Day 99 Thursday 30 July – To Lago Agrio

At 10 in the morning, the bus left for Coca, a dirty oil town further east of Tena. I could take a direct route to Lago Agrio, but there are only 3 busses from here and they either leave very early or arrive very late. Lago is – just like Coca – an oil town and neither of these cities is very safe in the middle of the night, according to my guide and the people in Tena.

About half way to Coca, while I’m almost falling asleep, there is a loud bang. The rear tire on the right just exploded. We stop at the side of the road and the bus driver and his assistant (they always drive in pairs) team up to replace the tire. Everybody else gets out of the bus to get fresh air, sun or to take a piss. With a small group we stand around, watching the changing of the tires, which takes about 20 minutes.

Somehow, we still arrive in time in Coca for me to take my connection. I wish my travel mate from Germany a nice time in Yasuní – the other big reserve – and get on my next bus. When we drive off, the assistant puts a DVD on and… shit, it’s Jean Claude van Damme again. And the same one they showed in the bus from Quito to Tena. They really have a bad taste in films in the busses around here!

I arrive in Lago Agrio early: at 5:30 pm. We don’t stop at the bus station but a few blocks away, but some nice people tell me to take a taxi and they let me know the normal price. For a dollar I get to the hotel. Hotel Lago Imperial is the meeting place for tomorrow, so I figured it would be smart to sleep here as well. There are probably cheaper hotels, but my guide wasn’t really complete with those. For 15 dollars I have a room with a ventilator (AC is 5 more), but I also have my own bathroom, TV and a double bed. Breakfast is included; though I also have a ticket for free breakfast here. Mari will leave this night and will join me at the breakfast table in the morning. From there we will be picked up and brought to the Samona lodge in the Cuyabeno reserve.

2008 – 18 juli - Gandhi lezing @ Bidja Bidyapeeth

Nadat ik mijn posts uit India heb nagelezen, merk ik dat een aantal verhalen nooit gepubliceerd zijn. Hier zijn er alvast een paar, maar er volgen er zeker nog meer:

Vanmorgen werden we gevraagd om wat werk te doen. Samen met Sanne, Arianne en Loek gingen we ‘fieldwork’ doen, wat uiteindelijk niets meer was dan onkruid wieden in het gras. Daarna was een lezing over Gandhi en globalisatie, maar ging eigenlijk over één van zijn lessen: dat van ‘khadi’, het zelf spinnen en weven van kleding. Dit is goed voor de lokale economie en werkgelegenheid. Nog een stukje zelf gesponnen, wat verrassend genoeg meteen best goed ging. Reetha Christi vertelde dat het spinnen je vooral goed af gaat als je goed in je vel zit, maar nog mooier dan dat vond ik de verhalen over Gandhi zelf. Bijvoorbeeld dat hij zich niet druk maakte, dat hij graag een grapje maakte en dat hij niet oordeelde over anderen.
Het eten hier op Bija Bidyapeeth is trouwens erg goed. Afgezien van af en toe yoghurt bijna volledig veganistisch en altijd erg lekker. Hier in het noorden is niets erg ‘spicy’. Volgens Anil wordt dat meer hoe verder je naar het zuiden gaat. Wel oppassen voor hele pepertjes!

2008 – 17 juli

De nacht in de trein ging vrij snel voorbij. We zaten niet allemaal bij elkaar, maar dat maakte niet zoveel uit. We hadden allemaal nog redelijk geslapen en om 8:30 uur kwamen we aan in Dehradun. We werden door 2 jeeps van Navdanya opgehaald en daar verblijven we nu 2 nachten. Het is een mooie oerderij, gericht op het conserveren van zaadgoed. Het is leuk om allemaal bijzondere gewassen te zien en de manier waarop ze verbouwd worden.

2008 – 16 juli

Een bezoek gebracht met een touringcar (genaamd ‘tourist’) aan de Qtub Minar, en grote toren, gebouwd door moslims ter ere van de overwinning op de hindoes. Na de lunch naar de Lotus tempel geweest, een prachtige tempel in de vorm van een lotusbloem, gebouwd voor alle religies van de wereld, door de zogenaamde Bahaïs.
Later met de taxi naar het treinstation, toen zagen we pas het echte Delhi, met de bedelaars, de krotten en de vele kleine winkeltjes. Op het station zelf waren we in een kring om onze tassen gaan zitten, om diefstal te voorkomen. We trokken al veel bekijks, vooral toen enkele van ons het spelletje ‘uno’ gingen spelen. Later een schatting moment toen een moeder met kindje naar ons toe kwam en het kindje ons een hand wilde geven.

