Dale Presidente!

So Correa won the presidency. I think. No one can really tell me for sure. The other guy, Noboa, insists that he won, but it kind of seems like he wouldn´t no the difference if he won or didn´t win. This year marks Noboa´s third defeat in the electoral campaign, but there is nothing that helps shake off a tough loss like being worth 1 billion dollars in Ecuador. I am sure he will be all right.

Anyway watching the elections was bizarre. During one program the newscasters announced the winner according to other media organizations from other countries. Apparently Ecuador is the last country to know who its own president is. Correa is set to take power in January. So far there has been no fall out, most of my Ecuadorian friends assure me that he is not the second coming of Chavez, and a lot of people in this country really love him. Thus the honking horns. In Ecuador the qunitissential celebratory action is honking your car horn. In fact, the celebration was so rampant on Sunday night that our school´s janitor decided to not show up for school in the morning because he was ¨sick.¨Yes some excuses do exist wherever you go. Have I mentioned yet that the Ecuadorian word for ¨hungover¨is ¨chuchakis?¨The point is that Ecuadorians love Correa so much that they spent all night clinking glasses and even decided that showing up to work should be optional.

Who knows what the future will hold for Ecuador with Correa at the helm. My personal opinion is that he seems to know what he is talking about when you hear him speak, but he spends a good portion of his free time sunbathing. It will certainly be interesting to see how his time progresses. Once I finsish the history book I am currently reading, I will be able to provide some deeper insights into Ecuadorian politics. I just finished the chapter on a ex presidential gent named Buccaram. Some highlights:

1) Nicknamed ¨El Loco.¨
2) Took a conservative woman as his vice president to balance his campaign´s political bias. Also felt the need to lift up said vice president´s skirt to show off her legs during public appearances.
3) Botched his presidency so bad that the entire population of Ecuador went on strike to march on Quito and demand his resignation.
4) Embezzled ridiculous amounts of money by overpaying his family member government staff.
5) Believed privitization was the key to turning Ecuador´s fortune around-a facet of his beliefs completely absent from his original campaign

Spring Break

Every heard of Atacames?

Probably not.

However, if you ask any Ecuadorian to list his or her favorite beach destinations I would bet that Atacames makes the list. Thus my family and I decided to check it out as a way to enjoy our last couple of days together.

The bus ride from Ibarra was brutal. The quote was nine hours, but the trip took 12. One of the most peculiar parts was a twenty minute stop in the middle of nowhere, when our bus driver proceeded to leave the bus to do who knows what. He also thought that it would be a phenomenal idea to lock all of the passengers inside the bus. I had us at 2 to 1 odds of getting hijacked by nightime bandits.

Anyway we landed in Atacames worn out and exhausted only to be greeted by eight screaming RICKSHAW DRIVERS. How cool is that? In Atacames, and in many places on the coast, someone decided to do away with cabs in the face of more eco friendly eco taxis. They are basically small carriages that you might see in Central Park, but instead of being pulled by a horse, they are pushed by a mini moped. If Letterman wrote a top ten things to do at Atacames, ecotaxing around the city would be up there at number seven for sure.

The rickshaw quickly steered us to the beach and my oh my the Pacific Ocean is a stunning sight. What a feeling it was to look out onto the same ocean that washes up on my homeland´s native soil. There are few sounds like the crashing of waves against the ocean and I would put it alongside a basketball swishing into a chain net, a crowd cheering for you at an athletic event, and Guns and Roses, as some of my favorite things to listen to.

After seeing the ocean I immediately perked up to take in Atacames.

The beach probably stretches two miles or so. The sand is clean for the most part, and also possesses that fine grain softness specific to great beaches. Someone passed an ordinance that also prohibits food service on the beach. Thus the edge of the beach is lined with Thatched Roof hut bars side by side. Some of the bars even have swings that hang from the ceiling for seats. Each one possesses its own sound system that blasts away at nightime in an effort to outdo the neighboring sound systems. Island drinks are served up constantly, highlighted by some that you can drink right out of a pineapple. Some of the thatched bars even have upstairs dance floors where you can find barefooted Ecuadorian partygoers.

