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Vegetarian lasagne | Lasaña vegetariana

2010-12-13T18:49:00.002+01:00

Ingredients – makes 6 servings
5 cloves of garlic
2 onions
1 red pepper
Salt
250gr mushrooms
2-3 laurel leaves
1,5 teaspoon (tsp) thyme
400gr carrots
3 tomatoes
2 celery stalks
3 tsp Italian herbs (basel, oregano)
200mL red wine
2 spoons starch / arrowroot

100gr butter
50gr flour
Water / milk
Optional: bouillon, nutmeg, paprika powder

500gr Lasagne leaves
2 zucchinis medium size
200gr mozzarella style cheese
400gr white cheese
100gr parmesan cheese

Red sauce
Mash the garlic with the pepper in (olive)oil and fry together with the chopped onions, add a little salt to improve caramelisation.
Add sliced mushrooms together with thyme and laurel.
Dice the tomato and add to the pan when the mushrooms are baked well enough. Also add some extra water and tomato paste.
Add the carrots – grated. Add a little of the zucchini and the selery – diced
Boil for about 10 minutes.
Add Italian herbs (Basel, Oregano) and red wine, plus something to bind the whole (corn starch / arrowroot) Stir well and boil for just a few minutes. The red sauce is done!
If you can, remove the laurel leaves before putting the sauce in the lasagne.

White sauce
It’s your basic béchamel sauce, so melt butter until it starts to turn brown. Add flour and stir well, don’t let it burn. Add water or milk until the sauce is at the right thickness. Than spice it up with pepper and salt, bouillon, nutmeg and/or paprika powder.

Building the lasagne
You can do it any way you like it, but here’s how I did it.
--- layer of lasagne
*** red sauce
--- layer of lasagne
### sliced white (mozzarella style) cheese
=== sliced zucchini
--- layer of lasagne
*** red sauce
--- layer of lasagne
*w* white sauce
### more cheese – i.e. parmesan

Ingredientes - hace 6 porciones
5 dientes de ajo
2 cebollas
1 pimiento rojo
Sal
250gr champiñones
2-3 hojas de laurel
1,5 cucharadita de tomillo
400gr zanahorias
3 tomates
2 tallos de apio
3 cucharadita de hierbas italianas (Basilea, orégano)
200 ml de vino tinto
2 cucharas de almidón / arrurruz

100gr de mantequilla
50 gr harina
Agua / leche
Opcional: caldo, nuez moscada, pimentón

500 gr hojas de lasaña
2 calabacines medianos
200 g de queso estilo mozzarella
400gr queso blanco
100gr queso parmesano

Salsa roja
Machaque el ajo con la pimienta en aceite (de oliva) y freilo junto con la cebolla picada, añade un poco de sal para mejorar la caramelización.
Agregue los champiñones en rodajas, junto con el tomillo y el laurel.
Corta el tomate en cubitos y añade a la sartén cuando las setas se cuecen bien. También agregue un poco de agua extra y pasta de tomate.
Agrega las zanahorias - rallado. Añade un poco de la calabaza y el apio – en cubitos
Hierve durante unos 10 minutos.
Añade las hierbas italianas (Basilea, orégano) y el vino tinto, más algo para enlacer a la salsa (almidón de maíz o arrurruz) Revuelva todo bien y hierve durante unos pocos minutos. La salsa roja está lista!
Si es posible, elimina las hojas de laurel antes de poner la salsa en la lasaña.

Salsa blanca
Básicamente es una salsa de bechamel, entonces derrita la mantequilla hasta que empiece a tomar color. Agregue la harina y revuelva bien, no dejar que se queme. Añade agua o leche hasta que la salsa se encuentra en el espesor adecuado. Después condiméntalo con sal y pimienta, el caldo, la nuez moscada y / o polvo de pimentón.

La construcción de la lasaña
Puede hacerlo de la forma que le gusta, pero aquí está cómo lo hice.
--- Estrato de lasaña
*** Salsa roja
--- Estrato de lasaña
# # # Blanco queso, cortado en rebanadas (estilo mozzarella)
=== Calabacín en rodajas
--- Estrato de lasaña
*** Salsa roja
--- Estrato de lasaña
* W * salsa blanca
# # # Más queso – por ejemplo, parmesano

Day 119 Thursday 19 August – Madrid airport

2010-08-21T10:42:00.002+02:00

After getting a new plane ticket in Madrid - I get to fly together with D. after all - we went through the whole tour of passport control and luggage check again, but this time we didn't get through. I had bought 3 bottles of aguardiente at the Quito airport. Because of some undercover jerk reporter, even liquids above 100ml that you bought in airports outside of Europe are not allowed under hand luggage. We tried going back, but sending it in freight luggage would cost triple the value of the bottles. The second time we got through baggage check, they threw my liquor in a container. I got angry, though mostly to show these stupid rules are unacceptable. Not that it helps - Europe is crazy and paranoid.

We land at 22.15, but don't see our parents waiting until 23.00. After that we sit together and talk and eat for a while and then it is time to drive home... We arrive at the house around 2am.

Day 118 Wednesday 18 August – Day of return

2010-08-21T10:41:00.002+02:00

Before going home, I needed to pick up the last boxes of chocolate: the 85%. So I took another bus again back and forth. After that I quickly packed my bag and spent my last quality time with Mariela.

At 14.30 D. Came by to pick us up with a taxi that brought us straight to the airport. While we went in to check in our luggage, Mari waited outside. It took almost an hour to get checked in. And my luggage was too heavy. 19 and 29 kg... Fortunately I was able to move some things around, and I was allowed 2 pieces of hand luggage, which made it into something like 20 and 23 kg.

When we got back outside, Mariela had almost left. We sat outside for about an hour, until it was really time to say goodbye. We spent some last minutes together and then we walked in opposite directions...

D. and I had some dinner in the airport - for free because there was a delay of 3 hours. And we went to the gate. We didn't sit for long until they called out my name along with several others. Apparently, they had singled out one of my bags for a random drug control. The whole group had to go down to their bags and stand around while the police searched it. They singled out exactly the bag with the chocolate. The policeman wondered about it, broke one bar, but left the rest intact, luckily. Though I was mostly worried about my wuayusa tea.

We were late, but the flight went mostly smoothly. Until we got to Madrid...

Day 117 Tuesday 17 August

In the morning I went to my old apartment to get my things ready and post my latest blogs. Then at around 11, Mari was finished with her classes and we went down south to do some shopping. That reminded me again that shopping with a girl can be very tiring... But we also found a bag for me to put all the chocolate in, because the one I bought in Otavalo was way too small.

In the afternoon, after lunch, I went back to the apartment and got my stuff. Now I was ready to pack one of my bags already. The return is coming way too soon.

Day 116 Monday 16 August – At the chocolate factory again

2010-08-17T17:13:00.000+02:00

At noon I met with D. again to go to the chocolate factory. We took a bus and miraculously I remembered the whole trip from last time. Once there, we got another tour around the factory and we got part of our chocolate. Unfortunately they were out of the 85%, but hopefully they will make it on Tuesday again. I did one more interview, while D. was writing down all that he saw during the tour and then we left for the centre with about 9kg of chocolate.

In the evening, we had a small farewell / thank you dinner at the Indian restaurant with just the 4 of us.

Day 114 Saturday 14 August – Meeting the family

Up early, to do an interview with Carlos. Only to find out later that I didn’t record the conversation. My little machine did that before with a less important interview. I have no idea how I could have made such a mistake. After the interview, and my breakfast, I paid the chocolates which I will pick up fresh from the factory in Quito on Monday.

After all that, I thought I would go to Archidona with Mariela. Instead, I found her in a shoe store with her sisters and brother. We went to buy cement to construct a toilet and after that we all went to their house, where I also met Mari’s father. It’s a nice little place, it only misses a bathroom.

In the afternoon I walked around the centre with her and her brother to look for artesania. About the last souvenirs I needed.

2008 – 22 juli - Jaipur

2010-08-13T21:35:00.000+02:00

(Omdat niet alle berichten uit India online geplaatst zijn 2jaar geleden, volgen er nu nog wat oude berichten)

Deze dag hebben we een tour gemaakt met een busje. Eerste stop was een tempel gemaakt van marmer. Prachtig gebouw, maar nog onder constructie. Het wordt net als de Lotus tempel een plaats voor alle religies. Iconen van elke religie zijn verwerkt in de marmeren sculpturen.

Daarna reden we langs Albert Hall naar het observatory en de city palace. Het eerste is een plaats met allerlei stenen / marmeren constructies om tijd. Plaats en astrologie te bepalen. Het tweede is een groot gebouw en museum van de maharaja.

Daarna via de water palace, een paleis midden in een stuwmeer –waar we alleen van ver wat foto’s maken - naar het amber fort, waar we ook veel gezien hebben, maar wat beter met foto’s te beschrijven is.

Uiteindelijk bleek de tour guide ons toch nog langs een shop te leiden en bleek dat een toer naar de monkey temple (Galta) nog INR 400,- extra zou kosten. Tegen afspraak in. Dus toen zijn we maar terug gegaan naar het hostel.

Cor was bij terugkomst van de koorts af en het ging ook al wat beter. Maar ook Arianne begint nu een beetje ziek te worden. Loek voorspelt dat het door de drukte deze week daar niet bij zal blijven.

2008 – 21 juli

We hebben een wandeltocht gemaakt door de ‘Pink City’ oftewel vooral de straten, bedelaars en winkels, etc. Gezien. Dus het echte leven van Jaipur. Daarnaast een ‘kurta’ gekocht bij een khadi winkel, net buiten de pink city. Aan het eind van de tocht was er geen tijd meer voor de city palace, en gingen we met een auto-riksha terug: 9 mensen in 2 autos.

Vorige nacht was Cor ziek geworden en die was vandaag met Anil naar de dokter. Hij had wat pillen gekregen voor de koorts, maar verder zou het niets ernstigs zijn. Dus ging Cor deze avond mee naar Choki Dhani: een prachtig festival net buiten Jaipur. Bij binnenkomst kregen we allemaal een rode stip op ons voorhoofd en bloemen in ons har. Daarna zijn we gaan eten in de buitenlucht. We werden gastvrij ontvangen door mannen met een tulband en donkerrode shirts. We moesten onze schoenen juit doen en onze handen wassen en toen werden we naar onze plek gewezen. Aan de lage tafeltjes kregen we ons eten langzaam opgediend. Roti, rijst, saus, zoete krakelingen, karnemelk en meer. Ondertussen kregen we nog een tulband opgezet door de mannen.

Na het eten weer onze handen wassen een een handje suiker-anijs. Daarna zijn we vrij rond gaan lopen. Dans, massages, ‘jungle-tour’, draaimolen, theater: er was vanalles te beleven.

2008 - 20 juli - Apendieven en naar Jaipur

2010-08-13T21:33:00.000+02:00

(Omdat niet alle berichten uit India online geplaatst zijn 2jaar geleden, volgen er nu nog wat oude berichten)
Ik had natuurlijk al wat suspense gebracht in mijn vorige post. Er gebeurt hier nu zoveel dat het bijna onmogelijk is om mijn hele logboek op het web te plaatsen. Maar ik ga nu een poging doen om zo ver mogelijk te komen. Laat ik eerst de spanning wat wegnemen over mijn vorige post. Mijn beroving klinkt natuurlijk erg spannend, maar was het eigenlijk helemaal niet:
Toen we vanmorgen de trein uitstapten en naar een wachtruimte zochten, kwamen we langs een troep apen. Op dat moment viel het me al op dat ze dichtbij zaten, maar dat het vasthouden van een plastic tas met fruit geen goed idee was, drong nog niet tot mij door. Dus toen ik een dier (dacht eerst een hond) op me af zag komen schrok ik wel even. Na de eerste greep trok ik het zakje wel omhoog, maar niet genoeg en bij de tweede greep was het zakje kapot en lag alles op de grond. De troep apen was er razendsnel bij en alles wat we konden redden was een sweet lime en de zoutjes. Bananen, mango’s, allemaal weg. Hadden we toch beter wat fruit aan de bedelende kinderen kunnen geven.
Als we in Jaipur aankomen is het al laat, etenstijd, en hebben we geen tijd meer om naar het festival – Choki Dhani – te gaan. In de trein naar Jaipur is het erg druk, het is deze keer ook 2e klas non-AC. Een tijdje hebben we het spelletje ‘uno’ gespeeld. Het spelen van een spelletje trekt wel veel aandacht. Iedereen wil zien wat er aan de hand is en probeert te ontcijferen hoe het werkt.

2008 – 19 juli - Musoori hill station

Aline is de eerste zieke, ze heeft wat griepachtige symptomen en Anil brengt haar naar een dokter als wij naar Musoori gaan. Als we terugkomen blijkt ze een virus te hebben, waarvan ik de naam niet ken en heeft ze medicijnen gekregen. Het is wel besmettelijk, maar niemand van ons heeft nog ergens last van.
Musoori is een stadje in de bergen. Erg toeristisch, er zijn veel hotels en gift-shops, maar de toeristen zijn vooral Indiërs. Op straat wordt ik door een jonge Indiër aangesproken die met mij en de groep op de foto wilde. Dat gebeurt wel vaker. Behalve hier op Navdanya en in de trein komen we nauwelijks blanken tegen.
In het bergdorpje hebben we een wandeling gemaakt, welke mooie foto’s heeft opgeleverd. We hebben daar nog wat geld gepind, wat ook weer een heel avontuur op zich was, omdat niemand precies wist hoe het werkte en iedereen bang was om zijn pasje te verliezen. Gelukkig was dat laatste niet mogelijk en bleek na veel proberen dat er een maximum van INR 4.000,- was. Onze zekker zijn weer goed gevuld om souvenirs te kopen. Op de weg terug werd Justine ook nog wagenziek, maar dat kwam vooral door benauwdheid en de Indische rijstijl.

Day 113 Friday 13 August

2010-08-13T21:17:00.002+02:00

This morning there is no water again. It happened before at the beginning of the week, and it is something central. But nobody knows why this keeps happening. No notice from the water company, no nothing. No complaining either, so probably people are used to the fact that there is sometimes no water.

D. picked me up at my place just before 11 and we took the pie to the office. Almost everyone asked for the recipe. I did a long interview with one of the board members and then it was already lunch time.

This is the last day at the office. Tomorrow I’ll probably go hunt for the last souvenirs and Sunday I go back to Quito. It is almost time to go back and I already know I will miss it here. These last days I am not sure what to expect internet-wise. Don’t expect me to post much before my return. See you soon, friends.

Day 112 Thursday 12 August – And the bed shook

2010-08-13T20:56:00.000+02:00

At a little before 7, my bed started shaking. I first wondered whether it was my neighbours being rough, but later I realized I had just experienced my first earthquake. A small one, probably further away, I thought. However:

“Ecuador was struck by a strong 7.1-magnitude earthquake on Thursday but no major damage was recorded, the US Geological Survey said. The epicentre of the quake was in the central part of the South American OPEC nation underneath swath of Amazonian rain forest.
The quake was felt as far as the country's capital, Quito, located about 110 miles southeast of the epicentre. However, the depth of the earthquake was about 131 miles below the surface, which is quite deep. "Had it been less deep, it would have caused quite a lot of damage," Sandra Vaco, of Ecuador's geophysics institute.” Says the Epoch Times.

Following this experience was a more fruitful day than usual. Though the board members hadn’t come back yet, I did do two interviews and made another two appointments for more interviews. I decided to skip the surveys, because there was no time, but maybe I will make it with the interviews after all. For a second I was afraid I wouldn’t.

In the evening D. came over to bake some apple pies in the kitchen of Vilma. He had his mom’s recipe and, even though we didn’t have a scale, we did a pretty good job. At least the first tastings went well. Tomorrow we’ll bring some pie to the Kallari office. Even though there won’t be many people there, because it’s a national holiday.

Day 111 Wednesday 11 August – At the animal shelter

2010-08-12T22:42:00.000+02:00

Because the board members were not available today at the office, I decided to go to the animal shelter ‘Centro Fatima’. I asked D. to come with me, because while I was going for business, I expected to see some animals.

After a detour to the laundry, me and Mr. Been took a bus in the direction of Puyo and we went off at the small village of Fatima. That was not the place we wanted to be, however. I asked the closest store owner where we had to go. She said it was 1km back from where we came, but she thought it was closed now. Before we started our walk, we first went to get a recharge of our cell phones, where the lady behind the counter knew nothing of the centre being closed or not.

We walked down the road for that 1km and indeed found the place. A sign outside said that the place is closed for 2 months because of renovations and whishing us a good return… We decided to take a look anyway. I explained who we were and what we wanted and someone went to see the person in charge. We talked for a while and then he showed us the complex. A lot of empty cages, but we did see turtles and some monkeys. The engineer gave me his card, and some tips on another animal shelter further down the road.

We took a look at the time and decided to go to the animal shelter further down the road. Because it took some time for the bus to come, we hailed the cars to stop. Pretty soon one of them stopped and brought us further to ‘yana cocha’. A complex with a winding path going by numerous monkeys, birds and felines. Near the end, two free capuchin monkeys were very interested in my camera. They grabbed it and tried to look inside.

Day 110 Tuesday 10 August – Nothing to do

2010-08-11T23:28:00.002+02:00

It’s a quiet day today. The board members have all gone to Quito for today and they won’t be back until tomorrow afternoon. I have 4 days left to do my interviews here and there is no-one to interview at the moment. I do have some more literature sources on Kallari, but I’m a bit in a tight spot with the interviews. The board members are hard to reach, even if they are in town, and my most important informant has gone already and is leaving to the US tomorrow. I really need to push some buttons tomorrow to get all my information.

I spent the day mostly looking through my e-mail, working a little on the project I’m doing as a volunteer and reading articles. It is so hot today that by the end of it, I’m exhausted. I go back to the house at 5pm already and watch some series on my laptop. D. told me he may pick me up for a game of basketball, but his friends hadn’t shown up yet by 8pm, so I take a shower and sit down in the hammock to write my blog posts.

Day 108 Saturday 7 August – Otavalo market

2010-08-10T16:04:00.002+02:00

The alarm goes off at 6.30 in the morning and we wake up with a little bit of a hangover. Or a lack of sleep at the least. We came back from the party at 2am the night before. In the end however, we leave the house at 8. A few busses and 3 hours later we find ourselves in Otavalo. A small town North of Quito, with one of the biggest artesania markets. Even bigger on Saturdays. We start strolling around the market for a while looking at the clothing, jewellery and bags. I decide I need more money and get some at the bank. Not long after that, Mariela sees a beautiful dress and drags me into a store. She tries it on and looks really beautiful in it. She asks me to lend her the money for it, but I may decide later to just give it to her. Especially since the store gave us a deal, because I bought a second one to take home as a souvenir.

Then we bought a lot of other stuff at the market, including an extra bag to take the chocolates home. I hope I’m not overloaded with stuff now…

Day 107 Friday 6 August - Canelazos

2010-08-10T16:03:00.000+02:00

This evening we said goodbye to Sarah, Maguy and Mattieu. They threw a little party and we brought some ingredients to make canelazos, the local warm alcoholic drink. In the morning I walked down from Mariela’s house, where I’m staying my last days in Quito. I walked by the Santa Clara market before, but I never entered. First thing I started looking for the naranjillas that are needed to make the drinks. These fruits are from the tomato family and have a distinct taste that I can’t describe. They are very tasty though and I hope to be able to bring some seeds with me and grown them in my garden.

An old lady asks me what I want, so I tell her I need naranjillas to make canelazos. I ask her how much I need to make the drink with one bottle of liquor. Either she doesn’t understand me, or her hearing is bad, but she just goes on about prices and numbers. In the end, some other fruit vendors help me out with the number of fruits I need. I leave with 12 naranjillas for $2,-. In the afternoon I buy the bottle of aguardiente that I need at a small liquor store.

A lot of people came to the party, and many tried our canelazos, which was pretty good. Though Mari did most of the real cooking (that’s why I’m also not entirely sure of the amounts in the ingredients). Tomorrow Sarah will go back to France. The other two will follow in a few more days. Leaving me to wonder who I’m going to throw a goodbye party for…

Ingredients (makes about 2 jars):

Aprox. 3 L Water

12 Naranjillas

5 Cinnamon sticks (or leaves)

7 Straws of lemon grass

½ kg Raw cane sugar (or panela)

Aguardiente

Wash the naranjillas well, remove the fuzzy stuff and cut out any soft spots. Boil the cinnamon, lemon grass and naranjillas in a big pan of water for about 15 minutes. Then take out the fruits and liquefy them with a little water. Pull through a sieve to get the chunks out, and then keep the juice apart. Boil the water and spices about 10 minutes longer with the sugar. Then blend the spiced water and the juice. It should be the right amount, but don’t make the juice too watery. Bring it to boil again and add the liquor right before serving.

Naranjillas may be replaced by oranges or blackberries. In the case of oranges: peel them and boil them whole first. Then follow the recipe like it is. Aguardiente is a typical sugarcane liquor. It may be replaced by rum.

Day 103 Monday 2 August - Birly eards

2010-08-05T18:15:00.002+02:00

We started very early this day. We put the alarm at 5.30 am and left for bird watching 15 minutes later. Even the monkeys were still asleep at that time. It was cold and still quite dark, and even though we did see enough birds, the light wasn’t good enough to make any worthwhile pictures.

After breakfast, we went for a canoe ride by hand. We were brought to a smaller stream, where we had to peddle onwards. From there we came to a big lake, which was kind of frightening. You could look about half a meter in the water, but all you saw were plants growing there. According to the guide, underneath this growth, you can find all kind of dangerous wildlife: anacondas, caimans, electric eels and many piranhas. But other than the lake itself, we didn’t see much else.

In the evening, after lunch, we went to meet with a shaman. We had to wait for a little while, and while we waited we had fun with a tiny canoe. We bet for a beer that I could take it for a round and I did. Unfortunately the shaman wasn’t there, but his son (who is also shaman) was. He explained to us a couple of things about becoming a shaman, for which they use (among other things) the hallucinogenic ayahuasca or ‘yagé’ as they call it here. He did a couple of rituals, like cleansing one of our travel mates. And treating his back with a kind of nettle. The next day we took it easy and took a number of busses back, all the way to Quito, where we arrived at 11pm.

Day 102 Sunday 1 August - Community visit

2010-08-05T18:13:00.001+02:00

The 3rd day in the jungle, we visited the Siona community near the lodge. While the men of the village are enjoying their Sunday soccer match, a woman shows us how to make their typical yuca bread. A flat bread, that looks somewhat like dosa. We go with her to harvest some of the yuca. We all try to pull it out of the soil, but it is hard. Only with the second plant, I am able to do it. We peal the tubers there and take it to the house, where the cooking fire is already burning.

The yuca is washed and then rasped. Taking care of the fingers, three of us are rasping the big roots of yuca. Then the lady puts the pulp in a sort of hammock, which is then twisted to push out the sap. We are very surprised to see that the yuca comes out as a dry powder. She sieves the yuca flour and then put it in a pot. From the pot, it goes on to a hot clay plate on the fire, where she turns it into a flat bread.

