On the road to our first finca

Hello everyone!
We are giving you guys lots of news within few days but this is because we're leaving tomorrow for our new organic farm and we seriously doubt we would be able to give any news for a month.
So here's a little recap from our last days in Quito.

If you don't already know it, Quito is the third (officialy second) highest capital in the world; after La Paz in Bolivia and Lasha in Tibet (because, without getting too much into politics, we consider Tibet a country).
This means that around town, there is real interesting trek paths. So, we went to see Guagua Pichincha crater. Unfortunately, waking up late and an overcast sky didn't allow us to see much. Fortunately, there is more then plenty volcanos in Ecuador, so there will be a next time.


 








Nevertheless, our little 4 hour walk in the mountains was quite romantic and seriously tested our breathing abilitiy.

So how did we get to those beautiful mountains, first we took a wild ride to the "Teleferico" of Quito that brought us 1200m higher to the feet of the mountains. We were now 4100m high in the world!






 

 

 




Never satisfied, we went hiking just a little bit more, 400m higher...not really to the top of the mountain...mainly because it was getting way colder and way darker! It's all about health and safety!





 




At this height, we litteraly had to hike step by step because safety wise, it was very dangerous. No need to say that our Spartan ego got tested (Simon's mainly).









Meanwhile, we also gave a quick visit to "La Mitad del Mundo", the name says it all, it's the middle of the world on the 0"0"0 parallel. We've heard it's not exactly the right location, but we don't care, we had fun!




 



















Also, Simon finished school!! Soa gave herself the mission to pursue his education. Her salary: cakes and coffee... to add it to all, Simon has to let her cheat to games she invented. What we wouldn't do for love!


Speaking  of love, love is like a seed that we plant to see grow, a fragile seed and nourishing at the same time; a seed that we will cherish and nurture as much as our shortened breathes in the mountains.
 
We will plant lots of seeds in the following months... all of it will gave us practice in giving life (in all manners you can imagine).



We're leaving for Guantubamba tomorrow... a village that looks impossible to find on any map. That's very exciting for us! But we know that it's near the town of Pujili in the Cotopaxi province.
For your info, in the middle of that province, there is the volcano holding the same name! The Cotopaxi volcano is one of the biggest active volcano in the world and one of the 26 of Ecuador.
Anyways, tomororw we're going on a grain farm (Quinoa, barley, corn, potatoes, etc) that is located at 3250m high. To add to Soa's hapiness, the farm is hosting lots of animals: lamas, chickens, dogs, cats, pigs, guinea pigs and donkeys (David and Lazar!).

It's a 3 family project... none of them speaking english. So Simon will gladly have to evolve from the current "Si, no, toaster"!

Wish us lots of poo (lots of animals!), more news in a month!

Soa and Simon

La primera semana (Quito!!)

Hola !

So here it is, our first full completed week with a serious emotional duality that seemed to seize us.

On one side, we have to push ourselves to meet people, make contacts in every corner, make periodic visits to many government offices, local banks.... and that is without considering Simon's back to school situation.
A lot of stress. It is no surprise though, considering the "unknown" nature of our expedition and specially the fight with the holy imigrational bureaucracy!

On the other side, we live in a bubble, calm and chill on a deep zen-mode. Indeed, even with that anxiety buzz surrounding us, we still feel like we're another step closer to our "future home".

Hotel view

 

Simon is back to school. A little intensive 20 hours in spanish. A necesity, of course, but also a dream of his for 10 years. He seriously thinks he has never been that studious in his entire life! It is fascinating to be able to use in real life, everything you learn in class! Usually, it's all about filling you up thousands of bits of information and a big amount just get lost "on the road" !

View from Simon's school

To learn a language in a country that doesn't seem to have any interest in trying to communicate in a language that you understand... it's the most rewarding experience ever. Simon lived that before, in England with english. It's the exact same feeling but with a certain maturity that allows him to understand the opportunity ahead of him!

Apart from that, we take buses, random buses, that brings us wherever in town. Please note that buses here cost 0,25$ per person; no matter where you go. So we ended up at the top of town where we went crazy, with an unbelievable view, eating a 0,50$ banana cake.

View from our future apartment in Quito!

Simon proclaims that he wants to buy an apartment up there, for all of our family to stay in Quito... while getting acclimated to the altitude!

We walk a lot, there is parks everywhere, colonial architecture, big churches with iguanas on them! We eat fruits, more fruits and  even more fruits. We might have tried 7 of the 32 types of potatoes.
Today we finally tried the encebollado, kind of a onion soup, with potatoes and fish steak! Oh my! New fav!

The president and his ministers

We woke up a 7am this morning to visit the visa office. No school yay! But not so much... Simon would have rather suffer more with "verbos irregulares"! Overall, we went from offices to offices to learn that we need to go to the previous one! So much fun! 

Simon went to say hi to the president Correa during his class break. He discussed politics with his teacher. There was a lot of people, a lot of police too... because like every good politician, Correa made a lot of promises, but can't manage to fulfill them! In this case, to not go dig oil in Yasuni's park; protected park that holds some of the oldest tribes on the south-american continent and with a high flora diversity.

One of the person that we met that bright up our week his Diana, one of Lazar-the-pirate and Lara Cousins common friend. This wonderful girl spoiled us by taking us all around town and gave us precious insights. 

Did you know that the UN gives interesting grants to small eco-community base projects? Sounds like hours of bureaucracy stuff... but very hard not to consider!

On another note....bad news, we won't be able to extend our actual visa. Good news: there is still hope at the end of the tunnel. Different options are available but we will need to be proactives. We will give you a list of visas available eventually, for those who are interested in bureaucracy!

We love Quito but we can't wait to dig our hands in earth. So we plan on leaving to our new farm next wednesday! We will gladly tell you guys all about it before we leave!