2008 – 15 juli - 's Nachts

Na meer dan een uur gelopen te hebben– waar we onderweg nog vuistgrote slakken tegenkomen - komen we aan bij de India gate, een grote poort waar je eigenlijk niet te dichtbij mag komen, zoals de Champs Elysees. Bij deze toeristische trekpleister lopen om 23 uur nog tientallen mensen, vooral kinderen, die je vanalles aan proberen te smeren. Schrijnend om te zien, en moeilijk om nee te zeggen, vooral ook omdat ze zo aanhoudend zijn.
De terugweg in de riksha was veel sneller, de taxi-driewielers waren snel gevonden, en voor INR 90,- per stuk brachte ze ons ruim op tijd terug naar het hotel.

Day 97 Tuesday 28 July – … and the chocolate factory

Like always, things do not go as smooth here in Ecuador as I am used to. I was hoping to go to the chocolate factory with Judy in the morning, but when I called her the night before, she didn’t answer. This morning I called again and I got a whole story from her, which I didn’t totally hear, because I was walking down the busy Colón.

It turns out, there were some bus problems in Tena, forcing Judy to take the bus via Ambato, which is quite a detour. She arrived only at 11 in the centre of Quito. I met her at her house, the place that R. called his house before, when I first was there. Then we took three buses down North to the chocolate factory of Ecuatoriana de Chocolates. The factory that makes the Cacaoyere chocolate. I don’t know if it is known anywhere, but I hear they have contacts in Germany for selling the chocolate. All the way to the factory, Judy talks a lot. I think I’m quite up to date about the current things that are going on. I just need to get a hold of her to talk about the history of Kallari.

At the factory, we first sit down and Judy talks with the manager, and a chocolate maestro. Some things about the new batch of chocolate, which is quite good, though a bit acidic (which will go away within 3 months); and about packaging designs. Then they offer me a tour through the factory. I’m not allowed to make pictures, because they may be a bit careful: Kallari is going to build its own factory the coming year.

The cacao is first roasted for 45 to 48 minutes, after which it is rapidly cooled down and the skin gets removed. The beans are then ground into small bits. In the Kallari cacao we see some lighter pieces of cacao. These might be mutants or criollo varieties. The ‘contamination’ of the cacao with a small percentage of other varieties than Cacao Nacional is giving it a more nutty and floral taste, which is only a good thing.

The ground cacao beans are turned into a thing called cacao mass, going into cacao liquor. The exact process is not explained to me. In the next room they add the vanilla and the sugar, and they roll it into small pieces. Then it is mixed with cacao butter – which is at the moment bought from outside, a machine to make this is a million dollar – and ‘conched’. Meaning it is turned around and getting to the right taste. Some flavours will disappear while conching.

Now it is ready to pour it into bars. A machine turns the chocolate in different temperatures, preventing the fats to shift and thus preventing the formation of a white finish. It needs to be shiny and brown. It is poured into moulds and then goes through the cooling tunnel. At the end of the tunnel is light, but then it soon turns into darkness again, when the bars are packed into plastic and pushed into cramped boxes. Only at the consumer end will the chocolate ever see light again.

After the tour, I ask whether I could come back much later to do some interviews and that’s alright, they “love interviews”. After that it is time to take the bus back to the centre. Judy accompanies me for a while once more. When I get off, I pass by the café to say goodbye to Mari again; I pick up my stuff from the apartment, which I’m kind of using as a storage now, sorry; and I take a bus to Cumbaya. From there I pick the first bus to Tena, where I’m lucky to get a seat on the first row to watch… oh no… Jean Claude van Damme films. Luckily there’s a guy standing with his arms in front of my view.

Day 95 Sunday 25 July – Twilight: Eclipse

We planned to finally go to the TeleferiQo today, but the sky turned very cloudy. Even if it wasn’t going to rain, we wouldn’t have been able to make any good pictures. Instead, we decided to go to the cinema. Aunt Trina called me while walking down the hill, which was a pleasant surprise. At the cinema, we had the choice between the mage’s apprenticeship (el aprenizaje del brujo) and Twilight: Eclipse. I didn’t know either of them, so I let Mari choose.

