Extremes

February 21, 2022

Well, that was 10 days of the extreme. From extreme boredom, to pain, to grief and finally relief.( How's that for an intro?!)

The extreme boredom and pain are easy to explain. For several days, the plantar fasciitis kept me penned in my hotel room, leaving only when absolutely necessary, and walking very slowly and carefully when hunger drove me out to forage. Thursday (10th) I finally managed to meet up with friends from Varennes, (also farm neighbours), for dinner and I discovered that ibuprofen works reasonably well as an anti-inflammatory when I managed to walk almost normally, if not quickly or for long. 

The following day we drove back out the farm and I moved into their former cottage. Finally, my own kitchen! Still something of a learning experience, as cooking with propane takes getting used to. Yes, I burned the onions. I then discovered that labelling norms in Ecuador are not the same as in Canada. "100% natural oat milk" can have both vanilla and sugar in it, both presumably from natural sources I guess, even if not indicated on the Tetra Pak. This is okay on breakfast granola, but did result in tea getting spat out rather violently! Fortunately, there were several lemon (lime?) trees in the vicinity, so tea was sorted after a limp over to the barn.

I tried to get out once a day, balancing "trying not to overdo it" with " 'oh, it's just over there' on a farm". Sometimes I miscalculated. Going to "salt" the cows resulted in a very long hobble back which took forever. Fortunately, I had Maita to keep me company.
Maita appreciated chin scratches and liked to sleep across my cabin door, although we had to have some firm discussions on her preferred method of greeting people. I will accept muddy paws up my pants, but not once my shirt and jacket get involved in the love fest! Maita is only 4 months old, so she should settle with age. I hope so, because a full grown Maita will knock me flat on the ground!

The sheep and chickens also got used to me, and stopped moving away whenever I ventured out. Several lambs have just been born, but the cutest were these white identical twins that just had to do everything together! Not only do they look the same, they move the same.

The wake up squad was also around. Normally I was not too bothered by roosters as they tended to shelter at a reasonable distance, but one morning, one sounded awfully close. When I opened the door, the biggest one was standing there! Unfortunately I did not have my phone with me, and by the time I limped back with it, the rooster had been replaced by Maita and the lead sheep both of whom wanted to do a cabin inspection! I declined.

The rest of the week was harder, my godmother (on the Adam side) died of a stroke just into Tuesday, and then my mother's sister succumbed to cancer on Wednesday. Februarys can really suck sometimes. Canada wouldn't let me fly until Friday, but I finally managed to get a flight for Saturday. I am actually surprised that I managed to reschedule by phone, when conventional wisdom for Ecuador is that results only happen if you show up at the airport with bags in hand prepared to camp out there. Maybe they heard the repressed hysteria in my voice! 

Anyway, I am home now, and the flight back was as smooth as one could wish, although I paid for my COVID arrival test exemption by getting through so quickly that I had to wait a half hour for my luggage to show. In spite of promises, upgrades, and expansions, YUL still can't manage luggage efficiently. Somethings never change!

The foot is slowly improving, but it takes time. And, I did manage to get another antigen test done before I left, for curiosity. Negative. Bonus! Things are looking up.

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