Ok, so Greg told me the other day that I had gotten much better on the website and was doing well.  I truly believe that when he gets back from Loja he is going to recind all those remarks!  I am totally frustrated on how to do the page on the vegetable ivory items I bought….not the content….the loading of the pictures (which I know how to do) for the display page.  Now, I know I know how to do it, I just plain can't remember!  I need Greg! 

Hopefully he is enjoying his time at the college and will have great stories to tell when he returns, until then, screw it, I'm going to take a nap!

We had quite a busy day today.  We looked at properties around the Vilcabamba area, two WAY up in the mountains that had a wonderful view for a goat.  I really don't like being that high and I really don't like roads that are so rough they make your bottom and back feel like they have just gone 9 rounds with a heavy weight boxer!  Now, that being said, the view was outstanding.  You could see for miles and miles.

We then went and looked at a site that was closer into the village, it was much smaller but more level, good road access, water, electricity and more comfortable for me.  After discussing it we decided that we are going to stick to our original plan rather than let emotion and the spur of the moment direct our future.

Then last night Greg helped Carol with her website.  It was a delight to be at their home and join them for dinner (brought up from the hotel).  While Greg and Carol slaved away Jon and I visited about a wide array of topics, from film to broadway, from family to life experiences.  He is a bright, delightful host, I truly enjoyed my time visiting with him.  Greg also enjoyed working with Carol so the night was a success.

Before Jon got back to the main house I had the opportunity to go out in their yard and look at their bar-b-que area and rock garden area.  Here are a couple of pictures of the beautiful arrangement they have done with their yard.

It was a delightful way to spend an evening, good conversation, good wine and food, and a little work thrown in.  We thank Carol and Jon for their wonderful hospitality.

I went online to check out the new site Hotel Reservations to see how easily it worked and the variety of options it offers to the traveler, whether domestic or international.  I must admit that I was pleased with how easily it works, the wide variety of offerings and the fact that it not only gives domestic travel and hotels but also international options.

So many of the sites just offer domestic information that for those of us that are traveling internationally it just doesn't work well to use them.

As a hotel owner for a number of years I was really interested in how the listings of the hotel options came up.  Was there a good selection in the town?  Was the booking procedure easy?  Did you get a confirmation?  With this, I found that the site worked well.  Sure, they take the information from other sites on what the hotels have to offer and their rate and they don't list all the hotels in certain towns, but that's not the problem of the site, it's the problem of the hotel owner for not submitting them to the web. 

In order to provide good service to the user the managment team of the travel site needs to stay on top of the changes, offer incentives for the buying public to purchase from them vs another site and have a smooth, easy to use site.  It appears to me that this travel site meets all of those requirements.

If you are a traveler looking for hotels in cities around the world you are going to want to check this site out.  If you are a hotel owner you are going to want to submit your infomation to the site in order to get listed.  It's a site that will be used by more and more people all the time and you won't want to miss the opportunity to showcase your hotel!

Let's help spread the word about the alternative site and see if they maintain their quality in time.  Sure hope they do!

Today was windy, very windy, in Vilcabamba, Carol said it usually is like this in August but that it started early this year…whee!  It's not that it was cold, just windy.  Tonight will probably be pretty cool, more blankets for the beds and we will be fine.

We went into town today to see the market and the artisian show.  It was really kind of neat to see since it brought back memories of Kenya and the markets there.  The artisian show didn't have a great number of vendors so the things that we were hoping to find were not available.  Not that we really need anything, but hey, might find a treasure.

            

Anyone want some fresh fruit or freshly butchered pork??

    

Inside the building there were more shops.

         

We went into a hardware store and looked at the appliances they had for sale, they had really neat washing from Korea and really pretty nice gas ranges along with the regular array of stuff in a hardware store.  The dress shop is rather small and very crowded.

   

Out on the street there was they guy on a microphone telling people how wonderful his product was for cooking, sounded a lot like the guys at the State Fair.  There was also this shop with the coconut carvings that I thought were rather cute…no, I didn't buy any!

     

We had lunch at the cafe on the corner, in fact, everytime we ate in town we ate here, good food and nice people.  While we were there this St. Bernard took his people for a walk, now, I know that the Andes are high but I didn't realize that they would need a St. Bernard there!!  No snow (in the Southern Andes, there is in the Northern).

  

I had the most delightful day, regardless of the shape my fanny and legs are in now!  Carol, Juan (the trainer) and I rode for about 5 hours today.  We left the resort around 10:30 this morning, rode into Vilcabamba which is probably a mile or so from the resort.  We rode on through the town and out into the mountain area behind the town, up some gentle mountain roads that were dotted with homes, a beautiful river (more on that in a minute) and a manufacturing plant.  Oh yes, and there is "The Forgotten School" there too where kids and teachers go everyday but they have no supplies, desks, chairs or anything.  Carol said they call themselves the "Fogotten School" because no one seems to care that there are kids that desperatly want an education and teachers that want to teach and have to do the best they can with nothing.

