demolished it. With her blindfold still on, she grabbed it with one hand to stabilize it, and whacked the thing apart with the stick in her other hand. Candy showered down and the kids gathered it up. Before anyone could get hurt, Humberto stepped in and shook any extra candy out of the piñata. There was some


Eddy, Chino, Aracely, and Diana at the birthday party

Filling the piñata

Yasmin with the piñata

After that, it's time for the cake. We all sing Happy Birthday to Yasmin and Paola in Spanish. That is followed by a second verse with the words "Queremos pastel" ("We want cake"). The guests then count to 11 and 13 and the birthday girls blow out the candles. Then the girls are supposed to each take a bite of the cake without using their hands. They bend forward and attempt to take a dainty bite, but Humberto and Junior push the back of their heads and they end up with facefulls of frosting. Cake is served to guests, along with tostadas with salsa and cheese on top. We have ponche to drink.

Yasmin and Paola's birthday cake

Later that night, Humberto opens a bottle of wine that a colleague had given him for the holidays. Humberto, Paulina, Craig, and I toast the upcoming year, and we thank them for another wonderful visit. Eddy rides around on his little plastic tricycle holding a sparkler, and inadvertently sets some pine needles on fire. I quickly stamp it out. Juana, Rocio, and Humberto's mother come over for what Humberto calls "The Last Supper." We eat the delicious leftover chili con carne from last night's fiesta. We all go to bed early; two parties within twnety-four hours have worn us all out.

Eddy plays with a sparkler

We get up the next morning and pack up our things. We say goodbye to Humberto. It is his busy season, and he has to work every day while we have been here. Paulina and all of the kids make the long drive to the airport with us to see us off. That is so sweet of them (especially since some of the girls suffer from motion sickness) and it means a lot to us. This allows us to spend an additional 3 hours with them, and it allows them to get more familiar with the city and do some errands after dropping us off. Our driver Adrin gets a photo of us all together at the curb at the airport. We wave as they cross the street to get back into the van. Eddy keeps looking over his shoulder for us. He doesn't remember the goodbye ritual from past trips, so he doesn't understand that we are on our way back home, and that we won't be seeing them again for another six months.

Dropping us off at the airport

Thanksgiving in the Islands

2011-12-04T17:42:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving dinner at Molly Molone's: Steve, Mom, Marty, Craig, Steph

We upheld our tradition of spending Thanksgiving in St. Thomas with our pal Marty. This year, Craig, Steve, and I were joined by Craig and Steve’s Mom. We shared a two bedroom beach front suite at Secret Harbour (the same room that we had when our friend Beth joined us back in 2002 , but its kitchen and bathrooms have been upgraded since then). For the past couple of years, we have gone to Toad and Tart for a full Thanksgiving dinner, but Anna closed up shop since last year and we were left looking for a new place to eat turkey. Marty suggested dock-side Molly Molone’s in Red Hook, which had an incredible deal: all you can eat turkey dinner with all the fixin’s (including unlimited wine) for $22. This is a bargain by island standards. We ate as much as we could while enjoying football on their big screen TV’s.

The next day was our traditional Cap’n Marty’s Island Hop. We had an inauspicious start to the day as we headed out to our rental Ford Focus to find that it had a flat tire (to go along with its lack of shocks). Steve called Marty and managed to catch him just as he was getting onto his motorcycle to come and meet us. He was able to switch to his car and came to the rescue. We would deal with the flat tire tomorrow.

When we arrived at the marina, Marty and I went to fill out the boat paperwork, and the others went to Marina Market to buy provisions. As usual, we rented the boat from Mattheus at See & Ski. With Cap'n Marty at the helm and Steve (a.k.a. "Milky") as first mate, we set off from Red Hook towards St. John.

Cap'n Marty's Island Hop: Milky, Mom, Cap'n Marty, Craig

Cap'n Marty and Mom on the boat


Craig swimming at Peter Bay, St. John

Swimming at Sandy Caye

Sandy Caye

Craig at Foxy's, Jost Van Dyke

Steph at Foxy's

We anchored off of Peter Bay in St. John and Craig, Milky, and I went for a swim in the turquoise water. We enjoyed watching pelicans and another sea bird whom we dubbed Jonathan. We aren't sure what kind of bird he was, but he had distinctive turquoise coloring on the underside of his belly and wings. The pelicans plunged straight into the water, whereas Jonathan glided along the water, just barely preventing his wingtips from breaking the surface. The weather was partly cloudy, which meant we didn't get sunburned. We could see rain clouds in the distance, dumping rain on the coasts of other islands. Hopefully we would avoid it during the rest of our travels today. We climbed back on the boat and dug our wonderful Marina Market sandwiches out of the cooler. Craig and I had our usual: the turkey with cranberry sauce, cream cheese, and dijon mustard. It was delicious. We had already worked up an appetite this early in the morning..

After that, we docked at Tortola to clear customs for the British Virgin Islands. Mom got her first stamp in her passport here – how exciting!! We anchored off Sandy Cay, a gorgeous strip of white sand. We all got into the water here for a swim, even Cap'n "It's too cold to swim in November?" Marty. Once Marty and Mom got back onto the boat, a rain cloud caught up with us. We continued swimming while raindrops pelted us. Marty told us that we better get out of the water or we were going to get wet.

Once we were back aboard the boat, Milky played the role of relief captain for a while as we cruised through open ocean. Normally we would head over to Norman Island to the Willy T for cocktails, but we just couldn’t bring ourselves to go knowing that our favorite bartender Zeus is no longer there. It just wouldn’t be the same. So we changed up the itinerary and went to Foxy’s on Jost Van Dyke – someplace we haven’t visited in several years.

At Foxy's, we sat at a table in the sand near the bar and the stage where Foxy the proprietor sometimes plays his trademark island calypso guitar. We drank painkillers and ordered some lunch. I got conch fritters. They were fresh, hot, and delicious in a tahini sauce. Craig and Steve got a delicious chicken roti and curry. We caught sight of Foxy with Massachusetts Senator and one time Presidential hopeful John Kerry. Mom shook Kerry's hand and he smilingly acknowledged her Patriots T-shirt. We ordered a second round of drinks. We browsed around in the shop and Mom bought a pair of sandals.

The boat was anchored in waist-high water, so we walked through the water and climbed aboard via the ladder. We had hoped to stop at the Soggy Dollar Bar for some more drinks, but it was packed with people and Marty didn’t feel comfortable anchoring the boat so close to other boats. So we skipped it and headed back toward St. Thomas instead, via Pillsbury Sound. We saw a rainbow over one of the ships we passed.

Sunset at Secret Harbour

Dinner at Sunset Grille: Steve, Marty, Mom, Craig, Steph

For once we weren't racing the clock to get back to the marina by 5 p.m. We pulled in at 4:40 today. That meant that we were able to get back to Secret Harbour in time for a fantastic sunset. For dinner, we went to the newly opened Sunset Grille at Secret Harbour. It was previously the Blue Moon, and we had always enjoyed eating there. They renovated the restaurant when it changed hands. We sat at a table right next to the ocean. For an appetizer, we shared the ahi nachos. These were mango salsa, wasabi sour cream, seaweed salad, pickled ginger, and tuna piled delicately on wanton chips. I absolutely melts in your mouth! Craig and I got the jerk chicken, which was served with coconut bread pudding and rum apple raisin slaw. The food was all top-notch. We washed it all down with frosty painkillers. After a busy day, we went to bed early.

As luck would have it, our visit coincided with a big party thrown by Marty’s motorcycle club, the Carib Riders Motorcycle Club. It was a weekend-long party at Magen’s Bay to celebrate the 69^th birthday of CMRC member Skeeter. This sounded like fun to us, so we accepted Marty’s invitation.

On Saturday, Craig cooked us a breakfast of "Craig McMuffins" in our little kitchenette. We enjoyed eating with a view of the ocean from our room. After Craig changed our flat tire, we headed over to Magen's Bay mid-afternoon. We were introduced to birthday boy Skeeter, his lovely wife Donna, and his daughter (who coincidentally lives about 2 or 3 miles from our house – what a small world!), and we were happy to see Biker John and his wife Nancy (whom we had previously met when we ate at their former Mexican restaurant Charlotte Tamales). Folks were camping in a wooded grove right next to the beach. There was a small pavilion where local band Untold Trouble played three live sets of classic rock, and there was a buffet full of all kinds of good down-home food (macaroni and cheese, pulled pork, pasta salad, a full turkey, etc. This was no ordinary cookout.) We enjoyed the live music; the band really rocked. And the food was delicious. The guys drank beer and Mom and I drank rum and Pepsi and vodka lemonade. Everyone was so incredibly friendly and welcoming to us. We are glad that Marty has such good friends nearby. They really stressed the fact that since all of their families live on the mainland U.S., they act as surrogate family for one another on the island.

Untold Trouble plays at Skeeter's 69th birthday party

Craig and Steph at Skeeter's birthday party

Campsite, Skeeter's birthday party

Mom's walks down Magen's Bay beach during Skeeter's birthday party

Skeeter, Biker John, and Nancy watching Untold Trouble

Untold Trouble with special guest

Acoustic set

Mom and Donna (Mrs. Skeeter)

There were several other gatherings taking place on the beach that day. One was a group of VW bug enthusiasts who had their customized bugs on display. These same guys and vehicles had been here last year when we visited as well. We wandered through and admired their vehicles. The electricity at the beach shuts off at 6 pm, so that’s when the band stopped playing. They did a little bit of acoustic music before everyone headed back to the camping area. They had a campfire and everyone dug into a delicious glazed spiral ham prepared by Biker John. Marty crashed in his little one-man tent, and we said our goodnights and headed back to the hotel.

Sunday was a day of relaxation. We didn’t leave the Secret Harbour grounds. After a leisurely morning enjoying cereal and coffee in the room, we staked out beach chairs in the shade of some palm trees and went for a swim. The water was cooler than usual, and the sky was overcast for most of the day, which made it even chillier. We saw yellow and black striped fish as well as some translucent fish that looked sort of like angel fish. The latter kept bumping into me underwater, startling me in an amusing way. Suddenly it wasn’t so amusing when they started to bite at our legs. I have been nipped by fish before when snorkeling, especially when trying to feed them. But those nibbles were nothing compared to what these guys were doing. They had sharp teeth and it really hurt. If we stood still they continued biting us. So we started to tread water and flail a bit to keep them at a distance.

These guys bite!

Steve wandered down the beach to get us some bushwhackers and blackened bleu cheese burgers – delicious! We spent the afternoon on the beach, taking another swim before heading inside at 5 o’clock to watch the Patriots/Philly game on TV. We ordered pizza in-room from Señor Pizza and watched the Pats win. Of course, they were so far ahead that at 8 pm the coverage changed to another game.

Iguana

Craig and Steph at Secret Harbour Beach

Monday we went to Havensight so that Mom could do some shopping. We stopped in to see Marty who was working at Sean’s store, The Pirate’s Chest. It is now located at the Port of Sale mall as opposed to its previous location up on Paradise Point. The store is really nice, and who did we run into but Skeeter, Donna, and Skeeter’s daughter. After chatting with Marty and buying a few items, we walked around and went to a few other stores. Then we drove over to Udder Delite for their famous milkshakes. I got the Jamocho (chocolate ice cream, coffee ice cream, and Kahlua) and Craig got the Udder Delite (almond crunch ice cream with amaretto). They were deliciously refreshing after our morning of shopping.

Then we went back to Secret Harbour. We enjoyed the sunset, though it wasn't as dramatic as Friday night's.We had hoped Marty would join us for dinner on our last night, as we were planning to go to one of his favorite restaurants, Petra’s Schnitzel Haus. However, he was still recovering from the weekend, so just the four of us went. We started out with an appetizer of snails in garlic and butter. They were just as we remembered: delicious. Mom had never had them before and she was pleasantly surprised. She and I had rum punch while the guys had beer. We all got schnitzel (Craig, Mom, and I got pepper schnitzel with onions, peppers, and cayenne pepper, whereas Steve got the Jaeger schnitzel) served with bratkartoffeln (potatoes similar to home fries) and red cabbage. It was obvious that Mom thoroughly enjoyed her first exposure to schnitzel as she cleaned her plate. We had hoped to get some of Petra’s fantastic home-made strudel for dessert, but she had been away for the holiday weekend and hadn’t had time to prepare any. So we headed back to the hotel and got dessert and drinks at the Sunset Grille.

Marty at the Pirate's Chest

Craig and Steph at Secret Harbour Beach

Sunset at Secret Harbour

Dinner at the Schnitzel Haus: Steve, Steph, Craig, and Mom

On Tuesday we woke up early, got everything packed, and checked out of the hotel at 11 o'clock. We had some leftover food we hadn’t consumed, so we stopped into Sean’s store to give the leftovers to Marty. We got a chance to speak to Sean on the phone, and we said our goodbyes to Marty. We then stopped at the Delly Deck for lunch. Their special of the day was meat loaf and mashed potatoes. Craig and I both ordered it and it was absolutely delicious!

When we rerturned the rental car, they gave us a credit of $25 for the inconvenience of the flat tire. That was an unexpected surprise! Our flights home were on time and we arrived in Boston shortly after 10 p.m.

Secret Harbour

Rick Wakeman and Jon Anderson in Worcester 11/8/2011

2011-11-20T19:15:00.000-05:00

Rick Wakeman and Jon Anderson played several shows in New England in support of their recent album The Living Tree. They didn’t play in Boston, so we had the choice of seeing them in Concord, NH or Worcester. Both shows were on weeknights, but we chose Worcester as we were able to get front row center mezzanine tickets.

The show was at the Hanover Theatre, a new venue for us. It is around 100 years old and has alternately housed playhouses and movie theaters. It recently underwent a major renovation and is now a beautiful concert hall. Everything was freshly painted and there were dazzling crystal chandeliers. The seats were exceedingly plush and roomy and we had a perfect view of the stage, which was set up with dozens of electric candles, several keyboards, and several guitars.

Shortly after 7:30, the strains of Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra (the theme music from 2001: A Space Odyssey) blared forth on a trumpet. The final notes were comically out of tune, and kept getting worse as it repeated. It was very Monty Python-esque, and as it concluded, Rick and Jon walked out onstage to thunderous applause.

We have seen both of them play live before as part of Yes, and also in their respective one-man-shows. A lot of people in the US don’t seem to realize what a wonderful comedian Rick is. He has developed a second career as a TV presenter in the UK due to his wonderful sense of humor. He never gets a chance to speak to the audience during Yes shows, and he hasn’t done a lot of solo touring here in the US, so this was a pleasant surprise for a lot of folks in the audience who had perhaps expected Jon to do most of the talking. In fact, their repartee was quite amusing. Jon would try to introduce a song and Rick would always interrupt him with slightly off-color comments and jokes. Jon played the straight man but often dissolved into laughter at Rick's jokes.

They played stripped-down versions of Yes favorites, as well as 7 selections from their new Living Tree album. The theater had wonderful acoustics, though when the audience got laughing it was difficult to hear the onstage banter. We had avoided looking at set lists from prior concerts because we wanted to be surprised by the material.

Many of the Yes songs were ones that Jon had performed earlier this year as part of his one-man-show, which we saw in Somerville and Londonderry. The versions were similar but with the addition of Rick's lovely keyboard work. Starship Trooper had a lovely classical piano flair to it. Sweet Dreams was jaunty with Jon on rhythm guitar. Time and a Word was given a reggae treatment. And You and I got its rightful Rick keyboard solos.

A pleasant surprise was a stripped-down version of Yes’ cover of Paul Simon’s America (Jon’s wife Jane had suggested that they play it in celebration of Jon becoming an American citizen two years ago). It was much more of the Paul Simon version of the song as opposed to the traditional Yes interpretation.

The two made fun of their ages (they have been playing together for over 40 years) and Jon had a music stand next to him with lyrics from the new album. Though he knows the classic Yes lyrics cold, he said he is having a hard time committing the new lyrics to memory. Jon called this the "recital" portion of the show. The new songs worked quite well interspersed with the classics.

For artists that have such a vast repertoire of material, if you don't see new songs during the time that they are touring the album, you may never get to see them live. It was great to have such an intimate venue to soak up the nuances of the new songs.

After about an hour, they announced a “prostate break” and after a short intermission, they returned for their second set, which began with the familiar piano intro to South Side of the Sky. Wow, what a treat! It was a lovely version of this powerful song. Rick's keyboard evoked a music box during the spellbinding Wondrous Stories. Jon introduced 23/24/11 by saying that its title refers to a soldier in Afghanistan counting the days until he is able to return home. It is a similar sentiment to Tom Wait's Day After Tomorrow.

They started the "community singing" portion of the show with Your Move. Jon introduced it by saying "You know the words. Sing it like you know what they mean." Everyone sang along enthusiastically, perhaps too enthusiastically as we all skipped to a later part of the song too early. Jon had a laughing fit and then resumed the song, which segued into All Good People. Jon introduced the new House of Freedom by saying that young people today won't stand for corruption. It seemed apropos of the current Occupy movement.

Jon had been Tweeting that he was so happy to be able to play Awaken on this tour. He and Rick told the story about how they originally recorded it in Montreux. The rest of the band was in the studio, but Jon and Rick went to a church so that Rick could play his part on the pipe organ while Jon sang and played harp. They actually recorded the final version of the song over a phone line from two different locations way back in 1977! Who knew? Tonight's version was excellent, with the keyboards channeling a pipe organ and Jon's voice was particularly bright and clear.

For encores, they did Roundabout during which Jon fully let it fly and let his voice get raunchy. Jon's voice returned to clarity during Soon, in which he hit some amazing notes. They finished off the night with the always enchanting The Meeting. During the piano intro, someone took it upon themselves to yell thanks to Rick and Jon for making Worcester a stop on this tour. While I agree with the sentiment, just because Jon hasn't started singing yet doesn't mean that people weren't enjoying the lovely piano melody. And of course one down side of allowing drinks in the theater is that during a very quiet and touching part of the song, a bottle hit the floor and rolled down toward the stage, making a terrible racket. Despite the distractions, hearing Jon and Rick perform this song together was just magical, as it had been six years ago when we saw them perform it together in Canada.

The crowd was very respectful and attentive during the new songs throughout the course of the night.

The new songs worked well live. John and Rick were relaxed and confident onstage. We've been lucky enough to see them many times over the years in many different configurations. Seeing them re-interpret their work in such an intimate and casual atmosphere was quite enjoyable. At age 67, Jon is sounding as good as ever, arguably even better than with Yes. And Rick's personality really shines in this format. His playing was intricate and effortless. Rumor has it that they will be releasing a live album from the European leg of the tour. We are looking forward to it.

Rest in Peace, Brownie-Girl!

2011-08-26T19:28:00.002-04:00

Brownie

Our loving and lovable cat Brownie passed away overnight. She was my first pet. She showed up as a stray at my parents' house in 1995. She hung around the neighborhood, and would keep my mom company when she went outside for a cigarrette. She was extremely friendly and immediately won over my mom (who is admittedly not much of a pet person). If you reached down to pet her, she would rise up onto her hind legs and thrust her head up toward your hand. We dubbed this her "cute thing" and it endeared her to everyone she met. She returned day after day, even in the spring snow. She was thin and hungry and obviously homeless.

Craig had purchased our home in 1993. He was in the process of renovating it, and wasn't living there full time yet. Craig and I had known each other less than a year when Brownie appeared. He had owned cats for all of his life at his parents' house, and intended to get some of his own for the new house. He was immediately interested in her, and told us that he would definitely take her in. So my mom started to feed her and a couple days later Craig came out to get her and drove her the hour from my folks' house to here. She cried the whole way (she never liked car rides), but was immediately comfortable when she arrived at the house.

Our ex-sister-in-law came up with the name, commenting that her fur coloring looked like a multi-layered brownie. The name stuck. Craig took her to the vet, who estimated that she was probably about a year old at that time. We never knew what had happened to her to cause her to be a stray. She had an acute fear of plastic bags and human feet. We wonder if she was ever put into a bag or kicked before or during her abandonment. The fears lasted a long time, but she did eventually got used to both household plastic bags and feet. She never got used to the sound of the vacuum, though.When Craig and his dad were doing construction on the house, she would keep them company, making herself comfortable anywhere in the house, including the kitchen cabinets.

Brownie moves in to the unfinished kitchen cabinets

She liked the yard and the woods and would spend a lot of time outside. We would whistle to her at bedtime and she would come in for the night. Not too long after she took up residence, she disappeared for a few days. Craig and I made flyers and he posted them around the neighborhood. He actually came across her in a yard in the next neighborhood up from ours. The person said that she has been around for several days. We assume that she had gotten lost and wound up in a parallel neighborhood.

Brownie napping in the bay window

In 1996, we brought home a new black half-Siamese kitten. Brownie had been relatively playful and youthful at first, but once Blackie came into the house, she immediately turned more maternal. Blackie's type A personality kind of overwhelmed Brownie's more laid-back nature. Blackie was able to lay claim to certain areas of our house that Brownie would no longer enter.