Quick note about the coast. It was fantastic to visit a more liberated environment after living in the Sierra for a couple months. In Ecuador the Sierras are known for their culturally rigid practices. You will never see anyone in the Sierras wearing flip flops, low cut shirts, or any other sort of hot weather clothing item even though the temperature exceeds 80 or 90 degrees. Dancing is very formal for the most part and the atmospheres are very much indoor atmospheres. In the coast however people walk around in bare feet, put sand in the hair as gel, and hop around like hobits when they are dancing. People are much more sexually liberated as well and it was nice to see some people who were in shape walking around in beach appropriate attire. In fact someone told me an Ecuadorian joke that seems appropriate: What do women in Guayaquil, Quito, and Ibarra say after sex?
Guayaquil (coastal city): What´s your name again?
Quito: Do you have a cigarette?
Ibarra: Oh fuck please don´t tell anyone

The food on the coast is also tremendous. If you have a chance stop into an Ecuadorian restaurant and order yourself a big bowl of shrimp ceviche. It´s basically a soup in which you dip banana chips that is flavored with cilantro, onion, lemon, and delicious shrimp.

Thus, as I sipping a Pina Coloda staring out onto the Pacific I finally had my first taste of Spring Break. For those of you that haven´t yet been privy to ¨Mancun¨you should know that I have spent every single Spring Break of my life with 45 dudes playing lacrosse. Thus this trip to Atacames was a wonderful glimpse of what could have been.

The other side of the coin is that hotels were 10 bucks a person, food 2 bucks a meal. Beer and drinks can be bought for less than 2 bucks a piece, and the beach is pleasant and beautiful. Why couldn´t Atacames be the next stop for MTV Spring Break 2007. Everything is cheap, it´s only slightly farther than Mexico, and you would get a chance to eat Ceviche. Atacames´set up is perfect. The thatched bars, scantily clad women painted on the bottom of the swimming pools, coccunt juice that gave my mother the runs, and little crabs that scamper around the beach would make for a perfect destination for any weary person looking for some spring break action.

If you decide to come please take me with you. Just fly to Quito. Go North and ask for the white dude when you get to Ibarra. You can bet I will be waiting fondly remembering my earlier Sping Break trips to such exciting destinations as New Canaan Connecticut, King of Prussia Mall in Philly, and Towson Maryland.

A Mother´s Love

As stated earlier Mom and Pops came to town and we had a blast. I will never forget the feeling of flushing my toilet paper down the toliet in the J.W. Mariott hotel in Quito. It´s the simple things in life. Don´t ever forget it.

Thus, in celebration of my parents coming to Ibarra, I wanted my real parents to meet my host parents, and in that simple thought this blog was born.

It all started about a month before my parents arrived in Ecuador. I explained to my host family that my parents were arriving and told them that we would be honored to take them out for lunch at their favorite restaurant. Quick sidenote: Lunch is the big meal of the day here in Ecuador. Thus if you are inviting guests you have them for lunch instead of dinner. Having someone over for diner is like asking someone if they want to come have stove top stuffing at your house at 6:15, right after you have eaten stove top at 6:00. Why are they related you might ask? Simple: both invitations are incredibly nerdy.

Anyway after this question that hemming and hawing went into overdrive. After a fifteen minute discussion I had absolutely no idea what my host parents wanted to do with my parents. Every single yes was followed by a no and every single day was followed by a different day. They simply had no idea.

This is one of the best and worst things about Ecuador. Planning something in advance is a completely foreign concept. I also dont think that it has anything to do with people not wanting to be tied down to a certain activity. I think it pretty much stems from an inability to picture one´s life that far in the future. The target area for plans in this country as far as time, place, and date go is probably like trying to land a marble in the Pacific Ocean. Sure you can sink the marble, but are you going to find it afterward??

Thus I decided my next move should be a more suave approach. The I will leave it up to you, let me know what you are thinking was our next conversation about the parental meeting.

For all intensive purposes that conversation pretty much never happened. Never even mentioned to me their ideas once. Thus I tried my third tactic, which was: Here are the dates my parents are available. Let me know tomrrow what you are thinking.

Tomorrow came and nothing. At that point I basically assumed that they just didn´t want to meet my parents. However I also knew that if I didn´t bring my parents over to my host family´s house, my host parents would be really upset. Thus I was in a position of not having a convenient time for the families to meet, but also having a responsibility to make sure the meeting happened.

My last option was coffee. 15 minutes on Monday night. My mom and dad will come over, we´ll say hello, and then we´ll leave. No sweat off anyone´s back, no pressure to have a conversation, and both would get to see one another. I also to not make this arrangement an option. My host mom agreed and she also offered to have some hors d´vours.

