Wednesday (10-15-2008) Loja, Watchtower dinner

Most of our day was spent recovering from the night before. We held off on our mountain hike for this reason. Instead we both spent time journaling and working on our independent projects: Ryan on his book. I mostly spent time fighting with the internet here to post up my blogs and reading a travel book about Ecuador.

These are some of Saula’s household birds:


I am not kidding about everything being made from scratch:

Maria must have noticed me staring in fascination as she scaled and de-finned the fish. Later during lunch she made extra certain to serve me one with a head still attached. This did not remotely put off my appetite:

I also discovered another fruit, Babaco. We had jugo de Babaco (babaco juice).


The rest of the day was very serene and involved much studying, reading and writing and hanging out at Saula’s.

I also spent some time reading up about Ecuador´s history including the Spanish conquest of the Incans, the forced indentured lifestyle on haciendas that the natives endured, various uprisings and juntas, 20th century political instability, and their current constitutional rule. I also read about influential Ecuadorian authors.

In the evening, Ryan came back and we went out to eat with Saula and two of her friends from “Fine Tuned English,” the school that she is the co-head of and through which Ryan teaches. We went to dinner at a restaurant housed in the Watchtower of Loja’s gates and I sampled as many menu items as I could from tamale, humitas, empanada’s verde (made out of plantains) and empanadas yucca and queso (the absolute best in my opinion). I also had horchata again. Here is a pic of my muy delicious meal:

What was best about the evening was the conversation, even though it was mostly in Spanish and made me feel at times like I was in a foreign film without subtitles. Saula’s friends were pretty hysterical in their attempts to master every part of the English language, which at one point involved them grappling over the difference between “Pimples” and “dimples.”

One lady points to her forehead “Dees ees pimple.” Then to her cheeks “Dees eese dimples…Pimples. Dimples.” Maybe you had to be there to really appreciate the moment.

What felt greatest about it was the exchange of language tidbits. In that moment, it felt like this isn’t a visit to gain, but to also give. Traveling should be about sharing culture and language.