We have lunch there and afterwards play a little with a blow dart. When we are done with that, we get to walk around a little, but Mari and I decide to take a swim in the river. On the way back to the lodge, we spot some pink dolphins again. This time I take a picture of a fin. They are so fast, it is impossible to shoot photos of them.

Later in the afternoon we hear about another anaconda and rush out to see it. A little bigger than the one we saw before, but still a very young one. The rest of the evening we go for another swim in the lake and look for caimans again. We see another small one (probably the same).

Later at night, we get quite a scare, when Mari thinks she sees a tarantula in our room. We don’t find it, but when we later go to bed, she feels something big creeping up her leg. We rush for the flash light, only to discover it’s a giant cricket.

Day 101 Saturday 31 July – Hiking day and night

2010-08-05T18:12:00.002+02:00

At the breakfast table at 8 am, we start spotting animals early. Someone found a black scorpion and starts passing it around the tables. In the roof we can still see a leg of a tarantula. Later after breakfast we take the canoe to a place where we will take a hike.

During the hike, the guide tells us about different plants and trees that are to be found. He asks us to do whatever he asks, to eat what he asks, and so on. The first thing he gives us is a piece of tree bark, which contains the anti-malaria medicine. He shows us a tree of which the white sap cures problems with the stomach. There’s a plant of which the dry twigs you can smoke, without addiction. And a palm tree that ‘walks’. We didn’t see many animals. Mostly insects, like cycads, poisonous caterpillars the size of a finger and ants and termites. One ant species was useful for stitching up a wound. He showed us how to do it too. Another ant species, inside a hollow tree, was good to eat (I passed this one though).

The hike wasn’t so hard, though some of us had some problems in the swamp and came back to the lodge with wet feet. But the temperature under the canopy is like a sauna, so we went for another swim in the lake afterwards.

The evening was reserved for piranha fishing, but only two of the guys caught some. After that, we went on a night hike, with our flash lights on. We saw giant crickets, scorpions, a scorpion spider, a small tree frog and 2 snakes, of which one was quite venomous. The guide showed us a fungus that lights up in the dark, which even then was hard to see in the darkness of the woods.

Day 100 Friday 30 July – To Cuyabeno

2010-08-05T18:11:00.002+02:00

At a quarter to 6, I’m woken up by my cell phone. Not realising where I am, or that it’s not the alarm that’s going off, I try to turn the alarm off. Luckily I notice that it’s Mari calling and I pick up the phone: she’s already standing in front of the hotel. I go down and take her up to my room, the doorman doesn’t say anything about it, so I think it’s okay.

When we go down for breakfast however, the lady at the desk tells us I shouldn’t have done that and that I now have to pay $10,- extra. We argue about it, but she wouldn’t let go. It’s a lot of money for a 3-hour-stay in this hotel. We take our breakfast in silence, because we are both angry with the hotel, and wait for the guys from Samona lodge to pick us up. Only 15 minutes later than planned, the minibus leaves to Cuyabeno with us and 13 other tourists in it.

The bus ride takes about 3 hours, with a stop in between where we buy some ice cream. We end up on the edge of the park at a bridge, where the guides direct us to lunch and to the office where we pay our entrance fee for the park. The guides have no idea who’s vegetarian and who is not, but later on this won’t be a problem anymore.

At the bridge we leave our bags, which are going to be brought in a different canoe, while 11 of us take a canoe with the guide to the lodge. He says it normally takes 1 and a half hour to get there, but we are taking a longer route to see as many as possible. We get ponchos, which we hardly need to use in the entire trip, and life vests.

During the boat ride, we get very lucky. We see a number of species of monkeys, two types of boa, bats, a sloth and a few birds. The guide tells us it is about all we will see during the entire trip. Though we have yet to see the famous anaconda. When we arrive at the lodge, we get our backpacks back and we are shown our rooms. A nice double room with a private shower serves us well.

A little while later, we take the canoe out again to the big ‘laguna grande’, where we spot our first pink river dolphin along the way. At the lake we take a swim and watch the sunset. When it is almost dark, we sail to the shore, where we look for caimans. A small one approaches the boat, while the guide splashes a piece of chicken in the water and yells ‘aung’ all the time.

When we get back to the lodge, dinner is served and a tarantula appears on the scene. And besides the cockroaches in the room, that was the last animal we saw that day.

Day 99 Thursday 30 July – To Lago Agrio

2010-07-30T02:40:00.002+02:00

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

2010-07-29T16:19:00.000+02:00

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

2010-07-29T16:12:00.000+02:00

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

2010-07-26T19:03:00.000+02:00

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

2010-07-26T19:02:00.002+02:00

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

2010-07-26T19:01:00.002+02:00

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

2010-07-26T19:00:00.003+02:00

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’

2010-07-22T18:19:00.000+02:00

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

2010-07-22T17:57:00.000+02:00

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

2010-07-22T17:36:00.000+02:00

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

2010-07-19T22:21:00.003+02:00

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

2010-07-19T19:34:00.002+02:00

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

2010-07-19T19:31:00.000+02:00

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

2010-07-17T02:32:00.000+02:00

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

2010-07-15T18:15:00.001+02:00

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

2010-07-12T23:01:00.000+02:00

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

2010-07-07T23:53:00.000+02:00

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

2010-07-07T00:49:00.000+02:00

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

2010-07-03T23:55:00.002+02:00

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.

Day 69 Tuesday 29 June – Visa renewal in progress

2010-06-29T19:46:00.002+02:00

I finally managed to apply for my visa extension. It’s really amazing how little people in the administration know about how this works. Last week I was in the ministry of foreign affairs, who sent me to the ‘dirección general de extranjeria’; who sent me to migration office; who sent me back to the ministry of foreign affairs. The same girl that sent me the wrong way, now told me I should be in the other ministry building across the street. She didn’t even apologise, but I was too tired to get angry about it, so I just went across the street. But that one was closed after 12, so the guard said.

So today I tried again and succeeded. I had all the necessary papers ready and I can come back on Friday. With the long line, it did take me over an hour to do everything, but I could watch Japan playing versus Paraguay, not scoring any goals. After that, I went to Camari (the only organic shop in town) and scored some blackberries and made myself a nice juice with them at home.

Day 66 Saturday 26 June – Cinema time

2010-06-29T19:45:00.001+02:00

Today I went to the cinema with Mariela. There wasn’t a big choice, because I vetoed “Sex in the City 2”. So the choice fell on Robin Hood. An attempt by Ridley Scott to make a bigger longer story out of the many myths and legends that combine the story. It wasn’t a bad film, really, but I am not particularly a fan of Russel Crow, who is misplaced as an English man in this film with his typical American face. Anyway, without giving out any spoilers. It’s about the period from before Robin Hood starts to battle the sheriff of Nottingham. There is some humour in it, but not much. And there is a lot of violence in it, warranting a remark by Mariela: “your culture is really violent”. I can’t deny that, but at least things have improved.

Day 65 Friday 25 June – The day I almost got robbed

2010-06-25T19:56:00.000+02:00

I was walking down Wilson, on my way to the ministry of foreign affairs to renew my visa, when right in front of the café, a man starts talking to me. He has a note with him which he wants me to read, because he’s analphabetic. Then suddenly another man in a suit shows up from behind me, calling himself Jorge, and starts to help out. They explain to me that the man has a winning lottery ticket, but the note says that the bank shouldn’t give all the money to the man, but just a little. This supposedly happens a lot to analphabetic people, Jorge tells me. We walk to a little restaurant where Jorge offers us breakfast (a good way to win confidence) and the other man tells us there he offers us $5000 of his prize money each, if we accompany him, because he can’t read. Meanwhile they just got some drinks, no breakfast.

The man makes clear that in order to trust us, he needs to see that we have money to feed ourselves, so he knows we won’t steal the prize money from him. Jorge pulls a bank receipt from his chest pocket and shows it to me to read it to the man. It says about $ 6.700, which is a lot. Though the fact that he pulls a bank receipt from his chest pocket is strange, because he told me he is a teacher. Why would he have such a thing in his pocket? Anyway, the man goes on and tells us we should actually show him the money in order to believe us. At which point, Jorge writes a check of $ 4.000 and goes out to cash it. He returns with what seems to be a big pack of money rolled in paper (though it may have been just one bank note with other paper on the inside). The man gives Jorge his ‘lucky bag’ to take home the money again.

When Jorge returns again, and after asking me how much money I possess, they ask me to do the same: to get money from the bank and show it to them. It makes me feel uncomfortable, but I proceed just to know where this is going. I’m not in it for the $ 5.000, but if not for helping the guy, for the excitement. This time, Jorge accompanies me to the bank, presumably to make sure I actually withdraw the money, and then I pick up some more money from my house. He waits conveniently out of sight of any cameras.When we walk to my house, it becomes clear to me that Jorge doesn't know his way around, he doesn't know where my house is, though he supposedly lives nearby. When he tells me he's a teacher at la Central, teaching architecture, I tell him my girlfriends studies that. He fails to ask who she is though.

We go back to the little restaurant and I show him the money. This time is different though, he wants to see how much the money is. Jorge takes it from my hands and shows it to the man. They then take the 'lucky bag’ out again and Jorge puts my money in it. While he is sealing the bag well, the other man tries to catch my attention, but I keep my eyes on the money and see Jorge putting it inside his blouse really quickly, changing it for similar bag well rolled up. Handing it to me, I try to open it, but he takes it, quickly changing it for the real bag again and opens it for me. At this point I’m not yet exactly sure of what I saw, so we head for the streets, presumably so I can bring my money back home. There the same trick with the bags repeats itself; I notice it again and the two men realize they are not going to con me. They tell me to return the bag, guard my things and they leave quickly in the opposite direction.

I realize that if I hadn’t been alert, I would have lost a lot of money, so thanks to that. The two men had been very good actors from the start, however their story didn’t check out totally. Instead of me trying to gain the confidence of one of the men, they were going out of their way to win my confidence. Would have paid me a breakfast even (too bad I had a good breakfast already). I think though, that they would be good enough to con other tourists. Though the idea that a tourist should show he’s not going to steal is strange to me. They would have to have a lot of money to enter the country in the first place, with flight tickets of € 1.000.

While they were walking away, I had the idea to follow them, to see where they were going. But the idea of having this amount of money with me and following two thieves led me back to my apartment.

I dropped the whole thing and went back on my way to the ministry of foreign affairs, where they told me I had to go to a different ministry on the other side of town.

Day 63 Wednesday 23 June – Aikido

2010-06-24T19:40:00.000+02:00

A very tough lesson of Aikido today, especially the warming up. We did the same rolling exercise as on June 14, but I learned that they are more exercises to practice falling. This may be a good exercise to bring home, to help us fall better. Then followed a number of exercises with walking on the knees, back and forth on the tatami. We did a big number of sit ups. And when we finally began with the techniques, I was already out of breath and tired. The techniques involved yokomenuchi with shiho nage and kote gaeshi. We rounded up with koshi nage. I’m doing a lot of stuff here we didn’t do much at home. The students are not rolling here, almost all of them are falling. Just like me. I’m happy that I get this chance to see a whole new way of Aikido. After the practice, we did the torture of the legs again. My partner was pushing me pretty hard… It’s going to hurt tomorrow.
On Monday as well, we practiced a form of ushiro ryotori attack, which was more like a strangling attack. We never used this attack before. But it is interesting to work with.

Day 62 Tuesday 22 June – Dinner with 2 uncles

2010-06-24T19:39:00.000+02:00

While I was helping Mariela today in the café with her English homework. Two uncles of her showed up for a cup of tea. We talked a bit and they explained to me the rules of marriage in the Kichwa culture. The boyfriend has to offer a good drink to the uncles. Then again when you get engaged. And when you get married, there’s a party of 3 days with a lot of alcohol, food, you name it.

When they left, they invited us to have dinner at hotel Embassy, where they were having a dinner and some people weren’t showing up. So we accepted and went to the hotel after closing up the café. The food was alright. Not as luxurious as I expected from the looks of the hotel. Crema de asparago for soup and some rice, yucca and salad. The uncles and Mariela were mostly talking in Kichwa, which made me feel a bit uncomfortable, because I didn’t understand a thing. They taught me some words but it’s hard to remember when you can’t write it down. But I’m definitely going to learn a bit more in Kichwa, it’s an interesting language.

Day 61 Monday 21 June – To the chocolate factory

Today I went to the factory of Ecuatoriana de Chocolates (cacaoyere) with Elsy (of the café) to pick up some boxes of Kallari chocolate. I didn’t see much of the inside, but it was a nice trip and now I know where the chocolate is being made. Just like EScoffee, they hire the factory and the workers to make the products.

Day 60 Sunday 20 June – Sports in Cumbaya

Just like last week, we went to watch the sports in Cumbaya. Just one game of basketball of the girls is worth noting. Sarah played as well, but met with difficulties because of the altitude and a decreasing condition. They won though, by 26-14. The guys won too, but didn’t play: the opposing team didn’t show up.

Day 58 Friday 18 June – Going ahead

2010-06-19T17:42:00.001+02:00

Today I talked to Leonore, one of the board members of Kallari. There may be a possibility for me to enter as a volunteer, but I they need to discuss this with all board members. Maybe they will talk about it on Monday, but most likely, it would be best for me to go to Tena myself next weekend. A minimum stay for volunteers is a month. Though I have the time, it is quite much. With the friends I have in the café, I should be able to come to an agreement.
I remain in contact with Alberto, my supervisor. Finishing my thesis before September 1 seems now like an impossible task. Of course there is a lot that can be written in Ecuador, but Alberto will be out of Dutchland much during august. More realistic would be to graduate before November 1. That will cost me a good deal of money, though. Studying one extra period and living without a job is expensive. Perhaps I should start looking for that dream job and start before graduating? Well, for now let's just focus on the task ahead in Ecuador.

Day 57 Thursday 17 June – Another goodbye

This night is a farewell party for Anne-Sylvie, so Sarah and I do some groceries at the supermaxi in the afternoon after having a lunch at the mall. Most of the malls in the big cities look very much the same. The same chains of stores and they all have a floor where a lot of fast-food chains are together. There are no ‘real’ restaurants to be found however. We both choose a different place to get our food and share a table (It’s like a square with tables, surrounded by fast-food companies). Sarah gets a fast salad and I a fast lasagne. We take an ice-cream afterwards.

In the evening, Mariela and I go to A.S.’ house. We want to take a bus, but at 8.30, there are none anymore, because of the centre filling with party-people. We take a taxi instead. Sarah is already there, but besides that, we are one of the first. There’s punch, food on the table and music. What else can we say about the party, besides that it was great.

Day 56 Wednesday 16 June – 2nd aikido in Quito

I’m having aikido practice now on Monday and Wednesday. Friday is a possibility as well, but I feel that 2 days a week is fine. This practice wasn’t entirely special or different. We learned one technique where the hand is locked when uke grabs the arm of tori, but I think we’ve done this before, without stopping and looking at the specific technique. After the training we followed up with stretching of the legs, like we normally do before the training. The stretching resembled a little the way we do it at home in duos.

I do notice that it is different to train at this altitude. I get more quickly out of breath. The positive thing is that we don’t get so sweaty like in Guayaquil.

Day 55 Tuesday 15 June – Helping a friend in need

2010-06-16T21:50:00.000+02:00

Yes, I changed it. With some networking here and there, I was able to change the date of return for only $ 200 through my travel agency back home. I will return on August 19th at around 7pm. Not the exact date I hoped for, but the only possibility in August to return for the lowest cost. I hope you guys can go so long without me. About 64 days to go...

I had a little lunch with some left-overs today and was doing a bit of nothing at home. When suddenly R. called me, asking me to come down to talk to me about something. R. is a friend that also works at the Kallari café and is always joking around. But when I saw him downstairs he looked more serious than I’ve ever seen him. He said he needed my help with something. His cousin is in the hospital and she’s pregnant with some complications. He wants to borrow $ 60, which he will pay me back by the end of the month; and he would like me to come with him to the hospital. Though Mary would kill him if she knew that he asked me this, I say it’s okay. I know R. well enough to help, even though money is not my preferred way of helping others.

I get the money from my apartment and we walk to the hospital together, giving us ample time to get to know each other better. Which is easier now, because he’s not joking around so much. At the hospital, though, we find out that the visiting hours are passed and they won’t let us in to bring the money to R.’s cousin. We try the back door, but no luck either. The only option left is to wait a while until the guard at the entrance is relieved, which actually happened really fast. R. Showed me his house, where he picked up a phone charger for his cousin and then we went back. This time he got in, but I had to wait. I was wondering how the hospital would look like from the inside.

We take the bus back to Kallari, where I spend the rest of the day. Hmm, perhaps I’m spending too much time at the café, I gotta work more.

Day 54 Monday 14 June – Changes

2010-06-15T21:02:00.000+02:00

I decided to stay longer in Ecuador. But for this I need to arrange a lot. I decided to do this today. But in the morning Sarah asks me to have lunch with her in Parque Carolina. Plans change. I do some groceries and cook a nice almuerzo to take with me. By then, the sun has disappeared a bit and it starts to rain as soon as we find a place to sit down. When we find a place with a roof the sun comes back. The weather changes even more quickly. We have our lunch and talk a bit in the sun. I tell her about my change of plans and that I need to go to Quicentro shopping mall to ask about changing my ticket. That’s a good chance to have an ice-cream for dessert.

At the LAN airline office they tell me a whole different story than I heard from my travel agency. It would cost me around $ 435 to change the ticket. So I send an e-mail back to my travel agency when I get home to ask how this is. Of course, they all are asleep by the time I send it, so I have to wait for the next day.

I spend part of the afternoon at the café and then have to go to aikido practice. But Mariela gets angry with me, because I didn’t tell her and because I’m being careless going to the north of Quito all by myself. I try to make it right and eventually arrive just a few minutes late at the training.

Even within Ecuador, aikido is different. We start with the usual exercises, but they are different and we take more time. Then the rolling exercises, where 2 people lie flat on their bellies while the rest roll over them – without really touching though. The techniques we practice are familiar: irimi nage and kote gaeshi. My partner points me at my posture, which I then put more firmly. The nice thing about training in different dojo’s is that you learn different thing in each. While I learned the etiquette in Guayaquil, for example, it is not that much stressed here. One thing I am going to learn here though is to fall. It’s all a bit wilder here. But the exercise was rewarding.

At my return, a nice warm meal was waiting for me and we watched some tele.

Day 53 Sunday 13 June – Watching live soccer

Ah lazy Sunday. I spent the day with Mariela and friends in Cumbayá, watching soccer games between different groups on the terrain of the university (San Francisco?). The ladies lost, unfortunately. Perhaps because Mariela wasn’t playing. The guys won 4-2. Chess game also lost. And I also played some chess with Mary, but we didn’t finish because we were going to watch soccer. She’s good though…

The rest of the afternoon I spent like a lazy Sunday afternoon. Not much worth telling in my blog.

Day 52 Saturday 12 June – Bicycle race in Parque Carolina

2010-06-13T01:51:00.000+02:00

I first went with Mariela on a little tour through the city, because she had to run a number of errands. She showed me her university (Central de Ecuador) and I went with her to the dentist. This was in the old part of Quito and it is visibly poorer. At entry, she had to get a number and together with a lot of people we were waiting in a big hall. A gay assistant was calling out the numbers. While waiting, I was watching people come by for health check-ups. The doctor doing these was taking the thermometers to the bathroom every time to wash them with water. Not very hygienic if you ask me. Mariela was ready really quick and after the errands, we decided to have breakfast. Yes, at 10am, which is late for me. We first go to this place near my apartment, but decide to go to the CCI shopping centre near Parque Carolina instead to have brea… brunch.

After brunch we take a walk through the park and decide to hire some bicycles. They were really crappy by my standards with faulty brakes and a pedal missing, but we did cycle through the whole park and had a small race on the running track before returning the bikes. Somehow she was faster than me. Probably the altitude that makes me weaker.

During the day I didn’t really pay attention, so I got myself burned pretty well again. My face, neck and arms are truly red. I only noticed this when we were walking back to the Mariscal. I got burned even though a large time we spent lying in the shade near the water, talking.

Mary’s brother spent all his money yesterday, so he’s staying at her place again. We said goodbye and tomorrow she’s taking me to a soccer match between Kichwa groups.

Day 51 Friday 11 June – Cheering me up

2010-06-13T01:37:00.001+02:00

Sleeping on the floor was alright, there were blankets above and below me and Sarah lend me a pillow. The reason I didn’t sleep that well after all, was more because of my own worries. I was planning to get up early in the morning to do some arranging, but I was so tired in the morning, I spent another two hours in bed. After revising my mail and having a bit of a breakfast, I went to the supermaxi for some groceries and to the laundry service. They are faster here than in Guayaquil (and cheaper), ready the same day at 4pm.

I kind of felt bad the whole morning, and I promised Sarah I would bake a pie. So this was the ultimate moment to do so. I put on some music and went going. Some essential ingredients were missing though, because they weren’t available, like real vanilla, but the result was fine in the end. During the baking, I got to cheer myself up with a hot tea, cake dough and chocolate. There is almost no better way. After the pie finished, I went to grab lunch at Shakti, one of my favourite places and bought some more souvenirs at the local artisan market. A nice handmade bag and some light trousers. Like a friend always says: good food happy people. And shopping helps a little.

The afternoon I hung out at Kallari with Mariela and her friends. I helped a bit in the kitchen a well and Mary jokingly said to one of the directors (who was coincidentally there) that I was a new volunteer. I should have told her that I may need Kallari as my case study, but I did that the next day. Now the directors are in Tena. But all is not lost there of course.

In the evening I invited Mary for dinner, so I made her a nice, but simple, spaghetti meal. We watched ‘When Nietzsche wept’ in Spanish and ate pie. Then, at around 10pm she took me home with her, because her brother said he wasn’t going to sleep at her place this night (and luckily he didn’t). And yeah, that was the best way to cheer me up.

Day 50 Thursday 10 June – Hello Quito :)

2010-06-10T19:00:00.001+02:00

Why do I always sit next to a mother with a nagging child when I’m taking a long bus drive? Okay, it wasn’t as bad as the way to Guayaquil, but still. Sleeping in the bus was a hell of a job on its own. With the airco on and so many people, it was almost like a sauna in there with the moisture. And it wasn’t cool at all, despite the airco. At 6 I arrived at the terminal of Transportes Ecuador, which is well placed in the centre, just 5 minutes’ walk away from my new home. Nevertheless, I had to wait for an hour and a half, because I didn’t want to wake Sarah up so early. Good that I didn’t, because she was still pretty tired when I awakened her with my call at 7.25. Almost forgot that the nightlife is strong here in Quito. I am going to enjoy this.

At about 7.30 I was let in to the building. I’m living on the second floor of a small apartment complex. For the coming two days I don’t have my own room yet, but I can sleep on the couch with Cona the cat. It’s a pretty big place, with 3 bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen. A shared bathroom for 2. The owner who also lives in the building has his own bathroom. Still we have to take turns showering, because the heater can’t handle 2 showers at once. But here we will at least not run out of gas, because there’s a pipeline. Also, there is a really big TV with dvd player, this will be so nice.

