hey everyone - we had an awesome stay home and really felt even closer to everyone than we did when we lived there

we're going to try to give everyone a glimps into our experience through a bunch of pictures

we love you all and thanks for visiting...we'll update you on the Dani and Steve visit next - peace and love ~ and as always, double click to enlarge the photo (highly encouraged)

so this is Quito before we left - crazy red sky, no?

i think i'm going to miss the sky the most when we leave this city for good

the next few pics are from our trip to panama - sharon has better pics, but they're not on this computer

We're still trying to catch up on all the missed blogging ~ so, even though it happened months ago I wanted to post some pictures of my mom's visit to Ecuador back in February.

She came during our Carnival vacation and since that's typically a time when people throw water balloons and spray foam at people we decided to head out of town.

We went to the town of Otavalo which has the largest indigenous market in Ecuador. Here's a picture from a balcony of all the stalls.


We spent our time shopping in the town but stayed at a mountaintop lodge just outside of the town and it was beautiful.


We had a house to our selves and a guy who came around and stoked the fire periodically. We spent a lot of time drinking wind and reading books in the living room by the warm fire.



We ate our meals in the main lodge (which is right behind mom in this picture) and they served pretty decent vegetarian fare.



The place was really gorgeous ~ flowers everywhere (notice all the dahlias?) and we took a long hike around the ridge of the mountain ~ I was impressed with mom's endurance especially since she had only been in town for 2 days and was hiking at over 10,000 feet! We saw some beautiful views and at one point the trail ended in a very nice couples' garden ~ oops! They didn't seem to mind and pointed us in the right direction.


Here's one of the llamas that were hanging around the lodge ~ I think they're so cute. There was also an adorable cat and a tiny puppy.



After this trip I had to return to work so mom came by and visited Chris and I at school.
Here's a picture she took from outside my classroom...


She visit my classroom and got to meet some of my very cute students.


She also spent a day on a tour of the old town Quito visiting all the beautiful churches and squares and learning some of the history of the place.
Her tour also went to mitad del mundo ~ the middle of the world where they have a big monument and museum on the equator (Chris and I still haven't made it there)





We managed to get a few nights of bridge in with our friends who used to play when they were in the peace corps in Nepal.

And for a last hurrah we headed for one night to the cloud forest. We stayed at the eco lodge where Chris and I have been a few times (the pictures might look familiar). We love the owners and they make the most delicious vegetarian food and the place is so relaxing.



As mom and I were hanging out waiting for the communal dinner we ran into a couple who were staying there and we eventually figured out that I had met the guy 15 years ago when I was living in New York City and he was a friend of a friend and had actually stayed for a few nights in my apartment with his girlfriend at the time! Imagine running into each other in a tiny town in Ecuador ~ small world....
We took a wet and muddy hike to see all the flora and some fauna of the area ~ here's mom and our guide ~ it's a big place for bird watching.




We went across the way to the butterfly farm...



If you remember the pictures from a previous trip you have to cross the river mindo to get to the lodge via a home made cable car type thing.

Science marches on...

It seems like they've finally done it. I actually thought I might not see this in my lifetime. They've created a genetically modified human embryo. This means they have inserted a gene into the human genome of a growing embryo.

I didn't think it wouldn't happen - not because I didn't think they could do it - it's actually really easy to do. I just didn't think anyone would cross that line. Basically, this means they can insert genes and change genes at will. Want you kids to be taller? smarter? - have you ever seen the movie GATACA? Anyway, check it out. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article3908516.ece

Vegetarians will now face a new dilema - can they eat meat if it doesn't come from an animal? That's right - they can now grow meat "In Vitro." Meat without animals - YUM! Check out the wikibooks entry for the basics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_vitro_meat and the NY Times Blog article for the social and ecological implications. http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/11/can-people-have-meat-and-a-planet-too/?ref=science

The future is now...

