The last week or so in Ecuador has been great. I`ve been hanging out in Quito and am really enjoying the city. I`ve seen some cool sights, met some cool people and really enjoyed the city. Tomorrow I`m headed to this little town called Mindo. It sounds like a great place to hike, tube the river, monkey around in trees, ect.
The first few days in Quito I took it pretty easy as I think the altitude got to me a bit. Either that or I was a little sick. I got through a couple of trashy novels that my hotel had. One was entitled The Tiger of Desire, that had the tagline ¨When it strikes, it is often deadly.¨ I couldn`t pass that one up, mainly because it was one of only two novels they had in English at the hotel. They were well stocked in German books, strangely. I`ve been trying to stick to book exchanges as used books are pretty pricey here. The trade off has been a steep decline in the quality of literature available. What can ya do?
In the last few days I`ve done some sightseeing, managed to delete all the pictures on my camera`s memory card twice and done some searching for a job. Yesterday I went to the top of this mountain on this gondola system called the Teleférico. It lets you out in at this building at about 13,000 feet with a few cafes and whatnot, and you can walk around. I decided to hike a couple of miles to this other peak that tops out at a little over 14,000 feet. I almost reached it before a combination of: a sketchy looking super-steep trail, dense fog, peals of thunder in the distance, a headache, poor selection of footwear, and a breath that I was having trouble catching convinced me that perhaps it was time to turn back. I`d never been up that high and really didin`t appreciate what that kind of altitude entails.
I want to do the Cotopaxi volcano (tops out above 19,000 feet) trek after my upcoming trip to Mindo, but my little adventure yesterday made me realize that I better hang out at altitude and get acclimatized if I`m going to be able to summit. I met this guy last night who tried to do it without acclimatizing and he said at one point that he couldn`t even stand.
There were to be some pictures in this post, but there has been a repeat of The Great Camera Disaster of 2010.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
The Farm
The PD just did a little feature on Carrot Top Farm for thier new local section of thier website. As most of the readers of this blog have enjoyed Carrot Top Farm veggies at one point or another, I thought I would post the link for anyone who is intrested.
http://yourtown.pressdemocrat.com/2010/03/healdsburg/meet-the-millers-of-carrot-top-farm/
http://yourtown.pressdemocrat.com/2010/03/healdsburg/meet-the-millers-of-carrot-top-farm/
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
The Food So Far
So I had big plans to upload a bunch of pictures that had been clogging up my memory card since El Salvador. I tried to download them in Panama and got some weird virus notice but chalked it up to a computer that wasn´t working very well. Anyways, I went to try and salvage them today and discovered that my entire memory card had been corrupted and had to be reformatted. FUCK.
Instead, I´m going to write about the food so far. It´ll be a poor substitute, but all I´ve got.
Overall, the food has been very underwhelming. I would rank the tree countries I´ve spent any legth of time in the following descending order: El Salvador, Ecuador, and Panama bringing up the rear. El Salvador had the brilliant street food called the pupusa, which is esssentially why it is in first place. To make it you take some masa, fill it with your choice of meat, beans and cheese and throw it on a griddle for 5 or 10 minutes. It´s essentially a tiny quesadilla, but the tortillas are cooked at the same time as you warm everything in the middle up. You then top it with pickeld cabbage and hot sauce for a delicious meal. They cost $.30-$.40 apiece, and three or four are a good sized meal. I have a mad scheme to open a stand in SF on the street serving them when I get back to support myself. I doubt the economics really work though...
Beyond that, El Salvador had some well prepared seafood, which wins it my top spot.
Panamanian food was not very good at all. Comida criolla was pretty bad - essentially an awfull mishmash of Chinese, Itallian and local stuff. I never got it, but saw people eating plates of warmed-over fried rice together with spahgetti with marinnaram pretty often. Most of the seafood was overcooked and meats were pretty bland. There wasn´t even any widely available hot sauce that was any good. The one exception to this was some good ceviche, specifically at the main fish market in Panama City (Bourdain fans should recall the location). However, I also had some pretty bad ceviche that balances out the really good stuff. I really wish I could have just eaten at the fish market every day and cooked for myself the rest of the time.
I haven´t eaten enough in Ecuador to make any wider judgements, but it wins points for not being Panama. Speaking of which, I´m starving and am headed out onto the mean streets of Quito to stuff my maw.
Instead, I´m going to write about the food so far. It´ll be a poor substitute, but all I´ve got.
Overall, the food has been very underwhelming. I would rank the tree countries I´ve spent any legth of time in the following descending order: El Salvador, Ecuador, and Panama bringing up the rear. El Salvador had the brilliant street food called the pupusa, which is esssentially why it is in first place. To make it you take some masa, fill it with your choice of meat, beans and cheese and throw it on a griddle for 5 or 10 minutes. It´s essentially a tiny quesadilla, but the tortillas are cooked at the same time as you warm everything in the middle up. You then top it with pickeld cabbage and hot sauce for a delicious meal. They cost $.30-$.40 apiece, and three or four are a good sized meal. I have a mad scheme to open a stand in SF on the street serving them when I get back to support myself. I doubt the economics really work though...
