The Word Page

My little sidebar, The Word Page, just graduated tonight to its own blog, thewordpage.wordpress.com. Check out The Word Page, with entries comparing Spanish and English words that are similar but not the same, digging through the trash, links to mispronounced words, and much more. If you hate wondering about language, click somewhere else, and soon.

My other little sidebar, right here in Equator Gringos, is the Computer Page, will share little tools, websites, and other techie tidbits as they come across my world.

Baños

Our long weekend (12-14 of October) found us returning to a place we visited on our honeymoon and had ambivalent memories of: the town of Baños. Mostly what I remember was grungy concrete swimming pools of thermal water and dogs barking all night long in the alley outside our crappy hotel. And that the bus ride to Baños was almost as terrifying as the road to where I worked in Bolivia, known (I later found out) as the Most Dangerous Road in the World. But several people told us that we would love Baños, that there is so much to do - so we went.

We found that the road to Baños we took 13 years ago doesn’t exist anymore (large chunks swept away by landslides from the Tungurahua volcano), that the main road from Quito via Ambato is not at all frightening, and that the town is an adventurer’s paradise.

On the bus down we met a bunch of teachers from another International School in Quito, and it turned out that Tim and Erin Henkels are both former Outward Bound instructors and climbers. They had plans to climb in Baños, and kindly invited us along. As a result of this, we also met Willy, one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, our climbing guide to the hard Basalt sport climbs of Baños.

Our trip was full and fun, and we want to go back soon to do more. Possibly Canyoning? That means putting on a wetsuit and rappelling down 6 successively taller waterfalls! I’m dying to do that! Sound too rough? How about an open-air bus trip to visit half a dozen waterfalls? Or an evening’s cruise in a weird amusement-park style road train made to look like a happy caterpillar? That’s all for the next time! As for this trip, I’ll let the slideshow do most of the talking.

Joy’s Spanish School

Luke very graciously agreed to let me write a “guest post” on his blog (I’ll probably never go to the trouble of setting up my own) so that I can tell everyone about my Spanish classes - Joy.

I found out shortly after arriving in Quito that I lucked out - Ecuador is apparently one of the best countries in the world to learn Spanish. This is because people here speak relatively slowly and clearly, and the Spanish they speak is easily understood in other Spanish speaking countries. But there were more than 80 Spanish schools to choose from, so I went to the South American Explorer’s Club for advice. They have all kinds of information for travelers - including a list of recommended Spanish schools in Ecuador. I asked the folks at the club which of the schools on the list they could personally recommend…

The Cristobal Colon School was the cheapest of the three they mentioned - which made the decision simple for me (those of you who know me know that I’m CHEAP). And because I’m a member of the SAEC, I got a discount - so the rate was only $4 an hour! The school is also in a great location - each day I either took the trolley or a bus to & from the school, and after my lessons I could walk from the school to the Santa Clara market (only 2 or 3 blocks away) to buy a kilo of blackberries for $2.50(!). I also walked from the school to the Mariscal District (or Gringolandia if you’re a local) several times to have lunch. I’m including a picture of the two teachers I had, Carina and Rita. They were both incredibly patient, funny, smart, and helpful, and made me feel so welcome in Quito. ¡Muchas gracias, Carina y Rita!

I took six weeks of lessons - about 3 or 4 hours a day each day, and my last day was this past Friday. I definitely think it’s helping me, but I need a lot more practice! (When Luke and I are together it’s just so much easier to speak in English.) Anyway, I just can’t say enough about how much I enjoyed these lessons, and how much it’s empowering me to do things for myself. Today I went car shopping, and managed to speak quite a bit of Spanish with the vendor (even though the car turned out to be a dud)!

I’ve got to be one of the luckiest women on earth - not working, learning another language, and experiencing a new culture in a BEAUTIFUL country. ¡Que bueno!

More on bees

I just added a line to the Swarm of Bees post, but I’ll repeat it here: I keep thinking of British transvestite comedian Eddie Izzard’s hilarious piece about beekeepers. Click here to see it on Youtube (please note: one swear word is used).

Glass Blowing

Last weekend we went on a morning trip to a little rustic glass factory. There’s a car windshield manufacturer somewhere in Ecuador that gives their broken windshields to the glass factory - which they use as their primary raw material. We got to see the surprisingly complex and deft multi-step choreography of two glassblowers creating a piece of stemware — a process involving at least five different steps.

I’ve been fascinated with glassblowing since I was in elementary school and we went to the West Virginia Arts and Crafts Fair. I remember learning about the importance of tempering the glass by slowly cooling it, because the demonstrators were creating really cool vases and pitchers, then letting them explode - they weren’t making the pieces to keep.

Joy and I visited the famous Venetian Glass island of Murano in Italy for our tenth wedding anniversary. More recently I’ve seen exhibits of the amazing art of glassblower Dale Chihuly. It’s hard not to be drawn into the vivid colors and organic shapes of his big pieces.

After all this, you can bet I didn’t hesitate when the owner of this little rustic factory asked if any of us wanted to try our hand and blowing glass (check out the slideshow - photos thanks to Beth Rogers!).