Back to school and lost in the ruins

Ruins of Ingapirca Haven't we seen this church before?

We want to get back to sharing some of our travel experiences from the summer but, again, that will have to wait. Things are beginning to shape up here in Cuenca and we're very excited to report that our hunch was correct that our kids would transition more smoothly into school this year than last. Liam and Ailish are actually having fun at Santana and seem to really be enjoying the new freedoms and responsibilities that come with graduating to the level of colegio. They are now spending all their time in a different part of the campus and hanging out with 12-16 year olds exclusively. They also have a different faculty - both administrative and academic - and like all their teachers (the science teacher tries a little too hard but even she is starting to gain a little traction) a lot. New students in the octavo grade include two native English speakers from the States, both boys, and Liam is now feeling like something of the wise old salt. This has been a huge morale boost for him. Another change is that their class is divided into two groups of about 15 students and, apart from enjoying the more intimate educational environment, the kids are also enjoying a little more separation that comes from being in different classes. It's only been four days but so far we are thrilled with the happy and smooth beginning and feeling very optimistic about the school year.

Sheilah and I last reported that we has been offered two teaching jobs and had chosen one that would start (last) Monday. Not so fast would-be English teachers...we showed up for our training day and were told that because of our non-resident status we would have to have our checks written to an undetermined Ecuadorian 2nd party who would then cash the check and give us the money. Of course, we were told, there could be some tax liability for that person but it shouldn't be too big of a problem. The funny thing is that by the standard of how things seem to be done down here this isn't even that high on the flake-o-meter. All the schools want and need native English speaking teachers but in order to hire them they have to figure some way around the government regulations forbidding employment to extranjeros. The problem with the school that we were hoping to work for is that, because they haven't been in business very long, they don't have much experience in getting around this little sticky point. So...we have continued to make headway with the most established school in town (who write checks directly to their all extranjero staff as a matter of course) and have now been invited to do tutorials and substitute classses in the fall and move on from there. Luckily we're not trying to earn our rent money or this would be really stressful. As it is we have the luxury of feeling sort of detached and bemused and to enjoy a few more weeks of jubilado-lation.

No blog entry is complete without some pictures so I offer my mountain bike riding club's lost ("Chupa, estamos ultro perdido!") day trip in the Ingapirca region. We hired a chiva (a small bus, in this case outfitted with a custom roof rack to carry 17 bikes) to drive us 2 hours to the town of Ingapirca (known for the best Incan ruins in Ecuador) where we would ride to a town called Paute back in the general direction of Cuenca. It started out great. We had a guide who exuded confidence in the certainty of our route even when a local farmer stopped to ask why we were headed on a road that would only circle back to exactly where we started. The picture above is of Laguna Grande, a large, mostly marshy lakebed that is approximately 25 KM in circumference. I know this because we are sophisticated biker dudes who have bike computers and because we rode around the fucking lake twice before we figured out there was no turn off point and we were exactly back where we started! How could this happen to a bunch of reasonably competent, educated fellas, all native Ecuadorians (other than me, of course) who ride in far flung places a lot? Many of us are still wrestling with that one. The hombre mas culpable, naturally, was the guide. But we all went a long for the ride...KM65 we climbed all the way back up to the 12,000' ruins of Ingapirca, called the bus driver and explained that, although it was very nice of him to wait for us at the town to which we thought we were headed he was going to have to turn the bus around and head back to Ingapirca and pick us up. The debate continues about where exactly the exit point was from the valley of riding in circles. Meanwhile guys are already planning our next big trip to some mountains near Saraguro in October. May Dios be our guia.

Mark