Life's a Stitch

The bus arrived at sunset, dropping us off at a dock in Tena to board our long motorized river canoes. Upon arrival at Itamandi Eco Lodge we were greeted with tea for our orientation session. I didn’t question the guayusa tea, but looking back I get it. They served  us a heavily caffeinated drink to ensure we had energy to get through the dinner and late night jungle insect walk. 

After dinner we donned our provided Wellies (rubber boots) and set out in the dark, guided by Octavio, for our rain forest adventure. There were plenty of insects including tarantulas and a huge stick bug as one fellow traveller described as looking more like a stick than a stick itself.

The next day, C and I and three others accompanied Octavio on a boat trip a half hour down the river.

We arrived at his native Kichwa community where they live off grid, depending on nature as they’ve done for hundreds of years. We participated in a cooking demonstration and joined them eating delicacies such as giant Amazon grubs and prehistoric catfish. Dessert was chocolate fondue made from their cocoa beans.

Our visit ended with dancing and an opportunity to buy handicrafts made by the local women.

Covered head to toe, protected from biting insects, the afternoon activity was a hike through the rainforest. The highlight was seeing a family of tiny pocket monkeys swinging through the trees.

Our trip was a package tour, but I saw the very reasonable price for a stay at the lodge (under $100US pp per day), including decent plated meals, river transportation, and some activities. I’d highly recommend it as part of a trip to Ecuador.

Leaving the rain forest, our group’s farewell picture.

Ecuador will be divided into three: Quito, the Amazon rain forest, and the Galapagos. Every new destination gets better and better. Participating in an organized tour can have its challenges. Thankfully this trip has gone very smoothly. Today, however, our included breakfast wasn't provided due to an early flight. The hotels will usually open the dining room early or provide a boxed brekkie, but not today. Instead we hit McDonalds at the airport. You can laugh, but I find MacD's brekkie a form of comfort food, so it wasn't all that bad.

The other glitch today involved the scheduling of flights. Instead of a direct flight from Buenos Aires to Quito, Ecuador, we overshot it and flew first to Panama City, with a long layover. One member of our group is a travel agent and she agreed, the airport in Panama City was one of the most expensive she's experienced. Note to self for future travel.

The schedule usually includes a guided city tour, either walking or by bus, on the first morning at each location. The Quito tour took us to the old town and continued on foot. The first stop was the basilica, where I put on my brave face and climbed the two story ladder from the roof to the top of the tower.

It felt quite safe with metal guard rails, however, the glass landings were intimidating. What a view! My brave tourmate, Sue:

At the basilica gift shop I bought a little bronze alpaca, part of our tradition while travelling: seeking additions for our Christmas nativity. Actually, it’s a year round nativity on its own shelf in a glass cabinet.

Background story: when we moved to White Rock, a box fell off our overloaded pickup truck, C said it seemed to explode into a million pieces when it hit the highway. It was late at night and there was no way to recover it. We wracked our brains for a long time trying to figure out what we lost. One Christmas we realized we couldn't find our ceramic Christmas tree and beloved nativity. It made sense that the little lights from the tree were what C saw explode into so many pieces.

I went on a mission to try to replace our olive wood figures, the antique lead geese that were my dad's from Poland, and a variety of additions we accumulated over the years. Thanks to ebay I was able to find the most important pieces. Still missing are a painted wooden angel (a gift from one of our German students), a clear 1/2" plastic Scottie dog, and some Hallmark miniature bunnies my mother had given our children. Just one of those disappointing things that happen, relatively minor in the scheme of things, and it's fun adding new items. 

Following the tour, which included a chocolate tasting, we stayed on the bus for a four hour ride to the Amazon rain forest lodge. At the top of a mountain pass we were encouraged to walk a bit in the high altitude 4.071m (13356ft), a preview of what was to come at Cuzco and Machu Picchu. 