Eclipse it was: a film about vampires and werewolves, but not even considering the amount of girls in the room, it was more of a teen romance film. Girl likes two guys, one of them a werewolf, the other a vampire. And of course these two species hate each other. Nevertheless, they work together to help the girl when she is in danger. It was a pretty straight forward film and, if I am correct, based on a series of books of which one of my friends is a big fan. It wasn’t that bad, but come-on, a vampire-slash-werewolf film that isn’t scary or funny? And a stupid girl that chooses an ice-cold vampire over a werewolf…

Day 94 Saturday 24 July – Holiday in Quito

No hangover, but almost overslept myself for breakfast. Vilma made a nice local dish with ground plantain (couscous like) and a piece of fresh papaya. The rest of the morning I hung around in the hammock a little, writing some more postcards. The office is closed today and I haven’t any idea what to do. Perhaps tour a little in town. For the rest I should wait for Judy to come back from Quito this evening. I need to interview her.

Too bad that Judy isn’t coming until midnight, and it’s raining very hard. I decide to go to see Mari this weekend in Quito. I take my laptop to be able to work on Monday. Perhaps it’s possible to visit the chocolate factory again on Tuesday, but we’ll need to see about that.

I pack my stuff in the small backpack and walk to the bus terminal. I only have to wait fifteen minutes until the bus arrives, but eventually the bus takes 5 and a half hours to get to the station. Then the trole-bus isn’t driving on schedule and I don’t arrive at Mari’s house until midnight. What a ride.

Day 93 Friday 23 July – BBQ by candle light

The day wasn’t really interesting. It was a hot day, too hot to work in the office on the computer all day. But that’s what we did anyway. I’ve now also involved myself into how we can improve the café in Quito. Two other volunteers had already made up a pretty extensive list, but since I’ve spent so much time there, I added another page to it.

In the evening two of the volunteers invited the people from the office for a barbeque. I decided to bring a bottle of aguardiente and sprite. D. brought ingredients for a salad. But when we got there, there were no lights. We crossed the little bridge and entered the main hall, where they were already preparing the food. With just one back-up light and some candles we all helped prepare the rest of the food. When the back-up light was empty, Carlos went back to his house to get another light. This way we spent the whole night eating and drinking. And making jokes about the ass-meat that Ben brought. It’s something they eat around Loja, but not in this region.

Day 92 Thursday 22 July – New project with Kallari

I talked to Carlos about the working possibilities, but besides helping out with one of the other volunteers, he couldn’t think of anything. Elias knew something else, a project to provide alternatives to hunting and fishing. The indigenous people are hunting and fishing a little too much, so that the population of wild life and fishes are declining slowly. Kallari wishes to offer alternatives, like other livestock and fish ponds. The problem is that the fish ponds that have been made in the past are for the largest part with tilapia fish, but these are African species. Kallari wishes to make ponds with local species of fishes. And add livestock of local animals. So the question to me was: How do we do this, which species, what will it cost, etc.?

But when it comes down to changing, I also wonder how they will convince the men of the communities to switch to animal farming, because in the majority of communities, hunting is also a social act.

At dinner, when I tell Vilma about the mosquito bites, she makes me a concoction of lemon and the leaves of a plant which is supposed to be antiseptic. Then she washes my arms and legs with it and tells me to let it dry in the air. For the most part of that evening, I didn’t have any itches from the mosquitos, so it really worked.

Day 91 Wednesday 21 July – Cutting down ‘rainforest’

When I get up, I roll up the mosquito net and head in to the main room. It’s a wooden house on poles, with basically 3 rooms: Two very small ones to sleep in, and one big one, which is used as a kitchen and everything else. My guest-mom is already cooking breakfast. For me there are some sort of cakes, but I can’t really tell what they are made of; and yuca.

After breakfast, we all go out to mow weed with machetes. But this isn’t the kind of weed that we are used to: everything grows so much faster here, the weed is trees of up to 2,5 metre high and several centimetres thick. We work all morning and somewhere near the end, one of us finds a snake. A strangling type, so not harmful. The son of the family picks it up. Again, I regret not having my camera with me now. But at least I have the memory of seeing and touching it.

When we get back to the house, the father shows me the cabin with all the liquor, he offers me a bit of the strong stuff he calls: “veinticinco” (25), but it’s in a plastic bottle, so I ask him if he brew it himself. No, he buys it in Tena. It tastes good, but one shot is enough if I want to stay sober the rest of the day.

