Watching Pelicans

Pelicans Waiting

Diving for Food

Happy Pelicans

My day started out on the beach with Maya watching the pelicans fly low over the water, diving in when they saw a fish, gobbling down their food, lifting off and diving again.I was happy to stay out there all day. It is interesting that tourists fly all the way to Galapagos to see so many exotic animals, when we can ignore them in our backyards. Florida appears to be a paradise to me, with birds of all sorts. My mother and I passed over a bridge yesterday and saw a very proud and large heron standing beside a fisherman, waiting to share in the catch of the day. I was stunned to see the large bird right next to the man and oblivious to the sound of the cars driving over the bridge. He appears to know the routine and was certain that he would have his dinner that afternoon.
I am enjoying this little vacation on the beach. The location is exquisite, and its best feature is how calm and quiet it is all day long. I cannot hear anything when I sleep except for the slight breeze outside my open balcony door. There is no noise or disturbance day or night. It is only the light streaming through the open balcony that awakens me. I walk outside and look over the water. There are no dogs barking or trucks shouting throughout the streets selling gas canisters (typical Quito morning). I am enjoying my kitchen, which is as big as my living/dining/kitchen area in my apartment in Quito. I am taking advantage of this space and made French toast with the obligatory maple syrup (I am afraid it will all be gone by the time we return to Quito!), and then baked a key lime pie and a key lime cheese cake and a pumpkin cheesecake and for dinner had a crowd of 12 for shrimp and salmon and asparagus and carrots and salad. I do not want to leave this kitchen!!!!

I did have a chance to do last minute Christmas shopping and braved the crowds and the waiting in line to complete my lists. My father was desperate to get out of the house and see a little bit of the area. It is a very long drive to the shopping centre, and once again I was struck by the wide open spaces. I did not realize how tight everything feels in Quito. This is urban (?suburban? ) sprawl with one city blending into the next, from St Pete Beach to Pasadena to St Petersburg. Buildings are wide apart, there are large areas of green, and the terrain is flat. It could be that Quito feels 'tight' because it is sandwiched between high mountains and is built up the sides of the valleys. In Quito it feels as if there are too many people crowded in a tight space whereas here only in the shopping malls do I feel that. Especially at Christmas time.

We had a fun and funny Christmas Eve dinner with both Eric's and my family. We sang Christmas songs and Abba songs, the latter which Tara teaches to primary school children, complete with hand movements and gestures to indicate meaning. We all like to sing "The Twelve Days of Christmas' with specific hand movements, and had everyone laughing and joining in.

Singing Christmas Carols

Sisters Together

I am happy to see my family. I realize that home is where one's family is, and am lucky to be here celebrating with them. My day ended with a midnight walk on the beach with the moon illuminating the scene. Once again it was peaceful and serene.

Maya Entertaining Us

Baking and Packing

Cartwheels on the Beach

Eric and I are still packing presents at 1:15 in the morning, and losing energy and enthusiasm. It is the usual rush before Christmas; no matter how prepared I am, I always feel there is a increase in intensity before the celebration. This year in particular, I was unable to prepare much. We arrived early Tuesday morning, to a home that had not been occupied, and not ready for us at all. The fridge and the pantry were bare, there were no Christmas decorations up; we had to start from scratch. Just rebuilding the pantry took several visits to the local grocery store. We were lucky to find a tree at all. The tree lots were bare, and Marc and Eric picked through the remains at Publix and paid ten dollars for a perfectly respectable one. Eric and Maya put the lights and decorations up today, so the house is looking more festive. It smells good too; I have been baking sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, thumbprint cookies, Mexican Wedding cookies, and a key lime pie ( I found key lime juice in the freezer, in fact there are dozens of containers of key lime juice filling up the freezer entirely, so it seemed that key lime pie was asking to be made).

