Have You Any Wool?
Hello from Quito...I`m here for 2 days, heading tomorrow morning (Monday) to renew my visa (hopefully this goes okay). Then it`s back to the Black Sheep Inn for two more weeks. I came to Quito today with Santiago and Karen, two managers at the Black Sheep Inn...Karen also has to renew her visa tomorrow. We were lucky enough to get a ride to Quito in a private car belonging to two tourists...so the trip was fast and pretty easy. I have been at the Black Sheep Inn for a month, so today was the first time in over 4 weeks that I`d seen a stoplight! After I checked in to my hostal (called L`Auberge Inn), I went with Santiago and Karen to eat pizza. It was very tasty. After that, I headed to the mall (talk about culture shock) where I did some shopping for next week´s Passover Seder, bought some socks, a yogurt drink and some pan de yuca, and a new journal. This evening I´ve been chillin at the hostal with friends from Black Sheep Inn (tourists who came here too) and some new people I met here.
Black Sheep Inn is a really cool place and working there has been very good. Chugchilán, which is about a 5 minute walk from Black Sheep Inn, is a very small town (two streets) with a couple of very small stores, a police station, a phone place, a school, a high school and a market. The market and the whole town are quite busy on Sundays, when there are often hundreds of people in the plaza and marketplace. On quiet days, however, I have walked through town and seen literally 5 people. You can often hear a pin drop in the main plaza. There are often women with small carts in the town selling french fries and empanadas (more like fried dough with a bite size piece of cheese) and grilled or pan fried meat. One day I was treated to some grilled tripe, which surprisingly was very good. I normally don´t like tripe but the grilled stuff was tender and salty and flavorful. It only gave me a very minor stomach ache.
Meanwhile, food at the Black Sheep Inn is awesome. They have 3 types of homemade desserts always available. The brownies are pretty good, and the banana bread is very good, but the oatmeal cookies are amazing. I eat too many. When they are freshly baked I eat even more. Between March 23 and April 8 I ate at least 30 cookies, probably more). The other food at Black Sheep Inn is awesome too....breakfasts of homemade muesli or eggs any style, lunches of soup, rice and leftovers, and dinner feasts with different soups and excellent vegetarian main courses. Highlights: Stuffed eggplant, Moussaka, Lasagna, Shepherd´s Pie, Chinese Stir Fry, Chili, Veggie Burgers, Pesto Pasta. All awesome.
The Black Sheep Inn is in a beautiful setting. There are amazing views from all of the bathrooms and from many of the rooms. I sleep in the bunkhouse, which I often share with other people, but I also get to have all to myself pretty frequently. It has three floors, so I´ve only had other people on my floor two times. Pretty good deal. For my first 2 1/2 weeks at Black Sheep Inn, I was working with Andres and Michelle, the owners of the place. Karen and Santiago were on vacation, and when they came back, Michelle and Andres left for a few days. Last Saturday (April 1), Michelle and Andres came back and two new managers also arrived to begin their training....Buff and Claudine. Buff and Claudine are from California and they´re gonna be here until September. Since there are 4 managers now (plus Andres and Michelle) I am going to be the last volunteer for at least a while). I´ll be at Black Sheep Inn until April 23rd. I do all sorts of things at the Black Sheep Inn as a volunteer, and in my next post I hope to provide a sample day in my life at the Black Sheep Inn...that will happen tomorrow though, since it`s time to go to bed now. Tomorrow I´ll be posting more, including some pictures I hope!
Hasta Luego....
Black Sheep Inn is a really cool place and working there has been very good. Chugchilán, which is about a 5 minute walk from Black Sheep Inn, is a very small town (two streets) with a couple of very small stores, a police station, a phone place, a school, a high school and a market. The market and the whole town are quite busy on Sundays, when there are often hundreds of people in the plaza and marketplace. On quiet days, however, I have walked through town and seen literally 5 people. You can often hear a pin drop in the main plaza. There are often women with small carts in the town selling french fries and empanadas (more like fried dough with a bite size piece of cheese) and grilled or pan fried meat. One day I was treated to some grilled tripe, which surprisingly was very good. I normally don´t like tripe but the grilled stuff was tender and salty and flavorful. It only gave me a very minor stomach ache.
Meanwhile, food at the Black Sheep Inn is awesome. They have 3 types of homemade desserts always available. The brownies are pretty good, and the banana bread is very good, but the oatmeal cookies are amazing. I eat too many. When they are freshly baked I eat even more. Between March 23 and April 8 I ate at least 30 cookies, probably more). The other food at Black Sheep Inn is awesome too....breakfasts of homemade muesli or eggs any style, lunches of soup, rice and leftovers, and dinner feasts with different soups and excellent vegetarian main courses. Highlights: Stuffed eggplant, Moussaka, Lasagna, Shepherd´s Pie, Chinese Stir Fry, Chili, Veggie Burgers, Pesto Pasta. All awesome.
The Black Sheep Inn is in a beautiful setting. There are amazing views from all of the bathrooms and from many of the rooms. I sleep in the bunkhouse, which I often share with other people, but I also get to have all to myself pretty frequently. It has three floors, so I´ve only had other people on my floor two times. Pretty good deal. For my first 2 1/2 weeks at Black Sheep Inn, I was working with Andres and Michelle, the owners of the place. Karen and Santiago were on vacation, and when they came back, Michelle and Andres left for a few days. Last Saturday (April 1), Michelle and Andres came back and two new managers also arrived to begin their training....Buff and Claudine. Buff and Claudine are from California and they´re gonna be here until September. Since there are 4 managers now (plus Andres and Michelle) I am going to be the last volunteer for at least a while). I´ll be at Black Sheep Inn until April 23rd. I do all sorts of things at the Black Sheep Inn as a volunteer, and in my next post I hope to provide a sample day in my life at the Black Sheep Inn...that will happen tomorrow though, since it`s time to go to bed now. Tomorrow I´ll be posting more, including some pictures I hope!
Hasta Luego....
posted by DMP @ 7:48 PM
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