We officially moved into the house in 1998, by which time the cats had lived there for several years. We wondered what went through their minds when all of a sudden, we were in the house around the clock too.
We never fed them human food because we didn't want to get them in the habit of begging. And they didn't beg. But Brownie was always aware of what we were eating, especially when it involved tuna fish. There were several times where we found her sitting on the countertop licking the electric can opener after we had used it to open a tuna can. Our friend Gary dubbed that behavior as "kitty mischief." It always resulted in some serious cleaning of the can opener. Another time she climbed right into an empty SmartFood bag and licked the cheese off of the bag's inner surface. And she loved SeasonAll. If we spilled some on to the deck while grilling chicken, she would go into a drooling trance, trying to rub the stuff all over her body.

Brownie attempts to stow away in our luggage

Brownie always seemed to know when we were getting ready to go on a trip. She would become extra loving and clingy in the days leading up to our departure. Sometimes she would even lay on or in our luggage. Though we couldn't take her with us, we did carry a photo of the cats with us when we traveled. It helped to break the ice when we visited the Maasai in Kenya and when we visited Antonio and his family in Ecuador. Brownie had gained weight over the years and a photo of her lying on her back on the rug with paws up in the air, fat and happy, made people smile. When we would return from trips, Blackie would hold a grudge for a while, but Brownie always acted friendly and was happy to see us.

Every year, Brownie immediately laid claim to the Christmas tree as soon as it came into the house. She held court underneath the branches among the presents. She loved people and was always very sociable. She loved it when we had company and would always greet our guests. She even had patience for little kids who would come to visit.

Brownie holding court beneath the Christmas tree

We lost Blackie in 2007. We assume she fell victim to the food chain of the forest. She certainly hunted plenty herself, so it is an appropriate way for her to go. We missed her very much and Brownie appeared to as well. But in the absence of a younger cat she started to behave more like she did when she was young herself. She reclaimed the rooms which had been solely Blackie's territory, including our bedroom.

She would stick close to us when we were home. She said goodbye to us as we left for work in the morning, and she would be waiting at the door for us when we got home in the evening. We thought that her days alone were probably lonely, but by this point in time she was growing old, and we thought that bringing a new cat into the house might cause her undue stress. After Blackie disappeared, Brownie went through an extended period where she did not go outside very much. Maybe she sensed what had happened to Blackie and the danger that is inherent in the woods.

el gato gordo

As her age and weight increased, she had trouble climbing up onto the couch. So we bought her a little plastic stepstool, which she used faithfully. She was unable to do her "cute thing" any longer, so we invented a new one: I would lay her on her back and massage the shoulder joints of her front legs. She sure seemed to enjoy it. We got into a routine of giving her "tasty treats" every morning before work. She loved to play with her toys, including Crunchy Frog and Crunchy Rat.

For the past few months, her health has been waning. She has pretty much stopped eating, and has become very frail. Her routine changed, and she wanted to spend entire days (and sometimes overnight) outside lounging on the back deck or stairs. She started to breathe heavily and cough and wheeze. She seemed to be going downhill fast, and we were worried. Then she rallied for a while, catching two mice...something she hadn't done since her young days. But, realistically, she was around 18 years old, and cats don't live forever. We were worried about how to know when it was "the right time" to take her into the vet. She still hated car rides so much that we wondered if she'd even survive the trip.

But that wasn't necessary. She passed away sometime overnight. When she came inside last night she was breathing heavily. We said goodnight to her and while in bed I heard her cough a bit. I woke up this morning and she was not in her usual morning spot. This concerned me, and I walked to the back door and saw her lying there in her most comfortable position, having departed this life. Nature did its job, and we didn't need to intervene.

We miss you, Brownie; thanks for being such a wonderful companion for the first 17 years of our relationship.

More Pictures from Guatemala, July 2011

2011-08-07T18:50:00.001-04:00


Eddy channeling James Dean

Paulina and Eddy

Steph with Aracely

Olga, Isidro, Allison Margarita, Eddy, Estela, Loren, Aracely, Paulina

Our First Quinceañera in Guatemala

2011-07-31T16:27:00.000-04:00

Vanesa at her quinceanera party

Our dear friends Humberto and Paulina in Guatemala have five daughters and a son. Their eldest daughter, Vanesa, turned 15 last Sunday. In Latin American cultures, a girl's 15th birthday (or quinceañera, in Spanish) is her coming of age. We knew that we wanted to be there to help celebrate. Because of the timing of her birthday, we weren't able to take advantage of our 4th of July Independence Day holiday, as we usually do. But we were still able to take a 5 day trip, which meant that we would also be there to celebrate Yoselin's 9th birthday on Saturday.

Yasmin, Paulina, Eddy, and Yoselin

Our flight to Miami was scheduled to take off at 5:30 a.m. on Thursday. This meant that we had to wake up at 1:30 a.m. and get ourselves to the airport. It was a rough wake-up, but it meant that we would arrive in Guatemala City at 10:30 a.m., which is about 4 hours earlier than usual. This would mean that we would be able to make the most of our first day there.

We arrived in Guatemala City on time, and were picked up by Humberto's colleague Benjamin. Benjamin drove us to Panajachel, and we arrived at around 1:30 p.m. We like to visit as often as we can, but a year had elapsed since our last visit. It was amazing how much everyone had grown and changed in the past year!

Steph, Craig, and Aracely

Loren and Craig

All of the girls looked beautiful. Vanesa was now slightly taller than her mother Paulina, and her hair was a bit shorter than usual. Paola was taller, and had lightened her top layer of hair. Yasmin and Yoselin were looking almost like twins, both having grown taller. Yoselin had gotten her hair cut. Yoselin made sure that we realized that Saturday was her birthday. Our goddaughter Aracely was still petite and adorable. She had just finished a full year of kindergarten at the English Language Atitlan Multicultural Academy. Our godson Eddy, the youngest at 2 1/2 years, looked like a little man. His hair was now cut short, and he neither looked nor acted like a baby. He could now pronounce both of our names. Although he was a little stand-offish and shy at first, he soon got comfortable and climbed on us as much as the others did.

Family Dinner

Cousins Josue, Neli, Loren, and Yesmy were around at various times. Josue, once a silent, shy boy who wouldn't sit on our laps, was now talkative, outgoing, and asked us (by name) for piggy-back rides. Neli was much taller and more mature. Loren and Yesmy were as sweet as ever.

Humberto had hired 3 workers to finish the construction on the guest rooms. The four downstairs rooms, each with an en-suite bathroom, were completed. They were now working on the four upstairs rooms.We thought back to our first visit four years ago, when we slept in their dining room and the guest rooms were just in the planning stages. It has been a very productive few years! Humberto has been very successful growing his home and his business, and we are very proud of him.

Paulina and Humberto recently decided to start hosting students from the Jardin de America Spanish School. Students taking a week of Spanish lessons can opt to spend their week doing a homestay with local families. The students eat their meals with the families and learn about local customs and lifestyles. Their first student, Mario, had arrived two days before. He is a French Canadian doctor from Montreal, currently traveling around Latin America while on a 6 month sabbatical. It was a pleasure to meet Mario, and it was obvious that he had already made a connection with the kids. He was great with them, and they enjoyed playing with him and helping him with his Spanish.

Josue and Mario

On Friday the older girls needed to go to school. Aracely's school is on the US school calendar, so she is currently on summer vacation. We went with Paulina, Aracely, and Eddy to the market. When we ran into some of Aracely's young cousins on the street, Aracely wanted us to pick her up, to show off that we were her godparents. We bought some meat, fruits, and vegetables at the market and then took a tuk-tuk back home. We had brought some toys and games for the kids and we enjoyed playing with them. Aracely can now write her name and has the fine motor skills to draw more complex pictures. She can count past 20 in English and uses various English words in context. She can follow directions when playing games and take turns. She has really learned a lot in her first year of school and we are very proud of her.

Steph and Craig with godchildren Eddy and Aracely

Paola

Eddy

Saturday was Yoselin's 9th birthday, and she was very excited. She and Aracely came into our room first thing in the morning, and we presented her with a card and a couple of small gifts. Aracely was almost as excited as Yoselin. Yoselin was gracious and let Aracely open some of the items. We noticed on this trip that she has become very generous, and always shares what she has with others. Mario had given her a pink teddy bear, and Paulina took Yoselin and Vanesa to the market to buy them each a new outfit. We held down the fort while Paulina was gone. The weather was unseasonably warm (no afternoon showers to cool things down) and Yasmin and Aracely had a water fight.

Craig, Yoselin, Yasmin, and Eddy watch videos on the netbook

Sunday was Vanesa's 15th birthday, and the day of the big party for both birthday girls. We gave Vanesa a crystal necklace and matching earrings. Then Humberto took some of the kids shopping for party supplies. They decorated the hallway between the guest rooms with streamers and balloons, and set up tables and chairs. We went to the 6:30 pm Mass, and the Mass was offered for Vanesa and Yoselin's birthdays, which were announced at the beginning of the service. After church, we returned to the house where both Humberto and Paulina's families had gathered. Humberto gave a nice toast to his daughters and then proceeded in English to introduce us to everyone present. It was really fun for us to see all of the kids whom we have met over the years. We recognized so many of them...little Isidro, whom we had met when he was 15 days old and is now a stocky toddler, Allison Margarita who is no longer and infant and walks around, Nidia who is dressed as usual in a beautiful traditional outfit, sisters Laisa, Yesmy, and Loren, Pamela and Odilia, Julisse, Alex, Neli, Josue, Luis, Junior, Adrik, and Mario. Paulina's sisters Estela, Olga, and Isabela were there, as well as Humberto's sister Juana and their brothers. Paulina's brother Carlos was there with his wife Vilma (we had attended their wedding several years ago). We met Vilma's daughter Erica. Humberto's mother was there, and Paulina's father was missed (he passed away earlier this year). We felt totally accepted by the family and we felt like we knew everyone. Panajachel is our second home. We met some new people as well, including incredibly outgoing 3-year-old cutie Briseda who came right up to us, extended her right hand, and said in Spanish, "I'm Briseda, who are you?" and another adorable little girl named Fatima.

Birthday girl Vanesa with Eddy

Humberto and birthday girl Yoselin

Paulina and Vanesa

The women served dinner, which was chicken and rice in a mushroom cream sauce, served with beets and tortillas. It was delicious. After everyone had finished eating, the it was time for the piñatas. Yoselin's was shaped like a white kitten wearing a pink dress (vaguely reminiscent of Hello Kitty), and Vanesa's was a more traditional 7-pointed star piñata. They didn't blindfold the girls but they spun them one time for each year and then let them loose on the piñatas, first Yoselin's and then Vanesa's. Children scurried along the ground, picking up hard candies and lollipops. Yasmin, Yoselin, and Aracely gave us each some of their candy, which was very sweet of them. When Vanesa's piñata had broken open, they tore off the points of the stars and wore them as hats.

Humberto's family

Paulina

Yoselin swings for the piñata


The spoils of the piñatas

Next it was time for cake. Each cake had fruit slices on top and the girls' names were written in frosting. They put nine candles on Yoselin's, and put a candle shaped like the number 15 on Vanesa's. Both cakes were lit and the crowd started off by singing Happy Birthday to Yoselin (in English, surprisingly). They followed that up with "Queremos pastel" (we want cake) sung to the same tune. Then they counted to 9 in Spanish and Yoselin blew out her candles. Caught up in the moment, Eddy blew out Vanesa's candles, and everyone laughed. They re-lit the candles and sang to Vanesa, after which she blew them out. Then the girls had to take a bite out of their intact cakes using no hands. Yoselin dove right in and came up with a moustache of frosting. Vanesa tried to be dainty and just licked a bit of frosting, but the crowd was not satisfied. She bent forward to take a bite and her cousin Alex pushed her face down into the cake. The crowd approved, and she stood up with frosting on the tip of her nose. But they weren't completely satisfied until she bent down a third time and took a full mouthful of cake. The cakes were then sliced up and distributed to the guests.

Cakes

Family members enjoy the party

After everyone had enjoyed the cake, some of the tables and chairs were moved to make a dancefloor. Humberto had setup his computer outside and some of the young men acted as dj's. Mario had been about to head to bed, but couldn't pass up an invitation to dance. Kids and adults, men and women, all danced and had a great time. Craig honed his new-found dancing skills (from our recent trip to Ecuador) and danced with the women and kids. People popped balloons and lit firecrackers. It was a lot of fun for everyone.

Dancing

Steph participates in folkloric dancing

Eddy was whining a bit and was staggering around very tired. I picked him up and danced with him and he fell asleep on my shoulder. I brought him into our room and put him to sleep. At the end of the night one of the men taught me a traditional Mayan folkloric dance. The party broke up at around 1 o'clock in the morning. The next day was a school day, after all!

Aracely

Eddy and Loren

On Monday morning, we went for a walk with Paulina, Humberto, Eddy, and Aracely. We went to see Aracely's school. Unfortunately, it was not open, so we were unable to go inside. We stopped in to visit Olga and Estela, and brought Isidro and Loren with us to visit Mario at Jardin de America Spanish School. It was a lovely school which offers one-on-one private instruction. We may decide to take classes there sometime when we are visiting. Then we went to Sarita and got some ice cream. We dropped Isidro at Olga's house and then went back to our house for lunch.

After lunch Humberto and Paulina wanted to take us to see his mother's farmland in the nearby village of San Gabriel. It was difficult to get there because there had been a mudslide on the back road out of Panajachel. Humberto, Paulina, Yasmin, Aracely, Humberto's mother (called Abeula), Craig, and myself piled into the back of a pickup truck, which took us to the landslide. All of a sudden the road in front of us ceased to exist, it had been swallowed by the mountainside. We crossed a temporary steel cable bridge which had been erected. It had wooden floorboards that had holes in some places, so you had to watch your step. And the whole thing swayed back and forth as people crossed. On the other side of the bridge, cars were waiting. We got into a van that brought us part of the way there, and then we took a chicken bus the remainder of the way. We walked through the cornfield, and Humberto explained that they harvest the corn on a single day in November, and it yields about 500 pounds of corn which his mother will use to feed herself and her chickens over the course of a year. They also have coffee plants there. They sell the coffee beans rather than processing them themselves. There was a small shed on the property and Humberto said that is where they seek shelter when it rains and they are working in the fields. When he was young, he and his father and brother would spend the night there sometimes. It was interesting to get an insight into this part of their lives. Though they live in a small city and most of their activities are urban, there is still a rural component to their lives which is integral to their being. Humberto finds solace in the fields and feels close to the spirit of his deceased father. We felt honored that he wanted to take us there and share it with us.

Bridge across the landslide on the road out of Pana

Paulina, Yasmin, and Aracely in the cornfield

Humberto in front of his father's shed in the cornfield

After walking among the cornstalks and coffee plants for a while, we took a tuk-tuk followed by a pickup truck followed by a van to get to the landslide bridge. We had to wait a few moments before crossing cue to a lot of foot traffic in the other direction. We took a pickup truck back to the market, where Paulina bought a pumpkin to make soup for dinner. We piled into a tuk-tuk, and after a brief stop to buy a cake for dessert (rumor had it that there was not enough cake for everyone at last night's party) we arrived home. We ate dinner with the whole family, including Mario, Olga, Yesmy, Loren, and Josue.

The next morning we woke up early. The older girls stopped into our room to say goodbye before heading to school. We ate breakfast with Mario, Aracely, Eddy, and Vanesa. Our van arrived just before 8:30, and the kids, Humberto, and Paulina walked us down the alley to the street. We said our goodbyes, and said that we look forward to the next quinceañera (Paola in January of 2014) but that we would visit long before that. After hugs and kisses, we started our long journey to Guatemala City, Miami, and finally Boston, touching down at 12:15 a.m.

As usual, it was a wonderful visit, and we can't wait to return.

Eddy, Vanesa, Paulina, Humberto, Aracely, and Josue

Catching Up a Little

2011-07-10T11:27:00.000-04:00

As we prepare to travel to Guatemala in a couple of weeks, we're just now getting around to putting our journals and pictures from last summer's trip on our main web site. We visited Humberto and the family and brought our friend Mukul (from India) with us. We did some tourist activities in the Lake Atitlan area to show Mukul around, and we also spent a lot of quality time with the family.

Speaking of India, less than half of our trip in October of 2009 is online so far. We did so many things and visited so many places that it is requiring a lot of background research. We're still working on it as time allows.

We've really begun to rely on this blog as a venue for timely updates on our travels, whereas the Craig and Steph's Vacations main site is more for exhaustive archival purposes (and it has a significant lag time).

Inti Raymi / San Juan in Cotacachi, Ecuador

2011-07-05T19:07:00.000-04:00

Iglesia la Matriz, Cotacachi

The winding down of Sisa's baptism party led right into the ramp-up for Inti Raymi. In the Otavalo area, Inti Raymi (the solstice festival and celebration of the corn harvest which harkens back to Inca times) has become intertwined with the saints' feast days of St John the Baptist (San Juan) St Peter (San Pedro) and St Paul (San Pablo) which were introduced by Spanish missionaries. Today the terms Inti Raymi and San Juan are used interchangeably. Lately, indegenous groups think that a festival called Inti Raymi has more appeal to tourists than a saint's feast day does, and so that term has come into vogue since the1990's.

We were not quite sure what to expect, though we had done some preliminary reading in Michelle Wibbelsman's Ritual Encounters: Otavalan Modern and Mythic Community and Lynn A. Meisch's Andean Entrepreneurs: Otavalo Merchants & Musicians in the Global Arena. Both books describe the San Juan dances of June 24 and 25 as attempts to "take the square" in Cotacachi. Groups of costumed young men from neighboring villages storm the Cotacachi town square (La Plaza de la Matriz) and dance/march to hypnotic music. The symbolic taking of the square represents an upheaval of the social order, so that traditionally and
historically marginalized Kichwa natives temporarily dominate the mestizo / white majority population.

On Thursday, June 23, we went to our first Inti Raymi / San Juan activity. Antonio announced that this was the day when the children perform the San Juan dances. He said that we were about to see a small-scale representation of what we could expect to see during the following twi days, when the grown men would dance.

Yupanki

Children dance for San Juan in Cotacachi

We sat on the church steps in front Iglesia la Matriz, overlooking the plaza. Vendors sold inflatable toys, ice cream, cotton candy, lollipops, and granizadas. Schoolchildren were walking counterclockwise around the plaza with teachers and chaperones. Many little boys were wearing white shirts, goat leggings, and exagerrated black cardboard hats. Girls were dressed in traditional Kichwa female attire: embroidered blouses with dark wool skirts. When thr groups of children arrivaed at a corner of the square, they would start to dance
in a spiral motion. Some people played harmonicas, others had mouth organs. The songs had a cadence to them, and the children marched in one direction until someone called for them to reverse direction. Adults punctuated the dance with shrill whistles.

After watching several groups go by, we walked down the church steps and walked across the plaza to the municipal building. Here were stood on the sidelines of the dance and kids marched past us. It was a little too intimidating for Sisa (she's afraid of people wearing goat leggings) so we veered off down a side street and took a little break.

When we came back, the dance parade around the plaza was winding down, and family and friends were picnicing on the green. Antonio bought us some chocho from a vendor. Chocho was lupin seeds with salt and lemon served with roasted corn kernels. It was good, and the rest of the family got some served with ceviche. I bought an ice cream cone dipped in cherry for 25 cents. The family ran into some friends, and wound up eating some corn and potatoes with them. We ran into a student whom we had met on the bus several days before. We buy some sugar-coated donut holes from a vendor and then take the bus back home.

That night, we are woken up at 11:35 p.m. by whooping, whistling, and stomping. We look out the window and see a large number of men in San Juan hats dancing in a circle on the patio. After a while the noise syubsides and they move on to another house. Antonio tells us in the morning that the dancers stopped by on their way perform ritual bathing in the river at the bottom of their ravine.

Morochos San Juan dancers arrive at the house

Watch footage of Morochos San Juan dancers on the patio

The next day, Friday June 24, was the Feast day of San Juan Bautista. Shortly after breakfast, Antonio mentioned that he had to get the chicha ready because the San Juan dancers would be stopping in on their way to Cotatachi. Rosa also threw a large pot of mote on the fire. We could hear the dancers as they approached. They marched down the driveway sand into the yard. Some wore goat leggings. Some wore oversized bkack cardboard San Juan hats. Some carried whips. Some were wearing camouflage. Some had masks or bandanas over their faces, looking like outlaws. They played flutes, harmonicas, mouth organs, or blew on conch shells. The men danced in circles on the patio, drank warm chicha and boxes of wine, and ate Rosa's mote. Antonio joined them with his flute. They poured drinks for Craig and myself. One of the men asked Craig if he would join them dancing in Cotacachi. Antonio told us he'd see us in the afternoon, and he marched off with the dancers toward Cotacachi. This is known as la largada de los sanjuanes (departure of the San Juan dancers).

