Vilcabamba, Ecuador

Vilcabamba has a reputation throughout Ecuador, and perhaps internationally, as being the "Valley of Longevity". The residents are said to live to a greater age than people living elsewhere in the world. There have been some studies that support that and others that refute that fact. But everyone seems to agree that the climate is wonderful, the water and soil are pure with lots of beneficial minerals and the air has no pollution. It has lots of warm sunshine and plenty of water, from the nearby national forest, so both plants and people do very well. It is located about 30 miles from Loja and was used as a retreat for the Incan royalty centuries ago. There are quite a few tourists and a large number of people from other countries moving here and becoming permanent residents. We took the bus for a quick visit and I'll share a few photos of the center part of the town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vilcabamba may well be a great place to live but we don't have any grandchildren in Ecuador, so it is not the place for us. We look forward to having more time with our family in just three months. 

Open Air Market and SuperMaxi

This is the mercado near our apartment. There are open stalls in the interior of the building selling meats and produce and "sit at the counter" type restaurants. Two sides of the building have individual stores on the outside, like you can see below, that sell dry goods like rice and macaroni out of bulk bins and packaged foods.

Every Saturday morning we go early to the Open Air Market before we go to the missionary meetings in the two zones. It is held in the open space to the left of this building and several side streets to the left and behind this building. I love it. Lots of buyers and sellers. Lots of choices. Lots of grandmas and mommas carrying babies selling produce. They also have some prepared foods, as well as freshly killed chickens, chicken and quail eggs, cheeses and dried fish. Some of the fruits come in grocery store boxes and were grown in Chile but most of it is local and produced on a very small scale. Things grow all year here in Ecuador and everyone can sell anything they want to. Last Saturday we bought some baking soda from a man who was selling a sandwich bag's worth for a dollar. That is a big bargain here because baking soda is regulated (they say it is used in drug manufacture) and you usually can only buy a couple of tablespoons at a time in a pharmacy.

 

They use corn here but it bears no resemblance to the sweet corn we know and love. The ears of corn have kernels that are big and knarly and never get very tender even with long cooking. People sit and pull the kernels from the corn cobs. The peas are big and tough too. But they do all the work and you can buy things ready to go into the soup. Most of the big bowls above hold dry beans but the multicolored one is a combination of peas and carrots and corn and small pieces of broccoli - all ready to cook.

 

Shopping on Saturday mornings is a fun adventure. The only problem is that all that produce is heavy. We have two large plastic containers. One is shaped like the one the man in the black plaid shirt has. The other is just plastic fabric that can take the weight. We are glad that we live just a couple of blocks away from here. The prices are wonderful. Most things are $1/ pound or much less. We don't want to carry home much more than $10 will buy. Ecuador is easy because they use the US dollar and while SuperMaxi prices by the kilo they use pounds here at the mercado.  We could get a taxi but we would feel silly paying $1 for a couple of blocks.A lot of people have shopping carts on wheels. But we are too frugal to buy one when we will be here for only a short time.

Just a block away from the mercado is SuperMaxi. It is one of the biggest chains of grocery stores in Ecuador. They also have MegaMaxis in bigger cities which expands the merchandise sold. MegaMaxi is a bit like WalMart and the SuperMaxis are very much like our grocery stores.They currently have almost no food from the USA but there are many brands we recognize that are produced here or in other South American countries. 

We probably go to SuperMaxi once every week or two to buy things that are not available at the Open Air Market. Lewis buys flour for his bread at the mercado. It is packaged in cloth like a pillowcase. But they do not have whole wheat flour. We have to get that at SuperMaxi. We really are being good in our "real food" choices here in Loja. We have not been eating any meat and really loading up on the vegetables, beans, whole grains and fruit. It is a good thing that we had to make treats for the missionaries for Christmas. Our sugar addiction was starving and we enjoyed the holiday, but now all the treats are gone and we are being good again.

Here are some colorful food photos I have taken in our kitchen:

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are trying to follow the Word of Wisdom with more diligence. Good food is beautiful and tastes delicious. (But we do miss the big chocolate bars that we used to buy all too frequently.)

Loja Apartment

I have not shown your our apartment yet. We love living here and Lewis tells people that if we could move all of our family here he would like to stay. You would all like it here as well, but only if you could speak Spanish. It it hard to fit in when you cannot communicate.

