Quito at night

Monday 28 April 2008

Our last night in Quito. This is the view of San Fransisco plaza from our hostal. Nice location, huh?

Star orchid

Sunday 27 April 2008

We visited the Botanical Garden here in Quito today, where we spent most of our time in the two orchidariums (surprise, surprise.) They had one cooler one for high-altitude orchids, and a hotter one for low-altitude orchids, but both were amazing.

Orquestra Típica Ferdinand Fierro

Saturday 26 April 2008

We went to see this Argentine tango band last night - I know, I know, going to see a Argentine band in Ecuador? Well, Ryan had really wanted to see them before and never got the chance, so we figured we'd grab the chance now! They were very good modern tango, although the concert was a bit short. What was really neat was the theater. We saw the show in the Teatro Bolívar, which had a very very bad fire a few years back. The inside had clearly been gorgeous before the fire, although it is pretty simple and still very much in the process of restoration now. The really cool thing, though? After the fire, they didn't miss a single performance - the show had to go on! Now that's theater people.

Church in the middle of the world

Friday 25 April 2008

We visited the equator today, which was a really cool outing. There were actually three different museums, all claiming to have the "real" equator. At the main big one, they had a whole complex of souvenir shops and pavilions and a monument and whatnot, although that one is generally believed to be off by about 240 meters. It was neat, though, and we took a bunch of silly pictures. A little ways down, I found this church, right on the equator. I imagine it's popular for weddings!

At the GPS equator, they did all kinds of things like showing you which way the water flowed down a drain on each side of it, and right on the line (don't worry, I got videos) and letting you balance an egg on a nail (pretty easy!)

Toucan

Thursday 24 April 2008

Mindo is supposed to be a bird-watcher's paradise, so we decided to take a guided bird walk today. Most of the little brownish ones started to look alike to me after a while, although I did enjoy some of their names (Marble-throated Bristle-tyrant and Buff-fronted Foliage-gleaner were some of my favorites). This guy certainly stood out from the crowd, though!

Sticky guy

Wednesday 23 April 2008

We visited a butterfly garden today, but those pictures didn't turn out so well. But they also had a bunch of tree frogs around in aquariums, and I thought this guy was awfully neat.

Itsy bitsy spider . . .

Tuesday 22 April 2008

A spider in the orchid garden.

Orchids!

Monday 21 April 2008

Ryan and I have escaped the city, and are currently taking a breather in the town of Mindo, which is high up in the cloud forests of Ecuador. Our hostal is in an orchid garden, which is the coolest thing. Here is the Brassia arcuigera, just one of over 200 species represented here. (There are over 3,500 species in all of Ecuador!)

Hail!

Sunday 20 April 2008

We had a terrible and loooong hail storm today in Quito. Luckily, Ryan and I were safe inside an internet cafe. It got worse after I took this shot, but it's the best one I have of the hail accumulating on the street. It looked like it had snowed!

La Virgin Dolorosa

Saturday 19 April 2008

You just never know when you're going to run into a religous procession down here! Here is one for the Virgin Dolorosa, or "pained virgen," who appeared in the government buildings here in Quito over 500 years ago. It was a neat procession, everyone was singing, all the school kids were walking in their uniforms, and crazy pop music would interupt the mournful songs at regular intervals.

Uvillas

Friday 18 April 2008

I know I just showed some fruit a few days ago, but this fruit was so cool I just had to post a picture of it. It's called "uvilla," and tastes like a sour cherry-ish. It's just so cool how it grows inside that paper pouch, though.

Candlelit Procession

Friday 21 March 2008

Good Friday candlelit procession. There were probably thousands of people walking the stations of the cross tonight. This afternoon, the town of Copacabana really filled up with pilgrims from all over Bolivia as well as Peru and Argentina, coming to this tiny town known for its church and its "Virgin of the Dark Lake."

Blessing of the Cars

Thursday 29 March 2008

In the town of Copacabana, Bolivia, on the shore of Lake Titicaca, they have a rather curious tradition. Every day at a certain time, a priest will come out and bless any cars in front of the church. They've usually been decorated up with flowers and ribbons, as in the picture, and people also bring champagne and beer to pour over the cars after they've been sprinkled with holy water.

Flower market

Wednesday 19 March 2008

The nightly flower market outside San Fransisco church, La Paz, Bolivia.

La Paz hillside

Tuesday 18 March 2008

Ryan and I are in La Paz, Bolivia, now, by the way. It's the highest capital in the world - Bolivia seems to hold a lot of "the highest -------- in the world" records. Here is a view of a hillside - the streets are so steep, that seen from across the valley they look like a drawing without perspective.

Spinning

Monday 17 March 2008

A woman using a traditional spinning stick to spin yarn, making it thinner, finer, and more suitable for the intricate weaving Bolivia is rightfully famous for.

Pujllay!

Sunday 16 March 2008

Alright, now for the festival I promised you. It is called Pujllay, and takes place in the tiny Bolivian town of Tarabuco the third Sunday of every March (which just happens to also be Palm Sunday this year - a great big celebration day). Pujllay means "to play" in the Quechua language, and seems to be both a day commemorating the defeat of the Spaniards in a battle in this town (after which the Tarabuco warriors ate the hearts of the Spaniards), and paying tribute to Pachamama, the Andean Mother Earth. Here you can see the offerings to Pachamama, in fact - a ladder absolutely full of food - meat, canned goods, pop, wine, bread, all kinds of stuff, and a group dancing around it.

The part of the festival we saw was mostly dancing - people danced for hours and hours in traditional costume. I don't know how they did it, in fact, in those thick ponchos in the hot sun. It was really amazing to see the colorful costumes, and the people so consumed by what they were doing. It is one of the biggest festivals in Bolivia, and a really unique experience for Ryan and I.

Festival teaser

Saturday 15 March 2008

Today was a rather uneventful day spent on the internet, so I decided to post a teaser for tomorrow. (Oooh, a photo from the future!) This is a picture from the festival Ryan and I attended . . . (to be continued!)

Castillo de la Glorieta

Friday 14 March 2008

Ryan and I visited this grand old house just outside of Sucre today. It was raining, and we were a little disappointed to find that we couldn't actually enter the building - we could only walk around it. But the grounds were really pretty, with a few fountains, some ponds, a bunch of gorgeous pink flowers, some ducks, and a few gazebos.

Heavenly clouds

Thursday 13 March 2007