Cocktails & Cockfights

After Banos, Joe and I decided to head back to our home away from home: The Lodge with Tom and Mariela. Returning to the place really does give me a sense of regularity and comfort that is usually absent from my travels. Being with Tom and Mariela there adds a familial feeling that too is missing on the road.
The days are spent doing much of the same stuff that I have been doing on/off since I was first here with Pete in April: entertaining guests, relaxing, and doing a bit of work on the various projects around the lodge. One highlight being a night that Joe & I were holding down the fort and had a long chat over dinner with the Israeli Ambassador to Ecuador and his wife, who along with one other person, were the only guests for the night. Interestingly enough, he did not reveal his prestigous position to us until the end of the dinner--most likely due to the fact that Joe looks like he is running with Al Qaeda.
We also had some good times with some of the Ecuadorians, whom we work with at the lodge. Javier, who is a guide there had a surprise party thrown for him by his mother, Carmen, who also works at the lodge. As an invited guest, I showed up to his house and was fortunate enough to be an active participant in a b-day party Ecuatoriana-style. Tons of great home cooked food, and a beer fueled dance off in the family room. Salsa and other latin beats blared through the sound system: the TV speakers. Normally fancying myself as a decent dancer, I definitely looked the part of the lone rhythmless whiteboy in the presence of these booty shaking Ecuadorians. I hadn't sweated out like this to music in someone's family room since I realized that celebrating New Years Eve with your parents at home wasn't trendy anymore, last year.

Nothing picques my interest quite like a shady underground activity in South America and so when one of our worker friends at the lodge invited Joe and I to attend a cockfight held just outside of town, we readily agreed. Although feeling a bit guilty about going to an event that many would not appreciate its nature (especially Tom and Mariela), I still felt that I couldn't pass up the opportunity to witness such a fabled Latin American pastime.

The event was held in the backyard of a house near town, where the owner had built a minature colisseum to host these monthly events. It was everything and a little more of what you would expect to see at something like this--cock weigh-ins, pre-fight trash talking, and serious betting going on. Oddly the event seemed to be quite the family affair with many children and old women enjoying the fun. We were also surprised to see many of the worker's from the lodge present at what we thought would draw a seedier crowd.
All I have left on my Latin American checklist is a Mexican donkey show and I can consider myself a cultured man.

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Dear PV Readers,

I am trying to wrap the last of retroactive posts, which should only be one or two more before I get to my real time accounts of life in my newly acquired location: the Middle East.
Talk soon,

Sheik Brian

Banos

After a week at the beach, we decided to mix things up a bit and head to the popular tourist town of Banos. Situated below a currently active volcano, the town is known for its natural thermal baths and assortment of adventure sport activities. Still riding the lazy wave from the beach, we did some minor touring but mostly just relished in the wonderous invention called the remote control, since we had ponied up an extra buck and sprang for a room with a TV. The newly opened Olypmic games provided the justification for prolonged relaxation. After a couple of low key days, we felt we were starting to lose our edge so we decided to jump off the local bridge. Its called Puenting.

Reintegration and Normalization

At the urging of an Ecuadorian psychiatrist, after we emerged from the jungle we quickly headed to the coast to "get normal." On the recommendation of Tom and Mariela we headed to the growing beachtown of Canoa, where we rented a small house from a family for $10 a day. Factor in $1 beers and $2.50 seafood meals, even our attempts at excessive indulgence failed to produce daily tabs higher than $15 a piece. Our first official night out after our release, ended like any free for all should, with Joe shaking me awake around 6am on the neighboring house's porch. Quickly, we became known around town for several reasons. Opting to keep our wild look, we stuck out in town like a sore thumb--even amongst the other gringo travelers. While out one night, we actually had a backpacker come up and chat nonsense with us for a few minutes before asking us flat-out why we looked the way we did. He later confided that his friends dared him to go up and ask. Tom, who had a friend who lived in a nearby town, directed the guy to seek out the "terrorist looking white guy" on the beach and lo' and behold Joe was stopped by the guy while walking on the beach. "You must be the guy" he exclaimed.

