Circus! : /

I dragged Steve to a traveling circus in the outskirts of Otavolo.  I don't really much like circuses, but see them as providing interesting cultural insights --what amuses, what skills and talents are appreciated, what animals are engaged and how kindly, what foods are a part of the local scene, etc.  I have been thrilled in the past.  Not this time.  Steve dislikes circuses no matter what.

We arrived at 5 for the 4:45 kids show, content to miss some of it.  We were the first into the big top.  Sketchy seating.  We watched as stage hands assembled a rickety set of floor to ceiling poles for the first aerial act.

At 5:45, there were about 30 of us on the bleachers.  Loud music began, and about 10 minutes later the the first act -- dancing!.  The three "dancers" shimmied and shook their thonged bottoms.  For the kids show.

Pole tricks were next, with a group of four (aged about 20, 14, 12, 7?), in dirty pajama type spandex long johns.  They went up and slid down, mostly.  The 12 year old had presence.  No one was hurt.  Yay.

The aerialist appeared, one of the earlier dancers.  She ascended on her swing, tugging regularly on her costume, working to avoid malfunction.  No acrobatics, just tugging at her costume, then laying across the swing, do it again the other way.  Very hard to watch -- lacking athleticism, flexibility, artistic interpretation, but again, relief in a safe descent.  Almost no applause . . .  is that cultural?  Or an appropriate response?  May never know.

The pole and aerialist equipment pretty much dismantled itself, with the distraction of a clown act -- two guys kicking each other, poking fun of audience members -- including Steve, with his shiny pate, an extreme rarity among the locals.  Little laughter for any of it.

Then a guy with balance . . . his showmanship was strong; he was working it, and fell off a number of times, but walked away unhurt.

Then the animal acts.  A dog to pushing a little barrel with its front feet, and another jumping over a few low fences.  No applause.  Then out came a llama who was led around the ring on her knees  : (.  And then a goat who walked a little plank and was forced to turn around three times, shaking the entire time.  Aww.

We paid $4 pp for bleacher seats; the plastic lawn chairs were $5, and went unoccupied.

The food was mostly popcorn and sodas, although there were offerings of candied fruit and saltipapas, fries topped with a hotdog and squiggles of mayo and catsup.  The performers traded off, put on coats to disguise themselves as vendors before they went back for another act.  Clearly a small staff.

Performers' children sat in the bleachers, crowding in with us, shills asking for food and drink pretty constantly.

I guess I'm happy to have seen it, otherwise would wonder if it was awesome.  But it made me sad.  Probably should have followed Steve's  lead on this.  

Big Birds

We visited a raptor rehabilitation center Sunday, high above the city of Otavolo.  All the birds are incapable of living in the wild, so are caged forever –  a hard realization looking at these majestic creatures.  Nonetheless, it was fascinating to see a raptor demonstration in the soaring Andes, and so exciting to see a Harpy Eagle and Andean Condors up close and personal. 

View from the raptor rehabilitation aerie.

The Aguilla Harpia, the Harpy Eagle -- a little bigger than the Bald Eagle:

The Harpy Eagle preened almost the whole time we watched.  The head feathers looked so soft.  Its eyes didn’t.

Steve demonstrating the condor's size and wingspan.

The condor warming itself in the sun, after a little rain shower.

Condor's face.

Steve holding an American Kestrel . . . no big excitement, but cool nonetheless.

More random Ecuadorian stuff

There are few strollers in Ecuador, and lots of babies and kids.  The women (almost exclusively) carry their infants and up to about three years olds in slings on their backs, as they do the world around -- lovely.  Women here use this method for carrying lots of other stuff, too, even puppies.  Very efficient.

Otavalo has lots of these blue-fatigued guys.  They carry clubs and trash-picking up claws.  Haven't figured out why the fatigues, and why blue - it's not like they'll camouflage here with them.  ?

This is how we do laundry here while we're on the road.  Wash against the stone with a brush, then rinse and hang on a line.  Works just fine.  And there are lavanderias for drop off, too.

And this is the standard dishwashing protocol -- a little pot of skin-eating 

soapy paste (it's pretty harsh) with a sponge.

Kissing across hemipheres, equator in the line beneath us.  Required photo.

This chrysanthemum-type flower, on the top of a mountain had no visible stem.  The wind was so strong the fblossom would have been blown off if it stuck up higher.  

I'd never seen a church with a neon alter.  This one, in a very ornate, gilt church on the major plaza in Otavalo.

Otavalo's animal market

We're in Otavalo for a few days, about 100k north of Quito.  Otavalo's famous for its Saturday markets -- artists, fabrics, fruits and veges, meats, household goods, clothing, and most unusually its animal market.  These together draw huge crowds of locals, and pretty much take over the city on Saturday.
The animal market happens early.  I was awakened around 5 this morning by the sound of various gaits, hooves on the cobblestone street in front of our hostel -- animals and hopeful owners on their way to the market.

The animal market, overview.

The lady in purple bought the spotted one, which wasn't so happy when it was led away. 

Chicks, turkey babies, and a box full of unknowns.

These ladies were buying a cow.  The hat on the lady with the blue wrap is typical, a sort of fabric-piled-decoratively-on-top sort of hat.

Some llamas still in their truck, looking around.  

The llamas have such sweet, aware, knowing faces, long eyelashes, calm dispositions, just hanging out watching.  

And kittens, too.  And puppies and dogs and turkeys and goats and lots of chickens and roosters, and bulls being sized up for mating possibilities.  Fascinating stuff.  We saw a kitten being carried away from the market in a mesh bag tied at the top.

Dead, ready-to-eat animals, too -- anyone want a photo of a wagon full of toasted pigs' heads?      