Check out the "Stem Cell Primer" i posted under bio links - it's incredibly well done (with a beautiful example of art and science uniting) and will teach you most of what you need to know to be an informed citizen (and voter)

check out the MEATRIX, too ~ a fantastic tale of what's wrong with today's corporations and why we need to return to the family farm of yesteryear (and an amazing parallel to the movie :)

~ peace and love

CONGRATULATIONS TO MARY AND DAVID! - we are so unbelievably happy for you and excited about the wonderful edition to our clan - all we can talk about is when we might get to see Daniel!

and in much less exciting news .... hello everyone

sorry it's been so long - no good excuses - we've been busy with work and the minutia of everyday life, but hasn't everyone

on a first note, i had a wonderful trip home over spring break and my family (as always) was so wonderful and gererous and welcoming and i had such a great time with dad fishing (sooooo good and peaceful) - thanks, dad!

here are our beautiful kitties, getting bigger and staying very healthy - our 'come to our home' vet is going to take care of them at her house while we're gone and we're so happy about that - although we're not sure how we'll live without them for five weeks - and we're really hoping they don't forget us :(

and now that my hip is feeling mostly better we're going to try to summit...and we're quite scared but optimistic - we'll post some pictures whether we make it or not

this is Iliniza Norte
5,126m / 16,817ft

and jon has been sooooo kind as to send down a tripod and a remote, without which i couldn't have taken these photos (thanks, my friend - it has opened up new avenues of photoness) - double click to make BIGGER

I've also found some time among the chaos to get some painting done - as sharon said, "wow, you've really gone in different directions" - as always, it makes me happy (sorry 'bout the shadows)

sharon is doing wonderfully and has come very close to getting her second masters degree, this time in education - how many people have done that!

we're happy and can't wait to get home and see everyone - we'll be here in quito again next year and then we'll see where the world takes us - at this point we're thinking southeast asia, but we know how things change and we know we'll end up where we're supposed to be...

on a tangential note, i just want to thank uncle bob for his wonderful words of encouragement and support last time i was home - as always, he was terse and meaningful

we love you all and send peace and joy

chris and sharon

Llapingachos in Papallacta...
The last leg of our holiday trip came after heading back from Cabanas tres rios. We had almost a two hour delay after setting out with our driver ~ we decided not to take the bus to Papallacta because the roads seemed a bit sketchy because it had been raining a lot. And sketchy they were ~ there was a mudslide that landed in the road. Our driver told us it was a small one but in that case we were worried what a big one would be like. So, we waited for the bulldozer to arrive and clear a path big enough for a single lane of traffic to pass through.

After that we made it pretty quickly in his truck ~ lots of muddy roads and small bridges along the way. We were happy to arrive and see our cute, hobbit-like cabin with lots of private hot thermal baths right outside.
We stayed in a cabin with a fireplace and here is a view from our little deck that looks out on a bunch of the private baths.


The baths are fed directly by the volcano and really are amazing. They have minerals that are great for your body and skin and are wonderfully hot. We spent a lot of time soaking.

We had about a 45 second view of the volcano Antisana ~ it's massive and beautiful and you can see it's snow capped peak in this picture. It's the only point on the equator where there is snow year round.

There are also great hikes right from the complex ~ all different levels and lengths. Papallacta is higher than Quito ~ over 10,000 feet so it's really beautiful.

We took one of the paths and it was like hiking thorough a magical forest filled with lichen, bromeliads and waterfalls.



We stayed two nights and Chris, Meredith and Michael enjoyed many llapangachos ~ a local specialty involving potato - cheese patties topped with a fried egg and hot sauce (aji).

It was hard to tear ourselves away from the thermal baths to head back to Quito.
New year's eve held the typical Qutio fun ~ burning masks and mannequins that represent the old year ~ although some look like anyone from George Bush to Spiderman. Right on our block families were dousing them with gasoline and lighting them on fire along with many, many fireworks.
And now it's back to work tomorrow!