The meeting lasted almost three hours. My host mom prepared an outstanding four course meal. My real mom and dad did a tremendous job of plodding through their limited Spanish to communicate. One of the most fun dinners I have ever had in my life, but also easily one of the most confusing.

Why did my host mom offer snack food (comida para picar) when she was planning on making a feast? The options abound:

1) She actually talked to my parents for a spell before cooking. Maybe she wanted to make sure she could tolerate the time before going all out.

2) Maybe she said snack food so that there would be no way people could be dissapointed. If they though dinner, and dinner turned out to be gross then she would have looked bad. Expecting snack food and receiving a gourmet meal maybe seemed like a pleasant suprise. And it was let me tell you. Probably the equivalent of ordering a massage only to find out that the Masseuse is a Swedish Super Model with unbelivable hands and a dynamite accent.

3) Maybe the foods she made were Ecuadorian snack foods and I just dont get it.

4) Anything you can think of is probably as good as what I can come up with.

Whatever the reason the most stunning factor, and the reason for writing this entry, is the way my mom´s interacted at the dinner table. There sense of humor picked up almost immediately. Clearly making fun of how much food I eat was hilarious to both parties. My host mom also took immense care preparing a dinner that would show my parents how safe and cared for I am here in Ecuador. My host mom even chose the seat next to her for my mom. A mother´s love is probably the most universal concept, and a demonstration and understanding of a mother´s love comes so naturally and wonderfully to two people who come from completely different worlds. Absolutely warmed my heart to see understanding between the two women across cultural barriers.

Sorry for the quick conclusion, but I gotta run. Take care and thanks for reading.

Happy What??

First things first. HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO EVERYONE. I hope that everyone stateside is living it up with their families. I also want to apologize for not writing more but I have a dynamite excuse. My parents were in country and I got to play tour guide. It pains me to report that I wasn´t able to send them home without getting sick from the food, but I tried my best.

So today I found out one of the hardest aspects of living in a foreign country. While Christmas decorations blanket every square inch of town since three weeks ago, there is absolutely no mention of Thanksgiving, Turkeys, Pilgrims, Holidays, or Dinners with families. Nothin nathan nada. And you know what?? It is mildly freaking me out.

Obviously there is zero reason for Ecuador to celebrate Thanksgiving, so please dont think that this is causing my anxiety. It´s more that I think we as Americans build up internal stores of needing family time, and that this need to see and be with your family becomes super important at the times of the year countries have designated as holidays. Anyway on this fourth day of November I find myself wishing that everyone was in the holiday spirit, because I kind of feel like being in the holiday spirit right now. Certainly I could be suffering from a severe case of the power of suggestion, but then again it really does seem like something deeper than that. Talking to my family on the phone was almost bizarre, because I am here celebrating nothing bigger than the fact that I got out of bed, while everyone else dear to me is (hopefully) getting down to business with some serious tryptophan.

Things aren´t actually completely exempt. There is an Ecuadorian restaurant type called Parillada, which is basically ¨Eat here if you are a carnivore.¨ Parillada is piles of a shmorgezboard of meat with some potatoes dumped with a spicy delicious sauce called ahi. I could probably eat Parillada every day of the week, but even better than Parillada is SUPERParillada, which is the name of the restaurant in which I will be dining my Thanksgiving dinner in about thirty minutes. I must admit that I think adding Super to things is outstanding-as long as you say ¨Super¨the Ecuadorian way: Soopare! (rhymes with you there). Why have Chinese Food when you can have SUPERChinese food, or SUPERbutter, or SUPERSuperCuts.

We also are firing up a good old fashioned Pot Luck dinner in Quito on Saturday. I cannot wait. I am in charge of Mashed Potatoes. Never made them before in my life. All I know is that I can mash a potato with the best of them.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!

Cuenca Part 1: Yup Part One

So I just realized that I called my second Cuenca entry ¨Part 1.¨However when I tried to change it my computer crashed. I tried again with similar success so I guess I am just going to go with the existential experience of having all My Cuenca entries titled ¨Part 1.¨It´s kind of like the Place in Houston, Texas that has a Starbucks across the street from a Starbucks. Hopefully I will get around to editing my entries, but for right now just pretend that calling all of my entries Part 1 is mildly funny.

