Ecuador 2006: Pictures July 29 - August 4

Links to TravelBlog: LiveJournal (English) or COTW-Blog (Nederlands)


'She's Leaving Home': Friday July 29:
Testing my backpacks, getting ready to go...


'Flying High': My first glimpse of Quito, been on planes a lot:
Amsterdam-New York-Panama City-Quito! This is Sundaymorning July 30


View of Quito from Rosa's apartment


My bedroom in Casa de Rosa
(yes, it's huge: I have my own bathroom, a tv and a walk-in closet!)


View from Rosa's kitchen


View from my bedroom:
I love the reflection of the mountains
and the sky in the Ecutel-office


Monday July 31: first day at spanish school
Conversation-class with Tom & Gil from Luxembourg
Nos profesora se llama Maria Mene;-)


My first of many plates of zupa:
Rosa's Ecuadorian creations are very filling
and soup (with vegetables, potatoes, lentils)
is served for lunch and diner. It tastes good.


Rosa's apartment is on the seventh floor, left corner.


Quito: Avenue de 6 Decembre.
I took this picture because of the guys working
in that not very safe looking construction.


Another point of view from my bedroom


On Tuesday August 1 the school figured out my schedule:
this is Omayra, my profesora for grammar the next two weeks
(we both agreed to focus on conversation instead;)


Wednesday August 2: I spend the afternoon in the old part of Quito,
this is a detail of a statue on the square de la Indepencia.


Impressive interior of church La Merced in old Quito


And the lovely view from that church


In my second try of an ALP (armlenght-picture)
I managed to get me and the Monastery of San Francisco
in the picture (still in the old part of Quito;)


View of Quito, with the big statue of
Maria on the mountain, you can see it
where-ever you are in town.


A very tasty (and cheap;) snack:
warm buns and cold milkshake - yum.


The view from the apartment at night is spectacular


Diner with Joff from Canada,
Rosa of course and Helena from Australia (org Danmark).


Conversation-class with Johan from Danmark and profesora Maribel. The second week I had one on one lessons with profesora Maria Mene (see above), who was very firm, but also more useful.


Friday afternoon August 4: a trip to El Mitad del Mundo,
The middle of the world!


The official monument is actually about 250 meters off,
but of course I still had to have a picture;)


View from the top of the monument: El mitad del Mundo


I love mountains: view from the top of the monument


Monument+proof+Me!


Another cool picture of the ground;)


The 'real' middle of the world is at the museum
next door to the monument


Fascinating nature: a hummingbird (I think;)

And just so you don't have to scroll back up:
Links to TravelBlog: LiveJournal (English) or COTW-Blog (Nederlands)
More photo's: part two!

Weehee. I quite like this shot: me being confident and happy. Jelle took it.




Heh. More pictures of food. I'm sure Jamie Oliver doesn't think this is proper cooking, but I'm still pretty proud of the way these oven-dishes turned out. I had to improvise a bit, since I usually don't have all the required ingredients, but they are eatable and look good imho:)


Red cabbage+Pinapple dish july 18


Cauliflower dish july 21 (more about that one here)

Okay, remember that cool dessert at the restaurant yesterday? Tonight mom had all the ingredients to make individual desserts at home: tadaah:

Today was partytime: not only was it my mom's birthday, but it was also Roze Zaterdag = Pink Saturday in Zwolle (Gay Pride themeday: 'You're welcome')

So I spent the day with mom in town:)
Of course I had to put my hair up in style:



(I didn't realize I was still a redhead, it's been ages since I dyed it)

We watched the parade (not very spectacular, but great atmosphere)




And for her birthday mom took me out to diner (and I quote: 'you took care of the presents, I'll take care of treats and food'): risotto (mom), tagliatelli (me) and funky desserts:



(See: head is not so red, big yes, but not very red;)

Heh: someone changed the name of RedRoosterAlley to PinkRoosterAlley:

(D'oh: I only noticed that name when I was picking out pictures: I took it because of the awesome building)

Great day:-)

While cleaning out the old garage at work, Sander found this old magazine-rack and offered it to me:-) And since I had nothing better to do -because I couldn't go online- I spent my evening putting it together. I couldn't get all my movie-mags in, but the best of my collection are much more accesible now: isn't it pretty? (click click to enlarge and truly appreciate the beauty;)

I just couldn't get enough (pictures) of this beautiful sunset.

