Eric and I actually managed to get away for our anniversary this year - it was about time. We hadn't been able to do that for a while. And it was simply wonderful. Wonderful. Considering that I have had no more than 2.5 hours to myself this summer (not an exaggeration) and perhaps 24 hours total away from the kids (when photographing weddings) time away was very welcome.
We used to often go to Bodega Bay for our anniversary and spend time relaxing on the cool beach, hike around, explore tide pools, etc. Actively inactive. What we both love, a little exploring, nature, quiet. Ahhhhh.
This time we went just outside of Otavalo and stayed at the Rose Cottage. Nice simple, quiet place. We went up to the lake that Eric goes fishing at most every week - we didn't fish, but we hiked. Due to the altitude of 13000 ft. (and my out-of-shapeness) I was seriously thinking my heart was going to burst out of my chest. In spite of the thumping in my chest, it was fabulous. You can just barely make out the town below in the photo.
While hiking in this quite barren area, we would come across these patches of brilliant green, astro-turf like plants. It was fascinating stuff - tough, durable plant that was slightly springy to walk on and felt almost impenetrable. It almost felt like it was made of plastic. And it was little almost flower like clusters and linked together.
Our hike was not simply aimless wandering. We had the GPS and were trying to find this other lake that Eric found looking on Google Earth. We did come across two small lakes that were completely dried up. Not what we were looking for. Finally we realized that we would need to cross over some pretty steep inclines to get there, so we headed back and tried it by the road.
I am being very gracious calling this a road. I should have taken a picture. Thankfully we were driving a friend's old Land Rover while our car was in the shop. Our poor van never would have made it.
Well, we did find the lake. Pretty small, pretty shallow and pretty empty of fish, it seemed. Eric threw a few lines in there but it seemed pretty pointless.
As we headed out, Eric threw in some casts in the creek as well. Mainly we were there to be entertainment for the locals who were hanging out there.
They were enjoying our presence - they were quiet entertained talking to me while Eric fished. Some of them even practiced their english on me (most of them are behind the bushes and the horse - I was a little disappointed that their horse wasn't a donkey instead).
The rest of the time I spent laying in a hammock reading, praying, snoozing and completely relaxing - with all my loot beside me.
Eric did some as well, but he also went for bike rides - not leisurely bike rides, that is.
My mom has complained lately that there aren't ever picture of me on the blog, so I asked Eric to take some pictures of me. Here I am, relaxing in the hammock.
And me again..... Perhaps we should try another angle.
Oh, there I am.
It was a little chilly, but so very very cozy. One of my favorite things to do is be in a chilly environment and snuggle up in blankets and such. This was a little chillier than necessary - I was out for a while with three blankets (one under me) and my sweats and sweatshirt but ended up going inside to put my pajama pants over my sweats and add two more layers of shirts plus another pair of socks and slippers. Then I brought another alpaca blanket out as well to put under me and finally I was warm enough. Good thing I was reading from a Kindle - you can turn the pages quite nicely with your hands still under the blankets.
I was quite smitten by this little house with the cow grazing outside. It had the potential to be a really cool picture if I hadn't been so lazy..... I didn't want to unwrap myself.
Our friends Ashley and Ricky (got married in April) stayed with the kids and we only had two complaints of bad behavior. Not bad.
No comments:
Post a Comment