Return to Tumbabiro

The last time Rachel and I went to Tumbabiro it was to a wonderful birthday fiesta at Phil and Sandy's house back in October.  At that fiesta we met their friends, Bob and Beatriz Flick and their son, Eric.  This trip to Tumbabiro we were privileged to be invited to the Flick's party.

The Flicks have an amazing story.  Bob and Beatriz met in Ecuador back in 1962 when Bob was a Peace Corps volunteer in the first group to arrive in Ecuador.  Beatriz was from landed Ecuadorian country gentry.  She was educated, quadra-lingual, cultured, and with deep family roots in the Imbabura Province.  Bob was probably a little idealistic, educated, with enormous energy and in love with Beatriz.  Bob had to get permission to marry Beatriz from Beatriz's father and the Director of the Peace Corps, then Sargent Shriver.  He was on loan to Ecuador from Uncle Sam....go figure.  He never did tell me which permission was more difficult to gather.

Anyway, it was the biggest wedding ever seen in the provincial capital of Ibarra.  There had never been a local girl marrying a gringo before 1964, so this was a spectacular event.  I'm pretty sure Beatriz's family was very well known, so everyone came.  It was and still is a storybook romance.

Bob ended his stint with the Peace Corps in 1964 but continued his passion for helping others through CARE, ACDI, Chemonics International, Winrock Foundation, and other non-profit and for-profit international non-governmental agencies for another 40 years.  His background in agriculture, economics,  international relations, and rural development eventually landed him in several private positions in the states.  Beatriz' multilingual skills and hard work placed her ultimately in bank management positions during their life in the US.    Although they have lived in exotic places like Sri Lanka, Moldova and Montenegro, Bob and Beatriz eventually settled in northern Virginia.  They still maintain a home in Alexandria, Virginia.  Beatriz's father has passed away but her 92 year old mother is still open to a glass of wine and a spin around the dance floor with anyone who can keep up.  With a generational passage, the family hacienda in the Imbabura beckoned to Flick's able hands and hearts.  It was certainly a natural progression that the Flicks would return to their beloved Ecuador where they first fell in love.

As we rode down the driveway into the Flick's hacienda, it was obvious that it was going to be special.  The lane was girded on both sides with Bob's own plantings of evergreen trees.  This was a bare piece of land just five years ago!  To see it now, you would think it impossible.  Every tree planted was little more than a stick.  The land which was once covered in sugarcane fields was devoid of wildlife when they came.  Cane is regularly burned before harvest driving out birds and other fauna.  Now the land is covered in patchwork of elegant avocado trees.  Outrageously colorful songbirds and hummingbirds are everywhere.  I'm told that the coyotes, rabbits, opossums, and other species including skunks have returned as well.  It was a homecoming for Bob,  Beatriz, and God's creatures.

Eric showed us the orchards and told us of the agronomic science that goes into raising avocados.  The Haas species that Bob helped to introduce and popularize into Ecuador was at first met with suspicion by the larger grocery chains.  Three years later they clamor for his fruit. 

Rachel's favorite fruit is avocado, so it was nearly impossible to remove her from the premises.


As we walked down the rows Eric showed us fruit in various stages of development.  Some fruits had minor blight due to the injuries caused by a bug (thrip).  The recent fog events created a medium to advance the effects of the thrip injuries.  The fog was just closing in again as we were walking down the rows.  Eric showed us various stages of chlorosis, another enemy of the fruit.  Only intensive soil and tissue testing tells what kind of chlorosis it is and what steps are required to bring it back to complete health.  This fruit requires regular watering to keep it producing but with irrigation water at a very basic pH of 8.2 it takes considerable amendment to make it fully useable by the plants.

At age 71, Bob shows little sign of slowing down or 'retirement mode'.  Beatriz however has claimed her passion that she has for too long put off, reading.  Her luxurious hammock was evidence that she was serious about enjoying every minute of her mind expanding hobby.



If you are imagining this to be the Ponderosa and the Cartwrights, you're not too far off.  The Flick's designed and built their home three years ago.  It reflects their casual but elegant style of living. 

The yard reflects the care and passion of Beatriz and Bob with a little help from God's gift of the Ecuador climate.

 Did I mention that Beatriz is an excellent cook?





Talk to Us About Living in Ecuador

If you are a regular Ecuador blog reader and you keep one foot in the US and the foot that belongs to your heart in Ecuador, we need to talk.  I mean literally, we need to talk. 

It seems the expat bloggers of Ecuador (yes I'm one of them) are filling the internet with pictures and information about what it is like to live in this beautiful country. 

Now you have another way to convince that foot that is anchored in the US to step outside for a minute and start living in a place where the weather allows you to walk outside comfortably daily, where quality health care costs fractional to the US, where homes can be bought or built reasonably, and where the locals still like North Americans. 