A couple of hours later, Rosa, Aida, Sisa, Yupanki, Craig, and I took a pickup truck to Cotacachi. We walked toward the square to see if Antonio and the Morochos men were dancing. When we didn't find them, Aida went to a phone booth to call Antonio. He told her the location where they were eating lunch, and we walked several blocks to it. It was chilly and sprinkling. Aida gave Antonio some lunch she had packed. It started raining harder, and the dancers in their goat leggings and exagerrated hats, along with their wives and families who came for support, packed underneath a sheltered area. Eventually the rain died down again, and it was time for the Morochos dancers to go to the square. In lockstep the dancers thundered forward, whistling, with Antonio playing a sanjuanito tune on his flute.

San Juan dancers descend on Cotacachi


Watch footage of Morochos San Juan dancers storming La Plaza de la Matriz

The square was packed full of spectators today. Police in full riot gear (shields, helmets, and gas masks) stood at the ready. As the group arrived at a corner of the plaza, the musicians congregated in the center of the group of men and the dancers revolved around them, changing direction every few minutes. The sanjuanito song is in 2/4 time, which makes it easy for the dancers to stomp to the beat. Their footfalls add percussion to the
music and perform the ritual function of waking up the earth. Fueled by music and alcohol, the men slip into a trance-like state as they concentrate on the dance.

Swirling mobs of dancers converge on each corner of the square. Each group is surrounded by an entourage of wives and family, who supply their men with food, drink, and support during the dance.

After a while the groups shift and march down the straightaway to the next corner. There is tension between groups for dominance. It feels as though conflict might arise if the groups are allowed too close to one another. The women and kids follow the men around the plaza and act as a buffer between rival groups. Sisa is right down next to the action but is not frightened by the dancers or their goat leggings. She holds hands with her friend Natalie and dances along from the sidelines, caught up in the festival atmosphere..

The Morochos men invite Craig to dance with them. He is absorbed into the mass of bodies, and stomps his way into a state where he is functioning as part of a collective being. Some of the stronger men act as motivators for the group, encouraging the weaker more tired participants. They also set the pace and decide when to change directions. They also try to act as a buffer between their dancers and the police, to try to avoid any confrontations. It is a high-energy activity and the men bond with one another.

Cotacachi

Craig dances with the Morochos men

The symbolic nature of the taking of the square seems obvious. It is a reversal of social order, where the traditionally marginalized Kichwa people take their destiny into their own hands and rise above the mestizos. We don't see a whole lot of mestizos our tourists in the crowd. It is a day for the Kichwa.

After about an hour and a half of dancing, the police put an end to it for the day. Antonio told Craig that he could do it all over again tomorrow. We take a bus from Cotacachi to Quiroga, and then another bus from Quiroga to Morochos. When we get home, Sisa, clearly inspired by the day's events, sets up Aida, Craig, and myself to dance with her around the kitchen.

The next day, Saturday June 25, the San Juan dancers once again descended on our house, a little bit earlier in the morning. They asked Craig to join them in a dance on our patio. I took some video footage while they all danced in a circle on the patio. After the dancing, Antonio gave Craig a pitcher of wine to offer to the other dancers. Several people congratulated Craig on his performance yesterday, and asked if he would join in the festivities today as well. He said that he would dance once we all got to Cotacachi.

Antonio and the dancers took off marching down the dirt road. We got the rest of our things together and started walking down the street ourselves, looking for a pickup truck to take us to Cotacachi. We caught up with the Morochos dancers, who had stopped for drinks at a neighboring house.

We got into the back of a pickup truck which slowly followed the parade of dancers toward Quiroga. The truck then turned, taking a slightly different route to Quiroga, so we would beat the dancers there. When the dancers thundered into town, we joined a group of wives and other onlookers who fell into step behind the dancers.

We marched all the way from Quiroga to Cotacachi together as it started to rain. We truly felt like we were storming the city. As soon as the dancers arrived in the square, they started to dance. We followed the dancers around the square and Antonio motioned for Craig to join in dancing with them. Once again they rhythmically danced in circular patterns on the street corners of the square. They would then march down the straightaways and supplant the prior group at the next corner.

Craig dances with the Morochos men

Craig and Antonio dance with the Morochos men

After about an hour or so the groups of dancers left the main square and started to dissipate down side streets. Antonio led us into a little hole in the wall restaurant in a non-descript building for lunch. He ordered us bowls of pork soup and chicken drumsticks. The restaurant was running out of food so the family dug into some leftivers they had brought from home. Craig and Antonio shared two bottles of Pilsener beer.

We didn't realize it, but there was another whole round of dancing after lunch. With a stomach heavy with lunch and beer, Craig decided to sit out for a while. When he accidentally got separated from Rosa, Aida, the kids, and myself, he joined back in the dancing to stay with Antonio and the rest of the Morochos men.

Aida, Rosa, the kids and I sat on the church steps watching the festivities. In a far corner of the plaza we saw what looked like a small skirmish between the police and a group of dancers. We saw some smoke which I assumed was tear gas. The whole plaza seemed to gasp for breath at once, and there was an eerie silence. People sought higher ground by climbing up the church steps. You got the vague idea that you could be trampled if this escalated. Groups of dancers were disbanding. We didn't know where Craig and Antonio were. Aida ran into the crowd to find them, and eventually returned to the church steps with them. Antonio had told Craig that there were fights erupting between upper villagers and lower villagers, and had ushered him away from the danger.

Craig dances with the Morochos men

Aida

Ritual violence is no stranger to Inti Raymi / San Juan festivities as Michelle Wibbelsman writes in Ritual Encounters:

Inti Raymi fights are considered an opportunity for leveling accounts and resolving conflict accumulated throughout the year...[Some believe in a] correlation between the loss of the San Juan tradition and rising day-to-day conflict in their communities.

We walked down a side street and had a view back at the square. We could see a line of police clashing swith dancers, and smoke filled the air. People climbed up to the balconies of a building which was under construction to try to get a bird's-eye-view of the conflict in the distance. It seemed like we were probably walking home from here, but a pickup truck passed us and people in it were yelling "Morochos!" Aida, Rosa, the kids, Craig, and I all piled into the short bed (I counted 21 of us) and made a very cramped ride back to Morochos.

During dinner, a truck with a loudspeaker drove through town. It made an announcement and Aida and Rosa stopped eating to listen carefully. They explained that the announcement said that a fight took place in Quiroga, and many of the Morochos men were involved. They worried about Antonio's safety and Rosa immediately left the house for Quiroga. We helped Aida clean up after dinner and went to bed not knowing how Antonio was. The next morning we learned that he had been hit above his right eye with a rock, and had required
stitches. His eye was purple and swollen shut. Aida gathered a medicinal plant from the garden and made him a preparation to put on his eye, which brought the swelling down quite a bit.

We felt badly that the festivities had ended this way for Antonio, but he tried to downplay it. Aida and Rosa explained that this kind of thing happens every year. We went into Quiroga the next day to get some Ibuprofen for Antonio, and we saw some damage which had been done to property during the previous night's riots. We saw the leader of the Morochos dancers and we told him that we would be leaving the next day. He thanked Craig for joining them in the dances and invited us back for next year's festival. We were really touched by the way the community had embraced us during Sisa's baptism and the Inti Raymi / San Juan festival.

Later in the day we went to Cotacachi to buy a cake for dessert on our last night. The place looked deserted with none of the Inti Raymi crowds. Rosa told us that there would be more dancing on Wednesday June 29 and Friday July 1. One of those days is the opportunity for women to dance. We asked Rosa if she would dance, and she laughed and said that she doesn't dance San Juan herself.

After dinner we all shared the cake we had bought in Cotacachi. The family gave us some really thoughtful gifts including wool hats and alpaca scarves, and a woven tapestry. They told us that even though we needed to leave the house at 4 am to get to the airport tomorrow, they would all be waking up early to ride with us to the airport! That was so sweet of them!

On Monday morning, June 27, the whole family accompanied us to the airport. The trip was a great success on all fronts. We really enjoyed being able to get to know the whole family over the course of two weeks. We liked being able to help with the preparations for Sisa's baptism and to be able to share in the unique way in which the Otavalan Kichwa people celebrate a baptism. We are lucky to be a part of their family and community, and look forward to visiting again soon.

This was also Craig's first trip since being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in April. He is on medication that he needs to inject every day, so it means traveling with syringes full of medication. We had no problems flying with the medicine (my metal hair barrette attracted more attention than the needles did). The climate in Ecuador was such that we didn't have to worry about the medicine getting too hot, so that was helpful. It was fortunate for us that our first trip with the injections was a trip where we got settled in one place and were able to get into a daily routine. We will have to work up to trips which have more challenging itineraries.

Sisa and Rosa

Craig and Sisa

Sisa

Antonio and Yupanki

Our New Goddaughter in Morochos, Ecuador

2011-07-02T13:02:00.000-04:00

On Monday night, we returned from 2 weeks in the highlands of Ecuador, where a third godchild, Kehli Sisa, was added to our family.

Sisa

We met Sisa’s family last year during a cultural exploration of Ecuador. They live in Morochos, a small rural community not far from Cotacachi and Otavalo, in the Andes mountains. The family has a guest house, and takes in travelers who want to learn more about their community and lifestyle (this is all overseen by Runa Tupari Native Travel in Otavalo). We spent 5 nights with their family last year and became very close with them. They invited us back this June for their annual Inti Raymi / San Juan festival, and asked us to be godparents to Sisa. This was an offer we couldn’t refuse. Our two godchildren in Guatemala (Aracely and Eddy) have enriched our lives so much that we were happy to open our hearts to another godchild and her family.

Aida and Yupanki

Preparations for the trip had been in the works for almost a year. The family patriarch, Antonio, had never used e-mail when we visited them last year. Our extremely helpful English-speaking guide and good friend Felipe hooked him up with a Gmail account and taught him how to use it to converse with us. Of course there were immediately some cultural differences. With us working in the computer field, we need to plan our vacation time in advance, to give work proper notice of when we will be away. But in the Ecuadorian highlands, things don’t move at that pace. The family didn’t seem concerned with the details of the trip until about a month before our arrival. Despite the mismatch of planning styles, everything came together fine. We arrived on June 11 (a week before Sisa’s baptism, which would be on the 18^th) and would stay on until the 27^th so that we could experience Inti Raymi / San Juan, which is a combination of Inca and Catholic traditions, celebrating the summer solstice as well as the feast of St. John the Baptist (San Juan).

Rosa and Sisa at breakfast

The entire family (Antonio and his wife Rosa, Antonio’s daughter Aida, and Aida’s children almost-3-year-old Sisa and 9-month-old baby boy Yupanki) met us in the Quito airport upon our arrival. Sisa was dressed in traditional Kichwa dress, and looked absolutely adorable. She presented us each with a bouquet of roses and, prompted by the family, gave us each a hug and kiss. Strangers at the airport were taking pictures of the greeting – she just looked so cute! We piled into a small passenger van and embarked on the 2.5 hour ride from the city to their home in Morochos. Upon our arrival (at around 11 pm) Rosa whipped up some dinner for all of us so that we could go to bed with full bellies.

Over the next few days we were able to get re-acquainted with Sisa, and we also got to know Yupanki for the first time. Sisa is a very cute child. Like many children in the Andes, she has permanently pink cheeks from the elements. She wears western clothes most of the time, but dresses traditionally for special occasions, such as festivals or going into Quito. She doesn’t look much different than she did last year, but she speaks a lot more. She chatters away in Kichwa, to herself or to anyone within earshot. She only knows select words in Spanish. In Morochos they speak primarily in Kichwa to their children until they are around 4 or 5 years old, at which time they start to instruct them in Spanish. She uses expressive interjections such as “Ooh!” often, and giggles easily. She also has a hearty guttural belly laugh which she demonstrates at times that is quite amusing. She is a smart child and likes to deconstruct things to figure out how they work. She likes to be photographed holding her toys and when I show her the picture on my camera screen, she always holds the toys up to the camera so that they can see the picture too.

Sisa really loves her little brother Yupanki and showers/smothers him with hugs and kisses. She can’t pronounce his name, so she calls him “Ackacki.” Yupanki is a really even-tempered baby who seldom cries, even though he is in the process of cutting his first two teeth. Aida usually lives and works from Monday-Friday in Otavalo cleaning houses, and Yupanki stays there with her. He is used to being with her all the time, so sometimes he gets nervous when she’s not in his line of sight. He has a great toothless smile and laughs easily (especially if you tickle his neck or bare toes). He’s a good eater and enjoys riding on Aida’s back tied up in a piece of fabric known as a kepi. He arches his back and throws his head backwards, which means that you need to keep a buffer zone behind him so he doesn't hit his head.

Steph and Yupanki

For the first week of our stay, we were busy helping the family with preparations for Sisa’s baptism. We made several shopping trips by bus to the nearby villages of Cotacachi and Otavalo to buy ourselves traditional Kichwa clothing for the ceremony, as well as to buy Sisa her baptism outfit (a traditional responsibility of the godparents). Buying clothes for ourselves was not easy. The Kichwa are a petite people, and we weren’t able to easily find clothes which fit us. We had to have shoes specially made to fit our grande gringo feet. Rosa and Antonio are very discerning shoppers. When we found an embroidered blouse that fit me, Rosa was not terribly impressed by the design. Although I thought that it was beautiful, with three dimensional blue and gold embroidered flowers, she seemed to prefer some fancier ones. When I tried them on I could not move my arms because they were so tight. We settled for function over fashion and bought the larger one. I also purchased wool wrap skirts, a woven belt and hair tie, coral bracelets, a gold necklace, an off-white sash, and a black head-wrap. Craig bought a white collared button-down shirt, a pair of white pants (it was a bit of a quest to find the right waist size, and they still ended up being a little bit tight), a navy blue wool poncho, and a styling black felt hat. Sisa needed to dress entirely in white, so we bought her a white blouse with silver embroidery, white skirts, a white belt, white shoes, and a cute white headband with a white veil in the back.

Antonio and Craig riding the bus

We spent several days helping to clean up the house and yard for the party. Rosa and Antonio were expecting over one hundred guests. There would be two bands playing (one would be Antonio’s traditional Andean band, Chaski Ñan, and the other would be Junior’s Band, which specialized in Latino dance music). Antonio told us that many more people in the community would attend the party if there was live music. We are of course also fans of live music, so this sounded perfect to us. Antonio constructed two stage platforms, one on either end of the property, facing one another. The women peeled about a hundred pounds of potatoes and cooked massive amounts of mote (boiled corn). Eight chickens were purchased alive, as was a pig. A huge vat of chicha (corn alcohol) was prepared. We brought a huge sack of corn to Quiroga and ground it into flour consistency. This was turned into a rather unappetizing-looking gray liquid. Then the “dulce” (a block of solid honey) was added to it, which turned it orange and gave it a more pleasant citrusy flavor, making it much more palatable.

In the days leading up to the party, there were a couple of nights where Antonio and Rosa hosted guests in their second guest house. First was a guide named Pablo, whose group of tourists were staying in another guest house within the community. Then there were German tourists Christina and Christian, and Peace Corps trainees Anna and Silvia. As the family was very busy with baptism preparations, we tried to help out explaining some cultural aspects to the guests. It was also comforting to have folks with whom to speak English, as we communicated with the family in our broken Spanish and Antonio’s broken English.

The yard was really transformed early on the day of the baptism. Speakers and amps were set up on the property, and tarps were erected over the stages and the patio in case of inclement weather. Craig and I peeled a huge pile of onions, which harkened Craig back to his days of doing food prep at a country club during his youth. The family cleaned and prepared the pig’s internal organs for consumption. It was a really interesting process to watch; they worked as a well-oiled machine, and even toddlers were getting in on the action. Felipe and his lovely wife Maria Jose arrived at around 3 pm from Quito. It was great to catch up with Felipe and to finally get to meet Maria Jose.

Felipe and Maria Jose

Shortly after 4 pm, it was time to get dressed. Craig quickly got dressed in our room, while I was in the main house being dressed by Rosa and her niece Delia. I felt like it was my wedding day all over again as they doted on me and worked to get everything perfect. Rosa was very particular about the way I looked, and made sure that my skirts were wrapped tightly and properly, that they were the right length, etc. My gold necklace was being troublesome (it kept coming apart), so after about 10 minutes of fiddling with it, Rosa let me borrow one of hers instead.

Craig and Steph in traditional Kichwa clothing

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to me, Craig had emerged from our room in his outfit, and had gotten a rock star reception from some young tourism students who had arrived from Quito. They wanted to interview us for a university project that they were doing on native tourism programs in the Otavalo area. Craig chatted with them and told them that when I was dressed, we could be happy to give them an interview, as long as they could do it in English.

Sisa in her baptism outfit

When I finally emerged, fully dressed, we gave a quick interview about our impressions of tourism in the Kichwa communities, and told a bit about ourselves and our philosophy of travel. We then chatted some more with Felipe and Maria Jose. Soon Sisa emerged looking absolutely adorable in her baptism outfit. The week of preparations for the big event seemed to have taken its toll on her, as she was not her usual bubbly self. She seemed stressed and unwanting of the attention being given to her.

Sisa and Aida

Felipe and Maria Jose drove Aida, Sisa, Yupanki, Craig, and I to the church in Cotacachi. The rest of the family rode in the back of a pickup truck. We arrived at around 6pm, and the Mass was scheduled to start at 6:30. We gathered outside the church and then entered. Craig and I sat with Rosa, Antonio, Sisa, Yupanki, and Aida in the front row of the church. Uh-oh; there was nobody we could look to in front of us for cues of when to sit/stand/kneel during the Spanish Mass. D’oh!

Antonio, Sisa, Steph, and Craig outside the church in Cotacachi

Halfway through the Mass, the priest called up the baptism candidates and their families. There were a handful of children to be baptized. Sisa, who had been good in church thus far, was terrified of the priest and screamed bloody murder when he twice anointed her forehead with oil. When he called her up to the font, she clung to Aida for dear life. Craig and I were supposed to be holding her while the priest doused her in water, but this was not so easily accomplished. As the priest glared at me I wrested her from Aida and tried to hold her on her back above the font while she wrestled me and cried. Felipe was acting as our photographer and I was amused thinking what these pictures must look like. After the trauma of the font, she calmed down a little, and didn’t actually make a sound when the priest anointed her forehead with oil for the third time. Craig and I lit our baptismal candles, and then we all went back to our seats for the remainder of the Mass.

Yupanki, Aida, Craig, Rosa, Sisa, Steph, Antonio, Antonio's mother

After the Mass we headed outside. Most of the guests got on a bus bound for Morochos, but Felipe and Maria Jose drove us, Rosa, and Sisa back. Rosa had Felipe start honking the horn several miles from the house to alert guests of our arrival. The bus was right behind us and people poured out into the dirt road. Guests who have traveled the furthest distance are specially honored at a community baptism, so we and Felipe and Maria Jose sat with the immediate family at their dining table, which had been brought onto the patio. All other guests were seated on wooden planks suspended between cinderblocks. Guests filed in, delivering gifts to the family. Some of the gifts were toys for Sisa, others were gifts of food (trays of 25 eggs, 6-packs of 3-liter soda bottled, cases of wine-in-a-box, cases of Pilsener beer, etc.)

Craig and Aida at the baptism party

Antonio’s band Chaski Ñan was playing on the stage nearest our table. Antonio played the violin, and other members played zampoñas (pan pipes), flutes, guitars, mandolins, and drums. We recognized band-mate Domingo, who had introduced himself to us earlier in the afternoon, and Humberto (an easy name for us to remember as it is the name of our compadre in Guatemala). They are a very talented and entertaining traditional Andean band, and we enjoyed their set. Antonio made an announcement in Spanish (which Felipe translated) saying that we were now officially compadres with his family. He thanked us for traveling the long distance to Morochos after a year of preparation, and told us that Sisa is now our daughter as well as theirs.

We are served buckets of chicken, guinea pigs, and potatoes

Food was shuttled from the outdoor kitchen to the guests. First we were served a bowl of chicken soup which contained a large piece of chicken breast. Next was a bowl of corn soup. That was followed by a plate of mote and the best pulled pork we have ever tasted (Thank you, Mr. Pig; it was a pleasure meeting/eating you). We were just about bursting from all of the food when we were each delivered a bucket which contained a whole chicken, a whole cuy (guinea pig – traditional Andean festival food) and about 5 pounds of potatoes. Craig and I looked at these in disbelief, and, laughing, entreated Felipe for help as to what to do as there was no way we could even come close to eating this. He said that it is mostly symbolic, that as the godparents we needed to be provided with as much food as we want. He advised us to pick at the best parts of the chicken and the cuy (he recommended the thigh for the cuy), and then to pass the rest on to be shared among the other guests. This worked nicely. These people can eat! They devoured plates of food and made doggy-bags to take home.

