Day 63 11.09.15
The day of my return had arrived and I woke up early to finish packing. I had thoroughly enjoyed my stay here and was truly a get away from all the livelihood of the cities.
I headed to breakfast and had some pancake wrapped in leaves, some passion fruit juice and a fried egg.
I was joined by Nina the parrot. A strange experience having your breakfast with a parrot who tries to somehow communicate with you.
I said my goodbyes to Shiripuno, and took one last look at its shores.
After breakfast we headed to the little port with a motorised canoe.
I was put onto the bus and off I went.
It was quite a long journey that I had to take by myself, constantly watching out for my own luggage, not putting anything on the floor because apparently some people go underneath the seats to steal your personal belongings. I was never quite sure whether someone would take the bag I had in the boot of the bus at some point while stopping, but I just had to be faithful in humanity, seeing as I wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it anyway.
Back in Quito I got picked up from the bus terminal and brought back to the hotel.
Here I rested a little and enjoyed having internet – and most importantly having a hot shower for a change!
I decided to try my luck again and headed out to the city for dinner. I passed by the shop where I had left my bag to be fixed and retrieved it. Not pretty but it had been a practical reparation, thankfully it wasn’t expensive either and I was happy to give the man 2 dollars.
I wandered further, this time avoiding dark alleyways and eventually reached the restaurant I had hoped to go to from the start (before being knifed…).
Los Milagros (the wonders) is a cute little restaurant as part of a little chapel. The chapel was built around a stone where it is said that a woman from the other side of the valley is to have seen Jesus Christ. The story goes something like this; a woman leads her cattle to the other side of the valley to let them graze there. She does this everyday. The town starts to spread rumours about the women, wondering why she would be with her cattle alone, some even say she is seeing this half naked man. Her husband, furious with jealousy follows her one day and sees his wife at a rock talking to a half naked man. He kills his wife for the betrayal, but then sees that the person she had been talking to was Jesus Christ. The husband doesn’t know what to do, is shameful and regretful and is grieving his wife. All he can do now is to return home, as his children will be waiting. He opens the door and sees his wife with his children welcoming him home.
The stone is now embedded into the chapel; its sides are covered in murals of Jesus Christ. The actual chapel is colourful and full of ornaments.
The little bell tower is a wonderful little piece of the Spanish reign.
The outside of the chapel is built in the colonial style.
I walked around the garden soaking in the site of the bell tower with a little aperitif in my hands. It was made from local herbs and tasted strange but delicious.
I sat down at my table and the starter came straight away. I had corn tortillas made from black corn, filled with potatoes and cream cheese on bed of guacamole with a honey of corn sauce made with scallions. It was something I had never tasted before. It was divine.
The chapel and restaurant is part of a foundation to maintain the chapel in its current position by coupling it with the restaurant and native dance. Therefore between my courses I got to watch several different dance styles performed in the little courtyard.
Then I got to enjoy my main course. It was Guiy , or in English guinea pig. It came with potatoes, beans and a sauce made from large soft corn and scallions. It tasted like a little suckling pig. The crust was great and all in all with the white wine it was a great experience.
It was getting quite cold sitting outside in the open, but thankfully two large containers with glowing coals helped me to warm up a little. I didn’t really want to be sitting there with my rain jacket on the whole meal. So I alternated a little with my scarf and my rain jacket when it got too cold.
For desert I had oven-cooked apples with an organic rose jam. The rose jam had a very intense flavour, and I can’t exactly tell you whether it was something I enjoyed or didn’t.
I walked back home passing several lovely lit up churches on my way.
Back at the hotel it was bedtime for me.