I had to make an extra hole in my new belt, 'cause it was totally too long to fit properly around my waist. Now I can show off my super cool new beltbuckle:-)



(It's pretty hard to take a picture of a belt, while you're wearing it;-)

Went to The Hague to day with mom to admire Jaap & Gayleen's new apartment on walkingdistance from the beach.
Say cheese: left to right: Gayleen, Jaap and mom


This shot is what we call an 'alp' (arm-lenght-picture)


After delicious pancakes on the beach we went into town to check out the art-exhibit from Colombian artist Fernando Botero.

This statue is (probably) called 'woman lying down';-) I love his work.

We ended the day with an Indonesian Diner. What a great day:-)

And now I am very sleepy from walking on the beach.

It's no excuse, but this is what happens when you get a digital camera: it's awfully tempting to take pictures of every trivial part of your life... I was very proud of my diner-presentation tonight, I just had to share, so... tadaaah:



(FYI: red cabbage+minced meat+potatoe-thingies and green lemonade on the rocks=tasty. The massive amount of potatoe-swirly's is a result of me trying to empty out my freezer for cleaning. I don't eat that much usually... What?)

The BeeLight-experiment
(playing with my new camera, macro and flash:-)
!Click on picture for full experience!




No animals were harmed for this photoshoot:
this beautiful creature was already dead when I found it :-(

New camera!
I did try to shop around, but ended up with my first love after all: bought a Canon Ixus 50, one of the few digital camera's out there that still has a little lens you can look through so you can look at the subject you want to take a picture of instead of the stupid display on the camera. I was so shocked when I first saw people do that: a couple of years ago I was on safari in South Africa with a truck full of people staring at their camera instead of looking out the window where the wildlife was standing at about 2 meters from the vehicle. WTF?

Anyway: I also *love* the design of the Ixus, I was very sad when my old Ixus-APS-camera died, but now I have a gorgeous replacement to take with me on vacation:-)

I still have plenty of time to practise and find all the possibilities, but wanted to show off the first two pictures I made. (Actually first and third, 'cause the second one was out of focus, oops) Close up of the little pig is with macro on.

Why do carrots explode in the microwave? (Don't try this at home;)

As a reward for the answer I made two desktops, since I got the answer in dutch, the first one is a dutch carrotcake-joke. The second is an ode to one of my favorite scenes from Bottom. Enjoy.





Bottom- episode 'Holy' -iirc-
[Eddie has made an exploding carrot]
Richie: Bloo-dy bril-jant, Eddie! Yeah! Hey, got any more?
Eddie: Mais oui, mon brave!
Richie: What?
Eddie: Certainement, mon general!
Richie: Oh Christ, he's gone all Welsh on me again!
[yells in "Welsh"]: HAVE YOU GOT ANY MORE EXPLODING CAR-ROTS?

:-D

ETA: Blogger seems to adjust the size of the picture, it should still be big enough for 1048x768 dimensions.

Confession
Sometimes when I buy a present, I will let the salesperson wrap it for me. Even though I know I will tear the packaging apart at home, I have to let her do it anyway.
I'm cringing inside having to witness the struggle. She thinks it looks smashing. It doesn't. The result is a hideous display of her lack of creativity and an obvious misunderstanding of the 'less-is-more' principle, not to mention the complete ignorance of acceptable colorcombinations. But the whole process makes me feel superior. I'm evil.

Here is the latest creation, admire, mock, enjoy:



The 'pretty' bow, that hurts to look at, is done in advance (there's a box full of them, ready to use), but it still takes her ages to put it all together.

I enjoy unwrapping it at home and redoing it my way:-) (For one thing I didn't use green paper to go with my orange present, what was she thinking?)




FYI: Nicky's hairproject is moved to My IconCorner! (I warned you that was gonna happen;)

Still no personal pictures to publish (I'm waiting for holiday-money to buy a proper digital camera) so I am parking part 2 of the Hair project here. [Picture is moved to My IconCorner 05/12/2006] You can [also] find it new Icons there[...]