Breakfast -
When Ryan and I got off the bus at 4am this morning we both ate a salt bread that they make special in beach towns. I made a carafe of coffee when I woke up around noon, ate a banana and had a couple of bites of Grant's raspberry buttermilk cake (DELICIOUS!).
Lunch -
I ate a chocolate bread and a bag of papas (potato chips).
Dinner -
Ryan made pasta and homemade veggie sauce that we topped with some La Chonta cheese. I also added some ham to mine. Plus garlicy green beans on the side. And a glass of coke with lime! Plus I ate the last two chocolate Amor cookies. Then before bed I ate a chocolate bar.
Not a very healthy day and I'm feeling rather sluggish because of eating crap while traveling and because of the lack of sleep. Hopefully tomorrow morning I'll have more time to get some food ready for the 'week', or what's left of it!
MULUB,
Taylor
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
2 Lenten Projects
So I've never been one to give up anything for Lent really but this year I have two projects that I'd like to do and I figured why not make them Lenten! So here they are...
Project Number 1
We live right next to Volcan Pichincha, this huge massive beautiful active volcano. I know that when we leave Ecuador the mountains are the first thing that I'll miss, especially waking up and going to sleep to this amazing view from our apartment. One of the things I love about mountains is that they ALWAYS look different. From different parts of the city, at different times of day, during different weather they're always changing. So Project Number 1 is one picture of Pichincha for the next 40 days. From now on, this project will be reffered to as Project Pichincha.
Project Number 2
If you don't read Kath Eats Real Food, you should! I LOVE HER BLOG! Basically it's a blog about her life, centered around the food she eats. She posts three times a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Her food is healthy but not crazily healthy that you think 'I would never make that.' She's active, but not crazily active that it seems impossible and she's concious about the environment, her community and the culture of food in just the right amount that isn't preachy but inspires you to change. Anyways, she's great and so is her blog and I just think I would want to be friends with her, if I ever met her! Project Number 2 is inspired by her blog and it includes a sort of food journal. We'll see what sort of shape it takes over the next forty days, but in the least it will be what I ate that day, maybe a recipe or two.
So for at least the next forty days you'll be getting 2 - 3 posts from us: a regular post and then two short ones with the projects.
Enjoy!
MULUB,
Taylor
Project Number 1
We live right next to Volcan Pichincha, this huge massive beautiful active volcano. I know that when we leave Ecuador the mountains are the first thing that I'll miss, especially waking up and going to sleep to this amazing view from our apartment. One of the things I love about mountains is that they ALWAYS look different. From different parts of the city, at different times of day, during different weather they're always changing. So Project Number 1 is one picture of Pichincha for the next 40 days. From now on, this project will be reffered to as Project Pichincha.
Project Number 2
If you don't read Kath Eats Real Food, you should! I LOVE HER BLOG! Basically it's a blog about her life, centered around the food she eats. She posts three times a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Her food is healthy but not crazily healthy that you think 'I would never make that.' She's active, but not crazily active that it seems impossible and she's concious about the environment, her community and the culture of food in just the right amount that isn't preachy but inspires you to change. Anyways, she's great and so is her blog and I just think I would want to be friends with her, if I ever met her! Project Number 2 is inspired by her blog and it includes a sort of food journal. We'll see what sort of shape it takes over the next forty days, but in the least it will be what I ate that day, maybe a recipe or two.
So for at least the next forty days you'll be getting 2 - 3 posts from us: a regular post and then two short ones with the projects.
Enjoy!
MULUB,
Taylor
Mompiche
We're home, finally! And we had an absolutely fantastic time at the beach. This trip was much different than our first trip to the beach (Puerto Lopez back in June with my mom and brother). This time it was just the two of us. We went to Mompiche, which is essentially directly west of Quito, but of course there isn't a road that goes directly west. Mompiche is a popular beach amongst Quitenos and foreigners alike. It's super laid back and relaxed but there's enough infrastructure to keep things moving! Anyways... here's a run down of the trip.
