OKOK I know that these photos aren't in their correct chronological order when I do more than one post but I don't care. I will post them in the order that they happen so that they will consistently show up in reverse order to YOU all out there in lala land. Figure it out, like the Nickelback song already! Thanks, sweet, now that that is out of the way...

Got some Summer cleaning to do here in the Mountainjedi photo archive so let's get it on!
First off, a few pics from a trip out to a parroquia to the northwest of my site a few days ago, before I left town to head up into the Sierra for a little business and a lot of pleasure.
This is a dog guarding coffee. They have to dry it in the sun for about eight days, and so I guess this little pup was doing his duty to guard it, since apparently the coffee here is the best in the world and coffee snatchers must be a problem in these parts, I dunno. (That's the tourist guide in me coming out.)


Also while on this day trip I visited an orquideario, which is basically a word for orchid garden/collection. You've already seen some examples of my friend Fernando's orchids (and his toucan Maximo as well). Well this place I went had more than 100 species from several continents and some of them were simply spectacular. I believe the above pictured specimen is called "zapatito," or "little shoe." Personally I think it looks like one of those dogs that have the droopy whiskers on either side of their jowls, so my unofficial name for this flower is droopyjowlsicus Wannachewaboneandraisemylegonafirehydranticus. Rolls off the tongue.

Of all the plants at the orquideario, this was my favorite.. not too confident that it is actually an orchid though. Who cares? It's awesome like a high school cafeteria corn dog dipped in warm ketchup with a side of bagged chocolate milk.

Here I am playing with some manjar de leche, which - when done - will resemble very creamy peanut butter, but with the taste of milky sugary caramel. The kind they make in this parroquia has ground rice in it too, which gives it a different flavor that I'm not a huge fan of. But any chance to play with a big pugil stick and a medeival-style cauldron is a chance I don't pass up.

Now we get to the trip up to the Sierra. This is Parque Nacional Cajas, outside of Cuenca. Spent a night out there at a bit above 12,000 feet, next to this gorgeous alpine lake, completely alone. Well, alone save for the nearly full moon and my amiga there. My pack must have weighed slose to 60 pounds. For one night out. I think I overdo this "roughing it" stuff every now and then. We were only there for a day and a half but we fit in a fair amount of hiking and climbing and exploring and almost falling off of a cliff-ing. Can't wait to get back up there some time.