Guitar Fabrication - Day 4

So far, Luis and I have completed four days of guitar construction together and progress is occuring rapidly. By Friday, much of the neck was roughed-out including the insertion of the tension rod. The inlay for the rossette on the soundboard was completed, as well as the majority of the ribbon around its perimeter. And the back wood (teka) was glued together, with two stips of pine, and a strip of wood from a native nut tree to form a line down the centre. My time with Luis is very enjoyable; we talk about guitars all day in spanish and sit inside his shop with the all beautiful smells of wood, listening to classical music. Luis has told me that it will take about two more weeks to finish my guitar. My feeling is that two more weeks will come too soon.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Although we were away from our families for Christmas, we were very lucky to have run into several other people in the same situation. We managed to have three Christmas dinners in a row. The first was at a house in a residential area where a group of people we met the week before were living, the second took place at the Verde Limon hostal, and the third in our new apartment with a couple and their visiting great aunt. We had a quiet Christmas day. We opened stockings late in the morning, went for a walk to call our families, and made breakfast at 1:30 in the afternoon. We bought a small tree for $1 at the flower market at the Plaza San Francisco and decorated it with beads from a small arts and crafts store. It wasn't your typical Canadian Christmas tree, but it certainly made it feel like Christmas for us here in Ecuador. We are looking forward to the new year and wish everyone all the very best in 2008.

Guiter Fabrication - Day 2

This past Monday, the day before Christmas, I walked up the hill to Luis' house for my first day of guitar making. The shop is full of wood chips, work benches, half-finished classical guitars, and many visiting family members. During my first day we sharpened tools and bonded two pieces of pine together for the soundboard. We also cut a piece of cedar for the neck and attached a block of harder wood from Cuenca for the heel of the guitar (where the neck attaches to the body). We ended early and allowed the soundboard and neck to dry until the next work day. Today, (the next work day) the first thing on our agenda was to cut the shape of the guitar. I decided to build an acoustic guitar with large curves and big body. When the shape was cut-out, we located the circular sound hole and began the inlay for the rosette using small strips of chiseled wood, natural and black in colour. At noon, I was invited into the family home for almuerzo (lunch). We ate soup, fish, rice, beans, and salad. It was delicious. After eating, I played guitar and waited patiently for Luis to wake-up from his siesta. We finished the day around 4PM and I walked down the hillside with the warmth of the sun.

Navidad Party and Mailing Address

Friday was a big day for us. We finished up our second set of Spanish classes, we moved into our new apartment and enjoyed a very delicious Navidad Fiesta at the school. There were many yummy traditional dishes and vino. The meal ended with a festive gingerbread house cake that reminded us of Mum/Karen´s great birthday cakes! They really do a wonderful job making us feel welcome and at home. We, of course, ate too much - it is Christmas after all. The last of the three pics here is of us with Phil´s teacher, Julia.

Some people have asked about where they can reach us by mail, and since we will be in Cuenca for at least another month, the school would be a great place to send letters to – we love to hearing from you whether it is by post or email! The address is in a previous post, but to make it really easy, here it is again:

Amauta Fundacion Spanish School
Hermano Miguel 7-48 y Sucre
PO Box 01.01.166
Cuenca, Ecuador
Tel: (593-7) 2846 206 / 285 3671

Touring with Tourism Students

When Phil and I met after our Spanish classes on Wednesday, he informed me that there was an opportunity to spend the next three hours with a tourism class from the local university. They needed English speakers to take on a walking tour, so the students could practice their Spanish. Although we had little information about to expect, we agreed to go (I mean, how could a former recreation student say no to such a learning opportunity?!).
We were picked up by the professor, who took us to the school to met the students, and then we headed to the first of two tourist locations, all piled into the professors car.
There were 8 students and they each had a prepared talk to give, as we wondered from one spot to the next, in an area of town that we had not been to before. One site was a monument for the iron works in Cuenca, and a museum dedicated to this and other crafts. The next site was Simon Bolivar´s house while he lived in Cuenca during the time he liberation Ecuador from colonization. Simon Bolivar is credited for liberating 6 countries at that time; Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Columbia, Bolivia and Panama. The house is now a beautiful art gallery.
Although many of the students were nervous at first, they did a great job with their English and with entertaining us. The event ended with their professor taking us all out for huge fruit and yogurt salads (which are a popular treat here and are the size of vases. I try to have one as often as possible), so that they could help us with our Spanish. It was a great trade. We hope to help them out again, sometime over the next month!

