Hanukkah on the Road

This year, we were able to have a few nights of Hanukkah at home and some on vacation. We took some photos of our celebrations for you all - enjoy!

Our first night in Ayampe we lit the candles on the beach at sunset

Greg loves lighting them!

Our candles in Quito

Banos

{Wow, sorry for the delay! I just realized this one never got posted! I'll be posting more soon about our latest trip to the coast} It seems like there has been one weekend vacation after another the last few weeks - last week the school had off on Friday for Thanksgiving and this week, Greg has off Monday and Tuesday for the founding of Quito (las fiestas de Quito). Last weekend we rode down to Banos, a popular town about 3.5 hours from Quito that was named after the hot springs there. Now the town has way more than the hot springs that most tourists enjoy, but we were there mainly for some rest and relaxation so the hot springs were our main focus.

Sunset on our first night in Banos

My beloved hammock on the porch

We stayed at a place outside of town called La Casa Verde, which I would highly recommend to anyone going to Banos. It's an ecological guesthouse run by two lovely expats and it attracts such a cool crowd of people. We got a room with a hammock outside of our room and it was well-used by me. On our first morning, we went to the hot springs that were close to the hotel. It turned out to be a very good choice because it was a lot less busy than the ones in town. It was called the Santa Ana hot springs and it was across from the Samurai hotel. These hot springs didn't have the hottest baths, like the popular one in town, but it had a very comfortable hot bath and nice scenery with a wall of bamboo sheltering one of the pools from the wind. We found Banos to be very windy, especially in the afternoon and evening. It was sort of unexpected, but in the sunny afternoon, it was welcome.

After we got back from the baths, we went into town to grab lunch at Cafe Hood. The food was the best we had in Banos! The desserts weren't the best, but I had a delicious lasagna and Greg had a potato curry. We took our bathing suits so we could try the more popular thermal baths in town that were open into the night. They were SO crowded and not nearly as pleasant as the ones we had gone to in the morning.

View from the porch at La Casa Verde

The hotel had a beautiful glass bottle wall on the staircase -
this would be something I would love to add into a future home!

Funny Things We See Sold

There's a new level of street vendors here in Quito - literally "in the street" vendors and guys who get on the buses. These are the people who go from car to car when traffic has stopped or they climb aboard even packed buses to shout out what awesome item they have to sell. Some of what they sell makes sense, but some is very odd. Here is a list of what we've seen sold on the street so far:

• Balsa wood toy ships (already created)
• Clementines and other fruit
• TV antennas 
• Car accessories such as steering wheel grip enhancers and rubber mats for the floor of the car
• Refilled bottles of strange colored liquid 
• Tea towels
• Pastry items such as palmitas and bizcochos
• Potato chips and banana chips ("chifles" as they are called here)
• Newspapers
• Hard candies of different varieties
• Big paintings (3 ft. by 5 ft. painting - and he only had one!)
• Fake DVDs and CDs
• Puppies and kitties (we haven't seen them sold on the street exactly, but usually they're on the sidewalk or in the middle area of a busy boulevard so theoretically if someone in a car wanted one...)
• Bags of chopped up yuca (I still don't know what people do with this)
• Sandwiches (usually sold by a kid who has smushed it beyond recognition)

I'll update Facebook when I see something new or interesting being sold on the street so you guys can join in our amazement.

Birds of Paradise

 What are you looking at?

Collared Trogon

Well, there were birds that looked familiar. 

White-edged Oriole 

 And lots of bird watching posturing going on.

Greg and Hannah

 We spotted the endemic and threatened.

Baudo Guan

 There were plenty of toucan sightings.

Chestnut-mandibled Toucan

 And a lucky find in a cliff upon the advice of a local.

Female Cock of the Rocks

 Can you even find this one?

Lineated Woodpecker

 Even Ayelet was excited about this adventure. I knew she always liked birding deep down.

Topical Kingbird

This is a short list of all the birds that we saw in Mindo over our 3rd anniversary get away. Ayelet and I saw so many birds during our visit that we could not possibly have had the camera ready enough. For all of you amateur photographers, a short word of advice. We were able to capture all of these close ups by taking pictures through the spotting scope of our bird guide. I learned the technique in science class by taking pictures through the microscope. It was a great way to capture everything that didn't fly away after a few seconds. This morning of birding has motivated me to go out more for this old favorite leisure activity of mine. You have not seen the end of the birds in Ecuador.

Lovely Mindo

Mindo valley

This last week we had two holidays - November 2nd was All Saints Day and November 3rd was Cuenca Independence Day - so luckily, we had some days to travel outside of Quito. Our first overnight daytrip was to Mindo, a town set in the cloudforest about 2.5 hours north of Quito.

Mindo has tons of things to do for people who're active - canyoning, ziplining, hiking to waterfalls, tubing and bird-watching. It was this last one that Greg was most excited about. I'm sure he'll write a post all about the cool birds we saw with our guide, Irman, and two friends. They were pretty awesome!

On the first day, we headed to check out a little butterfly garden that also had hummingbirds and tropical plants. Our favorite part was the hummingbird area had a porch with hammocks strung about. You could watch the hummingbirds and revel in the quiet from your own personal hammock! We topped off the afternoon with a brownie and drinks at a local cafe where they make their own chocolate.

Greg chilling with the hummingbirds

That evening, we headed to the frog concert, which really wasn't a frog concert but more of a nature walk at night in search of creepy crawlies. Our guide found plenty of them and some cute little frogs too. I tried to tune out and avoid looking when he pointed out spiders. It was a cool tour, but not for the squeamish!

The next morning, we woke up early for our bird tour because the best time to go is at dawn. After the 7km hike up, we went down to a waterfall and dipped our feet in the freezing water. It felt so good after the long morning. After a good long nap, showers and long lunch at the local Italian place, we tried to go owl spotting with our guide, but they were not showing up for us so we headed in for the night. Maybe next time!

Mindo was great for the active type, but also for us lazier folks who just are looking for a quiet corner to relax with a book or watch the hummingbirds that land on the feeder next to us. I highly recommend it!

Biodiversity in Ecuador

Ecuador is often one of the first places mentioned when people talk about biodiversity. Naturally, as a person of science, I was extremely excited to witness this plethora of life first hand. After arriving in Quito I found myself constantly amazed by all variety of trees that I can see from my window. And as I ask Ayelet the same question she says (in a monotone voice), "Yeah, it's pretty cool." It is kind of like Dr. Seuss had once visited here with the range of what I often refer to as "Truffula Trees," thanks to The Lorax.

So, here is a short example of my recent observations during the hike up Pichincha. I kept wondering how so many different plants were able to survive on this rough landscape in such a healthy amount.

Check out this fun online game. You could win a trip to Ecuador.

http://www.audubon.org/splash