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.
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!
Today was the day to spend building a new website for the taqua nut (vegetable ivory) products we became familiar with yesterday. We met this artist at the spa who works with vegetable ivory. After talking to him, looking at his work and doing some research we decided to make a business deal with him to sell his products on the web.
That took some time, by the time the research was done and the first products purchased, it was time for my husband to build the site and me to enter the content. I now know more about taqua palm nuts and the value the ivory has than probably the majority of the people on earth! It was interesting and will be rewarding to know that the products Andres creates and that we sell will actually help save the rainforests in Central and South America. I learned that the taqua palms produce enough nuts which when dried have the same density, feel and look as elephant tusks, to have a higher ROI than the banana plantations that people have been destroying the rainforests to plant. Anyway, there is a whole bunch of information on our site and when I get the pictures loaded (tomorrow!) I'll pass on the web address and you can see what I'm talking about.
I bought one piece of the ivory for one of our granddaughters. I believe she will enjoy the design and especially appreciate the fact that by having this she will have something totally unique to the rest of the world. No two pieces of art are identical, how cool is that?
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If you are traveling to South Padre Island in Texas you will want to find the best rental available. The island has changed for years past when there were miles of open beach, a couple beach combers and the Jetty to eat at and watch the shrimp boats go out for the days catch. Today it is filled with hotels, condos and businesses designed to keep the visitor busy and spending money from morning until well after dark!
You can take a boat ride out to see the dolphins, you can take your pick of many different places to eat, you can buy trinkets and souviners to show that you have been there, but you won't have the open beach area of the past, but there is still beach and the Gulf to entertain you if that is what you are wanting.
Wherever you go, enjoy your time away, meet new people and come home with happy memories.
The longer we are here at Madre Tierra Resort the more I love it. The view from our balcony of the mountains is just stunning!
We can sit on the balcony in the morning, work on our laptops and breath the fresh air, listen to the sounds of the horses and mules, chickens and birds and start the day with a really good attitude about life.
The fact that we don't have the eternal question of "what are you hungry for?" is just great! In the morning you go down to the dining area and they bring you your breakfast. Now, every one we have had so far has been pretty much the same, but it's so good who cares? It's fresh fruit in yogurt with granola to add to it, fresh, warm, homemade multigrain bread, an egg if you want and either juice or coffee (you can actually have both) along with the beautiful floral arrangement on the table!
I can testify to the fact that we don't have fresh floral arrangements on our table at home everyday! There are also fresh flowers in our room, roses, babies’ breath and lilies. How sweet is that!!
At dinner you are served what ever the cook has prepared, tonight was T-bone steak, mashed potatos, tomato soup, fresh salad, fresh veggie mix and some kind of desert thing (which I didn't like so I didn't eat, neither did my husband.) But everything else was wonderful…and again, we didn't have to think about it, just get served!
The fact that we have great internet allows us to work whenever we choose, whether is it early in the morning or like now, rather late at night. Whenever the creative juices flow we just sit down and go to work.
Right off our balcony is a banana tree with a huge bunch of bananas hanging there, still really green but beautiful.
The owner, Carol, told us that by next year the resort will be totally self sufficient. They have just received a grant to purchase the farm next door that has been supplying them with many of their organic produce, now they will own it and continue with the organic growth but not have to buy at retail (or at least a higher rate then to produce it on their own.)
The staff is just great, we asked our waiter if he was always here, seemed like every time we were down at the main desk area (which is right off the dining area) he was there. He said he works a split shift. 4 hours in the morning for breakfast and 4 in the evening for dinner. He's a capable, pleasant young man, they are lucky to have him.
Each day there are local artists that come to the resort and show their wares. We met one today that had some quality items made of Tagua (vegetable ivory). We have worked out an arrangement with him to sell his products on a website that my husband is getting set up right now. We will be working on that tomorrow to get pictures loaded and content built.
Tomorrow is the end of the Mayan calendar year. They call it a "non day" where there is no work, they get together with family and friends to eat, play games, have music and enjoy the time together. Sounds like a wonderful way to spend a day!
The only thing that could be better is if our kids and grandkids were here. They would love it as much as we do, I think.
There is a new school opening in the village this year for the younger kids. According to Andres it will be a vast improvement on the public facilities that have been available in the past. Advanced learning and a private school. It sounds like something that was needed for the area, we hope it does well.
I just had to throw in another shot of the mountains so that our kids can see how they would love it! They all love the mountains in the distance or up close. Well, here we have both!
For the first time on this trip, today is the lazy day. Seriously not wanting to do anything too demanding, in fact, may just have to take a nap later.
The sun is out, the clouds that are around are the big puffy ones that make you want to just look at them and see what you can "see" in them, may do that later too.
We met Cristian's brother-in-law (they don't call them that here but he is married to Cristian's wifes sister) today. He makes these really neat artworks out of dried coconut slices. The substance is called Tagua (Vegetable ivory). He etches on the surfaces, leaving some of the brown outside for coloring and detail while carving out the white to the design he chooses. They are not very big, little bigger than the size of a silver dollar (at least most of them are) but pretty cool. There is one that I will probably pick up for my granddaughter, it is of a dragon (that is if she is still interested in dragons, will have to ask her mom.)