Antonio plays with his band Chaski Ñan

Watch video footage of Chaski Ñan

Felipe and Maria Jose had brought some lovely dessert cakes, and I helped them to cut them up to be distributed to the guests. Craig and I went to our room to use the bathroom, and when we came back the table was gone and the patio was cleared for dancing. Chaski Ñan had finished their set, and Junior’s Band took over, playing long dance-inspiring songs. An older gentleman with a cataract on his left eye danced with me. Aida took Craig by the hands and danced with him. Countless people circulated the dance floor with a two ounce plastic cup in one hand, and a box of wine / bottle of some unknown hooch (served hot) / bottle of beer in the other hand. People would pause their dance to take a swig and then would resume dancing. It is proper etiquette to drink the shot in one sip, and to splash a bit of remnant onto the ground as an offering for Pacha Mama (earth mother). Before accepting a drink, you may also request that the person offering it to you take a drink themselves. Craig used this strategy to try to slow his pace, but there was always another person waiting in the wings to offer you more.

Craig dances with Antonio's mother

Watch footage of guests dancing to Junior's Band

Having left my watch inside, I had no concept of time. It was 10:30 the last time I had looked at a clock in our room, and the evening bled into the next day without our knowledge. Songs were long but there were small pauses in between which allowed us to catch our breath for a moment. Craig and I danced together a couple of times, and we also danced with various other guests. It was a lot of fun. Everyone was so nice to us; people addressed us as “comadre” and “compadre”. Since we were now a part of Antonio’s family, we were, by extension, a part of the Morochos village as well. We shared countless dances and drinks with all of our new friends and had a wonderful time.

Steph dances with a Morochos villager

Junior's Band played on. Once we realized that Antonio, Rosa, and Aida had all headed to bed, we decided to do the same. We were surprised to learn that it was after 3:30 in the morning! We put in our earplugs and got a fitful sleep, as the amps were just a few feet from our room. Sometime during the course of the morning, Junior’s Band stopped playing and was replaced by a CD which played the same song over and over.

At around 10 in the morning, we rose and headed outside. A couple of die-hard partiers were still here, along with the family. The partiers tried to get us to keep drinking. Craig and I each took a drink to try to placate them, but it didn’t work.We played with Sisa and Yupanki. It was a beautiful, sunny morning.

We felt the effects of very little sleep more than the effects of too much alcohol, so we retreated to our room to rest until early afternoon. When we emerged from our room, we were now quite hungry. Rosa set us up with plates of mote and the delicious pulled pork, which really hit the spot. The kitchen was piled with offerings from guests: at least 600 eggs and about 50 3-liter bottles of soda. The soda ran the gamut from Coke to Orangina to Otra (Other) Cola, but Rosa insisted that we drink the best (the Coke). We weren’t fussy; anything non-alcoholic was just fine.

Sisa carries Yupanki in a kepi

Sisa now calls us Achi Mama (the Kichwa word for godmother) and Achi Taita (godfather). She is now our Achi Wawa (godchild). They don’t tend to use the Spanish titles of Madrina and Padrino. The family and village refers to us as Comadre and Compadre.

Over the next week, friends, relatives, and neighbors would stop by and be fed leftover soup, pork, etc. They would leave with bottles of soda, racks of eggs, and bottles full of chicha. We would return the massive cooking pots to their owners throughout the village, along with some leftovers as a gesture of thanks. It was interesting to us that the whole village contributed to the baptismal bounty, and also that they all benefited from it. We cleaned up the yard over the next few days, and the household got back to normal just in time for Inti Raymi / San Juan (which I will describe in a blog post to come… stay tuned!)

Sisa and her car

Lt. General Romeo Dallaire Speaks at the Brattle Theatre 5/25/11

2011-05-28T15:29:00.000-04:00

On Wednesday evening we had the honor of attending a lecture by Canadian Lt. General Romeo Dallaire at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge as part of the Harvard Book Store's Event Series.We are so glad that we went; he was absolutely inspiring.

Having visited Rwanda in 2006, we were familiar with Dallaire’s work. He was the leader of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) during the 1994 genocide in which 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists in a span of 100 days. Dallaire and his UN forces were there as “peacekeepers”, but their mandate effectively prevented them from being able to do anything proactive to prevent the genocide. He reported to the UN in the days leading up to the slaughter that Hutu hate mongers were preparing to try to exterminate their Tutsi neighbors. He requested 5000 troops to be deployed so that they could nip the genocide in the bud. However, nations were unwilling to get involved in what they essentially saw as a tribal civil war. In his book “Shake Hands with the Devil”, Dallaire writes, "Engraved still in my brain is the judgment of a small group of bureaucrats who came to 'assess' the situation in the first weeks of the genocide: 'We will recommend to our government not to intervene as the risks are high and all that is here are humans.'" Natural resources and forms of wealth were seen as worthy of intervention. Simple human rights and lives were not. Dallaire and his small band of peacekeepers were forced to stand by with their hands tied while men, women, and children slaughtered their neighbors with machetes and guns, killing indiscriminately anyone who was identified as (or sympathized with) the Tutsis. People turned on their friends and family members, often killing those who were closest to them.

In the 17 years since the genocide, Dallaire has worked tirelessly on humanitarian and peacekeeping projects. His latest book “They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children” is the culmination of ongoing research and lobbying against the use of child soldiers in conflicts worldwide. Many of the murderers in Rwanda were mere children. This was the subject of his lecture at the Brattle.

He explained that the problem of child soldiers as it exists today can be traced back to conflict in the late 1980’s in Mozambique. As the Cold War wound down, there was a proliferation of “small arms” (AK-47’s and the like) which were never destroyed once their usefulness to the superpowers had passed. These guns could be effective weapons in the hands of children as young as 8 years old, and were often attainable for as little as $3 apiece. Children were suddenly viewed as “weapons systems” who could be easily manipulated. Today there are at least 250,000 child soldiers worldwide. 40 percent of these are girls. Girls can handle the guns and fight like boys, but they have the added distinction of being used as sex slaves and homemakers around the camps, cooking for the troops, etc. Child soldiers are often drugged to make them easier to manipulate. Rape is also used as a weapon.

There is a quandary for professional soldiers who come up against child combatants. What should they do? Does the rule of self defense apply? The children are holding a gun and coming after them. To quote the title of his book, “they fight like soldiers”, but if you shoot back, they transform from soldiers into children dying of war wounds.

When asked if the child soldier problem is primarily an African phenomenon, Dallaire responded that in terms of political/civil wars, sub-Saharan Africa is where the majority takes place. But he believes that the same kind of thing takes place in Central/South America, but in relation to warring drug lords. He said that he spent two weeks in the favelas in Rio, and that while he was there, three drug lords had been killed. He said that the violence was no different than war zones such as Rwanda had been.

He has been doing research on how to try to stop the child soldier paradigm. He mentioned that there need to be alternatives, so that leaders no longer see child soldiers as a viable option. He likened it to land mines, where we have been able to convince countries that there are other ways to provide for their own security without resorting to the use of land mines.

He mentioned that at the height of the Cold War, there were millions of troops stationed around Europe. Where are they now? He stressed that in the short term we need to focus on peaceMAKING rather than peaceKEEPING. Sometimes force must be used to diffuse these situations. Dallaire’s original mandate in Rwanda was Chapter 6 of the UN Charter: Pacific Settlements of Disputes. This was because at the time he was deployed, both sides of the Rwandan conflict had signed peace accords in Arusha. The UN was there to see that they continued to reconcile. However, when Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana's plane was shot down, extremists responded by starting systematic extermination of the Tutsis and anyone sympathizing with the Tutsis. With this drastic change in the situation, the UN never upgraded Dallaire’s mandate to Chapter 7, Action with Respect to Threats to the Peace, Breaches of the Peace, and Acts of Aggression. As such, Dallaire could not get the go-ahead to destroy the weapons cache he had been alerted to in the days leading up to the genocide, nor could he engage the combatants once the genocide began.

Dallaire explained that the earlier peacemakers get involved the better. He said that through intervention in Kenya, they were able to shut down 3 genocide-inciting radio stations (something he thinks could have also made a difference in Rwanda). He said that we have been “7 weeks too late” in Libya. Gadhafi was calling his people cockroaches and threatening to wipe them out; which really makes the situation on par with Rwanda in terms of genocide. We have the responsibility to intervene when civilians are endangered to this degree.

Someone in the audience asked how on earth Dallaire could have any faith in humanity after what he has witnessed during his career. His answer was very honest and direct. He said that one of the benefits of living in a developed country is that good drugs are available. He said that he takes 9 pills a day just to try to keep himself on an even keel and keep suicidal tendencies at bay. He lobbies for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to be considered an honorable injury, on par with being “shot in the buttocks”. It was refreshing to hear someone admitting to having these problems with no sense of shame, and trying to get the military to deal with its mentally injured as well as its physically injured veterans.

He said that he has found it helpful to focus on the long-term rather than the short-term. He hopes that within 200 years, armed conflicts may become a thing of the past with the advent of conflict prevention strategies rather than conflict resolution strategies. Sure that seems like a long time from now, but when you look at history and how long warfare has been around, it would be actually quite short in the grand scheme of things. For someone who is third generation military like Dallaire to be so committed to 1) following moral conventions of war in the short term and 2) stopping war altogether in the long term is extremely admirable.

He said that superpowers cannot carry the entire burden themselves. He said that by being superpowers, they have a lot more responsibilities and liabilities and can’t always become the drivers of such policy. He calls out the “middle powers” such as Canada and various European countries as having an opportunity and resources to act as peacemakers and to really affect change in these various conflicts. But the superpowers have to politically back such resolutions at the UN level. And they also need to be consistent. The US played fast and loose with human rights conventions in the aftermath of 9/11, with the detention center in Guantanamo Bay as well as waterboarding and other arguable methods of torture. We can’t be a moral authority if we revert to human rights violations ourselves the moment our security is threatened.

The international community has agreed that it is a violation of human rights for children under the age of 18 to be recruited for military service. An audience member asked what the real difference is between a 16 year old and a 18 year old in terms of maturity and decision-making ability to be able to join the military. He said that it seems that often in the US, the military visits schools as young as middle school and grooms young people for military service so that they join up as soon as they turn 18. Dallaire acknowledged this as a wonderful question and illustrated it with an anecdote from his own life. He went to Catholic school where the brothers who taught him were trained in artillery. They had a target range in the basement of their school and they were taught to shoot, etc. This practice has now changed, and the programs now are more akin to scouting than military training. He believes that children should not be recruited at young ages.

Tickets to this event were only $5, and gave you $5 off the purchase of “They Fight Like Children; They Die Like Soldiers”. We bought a copy and had it (along with our copy of “Shake Hands with the Devil”) signed after the lecture. We told Lt. General Dallaire that we had visited Rwanda in 2006. He was pleased to hear that, and said “It’s a beautiful country, isn’t it? With beautiful people too.” The fact that he can still view it that way after all of the horrors that he witnessed there is a testament to his character. Craig told him that it was an honor to get to meet him in person and we each shook his hand.

Jon Anderson at Tupelo Music Hall 5/19/11

2011-05-26T19:04:00.000-04:00

Long before we knew about the Jon Anderson show at Somerville Theatre, a show had been announced at Tupelo Music Hall in Londonderry, NH. We had heard good things about the venue, but had never had an opportunity to go there. We looked online and managed to get a pair of fourth row aisle seats. When the Somerville Theatre show went on sale, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to get front row mezzanine seats for that show. So it turned out that we got to see Jon twice within two months.

Traffic was nonexistent, and we got there within 45 minutes. The venue was quite intimate. It was housed in the back of a quaint old farmhouse. Around the front of the building was a little liquor store where you could buy your own alcohol and bring it into the show for a small fee. The venue had rows of chairs set up with a center aisle.There was a little concession stand at the back where they sold bar food and snacks. There was a flier on the chairs advertising a joint show with Rick Wakeman and Jon Anderson in Concord, NH on November 1. They recently put out an album together and did some dates in the UK, but this was the first we heard about the partnership coming to this side of the Pond. We really hope that they play somewhere a bit closer to Boston...we're keeping our fingers crossed for a date at the Somerville Theatre, as they have both played there individually in the past.

The show started at a little past 8 o'clock. The stage set-up was basically the same as it had been in Somervillle, except that there were actual lit candles instead of flameless ones. Live free or die in New Hampshire, baby, without all of those pesky Massachusetts fire codes.

Jon's wife Jane sat in the front row as she does at every gig. Jon's set was mostly the same as the Somerville set, but with the nice addition of Wondrous Stories. The venue was incredibly intimate; it felt like Jon was playing in our living room. The sound quality of the space was great. He played guitar, mountain dulcimer, keyboard, and ukelele. He interspersed the songs with anecdotes and jokes (What's the difference between a man falling from the ninth floor of a building and a man falling from the first floor of a building? The man falling from the 9th floor goes "AAAAAAaaaaaahhhh! SPLAT!" while the man falling from the first floor goes "SPLAT! AAAAAAaaaaaahhhh!") Jon led the audience in sing-alongs to You've Got the Light and Your Move, and he kept cracking up with laughter at the spirited voices (fueled by a bottle of wine) coming from a couple of rows behind us. At encore time, he asked us to imagine him leaving the stage and then coming back moments later, which was quite amusing.

It was a wonderful show and we really enjoyed our first trip to Tupelo Music Hall. It is a little far for weeknight shows, but the intimacy of the venue more than makes up for it. We will definitely be keeping an eye on their schedule.

Jon Anderson at the Somerville Theatre 4/23/11

2011-04-25T22:48:00.001-04:00

Jon Anderson played a great solo show at Somerville Theatre on Saturday night. We had great seats in the front row of the mezzanine. Jon's voice was truly in top form. This was the first night of his tour, and he sounded fantastic. His voice was so clear and beautiful, especially on I'll Find My Way Home. It was amazing, and the sound quality was really wonderful in the theater.

Jon has definitely gotten more comfortable as a one-man-show. He had the audience laughing at anecdotes from throughout his career, from his days in a band with his brother Tony, through all of the years he spent with Yes, to his stint on Top of the Pops with Vangelis. He easily segued from guitar to mountain dulcimer to piano to ukulele.

Jon is a really positive person, and he always has an exuberance for life that just can't help but make you smile. He played such Yes favorites as Yours Is No Disgrace, Sweet Dreams, Long Distance Runaround, Time and a Word, And You And I, Turn of the Century, Soon, Close to the Edge, and Starship Trooper. He performed an arrangement of Roundabout similar to the Tsongas Arena Yes show in 2005, which is an easy blues shuffle. He had the audience singing along to Your Move and All Good People. I'm not usually a huge fan of Owner of a Lonely Heart, but his stripped-down version was quite enjoyable. Many times when listening to Yes songs the lyrics get lost for me and Jon's voice becomes more of an instrument of its own. Tonight it was nice to be able to totally focus on the words, which were easy to discern in the straightforward arrangements. One ironically funny incident came when Jon messed up the lyrics to Revealing Science of God. The lyric after the one he forgot is "What happened to the songs we once knew so well?" Too funny!

He played two songs from his Olias of Sunhillow album (Flight of the Moorglade and To the Runner). Other solo songs including Show Me, You've Got the Light, and the jaunty Music is the God of the World (Have Guitar Will Travel) were also quite enjoyable. Tony and Me was a cute song about playing the Cavern Club with his brother in 1963, when they wanted to be the Beatles. Jon and Vangelis tracks I'll Find My Way Home and State of Independence were superbly rendered. He ended the show with the a capella O'er, which was truly moving. It was timeless and sounded like it could have been an old traditional Irish folk song.

Uncharacteristically, Jon didn't do a meet and greet after the show. (We met him previously at Avalon in 2005 and in Quebec City in 2006). It's been a really rough month or so for Craig and myself due to the death of Craig's father and Craig being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, and this show really snapped us out of our funk. His tremendous positivity and wonderful attitude really rubbed off onto us. We would have like to have been able to thank Jon for that personally. But we'll thank him here instead.

If you have the opportunity to see Jon's solo show - do it! We guarantee you won't be disappointed.

Here's a pic of Craig and I with Jon from 2005 at Avalon in Boston:

In Loving Memory of Craig's Father

2011-04-24T12:29:00.000-04:00

Craig's father passed away at the age of 81 on April 1. For some reason I've been procrastinating about writing a blog post. I guess it's because it makes the whole thing seem so final.

We spent an entire weekend going through old photos, preparing a slideshow for the memorial service. I learned a lot more about my father-in-law's early life in the process. He had a love of sailing and raced Star Class boats. We saw pictures of him on his boats, and pictures of him and my mother-in-law underwater in diving bells during their honeymoon in Nassau.I guess this is where Craig gets his sense of adventure. Though his dad had to give up these adventures for the responsibilities of the family, he developed a life-long passion for golf.

Now today is Easter, and as we head to a family dinner, he will be sorely missed. And so I realize that I have to post this blog entry now.

I prepared a eulogy which I read at the memorial service. I'm including it here.

I first met Don in 1994, soon after I started dating Craig. Craig was a little apprehensive and prepared me to expect a bit of good-natured hazing. "If he likes you, he'll tease you. It's when he's quiet that you have to worry." I quickly learned to appreciate his wit as he good-naturedly teased me and regaled me with his trademark irreverent anecdotes, couplets, and limericks. You almost have to wonder if passing away on April Fool's Day was his final punchline.

As time passed and I got to know him better, more sides of him emerged. He possessed a genius intellect as well as the practical knowledge to construct or fix just about anything. In his later years he was a home-body and would worry about us any time we were on the road locally ("Drive careful!") or internationally ("Don't get hit by any poison blow-darts in the jungle!") He made us promise that we would lift up on pour airline armrests during takeoff when we were flying to "help the plane get off the ground." We did this for a while just to humor him, but it has evolved into a full-fledged superstition on our part. We can't NOT do it, as somewhere in the back of our minds, we suspect that failure to do so may cause a plane crash. Despite the fact that he worried about us, we also know that he was proud of us for traveling and making friends around the world. He even started suggesting destinations for us.

I am lucky to have had him as a father-in-law. He has instilled many great virtues into my husband, not the least of which are his sense of humor and work ethic. We treasure our home which he and Craig so lovingly constructed together.

Thank you, Dad, for everything. You are loved and missed.

In Loving Memory of Abuelo

2011-02-05T20:15:00.001-05:00

We received sad news from Guatemala this morning. Paulina's father Isidro (better known to us as "Abuelo", the children's grandfather) passed away overnight. He was a lovely man who always had a smile for us. He welcomed us into his family, and we are lucky to have had a chance to know him. He sold delicious fresh-squeezed juice on Santander Street in Panajachel, always dressed nicely and wearing his Panama hat. He lost his beloved wife several years ago, and we take comfort in the fact that they are now reunited.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Isidro's children Paulina, Olga, Isabela, Estela, and Carlos, and all of his grandchildren. You are missed, Abuelo.

Thanksgiving with Friends in St. Thomas

2010-12-05T12:01:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving sunset from our patio at Secret Harbour

This was the 10th year that we have spent Thanksgiving on the island of St. Thomas with our friend Marty. It has become a tradition for us to miss the crowds at the airport by flying on Thanksgiving day and arriving in St. Thomas in time for a Thanksgiving dinner with Marty. This year we were up bright and early for our flight, which connected in New York. We arrived in St. Thomas soon after 1:30 p.m. We picked up our rental car, stopped for groceries, and were checked in to Secret Harbour by halftime in the Patriots/Lions game. Our room was a three bedroom this year, and it was very nice. Soon Marty came over and we watched a gorgeous sunset from the patio. Some pelicans had taken up residence on the jetty this year, and we enjoyed watching them soar and dive. The sign on the jetty clearly said "No diving". Apparently pelicans can't read. (And though the Lions were leading when we turned on the game, the Pats made an amazing comeback to win. Sorry, Marty from Michigan!)

Steve (Milky), Steph, Craig, and Marty:

Thanksgiving dinner at the Toad and Tart

Next we headed over to the Toad and Tart, a British pub. The proprietor, Anna, once again made a stellar turkey dinner with all of the trimmings. This was our third year eating Anna's Thanksgiving feast, and she outdid herself once again: roast turkey with sage stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes, sweet potato and marshmallow casserole, buttered zucchini and yellow squash, green beans almondine, cranberry sauce, and fresh bread. Although we were stuffed and feeling rather sleepy after such a delicious meal, we of course couldn't say no to her apple pie with homemade cinnamon ice cream.

Marty and Jesi on Cap'n Marty's Island Hop

The day after Thanksgiving was our traditional Cap'n Marty's Island Hop day, where we rent a boat from Mattheus at See and Ski Power Boat Rental. We met Marty and his friend Jesi at Marina Market in Red Hook, where we bought supplies for the day. We loaded up the boat and headed out. The water was a bit choppier than usual, but we enjoyed meandering around Hawk's Nest and Peter Bay off St. John. The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed the sun and the turquoise blue water, while pelicans flew and splashed down into the water around us. We were running a bit later than usual as we stopped to clear customs for the British Virgin Islands in West End, Tortola.

