Happy Updates

Well, there are some new paintings on the website that you all can browse. I am happy to say that there is more to look at with the help of Ivy Mills my site designer. Snaps to Ivy and around of applause.
Here life is a happening since I last blogged, our son had his birthday here, 14 years old, hard to believe. Had a great time, enjoyed his age, went to the park, opended presents, had diner and cake. We will take him to the hot springs and maybe get him a massage too. Life is good here.
Went to the Jungle, had a great time and had a few drinks there with the traditional ¨Salud and ching ching.¨ Paul and Susanna took us with them, including the dog, and both Dane and the dog really enjoyed the monkeys. They love to steal mosquito repellent (those intelligent varments know what it is for), and love to raid the restuarants, quite fun really.
We basicly learned that if it has more legs than you it bites, if it is very small, it bites, if it is fuzzy, it bites, if it is quite large for a bug, it bites. And they are biting therefore pack the bug repellent.
We went to the market in Tena, where in a plastic bowl large, moving larva were for the eating. Yikes, it was like survivor. Then a little old lady, for a buck, ate one, I almost ralphed. ching ching to the little old lady. Went to the Zoo, very cool in Tena saw a wide varity of animals and we were followed by a cotamundi (long nosed racoon) a very natural environment, but it frickin rained and I mean rained, the whole afternoon. We all agreed it is called the rainforest for a reason. Went for a jungle tour and a Quechua local gave us a tour of life here and went on a bit of a canoe ride. The river was very high and the problem with that is the undertow is amazing and very dangerous. Apparently, it is like an iceberg and underneath is where all the stumps and debris is pulling things underneath. Yikes. Paul and Susanna took us along to the rainforest with them, they are fantastic, so here is a shameless plug for their hostel. TIMARA, here in Baños. They have been fantastic and very patient with us, we are finally able to buy there house here in Baños. And now the fun begins. We probably be visiting them often.
The Spanish lessons are great too, Mario is amazing, he is taking time out for teaching us with his busy schedule of being the principle of one of the local childrens school to teach us. We will enjoy volunteering for the school helping with english or whatever they might need.
With regards to the house, the problem with transferring money here is that they are much like doctor dolittle with regards to addresses. they basicly say, on this street and that street and round about between the two of them sort of. This made our bank a bit nervous, especially for that kind of money transfer. Needless to say the money is here and well and now we can go ahead and buy the house, and furnature and possibly are vehicle. We did after all promise him time to go surfing and I like to keep my promises.
Had a bit of a to do with the dog. She learned from the hostel´s dog to go into the garbage and swallowed a bone. So off we went to the vet in Ambato to get help, she was just fine, throwing up alot though, and we saw the offensive bone in the X-ray. So with patience and meds, out she came. The hostels´dog ¨Gringa¨, got the shot for the morning after, She had a party with a bunch of other dogs in the street (with out protection I might add) and probably got knocked up. Shameless hussy. So in the very near future she is going to have an operation. The cost of our dog (plus X-ray´s) $72.00 and Gringa $125.00 great hey.
I have to go now and get ready for my spanish lesson. It is getting quite interesting trying to write in english. I keep doing the spanglish thing. Sorry if it gets weird trying to understand but the blog will keep me in English.
Talk with you all soon.
Robin

Cities and their specialties

Hi all
Here in Ecuador, it is very interesting. Everyone is clear in their destiny.
We are just about to buy our house, and the old owner is helping us a great deal. In fact, it would be very difficult to do it with out her and her husband. Here, you can often buy the house fully furnished, but unfortunately in our case some of our tastes differ. We are interested in modern or art nouveau, and most people here are into darker, more elaborately carved woods, similar to the french renaisance. They get so much light here, they tend to like the darker woods and stains and since we have always been around darker light of Canada, we tend to like the lighter woods and stains. Anyway, I digress again. There is a little town close to us that makes and carves muebles (furnature), Huanbelo is the name. They make fabulous furnature and even the more modern designes. Susanna of Timara hostel, one of the owners of the house we want, took Rob and myself on a day trip. She took us to this city and then to Ambato. In Ambato, we went to hardware stores and fabulous furnature stores. This is when it is important to know people here. Often we would say we would like something and she would tell us where we could buy it from the factory for less cost. She said for example the wonderful ceramic tiles that you can buy for $7- 30 per square meter (roughly 9 tiles) is best bought near Quito. We went to another Muestro (Master of Woodcrafts and Furnature), here in Baños and you can buy an incredible headboard, footboard, side tables and mirror drawer thingy for guess.... $1000.00 solid hard exotic wood hand carved, designed with your choice of fabric, to your satisfaction. Needless to say, we will be having Muestro SanFransico of Baños create our furnature. The wood they use here is very hard and durable. They use this material because of termite problems. They often give a 10 year guarantee just for the termites, hence the houses here are made of concrete and not wood.
We bought pots and pans, juicers (a definite must, the mercado puts too much sugar in), Susanna told us that when you make large purchases, it is expected that the company give you a gift for shopping there. She is one heck or a tough barganer. So for no extra cost, Susanna made sure they threw in 12 wine glasses and a measuring set. Again, this is when it is good to go with someone who knows the ropes. There was one furnature company who would also include a fold out bed for purchasing a living room set or a glass and wood coffee table. This set is fab, it has very clean modern lines made of this very hard wood, covered with a suede like material or elephant suede in many choices of colors. Just gorgeous. We will go back when we get the money thing organized. Oh yeah, this cost also includes delivery.
She has also arranged for private spanish lessons ($3.50 an hour and he is also a school teacher). A part of his plan is to have all of us go to the school and volunteer to help the children learn english. Great fun for us and good for the kids too. He also wants them to learn spanish with the kids in the playground and lunch time for even more exposure. They would be able to make friends with other children and perhaps be able to have a more active summer. It is amazing how much I am learning and so quickly. He has explained somethings that I never understood in spanish and did it all in Spanish, no english spoken.
We have found something a bit of a drag though..... Our bank in Canada informed us that Ecuador and other latin american countries are somewhat black listed in transferring moneys electronicly. They have suggested that it might be better to have a bank draft couriered to Quito and we pick it up. But they also said it could still be robbed there too. We have sent out feelers to various people we know of who have bought and are also land investers here to help us out and give us suggestions. I will keep you all posted.
Susanna (she is Ecuadorian) is not the only one helping us by any means either, her husband Paulo (he is british) has given us tips on purchasing foods and answering our endless questions, translating and generally putting up with us and our dog. I have to say though finally his dog and our dog are becoming friends....sort of. He gets snaps for patience and endurance.
What is amazing about this couple is that they are experts in the jungle. Paul is renowned in spider/turantulas and has discovered several species of spiders, and Susanna is a renowned expert in butterflies and beetles and has also dicovered species. They have said they would like to take us to the Oriente (jungle). It would be alot of fun, and I could get some great pictures for painting. I noticed that there are not really great art or wildlife cards,or prints and that maybe I could fill this niche. The trip would be rather hot and buggy, but I think it would be well worth it. Susanna used to run guided tours through the Oriente and she and Paul really know their stuff. I would like the opportunity to help educate some of the locals (a very difficult path) about conservation and appreciation of their ecosystem. I have found that if you use humor and art you can do amazing things and have realizations.
Talk with you all soon.
Robin

