Another weekend, another adventure

You may not have heard, but Jo insisted we haul bicycles down here. So, imagine how excited she was when our landlord, JP, said we were all going to take our bikes up into the foothills of the Eastern Andes near his hometown, Paute.
It turned out he didn't bring his mountain bike because it was broken, but he did bring his wife and one year old baby boy. So, after a lovely mid-day meal in one of his favorite restaurants; we hit the incredible dirt roads along the slopes of steep mountains...
not on our bikes, but in his truck pictured in the background.


We went up and down ravines, on one side of the valley and then the other. Everywhere you looked, there were cascading waterfalls flowing east to the Amazon jungle and bridges to cross.

One thing that's very difficult to describe is how every small piece of ground, flat or near vertical, was being used. There was no raw, untended acerage on any of the mountainsides. If there weren't crops of some kind, there was a single cow tethered to her own little bit of grazing space, so that everything was being used.

JP is a pretty happy guy who always has something good to say (in Spanish) and a smile on his face. He was quite proud of this part of the country where he grew up because it is beautiful and not as crowded or dirty as the city where he now lives. He's an electrical engineer who's been out of school about five years; but he started his own business, electrodoctor, before he even went to college.

His uncle lives in this area and owns quite a bit of land, like a whole mountain side; so we had to stop and visit him....of course.

He's got cultivated land, grazing pastures, cleared camping areas down along side the mountain streams with pools and a trout farm with an adjoining soccer field, plus stadium seating, that he carved out of the hillside, so the locals would have a flat place to play the national past time. Here I am enjoying a cold beer and watching a pick-up game from atop the roof of the uncle's small, circular bar.

Meanwhile, back in Cuenca...
A common misconception which needs to be straightened out at this time is that the famous Panama hats are in fact made in and are from Ecuador. They are called Montecristi here or sombrero de paja toquilla because they are made from the fiborous fronds of the toquilla palm (Carludovica palmata). Even though Asia has tried to knock them off, these palms can not be grown with the same quality anywhere in the world but here on Ecuador's arid inland regions. They can range in price anywhere from $25 to $3000, depending on the tightness of the weave and, obviously,

I had to have one.

While it seems as if practically every street corner has a shop making and selling them, I had one particular mad hatter in mind named, Alberto Pulla (on the left). Little Al, I call him, has been at his trade since he was six learning on his father's knee. This charming 82 YO has been making hats for presidents, famous American basketball stars, who want to look like pimps on their off time, and now me. In the early days Al worked with dangerous chemicals and, consequently, lost his voice. Alberto truely is a precious, wonderful soul though and he

welcomed Jo and I early one morning with little jumping hops, clapping hands and squeaking sounds from his throat as if we were long lost relatives finally returning home.
Of course, I bought one darling and I look marvelous in it.

Chau (Ecuadorian spelling),

Tono y Josephina