Enchanting Ecuador - May 2018

Street dancing

We arrived in Quito, from San Francisco via Fort Lauderdale, at around midnight and had booked a taxi supplied by the hostel we were staying at.  We always try to prearrange transport to our destination in an unfamiliar country after a long flight.  Less room for getting ripped off as sometimes happens when we are tired and our guard is down.

Happy travellers

We woke the next morning to enjoy complimentary tea and coffee supplied all day at Hostal Rosario. This was an unexpected and very welcome treat!  Upon stepping out of the door and into the Old Town of Quito we knew immediately that we would love it here.  Luckily we had booked to stay for five days.  The first few days are necessary to aclimatise to the altitude.  Quito is at 2,850m and you really notice it with any physical exertion ... even just walking up the stairs at the hostal.

 We happily wandered the streets taking in the sights and (sometimes unusual) smells of the city. 

A breakfast of potato cakes, avocado, fried eggs and salad was enjoyed at the local market.  Delicious.

We loved the street food too, even though sometimes we don't know what it is!

In a nearby square we came across a colourful display of traditional dancing.  

 Speaking of colour, Clare was delighted to come across a few yarn shops. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending which way you look at it) the yarn was all acrylic so none was purchased.   This minor detail didn't stop her being thrilled with the discovery

The weekly changing of the guards was on the Presidential Palace during our visit so we went along to the square to watch, along with a great many others.  What a lot of fanfare it was and we were really happy to have experience of it.

Gotta love the bamboo spear poles

The Basilica was very near to our accommodation but we decline to pay to go in ... it really was pretty enough from the outside.  We become fairly immune to the tourist traps in the places we go to both for financial reasons but also because there is a limit to how many churches and temples we wish to look at.

One of the things you first notice immediately upon arrival in Quito is the statue of Mary or variably ... Virgin of the Apocalypse, Winged Virgin of Quito, Dancing Madonna, and Legarda's Virgin .  We took a taxi up (for reasons aforementioned) to see it and walked back down the hill.

A view of just one side of the city

There were signs at the bottom of the track warning of robbers in the area but all we encountered was this cute and curious kitty ..... and a (sadly) very drunk man.

We also came across some fairly chilled street dogs resting in the afternoon sun.

We were fairly impressed to note the city taking their refuse disposal quite seriously.  Well, on the face of it anyway.  We suspect these three bins all seem to feed into the same underground receptacle which is then sucked out from a manhole at the street side.

Clare was mesmerised by the gorgeous women in there traditional 'dress'.  Most of us wouldn't think to put some of these colours together.  It is time to ask ourselves why not?

James was amused by this shop which seems to sell only pulleys!  As this is not such a throw away society, these guys still fix stuff rather than replacing it.  Mostly from a cost aspect but also because of the lack of available equipment and resources.  These kinds of shops would have been plentiful in the UK and NZ many years ago too.  Before we became such consumerist societies.  Just sayin'.

Oh, and you can get your shoes shined for next to nothing.

Loved Quito but it was soon time to catch a bus and head for our first South American housesit on the coast.

This may not seem like much of a photo to you, but to us it speaks a thousand words.  This was the view of our last day in Quito.  James woke feeling a little unwell so we spent most of the day in our room .... and we were up all night, both with a violent case of Delhi belly, most likely caused by one of our street meals.   It didn't bode well for our early morning start to catch a bus to Manta .... but such are the joys of travelling.  We must take the bad with the (mostly) good.

Will this stop us from sampling the food the locals eat everywhere we go?   Hell no!

San Francisco Bay - May 2018

New Zealand is not the cheapest place to fly out of so when we found a very reasonable flight from Auckland to San Francisco we booked it!  At this stage we had no onward plans except we were ultimately headed for South America and this was a good stepping stone.  Sometimes (in fact, all times for us) you just need to be flexible.  Once the timing of our sit in Ecuador was confirmed we were able to book flights to Quito.