 

 

 

 

I'm not doing a good job of keeping up with the blog, interrupting the account of a trip of a lifetime with the extenuating circumstances of life, mostly happy right now with a little worry thrown into the mix.

Christmastime is here, an event worthy of life interruption. I painted a Christmas tree that represents the reality of life during Christmas. The older we get, the more complications we experience, and the holidays still happen. Wishing all the best Christmas possible, may light hearts balance the difficult moments.

They were weeks apart, but I'll cover both here. Thanks to all who contacted us re our 40th. We don't eat out often, but given the special occasion, we did.

Going back in time a little bit: Argentina.

On the fourth day of the South America tour, we flew to Iguazu, home to the famous falls, one of the seven natural wonders of the world. There we were scheduled for a two day tour, covering both sides, the Argentinian and Brazillian.

We checked into our lovely resort in the jungle, complete with jungle view and jacuzzi tub.

With nothing else close by, we were committed to their dining room with high prices. Tap water was not recommended, but16oz bottles of water were available for $3.60 each. I think the beer cost less.  

The falls were fantastic. Normally comprised of a chain of over 275 waterfalls, the water levels were at a record high, joining many of those, but making the water look like chocolate milk. The first day was rainy, but you are coached to dress for wet conditions due to the heavy mist.

We stopped for a break under a fig tree (ficus auriculata). Our guide explained that the fruit was hollow because they weren't able to be pollinated in this area. A Plush Crested Jay posed and I was able to paint his portrait a few days later.

The weather was better the next day when we visited the Braziian side. We had an enjoyable walk and time for geocaching,

The capitol city, Buenos Aires, was our next destination. General impressions:

It is a city of beautiful trees, something that has been an impressive priority in the city's development since the late 1800's.

Protests are a national pastime and a source of pride.

Argentinian beef lives up to its reputation. Reasonable and delicious, wish I had ordered more. 

Next stop: Ecuador

 

 

We interrupt the trip coverage to bring you the following announcement:

 

40 years ago today, we eloped. 

 

December 6, 1982

The Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden

I read half of all marriages will end by 40 years, due to reasons of divorce or death (Harry Benson, Marriage Foundation, Dec 2019). Probably don’t need the statistic, at our age we have many sad reminders that life is short. And as one of our friends said in humour, “We’re not getting divorced at this age, who wants that financial hit during retirement?”

 

 So after today, we’re beating the 50/50 odds. 

I know we’ll make the most of it. ❤️

The first days of the trip were a blur. It took three flights to get to Rio de Janeiro (which translates to River of January after its discovery in 1502). We flew from Vancouver to São Paulo to Rio.  Not the most direct route, but makes more sense than our originally scheduled flights that had us flying into Newark, NJ with a connecting flight 60k away at JFK.

 

We were up early the next morning for a half day tour that included the imposing Christ the Redeemer, located in a national park high above the city.

The views were spectacular. 

Afterwards we stopped at the contemporary pyramid shaped San Sebastián Cathedral, beautiful in its simplicity. 

Outside we saw one of Canadian, Timothy Schmalz’s, homeless Jesus statues.

Rio’s weather was hot, humid, and windless even as we walked along Copacabana Beach. 

We have a habit of repeating visits to restaurants we like. In Rio it was Braseiro (established 1962) where the first night we shared a barbecue platter containing two kinds of steak, sausage, pork and chicken plus a giant Heineken for Chuck and a split of wine for me, all for about $45cdn. 

The second night we ordered chicken, sausages and salad. We should have stuck with a sure thing and returned three nights in a row, as we went to Restaurante Manoel & Juaquim for tough, rubbery calamari.

