La Tarabita

The next day, Tuesday, I woke early enough to have breakfast for the first time in Ecuador. I wasn't impressed. I still am not able to eat before noon, which had been easily solved by sleeping past that, but at 10 I was not ready for runny pancakes or eggs, even as fresh as they were. So I had whisky in my coffee to get some calories...as we were going to hike to the Las Cascadas. For lunch to take with us, El Capitan was set on finding sandwhiches of cheese and tomato.
"I love cheese so much that I don't want to let Ecuadorian cheese ruin my love for cheese." The first night in Quito I tried a pizza and the result was a broader conception of Cheese.
"Why can't you just consider the cheese here as another kind that you don't like as well? And just eat it because it will nourish you?"
Fine argument El Capitan, but i'd rather eat fruit and nuts. Nuts I already had on me, and fruit I purchased from the back of a truck and was informed I got ripped off paying 25 centavos for 2 oranges (I just finished the second one now and it was worth a great deal more than 12.5 cents). But El Capitan has been pointing out my weakness in the area of negotiation. And I am the first to admit I hate the banter and price changing. To me if the price you are asking is not what I want to pay, then I walk away. I have always had a distaste in my mouth for haggling and don't intend on playing that game. It feels too much like confrontation for me.

So we started down the road that would lead us out of town and encountered a contingent of United Statesian girls about college age who asked us where the waterfalls were.
El Capitan: "Well its about an hour and a half hike more or less straight up this mountain, then you have to pay $5 to take the Tarabita across the valley and hike another half an hour down into the jungle. Basically as you are going, you need to always turn onto, or take the road that looks like it could hold a car. And the flip flops you are wearing are not going to hold up to these hills." The girls turned around.

As we progressed up the mountain we went from 2500 meters to over 4400 meters in about an hour and a half. Of course the Mindfold came out and we realized the person who is giving directions of how not to step in puddles or horse-droppings, is in the position, relative to the Mindfolder, of 'Seer.' El Capitan had a daunting task when I was folding the upward hike, because it was during a section of great mud and puddles. We wove through the gauntlet without me so much as getting a foot wet based on following his footsteps' sound. Each time a truck would come by carrying a load of people each paying a dollar for the ride, we would step aside and wave at them.
"Okay here comes a truck going back down."
"Yeah I can hear it."
"Strafe a la derecaha, to the side of the road."
"Here good?"
"Yeah now wave."
And I step forward to keep my balance as I toss my arm up to wave in the direction I hope is the truck, and I hear a splash around the area of my foot. So I pull it back quickly.
"Well, now they know you can't see in that thing."
It is always a bit of the fun to see how long you can keep those around you outside the Fold, before inviting them in.

We sauntered up to the Tarabita with our Mindfolds up on our foreheads. And El Capitan asks after his friend Angelita, but Ramiro tells him she no longer works here, but is still in town. El Capitan explains how he saw Angelit and Ramiro on television in the States. Some travel show that went across the Tarabita and filmed these folks running the machine. The Tarabita is a double wide ski lift car that you face each other in and is suspended by a cable the thickness of my scrawny forearm, powered by something akin to a lawn mower engine and operated by the pilot who stands on the outside and holds on. El Capitan got to ride for free as Ramiro told him he was a Guide of Mindo, having brought a few folks through here, and often was given the honor of piloting the Tarabita.








There was something about crossing that chasm that put us right in the line of fire of inanity, because as soon as we got off on the other side, El capitan went under the lean-to for waiting passengers and asked for my knife and started sawing off the legs of his pants. "Even though these are my good khakis that I wear when flying, I just need some shorts right now."
"That's why I am carrying a pair of shorts in my bag." Even fools know some things!

From this came an impromptu photo shoot in the Andes...





This one I call "Rogue Therapist"