Christmas Tree Getting Ready

My parents brought us maple syrup form Canada, so we ate waffles this morning, with strawberries and whipped cream and syrup. I have been craving maple syrup for months now, and it is not available in Ecuador, so I feel very lucky to have a big jug of it. I subjected the family (actually it was the extended family, including Eric's parents and grandparents, his brother and my parents and Eric and Maya) to locro de papa for dinner. I made two pots of soup, and put mozzarella in one and a Mexican 'queso fresco' in the other, since I did not find the usual 'queso fresco' that we use in Quito. It appeared that the mozzarella soup was the preferred one. I could not find achiote, so I used paprika instead, which did not appear to interfere with the taste of the soup. Eric bought wonderful avocados, and I added green onions and feta cheese along with the ubiquitous 'canguil'. It was interesting that the popcorn did not taste as good as it does in Quito. I was never a popcorn fan until we moved to Ecuador, but have enjoyed it more and more, since it appears to be added to almost every meal there, and is tasty and delicious. The popcorn we had today was plain and tasteless. The soup was well received. It is a heavy meal and did not require more than the soup and a salad and fruit for dessert. If I have energy later in the week, I will try llapingachos and chorizo, or even a ceviche!

Brunch is the Best Meal of the Day

I managed to get out shopping today and was able to cross more off my list. I got out to the beach as well, and wandered along the sand looking for shells and watching the pelicans swoop down to catch fish and the sandpipers digging their beaks in the sand and the gulls hanging around looking for scraps. There were a few other wanderers on the beach, but I felt uncrowded and free on the white sand. Maya did cartwheels and handstands and wanted desperately to go into the water, despite it being frigid. I could not help but put my feet in the water!

Drawing in the Sand

Sandpipers in the Sand

My daughter Tara flew in from Italy as a surprise for us all. Her flight was canceled from Milan so she was obliged to take a circuitous route through to London and spent the night in Gatwick before catching a plane to Tampa. She was ill on the plane and after a cursory greeting fell into bed to recover. It feels wonderful to have the family together for the next two weeks.

Seagull Waiting for Food

Quito feels very far away. I find myself relating all my experiences with crime in Ecuador, and that does not seem fair, because there is so much more to our lives there! I hope that I am able to remember our year for all the wonderful adventures we have had.

Flowers in the Sand

Sunset

Big Differences

Beautiful Beach

St Pete Beach and Quito are worlds apart. I am struck here by the space, by the vastness of everything. There are huge lawns, the houses sit far back from the road, so very different from the tight streets of Quito where houses are hidden by high walls which abut on the street. Homes here are so large, generally the streets are cleaner and the houses more well kept on the outside. There are fewer cars on the road, and the cars that I see are larger and more powerful than the majority of cars in Quito. We are staying in a lovely home by the beach and it is quiet and peaceful in the house, it hardly feels as if we have any neighbours.

Vast Expanses

Food is so much more expensive than in Quito,especially in the airport with substandard quality. Eric went out armed with my list for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinner, and brought back a small a fraction of the items and spent our whole budget for the next week! We do have our turkey and our ham and our salmon, so we have the main ingredients for the main menu items; we may jsut decide to simplify our recipes, which is fine. I have been reading through recipe books all day searching on the right combination of dishes for each main meal.

We found another Christmas tree and the lights are up and we are ready to trim our second tree of the month. We started baking Christmas cookies and the house smells yummy. My parents arrived before dinner and we were all delighted to spend time with them drinking good wine and reminiscing. We were here in 2002 with the whole family, and that our last visit until today.

Quito feels very far away, but it feels like home and St Pete feels very much like a vacation. I love Christmas, and am making all sorts of plans to make the holiday as wonderful as possible.

Grandmothers and Joy

Grandfathers to Hug

Showing off Skills

Back in the USA

Driving by the Stadium

It has not taken long for Quito to become 'home', so it feels that we are abandoning what is familiar for the unknown. I spent half the night packing, woke up early, packed some more, brought our presents to the guards and had my morning cappuccino before the 'apagones' started, and we all squeezed into a miniature taxi, with bags between us and on our laps to wade through the morning traffic to the airport. Everything went smoothly, except that we had to fly to Guayaquil, go through security again and wait for the connection to Miami, but traveling is calming for me. I have so little control over anything that happens, so I just enjoy the time I have to read and relax. Aerogal treated us well (the food was edible!), and I got through customs in Miami without incident. I am accustomed to being diverted to 'the pen' where I have waited hours and hours to be processed through immigration, often missing my connecting flight. This time, however, coming in with Eric made a difference, and I had my fingerprints checked to ensure I matched my green card, so I was spared the demoralizing experience in the 'special' room for suspicious travelers.

