Some Recent Happenings (Mostly Food)

I am continuing to learn to use my little blue gas stove, which has two temperatures: treacherously hot and absolute Hades. Good for quickly boiling water. Bad for low-temp foods. It also potentially leaks gas just a little bit, so I keep the kitchen windows open. -->

- Last week I attended M's 5th birthday party, so I also ventured into the oven (I consider baked goods the highest form of social currency). High altitude + 8 million degree oven = cookie nightmare. And yet, you would have thought  I had brought chocolate encrusted gold leafs to the party. People loved them. I'm now charged with teaching every Ecuadorian housewife in a ten mile radius how to make gringa cookies (secret: back of the tollhouse chocolate chip bag).

<-- A friend invited me to visit her husband's family's farm in Patate. Patate is a lovely agricultural village about 30 minutes south of me, at the foot of Volcan Tunguraha (a volcano which has been actively erupting for 11 years). We went on a hike and watched her Uncle's soccer team (players aged 13-60, it was awesome) play in the rain. We ate a LOT. First a huge lunch. Then avocados and mandarin oranges from their farm. Then in town we had fritada, which is a typical Ecuadorian dish of fried pork, potatoes, plantains, and corn-- prepared in a huge brass dish over an open fire. If pork-fat covered stuff is your thing, you'd like it here.

(thanks google images, since my camera broke) -->
- I'm continuing to search for a public pool in Ambato. It's getting serious. I need chlorine and the familiarity of swimming laps. Plus, the black plumes of smoke radiating from city buses make this a less-than-desirable place to jog. I had one lead, but when I called, the man laughed and told me the pool is closed for repairs. "Pool closed for repairs" meant at LEAST 1-2 weeks at the US Army Base I used to train at. So, in Ecuadorian time, I can only assume we're looking at a Spring 2011 reopening for Ambato's pool.