After that, the son takes me to the river again to go for a swim. While I’m relaxing, he hunts fishes underwater, armed with a spear: two sharp spikes, welded onto a steel construction wire. When we go back to the house after a while, he lets me manage the canoe by myself. But it’s hard to manage, to stay in balance and to push the thing in the direction you want to go. But perhaps I was just doing it wrong.

Lunch was a soup of palm heart, some palm heart cooked in a leaf, yuca and a boiled egg. After we finish, the dad takes me on a little tour to the cocoa field and then it is almost time to go. I tell them ‘ashca pagrachu’ and ‘shuk punchakama’ and the son takes me back to the road where the bus will stop. At the river, the canoe is missing, so we have to cross walking. I take off my boots and roll up my pants, but still the water is deeper than I thought. The part that I rolled up gets all wet.

At the house where we are supposed to wait, the son remembers me I’m supposed to pay (though it is very difficult for him to ask me). I don’t have the change, so we head down the road to meet D., who is waiting a little further down. When we get there, he has just crossed the river with his guest parents himself. Then we walk back up and one of us notices a fish in a pond. The get another villager with a machete and they start to hunt the fish. While they may have hurt it, they didn’t catch it.

After this D. and I take the bus, a 45 minute drive back to Tena. Tired, full of bug bites, but content.

Day 90 Tuesday 20 July – To the community Rumi Yaku

A little over 8 Judy picked D. and me up from the place where I’m staying. She is going to a community with two American women and asked us to come with her the night before. Before taking off, she shows a tree which is just across the road, called guava (pakay in kichwa). It’s a leguminous tree, which fixes nitrogen. It comes up like weed and it grows really fast, but that makes the tree very suitable for firewood. And because the fruit is partly edible, people spit the seeds on the ground, making the tree come up everywhere. This is good for the soil nutrients, though.

The group left without taking a guy with them, so they had to go back to the hotel. He didn’t show up however, so we went to buy some rubber boots for everyone. Judy asked us: “neither of you has rubber boots? You really need them at the farm.” But she doesn’t have any, she just does it all barefoot, like the inhabitants.

On the way back we pass by the hotel again, but the guy is still not there, so we go. D. and me in the back of the pickup-truck, enjoying the scenery and the wind in our hair. After a pretty new road, we take a gravel road (which is less comfortable in the back), and then we arrive at the outskirts of the community. While walking to the river, Judy amazes me with the knowledge she has on the local flora. A little boy brings us across the river with a canoe. He pushes the canoe hard with a stick, making it rock pretty much, and while making motor noises. We cross one by one. Probably because the canoe is a bit leaky and fills up with water slowly.

We are right on time at the community ‘house’, but the community is a little later. Judy says this could be because the group yesterday was late. While the women prepare a meal for us, one of the children wants to show us the school, so we go with him. Meanwhile, he borrowed the camera from one of the American women and keeps making pictures, some of them very good.

The first thing we get to eat is fruit. Three plates with banana, papaya and pineapple are presented, and everything is so fresh, it all tastes better than I’ve ever tasted. You can buy bananas in the city, but here they are picked ripe and they are so much tastier. After that follow a number of other dishes, among which frogs’ legs, fish and gusano’s (caterpillars) for the non-vegetarians. The things I did eat were wild potatoes (papa china), palm heart (palmito), a cacao relative (cacao blanco), yuca and frutipan (paparawa, a nut that resembles chestnut by taste). And I repent that I didn’t take any pictures of all this.

After dinner, D and I played with the kids. Some of them really loved being swung around, but then we had to play some soccer. It was the middle of the day and the sun was out, so it was pretty hard playing. We won though. But after that we had to play another game with everyone. I played with my rubber boots on at first, but tried it with bare feet this time. That didn’t stop us from winning again, even though Judy was playing pretty fanatically.

After the games, Judy and the other two women left us. We were divided over two families and went for a swim in the river. The water was perfect. The kids brought each of us to our respective guest houses. Mine was a 5 minute walk along the river, although the river used to run a little further away. There was a flood this year.

My family is not very talkative, just one of the sons asks a lot, and jokes a lot. That we’re going to harvest a quintal of coffee each the next morning for example. The coffee is still quit green. But they serve me a nice dinner with rice and an egg and I watch the woman of the house prepare chicha, the local ‘beer’. Though they don’t let it ferment it so much and she doesn’t chew on the yuca first either. This makes it more like a kombucha brew. It tastes nice, though, a bit like milk. And they show me the cute little house monkey ‘chichi’. When it gets dark we stay up for a little while longer, but before 9pm we went to bed.

