Eye Trip

Check out Eyeditty.com!

2012-01-08T06:00:00.001-05:00

Hi!

If you're reading this, it's because one day a LOOONG time I ago, I used to update this page regularly. Well, life got in the way and I kind of dropped the ball.

But, you're in luck! I'm motivated and about to start a new 6 month trip to Southeast Asia and the Mediterranean. Six months of great pictures and stories guaranteed.

So head on over to www.eyeditty.com and make sure to sign up on the blog page to get updates in your inbox!

See you there!

Jason

Contribute and Make a Difference!

2011-02-04T17:58:00.000-05:00

Hi all!

I'd like to tell you a bit about a project I'm working on with a rural community just north of Loja, where we’d like to build a school kitchen and cafeteria. The kids in this community are really reliant on school meals to satisfy more than half of their nutritional needs, since their parents must leave early in the morning to work in agricultural and construction-related jobs. The school’s current facility is a mere closet, with antiquated equipment and severe sanitation issues, making cooking very difficult and unsanitary. The children often receive an insufficient quantity of food, and many of the children are suffering from stunted growth and illness due to food contamination and nutrient deficiencies. Parents and teachers want to help eliminate these nutrition and health problems and are extremely motivated to build a new kitchen and cafeteria where nutritious meals can be prepared and served to their children. The facility will also serve as an educational center for hands-on classes to empower teachers, students and parents with new cooking, nutrition, and food safety information that can be integrated into school curriculums and home life.

Two other volunteers and I built the community a potable water system a year and half ago and this kitchen/cafeteria is the next step in trying to eliminate nutrient deficiencies and other health problems in the community. If any of you would like to make a donation, the community would be very appreciative! And if you could send this link to family and friends and/or post it on your Facebook wall that would be awesome as well!

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=518-360

Thanks so much!

Jason

Katie, Andy and I with some of the kids in the community

At the inauguration of the water system

The community is located high above the city of Loja. This is a typical home in the community.

The building site for the kitchen/cafeteria. The schoolhouse is the white building to the left and the current kitchen take up half of the wooden shack shown. The other half is for storage.

Typical adobe block house in the community

Community kids

Part of the completed water system

Kids at the inauguration of the water system

Kids, parents and teachers at the inauguration of the water system

Agua Pura + Manos Limpias = Cuerpos Sanos! (Pure Water + Clean Hands = Healthy Bodies!)

More community members at the inauguration

Don't Cry for Me Argentina

2011-01-10T20:37:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year!

This Christmas and New Years I headed down to Argentina with another volunteer to check out Mendoza (the outdoorsy wine growing region of the country) and Buenos Aires. Some kind of stomach bug crept up on me that apparently didn't want me to enjoy the vineyards and olive groves of Mendoza and instead took a liking to my hotel bed and back-to-back episodes of The Hard Times of RJ Berger and Teen Mom on MTV for 3 days straight. Other than that though, the trip was a blast. Enjoy the photos below! (Sorry there are 175 photos.. it was hard enough cutting it down to that from over 400!)

The journey to Argentina first involved a 9 hour overnight bus from Loja to Piura, Peru. From there we flew to Lima, then to Santiago, and then finally to Mendoza!

So, night 1 we slept on a bus and night 2 we slept in the Santiago airport. Not fun!

Flying from Santiago to Mendoza over the Andes. This region is home to the highest peak in the western hemisphere - Aconcagua, 22,841 feet

Park in Mendoza

In both Mendoza and Buenos Aires, the number of really old cars in very reasonable (and not so great) shape was astounding! Due to some recent economic downturns, lots of folks tend to maintain old cards as long as possible.

This one has some kind of fluid running from a bottle on the roof directly into the engine compartment, and we actually saw it driving by later that day.

Plaza de Espana in Mendoza

Common Jail - Perpetual and Effective!

I didn't get to go to any vineyards, (boo) but I stumbled upon a wine museum in the city with some grape varieties growing.

"The Falklands are part of Argentina"

Bitterness over the war with Britain in 1982 over possession of the Falkland Islands

Suckling pig is the big Christmas Eve and New Years Eve food

Best Friends

Argentina has the largest Jewish population in South America, and the 6th largest in the world.

Buenos Aires....

Care to tango?

La Recoleta Cemetary, where the richest and most influential Argentines are buried.

Funeral at the cemetery complete with brand new Mercedes hearse

Janet with ubiquitous Diet Coke laying on a coffin transporter... eww

I was literally chased by one of these psycho cemetery cats

Where Evita is buried

Amazing filet mignon atop potatos au gratin with dijon mustard sauce - $10

Touristy Avenida Florida

In front of the Casa Rosada, the Executive Branch of the Argentine Government

The entrance to the B&B we stayed in for part of the time

Supposedly dog walkers in Buenos Aires make more than teachers. This guy only has 5 dogs, but it's common for them to have 10 - 20 dogs!

Outdoor Cafes are everywhere

Lots of new construction near the river

Tigre, about 45 minutes north of the city center is on the delta of the Rio de la Plata and has tons of water activities including lots of old school rowing clubs.

Gigantic!

Pizza is everywhere, in addition to amazing empanadas made with beef, onions, spices and olives. A large percentage of the population is Italian so Italian food in BA is pretty good.

