off to the cloud forest

Hi there
We are off on an adventure. Everyone needs an adventure now and again. So we are off to do the Dr. Dolittle kind of navigation to find Americans celebrating American Thanksgiving. We have the general idea of where to go and that is past Quito 4 hr, through to Otavalo 2 more hrs, take another bus for 2 hours to a place called Santa Rosa de Pucaro where we will walk on a dirt road that will turn into a foot path and hopefully an 1/2 hr or so find the farm house where they will be expecting us.
We are up for this we also hope to be fed turkey and will contribute to the feast as well, then we hope to find our way back to Otavalo.(Do you all remember wayyyyyy back when when both kids got sick there, ended up in the hospital and trying to make lemonade out of a bad situation the kids decided to have vomiting competitions of the side of a hotel,....... I don't think that we will go back to that hotel hmmmmm.) Then if all is well then we will go the the lake inside of the volanic crater. I will take pictures for Dane's science teacher.
We might be able to shop in Otavalo and I will maybe buy a few things there. Although everything either comes from Peru or Guatamala, I will see.
I am told that the Santa Rosa de Pucaro is in the cloud forest and there is possibly an opportunity to see the Cock of the Rock, the Bird. I thought that I would cruise the internet to make sure we would be in the right habitat to find it and wellllll you can imagine an animal with that name can cause alot in informative (shocking), explicit and I am sure full of viruses sites so be careful if you want to check this beautiful organge yet unfortunately named bird. Pointer: It might help if you put the word Andean in front of the Name.
We are leaving the house and dogs in the kind care of "Auntie Sarah", who will happily have warm showers, walks with dogs and enjoy english movies. Thank you Sarah! (She is a woofer and the farm that she has been working at has cold showers. Yuck!)
I tried to write a blog 3 times the other day but was rudely cut off 3 times so I took that as a messege from up above as to not publish that idea, It was basicly, an hint to watch Julie, Julia the movie, it was great. The end.
Talk with you all when we get back and I will inform you of the cloud forest and that Adventure.
Be good to each other and have fun and adventures.
Robin

more on the life in Ecuador

Hi there all;
I am celebrating new technology today with my first blog on my new netbook. For those of you who don't know netbooks are small versions of laptop computers with smaller memory and no dvd drive. This can all be solved with flash memory sticks and an outside driver. Cool hey, I am still trying to get used to the smaller format of the keyboard though, so I am making alot of mistakes yet.
And now for something completely different....here is something to think about in Ecuador, we are having an energy crisis. This in detail means that, like dominos, a crisis has happened, but like all good Ecuadorians, they are taking it all in stride. There is a drought here in Ecuador that has particularly has struck the large city of Cuenca. Can you imagine such a huge city with is known because it is in the crux of 3 rivers, and there is not enough water to power the turbines to make energy, so all of Ecuador is sharing power. Every day, we share power by not having the power on for 4 hours per day. There is a schedule of the "brown outs" so it is really no biggie. Everyone just adapts and takes it in stride and happily shares the power.
We were in Quito recently, picking up Rob from the Airport and were staying in the touristy area of the Mariscal (one of my favorite places), when they had their turn for the brown out (every city has 4 hours of no power except the larger cities who have areas, barrios, that take turns shutting off the power. We just got into a taxi and went to an area that had power. We then went to the subtropical town of Mindo and of course they had their allotted power out and that was ok too.
One of the reasons that they are without power is that Ecuador is no longer having good relations with Columbia because of the Farq and other issues, the Columbians are not selling power to Ecuador.
When Rob, the kids and I returned to Quito, again the Mariscal was brown outted. Because this area is also touristy there is usually higher crime. We were staying in the Maple Hostel and they with their neighbors have a permanent security guard for their guests. However, some of the tourists staying there claimed that walking at night was dangerous and that there had been numberous muggings. Dane, Rob and I went out and had no problems, so there you go. You can be cautious and ask for trouble by looking like a victim or you can also look confident and nothing happens. This is the "Secret" in action. Of course, I also put my shirt over my bummy pack and it made me look pregnant and every now and again I would rub it and pretend. I got alot of looks but no problems. Rob didn't feel too romantic afterward because he just didn't want to go there, if you know what I mean.
Anyway, enough of the energy crisis, when we were in Mindo we went Canoping. Now if any of you know me, you know that I hate heights but this was great. I loved it. We went with the group who are brothers and sisters to preserve the land and run this together. Very nice people. There were 10 of us in this group and the tour was 1- 1 1/2 hours. Got the fun pictures of everyone flying through the air and also one of a marvelous and unique toucan. I love my camera. Anyway, if you were to go there I recommend the canopying and visiting the butterfly farm.
Here is the sad story though. There too in the supposed dense and lush jungle was dry dry dry. Scarey hey. They were actually and still are very worried, claiming global warming. Those of you out there claiming global warming is a fantasy don't live in these areas that are been affected. YIKES.
Back here in Banos, it turns out we are also being affected by the drought as just down the road is the Agoyan Hydro dam and it is also unable to fully function to just over half power.
Okay, I will give up on talking about the global change and its affects................ hmmmmm, I know we will talk about H1N1, oh yeah that is mostly in the northern hemisphere that is worrying into a panic. Not here, people are taking it in stride and not adding fuel to this world wide panic/distraction that the government is doing to take peoples attention from where it should be the economy and global warming. So unless they make it law and they can find me, I will not be dropping my pants and exposing my delicate rear for them to jab into their pointy poison. I left Canada after having to drop my economic and political pants to take that in another way if you get my drift, SORRY again I digress....... I will talk about something safe again. I love living in Ecuador, there is still freedom here, real freedom. I feel we made the right decision by leaving Canada. I miss silly things really, like jelly beans and red licorice but here I can breath and relax. I guess that is one of the reasons for staying here, peace of mind and good people. My vote: come and visit Ecuador, while you still can witness its' marvels.
Think clearly and question everything.
Robin