If you'd like to consider moving that stubborn foot click on the link below

http://learnecuador.intuitwebsites.com/

I'll be waiting for your email appointment.

Otavalo Livestock Market

I'm pretty sure if you come to the livestock market in Otavalo on Saturday morning you'll have a good feel for some of the Ecuador farm traditions.  Suffice it to say, the hogs aren't going to make it to the Iowa State Fair.  Then again, nobody ever said hogs have to be pretty to taste good.  In Iowa we move our pigs about prodding them with a cane.  In Ecuador, they're on a leash.  Do you suppose Arnold Ziffel was from Ecuador?

 Likewise, the cattle won't make it to Aksarben or Des Moines either, but if you like livestock auctions this will be like none you've ever seen in America's heartland.

Iluman

Iluman is a village that lies at the base of Imbabura along the Pan Am highway between Otavalo and Quiroga.  We have some new friends there, Alfonso and Maria Rosa, an absolutely delightful couple.  Don't let the Ralph Lauren t shirt fool you.  Alfonso still knows how to weave an alpaca blanket the old fashioned way.

He's not afraid to demonstrate his ancient trade with a blonde haired gringo boy either!

 Rachel will be taking some hand-made merchandise back to the US with her and some of it will be from Alfonso and Rosa.  Alfonso and Rosa weave and market alpaca blend blankets, ponchos and scarves.  All you need to do is spend one night under one of their blankets and you will be sold!  Rachel and I keep them on our love seat for those chilly Andean nights watching movies.  We get so cozy we often miss the closing credits.  I hope the customs agents don't get too picky about her suitcase full of alpaca blankets.

Alfonso met a few of us in Cotacachi with his pickup and played taxi driver to take us up the mountain to Iluman.  It was well worth it for us as buyers and Alfonso had a banner day.  It makes you feel good when you see this young couple succeed at making and selling a quality product at a value price.  Whatever they do, they must have the formula.  They are building a new house! 

While hundreds of artisans compete with each other at the huge market in Otavalo, Alfonso and Rosa open up their house to a focus group of buyers on appointment.  Oh yes, they sell at the market too, but clearly they have discovered a marketing venue that can't be beat.   They treat you like royalty in their home and even try a little English while you fumble around with Spanish.  Then when you are done shopping, they take you to your front door with your bag full of goods.  At the end of the day everyone was delighted.

Bus Drivers in the Imbabura

Meet hermanos (brothers) Fausto and Jorge.  They are a bus driver team that have been pretty special to us as we travel back and forth between Otavalo and Cotacachi.  When Fausto is driving, Jorge is collecting the fares from the passengers.  Likewise the roles are reversed when Jorge is the conductor (driver).  They are warm, friendly, and forgiving of our malo (bad) Spanish.  They are cordial and courteous to passengers and drive with great care.   After writing some less than complimentary reviews of the bus drivers in Cuenca I really felt a need to express our great relief and happiness that the drivers here in the Imbabura are almost the opposite of their city counterparts in Cuenca.  There are typically two passenger seats up front by the driver and Rachel and I are quick to grab them when possible.  You get to see everything along the route and learn a little Spanish from Fausto and Jorge. 

Our First Anniversary

We met when we were 12.  Forty seven years later we got married.  A lot happened in between for both of us but our life is together now, perhaps the way it was supposed to be.  This past year in matrimony with my lovely Rachel has given me more personal growth than the previous 59.  I think growth happens when you love someone that much.  There are challenges to be sure, but what doesn't kill us makes us stronger right?

A year ago today we were roaring about in Rachel's Miata through Mark Twain National Forest on our honeymoon.  We had been married earlier that day in a civil ceremony in Tennessee by a minister who was 'on duty' at the courthouse.  After our simple ceremony we lunched at a Kentucky Fried Chicken and laughed to tears by our approach to our new life together.  It was good preparation for Ecuador.



We were going to go to Lago Cuicocha today for a romantic four hour walk around the serene and mystical lake.  As fate would have it the sun just didn't want to come out today so we spent a little more time being cozy this morning.  Then it occurred to us that we should best celebrate our first year together the way we started it, at Kentucky Fried Chicken.  So we hopped on the bus to Ibarra.

I love you Rachel.

Tumbabiro

Sometimes a unique and wonderful lifestyle is waiting for you in a place no one has even talked about.  Phil and Sandy have taken that path less travelled.  It takes some real courage and faith to create your own heaven on earth where few gringos have even trod.  Tumbabiro is such a place.

Rachel and I were honored to be among the invitees to Phil and Sandy's fiesta.  We're pretty sure the auspices for the fiesta were some birthdays among the guests, somewhere in the past six months or perhaps the next 6 months range.  You see fiestas in Ecuador don't have to be real specific in intent.  They are just fiestas.  Actually Fernando's daughter was turning 13 and was festively attired for the occassion.  Fernando is Phil and Sandy's personal botanist extraordinaire.  Some people might be too quick to call Fernando the gardener until they see his work, or should I say his art.