Beyond that, El Salvador had some well prepared seafood, which wins it my top spot.
Panamanian food was not very good at all. Comida criolla was pretty bad - essentially an awfull mishmash of Chinese, Itallian and local stuff. I never got it, but saw people eating plates of warmed-over fried rice together with spahgetti with marinnaram pretty often. Most of the seafood was overcooked and meats were pretty bland. There wasn´t even any widely available hot sauce that was any good. The one exception to this was some good ceviche, specifically at the main fish market in Panama City (Bourdain fans should recall the location). However, I also had some pretty bad ceviche that balances out the really good stuff. I really wish I could have just eaten at the fish market every day and cooked for myself the rest of the time.
I haven´t eaten enough in Ecuador to make any wider judgements, but it wins points for not being Panama. Speaking of which, I´m starving and am headed out onto the mean streets of Quito to stuff my maw.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
A Day Of Firsts
First, thanks to Erica for putting me in touch with Ecuadorians. I'd imagine that it will come in quite handy in what looks to be a great place.
Second, apologies for not posting more. I promise to be more diligent now that I'm on my own.
Third, it has been a day of firsts. I got my first pseudo-mullet, made my first ceviche, and as a corollary to the prior point made my first hostel meal. Four lucky people (me included) enjoyed the Nate Miller special ceviche (corvina, onion, sawtooth coriander, limon, some local chili, and a bit of salt) along with a chili-onion chutney fried tuna fillet over some white rice. If I do say so myself, it was fantastic. When I asked the front desk people if they liked ceviche, they were quite surprised when I presented three coffee cups and proceeded to gain some mass with them. If the bulk of the hostel comes down sick tomorrow, its probably my fault. I was pretty proud of myself that the Peruvian said it was very good ceviche. For a recipe-less first effort, I think it augers well. The rest of the meal matched it, though it definitely lacked veggies.
I really wanted to upload some pictures, but this computer is not cooperating. I now have what amounts to a mullet, and really wanted to post that pic, but I guess it will have to wait.
Second, apologies for not posting more. I promise to be more diligent now that I'm on my own.
Third, it has been a day of firsts. I got my first pseudo-mullet, made my first ceviche, and as a corollary to the prior point made my first hostel meal. Four lucky people (me included) enjoyed the Nate Miller special ceviche (corvina, onion, sawtooth coriander, limon, some local chili, and a bit of salt) along with a chili-onion chutney fried tuna fillet over some white rice. If I do say so myself, it was fantastic. When I asked the front desk people if they liked ceviche, they were quite surprised when I presented three coffee cups and proceeded to gain some mass with them. If the bulk of the hostel comes down sick tomorrow, its probably my fault. I was pretty proud of myself that the Peruvian said it was very good ceviche. For a recipe-less first effort, I think it augers well. The rest of the meal matched it, though it definitely lacked veggies.
I really wanted to upload some pictures, but this computer is not cooperating. I now have what amounts to a mullet, and really wanted to post that pic, but I guess it will have to wait.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Margaritaville
Yesterday while walking back to the hotel, I blew out my flip flop. No joke. That´s what I get for not traveling with a pair of Rainbows.
Today after relocating to more affordable environs, I found a little shoe repair shop that fixed the strap right up. Thinking a celebration was in order, I headed to the nearest bar and ordered a margarita. Apparently in Panama a margarita means triple sec and ice mixed in a blender. It´s as awful as it sounds.
I guess I should have spoken up when I heard the bartender and waitress debating how to make a margarita in Spanish. So it´s definitely my own damn fault.
Today after relocating to more affordable environs, I found a little shoe repair shop that fixed the strap right up. Thinking a celebration was in order, I headed to the nearest bar and ordered a margarita. Apparently in Panama a margarita means triple sec and ice mixed in a blender. It´s as awful as it sounds.
I guess I should have spoken up when I heard the bartender and waitress debating how to make a margarita in Spanish. So it´s definitely my own damn fault.
Friday, March 5, 2010
The Journey So Far...
It's been an interesting journey since Ian and Eco departed to the states and IB arrived down here. Had some adventures, some great times and met some really cool people.
The Saturday the aforementioned traveling companions departerd, there was a big, much-hyped concert in El Tunco. Four bands/djs, tons of people from San Salvador. The concert actualy turned out to be a bit of a bust, but the next few days in Playa Tunco were fun. Hit the beach, ended up at this crazy Salvadorean birthday party where everyone was painting each other in paint and spent a good ammount of time by the pool.
I then headed into San Salvador with Michelline and Lynn, two Canadians I had met in Tunco. They let me crash in thier hotel room at the Marriot Presidente (one of the nicest hotels in the city) in advance of my 3am bus ride to San Jose in Costa Rica. We ended up getting dinner at this really nice Itallian place where I had a great plate of papardelle with rabbit ragu. We then ended up playing Wii in the lobbly till 2:30 am with these guys from Louisians. Very random, but a great time.