Loja has addresses. They don't have mail delivery but the streets have names and the houses have numbers. So much easier to keep the records of the members of the church when addresses exist. We live on 18th of November Street and this is our house number. But if you come to visit you will have to call us to come down and open the door. There is no doorbell. We have to open the door with a key to get out as well as to get in.

 

We are on the third floor. In Spanish speaking countries the first floor is Planta Baja and you begin counting after that. Here we are on the second floor but there are three sets of stairs to get there.

On the left is Maria Luisa, our landlady. I really like her and she has been very kind and helpful. The other woman works at a real estate office. We paid her $50 to find us apartments for rent that fit our requirements. She was much more efficient than we were in locating apartments that were available for rent. We appreciated her help.

This is where we are living:

 We do have two bedrooms.

 

 

 

 

One unusual feature is that only the bedrooms have a "real ceiling". The living room and kitchen and bathroom are open to the roof of the building. Maria Luisa and her family of two daughters used to live in the whole house. She has been divorced and has divided the house into three apartments. The area outside of our kitchen and living room has a washing machine for Maria Luisa and one for us. There are also clotheslines that we both use. It is nice to be able to dry our clothes outside the apartment but under the roof. Also it is not humid here. Clothes dry quite quickly since they are not being rained on.

 

 

The toilet and shower are beyond the bathroom sink. We have hot water that works great. That is important because it is often cold here, in my opinion. Lewis says it is never cold. But he does wear a jacket inside our apartment at times and is happy for hot water in the shower.

We usually play dominoes while we eat. The loser has to do the dishes. It works for us. I didn't find a photo that shows our computers. We have two card table sized tables that we pushed together in the living room for our two laptops. We are often in front of them. We wish you could all come and visit. We would take you for a walk along the river just across the street.

Catamayo

Catamayo is part of the Loja District and is a 40 min bus ride. We have had three sets of missionaries there for quite some time and it is growing and getting stronger. President Jara is the Branch President. He works in Loja so he stays overnight in Loja frequently but he is willing to sacrifice his time and efforts to fulfill his many responsibilities. The chapel is very small and only holds seating for about 75. They often have 100 or more in attendance. The church has rented another building to use while they double the size of the current building. We enjoy visiting their branch and they are always very welcoming. I was very impressed that they rented a bus and 30 members came to see the Christmas Devotional put on by the mission this year.

Their climate is very different from Loja - much warmer and much less rain. The green fields are sugar cane but without water the hills are dry and brown.

 

These photos were taken in the town square where the bus stops.

 

 

I love these trees. They grow all over the Dominican Republic and are covered with these red orange blossoms most of the year there. 

 This is the little chapel. It is on one of the main streets in town. Most of the sidewalks are covered. Much more comfortable in the heat of the day.

 

 

 

Looks like the missionaries have an English class, judging from the blackboard above.
Below are a couple of the missionaries and some members helping someone get to church this morning.

This is President Jara (on the right) with one of his counselors.

The first Sunday we visited we were invited to go with the missionaries to the home of the Branch President to have lunch. There are three sets of missionaries in Catamayo. So that was 8 extra people for the biggest meal of the day. The grandmother was there cooking as well as the mom. It was so kind of them to invite us. It sounded like they invite the missionaries every Sunday. This is their home. The two little boys below are both adorable and President Jara treated them like sons. I do not know if they are or not. They look very close to the same age.

 

 

On December 2 we had a fun experience in Catamayo. The airport is located there and Hermana Quizhpe was returning home from her mission serving in the Ecuador Quito North Mission. Her mother lives in Loja so she flew here. President Torres asked Lewis to meet her at the airport, interview her and release her from her calling as a missionary. We got there nice and early. Her mother, two sisters and the husband of one sister plus some other family members arrived with a balloon and flowers. We learned a little bit more about this amazing young woman. She speaks four languages - Spanish, French, English and Mandarin Chinese. She was in China as a student when she applied for and was called on her mission. Unfortunately for Loja, she will be returning to school in the USA very soon but what a treat to get to meet her and her family.We went to the chapel which is close by for the interview.

 

 

We missed the homecoming of Colby and Jacey. We are so proud of our family missionaries. Can't wait to hug the two that are home and pretty soon...the five that are still serving.

 

Yea for missionaries. Welcome home Sister Quizhpe.

One more photo I took in Catamayo. These boxes were sitting right across the street from the chapel. My five girls know why I had to take this shot. For 14 years they got up early - very, very early - and helped fold hundreds of newspapers that we stuffed into banana boxes and apple boxes. Thank you again for your help every single morning!!!