Anyway I am going to cheat on this last entry about Cuenca because my minutes are ticking away here in the local internet cafe and I am running low on centavos. The tricky thing about Ecuador is that no one has any change. EVER. Even for five dollars. Gets really frustrating let me tell you when someone who runs a business does not have fifty cents lying around somewhere.

So for this Cuenca entry we are going to do a free association. Hope it works:

Cuenca Setting: Pittsburgh (city sits on three rivers)

Cuenca architectural style: European (Though I have never been to Europe trust me). Many people agreed with me.

Cuena Streets: Immaculate. Cleanest I have ever seen in Ecuador. Very cool.

Most Popular Activity: Galleries - Galleries in Cuenca are like Antique shops in Minnesota

Party Scene: Part Middle School Dance part Phish concert if people didn´t have drugs

Hotel Personal: Dealing with Hotel Peronel is the equivalent of banging your head against the wall. We had four hotels lose our reservation

Hostals: Hot water is the best invention on the planet

Incan Ruins: Cobble Stones. Apparently they had too many streets and figured it would be easier to orient their streets vertically to make walls

Mexican Food: Olive Garden caliber

Restaurant Service: Though you are dealing with people you might as well be on the phone pressing options on your touch tone phone

Art: Think of the best garage sale you have ever been two, multiply the quality of good by 1.5 and mix in a flea market setting.

Cathedrals: Baroque style:¨Hey peasant look how catholicism dominates you.¨First churches I have seen that are closed during the day in a big fyou sort of way.

Blue Domes: Singular coolest quirky color I have seen. It´s that kind of thing that if you take a quick glance it looks strange, but if you stare at it long enough it grows on you. Kind of like Dartmouth students´perception of attractiveness in the middle of winter

Shrunken Heads´Museum: Wow. Wish I knew how they were actually made. They make you feel like someone out there might have a Voodoo doll of you and could mess with you if so inclined

That´s all from Cuenca. The ´rents are coming into town this weekend. Can´t wait.

Que tengan buen dia,
kane

Cuenca Part 1: Misnomer

So the yesterday during a game of squash I asked one of my Ecuadorian buddies if there is a word in Spanish fo ¨steaky.¨For those of you who aren´t aware ¨steaky¨is an English word describing anything that is particularly testosterone charged. For example a party where everyone weighs over 200 pounds, where every room is filled with kegs of crummy beer, and where every participant is shirtless might be described as steaky. Last night a gent named Caesar was Monica Seles style screaming every time he hit the ball. I wanted to call him steaky.

I also am proud to say that I finally feel comfortable here in Ibarra. Yes Kane is now a member of the local gym here in Ibarra. And let me just say that it is probably the steakiest place on the planet. There are a couple of benches, some weights with no markings on them, and posters of body builders COVER the walls. Everywhere you look you see bulging biceps and ridiculous facial expressions of over-exerting oneself. I now know who Sean Ray and Flex Wheeler are, as they are the only people who hang out with me while I lift. For any of you reading who have visited the ¨The Lifting Hut¨you can be rest assured that I feel right at home in this basement converted gymnasium, with dust everywhere, one mirror, and lots of biceps curls. There even is a small CD player that allows me to blast away with some lifting hut favorites. Can you take me higher?

The point is that ¨steaky¨doesn´t exist in Spanish, at least according to my Ecuadorian friends. And do you know what else doesn´t exist in Spanish?

Panama Hats.

Huh? First of all let´s get our hats straight. Picture a white straw hat, circular brim, and a black band. I am fairly confident that every single moive Latin American drug dealer from the eighties (think Scarface or Beverly Hills Cop) wore what we call in English, a ¨Panama Hat.¨In fact most gangsters depicted in movies probably wear these white mafioso hats at one point or another. I have never heard them referenced in modern day rap music, though they should, because in the states these hand made straw hats go for as much as 2500 dollars. For all you free stylers out there: throw in a couple lines about how your girl looks so phat in your Panama Hat that it makes a brother want to eat that and WOW the crowd.

So what´s the big deal? Panama Hats have never, nor will they ever be made in Panama. Panama Hats are actually one of Ecuador´s biggest exports. That´s right, Ecuador has had bad enough luck to have there finest product misnamed in honor of another country. And the center of the Panama Hat industry is actually right smack in the middle of Cuenca and I had the priviledge to check out the factory while I was in Cuenca. On Calle Larga, a few blocks north west of Padre Aguire, lies Barranco, and if you keep going you will hit Casa de Sombreros, and Casa de los Hermanos, three of the finest Panama Hat companies in the entire world.