Fernando has personally travelled all over Ecuador in search of unique and sometimes endangered plant life.  Sometimes that rare species is on a mountain top and sometimes it's along a snake infested stream in the jungle.  But no matter where it might come from it will be happy and healthy under Fernando's tender care and Tumbabiro's idyllic climate.

I'm pretty sure Adam and Eve didn't have this kind of comfort in Eden, but Phil and Sandy manage pretty well in their German engineered home.  With internet access and Direct TV on the big screen, the quiet solitude of the tropical paradise can be broken when you've had your fill of nature's splendor.  The man who lived here before had to return to his native Germany but left a legacy for Phil and Sandy to enjoy the rest of their life.   Thanks for inviting us to your Ecuadorian Eden!

Easter in Cuenca

Rachel and I went to church on Easter with our good friends Mark and Connie.  The service was in a huge new church building with all the bells and whistles of a modern protestant service.  There were overhead projectors for sing along Spanish music and we even had a short video clip from CS Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia.  It was a lovely service with a very engaged and active congregation.  Although this was our first time at this church, we had a strong sense that every service was of the same celebratory nature, not just Easter.  We still struggle with our Spanish understanding, but sometimes messages come through irrespective of language barriers.  Mark and Connie lived for years in Italy so their fluency in that romance language is a huge leg up in understanding Spanish.  I envy (and admire) multi-linquistic people.  There is such a dedication and special intelligence that goes with conquerors of languages not of their own.  Rachel and I are committed to one day joining that fluency club.

We had a very traditional almuerzo (lunch) on Parque Calderon.

We soaked up the sun that has been missing for the most part during this past rainy season April.

As if that monster lunch wasn't enough, we indulged in some home made ice cream at a fabulous heladeria over in San Blas.  After great fellowship, great food, and generous volumes of sunshine, we waddled over to bus #3 and with our 25 centavos were transferred to our condo gate, went upstairs and took a nap.  It's great to be a Hobbit.

Ecuador Parades

Ecuador and it's people never cease to amaze me.  They love their parades!  A year ago on January 16 I was in Otavalo and there was a Christmas parade complete with Santa, Mary, and Baby Jesus.  I was told it was just to wrap up the Christmas season and that they do this all over the country.  I shouldn't have been surprised two weeks ago (also about January 16) when I was on my way to the Cajas on Mongo that my trip was pleasantly interrupted by an indigenous parade with all the same characters that I saw in Otavalo a year before.  Then today (January 30) I'm riding my bike down to Parque Abdon Calderon just to take in the warm day and sunshine and color comes flooding down Calle Presidente Cordova in the form of children on horses and yes, Mary and Joseph and the whole gang. After you've seen the really big Christmas Eve parade, El Pase del Nino Viajero in Cuenca, easily the largest Christmas parade in Ecuador, the parades that follow pale in enormity, but not in spirit.

I know I don't accidently fall into every parade that goes down the street.  I'm sure I miss at least 90 percent of them which means that there's a whole lot of parades going on that I simply never see.  I'm pretty sure that just like in the states, people work, go to school, play soccer and have four generations of family over for dinner every Sunday.  What's different however is that all the rest of the time Ecuadorians are planning or getting in costume for the next parade.  You've got to love a people that celebrate life like this. 

I honestly think some of the dads are just going along with it to be good dads, but the kids never seem to tire of it, even a month after Christmas and two months after the Christmas parades started.  They've all been decked out and parading the streets several times already.  The flowing dresses and the glowing faces seem just as fresh as they were in late November.

Merry Christmas one more time! 

Bible Study

It seems like when you want a little spiritual food it is there for you if you want it.  You just have to make yourself open.  I'm really missing Rachel while she's in the states visiting family and doing business so a little 'grounding' seemed in order last night.  Our friends, Gary and Sue Gaithers are full of life and the spirit and are willing to share it with a Bible study class.  The people who come to their Bible study are also full of spiritual food to share and our lives are blessed by each other's presence and words.  Joanna and Bob are like Rachel and me, newly weds with diverse backgrounds and passion for each other.  Joanna left her communist oppressed country of Poland in 1972  under the cover of stealth and darkness and with great risk to herself.  Raised Catholic, she was unable to practice her faith in her country.  Her father was a communist leader but had to keep his Catholic faith under a bushel and profess publicly his lack of any God-like faith.  Joanna just couldn't reconcile the dichotomy imposed by her country's government and by faith and courage alone, left with nothing but her wits.  Bob, a fun loving Texan adores his new bride.  Poland's loss is Bob's gain.  That's how God works.  Do you think this put things in perspective for me last night?