When I arrived, I first had a cup of tea with Sarah and when she went out to work, I took a shower (so good to have a nice warm shower again after a month); checked my e-mail (I love wifi); and went downstairs, walked 50 metres down Wilson to Kallari, where I had a nice breakfast with pancakes and fruit and a coffee. I already love my new apartment, even though I don’t have a bed yet.

At breakfast, while sipping my excellent organic coffee, I wrote some new cards to send to the people who hadn’t had one yet and afterwards I went to the post office to send the cards and to ask about the prices for packages. Because I’ve been collecting souvenirs already, and thought of sending them by mail. Bad news is, it’s $38 for under 2kg. And rising fast with the weight. Gotta check out what the costs are of raising the weight of baggage on the plane.

At around 12 Mariela calls me and says she didn’t have classes, so I see her at my place and we talk a bit. Afterwards I have lunch with Sarah in Parque Carolina and the rest of the day I spend with Mariela in the café.

At closing time, however we don’t go together. Her brother is in town and sleeping at her place. I don’t like him very much, especially after Mary told me he’s an alcoholic that takes quickly to fighting. But I especially don’t like him, because he’s the reason I’m sleeping on the floor of my apartment tonight. My room becomes available only in 2 days, and the plan was that I could sleep at Mariela’s place. I could use her hugs right now and then this happens. It’s getting frustrating.

Day 49 Wednesday 9 June – Bye Bye Guayaquil

2010-06-09T18:24:00.001+02:00

Time to leave. In case I don't get a chance to write about this day today. You will at least know, that I'm taking a bus today at around 22.30 with the direction Quito. I will arrive early in the morning, hopefully between 7 and 8, drop my bags in my new home and take a breakfast at Kallari (which will be just around the corner). Do some duties like sending a batch of postcards and so on. Just one more day in Guayaquil. Can't say I will miss this city. It is too big for me.

NB S.P. just let me know today via skype message (no he still didn't call me):
"i think i am not goinh to have time help you this time
i am very late with my work
sorry about it my friend hope to help you next time"

Nice, that's what you tell me after I've been calling for more than a week. I asked if he knew other companies, but he couldn't give me a direct answer. Don't know if he'll answer later, but I'm just done with this guy. My supervisor says I could ask his competitors to see why S.P. doesn't want me investigating his company... But I'm not sure if that's going to give any results. He could be just as busy as he says he is. Or he could be a jerk that never calls back.

I'm now giving myself a week to arrange something else. Though Kallari chocolate is the best option I have (and I know they take interns) I should discuss it with la señorita. Jeroen gave me some other possibilities in Quito, but they're all just a little less interesting for some reason. Miguel gave me a contact in the coffee business, but I don't know much about this company. At least I don't know enough to see whether it is interesting or not. The website is in Spanish, so I'm not sure they even export.

Day 48 Tuesday 8 June – Bye Bye Centro Cultural Aikido Guayaquil

2010-06-09T18:18:00.002+02:00

Another productive day. First I did the rest of my interviews at the toaster. Then asked my last questions to Miguel and did one more interview. Almost done here!

In the evening I had my last Aikido practice. We skipped the meditation and went straight to exercises and leg torturing. The lesson today was a continuance of a day before, but I was able to follow it. We did a number of different forms of kokyo nage (katate dori en aihanmi). They were the usual forms but with irimi tenkan, ura, omote. Forms that look a little like Ikyo and forms that look like tenchi nage or pushing the chin up. A lot of them were new to me, and it is hard to remember them all. There were so many!

Meanwhile, I get a free lesson of Aikido Etiquette. When kneeling down with the students, first kneel right knee, sit down and put your hands – fingers closed – on your legs with your back straight. When bowing to Osensei or the sensei, left hand, then right hand on the ground and bow, saying “onegaishimasu, sensei”. Literally, this means “do me this favour (teacher)”, but could be translated as “let’s have a good game”. Then you get up, right leg first (right? It’s difficult writing this the day after).

At the end of the practice, Herbert address his thanks to me for training with them, and there were some pictures taken, which I will post here as soon as they arrive in my inbox.

Day 47 Monday 7 June – One down, where’s number two?

2010-06-08T17:18:00.001+02:00

Yeah, a productive day today. I did three interviews today, including one at the toaster. In the morning, I started out going to Miguel to ask if he contacted la economista to see if there is time for interviews. He called her and handed me the phone. No problem she said, you can totally come over this afternoon. So I did and interviewed her. By then it got 5 O’clock and the maestros were done working. So I’m going back there to get some more interviews tomorrow in the morning. So if all goes well, I can wrap up the toaster tomorrow, and then I only need about 2 interviews in the office and some extra questions for Miguel. I may just wrap this baby up nice.

On the dark side, I totally feel like I’m getting dumped by my other case. The director is telling me every time I call him: “call me tomorrow” “call me on Monday” “call me in 30 minutes” “you know what, I’ll call you after my meeting” (he totally didn’t). I’m getting sick of it, but I need to stay polite, because I need this case. My only other option is to go to a factory in Tena, which is a 5 hour drive from Quito. Honestly, it’s a nice case, probably even nicer than the one I’m hunting now. But Mariela is just going to kill me if I have to move to Tena now. Almost makes me feel like sitting down and cry that ‘life isn’t fair’. But that’s just a little dramatic, don’t you think?

Truth is, we’ve been calling for a month with the hope that we now get to be a full month together, and I want that. I want to be in Quito, with Mariela and my friends. Have fun. Go out dancing. Do all the stuff I haven’t been doing in Guayaquil. And now I’m close to feeling myself forced in having to choose between my personal life and my studies. Yes, I know I’m here for the latter, but this just makes me feel bad. I was hoping to finally have a good time again in Ecuador, and now it’s getting jeopardised.

And my bottle of rum is finished… I need a hug.
Or I need at least a lot more people reacting to my posts... Where are you guys?

Day 45 Saturday 5 June – Barbacoa at the office

2010-06-07T17:18:00.000+02:00

I started the day with asking Lenin for an interview. He agreed and would come to me later (but when he did, I had to get started on the barbeque). After that I went to the general manager and asked him for the rest of the interview. He had time at that moment. However, after a while Miguel stumbled in after he had been planting trees for his political campaign (now I get why sometimes the boys would shout Rendón Presidente) and besides making it impossible to ask certain questions, he also started answering for Ricardo in a joking fashion. I decided to wrap it up and maybe ask some separate questions later. I thanked him and went to the task of the barbeque.

Miguel told me he had asked his wife to take care of things, though he had forgotten to tell her I don’t eat meat. The general manager and Miguel laughed about it, but when I called her, she was sympathetic and told me she’d arrange something for me. She showed up later with some vegetarian ‘meat’ that I had seen at the lunch canteen multiple times before.

I started out with cleaning the tables a little, putting the stereo and some chairs down. Stalyn and Victor helped me with cleaning the floor a bit. Juan cleaned out the pool. At around 1PM there was a barbeque and meat and the place looked alright for a party. But we still missed some basic stuff like gas and a wine opener. Miguel set the tone by pushing Juan into the pool, getting himself in there as well. Juan just laughed at this and started swimming a bit in the pool. People started opening the crisps bags and eat those. Miguel told me to call everyone down, because it wasn’t time for working, but for having fun. Some people were still working in the office and that couldn’t be. I did so and it still took a while for everyone to come down. So after a while, Miguel went up himself to order everyone to come by the pool.

Then everything else arrived. Though some things were still missing, but that is the result of asking a vegan to organise a barbeque and then tell your wife to buy the stuff. Though I had invited most people, (some didn’t show up) the organisation wasn’t so very good. But it was about the fun and the time spent together. The meat was put on the barbeque; the wine was poured in plastic cups and the music was playing. Miguel made a game, doing a really absurd laugh and saying that the one to guess who it belonged to would get a bonus. I don’t think anyone guessed. But everybody laughed while he did this.

A while later Miguel did a toast. After thanking me for inviting the people, he said this was the first party of many more to come, as a way of strengthening the ES family. Then the party continued.

After eating a bit the younger men were starting to push each other into the pool, after Miguel had also thrown Paolo into it. Javier, Luis and Walter were the first to go in. Lenin and Stalyn went in voluntarily later. The general manager and Victor were cooking the whole time (the women from administration had helped with preparing the meat earlier).

Later at the party, even Victor, Nicolás and David were pushed into the pool, but not after their consent and the opportunity to empty their pockets of cell phones. The younger guys were not really fond of the wine, and gathered money to get some beer as well. Miguel just sat and watched with a smile on his face how everyone seemed to have fun at the pool. The gestures of throwing Angel, Ingrid or me in the pool were responded to with a ‘no’ and this discouraged the rest of further attempts. Even though probably neither of us would’ve been angry about this. I understand they didn’t dare throw me in the pool, since they didn’t know me well enough to know whether it would make me angry.

When later the guys spur on Paolo into pushing the general manager into the water while he’s is taking a picture with his blackberry, things take a different turn. When they help him out again, he definitely doesn’t look pleased. Later Miguel tells me the general manager was very angry and left after he fell into the pool. Miguel blamed the beers for this, making the young guys more drunk and this made them spur on Paolo into doing what he did. And that this destroyed the party. Indeed the pool was getting empty, we cut the cake and ate it and people were slowly leaving. Most of the meat and all of the wine was finished.

The boys cleaned up the place, I helped a little, and we took a company car to drive home and drink some more at our house. Now this is not clear to me, but supposedly Miguel called and said this wasn’t allowed. I’m not sure why, though at the moment of writing I recall the amount of alcohol involved… We drove the car back and each of us took a taxi or a bus to our own homes, and that was the end of the day.

Day 44 Friday 4 June – Spending money on a girl

2010-06-05T01:28:00.003+02:00

Yesterday, Mariela called me to ask me for money. Something I had not expected, and I didn’t like the idea at first. However, I know how poor she is and she told me she needed the $30 for T-shirts for the women of a sports team from her region. I thought about this for a second and agreed with it. The only problem was, how to get her the money, because I have no idea of how the banks work here. ‘Luckily’, Sarah still owes me money, so I asked her to bring it over to Kallari. Problem solved, happy Mary. Of course, if we hadn’t been calling each other almost every single day for the past weeks, I would’ve been more suspicious.

Today was a bit of a useless day. I didn’t get to do any interviews at all. Everyone was really busy. Tomorrow I may do 1 or 2 I hope. And hopefully one with Ingrid today in the evening. But tomorrow is also the BBQ by the swimming pool. I invited almost everyone personally, I hope the word has travelled a bit since then. But at least the mayority is coming and that is a good thing to know. The thing is, I need to go buy meat with Miguel tomorrow… What a joke! “How many vegans does it take to organise a meatfest?”

Going back to the house after work was a real pain in the ass again. I always prefer to take a bus, but here’s where that goes wrong: The bus system in Guayaquil is one big chaos. There are bus stops along the roads, but they are usually ignored. One needs to hail the bus (by extending the arm at shoulder level, palm down and moving the fingers towards you). This presents a couple of problems: if it is dark, you are almost bound to spot the bus you need way too late. Second, if it is dark, the bus driver may not even see you. And if the bus is full enough he may just actually ignore you.

The other chaos component is that there is no central information about routes or times. Though the busses usually pass by every 20 minutes or so, there is still no secure way of knowing which bus you need to take. Ingrid already told me I needed to take bus #63 Verjeles to get back, but if that bus passes you by twice without stopping, what can you do? I could wait for the third; take a different bus that does stop for me; or take a taxi. Option number one could result in me getting frustrated when the third (and fourth and fifth) bus pass by without pulling over. Option number 2 is no option, because the information about busses suck. So I take a taxi. There is no wonder why the traffic in Ecuador is so terrible, but I’ll tell you about the traffic some other time.

Later that night I get cheered up by the all-time awesome-est episode of HIMYM: Swarley (series2-ep7). And I discover that the actrice of another great series, Morena Baccarin, plays a big role. I wonder if Ammer knew that. So I end my day with watching old episodes of HIMYM, drinking a cup of rum and wishing it was 5 days later, where I’m back in the bus to Quito.

Day 43 Thursday 3 June – 4th Aikido practice

2010-06-04T18:18:00.002+02:00

The fourth Aikido practice in Guayaquil almost was in danger of non-existence. When I arrived at the dojo, there was nobody. I called Herbert (the sensei) and just as I was calling, the replacement teacher arrived to open the door. Herbert wasn’t coming today and this was for a number of students a reason not to show up. I don’t really understand why, because his replacement doesn’t wear a hakama for no reason, he is competent. Nevertheless, when a father showed up to bring his kid to practice and heard that Herbert wasn’t coming, they both left. Later I heard that he thought his child would be hurt or something. Remembering how the same boy was thrown around on Tuesday, I couldn’t imagine it any worse (even though he wasn’t harmed in any way on Tuesday).

Anyway, there we were, the two of us waiting for at least two others to show up, since a private lesson just wasn’t going to happen. Luckily for me, two others did show up. And this is still close to a private lesson. We started out like most days, but we skipped the torturing of the legs and we didn’t do any rolling either. I guess we skipped all that, because we weren’t going to use the legs that extensively today. We proceed after meditation with a form of kokyo ho, standing up. That is, a kokyo nage without the nage (throw), meant to relax.

We then continue with the basic techniques and spend quite some time on them. Ikyo was just a bit different then I’m used to. That, or it is explained differently. Starting with bringing uke out of balance by pushing the elbow up and walk forward, bringing the arm down. Here is where it really is different: you don’t continue the forward movement, but rather walk around uke and while turning him around, blending him with the mat (tatami). The Ura version is different in my memory as well. Pushing uke out of balance all the same, but by stepping into the back, doing an irimi tenkan, bringing him to the knees, kneel down with the knee closest to him in his armpit. At this point the hand of uke rests on my knee, and then kneel down entirely. This technique has been known to me before, but we never use it because it is slightly uncomfortable. Then move away, while still controlling the hand and let go.

Nikyo, as we do it everywhere, starts out the same, omote and ura. But when turning the hand in to the lock position, the arm of uke rests on the knee of tori, who is at that moment in a stable and relaxed position. This makes it that tori has all the time in the world to get the right grip. Now in omote, tori does the same as with ikyo: turn around uke and kneel down. Pushing uke’s arm down in a 45° angle and pushing the fingers to his face. The ura form is about walking out, pushing uke’s hand to your chest (not the shoulder), while holding the elbow down, and bend forward a little. This should hurt like hell, so Uke kneels down. Sensei shows us that if you wait too long with putting this lock on, uke can go down earlier and kick tori in the groin. And that would not be the desired effect. Anyway, after uke kneels down, you blend him with the mat and make the usual end control (pinky side in the elbow and turn.

The sankyo technique we did the hard way. Even with omote, grabbing the hand in a lock and pushing it to the face. Then hack down and step in front, pulling uke down on the way. The end control is done standing up. Ura is different. When the hand goes to the face, tori makes a tenkan, ending up on the other side of uke, but since this hurts, uke moves along. Then ‘push’ uke down and move in the opposite direction (standing in front of uke and moving towards him), dragging him down further.

When I tell sensei later that we do the basic techniques a little bit different in the Netherlands, he says I should teach next week. Being only 5th kyu, I’m not sure I wish to. Besides, I’m not even sure I still know the Dutch techniques that well…

Day 41 Tuesday 1 June – 3rd Aikido practice

2010-06-02T17:25:00.002+02:00

I started doing my interviews today. The first one went quite alright. We didn’t have a really private place to sit, but I think it wasn’t stopping my interviewee from talking. We talked nearly 50 minutes and this gave me quite a good idea of how things go here. The other interview was with the general manager, but he had to go halfway, because something important came up.

After work I take a bus to the dojo. Stalyn joins me to show me the way. The busses still confuse me and I still don’t understand how the people who live here can make anything out of it.

We skip the meditation at the beginning and start right away with stretching. We stretch our upper bodies a bit more this time, but after that we torture our legs as well. When I get back, I may be able to do a full split… When we practice our rolls, we do a variety of them. Forward rolls while looking backwards, or with the legs together; or backwards while holding one foot.

There seems to be a preference for kokyo nage and irimi nage. Today we did a variety of these again. Including variances that are new to me. For example, holding the head of uke, making a turn and then throw. Or just simply pulling uke forward, turn him around and throw.

Lastly a technique where you step behind uke and grab him by the throat, turning around with one hand in his back, so he has to fall backward at some point, for lack of balance. We end with cracking our backs and the usual meditation and thanking.

Day 39 Sunday 30 May - Tourism in Guayaquil city

2010-05-31T22:10:00.000+02:00

The next morning I get up early, fresh and fruity, to do some tourism in the more southern part of Guayaquil. A friend of one of my roommates takes me to the bus station, from where I take a bus down south. This city has, just like Quito, a fast bus line called metrovia. The difference is, that if you’re not from around here, and you don’t hear the name of the next stop (which is only called out once, very unclear) you have no idea where you are, because the names of the bus stops are not written anywhere. And that’s the reason I end up a little on the other side of the Malecón 2000 (the new and modern riverside walk).
But, no problem I think: I can walk in the other direction as well. I come to the conclusion that not all of Guayaquil is ugly. However, the Malecón is the only region which is slightly interesting for tourism. You can see enough of the city in just one day. No wonder that I’m the whitest, blondest person in the whole place. I even get called ‘gringo’ here for the first time by some kids. ‘Gringo’ is a usually negative word for North-Americans. So you can see how Guayaquil is charming me even less than before. I tour the place a bit; visit a vegetarian restaurant (Acuarius) for lunch and eat an ice cream later. I take 2 busses back and relax the rest of the Sunday. Tomorrow awaits another day of hard work. I realize I have to get my interviews finished soon, so if I’m lucky, I can go back to Quito earlier.

Day 38 Saturday 29 May - Borachas

The Saturday is a lazy workday. We start later and we finish later. Additionally, not everyone works this day, so I can’t do all the surveys I still need. Result: I get bored. And finally decide to go home too, after most of the people have gone already. Ingrid is still at this party, so I take a bus alone without any trouble. The rest of the day I read a little and watch old episodes of HIMYM.

At night, when I’m already off to sleep, the girls are drinking a number of bottles of Zhumir. A popular drink in Ecuador, consisting of alcohol, sugar, water and a fruit essence. The watermelon (Sandía) taste is the lightest (15%) version of it. What is even more strange to me is the habit among the young people here to rest until midnight and then start drinking until they are drunk. At least they looked pretty hung-over (‘brak’, ‘chuchaqui’) the next morning.

Day 37 Friday 28 May – Volcanic eruption

When we were walking back from lunch today, we were suddenly covered in soot. Around us, people were covering their faces with masks and the collars of their shirts. It was raining ashes from the volcano Tungurahua. This volcano is quite long way from Guayaquil, but still the ashes are blown in this direction. Back at the office, we are given dust masks. When I go out later to the supermarket, I don’t see any ashes falling on my shoulder, so I leave the mask off, but when my eyes are prickly and I’m walking along the main road, I decide to put it on anyway.

Day 36 Thursday 27 May – 2nd Aikido practice

2010-05-28T17:35:00.001+02:00

Thursday has become my typical Aikido day in Guayaquil. This time I go on my own to the main road to take a taxi. The traffic is pretty hectic, so it takes a while until we get to the college of architects, where I cross the road to the dojo. I am still a bit early so I wait a little while. We get dressed and sit on the mat on our knees. Each of us has a specific place, though the logic escapes me. We start with the meditation, which is longer than in Sankaku training. And then the stretching, which we do almost completely in a kneeling position. We don’t do any breathing exercises like we normally do at home, but we do a lot of stretching of the legs. Which explains why most of the others are more flexible than I am.

The rest of the lesson is more familiar than the week before. Irimi nage with different techniques, though at times it is not meant to let the uke* fall, but to let him stretch the back and breath out slowly, then pull him up again. The technique is a little bit different, where you put your knee in the back. But sensei tells me that this is exactly what Irimi means: to enter (your leg in the back of uke).

At other times, the lesson seems wilder. It seems only, because most of the times it is uke who decides whether to fall like a brick, or take a roll. Only one technique required me to take a drop forward, but the supervision was right and I dropped without hurting myself: a koshi nage, with dropping to the knees, a technique I hadn’t learned before.

At the end we did the familiar kokyo ho, but with the arms relaxed. The exercise here is more meant to relax, than as a real technique. We hold on to the wrists of the other and don’t let go. When tori *gets back into position, uke rolls back into position too. This way, we can go real fast. Then we close off with stretching each other’s backs, like I have done before. Hold each other’s hands, turn the back on one another and chicken kneel to lift the other with the bum. Stretch! Crack! I actually hear my spine crack and I wonder if that’s a good thing. But afterwards it feels good, so I stop worrying. My partner is a bit heavier than me, so I don’t really get it right with him.

We close off like last time: meditation; bowing and thanking; shaking each other’s hands. I pay Herbert $20. The actual price is $50 per month, but since I’m not staying that long and don’t take lessons every day, we agreed on 20. The normal price seems a bit on the high side, but for this money you can train every morning and every Monday to Thursday evening. I’m just going to train Tuesday and Thursday. One of my fellow students takes me and one of the sensei’s home, because it is on his way. On the way they explain me something about double meanings in the Spanish idiom. I think I will stop using words like bolsa and cola, and forget the other words they thought me (mojón).

*Uke is the attacker who undergoes the technique / Tori is the defender who uses the technique

Herbert Chock, Sensei
Sandan, Fukoshidoin
Centro Cultural Aikido Guayaquil
Nueva Kennedy Calle 1era Este y D esquina
Guayaquil Ecuador

Day 35 Wednesday 36 May – Return to the ugly city

2010-05-27T17:37:00.001+02:00

I wake up past 8pm, when I see someone getting out of the room. I wonder why there was no alarm this morning and slowly get out of bed and dressed. I head outside with my camera to make some pictures of the (already late) morning, when I meet Anne-Silvie and she tells me about the fish-market and whether I wish to go. I hesitate a moment and say I’d go if she joins me. Because I have nothing to do at a market with dead fish on my own. She gets her camera from her room, while I wait and we go to the market. But most of the really big fish (except swordfish) are already hauled off. At the least, there are no interesting pictures to be taken. We have our breakfast, the same as yesterday, plus a typical plate of baked plantain with peanuts. We pack our bags and go catch a bus. The whole group gets off at ‘los frailes’ (a beautiful beach), except me. I go on to Guayaquil, to get back to work tomorrow. The sooner I finish, the sooner I can go back to Quito. From Jipyjapa I get on to a very luxurious bus with air conditioning and comfortable chairs and almost nobody in the bus. In no time I’m back in Guayaquil.

Before taking a taxi home, I go to the supermarket at the terminal and buy some veggies, so I can cook some nice dinner. There’s still no gas, however, but one of the housemates finds me an electrical pan in one of the cupboards, allowing me to cook something homely. The rest of the evening I spend writing my blog and reviewing the pictures I took this weekend.

