Ecuador. Fabulous.

Hello all(if anyone is actually still following this. . .),
Cuenca: We spent 2 weeks here taking spanish classes, eating cuy(guinea pig), visiting Parque Cajas and buying many many hats.

This is how we skewer the cuy kids,

Where Panama hats are born, the nursery:

Parque Nacional Cajas

Cuenca´s anniversary weekend included dancing, concerts and displays of the Vaca Loca--a paper mache cow that shoots fireworks from its horns into the crowd.

Las Tunas, a quiet stretch of beach south of Puerto Lopez with only a couple B&Bs and one restaurant serving nothing but fish, Jimmy´s.

Bahia´s main attraction, saved from the pot & dropped off by Galapagos sailors long ago, now living in a schoolyard.

Rio Muchacho, an organic farm, where we volunteered for a month.

Shoveling pig poo. (yes, we paid for this privilege. but not much.)

Cutting pasto for the horses,

Hunting prawns in the river,

Experiencing the joy of turmeric preparation, from the garden to a corner store near you.

and making chocolate from scratch,

Christmas Eve, our last night on the farm, we made Anzac biscuits in a woodfire oven.

That night our friend JP was chosen to be Joseph in the candlelight nativity procession, walking with a donkey from Rio Muchacho school to the farm. The locals sang a single 30 second song the entire evening--4 hours that have been burned into our minds forever-pajarito verde color de limon. . .

Canoa, where we spent Christmas Day until New Years.

Christmas dinner at Cafe Flor. Free from the vegetarian shackles of Rio Muchacho at last, Meat!

For New Years, they make paper mache people, cartoon characters, political figures(there were a couple GBs), then burn them in massive bonfires.

Our night started out pretty civilized with drinks on the beach,

Got a bit messier as the sun went down,

Until we couldln´t stand up without the aid of at least two other people,

And the last photos of the bonfire we can´t show you because by then not one of us could hold the camera steady.

The morning after, ready for a night bus to Quito.

I think Quito was better than Lima.

Otavalo markets. For everything you never knew you wanted. But ended up buying anyway.

On to Colombia.
Love d&j