A Few of My Favorite Things

Sunlight and firm beds and gardens and good coffee and long hikes that make me sleep well at night. These, I've long known, are a few of my favorite things. Most of them are hard to come by on the road, the very bumpy road, down here in South America.

Enter Hostal Macondo. Thank goodness for this place. I mean, I realize I've already devoted way too much blog space to the topic of accomodations, but boy does this one deserve the praise. I am in Cuenca, Ecuador now and it practically feels like home, thanks to the big ole kitchen, the garden, the friendly, helpful staff, the firm bed, and all the rest. It is a breath of fresh air to be here, and that feeling does not end at the hostel door.

Yesterday, I took my first organized "tour" and it was fantastic. I went with a group of seven to Cajas National Park, a place I knew hardly anything about that turned out to be an absolutely breathtaking sight. The park is a combination of altiplano (don't know how to translate) and premontane forest (don't know quite what that means). Whatever the ecology, it's workin' for this place, because it's gorgeous-- giant pampas plants, huge mountains, tons of lagoons, and tiny, improbably beautiful flowers and lichen everywhere. It's very humid, and it's at an altitude of about 13,000 feet, so it's a truly unique environment. I took some of my favorite photographs yesterday. Here's a sampling:






But perhaps even more enjoyable than tromping through Cajas was sharing a meal with three fellow Minneapolitans who just happen to do for a living exactly what it is that I want to do for a living. One, Mary, has been an environmental radio reporter for 19 years, much of it for MPR. Her husband, Don, is also here. The other woman, also named Mary, is also a radio reporter. Together, the two Mary's started a non-profit production company called Round Earth Productions, and now they travel around Latin America doing print and radio stories for some really substantial media outlets, which include nearly every media outlet where I've ever fantasized about publishing something.

In other words, I'm in heaven. And at the moment, I'm trying to determine to what extent this serendipitous event may alter my plans for the next week or so. Next Wednesday, they head out to a rural area around here to interview some flower growers for a story about free trade and the Ecuadorian flower industry. They invited me along, but my ticket back to Quito is for next Tuesday. Yargh! We'll see... At the very least, I'll certainly be meeting up with them back in the States. Summer job, anyone?

Okay, well, I think I'll let the Cajas photos speak for themselves today. They pretty much sum up my current state of creative bliss.