All coffee and espresso is served with a shot glass of water to cleanse the palate

La Boca, one of the poorer areas of BA, has brightly colored building made out of corrugated metal

Meat!

Lots of tourists

Old school restaurant with amazing food and wine. BA has an insane soccer rivalry between two teams, Boca Juniors and River Plate. Note the two banners on the wall describing the opponents - One has a bleeding chicken and says "the biggest crybaby chickens" and the other actually has a player with a paper bag and noose around his neck!

Waiters that can't take photos

Reflection with Janet and all-too-common penguin/snoopy looking wine pitchers

Frozen in time

The newest area of BA - Puerto Madero

Subway

Subway art

"Filete porteño" is the type of artistic drawing, with stylised lines and flowered, climbing plants typically used in Buenos Aires for everything from store windows to buses. Everything is done by hand.

The Andy Hood and Gina Collignon Memorial Lagunas Hike

2010-12-09T18:17:00.001-05:00

No, Andy and Gina aren't dead, but we did almost die a year ago when we attempted to do this challenging hike the first time. Gina, who is normally an avid outdoors enthusiast, nearly broke down mentally and physically during the hurricane-like weather we endured for three straight days, while Andy enjoyed sleeping in an icy pool of water that collected at the bottom of his violently flapping tent for two nights. Needless to say, the weather was so horrible that we never made it to the lakes.

This time around, Angela and Janet decided to join me on this epic journey to the Lagunas del Compadre located in Podocarpus National Park, just 20 minutes south of Loja. This year, we couldn't have asked for more perfect weather, and we were treated to some amazing 20-mile views. I even took the plunge and jumped into the frigid waters of one of the lakes, all of which are located between 10 and 11 thousand feet above sea level. The trip would have been perfect if we hadn't listened to the advice of a park guard, who recommended leaving the park via a different route than we had entered.

"Just head down at kilometer 6 towards Rumizshitana and you'll meet up with the highway where you can catch a bus back to Loja," said Enrique the guard. "Awesome," we thought since this would shorten our return trip significantly and it would be neat to see a new area. "And it's easy to follow the trail all the way down?" I asked Enrique. "Claro, no pasa nada," he replied which basically means, "Yeah, no worries, don't be silly, you've got to be a moron if you can't find your way down." OK....

Well, turns out after heading down over 3000 vertical feet on a 45-degree angle trail overgrown with exceptionally spiky plants, we ended up in a pine forest where the trail was obliterated due to piles of pine needles on the ground that killed the rest of the vegetation. The pine tree branches formed a thick wooden matrix making it virtually impossible to pass. Janet and Angela started to plan their funerals while I hunted around with my GPS for other possible ways to get down. No such luck. We would have to turn around and climb the 3000 feet we had just come down to meet up with the original trail so we could head back the same way we came in. Note that while we were heading down an hour earlier, upon seeing the highway and convinced that we'd be on a bus in less than 2 hours, we had tossed the last of our thoroughly smooshed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the woods. Not such a bright idea...

Angela claimed that is was physically impossible to go back up, and Janet was freaking out since she had to be back in Loja early the next morning for a phone interview with a coffee cooperative back in the States. There was no other option, unfortunately, then back up. I strapped Angela's tent on my pack to lighten her load a bit and we began the grueling journey back up to 11,000 feet, each step a challenge as we blazed along at less then half a kilometer per hour, the sun blazing down on us and the thin air robbing our lungs of much-needed oxygen. Our water supply quickly dwindled to nothing and we were forced to fill our bottles from a muddy puddle we came across along the way. The water was an appetizing yellow color with an array of little swimmers, so we decided to double the iodine/chlorine tablet dosage in an effort to kill off the little buggers. Thirty minutes later and the micro-swimmers were all still swimming, but we were desperate and drank it down anyway! Luckily, I'm still alive now to tell this story. Angela, unluckily, didn't make it. Just kidding...

After trudging along for 3 hours we finally found a spot to camp. Janet and Angela passed out immediately and I made a pot of powdered soup mix which really hit the spot. Second course was one of Angela's two-and-a-half-day old empanadas that we broke into pieces and heated on the camp stove hoping to kill off any bacteria. Then we finished off with some chamomile tea. I dropped a spoonful of soup and tea on the ground as a ceremonial "please get us out of here alive" offering to the Pacha Mama (the Kichwa Mother Earth), who then subsequently blessed us with a lovely coating of rime ice on our tents the next morning.

The sun rose the next day and Pacha Mama did actually come through, blessing us with the fourth picture-perfect day in a row. To energize for the upcoming finale, we made a surprisingly delicious porridge consisting of 3-day old hard boiled eggs broken up into boiling water, corn meal, and leftover powdered soup mix. After packing up the camp, we hiked another 4 hours back to the ranger station where we had started, called a cab, devoured a piping hot rotisserie chicken and took the most blissful hot showers ever.

For any Google Earth nerds out there (like me!) you can check out our route in Google Earth direct from my GPS by opening the file below.

http://natureandculture.org/Lagunas2010.kmz

Enjoy the pics below! And thanks to Janet for bringing her little pocket camera so I didn't have to lug my big SLR camera along with my 45lb pack.

Oh, and a BIG thanks to Enrique!

You can see a laguna and waterfall to the upper left and another to the right

Dinner!

Lakeside coffee using Andy's memorial mug

The latest in Haute Couture...