We left our apartment on Saturday morning around 10 or so. We had gotten up pretty early but we still hadn't packed or finished cleaning up. We got on the ecovia and then on the trole and in about an hour and a half we were at Quitumbe, the main bus terminal in the south. Usually this only takes an hour but our trole bus broke down in the middle of the road and so they had to send another one. Everyone had to get off, wait on the side of the road (actually it was a bridge, now that I think of it) and then board this new trolebus. Anyways, we finally got there along with the rest of Quito. Seriously there were so many people at the bus station! Suprisingly, we didn't have a problem getting bus tickets. Ryan waited on the outskirts of the throngs of people and I pushed my way up to a counter, bought our tickets and then we ate lunch. Our bus was scheduled to leave at 1pm, which we were both so suprised that we weren't going to have to wait for hours and hours, seeing that it was about 11:30 when we arrived. We ate lunch (rice and chicken for me and seco de guatita for Ryan) and then went outside to try and find where our bus was. Luckily we were being pretty observant because our bus didn't come to its assigned terminal but instead one of the completely other side of the station. We boarded, got settled in (we had seats one and two so we had enough-ish room for our packs with us) and then the bus left somewhere between 1:30 and 2. We finally got into Pedernales (not our final destination) around 8:30. We asked around at the bus station about a bus to Mompiche but were informed that there weren't any more buses that night and we'd have to stay the night in Pedernales and take the early (6am) bus to Mompiche tomorrow. So we found a hostel right by the terminal that was full... We told the guy at the front desk that we only needed a place to sleep and that we were going to Mompiche at 6am tomorrow morning. We ended up sleeping in his room at the hostel, with all of his stuff and our stuff cramped into this tiny, tiny room made of paper thin walls! It was strange. Let's leave it at that.
We got up early and go the heck out of there. We were on the 6:30 bus to Mompiche (or so we though). Actually it was the 6:30 bus to Chamanga and then we had to wait a hlaf hour for the 8am bus from Chamanga to the entrance to Mompiche (think road leading off the main highway). Then we hitched a ride with a water truck into Mompiche (where Ryan left his flip flops). By 10am we had set up our tent and we're drinking fresh fruit juices and walking on the beach! It was quite a travel process but oh so worth it.
We spent all day Sunday, Monday and part of Tuesday walking on the beach, swimming in the ocean, eating seafood, napping in hammocks, drinking fresh fruit juice, watching the sunset and just relaxing. It. was. heaven!
We left Mompiche at 1pm on Tuesday afternoon on a bus back to the entrance to Mompiche, got off that bus, waited on the side of the highway for the bus to Chamanga, got on that bus, got off that bus on the side of the highway when the bus to Pedernales passed, and arrived in Pedernales around 4.
We killed time in Pedernales by eating, walking on the beach, watching another sunset, checking emails, and just general sitting around until 11pm when our bus came. Our bus was then checked by the police, which involves everyone getting back off the bus, bags being searched and each person being frisked! We left Pedernales around midnight and arrived at Quitumbe around 4am. We hopped on the trolebus and then in a cab. We walked into our apartment around 5:45am, gave Grant the biggest thank you we could muster and promptly crashed.
I got up around noon and finally showered with shampoo and soap! (Note to self: always bring shampoo to the beach. 4 days of salt water and no shampoo just isn't pretty). I made a pot of coffee and have been trying the catch up with the world since. I've got two classes to teach this afternoon and then I plan on coming back and watching a movie and going to bed early! Hopefully there will be some eating involved in there somewhere!
More photos to come, don't worry! But here's just one of the sunset on the first night!
We left our apartment on Saturday morning around 10 or so. We had gotten up pretty early but we still hadn't packed or finished cleaning up. We got on the ecovia and then on the trole and in about an hour and a half we were at Quitumbe, the main bus terminal in the south. Usually this only takes an hour but our trole bus broke down in the middle of the road and so they had to send another one. Everyone had to get off, wait on the side of the road (actually it was a bridge, now that I think of it) and then board this new trolebus. Anyways, we finally got there along with the rest of Quito. Seriously there were so many people at the bus station! Suprisingly, we didn't have a problem getting bus tickets. Ryan waited on the outskirts of the throngs of people and I pushed my way up to a counter, bought our tickets and then we ate lunch. Our bus was scheduled to leave at 1pm, which we were both so suprised that we weren't going to have to wait for hours and hours, seeing that it was about 11:30 when we arrived. We ate lunch (rice and chicken for me and seco de guatita for Ryan) and then went outside to try and find where our bus was. Luckily we were being pretty observant because our bus didn't come to its assigned terminal but instead one of the completely other side of the station. We boarded, got settled in (we had seats one and two so we had enough-ish room for our packs with us) and then the bus left somewhere between 1:30 and 2. We finally got into Pedernales (not our final destination) around 8:30. We asked around at the bus station about a bus to Mompiche but were informed that there weren't any more buses that night and we'd have to stay the night in Pedernales and take the early (6am) bus to Mompiche tomorrow. So we found a hostel right by the terminal that was full... We told the guy at the front desk that we only needed a place to sleep and that we were going to Mompiche at 6am tomorrow morning. We ended up sleeping in his room at the hostel, with all of his stuff and our stuff cramped into this tiny, tiny room made of paper thin walls! It was strange. Let's leave it at that.