Barranco has the nicest factory. The other two were basically small rooms filled with tons of famous style (white with black band) of Panama hats. The most famous hat maker in Cuenca works at Casa de los Hermanos and he has been in business for over 70 years. However, at Barranco you can walk through the entire factory and see hat in their stages of construction, plus you can see all different styles. It is super fun to just go in and take pictures of everyone wearing different hats and we certainly took advantage. In fact, in the back of the store there is a balcony that gives you an awesome view of Cuenca.

From what I could gather from the store owners, the famous straw hats were originally exported and sold out of Panama since Ecuadorian hat makers did not have the means or the power to export the hats themselves. Thus the hats received the Panama moniker as no one was able to buy hats in Ecuador for many years. However, the true authentic Panama hats have ALWAYS been made in Ecuador according to the store owners.

The process is amazing. A special type of straw specific to the climate of Cuenca has to be cut in strands and then hand woven in different styles depending on the type of hat. After the hats are woven they then are dyed the white color and finally the band is wrapped around the hat and applied using a special adhesive. The bottom rung hats, called ¨Standardes¨go for 10-15 dollars in Cuenca, but probably 50 or 60 in the States. These hats are woven tightly, but still contain holes and possess some of the rigidnouss we associate with straw. After ¨Standardes¨the hats steadily increase in price as the weaves get tighter and the straw gets softer. The highest quality hats are called ¨Superfinos.¨Holding one was absolutely awe inspiring. The texture of the hat looks and feels like cotton, and not just brand new cotton but ¨I have had this t-shirt for twenty years¨soft cotton. Plus you can pull the hat through a wedding type ring with absolutely no problem. That´s how flexible and pliable they are. The best Superfinos (you can tell by holding them up to the light to see if they have holes) can actually hold water, and go for over 100 dollars in Cuenca. In the States? Probably 1500. They take about a week of painstaking labor and you can see the pride in the hat makers eyes as they offer you the Superfino to hold and touch. Absolutely a phenomenal experience.

Thus next time you hear someone comment about a ¨Panama Hat¨make sure you correct them about their misnomer. And if you hear of a way to say steaky let me know. Can´t wait to say hello to Flex and Sean this afternoon.

Quick note. ¨Lifting weights¨ is the source for my worst English to Spanish speaking error. While I was talking to my host family they asked me what activities I enjoyed. I mentioned Lifting Weights and they started laughing. ¨Me gusta levantar pedos,¨I said, and they laughed harder.

Oh, great. Laugh at the Gringo.
pesas: weights
pedos: farts

-Kanedog

Cuenca Part 1: El Viaje

So while all of you were working hard last Thursday and Friday I was quietly enjoying one of Ecuador´s three city honoring holidays. The three major Ecuadorian cities honor their founding dates with a nice jovial holiday. November 4th celebrated Cuenca´s foundation and thus I decided to take a trip 15 hours down the Panamericana to check out what is heralded as ¨Ecuador´s cleanest city.¨ I am going to break the trip up into three parts as Cuenca has a ton of awesome aspects, so let´s start with getting there.

There is one bus that leaves Ibarra for Cuenca at 7:30 PM. It arrives around 7:00 AM. It´s run by one of the better bus companies in the country, Flota Imbabura, which is outstanding. However what wasn´t outstanding is that I was not able to catch said bus because of my teaching schedule. Thus I was faced with the choice of a) not going, b) catching the next day´s bus, or c) testing my luck with a trip to Quito and trying to find a bus to Cuenca from there.