Day 4 breakfast porridge.. yum

Zamora, Saraguro and beyond

2010-11-10T20:04:00.000-05:00

I spent the last few days touring around several sites in southern Ecuador with some of the board members from my organization and their families that were visiting from the States. First stop was Zamora in the upper Amazon basin where we saw some indigenous Shuar people performing their traditional dances. Then we were off to Saraguro in the Andes about an hour and a half north of Loja to check out the local market and weavings of the Saraguro indigenous group. The board members continued on to the city of Cuenca and I finished up the trip by visiting another Peace Corps volunteer, Jaime, who lives in a small town called Ñamarin just outside of Saraguro. Enjoy the photos below!

The good life

Dense Jungle

Bombuscaro River in Zamora

Orchid

Shuar Dancing

Shuar Elder creating a bowl for drinking chicha, a fermented yucca drink

Crowds watching the Shuar woman make the bowl

Shuar child and Kichwa man

Kichwa onlookers

US Congressman, Jared Polis, who was part of the group giving a talk in broken Spanish

Saraguro traditional dancing

Roadside indigenous mother and child

House in Lagunas, just outside of Saraguro

Happy pig

Traditional Sarguro weaving on a loom

Making a belt

Beautiful detail

Weaving demonstration

An 8-year-old weaving a belt

Barefoot Sarguro woman heading to the market

Church in the center of Saraguro

Saraguro woman

These traditional hats are made out of compressed wool, but feel more like concrete!

Box o' chickens

Lots of bananas

Lunchtime

Chit chat

Saraguro

Local kids + dog

Local kids + 2 dogs

Cutest little girl ever

Her German dad, Felix, works with my organization and married a woman from Saraguro

Saraguro house

A little too much liquor...

Baaa!

Jamie's Peace Corps site

One-eyed man in Jamie's town

Moo

Baaaa

Jamie's town

Corn hanging to dry

A walk in the clouds

2010-11-02T12:51:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, Laura, Janet, and I took a walk through the clouds, over 10,000 feet up in the Podocarpus National Park located 20 minutes outside the city of Loja. The park is part of a UNESCO Biosphere reserve and is truly unique in the world. Enjoy the photos below...

Two Years of Photos

2010-09-27T13:03:00.000-04:00

Over the last two years I've been collecting some of the best photos of the areas where my organization, Nature & Culture International, carries out conservation and sustainable development work. So, I thought it would be nice to share them with you! Some were taken by me, and others by some of my coworkers. Enjoy!

Baskets woven by women in the Peruvian Amazon, now on sale at the San Diego Zoo and Natural History Museum

Rural community members in southwestern Ecuador

Look into my eyes

Waterfall, Upper Amazon Basin, Ecuador

Furry Friends

Harvesting the fruit of the Palo Santo tree to make an internationally marketed perfume - Amor America

Rural community health and nutrition program

Fuzzy Caterpillar

School kids in front of a giant Ceibo tree

Hiking on top of the world

Home in the deciduous forests of southwestern Ecuador

Giant Ceibo

Goats are the only livestock than can survive in this dry ecosystem (and they're super delicious when slow roasted underground in a dish called Chivo al hueco - Goat in a hole)

Back away... sloooowly

Indigenous Shuar kids out for a swim in southeastern Ecuador on the Peruvian border

Sunset, Cacti and a Ceibo

Indigenous Saraguro people north of the city of Loja

Kids and a Ceibo

Bright Bird

Wispy moss growing on some more Ceibos

SNAKE - It's what's for dinner.

Bird watching with some school kids

Ceibo seeds are encased in big cottony balls that blow away with the wind and litter the ground like snow

Gulls on the coast

Getting some sun

Ribbit

Flowering Guayacan tree

Gray-cheeked parakeet smiling for the camera

"Hey ladies, my croak is louder than all the other guys here..."

Deciduous forest in northern Peru

The making of a great goat farmer

Ceibos have photosynthetic bark so they can continue producing food during the dry season when the tree loses all its leaves.

Soaring sunset

A family of monkeys

Picture perfect cherimoya fruit

Sunbathing lizard

Shuar children in the Upper Amazon of Ecuador

Hanging out in the flowers

A Shuar woman offering up a big bowl of chicha - an alcoholic drink traditionally made by chewing up pieces of yucca and spitting them out into a pot to ferment over the course of several days. Bon Appetit!

Above the clouds

What are you looking at?

Giant grasshopper

Meow!

Why hello there

Shuar family

Hummingbird in frozen flight

A Whale of a Time

2010-08-26T17:12:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Just got back from a great trip to Puerto Lopez, a fishing village on the Ecuadoian coast, with fellow volunteers Adam, Emily and Janet to check out some whales, have some delicious seafood, and have some relax time at the beach. It´s the dry season now in that area, which (unbeknownst to us) meant that all the trees have lost their leaves and the weather´s a bit overcast and cool, but no rain. So it wasn't exactly a sunbathing expedition, but we still had a great time. Enjoy the pics below! (Sorry went a little overboard with the number of pics this post)

Janet, Emily and Adam outside the Hosteria Mandala where we stayed

Gardens at the Mandala

We stayed in the Seahorse cabana

Outside the hut

High end signage

Beer and the Beach - the perfect combo

Beachside Bar

Seafood and Rice

The smiling photographer

Puerto Lopez street scene

Let´s have a look...