It was a difficult sleep, the bed was pretty hard, but mostly it was because we went to bed so early and there was a rooster crowing all night. I did my best though and I slept until the sun had risen and the others were all up already.

Day 89 Monday 19 July – 1st day at the office

In the morning, D. came to pick me up at my place. Together we walked to the office. Inside, we said hello to everyone, and I turned on a computer. It asked for a password and I asked the others if they could give it to me. They asked someone else, but in the end it took too long and I got my laptop. After going through all the new mail I had gotten, I took a look at the FairTrade papers I was going to work with. D. had already made a nice list of famers and in the end it seemed that the application form was also already filled in for the most part. All they need is someone from the directive to help out with the remaining things. I’m not sure what else I can do to help.

Later in the morning, D. took me out to the Centro de Acopio, the place where they bring the cocoa, dry it, ferment it and separate it in different sizes. From here, the cocoa goes to the factory to get roasted and made into chocolate. There was not much to see at the moment. Only one drying platform had cocoa at the time.

I didn’t have much else to do in the afternoon and the office closed early, at 5.30 already. I guess it is much more relaxed here than it is in Guayaquil. Then again, coffee is a different type of product, especially if you sell it with coffee machines. So after work, D. shows me the centre a little bit. He took me to a sort of market place with a roof, where a lot of people sell their stuff in small stalls. Then we walked a little past a few stores, I helped him get a present for the birthday of a friend of his and we went back. In the evening, I had dinner with Judy and she told me about Rumi Yaku…

Chocolate cake recipe / Receta de pastel de chocolate

The basis is another version of “death by chocolate brownies” from Sinfully Vegan by Lois Dieterly, given to me by Z. (La base es otro versión de “muerte por brownies de chocolate” de Sinfully Vegan por Lois Dieterly, que me ha dado la Z.):

• 1 3/4 cup sugar [azucar]
• 3/4 cup applesauce [puré de manzana]
• 1/2 cup water [agua]
• 1 tbs lemon juice [1 cuchara jugo de limón]

• 1 tsp cinnamon [1 cucharilla canela]
• 1 tsp lemon zest [ralladura de limón]
• 1 1/3 cup flour [harina]
• 3/4 cup cocoa [cacao]
• 1/2 tsp baking powder [polvo de hornear]
• 1/4 tsp salt [sal]
• 1 70g dark chocolate bar chopped into pieces [barra de chocolate amargo picado en trozos]

I added just a little bit of olive oil (agregé un poco de aceite de olive).

Mix wet with the sugar and mix dry in separate bowl, then mix dry & wet :) bake 40-47 min at 350 F (180 C) (Mezcla húmeda con el azúcar y mezcla seca en un tazón aparte , mezcla seco y húmedo :) hornea 40-47 min a 350 F / 180 C)

Cut the brownie in half, put marmalade on one of the pieces and place the other piece on top. All you need now is the frosting. (Corta el brownie en medio, pon mermelada en una de las piezas y colocar la otra pieza arriba. Todo lo que necesitamos ahora es el azúcar glaceado.):

• 100g butter / margarine [mantequilla / margarina]
• 1/8 cup soy milk [leche de soya]
• 1 bar or min. 70g dark chocolate [- amargo]
• 2 tbs sugar [azucar]

Cook the soy milk with the sugar and butter. When it is hot, add the chocolate and stir until it melts. Then let it cool down until it is thick and divide it over the cake. Then, just before the frosting gets hard, adorn the cake with fruits. (Cocina la leche de soya con el azúcar y la mantequilla. Cuando está bien caliente, agrega el chocolate y revuelva hasta que está fundido. Luego deje que se enfríe hasta que está grueso y divide sobre la torta. Después , justo antes del glaseado se endurece, adorna la torta con las frutas.)

Day 88 Sunday 18 July – A game of basket

At 8am they serve breakfast on Sunday. When I arrived at the breakfast table, Judy and her friend were sitting there already eating. Vilma and Judy were talking mostly, telling stories. After breakfast, we talked a little about Kallari and what I could do. She told me a little about how the market works. A little while later, we go over to Carlos’ house, 200 meters further down the road. The other Dutch guy lives there too, but when we get there, he’s gone to church. So I listen to the conversation that Judy and Carlos have about the markets, US markets and European markets. They are hoping to expand, but Judy is sceptical about the size of the European market.