The river that flows beside the road has an area that is like a bay (don't know what you call it when a river has a pool) that Juan let his horse walk into.  So, of course, I thought I was supposed to too, that the horses probably wanted a drink.  Made sense to me.  Well, my horse LOVES the water!  It started kicking up its front feet and then it's back feet, playing in the water!  Juan said to take him out so I did, but I must admit, it was funny being on a great big horse that was playing!  I have ridden for years and never experienced anything like it, it was a hoot!

Then we rode up more roads, looking at the beautiful mountains, the flowers growing everywhere and listening to the cars and trucks that came up behind us and moving the horses off to the side of the road.  The drivers were very respectful of the horses, they slowed way down and didn't yell or honk or try to spook them as some in other countries would have (and have) done.

I thought that riding up hill would be difficult but it wasn't that at all, it was riding DOWN that caused the stress on the legs and butt!  Oh my gosh, I realized how old I was (or maybe just out of condition for riding) by the time we got back to town for lunch.  Now, I was fine until it was time to get off!  My legs were so pooped the right one didn't want to swing over to dismount!  Juan stood beside me and I leaned my hand on his shoulder which gave me the angle to dismount without falling on my face!  Bless his heart!!

We visited with some locals while we ate (and all the way into town we said "Hi" (well I did, Carol and Juan said "Ola") to all the people that we saw.  It was kind of neat, some of the young ones responded to me in English!  When we got to the cafe there was this delightful old (and I mean OLD) man that walked up, said hi (in English) and started past.  Carol asked him to sit and have something to eat, it appeared that he could really use it.  I believe he is one of the old ones from the valley.  The valley is know for being one of 3 places on earth that people live to be well over 100!  We saw a couple today that were well over 110!  Seriously, and they were walking along doing thier business just like a younger person!  Amazing.  As we visited with this gentleman, he said he spoke English and French but no Spanish.  How strange to find that in town!

When it was time to leave the cafe, I had Juan bring my horse to the curb and that gave me the necessary height to mount without looking like a fool.  Again, Bless Juans' heart!

Carol said that we should ride the horses around the square a couple of times to show the locals what happens when horses are taken care of, feed well and trained.  The horses that Carol, Juan and I rode were abused horses that she has taken in and Juan has trained and worked with to get them into the fabulous condition they are in now.

Carols' horse had been so abused that it had broken the leg of one trainer, smashed the face of another and wouldn't let anyone get near him.  It's a beautiful black stallion, wild as wild can be to everyone except Carol and Juan.  The horse actually adores Carol.  She was not a rider when she bought him, had ridden about 2 times as a child.  She didn't realize that the horse was a danger, she just thought he was beautiful (like the Black Stallion books she read as a kid….so did I).  She said when she went to ride him, he looked at her like she had to be kidding.  She said he let her up and has never given her a bit of trouble.  The horse must have known that she loved him and wouldn't hurt him and knew nothing about riding and took pity on her.  They are quite a sight to see, Carol with her white hair flowing beneath her black hat and the horse proudly kicking his hooves out to the side in some step that I can't remember the name of, but it was beautiful to watch.

We rode around the square twice with the horses literally prancing as they showed off.  It was a great time.

Juan graciously told Carol that I was a natural rider, that there isn't a horse on the place that he would not let me on.  What a nice thing to hear after not riding for so long.

We left town and rode a "back way" back to the resort, it was a little more than an hour ride past the monestary where the nuns are cloistered, the school and church in some little village (about 5 houses) and the old peoples farm that Carol has written a grant for ($1M) to continue to raise organic foods to feed the people.  Then across a bridge that was just wide enough for the horses (after letting a motorbike across first) which was quite high over the river.  Now, you know how fond I am of heights.  Had visions of my horse thinking, hey, I can dump her here and be done with her…kindly he didn't and we made it safely across.  It was pretty, just not something I was prepared to relish until after the fact.

We got back to the resort and I got to see where the horses are pastured and where Juan and his family live.  Then back to the main entrance where I dismounted (again with the help of Juan) and said goodbye to Carol and Juan.  Juan's son took my horse back to the pasture and I limped my sore legs and even more sore butt to the main level, grabbed a cup of coffee and sat there until I thought my legs would make it the 42 steps to our room!

