World Refugee Day 2006

World Refugee Day 2006

Last week I took a bus three hours north of Quito to the city of Ibarra. Ibarra is a pretty nice, quiet city, known as the "white city" due to its wealth of white colonial architecture. I went up there to view and participate in this year's World Refugee Day/ Dia Mundial del Refugiado. It was a pretty fun event and a very interesting weekend. Anyway, here are some pictures of the parade and with any luck one or two videos of the musical guests in the evening.

Catching up on my videos.

So i've just discovered at last how to post videos. Here are a few from my travels. I apologize for the poor filming.

Islas de Ballestas sea lions, Peru ( you can hear them with volume)



Riobamba train ride, Ecuador

Go Ecuador.... I mean, Go Edmonton...err, Si se pueden!!

My life is completely scheduled around sports these days; Edmonton win last night, followed by an Ecuadorian win this morning... which obviously was (and still is) followed with total craze in the city of Quito, much less the rest of the country. People are running down the streets, waving flags, singing, dancing, cheering, honking horns, ect. A tourist agent I saw just now following the game had to excuse himself for the huge bottle of beer he was drinking at his desk.... no one is working today, come on now let's get realistic!

Last night I watched the Edmonton-Carolina game with five other Canucks at our token Canadian-owned sports bar. It was a nice dose of home, but for obvious reasons was quickly bumped by the World Cup euphoria which is inescapable here...even at 5 a.m in the morning.

So now Ecuador is safe and into the second round... I guess I shouldn't plan on travelling anywhere in the next few weeks. ;)

Oh, you mean THAT June 13th 1984!!

Happy Birthday Emily... thanks for the subtle reminder, although it was not needed!

Pop Quiz!

Brendan, I think this is comparable to Japanese fashion.




10 Soles to whoever can identify the flag on this sweater... I'll give you a clue, its not the Canadian flag! haha...

Quito pictures - Centro Historico

Here are some pics I took of Quito a couple days ago. The pictures from above are from the Panecillo, the angel statue up on a hill on the edge of the city.

From what I understand one of Ecuador's past "Miss Ecuadors" decided during her reign that she would like for a blue heart to be painted on the road on the spot of every fatal accident.... hmm.. nice, but not necessarily very comforting to see just after your bus driver decides at the last minute not to pass that car ahead as it approaches the sharp mountain-top blind right-hand turn and the huge Mack truck would-have-been-accident safely barrels around the bend past you. (This story is entirely fictional Mum. Muah!)

Mitad del Mundo

This past thursday I did something most people probably would never aspire to do, but when the opportunity is there, its definately not something that can be passed up. I stood on the equator. Both actually, the wrong more touristy one and the proper but unfortunately less known line. Apparently this incorrect line was determined way back when (that's right, I'm tired of tours and pamphlet reading!) by some French guy, the actual line was determined by Ecuadorians, the indigenous I think, and is about 200 m away from the more recognized line.

The correct line has a museum on it where tourists can try lots of interesting 'only on the equator' types of experiments. One experiment was draining water through a sink on the equator and on either side. When the sink was placed directly over the line the water drained straight out the hole in the bottom of the bason. In contrast, in the southern and northern hemispheres the water visibly drained either clockwise or counter-clockwise. Another experiment we did was the act of balancing an egg on the head of a nail. Because the nail was hammered into the equator, balancing the egg is made possible (though not easy) because it is on a line of total equalibrium. Myself and another guy in our group were the only successful "Egg Balancers"... we got certificates! haha. The last experiment was a strength one where we found that it is harder to resist someone pulling your hands down from over your head when you are on the equator.

Because there is a museum on equator I also got to see the skin of a 10 ft anaconda and the shrunken head of a 12 boy (a ritual practiced by the local ancient civilizations).

Home on the Hacienda

So, its been a week now that i have been in Quito and I really don't have any accomplishments to report, which is lovely. It has been really nice just hanging out here with no plans, no daily agenda, nothing. I have spent the last week squatting in my friends Emma and Alfredo's livingroom. I think I will stay in Quito though for a few weeks, so this weekend I am going to move into a room in the house where Emma's office is. The house is really nice with kitchen privileges and all, only $5/ day.

Like I said, I haven't been up to much this past week. Time spent in Quito has mostly involved visiting Emma at her office, checking emails, wandering the streets, and Salsarobics at the gym (a special treat Emma had planned for me the very night I arrived! haha). This past weekend I went with my Emma and Alfredo to Alfredo's home town of Mindo. It is about a 2.5 hr drive north of Quito across the equator (yeah, that's right, I drove across the equator. Soon I'm gonna go stand on it!) in to the mountains. Emma and Alfredo have invested in some land up there so we went up for the weekend to do some work on the lot, pulling grass and planting flowers. I was not prepared with mucking around clothes, so I didn't really do anything apart from transfering plants from the fencelines of unsuspecting neighbours to Emma and Alfredo's lot, shhhh!
I like the idea here. I think I might have posted a similar picture of the waste system in Aguas Calientes. I especially like the notice above the pails: "Para Turistas" = For Tourists. I guess the explanation is intended for us. Or maybe we're the only ones anal enough to worry about seperate bins.

Me working hard (Emma clearly taking a break in the background):



...and,

ooh... perdy butterfly!

Don't complain about the services!!!

You know how at home (or where ever I guess) people warn you to not complain about your food at a restaurant or it will come back from the kitchen with spit or a hair in it. Well, apparently same goes for Lavanderias. I got in an argument (yeah, I was pretty proud of myself) with the laundry lady yesterday because I was supposed to be leaving for Quito around noon and my laundry (originally said to be ready by 11 am) was not done until 1:15 pm. The argument wasn't just because the laundry was late, but also because one of her staff had allowed me to call Quito to tell Emma that I would be late arriving and not to worry. When the owner saw that I had made the call she demanded that I pay her for the phone call as well as my late laundry. I argued that her staff had invited me to make the call because it was technically their fault that I would be arriving late.... and also that I should get a discount on the laundry because it was 2 hrs past its due date. haha. Anyway, in the end I didn't pay for the phone call and agreed to pay the price of the laundry minus 20 cents ($3.20). hahaa....

This morning, however, when I was getting dressed, I put-off and yet amused at the same time to find that in the end the Devil Laundry Lady had won the fight, as my bra that she had just washed and carefully folded was no longer in one piece, but cut down the centre in two.