Guitar Fabrication

On Wednesday afternoon I walked up the hillside to the house and guitar shop of Luis Uyaguari Quezada. I had organized the visit the day before through my teacher over the telephone and I was happily welcomed when I arrived at 3:00 in the afternoon. I explained to Luis that I wanted to work with him and that I very interested in learning how to make a guitar. Within a few minutes, we were looking at designs and discussing whether or not I wanted to build a classical or an acoustic guitar. I was surprised at how quickly and easily everything unfolded. My first day at work with Luis is at 8:00AM on Monday, December 24th and we will eat lunch together at his house. He has strongly encouraged me to document the complete process through photographs and notes for future reference. I will be working at the guitar shop everyday in spanish for approximately one month. I will be paying Luis about $500 for all materials and instruction during this period. I feel extremely fortunate to have been given this opportunity.

Apartment in Cuenca

On Friday night, we moved into an apartment in Cuenca located on Calle Larga Sreet in the Barranco district. The unit has a bedroom, kitchette and bath (175 SqFt). There is wireless internet access, an alarm system, and weekly maid service. We will be renting the property until the end of January for $270/month. The apartment overlooks the Tomebamba River from a roof-top balcony and is very close to indigenous markets. We are very excited.

Climb to Turi

Yesterday, after spanish class, we hiked to Turi, which is a small village on a ridge to the south of Cuenca . It was a beautiful day and the views were spectacular. We spent some time at the top taking pictures and looking through our binoculars. The city is very spread out and buildings any higher than six or seven stories are rarely seen. After appreciating the views, we wandered a little further up the hill to a small cemetary overlooking a valley south of the ridge. It was peaceful there, lovely scenery, but was evident that several graves had been robbed and an eerie feeling quickly ended our visit. We walked down the mountain and picked up some pollo for dinner.

Fiestas at Verde Limon

Our stay at Verde Limon last week was far from lonely and boring. We conveniently managed to walk into a energetic group of people who had spent several days together. We were warmly welcomed to join their family. Each night seemed to house a celebration, whether it was simply to celebrate a feast of good food or to see-off departing guests of the hostal. Every night someone made dinner and we all sat together enjoying the company, wine, and endless variety of jokes. There were friends from Rhode Island, Lima, Ile de la Reunion (off the coast of Madagascar), France, Finland, Columbia, Argentina, and Cuenca. This all occured in spanish (enlglish and french were used when required) and it was an excellent way to practice our conversation skills. This past Friday night two fellows from France showed up with a guitar and violin. We played music late into the night, singing and dancing. Not entirely sure how, but we successfully managed to wake up a very serious backpacker from the Czech Republic. He stood in the doorway of the fiesta noise and asked politely, in a very interesting pair of tight bright red underwear, if it would be possible to keep the volume down. We all bursted into laughter (except for the Canadians), realizing it was 3AM, and we made our way downstairs to finish playing music. Almost everyone we spent time with last week has left, and a new group of people, including hostal administration, have happily arrived.