Day 34 Tuesday 25 May – Isla de la Plata

2010-05-27T17:36:00.001+02:00

We get up early again to take a breakfast at the hostel. Some fruit salad, bread and eggs with coco juice and coffee. Then we go out early to the travel agency to get our tickets for Isla de la Plata arranged. We wait a while at the agency, and then there are two Dutch girls doing the same tour, right before they leave back home again. I hadn’t spoken Dutch in ages, but I still know how to do it.

Finally the guide shows up and takes us to the beach from where the boats leave. We are the most unlucky group, because our boat leaves way late, later then the others’. Sarah gets a bit worked up over this, because we spend good money and want the full tour and not an hour less.

Then finally we are at sea. A boring ride of one and a half hour, with nothing to see but waves. We were hoping to see some whales as well, but nothing. At sea, with the island already in sight, we get a cupcake (reminding me of better ones I haven’t tasted for a long time) and a banana. And when we get to port, we wait ten minutes (for toilet visits etc.) and head out for one of the two routes around the island. We take the route with the best chances and we get to see all three kinds of boobies (not what you think, they are birds! Blue-footed, red-footed and masked boobies), paradise birds, frigate birds and some lizards. The only thing we missed were sea-lions - but it wasn’t sure whether they would be there at all - and waved albatrosses.

The island itself is a dry place, with trees that appear to be dead (but turn green as soon as it rains again) and all kinds of other plants, which the guide tells about as well. He shows us some medicinal plants, of which one smells a lot like eucalyptus, good for the cough, he says.

The walk around the island is a rough hike and takes about 2 and a half hour. When we get back to port, there awaits us some fruits and coca-cola, and later in the boat some bread with cheese. We sail a small bit along the coast to a place to go snorkelling. We immediately see some fish along the surface and take pictures from the boat. When we get to the water, however, we see nothing. Not even the little bastard jelly fish that are pricking us. We get out of the water, disappointed and laughed at by the crew. Though the latter I didn’t see myself, we should’ve pushed them in the water. See how they feel.

After another long way back with only waves, we see Anne-Silvie and Luc. Luc is red all over from the sun, so one of the guys from the hostel takes a leaf of Aloe Vera and gives it to him to smear it on his body. It is supposed to alleviate the pain a little and the moist and vitamins help the skin to recover. As I notice myself when I apply it to my neck (burnt again, because my hair is shorter, dôh) and inside of the knees. We freshen up a little, while the other guy staying at the hostel shows us his catch: a small tarantula. He caught it in the garden to make some pictures (and to scare the girls).

Then we all go, with the 2 guys of the hostel, to get a drink. We take juices and cocktails at a small hut at the beach. And when we get hungry again we go eat at a cheap place, where I only get some rice, lentils and salad, but what do you expect for only $2,-?

On the way back we buy some beers at the store and drink them at the swing in front of a fire near the hostel. A nice night to close off the long weekend.

When I SMS Mariela that I’d like to visit her hometown sometime (which is in the jungle), she texts me back, that the rules of the people there are so that they’d probably force me to marry her and since I don’t want that… Yes, that would indeed be too soon. Though as someone jokes: It would be a very special experience, a wedding in the jungle.

Day 33 Monday 24 May – Getting to Puerto Lopez

2010-05-27T17:35:00.000+02:00

Today we take breakfast at the hotel, because we want to leave early and have no time to go to the place around the corner (not that most of us have been there before). Afterwards, we grab our bags and take a bus to the terminal. The bus that takes us to Guayaquil leaves in 40 minutes, so we have some time to wait. This time we pay the real price: $6,-. The bus is not very comfortable again, however and it has a toilet that is dirty with see-through windows. I think about the Costa as like India, but without the good things from India: the houses are poor, the streets are dirty and it is really hot; but there are no trains and no Hindu culture. Yes, the trains I miss the most while traveling in this country. That would have made life so much easier around here, to just take a night train to somewhere. Then I might have been able to visit Mariela for weekends in Quito.

When we get to the terminal of Guayaquil, we immediately get pushed to take the immediate bus to Pto. Lopez, but I insist that we eat something first. So we take a bus via Jipyjapa (hippyhappa) half hour later. The places to eat at the terminal however include places such as McDonalds, giving me not much of a choice, so I head to a smaller place to get some empanadas and humitas, while the rest orders their burgers. With the food only just finished, we have to run again to get to the bus. A crappy bus without a toilet takes us to Jipyjapa and I don’t get a chance to go in Guayaquil. One can imagine that the ride seems to take ages. Especially with the bus stopping everywhere to pick up more people. In the end I’m sitting across a woman breast feeding her baby and I’m reminded again of how natural this is. I wonder why this doesn’t happen at all in Europe.

Finally in shithole Jipyjapa, I go to the toilet and we take another bus that takes us to the place of destination. The tv inside is showing us Jeepers Creepers2 in Spanish, but it’s turned off just before the ending. It’s already dark when we arrive, but a nice lady walks us to the hostel, which was recommended by the owners of our previous hotel in Cuenca. It’s a nice family run hostel, with private bathroom (that doesn’t work very well) and mosquito nets. I hang mine anyway, just to kill the insects that are already in the bed.

We put our stuff on our beds and head into town to get some food. We find a nice place that serves me a big plate with spaghetti and veggies and a plate of patacones. Though just a bit more expensive than most of the places we’ve visited. Afterwards, we take a small walk on the beach and head back to the hostel, where we sit by a fire for a while before going to bed. Traveling is quite a tiring experience.

Talking about India: Pto. Lopez has ‘Tricicleras’, or things that look like family of the auto-rickshaw. We didn’t ride any, but it was nice to see.

Day 32: Sunday 23 May – Inca ruins

2010-05-27T17:31:00.000+02:00

We get up quite early to see Ingapirca, for which a bus leaves at 9am. Luc joins us today at the hotel, making a total of 7 people. When we want to take breakfast around the corner, it seems that almost nothing is open on Sunday. A small store across the street serves us with freshly baked bread rolls and after we chat with some other Frenchies, we head for the bus to the terminal. We have 5 minutes until the bus leaves, so we run and buy a ticket quickly. We get on board, but a lady says there’s no more space in the back, so I get to sit next to the driver, giving me a chance to see the whole view.

We have about 2 hours to see Ingapirca, which is a complex of 2 ruins really. One slightly older, belonging to the Cañari and which was a town destroyed by the Inca’s. And the other an Incan temple built on top of the ruins, which is in quite a better shape than the rest. A guide leads us through the complex and shows us the way of living of the two cultures that left their mark here.

Then there is a possibility to follow a track passed several smaller ruins or stones and we discover the face of the Inca. We take a short look inside the museum with several ceramic items and pictures and we almost have to run to catch the bus back again.

When we arrive back at the hostel, we try to find a place to eat, but it seems nearly impossible. I almost go crazy of hunger when we pass several places which aren’t good enough, but finally encounter a place very near to the cathedral. I order a mushroom soup and rice with vegetables, none of which are really typical for Ecuador, but the meal is good and plenty. Meanwhile, I’m wondering whether we are really sitting across a famous local actor from ‘Qué tan lejos’: Pancho Aguirre. Yes, It’s really him, but I wouldn’t know what to say, I didn’t even know his name while sitting there, just that he’s from this movie.

After a full almorcena (conjunction of almuerzo and cena: lunch and dinner) we take another small walk through the city. We talk about going to a town nearby called Baños (which is not the famous town Baños, apparently there are more places with thermal springs called that way), but when we call the best place of the three in our guide, it is closed. We expect the others might be closed too on this Sunday, so we don’t take the chance. Sarah, Riwal and me go for another short walk, an ice cream and then back to the cathedral to view the inside. There’s a lot of gold and other riches, making it one of my least favourites in this town. I prefer the smaller churches that I saw on the inside.

Despite the lack of open restaurants and bars, we encounter a karaoke bar which is open. We order a $5 jar of beer serving enough for three small jugs (the normal price is $1,50 for a large bottle), but fortunately it comes served with some nachos. Neither one of us knows any Spanish language songs, except Sarah, but we just drink our beer and go. Riwal and me have another one in the hotel, while the three of us talk with the owners of the place. Maguy and Mattieu leave us this evening, so there are 5 left. And then we go to bed – again a difficult sleep for me.

Day 31: Saturday 22 May – Getting to Cuenca

2010-05-27T17:27:00.002+02:00

Today I can get up later than normal. I don’t have to go to the office: I’m taking the bus to Cuenca. I take it easy in the morning. I have some bread rolls for breakfast and read a little of Coelho. I’m waiting for the girls to get up, to say goodbye and ask for some details of taxi rides to the bus station, but it takes too long, so I go to the hairdresser first. I was getting comments that I look old with my hair and it was getting unmanageable, so time to get a fresh cut. The quality of the cut is not that good, but when I put my hair in I-just-woke-up style, like I always do, nobody will notice.

Back at the house, 2 out of 3 girls are already off to work. I pack the last things and grab a taxi to the bus terminal: a huge, relatively new, complex with busses leaving from 3 floors. First I call Sarah about the direction to the hotel, and then I take the first bus company I encounter for a ticket to Cuenca. Without comparing or checking the real price. Only later I find out I was overcharged by $2,-.

I move myself to the second floor, from where the inter-regional busses leave and buy some bread on the way. I head on to the platform (way too early) and wait with a coffee and a newspaper in my hand. The other passengers waiting are very nice, checking my ticket to see if I got the right bus and so on. The bus ride itself was long and uncomfortable. The chairs in these busses are made for people of 1m. 60, not for tall Dutch guys, so the head rest is sticking into my shoulders and it’s hard to keep a straight back while sitting. Half way, there is some work being done on the road and we have to wait for the other side to pass for about 45 minutes. Making the trip eventually about 6 hours long, instead of 4,5.

Finally in Cuenca I call Maguy for the exact address, because the one I got was not entirely correct. A few seconds later Riwal calls me to tell me the same info. I grab a taxi to the hotel and when I arrive I see three of my French friends looking down from the balcony. A happy welcome in a very friendly hotel (El Capitolio). 2 others are in a separate room. We go for a walk through the city with its churches and cathedrals lit by spotlights and go for a dinner in a small restaurant with a simple rice-vegetables and patacones.

Then we ditch our cameras in the hotel and head out for a drink. Again the altitude gives extra power to the two beers I drink and it almost gets me drunk. We hang at the bar for a while and then head back to the hotel. But for some reason, I have difficulty sleeping here.

Day 30: Friday 21 May

2010-05-21T22:26:00.010+02:00

This night was the first that I used my blankets again. When I got up I realized it had cooled down so much because it had rained. That makes me quite happy. I eat some bread rolls and take some coca cola, because I can’t make tea. We take a taxi again to the office. I take some surveys again in the morning and then see Miguel to help fill in some forms. The General Manager is not in the office, so I get to put myself at his desk, in his relaxed chair.

The downside is that the guys don’t know where to find me, so they go on for lunch without me. I follow them after 15 minutes, but see them on the way back, meaning I’m having lunch by myself. The rest of the afternoon I write some stuff and go to the mall again. I need food for the evening and probably, we won’t have gas already today.

This time I did find a book store, but on the second floor of the mall. It was quite a big one and I found what I was looking for: some maps of Ecuador and Guayaquil and by chance a Kichwa dictionary. I'm still reading 12 minutes by Paulo Coelho in Spanish, so I'm not yet in need of literature. Also, I found a CD-store on the second floor, right above the Megamaxi. One that sells legal CD's even, for $10 to $25! For many things here in Ecuador the prices are almost equal to those in the Netherlands. I just hope the Euro doesn't devalue any more than it already has.

So, well I buy some stuff at the megamaxi, but before I enter, the security guard stops me because I can't enter with my bag. What? Suddenly I look like a criminal? I even shaved this morning! Anyway, I bought a nice bottle of rum (yargh!) to be drunk in the evenings, watching old episodes of HIMYM. And at this point my blog starts looking like Ammer's, so I'd better stop >:D

Until next Wednesday, where I'l be telling about the adventures in Cuenca and Isla de la Plata.

Day 29: Thursday 20 May – A wild Aikido training in Guayaquil

2010-05-21T17:51:00.000+02:00

Today we arrive a bit later than usual at the office. I start with the usual things I do when I get to connect my laptop to the web again and after that go upstairs to administration to do some surveys and ask for some information concerning the funds I’m working on here. When I go up to the general manager to confirm that the form is filled in correctly, some disagreement about the use of the funds between him and Miguel. So we go downstairs to the meeting room so he can explain what he wants. Halfway, however, they kick me out because they have another meeting.
After Lunch I work out the surveys I have already done and I agree to the plan for the coming weekend. With Sarah and Riwal, I’ll go to Cuenca on Saturday and after that through Guayaquil to Puerto Lopez. From where we will take a boat on Tuesday to Isla de la Plata to get a taste of the Galapagos. This means I won’t be posting anything for a while again. Later I go to a café nearby to have some juice and humitas.
Later in the evening I take a taxi south ways to have my first Ecuadorian Aikido training. Herbert is waiting for me at the corner and shows me where it is. It is a small dojo with one big blue (and dirty) mat spread all over the floor. The only thing that is familiar is the photo of Osensei on the wall. I take off my shoes and walk across the mat to the very small changing room. I notice there are showers, but forgot to take a towel with me. But later I see that nobody uses the showers here.
The training is in Spanish, but I master the language enough to be able to follow the lesson. We start off with a short meditation and continue with stretching exercises on our knees. Then we stretch our legs even more than we normally do in Wageningen. The sensei almost does a complete split. We skip any breathing exercises and start doing some basic techniques without the final control. Most of the techniques are slightly different than I’m used to and I feel a bit stupid when sensei has to explain things to me.
What’s new to me is defending a karate kick. In Wageningen we normally work with the hands, not with kicks, so this is more difficult for me. What follows after that, are some presentations of the others, because there is a presentation on Monday. They all have their specialties, but what strikes me most is how one guy is really excellent in defending knife attacks. All of it is a bit wilder than I’m used to. When thrown, the ukes don’t roll, but generally fall. The carefulness we know in Europe is not really present here.
After the training we meditate a while again, say ‘arigatogozaimasu’ (a polite thank you in Japanese) and shake each other’s hands. We change clothes again and one of the others goes with me in the bus to my house, just to show me how to get home.
At the house I’m hungry, but first call Mariela, because she couldn’t reach me while I was training. Half hour later I turn on the gas to boil some rice… no gas. The girls maintain that it’s the electric ignition that’s failing and that they need matches. They try – and fail. No gas. This needs some explanation: here in Ecuador there is no such thing as gas lines. Everything works with gas tanks. And so we need to buy a new one. I eat some fruit and crisps and read about Cuenca in the Rough Guide. Take a cold shower and get in bed.

Day 28: Wednesday 19 May – The first surveys

2010-05-20T20:03:00.000+02:00

After my daily routine, we arrive by taxi at the office. After I check my mail and Facebook, Ricardo takes me to CORPEI, the national export stimulating organ. Two people explain the funds that I’ll be working with for EScoffee. The lady especially talks so fast, that I have a hard time following. That and the monotone of the voice, makes my mind wonder and dream and I understand even less of what she says. Her PowerPoint helps a bit, but she reads it aloud so fast and skips the slides so fast, I can’t always read everything myself. I’ll have to make do with the info I can get from Ricardo.

I do 2 or 3 surveys with employees of EScoffee and after lunch Angel takes me to see Tulicorp, the company that produces the chocolate for them and 20 other companies in Ecuador. We don’t get to see the inside this time, but maybe tomorrow.
Back at the office, I take a look at the mail, messenger a bit with Kath, and then I need to go to the shopping mall, because I want to buy some food that I can’t get at the small stores. I want to bake an apple cake for example (but later find out I don’t have the recipe on my laptop). Angel draws me a map of how to get there and Ingrid tells me to take a taxi back to the office, because I’m going to withdraw some money as well. I decide to take a taxi back if it’s dark.
The mall (del sol) is really huge and I’m surprised by how rich it is. I walk all the way to the back to the Supermaxi, while gawping at the enormous amount of shops selling expensive products. The only shops I don’t find are a book store and a music store. Most the music stores in Ecuador sell illegal copies, perhaps a mall like this doesn’t allow illegal selling and legal music can’t possibly compete. Who knows?
The ~~Super~~Megamaxi is ~~huge~~ mega! I have no clue where to look. There’s food, clothing, everything. Most types of food are placed so wide, that I think the assortment is the same as the smaller shop, there’s just more space. It takes me more than an hour to cruise through the lanes. The fruit section offers the same as in Quito. The fruit types that the guys told me about yesterday are nowhere to be seen. The imported apples are very expensive, so I decide to go for the imported – but cheaper – pears. But especially at the flour section I take a large time to look. Most of the flours are fortified with iron and vitamins. Being an all-natural guy, I no likey this. But the home-brand is clean, luckily.

When I get out, the sky is dark already, so I take a taxi to the office. The driver tells me it’s $2,50 for a ride, but knowing how close it is, I tell him it’s too much. He lowers it to $2, which is the price Ingrid told me it would be. Because I withdrew a lot of $$ to pay a part of the rent in Guayaquil, Ingrid thinks it is safer to take a taxi back home. I’m not scared, but agree nonetheless. Losing a laptop and a lot of $$ is worse than just losing a laptop (though I’d rather just lose the $$).

Day 27: Tuesday 18 May – The first interview

2010-05-20T20:00:00.000+02:00

In the morning I get up again at 6.45am and undergo the normal routine before leaving at 8.30. I look at the time and see it isn’t time to get up yet, so I turn myself around until the alarm goes off. I exercise a bit; take a cold shower (sometimes I shave); put on some water for tea; prepare some breakfast (either cereals, bread or leftovers from the previous day); and after eating, I brush my teeth and wait for Ingrid to get ready. This gives me time to read some Paulo Coelho in Spanish. Depending whether we are late or early, we take a bus or a taxi to work. Today we take a bus, which is so small I have to bend my knees to stand. Luckily, it isn’t far.
I start the morning with checking my mail and Facebook as usual. After that, Miguel walks by to tell me if I need anything, I should tell him. So I tell him I’d like to take a look at the possibilities to study the company and I’d like an interview. The interview took about all morning and I had to cut it off because I couldn’t take much more information to process.
During lunch the guys explained to me a number of fruits that were available, but which I hadn’t encountered yet in the Supermaxi. Afterwards, I took the whole afternoon to write down the information I got from Miguel.
When I felt like it was time to go, I went up to see Ingrid, who was working as always and told me we were leaving soon. About an hour later I went up again and she told me they had ordered pizza at the office and afterwards we would go. This is how it goes a lot of time in Ecuador. Plans change, people arrive later than planned; punctuality is almost non-existent around here. I’m trying to accept it, but I won’t be able to do it myself.
I pass another 45 minutes calling with Mary, after which Nicolás mother shows up to pick us up and drop Ingrid and me at the house. I drop off my bag at the house and walk a few hundred meters to a small shop to buy a carrot, an onion and some beans. Together with some rice I make a decent meal. When I finish my plate, it is already 10pm. I spend the rest of the night watching 2 episodes of ‘How I met your mother’, the most awesome (no: legen-wait for it-dary) tv-show ever. I downloaded them today at the office (don’t tell). And bed-time…

Day 26: 17 May – First day at the office

2010-05-18T23:46:00.001+02:00

No need to get up so early today. At 8.30 we leave to take a bus. However, the bus we are waiting for seems not to come, so we take a taxi to work, which is only 2 dollars. At work I start with a meeting with the managers, where Miguel starts explaining that it is important to arrive on time. The others meet me with a comprehensive look. The rest of the meeting followed with each giving updates about what is going on in their expertise.
Afterwards I go with some guys to the toaster (conquistador), where they do sorting and pealing, toasting, grinding and packaging. The toaster processes coffee from two other enterprises next to EScoffee. I get to see the whole process, but it’s too noisy and the people are too busy to ask many questions. Meanwhile the guys are carrying heavy bags of coffee.

The rest of the day I am in the office working on a funds for EScoffee and surfing the internet, because it has been days since I was able to. We have lunch in another office of EScoffee, where they serve vegetarian food by default, because the chef has converted to Hinduism. At 7.30pm we leave the office.

Day 25: 16 May – Sand, sun and sea

2010-05-17T21:55:00.000+02:00

Next morning I wake at 10.30 and remember vaguely how I got to bed. After I lie waking up a bit more, I take a shower. Only when I return and head out again to the balcony to make some pictures of the ocean and apply sun block, I notice that it’s not Sebastian in the bed above me, but one of the girls.
It takes ages again for everyone to get ready. We, the men, go out earlier and sit down with a juice and something to eat. Nicolas shows me what a bolone is: a big ball of plantain and cheese. It tastes good. We meet with the girls at the car, where we dump our bags, and go to the beach. The men ahead again, because the girls need to eat something first. The rest is what you can call ‘a lazy Sunday afternoon’ Hanging out on the beach, jump in the waves for a second and then hang around in some hammocks. We eat something (patacones, another plantain specialty), and drive back to the apartment.
Driving back, we are passed by an ambulance, but I notice that we are able to see it for a long time. We are keeping up with it at a speed of 100km/h. Black smoke emits from the ambulance and I conclude that it can’t help much to be rescued by an antique diesel. A taxi could take you to the hospital quicker. Then I close my eyes for about an hour or so, without much choice to do anything about it.

Once back, I take a shower and call with amorcita in Quito. I eat while typing my stories in the computer and Vaquito tonto is staring at me all the while. I remind myself that I really am more a cat-person. But it might be that this dog is just out to annoy me by following me around and staring at me all the time.

Day 24: 15 May – Vamos a la playa, ooh ooh

2010-05-17T21:45:00.000+02:00

Another wakeup call at 6:15, followed by the necessary shower, because it is ‘muy caliente’ here. I had some rice leftover from the day before, so I take that as my breakfast. At a little over 7am, the guys pick us up again. We retrieve some stuff at the office and notice that the swimming pool is running over... hey, how cool that there’s a swimming pool at the office :)!
The guys fix the pool and we head on to the hotel again. We set up the stand minus the coffee machines, because it is much more tranquil today. It’s the last day of the conference and there’s less people. I nearly bored myself to death until 11.30, when a small snack was being distributed, humitas, pan de yuca, and some sweets. Luckily a few of the typical foods that I do appreciate.
An hour later we start packing everything. There’s no need to continue the rest of the day. 3 of us are going shopping at the Supermaxi, so I have something to eat the coming days. In the car I get a strange phone call (blocked number) saying s/he is Mariela, but the voice is different plus I don’t understand nothing of what the person is saying. The person hangs up and later I call Mary to ask if she called. Naturally, she hadn’t.

