"mierda, se acabó el mote"

[rone]

I never wrote a recap of our trip to Ecuador three years ago.  I never even bothered to link to Kim's recap.  It's because i'm lame.  I've had a bunch of notes lying around since then.  I might get around to it.

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Summary: eleven days in and around Quito, plus two spent in gravity-defying aluminum sausages.  Quito is still beautiful, although it's more crowded than ever with cars.

We spent the first two days adjusting to the altitude (2850 meters above sea level).  Then it was the day of my cousin Iván's and Cristina's wedding.  The less said about the ceremony, the better.  The reception party, though, was killer fun.  My cousin Francisco gave me and palecur each a Cohiba cigar, which was really a quite enjoyable smoke, although so massive that i only finished two-thirds of it.  Good wine, good music and lots of dancing (including the Macarena, which caught me on the dance floor; i steadfastly refused to "do" it, and danced on my own).  Only the food was the weak link; when Mom and my aunts sampled the food, it had been fantastic, but when the food showed up at the party, it was underwhelming.  We went home "early" at around 02:30.

While there, we went to:

• The hot springs in Papallacta (3300 m ASL) with my aunt Martha, where we all got sunburnt except for Kim.  The skies opened up there to give us a gorgeous look at the Antisana.
• Cayambe to have lunch at La Casa de Fernando, where i had my old usual, the steak au poivre, and Kim had the largest filet mignon she's ever had (almost twice as large as your average filet mignon).  We washed it down with a fantastic Santa Ema carmenère.  Dad knows Fernando, and Fernando knows when my dad is there because my dad orders his steak well-done-to-burnt, so when the order comes in, he pokes his head out of the kitchen.  I bought a bottle of Viña Dávalos 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon, produced and bottled in Mira, in Ecuador's province of Carchi, up against the Colombian border.  The wine was lost by Continental Airlines between Quito and Houston, but it was fortunately found and delivered last night.  I eagerly await the day when i open it; i think Ecuador has huge potential for wine (indeed, due to its weather, two harvests are possible each year [!]).
• Otavalo for the fair to buy gifts for the chilluns.  We did all right, despite my being hungry and subsequent crankiness.  Otavalo is right next to Lago San Pablo (St. Paul Lake, or Imbacocha), which is at the foot of the Imbabura (note: 'huarmi' means 'woman', not 'son').  We drove down to Cotacachi for lunch (we had their famous carne colorada, lean pork chunks cooked in a spicy annatto sauce).  After lunch, we bought Kim a new purse/backpack (Cotacachi is also famous for their leather goods), and then we drove to Cuicocha, a lake at the foot of the Cotacachi mountain that has a very large island in the middle.
• A museum of colonial-era art housed in what used to be Quito's first university, and a display of Goya, Picasso, and Miró sketches at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador.
• Mom's cousin Piolín's and Chío's (or Gustavo and Rocío, if you want given names) house for ceviche, hominy with pork rinds, toasted corn with garlic, and beer.  The hominy and pork was especially good and i ended up finishing it off after everyone was full (thus, my remark in the subject which spontaneously occurred during one of those mysterious lulls in conversation that happen at every gathering).  Their house is at the top of a hill and you can see the Chimborazo (the tallest mountain in Ecuador and the tallest mountain in the world measured from the Earth's center) on a clear day.  Their youngest son, Felipe, is an artist of some renown, and he had his work shown at the Miss Universe pageant, which was held in Ecuador two years ago (i hope to have the chance to scan in some some pictures of his stuff; it's really good and the medium he's using is, as far as i know, unique).  Later, after seeing my aunt Martha off at the airport, Mom took us to the Panecillo for an awesome view of Quito at night.
• The new TelefériQo cable car up the side of Cruz Loma, one of the foothills of the Ruco Pichincha.  The top of Cruz Loma is 4100 m ASL, and we hiked farther up the side of the Ruco Pichincha (maybe another 100 m of altitude).  Kim and i chatted with Merlin ("Like the magician," she said), who was from Holland, and Alex, who was from Minnesota.  He was in Ecuador working with WWOOF.
• My aunt Inés's place, where we played telefunken, where i managed to beat everyone via batatazo (laying down all your cards as "melds" and discarding a card before anyone has laid down) for the first time.  That felt real good.  We also learned to play canasta, which is a lot of fun.  And, naturally, we played a fair bit of cuarenta.

I missed out twice on seeing Liga de Quito play.  I have to catch them in their stadium next time, no matter what.

I hope i haven't forgotten much.  I gotta get to bed now.

Comments

[sagespot.livejournal.com]

Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador

They had beautiful stuff on display when I was there last.