on the way to loja

so it's carnaval here... apparently it's every year at the beginning of advent. all i know is that it gives us a few extra days of vacations and leaves me with the opportunity to take off and see a bit more of the country. so... going against the grain i've decided to venture back into the sierra. i've heard that the glut of traffic streaming toward the coast is impressive but really beaches and such don't float my boat and that small dose of montañita will last me till at least march.

so i'm gonna try my luck with the southern sierra - a place called loja, 8 hours away from guayaquil and 4 hours from cuenca. it's supposed to be a pretty laid back, safe and trendsetting part of ecuador. they were, as the brochures note, the first community to have electricity in the country. and apparently they are also pretty happy with being isolated and tend to do things their own way anyway. this has led to quite positive results, including a wonderful (as i've been told) recycling system. they also have a number of parks, one of which includes rather interesting smaller versions of famous buildings from around the world. i'll see if i can find some pics and put them up. i'm also interested because it's not the world of the average tourist here (although vilcabamba, the city of eternal youth, is such a place and sits 40 clicks away to the south... i don't think i'll get there though...).

met the new intern today - she seems nice enough and had ready answers to the questions i asked about the job and her expectations... she's iffy on the whole magazine idea as well but comes with an open mind about the office and andy... we've warned her in advance. also went to the office and had a somewhat run in with rafael. he's always there using the internet to update his blog that he keeps. so he oscilates between the blog and messenger (notice the lack of official office work) and continues to do so for up to 4 hours after anyone requests use of the computer with internet. this is annoying. i asked today if he could tell me when he was gonna be finished using the net and he said, almost backing away from the computer with elastic arms that he was just finishing. a half hour later and he's laughing away at stuff that's popping up on the messenger screen. he did stop but only after someone else who had arrived asked him if when he would be done. then he just left the office (a good day's work i guess). he lives an hour away so i can understand the interest in getting some use of the computer but really, i've got work to do. i've decided to start reading his blog - perhaps he's writing about me in a similarly sarcastic fashion.

he's also a poet - did i mention that? a professional one, got a book published and everything. i find him very annoying. doesn't often look at you when you're talking to him - only talks when he needs something from you... that sort of thing.