Strawberry Pie

I love pie. I remember the first time I ate blueberry pie. It was delicious. I should learn to make pie when I return.

You may not know this, but Ecuador is a country famous for pie.

Another thing Ecuador is famous for is Otavalo, the artisanal market that I wrote extensively about the last time I went. Since I've already been there and blogged about it, I'll keep it brief.

You can buy a bunch of handicrafts made in a factory or by hand if that's what you're into. Bartering is half the fun. I bought my cool hat here last time. You can also find some weirder things like this. 

What does it mean? Is it Luigi's time to shine? Cookie Monster is a long lost Mario brother?

Despite the beautiful weather and creepy Mario hats, I was feeling pretty down until I stumbled across this local artist's work with my friend Bryngus. 

Unlike a lot of the vendors there, this guy was actually the creator of his wares. Really beautiful. Makes me want to start drawing or painting again. I think if there's anything I've learned this past semester  I should drop everything to sell pictures of lizards in flea markets.

It was after seeing the bird paintings that we found the pie shop and ate delicious pie. What a successful trip. Birds and pie. What else is there in life? (Lizards). I'll end by saying that even the parking lots in this country are scenic.

PS: Watch this video: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/01/125-yasuni-national-park/behind-the-scenes-video (I went to this place!)

I'm gonna have to break my promise about how there would be no more monkeys on this blog. There are a few in that video; viewer discretion advised. Despite these boring and stinky mammals, it's still worth watching.

Welcome Back

Well I've been back for a few days now, but have been too busy/lazy/tired to upload any pictures or do anything except post a picture of me next to a Galapagos giant tortoise on Facebook. I meant to post that when I got back from the Galapagos, but my internet was being crappy so that image of a dream fulfilled couldn't meet the internet until recently. Hopefully people are intelligent enough to realize that there are no Galapagos giant tortoises in the Amazon.

Is it a Galapagos tortoise? Who knows.

Anyway, there is too much to write about the time I spent at Tiputini so you'll just have to watch the piece on the surrounding area, Yasuni, on Rock Center with Brian Wililams on NBC, which apparently got pushed back to May 3rd. Obviously, the most biodiverse place on the planet is not that important so it shouldn't come as a shock to you that I haven't wrote much yet. One thing I will mention is that you can see monkeys everyday.

Oh the horror. Who wants to see monkeys everday? Not me! But I did... It's hard to miss them since they're so smelly. And stupid. And not reptiles. Or even amphibians. And boring. National Geographic had a "beautiful" spread on the ten species of monkeys in their 125th anniversary issue earlier this year which was taken at Tiputini. Ten different species of monkey occurring at high abundance in a small area. Great.

Stay tuned for next time with 100% less content about monkeys.