The bus ride to San Jose took 22 hours and was about as fun as a root canal. It ended up getting in late and my hotel had cancelled my reservation, so I crashed at this sketchy place in some part of the city I had no idea where it was. The next day I figured out how to get to Bocas Del Toro in Panama without having to take another 12 hour bus ride to Panama City, and then have to fly back to Bocas.
I headed down to Puerto Viejo in Costa Rica for the night, with the plan to cross the border the next day. Puerto Viejo was one of the least appealing places I've ever been. It was this mix of burnout backpacker, rastas, and surfers, that mixed together with an undercurrent of violence made for a miserable place. A night at a crappy hostel with rain pounding on a corrugated roof rounded things out and I couldn't wait to get out of there.
The next day I crossed over into Panama and took a water taxi to Bocas. I crashed in a dorm with some random people and then IB arrived the next morning.
We found a pretty nice hotel and set up camp there. It was raining intermmitently for the next few days, and we tried to get in as much beach time as we could, but it wasn't as much as I would have liked. We took a tour of some islands, wandered around another, played futbol on the beach with locals and had a few fun nights out. For those that know IB and I and how we operate, one can imagine what I mean by fun nights out.
Tuesday, we headed by water taxi and local bus to a little mountain town called Boquete. We got here, grabbed some dinner with some INSANE girls from Boston and then hit the one bar in town open past 9. After closing the place down, we had to talk the crazy girls out of stealing beer from the fridge in the hostel that belonged to some other people. All in all, another fun night.
This morning we got up at 6:30 am and did some whitewater rafting. The river wasnt as hardcore as I would have liked, but it was still lots of fun. We are taking it easy tonight as we have a very early flight tommorow to Panama City. We are going to see the canal tommorow and then IB departs Friday morning. After that I've got a few ideas on what I might do, but nothing concrete. We shall see what transpires.....
No pictures as the stupid computer I am on wouldn't let me upload them. I will get them up as soon as I can for my loyal readers.
The Saturday the aforementioned traveling companions departerd, there was a big, much-hyped concert in El Tunco. Four bands/djs, tons of people from San Salvador. The concert actualy turned out to be a bit of a bust, but the next few days in Playa Tunco were fun. Hit the beach, ended up at this crazy Salvadorean birthday party where everyone was painting each other in paint and spent a good ammount of time by the pool.
I then headed into San Salvador with Michelline and Lynn, two Canadians I had met in Tunco. They let me crash in thier hotel room at the Marriot Presidente (one of the nicest hotels in the city) in advance of my 3am bus ride to San Jose in Costa Rica. We ended up getting dinner at this really nice Itallian place where I had a great plate of papardelle with rabbit ragu. We then ended up playing Wii in the lobbly till 2:30 am with these guys from Louisians. Very random, but a great time.
The bus ride to San Jose took 22 hours and was about as fun as a root canal. It ended up getting in late and my hotel had cancelled my reservation, so I crashed at this sketchy place in some part of the city I had no idea where it was. The next day I figured out how to get to Bocas Del Toro in Panama without having to take another 12 hour bus ride to Panama City, and then have to fly back to Bocas.
I headed down to Puerto Viejo in Costa Rica for the night, with the plan to cross the border the next day. Puerto Viejo was one of the least appealing places I've ever been. It was this mix of burnout backpacker, rastas, and surfers, that mixed together with an undercurrent of violence made for a miserable place. A night at a crappy hostel with rain pounding on a corrugated roof rounded things out and I couldn't wait to get out of there.
The next day I crossed over into Panama and took a water taxi to Bocas. I crashed in a dorm with some random people and then IB arrived the next morning.
We found a pretty nice hotel and set up camp there. It was raining intermmitently for the next few days, and we tried to get in as much beach time as we could, but it wasn't as much as I would have liked. We took a tour of some islands, wandered around another, played futbol on the beach with locals and had a few fun nights out. For those that know IB and I and how we operate, one can imagine what I mean by fun nights out.
Tuesday, we headed by water taxi and local bus to a little mountain town called Boquete. We got here, grabbed some dinner with some INSANE girls from Boston and then hit the one bar in town open past 9. After closing the place down, we had to talk the crazy girls out of stealing beer from the fridge in the hostel that belonged to some other people. All in all, another fun night.
This morning we got up at 6:30 am and did some whitewater rafting. The river wasnt as hardcore as I would have liked, but it was still lots of fun. We are taking it easy tonight as we have a very early flight tommorow to Panama City. We are going to see the canal tommorow and then IB departs Friday morning. After that I've got a few ideas on what I might do, but nothing concrete. We shall see what transpires.....
No pictures as the stupid computer I am on wouldn't let me upload them. I will get them up as soon as I can for my loyal readers.
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