Andy and Kitty Time: Editing and Alemanding

The Alemans have a beautiful house, and the time that i am not editing i try to spend hiking around their "back yard" which consists of a beautiful chasm cleaved by the mighty "Rio de Potti-caca."

The only paths that exists around here are those carved out by goats, so like the rest of ecuador you pretty much have to take your welfare entirely into your own hands. Sometimes i was just walking along what seemed like a perfectly fine path only to find myself up to my armpits in a randomly placed hole. Further inspection of the hole led me to notice that, yes, there were gigantic spiders EVERYWHERE! Tons of beautiful plants along this ridge; there were what looked like wild snapdragons (i could make them open their mouths and talk by squeezing them), and huge, 10-12 foot tall agave plants. According to Alvaro, there is a path that traces out a nice simple loop down the chasm and back up to his house, but both times i have tried following/finding this path i have ended up somewhere completely wrong. Not that there really is a wrong direction to go in super fun chasm hiking world, some places just require less mountaineering and spider-removal skills.

Andy y Ondy got grumpy because Alvaro had to change their water and toss them in a couple of glasses for a while. He felt bad so he bought them 12 little fish for snacks. It's been one day since the fish have been introduced and there are only four left, huddled together, scared out of their tiny minds, hidden behind the water filter

For fun, and as a modest attempt to help out and try to repay Alvaro and his family's kindness for having me over for all this time, I went out and got pancake and french toast fixins to make for everyone (Alvaro's kids' cousins came over and spent the night). People seemed to like my chocolatey and plantain-ey pancakes and french toast sticks alot, but the maid-lady knew that deep down, true flavor and nutrition lie in gobs and gobs of butter. Luckily she was able save this potential welfare disaster by dropping in sticks of butter into the pan when wasn't looking. It was pretty amazing- the butter level was actually higher than the cakes themselves so that they were technically being deep-fried in the butter. The pancakes took on bizzarre popcorn-like exploded shapes near the edges and were deliciously (and technically) heart-stopping.