When I got here, Greg was feeling pretty nasty.  Carol had told us, when we arrived, that eating so much fruit and healthy food could really mess up your digestive track, today was his day.  He went to the spa and tried to get that to calm his painful stomach down, that didn't work so he went to Cristen and asked if there was something he could get, that Carol had warned us about this and that there was something the natives use to calm things down.  Cristen said yes, that they would go pick some herbs fresh from the gardens, make some tea and bring it up for him.  Anyone that knows my husband knows that he hates tea and coffee, but he was so miserable that he sipped it (Cristen said not to "drink" it but sip it) and that it really did help.  He still feels nasty but not as bad as he did.

Tonight is festival night in town, it's Saturday and they celebrate with music and dancing in the streets every Saturday night.  Carol was planning to go and wanted me to go along.  I told her it would depend on how I felt and let me tell you, the thought of going anyplace other than dinner tonight was more than I could have done!  Carol must have fallen asleep too since she didn't come down for dinner.  She said that she hadn't slept last night, was busy answering emails and working.  Hope she did get some rest and will wake up in the morning feeling refreshed!

It actually gets cold here at night, there is no heat in the rooms so you bundle up in blankets when it's bedtime and try to get warm.  Tonight I thought, shoot, close the curtains and maybe that will help.  I think it probably will, even though they are really thin, and blowing out, but at least it stops some of the breese that cools everything down so much.  It's actually not bad at the computer right now and last night I 'bout froze doing this, so it's better!

Tomorrow we are going into town to the market, it will give us an opportunity to see other crafts and get to know the town a little better.  We are looking forward to it, unless Greg is still feeling nasty that is.

 

As we were going to Loja we saw a number of homes on the side of the mountains.  I asked our driver how people got to them.  He said the walked or rode horse or donkey.  Well folks, that is out for this old woman!  Good grief, some of them are WAY up the side of a mountain, you have to cross a river and them climb for a LONG way just to get to the house.  God love them all, they are better people than I am to do that!

      

 

Interesting is the fact that today we went into Loja to just look around and do some comparison shopping for taqua nut (vegetable ivory) items.  As is typical for me, I wanted to find out if the price I was being charged for the products I'm buying to sell online was fair or whether because I had never heard of vegetable ivory before I was being taken for a sucker.  Not that I ever thought that was the case but, umm, yes I wondered.

What we discovered is that the price we are paying is fair and the quality of the items we are buying is far superior to the items that are available in the shops in Loja.  I bought one of the figurines from a shop, trying to get the best one there to compair to the ones we purchased from Pancho and oh my gosh!  There was no compairison, Pancho's work is so far superior to the one I bought in town!  I'm really glad that we had the opportunity to meet Pancho and to work out an arrangement with him to market his beautiful work.

We also looked to see if Andres items were for sale in town (things like the broaches he makes) and there were none.  His work is so unique that the shops in the city don't have them…that makes me happy….and sad.  Why, well, I'm delighted that we are the supplier to the net and that it is an exclusive opportunity for us, but at the same time, if he was selling his work in the city he could probably make a lot more money for his family.  Time will tell if he gets to that point, but even if he does, it won't be the signed work that we are selling.  Every piece of ivory we sell is signed by the artist.  I only want original work by them, not some junk like I bought in town.  (Now, in fairness, I bought a beautiful bracelet in town, one unlike anything our guys have available, but that's because when I saw it I thought of Heidi and decided it was the right thing for her!)

But, that's just part of the day, the morning started out with a beautiful rainbow over the mountain, perfect to see from our balcony.  Here's a picture of it and see if you don't agree!

What a beautiufl sight!

Then, at dinner tonight we had the pleasure to meet some friends of Carol and John's who are moving to Ecuador.  She is from West Virginia and he is from LA.  They have just purchased some land and will be working on it in the future.  Delightful people, an asset to the country I am sure.

Carol mentioned that she got a referral to www.spacetoys.com today!  Since she is the head of a space initiative to prevent weapons in space she gets information about space sites.  How neat is it that she got our son-in-laws site sent to her before I could share it with her!

Carol and I are going riding in the morning which will be so great!  Been way too long for me!

Now I need to get back to www.taquanutearrings.com and do some editing and additions to the site.  See, you go play in town and get way behind in your work.

Oh, speaking of town, we ate pizza in this delightful little cafe.  I am posting a picuture of the pizza maker as he adds tons of cheese to the pizza as well as a  conglomeration of other things that were so delightful and so fattening!  If we thought we would lose some weight while we were here we were badly mistaken!

After we had the wonderful pizza (which totally distroyed our appetite for dinner this evening) we were walking back toward the square when we saw this group of people getting ready to go shopping.  I found their style of dress so charming I just had to shoot a photo to share.

As we walked away from them we entered the square in Loja and saw the delightful wall made of colorful picture tiles.  What a charming addition to the downtown area.

 

Here is a close up of a couple of the tiles to give a better concept of what they are like.

Aren't they beautiful?

Also in the square is this wonderful fountain and clock tower.  They are quite a statement to the pride of this city.\

      

 

It was a delightful day, filled with new experieces, meeting new and interesting people and being glad we are here in this beautiful country.