Kids at play

Swarming frigate birds and pelicans trying to get their share of today´s catch

Many fisherman here just have a simple canoe that they paddle out into the ocean to fish

Gift of God

The end of another day of fishing

1 2 3 Push!

Four ugly feet

Misty Beach

Sea Pineapple

Adam and Emily out for a stroll

Out in front of the hosteria

Janet showing off her new collection of sand dollars

Manta Ray slaughter

Holding up the doorframe

Emily being an Ecua-mannequin

Street scene

Painting your own license plate should definitely be adopted in the States

Local Taxi

I´ll take a rooster hood ornament over a Rolls Royce flying lady anyday!

Local store

Fresh catch

Eating your own feet - The cure for boredom

Yummy seafood ceviche

Humpback whales migrate up to this region from July - September to mate and play

We´ve got a jumper!

Whale Tail

Bumpy whale head

Nothing beats classic Sesame Street.
I couldn´t stop thinking about "Heeere fishy fishy fishy!" the whole time we were whale watching.

Quality life jackets

A touch of sunset

Janet´s newfound love - Jean Claude VanDamme

Finally, I´ve found my dream property.

Fresh shark catch

Bird Sugars

Banana pancakes and eggs.. mmmm

Today´s activities will include: Sitting and Standing

"Karaoke - Discover your talent"

Cool tree tunnel on the way to Machalilla National Park - Ecuador´s only coastal national park

Biking to the park

Los Frailles Beach in Machalilla National Park

Can you spot the crab?

My last meal before heading on the 12 hour journey home
Sea bass in a local coconut and peanut sauce - $4.50

Hot Liquids & Orange-Yolked Eggs

2010-08-19T11:57:00.000-04:00

Fasten your seatbelts… this is my most exciting blog post yet. Well, not quite. For the past week I’ve been sick with a cold so I don’t really have much to write about, but my friend Emily has been pestering me to post something so I figured I could do a little food post.

When I first started to sniffle, I thought it might be a good idea to pull out my Jewish grandmother card and make some chicken soup. Whenever I buy a chicken, I throw all the bones and guts in a big ziplock bag in the freezer. And when I have enough bones, I throw them all in a big pot with water, thyme, onions, carrots, parsley, oregano and a few peppercorns and let it all simmer for 4 or 5 hours. So I figured this was as good a time as any to break out the frozen block of guts. Into a big pot it went along with the veggies, spices and water, and 15 minutes later after everything had thawed I took a peak only to see the following…

Cock a doodle doo

Poor birdie! Coming up and gasping for air! (Yes, Ecuadorian chickens come with all the parts!) So here’s a thanks to Señorita Pollito for making my chicken stock taste so good.

My diet for about three straight days consisted of lots of chicken soup and a spattering of toast and eggs. For the eggs I treated myself to Criollo eggs, which the Lojanos claim are far superior to the standard egg you can buy at any local tienda. The main difference is that the Criollo eggs come from chickens that just peck around the owner’s yard all day eating insects and a few kernels of corn, whereas the standard eggs come from chickens that are fed balanceado, or a blend of grains and powdered vitamins and minerals that you buy at the store. The Criollos can also hang out with a rooster so occasionally you get a recently fertilized egg from a knocked up hen! The Criollo eggs are supposedly higher in all kinds of vitamins and minerals and have a healthier fat profile. Plus, I think they taste better. The standard trademark of a Criollo is a deep orange yolk since all the insects in the hen’s diet make the yolk much higher in beta caroteine. The pics below were of the last Criollo egg I had, but the ones I cracked open before were a much deeper orange color, almost red.

Criollo egg left, Standard egg right.
The criollos actually come in all different colors from white, to brown, to taupe and even a pale turquoise.

Criollo left, Standard right.
The Criollos are typically an even deeper orange.

Criollo left, Standard right

To complement all that soup, toast and eggs I decided to make some Horchata, so I paid a visit to my five-foot tall organic farmer ladies at the Sunday outdoor market. For fifty cents Rosa filled a big bag with a whole variety of fresh cut herbs and flowers – ranging from rose petals and begonias to chamomile, mint, violets, lemon balm and even flaxseed. There are also some deep red leaves and fuzzy flowers in the mix that give the drink its signature almost artificial-looking deep magenta color. I have no idea what they’re called though. Horchata is the traditional drink of Loja, and it’s even hard to find in other areas of Ecuador. The climate here is perfect for growing all these herbs and flowers year-round. Back at my apartment I added the bag of goodness to a big pot of boiled water and let everything marinate for a few minutes before straining it and adding honey and a squeeze of lemon. Super good. And it’s also great cold after a night chilling in the fridge.

The colorful blend of herbs, flowers and flaxseed

"I'm melting, melting. Ohhhhh, what a world, what a world. Who would have thought that some little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness... "

Squeeze of Lemon

I feel better already

Equally as good cold the next day

Hopefully you’re not sleeping on your keyboard by now! I promise my next post will be a bit more riveting! Off to the beach tonight on a 9-hour bus to go whale watching. See you soon!

Farewall Corrie!

2010-08-03T14:43:00.000-04:00

Sunday was a sad day in Southern Ecuador. My great friend Corrie just finished her Peace Corps service in the town of Yanzatza and is heading back home. Here's a little "Tribute to Corrie" video that I put together.