Then Carlos has to leave and we go back to the hostel. I wash some clothes there (by hand yes) and later the Dutch guy, Darian, comes by. Judy called him from across the street. I think he first didn’t believe me when I said I am from ‘Holanda’, but after that we chatted a bit and he’s going to update me about what he’s doing tomorrow. We’re probably going to work together. While lying in the hammock later, reading, some of the kids wanted to play with me. But the girls wanted to play their way, shoving a dog in my hammock and trying to swing the hammock. I wasn’t that amused, so I told them to stop.

Later that afternoon, I go for a walk around the town, but either my map is wrong, or the place I’m staying at is not on the map. I couldn’t find any streets from the map (from the few street-name-plates that there were) save the main street. We’ll see tomorrow how it is.

When I get back, Darian comes by to ask if we want to play basketball. There is a court nearby with a roof (although it wasn’t raining). We won 2 games, but it was pretty hard. I’m not really made to do this kind of sports. A shower later, I crawl onto bed to write my blog stories.

Day 87 Saturday 17 July – To Tena

We set the alarm clock to 5am and 6am, but eventually we got up at 7. We were just too tired to get out of bed. But once we got up, we were out of the house quickly. We took a cramped trole bus to the Quitumbe station and from there we had a quick connection to Tena. The bus ride was about 5 hours, but we slept through most of it. At 13:30 we arrived and I called Carlos to pick me up. We waited one hour until Mariela really had to go to her parents place, so she left me there for another hour until Carlos picked me up with a taxi, with his wife and kid. There was some sort of car accident, his wife said.

After a short stop at the DIY-store, they dropped me off at the hostel. And he told me we would talk later when Judy arrives. But they wouldn’t come until the next morning, because of a party. I have a simple room, not very clean, but the first night at least there weren’t any mosquitos. There’s no internet, so I won’t be able to update as much as I want to, and I won’t be able to answer any e-mails that much.

I stayed in my room until they called me for dinner, sleeping a bit, because it was raining and because I was still tired from the trip. Vilma prepared a dinner for everyone, which was the two of us and her daughter. They had me a big plate of spaghetti waiting. After that I read a book in my room and went to sleep again, early.

Day 85 Thursday 15 July – Birthday

Quite a busy day today. Even though I had prepared a lot of food the day before, I still spent a lot of time in the kitchen. Luckily the cake and the lasagne sauce were both ready and waiting. I spent the day making the cake’s frosting, finishing the lasagne, preparing salad, snacks and guacamole. And besides I had to buy beer and other things.

But the food was a success. Made the best lasagne I had ever made and I’m hoping that wasn’t because of the cheese I put in. The cake was very heavy, but good. I’ll post the recipe later. And everybody liked the food.

After preparing everything, I had some minutes to myself before the first guests called for me to open the gate. I had practically invited everyone I know in Quito and some of them brought more guests. So people started to drip in slowly. We started out with the snacks, then out came the presents, among which the T-shirt I’m wearing in the pictures, a lot of chocolate, an alpaca scarf and very warm woolly slippers. For sure I won’t be cold this winter. Then we got a box as a drum and everybody sang songs for me. Some in Kichwa, some in Spanish. I put one on my Facebook.

When everybody had finally arrived, we started on the lasagne and cake. In the meantime we kept drinking wine and beer and afterwards we opened the bottle of tequila, which was very much liked by me and Victor. It was a relatively cheap bottle, but it was good stuff. Next morning we didn’t feel a thing, though the people who drank other stuff had a bit of chuchaqui.

They had warned me before, but I didn’t believe them. The birthday-boy (or girl) gets to be ‘beaten’ with a belt the amount of years. Everybody takes turns. I didn’t feel much of it, it was just a bit weird standing there like that, receiving a ‘beating’. We danced some after that and just past midnight, the booze was gone and it was time to let the neighbours sleep. So the end.

Saturday I will go to Tena, the town where Kallari chocolate is. Again, this moving means I don’t know whether I will have internet on a regular basis. I do, however already have a place to stay. Expensive, but including 3 meals a day.

July 30th, I won’t be reachable at all for 5 days, because then I will spend some time with Mariela in the Amazon. The national park of Cuyabeno to be exact.

