Sunrise

This morning’s sunrise

Sunrise

Sunrise

This was the view at sunrise today from the Condo we are staying in. It sure was nice to have coffee and watch the sun rise. The mountain is Imbaburra if you don’t recognize it by now.

Look at this lady. She likes the bracelet she made too.

Beading 201

TierraFirme WestView

Announcement

This is the view to the east of Mt. Imbaburra. This was also taken with a wide angle lens to give you a broader view and from about the middle of the development. Our property is at the far end, closer to the mountain. The wall you see is the back side of the development.

Ok, here it is…[insert drum roll here]…

We bought some property here in Cotacachi and this is the view to the east. That is the town of Cotacachi you can see in the picture and Mt Cotacachi is in the background with the peak hidden by the clouds. This was taken with a wide angle lens to give you a broad view not a close up. This was taken from the Gazebo on the property. The link following is for the development. They have a pretty good description and great photos. You might be a little slow to load as it is all flash content – but it is worth it.

www.andeanretreat.com

View from Sand Pedro

Beading 101

View from Sand Pedro

View from San Pedro

I tried to do this in reverse so this is the first posting in the series and you can read down instead of reading the last thing first. we will see how this works in reality.
Patrice was asked to teach one of the villages some beading. Another one wants me to teach them how to make Pizza, (all they really want is my Sourdough). As it turns out they want 3 days of beading classes. Today was the first day. Now picture this… We barely know a few words in Spanish, the villagers know not much Spanish, they primarily speak their native language named Kitchwa. How is that for the beginnings of teaching a class?
In the picture, lower left you can see Cotacachi where we are staying. In the middle below the mountain you can see Otavalo, where the big craft market is. Those things that seem like white lines, to the right mid picture, are Rose growing operations. This picture is only part of the absolutely stunning views this village has.
The name of the village is San Pedro and is over 200 years old. It is small, and the people are shy but it was worth it just to see things like this picture. As you will see – they really got into beading. Must have been the Instructor, what do you think?
We have to pick up more supplies tomorrow in Otavalo and the second class will be Monday (Lunes).

Just so you know…

We haven’t been forgetting to blog – we have been a bit to busy with some secret stuff. Watch here for some major announcements at the end of the week. But until then…
We are hearing about all the storms every where from family and friends. Well, we just wanted you to know – we feel your pain. It hasn’t been exactly perfect here either you know. We have had rain the last couple nights. It starts about 4pm and rains into the night. Fortunately it clears right up by dawn.
Even though it rained last, there are a couple of clouds in the sky and one of the mountains has a cloud on top of it. It is in the low 70’s right now. I will be walking up to the market later today and will have to put on Sun Screen.
Last trip to the Market I bought a kilo of little fingerling potatoes, 8 fresh tomatoes from the vine, 3 heads of garlic, and something else that I forget right now, for $2 even. But then I splurged for Patrice and bought 50 fresh cut roses for $4.
See so it is tough everywhere. Just remember this next time you get upset by the weather.

Otavalo Bead Trip

Today we went into Otavalo on a bead buying trip. We had found one store on a previous trip but, today we found I think 3 and a couple accessory stores too. What prompted all this Bead buying frenzy? Well perhaps there will be more on why tomorrow

I was able to look around some rather than carry packages. You can see there are some interesting “Architecture” in some of the buildings. To bad those poles are in front of this one.

Ok, finally exhaustion,(on my part for carrying all the @#$% beads), set in and we took a lunch break at a place above the market. It was a way cool view.

Yes I was wondering if this little trip was going to end. The costs were escalating too. It cost us 25 cents EACH to get there after all. At lunch we looked out over the market. This is the little version during the week.

Ok, as we decided we were done and it was time to head back to Cotacachi. I took this last picture of a couple of ladies in their native dress. Most of the vendors dress like this.