Ecuador's going to miss you!!

Only in Ecuador

2010-07-29T19:50:00.000-04:00

Just a brief, photo-free post for today... So I just went up to Quito for some Peace Corps meetings on the always-enjoyable 13 hour overnight bus ride. I'm sitting in my seat waiting for the bus to leave, when a man and woman board holding something that looks peculiar. If it were a rooster prepped for its next cock fight or a cardboard box filled with newborn chicks, I wouldn't have looked twice. But this thing is like 5 feet long and all wrapped up in plastic grocery store bags and clear packing tape. What is it?

A live male peacock! The body is wrapped up in paper and tape with its head sticking out through a little hole, and the 4-foot long feathers that it uses to impress the local female peacocks are all wrapped up like a big tail to ensure that that this Pavo Real (or Royal Turkey as it's called in Spanish) is not going to show off on this bus ride. The man is holding the body and the woman is following a few feet behind to support the "tail". They then proceed to put the thing in the overhead compartment above the seats! At this point all the Ecuadorians on the bus are staring and smirking, and you know if they're reacting to something like this then it's weird even for Ecuador!

So at 3 in the morning I decide to head to use to the bathroom in the back of the bus. As I'm making my way down the dark aisle, some guy starts shining his cell phone screen light on the floor. I don't think anything of it until I hear a slight crinkle under my foot. Yes, I just stepped on a peacock tail. Apparently the royal turkey was not happy up above so the owner had moved it to the floor. Since it was so long, it went almost all the way across the bus, with it's wrapped up tail across the aisle. Luckily i didn't do any damage and the guy wasn't angry at all.

Oh, and when I get to the bathroom, some other guy is sleeping in the back of the bus without a shirt on. Weird.

Just thought I should share!

I'm back!

2010-07-16T13:06:00.003-04:00

I know I know. Where's Jason been all this time? But this time I have a valid excuse! I recently got back from a month in the States, enjoying the long summer days, good food, friends and family. So here's a couple of shots for you to view. Enjoy!

Leaving the rugged Andes

And arriving in the flatter than flat Florida Everglades

Miami

MMM... Real New York Bagels!

My friend Matt with his two Boston Terriers

Is it a bat or a dog? You decide...

NY country stream on Matt's farm

Bug

Blooming flowers everywhere

Hoisting up the platform for the giant swing!

Toga the dog

Ready to jump

Trembling as I climb up!

AHHHH!

AHHH!

I survived!

My old block in Albany, NY

My scavenger hunt team at Sarah's 30th Bday

Charlie's Angels pose

Sampling the naturally carbonated Saratoga Spring Water

Grand Central... Just like the bus terminal in Loja! :)

Lunching at Bryant Park

Merry-go-round

The Flatiron Building

NYC Street Scene

Everything's in order

Fresh Picked Sweet Cherries

Oh Blueberries, how I miss you guys already!

Street Food that doesn't make you sick (most of the time)

Look into my crystal ball

Escapes

Refuge in the city

Patterns

5th Avenue

Half-brother, sis, me and little cousin Spencer

A quick stop in the Congo

Spencer and African antelope-like creatures

Aunt Vee, Spencer and some hyenas

NYC Aerial

NYC Aerial with Central Park

Frank and Liz's wedding near Dahlonega, Georgia

Typical Frank face

Riding off into the sunset

Hallway of sparklers

After too much wine...

Galapagos, Part II

2010-05-05T13:52:00.000-04:00

I know all of you have been camped out at your computers waiting for the next set of pictures from my recent Galapagos trip with my family, but alas, the wait is over! FYI all the pictures below were taken with a standard 50mm lens. No telephoto equipment whatsoever... that's how close you can get to the animals here! Enjoy the pics below!

Nice beach

Sandy Sea Lion

Wading Sea Lio

Heron eyeing its next meal

Frigate birds following our boat

Fighter jet wings

Frozen Flight

Lizzie the Lizard's cousin

Airy volcanic rock

Cute sea lion sleeping next to her personal pool

Aww! Look at those neck wrinkles!

Our guide

Marine Iguana

Bright red crab

Shoreline vista

Smiling fatty

Sundown on shore

ET is buried here...

Lounging Iguanas

This could get R-rated...

Small volcano

Tweety bird

More lounging iguanas that don't have any personal space issues!

Another shoreline vista

Close-up lizard

Mommy feeding baby

Our guide and a giant cactus

Baby sea lion

Baby and her friend

Blue footed Booby!

Curious bird

More boobies!

Dry islands with a hint of green where moisture condenses at the higher elevations.

Oystercatcher

Eerie Martian landscape with fragrant Palo Santo trees

Land iguana crossing our path

Friggin Frigate with puffy neck

Posing land iguance

Booby

Young booby

Trying to fly for the first time

Here comes big daddy!

Dad pointing out what sea lions like to do best...

Happy Face

The photographer hard at work

A giant crater at the higher elevations of one of the islands

Dew on a sapling

Our group

One of Darwin's famous finches taking a bath

Finches on a railing

The family

A giant tortoise

Mom, Dad and sis showing off their stylish rubber boots

A basketball-sized pile of poop is two inches from my right foot!