Back at the house, the girls ask me if I wish to join them to the beach, a 2 and a half hour drive from here. I hesitate a moment, but the alternative is to spend the weekend alone, doing nothing. So I agree and stuff the necessary equipment in my bag. Nicolas and Sebastian pick us up with the car and the six of us drive to Montañita (or little mountain). This little town has become quite famous in recent years to surfers and backpackers, so the streets are packed with tourists, surfers, hippies and other foreigners. At night there are several discos open and the streets are aligned with small stands, vending food, souvenirs or even a large range of cocktails.
When we arrive, it is already dark (it gets dark at 6.30 already, over here) and we go look for a hostel for the night. Nothing was booked beforehand, so we walk down the streets, asking if there are rooms available and we go view the rooms. But the girls are hard to satisfy, then it is not clean enough, or it smells bad, or it is too small. But eventually, after maybe 2 hours, when I’m dying of hunger and have half a mind to just eat and let thém search for a room, we find a nice place with 3 rooms for 2 persons and very close to the ocean. We leave our bags in the rooms and go for food.
Naturally I have to explain I’m a vegetarian, and more quickly than with the hostel, we encounter a pizza place. When I’m asked whether I couldn’t try some meat for a change, I must answer with a definite ‘no’: I have to draw a line somewhere. We order two family size pizzas, of which one is half vegetarian.

After satisfying my primary need of the moment, the group wants to rest a bit before going out, so we head back to the hostel. While each person goes to their own room, I have nothing much to do but rest as well, and after a while my eyes fall shut. Being one of the first to wake up, I ask Sebas what to do (wait some more or wake ‘em up) I knock on the wooden wall between us and 2 others and stick my head out the door. One of the girls is upstairs having a drink with an old friend and waves to me to come up. Her friend is apparently a writer in the country and has published some 12 books. He ‘plays’ some guitar for us and smokes a joint (marihuana is easy to get here, though still illegal), meanwhile being plenty drunk already. Sebastian comes up and after a beer, we wake the others. At around 1am we finally head out to the nightlife. The guys brought a bottle of rum and we drink some on the way to a shop to buy cola and ice. They seem impressed that I can drink the stuff without making an ugly face. But it’s good rum (Abuelo = old) and drinks like whiskey. We go sit on the beach to drink. I don’t know how we passed the time exactly, but at 4.30am we have drunk more than 1,5 bottle of rum, of which most of it by the men and I’m quite borracho. 2 of us have already gone to bed and the girls that are left still want to drink some sweet liquor. We buy some and some crisps and sit outside the hostel. At 5 however, we go to bed. I pass out almost as soon as I lie down.

Day 23: 14 May – Conference at the Hilton Colón

2010-05-17T21:40:00.000+02:00

Ay ay, wakeup call at 6.15, the guys are going to pick us up at 7am. The night was warm and noisy. Primarily because that’s just the climate here, secondary because someone below me has air-conditioning. For breakfast I have just one croissant left and I’m too late to make some coffee for myself.
Today, I spent the entire day at the Hilton Colón hotel. EScoffee has a stand at a conference and is promoting its coffee, and machines. When the guys pick me and Ingrid up, we first go to the office to pick up the coffee machines. We load them in the camionetta and drive a short while to the hotel. We unload the stuff and take it to the place where the stand is. Miguel shows up later and encourages me to attend a conference. So I do so and it’s quite nice. I think I was able to understand about 80% of it. Towards the end, Miguel picks me up and tells me to follow two women to the office. He will arrive with some other people. We get lost a little bit, but eventually find the place.
It’s a meeting with two men from PUM, a Dutch organisation that sends out retired experts to developing countries to help in small projects. Miguel is looking for such an expert. One of the men is Dutch and it’s nice to speak some of that again.
After the meeting, we go back to the hotel again, we take a small bite and attend some more conferences. At about 3 it’s time for lunch. We head out to the swimming pool outside, where some tents have been set up, with a couple of dozens of tables with chairs under them. Miguel, Ingrid, Ricardo and me sit down at a table, but it’s better to split up a bit, to talk to other people, so Ingrid and me go to another table.
The tables are set with plates, 3 forks and 2 knives. A glass of water ready and a basket of bread with butter. The first course is some kind of potato salad, with camarones (shrimps) on top. So I shove those off and eat the potato salad. When I see the waiters bringing in plates with big pieces of meat, I ask whether it’s possible to get a plate without it. Later they bring a plate without a piece for me. Still, the vegetables taste funny and I’m surprised about the bad food in such a hotel. Luckily the dessert is better.
The rest of the day continues with going to the conferences and hanging around the stand. The only bright spot of the afternoon was Mary calling, telling me she misses me a ‘monton’. At 9.30 we are finally finished and wrap up. Meanwhile, my stomach is empty and I need to wait to head out to buy some food. Somehow, there is nothing edible in the house. Ingrid will show me where it is, but needs to take a shower first or something.
The shop is small and has no wholemeal bread or something else I desire. So I buy some rice, an onion and a carrot to cook something myself. The girls seem surprised that I know how to cook. During cooking, vacita is panting and staring at me, probably expecting some food, and it is already annoying me. When the rice is finished, it is almost midnight and I’ll probably need to get up early again in the morning. What a long day it was.

Day 22: 13 May – The bus to Guayaquil

2010-05-17T21:35:00.002+02:00

I pack my last things and ask Bernardo to call a taxi for me. At 10.00 my bus leaves.

Bye Quito
Bye wild partying people
Bye café Kallari
Bye mountains all around
Bye friends
Bye Mariela
Bye nice walks through town
Bye slow Spanish speaking people
Bye weekend trips to rainy places
Bye new home

That is a bit how it is, it feels like leaving home again. Off into the unknown again. Quito has become a part of me now, a part of my home. And I hope things will not get lonely again in Guayaquil for the first weeks. Added to that, more people and more places to miss.
The bus ride is a long one. It takes about 10 hours and although the seats are comfortable, I am getting less comfortable towards the end. The scenery outside, with the palm trees and the poor houses, reminds me of India, but then I really miss the trains and the chai-wallahs. Sure, once in a while some vendors come in and sell their products, but I need my coffee! During the ride, they show two Hollywood films, dubbed in Spanish. It’s a nice change, seeing Bruce Willis speak another language, but his one-liners aren’t nearly as funny.

At 8pm I finally reach Guayaquil. Ingrid, the girl I’m going to stay with tells me to take a taxi to the Hilton Colón hotel. Once there, the taxi driver seems not to have enough change, and I’m not interested in getting change, so I let him get off with a dollar extra. These taxi drivers never have change... When I turn around, I see my bags are not there anymore. A employee of the hotel is wearing them and asks me whether I need a room. When I tell him I’m just waiting for someone, he brings me and my bags inside anyway and tells me I can wait in the lobby. Just so I can say I’ve been in a Hilton hotel: wow, what a luxurious place!
Later Ingrid shows up with Miguel and we take a car to her place. It’s a nice apartment in a safe section of the city. She’s given me her room for the time being and is sleeping with one of her housemates. I’m now living here with 3 girls and a dog called vaquita (vaca = cow, boeuf!). I don’t have much in my room, but there’s a bathroom for my own use, there’s a kitchen and practically everything I need. I think I will manage to survive in this place. And I already have some people to chat with. The people I’m staying with are nice and helpful.

Day 21: 12 May - Last day in the café

2010-05-17T21:32:00.000+02:00

After hanging around all morning at the hotel, doing this and that, I head out to the café again. I take a newspaper that I bought earlier in the morning and start to read it there. I want to order some yuca pancakes, but they’re all out of yuca. The only option is salad with a sandwich. I don’t feel like taking the guacamole sandwich again, so I opt for the egg and cheese (I’d love to see your faces while reading this). It takes some time for the food to arrive, because it’s quite busy in the café, so meanwhile Mariela has arrived and brings me the salad and juice. She asked me if I ordered anything else and when I say yes, she playfully slaps me in the face, because she’s convinced that the eggs are causing the acne I’m suffering from right now.

The rest of the afternoon I hang out with the people in the café. In the end we play a few games of rummy and when we are about to close, a girl and her father come in to look for a foreigner to do an English project with. It takes a while before the first lines are right (dad is recording), but then she tells me in a kind of English about her life. Afterwards, the father proudly shows me some pictures he took while he was in Amsterdam for a few hours and we close the café.

Day 20 - Follow-up

Later in the evening, I get a phone call from Riwal and Sarah. They are having a drink at Plaza Foch and ask me to join. I tell them I’ll be there in a half hour. M & M are there too. When we order, however, we discover that Plaza Foch is like Central Paris, where the drinks are very expensive. 3,90 for a beer is too much. So after one drink the 3 of us go for something to eat at Mongo’s. Irina told us it is a nice place where you can eat vegetarian as well. Just too bad the tofu tastes awful and all the rest is not well baked on the BBQ. But we have a drink with it and the dessert is enjoyable. After that, we say goodbye and we hopefully see each other again at Isla de la Plata.

Day 20 - Nothing much to do

2010-05-12T01:45:00.000+02:00

With my Spanish lessons finished for now, I don't have much to do. When I turn on my computer in the morning, I immediately get surprised by the problems at home with the landlord, for which I do my best to give some tips on how to handle him. I do a bit of work on my internship report, retrieve my laundry from the lavanderia and do some grocery shopping. Afterwards, I go to the bus company, but I needn't buy a ticket yet, which is better in case I arrive late at the bus company for some mysterious reason.
After that, I walk a bit through the Mercado Artisanal, 'window' shopping. There is some nice stuff, but it is way too early for buying souvenirs. I go eat at Shakti, like I do so often and afterwards to Kallari to see Mariela. Pretty much an ordinary day.

Thursday I will take my bus in the morning to Guayaquil. I think a day-bus is nice, so I can enjoy the scenery and finish some of the books I'm carrying with me. I'll be due to arrive at about 6 o'clock in the evening and not knowing about the existence of WIFI in my next accommodation, it's hard to tell when my next blogpost will be. Hang on there!

Day 19: 10 May – Last day of Spanish lessons.

2010-05-10T18:14:00.000+02:00

Today I wake up a little later than usually, because my last Spanish lesson is in the afternoon. I have the whole morning for bringing away my laundry to the lavanderia, have breakfast and buy some bread, water and other things I need. Rest of the day I will probably be having classes and visiting the café

Day 18: 9 May – Waterfalls of Mindo

This day we want to visit the waterfalls, to take a swim and to dive into them. After lunch, we walk up towards the cable cart which will take us to the waterfalls. While we are walking, the other French group passes us in a camionetta, sissies. When we reach the other side with the cable cart, a guide points us in the direction of one waterfall. (The other direction has six). Where we walk 2 hours to and back again to view one waterfall, where we can’t even swim or dive.
Back again, another guide apologises for his colleague and points us in the right direction. However, we find no waterfall where it is possible to really dive into the water. One of them has a ladder, but it is not possible to get all the way up. The next one is too shallow and L. hurts himself pretty bad on a cable where he went down a level. Luckily, this time I brought my medpack.
When we get back to the cable cart, we all are quite wet. We get a free ride down to Mindo from a family from Quito and we lunch/dine in a Italian-style restaurant. We get our stuff from the hostel and head for the bus back to Quito. It takes about 2 and a half hour. When we get back to town, we need to take a bus to the centre. A fully packed bus (like a can of people, because it’s the last one, absolutely crazy) takes us, but we get out far too late and have to take a taxi to go further.

Back at the hostel, I need my room key, but there seems to be no-one. I call Bernardo and he calls his wife who is at the hostel to give me the room key. Although that one is missing at the moment. But I get my room and I can sleep.

Day 17: 8 May – Canopying in Mindo

This morning I’m waiting early again in front of Kallari. This time to go with Sarah and Riwal to Mindo. After about 10 minutes I see them in front of their house with A. and L. We try to catch a bus on the corner directly to La mitad del mundo, but we see none, so we take another and have to switch somewhere in between. When we get to Ofelia station our bus to Mindo has just left and the next one goes at 4 o’clock. A taxi-driver knows that the busses towards Mindo leave very often from La mitad del mundo, so we let him take us there. When it takes some time for these busses to pass, Sarah tries to hitchhike, without success. But finally a bus arrives, loaded with people. We have to stand for about 2 hours. When we arrive at the edge of Mindo, it’s raining hard and we have to take a camionetta down.
Our hostel (Rubby) is a wooden house without sound isolation, but it’s cute and serves its purpose. We go almost right away downstairs for our lunch, where Norma is cooking us a fine meal. Her husband Marcelo wants to take us and 4 other French to go bird watching in the early morning next day for $40, but when later appears that the other group isn’t going, this amount is a bit too much for us.
When our bellies are full again, we head out to a travel agency (the rain has ceased) and decide to do some canopying. Meaning we hung individually in a harness on a zip line, racing fast above the canopy. I didn’t expect myself to do something adventurous like this, but I actually liked the adrenaline. Towards the end it started to rain again, which made the zip lines more smooth and the ride faster. But it also made it harder to see the signals of the guides. Everything went well, luckily, thanks to our experienced guides.

When we returned, it was already quite late to do anything else. So we relaxed a little in the hammocks at the hostel and went for dinner at a nice restaurant later. I got a nice vegetable stew with lentils, which reminded me a little of India and Audrey’s cooking at the same time. Some home-made coffee ice cream later, brought by a Dutch guy who was visiting the girls working there.

Day 16 - A normal day

2010-05-07T23:58:00.004+02:00

Today was my second last day of clases. Monday my last, that means I extended for 3 days. The rest of the day I hung out at Kallari, doing homework, eating lunch. Later I may go for a drink with Victor and his friends Tomorrow I go to Mino, a very nice place with nature, rafting, and more cool stuff. So again a weekend of radio-silence. Mom, I'll probably call you on monday, because sunday I will be doing these cool things. But a happy mothers' day in advance!

Left: Mariela and me. / Right: Interior of café Kallari

Day 15: 6 May - Changing plans

Today I call Miguel Rendón to get to Guayaquil earlier. Not that I really want to, but I have no other choice at the moment. My study must begin as soon as possible. He arranged a place to stay for me in a couple of minutes. One of the people who work for him has a room for me, but I need to pay $300 for the month. They asked 400 at first, but that was really too much. I need to see how much time I need to prepare, but somewhere next week I will leave to Guayaquil. I can take 4 weeks to study there. Then I have 4 weeks left in Quito again in the chocolate factory.
This will leave me little time for the Galápagos. As well as little money. Good chance that I will visit the Galápagos of the poor - Isla de la Plata - instead.

Later I go out to buy some hiking shoes, because I’m going to Mindo this weekend. And I don’t want my current shoes to be totally destroyed at the end of the journey. However, the cheapest ones were $136 and that’s not really worth it for me either. I’ll need to see tomorrow for a different shop perhaps, or just buy some wellington boots.

Day 14: 5 May - Liberation day, yay

Today I helped Mariela again with her English. When we were done and I had to go, we agreed to go out that night. Since it was 5 may, I needed to drink a beer to freedom anyway. I couldn’t do all the things I needed to do, the lavanderia was already closed for example. But I had done my own homework at the café already, so I went back there again at 6.
Mariela was waiting outside with two of her friends for the last guests to leave, so she could lock up. While we were waiting, Sarah passed by and said they were going to a club later to do some salsa dancing. We would think about it, because some of the Ecuadorians were a little broke.
After closing the café, we went to another café to drink beer. We pass by a place with cheap canelazos, but it’s full, so we move on. When we get our beer somewhere else.
After a while we go check the place with the canelazos and there are seats free. So we go in and drink some more there. At about 10 O’clock, we go check on the place Sarah mentioned, but the entrance is 6 dollars and as I said, some of us were broke. We check several other places to dance and we dance in some of them. The last one being the weirdest. At the end only me and Mariela were left and we were at a place where mostly tourists were dancing like they were having dry sex. I felt quite ashamed to look at that.
At around 12, Mariela put me on the taxi again. Back home I felt that drinking lots of alcohol has a stronger effect at this altitude (2800 m.).

Day 13: A setback

2010-05-05T02:40:00.000+02:00

Today, in the afternoon I call the director of Pacari again. At first he’s in a meeting and wants me to call back in ten days. I say I don’t have that much time in Quito, so he lets me call later in the day. Doing so, he tells me they are really busy at the factory and that this month is not a good time. He talks a bit about doing interviews over skype and whatnot. In any way, there is a setback: my case of this month is not going to happen. I may as well take some more lessons of Spanish and have some fun, but that’s not going to be a problem.
In any case I e-mail my supervisor with two suggestions: Either I go to my backup plan and choose a new case, for example Kallari chocolate; or I go to Guayaquil as soon as possible and do the coffee case first. I hope for an answer soon, so I can make the necessary arrangements. Things just happen this way in Ecuador, some things take longer, some things get cancelled.

Day 12: 3 May

Past Sunday, I appeared to have missed something: Mariela had a presentation of her culture (Indígena from Napo) at the presidents house. I didn’t exactly understand what she invited me for when she called me Sunday morning, but now I do. Perhaps I will get another chance later. She told me she has another performance later this month.

This week we changed teachers at the school. This is one of the strengths of the education I think, because you get multiple ways of teaching. Every teacher has her own way. Now I have Elisa as my teacher. Wednesday is supposed to be my last day, but perhaps I will enjoy some more days of education: I will get back to that later.
At the school, I made friends with another student: Victor from Nigeria. As we walked to restaurant Shakti where I wanted to eat, he was telling me about what he thought of Ecuador. In the 9 days that he’d been in the city, he has experienced quite some racism. People going out of his way, mothers taking their kids away from him and as he told me: A security guard stopped him from entering a bank. Only after expressing clearly (in English, because he just started his Spanish lessons) that he wanted to withdraw money from the bank, he was let through. Nevertheless, they kept a close eye on him. And to me, Victor seems like a very nice, open and friendly guy.
It is also something I heard from some of my Ecuadorian friends, that there are some problems with criminality in the black community in Quito. Of course, I don’t know how it is exactly, but my guess is that there is indeed some racism (clearly, following the stories of Victor), because of criminal activities by a small number of a minority group. I had already decided that not to judge the friends that have these ideas, but should the opportunity present itself I would show them that they’re wrong. It’s a different culture here, and I don’t know the problems, so who am I to judge, right?

When I get to the restaurant, I notice I missed a call, so I call back. “Where are you?” – “I’m at a restaurant” – “But I’m not at the restaurant, but at the café”. Right, so I didn’t get that phone call yesterday at all. Without knowing it, Mariela had started to work at Kallari again and wanted to prepare my lunch. Well, no problem for me. So I walk back passed the school to the café and order a ‘sanduche’ with guacamole, some yucca snacks and a mora ‘jugo’ (juice). Naturally, while not helping clients in the café, she’s doing some homework or another.

Day 11: Naturally Hot and Cold and enjoying it.

2010-05-03T05:38:00.000+02:00

At Sunday I wake up after a fine rest. I hadn’t slept so well in a while. Riwal had been going to the hot baths of the hotel already, but I decide to take it easy, sleep as long as I can and write some blogfood.
At about 9 we get to breakfast, which for me was a coffee, a juice and a cheese sandwich. Which is to say, a croissant baked into a croque monsigneur with Ecuadorian white cheese (which tastes like nothing really). After breakfast, we go to a waterfall not far away. When we get there, there is a man who charges a dollar a person, despite that we heard it would be free. He lets us go to decide later whether we pay, because we don’t exactly trust him. When we have enjoyed watching the waterfall we return to see our taxi has arrived as well. The man of before is talking to the driver and it seems alright. We enjoyed the place, so we pay him.

After that we are dropped off immediately at the Papallacta springs, a place with a number of hot pools of different temperatures, but also with some cold pools and a freezing river pool. Inside we meet Andrea and her mother, both from Quito and friends of Sarah. During the day, we visit several pools, alternate between hot and cold and enjoy the scenery. Meanwhile, the burning sun makes sure that my skin gets red at the end of the day, despite the bit of sun lotion I borrowed from Sarah.
In the complex we take a nice big lunch. Although again very little vegetarian on the menu, I get enough. Here again Sarah is offered a nice piece of pie and we all decide to take a desert as well. I took the fried ice cream (though not as good as Joep makes them). After the dinner, it has started to rain a bit and it’s much much colder. 4 of them take some more baths, while I take some pictures with Maggie and Mattieu.

At around 5.30 we pick up our stuff at the hotel and take the busses back to Quito again. A long ride, especially because we had to stand most of the way. Now back home, did my homework for tomorrow and tired. Sleep will come soon I hope.

Day 10: 1 May

The next morning I’m waiting in front of Kallari, waiting for Riwal and Sarah. Together we take a couple of busses to Papallacta – the hot springs. The journey takes almost 3 hours and when we get to hotel Pampa Llacta, we eat something, put our stuff on our beds and take a camionetta to a nature reserve closeby (cayambe-coca). The weather is not very good, but we keep going, putting my umbrella up and down all the way. Along the way, we encounter a deer (dama?) that was not at all afraid at all. We could approach up to 2-3 meters.
When we leave the path one more time later on to climb alongside a waterfall, we get cold and wet and the weather gets even worse. We decide to go back to the hostel to try out the natural hot baths. Along the way, Sarah makes a big smack to the ground, which made me regret not taking my medpack from Quito. Luckily she had her own alcohol-spray to clean the wound on her hand.
About an hour later we are enjoying the hot baths at the hotel with two other French friends who had arrived in the mean time: Maggie and Mattieu. Afterwards we drink something and eat something in the hotel, play some pool. Because Sarah has her birthday on Sunday, we are offered a cake (baked with plantain, a bit odd) and a warm alcoholic drink of which I already have forgotten the name. And despite the amount of French talk at the table, and the mediocre food at the hotel, I’m having a great time!

Night of day 9: 30 April

In the morning, before going to classes, I get a text message from Mariela that I she has no time to meet today, maybe some other day. I sms back later that it’s no problem, that she should call me if she still want to go out tonight. While I’m buying chocolate at Kallari later that day, Mariela is sitting there doing her math homework. We talk a bit about going out to dance. She says I should only go with a smile and some nice dance moves, but she’ll teach me something. And oh, did she say I should pay for the girls’ drinks (hers and her friends)? Later I find out that it’s custom to pay for the drinks of the girl you are taking out, not for her friends In the end, I just paid one cuba libre for one of her friends, fresco.

Around half past 7 I get a phone call from Mariela, saying her friends can’t make it and if we could meet earlier. Half of the phone call I don’t get, because the line is bad and Spanish on the phone is even more difficult than live. I put my homework down and get ready. We meet each other in front of a cybercafé. After trying to reach her friends (perhaps they will come after all) we walk with her arm holding mine (no idea if that’s custom as well) to another, more quiet, café. The streets are already filled with people drinking, drunk and partying.
In the café we talk a bit and order a drink. We talk about our countries, customs, ex’s, families, etc. When it appears her friends are going to join, we go to pick them up. M. is waiting right on the corner on the street. For E. we have to walk a bit further down Av. Rio Amazonas. Now 4, we go back to the cybercafé and find R. and another guy waiting for us. With the whole group we start looking for a place to drink and dance. Right when we want to enter a place, I get a phone call from Riwal and his friends that they are also waiting at the cybercafé (because I text him earlier about going out). We quickly go in to reserve a table and Mariela and I go pick them up. Riwal and Sarah are the two with whom I will go to Papallacta the next morning. They also brought another girl.
With the whole big group we drink, dance and the Ecuadorians sing along with the songs of the band. And although my dancing is crappy like a Dutchman, Mariela dances with me anyway and tries to teach me a little. For the first time, surrounded by new friends, I feel at home in Ecuador.

