Cotton candy, Abba and Elderly dancers: Fiestas de Quito!

Today, December 6th, marks the anniversary of the founding of Quito in 1534 by the Spanish conquistador, Sebastián de Benalcázar. It was interesting for me to see that while the country celebrates its independence from Spain every August, the city of Quito celebrates, with equal enthusiasm, the conquering of this city by the Spanish in the 1500s. 
We decided to stay in the city for this long weekend and check out the festivities - and I'm glad we did.
Some highlights:

• A 6-hour long parade along Shyris, one of the main avenues, featuring marching bands, Flamenco dancers, papier-mache giants and an endless number of merchants selling homemade ice-cream, potato chips, and cotton candy (on enormous poles, of course).

To blog or not to blog?

      So, it has been more than a year since I last posted on this blog, and I'm wondering if it is worth reviving it or if I should just let it go. Upon awaking from its coma, my blog seems to be having an identity crisis - should it be a travel blog, a diary, a photo gallery, a place to write...I'm really not sure. I guess I need to figure out what I want to say - and what people want to read. It seems pointless to write a blog if no one will read it. After all, the whole purpose of blogging is to communicate something. But if people who write about how often they change their baby's diapers can get people to read their blogs then I'm sure I can think of something that people will want to read!
     I was interested to discover that one website that provided traffic to our blog is http://remroom.ru, which appears to belong to a family-owned Russian real estate company. Since I can't read Russian (if it is indeed Russian) I can't figure out how that page links to mine. I do like the log cabin they've got at the bottom of the page though. Maybe it's fate.

    Anyway, after a brief stint last year with some freelance writing, which I had to stop after getting in over my head with planning and marking, I feel inclined to be writing again. But writing about what we are doing here is a little boring right now since we are mostly working all of the time! Perhaps having a blog would motivate me to get back out into the wilds of Ecuador and start travelling again.

Any thoughts? Anybody out there? Send me a message if you want this blog to live!

October at the Centre of the Earth

In October we:

bought some sweet Ecuadorian wheels (circa 1981), taught with no electricity (there was a cowbell though), and celebrated my birthday with 3 cakes and flaming sushi (thanks for all the birthday wishes from afar)!

We also enjoyed delicious guaguas de pan and colada morada (a hot sweet fruit drink) at a school fiesta for Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead),

soaked in thermal hot springs in Papallacta, and explored the 'middle of the world' just outside of Quito.

Note the streamers of bras suspended from the Mitad de Mundo monument (for a breast cancer event). A nice touch!

Anyway, it's been a great month and we're looking forward to many more!