Steven Spielburg got the inspiration for ET from these giant tortoises

I like grass!

The most handsome tortoise of all!

Weird

Get any closer and I'll gobble you whole...

Dad and his perpetual problem getting the life jacket on untwisted

Adios!

From the Dark Ages - Part 1

2010-04-27T14:05:00.001-04:00

Amidst the Dark Ages of my blog (i.e. 2009) where I posted a whopping 3 entries the entire year, my family made their way down from NY for a two-week Ecuadorian visit. And now thinking back, I realized that I never posted any pictures for all you Eye Trip readers out there (there must be at least 3 or 4 of you!). So here's installment #1. We spent 5 days on a cruise around some of the Galapagos Islands, braving the buffet breakfasts and white-glove dinner service of the high seas, and saw some incredible sights. The pictures below are from the first day and half or so of the cruise. You'll have to wait for next week's post for the pics of all the cute and not-so-cute creatures that roam the islands! Enjoy.

Lounging Sea Lions

Mom, Sis, and I on the ship
(which we almost missed since our travel agent booked us the wrong flight!)

Lots of volcanic rock

Note age demographic! Count the gringo hats...

Rocky beach with mini-volcano in the background

Saltwater Lagoon

Goats were introduced to the islands a long time ago and the Park Service is trying to kill them off so they don't outcompete the native wildlife

Mom and a cactus. The islands are very dry and we were also here in the dry season when the trees don't have any leaves below a certain elevation.

The warm light of sundown

Sunset

Happy sunbathing sea lion

Weird gray plants growing on volcanic soil

A lava cactus and our boat in the background.

Lizzie the Lizard

Pinnacle Rock on Bartalome Island

Picture perfect beach where we later went snorkeling and were surrounded by thousands of brightly colored fish, seas turtles, and sea lions. Sorry no underwater camera! But it was like being in Finding Nemo!

Mandatory cheesy tourist photo

Dad, Mom, and Sis braving the wind

The view from atop a small volcano with our ship and a cool underwater crater.

Across the border

2010-04-05T17:09:00.000-04:00

Since I work with the best counterpart organization in Peace Corps Ecuador, two weeks ago I got a free 7-day trip to northern

Peru

. Granted this was no luxury retreat but free nonetheless!

Rather than bore you with the details here’s a quick summary of the trip in bullet form!

Departure with 102 F fever. 5-hour journey to the border on winding mountain roads. Time to bring in the Swiss engineers to build Ecuador a few tunnels. :)
Arrival at the border. Make what I think is some sort of shady deal with Peruvian immigration agent to allow our car to cross the border without the renewal of some paperwork.
Feeling a bit better. Stop for Peruvian ceviche in the sort-of coastal city of Piura. Amazing! Huge 2.5 foot long platter filled with lobster, crab, shrimp, fish, clams, etc. Mystery white drink appears on table. Seeking refreshment, I take a big gulp. Eww! Turns out to be warm, salty fish broth. Luckily next comes the Chicha Morada, an ice cold, deep purple drink made from purple corn typical of the region (tastes just like purple Kool Aid)
Piura is sweltering and the streets are buzzing with moto-taxis – motorcycles chopped in half with two seats in back for passengers, rickshaw style. Meetings are held at the Piura office of my organization for the rest of the day and part of the following day, and I’m drenched in sweat from the fever and the climate. Dengue Fever is a huge problem in the area, and the municipality is coming to individual homes to fumigate for mosquitos. I keep my fingers crossed that the Dengue mosquitoes don’t like the taste of gringo skin!
I head to a local pharmacy and tell the woman that I’m not well. She cuts three mystery yellow pills from a blister pack, pops them in a little baggie and I head out. No questions, no prescription. Hopefully they’re not cyanide.
In Piura I room with the Administration guy from my office and a fan/window war ensues throughout the night. Room is 95 degrees and feels like 120 with my fever. I turn on the fan, he turns it off, I turn it on, he turns it off... Bed is soaking wet from my sweat and I begin to do yoga breathing to calm down. How he is cold is beyond me! Grr! Luckily I wake up in much better condition. The mystery yellow pills worked! (Or I could have just sweat out the sickness during the night as my grandfather used to do… double shot of whiskey + electric blanket = new person in the AM)
From Piura a two-day driving trek follows to the city of Chachapoyas, located in the Amazonas region of Peru. Scenery is totally different than Loja. Flat, scrub brush and pretty dry. Farmers growing passion fruit everywhere and living in homes built of mud and tree branches. We stop for the night in the town of Olmos, which “olmost” looks like a war zone to me. A gringa approaches at the hotel and it turns out to be her Peace Corps Peru site! And, I had already met her once at a Hanukkah party when she was traveling through Ecuador. Small world!
Finally arrive in Chachapoyas after traveling on a crazy road through a high-walled canyon with a rushing river. Chach, as I will call it from this point on, is actually really nice. Lots of old Spanish architecture and history. We stay at an old Spanish home turned hotel for three nights. We have a few meetings at my organization’s Chach office.
On the bumpiest dirt road ever, we head to check out a site that my organization is looking to conserve, which is highly threatened by encroaching cattle farmers. It’s a high-altitude palm forest, one-of-a-kind, and they already identified two new species of palms previously unknown to man.
Next day involves lots of site seeing. The Chachapoyan people lived in this area for hundreds of years before being taken over by the Incans, and finally the Spanish, and many ruins have been found. We visit the Kuelap archaeological site (another dirt road on the side of a mountain for several hours to get there), some other archaeological sites I can’t remember, the Gocta waterfall – fifth highest in the world, some museums, some mummies, and the 3300 ft deep Sonche Canyon. Neat stuff.
Finally, we make the journey back to Loja, which takes another two days. After 8 hours of driving on all dirt roads, I think some pieces of my brain have come loose and are now rattling around in my brain. The border crossing we take this time (south of the Ecuadorian city of Zumba) is seldom used and is basically a guy that needs to go look for the key to unlock the gate so we can drive across the bridge. The road here is full of potholes and not much more than a car width wide with thick jungle vegetation sprouting into the roadway. The occasional pineapple stand is a welcome break.
When we hit the pavement about an hour and a half south of Loja, it’s like heaven. So smooth and wonderful. My head slowly begins to recover and the familiar sites of Loja soon appear. I enter my apartment, hit my bed, and sleep for the next 14 hours straight!