Oh, I almost forgot!  We stopped at the University of Loja on our way out of town.  Carol had suggested that perhaps Greg should consider working there.  As long as we were driving by we thought we would take a look.  It's really quite a pretty place, Greg took some pictures but I'll post them after Tuesday when he has a meeting with them.  Bless Carol's heart, she set it up today and told us about it tonight!

How should a night end with near perfection?  How about a full moon and fireworks in the village.  We heard the sound of fireworks and looked out the balcony…sure enough there they were!

 

It's Thursday evening, about 10 pm our time and Greg and I just returned to our room from one of the most enjoyable evenings we have had since our kids were home.  (After all, nothing is neater than having all our kids around laughing and sharing stories and concerns, just loving each other!)

We went down to dinner and Paulo (the waiter) told us that John and Carol were coming for dinner and we would share a table.  John and Carol are the owners of this fabulous spa.  They are intelligent, fun, realistic people that have found a place on earth that they love and thrive.  We discussed everything from websites to religion and politics (US politics), family and friends.  What a joy to have intellectual conversations about issues that are relevant and interesting.  We hope they know how much we enjoyed it. 

I am going riding (horses) with Carol on Saturday.  I can't think of anything I would rather do!  My family knows how much I love to ride and how very much I miss it!

We also met Pancho, another artist from the area that works with the taqua nut vegetable ivory.  I purchased 10 pieces from him that I will be adding to my website on the nut.  He does sculpture that truly is ivory, it's stunningly beautiful!  The feel, the appearance and the patina are ivory, no doubt about it.  I LOVE this stuff and am sure you will too!

We had met another guest who left last night.  Eric is backpacking through South America, has been to Columbia, Ecuador and now on to Peru, he will end his travels in Bolivia with a trip to the South Pole from there.  What an adventurer, traveling by himself and having a ball!  Not something that we would want to do, but certainly fun to listen to his adventures.  We wish him a grand and safe trip.

Take a group of your friends out the the nearest paintball course and go at it!  Be sure to wear your protective gear, it hurts when you get hit with a paintball!  You are going to want the best that you can get to protect yourself and that will come from Ultimate Paintball.  You can choose from a wide range of products at the site, get set up to have a real challenge at the paintball course and take on your buddies!  Ever heard of paintball markers?  Find out more at the site.

Who is going to come out on top?  Who's the best shot?  Can you get them before they get you?  This activity is not for the faint of heart, the adrenaline will be pumping, the nerves will be taunt and the perspiration will flow, all to have a challenging time with friends!

Where can you find this equipment?  Well right on the web at www.pntball.com.  Why would you go anyplace else when everything you need for the sport is right here?

Go now and have some fun, find new friends and maybe a few that won't be friends any longer, after you defeat them at paintball!

Last night was so cold that no matter how many blankets I swiped from my husband I still couldn't get warm!  It probably wasn't all that cold, but sure felt like it!  Yesterday was a rainy evening which probably made it seem much worse than it actually was.  Regardless, we went into the village today with the intention of buying a jacket of some sort, well, that didn't happen.  The shops had summer stuff but I didn't see any sweatshirts or jackets.  Good thing I have some long sleeved tops along and some sweaters, not going to be that chilled again before bed, made it miserable for me and for my husband!

The villiage of Vilcabamba is really quite neat.  It's clean, the people are friendly, the shops are small (Mexican type but cleaner) with wide main streets and a very pretty square where the market will be held on Sunday.

The ride from the hotel to the village was a $1.00 each way, the lunch we had in town totaled $8.  Cigarettes are $1.25 a pack and gasoline is $1 a gallon.  I looked at some real estate listings on the wall of the office across the street from where we ate lunch, houses ranged from $55,000 for one on a dirt road by some village to 3.2 Million in Quito.  I didn't go in to see what else they had, just was snoopy on what was outside.

The artist we are working with on the ivory jewelry (www.taguanutearrings.com) lives over the real estate office.  He came by while we were eating lunch.  He's a very nice guy, young, 2 kids.  I have him as Ecuadorian in the website which I have to change to Chilian since he corrected me at lunch.  When I pulled up the site for him to look at before we left for the village, his eyes got so big!  He was reading furiously when we left.  Haven't loaded all the pictures yet, maybe tonight, if I feel like it.  But, the site is built and I'm quite pleased with it.

I need to do some linking this afternoon, gotta get my ranking up so that I can qualify for more payperpost opportunities.  Right now I only have $43.35 coming LOL.

Time to go sit on the deck and enjoy the view, it's nice out right now although it was sprinkling when we came back from the village.  We picked up our laundry at the front desk and then came up to the room.  Nice to have someone wait on you hand and foot!