Yesterday was Gary's (62nd) birthday and Sue wanted to give him a little surprise in the form of a cake to share with all of us.  Gary's birthday was our collective gain.  At 62 Gary looks about 40.  I thought I was in great shape from my bicycling but our bike trip to the thin air of the Cajas revealed that this ancient being of 62 could keep up with me, the youngster of 60 just fine.  Gary and Sue just closed on a really nice condo here in Cuenca so it looks like they'll be staying a while!  Of course that's what I thought when I bought my condo in Cuenca!  Now we're headed to the country up in the Imbabura where God first gave me a sign almost exactly a year ago!  God has a sense of humor.  I should have taken his sign a little more literally and a little more seriously then and we wouldn't have to be moving there now.  I wrote a blog on September 14, 2010 entitled Please God, Is This Where Would You Lead Me?  To fully understand the humor, coincidence or God Thing about that event, you can read it from the blog archives.

Imbabura or Bust!

Why?

We have some really wonderful friends in Cuenca and in such a short period of time it has made even the thought of a move from here very difficult.  Why would we leave such a lovely city and wonderful friends?  If you've read my previous blog, you already know.  Rachel and I are country people.  We prefer to ride our bikes past pastures with cows more than historic colonial architecture and manicured parks.  We don't need the fabulous restaurants.  We cook at home.  We don't need the free Mozart concerts.  We've got a great surround sound system.  The pan pipes of the Imbabura sooth our souls.  Transportation?  Our bikes take us where we need to go and give us the exercise that keeps us younger than our years.   Taxis are available for those lazy or infirm days.  Security?  We'll be leaving a condo with 24-7 guards and closed circuit TV survellance for a place that simply doesn't require the same type of vigilance.  Don't get me wrong.  Where we live now is just plain lovely.  It's modern, convenient, safe, low maintenance, quality construction, gorgeous views, and a built in community of wonderful condo neighbors, and a good long term investment.  What's not to like?  It's not in the country.

So......

If you are a city lover that wants convenience, safety, easy living on one floor with great views, I've got a deal for you.  Welcome to Edificio Palermo  11F.  We'll sell it to you with or without furnishings for less.  There's a few pieces of special furniture that have a history and an attachment to my bride and they will follow us to the Imbabura.  Here's what you'll get.

Edificio Palermo is the tallest building in Cuenca and will always have that distinction.  There's 150 units from the 17th floor penthouse owned by John McAffee of software fame, to the more modest type that we own.   City codes that protect the historic colonial nature of this city will never allow a building of this size to be built here again.  Those fortunate enough to be on the higher levels enjoy a magnificent view of the city and the mountains surrounding  Cuenca.

The plaza surrounding the building affords a place to enjoy the outdoors in a manicured garden setting.  Fountains and flowers make life in the city feel a little more like an estate in the country.

There is an exercise room that keeps you fit, even if you don't ride bikes.

There is a steam room and a sauna to melt your sore muscles when you exercise too hard.

There's a huge reception area to greet your friends before you bring them to your condo.

There's even a theater room that is being developed for all of us to use.  They are building a main floor mini mall which will have botique shops.  No promises on date of completion! 

Everyone has a secure parking space....

and your own secure private bodega (storage) which doubles for us as our bicicleta garage.

The view from our condo bumpout at sunrise

and our view to the south towards the Tomebamba are wonderful.

A well designed kitchen with lots of storage

and a dinette area that doubles as a sitting area or computer nook while the noodles are cooking....

.....or do your laundry conveniently just off the kitchen area.

The dining/living room looks out to the city shown in other pictures and has been wired for speakers to bring music where you sit.  All the rooms have architectural ceilings for elegant aesthetics.

The man cave is designed for an electronics junkie with a built in entertainment center.  This is where I have my surround sound and a place for a big screen tv (yet to be purchased!).  You can darken the room for intensive video or open the shade and  flood it with natural light looking towards the city and have a wonderful sitting area with music for when you're feeling social.   I've wired the condo from here for centralized sound production for music lovers.  If you need the room as a bedroom, it's ready for that also with built in closets.

As for sleeping....

We actually sleep in the smaller bedroom because we can look out on a beautiful mountain and city view while we have our leisurely morning coffee in bed.....

and leave the actual master bedroom as a craft room with a queen sized bed , double built in closet and it's own private bath for our guests.  Everyone would do this differently depending on how you live, but the condo is very flexible for different living styles.

If you or someone you know is looking for a great investment sure to increase in value and comfortable city living in Cuenca, give me a call

 098915314 in Cuenca

or 605.610.3323 as a US phone number

or just email me

caissonrider@yahoo.com

and I will give you a personal tour so that you can have your life in Cuenca and Rachel and I can move to our casita in the Imbabura!