The beach party never ended and only seemed to be growing. We noticed that land was cheap and had major potential for development so our curiousity had us asking around on sale prices and we even toured a few lots. Eventually, word had spread around town that "the bearded gringos" were big real estate monguls looking to buy up all the land." I first noticed something was up when the old lady who we were renting the house from started addressing me by "mi hijo" or her son. I was a bit surprised how quickly I earned this endearment until she started insisting that we buy up her beach lots. Other people started saying things like "I've heard about you guys." No exactly wanting to dispell the belief that we rich moguls, we played along and enjoyed our week on the beach. Gettin' normal never was so fun.

My Old Self

For all those worried about my health (there were few), my GI espisode was brief and now I am back to my great self. Spent the last few days back at my home away from home in Mindo, Ecuador--the Lodge. The owners Tom and Mariela were so excited to see me that they bolted for the coast and left me to hold down the fort. Back to good eating and a steady dose of comtemplative idleness. At the moment, I am momentarily back in Quito killing time until Joe´s late night arrival from the states. Part of my meandering around the city brought me to the mall that housed a Radio Shack in the quest to find an inverter to fit the solar panels that we are bringing with us into the Amazon. With tremedous relief, I found something that will work, thus ensuring that my camera will be able to recharge and our invaluable ipods will play on to ease the hardships. This trip to the mall ended like my last three trips to a mall in South America--with a trip to the food court. The foresight of spending the next 2 months on a skimpy and bland diet in the Amazon was all the rationale my brain need to allow my body and wallet to take a tour of the food court extravagenza. The ordeal started with Pizza Hut, then to cheese fries, and finished with a Burger King cheeseburger. It was gluttonous and it was glorious. I am officially banning myself from future trips to the mall abroad. But a little slice of home never harmed anyone..

Picking up Joe, giving him the nickel tour of Quito and then were off to the lodge. The address is Mindo, Ecuador if anyone wants to visit in the next 10 days.

Looking for Taco Bell,
BQ

Crapped Out in Quito

Well, I arrived in Quito last night and awoke today to find out I had unwittengly smuggled a souvenir out of Colombia: a bad case of the runs. It sounds like an epidemic as I have heard that Amy, who is now safely back in KC, is facing a similar plight. I´d say the blame could possibly reside in 14 of the last 15 eating "establishments" we last dined in. And so, today was spent Imodium gobbling and running from locale to locale doing some price listing on equipment that Joe and I will be taking with us into the Amazon. Tents, sleeping bags, a whole pharmacy, and other miscellaneous items still need to be purchased. Unfortunately, cyanide pills were unavailable to buy in case things get bad so I have substituted the book on tape "Earth, 5,000 Years of Miracles" by Mike Huckabee in the hopes that will finish off whats left of me.

Heading to the Lodge tomorrow to help out Tom and Mariela until Joe arrives on Tuesday. Staying there until the pushed up June 29th entry date.

You can´t stop me..you can only hope to contain me,
Bq

PS. Word on the street is that Amy is going to submit a guest blog entry, which, after it is thoroughly punctuated with complimentary comments about myself, will be posted.

A Parting of Forces

This morning the lodge owners found me hiding in a dark closet eating barbeque sauce covered ants and beef jerky and politely told me its best that I leave. So I now find myself back in Quito with every intention of waking up early and taking a bus to the Colombian border. All this noise up north with FARC and the Ecuador/Colombia/Venezualan governments has taken my interest and prompted me to head out on an independent fact finding mission. Armed with a machete (a parting gift from the lodge owners) and a pocketful of bribe money I am fully prepared to resolve this latin-american crisis single-handedly. My only concern is that I will be doing it without my comrade in arms, Petro.
Today was a sad parting of ways for myself and Petro as he gets to stay at the lodge another couple weeks until his May 20th out of Bogota back to the states for our buddy, Chris Clarkson`s, wedding. As for myself, I am going to spend 6 days in Colombia before my flight back in time for Mike Tiehen´s beer drinking competition and possible wedding. As of yesterday, I have a flight booked back to Bogota on May 27th for reasons we will talk about later....
It was a trip for the books for Petro and I and if you are unlucky enough to find yourself in our company in the next few weeks you can hear all about it. Or for a more coherent and sober summarization of this journey read the last 52 posts. Hopefully this is just the end of the first leg of a greater expedition for both of us.
The whole lodge experience was for me one of the best things done in S.A. as we made lifelong friends with the ever-interesting and generous owners Tom and Mariela, which has led to our informal adoption as there only children. It has also led to the reason for my return back to South America at the end of May.