His wife makes earrings out of parrot feathers and other exotic birds that are in the area. They go on feather hunting expeditions and collect feathers for her to use to make her jewelry. They are really pretty. I may bring some of each of these peoples work home with me to see if they will sell on the web. We have to negotiate a price that is acceptable to both of us yet, haven't quite reached a consensus, but we probably will. I checked other sites to see what they were selling for and so kind of have an idea of the range that would be logical. We'll see.
I walked down to see the horses this morning but didn't find them. I'll ask later where they are and what the schedule is for riding. Tomorrow may be a day for riding, today, no energy!
This morning I got up and from the balcony off our room saw the mountains peeking above the forest of trees too beautiful to describe. The outline showcases the beautiful valley we are located in.
The horses at the resort were letting us know they exist and the roosters were saying good morning! The resort was quiet, a wonderful place to relax and reflect on the adventures of the past and the experiences yet to come.
After having a breakfast of fresh fruit in a milky sauce to which you add granola and have your beverage of choice (mine of course was decaf coffee but my husband had pineapple juice) and fresh baked whole wheat bread toasted the day had officially begun.
We sat on our balcony and read for the majority of the morning, it was delightful to have the peace surround us! Then I decided it was time to go get a body massage and a facial. Now, if you truly want to feel pampered you want to have the staff here take you under their wing and do a facial followed by a full body massage. All of this for a total of $33!! The facial was scheduled for 30 minutes, but in reality it was an hour of pampering and relaxation. The body massage was supposed to be 30 minutes too; it was an hour and 10 minutes! My husband commented that I sure had been gone a long time when I came back to the room, but it was a heavenly break!
We walked down to the pool this afternoon, the pool is tiny, I commented that even I could do 10 laps in a pool that size! And our grandson could certainly do two widths of the pool without having to put his feet down, it's pretty small, but very pretty. It is surrounded by fresh flowers, candles and a small water fountain feeding into it. As we were sitting there (at the bar area by the pool) we decided to order a pizza. We asked if we could get served there or if we had to go to the main dining area. Cristian, our fabulous front desk, cook and everything else person, said not a problem, order and they would serve us at the bar! We ordered a mixed (?) pizza, not knowing just what we were going to get, but whatever it would b we figured it would be good and we were right. Lots of cheese and veggies and some meat, I assume was ham but hey, who knows!
As we were sitting there we visited with another guest from
Not sure what tonight will bring, we will find out when we go down for dinner and visit with Carol, the owner of the resort. She is really a neat gal, wild gray hair and all. Her husband was an actor prior to retiring. I asked what he had been in and found that he had been on Broadway in a number of plays and was an actor on Hill Street Blues and Dynasty. He bought his contract out of Dynasty, according to Carol, because he did not like the way Joan Collins treated the other actors and he felt it was worth the money to get away from her. Now that must have been pretty bad!! Carol said that the people here in
Last night we went to the conference center with Carol, her husband and some local people and watched "A Street Car Named Desire" with Marlon Brando. I had never watched it so it was really a kick to sit through a true classic that I hadn't seen, black and white and all!
The local guy, his name was Pat, was busy telling me that the world is doomed if there isn't a change in the leadership. He believes that there is "one with his finger on the button" that wants to bring about Armageddon. I cut the conversations short and sat down to watch the movie. This guy has to be 80 with long gray hair, skinny as a rail and teeth that haven't seen a dentist in awhile, but he thoroughly enjoyed the movie!
Getting to bed was a treat, popped a Tylenol PM and slept like a baby. The pillows were actually soft enough to enjoy and the room warm enough so you didn’t need 15 blankets! In
I have taken loads of pictures of this beautiful place, but forgot the cord to load them so they will all have to wait until we get home.
Last night I asked the gal at the front desk if there was someplace good to go get dinner since their cook decided not to show up for work. Ahh, the joys of the hospitality industry! Anyway, she asked what we were hungry for, always liking Italian I asked if there were any Italian restaurants around. She said sure, there was a really good one not too far away. She called and booked a reservation for us at La (something), a $2 cab ride from the hotel.
The atmosphere was wonderful after you got inside. When the cab pulled up front I wondered what in the world we had gotten ourselves into. The street was dark, there was a guard at the gate to the restaurant and the sidewalk leading to the door was less than inviting (had a 1 1/2 foot unfinished area right in the middle). But, alas, when the door was opened by the guard the aroma of wonderful Italian cooking made me forget all about the entrance.
The host seated us at a table near the blazing fireplace (which was really welcome since it gets down right nippy here at night). The owners son, about our grandson's age, was busy putting wax from a candle into the flame. It made me a little nervous to watch him, but decided that with all the wait staff around and his father there it wasn't my concern to fret over what he was doing, obviously he had done it many times before.
The waiter brought over the wine list and menu. The choices were fabulous. Although the descriptions and titles were somewhat different then we were used to, the menu listed things in Spanish and English. What a delight! Both my husband and I ate until we were stuffed. I told him we really need to go to Italy and eat our way through the country….he wants to know where that fits on my "we need to go here" list which continually gets longer! So much to see and exterience!
The whole meal, wine, pasta, and appetizer came to just $22 for the two of us. What a great experience for so little money.
The staff called the cab when we were ready to leave and we were back at the hotel another $2 later!