 

Next stop is Argentina, but impressions of Rio included:

• a respect for seniors. At stores, airport etc…there were dedicated queues for seniors and people with disabilities. That would never work in our home town, a haven for retirees. The senior’s line up would be the longest.
• Quite impressed with Brazil’s Azul Airlines. Where Air Canada has discontinued pretzels with drinks, Azul is known for their snacks, handing out three different ones per person. They have a totally organized disembarkation process, where they dismiss passengers five rows at a time. So much better than the free for all that happens on most airlines. Azul implemented the procedure during the pandemic and noticing its effectiveness, kept it.
• Two national passions: football (of the soccer variety) and energy drinks.
• Rio is a large city with accompanying noise levels.

 

Next post: Iguazu Falls

I always asked my kids the same two questions after they returned travelling: What was the best part and what was the worst?

 

This was an epic 29 day tour of four countries in South America: Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador (including the Galapagos) and Peru. Our travel mates were nine other Canadians and one Brit. 

 

The best part? Tied between visits to Machu Picchu:

and the Galapagos:

The worst part? Eight days involving internal flights. That’s our own responsibility, what we’re we thinking? We covered a good part of an entire continent. I’ll cover each country in separate posts soon.

Those who know me are aware of my passion for geocaching, the world wide gps guided treasure hunt. I’m not a fanatic, although C, AKA the anti-cacher, might dispute that. In 16 years I’ve logged over 750 finds. 

 

Geocaching takes you to well known sites or introduces you places you otherwise might not have discovered. These past few weeks have added a new continent to my Geo adventures – South America.

 

These three finds required photo proof:

Rio de Janiero, Brazil

Buenos Aires, Argentina 

and the Middle of the Earth City in Ecuador.

More good memories to come.

With a tinge of guilt I admit that I am thoroughly enjoying this climate change induced Fall. The monsoons, aka atmospheric rivers, usually hit us between the second and fourth week of September. But this year it's been steady sunshine and warm temperatures since July. I consider it a form of pure luxury, the ability to eat breakfast outside every day. And recently on my morning walks I'm serenaded by the songs of tree frogs. It has to be weather related, I've only heard them rarely prior to this week.

It extended the camping/picnic table painting season. We had the camper on the road for a record number of nights. This is my painting of a pug-nosed van, a 1960's Bedford CA, parked near one of our favourite camping spots at Pinantan Lake, BC.

B and S, who were with us for three months were not desperate to get home to their Bali sunshine. We had fun last weekend in a local park for a photo shoot of her new stock of glittery overalls (see all her designs at Jackalopeland) Normally, this time of year, we'd be slipping on moss and sloshing through mud.

 

And the fall sunsets have been spectacular.

One of the best parts of camping is the food. We do well within the limitations of the Micro Minnie Winnie, our little mouse house on wheels. One of our standards is pizza on a cast iron griddle cooked on the grill. This year, combined with Elina's family, I did six in one meal, using a wine bottle instead of a rolling pin.

I was challenged making gnocchi without the correct equipment, using the end of a spatula instead of a potato ricer, pastry cutter or a bench scraper. They were delicious.

The best of the best are meals fresh caught from the water. This summer gave us two large meals of fresh Dungeness crab, many trout and one Kokanee (fresh water salmon). We split the fish open, dredge both sides in flour, then dip the meaty side in egg, followed by a parmesan/breadcrumb mixture with garlic salt and pepper. It's pan fried in olive oil and butter, so delicious. Pair it with Greek Salad, perfect.

E has a standing request for crab for her birthday. This year we didn't quite catch enough so amped up the amount with a bought one. The next day at the beach, we threw the trap out from the kayak and came up with enough crab for another delicious dinner. It was a lot more productive and reasonable than the previous day's two hour boat rental.

Every camper has its piece of improbable cooking equipment, something its owners can't live without. My daughter camps with an ice maker, for KC's sister it's her toaster. For me it's my little waffle iron and toaster over. On longer trips I replenish the freezer with my sweet potato, pumpkin, and oat waffles, my standard breakfast.

Oh yeah, truth be told, I've also been known to cook campside in my smaller size Instant Pot. 

I concede, I give you permission to call this experience glamper cooking.

And what goes best with camper cooking? Friends and family.