Past Quicentro

Past Banks and Businesses

Driving Down Amazonas

Superior Modes of Transportation

Colourful Businesses

Past the Plaza de Toros

Ecuadorians Like their Extreme Sports

Bye to Metrobus

Miami airport has no redeeming qualities, except that I enjoyed the bathroom where there was ample toilet paper and toilet covers and I could actually sit on the toilet rather than hover over it, and I could throw the toilet paper down the toilet and everything flushed away as I stood up. What a relief! I will enjoy public bathrooms as much as possible while I am here.

We decided to celebrate Christmas at St. Pete Beach in Florida. Eric's family lives there, and my parents are delighted to escape from minus 40 degree weather in Edmonton. My sister is sailing in the Caribbean over the holidays and will join us closer to New Year's. I am hoping that Tara is flying from Italy to surprise us. I am looking forward to lots of Christmas baking and walks on the beach and catching up and relaxing. I am a little regretful that we will miss the wild snowstorm in the east; I do like a white Christmas.

Arrival in Miami

Christmas and Music

Baking Cookies

Quito is in frenzy once again. The streets are jam packed with vehicles and pedestrians. We live near large shopping mall called Quicentro, and for the past week, traffic has been intense, and because our street, Republca del Salvador, leads directly to the entrance of the parking garage, cars are backed up, so much so that the police closed off the block in front of our apartment, allowing only residents to enter. I am amazed at the number of shoppers. Quicentro has expensive stores, so I wonder how it is possible for so many to afford to purchase anything. I so go to Quicentro for coffee or for a treat, but I never consider shopping there. Instead, I like to visit the Centro Historico, where even more people have been shopping this past week.

One tradition here is to give an assortment of candy and cookies to your employees or children or teacher or other non-family member. Either you can put your own bag together and choose what to put into your bag, or you can buy a ready made one in every size imaginable. There are several stores in the center which opened up these past few weeks and they are packed with customers putting their bags together. Huge gift baskets are on the continuum. I bought five $3 bags for our three guards at the apartment building and Gustavo, who cleans his apartment, and for his father Fidel, who referred Gustavo to us. Actually, I hired Fidel, who came the first few times and then suddenly brought Gustavo to replace him, without much of an explanation. We have been happy with Gustavo, who attends university and studies Italian, and is very appreciative about working for us.

Maya received a bag of goodies after her orchestra yesterday and again after her ballet performance. She stuffed herself with candy yesterday, and all the rejected sweets are left for Eric and I to munch on.

The streets of the old town were teeming with shoppers yesterday. Several shops which Amparo had recommended were so packed with people that I did not feel comfortable entering. The economy may be imploding here, but that was not at all obvious in Quicentro or in the Centro Historico; everyone is out buying presents, there are Christmas lights and Christmas designs everywhere. Little kisosks have shown up on every corner selling wrapping paper and cards and ribbons.The tents in La Carolina house the Christmas market, where trees and bulbs and lights and wrapping paper and nacimientos are available for sale.

Today, we focused on the Artesanal Market near the Mariscal, where I had no bargaining energy today. I paid almost full price for everything I bought. Of course the prices are far lower than would be expected in the United States, but I still know when I have overpaid, and that does not feel good. On the other hand, I wanted to get my list taken care of, and I think I am almost there. When we leave Quito tomorrow, there is a gauntlet of shops before going through passport control, which has most everything available, so Maya still has a few things to buy before we leave. There are more shops in the duty free section just before we board the plane. We arrive at the airport almost three hours before the flight, so we will have time to finish our shopping.

Artisanal Market

We were invited for brunch at the Canadian ambassador's home, and Maya went wild with the friends she had last seen at her birthday party. It was a relaxing and stress free interlude for the adults. Maya ran through the house and made lots of noise and then cut out cookies to bake. It was difficult to drag her away and we ended up being the last guests to leave.

Baking

I wanted to return to the 'Casa de la Musica' to hear Christmas music, and we heard a lovely concert with a combination of choral groups and instrumental performances. I have learned that Quito is full of music all the time. On any given night there are several venues offering all sorts of styles of music, from classical to Andean to folkloric to rock. Often it is a challenge to decide which particular concert to go to. Of course there is dance and theatre and poet reading and dance clubs and more to choose from as well. Quitenos like to hear music and see dancing and theatre. The acoustics of the Casa de la Musica are the best in town, but not enough to prevent Eric from falling asleep.

Casa de la Musica

I cannot believe that almost half our time in Ecuador is over. We will fly to Miami tomorrow and return in three weeks with our group of Johns Hopkins students. I wonder what it will feel like to leave, and how we will transition back to our lives here.

