"Guayaquil, City of Life" Parque Historico, Guayaquil
As I write I am into my fifth month of placement with the Charlotte Miller Art Project here in Guayaquil, and here are a few photos to let you know what I've been getting up to in my time outside the art workshops at Juconi. The parrots and iguanas above were photographed on a weekend visit one afternoon to the zoo at the Parque Historico. I also had the chance on our Easter break to visit my friend Chisti in Quito and head to the beach at Salinas with friends from Guayaquil. Ty and I watched the solar eclipse (partly obscured by clouds) one evening from the beach at Playas, where Ty also had a mountain bike race one Sunday that ended him up on a rehydration drip at home the following day.
Chisti!! Mi hermanita en Quito! :-)
The beach at Salinas with Becky and Ty
Brazilian friend Patrick, from the And'Art residency in Morocco, came to visit with his German friend Oliver, who shared a lot with me about his experiences with Ayahuasca, showing me the beautiful prints below, which reminded me of the animation videos that Hernan had shown me in Bolivia:
Other aspects of life have been regular yoga classes with the lovely folk at Ganesha studios here in Guayaquil. In all honesty these photos below are rather deceptive in that it looks all tranquility and balance when really the reality of the sessions is that there is profuse amounts of sweating and on the few occasions that I have tried out acro-yoga (the two photos on the right) it has been a battle of nerves about falling and learning to trust the other person and trying not to grip them too hard! The regular weekly sessions are a mixture of hatha, ashtanga and aero-yoga, like the photo on the far left where Jonny and I are in the swings. Over these months with Jonny yoga has become a regular part of our after-work schedule and now that he's gone home I'm going to carry on. Another British workmate, Becky, has just signed up so it looks like I'll still have a yoga buddy! :-)
Another character who has been part of life here in Guayaquil has been Smog, a tiny wee kitten that we found in the street one night by the mechanic's on the way to yoga. Sadly the poor wee lad died after only a month when he ate something that poisoned him, and not even the vet could help. While he was alive he was a great little house buddy, manically lively and jumping around all over the place one minute and zonked the next. I'll miss his wee fluffy-self sleeping on my belly or the crook of my arm.
Give it another month or so and I'll update again with some non-work photos.
(left to right) Becky, Tyrone, me, Helen, Fransisco, Tania and Rory,(countries left to right) England, Ecuador, Scotland, Scotland, Ecuador, Mexico, England :-)
p.s. here's some photos from a party celebrating the British Queen's birthday at the Consul's house by the beach at Punta Blanca last weekend! It had a distinct Ascot-crossed-with-a-wedding feel about it with the 'all-white-clothes-plus-sombrero' instruction on the invitation, the many crazy-hats (my favourite a lady with many tiny white doves attached to her sombrero), and piles of delicious food and free booze all day. My favourite part was hanging out bare-foot on the beach! Thank's Queenie!
:-)
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