About a half hour after the French party leaves, we decide it is time to go home too, since we all need to get up quite early. Outside, Mariela helps me pick a taxi. I give her a kiss on the cheek and we promise to call after the weekend. Then the taxi drives me to the hotel.

Day 9: Don Juan going to the thermal lakes

2010-04-30T23:09:00.001+02:00

After classes I go to lunch with my Spanish teacher. We go to lunch at El Maple, which is good as always. Irina said she hadn’t been there for a while, so it was nice to experience. After that I needed to buy some chocolate for the friend of my fellow student, because it is her birthday tomorrow. Just some small thing. So I go to Kallari to buy some.

The rest of the day I need to get some stuff ready to go to Papallacta. In the night I may go out with Mariela and her friends, but I'm not yet sure if I will. Uhmm, expect a BIG blogpost on monday. (Or tuesday if you live on the other side of the world. :P)

Day 8: 29 April

During the breaks of the Spanish classes, I often speak to one of my fellow students. He and his (ex-girl)friend are going to a place called Papallacta in the weekend. It is supposed to be a beautiful place close to the Amazon with natural hot springs, where you can take a hike, swim, get a massage... a lot of cool relaxing stuff. Naturally a place I’d like to go to as well, so we arrange that I can go with them. We leave on Saturday morning and get back on Sunday evening (so radio silence in the weekend).

Later in the afternoon, I have a meeting with the director of Pacari. He’s late almost one hour, but that appears to be normal (la hora equatoriana) and it gives me time to do my homework. In his office, he seems genuinely interested in what I wish to do, the interviews, etc. and thinks already of some things I could possibly do for the company. There’s just one but: he still has to talk it over with his wife and asks me to call back tomorrow.
After this I bring some laundry to the Lavanderia and sit down to write some stuff. And so ends another day.

Day 7: 28 April

Almost the same as every day. From 9 to 13 Spanish classes. Afterwards I went for a lunch at sakti’s, my favourite . With my belly full, I returned to Kallari to help Mariela with her English again. When I got there, she was still busy in the kitchen, so I sat down with my Spanish homework. Later she comes over (peck on the cheek) and she helps me a bit with my Spanish. Then we shift to English. All the while it was fun to see upcoming volunteers (Kallari chocolate works with foreign volunteers) and dining tourists struggle with their Spanish. Especially the American accent in their Spanish is hilarious. And so we went on for about 2 hours until she had to go somewhere else. So did I: I promised Svenja to send cards, so I had to go to the post office. Mariela and I said goodbye and she told me she’d text me about upcoming events, she didn’t have time tomorrow.

So at the post office, I ask for 10 stamps to send cards to Holanda. More than $ 2,- per card, the lady says to me. ‘okay, make it 5’. Well, I sent 3 cards in your direction, but I will have to limit the amount (sorry Svenja), because it is muy muy caro.
Back at the hotel, I make another call to the Director of Pacari Chocolate and we arrange a meeting for the next day.

In the evening, I decide to go to a tourist bar named Finn McCool’s. While I’m there I order a couple of pilseners, watch football on the screen and bore myself almost to death. I decide that the name of the place has been a wrong choice, that it’s definitely not Chévere (as we say here in Ecuador), pay my beers and go home to sleep. The end... of the day.

Day 6: 27 April

Okay, I lied, Tuesday was quite interesting. I went for a lunch at Kallari, a café near my school, where they also sell locally produced chocolate. Across me are two ladies, apparently belonging to the café, doing math homework. And while I’m waiting for my order, one of them comes over to ask if I know math. I couldn’t help her with that, however, so she went back to her place. But not before asking whether I’m single. And later she even tells me I’m handsome (“eres lindo”).
Anyway, when I explained I’m learning Spanish, she offered me a deal: she’d help me if I helped her with English (because I suck at math). An offer I couldn’t refuse for a multitude of reasons. So after my lunch, waiting for the check, I shift tables and we chat a bit. When her friends leave, I help her a bit with her English homework. When I leave I give her a peck on the cheek (which is custom in Ecuador) and we agree to meet the next day.

Day 5 (and 6): John's journey to the middle of the earth

2010-04-27T02:07:00.001+02:00

Yesterday I met an American couple at lunch. It appeared they had arrived in the evening before. We talked a bit about this and that, volcanic ashes in Europe and a new health system in the US. They were not going to stay long, though, because they would leave to the Galápagos the next day. But they will come back a couple of times to the same hotel, so Barney and I will get a chance to drink his bottle of rum, háááárg!

They were too busy arranging things, so they weren’t able to join me to la mitad del mundo: the middle of the world. I went by bus, which is rather slow and painful, but one bus ride costs only 25 cents and I only needed 3 buses to get to la mitad. It looks a bit like an amusement park without all the wild attractions. There is this big monument with a globe on top, which the builder thought was the middle of the world at the time (unfortunately they missed the equator by a couple of hundred meters). Around this monument are a lot of buildings with souvenirs and artesanias. I didn’t buy anything yet, because I don’t want to drag anything with me for the whole trip. Inside the monument is an ethnographic museum with a lot of stuff and photos of the indígenas of Ecuador with some explanations. It’s a bit of a dry exhibition, but something you should see anyway because you’re there.

The fun part was supposed to be my trip to Pululahua, a volcanic crater which is inhabited (one of the largest craters in the world). There only live a couple of hundred farmers, who carry their produce up (1 hour walk) with animals. Cars are only able to go by the other side, away from Quito. The guide said that the government declared the volcano has 50% chance of erupting again, so that means it is active. Apparently the farmers don’t mind, they have cheap and fertile soil.
At first I wanted to go down myself, as it is only half hour walk down and it is supposed to be a beautiful place. When I got there however, the clouds began invading the whole crater, blocking every view. I was just in time with my pictures, because when we left, we couldn’t see anything down there anymore.

Back at the complex, there wasn’t much left to do. Bernardo told me that on Sundays, there are shows and live music. The dancing shows were nice, but the music terrible. Especially the first music act was more about the sexy dancing (not complaining here, mind you), than the singing. During the second music show, I got talking with a Dutch couple, also passing through, going to the galápagos. Of course we had spotted each others’ Dutchness a mile away.

They wanted to go to a museum outside the complex and I thought they were talking about Inti ñan. When we got there, they apparently weren’t talking about this one, but we went in anyway... luckily. Because Inti ñan is really chévere (cool). And it’s really on the equator. A guide led us through the open air museum, showing us all things from the indígenas, like shrunken heads, totems and houses. But what was really awesome were the cool tricks we could do on the equator. Your weight is 1 kg lower, you are weaker and the water in the sink goes straight down (North and south, it whirls counter clockwise or clockwise). You’re supposed to be able to balance an egg on a nail much easier on the equator, but I still couldn’t do it. And walking a straight line with your eyes closed is impossible.
After that we took a taxi back with the 3 of us and that was about the end of the day.

Day 6

Today was a normal day: Spanish classes, big lunch and studies. We talked a bit about Geert Wilders today in Spanish classes, because a New Zealand student brought it up. It appears he’s not really known in Ecuador, but probably will be in the future. Around here they have opened the borders wide and according to mi profesora, Muslims are immigrating in big numbers. For the rest, totally normal day.

Day 4: Trip to the Old Town

2010-04-25T02:11:00.001+02:00

So yes, I went to the bar last night. First to el Pobre Diablo, a sort of jazz restaurant/bar, but it appeared I was way too early. I might have been there at 7.15. The band that was going to play at 10.30 was practicing, so I sat down and ordered a beer. I had a choice between the local Pilsener and Heineken (Do I have to tell you which I ordered?). By the time my beer arrived, the band stopped practicing and I just sat there, alone, at my table, drinking my beer. At least the beer was good. Ah, well, the bar was good too, but I was way too early. So when I finished my beer, I went to el Cafecito, in a more busy area. As I entered and sat down, a group of (probably Dutch even) youth just left the place. So I ordered a pilsener again and grabbed a newspaper. So I sat there, at the bar, drinking my beer, reading a newspaper. By the time I finished my beer, it was about 9 and I had enough of it. Linea recta to bed. Better luck next time.

Next morning, after breakfast, I asked Bernardo which places were good to go to in the Old Town. He showed me some places on the map and called me a taxi. First stop: El Panecillo, a hill in the south of Quito with a huge statue called the ‘virgen de Quito’. My first taxi left me there, though we agreed he’d wait for 15 minutes for me to take pictures. No matter, because I took my time anyway. Although a new taxi wanted to charge me 5 dollars at first. Haggled it down to 3, though it should have been only 2 dollars to the next place. Op on that hill, I met some funny Americans, joking about taking a picture of the loo in Het Loo. One of them took a picture of me with the virgin. They told me Guayaquil is a dirty city and I should better go to Cuenca. Like I have a choice, no?

Next stop: La Plaza Grande. A green square with some impressive architecture on all sides. I little girl was selling candy there, so I asked her if I could make a picture of her if I bought some from her. Next thing I know, kids all around me and a policeman shooing her away. After buying the candy, I didn’t have a chance to take that picture anymore. Five shoe shine boys overheard me though, and offered me a picture for a dollar each. Smart little guys, but I fell for it. Just wish me and my camera were better prepared for that picture.

I kept walking around the Old Town for a while, taking pictures of the architecture, when I suddenly fell hungry. I guess I spend about an hour looking for that one vegetarian restaurant I looked up on the web, and when I found it, I realized I had already walked past it a couple of times. Stupido. But the food was really good again. It amazes me how easy it appears to be after all to get a cheap vegetarian meal in Quito.

The plan was to go to the TelerifiQo as well (a big cable cart taking you up to one of the mountains), but the sky was cloudy, foretelling disappointing pictures, and it was getting late, and I had enough of walking. So for another time. I headed back to my hotel room by foot, walking by some parks. At home, I found my room clean and tidy again. It feels strange that it gets cleaned so often, but I’m also glad I don’t have to do it myself.

Now it’s time to fill up some empty hours. If I’m up to it I might go back to el Pobre Diablo around 10, but I still have a bit of a jetlag and I want to be fresh tomorrow morning to go to Pululahua, the giant volcanic ~~lake~~ crater.

Day 3: Spanish clases and jetlag

2010-04-23T23:13:00.000+02:00

3 days have passed and I’m getting to know the streets of La Mariscal in Quito better and better. Today I found a very nice vegetarian restaurant, where I will be returning for sure. For only $3,- you can get a nice and filling almuerzo (=lunch). So I think I’m establishing myself somewhat. Those past days, however have also been a bit of a jetlag (even though I told someone I don’t experience jetlags). I’ve been going to bed before 9 and waking up at 5 or 6 in the morning. That’s not very healthy, so I think I’ll force myself to check out the nightlife in the city. That will give me some chance to meet some fellow gringos as well, because I still don’t really know anyone here.

Yesterday was my first Spanish class. My ‘profesora’ is Irina. She’s a nice lady, calling me ‘pobresito’ all the time, because I’m a vegan in Ecuador. Or when I tell her we don’t have a ‘discoteca’ in Wageningen. Well, that is hard to understand indeed. The lessons are 4 hours straight per day, so when I’m finished it’s time for lunch and after that I feel pretty tired. I don’t really feel like doing anything then anymore, especially writing my internship report. Might still be the jetlag, though.
So when I get back to my hotel room, I sit back a bit and relax. I read something or check what you guys are all doing (how wonderful is facebook). Yesterday I also called the director of Pacari Chocolate. I finally got him on the line and he said to send him another e-mail. He would check it with his wife and would get back to me when he returns from a field trip by Monday. I hope he’ll say yes to my question, because it is half of my thesis after all.

I know I still owe you guys a lot of pictures (since I started the Ecuador blog with introducing my new babe), but since I’ve been having Spanish lessons and jetlag, I haven’t been able to shoot a lot. Did spot some hummingbirds in the garden here, but when I finally got my camera, they were gone, so I shot some pictures of the city instead. Anyway, weekend has come, so I am able to visit some touristic sites... Pictures will follow.

Day 1: getting to know Quito

2010-04-22T01:25:00.001+02:00

After a pretty long delay in Madrid, which did get me a free meal by the way, and a stop-over in Guayaquil, I finally ended up in Quito this morning around 10 am local time (time difference appears to be 7 hours, due to summertime). In Guayaquil I got in touch with some Dutchies, but they went their own way in Quito. One of 'em owes me a drink though, because he forgot to get his dólares before flying.
In any case, I walked to the exit and there was no-one with a sign with my name. So I waited a bit, but nothing. Turns out I had to go to one of the desks and had been waiting some days before. A car (big van!) came soon enough and drove me in about 25 minutes to Hotel Folklore. A whole night of little sleep and a 7 hour time difference almost got to me, so I rested a bit before going out.
Bernardo, the owner of the hotel showed me some good places to go to. So then I explored the city a bit. Walked around "la Mariscal" a bit. Apparently one of the more dangerous places in the city (more theft, because of all the tourists there). But nothing happened, and I found some spanish classes for the coming 2 weeks at Galápagos Spanish school. I explored the types of restaurants in the surrounding and I must conclude that eating vegan will be a challenge in this country. Luckily, I may use the hotel's kitchen during my stay.
After a coffee at Magic Bean, I headed to the park (el Ejido), where I met the first beggar. All in all the city Quito doesn't seem much different from any other city. Though the roads and buildings look like they could use some more maintenance, you see the same kind of cars, prices are mostly the same (just in $) and roads are busy. A total different place then any city in India for instance. There surely is poverty, but it is less visible, it seems.

Tomorrow my first Spanish Lesson in Quito. The rest of the day I will spend confirming my chocalate case here and hunting for a mobile phone. I'm pretty broken now, so I'll just do some RosettaStone Spanish and then hit the bunk.
Hasta luego!

Grounded

2010-04-18T15:49:00.002+02:00

Or, well, here I don't go. The sky has never been clearer with all the ashes in there and the airplanes on the ground. But my flight to Madrid was also canceled. Next possibility: tuesday at 19 o'clock. Let's hope this volcano in Iceland will go away... Quite legen.. ahum... dary start, no?

Not that I'm very unhappy now: I have some time left to think some things over, write some letters I had to write and get even more prepared to go latin!

Prelude to Ecuador

2010-04-17T10:09:00.000+02:00

Well, here I go. At this moment, it is still unsure whether my plane will actually leave this sunday, since there is this ash cloud from a volcano in Iceland hanging over Europe. But I'm not worried, I will get there eventually, if not sunday.

I'm not sure if everybody knows exactly what I'll be doing there, besides lying on the beach, drinking caipiriñas or shots of aguardiente. Of course, it's a thesis. There are certain finished products (chocolate and coffee) being exported from Ecuador. Factories in Guayaquil and Quito produce these commodities and package them. Thus, instead of exporting raw products, they add value. My question: what's this added value and what does it do for the local people? That means the people that work in the factory, but also beneficiaries who receive aid in some way from the companies that produce (social projects). My 2 cases will be EScoffee (Guayaquil) and hopefully Pacari Chocolate (Quito). When I'm finished with bothering these people with my questions, I will check my balance. If this is positive enough, Another flight will take me to Galápagos, where I'll be taking my new baby (canon 1000D) for some serious wildlife shooting :D

So that is the plan. Keep tracking me, I'll be posting often. The next one being when I arrive. My first hotel is Hotel Folklore, with WIFI, huzzaaah! This will be some legen... wait for it... dary 3 months!

Haiku - 俳句 - 16 - 18

2009-11-08T21:23:00.004+01:00

16 / 十六
べるわなる
彼女ここではない
またしても

The bell rings
It's not her
Again

17
This broken record
Plays no more fantastic songs
It rests on the shelf

18
Yesterday's mistakes
I can not recall no more
Tomorrow's waiting

ぞえにとって

Taigu Ryokan :
ぬす人に
取り殘されし
窓の月

The thief left it behind
the moon
at the window

ode to loneliness 2

2009-09-20T21:10:00.004+02:00

Haiku - 俳句 - 14-15

14
Make a crazy face
always a funny response
the mirror returns

15
Make a funny sound
in the emptiness around
but it is wasted

ばか

Haiku - 俳句 - 10-13

2009-09-14T08:22:00.006+02:00

10
Leaves in the gutter
overflows it with water
it is fall again

11
Old man laying down
listens to bluesy tunes
winter is coming

12
It is silent now
lifeless objects and pictures
can't reflect the past

13
An empty blue lake
leaves a crater of a size
when it was still full

ぞえにとって - すみません

Torenvalk kast / common kestrel nest

2009-08-30T10:39:00.011+02:00

Op 9 augustus hebben ik heb ik met hulp van R. en zijn oom, Z. en J. een torenvalk kast de lucht in gehesen. Hierbij de foto's en de bouw instructies. Met wat geluk komt er in februari een vrouwtje kijken en na goedkeuring is het gedaan met de muizen, woelratten en mollen in de moestuin.

On August 9th, I raised a nest for a common kestrel with the help of R. and his uncle, Z. and J. Here are the pictures and the building instructions. With a little luck, a female will check the place out in February and after approval, mice, voles and shrews are no more in my veggie garden.

Kruidenkastje

2009-07-17T10:20:00.003+02:00

Met veel moeite een beetje hout gevonden in de Arnhemse fijnhouthandel. Ik was op zoek naar een beetje redelijk grenen, maar daar hadden ze alleen dikke of ongeschaafde planken en een schaafbank heb ik niet. Dus wat latjes beuken meegenomen en na enkele weken het resultaat:

Hier en daar wat lichtere kleuren, omdat ik de lijsten van grenen heb moeten doen. Die heeft de lokale bouwmarkt dan wel weer, maar niet in beuken... zucht.

De deurtjes klemden in het begin enigszins, maar na even te hangen niet meer, dus heb nu ook een magneetsnappertje in onder aan de deurtjes gefixed.

De Slaapbank

2008-12-27T20:27:00.004+01:00

Op een avond stapte de mier het huis van de eekhoorn binnen. Het was nog maar enkele dagen voordat hij het bos zou verlaten en er was iets dat hij graag nog eens wilde doen. "Ik wil graag nog eens mijn slaapbank uitproberen", zei de mier tegen de eekhoorn, "doe je met me mee?"
En ze gingen samen naar het huis van de mier. Daar aangekomen begon de mier aan de slaapbank te trekken om hem open te krijgen. "Zal ik even helpen?" vroeg de eekhoorn. En samen trokken ze onder luid gekraak de bank recht in een bed. De slaapbank was nog nooit gebruikt.
"Kan dat ook wat stiller daar boven?!" klonk het van beneden. Van al dat gekraak was de egel wakker geworden uit zijn winterslaap.
De eekhoorn keek verbaasd naar de mier. "Wie gaat er nu een winterslaap houden als je zoveel leuke dingen kunt doen."
"ja, zoals sneeuwballengevechten houden" zei de mier.
"Of springen op dit matras!" riep de eekhoorn.
En hij sprong met een gil op de slaapbank. De bank bleek nog zo zacht en veerkrachtig dat de eekhoorn zo hoog vloog, dat de mier hem moest opvangen.
Dit is leuk, dachten ze tegelijk, en samen sprongen ze op de slaapbank en maakten de gekste sprongen en duikelden over elkaar heen. Het was zo leuk dat ze giechelden van plezier.
Plotseling knalde er iets tegen de deur. De egel was weer wakker geworden en gooide een schoen tegen de deur van het huis van de mier.
"Het is al lang bedtijd hoor!" riep hij geïrriteerd.
De mier fronste zijn voorhoofd en sprong weer met een kreet op het bed.
"Binnenkort ga ik weg, we moeten een feestje bouwen" riep hij uitgelaten.
Maar de eekhoorn vond de egel een beetje zielig en zei tegen de mier "laten we maar rustig gaan slapen in deze lekkere slaapbank."
En terwijl er buiten een alarm afging en de egel nog schreeuwde "en nu moet het stil zijn!", gingen de eekhoorn en de mier slapen. De mier in de armen van de eekhoorn.

De volgende ochtend voelde de mier toch wat spijt en klopte aan op de deur van de egel. De egel deed de deur open en met gespleten ogen keek hij de mier aan.
"Het spijt me" zei de mier "maar we hebben afgelopen nacht ontdekt dat de eekhoorn en ik van elkaar houden. We hebben besloten om te gaan trouwen en er komt een groot feest. Iedereen van het bos wordt uitgenodigd en jij bent onze eregast." Toen de mier klaar was met praten blonk er een glimlach van oor tot oor op het gezicht van de egel. De egel was zo blij voor de eekhoorn en de mier.
"Speciaal voor jullie zal ik de afgelopen nacht in een doosje doen, en die geef ik dan kado op jullie bruiloft!"

En het bruiloftsfeest werd een groots feest met taart en zoete drankjes en alle dieren van het bos waren aanwezig, en er was zon en het rook heerlijk naar de herfst. Maar dat is weer een ander verhaal.

Vrij naar: Misschien wisten zij alles
Toon Tellegen (tevens bron plaatjes)
Speciaal geschreven voor het huwelijk van 2 hele goede vrienden.

Haiku - 俳句 - 9

2008-11-03T23:00:00.005+01:00

9
Prrrr, she says softly
her head against my shoulder
I stroke her blonde curls

ぞえにとって

Haiku - 俳句 - 7-8

2008-09-06T21:10:00.007+02:00

7
Surrounded by gold
soft threads spiralling downwards
wind messes it up

8
ze staren me aan
haar ondeugende ogen
ze steekt haar tong uit

ぞえにとって

Einde India 2008

2008-08-26T11:49:00.006+02:00

Onze laatste dag in India begint met een heerlijk ontbijt met dosa en rode en witte chutney. Als de vrouw van Dr. Rao kookt gaan Sanne en ik kijken hoe ze het doet. De avond van tevoren heeft ze rijst en urad dal (gespleten black gram) in een 3:1 verhouding 3-4 uur laten weken in water en daarna met wat zout vermalen tot een pannenkoekendeeg. Dit heeft ze de hele avond laten staan en het bakken gaat zoals in het filmpje. Wat ze eroverheen sprenkelt is olie. De pan is volgens Mrs. Rao een anti-aanbakpan, maar ziet er volgens mij uit als een gewone gietijzeren, zonder tefal-laagje. In de pan zelf gaat geen olie trouwens, alleen over de dosa. De dosa kun je los serveren met sausjes of suiker, of vullen met aardappelcurry of uien voordat je hem 2 keer dubbelslaat.

Na het één en ander uitzoeken op internet over plaatsen van winkeltjes is het tijd om de laatste souvenirs te kopen. We besluiten om naar de Dilli Haat in New Delhi te gaan. Loek wilde eigenlijk al naar de oudere Dilli Haat (wij zijn bij de nieuwe geweest), omdat daar allerlei ambachtsproducten verkocht worden. De DH in ND bestaat uit ongeveer 100 kleine winkeltjes met kleding, sieraden, beeldjes en eten. Heel leuk om doorheen te lopen en hier hebben we ook de meeste dingen kunnen kopen die we nog nodig hadden. Daarna hebben we gegeten bij Navdanya organic café, verwant aan de organisatie van Vandana Shiva. Deze was ook aanwezig op de DH.