After our trip to Banos, we returned to Quito on the 24th. Meredith and I went to the grocery store to buy lots of food for Christmas eve and day and then we cooked and hung out. Chris made a delicious vegetable/chickpea bake for Christmas eve and for Christmas day I made homemade gnocchi with pesto sauce, Meredith made a tomato vodka sauce and Michael made some wonderful stuffed poblano peppers ~ it was a feast complete with homemade sesame cookies ~ batches with and without wheat flour.

Then we headed out again on the 26th (Meredith's birthday). We went to a very small town called Borja that had a hostal right outside it called Cabanas tres Rios (or Cabanas de Larry as the locals call it).

It's in the cloud forest and was mostly for kayakers since it's right on the river. We spent a relaxing few days taking long walks...


reading in and out of hammocks...

and playing dominoes and canasta.

Chris tried fishing on the river but it was super high and rough waters.

We had beautiful views of some of the farms and around us

and the gardens at the hostal were really beautiful and we saw a few different varieties of hummingbirds.

Feliz Ano!!!
Hard to believe we just spent our second holiday season in Quito. Last year with Susan and Tom visiting and this year Meredith and Michael. They just left on the morning of Jan. 2nd and we had lots of fun and travels while they were here.
We'll probably need to separate all the info and pictures into different posts ~otherwise it's too hard to manipulate all the photos and I'll try to save so that their in the right order.
We started out with a day in Quito ~ a trip to the artesan craft market, an amazing jewelry store and lunch downtown. The next day we headed to a town called Banos ~ a very cute town nestled in the mountains about 2 hours south of Quito.

We took a bus to get there ~ almost four hours but pretty comfortable and no one on the bus to threw up and the driver didn't stop for a 2 hour lunch break or anything like that (which seems to happen on most of our bus excursions). They played a Vin Diesel double feature on the bus ~ I can't remember the names but it's probably not that important anyway, they seemed to have similar plot lines.... they were dubbed in Spanish but who needs language to understand Vin Diesel movies???
Here are a couple of pictures taken out the window of the bus. The first one is the outskirts of Quito.


This next one is a little town we passed through before we reached Banos.

So, Banos is super cute and actually has a lot of vegetarian restaurants (more options for us than Quito). We started off at Cafe Hood ~ right off this park square ~ it's so popular that other people have opened up other restaurants called Cafe Good and Casa Hood ~ but we stuck with the original.
There was also a restaurant called Paisano's and we went there for dinner. We were the only four there and it was a small place that was also the cook's/owner's art studio. We ordered garlic soup, the Vegetarian Plate and the "Concierto Vegetariano" and had a few beers, inhaling the oil paint smell while we waited. The wife of the cook snuck out to the corner store to buy our beers while we waited. It must have taken at least 45 minutes and we were presented with an amazing array of vegetarian dishes that were so delicious and the whole thing probably cost about $15.00 ~ including beers. It was kind of a surreal experience. The cook talked to us for a while after the meal and told us about the time and love it took to cook vegetables as opposed to meat.
Here's a picture of Michael outside a bar/restaurant near our hostal. The town was pretty quiet since it was the day before christmas but this was a great place to have a drink and a snack.


We stayed at a really cute place on the edge of the small town called La Posada del Arte and it had a great rooftop terrace.


We hung out there at night and played canasta and dominoes. There was a great waterfall behind the hostal.

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Banos means baths and there are a few public thermal baths in the town. They are fed directly by the volcano so we tried them out..... let me tell you, they are nothing compared to our later trip to Papallacta. The baths cost $2 in the evening but it was a weekend and they were super crowded and you felt like if you leaned back you were going to sit on a strange person's lap. So, we didn't stay there too long..
Meredith and Michael took a hike up the mountain and got some great views of the town (Chris and I took a nap and each got a massage ~ $17 for an hour massage).

Chris and I can't wait to go back ~ it's beautiful, very chill, super friendly and great veggie food.
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