Marty, Steph, Craig, and Milky with our new

Cap'n Marty's Island Hop T-shirts

Cap'n Marty and Jesi in front of Presidio del Mar
Peter Bay, St. John

We made our way across the channel despite the wind and choppy water, and stopped in Hurricane Hole to rest our shaken bones. At around 1 o'clock, we arrived at the Willy T, a bar and restaurant located on a boat off of Norman Island in the BVI. Our old friend Zeus was there behind the bar, and he recognized us immediately. We ordered a round of painkillers and he kept them coming. Craig immediately noticed the larger than normal glass, to which Zeus replied "16 for 12", meaning 16 oz for the 12 oz price. Marty tried to convince him it meant 16 drinks for the price of 12.

Our good friend Zeus at the Willy T

We noticed that the shot ski was back (it had been out for repairs last year). This is a water ski with four holes in it. Zeus mixed up a concoction that looked like antifreeze and poured it into 4 shot glasses which he inserted into the holes on the ski. Craig, Steve, Marty, and I downed the drinks and Zeus was amazed that we didn't spill any. It was a party atmosphere at the Willy T. When a woman asked Zeus if he could play some music for her kids, he quickly queued up "Life's Gonna Suck When You Grow Up" by Denis Leary. We had not heard this song before and found it hysterical. Jesi and I got temporary Willy T tattoos. We enjoyed our time with the charismatic, irreverent Zeus (and his alter ego George who is much more serious). In fact, we enjoyed it a bit too much and were late returning the boat to Red Hook. Sorry, Mattheus! We didn't even have time to stop at the Soggy Dollar Bar on Jost Van Dyke this year. The Willy T is just too damn much fun!

Shot Ski: Craig, Steph, Marty, and Milky

(Photography by Jesi)

Having fun at the Willy T

Marty and Jesi on the Willy T

On Saturday, we had a relaxing day at Secret Harbour beach. Craig made us "Craig McMuffins" (cheese omelets and bacon served on on English muffins) for breakfast. We then headed down to the beach and submerged ourselves up to our necks in the cool refreshing water. Eventually, Steve wandered down the beach to the Blue Moon Cafe. While he was gone, an iguana menacingly circled me until I shooed it away. The last thing I needed was for it to come after me once I had food. Steve came back with a round of frosty bushwhackers and chicken sandwiches with fries. We sat on beach chairs end enjoyed our picnic lunch iguana-free.

We then went for another dip in the water and then hung out on our patio for a while. At 8 o'clock, we walked down the beach to the Blue Moon Cafe for dinner. We sat on their open air patio and enjoyed the sound of the waves lapping up on the beach. We ordered a round of bushwhackers and got gouda "cheesecake" with crackers as an appetizer. We had seen this on the menu for the past 2 years and had been curious about it. We are very glad we finally decided to try it. Far from being a traditional cheesecake, it was a pie-shaped wedge of spreadable gouda. For our meals, we all ended up ordering the same thing because it sounded so good: Baked scallops with parmesan and provolone served with rice pilaf and asparagus. It was savory and delicious.

Secret Harbour

On Sunday, we went to Magen's Bay for Jesi's weekly sand castle picnic. Marty brought his Limin' Cooler (a cooler pimped out with serious stereo equipment) for tunes, and we met up with Sean (whom we had met many times before) and his girlfriend Carol, and a few of their friends. Now, Carol and Jesi are some serious sand castle makers. They had all of the tools to do the job right. They started out by building the foundation, dumping buckets of water into the sand and then standing on it, piling it up higher and higher with waterlogged sand. Then, once the foundation was finished, they set to work carving. Carol and Sean had brought a skull and some little pewter pirate figurines, and they fashioned a sort of Castle Grayskull. Jesi had her heart set on creating a pirate ship, and she, Marty, and I got some of the hull and a wave going, but it turned out to be too ambitious. Marty worked with her to convert it into an extension of Sean and Carol's castle.

Marty working on the sand castle at Magen's Bay

Carol, Sean, Jesi, and Marty:

Sand castles at Magen's Bay

There were no cruise ships in port today (three days in a row with no ships - not good for the island's economy), so the majority of people at Magen's were locals. A family reunion a little way down the beach was very interested in our castles. They came over to admire them while Bob Marley's "Redemption Song" was playing on the Limin' Cooler. The two sisters (one of whom was visiting from Maryland) spontaneously burst into song. Jesi promised their adorable kids that they could help us wreck the whole thing when we were done. A little while later they came over with beers for our entire group. They were very friendly and we enjoyed chatting with them.

Carol, Jesi, and Marty: The Castle Moat Dance

We ate our chicken curry salad sandwiches, enjoyed some drinks, and just enjoyed a relaxing day at the beach. We truly felt like locals rather than tourists today. Once the sun was getting low and the castles were complete, Marty played his favorite song on the Limin' Cooler ("Say Hey (I Love You)" by Michael Franti and Spearhead) and he, Jesi, and Carol performed a spontaneous and very entertaining dance around the castle that we captured on video:.

Then Jesi called the little kids over to help knock it all down. The kids were hesitant at first, as if afraid that it was too nice, or they would get in trouble. But after admiring it for a while, they eventually got into the spirit and demolished the castles. We headed back to our place and had Señor Pizza delivered to the room while we shared photos with one another. Jesi is a professional photographer, and had gotten some great shots.

Craig and Steph at Secret Harbour Beach

On Monday we had a relaxing day at Secret Harbour. Craig made another nice breakfast of Craig McMuffins and we relaxed on our patio for a while. Then we went down to the beach and we spent some time in the water. We skipped lunch today as we had had a big breakfast. There was an absolutely gorgeous sunset which we admired from our patio.

Sunset from our patio, Secret Harbour

It was our last night on the island, and we met Marty and Jesi at the Schnitzel Haus for dinner. We had eaten here with Marty a couple of years ago, and learned to trust him about the menu. Things that I normally wouldn't necessarily think I would like were absolutely delicious. We had snails in garlic and butter as an appetizer. I always picture snails to be rubbery and slimy, but these were tender and succulent. For his meal, Craig got the rahmschnitzel, pounded veal in a cream sauce with mushrooms and onions. I had the pepperschnitzel, pounded veal seasoned with cayenne pepper and cooked with onions and red and green peppers. It was delicious, with a spicy zing. We got bratkartoffeln potatoes (which basically taste like the best home fries you can imagine) and red cabbage, which was strangely sweet in contrast to my spicy meal. And this time when Marty called for the reservation, he reserved five apple strudels with ice cream for dessert. Last time we had all had to share a single remaining serving. It was all delicious. Much like Anna's Thanksgiving turkey, this felt like a meal home-cooked with love. It was like eating in someone's home, on their back deck overlooking the water.

We went back to the hotel and chatted for a while, looking at one another's pictures. We said our goodbyes as Marty would be at work tomorrow before we headed to the airport. This vacation is always a really fun one for us, with the opportunity to really relax and enjoy the company of a dear friend. Of course it is also always much too short!

Dinner at the Schnitzel Haus:

Milky, Steph, Craig, Marty, and Jesi

Steph, Craig, Marty, Milky

On Tuesday we checked out of Secret Harbour, stopped at Marty's place to drop off the Limin' Cooler (which he was kind enough to lend us for Steve's iPod throughout the trip), and then continued on to the airport. We got some cheese johnnycakes at the airport (basically like a cross between cheese, a doughnut, and fried dough - what's not to love?) We arrived in Miami on time, but we were delayed there. Instead of landing at 10:15 in Boston, we landed at 12:15 a.m. By the time we made it back to the house, it was 1:00, and we had to go to work the next day.

We are already counting down the days until next Thanksgiving. Thanks, Marty, for such a great time.

View from Marty's place

Yale to Return Machu Picchu Artifacts to Peru

2010-11-24T19:47:00.001-05:00

It was just announced that Yale is returning items from Hiram Bingham's 1911/1912 expedition to Machu Picchu to Peru. Ultimately, we think that this is a good thing. It was strange to visit Machu Picchu in 2001 but to see no artifacts from the site there except for the buildings themselves. Plus, the number of Peruvians who actually get a chance to see these artifacts in foreign museums is small compared to the number who will be able to see them once they are on display in Peru.

The artifacts are being returned in time for Peru's centernary celebration of Machu Picchu's rediscovery. Yale has certainly done a wonderful job documenting and preserving these items, and hopefully they will be equally well looked-after when they arrive at San Antonio Abad University in Cusco. Housing the artifacts in Peru means that Peruvians will be able to view them and learn about their heritage.

Having been unable to see these artifacts in Peru in 2001, we
took the opportunity to view them at an exhibit at the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale in 2003. Here is what I posted on Michael Palin's travel website at the time:

Machu Picchu in Connecticut by stephlynne on 2 March 2003 6:31pm

The Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University is running a Machu Picchu exhibit through May 4. After that, the exhibit will travel to LA, Pittsburgh, Denver, Houston, and Chicago.

My husband and I went to see it yesterday, and I have to recommend it to anyone in the area who is interested in Inca culture. It showcases artifacts brought back by Hiram Bingham in 1912, as well as other artifacts borrowed from other museums.

Although I think it's a shame that I was able to see these Incan artifacts in Connecticut rather than when I was actually in Peru, it was still amazing to see. There were items of gold and silver, textiles, and pottery, all of which are wonderfully preserved. The way the exhibit was displayed was very cool as well. They actually took casts of Incan walls in Peru and then used them as molds. So the exhibit is lined with a fiberglass recreation of Inca stonework that is incredibly authentic-looking. The exhibit also includes computers which are loaded with virtual reality software so that you can "explore" Machu Picchu from various vantagepoints and you always get a 360 degree view.

It took us about 1.5 hours to get a very thorough look at the exhibit. Then we viewed the rest of the museum, which was also very interesting (lots of dinosaur skeletons, Native American exhibits, animal and bird specimens, and an Egyptian exhibit.)

If you're interested, you can get the exhibit details at http://www.peabody.yale.edu/exhibits/inca/

The artifacts run the gamut from pottery to carved stone to metalwork to textiles. One particularly interesting item was a life-sized hollow gold effigy of an ear of corn. The detail put into this piece underscores the importance of maize to the Incan culture. There were small gold and silver figurines of humans and llamas. Another interesting object was a quipu - a knotted string record-keeping device (used mostly to record numeric information, it is thought). It is over 5 feet long and consists of 528 strands knotted onto the main string.

We look forward to seeing these artifacts again some day, in their rightful context, when we return to Peru.

The artifacts which we saw on display at Yale are documented in the below book, "Machu Picchu: Unveiling the Mystery of the Incas" by Burger and Salazar:

Another Brick in the Wall Part 3

2010-10-10T00:08:00.000-04:00

Sunday night, Roger Waters closed out a three night run of "The Wall" at the TD Garden in Boston. We were fortunate to be able to attend all three shows. We had bought tickets in advance for the first two nights, but had planned to sit out the final night. We were so blown away by the show that we knew that we couldn't possibly sit at home while the final show was taking place. So we (along with Kevin and Jenn) bought tickets at face value through TicketMaster on Saturday. These tickets turned out to be around mid-court. When we arrived and took our seats, I was surprised at how close we actually were to the stage. I hadn't realized just how big the stage is, and how much of the arena is hiding behind it.

The first night had given a good overall big picture view of the Wall, but tonight we were much closer. The lights dim and the stage is bathed in red light. People are onstage holding flags with crossed hammers on them, and the hammers are projected onto a round screen in the middle of the stage. As the music of "In the Flesh?" builds to a crescendo, Rog takes the stage to great applause. We were close enough to the stage that we could actually see him as more than just a silhouette on stage. It always gives another level of depth to a performance when you can see the person's facial expressions and gestures. He strides over to a mannequin torso and removes a black leather trenchcoat. He puts it on and ties the belt around his waist. He puts on a pair of sunglasses as he says

If you'd like to find out what's behind these cold eyes.
You'll just have to claw your way through this disguise!
Lights!
Action!
Roll the Sound Effects!

the Impresario orders. The flagbearers march offstage. We are seated on the side of the stage where the plane crashes during the climax of the song, and it does not disappoint. We could feel the heat of the fireball which erupted when the plane collided with the Wall. We were speechless.

"The Thin Ice" is told as a cautionary tale. Photographs of victims of war and terrorism are shown on the round screen and are then projected onto the Wall, looking like as many television sets as there are bricks in the Wall. It is a nice effect, as it focuses on individuals and then their larger part in the whole context of war. We were amazed by the sound quality in these seats. It had been good on previous nights, but tonight we could really get the effect of the surround-sound.

Searchlights scan the audience as "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" starts up, and suddenly the inflatable Teacher marionette is towering over the stage. We had a very good view of it, as it maniacally danced, looking like it was doing "the crane" move from The Karate Kid. The chords tumble into "Another Brick in the Wall Part 2" and the troupe of dancing kids come onstage and help Rog to vanquish the teacher. The stage crew is starting to pile bricks onto the Wall.

Video: The Happiest Days of Our Lives / Another Brick in the Wall Part 2

Rog then comes out to the front of the stage with his acoustic guitar to greet the crowd..

Good evening Boston.
So happy to see you
Very good to be back
We had a great night here Thursday
A great night Friday
I know we're going to have a great night tonight!
This is a great music town
Always was
Always will be!

He hints that he is working on restoring the footage from the 1980 Wall concerts (they've already released the audio, but the video is currently only available as bootlegs) before settling down to duet with "that miserable young bugger from all those years ago". His acoustic guitar rings out as he accompanies his former self.
.

The inflatable Mother with her arms like mini Walls appears bathed in red light, glaring up over the Wall.
The black and white footage of Roger eventually gives way to the graphic of a surveillance camera. Text scrolls across the Wall: "Don't worry. Everything will be alright. Trust me. It's OK. Mother knows best." These slogans then become multilingual. One can't help thinking of the Berlin Wall as German text scrolls by, and of the U.S. - Mexican border fence as we read "Todo estara bien. La Madre sabe mejor." The music and the visuals are hypnotic.

Video: Mother

During "Goodbye Blue Sky", symbols of divisive powers (religion, economy, etc.) are dropped by B52 bombers onto the countryside below. Blue sky gives way to red blood. It's a powerful piece of performance art.

Video: Goodbye Blue Sky

During "Empty Spaces", the Wall goes racing through the countryside in one of Craig's favorite animation sequences from the movie. Flowers turn to barbed wire. The end of "What Shall We Do Now?" is punctuated with a hammerstrike as we once again see the hammer images which will dominate the second act.
.

The Wall takes shape more and more during the grungy guitar riffs of "Young Lust". The very center is open and there are two other openings through which you can see the band members.

In the spotlight in front of the Wall Rog's haunting voice pleads during "Don't Leave Me Now."
A stark gothic image of a woman's face bleeds from its eyes and mouth. Echo is used to the same effect as on the album The large praying mantis-like inflatable marionette of the Wife with her large neon lips appears to the left of the stage.

The Wall is filled in more and more with bricks during "Another Brick in the Wall Part 3" and the aptly titled "Last Few Bricks". During "Goodbye Cruel World" we could actually see Roger's head through the single open brick which remained in the center of the stage. The stage goes dark as that last brick is placed and Rog's terse "Goodbye" hangs in the air.

After intermission, nobody is visible on the stage during "Hey You". The Wall looks particularly monolithic and imposing. The sense of isolation is palpable.

When the little trapdoor in the Wall opens and Rog is sitting in the hotel room vignette, we have a good view of him (although we can't see the neon Tropicana Motel sign from the angle we are at). Somehow this stage set-up makes the arena feel intimate. "I got elastic bands keeping my shoes on, got those swollen hand blues, I got 13 channels of "... Rog takes the mic away from his lips and points it at the audience. "Sh!t on the TV to choose from!!" they respond in unison.

"Vera" and "Bring the Boys Back Home" are every bit as emotional as they had been on the past two nights. Very powerful, very political. Every bit as applicable to today's wars as it is to World War II, in which Rog's father was killed.

"Comfortably Numb" is intoxicating. Rog engages the audience and urges them to wave their arms and sing along during the chorus. The guitar solos soar. We see Rog as he inspects the Wall for cracks as it towers over him. He knocks on a single spot wihand then the Wall erupts into color at his command.

The inflatable pig is back in top form as it floats out over the audience during "In the Flesh Part 2." Rog is once again wearing his leather trenchcoat, and is wearing an arm band emblazoned with the crossed hammers motifs which dominate the stage. "Run Like Hell" has some of the best computer animation in the show, as bricks appear to fly out at the audience. Rog crosses his forearms into a crossed hammer symbol.

Roger whips the place into a frenzy as images of hammers marching in lockstep punctuate the vocals of "Waiting for the Worms" as he bellows into a megaphone. Then all of a sudden - "Stop! I want to go home!" there is a dummy in the spotlight, sitting on the very top of ths Wall. "Have I been guilty all this time?" Rog wails as the dummy plummets to the ground.

Jenn's picture from "Waiting for the Worms"

Gerald Scarfe's animation takes center stage for the "The Trial". Rog stands to the side and plays the voices of the various characters, starting with the Teacher. The Wall appears to spin and there is a creature sitting in a fetal position in front of graffiti which says "iHate". The creature gives the audience the finger in very impressive 3D as Rog shrieks "They must have taken my marbles away!"

Rog then plays the role of the Wife, for which he uses a French accent and puts his hand coquettishly on his hip. Next he is the Mother. Rog paces in front of the Wall while the judge comes to his decision and sentences him to be exposed before his peers: "Tear down the F%$#ing Wall!!"

Chants of "Tear Down the Wall!" fill the arena. The excitement is reaching a fever pitch as various visuals from the show are projected on the Wall at dizzying speed. Some of it seems subliminal. The Wall sways and then collapses, tumbling onto the stage. The audience goes nuts
.

Roger and the band walk onstage and play an acoustic "Outside the Wall" as their curtain call. It
seems particularly quiet after the noise of the Wall falling. The music starts and red confetti flutters to the floor over the fans in a dreamy way. Since this is the last night and we are closer to the stage for this quiet part, it seems a particularly poignant way of ending not only tonight's show, but his stay in Boston.

All alone, or in twos,
The ones who really love you
Walk up and down outside the Wall.
Some hand in hand.
Some gathering together together in bands.
The bleeding hearts and the artists
Make their stand.
And when they've given you their all,
Some stagger and fall, after all it's not easy
Banging your heart against some mad bugger's
Wall.

Jenn's picture of "Outside the Wall"

After much applause, the band starts up again and the members file offstage, leaving only Roger, who thanks the audience profusely. Roger has come a long way in the past 30 years. He had originally written "The Wall" as a young man unhappy with the trappings of fame and blameful of those around him for the things which he could not control. He felt contempt for fans and built an emotional wall around himself to try to protect himself from his fears. It is a very autobiographical piece. The Wall was built between the audience and the stage, and much of the second act back then took place with all of the musicians hidden behind the Wall.

But now, in 2010, Rog admits that he is a lot happier. He's not the same man he was back then. He's on the same side of the Wall as the audience now. He says on his web site that he thinks that "The Wall" can stand as an allegory as to how we as humans can use technology to help us to communicate and understand one another. "I believe we have at least a chance to aspire to something better than the dog eat dog ritual slaughter that is our current response to our institutionalized fear of each other."

When Pink Floyd first performed the work in 1980, it was only done in a handful of cities in the U.S. and Europe. It was such a huge production, that they were losing money on it. Kudos to Rog for putting this new production together and performing it in so many cities. Thirty years of intervening technology have made it possible for him to put together a spectacular event. It's more than a concert. Ticket prices are high, but worth every penny. Don't miss it!

Further reviews of the Boston shows:

Boston Globe Review
Boston Herald Review
Billboard Magazine Review
Worcester Telegram Review

Another Brick in the Wall Part 2

2010-10-03T01:21:00.000-04:00

Major spoiler alert - if you haven't seen Roger Waters' The Wall show and plan on it, don't spoil it for yourself by reading this. We can't stress enough what a fantastic production this is. A multimedia extravaganza in every sense of the word. All photos and video clips from this post are from October 1, 2010 at the TD Garden in Boston.

We've finally had adequate time to reflect on the experience that is The Wall. It is unlike any other concert we've experienced, and seeing it a second time allowed us to appreciate it even more. It is a testament to the timelessness and genius of the 30 year old material that the multimedia presentation could make it seem, in some ways, more relevant today than it was when Pink Floyd staged it initially.

The pre-show music is very enjoyable, and consists of some Bob Dylan followed by a few tracks from Levon Helm's "Dirt Farmer" album. Then there is an amusing audio pastiche of Monty Python ("Always Look on the Bright Side of Life", the French taunting scene from Holy Grail), Family Guy, Goodfellas, and Spartacus.

Then it becomes quiet and the lights dim. Roger Waters takes to the stage and starts the show with a bang, literally. Each power chord of "In The Flesh?" is punctuated by fireworks sparking onstage, culminating with an airplane soaring on a wire over the crowd and crashing into the upper corner of the Wall, knocking off several bricks, bursting into orange flames. The audience loses its collective breath, realizing the scale of the production they are about to witness.

Video: In The Flesh?