Daarna gaan we met de metro verder naar een muziekwinkel, waar we wat CD's en films kopen en dan gaan we terug. Sanne en ik pakken onze tassen goed in en eten nog een laatste Indiase maaltijd met Chapati, okra, aardappelcurry en bitter gourd. Dan is het tijd om naar het vliegveld te vertrekken. Onderweg komen we allerlei felverlichte feesten tegen. In Delhi vieren mensen een jaarlijks terugkerend festival dat iets te maken heeft met Krishna en Ganesh, verteld de driver mij. Sanne en Anil zijn bijna bang dat ze vieren dat wij weg gaan (Anil brengt ons weg). Op het vliegveld valt mijn lungi bijna af, maar weet hem te redden. En dan is het tijd om dag te zeggen. We trekken ons niets aan van de gebruiken en geven Anil een knuffel (bezoekers mogen niet naar binnen) en rijden ons karretje met bagage naar binnen.

Het inchecken duurt erg lang en terwijl we daar staan, omgeven door andere toeristen, voelt het al alsof we niet meer in India zijn. Na de beveiligingschecks moeten we nog drie kwartier wachten en dan is het tijd om te boarden. Voordat de lichten in het vliegtuig aan gaan (en na het opstijgen) krijgen we nog een broodje en een drankje. Ik neem voor ons allebei wijn, omdat Sanne al slaapt. Voordat ik probeer te slapen kijk ik nog Narnia 2 en daarna probeer ik een positie te vinden in mijn stoel, wat erg moeilijk is.

's Ochtends komen we iets te laat aan in Zurich en nadat een chagrijnige beveiligingsmens ons lastig valt, zijn we gelukkig nog op tijd voor onze aansluiting. In Nederland zien we onze ouders al staan als we op onze tassen wachten en mijn ouders kijken geschokt als ze mij in mijn lungi zien staan. De tassen komen aan en ik heb de zaden uit Porumamilla ongeschonden binnen weten te smokkelen. Dan gaan we nog een kopje koffie drinken met z'n 7-en zeg ik op de parkeerplaats ook gedag tegen Sanne. In de auto is het moeilijk mijn ogen open te houden, maar het lukt me uiteindelijk toch, en ik denk aan de afgelopen 6 weken, terwijl ik naar het saaie platte landschap staar dat ons voorbij schiet.

De weg terug naar Delhi

2008-08-25T19:50:00.006+02:00

Onderweg terug naar Kadapa gebeurde iets waar Sanne en ik nog steeds boos over zijn. Onze chaufeur (die ons volgens hem ook naar Tirupathi had gebracht) reed met een behoorlijke snelheid over de weg. Voor ons werd een liggende hond zichtbaar, midden op onze rijbaan. Onze chaufeur bleef met dezelfde snelheid rijden, waarschijnlijk met de bedoeling om over de hond heen te gaan zonder hem met de wielen te raken. En wat je kon verwachten gebeurde ook: de hond hoorde ons aankomen en stak zijn hoofd omhoog en keek om. Er volgde een doffe knal en Nazeer kijkt pijnlijk naar de chauffeur: 'die heeft het niet gehaald'. Gelukkig werd er de rest van de rit niets of niemand meer aangereden, al reed de driver wel o.a. rakelings langs een kalf. Als het aan mij lag was die man zijn rijbewijs kwijt, wat een idioot!
In Kadapa laat Nazeer ons in het huis van Anil. de moeder is nog niet thuis, dus wij zetten onze tassen neer en doen alsof we thuis zijn. Ze komt pas laat thuis en dan is het voor mij al tijd om te gaan slapen.

22 augustus
Met Nazeer hadden we afgesproken dat hij ons om 7 uur op zou komen halen. zoals te verwachten werd dat 7:30 uur, maar alles kwam uiteindelijk goed en wij hadden de tijd om onze noodles en koffie naar binnen te werken.
Gelukkig waren onze tickets op het laatste moment confirmed en konden we 's nachts ook gewoon in een bed slapen. In de trein waren onze plaatsen bezet door enkele vrolijke Tirupathi-kalen (quote Sanne; de trein begon in Tirupathi, van de golden temple). Zij wilden graag met ons van plaats ruilen en dat vonden wij prima. Op onze nieuwe plek lag ook nog iemand onder op het bed, dus bleven wij even in het eerste compartiment zitten, tot we daar weggestuurd werden.

Verder bestond de dag uit lezen, muziek luisteren, slapen, galgje spelen (Sanne ingemaakt met het woord 'buffel') en praten over de afgelopen maand, de komende week en over de mensen in ons compartiment die luidt smakken en boeren laten. Onderweg zijn we nog een paar keer de trein uit gesprongen om chocolade en koekjes te zoeken, maar alleen waar dat mogelijk was: andere passagiers wisten precies waar er tijd was om uit te stappen. Het is ook wel lekker om even de benen te strekken in de frisse lucht en te kijken naar biddende moslims op het perron.

Voor het avondeten hadden we van Nazeer de belofte gekregen dat hij iets zou regelen en dat iemand het in de trein zou brengen, dus wij hadden geen dinner besteld vandaag. Toch gingen we zonder eten naar bed. Gelukkig hebben we door de snacks overdag geen honger. Onze onderbuurman doet nog even moeilijk over tassen die niet naast zijn hoofd mogen liggen en treuzelt als wij een tas onder de bank willen leggen, maar uiteindelijk slapen we (om 21 uur al) lekker en lang.

23 augustus
De volgende ochtend wordt ik redelijk vroeg wakker, maar blijf nog even liggen, omdat Sanne het middenbed nog bezet houdt (je moet het middenbed inklappen om onder te kunnen zitten). Als het ontbijt eraan komt besluit ik dat ik Sanne maar wakker moet maken. De rest van de reis verloopt best rustig en als we bijna in Delhi zijn beginnen we ons pas echt te vervelen.
Als we aankomen belt Anil ons op dat we de trein moeten pakken naar New Delhi. Voor 4 Rs. kopen we een kaartje, een man die in de rij stond vertelde ons dat vrouwen niet in de rij hoeven, dus Sanne liep naar voren en kreeg een speciale behandeling. Maar dezelfde man vertelde ons ook dat het veel beter is om een auto-rickshaw of taxi te pakken. En hij had gelijk: na lang wachten is er nog geen trein die naar New Delhi gaat en we weten ook niet precies van welk perron hij moet vertrekken. Als ik wat rondvraag belt iemand voor ons om te vragen naar de vertrektijden en het blijkt dat er binnenkort een slaaptrein in die richting vertrekt. Wij hebben echter een kaartje voor de lokale trein, dus ik bel Anil op dat we met de auto komen. Na onderhandelen (zij wilden 200 Rs, het werd 150) en het afschudden van een persistente taxi chauffeur, gingen we met de rickshaw naar het New Delhi station. Daar blijkt na een tijdje dat Anil ons op staat te wachten aan de andere kant van het station, met Srikahnt die in een hoekje zit te slapen. Hij wilde niet eerder de taart aansnijden voordat wij er waren: het is zijn verjaardag vandaag. Vermoeid nemen we daar de metro (hee er is een metro in New Delhi!) naar het huis van Dr. Rao. De metro is ongeveer 7 jaar geleden gebouwd en wordt nog steeds uitgebreidt. Het is er erg schoon, ondanks dat er erg veel gebruik van gemaakt wordt, en er weinig prullenbakken zijn zoals overal het geval is. We nemen nog een (fiets)rickshaw en komen aan in een mooi huis in een wat rijkere buurt van New Delhi. Hier maken we kennis met de vrouw en dochter van Dr. Rao.

Als we onze tassen ergens op de grond gezet hebben en een plekje gezocht hebben, komt er een roze hartvormige taart tevoorschijn. Rao vertelt dat het niet gebruikelijk is om taart en kaarsjes te gebruiken bij een verjaardag, maar dat er meestal andere zoetigheid op tafel komt. Typisch is wel dat de jarige de taart (of ander zoetigheid dus) aansnijdt en een stuk in ieders mond stopt. Vervolgens strooit iedereen gekleurde rijst op het hoofd van de jarige en doet een wens voor hem. Na de taart was er nog wat tijd voor opfrissen en daarna een heerlijke avondmaal met chapati en rijst.

Meer landbouw in de Sagileru Basin

2008-08-25T18:50:00.008+02:00

Op 18 augustus gaan we na een heerlijke, maar non-spicy maaltijd op weg naar het volgende dorpje. In K. Kottala woont een boer die biologische sinaasappelen verbouwt en heel veel vermicompost maakt (30 sheds maken 200 ton / 45 dagen), die hij vervolgens verkoopt aan andere boeren. Daarnaast wil hij waterbuffels gaan houden voor mest en melk. Met de mest kan hij naast compost ook gas maken om op te koken, of om electriciteit op te wekken. Onderweg terug gaan we nog langs een ander dorpje voor een Limca (lemon drink). Over 2 dagen willen we hier een farmer field school mee gaan maken.

Even later vraagt Kumar of ik motor kan rijden, en of ik het dan wil proberen? "yeah, sure!" En even later zit ik voorop met sturing van Kumar. Tot 20 km/u, 2e versnelling rijdt ik een stuk tot het wat drukker wordt op de weg. Echt heel cool en misschien dat ik op een dag, als ik later groot ben, ook wel een motorrijbewijs wil halen.

Terug in Porumamilla kopen Kumar en ik nog wat fruit en snoep en worden Sanne en ik nog verder verwend.

19 augustus

Om ongeveer 6 uur 's ochtends, vreemd genoeg nog bijna donker, wordt ik wakker met een enorme knal. Daarna alleen het geluid van regen. en af en toe nog een donderslag in de verte. Ik kan niet meer verder slapen, maar blijf gewoon liggen luisteren tot de wekker gaat om 7 uur. Na het douchen controleer ik nog even onze treinticket en die staat nog steeds op wachtlijst. Ik begin me al wat zorgen te maken. Dan check ik mijn e-mail en ga buiten zitten. Om 8:45 uur regent het nog steeds. Zou de moesson eindelijk begonnen zijn? Kumar zegt dat er 78 mm gevallen is, niet slecht!

Deze ochtend hadden we eindelijk iets anders dan idly voor ontbijt. Of beter gezegd, we hadden idly én dosa én puri! De idly lieten we vandaag maar staan, omdat we dat al 3 dagen gehad hebben. Om 11 uur gingen we naar het dorpje Rajupalem. Het ligt dichtbij de bergen en heeft een gruwelijk mooi uitzicht met rijstvelden onder de bergen, boeren die nu met hun ossen aan het ploegen gaan en ondergelopen weggetjes. Had ik daar nu maar foto's van gemaakt...

In het dorpje was een Farmer Field School (FFS) over watermanagement (dus eigenlijk een water field school). Daarnaast was er al een non-pest management (NPM) project van de overheid gaande. Tussen de les door speelden we nog een spelletje om de groep te energetiseren (ofwel in slaap vallen voorkomen): Chicken & Eagle. De groep staat hand in hand in een grote kring, binnen staat 'de kip' en buiten de ring 'de arend'. die laatste moet binnen de kring proberen te komen om de kip te grijpen en de kring moet proberen hem buiten te houden. Sanne en ik deden ook mee en het was heel erg leuk. Daarnaast ook heel illustratief voor het idee dat je als boeren samen moet werken om te onderhandelen met handelaren.

Na koffie en koekjes en een laatste deel FFS was er nog tijd om vragen te stellen. Uiteindelijk waren we 4 uur pas terug voor de lunch. Na de lunch wilde Sanne haar XD kaartje op CD laten zetten. Het fotowinkeltje waar ze heen wilde was gesloten, maar na wat zoeken vonden we een ander winkeltje. Na het kopiëren en vooral bekijken van Sanne's foto's wilde de man achter de kassa de foto's op CD zetten, maar dat ging niet zoals het hoorde, door een virus of het één of ander. Uiteindelijk ging hij naar een nader winkeltje om te kopiëren naar CD. Sanne werd er behoorlijk ongeduldig van en stond 2 keer op om weg te gaan. Uiteindelijk had ze 1 XD kaartje op CD staan en was al dat wachten maar 50 Rs.

Onderweg terug bracht ik mijn gescheurde kurta nog naar een kledingmaker, die hem in 1 seconde door de naaimachine haalde, wat losse draadjes knipte en hem weer terug gaf zonder er iets voor te vragen. 'Die westerlingen kunnen ook niets zelf.'

20 augustus

Omdat we gisteren de idly hadden laten staan, hadden we deze ochten alleen dosa en puri. Na de thee gingen we meteen naar de field visit. Na een lange rit kwamen we aan bij een man die beetle leaf (ook bekend als 'paan') verbouwt. Dit is een blad met een bittere smaak die vooral "oudere vrouwen kauwen na de maaltijd". Vaak ook gebruikt in combinatie met beetle nut (niet van dezelfde plant), die een rood sap heeft en je tanden rood kleurt. Het blaadje schijnt goed te zijn voor de spijsvertering en tegen een hoge bloeddruk. Met drumstick bomen worden de rankende planten omhoog geleid. Tussendoor staan enkele bananenpalmen. als ik het blaadje probeer komt er een bekende bittere smaak naar boven die me, op de een of andere manier, doet denken aan de tandarts. Mijn speekselklieren beginnen extra te werken en na het uitspugen blijft de smaak nog lang in mijn mond. Niet voor herhaling vatbaar als je het mij vraagt.

Daarna rijden we door het bos naar een tempel, waar we verschillende beelden van goden zien. Onderweg komen we nog een hagedis tegen die we achtervolgen om te fotograferen en zien we jatropha bomen (gebruikt voor bio-brandstoffen).

Terug op kantoor besluit ik om mijn baard er maar weer af te laten halen. Sanne gaat mee en zit zich te vervelen op een bankje terwijl ik wacht op mijn beurt, of ze kijkt gefacineerd naar het scheerproces van de mannen. Deze kapper laat zijn mes twee keer over mijn huid glijden en snijdt extra glad. Nogmaals was mijn snor een probleem: Ze snapten wel dat ik hem eraf wilde hebben, maar niet waarom. 3 Keer vroegen ze of hij er echt wel af moest. Deze keer was het 20 Rs. en gelukkig was Sanne mee om een extra 10 bij te leggen.

21 augustus

We staan om 6 uur op, omdat we vroeg op pad gaan. Rond 7:30 uur gaan we naar Kondajupalli, waar we al een keer eerder waren (18-08). Onderweg moeten we nog van motor wisselen, omdat de onze te weinig benzine heeft en er daar een tekort van is in de regio.

In het dorpje gaan we na al voorgesteld te zijn aan een antal mensen, kijken bij een paddy nursery. dit doen de boeren iedere week, om te kijken hoe het gaat en welke insecten er in zitten. Het is een experimenteel NPM veldje, waar dus niet in gespoten wordt. Met een lange stok maait één boer over de sprietjes rijst om te zien welke insecten naar boven komen. Na al wat vragen te stellen en foto's te maken, gaan we terug naar het HUN (hydrological unit) kantoor, waar we dosa krijgen met een vreemde rauwe uiensaus en suiker. Een heerlijke dosa, één van de beste die we gehad hebben, en ook heel lekker met suiker, zo blijkt.

Toen we ons ontbijt op hadden kwam iedereen weer binnen. Vreemd genoeg laten ze ons iedere keer alleen eten. Ook bij andere maaltijden, ik denk dat het zo is dat de gasten eerst eten. Het was weer tijd om allerlei vragen te stellen. Daarna kregen we nog wat te zien van een preparaat met neem, castor en andere blaadjes met urine.

Onderweg terug naar het kantoor liet Kumar mij weer een stukje rijden op de motor. Toen ik de afslag gemist had nam hij het weer over. Om 2 uur hadden we weer een heerlijke lunch en daarna kwam Nazeer ons ophalen. Maar hij had eerst nog een vergadering met de mensen van ons kantoor, dus Sanne en ik deden een poging tot kruiswoordpuzzels en 'zoek de verschillen'. Rond 16:45 uur gingen we op weg, terug naar Kadapa, na iedereen uitgebreid bedankt te hebben voor alle zorgen en verwennerijen.

2-3 augustus Kadapa

2008-08-25T16:23:00.007+02:00

Toen we in Kadapa aankwamen, werden we eerst ontvangen door de moeder van Anil en Anil's vrienden. De moeder sprak geen Engels, dus alles moest vertaald worden door Anil zelf en zijn broer. Na de koffie en thee brachten we eerst de tassen naar het hotel in de buurt. Daarna was er lunch bij Anil thuis. Zijn moeder had een uitgebreide maaltijd klaargemaakt met rijst, dal, groenten, etc.

Daarna gingen we op pad met de organisatie van Anil (of eigenlijk niet echt van hem): PARTNER (Peoples Activity and Rural Technology Nurturing Ecological Rejuvenation). In 3 groepen gingen we weg: de meiden in de auto's en de 3 jongens, waaronder ik, Rishi en Loek, achterop de motor. Zonder helm, met korte broek. En toch erg fijn om achterop de motor te zitten, met de wind in de haren door de kleine strratjes van Kadapa. Met drie mannen van Partner kwamen we aan bij een huis, waar 9 vrouwen op ons aan het wachten waren, dat zouden er later 10 worden. Daar werd ons pas verteld dat het om een micro-krediet project ging. Alleen groepen van 10 vrouwen komen in aanmerking en zij krijgen elk 5000 Rs. voor hun eigen project. ook krijgen ze wat training over hoe ze moeten omgaan met het geld. De aflossing is elke week voor 50 weken met 18% rente (banken vragen vaak 50% en alleen voor mannen). Tot nu toe is er altijd afgelost.

Nadat we iedere vrouw de 5000 Rs. overhandigt hadden, gingen we naar het kantoor van PARTNER. Daar maakten we kennis met andere werknemers en kregen we jackfruit en verse vijg, heerlijk! Toen iedereen er was, en alle groepsfoto's genomen waren, werd er nog wat verteld over de organisatie. Het is helemaal vanaf de grond af opgebouwd met mensen die in het begin niets wisten. Nu wil PARTNER zich ook gaan richten op biologische landbouw in de omgeving. Daar wordt namelijk al weinig pesticiden gebruikt.

Toen we klaar waren was het gaan regenen, maar wilden we toch nog even gaan winkelen. Als eerste gingen we een kledingwinkel met traditionele kleding binnen. Loek en ik konden daar niets leuks vinden, dust gingen we naar een stoffenwinkeltje. Daar hebben we samen met Zinu (de manager van PARTNER) wat uitgezocht en nadat we eerst nog even bij de dames hadden gewacht zijn we op zoek gegaan naar een tailor. Pas de 4e had tijd voor ons, door het huwelijksseizoen, maar het zou toch nog tot maandag duren en dan zitten we in Tirupathi. Ze zullen het opsturen. Het opmeten en dergelijke loopt allemaal wat uit, waardoor we best laat eten.

3 augustus
Vandaag vroeg op om te ontbijten bij een vriend van Anil: Nazeer (ook de CEO van PARTNER). Anil had speciaal om dosa gevraagd voor Zoë. Toen we weg gingen richting Anil gingen Sanne en Justine eerst nog bij Cor langs, dus daar moesten we eerst nog op wachten. De zwager van Anil bracht ons alvast naar het huis van Nazeer. Daar duurde het nog even voordat het eten klaar was. Na het heerlijke ontbijt werd verteld dat Cor weer naar de dokter gebracht werd voor een second opinion (hij loopt nu al een tijdje met een longinfectie). De zus van Aline heeft over de telefoon gezegd dat het iets ernstigs zou kunnen zijn. Gelukkig wees de second opinion uit dat het toch echt een longinfectie is. Sanne en Justine en Anil en Aline gingen met Cor mee naar het ziekenhuis. Als ze weg zijn wil de moeder en wat vrouwen henna schilderen op de handen van de resterende meiden. Hoewel we al laat zijn voor de rest van het programma durven zij en Sagar geen nee te zeggen.

We zouden een ritueel hebben in de plaatselijke tempel van een dorpje, maar toen we daar aankwamen was de priester al naar huis, nadat hij 3 uur gewacht had. We werden als eerste ontvangen door de beste boer van de staat (prijswinnaar). In zijn huis kregen we limonade aangeboden en daarna gingen we naar zijn land met pinda's, mango's sorghum, maïs, rijst, etc. De mango's hadden door enten meerdere variëteiten op een stam, soms wel 12, bij wijze van experiment.

We aten daar lunch op een stenen tafel in de buitenlucht, van bananenbladeren. We kregen eerst veel zoete dingen die we later ook mee kregen. Toen Anil boos naar Sagar opbelde waar we bleven voor het volgende onderdeel van het dagprogramma moesten we alweer gaan. Toch werden er nog eerst groepsfoto's gemaakt.

In de bibliotheek van Kadapa werden we eerst in het kantoor van de directeur uitgenodigd, waar we schrift op palmblad en koper te zien kregen. Echte museumstukken die gewoon in de kast van de directeur liggen. Daarna was de geplande dansvoorstelling door 4 meisjes van rond de 12-14 jaar. Ze hadden de afgelopen 2 jaar elke week 3x geoefend en het zag er werkelijk mooi uit. De trainer keek erg trots toe vanaf de zijlijn.

Toen we buiten stonden hadden Loek en ik geregeld dat Zoë ook even achterop de motor mocht. Dat wilde ze zo graag, maar durfde het niet te vragen, dus wij waren niet te beroerd om dat even aan Anil te vragen. We gingen eerst weer terug naar het hotel en voor het avondmaal werd alleen wat fruit gebracht, omdat iedereen redelijk vol zat van de lunch (vooral Rishi).

Leuke anecdotes: Toen Zoë net op de jongenskamer gepounced werd, kwam Caroline binnen die heel verbaasd zag hoe we net weer opkrabbelden. Het moet er vreemd uitgezien hebben. Daarna op de kamer van de meiden: speelden we nog wat potjes Uno. Loek had echter niet door dat ik Zoë een pestkaart toestopte, waardoor hij niet meer kon winnen. Helaas won Zoë daardoor en niet ik.

31 juli - 1 augustus Muthyalapadu (BIRDS instituut)

2008-08-20T04:58:00.000+02:00

De kamers zijn er fijne en luxe 2 persoons kamers. De eerste nacht had ik lekker voor mezelf, omdat we met een oneven aantal jongens zijn. Vandaag komt Cor erbij. Vanmorgen werden we om 9:30 gewekt voor het ontbijt en kregen we een kopje koffie voordat we naar beneden gingen.

