We had our first Ecuadorian ceviche soup yesterday. Maggie led us to a diner she knew about. We ordered Ceviche Marinero, which had every kind of ocean critter in it that you can imagine, swimming in some sort of fish stock with vinegar and lime. Fortunately the Ecuadorian version of ceviche is cooked, but it came to the table cold, which is apparently the norm. I can't stand cold soup, and Maggie and I get nervous about bacteria as well, so they kindly nuked our soup for us, and then it tasted pretty good. However, Deborah - who has tried to get me to eat cold soup before, usually gazpacho - ate hers cold and is still alive today.
It was served with a side plate of popcorn, "mais tostado" and light, thin, fried plantain chips. This is also very common in Ecuador, where they eat corn in several incarnations at the same meal; mais tostado is a large grain corn that is roasted golden brown and it splits open slightly and almost becomes like puffed wheat - except that with a bit of salt and oil, it does taste just like popcorn. It often has some dried caramelized onion bits in it, and sometimes some spice. I enjoy it as a snack, maybe even more than popcorn or peanuts.
We drove in a taxi to Latacunga this morning, a two hour trip for $20 in a comfy SUV on a very good highway down a lovely green valley between scenic mountains - I wished I'd had the ability to take video as we drove so you could see the scenery and the houses.
We checked into a hostel here overnight to give us a chance to step out and see another Ecuadorian town. We could have had pizza for lunch in any one of several pizza parlours, and ice cream for dessert - there are more ice cream parlours here per city block than anywhere else we can recall - but instead we walked to a local hole in the wall and stepped down into the gloom of a tiny restaurant to eat Chuychucaras. This is a local plate consisting of mote (another very common large grain form of corn, but this time comprised of soft, moist white kernels) topped with some sort of deep fried greasy tripe with ground meaty bits and possibly sheep's blood, which they call Chuycharones, and for which the plate is named.
There seems to be a competition going on between towns and regions as to who can claim the most "offal" food as their local dish...pun intended. On a separate plate, we were served lean pork chunks, popcorn, mais tostado, empanadas with a trace of some kind of sweet cheese inside, fried plantain and fresh fried potato slices...all of which was somewhat more palatable, even quite tasty. There were also some sort of crisp airy chips made from pork crackling, rather like the shrimp chips you can get with Chinese food, with the name "cuero reventado" = "busted (burst, popped) leather".
In the photo you'll also see one of "Twenty Hummingbirds to see before you die" - I couldn't believe my eyes. We saw #19, the Red Tailed Comet. Now I only have nineteen to go.
There's a pink house in the photos. I wanted to get it with the statue of Christ on a tower quite far behind it, with stairs going up the tower to a set of very large bells. If we'd gotten here earlier this Sunday morning, we might have heard them. I got Deb to stand at the corner and yell at me when to take my photo so that I could get a yellow cab in front of the pink house in front of a blue sky (I knew there'd be one soon, they're everywhere). Then - bonus! - a blue and yellow tour bus came into the frame.
The public buildings along these narrow streets have rather large, very cool lanterns on their front walls - you might notice one on the "false front" building. I'm guessing they were originally gas, in the days before electrical street wiring.
We stayed at the Hostal Tiana, which hosts young visitors who take the climbing trail to Quilotoa - more about that in a future blog. I have nieces and nephews who would love to take this hike. There's a room with rental helmets and high altitude camping and climbing gear next door to the room we're sleeping in tonight, and a very tall climbing wall just up the street for training in rope technique.
Jan 7th: We went to sleep a little early, and the hostel was quiet and as dark as a grave in our room - no windows. There's adequate ventilation through the cracks in the floorboards. There's music playing somewhere, and it woke me as it reverberated through the concrete block walls, which are painted a cheery yellow and have attractive woven Quechua blankets and tapestries hanging on them. The doorways are arched (thick walls) and the ceilings high, white and decorated with painted borders.
It was a little chilly and misty this morning, and some locals began the day in thick down jackets, but we didn't need those. At seven we had breakfast - included in our room rate: two croissants, fresh juice (strawberries? blackberries?), butter and jam and a banana, and we spent 50 cents extra each for a scrambled egg. Coffee and tea are free throughout the day. Not a bad deal, at all. After a hot shower, we were ready to repack and stroll until it was time to catch the bus to Malingua Pamba.
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