I'm hoping Steve'll post on this, too; his eye/photos are always so good.

A movie: Hombre Arana

We saw Hombre Arana today in Quito.  Garfield and Stone's Spanish was excellent;  I understood precious little of the dialogue, but got the story, and loved it.  $2.99 each to see the 11:30AM show.  No seat assignments for this movie, although one local cinema chain does.   

Steve in line, considering food options.

 The chosen combo, #2 -- popcorn, nachos with chili, huge orange soda, $5.75.  Plenty to make us feel sick.  No empanadas or churros.  The choices were almost identical to US movie food; candy brands were a little different.

Refreshments came in a solid, heavy plastic tray that fits into the drink holder between seats.  Poorly photographed, but very clever gadget.  Folks just leave them when at the end, trash included.  They're gathered, emptied, and reused.  Was certainly easy for us -- no handing back and forth, no juggling.  

Steve could have chosen a hot dog with topping options of relish, crushed potato chips, mayo, mustard and catsup.

Coming soon!  

Andean Cock of the Rock

While in Mindo we hired a birding guide, the only way to see the Andean Cock of the Rock -- Steve calls it the Sean Connery bird.  We met William at 5AM, drove 20 minutes out of town to private property, walked a  mountain path in the dark for about 30 minutes and arrived at a blind in front of the lekking area.  Soon there was a rustling, and then the noise: a screeching, screaming, cawing that rose and fell, ended with a question mark close, and began again.  And then another voice entered, and another and another and another.  There were 5-6 of these cocks (about 12") working it -- yelling, screeching, questioning, jumping and flitting around, mostly out of sight but only about 30 feet away -- an ungodly racket.  They did this for an impressive hour, then apparently went off for breakfast.  These boys do this every day of the year to keep up the skills, to be ready for the 20 days or so when it’s important, when the ladies are interested and come to see, judge and make their choices among the biggest, flittiest, loudest cocks of the rocks.   

The photo below is the best of my bunch, the one that follows is from the web. Their head feathers make them look beakless, but their beaks are tiny and yellow, in the normal place, hidden from sight by their massive head feathers, but open for the mighty, unsettling, impressive sounds to come out.    

Street food

The street food of most countries is pretty wonderful, and Ecuador’s no exception.  We didn’t see much in Quito, but here in Mindo it’s been available and delicious.  The corn that shows up here is called choclo, and is this white, big, uneven type that seems more like what's used in the states for hominy.  It’s served here grilled, spread with a light mayo, and a fluffy, lightly flavored shredded cheese packed onto it.  The cheese melts, it’s delicious and the eating is easy, the kernels are loose, and pop off one by one.   $1 per cob.  That’s chicken on the grill next to it.

The photo below is of stuff Steve collected the day we’d ziplined and taken a 10k walk to the butterfly gardens – I was tired, he walked the 8 minutes into town to gather dinner.  It’s a bad photo – we were hungry.  On the left is a cheese empanada $0.40, next is a spiral cut sausage with a potato on the end of the skewer (they normally serve the sausage with mayo; Steve declined) $1, a chocolate bun $0.35, two varieties of bread $0.25 each, and a fantastic sweet cornmeal disk filled with melted cheese, honey poured over, and a sweet shredded cheese on top, $0.75.  Supplemented with two Ecuadorian beers ($1.25 each) which are big, 22 oz, but only 4.2% alcohol.   $5.50.

Last night’s dinner, below, was local trout grilled in banana leaves, potatoes, fried plantains, cabbage with mayo, and beer, $4.75 total.  The portions are so big, we tend to share an order most of the time.  Two views of the "restaurant" follow.

My main disappointment with eating in Ecuador -- as always when traveling -- is the absence of a nice variety of fresh vegetables.  We did run into lightly cooked broccoli and cauliflower one night, but mostly its just a small serving of iceberg lettuce or cabbage in salad form, with pappas, their fantastic potatoes, and fried plantains. 

Today we return to Quito for a few days.  We’ll be trying our hand in the hostel’s kitchen this time, instead of eating the meat-heavy meals that are most of what’s available.  Should be a nice change, and interesting.

hummingbirds

A couple of days ago Nancy mentioned my enjoyment of the hummingbirds, and since so far she has been carrying the whole load of these blogs, I thought it past time I followed through with some comments.  It’s true; I find the hummingbirds incredibly fascinating.  They are elegant and delicate, yet with a powerful energy - like dancers with their combination of strength and grace.  The three pictures of hummingbirds at feeders are from the porch of the main house where we are staying in Mindo.  Unfortunately, still pictures don't really capture them well.  I hope to attach a short film of them flying and feeding in the future.

Interesting plants and spiders

Thunbergia and impatiens among our other "exotic" plants grow wild in the forests and countryside here.  Other stuff grows to extremes.  A few examples:

 Even the biggest of these mushrooms was less than a centimeter in diameter.  Fairy mushrooms.  

 This fungus (?) was almost transparent -- the clump was about 2 inches long.

 This beautiful limb-full was of foamy white, flowery fungus.  The only batch of it we saw on a 4-hour hike.  

It's been my year for four-leaf clovers -- I found one in Central Park, along Salt Creek Trail, and another in Maple Park this year.  When one's there, there is often another, occasionally three.  I was beyond surprised to see this huge patch, and realize the ground was covered in them.  But it's not actually clover.

On a bird hike in the wee hours today, we happened across these spider webs, 

which were about 6-10 inches in diameter.   

What was especially interesting was that the webs were so different from anything I've seen in North America -- they weren't round, orb-based, but appear to have been woven like fabric.  I have no idea how it is accomplished.