We booked a 10 day house-sit in the San Francisco Bay area which fitted perfectly into the time-frame of our stay here.   We arrived at the airport and easily found a Bart to the stop where our lovely homeowner, Lorraine, would pick us up.  She took us home to be greeted with much excitement by the three amigos ....

Roxy, Lassen and Charlie

It didn't take long for us to settle in as this photo will attest ... having just arrived an hour earlier!

Lorraine was kind enough to take us out to a Mexican restaurant on our first night here.  This served to remind us how good the food and service is in the U.S. The portion sizes are overwhelming too!  Too full to sleep that night. Sigh .....

There was a very convenient park at the end of our road with a couple of enclosed off-leash areas which we could throw the ball in to tire these guys out.  Our daily romps around the park were always an adventure.  The U.S. (and the U.K. for that matter) do dog parks really well!  We also enjoyed our doggy walks around the neighbourhood of an evening, again taken aback at the state of some of the vehicles on the road here.   There is no Warrant of Fitness or Safety Certification required to drive a vehicle in America. What's with that!?

  The balance of our days were spent hanging out at home with the furbies, taking advantage of the well furnished back yard.

Nowt like an audience!

These two took a real shine to each other :-)

Sleeping beauty

Hunny the rabbit was rescued by Lorraine off the road at a few weeks old and is the luckiest rabbit we know!   He has his own room with lots of toys and tunnels and towers.  He also gets to chow down every day on organic greens and high end rabbit food and treats.  What's not to like about this new lifestyle. He was really great company and Clare enjoyed sitting and knitting with him.

What to do in San Fran during the lovely sunny days of spring?  Fishing of course!  James booked a trip on a boat on the bay and came home with a good size halibut, his first halibut catch ever, which fed us for a few day.  We had never eaten this fish before.  Very nice it was too!

Alcatraz

Lorraine very kindly offered the use of her vehicle whilst she was away which meant we didn't have to hire one (as planned) to venture out to Nevada to visit with the family we sat for in 2016. It was great to see everyone and to visit with Mira and Louis again! We love every opportunity to visit our previous charges.

Before we accepted this sit, Lorraine checked that it was okay with us that her tenant would be at the house during our stay.  We were fine with it ... being such a short sit and she would be working long hours out of the home.  This was the first time we have had a 'sitting tenant' during a sit and all went well as we enjoy the company of a wide range of people from all walks of life and from all over the world.  Just one of the many reasons we live and love our nomadic lifestyle.

Departure date due, Auckland - April 2018

Mt Ruapehu, New Zealand
Time to leave for warmer climes when we see snow on the mountains!

Our impending departure from New Zealand was fast approaching and we realised we only had a couple of weeks to sell our trusty 4X4.  We often buy and sell second-hand vehicles in our own countries (NZ and UK) as we tend to spend enough time in each place to warrant it.  It is certainly cheaper than car hire and we don't tend to lose much money doing so.

After a farewell dinner with the family, some outdoor painting at Clare's Mum and Dad's and James taking the bed out of the wagon and putting the seats back in, we headed to our next sit in Auckland.

Here, we were to look after Brad, a 17yo cat and Milah, 7yo lab cross

These two were such great company!  Lots of sofa cuddles and long local walks to be had here.

We sold the vehicle to the first viewer within the first couple of days so we were beating the feet for most of our 10 day stay.

People often ask us if we feel sad when leaving the pets we have looked after and although we certainly bond with all of them VERY quickly, we are usually in a position to be handing them back to the people who love them the most - their owners.  Milah and Brad were different.  Their human Mum had died at Christmas time and the care of the pets had passed to the woman's daughter.  Whilst she obviously loved the pets and wanted to do the right thing by them, she couldn't bring herself to part with them so quickly after losing her Mum.  And not being able to care for them herself as she lived in a different part of the city and travelled a lot for work, she was relying on a revolving door of house-sitters and family support to care for these two beauties.  So no, in this case, it didn't feel real good to leave them :-(  Hopefully they will be re-homed with forever parents soon.

Random pic of a beautifully forming Fly Agaric ...
autumn is upon us

We had a really great summer in New Zealand.  Already looking forward to the next one!