Pinchos
The weather today is beautiful. It´s about 80 degrees, and as I walked up from the cabins this morning to wait for the bus, the smell in the air reminded me of a perfect August beach day in Massachusetts. Today I have a free day even though I basically had a free day yesterday too!
Yesterday, January 12th, was the culmination of the Festival del Tena, which has been going on all week. In the morning I was in the center of town, and it seemed like almost everyone else was too. Tena is not too big, so I ran into several people I knew as I watched some parades and walked throughout town. I had lunch with a girl named Sarah who I met through Eduardo Jr, she´s from England and is currently working near Baños...she was in Tena just for the weekend. After lunch (and after doing laundry), I helped her claim a seat on a bus to Baños. The long distance buses here are also used as short distance buses, so the bus was filled with people 30 minutes prior to departure. I managed to claim a spot in the aisle (since I was only going 10 km) and Sarah got a ticket with an assigned seat. The bus had some problems leaving Tena since the police insisted that the bus not be too full. No one made me get off though, so I was all set, and made it back to Shangri-La at 2:30 or so. In the afternoon I decided to go swimming, so I walked down the 341 steps, swam for a while, then climbed back up. It was a sunny afternoon, so by the time I made it back up, I needed a shower to cool off! In the evening, I played cards and ate dinner with Victor (one of the 5 guides at Shangri-La) and then, at 7, we headed back into town for more celebrations.
Some of you, especially those who read my Malaysia blog, might have noticed that I haven´t been writing about food too much lately. Food here is very good, especially at the cabins, but it´s not particularly exciting either....lots of potatoes, plantains and yuca, and some good salads, meat, fish and TONS of rice. Fruit juices are the highlight, and there is always fresh squeezed juice at the cabins: passion fruit, pineapple, babaco, tomate de arbol, orange, lemon, melon. A common street food, which I never ate until last night, is the pincho, which is basically meat and veggies on a stick, grilled in a little cart on the street. Different pinchos have different ingredients, but in Tena most are the same. Last night, after drinking a cold beer in an outdoor bar, I bought a pincho despite my worries about how my stomach would take it....today my stomach is still fine and the pincho was delicious! I bought a pincho that had already been cooked, but it was reheated on the grill when I ordered it. The pincho consisted of a piece of chorizo, a piece of green pepper, a large piece of platano maduro, and a thin strip of steak. All were seasoned with some spices and plenty of salt, and the whole thing was topped with a drizzle of garlicky mayonaise. YUM. Especially good with beer.
Victor and I spent the night in Tena wandering around, listening to music, drinking beer and really gross peach wine, chatting with people (some we knew, some we met) and playing cards. The festival is in honor of Orellana, the dude who ¨discovered¨ the Amazon and traveled from Ecuador to the Atlantic....kind of ironic that it´s the big holiday here. Regardless, it was definitely a huge party in Tena last night...thousands of people, tons of street vendors, kind of chaotic but fun....there were several different stages with music and areas for dancing, and I was glad I got to go. We were supposed to meet up with other guides from Shangri-La and some other friends, but we never found them...oh well. At midnight we caught the bus back to Shangri-La even though the festivities were still going strong.
Tomorrow I am off to Quito for one night to pick up a tourist there! Hopefully that goes well! Hasta pronto
Yesterday, January 12th, was the culmination of the Festival del Tena, which has been going on all week. In the morning I was in the center of town, and it seemed like almost everyone else was too. Tena is not too big, so I ran into several people I knew as I watched some parades and walked throughout town. I had lunch with a girl named Sarah who I met through Eduardo Jr, she´s from England and is currently working near Baños...she was in Tena just for the weekend. After lunch (and after doing laundry), I helped her claim a seat on a bus to Baños. The long distance buses here are also used as short distance buses, so the bus was filled with people 30 minutes prior to departure. I managed to claim a spot in the aisle (since I was only going 10 km) and Sarah got a ticket with an assigned seat. The bus had some problems leaving Tena since the police insisted that the bus not be too full. No one made me get off though, so I was all set, and made it back to Shangri-La at 2:30 or so. In the afternoon I decided to go swimming, so I walked down the 341 steps, swam for a while, then climbed back up. It was a sunny afternoon, so by the time I made it back up, I needed a shower to cool off! In the evening, I played cards and ate dinner with Victor (one of the 5 guides at Shangri-La) and then, at 7, we headed back into town for more celebrations.
Some of you, especially those who read my Malaysia blog, might have noticed that I haven´t been writing about food too much lately. Food here is very good, especially at the cabins, but it´s not particularly exciting either....lots of potatoes, plantains and yuca, and some good salads, meat, fish and TONS of rice. Fruit juices are the highlight, and there is always fresh squeezed juice at the cabins: passion fruit, pineapple, babaco, tomate de arbol, orange, lemon, melon. A common street food, which I never ate until last night, is the pincho, which is basically meat and veggies on a stick, grilled in a little cart on the street. Different pinchos have different ingredients, but in Tena most are the same. Last night, after drinking a cold beer in an outdoor bar, I bought a pincho despite my worries about how my stomach would take it....today my stomach is still fine and the pincho was delicious! I bought a pincho that had already been cooked, but it was reheated on the grill when I ordered it. The pincho consisted of a piece of chorizo, a piece of green pepper, a large piece of platano maduro, and a thin strip of steak. All were seasoned with some spices and plenty of salt, and the whole thing was topped with a drizzle of garlicky mayonaise. YUM. Especially good with beer.
Victor and I spent the night in Tena wandering around, listening to music, drinking beer and really gross peach wine, chatting with people (some we knew, some we met) and playing cards. The festival is in honor of Orellana, the dude who ¨discovered¨ the Amazon and traveled from Ecuador to the Atlantic....kind of ironic that it´s the big holiday here. Regardless, it was definitely a huge party in Tena last night...thousands of people, tons of street vendors, kind of chaotic but fun....there were several different stages with music and areas for dancing, and I was glad I got to go. We were supposed to meet up with other guides from Shangri-La and some other friends, but we never found them...oh well. At midnight we caught the bus back to Shangri-La even though the festivities were still going strong.
Tomorrow I am off to Quito for one night to pick up a tourist there! Hopefully that goes well! Hasta pronto
posted by DMP @ 9:13 AM
1 Comments:
At February 15, 2006,
youknowwho said…
So fun! you seem like you're having such an amazing experience...post pictures dude! although i checked out the site of the place you are working and wow. wow. i suck and don't write you emails like i should. i'll change that. promise. enzywayz...miss you and hope all is well...and that the tarantulas are leaving you in peace.
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