Music and Ballet

Maya with First Violins

Maya had a full day of music and dancing. She committed herself to both a concert and a ballet performance on the same day at overlapping times. She had daily rehearsals all week for both ballet and orchestra at the same times, and went to orchestra Monday and Friday and ballet Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. She kept insisting that she would make it to both events. I had no idea what to say to her conductor or her ballet teacher, so I avoided them both. I thought eventually Maya would decide to give up one or the other, but I was quite wrong in my assumption.

Casa de la Musica

She wore her ballet clothes under her concert attire, and we drove early to the 'Casa de la Musica'. The concert hall is high up the side of a mountain with a great view of the valley. As we walked in, a fellow musician told Maya that she could not play in the concert because she had missed most of her rehearsals during the past week. Several more children confirmed that they had heard the same. I was ready to leave and head to her ballet rehearsal, but Maya talked to the first violinists' teacher and found herself reinstated. I left her to tune and prepare herself with her musician friends, and raced to the 'Casa de la Cultura' where I spoke to her ballet teachers and explained that she would be late to her rehearsal. I did not tell them exactly how late. I raced back to the concert hall in time for the performance to begin. The children played the March from Carmen, The Synchopated Clock, a gorgeous Christmas Carol called 'Claveles y Roses', the Pink Floyd song 'Wish You Were Here', and Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer'. The lights suddenly turned off halfway through the last song, but the children kept playing for a bit until things began to fall apart, and Felipe, the conductor, cut the song short. The children were amazingly good. Maya was absolutely certain that she wanted to play today, and I am beginning to understand why.

Maya was unfazed when we arrived two hours late to her ballet rehearsal, and joined the seventy or so ballerinas for the last part of the run through. Her two hour break went by too quickly; she had to be back at the theatre in her make up and costume by 4 PM. Isabel joined us in the audience. The ballet was 'La Fille Mal Gardee' , and what was wonderful was that every child had a significant role in the dance, and Maya was onstage throughout. Unlike Peabody, her dance program in Baltimore, where the children have limited roles, her 'Fundacion Danza' appeared to choreograph the ballet so that every role was significant, and the children in their amusing costumes were regularly on stage. Maya danced well on her pointe shoes, and missing rehearsal did not seem to be a disadvantage for her.

Dancing Girls

I have done nothing today but run around after Maya and her performances. It has been a day of music and dance for her and for me.

Shopping and Music

Folkloric Dance

I scheduled today to be a shopping day, and armed with my list and a determination to bargain, I walked across Carolina Park to a line of kiosks with Otavaleno vendors and negotiated and spent my money until there was none left. I feel accomplished and have whittled down my list so that I believe I will in fact finish by the time we leave. Hurrah!

I was sidetracked today by music. Maya had her school winter concert and played the first movement of Mozart's Concerto in G Major. She was confident and played beautifully and had her own cheering section urging her on. She also played in an ensemble with a rock group, several classical guitars and keyboards and a group of violinists. I have decided that she must play more rock and roll, to round out her musical education. I had alot of fun watching her!

Maya Playing Rock Music!!!

I took the Ecovia to the Centro Historico because I had seen all sorts of shops with potential for Christmas presents, but when I arrived around 3 PM the skies opened up and I dashed into the Teatro Sucre to find shelter. I found myself at a Christmas concert. The orchestra was comprised of guitars, Andean flutes, a huge xylophone, a base and recorders. A chorus of children joined a woman and often the entire audience, singing wonderful songs that I am hearing quite regularly through the Christmas season. None of the carols were in any way similar to the ones I know in English. It was rather amazing to hear Christmas songs so entirely different from the ones I know. When I left the theatre, it was still raining, and the stores were full of people Christmas shopping and trying to stay out of the rain. I wandered around a bit, trying to stay under balconies and keep from getting soaked, but my shopping expedition sort of fizzled and I will have to return again.

Andean Orchestra

Music was happening all over the Centro Historico. A stage was set up on the Plaza Sucre with a 'Karaoke' theme and a demonstration for world peace. Men on stilts with flags about world peace marched around Plaza Grande. A rock band was blasting away in front of San Domingo. Later a folkloric dance troupe performed at the Archbishop's Palace, mostly pasillos and pasacalles, which I am beginning to feel more familiar with. It felt as if the city was breathing music today, and I felt lucky to be part of the show.

Andean Dance

Ecuadorian Dance