Ecuador runs an intricate bus system that begs one main question of travelers for long trips. Are you a day or night bus person? Day buses run during the hot sun and stop frequently, but you can see the countryside and know your bus driver is going to be awake. Night buses allow you to maximize your time in a city, but you sleep only very little and the bus driver commands the wheel all night. I decided to take the night bus so that I could see more of Cuenca during the day, and I had heard that night buses are truly an adventure. Little did I know that adventure meant ¨strap into your seatbelts here we go roller coaster¨, and not ¨oh boy I took BART to Oakland!¨

Thus we boarded a bus in Ibarra headed for Quito at about 7:00 PM. I always get so excited to see what movie the bus company is going to show, as ANYTHING can happen. Last Wednesday I was treated to a wonderful Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon flick completely in Spanish. It´s always exciting to hear Kung Fu Masters cuss at each other in Spanish and in this particular flick a young woman was trying to kill an effeminate man who had killer her parents. Or something. Needless to say the girl kicked some serious butt. My most pleasant suprise at the movie, however, was that it did not contain a title, a list of actors, credits, or any sort of honoring the participants ritual. Completely popped on and went black without acknowledging that any real person had ever even touched the film.

Thus all was tranquil as my bus arrived in the aforementioned Terminal Terrestre of Quito. The nice thing about Quito is that you can catch a bus anywhere in the country at all times of the night. However, so can everyone else, and thus last Wednesday night at 9:30 PM everyone else in Ecuador was at the Terminal Terrestre. We had figured that Wednesday night might bring less bus enthusiasts but ho ho ho sometimes you can be so wrong. Thus we prepared ourselves for a ridiculous lucha.

Everyone we had talked to sincerely doubted our abilities to catch a bus to Cuenca from Quito on Wednesday night, and we stared in the face of doubt ourselves when window after window turned down our request for a passage to Cuenca.

Every bus terminal has a ticket booth area to buy tickets and then an outside area where you go once you have bought your ticket to wait for your bus. We thus decided to forgo proper bus etiquette and enter the outside area without any sort of ticket or reservation. Very brave considering Quito´s rep for danger, but also very exciting. Couldn´t think of a more perfect realization of ¨Out of the frying pan and into the fire.¨

Luckily for my eye level was high enough above the millions of ecuaheads in the outside area that I saw the group of buses headed for Cuenca. We headed out to stake our claim, wheel and deal. We were Matt Damon at the Russian John Malkovich´s poker table. All in, with nothing but our Spanish bartering game faces to bail us out.

Thank god for Ally. Now women in general have a reputation for their powers of persuasion. Take that power of persuasion and multiply it by the national debt to a Gringa woman asking an Ecuadorian man for anything. In a country where Machismo reigns, women are treated with kindness as all Ecuamen are convinced that they have some booty coming their way. Thus Ally walked up to an Ecuabus driver while I waited in the wings. She asked if there was any seat available and found out that the driver could convince a woman to put her small child in her lap to free up a space for Ally. That´s when Ally´s ginormous companero walked in looking for his seat too.

Ecuadorians are actually all very nice and warm. Most people in this country are incredibly kind even to extranjeros. He looked at Ally, looked at me, and then went back on the bus. He came out ten seconds later with a milk crate and a pillow. We´re going to Cuenca. Huzzaa!

We also have Kane sitting on a milk crate in the aisle of a run down Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Bus. The floor is covered in dust and dirt. What is one man to do for ten hours? Let me just tell you that I did what any other Ecuadortraveler would do. I pulled my hooded sweatshirt over my head and layed down to catch some shut eye. Probably the worst nine hours of my life as far as physical comfort goes. Dusty, grimy, bumpy, and cramped, my body cried out for help in some way shape or form. Three days later I can still admire the bruises on my hips from where my body bounced around on the floor. But mentally? Couldn´t have been happier.

This is why people travel when there young. This is why I am here right now. Though every morning I recite my ¨Cold Water Builds Character¨mantra during my shower, this is what I bought into when I signed up for a year in Ecuador. I am ¨Living the Dream¨as they say in the gym on the top floor of Jackson and Scott Streets. I chose to embrace a life of less comfort, security, and amenities, because I know that in the end I will be a better person. As stated before, our world´s boundaries are expanding further and further. People in Ecuador now know so much more about the US than Michael Jordan and KFC. If I am going to truly make in impact in the world as an adult I hope that these experiences will help gain me an avenue into the psyches of foreigners, non native US citizens, and even US citizens with a foreign heritage. Every person has a story to tell, but you can´t really ¨hear Jimmy¨ until you know where he came from. I am sure Sydney Dean and Billy Ho would agree with me.

Ah enough of this schmaltz. Let´s be serious. On the way back we actually reserved a direct ticket from Cuenca to Ibarra. Even bought some sleeping pills for the ride. I mean there´s no reason to sleep in the aisle if you dont have to right?

More to come....

kane