If you don´t hear from me within 2 days please send the ransom money to:

FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia)
c/o Hugo Chavez
Caracas, Venezuala

Northern-bound once again,
Q

Eco-Friendly Living

Quite of life of contradictions I lead. Prior to my integration into life at the eco-lodge, the extent of my ecological thinking was ¨I hope these steaks came from cows injected with flavor enhancing hormones¨or ¨boy the lake sure looks polluted today--lets go wakeboarding.¨ The delicious but mostly vegetarian fare there has made me think a little about if life IS possible without red meat. Don´t worry all you carnivorous consumers, I haven´t gone native--in fact just the other day Petro and I succumbed to the pre-disposition to red meat all mid-western born children inherit and snuck a hamburger and hotdog at a neighboring establishment (we are currently in the process of trying to procure meat to splatter with the bottle of Gates Barbeque Sauce the Schloegels brought down--we are presently just drinking it).

Biologically speaking, we are advancing in our bird-watching and animal species indentification. Now instead of saying ¨hey look at that pretty bird¨ we say ¨hey look at the pretty bird with yellow feathers.¨ I must say the guests are pretty impressed with our abilities. There has also been some getting used to my eco-friendly environment--for instance, when a gross bug or insect is pesking around--my natural instinct would be to swat the bastard, but now, conscience of where I am, I have to gently relocate it and say things complimentary towards it. ¨Boy that cockroach sure has an intricate design on its back.
I wouldn´t call us professional naturalists just yet as the lodge´s corn crop (albeit very small) was decimated by a wandering neighbor´s cow, an act that went totally unnoticed by the caretakers (us). We are talented in other ways.......
Things have kept interesting around the lodge. A string of entertaining guests including three Irish girls that we befriended many countries ago that came to visit and corrupt us with the moonshine they smuggled into the lodge.
For awhile, we were living Swiss-Family Robinson style in the main lodge with counter-weighted retracting ladders and open-air showers. There is talk of ¨family¨expedition tomorrow involving the owners and us climbing the adjacent mountaintop that supposedly is inhabited by monkeys and spectacled bears. Two to one we get lost.

Why say no when it feels so good to say yes,

BQ

Life at the Lodge

Just made a run into town in my new 1970 Land Rover (well, the owners) and thought I would give you a quick shout. Life here has been splendid so far, jumping right into our "hosting duties" which means essentially we are expected to just bullsh*t with the other guests--a tough gig I should say.....thus far we have been doing it sans cocktails so nothing horribly inappropriate has been uttered at the dinner table, but you we´ll see if that holds. Foot in Mouth is a disease neither of us has been vaccinated for. The owners, Tom and Mariela, are about the most genuinely kind and fun people I have met on this trip so far and give me a renewed faith in my occasionally cynical view of humanity. They also seemed to hold a supernatural ability to pick a winner as it only took them a couple of hours to conclude Petro and I were of the chosen breed.
Although not much of an orientation to our new life was given, my favorite directive by Tom so far was "if that happens, take all the guests and hide in the hills" (referring to what to do if a recent 8-man armed robbery on the neighboring lodge happened while Petro and I where holding down the fort). To avoid such an act we started a rumor around town that we killed a drifter in Chile, so hopefully that dissuades any potential bandidos.
According to our friend Elizabeth, this lodge was featured on the Travel Channel a couple of months ago, so you betcha this is going on our currently defunct resumes.

Off to schmooze,

9 to 5 Brian

Pics, Movies, and the Beach

Back in Quito after spending 3 nights on the nothern coastal town of Atacamas. Normally jammed with vacationers during the high season, the afro-latino town was tranquil and provided a good spot for R & R with the Schloegels. Once again, we found ourselves in the land of fresh seafood and trinket hawkers. To switch things up a bit one day, we used a contact we had procured at the cloud forest to go hand fishing in the mangroves in Bolivar, Ecuador. The only luck had was Jake snagging what seemed to be a rarely caught poisonous fish, which prompted his title to change amoung the guides from "the paying white man" to "the white devil who brings bad luck to our village." The fishing may have not been all that great but the 2 hour "scenic tour" we received via lawn chairs in the back of a pickup truck made up for it. Overall, trip brought out talent not formerly known--Jake had gained a proficiency for an interesting dialect of Spanglish and Debby, a knack for the art of a good haggle--a great success!---almost a great as success as Debby`s beloved KU Jayhawks, who clinched the National Title the day prior to thier arrival, making her week the best ever!*

*Authors note: In no way was I happy about KU winning, only a genuine happiness for the happiness of Debby.