Day 84 Wednesday 14 July – Meeting Carlos

I finally met with Carlos today. He was in the café for just a while. I can come on Saturday to Tena and I may get to work with chocolate recipes and packaging designs. Very interesting!

On Ecuadorian typical food

Historically, Ecuador is the land of potatoes, maize, quinoa and turkey, just like most other Andean countries. However, nowadays the most popular plate is rice with chicken in any form. There are some specialities to be found around the country though. You have different kinds of soups, like locro, a soup of potatoes, often with maize and avocado. There is caldo de … and there you fill in whichever kind of meat. Other starters include the empanada, a maize or plantain pastry filled with cheese or meat.

Main courses usually consist of meat, with cuy being something special. We usually keep our cuys in the house as pets or we experiment on them: guinea pigs they are. If the dish doesn’t come with rice, there is also mote, a white, peeled maize variety; canguil, which is just popcorn, this usually goes with soups; or potatoes. In the coastal area you have patacones and bolones, which are plantain specialties. Sometimes they are made with cheese, but not always. Another coastal specialty is the ceviche (though there is a vegetarian variant in the highlands), which resembles a soup made with fish or shrimp, where the seafood is usually raw, marinated in lime juice and chilli. In the Amazon you are more likely to find dishes with yuca (cassava), like fried yuca or yuca cheese cakes. Communities there also eat all sorts of wild meats, including gusano, a type of caterpillar.

A number of snacks include humitas, a yummy mix of ground corn, cheese, butter and sugar wrapped in corn leaf and steamed; bolones; empanadas; quimbolitos; and onion rings. While deserts are usually a pudding of some fruit or morocho de leche, which is rice pudding, but I haven’t seen that anywhere yet. Of course you have ice cream from pingüino (the Dutch Ola) or Hagen Dasz, but there is also a special ice cream called helado de paila: made in special wok-like pans, usually made with juices and the like.

Vegetarian food is easy to get in the bigger cities, where ‘health food’ is growing. Most vegetarian restaurants serve almuerzos (lunch) with a soup, rice, salad, vegetables and a small desert. They are a bit hippy-like on the interior, but you’ll see all kinds of people sitting at the tables. Mostly Ecuadorians, though: most tourists go to the Indian restaurant in the center or to one of the many Chinese restaurants.

The best thing about the food here, though is the large variety of fruits. Often made into fresh juices. Just a short list of fruits you may encounter: Maracuyá (passion fruit), granadilla, tomate de árbol (tree tomato), naranjilla, pineapple, orange, guanábana, chirimoya (custardapple, we saw these in India as well), taxo, mora (blackberry), babaco, different kinds of bananas, melons, strawberries, apples (but imported), papaya, avocado, uvillas (gooseberries), etc. And these are just the fruits that are available in the city and in season. I have yet no idea which fruits I will find in the Amazon.

Day 81 Sunday 11 July – NL vs. ES: 0-1

Determined to watch the final match in the World Cup, I set out with my French housemate to the Dutch Pub on the Corner. Being 15 minutes early would secure a good spot I figured. How wrong I was. The small pub was packed with people. It was worse than the bus I had been on much earlier, hell sardines have more space in a can. People were pressed against the windows or standing outside. Some daredevils even ventured inside, squirming themselves in. And even if Sarah had been a foot taller (because of all the tall Dutch), we probably wouldn’t have wanted to get inside.

We decided to look for another place to watch, and in a fleeting moment I saw my Dutch flight companion, pressed against the glass. He’d been in Quito the entire time, but this is the first time we see each other again. He gives me a thumbs up when I ask him how things are going, and Sarah and I walk on. We’re lucky, the next pub is bigger and has 3 video screens. However, nationalities are mixed. Spanish and Dutch are watching the same game together and Americans and Ecuadorians are dressed in orange or red.

But what a terrible game! 9 yellow cards and a red one for the Dutch game. They wanted it so bad, they almost deserved to lose. Ball possession was almost equal, the Spanish team had just a little more chances to score, but still. Only 4 minutes before the end of overtime, Fábregas scores against the Dutch. The Dutch storm the field when the game ends, claiming that Fábregas was offside, but sorry guys, the video clearly shows he wasn’t. A muffled sound of disappointment sounds around me, while from the next room some loud cheering is clearly audible. For the third time in history, the Dutch football team misses the mark in the finals.

