How our Activities have Changed

During our first visit to Ecuador in 2017, I bought a field book, The Birds of Ecuador. Since moving to Loja, I have been eager to learn about the birds in this area. But my bird watching has changed. I hear their songs, see them fluttering in the trees, but I certainly never thought I'd be sharing this activity with my cat, Coral, from our apartment windows!

What do we see from our windows and balconies? Many Ecuadorian ground doves, various sparrows like the rufous-collared sparrow, yellow finches (I may have seen the saffron finch), the golden grosbeak and a beautiful rust-coloured bird who I've yet to identify. There are short-tailed hawks soaring above us and at dusk we always see and hear the very vocal pacific parrotlet flying to their nests in small groups. I can't wait to leave my cat behind and head out to some local birding sites. Loja, and a nearby town, Copalinga, are touted as great bird watching locales.

"A V-8 a day, keeps the doctor away", was my daily motto at lunchtime at the South Arm Community Centre. Now, I make my own juice to my liking! It is a V-6 or sometimes a V-7 jugo depending on what is fresh at the local market but it always includes a pimiento rojo picante! This change is an activity I intend to keep.

I had been regularly enjoying fresh flowers. (Bouquets cost $3-5, with fresh roses being 25-50 cents each!) These days I've become the 'crazy gringo' who forages for colourful vegetation and wild flowers from alongside the river.  This may get me arrested, so this activity needs to change.

My weekly visit to the local grocery store, Gran Aki. I'm about to get sprayed with disinfectant. We get sprayed, our temperature checked, given hand disinfectant and then we walk through a tub of disinfectant solution to then get inside where a recently disinfected shopping cart awaits us!
This performance can't change soon enough!
But from the local news, sounds like we'll be doing this for awhile still.

Dylan's activities have changed too. His last walk of the day is at 1:30 pm (Ecuador's toque de queda is 2pm to 5am) so to keep him stimulated for the remainder of the day, he has his toys. Well, these toys are no longer. They are chewed up bits of rope or bone that have disintegrated to being too small for any enjoyment. I have been keeping my eyes open for larger sized dog toys, which are difficult to find since most of the pet dogs are of a smaller size. But I got lucky, or I guess I should say, Dylan got lucky last Friday...

We are doing fine but keen to change our activities as you read in the previous blog by Ken. I am baking sweet pastries (known here as pasteles) more than I have ever done so in my life. In fact, I used to say I didn't have a sweet tooth. Things have got to change before my size does!