The Wall itself is a character in the show; as the music progresses, stagehands add bricks to it, building up a physical wall between the band and the audience. Imagery is projected on the wall as it takes shape, from original iconic animation by Gerald Scarfe (familiar from the movie) to imagery denouncing the military industrial complex. Typewritten statistics accompany photos of Roger's own father, killed in WW II in Anzio in 1944, a firefighter killed on September 11, a victim of the London Tube bombing of 2005, and a murdered Iraqi child.

The music is practically note-for-note perfect, and though Roger is now 66 years old, his voice can still convey anguish perfectly. Vocalist Robbie Wyckoff does a great job covering for David Gilmour's vocals, but even more impressive are the guitarists, Snowy White, G.E. Smith, and Dave Kilminster. The sound quality in the arena is superb. Large impressive inflatable puppets of archetypes The Teacher, The Mother, and The Wife make appearances during their respective songs.

During "Another Brick in the Wall Part 2", a group of local kids in T-shirts reading "Fear Builds Walls" take the stage, eventually vanquishing the oversized marionette of The Teacher. During "Mother", Roger sings a poignant duet with footage of himself performing it at Earl's Court in 1980. Graphics of security cameras
scan the crowd while the large inflatable Mother glares over the top of the Wall with red eyes. Graffiti spells out "Big BrMother is Watching". "Mother, should I trust the government?" Rog asks plaintively. The crowd groans and boos, then erupts in cheers and applause as the words "No" "F*&%ing" "Way" are projected onto the Wall one by one.

During "Goodbye Blue Sky", the Wall is infused with cool blue light, and animated bomber planes rain down symbols on the countryside below. Nothing is sacred: crosses, stars of David, crescents and stars, dollar signs, Mercedes and Shell Oil logos - all play into the culture that enables and even encourages the building of walls.

"Empty Spaces" builds to a crescendo while sexually suggestive flower imagery morphs into something more sinister. "Young Lust" is a straight-ahead rock anthem set to black, white, and red imagery of sexy women.

"One of My Turns" is dramatic as the Wall stares unblinking at the audience with a huge pair of eyes.

"Don't Leave Me Now" is perfectly anguished and angst-ridden. Rog stands alone in front of the Wall, center stage, in the spotlight. "I need you babe," he wails, "to put through the shredder in front of my friends, oh babe, don't leave me now!" His voice gives me goosebumps.

Video: Another Brick in the Wall Part 3

By the time "Another Brick in the Wall Part 3" starts, the Wall is 30 feet tall, and has just 3 small sections of bricks missing, giving a peek at the musicians behind. Rog, still outside of the Wall, hits its surface and it appears to shatter like glass. Typography whizzes across the surface of the Wall, interspersed with corporate logos, advertisements, static, and news footage. "CONSUME" flashes by almost subliminally, along with "F*@% You" "IDOLS" "BELONGINGS" "DENOMINATIONS" and "ACQUIRE". It is sensory overload as we are bombarded by more and more words that we barely have time to register.

By "Goodbye Cruel World", they have placed "The Last Few Bricks" into the wall, leaving one single brick missing in the center of the stage. Rog is vaguely visible back there, as a single shaft of light emanates from the hole. Rog sings "Goodbye all you people, there's nothing you can say, to make me change my mind. Goodbye" as the last brick is placed and the stage goes dark and the sound cuts out. The audience erupts into applause as the house lights come on and the Wall simply says "INTERMISSION".

For the duration if intermission, the Wall then becomes a memorial of Fallen Loved Ones displaying photos solicited from fans by Roger on his web site alongside photos of the likes of Mahatma Gandhii.

Act 2 begins with the Wall alone onstage for a poignant "Hey You." It looks like it is made of stone, like it belongs in an old castle. It splits into a corridor and animation of a monster runs by, splattering blood all over the Wall.

Video: Hey You

A little drawbridge-like panel folds down from the Wall to reveal a small hotel room vignette, complete with neon Tropicana sign in the background. The staging looks identical to how they performed it 30 years ago.

Rog sings "Nobody Home" while sitting alone in a chair gazing at a flickering television set. "Got 13 channels" Rog sings and then points the microphone at the audience. They dutifully respond "of sh*t on the TV to choose from." Things haven't really changed that much in 30 years, there are just more channels now. Roger's sense of mortality creeps in as he sings about "A grand piano to prop up [his] mortal remains."

"Does anybody else in here feel the way I do?" Rog asks during "Vera". Meanwhile, the Wall displays footage of a young girl's incredibly emotional reaction to being surprised by her soldier father's unexpected visit to her classroom. The crowd roars in approval and wipes a tear from its collective eye.

Video: Bring the Boys Back Home

The ballad segues into the anthemic "Bring the Boys Back Home", as Rog stands alone in front of the Wall in a red spotlight. War footage blazes across the Wall. Word by word, the following quote from Dwight D. Eisenhower appears:

Every gun that is made,
Every warship launched,
Every rocket fired,
Signifies,
In the final sense,
A THEFT
From those who hunger
And are not fed
From those who are cold
And are not clothed

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Then the text "BRING THE BOYS BACK HOME" punctuates the staccato phrasing of the final chorus.

A vocalist and a guitarist appear atop the Wall for their respective parts during the soaring "Comfortably Numb." Rog hits the Wall and it appears to shatter into trippy colored shards around him.

A male choir does an a capella "The Show Must Go On" as Rog and the Surrogate Band take their places in front of the Wall.

At the beginning of "In the Flesh Part 2", a black inflatable pig with red lit eyes appears from behind the Wall and sails over the crowd. The pig has various slogans and symbols scrawled on it, including the hammers, "Trust Us", and "Drink Kalashnikov Vodka". The first night it was neutrally bouyant and stayed nicely aloft above the crowds' heads. It was flown via remote control, with little fans controlling its direction. The second night it had a hard time staying aloft, and soon had to be rescued by the crew as it kept sagging into the crowd. Hopefully they'll have worked out the kinks before the next show.

Rog dons a black leather trenchcoat and sunglasses and assumes a dictatorial persona. Spotlights scan the crowd as he calls out to the "riffraff" that if he had his way, he'd have all of us shot. Just as he had during the '80 shows, he dedicates "Run Like Hell" to the paranoids in the audience.

"YOU BETTER RUN" is scrawled in scarlet letters on the Wall, and the bricks appear to fly out of the Wall at us in what almost seemed like 3D. Images of various people and animals had been manipulated to make it look like they were wearing white iPod headphones. In a dark parody of an iPod commercial, these were accompanied by the phrases iLead, iProtect, iFollow, iResist, iProfit, iLose, iTeach, iLearn, iKill, etc.

Rog sings "Waiting for the Worms" through a megaphone. Countless crossed hammers march in lockstep across the Wall as the rhythm builds in intensity. Then, "Stop", as a dummy sits in a spotlight atop the Wall and then plunges to the floor.

"The Trial" plays out on the Wall, with the classic animation of The Judge, familiar from both the 1980 concerts and the movie. Rog sits sideways on the stage on a step, watching. Illusions in the projection makes the Wall appear to spin horizontally. Words and images we had seen throughout the last two hours come fast and furious, as the music builds to a fever pitch. Loud chants of "TEAR DOWN THE WALL!" shake the venue. When it reaches a crescendo, a strobe light flashes, smoke rises into the air, and the Wall topples down to thunderous applause and cheers.

Video: The Trial

Roger and the musicians appear onstage amongst the debris of the fallen Wall, as for a curtain call. Roger plays a trumpet and they sing a somber yet hopeful "Outside the Wall". It functions as an encore. There is nothing further that they could do to follow that. Roger thanks the audience effusively. The audience adores Roger and lets him know it. We leave the venue feeling absolutely blown away, and addicted to the experience. Everyone around us has a similar reaction as we make our way back to the parking garage. We get out of there quickly, putting the finishing touches on an incredible evening.

After seeing The Wall on Thursday with Steve and my mother-in-law, and having seen it on Friday with Kevin, we can't pass up its last night in town on Sunday - we are Rog junkies. So we'll be seeing the final Boston show, and Steve, Kevin, and Jenn will all be joining us.

If you can make it to see this show when it hits your town - do it! You won't regret it.

Another Brick in the Wall

2010-10-01T00:28:00.001-04:00

Just got back from Roger Waters at the TD Garden. Wow! I have a million things to say but really need to get to bed. Catch this show if you can; it's unbelievable!

Only had my phone so the photos aren't great, but I'll be bringing my camera tomorrow night.

Sometimes you're better off not knowing...

2010-09-12T11:19:00.000-04:00

So yesterday we had the TV on the Discovery Channel while we were doing other things around the house. I glanced at the TV screen at one point and saw some caterpillars that looked an awful lot like one we had seen at the Waira Churi camp in Ecuador. I called Craig into the room as they broke for commercial, and we both sat riveted waiting for the next segment. We were mortified to learn that the program was called "Deadliest Creatures of Brazil." They went on to say that this was the Assassin Caterpillar (Lonomia Obliqua) which has only been identified within the past decade. They explained, rather graphically, how this caterpillar can kill a human within 15 hours of touching it. It causes an agonizing death where victims bleed out of their eyes, noses, mouths, etc.

The caterpillar is especially dangerous because it blends in so well with its surroundings. It looks like it is covered in bark or moss. When we first saw it in Ecuador, it was camouflaged on a wooden bench. Luckily we saw it before we sat down. The Waira Churis and Felipe inspected it and moved it onto the ground. Felipe had told us not to touch it (and this was our first instinct anyway - would you purposely touch something that looks like that?) But really...it could have killed us? I doubt we could have reached medical help within the 15 hours it would take to finish us off, unless the Waira Churis knew of an antidote. We are glad that we didn't know all of this at the time, or I might not have slept very well that night (though we did have a bug net over our bed, thank goodness!)

We're no caterpillar experts, so we can't 100% guarantee that it is the same caterpillar, but it sure looks it to us! And if that is the case, it has made its way from Brazil to Ecuador!

Assassin Caterpillar?

Photos from Ecuador

2010-08-29T16:08:00.000-04:00

Photos have been added to our previous Ecuador posts:

Greetings from the Center of the World
Six Days in the Highlands of Ecuador
Spending Time with the Waira Churis
Kayaking the Shiripuno River
Shiripuno Lodge, the Huaorani, and the Trip Draws to a Close

Shiripuno Lodge, The Huaorani, and the Trip Draws to a Close

2010-08-29T15:59:00.001-04:00

As we arrived at the Shiripuno Lodge by kayak after paddling 31 kilometers in a single day, the rustic accommodations even seemed luxurious. The lodge consisted of several wood plank buildings with thatched roofs. There were several rooms in a row next to one another. The interior walls didn’t go all the way up to the vaulted ceiling, so there was a communal feel to the place. Clotheslines and hammocks hung from a common front porch. Because the front exterior wall was partially open to the outside, mosquito nets hung over all of the beds. We had a private bathroom in our room which used water pumped from the river to run the shower, sink, and toilet. Felipe, Arturo, and Ñame were in the room next door, and a staff member came to deliver fresh towels. Unfortunately, there were only 2 towels available for the 5 of us. Craig and I laughed at the irony - our first “real” shower in 6 days and there weren't enough towels. He gave one towel to each room and we made due.

Dining and hammock area, Shiripuno Lodge

Our room at Shiripuno Lodge

After river-temperature showers, we headed across the lawn to the open-air common area. Here there are long tables where meals are served, hammocks for relaxing, and books about the flora and fauna of the area. Craig had some tea and I had some hot chocolate as we rested our weary bodies. Felipe joined us and we sat in the hammocks looking at bird books and discussing the day's sightings. As twilight fell, the staff lit candles in the common area and the guest rooms, since there is no electricity.

At around 7:30, the staff blew a shell horn indicating that it was time for dinner. We were served potato, cheese, and spinach soup, breaded chicken, rice, and fried plantains. Arturo didn’t seem quite ready to give up his duties as food provider, so he augmented our meal with a bottle of Gato Negro merlot which he fetched from our cooler. We all had a glass, and Arturo and Felipe were giving Ñame a hard time because he dislikes wine, thinking it tastes like curare (a jungle vine used as both poison and traditional medicine). We had starfruit in vanilla liqueur with cloves for dessert.

There lodge offers evening activities, but having been up since 4:30 am, we were all too tired tonight and decided instead to get to bed early (around 9 pm). The boys insisted that Craig and I take the bottle of wine back to our room. We were too tired to finish it off tonight, but we were sure that we would enjoy it tomorrow. We blew out our candle, got settled under our bug nets, and went to sleep.

Dinner at Shiripuno Lodge

We woke up at 6:30 the next morning. After a satisfying breakfast of cantaloupe, cheese, bread, fried egg, yucca, and salami , the staff gave us a ride in the lodge motor boat to the start of the Mirador hike. Felipe and Arturo had brought rubber boots for each of us to wear while hiking. Craig and I were a bit skeptical as to how well we could hike in a pair of large rubber boots, but they ended up being quite comfortable. They came in handy because the trail was ankle-deep mud near the river. We were immediately enveloped by the shade of the jungle. Although it was humid and we were sweating instantly, at least we wouldn't have to deal with the strong Equatorial sun.

Soon we heard a snort and a crash and saw a white collared peccary (a variety of wild boar) scurrying through the vegetation. It startled Ñame. Felipe told us the best thing to do if it came after us would be to climb a tree. This made me a bit nervous after my unsuccessful Tarzan vine incident (as it came to be known) with the Waira Churis. As we walked along the nice trail we could smell the stench of the peccary, and it was quite unpleasant. Ñame spotted a second small group of peccaries. “So that they can surround us, no doubt,” I muttered. Craig was rather amused by my over-reaction and fear, but I must admit I was feeling pretty vulnerable and I kept looking around nervously.

Breakfast at Shiripuno Lodge

Riding in the motorized canoe to the start of the Mirador hike

Ñame led us on our walk through the jungle, and stopped often to point out various plants and explain their uses. He showed us the curare vine, and explained that it is used as the poison on blow darts because it paralyzes muscles, but for the same reason it is also used by doctors during heart surgeries to quiet the heart (they must be very careful about the dosage, though). He plucked a leaf from a jungle garlic plant and we got a whiff of its strong smell. We saw the tree which provides the Sangre de Drago which had healed my fingers so well that even three days of kayaking hadn't bothered them. Felipe pointed out a palm tree whose young leaves are red. This is to protect them from being eaten, because they look like they are already dead. Some other plants had much more obvious defenses such as sharp spikes protruding from their bark. Mushrooms proliferated in the damp darkness. Ñame showed us raw tagua, or “vegetable ivory”, a palm nut which, when its shell is removed, looks like ivory and is often carved into various shapes and sold to tourists. After having seen tagua carvings for sale in the Otavalo market and in Quito, it was interesting to get to see the raw materials in the wild.

Ñame shows us the curare vine

Craig and Arturo hiking

Felipe

Jungle vines

After a couple of hours of informative hiking we reached the Mirador (lookout) which gave a fantastic view above the jungle canopy. We could see the tops of trees extending into the distance until they merged with muggy haze on the horizon. We had snacks while enjoying the impressive view. Arturo quickly got out of the way of a large ant, and then that same ant carried off an entire peanut which had fallen on the ground from our snack mix.

View from the Mirador

Ceiba seed pod

Red palm fronds

Spider

The latest in green accessories

Ñame leads us through the jungle

After resting and enjoying the view, we continued on the loop trail back towards the river. We saw a tree which looked like a single stalk of palm until Ñame shook it and it unfurled into many palm strands. These strands would then be separated into multiple more fibers. The Huaorani use this for weaving fish traps, hammocks, bags, etc. It’s amazing how much the jungle provides if you just know where to look. Even though the Huaorani have been influenced by western culture (especially by oil companies who try to bribe them to get at the oil underneath their lands) and some no longer live in the traditional way, it is evident that their age-old knowledge of the forest is being passed down to the younger generation, with 16 year old Ñame as proof. Ñame spontaneously wove me a bag out of palm fronds, and I carried my water bottle in it. He gave Craig a palm headband. We knew we were close to the river when our boots began to sink in the mud. We emerged from the jungle at the river at around 12:30, and the lodge motor boat was waiting to take us back to the lodge for lunch. Arturo and Ñame played volleyball in front of our rooms, and Craig was just about to get into the shower when the lunch horn sounded. We went to the table and were served a tomato stuffed with tuna, some beef stew, radishes, and lentils.

Leaf cutter ants

After lunch, Arturo and Ñame disassembled the supply boat and squeezed the air out of the pontoons while Felipe took us on a short hike to see leaf cutter ants. We had seen them before in Guatemala and Belize, but never to this extent. We watched them as they carried pieces of leaf home to their nest via wide, clear-cut paths that their tiny feet had worn through the forest floor. Each ant carried leaf pieces much bigger than itself, sometimes with one or more small "inspector" ants riding on the leaf. The ants cultivate fungus in their nest, and bring back the leaves to help to fertilize it. The inspectors make sure that the pieces of leaf being brought back are of the right type and won’t contaminate the fungus. We followed the trail of ants back to the nest and were amazed at the size of it. As we walked along the ant mound we had visions of falling through into their massive underground network of chambers (and finding ourselves before their 8 foot tall queen – ok, so maybe the peccary scare had set my imagination running wild…) It was amazing, though, that this huge structure existed just steps away from the lodge grounds. Felipe and I took pictures and videos of the ants as they worked away.

Gato Negro Merlot and an Oatmeal Chewie

After that, we went back to the room and took showers. The river water was refreshingly cool after our morning of hiking. We popped the cork out of last night’s wine bottle and each had a glass, accompanied by an “oatmeal chewie” bar which was left over from one of our flights. Feeling sufficiently relaxed, Craig and I sat in the hammocks in the common area. Ñame came over and asked if we wanted to fish for piranha (!!) with him off of the dock. I have never been fishing in my life (a fact that Craig can never seem to get over, somehow), and it sounded like a fun opportunity. Ñame was carrying a butcher knife, some scraps of meat from the kitchen, and two fishing poles made of branches with fishing line and a hook attached. We walked down to the dock and sat in a boat that was parked there. Ñame baited our hooks and we put them into the water. Almost immediately piranha started to take the bait. They were very strong and pulled hard against the line. However, they were very good at stealing the bait without getting hooked, which led us to joke that we were "feeding the piranhas" rather than fishing for them. We could never really see them through the silty water, though. After a little while I actually caught a fish! It wasn't a piranha (Ñame called it a “sardina” - but at around 6 to 8 inches it was much bigger than what we typically consider sardines to be). I was very proud of myself for my first catch ever. We joked that unlike Anthony Bourdain in any fishing scenes on his show, I didn't need a "stunt fish" - I had actually caught one. Ñame unhooked it for me and tossed it back into the river. We continued fishing until our bait was gone, and Ñame even took a turn to see if he could show us a piranha, but it was not to be.

Steph's fish

Craig relaxing in a hammock

We sat in the hammocks and enjoyed a cup of tea. Soon we were called to dinner, which consisted of soup, steak, salad, avocado, rice, and mashed potatoes mixed with cheese. We were served a candied tree tomato for dessert. We had enjoyed tree tomato juice earlier in the trip, but as a dessert we found the fruit to be much too sour. After dinner, we got into the lodge motor boat and went for a cayman watch. We were in darkness except for a spotlight which shone on the banks of the river looking for cayman eyes shining in the darkness. We saw one and Ñame had said that he wanted to capture it so we could photograph him with it, but as we got close it disappeared under the water's surface. Felipe managed to get a good photograph of it with his fancy camera before it disappeared, but our photo just came out black. This was ok, as we had gotten to see a cayman up close and personal in the early dawn light the day before.

Then the boat took us a little farther upstream and let us out at a trailhead so that we could walk back to the lodge in the dark while observing insects. As the motor boat disappeared into the darkness and its sound was obscured by the sounds of the jungle, we experienced a feeling of isolation. We were on our own to walk back to the lodge; it wasn't a far distance, but there wasn't even cell phone coverage if we had wanted to call them to pick us up. We were ready for an adventure.

Arturo, Felipe, and Ñame are eagle-eyed and found many insects, including praying mantis, grasshoppers, crickets, and even large spiders and a black scorpion. Craig spotted several specimens as well. When you see these sitting on tree trunks or branches, you realize that you should never blindly hold on to a tree in the jungle; you don’t know what else you might end up grabbing! Felipe had brought his camera and tripod, and we took pictures of the various specimens. It was a cool experience to walk through the jungle at night, and you really get a sense for how many creepy crawlies are around. We passed a tree which had a hole about 6 feet up its trunk. When the guys shone their light on it, we saw a large frog in the hole. We came to a "bridge" made from a thin log. There was a nearby branch that you could use as a handrail while balancing on the lower log, but I was still very nervous about crossing it and worried about whether it would hold Craig and my weight. If it hadn’t, we wouldn’t have fallen to our deaths or anything, we would have just fallen a few feet into a ditch. Craig offered to go first, and luckily, the log held. A little while later we came to another such bridge, but this one had a much wider log as its base. After two hours of hiking we emerged from the jungle directly behind our lodge building. Shiripuno certainly does have a nice network of trails.