We got up early and go the heck out of there. We were on the 6:30 bus to Mompiche (or so we though). Actually it was the 6:30 bus to Chamanga and then we had to wait a hlaf hour for the 8am bus from Chamanga to the entrance to Mompiche (think road leading off the main highway). Then we hitched a ride with a water truck into Mompiche (where Ryan left his flip flops). By 10am we had set up our tent and we're drinking fresh fruit juices and walking on the beach! It was quite a travel process but oh so worth it.
We spent all day Sunday, Monday and part of Tuesday walking on the beach, swimming in the ocean, eating seafood, napping in hammocks, drinking fresh fruit juice, watching the sunset and just relaxing. It. was. heaven!
We left Mompiche at 1pm on Tuesday afternoon on a bus back to the entrance to Mompiche, got off that bus, waited on the side of the highway for the bus to Chamanga, got on that bus, got off that bus on the side of the highway when the bus to Pedernales passed, and arrived in Pedernales around 4.
We killed time in Pedernales by eating, walking on the beach, watching another sunset, checking emails, and just general sitting around until 11pm when our bus came. Our bus was then checked by the police, which involves everyone getting back off the bus, bags being searched and each person being frisked! We left Pedernales around midnight and arrived at Quitumbe around 4am. We hopped on the trolebus and then in a cab. We walked into our apartment around 5:45am, gave Grant the biggest thank you we could muster and promptly crashed.
I got up around noon and finally showered with shampoo and soap! (Note to self: always bring shampoo to the beach. 4 days of salt water and no shampoo just isn't pretty). I made a pot of coffee and have been trying the catch up with the world since. I've got two classes to teach this afternoon and then I plan on coming back and watching a movie and going to bed early! Hopefully there will be some eating involved in there somewhere!
More photos to come, don't worry! But here's just one of the sunset on the first night!
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| Can I go back, right now please? |
Friday, March 4, 2011
Papallacta Continued
Here are some photos from Papallacta, as promised.
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| Just getting off the bus and hiking up the the hostel. |
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| The town of Papallacta |
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| Beautiful River |
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| During our first hike |
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| Please note the left side of this bridge. |
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| That's my foot on the bridge and thats the rushing waterfall below |
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| Beautiful! |
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| You can't really tell but this rock is like far out there. |
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| Dinner |
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| Crazy bridge that some dude made to go from the highway to his trout farm. |
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| Us after hike number 2 on the second day to the lake |
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| One of the thermal baths at our hostel |
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| Hiking back down to catch the bus to Quito |
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Carnaval Plans
It's official! We're going to the beach for Carnaval! Now you may remember last year, we went to Otavalo for Carnaval. It was our second month here and we went to check out the market. This year we're doing something FAR more typical and going to the beach. We were going to go to Atacames which is the most popular beach for Carnaval. But our plans have changed and I'm so excited! Now we're going CAMPING in Mompiche! I seriously couldn't be more excited! And guess what. It gets better! We're going to learn to surf! Because camping is so much cheaper ($3/night) than staying in a hostel ($15/person/night) we're going to use that extra money to take surf lessons! Mompiche is aparantly the place to learn too. Every year it holds an international surf competition, so there are tons of surf schools with all the gear for under $20! Woo Hoo! We can't wait! Super excited! Plus, our dear friend Grant (you thought I was going to say Sebas, didn't you?!) is going to come and stay at our place and take care of Chuki while we're gone! I haven't been this excited in a LONG time! Here's more info on Mompiche, if you're interested!
MULUB,
Taylor
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| Hoping for days like this... |
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| And nights like this... |
MULUB,
Taylor
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Moody Matters
DISCLAIMER: I always get nervous publishing posts like this because I think people might interpret them as us being ungrateful for this experience. But we're not. We're very grateful. This is just part of the experience. We'd be lying if we didn't post things like this, because as everyone knows it's not always rainbows and sunshine!
Remember a while ago when I referenced the 'W' experience of being abroad. Well if there's anything I've learned about living, traveling or studying abroad is that it's not all roses and that you should pay attention to how you're feeling. Ryan and I are certainly doing that right now. The danger is that one of us gets into a funk about being here and then both of us end up negative Nancy's for our last two months here. That's what we're avoiding. For us, the process of avoiding this is to talk about how we're feeling but not dwell on it. And most importantly not letting one experience shape the way we think and feel about a whole country.
So here's how we're feeling... tired. We're tired of going against the grain with people constantly. I'm tired of being charged $1 more for a taxi driver. I'm tired of being charged 20 cents more per pound of avocados. Ryan is tired of 'most of the people here, except for our friends.' This ordeal with our landlady is taking a toll on our emotional determination and our sentiment towards people similar to her, which unfortunately for us, we have encountered quite a few.