Sombreros and Colibris

This past Sunday, we woke to a quiet hostel, now that many of our amigos have moved on to different locations in Ecuador. I had forgotten about the reality of quick friendships while traveling, which has reminded me of the importance of enjoying every moment, with the people we met and in the places we are. With this in mind and our tummies full of fresh eggs, bread and mangos, (every morning we go to the little shops around our hostel to collect these and other items) we set off for a day of wondering this city of white walls and red roofs. Our first stop was the Sombrero Museo and Panama hat store, which are actually Ecuadorian, that have been wrongly named. They are in fact called Montecristi hats/ toquilla-straw hats, and are part of one of the local aboriginal group's traditional costumes, which is still worn by many. We learned about the hat making process, tried on dozens of potential sun-protectors of all shapes and sizes, and then continued our tour to the museum´s rooftop terrace. To exit, we had to walk through their café, which was selling coffee from all over Ecuador!! Interestingly, this was one of the few places that we have been that sold brewed coffee and not instant coffee. Needless to say, we stayed for a cup of café con leche, one from the area and the other from the Galapagos – they were both delicious! But the best part of this cup of coffee (and for me, the whole day) was the beautiful colibris (hummingbirds) that graced us with their presents. The classic hummingbird feeders were expertly placed just outside the windows of the café and for at least an hour Phil and I and about seven hummingbirds happily sipped our brews. There were two varieties, one that our server called a fly (much prettier then a fly of course, but perhaps as common) and the other we identified as a Sparkling Violetear (here is a picture for those who can help us confirm this). The large size and beauty of this second colibri was enough to make us both watch in awe as it fluttered through the sky. Eventually we left, heading to the large indoor market, knowing that we will be back for cup of joe and a hummingbird show!!

Luis Uyaguari Quezada

On Thursday afternoon, we went out for our regular lunch and made our way to spanish class for 2PM. Upon arriving at the front door of the school, my teacher was waiting in her car and asked us to join her. Mary and I, with our teacher's drove and spoke in spanish together. I realized soon afterwards that we were headed to my teacher´s friend's guitar construction and reparation shop. We had talked about her friend briefly in class, and I had expressed a keen interest in potentially visiting his shop one day. I had not expected it to become a part of spanish class. We drove for approximately 15 minutes through old town, up onto a ridge overlooking the city, and down a few small dirt roads. We entered through a half- opened door and met Luis Uyaguari Quezada. He has been making acoustic and classical guitars for nearly 38 years and the business was passed down to him from his father. His guitars range between $300 and $3000 dollars and he mostly sells his guitars to maestros in Ecuador. It is difficult to describe how incrdeible this man's finishing work is and how passionately he describes his processes. One particular portion of the guitar that is unique to his style is his rossette-craft (decoration around the sound hole of the guitar). He spends hours and hours embedding small pieces of all different varieties of wood to create beautifully intricate circular mosaics around he opening of the guitar. I played some music for the Luis and we exchanged contact information. He has invited me back to visit him again and I have been toying with the idea of asking him to to teach me how to make a guitar. It would be a great introduction to the trade and a wonderful opportunity to work on my spanish. We were there for over 2 hours and left feeling extremely fortunate to have met Luis.

Last weekend in Cuenca

Last Sunday we awoke reasonably early and made a plan to visit the central park where a local music group was playing a small concert. We were expecting some new and interesting music; however it was fairly average and we left early. Our plans changed and we headed for the Museum of Modern Art six blocks away. The entrance was free and the displayed exhibit was the work of a group of 5 artists, from 4 different countries in South America (Columbia, Argentina, Ecuador, Venezuela). The museum was in an old monestary and contained various interesting hallways, passages, and atriums. When the museum closed for the day, we left and found ourselves at a very busy market. It was well timed, as we had built up an appetite wandering around the cobblestone streets of Cuenca. The market was divided into meat sections (poultry, beef, fish, pork), fruits, vegetables, spices, fruit juices, and pure cocoa. We were kindly swayed by a lady behind a pork counter to buy lunch from her. She held a piece of pork up with her hands, reaching enthusiastically over her large cooked pig, which ¨hogged¨ the majority of her counter-space, and encouraged us try it. It was delicious, perhaps some of the best tasting meat we have had since arriving in South America. Very tender and full of taste. We ordered almuerzo (lunch special) quickly afterwards. She dug her hands into a pot of rice and filled a plate, then her hands plunged into the pig's body grabbing a handful of meat and dropping it onto the rice. She added potatoes and salad (one handful of each). It was enough food for a family and came to a total of $1.25. We left the market with various fruits and made our way to the park. We ate fruit and watched the locals play futbal and volleyball (a very popular sport here).