Cayman watching

Spider

Scorpion

As we walked around the lodge, Felipe shone the flashlight into a hole in the ground and exposed a large spider just feet from the lodge. As we entered our room and lit the candle, we saw several HUGE cockroaches lying belly-up in our un-rinsed wine glasses. Craig kindly tossed them outside and then rinsed the glasses. I am not one who is normally skeeved out by bugs, but these were nasty, and were right next to my toiletries on the shelf. Yuck! I gratefully climbed under my bug net and we went to sleep at around 10:30.

The next morning, we got up at 5:45 and got packed up by the light of our headlamps. By the time breakfast was ready at 6:30, the boys had already loaded the kayaks and all of the other gear onto the motor boat. We had a quick breakfast, and at 7:10 we loaded our bags and ourselves into the motorized boat and hit the water. We found familiar sights around every bend, happy memories of things we had seen while paddling. It was like replaying the entire paddle in high speed reverse. It was also rather bittersweet, as it was the last day we would spend with Felipe, Arturo, and Ñame. The trip was drawing to a close, and today was the first of three days which would be spent traveling home.

It was a full 2 hours in the motorized boat upstream before we passed our wooded camping spot. It made us realize just how far we had paddled on that last day. Luckily, the sun wasn't out today and it was pleasantly cool, because it was going to be a long ride. We enjoyed the scenery and saw blue morpho butterflies, some of “Craig’s favorite butterflies” (we didn’t know the name of the species but they were quite pretty), chattering squirrel monkeys, a small hawk, macaws, and a striated heron.

Dock at Shiripuno Lodge

Tired crew

Eventually we arrived at Ñame's Huaorani village, not far from where we had camped the first night on the beach. We got out of the boat and walked up a steep embankment up to some Huaorani dwellings. We walked down a trail to Ñame's family's house. We once again saw his father Karuway, and we also met the woman who had raised Ñame as a mother. She had a lame foot from a snake bite (which in all rights should have killed her) as a young girl. Her mother had treated her with a jungle plant, and though her foot was badly injured, she didn’t die. Years later when she was grown and married, her husband Karuway was bit by the same species of snake. She remembered theplant that had cured her as a child, and she administered this to Karuway, saving him from certain death.

We met Ñame's sister Yolanda and her baby Nampa (whose name means dart or arrow in the Huaorani language). Some of the women and girls were dressed traditionally in woven knee-length skirts, necklaces of palm fibers, seeds, and animal teeth, and feather headbands, with orange makeup around their eyes. They
sang a song for us.

Karuway had Craig try their blowgun, which was much heavier than that of the Waira Churis. Craig hit the target plantain on the first try. The women cheered and Karuway wondered if it was luck or skill. He asked Craig to repeat it. They then gave him a second arrow and he hit the plantain again, earning their respect.

Craig handed out handfuls of animal crackers to all of the kids. Felipe and Arturo like to bring animal crackers because they are a treat for the kids but do not rot their teeth like candy does. Kids held out their hands to receive their rations, and some enterprising kids realized that if they cupped the crackers into the front of their shirts, they could hold more. Felipe handed out cooking oil to the adults. Craig and I had brought a few notebooks and pens which I handed out to various children, which worked out well because school would be starting up again soon. We also gave them a frisbee, which the older kids started to play with immediately.

Huaorani women

Huaorani woman

Huaorani girl

Huaorani child

Ñame's father Karuway demonstrates the blow gun

Various women set some items out for sale, woven from palm fibers. We looked them over and selected several items, trying to spread our purchases out among different sellers. We bought a necklace, a bracelet, a woven plate, a small woven purse, and an arrow decorated with macaw feathers (we would definitely need to pack that one in the checked luggage!) Our boat driver had moved the boat downstream a bit, closer to where we were, so it would be easier for us to climb aboard. Several Huaoranis came aboard as well, and they loaded in a broken boat motor which they wished to transport upstream.

Leaving the Huaorani village

It rained for about 5 minutes after we left the village, and then the sun came out. It was brutal and we were glad it had stayed hidden for the majority of our 6 hour trip. We arrived at our put-in spot at around1 pm. Arturo, Felipe, and Ñame unloaded all of the gear and meanwhile served us a nice picnic lunch. We felt guilty, as if we should help, but Felipe shrugged it off. “We’re working. You’re on vacation. Enjoy!”

Snake in the road

Then we drove an hour and a half to Coca. It rained, so we had to roll up the car windows. It was rather stuffy and damp inside, and Craig started to feel a bit carsick as we drove. Along the way, we saw a large snake in the road. While we stopped to get a picture, a car sped by in the other direction, and the snake was directly in its path. We were shocked to see the snake “jump” at least 6 feet onto the safer shoulder of the road. It was probably good that we hadn't seen this until we were safely out of the jungle.

Blue and yellow macaws scavenge the dumpster at the Hotel El Auca

We arrived in Coca at around 3:30. It's funny because the city sneaks up on you. You are in the middle of nowhere, you cross a bridge over the wide Napo River, and then the next thing you know you are in the city. We went straight to the Hotel El Auca. As Arturo drove into the gated property, we saw several macaws sitting on the edge of a dumpster. It was very amusing because the hotel had a well-manicured courtyard with a picturesque perch and bunches of plantains for the birds, but they preferred to scavenge from the dumpster. Felipe got us checked into our room, and we all said our goodbyes. We set my camera on timer and got a photo of the five of us together next to some statues of Huaoranis. There was a spider monkey in the nearby tree (another resident of the hotel grounds, along with the macaws) and Felipe joked that he might try to steal the camera. Felipe and Arturo would be driving back to Quito tonight (another 5 hours on the road). Ñame would be staying in Coca and would escort us to the airport in the morning.

Saying goodbye to Felipe and Arturo at Hotel Auca

Our simple room had air conditioning and we took some of our wet clothes out of our bags and hung them around the room on every available surface (the TV wall mount, etc.) to dry. It looked like our luggage had exploded. The room even had cheaply priced mini-bar offerings, and we enjoyed a frosty drink (Craig has a Pilsener beer and I had a strawberry soda). We took nice warm showers and then headed down to the hotel restaurant for dinner.

The hotel was definitely geared more toward local travelers than international guests, and not many of the staff spoke English. We took a seat at the Dayuma Restaurant, which was decorated to resemble the rainforest. We could get actual cold drinks here, something that had been non-existent in the jungle. Craig ordered a Pilsener beer and I ordered a peach smoothie. We noticed that other bottles of beer served to other tables had a napkin garnish (or "little hat") on the top of the bottle. We jokingly wondered why he hadn't gotten one. I ordered the Hawaiian chicken, which was a chicken tenderloin served with pineapple, peach, cream, and plantains. Craig got chicken tenderloin in gravy with mushrooms and bacon. We tried to order plantains (a choice on the menu) but we were told we could only have fries. The menu said that Craig's would be served with a salad. Craig was debating the pros and cons of eating the salad, but it turned out he needn't have worried; he wasn't served on anyway. We just laughed, and joked that we weren't at Casa Aliso any more!

After dinner we went back to the room. I wrote in the journal and we turned on the TV for a few minutes while we wound down. We watched part of a program on the Mexican Travel Channel, and then went to bed at 10:30.

The next morning we packed up our now-dry clothes and went to the lobby at 9 am. We found out as we checked out that a continental breakfast was included in our stay, so we had a quick bite to eat in the dining room. Ñame came to pick us up a few minutes before the appointed time of 9:30. Some friends came with him and a cab driver friend of theirs brought us to the airport (literally 5 minutes away). Ñame gave me a necklace he had made of some orange seeds he had collected on our Mirador walk. He is such a sweetie! He hung around at the airport until he was sure that we were getting on the plane, and then waved adios to us through the window as we went through security.

Flight from Coca to Quito

We had a 25 minute flight to Quito. After such a long boat and car ride yesterday, we were certainly happier to take a quick flight than to spend 5 more hour in the car. Daniel met us at the airport, and we were driven to Casa Aliso, where our dear Patrick met us outside to welcome us. We told him that we had to be picked up at 4 in the morning, and he asked if we would like to have box lunches to take to the airport since nothing would be open that early. Wow, how thoughtful! We readily agreed. He showed us to our upstairs room (the one we had stayed in on our first night in Quito). When we entered, we saw that the bag we had left behind was already in our room waiting for us. Patrick asked if we were going to get some lunch. We told him that we would shower first and then go next door to Clancy's for some food. He asked if we would like a glass of juice. That sounded perfect! We told him any kind of juice would be fine, but in the back of our minds we had visions of ice cold blackberry (mora) juice like Casa Aliso had served us at breakfast on our first stay.

We started to organize our things in our room and soon Patrick was at our door with a tray bearing (you guessed it!) 2 frosty glasses of blackberry juice and an English language newspaper. “Mora!” Craig exclaimed. “Your Spanish is getting better!” joked Patrick. He asked if we needed any laundry done, even though it was long since past the time when they usually accepted same-day laundry requests. This was very kind of him, but at this point everything was dry and packed and we may as well just wait to wash it until we get home. Craig and I marveled at just how good Patrick is at his job. He made our return to Casa Aliso feel like a homecoming.

Steph enjoys a pina colada at Clancy's

We took nice showers and then went next door to Clancy's for a lovely meal. Patrick had gone home for the day but had left us coupons for complimentary drinks at Clancy’s at the front desk, so that was very nice. We had a very nice, relaxing lunch. The food at Clancy’s is really spectacular. Craig had shrimp ceviche followed by steak with mushroom gracy and fries. I had fried calamari followed by ricotta ravioli. After that we came back to Casa Aliso and used the computer in the lobby to write a couple of blog posts. We returned to the room and turned on the TV for a few minutes while we wound down. It would be an early morning, so we went to sleep very early..

We woke up at 3 am, took quick showers (showering with soap and shampoo twice within 24 hours - what luxury!), and headed downstairs at 3:50. We picked up our bag lunches in the dining room, and noticed that Daniel had just arrived. He drove us to the airport and we waited in the American Airlines check-in line for an hour. We realized (too late) at security that we had our goldenberry marmalade from Otavalo in our carry-on. It was over 3 ounces so it got confiscated. We wished we had remembered to check it, since we had checked 2 bags anyway! We should have known better. The real slap in the face was that the only reason we were hand searched so thoroughly upon entering the gate was because we were early. As more passengers arrived at boarding time, they let them straight through and didn't even check them. But they think our jelly is a security risk!? This put us in a rather cranky mood, and we weren’t even at the Miami airport yet.

Boarding the plane for Miami at dawn

Our flight departed on time at 6:35 and arrived in Miami at 11:50. The immigration and customs process went a bit smoother this time than usual, even though we needed to pick up and re-check our checked bags. Our 4 pm flight home was delayed because the pilot was arriving on another international flight. When they finally let us board the plane, there was an additional "baggage delay". Then, just as we were ready to take off, a thunderstorm rolled through. The pilot shut down the plane and we were stranded on the tarmac waiting for the storm to blow through, when there was nothing but black sky in every direction. Would we ever get home? Miami airport always does this. Just once, we’d like to fly through there without incident.

Eventually we took off, and ended up being about an hour and a half late (arriving at around 8:45 pm). Steve graciously brought us Dunkin Donuts decaf coffees when he picked us up at Logan. We wound down at home by telling him about our wonderful trip, and then got to bed so that we could go to work the next morning.

Kayaking the Shiripuno River

2010-08-14T20:26:00.119-04:00

After leaving Archidona, we drove 4 hours to Coca, a dingy oil-industry city which serves as a gateway to the Ecuadorian Amazon basin. After stopping for gas and picking up the 16-year-old Huaorani named Ñame who would be accompanying us, we continued on for approximately another hour and a half to where we would put our kayaks into the Shiripuno River. We would be happy to be leaving the oil industry encampments and pipelines behind and heading into the (hopefully) pristine jungle.

Unloading the gear

Kayaking on the Shiripuno

While Arturo, Felipe, and Ñame prepared the kayaks, they gave us sandwiches and Gatorade. It was the hottest time of the day and the sun was scorching. Luckily, by the time we actually got into our kayaks around 2:30, it was later in the afternoon and the sun wasn´t as strong. Craig and I were in a two-man kayak, Arturo and Ñame were in singles, and Felipe was in a rubber-pontooned catamaran carrying all the supplies we would need for the next 3 days on the river. Arturo usually drives the supply boat, but he had been up since the middle of the night traveling from Quito to pick us up in Archidona, so Felipe wanted to give him a break. The water level of the Shiripuno was low as it hadn´t been raining much lately. The river itself was probably only about 30-40 feet wide and there were a lot of trees which had fallen into it which we needed to navigate around. We only got stuck once on a sandbar near the beginning of the paddle, but Ñame was right there to give us a push and get us on our way once again. After a pleasant few hours of paddling, we turned one of the many bends in the river and saw a traditional Huaorani house and a woman at the river. It was like something out of TV, and it seemed to come out of nowhere. Several minutes later we arrived at a nice beach where we would set up camp. Although to us it seemed that we had gotten a late start, Felipe told us that this is where they usually camp, and that we had already actually paddled 21.5 km.

Felipe in the supply boat

Arturo and Ñame paddling at sunset

Ñame and Arturo prepare dinner on the beach

Ñame and Arturo immediately set up the mess tent and started to cook a nice dinner for us. As Felipe said, 'No spaghettis! Arturo cooks real food. And a lot of it. You won´t be hungry with Arturo around!' Felipe helped us to set up our tent and he also set up a bathroom tent. It was quite a luxurious camp. The three of them worked like a well-oiled machine. You could tell they had done this part of the trip many times before and it went like clockwork. It got dark only minutes after camp was complete and dinner preparation was already underway. The timing couldn´t have been better, and we marveled at how well it all seemed to flow. Soon some young Huaorani boys showed up. Felipe said, 'They live around the bend. They smell the food. There will be more soon.' We all shared Arturo´s delicious multi-course meal of freshly popped popcorn, vegetable soup, tilapia fillets, French fries, and rice. We even had figs and cheese for dessert. We ate like kings, and we couldn't possibly eat it all. We gave the rest to the Huaorani boys, who gobbled it up happily. We chatted at the table in the mess tent, enjoying our first night of camping on the river, and went to bed at 10 pm in our nice comfortable tent with ThermaRest camping mattresses.

When we woke up in the morning after a terrific night´s sleep, Ñame´s father Karuway and some younger Huaorani kids from the village were chatting with Arturo, Felipe, and Ñame. Arturo and Ñame cooked breakfast of scrambled eggs, ham, bread, juice, and fresh coffee, and we all ate our fill. We saw tracks in the sand where turtles had nested overnight. We broke down camp (well, mostly Craig and I just stayed out of the way and watched them do their magic) and hit the water at 9 am. Arturo was in the supply boat today, and several Huaorani kids rode the large pontoons downstream for a while, and a couple also stowed away aboard Felipe´s kayak. They were having a great time and it was fun to watch. The children were showing off their balancing ability by standing up on the pontoons, but Arturo, ever a jokester, would shift the boat to make them fall into the water. We dropped them off at their little village, which Felipe said we would visit on Friday. We saw many birds again today as we paddled, and a troupe of at least 20 squirrel monkeys jumping around in the trees. Ñame and Arturo said they saw a tamarind there as well, and argued happily about which type it was. We didn't see it ourselves. Turtles would be sunning themselves on logs and would splash into the
water as we paddled into view. It was all so surreal.

Steph (self-portrait)

Our tent on the beach

Arturo and his young Huaorani stow-aways

Approaching a Huaorani settlement

Craig in the back of our tandem kayak

Paddling down the river

Felipe kicks back in a kayak on day 2

Before we knew it, it was time for lunch. We pulled up at a beach (all of the beaches are really interesting as they are made up of layers of sand and fallen leaves. When you walk on them they are very spongy. There are no rocks on this river - everything is a rich brown soil which makees the river itself brown with low visibility). Arturo and Ñame set up the mess tent to protect us from the hot midday sun, and they served us ham and cheese sandwiches with all of the fixings, potato chips, watermelon, and juice. After lunch we all went for a swim in the river and Ñame regaled us with his gymnastics doing flips into the water. Arturo and Felipe had their cameras and were taking lots of pictures. We saw a bird called a night jar on this beach, and Arturo, Ñame, and Felipe saw its nest and egg. We all made sure to keep our distance so that the egg remained safe.

Ñame prepares lunch

Mess Tent

Ñame does gymnastics for the camera

We got back into our kayaks, refreshed with wet clothes, and continued to paddle. The rest of the afternoon was more overcast, so we felt comfortable, although we still enjoyed the areas where trees overhung the river and provided some cool shade. Felipe said that we were paddling very well and were running early, so we didn´t need to paddle as fast. Ñame pulled up at a beach to try to capture a turtle for a photo, but it went into the water with a loud SPLASH! Ñame giggled and got back into his kayak. Maybe next time.

At 3 o´clock we reached our campsite for tonight after having paddled 19 km. We pulled up at a muddy shore (the kind of silty mud you would pay a lot for at a spa) and climbed a steep bank to a small jungle clearing. Felipe told us that it was an abandoned illegal logging camp which they had now taken over. They use it as their second camp a lot on this trip, so that clients get both a beach and jungle camping experience. There were ants everywhere and they occasionally bit us, so we quickly got out the bug spray. Ñame showed his prowess with a machete by clearing some of the underbrush. Ñame, Arturo, and Felipe set up our tent and then set up the mess tent. Felipe dug a latrine and broke the shovel in the process. Because of the dense jungle, we didn't need the tent this time and instead enjoyed the open air. Ñame served us some tamarind juice. Felipe wanted to get an early start tomorrow morning (5 am) and asked if that was ok wth us. We readily agreed, so we had an early dinner. Arturo and Ñame had prepared potato soup with cheese and avocado, beans, beef, salad, chicken, potato, and lemonade. We passed on dessert as we were all so stuffed, and we pretty much went to bed as soon as it got dark. They did the dishes and Felipe dumped soapy water around our tent as a negative signal to try to minimize the ants. We wondered how effective it would be as we settled down to sleep. We could hear the guys loading most of the stuff onto the supply boat to make things easier for the morning.

Setting up our second camp

Mess tent

Arturo prepares dinner in the forest

Ñame prepares potatoes

Dinner

We woke up at 4:30 realizing happily that there wasn´t a single ant in the tent. We broke down our tent in pure darkness and loaded the kayaks, and were on the water by 5:30. It was eerie to try to navigate by headlamp, but soon the sky lightened. Many ants had stowed away on our kayak and we made a game of removing them while alternating paddling duties. Felipe spotted a cayman and we paddled right up next to it. It was about three feet long. Ñame wanted to catch it for a photo, but the moment he stepped into the water it disappeared beneath the water´s surface. Ñame did catch a couple of turtles this morning, and we got photos before releasing them. One had unfortunately been injured, no doubt by a boat propeller. We were happy to be on paddle power.

Arturo shows us a turtle

Cayman

Ñame and Felipe check out an injured turtle

Once daylight was fully established, we stopped at a beach for a leisurely breakfast of granola, blackberry yogurt, pancakes, and juice. We then got back onto the sinuous river and paddled some more, seeing many different birds, trees, butterflies, turtles, etc. Felipe showed us a place to pull over to get a view of a huge ceiba tree. We parked the kayaks and climbed up the muddy bank. The tree was absolutely breathtaking. Felipe said it is likely between 400 and 600 years old. Its scale was unbelievable. Arturo continued on to the next beach to set up lunch.

Preparing breakfast with fresh, hot coffee

Dwarfed by a massive ceiba tree

When we arrived, Arturo had a sandwich bar set up with tuna and lunch meats, cheese, lettuce, tomato, turkey, plaintain chips, cantaloupe, and the honey cake which was supposed to have been last night´s dessert. At this point we all held our bellies, having eaten too much, but it was such a great spread!

Craig enjoys lunch

Then we paddled the final stretch of this epic 31 km day. Craig and I were ahead of the others and paddled along enjoying the solitude of every bend of the river. We finally arrived at the dock of the Shiripuno River at 20 past 4 in the afternoon. The timing was perfect as there was still enough light to get settled in to our room which would have no electricity. We waited for the others to arrive so that we could begin our stay at the Shiripuno Lodge...

Arrival at Shiripuno Lodge

Spending Time with the Waira Churis

2010-08-14T18:21:00.134-04:00

Felipe and his colleague Arturo picked us up (in a replacement truck) on Friday August 6 and drove us out of Quito over the Andean continental divide towards Archidona. Along the way we stopped at the Guango Lodge to view their hummingbirds. It was amazing; we have never seen anything like it. There must have been at least 100 hummingbirds. They were eating from flowers and feeders, and there were many different varieties. You could get extremely close to them to photograph them. One of them even landed on my head! One species had an extremely long beak, and had to fly while eating because his beak was too long for him to sit on the perch! We sat outside and had some coca tea and cookies while enjoying observing the hummingbirds.

