The day we arrived…..
Kind of looks like something out of a travel brochure……
The view of our rooms (I’m on the left, Patrick to the right) looking back from the river.
Mali (in the red circle) waiting for the next stick to be thrown in. She just loves this place!!!
There is a small bamboo forest here, quite lovely. We actually saw it growing all along the roadside and up the mountain on the way here. It’s a beautiful tree to have in your back yard. I am amazed at the trunk, it is completely smooth and feels like porcelain – truly amazing!!
These are the fish ponds. Mali was asking if we were staying…..
And here she is going for her suitcase to move in haha
The road in….or out depending on what’s happening.
It’s a real hide-away making you feel like there is no one else in the neighbourhood. Actually though there are several little hide-aways here. It is surprising how many people build a house on the side of the mountain. More than once we have wondered how they did it. – there are no visible signs of a road. We went to visit a guy (Gringo from the USA) who has a house built on the side of a mountain, and I gotta tell you once you get there, you understand why. If you want isolation, that’s the way to get it!!! The trouble is getting there.
His place was about 2.5 km from where we were staying and he said it would take about an hour and a half to walk there. We should have listened, that’s all I can say. I said to Patrick “Next time someone who lives in Ecuador tells you it will take 1.5 hours to get 2.5 km, you must believe them”! It took us about 30-40 minutes to get to his driveway and then I think it may have been an hours walk from there. No word of a lie, the road was almost vertical with 7 switchbacks (they planted a different color of flower at every corner to match the chakras). It was a lot like climbing Imbubura, but with nothing to grab onto as we were on a gravel road. I tell you you can’t go anywhere here without climbing some serious hills (or in this case mountain), but the climb is always worth it. Every time we went around the corner, I hoped it was the last one, but they just kept coming (I didn’t know about the 7 turns at this point). The sun was full on that day, no clouds at least until we got to the house, so I was sweating pretty good when we arrived. A little embarrassing, but I suppose this is to be expected and understood.
His farm is meant to be completely sustainable, although they do have electricity (and sometimes wifi). They are well on their way to accomplishing this, and it is a beautiful life they are living – farming the old fashioned way, and loving it! We walked up his driveway, but he insisted on driving us down (he was on his way to town anyway), but I think I’ll walk next time. He had to back up on three of the turns (chakras) because otherwise he couldn’t make the turn. He drove right to the edge of the road, backed up and continued on. This is when you pray the brakes don’t fail, or his foot doesn’t slip!!! I was very glad I was in the back seat so I couldn’t see the drop coming. Big WOW on that one, and he said there is someone farming above him, it’s really difficult to imagine.
Here we are on the road into Apuela (yup it’s an uphill climb) and are looking down at the location of our new pad. 
Some banana trees on the way down the hill – these grow everywhere here, no surprise.
Through the trees to the road beyond….. the zoom shot follows.
Here is a view of the road to Apuela from the opposite side of the river. Mali and I were walking scouting a good route for our runs. I think if I ever get back to the hills to do the 5km High Altitude Challenge, I’ll ace it after the super high altitude walking I’ve been doing here. Compared to our walks home in Agato, it’s not as bad on the altitude score here, so I’m sure I’ll be able to run now. In Agato, I had trouble with walking up the painted stairs. In the end I could do it without stopping, but it was definitely pushing the limit, my lungs had trouble there. Mind you that was also pretty much a vertical climb, the stairs made it a bit easier I think. Here it is more like the cypress hills, very fresh and just a good workout.
This is at the base of the hill just after crossing the river. You can see it’s a pretty good climb, but isn’t is beautiful? It’s a great walk, I really love it, but I think it gets longer every time I do it, not sure how that happens. But truly, it is wonderful, I love to stop at the top and look at the view, its really special.
On this walk with Mali I noticed a vehicle on the road which is heading out of town – the way the bus goes. That little white dot in the red circle driving into the clouds is a truck (I think). If you remember the picture taken from inside the bus as we were coming into Apuela, this is seeing it from the other side. He’s heading to the switchback at the visible top of the mountain for this section. Once you go around that corner, you continue to climb, but you can’t see it from the town. It’s difficult to see it, but that is straight up not straight across. Well it is across too, but I am aiming the camera up, so it gives some idea as to the height.
Another vehicle, I think a car.
Now that the book is done, it feels really good to be able to explore and have some time to enjoy the area. We kept a pretty rigorous schedule while we worked on the story, treating it like a real job, so now we get to enjoy. It was strange at first though, I guess kind of like a day off when you’ve worked 7 in a row. – you feel you should be doing something. Suddenly you are without a schedule, and you feel a bit lost, but gratefully it does not take long to find something to fill the time (like get your blog done!!!).
I guess we still have some work to do as we organize the family photos we hope to put in the book as well as the artwork. But at least that part is enjoyable, no more going over stories that I didn’t want to remember in the first place. The story (or parts of it) has been sent to a couple of agents now, so we play the waiting game. They all say it can take up to 2 months to get an answer if you are going to get one, so that feels like forever at this point. But it just takes one and if it’s the right thing to happen, it will. In the meantime I must start planning my next move……
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