All in all, the trip with the Schloegels was another one for the books--A big thanks to them for generously and undeservedly spoiling me rotten and providing an abundance of good times. Here`s some of the pics/movies of the 10 day jaunt--there's more in the linked photo album.

Not far from the cloud forest lodge is a series of waterfalls, which the locals present at the top of one told us we could jump off. They demonstrated this ability by throwing a rock in the water below and repeatedly reassuring "very deep" "very deep." We hit the bottom.

See below

Our incredible zip-line experience. Here`s Jake performing the Superman pose (thus fulfilling his childhood dream of flying).

More zip-line footage

Heading to the cloud forest lodge tomorrow to do some guest entertaining....we´ll see what transpires.

Business up front, party in the back,

Q

Hanging in the Clouds

I must admit I have been cheating on you--my heart has been elsewhere--with Jake and Debby Schloegel´s arrival to Ecuador has come a whirlwind of fun and adventure. With the big shoes of Andy and Jane Q to fill, the Schloegels came ready for action. They did not come empty handed either--their generous re-supply mission brought us the culinary joys of Ranch Dressing, Gate´s barbeque sauce, delicious home-baked friendship bread (thanks Vicky Springs!), and unbelieveably a sixer of Boulevard Wheat Beer. Home never tasted so good.
The journey started in Quito, trying to fulfill Jake´s unquenchable thirst for knowledge displayed on plaques and in churches, we toured the historical relics of the Old Town part of Quito. Petro and I supplemented our limited knowledge of Quito (and Ecuador in general) with lies to keep our touring guests intrigued. No harm, no foul.
Probably our best tour in Quito was to the Middle of the World, where we visited the precise location of where the equator runs. Amazingly enough, at that location a bunch of weird stuff happens--water drains directly down instead of swirling in a direction, people become slightly weaker and lighter, and Americans in the tour group become loud and unruly. Trying to fulfill Ugly American stereotypes, there was a lot of horse-playing done by us during that tour, which culminated with an argument between Jake and an Irishman over some astronomical issue discussed during the tour. After realizing that physical harm was coming his way, the Irishman conceded the point and we all felt relief for the narrowly avoided ¨gunshow¨ that follows questioning American wisdom.
After Quito we headed to Mindo, to explore what we consider a jungle and what Equadorians consider a cloud forest. Our lodge in Mindo was an amazingly built series of structures that blended well with the densely lush locale and was accessible by ferrying across the river in a little makeshift zip-line. Many visitors to the lodge are biology-oriented scientists or tourists because of the high concentration of various bird and butterflies species. So much so that a very knowledgeable guide in these areas is provided by the lodge to every group of guests. Having the same regard for bird-watching as the act of watching grass grow, we gave the guide his own vacation from that "excitement" and went to do the all the adventure activities that they area had to offer. Jake and Debby were given a first hand view of the joys of the liability-free manner in which adventure tour companies operate in South America. A ridiculously fun canopy tour (zip-lining over the forest valley), waterfall jumping, and refugee-style tubing down the rapid filled Mindo river occupied our days. Props need to be given to Jake and Debby for reckless abandon that they delved into these activities-- speaking for myself I was close to a pants soiling on several occasions.
Here comes the part where I tell you something that should very well be a lie but is not. After two nights or about a total of 4 hours of actual interaction with the owners of the jungle lodge (http://www.ecuadorcloudforest.com/html/lodge.html) they asked Petro and I to ¨host¨ their lodge for them while they spend a week or two vacationing and working elsewhere in Ecuador. No joke, these people must have contracted a mind-altering malarial flu overnight, as they are having us act as their proxies for awhile. As your boys are no fools, we promptly accepted and are due back to our lodge running duties right after the Schloegels depart. And so, if anyone has a hankering for spontaneous travel to Ecuador, come visit our lodge in the jungle.

At the moment we are now on the coast in Atacamas, Ecuador and are beaching it up until we have to be back in Quito on the 17th. I´ll give you the low-down on our time here along with all the pics and movies of the trip when I get back to Quito.