Enjoy the photos... lots of them this post.

Moving - The Peruvian way.

Scrub brush landscape

The town of Olmos - a Peace Corps Peru site

Porcuya Pass - The lowest pass in the Andes that crosses the continental divide

Mmm... roadside arroz con pollo for sale during a construction roadblock

Construction crews using mules to carry equipment down the mountainside

Roadside adobe homes

My bird obsessed counterpart scanning the mountains during another roadblock

Chachapoyas at night

Chach Church

Chach Street

Chach buildings

Chachapoyan mummies! They were buried in this position. The one on the left still has hair!

A demonstration of the Peruvian dance called the Marinera, sometimes done with a horse "dancing" as well

And then they decide to pull me into the mix!

Checking out the Chachapoyan nightlife

The Sonche Canyon - over 3000 ft deep

The palm forest that we're trying to conserve. All those trees in the distance are palms.

Local settler near the palm forest

The road to the Kuelap ruins. Note hair pin turn to the right with no guardrails!

Inside Kuelap. There are over a hundred of these circular homes remaining.

Our 16 year old tour guide!

My counterpart amongst the ruins

House in excellent condition with reconstucted roof. The Chachapoyans used this diamond design in much of their art and architecture.

One of only three entrances to the Kuelap complex. Only one person could fit through at a time for security reasons.

Rock engravings

They could see anyone coming for a long ways

The Gocta Waterfall - Fifth highest in the world. Unfortunately is was extremely dry and there wasn't much water.

No McDonald's or Dunkin' Donuts out here! Instead freshly picked pineapples are the common roadside snack.

This happy guy liked getting his picture taken and seeing it on the screen while his mom cut up a pineapple for us.

The slow and bumpy ride home. Just one of many obstacles we encountered.

Cherimoyas YUM!

2010-03-05T12:06:00.000-05:00

If you haven't had a chance to taste this amazing fruit, also known as the custard apple, you need to! It's by far the best fruit I've ever had in my life, and Mark Twain once said that it's "the most delicious fruit known to men." Native to the Andean valleys of Ecuador and Peru, the cherimoya has the texture of a soft pear and the flavors are a blend of banana, pineapple, strawberry, papaya and a touch of bubblegum!

The problem with the cherimoya is that it's very susceptible to pests and the soft flesh is easily damaged during transport. Small farmers south of Loja have been growing cherimoyas for many years, but the quality has been pretty poor and no supermarkets were interested in the sub-par fruits. In local markets, the farmers could only get 12 or 13 cents for each kilogram of fruit, further exacerbating poverty in one of the poorest regions in Ecuador. To improve quality, my organization, Nature and Culture International, along with other regional organizations and the European Union, started the Cherla Project to teach farmers how to grow better quality fruits using better seed selection and germination techniques, pruning techniques for increasing the yield of each tree, improved transportation methods, and a technique in which a fine mesh enclosure is placed over each of the young fruits to protect them from insects while growing. The project was a great success and now major supermarkets have taken notice and are paying the farmers $1.25/kilogram for these high-quality cherimoyas - a ten-fold increase in the price! The farmers involved in the program are extremely motivated since they can now purchase basic goods for their families and invest in the education of their children.

Cherimoya attacked by insects

Sub-par cherimoyas before the Cherla Program

Yuck!

Cherimoya transport before the program with typical house in background

Bags of cherimoyas heading to market (and getting smooshed along the way)

New mesh coverings prevent insect damage and eliminate the need for any pesticides

New transport crates prevent damage to the fruit

100% Premium Organic Cherimoyas ready for sale

Picture perfect creamy white flesh

Local child holding a new and improved cherimoya

Making cherimoya preserves with a local community

A local family with their new premium cherimoyas

Carnaval!

2010-02-23T14:53:00.000-05:00

Four-hour parades with only 5 floats, canned spray foam attacks, water balloon drive-bys, eggs seemingly dropping out of thin air, dancing in the mud, getting water sprayed in your bus window, roadside foods fried in copious amounts of oil, awful sugar cane liquor, and of course hoochie-mamas with shiny gold boots pulled up above the knee and tighter-than-tight gold short-shorts doing synchronized dancing on stage to Ecuadorian folk mucic.