Na het ontbijt duurde het nog een voordat iedereen er was, dus sommigen gingen nog even slapen of lezen. Toen we complete waren gingen we op field visit, waar ons uitgelegd werd over het grondwater management project van BIRDS (GMC). Met behulp van Nederlands geld zijn er boorputten gemakt op velden van boeren. Nu probeert BIRDS de boeren bewust te maken door ze zelf metingen te laten doen en de boekhouding bij te laten houden. Op die manier moeten ze slimmer met het water om weten te gaan.

Na de lunch zji we naar een vergadering van een GMC groepje geweest. Ze sprakengeen Engels, maar Anil vertelde ons waarover gesproken werd. Ze waren op zoek naar een manier om meer leden te krijgen. Iemand opperde het idée om ons het dorp te laten zien, waardoor wij, en dus ook de GMC groep, veel bekijks zouden trekken. Dus na een groepsfoto werden we rondgeleidt naar wat tempels en we waren omringd door dorpsbewoners. We zagen bij toeval ergens een wever aan het werk die ook zijn werk nog liet zien. Eerst zagen we hem alleen vanaf de weg, maar door onze interesse werden we dichterbij geleidt om te kijken. Daarna lieten ze ons een kerk zien die ze aan het bouwen waren en was het alweer tijd om te gaan. Ik heb hier zelf geen foto’s van. Als ik eenmaal omringd ben met indrukken, denk ik er niet meer aan om mijn camera te pakken. Enerzijds jammer, anderzijds neem ik alles zo veel beter in me op. Anderen hebben gelukkig wel foto’s gemaakt.

En na het avondeten was het tijd voor wat potjes tafeltennis en Uno. Daarbij maakte ik Zoe aan het lachen terwijl ze aan het drinken was ‘india style’, waardoor ze bijna verdronk in haar slokje water.

1 augustus
Na het ontbijt warden Loek enik en Zoe naar een dorpje in de buurt gebracht. Daar kregen we allebei een scheerbeurt die we eigenlijk al veel eerder gepland hadden. Ik ging eerst, omdat Loek ook nog geknipt wilde worden. De kapper trof de nodige voorbereidingen, zoals het schoonmaken van het mes, baard inzepen, etc. Eerst dacht ik dat mijn snor zou blijven staan, maar na duidelijk te maken dat ik die niet wilde, werd die ook ingezeept. Met een DE safety razor maakte hij korte snelle bewegingen over mijn gezicht, zonder het krassende gevoel dat je soms vaneen wegwerpmesje hebt. Halverwege wisselde hij nog even van mesje en scheerde ook nog mijn nek. De aftershave prikte nog wel op mijn huid, maar hij rook heerlijk.
Loek was na mij en kreeg naast een lekkere scheerbeurt ook nog een knipbeurt en een hoofdmassage. En dat alles voor 30 Rs. voor ons beide.

Toen we terugkwamen was het alweer tijd om verder te gaan. We gingen eerst langs bij 2 verkopers van pesticiden en kunstmest. Zij vertelden over het verkopen en wat zee r zelf van vonden en hoe de regering er over dacht. Daarna gingen we naar de office, waar we een gesprek hadden met een boer hier wat verder vandaan. Hij vertelde over de experimenten die hij doet met low cost biologisch. Hij gebruikt bijvoorbeeld kerosene om leafhoppers en brownhoppers weg te houden uit zijn paddy. Bovendien houdt dit ook muggen weg en bepaalde vlindersoorten. Als pesticide legt hij een zak met neemcake in het waterkanaal als een theezakje, die hij elke 20 dagen ververst. Hij gebruikt bepaalde type bacterieen en algen en hij heft zelfs een koe gekocht om te experimenteren met urine. Het was een zeer bijzondere ontmoeting vandaag.

Na de lunch hadden we een ontmoeting met de directeur van BIRDS: Paul Raja Rao. Hij begon met vertellen dat hij een dalit wees is en door dat laatste de kans had om te studeren.Verder vertelde hij over de ongelijkheid in India, de discriminatie van vrouwen en dalits, etc. hoewel dit allemaal ook wel echt gebeurt, was ik meer geinteresseerd in wat BIRDS nu precies doet. Dat vertelde hij uiteindelijk maar erg kort, vond ik. Hij probeert in ieder geval boeren, vrouwen en dalits een stem te geven, en kansen te geven door links te leggen, groepen te vormen en les te geven.

Het laatste op het programma was een bezoek aan een eerste vergadering van een Water Field School. Ze hadden een bijzondere manier van opinie vragen. Aan een lijn hingen allemaal kartonnetjes met vragen erop geschreven. Daaronder 3 zakjes met A, B en C en daar konden de deelnemers dan kleine papiertjes in doen als een sort stembus. Zoe had haar eerste ervaring met ongewenste fotografie toen zee en foto wilde maken van een groep kleurrijk geklede vrouwen. Een van de vrouwen begon tegen haar te grommen.

De volgende ochtend gaan we naar Kadapa

30 juli Hyderabad

2008-08-20T04:53:00.000+02:00

‘s Ochtends vroeg gingen we eerst met auto’s (auto-rickshaws dus) naar de charminar, een monument dat lijkt op de India gate, ook qua bedelaars en verkopers. We wilden ook nog naar een moskee in de buurt, maar vrouwen mochten niet naar binnen. Dus na het kopen van wat bangles gingen we naar het Salar jung museum, waar we gekeken hebben naar Oosterse miniatuurschilderijen en beelden. Ter plaatse hebben we ook nog evenwat gelunched, een massala dosa met koffie.

Later rijden we op weg naar het volgende plaatsje, maar onderweg gaan we eerst eten bij Padmini. Onderweg begint onze chauffeur ineens hard te toeteren naar de andere auto, die vervolgens stopt. Hij blijkt een lekke band te hebben. Gelukkig duurt het niet erg lang voordat het opgelost is.

Op een ander moment, als we ergens stil staan omdat we de juiste afslag niet kunnen vinden, wordt er heftig gepounced, dat is iets wat we van Zoe geleerd hebben en waar nu ook Loek en ongewild Rishi bij betrokken zijn. Deze keer was Rishi ons iet te snel af en sprong snel de auto uit. En in dat process kreeg ik een elleboog tegen mijn neus: bloedneus.

Na een paar keer de afslag voorbij te rijden, doordat ze in India overal de wegen aan het opknappen zijn, kwamen we eindelijk bij het huis van Padmini. Daar hadden ze heerlijk voor ons gekookt, met 2 soorten rijst, roti, aloo curry, groene pepers in deeg. Dat laatste was wel erg heet, ik heb het geprobeerd, maar dat was huilen. Na een halve gaf ik het op. Rishi at er 2 zonder problemen, bikkel!

Daarna was ere en discussie over de resterende 230 km. De kleine auto had geen reserveband meer en de grote auto kon niet verder vanwege een vermoeide chauffeur. Wel was er een jeep van het BIRDS instituut, maar daar konden de tassen niet bovenop het dak. Na veel discussie dus, warden 6 mensen, waaronder ik, de auto in gepropt. De rest bleef bij Padmini overnachten. Rond 4 uur ‘s Nachts kwamen we aan en gingen vrijwel meteen slapen.

Field visits in de Sagileru Basin

2008-08-18T04:19:00.005+02:00

Als we aankomen in Porumamilla is er geen tijd meer om naar de boeren te gaan, omdat er niets gepland is en de boeren druk bezig zijn. Dus er wordt wat algemeens verteld over de regio en over de functie van Partner hier (hetzelfde als BIRDS: grondwatermanagement faciliteren). Daarna gaan Sanne en ik een wandeling maken door het dorp, wat eigenlijk een grote winkelstraat is met een paar zijstraatjes. We werden nog lastig gevallen door een man met een trom. Hij wilde mijn 5 Rs. niet hebben en wij begrepen niet wat hij nu wel wilde, dus we lieten hem maar even achter ons lopen. We waren nog opzoek naar een nieuw vierkant broodtrommeltje voor Zoe, maar hier hadden ze alleen ronde en ovale.

Het is overigens indepence day vandaag (15 augustus), maar hier merken we er niet veel van. Mensen lopen met kleine vlaggetjes en verder wordt er veel gedaan op scholen en in grote steden, met dans en vlaggen hijsen. Sommige kantoren en banken zijn gesloten, maar hier bij Partner werken ze gewoon door.

Als we uit verveling buiten gaan zitten lezen vragen ze of we koffie of thee willen. Ik vraag natuurlijk om koffie, maar later komen ze toch met thee. Als ik nog een keer om koffie vraag (wist ik het) loopt even later een van de medewerkers naar buiten met een leeg kopje. 10 minuten later komt hij terug met een gevuld kopje. Kortom we worden hier helemaal in de watten gelegd, zoals overal waar we te gast zijn. helaas gaan onze ouders daar niet mee door als we terug zijn.

16 augustus
's Ochtends om 8:30 u. koffie. Om 9 uur zouden we vertrekken voor een field visit, maar we weten nu hoe dat gaat, dat werd later. Eerst moesten wij nog ontbijten (Idly) en moesten de mannen nog chai drinken. Wij deden dus maar lekker mee. Dan vertrekken we per motor naar het eerste dorpje (alles gaat per motor). We tuffen door het prachtige landschap heen en ik krijg haast zin om zelf motorrijles te nemen en op een dag terug te gaan naar India en per motor door India te trekken. Het landschap is hier echt mooi, met rijstvelden, katoenvelden en bergen op de achtergrond. In het dorpje zijn ze druk bezig met katoen (pati) plukken, maar gelukkig hebben ze nog wel wat tijd voor ons. We zijn hier in Kondapeta met 150 boeren. Alle details kunnen natuurlijk in ons verslag gelezen worden later. We krijgen hier een rondleiding door de velden met katoen, rijst en bazra.

Na de lunch op het kantoor gaan we om 4 uur naar het volgende dorpje: Siddayapalle. Hier zijn de boeren wat minder open voor onze vragen en willen de hele tijd praten over prijzen en foute handelaren. Maar het is echt fantastisch om zo het landschap, de mensen en de gewassen te zien. 's Avonds zijn we meestal erg moe door alle informatie en indrukken van de dag.

17 augustus
Opgestaan om 7 uur, Sanne blijft nog even liggen, dus vandaag is het mijn beurt om als eerste te douchen. Als we om 8 uur aan tafel in onze dagboeken schrijven is er nog niemand aanwezig. Vandaag is het zondag, dus waarschijnlijk doet iedereen het rustig aan. Normaal werken ze vandaag niet, maar er is nu zoveel werk te doen, omdat de FAO op bezoek komt, dat ze overuren maken. Op normale dagen werken ze nu ook van 8 tot 23 uur. Ik verklaar ze voor gek, maar Sanne zegt dat ze het zelf ook zou doen als ze voor een NGO zou werken.

Na weer een ontbijt met Idly en een kopje chai gaan we per motor naar het volgende dorpje. We komen terecht ineen HUN (overkoepelend voor grondwater management commissies, GMC) kantoor in aanbouw en moeten even wachten tot de boeren van het veld komen. Er worden ons allemaal zaden laten zien van de gewassen, die we ook mee mogen nemen. Hopelijk gaat dat ook mee het vliegtuig in. Het vraaggesprek gaan goed deze keer en aan het eind bieden ze ons lunch aan. Kumar en Sanne denken dat het misschien niet zo goed is voor ons en gaan liever voor thee. I go with tha flow. Daarna het veld in en kijkennaar een experiment met kanalen, dammen en dugwells. Door de handgegraven putten wordt het grondwater aangevuld. Het water stroomt via kanalen en dammen naar de 9 putten.

De rest van de dag is een vrije dag voor ons, dus we lopen nog een keer door het dorp, tot het einde vande hoofdweg. Onderweg komen we een groep mensen tegen die op trommels slaan en vuurwerk afsteken (wij gaan even aan de kant). Voorop rijdt een wagen, slingerend, met op het dak een poster dat lijkt op een politieke campagne. De mensen lijken verrast door onze aanwezigheid en zwaaien vriendelijk. We vervolgen onze weg als ze voorbij zijn en kopen nog wat fruit en snoep (incl. Barfi, wat eigenlijk niet zo lekker is). Daarna is het de gebruikelijke avondvulling van lezen, converseren en tv kijken. Half 9 heerlijke chapati's van de guard's vrouw en dan nog even relaxen voor bedtijd.

Nu,
zit ik dus achter de computer met een kopje koffie. Vandaag hebben we de ochtend vrij en gaan we om 2 uur nog even op field visit.

Terug naar Kadapa en verder

2008-08-17T05:35:00.003+02:00

Na een lange treinreis op 13 augustus, van 8 uur 's ochtends tot 6 uur 's ochtends, komen we aan in Kadapa. Onderweg gebeurde er niet veel, behalve dat ene spannende moment dat we Aline en Anil bijna halverwege achtergelaten hadden. Althans, dat dacht Sanne. Ze had namelijk haar wens voor chocolade uitgesproken, dus Anil wilde wel voor haar uit de trein springen op een station om het te halen. Bij de eerste poging echter, begon de trein al heel snel weer te rijden, en geen spoor van Anil en Aline. Sanne wilde nog aan de noodrem trekken (1000 Rs. boete of een jaar gevangenisstraf), maar gelukkig kwamen ze op tijd weer binnen in onze coupe.

In Kadapa kregen we ontbijt bij de moeder van Anil (afgehaald bij een snackbar). De kat zien we nergens, en ik vraag waar hij is. Terwijl Anil op zoek gaat, fluistert Sagar ons in dat de kat gestorven is, maar dat we niets mogen zeggen, omdat Anil dan gaat huilen. Hij zou een smoes verzinnen. Wij begrijpen er niets van. Later gaan we met de motor naar het hoofdkantoor en krijgen we meer duidelijkheid over het project. We lunchen bij Zinu thuis en krijgen onze treinticket naar Delhi (36 uur durende reis van 22 tot 23 augustus) en moeten ons haasten om 's middags nog cricket te spelen. Dat haasten bleek uiteindelijk voor niets en we konden nog even rustig aan doen bij Anil thuis. Maar dan gaan we uiteindelijk weer per motor naar een veldje naast een school. Het veld wordt opgesteld en de regels uitgelegd en ondertussen komen er allerlei kinderen kijken en meedoen. Anil wil Sanne en mij liever mee laten doen met een zachte bal, en als we daarop wachten, gooit Anil de bal, hij stuitert hoog. Zinu wil slaan, en op dat moment raakt de bal net boven zijn oog. Het bloedt een beetje en de volgende dag heeft hij een dik blauw oog. De rest van het spel verloopt gelukkig zonder ongelukken. 's Avonds gaan we nog bij een nicht van Anil eten. Sanne is niet mee, omdat ze niet zo lekker is.

15 augustus
De volgende ochtend ben ik lekgestoken door muggen en geradbraakt door het matje waar ik op sliep. Verder isalles goed. We hebben de ochtend rustig besteedt. Ik heb lekker toegekeken hoe de moeder met hulp van Sanne, Anil en Aline de groenten voor het onbijt aan het snijden en schoonmaken was op de vloer. We hebben het olympisch hoogspringen gekeken en opmerkingen gemaakt over hoe lelijk en mannelijk die vrouwen eruit zien. Maar we hebben ook het cadeau overhandigt aan de moeder van Anil. Dit moest letterlijk op een dienblaadje, zonder verpakking eromheen. Ze glimlachte, schudde 'ja', en zei 'thank you' in haar gebrekkige Engels. We denken dat ze er blij mee is.

Daarna vertrokken we naar Porumamilla. We verblijven in het kantoor van Partner, met een eigen slaapkamer en 2 bedden en een douche en een tv. Er is een computer met heel langzaam internet (dus even geen foto's) en een klein keukentje. We krijgen elke dag 3 maaltijden. We zijn hier te gast bij heel aardige mensen, die hier keihard werken, van 8 tot 23 uur en zelfs op zondag. Maar daarover binnenkort meer. Ik hou mensen van hun werk.

28 -29 juli Hyderabad

2008-08-17T05:34:00.000+02:00

Vroeg weer op, om 8:30 met mijn Delhi belly naar de wc. Als laatste van de groep ziek is toch best een prestatie! Daarna koffie in mijn nieuwe RVS mok en schrijven in mijn logboek. Pas dan wordt iedereen langzaam wakker. Cor is net naar buiten geweest en heeft sinaasappels en appels meegenomen, waarvan iedereen smult.

Om 12:30 gingen we uit voor de lunch. We liepen naar een restaurant dichtbij, maar die was om onbekende reden gesloten. Daarom wachtten we nog even op een vriend van Anil (Sunil), en gingen we na een lange discussie over 5 km lopen, met de auto-rickshaws naar een luxe hotel. Daar zag alles er van binnen picobello uit, met bijna meer bedienden dan gasten die zelfs hielpen met opscheppen van de gerechten. Hyderabad en omgeving staat bekend om het gerecht Biryani: een safraanrijstgerecht dat opgediend wordt als een laag groenten of lamsvlees , waarover een laag rijst ligt. Biryani is minder spicy dan je in het zuiden zou verwachten, waarschijnlijk door de islamitische invloeden. Daarnaast nog een aloo paratha, een soort plat brood gevuld met aardappel, en een sweet lime juice. Sweet lime is een geelgroene vrucht die lijkt op een sinaasappel, maar family is van de limoen. Na de luxe en lange lunch werd er niet veel meer gedaan. Caroline vergat bijna het eten bij de snackbar en ’s Avonds speelden we nog wat uno en werd Loek nog gepounced, maar verder gebeurde er niets spannends.

29 juli
Vanmorgen kwam de broer van Anil, Sagar, met wat dosas en pindasaus. Miss Dosa was natuurlijk erg in haar nopjes hierover, maar ikzelf was ook erg blij om iets pindakaas-achtigs te eten. Met 12 personen zijn we toen naar ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics) gereden met 2 auto’s. Sagar was met de auto van Anil gekomen, waar Anil eigenlijk niet zo blij mee was.

Het instituut werkt voor de boeren om hen meer te laten produceren tegen lagere kosten en met betere technieken. Het is niet biologisch, want er wordt hier ook met GMO’s gewerkt, maar er wordt wel geprobeerd met duurzame technieken te werken. Voornamelijk wordt er gericht op technische oplossingen, door veredeling, maar er wordt ook aandacht geschonken aan het vormen van cooperaties. We begonnen met een korte introductie met een video en een lunch met veg pulao (rijst en groenten), dal, aubergine curry en een mokkataartje. Daarna een korte uitleg over de 5 hoofdgewassen in de staat Andra Pradesh: sorghum, gierst, pinda, kikkererwt en pigeon pea. Daarna volgde een tour over het veld, vanuit een busje. We zijn er maar heel even uit geweest.
Onderweg terug naar het appartement, langs het grote boeddhabeeld, kwamen we een Indiase vriendin van Sanne en Anil tegen: Padmini. Dus zij ging ook met ons mee. ’s Avonds gingen we vervolgens met 13 mensen eten bij twee andere vrienden van Anil: Ravi en Lakshmi. Met 11 personen zaten we in de jeep: 4 achterin, 5 op de achterbank, met Justine bij Aline op schoot en Zoe bij mij, en 2 voorin. Daarnaast nog een chaufeur.Er was heerlijk gekookt: Roti en rijst met gele dal, aardappel en iets met ei. Ravi en Lakshmi hebben een ‘arranged’ huwelijk en na het eten wilden een aantal van ons daar meer over weten. Ravi vond het geen probleem om hier open over te vertellen. Eigenlijk was het een heel romantisch verhaal van 2 jonge mensen die elkaar met hun ouders erbij voor het eerst zien. Een week voor het huwelijk kocht Ravi een mobieltje voor Lakshmi, zodat ze elkaar konden leren kennen zonder elkaar te zien, want dat mocht niet volgens de traditie. En ze belden elkaar ook vaak. Ze zien er heel gelukkig uit en ook de foto’s van het huwelijk zijn erg mooi.

27 juli Utnoor

2008-08-17T05:32:00.000+02:00

Het ontbijt zou er deze ochtend om 7 uur zijn, maar dat duurde wat langer, waardoor we ook later op weg gingen. We hadden iets waarvan ik dacht dat het polenta was, of was het toch couscous? En natuurlijk een kopje koffie, waardoor het nog iets langer uitliep. De jongens van het hotel brachten ondertussen alvast onze tassen naar beneden. Vandaag vertrekken we naar Utnoor, waar we een tweede regiokantoor van het katoenproject vinden. Ook deze keer duurt de reis lang, zo’n 5 uur.

Na een korte kennismaking met dit project, welke vergelijkbaar was met die in Yawatmal, vanwege de overkoepelende organisatie, gingen we opnieuw naar een twijfelachtig restaurant voor de lunch. Ditmaal waren er niet eens wc’s. Van de vloer kon je hier eten, er lag genoeg, en borden werden hier afgespoeld met kraanwater, maar niet afgedroogd. Mineraalwater moesten ze speciaal ergens halen en de rijst werd lauw geserveerd. Als ik ergens mijn Delhi belly aan zou kunnen toeschrijven, dan is het dit restaurant.

Maargoed, we zaten wel weer vol en gingen op weg naar een dorpje met 15 families, 100% bio. Als eerste lieten ze ons de bakken met wormencompost zien. Daarna hadden we een meeting met de boeren en konden we vragen stellen. In een grote cirkel zaten we op een zwart stuk zeil, waarop we chai kregen aangeboden door een boerenzoon. De boeren vertelden ons in hun eigen taal over het dorp en hun dagelijkse bezigheden. Toen we geen vragen meer konden verzinnen kregen we het veld te zien en bijna het hele dorp liep met ons mee. Hier waren ze bezig met field trials. Een veld met verschillende varieteiten en een ander veld met verschillende compostgiften. Door de experimenten door de boeren zelf te laten uitvoeren en de velden als voorbeeld te gebruiken, heeft de organisatie een krachtig instrument om boeren te overtuigen. Bovendien levert de organisatie het zaad en de compost, waardoor het alleen ruimte en arbeid kost voor de boeren. Het prroduct mogen ze houden.

Na de fieldvisit gingen we weer terug naar het kantoor, waar we moesten wachten op 2 auto’s die ons die nacht naar Hyderabad zouden brengen. Buiten waren we een grote attractie voor de kinderen, die ons allerlei vragen gingen stellen. Vooral Aline trok veel aandacht en de kinderen probeerden haar allerlei Hindi woordjes te leren. Toen wij weg gingen schudden ze iedereen de hand en wensten ons een ‘happy journey’. Terwijl de auto’s wegreden riepen ze ‘bye’ en zwaaiden.

De chauffeur van de jeep had onze tassen op het dak vastgemaakt, maar hij had geen zeil om onze spullen af te dekken tegen de regen. Pas na een flinke bui en een hele boze Zoe, klom hij het dat op om de tassen met regenhoes naar boven te leggen. Een zeil kon hij hier nergens vinden. Toen we eindelijk en om 3 uur ’s nachts in Hyderabad waren, kwamen we bij een soort appartement met 4 bedden en matjes. De matjes zijn zo hard als de ondergrond, maar voor 1 nacht kan het wel. De volgende dag werden er matrassen, dekens en kussens geregeld.