Back in Baños

Hi all
We are back in Baños. Now that really took a while and is certainly not a simple tale but one riddled with many convolutions and anticipation of final outcomes. (Well said, hey. Took me a while but well worth the effort. )
We made the decision to leave after the first night of returning back to Canada. Prices, inflation........Yikes! We decided to complete things here and of course the most important one was the paper work, which I absolutely hate and am usless at. The accountants love me too, I think they shudder inside when they see me carrying my shoe box full of receipts and paper. But we did our paper work (taxes) and didn´t have to pay anything, in fact Rob is getting money back. Now that is a first for me. I had dreams of taxmen in my pockets like beggars on the street, but that is another story and doesn´t need to be discussed.
We house sat for two families for a while and came to this conclusion. ¨We need to leave.¨and so we did. Life there right now seems very stressfull and the energy high with tension and fear. At least that is what it felt like to me. I may be wrong, I am wrong about those things only a few times, my intuition is very good sometimes too good. I wonder if that has to do with being a massage therapist for so many years and dealing with so many people or whether it comes naturally or both. Probably both. My intuition tells me this is where we need to be and so we are. It might also be having more confidence in myself especially after having so many women be so supportive, especially the group of women in Salmon Arm (you know who you are). And I thank you so much.
Getting the dog down was a major hassle and I don´t think that I would EVER do it again. Finally, we had to get an agent to handle the paper work and all that jazz. He was great and kept telling me it would be OK. Reason for me being worried, they are having their Labor Day now and that means they shut down all gov´t offices for the LONG weekend and there would be no one to feed or water her. And if we had to pick her up on Tuesday, Yikes. Poor puppy. But it all came out fine, and we got her out of doggy prison, where upon she drank almost 2 liters of h2o ate and eliminated as to be expected. Rob and Dane put her on the plane and Rachelle and I flew ahead to catch her when she landed. The airline insisted on this, it made everything down here legisticly more difficult. Oh well, it is how they do things here. So we are waiting for Rob and Dane to get here, right this instant they are waiting for their plane that will take then to Quito. Then they will spend the night and maybe come to Baños right away or have a sightseeing day in Quito, who knows. All is well.
Funny thing about having a dog (rottie cross) is that everyone is afraid of her. Here in town, they think she is the devil reborn with glossy black fur and big white teeth. However, they fail to see the tail wagging and pink tongue hanging out wanting to lick you to happiness. Very few people know about them, even though they are all over the place walking around, who knew. She is adapting well, though you can see she is stressed out a bit. I guess so many new faces and new smells and new sounds, it could make anyone stressed, never mind the dog.
But life here is grand so far, and we have been warned that after a time you will love it or leave it. One of the important realizations, is that it is not like anywhere but here and that is what you must accept. So far that´s just great with me. But if we don´t like it later, well there are other beautiful places in the world too.
Since it is a holiday here, there are quite a few people in the town and there is music and smells of food and last night, lights and performers, it was really nice, but I don´t expect that every day. I love looking at the candy makers, stretching the cooked sugar on hooks. They are all different colors and have a shiny glow like interference paint. Quite beautiful. They grow sugar cane here, and naturally this town makes candy.
I can feel the creative flow beginning to burn in my body, I know that soon I will have to create again. In the past if I went too long without creating art, I would get sick, and I am not willing to do that right now, so.....
I can´t wait to paint. I brought down with me, my artist quality paints and even canvases that I had laid out already. I will start with the animals first. I feel the need to express the freedom that I am feeling, so I will start with the Peregrin falcon. I´ll let you all know the results. It seems that I can put the pictures on a separate site and direct you all there. I will be also painting in the future the flowers and insects here. They are fascinating. The light here is different than Canada, sharper, lighter, and if I could find a color for it , Whiter.
Speaking of which, for all those interested, there should be some new paintings on the website soon, it is at the webmaster to be put on, keep you all posted.
I am at an internet cafe, there are a million of them here, and the dog is wanting to do something. So we will walk the dog with the hostels dog and hopefully they will get along better.
Thanks for hanging out with me.
Robin