Hummingbird at Guango Lodge

We continued along our way and stopped in Baeza for lunch. Felipe said that we stopped there because the next good restaurant was 'a billion kilometers away.' We drove the rest of the way to Archidona, and stopped to pick up a boy named Herman. We then drove for 45 minutes into the jungle on a gravel road to a trail head, where Arturo dropped the four of us off. We followed the trail for about half an hour and around 4 pm came to a clearing in the jungle where there was a flat expanse of land dotted with several bamboo and wood plank huts. We were introduced to Carlos and his wife Maria. We knew that we would be spending time with 'the Waira Churi people', but we hadn´t really been able to find any information on who they were. We had thought that they were a tribe all their own. But once we arrived and spoke with Carlos, we learned that they are really a single large family of Kichwa people. Carlos is the grandfather, and his own grandfather had been a famous yachak shaman named Vicente Salazar who taught him many of the ways of the jungle. Fearing that their culture will be lost, Carlos has established this 'camp' in the jungle where his family accepts guests and practices and demonstrates their age-old customs. Carlos lost his mother in a river accident when he was very young, and viewed himself as raised by the wind, so he named his family clan the Waira Churis in the Kichwa language. He told us a lot of stories and demonstrated a lot of customs for us, and we think that this is a very honorable thing. We hope that they can get support from some kind of foundation so that they can expand their venture; currently everything they do is self-financed and managed.

Carlos and Maria

Carlos harvests a palm tree

Carlos harvests the heart of palm

Although most of Carlos' 10 children and their children live in Archidona, they come to this camp area to receive guests and they all stay overnight as a little community. Our accommodations consisted of a basic yet comfortable wooden hut with beds, sleeping pads, and mosquito nets. Their little bamboo outhouse had an actual toilet bowl (only) which you would manually flush by pouring a bucket of water down it. We were quite impressed with this. All in all it was far more comfortable than we had originally expected. There was even a little grotto area with naturally running water that we could use for a (cool) shower.

Michael holds a kitten

Baby Tamia takes Tony the puppy for a "walk"

Lorena the parrot checks out Felipe's camera

Bamboo hut

Snail (to scale)

Dinner is served on banana leaves

Carlos was very excited to show us his world, and like a kid he couldn´t decide what to show us first. We saw some very ugly and scary looking caterpillars, a huge snail as big as a conch, a perfectly round rock that his son had found at the bottom of a nearby waterfall...it was like show and tell and we struggled to absorb it all and reveled in all of our newfound knowledge.

The women cooked us traditional meals served on banana leaf plates. Carlos played us a song on his reed flute (he and the family only use flutes and drums (percussion, sometimes made of turtle shells) rather than post-Columbian instruments such as violins and guitars. He and the family enter musical competitions and often win. The culture here is very much sun up to sun down, so after chatting with Carlos everyone went to bed at around 8:30.

Carlos burns some natural copal incense he found on the way to the waterfall

The next day, we had breakfast and at around 9 am headed off on a 'one hour hike' to a sacred waterfall. Felipe warned us that the Kichwa conception of time and distance can be a bit...different...than our own, and this turned out to be the case. It was a rather steep downhill hike through the jungle, and after an hour walking at a liesurely pace, stopping to look at various medicinal plants, we reached the river. We had to cross it and thought that the waterfall must be nearby, but it wasn´t. We continued upstream for an additional hour and a half, scurrying over slippery rocks and up and down muddy slopes. Les Stroud (on his Survivorman TV show) often says that in a survival situation, 'if you sweat you die.' Well, if that were the case today, Craig and I would both have been dead. I totally ran out of energy and was sweating up a storm. I had visions of being left for dead and not even being able to make it to the waterfall to begin with, let alone making it back to camp! But I struggled on and we eventually arrived at a beautiful 3-tiered waterfall. Carlos and his family whipped together a sturdy ladder from bamboo and vines and climbed up the waterfall. I was in no shape to do that and we weren´t sure the ladder would hold our weight anyway, so Craig and I swam in the pool below the waterfall (schistosomiasis be damned!) There were many different beautiful butterflies here, including the ethereal blue morpho. They enjoyed using our clothes as their own private salt lick while we were swimming. After spending a nice time at the waterfall, we headed back to the camp. If going downhill was bad, going up was worse and on some steep slopes the young men even had to tow me up. How embarrassing! But I´ve never been so happy to hear a rooster crow in my life as I was when one signaled our appoach to camp shortly before sundown. Lunch had been waiting many hours for us, and the entire venture had lasted from 9-5:15 (an entire work day)! Next time, we highly recommend bringing lunch with us.

Hiking to the waterfall

River crossing

The Waira Churis climb a homemade ladder up the sacred waterfall

After eating we took a much-deserved outdoor 'shower' and were feeling like ourselves once again. The kids showed us their fireflies, which have two 'headlights' in the front and one light in the back. Everybody was exhausted, even though the hike was much easier for all of them, and by 8pm we were the only ones still awake, sitting on a bench in the dark, taking in our surroundings.

The next morning we hung out at the camp while Felipe and Carlos went for another hike to see the cock of the rock birds. We had brought a Frisbee and played with the kids, which was a lot of fun. The family taught us how to weave headbands out of palm leaves. Some of the younger kids were swinging from a vine and convinced me (against my better judgment) to give it a try. I couldn´t hold my weight and slid down the vine, skinning my fingers, much like a bad rope burn. Upon close examination I realized that I had taken several layers of skin off of my fingers, and that this was going to become an issue. When Felipe got back from his hike he got out his first aid kit and helped to clean my wounds. He then asked the Waira Churis for some sangre de drago (dragon´s blood), sap from a particular tree (which we learned about yesterday) which helps wounds to scab. After they inspected my injuries, someone quickly ran off and returned with a cup full of the stuff, which actually did look like blood. Felipe instructed me to rub it onto my wounds in a circular motion until it turned from scarlet to creamy white, and got a gluey consistency. Within minutes, the sting went away and I could see improvement. Rather than using creams and bandaids which would not let the wounds dry out, this created a 'second skin' coating and allowed them to dry out. I would need to be careful using my fingers, but this stuff was a godsend. I joked that I had done this on purpose in order to test out their traditional medicine. My conclusion was that the tribal remedy worked beautifully and I can´t believe how well and quickly my fingers healed. Carlos' and Maria´s faces are painted with traditional designs using the dark gray paste extracted from a palm tree. They asked if we wanted our faces painted in the same manner. We did, and Carlos' and Maria's son Edmundo did it for us. They said it should last 3 weeks, and we laughed thinking about showing up at work with what looks essentially like a tattoo on our faces. However, after sweating a lot in the next week, it would pretty much be washed off before we even arrive home.

Israel playing frisbee outside the guest house

Weaving lessons

Anna (11) and Sacha (7)

Edmundo paints Craig's face

My injured fingers

We had a nice lunch and then Carlos and the family took us into the woods to demonstrate 4 different types of traps that they would use in the jungle for hunting animals. Using nothing but a machete and materials found in the jungle, they showed us traps which were amazingly efficient and versatile. One snare was so good that it trapped one of their unsuspecting chickens...twice!! We heard snap, whoosh, cluck cluck! We all turned to see the chicken dangling in the air helplessly. We all got a good laugh out of this and quickly released the slightly traumatized chicken. They reset the trap and minutes later the same chicken was caught again! Even more laughter. No question about the efficacy of the traps. There was another trap which created almost a guillotine and snapped down with such force that Carlos said that it had often cut a snake in two. Felipe tested the trap with his shoe, and could barely extract it afterwards. After two more traps, they demonstrated their blowdart gun. They took arrows and affixed a cotton-like substance from a ceiba tree, loaded it into the gun, and blew it at a target made from yucca and a leaf. Carlos demonstrated his prowess by routinely hitting the yucca. They let us each try and we actually hit the leaf, but our arrows didn´t penetrate the yucca. It was easier to use than I had expected.

Carlos sets a trap

Carlos prepares to load the blow dart

Steph shoots a blow dart

We sat in one of the bamboo huts and Carlos played his flute while Maria sang. Felipe played along on a flute and drum in turn, and it was a nice relaxing musical interlude. Carlos asked if we would like to enact a Kichwa wedding ceremony. Felipe told him that we had just celebrated our 12 year wedding anniversary, and Carlos and Maria got very excited. They ran to get clothing to dress both of us as the rest of the family gathered and
donned their traditional outfits and headbands that we had woven earlier in the day. Craig wore Carlos´ feathered crown and I had a red veil over my head. A woman stood on either side of me and joined arms with mine. Men did the same with Craig. These symbolized our godmothers and godfathers, who would give us away for marriage. Carlos played a song and we danced, approaching one another and then backing off, until they officially handed me over to Craig, and transferred the feathered crown to me. It was very sweet that they had wanted to do this for us. This day was very much about us becoming closer to the family, and we are so glad that we added this additional day to the itinerary

Craig does laundry in the "shower"

Carlos serenades us in one of the bamboo huts

Our Kichwa wedding party

After a light supper, the sun set and we sat in a covered pavilion area for a ceremony. We sat in the dark around the coals of a fire and Craig and Felipe drank a cup of a traditional ceremonial drink made from various jungle plants. Approximately half an hour later, Carlos called each of us one by one to sit in front of him for cleansing. He chanted hypnotically and patted us with a bundle of leaves. He breathed onto our heads and blew smoke all around us. It was an intense surreal personal experience. It sent shivers down my spine.
We all sat in dark silence until the ceremony was finished, at which time Carlos re-lit candles and everyone eventually wandered off to bed. Craig gazed at the stars while standing all alone in the middle of camp on his way back to our room. It had been cloudy for much of the trip and Craig wasn´t going to give up this opportunity to see some stars. Tonight was a late night, and we went to bed at 11:30 and fell into a deep sleep.

Carlos prepares for the ceremony

Craig drinks the ceremonial drink

The next morning, we packed up our things, and Carlos' family packed up theirs. We had a quick breakfast and then walked down the path back to the gravel road. Arturo was there in our fixed white LandCruiser to pick us up. (It turned out that the problem had been an internally broken wire to the alternator). We said goodbye to the family and heartily thanked them for everything. We gave Maria a ride back to Archidona (Carlos was staying at the camp) while the rest of the family walked back to their homes in Archidona, their weekend at camp having finished. We are so lucky to have been able to spend time with this family. We highly recommend this experience and we wish them continued success in this venture. The accommodation was comfortable and the food was far beyond expectation, both in quality and quantity. We had delicious soup with every meal and never felt hungry. With our heads swimming with all of the experiences of the past few days, we were now ready to head to the Amazon...

Israel, Sacha, Vanessa, Jennifer, and puppy Tony

Steph, Felipe, Maria, and Craig as we leave Archidona

Six Days in the Highlands of Ecuador

2010-08-05T19:44:00.092-04:00

On Saturday morning, we had another nice breakfast at Casa Aliso, and then were picked up by our guide, Felipe. We had met him over dinner in the Galapagos two years ago, and it was nice to see him again. He drove us for approximately 2 hours to Otavalo, where their Saturday market was being held. Streets were closed off to make room for more market stalls. We wandered around for a few hours and bought a few items. Although there were a lot of other tourists present, there were plenty of interesting things to see, and many locals as well.

Felipe

Then we went to the Runa Tupari Tours office, where we were introduced to Antonio, a Kichwa man from the local community of Morochos. We would be spending the next five nights in the guest house at his family´s farm. Antonio took us to lunch at a restaurant called Inty Huasi. We learned that he is the director of a traditional band and that he plays many instruments.

Otavalo Market Seller

After lunch we drove to San Rafael, a nearby community on lake San Pablo. Tortora reeds grow in the lake and are used by local artisans to create mats, baskets, and other items. We learned how the reeds are harvested and processed. Then we went to a workshop to see a woman weaving mats from the reeds, using a rock to flatten them out.

Weaving a tortora reed mat

Next we went to a musical instrument workshop in Peguche. A woman demonstrated how to create a zampoña (pan flute) out of reeds. She also showed us other traditional Andean instruments such as flutes and tarkas, and small guitars made from armadillo shells. Antonio demonstrated how these instruments were played.

Making a zampoña

Our last stop was Carabuela, where we visited a master weaver named Jose Carlos de la Torre. He and his wife demonstrated how they process raw wool and spin it into thread. He then weaves it using a traditional backstrap loom. It was a very interesting demonstration and he did beautiful work. We purchased a beautiful hand-woven wool scarf for a very affordable price.

Weaver Jose Carlos de la Torre

Jose Carlos de la Torre and his granddaughter

Then we headed through towns such as Cotacachi and Quiroga to the more rural Morochos. We arrived at Antonio´s house, where we met his wife Rosa, daughter Aida, and 2 year old granddaughter Kehli (often called by her middle name, Sisa, which means flower in Kichwa). They showed us to our room, in a small 2 apartment guest house which we shared with Felipe. It was lovely, and had a private bathroom and fireplace.

Casita (guest house)

Their property was a picturesque small farm, with gardens, chickens, two cows, a kitten, and a dog named Max. Kehli was adorable and kept us all laughing, even when the language barrier created occasional quiet moments. The surroundings were gorgeous, with views of mountains in all directions.

Kehli

Antonio and his band, Chaski Ñan, were practicing for a performance tonight. We enjoyed watching them play, as Antonio changed from instrument to instrument. He told us that his favorite to play is the violin, yet he was very adept at everything he picked up, including flute, zampoña, and guitar.

Antonio

Antonio and Chaski Ñan

Rosa and Aida prepared the first of many delicious dinners for us: potato soup, chicken, rice, beets, and melloco. Anthony Bourdain was right; the soups and stews of Ecuador are outstanding. It is early to bed and early to rise in this land with 12 hours of daylight.

Rosa, Craig, Felipe, Antonio, Aida, Kehli

View behind our casita

View of Cayambe Volcano View behind our casita

The next day was our 12th wedding anniversary, and we would spend it in typical fashion (for us, anyway!) After a nice breakfast with the family, we went on a hike with Felipe and Antonio to the nearby volcano Fuya Fuya. The hike started out at Lake Mojanda at approximately 3700 meters in altitude. Since we live at sea level, this kind of altitude was a switch for us, and our breathing was quite labored. We found it difficult to catch our breath as we hiked up the sometimes steep and muddy slopes. It was a beautiful hike with clouds coming and going throughout the morning. We saw lots of interesting plants and flowers, some of which have medicinal properties and are used by the Kichwa people. When we finally made it to the summit, we were at 4265 meters (almost 14,000 feet)!! We were feeling quite impressed with ourselves.

Lake Mojanda

Felipe and Antonio take a snack break while hiking Fuya Fuya

Fuya Fuya hike

Summiting Fuya Fuya

It started to rain on the way down, but luckily we had already descended the steepest parts of the trail, which were becoming more and more muddy. The incredibly fertile soil here was black and very slippery. We drove back to Otavalo and had another lunch at Inty Huasi before returning to Antonio´s house. We had a fun afternoon hanging out with Rosa, Aida, and Kehli. After another fantastic dinner, Kehli kept herself (and us) entertained by playing with a small beetle. We couldn´t imagine kids at home being occupied for hours by a simple insect.

Monday was a low key day, which was nice after our long hike yesterday. Rosa and Kehli took us for a walk around Morochos. It is a very friendly and well-organized community of about 900 Kichwa inhabitants. We went to their community center, where we saw an early childhood program, as well as women weaving with the wool from the communally owned alpacas.

Community Center in Morochos

Rosa and Kehli

In the afternoon we went with Rosa and Kehli to the nearby town of Cotacachi, known for its leather work. We browsed in the stores and Craig bought a very affordable belt and wallet. On the drive back, Kehli was very intrigued by Felipe shifting gears, and tried (unsuccessfully) to shift the truck into 4wd a couple of times.

Cotacachi

When we got back to the house, we showed the family some photos that we had brought from home. This really helped to break the ice, and got us all chatting. Kehli especially liked the picture of our cat Brownie, and she hugged and kissed the photo. Photos of us with mountain gorillas were also a big hit. After laughing and joking, we all started to feel like one family. We had another lovely dinner and Felipe talked tourism with Antonio.

The next day, Rosa and Kehli took us to see many community projects. We went to a plant where local farmers bring fruits such as goldenberries, blackberries, sambo, and peppers to be dehydrated or turned into jellies or paste. After that, we went to the women´s center where midwives are available to help pregnant women and to diagnose maladies by reading guinea pig entrails. There is also a computer lab here. The purpose of the center is to keep women (from about 35 different communities) educated in traditional ways as well as introducing them to new technologies. Then we went to an ethnobotanical garden, where we were educated about many medicinal plants. Local people can obtain seeds here to plant in their own gardens, and Rosa told us that many of her plants had originated here. We were really getting a feel for how well-organized the communities are, and how everyone helps one another.

Ethnobotanical Garden

Frog at Ethnobotanical Garden

We had another lovely home cooked meal for lunch and then went for a drive with Felipe, Rosa, Aida, Kehli, Delia and Celestina (cousins from next door) and their young brother. We drove up a dirt road to where we could see the communal alpacas high in the mountains above us. While there we saw two rainbows. Aida explained that both of these rainbows were feminine in Kichwa belief, because they weren´t very bright and didn´t touch the ground. The late afternoon sunlight was gorgeous, and we took many photos.

Aida and Rosa

Kehli and "wah wah"

After Antonio got home, we (Felipe, Rosa, Antonio, Kehli, and Delia) went to see the local shaman, Taita Manuel Flores. He lived in a very traditional home of adobe walls with a straw roof. We were led into a dark room and sat on wooden benches. We brought offerings of medicinal plants, cigarettes, and a candle, and the 88 year old shaman demonstrated how a traditional healing would be done. He admitted that he is now too old to do healings on a regular basis, as it takes too much out of him. But he would demonstrate how it is done (the community is concerned as no one has yet been fully trained as a successor). The shaman chain smoked the cigarettes and took mouthfuls of liquor which he then spit on rocks, candles, and the medicinal plants. We had to rub the wax from an unlit candle onto our hands and heads, and he chanted a mixture of traditional Kichwa and Catholic incantations. Craig was mesmerized. Antonio demonstrated how they would pat Kehli down with the medicinal plants if she were sick. At the end of the demonstration, the shaman asked us to each hold a rock and to rub it over our hands and heads. It was an amazing experience, truly authentic.

Taita Manuel Flores

When we got home from this adventure, Aida had a lovely dinner waiting for us. When we were walking back to our rooms with Felipe, we stopped to look at the sky and saw two shooting stars while stargazing. It was the perfect end to a wonderful day.

On Wednesday we had breakfast at the house, and then went with Felipe and Antonio to hike around Lake Cuicocha (also called the Guinea Pig Lake or Lake of the Gods). It is a very sacred lake to the Kichwa people. We could see why. It was an absolutely stunning crater lake with incredibly blue water and two green islands in the middle. It was a beautifully sunny day with no rain and white puffy clouds that occasionally blocked the intense equatorial sun. We hiked with Antonio while Felipe drove the car to pick us up at the end of the trail. Antonio showed us a lot of medicinal plants along the route, and we sampled delicious wild blueberries and blackberries. The trail wound around the crater, up and down, and we occasionally had glimpses of the snow-covered summit of Cotacachi. Felipe met up with us partway through the hike, but we decided that we wanted to continue the hike to its conclusion. It was a good decision, as there were some stunning views and a very interesting trail still to be enjoyed.We could see the communal alpacas (which yesterday were way above us) now well below us.

Lake Cuicocha

Cuicocha hike

We went back to the house and had a lovely lunch. As we would need to leave tomorrow morning (5 days passed too quickly!), we had some packing to do in the afternoon. Antonio played some music and Kehli danced in circles with her baby doll (¨wah wah¨in Kichwa). We ate a delicious dinner and the family surprised us with a going-away cake. It was a very special evening. We enjoyed each other´s company over glasses of Pilsener beer and peach wine, amazed at how close we had become over a mere few days.

Fuya Fuya at Sunset (View from behind our guest house)

Aida and Kehli

The family (but Kehli was already in bed)

This morning (Thursday) we awoke to find that our truck was dead. Felipe tried to fix it but it seemed to be a physically broken alternator. While we waited for a flatbed tow truck, we had some additional precious time to spend with the family. The tow truck caused quite a stir in the neighborhood and drew a large crowd of adults, children, goats, and cows.

Aida, Rosa, and Kehli

Rosa, Kehli, Craig, Steph, and Aida

A taxi showed up soon afterwards and Omar drove us to Quito, back to Casa Aliso. We got settled into our room and then had a nice late lunch next door at Clancy´s. And that pretty much brings you up to date on what's been going on with us in Ecuador.

Tomorrow we head out to visit the Waira Churi (Wind Dancer) tribe for three nights, and then we kayak into the jungle where we will camp and meet the Huaorani tribe and finally spend a few days at the Shiripuno Lodge. We might be able to blog when we are back in Quito before going home, but we make no promises.

Unfortunately, we can´t upload pictures from here, but we will definitely add a few when we get home. As you can imagine, we´ve taken tons.