the greatest graffiti ever

I saw this stencil on a Quito wall...

¨a little suggestion for you sons of bitches: follow your leader¨

Las Touristas vs El Vulcan

According to an AP report, Vulcan Turgurahua is set for a major eruption. This could affect Baños, where I spent a week. Hopefully the town won´t have to be evacuated. This happened in 1999, and locals were unable to return to their homes for months, aparrently tourism, domestic tourism especially, still hasn´t fully recovered

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iGYWkty6dvAtbS27NLgRLmeAhrzQD8U2N21G2

this is el vulcan in calmer times

I´d love to post more but...

I have to be at the bus in half an hour, the 2nd and last to leave daily from Puyo. various keys don´t work on this computer, parenthesis for instance. New year´s eve here consisted of a lot of beer drinking with Antonio, his girlfriend Andrea, her BFF Liz and a bunch of other people, followed by dinners at 2 different family houses. then shots of sugarcane and mint Puntas, and to the salsateca for dancing, whiskey and more beer. yesterday we went to Liz´s sister´s house, 2 hours down the road in Paloma, Morona-Santiago province, where a lonely gas station is ran out of the house. ate a lot of chancho served a bunch of different ways. Liz is currently in the "one that got away" category. Perhaps that can change, she´s got about 40 days before returning home to Grancanaria, España, where tourists can see West Africans in rickety boats crossing to the new world ...

welcome to the jungle

bienvenidos a la selva...

Well, not exactly jungle. But welcome to Puyo, capital of Pastaza province, Ecuador´s largest and least-populated. I got into town today and met up with Jeremy, my peace corps contact, and we went out to Frates, my volunteer home for the next month or more. 16 km on the Via Macas road, and 10 km further to Frates. That 10 km took us 2 hours and 5 minutes to walk back, after we missed the bus and failed to flag down a ride. the road being unpaved means there are lots of available weapons aganst the local dogs. I got one leg-shot which, judging by the yelps, was pretty effective.
Good news: the 30 cm (Lo siento, but I can´t give you the metric conversions. I keep remembering the article in The Onion about how the youth of America are unable to do the metric conversions, except that they´re somehow really good at converting grams/kilograms to ounces/pounds... I´m gonna do my part to change that situation) of rain that fell in 6 hours last Wednesday is mostly gone. The road is once again passable, and the water is back. As is the electricity, and Antonio was using it for his newest purchase, an $800 stereo that might cost a quarter of that in the states. Yes, he´s paying in installments. He did get a poisonous spider off me though...
The key thing about Puyo is that it doesn´t have oil, which means that, unlike some of the other Ecuadorian jungle towns, it´s not muy peligroso. The most interesting thing I´ve seen in town this evening: a neon-green building, 2 floors. On the bottom floor, the Chameleon Karaoke Disco Bar. On the top floor: Alcoholicos Anonimos. The least interesting thing I´ve seen this evening: The Bulls getting blown out in San Antonio, on ESPN2 on TV in my room.

what will Quiteños think of to outlaw next?

Pollos in a Quito mercado

OR

my fans keep their hands in the air