Ecuador, Cuenca - Hostal Switch

We switched from the Santa Fe Hostal to the Verde Limon Hostal this past Monday. The information pertaining to our latest location is as follows:

Verde Limon Hostal-Restaurante

Juan Jaramillo 4-89 y Mariano Cueva
Telefax 593-07-2831509 / 593-07-2820300

Cuenca, Ecuador

cuenca@verdelimonhostal.com

http://www.verdelimonhostal.com/

Navidad is everywhere

We hope everyone is doing well. We really appreciate your updates and notes either through email or as comments on this page. Cuenca is beginning to feel like home. The streets are familiar, we have found a favourite lunch spot, and we are conversing with our neighbours – it is amazing how much better we can communicate after just three days of Spanish lessons! Our Spanish school has become an instant community for us. We are always welcome there, and are encouraged to make it our home away from home. The two women who run the school are amazingly organized and helpful, and they are always offering us tea and snacks, which we love. They are also helping us with our apartment hunt. We are hoping to move in to one on Monday or Tuesday, for a month. If we stay for a month it sounds like there will be opportunities for us to teach English and/or trade English for Spanish either at our school or one of the other language schools in the area.
Although the weather makes it hard to believe Christmas is around the corner, you can´t avoid the Navidad enthusiasm here in Cuenca, with celebrations happening on every street corner, day and night. Navidad, as you can imagine for this country that is 90% Catholic, is a very important and religious holiday. Christmas decorations are being sold throughout the markets, and the churches, parks and streets are decorated with lights and nativity scenes, but no Santa Claus to be seen! The most interesting celebrations that we have witnessed, thus far, are firework shows outside of Churches, after their evening services. People love fireworks here, and they are ignited from 7 in the morning until late at night for a variety of occasions. At this time of year they are mostly for Navidad. Last night as we wondered the streets after dinner, we caught two firework displays outside nearby Churches, in fact we had to duck and run for cover during both shows, as random rockets of colour exploded in the streets. It was fantastic, hilarious, and a little frightening. Here are some pictures to prove it!
The first one was a high-end display, with spinning wheels, rockets, cheery bombs, shooting sparklers from every direction. At one point it was so intense all the church goers (in their long dresses and suits) and the on lookers (including us) had to run around street corners and into nearby shops!
As we walked home, we found a second church gearing up for their display. This display looked a little less extravagant, but just as interesting, as it was a papier-mâché cow with a snake like tail completely covered in rockets and sparklers! As we waited and listened to music, they had playing out of the church, we were offered a lovely warm and very potent lime drink. We drank it down in a couple gulps (they needed to keep passing around the glasses) and took it as a sign that we were welcome to stay and watch. Eventually the show began with one man hoisting the cow above his head and lighting the tail, he then started dancing up and down the streets as the cow exploded and whistled fireworks into the sky, into cars and shops, and yes, into the crowd, and again we all ducked, took pictures, laughed and cheered!
We are pretty sure this is just the beginning of the festivities this Christmas season!!

Spanish School

Early this morning, we walked to the tourist information centre and obtained a list of places to learn spanish in Cuenca. From the list, we selected 4 or 5 different schools that we felt met our needs and mapped out a route through the city to visit each location. We ended up selecting the first school we went to, because it offered the best price and warmest personal touch. There is a really good deal to live with a local family for $24/day and it appears that there may be english teaching opportunities as well. We are starting individual classes in the afternoon on Wednesday of this week for $6/hour at the following spanish school:

Amauta Fundacion Spanish School
Hermano Miguel 7-48 y Sucre

PO Box 01.01.166

Cuenca, Ecuador

Tel: (593-7) 2846 206 / 285 3671

http://www.amauta.edu.ec/

(this may be a good place to contact us)

An evening in Old Town Cuenca

Yesterday, we took a stroll through the Old Town core of Cuenca. The evening was beautifully lit by the setting sun, the temperature went well with a sweater, and the city streets were quiet (due to the day of rest). It was a great time to take some pictures and to wander around. We first visited the Parque Calderon (top left) where a crowd had gathered to watch a handful of young people brake-dancing inside a small gazebo. It was rather impressive. We passed a church with its doors wide open (top right) and then wandered down towards the Rio Tomebamba where there are paths and grassy areas. Some of the houses overlooking the river were quite interesting, with various levels and balconies (bottom left). We crossed the river on a foot bridge and reached a recreational park. People were playing ¨futbol¨, running, swinging, and a group of city workers were setting up a very large nativity scene with lights and glitter. Inside the park, there was a funny statue that we found to be oddly out of proportion. We took a photo from behind the jogging character with the setting sun in the background (bottom right). It was time for dinner and a small fast-food restaurant, that we had eyed all day for some reason, won us over for dinner. Mary had a drink, eggs, beans, and rice for $1 and I had a hamburger, fries, and a drink for $2 (again, we managed to break the bank). We went to bed after a game of crib, and looked forward to our next day in Cuenca.