Making a link to an e-mail I got from R.: Though Ecuador didn’t qualify for the World Cup, the excitement was definitely felt here. And not just because I find myself in the most touristic location in the country. Until the final South-American country lost, even the Ecuadorians were fanatic about the World Cup. With our heads down, we leave the pub. The craziness is over and we can go on with our normal lives. Or at least, I can go on with my ‘normal’ Ecuadorian life.

Today I got an e-mail from Judy, giving me more assurance of my upcoming work for the Kallari association. It is almost certain that I will leave Quito for a couple of weeks after celebrating my birthday.

Day 77 Wednesday 7 July – Visa extended

Yuhu! I am finally officially allowed to stay in the country until august 18! That’s the day I leave, I know, so I hope I don’t miss my flight or something else bad happens. Good thing is that I saved $170,- on my visa, because it only got extended for less than 30 days. Now my discount is either because of that, or because I said I’m going to do some volunteer work (for Kallari). No matter, I’m happy and I can take extra chocolate home! I can actually take about 23kg of chocolate home, because I also found out I can take 2 bags of 23kg back in the plane. Who wants to buy some real and delicious Ecuadorian chocolate?!

Day 76 Tuesday 6 July – John Travolta the waiter

In the morning, Mari called me to ask if I could fill in for an hour for her at the café today and 3 other days. She’s doing admission exams for her university and can’t quit her job altogether. This shift she asks me to fill in for is right at the moment of the semi-finals between the Netherlands and Uruguay, but hey, what kind of an excuse is that.

Some Zeezicht feelings actually surfaced while doing my job, washing the dishes, cleaning up tables. It felt good to do something practical for a change. Funny thing is that people didn’t even act surprised to see a tall, blond, Dutch guy waitering.

But I won’t miss the finals on Sunday! In the evening I encountered some people with the Dutch flags painted on their cheeks in a restaurant, so I went ahead and asked them where the Dutchies are watching the game. So Sunday, in the Corner Pub (Amazonas) I’ll be!

On traffic in Ecuador

While I was in Guayaquil (Day 44), I wrote a little bit about the traffic in Ecuador and that it is so terrible.  I promised to write some more about it. But at that moment I was just mostly fed up with the traffic in Guayaquil. 2 Years ago, I wrote a small piece on the traffic in India (in Dutch), which didn’t seem to have any rules but “horn please”. Sure enough, the traffic isn’t as bad here. At least they drive on the right side and the horn isn’t used as much. Mostly just by taxi drivers who pass by, hoping to pick you up, while you are just waiting for a chance to cross the road. There was one particular street in Guayaquil which gave me a lot of trouble on this matter. When taking the bus back from the office, I had to cross a broad street, which was almost impossible. Pedestrians are usually left on their own, traffic lights aren’t set so there is a space open for us to cross. Moreover, on these broad (2-3 lane, one-way) roads the cars are nearly racing. With busses and taxis stopping everywhere they like, this makes the traffic in Guayaquil a pain in the ass.

In most of Quito, things are better. Recently there is a new programme in the centre called “Pico y Placa”, which simply states that on certain days you can’t enter the centre during certain hours if your ‘placa’ (plate number) ends with a certain number. In practice, this means that during certain other hours, the streets are busier. Here’s what a friend writes about the traffic in Quito (in French). Some streets are still difficult to cross, but in the busiest streets, like Amazonas, there are at least traffic lights for pedestrians.

In driving, equally when walking, people can be disrespectful towards you, by cutting across or just not moving aside. Though only in driving, this can provide potentially dangerous situations. Luckily, Quito has a very good bus system. There are 3 lines going in North-South direction, including an Arnhem style ‘Trolebus’. And at night you can take one of the 8800 taxis that drive around here.

Day 73 Saturday 3 July – Small update

So little is happening in Quito right now, that I haven’t written anything in 4 days. I’m just doing my thesis work every day, processing the interviews that I held in Guayaquil, watching a little bit of the world cup in between (Finale NL vs. DE will be a tough game). I’ve been down with a light flu (or a heavy cold) since Monday, but recovering quickly thanks to a lot of herbal tea and lemons and fruit juices. I still haven’t heard anything from Carlos, the board member from Kallari. He said he’d be in Quito this week, but I guess I should call him again.

My new visa has been authorized and I probably can pick it up on Wednesday. I only paid $ 30,- so it could be my visa is only extended until my day of leaving. But we’ll see Wednesday. Meanwhile, without my passport I can’t travel to Tena to meet Carlos, because you can’t enter the Amazonia without it.