Now, don't hear us incorrectly... we signed up for this and we love this lifestyle. But, after living in a place for almost 15 months we're allowed to make some judgements. One of our judgements is that there is a certain group of people in society in Quito that just want to rip off Americans because they think we have money. And we're tired of these people. Not so much annoyed with them, because we know they aren't going to change. But tired of constantly being on guard and defending ourselves from them.
For the first time, we both feel ready to come home. We're going to REALLY live it up these next two months but we're ready to not live here anymore. We'll certainly miss the amazing friends that we've made here that have become our make shift family and we certainly want to come back. But when we return, it will be as tourists and as visitors, not as residents!
MULUB,
Taylor
Remember a while ago when I referenced the 'W' experience of being abroad. Well if there's anything I've learned about living, traveling or studying abroad is that it's not all roses and that you should pay attention to how you're feeling. Ryan and I are certainly doing that right now. The danger is that one of us gets into a funk about being here and then both of us end up negative Nancy's for our last two months here. That's what we're avoiding. For us, the process of avoiding this is to talk about how we're feeling but not dwell on it. And most importantly not letting one experience shape the way we think and feel about a whole country.
So here's how we're feeling... tired. We're tired of going against the grain with people constantly. I'm tired of being charged $1 more for a taxi driver. I'm tired of being charged 20 cents more per pound of avocados. Ryan is tired of 'most of the people here, except for our friends.' This ordeal with our landlady is taking a toll on our emotional determination and our sentiment towards people similar to her, which unfortunately for us, we have encountered quite a few.
Now, don't hear us incorrectly... we signed up for this and we love this lifestyle. But, after living in a place for almost 15 months we're allowed to make some judgements. One of our judgements is that there is a certain group of people in society in Quito that just want to rip off Americans because they think we have money. And we're tired of these people. Not so much annoyed with them, because we know they aren't going to change. But tired of constantly being on guard and defending ourselves from them.
For the first time, we both feel ready to come home. We're going to REALLY live it up these next two months but we're ready to not live here anymore. We'll certainly miss the amazing friends that we've made here that have become our make shift family and we certainly want to come back. But when we return, it will be as tourists and as visitors, not as residents!
MULUB,
Taylor
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Pumpkin Scones
I know we're a little past the fall season but here in Ecuador we buy pumpkin just about every time we go to the store. We use it for all sorts of things... Chuki's food, added to mashed potatoes, instead of butter in a baked good. Anywho, we had some left over pumpkin and some left over cream a couple of weeks ago and the only thing that I could think of was pumpkin scones.
Now, I have a bit of a history with pumpkin scones. I've tried many a time to get the perfect scone and have never really succeeded. To me the perfect scone is the walnut scone from Starbucks with just a tad less sugar in the frosting. It's crunch on the outside, cakey in the middle and sweet on top. Perfect! These scones come pretty close to what I think of as the perfect scone.
The recipe is adapted from Love and Olive Oil. Here's what I did:
3 cups of ap flour
1 1/2 tsp b powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
3/4 tsp allspice
3/4 tsp ginger
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp oil
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup of cream
6 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
Glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp cinnamon
I did exactly the same instructions at Love and Olive Oil. Which are, basically...
Combine wet with stand mixer. Combine dry (and butter) in food processor until you have coarse crumbs. Combine wet and dry. Knead slightly. Shape into a circle, cut the circle into 8 and back for 15 minutes at 425 degree oven.
For the glaze, mix all ingredients and drizzle on top.
Beware, you might want to make these if you are going somewhere for breakfast where there will be other people. Or you'll end up like us and eat all 8 in 2 days.
MULUB,
Taylor
Now, I have a bit of a history with pumpkin scones. I've tried many a time to get the perfect scone and have never really succeeded. To me the perfect scone is the walnut scone from Starbucks with just a tad less sugar in the frosting. It's crunch on the outside, cakey in the middle and sweet on top. Perfect! These scones come pretty close to what I think of as the perfect scone.
The recipe is adapted from Love and Olive Oil. Here's what I did:
3 cups of ap flour
1 1/2 tsp b powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
3/4 tsp allspice
3/4 tsp ginger
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp oil
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup of cream
6 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
Glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp cinnamon
I did exactly the same instructions at Love and Olive Oil. Which are, basically...
Combine wet with stand mixer. Combine dry (and butter) in food processor until you have coarse crumbs. Combine wet and dry. Knead slightly. Shape into a circle, cut the circle into 8 and back for 15 minutes at 425 degree oven.
For the glaze, mix all ingredients and drizzle on top.
Beware, you might want to make these if you are going somewhere for breakfast where there will be other people. Or you'll end up like us and eat all 8 in 2 days.
MULUB,
Taylor
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