Cuenca, Ecuador - Hostal Switch

We awoke early this morning and found another place to lay our heads. We will be staying at the following hostal in Cuenca, Ecuador for a few days while we try to arrange long term accomodations (1 month) and establish where we will be studying spanish:

Hostal Santa Fe

Antonio Borrero 5-57

Cuenca, Ecuador

Tel: (07)282 2025
hostalsantafe2005@yahoo.com

Cuenca, Ecuador

We arrvied in Cuenca last night by bus from Loja. The view from the hostal (right) overlooks the San Francisco Market. Unfortunately, the accomodations were not as pleasant as the view from the sixth-floor patio. We stayed at the following hostal for one night:

El Monasterio

Padre Aguirre 724

Tel: 282-4457

www.hostalelmonasterio.com

info@hostalelmonasterio.com

With All My Senses

The day after our waterfall trek, I went for a hike with a few new freinds to a reserve on the other side of the Vilcabamba Valley, called the Rumi-Wilco Ecological Reserve. This organization has preserved this interesting and diverse area, and has also developed a trail system that contains great labels describing plant species and facts about the different ecosystems, as well as a handy map book. I was pretty excited, as you can imagine! The map book began with some great advise, "when enjoying nature talking is not needed as much, so please enjoy the area with all your senses in peace" (paraphrased only slightly). As we went up and down slopes and gullies, walked along ridges and riviers, I stopped to learn a little about this biologically rich area, watch birds and butterflies I have never seen before, and enjoy the views of the valley. The funniest part of the park was their claims to the biggest Kapok tree and the biggest San Padro Cactus (seen here) in the region - I wonder how they would ever know, I guess the same way Wawa knows they have the biggest goose?! When I returned to Izhcayluma, I caught up with Phil (who had been working hard on his journal), went for a swim, had another amazing meal, played a competitive game of darts with our new friend and barman, Cyril, and eventually headed off to bed with sore legs, a little too much sun, and a wide grin.

Prolonged stay in Vilcabamba

It has been a while since we last published a post. We had a hard time finding a good internet connection while we were in Vilcabamba and we decided to wait until we arrvied in Cuenca find another internet location. To tell you the truth, we enjoyed Vilcabamba so much that we ended up staying five days instead of our initially planned two. Our hostal had a lovely view and great food. Hiking, biking, and enjoying the outdoors was so easily accessed and we managed to remain under budget our entire stay (hard to leave). One afternoon, Mary and I hiked for nearly 8 hours to a waterfall in the southern highlands. The hardest part of the walk was finding the starting point. The hostal provided maps for us, but they are still currently a work-in-process. We ended up walking through coffee bean farms and banana plantations, and were generally off-track. From the sounds of it though, we were not the only people who lost their bearings on the way to the trail. It was quite hillarious. By the time we reached the beginning of the hike, we had already walked up and down for 4 hours. We ate a small lunch and climbed to a point approximately 2000 metres above sea level, constantly stopping to take pictures and to enjoy the view. There were lots and lots of cows/bulls that stood in the middle of the path, high in the moutains staring at us, mooing and grunting, making it difficult for us to pass by. We eventually reached the waterfall in 2 hours. The water dropped about 20 metres and formed a very small pool (not an ideal place for a dip). We did however drink some water from nearby springs, and that was refreshing. We walked back to the hostal and ate some traditonal stroganoff before heading to bed. We really enjoyed our stay and would recommend it to anyone visiting southern Ecuador. We are also happy to move on and to expericance less tourists and more of the culture that surrounds us.