This, my friends, describes just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Carnaval in Ecuador. A country-wide four-day Mardis Gras-type celebration, Ecuadorians get REALLY into this holiday and water balloon attacks are as common from 10-year old kids as from 40-year old moms. In fact the festivities started out at my office, when after a company lunch, each of us was coerced into sitting in a plastic lawn chair out front fully-clothed. Then we were attacked with the hose and 5 gallon buckets of water until we were thoroughly drenched and walking like penguins due to our pant legs sticking to our bodies!

From Loja I headed to Vilcabamba where two other volunteers (Andy and Janet) and I laid low since the Ecuadorians love attacking the gringos. We watched a few parades, had some dinner, and headed to a cool trout place where they pull the trout right out of the river and fry it up for you.

Then I headed off to the jungle to meet up with some other folks, and this is where the real Carnaval began (unfortunately no photos due to the fact that my camera doesn't play well with lots of foam and water!). We spent the majority of the time in a town call Chicaña, where thousands of moderately inebriated people danced in a muddy field and bathed in a not-so-clean river. Very fun (in a white-trash trailer park kind of way)! And, yes, I couldn't resist the temptation and went through three cans of spray foam myself!

Here are a few photos of the not-so-wet portion of Carnaval...

Ready for the horse trotting part of the parade with traditional southern Ecuador hat

Vilcabamba's old folks doing a dance. All nearing 100 years old!

Vilcabamba is known as the Valley of Longevity, with a much higher than normal percentage of the population living into the triple digits.

Niña de Carnaval

Señorita de Carnaval (recently sprayed with foam)

Traditional Dancing

More Dancing

There was a float for the Swine Flu! Literally, "Get out of here swine flu!"

The gringos escaping to a safe area for dinner.

The pinnacle of safety.

Foamed!

Giddy Up

2010-02-05T12:45:00.001-05:00

I had never ridden a horse before coming to Ecuador (unless you count the 5 minute pony rides at Camp Crestwood when I was seven, and I certainly don't!).

So, when I was suddenly thrown on the saddle of a horse for the dedication of a new environmental education center with the full assumption that I was a midwestern cowboy, I attempted to play the part well. But Long Island Jews aren't supposed to know how to ride horses, and I ended up arriving at the top of the mountain 45 minutes after everyone else including four 16 year old "reinas" or local beauty queens - an essential part of any official Ecuadorian event. It's not my fault that all my horse wanted to do was nibble on grass and poop, but as the strange gringo from North America, everything's excusable and all anybody wanted me to do was pose for pictures with the reinas.

After my first traumatic equine experience, I somehow voluntarily decided to go on a 2 day horseback riding trip with some friends in the Podocarpus National Park near Vilcabamba, about 45 minutes south of where I live. And, once again my horse was far from cooperative! At first he started galloping along with everyone, thoroughly disturbing my manhood with each stride, but after an hour of climbing in the Andes he decided that it sucks for him to be giving me a free ride and that it would be easier to turn around and head back down. Yes, he actually did a 180 and started going downhill! So, I ended up having to jump off the saddle and walk him up the mountain.

Don't think I'll be entering any rodeos anytime soon! Here are a couple of photos...

The 4th Livestock Fair Reina getting ready to saddle up!

Me and the reinas

Uncooperative horse #2 and gringo with floppy gringo hat

Fording a river

Andean views

Heading the opposite direction on lazy horse #2

Gina and Holly after 2 days of riding

Day of the Dead

2010-01-25T12:01:00.002-05:00

Although the Day of the Dead or Dia de los Difuntos happened back in November, you're all aware that my 2009 blogging skills were a bit impaired. So, you're getting the post now!

At the beginning of November, Ecuadorians celebrate this holiday by heading to the cemeteries (which resemble apartment buildings for dead folks), cleaning the graves, decorating them with flowers and candles, and just spending the day close to their loved ones and "catching up" with the dead. Everyone also eats guagas de pan or bread babies, and colada morada or a thick, warm, dark purple drink. The guaguas represent the body of the deceased, while the coloda morada, which is made from blueberries, blackberries, pineapple, corn and a bunch of spices like cinnamon, cloves and lemon verbena, symbolizes the blood of the dead and the living. Some people also leave food at the grave sites, which goes back to an Incan tradition in which people would share food and anecdotes with the dead.

Enjoy the photos below.

"Here, vanity ends and equality begins"

Typical Ecuadorian cemetery

Decorating the graves

Typical grave

Childrens' graves

Family spending the day with the deceased

Baking guaguas

Guaguas de pan

Furry friends

2010-01-18T11:00:00.000-05:00

Ecuadorians generally don't listen to Bob Barker. Very few pets are spayed or neutered and cats and dogs roam everywhere. The mostly black dog/bear featured here is named Capucho and belongs to Andy Hood, fellow Peace Corps volunteer. The other furry creatures are some of Capuchos friends from the neighborhood (San Pedro de Vilcabamba).

This post goes out to Doreen S; pet lover extraordinaire and owner of more cats, dogs, birds, and rodents than you can count on your fingers and toes. She sorely misses me jumping out from under her desk in NY, each time taking a year off her life due to the scare.

Enjoy.

Deep Thought

Dog in the headlights

Lassie's Ecuadorian brother

Happy Dog

Scaredy Cat

Bedtime

King of the hill

Attack!

Frozen Flight