Su chico con suerte,
Brian

Quote of the trip so far: He´s not a boy Jake, he´s a man with a gun¨--Debby after Jake pointed out one of the many ambiguously uniformed and armed men who inhabit Quito´s streets.

Quito

Well, just what we expected: a major plummet in personal comfort--not many hours after we left my parents at the airport, we took a series of not so fun buses rides that shot us off the wave of comfort we had been riding, back down to the dirty depths of backpack travel. Our border crossing went without a hitch, although our sleep was interrupted at almost exactly hour intervals for bag searching and beauracratic formalities. Once daylight hit, we found ourselves staring at marshlands filled with flooded towns and stilted houses. The towns looked like havens for mosquitos and the diseases they transmit and the only rational I could see for living there was the absense of the means or opportunity for relocation. Next in the sequence of landscapes was the vast banana plantations that made me reminiscent of the banana republics of Central America. Like there, Dole Company appeared to be the primary landholder and seemed to bestow the same amount of community uplift that they provide elsewhere--nothing.
After about a full day of ass-numbing bus riding, we arrived in Quito, about 45 minutes shy of ended it all on the bus.
By luck, we found an cheap non-dorm room that will accommodate us until the arrival of Jake and Debbie Schloegel on the 9th. Already sick of the local S.A cuisine and the occassional chain restuarant indulgence, I was jazzed to stumble upon a dirt cheap Middle-Eastern ¨restaurant¨ with $1.25 Shwarmas. Long past caring about trifle matters like hygienic food preparation, the place has served as my dinner spot for the last two nights.
To change things up a bit today, armed with information from a backpacker club we belong to that tries to help foriengers in S.A., I went to the women´s prison in Quito with the intention of visiting a fellow American who was locked up on drug-related charges. Prison tourism is actually not that uncommon in S.A., although in some places the motives are not entirely humanitarian in nature. As in Bolivia, where many of the other backpackers at my hostel went to the notoriously unorthodox La Paz men´s prison (as written about in the book Marching Powder) to buy and use the cocaine that the prisoners actually manufacture in the prison. As one American girl who went explained to me: ¨I did it just to say that I did cocaine in a prison in Bolivia¨--a pretty remarkable story to tell the grandkids I guess...
I would like to think this visit was more good-willed in nature as I was bearing gifts and looking for a potential wife (just kidding Grammy). It is recommended when you visit to bring vital toiletries for the inmates as no such things are provided by the prison. So I did, along with my small backpack expecting a thorough searching and the likely confiscation of some of the items. Just like at the Lima airport, when I unknowingly passed through and flew with a meduim-sized pocket-knife in my carry-on, the security search was mainly for show and I am pretty sure I could have snuck through enough arms to faciliate a full out jail break. Aftering entering the prison, another inmate was kind enough to strong-arm money from me so she would go fetch this American girl. While waiting in one of the many unrestricted corridors in this quasi-prison, I noticed that their seemed to be a lot of non-sanctioned conjugal visiting going on inside. Since a conjugal visit was not on my scheduled itinerary for the day, I spoke with the American girl about her life inside and the circumstances for which she found herself there. Like almost all of the foriegners there it was for drugs, two suitcases in fact that a male friend convinced her to fly out of the country with. She had spent two years there already and still did not have her official sentence, but she was most likely going to spend the better half of a decade getting visits from random strangers such as I. She possessed an naivette that drew some sympathy but not enough to override the disdain I felt for her stupidity. Regardless, according to her, she gets little help from the embassy and relishes any english speaking visitors. The same was true with a South African prisoner who I spoke with. She and her mother had been there for quite some time and seemed to have adjusted well to incarceration as she openly admitted to relationships with guards and visitors alike. Lucky for all, a group of American missionaries had become regular visitors to the prison and provided free hair cuts and goodies for all inmates who had the mental energy to play ¨saved¨ for two hours a day. All in all, the visit was interesting and I even was given the contact info of the girl´s mother, who lived in Venezuala and who the girl said would put me up if I found myself there. After throwing that contact in the trash, I headed back into the city to get myself proper for the arrival of the Schloegels tonight. Fun times are expected ahead as the Schleogels are my favorite people other than my family and my new girlfriend at the prison.

Much to tell soon,

BQ